Category: Daily

Carly got him up about 6:45. I made him oatmeal, and after he cuddled with her for a few minutes he went and ate. He went to the bathroom, and Carly headed to school. He was then playing with the walking stick from Korea and gently swinging it around and singing a song, presumably about it. It was a more graceful, high-pitched melody than he usually sings. I think I caught “we don’t use it anymore…” I recorded some, but it was after the best part.

He got his iPad, and told me that he invented an iPad that you could open and could be fixed. Little did he know that he was reflecting the thoughts of lots of people who think such things should be more fixable. I noticed that Shaun the Sheep is on Netflix for us. A couple weeks ago I was mentioning to Carly that he might like the Aardman movies. Anyway, he watched an episode and did a lot of laughing.

It was supposed to rain, so Carly wanted us to drive. We left by 7:50. I commented on the rain smell as we left. He said, “and that only happens when it’s rained a little and there’s still some drops in the air that haven’t settled down.” As we got in the car he told me the fence across the street should have been made out of polished wood or metal or concrete. He’s afraid it will rot because it was getting wet.

Drop off went fine. The bus kids were there, but hadn’t started meeting yet. I walked home and worked primarily on the website, then got a call from Vicky about 10:45. I walked to school and picked him up. He had had an issue in Ms. Liron’s class. He said she didn’t want him to play with the carpet. Vicky said something about how she wanted him to cross his legs when he was sitting. He had gotten upset and left the room, which Vicky said was a good thing, and gone downstairs. From there it gets hazy. Marion took him into the atelier (which I later learned August knows how to pronounce, and Andrea calls it the ‘calm room’, but he knows to switch the name based on which teacher he was talking about). She was holding him and not letting him leave that room to go out into the empty classroom. He ended up scratching her wrist, and threw a play dough container that gave her a cut above her lip. So, clearly should have talked to Marion yesterday to see what had happened with her.

She was back from the nurse when we went downstairs. He said sorry and we headed home, taking the car.

At home we discussed gluing or taping together plastic tube pieces he had outside, but did neither. We then read some Skybrary books:Write On, Carlos! and Great Choice, Camille!

For lunch I only let him eat things out of his actual lunch. He started with the bar, then ate the banana. Later he would eat the chopped carrot, string cheese, and tuna. We went back to Skybrary and read Percy Gets Upset and Gertie Gorilla’s Glorious Gift. He told me about a drill bit that he invented that lets you make straight lines in wood. He then talked about how he thought a pizza cutter could cut wood, so I let him take it out and try it and he realized it didn’t work so well. I also let him hammer away at the circuit board (goggles on this time) for awhile, before remembering there were a couple components on there that I wasn’t sure about. I talked about “worrying” and he kept telling me not to.

Inside, he talked about how he has an electric fence around his lab, or a “toxic flame”. He explained what ‘toxic’ meant. We did the brother and sister imagining game. He created a scenario where they were running away and living on their own. They found an abandoned house to live in, and the people left money there so they went to the store. In character, we made things out of magnet blocks that were also left in the house.

He wanted to make a timer. That is, a bottle with water and glitter in it that sinks to the bottom. We didn’t have any bottles, so we walked up to recycling and fished a good bottle out. He also got a spray bottle. We went back and made a timer. We experimented with oil and water, and he liked the oil. He used his sequin things, and put in some food coloring as well, that especially looked cool at first. He managed to play on his own while I wrote emails to Vicky and Dr. Aviv. We then went upstairs for a pillow fight, then came back down to eat his string cheese. Still hungry, he ate the carrot, then wanted his tuna in a sandwich. So I made a tuna and teriyaki (he was the one that remembered we used to do teriyaki sandwiches) sandwich and he ate most of it.

I did a little more work on the website, and he played for a few minutes. We ran around the house and were acting like the brother and sister on and off. The timer rolled off the table and the lid broke, but luckily only a drop leaked out.

Looking in the utility drawer he found an old almost-empty tube of sealant. It was all dried up, and he used the bread knife to cut up the dried sealant. We washed it, then he sawed a carrot into chunks. We each ate part of it. For some reason, the word ‘foible’ came up and was the word of the day before August declared it wasn’t.

We went back and read more Skybrary: The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse and we had started reading Your Guide to Superheroes when Carly got home.

She talked to him about the day was of course upset. He wasn’t able to admit that he felt bad for Marion, but he was clearly troubled. She was sitting on the black chair and he lay his head in her lap, his feet still on the floor, and ended up falling asleep at 5:15. She picked him up and he woke up a bit, but he fell back to sleep on the couch. We let him sleep, and I tried waking him up at 6:25. He just didn’t seem like he was waking up though, so I got ready for bed, being exhausted myself. I figured I could try to get some sleep with him, so that if he woke up in the middle of the night I could get up with him.

Well, Carly carried him up to the bed and cuddle with him, but he never fully fell back to sleep, and at 6:50 he got up, quite awake. I was ready for sleep.

Downstairs on the couch they read I Really Like Slop! a couple times. Or maybe three. He really likes the funny ending: “Dont push it, Bub!” I took over and we finished reading the superhero book. We started to read Izzy Impala’s Imaginary Illnesses. But he said he didn’t like it becuase she lies. So we moved on to Dilly Dog’s Dizzy Dancing, then Emma’s Friendwich. We then red more of Hilo, volume 3.

He was hungry, so ate a good bowl of shredded carrots, then had a bowl of oatmeal. I read more of Hilo 3 to him at the table, then we finished on the couch, and started volume 4.

Carly took him up for his bath. She told him about the 6th graders who are running an experiment trying to turn guinea pig poop into paper. They talked about this a lot. I came up and was on the bed with him for a few minutes. He talked about how when he drinks from his water bottle he is “Constantly delivering it to my stomach.” He said with his pink water bottle (from Korea) he would drink just for the fun of delivering the water like that, and not becuase he was thirsty.

Carly was tired, so we left her by 9. Downstairs, we read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, then Breathe. We discussed Marion (he still wasn’t too repentant) and the possibility of baking cookies. It was too much for him and he hid behind me and cuddled for a few minutes.

He then had a mystery song he was humming. He could only tell me we listen to it in the car, but not recently, and it is a guy with a lower voice. Finally, I figured out it was “Hey Man” by the Eels. We listened to it on my phone. Finally, we read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and went upstairs at 10:15. He snuck away from me and went and cuddled next to Carly on the little bed. He wasn’t too bad though. He was taking a long time to fall asleep, and at a quarter to 11 I pulled him up to the big bed. He was asleep a few minutes later. He had rolled over and was actually lying, stomach down, on top of a pillow.

End of his walking stick song:

Experimenting with the pizza cutter on wood:

Hammering the circuit board:

Destruction slo-mo:

Mystery Song (“Hey Man”):

He was up before 6:05. He watched Max and Ruby this morning. Carly made him oatmeal. She headed to work. He got upset though when it was time to turn it off. We did a timeout, but he recovered. We had a good walk to school, and walked in at the bell. He was wearing his flashing shoes, so I knew he’d want to show them off. So I talked to him in advance about not running in and yelling, then I held his hand as we went in. It went well, as they were standing up to start a song and dance. He did a quiet noise to announce his presence, then joined in with dancing to the morning song.

I left and rode my bike home. Sabeel work and also made progress on the website. And watched the Super Bowl in the background.

I rode back to school. I was a bit early, about 1:50, and was standing outside the classroom doing a little more Arabic when suddenly I heard a scream, then he came bursting out of the door and hugged me and said he loved me. He was followed by Leonard and Lydia and Ms. Andrea. She said he had heard her say it was almost library time, so he guessed I was outside and got excited when he saw me out the window.

I went in with them. He showed me how he was using a paintbrush to put glue on a piece of wood. His shoes were a hit, it seemed: Taya thought he had Reia’s shoes on (I think she has similar) and Lydia said he was a girl because of the shoes and long hair. Also, she called me by my first name several times. Leonard also gave me a few hugs (when they’d run out, he and August had hugged me, and August commented it was a Leonard, Dada, Zinnie hug). He also had me hold his feet and showed me how he could walk on his hands. August then wanted to do the same thing. Did that for a minute, then got back to helping clean up.

We headed to library time. I almost asked them to go in with us, as all of the craziness happens right at the beginning. But Ilana was out sick today with a bad cough, so Liz took over. Also, Simone’s mother was also there. So maybe just because of the change in personnel, the class acted very differently. Easily the best they’ve been since maybe the first couple weeks of school.

It was warm but very windy today, and for some reason it makes a loud whistling sound at the back of the library. Liz let them look out the windows to see the wind in the trees, and August and I thought we could see the Cloud Bridge from there. For the book she read Tikki Tikki Tembo, probably due to the Lunar New Year, and because Ilana has been doing classics. I pointed out I remembered it from kindergarten or first grade and Eve’s dad, who had also joined us, said that he’d been in a play based on it. The kids did well, and August sat on my lap.

For checkout time he got a book with a built-in clock called Tick Tock Dog. Then when it came time to check out he saw the box with batteries to be recycled. He wanted to take some home, but when Amanda said they weren’t for taking home, he started to act out, both towards her and towards me. I compromised, saying he could take some of the small watch batteries, but then as we were walking away he said really mean things about Amanda, and I took the batteries away and put them back.

We walked straight home. He talked about the issues today: Bibo and Millie had been pulling on him, so he said something mean to them, and he had said something mean to Ms. Marion. He didn’t provide much more detail to either, and I hadn’t talked to either of the teachers after school since we left after the library incident.

We read his library book, then he had a few Cheerios. Next, I reheated the mushroom pizza he hadn’t eaten for lunch. He had at least eaten his half of a banana for lunch. He ate the pizza, about half a slice, but that would pretty much be it for the rest of the day.

He used our pizza cutter on his pizza and was shocked that ours is bigger than the one at VIPizza. He kept asking, “Why do we have a BIG pizza cutter?” He asked if I was sent to the timeout corner a lot in school. When I said not really he concluded, “So you tried to be a good student? That’s why you’re a good dada?” He told me that he and Simona try to break each other’s Lego creations: “It’s kind of a mean game.” As we were sitting at the table, talking, we were listening to the 1979 album from The Human League, called Reproduction. He asked, “Why don’t we ever listen to this kind of music at school?” He wished they listened to more electronic music at school, too. He was now sitting in my lap and we played our head butting game. He then invented “En-bug-adorflug”, which he says is even bigger than enshmugadorflug and infinity.

We went upstairs to do the imagining game on the bed. Had a pillow fight with all the pillows and pretended to destroy the house. He then pretended to call our parents and tell on me.

Carly got home just before 5 and I went to watch the Rebuilding Alliance’s congressional briefing on Palestine. I’ve been exchanging emails with the director, and another woman, Angela, from Jahalin Solidarity, that I’ve worked with was also involved. I watched the first hour, then went downstairs and had the second half, when kids from Susiya and Al Khan al-Akbar testified, playing down there.

August wanted popcorn, but never had any as he didn’t eat more than a couple bites of his dinner of mac and cheese and broccoli. He got a string and had me tie it to his wrist, and he was my cat on a string. Carly went up to take a shower. He ate his couple bites, but that was it. We read two Skybrary books, Freda Stops a Bully and Frances Frog’s Forever Friend. ‘Frisky’ was the word of the day.

I took him upstairs for his bath. He made a couple mixtures: the first was with some seeds from a bag he found in the freezer (someone had given them to us last year and we don’t know what they are. They were in the freezer, we think, because Carly didn’t like the smell of them.), putting them in a small tube with water. The second was his lollipop from yesterday in water, and he liked the lollipop-infused water and kept drinking it.

The sink had mostly filled up as I ran the water to warm it up. August then dipped his hair forward and started washing it himself. A miracle! He then didn’t complain at all as I washed the rest. And as we blow dried his hair, I had to brush it to get out the bits of glue that were still in it from STEM class yesterday. He handled that without a problem.

On the bed he jumped around and had me take videos. He was a little disappointed when he saw them and he wasn’t as blurry as he wanted to be. Brushed his teeth and said good night and I left them at 8:20.

Tying up the plant:

Pillow fight destroying the house:

Phone call to my parents:

Jumping 1:

Jumping 2:

Jumping 3:

He woke up at 6:50. I heard him, but was in the downstairs bathroom. I hurried out and found him at the halfway point of the stairs. He was upset that Carly had already left. I got him to refrain from hitting me, and carried him down to the couch to cuddle with me. But then he surprised me and slapped me. We went upstairs for a timeout and to work on it. We didn’t come down until 7:10 or so. He was sneezing a lot this morning, and sneezed four times on the way down the stairs.

I let him watch a little Magic School Bus as I got us ready. After 7:30 I tried to get him going, and he talked about not wanting to go to preschool. And he pointed out he hadn’t had breakfast. So I gave into being late and let him finish the episode and I got him breakfast. He cheered up after that. He talked about wanting to play at home with me, but he didn’t fight leaving and we were out the door at 8:08. I had to run back for his water bottle, but was luckily just a house up the street. We kind of sang our conversations on the way to school, and when he was dragging his feet to wear out his shoes (he’s decided he wants new shoes, and wants to try on the Minnie Mouse shoes after school) sang a nice “wearing out my shoes” song to the same tune. But he wouldn’t repeat it for a video.

As we got close to school, he told the rule was that I couldn’t poop on him. I said that was good to know, and we ran through other rules, like not dropping pianos on him. I said it was hard to know, since he was a robot and all, and he had me pretending to throw fireballs at him, but they would bounce off.

We parked the bike and headed in. He was in a good mood, and made a funny noise to the guard, who made a funny face and noise back. Down at the classroom, 8:30, they were still having a meeting. I stopped him before he could run in and yell, but when he went in he ran up to the circle and made a funny noise, similar to what he’d done with the guard. It was a little better than yelling, at least.

I went home and worked. Little volunteering for the Consortium website too. I rode back and picked him up. He ran out and told me he’d had a good day but there were two or three hitting incidents, but no crying. One was when a girl from another class kicked him and he kicked back. The other was when he and another boy were erasing the whiteboard and Millie didn’t want them to and grabbed August and he hit her. He was happy to say there was no crying though, and he has stopped using his mean words.

He had STEM class, and when I went in he excitedly showed me the big piece of art he had made using cardboard, glitter paint, and tape. Andrea said they had also used hammers and safety saws today, although August didn’t do any hammering. We told her about how he’s been using tools at home. August had also shown me little clay houses they had made, and talked about how the little things in Ms. Marion’s had been broken, so he broke one two (it didn’t really look important). I asked Andrea a few questions from the parents’ list about upcoming events. Nothing for Valentine’s and they’ll be doing activities with the older grades for Lunar New Year, but parents aren’t invited.

We went over to the playground and August showed me how the toys have been painted new colors. He had some snack, and randomly asked, “What is a hemisphere?” So a word of the day. August then took us over to the garden and he was trying all the plants. He liked the mustard greens the best, saying it had the most flavor. We also went over and tried the mint. Spent a minute on the teeter totter as well, then when he finished his Cheerios we went up to the library to checkout some Elephant and Piggie.

We met Carly at the entrance and went in, and he chose three of the books: I Really like Slop, I Broke My Trunk!!, and I Can Fly!. We all walked home. He stopped at the billboard along the way to rip off some old pieces of signs.

At home he wanted to try our drill in wood (he’d been talking about it at school, and what would it would and wouldn’t work on). He got a scrap of wood outside, and drilled two holes in it with my help.

We went in and he had mac and cheese and broccoli for dinner. He saw me having the veggies and noodles and he wanted some of that as well, so he had that for seconds. He and Carly read two of the new books, then I read the third to him. He wanted to do an imagining game on the couch, so I pretended to be a rock. He asked, “But you’re really dada, right?” This morning I had pretended to be the backup/robo dada for some reason, and he had asked the same thing. He went to the bathroom and he was quoting lines from Hilo, like “Ill lick your butt so hard…”

I started to clean up the magnet blocks, and Carly helped him put the ‘wheat’ in the oven to dry it. We had noticed it was starting to open up as it sat in the vase and dried. He then walked over to me, but stepped on staples on the floor. I saw him standing there. He had pulled out the staples from his foot, by his big toes, and looked sad. At first it didn’t look like it was going to bleed, but then it definitely did. I held him on my lap, while Carly got tissues, then a bandage for him. He was really upset, but then I got him to discuss the pain scale. He said it was currently a 3, but had been an 8 earlier. I was then trying to trick him into saying it dropped to 2. He then kept requesting that I try to trick him.

Carly went up to take a shower. We lay on the floor and he requested the pee visualization again. We did that, going all the way through the pee and water water cycles. He then said his foot was a 1, then a 0. He went to the bathroom and decided to take the bandage off.

We went upstairs and I remembered he’d wanted to try on the Minnie Mouse shoes. But then I found the light-up dog shoes we’d bought in Chelan for the fossil dig. He tried them on and said they were comfy and wants to wear them to school tomorrow.

I got him ready for bed. He had gotten a lollipop when he was hurt, then had a few more licks, and I put it away in its wrapper on the dressed. When I stepped out of the room he went and grabbed it again to get another lick. When I told him not too, he explained it was a natural consequence of me leaving the room, and compared it to how there are natural consequences at school, like when someone gets out of line they lose their spot in line.

We brushed his teeth, and he was asking about explosions, and cars blowing up. I said I didn’t exactly know what it sounded like, as all of my knowledge is from movies, and they are often exaggerated. Exaggerated was another word of the day.

Carly came in and I left them a bit before 9. A lot of laughing before he fell asleep.

Checking on the glue experiment:

Trying the greens:

Taking down old flyers:

Drilling holes in wood:

The dried ‘wheat’:

Metal that’s soldered:

He was up at 6:40. He was finishing up a couple Wild Kratts episodes when I came down. Carly had been outside and came in and was talking to August. He said that an elephant can pick up a “cah”. A funny misunderstanding ensued, with her talking about cows are sacred in India. Turned out he meant ‘car’, but when he says them they sound exactly the same.

I went upstairs to scrub the bathroom ceiling of the mold. I’ve done it three times and never had problems with dripping. Today, however, I realized there were two pink blobs on my new sweatshirt. Carly made French toast while I did that. I came down and ate.

He and I made things out of magnet blocks. He started by timing me. We ended up with a pretty cool house with an escape pod on the roof and a playground outside. Carly then wrapped a couple of presents for him. They were things from Valencia. The first was a porcelain bird magnet for the fridge and the second was a notebook from the conference. He liked those.

We sat and finished reading Hil0: Volume 1 and read a couple chapters of the second volume. Carly startled by a lizard when she opened a kitchen window to water. August used his scanner to declare it wasn’t poisonous. I went up and took a shower.

Me to shower

He was hungry, so we went to make oatmeal. I had gotten a different brand, but they were also instant oats. But they turned out to be thicker, and ended up chunky. He said he didn’t like it, but he ate it anyway. Carly got home from going

August and I experimented with the oats. We used knives and scissors to break some into smaller pieces, then cooked those in the microwave. And I made a bowl on the stove. He liked the microwave bowl better. August had also used the food processor on his own to shred up a carrot and add lemon to it. We washed that out, and then used the food processor to chop up the full bag of oatmeal.

We played more with the magnet blocks, and Carly left to meet with teachers in Tira about the upcoming Get to Know You Day at the Jewish school. More blocks, and I was making hexagonal towers which he then destroyed (after my first one self-destructed dramatically on its own). We recorded them in slo-mo and it turned out really well. We went upstairs and did the brother and sister imagining game and had a pillow fight. He had the brother and sister destroy the house with the pillow fight, but then they found gold outside and it paid for the damages so the parents weren’t upset any more.

We got going and walked to town. He told me he invents magical things in his lab now, not scientific things. I figured Carly was probably close to being done so I invited her. We were a little early, so went to the park by the playground and played around there for a few minutes. I tried to get him to wave to Carly when she drove by, but he kind of hid and screamed instead, which of course didn’t work. We met her at VIPizza and we ordered a large pizza. Half mushroom, and half mushroom and olive. He randomly said “I hate my imagination” at one point. We sat at one of the outside tables for the first time. We ate, and when he was saying ‘poop’ or something we introduced the idea of other funny words. I came up with “Llama potato…potato llama.” He really liked that one. He tried to tell Carly he didn’t like her drink, and said, “I hate your coffee.” Realizing he had the wrong drink he continued, “I hate your tea? I hate your Coke?”

Carly left to drive up and get gas. August and I walked around the building after going to the bathroom and checked out the sandwich/hamburger place on the other side of it, which we’ve never been to. August liked the stools, which were made out of old bicycles, with the pedals fixed in place to rest your feet on.

We got walking home. At one point he asked what ‘instant’ meant (maybe from the oatmeal discussion?) and that was our word of the day (which he keeps claiming he wants to stop doing, but then he’ll chime in with his little tune). We walked a back street, and I bribed him with the promise of 2 Whoppers if he’d extend it a further block to check on the supposed site of a cafe that we’d looked for before but doesn’t exist. It has gotten a few more reviews since last year, so I figured we’d look again. Still not there.

We got back on the main road and Carly honked as she went by. August then found plants that looked like wheat and spent a few minutes picking a bouquet of them.

We stopped at our park, and we had us do the brother and sister bird game again. He played around on his own for a minute and I was reading, then he sat in my lap and I read a Donald Hall poem to him. We found another Allen wrench on the ground, then got a call from Vivian wanting to FaceTime. We headed home.

He talked to Vivian for a few minutes. One of them hung up and he tried to call back, but gave up and watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving instead. I squeezed the rest of the oranges and made a big bowl of orange juice. We finished reading Hilo 2 and started 3. He had a timeout when he got upset when I stopped.

Carly was making mac and cheese and broccoli. August had only had one slice of pizza at lunch, and absolutely nothing since then (he’d forgotten the Whoppers), but he didn’t eat more than a bite, saying he wasn’t hungry. Carly asked me to go to the store and mentioned chocolates for the session she was running tomorrow after school. When August was disappointed that he couldn’t have any, he hit Carly. Cherie called for a minute, and he yelled loudly. Carly said she’d talk later, and took him up for a timeout.

They played on the bed and I headed to the store at 6:20. I got back after 7.He had watched a Magic School Bus episode, and they were now playing on the upstairs couch. She gave him a bath. He came downstairs and was trying to scare me by yelling. He ran around a little, then I reheated his dinner and he ate the whole bowl.

We tried to Skype with Gramma and Grampa. They didn’t answer, so we left a video message and he improvised a nice song about wanting to Skype with them. We went up and read more Hilo 3. He saw my shirt, the one from Cherie, and said he wants to hang it on the wall when I get to big for it. Will have to see if they sell it as a poster, as he’s mentioned it before.

He said goodnight to Carly at 8:35 and went to the bathroom. He requested a visualization and this time he let me do the snowflake. It lasted until the snowflake melted on a cow. He was quiet for a few minutes, and asleep just after 9.

Blood from the gecko:

Dancing around the magnet house:

What Mama’s cells are saying:

Crash slo-mo 1:

Crash slo-mo 2:

Trying to get Carly’s attention in the car:

Picking ‘wheat’:

Skype message for Gramma and Grampa:

He was up at 7:05. He watched a Wild Kratts, then went outside with Carly and helped her rip up a dying plant. He wanted to saw off the roots and we let him use the bread knife to do it. He rinsed it off with the hose, and wanted to boil it, although we didn’t get to that until later.

I made eggs for breakfast. We were going to eat outside, but he carried his plate back inside before we could get out there, so he and I ate inside. We listened to Kraftwerk and he sat on my lap. We discussed electronic music and rhythms, like 16th notes. We then worked on his bear book. He dictated the story for 3 pages and I wrote it down, then Carly came back and she wrote it on the individual pages and he illustrated it. He wanted to break apart some of the computer parts, and we went outside and he used a hammer. Had him hammer on one of the big rocks, then had him wear the goggles when pieces went flying. I went up and took a shower.

He played a few minutes of Angry Birds, then he wanted to boil the plant, so we did that. He got the frozen green rock things from the freezer (I’d forgotten they were in there), and we took them outside. He hammered one apart, then drilled into the other. We couldn’t find the goggles. The drill was dying, so we went in to find the drill charger. Or, rather, I did. He said, “I’m just going to relax and serve myself some food.” I complained when I couldn’t find it, and he told me that that was okay and that was just the way life is sometimes. I eventually found it, and we plugged it in outside and played a little more.

He was hungry, so we went to make oatmeal. I had gotten a different brand, but they were also instant oats. But they turned out to be thicker, and ended up chunky. He said he didn’t like it, but he ate it anyway. Carly got home from going to meet with teachers in Tira about the upcoming Get to Know You Day at the Jewish school.

August and I experimented with the oats. We used knives and scissors to break some into smaller pieces, then cooked those in the microwave. And I made a bowl on the stove. He liked the microwave bowl better. August then had us do an imagining game where I was him and he was me. We acted like each other a bit. We were next talking about our plans for the day and were talking about going into town to get ice cream, as he hadn’t done any hitting today. But then he hit Carly about something and I took him up for a time out.

Up on the bed we played the bird game where the brother takes care of a baby bird, but it turns out it was just a dream, but then they do find a bird and take care of it, then a new one where the boy tried to catch a bird to eat.

We went downstairs, and he requested a hot dog so he could try the mustard in the fridge. He ate that, then we read some Hilo. He then took the plant out of the pot that he had boiled earlier. He now had a yellow broth and was adding things to his soup. We got ready to go to Kfar Sava Park, and he told us, “Just one more thing in my broth and I’ll be ready too.”

We got to the park and walked in. He wanted to go to the playground, but when we suggested a walk through the park first he got upset and ended up with a timeout first. We did go to the playground, and he played several rounds of hide and seek with Carly. Carly went to the bathroom and he and I kept playing, taking turns looking for each other.

We then went for a walk through the park. He rode down a few small hills. Then he fell over once. He wasn’t hurt, but blamed me and hit me, so he had another timeout. We stopped at this outdoor bike/rollerblade path and he ran around and Carly gave him challenges. A bit later he declared we weren’t going any further. We turned around and then stopped at the trampoline place. He needed that, and jumped for 15 to 20 minutes. He kept asking Carly to lift up the edge of the padding so he could see the plants growing underneath.

We got going from there and stopped at the bathroom. Carly took him in. He ended up with another timeout as they came out, and we headed back to the car and left at 4:30.

At home we finished reading Hilo book 5 again, then he worked on his soup. Added things like milk and vinegar and oil. Quite a mixture. We had noodles for dinner, and discussed fixing the catapult. He talked about his lab and told me that the floor and ceiling are made of sandpaper. I asked why, and he replied, “I just like a rough surface.”

I went upstairs to do some work, and they were Skyping with Cherie and Chuck, I think. They made popcorn and watched some of the polar bears and seals video, but he was more interested in acting it out. I came down and Carly went to take a shower. He added more to his soup, including some cream, and talking me into brewing a little coffee so he could use some. He played with the tools, then we went and started reading Hilo from book 1. ‘Rehearsal’ was the word of the day, from that.

We made some toast, and he told me about his machine that does surgery. He said it is “the most expensive machine you can buy…but it’s really energy efficient.” We read more Hilo, finishing 7 chapters. I took him up to his bath, and then came down to get him dressed. We went up to brush his teeth, and he sang a song that sounded like a show tune. It went, “everything is permanent, everything is permanent…except ink and paper! Right? Am I right?”

Carly came up and I left them at 8:50.

Andrea posted a Storypark story about them making bridges after reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Of August she wrote, “August tried multiple materials including: blocks, sticks, corks, and small wooden discs. He made a stop motion video to test out his bridge. He found that the weight of the goat was too heavy to hold his goat at the final part of his bridge and had to use his problem solving skills to try a new way!”

Sawing the plant:

Working on his story:

Hammering electronics parts:

Hammering ice:

Drilling ice:

Hide and seek at the park:

Falling on the bike:

Running around at the bike track:

Trampolining:

He was up at 6:35 and came into the bathroom, where I was getting ready, to use the bathroom. He dripped on his pajamas, so we changed his clothes before heading downstairs. He cuddled with Carly and was a little sad that she was going to work. He asked her to go with us to the science center. But we mentioned food and he cheered up and told her, “Remember, you need to share that free lunch with me.” Yesterday he had eaten her leftover cafeteria lunch after school. When she didn’t know if she’d be able to take extras today, he said, “Ask them.” “But not if there’s any spicy stuff or tomatooor peppers.”

After she left he got a plastic bag and asked me for two ice cubes, then to put a little cold water in it. It turned out to be the sort of ice that they get the kids at school when someone gets hurt. He helped chop the mango and we made oatmeal. He ate at the table, and asked Siri to play the song “The Cat Came Back”, which he learned at school. He got it, but it wasn’t the version he was expecting. We figured out he wanted the version by the Laurie Berkner Band and listened to other music from her as well.

He told me his trucks just take recycling to a field and dump it. we then went upstairs for a pillow fight and he turned it into a baby bird imagining game. We then went downstairs when he wanted to do a porcupine game. We looked up what they eat (trees, etc.) as part of the game. He also made rainbow slime for Green Monster, which I had mentioned that he used to do: “first I have to shop for moss and rainbow powder…now I put some ground up gooeyduck in it, then some powdered sugar…”

He watched some Wild Kratts, then we got ready to go and left about 9:45. We listened to the last Story Pirates of the season (18), then a couple of the early ones (2 and 3). He listened the whole way and looked out the window. He mentioned seeing a billboard or ad for fruit again, but I didn’t see it. He said he thinks it has a grapefruit and something else, and a person on it.

We were in the science center about 10:50. There’s a sundial thing outside the entrance, and he hopped a passcode on the way in, and later on the way out. We dropped one coin on the vortex thing, then wandered through the museum. He told me he made a “cryboceptor…it takes away electricity.” One exhibit has you vote whether you think that machines will be able to love. I asked him for his vote and he said, “I think they will, becuase I might invent a computer that learns to love.” In the food area he said he was the one that put the big pile of garbage in the center, and we learned about spirulina. We went in the electricity area and he played with the paper clips thing. There were few times I wanted to keep doing things, but he would want to go somewhere else. He gave me an exasperated “Yeah, I know. You can make lightning bolts,” as he pulled me away from the Jacob’s Ladder.

He showed me where he sent messages to other countries with Gramma and Grampa (when we first walked in he had said, “I went here with Gramma and Grampa.)

Then to the area near the entrance with the big metal structure with tracks for balls. He first played with the microscope thing, even putting his tongue on it, then we played with the ball machine.

We eventually headed outside. We sat and had some snack, then he took the Cheerios with him up into the big ply structure. He climbed up through a ladder/stairs thing, and I took the easy stairs to the top. He got me to crawl in for a minute, then he then climbed down. We walked around outside and looked a bit at the part they are working on. Doesn’t look like they’ll have the new/remodeled exhibit space done anytime soon. Rather annoying, with the Hadera museum also being closed for who-knows-how-long.

The cafeteria was open and he wanted food, but he was wary of going in. He wasn’t convinced it was open, even though the lights were on and there was a guy in there. He’s developed a sense of trespassing, and there were a few other times when we would be the only ones walking into an exhibit room and he’d be afraid to be there because he thought it was close.

But we went in and got a tuna salad sandwich. He wanted a chocolate pudding thing and commented on how he had had them before. I mentioned he’d gotten them a couple times at the grocery store in town. He added, “Yeah, and I had one when I moved in our house…and one was strawberry.” We sat inside and ate.

Around 12:30 he had said he was ready to go to the park and was done with science. But then we went back inside. We went to the very top, where we hadn’t been yet. He showed off the ‘atom translator’ and told me what a bunch of them were. There was a science demonstration starting down in the stage area, but when we confirmed it was in Hebrew he wasn’t interested. August was saying things in mooka mook and told me, “I think you should take a mooka mook class from me sometime.”

We went up to the very top, which seemed closed to him because no one was up there. There was a container of sticks, and August immediately thought of them as swords. He demonstrated his sword technique, which I think is a combination of influence from Shivers, Mighty Jack, and seeing kids at school. Then, we stopped at the drum that moves air to shake little disks. I really liked that. He was then back to the atom translator “that slow one is circulatatiin 5…” On an exhibit that shows how light can transmit sound, or maybe it was the one next to it, I used Shazam to identify the song, and it was “The Robots” by Kraftwerk.

And then, a long time making paper airplanes. He had me make one, but then he insisted that all of the flaps and things be taped down, and he carefully did that one. We held on to that one, as he didn’t want to lose it, and I made a second for him to shoot out of the launcher thing. We did that, and then were launching all of the random ones on the ground over the edge so they’d fly down below (which was okay to do).

We watched the wave machine a couple times, and the last thing he spent a long time on was the paper clips again. This time, he decided to make a paper clip chain out of all of them. He also insisted, after getting it half done, that they all be in the same direction. Cool to see him focused on it. Finally, he spent a few minutes on a couple of the other electronics things, like the one where you touch it and you are acting as an antenna.

There was the announcement of it closing at 2. He was reluctant to stop at the bathroom on the way out as he was afraid we’d be locked in. But we did that, then headed out. ‘Touchdown’ became the word of the day as we talked about a airplane or spaceship landing for some reason.

In the car we listened to “The Robots”. We got over to the park and I parked, but August wanted to keep listening to the song on repeat, and he said he had thought it would take a long time to get to the park. I looked at him and realized he was going to fall asleep in a minute, so we got going.

He was asleep from 2:35 to 3:30 and I was able to listen to the book on Jerusalem that I’ve been listening to on and off. He woke up as we got home, and I carried him in and he rested on the couch. He watched a Magic School Bus, and Carly got home. They went outside, and realized that he tomato plants in the shadier pots were actually bigger than the ones in the fence-top pot. August was going to take photos of them and Carly got my phone, but then he did something and she took him up for a timeout.

Back downstairs I got him noodles. We had a discussion of Japanese versus Chinese soy sauce and he asked good questions about why there are different foods in different places and why people like different things. It touched on culture and trade and globalization and ecosystems. When I talked about how people in different people had developed different cultures of food and what tastes good, he asked “Then why when we go to Gramma and Grampa’s the food still tastes good to us?” Which led to a discussion of how he’s been exposed to different food cultures, etc.

We then went and played with the magnet blocks. He was making a structure out of triangles and got a bit grumpy as his perfectionism was showing once again today and he wanted to make a roof for it that didn’t have any cracks. We discussed his changing birthday plans, and it is now much more doable: he wants Taya and Eve and her sister Zoe, and it is okay if their parents are all here.

He was then smothering Carly, then they went and he was building with the blocks with her. Something minor happened (he tripped over her or something?) and he dramatically said, “Mama, I almost died-ed.” Carly and I were discussing school and kindergarten etc. (based on discussions she’d had at her PLC meeting today) and I asked August if he knew the kindergarten teachers’ names. He didn’t, but he did remember Ramona Quimby’s kindergarten teacher’s name from the book.

Carly went upstairs and August and I ended up watching the latest two Marble Machine X update videos. Really like how August picks up on his learning from his mistakes and the perseverance and attention to detail. Also, he really likes all of the tools.

He took the silver paper off of the set of crayons from the goody bag from Taya’s party. He was then drawing with them, but frustrated when they were breaking. I glued a couple.

He ate more noodles, then was making a book with Carly. I went for a walk. They had completed a couple pages of the book, and she gave him a bath.

He looked in the fridge and accused us or just cooking more food and leaving food to rot in the fridge. Clearly an idea about not wasting that he got from school. He had even more noodles and veggies and talked bout how much he liked them.

I took him upstairs. He told me, “You’re magical, because you keep me safe.” And he said, “Ms. Rimona’s magical cuz she keeps everyone in the school safe…Everybody’s magical in some way.” He then decided, “I’m magical now! Not scientific…you don’t know how complicated my laboratory can get.”

We had the lights off at 9:10. We discussed our day and our weekend plans. For an experiment he suggested putting Cheerios in food processor, and he wanted to find a park with trees to climb and he wanted to find a place with good food. He twice rolled over and said something random to me when I thought he was about sleep. Second time was to tell me about the garbage at the science center again and how his trucks dump it in a garbage dump. He took quite awhile, but was asleep by 9:55.

Teuni Teuni song:

Dancing paper clips:

Sending messages:

Ball thing 1:

Ball thing 2:

Atom translator:

Sword technique:

Paper airplane blowing:

Pair airplane launcher:

Turning magical instead of scientific:

Carly woke him up before she left. He wanted to cut with the utility knife. I let him cut the mango for his oatmeal instead. He told me, “I once made a treat in my laboratory out of milk, starch, and maple syrup.” He watched the Berenstain Bears Bad Habit episode and we got ready. He wanted a present in his little piece of umbrella wrapping paper, and I wrapped a single Whopper candy. He was obsessed with presents after that. I told him that would lead to less presents in the future. We got out at a good time, 7:33. But just past the park I realized August didn’t have his sweatshirt on. He had his sweatshirt-like crab shirt on, but it wasn’t enough, so we went back and got it.

They hadn’t started meeting when we got there. Instead, they were having the kids bring the ponchos out of the bomb shelter. In fact, when Marion told him to go get his poncho from the bomb shelter that sounded odd to me. They always refer to it as the ‘safe room’. My suspicion was correct. In the evening August would be asking me about the ‘bomb shelter’ and said Marion saying it was the first time he’d heard it called that.

Anyway, he and Millie carried his out. August got distracted by Legos and didn’t help straighten it. I went over and said good bye and he reminded me to wait on the bench.

I was meeting with Julie Fisher and Rachel Gutman on the redesign of the website for the Consortium for Israel and the Refugees. Originally planned for 11, but it was switched to 12:30. I worked on the website in the morning. Drove to her house in Ra’anana and we met until about 2:40. Julie is the wife of Daniel Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel. He is in Florida right now, giving a speech to the JNF. So kind of odd, as I also work for Sabeel and we have an entry about the bad things the JNF does in the Kumi Now book. We got a lot of work done on the new website I’m doing for them.

When we left, Julie and I ended up at the school at the same time, although had gone different routes. She is on the WBAIS board and they are doing contract negotiations with the teachers. I had joked they should give the teachers everything they want, and should get those gas cards back for us.

I was at school about 3:10. Carly had picked him up and I found them in her classroom. No ice cream. He’d had a rough day: he had hit Simone because he had broken something of August’s, then subsequently blew a raspberry at Ms. Minnie. He hit Millie because she wouldn’t let go of the swing, and he hit a boy from PKC because he sat in August’s spot at literacy group.

I walked home and did some work, and they got home about 5:10. Outside he picked a broccoli leaf and wanted to eat it. Carly let him put salt on it to make it taste better. With me he then cut pieces of the iHerb box with the utility knife. He spotted his folding comb/brush and exclaimed, “Ah! My instrument!” He ‘played’ it for several minutes. He ate noodles for dinner. We were listening to a Beat Happening song, and he started singing “I’m gonna crush you.” Instead of “I’ve got a crush on you.” I made him stop.

We popped buttered popcorn and read Shivers. ‘Meanwhile’ was the word of the day. He then had me create an obstacle course. I took him up and he had a lollipop while I washed his hair. That went pretty well. He then brought up the ‘bomb shelter’ comment from Marion and ‘bomb shelter’ was a word of the day: “Bomb shelter stands the strength of a bomb…why do people have those rooms in the classroom in case there’s an emergency?”

We read more of Shivers #1. He was then jumping on the bed and told Carly, “I think we need to get a more bouncier bed, mama.” I think I half-convinced him that our bed is as bouncy as they come. He was then running around in circles on the bed: “I’m tiring out a turkey by running…10 percent, now zero…now to grind it up! And I eat it!…Don’t worry, I cooked the chicky.” I left them at 9:10 and he was soon asleep.

Carrying out the poncho:

Using the utility knife:

Playing the comb 1:

Playing the comb 2:

Taking my food:

Taking my food 2:

Carly woke him up before she left. They spent some time on the couch before she left. I made us pancakes for breakfast, then he wanted to use the utility knife he knows I have up on a shelf upstairs. I taught him about using it and he carefully cut a triangle out of cardboard, then the knife went away. We got ready for school. He had plans for other things he wanted to do, and complained I always tell him we can do things after school.

Smooth walk to school. At some point, out of the blue, he told me, “Dada, even when I’m in 1st grade I’ll still hate Mind Yeti.” I reminded him he’d only listened to about 10 seconds of Mind Yeti before passing judgment. Thought we had left earlier, but we were just beating the bus kids in as they walked in the school. August hurried in front of them to get to class first. He was a bit hyper when he went in and to Ms. Andrea. I was able to remind him about ice cream and being able to read the new Hilo book (#5, which just came out yesterday) if he had a good day.

I rode home and worked, then rode back to pick him up. He came out and told me he had two hitting incidents. The first was with Ms. Marion when she took from someone, either him or Judson, one of those snap bracelets, which August said belonged to Sophia but that she had left when she moved. Kind of muddled, but didn’t sound awful. He then said that during Playball Reia had hit him, and he hit her back. She didn’t cry though, and Dion didn’t get either of them in trouble, so it didn’t sound too bad. Also, he had gotten hand stamps from Dion for doing good, so he was happy about that. He had intentionally smeared them on the back of his hands, but had also gotten it over his face, on his chin and under his nose. At first I thought something was wrong. When I talked to Andrea she said it had been a really good day for him, with just a couple of times they had to calm him down. As he and I were talking on the bench he asked me, “Can we talk about the good things now?” He had been sitting on my lap, facing me and tying my headphones together.

In the classroom he really fixated on a grapefruit again and wanted to take it and started to get upset when Andrea and I both said it needed to stay there. These are the same grapefruits he got into a confrontation with Eve and Lydia about last Tuesday. Andrea told me they had worked on their ponchos today, and she had noticed that he had a lot of symmetry to his.

August told me he knew about the fire today, and told me it was an electrical fire. I asked how he knew that, and he said the voice from the wall had said it. Carly later said there had been a lot of announcements today over the intercom. There had been an electrical fire in a chemistry classroom in the high school. It was put out, but there was some substantial damage. High schoolers were sent home early, but the rest of the school wasn’t. He went on to tell me about his fire control systems in his lab: “It has coison in it.” “It’s to keep away pirates or put out electricity fires.”

Since he’d had a pretty good, but not perfect day, I told him we could read the new Hilo book but not get ice cream, but he could have a small treat at home. He was talking about burning things, and it became a discussion of what you can and can’t burn, and ‘arson’ was a word of the day, followed by ‘vandalism’. Near the park he got off the bike to look at an ad on the ground. It was for a gutter installation service, and he was excited about it being on the ground, and said, “That was useful!” We are now supposed to call that number if we need new gutters. He left it on the ground though so that other people could find it.

He was riding on his own, and went fast so I had to run. He said he was making me exercise, and I said he was pacing me. He said ‘pacing’ was the “Word of the day!”

We were home at 4:10. He got out a string cheese by himself and I taught him how to open it. He had had one in his lunch, but a teacher had opened it for him. Oh, and in his box today I found a piece of paper with rubber stamps on it, and the words ‘DADA Love’. I always write ‘Love, Dada’ at the bottom of the Lunch Robot cartoons. But he said that he hadn’t made this.

He had some toast and chose the Kinder Egg for his treat. The toy was a little transforming robot/spaceship. We read the Superman book, then Hilo 5. It is really good (and he did a lot of laughing), but shorter than the others, and has a huge cliffhanger ending…and the next volume doesn’t come out until next January. Cruel, really. I did not tell August that part. He hadn’t been happy to find out that it would be a year until the next Shivers book.

Carly had gotten home at 5. He was hyper with her, then she went upstairs and we finished the book. He told me about using something to make texture in clay and said that he had done it “One time to make a house with Ms. Marion.” Carly came down and we had dinner. I gave him a timeout when he was saying ‘butt’ and wouldn’t stop.

We went down and played with the magnet blocks, making houses in different ways and putting small things in the rooms. He brought up the term ‘pain in the neck’ and said it was a word of the day when I explained what it meant. He said he was being a pain in the neck to Judson but wouldn’t explain what he meant by that.

When he went to the bathroom he wanted Carly to watch behind him. He talked about liking Vicky more, but said, “I still want to paint her bones…I wouldn’t take her muscles. She could still be alive…I could use bags of blood to keep her body running.”

She took him up for his bath. He didn’t do well and hit her, so we said we couldn’t re-read Hilo today. She had him do a paper, drawing what happened, and then writing words on it together, like they do at school, then they played on the bed.

I took over while she took a shower. He was drawing faces on the back of his paper. I asked if one had big teeth, but he said, “Thats just an old grandpa” so it has a beard (with two points). He said he wanted to read Elephant and Piggie books. I looked, and they aren’t available digitally. He was frustrated I couldn’t get them right away, but I said we could get them at the library.

Carly took over and I said good night to them about a quarter to 9.

Testing out the bicycle helmet:

Riding his bike and talking about riding an airplane:

Drawing faces 1:

Drawing faces 2:

Jumping from the bed:

Carly woke him up before she left. He came down and had oatmeal and we read Monster Party. He then politely asked to watch a little Wild Kratts and watched part of the praying mantises episode. We got going, and were walking by 7:37.

As we walked, I started to sing the “More Bones” song. Apparently my subconscious had figured it out, as August said “That’s the song I wanted to listen to more in the car!” The one he was humming last night. He hummed it the rest of the way to school.

Drop off went well. We were there just before the bus kids. He reminded me to sit on the bench for a few minutes. I did that, then I went up to the library until 9. Then, I went out and sat by the front gate, waiting for the courier to deliver our passports. While I waited, listening to books, the school had a shelter drill and I got to go to the basement of the auditorium building. The courier called a bit later and I had to get one of the security guards to talk to him. He drove in and I signed for them and rode my bike home, about 11.

Worked, then left by 1:30 to head back to school. When I went in he came and told me that he had hit Millie. I hadn’t thought there was a paper that went with it, but I found it later. Don’t think I actually learned what the incident was about. I was a little early for library time, so got to hang out a bit and help with cleanup. Hector was writing the same math problem (5+5=10) over and over. August asked him, “How much math problems is that?” And while I was helping with something else I heard him telling Andrea all about how we had taken apart a monitor and he’d found electrical tape and put it on the hook and now it is permanent. He came to me and asked, “Do you think Ms. Andrea likes having a robot in her class? Because she likes science.” And he showed me his art: two shakers (one in a metal can and one in a plastic container, so they made different noises), a unicorn puppet he had made out of a paper bag with Ms. Ramona at some point, and a cup he had painted last Wednesday.

We headed to library time. All was smooth until Ilana and I took them into the back room. They were going crazy climbing up onto the benches and her chair and not listening, so she had me go get Marion. She told them the “I know an old woman who swallowed a fly” song using the finger puppets, then read two storybook versions of it. One an older straight version, and one that was something like “I Know an Old Teacher”. Millie had clearly forgiven August, as she was reaching over and playing with his hat. He, of course, checked out The Story of Superman as he now loves superheroes. I am not thrilled by this development (I’ll take it over the hitting, but not by much).

We went back to the classroom after school and got our stuff and sat out on the bench. We read the Superman book twice, and in talking about his behavior at school he said, “I have to be funny.” He was asking me questions about knives and saws and how you use them, and what for, and I said I had never sharpened a saw. He asked me, “In your meetings in Israel could you learn how to sharpen a saw?” I asked if he meant with Omar, and he said that yes, maybe Omar knew how.

We walked home. We listened to “More Bones” on my phone. He did a fair amount of pedaling on his one in places. In the park area between the small playground and the synagogue he stopped to look at berries, and explained how the little berries grew into the bigger berries that birds can eat but humans cannot.

At home he was hungry so I got him a piece of toast and peanut butter and honey. I had let him have some of it without peanut butter, as per his request, but he didn’t like how the honey just soaked in, and we talked about why that happens, and how the peanut butter works, and compared it to wood and water with a sealant between it. The word ‘waterlogged’ came up and that was a word of the day. He sat on my lap at the table and we just sat there, listening to a few songs from Weezer’s new Teal Album before Carly got home at 5:05.

He was smothering her at first. He then got involved with cutting the broken umbrella to make wrapping paper. I wrapped him up a little paper clip sort of thing as a present before I left. He was chatting with Vivian and family as I left, as they had a snow day.

I walked over to the mall and to the store to get some groceries. I was back at 6:15. He was making a soup, which we eventually boiled on the stove. He told us, “When cauliflower gets hotter it turns to broccoli.” Don’t believe he really believed that. He chopped up a carrot using the food processor and ate a good part of it himself. As the soup boiled we discussed the colors of flames and looked it up, as to why they are different (temperatures, as well as how fully the fuel is getting burnt). He added violet to his favorite colors: “pink purple peach lavender silver and violet.” Carly was cooking noodles and tofu and broccoli and we read “The Sneetches” and “Too Many Daves” while he waited for food.

He ate a lot for dinner and said it was really good. We talked more about school and I said he had fun at school and would be bored at home. He told me, “Dada, you’re real entertaining…more than everyone in the whole school.” He brought up the word ‘party pooper’ and turned out he didn’t quite know what it meant, so I explained. He then asked me who I thought would be a party poop, and he listed people like Shmuel, him, mama, Taya, and Shai. I asked which Shai he meant, and it was the one that used to live downstairs. We agreed it was him.

Upstairs I gave him a bath. When he went to the bathroom he told me, “Watch me go to the bathroom…and focus behind me…make sure there’s no ants.” He weighed himself and is now 15.9kg. Said goodnight to Carly and I put him to sleep. He was asleep about 9. I fell asleep with him, and got back up a bit later.

Sounds of his shakers:

Pedaling home:

Not telling me his favorite colors:

His boiling soup:

He was up at 6:54. He came down and sat on the couch and started demanding a treat: “Just give me a treat.” A rather inauspicious start… He watched a Wild Kratts about chameleons and had oatmeal with mango. He went to the bathroom, then looked at the post-it notes on the side of his art kitchen (the ones from the infamous incident with Taya) and asked why they stick. I said it was interesting, and used the word ‘bond’. He sang, “Word of the day!”

He asked, “Why do we have to keep buy more and more stuff?” and we discussed reasons for buying and not buying things. He was playing with the broken umbrella and called it his shell. Mechanical, I think. At some point he was being an upside down turtle, waving his feet in the air and said he learned it from Mr. Dion.

It started to rain about 7:20, so I decided we’d take the car. I had to distract him from the umbrella and we got going after 7:45. When we got to school it was only a light drizzle. At the entrance, where they usually have music playing, there were actually three people playing instruments instead. On the way down I talked through the schedule. I would list something, and he added poop to it: “Poop yoga” “Poop snack” “STEM poop” “Poop ice cream”. The last being the ice cream we would get if he had a good day. When we got to his class Eve greeted us at the door. Yaya and I think Hector were there, and August ran over and started playing with Yaya, looking at (and erasing, I think) the message Marion had written for the day. I hung up his stuff, then was reluctant to leave without saying goodbye, as I was afraid he’d notice and come running after. I hung out on the steps for a couple minutes and he didn’t, so I decided I was good.

It was raining more, but not too heavy and I walked home, listening to The Emissary. I set up my new keyboard and worked from home, then rode my bike back to school. It had actually been pretty sunny, then was getting clouded when I headed out. As I headed up the hill towards school I could see big rain clouds coming in and wanted to get to school quickly. It started to rain once I was already down by the preschool.

I waited a few minutes until Carly showed up, then we went upstairs to meet with Vicky, who is in charge of the preschool. It was a productive meeting with her, as she is quite pragmatic. Still, took quite awhile, an hour and a half, to come up with ideas.

Carly and I then went to the cafeteria. She got a coffee and I got a sandwich, as I hadn’t really eaten lunch. I went and waited for him. He ran out just before 3, past the bus kids lining up. He told me that he had gotten upset with Andrea. He had wanted her help making something (a round piece of cardboard, I think) and she just kept telling him to keep trying. He had gotten upset enough to hit her. Vicky told us, and he told me about it as well, that he had hit Lydia earlier in the day when she had something he wanted. He didn’t go into details, but he still seemed upset with her.

He seemed ambivalent/confused about STEM class, but when I directed him that way he asked for his snack. I gave him a sort of small bar I had gotten at the store yesterday. He ate that, then went in to class. I sat out at the picnic table and read and worked.

Hit near end

Me up to Vicky’s

“I’m trying to not hit at home. And I’m trying to not do it at school.”

We met carly at the library and headed home. When we got here, Shmuel met us at the gate. He wanted to pick the weeds above the door. He did that for us and I got gloves and bagged the weeds.

After Shmuel left, August and Carly were playing school by the whiteboard. They were playing with playdough and adding shapes to the umbrella. He showed her his piece of pumice and then wanted to try to drill a hole in it. I was getting his dinner, so Carly went out with him. He managed to drill a hole in it.

He came in and ate dinner (broccoli, meatballs, and rice). He wanted water and went and refilled his water bottle from the bathroom sink all on his own.

He has the random idea of wanting to put spit on her rights in two different places to see how it soaked through. When she said she had an old pair of tights he could experiment on his idea changed. He wanted to make a concoction to use as laundry deterrent in the washing machine. He had had this idea before, but his concoction at the time had included lotions and other things I wasn’t excited about running through the washing machine.

He made his concoction, with a brief timeout for picking up a sharp knife after Carly told him not to, then Carly helped him load the washing machine.

He got a flashlight and the two of us walked up to the garbage spot by the recycling bins. I had mentioned there was a broken washing machine there and he wanted to see it. The top of the case was ripped open, so we could see the drum and other pieces inside.

We walked home and did some imagining games on the floor, discussing dungeons and prisons and the ethical treatment of prisoners. He was hungry, and said he really wanted oatmeal so we made a bowl, with him doing most of the cutting of the mango. He ate the full bowl.

At one point, I came down from upstairs and he was under the umbrella and said, “Dada, punch me.” I thought he meant his turtle shell, so I pretended to punch the umbrella. But he said he wanted me to punch him. Kind of an odd moment, and I wouldn’t even pretend to do that.

Over on the couch he said something that sounds like “Putting” or “pudding”. When I asked what he was saying he said, “that’s what Ms. Vicky says when she doesn’t have an answer, I think.” I think maybe it is ‘pardon?’ in her English accent. We read Monster Party and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day He asked to read it again, but said, “Just because I love really angry people. Because I love sad people.” We discussed that and didn’t read it again right away.

Carly came down and we were discussing standards-based grading and she talked about how it didn’t click for students. August took on the role of students and kept asking, “Teacher! Why is it not clicking!?”

She took him upstairs for a bath. They came down and he said good night to her and I took him upstairs. We read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and talked more about school. He was humming a song and wanted to listen to it tomorrow, but I couldn’t quite place the tune. Brushed his teeth and we got in bed. The first time in quite a few days where he seemed to actually fight going to sleep for while. He asked for a visualization, but then was interrupting it, so I stopped. Eventually he was quiet, and I fell asleep with him for awhile. I think he was asleep around 9.

Morning music:

Explaining the flowers:

Drilling a hole in the pumice:

Investigating the washing machine:

Humming the mystery song (“More Bones”):