He woke up at 7:20. Downstairs he watched the last few laps of the crazy Brazilian Grand Prix with me. He then talked about inventing fast cars. We played Minecraft, and he had the idea of declaring a goal each time he plays. This time it was to make a minecart ride. He stopped before his time ran out, and asked for chocolate for stopping so well, instead of a video. I obliged.
He had had some Cheerios, and I now made a pineapple and mango smoothie. He asked what other kinds of citrus fruits there are and we looked it up. He had a brother game where Brother gets a paper cut and he puts different citrus juices on it, thinking they will help. We then did the full Baby Sister being born storyline, starting with Sister sewing Brother’s shirt into the blanket.
August asked, “What’s the difference between hardware and software?” Last night he had asked to re-watch the “Why is the sky blue?” episode of StoryBots. He watched this now, and first got set up with paper and a pencil (he requested an electric pencil sharpener again, and I said we could look at Max next time) in order to do “satellite work”. That isn’t something he has done in months, and I wonder if he had done satellite work at the same time he watched the episode sometime last year. He drew wave patterns as he watched the episode, covering both sides.
When he was done he made up a language song to the tune of the Tom Lehrer elements song (itself to the tune of a Gilbert and Sullivan song). We worked on it a bit and got the first couple of lines to work: “There’s English, Hebrew, Spanish, Swedish, German, French, Italian / German, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Thai, and Latin”
He had a Halloween treat and asked about sugar energy. We watched a couple of videos about how we digest sugar and why we can have sugar crashes (insulin was a word of the day), then a Crash Course about smell and taste (anomia was another interesting word, and we talked about asking Gramma about taste next time we talked to her). All of the talk led him to want another treat, so he had some carrot coins, then a mini Twix.
Based on the videos, he then explained that vision is 5% of our taste and that explains why we can almost taste things when we aren’t eating them. That was really perceptive. Then a Brother game where he bought expired chocolate milk from a corner store. He returned, angry, and was pleasantly surprised when they gave him his money back and a replacement. But then the next time he went it happened again, and as a replacement they gave him orange milk, which he hates.
He did a lone time, then 30 minutes of Minecraft. He had the lentil dish on rice, with broccoli in it for lunch, and we made the last packet of water drink. Then another Brother game where it turns out he is a frequent customer at the hospital (with a membership card and added benefits) after one of his cats accidentally slices his arm open with a claw. Then one of his woodpeckers was causing problems and he got pecked and went again.
August then beat the dust out of the couch with a xylophone stick. We got ready to go. A short story with Brother falling down an endless hole. Upstairs, he lifted the 4kg weight and talked about getting stronger. Downstairs he then rested on the couch for a few minutes. As we left, he wanted me to look up why time passes at different rates in different places (which I don’t think we’ve discussed or seen anything about for quite a while, since I was explaining the Rovelli book to him). He then talked about “a different kind of physics” on My Planet, and gave me magic quiz, with questions like “What happens if you ride a llama six hundred miles…it will turn into a rug.” When I gave predictable sneers he would say, “Ugh. That’s physics!”
We got the bike ready, including pumping up the trailer tire. He noticed that the tread look different from my tires. He didn’t know the word tread though so that was new. Our plan in the morning had been to drive somewhere and go for a ride, then stop at the SuperPharm on the way home to look for hair cutting scissors. But then August suggested that riding into town would be our ride. So we did that. The word vivid also came up, perhaps he had been talking about dreams and I explained it, using the filters on the camera app as examples.
We left at 1:40 and made our way up into town, doing some zigzagging on the way up to avoid the big and busy (well, for Even Yehuda) hill and reaching downtown via the path behind VIPizza. We rode to the new mall and locked up the bike.
We looked in SuperPharm but no hair cutting scissors. But then I remembered we have Amazon now. Life is going to be much easier as long as they keep up the free shipping thing. He was hungry, so we sat at a table outside Stop City and had some sunflower seeds. We then went in and did our shopping. We were specifically getting avocados in a box of two, since those had been good last time. They also had bigger pineapples here, but they looked pretty sad and sketchy (one had mold on it). August also found caramel milk. It was the one kind they didn’t have in a small bottle. I said we could get it, and share, as long as he also ate a banana. He agreed to that, so we grabbed a couple bananas.
Back out at the same we started with the banana. But it was hard to peel, although nice and yellow, and it turned out it tasted awful. So much for that. We both had some milk and he really liked that.
We went in the bulk food store (הקולה בעיד) and got a bag of cashews and a small bag of the snack mix like he had eaten with Cherie when she was here. I also got a free espresso; the woman there knows us pretty well now. We went out, once again to the same table, and had the snack mix. This one was really good. We had given up on the snack mix when we had had a bag from Tiv Taam that wasn’t good.
While we were at the tables Carly had emailed to ask about going to the musical on Sunday or Monday. He excitedly agreed to that. When I asked about going to the Meet Santa event he replied, “What!? I don’t believe in Santa Claus!…Let’s not do the santa thing…But I’m excited about Christmas!” He was excited to find it was just over a month away. We also did Brother games (another version of the rotten milk, and then buying bad bananas—in one of them he was treated well, but Bar destroyed the shop anyway, not realizing they had been nice).
Finally done with the mall (and that table), we got riding at 3:10. We rode to the library park. Library was closed, but we played at the park. He spotted cat number 7. He then had a Brother game scenario where trees around town are being cut down and Greena helps to save them. She worked in town as a smith, then he goes back to the jungle with her. I also pushed him on the swing. I had thought his dry hands were getting a lot better, and I’ve been putting Vaseline on them every night. And his nose has been much better, so he hasn’t been rubbing. But suddenly I realized that they were looking really bad now, and were even cracked and starting to bleed in places. I mentioned it, but it didn’t bother him.
We rode home, and as we walked in the house he realized his dry skin was cracking. He was horrified by this. I worked to comfort him, and eventually we put a bandaid on the worst of it, but he wouldn’t agree to Vaseline. I put on an episode of My Little Pony and that helped calm him down. I’d tried a Story Pirates, but that didn’t work. Carly got home and he didn’t want her around, so she went and worked outside.
He got upset at the end of it, and crying and didn’t want Carly to see it. I gave him his evening time before doing alone time. He worked on the mine cart system, then wanted Carly to see it. But he didn’t want Carly to see the band aid. He said I could go tell her about it first. I went out and told Carly why he was upset. She asked if it was okay for her to comment on it. I checked with him. No, she wasn’t supposed to mention it.
She came in and saw his mine cart ride. I went upstairs to work. When I came back down he was eating a Swedish pancake. She was then going to go work, but he didn’t want to let her go and wanted her to paint instead. But I got him to do music time. Some GarageBand, then Tabletop. He was singing to one of the songs we made. He spent some time on Google Earth, then had another Swedish pancake when Carly was down, then some fruit and carrots. I taught him the phrase “my eyes were bigger than my stomach.” He had requested 3 slices of grapefruit from Carly, but hadn’t even eaten his strawberries and carrots. He made up the saying, “If you get them, you burn them,” referring to calories.
Upstairs he told me, “Dada, I think the boundaries of time is starting to go away.” As he played in the sink he told me he likes the feeling of the pumice stone and wiping the soap on the counter. He repeated “This seems very vivid” several times. I got him washed and ready for bed, then Carly put him to sleep. I left them 9:05. Heard him get up for the bathroom a bit later.
Beating the dust out of the couch:
Exercising with the weight:
Playing in the elevator mirror:
Minecraft shirt:
Piano time:
Singing to our song:
