He called me twice during the night to pull up his covers. Actually, he called “Mama” both times, probably because she had put him to sleep. I finally woke him up at 8. He was incredibly smiley and huggy. Downstairs he got comfy on the couch. I suggested reading a book and he asked me to sing the sting by the bee song instead. He meant “Bringing home my baby bumblebee.” We sang that, then read more of The Last Kids on Earth. He asked, “What’s Disneyland?” He told me about his ride: “It’s a roller coaster connecting every star in the galaxy.”
He then said he thinks humans can use technology to stay around forever. That is, overcome overpopulation, etc. He then talked about building a Dyson sphere. We played Minecraft, then watched the Bright Side “What if there was no electricity for a year?” episode. He had oatmeal, and wanted me to rewatch the video with me, although we didn’t have time, as I got a message that Gilad could play Minecraft. They played, and I made a lassi. After 20 minutes or so Gilad suddenly disappeared from Minecraft and Skype. We figured that his computer had crashed or they lost power. I played with August for a while, but Gilad never came back. We kept extending their minecart rides. I had built a rainbow tunnel, then was figuring out how to make a tunnel with fireworks going off.
August asked, “I have a question we should look up: Why do we feel frustration? Because I’m really interested in your feelings.” He said this after I had grunted when I messed something up. August got a little upset when we stopped playing. He wanted to clean the toilet so he did that, singing a song as he did so. We discussed our schedule.
We started with music time. He spent more time learning “Sentimental Wars”. He had some chicken soup, then did some L practice. He got sidetracked with the self-reporting correct/incorrect buttons, which give you a percentage. He kept pushing the ‘wrong’ button, trying to get the percentage to zero, and I explained why that wouldn’t happen. He seemed to understand that pretty well. One of the phrases he said in the app was “Dad’s lettuce” and August wanted me to make up a story. Brother had a rabbit, and the dad refuses to let them in the house and they end up eating his new lettuce green. He then wanted a “More licorice” story. He told me, “I like words like throwing a fit and tantrum and fuss”
August then wanted a Brother story where he meets Zero, who hasn’t been in stories recently. He changed it to a girl who can control the weather. There was a story about it raining lollipops.
We then watched some science videos (“How to Cure Aging,” “Life Under Ice,” and “Plastic Pollution” again from Kurzgesagt). While he watched, I made some new signs for our calendar on the sliding door. He wanted me to make an Experiment sign.
He then did alone time, using post-it notes to mark pages he wanted to look at with me later in the The Scientist book. He really got into that. During Minecraft he worked on building his mine cart system up really high.
We talked about how might be at school to play with, and when I said Maya and Ben Ben he said, “I’ve been wanting to see Ben Ben for a while.” The other day as we were getting to school we saw his class leaving and he said a really nice “Hi Ben Ben!” to him. He was hungry so had some crackers and pate. He talked about the art he does back in his lab: He makes drawings of the things he creates in Minecraft.
He then wanted a new Brother and Sister story. I had the idea that the city finds out they have dangerous animals and they have to get rid of the animals. We developed that into a full story where first an animal control officer comes, then the police. They have 48 hours to get rid of the animals. They then arrange to start an animal sanctuary by Greene’s house in the jungle, and Bar helps them move all the animals. The whole family moves to their research station close to Greena to help take care of the animals. And of course they install wi-fi so Brother can play Minecraft.
We then headed to school. As we went in he asked, “Why when you’re old do you get wrinkles on your face?” It turned out Maya and Ben Ben weren’t going to be there, but the playground was busy. We saw Cassie picking up Taya, and they stayed to play. She introduced me to the substitute teacher in the preschool, who is in Carly’s PLC. August told me, “Don’t get into parent talk with her. You know how I don’t like that.” They played around the preschool playground for a while. I pushed him on the swing.
They all then moved to the big playground. Omri and Jonathan were there. Jonathan was being really silly. August spun on the spinny thing, then came and sat on my lap and did some Drops with me. Omri came over and showed him effects on TikTok. They played with that for a few minutes. Taya was playing soccer with other kids on the field. I eventually got him out there for a bit. Then they headed back the other way. We said goodbye, but then he went on the spinny thing again.
We were home after 4:30. He looked at the dictionary for alone time. He was reading words and clapping out syllables. We then played Minecraft. He hit me once at the end, but then wanted to talk about it. For educational videos we watched Kurzgesagt videos on “Are we in a simulation?” And “Automation”. And then something about the size of an atom.
Carly was home, and talked to Cherie. August heard her tell a story about someone blocking a parking lot. We had some dinner, then while trying to get him to fill up his water bottle I had the idea of him filling up his water bottle once a day, then we’ll increase it to twice a day at some point. He liked the idea and we’ll start it tomorrow.
He had a short Brother game with him getting stung by wasps. He then sang a song for Chuck and Cherie. They were talking about music lessons and he said he wants voice lessons, as long as Carly or I can be there.
After the call was over he and I listened to “Sentimental Wars” and learned most of the words so he could start learning to sing it. He told me all sorts of stuff about some galaric power plant and transport system he has. We cleaned up. He found more of the little balls from the banana. He taped then to the table until we found the vial with the others a bit later.
Carly took a shower. He had Brother talking to Pegasus; then Brother helping Greena with house. He wanted our whole new story from the beginning. Too much for me this late in the day. I switched with Carly. She read the Science Comics: Plagues book when he gave it a second chance.
I went for a run and shower. He had cereal with strawberries when I got back. He said, “I love the strawberries in my cereal.” And he told us, “Here’s why babies always get sick: not enough memory cells.” He talked about how he found a disease that attacks memory cells. Memory cells was definitely a word of the day.
Talking about something (I think because he wanted to do something that would take a long time) he said, “Sorry, my timing isn’t very good.” We did a preview of Brother and Bar shrinking and going into the immune system.
He sang a “Goodnight mama” song, then said he’d sing a song every time we go to the airport and said, “I’ll call it the goodbye Israel song”
After his bath we did the new Brother and Sister storyline again. We did the sleep yoga video in the app, then listened to a meditation. He wanted actual music, and I asked which instrument. He said bassoon, so I found Schubert’s “Bassoon Concerto in C Major”. He was asleep by 10:15.
Washing away the spots song: https://youtu.be/bfC0rgpPOhY
Composing music:
L reading practice:
Marking pages in his book:
Running by the preschool:
Playing Yankee Doodle in the playground:
Spinning and silly Jonathan:
Teeter totter:
Singing on my lap:
