After August had gone to sleep and I fell asleep with him for a bit I got up and went downstairs to put my watch on the charger and had a snack. Awake, I started to read. Then I heard noises from the cupboards. Long story short, I ended up finding at least 3, and possibly more, cockroaches in our pantry cupboard. We had an old bag of pretzels in the back of the cupboard, and they were in there. I saw at least one peaking out of that bag, and there may have been more. I took it out and threw it away in the garbage can. It was 1:30, so I left all of the food on the counter to deal with in the morning.
August then woke up once during the night, calling out, and Carly went to him. Mumbled something and went back to sleep. It was the first time in at least a couple weeks that she’s had to get up.
In the morning we were cleaning out the cupboards and I went up at 9:20 to wake him up. Struggling to get him to wake up, I called him “Sleet McSleeperton.” He nodded his head, eyes still closed, and turned over. I got him up at 9:35 or so, then read a couple chapters of Tristan Strong.
We brushed our teeth. We went downstairs and he complimented Carly on having it nice and cold. He told her he’d just had to turn on the bathroom light. He played Dragonbox Big Numbers for a little while, then switched to Minecraft. He made a village survival world for playing with Vivian, and he and I started to gather some resources. He was primarily collecting dyes. I offered him frozen mango for breakfast, and he asked if it was on a plate. I sprinkled a plate with water, then put the mango on top of it, and it froze to the plate almost immediately, like he likes.
Carly then got him to write a story with her. She was asking him about things like conflict and character details. They brainstormed, then he came up with the following story: In a land far, far away there once was Dragon Box. Dragon Box was an apple. He wanted to walk. He couldn’t. Stone is a stone. He’s mean. He’s a bully. He teases the apple because he doesn’t have enough apples to break him. And it was all a bad dream.
He talked about how he really likes “it was just a dream” endings. When she asked what he’d learned in writing it, he said he’d learned about conflict. Carly then started reading a Junie B. Jones book, where she is now in first grade. She kept opening her new lunch box when she isn’t supposed to, and August talked about how to break rules, and was asking Carly about how her kids got in trouble. It’s been so long since she’s been in the classroom she had trouble answering.
I made the pumpkin gnocchi we’ve had in the cupboard, putting tomato pesto on it and grating parmesan. He ate that, and I spent some time cleaning the shelves; although overall Carly did much more of the organizing and cleaning. He then played with the Synth One app, and we figured out how to reinstall it to restore the default sounds as he was afraid he had messed one up, and restore his custom sounds. He also played with a couple of other music apps.
We wrestled on the floor. He calls my drowning sounds “too cute”. He then did alone time, listening to “Old Favors”. We kept listening to stories as we did redstone in Minecraft, making TNT and bell machines. It was “making a ruckus.” We went and played outside. He started a Brother and Sister game, and I had Baby Sister want to stop being called Baby Sister. For a name for herself she chose “Emily Danger.” We sat on the swing and read some Tristan Strong. Last nerve was a word of the day. We played on the bench for a while before heading back in.
I was tired so went upstairs to rest. I heard him play some piano, and they also did some writing practice. Carly was trying to get his letters to start from the top, and he wanted proof that that is better than starting at the bottom. They looked it up, and learn that pulling the pencil across the paper is easier than pushing it. When I came down I said it was like left-handed people writing, and how they often twist their hands around to pull across the page, and showed him. Carly said he seemed to understand the reasoning, so maybe he’ll accept the change.
He and I did a couple rounds of the Larva matching game, then they went up to town for their snack and park time. They also went to the hardware store to get light bulbs. They called, asking for what lightbulbs to look for, then bought a couple on the way back.
Back at home Carly made packaged pea soup, adding extra peas, for dinner. August loved it. He played Minecraft with Vivian and Colin. He planted a tree in Vivian castle and she threatened to kick him off the world, so he called her stupid. Carly hung up, and they were able to call back and work things out and they played together the rest of the time. I went for a run. When I got back they were outside: the power had gone out while I was on my run. He was getting some extra iPad time because he didn’t like the power being out. Luckily, he had finished his time with Vivian and Colin before the power went out. A phone call with Shmuel and talking to the neighbor ensued, but it was clear that power was out to the neighborhood. I took a shower. The power came back on.
He was then listening to a bunch of stories when the power went off again. This time it was very dark. I immediately had the flashlight on on my phone, and got August outside. He and I ended up on the swing, with him wailing while in my lap. This went on for several minutes. Carly came out to help. Eventually she went back inside. August climbed on the bench and lay down and looked like he would go to sleep. He asked to go to the bathroom, and he went over in the dirt by the new vine and we hosed down the area. Carly brought out blankets and pillows and sheets; he wouldn’t go back in the house for anything, so didn’t get to see the candles. He actually fell asleep on the bench for a while, comfy on a pillow and blanket and sharing a sheet with me. He woke back up though and was really unconsolable. He wanted us to call the electric company, and talked about how we never should have moved to Israel: “We made a horrible decision to move to Israel. Tomorrow I want to move to another country without power outages.”
Carly had the idea of going for a drive, and he agreed to that. We drove out of Even Yehuda, then back north through Beit Yehoshua and Kfar Netter. Power was on in north Even Yehuda, but out in most of the south. As we drove back through town, close to Dalit’s house, we saw crews working along the side of the road: likely the site of the issue. August never fell asleep in the car. Instead, he brought up how “You should wash your sheets every five or six days…” He learned that from a Life Noggin video.
Right as we were back close to our house Carly spotted the lights flickering on, at 9:50. We were relieved we didn’t have to keep driving. At home he told us, “When I grow up I think I’ll be a math teacher.” “I think being a teacher would be fun…actually no, because the students wouldn’t listen to me…if I was a student I’d know how to not listen to teachers, not follow the rules, and get away with it.” Carly also asked him again where he’d peed in the yard, as he wouldn’t tell her before. This time he said, “I’ll spill the beans.”
Carly took him up for his bath. I came up and got him in bed. He listened to “The Road to Camelot”, then we brushed our teeth and back in bed he cuddled with me. We listened to the Classitronics playlist on Apple Music, and he was asleep at 12:05.
Silly stick:
Automatic fireworks machine:
The bell machine:
Singing on the floor:
