He called me in at 5:20. As I got him back to sleep he said, “You said let’s read a book.” He was then up about 8:50. He went to the bathroom, then reminded me about mouthwash. We did that then headed downstairs. We read some Hardy Boys, then played in the lucky blocks world. He ate banana bread for breakfast. He went and played at the piano. I really noticed that he’s suddenly developing melodies. I think I said something about it, then several minutes later he finished playing and asked, “You like my sense of melody?”
We watched a Kids Academy video about the most famous chess game (the opera game), then we watched the newest Grian video. We went outside and he was Myna talking about her shops and stuff while I picked up the tree things. Back inside we played chess. He won, but thanks to me pointing out a bad move I’d made.
He kept playing chess while I made lunch: tuna melts, cauliflower, and chocolate milk. He asked if chess is ever lucky and we talked about what that meant, and that led to a long talk about chess variations, and designing our own (placing our pieces on, or having a third person make random setups and then playing from them). As we played I used the word neutralize and that was a word of the day.
We ate lunch outside and in the yard I asked if we could put his push bike in the storage area. He was totally fine with that, and he suggested we also put the push bike in there, since he never really liked it. I took a video and photos of him on the bike before we put it away. He noted the decorations still attached to it, and we reminisced about the now-missing channel changer that used to be on the handle bars. He had the idea of saving the bell off of it though as he really likes it. He noted that the bell was out of tune, less than a half step apart on the notes.
Inside, Carly had the big stroller out for someone from the school to borrow, so August looked at that as well and we talked about it. He found a couple of tiny Cheerio-looking things still in the seat. He thought they were shrunken Cheerios, but they were actually something else. We decided to save them as a science experiment and I put them in a plastic bag.
We went inside and he played some piano, then we started watching a David Bennett video about how few songs only use minor chords. Carly got home by 1:30 and they played chess. After she had to go up we went upstairs and did lots of wrestling. He also watched a couple Ants Canada videos at some point. Back downstairs he listened to “Jack and the Beanstalk” for alone time.
I caught a fly thing that he had thought was a bee in the bug catcher and he was happy about that. We did his Minecraft time, playing in the lucky block world again. Carly came down and I went for a run, while they went outside. I got back and took a quick shower then went to work at 6, going through a run-through for the online session that is happening tomorrow. He had received a video reply from Eve. I got to watch it with him (his second time) when I came down. At the end of her video she says “I annoy my mom too.” He thought that was pretty funny. He also said, “Her voice sounds like a character.” Out of a story, that is.
He was still playing Minecraft. He and Carly had played together. He hadn’t played with Vivian and Colin as they couldn’t connect to any world and he just wanted to give up. Carly was now meeting with Mandy, outside, and I started washing dishes. He poured lava all over the spawn point of this temporary world they had made, and Carly’s account was still logged on so just dying over and over. He asked, “So you like my Cochamente Death Generator Ultimate?”
We went outside and sat in the bench and read some more Hardy Boys, close to the end, and visor was another new word. He told me, “I know how to curl my tongue into a tunnel to get warm air up to my nose.”Carly came down with Cherie on the phone and they talked. August was swinging me on the swing by hanging on the bottom of it.
I finished dishes and then went upstairs and did some more work. They did his bath and washed his hair. She checkmated him, rather unintentionally, using her knight. He and I discussed knight checkmates, and then he practiced a single rook endgame against the computer, managing to checkmate.
He listened to one Stories Podcast story and ate his crackers, then the rest of the Max Goodname story, then some funny poems as we brushed our teeth. He started talking about castling strategy and mating scenarios. He’s really thought about it, especially king versus queen side castling and the problems with castling long.
We got in bed and listened to Beethoven’s Symphony 5 and then 7. A couple times he tried to talk to me about Minecraft, and he was asleep by 11:30.
Song of the day – working on melody:
One more ride on the old bike:
Buzzy insect:
Video from Eve:
His teenager song:
Swinging me on the swing:
