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A little before 7 he came out and climbed into bed with me again. I got up and then went back up at 8:10 to wake him up. He was warm and cuddly though so I got back in bed for a few more minutes. Finally got him up and he went down and scared Carly. He took a while to wake up and get going, but we actually encouraged him a bit as we wanted him finished before Eve got here.

He chose the Mushroom Island world and played with Carly. At one point he declared, “I’m going to be a Minecraft photographer.” Carly went upstairs to get ready, and said she’d keep playing from up there. August noticed she wasn’t actually moving in the game and started to push her around and tag her a couple times. I suggested he surround her with blocks. He was excited about playing a prank on her. He ended up (because they are in survival) taking apart some of her house and using those materials: “I’m going to be like a virus and use the material of my host…What? It’s fun to use the material of the host.”

Carly made him oatmeal, but he seemed to be more interested in making music, drumming on the table with his hand and water bottle for accompaniment. I went up to wrap the small presents for the stocking and Heather and Eve showed up at 9:40. I went back up and finished wrapping presents and when I went back down they were just outside, playing together. I snuck out for a minute and saw August explain what he’d learned about porcupine quills to her. He came inside at one point and said this was the mall and I sold him things, like the xylophone, that he took outside and they were making music. He was getting hungry, so I made him and me grilled cheese and tuna sandwiches, while Eve opted for just grilled cheese.

He wanted them to come inside at one point because he’d seen a been. I got them back outside with the sandwiches and they ate. Carly then set up painting with them. They all then painted, with August mainly doing his color mixing and sharing the colors with Eve. Eve must have said something about someone (her mom?) loving everything she paints. I heard August say, “You should give her a test. Just do a bunch of scribbles. Test her loving skills.”

He was still hungry and asked for a smoothie. Carly made it, and in the meantime he was also asking to use the keyboard and iPad. I made an agreement with him to start with a trial 15 minutes. He and Eve were kind of going back and forth between playing together and apart: when she was done painting she had gone off to play on her own in the Zinnie house. He and I took out the keyboard and iPad and he played on the grass. Eve was sort of making a house around the patio and they were talking to each other so I gave him another 15 minutes. Not sure he even finished that, then they were playing together outside.

She was setting something up and he came in and sat at the stool at the coffee table and sang a song in first person about a box getting eaten by a shark in the sea and getting gross in the stomach as he drew a picture. He ran out and I heard him saying, “Eve, did you know I wrote down a story and sang a song?” She wasn’t ready and he came back in and did tow more stories: one about a triangle and something else that became friends and had a huge cake and they took 1111 years to eat it and exploded (I got that on video) and one about a stickman that brewed regeneration potions on a brewing stand in Minecraft and drank it. I recorded that one as a voice memo. While he was doing that Carly spotted paint on the back of his shirt and had him change shirts so she could wash it.

She put his shirt around his head, but then left it for him to complete. He put one arm through. When he wanted to do music on the keyboard I gave him a 15 minute trial period and we took it outside so he’d be close to Eve. I asked him to put his other arm through and he said he liked it how it was. So as he played music outside he only had one sleeve on. He and Eve were talking as he played, so I gave him a second 15 minutes.

But then Eve wanted to go to the park. August didn’t, and just wanted to play music and talked about cancelling the play date. Carly ended up staying with him and I took Eve up to the park. She had made a car of sorts out of the orange bike, with a pillow and two blankets to sort of enclose it. She climbed around on the structure, then Carly showed up with August. She went home, but a few minutes later he needed a bathroom. We checked the building by the park, but no luck. Eve agreed to go back to the house with us, and she pushed August, who was carrying his flipping stick.

He went to the bathroom, and we got a couple balls to take back with us. August took photos of us as I pushed Eve back to the park. We kicked the balls around, then August started doing bursts and time lapses of us playing around. Eve took a turn, but mainly liked being filmed. So I got to rest on the swing for a while while they played around and did videos. About the last thing we did was take a video of the two of them doing a funny dance. Eve then fell while running around and was bleeding from a spot on her foot. I used the bike as an ambulance and we headed to the house and got her a bandaid. August was hungry, so I got them both crackers and peanut butter. Eve had also had some cereal and milk while August was playing music.

Heather picked her up at 3. I had just delivered her crackers and peanut butter and August noticed she was doing a kidding trick when she was nibbling her crackers. He told Heather his fact about porcupine quills, and as they left he told Eve a kidding trick (argue that it’s educational if she wants more screen time). As soon as they were gone he said, “I’m bored.” Carly sat out in the sun and I read him poems from Something BIG Has Been Here by Jack Perlusky. Back inside he did more story pictures: him getting really upset and going to 20 on the scale and breaking the wall into atoms, explaining he got upset because he was eating soup and his baby brother stole the soup, then a really cool one about a garbage pile cleaner who uses something like Google Maps to identify piles to clean up. He goes around the world with a friend to clean it up to find out that there is no garbage.

Carly had been planning to go to school and take him with her to play on the whiteboard, but he decided he didn’t want to go. So Carly went and we did a Brother game, with him finding an ocelot who turned out to be Millie and a tiger that turned out to be a joke from Bar (Millie was at Disney World). For alone time he listened to the Story Pirates, the episode with “The Week the Animals Talked”.

Carly got back from school. I went for a walk and they did Minecraft. I got back and took a shower. He ate his leftover pizza and some broccoli for dinner. She read Clementine to him. Good riddance was a word of the day. He updated the countdown (we forgot yesterday), and he and I built with Legos for quite a while while Carly went for a walk.

Peter wanted to Skype, so I went and skyped with him for about an hour. Meanwhile, August and Carly skyped with Vivian and Colin. They came up to get my help to log in to Curiosity Stream and August said hi to Peter and Kasiah and then Micah. He rewatched the third episode of Body, about the developing baby.

We managed, just, to get him to pause it and go up for a bath. Carly gave him a quick bath. We watched a few more minutes of the documentary, through the animations of the neurons, then went to say good night. He saw the puzzles when I was opening up the couch and he got out the thing that plays “Old MacDonald” and dance around to that. We did a family hug, then I read him a bit more Prelutsky back in the bedroom. Funny bone was another new word. He was then being Tigey and wanting French fries. Brother was out of ketchup, and then also mayonnaise. He went to the bathroom, then we listened to the Circle Round story “The Fire on the Other Side of the World.” I went to choose music, and he saw the Foals. It was calm-ish and we listened to that as he fell asleep, about 10:20.

Singing about being a virus to prank Mama:

Eve climbing time lapse:

August playing time lapse:

Bird time lapse:

Funny playground dance:

Dancing to Old MacDonald Had a Farm:

Another story drawing:

At about 7 he got up and came out and climbed into bed with me. He then got up right at 8 and came down all on his own. Carly cuddled with him on the couch. After a couple minutes he got up and said, “Dada, I had a dream about the Story Pirates.” I asked him a couple times if he remembered any details and he just replied with, “Anyway.”

We read several poems in the Vile Verses book. We then did Minecraft, making good progress in our survival world (getting cows, harvesting and planting trees and sugar cane). I got him oatmeal for breakfast. He asked why poop has germs in it, and Carly looked for a video. They found a new series from PBS called Little 101. August watched the one on poop, then the rest of the series (dizziness, why we have to go to bed, how do we think, why do stars twinkle). While he did that he killed the fly that has been bothering us since yesterday: it landed in his oatmeal and got stuck. We congratulated him and he wanted to leave it out to catch more flies. I made him more oatmeal.

Carly got a shopping list together and headed out to get both groceries and items for August’s stocking: lavender oil, ingredients for slime, chocolate coins, and several other things she had in mind.

August and I then moved to the PBS series Songs for Unusual Creatures. We learned about tardigrades. After they explained how you can look for tardigrades and see them in a regular microscope he again talked about how we should get a microscope. He asked how an electron microscope works. We watchedhttps://youtu.be/xY4YSjPipKE

Microscopy was a word of the day. He told me about using an electron microscope to study skin, mosquitoes, and Ebola, then had a Bar and Sister game where she had an electron microscope and let Sister look at skin. They were seeing a cell produce proteins. They were then studying glass. There was some craziness about spawning cats on the server, then we were cuddling on the couch. I suggested a Circle Round story. He tried a couple different podcasts (Storynory and another) but said he liked the music in Circle Round. So we listened to “Sir Luck and Mister Riches”.

We then did a half hour of Minecraft. Carly got home right as we started. She had found the lavender oil, as well as peppermint, for him and all sorts of other things, like a bar of soap. She then drove up to town and got back again just as we finished. He ate the grilled cheese and avocado sandwich I had made and watched Ted-Ed videos on pain killers (he didn’t trust my explanation about pain killers being little soldiers with weapons that kill spikey pain microbes in your body), medicine, and bacteria versus antibiotics. He had his top and was spinning it (he’s gotten quite good) and was talking to it: “You know the rules: no running away.”

They left in a rush at 12:30. I had baked the last of the cookies and they took a bag with 3 of them for Gabi. We were playing a Brother game right up to the point I got him out the door. They went to Gabi’s, where August, unusually, insisted on Carly staying in the room. They tried a compromise, but he then still insisted she stay in. She ended up doing so.

They went and got pizza, then went to the beach. He kept his bike helmet on the whole time, even though Carly asked a few times about it. He was mainly, it sounds, into collecting rocks and seaweed at the beach today. And they saw big dead jellyfish floating in the water so he was throwing rocks at them.

They got home at 5:30. I had done some work and also finished editing Peter’s novel. He asked, “What’s eliminate mean?” Not sure what prompted that. He was spinning the top when I came down, then I went out and got the beach bag so he could show me all of the things he collected. We looked at them out on the patio. I asked for his favorites, and it started at 4 and went up and up from there until he’d basically lined them all up.

He did more top spinning for alone time, then we played Minecraft. All was well until he fell until a square of lava that he had made and died. He got upset, and Carly comforted him as I collected all of his stuff. She’s concerned he’s upset about the dying aspect, but I think it is just about making a mistake/losing things in the game. He rebounded quickly and managed to milk more time out of it as he got his stuff and we returned towards the surface.

He wanted a cookie but agreed to eat broccoli. I gave him a big bowl, and he surprised me by eating the rest of his actual dinner (the pasta dish) and then a little over half of the broccoli. We were doing a Brother game where he found a rare coin and then argued with Sister tricks. She was using her “sistering tricks” to try to get him to give her to coin. Brother was resisting, and decided to build a display case so he wouldn’t lose it (as Sister argued). But in the course of making the display case he set down the coin and lost it. It turned out that Sister had picked it up. The whole thing devolved into a series of simulations and fighting and smashing (as Brother was tired of Bar putting him through simulations and wanted to destroy the machine, only to find it was another simulation).

He remembered the cookie and had a cookie and milk. Carly then read him Clementine. I heard the pigeon part, and I think they may have finished it. At one point he convinced her to go outside so he could use the binoculars. Again he didn’t wear a sweatshirt. Or shoes, I think. Despite it being pretty cool.

I did the dishes, then finished reading Vile Verses to him. He asked about the word obscure. He was then perching and standing on the pillows on the couch. A rather overly brave, and rare move from him. Carly and I both had to talk to him about it being dangerous. He went to the bathroom, then Carly took him upstairs for a bath. On the way up though he remembered I had mentioned a documentary and popcorn. It was now 8:30 and when Carly and I hesitated he instantly started to get upset and came back down. Luckily, he held it together and was able to talk about it and agreed to a short documentary.

Carly took him up for his bath. He told us he’s taking kidding classes. He said he’s posting them on Wikipedia to make “a connected web.” He started to watch a short documentary on Curiosity Stream (that plays after the end of the third episode of The Body) and switched to a Kurzgesagt video and they ate some popcorn. I went for a walk and they were in bed when I got back.

He took quite a while to get to sleep and kept waking Carly up. They listened to a Circle Round story he’s heard before but he was fine because he said he liked it. He then woke her up to help get the covers over him, then again to switch the heater to fan mode. And then again, requesting she get up in the bed with him. I still heard them well past 10.

Rules for the top:

His collection from the beach:

Sometime during the night I heard him clearly say something like “Ouch.” He woke up at 6:43. I went up and he got back in bed and pulled the covers up. He stayed in bed until 7:05. Still, barely more than 8 hours of sleep and didn’t bode well for the long day today. He lay on the couch until 7:20 when he finally asked for his iPad and Minecraft.

We played Minecraft, then he asked to make another YouTube video, this time about how elements are made. He used the MEL Chemistry VR app to demonstrate. That all went really well, but then he wanted to play Green Planet and immediately got upset when I said he’d have to do that during earned time. When he calmed down he had cereal, then did a Brother game where he was supposed to play “Jingle Bells” with the bad but didn’t know the music and was playing wrong notes.

We headed out and got to Shani’s a couple minutes early. He immediately asked her what the plan was. It was:

• swing
• drawing with stickers
• plasticine wotd
• August choice

He had fun spinning on the swing (the one with the arm and leg loops this time) then swinging forward and backwards. She suggested we’d have to get a swing for him at home. He covered his ears for a minute while he swung around. He asked for a challenge and they decided on the fishing magnet puzzle. He had ideas about flying through the air and getting them out, and her grabbing the fish from the fishing pole while he swung around. Both of which weren’t realistic/were dangerous. It took a few minutes for her to pay attention and get him to complete the puzzle in a calmer manner. “My technique didn’t work very good.” Shani said, “Think of a different technique” and he replied, “Go slower.”

They then for art with stickers. Actually, he used things that needed to be glued. He glued them in a circle and called it a bit of a bullet ant. Then there was green that was mold growing on the person. He then drew the ant. She got him to do another piece of art as he hadn’t done much drawing. He filled in circles with colored pencils. They then were drawing shapes for each other to trace. He of course took it immediately to 10, drawing crazy shapes for her to trace.

She noted that it was interesting that at the beginning of class he asked for a challenge when he got on the swing; in early weeks he would just want to do freestyle. We also talked about how the texture of the glue on his hands didn’t bother him now; his texture sensitivity seems to be doing better. We also told her about how he’s putting lotion on his hands, and the meditation he’s been doing.

They played with the plasticine, making outlines of their lines on paper, then he chose to spend more time on the swing.

He made music on the way back to the car again. We played more Brother games on the way to the park (the one from Shani again): making mistakes in a concert, saying the wrong lines in a play rehearsal (he was supposed to be the Beast in Beauty and the Beast but kept being a “nice” beast), then playing the wrong notes in a concert again. I joked that it was during “4’33”” and introduced him to free jazz. We listened to a little of the Ornette Coleman album before getting out of the car.

At the park we played on the merry-go-round and hd some snack. We had a Brother game where he was expelled from school (I can’t remember why), only to find out he was never enrolled in the first place and didn’t have to be going there. August choked on water when I said that part.

August then got into making slo-mo videos. We did them of him on the merry-go-round and of him spitting water. He played around a bit more, and told me about a “Earth Minecraft simulation.” And he had Brother skydiving with a squirrel suit, then taking care of Millie as a bird. As he played around he was having me help him slide down the fire pole, and was practicing it himself. Not really something he’s been interested in before.

He rode his bike back to the car, then we drove downtown. He wanted to eat lunch at Sushi Ishimoto, but it was closed and didn’t open until 12. We talked about doing our shopping and coming back. We went to Stop City for milk, then got strawberries at the fruit and veggie place. He decided he wanted a popsicle at the health food store instead of sushi for lunch. So he got a coconut strawberry one, and also tried the sample of raw honey. August had spotted the bench by the bank so we sat there. He had a Brother game where he was trying to get the next issue of My Little Pony, but kept missing it at the comic book store. Eventually the next issue was there and he had missed the one he needed, which was part 1 of a two-parter.

We got to the car at 12:10. We discussed the song “Fascist Groove Thing” and fascism. That led to a discussion of how people rebel against authoritarian governments, and how they can be punished. I used some examples from the Burning Down the Haus book about East German punk music that I’ve been reading.

At home we did our word time outside, reviewing our previous sounds and words and choosing a couple more sounds to add. I cut up the mango, and he played with the GarageBand sampler. He asked for it, describing how we had used it in Korea.

He then asked what chemical bonds are made of. We watched some videos about bonds, but they didn’t exactly answer his question well enough. He came up with a story of Brother putting his head in Bar’s “Duplicator collider” and then having to be put back together.

Carly got home as we were playing. He got upset with the idea of pausing. Took a while to get things back in order, but we ended up back with the game, then went outside again to do even more new words. We discussed the nutrition of mangos, then did more words before tracing each others’ hands. He added to my hand, calling them “crossbars.” We discussed why Oma is so healthy (we had discussed salt earlier, and mentioned that she really liked salt, but it was okay because she is healthy) and why McDonald’s is more expensive here in Israel than in the U.S. (he had said he wanted to go to McDonald’s for some reason and I had mentioned how it is more expensive here).

He had an ear of corn, then we headed to school. He was singing his new composition on the way there. He was excited as we went in and was running and high stepping. He had a cookie and we watched the caroling group in the lobby. We went in and sat down. He saw Minke on stage, setting up the electric bass and asked, “Can I yell down to Mr. Minke and say hi?”

The concert was quite nice. August recognized some of the music he had “conducted” and that it sounded better today. One of the highlights was Jonathan playing bari sax with the school saxophone quarter. They played “Just the Two of Us.” One of the bands also played selections from The Nutcracker and I’d show it to him later. At the end of the show I took him to the bathroom and he grabbed another cookie.

He enjoyed the cold on the way home and had the window open. At home we watched Kurzgesagt videos, one on a skyhook idea (payload was a word of the day) and one on the scale of time. We ate crackers and avocado and hummus.

Got him upstairs and did a Brother game, with Bar and Sister updating the Minecraft game on their server, which made Mynah upset as it got rid of magic, including potions. It was too complicated for Brother, and he quit and played vegetarian Minecraft by himself.

I gave him a bath and we watched part of the Nutcracker on YouTube. We had a debate over parenting tricks versus techniques, then said good night to Carly. He talked about treats in his lab, then had some sort of debate with me, pitting his kidding tricks versus my logic. I won, somehow, and he said, “How did you beat that? But that was my robot intelligence.” We listened to the Nutcracker and he fell asleep sometime after 10.

Starting another episode:

Episode 4: Atoms, part 1:

Episode 5: Atoms, part 2:

His favorite swing:

Spit and sand slo-mos:

Word time outside:

The extended L tongue twister:

Alien statues and singing Chemical Brothers and Fascist Groove Thing:

Saxophone quartet at the concert:

He called to me once during the night. I went in, and, thinking it was close to my alarm going off, just took my covers with me. Turned out it was only 4, and I fell back to sleep on the lower bed. He then slept until 7:35. He took a few minutes on the upstairs couch, then we read The Biggest Bear downstairs. It is a Caldecott winner from the 50s. It was a fun one to read and discuss with August.

We then did Minecraft. We started a world in a mesa biome after trying out the Animals world I had bought. Afterwards he had cereal and strawberries and did some satellite work on graphing calculator. He had one of the little cinnamon pastries, then had a Brother game where he gets a cinnamon pastry and it turns out he is allergic to cinnamon. That was followed by stories of him drinking a lot and having to pee, then we did the new moving-to-the-jungle storyline again.

For reading time we tried out the Hooked on Phonics app and did a trail. We were trying to find the right level for him. The first three were too easy. But fad was a word of the day. We got off Hooked on Phonics when he wanted us to make lists of words and type them instead. We typed words in Pages, then he did some satellite work before we got back to typing words. We worked on CK and TR sounds.

More brother needing to pee games. He was blocking the “pee passageway.” He brought up “Towny town” from earlier. The name of the town they lived in. August thought that hilarious and dissolved in laughter again.

We got back to words with ABC songs from when he was a little kid. I was looking for the Preschool Prep videos for the sounds we were practicing, but got sidetracked on this. He asked for the tongue twister song:https://youtu.be/NDlFtdOKPlA

He remembered he hadn’t had his educational video, so watched a Brave Wilderness, then Kurzgesagt videos on Marijuana and Emergence. He really liked the one on emergence and used it as an analogy a couple times later in the day. He asked me for estimates on how many days we’ve been alive: I figured him over 2000, me close to 18000.

On the scientific calculator I then taught him how to use the “% of” button. He then got into YouTube mode and wanted to make videos to teach other people. He was talking about mathematical chains. He started heading to the bathroom at one point and I stopped recording. He then wanted me to record him talking as he sat on the toilet and said, “You know we won’t put this on YouTube,” We then did his whole number chains videos, where he talked about number chains like 10, 100, 1000, etc. When we were done he started to do more exercise on the red chair: “Now I’ll get back to exercising. What? You should always exercise after a video.”

We were then going to read, and he told me he had figured out the passcode on the iPad and asked to try it. He had. He read a level 3 book in Rivet called Fun in the Park. We talked more about math patterns, then had soup for lunch. He then had a Jolly Rancher. I was joking about being tempted by it and trying to lick it. That somehow led to a discussion of birds eating, and he wanted to see how baby birds eat so we watched a video of baby birds being fed. Then watched an illusions video that Carly had sent:https://youtu.be/DkVOIJAaWO0

He had a Brother and Sister game where Millie and Brother are birds. Millie the baby, Brother the dada bird. She wanted to do it for her research; he didn’t want to, but played along when she turned him into a bird.

For alone time he did painting outside, alone, at the table. He was then singing a song that went, “I was walking in the park one day…taken by surprise by a couple or nice guys…” He was playing around the yard and said, “Mama’s flip flops is not good for going up slides” He was shocked to see the salad green seeds popping up: “It’s only been a couple days and they’re popping up!”

We then were doing Brother and Myna Minecraft games. August was having tons of fun and laughing like crazy as he got to act outraged by the things Brother did, like filling up her base with chickens and blowing it up.

We headed to school around 4. Carly was headed home, but waited so she could see us. We were going to go to the library, but then saw Omri’s sister Bar. She told August that Omri was playing down at the playground. We went down there. August was a little confused and said that Bar looked different. I realized that he was thinking of Omri’s other sister, Zohar.

Down at the preschool playground we found Omri and Jonathan. Omri actually never played with us. She was busy with something on the car, and August went to the big swing and we played on that with Jonathan. He was being pretty crazy and dangerous. August kept talking about how he was being brave. They left. August was playing with the teeter totter and used different items to find its balancing point. He talked about doing a video on broken chains and said, “I’m in active mode.”

We headed to the library and returned (finally) the I’m No Good at Rhyming book. He found where they’ve attached Lego plates to the wall and we played with Legos. I found the second Last Kids on Earth book and two poetry books: Perlutsky’s A Pizza the Size of the Sun and Dahl’s Vile Verses. He wanted an Elephant and Piggie book and we read Waiting Is Not Easy. He found it hilarious but didn’t want to check it out.

We headed home. He said hi to Carly, then we did his broken chains video. He called 10×10, 100×100, 10,000×10,000… “an interesting ladder…” because of the doubling of the zeroes. Rungs was a word of the day.

He then read to Carly in Rivet. She taught him the ing and th sounds and wrote down words. I started making cards for all of the sounds we were learning. He played Monster Physics for a while and made a challenge for me, where I had to protect a monster from falling bombs. First I simply placed the monster to the side of where they were falling. Then, when he insisted it be under the bombs I solved the problem. He would then add to it and I’d work to solve it again. I think we got through a couple rounds.

We listened to Parcebel’s Canon in D as it had been used in a Story Pirates story. He told me, “Here’s a kidding tricks I got from Arizona, another one of my friends…” The trick was, when offered a choice, to always pick the highest option.

I had also been cutting out more of the poems that Carly had copied for me from the Rhyming book. August used my scraps and made a big paper chain from them. He sang, “nothing can stop me from taping this puppy.” He then did painting with Carly. He was still negative about her hair and when Carly asked him to get the painting he said, “You mean Really Bad Never Going to Get in an Art Place Lady Bird Johnson?” And, “Here’s Lady Bird Fluffy Face.” They painted and he mixed colors. He then wanted to duplicate a color he had made previously and they worked to do that.

Carly went up to take a shower. She had had to turn on the water heaters as it was cloudy all day. The first day we had to do that. He kept working on color mixing alone. He experimented with whether the order you mix colors matters and told me, “Mama’s art teacher said that the order matters (when mixing colors) and I’m going to see if she’s right.” He decided it didn’t.

He made a potion at the sink, then got upset when I didn’t make popcorn right away. He calmed down really well though, coming to me to and letting me comfort him, and took breaths when I asked him to. We talked about how he could do breaths earlier next time to calm down more quickly.

I made popcorn, then went for a run. When I got back he was having cereal and strawberries. I took a shower. Carly got him ready and brushed his teeth. She was getting frustrated when he wouldn’t agree to brush his teeth. I heard him tell her how I would tell him to take breaths. I’m not sure if he intended the breaths to be for Carly to calm her down, or for him to calm down and accept the toothbrushing. They got through it one way or another. She then read more of their latest Myna book to him. He heard dusk and asked what it meant.

Got him in bed at 9:30. We read some of the Perlusky poems. He is really into them now. He was more indifferent when we checked them out a year or two ago. We then read a few Roald Dahl poems. He asked if stink bugs are real so we looked up photos. Finally, we read and did some of the yoga in the Babar Yoga book. Again, interesting to see him much more into a book we’ve had for years. In app we listened to the Train to Dreamland sleep visualization. He argued with it in a couple points, about things he was taking more literally, which is like how he’s pointed out how a couple of things in one of the breathing visualizations are scientifically accurate.

Explaining math chains to me: https://youtu.be/9LcdSoRhNfg

Planning his YouTube video:

Episode 1: Number chains:

Singing about paint color mixing:

Laughing hysterically about chickens:

Having fun being outraged about the chickens:

Explaining how going on the swing operated the pumps in his lab when he was in preschool:

Episode 2: broken chains:

Episode 2: another example of broken chains:

At 3:30 or so I heard him laughing. A few minutes later he called me in. He said, “I had a dream and I woke up.” I asked if it was a bad dream and he said, “No.” He was awake enough to that a couple minutes later he asked me to switch the unit to fan mode for more noise.

At 5:53 he woke up again, and came out and said, “I need to go to the bathroom.” Carly took him, then put him back to sleep on the big bed. He was up again at 7:20. He watched part of the Aub Dhabi Grand Prix (last race of the season) with me, then told me about how he saved his battery power to win a race. Then a board game he designed like the one he plays with Gabi (which is about an elephant and cat going on straight paths) but in his version it is two race cars. He then watched stick man Minecraft videos while I finished the race.

He ate one of the savory pastries, then had strawberries, then a sweet pastry when he stopped his YouTube watching really well. We had a Brother game where Sister had used all of his iPad time. Then some project where Bar was having Brother get DNA from animals. I had downloaded a couple of My Little Pony episodes for him to watch at the licensing office later. He suddenly wanted to watch one and got upset when I said he couldn’t right now. Very quick, but also over it very quickly.

Then a Brother game with a new girl he named Polemisis. She was really good at painting and Brother got jealous. August then wanted to paint, and fit in a quick painting before we left.

We left at 9:20. We were going up to the licensing office in Hadera, as the Netanya office seemed closed or full fo the next few days (I’m liking the scheduling app). August was seeing things in the clouds, like a hurt dolphin and a dragon, before we left. He asked, “What’s a noob?” Not sure where he heard that.

Lots more Story Pirates today. Catching up on season 2. We found parking in the mall lot okay, went up, and found the licensing office just in time for our 10:10 appointment. I did the number machine myself for the first time, then was up right away. August had barely started watching My Little Pony. Sadly, that was the end of everything going smoothly. The woman informed me I needed Carly’s original passport. I had brought mine, and had a copy of her’s, but since her name is on the registration I needed te original. So I went back and let August watch a few more minutes while I set up another appointment, this time on Thursday morning at the Netanya branch.

We started to walk to the exit. He spotted one of those little mall play areas, but with nothing in it. We stopped to play though. We worked on proper form for his forward rolls, then had a Brother game where he was used to living in the jungle, then on a trip back home they go to the mall and he gets overwhelmed by all the people and noise. August was also jumping of the edge of the play area.

When he was done with that we exited the mall and crossed the street to the park. There was an old piece of machinery that we looked at and speculated about, then he had Brother getting his hand stuck in a machine in Bar’s lab. We walked north through the park. We stopped to look at the fish in the ponds, and he speculated that the stone towers of a memorial were ancient ruins.

We crossed the street and went in a cafe (קפה טוב חדרה) for lunch. The woman that seated us didn’t speak English. I requested a Hebrew menu and we did okay, but it was nice when she brought back a woman who speaks English, as we were able to make sure we could get shakshuka that wasn’t spicy. August got a hot chocolate as they didn’t have smoothies. While we waited, we looked up answers to August’s question from the park: Why do fish die so fast? We then read a little of The 117-Story Treehouse. We were then doing Brother games and he was laughing and laughing. The most fun ones nowadays are ones where Brother is doing things that annoy Bar or Myna and August gets to act all faux outraged as one of them.

We walked back to our car, figured out how to pay (one of the machines wasn’t working) and got going. Well, a few feet. Leaving the parking lot was nearly impossible. There was a line of barely-moving cars, one closed exit, and lots of cars trying park and squeeze through and push in. And honking. Lots of pointless honking. We were listening to Story Pirates though to pass the time and August was calm through it all, which was apparently much different from when he and Carly were stuck at Tiv Taam on Friday and he was getting frustrated.

We drove over to the Madatech Science Center. No external signs of construction, and there were recent reviews on Google Maps that didn’t mention it being closed. But it was. The security guard said for a few more months and to check the website. The website that has never had any mention of the closure.

August needed the bathroom so peed in the dirt around the corner. He then spent a few minutes studying ant nests before we got back in the car. I had thought that the beach and riding his bike would be a good back up. However, before we went, afraid this might happen, we had talked backup plans and he wanted another science center and I had mentioned Planetanya. I now double checked, and it didn’t open until 4 today. He didn’t want the beach instead though, but just wanted to head home.

So we did. I had the idea of going to Ikea though and he agreed to that. I had let him watch more of his My Little Pony episodes now, and when we parked at Ikea he was still watching the second episode (6 of season 4). We sat in the car and let him finish and I did Duolingo.

On our way in and walk around Ikea he talked about his evacuation machines (these have come up in Brother games) that sense something bad and then force everyone to evacuate and then usually end up destroying the building. We talked about machine learning (he had asked if computers can learn or think) and how computers might learn how to sense an actual emergency and not just the sounds of a kid screaming or people screaming at a concert. He explained how he had taught a robot to think by taking the learning part of a human brain out of a dead person, then replicating it part by part in a robot brain. He then decided he wouldn’t need a dead brain and could scan the brains of living people. All of this was through his own thinking.

He sang, “Satellite radio, it’s the only way to go”, which is from a song he’s dead to his playlist (from the Sand Rubies, I think). We were only looking for Christmas lights, and a lamp cover for his room upstairs, where the plastic cover on the ceiling light broke. No luck on Christmas lights. We then walked through the whole store. He stopped for a few things, and we played the x-ray technician game at the desk chair area again.

We looked at the lamp shade area. We found the expanding sphere ones like they had at the place in Greece. We were looking for something that looked like a sun, as it is the center of his solar system on the ceiling. It was 195 shekels: not much, but more expensive than the paper ones. And he wanted the one with yellow pieces on the inside, as he said it looked more like a sun, but they only had the white and silver ones in stock. He said not to bother with it now, so we didn’t get one.

What we did do was each get an ice cream at the end. We sat at the little table and played the color mixing game. I then found a free app that let us mix colors and he enjoyed that. Brother was choosing colors, and choosing colors that looked like they were from Minecraft.

We headed home, getting here at 3:35. We did more more Brother having to pee games. Dreams and what not. He did alone time and I exercised. He ate carrot and strawberries. We played Minecraft and he built an elytraing challenge for me and had me do it in survival. He then did 15 minutes more of alone time as I made a smoothie. He then watched robot races (we were looking for humanoid robot races, but didn’t find much) and battles. Carly got home during that.

He had corn on the cob. He then asked Carly to paint Lady Bird Johnson. He hasn’t liked the changes. Carly give her purple hair, then was painting her bald. She was teaching him surreal. He was doing a painting as well and initially called it “The face that has no meaning.” He was then calling it “The sandwich that has no meaning.”

I read parts of the new Discover Magazine issue to him, then Carly read Myna to him before going to take a shower. We did a brother game, where he was back from his time paradox when he was going to high school. They were in the jungle again, and realized they had forgotten the pacifiers for Baby Sister and Brother. They were upset, and Dad eventually determines it is worth it to use Bar’s very-polluting teleportation machine to go get them. He got back just to find out they didn’t need them, and were upset about something else. Bar then gave him a huge bill for use of the machine.

August ate some of the noodle dish for dinner 2, then we listened to the rest of the Story Pirates episode. He then ate three bowls of cheerios and strawberries. Carly came back down and I was talking to her. He was listening and jumping off the chair. He then got the keyboard out and mostly set up all on his own, without asking us. He did need my help to get it connected, but it was cool to see him taking the initiative. He play for a while, then had me doing a Brother game with him. He was Bar, and I was Brother. He was laughing hysterically when Brother was interrupting Bar, who was playing music to put Baby Sister and Baby Brother to sleep. That would lead to them waking up.

He had been talking about something in GarageBand that we’d found, and finally I remembered the Live Loops. He played with those, making a song. I got him upstairs, and Carly gave him a bath while I went for a run. When I got back she was reading him a Myna book. I took a shower, then took over, as he was still awake. He didn’t want her to leave at first, but then said she could if she did the “Spidey spidey boop” thing to him once. She did that, then said good night. Fell asleep at 10 to Brian Eno and Billy Budd’s The Pearl.

His race car board game:

Painting dots:

Jumping slo-mos:

Testing out Ikea beds:

X-ray technician game:

He woke me up twice during the night. But the second time was just because he was laughing in his sleep. It went on for a long time. And then around 6:45 he said “Where are you?” I went in and he initially just put his head down on the lower bed as he stood on the floor. I asked him to get back in bed and he did. He was then up at 7:10. He went right past me and downstairs to find Carly. She wasn’t insider, so opened the door and said “Boo!”

They played Minecraft, and he debated whether Carly or I made better houses. When I said something he replied, “Uh huh. That’s right. We have a winner.”

We watched educational videos about Why do we sneeze? from ASAP science and SciShow, then the Kurzgesagt video on curing aging, which he has seen before. He asked for food, then suddenly got upset when he first asked for a treat and I said he first needed to have something healthy. He apologized, then had Cheerios with milk.

They made a big paper chain. He practiced “Link” for his L sound, and said, “Our computer is linked to the internet.” He asked her “What’s kilo?” A word of the day. He added a Sufjan Stevens Christmas song to his playlist. They finished their chain and he wanted a Brother game. Settled for reading the rest of Presto & Zesto in Limboland instead. He wanted a Brother and Sister game, but didn’t have an idea. We ended up with one where Brother and Sister game where they plan a Christmas party with Greena. She is reluctant at first but gets into it.

When he was hungry I made him carrots and cracker and pate. I arranged them nicely on a plate. Carly liked it and I mentioned that I always do some sort of arrangement when I make snacks for him and Eve and Zoe. She asked if they ever say anything and I said I didn’t think so. August said, “Next time you do that with Eve I’ll comment on it.” And then, “Did you know I’m a baker and I always present my food in abstract shapes?”

I looked up a couple of dishes to make for dinners, then we made a list and I drove to the big Tiv Taam to do grocery shopping. When I left they were painting, and when I got back they were out painting again. They had started painting Lyndon Johnson (as you do) but then August was looking at the Human Anatomy app right when I left. They changed their mind and started over, going to paint a skeleton, or maybe specifically Lyndon Johnson’s, but got distracted and went inside for a while.

He was hungry, so I got him cereal and strawberries and he ate them outside. He came inside for a little bit to watch Formula 1 practice highlights with me, then went back out. He wanted a jelly bean, and told us, “I’m warming up my kidding tricks in case I want anything.” He had milk and carrot coins to earn a single jelly bean. He called it a victory for his kidding tricks, but we really know who won there. He then wanted me to practice my parenting tricks. I was able to distract him from the arguments he was trying to start by twice asking about Minecraft. Don’t think he realized what was happening, and I was using his “conversation” strategy right back at him.

Outside Carly was lying on a blanket in the grass. At the end of November (my parents had shown us the snow on the ground in Chelan on Wednesday). He cuddled with her and they did more painting. I started dinner (a sort of carbonara pasta but with cabbage and mushrooms and broccoli) and they headed to school. They made copies of poems from the I’m Just No Good at Rhyming book so we can finally return it to the library and did something else. He played with the chairs and whiteboard and made a hand fan out of a piece of paper and a couple of pipe cleaners.

They were back at 5:45. They liked the dinner. August initially spit out the cabbage and asked why the noodles were crunchy. But once I explained what it was and he had a piece he said he wanted a bowl of just cabbage. He asked both “What’s light-headed?” And “What’s internal bleeding?” Don’t know what that was from.

When Carly was too lazy to do something he called out, “Parenting failure!” Carly suggested a movie night and he settled on Shrek 2. Took about 15 minutes to realize we’ve already seen it, but he was enjoying it. He watched half of it, then had a Brother game where they plan a Christmas party and only the main characters show up because it was in the jungle and all of their family and friends from back in the U.S. cancel. But Bar, Myna, Zero, the weather control girl, Greena, and Millie were all there.

I then hung up the paper chain in the entry way and put nails up to put the second string of lights in the living room this year, and to make the other string look better. Carly read a Myna book to him, then went and gave him a bath.

We did more Brother game, but it was just Brother getting hurt by scorpions, so I stopped it. He had oatmeal, then told me how he measures pain:
“Cyborg…bullet ant…measure how many neurons fire in the brain.”

He had me carry him upstairs. He was clearly tired. He lay on the bed and told me that on My Planet “We evolved an upgrade to our immune system…collector cells.” Carly was putting him to sleep, and he asked if he could sleep on the big bed occasionally, like once a week. We agreed, so she put him to sleep in there. I left them in the big bed before 9:10 and went for a run.

Panting a face with mama: https://youtu.be/JJDqI92oBeM

Laughing about his laughter machine:

He woke me up once, then was up at 7:10. He came and lay on top of me and the fuzzy blanket for a few minutes, then went downstairs to Carly. He worked on machines in Minecraft. Slowly figuring out new things about how they work and how to build things. He said, “We should get cucumber. A good thing to keep on hand.” We had some zucchini bread. He then had a game with Brother playing with Myna and Sister. He could just get the animals. He had Myna slapping her head in frustration when he frustrated her. It was pretty funny; I don’t know where he learned that one. He then walked in circles explaining his evacuation machine.

We finished Tree Mail. Pretty good, but not my favorite. We then played a lot of Brother and Sister playing Minecraft games. They started to jump forward in the future, and we made up some new games in the future, like Zoocraft, where Brother just took care of animals.

We then watched educational videos about why we get wrinkles, how pain works (suffer and chronic were words of the day). And then he watched a Bright Side video about running for a month.

He danced to Jingle Bells after he requested it. He said, “This is my favorite tradition of the year.” I hung up the first string of lights. He then got up on the counter (he can now get up and down on his own, using the stool; before he needed help getting back down) and taped up the wire under the cabinets so it didn’t show. We went outside and looked at the new plants they had gotten at the plant store.

They got ready to go to Tel Aviv. At the last moment he said he was still hungry. I got him five crackers and pieces of pepperoni in a container for him to take with him. He counted to double check that he had an equal amount. They left at 11:30.

They were gone for a long time. A total of 6 hours. I was able to get a lot of work done, and also walked over to the little mall and bought construction paper so they could make a paper chain. Which meant I also made progress listening to The Overstory. And I watched the second Formula E race during my easy work time.

Meanwhile, they had tried to go to Max, but both of the parking lots were insane. At the Tiv Taam lot they were stuck for ten minutes just waiting to get out. Carly thinks there was some sort of accident. Later, I realized that Black Friday is a thing here in Israel. So she had called me, asking me to get the construction paper instead.

They then headed to the beach in downtown Tel Aviv. He rode his bike from the car. They stopped at a restaurant and got chicken and french fries. When Carly was talking about how great the weather was he was disagreeing and giving a grumpy face, which she sent me a photo of. They built a wave catcher on the shore, which was their best yet, and sat in the wooden built-in bench things.

Then they drove up to Cassie’s place at 3. They saw Kai and took Taya to the park, leaving Cassie at the apartment with Kai. The park went fine, except that Taya refused to leave when it was time. Eventually Carly had to call Cassie and Noah came and got Taya.

They were gone so long that I was done staring at a screen and figured I’d get a run out of the way. Of course, they came in the door just as I and finished getting ready and was about to go out. But he was going to do alone time and then Minecraft, so I went for a run anyway. He was doing satellite work on the graphing calculator when I left.

When I got back he was yelling at Carly. He wanted her to play Minecraft with him, but she was dong dishes and he refused to play on his own. She went upstairs and I talked to him. I suggested using his meditation app. He said, “Dad, that’s preventive medicine. It’s NOT an antibiotic…and it’s not a vaccine.” But when I started the “Rainy Day” meditation despite his objections he closed his eyes and did the breathing. After 6 minutes he was ready to go talk to Carly. I took a shower.

When I came down he was watching Phineas Rage. Then Coyote Peterson getting pinched by a beetle and stung by a warrior wasp. We then read the Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend book, then did Brother and Sister games. He was stung by warrior wasps. Then we did the whole moving the animals to the jungle storyline. August added in a whole side story of Myna getting obsessed with cats and Brother questioning what was going on with her.

He was hungry so had cereal and strawberries. Then a strawberry. We got upstairs at 8:55. He played in the sink, then had red licorice for hair washing time. He told me, “This really activates my reward system.” He was using a line from one of the videos we’ve watched about sugar or something. I had him tell Carly what he had said, and we discussed other treats with her. I looked at commercials for York Peppermint Patties and Klondike Bars, remembering them from the 80s. I got him back to the bathroom he said at least he had extended it “a kidding trick…conversation.”

Washed him and washed his hair. We read The Universe Ate My Homework! They had read it the other night as well. We read the part at the end about the real possibilities of making mini black holes and universes and learned about the three sizes of black holes. He talked about his machine that makes black holes. We then learned about the world’s tallest buildings after he had talked about the Statue of Liberty.https://youtu.be/PuTqWxuAazI

He said good night to Carly, then had some questions for us to look up later: why do we yawn? Are French fries from France? Why do we get headaches?

We did another mediation on the app, then I told him about a bad dream I once had about someone coming out of a building with a gun. We listened to more bassoon concertos and he was sleep about 10:30.

His facepalming: https://youtu.be/LNtx-iAkkoM

Taping up the cord:

Crazy about cats:

The baby universe machine:

Thanksgiving, so Carly was off, but we didn’t do anything really related to the holiday.

He woke me up before 7, coming out to the couch. He lay his head on my back, then when I got up he lay down on the couch, stealing my spot, and said, “Ah, comfy.” I got him to get up and go back into his room and on his bed, and he fell back to sleep until 7:20.

Downstairs they did Minecraft. I did a little work then headed to licensing office. He did a lot of satellite work on his graphing calculator while I was gone. It is always an adventure up at the licensing office. They have a new system now where you have to have an appointment to get in. I wasn’t the only one surprised by this. It was pretty easy to sit down and figure out the website though and I got an appointment for 9:25. It was 9:22. I walked in and then right up to a window; the same guy as six months ago. This time he changed the address to the P.O. Box. We’ll see what happens.

I also had had time to stop and get gas on the way up and was home by 10. We got ready to go. We did a Brother game where Bar offers him a chance to get a lifetime supply of candy if he kills an ocelot. Brother then can’t decide between his competing beliefs: “I’d do anything for candy” and “I’d never hurt an animal.” Conundrum and paradox were words of the day.

We left at 10:20. He sang a special going to Gilad’s house. He made his music quiet and loud and we complimented him on his use of dynamics. He also sang “We’re going to Gilad’s house.” As Carly went to parallel park she said, “Get comfortable.” August was confused: “Get comforrable? I’m super comfortable.”

We went up to Gilad’s house.With four kids they have a lot of stuff. And tons and tons of Legos. August looked at them a lot, then looked at the parakeet and he and Gilad went out on the porch swing for a few minutes. Back inside they got out a tub of Legos and played with those for quite a while. August then wanted to play on the piano. He talked bout how this is his favorite kind of piano. He played for several minutes, then Gilad and Lauren played a duet they are working on.

We then had a snack of our gluten-free zucchini cornbread and the cucumber, carrots, and hummus that we brought.

August and Gilad then got a bunch of cars and trucks out. August commented on how Colin would really like one of them. They also tried figuring out an old electronics kit from when Abraham (Lauren’s husband, who we met for the first time) was a kid. Lauren couldn’t get it to work. August was kind of like the supervisor, and told them they couldn’t give up. They tried a couple more times before giving up.

We headed home. They made popcorn and painted outside and I went up to work. He then did alone time and Minecraft.

They headed to the plant store for about an hour. When I came down he was finishing up alone time. I then played Minecraft with him.

We had a dinner of quinoa, broccoli, and sweet potatoes. He and I then watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. He really laughed at Snoopy fighting the chair, and laughed too hard at the toast part and spit water and had to change his pants. Referring to Snoopy, he said “I’ll call that the funny dog.”

He had a Brother game of him bursting from eating too many sweet potatoes. He then did more painting with Carly. He talked about decorations for Christmas. Then got sad she wouldn’t let him paint on her painting: “You are keeping it yours too much.” He ended up getting pretty upset about it.

Reading I’m Just No Good at Rhyming helped calm him down. Then Cherie called with Vivian and Colin, who are in Mexico now. August went out and got mint and made tea for himself. Vivian has started listening to music (the free U2 album) and Carly suggested August could share some of his music with Vivian. He had the HomePod play “Galvanize” for her.

He told me about the colors he had mixed earlier: puke green two, cherry red, house white, and sky blue.

We got him ready for bed and he said good night. We looked up world records for breath holding and pain. Then he had Brother games where he was getting hurt. He also told me, “In my planet everything has a calculation… What’s 45.00003451elephant…”

He talked about wanting a carniverous plant. Apparently he and Carly had looked for one at the plant store. I remembered that we had talked about sending a message to Glecy, so August agreed and sent a “Happy Thanksgiving” video to her. He didn’t want to send any to anyone else. But it was clear he was really tired. We listened to the Max Reger cello suites and he was asleep by 9:50.

A dramatic ending: https://youtu.be/l2ZS9Ii82Z8

In the porch swing:

Gilad’s piano:

Laughing at Snoopy on Thanksgiving:

Entertaining Colin with a song:

A message for Glecy: