He called me up at 8:37. I read a couple chapters of Wayside School, then he sang his request that we go downstairs and play Minecraft. He said, “Did you know a rook can always move the maximum number of spaces on an empty board?…I thought about it in my head.” I talked to him about it, and he seemed to be internalizing the grid system quite well, and picturing pieces on it. He had also thought through some of the moves available, like that a pawn could theoretically have four different moves available, and “King: minimum is 3, maximum is 8.” And that a knight has 8 possible moves in the center, but only two at the corner.
Downstairs I changed the dimming light in the bathroom, and he asked, “What’s perpetually mean?” We played in a lucky block world, which has been updated for the nether update, which was exciting. Carly and I were then trying to figure out how to send money with Bit, still no luck, and August had French toast for breakfast. The two of them played chess, then I played with him, setting up positions, and Carly went on errands, going to the art store and plant store.
I showed August the fool’s mate in chess, which he thought was pretty funny. He played a little piano, then we played together for quite a while. Before bed he talked about wanting to play a duet with me. He talked about liking things exact, and he precisely positioned the chess board in the middle of the square rug. We also watered his “pet” at some point, and did a ShareTheMeal donation.
Carly got home with plants. They played chess and he showed her the fool’s mate. I went up to get a good chunk of work in today. Carly made them chicken sandwiches and he taught her about reading music. When I came down to get food there were rubber bands stretched all over the cupboards. He was wanting to do his alone time. He listened to a story, then used his iPad time to play Magnus Kingdom. Carly also did some Zoom yoga class, and August spent the time playing with rubber bands. He came up to show me a rubber band chain. I told him I could stop working if he wanted me to do something with him, but he was fine, and I kept working, then came down at 4.
Carly made a great strawberry smoothie, but our supply of frozen strawberries is now running low. I talked to August about going running, something August had mentioned when talking about getting more exercise. We went out in the yard first, and August said to Carly, “You should teach me how to transplant.” He talked about how much of the yard work he does and said, “I want my percentage of the work in the yard to go up.” They then transplanted tomato plants, then he was playing on the slide with the water at the bottom, and its surface tension. He then had Carly set up a sort of waterslide. He played in that, and said, “It’s ticklish…it’s like I peed my pants but didn’t.”
He came in and I got him changed, then he showed me some yoga, and how flexible he is. He played with his rubber band chains and we did some slo-mo videos of them. He and I then went for our first run together, up to the park, then back down the back path and to the house. He spotted a feather and stopped to grab it, then said, “Hi feather, you’re going on a jog with us.”
He asked again, “What’s confidential mean?” We talked about why things like medical history are considered confidential, and how they could be used to deny people jobs. We sat on the swing and read more Wayside school And due was a new word.
Vivian and Colin called and they moved to Minecraft. It didn’t go well though. They kept jumping from world to world. First Vivian and August were trying to have a secret place without Colin, then Vivian suddenly left the world August was in and August couldn’t get in the world she was in. He went to a world and built a whole battle arena for them to PVP in, but then when he invited her she didn’t want to do it. He was getting upset at this point and hung up, and told Carly he was going to destroy their stuff, and then had a meltdown when we had to take the iPad away.
We were trying to get him to eat something, and finally Carly got him to eat some crackers and peanut butter, for some protein. I put on “Narcissus and Echo” for him, and I was finally able to go for a run. When I got back August met me at the door and told me to stay outside and told me, “We’re doing secret talk.” They moved that upstairs. He apologized, and to finish his evening time he played a little Magnus Kingdom, then found a new survival world. I played with him for his last 8 minutes, and he did a great job stopping when his time was up.
They went up and played chess together until 10. As Carly was talking to Cherie about Vivian’s infected tooth August said that he had thought Vivian had said “infected poop.” Abcess was another new word. Up in the bedroom he had dinner, then seconds, of rice and tofu and cheese
Carly gave him a bath, then he chose his clothes. He said something about it being unfortunate or a shame that he only had two shorts to choose from. We got in bed, but then when he was pretending to have hypothermia I pulled the blanket up for him but flipped the plate with crackers that was on the other side of him. I changed the sheets. He listened to “King Midas and the Satur’s Song” and “Pippo and Poppo Plan a Perfect Prison”. We brushed our teeth and he had a question about the trick in mating with a rook, and I got out my phone and showed him using Chess Tiger.
Back in bed he was pretending to be the last dolphin ever, and having babies. He was then the parent telling them, “No more television…that’s enough catfish lollipops for one day.” We listened to the Brian Eno and Roger Eno album, and he said he had some difficulty getting to sleep, but he was asleep around 11:50.
Just the end:
Rubber band chain:
Transplanting tomatoes:
Surface tension:
Water slide fun:
Water slide slo-mo:
Rubber band slo-mo:
