He called me in once during the night, but it wasn’t clear why and he fell right back to sleep. I then woke him up at 8:30. He was still in bed but told me it was okay to Skype with Mom and Dad to say “Happy Mother’s Day.” We did that, and probably talked for 20 minutes that way. They asked about piano playing, but August was hesitant to go down. He turned the audio off to tell me that he needed to stay under the cover so they wouldn’t see his bandaid. I assured him I’d keep the video from seeing his foot and he agreed.
We went downstairs and he played a lot of piano for them: “I’m now going to play something in the B mode of C major.” When we hung up, he spotted the black case for microscope slides that had come in the Amazon order. I got out the microscope, and at first just used the cheap microtome that had come with the microscope to slice a bit of grape to look at. I then found the nicer one and it did cut better and we examined bits of grape. August asked for grapes and ate several, but mainly had fun peeling a single one. He also cut tiny bits of of one using the microtome: “I cutted the grape. And that is scrumptious.”
We went upstairs for a Brother and Sister game with Val, who had epilepsy. In the bed August commented that it was actually making him feel sleepy. I pointed out this is what I always tell him and why I don’t like playing up on the bed. We then moved to a silly Ugly Geese versus Cats game and I somehow managed to teach him the word pyrrhic as a word of the day. It ended with the ugly geese being made extinct (there were some final geese, like a male goose who was trying to lay eggs for weeks before being told he couldn’t) and I ended with “And no one, anywhere, was sad.” Which he found hilarious.
We went downstairs and he hopped on the piano before coming to the couch and playing with Musyc. Finally, just about 11 he wanted to play Minecraft and we logged on to his realm. He asked, “What’s supreme?” I explained, then he asked, “Dada, what’s the most supreme? You or mama?” I said it was clearly Carly. He responded with, “It’s clearly both of you.”
I logged off to make cracker lunch. Besides some grapes we skipped breakfast today. I had crackers with tuna and others with meat and cheese. Also made chocolate milk and we ate outside and played Polytopia, since he hadn’t used all his morning time. We were winning, then he had an tactic of cutting everything down. That gave him a ton of resources, which he was then able to use to keep winning. I taught him mobilization. That led to a discussion of resources in war, and then on to aspects of the Civil War. He asked what it would be like for the president now to be in charge of both sides if the country started fighting against itself. Innocent was a word of the day. There was also more talk about dictators today, which has been a theme.
On the swing we read The Hardy Boys. New words included penitentiary minute (tiny), and lame. Back inside he played a lot of piano. All sorts of new variations on a new theme. Really cool to hear him constantly coming up with new things. We then put on “Daniel in the Lions’ Den” on Stories Podcast. August recited along with Amanda the intro part of “You’re what makes it possible…”
We played Minecraft. I finished the roof of our new house. We then went outside for a ball game. He spent much of the time climbing up and down the slide, and made up a Brother in VR Minecraft game, where Brother was going through levels to teach him how to save people in Minecraft and be a hero. He would start from nothing, and have to save someone stuck in an obsidian box at the bottom of a chasm, or lost in a mineshaft. We did 5 or 6 levels before I managed to get us on to something else.
Inside we saw Carly and he played a bunch of piano for her. We then watched some videos I had saved for him:
• The new Kurzgesagt (https://youtu.be/QImCld9YubE) on why we are alive. Entropy and ATP were new words. Kurzgesagt had a great analogy to describe life that sounded like something August would say, and I think it is one of the places he’s picked up his analogy-making skills: “It’s like driving a car at full speed while producing fuel in the truck with junk you picked up on the side of the road.”
• Then the What If video on what it would be like to live in the Devonian Period (https://youtu.be/bM6gEUNyEqA) Apex predator was a new term. He then spotted the “What if Ancient Life Escaped Earth?” video and we watched that. (https://youtu.be/mpUGfvl27RM)
We then did more Brother levels. I described them as monotonous and he asked what that meant. I made my point by repeating the same 3 note tune over and over and he got the idea. We watched the first episode of Crash Course Film History, as I thought he’d like the intention story and science of it.
I then made dinner (coconut rice, broccoli, and tofu) and he played piano for Carly, then they called Colin. I ate dinner and got some for August, then I went for a run. Carly said he ate a lot.
They played Minecraft, in Colin’s world, then he and Carly called and talked to Oma. August took her outside and said, “see the pitch black sky?” Carly gave him a bath and washed his hair.
I three bedroom he finished his lollipop and listened to a story about Loki and then “The Little Acorn” and a “Dog King and the Theft if the Good Girl Treat” on Stories Podcast. We brushed our teeth, and he was looking older to me. We played some Brother rescuing game as we went. He asked, “What’s ceremoniously mean?”probably from a story. We read a little of the National Geographic Little Kids magazine. We listened to the Trance Frendz album, and he was gloriously asleep by 11.
Peeling a grape:
Today’s piano 1:
Today’s piano 2:
Today’s piano 3 – the spooky song:
Today’s piano – playing for Mama:
