He was up at 8:40. He went to the bathroom on his own, then came down to me. Carly wasn’t down yet. I was watching the start of the 4 Hours of Shanghai, which I’d never watched a few months ago when these sorts of things were still happening. He watched a bit with me, then started playing in Musyc. He eventually said it was time for Minecraft, and Carly played with him in our survival world. He asked, “What’s stubborn mean?”
He played piano, including a song that I recorded and really want to compose in Notion for him. He went and sat sideways in one of the red chairs with Carly. She said he should eat a hearty breakfast. Me: How do you do that if you’re a vegetarian? Him: Good joke! He then told her all the jokes he knows: “What’s a shark’s favorite game? Follow the bleeder.” “What’s a whale’s favorite game. Swallow the leader.” And of course, “Knock knock…Interrupting trombone…” And “Why did the duck cross the park? To get to the other slide.” And, “Why are fish so smart? They swim in schools.” (Not sure where he got that one.) He started to ask “Why are birds sometimes far from a flock?” But forgot the answer. Then made up, “Why are shorts so short? Because you only wear them for a short time.” He said, “I learned from dada. Dada, thanks for teaching me how to make corny jokes. To annoy mama.”
They went upstairs together to exercise and I finished putting the new keycaps on. He came down and ate Cheerios and listened to “Daniel in the Lion’s Den” and “Dinosaur Christmas” as I did that. That was his alone time, so the they played Minecraft. I made tuna sandwiches for him. Carly and I reminisced about Korea and Thailand coffee shops. When August saw lunch, the sandwiches with pickels, he said, “Yum! Just the kind of lunch I love!” While he ate she read a solar system book to him. We did a short Brother and Sister game while she did laundry. She came back down and read a Clementine book. He ended up piling the couch with pillows and a blanket as a sort of fort.
We did Earpeggio together, then he deleted some apps off of his iPad that he doesn’t want any more. We talked about which ones had data. He was happy to delete Toca World, as he said he had really messed it up as it was and he should restart it anyway. We had a cookie and milk, and he had a problem in that his cookie was too big to fit in the cup to reach the milk. When he was done eating I asked if he wanted a straw to drink the milk. He said he didn’t need a straw: “I could do it the old fashioned way: you know, before they invented straws and after they invented cups.”
Cleaning up the pillows was hard for him, but we got to an agreement on that. He and I then went outside and he watered plants. I had heard about the drought in Zimbabwe on a BBC podcast, and about the internet cable Facebook is laying around Africa. I mentioned these to August as he watered, then we sat in the swing and listened to them together, then found other stories to read and watch about them, like https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/14/facebook-building-undersea-cable-in-africa-to-boost-internet-access.html. We also discussed Starlink, which he as excited by: https://www.pcmag.com/news/public-trials-of-spacex-satellite-internet-service-to-begin-within-6-months. As we sat there some middle school boys walked by. August quietly tried to tell me something, not wanting to be heard. One of the boys was wearing a short with a creeper head from Minecraft on it.
We got up and played a little of our ball game and then he had a game with Brother meeting a person from the future with fast satellite internet. We went inside and watched episode 10 of Mumbo Jumbo. Carly made the chocolate pancakes, and we went upstairs for a Myna building OTT game. He also wanted to watche the epilepsy video again (https://youtu.be/MBfJozL7qHM).
I went for a run. He had chocolate pancakes for dinner, then some nectarine. Then played Minecraft with Vivian and Colin. I came back and showered and started watching the live FOSNA Nakba Day seminar on Palestine and Indigenous Struggles. Carly went for a walk, and August wanted to learn more about famine, so I was watching videos about it with August (like on the effect on elephants -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YudO_sqYY8U and farmers using hydroponics – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po2hAN_c0tk) and then he asked about famine, not just a drought, so we learned about Yemen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBMo2m1mdlY).
And then, very exciting, his front tooth came out. Carly got back and we showed her the tooth, and the two of them played chess, first in Chess Kids on his iPad, then on the chess app on my iPad. I finished the webinar, then got things ready upstairs and folded laundry. Carly got him up for his bath, then had him trying on new shorts for this year. We went in to his bed and he had a game with Bar playing Minecraft and teaching a mean girl a lesson. He asked, “What’s cutting edge mean?” He finished his Cheerios in the bathroom. I was wearing my KEXP shirt that looks like a video game and it reminded him of Infinite Arcade and he wants to play that tomorrow. I also told him about Galaga.
We brushed our teeth, then went in to bed. He asked if we could get another lamp like his by his bed, and I reminded him it was from Korea and we couldn’t get the same lamp. This had been a discussion several months ago. He got kind of sad and upset. It was clear he was afraid it would break sometime and he wouldn’t be able to have the same lamp. After a few minutes of persuading him we could fix most everything that could happen to the lamp he felt better.
He asked, “What’s B A R N spell?” Not sure where that came from. Finally, at 10:50, we had the lights off with the AC on and a DJ Spooky album. He asked, “You know in that religious thing where you reach enlightenment?” He meant Buddhism, and we discussed that. At 11:10 he then started talking about nuclear weapons, and made the analogy
“Like glass in a hammer storm.” He got back to talking about Buddhism again, and said “Since there’s so many things to be, there’s a tiny, tiny, tiny chance you’ll be it…No matter what we are we should appreciate it…be it mosquito or wasp or human…”
He randomly said, “just so you know if I meet a genie I’d wish for more wishes…according to the legend…”
He was then clarifying “taking for granted” versus “appreciating” as he had thought they meant the same thing. He said we should appreciate things, and compared it to a famine. Although he said that in a famine he still wouldn’t appreciate broccoli stems, but he would eat them.
Finally, he said, “I really want a dream about it snowing…or in real life would be even better.” And was asleep at 11:40.
Song of the day:
Finding which keys still have issues and a new song:
Another song of the day:
Chess with mama:
