After I went to bed he had sat up and lain down on the covers, feet towards the pillows. At some point, he got back up and crawled under the covers, putting his head on a pillow and pulling the covers up to his chin. I don’t think he’s ever done that before.
Carly got him up starting at 6:30. He spit out one of his vitamins this morning, saying it didn’t taste good. Carly headed to work and he watched Pink Panther while he ate oatmeal with mango and zucchini cornbread.
On our walk to school he asked, “Why an I seeing more minivans?” I reminded him of patterns, and how when you learn about something new you then recognize it more easily. He replied, “Oh, like crane flies.” We also saw Bryan’s wife and kids, and had fun seeing all the Purim costumes of kids going to the Israeli school: a sumo wrestler, hotdog, and all sorts of others. Not sure how to feel about a couple boys dressed as Arabs.
At school we walked in to the classroom to find that Eve had the gecko. She had also made a picture for the rules, which mainly involved not opening the cage, as it would escape.
I walked home and worked, finishing the PTA website, then drove to school. August had had an okay day, but not treat worthy. We hurried to the car and drove home. There, he got his tape measure and compared it to our other one. His goes to 10ft, so just barely longer than the 3m of the other one. We measured the swing and grabbed IKEA bags and headed to IKEA.
When we got there he asked, “Why do you think Ikea is a big block?” We talked bout building shapes. Later, as we left, he compared the size to the new mall just to the north, and to the Pepsi bottling plant. Back at school he would talk to Marion, I think it was, about the size of IKEA versus the Pepsi plant.
We went inside and planned a quick shopping trip to get back in time for library time. When we went upstairs though he spotted the cafe area up there. We decided to get lunch. It was a short line, three people in front of us, but there was only one woman working there and it was slow. We got a salmon and cream cheese sandwich, a peach iced tea, and a cinnamon roll. I let him taste the cinnamon roll, then saved the rest as a reward for when we had to wait in the checkout line. There was lots of discussion of seat belt laws and then the metal pipes of the ventilation system.
We then did a quick shopping trip. He chose (thankfully cheap) pillows and blankets. We got matching ones for home and school. And we got a round pink rug for under the table at school. We had just enough time to also find cushions for the swing in the yard. We had also gotten another tape dispenser and a couple pairs of small scissors. At checkout he ate the cinnamon roll as we waited to check out.
We then hurried back to school. We walked down to his classroom as they were lining up to go to library time. We headed to the library. I could tell that they had talked about library rules, as the kids were much better behaved today. I confirmed this with Andrea later. Ilana read Harry the Dirty Dog for library time, then August checked out Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat Are You Going to School? At the end of library time Eve was a bit confused and upset that August was taking the gecko and not them. We walked back to the classroom and set up the calm area under the table under the stairs. Very cozy.
After school we went out on the playground for a few minutes, then went up to Heather’s art room. She had said he could get parts for his robot costume. She was gone, but David and the girls were there. They helped August find a few parts in the big box. He then hung out with Eve a little and she gave him some art that she’d made.
We drove the car home. I put the cushions on the swing, and August opened and started the tape dispenser. We had some meat and crackers, and set up the calm space at home. We were then adding to the costume, using the hot glue, when a big glob dripped on my left pointer finger. I used fingers on my right hand to get it off, burning them as well.
We read Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat Are You Going to School? and worked on the Lego-like kit, making the spaceship, until Carly got home. He watched something and they read Captain Underpants. I went upstairs and rested for awhile. He ate pasta and we finished the spaceship. Earlier, he’d been in denial about being involved in burning my fingers. He had told me I was joking about it. Now, he conceded, “Well, if I did get hot glue on you it was an accidental…” Carly took him up for a bath and they read Two Homes
I put him to bed. We read 104-Story Treehouse and did a lizard visualization. He had his usual “I have a question for you…” and asked something bout the size of buildings or something. He took rather awhile to fall asleep, at 9:15.
Carly got him up at 6:40. They played on the couch, then he watched Max and Ruby. We ate some zucchini cornbread and then he had oatmeal. On the walk to school he asked about how fast cars drove on the roads, and why they drive faster on the road down to the highway. I said there weren’t intersections, and he asked what that meant, so ‘intersection’ was our first word of the day.
When we got to school he talked to some one and called them “whackadoodle”, then me “Mr. Whackadoodle”. It’s from Hilo. I talked to Marion about a quiet place, and she showed me and August that they had a table under the stairs that he could climb under.
I went from there to the library and did some work. Marion started sending photos of August on our WhatsApp group. The big new thing was making long ramps with the blocks and rolling marbles on them. And when Judson bumped his head, August, on his own, drew a picture and gave it to him to help him feel better. Finally, he is really into the math/geometry boards where they make shapes with rubber bands.
At 9 I went to the PTA meeting. It was all about the cafeteria issues, and the place was full. Sat next to Sarah, and she asked me to make some discreet inquiries to find out how the staff would like the staff lounge improved, as the PTA needs ideas for a staff gift. At 10 I went to the cafeteria and edited chapters for Zoe until Marka showed up to discuss PTA website. We sat outside with Jessica and Misao, the co-secretaries and met. At noon I then ran to get August.
He was sitting down to the meeting and doing great. He ran to me to show me his sheet empty of red dots. Woohoo! He was so proud of it. He also told me how he had gotten upset once and went under the quiet area table. I tried to get him to go ahead and stay for the meeting, but he wanted to go get his reward—the treat from the Moto shop in town. As we were about to leave, Eve stood up in the meeting and yelled at Candy, then stomped out of the room. August watched this unfold, then rather loudly announced, “That is something I did NOT do.”
So we decided to walk up to town, and get VIPizza for lunch on the way. August stopped though at the NW corner of the big traffic circle by school and started finding black beetles everywhere. He climbed up the dirt hill, and explored for 15 minutes or so. He said, “This is something I like about doing half days at school…I get to see a lot of bugs when they’re out.” We took a lot of beetles with us, sadly they were looking pretty sickly by the evening and I let them out. As we walked north he stopped at another empty lot full of flowers and we decided to do a bouquet some day when we brought string with us (that’s from school). He was asking about the weights of different trees as we walked into town, and which I could pick up or not. ‘Sapling’ became another word of the day.
We stopped at VIPizza and the owner handed me a paper towel to clean August’s nose, which has gotten pretty bad. We each got a slice, and August asked, “Why does steam float?” We discussed bonds and atomic weight (another word of the day) and he asked “What does ‘embarrassing’ mean?” (Another). He requested a second slice and said, “I think I’m gonna eat all this.” He ate about half and I had the rest.
We walked over to Moto and he looked around. He had initially planned on one of the little umbrella looking suckers, but decided on a Kinder egg. I gave him the money and had him buy it on his own. He sat on the table outside and ate it. While we were in town he developed the grumpy game, where I was supposed to act upset that he didn’t get any red dots. I complained, saying I really liked red, and accused him and his teachers of conspiring together to cost me money and get him treats. He found it very funny.
We had stopped at the first grocery store to look for the bars he likes for his pre-STEM class. No luck. We now went across the street to the new one, and found them there. As he walked down the stairs there were a couple of women on break there. One has big long extensions in her hair and August pointed right to them and commented on her having long hair and a wig. She took it well, and on the way back she asked if he wanted to touch them. He declined.
We walked back through the residential streets in the middle of town. There was a lot of stopping to look at crane flies and snails on the way back. And more beetles by where he found the rusty hoe blade a few weeks ago. He also asked me to have big arms like David. I politely explained that bulk doesn’t necessarily mean strength, and that DNA has a lot to do with body shape. David was in the Navy, but is also a pastry chef, so didn’t pass judgment on his arm strength vis a vis mine, but was able to convince August I was strong from lifting him. This, of course, backfired, as August wanted me to carry him the last full block to school, telling me he was helping give me more exercise.
We got back at 2:50 and after stopping at the library to go to the bathroom, went down to the classroom. They played with the math boards for a few minutes then went into STEM. I went out on the bench. At 4 he ran out and excitedly told me that they had used the printer/calculator parts that we had given Andrea a couple weeks ago and put them in playdough. They had made the playdough, then made things using the parts. She said August’s started as entirely abstract, then turned into a satellite.
He played with the math boards until everyone was picked up, then I talked briefly to Andrea about when (assuming today is the start of something) about when to extend his time. She said we’d continue with the half days through the week. I’d like to push to 12:30 ASAP as long as he’s doing fine with the second meeting.
We went to the library and he looked at the electronic bits art again, wondering which parts were from the bag of parts he had given Heather. (She had particularly said that a student had found the right parts for the eyes of one of them.)
Bar came out and gave him a nice hug again. Probably the tenth of the year, but they are all very stealthy and I haven’t gotten one on camera. In the library we looked for a Bone book, but they still don’t have 3. He started setting up a big game on the rug of squares, which was cool. But he started to pull books off the shelves for it. I tried to stop him, and he immediately got upset. Carly arrived just at that moment and I picked him up and handed him to her. She took him into the empty classroom in the library and they spent a lot of time discussing how we treat books, and she called them the librarians’ babies. They spent a lot of time acting it out, with him being a baby book and her being a librarian. While I tried to figure out where they went I ran into Zoe and briefly talked to her.
We all walked home. He’s really into identifying cars now, by type. A new one is ‘sports car’. As we walked down Vatikim he saw a Mustang and said, “Sports car. Convertible.” As we walked the bath between blocks he said “Maybe a meteorite…” broke the street light. He brought up bullet trains, and Carly mentioned that he’d been in the womb when we’d ridden the fast train to Busan. That reminded me of a few days ago when he had spotted Ms. Rena getting on her motorcycle. She’d asked if he’d been on a motorcycle. He said “Well, maybe when I was in my mama’s womb…”
We got home and he watched something on YouTube. When we got dinner ready he chose to pause it and joined it. In the kitchen he then made a small soup or something and they had it warming in the oven. I was working on the PTA website. Carly took him up and he played and she gave him a bath.
I came up as he was going to the bathroom and explaining how you make pee. It had a lot of ingredients, including “distilled pollen” and lots of chemicals/molecules we don’t know.
He said goodnight to her. In bed he discussed his micrometer, which turned out to be able to measure really, really big things. I explained then name, and that that should then be called a ‘megameter’. He liked that. He got on the subject of his planet and said that people had tried to settle there, but had all died, because something about the air molecules: “It was a good try though.”
Carly had reminded us light off at 8. When it turned 8 I said I needed to turn the light off or I’d get in trouble. He then jumped on me so I couldn’t get up, and at 8:01 he was giggling like crazy and went to tell Carly that I should have a timeout because I didn’t follow the rule.
Back in bed he was talking about all of the world records he has: brightest light ever, etc. He ended with, “lotionest lotion ever.”
He asked me for story from school and I told him about getting to go, in 4th grade, to the Museum of Flight before it opened. I’d been meaning to tell him of this since we had made space suits, which looked kind of like his robot suit. I talked about how we had made a space constitution, and he asked if I had agreed with all the laws. I said I hadn’t, but then he asked what the rules were, and he got upset when I didn’t remember. He tried to leave the room, but I got him back on the bed and he rolled over and was asleep right at 8:30.
He was up at 6:05. I was up at a quarter to 7. I came down and found them working on his costume, him doing most of the gluing. I did the lettering for the welcome sign, then made coffee for me and oatmeal for him. He then watched a video while I kept organizing and Carly made the cake. He was watching a long Lego video called ‘World’s Longest LEGO Great Ball Contraption”. I watched part of it with him, and it was a good engineering lesson for him. From that ‘module’ was the word of the day.
We got to finishing our cleaning and preparing for the party. Think I left a lot of that out of yesterday’s journal, but we had done a lot of cleaning in the evening, and August had helped me make two loaves of zucchini cornbread. Now, she cut the veggies and August and I finished the ‘Welcome’ sign for the Zinnie house and hammered it up. And he had the idea of hanging up the birthday cards/art from his classmates on the tack board in the Zinnie house so we did that. We had some time before the party at 11, so we let Mikaela know he was ready to show her his Zinnie house. She had been invited to the party, but was going to be gone by then. So she came up and he showed her everything in the house for a few minutes. He then played with the “antennas” on the Zinnie house, and inside we watched some of the Formula 1 qualifying.
People started showing up just after 11. First Eve, Zoe, and Heather and David. They brought a bag with some art supplies and a set of little plastic jars for his treasures. Eve tried on his robot costume. Then Simone and Anita showed up. He opened the present right away. It was a Transformer sort of robot toy. They were quickly followed by Taya with Cassie. They had brought a Lego-compatible spaceship set. Cassie told us that Taya had insisted that August wanted a doll. Taya loves dolls and has about 8. Later, when she found Baby Q, the doll Carly bought him in Korea, Taya told Cassie “I told you!” I told Cassie she could get the finally “I told you!” since he’s never actually really played with it. We were also going to invite Candy and her mom, but they had a meeting with all of the other Chinese moms and their kids for the International Day planning.
The kids did great together. They started outside, painting. They had brought one canvas, and I grabbed the big cardboard box out of recycling and used a utility knife to cut it into canvases for them. Lots of looking in the dirt for insects together. The Zinnie house turned out to be a huge hit and they spent a lot of time in there. August enjoyed showing off a bug to Anita, and David got involved kicking a soccer ball around with Simone and Zoe. Simone was reluctant to play with the others, but he is really into soccer, so that was good.
Inside, August, Taya, and Eve took care of Baby Q. He got a lot of his potions and they mixed them all together as medicine for the baby. They mixed them using one of the brushes that Eve had bought, and August put it in our drill to make an electric mixer. The three were really doing a great job taking turns.
Carly then brought down the toilet paper holder and, inspired by the project on the stairs at school where August and Eve had been tying ribbons all week, Carly had picked up rolls of ribbon at school yesterday, and now the kids went crazy tying them to the toilet paper holder.
There had been the hummus, veggies, potato pastry things, and pizza out, so they had snacked along the way. I had poured water for the kids at one point, and for the adults Anita and I had opened a bottle of wine.
At 1:20 we did cake. August requested we not sing the song. Zoe started it, but he only got about half the song before it petered out. Everyone liked that he had 5, 6, and 7 on it. We ate cake, then August got the little plastic jars that Eve and Zoe had brought and he went and filled them up with water from the sink and handed them out to everyone at the party, adults included, so they could drink them. That was very nice.
Back outside they play a little hide and seek, then it was back to playing in the Zinnie house. The only tough moment came when August got sort of trapped in the Zinnie house, then bumped his head. He got upset, and we took him upstairs to calm down. I was being really calming with him, but he was really mean with me, so Carly took over. She got him back down after a few minutes and the rest went smoothly.
August had Carly lift up stones, and he found a big grub. That was an exciting find. David then was helping August, the first that he’s really interacted with August.
People headed out about a quarter to 3.
Ilana and Howard were having their vegetarian soup party, and the second loaf of zucchini bread was for that, but we didn’t feel like rushing to that and decided to skip it.
So we relaxed and recovered, and worked on cleaning up. Carly skyped with her parents, and August showed off the Zinnie house to them as well.
We had some dinner, and August and I started putting together the Lego spaceship as we watched the Australian Grand Prix. I took him up for his bath and washed his hair. Went okay, but he got frustrated with the hair washing and threw his lollipop towards the shower after I was done. It shattered, which was a good example of a natural consequence.
In the bedroom, he asked me, “Maybe I could ask you a couple questions and watch some videos?” He asked, “Why does concrete chip off?” So I looked up chipping concrete and we read about it. ‘Spalling’ was another word of the day. He had us act out the necklace story from yesterday, then we did another Story Dice story, telling “The Girl Who Wanted to Be a Hunter”. August was repeating, “I kicked the habit and it’s almost done.” Which might be based on a Berenstain Bears episode, or some commercial.
Carly came in to put him to sleep. I left them at 7:40. Carly said he was really reflecting on school, and when she asked what he liked about school he replied, “My nice teachers, the fun activities.” When she asked what he didn’t like he basically said, “Handling all the kids.” They really role played when Eve wouldn’t let him hold the bug catcher at school, and he was practicing saying to a teacher, “Would you help me get it back?”
I had my book group meeting at 12:30am. It’s usually an hour later, but since the U.S. has made the time shift and we haven’t, it was a bit nicer for me, and I stayed up until it started, watching the new Netflix series Love, Death, and Robots.
Around 6 it started pouring. August was up at 6:30. I heard him yell “Mama!” I got up because I thought he was scared by the storm. It turned out he was just surprising her when he came down the stairs. I went back to bed until 8. They had done Makey Makey and he was watching marble videos. He chose the Learn Engineering video about how a clutch works and we watched that together. He asked, “What’s ‘logical’ mean?”
The shelves had gotten wet during the storm, and I now moved the shelves just before another storm hit. They read some Pippi Longstocking. We then did two rounds of him playing by himself, rewarded with Oreos, while he worked on his toilet paper holder sculpture. We then played a round of Guess Who. He won for real this time, having guessed my person had blue eyes right away.
He did the game where he runs across the floor to Carly and she picks him up. He was getting too hyper though and I took him for a short timeout. Carly headed to the store. He added some paint to his ‘Welcome’ sign.
We read part of Magic Pickle and then part of The 104-Story Treehouse. We were going to go outside but we missed our window and another thunderstorm. He was a bit grumpy about it, but then we went upstairs. We told a story called “The Queen of the Jewel.”
Carly got home at 12:30. As she unpacked the groceries he found the seaweed snacks, and as he opened a packet he was telling a story to himself. I caught, “… That’s what happens when you take over the world…You get sausages.”
I took him out for a walk up to do recycling. As I did the plastic recycling, with him not helping, there were dark clouds coming over. He said it was going to rain, and wanted us to go right away. When I did finish and we started walking home, the rain hit as we were halfway down the block. We just got a few drops by the time we got back, but he was saying mean things about me as we came in so Carly took him upstairs.
They discussed his costume for Purim and I helped him collect parts from the art kitchen and the other places he has little electronic and metal bits. He explained his toilet paper holder machine to me, and told me he could drink bleach, etc. because, “I put them in a special machine that turns them into water.”
The two of them left at 1:20 to go down to Ace to get supplies for the robot costume. They came back with a hot glue gun and other things. They were back at 2:40 and started making the robot costume. Carly cut the box and cut the neck and arm holes. Carly said I could do the hot glue. He agreed: “Yeah, you’ll do that part dada. Mama’s too wimpy and nervous.” I went upstairs and they made progress on the costume, covering it in foil and starting on the hot glue.
Carly left at 4 to go to the store. He found a coin and said, “This is for my account.” When I asked what he needed money for he said, “Let me buy whatever I want that we don’t have.”
We went out for a walk now, as the weather had cleared. He asked about how fast signals travel, and we paused at the park to watch a video about how fiber optic cables work. As we continued on up towards town he sang a song about a crane fly, then we caught a bee. In the nature-y area we looked for other bugs, and he had me pick him up when someone had a dog. We then found a big dead lizard. We looked at that, and he claimed we had seen a dead bird in Korea. I don’t remember that. We headed home and got here at 5:25.
They started doing hot glue on the costume, and August really liked doing that. Carly was letting him do the glue gun.
We had dinner, and Carly gave him a bath. I put him to sleep. We discussed the word ‘hate’ and he said he didn’t realize what it meant and wouldn’t say it anymore. I told him something about when I was in kindergarten. And he volunteered a story, saying that Eve told him that she cries when she hears a beautiful piece of music. He called it “good crying” and said he understands what she meant. He was asleep just before 8:20.
He slept all the way to 5:45. So that was a good night of sleep (11 and a half hours). Carly got him oatmeal and he watched Aardvark and the Ant. When his time was up he asked to read the zombie book. We finished Plants vs. Zombies: Lawnmageddon, which we had started several days ago. ‘Suddenly’ was a word of the day.
He played with the circuits for a couple minutes on his own before coaxing me over. He listened to “Murakami” through the circuit set using the headphones he found, then asked me to play it through Siri so we could both hear it louder. We put it on repeat and he sat on my lap and we listened. He then asked what he could make for me: time machine, robot that does everything I demand, a fancy toilet seat better than the one we had in Korea. He said he only makes things in his lab at night. He randomly quoted Hilo: “And I see a duck sitting on a toilet.”
We went out and did more painting. He painted the board for the welcome sign white, and I did more of the shelves. He went back inside on his own and was sitting near the Siri speaker and I heard him doing a lot of talking to himself. I came in to wash the brushes and he was still talking. He put the blanket under the table (he said something about losing it in there) then went and played with the toy drill, doing a little more talking.
I started an email to Marka about PTA stuff and got most of it done. August was done plying by himself and needed something to do. I tried to get him started playing with the Guess Who and Shark Attack games that he got for Christmas. Those involved setup, however, and he got me to help him. But we did ply a game of Guess Who, and it was only at the end that I pointed out he had played a winning game. He was a little indignant that I had ‘tricked’ him. We then played with the Shark Attack game. We played together a bit, then I was able to go finish my email.
He asked for cake, so I gave him a small slice. He then had the last two chicken nuggets with mayo and ketchup and a juice box. He got some juice on him putting in the straw and we had to change him. I went upstairs to brush my teeth. When I came down he ask started talking about his newest plan to punish people that break into his lab. After I redirected him to a more appropriate punishment (capturing and turning them over to the police), he then asked if he could just have his own jail. I said no. A couple minutes later he asked, “Can anyone outsmart the police?”
I went out and did a little more touchup paint, then we got headed to school for parent teacher conferences day. We were supposed to meet Gabby at 10:55. But when we got there Carly told us that Gabby was sick and had cancelled. August was really looking forward to being with her and was upset. Luckily, he was able to get over it and sat in the atelier and watched an episode of Hilda on Carly’s computer.
His teachers had had their skype session with Dr. Postma last night. It sounds like it went pretty well. It will be interesting to hear how Postma felt about it. Marion set up a WhatsApp group so they could send us positive things about him through the day; the idea being that we can then show August the good moments at school and discuss those, and reinforce that he actually does like school (as he still says he doesn’t like school). Marion told a story about how, a few days ago, he started tying the ribbons from the railings of the stairway going upstairs. He initially was tying them across the stairway, blocking the stairs. Marion tried to be logical about it, knowing that ‘No’ is one of his triggers. She explained that for safety reasons, PKC needs to be able to get down the stairs in case there was a fire. He got his usual reaction/meltdown. But then a couple days later they were doing the tying again. Vicky came along and he started telling her about what they were doing, and explained that they weren’t tying them across the steps because PKC needed to be able to get down if there was a fire.
Heather was coming in to meet next as we took August out. He said hi to her, jokingly calling her “Eve June” (her daughter’s name) and telling her she had really blue eyes.
So August had said something to me about getting lemon water in a bottle or something. I had thought he meant the other iced tea we still had from McDonald’s. He repeated this to Carly as we said goodbye outside the preschool. Then, when we got to the top of the stairs he went to the Make-A-Wish table, where they were selling things. In the two seconds we had taken to walk by he had seen the water bottle with a “filter” in the middle and decided you could put fruit in there and flavor the water. I asked if he had seen a water bottle like this before. He said no, but he had seen Ms. Liron with lemon in her water bottle but it was just floating free. He was so excited about it, and talking the the high schoolers running the table about it, that I had to get it.
We then walked down to the little arts fair that was going on outside the library. Mainly looked at a table where a couple sells old maps and prints. He was kind of interested, but would have been more interested if he didn’t have the water bottle, as he kept talking about it. From there we went to the book fair. He mainly sat under the tables and played with the water bottle (it also has a nice latch) while I looked. I got a couple books for him: The Hairy Brown Angel and Other Animal Tales and an old book (with an inscription from Pakistan in it) called My Very Own Fairy Stories. For myself I found A Little History of the World and Reza Aslan’s No God But God.
From there it was more shopping. We went to Ikea. We talked about getting food, but I had warned him no ice cream. He decided not to get lunch there, since he couldn’t get ice cream, but he was calm about it. I was disappointed though as I hadn’t had lunch yet and was counting on that falafel. We went backwards, going through the checkouts, and got the small metal table for in the office, then walking back to get another can of white paint. I also decided on a desk lamp for the office. By checkout we got a few packs of their little snacks. He ate one of the berry ones on the way out to the car. He didn’t like the nut and berry mix that I got.
Next, we went to Max. We were just planning on getting the egg timer he wanted so that we could work on him playing by himself. But then we started to find other things: a white board and tack board for the Zinnie house, which needed markers, an eraser, and push pins, some fabric we could use for something, a pair of magnifying glasses, some new paper clips, etc. Actually, the first add-on was their cheap acrylic paint. That actually saved us a trip to the art store, and was much cheaper. It was paint we needed for the ‘Welcome’ sign to the Zinnie house. He chose some nice colors.
We walked back to the car (we had parked in the dirt lot) and left the boards and my backpack in there. We went into Tiv Taam and got lemons (for his lemon water) and some milk. I was then looking for loose leaf tea when a young woman heard us and asked where we were from. Her name was Yael, and she was there with a woman named Paige McGonagall, who has two high schoolers at WBAIS. The older, Ethan, is a senior and on the robotics team. So we talked for that for a couple minutes. August handled the delay pretty well.
We paid and got going. On the walk back to the car he asked, “What’s machinery?” Another word of the day. We were driving at 2:40. He didn’t fall asleep, although it was a close call. I looked back after we passed the Israeli school and he was still awake. When I parked I looked back and his eyes were closed. He opened them after a few seconds. I’m not sure if he was actually falling asleep or just messing with me.
He had his vanilla yogurt. He tried to fool me by telling me he didn’t like it, but then revealing it was actually really good. He repeated this joke later with the sushi, and confused both of us quite well, as he had liked the sushi yesterday.
I was unloaded all of our stuff out of the car, and we got to nailing up the whiteboard and tack board in the house. I heard someone calling to August, asking where his dad was. It was Gil, from across the street. I had left the back left door to the car open.
We finished hanging things up in the Zinnie house and set up the pink organizer we had gotten for the markers and tacks. August asked, “What does ‘in custody’ mean? It is a word from Hilo (when he is captured by the military).
Inside he opened the colorful rubber bands he gotten at Max and was tying them together. By the end of the day he was doing it on his own. We were outside finishing putting together the blue table when Carly got home.
We showed off what we had done and then he wanted to put lemon in the water bottle. He and I did that. Too mild at first, but he was really excited about it once we had crushed the lemons a bit and left it to steep for awhile. He wanted to try the egg timer and playing by himself. So we did that, and he tied together rubber bands by himself while Carly and I worked.
He and Carly then played the Shark Attack game. I should have taken a video of it, as August didn’t tell her it would pop up, and when it surprised her he was really laughing.
He as then adding to his rubber band chain as Carly and I sat on the couch. He was running with the rubber bands while I held the other end. The chain got longer and longer, and he would add shorter chains that Carly was making. He randomly quoted, “Boss, I can’t find my lucky dollar.” It’s from an annoying commercial on YouTube that he’s been watching.
He requested that we buy him Honey Nut Cheerios sometimes. When Carly said they’d be more of a treat than a snack he got upstairs and threw the tissue box in my general direction. I started to take him upstairs for a timeout, but then asked him where he would like to calm down until he could apologize. I suggested under a chair. He got the blanket, put it on a chair, and curled up on it for a minute. He then got down and apologized without being prompted. Brilliant.
Carly had him play on his own again. He tied rubber bands of course.
I set up the lamp upstairs, then back downstairs he had me count how many were in his chain. It is up to 87. He, of course, said he wants to get it to 100.
Carly took him up for a bath. When he said Carly told him she’d seen a dust devil when she was a kid. He asked me “What’s positronic mean?” I reminded him, then we read the first story in My Very Own Fairy Stories. We went upstairs and read a few chapters of Magic Pickle. And he had some Cheerios.
He requested a story visualization, which at the time I couldn’t remember what he meant, but later realized he meant one like where we had someone walking a path and ending up in a new world. He settled for a regular visualization, and we did a bird living in that mall on Tuesday, and it did things like steal grain from the bulk food store and french fries from people and McDonald’s. He fell asleep around 8:30. I fell asleep too, though, so I’m not sure quite when.
He was up a little before 6:30. He went down and cuddled with Carly. They got talking about anatomy and he remembered the anatomy apps on his iPad. When she left, deciding she could risk it as it wasn’t rainy right now, he sat at the table and played with one of his anatomy apps, explaining why it was the best one. He randomly asked, “What’s ‘legendary’ mean?’ So a word of the day. He then switched to Aardvark and the Ant.
We got going, waited a few extra minutes as we were taking the car. In the classroom he was excited to see new stuff out, but he fixated on a bowl of rubber bands that Andrea had up high and wasn’t putting out yet. It almost became a problem, but I think he was doing okay when I left.
I went to the library for a little while, then drove to Herzliya to Marka’s house, PTA president, for the sustainability committee meeting. That was a lot of listening, and I left there at 11:30 and got back to school just in time to get to school before it ended for the half day.
August was in a good mood, but had done a lot of the ripping today. He seems to be moving from one behavior to another. He showed me the three books he had gotten at the book swap and said “Thank you for giving me the money.”
As we left we saw the elementary school gardening club setting up a table to sell succulents. August chose a small one for 10 shekels and we got going. It was drizzling as we left, and as we were halfway to the car it suddenly started raining harder. I didn’t have an umbrella, and his raincoat was in my backpack. We started running, then I picked him up the last little bit. He handled it well, and didn’t even need to change his pants when we got home.
We ate sushi for lunch and listened to Erasure. I went upstairs and started laundry. He asked, “Does the internet go at light speed?” We talked about that, and he asked, “What’s instantaneous?” Another word of the day. Downstairs we played with the circuits set. He asked about the word ‘jiffy’ and said it was from Berenstain Bears: “see you in a jiffy, Lizzie.”
We went and read Two Homes, one of the books he had chosen (along with Good Books, Good Times! and Puss in Boots. Back at the circuits set I found our bottle of bubbles and he blew bubbles from the air blower. He spent some time taking macro photos, then ate a bunch of strawberries I sliced up, followed by a small bowl of oatmeal. I got a message from Candy’s mom saying that Candy had a praying mantis that she wanted to give to August as a birthday present. I asked August if he’d want to play with Candy and he said, “Dada, I would always want to play with a nice person.” They were running errands though, so not available to play right now. But they came and dropped off the mantis. Candy then ran back to give him a hug.
He wanted to paint the shelves for the Zinnie house. The weather was clearer, so we went for it. He started with helping hammer the larger nails, but got frustrated when he couldn’t do it well. We went in and he watched Aardvark and the Ant. I went out and finished the hammering, then he came out to paint.
We painted together for awhile, then he stopped when I was getting concerned he was going to get paint on his shirt. He didn’t want to change it, and played around the yard, looking for insects, etc., while I did more painting. He was talking to himself, then told me, “I was just calling my mama…not my mama walking home, my mama on my planet…I have two mamas and two dadas.” I think inspired by the book he got, but that was a mom and dad that lived apart.
I helped him look for insects for a bit, then it started raining. He went in as I tried to clean up the yard and turn up the edges of the plastic so that paint wouldn’t run on the grass. Carly got home at 4:40, having walked through the rain. She showed him the books she got at the book swap, and also an old broken iPad someone had given her. One of the books is Magic Pickle: “I make magic pickles in my laboratory. They give you big strong muscles that make you really strong…” She also got The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Horrible Harry and the Mud Gremlins, a Cam Jayson book, an A to Z Mystery book, and a Magic School Bus chapter book.
I told Carly about how he had parents on his planet, and he said his other mom’s name is “Quarkenzorkenmork….I call her Quark.” I went up to do some work. He hung a string up in the kitchen, but then was acting really tired. Carly took him up, and he was asleep at 6:15, still in his clothes.
He woke up at 7:30 or so and Carly got him back to sleep. Then again at 8:10. I got him back to sleep this time, and he slept through the night.
I went back up and worked on Sabeel stuff for a long time. Almost finished the revised calendar.
At one point August sneezed about 8 times. Didn’t wake up though.
During the night he had a moment where he clattered against the wall. He then sort of sat up, and when he lay back down he hit his head against the headboard. He started to crawl off the bed, but fell back asleep lying face down on another pillow. That lasted about ten minutes, when he got up and climbed off the bed. He repeated something unintelligible to her a few times, but then lay down and fell back to sleep.
Carly got him up at 6:45. When he let her go to work he just sat on the couch for a few minutes. He watched Pink Panther and I made oatmeal. When I told him the oatmeal was ready he told me, “This is a GOOD Pink Panther. I love it.” It was called Pink Panther Vs. Frankenstein.
When we got to class before the bus kids, August started telling his teachers how there were more seats and people at the robotics competition than you could see on the monitor in the library. He told Marion there were “more seats than in a 747!”
I went to the book swap and got just one book, a Mr. Man collection of twelve stories. I then rode home and did just a little work and finished chopping up the strawberries for his party, then took the car back to school. When I got there, Carly said they were setting up for his birthday, but that August was up with Vicky. He had wanted to sit next to Lydia during morning meeting, but then got upset with Leonard when he was in the way. We waited a couple minutes, and when I went up they were on their way out.
Outside, they were having the kids set up all of the plates and they were doing art of things August likes all over the paper tablecloth: lots of giraffes, robots, and monsters. We started with the healthy snacks we had brought: bell peppers, strawberries, cantaloupe, and the banana bread. Then they did cake. Carly was able to stay for the singing, then had to go to teach her class. We had cake, then the party had to end as Ms. Liron was there for drama. Although, it wasn’t drama time like usual. She is very pregnant, and sitting down with the kids isn’t easy. So she had them playing outside. That probably worked out best for August, as he did fine through that.
I quickly ran up to the library and found Marka. She had wanted to prep me for the sustainability committee meeting tomorrow, and also talk about what they’re needing for the PTA webpages that they want to set up.
I met with her, then had a little time in the library to work, then went to pick up August at 12. When I got there he asked, “Why are you here?” He showed me the ribbons that he and others had been tying to the railings of the stairs, then he said he wanted to stay until they went to lunch. I went out on the bench and started responding to email, but Marion came out a couple minutes later and said he didn’t actually want to be a part of the meeting; he was just building with blocks. He had made something pretty cool, and agreed to leave with me.
We went up and got the leftover snacks, which I had placed in the staff room fridges. August spied Zoe, Eve’s sister, having lunch out in the cafeteria and was excited about that. We then went to the book fair. He chose one book, The Lucky Puppy, and I got The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, and an old book called The Mice Who Loved Words (which, for a second, I thought might be a book I remember from childhood about mice who steal letters from a printing press. It isn’t, but is still an interesting looking old book).
We went to the car, and August went and looked for insects in flowers nearby. We caught some sort of insect on them. He also told me that, yesterday or so, he had found a birdie egg on the ground in the butterfly garden. Marion had said it was a good experiment breaking it open and finding yolk in it.
We then drove down to Ikea. He did a good job there. He really liked looking at all the model kitchens and bedrooms. He kept commenting on how cool or awesome they were, and liked trying to turn on the stoves. He also liked the display that made it look like six different stove tops in one kitchen.
He did one hopscotch, but then mainly rode in the cart. We chose pillows for the Zinnie house: two bigger cushions, and four throw pillows. We also got a can of white paint for the shelves, and he liked the idea of an analog clock, so we got a cheap one of those to hang up. We also got batteries. We also tried out desk chairs. And he was sucking on the strap of the backpack and commenting on how he liked the flavor of it. As we got near the end, several guys in blue outfits and makeup ran by, filming themselves. We’d seen a couple of guys in odd outfits earlier as well.
As we got up to checkout, August convinced me to let him in with the pillows, and he lounged in the cart until we had to take everything out. We stopped to get lunch. He had a hot dog and I had the falafel. He ate the whole thing, then we each got an ice cream cone. We went outside to find about 20 younger guys all in various states of dress in costumes. No idea what was going on. It is early for Purim. August liked their funny costumes, and as we put our cart away we saw several of them do a race with the shopping carts, which the Ikea employees appeared to reluctantly allow.
He fell asleep on the way home, about 3:20. I could not wake him up. He kept sleeping on the couch, and I tried several times to get him up. I was out vacuuming the Zinnie house and getting the pillows together. At one point I thought he was awake, and I went out for a minute but returned to find him asleep. Finally, I put on Pink Panther and woke him up and he slowly woke up to that. It was after 4.
We went out to the Zinnie house and checked it out. August liked the pillows and clock. Carly got home. He was rough with her at first, so she took him up to wrestle. He then agreed to a haircut, lollipop-abetted, of course. She made it look much neater. Afterwards, he put his shirt on all by himself. It just happened to be backwards and inside out.
He took Carly out to the Zinnie house and they sat in there together for a couple minutes, talking about the clock. August compared the different kinds of hands on it to different sizes of candles. He came in to go to the bathroom, then did a good job of taking apart (by himself) the thing they had made with the construction kit while we figured something out with Carly’s phone.
I went upstairs with him, as he wanted to play a Brother and Sister game where they capture a peregrine falcon and it attacks them. ‘Profusely’ was a word of the day from that (i.e. how much I was bleeding after a talon cut me). We went down and read The One in the Middle is a Green Kangaroo by Judy Blume. He liked it. Carly made sushi and he ate that for dinner. We then headed back upstairs, where we played the game where he turns into a cat after I accidentally give him cat medicine. The cat then gets passed from owner to owner, as it is always causing problems. That somehow turned into a shopping game, where I was a pepper pot (an Eric Idle reference) buying stuff: hedge trimmer, to seeds, to chainsaw. Each thing led to a problem (too much trimming, too many plants) that required the next item. Somehow, this ended with me being a human ant nest stuck in a zoo. I don’t know how.
He went to the bathroom, then made a big creation out of rubber bands and other items on the toilet paper roll holder. It was a machine that transfers power. He was learning how to tie rubber bands together. When he had given Deborah’s puzzle piece back she had given him two rubber bands. He had tied them together, but on accident. He asked me how to do it. I taught him, and he had it down pretty well by the end. Although he still needed me to hold the one he was tying the other to.
I washed him, then he sang a “Ladybugs eat aphids” song. He ate some Cheerios, then I read him the I’ll Take a Nap! book. He laughed crazily again. I commented on the bunny in it being Knufflebunny, or something like that, and he said he had watched the Knufflebunny story in PKB last year.
Carly came in and we got him ready for bed. I left them about a quarter to 9.
He was up before 6:10, stuffy. He went out, then came back in the bedroom with Carly. He lay on the bed for a few minutes. Requested cream for his nose. Downstairs he watched Julius Jr. When Carly was heading to work he asked why she was going to work if he was staying home from school.
When he was done watching, we looked at the app on his iPad that goes with his watch. We played the turn of the game that he earned with his full day of activity. It involves BB-8, the robot that is on his watch. ‘Droid’ and ‘scavenge’ were words of the day. I went up to take a shower. He came with me and waited. On the wall of the bathroom I found a mosquito and a small skinny crawly thing and caught them both in the bug catcher and he studied those while I took a shower. As we went downstairs he wondered if the bug was poisonous, and talked about how he himself is “pure coison.”
As we left the house to get going, the street sweeper people were in our are and we said good morning to a couple of them. August was taking his time, looking at things on the ground and bugs on the wall. We finally got going at 8:40.
We drove to the Shlomo Group Arena for the robotics competition. He was impressed by the size of the building. We first walked around the teams’ area, seeing some of the robots up close and a lot of their tools. He was quite impressed, but it was all very loud and crowded and overwhelming. We made our way up to the seats, entering at the top. We found seats, and he spent most of the time asking about how many seats there were and whether it was more than a 747, etc. When he wasn’t doing that he was asking me to use Shazam songs that were playing. I think we did four. He watched one of the matches from my lap.
We were there about an hour before he decided he was ready to go. We found the WBAIS booth on our way out and saw the robot. None of the teachers were there though. We went and found a bathroom and looked around some more. August was running back and forth, so we did slo-mo videos of him running.
We paid and drove north to a mall that has a McDonald’s. We got there about 11:20 and it opened at 11:30. We went upstairs and found a pharmacy, and found an electric toothbrush for him. The checker gave him a bunch of stickers. The mall was open to the outside and there were little birds flying in and out. He said, “If I was a bird I’d really really really like being in here.”
We went down to McDonald’s and had fun making our order on the screen. He had a happy meal with chicken nuggets, choosing barbecue sauce to try. He decided on ice cream for dessert, and I got an apple pie. We read some of The 104-Story Treehouse, which just came out, while we waited. We ate, then had to go ask for our desserts.
He decided our next stop was Ganei Yehoshua Park. This is where we went the one time we took the train down to Tel Aviv, and where we started with Chuck and Cherie when we walked down the river to the waterfront.
We got there and he dug in the cracked dried mud for insects. We went to the big playground and climbed around a bit, remembering when he slipped once on the steep stairs. He went on the baby swings, and made up a game where I misheard something he was asking for and told him he couldn’t have it and he was laughing hysterically. Climbed on a small play structure and he requested a story. Specifically, the retelling of Booger Girl and the Lotion Factory. He had to remind me of it. We retold that, then went back to looking for bugs in the dirt.
As we did that I got him to wander over towards where the old play area had been. We confirmed that it had been torn down. He walked across the path to the river side and found some insects there, which soon got switched for a bug he found on some flowers. We came across the small zoo and watched the deer eating. August was startled by a pigeon that got close to us, then started a game first of trying to touch the pigeon (we couldn’t), then simply following it around the park. He did that for a few minutes, then we went over to where the aviary had been. It too is gone.
He decided he was done, but I suggested we go see the lake. He liked the idea of water bugs, so we walked over to it, to where there is a cement walkway along the edge, but no railing. He chanted, “Don’t jump in the water! Definitely a safety hazard!” He found a dry palm leaf and started playing with it. That lasted at least twenty minutes. He swung it around, then we tried it to see if it would float. He was afraid we’d get in trouble for putting it in the lake. Then we were pushing the end to the bottom to feel how deep it was. Then he was pulling it out and making it rain on the ground. Eventually, we set it sailing across the water and got going.
There were more stops for bugs, first in a big hollow stump, then as we smelled some smelly plants, then on some flowers he liked to smell. I noticed some snails in the middle of the flowers and said, “You have to be careful not to suck a snail in.” He gave me the most unimpressed “Oh, Dada” yet.
As we walked back to the car he asked, “If I found a bag of gold that was worth like 5000 dollars…in an old completely broken down abandoned city?…would you let me keep it?” There were more and more scenarios that were increasingly outrageous. He somehow things that if he found tons of money we would let him but anything he wanted. Not that he has much of an idea of what he would buy.
We left the park at 3:15. He fell asleep from 3:30 to 4:05. I drove into Even Yehuda as we had some shopping to do. I carried him to the fruit store. We had to get stuff for his school party tomorrow: he chose a cantaloupe, bell peppers, and strawberries, and we got bananas for banana bread. And a few things Carly requested. We then walked to the car and dropped things off. The old Sushi Ishimoto building is now a little convenience store, leaning towards just snacks. He commented that it could be goof for his reward sheets. We decided to call it ‘Moto’ as there is no sign up, and for some reason the letters ‘Moto’ are still on the building from ‘Sushi Ishimoto’.
We then went over to the new grocery store, Stop! City. He talked about the plastic bag that carried a lot of weight of the fruits and veggies. He said it was “Pretty darn thin. Ha. Like Gramma says.” He learned the phrase ‘pretty darn’ from her. At the grocery store we got hummus and a couple other things. He helped out, and I let him get a vanilla yogurt. Out on the street he saw an SUV and was looking in the wheel well at all the bolts and the springs.
We were home about 5:10. He had his yogurt, tried out his new toothbrush, and then we figured out how to use the top toy from his Happy Meal. He practiced and started to get it pretty well. Carly got home, and we got him lasagna. He spit out a bite, not liking the texture of the meet. He was hyper with Carly but calmed down for Pippi Longstocking. He asked what ‘Burglar’ meant so that was a word of the day.
He helped me with the banana bread, then had a timeout after he said a mean line from Hilo and knocked things on the floor. From there Carly gave him a bath, then made him oatmeal for dinner. While she made it he was pretending to be sick. When I was the doctor and I accidentally gave him cat medicine he turned into a cat. We played different variations of that until the oatmeal was ready.
We read the first story in the Seuss book from the library. I went up to take a shower and they kept reading the book. I put him to bed. He sang a song about a skyscraper he built that touches space. Then it went to the sun. We did a beetle visualization, and he was finally asleep at 9:30.
He came down at 6:30. I directed him to Carly outside. They came in and cuddled, then he ate oatmeal and watched Berenstain Bears. When he got dressed we put on his watch. He seems a little disappointed, in that it is smaller than mine, and it doesn’t have a stopwatch/timer. We got going, and had a smooth walk to school. Got in a couple minutes before the bus kids, and he went right to talking to the teachers, and showed off his watch. They were switching things up, and were going to start outside in the morning.
I went home and worked, then needed to run and get cash before going back to school. I rode up into town, went to the ATM, and then to school. I finished listening to Home Deus along the way and got to school a little early.
I did some typing in the breezeway, then as I went to walk to the preschool Marion and August came out of the preschool. August ran off a bit and I had to catch him. When I caught up we sat down and he told me there’d been a good half of the day and a bad half. When we went back Marion confirmed as much. He had been great through the morning. Part of it had been for planning his birthday. He stayed consistent on the kind of cake and the healthy snacks for Wednesday.
As we got ready to leave, he asked when he would eat lunch with his class again. That kind of surprised me, as he doesn’t seem ready to spend a longer time. Then, as we walked home I asked why he hit Andrea. He said because he didn’t think I was coming to pick him up. He thought he was staying until the end of the day. I thought maybe I hadn’t made it clear that I’d pick him up at noon. But later, I talked to Andrea and she thought it was because they changed the schedule. I’ve been picking him up when they’re on the playground still. But today they were inside an hour before I got there. So she thought he thought it was later.
We walked home, stopping a few times along the way to look at or discuss things. At home he wanted to catch an insect, but I wanted to hurry in and get him some lunch before 1. He was eating some lasagna and cantaloupe when Shani, the occupational therapist, showed up.
He was excited to see her, and had fun. She had me stay with them and explained things as she went. She started with pencil activities and had him copying shapes, then choosing which shape in a series matched the one at the top of the page. Basic pencil and IQ stuff. She then had him drawing a picture of a person. He then added to it, adding the dad, then putting them both in a dungeon, then adding all sorts of colors to the dungeon picture. She gave him a “magic coin” to hold in his pinkie and ring finger while he wrote, as he was holding the pencil upright, but with all his fingers. She then used two hair bands tied into a figure 8 to wrap around his wrist and help him keep the pencil tilted back. She called it the “magic bracelet.” She next had him completing dot patterns that had him draw lines between them, then had him cut the shapes out with scissors.
She then had colorful hair band sort of things and images on cards with the different colored bands on different fingers. She held up her hand and asked him to match the pattern. He did that, as long as he could be creative and make his own creation on his hand when he was done.
Finally, she had a game involving magnetic circles with shapes and colors on them. It was called ‘Clack clack’ in Hebrew. You rolled two dice and then picked up the circles that had pictures that matched. August liked the magnets, but when he found out it was a winning game he said he wasn’t playing.
So, her big recommendation at home at this point is playing winning games with him and modeling them. I told Carly we had to start playing dominoes in the evening. She said that at school she really wants them to have a safe space for him, and she suggested a pair of headphones to block out sound if he needs things quieter.
It went fine overall. Given his problems at school, I was annoyed when she spent the first 20+ minutes on pencil and scissors techniques. He’s picked up holding a pencil upright just fine with Vicky the last couple of months. And I can’t find any set of standards that stress penmanship before kindergarten or first grade. So it seems ridiculous for both Dr. Aviv and her to worry so much about it. Sure, keep working on it at school, but no need for an intervention. I’ll wait for the report, but if we’re (or the insurance company is) paying for sessions with her, I want to make sure time isn’t wasted on handwriting.
August wanted to play one of his games with her. Initially he wanted the shark game, but then he changed his mind and showed her the building set. He had her adding pieces, and she explored what decisions he’d let her make on her own.
We said goodbye to her, then got ready to go back to school for STEM class. We caught a crane fly out on our wall before we got going. We got to STEM class and he took the crane fly in. They read a book called Caps for Sale and then used playdough as a base, stuck spaghetti noodles in it (dry), and tried to build towers with beads and Honey Nut Cheerios. He now wants Honey Nut Cheerios. Andrea said they had an exciting moment when the crane fly got out, but they got it back in.
We then went and hung out in the library. He first played with the Legos by himself for several minutes. He then started playing with the rocking chair. He stacked books and book dividers on it, and put a stool on it. He then pulled over a chair and sat on that. The dots on the stool were his keyboard buttons, and everything else was part of a big music machine. This occupied him for quite awhile. I found five books for us to check out: two Elephant and Piggie books, Short Stories for Little Monsters by Marie-Louise Gay, Seuss’s Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories, and The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo by Judy Blume (since he’d liked Freckle Juice).
When he was ready to go I warned Carly we’d be showing up soon. We got to her classroom at 5:10. She got ready to go. Out on the table he spotted a bee that was just sitting there and we caught it. Looked like it was bout to die. On the drive home he started chanting “Tweedle dumb an tweedle dumber”, which is a line from Berenstain Bears.
At home they started to read Pippi Longstocking but didn’t get far as he was being punky. I went up to work. Carly made sushi and they ate that for dinner. When I came down they got a skype call from Andrea and Kayla to wish August a happy birthday. He and I read the Elephant and Piggie books. He laughed hysterically for I Will Take a Nap! and also liked Can I Play Too? Carly took him up for a bath. She was tired, so was going to put him to sleep as well. I left them around 8:30.
During the night he asked for chapstick once. Later, he yelled “Dada!” in his sleep, as if something was wrong. Carly and I were both instantly awake. Carly said it was a bad dream. He repeated “bad dream” and went back to sleep.
He was up at 6:10. I got up at 7. They were working on circuits. We called my parents and they sang him “Happy Birthday”. He wasn’t too impressed with that. He says he doesn’t like the song and won’t allow “that stupid song” at his birthday party. We opened the presents from them and Dee and the Garmin Vevofit jr. watch from us. My parents got him a toy construction set and a different kind of electronics kit. Dee got him a telescope, a rain coat, and shirt. We started by putting together the plastic duck part and making that portion of it (there are 4 basic sections to the whole set).
I made him oatmeal. Carly was making lasagna and he helped test the noodles. We got back to the kit. Another portion has an arm that spins due to a motor. It hits a bell when you touch a wire with a wand. However, August noticed that when it is slow it doesn’t hit. He asked, “Why when the motor is going it rings the bell, but when it’s not it doesn’t?” I asked him why he thought that was, and he said, “Because it stretched out.” We finished the four electric kit parts and Carly finished the lasagna.
He wanted to play with the construction set with her. She asked, “Our own creation?” He replied with, “Nooo, we’re going to follow the instructions.” I went up and took a shower.
August and I then got going on a walk. He found a spider in the book case outside and we had to capture that first. We hurt it a bit though, and on the walk he switched it out for an ant. Before we left he talked about how he was making the Zinnie house off limits to visitors until he had his insect zoo completed. I pointed out he had a week, and we could work on the Zinnie house between now and his birthday. Along the way he asked, “What’s a water pistol?” So that was a word of the day. He also talked about being a bird: “It I was a bird I’d like to eat caterpillars, centipedes, fish, crabs…”
Our main objective on the walk was to get longer nails at the hardware store. We got there at 12:20. He showed me a few things he’s interested in, like a wire brush to go on the drill, but he was fine with just getting nails. I also got a magnetic nail holder that might help avoid hitting his finger. The older guy there gave him some of the bamba (puffed peanut) snack. We then went next door to the fruit and veggie place. We got two boxes of strawberries, and August spotted a cantaloupe so we got that. All quite cheap.
From there it was to VIPizza, where we got three slices of pizza to take home. August wanted to eat there and took some convincing, but he was okay with it. On our walk back we came across a dozen or so mugs that someone was throwing out. He wanted to get some. We ended up with 3: a Praha mug and a flower mug, both of which he chose, and a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves mug from Poland that I liked.
As we walked by the movie theater building he was talking about a.) how big it is and b.) how we only use the grocery store in it. I mentioned we could see a movie there sometime, but then remembered that most of the kids movies are always dubbed. He asked what that meant, so a word of the day. On the way back he sang a really wonderful song about how his cake was going to be yummy, and that it was his birthday. Didn’t manage to get that recorded, really.
We were home at 1:10. Carly showed us the cake, and he added the toppings: the 5 6 and 7 candles, the small sprinkles, the start sprinkles, and then the sprinkles he remembered from “that food party.” It was the container of four different kinds of sprinkles that we had gotten at Ilana’s ‘get rid of your leftovers’ party at the end of last school year.
He let us sing to him (I had lit the candles using the latest lighter that he’s found) and then we ate cake. He was quite happy with it. He quoted a line from Hilo 3: “A wee bit of a nutty, and I like a wee bit of a nutty.” A few times he told her, “Mama, I love the cake you made me.”
He wanted to go to Herzliya Park and catch fish. So we packed up and got going. I read The Witches as we went. He fell asleep right as we got there. We sat in the car and let him sleep for 15 minutes. I carried him to the pond area, and he took a couple minutes of laying on us before he woke up. What did it was me trying to catch fish. I caught two pretty quickly. Carly went and got us cappuccinos. I caught a third fish. We kept hearing frogs talking amongst the bushes. Carly finally spotted one, quite close to us. Carly talked about making disturbances in the water. He asked, “What’s disturbances?” Another word of the day. Carly took over and caught some fish. We were asking if he wanted his hat on. He replied, “I look ridiculous if I have my hat on.” Cary also said something about “chitter chatter” and he liked the phrase.
We left at 4:20. On the way home I read more of The Witches. When I read the line “Laughing their heads off” he said “Hyperbole!” And two more words of the day, ‘gadget’ and ‘carpenter’ as we neared the end.
Soon after we got home we skyped with Chuck and Cherie and opened the presents from them (a tool set, a Shark Attack table game, and three shirts). He modeled the tool belt. Carly then cut up some of the cantaloupe. They watched a video bout cantaloupe. When Carly was concerned that the one we got might to be a good one, she had him practice saying “Better luck next time.” It turned out to be a good one. He talked about the healthy snacks he wanted for his birthday (in addition to the cake the class would be cooking) and he decided on cantaloupe, yellow and red bell pepper (“Like ‘Belle’…from Beauty and the Beast”), strawberries, and banana or zucchini bread (depending on what was ripe).
We ate lasagna for dinner. He had put another one of the juices (sugar waters, as he calls them) from the pizza place in the fridge. I had told him he could have it tomorrow, but when he said he wanted it a minute later he got upset, and spit in my face when I tried to take him upstairs. Carly took him up and gave him a bath. I then went in and we finished reading The Witches. We then finished Hilo 3 and read part of Hilo 4. He also had some Cheerios. Carly took over for a few minutes with him while I got some tea.
I then went in to put him to sleep. We did a fish visualization again. I started to sing to him. He was fine for awhile, but when I started to sing “Puff the Magic Dragon” he requested a different song, as that is the song that Mama always sings. He was acting kind of weird after that. He said a couple times that he was going to Mama. He insisted for awhile that I give him three lollipops, and another time that I give him the sugar water. Twice he got off the bed and curled on the floor when I block his path. I thought he was going to fall asleep there. He climbed back up on the bed though, and he was asleep at 8:45.
