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He was up at 6:38. He went back in the bedroom so I went with him and we lay in bed for another ten minutes.

Downstairs we read the first half of What Do You Knoe About Earth’s Oceans? Oceanographer was a word of the day from that. We then read the first half of Tree Mail by Mike Raicht, a graphic novel about a frog that wants to be a delivery bird.

August then remembered the “What Happens if You Hold Your Pee?” Bright Side video he had wanted to watch, so we watched that. We started Minecraft buy then he needed to use the bathroom. He told me about how he uses rivers and conveyor belt sushi to deliver mail. Eventually we got back to Minecraft.

When it came time for breakfast he told me “I don’t think you and mama drink enough milk.” And he said, “Did you know I make rabbit liver pate?” He ate his oatmeal, then as we got ready we played the “Hey cop…” where the cop is repeatedly outwitted by a criminal.

We left at 9 and headed for Herzliya Park. He told me of his acoustic instrument he had made, then of musical instrument on conveyor belt with billions of 1s and 0s. We listened to Underworld and Story Pirates on the way down.

We were the first ones there and August rode his bike around the big ply structure. I helped push him up a hill and he would ride down. He made a comparison: “it’s like zombie flesh…gives you hunger and takes away hunger. Simile!” And he said his simile was cool because it compared two different things (Minecraft and riding his bike up and down the hill): “It’s cool…acoustic and not acoustic…” What he really meant was analog and _digital _ so I explained those, although he didn’t seem to entirely believe me, as he felt like analog was a computer sort of word.

Gilad and Lauren showed up. She said that the family with five kids wasn’t going to make it. Gilad coaxed August up on the play structure. I went up with them for a while. August had no interest in going down slides or walking on the suspended pathways. We went over to the little kid part and August rode his bike on that a bit and they played around. They then decided to ride their bikes.

We first headed up towards the boardwalk part, but the signs say no bikes up there. So we rode the path all the way to the south playground. Down there I called the water area a stream and he said it wasn’t because it wasn’t natural. I said it was a “man-made stream” and he responded, “What? A girl could have made it.”

The two of them played in the sand area for quite a while. We then sat and had a snack. Lauren and Gilad got going, and we left a couple minutes later. August was humming new music, and also hummed part of. Song he wanted me to identify. It turned out to be “Sentimental Wars” again, which was also the first song he ever did that with, bck in Kore. He rode his bike back up through the park. There was some military gathering happening, so lots of people carrying guns, and people doing tug-of-war.

We stopped to go to the bathroom before we left and he did a sliding stop. I pointed out his rubber trail and he admired that. We left the park at 11:30. He was rhyming words with pig and I used sprig so taught him that word. We listened to the rest of the Story Pirates episode on the way back and part of a Brains On! episode.

We were home at 12. We negotiated iPd time, then watched a Bright Side about oxygen. For lunch we had banana milk and chicken noodle soup. Then a video “What if the Moon Disappeared Right Now?” We went outside and set up the fort so it looked nicer when Eve and Zoe got here. He got the decorative tape and was decorating the bars of the slide. We then read part of Earthling.

We drove to school. On the walk in he told me he had invented a dog collar connected to Google Maps so people could find their pets. We picked up the girls, and Eve wanted to head to the library. Eve and Zoe ended up playing checkers at one of the tall tables and August watched. I found out that they had separated the middle school graphic novels from the high school and told Carly, as she had mentioned they should do that just a few days ago.

Eve wandered off and we found her playing with clay with Ms. Amanda. While they did that August wanted to find a book. I saw the Mr. Men books and we read Mr. Nosey, and Mr. Worry and then checked out Mr. Bump, Little Miss Sunshine, and Little Miss Naughty to take home.

We all headed to the house. The kids played around outside for a bit and I got more sheets they could use. They then proceeded to not play with the fort, although that was what they had been wanting to play. Eve started making potions and I stopped that as she hadn’t asked and I needed the kitchen to start making quiche. August had the idea of making potions upstairs in the bathroom, and he had me come up so I could explain what they could use a lot of and what they could use a little of and what they couldn’t use. That worked well, and I left them with two piles of things.

Carly got home around 4, so she was able to go and check on them a couple times.

August was doing invisible writing and showing them, and Zoe had been trying to play multiple instruments at once.

Dave came to get the girls (Heather is on the high school Week Without Walls) about 4:50. August got grumpy at first but got over that and was fine. I finished the quiche. While that was cooking carly made him the carrot and lemons dish and he ate that. We read the 3 books we’d checked out. Permitted was another new word. He ate a little pate and crackers, then had me trying to scare him—this was from the Brains On! episode where kids had been talking about why they like scary movies.

He has joked about “vanishing” me from the house; so I clarified vanished versus banished. He then had a Brother game where Brother was getting so much snot everywhere (August has been stuffier) that he gets sent home from school. He finds Sister’s diary left out and ends up ruining it with snot when he reds it. We watched a My Little Pony, then ate quiche.

His first impressions of the quiche weren’t too positive. He didn’t like how it looked. He ate a little, then a little bit more after a few minutes, then had a yogurt. He was then doing some music time with the keyboard when I left for a run.

She washed him and got him ready and I took a shower. They said good night. In the Zinnie room he had us do a Brother game where he was licking his hand and it was getting really dry, like what is happening to August’s hand. Yesterday he had let me put a band aid on it (he wouldn’t do cream) then took it off before going in the school because he didn’t want Jonathan or Carly to see it. He let me put lotion on it after he was asleep yesterday and it wasn’t getting worse today. Then another Brother game, also based on his life, where Brother gets cuts on his feet, then goes to the ocean and gets sand and salt in his cuts. Of course, it was much more extreme, with Brother’s feet being covered by bandaids, then getting new feet from Bar. When August had me telling it he was actually cringing and covering his eyes/ears when it came to the part where Brother ran on the beach.

We read two oldies but goodies, Lock Mess Monster and Hug Machine, which we haven’t read in quite some time. For the story of my life I started to tell him about Grandma and Grandpa Niman. Had some goal in mind but he got distracted on something. He then told a ghost story like he’d heard on My Little Pony (lots of connections going on—it had been the episode where Scootaloo gets scared of Rainbow’s campfire stories). Lights out at 9:10. He was really stuffy and said he wanted a new nose and hand. We got his water bottle. He sang a song about the water cycle (based on a chart in the ocean book we read this morning). We listened to Haydn’s String Quarter #4 and he was asleep at 9:45.

Riding the hill at Herzliya Park:

Sand playground with Gilad:

Humming a tune and Senrimental Wars:

Potions in the bathroom sink:

He had a restless night. He fell off the tall bed onto the low bed when I left the room to put my iPad away after finishing my ballot last night. Then he was up a few times during the night. A couple were near the morning. At 6 he started to climb down, then fell back to sleep with his feet down pressed against me and his head up on the top bed. I managed to get him all back up on the bed and under the covers.

He was then up right at 7. We played Minecraft, then he cleaned the downstairs toilet. He had cereal and milk for breakfast. He then got dressed. His tie dye shirt presented a problem as he couldn’t find the front, so I taught him how to look at the collar. He talked about how he was rich because his store sold so many things, and spent minutes listing things his store sells. Basically like Amazon but even more. He kept adding, “And don’t forget…”

We went outside and he spent a long time watering the plants. As he did so he asked, “Did you know I made a horror story and it all starts with aliens trying to destroy the solar system?” I used the word premise, when we usually talk about scenario, and he asked what it meant. He then asked “Where does a plant store water?” Vacuole was another word of the day and we read about why a plant droops.

Back inside he had a cookie and asked, “Do you know I make helicopter-shaped cake?” We got ready to go and drove into town. Parked in the dirt lot and went to the ATM at the bank. He told me about protecting a castle or something with a nuclear waste moat: “So put on your snorkeling suit!” He then talked about playing Minecraft in a jungle biome: “I have an army of oceots.”

Another good session with Ms. Shani. She had him stacking cups on the swing. She had him only using his arms to move around, focusing on upper body strength. Then, she put honey on the top of his mouth and had him practice the L sound. He loved this, and took to it right away. They did that for a while, then played a cooperative game where they stopped a fire from burning down a house. He was hesitant about it at first, but played the game. They went back to the table to look at their schedule, but instead of moving on do drawing, which was the last thing on it, he said something like, “Let’s focus on the important thing…the L sound.” He also said he liked doing it because “I like how it feels.” So he did more L work. Finally, as we left, Shani said something about the “good progress” and he said “No good progress. Great!”

We drove home from their. Lots of tree trimming going on, and I had to weave down different streets to get to our house. They were trimming the trees right across from us to the south. Luckily, these looked nice. But they have decimated the trees up towards town, taking off many years of growth and taking them back to looking like sticks.

At home he asked, “What’s umpass statement?” I didn’t know what he was talking about until he sang some words from “We are Young”. He had meant Empire State. We did L practice. I gave him a small bowl of honey. He used the spoon and did put the honey in himself. It was a good excuse for him to eat a bunch of honey. We made up a tongue twister for him: Little Llama Lillian licked lemon lollipops. We then did his Minecraft time, and he was telling a random story as he played: “Several hundred years ago there was a stone…we fed it bone…everybody got hungry…all the babies died.”

He had chicken soup for lunch, then had seconds. We were doing a brother game during this. He ended up working for a butcher after he left the animals out for three weeks while he was on vacation and the animals stole a ton of food from the butcher. Brother was then working for Bar, who had all sorts of choices of rooms for where he could work. He did his alone time, playing piano for much of it, and then played 30 minutes of Minecraft. We then read a couple My Little Pony issues outside and had crackers and the goose pate. Inside we finished an issue and August agreed to put a band-aid on his wrist where it is dry from rubbing his nose. He read a Rivet level 2 story to me. Then we watched an episode of My Little Pony.

We then drove to school. We first went to the band room and he delivered a bag of cookies to Jonathan and thanked him for letting him play the instruments. Jonathan gave him a big hug and said he’d arrange to do it again sometime. August was very happy about that. We then headed to the gym, as exercising there had been his plan. However, he spotted that I didn’t have closed-toe shoes on. I, however, had remembered and had our shoes and socks in the backpack. But then August decided he wanted to go to the library instead anyway.

There, he did more Minecraft block discussion with Amanda, then back in the kids area he did some art on the computer. I had found several books to try out while he did art, and we now sat and read a few. We read Penguinaut! and A Bear Sat on My Porch Today. He liked both, but only the latter well enough to check out to reread. I asked what he’d like to learn about, and he said the ocean. We found two books that he liked on the ocean, and also checked out Tree Mail, a graphic novel, and a Berenstain Bears chapter book called The Great Ant Attack. He also spent a few minutes making a sculpture on the rocking chair, and also rocked on it for a few minutes.

We got going and planned to head to the playground to do a Brother game. On the way he called out hi to Candy and Reia, then to Taya when he saw her. He changed his mind before getting to the playground as it was too windy. Out in the car, I was about to call Carly when she knocked on the window. She walked home and we drove.

He did his L practice with honey, then was watching a Minecraft video for his evening time. I headed up to do some work. He had quite a meltdown when his time was up after also doing an educational video. When I came down at 7 he was playing with his hair bands in the kitchen, making musical notes with them as he had them attached to the cabinet handles. Carly was on the phone with another teacher. He switched to rubber bands and kept playing until after 7:30. He figured out all sorts of things about the acoustics of rubber band notes. In fact, acoustic was a word of the day.

He had cereal and milk, then we did a Brother game with him working in the lab atomizing again. He had been pretending to be sick to get out of work.

I got him upstairs to take a bath. I had been trying out different music and he danced naked to the first couple songs of the 1985 post-punk release Back in the D.H.S.S. from Half Man Half Biscuit.

He then played in the sink, after getting a ball of hair from Carly’s brush. I washed him, and he told me “I once had a crazy dream…it was amazing.” It was half Minecraft and half real. “I think it is like your brain wants you to have fun in your sleep…because it’s so much time you’re wasting.”

I said good night to them around 8:30 and went for a run.

Putting on his shirt by himself:

Things he sells at his everything store:

Spinning in the swing:

L lesson:

Practicing L:

Close Far and our L tongue twister:

L with the app:

Practicing while he watches something else:

Rubber band instrument 1:

Rubber band instrument 2:

Rubber band instrument 3:

Hair fun:

He was up a little before 6:40. We read more of Olga and the Smelly Thing from Nowhere, then worked on our survival island in Minecraft. He had oatmeal for breakfast, and I had one of the new yogurts. He wanted some, so I got him a spoon to share from mine. He wanted his own though, and washed his spoon first as it had touched my yogurt.

Next was a bunch of Brother and Sister games. First was the one where they all need to use the bathroom and get stuck in the door together, then all pee. He liked the last line, “Let us never mention it again.” We then did the family reunion version, which ended with, “At least that was better than last year.” He then came up with the idea for last year, which involved them all fighting over a small cake, so we acted out that “backstory.” We then ended up in a story where Brother had powers, but it was just a dream, etc.

Carly needed a photo of her passport, so I got her that. We then did one more Brother game, where he played Minecraft in Myna’s world, which was set to hard.

We were then going to do art and writing on the iPad, but I couldn’t find the Apple Pencil. So August wanted painting instead. He painted one piece on his own, then wanted me to do a painting with him.

He had Skittles from his Halloween candy and wanted to see how they were made. We watched a couple of short videos about Skittles. He told me how he’s a company that makes candies.

Next was alone time, while I exercised. We did 15 minutes, then played Minecraft for that time, then 15 minutes more of alone time, followed by Minecraft.

August had cereal and milk and an apple and I got ingredients ready for making cookies. One last Brother story where he earns money to buy a lollipop for 5 dollars but it was orange, which he hates. He then throws the lollipop and accidentally breaks a window.

We made the snickerdoodle dough together, with him doing most of the mixing. He read a Rivet book about corn mazes, then we watched a Bright Side video on the fastest elevator. We put on the hair band thing and practiced writing numbers, using markers.

The dough was now cool so we made cookies. We watched Sci Show Kids videos on why we dream and why we sleep. We had a cookie from the first batch. Added a little more lemon and cooked them longer on the subsequent batches and they turned out better.

Next was music time, and we played with GarageBand. Using the onscreen drum kit we were working on rhythms like Jonathan was doing with him, practicing playing notes with both hands, not just left or right.

Finally got him dressed. He told me that Bar made something called BladderSeals that makes it so you don’t have to go to the bathroom for another 15 hours. That Brother game kept going and going.

We got out of the house at 3. August talked about “The beautiful noise from the building over there.” He meant the sound of kids playing at the day care. He added, “It’s what tells me to start my day.” I pointed out it was 3 in the afternoon.

We looked at our plants, more flowers have opened on the new bush, and talked to Shmuel. He asked us to water the plants outside his gate while he’s gone, and he also told us the Japanese woman is not moving in, as she’s had some sort of difficulty with money or visa or something.

August asked me, “How do our legs move us?” One we’ll have to look up. We went for a bike ride on my bike. We went 3.1 miles, our longest ride yet, and that was without stopping anyplace, except for once near the end when August’s chain came off.

We got home at 4. I had told him we could watch a My Little Pony, but he convinced me to watch more of the Phineas Rage Island Survival series instead.

We did that, then finished reading Olga and the Smelly Thing. He did more reading in Rivet, reading part of one book, then one called The Egg about Baby Dinosaurs. Then one about making a Rainbow Guitar. I then read Another Monstet at th End of this Book and They All Saw a Cat.

We did his evening time at 5, as August said that he and Carly had talked about that as a way to make it go better. Carly got home, and I made some of the chicken soup, using the broth mix, a carrot, and the little O noodles that he picked out. He had chicken soup and egg for dinner. Carly did the dishes. We then had a cookie, and they did a Brother Minecraft game. He was answering her Minecraft questions for a long time. Carly named a potion that was in the game, and he said, “You got one right! Good for you! I’m really impressed!”

He did art with the wrist thing. He decided to make something fun since she didn’t seem like she was having a lot of fun (we were discussing work stuff). What he did was make dots for her to then connect, like we’ve done in the past: “I knew you’d like it. I finally found something fun for an adult like you.” Carly mentioned collaboration and he asked what that meant, so a word of the day. He then her a test one – she was supposed to make it look like something. She made it look like a bird, I think it was, although she added stuff that didn’t involve connecting lines, so he said she had broken the rules. He then taught her about drums and making a rhythm that actually means something. I went for a run.

When I got back he was still on drums. She took him up and washed him. Some packages had arrived and we opened them: a Halloween card from Gramma and Grampa, a shirt with the periodic table on it (Carly explained the puns in it to August) from Cherie, and a second MEL Science kit.

They said good night and I put him to bed. He sang a random song with random words. We read the graphic novel called Earthling! When it was time to stop he didn’t want to and hit me. He’s never done that at a time like that. I got up, and left the room. Carly took him for a few minutes. I went downstairs and cleaned up, then came and talked to him in the bedroom with her. I asked what he expected to happen when he hits us, and he said, “This…I’m used to it.”

We talked a bit more, then headed back to bed. He told me, “People are making reservoirs of liquid nitrogen, you know.” He told me about medicines he had made up, then some other crazy machine. Finally had lights off at 9:45. He talked more about the meaning of life, and how there isn’t really one, then we listened to Sigur Ros and he was asleep after 10.

I put some lotion on the back of his left hand, which is getting really dry from the rubbing. I used regular lotion, but then I think he rubbed it on his face and maybe got some in his eye. He half woke up for a few minutes and was acting like he was in agony and bucking around. He remembered none of it in the morning though.

Painting:

Treats he makes:

Drawing spirals:

Reading about a rainbow guitar:

Singing about random things:

He sat up at one point during the night and swayed around for a couple minutes before lying back down. He then woke up at 1:30 and said his stomach hurt. I had him go to the bathroom and he said he felt better. He started to open the door to the bedroom before I reminded him we were sleeping in the other room. He went right back to sleep. He woke up one more time, asking to have the covers pulled over him.

He got up at 7:20. Very groggy and had me carry him down. After a little while we watched the start of the Formula 1 US Grand Prix. He recognized the names of the Mercedes drivers. He then watched Phineas Rage and had Cheerios.

We moved to books. I got more Sesame Street books, as they are on sale because Sesame Street is 50 years old. We read Another Monster at the End of this Book and then The Great Cookie Thief and How to be a Grouch. He did a lot of laughing. We looked at our plan for the day and he wanted to add in science. We started with educational videos, and he watched Bright Side videos on how touchscreens work (https://youtu.be/yU5kPoc7sL4) and how GPS works (https://youtu.be/wCcARVbL_Dk)

What’s transmit mean? Word of the day. He then told me about a system that only takes one satellite instead of four. “But I said it bounces of of stuff, so it can’t see through a liquid…” I think that is a detail he remembers about why mapping satellites can’t map the ocean floor.

He talked about a second satellite and how you had to download data from it, then about building a Mars base and a Dyson sphere. And then, “I’m starting to make time machines and spaceships that can escape black holes.”

Laser that punctures into another universe to steal energy “It’s kind of like a nail. Simile!” He’s also made a real effient coal plant, and drained the power from Betelgeuse.

We went upstairs for a Brother game. We now have a full sequence of back stories: first family pet tiger, ocelot at the zoo, finding Tigey. Downstairs he asked about ghost circles, from Bone, and I said I think they had been made up for Bone, unlike dragons, etc. which exist in other myths. We talked about folklore, and he wanted to see a folk tale. So we watched a video of a Chinese story about how dragons came to be (https://youtu.be/B-FhdksLz0c) After the first watching he said, “That was amazing. Can we watch it again?”

He got dressed, supposedly to go out to look for an insect for his bug catcher, but he never did that. He was hungry, so I made a smoothie. While I started to make that he opened Rivet and read a book by himself. That was really cool. We did a short Brother playing Minecraft game. Then stories where he let his ice cream and slushee melt. Brother talked about other ice cream times and animals on the beach instead and was upset when they melted. We got back to Rivet. I read a book called No! and one called Akku’s Angry. August then read a level one book about a rainbow cone to me.

For alone time he worked on drawing circles with the compass and then did other art. He was drawing Xs on a computer screen and their was some story about it. He sang, “everyone is stupid except me…except me, Dada, and mama…Just kidding.”

He watched more of the Phineas Rage island survival videos, then ate the rest of his piece of pizza, crackers, and hummus for lunch. We got ready to go. In looking for a chicken noodle soup recipe he declared that what he had wanted was just chicken broth and noodles. I decided it probably wasn’t worth making a full pot of soup then and that we’d try to find a can of soup instead. He told me about his new Mineceaft version: “The Wi-Fi edition!”

We got going and drove to the little mall. We parked and went to the bike shop. August saw the bikes that looked just like his, and he gave one a hug. I ws looking at the boxes of car bike racks they had in a window and trying to decide which I wanted. August was telling me to just ask, and that turned out to be the right choice. It turned out those were just empty, and they only had one choice. So we bought a yellow bike rack and took it back to the car.

We then went to Tiv Taam and did some grocery shopping. Got some chicken soup stuff and ingredients for a quiche. August got some banana milk to try, a new yogurt, and one of the pudding things he likes.

By the time we got home my energy was gone. We watched a My Little Pony, where they meet Babs for the first time, then did music time. We played around in GarageBand, particularly with percussion, then he did a little Simply Piano. He was just finishing that up when Carly got home. Soon after that we were discussing our day and he wanted to make snickerdoodles right then. I told him that was going to be tomorrow. He got upset and started hitting me. First time upset during the day.

Carly talked to him, and they went outside and he watered the plants. I was out there with them for a while enjoying the evening. He wanted corn so I brought him a bowl of it to eat and some banana milk (he had also had the chocolate pudding and some banana milk when we got home). At one point he skied about his evening time and I said he had two minutes so he should go have a deep conversation with Carly. They argued about the meaning of life. Carly wanted ‘love’ to be part of the equation; August was focusing on ‘fun’. He then changed tact and claimed that there was no single meaning of life. He claimed it was, “Nothing… You’re free (to choose)… Infinite (options).”

We went in and played Minecraft. I finally finished Brother’s house. We then watched a StoryBots episode about why people look different. I was excited to see Reggie Watts as a guest star in the episode. When that was over I went to get us food. I heated up the chicken Chong that he had wanted earlier but not eaten. I was sitting, looking through the fridge for something for me, and he asked about quiche and I said that was for tomorrow as well. He got upset and said I wasn’t letting him do anything fun.

We talked on the couch, then he went to eat the Chicken Chong. He said he wasn’t going to eat any food any more since it comes from poop (we had been joking about that). He ate though, and afterwards asked, “Am I made of poop?”

He was getting two Halloween candies, as it was a hair washing day. He ate one on the way upstairs. On the bed we read two more Sesame Street books I’d bought (Grover’s 10 Terrific Ways to Help Our Wonderful World and The ABCs of Cookies) and more Olga. He had some Cheerios, then I washed his hair. He was still hungry, so went downstairs for some of the new cereal and milk.

We got him ready, and I left them at 8:30.

Explaining his satellite:

Reading by himself:

Garage school song and dance:

Some keyboard improv:

He slept much better during the night. At one point he woke up and said, “Blankets, please.” I think there was one other point where he ws restless or sat up and I sat up and straightened the covers on him, but that was it. In the morning I finally got up before him, so this was the first time he was waking up in the Zinnie room on his own.

He was finally up after 7:50. I went up and he pointed to the room and said, “I didn’t see you.” I asked how he felt about that and he didn’t answer, but he seemed okay.

Downstairs, Carly showed him a big beetle that had died on our floor. He was pretty excited by it, and speculated about how it had starved. But then it was actually moving. August told us all about the features of his bug catcher as he went out and got it. We put it in the bug catcher and he looked at it a bit. We got it a chunk of carrot, but then he decided to let it go, so we took it outside and he released it by a bush.

Back inside we watched a few minutes of Formula 1 qualifying before he wanted his iPad time and we played Minecraft. He ended with a Mumbo Jumbo video of building silly Redstone things. That got his mind going and he was telling us about a Redstone city where people spawned over a slime block that they bounced on, then into a mine cart where they used buttons to choose where they wanted to go. He wanted to do a Minecraft Brother game with Carly. When she complained about being called Brother in the game he ended up joking about calling her Sissy instead and was laughing hysterically on the floor.

They went outside for a while, watering plants, then came in and played the Minecraft game over in the parlor/ply room (they argue about what it is called). I marked poems in the I’m Just No Good at Rhyming book to make copies of. They painted their sculpture thing that they started a couple weeks ago.

August then wanted a fort in which to test and mix colors. I made a fort with him over by the red chairs and found one of the new pads of paper. That’s as far as he got with that idea though. He was hungry and ate part of the rest of his sushi, then was really disappointed when the avocado that I cut up wasn’t good.We read more of Bone #7 and Carly made a berry smoother. I had him practice getting closer to the blender. He found he could walk all the way over and stand next to it. I congratulated him, and he was proud of himself and said, “I can get more comfortable, but still.” He called Carly’s smoothie “Amazing.”

They got going about a quarter to twelve. They went by the school for a bit. He rode his bike from the car to her classroom, and played with bubbles that she had leftover from something. They then headed to Mr. Gabi’s. August said they just did play dough and Monopoly, but did each for a long time. He left his hat there, so will get it next time.

They then went to the same pizza place they went to before in Herzliya, then down to the beach. He rides his bike from the car to both of those. Carly sent me a couple photos of his sand structures near the water. I noted that he was close to the water, and asked if he had actually gone in at all. She said that a wave got him a little at one point.

They got home about 5:15. I was still sitting outside at the table, working. Carly called her parents, and August told him about the band room. He said the marimba was his favorite instrument. He then wanted his evening time, and watched Phineas Rage doing an island survival challenge in Minecraft.

We switched to educational videos and watched a few Kurzesagt videos that went together. We started with the video “How Evolution Works” (https://youtu.be/hOfRN0KihOU) but it was pretty technical and we skipped the rest of it. We then watched “Are You Alone? (In the Universe)” (https://youtu.be/PKMQzkIiB0Y) and that may be my favorite Kurzgesagt video yet. We then watched the two-parter on the Fermi Paradox (https://youtu.be/sNhhvQGsMEc andhttps://youtu.be/1fQkVqno-uI

).

That got August wanting to play a Brother game and we went upstairs. Bar was building a robot city with other aliens outside Brother’s window. That went on for a while, then we switched to a storyline of Brother being fascinated by the zookeeper doors at the zoo and seeing a baby ocelot. He eventually steals the ocelot from the zoo, then is just sneaking in at night to visit it. When he falls asleep and is found in the zoo the zoo makes him a junior zookeeper and he works with all of the cats.

Carly came by and heard us talking about ocelots. She asked what an ocelot was, before August closed the door on her. I told him a joke, and he opened the door and told her, “Well, it’s a lot bigger than an ocelittle.” He was very happy with that joke. The game continued on with ocelots and servals.

When I wanted to stop he called me a dummy. I switched with Carly and I finished the dishes. She got him an apple and carrots for his final food of the day. He has also decided that he wants to have chicken noodle soup sometime.

I took a shower Then Carly gave him a bath. He told her a story about how he had videotaped someone turning on the air conditioner of their car and ants had come out. He had put it on YouTube for people to watch.

He then told her, “Wait a second, I’m feeling a little peckish.” We tried to figure out where he knew that phrase from, and he remembered it is from “Mr. Greedy and the Gingerbread Man”, although it is phrased differently (something like “his stomach was peckish”). So it seems like he heard it somewhere else as well, and clicked again when hearing that story recently.

They said good night. We insihed reading Bone #7. We talked about people dying in war (after discussing the one, maybe two people that we know have died in the Bone series). He was then lying on his bed turning the lamp and light on and off as the sun for the planets on the ceiling: “Actually, logic kicks in…logic wins.”

For his story from my past I told him about being in Campfire and the Natural Wonders book I got. He thought it was funny it was called Campfire and we never had a camp fire. Also, at first he wanted me to just call it Sparrow Scouts, like in Hilda.

He admired Cherie’s fish picture again and said, “She can draw anything…I want to be like her when I grow up.”

We listened to the rest of the Haydn #2 string quartet, then part of #3. He was asleep about 10:10.

Releasing the beetle:

Laughing at Marshy again:

Making a robot civilization:

The day got off to a bad start with August waking up 4 or 5 times during the night. Also got him right back down, but it didn’t help. At 6 he woke up and asked if it was morning and I convinced him it was still too early and he fell back to sleep again until 7:15. I took him downstairs to Carly, then went back to bed. It took quite a while before I fell asleep, but then I didn’t get back up until close to 10.

I read part of Bone #6 to him, and got him beets and carrots when he wanted a Halloween treat. He then chose Milk Duds. Carly was talking to me about her concerns for Get to Know You Day. August got involved, trying to get her to not worry about it by flipping over the kitchen rug to show her how it was dirty: “Now you have something else to think about…kill the creepy crawlies…that’s what I call them.” He helped her vacuum under the rug and I went back upstairs to rest and took a shower.

When I came back down he was doing alone time, then watched something with headphones. I went up and folded laundry and listened to The Overstory. I came back down and Carly was doing more cleaning. August was eating quesadilla and carrot and some fruit. We opened the sand timers from Max and found they were encased (a 1, 2, and 3 minute timer) in block together, which he initially didn’t like. His idea for the timers had been to time me doing art (like Picasso doing fast art) Nd he and he ended up timing Carly doing art. I heard him encouraging her with things like, “Youre a champion…I love it.”

I heard him explain to Carly that when he grows up he’s going to have a weapons factory, but it seemed like it was to make weapons for your body to fight germs. I was upstairs resting and sleeping again. They eventually, around 3 or so, left to go to Tiv Taam and get dinner at Sushi Ishimoto. I slept.

They didn’t get back until after 6. Sushi Ishimoto had taken a long time again, to the point that Carly went and inquired about their order. August did fine though, and they did a lot of math along the way. Carly would say a story problem, and August would distill the math problem from it, although he wouldn’t necessarily then do the math problem. She talked about one that was something like 12 boxes with 10 things in them and he said 12×10. She then said 12 boxes and 20 things. He surprised her by explaining it would be the previous answer times 2.

They got back and we ate. He got the same sushi as before, but this time veggie combo came with the seaweed on the outside. He found it harder to eat this way. He also thought the middle of the crunchy roll looked different and wouldn’t eat that. He was saying, “I regret my order.” I called him exasperating and that was a word of the day.

He watched more video for his evening time and he ended that okay. We then switched to educational videos, which had been his deal with Carly. We started on on The end of War? but he didn’t like that, so we switched to SciShow Kids and watched “The Tallest Tree.” He really liked that, but said it was too short and insisted on another one and got upset.

Eventually, I read Creepy Carrots then we started Bone #7. He was hungry so had the lemon pie yogurt he had picked out at the store. He told me about his coal currency for his underwater city. And how they use nuclear waste to fish. He told me about making a nuclear bomb in Minecraft and traps he made. He then talked about add-ons for Minecraft.

Carly gave him a bath. As he was drying off he spotted cockroach antennas poking out of a little hole at the base of the doorway to the bedroom. Carly got the roach poison and we squirted a bunch in there.

He had been wanting to hang up Carly’s art in the stairwell, so they went and did that, then she said good night. I put him to sleep again. We read The Monster at the End of This Book, which he thought was absolutely hilarious, and the first few chapters of Olga and the Smelly Thing.

He had started to repeat the phrase “I’m gonna wring your scrawny neck” today, mostly just in fun. It was from Bone #6. Had to explain that that was not an okay phrase to use.

He explained one of his jobs to me: “I search for anything that could lead to disaster and I fix it…” “solderen it together…” Think this idea came from the My Little Pony episode where Twilight meets herself from the future.

For his bedtime story I told him about some of my best friends as a kid: Steven, Tim, Tristan, etc. I put on a rather ambient album as we turned out the lights. I asked him if he preferred that or a string quartet and he chose a string quartet. So I put on Haydn’s string quartet #2 and he fell asleep to that at 9:40.

Timing Carly doing art:

Crafting a nuclear bomb:

Laughing at Grover:

I slept in, and we got up at 7:15 together. He told me about a conveyor belt to lift up the Titanic. It uses diamond posts, robots, and nuclear fusion. He then played Minecraft and let me go up and take a shower. I went back and played with him, almost finishing the tower of the house I’m working on.

I got carrot coins. He ate those, then chose a Twizzler as his treat. He did art. He was drawing naked monsters. I said he was lucky that he was doing homeschool. A teacher might say “You can’t draw naked monsters, Augustus! No! No! No! But Augustus said…” And he finished with the line from Picasso’s Trousers: “Yes!” And he said, “But the kids would love it.”

We then watched the first two episodes of season 3 of My Little Pony, then got ready to go to school. Jonathan had invited us to the band room to play some of the instruments. We got there right at 10. He wasn’t in the room, but a woman, Noam, I think, was. We looked at the instruments a bit, and she showed August the big marimba. He was playing that when Jonathan got back. Jonathan then gave him a full tour of the percussion section, starting with the bass drum, then the gong. They then moved on to the trap set and played that together. They had also tried the cymbals, but August wasn’t a fan of smashing them together so close to his face.

He did the slide whistle, then moved on to the tympani, his favorite instrument from the concert. He liked those. They then did the mallet instruments: the marimba again, the glockenspiel, and the vibraphone, which he liked the pedal of.

Next was the theramin, which was pretty cool. Finally, I reminded August to ask him about conducting, and Jonathan took him up on the podium and showed him how to conduct.

Before we left, Jonathan showed him a couple of small shaker sort of drums and the fish sort of thing (like August’s frog). And he finished by giving August an egg shaker and showing him how to do a rhythm with it. August got it down pretty well, and was very excited about getting the shaker.

We said goodbye, and on the way out of the building we saw Airport Megan coming into the art building with her class. August told her about how Jonathan had just let him play the instruments and he showed her the egg that he’d given her.

I told August that we might be able to see the baby chicks if we waited for a while. He liked that idea, so we went over to the library. There, he told Amanda and then Ilana about Jonathan and the egg shaker. We lucked out and found both Bone volumes 6 and 7 available, so checked those out. We read a little of #6, then he was hungry. We started to head out, but then Amanda had a set of the VR goggles set up and showed him a moon mission. He played with that for 5 or 6 minutes.

We went out and sat in the lobby and had a snack. He read a lot of words off of a poster of questions about a book called Marilyn’s Monster. We saw Dudley and Mandy walking up the stairs and out the building. August called to them, “Hey Dudley! Hey Mandy!” He then suggested, to me, that Mandy should be a custodian, and rather complained about how much garbage they had picked up when they had babysat him: “I hated how much trash they picked up…I think if it was pouring she’d still be picking up trash.”

At 11:30 we walked down to see the chickens. As we walked by the preschool August made up a “Three cheers for preschool!” chant. Ben Ben saw him and I heard him say, “That‘s my friend August. He was at my birthday.” Which was doubly impressive because Ben Ben wasn’t really talking until recently.

We looked through the fence at the chickens for a bit. August was ready to go as he was hungry and wanted to go home for lunch. Then two middle school girls showed up. It was Cecilia and Yara, who are in Carly’s homeroom. They let us in and August pet one of the chicks while they held it, then pet another on the ground. We didn’t stay for long, but it was fun.

As we left he did the “Three cheers for preschool!” cheer again, and he told Andrea that the vines needed to be trimmed. As we left he told me, “Preschool’s still my favorite part of school.” As we walked out of the school we saw a group of 8th graders coming in, including a few we knew, like Lillian and Grace. August was then complaining about teenagers: “Crazy teenagers!”

We left at 12 and headed home. For lunch we had avocado, crackers, and orange. We watched Kurzgesagt videos on Consciousness and Egoistic Altruism. He then did alone time and I curled up on the couch. I’d used all the energy I had had on the outing. he told me that Jonathan should have the band do Chemical Brothers or “Pay Your Dues” from his playlist. He then left me alone and I fell asleep. He politely got my attention when the timer had actually gone to 34 minutes.

For his time he watched a Bright Side about asteroids hitting the ocean, then a Phineas Rage video. He asked, “Did you know I make educational LEGO videos?” He said he teaches science with them, but they are all made of Legos.

I recovered enough energy and we went out for a bike ride. As we went out he told me “I found a way to use numbers to make things in your mind.” And he demonstrated. As we rode around he asked what gravity was. He argued it was a thing. I argued it was more of a property. He had an analogy involving a computer simulation, vanilla, and old milk to argue otherwise. On the way he had said that he makes highway sound barriers for his job, then when we stopped at the park on Vatikim he talked about how he teaches complex math in his lab (after I mentioned how Brilliant now has a pre-algebra course). Previously he had mentioned teaching brain surgery. I commented on all his jobs and he said, “I have a lot of jobs. That’s why I have a lot of money.” We had also discussed headphones and how he wants ones that cut out the noise.

In the park we went on the merry-go-round until I didn’t feel like that any more. He then had a Brother game where Brother was working for Bar. He worked in her lab, atomizing random things into their elements. Bar was kind of a tough boss, getting annoyed with Brother when he asked questions. She said that all of her other employees already knew these things. Brother also kept asking if he could atomize things like a couch, and August would reply, “No! That’s part of the staff lounge!”

August then noticed that the toys that were missing/broken yesterday (the ball thing and motorcycle) were back. The ball thing was returned, and the motorcycle was replaced with a new horse thing. Now that’s service. He then had more Brother game, with sister going ballistic over something, only to explode in cake. It was a practical joke from Bar.

We got riding again and went up Kibuts Galyeot. We stopped to look at a few boxes of books, but nothing too interesting. He thought about getting some books for Eve so they could have them in the fort. He seemed to think that Eve could read Hebrew because she’s said a few Hebrew words she has learned at school.

We were home at 3:55. He told me, “Did you know when I was mining I found a painting by Picasso? It was one of his faces facing this way.”

When Carly got home I was going to go upstairs and rest, but he wanted to do music, and I ended up doing music with him for quite a while. We started in GarageBand, but then ended up in TableTop, where we added to a tune we had before. August then sang along with it, using the words “You understand.” He had a cool rhythm going with it, although I only got the last of it on video. We then did a second song on TableTop. We got some vocals from him recorded, but not as much as he would like. It was a good start though.

I then went up to rest. They did his evening time, and Carly eventually took him up and washed him and brushed his teeth. He then told me about his wind catcher inventions. It seems like it can collect wind, then blow it all out at the same time. He said it could blow over the Eiffel Tower (“What is that tower in Paris called?”). We read Bone 6, starting from the beginning. He was slow getting ready for bed. He said good night to Carly and I put him to sleep in the Zinnie room again. He wanted me to make up stories from my childhood. So I made up one of sliding down the bank into the Chelan River (Carly’s fear) and how I rode the rapids all the way down, and had to walk back up the road. By the time I got home I had dried out and no one believed me. And then a second was about dropping my teddy bear from a tall bridge. It went down a river to the sea (which was close) and Gramma swam out and saved it. It had a funny ending, as we were then walking back over the bridge and a bicycle ran into us and the bear fell in again. Gramma said, “Once is enough” and we kept walking.

I had the lights off at 9:15. We listened to Haydn’s String Quartet #1. He asked about conducting it again and we practiced. He then fell asleep near the end of it, at 9:35.

Music room – marimba:

Music room – bass drum:

Music room – gong:

Music room – trap set:

Music room – timpani:

Music room – theramin:

Music room – conducting:

Egg shaker:

Petting the baby chicken:

Three cheers for preschool:

Using numbers to represent things:

Explaining gravity:

The new horse:

Making up a song:

Recording his vocals:

Singing along to our new song:

He was up right at 7:15. About the first thing he said was “You should be Brother risking his life to go in a sewer.” “To see all the cute creepy crawlies.” He then had a little chant/song about Brother going in: “With no safety gear, gush gush gush.” Brother found an animal that he called a Subird. Then he discovered a Pegasus in the jungle. The baby only eats cocoa beans, palm leaves for breakfast, ripest mangos. We played that for a long time, then I finally got him downstairs at 7:50 to play Minecraft. On the way I got my sweatshirt out for the first time, and also took down a blanket. Don’t know if it was just because it is getting colder, or because I’m feeling a little under the weather.

In Minecraft I almost finished Brother’s house. We then watched a Bright Side video about dehydration as I got ready to go.

We drove down to Ra’anana Park. We parked and he rode his bike up to covered playground. He and Gilad rode their bikes around. Lauren and I were trying to talk about things like the OT, but August kept doing one lap at a time and stopping to talk to us. Hard to carrying on a conversation.

But then they both went to play on the merry-go-round together so we moved over there. They played on that the rest of the time. I helped push a few times, or put the backpack on in their luggage part. But mainly August stood on the edge and pushed with his foot. They got off to have a snack when a little girl and a woman came along to use it.

We got going at 11. I had thought of stopping to buy a bike rack for the car, but I was slowly feeling more and more sick and didn’t feel like it. At some point August was telling me how he’s going to destroy the moon to kill aliens that would otherwise invade us.

At home I made a lunch of an avocado sandwich after we shared a bar. He then played Minecraft with Gilad. On his own he had asked Lauren if he and Gilad could skype while they play, so we set that up. That worked well. They played together about 40 minutes.

He had more vocal, then watched Kurzgesagt videos on immune system, Ebola, and measles. We left at 1:25 for a bike ride. We ended up on the other side of the cloud bridge and were coasting down the hill to the right and riding back up. Did that twice before I realized there was glass all over the place. August wanted to come back and clean it up sometime. August was humming a lot as we rode around. On the way back there was a big tractor and what looked like a group of Japanese tourists on some sort of work trip over in that fruit tree grove by our house.

We were back at 2:05. He wanted to do a Brother game, and we realized that we had totally different views of what the park looked like that Brother is always walking through: he pictures a playground and grass, whereas I was thinking like a forest. This time he met a girl named Tame. She works with animals and was studying a tiger. He said, “Something will go wrong! Something always goes wrong….Just like in your story dice.”

We then got ready and headed to school to pick up Eve. We got her, then went up and met Heather coming out of the art building. As we talked to Heather August said, “Oh, I can teach you something early.” He taught her about the signs of dehydration.

We headed home. I made Eve and August chocolate milk and crackers and meat. August rejected a straw after Eve had touched it, because of germs. She claimed “I don’t have germs on my fingers.” He didn’t buy that. They were quiet for a couple minutes, then we went out and spent the rest of the time working on the tent/fort.

We got sheets and pillows and they expanded it. The main room was the living room, and August made a bedroom that was outside, while Eve had another that was more covered. They debated the merits of each, and traded back and forth. Shmuel talked to us through the fence. August said hi to him. Shmuel asked if we could share internet with the woman that is going to move in downstairs next week. She is a judo coach for the national junior team. I agreed, figuring that would be a good don’t-mind-our-noise move.

August watched the welding going on in the yard down below from the top of the slide, and Eve spent some time pushing August around the yard on his Pororo bike. I think he was calling her something like “Mommy.” Eve left at 5:15. Heather and Zoe were impressed with their fort.

At some point after that I told August I should tell him I love him ten times a day. He replied, “That sounds good.” We watched the last My Little Pony episode of season 2, then the “Too Many Pinkie Pies” episode in season 3. He was laughing hysterically at that one.

Carly got home kind of late, after a department meeting. August had his evening time and dinner, and I rested for a while. She got him upstairs at 8. They played the tea game. He was saying “poop and pee!” and aughing hysterically. I read him two Mr. Men stories: Mr. Bump and Mr. Nosey. He did a long good night with Carly. He asked what a back spasm was and she looked it up. She also explained what a muscle contraction is.

We went into the Zinnie room and did a Brother and Sister game where they go to get a pet for the first time (a “back story”). They go to the humane society and end up with a baby tiger. I put on a Mozart string quartet and he asked about conducting, so we practiced the 4/4 conducting pattern, and also 3/4. He fell asleep, finally, to the string quartet at 9:40.

Merry-go-round with Gilad 1:

Merry-go-round with Gilad 2:

Merry-go-round with Gilad 3:

Skype and Minecraft with Gilad:

Fort with Eve 1:

Fort with Eve 2:

Pushed on the bike by Eve:

August woke up a couple times, I think with bad dreams, and there was a dog barking all night at a house across the street. Sometime around 4 August woke up, then the dog was barking and I couldn’t get back to sleep. Finally, it was quiet for a few minutes, but just as I was falling back to sleep the dog started barking again and August woke up again. When he was asleep again I got up and went out to figure out where the barking was coming from. It was coming from two doors up the street from the house across the street. It stopped as I got close, so I wasn’t exactly sure of which door. I headed home and didn’t hear another peep. There were lights on at the house too, so maybe they saw me coming.

I decided to just stay in bed until August was up. He got up at 6:25. We went down and saw Carly before she left. I rested on the couch and August chose to watch Phineas Rage Minecraft videos for his morning time. That worked well. He had some dry Cheerios, then frozen mango. Trying to curtail the eating of anything else on the couch, as it’s started to look pretty dirty.

When his time was up I let him finish watching the video he was on, which all went well. But after his time was up he started to demand that I let him earn time to watch another one. Before I could even say a single word he was repeating it for the fourth or fifth time, starting to yell it. Then when he did let me talk and I started to explain our schedule and said he had did have time, he demanded again and hit me in the arm, even though I had been in the process of agreeing with him. He curled up on the couch for several minutes.

When we got going again we got out his stack of art I’ve been meaning to hang up and we made a gallery up in the stairway. He hung most of the pieces up after I put tape on them. One of the things we hung up was his strength potion recipe and he wanted to make a new one, this time without paprika so he could actually make it and drink it. So he came up with a recipe involving vanilla and sugar and flour and we actually made it. It was pretty good, and he drank most of it.

We then did some music time. August wanted me to write music for him, and at first I realized we could use printed out paper to make it easier to actually write notes. So I had a template and sent it to Carly to have her print it. That didn’t solve the immediate problem though, then I remembered the Notion music notation app that he used to play with a lot. I used it to write simple lines, and then he played them on the keyboard. We then switched, and he was writing music for me to play. I was getting him to choose between half, quarter, and eighth notes so it was actually playable. Worked really well.

We got going to Ms. Shani’s. With the extra hour in the morning it made that quite easy. On the way he told me of a glider plane that was covered with microscopic things that provide lift and holds hundreds of people.

He had a great session with Shani. He was ready to go and had ideas. She had a hammock swing attachment on this time. First they went to the table and drew out their schedule of activities. He played around on the swing, then we sat on the floor and watched a video on noise overstimulation (https://youtu.be/K2P4Ed6G3gw) and discussed noises. She had the idea of him trying to slowly get closer to the blender, vacuum cleaner, etc. He talked about how it’s gotten better, and he doesn’t have to cover his ears for the blender any more. At one point he made an analogy of noises getting louder to a star getting bigger. He then acknowledged the limit of his analogy and how starts then turn into white holes or black holes and ws telling her about black holes. The only thing he said really bothered him was loud restaurants, and described the noise as “the blah blah blah.”

Back at the table they looked at their plan again. She told him, “You’re such a smart boy, so I want you writing soon.” They got the robot puzzle toy out of the cupboard and he remembered playing with it at school with her. For the third activity she was having him drawing circles and coloring them in. She was keeping his elbow on the table. She had made the hair band bracelet thing for him again and asked us to use the bracelet anytime he is writing or drawing. He seems open to it now, whereas last spring after she left the house he’d said he’d never use it. Finally, they played with the putty, stretching it to find the beads. She had said she would give him a little bit of the putty, as he had wanted to experiment with it (I think he wanted to put vinegar on it) but we somehow left without both that and the hair band thing. Oh, and when she’d first talked about overstimulation he had said overetimulation was like cubby and he didn’t like the word: “They’re both gross.”

August had wanted both oranges and avocados (we had smelled oranges, and he liked the avocado in the sushi) so we drove into town and went to Stop City! They had both of those there, and a couple other things we needed, like crackers. He also read “Oatmeal Squares” on a box of cereal and asked to get it, so we did. As we shopped he said, “I want to be a grocery person when I grow up.”

As we walked to the car I used the phrase homeward bound and he asked what it meant. As we drove, he told me, “Actually, I want to be a person who cuts down trees for safety.”

At home we tried the new cereal with milk. Nice and cinnamon-y, and not too sweet. We then had avocado and crackers and watched the last two episodes of season 2 of My Little Pony. We then played Blue Apprentice for science time, finishing the plants/carnivores/etc. chapter.

That was a lot of sitting around (although earlier I had pointed out to August on the way home that it had already felt like a full day) so we now got out on a bike ride. We rode around, venturing as far as the strawberry fields, but going no further from home; he says that’s the safe distance for rain.

We ended up over at the park on Vatikim. He wanted to get off and play, so we did that. He noticed that the ball chute thing was missing, and that the motorcycle thing was missing its handles. He also said that maybe he should be an electrician. I don’t know where this interest in jobs has suddenly come from.

Carly sent a messages saying that Shmuel had tried to call her. So we got on the bike and headed back to the house. On the way, August said he had learned that you should take notes as a gardener so that when you plant something again you know what happened before.

It turns out he had left a rose bush for us. We talked to him about it first before seeing it: it was a really tall, scraggly thing. We went riding some more, doing two and a half miles total. We were home after 3.

I made a smoothie to test his comfort level, after he said he found he could stand right by the counter with the te kettle on. He was comfortable with the blender while sitting on the edge of the couch, with his ears not covered. While we drank the smoothie we watched a Kurzgesagt video about Loneliness (https://youtu.be/n3Xv_g3g-mA). There was an ad for a meditation app. He said, “I actually believe the more you meditate the less you get stuff wrong.” He then watched the video about Optimistic Nihilism (https://youtu.be/MBRqu0YOH14). He was really interested in both. Somehow at the end of that one we ended up talking about his theory of multiple universes: “It’s not like it’s islands and you have to swim to the next one…”

He then talked about making a galactic empire, as he had thought that line in the second video was quite funny. He said, “And I’m going to make a flag for it.” He asked, “What is the meaning of life?” After I said something he added, “And to make a galactic human empire.”

He did alone time, making art with the correcting tape. Then he made drawings of solar systems, before switching to making a bunch of shapes with the stencils.

For his iPad time he watched some of Phineas Rage’s Vegetarian Minecraft videos. Shmuel came up and I talked to him for a couple minutes. Then August was hungry so we had more avocado.

Carly got home after 5:30 as he was eating avocado. She came in to hear him say, “If I was a mold I’d want to grow on avocado.” He got hair bands from Carly so he could use them for writing with. Carly had read a word, corumination, and taught it to us.

For his evening time he watched more of the Vegetarian Minecraft series. He says he wants to ask Phineas Rage why he chose that name. He only watched for 15, then we played Minecraft for the second 15. It was the updated version, that now has foxes in it. He didn’t handle the end of his time well and was hitting at the end.

When he calmed down he had some carrot coins, then more cinnamon cereal with milk. We then did the Brother and Sister game where they all have to use the bathroom at the same time. Then added to it, where they had installed a second bathroom and were having the extended family over, but one of the bathrooms ws broken. He then had a new game where Brother met a girl named Jessa out in the park. She had a big pile of equipment and paperwork in the park. At first she was too busy for him and told him “So too-da-loo.” But then Brother helped with her research on a meteor shower.

He then read to me in Rivet. He read a level 1, then a level 2 book called Little Rabbit is Sad. He then switched to the highest level and had me read a book on bullying. I read much of it, but then was starting to have a feeling that I was getting sick. I switched with Carly and she read the rest of it and then put of a Minecraft book while I went up to rest.

She gave him a bath after he got upset going up. While he was flossing he said, “The wrong way to take care of food in your mouth is let bacteria eat it.” I left them at 8:30. He was trying to bribe us to switch.

Hanging up art in the gallery:

Trying Strength Potion II:

Playing my composition:

Composing for me:

In the time machine:

Explaining the time machine:

His hypothesis on what particles actually look like:

Explaining what an atom looks like:

Stencil art:

Stencil spinning:

The power went out when Carly was boiling water for coffee this morning. I came down just after 5:45 and figured out it was the tea kettle that caused the problem. Unplugged it and then switched the power back on. I think something beeped upstairs and woke August up because he woke up at the same time, at 6:00. Earlier and earlier. He had made it through the night and didn’t seem sicker, but is still a bit stuffy and sneezing a little.

He showed Carly his “Kayla teacher” picture that he had drawn with me the other day. He called it that because it kind of looks like Kayla and kind of looks like a teacher. He then wanted to watch a video about Minecraft instead of actually playing Minecraft. He had Carly watch the Minecraft for Kids video about building underwater bases with him. She headed to work and he kept watching.

He then did alone time, listening to music, and I exercised. We played Minecraft, then did a Brother game where he visited Myna’s home and played Minecraft with her. For breakfast he had yogurt, an egg with a runny yoke, and toast. He had a bite of egg he didn’t like though and wouldn’t eat the rest. Then a Brother game where sister put time a limit on his iPad as a joke. Ended with him and baby sister in a void.

He remembered a pony that was good with potions, and we looked it up and it was Mage Meadowbrook. And he asked what the -ist ending of scientist meant so we talked about other examples.

We went out for a bike ride on my bike. We looked at the flowers budding on one of the bushes first, then rode for 22 minutes. Much of it was riding around the playground in circles. He was talking to me about how they should improve the playground, and when I suggested there wasn’t space for something he said, “You know how when cities run out or space they build up?”

As we got back he told me, “I want to know everything.” And we talked about skills versus knowledge. Inside we discussed our day. I then got a recording of his gold coin story so that I can type it up. We talked about how I could write out his stories and he could illustrate them. He then had the idea of having a table where he could sell his stories.

I then introduced a new pronunciation app. We bought the ‘l’ sound. He used it a little, but mainly he played with the spinner thing that will give you two word phrases to say, and he had the idea of me then telling stories based on them. So I was telling all sorts of stories.

August went to the bathroom, then told me about how he was making maps (like the guy who determined the cause of cholera) and selling them. Maps of things like radiation, “How much cancer there is in certain places…electromagnetic radiation spots…”

He wanted to learn more about the Big Bang, so we watched two videos, one from Kurzgesagt and one from Crash Course. He then watched a Bright Side video. Afterwards, he asked me “Do you know how computers waste electricity by turning it to heat?” And talked about making it more efficient. And he told me about venomous things, real or made up, I’m not sure, as the Bright Side video had been about poisonous animals.

We headed down to Max. We parked in the Tiv Taam lot at 12:50 and walked up. When ever we get in and out of the car and I’m closing a door while he’s coming in or out I have flashbacks to when Paul got his hand caught in a door as a kid.

At Max we found a hole punch, pads of paper, a set of markers that he found, a bike lock for him, and a set of 3 sand timers. Our main purpose of the trip was to get a new electric kettle and were planning to go to Ace. But it turns out that Max has them for 99 shekels, so we got one. We needed to get a basket, so August pulled it around the store.

We then drove up to the iDigital store and I got a new screen protector for my phone. Mine had been really cracked and scratched up. August liked the old one, and took it with us.

Back at the car I checked the library system online and found that Bone #5 was back at the WBAIS library. So we made a quick trip in to check it out, then headed right back out. He spent a minute talking about the Minecraft blocks though.

We were home at 3. I realized as we went in that the kettle we got (metal this time) was red. It said so on the side of the box, although the boxes only had silver photos on them. August said he didn’t like it, but it looks good in the kitchen, and later Carly remembered that when we had bought the last one he was trying to convince us to get a red one.

He tried out the hole punch, then the markers. It turns out that the markers change colors, each to two different colors when you write over them with two white markers.

We read part of Bone #5. Then did a Brother game where he played Minecraft. He then wanted to ride his bike. I took recycling and walked up with him while he was on the bike. He rode around the park while I did recycling. Which was not something he would do before as I would be too far away.

We went back to the house so I could get my bike, then we both rode back up to the park. We navigated riding in the street together for the little way. We rode around some more, with me generally following him. Carly met us there in the park s she walked home. She helped us back down the street to the house, but August wanted to ride some more. So he and I went across on the sidewalk by the cactuses. We rode to the end of it, and he got off. I think he saw ants. He also picked up little cone-shaped things from a tree and a leaf and put them in my pocket. We headed back.

At home I had dinner and coffee. They searched for a new Minecraft book, then started reading one. I went for a run. They read their book and probably did his evening time. When I got back and took a shower he had Cheerios and milk. He had already had tofu and lots of apple.

He asked about the moon and it crashing into Earth, so we learned about it, reading https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2017/01/31/earth-and-moon-may-be-on-long-term-collision-course/amp/ He talked about the moon getting farther away and coming back: “Would it be like jumping on a trampoline? Simile!”

I got him up for his bath. He had a tiny scrape on one of his arms so he just rinsed it with cold water to make it feel better. Earlier, he had fallen twice on his bike just pushing him up to the park for the first time (and thus the reason we tried the street after that). Could have been from that, but didn’t really bother him.

He had another idea for a story: a kid saves up money for a computer; turns out to be fake. He also told me about the deadly green wart spider that he discovered. He and Carly talked about DNA, which she said made who you are. He disagreed: “Your name makes you you.” She asked what his name is. He replied, “August Zinn Althauser Nimand.” She had him practice without the ‘D’ sound at the end. He can do it, but declared he was going to pronounce it that way.

She brushed his teeth, and he told her too that, “I want to know everything.” She said good night and I put him to sleep in his bed again. For my story I told him about the Scholastic book orders in school and how most of the Garfield books are from those orders. We listened to Bach Cello Concerto #1. I put that on at 8:40 and he was asleep before 9.

His map making business:

Making a quieter hot water kettle:

Shopping at Max:

Color-changing markers:

Leading on the bikes:

Finding the hidden candy: