Author: Ryan/Dada

He woke up once during the night and wanted the fan back on to get back to sleep. I lay down and fell asleep in his room for an hour or so. He then woke up at 7:12. He saw me still lying in bed and went back in his room. After a few minutes he heard the garbage truck and asked what it was, but then stayed in his room. I heard him reading the emotions poster to himself. After about ten minutes he asked if we could get up. I said yes and he went to the bathroom on his own.

We went downstairs and I started to make coffee and got his allergy medicine. He sat quietly on the couch until Carly came down. He then ran to the piano and started playing. He had been waiting for her to be up before making noise. He was showing her a bunch of piano stuff, like how he used to play songs and how he does now, and doing a bunch of inventing. He then showed here every A on the piano by making a short composition on Notion to show them all. When Carly went upstairs to exercise she said August could visit her, and he ran up to exercise with her, reminding me as he went that he hadn’t used his Minecraft time yet.

He came down after ten or fifteen minutes. Played some piano, then we played Minecraft. We played in our original survival. He had me enchant some books for him and then he said he was ready to turn on monsters, to Easy. When we did that he killed a couple of things, and said, “I killed my first mobs!…I’m ready to live in easy now.”

After our time was up I made oatmeal and we ate outside, where Carly was. He was telling Carly about Minecraft and walking around, and she commented on how you get him to get his exercise by having him talk. After eating he had a Brother and Sister game with them going to the other civilization. We sat in the swing and did that for 15 or 20 minutes.

We then went inside and watched the newest Grian video. He was really inspired by GoodTimeswithScar’s village and wanted to do alone time right away because he said he was inspired to build in Minecraft. He played piano for several minutes, asking me to come over and watch for a few minutes. We then put on the newest Wow in the World, “Cats Vs Dogs”.

In Minecraft we worked on our house, and talked about our plans for it and the village. I started expanding the house based on photos of Lichtenstein Castle. We had soup and left over hotdog for lunch, sitting outside. I then went for a run while they were still outside.

I came back and took a shower. We did more piano, and I practiced, now up to page 141. They worked on the music and editing of their movies. Finishing the first one, I think, and August was recording more music for it. He was then watching Joseph’s machines videos. I went up to work. They were outside quite a bit, making bridges out of glue and tape and spaghetti noodles, and August figured out how to send me photos and videos on Messages. He was also sending the little writing messages, and started to type words to me. And he told me he wants to learn jazz.

I came down and they had eaten. August and Vivian were trading the host role back and forth on Zoom and kicking each other out, and finding it all very funny. Vivian and Colin then did an Easter egg hunt, so we did a paint hunt. Carly hid the paint bottles and we did “hot and cold” to help him find them. August had been wanting to search for candy, but I said we had an Easter pie still to eat. August responded by saying, “Isn’t Dada cute?”

He called Vivian and they were on Zoom again, trading host duties. Carly went up to her interview with the woman working on her doctorate. August requested a book and I got several and he chose The Boxcar Children, so I read that to him and Vivian. Supper and cake of soap were words of the day. Vivian hung up when Cassie offered her noodles. August had crackers and peanut butter, then we got going upstairs.

Carly gave him a bath, then we brushed our teeth. August was looking in the big mirror while he brushed his, and was doing the best job yet. He was joking that he was going to brush his teeth “Until they gleam like glass in the sunshine.” But then he noticed that his front teeth weren’t as bright as his other teeth. We realized that it was his adult teeth, and when he realized this he ran in his room and locked the door. He let Carly in after several minutes, and was quite upset: “I’ll do anything to make it white!…as white as white concrete in Minecraft!” Not sure where this white teeth idea came from. When he calmed down Carly was telling him a story from her childhood. He said, “Please don’t tell me any sad ones.”

I took over and we listened to “The Seal-Skin Girl” on Stories Podcast, then a Peace Out. We listened to Brian Eno’s Neroli album and he was asleep about 10:45.

Working on passing the ball around himself:

Song of the day:

Remembering “Fairy Flight”:

Host duties with Vivian:

Paint hunt:

He was up just after 7:30. I was downstairs and heard him, but Carly was still upstairs so she got him. They went in on the big bed. I quickly made coffee and grabbed some pie and had just a few blissful minutes alone by myself, eating pie and listening to podcasts, before they started coming downstairs. I had to hurriedly early the last couple bites, but they were a great few minutes.

August was taking photos and videos with her camera. I found out that he had been insisting on taking vertical videos the other day and let out an exaggerated gasp, which he found funny. But he also said he’d try to do horizontal. We talked about how he is sleeping less than 9 hours, and I looked up articles about 6-year olds and sleep. The given recommendations/averages are comically wide (one basically said between 7 and 12 hours), but he seems to be on the low end.

We read a little Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang. Then had oatmeal. We played Minecraft in the broken snow world and our creative world. After that he moved to piano and was remixing “Hacked”. We then actually made a little more progress in learning “Hacked”. He now nows on to the second page. Not actually much more to learn, as sections in page two repeat.

Rather randomly he went over to one of the red chairs and was lightly tapping his finger on it. He called me over to tell me how he found it really satisfying. Quite interesting. He went up with Carly for awhile. Think they did some exercise. He came down as I was doing some typing and went back to playing piano.

He watched a couple of the Ants Canada videos and finished his lollipop from yesterday and I submitted our tax return. We did more Brother games along the way. We then did more piano and Supersonic Piano. I’m finishing page 135, “Finger Twister”.

We watched a StressMonster video. Revolting was a word of the day. For lunch I made us hot dogs and soup. He showed Carly his progress on “Hacked”. I went for a run. He was typing and converting binary numbers as I left. He was looking for bee attack photos when I got back. I took a shower. He listened to But Why? “Why Do Baby Teeth Fall Out?” for alone time. But he played some piano, then was doing 3D graphing while we listened. After that was over he asked to listen to a story for alone time. He chose “The Four Musicians” on Stories Podcast on his own, then ate more soup while he listened.

We played in the Spring-a-Majig world. Started it again, but it was broken in the same spot, and also kept freezing for him. He was hungry, so I got us some small pieces of pie, with ice cream, and we ate it outside. He was asking for definitions of random words. Don’t know where they came from: “What’s disappointed mean?” “What’s galore mean?” “stock still?”

Started the game where Brother meets the person from the future. I tried to get him to play outside. He didn’t want Carly to hear though, so we ended up inside. Didn’t really do the Brother game much, and we ended up doing some piano, then he ended up doing Supersonic Piano. He asked for an educational video and watched another ant video, where the fire ants attack a worm. He asked what immobilize means.

We then played pictionary. I drew things like blood cells, face, math, and sledding for him to guess. When it was his turns he drew X to the infinity power, and a specific ad he’d seen (one of the line runner games, but with music symbols on it). I didn’t get either. Our game ended with Colin calling. The three of them then played Minecraft. I started making the noodle dish with shallots and soy paste, with mushrooms and broccoli and tofu. A bottleneck on the stove cooking everything, so it took quite a while.

Also, as I was cutting the green onions at the beginning Ilana showed up. She was borrowing my copy of Infinite Jest for her son. He had been studying in New Zealand and that program was cancelled. He had been about ⅓ into the book when that happened and had to return it to the library. They then had a two week odyssey trying to get him home. He’s 21, so they had difficulty getting him to Israel, since he doesn’t live here. He went through the U.S., where he was denied on a Turkish Airlines flight as they said he didn’t have the proper permission to get into Israel. Ilana spent a whole week contacting different consulates. Finally, he made it in and spent two weeks in quarantine in their house. It is my first copy of IJ, the one I bought when it was new in paperback at the University Book Shop. It has all of my annotations in it, and was autographed by DFW when I met him at the University of Washington. But I figured it should be read, and it was the safest time and safest person for loaning it: not like it’s going to be taken to a beach or lost in a restaurant, nor are they going to move and never give it back. And Ilana is a librarian, so I’m sure they don’t abuse books.

Anyway, we talked to her for about 30 minutes, with her standing outside the gate and us in on the lawn. August liked seeing her, but he was in the middle of Minecraft, so only gave her a quick hi and bye. Back inside I kept cooking and they finished Minecraft and Carly read some Clementine. August got Cherie and Chuck to join the meeting, and Colin was delivering mail again.

When dinner was ready I gave August a bowl. Carly pointed it out to him, and he responded with “I have dinner, eh?” As he was eating it he assessed it as “Decent” with a big grin as he did so. Not sure where he learned that. He also asked, “What’s an autograph?” He says it was from a Story Pirates story, but I had also recently used the word when talking about my copy of Infinite Jest.

He took a long time in the bathroom, then asked, “What’s right up in your grill mean?” He remembered it from Hermitcraft a few days ago when Grian and GoodTimeswithScar went up to BDubs. I read him more of Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang. He wasasn’t interested in my asides about being in Canterbury and Dover and Calais.

We then Skyped with my parents. He of course started by going and playing piano for them. We then had some pie and ice cream. He was still hungry, so had some crackers with peanut butter. Got him upstairs to the bathroom at 8:50. Carly gave him a bath then we brushed our teeth and then had fun annoying Carly with competing over who gave her the last kiss.

He had shown her the satisfying thing of tapping lightly, on a door, I think, so in the bedroom I took a video of him showing it to me on the sheet. We listened to “Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox” and “Peter and Penny Rabbit” on Stories Podcast. August asked, “What’s moxie?” He talked about the emotions poster and which ones he thinks aren’t categorized correctly: “And I hate to be excited…I have to wait.”

In Peace Out we listened to“Little Money” and started the one about “ Trees“. She talked about COVID-19 and the impact it had on the episode and we were talking so I thought it was a good opportunity to bring up the idea that we might not be able to go to the United States at the start of summer. He got upset, but only for a couple minutes, and not overly so. He didn’t want to listen to the rest of the episode though. We put on Brian Eno’s The Ship and he was asleep by 10:35.

Song improv:

Zoom time:

Pictionary:

Nana:

The satisfying thing:

He called me in at 7:25 but then lay in bed until 7:40. He then got up and went in with Carly for a little while. He cuddled and joked with her, then came down to me. He snuck on Minecraft and played on his own for awhile while I made coffee. He then listened to Supersonic Piano until I was ready to play Minecraft. But before that happened he went and played piano. It was really cool, as he started with a melody he made, doubled it in the bass and treble, then further changed it over several minutes. He gave it a bass line and sustain, then a bit later he changed the tune into diminished. He then practiced typing, quizzing me on his number code, where Q equals 1, W equals 2 etc. He was really learning his top row now. And he was figuring out how to spell words like out. Then he changed his code to something that was really confusing and stopped making sense. He showed it to Carly. “You’re totally not catching on.” “I’m going to make another code: a code in a code.” I don’t think either of us got it.

Instead, we went upstairs for a Brother and Sister game. They both met a billionaire who had built a huge house in a clearing in the park. He asked what tarnished meant, so a word of the day. It was from “The Three Legged Pot” where they talk about “tarnished coins.” I talked about a person’s character being tarnished, and he asked what character meant in that context. We finished with a game of my hand being the ugly goose. He still gets very giggly and scared of things like that, which is very cute.

I remembered pie, so we went downstairs and I started cutting up all the apples for pie. They played Minecraft then he was doing a lot of piano. Carly painted, and he made a “plate cooling machine…I don’t care how it looks, just if it cools plates.” His eye was looking better today. His right eye was a bit red and puffy yesterday. It would come and go through the day.

He asked for the metronome and was playing to it in 3/4 when I left for a run. He asked me to put an 8/8 rhythm in it first, and when I had some difficulty counting whether it was 7 or 8 beats August said, “Oh, you can’t count? You probably have a disease… you have Alzheimer’s… you need to go to the doctor.”

I went for my run. When I got back he was still on the piano. I took a shower, then he was watching a Life Noggin video. One of the questions was about collapsed lungs. The robot host used the word morbid so August asked what that meant. Another word of the day.

I made us lunch. We had schnitzel and broccoli and rice. Carly made a strawberry smoothie. I practiced piano. He had a Brother game, involving a person from way in the future who is from a type 30 civilization (they control multiple multiverses). I had Brother think he said “fugitive” instead of “future” and August asked what fugitive meant.

I finished making the pie, doing some abstract art for the top, and got it in the oven. August edited his and Carly’s spaceship movie. Carly was painting. Randomly, August told me, “Dada, the whole point of having kids is that they take care of you when you’re old.” Which I think was from another folk tale.

He went outside with Carly for a minute then came in and watched me type. He was asking Siri to play random things, and got it to play “Yeah” by Usher. He heard the hook on it and ran to the piano and started playing it. Back outside we did more of the Brother game with the type 40 civilization and we kicked and played catch.

Carly sat on the swing and used the broom as a tool to move the swing. August got on and tried it with her, and she asked, “Brilliant, right?” He replied, “Yeah, and satisfying.” When we went back inside he spotted a little more of the blank gunk leaking from the fridge.

We read more of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. When he needed to go to the bathroom he cleaned the toilet: “I scrubbed it white as a chicken’s feathers…no, I’m going to make it as white and a cloud. Because chicken feathers can be a little dirty.” We then played Pictionary. He did things like ‘unit circle’ and when Carly joined me I did ‘Circle Round’. It took them a humorously long time to get the ‘round’ part.

August and I watched the latest Iskall video and I made us some sandwich bites: fresh bread, turkey, mayonnaise, and cheese August really liked those. We finished them outside and he listened to Story Pirates while I read Thou Shalt Not Kill, an old Israeli young adult novel I had found somewhere.

August had his Vivian and Colin time and I went up to work. Getting very close to the end of (hopefully last) rewrite of several of the second edition of the book; essays that weren’t really touched on the first rewrite. August eventually came up to remind me of pie.

We went down and ate pie. Carly complimented me on it, but August just commented on how the crust had burned a little on the edge (which was true). Carly explained you were supposed to compliment the chef. He wasn’t convinced until she gave him the practical argument that I’d be more likely to make pie in the future: “I love it!”

Before we went up to bed he discovered a slug on the front porch. At first he talked about putting salt on it. We read https://www.slughelp.com/how-to-kill-slugs-humane-mistakes-and-alternatives/ and he changed his mind. He was studying it with a flashlight and was really impressed by it: “Cool…awesome…” He just kept talking and talking about it, and figured out it would crawl away from the light: “It’s like I’m learning how to drive but with a miniature slug.” “Are you ready to see me drive a slug?” “I thought I killed a slug by exhaustion.” He got it a leaf as an experiment, to see what it does to it over night. “Sorry, leaf. You’re probably going to be eaten…slugs is so ambitious.” It had crawled on the leaf by the time we went up.

Carly washed his hair and he had a lollipop. I think he talked about the slug the whole time. We went into his room and played a little Brother game. We had already covered Minecraft in the far future, now the person from the future was letting the parents play the interstellar dirt research game of the future. He saved his lollipop for tomorrow. We went in and brushed our teeth and finally weighed him: 20.9kg.

In bed we did more with the dirt game and talked about technology in the future, including a coating to keep your teeth safe so you don’t have to brush your teeth any more. On Stories Podcast we listened to “The Lucky Drum” and “One of Us”.

He asked, “Why is there the peace symbol?” Can’t remember where he’d first seen that a few years ago. We talked about it a little, and I mentioned the Vietnam War. He wants to learn more about it. Opposed was a word of the day.

We listened to the Peace Out about stars, then listened to the Books’ Lost and Safe. He told me, after just a minute, that he couldn’t fall asleep, but fell asleep just a couple minutes after that, at 10:45.

Improv evolution 1:

Improv evolution 3:

Improv evolution 2:

Plate cooling machine:

Trying to act upset:

His Spanish:

Swing machine:

Studying Sluggy:

We’re in a pattern of when I’m getting up in the morning he gets up before I can get downstairs. Today he was up at 7:30. Carly was still sleeping so we went down and read a couple chapters of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He was eager to get to the piano, so when we heard Carly up he went and started playing. He switched to Notion after 15 minutes. He wanted the keyboard hooked up, but Notion was quitting when we did that. He played in GarageBand for a bit, then found the Suggester app that we hadn’t used yet. It helps you put chords together for a song, and he played around with that for a while, before wanting to switch to Minecraft. We played the Spring game. There was a good word of the day that meant something like harassed.

We then watched educational videos, the skyhook video from Kurzgesatz and “How Polynesian Sailors…” from Ted-Ed. rooted was a word of the day. We played piano and learned a few notes of “Hacked”. He then listened to the Two Whats and a Wow episodes of Wow in the World and I went for a run. When I got back he started Minecraft with Gilad. I took a shower, and they found an airport in D.C. and did things like fly helicopters and planes, and spawn Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln statues. At one point he said, “I’m traveling across the vast abyss of town.”

Played more piano, then we watched the newest Grian video. I taught him the word stonks. His water bottle spilled, making the couch wet. August kept watching by climbing on the back of the couch and lying down. The groceries delivery arrived and Carly started wiping them off, then I put them away. We listened to Story Pirates (he had listened up to “Jumping Bean Jack and Bouncing Bailey”) and had rice and soup for lunch and he graphed in Desmos. Grand slam and home run were words of the day as it was a baseball story. . Then census when there was a story about the census. August practiced some typing, and made a code where Q was 1, W was 2, etc. At one point he told me, “I’m animating synesthesia.” Carly was making face masks out of pillow cases and other things.

I got him outside. He talked about his code and we did some kicking around of the soccer ball. Carly brought him some grapefruit. He had (after some initial whining) been waiting patiently for ice cream. Since I decided to do the pie tomorrow I suggested we have a little ice cream now. We ate that outside, then I noticed our plants swaying in the breeze. I took short clips of several of the plants and flowers and put together a short film of our yard. August helped out by being quiet for each shot. He has three small bit in the film though: He is whispering something in the first clip, in another you can hear him playing piano, and near the end he walks through the background.

Back inside we edited together the film and he played with transitions on the phone. We then started watching Jane Eyre. We watched the first 40 minutes. “I don’t think you should fear gods…if there are gods they should all be nice.” He talked again about “The Search for Sun”. He took a break to go play some more piano. “What’s _poco a poco crescendo _?” We watched another 20 minutes. I got him to stop after one of the characters said “fuck” a couple times. He didn’t pick up on it, thankfully, but I should probably preview the rest of it before we watch more.

In the evening I went up to work and he played Minecraft with Vivian and Colin. I came down at one point to help him make an end portal so he could show Vivian the End. I went back up. They finished reading Nate the Great and started Completely Clementine. Hung up before 8:30. He came up to tell me my coffee was cold. When I came downstairs a couple minutes later he announced, “And now for the grand opening of Dada the Ancient!” and played a little song for me.

We got him upstairs and Carly gave him a bath. He said, “I love pie. It warms my heart.” We were in bed at 9:15. We listened to “Songs for Lions” on Stories Podcast. Then “The Little Rescue”. We then listened to “Check it Out” on Peace Out. He looked at his feelings poster and again said that you could be both confused and frustrated at the same time.

We had lights out at 10. We listened to T-Bone Burnett’s The Invisible Light: Acoustic Space (Instrumentals). He commented on Jefferson being both good and bad again, calling him both funny and confusing. Asleep by 10:25. He said “Dada, Dada” a couple times as he was falling asleep, but softly, and didn’t follow them up with anything.

Improv time 1:

Improv time 2:

Garden in the breeze:

Watching the rain:

Satisfying rain cover:

Catching rain:

He was up at 7:45. I was getting up again. He seems to be comfortable with less than 9 hours of sleep now. We lay in bed for a while, then he went to the bathroom and we went downstairs at 8. He started playing piano, playing in 3/4 and with other interesting rhythms. Carly came down a few minutes later. August switched to Notion and first made a piece in 15/4 so he could combine a quarter, half, whole, and double-whole note in a measure.

We then played Minecraft in three worlds. I was up making us oatmeal at the end and he didn’t want to log off. He logged off but called me idiot. When I said he needed to apologize before he could do earn time later he threw a shoe at me and had a meltdown that needed Carly to help with. He eventually calmed down, and later apologized. He listened to “The Shepherd’s Disguise” on Circle Round and then “Lamb with the Golden Fleece”.

I saw that they had started coverage of the Soyuz crew launch to the ISS and we started that. August wanted to do a Brother and astronaut game so we went up to his room and kept the coverage. Continuity error was a word of the day when he had Bar enter a story (it was supposed to take place before Brother knew Bar). We watched the coverage through the launch and for several minutes after. Gantry and abort were words of the day.

We went downstairs and I went for a run. When I got back he asked for a soft-boiled egg, so I made a few of those and served him lunch with carrots and toast sticks for his lunch, then took a shower. He was then listening to Story Pirates. Two episodes, with the second being “Boo!/The Clock”.

He then practiced typing and I practiced piano and he kept listening to “The Raccoon’s Very Hard Choice”. He came and played piano a bit, and we kept listening to Story Pirates. During one story (the one about the eggs) he came and asked me, “What’s foreshadowing mean?”

We went outside together, playing Myna and Brother Minecraft games. I was wearing sandals for the first time this spring. He asked, “What does ‘mask’ mean? Like ‘I masked the actors with a blanket.’” It was from the story “The search for rain”.

They went outside together to work on a video and Carly painted and he listened to lots of Story Pirates. Carly made soup today, and we had some for dinner.

I went upstairs and started working, about two and a half hours. He played Minecraft with Vivian and Colin and was then playing piano for Cherie when I came down. He had two bowls of noodles and corn and broccoli for second breakfast, and now had a third bowl. They hung up at 8:25.

He did some Supersonic Piano and was still hungry so had some peanuts and dried mango. We got him upstairs and Carly gave him a bath. He was arguing about God with her. He brushed and flossed his teeth while I did mine, which went quite well today.

We said good night and in bed read Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He then did lots of talking, talking as the astronaut telling Brother all about space. I let him go on, as it seemed to be something he needed to process. When he was ready we listened to “The Cat Bride” on Stories Podcast. He asked “What’s pray me?” Pray was another new word. He told me more about the “The Search for Rain” (that story clearly left an impression) and we listened to a Peace Out. We listened to Benge’s Forms 2 album and he was asleep by 10:50.

And earlier in the day when he was typing he started to make typing art.

Watching the launch:

Zinnie cam: Mama starting a new painting:

Zinnie cam: Carly painting:

Song of the day:

I was getting up already when he got up at 7:50. Only 9 hours of sleep. He and Carly then exercised upstairs. I started playing John Prine as I had learned, when I had looked at the news earlier when August had woken up around 5, that he had passed away from the coronavirus. August came down and we read The Last Kids on Earth. We had some toast then started playing Minecraft in the jungle world he and Carly have been playing in. He was hungry so I stopped and started making french toast. Carly came down and played with him.

He ate a little, then got to composing in Notion. He was transcribing “Hacked” from the paper copy. He worked really hard at it, and learned a bunch more stuff. He set the proper key for the time signature on his own. I don’t know how he figured that one out.

I went for a run. When I got back he was listening to an audiobook called Kid Normal. I came down and he was listening to “Sit Luck and Mr. Riches” on Circle Round. August watched Carly do the video editing for her movie, then I read more of The Last Kids on Earth. August started playing piano with just 7 pages left.

Carly was then working on editing the video and August went over to watch her. He spent a lot of time on that. They then played Minecraft. I got us lunch and we sat together and ate and watched educational videos. I introduced him to the “Tragedy of the Commons” through a Ted-Ed video, then “How much of what you see is a hallucination?” from Ted-Ed. We then watched Iskall’s latest video.

He and Carly then went upstairs. He was talking about wanting to fall asleep, or pretend to. They listened to a good audiobook, Zero or Zero G, about a family going into space. Carly fell asleep. It gave me time to finish my Pandemic Blues playlist and send it to Jeff and practice some piano. August came down about 3:20 and started looking at Supersonic Piano. He asked, “What’s a stasis pod anyway?” I explained, and stasis was a word of the day. Carly pointed out how quiet it was. No highway noise in the background. The lockdown order had gone into effect. Like Yom Kippur, but of course we can’t go to the highway to enjoy it.

August was then playing piano. He looked at music and read “Pixie Dust” on a title. We all ended up outside. He was sitting and listening to the audiobook. Carly and I were sitting in the sun and reading. He then made up a code language where he made everything plural. He was walking around and talking to us in his code language, adding in more and more Ss.

Back inside they called Vivian and Colin and they played Minecraft. August told me, “I’m so obsessed with lime green carpet. I keep putting it on trees.” He showed me what he’d been working on in Vivian’s world. I went up to work. They did story time as well and he had dinner. He was being watched by Cherie when I came down, playing piano for her. We said goodbye around 9. Carly gave him a bath, and we brushed our teeth. He then told us he could think of words with S and Z sounds: “spit, singularity” And C: “cosmological constant…” We discussed angles of seeing each other again, and flossed. As he did it he said, “Oh my goodness. I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

In on the bed we finished The Last Kids on Earth (book 4). We then listened to Circle Round’s “The Birds and the Trees” and “The Search for Rain”. Temper was a word of the day. We listened to Peace Out’s “Return to the Moon” and we discussed what co- meant like in coefficient. He thought of “cohost.” We were falling asleep, and I must have made some noise, as he poked me and asked, “Dada, why are you grunting?” For music we listened to the Lullatones and he was asleep around 10:50.

Transcribing “Hacked” to Notion:

Song of the day:

Interesting music:

His code language:

I slept on the lower bed today, as I was wanting to go straight to sleep and not have to get up to move beds. Worked pretty well, but I was reminded how uncomfortable that lower bed is. Don’t know if I’ll be trying that again. August got up soon after me, at 7:50, while I was still upstairs. He went to the bathroom and we gathered up our stuff to head downstairs. Carly tried to get him to go outside to do some exercises, but he didn’t want to do that, so they went upstairs instead.

When he came down he reminded me about wanting to learn how to type, as it seemed to be like playing piano, but easier. I taught him the home row, and he was instantly asking questions about how to type things like tildes and keyboard commands. I answered those and got him started typing. He was then typing math problems while I looked for typing apps. We eventually tried one for a bit, Typesy, but after a couple lessons he wanted to go back to typing on his own.

He saw me typing fast, and said I typed really fast. I said it was because of practice. He then said, “Practice makes perfect!” I said, well, it makes you better. And he revised the saying to “Practice makes progress!” Which we agreed was better.

Carly then showed him a video about Passover. He watched a bit before coming back to do more typing. He showed Carly his typing and was then showing how he knows keyboard commands for moving the cursor. I taught him a few more and said that keyboard commands were pretty cool. He said, “Yep, you convinced me.”

I went for a run and they played Minecraft. She got him oatmeal. He was then watching Kurzgesagt videos when I came down and Carly was meeting with Alex to discuss their film festival. August and I read The Last Kids on Earth, then we watched some of the Seattle Symphony morning videos: bassoon, oboe, and flute. We then watched Stressmonster’s newest video. OTT was a word of the day and he made good use of it.

He played piano and looked at Supersonic Piano. We ate the rest of a tuna melt sandwich and I made fishsticks for lunch. We took those outside to eat and he had an ongoing story where Myna accepted invites to the servers of braggy people and makes them not braggy: “Agent Not-Braggy.”

Back inside Carly was painting. We read a bunch more of Last Kids on Earth. Carly then got us involved in her film festival, doing a film called “Shadow”.

We discussed ideas for that, and started shooting: It involved Carly moving a chair into the chair and then trying to read. August was then doing different things to bother her. It ended with him spraying her with a hose. Back inside I was watching some of “One Man, Two Guvnors” and let August watch the funny part about a sandwich. We played piano together.

He then had his meeting with Gabi. He started on Carly’s computer so he could show him some of the video effects, then switched to my iPad. They did some drawing together, played a tank game, and then spent most of the time playing checkers, but coming up with different goals, like trying to be the first to lose. At the end August joked about cleaning up the soldiers etc. “That’s a benefit…” of meeting virtually, he told me, as there was nothing to clean up.

Once he was off he asked me about the Internet Archive. He’d heard Carly talk about it. Archive was a word of the day. We played astronaut and Brother in on the bed with a pillow fight. Downstairs we had dinner. August was graphing. Carly got informations about all of the magazines and newspaper subsriptions the school has, and I set those up on my phone. I’ve been wanting Haaretz access the whole time we’ve been here, and now have it. They called Vivian and Colin. Talked for a while, then played Minecraft. Think they did story time afterwards. I was upstairs working.

He was listening to “The Lute Player” at one point when I went down. When I came down again he was playing music for Cherie. Carly took him up for a bath. He then ate his cracker and honey, then brushed our teeth. He asked, “What’s psychological screening?” It is from the Mars Base video.

In bed we listened to “The Sparrow and the Pine” and “The Big Scary Cave”. Then the Peace Out’s “Try, Try, and Try Again.” We put Benge on and he was asleep by 10:55. Finally.

Learning to type:

Piano hand:

Soundtrack composing 1:

Soundtrack composing 2:

Soundtrack composing 3:

Drawing with Gabi:

Playing for Oma:

Song for Oma:

He called to me at 6:56. I turned off my alarm, for 7, and went in with him and lay down on the lower bed and fell back to sleep until he woke up at 8:18 and asked “Can I have new pants?” He did seem to be a little damp, so we changed him and he curled back in bed until about 8:30 and we went downstairs. He saw Carly painting and said, “I didn’t know you were painting overnight!” A minute later he said, “Did you know there are an infinite amount of numbers between .0001 and zero?” I don’t remember hims learning anything new about infinity later, so it’s pretty impressive that he continues to develop this understanding of infinity.

He was impressed with her painting (she was working on another toilet paper roll) and asked, “How are you such a professional?” And he keeps asking things like “How much would people pay….?” On the couch we read The Last Kids on Earth and he did some composing. We then played Minecraft, in our creative world. He read the random message at the beginning, then when searching for the books he was practicing spelling more or all of the words. I talked to him about his reading and he said he was feeling good about it, but he isn’t ready for reading books.

It was a little tough getting him to log off when we were done, but he managed. I made us oatmeal, and he went out with Carly for a minute until he saw a bee or fly. We ate inside, and he wanted Carly to paint a picture of him, so he was taking a bunch of selfies with my camera, trying to get one that Carly would like. He then went on a walk around, talking about his strange mathematics where numbers equal different numbers. He then moved to graphing.

I went for a run. When I got back he was listening to “ Three Clever Brothers” on Circle Round. I took a shower and then they were playing Minecraft. I made hotdogs and carrots for lunch and while he ate we talked about the Minecraft AI competition that he remembered and I looked up an article about it: https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/12/13/21020230/ai-minecraft-minerl-diamond-challenge-microsoft-reinforcement-learning. He then talked, as Myna, about Minecraft add-ons that make trees obey gravity, and also a bleeding one where you can be injured.

He played some piano, then I was watching a running race video and he saw it and asked questions. I showed him a 4x400m relay as well. We went on the couch and read a few chapters of The Last Kids on Earth, then the newest GoodTimeswithScar video. Carly then showed him the game about planets that high school students had made for him.

I worked for two hours. I heard more Circle Round. I came down and found them sitting out on the swing, reading. I started making dinner. They talked to Cassie and kids, and did some math involving quadrilaterals. They hung up and went outside. When august came in and saw dinner he said, “The little noodles and the big noodles, I like the contrast.” We ate outside. A much nicer day than yesterday. Until my eyes started to itch. I eventually went inside and went upstairs to lie down for awhile.

When I came back down he was playing Minecraft with Vivian and Colin. When that was over they did story time, reading the Junie B. Jones where she sees her teacher stealing grapes. Beverage was a word of the day. While they were doing that I got August seconds on dinner, and when he was done with that he requested corn. He had a bowl of just corn, then asked for oatmeal so had a small bowl of that.

After that was over Carly went upstairs. He asked me what rear meant. I gave him different examples, then he went up to Carly and asked, “Can I see your rear end?” He also told me that he had worked on the R sound with Carly today. We were upstairs at 8:40.

I gave him a bath, then Carly read to him from the science book they’ve been reading and I did a little work. We were in his bedroom at 9:35 and we listened to “The Know-It-All” on Stories Podcast. He told me that Buzz Aldrin was called “Buzz” because his little sister couldn’t say “Brother.” Philosophy was a word of the day. Capsize was another. We then listened to “A Herculean Fable” and then the “Ground Level” episode of Peace Out. Lights off at 10:05 and we listened to the Ton Koopman Bach organ album: “Sounds like an amusement park…a circus.” Seems like he took forever falling asleep and was finally asleep around 11.

Selfie time:

A song of the day:

Space game throw:

Space game:

Spinning time:

The L story, part 1:

The L story, part 2:

He got up at 8:40. I was just going to go up and get him. He met me on the stairs and said good morning. He went down to Carly as said, “Hello crazy early awake mama.” We joked around on the couch about “jinx, double jinx” and whether Carly does it correctly, and then our different ‘cultures’ (which led to a discussion of taking our shoes off and liking kimbap being the only things we’ve really held on to from Korea), then he went to play piano. He had something that we recorded as the song of the day, then I went over and was playing with him. He wanted to do a piano competition with Carly and told me, “Piano competition coming through…Make way for the best piano player ever!” He was then teaching her all the intervals. She had difficulty understanding him when he said “third” (he has difficulty with the ‘er’ sound in the middle and it sounds more like ‘ur’ or something), but it reminded me that he’s recently been practicing his ‘r’ sound and starting to get it, and ‘l’ is sounding better and better. He was teaching her how to move her hands up and down the piano and when she made a mistake he told her, “No, no! No no no! That’s not the technique!”

He did some Supersonic Piano, then he and I played Minecraft. He randomly asked, “What’s bid farewell mean?” I heated French toast for us and we ate outside. He had a game with Sister training for space. It was really warm and sort of hazy today, and after a few minutes allergies started to hit me, so we went inside. Carly did some reading to him.

They then painted. Carly started a painting of a roll of toilet paper. I started playing Alice In Chains for the day, as it is April 5. August was mixing colors, and said, “Since I know about Minecraft now I’m going to change this to terracotta orange!” I then went for a run. When I got back he was watching Coyote Peterson. I made grilled tuna for lunch and we ate outside.Carly was gardening, and talked about how she had used some of the compost. August was impressed and said, “Whoa. We’re starting to make some self-sufficience.”

We went inside and watched the newest Grian. He then listened to the Story Pirates “Maybelle’s Treats/The Mystery of the Materializing Kitten” episode. We went upstairs and played Brother and Sister and the Astronaut game. I turned it into a pillow fight as much as possible. He had the AC on, then fan, and I was getting allergic, so we went downstairs. Carly read Martin Bridge: Ready to Take Off and I went upstairs and finished our taxes. He then listened to “A cup of poi” on Circle Round. I came down and told him what poi was, a word of the day.

We did a little work on “Hacked” and then played Minecraft. There was a weird glitch in our survival world, but just on August’s iPad, where it didn’t load the chunk he was standing in and he fell out of the world. He then had fun playing with the glitch, as if he tried to build in it, it would actually load the correct blocks and then they would become real to him. When he eventually logged out and back in it was back to normal. The Tiv Taam order arrived and Carly wiped it off.

I read some What if but was then getting allergic so we watched the newest Iskall video. Afterwards he was talking to Carly and me about Minecraft plans with Vivian. We had contemplated skipping today, after his reaction yesterday. When we settled on 30 minutes he didn’t handle that well. We were talking to him and it went pretty well though. At one point he wanted to just talk to Carly so I headed upstairs for a while. I finished putting together our taxes.

We had dinner (potato and eggs, etc.). When we called Jeff they couldn’t play today. August got upset again. Eventually he wanted to go upstairs to “Hide” in the bedroom, with all the pillows, but with me. We talked about the need for a backup plan. He gave a thumbs up to that.

Back downstairs Carly trimmed my hair. August thought that was pretty boring, but waited patiently. They then skyped with Chuck and Cherie. He showed them music and talked about technique and the songs, like where “Hacked” is from.

Carly took him up to a bath. She was then folding the warm laundry. He finds it satisfying to pull the legs of his pants in and out. A new skill, and he likes the warm laundry. He was then saying, “I like to say 22nd time’s a charm.” I got him to brush his teeth.

We went in the bedroom at 9:40. We listened to “Honey Bear” on Stories Podcast. Then the story after that. He went to the bathroom and needed more Cheerios. We listened to a Peace Out about breathing, then he requested Bach. I put on an Tom Koopman album of Bach organ music, with the Toccata con Fugue. August was pretty amazed: “You’ve got to be kidding me.” It took him a good amount of time to fall asleep, despite doing a lot of yawning earlier. He was asleep by 10:55.

Song of the day:

Learning some Spanish:

The weird Minecraft glitch:

You’re the funniest person song:

Satisfying clothing:

He called me in after I was awake, about 7:10. He fell back to sleep, and a bit after 8:30 I tried to get him up. He was still really sleepy though, so slept until 8:50. Downstairs we read The Last Kids on Earth. Afterwards he asked, “What’s legit mean?” A word of the day. We played Minecraft, being marine biologists, then I made french toast for breakfast. I had some made from small pieces of bread, so I gave those to him today so he could work on cutting them himself. He agreed, but was mainly able to stab the whole things with a fork and eat them.

He went outside, and said, “It’s beautiful outside!” That lasted until he saw crane flies. He listened to Supersonic Piano and practiced, and made up a song of the day. He then taught Carly hexadecimal while I went for a run, then took a shower. He was then listening to multiple Circle Rounds and playing piano. He was listening to one when I got back, then “The King and the Cobbler” and “The Elephant’s Tub” after that. Carly was outside, and when I came down I made lunch. August quoted one of the stories several times today: “When a door closes, open a window.” We had leftover pizza, broccoli, some of the rice and tofu dish, and chocolate soymilk. Carly then made popcorn. August ran over and said out to her, “Thanks for making popcorn, mama!”

They played Minecraft and I watched the play One Man, Two Guvnors on YouTube, as the National Theatre is showing a play each week. He had a difficult time stopping and was grumpy. Carly and I went outside and sat in the chairs and read, and he stayed inside, and played piano. Carly went in and got them grapefruit, then he moved to composing. He came out to tell us he has 163 H compositions: “I really know where H is on the keyboard…I’ve had a lot of practice.” He names each composition “H” and it numbers them. He asked, “What’s humble mean?” Probably from Circle Round.

Carly then asked him a list of questions, that one of her friends had asked her kids:

• August said that broccoli is his favorite food because it helped him win in Apples to Apples because it was “Rich in vitamins.”

• For best friend he said, “everything…they’re a part of the Cosmos…god isn’t…everything under the laws of physics.”

• “What makes me happy? Basically everything on earth.” But not war.

• One thing that makes him happy: “Like right now.”

• Favorite places to go “Bar…coffee shop.” We didn’t know why he was saying we took him to bars, but he clarified it was a place we get drinks. I later realized he meant ReBar, the smoothie place.

• What he would like to be when he grow’s up: “A sparrow”

• Who loves you the most? “The pretend sun god.”

• What does Dada do? “He works all day.”

• What he’s afraid of: “Endermen”. And he admitted to crane flies

• Where does money come from? “The US Mint”

• Where he lives: “Habrosh 1. Even Yehuda.”

• Where he’s from: “Korea.”

• Favorite number: “14 and 4” Then any number made all out of 4s, because 4 is special.

He was hungry so I got him peanut butter crackers. He sat outside with me and ate them and asked, “What’s in vain mean?” Then had a game where Brother was fighting the waves from destroying his sandcastles, all in vain. We needed a new nonfiction book to read, and I gave him several choices and he chose the adult book How Emotions Are Made. We read the intro (skipping the mentions of school shootings). It mentioned Sesame Street and that got us talking about what we remember from the show, and he talked about Oscar the Grouch and talked about a whole Oscar the Grouch paradox, because people putting trash in his can makes him happy, but he doesn’t like being happy: “I didn’t notice before because I didn’t know as much about paradoxes.” We then watched the “ABC-DEF-GHI” song. Inside he told Carly about the song, then we read more.

He spilled water on his pants so we went up and changed him into lighter pants. He wouldn’t do shorts. We read the rest of the intro, and discussed the thesis, and he said he agreed with it because people are so different. We then had a whole story with Sister playing tag in Minecraft. He asked, “What’s a carob tree?” and said it was from Circle Round. I showed him photos. He knew that it could live through droughts.

We went downstairs to the piano. He had a tune in 6/8. I composed it for him, then he kept playing with it. He said, “I’m decomposing…” when he deleted something. Carly was reading in a chair and he went over and read a line from her book. She got excited and asked him to do more. He went back to the piano and composing. I taught him how to copy and paste in Notion and he kept doing that, making a song that used 6mb of data. He was then Carly’s piano teacher and was teaching her how to play with proper hand movements, and used the whole bird in the hand thing that he got from Dalit: “It’s more efficient…your birdie flew away.”

They talked to Colin, then did math with Vivian, learning about fractions and percentages. They then played Minecraft. I was working on our taxes at the dining room table. He had a really hard time getting off, and Vivian logged off as it was time for her to stop as well. He had a meltdown as they were on her world and it cut him off. He hit Carly, and then when I reminded him how he had done so well yesterday he came and knocked my phone out of my hand. Luckily, it just fell on the table. I took him upstairs, which had actually worked really well a couple weeks ago, but this time it took him a few minutes. I think the long and short of it is that Minecraft with Vivian needs to end earlier in the day.

He calmed down back downstairs and apologized. He asked her “What’s humble mean? What’s extraordinary mean?” Carly took him up for a bath at 8:20 and washed and cut his hair. He watched Kurzgesagt videos while she did that. I brushed his teeth for him today. He was hiding while I brushed my own teeth, not wanting to do his. But he realized I could still see him through the mirror, so it became an a-ha moment about angles and mirrors: “If I can see you, you can see me.” In bed we listened to “The Pied Piper” and “The Ant and the Grasshopper” on the Stories Podcast. Then the next Peace Out. We listened to the whole Philip Glass Piano Études album and he fell asleep near the end of it just before 11.

Morning improv:

Teaching mama hexadecimal:

A piano piece:

It’s so repetitive:

Playing piano with Carly:

The eerie song and the Ryan and Colin song: