Thursday, October 15: yoga class and delivery pizza from the new pizza place

I had a shirt on him last night and it worked: no waking up. But at 7:19 he had a little accident and told me “I peed my pants.” Just his shorts though and he asked for new ones. I thought he might go back to sleep but right away he asked, “Can you read?” I had been woken up by him though and wasn’t ready. We got up started getting up. He told me, “I’m going to make boxing machines…I love pistons…I love how they move.” He was then being a magician, making light appear on his hand by putting it in the rays of light. He then moved to talking about the geometry of what he is doing.

We did our teeth and headed down. He did more hand in the light. He Showed Carly what we’ve been doing in Minecraft: “I’m spewing blocks behind him so he can write in the air.” In Minecraft he made a gold sculpture that had piston-powered parts on it that went in and out.

After Minecraft he wanted a story and listened to “The King’s Face”. We went outside for a few minutes. Then back inside he ate frozen mango for breakfast and we watched Mumbo Jumbo. From there we did his writing time, which went fine.

He showed me his paper picking up technique and was telling me how to develop a reflex. He then asked, “What’s justice?” From story of king who puts a man in jail for five years for trying to steal rice. We discussed that, then played animals games on the floor. Carly called down, needing her charger. He got stressed again. Just by me going upstairs to give her a cord.

Downstairs I went outside for a minute. He then had mango milk and we played cards. I had the worst poker luck ever, legitimately losing about 15 hands in a row until I was saved by the need to get ready for speech. I got him some peanut butter toast and we started speech.

That went fine. She did some animal-related things and that worked well. They watched a video of pigs and August said the pink ones are his favorite as pigs are pink in Minecraft. She also had him reading silly sentences like, “The assistant pushed a cart on Mars.” He did fine with that, but then realized he was also doing reading. I appeased him a bit by saying we’d do less reading on our own later. He did well but barely got through. He was ready to be done by 30 minutes.

We went back to cards and I finally won a hand. Carly came down to get her lunch. He took a pillow case and put things like wooden blocks in it, then “tricked” her into lying down on it. I was resting on the couch, so he then had me use it.

We then headed up to wrestle on the bed. August was why rhyming on the way up, like:

“Wrestle up in the bed

You’re made of lead”

He was a skunk and porcupine and octopus. He then asked if any other animals have defenses. I remembered that platypuses do, and we realized August didn’t know anything about them, so we watched a couple of videos about playtypuses. August was then a platypus.

We went downstairs, and I made tuna melts and chocolate milk for lunch and we watched a CubFan video. We then did our shortened reading time. I had downloaded a list of Fry’s 1000 words. Skipped the first hundred, then just had him reading the second hundred. He got through most of that page. Read most of the words just fine, but a few he stumbled on. We’ll work on those for writing and reading, and keep doing the lists from time to time.

He listened to Stories Podcast’s “Good News, Bad News”. He wants to listen to the story about the bird with salt on its tail again, but we don’t know the podcast or name of it again. He then watched stickman videos. He went outside for a minute with Carly. We discussed Among Us. Inside he had Carly sleep on the pillow again. He then spilled it all out. He asked, “What’s it mean to be an acquaintance?” And Acquaintance was a word of the day. We were then playing with and picking up the stuff on the floor. I made a sort of robot sculpture.

He wanted a Guinness World Records video so we watched one as we cleaned up. He decided he wants to have a world record collection of something. I suggested the largest collection of imaginary objects. He didn’t buy it. We played on the couch for a few minutes, with me being a jellyfish stinging him, then me being a donkey and bad things happening to me.

I escaped that by setting up the iPad for yoga. After saying hi, Rena asked him for a fun thing he’s done today. He replied, “Tricked Ms. Deborah into thinking I was eating chocolate chip cookies when I was really eating toast and peanut butter.” He was then pulling his shirt over his head while doing yoga, but then said it smelled bad and asked me for a new shirt. I brought his tie-dye shirt and he said it smelled nice and fresh. For something he likes to do, that they made a pose out of, he said, “Waking up.” And at the end when she asked them for something they are grateful for he said, “I’m grateful that I have this house.”

Over on the couch I started reading The Spiderwock Chronicles to him. New words included garish, Victorian, and fat chance. While I read he made a lever with the stick, and tried to tape it to the couch so it would still act like a lever. He almost got it, but didn’t want any suggestions from me. He called it a “simple machine” and remembered me teaching him about simple machines, probably at the science museums. He asked, “How does a reflex work?” and we watched a video:https://youtu.be/Nn2RHLWST-k

He also asked about ordering pizza sometime. I looked at Google Maps, and found out that there is a new pizza place, Little Sister Pizza, in the new mall in town. Carly came down and they went outside. I figured out the menu and ordering online (everything is closed for pickup anyway) and we ordered two pizzas: one with basil and asparagus, the other with sweet potato. August was digging in the dirt. He filled his hole with water, then covered it with potting soil to make a sort of quicksand. Carly spotted another praying mantis.

They came in and August had a riddle: “22 step up 1 equals 4.” The answer was 4, or 2 squared. Can’t remember if that’s the one he heard somewhere. I was going to go for a run, but right as I was about to leave the pizza showed up. That was fast. So we all ate outside. August loved the pizza. He had 2 pieces with me there, then started a third as I left. Then ate 2 more slices while I was on my run. When I got done with my run and shower they were playing Apples to Apples. I joined and we switched who were the players and who was the judge a couple times. He wanted to do private talk with her. I don’t know why, but I think it had something to do about Minecraft time, as when I came back down he was playing Minecraft. I think he had done a second alone time story, and maybe some Minecraft with Carly, earlier.

Cherie called and Carly talked to her. August finished his huge piston farm machine, which was inspired by a sugar cane farm we had seen in CudFan’s pyramid base. But August’s was a completely different design. He then wanted to see what quartz actually looked like, so we looked of photos of quartz, and then other minerals like malachite.

We headed up to his bath. In the bath he was talking to Carly about how we buy more stocks with the money we get from them. He was talking about stock dividends. I went in and talked to him about the trade off of why some stocks have them and some don’t. We also talked about the value of different companies, and why Google is called Alphabet. He was then talking about how “I actually set the world record for most valuable house.” He stored a trillion dollars of pennies in them. He spent several minutes walking around talking about his houses.

We went in and he listened to “Wiggly in Walt Disney World”. Went out to brush teeth and he had a bit of a meltdown with Carly over something. Got him finished and in to bed. Couldn’t find shorts at first, so he put on shirt shorts to sleep in, even though I then found two pairs. We listened to “The Queen’s Gift” and captive was a word of the day, then I put on our favorite Rival Consoles album and he was asleep sometime after 11.

Gold redstone sculpture: