I heard him get up and go to the bathroom. It was right at 9. He called me up when he was done and he commented on how he had woken up exactly at 9. I read three chapters (19 to 21) from Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger then we went downstairs. He went into some world in Minecraft. I asked, “Why are you dying so much?” He matter-of-factly said, “Because I’m spawning chickens, of course.” It turned out there was a reason because it was some world he had downloaded, but it was really funny how he said it.
He switched, and played with Carly. I had talked to August about Eve possibly coming over and he seemed fine with it. But when they showed up at 9:50 he ran upstairs. I went out and let them into the yard and they played out there. Carly talked to August on the stairs for a few minutes. We switched, and I was then able to coax him downstairs, where he first yelled “Bye!” out the door. I was able to carry him out for a bit, and Heather asked him for a fact, but he didn’t come up with something for her. He retreated back inside. He did go outside a bit, and sort of watched them as they played in the Zinnie house and on the slide, and he tried some of his sign language on them. I suggested he play piano for them, and he did that, but it didn’t draw anyone’s attention. As I was inside with him, and he was looking out the door and through the screen door, he also did some dancing to the music, but then he ended up doing some crying on the couch and cuddling with me.
He said good bye before they left, but didn’t get close. They left at 10:10. As we got back to playing Minecraft he said, “I can just see her in Minecraft.” Hopefully the will get around to setting that up, but it has been several weeks already.
Carly talked about the possibility of playing Minecraft with Thatcher. At first August thought it would be in addition to playing with Vivian: “I don’t know if I could handle doing Minecraft ALL day. I want to do other things.”
We finished with Minecraft and Carly made him an egg for breakfast. I read more Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger and quantity was a word of the day. He was still hungry, so he ate some salmon, then we watched a couple educational videos: a SciShow about oceans on other planets, and some more sleight of hand. We then did a reading activity where I typed a story and he read it. I started to write a story about Dr. Feigelmeister, a character from our Story Dice stories. He read three good paragraphs.
We then had chocolate milk and watched Iskall’s newest Hermitcraft video. August had a short story about Brother meeting a magician in the park, then we went upstairs for games. First was Brother saving lemmings, then there was the polar bear again, then Sister meeting a magician, then we did the one where she finds out they’re in a simulation again.
We went downstairs at 1. He drew ‘Prehistoric Roadshow’. We finished episode 1 and started episode 2 and he ate a good frozen mango. He next listened to “Phoenix Feathers” for alone time, then we played Minecraft in a lucky block world. He asked, “What’s sympathy?” He then went over and helped Carly, who was ripping up paper bags to use in the compost. He liked that, and found it satisfying. We talked about how the compost is full of maggots but they haven’t turned to flies yet, I used the word foreboding, so that became a word of the day.
She was then trying to convince him to go to the beach. He seemed to mainly be concerned about the chance of rain. I told Carly there was a parking lot by the beach in downtown Netanya that was right next to the beach. We looked at it on Google Maps, then he was doing street view, finding lots of lovely places around the world. He said “Brightly festooned”, then sang a whole “I am brightly festooned” song. It is from the “Phoenix Feathers” story. Carly made them chicken sandwich before they left: “That sandwich was delish. You’re an expert at chicken sandwiches.” He was also repeating, “I’m not a ringer, I’m not a singer, I’m not a hunter.” Not sure what that is from.
They headed to the beach at 4:20 and I went up to work, with the rehearsal at 5:30. There trip wasn’t the most successful ever: traffic really snarled at the interchange by Ikea. They got past that and he was okay, and Carly found a street parking spot at the beach between Poleg and downtown. Then some guy tried to steal the spot from her. She got it, but it was a parking adventure. They walked to the sand, but it was kind of cloudy. They tried for about fifteen minutes, but he wouldn’t walk on the sand, saying he was concerned about it raining. They headed back to the car, and he was apologizing, saying he could try again when it wasn’t cloudy.
They then drove back to Even Yehuda and were going to get pizza at VIPizza. Sadly, it is no longer there. We are hoping it has just moved. In its place is a convenience store. They were then going to go next door to the bakery, but the guy was closing and told them no. So they went to the convenience store and he got a Kinder Egg. His second treat, after having a lollipop on the way there.
My rehearsal was very short today, so I went down to see them. They were out looking at and smelling the tomato plants, which are growing nicely. They came in and I went back up to work for a little bit. I came back down, and they were doing Minecraft later today, at 7:30, so that Thatcher could join. I’d suggested to Carly that the accounts should be set up in advance, but had kind of forgotten the hardest part: getting the family and kid account set up and logged in. So they couldn’t get it figured out on their end, and Thatcher wasn’t able to play with them.
Carly made rice and beans and broccoli. I then went for a run, and missed out on the fun of the other kids not being able to all get in a world together. When I got back they had just managed to get in a world together. At least Vivian and August. Colin, whose account is still logged out or something, wasn’t in, I think. I took a shower, then sang happy birthday to Colin’s balloon, as he said it was its birthday. We said goodbye, then Carly took August up for his bath and I cleaned the kitchen.
They played a couple hands of cribbage, then we headed to bed. He listened to “The Greedy Dog” and “Wiggly in Walt Disney World”. Carly brought the phone in, as Vivian and Colin had called again, for them to say good night. We brushed our teeth, then back in the very cold room I said I was in awe of how he likes the cold. He asked what that meant.
He asked “How do you find complementary colors?” and said, “Also, it’s cool that two odd numbers make an even number.” He then brought up Eve: “To say that I like Eve, guess what I’m doing? Naming two of my worlds Eve.” He pulled the blanket over his head and started to cry a bit.
He changed subjects after a bit by asking about cells dying, like if blood flow is cut off, and asked, “What If a crumb was in your blood?” We discussed heart attacks and the importance of exercise, and he said he’s going to exercise more. I told him he didn’t have to worry about it. He talked about wanting to teach me yoga poses. He’s learned several from Carly, and was showing some off after his bath yesterday.
He asked why cats and dogs don’t like each other, then remembered when it rained at the pizza place and we got stuck going to the car: “I just think going to that pizza place was an omen. An ominous thing.” He brought up Eve again, saying, “I really need to make a model of the house… then I need to make a road and airplane to Albania. In Minecraft.” There was more crying, and he asked why they had to move there, although he readily accepted the explanation.
He quoted several lines of the letter in Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger. We listened to two Rival Consoles albums, and August got to see the clock turn to midnight for the first time in his life: “Zero zero zero!” He talked about seeing 0:10, but I told him it wasn’t really that exciting, after having seen 0:00. He saw 0:01 and then was silent. Asleep.
Saying hi:
Playing piano for them:
Ripping paper:
Singing during Google Maps 1:
“I’m brightly festooned” song:
Song and dance 1:
Song and dance 2:
