He was up by 8:10 to go to the bathroom. Carly found him when she walked up. He came down, and the first thing he said to me was, “Could you drown in the pool?” He then had a really cool design for a pool, with streams coming into it “like a tide pool.” Downstairs he played piano, then I read a couple Wayside School is Falling Down stories and he did a little Sound Rebound. We played Minecraft in a lucky block world, setting up a house, then tried to get sword add-ons that he downloaded to work.
He had oatmeal for breakfast, then walked around as Myna talking about her add-one in Minecraft and amusing himself. “A lava cannon…” We watched a Mumbo Jumbo, then a Ted-Ed video, “What is bipolar disorder?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrWBhVlD1H8) Elation, depression, and _pruning _ were words of the day.
We went up and did some wrestling, and that led to stories of a crazy old doctor who always amputated. Sepsis was another new word, and we watched a couple videos about bloodletting (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ymSgO26YW8 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owxXd9PJp2Y), including one about a vet using leeches on a cat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eSmRT6sLFQ).
We went downstairs at 11:40. Carly had gone to volunteer with Leket, organizing food, this morning and was now back. He listened to “The Mouse Tower” for alone time. I made coconut rice with peas and cut up a mango for lunch. We ate outside and discussed old medicine and amputations. He asked about wallabies, which I think is from a story, and so we looked up photos.
He played chess with Carly inside, then got upset when, since he couldn’t play with Vivian and Colin today as they were going to a lake, he couldn’t do his hour right now. He eventually listened to more stories and I went for a run.
When I got out of the shower he was upstairs, and walking back and forth, and told me, “This is the most efficient way to pass time: walking from point a to point b and starting conversation.” We went in the bedroom and wrestled, then after a while got a message from Israel Cassie inviting us over. They just moved to Even Yehuda from Tel Aviv on Sunday and have a small pool.
So we got ready and headed over there, all three of us. He was excited about going. Once we got there though he was really shy. Taya was in the pool with a neighbor boy, and Carly was talking to August. I went over and it turned out he had suddenly decided he didn’t want anyone seeing the wart on his foot, which is actually almost gone. Taya eventually got out of the pool, and broke the ice by showing him the “secret door” to the basement. They played in the house for a while, and I was out with Cassie and Kai.
Eventually they came back out, and when the pool was empty I convinced him to go wading in it. He went down the steps, and we figured out he could stand on the bottom, which was nice. He was then okay with Taya coming back in the pool. I got the kick board for him, and he started kickboarding, no vest, and went out to deeper water. He said, “I’m swimming! Are you proud of me?” And at one point he slipped off the kick board, and treaded water for a few strokes before Carly and I each grabbed an arm. Not his favorite moment, but he wasn’t traumatized.
The two neighbor boys had come back and joined them in the pool. The older boy speaks English, and the younger is 5 but doesn’t. Cassie got a delivery of cold brew coffee and I went in to see the house and she made me one. Taya had reached some sort of limit, and when August and the other boy didn’t like a bee flying by she started yelling at them and so we all left. August was saying mean things back, but wasn’t really upset, and said he didn’t mean the things he was saying and that he knew Taya didn’t either. Kind of odd, actually.
Carly is collecting donations for the gan/families in south Tel Aviv, and Cassie had a bag of groceries for us to take. August and I waited at the car while Carly went back to get them.
At home he did his Minecraft time, blowing things up, then had soup, then seconds. He then really wanted to play War with two decks, so we started and played for a while. He was pretty happy about that. We paused, and watched a Grian episode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKHFbeQmHQQ), learning the words chuffed and bail. Then watched a couple of educational videos, about blue in nature (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g246c6Bv58) and Multiple Sclerosis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzH8ul5PSZ8).
We went upstairs and wrestled, then Carly gave him a bath and Got in a little work. He got his own clothes, and told me, “Look what fabulous combination I made this time.” He got his clothes on backwards, and Carly called it “August cool”. In talking about his cracker-eating process he told Carly, “It’s pretty yummy when it’s your own spit.” And called it “Ultimate savoring. Ultimate savoring.” He listened to “Grahamquackers” on Stories Podcast, then wanted to see picture of a person dying. I told him I’d let him see photos of people in hospital beds, but they weren’t necessarily dying. He also asked about autopsies, saying he’d be okay seeing that.
We listened to Benge’s Meme Songs and he was asleep at 11:40.
Little birds in our bushes:
Ping pong:
Getting in the pool:
Kickboarding:
I’m swimming. Are you proud of me?:
His cracker eating process, explained:
