He woke me up once, then was up at 7:10. He came and lay on top of me and the fuzzy blanket for a few minutes, then went downstairs to Carly. He worked on machines in Minecraft. Slowly figuring out new things about how they work and how to build things. He said, “We should get cucumber. A good thing to keep on hand.” We had some zucchini bread. He then had a game with Brother playing with Myna and Sister. He could just get the animals. He had Myna slapping her head in frustration when he frustrated her. It was pretty funny; I don’t know where he learned that one. He then walked in circles explaining his evacuation machine.
We finished Tree Mail. Pretty good, but not my favorite. We then played a lot of Brother and Sister playing Minecraft games. They started to jump forward in the future, and we made up some new games in the future, like Zoocraft, where Brother just took care of animals.
We then watched educational videos about why we get wrinkles, how pain works (suffer and chronic were words of the day). And then he watched a Bright Side video about running for a month.
He danced to Jingle Bells after he requested it. He said, “This is my favorite tradition of the year.” I hung up the first string of lights. He then got up on the counter (he can now get up and down on his own, using the stool; before he needed help getting back down) and taped up the wire under the cabinets so it didn’t show. We went outside and looked at the new plants they had gotten at the plant store.
They got ready to go to Tel Aviv. At the last moment he said he was still hungry. I got him five crackers and pieces of pepperoni in a container for him to take with him. He counted to double check that he had an equal amount. They left at 11:30.
They were gone for a long time. A total of 6 hours. I was able to get a lot of work done, and also walked over to the little mall and bought construction paper so they could make a paper chain. Which meant I also made progress listening to The Overstory. And I watched the second Formula E race during my easy work time.
Meanwhile, they had tried to go to Max, but both of the parking lots were insane. At the Tiv Taam lot they were stuck for ten minutes just waiting to get out. Carly thinks there was some sort of accident. Later, I realized that Black Friday is a thing here in Israel. So she had called me, asking me to get the construction paper instead.
They then headed to the beach in downtown Tel Aviv. He rode his bike from the car. They stopped at a restaurant and got chicken and french fries. When Carly was talking about how great the weather was he was disagreeing and giving a grumpy face, which she sent me a photo of. They built a wave catcher on the shore, which was their best yet, and sat in the wooden built-in bench things.
Then they drove up to Cassie’s place at 3. They saw Kai and took Taya to the park, leaving Cassie at the apartment with Kai. The park went fine, except that Taya refused to leave when it was time. Eventually Carly had to call Cassie and Noah came and got Taya.
They were gone so long that I was done staring at a screen and figured I’d get a run out of the way. Of course, they came in the door just as I and finished getting ready and was about to go out. But he was going to do alone time and then Minecraft, so I went for a run anyway. He was doing satellite work on the graphing calculator when I left.
When I got back he was yelling at Carly. He wanted her to play Minecraft with him, but she was dong dishes and he refused to play on his own. She went upstairs and I talked to him. I suggested using his meditation app. He said, “Dad, that’s preventive medicine. It’s NOT an antibiotic…and it’s not a vaccine.” But when I started the “Rainy Day” meditation despite his objections he closed his eyes and did the breathing. After 6 minutes he was ready to go talk to Carly. I took a shower.
When I came down he was watching Phineas Rage. Then Coyote Peterson getting pinched by a beetle and stung by a warrior wasp. We then read the Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend book, then did Brother and Sister games. He was stung by warrior wasps. Then we did the whole moving the animals to the jungle storyline. August added in a whole side story of Myna getting obsessed with cats and Brother questioning what was going on with her.
He was hungry so had cereal and strawberries. Then a strawberry. We got upstairs at 8:55. He played in the sink, then had red licorice for hair washing time. He told me, “This really activates my reward system.” He was using a line from one of the videos we’ve watched about sugar or something. I had him tell Carly what he had said, and we discussed other treats with her. I looked at commercials for York Peppermint Patties and Klondike Bars, remembering them from the 80s. I got him back to the bathroom he said at least he had extended it “a kidding trick…conversation.”
Washed him and washed his hair. We read The Universe Ate My Homework! They had read it the other night as well. We read the part at the end about the real possibilities of making mini black holes and universes and learned about the three sizes of black holes. He talked about his machine that makes black holes. We then learned about the world’s tallest buildings after he had talked about the Statue of Liberty.https://youtu.be/PuTqWxuAazI
He said good night to Carly, then had some questions for us to look up later: why do we yawn? Are French fries from France? Why do we get headaches?
We did another mediation on the app, then I told him about a bad dream I once had about someone coming out of a building with a gun. We listened to more bassoon concertos and he was sleep about 10:30.
His facepalming: https://youtu.be/LNtx-iAkkoM
Taping up the cord:
Crazy about cats:
The baby universe machine:
