He was up just at 8. I was already up so he called down. I met him on the stairs and he immediately asked: “Dada, I have a question. What happens if you have eat a billion tons of food a day?” Downstairs he wanted to play Minecraft, but Carly got him to agree to The Talented Clementine and they read that for several minutes. He told Carly about his machines to trim ivy and do something else (Carly reminded him of the ivy at Dee and Grant’s when it came up in the book, and that got him going).
When they were done I mentioned how August wanted to buy batteries for his laser pointer. Carly was surprised the batteries were running out and he said, “It’s dim, I’ll tell you that much.”
When he started playing Minecraft he was going to play with Carly. But then he remembered our trying to find a stronghold and refused to play with her. I was trying to explain that I’d be playing with him all week. When I said I didn’t want to play, he got really, really sad. It took several minutes of comforting from Carly for him to calm down, and he agreed to try to find a stronghold with her.
When they were done (August had turned on ‘Keep Inventory’ and was having fun falling and dying) he played piano while she made French toast. He was exploring intervals and arpeggios.
He had a slice and a half. He started talking about pirates and told me, the captain, that I could keep the crew busy by cleaning the ship. By the time they finished the beginning would be dirty again. That was from Stickman Odyssey. I made a lot of “Aargh” jokes. August then said the crew had destroyed the guns and plank and thrown the treasure overboard. They decorated for Christmas and gave the captain squeaky dolls and bubbles. Think that whole idea was completely his (he began it when he and Gilad played on the ship).
I went upstairs and made beds. When I came down they were taking apart the scanner. I took over and he was using the drill. He asked about if we squish bacteria and that led to a discussion of ants: “You know I’ve had dreams where there’s tons of ant nests in our house…in one we moved…It was funny because we were moving to Mikaela’s and we got in the car. But really it isn’t far away…I’ve had them with Eve…we climbed on the table.”
We started playing a Sister game (again, where she starts playing on the server) and we moved to the couch. Played a bit longer, then I read Kids Versus the Dark and Kids Versus Ants. Carly read part of Clementine to him, then I got him to read the Kids Versus Phonics Oa book to me.
He then played on GarageBand with his keyboard for quite a while. Carly said he should come up with a new song for today and he did, a sort of electric bass line that he would end up playing all through the day. He started playing it with two hands, and realized he could keep the bass note on one note while the right played the melody.
We had some lunch and got ready to go. We were all going to Gabi’s today, with Carly and I meeting with Gabi and August watching stuff. August said he wanted to watch Sarah and Duck, but then ended up watching Inspector Gadget the whole time, I think. August sat quietly the whole way down. Carly liked an OMD song she heard me play yesterday and had that on repeat. He was also apparently thinking about math. When we stopped the first thing he said was, “If a car was going sixty miles an hour then it would go one mile in a minute…There’s division in there.” He then asked how many seconds were in an hour, and when Carly helped him figure it out he said that if a car was going 3,600 miles an hour it would go a mile in a second.
August got right to watching at the office, and did a ton of laughing, and some talking to the screen, all of which we could hear from the office. The discussion was mainly about goals. One of our first goals had been for August to be able to separate and meet with Gabi on his own. We’ve achieved that, so we’re looking at what’s next.
When we were done we drove to Even Yehuda. I read The Last Kids on Earth on the way. Carly parked behind VIPizza and I headed to the bank. Had to figure out how to deposit a check, then got some cash and also paid Gabi. Carly and August headed to the hardware store and found batteries for his laser pointer. They then stopped at the grocery store to get pita and hummus.
At home he ate a bunch of strawberries and then a carrot. He said, “It must be carrot season. This is the best carrot I’ve ever had.” He then had some more of his candy cane and I read The Last Kids on Earth. Stakeout was a word of the day.
He started playing piano, so I went for a run. When I got back he was Skyping with Vivian and Colin. I went up to take a shower and when I came down both he and Vivian were playing piano for each other. Colin wanted to see his room, so we all went upstairs. August built a fort in the middle of the floor, then we headed back downstairs. Colin wanted August to eat a banana. We didn’t have any, so I peeled a tangerine instead. Vivian and Colin were pretending to not know what an orange is. August ate some, but apparently only sucks the juice out of them, then looked at bits of it under the microscope. He kept looking at things in the microscope. Vivian and Colin had also made a fort. Eventually she said goodbye. He played with the camera on Carly’s phone, specifically with the Live Photos, and making abstract light show with them, and also playing around with camera noise.
August hadn’t used any Minecraft time after the morning, so he and I then played for 30 minutes, exploring a stronghold. He watched a couple Life Noggin videos afterwards. He had spaghetti for dinner, then was playing his toy piano again. Carly found videos of him playing the same piano years ago and playing “Are You Sleeping?” August then started picking the same song out on the same piano, and was sort of playing with his younger self.
Eventually, he wanted to do math on Carly’s computer and they did math in Excel. He kept playing with that, then I read more of The Last Kids on Earth. Carly made him a strawberry smoothie. Carly put the new batteries in and he played with the laser pointer, trying to annoy Carly as she did the dishes. He asked, randomly, “Why does flour bond together when it is wet?”
We got him upstairs and Carly gave him a bath. I heard him asking her about tardigrades, and whether she thought they would survive specific scenarios. One was: “50 billion year stomach acid downpour…do you think tardigrades would survive that?”
We said good night and I put him to bed. He talked about moving his eyes/head and how he couldn’t just move his eyes when he was younger. He had me take another video. He also took some photos of me. We listened to two Circle Rounds: “Taste of Honey” and “The Friendship Garden”. He listened to a few things on Ninja Focus, then I put on the Lullatone lullabies album and he fell asleep to that about 10:15.
New song of the day:
New song with both hands:
Watching Inspector Gadget:
Playing for Vivian and Colin:
Playing for each other:
Funny eyes:
Bed time lapse:
