Category: Uncategorized

He was up a little after 8. We watched another Canadian animated film called “Bus Story”. A little more adult than I expected, but pretty funny. Might have to prescreen them in the future. We then did Green Planet. He asked what ‘psychotic’ means. Can’t remember where he heard that. Ben Braver? Told him it basically meant crazy.

We read Ben Braver and he had strawberries and oatmeal for breakfast. At one point he whispered to me, “Dada, I’ll tell you a secret: my fingers is deadly.”
He then talked about his power of time travel. He was going to go back to the 10s. We discussed different calendaring systems. He wanted to go back before computers.

He asked, “Remember that outside timeout I had?” I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but then he told me Pennsylvania and said “Vivian was faster than us.” He meant when Carly and I took the three of them for a walk last summer and he got really upset when Vivian kept running ahead of him. He said he could time travel back and he’d be bigger than he was last year.

The time travel power led to him buying comic books in the past and selling them now. As for what he’d do with the profits he said, “Maybe I’ll buy another Korean fan.” He explained he meant the tall fans and he talked about the controls on them. Something he remembers from Korea.

We went upstairs for a Brother and Sister game. He was turning into dangerous animals and attacking them. A long time upstairs then we went downstairs to do lunch and Polytopia. I did the pancakes and slices of apple for lunch. He had Siri play Josh Ritter. The first song was “Annabelle Lee”. He listened to the opening and said, “This is like Magnus Kingdom…I made this…Apple remix…cuz Apple stands for app.” Not sure if he meant that, or was making a joke. It’s 50/50. I could understand thinking that though.

He brought up his cruise ship, asking, “Dada, you know Crater, right?…for food on it there’s a harpoon to catch whales.” He was then making up compounds and looking at the periodic table to decide what elements are in them. “It provides 346 years of power PER kilogram.” He added 346 plus 346 in his head, just forgetting to carry the 1. As we got going he told me Trutanium’s symbol is TRM. He was sounding out the word to figure out which letters it would include: “So it kind of lines up!

We were driving at 12. We drove down and parked at Max. He had fun choosing items for Omri. He got her clay, a big box of crayons, a ball of yarn, and a pack of post-it sort of things. I let him get something, and he chose a mechanical pencil, and I got him his own stack of post-its. I also let him get a juice down by the register, and he chose wrapping paper on the way in.

We then drove to iDigital, just a minute away. He was worried about it, because he thought he’d get upset about wanting a drone. I told him it would be quick and I just needed to get one adapter so we could watch things this summer. He agreed, and I carried him in. As I was looking, he told me “I’ve scanned the room and they don’t have drones anymore…I’ll scan again…” He was happy they didn’t. I got the HDMI adapter and we got in the car and headed to Herzliya.

We parked on the street south of the medical center. Almost full of cars everywhere. I think just beach traffic, as there was also a dirt lot that cost 40 shekels. There was still at least a little street parking, so they didn’t seem to be getting any business—our 2 hours of parking were less than 10 shekels.

We went in the medical center and did his paperwork. Yet again, the same woman made copies of his passport and insurance card, after Carly had to submit them online when she made the appointment, and once again told us we wouldn’t have to do this in the future and go straight to the doctor. A crazy system. Every single time it’s like we’ve never been there before. The doctor then had me sign the same form that Carly had signed online. Also, when we were done with the doctor he said something about calling him first next time to make it easier…which is what Carly did.

Anyway, we went to the doctor and played Polytopia while we waited. There was a couple with three kids there. The mom was in with the baby and the dad was with the boy who was about August’s age and a younger girl. August started by looking at the ads in a newspaper left on the seat, and telling me which things he was going to buy for his lab. We then played Polytopia until it was our turn.

It wasn’t pretty, but we got through it. August was okay for a couple minutes, until he saw the doctor taking the MMR shot supplies out of an envelope. August lost it, and started melting to the floor, trying to hid under the desk. He managed to throw his hat at the doctor, and knocked my glasses off at one point, but actually didn’t do much more ‘fight’. He was mainly in ‘fright’ mode. The big problem was that the doctor took insanely long to get set up. I was trying to get August on my lap, and after a couple minutes, as I was holding August as I stood up, he was saying “Is it done yet? Is it done yet?” We hadn’t even started.

Got him on the exam table, and I held his arms and chest, and the doctor had his legs. To the doctor’s credit, he wasn’t phased by any of it and stayed really calm. August screamed about it hurting as the doctor washed his leg, and was saying “I can’t breathe!” “You’re really choking me!” Once the shot was done though, he calmed right down. When the doctor offered him a sticker he said yes. As I got our stuff together August put it on the bill of my hat.

Later, as we walked back to the car, I talked about ‘panic’, a word he didn’t know, and how his body responded to stress.

We walked across to Glidha, the ice cream place. On the way across the streets the first time a bus had very politely stopped for us and another guy to stop as we neared the intersection. Literally less than 10 seconds later, as we were crossing the other side, a bus that was much further away scared us as it tried to dodge past us, despite us already being to the crosswalk. The driver then started gesturing towards us. Luckily, I had backup, as the guy walking with us also yelled at the bus driver.

At the ice cream shop August settled on dark chocolate pretty quickly. He sat inside and ate. The AC was on high, and the ice cream made him cold. He did some dancing to the music as well, then gave me the last couple bites and headed to the door as he was too cold.

We were driving at 4. As we got in the car I realized he hadn’t gone to the bathroom since we left the house. I figured we’d go for it and he’d probably just fall asleep in the car. Later, at home, he told me he realized he hadn’t gone to the bathroom at the ice cream place.

Traffic on the way home. About 50 minutes. Strawberry shop looks closed for the season, as the sign isn’t out anymore. August listened to music, and when it looked like he was getting tired I suggested his iPad. He played things, and stayed awake. A nice surprise. I thought for sure he’d conk out.

At home he greeted Carly. I got him to read The King to me, or large chunks of it. Lots of words, so long for him, so the sharing of the reading works really well. We talked about taking a few of the Bob Books with us this summer (the ones he hasn’t read yet, and some favorites) but then reading harder ones on the iPad, working on just a few pages at a time. He was doing quite well with it, and he chose it over the others, even though he knows it’s the last book in the set.

I had cooked a schnitzel and cut carrots so he and I ate those for dinner. And he ran across the room and was diving onto the couch. Carly then walked to the store. We went up to do a Brother and Sister game with a raccoon. Also more dangerous animals and Brother waking from an attack dreaming to find himself in another.

He went down to Carly after she got back and I rested. He was being her personal trainer again. I came down and we played chess, then checked in on Green Planet. I took him up and we both took showers. He asked me for the bike accident story again so I told him.

In on the bed he had us doing Brother and Sister games. Where Brother wanted the power to turn into animals. He was referencing the Israeli animal guides earlier to find animals to be. He repeated information from Wild Kratts a few times, like: “tiger beetle. It’s the fastest running insect on the planet.”

Brushed his teeth, and he asked if there was any animal with one lung, and I looked that up (basically, catfish and the like). Carly came in and I said good night to them at 9:05. He was really processing with her past moments when he got upset, like the national history museum and he wanted them to each say sorry to each other.

Partial bits:

Shopping from the Israeli newspaper:

Ice cream dance and too cold:

Jumping on the couch slo-mo 1:

Jumping on the couch slo-mo 2:

Noisy party across the street:

Ryan

He was up at 7:15. I had read about the Canadian Film Board’s app of free films, and the first thing we did was watch a short animated film called “Sunday” about a boy who puts coins on train tracks and gets dragged round by his parents on a Sunday. August found it pretty funny.

He played Monster Physics and I made oatmeal. He then watched a Wild Kratts episode about jaguar, especially black ones. Before it was over he was ready to head upstairs for a Brother and Sister game about jaguars. He told me that only 8% of them are black, and it was going to be “A never before seen moment.”

So we went upstairs and played that. They saw the jaguar cub with its mom, but then the cub was sneaking off and following them when the mom was asleep. The mom then woke up and tracked it down and broke into their house and took the cub back.

Back downstairs we played Suspend Junior, then MathTango and I baked salmon. When that was ready we went outside and ate that and the rest of the cherries for lunch and played Polytopia.

He asked “What’s ‘scared out of my wits?’” I think from Ben Braver. I got out the packs of clothes pins and string, thinking he could add to his strings outside. But he had decided it was now too hot so we stayed inside. He opened them all with scissors, and hung a string across the coffee table. He asked what we could hang on there and I suggested books and got out the rest of the Bob Books he hasn’t read. They all just fit.

He changed his countdown to summer to ‘6’ and said, “There’s a lot of cool symbols in mooka Mook.” We spent some time taking stuff apart, making progress on the laptop, then played chess with the chess set before going back to the laptop. We’ve been listening to a lot of Morrissey, the Smiths, and Camoflauge. As we took apart the laptop he was the doctor and I was his assistant. We were doing an autopsy, but he wouldn’t explain why the body had so many screws in it. He had me touching the capacitors and pretending to get shocked. I wrote ‘wearable food’ on his magnet board for him to read.

We ended up talking about how computer memory works, and he learned about bits and bytes, words of the day. He then thought of partial pieces of information, and thought it was pretty funny: “A tripe is a quarter of a zero or one.” We went to the Bob Books, and I readThe King, which is the last one and he liked the look of when we were hanging them up. He then readJumper and the Clown. He asked “What’s ‘prowl’?” From the jaguar episode.

We finally got around to working on chores, with earning an ice cream bar as motivation. We made the beds and he cleaned the toilets. He then read Max and the Tom Cats to me, doing really well for the first read through it, and picking up words like moonlight and wonderful after only seeing them once. We then did the dishes together. He talked about getting the dishes 100 percent clean, and decided it was impossible due to microbes: “You’d have to keep washing it with infinite soap to keep it 100 percent.”

I exercised; he really was being lazy today and only had 20-some minutes on his watch (he did put it on late today) but didn’t really join in at all. He had his ice cream sandwich. We then went upstairs and did more Brother and Sister – they actually found an ugly goose, and it wouldn’t leave them alone.

We went back downstairs and were playing on the chessboard when Carly got home. He had been asking about the backgammon side, and I downloaded an app to try to figure out how to play. The app didn’t tell us how to play, it just started a game. August sat there, trying to figure it out. I made him chocolate pancakes. He figured out how a person wins, and then together we figured out more and had the rules down by the time we were done. He was pretty excited about having figured things out and telling me.

While he ate he accidentally knocked all of the little balls from the squishy frog out of their container. They were hard to pick up from the table.

We all went outside. He played on the slide and saw a dog on the street. He said he had installed a dog trap outside our gate to catch dogs. It had a sensor though to not catch cats. It was a safety feature so that the cats wouldn’t get trapped with dogs that would eat them. Then he looked for white bugs on the tomato plants and I helped him find them. I went back inside and they were outside for a while longer.

We went out on a short walk a little after 7. He only wanted to do the Holly block. We got him to go up one block further, but it took some convincing. On the way back down he was swerving, following the lines in the bricks, and having me go “military speed.” He’d had fun, but didn’t let us extend any further.

Carly went and took a shower. We checked Green Planet, then read more ofBen Braver. Carly took him up for a bath. He played and showed her how to give him a bath in the shower. She got him ready for bed and at least readThe Sneetches and Other Stories. I came in and read him moreBen Braver, then told him some stories of when I was a kid (falling off my bike, etc.). Sang a few songs, then fell asleep about 9:40.

Taking apart the keyboard:

Partial bits:

His dog trap:

Following the line:

He slept until 7:50. I brought him down and he lay on the couch for a few minutes. He then went outside and found Carly. They did math on the floor with their papers, then up on the couch they did “ugly goose” story problems. ‘Ugly goose’ came from the song that I made up for him yesterday and he found really funny. She tried reading How to Train a Dragon to him. He still wasn’t convinced. She made him a chocolate pancake for breakfast. He played a little Toca world, then watched a spider episode of Wild Kratts. He did a lot of talking about spiderweb silk and how strong it is and how he is making it into thread for doctors. He wanted to head upstairs for a Brother and Sister game, and spent several more minutes on the subject before we did the Brother and Sister story where they find the lynx.

Then, I got the Suspend Junior game that my parents had bought him for Christmas. We had never really played it, but now we really got into it and spent a good hour with it. We were playing cooperatively, although when he first asked if it was a winning game and I had said yes he had said, “Oh, good.” When it was my turn he would say, “Hope you do well!”

We went downstairs when hungry. I got us crackers and cheese and meat and cherries and strawberries nd veggies and hummus and we all went and ate outside at the table. August and I played Polytopia. He really liked the cherries, and when he ran out of ones I had cut he started nibbling on them himself, and was eventually eating the whole things and spitting out the pits. A first!

Back inside, they took apart an old laptop Carly had gotten at school. She guessed it was 10 years old. August said 15. He was closer as I found multiple labels that said 2003. I went upstairs to work. They were at home for awhile longer, then went to school. The plan was to play with Eve and Zoe, then go swimming. They did the first part. August told me they played at both playgrounds. They then went and changed to go to the pool, but it turned out it had closed early today, at 4, because of the holiday. Carly was more disappointed than August though.

They were back at 4:40. I finished working, but had a headache for awhile. He did his turn on his watch game, then Carly gave him potato and carrots. He ate those, eating pieces of carrots before every serving of potatoes. I came over and read several chapters ofBen Braver.

He asked how far around the earth was. We looked it up and it is 40075 km at the equator and 40008 at the poles. ‘Circumference’ was the word of the day. He was still hungry and ate pita and hummus.

We went inside and played with the chess set. He was asking me to try different things, like check mating a bishop and then a rook and seeing how many piecesit would take. Carly told us there were worms in the compost and that she could see them moving. We went outside to look. I didn’t see any worms. August stayed outside for quite awhile with her. I think they went and did something across the street. He was also playing on the slide for quite a bit.

He came back inside and we checked on Green Planet, then played chess on the iPad together. I took him up and we both took showers. I had found his poop spinner earlier, and he now played with it, pretending he had to go to the bathroom. On the bed I read all ofThe Sneetches and Other Stories. Carly was ready for sleep and he was cuddling with her, so I said good night and left them. August realized he had not brushed his teeth though and came out and called down to me, saying he had to brush them. I came up and helped him with that. He was asking about names in Dr. Seuss, like doubt trout and Roover River, and the names of the weapons inThe Butter Battle Book, all of which he remembers quite well, and asking if they were made up by Dr. Seuss.

I left them at 9:15. Carly told him the story of him being born, and mentioned that he nursed for a long time. August got really sad and upset that he doesn’t get to nurse anymore. She said it was really sad.

Ugly goose math:

Spider silk power:

Hanging sticks game:

Crash slo-mo:

Inspecting the compost:

Ryan

He got up at 7:30. I went up and got him and brought him down to Carly on the couch. He watched an episode of Wild Kratts, he favorite about the subnivean zone, then played a little Dragonbox Numbers. Done with that he walked around the room and then told me “Dada, I’ll tell you what ten to the 9th power is: a billion. Ten to the 7th power: ten million…” And a few more. He also told me “On My Planet time is slower…” and discussed that for awhile. He asked, “What’s alternate?” (From Ben Braver, where we learned about an alternate time line) and told me “My Planet has an alternate universe.”

I made the rest of the swedish pancakes for his breakfast and he had frozen mango. We read moreBen Braver. He walked around talking about his powers and photomiles and atomic explosions. “My third power, my last one, is to transform into a bird. Oh, and I give people rides for two dollars each. Crazy rides.” We did some taking apart (slow progress on the big printer throug the day), calculator math, then Green Planet. We made a list and Carly went to the store. We finished readingBen Braver. We did mango, crackers and meat, and his sandwich from yesterday for lunch.

Carly got back and I put groceries away. They were playing with the calculator on his phone, and Carly figured out that its limit was 160 digits. August said “That’s a googol and a nonillion and a nonillion.” He meant multiplication, but was basically correct, as a googol times a nonillion times a nonillion is 10^160. That comes from one day when he was figuring out these huge problems and really understood the math of calculating the number of zeroes.

He was then looking around on his map on the phone, finding places. He must have noticed the battery was down, as he then went and plugged in his phone. Carly tried a couple new chapter books on him. He said they sounded good, but wouldn’t let her read them to him at any point today. She also ordered the swim vest for the summer, after we all agreed on which design we liked best. Also, in playing with Siri he somehow added a random Natalie Grant song to our library.

They headed to the pool. They had fun, although it was rather chilly. He took bout 20 minutes to get in, so by the time he got in Carly was the first to want to get out. They saw Omri and her mom, and August got an invite to Omri’s party next Saturday. I looked over Carly’s paystubs for the year, trying to figure out if she got all of her reimbursements, then did some work. Working on family unification now.

They were back at 2:40. He watched a Wild Kratts. I let him finish the episode. He was hungry and I was in the kitchen to get him some food. When I said no to more time, or Polytopia or something, he ran over, upset. He seemed to be handling it okay at first, but kept melting down, then head-butted my chin quite hard. Carly took over and I went upstairs and worked. She made him a smoothie, then did some MathTango with him, 5 minutes at a time, with 15 minutes in between, timed. He was practicing being okay with turning it off. In between they were doing math on the floor, with numbers and symbols made out of paper. August thought the equals sign looked like a double minus, so he also made up a double plus sign, double multiplication, and double division.

He and I then played chess with the wooden set. We just started playing against each other. We were probably 10 or 12 moves in before I made the mistake and referred to “your” piece. He said “You’re not playing against me. NO COMPETITION.” And insisted we reset the game. So officially he was helping me play against myself. He reset again as he was trying to make a perfect pawn chain, but made a mistake. He was timing our chess time, and once when it went off he went outside for a few minutes. I got him back and we did a lot more chess, now on my iPad. He played by himself, seeing how quickly he could lose. He managed to lose in 6 moves, which was quite impressive, as the computer plays really easy. When he did another game he called it “Another dumb game of chess”

We then did a lot of taking apart. He was being lazy and watched me doing it, and said he was my boss. He then had an idea. We went outside and got a bamboo stick, then we went upstairs and found his big magnet from the set and he used scotch tape to tape it to the stick. He could then sit in the chair and I would put the screws on the magnet so he could get them more easily. A big printer/scanner/copier is amazingly complicated.

Carly was making spinach and chocolate pancakes, and he ate a couple for dinner. While he ate I started reading the first Ben Braver book to him again, at his request. We then went upstairs for a Brother and Sister game. He first had me take him into the bedroom, then close the shutters and turn off the light. A totally dark room. He tested himself in that for awhile, then we turned on the light and played a game where they found a lynx. They found it after Sister had lectured him about how their parents had said no bringing home animals no matter what. When they find the lynx in a trap it is then Sister’s idea to take it home, and Brother is upset because of how she just lectured him, but then changed her mind. We then replayed it, this time with Brother finding it on his own.

We took showers, and I washed his hair in the shower this time. This is such a great development. Carly took over drying his hair, and I went downstairs for a few minutes. When I came up he excitedly told me “In my lab I invented a game of tug of war. The losers get blown up by an atomic explosion. The winners get 300 dollars!” The tug of war and explosion bit is basically taken from the climax of the second Ben Braver book, but the 300 dollars, and turning it into a game as opposed to a struggle to defeat the villain, was a joke that he added. I left them at 9:20. He was chatty, and I think he was asleep by 10.

Negative math time:

Multiminus and multiplus:

Turning the gear with the drill:

August was up just before 7:50. First thing he requested was Green Planet so we did that. When we were done he did math on the calculator about the game. He kept multiplying. He had started at the millions, so was then actually calculating the number of millions on his calculator, which got tricky when he then got to billions and trillions of millions. At one point he said, “Oh my goodness.” We read a bunch ofBen Braver. He played Magnus Kibgdom and we had breakfast. He told me about his Up house. It also has propellors and GPS and antennas.

We got ready to go and went upstairs so I could brush my teeth and get him clothes. In the bedroom he had me do thinking time again after we went to get his phone as a timer. When we were done with it he said, “When you do three more we’ll try 10 minutes.” Like how we increased time for him on his alone times.

Couldn’t get out of the house though as he wanted to play Brother and Sister games. They found a bird in a trap and it was another new species, this one with purple stripes on its wings. There were a couple of smaller ones, then we finally left after 10.

We first went to the gas station at the north end of town. Our first time paying with our debit card as our cheap gas cards have run out. I couldn’t figure out how to do it, but helped an older couple asking how to get to Tel Yitzak. Finally, I asked another customer and figured out what numbers to put in.

Then, on the way up there was a lot of traffic, with traffic jams a few times. Then, there was an emergency vehicle that went by. There was an accident or car stranded in the right lane. And once we were in Haifa were were slowed a few more minutes by a garbage truck.

We parked in our usual spot, and walked to the science center. We got in the museum at 12:40. Not the longest visit, as it closed at 2. He wanted to put coins in, and I let him put in 20 agorot. We went up to do science, but he wanted me to carry him around a lot. He wanted a bathroom, so we went back downstairs. Back upstairs, we realized that the sound room is gone. Not sure if it just moved somewhere, or is gone for good. Which would be too bad. Instead, they spread out the Da Vinci room to cover two rooms. Mainly, stuff has more space, and there’s not things out in the hall. I think they added some new pieces, but August didn’t want to spend time in it.

We went outside and he spent some time kind of just wandering around. Played with the pulleys, pulling up the ships and the barrels and climbed in the lifting globe once. He spent several minutes just holding onto a railing and humming and looking around. He asked about the statue of Archimedes in a bath, and tried breaking off his finger. We went to get a snack out of the machine. Almost empty except for some spicy Doritos and a couple of candy bars. We chose the one that was new to us. It was a puffed rice thing with caramel and then chocolate on the outside. We shared that.

As we played around outside he asked, “Is it true that there are 9 days to summer?” And he asked, “Is 9 plus 8 plus 7…1, 45?” I figured it out and yes it is. I didn’t think he’d just done that in his head, so asked how he knew that. He said “Memorized it.” And that we had calculated it before. I don’t remember doing that, so unless he’s done it with Carly or on his own recently it has been awhile.

We went up to the start of the water area. He played briefly with the water gates and pumps, but then we headed inside. I tried to get him in the Da Vinci rooms, but he didn’t want to. I picked him up, and asked why. He said, “I just don’t like how it’s new.”

We drove the trains around with the bicycles a bit, then went upstairs, using the elevators. Upstairs he didn’t like the noise from the air conditioner, and later, as we left, he said he was more afraid this time. I don’t know what that was all about. We did go to the teeth room for a few minutes. He went in the planets room for a minute, but just sat on the moon phases chair.

We spent the most time in the magic spells room. The bed of nails is gone, replaced by a non-moving chair of nails. Not nearly as cool. Here, he wouldn’t stand and do the ball thing (where it blows up and floats in the air), even though he’s done it many times before. He did have me hide in that room and he found me a few times.

He wanted to leave, and I suggested the play area for the last ten minutes. But when we got down there it was closed already. We looked at the ball counting machine (we had also started it on the way in) and left a few minutes before 2. There is a coffee shop on the first floor now, which I’d never noticed before, and the security guard confirmed was new. But not open on Fridays.

August and I walked up to the arty street with all the cafes. We tried to go to the Puzzle Cafe, which was supposed to be open, but it wasn’t. Perhaps because of the holiday this weekend. So we went to the Elika Artbar Cafe, which has a big tree growing out of it.

Another thing that happened that was unusual was that he was REALLY afraid of dogs. First, he saw a guy walking three small dogs. The sidewalk was really narrow, and August ran out between the parked cars. He stopped before the street. But then it happened again, with a big dog, and August sprinted right out into the street. I was not happy about that one. Finally, while we were at the cafe a guy came with a small dog. It never got too close to August, but August wasn’t happy to see it.

He got his Polytopia fix for the day. We sat outside. They were busy when we got there, so I didn’t think much about it when I had to go in to request a menu. But then I had to go inside to order, even though a lot of tables had now cleared out. I ordered a salmon and avocado lafa for me, a avocado and egg sandwich for August, a cappuccino, and a fruit shake (with strawberries, melon, dates, and banana). They did bring the food out. We got drinks first, and August said “Oh! I didn’t even ask for this!” He was quite happy with the smoothie and quickly drank the whole thing. The food came later and was excellent. August didn’t eat much of his sandwich, so I asked for it to go, and also ordered a labanah lafa for Carly. Got that, then went in to play. Each time I went inside August was fine just sitting at the table, which was around the corner.

As we left I took him inside to see the ‘Take a smile’ paper on the wall. August ripped one off for Carly, but then had it in his mouth as we walked back to the car, so it didn’t make it.

We were driving about 3:45. We got stuck behind a garbage truck. Again. Took about 10 minutes to get down one block. August fell asleep promptly at 4, as woke up just before 5 when we got home. At first he was agitated with me for stopping, until he realized we were at home.

He woke up, then was Carly’s personal trainer–wall sits, plank, bicycle thing, steps, etc. “Squat…it is so you can go to the bathroom on your hike.” Before we had gotten in the car I had realized he hadn’t gone to the bathroom since we got to the museum. I had him try to go over in the bushes, and he was surprised when he didn’t need to go. He had then asked how girls pee on the ground and I had mentioned squatting more.

I went upstairs to rest for a few minutes. When I came down he was letting her rest and wanted her to exercise more. I said he should have her do the thinking time like me. He agreed after a minute and took her over to his calm space. While she was doing that he read all the calming strategies out to her, using his whisper voice, which is pretty much a new thing. He also said, “You’re so sweet…you’re cute…”

He ate part of his sandwich and had oatmeal and mango for dinner. We then read lots ofBen Braver. He then told me that his second power is making anything that he thinks of real. It’s even easier for him if he draws a picture of it first. He made a pretty good joke about it too: “I could make the solar system disappear…But you know what I usually use it for? Cookies.”

I took a shower and he took a bath. Brushed his teeth and took him in to Carly, who was tired and ready for bed. He told her, “I don’t need a superpower to know how much you love me cuz I always know.” I left them about 9:20.

Calculating numbers of millions:

Throwing clothes:

Powering the train:

Humming and hanging out at the science center:

Pigeon family:

59 song:

Drilling holes:

He was up just after 7:30. We went down and he spent several minutes lying on the couch. I got his allergy medicine and vitamins. Much less sneezing today. We then watched some of the Spa WEC race as it was snowing. August said it was actually a live race from England.

He watched a few minutes and said that was enough. He watched the subnivean zone episode of Wild Kratts and I got him oatmeal and we watched it together. When he was done, he said “I found a way to make snow myself, but it turns off the water system in the whole city. I used 84 quadrillion barrels of water…aquamisting nozzle…it has a little freezer in it that makes it into a snowstorm…” Which was from the episode.

We went upstairs to act out the snow machine and vole story from the episode. He of course wants to put the AC down to 16 (the old system would only go down to 17). At least it was appropriate for this story this time.

We went back downstairs for our few minutes of Green Planet, then read a few chapters of Ben Braver before he played some Magnus Kingdom.

We went outside. He played on the slide with his strings while I picked up the tree things. He didn’t want to earn a coin. Eventually he said, “You cleaned up most of the yard. It looks pretty nice.” I said, “You’re just trying to convince me to go inside?” “Uh-huh.” He told me that the smoke machine on the house was actually a weather machine, and that he had a watering system to take care of the plants. It delivered the water directly into the plants: “Straight to the vacuoles.”

We went back inside and I sliced some apple for us and we made a list for the day. I let him play 15 minutes of Polytopia, then he read Jumper and the Clown to me. We ate schnitzel for lunch and he was dancing to some music by Assemblage 23. He had added a song to his playlist earlier.

He played with the iPad keyboard. He counted the letters as he didn’t believe me when I said there were 26. He asked about polygons and we drew regular and irregular ones. We then played the game where he was typing on Brother’s iPad from across the room.

He then called me repeatedly as I (as Brother) was trying to write a story. I asked his name at one point, and he said his middle name is ‘June’ (like Eve), something he did for the first time a few days before.

We exercised, then he went to the bathroom. he wanted to go without underwear, and I just told him to be careful with the zipper. He changed his mind and wanted underwear back on, but wanted to play a little story where Brother hurt his penis with the zipper. He then had Brother playing with knives and scissors and going to the hospital. When Brother told Sister he was hurt, and she asked how bad, I had him say, “Let’s just say there’s blood all over the kitchen floor.” August thought that line was really funny and repeated it a few times and had me repeat the story a few times.

I talked about needing to stop to get gas today, then he suggested a story where Brother and Sister are with their dad and run out of gas when he won’t stop when the light comes on and they want him to. He then mumbles as he says the gas has run out and they were right. He found that part really funny as well. Did that a few times, then we went down and took apart more of the printer. He read the calming strategies from the posters, then told me I could do 5 minutes of thinking time. He had me sit in the calm space and set a 5 minute timer on his watch. He sat in the red chair and was quiet for 5 minutes as well. Totally his idea. We also made the beds at some point, and got ready to go and left at 2:40.

A little early at school, so we played a few minutes of Polytopia while sitting on a bench. We then went over to the Robotics lab. August was a little nervous about that, and not as excited by it as I would have expected, but we got a nice little tour from Mike Shappell and a couple of the students. Mike showed him the 3-D printers. As we were walking around August started whispering in my ear about an element he discovered. When we left he told me he had invented a metal and named it after Mike. It was called Mikerocon.

We got changed and went to the pool. Breezy and cloudy, and there was a big group of middle schoolers in the pool for some reason. It took August some time to get in. I got in first, then he had me lift him in after playing on the edge for awhile. He had a Brother and Sister game where they played hide and seek, and Brother was really bd at hiding (hiding behind her, in front of her, on her, next to her, and under her). He finally got better and it took her longer and longer to find him.

There were 3 girls throwing diving rings around and competing to get them. They lost one over on the stairs and August picked it up, then swam across the pool and gave it to them.

We got out and left the school at 4:55. As we walked to the car I commented on him not being interested in insects now. He said especially not catching caterpillars. I asked what he is interested in now. He said, “Comets. But don’t worry. You don’t have to buy a space telescope and spend thousands of dollars.” We went home, and planned to pick up Carly and go get a pizza and get gas. But when we got home Carly had forms to fill out for the medical center for August’s appointment next week. I took over, figuring it out on her phone, and August taught her chess with the chess set.

By the time I was done with that Carly had basically eaten and I was too hungry to wait for pizza. She was also really tired. So I made him Swedish pancakes and carrots. She read Frida Gets Lost to him. I also played some Magnus Kingdom with him. Carly went up for a shower and to rest. She also let him watchUp. I watched that with him as we ate dinner together.

He spent a long time in the bathroom, and told me about how time is different at every point in the universe. I was surprised he remembered that, as it has been months since we discussed it. He was talking about how he has special clocks in his laboratory to measure time. He told me, “Time goes faster the higher you’re up. The special clocks can measure it from low to high.” He did his turn on his watch game father getting 60 minutes.

Carly was going to take him up for his bath. He didn’t want to go up and was swinging the swim noodle around the house. He did a good job staying calm when he was unhappy, and Carly took him up. He had her doing wall sits upstairs for some reason. Not sure how it started, but she said it was good exercise to prepare for her hike next year with the students. She gave him a bath, then I came up and read Dr. Seuss to him: There’s a Wocket in My Pocket andBartholomew and the Ooblek. Carly came up and I left them around 9:15.

Discussing and reading the time-in posters:

Shivering and playing in the pool:

We had planned to go see the robotics lab after school, but Shmuel then told us the technician was supposed to come fix our air conditioner at 3. He finally showed up after 6.

August sat up and I put him back to sleep just before 6. Then again he was up at 7. I carried him back in to bed and fell asleep a bit again myself. He was up for good at 7:50. We went downstairs and the first thing he asked for was our few minutes of Green Planet, so we did that and I got him vitamins.

He wanted to play Prodigy Math and we did that. He worked through making fraction equivalents and adding numbers with decimals. The game used the word ‘ambush’ so that was a word of the day. He was doing tons of sneezing this morning. I lost count several times.

We played a Brother and Sister game where a robber tries to break in and is attacked by all the animals. We then played that they found a raccoon dog in Japan. It was animal “Number 1,220.” He got off track from that, talking about his superhero powers and said that he blew up Statue of Liberty for the sound of it. He then talked about his heating system after he asked why the water in the sink upstairs doesn’t get hot on ‘cold’ like it does in the kitchen, and we speculated about pipes being in the sun. “Alsoway” was an allow he invented. And he declared 1 leptomile equals a 1000 photomiles. Photomiles are his measure for the distance between universes, basically.

He watched one Wild Kratts and I worked. When it was over he asked, “Did you know I used high tech equipment to make a worm slime shooter?” He used it to catch bad guys. He played Toca World while I got him oatmeal. He had had mango and banana bread earlier.

He asked, “Is 104 plus 104 208? 208 plus 208 is 416?” For lunch I made a strawberry smoothie and we had crackers and meat and we played chess while we ate. Shmuel then called and said the installer was coming at 3.

We went up and moved the beds. August then made a crazy setup on the real chess board, putting the pawns behind the other pieces (something the iPad app won’t let you do). We then played Magnus Kingdom. He had really used up all his screen time for the time being and almost got upset, but then calmed down. He’s really been doing well the last few days.

He asked “What does ‘rank’ mean?” He knows it in chess, as one of the rows, and also from Prodigy Math, where you gain ranks as you go improve in the skills.
Rank in chess versus in the Prodigy Math game. He started talking about how he was going to make a more complicated Magnus Kingdom game with much bigger boards and clues to figure out. Millions of ranks etc. Went on for a long time.

He went to the bathroom, and requested we change Drops, the language learning app, to English on his phone. He then made up a story about shrinking me to down to the size of a “pyhthocon” to help fix a boy’s computer. He was walking around without his pants on, talking up a storm, like he often does after going to the bathroom.

He washed his hands and got dressed, then requested some frozen mango. While he ate that on the couch he said, “I have a question for you: do you ever have the Chook?” “Babu chooks?” So we had a good conversation about that. We then played the Brother and Sister tiger game from the beginning.

We went downstairs and exercised indoors. Couldn’t get him outside, even though it was cloudy on and off and breezy. In the early afternoon I had looked out and thought about yardwork, but Carly had swept the tree things. Later, around when she got home, I looked out and there were a bunch from the wind that had picked up.

We played 15 minutes of Polytopia and he had the last of the banana bread. He asked, “What’s 66 plus 66? 132?” He asked about what ‘Tri’ meant and told me, “The trisopod has three nozzles that spray water. You know what I use it for? To clean people. And it has a shampoo button that sprays shampoo.”

We read someBen Braver. He asked about the word ‘psychokinetic’ and asked what ‘kinetic’ meant, so we talked about both parts, and about kinetic energy versus potential energy. He said that psychokinesis is his real power. He also said he can make a picture of something into a real thing. We read some more, then he wanted to track Carly as she walked home, so I let her look at my phone.

The AC repair guy hadn’t shown up; he finally called, and said 6 or 7. At first I thought he meant minutes. August set a 7 minute timer on the HomePod, but that came and went. Eventually I realized he meant 6 or 7 o’clock.

Carly was home after 5. She and August did math with negative numbers. I flew him around for awhile as Super Zinnie, then we read more. He said, “Did you know my powers are inpenetrable?” But then asked what it meant. Another word of the day. We ate the ginger curry and he said, “I made the walls is the house inpenetrable.”

I went up to work. The AC guys showed up after 6. August watched for a minute, but was nervous, I think, as there were two of them. Downstairs he told me, “They’re actually robot persons and I’m controlling them with my mind.”

August and I played chess. Like, competitively. We set up and just started playing. I told him I’d play by a formula though, moving one piece, from right to left, at a time. I would capture if the piece could, otherwise it would move forward. He was able to defeat me rather easily.

Carly took him up for a bath. We got him ready for bed, and he chanted “That’s a silly thing to do, that’s a silly thing to say.” He had said it a couple times through the day. It was something I had reminded him of earlier today or yesterday that he had chanted back in kore.

I left them about 9:40.

Exploding the statue:

His heating system:

Getting stuck doing math:

Removing screws with the drill:

He was up at 8:24. We read several chapters ofBen Braver, then he played Magnus Kingdom. He ate banana bread and frozen mango and stopped on his own when time was running low. He requested oatmeal, so had a small bowl. He requested I be Brother not winning running races, so we ran through a few scenarios. I had gotten out the Space Shuttle Lego set and we started building that a little. He wanted the space shuttle, but didn’t really help make it. He did make a little symmetrical shape thing, although he never told me what it was. At one point he somehow hurt his finger. I never saw a mark, but he was upset for a couple minutes. Handled it well though.

I made a list of the things we old do today, then we cleaned up the Legos and went over to the circuit set. he made something and told me “This is for you to hypnotize mama.” He went over to the big poster and read out all of the calming strategies on his own, then read the small poster below. We then looked at the emotions poster that had fallen down and read all the emotions of the different animals on it, comparing it to the other emotions poster. ‘

He then wanted a Brother and Sister game, so we played downstairs and they found a fox and took it home. We had crackers and cheese and watermelon and strawberries for lunch again, along with milk, and played Polytopia. August found Carly’s shopping list from Sunday on the ground and read a few things off of it. He said, “She buyed milk AGAIN?” He had me write a shopping list for him, then read it as I wrote it and pretended to go shopping for all of the things on it. He read it through a few times, figuring out the words.

We read part ofHilda and the Stone Forest. He then had me be Brother doing math on his calculator. He got Willy’s Wish and asked me to read it to him. He then did alone time after I got the side off of the big printer and exposed a lot of screws for him. He had an Oreo, then went to the bathroom and talked about launching things with a pivot point and huge weights to Saturn etc.

We got going to school. We walked in as people were still leaving, right after 3. They were handing out cupcakes for Mike leaving, and August was handed one as we went in. We went downstairs to find Eve and talked to Candy and Andrea. Andrea directed us back upstairs, and we found them in Heather’s room. But first, August found a little USB speaker thing with a suction cup on it in the junk box.

They chose to go to the playground. Zoe stayed with Heather at first. I followed August and Eve to the preschool playground. They played on the swings and experimented to see what things they could attach the speaker to. They then went down to the big playground. At first it was the usual activity where they each climb on things and are calling to me to watch. August also went on the spinny thing a few times. He invented a “shamillion. A thousand nonillions…rapillion…a thousand shamillions.”

But there were several other kids there in the K to 2 grade range and they started playing hide and seek. August wouldn’t hide himself, but once when the two other boys had hidden really well and the group of girls couldn’t find them he led all the girls in the right direction. He then asked me for my phone and was spying, taking videos to track which direction people went when they were hiding so he could provide hints to the seeker if they needed them.

Heather came and picked up the girls a bit after 4 (Zoe had joined us on the big playground), then August and I headed to the library. We returned all of the books we had checked out. August wanted to play chess, and we went over to the board. It was a mess, so he was setting up random positions for me to play. We then went home, getting here at 5.

He wanted another piece of banana bread at the gate, then we went in and he was taking apart things with Carly. I cooked rice, then went up to work. I came down to eat dinner with them, then went up to work again. He called me to ask me to give him two stars, as he had read to Carly and made the beds. He put both of the books in the I Can Read It pile.

He then redeemed his stars for 30 minutes of Polytopia time. I came downstairs and he did that while Carly took a shower. We then went up and he took his bath in the shower again. We were done when he remembered it was supposed to be a hair washing day. Really he wanted a lollipop. So we got that, and I washed his hair at the sink. He brushed his teeth right after finishing the lollipop, and said “I guess magic lollipop and strawberry toothpaste don’t go together.”

As we got him in bed he asked “What’s alloy?” A word of the day at the end. He talked about making super strong alloys, then I left them at 9:55.

The hypnotism machine:

Reading his shopping list:

Spinning 1:

Spinning 2:

Ryan

He slept until close to 8:40. We read a few chapters ofBen Braver. As he went to the bathroom he told me “Oh, and my second power is to shoot fireballs the size of a skyscraper. And it can go down to the size of a bullet…but I can only do it when I’m running.” “I know a boy from Kepler Academy that can lift like big tall buildings and stuff.”

He played Magnus Kingdom and I got breakfast. We played a game of chess against the computer while we ate together. He sang a song that went “Every minute is a thousand days” And he asked, “How many picoseconds in a galactic year?” We then discussed scientific notation after Siri answered a different question using it. I drew some examples. He was then asking her other math questions, and got lucky when he asked questions like zero divided by zero and infinity times infinity. Then 8^80 power or something like that. I didn’t hear exactly what it was, but the answer went on and on and on until we shut her off.

We made a list on paper of our things to do today. He wanted to type on my iPad. When I talked about how he could tell a story and I could be his scribe, he told me a series of “boring” stories:

Once a story met a story. The end.

Once a book met a slug and got all slimy and then got thrown in the trash. The end.

Once a slug met a baby slug and they both dried up in the sun. And died. The end.

Ten men marched to the edge of the land. Then they fell in the deep water and drowned. The end.

Here’s a lightning fast one: bleep. The end.

He told me more about Joseph, the scientist that had died. He also typed on the iPad using the predictive text and had me read the nonsense that resulted. That turned into a game where he was typing on the keyboard but I was Brother and I was across the room. When August typed random stuff I at first thought I was controlling it with my mind, then was scared, then upset when he said he was the kid I had been babysitting and he had stolen my keyboard. As it kept going, I was trying to read out what he typed, then I was making songs out of it, singing the random words/numbers/letters. Finally, he had a story where I had come around the world to babysit him, but now was stuck and needed money to fly home.

For lunch we did platter style, with watermelon, strawberries, crackers, and meat. And we played Polytopia. He read Willy’s Wish to me, making it funny by changing the words and pronunciations. He knew it well enough to make jokes throughout, so that went into his I can read it pile, as did Before and After after that. 22 now. I’m kind of hoping he’ll make the step up to ‘I Can Read!’ books before we leave for summer—not that he needs to learn to read faster, but logistically it would be nice as there are tons of them available digitally through the library and to buy. There are more Bob Book sets to buy as well, but they are more complex too. It would save having to pack a bunch of Bob Books.

We played our few minutes of Green Planet, then he played Magnus Kingdom again while I got things ready to make banana bread. He switched to Toca World, but then did a good job of stopping and coming and helping me with the banana bread. As we made it, he asked me to sing the Big Numbers song.

We took some things apart. He and Carly had gotten a a couple things at school. One was a compact CD player/radio thing. I had to force it open a bit as two of the screws were too deep for our tools. He played with the wristband thing that grounds you. It has a stretchy cord on it, and he said that he had the power to charge my phone. He clipped the end of it to my phone strap and kept talking about it. He also talked about Polytopia, and asked what ‘puny’ and ‘mighty’ mean (words that come up in the dialogues when you meet other civilizations). Good words of the day.

He kept talking about his powers (all inspired by the Ben Braver books and Kepler Academy now) and told me he can control things with his mind. I joked that was why I gave him 10 lollipops yesterday. He was then hypnotizing me and asking me to get him candy. I would then get upset when I realized what he had done, then he would wipe that memory from me. He then said, “If I had a freak out I could take the memory from you.” And he brought up the chook, saying “The chook is still here. It just can’t control me.” So we talked a little about the chook a few times today. We played the making me give him candy, me getting upset, him erasing my memory game over and over. He had several pieces of banana bread when it ws ready.

I finally went up to brush by teeth, as we were going to go to the school soon to swim. That was something he brought up that he wanted to do. But he called up,”There’s still some things on the list I wanted to do: Brother and Sister game.” So we went upstairs. First, distracted by the clock. We counted the blinking to make sure it was seconds, and it was. He then went back to talking about Ben Braver, and said that Mama wasn’t a part of the Seven Keys, so she didn’t have a power, but that Grandma was. Didn’t say what her power was. He said there was a kid at Kepler called Cockroach because he likes bugs. We then did a Brother and Sister game, one where they wake up on an island, not knowing how they got there, and a seal helps them out, then they are scared by a tiger and make raft.

We went downstairs and looked at the globe after he had asked what ‘tropical’ meant. It was now well past 3, but he kept wanting to play a little more. As we finally got ready to go, he was playing with the thing with the clip on the end. He swung it around inside, then outside. When he realized the clip part was missing we figured out that it had come off when he was swinging it. But where? He was a little bothered by it, and as we were looking I was afraid he wasn’t going to want to go to the pool now.

But he said he was okay and could go to the pool, and talked a couple times about how he didn’t need the clip part, but we could look for it more later. As we left the gate it was close to 4, and Carly was coming in. So we saw her for a minute, then Gil, across the street, pulled up and got out of his car. Talked to him for a couple minutes, and he talked about how August could hang out with his kids (the twins are 9). Also, he hopes his pool will be done in July and we’re invited.

August and I got going, and finally got to the pool a little after 4. We took him into the bathroom to change. He was acting weird, making funny faces in the mirror, then pretending to push buttons all over the place. When I asked what it was, he said, “Don’t think about it.” But then told me it was some security system. He then asked me how I defeated the supervillain. I said with my gum power. He kept asking questions about my supposed fight with a super villain, leading me along with more questions about what I did next, and who helped me.

We got in the pool. Andrea came and went swimming a couple minutes later. We’ve never seen her there. He wasn’t convinced it was her, as she was wearing goggles and a swim cap. He played on the steps with the board for several minutes before requesting his floaties and getting in. Later, near the end, he then went from lane to lane to sort of spy on Andrea to see if he could tell if it was her. Still not convinced. While we were swimming he kept repeating “Flippin eggs” and “Spill the beans!” Funny phrases from Ben Braver.

We got out and left the pool at 5 after changing him. We checked the junk box on the way out. He took some old CDs to use for a project or something.

We were home at 5:15. He started smothering Carly, but then went and did alone time. I started making dinner. He took things apart, and swung my keys around, doing something every 60 swings to mark minutes, I think. They then read some Skybrary books: Frida Gets Lost andDilly Dog’s Dizzy Dancing. When he went to the bathroom he told Carly about knights in chess, and repeated the line about them in Magnus Kingdom: “I’ll jump at the chance to save my king.”

He told us that he has cheap kimbap in his lab. When I joked about reasons it might be so cheap he decided it was radioactive. He asked about radiation and I told him about different particles. He made one up, saying his “Send out ultraneumans.” He has a powerplant in the core of the earth that runs on ultraneumans becuase there are a lot of them down there.

He had been told he had 12 minute of iPad time when we got home, and he had decided to conserve it. He still wanted to conserve his iPad minutes, and they went to do a circuit. They then did a lot of good math, with Carly writing out problems to show him. He asked me to take the percentage off the battery on his phone, as seeing the number goes down bothers him and he keeps wanting to plug it in.

While playing with Carly on the couch he bonked his head on the wall a bit. Earlier he had stepped on something on the rug and handled them quite well. They were doing math still, and did 22×3 when Carly asked. I then asked, from the kitchen, what 22×5 was. Carly thought I was being silly, getting too hard, but as she tried to move on to another problem he called out “110!” They were working on multiplication and division, going through thing like 12×6 and 12×7. He got that pattern pretty easily. And then he was dividing 120 into halves and by 60 etc.

We talked about the Chook again for some reason, and as Carly went up to the bathroom I was being the Chook and he was using the wrist band thing as a “Chook shield” and I was bouncing off. He wanted to finally use his iPad time to play Polytopia on my watch, so we did 15 minutes of that. When we stopped we had exactly 10000 points. When I told him he said, “Oh, I like exactlys.”

He was then singing a funny song, and still hungry. He ate a bunch of frozen mango, then a small bowl of oatmeal. He then said he was still hungry. He told me he needed one Cheerio. Just one. I gave it to him and he patted his tummy and said “Great.”

We went upstairs to his bath. Carly was finishing up grading. August washed my arm in the sink as I stood there, then as I went to take a shower he wanted to spray my legs with the sprayer. So he came in with me. I suggested he spray himself, and he started spraying his feet. Soon, I was done with my shower (I let him rinse my hair) and he kept playing with the showerhead for several minutes. I eventually had to apply a little soap, but he mainly took a shower on his own.

In on the bed he told me he was getting tired of Creepy Pair of Underwear. When he hypnotized me to make me read a story, I recited, pretty well, Where the Wild Things Are from memory. After we brushed his teeth he told me that when his next tooth is loose that we shouldn’t brush it because that hurts. It turns out it was hurting when we would brush his teeth, but he didn’t tell us about it. When I asked why not, he said, “Teeth are secret.” Carly came up and I left them just before 10. He was quite chatty. I don’t think he was asleep until 10:15 or after.

Hey Siri – zero divided by zero:

Hey Siri – infinity times infinity:

Hey Siri – 80 to the power of something:

His second power – charging things:

Hypnotizing me:

Discussing his superpowers and Kepler Academy:

Multiplication and division:

A funny song:

He was up at 7:30. I went up and got him from the couch and brought him down. He lay on the couch for several minutes with his head on Carly’s lap. Carly said, “I need to go get my coffee before it gets cold.” He replied, “You mean room temperature.” Carly “Cuz your shirt says staff.” “People in charge of a school…from the library bathroom.” Carly read The Thank You Book.

He watched Wild Kratts and ate a bunch of frozen mango. I made him a small bowl of oatmeal. After a second episode we went outside, where Carly had been cleaning up. I hauled the random pieces of wood into the storage area. Back inside he got sad at the idea of us all going to do recycling. Carly held him, then she went by himself. He played Toca Builders.

We played with the construction kit. He started as my assistant as we made a bridge, but then he turned into my boss, telling me “I’m a professional” so he wanted it built exactly how he wanted (I think he meant ‘perfectionist’). It morphed into a sort of ship thing. He really liked it, and brought Carly over a couple times to see it. The second time she was outside and he had her look through the open sliding door, then we opened it entirely.

He went to the bathroom and was doing/asking a lot of questions about how many milliseconds are in a tenth of a second, etc. and math about how many things something could hold with Carly. He played a little Robot Factory.

Carly went to the store. For lunch he did rotations of broccoli, frozen strawberries, and a small piece of toast with butter. I would give him a little of each, he would eat all of it, and he would get another plate of all three. He ate four plates of it. He randomly asked “What’s feasibility mean?” He also asked if motors have stamina, so we discussed reliability.

We finished reading Dragons Beware. He got grumpy about not being able to play Polytopia until we were waiting at Gabi’s later. He did math in his head, surprising me with “What’s 66 plus 66? 132?” And then explained how he got it. When he went to the bathroom he asked me “Did you know an octosecond is a septillionth of a second? Cuz English is funny.” This morning Carly and I were talking about how words are spelled multiple ways, after he said ‘staff’ should only have one ‘f’. I pointed out how most of the words that sound like letters are spelled differently (you, tea, bee, sea, jay, oh, pee, you, ewe, etc.) and Carly said that English is funny.

Carly got home and I put groceries away and they built with the straws. They were also doing math and he told her, “People don’t like to make mistakes on My Planet…they go to jail…”

At 1:20 August and I left to go to Gabi’s. He was dancing to Kate Tempest in the car and added one of her songs to his playlist. He picked a flower for me and we had about 15 minutes of Polytopia before our time. When I was asking if he could stop he said, “Well, I am pretty obsessed…”

August was willing to take the picture he drew of the chook to show Gabi, and he showed it to him, but he didn’t want to talk about it, and he didn’t want me to tell Gabi about it either. For our time we mainly played snakes and ladders, which was supposedly ropes and ladders in this version, but they looked like worms, so August and I called them worm snakes. Gabi and I played each other, and August was the dice roller. For the first half of the time we played with an unusual dice that had 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 on it. August wouldn’t join in, even when I just tried to get him to have his shoe be the third player. August said he didn’t want to talk about why he didn’t want to play with Gabi, but that he would tell me later. He is definitely getting more comfortable with Gabi though, and touched his cheek once.

Finally, August was intrigued by the plastic and rubber swords that Gabi had. So we spent the last few minutes swordfighting, just hitting each other’s sword.

We said goodbye, and we played a few more minutes of Polytopia in the car. He did the ‘Pacifist’ task and asked what it meant. Another word of the day. Now, when we drive by the SAP building, August calls out “SAP!” as we drive by, after he first spotted it a few days ago. He was falling asleep as we got home at 3:45, but he unbuckled himself and got out.

Inside, he told Carly about the swords. Carly tried to convince him to walk to town. But he was afraid it was going to rain. We played some Dragonbox Little Numbers, and I added to the straw thing, saying it looked like bubbles. He told Carly about how he upgraded Skoda Mama to run on compost. Less pollution, but it smells bad.

Eventually they did head to town, and I did some work. They went to the health food store, and also got a couple of things at the grocery store. He had a mango popsicle, and his bottom left front tooth fell out as he was eating it, and he must have swallowed it. He went to Carly and she held him for a couple minutes, but he didn’t get upset. He told her that he knew it was loose, but didn’t want to tell us about it, and he wasn’t worried about it, and knew it would fall out. He didn’t want to finish his popsicle after that, and when Carly took it in to throw away the woman there was very excited for him as well.

They got home at 6:30. He didn’t really want to talk about his tooth with me. He got grumpy about the iPad and started to get upset, but we joked about the Chook and tickling it away, and he started laughing. He and I went up to make the beds. He had us play the Brother game with the chicken with a concussion, where he ends up chasing the chicken-stealing farming away with traps.

We went back downstairs, and he gave Carly his teenager look for some reason, and when Carly liked it he said, in his teenager voice, “Hey teacher. What are we doing today?” He took tiny baby steps across the floor. Carly fed him spinach and vinegar and he liked it and had seconds. He kept eating, and asking about units of time we ended up talking about thinks like zeptoseconds and attoseconds and attophysics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(time)?wprov=sfti1 He had some pie, and I got some and ate with him.

Then, he told me all about a guy named Jason, who died in 1979 at the age of 81. He told me all sorts of things about him: he had wanted to be a doctor, because he liked surgery, but he didn’t have money to do that so ended up working in a grocery store. He lived in north Egypt, and liked seeing the pyramids with his Dad, but he didn’t have a Mom—didn’t know anything about her. They were kind of poor, and couldn’t go on flights to go on adventures. He was kind of a mad scientist, and died when he wasn’t careful enough and mixed some chemicals that exploded.

Then, randomly, he asked, “What’s 6.8 plus 6.8? 13.6?” We did reading, and he read Plums and The Swimmers to me, putting the latter in his stack. We then read the start of Ben Braver 2 — ‘spill the beans’ and ‘dodging questions’ were phrases that he asked about.

I took him up for his bath. He chose art supplies for table time tomorrow – sparkly watercolors and art pencils. In the bathroom he danced to “Stand By Me” and a children’s song called “Cookie Bakers of the Night”.

I washed his hair, which is easy peasy nowadays. While I dried it he said, “The elves gave me a challenge: to see how many times I can try the passcode before I can’t use it for a minute.” We got his iPad and he found out it was 6 times. He brushed his teeth. He’s been rejecting toothpaste recently. He was sending me back in time with his powers, and sent me to see dinosaurs. He told Carly, “Don’t worry about Dada. He’s in the Mesozoic Era.” As I left them about 9:50, I heard him asking her “Mama. You want me to teleport your watch to the 1980s?”

I made him a tooth fairy card and taped in 5 shekels.

Big addition:

Adding drums to our new song:

Oh my gosh and his missing tooth: