He climbed in with me at 7:10. We then got up just after 8. When he got his iPad he wanted to watch things but found one of those stick man Minecraft videos. It was all about killing zombies though and Carly didn’t like it. He tried to take the iPad to the other end of the room to keep watching it. I went and talked to him, and he luckily agreed to stop watching it. He decided to play Robot Factory instead.
A bit later Carly and I were debating who should remind whom to finish an Amazon order later. August heard us debating and came up to find out what was going on. He really liked it, and wanted to know what arguments each of us was using. He played his new song over and over this morning, and he’s also back in the habit of asking us “What’s 9 times 3?” over and over, especially when he goes to the bathroom.
I took August to Shani’s this morning. August had noticed that he could hum part of “Let It Go” and then transition into “Always” by Erasure. He was doing this as we got to Shani’s and walked down her stairs. Shani said she recognized the song, and I thought she’d say “Let It Go”. But it was “Always” that she recognized. That was cool.
She asked August about New Year’s, and he didn’t understand why anyone would want to stay up for midnight. They started on the swing for a few minutes, but mainly turned it into a sort of punching bag with the big ball in it. That was pretty cool, and later I would talk to him about the possibility of getting a punching bag.
At a mention of desk time he went over to the desk on his own and wrote “Hi.” She worked with him on writing today, asking, “Where do we start writing?” “On the top. That’s what Ms. Andrea taught me, I think.”
The plan for today was:
• swing
• writing letters
• make a necklace
• His choice
She started with the letter writing. He was resistant at first, saying a couple times that “This is boring.” But then he went with it and got into it. She was teaching him to start on top, from the left, and the letters from the top. They did A, W, and O, then he chose Z at the end. He really liked the stencil when she was using the edge of it to draw straight lines for him and she let him do some stenciling for a couple minutes. She reminded him to put his elbow down.
He wasn’t too fond of writing in the lines at first. She said, “It’s interesting how he responds to boundaries, even physical ones…I think that’s one of our big goals.” He also did some scissors, then finished the writing activity with her. They then bade a bracelet with beads, and for his choice time he made a fort in the middle out of the chairs and cushions and things.
We got driving and he talked about how he made sounds like in the Tori Amos song we were listening to. We got to our usual post-Shani park at 10:30. They have the covers off now. There was a big electric fan, rusty, near the car that August said he’d like to take apart, but he knew it was too big to fit in the car. When we left the park it was gone, leaving the mystery of who would pick it up.
We were at the park for a few minutes but he wanted to leave to head home and play with a synthesizer. He was convinced to stay with a Sister and Bar game. We played over by the swings, first in a regular one, then in the basket-y swings. The game led to one where Baby Sister got powers, and of course abused them.
When we were done at the park we drove to the grocery store by VIPizza. I suggested we get pizza for lunch. It was just before 12 and there wasn’t any pizza out yet, so we told him what we wanted and then did our shopping next door. We just got some pita and a couple hummus containers and a labaneh. We went back to VIPizza and he had two slices, corn and then cheese, and I had one. We read some Last Kids on Earth and got a slice of olive pizza for Carly before we left. Between slices he needed the bathroom and the one behind the building was locked. So we walked to the one across the street, which was of course also locked, and we ended up all the way down at the Stop City! mall.
On the drive home he spotted the Snakes and Ladders park and wanted to go there. So we stopped at the house and he stayed in the car while I ran in and put the groceries away. Carly walked up as we were about to leave and we told her where we were going.
We went up to the Snakes and Ladders park. We played snakes and ladders, closer to how it is actually played. I downloaded a dice app on my phone and we used that to roll numbers. He still changed the rules a bit (no actual snakes, or ladders), but closer to the actual game. We then did the luggage game for the rest of the time, with the luggage escaping as I tried to go on different journeys to various planets. At one point he had us being dragged into the sun. It wouldn’t let us escape: “It’s using its sunning tricks!”
We left there at 1:40. At home I asked Carly about her wog (walk/jog). August liked the term when we explained it, but then also said,”Wog” “I have weird parents.” He then went to play music: “I’ll play my melodica. I get money, you know. I’m on the street.” He sang a jazz sort of version of “Yankee Doodle” that was was quite cool. Didn’t get a recording of that though. He piled stuff in pillows and called it the “The Mount-a-Mounds: I was using it to hide stuff…Ane behold! The other stuff!”
We talked about his mess. I don’t know who used it, but he liked the term “despicable” mess, so a word of the day. They then got ready to go and left at 2:45 or so for the Kerns’ house. He was taking his laser pointer over there to play with the cats. They have a total of 4 cats, although one just comes for food. Only one really played with him, their newest one, the kitten we saw a few months back. He also used some toy they had with the cat. His laser pointer is also a pen, so at one point he asked for paper to draw a picture of a conveyor belt machine of some sort. Carly said he was pretty shy with them today. They gave him some sort of Oreo and chocolate treat, and they got home about 5.
It was then pastry chef time and he made a nice pastry out of quiche dough, honey, and chocolate chips. He piled stuff on the couch, and had tissues that he was trying to throw. He asked me, “Why do things have to be a certain weight to throw them a long way?” And demonstrated what he meant. He talked about solving it mathematically: “Maybe I can find the X Y graph…maybe I can find the chain…”
We had a dinner of green beans and sweet potatoes and broccoli. We discussed screen time arguments and using it for education (he wasn’t making this argument for himself so much, but as a recommendation for other kids I think, on his kidding website). We also told Carly about Shani’s, and I discussed the punching bag idea with him and showed him a couple videos. He was pretty interested.
He ate his pastry, then made a savory one, mashing up sweet potato with the masher to put in it along with broccoli. Carly was having a ton of fun finding books for Vivian. I pitched in a little as well, and we also ended up with some book suggestions for August. He was playing on his toy piano and ended up doing what he called a horror movie soundtrack. He hid the laser pointer in the pile of stuff on the couch but was being silly, asking where it was. So I was suggesting odd places to find it. He said he was taking me seriously and sang a “Taking Dada seriously” song. When I suggested it was in the tin of word magnets he spent a good 15 minutes laying out all of the magnets on the kitchen floor. I got him to read several as he went. That counted as his alone time.
He went to the bathroom twice, in quick secession. We read some magnets, then he ate his savory pastry. We played Minecraft, focusing on learning how hoppers work. We then watched A Charlie Brown Christmas, after which we cleaned up the magnets and fort. It was one time he said he really wanted to go take a bath: “Can we go take my lovely bath?”
We were doing some Sister and Bar Minecraft games along the way. We got upstairs at 8:50. He was once again making machines to order in his lab, and asked, “What machine would you like to buy from me?” I said I wanted a machine that would do the cooking. He wouldn’t make it though, saying, “I think you do just fine cooking by yourself.”
I gave him a bath, then we discussed the planets and their rings and moons as we looked up at his ceiling. Brushed his teeth, then Carly came in and I left them at 9:50. They were listening to “The Rice Cakes and…” on Circle Round.
Punching bag:
Writing letters:
Playing at the playground:
Trying to figure out how many cells are in the world:
Being the luggage:
The creepy song, expanded:
Being a zingzong:
Funny sideway eyes:
Kitten timelapse:
Kitten timelapse 2:
Eating timelapse:
Eating passion fruit:
Pastry chef:
A math hypothesis:
Enjoying his pastry:
Laying out the magnets:
