He was up just before 9. We ended up cuddling in the couch bed. I then read more Hardy Boys. We are almost to the end of the first book, with the brothers trapped in the water tower. We brushed our teeth, the. discussed “dance monkey”, which he says is on a Simply Piano ad, as we headed downstairs. He had said something that sounded like it, then I started to make up a “Dance Monkey” song, and he said “You know the dance monkey song!?”
Downstairs he played some piano and randomly asked, “Can someone take advantage of someone’s honesty?” We played Minecraft in lucky blocks, dealing with lots of lag from too many entities. We ate the last of the banana bread for breakfast, then finished reading the Hardy Boys.
He headed to the piano. He played with playing lines at different intervals: half step, third, fifth. He played in A sharp minor and E sharp major. And did “funky punky” music and sang his teenager song and danced around. He didn’t want to do a video for Eve, although he had talked about wanting to do one for her last night. Instead, he wanted to do alone time and requested to listen to “I’m Bored”. He listened to that. He paused it to come over and ask me, “Isn’t it crazy that three Kurzgesatz videos ago, I’m using Kurzgesatz videos as a unit of measurement, there wasn’t any coronavirus? But now there’s the pandemic?”
He finished the story but was saving his time for later. I mentioned he had 20 stars now, and he did all the math on the stars, dividing it into groups of 5 and figuring out that could get him a total of 2 hours of iPad time. But we went upstairs and did a lot of wrestling and laughing. “Banana” is the stop word, and when he says it I freeze, mid-motion, and then he escapes and says “Go” and then laughs hysterically when I miss him and get upset.
We came down and did his iPad time, doing more lucky blocks. We then did reading time, and he read a good chunk of a pretty long book about the Space Shuttle. We then watched a Fuse School video about evidence of the Big Bang, then watched highlights of the Space X flight to the ISS as we sat outside and ate apple and schnitzel for lunch. He asked, “What if some kind of chaos happened in Dragon X and the computers malfunctioned?” We discussed backups and getting help from Earth and he asked about control from Earth. We then watched a Kids Academy chess video on draws:https://youtu.be/iv9hez4QO84
Then one on forks. Carly got home, and he showed her positions in the video and where to put the pieces to make a fork.
They played chess and I went in and did dishes. We then realized that the internet wasn’t working. What’s more, half of the power in the house was out. I turned the power on and off, but no luck. Carly went up and had to teach. She managed to use the hotspot on my phone. I eventually got the internet working by running an extension cord across the floor to the modem. August was getting some extra Minecraft time. August was in the process of spending 8 coins to get a new app, a cool Lego game in Apple Arcade, when the power went out, so that was consoling him until we could get it installed. He then played the new app, which is a cool puzzle sort of game, where a child Lego creation is following a parent as they hike and go camping.
We then got ready to go for an ant walk and feed them some brown sugar and leftover schnitzel. We got talking about seeds or planting or something that reminded me of the “Cada Semilla” song I used to sing to him. I sang some of the song, which talks about caring for your seed with love, to which August’s response was “But it doesn’t have feelings, okay!?”
We went over and fed the ants. He gave the nest by the tree, which we also saw carrying their brood around, both chicken and brown sugar and said, “Eat the healthy stuff first!” We came back to the house and sat on the bench and talked there. Was going to read but we ended up talking about other things until it was time for his call with Gabi. I took him upstairs and got him connected. Carly was in the office and monitored while I went for an earlier run.
I then came back and went straight to work after a shower. It was the online session for Sabeel today. I met them online at 5:30, it went until 7:30, then we debriefed until 8. When I came downstairs they were playing chess. I saw Carly squander a lead. She was up a rook in the end game and just needed to promote a pawn, but then dropped the rook so it ended as a draw. He played some chess with me, then the computer. He had the computer play itself and it ended in a draw by repetition. This was exciting to him and we analyzed it to see why.
He then made a couple videos for Eve. One was a song on piano, but when he was done he went and curled in the chair. The second was trying to get him to say something, as he said he was saying something quietly for her to read lips. Eventually he whispered it in my ear and I said it, “Thank you, Eve.” He’s feeling really shy about saying things to her directly.
He had some spaghetti, and was Myna talking about her big builds: “It’s a titan maze; you know, where the titans live.” He went to the bathroom, where the light is burned out. He had me do the animal documentary again as I shined my flashlight on my phone for him: “And here we have a wild August, going to the bathroom in its native habitat. Notice how it sheds its lower fur…” Carly then took a video of me to explain to Jeff why one space after a period is better than two. August was making funny noises from the bathroom, then was pretty hyper upstairs as Carly got him to take a shower.
We went in to the bed and he had his crackers and listened to “The Noblest Tale” on Circle Round. New words were underserved noble. As we went out to brush our teeth it somehow came up about Carly being a twin. August sang a twin song that went “People all have blue shirts / they are identical” He’s been singing more lately, and yesterday, as he and Carly played chess at the table, I had a Ball of Wax album playing and he was repeating a song he’d never heard before line for line. Which means I probably need to be more careful about certain lyrics now. August saw something on Carly’s computer where she was listed as Carolyn and he asked why. When she said it is her real name he was shocked: “What? You’re actually Carolyn!? You’re like keeping a secret from me!” They talked about how she and Vivian have the same middle name. August said, “And also it’s Gold!” As he likes to pronounce their last name that way instead of Gould.
I skipped floss at first and August pointed it out and I said he was keeping me on my toes. He asked what on my toes means, and we explored that, and he ran back and forth upstairs testing it. He was humming a tune he plays on piano. And told me, “I think it would be interesting if our piano had 24TET.” Based on a video we watched. That means it would have quarter steps between keys instead of half steps.
In his room he examined my toes and told me they feel old, but assured me they look fine from a distance. He then had a sort of game where we were singing everything we said to each other. He had a switch to turn it on and off. We discussed more videos for Eve, like telling jokes he knows, and we played more would you rather. He asked what headway means.
We talked about falling asleep, and he talked about how it is hard to just let his eyes just close without doing so forcefully, so it seems that is still slightly hard for him. I looked at the red spots on his arm. They look like bad mosquito bites maybe. But not getting worse. He talked about wanting to learn more about warts, so I put that on the list for tomorrow. He could be a doctor with his ability to handle those photos and videos. He then asked, “Here’s one mindracking question: what it I had been born blind?” We discussed that, and concluded that while it would have changed what we had focused on, much of what we done would have been the same.
He asked about how people learn to read braille, and that got us into a discussion of how people learn language and reading, whether it is sound or braille or sign language. Finally, he explained the difference between happy and excited. He associates excited with anticipation, like waiting for summer, whereas happy doesn’t involve anticipation, like someone unexpectedly giving him money.
We listened to a Benge album, and he was asleep sometime before midnight. I fell asleep as well so not sure exactly when.
Song of the day:
Playing melodies a third apart:
Teaching mama about chess forks:
Ant feeding:
Ants carrying the brood:
A song for Eve:
A message for her:
Music for Carly’s videos:
