Category: Daily

I think they were up sometime around 6:30. I was up at 7:15. They had finished one Captain Underpants book and bought another. He had gotten a chocolate treat from blowing his nose after he had sneezed like ten times. We’re pretty sure it is all allergy related, as he seems to get worse when we’re out looking for bugs. He’s taking a daily allergy medicine, but might think about talking to a doctor. He also tried out the red telescope, which he or Carly had found last night.

When I came down they were working on a circuit project. I helped him finish it. I’d say he’s doing just fine with the puzzle organizing, when it is something he understands and cares about. He went outside with Carly, and she found him a spiky green caterpillar we’ve never seen. Looking at the tree, he said, “Oh, it’s getting to sap season.” Inside, we looked up the differences between grubs and caterpillars, then finished The Magic Tree House #50. I made him oatmeal, then we were looking for his iPad. When I couldn’t find it, August said, “A witch took it. No, this house is witch free. I killed all the witches.” He was then asking me if there was anything I wanted him to build in his laboratory: “Would you like a mirror that obeys your every command?”

He watched Max and Ruby and I went up and took a shower. When I came down he was bothering Carly with his supposed cuddling and ended up with a timeout. He went out with Carly, and I went out as well. He spotted two dogs out on the street, then a cat in our yard. Carly and I discussed the book she was reading (Haroun). He and I got ready for a walk, and he said, “With my first mate, the spikey caterpillar.”

We didn’t go for a walk though. We hung the piece of art on wood to the right of the door of the Zinnie house and got talking about the house and he liked the idea of making a bug zoo on shelves we would build out of scrap wood. We looked in the house’s junk area, behind the locked gate. He found large snails, and a set of two keys that it turned out were for that gate and the main gate to our house.

On his Zinnie house we decided to take the front board off so it was easier to get in. I started the screws with a screwdriver, then he finished taking them all out with the drill. We measured for shelves: 65cm wide, 120cm tall, 20 to 30 cm deep.

He asked, “What’s a booster rocket?” He thought it was a jet pack like in Pink Panther. He talked about his shipping business: “I’m shipping food glue. It looks like Elmer’s glue, it smells like Elmer’s glue, BUT, on the bottle it says ‘Food Glue’…and when it dries it’s totally invisible… The more ice cream flavors Coca-Cola you put in, the stronger it will be.”

As we measured and found wood to use for shelves, he was talking about one of the tools: “This is pretty handy…’Handy’. I learned that from Grandpa.” He then had the idea to make a welcome sign like from school. We would do this one on wood though and it would go above the door. We got wood and worked on sawing the pieces. He mainly watched me doing it, and was pretty content playing around me for quite awhile.

Inside, Carly cut apples and made peanut butter and honey to dip it in. August kept putting his fingers in it though, and I took him up for a timeout. Wrestling with the pillow and clamming worked, then we did the rocking and a baby fish visualization, with the fish being caught by August. When he was finally able to talk about it, he said he could choose to do the rocking earlier and I should hold him instead of closing the door.

We went back out to the shelves. I had them all cut and was tacking them together. August and I were taking turns with the hammer. He was hammering nails into scrap pieces. He hit his finger and got upset. Carl took him up for another timeout. I finished the shelves for the day and had them up in the Zinnie house. The idea is to get bigger nails to make it more solid, paint them, and then attach them to the wall.

Inside he looked at the grape experiment. I said it hadn’t changed, and used the word ‘stasis’, which he asked about. I made the last of the chocolate pancake batter and he ate two of them.

He and I finally went for a walk at 4:40. We walked our now usual route down to the old highway. He looked out across all of the light poles along the highway and the electric poles and we discussed them. There is a big tower a bit to the south that is definitely a cell tower/other antennas.

We spotted some butterflies, the first of the spring, and caught a skinny green beetle that was missing one antenna and a 7-spotted ladybug. We looked around a bit more, then headed home, and were here at 5:25.

Carly was talking to her parents. August talked to them and we looked up the kind of butterfly we had seen in our new butterfly brochure. Carly then headed to the store, walking, to get a few things. He and I replaced the batteries in the small flashlight, then went out for a walk. He unlocked our gate on his own. We walked up towards town, stopping at that green area along the way. He wanted me to catch a crane fly in the gloaming. I trapped one in the container, only to find that I had caught two of them. That was exciting: “This is a pretty cool find.”

We got home, and he wanted to go back outside to look at the stars with his telescope. I also took the binoculars, and we were looking at the sliver of the moon when Carly got home. Inside, he ate sushi, then Carly read him Captain Underpants. He cuddled with me on the couch, and when he wanted to stop I joked, “That’s the saddest second of the hour.” He liked that phrase and repeated it, then asked what the saddest moment of my life was. I suggested it was when Gramma was really sick. We didn’t get into details, but he asked, “Is that common?”

He was upset about his bath, but we got through washing his hair by listening to the “Murakami” song. He was then hopping on one foot 4 or 5 times per try on the bed. First I’ve seen that. Playing with the pillows he said he was “Holding my rocket boosters.” He then said he wanted me to get him a rocket booster/jetpack.

He built a pillow structure around me. I was patient with it, but after he showed Carly I got out, and he was upset with me for that. Carly came to put him to sleep and I left them at 8:15.

Taking out screws with the drill:

Extra tickly:

Hammering:

Hammering and hitting his finger:

Humming “Beautiful”:

Humming, carrying insects, and steering with his feet:

New song:

He was up at 6:15. He cuddled with Carly and ate oatmeal and watched something. As we got going he played with the front door keys, jingling them over his balance bike and casting a spell. We got walking at 7:33. He released the caterpillar up by the park. The other kids had just gotten there when we arrived, but I was able to talk to Marion and show her the chart we had made last night. We’d forgotten to deliver the hummus first, so I did that and headed home on my bike.

I rode back at noon. They were in the classroom this time, and as I came in I heard Andrea complimenting him on complimenting something that Leonard had built. They had celebrated Leonard’s birthday today. Marion added a few more things to his chart, and was very excited for the day. Of the chart we made she said, “this is gold.” He had used curling up like a clam to calm down a couple times, at least. He’d also been very busy with bugs today, reporting his findings to people, and then asking questions about and hunting for rolly pollies, worms, and beetles. Marion drew a picture of a root beer float and said he definitely deserved it today, and he asked to give him a hug. Ms. Vicky came by and gave him a hug as well.

As we got going, he told me, “I learned something from Ms. Marion…” He said that a cracked egg will bake in the sun. As we were walking, he asked, “How’s a car motor stay on without turning the wheels?” That led to a lot of discussion of motors and gears and clutches.

We got home before 1. We made our root beer floats. He hummed “I Know an Old Woman” and said he remembered it from dance class. He then made his “Rocket Man” yummy noises as he had the root beer float. He concluded the root beer wasn’t sweet enough, so he let me finish that, but be enjoyed the ice cream.

We had some lunch, then got headed back to school at 2, taking the car. We met Carly by the preschool, then joined the big circle for the welcoming project preschool event. August was a bit hyper to start with. They did songs at first. His class listened to/sang a song called “I am the Earth”. Of the songs August complained, “This has nothing to do with tiles.”

But then it was time. PKA went over to the covered portion by the kindergarten. They had their rough drafts they had done on paper, and now had paint to paint on a tile, which would then be glazed. He was very intent on painting it. He said he wasn’t following his plan, but it was based on it. We then had black paint to paint his welcoming word over the background. He initially wanted like a whole sentence. He shortened it to ‘Welcome preschool’. He got the okay from Andrea to do that, and I’m the one that got to paint on all the letters.

Carly had to head back to class to let Alex, who had been covering her class, go and pack up. Everyone else headed out, and we were the only ones left on the playground. Really weird that no one else stayed to play on the playground. August randomly asked, “What’s Shakespeare?” I feel he’s heard the name somewhere, but he couldn’t tell me where. We played around for awhile. He asked, “Are north east south west different than up down left right? Why?” He wandered over to his classroom and gave Marion and Andrea some advice on the classroom as they were deciding what to do for next week. He remembered that there was supposed to be cake and snacks at the welcoming project. Marion told him that the group nearest it had eaten it all. He was upset by this, and still grumpy when Carly showed up a little later.

We drove home. He was outside with Carly for a bit, then I headed upstairs to do some work. They read Captain Underpants. Carly was making sushi when I came down. He was saying that he remembered the reporter in the Captain Underpants book from the previous book they’d read. While he was eating sushi he spit one out and said something mean about it. Carly went upstairs for a break. He finally went up and apologized to her.

He came down and worked on his soup. When he went to the bathroom he had fun peeing on a piece of toilet paper again. While finishing his soup he tried got get the oatmeal out, but dropped it. He helped clean up, then played with the drill.

I had found a Learn Engineering videos bout how a manual transmission works and we watched that:

And then one about how cell phones work:

He had put a toothpick in the drill and was spinning it, but then roughly set it down on me, toothpick first. Carly took him up for a timeout when he wouldn’t clean up and was acting out. He was upset that I wasn’t happy about getting poked. She gave him bath. He came down and had some toast and we read Hilo 3.

I took him up for bed. We did a slug visualization. He asked asked why Carly had taught her students a song about a drill that drills down into the Earth last semester. No idea what he was talking about. I’ll have to ask her. He was asleep by 9:15.

Key music to our alarm:

His electric transmission:

Root beer float:

Light and sound 2:

Painting his welcoming project tile:

Sliding down the stairs on his knees:

Drilling in plastic:

Light and sound 1:

He got up just after 6, a little stuffy. he went downstairs and read Pippi Longstocking with Carly. I made him oatmeal. Carly went to get ready, and he watched Max and Ruby while he ate. We got going right after 7:30. He had a hair clip in on the way to school, but when we got to his classroom it wasn’t in his hair. I asked where it was, and he said he took it out. He said he hadn’t dropped it, but it was nowhere to be found.

I rode home, then picked him up at 12. He ran to me, very excited. He had two red dots, both for knocking things off tables when he was upset.

We walked home. As we got close he asked, “When we move to another country, let’s live in a rich house.” When I asked why, he said, “So I can buy stuff by myself.” When I asked what he wanted to buy, he said maybe another iPad, although he didn’t explain why.

I had brought the bug catcher to him. He had me release the two beetles and their mushrooms in the park. We then walked to where he originally caught the big ant and released it there. He wanted a bee, and we looked around out the flowers. I caught a flying ant instead. He decided that wasn’t too interesting though and let it go after a few minutes.

When we walked in the house it was really quiet, and we noticed how echoey it was. The refrigerator wasn’t making any noise, and we didn’t have the heater on yet. For a second we thought the power was off. I made him a chocolat pancake and we also had corn crisps, pita, and hummus. He realized he could watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving so he did that. He asked “What’s ‘formal’ mean?” So that was a word of the day.

He got bored with that, then he asked me if there was such a thing as internet waves. We looked up wi-fi, and read about how they are radio waves. I then found a chart of the electromagnetic spectrum, and we discussed the chart. I talked about how there are cameras that let you see infrared, and scientists study x-rays and gamma rays with other scientific equipment that shows us those rays. Not missing a beat, August asked how we could see the infrared rays, s if the camera recorded them, they’d still be infrared when they came out of the screen. I thought that was incredibly insightful, because most people would just accept that it happens. So I explained how camera shifts the rays into the visible spectrum so we can see an approximation of what it would look like. We then found this cool video using an infrared camera:

He then jumped from that to asking if the heart runs on electricity and, if so, how does the body make electricity. We watched

Which for us basically said that electricity is produced through a chemical reaction.

We then used the iPad and Apple Pencil to draw a chart of ways that he can respond to frustration. He chose all the colors and brainstormed most of the good and bad reactions. He was pretty excited by it, and the idea that he could choose a different reaction that would get him a green sticker instead of a red.

He then made a “leftover soup”, although we’re running out of things we don’t want, given his prolific soup making of late. But we found enough, and left it for completion in the evening.

On the way to school the song “Murakami” played on one of his playlists. He requested it added to his playlist, then said he wanted to listen to it on the way home.

We walked into the school as Marion was taking kids to the bus. Lydia in particular said hi to him, and August asked, “Why is Judson stylish?” He was wearing sunglasses. Down in the classroom we found Anita and Simone. He was going to swim lessons, and August discussed swim lessons with her for a couple minutes. He claimed he would never take swim lessons. But that he would learn on his own when the temperature was warmer.

We found Eve and her mom, and we took Eve out to the playground. Taya came out with us for a few minutes, as Cassie needed to meet with the teachers, but Taya snuck back in and went to Cassie. August and Eve were playing in the swings, and gust was running around, and carried a chair to the boat thing and filled it full of chairs. Taya came back out as they were undoing and doing knots. Cassie came out and got Taya and they left, and August and Eve ended up down in the kitchen area. Eve was pretending that rocks were treasures, and he kept telling her they weren’t until I said, “Use your imagination.” He replied, “Oh. Imagination. I thought they were real.”

They were doing a lot of climbing on the kitchen stuff and shelves. August was trying to keep up with Eve. We then headed to the bigger playground. There, they kept up the climbing thing, and each of them kept telling me to look to see the next thing they were doing. I was trying to read, and told them they were supposed to be playing with each other, not impressing me with their climbing.

We headed to the auditorium and checked in with Heather. She was hanging art, and August got a couple of sticky things from her, which he then put on a tree outside. We had a few minutes, so we walked over to the nature reserve. we used the bug catcher and caught a tadpole and they looked at it together. We released it, and I think got a caterpillar to take. August was doing a great job sharing the bug catcher with Eve, although I could tell he was anxious about it. I could tell, and when she wanted to carry it on the way back I reminded him she’d be leaving in a minute and she wouldn’t take it with her.

We said goodbye, then he wanted to go back to the nature reserve. We did, and caught three tadpoles this time. We released them, caught something else, I think, and headed to Carly’s classroom just before 5. I can’t remember what he was talking about, but he asked, “Why are we not so impressed now?” Meaning we had been surprised by something the first time we saw it, but then it gets less exciting when you see it again and again.

As we got in the car he asked Carly, “When you retire, can me and dada go with you?” We didn’t know what he was talking about and asked. He pointed at the retirement home and said, “The retirement home.” So adorable.

We got home and Carly was going to make tempura. But she realized the soda water was just a bottle that we had refilled with tap water. So I quickly drove up into town and grabbed soda water and a couple of other things at the grocery store. Came back, and August ate some leftover sushi, then the tempura when it was ready. We read a couple chapters of The Witches. He then wanted Iggy Peck, Architect, but I said we could wait and check it out from the library.

When I said it was time to go take a bath he instantly got frustrated. We sat together and looked at the printed out version of the chart we made. He added ‘be a clam’ to it, by which he means curling up, his head down and his back up. Thought that was a great one, and he said he likes that. He was then able to do that, then after a minute offered a compromise, which is also on the good side of the list. He wanted to do an imagining game first. It was the one where he cooks the saber tooth tiger into a stew. He then picked every kind of veggie he could think of to put in the stew.

As he sat on the toilet he put toilet paper on the seat so he could drip his last drops of pee onto it. He said, “Dada, come! Look at my genius invention.” When he got off the toilet he said, “My foot is tickly.” His foot had fallen asleep. He compared it to “when we first came to Israel and I put my foot on that.” He pointed to the round plastic cover by the toilet. The incident he was remembering actually took place downstairs, and he claimed he had been shocked when he stepped on the plastic access cover. It has never happened again, although he told me he intentionally avoids it. Very odd.

Carly came up and took over after he brushed his teeth. I left them at 8:30.

Carly had talked to Vicky today. She said that August had announced “I’m leaving now” a couple minutes into literacy group. She told him her attention would stay here at the table. He left, but was soon back. They think a lot of his current behavior (knocking stuff off of tables) is an attempt to get more teacher attention, which is what he really wants.

Taking a chair to the boat:

Knots:

Running to the nature reserve:

Tadpoles:

Releasing the tadpoles:

I am… song:

Full outfit:

Carly woke him up. He finished watching the Wallace and Gromit movie. As we got ready to go he was playing with the walking stick from Korea and asked, “Did you lie to me? Is this really a gun?” I said it wasn’t, of course, but that led to a line of questioning about whether you can take guns on airplanes. He knows, from experience, that we always have to dump out liquids on planes. We got going right at 7:30. As we left, he looked at the little library and said, “Dada, you red to put this outside. No one’s gonna ask for a book if it’s in the yard…set a reminder.” I told him we need to discuss it with mama. He told me to set a reminder.

Nice and early to school and I was able to say good bye and leave. When I came back I was a bit early and watched them playing on the playground. Lydia spotted me, and August came running over. He then told me to watch from the grass while he kept playing. He and other kids were having fun chasing Nancy, the substitute teacher, around. And at one point Vicky had him come over to me and tell me how he had done a good job of calming down fast today. He had three red stickers though.

We left when they took the class in for meeting. I then realized we needed a note for guards in order to leave. We went back down and sat on the bench for a few minutes, then went inside. August went right to the cupboard where he knew the sheets were. I filled one out, and Andrea signed it for us.

We came home, and I heated the rest of the tempura veggies and he ate them with sweet and sour sauce. And we made a mango and strawberry smoothie. He then climbed on my lap and cuddled at the table while we listened to Stehen Malkmus. He seemed to be a bit cold and covered himself with my sweatshirt.

We went and read Treasure Island and finished it. We discussed the word ‘sincere’ and that was a word of the day.

It was library time today, so we drove back to school. When we got to the school they were still over at the playground. Lydia spotted him and came running, yelling “August! Come, come!” and pulling him by the hand. A great greeting. They brought the class in. I tried to put his hair clip in, but Lydia saw me doing it and asked why a boy had a hair clip, and August took it out, saying he didn’t want to wear it.

He sat with them for the brief meeting before going to library time. Andrea gave them a wink when they were looking at her, and when August got his wink he told me, “I got the wink!”

We went up to library time. Back to the usual routine. She read Green Eggs and Ham. One boy punched another in the stomach and I had to take them to the teachers. Then I had to escort a couple of students to the bathroom. He checked out a Captain America Golden Book. As we were getting going I told Andrea how he was on the superhero bandwagon now, and that it wasn’t my favorite bandwagon.

When school was over we went back in the library and played with the Legos. He wanted to look for the steering wheels. Think we found six. As we looked we made an abstract sculpture. We went to the bathroom once, and when we came back the WBAIS robotics team was about to start a round of their competition, which was streaming on a TV in the library. So we watched that. August didn’t like it: “I hate it becuase everyone was acting like they were a part of the game.” Basically he didn’t like the cheering and excitement. We went back to the Legos. He saw Amelie and Jill playing the shooting game on the computer. He talked to them, and they were calling each other “nubby” etc. He then watched them playing for awhile. Interesting to see Amelie in particular interacting with her friends, as she’s quite different than when she is calmly playing on the computer around her mom in the preschool.

We watched another round of the robotics competition. August watched as well. They won both, and later would end up winning the competition, their first win.

Thunder was starting, and then rain. We went to Carly, and it was raining a bit as we left. Packages had arrived from my parents and Cherie. After putting on our raincoats we headed to the car and were home after 4.

We had hummus and pit and crackers and Carly made sushi. August told her, “Mama, you make better sushi than the shrimp place does.” He meant Sushi Ishimoto. We ate, and he was then asking about lightning, and it hitting the house. I used the word ‘disperse’ and we discussed its meaning, so a word of the day.

We started reading King of the Sky but didn’t make it far, as we got talking about Korea, although I don’t remember why. But Carly asked him if he remembered Teuni Teuni and the teacher. He said he remembered them and specifically said he remembered climbing on things. We were then looking at photos and videos.

He then picked up the apple he had made into a sculpture at home yesterday, took out the toothpicks, and started chomping into it. He’s never done that before. He was really excited about it, and went up to show Carly what he was doing. He said it was better than slicing up the apple.

Back downstairs we made popcorn and watched two of the Hilda episodes we’ve already seen. He didn’t want to watch the last episode yet. Carly came down and we did a little role playing, with her being Andrea, saying she couldn’t look for bugs with him right now, and him responding appropriately.

He then suddenly started looking under the couch and came up with a puzzle piece. He said that Ms. Deborah had asked him to look for it. He was very happy about finding it, and we took a photo and sent it to her. Carly took him upstairs to wrestle. I did dishes. She gave him a bath and he played in the sink. Deborah wrote back, and he was happy about that.

He was randomly saying “Pieces of eight, pieces of eight” like the parrot in Treasure Island. Still early for sleeping, so he said, “Let’s do a visualization with the light on. But don’t expect me to calm down or go to sleep cuz this is just for funsies.” So we did a worm visualization, which was tricky because of the lack of visualizing. We had to imagine feelings and sounds. We then did some wrestling and the food game. He needed Cheerios, so we got some, and he said he wanted to go to the library in town again. I looked up the hours, and remember why we don’t. The only couple of days they are open in the afternoon they don’t open until 4.

Carly came in and we got him ready for bed. He brushed his teeth and I left them at 8:35.

On the playground with the preschool:

Watching the robotics competition:

Watching the girls play on the computers:

Walking through the rain:

Eating the apple:

An unfortunate song:

Oh my, quite a night. August seemed to sleep fine, but I didn’t. He kept turning sideways and kicking me in the head. Three times. Another time he hit me in the head. I remember reflexively hitting his arm off my head. He slept on. Either he put his hand back on my head, or did that later and just kept it there. He then woke up a little after 6:30, I think when Carly was about to go wake him up.

They came down and cuddled. He was in no hurry to watch or eat anything. He told Carly not to go to work. She eventually got going and he sat there for another minute or two, then eventually got up to eat his oatmeal. After awhile he asked to watch something and he chose a Hilda episode we’ve already seen, about the lost village of elves.

We were walking right at 7:30. It was supposed to lightly rain today, but there had been a big downpour about 6:15. Carly had braved it and walked. It looked decent enough so we walked as well. Went fine for us as well.

We were the first ones in the classroom. Andrea greeted us. I put his stuff away and told him I was going to leave. Andrea went and talked to him. She had a list of what was happening today and talked to him about checking them off as they went through the day. Don’t know if she came up with this on her own, or if Vicky had forwarded Deborah’s report to them, in which she suggested visuals for showing him the schedule and teaching the transitions. I was happy to see that in the report, as it is something we’ve been missing and asking for all year. The visual schedule really helped in PKB. But now he asked her, “I don’t really need that, so why did you come up with that?” I didn’t hear a full answer, but hopefully she was eventually directly with him, and talked about how he was having troubles at transitions, and they need to figure out how he can do them better.

I was able to leave the classroom before 8. I went home and worked, then came back to pick him up. I found him out on the bench with Marion. He had had trouble in mindfulness, and ended up downstairs with Andrea and Marion. He was sort of stewing for awhile, it sounds like, then was able to have fun with them and was happily talking to Marion about things while sitting on the bench. It had been a rough day overall, but he was calming down quickly each time. So that was the positive.

While he went to STEM class, I went and talked to Vicky, I suggested he shouldn’t be going to school right now, and we decided on half days, with me picking him up at noon. In STEM class I think they read Iggy Peck Architect (Andrea also mentioned, later, something about a book about someone building things out of pancakes) and were then making things out of sliced apples. August didn’t want his sliced, and instead made a creature of some sort. He later told me it was in the middle of being abstract, as you could see legs and other features. At the end of class August was then tying strings onto the shelves and chairs again, making a spider web like last week.

We then walked home. At home, August got another apple and did another apple sculpture. He then wanted to catch crane flys so we went for a walk. Got as far as crossing the street. First found a daddy long legs and caught that, then let it go and we watched it run. Then a crane fly. We went back to the house and Carly got home.

They went out and picked the first full-sized broccoli, growing up in the window planters. August bit right into it and started explaining how it tasted different “more spicy.” He ate quite a bit and gave each of us some to taste. They then came in and cooked it and she made him a pancake for dinner. He spent a long time in the bathroom, which meant a lot of talking to us. He now tells us, mainly Carly, “You’re the second best thing.” Sometimes I’m tied for second, other times I’m just third. He’s the first best thing, apparently.

He and I read Treasure Island. ‘Rations’ and ‘peckish’ were words of the day. A bit of a rough spot as he had a small timeout for touching Carly when she didn’t want to be touched, then downstairs I was talking about his day with him and he reached out and ripped the paper we were looking at.

Carly took him up for a bath, then they read Captain Underpants. I came up and he brushed his own teeth again with the fluoride toothpaste. As I put him to sleep we did a lizard visualization, then had a good discussion about growth mindset. As he was falling asleep, he said he had one more thing to tell me. He said he didn’t need the Lunch Robot notes in his lunch any more as he eats his lunch now and he hasn’t been reading them. He was afraid that I would think that he was saying he hated the notes. I assured him I didn’t, and that I really liked how he was able to explain that to me. He was asleep around 9.

Apple creature:

Tasting the fresh broccoli:

He crawled out of the covers and halfway across the bed. I found him using my knee as a pillow. Straightened him out and he slept close the rest of the night. When my alarm went off at 6:30 I found him using my shoulder as a pillow. I got him off, but he woke up a couple minutes later. I took awhile to come down, and when I did he was eating oatmeal and watching Max and Ruby: the one where they meet the queen.

He went and found Carly, then they went and played with the Legos and circuits. He explained all about the creation we had made yesterday and how it is connected to Siri. They then took that all apart and were going to make something new. He then made his first circuit all on his own that worked. He was then talking about how he’s invented 1000s of things and knew everything, but it would be hard for Carly. Carly told him he sounded a little arrogant, so he asked what that meant. An early word of the day.

August wanted to find insects, so I took him out for a walk at 9:20. He took us north, straight up towards town. We stopped at the little park-ish area to the right, on a hill, and looked for insects. He found one unidentified little insect and we caught that. He then picked some leaves to put in with it and we found two more insects of different species on the leaves. So three interesting insects, just like that.

He kept heading north to town and we were almost there when he decided he wanted to go to where the baby caterpillars were. Which was the exact opposite direction. So we turned around and headed south. Along the way we discussed things like small cars, whether subs could go to the bottom of the ocean, and why cars can go slow. We talked about car racing and how they control the cars, and I suggested he could try out a go cart sometime. He said, “Never ever, ever, ever…” with about 30 ‘ever’s. He released the three insects at some point, and replaced it with a big crane fly. We got back to the baby caterpillar area and spent a lot of time looking at insects. We sat on the sidewalk and could see all sorts of things now: ants carrying different things, caterpillars crawling up plants, lady bugs, etc. August squished a caterpillar on purpose and I said that was the end. We discussed the difference between doing it on accident and on purpose.

At home we got out the microscope and looked at the insects he’d brought home. Then switched to the macro lens and realized that worked quite well. He got into taking photos around the house, and when Carly called (she had gone to the store and to run errands while we were gone) he took a phone call from her. To eat I served up noodles and sauce and water drink. He ate a couple plain noodles, but didn’t touch the dish.

We ended up talking about the brain, and I reminded him of how I used to teach him about brain development by explaining how babies/kids eventually learn to use a toilet. He had me run through that script several times.

Carly got home at 11:45. Candy’s mom, Vicky, had said they were available to come play, and it turns out that they live in Even Yehuda. So they came over at 12:15. They got here as August and I were taking the insects over across the street to let them go. So they walked over with us, then Candy and August immediately found a couple more bugs to catch.

They played inside a little, then were out in the yard for a few minutes. I then took the two of them up to the park to look for more insects. Carly and Vicky stayed at the house. They ran around, then went in the swings. They played on the play equipment for a few minutes, then spent most of their time over on the exercise equipment, trying everything out.

August had me catch a bee. We went back to the house at 1:20. Inside for a bit, then I went out in the yard with them. I was able to do some reading while they played and went in the Zinnie house. They pretended I was a bear or monster and did a lot of screaming out of the Zinnie house. We let the bee go on the plant.

Inside, Carly made them each a chocolate pancake, and they had juice boxes that Candy and Vicky had brought. They got going at 2:30 to go to a horse riding lesson.

August told Carly, “You’re the best mama ever…you do everything I say.” August wanted to make a frozen treat, so he got a plastic container and mixed milk, chocolate, and honey. this morning he had put water in a cup with spoons and made a frozen sort of sculpture.

He then remembered the silkworm game, where I was a person building my silk business, and he was the silkworms. from several months ago, but he had us go through the whole story again after making an enclosure out of the chairs and pillows. A few times he said, “I’m gonna search on my mobile network.” He also said “I can do this all day” a few times, which was from when Siri randomly told us a tongue twister.

We switched to the squirrel game. Carly found a caterpillar on her flip flop outside. Don’t think it was from August, but Carly wasn’t so sure. He wanted to go get more caterpillars. The sun came out and Carly loved it, but August wasn’t impressed.

We got walking at 3:50. We walked over towards the bridge, then our long route. He knew exactly where we were going, to the old highway area. As we walked he asked, “Why don’t I see round bee hives?” Good question, as we see bees all the time, but we’ve never seen their nests. Told him we’d have to look for them.

We had a great time looking at the plants and insects. We are seeing more and more. I got a great video of a caterpillar crawling down a plant, and we saw ants carrying different things. August noticed how one plant really collected water droplets in its folded leaves. We caught caterpillars, then a bee. But in the end we had a black beetle and a couple of other bugs. He also was very intrigued by a hole in the ground he saw back in the bushes, speculating there might be snakes in it. As we left he asked, “Did you like how I was looking closely? Did you like how I was really focused on collecting animals?”

We got back a little before 5. We showed Carly the insects, video, and photos. Randomly, he asked, “What are suction cups?” I couldn’t think of any in the house to show him, but as I described them he remembered the ones in the car in the United States on that window shade we hang up for him. Later, he would tell me that his toothbrush has a suction cup on it.

Read some Sisters (volume 3) in the squirrel nest. Carly cooked an artichoke and the two of them ate it together. August said, “I can’t believe dada doesn’t want to eat this yummy artichoke.”

We then did a movie and popcorn. We watched about 2/3rds of Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. He remembered his frozen treat, so I let him eat part of that. He then released the other insects but held onto the beetle. We fed it a small chunk of mushroom and a broccoli leaf.

Carly took him up for his bath, then I read him some more Sisters on the bed. August found an orange under the upstairs couch. It had rolled back there and made a moldy mess on the rug. Carly came in, and I left them at 8:30.

Yep song:

The crane fly through the microscope:

August and Candy 1:

August and Candy 2 – slide:

August and Candy 3 – swings:

August and Candy 4 – monster game:

Any carrying something:

Caterpillar crawling down a plant:

Eating artichoke:

He woke up at 6:10. They let me sleep an hour longer. When I was up, August came running up to show me a big flying “spider” that they caught. Actually more like what we would call a mosquito eater. They had been plying with the electricity kit as well. And he’d had oatmeal and watched something. When I came down they started reading Pippi Longstocking. “Unless you put them in my mushroom machine that makes wild mushrooms okay to eat…spins at the speed of light and a chemical goes through a giant poop tube…” She taught him what ‘precipice’ meant so that was a word of the day.

He was getting really hyper, so Carly went outside. He went with her for a second but came right back. He asked me for a ginger snap, so I delivered his vitamins to him on a ginger snap. He came and sat on the couch quietly for awhile, then asked, “Why does humans have shoes?” “Would eagles’ feet be strong enough to poke through the roof of our house?”

He was looking at his insect, and asked what it ate. We looked it up, and I remembered it is a crane fly. He was surprised to find that some of them don’t eat anything as an adult, and they definitely don’t eat mosquitoes. He went out and put some leaves in it. He then started telling me about his insect machine, which killed and cooked insects so that you could eat them. The machine could actually turn them into anything you want, including treats and cakes and pies.

We read more of the Disney version of Treasure Island. He asked if islands were as big as countries. We looked at them on Google Maps and looked at Madagascar, New Zealand, Australia, and others. I taught him ‘archipelago’ as another word of the day.

He went upstairs with Carly to wrestle for a couple minutes, and came down with my keyboard, and said that when it stops working he wants us to take it apart. I told him I hoped that would be a long time. He wanted me to hook the keyboard up to Carly’s computer, so I did, and he did his satellite work. I asked what his satellites were doing, and he said they were detecting “rivers, ponds, streams, oceans…everything that includes water.” And measuring things about them, like their size and how loud they are. “My robot mom takes a day to type a very long document. It takes me minutes.”

I went up and took a shower, and when I came out he came up, showing me his funny outfit. He had put his shirt on as pants, with his feet coming out of the sleeves. He wanted a belt to hold it up. He then put a pair of pajama pants on as a hat and did a funny not-safe-for-YouTube dance. He then found a pair of Carly’s socks and put them on all by himself. When I pointed out that he had put socks on all on his own, he said he can only put socks on when there isn’t a reason.

I then got him going for a walk. Got him dressed, then he asked for his shirt. I pointed out that he already had it on, and he said, “THAT’S Why I didn’t feel a breeze.” August and I got going on a walk at 10:20, and Carly headed to the store. He spotted several crane flies and asked, “Why do I see crane flies everywhere?” We talked about ‘psychology’ (word of the day) and how you notice patterns once you know they exist, but also the biological reason in that they might be hatching now.

We walked north and around, coming back along the Holly block. We found a spider and crane fly and caught them. He chose to take the ‘long route’ down by the old high way. He stopped when he noticed an odd antenna/box on top of a pole at the edge of the empty field and we speculated what it was. We stopped in our now usual spot for insect catching, and he was catching caterpillars. Then he found a nest of baby caterpillars and had no qualms in reaching into the sticky nest to get them.

We got walking, and stopped by the little park to eat a bar. We then walked over towards the big flag. Our first goal on this walk was to find things to take apart, although I wasn’t expecting to find anything. No luck at the garbage spot over that direction, so we headed home. We were home at 11:45 or so.

On the couch I was messaging Simone’s mom and Candy’s mom about play dates. August was bothering me and made it clear he wanted my “Full attention”. I got us noodles to eat. He spilled some water drink on his pants and was takign them off as Carly got home and brought in the groceries. August wanted to try the seaweed snack, and ate a whole packet. Then ate his lunch. Did a good job of that, so I let him have some of the last lemon cake. A little dry, but still good. He finished off the cake, and asked “What’s an invertebrate?”

Not sure which of us brought up the subject, but he said, “I’m not getting a job when I’m an adult because I already have one: making inventions, doing electrical work, satellite work…” Carly was getting stuffy, and felt like a walk would help, so she went out for a walk. He made a spicy soup, but made it clear he wouldn’t add clove this time. Randomly, Siri told us a tongue twister: “Cats and boots and cats and boots and…” She said “I could do this all day”—a phrase that August picked up on and repeated a few times later. Not sure WHY she said a tongue twister, and when I tried different commands later it seemed like Siri didn’t know what a tongue twister is.

August asked about gunpowder, which one of the characters puts in their tea in Treasure Island. I looked it up, and told him how gunpowder actually started as a medicinal thing. Carly got home, and he had more of the seaweed snack. I had him practicing saying ‘Hilo’ to work on the ‘l’ sound, then he asked, “Could you not interrupt me from my seaweed?”

I went upstairs to do some work, and they went out to plant tomatoes. Carly wasn’t happy when he picked a bunch of the flowers to put in his spicy soup. Inside, they watched their usual documentary and had popcorn. They learned about weasels and how they kill voles and use their fur as a blanket. They made a weasal cave out of the chairs and pillows and blankets.

I then read a chapter of The Witches, then we went and ended up combining the circuits kit and Legos. Made quite a mixed structure. He then went over to Carly as she was making tempura. Ate some of that. Deborah had asked when August had stopped bottle feeding, then Megan, in India, asked about the same thing. So I was gong through our past photos and journal and found that the last evidence we have of him using a bottle was April 17, 2015. I also found a photo of my old tea infuser, the one with a polar bear on top. August said, nicely, “I can make you one of those in my laboratory” Then added, “if you pay me.” He was then charging us for other things. 90 dollars for an artificial sun for Carly. He said, “You’re pushing it, bub.” for something. And he requested his payments through the internet, so I was paying him through PayPal.

We added more to the Lego and circuits structure. His left hand was getting dry again, so we put on more lotion. Carly made new sushi. Had crab in it, which Carly had found. Another kind had tempura. August said, “It’s the best sushi ever. Really; the best.” He was making yummy noises, which I realized were to the tune of “Rocket Man”.

I tried to get him interested in a puzzle. No luck. He instead made a mango, sugar, and honey drink and put three straws in it so we could all try it. We then went upstairs to wrestle. We developed a game where I catch an invisible elf or sprite or fairy or whatever in my hands and he pulled my fingers apart to let it go and capture it himself. We had started this downstairs earlier.

We went downstairs so I could have more sushi. He decided to take apart the magnet writing board from Korea. He then taped a bag of prices from the light fixture we took apart to it. As we did that, he said, “Dada, it’s really good I grew up to be a person in Israel; and not a Buddhist monk. I’d hate being a Buddhist monk.”

We watched the Nisse episode of Hilda and ate the last of the gingersnaps. Took him up and washed his hair. No lollipop, and he whined more than the last several times, but not nearly as bad as it used to be. In bed we read another chapter of The Witches, then had the lights off. We did a grasshopper visualization, imagining the jumping and getting caught. He pulled the covers up over most of his body and eventually fell asleep that way. I was falling asleep as well. As usual, he had one last thing to say before he fell asleep, and he woke me up to ask if we needed a small or big ax to cut things down, like he’d seen at the hardware store. He was asleep at 8:55.

Baby caterpillars – time to giddy up:

Magic insect cooking machine:

Lots of syrup in his soup:

Singing and wires:

Legos and wires and singing:

Another song:

A dance before bed:

He cuddled a lot with me last night. As soon as I got into bed he had his feet shoved into my side. I realized his pajama pants were pulled up to his knees. I pulled them down and straightened him out, and he huddled close to me the rest of the night. Carly got him up before she went to work. He had oatmeal and watched something, and we got walking. He hadn’t wanted to get going early enough so that we could play in the library, but when we got to school he was upset that we couldn’t go to the library. And he said he didn’t want to deliver the hummus, even though he’d talked about wanting to get the sticker.

So after a grumpy minute at the top of the stairs we went down to his class. Andrea was back. She has been sick. He wasn’t really in a talking mood, but went and joined them at the meeting.

I rode home, worked, and rode back before 12. I caught up to the class as they were walking down the stairs. They had just gone to the K-2 assembly. August had 2 red dots, but he said they were pretty minor ones. He had a lot of green ones, and Andrea added a couple more for how well he did at the assembly. She confirmed that the red dots were pretty minor, in that they kind of tried to not engage with him, and he calmed down quickly. The second incident had him trying to destroy something, and Marion told him to leave the area so he could calm down.

He showed me an art thing he’d made, involving sort of doing paper mache with tissue paper onto wood. He said it is called ‘modge pudge”, which isn’t a term I’ve heard before.

We had planned on going to the library to play with the Library Tech Week toys. But he changed his mind and said he wanted to go collect caterpillars in the nature reserve. And I had thought we could get lunch in the cafeteria, but he said no to that as well, wanting to go straight to the nature reserve.

But first, as we went up the stairs, we saw Judson’s mom and his 2nd grade sister, Ayla. We’ve talked to her a little before, but I don’t remember where. But she knew who August was, and immediately started to tell us that August is annoying Jurdon by being a robot. She said she wanted to have a talk with August, and asked if she could do that now. So at the top of the stairs I kneeled down so August and I were both at her level. She explained that she thinks that August is trying to be Judson’s friend but doesn’t know how to. She said it was like her friend Evan in the United States who was doing annoying things to get her attention at first. She was amazingly well-spoken for a second grader, and I agreed with her, and told her that August was still learning about how to be friends with people. She was wearing a bird hat and told me that she had been in the play.

We headed over to the nature reserve and found a lot of caterpillars. While we were there he randomly said, “The worst pizza I’ve ever had was in Markenborks. 90 million light years away, but only a million light years away from my planet…becuase it tasted like poop…from a human.” We then headed to Carly’s classroom and he said hi to her and showed her the caterpillars.

She had to head to her meeting. We were going to head home, but by the middle school office August ran into Candy and two other kids I don’t know. They started looking at caterpillars together. August dumped out all of his caterpillars when he found another bug for me to catch. I did that, but then all of them started gong around for 10 minutes or so catching more caterpillars.

We headed home about 1:15. He dumped the caterpillars out along the way. He told me at one point, “That kind of ant I’m chasing is called a trophis any.”

Our lunch plans kept changing. August suggested going for pizza. The first plan was to walk home and get in the car and drive up to see if VIPizza is open, and if not go to Pizza Hut in the mall. But then he decided we should just go straight to the mall. But then he remembered that someone had given Carly a light fixture for him to take apart. I had it in the bag and he wanted to take it apart first.

So at home we took that apart. Kind of the perfect size of project, as he could do it mostly by himself. I was hungry, and was snacking. He chastised me, “Dada, don’t waste time snacking on cinnamon and coconut chips when you have this whole thing to take apart.”

He ate the last of Carly’s sushi for lunch and we had water drink. We then had a ginger snap and watched an episode of Hilda. This was a consolation reward, as the full reward was supposed to be a handful of ginger snaps and a long movie (he had requested a long one).

He was still hungry so had oatmeal, then more. He wanted a new iPad app, and I had actually meant to add a moth mystery app I’d read about today. He wasn’t interested in that, so we ended downloading a DJing app instead. So ‘DJ’ was a word of the day. We then got the new version of Brian Enzo’s Bloom app and played with that. It has 10 different scenes, and I talked about how they looked different to “reflect” the music. He asked what that meant, so another word of the day.

Carly stayed at work until around 5. So I started on making dinner before she was home. August grumbled a bit about me not playing with him, but he did okay. He went to the bathroom and started giggling. He had the toilet lid fall down on the back of him, and it was tickling his neck. I got him involved by having him use the food processor to slice the mushrooms and grate the cheese. We made pasta with a cream sauce and asparagus and mushrooms.

Carly got home, and August made a spicy soup. He had fun making it, then I was upstairs when I heard him getting upset. He had put a lot of cloves in it, and when it was cooking he really didn’t like the smell. So I had him come upstairs to escape the smell and we wrestled on the bed. He’s really getting stronger, and I talked to him about how he’s at the point where he has to think about not being too rough.

We went downstairs and Carly went up to take a shower. He had totally rearranged the kitchen rug and the dining room chairs, tipping a couple over, when I was cooking earlier. He was now doing tricks, climbing over the middle of a chair that was on its back and hanging, parallel bars style, from the legs. He told me to watch, but this time he fell backwards while climbing up. Didn’t hit too hard though.

I took him upstairs and he made a potion, then I washed him and got him ready for bed. Carly was ready for bed and put him to sleep. I left them at 8:15. I still heard a lot of laughing a bit after 8:30.

Caterpillars cannot fail me now:

Catching caterpillars with Candy:

Crawly caterpillars:

Tune he wanted to record:

New Bloom app:

DJing and singing:

He woke up a couple of times between 5 or 5:30. He was stuffy, and lay back down on me and would sleep for a little longer before sitting up again. After a couple times adjusting on me he crawled off the bed and down to Carly and fell back asleep until Carly woke him up before 6:50. He had oatmeal and watched part of a Shaun the Sheep, then we got going.

We drove to school. We walked in together and Carly headed to her classroom. It was about 7:30, so we went to the library. Looked at the art in the entryway again, then at the free books. August remembered he wanted to get another book that he could write in and take apart. We went in the library and over to the left, where he found an electronics set like his (different set from the same company). We played with that for a few minutes. He wandered out of the library and enjoyed the wind coming in through the automatic doors when someone walked in or out.

He wandered back into the library and to the kids room. There, he found a lot more toys to play with, including the big box of Lego Technix. He found a claw machine that someone else had made, and quietly and happily added to it for 10 minutes or so. On his own, he then took it over to the shelves, where he knows other kids sometimes put their creations to try and save them, and was ready to leave.

We walked to his classroom and looked at the schedule and talked a little about the day, kind of like we used to. We’ve all realized that transitions are his hardest moments, and he complained last night about the teachers making him do things. Maybe understanding the schedule better will help him feel more in control.

I also reminded him of the pillow and had him squeeze it for a minute. We then put it in his box and he calmly walked over and sat next to Marion for the meeting. Didn’t see another teacher yet. I left, but came back in a second later to leave his raincoat in his cubby. I heard Marion telling someone it wasn’t polite to make up words to the song “we’re all trying to sing together”. She wasn’t talking to August, thankfully, but then I heard him say “Well, not me.” Indeed, as they started singing it again he sat there, not doing the hand movements. Couldn’t tell if he was singing along or not.

I walked home. Got lucky in that I didn’t get poured on. It had really poured for a minute before we drove to school. Finished all the work I can do on the website until they give me more to do.

In the afternoon I rode my bike up into town to get cash at the ATM. I stopped at VIPizza to get one of those calzone things with egg in it and took it with me to the school. I went by the preschool and saw August playing outside, then went to the auditorium and ate. I had a few minutes and sat in the library. I got the info on the house to rent in Even Yehuda and forwarded it to Ada.

I went down to pick him up. Just Marion again, although Minnie was taking the kids to the bus. Marion was looking at August’s sheet. All green stickers, but she said it had been a rough day; all of the difficult moments had occurred with other teachers. The only solid example was running into the classroom and hiding under the table. August came and said “A lot of little problems…no crying.” Later, he would tell me and Carly that he had run away from Ms. Michele when they were learning about the welcoming project. They were just looking at examples of things they could do, and he ran away because he was bored. He went under the table to ovoid getting in trouble. So, difficult to classify the day. No mentions of hitting or spitting, and it sounds like the issue of boredom might be coming through. Marion said that there was a problem every time they tried to get him to move to something new. And she said the whole morning went just fine up until 11:30 or so.

I was helping Marion clean up the big mess that was the colors area. August didn’t want to help, but it sounded like he was a reason for it. When Marion found all of the missing stuff in a big garbage bag in the atelier it looked like it was an adult that had scooped it all up. Kind of odd. Think they were short handed today. Anyway, that ended when August threw a big plastic tray to the other side of the table and it broke in two. Will try to take superglue tomorrow to fix it.

We went up to the entrance of the library and I held him until Carly arrived and we headed home.

He and Carly went upstairs to wrestle while we waited for Deborah, the speech therapist, to get here. He was really excited about her getting here at 3:45 and ran down the stairs so fast that I was afraid he was going to slip.

They chose to sit on the couch. Carly and I were at the other end of the room. Deborah started with a 60 piece puzzle and worked on it with him. He completed that, and was very proud of getting it done. They also played the board game where you ask questions to figure out which person the other player has chosen. And they did a story sequencing game. And she asked him a lot of questions.

We learned that she had talked to him in the morning. He drew an angry picture of Ms. Minnie this morning and crumpled it up and threw it in the garbage. Now she asked him to draw a happy picture, and he drew Deborah smiling. She asked him to add things, and he added freckles and gum and other things.

When they were done we let August watch things on his iPad and we talked to her. Not sure we learned much new. She said his language is fine, but could use some work on certain sounds—he has a sort of lazy tongue and doesn’t raise it much in his mouth (like for the ‘l’ sound). Although he does do ‘t’. (Also, she said he couldn’t do the ‘l’ sound when she asked him to, but on Friday I practiced with him and he was doing it pretty well.) She took his difficulty with the puzzle and the sequencing game as signs of organizational issues. When I suggested his difficulty with the sequencing game might have more to do with the story dice, as he would just start telling a story based on the order of the cards, which is exactly what we do with the story dice, she dismissed the idea.

And really the same with puzzles: he’s never been interested in them, so he isn’t fast with them. So her conclusion that these are signs of an organizational issue don’t really convince me, as he is fine organizing other things (tools, blocks, etc.). But her conclusions about school seemed to make more sense (about being overwhelmed by sensory input, not knowing what is expected socially, etc.). She said, for example, that he’ll go into a room and sit on a table instead of a chair. She also said she was happy that she came to the house; he is a very different person at home than he is at school. And she was impressed that he sat with her for an hour and a half and didn’t lose interest or get frustrated when she asked hard questions. In conclusion, she said she could do some ST with him, but said the priority would be with the OT, Shari.

She stayed until around 6, then August wrestled with Carly. They then came down and played with the circuits set. I was submitting our recent insurance claims. She took him up and gave him a bath. He came down, hungry, and I made him oatmeal. We then read Scrubba Dub, Carlos in Skybrary, then read part of Hilo 3. ‘Necromancer’ was a word of the day.

I took him up to bed. He reminded me that yesterday the visualization was of a caterpillar being caught by August. Today we did a millipede visualization. I started singing to him, “Take Me to Church”, and I think it was the first time he’s asked what ‘church’ is. So we talked about that and religion. He volunteered that he didn’t believe in God, but then said he (August) was the one that made the universe. I said something about how that made him God, without thinking, and he picked up on it, saying, “Yeah, I’m God!”

That got him talking about the size of the universe, and I tried explaining how the universe could be finite but not have an edge. Last time he said it was confusing. Today he seemed to be understanding it, and following along as I explained it would curve in a 4th dimension, like how we perceive the surface of the earth as flat, even though it curves through a third dimension.

He was quiet, and seemed close to falling asleep when, like usual, he had one last comment: “I really think that tomorrow I’ll get the reward.” He then fell asleep, sometime around 9, but I fell asleep for awhile as well.

Legos in the library:

Simile 1:

I have a cute…:

Simile 2:

With the ST 1:

With the ST 2:

Circuits kit project with music:

He was up at 6:20. As he came down the stairs he said, “Mama?” Cuddled with her on the couch, then watched some Pink Panther. I got him oatmeal and Carly headed to school. We had planned to drive, but the rain was holding off so she walked. When he went to eat breakfast he asked me to find the Smurfs Christmas episode he had been watching yesterday morning when we had to get going. He finished that, then we read a few pages of Shivers before we had to get going.

As we got ready he asked why he doesn’t have any pants with zippers. I asked if he wanted some, and he replied, “No! I’d play with the zipper too much and people would see my underwear.” And out of nowhere he said, “Dada, your job is kind of an odd job: writing stuff, and doing paperwork…” We drove to school and parked on the street. As we walked in he said he was going to catch fish for lunch and cook it in his “overhead oven”. When we got to the classroom he showed me the old school overhead projector that they’re using as a light table.

I was able to talk to Marion for a few minutes. She told me about how she’s staying calm with him when he’s upset. I told her about how he said he’s open to squeezing a pillow when he’s upset, but I didn’t have one. I then had the idea of borrowing one from the library, so went and did that.

As I was talking to Marion, August learned his first real swear word, courtesy of Eve. August was watching Eve draw, and she said “Bullshit!” Or maybe “Holy shit!” August repeated it. Marion turned around and calmly told them those are words we keep inside our bodies, or something like that. Hopefully it won’t catch on.

I walked home, worked (almost finishing up with the Consortium website before realizing it wouldn’t save anything. Aagh.) and then walked back. Missed the rain.

I went to pick up August, and found him in the art room with Vicky. He had ripped his sticker sheet in half, and was fixing it, but it didn’t sound like he’d had a meltdown. Instead, he hadn’t wanted to do Playball again. He came in, and didn’t want to go to Yoga either, so he had stayed with Vicky. They had been in the block area, and then were down there. Not quite good enough of a day to get his treat today. But he seemed okay. Vicky said she had sat with him during lunch today as well, and he had told her all about how I had made the sushi for him (which he actually ate for lunch!). I told her that it was actually Carly that had made the sushi. She also said she had shared some fig with him. He had been intrigued by all the seeds.

I had brought a pillow from home, identical to the one I borrowed from the library, and switched them out. Vicky said he had squeezed the pillow a little.

We walked over to Carly’s classroom. Along the way he tried shaking the two small palm trees. We then talked about how he had spat at Ms. Rimona today. He said it had been right in her face. He said it was better than ripping things up, but when I clarified that while it wasn’t quite as bad as hitting, it was kind of like hitting with our germs. He replied, “Oh, I didn’t know that. I won’t do it anymore…I’ll just squeeze the pillow.” So I realized that he doesn’t really know the hierarchy of behaviors. He’d probably respond well to a chart/clarification of them.

I dropped him off with Carly. Along the way we met Cassie and she said that Taya was playing with Grace, if he wanted to go. So August changed his mind about playing in her classroom, and she took him down to Cassie’s room. I went to the short open board meeting in the library. Nothing too interesting, but put some faces with names. And looking at the shelves I realized that the school has quite an extensive Eugene Ionesco collection for a high school library.

When I went to Cassie classroom, a little before 4, I found August, Grace, and Taya doing art at a table. Carly wasn’t there. She was through the back door, doing some work at a table. They played for another 5 minutes or so, then Cassie came back and Grace had to go to a guitar lesson.

As we got in the car to drive home he asked, “Israel is so big. Why do you call it so small? Why is it small on a globe but big to us?” As we walked inside he asked if we could take apart a car. I suggested getting a project car in Chelan and he could work on it each summer with Grampa. I joked that I’m sure Gramma wouldn’t mind a car sitting around for the next 12 years.

He went and was playing with the electricity kit on his own. Carly headed upstairs. When he needed help I joined him. We looked for a little clip piece to hold on the light lamp thing. No luck. We ate broccoli and cheese and read Shivers. I went out to move my bike before it rained more. He played with the big wrench. He spotted a small flying insect and asked me to catch it. We did, and he really liked it moving around a lot, but then he quickly decided to let it go outside.

He told me that someone, like a teenager, had shown him a silver tooth at school. He couldn’t say who it was though. I had met the substitute teacher after school, but now wasn’t sure about her name. I think Ms. Tracy. I asked him, and he said it was, but then said he was kidding. So it turned into a game of him fooling me, as I asked about different names.

He wanted to unscrew his balance bike. As we started to do that he named the rug the “Circuitry and screw rug.” He saw the welding on it, and we talked about the difference between ‘soldering’ and ‘welding’ and those were words of the day.

Carly came down and caught another bug for him, similar to the first, but skinnier and longer. He said, “The best thing ever is that it’s moving a lot…the bad news is we don’t know what it eats.” He soon let it go as well.

Carly started on cleaning the house, as the speech therapist is coming over tomorrow. August asked for oatmeal. In the bathroom, he asked, “So, Dada. How long can a toenail grow?” When I walked away a minute later he asked, “Dada, could you talk more about toenails please?”

Carly was vacuuming and bumped into him as he walked behind her. He was upset but recovered. He was then singing a “I’m using a big extension cord” song. I took him up to his bath. He played in the sink, making a lot of suds and giving himself a soap beard. In on the bed we read more Shivers. Carly cuddled with him and read The Little Kids Big First Book of Why. I came back after ten minutes or so and took over. He told me, “You’re full of circuitry and love.”I was trying to get him to sleep quickly. We did a short visualization, although I can’t remember what it was. August took over the story and finished it. He calmed down and was trying to get to sleep, but then started talking about how he didn’t like his teachers because they made him do things. I assured him that they loved him, and that we would work it out. He was asleep by 8:50.

Playing with Taya and Grace:

A fast bug:

Taking apart the balance bike:

Soap beard: