Category: Daily

We moved the clocks forward an hour last night. Carly got him to sleep earlier than usual, but his biological clock had different ideas. He was up a little after 6. He asked where Carly was. He seemed confused that it was still dark. He went downstairs, and when I came down 20 minutes later he was asleep on Carly’s lap. He kept sleeping and Carly pulled out the bed and put a blanket over him and headed to work. He laughed in his sleep and tossed around under the blanket a lot. I re-covered his feet a couple times.

I let him sleep When it came to waking him up I couldn’t. I started around 7:30. One time he just kept pushing me away. Another time he had his eyes open and sat up for awhile, but went back to sleep. I started a Berenstain Bears episode and after a few minutes I pulled him upright, and he finally started to wake up as he cuddled against me and watched.

He moved to the table to eat, but didn’t say anything to me until I was getting him dressed and ready to go, and that was a simple “No” when I asked if he wanted to take something. We used the umbrella to get us out to the car. I think his first sentence came in the car when he asked if stoves or ovens get hotter. At some point he said he liked sleeping in because it meant he got to take the car. That may have been as we were heading to the car.

We didn’t get to his classroom until close to 8:30. He asked why there were only bikes and cars by the school (no busses) and why it was so dark as we walked through campus. The hour change was definitely affecting him, although the darkness was also because of the clouds.

They were finishing up meeting when I dropped him off. He got fascinated with the iPad stand that was out and was playing with that when I left, although he told Andrea he was going to go to the weaving area.

I went to try to deliver the hummus to GAIA, but the food was already gone. I asked Eileen, the MS secretary, and she called but the guy who delivers it had already left campus. I put it in the staff lounge fridge and worked in the library until the Parent Education Program at 10.

As I left to go to that, I realized I had August’s water bottle. I walked down to deliver it, and found him outside at the corner of the preschool, picking up a chair and taking it inside. The whole class was in the atelier. I said hi, and he simply said, “What are you doing here?” I said I was dropping off his water bottle, and he carried on back inside with the chair.

The Parent Education Program was good, with a local therapist running a session on ‘Emotional First Aid’ about somatic response to stress/trauma. I also learned a new Hebrew phrase (“Yebsader” – it will be okay) and pondered the different ways to pronounce ‘Address’ (ah-DRESS versus ADD-dress).

I had about twenty minutes after the session before needing to pick up August, so I went and walked around the big field twice while listening to an audiobook. I then headed to the preschool.

Everything started out okay. As I walked up the class was busy inside. August was swinging on the door. He had two red dots, so not great, and they both involved Marion. They were starting to do clean up, so I asked him to pick up rubber bands I saw on the floor. He went and threw those away, and Marion wasn’t happy about that, as they were good rubber bands, so I helped him pick them out. I talked to him outside for a minute as I packed our stuff, and asked if he’d apologized to Marion for hitting her. When he said he didn’t know, I went and asked her. She proceeded to tell me all about his behavior, right in front of the other children, with them listening. Simone kept trying to get my attention as well, and when Marion was done he showed me the paper he had been waving between us. It was, in fact, his own chart of August’s behavior today, with red dots on it. It was as Simone started to explain what the dots were for that August first tried to cut the paper, then threw the scissors at Simone. They hit him in the cheek (a small scratch, but no blood, thankfully) He was frustrated and upset that we were talking about his behavior, and even more so when Simone started doing it.

Marion was comforting Simone, and August then hit him. I addressed August, and had him apologize, and took him outside to think and finish getting our stuff. I went back in and gave Simone a hug and told him I was sorry. I wanted to go back in and talk to Vicky and Marion, but they disappeared, and I didn’t want to leave August out front on his own for too long. Basically, I assumed this would result in some sort of suspension, but I also don’t want him returning to school anytime soon. The teachers shouldn’t be unloading about a child’s behavior in front of the other kids like that, and they shouldn’t be letting the other children tattle on and make their own behavior charts for the other children. While Marion was unloading on me, the kids behind her, who were doing stop motion animation, were basically in a yelling match. Basically, their open options Montessori-style classroom is often too loud and chaotic, and August is spending all that time (as the PEP session I had just attended reinforced) in survival mode, with his limbic response always engaged.

So we headed to the car and drove home. We discussed hurting Simone. He had found a dead crane fly outside and brought it in to look at with the microscope. We had just started looking at it when Carly’s computer shut off. We read and finished the A to Z Mystery book, with ‘trespassing’ being a word of the day.

We played catch with the rainbow squishy ball he had found on a sidewalk a few days ago, then we went outside and ripped up some newspaper to put in the compost. He said, “I think Eve would like to see we have a composter.” One lone bee came buzzing around and he speculated, “Maybe it’s an abandoned bee. Maybe the queen kicked it out cuz it did something bad.”

Inside, he wanted to use his floor cleaner (a mixture from upstairs). He put it in the spray bottle to use and sprayed some on the kitchen floor and wiped it. He had a couple crackers with cheese while we baked the potato pastry things and made scrambled eggs. He ate two full scrambled eggs with cheese, then was pretty full by the time the potato things were out. He ate some of that though.

He started talking about tiny things, and we ended up discussing Planck length again. He would later tell Carly about it. He has mentioned the photo of an amusement park ride up on the wall from Carly’s friend Peter before, and he asked about it now, and its blurriness. We discussed speeds and cameras. He got his tape measure and we experimented with it. He was trying to get it to touch the ceiling, but it was bending over. I was able to do it, as long as it curved the right way. We then measured how long it could horizontal before it would bend in each orientation.

He commented, “It’s crazy how humans can do this kind of thing (build tools) but other animals can’t. We’re smarter than sharks…humans have the greatest range for how far they go from home…” We have discussed the tool-making ability of humans at least once before.

He played with the boards on the steps outside as we got ready to go for a walk, making them flip up by standing on one end and experimenting with putting boards on other boards. He swinged on the swing for awhile, then we got walking by 3:30.

We only made it across the street at first. We had a good discussion of what could live under the cactus that had fallen over, and when it had happened. He caught a couple insects along the way. By the garbage area he found a part of a circuit board, and was convinced it wasn’t one that we had broken. As he pushed into the bushes he said, “I’m out in nature.” He talked about how study nature was science, then started singing a “Science, science, want to sing it again” Ironically, he wouldn’t sing it again for a video.

He turned over a rock and found a worm. He talked about taking it to school to show Simone. He talked more about taking things to school, and about school in general, than I think he ever has. I started to take a video, but it started squirming around, then he dropped it. It was no worm, but a snake. He dumped out the other insects, then wanted me to catch it. I was able to do so. He was excited to show Carly, so now we actually went for a walk, and I managed to have us meet up with her as she came out of the little path at 4:15.

He excitedly showed her the snake, adding to it climbing up on the rock to combine two scary things at once. He was talking about whether he’d seen a snake before, and remembered the snake from when we were geocaching. He showed Carly a snail and explained it was an “In-between” snail. That is, between the big ones and small ones.

At home, Carly showed him the bag of things she had been given for him to take apart. So we sat on the kitchen floor and started doing that. First we took apart a portable light. That worked really well, once I figured out the trick of using a pair of pliers to get more torque on the small screwdriver. There was then a little cylinder-shaped portable speaker and we took that apart. He kept talking about taking the parts to school.

He and Carly then made a fort when he wanted to do imagining games with her. He decided he wanted it big enough for us all to fit in, and Carly got a sheet. He did most of the building of the actual fort, and said, “I learned about making forts like this from dada.” We were all in it for awhile, pretending to sleep, then he was on my back in it.

Then a rough spot. We had had him tape the lid down on the container with the snake. Now he went and took the tape off, and was taking the lid off as well. When I put it up on the fridge for five minutes, he ended up throwing his shoes at Carly and she took him up for a timeout.

Meanwhile, I found the snake in the guidebook thing we have. It is a Eurasian worm snake. When he came back downstairs we went outside and put dirt in a hummus container and transferred the snake to it, as it was starting to rain.

We realized he hadn’t had dinner yet, and he ate some of Carly’s leftovers from school lunch.

I took him upstairs. Before a bath he taped up an apple with paper towel and toilet paper. He told me, then repeated to Carly, that this was his plan for his Halloween costume: to cover himself with toilet paper.

As he did that I noticed that there was a live space walk going on at the ISS, so we watched a little of that. I then gave him a bath. He then taught me the bathroom dance, which I’ve heard him do with Carly. Basically it involves putting your knees together and dancing around like you need to go to the bathroom.

In the bedroom he told me that on his planet there aren’t any rules. I asked what happened when people did bad things. At first he said he’d only seen that happen a few times in billions of years. But then he explained there was a light side and a dark side to his planet. On the light side people were nice, but on the dark side they were doing bad things to each other. I wondered where he had come up with this light/dark thing and he told me it was from Aardvark and the Ant when the go to the moon and Aardvark goes to the dark side.

He then told me he had done some of the chasing game today. He started because Eve he done it: “So I was chasing too. Kind of fun, actually.”

He was hungry so we went downstairs and made some toast and I read Nick and Tesla to him at the table. He told Carly about his plan for a toilet paper costume for Halloween. We got him ready for bed, and I left them at 8:50.

He was feeling sick sometime after 10 and whimpering. Carly called me up. He was complaining about his stomach, and also his throat and ears. I gave him one Tums and a little children’s Tylenol and we had him try to go to the bathroom. They went back to bed. He tossed a lot, but finally got back to sleep.

Paper for the compost: https://youtu.be/rOdzZ4B6UNk

Studying the cactus: https://youtu.be/npapVb5QJZg

Looking in the dirt: https://youtu.be/6EPr7cU9rQE

Worm snake 1: https://youtu.be/Yr_PWiw4wm8

Worm snake 2: https://youtu.be/YrYK26o8Acg

Playing the banjo song: https://youtu.be/bWk9Texjrks

Carly woke him up around 6:45. She headed to work and he watched StoryBots (about candy) and had banana bread. When I went over later I noticed he hadn’t eaten his oatmeal and I asked why. It has happened: “I’m tired of oatmeal.” We got going right at 7:30, but by the gate he found a big black beetle. He got a hummus container from the Zinnie house and dumped out what was in it, and put the beetle in. We included a small branch and leaves so it could right itself. I asked if he wanted to leave it here, but he said he wanted to take it to school. He thought that Simone would like it.

More discussion of cars on the way to school, and he sang a “mini van” song and carried the beetle most of the way. We walked down to the classroom at the same time as the bus kids, and August showed Simone the beetle. Down in the classroom, everyone wanted to see it. He told someone he thought it was a dung beetle, and debated with Marion if it was the same kind of beetle that she sees across in the fields (August thought they were smaller).

I stopped by the second hand sale that GAIA or another club is running and ended up getting three things for August. I went and put them in Carly’s mailbox for later. I biked home, worked, then rode back to get him. I dropped a headphone adapter off to Carly quickly, then went to his classroom. They were starting a meeting, and he was using a little sponge to clean up the water, he said. I found out later what had happened: Eve had opened her water bottle and it spilled “everywhere”, including light splashes on his papers for the day.

August had one big incident, where he hit Simone when he wouldn’t share his snack with the bug, and it escalated from there, and a smaller incident. He had done well in literacy group.

We went to pick up the clothes from Carly’s box, then August let me look again and we got four more things. We walked home, discussing vehicles as usual.

At home we fed the butterfly sugar water, then I placed an iHerb order. August was going to go play by himself, but we heard an unusual beeping noise from something for a second and he said he was scared so he climbed up on me the whole time.

For lunch he had crackers with cheese and meat, and a whole banana. He asked, “Why’s it called an airport?” We discussed the names of ‘airport’ and ‘airplane’. He then did alone time. He played with the jumping robot thing (after we changed the battery), then with the circuit set. He needed some help fixing the circuit set, then played on his own a bit more.

He the red timer to tell him how long until we needed to head to school. He seemed eager to go play with Eve, so was a little impatient, but handled it well, trying to find something for himself to do. He remembered he had more watching time, so watched one Max and Ruby.

We drove to school and walked down. Simone told him that Candy had squished the beetle. August had given the beetle to Simone earlier, and when I had picked him up had wanted to get it back. I had convinced him to let Simone keep it, and we’d go find something as good. The plan had been to go across to the field, but by the guards’ room he found a spider that we captured and he said was even better. Along the way he found a tiny beetle thing and put it in with the spider.

We went in the classroom and Eve was drawing on the whiteboard. August went and asked for a marker and joined her. Candy was standing next to him, and he drew a big picture of her. It was the first time I’ve seen him draw a picture of someone.

Heather showed up, and I took Eve and Zoe out on the playground. The three of the started on the swing for several minutes. Eve and Zoe continued on to the kitchen area, and August stayed on the swing by himself, with a string with a piece of cardboard on the end tied to the swing and dragging on the ground.

August headed over to the kitchen area and helped Zoe and Eve with their restaurant. The little Korean boy from PKC was also their, although his mom wasn’t around, and Zoe and I held up the cover of the sand area several times so they could all get toys out of it. August helped Zoe clean up the restaurant. I was able to do some reading.

Zoe then started a new thing, as she climbed over the fence into the greenhouse area. Eve went over with her, but needed me to lift her out. While August, Eve, and the boy climbed on the fence, Zoe found a small kickball and asked me to play ball with her. I did that until she was distracted by the scooters. August had Eve get some random sticks from the other side of the fence, then he added them to the rather rickety structure Marion and the kids had made in the garden, as a sort of sculpture.

They all ran over to the big playground and I was able to sit and read again. They started by playing on the monkey bars part. August was doing something new where he sort of jumped from the platform to hang on a bar. They then ran over to the swings. Grace and Lillian were there, babysitting another preschooler. To Grace he said, “Hi, nubby girl.” He then watcher Grace and Lillian and the kid they were babysitting and Eve and Zoe play a circle game, although he didn’t join in.

Heather came and picked up the girls, and we headed to Carly’s room. He greeted her well, but then was trying to get to her ‘treats’ drawer and was frustrated. So he and I took off and drove home and she walked a bit later.

He had the idea to make a bird house, so we went out and looked at our wood options. We brought a lot of wood in, and we discussed our plan for a bird house. I started sawing one piece, but it was very hard, so I called it a day. He wasn’t happy with me about that.

A bit later he said, “Just FYI, I didn’t wash my hands.” He picked up ‘FYI’ from me. For dinner he had half a cucumber, noodles, then a small bowl of oatmeal. He then joked around, “FYI, I don’t have on my FYI, so if you want to FYI…”

We took out compost, and we talked about the flies and I talked about it being ‘enclosed’. He asked, “What’s ‘enclosed’ mean?” A word of the day. He yelled “Compostobomposter” as he ran to Carly. He discussed what can and can’t go in the compost and cheese and milk. He said something about a ‘compound’, then asked, “What’s compound mean?” Then, he refilled his water bottle by pouring water out of Carly’s water bottle into his. She said that was some “quality” water. He asked, “what’s quality mean?”

She took him up for a bath, then I went up and read to him. We discussed peregrine falcons: “I know you told me crows drop things to open them, and monkeys use sticks, but only humans make electronics…”

Carly came up to try to get him to sleep earlier since the clocks move forward an hour tonight. I left them at 7:45. Took awhile to get him to sleep, but it was at least a bit earlier than usual.

Minivan song:

Drawing a picture of Candy:

Eve reporting on the swing with August and Zoe:

August on the swing:

Garden structure and running to the other playground:

Song on the couch:

FYI:

He was up at 5:43. He lay against me for 5 minutes, then headed downstairs. He was with Carly when I went downstairs. He wanted to save some watching time for later, so he watched the Marble Machine #70 video, then a Max and Ruby, then stopped. We then finished the circuit set we’d been working on.

We got walking to school, and he did a “Nice compact hatchback” chant along the way. His nose was already dirty halfway to school. Don’t know how. At school I took him into the bathroom to wash it, and he washed it himself.

I went home and worked and returned on my bike. As I got there, I saw him from the top of the stairs. He and a few other kids were playing on the side of the building, with a xylophone or something. They went inside after a few minutes and I sent a message this time letting them know I was there. Andrea brought him out after a couple minutes.

He had had a great day. A rather minor incident where he hit Millie but then apologized right away. It sounded like he’d spent most of the day with Eve. He sat with her at lunch and had a good conversation, then afterwards, Andrea said, they probably spent an hour and a half together, first in the weaving area, then inventing things in the makerspace. And Vicky had said it was another good literacy group.

He did some funny dancing in the classroom to the song that was playing, putting one arm on a book shelf and a foot on the overhead projector, before we left. Outside, he asked if we were returning for playbill. We then talked about the idea of returning for the specials in the afternoon, like yoga and playball. He liked the idea, and said he was ready for a “little more” school.

We walked home. At the trees in bloom in the entrance to the school he asked, “Dada, do you think these are fruit-making flowers?” He then spotted a newspaper on the sidewalk and jumped off the bike and grabbed it, saying, “Dada, we could use this newspaper for our compost.” He soon found a second newspaper.

He hummed some nice music on the way home. We snuck the newspapers under the gate, and continued on to the mall to celebrate his good day.

At the mall we went to the candy stand and August took a few minutes to decide, and he said it was hard to choose. He ended up with a colorful sugar stick thing. He said next time he’d get one of the red or green licorice sticks. He ate that, and then we ordered a small sweet potato pizza from Pizza Hut. He played in the little play area while we waited. He was a squirrel again, and when he fell over on his squirrel scooter (the rocking squirrel thing) I would see him at take him to the vet to get fixed.

We took the pizza outside and ate on a bench by the play area. He took a small piece of the sweet potato to try, and somehow choked on it. Like really choked. He was coughing the whole time, but was reaching out to me for help, clearly in distress, I turned him around in front of me on the bench, and just hit his back several times as he kept coughing. Took a few more seconds, then I could tell he had coughed it up. The whole thing was several seconds (15 to 20?) long: long enough for me to set down the pizza, decide to turn him around, do so, realize he was still coughing so didn’t need to do anything drastic, and then hit his back for awhile.

Luckily, he recovered his appetite and ate his half of the pizza. We then walked home, getting here at 2. On the way he chose to wear his hat backwards, then found a thing that he thought looked like a pom Pom.

He played with his butterfly: “I’m playing with my butterfly. I’m getting it to stay on the top for this many minutes.” Like his alone time. “It’s really tricky for the little butterfly.” He got a little frustrated when the butterfly kept getting off the top of the enclosure and I had to explain that the butterfly didn’t understand what was going on, and that it was earning sugar water.

We took the dying flowers out to the compost, then studied the dead little green beetle under the microscope. He pulled off the antennas and put them on tape on the floor to keep them still. We then studied the body, and realized he had also pulled off the head and we could see inside the hollow body. We also looked at a little nail. He spent some good time putting pieces of spaghetti noodle in his robot toy, getting them to stick in.

We were talking about something (Hilda episodes? Books?) and I used ‘penultimate’ and made it a word of the day. He found the box of the robot project we had gotten him for Christmas and we built that. It moves really strangely, like a combination of a rat and a frog, and he enjoyed watching it go around the house, and was also a bit terrified of it.

He accidentally pulled a leg off of the butterfly, so we put it under the microscope as well. We could see the little hairs, and pointy part at the end, but also realized it was still twitching.

We then walked up to do recycling. While I went and did the plastic recycling he studied a broken toy excavator. He then noticed ants carrying fuzzy things and followed them all around the edge of the parking lot to their nest close to the recycling bins.

He was looking at cars on the way home, and I taught him the idea of a ‘dream car’. Another word of the day.

Carly was already home when we got there. He ignored her t first, and wanted her to keep working. He had found a U-bolt with a nut on one end, and remembered he had a nut for the other end. That nut, however, was a little too big. So we wrapped it with duct tape and it worked. I could screw the nut on now.

He then went and cuddled with Carly, then they went out and put paper in the compost bin. I think they also took something across the street. He had also had me punch a hole in the top of a strawberry container so he could plug a pair of my headphones in. It was his new music machine, and more portable than just plugging into his bike. He had both me and Carly try it out. He also showed Carly the robot toy.

For dinner he ate some of the noodles and some asparagus that Carly cooked. He ate enough to earn some of his frozen treat. We read Fix It, Sam (his library book), then did the thing where he runs to us and I catch him. We did it the other direction this time, with me by the air conditioner. We went upstairs to wrestle for awhile, then came back downstairs.

Carly took him upstairs, but he came back down and wanted his tool belt. I went and got it, and he filled it with tools and went upstairs with it on and played in the sink. He made a floor cleaner and used it on the bathroom floor. She washed his hair.

I took over and he asked, “What’s a gondola?” Don’t know where that came from, but I explained and we watched a video of Venice. We read The Falcon’s Feathers. We then looked up photos of six pack holders and animals stuck in them as it was mentioned in the book.

Carly came up and I left them around 8:30.

Nice compact hatchback:

Music on the way home:

Hopping robot 1:

Hopping robot 2:

Twitching leg:

Following the ants:

August was up at 5:53 when my alarm went off. He went downstairs and yelled “Mama!” and ran to her. He watched Wild Kratts for awhile, then we did some reading and playing. We were walking at 7:33. He did some new humming on the way to school, and did it the whole way. He showed Andrea the iPad screen and camera. As I left, I talked to Marion outside, just thanking her at first. She started talking to me about their whole profile of a learner thing that they’re working through, and how she had a big talk with August about ‘boundaries’. Which, while not bad, seemed to kind of miss the mark as to why August is haven’t trouble.

I headed home, worked, and rode back to pick him up. They were over on the playground at 12 today. I peeked around the corner to make sure he was doing okay, and he was listening to Vicky read from a big (oversized) book. But Hector saw me and started yelling “August, your dad is here!” I was quite annoyed, as I could have had another 10 or 20 minutes. I’m going to change how I pick him up in the future, waiting on the bench until they send him out. He’d had a two dot day, although I guess it was better than yesterday.

We headed home, discussing cars along the way. He asked if race cars have trunks, and that led us into a discussion of open-wheel racing versus sports car racing and aerodynamics. There’s a small black dog up close to school that I’ve seen out on the street before. August was nervous as we got close to it, as it was loose. It started following us, and followed all the way down Hashomron. It continued as we went down Vatikim, often taking the lead. It continued with us on the bath between streets, and then through the park. August and I were joking about how it was making sure we got home. It went all the way to our house, then continued across the street to the garbage area.

At home we ate banana bread and made a strawberry and mango smoothie for lunch. I installed a new Sesame Street Music app on his iPad and he played that and something else for awhile. He then wanted to play with the light circuit set, and wanted to build the big layout shown on the front of the box. We got that about half done before needing to head back to school for library time. Before we left, he saw a bug by the door and caught it. He wanted to take it with us.

When we got to school they were out on the playground. We left the bug in his cubby, then went over to them. Eve gave him a big hug. We got ready for library and walked up. August was doing fine until we were in the library and he started to run and tripped over the foot of the TV stand. He managed to rip some of the masking tape on the floor. I got him back to where the class was, but he wasn’t calming down. He screamed once and I took him away to the center. He seemed to be calmer, and I let him go. But then he flung two containers full of colored pencils. That was the end of it. I cleaned up one, and he cleaned up the other, and we went back to library time. Ilana read Harry by the Sea. He checked out Fix it, Sam.

We went down to the classroom and got the insect, then went back up to the library and asked Liz for masking tape and fixed the small bit he had damaged, and another spot that needed it. He showed Liz the insect and she said it was a silverfish, and they come out of the books.

We went down to find Taya. We waited a few minutes and Cassie showed up. We went out on the playground with Taya, and Cassie went back to her classroom for awhile. They played together, and we played hide and seek. We headed over to the bigger playground, then some friction. August tried to climb on something next to her, and she used her grumpy voice to tell him she wanted to do it by herself. August watched her doing tricks, but the she said she wouldn’t come to his house and he hit her, lightly. I had him apologize. A couple more minutes, and they were talking about what she was doing, but she then said something kind of mean and he hit her again. Another apology. They then went different directions. She went across to the big structure and he kept playing where he was.

Cassie came and had Taya apologize, and we all got going. Carly was walking home so we drove. In the car we looked up ‘silverfish’ on Wikipedia. While we talked about it, he asked, “What’s ‘wingless’?” A word of the day. We drove home, and when we parked I looked back and found him almost asleep.

Carly was already home. They went out to get leaves for the compost, then went up and did a little wrestling. She then went up to work. He played with the drill, then we had noodles for dinner. He didn’t like the cooked cucumber in it, so he requested fresh. He happily ate half a cucumber, then we watched Wintergatan videos (68 and 69) and he had frozen treat. He asked me to put up his iPad out of reach this evening so he would have watching time tomorrow evening. He said he would have liked to watch Hilda, but I had said no since he’d used all of his watching time in the morning.

We fed the butterfly sugar water, then read more Nick and Tesla. He said that if he found eggs on the ground and they were chicken eggs that he’d let them hatch and he’d want a chicken as a pet. He then started taping things to the iPad, and when he taped the egg timer to it he said it was a bomb. He must have gotten that from Pink Panther.

Carly came down and they talked about “The snuggle monster.” He cut off its tentacles and killed it. He played with his butterfly and liked how it would ‘stick’ to his finger when it hung on it. He told Carly, “Feel the stickiness.” When she gave in and put her finger in and touched it she said, “Woah.” He replied, “Told you!”

Carly took him up for a bath and they read Madeline. I came up and the A to Z mystery book about the falcons. ‘Ring’, as in a metal band around the falcon’s leg, was another word of the day. We skyped with my parents for just a few minutes, as he was needing to go to sleep. We did a baby bird visualization and discussed his day. As we were trying to go to sleep, he told me, “I’m leaving.” I got him to lie back down and he was asleep just before 8:30.

Music on the way to school:

Dog leading us home:

Playing with Taya:

Spinning:

Silly before bed:

So a rocket landed about 3 miles southeast of us sometime around 5am. August and I slept right through it, but Carly woke up because of the alarms, or the sirens after the attack. She wasn’t quite sure.

Carly brought August down at 6:45. He watched Max and Ruby. The robot ad came on, and he told her, “I love it. It’s a robot ad.” We did our usual breakfast and also had banana bread with butter. We got walking, and saw some butterflies. One briefly landed on him, and he said, “What do you think I an? A flower?” It was sunny when we left, but then a cloud came over. There were dark clouds around, so we went back for our rain stuff but didn’t need it. As we got close to school he talked about not getting red dots today.

I rode my bike home, then rode back at 12. He had had fun building, but otherwise had a really rough day. He had a long meltdown after being denied rubber bands he had climbed up to get. Marion was keeping him from hurting her/other people, and he couldn’t stand her touching him. When I showed up he was with Vicky, wearing his noise blocking headphones, and had put flowers in a jar with water and was stirring it to make them swirl around. He showed me that.

We walked home, and he noticed that the butterfly migration wasn’t really happening now. At home we did composting. One of the things in the bowl was a grapefruit. We didn’t cut it up, and I saved it and we washed it off and then juiced it. It was a little overripe, but good for juice. He drank a good amount of it. We then made banana bread dough, and put it in the fridge to bake later.

Before we left, he found a ribbon from a present and decided to wear it as a necklace to STEM class.

We drove to school as it was raining a bit. There was an all-staff meeting to address the rocket attack and safety, so Vicky did STEM class instead of Andrea. They read Whay Do You Do with an Idea? then made things out of playdough and parts. He made a big satellite, then worked with Candy to build something.

After class, we were about to go find out what Carly was doing, when she came along on part of a tour of all of the safe rooms in the school. She walked upstairs with us, then she headed back to her classroom. We took his robot costume to the car, then walked over to Heather’s room to see about picking up the printer to take apart. She wasn’t there. We looked at the art out in the halls, and August chose his favorite pottery piece: a pink house.

We went and returned Fing to the library. Along the way he told me all about one of his inventions, which was like a water wheel but very different and you could charge anything with it. Carly met us, and we headed home.

On the way out, Mikaela spotted us and gave us a set of keys to her apartment. We drove home, and she let us go check out her apartment to figure out which keys does what, and decide what we would do if the rocket sirens went off again. It was interesting to finally see the apartment. It is small, just going under our kitchen and part of the living room.

On the way down the stairs, I talked about how our couch was on the other side. It suddenly made sense to August: “That’s why you don’t want me to kick the wall!”

While they were downstairs I went upstairs and ran around and jumped and made all sorts of noise in the house. The conclusion was that Shai was, in fact, crazy. Carly did mention being able to hear the chairs sliding and August’s stool clanging on the floor. So when they came up August helped me put pads on the stool and three of the chairs.

We had forgotten both his morning bar and his pre-STEM bar today, so when he asked for the STEM bar I let him have that. He then went upstairs to wrestle with Carly.

Downstairs, he did 14 minutes of playing alone time. He came to the kitchen once, wanting to cut up a tomato with the yellow scissors. When Carly objected he said, “It’s Scissor Sunny…one of my characters.” Carly did a quick talk with him and he explained, “It was going to be for my story: they were going to have tomato and pasta.”

He chose a piece of noodle for one of the characters instead of the scissors and went back to playing. He was making food (his coins, some tomato, bits of spaghetti) for the characters, the main one being his robot toy from Simone.

After his time was done he kept playing for a few minutes. He then took out compost with Carly. I had baked the banana bread and it was done, then found a spill on one of the cupboard shelves. I called it an “unfortunate spill” and later August would ask if I’d cleaned up the “unfortunate spill.” By taking things out we figured out it was one of those juice pouches from the pizza place, leaking very slowly.

He ate noodles and veggies for dinner and I let him have the juice pouch, but he said it didn’t taste right. He had banana bread with butter instead. He told me, “This is way better than your cornbread.”

Over on the couch he asked, “What’s a janitor?” I explained and he exclaimed, “Like Ms. Sveta!”

He was then playing by himself with the spaghetti and the circuits set with the gears on it. He was taping pieces together to spin when the motor was on. He kept doing more and eventually needed my help.

He asked me how I was doing putting together the kit car he gave me (the one with wings) and we discussed that. Then, “Here’s another kit: real inflatable underwear.”

Carly came down and wanted to try out a hook for one of her classes on us. We sat on the couch and she started. It involved explaining rules. August asked, “What’s stricter mean?” So another word of the day. August kept repeating what Carly said, and then agreeing with it: “Kids learn better if they’re not hungry. Yeah.” Carly took him up and let him play and gave him a bath. I read Nick and Tesla for 10 minutes, then she came in and I left them at 8:40.

STEM creation with Candy:

His teenage girl voice:

Playing by himself:

Working on his circuits invention:

School time with carly:

Working on his letter writing:

He was up at 6:50. He went downstairs and almost immediately started humming tunes he made up. He requested Corn Flakes for breakfast. Had those mixed with Cheerios and with milk. They went upstairs to wrestle for a few minutes, then Carly came down to the kitchen. August asked, “Why do I have to follow you everywhere you go?” Good question.

He and I read and finished Fing. He was then bothering Carly and I took him for a timeout. Back downstairs he wanted to do a playing by himself session. He told Carly he didn’t know what to do. She helped him think of some options and he settled on playing with the circuits. I had headphones on, so didn’t exactly hear what happened, but he came over and hit her when he was frustrated. She took him over to the calm space, and they ended up revising it, taking out the table so they could make it bigger and redoing the posters. He eventually got his Oreo from the alone time.

He found the spaghetti noodles as I was planning meals for the week. He made a bridge out of noodles and tape. Carly made scrambled eggs. He ate all of his, and I made him another egg. He went back to his pasta bridge and was frustrated when the scotch tape wasn’t sticking well. He switched to packing tape, and figured it all out and got over his frustration. He said, “Isn’t it funny that they don’t have pasta at the art store?…Maybe they haven’t thought about using pasta…”

Carly left a little after 11 to go to the store. We finished watching the Formula E race. He dressed himself entirely by himself, including his shirt, although it was backwards. He spilled water on himself after he put spaghetti noodles in his water bottle and tried to drink from it.

We then walked across the street and got insects and put them in with the lizard. Carly got home and went upstairs to rest. He and I put the groceries away and listened to the new Strand of Oaks album. He described a pneumatic system to deliver things “even people want to use that pipe…but they don’t let anyone poop in there.”

Carly came down and August asked her when we were going to Sushi Ishimoto to eat. He’s been asking for a couple weeks now to actually eat in the new restaurant. So we got ready to go. After I watered the plants upstairs we got going at 1:20.

On the walk up he had me pushing as fast as I could (“the speed limit”) and then we’d wait for Carly to catch up. At Sushi Ishimoto he chose the table right in the center. He wanted the pad thai with shrimp and I chose the chicken Chong, with Carly’s approval. August mainly ate the chicken Chong, liking the chunks of chicken in tempura, the peanut sauce, and the white rice.

While we had waited for our food, and after we were done eating, we read A to Z Mysteries: The Falcon’s Feathers. He was confused by the phrase ‘spill the beans’ so that was a word of the day. He also asked, “What’s ballroom?” I didn’t understand what he was saying at first, then when I did asked what it was from. It is from The Witches and where the witches have their big meeting.

Carly left to head to the pharmacy to get head lice prevention stuff and a few packs of tea at the coffee shop. We paid and went to meet her by the post office. We beat her there, and when he saw her walking from up the street he got off the bike and ran to her. We were then in front of the post office, and when he looked inside he saw her again, and said, “Another mama!”

We walked home. I made a rice noodle and veggies dish, and he pulled weeds for 2 shekels. He’s been talking about an allowance and wanting to buy stuff himself. They considered how to make a lock for the Zinnie house to keep out the cats. One had gotten in and left cat hair on the pillows. Inside, they skyped with Cherie and Chuck.

August made up something called the “P O 8 transmitter”, but then said, “Actually, you’re saying it wrong. It’s called the PO8TransMINTer. It makes mint smoothies for you.” Which was pretty funny. He put a nail in the drill and used it on one of the exposed pieces of concrete. I stopped him, but he was excited about his experiment: “Dada said our drill from Ikea isn’t very powerful BUT it drilled concrete…”

Just before 6 we drove up to buy a compost bin from someone who works at the school. They had a little dog that August was afraid of, but be loved the composter, and the fact that you could spin it. They explained how to use it, and she showed August how it spins and locks. We drove home and started our compost, then inside I finished the food and we ate dinner. Carly had bought a pad thai sauce and put it on her food and August’s. It turned out to be really spicy. August was upset about this, but liked the noodles when we got him another bowl. He wasn’t letting it go though, and was threatening to kill the sauce company for not making it clear on the bottle that the sauce was spicy.

Carly went up for a shower. She came down with the essential oils in her hair and then put some on August. He used the lice brush to brush our hair, and asked, “Aren’t I a great hairdresser?” When he was brushing Carly’s hair she asked, “Can I give you a tip?” He asked, “What’s a tip?”

I took him up for his bath. He played with the comb. In bed he requesedt the Nick and Tesla book. We read some of it and Carly brushed his hair with the lice comb. I left them at 8:30.

Pasta bridge:

Insects for the lizard:

Running to mama:

Listening to the new Josh Ritter album:

Learning about the composter:

Spinning the composter:

He was up just after 7. We read Fing and ‘inexplicable’ was a word of the day. He then watched Julius Jr. and The Magic School Bus. I went up and took a shower. They spent some time outside and were playing with the circuits set. They made a nice annoying one that makes siren noises. He had some crackers, and as he was making yummy noises he told us, “instead of doing mmm mmm I sing a song.” We were trying to set up a play date for him, but everyone was busy. Carly asked him, “Do you want to play with Taya?” He replied, “Well, if she’s available.”

The butterfly seems to be doing okay—not on death’s door like I first thought—and we fed it sugar water and saw it drinking it. We got ready to head to Tel Aviv. We left at 10:30. On the way he told me he had won a pizza contest in Israel and received gold for it. Everyone liked his pizza, except a few people: “they had a brain problem and didn’t want to eat reslly good things, only bad things” like wood and plastic. We also read more of Fing.

We parked along the street up on the road north of the power plant, near the light house. We walked north to the bridge over the water intake into the plant, then worked our way south. As we got on the south side of the river, to the old port area, we started looking for a cafe for lunch. Greg, the only place I’ve ever eaten down there, was closed. We found a couple other places, but they were either closing for an hour (odd), not open yet, or really, really busy. Finally, we walked inland a block and went to Movieing, a cafe quite close to Cassie’s house.

We got a shakshuka and a veggie pasta dish. Carly and I got cappuccinos and August had a hot chocolate. We sat outside at first, and August sang a scribbling song as he colored on a kids placemat that they brought. they moved us inside and the food came. Carly took him to the bathroom, then they looked around outside while I paid and got the leftovers as takeout. We then walked over to the shore and south to the first beach.

There, August and Carly compromised on a spot and we got playing in the sand. August was quoting the commercial saying, “I need more money! Not clutter!” He went down and sort of waded in a few times to fill a bucket up with water. His nose was really getting runny, and when I asked if he wanted to go he said yes and we left at 2:40.

On the walk back to the car we had to weave our way though traffic. August was making it difficult today, always drifting/pulling to the left so I had to steer him back or ask him to turn to the right. We stopped at the bathroom, then stopped at the wooden hill and he rolled down a few times.

We read Fing on the way home, then once there we worked on taking apart the broken iPad Carly had brought home. I managed to pry off the glass pretty well with our small screwdrivers. The broken screen meant I couldn’t take it all off in one piece. August wore his safety glasses, and we took it apart in a cardboard box. August used tape to hold up three of the flaps to keep the glass in.

He ate some string cheese and then had oatmeal, then played with the construction set with Carly. They made popcorn and watched another documentary about Arctic. He had a lot to say, and was happy we could cook our fish, unlike the people in the documentary who were eating theirs raw. Carly went up and took a shower and he and I watched Formula E practice. We looked up where the circuit was (Sanya, in China) and he looked at Google Maps for awhile.

He told me about his safer car, which had both wings and tires. The wings fold back into it, and you could get it as a kit. He gave me a kit so I could make one.

Carly took him up for a bath. She washed his hair, but there was no screaming. She had put a towel around his shoulders and it worked really well. I went up to read to him. He talked about how I could come to his laboratory but I had to be safe and wear a safety suit. We read The Bad Seed and then started Nick and Tesla’s High Voltage Lab. We had finished Fing earlier. We discussed karting, and how a go kart is less likely to tip than his bike. Don’t think he was convinced though. And I could only find a karting place in Israel that starts at age 8.

He went down to say good night to Carly. She was talking to someone on the phone. I thought it was Cherie, but it was someone else, who lives in Israel, but that Cherie met. She was offering to show us other schools in Israel, just north of us in the Hadera area.

Back upstairs we did a puppy visualization (one of the puppies we saw down on the waterfront today). He was quite stuffy again, and got to sleep about 9.

An annoying circuits experiment:

Climbing on the rocks:

New driving style:

Scribble song:

Filling the bucket:

Wading, sort of:

Taking apart the iPad:

He got up at 6:20. He and Carly read the Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat book and Short Stories for Little Monsters. And he played a little with the Legos. He ate oatmeal and watched Max and Ruby. He then came and talked to me, with a few minutes left before we had to get ready, and asked how rockets turn. We discussed that, and he remembered Monster Physics on the iPad and wanted to play. He played for a few minutes, creating a set of 8 rockets, then adding more and more weight to it, trying to see how much it could hold and still lift off.

We got walking right after 8:30. As we walked he asked, “Is outer space clear like the atmosphere, or is it black?” He was identifying minivans and SUVs, then categorizing cars by their trunks, sedans or hatchbacks.

We got to school and walked in before the bus kids. For the first time he asked why the bus kids have to sit on the benches while they wait for everyone to show up. We went down to the classroom and had a couple minutes before they showed up. The snacks were ready for shared snack, and Eve was making a sign to tell people not to touch them yet. August was working with a popsicle stick to get out a glass tile stuck between the layers of glass of the overhead projector. It was getting stuck on a metal lip. I tried to help him, but they were getting ready to go out to the playground. I told him it would have to wait. I said goodbye and he headed out with them.

I rode home, worked, and rode back. Andrea said there had been some small things today, but all small. No major upsets. She put down one red dot. So that meant he got his reward three times this week—his best week of 2019. Woohoo! Marion told me they were starting to look at the profile of a learner, and were now talking about what it meant to be a “responsible and caring citizen”. She asked me how August will clean up at home. Not his favorite activity, but I guess he won’t really clean up at school. They were all cleaning up at the moment. several kids had competing brooms and dustpans and were arguing about whose pile of sweepings was whose. It seemed like they’d just been told to clean up, so I wasn’t surprised August wasn’t doing anything. I pointed out scrap paper on the floor and asked him to pick that up, and he did.

Lydia came up to me and told me that August had been mean to her. She said she had tried to tickle him and he had hit her. I told her that August really doesn’t like to be tickled, and I had him say sorry and practice telling her he doesn’t like to be tickled.

He first wandered over by the elementary school and found the palm tree he’d played with the other day. He got a nut, then found he could rub it on the ground and bricks and scrape off the outer layer, and sort of paint with it.

For his reward he was to get something from the cafeteria. But first we had to wait until the lunches were over. So first we headed to the science fair. Carly had just finished judging and now it was the open time. We went in and saw one on biomass energy—a power source that August hasn’t learned about. Carly then showed up as we were looking at a project about making a hydropower generator. She then took August as they looked at another one, then the one about making paper from guinea pig poop. We looked at two or three after that before August had had enough. We looked at one where they were trying to filter salt out of water, and August chimed in with his own theory about which material was the most effective.

We headed out and said goodbye to Carly. As we walked out through the tunnel, a teenage girl right by us said “Oh my god” to someone. August heard her, and repeated it, mimicking her voice. quite well, actually. I changed it to “Oh my gosh” and he copied me, luckily, as he kept practicing his teenage girl voice.

We went into the cafeteria. Still high school lunch. I’d forgotten they had ice cream bars, and August found those right away. I was thinking of a popsicle, but oh well. I was surprised to find that they cafeteria was selling them to students though, as it was the PTA’s understanding that treats aren’t being sold until after 3.

So August and I got an ice cream cone bar and also an avocado sandwich to share. While we were waiting to pay we saw Gabby and August joked with her. She was wearing the grey shirt from school like Carly has, and he accused her of breaking into our house and stealing his mama’s shirt.

He started with the ice cream, and ate about half of that. I told him he’d probably like the sandwich, once I took out the tomato and lettuce. He took the sandwich and proceeded to eat most of of it (bread, eggs, and avocado). He ran to the window and started banging on it. He had seen Carly walking by. We went out a door and he said hi.

I told Carly about what he said to Gabby about the shirt, and then told August what I’d told Carly. He asked, “What’s ‘accusing’?” A word of the day.

We headed to the drinking fountain, then to the library. He did art on one of the computers, then I checked out Fing by David Williams.

We got walking at 2:10. He was trying to figure out the difference between the SUVs and minivans, and I said it was “murky”. Another word of the day. At the big recycling place he stopped and got a big Coke bottle so he could joke to Carly that he got to drink Coke again. He also stopped to pick one of the red flowers that he keeps wanting to study at home, but we keep forgetting. And he asked me, “Dada, if I was a police and I put a pirate in jail would I get in trouble?”

At home he played with the salad spinner, filling it with water and the nut from earlier, to make palm nut water. But the main event became spinning it to be the water to come up the sides of the container. When it started to drip out the sides, he went and got the tape and taped it all up to make it watertight. Somehow he ended up talking about fire resistant clothing, and we watched a video on how it worked:

And he also asked, “What’s iron ore?” He’s heard about it somewhere.

He watched an episode of Hilda, the one about bad dreams, then played by himself to earn an Oreo. He asked me, “Why do you wake up when the sun is up?” and we talked about the clock in our brain, and the senses. We finished reading The 104-Story Treehouse, then went upstairs to wrestle. We came down and did a little art and writing on the iPad. Carly got home at 5:40 as he was writing his name.

She had the box with the time-in/calm space set we had ordered. They opened it and set up some of the posters over by his calm area. I heated up pasta for him and they are together at the table. I joined them with my tea. He made up a song that went “Don’t change the subject. Don’t change the subject. Queen, queen.” He earned another Oreo playing with the tape and Duplos.

We read part of Fing and he was laughing a lot. ‘Out-of-print’ was in the book and he asked what it meant.

I took him up at 7:45 and gave him a bath. We read more Fing. He was then saying, “Or I’ll howl the house down!” Based on a line in the book. He sang a song before bed, and said it was a magic spell. Carly came up about 8:30 and put him to sleep.

Learning about poop paper at the science fair:

Science fair:

Discussing his computer art:

Studying the palm nut:

His tune he wanted to record:

Explaining his creation:

Scribbling and writing:

Playing by himself and singing:

His singing magic spell:

Carly got him up after 6:30. I finished listening to Always Look on the Bright Side by Eric Idle as I got his oatmeal ready. He ate his chocolate vitamin this morning after climbing the last couple tasted bad. He and I made a back landing gear to the Lego spaceship so it wouldn’t tip backwards. Carly headed to work, and he had oatmeal and watched Julius Jr.

As we got going we discussed something, and I used the word ‘overall’ and he asked what that meant. Then, on the walk to school he was talking about cutting open dead animals to learn what was inside them. So ‘dissect’ was another word of the day. It was a nice quick and quiet walk, as there was no school at the Israeli school so there was no traffic on the sidewalk, and a lot less cars.

We got to school and down to his class. He was playing with Eve in the calm space when I left. I headed home, worked, and rode back at 12.

He had had a good day. They had sent photos of him playing with Eve in the kitchen, hugging her, and being pushed by her on the swing. He had a great literacy time again, getting involved right from the beginning (Vicky said it usually takes him 5 or 10 minutes before he really gets focused). For tracing letters he decided to use two pencils, one in each hand, for doing the practice shapes, then switched back to one for the actual letters.

He had one meltdown, and it happened when he got a cut from one of the ribbons. Marion said she saw the whole thing, from the cut, to him trying to hold it in and hiding the cut finger in his sleeve, through all the emotions. She explained it to me at length when I picked him up. She said she had learned a lot from helping him through it.

We headed home, and as we walked there were lots and lots of butterflies, all headed north. We paused in Vatikim and just watched the hundreds of butterflies flying towards us. We paused again at the empty lot of yellow flowers. In both places I tried holding out a hummus container to catch one. August was pessimistic and told me, “It’s no use.”

We got home home and he watched some Hilda and I did some work on the PTA website and social media sites, basically finishing it all up.

We went out for another walk at 3. We went up and did recycling. Someone had left a bunch of stuff by the garbage area. There was a nice big bowl that he wanted, then he asked if we could take the green “serving plate” as well. He must have learned ‘serving plate’ at school. We went back to the house to drop those off, and also get his black headphones so he could play with them on the bike.

As we got walking, I spotted a butterfly on the ground and caught it. It looked sick. We walked down to the path area, and August cut flowers for a bouquet. We picked from about six different kinds of plants. We’ve been planning to do this for a few days, but today also happened to be Palestinian Mother’s Day, so I had him tell Carly “Happy Mother’s Day!” later.

We got home at 4:05 and put the flowers in water. We then cut a hole in the butterfly container big enough so that he could reach a finger in and touch it. Not big enough though, because as I was on the phone with Carly he got it stuck and started screaming. I managed to get it out, and we cut it a bit bigger. He said, “I like having a pet butterfly.” When I said something was a “Good observation” he replied “What’s ‘observation’?” Another word of the day.

Carly got home and he showed her the flowers and the butterfly. On his own he had gone out and gotten lemon plant to make himself tea. Now, as I made salmon pasta for dinner I asked him to grate parmesan. He said, “I’ll be drinking my tea by then.”

But when Carly asked him to help her harvest the broccoli to save it from the caterpillars and he went and helped her.

I finished dinner and he drank his tea. He made a mixture on the floor of the kitchen, then he did a couple of timed alone times, playing with the Duplos. I did dishes and listened to my audiobook.

Carly gave him a bath. I took over and he got all the keys in the house to do the pretending game where he steals my belly button snacks. We read The 104 Story Treehouse, reading the silly “Up and Up and Up” chapter. Carly then read while I took a shower. I read the “Down and Down” chapter, then read the email about the painted lady butterfly migration.

He was really stuffy. We did a butterfly visualization, being the butterfly doing the whole migration, but he took quite awhile to fall asleep as he was so stuffy. He wouldn’t blow his nose with me, although Carly said he’d done it earlier. He was finally asleep around 8:50.

Butterfly migration:

Studying a butterfly:

Cutting flowers:

Touching the butterfly:

Playing alone and humming:

The key game:

I let him sleep until he got up right at 7:00. Carly had left a little early, with the car, for a training down in Tel Aviv. He watched Julius Jr. Nd he oatmeal. We got walking. Couple minutes late, then had lots of distractions along the way. Most notably a tractor pulling a trailer full of carrots up from one of the fields. He also stopped at the corner before school to look at flowers and insects. As we walked in the school we were next to Bar and Ben and their dad, with their dog dressed in a tutu. August got his Bar hug, and this time I was ready to take a photo.

We picked up his robot costume from the guardhouse, where Carly had dropped it off this morning. It was still before 8, but the preschool was out on the playground. One piece had come loose, so he had me tape it, then we took the costume to show off to Marion, then Andrea. Marion was very excited, telling all of the kids that this was what a costume should be like: homemade, and not bought at the store. That was what it had been like growing up in France.

It was close to 8:30 by the time I walked home. Worked for awhile, then packed a lunch for him and packed tape and aluminum foil for emergency robot repair and rode my bike back.

He had had a rough day, and when I got there was with Vicky. Surprisingly, literacy group went really well, and he did okay with Ms. Liron. It was between the two and after that he had problems. With Vicky he had done the running thing out on the grass. Since she didn’t know she was supposed to catch him, he gave her a big hug around the legs.

August was visibly down, which is a first. He wanted to head home, or alternately go to Sushi Ishimoto for lunch. I finally convinced him to stay on campus. He chose to go over by the cafeteria. He didn’t have any interest in eating with his class.

We went and sat at a table by the teacher lounge, then he agreed to stay for the Purim celebration. We went back to his class, got his costume on, and went out where the other preschoolers were. He was swamped by admirers.

On the walk up the stairs to the start of the parade he found a butterfly wing on the ground and I put it in the backpack.

We joined the parade around the quad. That was fun, but chaotic, with older kids pushing past and bumping into the preschoolers.

We ended on the grass by the foreign language classrooms. A performer talked to them all for a few minutes and had them play a sort of simon says game, then let them spread out to do the different activities.

August played around for the next 90 minutes or so. We watched the bubbles, then he played with the nuts from a palm tree, trying to throw them into the middle of it. He asked to look at the butterfly wing, but we couldn’t find it in the pocket of the backpack I’d put it in. When he spotted bubbles over by the soccer field we headed over there. It was a bubble machine and he watched and played with that for quite awhile, as did some older kids. He climbed a tree and took a making mama nervous photo, went on the field and played with the soccer goals (he wanted me to move them around and put them together like a tent, but I told him they were there in case anyone wanted to play soccer), and Shary talked to him about some insect. He wandered over to the busy big kid playground. We saw his friends (Eve and Candy) a couple times, but he didn’t want to go play with them. I think the whole thing was just too loud and overwhelming. He played on the playground for a few minutes, doing loops around the poles while he held on with one hand. He would go around one pole several times, then switch to another, etc. He found a piece of rope and played with that for the rest of the time: tying me up by spinning around me while I held it and tying it to my feet, then attaching it to a tree and having me hold the other end and he would stand on it.

Eventually, about 2:30, we wandered back to the classroom. There were about 5 students in there, watching alphabet videos from Alphablocks on the big screen. August sat on a table and watched. They were pretty funny.

Just before 3 we got walking home. Lots of butterflies on the way, and along the little path between blocks we tried to catch some, to no success. We were home at 3:35. He talked about how he likes his tape measure better: “AND it smells like hardware store.”

He ate some zucchini cornbread and we read a little of The 104-Story Treehouse. I then let him watch some Hilda. Carly came home at 5:30. She talked about the workshop she’d been at today and talked about liking the speakers. August was confused at first, until I explained this other definition of ‘speakers’.

He called for a “Family hug.” Earlier I had jokingly called a family hug without Carly there. He said, “That’s not a family hug. It’s just a hug.” They gave food and water to the lizard. I asked if it had a name and he named it Workenstocks. We had brought the orange and white pillow home from the classroom, and he now put it in the fridge to make it cold, and liked squeezing it when it was cold. He had me put it in the freezer to make it even colder.

Carly went out and found the broccoli plants being attacked by small caterpillars. He went out to see and caught a few. For dinner I put some mushroom on a piece of pizza for him and he had a bowl of corn with butter. He went to the bathroom, and from there I heard him yell, “Dada! I want to tell you my favorite kind of power…kind that turns heat into electricity.” He meant geothermal, and he explained how it was better than solar, because you don’t have to worry about adjust the panels towards the sun, or cleaning them.

Carly went to take a shower. He ate some of his frozen treat, remembering it was there from a few weeks ago. We went upstairs for his bath. He washed the walls with his electric toothbrush. Made sure he washed it good before using it. We somehow talked about the real bath, and he told me, “That one thing makes it so I never want to touch the bath again.” He explained it was when his foot hurt and he got in the bath. I told him that was only a problem if he had a wound, but he is clear that he doesn’t want a bath again.

Carly came in and I left them around 8.

Showing off his robot Purim costume:

Listening to the music:

Purim parade:

Carnival 1:

Carnival 2:

Bubbles area:

More bubbles:

Doing circles:

Tying me up: