At about 7 he got up and came out and climbed into bed with me. He then got up right at 8 and came down all on his own. Carly cuddled with him on the couch. After a couple minutes he got up and said, “Dada, I had a dream about the Story Pirates.” I asked him a couple times if he remembered any details and he just replied with, “Anyway.”
We read several poems in the Vile Verses book. We then did Minecraft, making good progress in our survival world (getting cows, harvesting and planting trees and sugar cane). I got him oatmeal for breakfast. He asked why poop has germs in it, and Carly looked for a video. They found a new series from PBS called Little 101. August watched the one on poop, then the rest of the series (dizziness, why we have to go to bed, how do we think, why do stars twinkle). While he did that he killed the fly that has been bothering us since yesterday: it landed in his oatmeal and got stuck. We congratulated him and he wanted to leave it out to catch more flies. I made him more oatmeal.
Carly got a shopping list together and headed out to get both groceries and items for August’s stocking: lavender oil, ingredients for slime, chocolate coins, and several other things she had in mind.
August and I then moved to the PBS series Songs for Unusual Creatures. We learned about tardigrades. After they explained how you can look for tardigrades and see them in a regular microscope he again talked about how we should get a microscope. He asked how an electron microscope works. We watchedhttps://youtu.be/xY4YSjPipKE
Microscopy was a word of the day. He told me about using an electron microscope to study skin, mosquitoes, and Ebola, then had a Bar and Sister game where she had an electron microscope and let Sister look at skin. They were seeing a cell produce proteins. They were then studying glass. There was some craziness about spawning cats on the server, then we were cuddling on the couch. I suggested a Circle Round story. He tried a couple different podcasts (Storynory and another) but said he liked the music in Circle Round. So we listened to “Sir Luck and Mister Riches”.
We then did a half hour of Minecraft. Carly got home right as we started. She had found the lavender oil, as well as peppermint, for him and all sorts of other things, like a bar of soap. She then drove up to town and got back again just as we finished. He ate the grilled cheese and avocado sandwich I had made and watched Ted-Ed videos on pain killers (he didn’t trust my explanation about pain killers being little soldiers with weapons that kill spikey pain microbes in your body), medicine, and bacteria versus antibiotics. He had his top and was spinning it (he’s gotten quite good) and was talking to it: “You know the rules: no running away.”
They left in a rush at 12:30. I had baked the last of the cookies and they took a bag with 3 of them for Gabi. We were playing a Brother game right up to the point I got him out the door. They went to Gabi’s, where August, unusually, insisted on Carly staying in the room. They tried a compromise, but he then still insisted she stay in. She ended up doing so.
They went and got pizza, then went to the beach. He kept his bike helmet on the whole time, even though Carly asked a few times about it. He was mainly, it sounds, into collecting rocks and seaweed at the beach today. And they saw big dead jellyfish floating in the water so he was throwing rocks at them.
They got home at 5:30. I had done some work and also finished editing Peter’s novel. He asked, “What’s eliminate mean?” Not sure what prompted that. He was spinning the top when I came down, then I went out and got the beach bag so he could show me all of the things he collected. We looked at them out on the patio. I asked for his favorites, and it started at 4 and went up and up from there until he’d basically lined them all up.
He did more top spinning for alone time, then we played Minecraft. All was well until he fell until a square of lava that he had made and died. He got upset, and Carly comforted him as I collected all of his stuff. She’s concerned he’s upset about the dying aspect, but I think it is just about making a mistake/losing things in the game. He rebounded quickly and managed to milk more time out of it as he got his stuff and we returned towards the surface.
He wanted a cookie but agreed to eat broccoli. I gave him a big bowl, and he surprised me by eating the rest of his actual dinner (the pasta dish) and then a little over half of the broccoli. We were doing a Brother game where he found a rare coin and then argued with Sister tricks. She was using her “sistering tricks” to try to get him to give her to coin. Brother was resisting, and decided to build a display case so he wouldn’t lose it (as Sister argued). But in the course of making the display case he set down the coin and lost it. It turned out that Sister had picked it up. The whole thing devolved into a series of simulations and fighting and smashing (as Brother was tired of Bar putting him through simulations and wanted to destroy the machine, only to find it was another simulation).
He remembered the cookie and had a cookie and milk. Carly then read him Clementine. I heard the pigeon part, and I think they may have finished it. At one point he convinced her to go outside so he could use the binoculars. Again he didn’t wear a sweatshirt. Or shoes, I think. Despite it being pretty cool.
I did the dishes, then finished reading Vile Verses to him. He asked about the word obscure. He was then perching and standing on the pillows on the couch. A rather overly brave, and rare move from him. Carly and I both had to talk to him about it being dangerous. He went to the bathroom, then Carly took him upstairs for a bath. On the way up though he remembered I had mentioned a documentary and popcorn. It was now 8:30 and when Carly and I hesitated he instantly started to get upset and came back down. Luckily, he held it together and was able to talk about it and agreed to a short documentary.
Carly took him up for his bath. He told us he’s taking kidding classes. He said he’s posting them on Wikipedia to make “a connected web.” He started to watch a short documentary on Curiosity Stream (that plays after the end of the third episode of The Body) and switched to a Kurzgesagt video and they ate some popcorn. I went for a walk and they were in bed when I got back.
He took quite a while to get to sleep and kept waking Carly up. They listened to a Circle Round story he’s heard before but he was fine because he said he liked it. He then woke her up to help get the covers over him, then again to switch the heater to fan mode. And then again, requesting she get up in the bed with him. I still heard them well past 10.
Rules for the top:
His collection from the beach:
