He was up, coughing, at 7:05. He wanted to go down stairs. Too early. As he was very whiney and dramatic when I first tried to read poems, then wanted him to use a tissue instead of wiping his nose with his hand. After he stopped being whiney on the couch he played Minecraft. I joined after a while. He fought slimes in survival for the first time: “I never realized it was so easy!” Then was singing a “I dare you to fight me” chant.
He had oatmeal for breakfast. He then had a game with Sister and Myna and Calculator having competitions. Sister lost them all. I then looked up the gusli, which was featured in a Circle Round story: https://www.wbur.org/circleround/2020/02/11/the-rooster-in-the-sky-rachel-matthews-frozen
We then played with the guitar, and he was asking how to really play it. He was sitting on the couch, playing guitar, when I asked, “What do you want for lunch?” He immediately responded, “That I become a professional music player and know how to play guitar.”
I made and packed lunch and he played. Set up the keyboard too and played that. At first he claimed he didn’t want to go (he wanted me to keep playing Brother and Sister games, or something). He hid under the blanket and I went upstairs to brush my teeth. When I came down he jumped out and attacked me: “Trick attack! Trojan horse!”
We drove to Sara’s house in Herzliya. Got there about 10:20. Listening to music today. As we got out we were discussing the infinite possibilities of equations when variables are involved.
A quicker entry into the house, and Lauren and Gilad were already there. They were all sitting at the table, having a snack. August hung around the living room while everyone else was eating. Eventually the kids headed upstairs and I had to go as well. Eliza (her sister was at gan) and Gilad mainly played with the Star Wars figures and dolls. A little odd to see, although August was happy that he recognized R2D2. He found them playing with dolls even odder than I did. He climbed on the bar thing, and was pretty entertained watching them.
We went downstairs when they were hungry, and also to make a fort around the table. They didn’t use the fort a whole lot though, which August was a little disappointed about, I think. He was climbing on the chair when the cat came walking in. August was very dramatic about it, and I was reminding him he isn’t afraid of cats. He’s afraid of their dander though, thus the reaction. When Sara dealt with the cat, getting it to stay out of the room, he found more enjoyment in it, saying, “This is funny. I can watch someone doing responsibility with a cat.” He responded equally dramatically when Eliza was acting like a dog. Although a little understandable after she also annoyed Gilad by sniffing him, and poked him with a toothpick.
She was outside by herself for a while, then August and Gilad and the rest of us went out as well. August at first said he didn’t want to ride bikes or anything, but they have a total of 4 scooters and he started trying one. I put one of their helmets on him and he was off. He rode all four of the scooters around and was getting pretty comfortable with them. Meanwhile, Gilad was being funny and fitting himself into the tiny little kid cars (like I used to push August around in in the play areas in Seoul). August started running a store, pretending to sell all of the bicycles and cars to us. I was someone that kept buying bikes and crashing them.
I think Eliza was the one with the idea of going to the park. Gilad and August agreed and we packed up and got going. It was a couple blocks. August told us, “Did you know that the sun is 99.9 percent of the mass of the solar system? All the planets and other stuff is the other tenth of a percent…” I asked where he knew that from, and he said, “documentary…I can’t believe you fell for that!” Not that the fact was true, but that it was actually from the Astrophysics for Kids in a Hurry book.
At the playground August had his third worrying moment, as there was a crew there and one of them was using a weed eater. It took a while to convince him that the guy was at the other side of the playground and wouldn’t come close. August climbed on the play structure, and eventually he and Eliza ended up on the big circle swing and Gilad was pushing them and they were all talking.
August took a break, hungry again, and came and had some pistachios. He had eaten a good amount of the peanut butter sandwich and most of the dolmas I had brought, and a good amount of the Bamba they had out on the table, excitedly commenting about how it wasn’t filling and he could eat as much as he wants.
Eventually we walked back to the house. Had about an hour left before Sara needed to go pick up Micah. August had at one point objected to kids watching Star Wars, saying it is too scary for them. I told him it was relative though, as Omar had been shocked that I was teaching August Greek mythology. Back at the house Gilad and Eliza went up to play with the dolls again. August told me, “You know R2D2 is more scary than they think it is.”
He had me go up and I sat down on the stairs while he mainly watched them play. He was bored at one point and came and had me read some How To. Back downstairs again, the last time he actually went upstairs on his own, without insisting on me going with him. A big step, but it didn’t last long, as then it was time to clean up.
We left a little before 1. As we were getting in the car he was asking me scenarios: “How many Gs would you experience…?” He fell asleep as we got close to Even Yehuda. I stopped at the strawberry stand and he was awake enough to sleepily ask me to leave the door open when I went to get strawberries. I then drove up to town and parked in one of the lots. I let him sleep for a few more minutes, then we went in to Stop City! to get honey, as we were out. August had also been going on and on about having more Bamba at their house, so I had told him he could get some when we went to the store. Inside though he decided on a bag of the caramel popcorn, remembering when we had that a few months ago.
We then drove to school. We went to the cafeteria and he had a chocolate muffin and I had a cappuccino (he had agreed to have just a few pieces of popcorn and save the rest for another day). August said, “Isn’t it crazy in the United States a hundred thousand people are learning something each second?” He ate more of the dolma, and opened the bag of cashews from Ikea and ate them all. He had a Sister game where Bar now likes cats and Sister bans her from the server. When she allows her on Bar makes a giant cat statue and uses redstone to make it meow. He called it “Ms. Stuffins” after the Phineas Rage videos.
I talked about how we were almost done reading Where the Sidewalk Ends at home. He joked, “Great. We can finally find out where the sidewalk ends.”
We then walked over, close to 4, to Carly’s classroom and said hi. We then went to the library. I had thought to look at books and maybe do Khan Academy or something, but he just wanted to do graphing, then take some photos. He did ask, “What’s an equilibrium?” So a word of the day.
We left at 4:35 and discussed “functions of x” on the way to the car. At home he did alone time while jumping on the couch, onto a pile of pillows. We then played Minecraft and Carly got home. He watched two videos, then Piano playing for alone time. I went for a run and they played Minecraft. He then watched Kurzgesagt videos on fusion and the end of universe. He ate apple and peanut butter. He was being a bit grumpy and I said something about “Until you get your groove on.” “What’s that mean?” He asked about the smallest things seen and we read about kinds of microscopes: https://www.nanooze.org/worlds-most-powerful-microcope/
I took a shower and he ate rice, then noodles and butter. They were reading Astrophysics. Carly took a shower and we read an article that Cherie had just sent: https://interlude.hk/the-incredible-human-hands/?fbclid=IwAR3dbgHuJuhwCnd1MLin7b-z0ssP8jfpxd1JWfvI6b38c2mxzwKcBEccPuQ from Cherie We then did multiplying fractions on Khan Academy before heading upstairs.
Carly gave him a bath. We left a Skype message for my parents when they didn’t answer. We said good night, and listened to “Multiplying Mischief” and “The Princess’s Excellent Birthday Party” on Stories Podcast. We then listened to “Island” on Bedtime Explorers and both fell asleep to that. I woke up a bit later when it had gone on to another episode. He was asleep around 10:30.
Guitar experimenting:
Piano progression:
Bouncing eyeball:
On a scooter 1:
On a scooter 2:
Walking to the park:
Together in the swing:
Jumping on the pillows:
A big jump:
Song of the day:
