Category: Daily

He was up a little before 6. When I came down a bit later he was watching Pink Panther. Carly got him some bread and apples. She went outside to read and I typed on the couch next to him. He wanted to play Dragonbox Big Numbers with Carly but she was doing laundry. So I read Percy Plays It Safe from Skybrary to him. He then went over to Gramma, who was sitting on one of the chairs used for his fort from last night. He got a stool for her for a table for her tea, then a pillow for under her feet. He told her about the book we just read: “Skybrary…You should try it. There’s lots of books…about good things that happen and bad things…like, there’s a pirate one, so maybe bad things…”

He then said he was one of their cats that they accidentally brought with them. He was Cindy or Iris on and off for the day. He then wanted to play with the guitar and so I went upstairs and we played with that. He brought Gramma up to show her. They then discussed cutting their hair and he said, “Mama is the best hair cutter I’ve ever seen.”

Back downstairs he read a Bob Book to her and then I gave him some iced tea. He likes the idea of iced tea more than the iced tea itself, as he only had a drink and left the rest. He was using the kitchen scale to weigh things when I went up for a shower. When I came down he was sitting next to Gramma, using Voice Memos to record himself singing. He got the kaleidoscope cards out and was playing with them with people. We got ready to head to Apollonia and left at 10:30.

Waze took us on a backroads route, despite having ‘Avoid dirt roads’ turned on, it led us across a few kilometers of dirt roads at the end. It was nice, as it took us past the sculpture area just west of 2 that we’ve always seen from the highway. We liked that, then saw three gazelle in a field to the right of the road. We finally came out right next to Apollonia.

Very busy there. Apparently lots of people have the Election Day off. But we had fun and August did much, much, much better than the first time we took him. A fair amount cooler, too. We saw a kid in a stroller lose a balloon that then floated out over the sea. Then, on the walk north, August really liked the lime kiln and just kept staring and staring at it. We walked to just north of the castle and looked at the siege engines and discussed how they worked, then went to the castle itself. He and Carly sat on a bench area while the rest of us looked around. They were being archeologists and he called her “Archeologist Mama” a few times.

From there we drove over to Cafe Ameli in Nof Yam. We got a green shakshuka, as did my dad, while mom got a toast sandwich with tuna. The shakshukas came with wonderful bread and a salad, so it was just enough food for us. I had a Turkish coffee and Carly and mom got iced lattes. August chose a grapefruit and apple juice, which the woman was reluctant to make at first, but then Carly and I really liked. August was less impressed.

We ate, and we saw some cats. Up to 134. August saw someone and said, “I see someone that looks like Ms. Amelia.” And turned it into a song. He dropped his bread and caught it on the table and said “Good catch” to himself.

We then changed into our long pants and went over to the Sidna Ali Mosque. Mom and Carly used scarves and sweatshirts to cover their heads. We went in and looked around. One man came over and talked to us a bit. I asked him a little about the village that had been here and he pointed in the direction of the houses that still exist but are owned by Jews. I need to work on my interviewing skills, as I think he would have been willing to talk a lot more, and tell us about how the Nakba affected the village.

When August saw gramma with her scarf over her head he told her, “You’re so pretty!” We hadn’t put pants on him, but he wanted them on as well, since we all had on long pants to go in, so I changed him as well.

We went and saw the view from the roof. August played with a grill and a plastic piece he found up there. We then left before 3.

Back in the car he told me “Hey Ryan, I want the shortest way.”

At home he did stop motion with Carly. They made a video, then added to the Big Fish one. I made a mushroom and broccoli quiche and mom helped. Carly made a mango smoothie and August and I drank ours as we watched the Apple event. Lana del Rey performed on it, and as August listened he said, “The iPad said stupid!” The word was actually ‘stoop’, and that became the word of the day.

He then just cuddled with grampa for quite awhile. That was very cool to see. To keep Gramma from moving her chair at the table he put something behind it. This turned into a big game where he made a big mess of stuff on the floor.

I got the quiche out. It was finished, but kind of soft. I had already dished up August’s, so while I put the rest of it back in, he ate most of a big piece. The rest of us ate, and he played Khan Kids or World School while we ate.

He then wanted to go outside with the flashlights. And he had me get Cheerios as well. He invited Grampa out with us. As we went he asked, “Hey, Grampa. How much times in your life have you gone to the doctor?” We all sat out on the bench together. I have no idea where he got the idea, but he asked me, “Could I have an app on my iPad so I can find news and find new words of the day?”

We went in at 6:50 and I put News-O-Matic on his iPad. We watched a video about making a Halloween costume for a dog, then watched the video and read part of the article about a wind and ocean current satellite that was launched. But mainly we looked at the map that went along with it. We discussed how Grampa has now almost been around the entire world, as he had gone as far west as the Straight of Hormuz when in the Navy.

He got a Jolly Rancher as his Halloween treat for today. He said, “Good. Crunchy. Hard.” But then decided it was too sticky so I got the rest. Carly put cream on him, as the back of his left hand has gotten really dry, and now the top of his thighs and the back of his knees as well were looking dry. We also skipped a bath because of it tonight. Anyway, there was a lot of screaming over a little cream.

He didn’t want to go downstairs to say good night, so I said it for hm, then I went for a run. He went to sleep with Carly, and I think he was asleep around 8.

Reading to Gramma:

Seige weapons at Apollonia:

Rocks down the cistern at Apollonia:

Putting Gramma and Grampa to sleep:

His big mess:

His shadows song:

His AAA song:

Reading to Gramma and Grampa:

Entranced by the cistern

Playing with sticks while we waited for food

Lunch

At the mosque

Cuddling with Grampa

His mess

On the swing again

Reading to Gramma and Grampa

Thanks to the time change, he was up at 5:50. He didn’t want to go outside with Carly as it was too cold for him. When I came down a few minutes later he was watching Wanda and the Alien. I sat next to him and typed. He requested his vitamins, then a piece of toast with peanut butter and syrup. He decided it was warm enough to go out with Carly and put on his sweatshirt and shoes and went out with her. She made him chocolate milk. He asked for my watch and was exercising—he showed me an exercise where he was bouncing on the teeter totter. He had me untie the 2kg weight from his project yesterday so he could exercise with it. He then wanted to weigh it on the kitchen scale. He was playing with that and having fun, then got upset when we couldn’t zero out the scale to exactly measure the yeast mixture. Carly took him upstairs for a few minutes.

August wanted to play with the guitar and we ended up playing with it for a really long time. He found some amp and petal setups that he really liked in GarageBand—ones with lots of echo and phasing—and played. He used VoiceMemos to record some of his improv. At one point he wanted me to play the xylophone, but then decided it didn’t go with the guitar. He asked what an amplifier actually was, and ‘amplify’ was the word of the day. Eventually, I went to take a shower and he kept playing with it. He discovered that his synth app would, oddly, start playing when he switched into one other app, but not others, and he called me out to see it.

Back downstairs, I made scrambled eggs and cheese and we ate outside. He was then making a concoction for the plants with Carly. I then made the zucchini bread and he helped with that. He would play iPad, then help when I had something to do. At one point he went and told Carly “Mama, I was thinking about you.” He asked for some honey in a spoon “because you love me.” He played with Toca Band on his iPad and there is one arrangement of musicians on it that he really likes and he recorded it with Voice Memos. He then used my phone to make a long time lapse. He carried it around and then had it hanging from the couch. Eventually, he had it propped up over on the rug somehow and he was playing around on the floor in front of it.

We left at 12:30 and walked over to the mall. I pushed my bike and stopped at the bike shop where they put on new tires and a new back tube and also an iPhone mount for the handlebars—I never use my phone while biking, but I’m always worried it will fall out of my pocket.

While I did that, Carly and August went to Rebar and got one of the chocolate banana smoothies. Carly called and asked what size and I said medium. When I showed up they had gotten a large. August had been worried bout us drinking too much of it. Carly taught him ‘gatorading’. He said, “Gatorading! Word of the day!” As we were finishing it, he justified the large by telling me “I thought I knew that you’d drink lots.” But I was only drinking “lots” because there was a lot left and we wanted to get going.

Carly had gone on ahead to do the shopping: more tape rolls for him and some groceries. August wanted to go to the playground so I did that with him. He climbed on the plane, then was playing imaging games when Carly showed up. She noticed these interesting flowers from the trees with seeds in them and we collected some to try to plant back at home. I left before 1:30 to head home and start baking the bread. August said, “Great. Cuz I don’t really like to do baking.” they found a couple other kinds of seeds after I left, and he found a piece of rope that he tied to his bike on the way back.

I baked the bread and cleaned up the kitchen. They were home at 2:30 and August watched the end of the Mexican Grand Prix qualifying. He wanted to make slime and realized “Time, slime rhyme!” He then chanted “I love time rhyme slime!” I got ready to go pick my parents up at the airport. August was saying bye to me as I left, using his megaphone thing to call out the window: “Good use for my megaphone…bye!” I left at 3:35. Traffic got worse and worse as I went, so I switched routes to take 6, the toll road. Got there in plenty of time. There flight landed at 4:24 and I was there 12 minutes later. They came out about 5:30.

Got to the car and eventually found the exit to the parking garage. We were home before 7. I heard him calling “Gramma!” out the window. He then needed to run and go to the bathroom. He was so excited when he greeted them at the door. A very happy boy.

He took them upstairs and gave them the tour, showing them where everyone sleeps. He said, “Please get used to my tape thing…I tape things…” and went on to explain how he likes to put tape on everything and trick you by taping things down. Downstairs he showed them the slime that he and Carly had made. The special ingredient today was cinnamon. While I was gone they had done that, Carly had made a full dinner, and they had made popcorn. That made August went to watch a nature show about polar bears (of course). She couldn’t find the one they usually watch, but found a different one that they watched together.

Grampa give him a couple of googly eyes he had found on the ship. Each day the towels were folded as different animals and used googly eyes. At first August said he could take them to school to add to the eyes collection there. But then he decided to add them to the piece of art that is hanging on the fridge. Carly got it down and he glued them on. He talked about how many treasures he has “All because of my special eyes!”

We had the chicken and rice and veggies for dinner. August and I then sat on the couch and finished reading Hilda and the Black Hound. August’s hair had been wet when we got home and he’d been talking about how he had washed it. So I had thought he had had a bath. Instead, he had just wanted to style his hair and had gotten it wet.

Carly got his bath ready and I took him up. But when he got in he said that the spider bite still hurt. I agreed to wash him outside the bath, but negotiations broke down over the details and he had a complete meltdown. Carly took him into the bedroom. When he calmed down she had him say goodnight to my parents. She then took a shower and I put him to sleep. He was sad that I wouldn’t tell a story, but he asked for a song. I sang the Alligator song and we made up verses about hippos and dragons. Then I sang the Sleepy Little Nautilus song, then Animal Life. He was asleep at 8:55.

Seesaw exercise:

Guitar improv:

Reading by himself:

Crazy time lapse:

Greeting Gramma and Grampa:

He got up at 6:20. He got his shoes on and went outside with Carly. They started to read Horton Hatches an Egg but then he wanted to see the video about how far humans have dug down into the Earth. They watched that, then he wanted to watch a video on how a gun is made. He said that would be okay because it wasn’t shooting guns, only making then. When I went down around 7 he was editing photos with Waterlogue. He asked for my help using BeCasso and Brushstroke. As I was making tea he said, “I’ve got this thing down.”

We played a preschool game. He was outside the school with machines: “I show them to the school one time every century.” When the parents came they could play with them too. Carly made him chocolate milk and he went outside with her to savor it. I was listening to Hank Williams for the Rolling Stone list. From outside he had me add “There’s a Tear in My Beer” to his playlist. He had heard ‘deer in my beer.’ He came in and did a long time lapse. We set one up on the tripod of him playing in the living room. He drew on his cardboard box and things, and a coupe of booklets from recycling: “Mama! I am writing on important books!”

He said “A ‘menalsee’ is when you want to remember something but can’t.” We then finished the Hilda book. He made ‘stagnant’ the word of the day when Hilda’s mom said they couldn’t drink the stagnant water. He asked, “Can I please sink into the page and you can 4ad about me.”

I went up and took a shower. He watched Wanda and the Alien as Carly and I cleaned. He was then playing with the weight and rope. Had a meltdown after we took him off the table as he was trying to tape the end of the rope to it to keep the weight, tied to the other end, off the ground. “I can do it by myself!”

Carly took him upstairs. When he came back down he worked on his machine. We got the 2kg weight and had the rope over the chalkboard with the 1kg weight hanging on one side and the 2kg on the other. He then added the loudspeaker thing with the bracelet string.

Carly headed to the store and I made us pizza for lunch and added more to his machine. I did more cleaning upstairs, then Carly got home. As she drove up we were getting ready to take up recycling. He saw the car pull up and said, “Hi Skoda Mama! How are you driving on your own? Is there somebody with you?” He was then singing “Theres a keister in my hair, there’s a keister in my moustache…” And parts of “Pumped up Kicks”

We left and did recycling, then played and exercised at our park. He mentioned pushups and then said we should go to the Snakes and Ladders playground to do pushups. When we got there I realized he meant pull-ups, as that was sort of what he’d been doing on the ropes before.

On the way up he wanted a song like “Pumped Up Kicks” and he had an idea about a song he said was from the summer: “I’ll give you a hint: door and girl” I figured out he meant “It was Like that When We Go Here” by Camper Van Beethoven. I remember signing it to him last spring on our way to school.

We played and rested up on the rope area at the spider web playground, then eventually headed home, getting here at 3:40. We started the next Hilda (Black Hound). He was then singing through the microphone thing. At one point he asked, “Has it been like one and a half rest times?” I like how he uses rest time (20 minuets) as a measurement of time.

He knew that the school Spooktacular was longer (2 hours) thn the preschool party yesterday. He also knew that Carly had had to work during yesterday’s. So he asked her, “Do you need to work during the two-hour one?…Oh, so can you be with me?” I told him he was silly and he said, “That’s because I have a whole silly computer.”

We got to the Spooktacular at 5:30. First thing we did was get popcorn. She had kids doing dance moves to get popcorn, and August danced for her.

We collected candy at the first half, then wandered over to the games area. The only one he wanted to do was spinning the wheel to get something. He just got a plastic spider but seemed okay with that. While we waited in line for that he watched Lydia throwing beanbags or something at an activity across from us. We then went and did more candy collecting. We saw Eve and she gave him a hug.

We went out and got dinner. They shared a hot dog and I took a brisket sandwich. We sat on the curb and ate. Actually a nice view with the sun setting. We went in and used the bathroom. We saw Omri on the way out and he said “Hi!” We left at 6:30. As we walked to the car he found a wristband on the ground but it hadn’t been broken. He guessed that someone had it on the antenna of their car for some reason, then said “Hypothesis!”

He sang “There’s a deer in my moustache.” He was changing the misheard words of the song from earlier for even more comedic affect.

At home, he went outside with me about 7:15 and we sat on the bench again. he was keeping it a secret from Carly, telling her “We’re not going outside!” He looked at the astronomy app, and he wondered why the flashlight would light up the tree, but not show up on things farther away. So we talked about how it goes out in a cone and there is less light to reflect back. I asked what the best thing is about preschool and he said yoga. He said the worst thing was Lydia.

Carly gave him a bath, then we played and he cuddled with me in the play area and I brushed his teeth. Carly was putting him to sleep in the small room, as we had rearranged the rooms and were going t sleep in there. I left them before 9. He told me “Just turn off the light.” He was giggling, as he was waiting to use the second switch to turn it back on after I turned it off.

He was asleep around 9:15.

Yesterday he had said “I’ve been working on this all year. I’m making an art project and sending it on airplanes.” Not sure what that was inspired by.

Exercising:

Pumped up Kicks 1:

Pumped up Kicks 2:

Running in circles to complete the exercise ring:

Playing with the tripod:

Trick or treating:

Halloween candy:

Planting seeds

Dirty from a bar

Exercising and resting in the parks

Posing for Mandy

Watching Lydia

With Eve

I twice heard him laughing in his sleep. He woke up at 6:50, right after Carly had left for work. After he woke up, he wanted me to do the storytelling dice right away, but I had to tell him to watch Aardvark and the Ant first as I was still finishing up his lunch and snack. We then did one story with the dice before we headed out at 7:40. Along the way we found a very random scarecrow toy/decoration lying on the side of the road that we had to take a photo of. At the classroom, he didn’t want me to leave again, like yesterday, and wanted me to go sit on the bench. I told him I’d wait for a couple minutes to make sure he was okay, and he went in. So not as bad as yesterday.

I went home and finished the book cover and cleaned out the fridge. I went back to the school at 2 for the Halloween party. I met him at the top of the stairs. He was looking around for me, dressed in his costume, and when he found me he said, “I thought you’d be wearing a costume.” We took some photos of him in his costume, then the elementary school did their Halloween costume parade around the center area. Carly was along the middle of the route with her students, a couple who were yelling “Oxygen! We love you!”

When it was done, we headed down to the preschool. We figured out where I was supposed to help, in the covered area by his classroom. He went over to the table with the play dough and played there and I ran the pin the nose on the pumpkin game for a few minutes. Then the crowds disappeared in our area—everyone was over getting food and doing the other activities. So August and I went and got food. That was his focus for the rest of the time, as we went back a couple times to get more. He really liked browsing the table and finding things to eat. He started with the kettle corn and a piece of chocolate cake and snack mix. Went back and got some yogurt cake and more snack mix and some apple banana juice. I got some peach juice, which he shared, then a different kind of apple banana drink. When there was an announcement about kindergarten heading back to class he complained, “But that was so short.”

We did the last of our eating and drinking in his classroom at a table, then Carly came by to check in. She went to pack up, and he and I headed to the library. Liz and Eve were closing up, but Liz let us drop off the Hilda book we had (Troll) and we quickly ran back and grabbed the two books they had that we hadn’t red yet (Stone Forest and something else). She wrote them down, as she’d already shut down the computer. She told me that they had watched an episode of the Hilda cartoon after I told them it existed and that it is good. August reminded us that the reason he hadn’t wanted to watch it was that the intro was too scary.

Outside the library I talked to Eve about her favorite books—ideas for books to read with August, maybe—then he and I went to Carly’s classroom.

During the day, Carly had seen him outside the windows behind her class. They were collecting things, and he told me it was things for the big color wheel they have in the classroom. They had had a tea party in the morning, but no music class. Also, Amelia had seen me in the classroom and asked if I was the one that wrote the comics for his lunch. He had asked her to read it to him today.

He ran down the ramp to Carly’s classroom, then inside he did a song and dance he said was from a past music class. It involved putting his hands on his shoulders and sticking out his tongue and dancing around. Carly let him draw on the smartboard, then she did a math class with him. She was using a funny voice and he was laughing a lot.

We headed home. Here, he played on iPad. Carly swept up outside and I did the dishes. I sat next to him and typed as he played Chesster and traced words. I asked him about Lydia and he said he had just said one thing to her today: “Hi.” And she had said “Hi” to him. I congratulated him and he seemed quite happy with himself. He drew a plastic molecule on paper and I discussed a ‘compound’ with him and that became the word of the day.

He basically ate his lunch for dinner: almond butter and jam sandwich and apple slices. It was dark, and he had the idea of going outside with the flashlights and a bowl of Cheerios. We went out for a few minutes and it was a secret that Carly wasn’t supposed to know about. But then he invited her out too. She came out and after awhile I went and got sweatshirts for me and August. I was making ‘winter is coming’ sorts of jokes. August said, “What to elves learn at school? The elf-abet!” He remembered that from a list of jokes I had looked up at some point. I think when we were waiting for Carly in the parking lot of the school one day. I went inside, and when he wanted hot chocolate I made it for him—the savoring kind. He had that at the table and I came back out. He told me I bad manners for going inside. And he told us, “Ms. Marion and Ms. Andrea hate to talk to me.” We talked to him about class size ratios.

Inside, Carly gave him a bath. He played in the sink and made a big mess. He went and got his own pajamas and socks. They then played with the kaleidoscope cards and played the tea game.

I switched with Carly and he and I read Hilda and the Stone Forest. At 8:20 he went down and had a really nice good night cuddle with Carly. Upstairs, we did a storytelling dice story: “The Day I Saved the Princess from the Monkeys”. It was time for lights off, but he remembered wanted to look at the book about prehistoric animals. so I went and got that, and we looked at the earliest things. Trilobites were what I was trying to remember yesterday. We talked about amino acids, etc. and formation of life. He had found a drug chemical that is the missing link using his time machine. He was talking about time, and father we turned off the lights I told him about how time runs differently at every point in the universe—everything I’d learned from the first few chapters of the Carlo Rovelli book, The Order of Time, I had started listening to today.

I thought he was asleep after this little lecture, but he rolled over and told me, “I don’t think my teachers like me anymore.” Basically, it sounds like he misses the choice times and he’s not able to roam around like he did at the beginning of the year. I think they are also more intentional of trying to guide him to sit next to certain other kids, etc. He sees all of this as them telling him what to do, and he doesn’t get to make choice. We talked about this, then I asked him if he wanted me to sing.

I sang “The Other Day, I Met a Bear”. He the requested the alligator song I made up in Korea. I sang that twice, and he fell asleep just after 9:20.

The Halloween costume parade:

Playing with play dough at the party:

Song and dance from music class:

Coloring on the smart board:

Laughing at Mama’s math lesson:

His crazy classroom time lapse:

It’s fresh and Rosy fingered like the dawn:

Oxygen molecule

Parade

Playdough at the preschool party

Food and more food

Looking at Amelie

Their color wheel

A photo of me

Out in the wind

6:20. He actually woke me up, as my alarm hadn’t gone off. When I came down he had a science experiment going on on the kitchen floor: they had cut a paper straw in half and put each half in a different pot of water, one cold and one hot. She left, and he watched Aardvark and Ant. He then wanted a storytelling dice story and I made up “The King’s Mistake”. We were walking at 7:40.

Along the way he asked me, “Did you know that before the dinosaurs there was a flood that covered the Earth for ten hundred thousand years?” Everything was fine until we got to the classroom. Suddenly, he got upset about the schedule and wanted a check-in. He kept saying like yesterday, but yesterday I came at the end of school and before dance class. He didn’t accept this explanation. His teachers were running the meeting but Michelle was there, trying to coax him in, which wasn’t necessarily helping. But after a couple minutes I told him I needed to go and he needed to stay. He was upset but let me go. I heard him complaining as I left, but I think he calmed down quickly.

I worked on the cover, then in the afternoon I drove down to Ikea where I got a glass mixing bowl and a digital kitchen scale for bread-making purposes and priced a Dutch oven for the same. I then went to the iDigital store to get some phone supplies.

I drove to the school and picked up August. Andrea told me he had been playing with Reia and Sophia and Judson today. She said in particular they had been playing with the “vines” – branches that Marion had put over by the playground for them to play with. August took me over to show me and we added more vines to the play structure. He sat on the steps of it, in the vines, and ate more of his food. We talked about Lydia. He hadn’t waved at her, but had ignored her “And she ignored me.”

He talked about the dinosaur liver he discovered at the archeology site and asked “What was before dinosaurs?” I told him about how amazing it would be to get dinosaur DNA to study. I told him about wooly mammoths.

He wanted his iPad and he played on that. He had asked me “What do I have after rest time” and I told him that he’d already had it—It was now after school. They hadn’t had studio choice time for the last two Thursdays either, so I went in and talked to his teachers. Andrea said he had told them about his experiment this morning. She said he should take before and after photos and share them with the class.

The big news was that they started literacy groups this week, Tuesday to Thursday, in the morning. Funny we hadn’t heard anything about that. Anyway, partly because of that they have been changing the schedule around and haven’t had the choice time per se. But this afternoon they sort of had an open preschool time, so there were PKC and PKB students down, etc. Selma had been tracing August in sidewalk chalk as he lay down.

I also asked Marion about breadmaking, and August showed up to find out why I was taking so long. We went back and he was now watching some Sarah and Duck. He also got up on the big round swing all on his own and got himself swinging back and forth as he stood on it. Clearly something he learned from the other kids and I’d never seen it before.

So the plan had been to go to Ikea to get ice cream as a reward for eating his lunch (he’d done okay, eating half of his tuna sandwich). But August wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere. I suggested we go to the health food store in town and get something from their treat cooler instead and he liked that idea. Carly said she’d go with us.

We left at 3:50. Stopped by the library and he went to the bathroom. Played a preschool game about the goatdog. As we left the bathroom he said “The only rule is there is no rules.” And he told me “There’s no rules in war.” I said there kind of was, but it is complicated. He said, “Like, you can use hammers? Catapults?”

Carly was there and we headed to the car. As we walked he was sounded out his name “Au-gu-su-tuh…my name is four syllables.” He had been learning about syllables in literacy class. He said, “You should call me Augustino more.”

We drove up into town and parked in the dirt lot. We walked over to the health food store and looked in the cooler. August ended up getting a small container of lemon pie ice cream and Carly got a coconut chocolate popsicle like they have at the school cafeteria. We sat at the one table outside and as he ate he said, “It’s like crazy good.”

We headed home, getting here a little after 5. Outside on the teeter totter he discussed literacy group. He was reciting part of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Ms. Vicky leads his group. Selma and a few other kids from PKC are in it. It was unclear whether he likes it or not. He said “Definitely not fun” But “Yes it is.”

We put batteries in the kitchen scale and we learned how to use it and he made spicy soup. He and I then made yeast starter, mixing flour and water together. He wanted to taste water mixed with cinnamon, so he had some of that. Then I mixed him up some with milk and he drank that. I talked about the cinnamon overpowering the flavor of my coffee when I put just a little in and ‘overpower’ became the word of the day.

He kept repeating “The season is the reason” from Aardvark and Ant. Watched it again. His favorite episode is the one with the ant catching machine and they don’t catch any ants. He had a bowl of soup for dinner. Carly asked him more about literacy group. He said he didn’t like it “Because I have to think.” One activity they did was to write their names on paper, then someone else got their name. With the name he got “I cutted the name up…one by one…I tried to spell…” Selma is in his group, and some kids from PKC that I don’t know.

He did a slo-mo of the swinging bowl that he’s had attached with tape to the coffee table for a few days. He and Carly played Dragonbox Big Numbers. I then gave him a bath. Before he got in he did a time lapse video of him being silly in the bathroom and getting in the bath. We were listening to the new remix Vital Idol album from Billy Idol. August liked “White Wedding.” I washed August, then he played with the shower head for a long time. He then forgot that I had washed him. I told him to see if his neck and face were wet. “Oh! You’re right!”

We talked about the sleeping arrangements when Gramma and Grampa get here. He went in the small bedroom and claimed the bed for himself, saying Carly and I could sleep on the floor bed. He then wanted to make a sign that said ‘Zinnie’ on it and hang it on the bed. We got paper and markers and he practiced and wrote a ‘Zinnie’ sign. He did a few other things, including HO2 (meant H2O) and a page full of Zs. He used the tape to hang one up on the railing and asked me to do the rest. Kind of an art walk down the stairs now.

Downstairs, he wanted to go outside in the wind. We put on his pajamas and he got two flashlights and I got him some Cheerios. We walked around in the yard, then sat on the swing for several minutes and he attached one of the magnets to the swing (it has a magnet) and he ate the Cheerios.

We went in on the bed and read I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean (his library book). I left them at 8:20. It was really windy, and the downpour hit right at 9. He was asleep by then as he says he didn’t hear the rain at all during the night.

Showing me the vines:

Swinging himself on the round swing:

Trying out the kitchen scale:

Bowl slo-mo:

August’s time lapse:

Outside in the wind with the flashlights:

With Andrea

In the vines

Trying Carly’s popsicle, which he ended up taking over

Making the starter

Outside in the wind

He was up at 6:30. He went downstairs with Carly and got his shoes on and they went outside for their morning time together. He then had chocolate milk with her and cuddled on the couch. She headed to work and he watched a couple Aardvark and Ant cartoons.

We were moving nice and early, before 6:40. Along the way, he asked about how it wouldn’t work well if there were two million students and only one teacher. I told him that class size matters and he said, “Class size matters? Word of the day!” When we got to school he sort of got separated from me as we walked through the gate. A woman we’ve seen before, but I’m not sure who she is, got between us and August sort of ran in front of her to get to me. She commented on how cute he is, saying she would have eaten him up by now.

Down at the classroom he said he’d go in to see what was happening, then tell me. They were about to start meeting, so I was able to say goodbye and leave.

I worked on the book cover during much of the day. Got back to check in with him before dance class. Gave him half a Balance Bar to eat as he’d eaten some of his lunch. He thanked me and said goodbye. I could go out to my bench even though he had a few minutes left until dance class. Amelia came by and I told her August had decided to do half of dance class. But that if he didn’t say anything he could stay longer.

As I sat on the bench, studying, Andrea came and told me he and Lydia were getting upset with each other. She had taken his hat and he got upset and was kicking at her and she was hitting at him. Miriam had broken it up and although he calmed down quickly he was still visibly upset. On Friday he had been upset when she moved his plant without his permission. I told her how he had complained about Lydia last night, so clearly there was something he was frustrated about. On the positive, he had been playing with Candy. She was lying down, pretending to be sick and he put the blanket on her and was pretending to call the doctor. He was also playing with Judson today.

I also told her and Marion about August asking why they ask so many questions, and how that was funny as Marion had been talking at the meeting she was in on Friday with Carly (about questioning) about how they are asked so many questions by the students.

He stayed for all of dance. At the end he said to Amelia, “Oh, I was supposed to leave halfway.” I told her that with him it seems like often he just needs to know he has the option and he isn’t forced to do something, then it is okay.

We sat and discussed Lydia. He wouldn’t tell me what happened directly, but allowed me to guess. I suggested she was trying to play when she took his hat. He said he liked it when Sophia took his hat, although it sounded like Sophia had maybe asked for his hat. But he seemed understanding that she could have been trying to play. I suggested he say hi or sorry to her tomorrow, and he came up with the idea of waving to her.

He said he wants to take a Bob Book to school. Yaya had brought one and read it to the class. He said he didn’t want to read it to the class, but wanted to bring it anyway. We spotted a beetle walking across the ground and he asked me to take a video of it. Had fun doing a time lapse and regular videos. We then played the preschool game and he was a deerfox (from Hilda) that he said was named Fia who came in the classroom.

Carly arrived at 4:45. As we walked up the stairs to leave he said, “Kindergarten has a dollhouse. But that’s easy!” He thought that kindergarten only did hard stuff. As we walked home, Carly was telling me about a project they are planning for their students about refugees. August was listening and said “‘Refugee’ is the word of the day. What does it mean? Tell me an example.”

Closer to home he told the “what do you call a train that sneezes? Achoo-choo train” joke, then started telling nonsense versions of it, each getting more and more nonsensical. By then end they were repeating themselves self-referentially. It reminded me of when he would make up something and then tell me what language it was in, then make up something else and say it was a different language, etc. And we stopped by the kindergarten along the way and he tossed a toy drill and another piece of something back through the fence from the park side.

At home he was singing “put it on your back now, put it on your back now and turn yourself around…” Must have been from dance class. He added more tape to his magnet kit booklet. He told Carly “The teachers weren’t impressed with my invention…I put magnifying glass on your ears to make things louder…they walked away.”

Carly made cauliflower and mushrooms and I made a batch of sauce without sun-dried tomatoes for him. He had pasta and sauce and cauliflower for dinner. Carly was working, so I gave him a bath, then got him ready for bed.

I tried to get him to sleep a little earlier, and managed the lights out by 8:15. Before that we played with the kaleidoscope cards. He asked, “How did we start thinking of those August and Teegan stories?” I told him it was on our trip up to New Hampshire, but I’d have to look up what started them. We talked more about Lydia and this was when he said he could wave. He wanted a story, but I said it was too late. He told me “You can definitely be nicer than this and you aren’t.” We compromised as I started to make up a theme song for our adventurer stories. He also told me “Mama says I can always talk about preschool but nothing else. Do you? Thank you!” I think he just told me one small thing about preschool, but it was an example of where he likes to know he has the option to do something. He was asleep by 8:50.

Making up musical keys:

Beetle time lapse:

Voyage of the beetle 1:

Voyage of the beetle 2:

Voyage of the beetle 3:

His nonsense jokes:

He took this photo of a garbage can

Stuff he threw back through the fence

Kaleidoscope cards

He was up at 7:17, just a couple minutes after I tried to wake him. A nice change. He watched a couple of Aardvark and Ant cartoons and then we got ready to go. He told me all the people that a family could have: mama, dada, little sister, big brother, etc. He said he just thought it up.

On the bike ride to school he was singing our “Almost to the top of the hill” song, then chanting “186,000” for some reason. When we got to class they were inside, so he told me to sty outside and he’d go in to see what they were doing. He poked his head back out and told me they were doing a meeting. I dropped off his stuff and said goodbye.

At home I did one last edit of the book draft we’d gotten back from the publisher and talked to Omar. He and Hiba are experiencing the terrible twos with Ghada.

I walked back to preschool for library time. August had said this morning that he likes this year better because I help walk the class to the library, whereas last year they met me at the library. I told him it was to see him running to me in the library though.

We got the kids going Nd Andrea and I struggled to keep the line using the railing on the right as they went up the stairs. There were about 4 that kept drifting to the middle, right after we directed them to the right, August included. For library time Ilana read Make Way for Ducklings. August came and sat on my lap in the middle. As she was still reading, he asked me, “What does ‘torso’ mean?” And then, as she was near the end, he read out the entirety of the signs that he’s always liked. They say ‘Body Still – hug torso with both arms’, ‘Voice Quiet – put finger to lips’, etc. There are four, and the only word he needed help with is ‘corners’. He had had me read them to him yesterday, and told me that the boy with dark skin was his favorite “because of the darkness” and that he liked one of the girls “because of the clothes”. These were the signs last year that made him think that dark=boy and light=girl, so he was deciding whether cars were boys or girls based on their colors.

He chose the book I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean to check out. We didn’t have to go back to the classroom as we had brought all of his stuff with us. We followed the other kids a bit though and we found a small picture on the ground that was Hector’s. August sprinted across the grass to where they were headed out to the busses to return it to him. Hector didn’t say anything to August, but Marion told him it was a very nice thing that he’d done.

We went to our usual bench outside the library and finished Hilda Nd the Midnight Giant. We then went in and checked out Hilda and the Troll, which is the one I read by myself a month or so ago, probably while he was taking photos or playing on the rug. He was a deerfox, like the animal in the books, that I had found on a bench in the park. He kept that game up as we headed down to the preschool to look for his chapstick. I had checked the snack and lunch bags but hadn’t thought about his library bag, where I would find it later. August took some photos in the classroom.

As we walked, he told me the “International star has a thousand colors.” The ‘international star’ is a new thing. Started a day or two ago, after he said we had passed the International Space Station as we were walking. He then told me there are a lot of things named ‘international’: international galaxy, international star, etc.

In the classroom he also showed me a building made of blocks. I asked who made it and he said Sophia. Then he said, “Actually, I did. Cuz I control Sophia.”

We went back to our bench outside the library. Carly was supposed to show up any second. August asked to use the story dice to tell a story. I said no, but then when she showed up a minute later he told her to go away so we could use the story dice. I said no again, but she did need to go make copies. So we started reading Hilda and the Troll. He wasn’t happy again when she came back and it was time to go.

We saw Omri and Candy running around crazily in the grass. He didn’t want to run up to Omri though because he thought she would run right by him. But as we walked across, me carrying him, Omri ran up to him to say hi.

We got on the bike and walked home. He made up a song about how a trillion Pluto years equals one galactic year. We were home at 4:30.

He had some cold chocolate milk, then he was still being a deerfox, then a goatdog. We sent a video message to my mom to wish her a happy birthday. I then found that missing chapstick. He watched the ant and the aardvark cartoons and was laughing a lot and took a screenshot. Carly asked if he’d taken a screenshot. He said ‘Yes. I’ve been taking screenshots for a long time.”

We made fort and read rest of Hilda. We started it again and he was the deerfox. It then turned into a bunny den and he ate some carrots. Impressive, as Carly said they didn’t taste very good. He asked Carly to guard it. He had something that shot a thousand nails at predators.

I gave him a bath and washed his hair. He said he had fallen at the playground and scraped his knee, but it wasn’t too bad. Used the hair dryer and trimmed his nails. Carly had a bag of his hair from his last hair cutting, which August asked her to get. I joked that she would be saving all of his baby teeth and asked her if I should start saving his toenails, which I was trimming at the time.

He was then shaking the mirror in the ply are, which we told him was dangerous. He got his tape and taped the sides of it. He seemed to think that would make it safer. I realized he meant that he wouldn’t be tempted to shake it back and forth if it didn’t move. He taped other things, including things to the wall behind the couch, then taped things to a gift box. He said, “I love it!” He kept misplacing his roll of tape.

In on the bed he told me, “I figured out who’s the worst person in my class. It’s Lydia. She does mean stuff to people. Like not letting them go into places and stuff. Me and other people.” We used the story dice and I told him two stories, “When I became a Pirate” and “What Elephants Eat.” He started talking about the archeological site we’d been to with Gramma and Grampa and said that he’d discovered a dinosaur liver and a book there. The book was 3 million years old.

We brushed his teeth and Carly came up and said good night. With the lamp on, he was a deerfox coming into a preschool class. He told me, “Did you know two billion galaxies makes up a universe?” He then asked me to tell him a story of “January 17th in the year you were 12.” I figured out that was 8th grade and told him about the computer lab and MathCounts. ‘Peculiar’ had been our word of the day, from Hilda.

With the lights out he got really sad about not being able to come down and see me when Carly is putting him to sleep, like he used to do last year. As I’ve seen before, I just needed to let him know that was a possibility, even if not likely, and then he calmed down. He really doesn’t like being told ‘no’. He first lay next to me with his head down by my knee and his arm around my leg. His feet were up on my shoulder, and I realized how tall he’s gotten. He flipped around a few times, trying to use me as a pillow, and fell asleep with his head on my shoulder, my arm around him. It was a little before 9.

Choosing a book:

A trillion Pluto years song:

Laughing at the aardvark and the ant:

Tape as insulation:

Dada song:

He slept late and I finally carried him down at 7:35. He then needed two Pink Panthers before he was ready to go. Just fine after that, but I told him we’d move the lights out time up to 8:20 starting tonight. As we were leaving the house he said, “I want to play a game called Catch the Bottlecap.” He would drop bottle cups down the slide and I would catch them at the bottom.

I talked to him about who he might play with. He had told me on Friday that he had helped Reia build a home for the spider the class had caught. And when Cherie asked him who his friend was at school he said Reia. But now he told me he might start playing with her and the other kids in kindergarten. We got to his class a little before 8:30. They seemed like they had just started the meeting when we got there, and August picked up the container of blackberry bread and took it over to show everyone.

I walked home and spent some time fixing a shelf in the bathroom, hanging up a couple smoke detectors, and cleaning the microwave and oven.

When I got back to school and picked him up he told me he had eaten most of his lunch. He’d eaten all the pizza and the bar, and eaten the blackberry bread for snack. We spent a few minutes on the bench, eating a little more, and he told me he made a picture of a butterfly. He tried to find it, but Andrea didn’t know were they were and Marion was still dropping off the bus kids.

So we headed to the cafeteria, where August chose a banana sstrawberry one. We sat at our usual 4th grade table. We read a little Geronimo Stilton, then got out the storytelling dice. I told him a total of three stories/chapters. In one of them the symbol was a harp, so I had a bard. ‘Bard’ became the word of the day. I mentioned that our stories were more like chapters in book and he liked the idea of it being a book. He asked, “Will it go to the world?” “Could we write a book of our stories and put it in the library?”

We then went to the library and I showed him the Hilda books and we started reading Hilda and the Midnight Giant. He was really into it, Nd when Carly showed up he wasn’t happy and told her to leave.

We headed home and he started singing the “Telephone” song. He said he hasn’t heard it recently, but remembers it from PKB. He didn’t remember much, however, as he kept singing the “I called you on the telephone, just to see if you were home” lines over and over and over and over. Eventually he was changing keys and telling us which key he was singing in, making up names for new keys.

He found a small orange plastic tube as a treasure and was looking through it. He talked about how it turned everything green. When we got home at 5:30 I looked through it and he was correct. At first I thought there was plastic in it, but there wasn’t. He had discovered an actual optical illusion.

He watched Pink Panther and I made a big pasta dish with sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and olives in a cream sauce. We had dinner, but sadly he didn’t eat much as he didn’t liked the tomatoes. Even when Carly picked them out he didn’t eat much.

He played on his iPad for awhile, then when he was hungry Carly thawed some mango for him and he ate that. I gave him a bath, and did a chant that he said Marion had taught them: “Ickle Biffle bumblebee, who can say this name for me? Everybody shout Eve!”

After his bath we finished reading Geronimo Stilton and the Emerald Eye. Carly read him Madeline. They were then playing a school game where he was a goat. I got him a few Cheerios and when he was done I brushed his teeth.

I left them with lights out at 8:20 and he fell asleep pretty quickly today.

I called you on the telephone, part 1:

I called you on the telephone, part 2:

The music machine:

Ickley bickly bumble bee, part 1:

Ickley bickly bumble bee, part 2:

Popsicle

The signs he likes

His green optical illusion

The filter Shmuel gave us for our sprinkler system

His music machine

He came down at 7:50. I said hi as he got his shoes, and as he headed out the door he told me “Mama and me only.” He was outside with her for awhile, then came in and asked me for vitamins and half a bar. He then sat and watched Julius Jr.

I was taking him to Dr. Aviv again today to finish up the assessment. Carly stayed home to work. We listened to Story Pirates songs on the way down and got there about 9:45. We were early so we went into the park for a few minutes.

Then to Dr. Aviv’s office at 10. After she answered the door he told her “It’s kind of hard…could it be shorter this time?” As they went in the back room I then heard him tell her he wished I could play too. But he had fun, and it took about the same time as last time. There were computer games this time, so I think he liked that even more. At the end she had him sit and eat his snack while she talked to me. She said, “Very bright…it’s rare to see a child reading so well at this age.” She also said his attention is very strong. That was the computer game, and involved pressing a button if a box appeared at the top of the screen, and not pushing if it appeared at the bottom.

He had requested to use her bathroom before we got there so he could try one of the other soaps. So now he went. The toilet is wearing out inside and I explained that it wasn’t dirty. He said, “Like at Ruby and Cedar’s house..chloride vaccine…makes it so that when Cedar’s diaper is full it doesn’t overflow.”

As we walked back to the car he was explaining the computer game. We got in the car and drove a couple blocks west to the Wiz Kids books and game store. Actually, we parked in the middle between that, where we’d get lunch, and some parks. We walked to the store and ended up getting a back of Story Cubes (storytelling dice) and a Preposition Island game (a surprise for Carly because she likes prepositions).

We then walked back east, past the car, to Borochov 88 for lunch. We got a mushroom focaccia and he got a strawberry and mango smoothie and I had a cappuccino. We then used the storytelling dice and made up a series of stories about someone who leaves home to be an adventurer to explore legends of giant animals across the sea.

After a good long amount of that we walked south to Gadi Nots Garden at 1:15. A nice park next to a high school, but no playground. August said, “Well, we can definitely have fun here. This is where I store my machine that people can use… Sometimes machines go away but they come back.”

At the west end of the park we discovered the Ra’anana Performing Arts Center. We went in and looked at art, and August helped take photos of it. He also took a photo of a sweatshirt someone had left on a bench outside.

We got back on the bike and walked back roads a little south to David Garden, a proper kids park. On the way he was playing around and thought he’d lost the handle on his bike: “Aaagh! Oh, it’s right in my hand.” At the park he played around a little, and I took a slo-mo of him rocking on a little rocking horse thing. But we spent most of our time playing with the storytelling dice and extending our stories. Before we left he then took photos (particularly of a big sap ball on a tree) and found treasures on the ground. We then played a few minutes of the Polytopia game on my phone.

At 2:30 we walked back towards the performing arts hall to use the bathroom. Along the way I spotted something that looked like a purple pen or marker. He picked it up, and I realized it was actually an insulin injection. We dropped that quickly, then I realized there were bones around us on the ground—mainly looked like cow bones, but there was also a small skull I didn’t take time to identify. A few feet later he spotted a square piece that looked like one of the tiles he likes, but I said there was no way we were going to take it when it was so close to the medical waste and bones.

We got to the performing arts hall and used the bathroom, then we headed back to the car, getting there at 2:45. I sent a message to Carly telling her we were leaving, and then he wanted to send messages. He was sending the stickers and emojis. He sent one that said ‘Sorry’, and she sent back a message that read ‘Why are you sorry?’ He read that out loud to me. He said he needed help with the next one but I pointed out I was driving on the highway and asked him to try. He read ‘There is snot coming out of your foot.” He just needed help with the word ‘snot’, which he spelled out for me.

We were home at 3:15. He excitedly gave her her game. They played and I went upstairs to rest. I got a call from an unknown number and noticed someone was at our gate. I went out, and it was a guy on a bicycle looking for Tali’s house. That’s who they’re always looking for. He then got a call and said it was her calling. I wanted to ask him where she actually lives. He rode off to the west.

Carly and August went out to the yard for awhile, then came back in. Carly was talking about going to the plant store and trying to get him to go with her. He begged off, saying, “I don’t have time (to go to the plant store with mama). I have inventing to do. I do inventing 4 hours every day…I do my inventing over there… Don’t interrupt me; I have work to do.”

Before she left he asked, “Mama, can you take a picture of me? When you miss me, you can look at the picture.” Carly headed to the garden store and we made the blackberry vanilla bread. Two loaves. He then watched Pink Panther and took screen shots. Carly got home and we had Carly’s chicken lentil soup for dinner. Chuck and Cherie called for awhile. He asked me what a British accent is, then said, “British accent! Word of the day!” Not sure why he was asking about a British accent.

The bread was ready and we ate some. I then went for a run and they did his bath. I took a shower, and they were reading Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No-Good, Really Bad Day. He was then playing with his tape and dropped the dispenser and it cut his foot. It took quite awhile to stop bleeding completely and he wore socks to make sure it wouldn’t bleed on the bed. Carly took a shower and I got him more bread and he played with his tape.

We read Geronimo Stilton and Geronimo gets stuck in quicksand. He knew about animals sinking in mud/tar pits from Magic Tree House. Carly came in after 8:30 and they went to sleep together. He was asleep by 9.

Explaining the computer game he’d played:

Rocking slo-mo:

Rolling the story dice:

Giving Carly her present:

Egg tornado:

Park before Dr. Aviv’s

Snacking at Dr. Aviv’s

Lunch and story dice

Dice for our first story

His photo of a sweatshirt

Looking at art

Treasures

Preposition game

I had my book group meeting last night, to discuss Denton Little’s Death Date, so I slept in the small bedroom. He got up at 7:15 and saw the door closed so came to investigate. I told him mama was downstairs. He had some smoothie, and when I came down at 8 he was naked, playing with the magnets on the fridge and reciting the “slimy lochweed, ooh…” poem from The Loch-Mess Monster. Several lines of it. He made a rubber band instrument, stretching rubber bands between all the door knobs on the kitchen. He was coughing a lot this morning, getting mucus out of his throat. He spit it on the floor a couple times, and once I got out the flashlight to look for it. He liked that, and asked “When you’re sick and throwing up mucus can I find it?” He used the flashlight to look down my throat, then used the camera to take photos of my throat, ear, and eye.

He wanted to play his iPad but didn’t want to do it outside. I tried to make ‘quota’ the word of the day but he wasn’t interested. They had been outside for like ten minutes earlier and he argued that was enough. I said there was no quota of outside time. I took a shower.

He played with Tabletop, then switched to a dominoes video when I came down. Carly and I made him oatmeal with mango for breakfast.

He was then looking at one of the astronomy apps and zoomed in on the animation of the sun. He said, “See this? It’s called the’axis pixel’. It’s the center of the sun.” I know we’ve discussed pixels before, but not for quite while, and I’m not sure where he learned ‘axis’.

He had played with Waterlogue on my iPad yesterday, taking photos and making them look like paintings, and he wanted to do more of that. He pointed out that it’s better to take photos on my phone, so we installed it and Brushstroke and BeCasso (similar apps) on my phone and he had fun with that.

He went outside to take a few photos, then he had the idea of walking up to the playground to take more photos. We all got walking at 11. We did some meandering, pushing him on the bike, until he brought us to the park. There was a dog he didn’t like and he has a computer where he records who he likes every day before he goes to sleep. Carly read while sitting on the alligator bench and I set up on the play structure and read while he took some photos. He called us both over to the teeter totter things, then he found the rag that had been tied above the slide on the ground. Someone had managed to break it off. It ended up going home with us.

He was taking what I called “spy photos” of people and not happy when we wouldn’t let him do that. We took a break from photos and played the spiderweb store game instead. Carly headed home to do laundry and some cleaning. Before she left we showed her how I could pull him up the slide by reaching down and pulling him up by his arm.

We played awhile longer, but then he asked for food. It was noon. When I said we needed to go home for that he got upset with me. Calmed down, but a couple minutes later a little boy wanted to use the slide, and August was sitting at the top of it. When he had to move he said, “Everyone is stupid.”

I took him straight home and to the bedroom where I made him sit and talk to me. He knew I was upset, and wanted to make me happy, after apologizing, by surprising me with a surprise party. So he closed the blinds. The main bedroom doesn’t get very dark, so he insisted we got into the Zinnie bedroom to do it.

We did that, ten I went downstairs to make us tuna sandwiches. He looked at astronomy apps while I did that, then we ate, although he didn’t have much of his sandwich. He did more with Waterlogue and Brushstroke. He then went to the bathroom, and as he is wont to do he got thoughtful while on the toilet. He asked, “How come ‘no’ doesn’t always work?…You say ‘no’ and I still do something…” We discussed ‘free will’.

He was hungry, but had only eaten a quarter of his sandwich. I made a deal where he could eat a few slices of apple, then we would share the new kind of Balance Bar that had arrived in the iHerb box that we brought home yesterday. He did that, then we read three Skybrary books: Camille’s Team, Percy Gets Upset, and Freda Says Please.

I went upstairs and did some organizing, after Carly left me some stuff to sort. She had cleaned out the dresser drawers and some other stuff. August came up and helped unscrew one of the window latches so Carly could take one to Ace to try to get more.

She went to Ace. No luck on the latches or a carpet cleaner. August made me play Candyland. But then, after he won in a minute, gave me a challenge, giving me a few cards and telling me I had to decide what order to use them in to get to the end. Probably a challenge Carly has given him. He did some drawing with the markers, then was asking about the shortest measurement of time. So we were looking up picoseconds and those sorts of measurements. He liked ‘yoctoseconds’.

We read the beginning of Stuck in the Stone Age, the first book from Story Pirates. August had the tools out and asked for a few toothpicks to cut with the wire cutters. He then looked at Google Maps, then was playing Chesster when Carly got home. A bit later he asked, “What’s remarkable mean?” Think it was from Chesster. Became the word of the day.

Carly made soup and he wanted a squirrel nest. We did that and it got destroyed and rebuilt a few times. He wanted to sit under a blanket on the couch while we read Geronimo Stilton, using a flashlight. It got too warm for me, so he decided we could rebuild it as a fort and we read a few more chapters. He was hungry and waiting for the soup. Carly said, “It will be done in 9 minutes.” Him; “Uhh. I hate 9 minutes.” He played with his piano and then had some soup.

Carly got his bath ready and I went for a run. After I came back and took a shower he then whited me to take time lapse videos of him dancing and moving books around. He washed his hands and played in the sink and made a bit of the mess and we had to change his shirt.

We read some more Geronimo Stilton, then he went down and said good night to Carly. We played the preschool game where he is more still during rest time than the other kids because he’s a robot. For some reason I brought up Blanka from PKB last year and he didn’t remember her at first. But then he remembered he had a machine that turns him into Blanka, so he did remember her and that game that he played a lot. We looked at some photos of preschool last year.

Lights off totally. He told me, “Owls can make their pupils way bigger than humans.” I told a quick August and Teegan story where they go back to Ms. Robin to ask her about the empty world and she doesn’t have an answer. As he was going to sleep, he told me “Other worlds is real…” But I don’t remember what he explained after that as I was falling asleep as well. About ten minutes later he rolled over again and said, “You’re not very nice to me.” He explained that he doesn’t get to make the rules. I talked about the nice things we’d done today. He cuddled next to me and was finally asleep by 9:20.

Playing with the magnet board:

Old MacDonald:

The mistakes song:

Slow dance time lapse:

Books time lapse:

Silly dance time lapse:

Climbing with the rag

Rag on his head

Candyland

In the fort

Dinner outside