Category: Uncategorized

Carly got him up at 7. He had a few minutes on the couch, then we drove Carly to school and dropped her off. He said goodbye, and handled it well, but looked away as she walked away. He may have just been distracted by the guy trimming the person and camel topiaries in the middle of the traffic circle. August liked the tool he was using and we watched for a minute before heading home. Topiary was the word of the day.

As we drove home we were listening to Nirvana’s Nevermind, and I told him it was the album cover he had seen with the naked baby swimming, chasing the money. He asked why the cover was that way, and we discussed the symbolism of chasing after money.

At home I asked him what the first order of business was, and he said, “Minecraft. The second order of business is me inventing heat goggles…maybe I should invent sound goggles…they go on your ears…they have a pink suction cup…they’re like hearing goggles for your ears.” Then he can hear the ants walking. “Goggles that let blind people see again: vision goggles.”

We played Minecraft. He built a fishing pole and was fishing for fish and other things, managing to also snag a few interesting items. When his time was up he e walked in circles and talked about Minecraft while I made French toast. First, about how he would protect villagers, then about how to build a giant robotic walking house.

We ate, then he showed me what he had made out of Legos yesterday. He then got the flat pieces from the monitor we had taken apart and said they would be good mats for clay. He then used the hard one and said, in sort of a Brother game, that he was building a big robot eye for the top of his walking house. He had the idea of attaching a circuit board to it using the velcro tape, so I got that out and taught him how to use it.

We next finished reading our current volume of My Little Pony comics, which end with a big cliffhanger that we’ll have to wait until October 1st to read, as we are out of things we can checkout this month through Hoopla.

We then watched episode 6 of My Little Pony. August got a reference in the episode, where two of the ponies brought a monster to town, that was hinted at in the comics, but we didn’t get until now.

After that he did a Brother game where Bar made sonic rain booms and made weather, like snow, in the house. He then earned 15 minutes, playing Legos, while I exercised. He spent that 15 fishing in Minecraft, his new favorite part of the game. We looked at our agenda for the day, then he called a “morning meeting,” asking me to sit on the floor, to discuss his hypothesis of Minecraft: you could, theoretically, run out of resources. When I pointed out that the world was “infinite” he reminded me, from when I looked up how far people had explored in Minecraft, that there was a limit where your computer would run out of memory and it wouldn’t be able to make it any larger.

We were then going to watch the video that Cherie had sent a link to, but he said that what he really wanted was a show about science. So we found a show called Brainchild and watched the episode on “Super Powers”. He loved it, and it was a pretty great show, all about real super powers, and with lots of funny bits thrown in. He particularly liked the pulling apart hands super power, and we tried that during the episode, then a couple times later.

After the episode he wanted to earn his other 15 minutes. He said he likes looking at pictures in books, so he chose the Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life book and looked at that. He did that for part of the time, then went and played by the Legos. He called me over to show me more super powers/magic trick: how sweat allowed paper to stick to his hand, how leverage helped him lift a chair from the bottom, but not the top, etc. He got his 15 minutes of Minecraft.

He had an egg salad sandwich for lunch. Earlier he had asked for the bag of cashews since mama wasn’t here. After lunch he had the last cookie. He then played with his rings, admiring them on his fingers. We listened to the soundtrack of Season 3 of Story Bots. We did his reading time on Khan Academy Kids today. He worked on some of the activities, then we each read one of the books. Detour was a word of the day when he asked what it meant in one of the activities.

We did a quick walk up to recycling. He found a really interesting piece of metal that was cone/bullet shaped, but about the size of his thumb, and a big metal piece thing that he said looked like it came from a battle bot. He would eventually leave that one behind. We got home and got ready. He asked, “What’s order in the court mean?”

We left at 2:45. We picked up Eve and said hi to Heather. No Zoe now, as she is starting ukulele lessons. We went back to the house. They played outside most of the time, making potions and playing with the water. August used the smelly spray bottle and whatever is in it to spray things and enchant them. I got grapes and meat and crackers for snacks. They came in and had popsicles. Eve chose strawberry banana, so August chose the lemon one. I have a feeling he let Eve have what he wanted, and he didn’t say anything about it. I took the one remaining, apple. They sat around and ate those, then Eve had a sort of store set up behind the toy piano. Not entirely sure what was going on, because she kept talking about how what she was selling wasn’t available right now, but in a week or month or something. August played with her, but also built another school structure on the couch, and got all of the plastic forks and stuck them in the egg carton, sticking up.

At one point, Eve and August were having a discussion of people they know, and Eve was asking if he remembered people from preschool. When she asked, “Lydia?” August replied, “Of course, I always remember the bad people.” Eve then brought up Leonard as another example, and talked about how he had destroyed a block house that Eve used to build for her and August.

I had let them play outside for 10 or 15 minutes without checking on them, then sat outside, and now they went upstairs for several minutes on their own. They played with the cardboard fort. I heard him ask her, “Did you know that smiling makes you a pain shield?” That’s from the science show we watched today.

After she left, I let him have his evening time a little early. We played Minecraft, of course. He did a good job of helping clean up the couch before doing so. Afterwards, I made him schnitzel and carrot for dinner, and I had the curry thing. There were some short Brother games in there.

Then, we did movie night. No popcorn, as we were full enough. We watched the first Minecraft: Story Mode episode, although it is closer to movie length. I was afraid it was too scary at points, but he handled it well, and when I would go to assure him that things were okay he would dismiss me, saying he knew.

After that we FaceTimed with Carly. She was in the halls, showing him the crazy middle schoolers. He started by asking why she wasn’t out hiking right now. He also showed her what he could do with the plastic forks. We said goodbye to her sometime after 9.

He had a small bowl of oatmeal, then we went up and took turns in the shower. Him first, then I showered while he played in the sink. In bed, he talked about how “Stuff that can NOT happen I can see in my hea.d” And he said that he can’t read, but if he could that he could make up a book and “I could read a book in my head.” I had the lights off at 9:55, but then we decided he should go to the bathroom again. I sang some of our older songs to him that I haven’t sung for a long time, and he was asleep about 10:15.

Learning to use Velcro tape:

Syllables in Khan Academy Kids:

Enchanting spray:

Unsticky tape:

Popsicles and store:

FaceTime with Mama:

Carly woke him up at 7:45. She didn’t have work as there is another Israeli election. Hurray for deadlock! I read some of the Hilda book to him, then he ate a banana and had a cookie, talking more about savoring it. He was insisting on one of us playing Minecraft with him, and we explained he had to have alone time two. Carly agreed after he told her he really liked what she had built last time. He sneezed, and counted his sneezes himself and looked at me and said, “three sneezes.” I was supposed to have counted them. I apologized and said I was slacking. He asked “What’s slacking?” A word of the day.

They played together, then went outside to water plants. I made his oatmeal and mango breakfast. He had an idea for a Brother game: “It’s where you meet a girl who can’t move. She can’t move because she’s a plant girl.” He was then earning time and playing Minecraft. He kept talking about “hints” and finally I realized he meant the boxes of TNT. TNT sort of looks like hint. Figured out how to ignite the TNT and was blasting a huge hole and destroyed part of the really cool house that he and Carly had made. For one of the really big blasts he said, “This will be subconsciously cool!”

I made egg salad and he ate a whole sandwich for lunch. He had also eaten some carrots. He thought up a Brother game where he got poop on a shovel. I then had Brother throw the shovel and he accidentally threw it through the garage window. He blamed it on elves and the dad believed him. August thought that was pretty funny. August had talked about how elves are real the other day, after stating categorically that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and God don’t exist. The elves in our house come up a time or two each week. It goes back to the Hilda books and how she’s the only one that can see them.

At one point he said, “Dada, significantly. What’s significantly?” Another word of the day. Carly got them ready for the pool and they left by 12:40. He played with Maya at the school. They then went to the store so Carly could get snacks for her trip tomorrow. When they got home at 3 he found scented pieces of wood out on the sidewalk. He showed them to me, along with a piece of paper with Hebrew writing on it, then put one of them in each of the bathrooms.

He had earned some iPad time, so they played Minecraft again. He and I then finished reading Hilda and the Mountain King. A great finish to the story started in the previous book, and the longer story arch involving the trolls, which goes back to the first book.

He had an issue with the stick, not wanting to keep it outside, but we got through that. He then spent a lot of time making a creation on the couch. He explained that it was a sort of preschool with tents so that kids could get used to being separated from their parents. A person at the camp would dress up like your parent so they are more familiar. He then knocked over a Lego creation he had made earlier. He then wanted me to take a blurry photo of him.

Carly then gave me the plant instructions for while she is gone. August came out with us to listen. Back inside he used his LEGO machine on her symptoms. She mentioned something about feeling like she’d been run over by horses. I coined the phrase “stampedicitis.”

August got a metal pot lid as a shield, then took the long stick outside and showed off his sword fighting moves.

Earlier, in the morning, I had made the salmon, bok choy, curry, cashew dish that I make with none of those (substituting tofu, cauliflower and mushrooms, extra ginger, and peanuts). We ate that for dinner, although August didn’t eat much, claiming he didn’t like the mushrooms.

He spent more time playing with Legos and sang about how he was doing alone time. He earned 15 more minutes of Minecraft, and this time he wanted me to play with him.

We got him upstairs earlier today, and I left them at 8:30 as she was getting him in the bath. I went for a run, and they were asleep by the time I was back.

Digging in lava:

Couch sculpture:

Explaining the school on the couch:

Sword and shield:

Building with Legos:

He was up just before 7:30. He came down and I read a few of the poems to him. He told me that his favorite one is the one bout the unipede that is tired of having to hop everywhere. He told me “Did you know I had a dream about Minecraft?…It was when I found one of those secret ruins, with those boxes.”

We then played Minecraft. He had French toast and banana for breakfast. I played the new Underworld song, “S.T.A.R.”, for him. He asked what due meant and we got the iPad and spelled and illustrated do, due, dew, and doo doo. He did the illustartions for the last two. He drew poop with a face and said, “It’s a happy grandma donut of poo.” My book drawing had been 3D and he

He then drew pictures of the brain activity of a guy thinking. First he was building a building and thinking about how to use ladders in it. Then, “And that’s him thinking if people will like it or not. So he’s afraid.” He was making triangles and made a long skinny one and said, “That’s a beak triangle.” And he said “Now Ill draw him with a sad face on…Hes sad because he’s thinking of people not liking…” “He doesn’t think the mean teenager will, that lives across the street.”

He commented on how his drawing was the best ever, and that he’s a lot better than when he was smaller. But then he said that if he went to art class he could just draw abstract, as that is what he likes best. We looked at his older art, and he wanted to draw on top of a photo, so he placed an image of him, Taya, and Reia in the library and drew on that.

He kept drawing and drawing, so that ended up being his alone time, and I exercised. He drew for a full 30 minutes. We played Minecraft, then looked up how to tame cats in the dame. He then led to a Brother game where Brother rescues a cat. We then made the beds. He did more alone time with the Legos, then we used Khan Academy to do a little grammar (identifying nouns) and shapes, and then doing some math (equal sign).

For reading time I read him a longer Khan Academy book, then he read a couple short ones. We also wrote out our agenda (or, “Things to do today” as he prefers). I boiled eggs for egg salad, but we finished up the dolmas and he had mangoes, then had crackers and meat, and then was full, so we saved the eggs for tomorrow. He told me about an “Allopede,” which has the legs of a centipede, millipede, and a unipede combined. He then did the dishes. He asked “What’s loincloth?” Think from the Caveman books. He told me about how he first made casts. And asked, “What’s filthy mean? Like, ‘Colin’s face is totally filthy.’”

He had earned 30 minutes. I thought it was the evening time for later, as we had discussed, but he really wanted it right now, and ended up getting it. First a little with me, but then more as I got our stuff ready to go. Before we left, he played with the roll of Gorilla tape and was using it like a hula hoop on his arm.

We got going and headed down to Ace. He heard the song “James Brown is Dead” on the way and asked to also listen to it on the way back. We went to Ace and bought a coffee grinder. Pretty quick trip. At the checkout, I saw the fire extinguishers again and bought two of them. August was very happy that I remembered the fire extinguishers.

We then drove to Max, where I found big rolls of velcro tape. No luck finding ink, and they still don’t have metal straws. I let him get the watermelon water drink again by checkout, then we headed to Even Yehuda. He talked the whole way there, first asking “What’s downside?” Then with a Brother and Bar game idea with Bar going crazy, then talking about how he makes artificial feathers that are exactly like real feathers for pillows, etc. so that bird don’t have to be hurt.

In town we parked across from the bank and went and got cash for Carly. We were then going to walk to Gutale to see if we could get coffee beans there, but then I thought to stop at the bulk foods store. They did have beans, in cans, and we got a couple. The girl that works there had gone to international schools in Vancouver and Thailand. She gave me a free espresso shot. August also remembered the really good roasted cashews so we filled up a half bag of them. He was right; they are much better than the packaged ones in Tiv Taam.

We then drove to school to go swimming. He was a bit frustrated when we parked because he wanted to go home and play a Brother and Sister game first. I suggested different spots, and he said Carly’s classroom would work. So we went there, and did a Brother game where he got upset about a squishy thing. I realized I’d forgotten Carly’s shorts, so I drove home and got them. They were at the bathrooms by the pool when I got back. August told me “I learned another parenting trick.” It is how we sometimes say we’re going slower when he demands things. So he had turned the tables and when she was telling him to get his swimsuit on he told her, “I go slow if you demand!”

We went in the pool, and he played in the stairs portion for ten or fifteen minutes, but then his foot started hurting. I got out with him. Mike Shapell had talked to me before going in, and he had mentioned how his kids had learned how to make computers within Minecraft, and they were asking him things like “How do you read binary?” August was very intrigued by this, so we watched a video of a guy explaining how to make computers within Minecraft and Carly was able to swim for another 20 or 30 minutes.

On the way out we stopped to pick up a package that had come. August said hi to the security guard, and August was excited to hear it was a book. We opened the package in the car. I had ordered the newest Hilda book, Hilda and the Mountain King, and it was just released.

At home, or along the way, we had talked about books being in different languages, and I talked about the difficulties in translating books. So he took that up and invented a “printer translator.” You put a book in it, tell the machine what language you want the book in, and it prints a new book in the new language.

Carly made coffee, using the new grinder and beans. We started the Hilda book. Shmuel said hi through the fence and gave us a lemon tea plant. He had also put new plants in the edges of our kitchen boxes, and Carly had to be forceful in saying she didn’t want them there as they were hard to water.

In Minecraft we figured out how to create a flat world. Played with that a bit, but boring, so we switched to the creative one. He showed me how switches and pistons work. For dinner we had meatballs and rice with teriyaki sauce and carrots.

He asked “What’s assertive?” We discussed how some people have to practice being assertive, and he said , “Here’s a skill I don’t have to practice: savoring cookies.” Carly read two Sir Cumference books to him. They are books that have math in them. I had read him one of them in Skybrary a few months ago.He then had a small oatmeal. After which he said, “Let’s do the brother and sister game. After I get this full feeling out of my stomach.” He also told me how to get a new water bottle from the reflection in the glass. This has come up before, as has teleporting into photos and mirrors. A big influence was the “Reflections” story in My Little Pony.

We went up for a bath and he played in the sink, then one of us washed him. We went down and each had a cookie. He waited until I was done before he started his, and talked about how much fun it is: “Waiting is fun…The amazing world of savor.” Back upstairs we read more My Little Pony.

Carly said good night to him, and I was going to put him to sleep. He wanted a short Brother game where Brother found a sleeping cat. He then huddled in his clam position with his hands over eyes. He talked about how he saw amazing things when he did it and that makes him feel better. I suggested using it for inspiration in his drawings, but he said no app on his iPad could show it. I sang a couple of songs to him. I thought he was asleep, and when I tried to get up he asked, “Dada, what are you doing?” He was asleep by 10.

Washing dishes:

New Hilda book:

Making soapy hands song:

He got up at 7 when I was leaving the room. He went down and yelled “Boo” out to Carly. He had a brother game where where Bar had a jack hammer that steered the planet. I thought it may have been based on a dream, but he said it was from Inspector Gadget. It turned into a Minecraft planet with Baby Sister. He then said, “I should check on my baby scum.” We read a few of the funny poems from the book, then we played Minecraft. Carly headed to her dental appointment. I made french toast for breakfast and we ate. We looked up how to use vines in Minecraft, then how big stomachs are, after August asked.

He then wanted to be my doctor, and asked what my symptoms were. I said my eyes were tired. He went and got the heel from the loaf of bread and put it over my eyes as I lay on the ground. He then took me over to his Lego creation and studied my eyes with it and did something to them. Then a Brother game where he was getting hurt stepping on Legos. We went upstairs for more, and he talked about an underwater city.

Carly got home. He asked, “What’s anticlimactic mean?” Think he heard it in My Little Pony. He was then wearing her sweatshirt over his head. Very cute. I went up to work for a while. When I came back down I got him food and did Brother games until the left to go to Mr. Gabi’s. I worked, then got snacks prepared. When they got back, August and I made snickerdoodles. Well, he helped a little, then got distracted making a potion with soap in the sink.

Earlier, he and Carly had been talking about his “superpower” and she talked about his empathy. He disagreed, saying that his power was “seeing all the possibilities” with things.

He went out front at 3 to wait for them to get here. He sang a “Corinne and Elise are coming over” song. They showed up a bit later. When Carly was getting them drinks, August requested tonic water. I told him it was flat, and he didn’t know what flat means.

It all went well with Corinne and Elise. Corinne got out a small set of Jenga and August played with that a bit. They had Legos and My Little Ponies out. August was impressed with Natalie doing Rarity’s hair. There was a lot of parallel play going on, although they interacted pretty well over Legos, and then near the end we went outside and August and Corinne were trying to pull up the dead papaya tree together. That turned in to playing with mud, and Natalie talked about how, as a single child growing up in rural New Brunswick, she spent a lot of time playing outside by herself, finding things to play with, and making mud pies. August said she saw the possibilities like he does. Which was really insightful. He scooped up a bunch of mud and asked, “Natalie, is there anything you can do about this mud I’m digging up?”

A topic of conversation had also been peeing in the pool (I think based on a mishearing of “be in the pool”). We ended up learning about the blue dye myth: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine-indicator_dye

Also, while they were inside, and after we’d had snacks, I finished up the cookies and everyone had one. August is suddenly really into savoring his cookies, and waited until everyone else was done before he ate most of his. It was really impressive.

After they got going we played Minecraft, then found a new My Little Pony to read. Something like Myths and Legends. Carly made a mango smoothie. We then watched episode 5 of My Little Pony. August was laughing hysterically at Pinkie Pies antics trying to chase down Rainbow Dash.

Carly took him upstairs for his bath, and I did the dishes. When I went upstairs they hadn’t done a bath yet. Instead, they had had a long conversation that she had taken a video of and wanted to send to Spenser, and he had made a structure out of tissues and other things on the floor. He was playing with the banana shaker from Korea when I went up.

We did his bath, then went downstairs and had a cookie. He was savoring it again, waiting until we were done with ours. I explained impulse control and told him about the cookie experiment. He said he was better than Carly in being able to savor. He told her, “It’s okay. If you want to catch up to me just savor, savor.” Carly told him he had crumbs on his face. He checked and said, “You’re right. Huh. Memory of when I got messy.”

He was a bit sad that I wouldn’t read to him and put him to sleep. He felt like I’d lied to him, because about 2 hours earlier I had said we’d read after his bath. That was before he took so long actually taking a bath. I left them just after 9:30 and went for a run.

His word stories:

Unicorn with a stick:

Cleaner potions:

Corinne and Elise are coming over – song:

Trying to pull up a dead tree:

Explaining his underground hideout:

Laughing at My Little Pony:

His thoughts on God:

https://youtu.be/eXMxlQeY9ls

He was up a little before 7, just after I had gotten downstairs. I carried him down and he lay on the couch for a few minutes, then went out to find Carly. They came in after a few minutes, then he curled on the couch next to her and just rested for several minutes. He finally started to do some singing, about “wiggly worm” and “Minecraft.”

We played Minecraft and had a mine disaster where he got buried in a mine collapse. He was fine with it though. In talking bout the game biome became a word of the day. He had oatmeal and mango for breakfast, and we listened to the new Pixies album. It is a good week for music, with a lot of albums released: Belle & Sebastian, Dan Bern, etc.

August had a brother game where he wants to go back in space, but without the danger. Bar gets him to space with a tornado. Carly made fresh mango. He talked about how beautiful it was as he te it. We read about algae in Discover Magazine’s “20 Things You Didn’t About Algae” Helenite was a word of the day from a jewelry ad in the magazine. We looked it up, and that led to a discussion of Mt. St. Helen and we watchedhttps://youtu.be/AYla6q3is6w

and another video of eruptions. August ended up playing with Street View.

Carly and August played with Legos and I made a shopping list. He told me he wants a bow and arrow, and we looked at photos of real ones. I got him ready to go, and Carly took him to the big Tiv Taam with her and I worked. She accidentally bumped the shifter while driving and put it in manual. August liked the “Spooky noises.” Before she figured out the problem she told him how it wasn’t a big deal and we’d get it fixed. But August said, “The best case scenario is that this is a dream.”

They got back at 12:30. August came up with a container of pastry treats to share with me. He said Carly couldn’t have them because there were nuts. He went back downstairs, and did Legos and earned more iPad time. He came up to show me that he had found a Japanese coin amongst the new Legos.

I came down at 1:30. Carly was cooking cauliflower. August showed me a root thing that Carly dug up in the garden. He had put it in the blue bottle of the balloon sprayer. He ended up calling it his “baby scum.” He told me about ice eruptions on his planet: “shoots the icebergs and frost up to the atmosphere…it’s like a beacon.” There was then a Brother game with Baby Scum and energy potions and sleep potions. Basically, the energy potions would affect Brother all at once and then he’d crash, or Bar would give him a sleep potion to calm him down.

He ate the cauliflower when it was done, saying, “It’s too bad Baby Scum is missing out on this.” He did more Legos, then we played Minecraft. Carly made schnitzel. I was feeling a bit tired/off and headed upstairs to rest. August, afraid I was sick, tried to make a fence of stuff to keep me from coming back downstairs and infecting him.

I came back down, feeling better, and he asked, “Can you do a brother and sister game by yourself where Bar has a lab and she gets upset and it’s an epic battle between science and magic…And just so you know, science wins.” He showed me one thing in Minecraft and we left for the beach at 4:15.

We drove to Beit Yanai Beach, where we’ve been before. August fell asleep just before we got there and I carried him down to the beach. When he woke up he was at first pessimistic about it. It was kind of cloudy and windy, which reminded him of our last really windy time at the beach and made him think it was going to rain.

But he settled into digging in the sand. I went wading in the water for a bit, but it was really rough. August was drawing train tracks in the sand and they were digging mine shafts in the mountain they had built. I joined in with another tunnel. When Carly was about to finish a tunnel through part of it he said, “I’m ready for the impact.” “I just used the word impact.” He also asked, “What’s diplomacy?” From My Little Pony, I think. Carly took him to the bathroom, but soon after getting back he started saying his foot hurt. He had developed a bit of a blister from the green Crocs and sand, and soon it was really stinging, and he was cuddled in Carly lap, screeching. We washed it off with fresh water and put a band aid on it.

I carried him up to the car and we headed home. I made him laugh on the way by talking about making him feel better with watching My Little Pony and having hot chocolate, which we would pour on his foot. I was then giving him corn crackers, and he liked me sprinkling love on top of them. I tried to get him to eat some grapes, but he rejected them. I said they were actually alien eggs, but he said they were poisonous. He pointed out the sunset and a plane and one of those glider things. He asked if fog was just clouds and said, “I want to move to a foggy place.” Carly asked, “You want to move to Centralia then?” To which he replied, “If it doesn’t have hurricanes and tornadoes, then yes.”

At home we watched episode 4 of My Little Pony. Then we played in Minecraft, working on our treasure hunt. No luck. He had a Brother game about his “skin flaps” on his feet, and brother getting really hurt going to the beach. He then walked around in circles, talking about creating a scavenger hunt in Minecraft after Carly was looking for one for a school thing. We thought maybe we could make one for Thatcher sometime and he could play it.

We then skyped with my parents. We talked about my dad’s reunion, the lightning storm they saw, and visiting with Hallie. They were about to go on a drive with the British Car Club, driving the XK140 for the second time since getting it back together. August did a good job talking to them, then was getting tired and done skyping. Carly took him up and gave him a bath and I kept talking.

I went up and helped get him in bed and left them at 9:30. I did a 5K run, watched two episodes of Undone, and did some work.

Delicious mango:

Treats from the store:

Making tracks at the beach:

He was up just before 7. After a few minutes on the couch I read several poems from the I’m Just No Good at Rhyming book. He laughed a lot, and said his favorite, so far, was the one about the baby dragon wanting his knight with the shell off. I finished with the infinity poem, after which August walked circles and told me about an infinity story at a science center, then one with wiggling worms.

We played Minecraft, then had french toast and mango for breakfast. He had a Brother and Bar game with them surviving on another world, which turned out to be a Minecraft world. They built a whole world. We started reading Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl.

We then went outside and he went inside the Zinnie house to take care of the vines that were growing into it. I started redirecting vines outside to wrap around the fence. He was startled when he moved a pillow and a lizard went running. He got a container so we could try to catch it, but it was gone by the time I went in to find it. Everything was really dusty, so I decided to vacuum. As I pulled the pillows out we found a little spider nest with a spider tucked inside. It came out and jumped away before August could see it, but he liked the spider silk and scraped it off with a stick.

I vacuumed off all of the pillows, then we built with the new Legos. He wanted to practice with bubble gum so we got out the bubble tape. I then went out and redirected more vines. We watched episode 3 of My Little Pony, then discussed our agenda. We read about plate techtonics and steam power in the Discover Magazine. He was grumpy about having to earn more iPad time, but eventually he came around and built with Legos for 22 minutes and I exercised. We did 15 minutes of Minecraft and had crackers and meat. He would later do 8 more minutes of alone time and earn the other 15 minutes.

I mentioned something about robot battles and he wanted to watch a one, so we watched one as he had a juice popsicle. He was also talking to Siri. He asked, “What’s mercy?” Not sure where that came from. He then had a Brother game, with Brother and Sister doing robot battles, but Sister being much faster Nd better in building them.

We got walking at 1. He talked about making predictions for the future of humans and the earth in his lab. We stopped at the coffee shop to look at coffee. We need to find a new source, as iHerb has stopped their 10 percent rebates, making ordering from them less desirable. So I figure we should find a local source. They have them, but it was crazy, being a Friday, and so we didn’t wait.

We went to Kravitz to look for a new pair of headphones for Carly. Again, too crazy and they didn’t have much. I figured we’d go to the iCell store. August was hungry, so we went to the Druze place. We each got a lafa today, and one for Carly, and a container of cabbage dolma.

We went out and sat on the bench and ate. Across from us was the record shop, and August had noticed the Nirvana Nevermind album cover with the baby underwater on it. We had talked bout it on the way in.

He moved to the airplane and ate more of his lafa. He ate more of his than I did of mine. We went back inside and got headphones for Carly.

We then went to Tiv Taam and did some grocery shopping. He got a pineapple jello that he then ate as soon as we got out of the store. He was quite an eater today.

We walked home, put groceries away, and headed to school at 3:15. He asked “What’s embroidered silk?” It’s from the very first My Little Pony.

When we got out of the car he really needed to use the bathroom. He was a bit stressed, but made it to the bathroom by the theatre. After going he joked “Let’s just pretend this never happened.” Another phrase he learned from My Little Pony (the “Reflections” story—volume 5, I think).

We went to the pool. Omri’s family was there. Omri commented on him needing to put on his vest. I think that made him a bit self-conscious, as he told me he didn’t need it, and he spent the first 30 minutes or so without it.

Natalie and the girls showed up, then Carly did. August let me carry him around in the pool a bit, then did put on the vest at some point. He needed the bathroom again and I took him, then we spent the rest of our time in the small pool. He put 4 of the chairs in it and was playing with them with Jonathan, then made a fort of the them. He had them at an angle to the edge, like a giant shark mouth, at one point. When they were leaving Jonathan said, “Bye, August!”

We stayed until it closed and walked out with Natalie and the girls. We were home at 5:15.

For dinner he ate a bunch of the cabbage dolmas, until he said he was sick of cabbage, and more of his lafa. We looked up a few things about Minecraft, then did his 30 minutes. He did Legos with Carly and impact was a word of the day.

He then worked with Carly and me to earn an ice cream sandwich: he watered plants and made the beds and did some alone time with her, and did some reading to her, reading a couple books in the Khan Academy book. He cleaned the toilets with me.

He ate the ice cream sandwich, then was asking me for parenting tricks as he cuddles with me on the couch. Back at the pool I had joked about giving away my parenting tricks to him. Don’t remember what that was.

I gave him a bath. Before he got in he put on the shower cap and tried it out, and played with it in the sink. Washed him, then went down and he had oatmeal.

In bed we read the rest of Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl. Battering ram was another word of the day. I left them 9:45. I didn’t make it out for a run.

Chairs in the pool 1:

Chairs in the pool 2:

Silly on the couch:

Showing how he dances to the music:

He was up at 7:30. Came down and sat on the couch for a few minutes. We then played Minecraft. He had french toast and mango, then was still hungry so had crackers and meat. He was hard to get out the door at 9 and seemed in no hurry to leave.

We did okay though. As we drove down 4, we saw a little plane flying really low and doing quick turns, flying back and forth over the highway. Impressive, but also scary. Really seemed like it was too low and too close to the highway. It got August talking though, and he talked about The “Famous glider plane…c-shaped wings…this might sound crazy…that’s why it’s famous.” It had had an accident, where smoke came into the cabin. The pilots both died (the crazy part), but it had landed on its own (why it is famous). But then he decide that it had landed in Antarctica and everyone had died and no one had seen the plane again. He made up other planes, and talked about his planes the whole way. He also saw a few other small planes flying.

We parked in the free dirt lot across from Ra’anana Park and walked across. We met Gilad and Lauren at 9:40. Elena showed up with all 4 of her kids right after we had started walking. August and Gilad were looking at an ant nest and August got one on a stick.

We first walked over to the zoo. August found a red tube that he put on his finger, then had two nut things hanging from it. He hypnotized a chicken with it, and it kept moving his head as he moved it around. He also found a big feather for writing with ink. They had fun looking at the animals,then we headed over to the big playground. August and Gilad climbed on the rope structure, then they played with acorn spaceship. August was announcing the countdowns, mostly, after he got out of it.

Elena’s kids wanted to go on the big wood structure. August hung behind on that, but we made our way around to the other side too, then they all played on the exercise equipment. August and Gilad went on an elliptical machine together. A little more climbing structure, then we all started walking across to the other end of the park, as Gilad and August wanted to do the airplane game. We walked back that way and they got all of us on the play structure for a flight. Gilad was the pilot and August was the flight attendant.

We walked out together and August was too hot to want to go to Max, and wanted to leave getting ink for another day. So we headed home.

At home he played with Legos for alone time and I exercised and made rice. We ate lunch, eating leftovers, then read more of My Little Pony #15. August asked, “What’s an egg pun?” I gave some examples, and used the phrase egg on, which he didn’t know, so that was a phrase of the day. We played some Blue Apprentice, learning about photosynthesis, and before we got going to school he wanted to put all of the Lego sings on something he had made. He did that for a few minutes, then we got going at 2:50.

At school we headed to the big playground. We found Corinne and Elise there. They played around, but it was interesting to see the different dynamics: with Gilad they just start doing imagining games, whereas with Corinne and Elise they do best together when they’ve had something to play with, like the straw kit or whatever. At the playground they didn’t know what to do together, and all of them would go off and swing for a minute, or climb for a minute, then would be back talking to us, etc.

I had August on the swing for a few minutes, and he thought Rayan was Reia, but it is actually her big sister. He got bored and wanted to head home, but I suggested the library instead. It turned out that Corinne and Elise were really excited about the library, and they didn’t know that there were Legos there. Then, as we all walked towards the library, we ran into Cassie and Taya, who also didn’t know there were Legos in the library. So August got to lead everyone up and show them where the Legos were. We got those out, and Cassie and Natalie worked on a puzzle.

We built with Legos for a bit, then August lined up all the Lego card game cards. We looked around at books, and I reminded him of the Nick and Tesla books. He wanted to read one, but it turned out he was thinking of Mighty Jack. The library didn’t have either of them in stock, but I found out that the newest book, Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl is out and I bought it on Apple Books to read later. Elise got Lumberjanes out, and I showed them Monsters Beware and the Hilda books.

August helped with the puzzle for a couple minutes, and he smelled Cassie’s arm: “You kind of smell like Kai…That kind of makes me want you to me my mama…oh no no no no no…you don’t like balloons…” Taya and Reia had built a sort of hangout in the corner and Taya came and got August and took him over. They were near the poetry section, and I found I’m Just No Good at Rhyming by Chris Harris. I took it out to check it out. Liz saw me and said that her daughter Eve would be excited to check it out for me, as she loves that book. She told me her favorite poems in it as she checked it out.

Another ten minutes or so then we all cleaned up and left after 5. August and I got to the car, then I called Carly, and we picked her up at the entrance and drove home.

At home August wanted his evening iPad time right away, but we talked it through and he waited until after dinner. He had Pad Thai, then meat and crackers for dinner. He said something about burgarling, then “I don’t even know what burglaring means…okay, I stole your head.” Burglar was a word of the day.

We did his evening time, playing Minecraft. Then at 7 I walked over to the Shapells’ house. I bought the two sets of Lego Brainstorms from them for 400 shekels. August and Carly had built with Legos, and were reading when I got back. He kept repeating the line, which he found very funny, “I was talking about my ulcer, kid” from one of the books they’ve read. He had also asked about offense (as in offend) and another word she couldn’t remember.

We built with the Mindstorms legos. August was very intrigued by them, but also a bit stumped on how to build with them. Carly cut up fresh mango and he ate it. He said, “I’m hungry enough to eat the scenery.” Carly measured him for a Halloween costume: 109cm and 17.8kg. We took him up and I washed his hair.

We read My Little Pony. He asked about the phrase “At the mercy of.” I left them 9:15 as they were brushing teeth. He was telling her “Water is better than soap…it helps plants grow…you drink it to survive…Surviving is the most goodest thing ever…even better than treats. EVEN better than dadas favorite pie.” I went for a walk, as my ankle had been sore today. Not too bad, but a good idea to rest it.

Ant on a stick:

Teasing a chicken:

Exercise equipment:

On the playground:

Getting the new Legos:

He was up at 6:44 today, his earliest yet. I asked if he wanted to go back to bed and he returned to the bedroom for a second, but then decided he wanted to go downstairs before he got on the bed. He watched a little of the Le Mans race I had on, then we read Seuss’s “Too Many Daves” before we played Minecraft. I made French toast for breakfast and we watched a little of a Minecraft video as we ate.

He played with Legos while I exercised and made a microscope out of Legos (inspired by seeing them at the store yesterday). He had Brother, Sister, and Baby Sister look at a bacteria. During the game he asked, “Do you want me to make the infection even more chaotic?” Then he had Baby Sister lose a tooth in a popsicle. He told me this was based on his own experience, but she didn’t lose hers, and they studied it under the microscope.

We played 30 minutes of Minecraft. Not so good with letting go this time, and he was a bit too fixated on it when it was over. He ate some mango and we went and made the beds while a schnitzel cooked for him. We then ate lunch. He asked, “What’s epilogue?” A word of the day. Then a Brother game where he was trying to build a Lego house. Baby Sister Kept destroying it, getting in the room different ways, just before Brother could take a photo of it. Then, for the last time, after she had promised not to do it, the Dad did it on accident: “barbecue go boom!” He was eating at the time and almost choked on it as he laughed so much.

August was then jumping on couch and had me to it as Brother, which led to him getting hurt. August went to the bathroom, and wore the Lego box on his head. I said “Oh my.” He asked, “Why did you say oh my? Because I’m Pinkie Pie? Hey, that rhymes!” We discussed why fresh air could get in the box on his head, and then all the invisible air currents in the house and outside.

We then went up and vacuumed the whole bedroom. He really worked to get the vacuum under the bed. Downstairs, we read about body language, viruses, and the dark web in the Discover magazine. He asked about Bassem in the Bil’in book, after picking it up again and looking at the photos. Bassem was the one that was killed by a tear gas canister and is in the documentary 5 Broken Cameras. I explained what happened to him, and August talked about making a better tear gas sprayer that didn’t involve shooting canisters.

He has been asking for a “space Minecraft” and we found a space station world for free. He played in it, and was really happy with it for about 20 minutes, before deciding it wasn’t what he really wants. He has this vision of a great game where you can go to different stars and planets.

He asked “What’s subconscious?” Not sure where he had heard that. Maybe the Discover magazine. He had a juice popsicle (strawberry banana) and then we read My Little Pony, finishing volume 14. Only one more left. He said he now wants a birthday cake that says “Minecraft” on it. The third kind of cake he has wanted for his next birthday. The last one was something impossible, that required cake suspended in the air, like helicopter blades or something like that.

Then Brother games. One where Bar discovers a new swimming power that she has, then one where Brother finally discovers he finally gets powers. August’s idea, but I don’t know if he’ll let it stay in the canon, as he likes the idea that Brother keeps meeting friends that have powers but he can’t have them. He also used the word epilogue at the end, saying, “epilogue…Brother’s asleep.”

We went to the school to pick up Eve and Zoe. We met Eve’s teacher, and Eve told us Zoe wasn’t coming today. We went to say goodbye to Heather, but she wasn’t sure about Zoe not going. So we all went down to get Zoe. Turns out she was having some worries about going, as August is Eve’s friend. She started crying, and we left her with Heather, and I took August and Eve to the covered area by the preschool, where they played with the water table stuff that was out. Not a lot of water, but we went and refilled our water bottles a few times. My new wireless headphones arrived (the old ones developed a short) and I figured them out while they played.

Zoe decided to come to us, and we played there until close to 4:30. They played with the magnetic things that go on the wall to make a path for the balls, or water, in this case. August tried to put one upside or something and Zoe asked, “August, why are we out thinking that?” August replied, “I like to think funny!” Zoe set up a “Pose drawing” stand, and drew a picture of August standing with his arms flung wide. Eve drew a picture of a ballerina and August liked that, and tried the pose. He also did some silly dancing (his term) for Zoe.

They kept playing with the toy whale in the water toys, giving it a home. I got a bit frustrated, as all three of them kept just dropping stuff on the ground and not putting stuff away, and I had to do it. August didn’t want to put something away at the end when I asked him to, as the girls weren’t putting anything away. We’ll have to discuss the rules before we play in the preschool area again.

I finally got them to go to the car, although they were doing fine there, as I knew they’d be upset if we never went to the house. We got to the house at 4:40 and they had about a half hour before Heather got here.

They each had a popsicle, and sat around quietly eating those for several minutes. He was then telling Zoe about Minecraft, and she said she didn’t like it. He said, “You can’t not like something if you don’t know what it is.” Zoe replied, “True”

Zoe wrote on his arm with the invisible pen. After they left, he and I looked up how black light works. We looked up black light later. As we said goodbye he called “Come back anytime!”

We had dinner, and he had the last of the chicken dish from Sushi Ishimoto and a schnitzel. Carly read a book to him, then I read him more of My Little Pony 15. He also had mango and oatmeal. He talked about a car crash and said “The car lost downforce.” I had been telling him about downforce on race cars. Carly read to him again while he ate, then he had even more mango.

I was sitting on the couch, working, editing the book in PDF. He wrote in the book with the Apple Pencil, and also circled things for me when I pointed to them.

I gave him a bath and Carly did dishes. He talked about inventing things like wooden wheels. It was all from the Caveman book Carly is reading to him today. He was talking about something and said “And the reason it is blinking is that when it spins around you see the brightest part of it.” He was using what he knows of pulsars. “This is actually the moon’s partner…It’s called the lavis planet.” And he asked, “What’s an automatic F?” Not sure what story that is from.

I left them at 9:15. He got really sad, telling Carly to never marry someone else. He has asked about ‘step’ families a few times, and a couple days ago asked about how many people you could marry. I had explained, and only came up with one of his friends, who just lives with her mom. He hadn’t expressed any concern, and that was a couple days ago.

I went out for a run. I took a new street and kind of hurt my left ankle hitting a speed bump I wasn’t expecting.

Flying slo-mo 1:

Flying slo-mo 2:

Vacuuming under the bed:

Cleaning by the preschool:

Making a water slide:

Fighting moves before bed:

He was up just after 7. Downstairs we read “The Strange Shirt Spot” by Dr. Seuss. I told him it was his half birthday, but didn’t get much of a response from him. He then asked for Minecraft, after he turned on the air conditioner. We played Minecraft, then I made oatmeal for breakfast. We read My Little Pony #14. He did a lot of laughing.

He had a Brother and Sister game where Bar took over his room with a telescope and other equipment, right after he had cleaned it and was ready to go to bed. Repeated with it being broken electronics, then chemicals. We read another My Little Pony story. We went over and worked on the research station he had started on yesterday. We added a roof that the copter thing could land on. He was going to do alone time next, and we got the whiteboard ready for some art. He took the dried blue whiteboard marker apart outside to see what it was like.

We then did alone time, and he spent most of it calmly sitting on the couch. He got Siri to play some random music and added “& New” by Eyedi to his playlist. He listened to music, ran around a little, and watched me. When I went upstairs to brush my teeth he stayed downstairs most of the time, then finished his alone time with some Legos and humming.

We did his extra 30 minutes of Minecraft. We were discussing why gold is actually not good for tools and swords, and ceremonial was a word of the day. He told me he could do the pool sound effect by covering his ears. We had some lunch (meatballs and beans and rice) and a popsicle. We talked about the words sealant and seal. He made a connection because seals are blubbery, so squishy like sealant.

We read My Little Pony. He asked “What’s unity?” So another word of the day. We got ready to go, then walked up and did recycling. He looked at a secret space up in a tree.

We then drove down to the Poleg Mall. We walked in and he saw a video of people in those flying suits on one TV as we walked in. We found the Rebar, and at first he wanted a chocolate one, but actually changed his mind and got an apple/mango/banana one for his half-birthday smoothie. I had them call his name, and he sat on the stool and drank it. We had fun with some rhyming time, and he asked “What’s bakbuk mime?” Water bottle in Hebrew.

We then went downstairs to the toy store. They had a pair of cheap flippers, but they were too big. He looked at a few toys, and I found microscopes, for future reference. We did buy a little ball to use in the pool though.

We got going and to Mr. Gabi’s a few minutes early. August had fallen asleep just before getting there. He was awake enough to say “Carry me up” though once we had parked, although his eyes never opened. I carried him up and he curled up on a chair for a coupe minutes, but perked up and went right in when Gabi opened the door, and I didn’t see him until 50 minutes later, except for once when they came out to get a cutting board or something of the sort.

We had planned on getting pizza afterwards for dinner, but August wanted Sushi Ishimoto. So we drove there. I think he had forgotten that the place had moved, as when we used the bathroom in the mall he was asking a lot of questions about if we were allowed to, and then why did malls have to have public bathrooms. Then he realized we were going to someplace in the mall. We ordered the chicken dish we like and pad thai with shrimp, then waited outside. I read a little about plate tectonics, and he made a paper analogy, initially talking about the layers of rock as sheets of paper. I was able to extend that to the plates pushing together as stacks of paper being pushed together.

We got the food and headed home. We dished up, and Carly got there a couple minutes later. He asked, “Can you teach me about war?” Part of which I think had to do with something with Gabi.

He was doing “airplanes” onto the couch, then had oatmeal. I went up to work from 7 to 8. I came down and took over, and August and I watched the Apple event. Hearing about the new products was pretty inspiring to August, as after he had some crackers and met, he had a Brother game wher Bar made a game inspired by Minecraft, but where everything looked and acted real. We had just seen the game demos as part of Apple Arcade.

We went upstairs for his bath. He was now talking about making phones with new features, then a watch. One feature was that you could leave your phone downstairs, and if you got a call it would actually send a sort of small shock to you upstairs so you would feel it.

There was more Brother game. I didn’t quite get what the game was this time. Brother on an island again, and I think it was part of that game that Bar had designed. I left them around 9:20 and went for a run.

Taking apart a marker:

Sparkly shirt:

Flying onto the couch:

He was up at 7:25. We came down and I read to him about Pulsars. He processed that and said “Did you know I made something called the Pulsar for exploring space?” It looked like a round satellite he had seen, with steel poles poking out of it: “it’s spinning really fast to make a tornado to suck information into it.” We then a read a little about flying, and he learned about da Vinci’s ornithopter. August made clip-on wings: “they’re Tel Aviv sized wings…kick board light…they’re like amazing.” He compared them to flippers in a pool. “And they’re extendable. They can shrink to an inch long for packing…way better than Leonardo da Vinci.” And “one time I discovered there’s space birds circling around th Galaxy. And I had to study the wings. For some reason they just circle around the galaxy.” They have laser eyes that “can zap you to bits.”

We went over and did Legos. He told me “What’s the first thing you’re going to invent? Make a model of it out of Legos.” I made a little helicopter thing that I said was for studying the tops of rain forests.

We played Minecraft, then had oatmeal for breakfast. He wanted me to read a book about the Palestinian about the village of Bi’lin. I talked about it a little, but he got distracted by other things, and asked “What does it feel like to not exist?” He then wanted me to do the Brother and Sister story, the first one about the shirt/blanket. We added to it now, as the blanket was now for Baby Sister when she was born, and Brother wasn’t happy about having a baby.

That then turned into their competition over the baby and to Sister taking care of baby and not paying attention to Veother. Then fat forwarded to Baby Sister feeling the same for Baby Brother.

August sang a “We should use the juicer” song. “That was kind of a remix…I used the song from the man with yellow hat, the intro.” He meant Curious George. But then bad news when we went to try the juicer—it is some different plug we’ve never seen before. So Jeff must have brought it from wherever he lived before. That was disappointing.

August then did alone time and I exercised. He played with Legos, adding to my research vehicle and working on a lab for the scientist. He needed five more minutes to get to 30 and went and did that. As he worked on it he sang a hilarious song:

“The perfect way to study ducks

The perfect way to study ducks

Is to wait until they’re dead” I got the rest on video, about then studying their brains and electricity and taking their muscles out or something.

We then looked at our agenda for the day. August has decided he doesn’t like the word ‘agenda’ (much like he despises the word ‘cubby’) so he wants me to write “things we are going to do today” today. We then did a half hour of Minecraft.

He ate his lemon yogurt and custard custard that he had picked out at the store the other day. ‘Custard’ was a new word to him, and a new taste. Another short Brother and Sister game. He had Sister give brother a present that was actually a pile of poop. He then said it was a poop speaker, and the joke was that it said “poop poop poop poop.”

We started volume 13 of My Little Pony. We then started getting things done. He cleaned the toilets, then I was stripping the epoxy from the strip that was put in to keep water in the shower. He made a potion to add to the cleaner: “put a tiny bit of it on, cuz that’s explosive stuff!” He also helped me with the scraping.

From there we made the beds, then went down for his reading time. He had talked about doing rhymes, and made a rhyme on his own “Knock on the door…break the core” then we wrote a second rhyming poem together. He made me promise to only share it with mama.

He was hungry, and had crackers and meat and plums. We got going and made it to the pool at 3:15. He was disappointed there was no one at the pool. He said he needed kids there, even if he didn’t know them. But he got in anyway, and was really working on his swimming. He didn’t put his vest on at first and played on the steps, really working on his swimming. He would jump from one side of the steps to the other side, sort of swimming. He was also putting one ear in the water at a time. I mentioned having a swimming teacher and he said that wasn’t necessary, because I could teach him. But then I pointed out that he wasn’t actually doing things that I suggested. He then told me that he wanted to hear me talk, but he wasn’t going to do what I said.

I noticed a little whirlpool in the water, but then was trying to figure out how to make them intentionally. Harder that I thought, but I finally figured it out, right before Carly got there.

August wanted me to say tongue twisters, then asked me to make one up. I came up with:

Pinkie Pie popped a pack of popcorn for a party

Did Pinkie Pie pop a pack of popcorn for a party?

If Pinkie Pie popped a pack of popcorn for a party

Where’s the popped pack of popcorn that pinkie pie popped?

I started to get out, and August wanted out right away. I said I’d wanted to sit and practice Hebrew, and he told me I could do that. He kept playing in the pool for a while, playing with a dive ring and his snorkel.

He needed to go to the bathroom so I took him. Then as we picked up he saw ants on a dead bug. He asked “What would it feel like to be that bug getting attacked by the ants?”

We left at 4:40. He started at some kids doing a drama rehearsal on the grass, then shook hands with the security guard on the way out. He talked again about wanting to write with a bottle of ink.

At home he told me “When my teacher told me to do this (rubs hands together and puts them on his cheeks) I didn’t do it.” I don’t know what that was about. Carly cut up fresh mango and he ate some.

Somehow we got on a conversation about things that don’t exist, and Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny we’re mentioned. Then August brought up God. He got in a debate with Carly about it, and when she asked about what caused the Big Bang, etc. he said “Scientists just haven’t figured those out yet…I can tell you for sure why God doesn’t exist: if God existed, what made god?” “Do you believe in God?”

That went on for a good amount of time. He then told me about “A mysterious box…on the moon…and no body knows what’s in it.”

He then asked “What’s mayhem…I don’t want you to ever say that word. I don’t like ‘mayhem’…I like chaos.” ‘Mayhem’ was a word of the day, And ‘mayhem’ joins ‘cubby’ and ‘agenda’ as words he doesn’t like.

He ate meatballs, green beans, and rice for dinner. I went up to work. They played Minecraft, and I came down after an hour at 8

They were reading the news, about Loch Ness and eDNA. We read My Little Pony and finished 13. Carly liked our work on the shower. August had Cheerios with milk, and had me look up where to mine diamonds in Minecraft.

I took him up for his bath. He told me “I have teargas in my lab.” That was from one of the news stories they read. Carly took over and brushed his teeth. I left them by 9:20. A lot of laughter coming from the room for a while, then I went for a run.

His huge invented wings:

How to study a duck song:

Rhyme time:

Math in the pool: