Category: Uncategorized

He was up just before 8:00. He came out and lay down on the couch. The first thin he said was “Dada. I made a coubtdown in my head until we go to the motor home. It says two days.” “When we leave I’ll kiss the house goodbye.” He talked about the alarm clock: “It’s a really nice clock…I set it to Pennsylvania time.” And about an island he discovered: “Zorextic island. Because it formed in the Mesozoic era.”

We went upstairs, then back downstairs he watched a a video with Paul of someone playing a computer game (Age of Empires or the such). I made him a waffle and strawberries for breakfast. He ate, then watched a little car video with Dad, then watched Inspector Gadget on his ipad.

We watched a show showing how the F-Type is built. He did math problems. I had him dividing a pie multiple times and seeing how many pieces there would be. He found that the calculator could show fractions to 1/512, but then would only do decimals for 1/1024.

We went downstairs. We did the Brother and one gram robot again from a few months ago. He gave it a more sinister ending, with the robots killing everyone, and I taught him the phrase “horror story”. Then the baby dragon story. Carly came down at 10:30. He was getting a bit stressed about the idea of long drives. I got ready in the bathroom and we all got ready to go to the lake. We made sandwiches, and August watched Dad win At solitaire. August ate a whole banana, part of his sandwich, and redeemed the piece of paper for two frozen strawberries again. He then had a treat from the eggs: “It’s like so intense.”

We went out to the garage to get in the car. He saw the box with the pistons from the XK140 and said he knew what they were, and said they were pistons. I asked how he knew that and he explained that he learned it from a Pink Panther episode where his motorcycle has trouble. He was then excitedly telling us things like, “From a noneducational show you can learn about a motor.”

We got driving, and were to the lake by 12:40. We found a spot in the shade. As we were eating snack mix he was referring to them as “Grandma Niman? Randy?” Carly went down to get in the water. Mom asked if he wanted to go down to watch. He replied, “No. I’ll watch from here. I have great vision, remember?” After awhile he wanted to go down. We took the sand toys. We played for awhile, and he took his shoes off to wade in the water and play with Carly’s floatie when she got off. We stayed down there until he needed to go to the bathroom. We went back up and switched to his Crocs and went to the bathroom.

Back at the towels he inspected Gramma’s drink by tasting it and talking about how he can detect germs and viruses. He was asking about pi and I found an article about the world record for number of digits calculated.

Carly then took him down. Tried to get him on the swings, but he would have none of that. I read. When they came back he asked “What’s ‘batten down the hatches’ mean?” They ate popcorn and read Captain Underpants. Mom and Dad both went in the water again, and we left at 2:50.

We stopped at the Rest Awhile fruit stand. I talked them into getting a blackberry shake. Carly and August both admitted I was right, as it was the best shake we’ve had. The woman only charged me $6.25, and when I pointed out they were supposed to be 50 cents more she said she’d been charging $6.25 all day. I put the extra in the tip jar. Then, before we left, Carly went in to get sunglasses. The woman gave them to her for $10, half price.

As we got in the car August asked if he was supposed to sit in the drivers seat and talked like a pilot: “we are going three and a half miles an hour and…”

At home I had about an hour of work, reading about family unification. We then got ready to go and walked to Local Myth. Paul was outside, sitting at a stool. August climbed on the fence and talked to him, and also sort of taunted an English lab on the end of the fence about how it couldn’t get him. We sat in the back as usual. As we walked in he saw the lollipops, and I had to push him to the back. We were going to ask Paul about them, but he forgot quickly. He was excited about pizza, and was dancing around with his back against the wall. We ordered a medium combo, a medium prosciutto and spinach, and a small pizza for August, with olives on half. Paul got a calzone. I got the Manchester cider, which was overly sweet, and we shared a pitcher of something.

August ate 7/8ths of his pizza, except for the crusts. It was a lot. Carly ate the other slice. He interacted with the people next to us, telling them he didn’t like the pizza and giving it a thumbs down, although he told me it was even better than VIPizza. We talked about how the place doesn’t really play to its name, as there are no mentions of local myths. Would be cool if they added information about the lake monster or Sasquatch sightings or the big wave, etc. Paul told us the pictures on the wall are supposed to be of local people though, and when Bob came over he told us more about them. Painted by Rob something (I recognized the name as a local artist) and there are three of them: sisters as a pepper, a man as a garlic, and a man as an onion. Bob thinks one might be Kelly, of Kelly’s Hardware, and had a guess on who the other guy is.

When he was done with the last piece of pizza August was chanting “What’s half of .25?” Not sure if he was contemplating his pizza slices or if it was just a coincidence.

On the walk home he talked about his spy cars and others: “There’s even spy peregrine falcons.” We were home at 7:30. He did math with Carly. We watched Jeopardy, and I was excited to get the final jeopardy answer of ‘Polynesia’ when none of the contestants did.

We went down and did more Brother and a girl stories: a girl who pretended to be the strongest person in the world by freezing time for a boulder dropped from a crane and pretending to hold it up, then being an egg of something that hatches, then hibernates on him, but won’t let him get up when he has to pee.

I got him up to the bathroom around 9 and he played in the sink and Carly took over and gave him a bath. I had him say goodnight to my parents. He didn’t like when I tricked him into getting close to Grandma for a hug and turned around and punched me. We got things settled and I put him to sleep. He took awhile. I told him about how this used to be my room and how it was decorated and sang a couple songs. He took awhile, and it was around 10 or after when he fell asleep. Not entirely sure, as I fell asleep for awhile as well.

Earlier, on the drive home, I think, He had been talking about something that makes you allergic to your favorite food. He said, “If Grampa got it it would make him allergic to huckleberry ice cream, I think.”

Watching a video with uncle Paul:

Watching mama at Alta Lake:

Playing at Alta Lake:

Deflating the floaties:

Singing in the car:

Talking to uncle Paul:

He was up at 7:40. He lay against me on the couch. One of the first things he asked was, “How fast could Usain Bolt run?” We looked that up. I had finished watching the Formula 1 race, live, and he watched the podium ceremony. We went upstairs and I got him his breakfast of an English muffin, half a banana (all that was left), and a raspberry for the nose. He watched Wanda and the Alien, then we read some ofThe 65-Story Treehouse.

Mom made a waffle for him, and I went down to get some Tylenol and rest as I had a headache. When I went up, he and Carly were outside. She’d been trying to get him to play by himself, particularly with the sand toys. But he just wanted to watch her do something. He told me “I’m the adult. I got supplies for you. If you need anything, I’m right here.”

His lip was a bit dry, and we went in looking for chapstick. He got the laser pointer and we went and played a Brother and Bar game where she got him to chase the laser pointer. He was annoyed that he was falling for it, and it was because she had changed his DNA to have cat DNA. She was then a baby dragon. Next, he met someone named V, who glowed and had supervision. I tried to read an Isaac Asimov Norby book to him, but didn’t get very far. He then combined the Brother and Sister lost on an island stories with his new stories, with them meeting Zero, then her leading them to a maze and portal that got them home. He then requested the same story, but scarier, so they were running from the tiger this time.

We went upstairs and I finally made myself a waffle. He discovered Summer Camp Island on the Cartoon Network, and watched a Donald Duck cartoon with a skunk. We went downstairs. He asked “What’s ’stamina’?” We played a Brother game where he found a bird caught in a trap. It was a special bluebird that is entirely blue. It seems like all or most of August’s new animals have been blue: blue mook, blue woodpecker, and now this.

When Carly took over I went up to work. They walked to Bear Foods and got popcorn. Carly realized she didn’t have a straw. August took the news well, saying “It’s okay if I don’t get something to drink.” But they did have straws there. They got their drink and popcorn and walked over to Riverfront Park to eat it.

When I came in he was sitting on the beach ball, testing the glue that was failing. He then played with water on the half-full beach ball. I rested for a couple minutes, then came up as he was eating an English muffin and watching Gumball where they are stuck watching videos. He had eaten other food as well.

We all got going in two cars at 3:30. We stopped for gas, then met up at the fruit stand by Tunnel Hill Winery. Along the way he told me about how “When you break the speed of light you make a titanic boom.” At the stand he told me, “This isn’t a fruit stand. It’s a vegetable stand.” He played with a big blow up beer bottle and I found some ciders for the family reunion.

We continued on to the state park. He spent some time running down a hill while Carly got changed, then we were going down the stairs as Carly hurried ahead to get in the water. August said, “Let’s watch from here so we don’t hear the’Aaaaaagh’.” He spent much of his time down by the water watching a couple boys digging a hole. He said they were funny. He was pulling his shirt over his head several times as well. I sat on the sand and read much of the time.

We were leaving at 5. We stopped at the faucet place he had played a couple years ago when we were here. There was a hole and he asked “What do you think that leads to? A tub of snakes?” I said, “Or marshmallows.” To which he responded, “Which would be super great.” He ran back to the car chanting “Insane Bolt.”

We went to the Alpenhorn. As we walked up he said, “I remember this place!” He specifically said he remembered the chairs and the stairs down to the grass. While we ordered he found the golf clubs and said “It’s a hammer!” and pointed out the hammer part and claw part. We ordered and sat down. August guessed that gramma got maeshmallow and dad had huckleberry. He actually had blackberry, but close.

I got the seafood basket, August had mini corndogs, and Carly got a sandwich, I think. We shared a raspberry shake. I then stood in line to buy (rent) golf balls and they went to the bathroom. It was a long line, but August was very optimistic about it, telling me there were only 5 people in front of me. When they come out he excitedly told me there were only two people left.

We went up and played mini golf. He played at the beginning. A little distracting and knocked our balls around a bit. As we got to the hill part though he seemed afraid of it for some reason. Carly coaxed him up and I had to carry him a bit. He didn’t play anymore. Carly and I ended up tying. I shot a six on one hole, but then lucked out with a hole-in-one, then on the one that goes up the hill through a tunnel I lucked out again, as my fourth shot went through the tunnel and into the hole.

We were heading home at 6:35. He remembered the big gooey duck with Thatcher then talked about a “Gooey duck plane” with a mechanical arm that could catch them. We were back before 7. He asked, “What’s a movie buff?” We watched an episode of Craig of the Creek, then went downstairs and did a Brother story that was influenced by it. Back upstairs he was very intrigued by Family Feud. He had a second dinner of his corn dogs and some Brussels sprouts and broccoli. He skied why they would pay $25000 for a game show.

When Paul went for a run he asked, “So you think uncle Paul is going for a marathon?” And decided that “They should do $25000 and one dollars for a game show. That would be even more exciting. Then you could use it for a candy and still have it even.”

He went to the bathroom and stood on the scale. He is now 17.7kg, or 39pounds. More than I thought. He suggested that “I should sleep on the toilet. Then if I needed to go to the bathroom during the night I could just go…Is that a genius idea?” He sang “I want my mama” and something about a chess knight. And he wants a countdown to our next flight.

We were in the living room for awhile, then Carly took him down 9:15. Got quiet by 9:35.

Exercise:

Infinite strong:

Running down the hill at the state park:

Watching mama get in the lake:

Playing with the faucet at the state park:

Milkshakes again:

Mini golf 1:

Mini golf 2:

His butterfly:

He was up just before 8. Got him set up on his chair with his banana and english muffin, and surprised him with an Altoid for the nose. He asked, “How many seconds in 59 minutes?” We discussed how to solve it, then he asked, “50.25?” When he went to the bathroom he dragged me with him, then asked “Can you be Brother having a case of the ‘give-mes’?”

We went downstairs for a Brother game, where Brother had “A mathematical emergency.” We played for awhile, then he wanted to watch Wanda and the Alien. He leaned against me as he watched and I found some fractal and other scientific modeling apps to show him later. Carly came down, and I took a shower.

When I came up, I found his water bottle on the landing. He had fussed about carrying it up, and it only made it that far. He was sitting on his perch, watching Inspector Gadget. I sat in the chair and he put his feet on my shoulder as he watched.

Got him downstairs for some Brother and Bar game. More of the mathematical emergency, as Bar was doing “replays” so he could see the math test before he had to take it. Carly came down and he ended up wrestling with her. It turned out that we had competing plans for taking him on a walk: me to do geocaching, her to get popcorn. He chose geocaching. But first, we played with the laser pointer for the cats. No cats around, so we were pretending to be the cats and catching it.

The three of us left at 11:40. We walked into town, and August and I started looking for one of the geocaches by the wooden church and book store. Carly went on to Safeway to buy broccoli. August and I found it, and he signed a big ‘A’. We then went over and found a second one by the KOZI building. There was a farmer’s market in the parking lot across the street, and talked about going over there and looking for snacks. We walked over there, but no snacks. I called Carly and she was leaving Safeway, so she met us at the corner.

August didn’t want to go to the book store, and very reluctantly let us walk across the old bridge so I could see how it has been changed. At the other end he dug in his heels and refused to go around the park. We had to go back the way we came. That was rather frustrating.

When we got back Mom was talking to Dee. We played a little solitaire on their computer. We went out and tried getting Iris to play with the laser pointer. I picked her up and brought her inside, and he was hiding in the pantry, shining the laser pointer. She wouldn’t play with it though and eventually I let her head back outside. I was going out to the garage to work. August stood in the pantry and I told Carly I thought he was a little sad. She went in to him, and ended up pretending to be a cat playing with the laser pointer.

While I worked, he also ate broccoli and English muffin, did 5th grade story problems (that Carly simplified a little0, worked with her on understanding slope of a line (although he wanted her to explain harder graphs). And Mom got out the rock collection, but he wasn’t too excited about that.

I came in before 4. He was excited for a brother game: “I was waiting for you.” We went downstairs and we played with the laser pointer. He was the cat Silky. There was an Odesza song playing and he added it to his playlist, then claimed he made the music and explained how he made different sounds. We were then playing games where Brother found a baby dragon. But most exciting was finding out that the alarm clock in the room played sleep sounds. His favorite, of course, was the fan sound. And we found out that the alarm clock could project on the ceiling. We set the clock, and he played with it. We went upstairs after 5.

August saw the vacuum cleaner in the living room and exclaimed, “That’s why it’s so clean! They vacuumed!” He discovered the pantry and asked why there are chips in there. So we each had some Doritos. Outside I saw the rocks that Mom had gotten out earlier. He asked me to hide one with a note just for him. I did one, and just gave a hint and he managed to find it. I had written a note that said ‘I love you a ton of chips.’ But it was the wrong kind of note, as he meant one that he could redeem for something to eat. So for the second he could redeem it for two frozen strawberries. For the third I hid it under the leaking beach ball and for the hint said “psssssssss”. I wouldn’t tell him more, but said he should go ask people inside. He went in, and eventually came out with “leaking air” and found it. He got two Altoids with that one.

Iris was in the grass, and we got her to play with a stick and a string. Not as much as August would have liked, but a bit. He brought up ‘altitude’ and we discussed that again. Carly had cooked Brussels sprouts and he ate three of them right away.

I went downstairs, expecting him to follow, but he never did. I started watching some of the Formula E race from Switzerland. He ended up playing with a string and with Paul. Paul came down and watched some of the race with me, and we discussed Formula 1.

Went up for dinner. We had talapia, rice, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli. As we ate, outside, he said, “Food is the secret to life”. Somehow ‘pi’ came up and he started having Carly memorize it. He was a pretty good helper, for awhile, and she had 12 or so digits down at one point. He was then typing on my phone and trying to get Gramma to memorize a random number he typed. First he tried it with Carly, but he didn’t like it when she tried to break it into 2 number chunks on the phone.

Inside he went to the bathroom. Carly was with him and asked him why he got upset on the walk. He claimed that the reason he doesn’t like to walk is always because it might rain. He was then still hungry and had a second dinner of Brussel sprouts and rice.

I did some dishes then went downstairs for awhile, then when I went back up he was playing on the graphing calculator. Carly had given him a bath and washed his hair. He asked about one graph and we discussed ‘amplitude’ and ‘period’ as math words of the day.

We watched part of a ‘What on Earth?’ show and saw a segment about a big crack in the ground, which might be caused by groundwater depletion. He talked about that, and we went down and played a Brother game that involved a “hyperdrill”. He was playing with the alarm and turned on the fan noise again. Carly came in at 9:10. She liked the time on the ceiling (he changed it three hours ahead, and said it was the time on My Planet) and convinced him to listen to the thunderstorm instead. I left them by 9:20.

Remembering the geocache and throwing his shorts:

Finding a geocache:

Jumping off the bed:

Alarm clock on the ceiling:

Notes and rocks:

Playing with Iris 1:

Playing with Iris 2:

Singing in the dark and time on his planet:

August was up at 8:22. Peter had just come in. August wanted to play a Brother and Sister game after I was pretending he had super strength when he pushed me lightly. So there was a girl with super strength, then super hearing, then a stretchy neck. Brother was trying to get Sister’s diary and locket (not sure where he heard about lockets-Llama Llama?) and the girl could wrap around him like a snake.

When we went upstairs August went to his perch. He ate his English muffin and banana and watched a Cartoon. He went OT the bathroom, then was reciting random big numbers. I asked what he was doing and he said, “I’m just counting up to them.”

We got going to the Apple Cup a little after 9. August walked part way before realizing we didn’t have the stroller. I carried him on and off and he did okay walking.

I ordered the eggs bearnaise and Carly got the Swedish pancakes to share with August. He had been expecting waffles, but they were crossed out on the menu. Carly suggested the Swedish pancakes and he was fine with that, then halfway through eating asked what about the waffle. He put his head down on the chair for a few seconds, but handled it really well. I told Mom we should get the waffle maker out one day at home and surprise him.

The biggest surprise though was when I heard Gypsy Kyss’s “Somewhere with Somebody Else” on the radio system. I asked the waitress and she didn’t know anything about it, but apparently the boss/owner chooses the music.

We walked home. Carly sat in the sun and read. we stayed out on the deck and August discussed exponential numbers with Micah. ‘Exponential’ was a word of the day. Micah talked about exponential growth of germs, and August went and got his Human Body app—he remembered the germs and wanted to see if they divided (we also discussed ‘mitosis’) every minute like Micah described. They don’t in the app, but he played with that, then played CivRev by himself, on the deck.

I greed to go inside with him, and he was being picky about what we did and where. He eventually sat on his perch and played MathTango while I read. He then watched Wanda and the Alien. We were all going to go for a drive out to 25 Mile creek, but then it rained a little. August declared he wasn’t going, and Carly wasn’t excited about it either. We entered negotiations, and I got August out in the garage with Dad, watching him put some solder on the copper railings he is making for the porch stairs.

Peter drove, and we headed out to along the south shore. We drove out to the guardhouse, then headed up the Shady Pass Road. We saw the North Fork trailhead and stopped. Found some bones, and then some more at the trail. Took a photo of Peter holding a backbone in front of the Devil’s Backbone sign.

We didn’t know where we were going, and joked about how unprepared we were. There were a couple families coming down the trail though, so we figured there was something to see not too far away. We walked about a mile and a half until we got to where the first water system was put in. We looked around there, then continued on up the trail a bit, over where there are the concrete bricks in the path, then turned back as the weather was more threatening.

We heard several rolls of thunder on our walk back, felt a few drops, and heard a hawk or something. A nice walk back, and the rain never hit. Back in the car we drove down to the nearby campground. Saw some motorbikers, then when we turned around and came back one was on the ground. Peter stopped to see if they needed help. He had gotten nauseous on the drive down. Figured it was just vertigo and he seemed like he was doing okay, so they said we could go.

While I was gone they’d done a bunch of everything. Out in the shed, Mom later told me, he had been pretending to make things on the lathe. First he made a bowl for her, then she asked for a cup to go with it. He said something like “I put a picture of your daughter in it so you can remember her. She died.” And said it with a serious voice. Can’t figure out where that idea came from, although he had brought up lockets earlier, and I mentioned keeping a picture of someone in one.

We were home at 3:40. August had been asking when I’d get home, but then wasn’t worried about it once he knew, and when I came in they were doing something on the iPad and he told me “shoo fly.” But a few minutes later he wanted a Brother game. We went downstairs, and he decided that Zero’s (who is digital) weakness was electrical interference, so there were a series of scenarios of her getting too close to an electrical box and fainting. Her other weakness was tht she can’t touch things, so when Brother got hurt she couldn’t help him until she turned human again. He ended by talking about “No Power Day.” That sounded good, but then he extended it to No Power Week, then Month, then Year. Then he said that when you mange to use no power for a year, you then used no electricity for the rest of your life.

We went upstairs and read someThe 65-Story Treehouse. Peter and Micah took a walk to the book store. I had put the Desmos graphic calculator app on his iPad, and he got fascinated with that, and played with it with Mom. He called it his work, and when I told Carly they were playing with the graphing calculator he objected: “I’m not playing around! I’m doing my work!” And said, “It’s my iPad from robot school and it’s six and a half million years old.” Talking more about his work: “My work is mainly about integrated calculus.”

Carly mainly made the spaghetti and veggies for dinner, and we all ate outside. August was doing random math questions. Peter, Micah, and I talked about our hike and I mentioned the bones. August said, “Here’s the rule: if you see any bones in the wilderness, don’t touch them.” We had started dinner a little earlier so Peter and Micah could get going a little earlier, but Paul still got home as we were eating and was able to join us.

Peter and Micah left before 7. August did more math and watched some Wheel of Fortune. We played a Brother and Zero game downstairs, but it turned into mainly doing math and Khan Academy. He was then jumping off the bed.

I gave him his bath. He put all the toys in again, and it was his “International band”, fighting the water. We had time to watch the end of the murder mystery show (the Father something one) that my parents had been watching. He had been reluctant to leave it to take a shower in the first place. He had an english muffin and frozen strawberries, then peanuts after Dad had some.

He told Mom she could trick him to get a hug, so we did that, then ‘surprised’ Dad with a hug from both of us, then headed to bed. Downstairs he asked about the oldest and heaviest people in the world, so we looked them up. Got his teeth brushed, and I left them at 9:35. A little later I heard them talking about what he wants to be in the future. I heard Carly ask, “What about being a scientist?” He replied, “I already am a scientist.”

Coloring and favorite numbers:

Hiking at 25 Mile Creek:

Graphing calculator:

Graphing calculator with gramma 1:

Graphing calculator with gramma 2:

At dinner:

Losing your temper song:

He was up at 7:12. I was upstairs at the kitchen table and Carly had gone for a walk. So he yelled for me and I rushed down. He took a good 15 minutes to get going before we went upstairs. Carly was back from her walk. He perched on the back of the chair and watched Smurfs and ate his banana and english muffin.

Peter and Micah came in around 8 and visited. Carly, August, the two of them, and I then drove over to Kave, the new coffee shop just past the city park. No chance of getting August to walk, since there were clouds about. But on the way Carly drove Paul’s car to Walmart and dropped it off for an oil change. I drove the Jag, and August was okay sharing the backseat with Micah. We picked her up and then all went to Kave.

Kave was nice, but didn’t have a huge selection. But they had quiche. We shared a couple slices of ham and cheese quiche, I got a berry scone, August got a chocolate chip cookie, and I got a large cappuccino to share with Carly. We had a good sit and talked about movies. We sat on the big bench that must have been an old church pew.

We got home, and August played Civilization Revolution. He changed the TV to 90s music. We went downstairs to play a Brother game for a little while. Brother was going to the school with all the rules and getting a lot of detention for sighing, etc. There was then a magical cat that turned out to just be mean to him, turning into an alligator, a tiger, then a dragon. At one point he said, “What’s 46.5 plus…93?” He then requested The King Midas story. I told him that, then we went upstairs.

Found Carly, Micah, and Peter all outside reading. Joined them for awhile. August needed the bathroom so went in with him. He asked, “What’s ‘generous offer’s mean?” That’s from CivRev. We discussed the difference between ‘generous’ and ‘stingy’. And then he asked, “What’s central America? What’s ‘central’ mean?” So explained that and found it in the atlas.

Peter and Micah wanted to go to Walmart for some stuff, and the car was ready, so the five of us went in their car this time. We split up inside. I took August in the cart to fruits and veggies. He spent a long time weighing things on the scale and reading it off in pounds and ounces and in kilograms. Carly shopped, then went to get the car and drove around to wait for us. August and I finished with getting cream for his nose, paid, and met her out front. As we waited to pay August found the little table for people in wheelchairs. He wanted his snack and used the little table to set it on. The cashier was impressed with finding a new use for it.

We crossed paths with Peter and Micah as we put stuff in the car, then met them back at home. They wanted to go to Lakeview, but August was done with outside. So he and Carly stayed, and the three of us walked to Lakeview. Mom was in taking a nap and didn’t feel well. Weather was looking pretty good as we left, as the sun was breaking out. Got windier and windier though as we were at Lakeview. I got a ham and cheese sandwich and fries.

We ate, then headed to the variety store. Looked around there. Much more dedicated to tourist stuff than it was when I was a kid. Also looked at games. On the walk back it got darker and windier and started to rain on us. Luckily, never really hard.

When we got back to the house August and Carly were on the back porch, watching the rain, of course. August excitedly said we had gotten rained on.

We sat around the kitchen table. Micah got out a little pool game he had bought at a dollar store. Didn’t work too well as the balls rolled around,but we had fun with that, and all did some reading. August liked the pool game and tried it out as well. Peter and Micah went out to the garage to rest. August and I read The 65-Story Treehouse while Carly rested, then I switched and went down for just a couple minutes before they came back in before 5.

Mom tried to get August to help with shucking corn. He was resistant at first,but then asked, “Is it satisfying?” I said it was, and got him out with her by the compost. As he shucked I asked if it was satisfying. He said no at first, but hadn’t gotten to the corn. When he got to the corn he got excited and said “It’s really satisfying!”

Before dinner we played Brother game with a girl with laser eyes. I can’t remember what math problems we got into with that, but at one point he said, “So 4 million divided by 50…” That is, he’s pretty good now at judging when a word problem requires division, multiplication, etc.

We had a big dinner. Managed to be just warm enough to eat outside. Dad cooked pork and hot dogs on the grill and I grilled the veggies and got out fruit. Carly made a salad and cut and prepared all the veggies. During dinner August was having Micah do math. He’d ask a math question, then ask “Who’s in?” But would stare at Micah, expecting him to answer. When Micah gave an answer August loudly called, “Judges? What do you think?”

August was hyper at first and kept standing up in his chair as he ate. Then he ended up on my lap, a little cool, I think, as he had no sweatshirt and no shoes. I used reverse psychology and he ate three pieces of asparagus from my plate as he also drank a lot of the sparkling drink I’d been drinking.

Peter and Micah wanted to go for a drive after dinner. August didn’t want to let me go. Not sure what the anxiety over me leaving was about today. Same thing earlier when going to Lakeview. But he was fine after I left both times.

We drove out to Manson and up in the hills. Ended up at Willow Point Park, where we had taken August two? years ago. Walked down to the lake for a minute then headed back.

Found August watching Llama Llama when I got back. I took a few minutes to help put him to bed while Peter and Micah went out to the garage. He was being really picky and difficult over every little detail of the going to bed process. Think this is a sign of anxiety, and when he’s anxious he suddenly wants to control everything, then that leads to getting upset if he can’t.

I left them at 9. Micah and Peter came in a little later, and we watched the long, slow episode 2 of Too Old to Die Young.

Weighing fruit:https://youtu.be/DlO8K_M93r0

Having Carly do math:https://youtu.be/6CGaKsKXHoQ

Shucking corn:https://youtu.be/jVTP0WkQ9rI

Quoting the stinky socks book:https://youtu.be/epDmxvxdOvU

He woke up twice early in the morning, saying “Mama.” I got in bed with him the first time. Later, my alarm went off and I got back up in the big bed. He said “Mama” again and when I looked down I couldn’t see him. I went down and found him completely covered with the sheet. I uncovered his head. He then slept until I tried to wake him up at 8:45. No doing. But once I had gotten coffee, settled down with a book, and read about two sentences he was up just before 9. I picked him up and he directed me upstairs and had me set him on the back of the green chair. I started getting him a banana and English muffin. He asked where Mama was, and ended up outside with her.

When he came in he told me, “I have a brother and sister game coming up. Here’s the scenario: brother meets a girl from Kepler Academy that has two extra eyes…and two eyes here (top of her head).” “360 degree vision…globe vision…up, and down too.”

We spent some time taking apart the DVD drive. We went downstairs and heard Carly in the bedroom, using packing tape to prepare some returns. We pretended she was the tape monster, and I tried to get him to go in saying “Booga booga booga” to scare her away. He was too scared to do it, but was laughing a lot.

I took a shower and he was watching Smurfs. Carly made him a slice of french toast, then she headed to the post office. We went down and did a Brother and new student game. He said the new student had a lot of powers, so we made a list:

• seeing through ground
• making electricity
• going 500 times the speed of light
• 360 degree vision

At about 11:30 August and I walked into town with Dad to go to the hardware store. August was ‘counting’ all of the screws, etc. He had me do a multiplication problem, then he added 16,500,000 plus 16,500,000 in his head when he said the main floor (we were downstairs) had the same number. We then spent time weighing things, looked at all of the options for multimeters, and then he started declaring which items he was buying for his lab.

We left there and went to Kelly’s plumbing. He continued to shop for items for his lab. We were home by 12:20. As we walked up, the timer on my phone went off. He had had me set a 78 minute timer earlier, but didn’t tell me what it was for. He now told me that it had been for a magic spell: “making a toy seal for Johnny’s birthday”

We hung out at home for a bit, then got ready to go to Orondo for milkshakes. On our way out to the garage he saved a moth that had fallen in the bucket. We left at 1:15.

On the drive, he asked what hashtags were, then was singing about them. We got to Lone Pine Fruit and he was impatient to get inside. They only had banana for fresh fruit, so we went with a strawberry one and a chocolate one. Mom and Dad got ice cream. While we waited for them he ran back and for in the shop before I got him outside with Carly.

We sat at a table and ate them. August said, “I got a milkshake just for saving that moth.” And “These are really good milkshakes…you should be impressed.” We then sat on a bench and started readingThe 52-Story Treehouse.

Mom and Dad bought cherries and blueberries, then we got going. We stopped at Beebe Bridge Park. At first August agreed to just ten minutes, and set a series of 2 minute timers. The others sat down, and August and I went to the beach and were throwing rocks. It turned more into making holes in the sand at the edge of the water and putting rocks around them. August got his feet fairly wet. When he needed the bathroom he walked all the way over to it with me, then he ran most of the way back to Gramma and Grampa.

We left at 3:25. Carly noticed he had sand all over his shoes and was getting it in the car, so got him out and brushed it off. He said, “I played in the sand so much. My ears are clogged up.”

When we got home we had some trouble as he really wanted Mom to hide more of the eggs, but she was saying she could only do it if he left the house for a walk or something. He got frustrated and tried to hit her. Carly and I stayed with him for a few minutes in the car, then when we got him inside and calmed down he was playing with me and ‘trapping’ me on the couch. At one point, out of nowhere, he said, “Okay, I’ll say sorry to Gramma.” But a minute later he hit his knee on the coffee table when he was running to jump on the couch and was still recovering from that when they walked by to go out to the car to head to the store and he couldn’t say it right now.

Carly got August some corn, and I went downstairs and was working on installing the new iPadOS on my iPad. August came down and asked me “What’s ‘approximately’?”

I went out to the garage to make the bed for Peter and Micah, while he and Carly played with the squirt guns. He came upstairs so Mom could hide eggs. He sat in the chair that he and Dad had finished and approved of it. He got upset about the bed though. I had already made it, and at first he wanted me to fully make it, by putting the blanket on. When I said it was fine how it was he suddenly wanted to mess up the bed. Got him calmed down, and he was able to go out and hunt for the eggs.

She had hidden six again, and he found them faster this time. Paul got home, and we ate dinner inside. And then, the real excitement. Rain rolled in, along with some thunder and lightning. August watched all of this from the back porch, often stepping far enough down the stairs to be in the rain, but retreating to cover when it would get heavier. He really, really enjoyed it, and was doing a lot of singing and talking about it, particularly how it was good that we were under cover and how he “KNEW it would rain!”

I stayed outside for quite awhile with him, until after it had poured once. I then went downstairs and did some work. Carly gave him a bath, then I was with him, doing a small Brother game, until I got a message that Peter was 5 minutes away. Carly came in and I left them about 9:15.

Peter and Micah showed up a few minutes later. Took them out to the garage to get settled, then they cme in and we chatted with them for awhile. Heard August still awake several minutes later, too. Chatted until around 10, then called it a night.

Taking apart:

Shopping for his lab supplies:

At Beebe Bridge Park 1:

At Beebe Bridge Park 2:

At Beebe Bridge Park 3:

At Beebe Bridge Park 4:

Running to Gramma and Grampa:

Watching the rain 1:

Watching the rain 2:

Watching the rain 3:

He slept until close to 8. They were in the bedroom for a few minutes. When he came I out I was watching the start of the Nurburgring 24. He saw a hot air balloon and we talked about how they use drones and helicopters and other things for cameras, and then he went on about what he used to film a race: “67 horses with cameras on them…a space ship…” We went upstairs for food. He ate a whole banana, then a whole English muffin. I took a shower, and he was watching something, then we went downstairs and played a Brother game. He had a dog named Noodles. The dog ate his sculptures made out linguini. Brother was then climbing a mountain of linguini with his friend JoJo, after they were shrunk. At least a good amount of it was from an episode of Magic School Bus.

We went upstairs for water, then he ate a hard boiled egg, then some “special” (honey nut) Cheerios. We went back downstairs. I started music on the iPad, and August lay on the bed choosing songs and listening to them for several minutes. He added two TomPepe songs to his playlist and listened to all of Yoko Ono’s “I Love You Earth”. We then played a little Green Earth. He then found an apple of Carly’s. Mom has hung up a few of August’s close up photos in the house, including three down in the bedroom. He now wanted to go upstairs and play with the macro lens. We went up and did that. He mainly played with settings, making things blue, so not a lot of photography came out of it this time. He also saw how the camera changed the ISO setting. He said it was “Centigrees” and was some sort of other setting that he had changed.

I went up to work for a half hour and came back in at noon. Carly had a phone interview with someone who is writing a paper on international education. He was talking about a superchook, but also talked about how he hasn’t gotten upset since we’ve been in the U.S. Not entirely correct, given his bedtime meltdowns at the beginning, but there is some truth to that. He said, “The Chook is upset because I haven’t been getting upset.”

We then did a long Brother game, in which he met someone who was digital and made of ones and zeroes. This was mostly really cool, but also meant that the girl couldn’t feel anything, etc. I told him the story of King Midas. He liked the story and asked me to repeat it later. I was getting tired eventually, and his story had gotten quite random, so we went upstairs so I could have some coffee.

I then got him outside. I found the box of sand toys and squirt guns and he first played with the squirt guns, squirting me a bit, but mainly the grass, etc. He then threw the big beach ball around with Mom and Dad. Dad had also prepared the sheet of metal for the chair, and he took August into the garage. August had a ton of fun and did a great job with using the drill press to drill the pattern of holes on it. When they were done doing all the ones they could reach with the drill press, August used it on his own, drilling a ton of holes in a piece of wood while Dad finished the holes in the metal with a hand drill.

He had me Shazam a song playing on the little radio. It was called “Never be the Same”. August said, “Yeah, that’s cool. That what I say: ‘never be the same.’”

Carly, Mom, August and I got walking at 2:45. August said, “When I’m digital my middle name is Math.” We got to the library just at 3. We found seats for the Book-It performance of The Odyssey. August was hungry, so I took him out to the front and he ate some banana. He wanted to get back in for the performance. We went back in, and he sat for the whole performance (20 to 30 minutes), sitting on Carly’s lap for the last few minutes. He quite liked the pigs, and when Odysseus was listening to the Sirens he said that Odysseus was “hypnotized.”

He enjoyed it, but the second it was over he was ready to leave. He sat in the stroller and ate cereal while we got ready to go. I got a sticker for him that they were handing out and he put it on Carly’s shorts.

We checked the library on the way home. Once here we went downstairs for some Brother and Sister, then upstairs for a snack when he found a pack of gummy fruit snack. He agreed to real fruit first, eating a couple strawberries and a raspberry, then having the fruit snacks. Back downstairs we finished readingThe 104-Story Treehouse, then boughtThe 52-Story Treehouse. Carly came in to switch with me and I went out to work.

She also finished dinner (macaroni and cheese, broccoli, and asparagus) and I cooked the asparagus on the grill. August told me the story of Brother playing hide and seek with a kid with a giraffe neck. The kid with the giraffe neck counted, and then could just spot Brother from the porch using her neck.

We ate outside. Mom noticed that the beach ball was losing air. August suggested using tape. He said, “You like your glues…You like your wood…I think grampa really likes cars.” August played with the squirt guns some more, worrying us about spraying us, but we got past that. I switched the hose to the nozzle so he could spray the vegetables.

I went up to do more work and came in at 8:40. Carly had given him a bath, and he had been taking apart a hard drive with Mom. On the toilet he sang a song about binary code. When I came in they were playing I Spy, with August giving the hints. He was doing trick stuff. He said he saw something moving, and it turned out to be “It’s the light traveling 300000 kilometers per second…I’m doing un-ordinary things.”

He was still hungry, so had strawberries, then a Cheerio mix. He told Mom and Dad about Kai after they asked if he knew any little kids. Then he explainted that Kai was wearing a lifevest. It took me a second, but I realized he meant the clothes that August made up with all the safety features: “helium balloons, parachute…will float in the sea.”

We went downstairs. He had a short Brother story where Brother was having trouble with math. Zero, since she is made of numbers, helped him. We brushed his teeth, and I left them at 9:25.

Listening to music 1:

Listening to music 2:

Being digital:

Spraying me:

Beach ball 1:

Beach ball 2:

Beach ball 3:

Drill press 1:

Drill press 2:

The Odyssey:

Music at dinner:

He was up at 6:50. He watched a little of the French Grand Prix (a rather boring race) with me before going upstairs. He ate banana and English muffin and Smurfs. Carly watched him for awhile and they went in the bedroom and were reading. She went for a walk and he played with solitaire on the computer for a bit. He went in and was talking to Dad about his sudoku puzzle and the crossword for while. He watched a little Paw Patrol, then Carly got back.

We went out to the garage. On the way he asked, “What’s ‘identify’ mean?” Lots of different Brother games. The first series were a series of disaster dreams, starting with what he had seen in Paw Patrol and a tsunami. Brother would wake up from a bad dream just to find another disaster, then wake up from that, etc. Then there was climbing a mountain to find a magic rock that would only answer one question, but then it would answer the wrong question. Then there was one where he had Bar turn into a crocodile egg and he put it in the cold so it would turn into a girl (he learned that from Wild Kratts). He then took it to school and it hatched and he ended up with 46 years of detention, which he had to serve until he was an adult.

We went back in at 10:15. At one point he said, “What did I want to do? Oh yeah, bring my iPad. My memory is sooo short.” I took a shower and he and Carly did math. I then went out to do some work in the garage. They played outside.

Back inside, he didn’t want to go get ice cream now. Primarily, it seemed, because he didn’t want to walk, or even take the stroller to town. We read The 104-Story Treehouse instead. And he and Carly finished off a bag of popcorn. We played a short Brother game, where he was causing a power surge after power outage and frying dad’s computer.

We got going to ice cream after 2. August chose moose tracks, which he really liked, Carly got bubble gum, and Paul got huckleberry cheesecake. Carly didn’t specify a kid size, so August got quite a bit of ice cream. He let me have a couple bites. We walked by the new Mexican restaurant to make sure it was open, and August went in the post office with Paul to check the mail.

At home he found the crank on the boat trailer and wound it all the way down. He worked on putting it back up, but got Mom to do that. While we were gone they had hidden 6 plastic eggs for him, and now he searched the yard for them, Mom giving him hints. The first one he found had a note for 2 Hershey kisses. Dad threw an empty egg out on the grass and Iris played with it, batting it all around the yard. At one point she batted at it, then dove over a log and hid in the bushes. When I pointed to where she was August said “She’s like a geocache.”

I went up to work until we were ready to head to dinner. Before we left we did a short Brother game. We walked to the restaurant, which is where the sushi place used to be. We ordered tamales, rice and beans, and taquitos. I got an horchata. August tried it, and loved it, and pushed his water away as he said he was drinking that instead. It hit the seam between the tables and spilled everywhere. Luckily, I only got a little wet. August and I tried to play Wizards Unite, but we’re having issues with data not working right in town on our phones.

We got there at the right time as it got busy as we were finishing up. As we got walking home, August was asking about what a horse would think or say if it saw a cheetah running by. We managed to walk down under the bridge and home via the baseball fields. August wasn’t fond of any route that was longer than the bare minimum. At the river Carly kept going with August, while the rest of us stopped to take a look.

When we got home we found them working with the circuits set. It is the green energy set, and comes with things like a rechargeable battery that they were recharging with a solar panel. They finished a circuit and took it outside. I gave him a bath. He spent some time looking in the mirror and kissing his muscles and talking about them. He then played with all the toys, although he mainly did it from standing outside the bath.

As we were getting him ready for bed he then decided that he wanted to sleep out in the garage. When Carly and I were reluctant and initially said no he responded really well, running to us and giving us hugs. He handled it so well I had to say yes. But once we got his teeth brush and were saying good night to Carly in the bedroom he changed his mind again, and decided to sleep inside. I left them at 8:50.

Solitaire and humming:

Ice cream:

Lowering the trailer:

Egg hunt:

Iris and egg:

We woke August up at 7:25. When I said I’d be making noise downstairs in a couple minutes he asked, “Can you take Uncle Paul’s car?” He started telling Carly about putting salt in a car AC and drilling holes in a car.

I got going at 7:30 and got there at 10:20. More rainy over the pass today. Peter White and his kids and Stephanie (who had come with) were there before me. We met inside this year, although moved outside for eating. It is our last meeting out at the cabin, as they have sold it.

While I was gone August decided he could run on the grass if he’s wearing his light-up shoes, and not just his Crocs. They played with a big bench ball that Chuck had spotted floating between the beaches and gotten for August when it blew to shore. He played chess with Paul and made chocolate chip cookies with Mom. He and Carly took the stroller to Bear Foods for popcorn and got a lemonade drink.

I was home right at 6. He played Civilization Revolution with me. He had done a great job with screen time today, saving some for later in the day. We had meatballs and rice and broccoli for dinner. He told us a big story about how a girl had lost the beach ball on the Alexander River (which is in Israel) and floated all the way here before Chuck found it.

We went out and played in the garage. Then took him in a for a bath. He played with all the toys for longer today. We talked about which pieces fitted together, and ‘compatible’ was a word of the day. Downstairs I let him have one of the strawberry Altoids, then brushed his teeth. He listened to recordings he had made on his iPad while Carly and I discussed books. I left them at 8:45. He had talked about wanting to sleep in the garage, but we convinced him of inside.

Discussing capacitors:

Isn’t that crazy?:

Zooming around:

Sudoku:

I had my book group meeting, a 3 hour drive away, on the calendar for today. It would turn out to be tomorrow, so I did a lot of pointless driving. I at least finished listening to the book, however. I got up and called Carly into the garage. August woke up as I was heading downstairs. About 6:45.

I got driving by 7:15. Carly was really tired today, and it sounds like they had some issues over amount of screen time. I was back by 2. Carly was tired and went to rest.

He and I finished the end of a Gumball episode. Yesterday, when we had gotten mail, the mailman, Tony, had handed us 3 pieces of candy. He had eaten two yesterday, and now remembered the remaining Tootsie Roll, so he had that. We went out and played in the garage for while, but soon came back in to get his water bottle, and the strawberry Altoids, which he loves. He asked, “What’s ‘prototype’ mean?”

He was a girl with superhearing, and there was a robber that kept trying to steal Brother’s iPad but she would catch them. He was then a girl that was a snake. He also asked, “What’s ‘pacifist’?” From Polytopia.

We went inside and he requested frozen strawberries, then some cereal mix. We read some Ben Braver and he asked, “What’s ‘manifested’?” Carly took over, and I went to rest for a bit.

When I came back up he was outside with Grampa. They were setting up a tub and pump outside as a water feature. He talked to Gramma about the TV remote (he had hidden it behind the couch earlier) then talked to Grampa about lake level (he remembered the Sea-Tac altitude) and power plants. I had grabbed some paper books (Borrowers and Lightning Thief) from downstairs and from the pack that Cherie had left. He rejected them all. We read a little Ben Braver instead. He was distracted by the calculator, then did the moves on his watch game when he remembered he’d gotten his goal.

He was getting hungry for dinner. Dad got the pump working for the fountain again and he played with that. He asked Paul more questions, like “What’s a capacitor?… Tricky, isn’t it?” I may have told him to keep asking Paul that question.

We ate dinner outside. He was hyper and running around, but refused to run on the grass. Paul brought him an electrical engineering textbook. And Carly picked the dead flowers off the flowers in the middle of the deck. August tried it out: “Is that really satisfying?…oh yeah.”

When we went in I took him in for his bath. He played for a bit. Carly said good night and headed to bed. When I had him say good night to everyone he gave Mom a hug now. We played a little Brother and Millie game, and he was asleep at 9:15. I got a little work done after he fell asleep.

Working on the fountain with grampa:

Power of talking to animals:

Opening the fireplace: