Category: Daily

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Wrestle up in the bed

You’re made of lead”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gold redstone sculpture:

Gold redstone sculpture 2:

His cleanup technique:

NOT a video for Eve:

Discussing pigs for speech:

Reading sentences for speech:

Blind yoga:

Praying mantis:

His big piston-powered farm:

He had a rough night. He called to me 5 or 6 times. And I lay down next to him at least twice and fell asleep before getting back up.

I went up to wake him at 8:35. He cuddled up with me for a few minutes. I finally got him more awake and he just communicated with “uh-huh”. Carly came in and he followed her into the office and cuddled with her. They chatted for a few minutes, then headed downstairs.

They rebuilt the bird nest and played in it, then Carly got the Mohammed book and kept reading. When she talked about Mecca and people getting trampled, he told her about the running of the bulls and how few people have been killed in it. And when she talked about circling seven times and he asked why seven, he told her about the story of the tree and the seven realms, and how if the animals from the seven realms got together the realms would collapse. “here’s why I don’t believe in praying: they’ve prayed millions of times and God hasn’t done anything for them…God hasn’t dropped down and done something.” They had a really good discussion about religions, and talked about learning about other religions, and debated whether prayer is real/works and he said he’ll never pray.

We played Minecraft where he had been making a forest for Vivian yesterday. I was a woodcutter, and he made trees for me to cut down and build my house among. After Minecraft I made banana pancakes. Carly and August played more nest, then were talking about seeds while he started eating. I think he corrected himself on another R word, and she made a list of his R words: ripe, bored, dirt, and rot. There was more discussion of religion and persecuted and minority were words of the day.

When he was finally done eating he declared, “I’m as full as a kettle drum full of silver powder from the backs of banana leaves.” That’s a reference to one of the stories he’s listened. He asked about how water goes up a tree, and I reminded him how physics draws the water up through the evaporation process. He said, “I love physics.”

He did his page of writing. Carly acted shocked, as if she didn’t think he could do it. I joked that that was what we did every day; I gave him really hard things so that he could fail. He got in on the joke and said, “And then I cry.” The last thing he did was write ‘Althauser’, and they practiced spelling it. Carly said that the ‘h’ is silent, and we debated

He finished his page, and they talked about doing more writing, and writing stories or nonfiction, and what a sentence is. He wanted to trace his blood stream with the pen, after doing, or looking at, Carly’s arm: “It turns out kids don’t have as much blood streams? Why?” And he said, “Oh, this happens pretty often” when the cake beads that he rewards himself with during writing time spilled. Also said: “I think it’s fun to trace stuff; I’m going into a tracing phase.” “I do my grip automatically now, it isn’t shaky anymore.”

Carly got out the stencils and they did some drawing, after he was wanting to write all over everything like a two-year old. He was thinking about shopping carts and how they fit together: “You know those shopping cart things? I’m doing the physics of why they line up…stack…”

He and I then did the bird game in the nest on the floor. He was skeptical that I could play it correctly, so I was a bad bird father, letting the chicks jump out before they were ready, etc. Carly went for a little walk, and we played the game where he confuses a migrating bird with a magnet. We talked about magnets and magnetic fields and compasses and compared them to gravitational fields.

We went outside when he told me, “Do you want to see my favorite toy of all time?” He meant the pump/squirting thing. As he pumped up the pressure he said, “It yearns to get out…” We talked about the physics of it and engineering and also how ponds work, after he wondered why the water doesn’t just soak out of the bottom of them.

He had to go in for the bathroom. Bad timing as Carly was vacuuming and had to stop. He didn’t want to go back outside to let her do the rest, but then he decided to do it himself. He did the grey rug and the dining table area. He declared it was really fun.

He then sang a song: “I know how to sing the opposite of Let It Go…Let it in, let your problems consume you, don’t tell it to nobody…” Then he kept making up more:

“Let your problems consume you

And let you feel Shame

…feel Blame

…feel left out

…feel that your parents don’t like you

…pout”

I tried to read Henry and Beezus, but he wanted to convert words into binary, so I opened the converter on his iPad. Carly made zucchini, and I heated the last soft-boiled egg for him. He was wearing me out with questions, and when he asked how airplanes work I started to pull up YouTube to find a video. He saw a new Brave Wilderness where Coyote gets stung by a Cicada Killer, and I started letting him watch that. I then headed upstairs to work.

I think he kept watching Brave Wilderness videos, and then Sophia and her dad, Aron, showed up and they played in the yard. I went out after a bit to meet him. He showed me how some of the flowers looked like leaves, and had white centers that sort of looked like the white bugs:

“The flowers, like leaves

White bugs you believe”

They left a few minutes later and I headed back upstairs, then came back down at 5:40. They were outside. August asked, “Do you want to play hummus against hummus” He meant pumice, and was hitting two pieces together to make dust. He randomly asked, “What’s persecute mean?”  He played with the blue pump, and joked, “This is totally the pump of truth. Don’t you agree?”

Vivian called just before 6 and I went for a run. I took a shower, and coaxed him off at 7:30 with ice cream. It turned out Carly was going to use the ice cream as an incentive for putting away the pillows and blankets, but after ice cream he did a good job of helping with that. I mentioned trimming my hair to Carly, and August got really excited and said he wants to do it. When Carly told him it was a job for adults, he got sore and thought we didn’t trust him. He got some of wooden blocks and set them up in a rather abstract shape and told us “That’s my proof” that he could handle it. He wouldn’t explain it any more than that, then destroyed it before heading upstairs.

He had his bath, then I brought up crackers and read chapter 4 of Henry and Beezus. He listened to “Arachne the Weaver”, where stuff it, sorrows, and sick em were words of the day. He pretended to be snakes and asked for photos of the most dangerous snakes. We read about the taipan (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipan), black mamba, and king cobra.

We went out and brusher our teeth, and he did a lot  of hair brushing. Back in the room he was walking around on the bed, and I told him to be careful at one point. “Careful? What do you mean careful? I like hitting my head and getting a concussion.” He thought his new water bottle tasted like the straw. I refilled it and his old one and he used his old one. We listened to “The Birds and the Trees”, then listened to the new Benge album, Thirteen Systems. He was asleep around 10:45.

Pumping:

Let it in song:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crazy piston machine:

Funny Mastermind game:

Funny dance:

He was up at 8:35. We went downstairs and he went out to cuddle with Carly for a minute. We then Skyped with my parents and Paul to say happy birthday to him. He had gotten the books, so the next-day shipping worked. August played a little piano for them when they asked, then started on Minecraft. I played a little with him after hanging up and he was building abstract sculptures in the sky.

I made us fried eggs for breakfast and we ate those with grapes. Carly came in and he asked to do math. They tried temperature conversion. He did a solve for X problem, and discussed squares and square roots and did a few more problems. Carly was going to vacuum and I was trying to get him to take recycling with me, but he opposed both plans. I took the recycling, then he and I went upstairs and he played xylophone and wrestled, being snakes, etc. We had a game of pretending to throw a baseball in the air and it falling down on one of us, making up couplets like, “I threw the ball into the air / where it lands I do not care” and “I threw a ball into the sky / it fell down and hit your eye”.

Carly was cleaning when we came down, cleaning papers out of the drawer things and what not. He just did a silent alone time, then we played Minecraft. Carly made chicken sandwich lunches. We then wrestled on the couch. Carly drove to school to see if there was anything August could take apart. No luck on that, and she had to argue with the security guard about putting on his mask before taking her temperature. August was scared by a mosquito in the bathroom, and ran upstairs to finish up.

In cleaning up Carly found August’s papers from his reading group at preschool, and he read one of the booklet things to me, declaring it much too easy now. He said, “They were from one of my least favorite people in my life.” He then did some Math Tango and Carly got home. I did some cleaning and helped him with math, and we did more wrestling.

He and I then went for a walk. He spotted a dead bug, then we did the colors game, walking on the lines of bricks on the way home. I was narrating and singing our color choices for him. We stopped by the corn flower and he had his bar and I read the first chapter of Beasts of Olympus: Beast Keeper, the first book in the series.

We got home, and he had a plate of frozen mango. The whole plate slipped out of his hands and fell on the floor. He picked it back up and kept eating. Carly had expected to see mango all over the floor, but he said, “What? It’s frozen.”

I went up to do some work as they were taking apart the old telephone that I’d found in the toy box. They also played with the straw things, which I’d brought down from upstairs. Much to Carly’s annoyance, he wouldn’t actually play with them, but came up with a leveling-up system, whereby as Carly built stuff on her own it would level him up from August 1.0 to 2.0, and on and on until 5.0. At the first level he would just hand her straws, at two he would do straws and connectors, and by 5.0 he would design things on his own. She only got up to 2.0. She told him, “I’m 41 years old! I don’t need to be playing by myself!”

Vivian, Colin, and August started Minecraft early and were playing when I came down at 5:50. I went for a run. When I ran across the cloud bridge there were only 3 or 4 protesters. By the time I came back from Bnei Dror the bridge was absolutely packed, as was the sidewalk on the highway bridge to the south, and lots of people were still walking up, and some were lining the highway. It is the fourth week of these protests against Netanyahu, and it is the largest yet.

I got back in time to see his huge piston machines. I went up to take a shower, and he used 5 stars to play Dragonbox Numbers. He asked Carly, “Why does Colin copy me and Vivian?” She pointed out how he likes to learn by copying people, and I added, “August: you are Colin’s MumboJumbo.” To which he replied, “Oh, I never thought of it that way.”

Colin and company called back. Carly and August took them outside to see the plants. August did NOT want to go for a walk. He was then hungry, and joked he would kill me if i didn’t get food. We weren’t happy with that one, and got it worked out. He had to whisper his sorry. I got him a banana, and he ate the whole thing in about 5 seconds. He then did a ‘Banana’s done’ dance I caught the end on camera, and asked for “More”. He replied, “No. The banana’s done.”

We were outside for a while and he told Carly, “One time on Siri I asked for pictures of a sneaky kid, and they actually came up.” Back inside she gave him his frozen mango from earlier. The earlier fork was now frozen to the plate, so August got a new fork to pry up the old fork. I was texting with my friend Peter, and August took a break from his mango to walk up to me and say, “Here’s the problem with nuclear bombs: if you attack someone with them you’ll die too.”

He wanted to play cribbage with my mom, so we headed upstairs. But Colin called, and he ended up just hanging out and chatting with him for a long time. Vivian came and chatted with him for a while, and asked if he’d been practicing his ninja skills. He told her he hadn’t and that, “Well, it’s fun. I just don’t know what’s the purpose of it.” She replied, “It’s just fun. I want to be a ninja when I grow up.” He heard that, but said, “Okay, but there’s not enough empires for you to join now.” Vivian was then trying to make her face red, and August told her, “The way to make it purple is to get angry. Really angry.” He chatted with Colin more, and had me get his tractor to show August. They discussed that a lot, and August got me to agree that if we saw any tractors here in Israel we would get one for August. And also that we’d take the green one to him. August also listened to “Dog King: Dog Days of Summer”

When they were done we called my parents. Talked for a few minutes, then they played cribbage. It was a back and forth game, with August getting a huge first hand, but her coming back with a huge hand at the end.

When they were done Carly gave him a bath. I went down to get crackers, but then he was being mean (taking things too far, starting with turning off the lights on her, I think) to her. I left the crackers downstairs. I went back up and we went to bed. He listened to “The Elephant’s Dilemma.” About ten minutes in he asked about the crackers, and had a meltdown when I said I’d left them downstairs. He didn’t let me explain that I needed to make sure he’d apologized to Carly first.

We ended up out on the couch, talking to Carly too. We went back in and he listened to one more story, then I put on the new instrumental Yo La Tengo EP and he was asleep about 12:10.

You left the gamey gamey song:

Playing MC with Viv:

Today’s protest:

Rolling on the bed:

Just chatting with the cousins:

Paul’s birthday today. I ordered a couple books for him from Amazon, which said it they would come with free one-day shipping, so we’ll see if that actually happens.

August got up at 9:07 and came down himself, calling “Dada” as he walked down the stairs. He went straight and turned on the fan and bathroom light. I asked if he wanted to go say good morning to Mama, but he asked me to do it for him, and he climbed in the black chair. I joked to her about that, and he said he was too lazy and called “Hi” out the door. But then when I went to talk to her for a minute he came out, carrying a rook, and cuddled with her.

A few minutes later he came back in, declaring it was Friday and he was ready to play with Gilad. He’s been excited about showing his redstone machines. August played for a few minutes on his own until Gilad was ready, then they played together. Spent about half their time in the redstone world, looking at August’s inventions, then they went in a survival world, the village world he’d made for Vivian, and they traveled hundreds of blocks finding temples and abandoned portals and the such. While they played I went out and took videos of our summer flowers and made a little “Summer” video, like the one I did three months ago.

After they got off he played some Dragonbox Numbers while I got breakfast, then he switched to Math Tango. Lasted longer than I had planned, as Carly asked me to go out on the sidewalk and tame the vine, then I made a big multiplication chart for him. I joked he was going to know his multiplication before I was done with it. He really liked it though, and was using it to help him in Math Tango. He’s getting better with his times tables though, and, for example, had 8 times 4 down pretty well by the time we were done. He went outside with her at some point and found a nice feather, which he came in and added to his collection.

Carly did a fruit and veggie order in the morning, and after the delivery came she made spaghetti. August grated the cheese, with me helping hold the grater. I gave him some mozzarella to taste and he said, “Mozzarella is my favorite cheese.” Carly cooked mushrooms for the spaghetti, and August had said he’d be willing to try them again. He hasn’t liked them for months and months. He ate one, then said, “Mushrooms is one of my favorite foods.” And, “Back to liking eating mushrooms…for months I thought it was gross.” And he talked about how he loves grating cheese.

We was then sitting on the couch doing something, and was scat singing. Scat singing was a word of the day after I explained what it was. A few minutes later he said, “Scat singing could be shared around the world cuz there’s no language.” He listened to “The Mouse Tower” for alone time. We played in the new survival Minecraft world and and listened to both parts of “Acorn Milk and the Blue Goblins”. When we got off he listened to “Dog King”. He sang along to the song.

Someone knocked on the door. It was a guy looking for Tali. I pointed him around to the side, thinking he was looking for the new guy. I didn’t recognize the name though, and looked it up: “Tali” is the person that people have been showing up, looking for, since we moved in. Haven’t had anyone by in months and months though. He kept listening, to “Prometheus Steals the Fire” and “The Blind Men and the Elephant”. He then got out the xylophone and played that for a while, then the piano.

I then got him out on a run. We did a lap and a half. We stopped at the bench by the park and he had Myna building a giant octopus in the sky. We then kept running. Today he spotted a stuffed angel thing hanging in a tree.

Back home he finished reading Alfred the Albatross. I then went up to work, and he played Minecraft with Vivian and Colin. I came back and took a shower, then he was playing Math Tango. Jeff and Colin showed us their bug collection, which is now mounted on a nice board with a frame. Carly started to read The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight but Colin had to go to something. Carly and August ended up reading it, then she took him up for his bath. I went up and folded laundry and he played around.

In bed he listened to “The Enchanted Paintbrush”. August was talking about Vivian and asked, “Why did Vivian not like me pretending the arrows meant the car went up?” He remembered how, when we were driving around PA last summer, he would see the one-way arrows, which are literally pointed towards the sky but mean forward, and joke that we had to go up now, and it annoyed Vivian who kept explaining that’s not what they mean.

We brushed our teeth, then cuddled in bed and played a bit. He asked, “What’s it mean to be out cold?” A word of the day. He wanted to keep listening to stories instead of music. Don’t know if it helped him get to sleep any faster, as it took a long time, but I think there was less complaining that he was bored and that he couldn’t get to sleep. He listened to “The Goat in the Garden”, “Share and Ahare Alike”, and then “Thunder and Lightning”. As that started, he told me the whole story, explaining, “And the thunder is his mom scolding him.” I think he finished that story, and the next came on, but he was asleep right around midnight.

The garden – summer:

Multiplication table:

Scar singing:

Xylophone 1:

Xylophone 2:

An ending:

Working on the pre-algebra:

Working on a harder problem:

After August had gone to sleep and I fell asleep with him for a bit I got up and went downstairs to put my watch on the charger and had a snack. Awake, I started to read. Then I heard noises from the cupboards. Long story short, I ended up finding at least 3, and possibly more, cockroaches in our pantry cupboard. We had an old bag of pretzels in the back of the cupboard, and they were in there. I saw at least one peaking out of that bag, and there may have been more. I took it out and threw it away in the garbage can. It was 1:30, so I left all of the food on the counter to deal with in the morning.

August then woke up once during the night, calling out, and Carly went to him. Mumbled something and went back to sleep. It was the first time in at least a couple weeks that she’s had to get up.

In the morning we were cleaning out the cupboards and I went up at 9:20 to wake him up. Struggling to get him to wake up, I called him “Sleet McSleeperton.” He nodded his head, eyes still closed, and turned over. I got him up at 9:35 or so, then read a couple chapters of Tristan Strong.

We brushed our teeth. We went downstairs and he complimented Carly on having it nice and cold. He told her he’d just had to turn on the bathroom light. He played Dragonbox Big Numbers for a little while, then switched to Minecraft. He made a village survival world for playing with Vivian, and he and I started to gather some resources. He was primarily collecting dyes. I offered him frozen mango for breakfast, and he asked if it was on a plate. I sprinkled a plate with water, then put the mango on top of it, and it froze to the plate almost immediately, like he likes.

Carly then got him to write a story with her. She was asking him about things like conflict and character details. They brainstormed, then he came up with the following story: In a land far, far away there once was Dragon Box. Dragon Box was an apple. He wanted to walk. He couldn’t. Stone is a stone. He’s mean. He’s a bully. He teases the apple because he doesn’t have enough apples to break him. And it was all a bad dream.

He talked about how he really likes “it was just a dream” endings. When she asked what he’d learned in writing it, he said he’d learned about conflict. Carly then started reading a Junie B. Jones book, where she is now in first grade. She kept opening her new lunch box when she isn’t supposed to, and August talked about how to break rules, and was asking Carly about how her kids got in trouble. It’s been so long since she’s been in the classroom she had trouble answering.

I made the pumpkin gnocchi we’ve had in the cupboard, putting tomato pesto on it and grating parmesan. He ate that, and I spent some time cleaning the shelves; although overall Carly did much more of the organizing and cleaning. He then played with the Synth One app, and we figured out how to reinstall it to restore the default sounds as he was afraid he had messed one up, and restore his custom sounds. He also played with a couple of other music apps.

We wrestled on the floor. He calls my drowning sounds “too cute”. He then did alone time, listening to “Old Favors”. We kept listening to stories as we did redstone in Minecraft, making TNT and bell machines. It was “making a ruckus.” We went and played outside. He started a Brother and Sister game, and I had Baby Sister want to stop being called Baby Sister. For a name for herself she chose “Emily Danger.” We sat on the swing and read some Tristan Strong. Last nerve was a word of the day. We played on the bench for a while before heading back in.

I was tired so went upstairs to rest. I heard him play some piano, and they also did some writing practice. Carly was trying to get his letters to start from the top, and he wanted proof that that is better than starting at the bottom. They looked it up, and learn that pulling the pencil across the paper is easier than pushing it. When I came down I said it was like left-handed people writing, and how they often twist their hands around to pull across the page, and showed him. Carly said he seemed to understand the reasoning, so maybe he’ll accept the change.

He and I did a couple rounds of the Larva matching game, then they went up to town for their snack and park time. They also went to the hardware store to get light bulbs. They called, asking for what lightbulbs to look for, then bought a couple on the way back.

Back at home Carly made packaged pea soup, adding extra peas, for dinner. August loved it. He played Minecraft with Vivian and Colin. He planted a tree in Vivian castle and she threatened to kick him off the world, so he called her stupid. Carly hung up, and they were able to call back and work things out and they played together the rest of the time. I went for a run. When I got back they were outside: the power had gone out while I was on my run. He was getting some extra iPad time because he didn’t like the power being out. Luckily, he had finished his time with Vivian and Colin before the power went out. A phone call with Shmuel and talking to the neighbor ensued, but it was clear that power was out to the neighborhood. I took a shower. The power came back on.

He was then listening to a bunch of stories when the power went off again. This time it was very dark. I immediately had the flashlight on on my phone, and got August outside. He and I ended up on the swing, with him wailing while in my lap. This went on for several minutes. Carly came out to help. Eventually she went back inside. August climbed on the bench and lay down and looked like he would go to sleep. He asked to go to the bathroom, and he went over in the dirt by the new vine and we hosed down the area. Carly brought out blankets and pillows and sheets; he wouldn’t go back in the house for anything, so didn’t get to see the candles. He actually fell asleep on the bench for a while, comfy on a pillow and blanket and sharing a sheet with me. He woke back up though and was really unconsolable. He wanted us to call the electric company, and talked about how we never should have moved to Israel: “We made a horrible decision to move to Israel. Tomorrow I want to move to another country without power outages.”

Carly had the idea of going for a drive, and he agreed to that. We drove out of Even Yehuda, then back north through Beit Yehoshua and Kfar Netter. Power was on in north Even Yehuda, but out in most of the south. As we drove back through town, close to Dalit’s house, we saw crews working along the side of the road: likely the site of the issue. August never fell asleep in the car. Instead, he brought up how “You should wash your sheets every five or six days…” He learned that from a Life Noggin video.

Right as we were back close to our house Carly spotted the lights flickering on, at 9:50. We were relieved we didn’t have to keep driving. At home he told us, “When I grow up I think I’ll be a math teacher.” “I think being a teacher would be fun…actually no, because the students wouldn’t listen to me…if I was a student I’d know how to not listen to teachers, not follow the rules, and get away with it.” Carly also asked him again where he’d peed in the yard, as he wouldn’t tell her before. This time he said, “I’ll spill the beans.”

Carly took him up for his bath. I came up and got him in bed. He listened to “The Road to Camelot”, then we brushed our teeth and back in bed he cuddled with me. We listened to the Classitronics playlist on Apple Music, and he was asleep at 12:05.

Silly stick:

Automatic fireworks machine:

The bell machine:

Singing on the floor:

He woke up at 9. He was yelling, but fine. I read a little What If? then Tristan Strong. He went to the bathroom, and sang a “Look at the basket, all nice and clean” song. We went downstairs and he played Dragonbox Big Numbers. I went up and did a little work, then came down and played 15 minutes of lucky block world with him. I got us banana bread for breakfast and we took it over on the rug and I tried to get him into doing some art. We did some drawing of shapes, and discussed 3D drawing and I showed him perspective and shading when he was asking questions. He did a little practicing of drawing stars. He then went to the piano and sang a song about getting bored.

Back on the couch I tried to get him reading Albert the Albatross. He was first interested in albatrosses, and we looked them up. Extant was a word of the day. He then read some of the book, and said, “Maybe when I die in my new life I’ll be an albatross.” We ended up wrestling and being snakes, then he read more of the book. Carly came down, and he went over and read a couple pages to her.

They played chess, and I went up to do some work. He came up to ask if he could do alone time. I said yes, but he ended up playing with the metronome, making high-pitched music. Carly made him corn and other food, and he ate that as well. He finally did alone time, not listening to anything, and just resting on the couch instead. He said something about being entertained up us. He then played Dragonbox Big Numbers for his time and got the “Tenerator” (the machine that bundles your apples in tens). Spent the rest of the time in Minecraft, doing redstone. He said, “You’re hapless” And also used, “Baleful…Amanda Weldon said…” So hapless and baleful were new words, although he had already learned their meanings even from the story.

Carly went to get food from the new falafel place in town. We played a few rounds of the Larva matching game, and when he asked what the characters are from I told him about the cartoon and how we’d see it on the busses in Korea. I then let him watch it, and he was laughing hysterically.

At 3 Jeff came over. August was excited by the pain au chocolat he had brought, giving him a big smile and two thumbs up. Carly made French fries, and August ate those with the labnah she’d bought before having some of the bread. While we talked he played Dragonbox Big Numbers and watched Life Noggin videos.

After Jeff left we played inside on the floor, being really silly, with him putting chess pieces under my back and having my lie on them. I then got him out on a run, but it turned into a walk when his shorts kept falling down. He showed me where the dead bug had been, and led me over to the main street where he had a game of walking on the different lines. That carried us much of the way home.

Colin called when we were back, around 6:30, as Cassie had said Minecraft would be a bit late. August ate a hot dog and grapes. I don’t think Vivian played with them. I went for a run. When they got off Minecraft we all went for a walk, taking Colin along again. Back at the house he spent five stars to play Dragonbox Big Numbers so he could show Colin.

After that Carly got him upstairs for his bath and brushed his hair. He had a lollipop. We then started the Formula 1 race in on his bed. We watched about 20 laps. Retire was a word of the day. He then listened to short stories: “Fire Fairies of Lillywood”, “Sophia the Snowflake”, “How the Camel Got Its Hump”, and then “The Secret Origins of the Tooth Fairy” as we brushed our teeth. He walked around for 4 minutes to get his watch up to 90, listening to “How the Whale Got His Throat”.

I had accidentally turned off the AC when we’d left the room, so when we ran back in he gave me an exasperated “Seriously‽” with palms out and bending his knees.

In bed he asked, “What’s it mean to be a man of infinite resource and sagacity?” It was from a story, so I explained resource and sagacity and he kept saying “I’m a man of infinite resource and sagacity.” And “…So you’d better not question me or I’ll punish you.”

We listened to the Late Night Tales album again, and he wasn’t asleep until 12:15, I think.

Jazzy music:

Reading to mama:

Metronome “music”:

Laughing at Larva:

A man of infinite resource and sagacity:

No Gabi today, as he cancelled yesterday, saying he is sick.

August called me up at 9:12. He yelled loudly, so I thought there was a problem or he’d had a bad dream or something, but when I got up he was calmly sitting on his bed. We read some Tristan Strong, then did our teeth before going downstairs. He wanted patiently on the couch while I washed his water bottle and Carly got ready, then they played Minecraft together. He was placing pressure plates. over every surface, which led to an annoying or satisfying (based on who it was) sound when you walked over them.

He was singing something and I sang back. We joked about musicals, which Carly doesn’t like. He ate his frozen mango with a fork. He really likes spearing them on the plate. And we played a couple rounds of that Vivofit Jr. game. I got him outside and we played fetch, with him as the puppy. He was then a flying squirrel. We discussed the plants in the yard, and he told me what Carly had taught him about one of the plants growing new ones, and he pointed out the little tomato plants growing from where compost was used. And he told me, “What I really like is when there’s water droplets in these plants. It makes it look especially nature-y…especially green.” He was referring to the plants in the container on top of the fence.

Inside he read parts of “The poem that’s titled ‘the poem that’s titled ‘the poem that’s titled ‘the door.’’’” and we discussed all the quotation marks. We then went upstairs for wrestling, and the whole out of fix-it shots game and whatnot. I ended up coming up with teasing names for some of the magic characters: Barki, silly Millie, Zero the Hero Sandwich.

Downstairs we watched Grian and had a couple crackers and peanut butter. He listened to “Brothers and Bees” for alone time. Learned a word in there. For lunch Carly made peanut butter tofu and broccoli. As we ate I read What If?. He asked more about boomerangs when they were mentioned and we watched a couple of videos of people throwing them. That led to going upstairs for a game with Brother meeting a boomerang champion. Somehow, Discombobulated became a word of the day.

After more wrestling we went back downstairs. He played some chess with Carly, then they tore up paper bags and watched part of a Choose Your Own Adventure thing on Netflix. He didn’t like that much so they switched to Prehistoric Road Trip, finishing episode two and starting three. I went upstairs to do some work and heard him playing piano.

I came down at 3:50. He was playing Dragonbox Big Numbers. I looked up when he really got into that game for the first time, and it was April 7, 2017. It was a day we did our last, or one of our last, big days on the Seoul Trail, and we played it on the long train ride home.

I then got him out on a run. We did .4 km. Not our longest, but it was just one run, without stopping. We ran up the back trail, then he agreed to turn left this time and we went around the block that way, then to home.

We did a little reading when back at the house, then watched the newest Iskall. I went up to my work time at 5:30. Carly got him out on a walk to the park, and he actually wanted to go see the nice dog in the yard, so they tried to go do that, but the owner was out in the yard. August told me he wants to watch another race tomorrow. Carly made sushi, then he had his Minecraft time, followed by chess with Oma. After work I went for a run.

After his bath I got him in bed and he listened to “Three Little Pigs” and “Polly and the Pumpkin Seeds”. He was grumpy when I wouldn’t play games with him, but we went and brushed our teeth, and back in bed he cuddled with me. Thought he might fall asleep like that. He asked about why worlds in Minecraft could work in newer versions, but not the other way around, and we discussed software compatibility. Finite was another word of the day. He told me that when they went to the park he saw ants swarming a dead bug. It’s the most ants he’s seen eating something. We listened to the Late Night Tales: John Hopkins album, and he was asleep around midnight.

Fetching:

Running the lines:

Chess with Oma:

I went upstairs at 9:15 and he was sleeping pretty soundly. I managed to get him up at 9:30. I read Tristan Strong for a long time. High horse and anansesem were words of the day. We brushed our teeth and headed downstairs. We played Minecraft. He made a triple fireworks shooter and I taught him how to make simple flying machines.

I made him banana bread and took him outside. He showed Carly how he builds flying machines. I went up to work. When I came down a bit later they were playing Guess Who. I took over and played several rounds with him. He guessed mine randomly. It worked for him in one of our first rounds, so he just kept guessing names. When he was pretend nervous he did a deep breaths think like Carly does, which was funny. He also was trying to fool me, and using more than one card, trying to rotate them out if I guessed too closely. He’s trying all the sneaky things now. Carly, not I, pointed out he would fit in well at an Althauser board game.

For alone time he listened to “Mohingra Grove”. He requested it, asking for my help searching for ‘spots versus stripes’ as that is what it is about. In Minecraft I learned how to make a piston feed tape, then taught August. After that he did some math with Carly. He then started Pictionary. I drew things like a blender making a smoothie, Boxcar Children and transplanting a plant. He then did ShareTheMeal and we wrestled on floor.

We went out for a run, a shorter one, and did .38. He stopped for numbers painted on the ground and an eye off of an old toy. Back at home we sat on the bench and he told me about choose your own adventure book he’d read with Carly. I then read What If? Our groceries order arrived and we helped put them away. Well, August watched a short Mumbo Jumbo video about mistakes beginners make and had popcorn then helped a bit.

Colin called, and Carly took him outside and then upstairs, and August went with. August then listened to “Bending and Breaking” and I went for a run. When I got back they were playing survival Minecraft together, him having spent five stars. I went up to work. When I came down he was playing with Vivian and Colin. They were making a plane and he was doing fountains. August asked Cassie “Would you ever be interested in doing Minecraft?” Carly told him to say, “It would really mean a lot to me.” He replied, “Nah. Too cheesy.” Vivian logged off when he made it laggy for a minute with arrows. But it was literally only a few seconds.

Colin called back after Minecraft and they went outside and upstairs again, then we all went on a walk. They showed Colin the tractor, then as we were walking north he decided to all Oma instead. Not as long as last time, but August got his goal and it was a nice walk.

Back at home we watched the second Formula 2 race from the weekend. August really loved the stats and talked about them the whole time, and would run and tell Carly how many laps were left. He kept inviting her to come and watch with us. Carly said if he liked stats he should become a golf fan, or baseball fan, neither of which I liked the idea of.Fan was another new word.

We were wrestling and being silly on the couch. I was making him really laugh with random words and names, and called him “Spidey McPoopStash”. He’s also learned the phrase last gasps and has been using it in our games: “I’m getting the last gasps out of this.”

Carly took him up for a bath. In bed he listened to “Brothers and Bees”. Scoff was a word of the day. We brushed our teeth. Back in bed we listened to the Midnight Colours album from Rafael Anton Irisarri. He kept waking me up, and finally fell asleep at 12:10.

Showing off his redstone creations:

Doing some math:

Evening walk:

He called me up at 8:03. He was kind of stuffy. We brushed our teeth and he told me, “I want mama to teach me how to sew.” As we walked downstairs he told me, “I’m moving in a knight pattern.” He was stepping in L shapes. He told Carly he wanted to learn sewing, and it kind of sounded like he was talking about embroidery.

He played Minecraft on his own while I finished watching qualifying, then I played with him the rest of the time. He made an SOS transmitter and receiver, and automatic launchers, which we first used with fireworks, but then had fun by putting magic arrows in them. They would rain all over, which looked funny and caused some lag until you picked them up.

He had a quesadilla for breakfast and Carly read Joey Pigza to him. Carly and I were discussing a Tiv Taam order and he was grumpy we wouldn’t get the sugary cereal for him. I went outside for a while to enjoy the morning as he sat not he couch. I came in to find him making a bit of a fort over in the play area. He put that away, then asked me to do Earpeggio, so we did a little of that. He then wanted a big piece of paper and taped it to the ground, and used a pencil on it. He told me, “I’m doing statistics as a kidding plan.”

After a few minutes he wanted to play Guess Who. Carly started doing some cleaning, and we took down the paper calendar stuff from the windows, since I haven’t been using it since COVID. It turns out the glue on the velcro tape is really, really sticky and Carly had trouble getting it off her hands. She then went upstairs t a meeting and August and I watched GoodTimeswithScar. We were then wrestling on the couch, and I made a nest for him. He then started a game of I Spy. He sang a “I spy something white song.”

I went and started making our lunch. Carly came down, and he drew from the basket. He drew ‘Reversi’ and agreed to read a book. He played one of the family games with her, battleship maybe, then had a hard time getting off the iPad. He managed, and started reading a book with Carly. I was cleaning the book shelves and asked about the Bob Books, and he came and read Max and the Tom Cats after we ate our chicken sandwiches.

He had made a sort of fort area under the black chair to store his iPad. He had wanted a container of beads turned upside down on top of the stool as part of it, and I’d shown him how to do it while Carly was upstairs. I’d left it that way for a few minutes, but was afraid it would get knocked off at some point and we’d have hundreds of beads all over the floor. He saw it wasn’t upside down and wanted it flipped again and got grumpy when I said no. What broke the ice was when I changed my estimate from 200 to 300 beads. Carly joked that there were more, then each time one of us mentioned the number of beads it got a 100 bigger.

So we got over that, then I was taking extra books upstairs and organizing his shelves and closet. I found the old Larva matching game from Korea and brought it down and we played a few rounds. He totally gets the game now. While cleaning out the bookshelves downstairs I found the ‘First 100 words’ list I’d used with him. He read through the whole thing, and I think there was just one or two he needed help with now. During his alone time I started writing a story using them all, at his request.

We did more playing and wrestling on the ground and couch, CPR shots, etc. He listened to “The Magic Bowl” for alone time. We then played Minecraft in a lucky block world. He gave himself a very post-apocalyptic skin, and tweaked it with an eye patch, etc. And was saying things like, “I’m a survivor of the great lucky block explosion of 96.” I don’t know where he got this dystopian idea. We haven’t really read books in that vein. I’m sure it will happen at some point. I said something was “Like from my youth” He asked what youth meant, and that was a word of the day.

I went for a run when he started playing Minecraft. We let them go long, as they were doing an amazing job of talking to each other and working together. He did a great job with Colin, talking about being nice to him. Really seems to have turned a corner of sorts recently. He had a full bowl of dinner.

Cherie called at 7:30, and he played a long time with Cherie. I brought up crackers twice, his phone (he listened to stories at the same time), and an apple with peanut butter and honey. They will soon be traveling across country, so we don’t know how much time Cherie will be able to play with August after this. And in Pennsylvania she’ll be busier with Vivian and Colin at that time.

Carly gave him a bath, and he was singing “I am the stupidest tiger in the world.” He was then telling her all about Minecraft. He told me, “White glass blocks and sandstone go together…it’s pretty obvious.”

In bed he listened to “Bending and Breaking”, and then cuddled with me and played around before we went to brush our teeth.

He then talked about a food world/add-on he had created in Minecraft: “And at the end you get enough material for a pizza…” “and a five star rating” “ones a smoothie, ones a pizza, ones tomato soup, ones a fruit salad.” “There’s frying pans and everything.”

We listened to the Ambient playlist. He asked me why the one game is called Minesweeper, and minesweeper is a word of the day. He was asleep at 11:40.

Transmitting SOS in Minecraft:

Arrow fountain in Minecraft:

Song of the day:

Bedtime sillies: