Sunday, July 19: lots of games and an ant walk

I was reading in bed and August walked in at 8:10. He crawled in, and I thought he was going to fall back to sleep in Carly’s spot. But after a couple minutes he sat up and said he was ready to go downstairs. We took care of our teeth and headed down. He switched from Dragonbox Numbers to a couple Minecraft worlds, to watching Phineas Rage during his morning time. I played a little with him in Minecraft, but mainly I watched Formula 1 qualifying. I made us oatmeal and got him a banana for breakfast.

He went over to Carly, who was reading a book on an iPad. He read some of the words in it, and incarnation was a word of the day. They then played chess, and I went upstairs. He got upset with her, and when I came down she went upstairs. He was okay at first, but then had a full meltdown. I took him upstairs, and Carly talked to him for a long time. They played cards in the bedroom.

When they came down I told him I’d play board games with him. Carly had a meeting. We played a few rounds of Larva, then three games of Candyland. We played the snake/wrestling game, then were Myna and Sister discussing Minecraft as I made lunch. He joked about getting 10,000 stars in our star system. We figured out how long that would take based on getting different numbers of stars per day. I joked he would be calling us from college to use them: “Give yourself more iPad time! You figured out the passcode 18 years ago!”

We played several rounds of Mastermind. At one point he said, “I’ll give you a hint.” Right at that moment he swung his foot down and accidentally hit the board with it and the solution popped open. He was the guesser a couple times and figured it out both times, without being stressed about it. When Carly came down he told her, “I won a game of strategy!”

I had made coconut rice with peas. He had that and a schnitzel for lunch. I read What the Ladybird Heard. For alone time he listened to “The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back” Oasis was a word of the day. For iPad time he started by playing Minecraft with me, then Carly took over and I went for a run. When I got back he was eating mango and a swedish pancake and listening to “The Great Race for the Chinese Zodiac”.

We played with the straw things. He had me leveling up. I made a circle and he danced in it like a hoola hoop, then it turned into a crown thing. He was very impressed by it, then we turned it into a full egg shape. He made a teardrop shape that he called an “acorn”, then we turned it into a shape that looked just like the command button on an Apple keyboard. He then made a shape that we turned into a flying robot and played with.

We then watched an Iskall episode.  Facade was a word of the day. Carly was talking to Cherie outside, and he went out to say hi to Oma. Carly then got him out for a walk. As they went out the door: “Before the year 1916 in Minecraft, zombies didn’t know how to destroy stuff. But then they learned from the humans so they can destroy stuff…”

They went up to the ant area. When they came back August set up a bank for Carly. They practiced writing “Mama’s Bank”, then labeled a bag and put a shekel in it. He’s then supposed to hold onto it for her until she wants it later.

After they got back he started Minecraft time with Vivian: “I want to practice ninja with you sometime, but not right now, it’s Minecraft time.” While they were playing I heard Vivian ask him to do something, and he responded, “Oh, I’m on that. Just need to do some beacon-y stuff…” I went for a run, and they were finishing up when I got down from my shower. I was trying to get them to log off and August was saying he needed to finish something up. But then Vivian, who was hosting the world, said “It’s time to log off” and instantly logged off. August was really upset and we had to hang up. He instantly logged into one of his worlds and destroyed a few blocks of things she had created before I caught what had happened and stopped him.

Eventually he had second dinner of coconut rice and peas and broccoli, then two crackers with peanut butter.  He listened to “The Great Race of the Chinese Zodiac” again, then we played the snake game on couch. He kept listening to stories: “The Bee’s Sting”, where lolling was a word of the day, then “King of the Frogs”, where he learned shingles and alpha. He had grapes, then listened to “The Bee’s Sting” again. While he was listening he sprayed his hair with his water bottle.

Carly took him upstairs to his bath, then read him  The Watsons Go to Birmingham. He’s liking historical stuff, and Carly said liked the nonfiction parts in the back of a choose your own adventure book she had read the other day more than the story itself.

He was close to 90 minutes so walked around until he got it, then we went to bed, where he listened to more stories, “The Giant’s Daughter” and “The Cat Who Caught the Moon”, then we brushed our teeth. As we did so, he asked, “What’s whinny?” Back in bed he cuddled with me and we talked. He got up on his bed and and kept talking, mainly about Vivian and redstone. I thought he was asleep, then he asked, “ What’s a maelstrom?” He also asked, “Can you tell Vivian I destroyed her trophy for defeating the end?” We were listening to an Apple Music electronics playlist, then switched to Rob Burger’s The Grid. As usual, there was one last thought. He asked, “How do you use quotation marks?” at 11:43. I said he could learn that tomorrow, and he was asleep by 11:50.

Crazy piston machine:

Funny Mastermind game:

Funny dance: