Author: Ryan/Dada

While torrential rains fell north and south of us, here it was off and on. Too much rain to get August out of the house more than a couple seconds, but Carly and I were each able to get out for walks/runs sometime during the day.

I was awake in bed when he got up just after 7 and joined me. He cuddled under the covers for a good 20 minutes before I asked if he was ready to get up. He went downstairs, and was soon playing Minecraft with Carly. It was raining and thundering outside, as well as in Minecraft. Carly learned that he’s afraid of the lightning in Minecraft, and asked if that was also the reason he doesn’t like rain in real life. He said, “I just don’t like it in real life, I’m not AFRAID of it.” He switched worlds after a few minutes, and Carly stopped playing with him.

He then played piano, and then we ended up playing the repetitive Brother and Sister game where Bar’s playing chases him off again. He got a little upset when I wouldn’t play it anymore.

Carly made Swedish pancakes and I played Apples to Apples with him as George and Harold (he suggested the name). He then used the big pot to make a time travel potion. He then went back to the piano, and eventually we set up GarageBand and the keyboard. He had eaten one pancake, and now finally ate his strawberry and I gave him the second pancake.

Carly left for the store. He did more music and was having me look up his complicated chords. I was trying to teach him that there are more types of chords than just major and minor, and eventually get him to understand the idea of chord progressions, although he doesn’t seem to interested in those so far.

He took a break to tell me that he had designed a log shaver better than Leonardo da Vinci’s (we had seen it at the science center). His shaving/smoothing machine involved millions of small parts to make it instantly make a smaller circle until the log was smooth.

I was then trying to get him to clean up, and we eventually did a good job of that (the potion remnants, Apples to Apples, etc.) He had the last Swedish pancake and wanted to cut it himself, so he worked on that. Carly called about which crackers to get and he talked to her for a bit.

He went back to the piano. He figured out how to play Yankee Doodle in C sharp major. First the verse, then the chorus. Accented notes and transpose were words of the day. He said, “This means my brain is developing more.” He then observed that “It’s like half a note!” So I taught him whole step and half step. I’ve mentioned scale intervals a few times before, but this is the first that he seemed interested.

Carly got home. He showed her his playing of “Just a Little Love”, which he had suddenly figured out on piano, and Yankee Doodle in C sharp. As Carly put things away he asked me to go upstairs for a Sister game. It was once again about when she first met Myna on her Minecraft server (Myna had invited her after seeing a picture of a Minecraft castle Sister had made). Myna’s sever is called “Popatonia.” August put the fan on in the AC unit. It was cold upstairs, but he said he liked the “fresh and Rosy fingered” fan. I wore my sweatshirt and played from the corner of the room or doorway.

Downstairs he did a cool improv on the piano, then was playing in GarageBand. He decided his favorite keyboard in GarageBand is Anthemic Lead – Mainroom Glide Synth and wanted me to make note. I figured out how to save it to his ‘Custom’ area so he could always find it, and taught him how to add more.

We had some lunch, Carly prepared him broccoli and sweet potato, but he didn’t eat much. He went back to the keyboard. We had some Brother game going on, where Bar was playing music at Brother’s birthday (he had finally figured out that, even though the were stuck in May, after 365 days he could have a birthday) and Brother was jealous of her playing. He switched to the synth app, then figured out the pitch bend and modulation buttons on his keyboard: “THAT is how you do it.”

He kept playing. Carly finished the Egyptian cat lung soup that she had been making. August initially said, “This isn’t how I expected it to come out…” But then he called it interesting, and then he ended up eating it all. He listened to “The Months of the Year” on Circle Round.

He then wanted his treat, and we entered into candy cane negotiations. He got outside enough to carry out his stool for some reason, but then went back inside. That was it for the day. Carly had gone for a walk or jog and got back. It was still sunny (the last of the sun break for the day) so I took my turn. I went over past the mall to the east. It got cloudy and looked like more rain clouds might be coming. They went to the north and south though and I was fine, but on the way back, when I had blue skies overhead and the sun was shining, I got rained on, a medium rain, for several minutes. I think it was blowing from the south. Very odd though.

I got home. He had spent much of the time sucking on his candy cane and staring into space. He tried to convince us that that should count as alone time. I said it did not, but that all of the music and Circle Round time earlier had counted as his first set of alone time. They were setting up to paint though so continued to do that. They were making thank you cards. I took a shower, and when I came down he was working on a painting and singing about a sibling. He had filled up his whole paper, and talked about how Carly’s painting teacher in Seattle would be happy (she had said something like that to Carly). He asked if he could meet her painting teacher someday.

He covered his hands and forearms with paint. I said, “Your a silly little boy.” He immediately said, “You know me.” And then, “I’m called Ishmabody.”

He then did his 30 minutes, with Minecraft. He was going to play with Carly. But she had started to make sauce and didn’t want to play in yet another world. So he played with me for 15 instead, which turned to the whole 30.

When he was hungry I got us some peanut butter and crackers. He ate 5 or 6 total, and I told him it would be soup after that. He then had a Sister game with Brother wanting her help to make a snail and slug mod. He had seen the moth still in our house flying around. He was excited by it at first, but then it was fluttering around him when he was eating and he didn’t like it any more. He had named it Mothy. So I caught and freed Mothy. August didn’t believe me about how moths navigating by the light of the moon.

Carly had been FaceTiming with her parents. He wanted to call back so he could as well. He played his new songs for them, and lasted 10 or 15 minutes. He went the whole afternoon/evening without a shirt, having taken it off for painting.

We had some more soup, then he played music for a second alone time. He asked, “Why does time go by fast when I’m doing something fun like this.” We played Minecraft together, looking for a stronghold. We had just gotten near when his time was out. Frustrating, but he was okay, with a couple chocolate chips, then a couple of Life Noggin videos. Carly started reading The Talented Clementine to him. There was a part where she is making fun of twins so Carly called Cassie to tell her and they left a voicemail.

Back on his piano he figured out “Just a Little Love” in G flat pentatonic major. When it was time to go up I carried him up. Carly gave him a bath. She had made him oatmeal but then forgot it in the freezer. It was almost frozen. I rescued it and heated it up and told him I added more honey. It was barely anything, but he claimed it was the sweetest oatmeal ever.

He was still hungry, so I got him a carrot and couple strawberries, which he ate. We then skyped with Mom to see how Dad’s surgery had gone. They hadn’t been able to fix it, so took out the damaged tendon. His recovery was going okay, and there hadn’t been too much swelling.

We said goodbye, and August claimed to still be hungry. Carly got him some Cheerios. We brushed his teeth and said good night. I put him to sleep. We listened to two Circle Rounds, “Unwelcomed Guest” and “Cow Wells and Cow Bells”. He put lotion on his hands after going to the bathroom, and fell right to sleep after that, about 10:20.

Message and song for Gramma and Grampa:

The log smoothing machine:

Figuring out Just a Little Love:

Yankee Doodle in a new key:

The new tune in GarageBand:

Painting the whole canvas:

Clothes head:

He got up at 6:15, after calling me in once around 4 when his covers were off. He almost walked right by me and went downstairs but I told him to get in bed with me and he did, falling right back to sleep.

Carly went to wake him up at 8:25. He lay on the couch for several minutes and they talked. They discussed why it was fresh and rosy fingered outside, and he argued there are still some UV rays at night because of “shockwaves”. When they came back down Carly looked it up, to see if some stray UV rays bounce around during the night.

He was then showing her how the seeding system works in Minecraft and she ended up playing with him in one of the worlds. She then started reading him a book, which involved science, and he started seeing if he could make a static charge by rubbing his feet on the rug. I told him it would probably work better with socks and I went and got him socks. I threw them down, then was making the beds and cleaning up.

When I came down they were taking apart some bits of wire as he had ideas for using batteries to see if electricity would go through things like a balloon. He also thought about taping one coin to the ground and another to a drill and rubbing them together. I think he is thinking of a generator.

He wanted Swedish pancakes for breakfast, so Carly took over with that. He then wanted to read Rivet books to drive Carly crazy, as he knows she wants him to work on sounding out the words instead of touching them to have the app pronounce them. He had the iPad read him the whole first book he looked at (about eggs) but then was reading books on his own. He ate a Swedish pancake while he kept reading, then was trying to have fun arguing with Carly about something. She pointed out that she doesn’t actually like to argue, and he reminded her of her slippery slope argument. He provided her with an argument for something, and asked “Why did’t you think of that argument?”

He had a second Swedish pancake and strawberry, then I told him he could play Minecraft with Gilad. I gave him an hour, but of course once he was on it turned out Gilad’s sister was on the computer. So August, who had an hour total, spent his time without Gilad starting a new world and gathering resources (after some suggesting from me) for Gilad. Carly made him a third pancake.

Gilad logged on and they played well together for about 45 minutes. After that he played a lot of piano and we figured out that his Creepy song is in F minor. He was having me look up the scales and chords he was playing with Piano Companion.

They then went to school to play and see if there was anything to take apart. They weren’t gone very long and came back with a scanner to take apart, which they started doing. I put in about 5 or 6 hours of work total today, getting a bit ahead on things.

He came up to ask if he could still earn time, as Carly wasn’t sure, after the time with Gilad. I came down for a minute to confirm that he still could, then went back upstairs.

I came down about 4:20. He had figured out his mashup of “Let It Go” and “Always” on the piano. Mashup was a word of the day. He kept figuring out more songs and also figured out “London Bridge” in C sharp.

Carly went for a walk. He kept playing. We looked up chords, and then it turned into a bit of a Brother game, with Bar playing chords and songs that either put Tigey to sleep or made him crazy or launching him to space (“the multichord”). “I have a Barring trick that will work.” Games got crazier and crazier, scaring other people and armies away that came to complain about the music coming from their house.

He made another pastry and I got it in the oven. Carly had come back, and he was doing alone time or something, so I went back up to work again. When I came down later they were finishing up a second documentary. One had been about how land had formed, and the other taught August about how rocks had started life. Not sure what they were. I started eating popcorn from the bowl and it took Carly a couple minutes to tell me that August’s foot had been in that bowl.

We went upstairs. He got a paper and marker and showed me how when he drew connected lines it looked like a dot-to-dot picture. I was going to wash his hair, so he got to choose a treat. He chose the huge candy cane. We talked about how he could lick it until we were done washing his hair and he was out of the bath. In the bathroom he asked me to explain what I had said before about mirrors making things backwards. So I showed him text on my phone and how it looked in the mirror.

I was explaining that when Carly came up. She had brought up paper to cover words for him to read. “This is a good way to read it!” Although then he said he could do the same thing without the paper: “I can use the microscope setting and zoom in on one word…now I’m looking at ‘A’ in my mind. It’s so giant.” But he seemed to like it well enough that we’ll give it a try.

I then gave him his bath. We washed his hair, which went well. We went into his room, and he kept licking his candy cane. Before giving it to him I had told him he could lick it until we were done with his bath and in his pajamas. He now started to break and bend the rules, saying he just wouldn’t dry off or put his clothes on. When I gave him a time limit and started timing it he then crunched off the entire top of the candy cane, which I had also made clear he couldn’t do. I was upset about the trickery and traded with Carly. She took over to brush his teeth. He came down and apologized to me, and then I went up to say good night, and left them around 9:30.

Minecraft with Gilad:

Circuit experiment:

A new tune:

Let It Go and Always mashup:https://youtu.be/xC38HWr8zSo

Start of the Black keys song:

Dancing to his creepy song:

The water bottle deal:

Agreeing to the deal:

At some point during the night I found his light on. Pretty positive Carly hadn’t left it on. And he was on top of his covers. I think he had woken up and turned in on, then went back to sleep. At another point he was really laughing in his sleep.

He woke up at 7:40 and came and cuddled on my pillow. We got up, and downstairs he went outside to Carly. I heard him saying “There’s a kind of plant I’d like…” Venus fly trap. He told her not to put her tongue in it, then he came in and we watched the tongue video. We then Skyped with my parents. They told us about the tumbleweeds that stopped traffic over on SR20 (https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/01/us/tumbleweeds-block-washington-highway-trnd/index.html) in Washington, and Dad has his knee surgery at the hospital in Chelan at 5:30 in the morning. Didn’t get a lot of details about Christmas, but there were 11 people there and it sounds like they had a nice dinner.

August and I then played Minecraft. When he stopped well Carly was going to give him a couple chocolate chips. But a chocolate coin had fallen out of the cupboard and he found it. Carly let him have that instead, and said something about being lazy. He said, “I took advantage of her laziness.”

We had breakfast, then did microscope time. Carly suggested paper currency and got him a bill. He took several photos. He was then going to go outside with Carly, and wasn’t deterred by the rain. But then he was playing with the camera on the phone and when I got him his raincoat I draped it over him as he sat on the chair. He made some discoveries about the camera that way, and that led to a lot of camera time, and a discussion of field of view and testing of the motion blue mode.

He wanted to test that more, but when I finally got the tripod set up, he got off on a tangent about organ transplants, which led to Bar making a cornea in Minecraft and him explaining some sort of picture capture machine, then a more general game of Bar selling stuff in Sister’s general store.

Carly had cut up veggies and pita and we took those and hummus with us to Lauren and Gilad’s house. We stopped on the way out of town and Carly ran across to the strawberry stand. Alas, no strawberries yet because of the rain.

We got to their house a little past 11. They used the microscope (which we had brought) and played with the magnet blocks, then August played his new songs for them on the piano. He really loves their piano, but Gilad’s dad was working, so I had to get August to stop. He didn’t agree to that, and we ended up out in the hall for a few minutes and almost headed home. He calmed down though and stayed. We went in and had some food, then they mainly went back to the magnet blocks. August was making structures and Gilad was filling them with cars, then they were knocking them down. August was getting really excited and swinging his arm in circles. He rode a push bike scooter thing around and exclaimed, “I love this! I’ve never seen a baby toy so good!” Gilad also had a couple little video game things: one of Ms. Pac Man (I told Carly there used to be a Ms. Pac Man machine inside the Safeway in Chelan) and one of Wreck It Ralph (well, a Chinese knockoff—also, I hadn’t realized the movie was based on an old video game, but I vaguely remembered at least seeing the video game once I saw Gilad’s).

August liked them, although he didn’t play them much—until we were about to go, at which point he couldn’t put them down.

We left after 1:30. In the car he was a bit grumpy, and wanted the AC on when we had the heater on. Finally came to a compromise where he had his window open a little and Carly had the heat on for her. He used cups and other things to direct the air in towards him. I read about Prelutsky after August remembered the server poem. Found out that he lives in the Seattle area. August came up with a new verse of “Wheels on the bus”: “The children on the bus say let’s, let’s play.”

We read more Last Kids on Earth and then stopped at the strawberry stand on the way back into town. Carly bought 6 containers of strawberries. At home he dug into wanting to negotiate iPad time. I pointed out he wasn’t compromising, just demanding, and that both sides need to get something in a compromise. He said, “oooooh!” He also said, “Great! I haven’t used an argument in months!”

In the end he got a 1 minute reduction in his required 15 minutes by telling me a parenting strategy that he though would be good. He read a Titanic book on Skybrary (having it do a lot of the reading) most of the time. We then played Minecraft and Carly went for a walk. He then read 3 rivet books to me and then we played Brother and Sister games involving Minecraft. He gave me another parenting trick, then was talking about how he’d won about the chocolate coin because of Carly’s laziness: “Mama should get new parenting tricks.”

For his second alone time he did a piece of art. He was then playing Minecraft, making new seeds. When he was done he remembered that we had the dough out thawing for a pastry, so he went and made his pastry. While it baked he did Hooked on Phonics and Rivet with Carly. She then read the Why Do My Eyes Itch? book from the library.

When he went to the bathroom he told me about how he’d done a burst photo for 50,000 years. We figured out how many specific photos that would be, if it took ten photos a second: 50000365246060*10=15,768,000,000,000 photos

I had been making the halloumi tacos for dinner, with black beans and avocado. Those turned out really well. He played with the calculator, and tried to keep negotiating for more iPad, but then was playing musical instruments. He was humming “Just a Little Love” by Erasure.

They finished Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying, then he had some oatmeal. Carly took him upstairs for a bath. He had to stop one more time to play a little piano before we went up. Upstairs he proceeded to argue about everything, like which order to do things, but we made it through. He was really tired. We listened to the Circle Round about a starfruit tree. Afterwards we ended up discussing the difference between nuggets, ore, and ingot. When he went to the bathroom he got off and then said it still felt like he had to go to the bathroom. He sat and peed some more. Seemed a bit frustrated, but he says nothing is uncomfortable; just annoying. He was asleep just after 10.

Magnet blocks:

Magnet blocks 2:

Humming and wind gauge:

Singing along to Ninja Focus:

Singing along to Ninja Focus 2:

He climbed in with me at 7:10. We then got up just after 8. When he got his iPad he wanted to watch things but found one of those stick man Minecraft videos. It was all about killing zombies though and Carly didn’t like it. He tried to take the iPad to the other end of the room to keep watching it. I went and talked to him, and he luckily agreed to stop watching it. He decided to play Robot Factory instead.

A bit later Carly and I were debating who should remind whom to finish an Amazon order later. August heard us debating and came up to find out what was going on. He really liked it, and wanted to know what arguments each of us was using. He played his new song over and over this morning, and he’s also back in the habit of asking us “What’s 9 times 3?” over and over, especially when he goes to the bathroom.

I took August to Shani’s this morning. August had noticed that he could hum part of “Let It Go” and then transition into “Always” by Erasure. He was doing this as we got to Shani’s and walked down her stairs. Shani said she recognized the song, and I thought she’d say “Let It Go”. But it was “Always” that she recognized. That was cool.

She asked August about New Year’s, and he didn’t understand why anyone would want to stay up for midnight. They started on the swing for a few minutes, but mainly turned it into a sort of punching bag with the big ball in it. That was pretty cool, and later I would talk to him about the possibility of getting a punching bag.

At a mention of desk time he went over to the desk on his own and wrote “Hi.” She worked with him on writing today, asking, “Where do we start writing?” “On the top. That’s what Ms. Andrea taught me, I think.”

The plan for today was:

• swing

• writing letters

• make a necklace

• His choice

She started with the letter writing. He was resistant at first, saying a couple times that “This is boring.” But then he went with it and got into it. She was teaching him to start on top, from the left, and the letters from the top. They did A, W, and O, then he chose Z at the end. He really liked the stencil when she was using the edge of it to draw straight lines for him and she let him do some stenciling for a couple minutes. She reminded him to put his elbow down.

He wasn’t too fond of writing in the lines at first. She said, “It’s interesting how he responds to boundaries, even physical ones…I think that’s one of our big goals.” He also did some scissors, then finished the writing activity with her. They then bade a bracelet with beads, and for his choice time he made a fort in the middle out of the chairs and cushions and things.

We got driving and he talked about how he made sounds like in the Tori Amos song we were listening to. We got to our usual post-Shani park at 10:30. They have the covers off now. There was a big electric fan, rusty, near the car that August said he’d like to take apart, but he knew it was too big to fit in the car. When we left the park it was gone, leaving the mystery of who would pick it up.

We were at the park for a few minutes but he wanted to leave to head home and play with a synthesizer. He was convinced to stay with a Sister and Bar game. We played over by the swings, first in a regular one, then in the basket-y swings. The game led to one where Baby Sister got powers, and of course abused them.

When we were done at the park we drove to the grocery store by VIPizza. I suggested we get pizza for lunch. It was just before 12 and there wasn’t any pizza out yet, so we told him what we wanted and then did our shopping next door. We just got some pita and a couple hummus containers and a labaneh. We went back to VIPizza and he had two slices, corn and then cheese, and I had one. We read some Last Kids on Earth and got a slice of olive pizza for Carly before we left. Between slices he needed the bathroom and the one behind the building was locked. So we walked to the one across the street, which was of course also locked, and we ended up all the way down at the Stop City! mall.

On the drive home he spotted the Snakes and Ladders park and wanted to go there. So we stopped at the house and he stayed in the car while I ran in and put the groceries away. Carly walked up as we were about to leave and we told her where we were going.

We went up to the Snakes and Ladders park. We played snakes and ladders, closer to how it is actually played. I downloaded a dice app on my phone and we used that to roll numbers. He still changed the rules a bit (no actual snakes, or ladders), but closer to the actual game. We then did the luggage game for the rest of the time, with the luggage escaping as I tried to go on different journeys to various planets. At one point he had us being dragged into the sun. It wouldn’t let us escape: “It’s using its sunning tricks!”

We left there at 1:40. At home I asked Carly about her wog (walk/jog). August liked the term when we explained it, but then also said,”Wog” “I have weird parents.” He then went to play music: “I’ll play my melodica. I get money, you know. I’m on the street.” He sang a jazz sort of version of “Yankee Doodle” that was was quite cool. Didn’t get a recording of that though. He piled stuff in pillows and called it the “The Mount-a-Mounds: I was using it to hide stuff…Ane behold! The other stuff!”

We talked about his mess. I don’t know who used it, but he liked the term “despicable” mess, so a word of the day. They then got ready to go and left at 2:45 or so for the Kerns’ house. He was taking his laser pointer over there to play with the cats. They have a total of 4 cats, although one just comes for food. Only one really played with him, their newest one, the kitten we saw a few months back. He also used some toy they had with the cat. His laser pointer is also a pen, so at one point he asked for paper to draw a picture of a conveyor belt machine of some sort. Carly said he was pretty shy with them today. They gave him some sort of Oreo and chocolate treat, and they got home about 5.

It was then pastry chef time and he made a nice pastry out of quiche dough, honey, and chocolate chips. He piled stuff on the couch, and had tissues that he was trying to throw. He asked me, “Why do things have to be a certain weight to throw them a long way?” And demonstrated what he meant. He talked about solving it mathematically: “Maybe I can find the X Y graph…maybe I can find the chain…”

We had a dinner of green beans and sweet potatoes and broccoli. We discussed screen time arguments and using it for education (he wasn’t making this argument for himself so much, but as a recommendation for other kids I think, on his kidding website). We also told Carly about Shani’s, and I discussed the punching bag idea with him and showed him a couple videos. He was pretty interested.

He ate his pastry, then made a savory one, mashing up sweet potato with the masher to put in it along with broccoli. Carly was having a ton of fun finding books for Vivian. I pitched in a little as well, and we also ended up with some book suggestions for August. He was playing on his toy piano and ended up doing what he called a horror movie soundtrack. He hid the laser pointer in the pile of stuff on the couch but was being silly, asking where it was. So I was suggesting odd places to find it. He said he was taking me seriously and sang a “Taking Dada seriously” song. When I suggested it was in the tin of word magnets he spent a good 15 minutes laying out all of the magnets on the kitchen floor. I got him to read several as he went. That counted as his alone time.

He went to the bathroom twice, in quick secession. We read some magnets, then he ate his savory pastry. We played Minecraft, focusing on learning how hoppers work. We then watched A Charlie Brown Christmas, after which we cleaned up the magnets and fort. It was one time he said he really wanted to go take a bath: “Can we go take my lovely bath?”

We were doing some Sister and Bar Minecraft games along the way. We got upstairs at 8:50. He was once again making machines to order in his lab, and asked, “What machine would you like to buy from me?” I said I wanted a machine that would do the cooking. He wouldn’t make it though, saying, “I think you do just fine cooking by yourself.”

I gave him a bath, then we discussed the planets and their rings and moons as we looked up at his ceiling. Brushed his teeth, then Carly came in and I left them at 9:50. They were listening to “The Rice Cakes and…” on Circle Round.

Punching bag:

Writing letters:

Playing at the playground:

Trying to figure out how many cells are in the world:

Being the luggage:

The creepy song, expanded:

Being a zingzong:

Funny sideway eyes:

Kitten timelapse:

Kitten timelapse 2:

Eating timelapse:

Eating passion fruit:

Pastry chef:

A math hypothesis:

Enjoying his pastry:

Laying out the magnets:

He got up at 1 and went to the bathroom, then slept through until 7:45. We played Minecraft, adventuring into the nether for the first time in our survival world. I made French toast for breakfast. He had requested the regular white cheese/yogurt the last couple times, but now that we had it he wanted strawberry yogurt on his. We ate, then he did alone time, making up a song that he said sounded scary. I told him he’d discovered minor keys. We then worked to put it in Symphony Pro, calling it “Spooky” something. Insert was a word of the day.

We worked on that for a long time, and he finally remembered he had earned time. He played Simple Rocket, intentionally crashing and having a ton of fun with that. He wanted a treat, so ate a bowl of broccoli and cheese and then had some of the raspberry bubble gum in a tube. He did some dancing to Daft Punk. He then had a Brother game where Brother and the others were jealous of the presents that Bar got.

At Carly’s suggestion I got him out on a bike ride on my bike at noon. As we rode the path up to the cloud bridge we stopped to look at plants. We had taken the specimen collecting tools. He spotted gnats, and then bees, and was afraid of both. We kept going up to the top path, where he spotted a centipede, which we got off and caught. We then rode down to the old highway and stopped at the east end of it. He spotted more of them, along with ladybugs. He said, “Bug season is starting.”

We were there for several minutes, then kept riding and ended up at the little park on Vatikim. We mainly played on the merry-go-round, spinning him a lot and also doing some sort of Brother game. We then headed home at 1.

At home I talked about making a sandwich. Instead of a BLT I talked about a BLA sandwich (bacon, lettuce, and avocado) or a BAT (bacon, avocado, and turkey). He asked, “What’s an acronym?” Another word of the day. They painted outside and I made him a sandwich, then I went upstairs to work.

They did a lot of painting, and August made a lot of videos, including a couple where he had the camera on the ground, and he stood over it, talking to the camera, and I went upstairs to work. They also played a lot of Candyland. He came up at one point asking for help getting a buzzing sound out of the piano. He ended up measuring things with my phone, then we took the piano back downstairs. He was figuring out how to play “London Bridge”. I went back upstairs.

When I came down he was eating sweet potato and broccoli. We were then remembering “Wheels on the Bus” and our old verses about our family members. He suggested one for Uncle DD: “ The Uncle DD on the bus says ‘Don’t touch my car.’” He spit or dropped a sweet potato on the floor but then wouldn’t pick it up. He finally did it with a piece of paper.

Carly also made green beans, and he loved them: “I love green beans. They’re magic. Like a trip to bubble gum lend.” He then had a lollipop from his stocking. He did more earning of time, listening to Circle Round’s “Kangaroo and Joey Too”. He played on some app, then switched to Robot Factory and played with that for the rest of the time. We then read more of Bone volume 9.

Carly Skyped with Cherie and Thatcher and Kayla and Andrea. August played songs for them. He then played with his microscope, and ended up in his fort. He wanted the air conditioner on, while we wanted the heater. He ate green beans and hummus and pita.

I went for a walk, and when I got back she was making French toast and more beans for him. He was also being a cat, and watching Beethoven’s ninth. Carly had remembered the flash mob orchestras we used to watch and was looking for them.

We got him upstairs and Carly gave him a bath. She brushed his teeth, and probably read to him. When I came in he had made a sculpture on the lower bed. I took over and we listened to the Circle Round story “The Piper and the Pooka”. We then listened to Irish music. He went to the bathroom, then a minute later said he needed to go again. He went, but then just a couple minutes later in bed he told me he had peed in his pants. It wasn’t huge, but very odd. We got him cleaned up and changed and he was asleep about 10:30.

Working on his Creepy song:

Creepy song with spoon accompaniment:

Catching a centipede:

On the merry-go-round:

Zinnie cam: Carly painting:

Zinnie cam: mama painting:

Zinnie cam: Still painting song:

Zinnie cam: I’m way up in the sky:

Zinnie can: some more Zinnie cam of painting and up towards the sky:

Another song in the works:

The creepy song on toy piano:

Happy New Year message 1:

Happy New Year 2:

I had just gotten up when he then got up at 8. He came out and curled up on my bed for a minute before going downstairs. After a bit they started playing Minecraft. When Carly stopped he started singing, doing a quick scat thing.

We then read the Roald Dahl book Magic Finger. It is short, and we finished it. He then had a Brother game using the multimeter. Carly was organizing and cleaning, starting with the tool drawer. I put the chair pads on the new chairs, then went to do recycling. He worked on his fort and sang.

He played Polytopia, then I had to deal with a work issue. After a while I went up and asked Carly to take over with August. She made him lunch. We were then listening to Daft Punk and he said, “It’s like electronic jazz.”

They then got ready and headed to Netanya. They drove to downtown and did some bike riding around. I think they said it was pretty windy, so they didn’t go down on the beach. I think they spent most of their time at the cafe they go to, reading, and had pizza, which they brought back.

When they got home he did alone time, then did 15 minutes of Toca Forest, then did Minecraft with me. Carly went for a walk. We had just gone into the nether for the first time in survival when his time was up. He was upset, then tried to get the ipad off the counter. When I blocked him he accidentally bit my arm through my sweatshirt. He went and played in his fort, making kidding tricks. He did apologize to me at some point.

When he was playing piano I taught him about the chromatic scale, a word of the day. He took the keys out, then tried to put them back in an odd order. I had been making the baked sweet potatoes. They turned out tasting really good, but I didn’t cook them all the way through. I figured out a couple minutes in the microwave worked. Carly did that with one, then tried broiling it with cheese on top again. However, the olive oil in the pan started to get smoky. We opened up the door and windows. August exclaimed, “I’m taking this outside. I’ve had ENOUGH of the smoke. It’s bad for your lungs. It all comes down to medical.”

Once it aired out enough he came in and we read more of Bone volume 8. He ate two yogurts, and usurp was another word of the day. We finished volume 8 and started volume 9.

I got him in the bathroom and he bottled a little water from his water bottle to study under the microwave tomorrow. He saw some dust or something on the top and wanted to figure out what it was. Carly gave him a bath and I went for a walk.

I put him to sleep. We listened to Circle Round’s “The Skylark”, did some more talking, and did a meditation from Ninja Focus. He turned over on his stomach and started doing the breathing right away. We then listened to Moby’s Ambient album and he was asleep at 10:25.

Scatting:https://youtu.be/smonWe7XHsA

Humming and working on the latest kidding fort:https://youtu.be/Ml667LPWbbw

Zinnie cam: waves at Netanya:https://youtu.be/UosiReqbg2I

Zinnie cam: walking along the waterfront:https://youtu.be/FPkCk3KatP0

A song on the confused piano:https://youtu.be/VxlbVgC8zYg

Get out, smoke:https://youtu.be/roD-q80pcvg

He slept through the night and came and crawled in with me about 7:40 for a few minutes. Then went downstairs. He played Minecraft with Carly. Afterwards, he said, “I should play free jazz.” Carly was making scrambled eggs and bacon, and August wanted to put in food coloring. He poured the green in. It was completely open, not just a pin prick, and about half a bottle went in. Looked good, but when Carly cooked them they ended up tasting soapy. So she made August a fried egg instead.

We read volume 8 of Bone. Coyote, as in someone who sneaks people across the border, was a word of the day. We then did a Brother game where he met the sound engineer girl again. We read more Bone and Carly went to the store. He did his alone time, then played Green Planet. He then wanted to listen to Circle Round and did more alone time, and we played Minecraft.

Carly got home and got him broccoli and cheese and chicken for lunch. He said, “Did you know I discovered a kid 80 years ago that refused to eat any treats? And he died by the age of 5.” He liked the broccoli: “Next time give me those three kinds of cheese. Cuz that was really good.”

August and I got going and listened to the Sugar Cubes as we drove to Gabi’s. When we parked and got out he was giving his theories about why a tree had a really fat trunk (to protect against fire, etc.). We went to Gabi’s. There’d been talk of having us stay in with him now, after August wouldn’t let Carly go out last time. But when Gabi asked if I should be in the room August said he guessed I could stay in for a couple minutes. I watched him set up the armies and kill a spy, then he said I could go out. I went out and read and worked in the lobby. Forgot to make myself a coffee though. At the end I heard him tell Gabi about his graphite in pencils fact.

As we walked back to the car we did some Brother games. We have a running joke now, since he always sings “in the merry, merry month of May…” at the beginning of each that the family is stuck in May due to all of their time travel and black holes, etc. and Brother always gets frustrated because it is still May.

We then drove over to Ra’anana Park. We did the beached bike thing for a while, then rode into the park. He asked me, “Which is crazier? Despicable Me or Dog with a Blog?” He’d learned about them from Apples to Apples. He started to ride around the side of the lake, then wanted the bathroom so we walked back to that. He talked about going in the gallery but it was closed today. So we made our way back around the lake, and he stopped in two places to take photos. I rested on benches while he did so. We then played with the musical instruments area. We were talking about going and getting some food. We were thinking of the place in the park there, but I thought it might be busy, and mentioned the sushi place nearby. He loved the idea. I looked at the place, Ze Sushi, on Google Maps to see how fancy it looked. August said, “Ooh, did I just see colored sushi? I love the contrast. So creative.”

So we headed back to the car and drove up to Ze Sushi. We sat at the counter and ordered a combination platter and a lemonade. It was 18 pieces, and August ate 8 of them, including the two long ones with the raw fish on top, which he gulped down. He also really liked the lemonade, even though it was rather on the tart side. He took a few photos in the restaurant, then we walked around the building area for a few minutes and he took more photos.

On the drive home he liked the Sugar Cubes, and I told him I’d make a smart playlist of all his favorite bands so he could hear more songs from them. He liked that idea. We were home at 5:15. He played an “open…closed” game with the blanket and Carly. They finished a Junie B. Jones book. He pointed out, “She’s using a kidding trick.” They then read the Muscles book, which led to him doing exercises on the couch and floor. I think he asked for a treat or something, and when Carly said he had to have healthy food first he said, “How about I get upset and don’t get upset so you give me chocolate chips?” Carly said she wondered when he would figure that out.

He was then telling us riddles (like from the Circle Round story about the banker’s riddles), and asked me to gather: “Fire that won’t go out, wood that won’t burn, tree that plays music.” I figured it out, saying I’d get him a photo of a fire, petrified wood, and musical tree sculpture. He wasn’t too thrilled with me actually coming up with answers.

Carly made a smoothie, then he played piano, both playing and singing “Always”. He was looking at the keys and asked, “Why is this part white and this is antique white?” We talked about why that may be. More practicing of “Always”, then he Moved to the melodica where he was figuring out his new tune in multiple keys, then trying to play “Always” in two octaves at once.

He wanted to hook up his iPad and I had to restart it. “Why are you apple-ing it?” I liked the new verb there (as it shows an apple when you restart it). He played with the sampler, recording all sorts of noises.

I went for a walk. He spent most of the time being really focused on the sampler, doing things like ripping paper. They were playing Apples to Apples when I got back. He had his laser pointer again. They had found it earlier. It was Carly’s idea to look behind the couch and August was the one that spotted it.

He ate pickles and strawberries, and we did a Brother game where Bar recorded his whole life to get all the funny bits. I had them naming a wing of the hospital after Brother, since he used it so much. He thought that was really funny, but didn’t know what wing of a building meant, so a word of the day.

I got him upstairs by leading him with the melodica. Spent some time teaching him about different keys. He asked “Why does film get grainy?” We were in the bathroom, and he told Carly, “I used three kidding tricks on him to delay my bath.” One was sitting on the toilet for a long time, another was getting me to talk about the camera, and the third was something like that.

After his bath we were talking about doing something and I told him about how I’m impressed by his use of words and we were discussing brain development. Rather backfired though as when he wanted to do something and when I took him into the bedroom to talk to Carly about it he instantly got upset when he saw her. I talked to him and when I said we needed to talk to mama about it he said “Oh.” Carly came in to put him to sleep and I left them 9:25.

His famous sound collection:

The reflection of the seahorse sculpture:

The stream:

Xylophone music:

Rhythm:

Downing the sushi:

“Always” on toy piano:

Singing and playing “Always”:

Singing “Always”:

Playing his song in different keys:

He slept through the night and woke up, quite alert, at 7:20. He went downstairs and played Minecraft with Carly and she read to him a bit before entering into negotiations about food and treats. They ended up eating some orange together. I had slept a bit later then folded laundry. I read him a few poems from Something BIG Has Been Here.

He then went over to his microscope and started looking at things, then told me he has a silly poem:

1 plus 1 is 2

2 plus 1 is 3

Don’t blame the bee,

She always likes to pee

He was also coming up with crazy riddles, and somehow eradicate became a word of the day after that. He then had some soup and milk, then we read a few more poems. Inaudible was another word of the day. He then had a Brother game where Baby Sister eats crayons. That led to craziness and void. And that involved talking ants and ugly goose. He asked, “Brother and Sister: do you like this mixtape of Brother and Sister stories I’m doing?”

I then remembered the NASA app and channel. We looked at that and watched the launch and landing of the latest Boeing rocket flight. He then wanted to play SimpleRockets. We played that and it turned funny with a “When are we getting back to Earth?” game. The people launching and operating the rockets were incompetent.

He ate some broccoli. He really stretched it out. We finished reading the Prelusky book. He then ate the second half of his chocolate Santa. We then played Apples to Apples, Carly versus me, with him as the judge. I lost, horribly. I think it was 8 to 2, although Carly and I both agreed that I should have had the last point.

I made a grilled cheese and turkey sandwich for lunch and we had that with soup. We then went outside in the rain. We kicked a pine cone around and looked at plants. Back in the house he did alone time and earned iPad time and played Minecraft. I then realized that Kanopy is available for Sno-Isle users as well, so I dowloaded that and we watched the short video “The Duckling Gets a Cookie!?”

I then went for a run. I got back and took a shower. They were playing Apples to Apples. Carly was playing two different people. I joined in as one of them for the last round. We then did Brother games, with August doing lots of laughing. At one point he had Bar making a movie of all of his funny moments from his life.

We then started reading Bone volume 8. He then painted with Carly. He did his second stint of alone time after entering into some crazy negotiations (he initially wanted 15 one-minute timers to get him through it). He got on his iPad and asked, “Could you change the passcode tomorrow?” He played Polytopia for 15 minutes, then we did TNT in Minecraft for the rest of the time.

He had more soup. And at some point Carly had hung up the periodic table and solar system posters where the months poem had been. We listened to “Always” on repeat and were playing it the melodica, etc. and figuring out more of it. He wanted to see the video for it again, so we watched that, then the animated video of “Take On Me”.

Carly got him upstairs and I gave him a bath. He had a game where Baby Sister was going in Bar’s spaceship. He was pretty crazy. He ate his Cheerios and then we brushed his teeth and we said good night. He saw the cover of the Ladytron album we were listening to and said, “It’s like the two cells between neurons…there should be signaling molecules.” We listened to “One Speckled Hen” on Circle Round, he went to the bathroom, and was then asleep by 10:10.

Presiding as judge over Apples to Apples:

Kicking the pine cone back and forth:

Working on a new melodica tune:

The new melodica tune:

He woke up at 8:20. He decided to watch videos instead of Minecraft this morning. He watched one stickman Minecraft video, then discovered the Dear Blocko series of videos on Life Noggin, which were both interesting and pretty funny. Then Kurzgesagt: “Before Human History” and “All the Bombs”. He was then Bar making all those nuclear weapons and more. He then ate his quesadilla for breakfast. He started asking riddles, but ones he didn’t have the answers to, but they sounded nice, like:

Something that has three legs but can’t jump,

A mouth but can’t talk,

And a shirt that isn’t there.

He was talking steadily as we got ready to go. Right before we left I was looking for 10 agorot coins to use in the science museum spiral thing. And could only find four. I went in the Zinnie house looking for the change he would use for his store and calculator game, but instead found a bag with three rotting avocados. No idea how those got there, and I don’t remember buying three avocados at one time. Maybe at the fruit and veggie stand? But how would the bag have gotten there?

We left at 9:45. We read more of Shipwrecked! on the way there. Also on the way he talked about how he collected something “… for abstract art.” Can’t remember what it was though. He also used my phone to take photos and videos out

Carly dropped us off at the Bloomfield Science Museum. Since we would have to pay for her, I suggested she go to another museum. So she dropped us off and then went to Yad Vashem, the holocaust museum/memorial. It is Hannukah break, so everything is really busy. She said the main hall was really crowded, but the other areas/galleries were better. The science museum was busy too, but we’ve seen worse and it wasn’t too bad.

I think we may have sort of snuck in: I had our memberships out, and as we walked up there was a big line at the ticket window. I told August we could walk right by, expecting there to be the usual security person or someone checking memberships. Kept walking and didn’t see anyone until we were fully into the museum. So we may have bypassed a long line, but if so it is odd to not have two lines.

We first did the coin thing. I only had 4 coins for August, but plenty of other kids were doing coins as well. One little kid came over and gave August a coin, and I then gave the kid a coin that I had. We then wandered around. He ran circles through the door that count how many times people walk though. We then made our way up and he had me make a paper airplane. I think he only shot it out of the launcher once though. We spent a good amount of time in the room about electricity, lighting up the lightbulbs, etc. When he was playing with one thing he said, “ This is an alien messaging service.” There is one that uses electricity to pull heat up and down, making a copper plate warm and cold. He felt it and said, “LITERALLY cool.”

We went down to the new-ish da Vinci exhibit and played around with the big wings, then the one where you can try to fly yourself, standing on a scale and holding wings. He was happy still exploring, but it was past noon and I was afraid the snack shop would get busy. He agreed to go get lunch. We each got a packaged sandwich, and he got a chocolate pudding thing and we got a mango juice that we shared. We went downstairs and ate. As we walked down the stairs he remembered being there with Gramma and Grampa. He had a Brother game about Brother wanting candy, then he talked about how he built a website about predicting things. But they aren’t just random predictions, as he uses science.

Back up on the main floor he spent a lot of time playing in the mirror around a post. We then did the mirror maze. This was impressive as he’s always been scared of it and insisted I carry him. It was also busy this time, but he led the way and we walked through it three times. He said he could tell where the mirrors were because “there’s the oil spheres. Those don’t show up in thin air!” He then played in the big mirror outside it. We spent some time over in the optical illusions section, then he started talking, first about a crazy optical illusion he created, then about some system that used mirrors to move light to other houses or something like that, then finally he was talking about “positive” and “negative” eclipse points, like on either side of the Earth, but there was a lot more to it than that.

We looked at the little sample of moon rocks they have their from the Apollo 11 mission, and were up in the machines/gears area at some point. In the end we ended up at reading room, which we’ve never been in. We spent a few minutes looking at a big Science book. August then spotted books across the room and went to check them out. They were a series of books that tell stories from around the world that involve science, part of a big curriculum series from the Museum of Science in Boston.

We then headed out to meet Carly. Somewhere along the way he asked, “How does allergy medicine work?” We met her at 1:40. He had been telling me about a big Rube Goldberg-sort of machine he had made, and he now asked Carly, “Do you want to hear about the machine I maded? It starts with a toaster. A very powerful toaster.”

On the way home we read Shipwrecked! Almost finished it. And some Prelutsky poems. New words included brat, disputatious, and pestiferous. We were home after 3.

He described another Rube Goldberg machine as he sat on the toilet. He did a lot of tune making, then we went out to find specimens. Before we left he debated whether he liked the word specimens or something else better (like samples): “I’m picky about words.” We went and collected a few things, then came back and he did microscope time.

Carly had gone for a walk and made it all the way over by the school when there was a big crack of thunder. She started walking home, and it started raining pretty hard a couple minutes before she got her. A bit soaked, but she was dressed accordingly.

They did Minecraft. He was excited when I said he’d been playing by himself, with the microscope, for 15 minutes and had earned it without even realizing it. I went upstairs for a while.

When I came down they were painting. Somehow I got into changing Siri to his/her different accents, and August was asking each version (Indian, Irish, etc.) questions. That went on for quite some time. August ate more soup, then had some chocolate milk. He talked about making a frozen treat, and when I asked what he said “my ujh,” meaning “usual.” He made his treat, and told me, “I think you need more parenting tricks. I’m catching up.”

While it froze we Shipwrecked! We paused a lot during it to discuss different things. Carly had gotten the book for her students, so was surprised when he liked it. She asked how he’d liked it and he said, “I love it.” We checked on the treat but it wasn’t frozen yet.

He played melodica in his fort, then drew a picture. I heard him say, “She says no, but I say yes.” He then came and explained it to us. It was about him wanting something, like a treat, I think, and Carly saying no. Carly read Junior B. Jones to him. Racket was a word of the day.

I went for a walk and when I came back he had been making a series of picture charts in his kidding fort, each about kidding tricks. I asked him to explain them to me but he wouldn’t; he wouldn’t explain them to Carly either.

I got him upstairs and we did a Brother game upstairs, which involved asking Bar for help to make an intergalactic kidding community to help Brother get better kidding tricks. I gave him a bath, and then Carly put him to sleep.

Around the doors:

Big wing:

Big wing 2:

Trying to fly:

Amazed by the mirror:

Music in the car:

His kidding pictures from his fort:

His secret pictures:

The rain and thunder really let loose this morning. August called down at 7:45. Carly went up to him. He told her he had had a dream. But all he would say about it was “crazy stuff.” I read some Prelusky to him, then they played Minecraft. He asked, “What’s a dingus?” I wondered where he had heard that, and he said, “My Little Pony…you know how good my memory is.”

I told him all the things we could do on this rainy day. He immediately said, “I’m bored.” But then he played more melodica and started looking at things with his microscope. Tomato, cucumber, and hummus were highlights of the morning. I made us pancakes and strawberries. He at least ate the pancake.

He did one puzzle of Kandoodle. His next project was making a new “kidding fort,” this time under the table. He moved his art kitchen to be part of it, and rather unfortunately dumped out the box of wrapping paper from yesterday to use the box. That led to a discussion of kidding tricks, and I mentioned walking over to see the water in the ditches at some point. I mistakenly said “rainbow bridge” and that led to a funny discussion of my mind being stuck in Korea.

August was hungry, and Carly made him a salad that he did a pretty good job eating. He had requested some of the chocolate Santa before that, so after he ate it he got a bite. He crammed as much as he could in his mouth: “kidding trick.” They were figuring out how to play Apples to Apples. They played against each other, but August was also the judge. After a few rounds, with August choosing his own arguments, Carly said, “You have to give one to me!” “Well, if you had the right argument…” She won when she was able to argue that dogs are more disgusting than classrooms. I also heard her explain what orderly (example: not our house) means, so a word of the day.

Over on the couch she read something to him, and he did a Kandoodle level. They then switched and he read a few stories on his own in Rivet while she did a level. He then discovered that Crash Course has books up on level 8.

Carly was starting a clean up but he was hungry. So he agreed on carrots with lemon and he wanted to make Eve’s lemonade recipe. He squeezed real lemons for it. He dropped the squeezer at one point and said, “I’ve never worked in a lemon-squeezing factory before.”

More microscope. He wore his cape and was another magical shapeshifter girl called “Hanukkah”. We played a Brother game while I fixed the cupboard door (again). He went outside with Carly for a few minutes in full rain gear and got specimens. He looked at those, then later asked me to go out to get sap, as it was now raining.

They played the hanging stick game. I also fixed my sunglasses, put a battery in a smoke detector, etc. Carly cleaned out the toy box and stocked it with new toys, and got him to take down the kidding fort he’d built earlier. He was then timing her to see how fast she could hang all of the sticks in the hanging game. For lunch he had his carrots that were already out, and a grilled cheese and turkey.

He asked about the green metal robot toy and we talked about it. He declared, “This is a pretty old fashioned toy.” Carly went for a walk and we talked more about the robot. I ended up finding the video of when he got the original robot from Spenser in Portland, two summers ago. We looked at photos and videos from around then, then he was taking videos as Carly got home, and I was cleaning off and reorganizing the book shelves and coffee table.

For alone time he listened to the Circle Round story “The Chattering Clams” as I kept working on the shelves. He then played Minecraft with her. When she got a phone call she went upstairs and I played with him for a while. Ending went fine, and they decided on popcorn and a documentary about robots in space exploration. He got upset though when he had to have something healthy before a second bowl of popcorn. When he calmed a bit he worked on his first calm area, the one by the black chair, and adding to it. He asked, “What does sheepish mean?” I explained, then he asked, “What’s not sheepish?” So I taught him brazen as well. I think he heard sheepish from Circle Round.

The sky lightened a bit, and I took my opportunity to go for a walk. I took some of the recycling up, then was walking down close to the strawberry fields when Carly called, saying she needed an onion for the tomato bisque she was making. So I walked over to the mall and got a big onion, a couple apples (August had wanted to look at one in the microscope), and a can of iced coffee for me to drink on the way back. It was raining pretty steadily on the way back so I was pretty wet, but my rain coat did its job.

When I got back August was Skyping with Cassie and the kids. He was playing a really cool song on the melodica, in which he was using B flat, and he played it a few times. I didn’t get a really great recording of it, as he stopped to ask Cassie “a medical question” about how fast a human heart can beat before a person dies.

Carly was also making the artichoke, so after they were done Skyping they ate that at the table, and talked about veganism, which led to a discussion of cooking techniques, the military, and Iraq. It started to rain really hard and August looked out. The lights flickered off a few times today, and August joked, “Maybe it’s the gods annoying us.”

August played more melodies, then he and I worked on “Ode to Minke”. So, so close to being done. He then was doing his own compositions. We found more glitches with Notion and I figured out Notion is pretty much abandoned. So we bought Symphony Pro. A bit of a learning curve to a new app, but looks like it will be less buggy and also easier to use, once we understand it.

He gave Carly arguments for why kids should read. He argued that school is about learning. And, “They won’t get as good of a job and won’t make as much money.” And, “They won’t be able to pay for good healthcare.”

Carly was working at the table and started watching a video with a young adult author (she’d used it last year too). He watched part of it with her, then got her to switch. He watched the Kurzgesagt video on building a moon base, which he’s seen a few (several?) times. He had eaten the last of the soup while I was gone, and now had some broccoli and couscous.

We then went back to music and finished “Ode to Minke”. Although right near the end he discussed starting over on a new piece, and thought about adding a bass clarinet part. And once he heard the finished product a few times he also said it needed more drums in places. He wanted to show the song to Carly, and she asked if she could listen to it while he went to the bathroom. He said sure: “It’s like my middle name: taking a long time in the bathroom.” We then tried out a couple of singing-related apps and Symphony Pro. He wasn’t yet convinced.

He had some crackers and peanut butter. He put his fingers in the slime, and talked about how difficult it was to wash off. Still hungry, so had Cheerios and milk.

Carly discovered that one of the bits of sap had somehow ended up on the rug. She was cleaning it every way possible, but not making much progress. So I drove up to the pharmacy and got a bottle of rubbing alcohol and brought it back. That seemed to work much better, but still not clear how well it will look.

She took him up and they did a bath. We listened to “The Banker’s Riddles” on Circle Round again, then he was telling me a riddle that started, “A candle that isn’t a candle…” Had the lights off at 10 and we listened to a Jóhann Jóhannsson album. He was asleep by 10:15.

Playing Apples to Apples:

Purple cape:

Zooming:

Zinnie cam: following me upstairs and down:

Time lapse around the house:

Zinnie cam: me being boring:

Skype and melodica 1:

Skype and melodica 2:

Skype and melodica – his new tune:

Melodica in his kidding fort:

Ode to Minke: