Category: Daily

I was woken up twice before my book group meeting by the dog out in the yard across the street. The second time was about 1:05, so I got up and started a movie before my book group meeting. My meeting was good, and long, and ran until about 3:30.

August got up about 7. He did some watching, had some oatmeal, and earned a couple red stickers. Not an auspicious start. One was for blowing a raspberry at Carly as they were negotiating what the reward would be today. He wanted to go to a toy store and buy something. I had also heard them doing some reading. It’s a very rainy day outside (there had been a lot of thunder and rain during my meeting), so they hadn’t gone out at all.

I came down just before 9. He watched a video about building dominoes out of LEGO bricks. When I told him he needed to skip a commercial that was a video game involving fighting, he hit me, and Carly took him up for a timeout.

When he came down he apologized, then sat on the floor looking at the poetry book about inventions on his own for several minutes. He asked what we should do, and I suggested we read The Berenstain Bears and the Prize Pumpkin. He said he had already read it with Mama earlier and he didn’t like it because it was a little kid book. It looked like they had also read some more of The Wild Robot.

We read a few chapters of The Magic Tree House #50. We then made things from Legos. He told me everything he has learned from Simone about making weapons out of Legos. He made a “model” of a fighting car that won the “Great War of 1868…it killed everybody else…” “This part can pew, and this can pew…”

Out of nowhere he said, “Remember when I told you that robot babies is babies for a real long time? That’s because they live longer than humans.” I actually don’t remember him telling me this. At one point he went to the bathroom and just kept talking, ostensibly to me at first, about his car ane everything else. And he asked, “Employs…is that a good word?” We discussed what ‘employs’ means (as in ‘uses’) and that was a word of the day. I made a vehicle he liked and he asked, “How did you manage to make that one?…Did you make a lot at your home with Gramma and Grampa…So that’s how you did it?…Ha. Funny.”

I sliced some apple but didn’t peel it. He told me I had to peel it. I said he’d eaten one with the peel on it with Mama. He said, she “got lucky” because he’d forgotten he preferred the peel off. We played catch with his bag of seeds for a few minutes. He’s getting better. He wanted to make a concoction, but then decided to make me something in the french press. He made coffee with some chai tea in it, which wasn’t too bad. He then made a nice concoction in the little pot. Found a ketchup packet and he included that.

We then read all of Freckle Juice. Well, all except the last three pages, as Carly came in the room and he got distracted. I had to read it myself. I really remember having this book when I was a kid. He helped Carly make Swedish pancakes by shredding the carrot and I went up to take a shower. When I came down he was finishing a pancake. I had one and then made the last one. He shaped it using the spatula in the pan.

Carly threw away the printer parts and he helped. He unintentionally scared her like I do, standing in a place she didn’t expect him to be. He was hyper, and Carly was trying to get him to put his clothes on so they could go out in the little sun we might have today.

They headed out for a walk a little before 2 and were back at 2:35. He was being pretty grumpy on the walk. He got totally upset over a wrapper or something. Not sure I heard the whole story. Carly told me that they had talked about (earlier today or yesterday) about how he blames other people when he makes a mistake (like tripping or something) because it makes him feel better and it is hard for him to admit he made a mistake.

Carly wanted to keep walking. He did something to her or me right before she left, and I took him for a timeout. She went for a walk. He wouldn’t calm down, and wouldn’t let me help him calm down with the rocking. A couple times he would start to calm down, but it was clear he was still upset. He would then strike out at me again. I called Carly and asked her to come back. This was the first time we’ve experienced what Marion must have experienced at school. By the time she got back he had actually calmed down, and he let me rock him and I had the idea of asking him about how calm/upset he was on a scale of 10. He’s been really good with using such scales for things like pain and sleepiness. He liked the idea, and we started to work out what each number meant, with 1 being so calm he’s about to fall asleep and 10 being he’s lost control.

I made notes, and took it downstairs and Carly started making it into a chart with pictures and colors, and a column for what we do at each level.

He and I used tape to attach a 9V batter to a motor from the printer and it worked. He showed her, and with our permission used it to do art, scraping one of the plastic boxes. He said he was drawing a model of a fish.

He had a timeout with her. She came back down and I took over. He and I did the rocking thing, and discussed what it feels like when he’s lost control. He described it as being in his tummy. He then made some connection to how he can see pictures in his mind. I didn’t understand, and I started recording after that, but unfortunately he didn’t explain the connection again. But he went on and on about how he can see memories and pictures in his head (which he’s said in the past) and that he can see two things at once, what’s happening right now, and what he’s picturing in his memory. Not clear at all, but it sounds like maybe he sees his memories really vividly, and bad memories give him the same sort of feeling in his stomach. Just a guess though.

He as much better now, and was hyper. Carly was going to go get food at Sushi Ishimoto. He said he wanted to go see the new location, so he and I were going to go instead and give Carly some quiet. He was very excited, and I had to tell him to put on his shoes. Startled, he said, “Oh, I never thought of that.”

As we left he said that our next house needs to have a keypad on the gate like the house across the street. We parked in the dirt lot in town and went up to the new Sushi Ishimoto location on the second floor of the mall. He liked it, and said it was nicer than the last location. He really liked their plants. We ordered the regular noodles with tofu, the pad thai with shrimp, the shiitake sushi rolls, and the veggie tempura rolls. While we waited we looked around some more and he spotted the same baskets that he has for his treasures, and we read some of the Magic Tree House book. He asked what was in the middle of the table, and it was the wine list. He asked when he could drink wine, so we talked about drinking ages and how coffee and tea were different.

We left at 6. He saw the moon and stars. In the car we discussed brightness again and why only the sun and then really bright things very close to you can damage your eyes.

We got home and he went to smothering Carly. We ate. The pad thai was unfortunately spicy, but he liked the other one, and the sushi. He was excited that one of them looked like the “Korean sushi” because the seaweed was on the outside. There were seven pieces of sushi left, and he asked, “Since no one is eating that, should I finish it?”

He went to the bathroom and had his pants down for a long time. He then found the water hose from our backpack and played with it and the laundry rack. He got a tub for water, taped the tube to the rack, and drank on the other side. I think it was supposed to be a spring coming out of the rock. We turned the laundry rack into a full cave with pillows.

He went to Carly in the kitchen and fell down. He handled it well and let her comfort him. Got a green sticker. I took him upstairs and he had a good bath and let me wash his hair. While I was looking for his toothpaste, he told me, “Forgetting about something is the start of losing it.” He told me about an electric cactus, then told me, “I don’t really need a lollipop anymore when you wash my hair cuz I’m doing a good job.”

Carly came in to put him to sleep. He told her she was the best mama ever, better than Oma. “You told me you’re really good, so I think you’re better than Oma.” I left them at 8:15 and went for a walk, listening to the Harari book.

At 9:15 we had a Skype consultation with Dr. Postma, the director of SEN Gifted. That went really well, and he basically told us to categorically ignore everything that Dr. Aviv had told us. For one, he told us the sticker charts were going to do more harm than good, as they would just make everything more dramatic. Indeed, this is what we had seen in the past 3 days: Thursday was great while he thought he was getting the treat, then the rest of the day was hard once he found out he wasn’t. He had a good day on Friday so was great through the day. This morning he woke up and got two red stickers before I had woken up, and it had made a mess of his whole day. Later, I realized the flaw with the system was what would happen at school when he got two red stickers early in the day: that would be a guaranteed falling apart, which they’d have to deal with. Before, he was calmly telling me about his bad incidents at school, and accepting the consequences of it. Also, the best thing to do is more of what they’ve been doing: using each incident as a teachable moment, making the drawings and words. Thursday they didn’t do that at all with the Simone incident.

The weapon car:

Weapon car 2:

The motor and battery:

Making a fish with the motor:

He was up at 6:35. He cuddled with Carly, then when she was leaving he called for a family hug. Very sweet. He had oatmeal, and we filled out his sticker chart for today. I drew ice cream on it and a picture of Hilda, as we planned to watch episode 3 of Hilda together. We then read the second half of Hilda and the Black Hound. We got going, and he did a great job of asking for different pants, explaining that the ones with the little holes are too cold. We changed those quickly and were walking at 7:33.

A little windy and chilly on the walk to school. I gave him a different bar for his morning bar, and he said it was the best bar ever. We got there a couple minutes before the bus kids. Marion had told me they had a big meeting last week about other kids keeping their hoods up and the conclusion (not sure if it was just preschool, or all elementary) was that kids couldn’t wear hats. She said it was okay for today, but we’d have to come up with another option for next Wednesday. I got him to hand the paper for Andrea to her. Simone was gone (I think they went to Italy for the short break), so we put it in his box.

I went and worked from the library. I saw an amusing little scene as I sat there. Ilana and Amanda saw that the latest puzzle was finished, but one piece was missing. They looked around for it and Ilana lamented that it was a new puzzle. About an hour later some high school girls came in and one of them gave the last puzzle piece to her friend so she could finish it. I went over them and told them what I had seen, but told them I wouldn’t tell on them. I think I heard them saying the could go tell her they had found the last piece. I also saw Amelie, Marion’s daughter, playing chess, and being really nice to a first grader she knows.

I went to pick him up just before 12. As I walked up I saw the door swing open, with him riding on it. So I went straight in. They were sitting down for their closing song and he was hyper. He managed to ride the door one more time before I corralled him to the meeting and he joined in for the song.

He then excitedly told me he got to get ice cream. He had one sticker. He said something like “Hmm, now I need to decide to get ice cream at a store or at home.” I had planned on a store, but it was windy out, so I said walking around wasn’t going to be the best. He knew we had vanilla ice cream in the freezer, and yesterday had said that’s what he wanted. I said he could have chocolate syrup on it. And then he suggested his pink sprinkles as well.

He wanted to show me his bug animation, but Andrea was busy with Candy and Eve. Then he remembered ice cream, so we got going. We saw Marion, sitting by the guard station. He talked to her for a minute, then just walked out and headed home. I ran and got him back, and Marion told him he should have just one treat, not billions (she jokes with him about how his numbers are always huge). He then ran to Carly’s classroom to tell her about his day. She wasn’t there though, presumably already off to one of her meetings.

So we walked home. We stopped by the construction site on Vatikim to look at the interesting paving stones (it looks like 4 to 6 individual stones, but is actually one block) and discuss how they are held solid, and also discuss the big panel of rebar that appeared to be used as a drive way for construction vehicles. It was windy, but warmer, and actually quite pleasant. At home we opened a window to hear the wind. He told me the red sticker was for blowing a raspberry at Marion when she told him not to make salad on the playground using the garden plants. So cool there was no hitting, and no incidents with other kids. And to be honest, if it was a little raspberry like he said (not in her face), I don’t think it is quite fair to even count those.

And he said he didn’t go to the bathroom until late in the day. He hadn’t gone at all this morning, and I’d let him leave without going. I had meant to suggest he go when we got to school, but I’d forgotten.

At home we got our ice cream. He wanted his in a cup. He had vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and pink sprinkles, and half a cookie on the top, like he’d seen at the ice cream place on Friday. I had a small scoop of ice cream and a full circle. He initially said I had more cookie than him, but then he decided it was fair. We sat and ate our ice cream lunch and watched Hilda. He then cuddled on my lap, and then wanted to do the brother and sister game.

We went upstairs, and he wanted them to solve a mystery. So I had them hear cows outside while they were sleeping. We then went downstairs and followed the clues (hoof prints, poop, and truck tracks) until we found a new dairy and it had an ice cream place, so we had ice cream.

He used scissors to cut a random piece of paper into interesting shapes. Maybe something he’d been working on at school. He requested I wrap up a present. I decided to give it a try again, and I went upstairs and found an old ethernet cable we’ll never used. I wrapped it up in a paper towel and taped it and put his name on it. He wasn’t happy about the present though, as he didn’t have anything to plug it into, and didn’t want to pretend. I switched it out with a USB cable, which would plug into the circuit board from the printer we took apart. He was happier, but still grumpy because he couldn’t plug the other end into anything.

He went to the bathroom and said he pooped a lot. He then said he had a machine to chop up big poops in the pipes like a banana. I had made rice and a packet of curry and lentils. Mild again. Again too spicy for him. He ate a few bites though, then talked about having rice with something else. He asked how the rice cooker works, and we discussed converting electricity to heat, and ‘conductor’ was the word of the day.

We looked at photos of options for his hair. He said no hat was okay, but he just wants to go without a hairband or sweatband or bandana at school. I found out that small hairbands are popular among men in tennis, and it made me think that they should do some sort of diversity lesson at preschool, as I’ve had three different girls ask me why he has long hair, as only girls can have long hair.

We went upstairs, and he said he had an energy meter. He told me, “you’re at the middle, I’m full” I asked and he said that Marion had less than me, and Andrea had more. We played on the bed, and I was rocking him back and forth on the bed. He had me put pillows on both sides of him while I did it, and he said, “This is the best coziness ever.”

Carly got home. He took his shirt off, and I had him put it on by himself. We said we were impressed, and he said, “I’m not impressed” We then made a coconut milk, banana, and mango smoothie. He drank that, then was singing a “before the next meeting” song.

Carly went upstairs. He read A Big Guy Took My Ball! and I read Here’s What You Do When You Can’t Find Your Shoe. He then watched an episode of The Magic School Bus about flies and spiders. We went upstairs and had a nice pillow and stuffed animals fight. It was nice until he ran across the bed, threw a pillow at me, and his momentum carried him off the bed and he fell.

He was upset, and Carly took over. He calmed down and came downstairs and had soup. They then made popcorn and watched their usual nature show. She took him upstairs and gave him a bath and they played upstairs. I think they read some Pippi Longstocking. She brushed his teeth.

I came up and he was doing jumps on the bed. We read more of The Witches and did a whale visualization. He started talking about hunting whales, and for some reason talked about making a new animal: “I’ll make a new animal…just with a cardboard box.” At 8:10 he told me I could turn off the light. I sang the Big Numbers song, and he was asleep by 8:30.

Running to find mama and tell her about his day:

Hinges:

Falling of the bed:

Big bed jump:

Generator for his jump:

Jumping slo-mo:

It was a very rough day in some ways, but made good progress in others.

Carly got him up before she headed to work. When she left I distracted him by reading We Are in a Book! He then watched an episode of Berenstain Bears. As we got ready to go he told me about his battery charging machine. You put one in the middle that is empty and two on outside and they charge the one in the middle.

As we were hurrying out the door to make sure we got to class before the bus kids, the meter reader came to the gate. A quick process, but it gave August another thing to be interested in. Talking about power usage, referring to his labs all around the world, he said, “So when I leave my laboratory in a place I always turn the power off so I don’t waste electricity.”

We got to class and filled out one of the sticker charts that Carly had printed out. The chosen treat for today was ice cream. The other kids came in and I said goodbye. Smooth so far.

I went and worked in the library for awhile, then went over to the PTA meeting. The normally dull PTA meetings got a bit interesting, as Anna complained that none of the parents affected by the cafeteria company (last year’s company is threatening to sue a bunch of parents who claim they don’t owe money) showed up for the meeting today. That led to a big discussion of how to make the meetings more relevant. For one, the principals now attend and give reports, but they basically just explain what he’s been sent out via email. Which is step forward from last yer, when they didn’t even want to address the PTA. Anyway, I ended up talking to Mark, Anna, and Herschel until 11.

At 12:20 I went down and waited for them to come out at lunch. I went in when I heard crying. Andrea had just accidentally closed his fingers in the door. They told me that he had, generally, had a really good day. They had had fun over in the nature area by the middle school (Carly later said she had seen him) and had spent a lot of time in the maker space and had made an animation of his bug (although I don’t know what the bug is).

However, near the end of the day he had had an issue with Simone. That incident had resulted in two red stickers, which meant he couldn’t get ice cream. When he heard this he really got upset, and as I took over with him he said mean things about Andrea, and then to me. Marion and Andrea had told me they had found that the green stickers weren’t sticking, and they needed to get new ones. I later learned from August that the whole Simone incident happened because Simone took one of his green stickers. Also, there was no crying.

Anyway, it was very close to being a very different day: if the stickers had stuck, or I’d picked him up at 12 like they first said and not 12:30 as Marion revised it to in the morning, if I’d gone in a minute earlier and he hadn’t gotten his fingers pinched. As it was, it went from being a very good day to a rather rough rest of the day very quickly.

We drove home and he had a slice of peanut butter toast and a full half an apple. When I peeled it he asked me why I had done that. Trying to be a bit more strict about home time but also being productive, I said that he first needed to make a card/picture for Andrea and Simone before I would play anything else with him. It took him awhile to want to do this, but eventually he drew a picture of Andrea wearing a space suit, and a picture of him and Simone finding treasures together. I would then write his words explaining what the picture was, and the words he said for his apology.

The picture for Simone was a process: he first said that he and Simone were finding treasures together in a dungeon. Which was fine. The prompt from me was to draw a picture of him and Simone having fun together. But he drew the picture of himself with a sad face. So I had him do a second draft. This one was good, but then as he explained it he drew bars over them, and they were trapped in the dungeon. He was getting into story mode, and losing the thread of the apology. So he drew a third draft. This time, he gave them funny looking bodies, which was okay. Then as we were getting the words, he explained that a door slammed and he drew bars again.

The fourth time was the charm, although even that took some doing. He drew them again, but gave them funny eyes and swirly mouths and said they were “stunned”. At first he said it was because they had found so much treasure, which was fine, but then he was in story mode and insisted they were stunned because the door had slammed, trapping them. I finally talked him back around to the purpose and he agreed they were stunned because they had found so much treasure.

We were doing better, but the next step was wrapping the big chocolate egg for Carly for Valentine’s. He couldn’t handle not getting a surprise himself, and we went for a timeout upstairs. I initially stayed out of the bedroom, but after a couple minutes I asked if he wanted my help calming down. He said something like, “No calm thing!…Yes please.” I held him on my chest and did the rocking back and forth at calming (not crazy) speed. He was then just crazy for a few minutes, rolling around and quoting Hilo randomly. That turned into a game of stacking all of the pillows on him.

I started laundry, then we headed downstairs and he ate more apple, which earned him another slice of toast. I was on the couch, and he started pressing sideways against my legs so they would act like a spring and push him back to the side. He wanted that more and more, although I was afraid he’d trip and go flying across the floor.

He got on the couch and opened the Hilda book we’ve been reading, and spent a few minutes just paging through it by himself, humming as he did so. He found the bookmark, then looked for another minute before asking me to read it. We read the rest of it, then he started a brother and sister at school game. An alien comes down (a robot) and warns them about something. But then he discarded that and we ended up shopping with our parents and sneaking candy into the cart for our secret underground cave. We wore suits that hid us, and hid in the cave eating the candy. All out of his mind. Eventually I suggested we sneak out together, and we went out for our real walk over to the mall at 3:40.

It was really windy. He pointed to the flower that Carly and I had talked about last time and said, “The plant your like only grows in Israel and only in winter…” And told me a bunch more about it. He told me we should get the flowers before they are gone. On the dirt path part to the parking lot he asked why plants don’t grow there and ‘compacted’ became the word of the day.

Shopping is difficult for August now, as he wants everything. First we went to the pharmacy and got contact solution. He was tempted by beverages and snacks. Then we went to Kravitz for stickers and found those and another notebook for me for Lunch Robot. He wanted other stickers, then scissors (remembering that Carly said we needed three more pairs so we could always find them), and a few other things. Got out with just what we came for.

We went and sampled things at the health food store. Along the way he also wanted something from the jewelry stand (it is nice, and the woman makes it right there) and longed for the candied things at the stand outside Tiv Taam.

He was doing well though, and I gave him a green sticker for doing so well. Tiv Taam was a bit too much though. We went for things like milk and fruit. I told him he could suggest healthy things and we could discuss them. We did end up with a carton of coconut milk, the cheese crackers, and a kiwi to try. He was asking for a lot, and the last straw was a plastic juicer thing that you push into an orange or lemon. He got upset about a no on that, and I almost gave him a red sticker for that, but he was able to calm down and not get one.

On the walk back we discussed the big electrical poles and wires. He wonders why they are different shapes and sizes. We were home at 5. Carly took him upstairs to wrestle. He did a good job talking to her. Can’t remember what she said he said though. Back downstairs he confused her with the totally random sentences, “Uh, can you give me a day off today? I have a frog butt problem.” The words ‘frog butt’ are from Hilo, but the rest is random.

He had a timeout with her over something he said, then he came down and ate soup. He claimed it wasn’t soup becuase it was too think. When Carly asked him what he would call it he said, “Sludge.” He did the rocking thing with me on the floor, this time on silly speed. We read some of King of the Sky, one of the books I checked out, then he ate the rest of the soup and then had a cup of the coconut milk, which was much better than what was in the coconut. Still not straight-from-the-coconut-in-Indonesia good, but much better.

He didn’t like when Carly said it was bath time, and she got him to practice saying “I don’t like that” over and over. She gave him a bath, then got him to help with putting pillows away a bit. Thet read Pippi Longstocking and he had Cheerios. And he had apple slices with peel on it. He didn’t say as much, but I think maybe he’s had apples with peel on them at the shared snack at school.

I came up at 7:30 and she left us ten minutes later. I brushed his teeth. He volunteered, “Why do they make literacy group too easy just teaching letters all the time?” “The card rhyming thing I told you about was too easy.” I asked him what the best part of the day at school was, and he said, “My friend.” When I asked which one he said, “I can’t tell you.” He then said he was the only one that could see the friend. Not exactly an imaginary friend though: he was referencing the elves in Hilda that only she can see. We talked about school some more, and he said, optimistically, “Maybe I could choose not to hit.”

For a visualization he asked for a piece of dry skin. So we visualized being a little piece of dried skin that is on someone’s forehead and has a view of the world like Hilda riding a giant. It is then covered by a hat, then falls off, is on the floor, is vacuumed up, and ends up turning to dirt in a landfill. Had lights off at 7:55 and I sang a couple songs and he was out by 8:05.

Squished with the pillows:

Looking at a book:

Being Brother and Sister and hiding:

Frog butt song:

He got up at 6:40. Carly was still here but I met him on the stairs. He gave me a “You? Again?” Which was at least better than yesterday. They cuddled on th couch and she did more of the massage/pressure she’s been trying with him. She headed to work just before 7. He watched something on YouTube (Berenstain Bears, I think it was), then had oatmeal. He didn’t eat much, and I’m thinking he might be getting tired of it. We then read part of Hilda and the Black Hound before he got down to take apart more of the calculator. He said that he would give the parts that he is collecting in bags to Andrea to use at preschool.

I went up for my shower. He watched Shaun the Sheep. He yelled up in the middle, as he had run out of time. When I came down he finished that episode, then had us do an imagining game where I was relaxing in a blowup pool and he was a porcupine with a blue belt who calmed and popped my pool. Clearly must have come from the show.

He dressed himself entirely again. Pants on backwards again, and he needed help getting the shirt in the right shape, but we’re making progress. He then had another imagining game, of a girl who had boogers over her stomach, dried lips and legs, and never drinks water or ate fruit with water in it dehydrated. This was based on a Story Pirates story we heard. I turned it into a story where her family went to a lotion factory for a tour and she fell ina vat of lotion.

We left, and parked down by Tiv Taam at 10:40. He told me that, “When you’re sleeping…I’m in a nighttime event…treats, flowers, people dancing to electronic music…but to get into the event you need the ticket…I set up the event.” We went into Tiv Taam and got ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies. He’s in a strong “I want that” mode, but we did pretty well working through the different shops we went through. We did decide to not go to the Apple store (I wanted to get another high speed charger) because he remembered the drones and when I asked if he could just look t them he knew he’d get upset. In Tiv Taam I let him get a big chocolate egg as long as it was a Valentine’s present for Carly.

We went back to the car, and I spotted the new Max store, that Heather had told me about, up the street. We then walked up there to get cookie cutters, which he’s been wanting for cookies and playdough. Another tough store. He had fun looking at and pretending to fight the superhero costumes, then really wanted things like a kitchen timer that ticks. We got out with just the cookie cutters and no tears.

From there we drove up to Ace and parked up on the roof for the first time. We found a screwdriver set with the star bits that we need, and got out even though he wanted saws, a sander, a drill. As I waited for the slow checkout line, he saw the drinks cooler and wanted a flavored water. Since he’d done so well I let him choose one.

Out in the car we tried that, then he requested “The Robots” in the car. And then fell asleep. Apparently that’s his sleepy song. He fell asleep at 12:10 and we were home about 12:25. At the house though our neighbor talked to me about a friend who is trying to rent out a house and she was wondering if I could share it with the school community. We also exchanged phone numbers. Took quite some time though and August kept sleeping in the car.

I finally carried him in and he lay on the couch and fell back to sleep. He really seemed to need the sleep as I couldn’t wake him up. He woke up enough once to blow a little raspberry at me and went back to sleep. I got ingredients ready for cookies and made a salmon sandwich, then woke him up by pulling him on my lap and starting the second episode of Hilda. He slowly woke up, around 1:20.

When that was over we went and made cookies. He wanted half of them white and half milk chocolate, so we divided the batch before adding chocolate chips. We got those baking, then he went and started taking apart more of the printer with the new bit. He ate an okay amount of his sandwich, then chose the biggest white chocolate chip cookie to eat. He told me, “Dada, sometimes I drink ankethol in my laboratory…Oh, And sneakily I put ankethol in the cookies.” He went back to the printer and realized he could undo a bunch of screws that had been under the buttons of the printer. He then made a connection to the calculator, which had also had a lot of screws securing the board holding the keys, and remembered my hypothesis that it was because all the pressure would crack the board if it was only held on in a couple places.

We got ready to go, taking a container of cookies, and left in the car at 3. As we walked down to his meeting with Vicky, Andrea, and Marion, he said something negative and I taught him the word ‘pessimistic’ as the word of the day.

The meeting went really well though. He and I were the first ones in there, and he showed me the container of candies that is the treats for when the adults have meetings. Vicky was the first in and he sat under the table and told her everything about making the cookies. The teachers came in, and he sat next to me, before switching by crawling under the table to Carly, as Vicky had him draw himself, then did a big thought bubble in which we listed his ideas on how to use his words, hands, and feet in good ways. One of the things he said for hands was “to do useful things.” Basically, after that Vicky then introduced the daily sticker chart. we list the day’s treat at the bottom, and he gets green stickers for using his words, hands, and feet for the positive reasons, and red for negative. As long as he gets less than two red in a day he gets the treat. Also, he’ll have a half day tomorrow, then on Friday (the whole school does), then we’ll plan for a full day on Wednesday (there’s no school on Monday/Tuesday).

I dropped them off at home, then drove to meet with Dr. Aviv. This was…less effective. Basically, I had thought we would talk about emotional development and strategies of a gifted child, how to identify stressors before they turned into fits, etc. But it was all about setting boundaries as parents and literally how we need to not engage with him when he has a bad day at school. There was more, but not much productive. It didn’t hurt to reflect on our own parenting, and how there may have been signs we could have caught sooner (when he started hitting at home over winter break, we could have communicated with the school in advance to let him know his behavior had changed), but that literally could have been the first 10 minutes as good parenting reminders and we could have gotten into the specialty stuff after that. Ugh.

While I was gone they did some wrestling and he had oatmeal. I think they also did some reading, and Carly talked to him about using the term ‘dizzy’ for when he starts to feel stressed out. That’s from the Emotional Intensity in Students book that I found and that we’re both reading.

I got home at 6:30. We spent more time taking apart the printer together. He had me do the ‘The girl who was afraid of water’, another variation of the Story Pirates story I mentioned earlier. read the Elephant and Pig book We’re in a Book!, then he read A Big Guy Took My Ball. We then read the poetry book about inventions that I checked out (Here’s What You Do When You Can’t Find Your Shoe).

I took him up and gave him a bath. He set up a soap factory in our house and explained to me how it works. I brushed his teeth and Carly came in. I left them at 8:55. I was afraid he was going to have difficulty going to sleep given his long nap, but it sounded like it didn’t take too long.

He told me today that Carly could do the massage/pressure thing on him to make him feel better, but that my way of making him feel better is telling jokes.

Talking to the superhero costumes:

Spatula and yummy noises:

Working on the printer:

Humming Hey Man:

Telling Ms. Vicky about the cookies:

Our soap factory:

He was up at 6:50. I went up to greet him. He wasn’t happy that mama was gone and told me as such. He took a few minutes on the couch before he felt better. He asked for his iPad and watched a couple videos of Lego marble machines and one Berenstain Bears. We then had oatmeal and mango for breakfast. He then wanted presents and I wrapped his little broom. He liked that one, and really thanked me for it. He wanted another, so I wrapped a shell, a highlighter, and a few q-tips. His response was quite different this time though. He called it the worst present ever. But then proceeded to color his hand with the highlighter.

We read a little of The Witches, then he played a little with a new space app from PBS. Didn’t hold his attention for long though and he switched to the Berenstain Bears. He requested hot chocolate, so I said he could have some if he’d then read me a book. He agree.

He went to the bathroom, and told me of a scary machine he has: “Do you know that I have in my laboratory a machine that can cut a person in two pieces, fix them, then put them back together and they’d still be alive?” “It puts anesthesia in you and you can have fun cutting people apart” “remember the giant tanks you see attached to Ikea? That’s how big the tanks of anesthesia are.” “You could have a little fun with it, maybe. Well, I could.” “It even allows you turn the person into another type of human…someone with powers like me…I’m a robot and I can feel, learn, think…’

He had me show him the back of the toilet and asked if you could drink the toilet water in back. He then got the Brita filter pitcher and gave me a long explanation of how it works, but continued on to describe a machine with it that cleaned the water from the back of the toilet and made it so you could drink the water straight from the pitcher. Thankfully, he didn’t want to actually run water from the toilet through it.

I got him to dress himself. He’s generally been doing his own underwear and pants, but not his shirt (although he’ll do the arms). He was resistant to the idea, but when I got it into a circle for him he got excited and put it on himself. Just need to practice so he can do the circle part himself now.

We compared the speakers, as he’s been wanting to do. We hooked up our old set next to the Apple speaker and played music through each. He could tell that the Apple speaker is louder. We then got back to trying to read, and he said he had lied to me and wasn’t going to read. We went up for a timeout, but he agreed quickly, and then downstairs he read all of I Broke My Trunk! to me. He then watched a Shaun the Sheep and I took a shower.

I surprised him with a printer I found when I was out for a walk last night. “Thank you, dada. I love it…When you found it, did you think I would love it?” We started taking apart the printer, then paused for lunch. I made a salmon sandwich and we also shared the leftover eggs and cheese and tofu from their trip to Aroma on Sunday. As we ate he said, “I think grampa would prefer working with wood pieces…cuz he’s kind of a wood person. AND also he’d have to buy a lot of electronic tools.”

We went back to the printer. Of the flat plastic pieces with wire in them he said, “It’s wire tape…I learned about it at robot school…kinda boring. You shouldn’t go to robot school. Seriously. Do you believe me? Uck. It’s so stupid. I wished I never goed to it.” Unfortunately, we were using an Allen wrench to unscrew the star-shaped screws. It just barely worked, and about halfway into the printer it got just dull enough to stop working. He handled it well, and we talked about trying to buy the correct screwdriver later.

He remembered wanting to get a coconut, and I told him about drinking right out of a coconut in Indonesia. I explained that they had chopped the coconuts open and we drank right out of them. He was shocked: “No doubt!?” “Was your lips on it…was it rough?” He has this idea that coconut water should be stored in cans, as opposed to bottles, etc. and he said we could use a metal can to store it in when we get it out. It said we couldn’t, to which he responded: “But seriously, we have cans…you were wrong.”

At some point he talked about recycling paper, and we watched a video on how to do it. A video about restoring a rusty knife then came up, and we watched part of that (https://youtu.be/hS9PA6SuyyU). August kept pointing at the tools he was using and saying we should buy that. When I balked at committing to buy things like a lathe he got upset and we stopped watching the video, although we were able to finish it later.

We got ready to go, finally, and he put the long pink wire in the drill and was playing with it. We finally got walking at 1:30. A slow walk into town as he kept stopping (a broom/branch-looking thing, etc.) and dragging his feet. We went to the bulk foods store. He chose a coconut and also asked to get the toppings for his cake. He chose small pink balls and pink stars. The coconut was only 2 dollars.

We then went to the hardware store. Didn’t find the screwdriver/drill bit we needed. But he had fun looking at everything, and kept asking “What’s this?” He was disappointed that I wouldn’t let him buy anything. He wanted a new drill or a hot glue gun or something. He got over that and we were able to head on to toe school. Along the way I found a big calculator that we could take apart. He was excited by that. He then saw a piece of metal embedded in the dirt and got off to investigate. It turned out to be a good one. It was the metal part of an old hoe. August almost immediately said we could soak it in vinegar to get rid of the rust, which is what the guy did with the knife.

We got to school and went down to his classroom. They were at the library. No hat in his cubby. Hoping we can be reunited with that soon, as he walks around holding his hair back a lot. We went to the playground where he played on a scooter thing until PKB was done and we got Taya. On the playground they sat on the big swing a lot together and basically stared at each other and giggled. We got some snacks out and Taya had our Cheerios. August spotted an interesting beetle on top of the car and we looked at that. They went over and did some cooking in the kitchen, using some greens from the garden, until I said they’d taken enough from the garden.

Back at the car the beetle had moved, and we found it climbing down the car. We followed it across the ground, and eventually August and I got it on a big stick and he took it over and released it on the tree. Taya had disappeared and I found her in her classroom, getting her water bottle. We went back and saw it crawl up the tree, and August named it “Zorkinflox”.

We then all headed to the library. August and Taya found the little tent in the kids area, a new thing, and played in it. They got books to look at, but mainly pretended they were escaping the rain. The entrance wouldn’t really stay closed, so August went and got two pieces of tape and they worked for a long time to try to close it better. Cassie came about 4:15 and gave them each a fruit snack. We headed out so they could eat them. Taya checked out her books, and we went out in the lobby and they ate those. They left, and we went back in the library.

Carly had walked home, and August wanted to keep playing. He went and got the big ship, then spent a long time taking apart these colorful blocks things and putting them in the ship. Then disaster, as he went to take down the big box of them and it tipped towards him and spilled everywhere. He didn’t want to clean up at first (too big of a mess) but I did some, and he got into the rest of it. That took us to 5, then we went and checked out our books: Berenstain Bears and the Prize Pumpkin, two Elephant and Piggies (A Big Guy Took My Ball and We Are in a Book!), a poetry book about inventions called Here’s What You Do When You Can’t Find Your Shoe, Hilda and the Black Hound, and a picture book called King of the Sky that I found that looked interesting.

We went back down to the preschool playground to retrieve the Cheerios container that Taya had had. As we went down the stairs we saw Andrea coming up. She said hi, and that she would see us tomorrow. August didn’t really know about the meeting tomorrow, and replied with, “See you NEVER. Cuz I’m NEVER going to school.” But as we found the container and got walking home I talked about the plan, and he was quite open to going back half days. He sang a nice tune on the way home and we got here at 5:45

He showed Carly everything we had bought and found and done today. We then went in the kitchen and tried sawing the coconut open. That didn’t work too well, so we switched to the drill. We did 4 holes and got the water all drained out. August tried it with his finger and said it tasted bad. Carly and I both tasted it and it had definitely gone bad. Seemed fermented. August handled the disappointment quite well, and we had had fun opening it.

We went and took part the calculator. He then FaceTimed with Vivian and Colin for quite awhile, showing them what he was doing. Colin asked for the tractor and I brought it from upstairs to show him. He very excitedly told them about how he was taking things apart. He hung up the calculator’s printer ribbon, closing off the kitchen. He told me, “Sorry, it’s really hot, but the pool’s still closed.”

We went back to the calculator. Carly took him upstairs for a bath, and I FaceTimed with Peter, who is on snow day #4 in Edmonds. August came down and I went upstairs with him and we read The Boy with a Problem. He asked me to tell him a story from when I was a kid about school, and I told him about Lisa who was a frenemy in 1st grade (like him and Simone).

We had the lights out at 9:15. He was stuffy and took awhile to go to sleep. Asked me a couple questions along the way, and right before he went to sleep he asked if I still had the batteries in my pocket from the library and he wanted me to take them out. He was falling asleep but at 9:30 had a big coughing fit. Took a few more minutes after that for him to fully fall asleep.

Broom present:

Paperclip and drill:

Taking apart the printer:

Plate slo-mo:

Drill and wire slo-mo:

Drill and wire generator:

The interesting insect:

Cooking with Taya:

With Taya in the swing 1:

With Taya in the swing 2:

Rhythmic tune on the way home:

He was quite cuddly during the night, putting his arm over me a few times. He sat up once during the night and I got him to lie back down with his head on a pillow as he was stuffy. He came down at 6:40 and got comfy on the couch. He hadn’t seen Carly upstairs, so when she came down a couple minutes later he was quite happy.

She headed to work. He finished watching a Wild Kratts episode about racing a cheetah and I made oatmeal and we ate together at the table. We read a little of The Witches, but then Carly called. She had left her tights. So he and I got them and drove them to her. We pulled up outside the school and he opened his window and handed them to her. As she walked away he called out, “I love you, Mama!”

Back at home he wanted to watch a Shaun the Sheep. Lots of laughing, and coughing, as he did that. He got demanding after that, then we read The Witches for awhile, then he got demanding again. But then we came up with a plan for the day and things went smoothly after that. He watched Shaun the Sheep once more and I took a shower. We were then getting ready to go, and I went up to get a few books we might read together. He came up, found the Little Golden Book version of The Sorcerer’s Appretnice and sat on my lap and had me read it to him twice.

I realized he hadn’t gone to the bathroom yet and it was 10:30. I expressed my amazement and he said, in his superhero voice, “Super bladder!” He went to the bathroom and we got going. He asked, “Why do people make things out of glass?” Specifically, he was asking because glass breaks easily. We talked about different things made out of glass, and practical versus aesthetic reasons. When I was trying to explain that some people prefer the feel of glass for drinking out of over a plastic cup, he understood, and said he preferred cups made out of pottery, and that that is breakable too.

We left at 10:50. In the car he told me that we could cut the strings he had tied around his seat off sometime. And he explained the wires he had wrapped around the headrest posts: “They’re for the grown-up safety system.”

We listened to music on the way to Herzliya Park. We parked at the south end and walked straight to the fish pond. We put some water in the bug catcher, and tried to catch a fish with the net. Unfortunately, the fish were acting different, and swimming away from us today. I gave it a try, and after a few minutes was lucky and caught one. He took it out of the net and held it, then put it in the bug catcher. We examined it for a few minutes. I remembered the Wild Kratts and how one of the brothers is always naming the animals they meet. I asked which one it was, and August said he thought it was Chris. He then named the fish after him, so it was Chris the Fish. August suggested at one point that we could take the fish home, but I explained why we couldn’t and he accepted that. He returned Chris to the water and we headed back to the car.

Before we had gone to the park he had seen the first aid kit in the trunk. He now said, “I want to wear a bandaid for fun.” Notable because he used to hate the idea of them. He put it on his forehead, then switched it to his hand. Eventually it ended up on my hand. We left at 12:10.

We drove over to a pizza place called Garlic Pizza. Had to park a ways away and walked to it. He was examining car sizes again today, comparing everything to Skoda Mama. He told me he has an SUV for his laboratory car. Later in the day it would change to a van, because he said that was even bigger.

August got a slice of cheese and I got mushroom. We sat inside at August’s request, although it was warm enough to sit outside. He got a can of mango juice and used his Final Straw. After we ate, he sat on my lap and I read Mike the Knight: The Tricky Trail, then we traded pages reading Biscuit Goes Camping. I then tried with I Really Like Slop! but he wouldn’t go for that. I knew we were listening to. New York radio station, and I asked the guy what it was. It was the Gaylord Fields show on WFMU.

We paid, and right outside the pizza shop August found a huge snail crawling across the ground. We examined it, and had it crawl on a leaf. August picked it up, and eventually let it free over on a bush.

We walked back to the car and headed over to a park. Couldn’t park near it, so we continued on. August had been arguing for ice cream before his doctor’s appointment and so I decided we had just enough time for that. We parked in a lot and walked to Glidha (literally Hebrew for ‘ice cream’). She gave August tastes of a couple of flavors, and he got a small cup of a flavor called Hershey’s. He shared it with me, then we walked to the International Clinic to check in. Then we walked back to Dr. Hurwitz’s office.

The appointment was at 2:30. We were a few minutes late, and the doctor was a few minutes later. August did really well and was very patient. Pretty good, as it took awhile. The doctor took a long time asking me basic questions again. Clearly he didn’t remember us, which is fine, but then when we got to talking about August’s vaccinations I showed him the vaccination record, signed by him, and he was shocked. He thought August was a new patient, and had been creating a new file for August. Apparently this was a big hassle to undo. He had put August in under ‘Althauser’ this time, but had been under ‘Niman’ the first time. August answered all the questions he asked, and drew shapes and a picture of a person for him. August weighs 16.4 kg (19%), and is 107.5 cm tall (40%). August handled the physical exam quite well despite being very ticklish. I didn’t have to hold him or help at all. He got a little concerned when the doctor checked his abdomen and penis, but August told me later it was because he thought the doctor was going to give him a shot.

No shots right now. I need to figure out if August got 3 HepB shots (only two are listed in the vaccination book from Korea—but he probably had the first one at Yeon and Nature). Otherwise, I learned that they give the third chicken pox and MMR shot in 1st grade here, and DTaP in second, and it is through the schools and he thinks the American school is participating in that now. He agreed though that we should get the MMR booster before going to the states, since there is the outbreak in Washington, but right now there is a shortage of the MMR booster in Israel. He said to wait three months and see if the supply had improved. Otherwise, we can still do it, but need to order it and get it from a different pharmacy and bring it to him.

As we left, another couple went in with a baby. August and I went to use the bathroom on the floor and it was locked. We looked around the rest of the building, no luck. So we walked back to the international clinic and used the bathroom there. August called it the fancy bathroom, and he looked at the wooden boat and bag of shells they had in it.

We got driving home, and he asked for the Kraftwerk song, “The Robots”. And then fell asleep at 3:50. We were home at 3:10, but he was really asleep. I carried him in and he continued to sleep on the couch. I finally started watching the first episode of Hilda on Netflix and pulled him on my lap and he woke up about 4:20 and watched it with me. It had been too scary for him when we first tried it (she is chased by a troll at the beginning) but we have since read the books and they aren’t scary and he was fine with it now.

Carly was home a little before 5. They went up and wrestled. He came down and ate soup, then played some Dragonbox Big Numbers. I went up to do some work. They made popcorn and he ended up with a timeout over it for some reason. After that I did his bath and washed his hair. He handled it well, although not quite as enthusiastically as last time.

We went in on the bed, and ‘hub’ became the word of the days after asked if a big airport is bigger than a forest. He described a big airport as one where you transfer like when you’re going from Europe to South America. So I taught him the word ‘hub’ and how it is like a wheel. He told me how he has an airport bigger than the Amazon and it has launchers that launch airplanes with air, like the things that blow balls up in the air in science centers. Carly came in and I left them right about 9.

Catching weeds:

Examining Chris the Fish:

Chris the Fish:

Returning Chris the Fish to the pond:

Big snail 1:

Big snail 2:

At the doctor:

He got up at 6:50 and told me to keep sleeping as he left the room. Downstairs they read some Pippi and he used the food processor to figure out how to use the other kind of blades and shredded up a hot dog. When I came down Carly was making Swedish pancakes and he called me Mr. Grumpyface and tried to convince me to try the hot dog. He gave us a long explanation about air pressure pushing something from a balloon and through a straw into an empty glass.

He ate his swedish pancakes, then watched some Wild Kratts. He finished an episode and then went out to Carly. They decided to go on a walk and Carly went up to get ready. The power went out right at 9. I figured it out when I started asking Siri to play some music and she wasn’t responding, and simultaneously August went to turn on the bathroom light and it didn’t work. I texted Mikaela to let her know the power was out. She and I had both heard a loud sound right before we realized the power was out.

I noticed a bruise on his knee. He told me he had made bruise paint in his lab, and also made permanent bruise paint. I told him I didn’t think there would be much of a market for that. They left for a walk at 9:10. But were back after just a minute. They had taken his bug catcher, but when she said they could take turns carrying it he hit because he didn’t want to. She took him up for a timeout. Eventually, they ended up going for a walk around the neighborhood without the bike. They came back, then headed out with the bike, headed for a coffee shop at the mall.

I typed and worked for awhile (and chatted with Mikaela and Derek, back in Korea), but with batteries running down and not knowing how long it would be, I decided to go out for a walk at 11:10 and find them. I first walked over to the transformer equipment that August and I had just looked at yesterday. Nothing obviously wrong, but there was a layer of fresh dirt put down on the sidewalk and street under it. I don’t know what the connection would be, but it was new.

I then walked over to the mall and met up with them as they were leaving Aroma. They had gotten an egg and mushroom dish. He’d eaten a good amount of that and also had a pastry treat. They had read some Pippi Longstocking. August spotted the playground and we went there for a few minutes. He stood on the plane and explained a big long scenario that I didn’t catch. He had me pilot the plane and repeated it. Basically, I was piloting a plane and realized there was a boy/robot on the wing. I was making announcements to the passengers as I tried to get him off the wing. He weighed more and more until I had to do an emergency landing.

He wanted to keep playing, but Carly pointed out it was supposed to start raining. We walked back, and it started raining right as we got back to the house. We went in and he wanted his pants changed, although there were only a few drops. Carly figured out how to call the power company and did that. Meanwhile, the rain had slowed and I heard a gate, so I went out to try to find someone on our street to see if their power was out. When I failed to find someone and came back August hit me or said something and I took him up for a timeout.

As we were sitting and talking after the timeout, Carly told us the company said the power would be on at 2:40 (an oddly precise time estimate). August was stressed out about the power being off and started crying. Took him downstairs to calm him. He figured he could watch some Sarah and Duck on his iPad since it was downloaded

Carly left a little before 12:30 to go to work and do some work and grading. She spent a lot of time on the phone, calling the occupational therapist and speech therapist that Vicky referred us to, and also setting up a doctor’s appointment for tomorrow. He’s almost 5, so might as well get the annual checkup and vaccinations out of the way while we have the time.

He gave me an earring he had made from 3 treasures and glued together. I think Carly helped him with it. I wore it as we went upstairs to have a pillow fight. He told me I should take it off, and he put it on the counter while we played. We had a pillow fight, then played more brother and sister game. He then came up with a prank or experiment we would do, making a metal box and bolting it to a wall and putting a sign on it that says ‘fire danger’. We would “Sneakily put a tube in there with a toxic flame…” and install video cameras and watch fron another house that had monitors in it. Wasn’t clear what was supposed to happen, but he acted that part out.

We went downstairs and shared a bar. He said since we don’t have parents “do you know what that means?” We could buy whatever we wanted. To him that meant, “Drill and drill bits…fishing pole, net…”

We read some of The Witches, then he found a 3 color ball point pen and played with it, then quickly took it apart to figure it out. Carly called me about the appointments. We were then brother and sister again. We played catch with one of the paper mache balls, then he wanted to play with Cubetto. We used the magnet blocks to make a house for Cubetto, then he closed it up and had Cubetto pushing it around. He was frustrated when it fell down.

We went back up to play on the bed, then came down for crackers. He gave a long monologue as a plane captain about having to make an emergency landing (basically what I had said earlier, I think) and I complimented him on his monologue. ‘Monologue’ was the word of the day. He sang a song that went, “mama is the best thing in the world. Better than you, better than Oma, better than anyone in the world, better than anything in the world.”

He wanted to go to town and buy a net for catching fish. As we got ready, the power came back on right at 3. Outside, he was trying to scratch paint off the book shelves. He said, “Me and the clouds working together as a team…” We were walking at 3:20. We saw Mikaela walking home and he told her we were going to buy a net. As we kept walking he said she sounds like Ms. Ilana. Not entirely obvious to me.

Straight walk into town and right to the little pet store. The woman helped us and he had about 5 sizes to choose from. Chose the second smallest. He played with it as we headed back out and went over to the bank. The ATMs were working and we got cash. We started to walk home and got as far as across the street and suddenly it started pouring. I pointed us to the covered area outside the old Sushi Ishimoto location (it has moved into the new mall) and we sheltered from the rain for a few minutes and put on raincoats. It lightened, and I used the umbrella for a couple minutes as we got going.

It stopped, and he played with the net in the water from the gutters at the older mall. Closer to home he spotted a big SUV and decided that’s what he wants. He told me, “I just love big cars.” He also learned ‘SUV’.

At home we had hot chocolate and were drinking that when Carly got home at 4:45. They cuddled, then I went up with him to wrestle and she started making the bean soup. We did lots of superhero battling. He was Brainiac and Hilo and I was Super Dada. We went downstairs and Carly FaceTimed with Cherie and Chuck, and we read I Broke My Trunk, then Hilda and the Stone Forest. We first looked at the end, the started it again.

Carly came down and they played Dragonbox Big Numbers on the couch. Did a great job stopping it and putting it away when he was done with a math problem. He told us, “Don’t be proud of me.” We had soup for dinner. He took his under the table to eat, but then rejected it and looked kind of guilty when he told me he wasn’t hungry.

He was scaring us, mainly Carly, from where he hid under the table. Did that too many times then got him on to something else. Carly tasted his soup and realized it tasted funny from being in the freezer to cool down. She got him some fresh to try, but he didn’t at first. We played on the couch. I was as moving his hands faster than light and exploding etc. Carly then took him up for a bath. He said, “First let’s do the bathroom action thing we invented…” I’m not sure what that is, but there was a lot of laughing. She then washed him, and I took over.

We wrestled and then read The Witches. In it, it talks about the boy’s parents having a will. After we finished reading he asked, “Did you make one of those things?” He seemed happy to know I had, but didn’t ask more. I told him that Opa helped us though.

We went downstairs. He tried the soup and liked it now, so I gave him a bigger bowl. He ate that, then I let him have one of his quiche cookies. We went back upstairs with a few Cheerios as a final snack. He talked about how the glue didn’t work on the earring as it was coming apart: “So I’ll just solder it together.” Except when he says it it sounds like ‘saldred’ He also talked about the speakers he had seen in a box that Carly was looking in. They are the speakers we had in Korea, but haven’t used here. He said they were really loud, and he had paid 2 billion dollars for them. If they get broken it takes 90 weeks to fix them.

He said good night to Carly, then we did the raining school visualization that he requested and had lights off at 9:15. He was snoring about 9:30.

Explaining the toxic flame experiment:

Cubetto in a house:

Playing with the new net:

Scaring us:

We all slept in this morning. Sometime before 7:30 he got up enough to come and climb on me, pressing his head against mine. He fell back asleep and rolled away from me. At 7:40 we both got up. Downstairs he cuddled with Carly, then she read him Pippi Longstockings. Much more successfully this time. He said, “I’m a thing-seeker.” He watched some Wild Kratts, then wanted to make more quiche cookies. He made them triangular this time, with tops on them.

We read Hilda and the Troll. As we talked about the map in the front I said that was where it ‘takes place.’ He said, “Takes place. I learned that from Ms. Vicky…like the book Stick Man takes place in a forest.” We read the book and took out the cookies. We then read Hilda and the Stone Forest. He got upset when I said I couldn’t do something and had a timeout. I took a shower and he had some food with Carly. He cookie once he agreed to clean up the broccoli he had made a mess of on the table.

I went up to work for a couple hours. Catching up on Sabeel work and also made progress on the website today. They did paper mache outside, making a couple balls, and made slime from the leftover mixture. He shredded a carrot all on his own. I came down at 2:30 and they were outside. He came and showed me a praying mantis that Carly had found and put in his bug catcher. He told me all about it: “It has a triangular head…” He told me about the big odd spider by the door as well.

After awhile I got him out on a walk. We went up and did recycling first. Lots of random stuff (a heater, toaster oven, bucket with dried stuff in it) by the garbage area that he got to inspect. Also, it was our first time using the new container, where you can recycle milk cartons, metal cans, and other plastics.

It was threatening to rain on and off. We dropped off the recycling bags and continued on over to the park where he’s blasted monsters in the past. We sat on the merry-go-round and he tried the blueberry bite things. Those were a disappointment, but we had other snacks. Spun him on that for a bit, then he wanted to do the running barrel thing: “Let’s do this, grumpy dada.” He likes me to tell him where to walk to, then to act grumpy when we don’t go anywhere. We played around for a bit longer, then it started to lightly rain. We got walking home at 5:15. Stopped along the way to look up at the electrical lines and the equipment up a pole. I used the word ‘regulate’ and that was the word of the day.

At home they went upstairs to wrestle, then came down and read more of _Pippi Longstockings _. They had some apple and peanut butter, and I was working on the website.

We left for school about 6:50. August asked, “Can we get a big big car when we move to another country?” Earlier he had seen a big car and said he wanted one like it. It was an arts night produced by high school students that was titled, The Mad Project. It was a fundraiser for an organization (Yeladim) that helps children in the foster system.

We got there at 7, when it was schedule to start, but it was Israeli time, so doors didn’t open for another 20 minutes. He got an ice cream cone with cake in it, and we talked to Heather and Mikaela. He had worn his light-up shoes and was stomping around in the dark outside. Mikaela talked to him about his shoes, asking if the dogs had names. He doesn’t know there names (or that they’re from a show). When she asked if he liked dogs he said no, but he thinks that Bibo (I think it was) at school “Is the kind of person that likes dogs.”

We went in and looked at the student art in the silent auction. August liked the geometric pictures, and there was a piece made of small toys glued together and painted black that I considered for the office. We looked at the photography for awhile, then they opened the doors and we went in. We sat near the back. August did great through it, although he was making his shoes flash sometimes. But mainly it worked to have him do that as his clapping between acts. Extremely talented students (the singing, in particular, is a nice improvement). August asked me to look up one song that played, during a solo dance piece, so we could listen to it later. It was “Youth” by Troy Sivan. Other highlights were the first duet (‘Best Part”), the acapella group, and the Michael Jackson drums/bass/piano thing at the end.

We left during the speech from the CEO of the organization at the end. Outside, August asked why there were lights in the ground. I said maybe because they were pretty. He gave me an “Oh, Dada” for that.

At home he had oatmeal. Then he kept saying, “Hey, grumpy face”. We listened to “The Robots” and I got him ready for bed. On the bed he sat on me and did an imagining game where he was making me pee. His pressure was my kryptonite. I was Super Dada.

Carly came in and I left them at 9:30.

Watching the hail:

Telling me about the spider:

Art night:

He was up just before 6:30. Cuddled with Carly, had oatmeal, then watched Shaun the Sheep. Didn’t watch a lot, then wanted to thaw quiche dough and make the little cookies. He told me, “Did you know that hard plastic has a higher melting point that this plastic that moves around (bags)? I discovered it in my laboratory. I put it in a plastic testing machine.” He remembered the Keebler crackers so we tried those and we thawed some quiche dough and he made his tiny chocolate chip cookies. We continued listening to Ian McCullough albums.

We read Fox in Sox. Then he remembered the pate and we tried that on the new crackers. He liked that and was making lots of yummy noises. His cookies were done, and he ate a few. He initially wanted to give one to Carly, but they were too tempting through the day and he ended up eat them all. He then asked what moles on your skin are. I read an article about them to him, then he did a good job of explaining moles to me and how they get darker over time, like the one on my forehead. He then told me that hair doesn’t have nerves: “Only eyelash hairs and the hairs that are there (eyelashes) have nerves.”

For school time we worked on cutting curvy shapes with scissors, which is hard for him. Then we were writing out letters and funny phrases. He would write one or two random letters, then I would make a word out of it and he’d read the word. We’d make funny phrases that way. We did some GarageBand. He’s getting into the idea of a rhythm, and when I was playing a drum pattern on my iPd he was doing his keyboard improv to the rhythm.

We watched the latest Marble Machine video (which used the metaphor of slaying a dragon) and then looked up how elephant poop is made into paper. We found this good video on the process:

. He wanted me to drink the seed mixture he’s had in the tube up in the bathroom for a few days. It smelled odd, and he said we forgot to wash soap out of the lid. He agreed I didn’t have to try it if there was soap in it.

I found a bag upstairs that had some seriously moldy oranges in it and we took some photos and got rid of that. Outside he found a green tree thing and told me how the sap was “a super slow process.” There was sap around the base of it, and he claimed the sap came from the green parts and went back to the tree. Rather backwards there, but cool how he was inspecting it and trying to explain it.

He was going on about a sidewalk sealant he says he has and said it was permanent, but then he said “Well, but nothing’s really permanent…” But then he decided that ink on paper was, but then he invented something that would suck ink out of paper. He discovered a planet that has everything for life “in a megatelescope.”

A slightly rough spot when we were discussing celebrating something and he said he had had a celebration for hurting Marion. So a timeout and discussion for that. We exercised, then got ready to go. He wanted to try the other kind of ‘string’ cheese (think it translates as ‘valley cheese’ as opposed to mozzarella). But it isn’t stringy, and he didn’t like it. I offered to eat it for him and he could get another one, but he said he’d already started it and should eat it. Which was pretty amazing.

We left at 12:15. We were listening to his playlist, some of the newer songs he has added, and he fell asleep for a 10 minute nap at the end.

At the park we got the bike out and started walking. He directed us over by the playground and towards the food stand. He pointed to it, and I reminded him we weren’t getting a smoothie. We had talked about it at home. He accepted this quite well, so after we had eaten some lunch I decided we could get a smoothie. We went and ordered the ‘orange’, which was supposed to have strawberry and mango. The one we ended up with clearly only had strawberry. And not too sweet, but it was nice and creamy. He wasn’t too excited by it. He wasn’t too happy with the guy, but again handled his disappointment well.

While we had been waiting for the smoothie, he had looked in the ice cream freezers and seen the cone-shaped ice cream treats. I suggested he could convince Mama to come back here sometime for ice cream. He said the only time he has had ice cream like that was “when we went to the beach with Gramma and Grampa.” I also told him of a time, I think, when he was a baby when Carly got one like that (or something similar) in Olympic Park in Korea, but she probably hid it from him. He was okay with that as he had been a baby.

We rode his bike up the big play structure, halfway. He then climbed down the climbing ramp and said I could go down a different way and meet him. He was okay for the minute it took me to go around with the bike. He was then climbing on the rope structures, and asked a lot of questions about their metal parts and how they were anchored in the ground. Carly called and we talked about books from the library, as she was checking some books out for us.

I got a couple rounds of Hebrew in, then he wanted to move to the little kids area. He did this by climbing over the short fences to get there. Something new for him. He ran around, going down the hills in curves, and asked why he didn’t fall over like when he was on the bike. I explained center of gravity and pointed out how you naturally lean into a turn, and how you could do that on a bike as well. He ran around some more, then was the captain of a ship and truck that would drop me off where I didn’t want to go, like in the middle of the ocean. When I said that was too mean we switched to the brother and sister game. Slightly better, although he’s altered it to where we intentionally had a pillow fight to destroy our house, then we ran away, and he called our parents and they yelled at us for destroying the house. A rather interesting storyline he’s developed that doesn’t really relate to anything he’s read or seen, as far as I can tell. He was also using phrases like, “In good news…” and “Unfortunately…”

We started on a walk, and stopped at the little free library. He let me get a couple of Roald Dahl books (Glass Elevator and Maltilda), Freckle Juice by Judy Blume, and a book called Incognito Mosquito Takes to the Air. We walked to the south end of the park, using the western path. He headed for the sand area and played there, mainly with the conveyor belt. A girl found a big caterpillar and called it a snake in Hebrew. Her dad came over and told her it was a caterpillar. I understood both of those. August played with it, and I eventually had to talk to him and make him stop bothering it. We put it at the base of a tree, and later it was gone, one way or another.

He kept playing with the conveyor belt, and with a couple of girls made a big mountain of sand with it. We went to the bathroom and had some snack and he wandered over to the big play structure at that end, which he’s never actually played on. He explained how he enslaved caterpillars using machines he places on them, and they go around pooping to fertilize trees. He, all on his own, started trying to justify how what he was doing was okay (I think because he thought it was a good cause) compared to Zach on Wild Kratts who puts machines on animals to control them just for his own gain. He ate the last of the cheese cracker sandwiches, then commented on the playground: “So people put a lot of work into this.” Back at the sand area, he stood on a platform thing and said, “Today’s book group meeting: What do you know about frogs?” It was then a competition, with me playing both people. One knew all about frogs, the other said funnily inaccurate things.

He would have stayed at the park until after dark, but finally I got him going. Sort of. We walked up along the path area and stopped at the fish. Spent another 20 or 30 minutes here. He put his hand in the water and found out that the fish come up and tickle you, like the ones that eat the dead skin on your hand in the aquarium in Seoul. He managed to catch two fish with his bare hand. The second one he had out of the water for a few seconds and it jumped out of his hand when he was trying to have me take a photo of it.

Finally got him away from there. He went and scared a flock of parakeets, then we walked north along the east side of the park. He was talking about speaking through multiple megaphones to make it really, really loud. He wanted to tell people to catch fish. He wanted to stop at exercise equipment and play. We did stop at a plastic recycling bin, as he wanted to get a bottle to take home for something. He was indecisive, but ended with a Coca-Cola bottle, thinking it would be hilarious to tell Carly he had drank that much soda.

There was a small boxer sort of dog on the path and we rode around it. August was singing a “Sonic boom” song that he wanted me to record, then we were getting our stuff in the car and at the trunk, then went to the right side of the car to let August in. I opened it to find a dog curled up where his feet go. August was not happy about this. I managed to pick the dog up to take it out. It didn’t have a number on it. I held it and looked around for a couple minutes for someone who might help, like someone who works at the park. Then the dog trotted off on its own. It headed back into the park, so hopefully someone else would help. August, by the way, was very against helping it, and certainly never wants a dog or cat in the house. He says they will make a mess everywhere. He said, “Unless we get one from the store. For a little while. In a cupboard, locked shut…there’s no possible way I’d let you take care of a lost doggie. If I was a doggie I’d have a phone number on me.”

Finally, he realized he hadn’t found any treasures today. I said he had gotten the bottle. He dismissively explained, “That’s just something I found on the garbage! Treasure is cool interesting things I find on the ground!”

We were driving at 4:50. We listened to his playlist in the car. Made it home without another nap. He took the Coca-Cola bottle up to Carly, joking that he had drunk it all. Carly was changing at the time though, so we didn’t keep the video.

Downstairs we looked at all the books that Carly had checked out today. I read him part of Hilda and the Stone Forest, then got him to read the Mat Hid Bob Book to me. Carly tried to read Pippi Longstockings to him, but he was being hyper and rude to her and I had to take him up for a timeout at one point. I got him some dinner and we ate, then Carly took him upstairs for a pillow fight. They also skyped with Cherie and he played in the sink making concoctions.

He came down to me and she took a shower. We had some water drink, at his request, then he asked me why you would die in 2 seconds in space if you could live longer on Earth without air. I said I didn’t know where he got the 2 seconds thing, but I was pretty sure it was longer than that. But there are also the heat/cold issues of space. I asked if he wanted to be an astronaut. And he said no, because it is too dangerous. And that the rocket might blow up. I then asked what he wanted to be he first gave a rather pragmatic answer: he had a long time before he had to think about it so he didn’t have a choice now. Eventually he did say, “Probably teach. Like mama.” When I reminded him I had also been a teacher he said, “Huh!? Is that why you know so much stuff?” Then he claimed he wouldn’t have a job. When I asked what he would do he said, “Take care of someone…take care of a baby.”

We finished reading Hilda and the Stone Forest. Then we skyped with my parents. Talked about the snow in the U.S. and more to come. He was silly after the call. He went to the bathroom, then didn’t have his pants on and asked me to tie his shirt on as an apron. And was acting silly. He sang a song that went, “I’m robot apron, in robot apron…and I’m also poopy.”

I gave him a bath, then he was doing tricks jumping off the bed. He had a small box that used to have paints in it. It has random papers in it, and he said they were advertisements for events. He said, “New things come and old things go.” He took out the poop party ad (he’d drawn poops on a piece of paper) and said that was already past. He gave me a ticket for a different event: “This is the crown contest..and the winner has the gold piggie with a piggie made of gold.” It changed to a clown contest when he thought that was funnier.

He said goodnight to Carly. We did a butterfly visualization, and had lights off at 9:10. He asked me something at one point. I was half asleep, and when he started to lightly snore around 9:30 and I go up I couldn’t remember what it had been.

Choose-ed instead of chose

Buyed-ed instead of bought

Killed-ed instead of killed

Taked-ed instead of took

Put-ed instead of put

Meeting quiche cookies:

GarageBand tune:

Drill and paperclip slo-mo:

Climbing down the ramp:

Climbing the netting:

Showing his speed:

Phoning the parents:

Big caterpillar:

Comparing himself to Zach:

Nibbling fish:

Trying to catch fish:

Chasing the parakeets:

Sonic boom song he wanted to record:

He slept until 7:33. He watched Shaun the Sheep, then switched to YouTube for Wild Kratts. He had oatmeal in there. We watched a long commercial for a Sky Valet suitcase together, in which a guy has his suitcase stolen, then recovers it, and he now wants us to buy that kind of suitcase before this summer. Surprisingly, he let me go upstairs to take a shower while he stayed down on the couch. He finished up the Wild Kratts video he was watching, then we were discussing how we could do literacy group at home. He said that Ms. Vicky had all sorts of supplies for literacy group, so we couldn’t do it at home.

We played with the blocks for awhile, and made some abstract mazes. I started paying attention to what letter sounds and what irregular verbs and adjectives he mispronounces so we could start talking about them. As we built, I made up a song where we repeated ‘We made…’ and ‘We built…’ to work on those verbs. I noticed, through the day:

‘r’ sound versus ‘l’ or ‘w’ (bar vs ball, car versus cow)

maked-ed instead of made

buyed-ed instead of bought

steal-ed instead of stole

build-ed instead of built

gotted instead of got

comed instead of came

was instead of were ‘The security guards was there.’

goed instead of went

gooder instead of better

He played with the kalimba. Yesterday we had unscrewed it to see how it works and put it back together.

For literacy time we pulled out a big sheet of paper, then took turns naming numbers for the other person to write down. I got to see his pinch fingers on the marker, and he is doing just fine. His numbers are clearer than they used to be, particularly his 3s. We also did a joint piece of art. And while he went to the bathroom he made up words for me to write on the paper. He then worked with the scissors on how to cut out all of the numbers and words from the paper. For science we then set up the microscope, and we were looking at the edges of the different kinds of knives, which was pretty cool, to see how rough they are in places. And we looked at the wheat, where we discovered that the long things on it, while looking very smooth, are actually covered with little barbs along their edges. ‘Barb’ was a word of the day.

We then made a smoothie together for lunch, with fresh bananas and strawberries and frozen mango. He squished the banana and we talked about how it gets more liquidy when is is smashed. We drank that at the table, then he came and sat on my lap and discussed electric fences and non lethal guns as we listened to Ian McCullough albums. He said he invented a gun that didn’t kill people and was used for being in charge of a place. Pretty sure he hasn’t overheard anything about Israel’s use of rubber bullets, and it turned out there was something like that in the Monsters Vs. Aliens movie we watched.

We moved to Skybrary and read Umma Ungka’s Unusual Umbrella, then Oliver Otter’s Own Office. I wanted him to read me a Bob Book, then we made a deal that I would read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and he would then read. When it was his turn he first claimed that he had fooled me, but I said he couldn’t get away with lying. So he agreed and read Plums, only needing help in a couple places. He was randomly quoting Hilo books during the day, including, “In my house we’d be hitting each other with sticks right now.”

We did some exercise, then he wanted to use the string as a leash again. We got it tied on his wrist, then he needed to go to the bathroom. After that, he lost interest and had me take it off.

I realized we could make a big pyramid with the magnet blocks, and we ended up making the largest tower possible with the blocks we have, with a pyramid roof.

We then headed outside. Looked around the yard a bit and he spilled some of the fluid out of his rotting pasta experiment (which actually doesn’t look that bad or moldy at all, after a couple months, which is kind of surprising) so I sprayed it with the house.

We got walking at 1:40. We walked over past the mall and on into Bnei Dror and to the park in the center of it. We had fun spotting all the big pipes through the village (I don’t know why their water pipes are so exposed in places) and sang a song about how “We went…” by things (as opposed to ‘We goed…’).

So all was well until we got to the park. We got to the playground and he spotted one of those rolling slides, like a conveyor belt sort of thing. He got as far as saying something about how he didn’t know this park had one before he tried walking up it and fell flat on his face. This was his one difficult moment of the day, as he tried taking it out on me, saying things like “You’re the worst dada ever.” I was clear with him through the day that there was a zero tolerance policy for the mean words/behavior now, and it worked pretty well. Here, it meant I would keep him at an arm’s length and not comfort him until he apologized and said he’d make good choices and then I’d pick him up again. It took him several attempts here, although through the rest of the day there was never more than a small slip.

We spent some time playing on the merry-go-round. He was pushing me first, then I was pushing him and he was lying down on the bench. I was doing 10 minute of Hebrew while he did this. Then he spotted a dog. It was an old, calm dog that didn’t come close, but he wanted up, and the park was over for him. We left the park at 2:35.

We walked back to Tiv Taam and he sat in the cart and we did grocery shopping. The first time I’ve gone grocery shopping with him in quite awhile. We’ve gotten in the habit of usually Carly going on the weekend. It went really well, with us agreeing on some new foods to try (he picked out a sausage, Cornflakes (which he remembered from Gramma and Grampa), some healthy-looking coconut and chocolate bite things, a pack of cracker and cheese sandwich things (like from when I was a kid), and some crackers. Oh, and we got a peach Snapple, as it was the perfect bottle for his timer. He also wanted a different kind of cracker, but it said they were ‘spicy’. I got it for myself though.

After Tiv Taam we went back out to the stand right outside where we had seen tea infusers on our way in. We chose one with green on it for Carly, then had to wait a few minutes for the woman who runs it to come back. He spent this time by running around, and running into me. She came back, and I also got some ‘black tea’ from their bulk container. I’ve been looking for a bulk tea place. They only had ‘black’ and a ‘chai’. A good start.

On the way home he found a stick, which he said was a spy camera. In the yard he showed me how it worked, and explained how it had a camera at the end, then projected the image in the air. We were home at 4:05.

We had some Snapple. He was excited about having some caffeine and told me he fooled me because he also put coffee in it and was having a lot of caffeine. Carly got home and he showed her the new infuser. He then made tea for me using the new infuser, the new black tea, and a cinnamon stick. Turned out quite well.

They played the preposition game and I cooked the chicken with taco seasoning, cooked a pepper, and heated refried beans. We had burritos for dinner. Well, August just ate the refried beans. He went to the bathroom, then told both of us about the depth of the ocean. He said it was up to 40 skyscrapers deep (probably from Wild Kratts—he’s also been talking about their submarine), then he had made a stack of skyscrapers that went all the way to the sun. He had glued them together so they wouldn’t float away. And he had taken them from towns, and the towns weren’t too happy about it.

I went upstairs to work for an hour, then we switched and Carly took a shower. She had given him a bath and he’d played with stuff in the sink. He filled it with bottles, and the faucet was hitting them and splattering lightly out of the sink. He had me experience it. He needed pajamas, and I said they were downstairs. He said something about the bear pajamas “Again?” When I asked if he wanted to wear a different pair, he said yes, and exasperatedly explained, “That’s what having more pairs of pajamas is for!”

In on the bed we read Corky Cub’s Crazy Caps on Skybrary. We then discussed his cookie plans. He wants to make little cookies out of quiche dough tomorrow, and I suggested we make cookies on Sunday and take them to his teachers. At first he said not Marion, but then he changed his mind, and said he wanted to include a poem that rhymes. Which seemed promising, although he didn’t explain what he wanted the poem to be about.

He read the Bob Book called The Trip, then we read a few chapters of volume 4 of Hilo. ‘Brimstone’ was another word of the day. Carly was ready for bed, so I left them just before 9.

The kitchen was a mess, so I listened to the Jerusalem audiobook and listened to a good chunk of it while I cleaned.

Destruction slo-mo:

Trying to sweep:

Picking yellow things:

Running to me in the mall:

New tea infuser song:

Splattery sink creation: