He woke up at 6 and Carly put him back to sleep in th big bed. He was back up at 6:45. I carried him down and set him on the “nest” of pillows he had made on the couch last night before heading upstairs and he cuddled there for several minutes. He also climbed up on the arm of the couch and tried to stretch out there.
We took Carly to work. He was a little grumbly about it, and said it was cold in the car. Back at home we stayed outside for a few minutes. He stood on the teeter totter and talked about how this would be a good place for criminals, as the neighborhood was empty. He also talked about how criminals should work together.
We went inside and cut up the pineapple. It was pretty good. He ate pineapple and watched Phineas Rage videos for his morning time. When he was done with that we watched a Brave Wilderness about the lionfish as he ate M&Ms from his Halloween treats. We also watched where he treated the wound. August paused it a couple times to talk about medicines that he has discovered. He also said, talking about Coyote Peterson, “I like how he says wound.”
Discussed our schedule, then he had a Brother game where he visits Greena and learns how she has figured out how to make magnifying glasses, a machine to crack coconuts, and how to grow wheat. She then starts making her home out of stone. We were listening to a band called Galaxie 500. It was a long Brother gane. His family was visiting Greena and the all had to pee but she doesn’t have a bathroom in her house or treehouse. Several variations of this, with them being in different places. And when they run out into the jungle they ran into tripwires she had set up.
We then watched educational videos. A couple Kurzgesagt videos, on Neutron Stars and a Space Elevator, then he wanted to know why plants need oxygen. We watched a couple of videos on photosynthesis, including a SciShow video and a Crash Course Kids one on why plants need dirt.
He then spotted a Bright Side video called “8 Lessons Not to Teach Your Kids” and really wanted to watch that. So we did. We did a lot of talking about that one. A lot of self awareness (and critique of our parenting) from him. During that, he told me how he liked the yoga class at school. He mentioned the closing their eyes part, and I think they would listen to something. Later, he talked about how there was some rosemary scented thing that she had as well.
He was then hungry, and had the last of the oatmeal squares cereal. He told me that because of the video he was thinking of other people and thinking that he should leave the last of the cereal for me or Mama. So nice of him. I let him have the cereal.
He told me that he had learned that if you attack zombies that more will come: “It’s like your immune system. Simile!” We then did a second MEL Chemistry experiment, adding food coloring to milk, then adding soap to learn how soap works.
He then wanted to show me the cavity part of the Human Body app and ended up playing around with it for a bit longer. He hasn’t used that in quite a while.
For his alone time he chose to practice the L sound, using honey and peanut butter, of course. He did that, then told me, “I want to tell you something about when you warn me about the end of my iPad time: it just stressed me more.” For the rest of the time he spent some time listening to the Vaselines and then practiced singing Yankee Doodle.
We did Minecraft, then got going. He was pretty impatient with putting the rack on the car and bike. I kept assuring him it would be faster in the future.
We drove up to where he rode along the Alexander River the other day. We got the bike together and rode across the little bridge and turned onto the trail. He noted that the ride was smoother on this bike. We did two miles, which brought us to the bridge and gate where August and I had started our walk back when he was in the backpack, and where, when we were done, we had to slip though the now-locked gate when we were done. On the way out August had us stop once to investigate a mark painted on a rock. Also, as we were riding he asked what a sidekick was, so we discussed that. And he was humming “Let It Go” a lot, and said he had made one of the electronic remixes of it.
We turned around and stopped at a picnic table in the park area right west of there. We sat at a picnic table and each had a packaged cookie, then cracked open sunflower seeds. We did brother games there. We did a third candy store one. This one was a new candy store, out at the mall this time. They had bags of mystery Skittles, but the Skittles all turned out to be earwax flavor. Then we did a new telling of the Brother and Sister on a deserted island story. Although this time there was a girl on the island who had been there for years. She had even made guest rooms, although all of her previous “guests” had died.
He then went down the hill and played with a tree swing for a few minutes, mainly throwing it around. We got riding again at 4:20. It was starting to get pretty dark by the time we got back to the car. August needed to use the bathroom, so peed over by a fence. He said, “Eh, well, it’s the culture.”
We listened to Story Pirates on the way back. There was a full moon, or very close. As we got close to the house we heard a huge flock of birds up in the trees they haven’t (yet) butchered. So loud we heard them with the windows up. August speculated, “Maybe it’s a bird sleepover.”
We were home at 5:20. He played 15 minutes of Minecraft with Carly, then I did 15. He watched a Brave Wildeness for his educational video. He curled up on couch when not happy. Had asked as we came in the house if I thought he’d get upset.
He had soup, half of a grilled cheese and turkey that I made after initially saying he didn’t think he’d like it), and a pickle for dinner. We then read the first half of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic “Reflections” series (issues 17 and 18) after he requested that storyline.
Then a Brother game where he was basically Tigey jumping on me. I was tipping him backwards with my hand and that became a game. He read a Rivet book or two to Carly, then was singing “Let It Go” and “Yankee Doodle”.
He did his “Goo goo or gaa gaa?” game with Carly, but added a third choice: “Goo goo or gaa gaa or panda?…Panda is extreme pain without dying for no reason.”
Carly got him upstairs and washed him. There were a few things that he negotiated through and talked about. And he had told Carly about the video, telling her, “You know, taking things away isn’t an effective parenting strategy.” I had been going to go for a run and Carly was going to put him to sleep, but he wanted me to put him to sleep. Since he was really tired, but doing a great job of talking about things I agreed to do it. As we headed to the Zinnie room I complimented him on doing a good job talking about things. Without looking back he said, “It’s nothing.”
He got a little hyper for a a while though, and started counting syllables of everything he could think of. He noted that parallelogram is five syllables, but it has four sides. We kept coming up with names of four-sided shapes and realized that none of them is four syllables (quadrilateral, square, rectangle, kite, trapezoid, rhombus, diamond, arrow, etc.)
We listened to Dvorak’s Fourth symphony and he told me when I could move down to the lower bed again. He was asleep around 9:40.
Greena’s complex machine:
Soap experiment:
Adding the drop of soap:
Discussing the soap experiment:
Swing by the river 1:
Anyway, brother and sister game:
Counting syllables:
