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He was up at 6:47. He came downstairs and lay on the couch. I asked if he wanted to read or he wanted a few minutes of quiet and he chose a few minutes of quiet. We then read Skippyjon Jones, choosing ‘fan’ (as in someone who likes something) and ‘amok’ as words of the day.

He had time to watch one Pink Panther before we left, as I gave him vitamins and some bread. He watched it, but then complained “It wasn’t even silly!” and got sad about it. He accused me of giving him a not-silly one on purpose.

He calmed down though and we got walking before 8:40. On the way he found one of those magnet business cards on the ground and said he would use it for his magnet art/sculpture. As we got closer to school he asked me to tell a story. So I told a story of a magnet that was made at a factory and had a dream of being a part of art. The other magnets make fun of it, and it ends up in a garbage bag. But then the garbage bag is dropped by the garbage truck and the magnet lies on the ground until a boy comes along and picks it up and uses it in his refrigerator art. Still had a minute, so I made up a joke: two palm trees were standing next to each other. One palm tree said to the other, “Hey Frank, going anyplace today?” Frank replied, “Ugh. You say the same thing every day.” August thought it was pretty funny.

At school we found out there was indeed library time this afternoon, so I could come back at 2 to help with that. We then sat and read a couple chapters of The Magic Tree House #25. He was hungry and ate some of the Cheerios from his lunch. Marion was happy to see him eating.

We talked about him choosing one thing inside and outside to try to do today. This started to unravel, as he said he was happy just standing and watching. Also, earlier he had asked if I went home during the day. I said that yes I did. He’d seemed fine with it at the time, but now he brought it back up. We ended up over on the PKB bench. He talked about skipping school, and also asked “Can I do school at home?” He settled on us doing half and half – him “alone” half the time, and me there half the time. I explained I was there now, then would be back for lunch, then for library time. I’d be in the library for rest time, but including that I’d be on campus for 3 hours, and off for 4. I said that was close to half. He was trying to do the math and add up the time, and I was rushing/estimating too much and he told me “I need it to be exact!”

We got that straight, then the last thing he was upset about was being told what to do. He wanted me to tell the teachers that it was okay for him to stand and watch. We talked to Marion and she agreed that no one was trying to force him to do anything. I was able to leave at 8:40 as it started to rain a bit. Nice for the walk home though.

I got back at 12:30 and waited for them to come out the door. No August. I went in and he was hanging out by the book area. Got him to get his lunch and we went out.

Got him eating food for lunch, then tried to leave. He said “You said 3 hours…I was already alone for 4 hours…” At another point he said “I don’t know what to say.” Mainly impressed that he is speaking so calmly and clearly most of the time. I got away a few minutes ago when Andrea came over and talked to him about his lunch.

Also, he told me he got a cut/scrape on his right knee. He wasn’t upset about it, but said someone did it “on purpose.” He didn’t provide any other details though.

I came back for library time. Marion and Andrea helped walk the kids to the library, in pairs. At the library Ilana was surprised to see us early – she had thought it was to be at 2:20, not 2. Also, she pointed out there are usually two parents. Andrea came in and stayed a few minutes, then Ilana said she could go. The class is less squirrelier than they were last year. Ilana read a book/they listened to a song about the library and treating books properly. Of course, right after Andrea left there was the drama: August had a torn toenail. He came over by me, but I couldn’t find my clippers. He eventually got it off and was okay. And first Hector had to go to the bathroom, then Candy. So I escorted them. For checkout time August chose a book called I See Kitty. They checked out their books and each got a bag. Andrea and Marion arrived to walk us back.

Back in the classroom they had a few minutes to look at books. We sat over by the couch and read August’s book out loud. Sophia listened too. We then started to read her book, a book about trucks which is actually nursery rhymes adapted to have trucks in them. Pretty funny. Andrea rang the bell for the goodbye meeting. They went over to say their goodbyes. She would pick up the rocks one by one and they’d read the names together and say goodbye to that person. She also mentioned that they just watched the video of August singing in the pool, and she sang the song that he was trying to sing. It has more words, about paying attention, but I kind of like August’s version better. Finally, there is a goodbye song that they sing.

After class we went out on the PKA bench (the big box that has been on it for the last couple days was gone) and August ate more: Cheerios Nd apple sauce mainly. I went back in to get the Magic Tree House Book and talked to Andrea for a couple minutes. She said he’d done really well for rest time, and when he’d gotten his scrape today he was upset but calmed down well. August wanted to play some iPad on the bench and he played the Montessorium Geometry app on my iPad for a couple minutes. But I convinced him to head home. We left at 3:30. As we walked out the gates he asked, “Hey dada, when are we going to play pinochle? I really want to play pinochle.” Apparently pinochle was in a StoryBots.

On the way home he wanted to do a video of his version of the “That’s my body” song, which included lyrics about how he only gets one body, then wanted to sing a new “Sidewalk Sealant” song. He then spotted shadows of a palm tree that looked like a crocodile mouth, stopped to look at a moving water meter, and was an answer machine as we got close to home.

We were here at 4. He drew new Hangeul, then Mooka Mook, letters on the chalk board and explained them to me. He asked, “Did you know mooka Mook has nine thousand, eight hundred letters?” He then played the insect app and we ate crackers and hummus. It was difficult to get him moving agin and I had to let him watch one Pink Panther before we left about 4:30.

We walked over to the mall to find out that little kids festival was happening again. Inside, the saw a talking tree statue and really liked that. Then there were animatronic dinosaurs. There were two that you could actually ride, and he stood in line for a couple minutes to do that, but then when he understood you couldn’t actually control them at all, you just sat on them, he changed his mind.

Going by the natural food store he remembered that it had free samples. We went in and they had honey, served in honeycomb, and he used a stick to get a couple samples of that. In Tiv Taam we got carrots and cucumbers and more fruit for his lunches. They didn’t have the kind of hummus that he and Carly have been liking, so we got two of the smaller varieties to try.

Outside, I saw that Pizza Hut was selling slices. We got one each, then sat on the ground in the playground area and ate our slices. August was being really calm after that, but agreed to go try to play on the blow up carnival area. We went and waited in line for the obstacle course one. The guy let me go with August, and I could barely keep up with him. August was through it in a flash. He thought about going again, but then wanted to wait for the little hand crank paddle boats in a little pool. We waited there a couple minutes, but th
en at 5:55 the word came to shut it down. We went calmly, but I saw another guy who was waiting at the front of the line arguing with the poor guy who was just following instructions.

We left at 6 and walked home. On the way, I talked to him about school, and asked what he would like to do. He replied, “The best thing I can do at school is just standing.” I asked why and he said, “Remember? I need to think about how to play with the other kids.” So, I’m not really worrying too much about him not participating. I think there is a lot of thinking going on, and as long as he isn’t saying he’s really bored I think it is okay.

Near home we spotted cat #42. Carly was taking a shower when we got home. He watched Pink Panther for his 20 minutes. He was then repeating “Play now!” from the video game commercials that he likes.

He was then lying on me as he ate carrot. Lots of negotiating over smoothie and carrot. He wanted me to go to school and give the kid that knocked him over a timeout. And he told me to install surveillance cameras in the classroom so we could know who did that. I think he got that from Captain Underpants. He had found Captain Underpants at some point yesterday on my iPad (he has started to use search in iBooks and Skybrary to find books – not that he’s actually typing words in, although he understands the idea, and has us search by author for the books he likes in Skybrary) so I had reluctantly read a chapter, and it was the chapter where the principal catches them doing the pranks with the helps of surveillance cameras.

Carly cut up mango for smoothies and I got his bath going. He wanted Skybrary, so he had the app read him the book about the Sam, the inventor girl. When he finally got his smoothie he drank a little bit, then admitted he was too full. Carly put it in the fridge for tomorrow.

I took him up to his bath. We did a quick one today. He then wanted Skybrary “immediately”, and agreed we should read on the “cozy” bed. We read Rosie Raccoon and. Funny book about Erie Pirates. He was then talking about Niagara Falls. We read If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss, then Carly was up at 8:30. She brushed his teeth and put him right to sleep.

He was up at 6:39. I went up and we lay in bed for ten minutes. He was then ready to head downstairs. We read It Starts with a Seed. Decided that the word of the day is ‘arboreal’. He watched the StoryBots episode about why you can’t eat dessert all the time. That ran a little late so we had to hurry out the door. Got to his classroom right at 8.

At school we sat out at their side playground and read The Case of the Hungry Stranger. He then requested that I check in on him. I asked how many more days he needed me to check in. He thought about it and said “Two”. I was able to leave about 8:15.

I rode my bike back at 12:30, finishing listening to The English Patient on the way. They were finishing up looking at a book on the floor. He came over to me, and Marion had a talk with us, saying he hadn’t done anything today. He had told her he would just stand for two hours. And hadn’t eaten any snack. We talked about discussing in advance at least one thing that he would try to do the following day, so he had a goal to work on. August tried to say that there wasn’t anything that was learning.

I helped him get his lunch and go outside. He told me he didn’t want to eat anything and wanted to save his food in case he needed it. I told him I would stay while he was eating, and that worked. He ate some of the rice and mushrooms, grapes, apples, applesauce, and carrot.

But then he got upset about rest time and got really sad. But we went and sat on the PKB bench and I talked about sneakily playing with something during rest time. I also made the point that rest time was all about doing nothing, which he had successfully done all day. He liked the sneaky idea, but also didn’t want it to be sneaky – he wanted his teachers to know it was okay for him to play with something. We went in and I got him a few letter tiles to play with. He sat on the mat with those and was playing with them when I left. He had his timer as back up (when I had walked in earlier he had told me “You forgot the timer!” I showed him I had put it in his lunch.)

I was able to leave at 1:10. I returned at 3 with the car. We sat in the classroom and ate some of the bread that the class hadn’t eaten. I looked around the room at the toys to think about things he could choose to do during indoor exploratory time. I asked what his favorite thing in the classroom was and he directed me to the easel wall and told me that his favorite thing was scratching off the old paint. We talked about the blocks that he liked and I suggested that I could give him challenges in the morning for him to build later, like a power plant.

We saw Anna and I asked her why she’d drawn an ice cream scooping machine on the thank you card she gave August. She said she had started with just drawing ice cream, but then realized it needed to have a machine since it was August. So a total coincidence that August had really liked the Edward McScooperhands machine in the 26-Story Treehouse last year. I thought maybe he had told her about it. This conversation came after August noticed that none of the teachers (they were all in PKA for a meeting) were wearing his bracelets. But Anna said she had it in her special place with all her other jewelry.

We went back out the PKB bench. I started talking to him about not doing anything, or not playing with other people, and he said, “Well, that’s just my thing.”

I took his timer back into the classroom. When I came out he was looking down through the bench. He told me, “To the ant the brick is a lot of space; but to us it’s not a lot of space.”

He ate some bread and other things. We talked about him not doing anything. He seemed to understand Marion’s concern, thinking that she thought that he was bored. I asked why he had told Cherie that Lydia was his best friend at school and he said it was because when he was partnered with her she was nice to him. And e says he hasn’t been playing with the other kids because they don’t play the games he likes to play – like building things or really cooking things. The things he does with me. Finally, I was asking him if he was thinking about how to play with the kids when he wasn’t playing with them. He lit up at this idea and agreed that that was it. And he explained that he wasn’t doing anything because that gave him more energy for thinking. And he felt optimistic that he would start playing with them more.

He was ready to head to the playground. He had asked me to bring his iPad after school as he really wanted to play on the play on the play structure. I said I was going to send mama a message, so to play something by himself for a few minutes. He chose the Mammals app because he said it was easy for him: “Well, the easiest for me. Maybe another kid has a different choice.” I thought that was an interesting statement, after already considering things from the perspectives of others when talking about Marion and the ant.

We played up there for 10 minutes or so. We saw Grace babysitting Taya while Cassie was at the union meeting. August and I went to the library. He returned Magic Tree House #24, It Starts with a Seed, and The Case of the Hungry Stranger and we checked out the next three Magic Tree House books, 25 to 27. He let me go in the bathroom and change into my swimsuit and he stayed out in one of the red chairs and played a minute of iPad. Carly showed up as I was going to get him to change.

We went to the pool. They went to change together, then joined me in the pool. He got in without floaties first, and talked about the idea of learning how to jump in the pool. We played around until it closed at 5.

As we walked to the car he spotted a skeleton in the window of the art room. He liked it, but then invented a machine to show all the layers and systems, like in the anatomy app. He wanted to show the art teachers his app.

We got home at 5:30. He had a meltdown over Carly making him hold her hand and practice crossing the street, then when I stopped him from breaking apart a piece of styrofoam he found near our gate.

He calmed down ate a bowl of curry for dinner. He showed Carly the ant nest in the Insects app, which he had started playing at the playground. He was then playing other apps, doing his 20 minutes, but then got upset when it was almost over. Stopped the timer at 3 minutes when he stopped. But then he fooled me, coming back to the iPad, but then when I asked Siri to start the timer again he immediately left the iPad. He thought that was pretty funny.

They opened the caramel ice cream today and took their bowls outside to eat it. He came inside and did learning games on the iPad with me. Put a few words in Writing Wizard, then I reluctantly let him play the Sesame Street word cookie app. But he at least learned one new word: “Flit! That can be a word of the day!”

I took him up for his bath. He was really seeming sleepy, and whined about going to the bathroom. But then once in the bath he wanted to play. Put soap in and he agitated to make bubbles. He put bubbles on his face Nd called himself “Bubble man”.

On the way back downstairs he saw Candyland and really wanted to play it. Downstairs Carly saved me by playing with him, but he lost interest after about 30 seconds. He said he was hungry, but was then upset about food choices (his leftover lunch). He agreed to a slice of apple, then Cheerios. He was in the bathroom upstairs, playing in the sink, I think. As Carly came in he turned around and gave her a grumpy look and said, “You’re not good parents…you don’t let me make any decisions.” Funny, more than it was harsh.

Similarly, in on the bed he started with something mean, but it was actually a well-stated, calm statement of his feelings: “I can’t stand you…You annoy me when I am p
laying games and you tell me I have to stop.” I read a few chapters of Magic Tree House #25 to him. He got his water bottle and we filled it. Disaster though as he tried to set it next to my tea mug on the dresser and knocked over the mug. Literally the most destructive spill he’s done, as it got a couple books, and may have spelled the end to the table runner from Vietnam. I left them after reading a couple more chapters and he was asleep around 8:10.

Reading at school in the morning:

Ice cream:

We were all up around 7. I went down first and made coffee and got him vitamins and Cheerios, then went to lay back down for awhile due to a headache. I got up and took a shower and folded laundry. Downstairs he was going to the bathroom and Carly bribed him to wipe himself. He was excited about this: “I love treats…I love the rewards. That’s why I love cutting my hair and wiping myself. You convinced me.” He played Camping with Grandpa and finished a word search with a little help from me for the first time. He was then identifying the black-eyed Susans again and said, “I see them all the time in Pennsylvania.” He tried Bloom Flowers and really liked that. He narrated to himself how a dandelion grows from a seed.

Mikaela’s remote wasn’t working on her air conditioner and Shmuel wanted her to try one of ours. So when she said she could do that, August and I went to meet her at the gate. We kept going though, and delivered the remotes to her at her gate. August was happy to see her and dothe delivery. She tried both, but neither worked. She had mentioned that she didn’t have toys in the yard like we do. Back in the house he joked “She doesn’t have as much toys in the yard cuz when she went to the house she didn’t get a kid.” And said, “I put a magic doll, and when you go to the house you get a kid…so when she’s at work I need to do that.”

He had oatmeal, then we tried reading the first Boxcar Children book but it proved too scary. Instead, we did Skybrary, reading Sammy Skunk’s Super Sniffer and Bobby Baboon’s Banana Be-Bop books from the A to Z series. He then had “My special nose” like the skunk a described our scents. I joked that the word of the day should be ‘filter’, as in a filter on what he says. He was then pretending to be a baby on the “Last day in the womb”.

We then walked over to the mall. We stopped and got haircut appointments for Carly and me. Then went shopping at Tiv Taam, which went fine, but he was acting tired. We got home at 12:30.

I put away groceries and cooked hot dogs while Carly gave him a bath. I blow dried his hair a bit, then she trimmed his hair. They had hot dogs. Well, August started his, then said “I change-ed my mind.” He wanted the ice cream first. He did a good job of patiently waiting for Carly to finish her hot dog first. He asked “Is Mikaela here?” When the answer was no he said, “That means I can actually run!” He then figured out how to rip a layer off the lint roller, after first asking Carly if he could take one off.

They ate ice cream outside, then he played math games on the iPad. He found the skeleton app, which he hasn’t used in a long time, and was using it to tell me what bones I broke. I got the very green bananas (they had only had bananas, and they were small green ones) ready for the bread by baking them, smooshing them, and microwaving them. The vacuum cleaner stopped working on Carly and August suggested it was clogged. A minute later Carly took a clog out of the tube and it started right up. August was very excited and said, “I’m your assistant. If th vacuum cleaner shuts down just dial 123-drconpuppa.”

He then helped me with the blackberry banana breakfast loaf. Earlier, to Carly, he had said “everything dies…except for plastic.” He did more of the skeleton game with Carly. In the bathroom he proved he could wipe himself and pull up his underwear and shorts on his own, provided there was a lollipop afterwards.

He went outside for awhile. Inside, he quoted the Camping with Grandpa book: “Ready to hit the trail?” Cherie called on Skype and talked to August. She asked who his best friend was in school and he said, “Lydia!” And told her “I have two best teachers: Ms. Anna and Ms. Andrea…Ms. Marion.” He and Vivian then did a lot of typing to each other. Of just nonsense, of course. They turned it into a competition, of course, of who could type longer.

After they hung up he played the Mammals app and was making the elephant poop, talking about how many pounds of fruit or vegetables it was eating and how much poop was coming out: “That’s so amazing.” He asked me to be a patient again so he could diagnose my broken bones. I was telling more and more elaborate stories, to which he would just respond “Okay” then tell me what bone was broken.

Carly took him outside for a experiment, where they turned a cup with water in it upside down on a piece of cardboard and the cardboard stayed attached. The real word of the day became ‘air pressure’. I had downloaded a full anatomy app for him, not just bones, and he now played with that. He ate a small cucumber with Carly, then had curry for dinner. More anatomy app, and him being a “crazy doctor”. He played with Siri on the HomePod, having her play music, and did some dancing.

The bread turned out really well and we ate some bread. I then went for a bike ride before 7. The did science experiments: putting a straw in a potato,  floating (with peel) and sinking (no peel) orange, how water bends light by putting a straw in a glass, and invisible ink. They were painting with their invisible ink when I got back. He asked “Can I do it…like that famous painter?” He meant Jackson Pollock.

They were reading books in Skybrary and I took over. We read a little more, then he was ready for bed. He said good night to Carly and then I took him upstairs. He wanted to let his iPad run out of battery but changed his mind when I said it would probably stop his stopwatch. He explained that Vivian had confused ‘stopwatch’ and ‘timer’ and he thought that was funny. We brushed his teeth. We then read Madeline and realized we found a mistake in that there are 12 girls in one of the pictures, just one, when Madeline is still in the hospital.

We did the meditation and read the first story in Nightlights. I told an August story where he and Teegan are able to visit Ms Robin after school while their dads talk. They had received letters in the cubbies from Ms. Robin. They don’t have time to go down the tunnel, but Ms. Robin gives them silver nut keys and tells them they might help them to visit.

August said that August and Teegan should be the same family. We settled on a sleepover as a way they could find enough time together to visit Ms. Robin.

I sang a couple songs. He cuddled close to me, then tossed and turned for quite awhile. It was 9:50 or so before I was sure he had fallen asleep.

Resting or bored at the mall: 

Lollipop: 

Blackberry bread:

They were up about 6:40. He came down and watched a Wintegarden video on YouTube, then asked for the new StoryBots: “I like the cranky guy at the beginning.” He watched the episode on how the ear works, then went to the bathroom, then watched the one on how volcanoes work. He said he was feeling better so I didn’t have to take his temperature. I did anyway, and it was 38.1. So lower than yesterday, but still high.

He did a little beading with Carly, then read a little of Magic Tree House #24. Didn’t last long though. I finished french toast and he ate that and played the Sesame Street word cookie game. Carly took recycling to the cages. After we ate he played Sound Rebound. He applied what he’d learned in StoryBots about the ear: “I put a wall of these here so it absorbs them…it’s the eardrum…then sends it to the brain. “ He then made brains underneath “Mama! Look what I made! It’s an eardrum!” And he explained it to her.

I took a shower and they read Skybrary: Hungry Fox and the Midnight Pies, Oliver Otter’s Own Officr, Scrubba Dub, Carlos, and Happy, Healthy Ajay! They then did a science experiment with an egg. August was very excited about it. August pretended to build something and said, “I’m a great builder machine. You accidentally built it on Saturday.” The experiment was to float an egg in salt water. As they put salt in it he said, “Well, it’s rolling around. Maybe that’s what the salt does. It makes it smoother…” Carly transferred the egg to plain water and it started to make a little squeaking sound that sounded like. Bird. Carly joked that it sounded like an animal and it kind of scared August and he went and sat on the couch.

They switched containers and got the egg floating. He had an idea for another experiment: “Add pepper, baking soda, and an egg like this and the egg will explode!” They then did another experiment, seeing how food coloring moved differently in hot and cold water. August said, “So it’s a hot day, so we can easily get hot water, right?” carly asked how did knew know that and he said, “Well I put-ed a tube in your brain that puts it in my brain, so now you don’t know it, right?”

After that experiment he then whispered the water and oil experiment with me and he did it with Carly. They put food coloring on top and watched it drip through the oil to the water.

Carly headed to the store.  We read Let’s Investigate with Nate: The Solar System and read most of it. We then did another experiment – our classic with putting oil and water, then putting baking soda and old spices on top and seeing the clumps work through the oil and fell to the bottom. Then, bubbles of oil escape and go back to the surface. We played 5 minutes of Green Earth, then I tried to get him outside. He went back in for his shoes, but then wouldn’t come back out.

We read more of Magic Tree House #24. It talks about dynamite, so I showed gust photos of dynamite, and we watched a video of a house being blown up with dynamite.

We ended up with several words of the day, after August asked “Can we do ANOTHER word of the day?” They were ‘higher concentration’ (which Carly had explained to him during the egg experiment), ‘lend’, and ‘dynamite’. Carly got home. He and I put the words of the day in Writing Wizard. He managed to switch over and play Endless Reader on his own, then we made a person detector machine in The Everything Machine. We made it say things in a creepy voice when it sensed a face.

He blew his whistle and scared us. I asked “Who gave him that necklace?” He then called it “The goodest necklace in the world.” His temperature was now down to 37.4. He played on his own with the globe for several minutes. He ws talking about the Atlantic Ocean and Atlantic coast and some other things.

We cleaned up the experiments, then went upstairs to get Duplos. We discussed how I was still trying to fix Carly’s computer. He said, “Let’s go to the mechanic. The mechanic knows everything about computers.”

We built with Duplos and sort of did challenges, like seeing how wide of an object we could make with just a small base. Carly made a coconut curry. I asked August does when he wrestles with Carly. He said, “I just roll around and do sneaky stuff.” There’s something too about a fake hug wrestling move, but he wouldn’t tell me about it.

We watched a video about what your appendix is for after August asked. He asked because of the book Madeline. We went upstairs and poured out his treasures on the bed and talked about/played with them.

Cherie called on Skype. August thanked her for the necklace. Carly talked to her upstairs and August and I finished reading Magic Tree House #24.

Carly had initially made the curry spice, but managed to fix it. We ate some, then I went up to rest for awhile. I never had a fever, but think I was also affected by whatever August had. When I came down he asked “What does “well matched” mean?” It is from the Sarah and Duck episode where she gets a musical instrument. He hasn’t watched that in several days.

We got ready to go and left at 4:40 to go to Poleg Beach. We were out on the beach by 5:15. I sat and read, and they played in the sand, doing some digging. I went out in the water for a little while, then came back in with them. Carly took a turn out in the water. August sat on my lap and told me, “Dada, I love you but I don’t like that you’re not letting me read Captain Underpants.” He then spent a lot of time being a “wave weather machine”.

It was hard to judge the tide as it wasn’t changing much, but was slowly coming in. The entire time we were there there was a group of older kids who had made a pretty substantial round castle on the beach. They protected it from the incoming tide, but as we left at 6:50 it was finally crumbling beyond repair.

August and I had talked about tsunamis, and I’d assured them there wasn’t much likelihood of one, especially on the Mediterranean. He was continuing to be a wave detector and predictor and told me “In a thousand years there’ll be a tsunami in Israel. But we’ll be dead, right?”

We got home. I went for a walk and Carly gave him a bath. He was asleep when I returned around 8:30.

He woke up as Carly was leaving at 6:30. I was still finishing up in the bathroom so he started playing GroGarden as she left. I came down and got him vitamins and Cheerios. He watched Pink Panther and really laughed at an old one, where he’s on a cruise ship. A woman wears him as a fur and he said “She putted on Pink Panther!” When a deck chair chased him August said “A chair is running!” He spotted  a cat on a roof out the kitchen windows. #35. I mentioned how he was good at spotting things up high and told him about how he first looked up at the checkered light coming through leaves in Seoul on a walk in his stroller. It was between our apartment and the stream and the first Carly and I noticed him responding to something outside of his stroller.

He requested some of our bread and was randomly calling out chord names: “G majors…C minor…F…” He asked if we could read Magic Tree House #24. I read one chapter at home. On the way out the door he was looking at his Dr. Seuss backpack and said. “I have the worst backpack ever…I hate yellow.” Sorry, Gramma and Grampa. He’s never expressed a dislike for a color before. He also asked, “Do you think 9 or 10 people equals a thousand hairs?” We left at 7:50 and drove to school.

At school we sat outside and read a chapter and a half of Magic Tree House. He was calm, sitting on my lap, but as soon as I said I needed to get going he got upset and insisted I check on him during the day. I took him inside as the class started to get ready for a nature walk. He told me, “You can’t leave until you promise to check on me.” I reminded him that they had my phone number and would call me if they needed. He had me write down my phone number on paper so he had it himself but still wasn’t appeased – he wanted to know that he could call me any time he wanted. I said I couldn’t promise that, and it would be up to the teachers, and they would probably take him to a separate room. But then Marion came in and he talked to her about using the phone and assured him that the other kids would understand why he was using the phone, etc. When he was sure that she’d let him use the phone he let me go and they went with the “train” to start their nature walk. It was about 8:30.

I went to my meeting at Sabeel in Jerusalem. No traffic, so just over an hour. 

I never got a phone call from August, so I knew he had had a good day. He still didn’t eat any food, and he had to take a break outside with one of them during rest time (he later told me that he had helped set up for the tea party), but good overall. Carly said there might have been something robot-related for maker space. Finally, he said he didn’t any tea because he didn’t have a straw. He actually has one at the ready in his snack bag, so I’ll have to remind him next week. August said there wasn’t really maker space, but someone wanted to do the turtle cards again so he did that. When Carly picked him he wanted to keep my phone number in his cubby in case his teachers ever forget about him.

And Cherie had sent a charm necklace like the one Vivian had. Vivian’s was Carly’s old one, which she must have given to Cassie/Vivian a few years back. August had really liked it while we were there, so Cherie found one on Etsy. August really likes the whistle and toothbrush. When Cherie showed Vivian the photo of it, Vivian was now jealous that he had a whistle.

She took him to her classroom and he spent most of the time talking to himself and lying on the floor as she worked hanging up things up. And he stayed in the classroom while she ran to the office to get grapes out of the fridge.

I got to school and to the classroom at 4:45. He was playing on the floor. He requested my watch and continued to lie in the bean bag chair and talk to himself as he played with it. Carly said he could answer questions by running to the Yes, No, Maybe, and Don’t Care signs in her room. When I tried it with him though he said, “I’m to tired.”

We got going around 5. At the car I asked Carly about his hat. She went back to look for it and found it on a table in the grassy area. She must have dropped it when walking him to her classroom after school.

As I got him in the car he asked, “Am I ever going to be a professional wrestler? To get money? People actually do it…Mama told me.” Apparently she had.

We were home at 5:20. He lazily climbed on the couch and I asked him, “Are you feeling okay?” He shook his head no. I felt his forehead and he was hot. He was excited about StoryBots season 2, out today, and ppropriately chose the episode “How do you get a cold?” I went and got the thermometer and took his temperature under his tongue for the first time, getting temperatures of 38.9 and 39.1 at 6:20. Gave him some medicine. He switched to Pink Panther and we had him skip one of the war video game commercials that he likes. He said, “Maybe I should play this when mama is at work.”

I went for a bike ride. They had popcorn and then he ate a lot of apple. I read him some Skybrary books: Freda Plans a Picnic, Yoko Yak’s Yakety Yakking, and Oliver Otter’s Own Office. His temperature was down a bit. Skipped a bath and Carly got him ready for bed. Went upstairs with a bunch of books, but he was quite tired and went straight to sleep, by 8:40.

Woohoo! A new site. Uploading photos and videos will be much faster for me, it will be cheaper, and it is an eco-friendly hosting company: https://www.greengeeks.com/going-green/

All the old entries will eventually migrate over here (once Squarespace allows me to export the data). But for now the old site is at http://thisisourblog.squarespace.com.

I woke him at 7. He watched Pink Panther. When we was done with that I said it was a big day. First thing he said to me today was “I can’t do rest time by myself!” and started crying. He calmed down quickly, and asked if he could play with his bubble timer during rest time. I found it and we took it.  He did fine on the way to school, although as we got near the school he stopped and asked if I could pick him up at lunch.

Once there we talked to Marion. He wasn’t happy, so I took him inside. We timed his timer (a minute) and talked about how he could time rest time. And we read a book about a girl who takes a squash to school. Reia had joined us, and brought over a book about seeds. I said we should be outside so moved out there and sat on the ground. Reia lost interest, but August and I read the seed book. He was nice and calm now. I took him over to Andrea. He had decided he doesn’t want a mat during rest time and asked her to not give him one. I told her about the timer, and she asked August if he could show it to her. He agreed, and I was able to leave just before 8:30.

I told him I’d check in around 10:30, and bring a treat for him after rest time. I ran that by Marion. As I was on my way home I realized I didn’t have my watch. Oops. I was sure he was going to be excited that he got to keep it for a couple hours.

I rode my bike back and checked on him at 10:30. He was chewing on his timer. I didn’t see what he’d been doing, or whether he was just walking around, but he seemed happy. He showed me my watch. He told me he’d been exercising inside and outside and had made it to 30 minutes. He also said he had been letting other people play with it on his wrist. He was fine giving it back to me though. I checked in with him and reminded him I’d bring a treat after rest time. He reminded me of the candy place in the mall. He then said “So come back after rest time! Leave now.” So he was doing okay.

I went home and had lunch and worked, then I biked over to the mall. Ran out of time to get a haircut as I stood in line at the pharmacy to get a teething gel to see if that will help. At the candy stand I got bulk candy and got some chocolate covered pretzels, vanilla and chocolate disk things, and rock candy.

I biked home, then drove to the school. I got to his classroom at 1:35. He was hiding behind the water cooler when I got there. I took him outside and gave himself some of the candy I got from the mall. He said he had laid down and played with his timer during the whole rest time. I confirmed this with Marion a few minutes later. She said he did very well. He did not, however, eat a single bite for snack or lunch. I got his lunch and he scarfed down most of the noodles and mushrooms, some of his carrot, some apple, and part of a granola bar. I asked why he didn’t eat anything. He thought about it, then, with a straight face, said, “Well, I’m always really hungry after school, so I save the food for after school.”

Dropped him off a little before 2. Their choices after rest time are apparently garden, maker space, yoga (although not today), or playing outside. Marion told him to go ask Andrea what maker space was and he was excited by her answer that “it’s a place where we make things.” So pretty sure that was going to be his choice. I also introduced the idea of tomorrow when I need to go to Jerusalem and Carly just picking him up at the end and giving him more of the treat. He seemed fine with it since a treat was involved.

I stayed in the library then picked him up at 3. Andrea told me that he was the only one that figured out how to put the flashlight back together. They also played Turtle Cards. It is a programming card game and Andrea was the turtle/computer, moving around on the floor. We sat out on the PKB bench again and he ate his mixed fruit and his bread: “I’ve been thinking bout the bread all morning.” He didn’t bring up the treat again so we didn’t have more of it.

He needed to use the bathroom so we went back in his classroom. Amelia talked to him about figuring out the flashlight. Said it was the talk of the preschool.

We then headed to the pool. He was talkative about preschool. Told me that the treats helped him make it through the day. And that there’s a girl in PKC named Anna. Carly later said it was the sister of one of her students. But it is the first kid I think he’s ever told me about that I didn’t already know. He met her during gardening time today. Ms. Anna did the gardening time. He said he ate “Kale…it’s a little spicy though…but I love it.” He also said he’d call Anna “Ms. Anna Leaf Leaf” But then said he was calling himself that. He said he hadn’t played with Reia or any other kids, but they had only had a little time on the playground and it wasn’t enough time to play with anyone. He mentioned Pink Panther and I started humming the song. He joined in and we hummed it together.

He didn’t want to get out of the pool at 4:20. He talked about loving the water. He had a great description of being both warm and cool, but I don’t remember the exact words. He had wanted to show Carly the garden and have more kale, but we forgot to do that on the way out. We went home with her and were home before 5. He was a little upset about the garden, but okay with showing her tomorrow.

He played some iPad and played GroGarden and Camping with Grandpa. Carly made him pizza with mushrooms. He asked, “After I eat pizza, can you read the two lines book…appendix.” Figured out he meant Madeline. After he ate the first piece though they did Skybrary first. Carly read Carlos Listens Up, Oliver’s Own Office, the book about the adopted girl, and Yoko Yak. He then did his 20 minutes after dinner, choosing to play one of the pirate games.

He went to the bathroom and when he was done said of pulling up his pants “Lets start practicing.” He does most of the bathroom process himself now, but often kicks off his shorts and underwear and then needs help putting them back on. We went back to the pirate game. He told me, “We need to work as a team.”  A few more minutes of that then we read Madeline. He did talk me into using the iPad a little more when he wanted to play the testing game and use the combining of blocks in Toca Blocks to do so. a rather odd game, really, where I’d tease him that they were just ordinary blocks, then he’d combine them and they’d make something new.

I took him up for his bath. He made one good concoction, then a bunch of bubbles in his bath. Didn’t have to wash him much. He threw bubbles out to make bubble art, then we rinsed him. Downstairs he wanted to time me making the monsters on the monster cards. Did a few rounds of that, then checked the stopwatch on his iPad, which is up over 500 hours.

We then started reading The Scarecrow and His Servant, by Philip Pullman. August said, “Servant! That’s the word of the day!” I described a servant and August agreed he wouldn’t want to be a servant. We read about 10 pages though and he agreed that, in that situation, the boy was right to take the job of servant.

He said good night to Carly and I took him upstairs. He was singing a song that sounded like “Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes” and set to the tune of “London Bridge” and ended with the line “That’s my body”. He wanted me to sing it, but I had to convince him I didn’t know it. We tried to search for it on YouTube, but no luck. He asked me to ask his teachers about it. He wanted to watch videos about body parts and was sad when I said he couldn’t. I turned off the light and sang a couple songs and he fell asleep by 9. I waited to make sure he was asleep and fell asleep myself until Carly woke me up a bit later.

I woke him up at 7. We got going and to school a little before 8

He is having a sightly harder day today. When I dropped him off we had agreed on two and a half hours until I returned. I had also mentioned going home and coming back with the car later and he seemed okay with that. I got him to agree to two hours and forty. But then he wasn’t doing anything and was hanging around me. We kept talking and he asked for it to be 2 hours again. I agreed to 2 and then he let me go.

I walked home, then rode my bike back to check on him. He was sitting next to kids who were playing with kitchen stuff, but not playing himself. He handed me a button he had found and wanted me to put it in his treasures.

But then he asked to go home. He said several times “I’m really not learning anything” and that we should go home. I got him playing with some letter magnets and he sorted most of them into upper and lower case. We went and looked at the kids playing with clay. I talked about getting him doing something and he said “It’s okay if I don’t do anything.” I got him tracing letters on the magnetic board thing and he was okay with me leaving. He made sure I told Marion when I would return, then I could leave. I had been there about 15 minutes.

Rode the bike home and then returned with the car and swim stuff, in case we stayed that long. I picked him up right before 12. He gave Andrea a leg hug and they said they’d both gotten a lot of hugs and kisses today. We hung around for a minute, then were the last ones leaving, except for Reia. The teachers asked if she was going with me – they knew we were going to play with her. I said she could come sit with us over at the tables. So she went over with me and August and they both ate there snacks. August hadn’t eaten anything and she had most of her sandwich left. August shared his seaweed with her. He ate his mixed fruit and sweet potato bread.

Reia’s mom showed up bout 12:15. She showed me the books for the English reading/writing curriculum that she wants Reia and August to do together. Workbook stuff that I won’t have August doing.

They were then eager to go over to the preschool playground. Nicholas and Sophia were also there. August played on the swing and we made soup. Sophia had me twist her on the swing. August had never done that before here, then had me do it to him a minute later. He and Reia started playing together when they worked together to swing Reia’s mom on the tire swing. Then, they were getting on top of the car and fixing it together. August could now also get down from the car on his own.

They went to the bathroom, then August suggested the big playground. We headed over there and found that there is a couch next to it now. I joked that it was for the adults to be lazy on. August started playing and told me “Dada, sit on the couch and be lazy.” After a couple minutes he got on the spinning thing and could spin himself, another first. He said, “You can’t see me.” Like Sophia last year when playing hide and seek.

August and Reia then pretended to be invisible as they played on the play structure, claiming I couldn’t see them. Played along with that for awhile. We then did play hide and seek. First, the two of them were trying to find me. I hid about 5 times. Then Haoyi hid a couple times.

We were getting hot and August wanted to go to the library. He and I got Magic Tree House #23, about a tornado on the prairie, and sat in the back corner on bean bags. Haoyi had been surprised a bit earlier when she found out that we read chapter books to August, saying Reia wouldn’t last a page without pictures. August demonstrated his focus as we read the entire book. The first time we’ve read a full one in one sitting, although we’ve come close before. In the book, Jack has to pull with all his ‘might’, so that became the word of the day. He also later asked “What does ‘lend’ mean?” That is also from the book.

Reia came and went with us as we read. She played with a stool, putting it on the bean bags and annoying August a bit. She had brought over a book on Koalas and I read part of it and we looked through it for a few minutes. They lost interest in that and I showed August a book about Bedouins for a couple minutes and talked about Jordan.

They had to go meet Reia’s dad. He was showing up after picking up or dropping of the car at a shop. It was a new car on Friday and 20 minutes after taking it off the lot, as he drove to work, he was rear ended. August got book #24 and took it to Liz to check out. We left at 2:35.

He wanted to leave swimming to tomorrow and just wanted to head home. Went to the bathroom first, and we talked about playing with Reia. I said something about playing on the playground. He said “No. When it’s playground time I’ll just sit there and do nothing for TWELVE hours and do nothing…No, FORTY THREE hours!” He was excited that he had played with Reia, however: “I finally played with Reia!…but at school I won’t play with anyone.” I tried to get him to explain why and he said “I don’t want to. If I don’t want to I don’t want to play with anyone.”

In the car I asked August if he had any music requests. He said “I can just make music with my window. It has two notes.” And showed me some window music. As I started to drive he said, “This is AWAY from home, silly.” I told him I was happy that he had developed a good geographic sense from all of our exploring, but I had to drive around the roundabout before I was heading the right direction. Then, as we got to our house he was looking out and said, “Let’s park right there, in the shady spot.”

We were home at 3:00. I gave him about 25 minutes of his choice time, during which he watched Pink Panther while I made pizza, then we played the game on my phone. We exercised. August was wearing my watch when Carly called. He said “Mama’s calling.” He then had his first full phone conversation that he answered, talked though, and hung up. And it was on a watch. “Hello…Who is this?…Hi Mama!…at home…Okay…See you soon!” And hung up.

We then did rest time. Not great, but not bad. For my choice on iPad time I said we could do language or math. So we did some Hebrew in Drops, then some Quick Math Jr. Carly was home just before 5. He asked her if she’d found him any treasure, then asked, “Do you remember the instructions? Just keep your eyes open and look down at the ground.” He wanted to do an experiment and he and I looked at a couple of books for a minute, but really he just wanted to make slime. He went out with Carly and they did two batches.

I worked on Carly’s computer and did dishes. She then made noodles and tofu and mushrooms for him. He had his twenty minutes of iPad time and used it to play Dragonbox Big Numbers. He ate seconds. They read Madeline and I went out for a bike ride, as running has been hurting my knees.

When I came back they were out of the bath and reading in the bedroom. She had read a couple of the stories from the Nightlight book I had checked out. He didn’t like the stories, but it has really good pictures and they were looking at one that showed animals sleeping or hibernating underground. They were talking about it, and he was talking about putting a light down there to wake them up. He then asked her “How do you measure brightness?” He was actually getting upset when Carly said she didn’t know, as if he didn’t believe her. I walked in at that moment and when he asked me I said “lumens”. I then looked it up, and we ended up discussing the difference between ‘lumens’ and ‘lux’.

As I went to take a shower Carly asked if he wanted to read Ramona Quimby, Age 8 again. He said, “Yeah, so I remember it more.”

I went to take a shower.
I thought he would last so I could talk to him about tomorrow and I’d put him to sleep. But as I was in the shower Carly opened the door and had me yell a good night. He was asleep a few minutes later, about 8:30.

Fixing the car:

Tunnel; 

On the slide: 

He woke up at 6:30, right as Carly was about to walk out the door. She brought him down. The first thing he asked for was vitamins, which has never happened before. I got him those and some bread.

He watched Pink Panther and ate Cheerios and we got our timing down perfect again. Only hiccup on the way to school was that he had dropped a handle off the bike. Luckily, it was less than half a block that we had to retrace.

At the school we saw Anna taking in the bus kids. He gave her the bracelet he had made. I dropped him off just before 8 and that went smoothly. He said, “So you’ll come back in two hours. Then two more hours.” He and Andrea were talking about taking care of the plants. Andrea was asking him what they needed to do to take care of it. She was looking for “Water it.” He said, in his thinking voice, “Well, is it a shade plant or a sun plant?” He said it looked like a shade plant.

At 10 I checked in on him and he was doing fine. Marion said he didn’t eat anything again today. And that he spent a lot of time walking around and not settling down or playing with other people – I thought she meant for snack, but maybe meeting as well. But that he had been doing better since then. He gave me a couple beads he had found and seemed okay to me. Told me to come back in two hours.

When I came back just before noon he was standing in line waiting for me. Andrea said they had worked on their rocks and taking care of the plants. The rocks have their names on them and are for checking in to class each day. They will pick out there rock and put it in the ‘here’ pile.

We sat at the tables and he ate the fruit cup, part of his egg, and some of his bread, since he hadn’t eaten anything since some cheerios this morning. Reia and her mom came and sat with us. Her mom (How-ee) said that Reia had told her that August hadn’t been playing with her. I said I didn’t think he’d really been playing with anyone yet. I had a good talk with her though. They are from Hong Kong and spent 5 years in Michigan. She really wants someone to do a reading program with her kids and suggested August do it with them, with me leading it, but I don’t think that will happen.

They gave him some alphabet biscuits (cookies) from Ikea and he liked those.  August was getting on the tables, but then told me “I need some attention!” I talked to them about the names of the new kids in their class. August wanted me to learn the names from his teachers. I suggested we go in and look at the names on the cubbies. We did, and learned all the new ones: Judson, Bibo, and Eve, in addition to Lydia, which I had already learned.

Reia and her mom don’t have a car and have to wait around campus until her older daughter is done at 3. We arranged to play at the playground together tomorrow. I had promised August pizza today though so we got going a little before 1. We got to the mall at 1:35.

I think he was both frustrated that the play area was so busy and tired out from school. He zoned out and lay on the side of the play area for several minutes. When I went to get slices of pizza they only had two slices of olive left. August picked off the olives, and also refused any of the sprinkle stuff he had liked last year. Seemed happy enough about it though.

We went to the pharmacy and got vitamins for him and a new sponge for me. He insisted on choosing one though and settled on the pink one of what I wanted, after initially wanting a purple one I didn’t want.

We then went to Tiv Taam. Cheese and hummus and a couple other things. As we were checking out he found a little plastic hippo figure on the floor. A pretty good treasure find.

On our walk home we thought of three things we should have gotten/done at the mall: a haircut for me, fruit for smoothies, and teething medicine for him. Neither of us felt like turning back though. We were home at 3:25.

He played Camping with Grandpa on the iPad. He excitedly said “I know what a black-hearted Susan is!” and pointed to it in the game. I think the game had told him, but he’s heard about them somewhere else as well. We read some Ramona. He asked “can we buy a cat?” Luckily, I turned it around and once he remembered he was allergic to cats he didn’t want me to get one. He said “I can have lots of words of the day.” We settled on ‘seething’ and ‘pry’.

Carly got home. He got grumpy and mean. Wanted to only play iPad or smother Carly. Didn’t want to do anything. He ate a little pita, then was drinking milk and spilled it. The two of them went upstairs to wrestle again. When they came down he showed Carly his treasure from the mall. He talked about his ability to sense treasure.

They went outside, with him in underwear and shoes. He pointed out a seedpod, but later gave her credit for finding the treasure since she had picked it up. It was very nice of him. But then another meltdown and being really sad about the iPad. But when he was calming down and still sad he was able to talk about it to me well.

Carly made him a piece of french toast and he ate that. I then gave him a bath. He was quoting Pink Panther: “And I still brought home a doggy bag… Congratulations! You’re the first one that’s made it this far. Are you ready for the challenge?”

We finished Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and read Gustav the Goldfish and The Butter Battle Book. We went downstairs and while Carly finished getting ready we read Oliver’s Own Office in Skybrary. She took him in and I left them at 7:50. She was back down by 8:05.

Watching the kids play:

We got the timing down perfectly today. I woke him up just after 7. I had to tempt him awake with suggesting Pink Panther. He said “yeah”, then I let him watch two stories downstairs. When we turned it off to get ready to go he said “So you’re gonna leave for hours now.” He then asked “Are you still going to check on me?” I asked how many times I should check on him and he said “Just once”. And told me “So you have three and a half hours of work time, okay?”

He went to the bathroom and as we got going he made an O out of the straw things. He asked “Who wants an O in their name?” I pointed out I didn’t have an O in any of my names, and he said “Ryano!”

I dropped him off a little before 8. He was going to go check out the water table with Andrea and let me get going. Easy peasy. Carly said she saw him from afar as she brought down her Korean students to PKB to help with the Korean boy and that August seemed to be doing fine.

I checked in with him at 10. He was having fun inside. He made sure I was coming back in two hours, then said, “Okay. Leave now.” When I picked him up at 11:55 he was looking at a book with Marion and a couple other students. He had a rock that they were going to use for something. Later he told me, “We did a little scavenger hunt… Just for a rock. A rock that was special to you.” She said that he hadn’t eaten a single thing for snack. He was fine with them sharing the bread we made for snack though, and most of it was gone. He was jokingly telling her that it had peanut butter in it, but she said she believed me. It had also been difficult to get him to drink water.

We sat at a table and he ate much of his snack (the bread, primarily) then walked out with Candy and her mom. Both of the kids were slow as they kept wanting to play with things. August and I walked up to the park on the way to the dance studio, as we had peanut butter sandwiches in our lunch.

We negotiated bars in lunches on our way to the park. He wanted full snack bars for snack. We ended at part of a bar being part of his lunch.

At the park we went up to the tube, where I think he’s done space experiments before. As we sat in the tube (he fit better than I did, as I had to be sideways with my legs sticking out) he said, “This is what I do in preschool sometimes. I get in a special tube.” And he said, “I like every seaweed snack…can’t make me stop liking it.” And quoted Ramona Quimby, Age 8: “Dear Superfoot. Get well or I will eat your eraser.” He asked, “What’s ‘abandoned’ mean?” So that was our word of the day. He was wearing my watch and looked at the activity app. He chastised me: “You sitted around for two hours.”

Finally, he invented the backpack store game. It was a backpack store where backpacks cost nonillions of dollars. Customers would come in and not have enough money. He told me once “You need to collect some more gold. Just go to the beach…I have the perfect map…”

We got out and went over to the climbing and trampoline area for a bit. He remembered I had said he could play a little Green Planet on my iPad. So we played 5 minutes sitting on the trampoline. He needed to go to the bathroom and said it ws urgent, so he went in the dirt and bushes at the edge of the park. Finally, he played with some dials on the play structure, making potions. One of the potions, he said, turned a kid into a little swing thing he then sat and swung on: “One of these things…with eyes on it…so I could rock on somebody…made out of skin.”

With that we headed back to school, getting there at 1:45. We went to the library and he ate some more of the bread and got water. He was continuing his fear of monsters by saying “Oh no! Monster coming!” when he walked by the doors and they opened.

We went to the meeting with his teachers at 2. Talked to them about his tooth, rest time, and possibility of me volunteering. August started with us, then Carly took him to play around the room. They didn’t have a lot of answers about my questions about reading groups and specials and whatnot. Kind of surprising, since it all starts next week.

We said goodbye to Carly and walked home, getting here at 2:45. I asaked if he wanted exercise, food, or rest time. He chose exercise, so we did that, then read some Ramona. Then did rest time. I let him watch a Pink Panther after that, then he played Quick Math Jr. and other learning apps.

He ate some hummus and pita and part of a carrot with Carly, then they worked on some of their painting of the corner unit and his box rocket, then went upstairs to wrestle when he wasn’t really engaged in that. I made a pasta dish, with basil and sun-dried tomatoes and olives and olive oil. The pesto and feta on the side for August and Carly. He ate a little of it, but declared he was skipping the tomatoes and olives.

Carly gave him a bath, then we read in Skybrary: Carlos Gets Upset, Emma Left Right, Carlos Listens Up, Yoko Yak. He ate a few more noodles. I took him upstairs and got him ready for bed. I read “The Dream Makers” to him from the book I checked out in the library. He wanted more reading, but was clearly tired. I sang some songs and he was asleep at 8:55.