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After Carly left for work I heard August laughing in his sleep for a few seconds. He woke up a little before 8. He went to the bathroom, and spent some time playing in the sink, pouring out a container of wter he had fillled up last night. He said it was cold now, but had been warm when he filled it.

Downstairs he watched the end of the first Formula E race of the year with me. He then walked around the room, telling me about the paint mixing he had done last night while Carly We then played Minecraft.

Luckily, I remembered it was Wednesday and we had to go to Shani’s. He had time to have oatmeal squares and we did Brother games with him getting hurt in the park: nail, knife, cactus. We then headed to Shani’s.

There was no swing today, but a scooter instead. She had written a schedule. He added a happy face drawing next to “August” and did an arrow to change the order when they switched the first two activities.

They first did drawing because he wanted to do that first. He wanted her to trace things he drew. She said, “Maybe I should slow down.” He replied, “Yeah, that’s always the trick.” He was then drawing zigzag lines: “It’s supposed to be pretend wavelengths of the light, but I don’t think it’s very accurate.” They debated whether an electric or manual pencil sharpener is better.

They then moved to the scooter. He hopped on and asked, “So what’s my task?” He was scooting back and forth between a set of towers and a picture of shapes to put on them; and the box with the colored shapes at the other end of the room. It was working on upper body strength (although when he sat up to do different scooting “strategies” she didn’t force him to change back) and memory. He would chant “Trapezoid, rectangle, circle” when scooting down to the other end. Remembering 3 things at a time like that was a bit of a challenge for him. Shani and I discussed strategies for him. He rejected remembered the first letters of the shapes. I suggested that if he put it in a song it would have been easy for him.

They played with putty, then had just a few minutes to play with the robot set.

He was then singing on the way to the car. He talked about his “Hypothermia room” experiment with chickens, where he put chickens with different amounts of feathers on them in a cold room to see which survived the best.

We drove to the fruit and veggie place. We were there for strawberries and corn, and we also got a big mango and a mystery fruit. I talked about snacks to take to Gilad’s house. He really wanted to take cucumbers so we got a few of those, and also two zucchini for making bread.

On the way to the car he told me, “I think the world is enough high tech…I just think it is nice now.” He then asked about cotton swabs. “Why does mommy use them?” When I was surprised he called her “mommy” he corrected to “I mean why does Carly Althuaser?”

We then drove to the new playground a kilometer north or so of the school that Shani had told us about last week. We spent a long time there. He went on the teeter totter, then the merry-go-round. We did the rolling balls thing. We opened one of the containers of strawberries and ate a ton of them. He wanted a treat and I pulled out a small pack of peanut M&Ms. He said he didn’t like them, so I pulled out Skittles instead for him, and I had the M&Ms. We did various brother games: him buying strawberries that were painted to look good but were actually rotten (although the free sample ones were all really good), being stabbed by a sword (I don’t remember the details on that). He told me, “Here’s one of my jobs: making different varieties of fruits.” Then he changed it to “Different kinds of Skittles.”

He went over to the swings and tried the different kinds. He ended up on the regular swings for a few minutes. He asked “Can your immune system run out of space for memory cells?” We ended up reading parts of https://www.quora.com/Can-your-immune-system-run-out-of-memory. He then watched a video on Ebola (https://youtu.be/sRv19gkZ4E0).

We left at 12:30. He reflected on how it had been a good trip to the park and how we had done a lot of things.

We drove home. In the kitchen I took of my sunglasses and the left screw fell out. Looked for several minutes but couldn’t find it. He had requested chocolate soy milk, so we had some. We went outside to see the wind when it got shaky enough to shake the doors. He asked about teeth chattering. That led to a discussion of sweating and dogs panting. And that in turn led to a Brother game where takes a husky to the savannah.

We didn’t have time to do alone time and Minecraft, so I told him he could have 30 minutes of iPad time without the earning part. He graciously offered to pay us back the alone time later, but I didn’t bring it up later. He was hungry right before we left and saw the bar I was putting in the bag, so just had that now.

We parked at school and as we walked in Julie Fisher called “Happy Thanksgiving!” from her car. August looked up and called “Oh. Happy Thanksgiving!” Then asked me who it was.

Jonathan Minke had invited him in to see a middle school band rehearsal. He had told us to arrive after 2 so they’d be done with warmups. We went in, and he introduced August to the class. Some of them recognized him, with one boy saying “That’s Ms. Althauser’s son!” A few of the kids were asking which instrument was his favorite, trying to get him to say their own instrument. He finally said “trumpet”, much to the delight of the trumpet players.

As they rehearsed he looked around, moving to the right of me to better see the percussionists. He also got to see saxophones and French horns. Jonathan said a couple times something about August supervising some students. August said, “He’s being funny…He’s pretty jokey.”

After just a few minutes Jonathan asked August to come to the front to sit in the conductor’s chair. August was a little nervous at first and clarified a few times that he wasn’t actually going to be conducting. Jonathan assured him he’d be helping August. I sat up at Jonathan’s desk and moved our stuff in back when the trombones came back from a practice room. August didn’t do much moving, but loved the view from the conducting chair. There was a girl that was a bit jealous, as apparently she’s been wanting to sit there for years.

There were a few students being rather disruptive, and at one point August was saying something to Jonathan about funky teenagers and Mama’s class, although I couldn’t hear the details. He talked a lot about the “funky students” after we left. Realized later he probably meant “punky students.”

We left when they packed up at the end. We headed across the grass. August was singing a song he called “Attack of the sack.” We went to the library but it was closing at 3. We returned a few books and headed down to the playgrounds. Down by the preschool we ran into Cassie and Taya, who also had Orly’s two kids with them. We went to the playground. August was singing, although not loudly, but Taya kept telling him to stop.

So we separated and went over to the swing. After the swing he had a stick and saidd, “I want to try conducting technology.” And he reflected on the band room: “Wasn’t it cool that Mr. Minke pointed out I was laughing because of the funky teenagers?”

We went back over to where Cassie was. August was just watching Taya with Gabriel and his brother. He told Cassie, “Taya’s being pretty bossy.” Cassie agreed and told him to tell her that. He replied, “Nah, let’s not. I’m enjoying her bossiness.” He went on the teeter totter with them, then asked to do math problems on my phone. So I was giving him story problems and he would calculate them. He’d then show Cassie the calculator and explain the problem he had done.

August went to the bathroom, then we all got going and we said good bye. They left, but we kept playing on the playground. We had gum and he spun on the spinny thing. Then, Omri and Jonathan showed up. We spent probably a half hour running around on the playground, chasing each other around. I found a sweatshirt left by a third grader on the field and when we left we took it up to the 3B door and left it there. But then we kept playing with them even more up on the grass by the entrance. August and Omri did more Tik Tok faces, and Jonathan was dragging me to a “jail” (tree) and I would escape. August got into it, distracting Jonathan so I could run away.

We finally got going around 5 and on the way home he told me, “Mr. Minke’s band rehearsal was great. Except for the funky students. Their funkiness was great.” And, “I’m excited to see Mr. Minke’s band in six days.” He’s referring to the concert next week. We were watching them practice Christmas songs for the concert.

At home he did more math problems with Carly, then had some quiche. I got ready for a run. Downstairs he was mixing paint and called it “Banana yellow.” I said something and he replied, “I’m doing alone time so I won’t talk to you.” I went for a run at 6. When I got back they were finishing Minecraft and switching to educational videos. I took a shower and when I came down he was watching her paint.

He spotted the leftover frosting in the fridge. I suggested chocolate milk instead, and he talked me into adding some frosting to regular milk using one of his “crossover arguments.” He drank it, but said there was just “A vague difference.”

He had me open the mystery fruit, but while it smelled good, there didn’t seem to be anything in it worth eating. He peeled the zucchini. He said he liked it, and I asked if it was satisfying. He said, “That’s the word I was trying to think of when you were getting me to peel the corn at Gramma and grampa’s: satisfying.” He was rhyming words, and I helped. I used din and sin which were new to him. As I mixed more ingredients he played with the 2 kg weight on floor the floor, rolling it back and forth, and was talking to himself. He then taped a few things together and made a defensive shield thing that was Bar’s. He then had a pick-ax that was enchanted with “mine-atory and stretchiness 3.”

We watched the first two episodes of season 4 of My Little Pony and had crackers and pate, then zucchini corn bread when it was ready. Turned out quite well despite the gluten-free flours. I could still tell it was teff flour.

It was pretty late by the time I got him upstairs. Gave him a bath, then in bed we skyped with my parents to say Happy Thanksgiving before they left for Dee and Grants. Before he went to sleep I told him about our Thanksgivings when I was a kid. And being attacked by a cactus when I was little and Paul falling down the stairs. We listened to the “Galaxy” piece on the album with “The Planets” and he fell asleep quickly, by 10:15.

Scooter time:

Music on the way to the car:

The marble labyrinth:

Trying the shaky bridge:

Conducting the middle school band:

Conducting the middle school band 2:

Conducting the middle school band 3:

Conducting with his branch:

Let’s hit the throttle:

Spinning with gum:

Running around with Jonathan:

Running around the grass with Jonathan:

TikTok with Omri:

He was up right at 7:10. I carried him down. I noticed that Carly had the unit on fan mode in his room. Don’t know if they had not used the heater during the night. He took a few minutes on the couch for a few minutes, then we finished_The Last Kids on Earth_. Then he switched to Minecraft. He logged in and said, “Everything’s so peaceful. The beautiful sunrise…”

We played Minecraft, then ate oatmeal. He then did alone time and more Minecraft. He then watched the two Kurzgesagt ant videos. He then had a Brother where he returned home to find a “room-sized super colony of fire ants” in his bedroom. It was Millie being an ant and taking over his room. Sister becomes an ant as well. Brother is upset so refuses to change them back. He ended up tied up for five years. We went upstairs and played more, and August was an ant.

We finally looked at our calendar for the day. We then played with his new modeling clay/play dough from Max. He liked the smell, but I thought it was pretty bad. He mixed the colors all together (it was only 5 shekels) and then wanted to see what happened when he mixed some with paint. He spent several minutes doing a paint mixture. I was making towers with the play dough and mentioned architect. He said, “I should be a architect when I grow up.”

He added some of his paint to his painting from yesterday and said he gave it a moustache. Well, beard. “I present you: brown muck….mud brown.”

He read a level 2 book in Rivet about frosting a cake blindfolded. He ate the last bit of his leftover pizza, then I made a grilled cheese sandwich. He asked me again if I had arguments. I suggested convincing Carly to get a bike:
“If you don’t have a bike you’ll miss out on a lot of the fun we’ll have.”
He put lotion on his hands as they were getting dry after the oatmeal.

He looked at Google maps and street view as I figured out where we could park and bike. He told me “I want to try a tomato sometime…like a seventeenth of a tomato.” He was kind of grinning as he said it, then added, “If I DO like it, guess what? I’m going to make fun of you for not liking it.”

We got ready to go. He asked if he could tell the friends that he had gotten his flu vaccine. He gathered them on the couch upstairs. He then told them, and sang a tune for them. He then put them in bed for sleep time: “You’re nocturnal.” He covered them up with pillows to keep them safe from monsters before we left.

He sang a tune and was drumming on things as we left. We saw David as we left the house and left by 1.

As we drove he asked a couple questions: “why when you start saying a word over again it starts sounding like an alien word?…What is time?”

We got to the north end of the Netanya waterfront, where the trail ends, and parked. We started riding south. He was humming, and started noticing all the cats, especially on the way back.

We rode 2.87 miles before stopping at 2:30, by the ice cream shop that he hates, for a snack. He had a bar and corn crackers, then cashews. We did Brother and Sister stories. There was a void nightmare, then one where they sleepwalk to the water store and wet their beds. And then Sister was allowed to do research in Bar’s lab, much to Brother’s chagrin. He ran around, pretending to elytra with his hand (flying in Minecraft). He then needed to use the bathroom. He went in the bushes by the construction area where they’re building a new elevator down to the beach.

He then said, “This is a nice spot. I’m going to savor it.” He spent a few minutes picking seeds off of bushes and said, “Good luck seeds!”

When we got going we rode a bit further south and turned around at the playground, just over 3 miles. As we rode back north he told me about a huge obstacle course he made.

On the way back north we rode a couple laps around the big empty square. And I noticed that the little carousel was open now. He went on it and we talked about the other ones he’s been on. He said he likes the ones that go up and down.

The rest of the way back he talked about how we must be experiencing some sort of time warp thing causing cats to teleport into our time. He was really into that as we saw cat after cat after cat.

At the car I took a photo of him holding up 6 fingers to show how many miles we rode. We drove home, listening to Sotry Pirates.

At home he wanted to do a Brother game during iPad time and was a little sad when I said I had to leave. But I got ready to go and he was mixing paint on his how. I thought it was his alone time so he could do iPad time, but he had forgotten about earning time and it was really just something he started on his own.

I left at 5:10 and met the other guys at the school. Plans had changed as Younes was closed. We went up to Ishimoto in Even Yehuda. I was able to order something slightly spicy for once, getting a curry. We then walked down to the movie theater and watched Scorsese’s The Irishman. A three and a half hour movie, plus intermission and previews (all for Amazon and Netflix shows/movies).

While I was gone they did a lot of painting, and of course his iPad time. He was upset when it ended, but stopped short of hitting. He got to skip a bath. When I checked in with them at the movie’s intermission, they were in bed, doing story problems.

Mixing play dough colors: https://youtu.be/adsIuwaq-R4

Play dough and paint mixture:

Talking to the friends:

Making music on the third wheel:

Elytraing:

Carousel 1:

Carousel 2 – his time loop song:

He was up about 7:10. He only woke up once during the night. But I think he was back to sleep before I even got there. We read all of The Last Kids in the World except for the last chapter before he wanted to switch to Minecraft. We played in his Outpost Ahead world, figuring out how to explore and fight in an ocean monument. We had oatmeal squares with milk for breakfast and he watched the two Kurzgesagt videos on the immune system and the “Antibiotic Apocalypse” episode, which was timely as a couple days ago I had been explaining why antibacterial soap isn’t necessarily a good thing. We then watched a Life Noggin video about “The Science of Anger”. A new channel for us.

We finally discussed our day and set up the calendar. We did a Brother game, where I had Brother talking to his amygdala when he was getting stressed or upset. Amygdala was a word of the day. Brother was calmed down by a cat. We replayed the story where Brother meets Myna, and then Brother playing Minecraft from the beginning. August had a story where Baby Sister came along and messed with his iPad in different ways, getting brother killed in Minecraft.

We had crackers and pate and he asked to look at pages of The Scientist that he tagged. We looked at models of atoms, and how some of them are old understandings. He explained his diagram of a molecule “like the earth around the solid…I used a couple analogies in that.”

He then read from Rivet. He read a level 1 “Colors of the Rainbow” then a level 2 book called “Bubble Fun” and then a level 3 book called “Unicorn Snot”. He needed some help with the last one, but not a lot. He’s definitely making progress.

We watched a video of robot battles (https://youtu.be/ELaeirIZw8c) after he asked for one. He stopped it a couple times to tell me about his robot designs, including emergency propellors to get out of the pit.

He then asked, “What was it like for the human ancestors?” He said he meant cavemen. As I looked for videos eye explained, “cuz I like history. I like thinking about it.” We watched a PBS Eon videos “The Humans that Lived Before Us” (https://youtu.be/_ANNQKKwWGk) and “The time it rained for 2 million years” (https://youtu.be/_1LdMWlNYS4) Gastroliths was a word of the day.

He told me about a planet he discovered and studied “And then, guess what? Apocalyptic rain…acid. Because there’s no water…” “Here’s an apocalyptic landslide I discovered on another planet…”

As he was sitting on the toilet and taking a long time he explained, “It’s just so soothing to sit.”

He then asked, “How’d the ice age happen?” We read the second half of the Older than Dirt book, which Carly had checked out and sort of answered his question.

He then wanted to paint. He said he wanted me to work on faces. But then he wanted to be the queen and I was the servant and his mixer. He started on a painting and said, “This is a person with not much hair.”

He did 15 minutes of alone time and then Minecraft. He was producing iron golems and having them fight the monsters. He turned it into a a big analogy: “Iron golems is like our immune system right now…it dropped its nutrients…I’m a helper T cell right now…I’m gonna use my proteins to make more iron golems, I mean immune cells now…”

We then got going to school for our flu shots. He had been fine with the mentions of it through the day, but when the time came to go he had second thoughts and said he couldn’t do it. I talked to him, and I suggested we could get two treats at the cafeteria. That gave him enough courage and we were able to head to school.

At school we walked to the middle school office and picked up the envelope with the forms and money that Carly he left for us. We then went to the nurse. We were second in line, after Robert. But then the nurse who works at the school left to get coffee before the rush came. The guy that came in to also give shots would only do the adults. So he did me, but then we had to wait several minutes for her to get back. We read the Shel Silverstein poem about a girl making excuses for not going to school (until she realizes it is Saturday). But then when the nurse came back it had filled up, and August had second thoughts and hid behind a screen thing. I convinced him out, but he tripped over the foot of it and fell.

He shook that off and I got him up, and held him while he got the shot. He screamed, but then calmed down after she got him a bandaid. We headed over to the cafeteria and when we were on the grass he realized his knee was bleeding from his fall. So a second bandaid, this time from the backpack, and he was able to carry on to the cafeteria.

In the cafeteria he picked out a ice cream sandwich and one of the chocolate muffins. He was in heaven, having two treats. He made some comments about never getting another flu shot, but I think he was pretty convinced that it was worth it thanks to the two treats. He actually shared with me really well, and I ate about half of the treats.

We then headed to the library. As we came in Liz was leaving and she stopped to tell us how she hadn’t had any desserts the night of the party, but there was a single slice of our cake left over from the quarter that August and I had left behind. And she ate it in the morning. That was really cool, and we talked about how we were happy that we had left some behind.

We went back to the kids area and read a bunch of books: Fangsgiving, two Elephant and Piggie books (Pigs Make Me Sneeze and My Friend is Sad), Square, The Day I Lost My Superpowers, and How Do Dinosaurs Lean to Read? August also made one of his chair sculptures.

We checked out several books: The Adventures of Beekle, The Biggest Bear, Presto and Zesto in Limboland, The Universe Ate My Homework, and an odd book called Ballad.
He was singing as we left the library. We saw Candy and Reia doing some drawing and talked to them. They were then getting chased by a couple of boys, and August said, “Don’t know what that’s about.”

We then walked over towards Carly’s classroom. He sang along the way, a tune he seems to be developing, and pausing to hit posts and stuff along the way for his rhythm.

We met Carly by the middle school, then headed home. He asked to have jelly beans at home. She suggested chocolate milk instead. He came back with jelly beans and a glass of regular milk. He called it a “Crossover argument…connect the dots argument.” He was then wanting to help us solve arguments, and was helping Carly solve her argument with Brian about consulting a reading specialist.

We were home before 5:15. He asked me, “Do you have any arguments with Omar? Maybe I can fix them.” And he told me, “I made a building called the career development center…it’s a big school…since it teaches kids about astronomy I have a big telescope…” I have no idea where he got the career development center phrase.

They had some food (rice and sweet potato and carrot), then Carly painted Lady Bird Johnson, at August’s request. They were talking about him using her new smart brush and he said, “But I have to be gentle and that’s not my thing.”

He talked about painting a flag, and writing on it: “Everytime you come here you have to do a touch of funniness.”

August made up new paint colors and painted his hands, and then Cherie called, with Vivian and Colin, who are now in Mexico. Vivian taught August that stool is another name for poop, and August said, “I’m not going to use that technique.” Technique was his word of the day, apparently.

We ate some quiche when it was done. He liked the bacon in it. He then did math story problems with Carly. Carly went up for a shower and I kept doing math with him. I was teaching him to calculate percentage discounts.

He watched a couple of Brave Wilderness videos, both involving stings. He then discussed the painful stings he’s discovered, including the “The Mariana Slicer,” which is a lizard with gills that lives in the Mariana Trench.

We then read more of Tree Mail and almost finished it. I got him upstairs and he was playing Yankee Doodle on the bathroom tiles. He then made up songs as he sat on the toilet, including one about a spider. Gave him a bath, then he was performing in the mirror in his bedroom.

As I put him to bed he asked, “Have any arguments we can do? I want to stretch my brain muscles.” As I got set up he did meditation breathing on his own. He was asleep sometime around 9:30.

Painting a face: https://youtu.be/q6ZSP2_h9Pw

Iron golem and immune system analogy: https://youtu.be/KRtLE5mCIy0

Music on the way to the classroom 1: https://youtu.be/6xhDFsXn8gw

Music on the way to the classroom 2: https://youtu.be/OY1jgGsmTBA

Story problems: https://youtu.be/o81drSa8Q-E

Spinning my painting: https://youtu.be/ZfYtqRK9h7I

Yankee Doodle on the tiles: https://youtu.be/uGf2pYtDsIY

Aaaaaargh…..right back at you: https://youtu.be/Ql6SS5WYZWk

He called to me twice during the night. One time he said something about sleep and I think was asleep before I even got to him. The second time I pulled the covers over him. It was in the morning and Carly was getting up, so I went ahead and moved in with him and slept on the lower bed until he was up after 7:15.

Downstairs he sat on the couch while I got went back upstairs and got dressed and got our iPads. He said he wanted Minecraft, but then I said Carly was outside and he ran out to go cuddle with her. I heard him say something about the air being “fresh as rosemary…” When they came in he showed Carly the paper he had drawn yesterday of his idea for his birthday cake. He wants a raspberry cake, and there are holes that are yellow that are in the shape of a face.

We played Minecraft. He gave Brother lessons in Minecarts. Carly came in and asked about going to a Thanksgiving brunch at Alix’s next Sunday. August said we could take “small tea cakes.”

He had a Brother game where he finds a cat and takes it to Greena’s house. She forbids him from bringing more as they are eating jungle birds. It started with the walking in the park song, then I randomly sang the Alligator Chomp song and then he requested the Juicy Juice store song. That got us talking about Korea and our Korea bucket list. So far it includes noodle pizza, Children’s Grand Park, and a juice store. After that we did a Brother game where he sets up a server so he can play Minecraft with Bar, Myna, Greena, and Sister. They started in a mesa biome.

We then read more of The Last Kids on Earth. We then looked at some pages he had marked in The Scientist. Funded was the word of the day when we talked about something that, I think, Louis XIV had funded. There was also an Escher picture in it so we looked at Escher pictures on Google Images. I remembered how I had mentioned music with car/street sounds in it, so we listened to the Reich Remixed album. He had Brother be spooked by the sounds and voices in “City Life”.

When he went to the bathroom he said, “Dada, here’s something that’s really fun for me: planning ahead for Minecraft.” We read more of The Last Kids on Earth. Carly made a fruit plate. August also had oatmeal, and said the mango was like candy. We then kept reading on the couch, getting to chapter 13.

They then painted. He mainly mixed paints and painted his hand a bit. Carly was using her British accent. At one point August asked, “Aren’t you feeling a bit peckish?” He went upstairs to get the new blanket all on his own. Then he set up his keyboard and iPad to pay music. He played and Carly made popcorn. He asked Siri for waterfall noises. Carly said it made her need to go to the loo. August actually knew the word, as I think we just read it somewhere in the last day or two.

He asked for some cake and Carly got him some (she missed the opportunity to say “Let them eat cake”). As he carried it to the table he randomly sang, “If you eat pizza with a fork, people make fun of you.” When we were at VIPizza with Zoe and Eve Zoe had taught him how they fold up their pizza to eat it, like in New York. I think I was the one that added the bit about people making fun of you if you eat it with a fork there.

I picked him up and he asked me to spin him in circles. And then back the other way to unwind. I told Carly how Lauren a couple weeks ago had told me about an Israeli woman yelling at her children on a merry-go-round to go back the other direction so they didn’t get too dizzy. Then Justine following week Shani said pretty much the same thing to August when was spinning on her swing.

August and I had some chicken soup and she read some of the Comic Science: Plague book to him.

They left just before 12:30. They first went to Gabi’s, where August said there wasn’t any instruments, but Gabi was going to try harder to find them. They did some sort of doctor thing, and also played a game where you act things out, like charades (but August didn’t know that word).

They then went to the art store and replenished some of their paint colors that are running low. They stopped at their usual pizza place and got slices, including a slice they brought home to me, then played on the beach. August said they made an even better wave blocker than the one they had made two times ago. Finally, they stopped at the grocery store on the way home for a couple things, including bacon for the quiche.

They were back by 5:40. I had had a quiche ready, just waiting for the bacon, but we decided that was too late to finish the quiche, so I refrigerated the parts. August asked me, “Do you want m to solve the war between Palestinians and Israel?” He said he’d use a time machine. He asked how many particles are in a cell, so we looked it up and read https://www.thoughtco.com/how-many-atoms-in-human-cell-603882 August said, “So the number of atoms in the human body is a hundred trillion times a hundred trillion.”

He ate rice and sweet potato and fruit and we did some Brother and Baby Sister stories. He played the human body app, and was naming off the cells he saw as he gave it an infection: “Phages.”

We headed to the middle school play, Peter Pan. He was singing as we walked from the car and into the school and into the auditorium. He sang, “I’ve been waiting for a play, and this is a play.” Carly and I were discussing the program and he said, “Less reading and more watching!” He took over both armrests and when Carly protested he said, “Well, what’s the point in having them if I can’t take them?” He also talked about how he thought this would be more amazing than Beauty and the Beast.

Right before the play started, a big tall guy sat in front of August. He asked to sit in Carly’s lap, and basically spent the whole play there. The sets and costumes were really good, but it was really difficult to understand the actors. Not sure if it was an enunciation issue or their sound system. So August was asking Carly what was happening several times, and he didn’t like the narrators when they came on (“Ugh, narrators again”). But otherwise he seemed to love it.

At intermission Carly was able to get out ahead of us and grabbed two cookies for August from the snack table. He ate those and we went back in. We asked him what he thought of the play and he replied, “Amazing.” We saw Jonathan behind us and he said hi. August then started humming a tune, and conducting like Jonathan taught him.

After the play we saw Grace, who had been in the play, and said hi. He noticed and liked the skirts made out of book pages that some of them were wearing. As we headed to the car he told me how he makes plays. He’s made adaptations of Bone and Hilo (with actors using jet packs), and also his own. He also said he made a “Boring play” that was just a tree growing.

We headed home at 8:40. When we parked he asked to earn iPad time inside, and got upset when he was told it was time to get ready for bed. He said he wanted something fun to do. He huddled on the couch for several minutes and then talked to me. Carly was exhausted and needed to get to sleep. I got him up and ready for bed (no bath) and he said good night. We read Little Miss Naughty and I told him about how Chelan used to have apple bin races, and the festivals in the park, and how I remember getting an orange (for Orange Crush, I think) frisbee at one of them.

Painting his hand:

Playing at the beach:

Singing on the way to the play:

He woke up three times during the night. Don’t know what that was about. Once I put the covers on him, but the other times he just went right back to sleep. In the morning he remembered two of them but couldn’t explain why. He then woke up at 7:10. I had moved in next to him after the last wakeup, which was in the early morning. He sat up, then lay down on top of me for a few minutes. He then got up and asked to go down stairs. He cuddled with Carly, then asked to play Minecraft with her. They logged on to the world where we were working on the minecart ride. Carly was surprised to find herself in a tunnel: “I’m in a tunnel.” August: “Stop. No offense, but in this world…” Carly and I were then fake arguing about her use of my account. He interrupted: “Stop arguing. Or I’ll put YOU in timeout.”

When they were done playing, he asked me, “What’s premise?” I wasn’t sure which he had said, so premise and premises were words of the day.

He said, “I have a mind blowing question for you two: How many particles are in the universe?” He went outside with her for a few minutes, then when she came back in to get a key I gave him an answer (from https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/47941/dumbed-down-explanation-how-scientists-know-the-number-of-atoms-in-the-universe?noredirect=1&lq=1). He refused to go back outside with her, saying he was hungry, but wouldn’t answer my questions about what he wanted. He asked me several questions related to the answer, about the observable versus unobservable universe, and a line he remembered from a Kurzgesagt video about how we can see a bit farther into the universe every day.

Finally, he settled on cereal and strawberries. He ate that and looked at the Night Sky app. He found Pluto occluded by Titan, which I thought was incredibly rare. Quite a fine. “I’m going to be a person that builds satellites when I grow up.” Debated between doing that and being an archeologist.

He switched to Human Body. He had a game where Bar and Brother were making Baby Sister sick. While doing the ear thing he sang a song:

“Once upon a time there was a ball
And the ball was poisonous
the kid touched the ball
And then he died…”

I got him off the iPad. He was hungry and ate several crackers and pate. He really wanted Carly to taste the goose pate. She gave it a small try. Carly had taken apart the cardboard fort upstairs with August’s permission and was taking it to recycling. August and I looked at recipes and decided on a strawberry cake. I made a shopping list and they headed to the store.

They were gone for close to an hour and a half. He got a good peanut buttery treat. When they got back they started painting. Well, Carly did, but he never got started. She baked two schnitzel and they ate those.

August wanted to go outside with her. They were outside for a while. When they came in he was telling her things he needed for a machine he was making in his lab: “14 human stomachs…17 Amazon refrigerators…a cubic mile of rubber, one extension cord…one pair of kitchen scissors…”

He did alone time on the couch, then played Minecraft on his own as I started cake. Carly was doing more cleaning. She really straightened up his room and the landing upstairs. August helped me finish the cake batter, then we watched the last episode of season 3 of My Little Pony, where Twilight gets her wings. We were sitting in the kitchen as he licked the mixing bowl.

He did some painting with Carly. The first layer of the cake finished, then I started baking the second. I started slicing strawberries. He wanted a strawberry dipped in sugar. He said he just thought of the idea. He convinced me when he told me how, “My goal in life is to do as many things as possible.”

They went for a walk while I was working on the frosting. They walked down to the park “where I protected you from monsters” and he went on the merry-go-round and things, then they just walked around some more. They were gone quite a while. The frosting wasn’t working, being grainy despite much mixing, and being too runny.

As Carly and I tried to fix it, August was getting stressed about it. He was hungry, so first had cereal and strawberries, then seconds (he said Cheerios with strawberries was like having chocolate), then had crackers and avocado.

Carly took a shower because she was allergic and then walked to the store to get powdered sugar. I read the two Trixie and Rough Diamond issue of Friendship is Magic.
He was still hungry, so just had strawberries. Carly got back. The Tiv Taam had only had one small pack of powdered sugar when she needed about 5.

She made chocolate frosting. It wasn’t a huge batch though, and not enough for the full cake. I finished it off, using the pink frosting as a mixture for the middle of the cake, then frosting the top and sides of the cake parts with chocolate. Decorated with strawberry slices, it came out quite well.

We drove to the party, getting there just after 7:30, and a while before they served food. Liz greeted us and talked to him about the cake. We set it down and all went outside. We talked to someone I don’t know and she was telling August that there was another boy his age he could play soccer with. August said, “I’m not really a fan of soccer.” We went to get drinks, and August got lemonade with mint, doing the dispenser on his own. He took a drink. I suggested I should try it, and sure enough, it had alcohol in it. A bit later, at dinner, August was saying, “My first drink of alcohol!” We were at the house of an embassy employee, so I said we could thank the American embassy for that.

We saw Jonathan a couple of times. First before we sat down, and he talked to August about coming back to the band room sometime. He has instruments like a saxophone to show him. Carly fought through the line with August to bring back a plate of food and we shared, sitting out at the end of one of the outside tables. Carly went back for a second plate. Doreen, the art teacher who he did a poncho with, sat across from us and talked to August about it. Jonathan sat a couple seats further down and I heard him say how their spring concert is on April 1st, so they’re doing things like playing John Cage’s 4’33”. I got excited by this, as I had recently just told August and Carly about it. August then talked about his “prank concerts” and then started singing a lot. He mentioned to Doreen or another woman that was sitting across from Carly that he is thinking about taking voice lessons.

August and I went in and got a couple small plates of desserts and brought them back out. There was a game where you guessed how many candy corns are in a jar. August didn’t want to make a guess. We talked about how it was like the book about counting beans that we’ve read on Skybrary. I guessed 500. He loved the desserts. I took him in to the bathroom and the light flickered when he turned it on and he called it a “Cranky light” like our kitchen fluorescent. I got another plate of desserts. I went back for carrot cake, but sadly it had all disappeared. But I got a slice of pumpkin pie, which we had missed earlier, and August really liked that. He had been less impressed with the lemon meringue.

August mentioned it was his bed time, and a bit later we got going. At some point he told me, “I’m picturing a rover taking a picture on the moon.” He reminded me that he had seen a rover on the moon in a YouTube video we had watched about Apollo.

We got to the car at 9:25. He noticed he had forgotten to take his magnifying glass in to the party. He had said he was going to use it to look at treats. Carly asked him something, and he replied with, “No. Period.” As we drove home he talked about his huge French horn that plays notes at beginning of day, etc. He talked about Zoe and the day “She claimed…” all sorts of things: that the library had book of spells, that the bug in his drawer was an earwig, and that an earwig can get in your brain. He also told us tht he had pictured the party being at school, so was surprised when we drove so far. He talked the whole way home, whereas on the way down he had actually fallen asleep near the end.

At home we skipped a bath but got his teeth brushed and I put him to sleep a little after 10, using the mediation app music.

Oh yummy song:

Dancing and elytraing:

Getting dessert at the Thanksgiving party:

Singing and consucting at dinner:

He called me twice during the night to pull up his covers. Actually, he called “Mama” both times, probably because she had put him to sleep. I finally woke him up at 8. He was incredibly smiley and huggy. Downstairs he got comfy on the couch. I suggested reading a book and he asked me to sing the sting by the bee song instead. He meant “Bringing home my baby bumblebee.” We sang that, then read more of The Last Kids on Earth. He asked, “What’s Disneyland?” He told me about his ride: “It’s a roller coaster connecting every star in the galaxy.”

He then said he thinks humans can use technology to stay around forever. That is, overcome overpopulation, etc. He then talked about building a Dyson sphere. We played Minecraft, then watched the Bright Side “What if there was no electricity for a year?” episode. He had oatmeal, and wanted me to rewatch the video with me, although we didn’t have time, as I got a message that Gilad could play Minecraft. They played, and I made a lassi. After 20 minutes or so Gilad suddenly disappeared from Minecraft and Skype. We figured that his computer had crashed or they lost power. I played with August for a while, but Gilad never came back. We kept extending their minecart rides. I had built a rainbow tunnel, then was figuring out how to make a tunnel with fireworks going off.

August asked, “I have a question we should look up: Why do we feel frustration? Because I’m really interested in your feelings.” He said this after I had grunted when I messed something up. August got a little upset when we stopped playing. He wanted to clean the toilet so he did that, singing a song as he did so. We discussed our schedule.

We started with music time. He spent more time learning “Sentimental Wars”. He had some chicken soup, then did some L practice. He got sidetracked with the self-reporting correct/incorrect buttons, which give you a percentage. He kept pushing the ‘wrong’ button, trying to get the percentage to zero, and I explained why that wouldn’t happen. He seemed to understand that pretty well. One of the phrases he said in the app was “Dad’s lettuce” and August wanted me to make up a story. Brother had a rabbit, and the dad refuses to let them in the house and they end up eating his new lettuce green. He then wanted a “More licorice” story. He told me, “I like words like throwing a fit and tantrum and fuss”

August then wanted a Brother story where he meets Zero, who hasn’t been in stories recently. He changed it to a girl who can control the weather. There was a story about it raining lollipops.

We then watched some science videos (“How to Cure Aging,” “Life Under Ice,” and “Plastic Pollution” again from Kurzgesagt). While he watched, I made some new signs for our calendar on the sliding door. He wanted me to make an Experiment sign.

He then did alone time, using post-it notes to mark pages he wanted to look at with me later in the The Scientist book. He really got into that. During Minecraft he worked on building his mine cart system up really high.

We talked about how might be at school to play with, and when I said Maya and Ben Ben he said, “I’ve been wanting to see Ben Ben for a while.” The other day as we were getting to school we saw his class leaving and he said a really nice “Hi Ben Ben!” to him. He was hungry so had some crackers and pate. He talked about the art he does back in his lab: He makes drawings of the things he creates in Minecraft.

He then wanted a new Brother and Sister story. I had the idea that the city finds out they have dangerous animals and they have to get rid of the animals. We developed that into a full story where first an animal control officer comes, then the police. They have 48 hours to get rid of the animals. They then arrange to start an animal sanctuary by Greene’s house in the jungle, and Bar helps them move all the animals. The whole family moves to their research station close to Greena to help take care of the animals. And of course they install wi-fi so Brother can play Minecraft.

We then headed to school. As we went in he asked, “Why when you’re old do you get wrinkles on your face?” It turned out Maya and Ben Ben weren’t going to be there, but the playground was busy. We saw Cassie picking up Taya, and they stayed to play. She introduced me to the substitute teacher in the preschool, who is in Carly’s PLC. August told me, “Don’t get into parent talk with her. You know how I don’t like that.” They played around the preschool playground for a while. I pushed him on the swing.

They all then moved to the big playground. Omri and Jonathan were there. Jonathan was being really silly. August spun on the spinny thing, then came and sat on my lap and did some Drops with me. Omri came over and showed him effects on TikTok. They played with that for a few minutes. Taya was playing soccer with other kids on the field. I eventually got him out there for a bit. Then they headed back the other way. We said goodbye, but then he went on the spinny thing again.

We were home after 4:30. He looked at the dictionary for alone time. He was reading words and clapping out syllables. We then played Minecraft. He hit me once at the end, but then wanted to talk about it. For educational videos we watched Kurzgesagt videos on “Are we in a simulation?” And “Automation”. And then something about the size of an atom.

Carly was home, and talked to Cherie. August heard her tell a story about someone blocking a parking lot. We had some dinner, then while trying to get him to fill up his water bottle I had the idea of him filling up his water bottle once a day, then we’ll increase it to twice a day at some point. He liked the idea and we’ll start it tomorrow.

He had a short Brother game with him getting stung by wasps. He then sang a song for Chuck and Cherie. They were talking about music lessons and he said he wants voice lessons, as long as Carly or I can be there.

After the call was over he and I listened to “Sentimental Wars” and learned most of the words so he could start learning to sing it. He told me all sorts of stuff about some galaric power plant and transport system he has. We cleaned up. He found more of the little balls from the banana. He taped then to the table until we found the vial with the others a bit later.

Carly took a shower. He had Brother talking to Pegasus; then Brother helping Greena with house. He wanted our whole new story from the beginning. Too much for me this late in the day. I switched with Carly. She read the Science Comics: Plagues book when he gave it a second chance.

I went for a run and shower. He had cereal with strawberries when I got back. He said, “I love the strawberries in my cereal.” And he told us, “Here’s why babies always get sick: not enough memory cells.” He talked about how he found a disease that attacks memory cells. Memory cells was definitely a word of the day.

Talking about something (I think because he wanted to do something that would take a long time) he said, “Sorry, my timing isn’t very good.” We did a preview of Brother and Bar shrinking and going into the immune system.

He sang a “Goodnight mama” song, then said he’d sing a song every time we go to the airport and said, “I’ll call it the goodbye Israel song”

After his bath we did the new Brother and Sister storyline again. We did the sleep yoga video in the app, then listened to a meditation. He wanted actual music, and I asked which instrument. He said bassoon, so I found Schubert’s “Bassoon Concerto in C Major”. He was asleep by 10:15.

Washing away the spots song: https://youtu.be/bfC0rgpPOhY

Composing music:

L reading practice:

Marking pages in his book:

Running by the preschool:

Playing Yankee Doodle in the playground:

Spinning and silly Jonathan:

Teeter totter:

Singing on my lap:

He woke me up at 5:20 or so, then was up at 6:35, right after Carly had closed the door. I brought him down and he cuddled under the blanket with me for a couple minutes, then we played Minecraft. Then we had a Brother game where he bought professional cookware from Flim and Flam (the hucksters in My Little Pony). It did not turn Brother into a professional chef. He had oatmeal, and asked, “What’s membrane?” From Minecraft.

As an example I mentioned flying squirrels. He said, “Oh dada,” thinking I was making it up. I had to show him a photo. He discussed vaccines, starting with “You know how they compa4ed vaccines to seat belts?” He somehow got around to mentioning cars losing their downforce, so I showed him the Peter Dunbreck crash Le Mans crash:https://youtu.be/e21ZjwZGjiQ

August then talked about his flying car, and we looked at old attempts at flying cars: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/g2021/history-of-flying-car/ And we watched a flying squirrelhttps://youtu.be/NR4JYGUdbWE

We then processed that with a Brother and flying squirrel game, where Brother finds a flying squirrel. He then wanted music time and we set up GarageBand. He started by experimenting with chords in C. He was then learning how to play “Sentimental Wars” on the piano.

I made a mango lassi and he watched a marble race then a Brave Wilderness about spiders. Then there was a Brother game with Millie being a wandering spider. He made a “Skitter, skitter, skitter” noise as she walked around. She made a nest in Brother’s hair, then caused a panic at school. They then played Legos.

We got going to Herzliya Park. The time had been changed to 12 for other families that were coming. We were a little late, and walked in round 12:15, August riding his bike. We were walking in at the same time as Lacey and her kids, and one of their friends. We then saw Lauren and Gilad. August rode around a bit, then asked for a snack. The other kids talked about playing tag but August said no. We sat and ate and they went off on the play structure.

August rode his bike around some more, and got close to the other kids a couple times. August agreed to go over on the merry-go-round with them, but when we got there they were getting off and climbing over a railing. He went on by himself for a minute, then needed the bathroom. I had looked at the book place when he was riding his bike (he said “Noooooooo!” when I said that was what I was doing), and when we came out of the bathroom he asked if there was anything interesting. There were Time Life books and he picked out The Scientist, Matter, and The Earth to take home.

And he told me, “Every good habit has a bad side, and every bad habit has a good side.” For example, lotion wastes money. Lindsey had also shown up with a 5-year old, but we never met him. As August was riding back from the bathroom, he was surprised by a bunch of backpacks that a school group had left in front of a bench. He swerved to the left, but fell off to the right.

He mainly landed on the backpacks and only had the most superficial of scrapes. But he got really upset. I was holding him and he was insisting on going to the car and leaving. Or at least going to the car. It took us a long time to get there, as he wouldn’t calm down enough for me to set him down, get the books I was carrying, go back to the benches and get our snacks, etc.

He got back on the bike for me to push him to the benches and we packed up, then he rode his bike the entire way to the car. But with his eyes closed. I had to push him and steer. He did calm down in the car. May have gotten him back out to the park, but we needed to leave soon by then anyway to stop at Tiv Taam on the way to pick up Eve. It was a little after 1:30 when we left.

We went to Tiv Taam for a few essentials. But mainly to pick out a snack to have with Eve. August has been asking for watermelon on and off for a month or two. A couple times I’ve told him he needs to get it with Carly, as I don’t like watermelon enough. Anyway, that’s what he wanted to have with Eve and he thought the big Tiv Taam had it. Unfortunately, I think we are past the season. He was fine with that though, and instead picked out a chocolate pudding cup for each of them, and two goose pates and a pack of sliced meat to have on crackers.

As we went back to the car he asked, “If germs are in the air does that mean they have wings?” We talked about that, and was confused by my use of particle as he only knows it as meaning elementary particles like electrons etc. So I explained its broader meaning.

We drove to the school and dropped off the bag of art supplies at the middle school office for Carly to get. We went quickly into the library to look for Bone 8. No luck, and it turns out it is lost. As we walked out of the library he spotted the librarians talking to someone outside of the library. August was surprised and said “Oh hey.” To Liz, then Amanda and Ilana.

We went down and got Eve. We saw Heather and Zoe. August wanted to head straight home but Eve wanted to go watch Alejandro play soccer. And to play herself. They watched from the wall for a few minutes, then Alejandro asked her to play, but Eve got discouraged because she didn’t know how and he wasn’t telling her. A mom was playing with them and tried to get her involved, but Eve wasn’t sure. It looked like she might go back out, but then it was moot as the field was taken over by baseball practice. Alejandro ended up being upset and Eve went and comforted him before we left.

We swung by and saw the chickens for a minute, then headed home. They had their puddings, then I got the crackers and meat out. Eve painted, then I was their patient. They put the play dough around my face and taped parts of me up. August took a photo. August had earlier found chunks of dried paint and put them in water, expecting the to dissolve. He checked on the experiment but they hadn’t changed much.

Eve made a potion. She was then August’s patient, and had brain problems. They ended up at the white board, debating the cause of her problems. August said things like “Then your hypothesis is…” a couple times, and then kept explaining “But that doesn’t explain why your nerves aren’t working.” She finally asked what nerves are, and he explained.

August had been playing with Legos and they had this discussion, and they both transitioned to playing with Legos. They were calm and quiet. Amazing. And they were that way when Heather and Zoe showed up at 5:30. His fact for Heather today was explaining how obsidian is made. At first I thought he was going to tell her about obsidian in Minecraft, but he stuck to the real world. They also discussed Coyote Peterson and August explained who it was, and it turned out she had seen one of his videos where he gets bitten.

Carly had also gotten home and one upstairs. After they left August watched a Brave Wilderness video. We then did the Brother and Sister game where Sister is jealous that Brother is spending all his time with Baby sister. Bar punishes her.

I showed August a video of the Red Bull pit crew doing a pit stop in zero G:https://youtu.be/IVMICgfzICs

Then did a Brother and Millie story where she is being a tomato plant to study what that is like. They were making a tree house, as he wants to live alone like Greena.

After that he was trying to negotiate for more Minecraft time. Carly got out the Science Comic: Plague book she had checked out. He was excited about that. They read the whole thing. He didn’t like it because there wasn’t a big infection that you got to see. I then read him three chapters of The Last Kids on Earth. He told Carly it was “Much better than that lame book.” As he pointed to the Plague book.

I went for a run and Carly put him to sleep in the Zinnie room for the first time. He was still up when I got back, and came in the bathroom to use the toilet before I got in the shower. He was asleep about 9:50. She used the mediation app with him. He told Carly he had been wrong about not wanting her to do it.

His car with wings: https://youtu.be/4CSUK4pfymI

Playing with chords:

Riding in Herzliya Park:

Singing on the swing again:

Pudding with Eve:

Potions time again:

Doctor time:

He slept all through the night. Until 6:30, that is. Then I heard “You’re not there.” He wasn’t upset though. I met him upstairs, and asked if he had liked the friends sleeping next to him. He said yes, then turned around and said, “I’ll wake them up.” He woke them all up, then carried them all down to Carly. He then had time to show Carly his underground mine carts ride in Minecraft before she left for work.

We did Minecraft, and he ended up asking me to explain universal and individual in the settings. He was singing songs and tunes as he played. He had some caramel milk after putting lotion on his hands. Then we did another Brother game, telling the blender story again. Then he told a blender story where Bar makes smoothie for the whole school. Ms. Safe runs away. I think because of the noise. There are a lack of bathrooms at the school and everyone needs to go at the same time. It turned into a Brother with Tigey story with them in something imaginary. Then we did the Baby Sister storyline. He likes the jump forward part (Sister calls her the sweetest and gentlest thing ever, then I say “Jump forward four years: ‘Me want danger…Me beat you up.’”)

He did more petroleum jelly on hands. We were listening to the Shelter album (with Andy Bell of Erasure, who he likes) again and August added a couple more songs to his playlist. He then told me all about different traps he makes that involve radiation and static. We did more of the Baby Sister story line. After Sister sews the shirt and Baby Sister is born and Brother doesn’t like her, she is then sick and Brother ends up taking care of her. When they go on a cruise he then spends all of his time taking care of and playing with Baby Sister and keeps her from Sister. Sister then gets revenge on him and tries to get time with Baby sister.

He was hungry and had oatmeal. He requested we watch Beethoven’s Ninth. We did, and he told me of his conducting and symphony and how he uses sounds like a door slamming and a knife on sandpaper. I then showed him Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” and he was duly impressed with the cannon. We also talked about why Tchaikovsky did that. August went on to talk about the other sounds he uses in his music, like a baby waking up, tinfoil crumpling, and someone screaming.

We got going to Shani’s. She wanted us ten minutes early today. On the way August saw cats and said we were up to 17, after seeing some with Carly. August did a great job of taking off his shoes, then threw his hat on the floor. When Shani questioned that he said, “What? My Planet culture.” August actually reminded her of starting with a schedule today, after she started him on the swing. They went over and he read the full schedule:

• swing
• Magic paper
• cutting
• August’s choice

While he was on the swing (he reminded her he needed a “task” to do) she said she had talked to Gabi. August said, “You and Mr. Gabi have different minds…you are about learning and emotions…Mr. Gabi’s about playing…gamicational…” I told her how Gabi was working on winning games with him. He told her about the games and she knew of the board game. He told her, “It’s a really good game if I don’t get to the winning part.”

They moved to the table and magic paper (the kind you scratch). He started, and she started to remind him about keeping the stick down: “I just want to remind you…” He interrupted with his very teenager-y “I know, I know, I know…” We discussed art he’s doing at home and I said it was mainly painting this last week. She wants us to focus on others (“I’m not saying no painting..”). I rolled my eyes, at least on the inside, at that. When they were done he used the lint roller to clean the table: “That’s how mama cleans the hair off the couch when she cuts my hair.”

He asked Shani, “Do you want me to sing you a quick song?” And he made up a tune for her. He asked, “Did you know confidence helps you do things? But it doesn’t help you not die if there’s lava.” “But maybe it helps you…” “If you’re jumping over the lava?” They discussed Brainchild. She had seen it to, with her children and they discussed a couple episodes. She also told us of a couple playgrounds he might like, including one here in Even yehuda of of Savion St. that has a climbing wall. And another on Ehud Manor St. in Kefar Saba. Before you make a left to the hospital.

They had done some cutting and gluing of L words, then he spent a few minutes on the swing before we left. As we got to the car he suggested we go to the fruit stand. He wanted to get corn. We went there and he chose white corn, and they now had strawberries in again (he told me they were out last night). We bought two packs.

We then drove down to Max. We listened to Odesza, who he likes, and he asked, “Do plants have immune systems?” We were to Max before 11. Which is apparently the correct time, as there were several spots in the parking lot. When we left it was the usual zoo.

We spent a long time there. Carly wanted us to get art supplies that she could donate to the asylum seeker day cares when she takes kids there soon. August found all of the stuff she requested, and also wanted to get more for them. Which was a big change from a year or so ago. I did he could also get packs of things for himself, but he only got himself a couple of the things (crayons and markers and one pack of stickers) but added things for them like beads.

I also let him get a cheap balloon pump, but said no to tiny forks, saying we had some at home that Oma and Opa had bought. He was a little grumpy about that one. We had also gotten a purplish soft blanket when we first came in the store, and our other big purchase was a space heater for the bathroom (our old one was small, and one of the two heating elements had stopped working—I put up with it all last winter).

We got a strawberry drink before we checked out. As I was taking items out of the basket, his water bottle fell out of the backpack. It hit, top first, and we lost the plastic cover piece. I tried looking around on the floor for it after we paid, but he was impatient about it. So it is becoming his inside water bottle and we’ll either use the upstairs one in the backpack, or buy him a new one.

We headed home. The first thing we did was try the new blanket. It got really static-y, and he was singing the song “Electrostatic” (an Andy Bell song). But it turned out to only build up when you drag it all over the rugs. Using it on the couch is just fine. A really nice blanket (150 by 200cm) for only 20 shekels.

For alone time he played with the stickers he got, which turned out to be little strips of tiny blue gem stickers. He made an asterisk shape on the couch, then on the kitchen drawers he made the symbols +=x. I made a grilled cheese sandwich, along with the lentil stuff, for lunch. He kept saying the “Four years later…” line from the Baby Sister story. We were listening to Afro Celt Sound System. I hadn’t introduced it to him at. He put a song or two on his playlist, and asked, “Is this an Indian song?” We did a Brother story about how often he has to go back to the hospital. He cut himself with a knife in the kitchen, went to the hospital, then when he got home stepped on the knife he had dropped earlier.

We did 30 minutes of Minecraft, then did 15 minutes more of alone time. He was talking to Peter Rabbit and the others, and cuddled in the blanket: “Don’t forget Green Monster! Where’s Angeles?” I paused exercise to help him set up to paint. He showed me his painting and when I asked what it was he said, “A mug with coffee in it.” He sang a song about how “Coyote Peterson is no stranger to pain…” 30 more minutes of Minecraft, then Kurzgesagt videos about vaccines (again) and designer babies. He ate a cherry yogurt, then we did the Brother buying professional brushes story again. As we were sitting at the table he was playing with his banana shaker. He brought it down on the table. Unfortunately, he hit the tip of the stem. It broke, and little metal beads went everywhere. He immediately curled up on in a ball on the chair and was inconsolable.

After a few minutes of calming down we decided to not head to school (we were going to play with Elise and Corinne, but they were getting flu shots, so we were just going to play at the playground/library and see who was around) but made popcorn and watched an episode of My Little Pony instead. We then did the Brother buying a professional drill game.

He agreed to get outside, and it was his idea to go up to the park. We ran together on the way up. Our first run together, I told him. At the park he first went to the exercise equipment and we did that most of the time. We discussed the phrase “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” I had actually used it an example of something (hokey? Hackneyed? Something else…) a few days ago, then it was also in the vaccine video).

He moved to the swings and we discussed the girl he had played with here a couple times. I also mentioned that I hadn’t seen Bar at school this year, and think they may have used. At first he didn’t know who I was talking about, and thought I meant Sophia (And he remembered she had a comfy shirt with gold things on it) who had moved away from preschool. He remembered Bar when he remembered playing with the magnet blocks at her house.

He then spent several minutes just humming as I pushed him on the swing. When he was done I helped him out. I suggested Carly could be home any minute, and we went to try to meet her on the path. He spotted her across the street.

At home I cooked the corn and the beets and sweet potato. He ate two ears of corn, then had beets and sweet potato. He wasn’t fond of the beets, but liked the others. Carly was trying to get him to fill his own water bottle, and he was really trying to resist it.

We did some Brother games with him buying things, then buying a cell phone. He remembered the “I was walking in the park one day…” song and wanted to know more of the words, so I looked it up and found it is called “Fountain in the Park”. Didn’t find a good recording with the words though.

He took some of the stuffed friends upstairs, then played in the sink. Gave him his bath, then did knee reflexes again. We discussed tomorrow, and I used “yada yada yada” in there. He asked what it meant. Thought he knew that one. He needed his water bottle filled again but didn’t want to do it himself. I proposed an idea: starting tomorrow he would fill it up once a day, then we’d do it the rest of the time. We would then up it to two times a day at some point. He asked what proposal meant and agreed to the plan.

He wanted me to put him to sleep again. I had suggested that Carly put him to sleep in the Zinnie room, but he didn’t like the idea. I suggested he think about it for tomorrow night. The same thing worked when I suggested this move to the Zinnie room, and when I suggested I sleep on the couch. Giving him time to think about something in advance really works. We used the Ninja Focus app again and he was asleep by 9:10.

Waking up the friends: https://youtu.be/lGX6JpCsT70

Getting dizzy in Minecraft: https://youtu.be/cjJL0slIpR0

Singing about sugar cane: https://youtu.be/pYB7I7HSFbE

On the swing 1: https://youtu.be/HBkY_NmCM-4

Bunny song: https://youtu.be/QMMpCFvP_2M

On the swing 2: https://youtu.be/tX_0t_RvItA

Singing her a tune: https://youtu.be/LtYlM_umctk

Singing for the friends to dance: https://youtu.be/AHQiWVs8fuw

Singing about Coyote Peterson: https://youtu.be/GtDBpk0nR58

Singing in the swing: https://youtu.be/l4GeKAkAFwQ

He was up at 7:05. He was very cuddly down on the couch. I asked if he had had good dreams and he said yes, but didn’t elaborate. I gave him the blanket and he asked me to turn the fan on for the noise and he rested on the couch for a few more minutes.

We played Minecraft. The goals today were to play with mine carts and redstone. He then had oatmeal and watched a Brave Wilderness episode about killer bees. He was then telling me about wasps he discovered and asked, “Do you know I work with killer bees?…I use robotic drones to get the honey…” I bribed him with chocolate chips to put on lotion on his hands and it worked. He did it a few times through the day and got more comfortable with it. He read three books to me in Rivet, then did 3D art in uMake. We figured out a few more things, like adding colors to surfaces.

I introduced the new Minecraft Earth game to him, and after playing in the house for a few minutes he requested we go for a walk. We first walked up to the park, and I did recycling. We did what we could in the game up there, then came home and got his orange bike. We walked to the nameless park to the southwest (where he used to blast monsters in his Hilo phase) and played there. He also went on the barrel walking thing and merry-go-round. We walked back past the big Israeli flag, took the bike up the stairs, and came back by the cloud bridge.

He let me take apart the remains of the fort outside, then I found his phone. We had figured out the building aspect of Minecraft Earth. You can place a build plate on the floor and build together in VR. Once it was charged we realized his phone was too old.

We then did a series of Brother games, August had the idea, of Brother buying “professional” things, starting with professional paint brushes (this is after August had wanted some really expensive paint brushes at the art store). Brother gets tricked into buying them, thinking they will make him a professional painter, builder, and writer, which they don’t.

For lunch we had avocado on cracker and lentil soup. He then had a Brother game where Bar is sister’s teacher after Bar gives her chemicals and Brother caused an explosion in the professional blender (he had actually bought the professional blender this time knowing it was more powerful and wanting to blend things like old electronic equipment). When the parents go to school to complain that Sister is being allowed to use dangerous chemicals for a school project, they walk in to find out that the teacher is Bar.

We got Minecraft Earth on his iPad and he built a little, then we headed to Ra’anana. August told me about the blue icy treat and Oreo ice cream on a stick treat he had had with Carly. We left at 1:05. In Story Pirates hokey was a word of the day.

We stopped at a small park north of Gabi’s for a while. He played a little, had a snack, and pretended the Xs on the ground led to Minecraft treasure chests and we joked about what worthless stuff was inside them.

He went right in with Gabi. He went to the bathroom afterwards. I asked what they had done and at first said he didn’t want to tell me. But after a few seconds he volunteered, “Okay I’ll tell you…I tried a winning game.” Two, actually. One card and one board. The board game involved telling a cat or elephant what to do. It was just practice, and they stopped before they got to the winning part. He said they did a little play dough, but no army.

He was rhyming on the way to the car: “Oh no, said the farmer, the lion could bring a blight? Do you think that is right? Pull the knot tight! The knight needs to fight.” I rhymed with trite and taught him what it meant. We ended up discussing bee stings and how they can kill you. We were driving at 3:10.

He was grumpy when we got home, but agreed to alone time. He did alone time and I exercised. We talked about synesthesia (we had been listening to a Story Pirates episode that was about it) and he told me, “I think I have a different really cool sense…that I can build up possible pictures in my mind…I can picture people at the pool at school wearing cones on their head.”

He then went on a long walkabout, telling me about a machine he had made to study and also let people experience synesthesia. And he randomly gave me an analogy for fingerprints: “those are like deep chasms on the earth…” He then totally explained how fingerprints worked, explaining how if you got ink on your fingers and put them on paper it would leave a fingerprint (“but not the bottom and side of the chasm…”)

We played 30 minutes of Minecraft, then he did another 15 minutes of alone time, this time looking at the atlas. He knows about the Himalaya Mountains, and I taught him about the Great Rift Valley. I explained that was where humans evolved and he said, “Whoa.” We had some snack mix, and he asked, “What’s noble?” Which is actually from the last episode of My Little Pony that we watched (with Spike having a “noble dragon code”).

We did our second 30 minutes and Carly got home. Carly started painting with him after a while and I went up to work. They called Cherie when his foot started shaking when he was doing a yoga-ish pose on the couch to ask her about it. They then headed up to town to go to the fruit stand and walk around. August had the idea of pizza, so they got a slice. They came back with a star fruit (and other things) and we tried it. He had his new (from Thatcher) polar bear shirt on.

I took him upstairs and gave him a bath. He asked, “Is star fruit citrus?” (No, it turns out.) He had other questions we need to look up later: “What causes gravity?” “Why doesn’t light have mass?” “What are antioxidants?”

He has a big scrape/cut horizontally at the top of his right foot. No idea where it came from, and it hasn’t bothered him. He told me, “I had a dream last night that that scape was gigantic…really thicker…hospital…they had to spray some antibiotic mist…it looked cool…it looked cool…I looked at the giant chasm.” He said it wasn’t a scary dream though, but maybe funny.

After his bath we played a Brother game on the big bed. Brother was working for Bar and she was punishing him for going to the bathroom and then for saying things about her. I came up with an “evil boss” song.

He had us play with the stuffed animals, me doing the voices for each. He agreed that I could sleep on the couch, and liked the idea of the “friends” (stuffed animals) sleeping in the lower bed. He asked about eating pufferfish. We then did knee reflexes with the thing from his doctor kit. As we walked downstairs for something he admired his “Kayla teacher and naked teacher” pictures. They are ones he drew a few days ago. He said the first one looked like both Kayla and a teacher. Then the second one had a sad face and was a teacher who had had its pants pulled down by the teachers.

He said good night to Carly at 9. We used the Ninja Focus app and listened to meditations and then music in there and he fell asleep by 10. I left the friends sleeping in the bed next to him.

Let it go in the park: https://youtu.be/ISC0e84sKLg

Rhyming on the way back to the car:

His machine to study synesthesia:

Using the synesthesia machine:

Evil boss:

He woke up at 7:20. Downstairs he watched the last few laps of the crazy Brazilian Grand Prix with me. He then talked about inventing fast cars. We played Minecraft, and he had the idea of declaring a goal each time he plays. This time it was to make a minecart ride. He stopped before his time ran out, and asked for chocolate for stopping so well, instead of a video. I obliged.

He had had some Cheerios, and I now made a pineapple and mango smoothie. He asked what other kinds of citrus fruits there are and we looked it up. He had a brother game where Brother gets a paper cut and he puts different citrus juices on it, thinking they will help. We then did the full Baby Sister being born storyline, starting with Sister sewing Brother’s shirt into the blanket.

August asked, “What’s the difference between hardware and software?” Last night he had asked to re-watch the “Why is the sky blue?” episode of StoryBots. He watched this now, and first got set up with paper and a pencil (he requested an electric pencil sharpener again, and I said we could look at Max next time) in order to do “satellite work”. That isn’t something he has done in months, and I wonder if he had done satellite work at the same time he watched the episode sometime last year. He drew wave patterns as he watched the episode, covering both sides.

When he was done he made up a language song to the tune of the Tom Lehrer elements song (itself to the tune of a Gilbert and Sullivan song). We worked on it a bit and got the first couple of lines to work: “There’s English, Hebrew, Spanish, Swedish, German, French, Italian / German, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Thai, and Latin”

He had a Halloween treat and asked about sugar energy. We watched a couple of videos about how we digest sugar and why we can have sugar crashes (insulin was a word of the day), then a Crash Course about smell and taste (anomia was another interesting word, and we talked about asking Gramma about taste next time we talked to her). All of the talk led him to want another treat, so he had some carrot coins, then a mini Twix.

Based on the videos, he then explained that vision is 5% of our taste and that explains why we can almost taste things when we aren’t eating them. That was really perceptive. Then a Brother game where he bought expired chocolate milk from a corner store. He returned, angry, and was pleasantly surprised when they gave him his money back and a replacement. But then the next time he went it happened again, and as a replacement they gave him orange milk, which he hates.

He did a lone time, then 30 minutes of Minecraft. He had the lentil dish on rice, with broccoli in it for lunch, and we made the last packet of water drink. Then another Brother game where it turns out he is a frequent customer at the hospital (with a membership card and added benefits) after one of his cats accidentally slices his arm open with a claw. Then one of his woodpeckers was causing problems and he got pecked and went again.

August then beat the dust out of the couch with a xylophone stick. We got ready to go. A short story with Brother falling down an endless hole. Upstairs, he lifted the 4kg weight and talked about getting stronger. Downstairs he then rested on the couch for a few minutes. As we left, he wanted me to look up why time passes at different rates in different places (which I don’t think we’ve discussed or seen anything about for quite a while, since I was explaining the Rovelli book to him). He then talked about “a different kind of physics” on My Planet, and gave me magic quiz, with questions like “What happens if you ride a llama six hundred miles…it will turn into a rug.” When I gave predictable sneers he would say, “Ugh. That’s physics!”

We got the bike ready, including pumping up the trailer tire. He noticed that the tread look different from my tires. He didn’t know the word tread though so that was new. Our plan in the morning had been to drive somewhere and go for a ride, then stop at the SuperPharm on the way home to look for hair cutting scissors. But then August suggested that riding into town would be our ride. So we did that. The word vivid also came up, perhaps he had been talking about dreams and I explained it, using the filters on the camera app as examples.

We left at 1:40 and made our way up into town, doing some zigzagging on the way up to avoid the big and busy (well, for Even Yehuda) hill and reaching downtown via the path behind VIPizza. We rode to the new mall and locked up the bike.

We looked in SuperPharm but no hair cutting scissors. But then I remembered we have Amazon now. Life is going to be much easier as long as they keep up the free shipping thing. He was hungry, so we sat at a table outside Stop City and had some sunflower seeds. We then went in and did our shopping. We were specifically getting avocados in a box of two, since those had been good last time. They also had bigger pineapples here, but they looked pretty sad and sketchy (one had mold on it). August also found caramel milk. It was the one kind they didn’t have in a small bottle. I said we could get it, and share, as long as he also ate a banana. He agreed to that, so we grabbed a couple bananas.

Back out at the same we started with the banana. But it was hard to peel, although nice and yellow, and it turned out it tasted awful. So much for that. We both had some milk and he really liked that.

We went in the bulk food store (הקולה בעיד) and got a bag of cashews and a small bag of the snack mix like he had eaten with Cherie when she was here. I also got a free espresso; the woman there knows us pretty well now. We went out, once again to the same table, and had the snack mix. This one was really good. We had given up on the snack mix when we had had a bag from Tiv Taam that wasn’t good.

While we were at the tables Carly had emailed to ask about going to the musical on Sunday or Monday. He excitedly agreed to that. When I asked about going to the Meet Santa event he replied, “What!? I don’t believe in Santa Claus!…Let’s not do the santa thing…But I’m excited about Christmas!” He was excited to find it was just over a month away. We also did Brother games (another version of the rotten milk, and then buying bad bananas—in one of them he was treated well, but Bar destroyed the shop anyway, not realizing they had been nice).

Finally done with the mall (and that table), we got riding at 3:10. We rode to the library park. Library was closed, but we played at the park. He spotted cat number 7. He then had a Brother game scenario where trees around town are being cut down and Greena helps to save them. She worked in town as a smith, then he goes back to the jungle with her. I also pushed him on the swing. I had thought his dry hands were getting a lot better, and I’ve been putting Vaseline on them every night. And his nose has been much better, so he hasn’t been rubbing. But suddenly I realized that they were looking really bad now, and were even cracked and starting to bleed in places. I mentioned it, but it didn’t bother him.

We rode home, and as we walked in the house he realized his dry skin was cracking. He was horrified by this. I worked to comfort him, and eventually we put a bandaid on the worst of it, but he wouldn’t agree to Vaseline. I put on an episode of My Little Pony and that helped calm him down. I’d tried a Story Pirates, but that didn’t work. Carly got home and he didn’t want her around, so she went and worked outside.

He got upset at the end of it, and crying and didn’t want Carly to see it. I gave him his evening time before doing alone time. He worked on the mine cart system, then wanted Carly to see it. But he didn’t want Carly to see the band aid. He said I could go tell her about it first. I went out and told Carly why he was upset. She asked if it was okay for her to comment on it. I checked with him. No, she wasn’t supposed to mention it.

She came in and saw his mine cart ride. I went upstairs to work. When I came back down he was eating a Swedish pancake. She was then going to go work, but he didn’t want to let her go and wanted her to paint instead. But I got him to do music time. Some GarageBand, then Tabletop. He was singing to one of the songs we made. He spent some time on Google Earth, then had another Swedish pancake when Carly was down, then some fruit and carrots. I taught him the phrase “my eyes were bigger than my stomach.” He had requested 3 slices of grapefruit from Carly, but hadn’t even eaten his strawberries and carrots. He made up the saying, “If you get them, you burn them,” referring to calories.

Upstairs he told me, “Dada, I think the boundaries of time is starting to go away.” As he played in the sink he told me he likes the feeling of the pumice stone and wiping the soap on the counter. He repeated “This seems very vivid” several times. I got him washed and ready for bed, then Carly put him to sleep. I left them 9:05. Heard him get up for the bathroom a bit later.

Beating the dust out of the couch:

Exercising with the weight:

Playing in the elevator mirror:

Minecraft shirt:

Piano time:

Singing to our song: