Category: Daily

He was up right at 7:30. He took awhile to wake up, then played Dragonbox Big Numbers. Not much though, then he went and did some metal origami and tried out the new paper airplane that I had folded for him right before the Kerns had shown up, and he had never tried it. He watched an episode of The Magic School Bus about poop. I went up and took a shower, but didn’t make it down before he had started another one, about the ghost farm. So I let him watch that. We packed up to head to Jerusalem. He wanted his plastic box with headphones attached so he could listen in the car. We couldn’t find it, so we got another pair of headphones and another plastic container and made another one. I closed the box, and he told me he had to put the wires and stuff in it. I said I didn’t realize he had done that with the last one. He replied, “That’s becuase I did it in my laboratory.”

We headed out around 9:30. He wanted to listen to music on the way down, so that’s what we did. He wore the headphones most of the way. I turned the music down and asked him something a few times, but he was in a listening mode and didn’t talk much. When we got to the museum we didn’t think about it being crowded. It’s never been crowded before. I think today is a no-school day for the elections tomorrow, and there were lots of camp groups here. So it took us awhile to park, but squeezed into a spot and were into the museum at 11:20. As we walked up, he saw a group leaving and said, “That was nice timing.”

We started at the coin spinning thing. I gave him two one-shekel coins, as we can never remember to have 10 agorot coins on us. He happily did his two, then there was suddenly a lot of other people dropping coins as well, so he got to watch a lot of them.

We wandered into the museum. There is a hall of mirrors place and I wanted to go in, as I hadn’t done it. He at first said it was scary, but when I said he could stay out and I just wanted to see it, he said he wanted to go in with me, as long as I held him. So we went and did that. He made it through, then we played with the fun mirror that makes you fatter as you walk away, then flips the image, so that August was now on my right. He wanted to take me up to his favorite part, but the very top part, that had the paper airplane station and shooter, was closed. He was kind of bummed by that.

We went to the big metal ball machine thing. He again said that the thing in the corner was too scary but he wanted me to go in. He looked through the different peephole things at me, and when I came out one end he screamed in surprise. We played with the ball thing a bit, and the microscope. He talked about the money back in the spinning thing, and said they would be rich. We talked about what the money was actually intended for and why it would be bad to take it. ‘Unethical’ was a word of the day.

I mentioned we could have lunch, and he remembered getting a snack from the snack shop—it was a mango juice we planned to get this time. I gave him the coin and let him buy it, then we went out to the orange bench. As we approached it, I called it comfy. August reminded me that they were hard, and we remembered that we had both been fooled by the appearance of them last time. We had soft-boiled egg, sushi, and gingersnap cookies. August needed a stand for his soft-boiled egg, so we improvised with the holder from his straw. When he was breaking a cracker for his egg, he asked, “Why does it keep breaking when I just do one?” ‘Shatter’ became a word of the day.

While we were eating, a group of kids went by us to play on the outside portion. August said he was lucky not to be in the class, as he wouldn’t be able to eat right now. When we were done, August started to say he was ready to go home, saying he always intended for it to be a short visit.

We went inside and rode the elevator up to the top portion. Played with the drum that causes air movement, and tried to find the eavesdropping one that played “Robots”, but this time it was playing a different song. And he played with a laser thing.

Back on the main floor, we had fun with the optical illusions, particularly the spinning black and white wheels that make color, the spinning goblet that casts silhouettes that look like people talking, an arrow that is difficult to cut in equal halves, and a color one where you see a cat or a dog.

Back in the ball area, we played with the machine a bit, then the scale that you lift with a rope. We turned some cranks and things, and I explained one worked like a piston in a car, while another was like the jack that Grampa used to lift his car. Finally, as we were about to go, I realized they had moved the paper airplane machine down to the edge of the big activity space. There was a school class at the tables now, however, and the airplanes would shoot right at them. We talked about waiting until they were finished, but decided we could do it on our next visit. The class then got up to start doing the paper stuff. As we went to the bathrooms, several of the students did as well. August noticed, and asked me, “Wasn’t it funny that in the class ALL of the girls were going to the bathroom and none of the boys?”

We stopped on the way out to buy memberships. It costs us 90 shekels to visit now, as now that he is 5 August costs 45 shekels, as opposed to free. So, for an additional 200 shekels (290 total) we could be a membership. The membership also gets us a discount at the Haifa science center, and free entrance into a ton of museums in the U.S. So definitely worth it.

That took awhile, and while he waited August played with two paper clips we had found on the ground. We got to the car and headed home. No time for the big park this time. I had thought about starting an audiobook, like a Ramona book, on the way home, but August said just Story Pirates. So we listened to a bunch of Story Pirates. #18 and a bunch of their older stories. In one of the author interviews a 5-year old girl tells a corny knock knock joke where the person at the door is the person she’s talking to. August found that one hilarious. There was a lot of laughing overall. After one of them, about bank robbers who rob for charity, he asked, “What’s a charity?” I explained, and reminded him of beet picking. He remembered the giant beet we took home.

I had left my iPad at home, so we went there and I left the doors open while I ran in and grabbed it. We drove to the school and parked and were going in as all the preschoolers were heading out to their busses. August got a great welcome, and Marion and Michelle complimented him on his haircut. We first went to Mandy’s classroom and dropped off a bag of cookies, then headed to STEM.

Outside the preschool they have a new water station that Ofir made in the shop at school. It has a pump, and the water circulates after going down a ramp to a bucket. August was able to distribute the other cookie bags to Andrea, Vicky, and Marion. I had labeled the paper bags, and August was easily able to look in the cloth bag and find which was for which person.

In STEM, they played with corks and water, then went out and played with that new contraption as it was so irresistible.

Carly walked home, and we got home a couple minutes before her. When she got here he was being smothering, so she went in the bathroom for a short break. He crawled under the table and curled up for a few minutes. He was better when she came out. I don’t remember what started it, but he started to turn what I said into a song. So this became a sort of game where I would say something new and he would sing it.

He said, “I haven’t had oatmeal…I thought I woke up a little while ago.” This time, I discussed the concept of ‘flow’ with him. I then told him we’d read Nick and Tesla after I’d made coffee. This turned into a game with him asking “Can you read Nick and Tesla?” and me grumpily replying “After my coffee!”

Carly made sushi and they ate it together (I had leftover salmon, rice, and broccoli). August didn’t eat too much, and said it was too messy. We read Nick and Tesla. When Carly asked if he would eat smaller sushi he said yes, and said he just wanted broccoli in it. So she made some, and he ate all of it. And then the next plate, and the next, and the next. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him eat so much at one meal. We finished the book, and started the second.

He then did alone time. He started by painting his haunted house, but then basically sang for the whole thing. Much of it was a “mama” song. Afterwards, as he ate his Oreo, he asked if I was impressed, and explained that he had a main tune, which he hummed, and mixed in other songs. He said he was a better singer than other kids in PKA: “They don’t take singing lessons all the time. I did in my world.”

He started talking about how fast he is. To the speed of light. He asked me to explain how fast 300,000 km/s actually was. So I was trying to give him an idea of that, then we talked about quantum entanglement, and how crazy that is, and how little i know about it. After my explanation he told me, “They’re wrong. It takes time. It goes so fast scientists can measure it. Faster than light…” And went on to explain just how fast the information moves.

We needed to clean up the house, and Carly got him going by giving him challenges. We did a pretty quick job of straightening everything. He was hyper, and was running through the house and I was timing him. We heard Mikaela get home, so Carly got him to run outside a bit. They then finished the card to her and lowered it and a bag of cookies down on the string.

He started singing again, and asked Carly, “Are you entranced by the music right now?” She had used the word after his singing earlier. He then asked, “Since I want to stay here three more years, do you think that guy will give us the blender in three years?” Apparently he and Carly had had the years discussion earlier, and he’s referring to the juicer that Jeff said we could have to take apart when it broke.

I took him up to take a bath. He kept doing a good job of stalling. First, he had me go in the bathroom and wanted to turn the lights out on me: “I want to show you how dark it is…” When he turned off the light,s he then started running down the stairs: “I’m stalling my bath!” I got him back up, and then he discovered a tiny spider by my neck. He got it on his hands, and it was running all over him. He excitedly took it down to show Carly. Third time was a charm and I got him washed. In on the bed he made up tongue twisters, and we read more of the second Nick and Tesla book, then two Skybrary books: Ted’s Surprise and Tessa Tiger’s Temper Tantrums. I noticed him sucking on his finger again. I had first noticed this in the car, then at home he had been chewing on the yellow tube attached to his city. He said it was his itchy tooth. Seems like it is acting up again, although he says it doesn’t hurt.

He brushed his teeth and Carly put him to bed. I left them just before 9.

Paperclip thing:

Big ball:

Laser:

Water pump during STEM:

Humming and spotting a Fiat:

Turning what I say into songs and dance:

Singing and painting during alone time:

Mama song during alone time:

Running through the house:

Little spider on his hands:

He came out about 7:50. Carly was upstairs. she brought him down and he was sleepy and smiley again. They went and started working more on the card for Mikaela. I went up to take a shower. While I was up there one of his strings came apart into curly threads and Carly said it could be spider web in a haunted house. So August wanted to build a haunted house out of paper. They were doing that when I came down. August said he had invented special rebar for paper, but it is only sold in “art stores. Crafts stores” so we don’t have any. He spent a good amount of time painting it.

I was preparing ingredients, then he helped me make the gingersnap dough. Carly made him oatmeal and mango (eaten separately) for breakfast. He went outside with Carly for awhile while I worked on the fresh ginger. He was shocked that I was using fresh ginger. I think because he’s seen me use ginger in savory things, so he doesn’t think it should taste good in a sweet thing. He also kept calling it garlic.

He came back in and we finished and made one tray. We read Nick and Tesla and had a cookie when the first tray was done. From the book, ‘silver dollar’ and ‘ransom’ were words of the day. We forgot to put sugar on the top of the first batch, but remembered for the rest. Carly had gone to the store, and now got back. August was most excited by the half of a watermelon. While she cut it, he used a straw to suck up the pools of juice. Carly said, “Its a good day for watermelon.” I replied, “Unless you’re the watermelon.” She said, “That’s an oh dada.” August initially said “Oh, dada” but then sided with me for once: “But he’s right. If you were the watermelon you’re getting eating.Well, that’s some good thinking.” Or something of the sort.

I finally changed him into clothes. I put shorts and short-sleeved shirt on him. He put on a sweatshirt. He then took his shorts off and then the sweatshirt and shirt. He ended up in pants and a long-sleeved shirt. He tied a bag shut with his shoes and Carly’s sandals. He and Carly then watched the rest of Up. It was the suspenseful, scary part at the end. August had a styrofoam tray that he was thinking about using for an art project, and was nervously nibbling at the edge of it. Carly kept asking if he was okay, and he kept telling her to keep the movie going. I actually watched the very end with him when she got up to make food.

We finished the movie, then he talked me into opening the rocks and tile things that we had bought at Max. We had initially planned on going swimming today, but then checked the pool schedule and it was only open until 2pm. So Carly was going to take him to the beach and I was going to work. I was working on writing the calendar signs. They took quite awhile to go, as August kept playing with things. He set up a string across the living room and into the hall and taped a chair and objects to it. He sat and played with his Lego spaceship for a few minutes and flew it around the house.

They finally left at 2:40. I spent a lot of time working on the calendar and homeschooling stuff, then spent an hour on work. They were back at 5:30. They had gone to Poleg Beach, the closest one, and been close to the stream. He told me, “There was a huge muck place.” He gave muck to Carly to build with and it hardened in the sun. He ended up wading in the water and walking across the stream and wasn’t bothered by one of his pant legs getting wet.

He played a little Dragonbox Big Numbers. The bigger math is really taking hold. I think he had 11-5 memorized now. We then worked on the calendar together, discussing it and starting to put things on it. Carly made sushi, and we all sat at the table and ate. When he was done eating he started playing with the box of metal connectors from Max, bending them into different shapes: “It’s like metal origami.” He had me superglue a bird one made out of three of them. We did a little more with the calendar, and Carly blended watermelon juice for him. He drank more, and was saying she should get a full watermelon next time.

He was hyper, so I took him up and we wrestled and did the car game on the bed. He wanted to do an imagining game, and it was the one where I help a baby tiger, but this time I get eaten by the mother. He tied clothes together and onto the door knob again as a sort of lock or something, then I gave him bath.

We skyped with my parents. He was quite hyper, but did a good job of showing them things, including how he does his metal origami. And he joked about dad saying “handy.” Upstairs, he was looking out the bedroom window several times, and he looked out as he brushed his teeth. I left him and Carly at 8:40.

Making gingersnaps:

His string creation:

Playing with his spaceship:

Metal origami:

He came downstairs just after 7:20. I was on the couch and Carly was outside. He stood at the entrance from the stairs and gave me a smiling, just-woke-up look for a few seconds, then came and lounged on the couch.

He played Dragonbox Big Numbers and we read a good amount of Nick and Tesla. He asked about a lot of words: steepled, airlock, meddling. We played with the circuit they had made yesterday (#95), where a bright light can override the effect of the music. ‘override’ was another word of the day. We then cut cardstock for our calendar signs together, then we decorated a bunch of bookmarks after he cut a bunch more (he and Carly had decorated several together yesterday). I would start the decorations, and he would finish them. He talked about wanting to hand them out to the preschoolers.

I made him oatmeal after he ate strawberries. He wanted me to not mix in the brown sugar, then tried to only eat the parts with the sugar in it and leave the rest of the oatmeal. I mixed up why remained though and told him he had missed some of the sugar and he ate the rest as he played a little Dragonbox Big Numbers. He was now confidently figuring out some of the problems with grouping (like 9+3) in his head. Carly came downstairs. She had been up early and had now taken a nap.

I went up and took a shower. When I came down they were making folded paper things out of strips of paper, like Carly used to make from the edges of paper from the old dot-matrix printers. I helped with paper mache flower thing – he was making a card for Mikaela. He asked how thick tissue paper was and we looked it up. I talked about the density of paper, and he asked, “What’s dense mean?”

We had crackers and cheese and meat and watched Wintergatan videos – 71 and 72. We then did some more hot gluing of things on his city. The gold hot glue was coming through now. He did an 18 minute alone time, choosing to play with his magnet kit, and had an Oreo.

He ate his Oreo, then we talked about going outside. He wanted to play a little more Dragonbox Big Numbers, so I let him, as I was working on something. He sat next to me on the couch and leaned against my right arm while I tried to type. I scooted away once, and a few seconds later he scooted over and leaned on me again.

We tried the tiny screwdrivers on the printer. No luck. Carly came down. We were getting ready to go for a walk and Carly and I changed into shorts. He didn’t. We suggested he could wear short sleeves tomorrow s it would be even warmer. He skeptically said, “Oh, I will see.”

I went up and did recycling while they sat in the yard, then we walked up into town, taking the back roads. He did the radio station thing and I sang a couple songs, including our “Juicy Juice” song. He was then singing it to himself. Our initial goal was the snakes and ladders playground. We stopped in the park area before that to look for bugs. Not much luck. Carly suggested we keep going and head over to the park with the orange trees. There, Carly sat on a swing and gave August challenges to help him find bugs. He wanted me to go with him at one point close to the corner, as there was a dog behind a fence.

He found a roly poly and then sat with Carly on the swing for a few minutes, then we got going. He’s not really into playing at playgrounds nowadays. Carly suggested we go to a coffee shop, so we walked north into town and went to the new one in the new mall. August remembered he wanted to sit in the elevated portion inside and they let us go up there. They ordered a real strawberry milkshake to share, and I got a mint lemonade. It was a little hard for August to actually share the shake, as it was so good. He sipped my lemonade and at first said he didn’t like it, but then he kept drinking more and more. He missed the memo that we weren’t going to get food and crawled under the table for a minute.

They headed home as I did the whole waiting for the check thing. I paid and caught up. On the way I found the bit of packing strap that August had found earlier. It had fallen out of the bike, so I delivered it to him. He had found it on the way to the coffee shop. He was humming a tone, then put it in his mouth. Yuck.

At home I cut more signs and we added to the city. I started rice for dinner to go with the curry. Mandy Kern and all three of her daughters arrived about 5:15. He was a little overwhelmed by the crowd, but was soon loving the attention.

We went upstairs and had a Skype consultation with Dr. Postma. That went quite well. He reassured us on homeschooling being good for August, and stressed that social interaction is best with like-minded kids, and doesn’t have to be the same age. He did that before we really raised that concern, and it goes against what pretty much everyone here has told us (psychologist, OT, preschool director, etc.) who have basically said that he of course needs to be in school and socializing with kids his own age a lot. He said gifted kids usually have 2 or so close friends. He then suggested finding interest groups and mentors. We immediately had the idea of seeing if we could hang out with the robotics team or GAIA club. And as we were discussing having all of these sessions with Postma earlier in the day, I realized that Gabby, the oldest daughter, is great with August as a mentor, taking him to the butterfly garden, teaching him about the tortoises, etc. So we are doing just fine with the social piece.

We came downstairs to find them gone. Carly texted Mandy and she said they’d be back in 15 minutes. It turns out they had gone up to the playground and played with the exercise equipment. “Mandy really doesn’t like pollution,” he told me later. They then walked over to the mall and told him he could get one treat. It was a Kinder egg. I think he now wants to collect all the toys. He had told them about his planet (which apparently has a name with a bunch of numbers in it) and that he is a robot. And he had walked the entire distance on his own. As they approached the house I heard them discussing the rain, and one of the girls said to us, “He really doesn’t like the rain.” As they left and I noted they had to walk down the street to their car, he said, “I hope they don’t get rained on.”

He would keep bringing up the rain as we ate dinner. I asked Siri if it was going to rain. She said no, but he said, “Well I think so. I felt a couple little drops.” I served the curry again but he said it was too spicy this time. He had a bowl of broccoli and rice with soy sauce and a piece of salmon instead. I asked if he wanted more, and he replied, “Okay. Just because it has a lot of fat to keep you warm.”

He ate his chocolate egg and Carly talked to her mom. We put together his toy of a Minion on a bicycle. More talk of the rain. As he went to the bathroom we discussed the differences between a laptop and iPad, and I mentioned dictating your writing. He asked what ‘dictate’ means.

I asked him what he would do if he could do anything. An idea from the Brave Learner book I’m reading. He said break things, like walls and windows. He started describing breaking the preschool, so I thought it might just be expressing frustration with school. But then he clarified he’d like to break our house apart too. Basically, he just likes to break things. So, don’t know how I can turn that into a homeschooling thing, but maybe we can see a building demolition. Also, he has talked about wanting to break concrete with a hammer several times, and was talking about sledgehammers fairly regularly for awhile.

We then hung up our whiteboards. I had thought of his as not one to hang up, but he insisted on it being part of our schooling area. So we hung it with a nail to the left of the windows. He had school ideas for it, and we got all of the magnet letters from the fridge and put them in a cup by it. I suggested I start putting a word up on the board each morning for him to read and he liked the idea. He was saying “nice” to things a lot today; a phrase he gets from me.

I was trying to call my own parents, then Carly came down with Cherie on the computer. August was busy tying a box of pushpins to the nail, but when he was done with that he started explaining everything to her, including his electronics part city. We talked about how a slug had escaped in our house, and Carly said something about all the insects in our house. August said, “I like all the bugs in our house. Peaceful.”

I took him upstairs and after some initial fighting against a bath, got his hair washed just fine, after he had chosen Mentos from the treats. August asked, “What eats bones?” So we looked it up and discussed bone decomposition.

He brushed his teeth and we got him ready for bed. I left them at 9:05. We had also read more Nick and Tesla sometime during the evening. About ¾ done.

Paper mache flowers:

On the swing with mama:

Humming and plastic in his mouth:

Explaining his city:

Tongue twisters:

He was up at 7:20, as I was getting dressed. Carly was staying home today, and I mistakenly sent him downstairs, thinking she was down there. I heard him open the door downstairs to look outside. I met him coming up as I walked down and he told me, “She isn’t.” We found her in another room upstairs. He was a little upset, but handled it okay.

When they both had to go to the bathroom he raced her to it. As he washed his hands: “Why do germs think of water and soap as enemies? Predators?”

They read Fix It, Sam and then I read him part of Cycle City on the iPad. He didn’t want to finish it, and asked to play Dragonbox Big Numbers. He then played the new belly button snack game where I tried to fool him into eating something gross, but then he turns out to be an animal that likes the food I describe (worm cookies, etc.). I mentioned ‘symbiotic relationship’ and that became a word of the day when I told him about fish and whales, and microbes in his gut.

He spent a long time outside with Carly. He was finding slugs and they put them in a big bucket. He found a butterfly wing. He came in with a big stick singing a stick pony song. I made calender signs for our homeschooling and he played more Dragonbox Big Numbers. He played with his food machine and told me, “With just the red plugged in it makes the most nutritionist food.”

He came up to the bathroom with me while I took a shower. Downstairs he went back outside. He taped up the slugs after feeding them some plants. He then played with hose, having different spray settings with his finger. He had ‘supersonic’ mode and started watering the plants: “supersonic to the cactus, supersonic to the mint…”

Back inside Carly asked if we could take down the yellow string from the kitchen. He said yes, then said, “Could I say one last goodbye to my string? Goodbye string!” We then realized that the slug we had taped up last night had escaped through one of the bottom holes of the pot. August and I looked under the couch with a flashlight, but didn’t find it. We found his watch, lots of beads, and other things though. He randomly told me,”So for my birthday I want a big helium balloons that says 6 on it.”

He looked at the thermometer and I said the temperature was pretty consistent inside: “What’s consistent mean?”

We got going, and drove to Planetanya. Carly stayed home to work. This time, success. The security guard recognized us from yesterday. We got our tickets, and looked at the fish in the indoor pond. August said it looked like a little swamp.

We talked about how the building was big but didn’t have much in it as we walked out to the outdoor science playground. I guess I agreed to much with him too much, because once out there August was convinced and he wanted to leave and go to a real science center. We did end up spending about 30 minutes though, so give that the whole thing only cost a little over 5 dollars it wasn’t bad.

we looked at the optical illusions, and his favorite part was the fun mirrors. He spent a lot of time dancing in them, and getting closer and farther away. Skipped the music, and then spent time at the solar power area, aiming the mirrors at the panels.

We did the bikes that power things, and the big hamster wheel, which August had done a video of me walking in last year. This time, he sat on the ground and had me gently walk forward and backwards.

Finally, in the gravity area he rode the bike with the rotating flywheel, and we played on the spinning disk where you move in and out to change the speed. A little more time in the gravity area, then we headed out.

We drove to the Tiv Taam parking lot and walked to Max. There were a couple specific things I wanted: white board for writing down project ideas, and a paper trimmer that August could use and I could use to make all the signs I want. I told him he could get one thing, and he knew exactly what he wanted: the white-out tape things that he had considered but passed on for his one item yesterday.

We found the whiteboard. August wanted a magnetic one as well, so I got him a slightly smaller one in addition to the wood-framed one that I got for the wall. he found his white-out tape pens and I got one more set of drawers, and he convinced me to get a set of small bottles for his potions.

We asked about a paper trimmer, but they didn’t have one. So we stopped by the art store on the way back to the car. They had one for 99 shekels. A lot more than everything we had bought at Max combined, but still only 25 dollars.

We drove home, getting here at 2. We started with the paper trimmer, figuring out how it works. He then opened the white-out pens and we figured out how to work them. He was doing pretty well with them, and making random shapes that he said were kingdoms: “It’s the kingdom of Castilist.” Later, he wanted me to save one, telling me “people live there.”

He had pizza for a late lunch, along with some dried mango and milk. He went outside with Carly. They were pretending to be slugs. His idea; she was disgusted by the idea. He was joking around and said, “I’ll tell everyone in the world my mama has a penis.” They watered plants together. He then came in and told me, “I discovered a color: lightning red…a little visible to humans.”

I then took him to Tiv Taam with me. We needed ingredients for gingersnaps and a few other things. On the way he asked why motorcycles go fast when they take short cuts. I talked about how some drove too fast, and he said, “I don’t think Ms. Rena does that.”

Shopping went well. I got him a pack of cheese crackers and he ate them on the way home. We were home at 4:20. Carly was upstairs.

We were squirrels and made a nest out of the pillows and chairs. He then started a beaver imagining game where I found a beaver that had been flooded out of its home by a dam.

Carly came down and they went outside and were catching slugs again. I went upstairs to rest. When I came down they were making bookmarks with the paper cutter. He had also done most of a circuit project, and when he got frustrated he climbed into her lap for comfort. She colored on a bookmark and he said, “You’re writing DNA waves.”

He and I read Nick and Tesla. When it was time to eat he asked, “Dada? Could you read while I eat? It’s getting super scary and creepy.” He was then saying, “Something’s fishy around here.” Quoting the book.

We all sat on the table and ate together. I had made rice to go with the chicken soup. We then added to the sculpture and we started to call it a city and discussed what all the parts were, including power plants and train lines. He said, “People call this the Electrical City.”

Upstairs he taped up a cupboard so we couldn’t get into it. Luckily, one we never use. But then he kept going and taped up some of the drawers. He brushed his teeth, and Carly put him to sleep. I left them at 8:45. It was quiet around 9, but I don’t know how long it took.

I am Mr. Pony Stick song:

Hose fun:

Supersonic mode:

Fun mirror:

Spinning chair:

White out pen:

Silly time:

Drill slo-mo:

He came down before 7:45. He lay on the couch, with his eyes closed part of the time and his feet on my lap, until just after 8 when he aekes, “Can I play Dragonbox Numbers?” I made him say “Good morning, Dada.”

He played a little Dragonbox Big Numbers, then asked for a strawberry and mango smoothie before having oatmeal. He paused to eat the smoothie and his oatmeal. He asked me to bring his iPad and set it up for him and did so very politely. I complimented him on how well he’s using polite language recently.

He used some psychology to get me to shake something, maybe one of his shakers, that he was using as some sort of tester: “Dada, do you love me? Well, if you do you’ll shake this and I’ll believe you.” I shook it. “Done! I believe you!”

I went up and took a shower while he played the Lego game down on the couch. He switched to the Synth One app though and was playing really loud screeching notes and giggling to himself when I got out of my shower. We discussed the presets and ‘preset’ was a word of the day.

He then taped the multimeter to the top of his shakers and the whole thing was a machine that he said made what you wanted. It was a food machine. We measured the space under his art kitchen (63w x 19h x 17d) for storage purposes, me teaching him how to record and read the measurements. He then decided to release the beetle that we caught yesterday. We did that, and left at 10:30.

We drove to Planetanya and noticed it was overrun with students. The security guard told us it was closed for a special event today, even though it is normally supposed to be open on Thursdays. He said tomorrow it would work though. August spotted a building from the car and called it a little skyscraper: “But I don’t think it touches the sky.” I asked how tall a building needs to be to be called a skyscraper. He thought about it and said, “When the top can go in the clouds.”

We then drove to Max to get some supplies for homeschooling, namely the calendar and signs I want to make. He had ‘found’ a 5 shekel piece in the car, and I told him he could choose something to buy on his own at Max. His first choice was a fancy mechanical pencil. He changed his mind though after I mentioned he could write with them, saying, “Actually, I don’t want these cuz I don’t want to write my name.” We worked our way though the art department, getting all sorts of stuff. We also got a wooden thermometer for the Zinnie house. I figured it would be good for learning Fahrenheit and Celsius, and we also ended up discussing how it works and mercury quite a bit.

We quickly paid, him buying his set of drill bits on his own. He had gone through a few choices: white out correcting tape changed to a pack of 5 toothbrushes to play with, changed to the drill bits. There were a couple other in there as well, I think. We hurried back to the car to get back before we had to pay for parking (you get a free hour in the Tiv Taam lot now). We discussed skyscrapers and building materials on the way home, getting here at 12:25. As we drove he said, “Hey! Uranus is named after a body part!…a pee body part!” It turned out he meant ‘urine’. Ha.

For lunch we made two soft-boiled eggs and he had some of the pizza. The eggs were a little too hard for him—he likes his eggs runny for dipping purposes. We were discussing homeschooling, and he said he wants to change to weekend to be Friday and Monday. I pointed out that that’s not really what people do, and he said, “Yeah, but we can do it however we want. It’s not like you’re going to go to jail. It’s not illegal.” He asked whether eggs have different sized yolks, and I said they were pretty consistent. That was another word of the day. We then discussed herbivores and carnivores: “If I was an eagle I’d love to eat a baby bird egg. I’d sneak into the nest…” He then asked, “Can we do homeschooling?”

So we went down and got a big piece of paper and I started to write down all the subjects and things he is interested in down on paper. For everyone that he said he wanted to learn about I put a star next to it. We came up with 9 things that I’m going to put up on the wall as ‘August’s Subjects’. It was things like insects, nature, machines, and electronics, and also things like art and history. He told me that one time PKB made tea and let everyone have it and he used his straw.

We then experimented with the circuit set, testing the rechargeable battery from the solar light. Confused me by having a switch connected that still works when though the circuit was complete. We finally figured it out.

The alarm on my phone, that used to remind me to go get August at school, went off. August gave me a confused look when I explained what it was, and said “I thought I woke up just a couple minutes ago.” That is, he thought it was one of our morning alarms that he’s used to hearing. I reminded him of all the things we’d done today, and that if his day felt like it had gone quickly it meant he was having fun. I then asked how his school days had felt. He replied, “School was really, really long.”

We discussed the thermometer again and discussed what would happen if it was boiling. He then invented clear steel, so he could make a thermometer that couldn’t break when the mercury got hot. He then invented a clear steel skyscraper: “They’re popular. People seem to like them, actually.” We talked about how crazy it would be to be in an invisible skyscraper, and it got pretty silly with everyone being able to see in the bathrooms and walking into invisible walls.

I asked him what subject he wanted to start with, and one of the things he had chosen was ‘photography’. So we decided to go for a photography walk.

So we went out and took the bike. He immediately went across to the cactus area and started finding things to take photos of. We talked about landscape and portrait, and I taught him how to just the focus, which was entirely new to him. He made use of it to adjust focus on plants, and also on the entrance to an ant nest.

We then walked down to the old highway area, taking some photos along the way. He decided he was done though when he saw thicker clouds and decided we should head home. His idea the whole time was to go home and then change the photos on the iPad, using the editing apps. We were doing that when Carly got home. August also remembered doing it with screenshots of the astronomy app, so he went and was looking at satellites and galaxies.

Carly got home and we showed her, then she went upstairs and he did more editing, then watched some Max and Ruby. He then saw a Marble Machine X video we haven’t seen yet, and we watched #75. He remembered the tiny screwdrivers we bought and we started looking for the rest of the iPad to take apart, but couldn’t remember where we put it. We ended up writing down our photography words that we used a lot on our walk (landscape, focus, etc.)

He found the pet cage thing with the baby still in it, from his birthday party, and filled it with other things as well and took it up to Carly. He put stuff in the cage with the baby and took it upstairs, where he played around with it with Carly. He found some coins and put them in and asked, “Is that enough to make the baby like the cage?”

I then cooked dinner, making a coconut green curry with mushrooms. I put in 1/4th of the green curry. They both found it a bit spicy, but edible. They did movie time, watching Up. I listened to the movie while I reorganized our living room and started making signs.

Eventually we ended up upstairs, and he started tying pajamas together and tying them to the bedroom door. I gave him a bath, then he was working on the clothes bridge-fence. He asked me what I made as a kid: “Stuff like engineers make? Like I make?”

I told him about Odyssey of the Mind (making a structure to hold weight), and he asked about competitions I’d been in and I told him about math competitions. He asked if I learned to make knots. I told him about Grampa’s Cub Scout books and Grest Grandpa being his scout leader. And I told him things I made in school: pinhole camera, egg drop, soda bottle rockets, fishing flies, etc.

When I mentioned paper airplanes, he wanted me to make one. We did, and he was throwing it around the bedroom. He started declaring, “That was a smooth one, ladies and gentlemen!” He eventually took it downstairs, throwing it down the stairs as he went.

We went back upstairs and got him ready for bed, and I left them at 8:50.

The food maker:

New drill bits:

Watching Up with mama:

Paper airplane throwing:

Paper airplane slo-mo:

We had quite a good day today, as long as you ignore the horrible meeting where we were asked to voluntarily withdraw our child from school.

He came down just after 7:30. Sat on the couch for a couple minutes. I went upstairs to get our allergy medicine and back downstairs he started asking me how many parts I thought an airplane had. He told me the electric gate at school had big bolts he would show me. He went and dig in his building kit for a minute and came back with a bolt and said they were like that, with the spiral. I taught him ‘thread’.

He worked on the thing he had built with Carly several days ago. Said he needed my help, but he was okay. He said it was now a “huge solar panel that gives us electricity.” When I read him the morning message from Carly he listed and said, “Anyway, let’s finish this circuit.”

He showed me the city he had made in Hoopa City 2 last night with Carly. He had placed a lot of observatories, but called them “telescope societies.” That was too cute to correct. I worked, sitting on the floor close to him. He was talking to the game: “Ready for some roadway?” Then in a squeaky voice, “Yes, boss.”

He switched to Dragonbox Big Numbers and played while I worked next to him. I would help him with problems when he asked, and I was seeing progress in his math. he was starting to understand the process for adding two numbers that go over ten. Also progress, he decided to stay downstairs, playing the game, while I went up and took a shower.

Back downstairs he ate strawberries and had oatmeal for breakfast. We then discussed tools, and plans for the day. He didn’t want to go to Planetanaya as it is outdoors and he was afraid it would rain. Talking about tools, he said, “I’ve been inventing other electronic tools for myself, did you know that? And I’ve started to share them with other people.” And he asked, “Is there anything you want me to invent?” Yesterday I requested a flying suit for a turtle. Think we got distracted before I requested anything this time. He said, “I made a tea infuser for you…the one you had in Korea…it looks exact the same.” He meant the one with a bear at the top that I was wondering what had happened to it a few weeks ago.

He then compared his three shakers: two he had made at school, and one he had made last night out of a paper cup with nails in it which he had taped shut, then taped a pencil or something to as a handle. He described how they made different sounds. He then told me all about his vitamin C machine (he called it “Calcium C”) and how it squeezes oranges and gets all of the vitamin C without any of it being lost to the air and then you suck it out with a straw. Finally, he looked at his insect collection and speculated on why the grub wasn’t going under the dirt.

We left at 10:30, headed to Ace and other stores in that mall to mainly look for a jeweler’s set of screwdrivers. We went in the mall and looked at Bug, an electronics store. No luck. We walked the length of the mall. He had me pick him up and put his head down on my shoulder for most of it.

We then went downstairs to Ace. No luck on the screwdrivers, but he spotted a battery tester. I then showed him a multimeter, which was just a little more, and we ended up getting that. He was also excited when he spotted round pads for the chairs, as he knew I had run out of them. Finally, I found a nice latch to attach to the door of the Zinnie house to keep cats out.

We bought those, then headed to the pizza place in that mall, only to find it closed. We walked across to the other side and looked at Office Depot, but no screwdrivers there. So we went back to the car and headed over to a pizza place called Katorza just east of Winter Lake Park. We parked around the block and walked and found it. August got a slice of cheese, I had olive. We shared a grape drink. As he ate, he watched music videos on a big TV and had me Shazam a song.

We left to head to Planetanya, but when I put in the directions on Google Maps it told me it didn’t open until 4pm. So I stopped by Winter Lake Park, but August said he only wanted to go home. I relented and headed home. Later, when I explained which park it actually was, he said “Oh, I would go there.”

At home, at 1, he played 15 minutes of Dragonbox Big Numbers. We then got out the multimeter and figured out how to use it and test batteries. We had several new and old batteries, and we also went out and got the three used batteries in his bike, which was in the back of the car. He asked why it was a multimeter, and we discussed multi- (a word of the day). .he made a connection: “Like unicorn…” Where ‘uni’ means ‘one’.

We went out for a bug and graffiti walk at 2:30. He took the permanent marker with him, and I let him draw on a leaf. He drew symbols, and told me, “Only robots would understand it.” He picked it, and told me it was to go under the chair with his other things, and then he would send it to another planet.

Soapy water came out of a yard across the street and went down the road. We followed it, and were eventually floating things down it and then making dams. That was a cool development.

We headed home and got ready to go to school. We had found a solar-powered light across the street and he said that Mikaela would like to take it apart with him. We also took insects to show her. We drove to school, getting there at 3:20.

From the car he spotted a house with actual solar panels, not just the heating systems. we headed to Caryl’s classroom. She was in a meeting until 4.

In the classroom he pulled up al the window blinds, then, as we were early, we took apart the light ourselves. At 3:45 he asked how long it until Mikaela got there, and I said 15 minutes maximum. He asked what ‘maximum’ meant. I explained, then he asked why I don’t use that word more often.

Mikaela arrived, and I headed over to Mike’s office. Mike and Vicky arrived first, then Carly then Shary, as the other meetings finished up. The less said about the meeting the better. Shary (the elementary principal), in the very first communication from an administrator regarding August, basically described him as dangerous and with little chance of succeeding in a school setting. She even suggested we’d have to make “substantial” changes to our parenting style for him to ever succeed in a school setting. We sat there, shocked, as she mischaracterized everything that had been happening. In short, we were asked to withdraw August. Either all along the teachers and Vicky were sugar-coating everything, or Shary was spinning everything to pad her case that August didn’t belong at the school. Given that the psychologist warned me that Shary “doesn’t like little boys who misbehave” and forces them out of school, we’re guessing it’s the latter, or a combination of both. For example, she claimed they’d started having conversations about the students “weeks ago” about kindergarten, and were considering not allowing August to continue in kindergarten. And yet, two weeks ago we had a parent-teacher conference, much of which was reassuring us of all of the support that was given in transitioning to kindergarten, with no mention of concerns or the possibility that he wouldn’t be allowed.

In short, a good riddance of bad rubbish. While we are very upset with how it was handled, we were already really concerned with how August would respond to the kindergarten reading curriculum. They focus on it a lot, but August is already advanced in reading, and doing the typical gifted child thing of reading by memorizing full words and not by sounding out individual letters. We were also concerned about the larger class size, and with Shary being the admin directly in charge without a caring preschool director inbetween. And, of course, there was the worry of keeping him at school on a daily basis and wondering how today would go, and whether him walking around stressed out for 4 hours each day was actually good for him.

So, my first feeling was actually of a weight being lifted. We could go full in on the homeschooling and get back to a routine that still feels more natural to me (given that I did it for years with him) than getting him ready for school every day.

We went back and picked up August. It had only been 40 minutes, but they had done a lot. He had told her about how he has little people living inside him (a new story for us), and about how he has a lab and can see ultraviolet light, but other people can’t. They went for a walk and he showed her how fast he could run. He later told me they had gone to the nature reserve but couldn’t find a tortoise. They did art on the whiteboard and he drew a really complicated abstract shape, then asked her to “replicate it.” She attempted to do so, and he found her attempt really funny as she made a lot of mistakes. When I walked in, she had started to read him a book, but August later told me it was a boring book from mama’s classroom for “adults.”

We said goodbye and headed home. August and I stayed out and he helped drill holes (he’s getting better at it) for the latch and we put it on the Zinnie house. Worked really well. We were discussing foods, and making cookies for Mikayla. He suggested we had ingredients on hand, and I said basically just for sugar cookies, which I don’t really like. I explained that other cookies have more “pizzazz.” He asked what that word meant, and said that he’d heard it on Max and Ruby.

For dinner he ate a bowl of broccoli with a little butter and two soft-boiled eggs with crackers. Carly came down and he showed her the multimeter and how it works. He did something that bothered her, like kissing her neck, and when she explained she didn’t like it he said, “Sorry, I won’t do it again. I promise.” Which is the kind of positive reaction we haven’t seen from him, so that is nice. He had a bowl of oatmeal, and he said, “Hey Siri, please play Josh Ritter.” Which was a nice thing to do for Carly.

He then took Carly out, I thought to show her the latch, but another thing we had done when we were outside was use boards to block the places the cats can come in by the front gate. I don’t know why we didn’t think of that before. He insisted on piling the wood high enough to close the entire gap, but that does block the gate moving. It will also be possible to leave the top row off and have the gate open and close. They got distracted and never made it to the Zinnie house. They sat on the swing and I heard him say, “If I see a really dark cloud we’ll go inside.” He was a little traumatized by our recent rain experiences. I went up Nd did and hour of work.

Carly gave him a bath and he played in the sink. I think they also added to his sculpture. He came into the office, wearing his shirt as pants and put his pajama pants on his head. He spent a few minutes looking at himself in the mirror while dancing and singing a song about Captain Underpants. We went into the bedroom and read Nick and Tesla and formally introduced homeschooling to him. He was very positive on it, as long as he got to choose things. He also liked the idea of weekly field trips. I talked about still playing with his friends, and he ended up singing a great song about Eve. He changed the subject by asking, “I have a question for you: What do you want me to make?” This time I requested a swimming suit for a bat so it could swim like a fish. He installed gills so it could breathe. For a visualization we were a worm snake, then he spent several minutes just making up music. He finally fell asleep at 9:50.

2 song and working on math:

The Calcium C machine:

Battery testing:

Symbols on a leaf:

Following the water:

Captain Underpants song:

I started waking him up at 8. Took until close to 8:20. Took quite awhile for him to get going. He went downstairs, then leaned against me as he woke up and ate his vitamins.

He ate a couple strawberries and played Dragonbox Big Numbers, then had oatmeal with brown sugar. I sat next to him at the table and worked and helped him with his math and number writing. He was totally singing, mainly about the game. He then started the copying game. He asked, “Could you please copy me? Even when I say esophagus?” I asked, “How will I know when to stop.” He replied, “Oh, when I say refrigerator.”

He asked what is class was doing right now. I said it was likely literacy group. “Do you think Ms. Vicky is saying ‘What about the E?’” He was done with iPad, and asked for the macro lens. He took a couple photos of crumbs with it, then asked me to add the Billy Bragg song that was playing to his playlist. He asked me to blow up a balloon with the bicycle pump. I blew one up, but it doesn’t work too well. He found a permanent marker in the drawer and when I read the label it included Instant drying.” “Instant? What’s that mean?” First word of the day.

He then had me help him create a balloon creation, taping them together, then adding a paper cup. He colored dots on the balloons and wrote in the cup with the permanent marker, and would eventually add the circuit board and switches from the light thing we had taken apart. He liked the idea of his balloon creation floating and got a little grumpy when I said we couldn’t get a canister of helium. “What’s a canister?”

I started a project of organizing his art kitchen and putting signs on things. I would get him to read the signs. He wanted to put hot glue on a balloon as an experiment. I did it as he watched from across the room and took a video in slo-mo of it popping. He also did a water mixture of sorts, using the drill to mix it.

For lunch we made soft-boiled eggs. It turned out what he had been wanting was hard-boiled eggs, like we used to have, but soft-boiled was a good discovery:

“Remember those adventures in Korea when we’d eat those soft-boiled eggs?…I liked cracking them.” “We had them here too.” As we ate (I used a plastic lid as a egg holder and showed him how to break it open with a spoon. We dipped crackers in it, since we didn’t have toast) he asked, “What did we mostly eat in Korea?” We talked about Korean food and what we ate. He then was asking a lot of questions about whether he would have been able to use a hot glue gun when he was three or a baby.

He’s asked about the living room windows, which aren’t clear, a couple times recently, and today asked, “How is it blurry like that when you look through the living room window? How? How? How?” As we ate we also were discussing aardvarks and what and how they ate (he stuck his tongue in the egg and pretended to be an aardvark). He says he makes paper out of ant larvae.

We watched a little more of the race and he said he liked the rainy race. As he went to the bathroom he asked, “Do you think to a snail my poop would be giant?” He remembered the civilization building game we had played on my phone and wanted to play it sometime. I told him I could put some building games on his iPad. I found a couple of free Lego games and a couple others and installed those, and he played one of the Lego ones while I took a shower.

Back downstairs we glued a cable to a speaker and I finished signs. He started talking about short bits of times and invented the “Infinitit…way bigger than the other numbers I’ve made up.”

We finally got going outside when he went out at 2 to release the insects. He took them across to the fallen cactus, to the little safe spot in it and released them there. We then spent the next hour looking for insects in that area. Studied a couple of ant nests, and found a lot of new insects. He had 6 or 7 in the bug catcher by the time we were done. “That’s a cool rolly Polly.”

Taya was being watched by Grace after school and we planned to go play with them. We were already running late when August was playing around with the hammer outside and somehow hit one of his fingers. I picked him up and comforted him for a couple minutes, and noticed he was pressing his eyes tightly shut. I tried to get him to use the calm space. He sort of did, crawling under the chair next to it for a minute.

We finally got walking after 3. To school by 3:30. He was humming music on the way. We searched the campus for Grace and Taya. Not on the playgrounds. August suggested Cassie’s room. Not there, and not in the library or cafeteria. We were intrigued by the elevator not working; the door was stuck open at the top. We ended up at the nature reserve and I thought about looking for a tortoise. August found one after a few seconds. We looked at it and picked it up, then let it go.

August asked, “Where on Earth do you think Taya is on campus?” He found a couple little treasures. We headed back to Cassie’s room and found them. He excitedly showed Grace and Taya the bugs and then we captured a crane fly that Taya spotted. Just a couple more minutes, then Cassie showed up. We stayed with them and walked them to the exit.

August wanted to head home as well, so we got the iHerb box and I balanced it on the handlebars. August suggested putting it on the seat, and he was hanging off the front of the bike. We tried that for a few feet for fun. He was asking a lot of questions on the way home and I had to keep stopping to hear him. Near the end of the walk he was asking about trucks and cars and their heights and we discussed the concept of ‘aerodynamic’. We were home at 4:50.

We fixed and revised his Lego ship and were going to start on a new circuit when Carly got home. I went up to work for an hour. August came in once to check in and Carly came and got him. I was getting weird withdrawal notices from the Washington college savings plan account and had to call my dad to get the code to let me into the account. It turned out to be nothing, and later in the night they sent out an email about problems with their email system. While I was upstairs I heard them making a lot of noise, in fun I think.

When I came down he was making a big structure out of string throughout the kitchen. He as so into it he didn’t want dinner. He said, “It’s like a maze of duckings.” As in, ducking to avoid it. Carly headed upstairs. He kept adding and playing, taping things to it and expanding it to reach the coffee table. He started to hug me from behind. Sweet at first. Then rougher. Finally, I asked him what he wanted to say, and he said, “Im hungry.”

For dinner we both had chicken soup and shared the last of the focaccia. He said answering the question for cotton candy was like when he had to do dance move for something at the Halloween thing. He said it was like money, and I explained ’barter’ to him, and another new one was ‘in advance’ when I said we should have defrosted his frozen treat in advance. He ate some of that and talked about a class of kid elves that were on a field trip. He took down all of the beige strings from his big creation and stuffed them all into a little bottle that Eve had given him.

I took him up for his bath and we got that done pretty quickly. He had been asking to watch a video about how popsicles are made, so we watched that on the bed (https://youtu.be/jW1O1XTjgMA). I read I Will Take a Nap! and had him brush his teeth. Carly came in and I left them at 8:30. Took her awhile, as I still heard them at 9:15.

Balloon creation:

Balloon popping slo-mo:

Soft-boiled egg:

Today’s insect collection:

Music on the way to school:

Tortoise time:

Showing off his insects:

Web creation:

I let him sleep until he woke up just after 8:30. I picked him and held him for a couple minutes, his head on my shoulder. He then sat on the couch and I for him vitamins and his allergy medicine. For reading he requested the Skybrary book where someone has homework problems. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but we figured out it was Oliver Otter’s Own Office. We read that, then he wanted to watch the Magic School Bus episode where they build a rover. We found it – it’s an episode from the new series.

He told me of a super medicine he invented. One drop of it could cure you or protect you from thousands of things. He then asked me for things for him to make. I said a machine that would do my work for me. He said I wouldn’t have to pay for it up front – since I would use it over time I could pay for it monthly like Siri or electricity. Thought it was really interesting that he thought of that.

We made oatmeal and discussed his straws as he played with the rainbow one. We discussed the difference between ‘beverage’ and ‘liquid’ and he came up with “snake poison” as a liquid that wasn’t a beverage. So ‘beverage’ was a word of the day.

He watched Wild Kratts and Magic School Bus and ate all his oatmeal and I worked. We then did more work on the printer, taking it apart, and used some of the parts to add more to his hot glue sculpture. He was being a bit cheeky with me, telling me I was at fault for getting burned: “Then you shouldn’t hold it awkwardly like that, silly.” And when he didn’t hold a piece long enough for it to stay glued he said, “YOU shoulda holded it. YOU’RE the expert.” I told him he was the hot glue expert. And when he picked up the glue gun to glue something he said, “Turn on supervision.”

At some point he randomly said, “At my birthday party, I’m never going to invite my teachers. Cuz they’ll just want to teach.” I went upstairs to look for the cream for his lip. When I came down he said, “I hung that up.” It was his green/red chart from his last day, from the previous week, when he didn’t get any red dots. He had found it over on his art kitchen, I think, and hung it up on the refrigerator with magnets. He stood on the stool, leaning back against the counter and gave me a sort of sheepish look. I went and gave him a hug.

We went upstairs, and he told me the cream was taped up in his wall creation. I took it out to use on him, and he wasn’t too happy with his sculpture being touched. He responded by fixing it, adding to it. He did that while I went and took a shower. When I came out he had quite a creation, and said it was a machine. He had the fan included in it, and said, “It has to be on for a full hour…it’s making Siri stronger and smarter.” He had me sitting out on the couch so he could surprise me, as he added more. He ran out of tape. I knew there was a full unused roll in the bedroom and told him, “So get that other roll.” He replied, “I taped it.” We had to go downstairs and get another roll.

He asked, “Why am I good at electrical stuff?” I said something about practice. He said, “No, you’re wrong…because I practice on my world.” We went downstairs, but then found something he wanted to add, so we went back up. We watched a little racing. He talked about making insanely fast things in his lab and told me, “I like to make things that are insanely fast so I win trophies and stuff and hang them up.”

We went downstairs for lunch, having pizza and crackers with cheese and meat. We sat on the kitchen floor and kept watching. He asked if an insanely heavy car would hydroplane. He then talked about a skyscraper from the bottom of the ocean. He talked about how you could see sharks and everything out the windows. There’s a sort of electric fence that will keep them from touching the skyscraper though, but not scare them away though as you’d still want to see the baby sharks and things.

Before we left, he had the idea of letting the snake go. I think I had mentioned a day or two ago that we didn’t know how to feed it, but I hadn’t mentioned it again. This was his idea. We took it out and let it go in the garden and watched it as it crawled several feet until finding a rock to crawl under. He said, “Bye, wormy! Bye, snakey!”

We headed out for a walk at 1:30. We wandered around, and he told me, “I discovered a color…sonic green…a kind of green people can’t see. But I can.” He asked, “What’s an exoplanet?” Another word of the day. He had learned it on Magic School Bus. He also asked, “What predators is guard ants good at keeping away?”

Our initial goal was to find rocks to turn over to find another snake. We tried a few rocks across the street, but no luck. We wandered the back streets then headed up to our usual stopping spot and looked around there. He did find a new green bug that we hadn’t seen before. And he found a metal piece on a pole that he said was like something he’d seen before. And at a garbage area we found a sort of motion detector to take apart.

We headed back south, and down to the pathway starting by the cloud bridge and then over to the old highway area. We tried different paths down there. The highlight came when I turned over a rock to find I had broken open an ant nest. We realized there were hundreds of little white dots. It was the ant larvae, and over the next couple minutes we saw the ants pick them all up and take them somewhere else. We watched them for several minutes, and August got a stick to go poking under other small rocks and old paper towels and things.

We got home at 3. Inside, we took apart the motion detector. And we were both a little itchy-eyed from our walk. He went and washed his hands and eyes a bit. We started watching the Formula 1 race, and did the car game with me lying on my back on the floor.

He then wanted to play on his iPad and play Dragonbox Big Numbers. He started from the beginning, and was having a lot of fun doing it all by himself. Carly got home, and he got hyper. They started doing more hot glue. They went upstairs to wrestle and he added to his machine up there. Then were were back downstairs and doing more hot gluing. He was being mean to her again and had a timeout at some point.

He got the sushi rice and we put some in a lavender balloon and played with that. He then had another time out because he responded badly to me making him stop tipping on the dining table chairs. He and Carly had chicken soup for dinner (I’d already had some food) and I sat with them. He then played with the lavender balloon with her. She took him for a timeout when he hit her because he didn’t like how she was passing the balloon.

He got two little wrenches and wanted to make a horn on his head using one of the headbands. I went up to do some work, about an hour, and they did that. They made it, but realized it needs a counterweight. She took him up for his bath, and I heard him singing on and on, “Da da da…” He said it was to postpone his bath. Eventually he had his bath.

I then came in and we read Nick and Tesla. Took a long time to get him to sleep. We did a visualization being a photon going away from the sun. We had fun thinking about that, and how long photons could be traveling and what happens to them. I talked about having lots of “brother and sister” photons. He didn’t like my anthropomorphizing: “Brothers and sisters protons? Protons aren’t alive.”

I sang him some songs, and he requested “Always” by Erasure and wanted to record me singing it on his iPad. He had done that once, and said that he could record me singing all the songs, then he could just play the recordings of me singing the songs. So I let him record that, then we turned off the lights, a little after 9. Sang more songs, then it was quiet time. He asked two questions this time before finally falling off to sleep: “How does a photon travel so fast? I know it doesn’t have any mass.” Then right before falling to sleep he asked, “Can I have a soft-boiled egg for lunch tomorrow?” Not sure when he learned about soft-boiled eggs, but they come up in discussion every few weeks or so.

Hot glue gun:

Explaining his creation:

The upstairs machine:

The upstairs machine 2:

Discussing his underwater sky scraper:

Releasing snakey:

Inside of the ant nest:

Marker Slo-mo 1:

Marker Slo-mo 2:

He went to bed late and slept late today. Kind of failing on adjusting him to the new time. He was up around 8:15. Not sure if Carly woke him up, or he got up on his own. They were upstairs chatting for quite awhile. They came downstairs and Carly was able to convince him to go upstairs on his own to get his iPad. She gave him chocolate chips for blowing his nose. They read Captain Underpants together, then she made him oatmeal.

He ate and watched Wild Kratts. He went upstairs to find Carly, then came down and started digging in the fridge. He found the big leaves that Carly’s students had given her and ate some. He then wanted to make a mixture, and did that in a small pot, measuring out small amounts with the measuring cups and a butter knife.

Carly headed to the store. We played with the Legos and watched F1 and F2 qualifying while we did so. He expanded and revised his ship from yesterday. He said, “Its like the Goosey Grow 2000.” Which he said was from Captain Underpants.

When he wanted to move to the circuit set he did a good job of cleaning up the Legos. He took apart the circuit that we had made before and chose a new one to make. I heated us up pizza and we ate that as we built it.

Carly got home and handed him a big bag of balloons. He had been asking for balloons for a couple of days, and when he had heard she was going to the store he asked her. The first one we tried had holes in it. The second one he started bouncing in the air, seeing how many times he could bounce it.

We got him to pause that and pick up the spices, etc. from his mixture earlier. He then gave Carly the pink one and told her she could practice with it, and gave her some pointers. We filled a blue one with quinoa and he played with that. Paused to put the hourly cream on, then when he was playing with it it popped, showering quinoa around. He went and hit Carly. I talked to him, and he calmly went and got paper and drew a picture of a face on it, crossed it out, and handed it to me and said, “That stands for no love.” But at least it was a calm response, and a new strategy on his part. He then apologized to Carly.

He was going to try alone time, but wanted to play with his iPad instead. He played with music apps. He then did do alone time, playing with the straw things, and I went up to take a shower. When I came down Carly was giving him some of the soup. “I love it.”

We then got going to International Day. It had been moved inside due to the rain. We parked and walked in. He explained all the reasons he doesn’t want to ever wear a wristband: it is too tight, it is sticky, you have to wear it for the full time, and he doesn’t know how to get them off. He wasn’t reassured when I said we could solve some of those.

Anyway, we headed in and to the gym. Full and overwhelming at first. Then the treats started: pie and cookie from Poland, waffle from Germany (he’d told Carly earlier he’d wanted waffles sometime). We watched some of the capoeta (sp?) demonstration, then went back to treats and a little learning about countries: chocolate thing from Brazil, a maple cupcake with maple syrup infuser from Canada, cotton candy from the United States. For that he had to answer a question, and while we waited our turn I talked to Anita. Very understanding about everything. And August waited very patiently. He answered the question (colors of the New Mexico flag, which was on the wall) and got his cotton candy.

He really liked that. It was his first cotton candy ever. He said it tasted like cherry medicine. And he asked Carly the question he had had to answer.

We walked over to the cafeteria, where there were more booths. He wanted something from the Kazakhstan booth, but it cost money. We walked to the other end, and I bought some of the food coupons. It was run by teenage boys, so they handed me a bunch of extras.

Carly and I got coffees and I got the bread thing August wanted and some pad thai. We sat at a table outside for awhile.

We headed back into the gym one more time. Candy saw August go by and yelled at him to come back. He came back, said hi, and she ran off again. Back in the gym we had a bread-flavored drink from Russia, learned about Kenya and Zambia (he correctly guessed that giraffes live in Kenya, based on the photos he saw), and at the Netherlands booth he was given bread with chocolate sprinkles on it and told that’s what Dutch children eat for breakfast. He liked the sprinkles, but not the bread.

We went to walk through the cafeteria one more time on our way out. Outside, August heard the music and started doing some impressive dancing. The song was in Hebrew and included “du-du-bong”, which is what he used to repeat with Omri last year. Don’t know if it is a common Hebrew phrase, or from the song.

We headed out. They took the car home, and I rode my bike, not wanting to leave it taking up space. We were home around 5. I saw a printer up by the garbage place and got it and set it by the door as it was wet.

August was pretty hyper. I had him go open the door and find the printer. He showed me the structure he’s made during alone time, explaining it had a security system that caught bd guys and threw them away. Carly headed up to talk to her parents. We took apart the printer as we listened to the Spacemen 3 album Losing Touch with Your Mind. She came down and August told them all about taking things apart. We figured out it was the 10th thing we’ve taken apart. ‘Engineer’ was a word of the day.

August got a bunch of springs and little pieces out of a larger piece and showed Carly how he’d done it. She then took over and helped him, then they started making a sculpture out of the parts using the hot glue gun.

Carly headed up to take a shower. He came over and we discussed the endurance race (Nurburgring 24 hours) I was watching in the background as I typed. He’s been categorizing races based on which ones the drivers can go to the bathroom during (endurance races) and the ones they can’t (shorter races). He was hungry, finally, and ate a full bowl of the chicken soup that Carly had made earlier today. He then had a slice of toast.

We went upstairs and read a little of Nick and Tesla. Then started a game where he sat on my stomach, and put his feet on my hands and those were a gas and broke petals, and he drove a car. He was doing everything to avoid a bath, and started to get upset when it was time to go. Carly came in and helped calm him down, and I took him in and gave him his bath and was able to wash his hair.

In the bedroom, as I dried his hair, I noticed some hairs that needed trimming. Carly came up and trimmed them, and gave him a couple chocolate chips. I was pretending to be grumpy and said it was maddening. “What’s ‘maddening’ mean?” Another word of the day. We did the car game again, and ended up discussing hearing and not hearing things, and ended up discussing sign language. He had good questions, and we discussed hearing aids. “What’s ‘amplify’ mean?”

Downstairs he showed me their sculpture and speculated on whether we could find anything to take apart tomorrow. We got him to brush his teeth, and I left them at 9:10. He had been taping things to the wall, and I heard him tell her, “Everything is attached because this is called the signalmaker.”

Playing with the balloon:

You eat the rest, scrap boy:

Watching at the international fair:

Leading us through the gym:

His first cotton candy:

Dancing to the music:

Explaining his straw structure:

Taking apart the printer 1:

Taking apart the printer 2 – the Sophia ad:

I heard him wake up at least once during the night, but he slept pretty well. He got up at 7:10. They started reading The Mouse and the Motoecycle and when I came down I read more of it to him. He then watched Wild Kratts. He went up to find Carly, and I made scrambled eggs for breakfast. He had a timeout as he hit her about how she was cutting the coke can they were using to make a castle.

We ate breakfast. He didn’t eat much, wanting toast and jam. He went to cuddle with her when we were done and said, “I want to cuddle until your brain hurt.” They had decided on a stopping word for if he wants us to stop something. He thought about it and decided on “Esophagus”. So he would ask us to copy him, then say random things, but when he said “esophagus” we were to stop. This was a game throughout the day.

We took apart the webcam and fed the butterfly. I did dishes, then he was doing a decent job of playing by himself. I went up to take a shower. They were reading Pippi Longstocking as I left. When I came down he was doing alone time. He finished drawing a picture and gave it to her, then they both had an Oreo.

He and I then headed out for a Dada-Zinnie adventure. We got in the car and drove up to a random park area to the northeast, in Kadima. We were listening to The Field on the way up, and I took a slightly longer route to come up the east side of Kadima to see what was over there. When I parked I looked back and found him almost asleep.

We got out and got on the bike. He tried to catch a spider on the side of the car before going, but no luck. We walked up to the playground, but he just wanted to find insects. So we walked out the park to the east and to an empty lot I’d driven past. We looked among the flowers and started to have some success: I caught a little bee-like thing, then he added a ladybug and two kinds of beetles.

We walked back up into the park, stopping to look at more of the ants that we’d seen on the way down. I tried to get him to play there, suggesting imagining games, but it had gotten windier and cloudier, and even with his sweatshirt he wanted to head to the car.

So we did that, and I tried to decided on a place to get food. Being Saturday there wasn’t much open. I called Carly to see if she’d like to join us for pizza at Shabtai or for us to bring her pizza. She chose the latter.

We drove across to Shabtai. Busy when we got there, so we had to park down the hill. Then, I decided to order a large pizza to go. We ordered a half cheese, half with artichoke and mushrooms and goat cheese. They told us 20 minutes. We went outside to decide how to wait, and it was feeling warmer, with a little sun coming out. So we decided to sit at a table outside, and he ordered a peach iced tea and I got a cappuccino. We read Nick and Tesla for a few minutes. When the pizza came they had made a mistake and made it all with the toppings. No worries, as they had already started a small cheese pizza.

He waited patiently, picking cheese off the big pizza, and using his rainbow straw on his peach tea when it came. His pizza came. We both ate two slices. I noticed big clouds rolling in, so we got going. We went inside and waited while they took payment and then went to box up the pizza. We heard thunder as we waited.

We got going, and as soon as we were out of the shop it started raining. we had about half a block to walk. It steadily got heavier and heavier and I stopped to get the umbrella. It blew inside out. We kept going, me keeping it over him. Tried to fix it once, but it blew back. Then it turned to rain. We cut diagonally across the road and it started to hail. I was keeping calm and encouraging him to move faster. He was clenched up, taking short, quick steps. He said, “I’m moving as fast as I can!” We got to the car, and I set the pizza on the ground and fumbled to unlock the car and get him in. The pizza boxes were pretty wet, but the pizza was safe.

He shivered a bit, but I turned on the heater and he said he was okay. We got home at 3:40.

He took off his pants to change them. He noticed his truck underwear on. He complained about it, saying, “It’s the most truckiest underwear I’ve ever seen.”

He went up to Carly, joking that we hadn’t brought any pizza for her. She came down, and he wanted to use his floor cleaner. He wanted to just spray it around, and not wipe. He said it was magic and “It just soaks up the dirt, and evaporates.”

He spent some time playing with music apps on his iPad, starting with the synth, then moving to the Seuss Band app, and ended up having me play it to unlock the other songs.

I tried to address his dry lip/nose by cutting a bandaid to put on it, as the skin was peeling. He just took it off though. So we declared we were putting cream on it every hour, and started using Siri to remind us. He was okay with that. I said the next project was his hair: I’ve been trying to put hair clips in it, but he always takes them out quickly.

He’s been talking about wanting his hair to go down to the ground, but his stance changed when Carly offered him treats. So, 3 or 4 different treats later he had a lovely new, short haircut. We couldn’t decide whether he looked younger, like 3-year old August, or like an older kid. At first she was just going to do his bangs, and early on, when she started to move to the side, he complained “Mama! I told you not to cut over here!” Extra treats solved that.

We read Nick and Tesla. ‘Singed’ was a word of the day. He then took Carly’s leftover lettuce in the salad spinner and added all sorts of other things to it, like coffee grounds, and eventually we took it out to the compost, just as it started to rain again. Back inside he said, “We were just in time. We had a good window.”

We listened to the new Steve Earle. Earlier the new UNKLE. We played with the Legos. He took apart the spaceship and wanted us to make the land vehicle. We started on it, and he’s really improving on turning the pieces in three dimensions and putting together the plans, but then he ended up making his own ship and was really excited about designing it on his own.

He was then having us ask for things from his lab. Carly wanted a greenhouse, while I asked for a drone that could carry a person and a projector that could project a movie anywhere I want. He told Carly her greenhouse was 200 bucks, while mine were much cheaper, as he was better at those, and hers was bigger.

We read a couple new books that I bought for him on iBooks: Everything You Need for a Treehouse and Forever or a Day. He had a lot to say about both, but particularly the latter since it had to do with time and its passage and speed.

Carly took him up for a bath. He saw himself in the mirror and said, “I look preeety different.” He danced and was silly for several minutes. “I’m cute!”

I went up and put him to sleep. We did an outside our body/inside our body visualization, which didn’t really calm him down, as he noticed so much and had so much to say. He said he can feel his heart beating harder when he gets upset at school. He tossed around a lot, and was finally asleep at 9:45.

A picture for mama:

Looking for bugs:

Synth time:

Haircut:

Slicing oranges:

Seeing himself in the mirror: