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He slept through the night in the garage quite well, but was up at 6:35. He went to the bathroom but ws then back in bed and lay there for several minutes, singing to himself. He read the sign on the wall and asked, “Why does Smokey say ‘Only you’?” He watched an episode of Wild Kratts. When construction trucks rolled by they seriously shook the garage. Really felt like an earthquake at first. August didn’t say anything, so it is nice to know that his fear of tornadoes, rain, and hurricanes doesn’t extend to earthquakes.

We headed in at 7:25. He randomly asked “What’s ‘trash talking’?” I think it is from Ben Braver. He had an English muffin and banana, which I made into a smiley face on his plate. He managed to steal the remote from Dad and was flipping channels, ending up watching the end of one show on PBS Kids, then watching Nature Cats. Both were about going to the moon. He then watched Magic School Bus (about an exoplanet) as he ate frozen mango, perched on the back of the couch. I typed and watched a show about the Electron rocket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_(rocket)?wprov=sfti1 and the ELaNa mission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_Launch_of_Nanosatellites?wprov=sfti1

We went out to the garage for Brother game. He met a new student from Kepler Academy. Gramma had just made a joke about having extra arms, and he incorporated it into the story, as this girl had hundreds of arms. He asked, “What’s’incorporate’ mean?” We tried out the new Harry Potter game, Wizards Unite, and was intrigued, but didn’t like the idea that we had to travel around town to play.

We went back in at 10:20. He pretending to be a kitten with Mom, then played Polytopia while I took a shower. For lunch I got him fish sticks, a bowl of fruit, and corn. He talked about chess, the pain scale, and math, and I taught him how to use the memory function on the calculator.

We went and checked on Carly, who basically slept all day, taking medicine and getting through a fever. We played a little Brother game there in the room, with Brother finding a Magic School Bus and pinching himself to see if he was dreaming. I then readPirates Don’t Change Diapers. More Brother game, with him roller skating in the house. I then readFive Stinky Socks, twice.

More Brother and Blanka, with them stuck in a real void. Sister appears. at one point he said, “Brother has a hypothesis about Blanka when she’s tiny.” He went to the bathroom. He asked, “What’s 364 plus 364. 728?” Then surprised me with, “728+728…So it’s 1456?”

He’s been intrigued by the solitaire game my parents play, so we played that together on their computer. He asked for four kinds of cereal mixed together. His favorites were the Golden Grahams. Finally, he pretended to be a cat named Cindy, who was frightened when the grandparents were coming over (rather the opposite of what happens with my parent’s cat Cindy hiding when we are around).

Mom, August, and I then got in the car and drove to Safeway. August climbed and hung on the cart a lot, but did a good job helping with the grocery shopping and steered us around a bit. We then drove (the parking lot was full, so we left a spot for someone else) over to the Vogue. I found wine and cider there to take to my book group meeting. I got a macchiato, and Mom and August shared a slice of chocolate bread. We sat outside and played Civilization Revolution. We then walked to the post office and back.

Back at home we checked on Carly, then he watched Nature Cat on TV (no avoiding it while we are here, but hurray for PBS). He then found an old basketball game on, and we watched the overtime and double overtime of an Arizona State game. He asked a lot of questions about the rules. So he now knows a lot more about both soccer and basketball than he did before we got here. We then watched a really funny Gumball episode.

We went out to the garage at 4:45. We listened to the new Ocean Blue album. We worked on converting kilograms into pounds. Then played a Brother game, with a new girl tht glows. Then back to Bar, and getting caught in her superspit at the park. He was then standing on the ends of the bed, and doing his funny dancing. He played Polytopia on my phone, seeing how quickly he could lose (I think he managed to lose in 4 turns once). I rearranged some of the furniture and stuff in the garage, reclaiming some space, and opening up space in front of one of the windows to put the old sewing machine as a desk.

We went back inside at 6:20. We started taking apart the laptop from Paul. It is his old laptop which had been to Afghanistan etc. August asked, “What’s ‘sabotage’ mean?” Don’t know where from. He asked, “How do divide 11 in half? 5.5!” He then divided 13, 15, 21, etc. Got the halves down.

We went to dinner. August wanted to do math at the table and asked, “Where’s another calculator that doesn’t need as much lightness to do its stuff?” He ate 2 bananas, a little chili, and some tortilla. Carly was feeling much better and had joined us for dinner.

She read him Bartholomew and the Oobleck and I gave him a bath. When I took him downstairs he was asking Paul questions. I then took him out to the garage, and he was asleep pretty quickly, by 8:20.

Humming and singing in the garage:

Being a kitty 1:

Being a kitty 2:

Leading the cart in the grocery store:

Laughing at Gumball:

Making mama nervous in the garage:

Asking Uncle Paul questions:

He was up at 5:50. Too early. They came out a few minutes later, and August found me out on the couch. I started to take him upstairs, then he said, “Wait, can we go downstairs? This would be a good time to do our Brother and Sister game.” In the room he said, “But now Blanka can bring things back to the real world from dreams…so Brother asks her for a jar of honey.” Yesterday, as they went through dreams, the most common were ones where they were in a void, then whatever Brother thought about, good and bad, came to life. So in the first dream he had Blanka take real money into a dream and buy a jar of honey. We did several dreams. He usually had Blanka be tiny, and the dreams would be scary ones. They were chased by lava once, a t-rex another, and a triceratops for a third. I finally got him upstairs. Carly made an English muffin for him, and he gave me, as Brother, half of it.

I got tea and some cereal. He snacked on my Wheaties, then ate most of a banana when I gave him one. Back in the living room he played Earth app on his iPad, sitting on the back of the green chair. He did the pollution and the erosion a lot.

I went and too a shower. They did story problem. When I cme back up he was on the Lego app. I then did a story problem with him. We had planned to go over to Chuck and Cherie’s and go in the hot tub while August played with Cherie. But Carly was feeling worse and worse, so eventually we decided to just have them come over here.

They got here at 9:15. August gave them an excited welcome, and hugged Cherie, or at least her arm, which was a first for the trip. She talked to him about consonant blends and digraphs. He took her into the living room and he sat on the back of the green chair behind her and showed her the cup app with the line drawing. At one point he said to her, “Okay. You like silly? We can do some silly stuff.” They also played that cat app on her tablet.

He wanted to play Brother and Sister with me, and we went out to the garage for a few minutes and played there while Cherie made sandwiches for them. Inside we had pita chips and cheese. Chuck went to the store and got medicine for Carly. August asked Cherie, “Could you tell me the story of when Uncle DD wanted everything Mama and Tia Cassie had?” She told him about them roller skating.

Chuck and Cherie left. August was getting tired and we went down to see Carly. He was getting a little grumpy. He ate an English muffin, then was counting things on the calculator. He next had some frozen fruit. He noticed when the time on the clock in the living room was 12:12:12.

We went out to the garage again. He was reluctant to keep playing out there, as he said the bed wasn’t bouncy enough. So we made the bed, and he liked that a bit better. He asked, “What’s excruciatingly mean?” Think maybe it is from Ben Braver or Wild Kratts. We played more Brother and Blanka and listened to Chemical Brothers.

I got him out in the car, in the car seat this time, and drove towards Manson. He fell asleep at 1:07 and I drove back. I read and worked, then my parents and I got ready to go out to Ann and Randy’s house to pick up some firewood. We were in the car and Mom ran bck in for something and found that Carly and August were both awake. So he slept about exactly 2 hours, as it was after 3.

We drove out and picked up the firewood. Ann and Randy used to have a solar power business, and now have a Tesla and an electric ATV. We chatted with them for quite awhile, then stopped at Walmart for a few things on the way back.

August was on the bed next to Carly, watching something. He and I went out to do Brother and Bar games in the garage. Bar was the third student he’s met from Kepler Academy. We went inside after 6 when we were starting to get hungry. Paul got home and gave him an old laptop to take apart, and a set of tools to use. We spent some time on the laptop. August asked, “What’s remarkable mean?” Another word of the day. He also said “You’re so great I’ll faint.” Then, “Do faint and pass out mean the same thing?”

He hurt his finger somehow, and we took him downstairs and ran it in the water. He never told me what was wrong. For dinner we had baked beans, hot dogs, olives. He went and got the calculator while he ate, and we did some calculator story problems.

In the living room he was acting like a cat and Mom named him Kermit the kitten. He had me and him do a little Dada and Brother game where Dad wants to get rid of Cindy, the cat, for some reason.

We all watched some Jeopardy and he was interested in that. He was also watching the minutes change on the clock below the TV. We did more calculator math.

He went to the bathroom, and asked what 81 times 81 is. We made up a little rhyme for it:
81 and 81
Look at what they have done
Multiplied one by one
Then 65, 61

I got pillows and a couple other things, and August said good night to everyone. I had mentioned a couple times sleeping in the garage tonight to give Carly her own room, but I hadn’t pushed it. August accepted it though, and at some point said we were sleeping in the garage.

It had started raining, but luckily had stopped for a bit when we went out at 9:15. He had me turn all of the lights on and we listened to Brian Eno and read Ben Braver. I was able to turn some of the lights off, and we eventually drifted off to sleep. He asked me for a story, and I told him a couple things about how the yard had changed and that we were sleeping where the compost used to be. Sang one or two songs, and he was asleep by 10:10.

Laughing:

Soft kitty, warm kitty song:

Fast punching:

Punching slo-mo:

Songs in the bathroom:

I was woken up by Carly twice as she was up at 2-something. August then woke up at 4. He lay in bed with one of us or the other until 5:30. At one point he wanted Carly but she was upstairs. I tried to go up with him, but he went back in the room and curled up, as the house was too scary. Eventually he let me go up and get her. She came down and lay with him for a while and I lay down again as well. Then they got up. Carly tried on clothes and I listened to my book. He said “I know a kid from Kepler Academy who was unlucky. His power was throwing up.” “Mama, is allergies a strength or a weakness.” He was jumping from the high bed onto the lower bed.

When he started playing with the door I suggested iPad, and we played Polytopia together. While Carly took a shower I took him upstairs. He was chanting “Chocolate-covered floozy, walking in the park, counted them all there were 80 after dark.” Which combines lines from Ben Braver (the beginning), our Brother and Sister song (the park/dark structure), and our 7 times 7 rhyme (counted them all). In the living room we spotted Cindy outside and saw her chase a squirrel off the feeding enclosure. I went to get August and I toast/english muffin, and when I came back he was sitting in the wooden rocking chair, playing with the solar calculator.

He ate a full English muffin, then Carly came and let me go back to sleep. They walked over to where Chuck and Cherie are staying and hung out there for awhile, then they were all back around 11:30.

Carly headed to the store, and after some Advil kicked in I headed upstairs. They had played with the new Snap Circuits set a bit, and I think they had been outside feeding the birds and squirrels, and as I made a sandwich, Mom, Cherie, and August came up the back stairs. They had been charging a calculator in the sun, and determined it needed another half-hour of sunlight.

Inside, he and Cherie played the game on her tablet. He then wanted to go downstairs with me and play a Brother game. He was very private about it, and told me I wasn’t supposed to tell Gramma about it, when I just said he wanted to play a game. In the room he then locked the door, and was reluctant to even let Carly in when she got back. Think he just needed some quiet time with less people for awhile.

His Brother game had a new character, Blanka, who could Blanka who could go through glass. There was a story where she could also time travel and took him back to the Mesozoic Era, but that turned out to be a dream. Her second power was being able to go in peoples’ dreams, so Brother had a series of bad dreams and she was also there. Carly got home from Walmart, and brought him a super cool new water bottle.

He was getting really tired, but didn’t want to go out for a drive. A little bribe, a couple small pieces of chocolate, solved that. Carly took him out to get him in the car, and he remembered how he doesn’t like Paul’s car. It didn’t help that when they turned on the AC dust came out of the vents, and that they didn’t actually turn on the AC for a few minutes and it was just fans.

But I got “Take Me to Church” playing and we drove up towards Union Valley. He fell asleep by the time we got to the turn off, so I turned around and we came back. Carly carried him downstairs and he slept from 2:20 to about 4:10. She tried to wake him up a couple times before finally succeeding.

He was slow to wake up. He spotted a plastic drink bottle downstairs, so I took him upstairs and we got a pineapple coconut drink and shared it. I then read Tessa Tiger’s Temper Tantrum on Skybrary, with him perched on the back of the green chair behind me. He then took the iPad and kept sitting on the back of the chair as he watched Wild Kratts.

He was then doing story problems with Cherie. He got the multiplication and division and other questions she asked him at first. We were all getting dinner ready, and it was quite a feast. We did steaks and veggies (mushrooms, zucchini, and asparagus) on the grill and corn on the cob and garlic bread inside. We all fit around the new tables that Dad had made. It was rather windy, but nice enough.

When he was done eating, I brought down the new speaker I had bought and showed him. I played a Matt and Kim song, “Forever”. He whispered to me “I have a secret: That song’s from me.” He explained how he made one of the sounds in it with some sort of explosion. The explosion destroyed a pyramid and went back through time and destroyed the ancient Egyptians.

Convinced him to take a bath by making it a hair washing day. He chose a lemon lollipop. He played with the containers and toys for a few minutes. He was nervous about the bath, so had to keep things low, and he would keep scooting to the far end of the tub. He called the flat area there his safety area, or something to that effect.

He said good night and we went downstairs. He wanted the window open and noticed the stick keeping it from going fully open. He asked about it, and I said it kept someone from opening the window from the outside. He talked about making a window with triple protection: a lock, something else, and tons of cactus spikes. ‘Deterrent’ was a word of the day.

Before he could go to bed he had to process all of that with a Brother and Blanka robber game, where a robber tried to break in when they didn’t put the stick in the window. Sometimes Blanka would stop the robber in advance, or sometimes the stuff would get stolen and she would track him down. Blanka had ‘photospines’, which make you invisible.

I was then able to brush his teeth, and I left them at 8:35.

Corn on the cob:

Story problems with Oma:

Fun on the deck:

I was up at 5:30. Pretty perfect. Carly was already up, talking to Cherie. She went back up with August for awhile.

Andrea took Thatcher to school. Friday is his last day. Carly finally got August awake at 8:45. I had tried a few minutes earlier and just got him to flip his head back and forth six times. As he came out of the room I said good morning. He replied, “I know.” He said the same thing to Cherie when she said good morning a little later.

She took him into the big bedroom, where Kayla was watching some animated show about dogs. August said, “I’ve seen it before…well, you know how I have a lost and found room in my lab? I put a TV in there and put this on so they can watch this…you know the living cars? That too.”

I stayed with him as they watched for awhile. August was confused when commercials came on and they lasted so long. He asked if it was a big 3-minute ad, and I explained how television has multiple ads in a row that you have to watch.

We went down and he had an amazing conversation with Chuck. August walked around in circles as they talked about science and the sun burning out and moving to Mars. At one point Chuck had a soft ball and asked, “Do you want to play catch.” August replied “Ugh, no” and ignored the ball as it went by him. He talked about making a milk carton rocket: “thousands of liters of gas…” But “For a life-sized ship you’d need 36000 milk cartons.” Chuck taught him the word ‘rudder’.

The conversation continued with Cherie down as well. They invented a goose poop power plant. Chuck asked him how many beads he would estimate were in a box. He told him how many it was, and when Chuck asked how he knew that he said “I’m a genius.” Chuck also taught him ‘uniform’, as in the same size.

Cherie had made oatmeal at Kayla’s request. When he was finally hungry I heated some up for August. He said it was better than what we have at home. It was just me with Kayla and August now. They played around, and when Kayla also wanted more I gave them a bunch of fruit instead. She mainly ate the mango, while August had strawberry and blueberries.

The stereo kept saying ‘Connected, ready for use.” I said it might be Opa’s phone. August was a little disturbed by the voice, so he headed upstairs to find Opa. He wasn’t up there though. Back downstairs I turned on music and August requested the Chemical Brothers. He liked “Bango” and danced to it and I added it to his playlist. He chanted “Connected, ready for use” to it.

August and Kayla played with a robotic insect. August said, “I hate it!” The two of them just played with that together for quite awhile, putting it in a bug container, and having it run across the table and floor.

August remembers playing that tablet game with Cherie, and he started mentioning it to her, and repeated about a dozen times how excited he was to play it with her. He said it was better than Polytopia. At one point he told me it was “better than everything except Mama.”

He and Kayla kept playing and playing so well together. Chuck made August a tuna fish sandwich and he ate a good half of that, along with two slices of pickle. Andrea’s mom showed up to take Kayla, and we all got packed and left at 12:15.

Chuck drove, Carly in the passenger seat. August was in the middle in back with Cherie on the left and me on the right. They played a good amount of the Cookie Cat Blast tablet game. It lived up to August’s expectations. I realized we didn’t have August’s water bottle. I had filled it before we left and put it by our stuff, but it didn’t end up in the car. August was okay with it, and Carly let him use her water bottle. He took a big mouthful, but then sprayed it all over his shorts. He got frustrated, but we didn’t have to change his clothes.

Cherie sang “If I Had a Hammer” and “Kum By Ya” He said he didn’t like the first one, then when she started the second he instantly said “I hate it!” as a joke. When she sang “I love you, You love me” he started to do some of his dance moves. She then told/did the “Going on the bear hunt” thing. August suggested ‘mud’ and ‘claw trap’ for two of the verses.

We stopped at the rest stop. I took him to the bathroom. He found a heart-shaped ornament on the drinking fountain that said ‘I need a home’ on it and carried it around. We went and sat at a picnic table with everyone, and I took him back and donated a dollar and he got an M&M cookie and I got chocolate chip.

He told me, “There’s an epinomic experiment going on in my lab right now.” The word he was looking for wasn’t ‘epic’ or ‘economic’. We later figured out, as I readBen Braver, that he meant ‘experimental’, as Ben refers to ‘experimental science’.

We got driving again and we read Ben Braver from the beginning. Read a good third of it. He and Cherie debated the efficacy of meditation, and their powers of traveling through glass and other things. She taught him the word ‘infinitesimal’, another good word of the day.

We then played Green Planet. Earlier, while he’d been playing with Cherie, I had edited Peter’s novel, and now that I have data access on the iPad was able to share it with Peter as we drove over the pass.

August surprised us when he was doing math and he demonstrated that he knew all the squares up to 10 times 10. I then asked him what 11 times 11 was. He figured out what it was by counting to 110 by 11s, then added another 11 to get to 121. Another new phrase for him was ‘nick of time’ when someone used it.

We got to Chelan just after 4. We unpacked and said hi to my parents. Chuck and Cherie went to check in to their place, and Carly went down to rest. I took August out to the garage to look around. He remembered a lot of things, and asked Dad if he’d done the chair like he had suggested last summer. Dad showed him that he had the piece of metal, and that they’d work on it together. I liked the progress on the garage, and will set up office there, I think, but we ultimately decided to stay inside for the real beds. August also suggested Dad use sealant on the ball end of the handle of the vice that keeps coming loose. So dad did get a tube of sealant and they tried it on one end to see if it would work.

We went inside and took a few screws apart on the TV that Chuck and Cherie had given us from their motorhome. They had gotten a new one, as this one was having problems. August found a solar powered calculator, and did a lot of calculator math with Mom. He then kicked the stuffed bears out of their spot on the green chair, and cuddled behind Dad, acting like a cat, before sitting next to him.

When he needed to use the bathroom I took him, and August told me, “Do you know I’m actually a her? A girl. For real.” Carly came up from resting, and we ate dinner: fish sticks, chicken nuggets, tater tots, salad, and carrots. He liked the fish sticks in particular, but rejected the tater tots.

Chuck and Cherie came over, and August went downstairs with me and we watched soccer with Paul: Guyana versus the US. August was asking a lot of questions about the rules, and really seemed to be understanding it this year. Everyone else went outside and sat at the big new table that Dad made and were talking.

August started doing funny math today, and has been chanting “9 times 9 is 3 hundred sixty nine.” August found the the old typewriter, and I got the newer one out and Paul got him paper. I warned him that it might not work at all, and August did a great job of not getting his hopes up. He said, “I’d like to, but I don’t EXPECT it to…” He had done a similar great job before Chuck and Cherie had come back over. He had been excited to play the tablet game with her again. When I warned him that she might not be bringing the tablet, he said much the same. And, in fact, I don’t think he even asked her about it.

But the typerwriter worked, and he did some typing, then had me doing typing. It was all in Mooka Mook. I asked him what I had written and he looked at it and said, “Oh, you want me to eat blueberries. Yeah, good advice.” He then wanted the typerwriter outside, where he typed a bunch, then Cherie translated it into a story. August remembered his tree, and we all went over to see how it is growing.

Chuck and Cherie got going, and we went inside. He had been doing really well, but then something happened upstairs and he started melting down. Carly brought him down, and she and I had him in the bedroom for a good 20 minutes. He was really fighting sleep, and was often just sliding down on the floor, sort of making babbling noises. Finally, he provided his own method for calming down, asking us to turn on the fan. The noise seemed to really do the job, as he calmed down right away. I left them about 9:40. I hadn’t been able to move the dresser or make the lower bed, which was what I’d been working on when they came down.

When I went to bed an hour later August was close to the edge of the big bed, and Carly had also fallen asleep. I made the lower bed and carried him down and slept next to him.

Deep conversation with Opa 1:

Deep conversation with Opa 2:

Calculator math with Gramma:

Watching soccer with Uncle Paul:

Corn on the cob:

Story problems with Oma:

Fun on the deck:

He woke up at 8:40. That was a get night of sleep for him. I had blown up the cube thing for his feet and put a pillow between him and the wall. He had one of the cushy neck pillows around his neck (we had stopped to buy a second one at the duty free shop right before our gate—I joked that Carly was getting into duty free shopping, and it would soon be perfume and liquor), and it stayed there most of the night. And a blanket on him.

Carly and I had each gotten 5 hours or so of sleep. I had watched some of Too Old to Die Young and listened to some music, and read a little ofThe Fifth Season. Sleeping was okay, although woke up with really sore knees at one point. When we had all fallen asleep the windows were left open, so a few hours later when I woke up there was just the hint of sun as we flew over some land. Got a really nice photo of that. Think it may have been Iceland. When August woke up he cuddled with the neck pillow for a bit. The cabin lights came on after a couple minutes. They brought out breakfast. We had a cheesy pancake thing and an omelette that he and I shared.

We played a lot of Polytopia (which is now on his iPad). He randomly asked, “What’s ‘three point plan of attack’ mean?” Our phrase of the day. It’s from Ben Braver. He sang about a calculator that only goes to 50. As we got close to New York we waved to Vivian and Colin, although they would be asleep. As we were preparing for landing we reminded August that we were transferring. He said, “I know. I’m used to it. I’ve been here before.” Total attitude.

He started a new Brother and Sister game, which would later turn into a full story: “Can you be Brother walking to school and you look up and you’re sad cuz you’re not on a plane?”

JFK was an experience. Immigration is kind of a mess, with workers shuffling you through lines that don’t make sense, and yelling at people to keep moving, etc. Someone messed up the lines too, so we ended up in one of the lines for people with Xs on their print out things. Took a long time, but we got through. Had me read “Please have documents completed” sign twice. Rechecked our bag, and took a train to the next terminal. A little nervous, as security was also really, really long. At one point they sent us back to get boarding passes from JetBlue (we were in Terminal 5, which, security aside, was quite a nice building), as ours were from El Al back in Tel Aviv (they said they would work, but the security people at JFK said we might get sent back). Luckily, we got them printed quickly, then were able to get back in line where we were sent out.

Once we got through though we still had plenty of time to stop and get some food. I wasn’t really hungry, so August got a waffle and french toast, and Carly got a salad. We shared a latte. We were at gate 17. It was changed to 12, across the aisle, but that was nice as we just sat where we were and it didn’t get too crowded.

When Carly went to get the latte he had me playing a Brother and Sister game, one where Brother’s trying to get them to abandon a beach walk before it really rains. He liked a moment from one we’d done before where the grandmother gets blown away, and the dad says she just went for a walk on her own. He repeated the line “She likes her power walks” from that and had me do it again.

On the plane we played Civilization Revolution for the first time. Maybe eventually a replacement for Polytopia. More complex, but it works actual history into the game, and focuses on winning through technological, cultural, and economic means, not just domination. He then watched Inspector Gadget, and we watched a Canadian animated film “Animal Behavior” from 2019 Oscar Nominated Short Films collection on the plane screen. I used the audio splitter so we could both listen. A little mature for him, but funny enough.

A little more Polytopia, then he was asking math division questions, like “How do you divide 900?” He’s been doing that recently, and we figure out what all the factors of the number. He also asked, “What’s coison ivy?” I’m not sure where he learned about poison ivy. When the drink cart he chose pineapple juice, with ice, and really liked it.

He then developed the Brother and Sister game from earlier into a full story: “Could you be Brother and Sister arguing over who gets the window seat? And you fuss so much your parents cancel summer?” They have to go to school instead, then Brother had to walk to summer school and looked up and saw a plane that may have been Millie’s, headed to South America. This happened year after year, and Millie was heading to different places.

We saw Chelan from the plane, the first time I think I’ve actually seen Chelan (although I remember passing over the Columbia River just to the south once). August wasn’t quite as impressed, but still liked it. I had bought strawberry gum, and he was chewing it around takeoffs and landings, although he’d often be done chewing it before we actually landed, and he swallowed it once.

As soon as they announced that we should prepare for landing August knew the drill, and unplugged the cord for the iPad. He asked me, “What’s Atlas?” When I explained it was a collection of maps, he said “No, the god.” We then talked about Greek and Roman gods, with him asking who was the god of war, water, etc.

Before we landed there was an announcement that it was the head flight attendant’s birthday today. I missed it, as I was packing stuff up as August and Carly headed off, but apparently August said it to her all on his own—we hadn’t talked about it at all—and she said it made her day.

We found Chuck, or he found us, at 12:20. August told him all about his superpowers as we waited for our suitcase. Chuck said that Thatcher and Kayla were excited to see him. August asked a few times,
“Why are they excited to see me?”

In the car he sat in the back with me, in the middle so he had the best view. He fell asleep though just after 1, but dragged himself awake when we got to the house and Kayla was there.

He managed to stay awake until about 8, though will power and adrenaline. He had a great time with Kayla. I took them up to the play area and they started playing. We went down to get some food. Cherie gave him an Eggo waffle. Back upstairs he and Kayla were doing battles with the big stuffed snake: “Let the epic battle begin.” He got the little Loog guitar, and was using it like Penny in Ben Braver (she has a ukulele) for his power. He had me and Kayla battling, and he would use the ukulele to stop her or me and say “I got you out of this mess.”

Carly went in to rest. Cherie went to pick up Thatcher. When he got home they all ended up outside after Thatcher and August were talking about taking things apart. They were both trying to sort of one up the other, with Thatcher saying he had taken two old laptops apart. He said he took things apart by throwing them on the ground, and we (with Cherie) ended up outside with Thatcher getting an old broken RC car that they stomped on, threw around, and hit with things. When not much else would break off, I suggested using actual tools. We determined it needed an allen wrench, and Cherie found a set and we determined the one that worked. They worked on it a bit more before losing interest.

They next ended up upstairs watching Magic School Bus Rides Again. They were quiet and still for awhile. August perched on the side of the rocking chair for while. When Cherie came in they stirred again. August wanted to go play again, but he was really tired. When Cherie told him to not touch the remote (he wanted to turn it off so they could all go play) he hit her. I had to take him in the bedroom with Carly. It took a few minutes before he calmed down enough to apologize to me, then I carried him down and he was able to say sorry to Cherie.

I went and took a shower, and Cherie had made dinner. We had broccoli, beans, and pasta for dinner, then they had drumstick ice creams, which they ate outside.

Andrea got home, and they all ended up outside. Thatcher was being a monster or something and chasing them. When that was getting over the top we got them all upstairs and building with blocks with Chuck.

Back downstairs they had cookies. Carly gave him a bath on his own—he was just too tired to want to take a bath with Thatcher and Kayla. He wasn’t fond of the water pressure in their bathtub, even though he was standing at the far end. Carly had to get water from the sink to rinse him instead.

I left them at 7:50. He was asleep by 8. I went to bed soon after that.

Touchdown and clapping at JFK:

7 times 7 rhyme:

Playing with Kayla:

The big spider:

Snake tug of war:

Thatcher joins in:

Breaking the RC car:

He was up a little before 7:20, so he saw me before I left. He was watching Max and Ruby as I went. So my Father’s Day gift was getting to take the car in for its first service. It took 3 hours, and I got to walk over to a nice coffee shop and work. I got to ג.ג.ג. at 8 and then had to wait in the waiting room for 20 minutes. Got the car dropped off, and walked to the coffee shop called Zak’s a block away. I sat at a seat at the window and had two large cappuccinos and an egg salad sandwich.

As I sat working on a Kumi Now essay about collective punishment, my iPad open with the Kumi Now and ICAHD websites open, a group of Jewish women came in and sat behind me. One of the women asked me “Can I ask you a rude question?” At first I dreaded where this was going, but she was really polite, so I thought maybe it would be a good conversation. But then she just asked if I could move so they could have more room. Anticlimactic.

I got a call a little after 11 saying the car was ready. I went back and picked it up. Every thing was fine. But they don’t vacuum or wash the car.

When I got home, I found they had made a wonderful Father’s Day sign and hung it over the stairs. The sign had math problems all over it, and August had made several that were “tricky”. That is, incorrect.

I got August to help me vacuum the car. He was first watering some of the plants usin a big plastic bottle, and had me get a second one out of recycling. Vacuuming the car took a total of three sessions, as it keeps overheating out in the heat.

August asked “Is zero odd or even?” We looked it up and learned why it is even. He also asked, “Did you know my tongue is made of rebar?” and “What’s moose gelato?” Don’t know where he got that (but gelato is from Monsters Beware and The 26-Story Treehouse has funny ice cream flavors). He asked, “Can you read Ben Braver to me? I mean Ben Less-Brave?” Carly came down, already wearing her swimsuit, and I asked why. He said, “Because she’s doing the dishes. Man, you’re so ridic.” (‘Ridicules is from Ben Braver.)

We got him to try his sandals when he went outside with me. He liked them okay, but pointed out that his toes touch the grass when he walks. We talked about donating them, and he asked “What’s donate mean?” A word of the day. He says he has a bunch of Iron Man books to donate, in his lab. He mentioned Iron Man a few times, and while I was gone he had, out of nowhere, asked if superheroes take snack breaks. I pointed out that Hilo eats mangos, and Ben Braver hangs out in a coffee shop. He said those don’t count as they aren’t on paper and we read them digitally.

We got ready for swimming and went to school. We also took several bags of printer parts back to the box, and a bag of aluminum cans to donate. Carly headed to her classroom and we recycled the cans, then headed to the pool. As we walked there he was asking about different checkmating scenarios, like is it possible to checkmate with two bishops, or with a rook, etc. He also asked, “What’s 8 times 8?” We figured it out, then he said, “So there’s 64 squares on the chess board?” I taught him the “8 times 8 fell on the floor, picked it up, said 64” rhyme and he really liked it. He wanted more, so we made up “7 by 7, walking in a line, counted them all, there were 49.” He already knows 10×10, 9×9, and 6×6 and below, so now pretty much knows his squares.

We were swimming at 2:15. Carly caught up a couple minutes later. Maya and Ben were there, and Carly and I spent most of our time plying monkey in the middle with Maya. August wasn’t really into playing himself, but would hang on us to make it harder, or retrieve the ball, etc. He was really getting splashed a lot and wasn’t bothered by it at all.

We left at 3:30. Carly suggested going to Sushi Ishimoto, but August really wanted to play out an idea he had for a Brother and Sister game. So he asked Carly to drop us off. She did, and she went to get food. We did Brother and Sister upstairs. Basically, Millie could also turn into Bar and other people.

Carly got back and we all ate. He then went outside with her to cut apart the tomato plants and cut back some other plants. We have put all of the plants outside, and Kelly and Mike’s daughter is going to come water them once a week (they live over in the house that was Jack and Celeste’s last year).

I finished my packing, and August came up to watch me. I then drove to the school and dropped off the car. I walked back, and was home at 6:30. Carly gave him a bath and washed his hair. He had me take a photo of the bumps on his back (shoulder blades) so he could see them. He saw the bag of lollipops I had bought for the flight and he said, “I’ll be looking forward.”

I took a shower. He was singing a “Ryan is the Best” song and also “Final Countdown”, which I had played for him earlier when we read Ben Braver, as it is mentioned in there.

The Gett driver got there just before 8. We got in the car. August sat in the middle, immediately getting his shoes on the back of the seats before I could get his shoes off. August had us playing the ‘Who can be quiet the longest’ game. He said he learned it from Up. He said “No buts about it” a few times, did a little dancing, and admired the full moon. He said, “In my lifetime, I’ll go by 300 billion street lights.”

We got to the airport and everything went smoothly as we went through. We went to the ‘Alternate Cafe’ in the area where we usually get food. Got a smoked salmon sandwich and couple of cheese things, and August chose lemonade and we had cappuccinos. As we walked to our gate we saw a new little play area. He said he remembered play areas in airports before. That’s been awhile.

As we sat at our gate (very close to where we were when we went to Greece), there were a bunch of teenagers all using the many charging ports available. I said something about them being desperate to charge their phones, and August picked up on it, asking several times, “Why are the teenagers desperate to charge their phones?”

We got on the plane. August, I think, was trying to stay awake for the takeoff. It finally got taxiing at 12:40 (it was a 12:20 flight), and he fell right asleep.

Starting a new countdown for summer 2020:

Pool 1:

Pool 2:

Cutting tomatoes:

Singing about the end of the countdown:

Singing about a calculator error message:

A little after 6 he fell out of bed and landed right next to me. Luckily, a pretty soft landing. I tried to get him back to sleep in bed, but after fifteen minutes or so he wanted to go down to Carly. I walked him down to her, then I went back to bed for awhile. He updated his countdown to 1, which is an oval in Mooka Mook. He came up to the bedroom awhile later for his iPad. Carly got him oatmeal, and he was watching a Wild Kratts when I came down.

He then wanted to go upstairs for a Brother and Millie game. Brother kept being woken and scared by Millie as different animals, and was so tired he couldn’t function at school, which August found funny. He made a play on the word ‘defrost’ and invented ‘ceefrost’, which makes things colder. He ws then asking about the “Denomicle” in math. It turned out he meant ‘denominator’. So that was a word of the day and I drew some examples of fractions on the iPad and labeled the numerators and denominators. He mentioned the half-shekel coin, which does indeed have a ½ fraction on it.

We played a little Polytopia then headed downstairs. He counted by 999s on the calculator and explained the pattern to me, with the thousands going up and the ones going down. He sort of helped me wrap Omri’s presents (stuff from Max and 4 of our snickerdoodles) and wrote ‘Omri’ on the package. We were doing more math along the way. He ate some toast and carrot. He played with the Solar System app, then was asking me big calculations of bits and bytes. He then observed and concluded “Does light go infinite fast?…Then why does it take infinite energy for mass to go infinite fast…Scientists are wrong.”

Carly had a headache and was doing a lot of resting. August and I left for Omri’s party at 10:40. As we drove away, we saw the older girl from across the street leave her house and start running up the street. He speculated on why she was running, and said she was trying to run as fast as a car. He also sang a “Welcome to the academy” song, and a couple times, as we drove on the highway, pointed out where the girl was trying to run along the side of the highway. But gave up by the time we got there. He was also speeding up time as we went to make the drive go faster.

We got to the party just after 11. There were two blow up water slide/bouncy house sort of things in the yard and a table for food. August had me hold him for a few minutes, then got to his favorite activity, grazing for food. The spread was healthier than at the last party, and he ate some pretzels and chips, and also a bunch of mini corns. We saw and talked to Sharna and her family and Reia and her mom, and Millie was also there. I got to talk to Sharna and Huy (sp?) as we sat on the benches. I sat across from the bouncy house. August wouldn’t go in it, but climbed up the outside of it with his hands on my knees and was then jumping on my lap.

We went over when Omri blew out candles, then got a slice of cake. August was ready to leave after that. We stayed a couple more minutes, then saw her blow out another cake (they were small), then got going.

We left about 12:30 and he fell asleep soon after we got in the car. He was asleep 12:40 to 1 as we got home.

He played something on the iPad, then we were taking apart stuff, mainly the big printer. Mainly I was doing the work and he was my boss. He played the job well, taking regular breaks for him to rest, but telling me to keep working. He was then Millie being a baby crocodile. We readBen Braver. He said, “My power is moving my hands and levitating.” We went upstairs for more of the Millie game. He was then a baby alligator that Brother has to buy back, then steal from the mama alligator. He got his bottom bitten. He was then a mole.

When the clock changed to 4:00 he said, “I want stuff to be done exact, not almost.” We kept playing, then finally went downstairs. He was bothering Carly as I made a smoothie. He was then climbing on the two red chairs and we did calculator math. I showed him 5514 and 35007 upside down on the calculator, and he was wanting me to write all sorts of other things. He did his turn on the watch game. He got Siri to play “Science Fiction” by Arctic Monkeys when he asked for a science fiction song and he did some dancing to it.

I walked over to Tiv Taam as they were skying with Cherie. A guy at Tiv Taam asked me for help finding white bread. I asked if he was new here, as they don’t do a lot of regular white bread (he said his wife was being particular about what kind of bread she wanted) and it was also Saturday, so there was almost no bread on the shelf. I directed him to the closest he was going to find.

I got home at 6:45. He was talking about music tempos and said, “An equilateral song is when the tempo doesn’t change a bit.” We did a Brother and Sister game where the parents don’t believe them about it raining on the beach. Millie helped convince them to go back to the car. I switched with Carly, and they did some building with Duplos, I think.

I got to packing, and August helped choose some Bob Books to take. He tried on his poncho that he’d made at preschool. He said it was comfy, but was still sure he didn’t want it. We talked about Millie, and the word ‘flattering’ came up. He asked what it meant, so another word of the day. He then invented a wireless charger: “Trionic plug…it can charge your phone from miles away…the other side of the earth…” Much like yesterday, Carly took him up for a bath. Skipped washing his hair again, but he said we could do it during the day tomorrow. I left them at 9:15.

Writing Omri:

Bouncing 1:

Bouncing 2:

Chocolate pop rocks:

Dancing to “Science Fiction” 1:

Dancing to “Science Fiction” 2:

Poncho:

He woke up just before 7. He walked back into the bedroom, but then wanted me to pick him up. I carried him downstairs, and he fell back to sleep on the couch. He started waking up around 7:40, and sat up against a pillow, but kept falling back to sleep. He woke up for good at 8. He changed his countdown, then requested his iPad and watched a little Wild Kratts. He went to the bathroom, then had frozen mango and oatmeal. He played a little of the line drawing game, which I had put on his iPad, while I finished up a little work.

We went upstairs for a full version of the Brother and Millie game, which has turned into a full story. And he was working on three digit math with carrying in his head.

We got going, and drove to school. At the bottom of the stairs we saw the new welcoming tiles from this year and found August’s. We had taken bags of snickerdoodles for Marion and Vicky, as they are both moving away (to India and England) and I wanted him to have a good last memory of each. We saw Vicky first, in PKA. August was a little shocked, as all of the furniture was stacked in the art room. He talked to Vicky about that, and she said some really nice things to him as they said goodbye.

We then went over to PKB, and we found Marion there. He gave her her bag of cookies, and we also saw Anna and Amelia. We found out that Marion is doing an RV road trip, 8 people total, from Portland to Glacier and back to San Francisco. We also saw Andrea and gave her a smaller bag of cookies, as she will be back next year.

Carly called, saying the library was closing in a few minutes. We hurried over there. He waited by the entrance and I went back and checked out Giant’s Beware andThe 26-Story Treehouse.

We headed out to the car. There was a truck idling, and August was trying to figure out the tempo of its sound. We left at 11:40.

At home he wanted salmon for lunch, so I baked the salmon and he played Polytopia. We ate, and Carly got home. Looking at the circle on the ground, he talked circle math with me. A quarter in degrees, a third in degrees, etc. We did more Brother and Sister, and he created a new creature: “The snake is the head and the tail is the snake. The body is a tiger…so triple animal…brother freaks out.”

He did more math on his own in his head, starting with 155+155=310, then 620+620=1240 and figured out the next was 2480.

We got going to Tel Aviv and to see Cassie and Kai, who is a week old. We read The 26-Story Treehouse on the way down and were there by 2:10. In response to the ice cream part in the book, he made up decachocolate ice cream.

We had fun seeing Kai, and Carly and I both got to hold him. Taya wasn’t there. August and I played in her room a bit, particularly putting together ice cream cones, with as many kinds of chocolate ice cream as possible. When he was starting to demand Carly’s attention too much, I got him out with me and we walked to Lika, the Swedish bakery. I got a cappuccino and we got two pastries. He instantly chose the chocolate one when the woman said it had three kinds of chocolate. And I got a saffron-flavored one. We sat outside and played Polytopia.

We played for quite awhile, until he needed a bathroom. I asked inside about getting an iced coffee for Carly, but they were out of ice. We went back to Cassie’s place, and we left at 4. As we went downstairs he gave Carly the challenge of going down to the musty basement area. She did that (he’d had me do it before), then he had me carry him down. He was pretty excited by it. ‘Musty’ was a word of the day.

As we got in the car to go, he saw broken concrete on a post, exposing rebar. He talked about the apartment building he made, and that “It’s rebar made of trutanium.”

In the car he had us do a brother game where
“There’s a bad stench outside, only worser…they batten down the hatches.” We read more ofThe 26-Story Treehouse.

At home he did math with Carly and was converting dollars to Euros. He then had a new power, which he quickly used to change me: “My second power is changing life…scared little kitten floating on an iceberg.” (Which is a reference to a scene in 26 Story Treehouse) We went upstairs and did a Brother and Silky (a flying cat) game.

I went out and cleaned garbage out of the car. August helped, sorting things out and climbing in the trunk to get stuff. We did some packing, had dinner, and I snuck off to do some work. We played chess, and he said “The king is trembling in check.” A reference to Magnus Kingdom. Carly gave him a bath, and I left them around 9:15.

Gift to Marion:

Holding Kai 1:

Holding Kai 2:

His safety clothes:

Trutanium rebar:

End of his rhythm:

He was up at 7:20. Carried him down to the couch. There for a couple minutes, then went to the bathroom. He started in with the math: “How many times does 10 go into a million?” “Isn’t it cool how on the calculator on your phone it carries the 1 for you?”

He played our few minutes of Green Planet, then watched the Wild Kratts episode about raccoons. He remembered Dragonbox Algebra and we started figuring that out. ‘Variable’ was a word of the day. He changed his summer countdown to 3 in Mooka Mook, and we spent a few minutes taking things apart. I put up a new phrase for him to figure out: moose cheese. He got cheese before I finished it, but had to work for ‘moose’.

We went upstairs to play a Brother and Millie. He wanted to have Millie hurt Dada for Brother when Brother was upset. We played up there for a long time. He also had one where Millie would divide when she got wet (from Ben Braver) then the teacher, etc. would run around trying to catch all of them. Or when she got warm she would get bigger. We played backgammon, then I let him try a puzzle game where you draw lines to get water to flow into cups.

We went downstairs to get ready to walk to town. But when it came time to go he insisted we drive. When I gave him a choice between going and staying he got upset. Finally, he said we could walk around once in town. So we drove up. On the way out we realized there was a strong manure/fertilizer smell. August said it was the ‘supergrow’ that he had made.

They were open at VIPizza but wouldn’t have pizza for 20 minutes or so. We sat and played Polytopia and August had a juice pouch. We got three slices and shared them pretty equally. We were both still hungry, so we got two more. I ended up eating a little more than him, as he didn’t finish that full slice, but he’s definitely eating more for a lunch now. I also had a cappuccino.

We walked over to the park after August headed that direction. He said we should go to that library sometime. But he didn’t want to play at the park at all. Too bad, as it was nice and breezy and shaded. We walked back towards the car and went to the hardware store. I got a roll of masking tape and we went back to the car and were home at 12:40.

There was an ad hanging on the gate. August took it, saying, “I can use anything in my lab…I can turn dust into a computer.” We did a Brother and Millie game. He wanted Brother to go to a new school. I had him really laughing with a crazy teacher monologue.

We went downstairs and read Bob Books. He read much ofThe King, I let him play some of the line drawing game, then we readThe Game. I read it first, then we read it together. We did some Duck Duck Moose Reading, then made snickerdoodle cookie dough. I worked on the angles of a circle thing on the floor while the dough cooled. He got his calculator and had me asking him funny math problems: “If I have 7 chickens and a wolf eats 12, how many chickens do I have?…Aargh! How do I have negative chickens!” He asked what a ‘square root’ was. Another word of the day.

We finished the cookies, and when they were done we each had one. We were listening to a lot of Spaceman 3 today.

When the cookies were done he wanted another Brother and Millie game: “You start to get really jealous so you put on animal dresses but i isn’t enough. Millie looks like an animal more.” We went downstairs for something, and he kept up games with Millie being a mole that was hibernating. Upstairs he had taken over Brother’s bed for the winter by hibernating in the middle of it. He was hibernating on my lap now, and Brother couldn’t make it to the bathroom when he needed to go.

Carly was home at 4:45. He went and gave her a hug, and then locked her out. He said it was private. I convinced him to let her in, and we went upstairs to keep playing. There was a lot more of Millie hibernating on him, with her getting hurt when he ran to the bathroom.

We went downstairs for dinner. Had crackers and meat and carrots and Carly made a smoothie. He ate a bunch of carrots to earn a second cookie. Carly had a headache, but they went up to start some packing and laundry. I did dishes.

Downstairs he showed her his new mechanical pencil. He got a piece of paper and asked her, “Do you want to write on this with my mechanical pencil?” He was then listening to the voice memo app on his phone. ITunes had labeled some random songs as voice memos, and he was listening to that. He brought it over to me, and wanted to listen to older voice memos. At the suggestion I didn’t want to listen to older voice memos of us singing songs or whatever and I wanted to look at it first he had a complete meltdown, the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time. I did eventually end up getting to look at it, and also made sure everything was backed up that I wanted to save. I good thing, as the one thing that wasn’t was a 45 minute file of Steve telling Carly stories in Centralia 3 or 4 years ago.

When I came down they were using FaceTime with Vivian and Colin. Colin could apparently climb out the window onto the trampoline. When they were done Carly went up for a shower. He had me acting out Brother watching television and trying to figure out the passcode to watch more. It went on and on, with him getting caught every time he did it, and getting grounded for longer and longer.

He was hungry, so had more frozen mango and then oatmeal. He asked about degrees of partial circles and we discussed musical notes as well, since we were discussing fractions (quarter notes, eighth notes, etc.). When I got to thirty-second notes he found it funny: “I think ‘thirty-seconds’ is hilarious.” I think because it sounds like 30 seconds, or half a minute.

Carly took him up for a bath, we got him ready for bed, and I left them a bit after 9.

Mooka Mook 3:

Silly head stand and fact:

Rolling snickerdoodles:

Skyping with Vivian and Colin:

He was up at 7:30. Downstairs we today watched the short film “The Cat Came Back” https://www.nfb.ca/film/the-cat-came-back. He knows the song from preschool. Pretty funny, and I had to explain the ‘cats have nine lives’ saying at the end. We read Ben Braver, then headed upstairs for a lot of Brother and Millie. Brother developed his power, but it was a throwing power, but he wanted to change into animals like Millie. So he was mixing chemicals to do that.

We went downstairs for food. He had oatmeal and mangos. He played the Toca Elements app. When I made a suggestion he replied, “Now you’re cooking with gas.” That’s from the Lucky Beans book. We read the two Bob Books he’s working on, The King and Max and the Tom Cats with him doing a lot of the reading. We then played more chess before going up for more Brother and Sister. He’s acting out the part of Millie now, which is nice because he stopped being Sister and has just been the animals, which means he doesn’t say much. This was more of her helping Brother get a power. Then there was a full story where he was in PKA labeling boring angles, and she showed up, camoflauged. He said he “Changed bacon days to carrot days.” A Ben Braver reference. And he said, “I’m actually a girl. I’m called Millie instead of August.”

We went back downstairs. He said, “Dada, actually I changed my mind. I think we should get packing today.” He changed his countdown to a 4 in Mooka Mook. As he stepped away from the board he said, “Presenting… It’s stomach-looking.” I made chocolate pancakes and apples for lunch and we played Polytopia. I started to make angles on the ground by the kitchen door—an idea that Cherie had sent. Ran out of masking tape before I could make all of the angles I wanted, but we have 30, 45, 60, 90, 135, and 180 degrees.

We continued the Brother and Millie game, where he was bored, and then she turned into a dragon and took him to the nature reserve during rest time, then to a river. He accidentally caught her in a net when she turned into a fish. He asked what ‘stealthy slinking’ was. Either from Wild Kratts or Ben Braver. So ‘stealthy’ was a word of the day. He then returned to the Brother and Sister stranded on an island story, but this time had Millie be the whale that helped them to shore.

We went downstairs to play Prodigy Math. It gave him a series of area of rectangle problems, so he learned how to multiply those. As we got ready to go he told me, “When I transfer to peregrine falcon, just call me Torpedo.”

About 2:30 we headed to school. We sat on a bench and played Polytopia for a few minutes. Marka stopped and talked to me about podcasts for a few minutes, then Carly showed up. I realized August had been playing for more than 15 minutes and the timer screen should have come up. It had, when Marka was there, and he’d given himself more time since there’s no passcode for it on my phone. He thought that was pretty funny.

We all walked down and found Heather and Eve and Zoe on the preschool playground. I was going to walk home and work and Carly was going to stay with him there, then go swimming with him. But first, August couldn’t get on the big swing. Don’t know if he was having flashbacks to before or what, but he started to get sad. Carly comforted him, and he handled it well and she went over on the regular swing with him. I realized I didn’t know where his sunglasses were, and I went back to the bench and found them and took them back. He had recovered and was now playing with Eve.

I started walking home, and part way I got an email from Andrea with a little video from them for August and telling me his poncho and family photo (and, I would find, his pinch pot they had made months ago but kind of got lost, as they never finished them) were in a bag in his cubby. I turned around and walked back to the school and got that, and had about a ten minute talk with Marion and Vicky. So much for work time.

I did manage to get home and get a little done before they got home. August told me they had gone to both playgrounds, and they also went swimming. I didn’t really hear any other details.

When they got home August called up to me. He wanted to play a Brother and Millie game. So we went up and did that. He had a pretty full story for it: Brother had bought a popsicle and was walking home and was scared by a big snake. He tells Sister and they go back and catch it in a big container. In the container it starts to turn human, but then back into a snake. It manages to break out, and starts to squeeze brother. They hurt the snake, and it leaves and Brother has to go to the hospital.

Brother then sees her at school. She turns into the snake and bites her hand. He goes to the nurse. While he is alone there, the snake shows up. He screams, the nurse sees the snake, and the school goes into lockdown. He and the snake/girl talk. She was upset that they caught her and kept her in the box and hurt her, so that is why she bit him. They apologize to each other and become friends, and he helps her escape out the window.

We played chess on my phone, then some backgammon. Carly made a smoothie and brought it up to him, then we went down and ate schnitzel for dinner. August accidentally spilled the tray of the little ball things, which have now dried up and are tiny again, and hard to pick up.

He and Carly looked at the Solar System app and compared the sizes of the planets. We did the distances thing, and he said, “I made a satellite named Voyager 8. And you know ho many AUs it is? Astronomical units? 460…460 times away from the sun.”

I read someBen Braver, then we played Suspend Junior. He went to the bathroom, then was asking math questions that necessitated a calculator. I was typing them into the search on my phone. When he was done he wanted to do that as well. After he washed his hands we went upstairs to where he had plugged in his phone and I taught him how he could type * or x for multiplication.

We took showers, and after he was ready for bed I was going to read to him. We didn’t get that far though, as he tried to start playing Dragonbox Algebra. It took a few minutes to get him to part with the iPad without getting really upset. Carly took over to put him to sleep. She told him he did a good job chasing away the chook. He told her she couldn’t talk about the chook: “And definitely not in public. It’s private…Dont talk about it. And don’t talk about feelings…” But as I left I heard him relenting, as long as he could talk about her feelings first. I left them at 9:10.

Blue hands:

His space probes:

Silly math problems:

Silly math problems 2: