Category: Daily

He called me up at 7:15. I came in the bedroom and he sat on the pillow on the lower bed. I sat on the bed and put the blanket around me, and he crawled in my lap. He then lay down on the pillow and rested. Thought he might go back to sleep. Instead, he asked, “Could you carry me?”

Downstairs we played with the money truck—the truck he designed yesterday with the magnet blocks and taught me and Carly how to make. It holds all of his coins. We then read the Elephant and Piggie book Are You Ready to Play Outside? and part of Timepocalypse. He then had a store where he exchanged different currencies. He said it was a “a going to other countries store.” He played a little of his train game and started watching something but then pancakes were ready. He ate two of my cinnamon pancakes, but had wanted Swedish pancakes.

Over on the white board he read my funny phrases out of the letter magnets: ‘smelly tooth’ and ‘mad donut’. I was still adding to the latter when he started to steal letters. We played with the magnet blocks and he wanted to build the big thing in the photo. It turned out we’d need at least two sets to do so, but we did a reasonable approximation. That ended with him knocking it over.

He then headed outside. He then showed me the “arcade” game he’d made with a string and broom under the slide. You had to pull the broom to you without it falling off and you got two lives. We did that, then he went in and got more string and added it. He kept adding more and more. He made another game where he tied a flower pot to a string and it hung from a stick suspended between the slide and fence and you were supposed to swing it back and forth without hitting the slide. He had me tie the end of one string to a branch of the tree. He spent quite awhile on it.

We went inside and he played with a circuit set. He did an entire project on his own, although he kept asking me if each piece was right. He just needed some confirmation, as I didn’t have to correct him at all. The final project didn’t quite work as it was supposed to, however, as he had had to substitute a capacitor for the one that was broken. He was okay with that, then proceeded to add every piece that is three dots long to it. He then hooked our two iPads together with the audio cord, then we watched a StoryBots video of songs about space (https://youtu.be/n1MaZRxWhbE)

He watched Smurfs, then finally went to the bathroom at 11:30. Shmuel called to talk about the air conditioner. We then played a Brother and Sister tiger game after he found the neck pillow. We played with the coin car again. For some reason the Peg + Cat 1 to 20 song was stuck in my head, so I was singing it, but intentionally messed up the words. That was driving August crazy and he’d say “No!’ and sing it correctly.

He made the beds and then read What Is That? for his chores. He then had oatmeal for lunch and I had cereal. He then asked about bank robberies, which led to asking about how wars start, which then changed to asking if the Titanic was real. And we looked up how many people it held and how many the biggest ships now hold. He said he had a huge cruise ship called the Crater, and asked what a ‘crater’ is and how they are made. So we discussed the possibilities.

We got ready to go and left at 1:30. He asked “Do tigers not liked to be shaved?” He said he had learned it from StoryBots. We listened to Odesza on the way, and it took awhile: traffic on the way there, then the west side parking lot was gated with guards, I thought for an event. We drove all the way around to the east side of the park and parked, only to find that the first two entrances were zip tied shut. Luckily, there was a third one close to the playground that had a guard on it, and we were let in. I assume it is just heightened security due to the Independence Day holiday. Mostly seemed for show, however, as all a terrorist would need to get to the crowded playground was a pair of scissors. We were finally in the park at 2:20.

We went to our usual game there of buying things for a spiderweb house. We would run back and forth between the spiderweb and the different ‘store’ areas. We would then rest in the spider web. There was sticky black stuff coming off of the posts and he stuck the fingers of my hand together with bits of it, then operated to fix my hand. I then did it to him. I pushed him on the round thing a couple times, once with a smaller kid who also got on. He went on the rocking toys, and asked to go to the bathroom. We had seen kids spraying each other with silly string, and coming out of the bathroom August found the cans scattered on the ground. When we had a snack he took the bar and divided it into nicely equal halves, singing a song about making the bar halves even as he did so.

We headed out, but stopped at the exercise equipment for a few minutes. When he wanted the elliptical I was on I made him ask politely and wait. He then wanted me to do the same with him.

We left at 3:30. He was shrieking when he posted a little dog between us and the car. As we got to the car (we got past the dog with me holding him0 he said, “Did you know I made a Dion ship?” “As tall as a skyscraper.” He said it was Dion shaped, but a ship inside. I seem to remember him making something else in the shape of Dion before.

We drove over to Tiv Taam. Good sign that the parking lot had lots of space in it, bad sign that there weren’t any carts out front. We had lucked out and gotten a cart by the car that someone had left in the parking lot. It was really busy inside. August handled it well, and it was probably an hour between when we got there and when we were able to leave. August did great, and as we circled back by the bulk Russian candies, I let him choose one. He had a lot of choices, and ended up choosing one that he said was pure chocolate.

We headed home and got here by 5:30. We stopped at the strawberry stand and got a couple boxes. They’re still going strong, although the season should be over soon. He went outside with Carly and I made dinner and put away groceries. Inside he read The Old Truck, What Is That?, and another book to Carly. We had our schnitzel and broccoli for dinner.

I delivered a strawberry as he made a ship out of magnet blocks for Carly at the table. We then finished reading Timepocalypse. Carly tried to read Dogman to him (they’d read a bit earlier) but he was being squirmy on the couch. He finally settled down and they did some reading. I went upstairs to rest for a few minutes. As I was coming down, I heard them talking about coming up, and heard him say he wanted Carly to carry him so he could be scared on the stairs. I turned the lights off, before they had started, but it startled them and he did a lot of screaming. I took hm upstairs and we wrestled and started the Brother and Sister game over again.

In the bathroom he asked, “what’s a deserted island?” So deserted was a word of the day. He made another drain fly potion and talked about how it was spreading away from our house. We washed him and he brushed his teeth. I read Paddington Bear and the Grand Tour and Carly came in and I left them at 9:15.

I think I forgot to mention that a day or two ago, in response to him asking about the disco dancing in Timepocalypse, we had watched some videos on YouTube. That led to watching John Travolta dancing in both Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. His first Quentin Tarantino film.

His outdoor arcade game 1:

His outdoor arcade game 2:

New version of his game:

Some silliness:

He was up just before 7. He watched a little Wild Kratts. He went to the bathroom, then sang a “Inside Underpants” song as he put his pants on. The tune was influenced by “Let it Go”. He then talked about his animal called ‘typhos’. He invented them a few days ago. They are “light blue, shine, rare…blue stripes.” Endangered becuase “it’s dying out because of other predators and stuff.” He ate oatmeal, then we went did table time. We watched the rest of the egg drop video. He now decided our whole contraption and egg could only weigh 80 grams. We haven’t yet protected an egg and he’s making it harder and harder.

This time, we used balloons and blew up a bunch and taped them around the egg, which was wrapped in a plastic bag because we’d realized that neither scotch tape, masking tape, nor duct tape would stick to an egg. It weighed in at 81 grams. August was reluctant to let it pass. He’d make a good racing scrutineer. He dropped the bundle from the slide and it survived, no problem. He then wanted it dropped from the office. I dropped it out, and it sounded like it landed really lightly. However, when we ran down to check and August started to pull the balloons apart, 4 or 5 popped simultaneously, since they were all taped together, and it caused a chain reaction. The egg was cracked when we got to it, but I think it cracked when the balloons broke and it hit the ground.

Back up in the bedroom he started talking about, and calculating, conversions between different currencies. He was also adding by hundreds in his head “3 dollars would be 1,200 agorot…7 agorot would be 2,800 agorot.” He got most of them, with little help. We opened the window completely so he could look out, and I reminded him to be safe. He said, “Can i climb out of here? I have before…I did some very dangerous things. Like jumped on the Zinnie house, and climbing to the top of our house.” Then it was a skyscraper, then up in the clouds: “eated some cloudiness.”

We started the Brother and Sister Seal/Whale again, and played until they are floating to a new island. We went downstairs so I could make tea. We played a little Hey, that’s My Fish! He read The Sled and we both read the Elephant and Piggie book Are You Ready to Play Outside?

We went back upstairs and added to the game. ‘Ration’ was a word of the day. And something else from the game. Downstairs he watched the computer play Hey, that’s My Fish! He asked, “Isn’t 17 a lovely number? It’s a girl number. Becuase it’s pink.” 4 is green. 7 is pink. 1 is pink.

He had the last of the noodles and broccoli and cheese sauce, and I had soup. We did the word search together in Camping with Grandpa.

We got ready to go, and walked over to the mall. He was a little disappointed when we didn’t go to the fancy ice cream place there. A miscommunication: I’ve always called it ‘ice cream at home’ and thought I’d explained that when he earned that reward we would go get a container of ice cream and bring it home. Anyway, he started to get upset and thought about hitting me, but he handled it well and we went in to Tiv Taam and got a box of ice cream sandwiches. I let him buy them, using the card and signing, then he ate on on our walk back. He said it was “insanely good”, but then also said it wasn’t quite as good as the fancy ice cream place.

At home he did alone time and read the three Bob Books to himself that he knows he can do. He had some time left, so went and played with the magnet blocks. We then drove to school at 2.

Carly had arranged to use Ayal’s room and we met with Marka. August sat on Carly’s lap and watched Wild Kratts with headphones on. Basically, Marka and Julie have decided it is best to drag our feet and do as little as possible and wait until Shary and Mike are gone at the end of the school year, and deal with the new team.

Carly went back to work (she had a meeting) and August and I went to play with Eve and Zoe, who were being watched by a high schooler after school. Candy gave August his rock from school with his name on it. They went on the swing first. Zoe was pushing and got knocked over by the swing. Natalie took her to the nurse. August told Eve about his watch, then the two of them moved over to the kitchen area and had a great time together. They made birthday stuff for me: cake, muffins, stew. They were doing awesome. They were talking about big numbers and August checked with me: “2000 million. That would be two billion, right?”

Zoe was back, but playing by herself, and then we all moved to the big playground, stopping at the bathrooms on the way. August and Eve climbed on ladders and bars thing, and were now discussing light speed. Their parents came and they left at 4. August kept playing. As he climbed up the spiral ladder he sang a “Saying goodbye to the ground” song. He then spun on the spinning thing like it was no big deal—I can’t remember if he’s actually done it before, and started having me hide so he could find him. We played several rounds (he never wanted to hide) and there was a lot of laughter involved. One time I just stood right behind him, hoping he’d walk the other direction and I could hide behind the pole he was standing against. When he found me he laughed hysterically.

Eventually we headed home. We played with the magnetic blocks, and ate pita and hummus and carrots as a sort of dinner. Carly got home at 5:30. He and I read some Skybrary books: Tessa Tiger’s temper Tantrums, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Sammy Skunk’s Super Sniffer, and The Quest to Digest.

We had some soup for more dinner, then they weren’t outside. He thought about picking up tree things for a point, but didn’t do it. They came in and played with the magnet blocks. Carly went upstairs and I played with him. It turned into the annoying Joseph game, over and over, so I got Carly to take him up to his bath.

He made a potion to kill drain flies. As I came up I heard him say, “Did you know you’re the best mama ever? And dada’s the best dada ever?” I was up just after 9. He was discussing his watch, and his ‘application data’: “You should search for my application data.” He asked for stories from when I was 19 or so and I told him about running start and living alone in Seattle.

I sang “We all sing with the same voice”, “Ladybug Picnic”, and “Fake Plastic Trees” and he was asleep at 9:30.

Underpants song:

Egg drop #3:

Egg drop #4:

Popping balloons:

Reading to himself during alone time:

Telling Eve about his watch:

Discussing traveling the speed of light:

He was up at 7:05. We read Plants Versus Zombies. We read a few pages of that, then he changed his mind again and wanted to watch Wild Kratts. He watched the musk ox episode, then went to the bathroom. He talked about doing his chores and seeing coins and saving them, even if he didn’t know what specifically he wanted.

He wanted to make the beds. We went up and did that. While we did that he asked, “Do you like head butting?” He was thinking of the oxen. Back downstairs he remembered that new train iPad game and played it. We played a little Toca Store, then we were playing the store game with all of his different coins. He had oatmeal and mango for breakfast and we read more of Hilo #5. He asked for seconds. He told me about a “Bullet bug…it runs so fast it’s blind…at least as fast as a car…it can run for a half hour…”

For an activity we started to watch a video about egg drop strategies and ‘kinetic energy’ was a word of the day. To start our egg drop, August listed out all the rules (the video had mentioned that different competitions have different rules). He clearly laid them out, and I wrote them down, including no parachutes, the contraption could only weigh as much as an egg (he got the scale and measured), and listed what materials could be used. We then worked on our first egg drop idea: an egg in a plastic bag with popcorn. Which is a great idea. However, he was stingy on the popcorn as he wanted to eat as much if it as possible. He dropped the egg from the chair onto the patio and it cracked. Back inside, instead of working on a second one, he wanted to eat popcorn. So we ate popcorn and read Plants Versus Zombies. ‘Artifact’ was another word of the day. We finished Timepocalypse and he wanted to start it again. We read some of it, then he changed his mind and wanted the other one.

August then read the Bob Book The Sled to me, quite easily. We went outside to check out the wind. Shmuel called, and said the technician could come today. There was lots more discussion of coins. We talked about going up to get more styrofoam from the junk area when he decided it would be good for the egg drop. He got distracted with his top toy from McDonald’s when he realized it had three-sided screws and we could take it apart with our new tool set. “I’m a genius, right? I figured out that thingie is in there…” The screws came out, but it was still glued together. So we took it outside and took a hammer to it. I was able to crack apart the pieces at the seam so we could put it back together. We found the gyroscope inside and played with it. Put the toy back together, but it wasn’t quite as good as it was loose. Still, a start of putting things back together.

He had noodles and broccoli for lunch, then we went upstairs to move the beds. We played Math Tango on the bed. I tried to get him to change his clothes, but he decided to dress as Captain Underpants. He had his pajama shirt around his neck as his cape, then wanted another pajama shirt for his pants. He then used his cheap telescope (from Korea) to look out the window in his room. We went outside to get his better one, and the technician called and said he would be here in ten minutes. Inside, we started to change August, but first he danced naked to “Dont Hold Back”.

Got him dressed, and the technician showed up. We went upstairs and August watched him. He recognized that one of the tools was a multimeter. When I pointed out the AC didn’t even do anything when I pressed the button on the unit, the guy asked “Why?” I wanted to say, “That’s why you’re here, buddy” but held my tongue. He looked at it for awhile, then said he’d have to come back another day with a circuit board for it. At least it was a start.

Downstairs, August wanted to take apart his music box. We realized we could take it apart to see how it works, then likely put it back together. We were totally successful on this one, so we saw how a screw rod turns the gear to turn it, and when we put it back together we realized we had to adjust the notes piece to be the perfect length away from the cylinder so that the notes play. His last taking apart experiment couldn’t be put back together: He wanted to cut open his squishy thing to see if it had a liquid in it. He was pretty sure it didn’t. So I let him cut it open and he was surprised to find it was just air. He then used the parts of it to shoot them across the room like rubber bands. I took a slo-mo video.

We then decided to exercise at home. He joined me a little, although mainly by climbing on my back to make things harder. Upstairs, we read Creepy Pair of Underwear again and decided to hold on to it since he likes it so much.

We then drove to school. I also took our swim stuff, as it was supposed to be hot today (the forecast said up to 35 at one point). That turned out to be good, as Andrea said she knew nothing about August being in the class, even though I had filled out the registration form a week ago. And of course Vicky is out of town this week. August was totally fine with it though. He wrote on the white board (they had been watching the baby owl cam) with Candy, then wanted to go swimming.

We went and changed and went to the pool. August was concerned that it might rain, but he went in anyway. It was quite cloudy and windy. It may have been in the high-20s, but no where close to being what was forecast. With a heated pool though it was just fine. In the pool he was steering me like a boat, so I started to teach him port and starboard, bow and stern. He got out of the pool first, and stood there, looking at the water dripping from him: “My faucets are really good today.” That’s what he always calls the dripping water. I was impressed, as he stood there, no problem, despite the wind. I was chilly when I got out. We were out at 4.

Carly had a meeting until 4:30, so we headed home. He asked, “What’s ‘crossing the line’ mean?” Not sure where he picked that one up. We made a smoothie, then did egg drop #2. We walked up to the junk area and got a small piece of styrofoam (someone had dumped a big pile of it, and now pieces were blown all over the street). We made it into a box, with the egg wrapped in some packaging material inside. We glued it together with hot glue, then taped the lid on. He dropped this one from the top of the slide. I really thought this one worked, but it was also cracker.

Carly got home. He wanted to make a soup with the raw egg. That started inside but we had him move outside. He was hyper, so I wrestled with him. We ate dinner, and he told Carly, “Are there any dishes to do? I’d be happy to help.” They ended up playing with Duplos and making a big base for a tower. I took over, and Carly headed for a late doctor appointment. He and I kept doing Duplos, making it touch the ceiling.

He was sad when Carly left, so we had hot chocolate. We then went upstairs, with the lights off, so he could be scared. On the bed he started a dance contest, like in Plants Versus Zombies, and had the prize be the shekels we have in a drawer up there. He had a lollipop while I washed his hair. Carly got home at 8:25.

We discussed his “photamiles”—a very big unit of distance: “a peregrine falcon can go a septillionth of a photamile an hour.” His galaxy is 27 photamiles around. He remembered Carly’s adding reminder: “I ate and I ate and I got sixteen!” I read Creepy Pair of Underwear He voluntarily read a few lines of it. He also talked about a huge satellite that he has that studies the universe. He described new frequencies of light that it could detect. Carly came in, and I left them about 9:30.

Drawing an eggman:

Egg drop 1:

Trying to break open the top:

Top slo-mo:

Stretchy thing slo-mo:

Taunting a dog:

Egg drop 2:

Seeing how it went:

Dance contest:

Discussing his light frequencies:

He and I were up just before 7:30. We went down together and he lay on the couch for a couple minutes, then went outside to find Carly. She tried to read The One and Only Ivan to him but that one was rejected. So she read more of the Fox book.

He watched a couple things, ending with the rain episode of StoryBots. At one point he turned to me and said, “Dada, you know that wind-powered car? You did it totally wrong…” That was something he talked about last night. It was a kit involving iron rods and other things that I could put together.

Lots of cleaning and deciding what to keep or throw away. He collects a lot, but also throws stuff away pretty easily. He vacuumed for a digital coin. For reading we said he knew The Old Truck well enough that he should read a different book to us. He took it and sat on the couch and read it out loud all to himself. The first time he has ever read anything just for himself. He then read Frog Sat to me and had no problem with it. I suggested we put them over in his calm area, and that he now had books he could read to himself during alone time. He eventually was excited by the idea and said that when he had 5 or 6 books that he could read for an entire alone time.

We then went upstairs and he helped me make the beds. As we went back downstairs he told us, “I like how you set up the star thing…I get more control of myself…to do the chores.” We got him changed and he and Carly were about to do recycling, when Jill and Grace showed up at our gate at 10:30. Carly had been texting Gabby about babysitting, but she said she had a paper to write, but her sisters could do it. A time hadn’t been set, but here they were.

We were surprised, but took advantage. They stayed from 10:30 to 12:15. They did origami with him (making him ninja stars), played Candy Land, and played store by making paper money and he sold hamburgers. They went outside and played in the Zinnie house. Inside they played GarageBand and Dragonbox Big Numbers and Endless Arcade on the iPad. He had made them an arcade level that they were trying to play when I went down.

Carly and I were able to work upstairs the full time. We had soup for lunch—we had realized that August had only eaten banana bread this morning—and we read part of Hilo 5. He and Carly then went to do recycling. He got his coin for that, and we planned to go get a Rebar smoothie with it later.

The two of them then drove to Gaby’s for their 2pm appointment. They played Connect 4 and August made up something called ‘health points’ (from Endless Arcade?) that Carly never fully understood. They then played Monopoly, and he turned it into a building game. Carly was the boss and he was the worker building buildings. He then sort of became the owner of the town, buying things like a power plant, school, and grocery store. He liked how Gaby wrote things down. On the way home they stopped at the school to drop off printer parts.

He was kind of hyper at home. He ate thawed mango, then oatmeal. He asked for the difference between light year and a galactic year. I tried to explain how they are different types of measurement (distance and time, respectively). He asked what does “not particularly” mean?

He wanted to make paper money, like the Kerns had done. So we cut bills and coins while listening to Death Cab remixes. He said he made the really electronic one and got “1800 shekels for this…it’s crazy, right?” Making music, “That’s one of my jobs, man.” He wrote the numbers on all the coins and bills. And there was a lot of them. We then used the new money so I could buy things from his store. He had me play chess against myself. He almost decided to not go to the mall today, as he wanted to use the car to go to the Poleg Mall sometime and get a smoothie at that rebar. But eventually he decided the walk was worth it.

He was outside with Carly for awhile, then we were walking at 5:45. He saw an ant carrying something interesting and took it from the ant. He told us, “I ant stealed.” He did a lot of running on the way there, and we stopped to look at the poop flowers. It was hard to convince him that it wasn’t actually beetle poop in the middle of them. Since we didn’t have the bike we could take the shortcut on the other end.

We got a chocolate hazelnut smoothie, large so that he and I could share it. Carly didn’t want any. They looked at the plant shop while I ordered. He saw a big dog and screamed and took off running, way past the playground. We sat on a bench by the playground and drank the smoothie.

He went in on the playground, to the airplane, with Carly for a few minutes. We were then walking back at 6:30. He told us that a “megamile” is 1000 miles. He was annoyed to learn that a ton is 2000 pounds. He’s said a few times that it should be a 1000 pounds. He understands the simplicity of the metric system.

Right across the street he found a metal rod thing with some electronics on it. Maybe some sort of light controller. We took it apart inside. The circuit board in it is pretty cool. He and Carly then painted on the big sheet of styrofoam he’d brought back from recycling earlier. He was then outside watering plants with her.

For dinner we ate pasta and broccoli. We discussed all of his various coins, and ‘denomination’ was a word of the day. He then played the shopping game with Carly.

Carly took him up and gave him a bath. I heard him singing a long song about people taking some sort of trip. I went up, and we read Plants Versus Zombies Timepocalypse. At some point he told me about some machine he made that allowed you to extract someone’s DNA and then it would turn you into a clone of that person. I questioned how this would work, as it seemed to also give you their memories. I didn’t get a good explanation of how it would work. He asked me, “Are there superheros in this world?” He had a look on his face like he knew the answer was no, but he was a little hopeful they were real. When I said they weren’t, he said, “If you were being attacked by a bad guy you’d pick a hair off…put it in the DNA extractor…to fight it off…but I use it to be scientific.”

We had planned to have me put him to sleep. Carly was tired though and came in around 9:30 and I left them a few minutes later.

Reading to himself for the first time:

Writing numbers for the money:

Running a challenge:

Discussing Plants Versus Zombies:

His story song:

He was up at 7:55. He ran to Carly, then they cuddled on the couch. Carly asked if he wanted to read the fox book. He asked if books were older than his iPad. In clarifying whether he meant books in general, or that specific book, I said that books had been around for hundreds of years. He said, “You mean centuries.”

He watched Smurfs for awhile, then went outside with Carly for awhile. When they came back in he said he had a trisopod, which was a kind of bone, and they took his waterslide down to his lab to study it. They also watched a little of some insect show, which I think started outside.

Carly headed to the store. We went upstairs to wrestle and play a brother and sister game. He asked, “What do whales eat?” We learned it was copepods and krill and watched a video of krill. He then made up ‘septopods’ which are like octopi or something but have seven legs. We played a whale version of the brother in sister game in which the whale saves them when they are blown overboard, then they first build the raft to visit the whale as it swam around the bay.

Finally got him dressed, and Carly got back. I took a shower, then worked. They played in the Zinnie house, had watermelon juice, and made corn. August was doing lots of singing. He played the penguin game, and I heard him ask Carly what ‘tee ball’ is. That was from me telling him about playing baseball as a kid.

I went down at 2:10. He was playing by himself off and on, Carly said. They played the store game or something, and August gave Carly change, saying, “I panned for a shekel worth of gold.”

I then took him to Candy’s birthday party. Candy had also gone to Toys R Us on her shopping trip and gotten her a present: an odd doll set with a giraffe. I should have taken a photo. It was perfect, as August hates dolls, so he wasn’t jealous of it. He had helped wrap it, then Carly made a big bow for it. August was jealous of the bow, however, so she was making a big one for August to hang on the wall when we left.

The birthday party was at a gan in Tel Yitzhak. Carly made the right choice in not going: it was a zoo of an Israeli birthday party. It was Frozen-themed, with a two-person hosting team that ran a show/games thing that lasted over an hour and was still going when we left, over 20 kids, and a team of caterers. It was all inside and incredibly loud. So even though there were other parents, like Heather, there, I didn’t really talk to anyone, nor were kids really interacting with each other. There was ton of food though: I focused on the pizza and sushi, and August focused on the treats. I cut him off at one point, but I think he ended up with at least 8. And we left before they actually did cake.

We got there at 2:30 and left at 4. August found two helium balloons with one tied to the other one soon after we got there and asked me to tie them around his finger. We later switched them to being tied around his water bottle. The show consisted of games, dancing, and magic tricks, with one person dressed as Elsa, and another dressed as Olaf. I noticed that the kids were calling the movie ‘Elsa’ instead of ‘Frozen’, and that later in the day August would do it. August asked me to Shazam a few of the songs, in particular a dance remix of “Let it Go”.

When we left I lamented how it was a beautiful day and the party was right next to this really nice playground (which was open this time—the one time we came by before it was closed) and the party was all inside. August didn’t want to go to the playground though.

We listened to the “Let it Go” remixes on the way home. August made the mistake of opening his window and the balloons were almost sucked out. The first one escaped, but he grabbed the second and pulled them back in. At home, 4:15, August called Carly outside and released the balloons (something he’s wanted to do for a long time). They got stuck in our tree. I was able to reach them with his long stick, and they immediately hit the power lines, then walked down the lines to the pole across the street, thanks to the wind. Later, we heard one of them pop.

Carly was making soup, so August made one too, starting with bouillon cubes. He read The Old Truck to Carly and was excited he did it almost perfectly on his own. He also watered plants to earn a coin. Carly skyped with Cherie. August and I went outside so he could touch invisible things. He was then playing with his stick and accidentally hit me on the head.

Carly and I switched and I went upstairs to work. He finished his 60 minutes. He was playing Math Tango when I came down. He went to the bathroom, and when he washed his hands but didn’t put soap on his hands he said, “My bad.”

Carly made a smoothie. She and I were doing a lot of boring summer talk and he asked what the phrase ‘set in stone’ meant. A word of the day. We played with the magnet blocks and listened to “Let it Go” remixes. He told me, “My remix is one of the best Elsa remixes EVER.”

We went upstairs and I read Creepy Pair of Underwear. We brushed his teeth and he told me about “Concrete echolocation…it can knock down concrete and iron and stuff.” Carly came in and I left them around 9:30.

Explaining septopods:

Birthday party 1:

Birthday party 2:

Birthday party 3:

Releasing the balloon:

Balloons on the wire:

He came down at 7:35. He told me he hadn’t turned off the fan, so I went up and did that. Then, when I was refilling his water bottle, I saw one of the jumping spiders by the sink and caught it in his bug catcher. We looked at it for a few minutes. He identified what looked like fangs, but I then figured out it was the ‘pedipalps’, so we learned about those. He then watched Smurfs.

For machines time I started to look through the Way Things Work book. We didn’t read any, but it got him talking about machines. He ended up talking about a time machine, and how he could time travel to his birthday and get cake. I pointed out that traveling to the past and taking cake would just mean that he got less cake. He then decided to travel to the future: “I can steal cakes from future mes.”

We watched a couple of Joseph’s Machines videos and made a list of some of the things he uses for his machines. I wrote them down as August watched. We then started to list things we had that we could use. We then started to think about what we could do. I pointed out the fan and he said, “Wait a second. I know what you’re talking about…” We then experimented with the fan, tying a string to it, and his bill of yarn at the end. We realized that the ball of yarn flew straight out, but that it was enough to slow down the rotational speed of the fan. August then got a plastic bag and we tried that at the end of the string. The fan went full speed, but the bag had too much air resistance and did a sort of spirally thing instead.

We next built a platform out of Legos and tied a string to it. August created a game where I was ‘Joseph’ and I was pushing a rock home and once I got it there the rock was suddenly pulled away. He thought it was hilarious and we did it over and over, calling “Pull, Joseph!” We got the drill out and tried using it to wind up the string. We were trying to figure out a good way to wind it up without having the string slip off the end or get wound around the drive rod.

We then went upstairs and made the big bed and he helped me pull the floor bed into the Zinnie room, so that Shmuel and the technician could walk on the floor. We also moved the big bed and put a chair below the AC.

Downstairs he wanted to take apart his toy from the candy stand to see how the pumps work. We managed to pry it open and see the little pumps on each time and talked about how it worked. He wanted to get the little rings out, and to do so needed to smash apart the main container. So he put on his safety glasses and put it on a brick and smashed it. He collected the rings in one of his little bottles.

Shmuel showed up and we took him upstairs and he looked at the AC. August watched him from the bed. We went downstairs and I got water out and made coffee and put out banana bread. Shmuel was great with August. He saw the emotions poster on the wall and talked to August about it, and asked August which one he thought Shmuel was. August ended up joking that he was all of them (angry, sad, happy, and something else). Shmuel said he needed a teacher like me. He also complimented August on his creations, and we talked about how August likes machines and taking things apart. Shmuel said August was lucky because you don’t get to do that kind of stuff in school. We talked about how we were homeschooling and August was playing with friends, etc. and Shmuel thought it was a good arrangement.

The technician was late. August and I started playing Hey, that’s My Fish! and Shmuel went down and watered Mikaela’s plants. He later called and said that the technician had cancelled and would try to come early next week.

We then did some GarageBand and the astronomy app. I made pizza and a smoothie. August just had smoothie. He wanted to take apart more of the iPad and he “mined” the glass, chipping off the broken pieces to get to a couple more screws and getting the smaller circuit boards.

When he went to the bathroom he asked me about building things, and he said his store had gardening machines on sale. He told me about them at length, including a powered shovel with a hinge, and a garden vacuum cleaner.

We made buildings with the magnet blocks. He delivered money as the tooth fairy, and judged the teeth as he paid out: “Nothing too exciting, one shekel…he has really good teeth, two shekels…” We were then building a big truck out of them, and seeing how high we could build it before it fell apart.

We got going, and he told me how “I set up a table and sell strawberries and stuff and that money goes to health care.” He’s making some connections there, as we were talking about insurance today and how it paid for doctor visits, etc. (we have to pay money to Shani, but I told him we’d get reimbursed) and the other day at the little mall we gave some money to a woman at a table collecting money for children with cancer. I told him it was for health care for kids that were really sick.

We drove to school, and he informed me that it was currently snowing really hard in Korea: “Snow in Korea…at this rate…44 miles of snow…” He send one of his spaceships to save the people. To see it he said, “sending out my extendo camera.”

We walked into school and dropped off money for Shani at the elementary school office. We then went to give Carly her swimsuit. She was in the middle school office and spotted us through the window. August and I headed to the pool, and were about to get in the pool when Carly got there. She thought it was going to be chilly, but it turned out the heater was back on and it was really warm. We got in and played for quite awhile. August was swimming around a lot, and his big step was doing a lot of big splashes with his hands to make bubbles that would tickle him—he also had me doing that to him a lot (I’ve told him how my uncle Dan could really do it well). There were some kids there that August knew, like Omri, but he wanted to stay at the other side with just us as they were too splashy.

When we got out we stopped by the staff lounge to see what PTA had done for staff appreciation. They had painted, put in new chairs, put in a coffee machine, and done a few other things. It was well done. Carly picked some stuff up in the office, then we headed home.

At home he watered plants and cleaned toilets to earn coins on his watch, then read The Old Truck to her. He almost has it down perfectly. He was then running round to get his 60 minutes. He played his new train game, then he and I played some Toca Store. Carly made him oatmeal, after he’d already eaten some carrots I cut up. He went back outside for his last few minutes of exercise. He was touching more invisible animals. Once he had his 60 he came in and we played the move on the game.

We read most of Hilda and the Stone Forest, then paused. We were listening to the Cure’s Disintegration and he danced to “Fascination Street”. He had more carrots, then had his oatmeal and milk. He told me “I made a way to make energy…12 iron rods, hot water, a thousand degrees EXACTLY, Sand, chemicals…”

We went upstairs to look for more U.S. coins and ended up wrestling on the bed. He found our old passport cards and played with them. He got the scale out of the bathroom and weighed himself (16.5kg) then tried to weight other things to see what would register. He then played in the sink with the little pumps from the toy he’d broken in “seriously cardboard-y water.” When I started washing him he asked, “Could you stop please? I’m doing some serious business here.”

Carly came in and got him to sleep around 9:30. We then watched the second episode of Game of Thrones.

Fan experiment 1:

Fan experiment 2:

Fan experiment 3:

Fan experiment 4:

Joseph game:

Figuring out the water pumps:

Some GarageBand:

The electric shovel and other equipment:

Dancing to the Cure:

He was up at 7:12. He turned off the fan and at first seemed pretty awake, but then took several minutes on the couch. We played a few rounds of Hey, that’s My Fish! Then I made him oatmeal and he watched Smurfs, then StoryBots. We went upstairs and started the seal game from the beginning. He talked about another medicine he’s made, which is “4 percent of it is ontobix…14 percent is…” And ‘century’ was a word of the day after he said that is how long the expiration date is and he wasn’t sure how long it was. We played more of the seal game, then he made the beds.

We went downstairs and he read most of The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! We stopped to go listen to the sirens for Holocaust Remembrance Day. He finished reading the book. Shmuel started calling, trying to figure out the air conditioner. August handled the phone calls okay, but got upset about me going upstairs. Finally, Shmuel said he’d come at 11 tomorrow with a technician.

Downstairs, we did the store game, but he now had me buying stuff from him for my “thingamajigger.” After that he did a few levels of the coding app. He worked on that as I made lunch.

We then got going and drove to Ra’anana Park. We were there early enough to see the zoo, but of course it was closed for the holiday (which seemed symbolic, as there were multiple zookeepers walking around, and opening the zoo basically just involves opening a gate so you can walk down the single walkway).

August asked to go to the bathroom first. We did that, then as we were walking to the playground area it started to rain a few drops. August said it was lucky that it was a little and he could handle it. We went under a big tree, and August spotted insects swarming the ground. He thought they were ants at first, then spiders. They were tiny. The rain stopped while we looked and the ground didn’t even look wet.

We continued on to the playground. We had the whole place to ourselves. I pushed him around in the acorn spaceship, he climbed on the fake rocks, and then went in the hollow log and rested in there. He had me push him like a baby in a baby swing, before eating our peanut butter and honey sandwiches.

He drank a bunch of water from my water bottle and had fun spilling the last drops on my legs. We then headed out, stopping first at the exercise equipment where he exercised for a few minutes, then at the water bottle to refill. We then went to the book thing and I found a copy of The Hobbit.

We got going and drove over to Gaby’s office for our first meeting with him. We parked by one of those big bushes with pink and yellow flowers that smell really good, and August picked some and I put it on a strap of the backpack. I could still smell it later.

August was happy to meet Gaby. The session was basically just playing with games so he could get to know us. August chose one game that involved me trying to guess which colors August had chosen. It was a sequence of four colors, and August would tell me which ones I got correct each time. We did that twice, and August didn’t want to switch roles. August looked around the office at things for a couple minutes, and opened the door to see what a noise was. He then chose Connect 4 after I had suggested it and we played it for the rest of the time. August wanted me to play against myself when he found it was a winner game. We played with Connect 4 for the rest of the time. August would control one color, but then remind me that he wasn’t actually playing the game. And at one point I was a computer player, with my eyes closed, randomly dropping checkers in. Before we left, Gaby gave him one of the little biscuit cookies.

We drove home, and stopped at the strawberry stand. August stayed in the car while I went and bought two packs. We sat and ate a few in the car. He said he called the really good ones “supergoods.” As we got driving, he told me he wasn’t buckled. I went slowly up the entry road to town while he tried to do it. He’d buckled it himself earlier, but couldn’t do it now, so I pulled over once I could.

We were home at 3:30. He was chanting “I’m the king of the castle”, which came from the kids on the playground the other day. I joked about deposing him, so ‘depose’ became a word of the day. We then worked together to make banana bred, then went outside to do compost, and to have him running round to touch invisible animals to get his exercise minutes.

We were playing outside when Carly got home. I was sitting on the grass when he played with the hose. He then came and thought it was funny to threaten us with it. I wasn’t happy when he sprayed me after we told him not to. I went inside and Carly talked to him.

They did the store game. They were working on subtraction. He was getting it pretty well, but not the part about breaking up a shekel into 100 agorot.

I was up working, but came down when the banana bread was ready. He was building with the magnet blocks. He randomly asked what being afraid of heights is called. So ‘acrophobia’ was a word of the day.

He ran around and was dancing to PJ Harvey’s “Sheela Na Gig” to get his last minutes. We then talked about his allowance stuff and played today’s move in the game. He talked about wanting to earn a drone.

He played with the audio recorder on his iPad, singing really loudly. Mandy came over, and she and Carly walked up to a talk by a holocaust survivor. August and I went outside for several minutes. He picked a little broccoli for a snack. Back inside we played Wizard School, sending messages to each other and Vivian.

We went upstairs and he was testing himself in the dark some more. He pushes open the shower, and now told me it is because the shower is scary and there could be a monster in there. We also went in the Zinnie room with the windows closed.

He played in the sink with the wet cardboard: “I’m trying to make it decompose as fast as I can.” I washed him. He was reciting big numbers, and now has quadrillion, trillions etc. down. He asked if he could ever take my phone apart, and I said, “if it’s toast.” Another new phrase for him. He was asleep by 9:55.

Carly was home and told me about the talk. It was the first time (second, after doing it earlier in the day for a town event) this guy had spoken about his experience in the holocaust. He was an orphan that was passed from person to person and country to country before he was taken to Israel.

Listening to the sirens:

Tiny insects 1:

Tiny insects 2:

In the acorn ship:

Exercise:

Making his audio recording:

He was up at 7:20. I got him vitamins and his allergy medicine, then he rested on the couch for a few minutes. I then read Creepy Pair of Underwear. He start d to look at his iPad, but then went to the bathroom. After that he ended up looking at some of this circuitry parts. He wanted to do the shopping game and I offered to sell him a blanket. He said, “I was thinking something on the electronics side.” I was then using fractions with him, asking for “3 and six-tenths shekels” and he had no problem figuring it out.

He played just a couple minutes of Dragonbox Big Numbers as I made him oatmeal, then he ate that, and sat at the table, first taking off one of the allen wrenches that we had glued on a circuit board, then analyzing the circuit board. He then shrunk us down, so we were 1000 times bigger than a germ, but still tiny on the circuit board, and we spent several minutes voyaging around the circuit board and through its parts. He then went over to the couch, and continued with the idea, telling me I could go inside his positronic brain, then his stomach, which could digest anything. When I pointed out that included me, he gave me a special suit. I then asked to see how his muscles and motors worked, and he described the motors pulling strings to make his arms move.

He then watched a few Pink Panther episodes. We started to head to table time, but he asked me to get his “musical sculpture” – the one made from pieces of wood with a straw on top of it. I brought it down and he plugged in the hot glue gun and we added several of the electronics parts and wires to it, and glued the straw on. A good alternative to table time. We eventually did head over, and I added to our odd/even charts. He wanted me to go to 100. I think we stopped at 50. He wouldn’t write any today, but he watched and helped me along the way. On the calculator he started at 95 and subtracted 5 over and over, getting to negative 1000.

We played the buying game and were working more on estimating. We went to the iPad and talked about his possible chores and rewards. He was excited by the idea. He then wanted to earn his first coins. He asked if he could tell me a story for one, so I let him do that for the ‘Other’ category. He told a story about a bug getting caught, then eventually released. He read a Bob Book to me for a second one, then we went upstairs and he made the beds for a third.

Downstairs we looked at the book about kites, then tried improving our plastic bag kite. we used a ring from a keychain to make it so we could attach the string to both handles. We took it outside and it worked a lot better. It wasn’t really getting lift, however, but was blowing well in the wind. We tried to address the lift issue by cutting 4 holes in it in + shapes, like August suggested. We tried it again. May have been on the right path, but they weren’t big enough.

He lost interest at that point though. We did lunch, him eating a bowl of the noodles and broccoli and sauce. He told me about his gum-diwsolving chemical: “Purealloy is actually edible, but it catches on fire really easily…if you drop it on wood. Cuz it makes a chemical reaction.” “Why doesn’t everything have a melting point? Wood doesn’t. It burns!” We didn’t answer that one, as he went on to tell me I was still in his positronic brain. This was all a simulation. He told me I was asleep, inisfe his simulation, and this was all a dream. It got pretty complicated and giggly.

We ended up upstairs, where we added up his Korean money. Back downstairs he danced to “Somethings are better than others.” We got ready, and headed out for a walk just up to our park to exercise and play. It had been his idea. He tracked his minutes on his watch as we went. It was mid-80s. We spent about 15 minutes in the exercise area, then he’d had enough and we were home about 1.

He asked what ‘million’ meant, as he knew that ‘bi’, ‘tri’, ‘quad’, and ‘quit’ mean things. I told him million literally means ‘thousand thousands.’ He was now practicing reading out large numbers on his calculator.

I tried to get him to do alone time, but he had a meltdown about the idea. He calmed down upstairs and was able to tell me that 19 minutes was too long. He agreed to 15, and we went down and did alone time. He was playing with the electronics set from his birthday. Right near the end he got shocked. I saw it happen and asked what happened and he said he got shocked. I thought he was okay, but a couple seconds later he jumped up and ran to me. He started crying, and eventually it turned into a reaction much like when he had been burned: a lot of screaming and hitting himself where he was hurt (his right hand) and rolling around on the couch and sliding off of it. Probably took ten minutes.

When he recovered we moved to nature time. I suggested we watch the first episode of Our Earth, the new series on Netflix with David Attenborough, and have some popcorn. We started watching it, and he was pretty hooked. When I went to make the popcorn he kept calling me back to see something. We watched most of the first episode and had popcorn and drank pineapple water.

When he tired of that we went up and did the Brother and Sister Seal game. I was getting tired and finding it hard to continue. We went downstairs, and he had me taking another voyage through him, seeing how his motors and muscles worked.

We then played Hey, That’s My Fish! on his iPad. We were starting to figure out the strategy involved and discuss it. August said we could start our filter experiment as one bottle was empty. So we cut the end off of it, and were starting by seeing if a paper towel would filter out any of the food coloring from green water. We were listening to electronic music, as we had been most of the day. Carly got home at 4:45 as we did that. We decided that nothing was filtered out, matching August’s hypothesis that the paper towel didn’t have small enough holes.

We then went outside and mixed up some dirty water. We moved our experiment outside, and concluded that a paper towel did, at least, filter out the visible chunks of dirt. He still questioned why he couldn’t drink the water, and didn’t entirely accept my explanation that bacteria etc. could still be in it.

I went upstairs to work. They did a bunch of the store game. They had also read some of _The Big Bad Fox _. I came back down as they were reading. I had lasagna. He had more pasta and broccoli for dinner, then I read some of the book to him. We ate the last of the digestives from Athens, then read part of Dogman. He was still hungry, so ate a lot of carrot strips, then had some Cheerios.

I took him up to the bathroom. He talked about transforming and teleporting me and sending me back in time. I couldn’t keep up with what was happening. He played with the soap, then sang a song about drain flies (“drain fly here, drain fly there, and there and there…”) that morphed into a song about shirts, then into a song about birds. He got the box to the magnetic blocks. It lists how many of each piece is in the box, and also that there are 110 pieces. So he said they should add up to 100 and wanted us to check. So he did most of the math and I helped him add them all up, and there are indeed 100.

Got him ready for bed, and Carly came in and I left them at 9:20. I still heard him at 9:40, but then it got quiet.

Trip to the circuit board 1:

Trip to the circuit board 2:

How his robot arms work:

The bag kite:

In a simulation inside his head:

Dancing to the music:

Exercising:

Traveling through his robot body:

Filter experiment:

Running to get his exercise:

Bird song:

He came down at 7:45. He rested on the couch for a few minutes, then watched Berenstain Bears. He re-watched the episode of Sister trying out for a soccer team. It’s a favorite of his, and he just watched it yesterday. There’s a moment where she almost gets hurt where he flips down the iPad and covers his ears. He did it yesterday as well.

For a field trip he rejected my outside options (Utopia Park, Hai Kef Zoo, Israeli Primate Sanctuary), and chose the natural history museum instead, as it was inside. He did the buying game, and was getting counting by twos. When he switched to counting by ones he called it “Changing gears counting.” He ate oatmeal and said, “Yum, oatmeal broth.”

He went to the bathroom. Today he made me cloth curtains that are screens and make it private inside. Talking about the circuit boards he invented “Kaiprochips” and “recovery chips” which fix glitches in the system. I had the song “stay” by Shakespear’s Sister playing and he started dancing to it. He was then running back and forth from the kitchen to the play area and asked, “Do you like how I run so smoothly in that curve?” “…how I kind of tilt?”

We got going, and left at 9:30. We listened to electronic music on Apple Music along the way and he added “Pull the Plug” by Joe Goddard to his playlist.

We got to the natural history museum and went in. Spent a few minutes walking up the ramp, looking at the animal displays, then went down to the insect area. We watched a video of a mosquito (and other animals) hatching several times. Another video showed close-up slo-mo videos of insects that spray chemicals at other animals. ‘Deterrent’ was a word of the day. We went back upstairs and through the first and second floors. We watched a video of decomposition of a dead mouse, and then after learning how humans use wheat, including in medicines, he told me that he had invented a medicine for animals and he listed all the ingredients and said you give it to sick animals if you see them. We also looked at the display of different kinds of dirty water (wastewater, raw sewage, industrial waste, etc.) and he talked about that through the day.

On the second floor we then found a collections room we hadn’t seen last time. ‘taxidermy’ was a word of the day from that. He had previously asked me how many animals I thought they had, dead or alive. I said 400 species. My estimate now went up to a thousand.

At 11:30 we took a break on some chairs. He took off his shoes and socks and played Dragonbox Big Numbers for awhile. Third floor was closed, so we took the elevator up to the fourth floor to the evolution of humans exhibit. We learned about the different species of hominids, their sizes, and brain sizes. He was particularly interested in a display of the bones of a woman who had been buried with a dog.

We headed out after that. We had checked in the gift shop, but no more of the guidebook things. I buckled him in the car. We had talked about this being better then school, and as we sat there he asked, “Why am I not going to school?” We talked about how he wasn’t liking things at school, and I assured him that it wasn’t his fault, that the school hadn’t been able to help enough. He talked about how he is doing better now.

We headed back north. All though the day he was reading the time off of his watch and comparing what it said to other clocks. He asked me to turn down the music and he played GarageBand on his iPad. As we got to Even Yehuda he talked about how I had taught him about landmarks in Greece, and he pointed out landmarks he knows here, like the school and the retirement home.

We drove up into town and parked in the dirt lot in town. I said we should stop and get pita. He told me, “First things first.” Pizza, that is. We walked to VIPizza. He had a slice of cheese and told me in advance he’d eat more than one. So we also got a slice of corn to share. As we were waiting he was surprised by the owner spraying down the outside area.

We ate, and were home by 2:10. He took apart the tripod, and then sang a “Be nice to dada, there’s no reason to annoy me” song after I had said something to that effect. We played the store game, and practiced pronouncing ‘thirty’ and ‘forty’. I was looking at what books to return to the library and we read part of The Big Bad Fox and thought it was funny so we kept it.

We then drove to school. Carly had loaded up the trunk with the printer parts to return to the bin. She returned them after school while I watched August.

August had a big long play date, mainly with Eve and Zoe, but also Taya. I watched Eve and Zoe while Heather was dealing with AP Art portfolios. I talked to Cassie about school stuff. When August was on the swing with Eve and Zoe and Candy he was adding up the ages of the people on the swing as they got on and off. When it was 17 and I asked him to include the person that was pushing he easily added 17+5 in his head and said 22.

We all moved to the big playground before 4. Cassie and Taya left after awhile. After awhile Eve wanted the snack her mom said she’d bring, so I reminded Heather and she came down with a box of granola bars. August was excited that she’d gotten the chocolate ones by mistake. She left for awhile longer, and they kept playing. The last thing was spinning the spinny thing and trying to swing by the hands. August wouldn’t do that, but was doing more hanging and jumping on other bars than he’s done before. Finally, they started breaking up the dry leaves and throwing them at the spinning person as confetti.

Heather showed up just before 5. August and I took a box full of items that was some kid’s time capsule project, but had been dumped in a corner, up to the elementary office and left it on the counter so it could find its way back to its owner. We then returned library books and headed home.

We were home at 5:15. As we came in the house Carly gave me a concerned look and asked if something was wrong. I was confused, because everything was fine. She said August had a grumpy face coming in the door. He had fooled her. Very funny. He ran to her, and she was giving him big hugs. He was then requesting “The second biggest hug ever…the millionth biggest…” He was hyper, and started chanting “I have energy I need to get out!” We went up and wrestled and added to the seal game. Downstairs Carly read some of the Fox book to him. He remembered the Vivofit Jr app on his iPad that goes with his watch and we did the game, catching up on the turns he has earned. He is excited about the chores and rewards part of the app and how you can track it on the watch, so Carly and I said we’d talk after he went to sleep and come up with lists.

He then helped me make more cheese sauce for the Greek pasta and broccoli. “There’s a noodle contest tomorrow at 5…for unique and taste…Here’s what you’ll be up against: Michael who has pretty good sauce, and Jennifer…” He was adapting the Berenstain Bears jumprope contest episode.

He ate two bowls for dinner. He and Carly then did the shopping game. I did dishes. She took him up for his bath and washed his hair. They were then doing all sorts of math. She was teaching him about decimals and halves and telling time.

I took over and we Skyped with my parents for awhile. He told them about his new tools, and we talked about summer plans. We read a little Dog Man, then turned out the lights. Our visualization was imagining a plane ride and looking out the window. He fell asleep right around 10.

Adding up the shekels:

Watching the dead mouse:

His animal medicine:

On the swing with friends:

He was up at 7:38. Took a few minutes on the couch, then we read the rest of Monster on the Hill. He asked for the other breakfast pastry from Omar, so we shared that. August asked me how I thought they make them. He then wanted to play Dragonbox Big Numbers with him. To be honest, I’ve grown pretty tired of that game. But he’s continuing to work on his math with it.

He watched Berenstain Bears and Llama Llama, then had oatmeal. We read a picture book called Hello Hello together, with him doing a lot of it. He told me “Did you know I made a robot that breaks gumball machines?” August then gets the gumballs. He wanted to do the filter experiment we’ve been talking about. I realized we could use two-liter bottles as our tubes, and we could get some at the mall. August has been asking for more fizzy water.

He then remembered the little phone stand/tripod adapter he had found upstairs last night. He wanted to try it on his phone, so we got it and found an allen wrench and he adjusted it for his phone. He also wanted to put it on the tripod, and played around with the tripod. He then set up the glue gun to glue allen wrenches on a circuit board like legs. We then caught a moth in the house, and later cut up a grape for it, and later saw it drinking from the grape.

We then moved to taking things apart and looked at all the new tools, speculating on what they were for. We listened to the new Guided by Voices. We discussed our schedule for the week, and he wants the field trip to be tomorrow. We then watched a Ted-Ed video about the domestication of dogs

. We had talked about animal domestication yesterday. He went to the bathroom and made art for the yard in his lab. We then worked on pronouncing ‘three’ and ‘free’, putting his tongue between his teeth for the ‘th’.

Back on the rug he made a cool cross sort of shape out of the Legos. He had destroyed the skyscraper, and we were finding pieces from the ‘rubble’. He asked what that means, and it was a word of the day. Later in the day he remembered ‘rubbish’, and we discussed the difference. I asked him if he could read the challenge word I put up on the whiteboard, and he looked over and immediately read ‘spider’.

I started making a little chart of odd and even numbers, and he needed help reading ‘odd’. I started writing the numbers, from 1, and placed them in the proper column. August totally explained that one is odd because you can’t divide it any more. I did 1 to 6, then he took the marker from me and completed the chart, writing 7 to 10 in the correct spots. The pattern totally worked with him, and later with Carly he was explaining how the numbers alternate back and forth odd and even.

We then did the Brother and Sister seal game. They were chased by tigers, floated at sea, and the seal fed them along the way and led them to a new island.

We got ready to go, and he drank a bunch of water. He showed me and explained how he could fill his mouth with water but then drink it slowly. As we put on his shoes, he asked me if I like them, or am impressed that he’s wearing them. He’s done this several times. I said something about his sandals and crocs being easier to put on. He said, “So I really like my tennis shoes. Please don’t stop me from wearing them.”

I was figuring out what we needed at the store, and mentioned raisins. I looked to see if we had any in the cupboard, but August asked to see his snack bag. He opened the bottom and there was a box of raisins in there. He said he remembered them from when he would look in his bag at snack or to get his straw and it would be in there.

Earlier, he had said we would walk to the mall, but then take the car to school. He changed his mind, and so we took the car. We got to the mall, and headed to the barber. I had prepared him in advance: the barber gave him treats last time, but I told him that if that didn’t happen and he waited patiently we could get a treat at the candy stand. And that’s what happened. He watched while I got my hair cut, and picked up handfuls of it and played with it. He said, “It smells like you.” When it was done he said, “You look like a different person!”

We went out to the candy stand and he took a few minutes to decide. He decided on a little toy that looks like a phone, but has two buttons that pump water to push little rings up to float back down on poles. Attached was a little package of candies. I thought he might lose interest in it quickly, but he assured me he wouldn’t, and we agreed it was a sort of a science experiment to figure out how the pumps worked.

As we were leaving he was playing it and saying, “Ready for some TV time.” He said that’s what other kids say. Not sure who he’s talking about.

We remembered we were going to go to Tiv Taam, so we walked back and bought a few things. Mainly, we were going to get the two bottles of fizzy water for our water filter experiment. He talked me into flavored ones, and we got strawberry and pineapple.

We drove home, him playing, and that’s when we found the moth feeding from the grape, as August tried the strawberry-lime fizzy water. We then turned around and got on his bike and walked to school.

We got there abut 3:15. A bit early so we went and sat on the bench for awhile. Bar came along and gave August a hug. I then took August over to Carly’s classroom, then I went and met with Vicky for about 45 minutes. It was okay, and she shared some stories of how she, and another family, hadn’t been treated well by the elementary school.

I went back and heard singing coming from the bathroom. very loud singing. August took a few minutes to finish up, then we headed home. On the walk home we first found a really interesting flower, then August picked some tiny pea pod sort of things. When he wanted to show me the plant it came from, Carly kept walking home, and we went back to find it. Then, walking back home he spotted a dead part of a bush, lying in the park. It looked like a crazy pair of antlers and we took it home.

We got here at 5:15. He said it was “Barnwood…wood that’s attached to trees in crazy pieces.” Inside, we had more strawberry drink. We discussed our possible filter experiment. He had some good questions and lots of ideas. He was then putting me in detention, for some reason. We looked at his coins, and he remembered the set of drachma we had bought. I got that and we looked at it.

He had lots of energy, and we went up and wrestled and played on the bed. He noticed the picture of the bear on the covers of one of the beds, and said it was a boy because it looked tough. We discussed that, and we looked at a photo of a mama grizzly bear to show him that ‘tough’ isn’t a good way to judge. We ended up discussing bear attacks. When I assured him that bears only attack humans for food if they’re really ‘desperate’, ‘desperate’ was a word of the day. I also showed him a picture of the god Atlas, and we also talked about and looked at a picture of Discworld.

We played a little more, then headed downstairs. He had lasagna for dinner, and shared an artichoke with Carly. I learned that they had done satellite work in the middle school office. They used pens that were attached to the desk in there, and August observed that they could be taken off as, “Everything has a breaking point.” Carly speculated on what was the fattiest vegetable/fruit. We searched for it, and found avocados and olives. August asked how many hairs are on our heads, and the answer seems to be around 100,000.

He went to the bathroom and made “supersonic sunscreen” for me. It actually cures sunburn. We played the shopping game while I cleaned up in the living room. He was really into the math, so I didn’t ask him to help.

I then took him up for a bath. He wanted the stairway dark again, then he turned all the lights off upstairs. He then huddled on the bathroom floor and asked me to turn the lights off. He’d wait a few seconds and ask me to turn the light back on. Then off. Then on. It kept going, with him staying in the dark for longer and longer. He asked, “Are you proud of me?” He went and had Carly come up to watch him.

He played with soap in the sink, then I gave him a bath. He got his old toothbrushes and was scrubbing things. When he wanted more to clean, Carly suggested his stool. The white circles have turned grey. He spent a lot of time scrubbing them and they’re white again.

I headed down stairs as he finished that up, and Carly took over. He got a bit upset, the first time today, when he found out I had left. He talked about it, and then I came up and agreed to read to him for a few minutes. We read a hilarious chapter of Dog Man, then Carly came in and I left them at 9:15.

Tightening with the allen wrench:

How he drinks big drinks of water:

His new toy:

Mouth drinking from the grape 1:

Mouth drinking from the grape 2:

Hug from Bar:

Music in the bathroom:

Buying stuff with his money:

Getting used to the dark: