Category: Daily

He woke up about 8:30. Carly was upstairs and met him. I went up and joked about how I was supposed to get him first in the morning. He then sighed and did a facepalm. We spent a few more minutes upstairs. He admired the office as Carly got set up to work and we joked about watching her teach. We then went downstairs and played in our survival world. I was working on our organization system today. When we were done we did more levels of Brother playing the VR Minecraft hero game. We then ate breakfast and watched the newest Iskal. Proof of concept was a new concept. He had seconds on oatmeal.

From there we had a really good Ms. Safe music lesson. We worked through more of the Supersonic Piano Music Theory book, learning the British names, like crotchet and minim (and talked about palindromes in the process) and working on some sight reading. He admitted his bass clef is much worse than his treble, and we learned the acronyms to help identify the lines and spaces. For the bass clef we expanded to above and below the staff, and came up with Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge and Chocolate. He definitely remembered that one. We then watched a Music Matters video about motifs in music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iys7Byk6xOw&t=328s) and learned about motif. August is always playing with motifs, so it seemed like a good one to learn.

He played piano, and wanted to watch more Simply Piano ads so tried to find them by downloaded skins for Minecraft. That wasn’t working for him, then he switched to YouTube and started videos, hoping to find Simply Piano ads. Those things are everywhere, yet when you try to find them they vanish. He ended up watching an Ants Canada, followed by two Life Noggin videos on medical conditions where your muscles start to turn to bone and the such. He learned about NF, FOP, and EV. I had been working on the piano keys and made salmon for lunch. When I got that in the oven we went upstairs for a Brother and Sister game. It was supposed to be about the new medical conditions, but turned into him waking me up with my own hand and him laughing a lot. I would make the shushing noise and he would crack up.

We went back down to eat lunch outside. Had a Brother game where Bar was challenging people (like Ms. Mean, a senator, etc.) on who was the most powerful. He asked about rich people and we talked about how a person gets rich and how they spend their money. We went inside and Brother met a billionaire in the park.

He played with Supersonic Piano and found a piece with cut time. We watched a video about it:https://youtu.be/0OHzzlx1KaY

. August has a new saying, “Hit it!”, which I know is from something I showed him recently. Should have him listen to the Beastie Boys as he’d probably like the “Kick it!” as well.

He played piano, then did alone time, listening to a Dog King story, followed by “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. He didn’t finish that though, and realized his alone time was done. Whenever we sit on the couch he has a slightly OCD thing with setting up the pillows perfectly. It is very cute though, and when he finished this time he said something like “Marvelous.” I also had some of the new keycaps on today, and he said something about liking the feel of them and something about how they really suit his fingers.

We played in Survival, then went upstairs at 4 and he had his meeting with Gabi. I know they talked about the feeling of anticipation and something like it before switching to the tank game. When Gabi had to go August asked, “Why do we have to have a stop time?” When Gabi said something about other meetings, August said, “Oh yeah, good point.” While he had his meeting I also removed a dead mouse that Carly had found in the yard.

Back downstairs he helped me with playing the piano. Sort of. Carly heated him up dinner, then I went for a run. Before I left for a run I pointed out a bunch of “treasures” I had taken from the backpack. August gave me some parenting advice, telling me to just throw them away next time because then he wouldn’t even remember them. Carly said that sometimes he really remembers his treasures, and I reminded him of the channel changer (broken zipper pull). One of the things I had pulled out this time also happened to be a zipper pull, so he used the channel changer on me, and was using it on Carly as I left.

When I got back it was Vivian’s birthday celebration. August observed that birthdays make a mess: “A mess is a monster to the parents.” He told Carly he wants something related to Minecraft for his birthday. I stayed around for awhile, watching the present unwrapping, then went up for a shower. August had been on Musyc during it, and as I came out of the bathroom he was stomping up the stairs and closed himself in his room. I went and talked to him, and he told me, “I just don’t like all this birthday business.” I offered to play with him, as the issue was that it was holding up Minecraft time. He was fine listening to a podcast though, and also sent Carly email messages. One was something like, “I hate birthday parties! Specially Vivian’s!” with a frowny face.

When he came out they were ending the birthday celebration. When he got on with Vivian he asked her, “How’s your Simply Piano going?” They played in one of his other worlds, which Vivian had requested. He ended by making a big V-based sculpture for Vivian. I was working, and went upstairs to plug in when my battery was low. Carly and August came up, and he listened to the “Blue Goblins” story and half of “Max Goodname and the Magic (something)” on Stories Podcast by himself.

Carly got him to wash his foot. Yesterday they had put a bag over it because of the wart. He did it today though. He was then making up acronyms, like BASG for “Brother and Sister Game”. We were commenting on how he’ll really be spelling soon. We went in his room and he was saying the alphabet. He forgot K once when he was saying it a few weeks ago and was now doing it on purpose. He asked, “Did you know K is my nemesis?…It knocked over my block tower.”

He had a Brother game with him meeting someone blind in the park. He then wanted to clear the notifications on my iPad. I let him do a few, but he wanted to keep going and going. Got him in and we brushed our teeth. He asked about my broken finger and we discussed that, and anesthesiologists. I had taught him how to play Rock Paper Scissors, I think earlier today, and we now played it again. He’s fine with losing, since we move on to another round so quickly. For nonfiction time we read about manatees in the National Geographic Kids issue. Sanctuary was a new word. I talked about seeing them eat lettuce at the aquarium in Seoul, and the Sarah and Duck manatee episode. His wart was coming off more, stressing him out.

We got the lights out, and the questions started: “How did you feed me?” (as a baby; we talked about the pumping, and mushed dbananas.) “Is it dangerous being a police officer?” “What’s a detective?” “They can just come into your house?” “How does a judge work?” We were listening to Max Richter’s Blue Notebook. He asked me to sing so he could see how out of tune I was. Which seemed rude, but then he complimented me when I sang the Jason Webley song I used to sing to him all the time. This time, he kept asking about what the lyrics meant (about a sick earth being pregnant) We discussed the metaphor and that led to a discussion of the great filter concept. I used the word steward and he asked about it.

More questions:

“Why’s it hard on a plant to transfer it?”

“What happens if you water a cactus too much?”

“Where’s the lotion?”

“How do you whistle?”

He told me he couldn’t get to sleep and was asleep by 11:25.

Singing out our music lesson:

Rock Paper Scissors:

Some Musyc:

Getting his laugh:

A rebroken key:

He called me in once during the night, but it wasn’t clear why and he fell right back to sleep. I then woke him up at 8:30. He was still in bed but told me it was okay to Skype with Mom and Dad to say “Happy Mother’s Day.” We did that, and probably talked for 20 minutes that way. They asked about piano playing, but August was hesitant to go down. He turned the audio off to tell me that he needed to stay under the cover so they wouldn’t see his bandaid. I assured him I’d keep the video from seeing his foot and he agreed.

We went downstairs and he played a lot of piano for them: “I’m now going to play something in the B mode of C major.” When we hung up, he spotted the black case for microscope slides that had come in the Amazon order. I got out the microscope, and at first just used the cheap microtome that had come with the microscope to slice a bit of grape to look at. I then found the nicer one and it did cut better and we examined bits of grape. August asked for grapes and ate several, but mainly had fun peeling a single one. He also cut tiny bits of of one using the microtome: “I cutted the grape. And that is scrumptious.”

We went upstairs for a Brother and Sister game with Val, who had epilepsy. In the bed August commented that it was actually making him feel sleepy. I pointed out this is what I always tell him and why I don’t like playing up on the bed. We then moved to a silly Ugly Geese versus Cats game and I somehow managed to teach him the word pyrrhic as a word of the day. It ended with the ugly geese being made extinct (there were some final geese, like a male goose who was trying to lay eggs for weeks before being told he couldn’t) and I ended with “And no one, anywhere, was sad.” Which he found hilarious.

We went downstairs and he hopped on the piano before coming to the couch and playing with Musyc. Finally, just about 11 he wanted to play Minecraft and we logged on to his realm. He asked, “What’s supreme?” I explained, then he asked, “Dada, what’s the most supreme? You or mama?” I said it was clearly Carly. He responded with, “It’s clearly both of you.”

I logged off to make cracker lunch. Besides some grapes we skipped breakfast today. I had crackers with tuna and others with meat and cheese. Also made chocolate milk and we ate outside and played Polytopia, since he hadn’t used all his morning time. We were winning, then he had an tactic of cutting everything down. That gave him a ton of resources, which he was then able to use to keep winning. I taught him mobilization. That led to a discussion of resources in war, and then on to aspects of the Civil War. He asked what it would be like for the president now to be in charge of both sides if the country started fighting against itself. Innocent was a word of the day. There was also more talk about dictators today, which has been a theme.

On the swing we read The Hardy Boys. New words included penitentiary minute (tiny), and lame. Back inside he played a lot of piano. All sorts of new variations on a new theme. Really cool to hear him constantly coming up with new things. We then put on “Daniel in the Lions’ Den” on Stories Podcast. August recited along with Amanda the intro part of “You’re what makes it possible…”

We played Minecraft. I finished the roof of our new house. We then went outside for a ball game. He spent much of the time climbing up and down the slide, and made up a Brother in VR Minecraft game, where Brother was going through levels to teach him how to save people in Minecraft and be a hero. He would start from nothing, and have to save someone stuck in an obsidian box at the bottom of a chasm, or lost in a mineshaft. We did 5 or 6 levels before I managed to get us on to something else.

Inside we saw Carly and he played a bunch of piano for her. We then watched some videos I had saved for him:

• The new Kurzgesagt (https://youtu.be/QImCld9YubE) on why we are alive. Entropy and ATP were new words. Kurzgesagt had a great analogy to describe life that sounded like something August would say, and I think it is one of the places he’s picked up his analogy-making skills: “It’s like driving a car at full speed while producing fuel in the truck with junk you picked up on the side of the road.”

• Then the What If video on what it would be like to live in the Devonian Period (https://youtu.be/bM6gEUNyEqA) Apex predator was a new term. He then spotted the “What if Ancient Life Escaped Earth?” video and we watched that. (https://youtu.be/mpUGfvl27RM)

We then did more Brother levels. I described them as monotonous and he asked what that meant. I made my point by repeating the same 3 note tune over and over and he got the idea. We watched the first episode of Crash Course Film History, as I thought he’d like the intention story and science of it.

I then made dinner (coconut rice, broccoli, and tofu) and he played piano for Carly, then they called Colin. I ate dinner and got some for August, then I went for a run. Carly said he ate a lot.

They played Minecraft, in Colin’s world, then he and Carly called and talked to Oma. August took her outside and said, “see the pitch black sky?” Carly gave him a bath and washed his hair.

I three bedroom he finished his lollipop and listened to a story about Loki and then “The Little Acorn” and a “Dog King and the Theft if the Good Girl Treat” on Stories Podcast. We brushed our teeth, and he was looking older to me. We played some Brother rescuing game as we went. He asked, “What’s ceremoniously mean?”probably from a story. We read a little of the National Geographic Little Kids magazine. We listened to the Trance Frendz album, and he was gloriously asleep by 11.

Peeling a grape:

Today’s piano 1:

Today’s piano 2:

Today’s piano 3 – the spooky song:

Today’s piano – playing for Mama:

Good news was that he slept through the night. The bad news was that he was up by 8:25 before I’d even managed to make it downstairs. He cuddled on the couch bed for a couple minutes but wasn’t interested in going back to sleep. He was pretty stuffy too. He went downstairs while I gathered things and went outside to Carly. He was with her for a few minutes, then came in and played piano. He asked me to open the windows so that Carly could better hear him. He had some nice stuff going, and at the end he was playing with dissonance, he told me: “augmented, diminished…”

He came to the couch and logged in to his realm. As he played he asked, “Do armies have battle cries?” We discussed the Red Cross and read about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Red_Cross_and_Red_Crescent_Movement?wprov=sfti1 discrimination wotd We also discusses Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton: https://www.historynet.com/civil-war-nurses. And we listened to the rebel yell recordings:https://youtu.be/s6jSqt39vFM

I played with him for a few minutes, then he went upstairs with Carly to exercise. He came back down after a while and played on Musyc, then took it up to see Carly. It then got really quiet upstairs for quite a while. When he came back down he said he had been teaching her Musyc. He kept playing with that and watched some of By Jeeves with me.

We watched the new Grian, then went upstairs for a Brother and Sister game. A replay of where they get to go to an advanced civilization. This time Baby Sister doesn’t get to go and gets upset and turns everything into screens playing Barney.

We went downstairs to make schnitzel for lunch. Carly ran to school to get the masks she ordered from the woman who had been an art teacher at the school. They are quite nice, and August got a pattern with music on it. We did a piano competition and then a little Earpaggio. He listened to “Kiddo and the Fox” and then ate our schnitzel and veggies outside. He then listened to “The Silent War for the Open Door” (where he asked what Pakistan was). Then “Dog King Thanskgiving”, “The Narrow Bridge”, and “My Pet Fairy” as he sat outside.

We played in his realm, starting to make a house. Then got ready to go. August had, as we played upstairs, asked if we could not go for a drive today. But we convinced him to go for a drive and just get out for a minute. I think the promise of sharing the chocolate bar helped. I drove and parked near the north end of the Netanya waterfront. August and I have been through there a few times before, but always with one bike or another. This was our first trip without. We parked and walked across to the most northern park area. We sat on a bench and had some chocolate. We then convinced him to walk down the steps to the beach, and we spent just a minute down on the beach. People around, but not too busy, and most people doing a good job with masks and social distancing.

We went back up the stairs and walked to the north end of the park. August found ant nests, and did some spitting for them, figuring it gave them some water to drink with some chocolate in it. We sat on a bench and read The Hardy Boys and Carly walked around a bit. We had some corn crackers, then headed back to the car. He stopped again to feed some ants a bit of a corn cracker and talked about one of the ants putting out a pheromone saying “Food!” Finally, Carly saw a big ant carrying a sort of stick and called it ambitious. August asked what that meant, so a word of the day.

We drove through Netanya, something we don’t often do, on the way back. Listened to Josh Ritter. He started to fall asleep and Carly gave him some more chocolate to keep him awake. As we got into Even Yehuda from the north he told us that “Nature’s colors is beautiful.” And talked about how he likes every color in nature. We stopped in town so Carly could run into the pharmacy to get Tylenol, then were home by 5.

As we walked into the house I noted a stuffy smell in the house: the first time the house has even had an opportunity to get that smell, as there’s always been someone in it with windows open for the last couple months. He talked more about his favorite colors: “My list of favorite colors basically goes on forever…it’s basically an infinite roller coaster ride…as nature adapts to the wild…” He must have really been thinking in the car, as he walked around talking a lot. He discussed scientists studying poop for coronavirus and how microorganisms are his favorite organisms. He told Carly about water bears.

I went for a run. When I got back they were playing Minecraft. They were in one of Vivian’s worlds, but then Colin had set something on fire, so Vivian left that world. August couldn’t get in the next one. They finally agreed to go into the Realm. August flew 10,000 blocks away to be well away from things, but Vivian still took exception to him doing fill commands of air underground to make a big space he could fly around in, and she logged off and hung up without saying goodbye. Don’t think August really noticed, thankfully, as it was time to log off anyway.

I had turned on the charity livestream that Grian and Rendog were doing in Minecraft. It was for a South African charity, and August said we should donate, so Carly sent ten dollars. Carly talked to her Mom. Not sure where they were at the moment. August said “Happy Mother’s Day!” but also, “Happy annoyance day!” We watched a little more of the livestream, then he watched the last fifteen minutes of the Magellanic Cloud episode of the Cosmic Realm series he’s been watching and had some popcorn.

We all went upstairs and he got hyper, and did an annoyance dance. He went to the bathroom, and talked about the ads he’s listened to, telling us “We should buy socks from…” something. Carly gave him a bath. He spent a few minutes composing some Musyc for her.

In the bedroom we did a replay of the Brother and Sister and girl from another civilization story. He then listened to “The Golden Screw” on Stories Podcast, which was quite funny. We brushed our teeth, then read a National Geographic Little Kids magazine, basically doing everything (like the ‘find the differences’ pictures) and reading up through the piece about fennec foxes (which I wanted to show him because we used to see those at Children’s Grand Park). Right at the end of that he started to get upset: His wart was coming off, and bleeding. I put a tissue on it, and he started wailing and wailing. Carly came in. She got us a bandaid. It didn’t bleed much, but it was traumatic for him. I agreed to put the bandaid on after he was asleep. We listened to a new album called Trance Frendz that is from Olafur Arnalds. We quite liked it, but it helped calm him down. He calmed down enough to ask “What’s the opposite of serious?” When I suggested facetious he said “Ms. Facetious.” A new teacher for the games, I think. We finished the Arnalds album and put on the Johann Johansson album Last and First Men. We’ll have to listen to it tomorrow though as he was asleep at 11:25 just as it started.

Developing the triplets song:

Walking on the beach:

Giving the ants some spit:

Feeding ants:

A hyper dance:

He woke up around 2 and asked for new pants. I asked if he wanted to go to the bathroom. He said yes, but went right back to sleep. 20 minutes or so later he came out and said something about deciding to go to the bathroom. He then slept soundly until I woke him up at 9. We talked for a few minutes, then he wanted to go downstairs and outside. He said something about it being amazing or lovely out. We went outside for 15 minutes or so. It was drizzling, but he really liked it. He climbed on the ladder of the slide and talked about birds and cats.

We went back in and listened to Nils Frahm while he made a new world in Minecraft and played in it. I set up for a Ms. Safe music lesson on simple and compound time. Carly came in and played Minecraft with him. He had some Cheerios for breakfast, then we did the Ms. Safe piano lesson, which went really well, and we talked through the whole simple versus compound time chart.

We then went upstairs for games. We did a new student, who was deaf, named Val. I then taught him about stuttering and impediment was a new word. We watchedhttps://youtu.be/_5IOse0EdIo

, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0VC0KCHghU, and part of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrraoSk_j3A. So then there was a student, Myra, who stuttered, followed by a student who was blind, Vasper, that Brother was teaching to play Minecraft, with some difficulty. We watched the Seattle Symphony Morning Notes with Ravel’s String Quartet (https://youtu.be/SlVYucdrXHw) then went downstairs where he listened to Supersonic Piano while I made grilled ham and cheese.

We went outside to eat where Carly was picking up the tree things and told the trees not to drop more. We discussed Sysiphus. We also talked to Carly about school reopening after August asked how Taya is doing. logistics was a new word. He asked who Bowie was, not sure how he got that name. Carly asked if he was still alive and when I said he had died cancer got mentioned, and August started talking about the cancer paradox.

Inside I opened YouTube and was watching a video about sportsmanship in Formula 1. August came in and watched the second half of it with me and we discussed it. We then watched the newest Iskall video, where he asked about capitalize and realization. He listened to “Rapunzel” on Stories Podcast for alone time, then played Minecraft, I think on his Realm. He randomly asked, “What’s everpresent mean?”

At the end, he somehow started a “Mathy Math Math, I hate math” chant which was both hilarious and annoying. I went upstairs for a bit. They were doing math, adding two digit numbers and carrying. Did a good job with that and earned a star. It had been a few months since Carly had tried that sort of math with him, and it was cool to see how he has progressed. He also understood starting with the ones, but then also experimented to see how it worked if you started with the tens.

He was then playing piano, then moved to iPad where he played Reason, his original synth app, then Musyc. He said he now likes when they have an ending. “It’s like a little song.” He also talked about how calming the music is.

Carly went to school to pick up mail and packages. Apparently they still haven’t been getting mail as there was nothing in her box. She did get the Amazon package that arrived weeks ago, with the piano keycaps in it. She also got a teacher appreciation gift from the PTA: a woven basket from Kuchinate and a bar of chocolate.

August asked me, “How do you use as you can imagine in a story?” We were trying to convince August to go out of the house; he’s hesitant to go anywhere. He says he isn’t afraid of the virus, but that he’s not used to it. We got him to agree to just a drive around. So we all got in the car, me driving, and drove up through Even Yehuda, then made a loop down through Bet Yehoshua, showing Carly around there, as she’s never been. It was the first time we’d all been in a car together for more than two months. We listened to Rival Consoles as we went. He asked, “In the war between North Korea and South Korea who won and what were they fighting about?”

Back home he listened to “Big Fish in a Little Pond”, then played Apples to Apples with Carly. I heard him say, “My family’s not dull.” Colin called and they played hide and seek. They were still playing it, lookin for August now, as I went for a run.When I got back they were still outside. August, Vivian, and Colin then played Minecraft in the Realm. All went smoothly this time. Carly made sushi, and August declared, “Sushi isn’t very filling.” In Minecraft he made V and a glass house for Vivian. She was impressed with those.

When they were done Carly and August called Cherie. He played a little piano. Chuck was going golfing one last time before they leave tomorrow to drive to Seattle. They also discussed the teacher appreciation gift, and at some point I got August to wear it on his head like a hat. August was then making a teacher appreciation gift for Carly, making a composition in Musyc in the shape of an M: “I’m making you your appreciation gift.”

He piled things on Carly on the couch when she was resting. He was then hyper as we all went upstairs. He had an even more annoying “Baby steps” chant this time (that’s what we had called taking a drive in the car). Carly gave him a bath and he did a lot of running around, hopefully getting energy out. When Carly had laundry fresh from the dryer he was putting his head in the basket for the warmth. Pretty funny.

He had crackers and peanut butter and we did a Brother and Sister game where they were going to a future civilization. Brother was getting left behind though so he wouldn’t push the buttons. He then listened to “The Moringa Grove” and “The Mouse Who Hung the Bell” on Stories Podcast. He then went to the bathroom and I restarted the dryer and we brushed our teeth. He was asking a lot of questions that ranged from famine and droughts to birth defects. He then asked, “What’s envy mean?” And when I explained he said Brother had envy when he couldn’t go to the civilization. He also asked, “What’s scarce?”

For nonfiction time I introduced him to National Geographic and we started an article about the search for exoplanets and life. We had lights out just a few minutes late (by 10:40) but then he was stuffy. I used the tissue on him, and he said, “Goodbye tissue! Good night!” But then August couldn’t get to sleep. He was a bit stuffy, but didn’t seem excessively so, but it seemed to really bother him. We were listening to the Olafur Arnalds re:member album, then when that was over switched to the Rival Consoles Persona album. August said he couldn’t sleep a couple times, and I got up on his bed with him for a while. He then got up to go to the bathroom again. Around 11:55 he started to get upset and whined “Why can’t I go to sleep!?” I think it was a little after midnight that he finally got to sleep. I fell asleep too until 12:30 then moved out.

Outside dance:

Mathy math math chant:

Playing in Musyc again:

His Musyc composition:

A little piece for Oma and Opa:

Baby steps:

I woke him up at 9. He asked what time it was and said “Huh. Okay” and rolled over for a minute. As we went downstairs he asked, “Why is it easier to balance heavy things?” We read The Hardy Boys. Words of the day were in it for his health and sleuthing. After a while he asked to go play piano. And more and more. When I got a message saying that Gilad was ready to play Minecraft I let August play for a couple more minutes before telling him.

He played Minecraft with Gilad. Didn’t last long. I heard them saying good bye and saying that maybe they could play tomorrow. I think Gilad had to let a sibling use the computer or something of the sort. He went out to Carly for a minute, then I got him back inside by saying I’d play Minecraft with him for the rest of his usual Gilad time. We worked on our survival world.

We had Oatmeal, then it was time for me Zoom meeting with Omar, Marc, and Lydia for Sabeel work stuff. I sat outside and had my meeting. August watched more Mumbo Jumbo videos, watching through episode 8. He also convinced me to give him a lollipop for wearing his headphones, as that’s the deal Carly gave him last time. I had no time to negotiate, as he didn’t even need to wear his headphones this time.

That all went well. The only interruption was when he told me there was a spider on the wall. After my meeting, about 50 minutes, I came in and watched the end of episode 8 with him. He played a lot more piano as I made lunch. We did some discussing and looking up of scales. He told me some of his favorite scales are C super locrian, C whole, and A minor. He played his toy piano song. I recorded it to transcribe it as “Toy Piano Anthem”.

We ate lunch of grilled smoked tuna sandwiches and chocolate milk outside. That didn’t last long as he had to go inside and he talked a lot about Minecraft as he went to the bathroom. We discussed going on a bike ride and he agreed, but we then got distracted by calculating the square root of 5. Carly came down and he got hyper copying her. I got him outside for a bike ride. We first we discussed how good his weeds are doing, and why weeds often do better than the plants people are trying to go because they are better suited for the location.

We rode for about 15 minutes. Didn’t go far, as I was getting the gears and brakes working again for part of it. We came back and played our agreed-upon 30 minutes of Minecraft, in Survival Trival. We went upstairs and worked on Earpaggio together. I’m getting better at, and August is surprisingly good at, recognizing the intervals, etc. I wish my band teachers had taught some of this theory way back in the day, but they never did. We then played a game that had Brother meeting Val in the park. Val was blind at first, but we backed up and Val was deaf instead. August wanted to learn sign language, so we learned some ASL so Brother could sign and Val could sign back. August learned ‘Hello’ and ‘What’s up?’ And worked on ‘See you later’ but he got frustrated with the hand movements.

We went downstairs and did some Minecraft math. We worked on the 9 multiplication tables using diamonds into diamond blocks. He ended up with 72 diamonds (8 blocks) and we then practiced subtraction by spending those diamonds in the shopping district on things like elytra and stacks of different things, which were priced differently.

He asked, “What’s of the essence mean?” We then took some time to figure out Minecraft Realms, using an expansion and getting a world set up and making sure it works so that it would be ready for Vivian and Colin. He played a little piano, then listened to a “DermiT Drabb” story on Stories Podcast until 6 I went for a walk after they were all logged into the realm.

I went for a walk, then came back and worked. Vivian logged off of his world and played in her own as she was bothered by his TNT explosions. They were amicable about it, but I think it is funny that neither of them has really figured out that the worlds are infinite, and they can simply spread out within the world. Vivian will tell him not to explode TNT near her, but he won’t go far enough away, or vice versa they’ll be exploding TNT together and when Vivian wants to do something else she tries to get him to stop, as opposed to simply moving further away in the world. But at least it worked.

When their time was up Carly and August called Chuck and Cherie. He played piano for them a lot, sort of answering their questions, and also experimenting with a lot of dissonance. Carly got him food and they went outside and were talking with at least Cherie for a long time. Cherie wants him to hear “Bugle Boy of Company C”, although I didn’t catch why. I added it to our library. August asked her, “What was the technology like when Opa was born?” And August and Cherie had some good fun making fun of Opa’s age: “There was no technology.” “Was he a caveman?”

He struggled with how they could have airplanes without computers, and asked “How did they make airplanes without modern technology?” History of technology might be a field we can explore more. When they were done he was quite silly inside and throwing the red ball around a bit. Cherie introduced the concept of a spanking to him, as something that some parents do, so he was joking around trying to spank us, or wanting a spanking.

I got him upstairs for a Brother game, wrestling with a kid with asthma, who fainted. August had itchy eyes from allergies. We discussed our schedule for the evening, and came to a good agreement: once he had his bath and brushed his teeth he would get to choose from stories podcasts, me reading, or Brother and Sister games until 10:20. At 10:20 it was nonfiction time, which I chose, and at 10:30 we had lights out and would listen to music until he was asleep. We had a little more Brother game, where he had Bar have a change of heart and suddenly like the ugly goose, and set up an ugly goose sanctuary.

Carly gave him a bath. He finished his peanut butter and crackers and listened to “The Silent War for the Open Door” We discussed names and asked, “Can I have a girl name? Because it will be funny…and confuse people.” He wants to be called Zinnia. We brushed our teeth and did nonfiction time, reading more of the book on consciousness. The section we read reminded me of his debate with Cherie on where memories exist, and he declared he’s a materialist. We listened to Rival Consoles and got lights out. He asked, “How do you become a dictator?” I discussed that, and loyal was a word of the day. A kink in our bedtime agreement was that we hadn’t specified when he had to stop eating Cheerios (although we had agreed on one container). So he wanted those now, and kept eating and eat). He finally finished them close to 11, after which he lay down for a minute and declared “I can’t sleep.” Progress though, as he was then asleep by 11:05.

Morning piano:

His jazz song:

Song of the day – fast triplets:

Toy Piano Anthem (his old song from before piano lessons):

Copying mama:

Today’s going upstairs song and dance:

Playing for Oma and Opa:



He was up at 8:50. Carly was headed up and met him. He asked, “What’s a butler?” Downstairs we read more of The Hardy Boys. We then went upstairs for a Brother and Sister game where Sister meets Eliza in the park. The Magic girls intentionally start a war over the bathroom at the family reunion. He asked a few time recently about the words niece and nephew. He asked about those again, then “What’s a son? Daughter?” “It’s weird that gender would matter. Gender’s weird.” “Grammar’s weird too. I like the one where it changes…words get passed around…yeah, I’m a descriptivist.”

We went downstairs and played Minecraft, working on our survival world. We had oatmeal, then he played piano and more piano. I had him practicing with the metronome. He had a couple of different tunes going, and we turned one into a composition that he called “Kangaroo and Joey Too”, because he said it sounded like the tune in that story on the podcast.

We went outside for the ball game and played with the new ball from Shmuel. He was trying to make up new rules, but having difficultly thinking of them. We played for a while, then he wanted to do a Brother game, where the class was playing the game with a blind game. So Ms. Safe turned it into a cooperative game where they were trying to catch the ball as many times as possible and be accurate with their throws and give auditory clues that the ball was coming. August was blind by wearing my sweatshirt over his head.

We went back upstairs for a some more of the Ms. Safe games, then came down and watched the newest GoodTimeswithScar. He then watched an Ants Canada video as I made lunch. He asked about the word caveat. We ate (the rest of the fake meat and rice) and he asked, “What’s arachnophobia?” “What’s a pest?” “What’s a phobia?” We discussed panphobia after he asked if there is a fear of everything. We listened to more of the “Are You Smarter than a Toilet?” episode of Wow in the World.

He listened to the Circle Round for alone time and Carly made a smoothie. In Minecraft we worked more on the storage room and he was doing enchanting with all the books he was getting through fishing. We then had Ted-Ed learning time, watching a backlog of videos I’ve tagged for him:

• “5 Types of Text Structure”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kWGQ-_ipBY

• “How Does a Jellyfish Sting?”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu_ijC8HFRU

• “How Do Fish Make Electricity?”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0M7_HPSi14

• “What Would Happen if You Didn’t Sleep?”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqONk48l5vY

He had a Brother game where he had Brother getting stung by, then catching, an electric eel. He then asked to watch more of Frankenstein so we did that.

Carly came down, and we got him out on an ant walk. We went over and he fed them part of his chocolate bar. We came back for our masks and went back and fed them bits of the fake meat from lunch. Tried to get him to walk up to the park after that, but no luck. He found a coin, 10 agorot, on the sidewalk, and asked Carly to wash it. Think he then was able to buy a small piece of candy from her with it.

He was telling Carly all about ant trophallaxis. “I think they can send out a pheromone to tell they need food.” He then was playing piano and told her, “It’s time you learn how to play fast accurately.” And that, “It’s basically a titanium roadblock to being a good musician.” I went for a walk, and when I got back he was still teaching her piano. He said she was getting better.

I took a shower, then he played with Vivian and Colin. Vivian had downloaded the same Harry Potter world that he did, and they played with that. After Minecraft, he watched a documentary on the Magellanic Clouds (part of the series they’ve been watching) and had popcorn. He asked about celestial and fluxuate.

He wanted to go upstairs to play, and had updated his “Going upstairs” song and dance. Upstairs, we played out the story “Brother and Sister and the Astronomer from the Future”. Carly gave him a bath, and he was being really silly. She was ready to go to bed, so I got him over with me by asking for his help with Earpaggio. He helped, then had the idea of listening to a story with his headphones while I kept practicing. I got his headphones and he listened to “Two of Everything”. He paused to help me out more.

We went in and brushed our teeth. He asked, “What’s gossipy mean?” He talked about gossipy clams and pretended to be one: “Hey, we’re little chatterboxes…” Really seemed like it was from a story, but he couldn’t tell me what. Back in the room he listened to “The Wind and the Sun” on Stories Podcast and then “Bright Bright Feathers”. He talked about wanting a new game, “Best Fiends…it’s worth every cent.” It’s an app advertised on Stories Podcast, and he was reciting every line of the add.

For nonfiction time I read a few minutes of the consciousness book. Qualia was a good word, and we discussed it. He asked what a _philosopher _ was and we discussed that. I mentioned big questions, like what makes a good life, and he replied “A good life is being humble”.

I put on Bach organ music, but he was frustrating me with turning the lights back on and getting back into the Cheerios again and again (he was finishing up his second container). Got the lights off, but he woke me up a few times to talk Minecraft and something about a 10000 block challenge. He told me he couldn’t sleep, then woke me at 11:20 to say, “Dada, we should get more treats.” A bit later he said, “I probably have insomnia.” I think he needs more exercise during the day. He fell asleep somewhere between 11:30 and 11:40.

New song with metronome:

New song and playing with tempo:

Listening to “Kangaroo and Joey Too”:

More metronome practice:

Blind catching:

Feeding ants:

Improved going upstairs song and dance:

I was woken up a little before 7 by a guy dumping metal out of a white van onto the garbage pile. Might have something to do with police presence over there lately. Not sure if I mentioned that yesterday, after inspecting the pile quite a bit, the cops came back a few minutes later with someone with a trailer and they picked up a whole pile of metal pieces and hail them away.

August called out “Mama! Dada!” from his bed a little before 8:40. I went up and he stayed in his bed, taking several minutes to flip around in his bed before he hopped up and said, “I need my phone.” He wanted to see if Carly had written back. “What’s b-e-l-i-e-v-e spell?” “What’s s-e-r-i-o-u-s-l-y spell?” He then sent her back an email about gods not being real. And informed me that an upside down smiley face means sarcasm. He managed to send her a few sentences in return. He likes to end his sentences with three exclamation points, then there periods. Not sure where he learned that one.

He went to the bathroom, then I finished chapter 1 of The Hardy Boys #1. He had won the bet, since Carly was inside, and chose Survival Trival to play in. We listened to some Wow in the World. He played piano, and we had oatmeal before listening to Mumbo Jumbo episode 4. Lots of fun words for him to ask about like chuff out, rapscallion, and precarious.

We went upstairs for a Brother and Sister family reunion game involving the FBI agent. The whole family showed up for a reunion after Baby Sister was born, even though they were told it was cancelled this year. The following year the family tries to hide, and the FBI agent tried to keep the relatives from tracking them to the jungle, but Brother accidentally gave up the secret.

After quite a bit of that we went outside and he checked on his plants. There are more of the little berry things growing. We then read chapter 2 of the Hardy Boys in the swing. Jalopy was a word of the day.

Inside we did a Brother and Detective mystery where they tracked down a stealing clown. The Detective asked Brother if he’d seen someone with orange boots and yellow pants and blue hair. August came up with those, not me, so I decided it was a clown. The clown had stolen the money from the circus. They tracked down the clown and the money and the circus was able to reopen.

Back outside we saw a claw truck come and pick up the garbage across the street. And it was followed by a police car, who stopped and watched, then continued along with the claw truck. We ate pizza for lunch outside, then inside we had a piano competition. I then made a strawberry smoothie, and delivered some up to Carly. We watched PBS video “How do we know the universe is ancient?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Vhh70Lw9w). i.e. was a new phrase. Then a video on autism (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SukO28tQywI&t=322s). One of his top teeth is really loose and he keeps playing with it. Finally, we watched the Ted-Ed video “Does grammar even matter?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn_eBrIDUuc) and learned the terms descriptivism and prescriptivism. He’s a descriptivist.

We went outside to play our ball game and do a Brother game where he met a girl named Eliza who moves things with her mind. Back inside he listened to “Grasshopper songs and Owl Desserts” for alone time, then played Polytopia. He was hungry so had some apple sauce and we played together. Our Tiv Taam order came. I had the door open and the guy brought it right inside the door. August called, “Thank you for social distancing!” Shmuel came by and gave us a flower pot and a red ball for August. August played piano for him. Carly came down and we put groceries away.

I was going to go for a walk as August was playing with Vivian and Colin. They couldn’t manage to connect though and I was trying to help. August was getting pretty frustrated, and I tried to set up Minecraft Realms. Still no luck. He hung up with them and just wanted to play with Carly instead. I went for a walk.

When I got back he was still playing with Carly and talking to them. I went and took a shower, then he was listening to the Stories Podcast story “Two of Everything” and eating some food. I washed dishes. We watched Mumbo Jumbo’s episode 5 where he asked about daft and told me he likes how they say lee-ver for lever. Other new words were brill, quids in, and sweet fanny apples. When the video was over he asked me, “What’s existential?” Mumbo had also used that.

He watched an Ants Canada as I finished the dishes, asking about tenants and amicably. We went upstairs and he went to the bathroom. We talked about what it feels like to go to sleep and wake up. He said he likes waking up, all at once, and said, “It’s stunning.” Lot of Minecraft talk, then we listened to “Polly and the Pumpkin Seeds”. He finished up some food up there (I had gotten him tofu and asparagus when he said he was still hungry) then we brushed our teeth. He listened to another story called “Arthur the Ugly Duckling”, then the Peace Out “Calmness” episode. I put on Benge’s Home Music by 10:45 but he had trouble getting to sleep. After 20 minutes or so we switched to the piano album we’ve been listening to. He kept trying to ask me Minecraft stuff, and finally was asleep sometime after 11.

Playing to the beat:

Song of the day:

Working on it:

Piano work time:

Loose tooth:

He was up at 8:30. I went up and we then lay on the couch bed for about ten minutes. Thought he might fall back to sleep. When he was up we finished reading Shivers on the couch bed. Downstairs we blew up TNT fill commands in the Survival Trival world. It rained, and he went and watched it. He went and played piano, and was playing a cool triplet eighth notes thing, which I just caught the end of. When he played it again he threw some dissonance and randomness into it. I then had him play a jazz piece, but unfortunately it wasn’t quite the piece from last night. We did composing, composing “Triple Play”, which got pat of his triplet piece on paper, at least the basic idea of it.

I made him oatmeal and we took it upstairs. We watched a couple Seattle Symphony Morning Notrs videos (marimba, and a group), then an Osmosis video about anemia, followed by another about anemia (https://youtu.be/XWgOVjStRaY). There was then a new student, with anemia, named Owl. First in Ms. Safe’s class, then Danger’s. We did more with Val. New words were nausea and induces. He then had the idea of a student with food allergies, and named the student Alpha. Ms. Danger, of course, had a picnic with every kind of food imaginable. The rain started again and we enjoyed the thunder.

We went back downstairs and watched StressMonster, still a couple episodes behind. He learned that NVM is short for “Nevermind”. There was more thunder and rain. He’d comment on the nice smell outside. I cleaned out the freezer for lunch. He ate the last of the raviolis, with pesto. I fried up a kebab soy meat thing that was still good, and dumped the falafel, which were bad in the first place and now still had an odd taste when cooked. He would still be hungry and would have crackers with peanut butter.

He watched two episodes of Ants Canada, asking about the words Diligent, diverse, prolific, and probable. He was then asking us how to spell coronavirus and did a good job of figuring out some of the letters himself, although he thought it should end with an ‘is’, which is understandable.

For alone time he listened to the new Stories Podcast episode, “The Elephant’s Dilemma”. He asked the meaning of glamorous. We played in our survival world, returning home and I made a new XP farm. We took some extra time finishing it off and trying to get it to work. It worked a little, but not too well.

He had some crackers and peanut butter outside. A couple of police officers were looking at the garbage pile for several minutes, left, and came back again. August and I discussed what may be going on, and I mentioned the own of the lot might have complained about all the dumping. When he then asked what “a lot” means it took us a minute to figure out which “a lot” he was talking about. Finally I explained what a lot is.

At 4 we went up and he had his time with Gabi. They were talking about the feelings poster at first, then August was sending him chat messages before they moved to the tank game.

I read a little of the first Hardy Boys book, then there was a fly and we went inside and played a little Brother and Sister game. Carly came down and he played piano. I was then learning to play his favorite key: F minor. He listened to Supersonic Piano and I went for a walk.Took my raincoat and stayed closer, but the weather held fine for me and was actually sunny when I got back. When I returned he had the keyboard out and was composing in Notion. I took a shower, then he was playing Minecraft with Vivian and Colin. I made asparagus and tofu. When they were done Carly put on the documentary and they watched an episode and had popcorn. Ingenuity was a word of the day.

I did more work on adding our old blog posts to our main journal, and showed him the old blog post of us touring the Korean border, particularly the painting Carly did of us in the tunnel, and me pretending to climb the fence.

Carly took him upstairs and gave him a bath. He was quizzing her on Minecraft. He was washing himself, and I saved Carly by taking over. We said good night, and he was then asking me about governments (starting with North Korea). He asked me, “Do we have a good government?” I answered with a general yes, but talked about how government is a messy thing. Priorities was a new word.

I surprised him with some of the peppermint oil that he got for Christmas in his room and he liked the scent. In looking for a Stories Podcast episode he asked what a trilogy was. He settled on “The Celebrated Jumping Frog”, where fixture was a new word. He ate his Cheerios, then we went and brushed our teeth. He wanted to make a bet (like in the episode) and we discussed what makes a good bet, and settled on: is mama inside or outside in the morning when he gets up? I took ‘outside’ and he went with ‘inside’ after looking at the forecast. And if she’s inside he wanted a second bet, on whether he is on the couch or off of it: I took ‘off’ and he took ‘on’.

He started to listen to “Grasshopper Songs and Owl Desserts”, but didn’t. I started the idea of nonfiction time and read a few pages of a New Scientist book on consciousness, but then he had the idea of sending Carly emails about our bet and sent a series of those. He used both voice recognition and some help typing. I put on the Bruce Brubaker Time Curve album, skipping to the “Time Curve Preludes” this time, and there were a couple that we agreed we really like. There was another one after he fell asleep, one of the last two on the album, that I think he’ll really like as well. At 11 he asked, “What’s fed up mean?” He was finally asleep by 11:20.

Triplets thing he’s working on:

Triplets and dissonance:

A jazz piece:

Silly dance time:

I woke him up at 9. He said something like “Manaman” and rolled over. Downstairs we read a chapter of Shivers. We played Minecraft in our creative world and went to a forest mansion thousands of blocks away and he exploded it with TNT. This all happened after I couldn’t get into the world that he wanted me in on his world.

We played a Brother and FBI game. This time, Brother saw someone burying and then taking money from the woods, and connected it to the corrupt mayor, who was embezzling through a construction company. August said this was happening before Brother had met anyone else in the park, so it became the first Brother and Sister story, with their lives ordinary up to that point. The mayor goes to jail, and the parents lose their cushy jobs with the city, which leads them to starting to work in the jungle part time. It is then the next, non-corrupt mayor, that forces them to leave town and move to the jungle for good because of the cats and other animals.

These continued upstairs, and he ate his second bowl of oatmeal up there. When we were done we watched the latest Grian video, up on the bed. Superb was a word of the day. We watched a Morning Notes from Seattle Symphony, then he wanted to learn about a new medical condition on Osmosis. Cystinosis was the first thing we found, so we watched that, then the Osmosis epilepsy video. Inhibit was a new word. We did more games, with with Elena in each of the classes, going from Ms. Safe to Ms. Danger, and ending in Ms. Mean’s class. We watched a video from National Geographic about otter fisherman, then went downstairs where he played piano.

He wanted the metronome, and I also set up drums in GarageBand. He played along to both, often at the same time. Carly was down for lunch, and August convinced her to play Minecraft with him. She did about 15 minutes. They were playing in her world, harvesting ice. I took over on her iPad when she had to go teach, and we played with a boat on the ice. He logged us both off at the end, but got a little upset. We got through that and he listened to Supersonic Piano. I made grilled turkey sandwiches and veggies and chocolate milk and we went out and had a picnic lunch on our Pororo picnic mat (I remembered first using it at Children’s Grand Park in Seoul…one of those purchases that has worked out well).

Back inside he wanted his “Edge-uh” video, and watched the Ants Canada video where he gets the new fire ant colony. Perpetuate and fastidious were new words. He then watched a second one about how they handle rain. He wanted to see how ants responded to water and I suggested we take a water bottle over to the ant area and find out. He spotted Carly’s painting as we got ready and said, “I like Mama’s painting. It should be called ‘One Lonely Yellow Leaf’.”

We went over to the ant area and he pour water out. They definitely started to run around, and he thought he saw some climbing the pole to get away. We came back to the house to refill, and took two bottles back. He had discovered a second one of tiny ants. When we got back we found the wet spot covered with ants. We speculated they were drinking the water after the danger had passed. We poured more water, making it more like rain, and studied them, then came home.

Outside we read Shivers, where he asked about temper tantrum and fit. He watered his plants. We read more, and learned curd, appalled, and landlubber. He wanted to earn enough stars to get a new app today. He had one, so needed 7 more. He got to work. We practiced writing, writing music words, for a star, then cleaned the toilets: “As shiny as a clam shell…clean as a cloud…shiny as silver.” He went out and watered all the plants.

We were then doing piano for one. He first just played and played, and totally surprised me by walking both hands up and down octaves at the same time. In his last lesson Dalit had taught him how to do it with each hand, but not at the same time, saying that would be frustrating (because the patterns are different). Shew as going to work on both hands together with him at their next lesson. Well, he’s never worked on it, that I’ve heard, at home. He’s heard me do it though, and I’ve spent a lot of time to figure it out and am doing pretty well. So he started doing, just fine, just like that.

To earn his start he agreed to learn the last two phrases of “Fairy Flight”, with the melody on the left hand, that he’s never learned. We did that, and Carly made sweet potato and potato French fries.

For his next start he washed dishes, and told Carly, “I like doing chores. I like the challenge…It’s satisfying.” I went for a walk, again over Bnei Dror, and making a loop on southern streets this time. When I got back they were playing Minecraft. When he was done playing with Vivian and Colin he went outside with Carly to pick up tree things, for star number 7. He needed to earn one more, so read stories from Epic to Carly. At one point, in reflecting on all the chores he was doing, he said, “I’m doing everything around here.”

He wanted a Toca Boca app, so he looked at the list of them and chose Toca Mystery House. He played that for 15 minutes, and was happy with his purchase. We got him upstairs along with a bunch of food: apples and peanut butter, seaweed snack and cucumber.

He was asking me all about North Korea. We then Skyped with my parents for a few minutes. Carly then took him in for a bath and I kept talking to them. He came back and we talked to them more. He then played piano for them before we said goodbye. He did an amazing jazz piece to start with that I wish I’d gotten on video. He said he could play it again tomorrow.

We listened to “The Magpie with Salt on Her Tail” while he finished the apples, then we brush our teeth. He asked “What’s eureka?” And also asked about via. We said goodnight at 10:30. In bed he asked Siri “What are you doing?” She replied, “I’m pondering enternity. It’s taking forever.” We did the Brother and Elena game (where they become friends) instead of Peace Out. He asked, “What’s deindle mean?” We listened to Rival Consoles and he was asleep at 11:15.

Music with metronomes:

More metronome music:

End of his new pattern:

Another quick pattern:

Watering the ants 1:

Watering the ants 2:

Watering the ants 3:

Writing practice:

Runs with both hands at once:

Evening playing:



He woke up at 8:08 and went straight to the bathroom. He was looking pretty tired, but when he came back out he was quite awake. The first thing he said was “At school Ms. Anna told me…” That pushing both buttons on the toilet made more water go in the toilet. He then told me about how in playing Minecraft “I’ve moved on to using the fill command with chests…I like looking at them…” With their latches and the lines on them. We got downstairs and he looked out the window and said, “That cat is on the roof again.”

I read a little of Shivers, then in Minecraft we explored the Hogwarts/Harry Potter world he had downloaded last night. He plans on exploring it with Vivian when it is his turn. We did that, and listened to a Four Tet album he liked, then had oatmeal for breakfast and watched the newest Iskall.

We went upstairs to the bedroom for a game. First we did the hands as dogs/cats fighting, and I had a dog fetching an invisible ball he would throw. Bar then deleted them all, and we moved on to the Ms. Safe games. We started with Tal, who has narcolepsy. He then wanted another medical condition that a student might have. I thought of epilepsy and we watchedhttps://youtu.be/MBfJozL7qHM

. The girl in that is named Elena and we used that in the game. We also updated our list of all of our Brother and Sister story characters, so we have a full list of the students we’ve come up with.

When we went back downstairs he listened to a Circle Round story, “Share and Share Alike” for alone time. He then played in Carly’s Minecraft with her for Minecraft time.

I started lunch and they went outside to paint. August told me “I have my plants their morning drink.” And a bit earlier Carly had witnessed some drama with a police officer inspecting the garbage pile, then talking to the neighbor across the street. My guess was that they were getting in trouble for dumping recycling there. Carly worked on her latest painting, and August gave her suggestions. He ate a tortilla with the egg and broccoli and turkey from yesterday. Carly told him about her jobs at World Wrapps and picking up garbage at a fair. He painted with her, very briefly, but mainly likes to watch and comment now.

He had me eat the rest of his asparagus, explaining how he doesn’t like the bottoms because they are stringy. I added some of the green sauce to it. August asked, “Why did you put asparagus with hot sauce? It sounds absurd.” We looked up if birds sing multiple songs. August had asked last night. We should watch the Puffin Rock “Dawn Chorus” episode and see what he thinks of it now.

Schnitzel was now ready and he ate that. Carly’s painting had one yellow leaf, and we (August and I) joked about the one leaf, and whether the painting was about being unique and standing out or whether she would paint them all the same and make it a painting about conformity. For his schnitzel: “I need a container that’s poisonous to flies but not me.”

Carly was trying to get him to fill his water bottle and talked about how it is for his future. He said, “Can’t I make my kids do it?” To which Carly responded, “How’s that working for us?” He then said, “Maybe I should rethink that.” They read a book (great fire? Volcano?). He has kept bringing up Krakatoa when they were reading a day or two ago.

I went for a walk. 40 minutes through Bnei Dror, exploring the north neighborhoods and empty lots. When I got back August was listening to podcasts in his room by himself. He hadn’t gotten upset about anything. That’s just what he wanted to do after they came inside. He was listening to a story about a boy putting salt on the tail of a bird. He came out about 2:20, then started playing piano. He said he had listened to three stories, and he told me he hadn’t been upset.

We did some piano playing and discussed Korea and North Korea. We went upstairs and watched the epilepsy video again and played with Elena again. Then there was a student named Bertie with insomnia who became friends with brother. They discussed Minecraft.

He talked about his coins and wanted to buy a treat from me. We found his coins and he looked at them and his rocks from the fair where he panned for stones with Vivian (coincidentally the second time that fair had come up today, as earlier he had asked what a fair was). I got the mandolin out, and we tuned it.

Carly made a smoothie and brought it up. We played for a while longer, then went downstairs. The volume knob on the mandolin has long been loose, and I tried to check it out. August helped me with the screwdriver. Didn’t really make any progress. They called Cassie to talk about playing Minecraft earlier. They agreed on a time, then August went upstairs with Carly to get his phone, then listened to “The Lamb with the Golden Fleece” on Circle Round. I made us chocolate milk. When it was over he asked how long until Vivian and Colin (still 20 minutes left) and then played piano. He then moved over and started playing with the mandolin, sitting in the red chair.

For the last ten minutes he did Earpaggio with me. We’re both getting better, but he’s better than me, and can identify intervals very quickly. I was surprised by how quickly and confidently he was identifying the sixths.

When it was time to call them, Carly asked him to envision ending Minecraft. He said, “This is so exhausting. Every time.” They called and the kids played Minecraft in a zoo world Vivian had downloaded. August was doing more fill commands and they ended with a big TNT explosion.

They then did a Zoom call with Cherie and Chuck. August wanted to use the Snap Camera app to do the animations and things, but it wasn’t working. Carly eventually found that that had been broken in the latest release of Zoom. August then figured out a workaround by sharing his full screen, and showing them the Snap Camera app. He ate schnitzel and broccoli and rice for dinner.

He played piano for them, then played pictionary with Cherie. They did a great job of that, and we are supposed to look up Ganesh. I also heard August correctly guess ‘Utensils’ and ‘Footprint.’ He was drawing things for her as well. I was working over at the table during this time, and Carly was outside. There was more piano playing, and August and Cherie then moved on to Legos. Cherie gave him instructions on how to build something, and August followed her commands—he referred to it as her writing code at the beginning, and was then talking about how he was following her commands. They were also discussing binary.

It was a great activity, working both on 3D spatial skills (and that went surprisingly well) and on language/direction following. She was also giving him sort of yoga instructions, on how to move his legs and feet to do a pose. Carly came in, and August did the same thing to Carly, telling her “Now you will execute my every command.” They were talking about graphing calculators and August was doing things on the graphing calculator. They had a debate about memories and where they are stored. August was convinced it was “Just neurons in the brain.”

My friend Peter was online, and asked to Skype. I went up and chatted with him for about an hour. They finished up with Cherie, and played around upstairs for a while before getting to a bath. I came out as they finished with a bath. He asked me, “Will you execute my every command?” August was still hungry and asked for crackers and peanut butter. I got him that, and brought up our devices. I handed August his phone for podcast purposes and he instantly put one on. He said, “To put on a podcast when I have my phone is my instinct now.” He first listened to “Share and Share Alike” on Circle Round. He had listened to it earlier. He then listened to “The Magpie with Salt on Its Tail” again, saying “I like it.”

He went to the bathroom after that and asked, “What’s outrageous?” And then, “What’s epidemic?” That led to discussions of pandemic and endemic and prevalent.

We brushed our teeth, said good night to Carly, and went in and started a Peace Out. August really wanted a Brother game with Nord instead so we did that in the dark (Nord is both blind and has seizures—Brother was being ‘helpful’ but kept doing things like trying to show him photos of Minecraft), then put on the new epic45 album. He really liked it, so I started a playlist of his favorite ambient albums. He was asking me more questions, and finally fell asleep by 11:20.

Playing variations on a song he knows:

Door game:

Mandolin noodling:

Song of the day for Oma:

Pictionary with Oma:

LEGO commands:

Yoga commands:

“Now you will execute my every command”: