He woke me up twice during the night. But the second time was just because he was laughing in his sleep. It went on for a long time. And then around 6:45 he said “Where are you?” I went in and he initially just put his head down on the lower bed as he stood on the floor. I asked him to get back in bed and he did. He was then up at 7:10. He went right past me and downstairs to find Carly. She wasn’t insider, so opened the door and said “Boo!”
They played Minecraft, and he debated whether Carly or I made better houses. When I said something he replied, “Uh huh. That’s right. We have a winner.”
We watched educational videos about Why do we sneeze? from ASAP science and SciShow, then the Kurzgesagt video on curing aging, which he has seen before. He asked for food, then suddenly got upset when he first asked for a treat and I said he first needed to have something healthy. He apologized, then had Cheerios with milk.
They made a big paper chain. He practiced “Link” for his L sound, and said, “Our computer is linked to the internet.” He asked her “What’s kilo?” A word of the day. He added a Sufjan Stevens Christmas song to his playlist. They finished their chain and he wanted a Brother game. Settled for reading the rest of Presto & Zesto in Limboland instead. He wanted a Brother and Sister game, but didn’t have an idea. We ended up with one where Brother and Sister game where they plan a Christmas party with Greena. She is reluctant at first but gets into it.
When he was hungry I made him carrots and cracker and pate. I arranged them nicely on a plate. Carly liked it and I mentioned that I always do some sort of arrangement when I make snacks for him and Eve and Zoe. She asked if they ever say anything and I said I didn’t think so. August said, “Next time you do that with Eve I’ll comment on it.” And then, “Did you know I’m a baker and I always present my food in abstract shapes?”
I looked up a couple of dishes to make for dinners, then we made a list and I drove to the big Tiv Taam to do grocery shopping. When I left they were painting, and when I got back they were out painting again. They had started painting Lyndon Johnson (as you do) but then August was looking at the Human Anatomy app right when I left. They changed their mind and started over, going to paint a skeleton, or maybe specifically Lyndon Johnson’s, but got distracted and went inside for a while.
He was hungry, so I got him cereal and strawberries and he ate them outside. He came inside for a little bit to watch Formula 1 practice highlights with me, then went back out. He wanted a jelly bean, and told us, “I’m warming up my kidding tricks in case I want anything.” He had milk and carrot coins to earn a single jelly bean. He called it a victory for his kidding tricks, but we really know who won there. He then wanted me to practice my parenting tricks. I was able to distract him from the arguments he was trying to start by twice asking about Minecraft. Don’t think he realized what was happening, and I was using his “conversation” strategy right back at him.
Outside Carly was lying on a blanket in the grass. At the end of November (my parents had shown us the snow on the ground in Chelan on Wednesday). He cuddled with her and they did more painting. I started dinner (a sort of carbonara pasta but with cabbage and mushrooms and broccoli) and they headed to school. They made copies of poems from the I’m Just No Good at Rhyming book so we can finally return it to the library and did something else. He played with the chairs and whiteboard and made a hand fan out of a piece of paper and a couple of pipe cleaners.
They were back at 5:45. They liked the dinner. August initially spit out the cabbage and asked why the noodles were crunchy. But once I explained what it was and he had a piece he said he wanted a bowl of just cabbage. He asked both “What’s light-headed?” And “What’s internal bleeding?” Don’t know what that was from.
When Carly was too lazy to do something he called out, “Parenting failure!” Carly suggested a movie night and he settled on Shrek 2. Took about 15 minutes to realize we’ve already seen it, but he was enjoying it. He watched half of it, then had a Brother game where they plan a Christmas party and only the main characters show up because it was in the jungle and all of their family and friends from back in the U.S. cancel. But Bar, Myna, Zero, the weather control girl, Greena, and Millie were all there.
I then hung up the paper chain in the entry way and put nails up to put the second string of lights in the living room this year, and to make the other string look better. Carly read a Myna book to him, then went and gave him a bath.
We did more Brother game, but it was just Brother getting hurt by scorpions, so I stopped it. He had oatmeal, then told me how he measures pain:
“Cyborg…bullet ant…measure how many neurons fire in the brain.”
He had me carry him upstairs. He was clearly tired. He lay on the bed and told me that on My Planet “We evolved an upgrade to our immune system…collector cells.” Carly was putting him to sleep, and he asked if he could sleep on the big bed occasionally, like once a week. We agreed, so she put him to sleep in there. I left them in the big bed before 9:10 and went for a run.
Panting a face with mama: https://youtu.be/JJDqI92oBeM
Laughing about his laughter machine:
