This Is Our Blog

He came down at 8:25. He was asking me something about how he thought I’d be working. After he went to the bathroom he said he thought it was from a dream he was having before he woke up. In Minecraft we did redstone, then I made banana bread while August kept playing. Tessa and her family were coming over, and I was making the banana bread for that. When he and I were both done I read some What If? and milestone was a word of the day. Carly gave August mango and lychee to eat, then August played some piano. We then played the Goose board game. He won two, we tied, and I finally won. Carly asked August, “How do you feel about water fights?” He replied, “Absolutely no way.”

He was pretty nervous before they got here. They arrived a little after 10:30. The kids basically didn’t interact the entire. Tessa’s two kids were invisible to us for a while, and August was nervous inside the house. August came out and played Mastermind with Carly for several games out on the picnic table. Tessa and I were able to discuss books. He went inside and played piano, and was then listening to a story. “The Soothsayer’s Fire” on through “The Sacred Squirrel”. I got August back out to play the game where you hang the plastic pieces from the hook. He also listened to “Who Guards the Gourdmen?” as the other kids played inside. They were playing with Legos inside, and August was interested in playing next to them, then we all moved outside. August and I made a garage.

We had shared banana bread with them, then I got out grapes and made grilled cheese and turkey sandwiches. And Carly made a big smoothie. After they left, around 1 or so, August added a bit to the garage. We then went in and played Minecraft. We were make a big redstone contraption to blow ourselves up into the air as far as possible. We talked about going for a run, then ended up playing Pictionary. When he drew, he drew one involving muscles and it was for nitrogen, because “Nitrogen makes you strong”. He also drew ‘Coronavirus’, which was pretty cool.

We then went for a run. Two full laps, at his request, and a total of .64km. Our longest He always has to stop once or twice along the way because he spots something. Today it was ants eating lychee and he also found an ad. Back at the house we sat outside and he ate his bar and we read What If?. He then played chess with Carly, but was doing lots of cheating, then was grumpy with her. I got him noodles to eat. Carly stopped playing with him and I told him he was being mean. He climbed behind me on the couch, and I put on a story, “The Hare’s Rug of War”. He calmed down and hugged me from behind, then was gently playing with my hair.

He needed a few minutes to get his 60 minute goal on his watch, so I found a short story, “Teakettle the Dragon”, on Story Quest! and he walked in circles to finish his time.

He then called Colin at 5:50. There were some issues with Vivian not wanting to play. I got him his first dinner, then went on a run. There were more anti-Netanyahu demonstrations, and much bigger than I’d seen a couple weeks ago.

I came home, and when I came downstairs he was eating more noodles, then frozen mango, then corn. He jokingly/sarcastically said, “Just so you know, I had a great day with Vivian. Played together, did builds. Wonderful day, wonderful day.” We watched part of the Formula 3 race. Then Cherie called and he went upstairs to play chess with her. Earlier he had called it an “awesome miracle” that he got to play with her today.

Carly gave him a bath, then in bed he listened to “Every Other Friday” on Circle Round. He randomly said, “When I get strong enough I’ll overthrow my parents…get stronger, get smarter…” Must be from some story. We spent some time playing games, with him cuddling down on the lower bed with me, and he laughed like crazy at my looks. We went and brushed our teeth.

Back in bed he started talking about preschool, starting with remembering when Simona had a nosebleed due to allergies once. We talked about preschool for a good half-hour. He at one point asked why we had ever sent him there. But we also did a good job of remembering the things he liked about preschool: Eve, other friends, Ms. Anna, the plants, etc. He also told me that the reason he never liked Yaya was that Yaya was always mean to people on the playground, even though he was always nice in the classroom. It was kind of funny, because the teachers were always trying to pair August up with Yaya because Yaya was so nice and they thought they could connect, but August always told me he didn’t like him.

When August started talking about preschool he climbed down in the lower bed with me and cuddled up and covered himself with a pillow for much of it. Finally, he climbed back up to his bed. We listened to the Apple Music Ambient playlist, and he was asleep at 11:55.

Redstone machines 1:

Redstone machines 2:

Song of the day:

Perpetual motion machines:

A silly dance:

Watching ants eat chocolate 1:

Watching ants eat chocolate 2:

Swarming ants:

Legos and guests in the yard:

Pictionary 1:

Pictionary 2:

Demonstration on the overpass:

Carly and I were in a video call with her friend Paul, who now lives in Chicago, when August woke up, exactly at 9, as he told me. I carried him downstairs and put him in front of the camera and August hid behind me. Paul hasn’t seen him since he was a year or two old, I think. He and I then played some goose, and looked up more about the game, finding out it was the first commercially-produced game, in Italy, from several hundred years ago.

Gilad was then ready for Minecraft. I helped August log in, and Gilad’s brother was playing as well and had made a flying machine that August rode with them. Later, when August and I were doing redstone he would talk about wanting to play with Gilad’s brother again. I went out to where Carly was talking to Paul and we talked some more. Caleb has finished his post-doc in Chicago.

Meanwhile, August did a lot of redstone. “I call it the boxing machine.” And he made up a wonderful word: “I symmetricated it.” When Carly was done talking to Paul, and August was done with Gilad, I went to town to pick up a package of cables that had arrived. This time, it was at hardware store. 3 years in Israel and all of our packages have either gone to the post office or the school. Now they’re showing up at convenience stores and hardware stores.

When I got home they were doing redstone together. After they were done, August went out with me to see the birthday balloons, which had been attached in a clump to the fence across the street, floating around in the street. He talked a lot about redstone: “I like doing redstone. Seeing the end of it is satisfying. The sound of the pistons is also satisfying.” We did a little Green Planet, and set it up to AFK. For one asteroid he said, “That’s a doozy.” Surveillance was a word of the day, based on the settings. Carly then got him outside, briefly, to look at all the cones that had fallen.

He had asked about organ transplants the other night, and back inside we watched a couple videos about it. They didn’t really hit the spot though, as they were about why it is done, and the process of getting on the list, etc. and not about why it works. We ended up playing the no lungs shot game, but that ended when he was getting a bit rough and dropped a chess piece on my head.

We played some piano together, then went back to wrestling. He was then being the dad and I was a kid. He had me act out getting upset, then him holding me down on the couch to calm down, etc. He was then the baby brother and crying, etc.

At some point Carly and August went for a walk. They walked around the Holly block and ended up in the bench area over towards Vatikim St. He found a bunch of new ant colonies and Carly agreed to let him leave a wrapper with chocolate on it for the ants, as long as they went back in the evening to pick it up.

He got his phone to choose a story for alone time and asked, “What does HALT spell?” He sang along to the Dog King song and listened to a story. He was saying, “Sweet peaches!” a few times today, which is from Tristan Strong. He had a mango and half a hot dog for lunch.

For Minecraft time he did redstone with me. I got excited as I finished up a round machine that would be a sort of perpetual motion machine, but then realized, as I finished it, that August had just set up a machine that kept going and going. He admitted his was more accidental, but still.

It was hard for him to stop this time. He’s really thinking about it and starting to learn circuits, so it’s a little hard to insist he needs to get off. We got him off the iPad though and he sort of played a little chess with Carly. But then he was just grumpy, and ended up making a kidding fort under the table. He used a blanket, some pillows, some of Carly’s canvases, etc. and I got his pink fan for him. He sat in there and listened to stories. First one, then “The Giant’s Causeway”. Then “The Tell-Tale Wrapper”.

We talked about running, and he said he wanted to do two laps after spending five stars for Minecraft. So we did that. I figured out how to reliably make flying machines, both going up and horizontally, and he did more redstone.

We then got out and ran our two laps. We paused for a break on our second lap, on a bench up at the park, then finished up: .53km. He was excited about that, and told Carly.

We sat outside and I read What If? while he ate. The book mentions the star-nosed mole as being ugly and August wanted to see a photo, saying, “If it’s from nature I still love it.”

He then played Minecraft with Vivian and Colin, and I went for a run. When I got back and out of a shower he was playing chess with Carly. They were playing from random positions. We went for an evening walk. He started dancing to the music across the street. That’s right, our neighbors across the street like to blast music loudly out the speakers attached to the outside of the house. They’ve also had several birthday parties there recently. It seems like they might be hosting them. We walked over towards the bench area towards Vatikim, to retrieve the wrapper, and he showed me where he had left a piece of chocolate for ants and other colonies he had found. On the way back he counted cats and we found a really nice young dog that wanted to play at the house with a really big yard. There used to be a big barky dog there. He counted the dog as well, since it was nice.

Back at home he played the Goose game with Carly while I ate, then we went upstairs and Skyped with my parents. He played a lot of cribbage with Mom. They really have it down, and he’s getting better and better with the math, I think. The downside is that I think he’s started to change the rules/cheat a lot. We had talked to Dad first, and they told us that Cindy is doing well after getting her teeth pulled. And as we were sitting there on the bed talking to Mom, August suddenly jumped up and disappeared, then was yelling down to Carly, saying he smelled popcorn. It was really cute. So he had apple with peanut butter and honey and a bowl of popcorn as they played.

They hung up at 10:10, then I had him take his bath. He was quoting the full “Jane Smith” letter from the Wayside School book, even though we only read it twice. After his bath he was then practicing yoga poses with Carly.

We went in to his bed and he listened to “The Celebrated Jumping Frog”. We brushed our teeth, and he was acting laggy, moving and talking jerkily. In bed, he was pretending to be cold or something, and we were pretending he was a hare. I was trying to ask what kind of music he wanted to listen to, but wouldn’t answer me, and I said, “But tell me what kind of music a hare likes to listen to or I’ll choose.” He replied, “Hare-y music” and was very proud of himself. He was then talking about how “I’ll be saved by my friend Adit.” Don’t know where he got that name from.

Back in bed he was doing a funny monologue that included what he called a cricket voice. Did a recording of both that and him being laggy. As we got the lights out and listened to a Cvlture album, he quote some story, “I’m going to confront…right then and there…What good is it going to do?” and was then quite for a couple minutes, before saying, “I’m excited for redstone…my new favorite subject in Minecraft.” He was then asleep around 11:50.

Redstone machines 1:

Redstone machines 2:

Song of the day:

Perpetual motion machines:

A silly dance:

Watching ants eat chocolate 1:

Watching ants eat chocolate 2:

Swarming ants:

He was up at 9:20. I went up and we read Tristan Strong for a good 20 minutes. We brushed our teeth and went down and played Minecraft, working on Redstone. We finished our first two-sided piston door. We were watching the “Declassified” concert thing, hosted by Ben Folds:https://youtu.be/5ntOLLzYtTo

We kept watching that and played a few rounds of Mastermind. The performance of Wu Man made him remember GarageBand and he played with that.

We then listened to the Sault listening party on NPR and played on the couch, pretending to box and be boa constrictors. Carly had been talking to Tessa outside, then came in and played chess on the board with him.

They went to town. I went up to work. They got a pastry at the bakery for Carly and August got a chocolate egg at the convenience store next door. It turns out the guy that works at the bakery lives just across the street to the south of us, as he recognized Carly. They went over to the park by the library and Carly sent me photos of him running. They got home about 1:30 and Carly brought me up a pastry. I came down a few minutes later and August was listening to a story called “Hey Little Mouse!” He started “The Firefly Queen” and then listened to that while he played Minecraft with Carly. He then listened to “A Bone to Pick” and most of “Rumpelstiltskin”.

Carly had him doing math problems with decimals at some point, and I gave him some problems as well. He would do a math-solving dance while he did them. Carly showed him a John Medina video, the guy who wrote Brain Rules, about how exercise helps the brain. He then did running math, answering math problems as he ran around the house. He’s getting pretty good at two-digit subtraction problems in his head (like 15-8). They went outside, then came in and he used 5 stars to play Minecraft with her. I started to make food. I made a peanut sauce, then cooked a bunch of broccoli, tofu, and mushrooms. And noodles.

August and I did some of our snake wrestling, then went out for a run. Just a lap, since he had been running earlier. We checked in on Green Planet, then we sat on the swing and he ate his bar and I read from What If? He asked about the longest someone has jumped, and we watched the world record high, long, and triple jumps.

Back inside, he kept saying “Strongs keep punching” to Carly. Finally told her it is the mantra from Tristan Strong. And he asked, “What’s rapscallion mean?” We read the definition and it as a word of the day.

At 6 he started playing Minecraft, sans Vivian and Colin as they were busy again today. I went for a run. After I got back and took a shower, we all went out for a walk. We headed our usual direction, to the ant area, and a little further. He initially agreed to do the Holly block, but came up just shy and we turned back. He found new ant colonies along the way and said he could watch them all day. Back by the big rock he watched beetles and ladybugs. Carly stayed with him, and I went back inside. They were out for another 20 minutes or so, and ended up doing a lot of walking. They saw a white rabbit for several minutes and walked around the Holly block and across towards Vatikim before heading back.

Carly had also cooked up the spinach for him, and he seemed to like that better than the rest of the food: “Mmm. Nutritious. Yummy. Plain.” He was at 80-some minutes of activity on his watch. He’s been wearing it again to track his stars, and has also been interested in the health stuff as well. I suggested he could get stars for getting to 90 or 120 minutes, so he ran in circles to get 90 minutes and a star. Before our walk he had been at 52 minutes, so had wanted to do an 8-minute walk to get to 60.

He and I played battleship and he ate more dinner. He found a board game on there called goose and we played 3 rounds of that. Entirely a chance game based on die rolls, so I wasn’t going to play more with him. We eventually agreed on one game of connect 4.

It was getting towards time to go upstairs, but he wanted more spinach. Carly got him more. Then he called us “Bad parents. I can’t believe I’m getting away with it.” I asked getting away with what: “(Not) Going upstairs.” So I said, “Yes. I can’t believe we’re letting you stay downstairs and eat spinach.” He commented on the spinach: “That’s pretty yum. Delish.” “It has no flavor though.”

He was then looking at my phone, and realized I was 3 minutes short of my exercise goal of 30 minutes, and told me I had to finish it. So he and I went upstairs and ran around and did jumping jacks. He got over 100 minutes on his phone.

Carly came up and gave him a bath. They were talking about mango prices and supply, and he made an analogy: “Basically it’s an equal and opposite reaction.” (As supply goes up, prices go down.) He also compared it to the peaceful warrior, because you’re going forward and backward at the same time. He observed: “Here’s a very peculiar thing: why I like spinach so much. Because it has no taste.” We also ate a couple of peaches I’d cut up before heading in to bed.

He was singing a song that went, “You nursed me back to health, so I give you this seed.” It was based on a song from the “Pumpkin Seed” story, but he was adding his own words. He told me the plot of the story, and how the girl “Shared it with her brother who’s not that content.”

He listened to the end of “Rumpelstiltskin” and then the next story. We brushed our teeth, then listened to a Peace Out before putting on Beethoven’s First. He was asleep around 11:40. I was surprised he made it that long, given his short night last night.

Time for another run:

Sing reading:

A little piano tune:

Singing math:

Running math:

New ant nest:

Running in circles:

He was up at 7:45 to use the bathroom. I then walked him downstairs to Carly and went back to bed as I had a headache. She read to him, then they played Minecraft outside. Carly figured out that the key to enjoying the lucky block worlds is listening to a podcast at the same time. When I came down they were finishing up and she was making him a quesadilla. I had to do a little work to get the video for work exporting, and she read some more Joey Pigza Swallows the Key to him as he ate the quesadilla and more fruit salad, getting to the description of spaghetti, and then they played a game of chess where August had a “perpetual” knight that had a spawn point.

They then set up the basket with activities to draw from today. He drew ‘chess on computer’ and they played on my iPad. He and I did Gravity Maze. He wanted to do the last card, and we had to look at the solution. He then took it up and showed it to Carly. We went up and wrestled. I remembered seeing Heather post a photo of getting crepes in Albania with Eve and Zoe and I showed it to him. We asked if the crepes were sweet or savory. They have also apparently adopted a couple of rescue turtles they found on the highway. Or tortoises. So that led to a game where he was a rescue squirrel, or a rescue tortoise.

Eventually we went downstairs and watched the newest Iskall video. He was really inspired by something he’d seen Iskall do with his Piglin farm and wanted to add it to what we had made, so he asked to have his Minecraft time first. We did that, and when his time was up he did a great job of getting right off. He then listened to “The Silent War for the Open Door” for alone time as he ate pizza on the swing. I sliced a banana for him, and he played chess on the board with Carly. He asked, “What’s ironic mean?” We discussed the definitions. He and I then played a full game of chess, using the teleporting corners idea. I taught him about dynamic positions in chess, and he used the term a bit later. It ended in a draw.

I then got him out on a run. We ran clockwise, then all the way up to the park. A total of .42km. Back at the house they played Mastermind and I vacuumed the filters from all the AC units. He then ate his chocolate bar and read part of the Inspector Hopper book to Carly. I took a video of him sing-reading, and he said, “You should post that on social media. Make it public.” They went outside, and he found a blue feather from a Eurasian jay. He put it in a bag with the parakeet feather he had found before.

I went upstairs to work from 3 to 4. They started with yoga and cut his hair. They did some math too, as he can now do addition with decimals. He was then watching the latest Mumbo Jumbo, I think from cutting his hair. I watched the end with him and we had pita and hummus. We played around on the couch, and he read more of the Inspector Hopper book to me. Carly took up recycling. We looked at the globe when he asked what eurasian meant. A word of the day. And we discussed longitude when he asked about it again.

We had some grapes, and I tried to get him on a walk or something. Vivian and Colin were going on a hike today, so no Minecraft. I gave in eventually and we did his evening time early, about 5:30, working on redstone. He’s really starting to figure it out. I went for a run at 6. He was playing chess when I got back and he’d had a piece of pizza. They were talking to Cherie. I took a shower, then Carly left to go to the art store. He and I ate rice and broccoli and cheese and watched Prehistoric Road Trip. Contaminate was another new word. We almost finished episode 2.

Carly got home, half successful. They didn’t have canvases. We got him out on an evening walk. Barely. But he did fine when we were out there. We walked each of the three directions as far as he would allow. Over by the ant area we saw a rabbit in the field. First time we’ve seen one. He also tried out the little hopscotch that someone had drawn, and had us moving the rocks that we could. When we got to the tree in that direction he instantly said, “We got to the tree. We got to the tree. Now let’s go home.” But we were then able to head in the other two directions, and he spent time checking out the tractor.

At home we did a little piano, then he started listening to Stories Podcast. Carly made him popcorn and he listened to a lot of stories. “Stubborn Goats”, a “Dog King” story and several others. I went upstairs to fix the keyboard and to type. He probably listened for about an hour.

Carly brought him upstairs and I got him to take his bath. Carly mentioned something about a ‘precedent’ and August said he didn’t like the American president. I talked about the difference between the two words. Referring to our negotiations over the start time of his evening time he said, “I don’t know why you didn’t remember saying we could play an hour early.” It had been a rather mixed-up affair.

In bed I tried to read to him, but he wanted to listen to podcasts, so listened to “The Cat Who Caught the Moon” and “The Fairy’s New Year Gift”. We brushed our teeth, and he asked about organ transplants and was shocked when I said I thought heart transplants are more common/possible than foot transplants. I said it is something we should learn about. He requested Beethoven’s Second, and he was asleep about 11:20.

Time for another run:

Sing reading:

A little piano tune:

I went and woke him up right at 9. He got up right away. I read a couple chapters of Tristan Strong, then we took care of our teeth and headed downstairs. Carly came in and played Minecraft with him and I went upstairs to do some work. She made him an egg. Then they went outside. She wanted to show him the flower that was opening on the vine. They then played chess before moving to Mastermind.

Carly then tried driving down to the big art store. He and I went upstairs and wrestled on the bed. When we were done with that we went downstairs and watched the newest Grian episode. Carly got home. She hadn’t been successful, as the store was really crowded so she gave up. We had placed a fruit and veggie order before she left and it arrived right before she got back. August was excited about trying the lychee. Carly had figured out that that is what the birds drop the seeds of in our yard. He really liked the lychee and ate three or four. Carly made him corn. And he practiced his peaceful warrior pose. He was singing a “Stainless, painless, but never brainless” song. Not sure if that has roots in something, or if it was just a nonsense song. He then showed me his rubber band instrument on the cupboards and we determined that one note was F sharp, and another B flat. He played a song on it, saying, “here’s a tiptoeing song.”

Carly made him fruit salad. I went upstairs to try to order pizza. Finally determined that the Even Yehuda Shabtai branch didn’t open until 2pm. When I went downstairs Carly had cleaned the bathroom and gotten August to agree to just use the upstairs one until after Jeff had visited. He was pretty grumbly about it. They played Mastermind, then I played with him. He talked about the feeling of figuring it out: “Doesn’t it feel funny? When you do all that and get it right and then it all makes sense?”

Just before 2 I headed to Shabtai. Got there just after 2. Very empty. He took the temperature of the two women in front of me, but didn’t take mine. I ordered two large pizzas: one with smoked goose, goat cheese, and mushrooms, and the other with half tuna and corn, and half veggie. The host was wearing a mask, but trying to convince everyone to sit inside. I sat outside to wait, and likely would have anyway, even if not because of COVID, as they had umbrellas and a really nice breeze.

While I was gone they played Minecraft. Carly learned about creepers and experience. They were in a lucky block world.

Jeff arrived at 3. We all sat outside. He brought a Chimey that he and I shared. August ate a slice of pizza and played on the swing and seesaw. When he got done with that he watched a Mumbo Jumbo video about a redstone speed run. At 4 he had his session with Gabi. They spent most of their time on the swing, until August got too warm and they moved in on the couch. Well, Gabi was on the computer.

Jeff left around 5. Inside August was acting a little addicted to his iPad time. Distracted him for a bit, but then allowed him to use 5 stars. He was making a chess board in Minecraft when I headed up to work from 5:30 to 7:40.

The session went really well, then I came downstairs. Cassie was talking about a badd dream she had of Vivian falling off her bike. Carly said something about how dreams like that are awful, and August observed, ,“It’s even worse when you’re a parent protecting your kid.”

He played chess with Vivian. Carly played with Colin, teaching him some chess. August was listening to her and said, “You sounds like a teacher” or something of the sort.

I went for a run. They went out for an evening walk and when I came back I found them standing on the sidewalk across from our house. They had walked every direction from our house as far as August would allow, looking at plants and things.

We headed inside and they read Joey Pigza. I took a shower then she gave him a bath, and read more Joey Pigza. We went in his room and played some would-you-rather. When I asked if he’d rather go for a run or a bike ride tomorrow he said, “Ack. You’re killing me.” He listened to the stories “Bending and Breaking” and “Kiddo and the Fox” while he ate his crackers. We brushed our teeth, then listened to some new-to-us Max Cooper before switching to something calmer, the Philip Glass Solo Piano album. August asked, “What’s a general store?” A word of the day. He quoted “These pumpkins are so swell.” From “Polly and the Pumpkin Seeds”. He was finally asleep around 11:40.

Song and rubber band instrument:

More rubber band:

Chess with Vivian:

Teaching Colin chess:

He came down the stairs on his own at 8:20. He went and turned on the AC and bathroom light, then we played a couple minutes of of Green Planet and I then read Tristan Strong. He went out to say good morning to Carly, then we played Minecraft.

Carly headed to the post office, trying to track down a package. She found out it was at some convenience store, but had no luck tracking it down. August and I finished Minecraft and had toast for breakfast and were watching some of Formula 1 qualifying. Racing is back, starting with the Austrian Grand Prix. August and I then played legos. He and Carly had done some yesterday. He and I were making spirals and saying they were DNA and putting them in him, doing things like giving him gills or turning his skin blue. He went and played piano and had a cool song he made up.

Carly had gotten home, then walked over to the mall to look for new Crocs for August. She called from there and he chose the blue over the yellow. She got home and he tried them on and liked them. He did a nice dance in them.

I then drove into town and succeeded in finding the convenience store with our package. They were still playing Mastermind when I got back, as they had been when I left. August had also had a full banana, which she’d cut up for him. They then went to do math at the blackboard. Carly decided to use the whiteboard because of the dust, and she remembered hitting chalk erasers together to clean them, back in elementary school. I was surprised they didn’t have a chalk vacuum machine, and I told her we had one in Chelan. She thought I was making it up at first.

They did some math, then he came to me and we played a few games of sprouts. He and Carly had watched the VSauce video on it a day or two ago and had been playing it. That ended with August piling stuff on top of me on the couch, and pretending to put me to sleep. He then went to supposedly paint with Carly, but that didn’t last long, then they played chess and cribbage. I went for a run in the heat.

He listened to “The Boggart” and “The Moon Rabbit” for alone time, then was playing Minecraft and listening to “The Singing Witch” when I got back. After my shower I finished in the lucky block world with him. We went and played piano together, then he was pretending to take away my lungs and we were wrestling in the kitchen. We then played a game of War with ten cards each and a lot of cheating. It was pretty crazy. We next took Mastermind upstairs and played on the bed. Defect was a word of the day.

He and Vivian had their Minecraft time early as they were going to their uncle’s house. I finished up with him, then he went outside with Carly. They brought in a bunch of rocks and shells we had from places and decorated the indoor plants with them. They then planted the mango seed that Carly had sprouted. As he was helping plant it he said, “This is the kind of brown I like.” He had told Vivian how he likes nature colors but “Minecraft doesn’t have the brown I like.”

Somehow the word trial came up as another word of the day. Carly discussed the two meanings of the word. He asked Carly to run the hose down the slide, and he played in it as a sort of water slide. I then went in with him to change his clothes, and he spent 5 coins for Minecraft and they played together.

I went up to work at 7 for the rehearsal for tomorrow. They went for a walk, taking an umbrella. He splashed water on it to make sure it worked. I came down after 8. We skyped with my parents. I asked how it went taking the cats to the vet. August asked, “Did they pee in the carrier?” Mom and August played a lot of cribbage on their own. Carly was organizing downstairs and I went down there to help her. After they were done with cribbage August and I played in the bed.

I got him out to start bath and Carly came up. She asked if he’d had fun with Gramma and he said that was “Confidential.” But when she said she needed to know so that she knew when he’d want to do it again he admitted he had a lot of fun.

We got ready to go into his room. He likes to run in as fast as possible now, “At the count of Banana!” He then yells “Bananas!” and we run in. Carly had found the ‘Turn Up the Bass Shirt’ in the backpack. It’s been in there for a long time as the backup shirt. I told him how I had bought it in Korea when he was a baby and it looked huge back then. Not it is probably getting small on him. He asked about why we had extra clothes in the backpack, and I mentioned mainly using the pants, if a diaper leaked or he stepped in water. I found myself missing his old pants. Think we saved one of the pairs I’m thinking about, somewhere.

“The Biggest in the World” but didn’t finish it and listened to “The Love Potion” instead. We brushed our teeth. In bed he asked, “Can I just skip forward to tomorrow?” We listened to a Max Cooper album, and he was asleep about 11:40.

“Ya bay” song:

Song of the day:

New shoes:

Shekel spinning:

Planting the mango seed:

Not tasting the first papaya:

He woke up just before 8:20. I went up and he was stretched on the lower bed. I read a couple chapters of Tristan Strong. We brushed our teeth and went downstairs. He went out with Carly for a couple minutes. Came in and turned on the fan and said, “She is WIRED. Meaning she has ADHD.” I asked what he was talking about and he sait it was from Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. He then came and we played Minecraft.

Carly cut up a banana for him and made a hotdog for him for brunch. He then wanted to do addition and she was giving him even bigger problems, with three or four numbers to add, and he was carrying 20s. He was doing a math dance as he solved them.

They then went and played cribbage. They drew cards for the crib, but it was a tie, and he said they’d solve it like War, and all of the cards used would go in the crib. I think it was a triple tie before Carly won. When I came over he said, “She got a huge crib and got 174 points. She beat me. I added some new game rules.”

He and I played a lot of Mastermind, then he found Majong on the games app and I taught him how to play that. He played that and we watched some of the Formula 3 race. He then snuck some Minesweeper in, also in the same app, and I taught him how to play that. We had Schnitzel for lunch and watched some of the second day of Palestine Expo. Carly headed to the post office, but it was really crowded and she remembered she wants to send a letter, so she’ll try again tomorrow.

She got home and I went upstairs to work and watch Palestine Expo, including the Corbyn speech, as they played cribbage. When I came down I found out that August had developed a water challenge for us: they had put two and a half liters of water in a pot. We were supposed to take all of our drinking water from that for the day to see how much we drank. I was down a little before 4. He was listening to “Wexie’s Seascape” and eating a mango. He played Green Planet for his iPad time, and listened to “The Soothsayer’s Fire”.

I then got him to go on a run with me. We did our reverse lap, continued on to the corn flower area, and ran twice around the little island to extend our run. Along the way he reached down and picked up a couple feathers and was pretending to fly as we ran. When we sat down on the bench we realized there was still some bone attached to the feathers. We headed home, as I didn’t want him to eat his chocolate bar without a proper hand washing—he’d also been throwing the cones from the tree over the fence before we got running.

We went home, washed our hands, then sat in the swing and he ate his chocolate bar and I read Tristan Strong. Mantra, kinfolk, and haint were words of the day. We went inside when it was time for cousins Minecraft time. I went for a run.When they were done Carly had to say goodbye to Colin, who didn’t really want her to go. She was going to the dune nature area in Netanya for an evening walk. With the spike in cases we don’t know how long the beaches will be open, so best to take advantage of those things while we can. She said the beach was really busy, but the dune area was empty.

August and I did a few minutes of Green Planet until Cherie called. He had seconds on potato dinner as they went upstairs to play chess. I then brought him apple and peanut butter and then crackers and peanut butter. And then even more. I said that was all for today and he was fine with that. When they were done Carly gave him a bath. We had a nice family hug, then I realized we’d forgotten to cut our hair today. I suggested we do it now, but Carly didn’t like the joke, I think.

In bed he listened to “The Biggest in the World” and played some melodica and had some Cheerios. He made a ShareTheMeal donation, and we discussed why we don’t live in the U.S. And he brought up what he likes about planes and we discussed that. When we were done with that subject he asked, “What were we talking about before?” I remembered how we got from one topic to the other and he said, “I’m a good conversation starter.” In discussing my chess playing abilities he joked, “Your ability to play chess is litotes.”

We somehow got on the subjects of racism and then nationalism. He told me he doesn’t like New York though. I asked why, and it turned out he had the impression that it was full of amusement parks and the such. I’m not sure where this came from. We read a Magic Tree House book once that involved Coney Island, and I told him that was just a part of it. He said, “I hate Coney Island. It’s too much fun.” He specifically mentioned roller coasters a couple times, so I think he’s heard about them from a story (I know he’s heard the Disney one a couple times, but there might be something else as well) and doesn’t like the idea. He also said, “I also don’t like the princess make believe…it’s too fiction.” We both got a little frustrated when he was getting hyper and wanted to play our wrestling sort of games and I said no. It was getting on to 11:20. We listened to an album called The Meridians of Longitude and the Parallels of Latitude.

At 11:40 he woke me, saying, “Something on the speaker…it looks like a creature. It’s scary.” I turned on the light, and it was just the strap on top of it. I had turned the speaker to face him more, so it was new to him. Still, the first time that he’s been afraid of something like that. He slept soundly though the night though, so it didn’t seem to cause a problem. He’s sleeping through the night most nights now. I think he’s only called me in once in the last week or more.

Really really big math:

Throwing cones over the fence:

Another run and finding feathers:

“If you say” song while playing Minecraft:

We’re to the 4th of July already, usually around the time we’re finishing up in Washington and then headed to Pennsylvania. The summer has gone quickly so far.

August was sleeping, facing the wrong way, on the lower bed when we got up. He called me up at 8:40. I read some Tristan Strong, which has John Henry and Brer Rabbit in it. We discussed folk tales as we went and brushed our teeth, particularly tricksters and rabbits. August also told me about the mouse that wants to be big and said his favorite is “Kangaroo and Joey Too” and told me the plot.

He went out with Carly for a minute, then came in and we made a parkour course in Minecraft. That was pretty fun. When we were done I made him a quesadilla, then he and Carly were trying to figure out what to put in the basket. He wouldn’t actually agree to any activities, but wanted ‘treat’ in there and got grumpy when Carly . He apologized, and they played chess. I heard him checkmate her and explain “This is called wasting a move…it forces you to line up with my king…checkmate.” He was referring to the king and rook endgame I showed him while brushing our teeth two nights ago and how you have to waste a tempo to make it happen.

They discussed confidential. She thought of nuclear codes. I taught him “on the DL” . We started to play Apples to Apples, but were distracted by something. Carly and I then went out to the car to start figuring out how to change the tire. Got everything out, but decided to wait until later as it was hot.

He ate a mango and I did a little work, then we played more Apples to Apples. He deferred to Carly as jogs on one: “It’s time to be a fair judge today…which is slimier? Just so you know, this one is dada’s and this one is mine.” Carly went to the bank. We went upstairs to wrestle. There were lots of lung shots and rhinos and whatnot.

We came down and watched the newest Mumbo Jumbo and I made a tuna sandwich for him for lunch, and got grapes. He was singing funny songs, but when I tried to take a video he stopped. When I went back to making food he sang, “I’m going to sing a beautiful song, when you’re not recording.” He ate his tuna sandwich and chocolate milk for lunch, then listened to “The Pumpkin Seeds”. He sang, “he learned his lesson, don’t injure a healthy bird, or you’ll get stones” And quoted the story: “You won’t be saying that when I give you half the food in my magic pumpkin.”

In Minecraft we made our own parkour course. I then ‘tricked’ him into reading by saying we’d do it behind Mama’s back. He read the entire Madeline book. Break bread was a word of the day. To inform Carly of this feat I took a photo of him and sent it to her, along with a message that he typed (he’s good enough that he could start to spell each word, then choose the right one from the suggestions). He then delivered Carly’s phone to her outside so she could see it.

Back inside we played piano together for a while. Carly came in and they played chess. It was a crazy game and I watched a bit of it. They did a little chess, then did math. He was adding to get 5 and 6 digit numbers, and doing carrying down. I came and watched, and he asked, “We’re you taking a video of my amazing calculating?” He was then sating, “I love doing this! I love adding!”

Vivian wanted to play Minecraft early, so they did that. Carly joined them, I think to help out Colin. I was working and watching Palestine Expo. We were then going to go to the beach to watch the sunset. I don’t know why I didn’t question going on a Saturday. Probably would have been okay along the boardwalk, or on one of the less popular beaches, but to convince August to go Carly suggested ice cream and Herzliya.

We left at 6:40. He listened to “The Miracles of Snake Oil” on the way and August snacked on dried mango and corn crackers. We drove to the area by the mosque. It was crazy busy in the parking lot, and she got a spot just west, along a street. August refused to get out and walk from there, so we agreed to drive down by town. She parked in her usual spot north of downtown, but August refused to walk to the beach from there, but agreed to head south, looking for ice cream. That led us right into downtown, and around to the ice cream shop. It was busy, so we went to the convenience store next door and August got one of those packaged ice cream cones.

We then walked up the hill towards the medical center. August started to dig in his heels halfway, even as he was working on his ice cream. I got him the last 100 meters or so and across the street to the parking lot and bench area overlooking the beach. All the benches were of course full, and August was ready to turn around. So we saw a nice sunset, but didn’t stay long.

He was fine walking back, and when he saw a tall hotel he said, “Humanity’s getting pretty impressive nowadays.” I told Carly about the bus drive that me and another guy yelled at when he honked at us crossing in a crosswalk (when August and I were down for one of his appointments). August reflected on the ice cream: “That was the sweetest thing I’ve tasted in months…past august was sooo wrong. Well, not about the beach…”

On the way back to the car we passed three vacant lots. The first would have been a good spot to access the beach and sunset. Future reference. The second was inundated with snails, of which August picked some off and dropped on the ground until I stopped him. The third he stopped at and told Carly to come back to see all the huge green weeds. Also crazy that there are three empty lots right down in prime Herzliya area, in neighborhoods housing EU dignitaries, etc.

On the drive home he listened to “The Bunny’s Big Leap”. August pointed out the almost-full moon. He spent the ride counting street lights that were out. “I got to 40!” I think some may have been ones that he just couldn’t see lit up from his angle, but when I had him point one out that he was seeing it was indeed one that was out.

Back at home he did more math with big numbers. I did some with him, giving him three numbers to add, and starting to work on bigger subtraction with borrowing. We then played chess together, then I went for a run. Carly was trying to get him to watch a documentary, but settled for him watching an episode of Llama Llama, which he hasn’t seen in s long time.

When I got home they were finishing up a bath. He agreed to have his hair cut tomorrow, instead of today. They read some Joey Pigza I think and were playing cribbage when I got out of the shower. I took over Carly’s cribbage hand. Heather had responded with two videos of Eve. She said August’s video was really funny, and that they had arrived in Albania after two flights. I think they said they still had to find a house, but at least they got to wherever they are without having to quarantine. Albania is starting to spike for the first time.

We went in the bedroom, and he found the perfect combo of clothes: the striped blue shorts, and the sea green shirt. On Stories Podcast he listened to “White Doe, Fairy Doe” and “Froggy Loses Her Tail”. We brushed our teeth, then listened to part of a Camoflauge album, Spice Crackers, then switched to the new Mulatu Astatke album To Know Without Knowing. He fell asleep, sitting up as usual, by 11:35.

Stop recording:

Playing in different keys at the same time:

Doing big addition problems:

Snails:

More big addition:





I started waking him up at 9:30. He was actually stretching when I came in. But then he kept closing his eyes and rolling over. I took advantage of the time to trim some of his fingernails. When I got him up a few minutes later I read several chapters of Wayside School and the Cloud of Doom. As we got up to go do our teeth he asked, “How do spies put on people?” I put ‘spies’ on the list of things to learn about.

Downstairs he started in a lucky block world, but then changed to the first world he played in with Carly when he heard Gilad would be ready in a couple minutes. It was the world where he had his first Minecraft dream. He and Gilad played in that world and switched to another. He and Gilad played for about a half hour, so then August and I played in a lucky block world for a while.

I remembered that the Potwins were flying to Albania today, and asked August if he wanted to send them a video. He wouldn’t say a message at first, then did a thumbs up when I asked if he wanted to. Carly suggested he needed to be silly to make Eve laugh, and so he did, saying the message, but also dancing around.

He played chess with Carly, then chess with me. He had a mini game, where I was handicapped a few points, and I was able to force a draw. Carly headed out on errands: to school for a couple things, to the bank, and to the post office. He asked to look up synonyms, and I taught him about a thesaurus and also antonyms and we looked up a couple words and learned cockamamy as a synonym for silly. We did a lot of the squeezing and shots game.

Carly got home, and opened an envelope from Colin. He had painted a picture for her. August said he had known about it from Zoom/FaceTime and kept the secret. They then ripped paper and played chess, and watched a clip of Swiss Family Robinson after August was looking at tree houses on Google as inspiration for Minecraft. They also did some math on the chalkboard at some point.

For alone time he listened to “Pollyanna Pumpkinseeds”, which was short, then I convinced him to look through the visual dictionary for words to finish his time. I was making the potato pie. Didn’t seem like it would take that long, but it kept going and going. Took way too long. Carly and I ended up liking it, but August wasn’t a big fan. Three times the work of a quiche and he didn’t like it, so not likely doing that again.

They played Minecraft, then went outside and planted the vine she’d bought yesterday. He drew Hermitcraft and watched a recap episode (week 3 or 4, I think), She read Joey Pigza Swallows the Key and he used five stars to play Green Planet. He talked to me about why he likes gardening and said, “I just like feeing the earthy soil.” We read more Wayside School and stamina was a word of the day.

I then got him out on a run. We ran our circle, backwards this time, and then to make it just a bit longer we ran a little further, to the corn flower area. We were going to sit and read there, but the benches were dirty so we decided to go home and do it. We sat outside and he ate his bar and we finished Wayside School and the Cloud of Doom.

We went inside and had the dinner. August was disappointed that there was nothing at all sweet about it—even the quiche usually has a slightly sweet crust. But we got him to eat a few bites before Minecraft time, and he ate it while playing Minecraft. Carly said he made his yummy noises. I went for a run. When I got back I found them building a parkour course. That was a great project for them to work on together.

I took a shower, then he moved upstairs to play chess with Cherie. He asked for food and I reheated his dinner and also gave him grapes. He ate all of that, then I got him crackers and peanut butter (4) and then seconds (3). Still hungry, I got him an apple and peanut butter. He slowed on that but ate a few slices. Carly had been entertaining Colin for a while. She then smashed another cockroach downstairs. After she gave August a bath they called Colin. August stacked stuff on her as she sat on the couch upstairs, then they went down and showed Colin the dead cockroach.

We cleanup up the mess from the stacking together, then in bed he asked why Formula is called Formula. We talked about what that meant, and the different levels and series of racing. He finished his apple as he listened to “The Lion and the Mouse” and “Arthur and the Ugly Duckling”. We went to the bathroom and he took a long time on the toilet. We discussed parkour, and he sang a song that went “Lookie lookie at my bookie” (from Keralis in Minecraft). We brushed our teeth, then he asked, “What’s a cowboy?” I discussed that, then he said, “There’s only room for one cowboy in this land.” It was a line from Rendog that he’d heard in the Hermitcraft Recap video.

In bed we listened to the Toro y Moi Causers of This (Instrumentals) album. He was, I thought, finally asleep at 12:15, but when I got up to plug in the phone he said, “Dada?” I put on the Carl Nielsen: Symphonies 1 and 2 album and waited a couple more minutes but he was asleep.

Last night he asked why some of his teeth are taller. He pointed out his bottom right teeth, his baby teeth. Maybe because the adult teeth are pushing up? Hadn’t noticed it though.

Video for Eve:

Leading us on our run:

Their parkour course:

He called me up at 8:37. I read a couple chapters of Wayside School, then he sang his request that we go downstairs and play Minecraft. He said, “Did you know a rook can always move the maximum number of spaces on an empty board?…I thought about it in my head.” I talked to him about it, and he seemed to be internalizing the grid system quite well, and picturing pieces on it. He had also thought through some of the moves available, like that a pawn could theoretically have four different moves available, and “King: minimum is 3, maximum is 8.” And that a knight has 8 possible moves in the center, but only two at the corner.

Downstairs I changed the dimming light in the bathroom, and he asked, “What’s perpetually mean?” We played in a lucky block world, which has been updated for the nether update, which was exciting. Carly and I were then trying to figure out how to send money with Bit, still no luck, and August had French toast for breakfast. The two of them played chess, then I played with him, setting up positions, and Carly went on errands, going to the art store and plant store.

I showed August the fool’s mate in chess, which he thought was pretty funny. He played a little piano, then we played together for quite a while. Before bed he talked about wanting to play a duet with me. He talked about liking things exact, and he precisely positioned the chess board in the middle of the square rug. We also watered his “pet” at some point, and did a ShareTheMeal donation.

Carly got home with plants. They played chess and he showed her the fool’s mate. I went up to get a good chunk of work in today. Carly made them chicken sandwiches and he taught her about reading music. When I came down to get food there were rubber bands stretched all over the cupboards. He was wanting to do his alone time. He listened to a story, then used his iPad time to play Magnus Kingdom. Carly also did some Zoom yoga class, and August spent the time playing with rubber bands. He came up to show me a rubber band chain. I told him I could stop working if he wanted me to do something with him, but he was fine, and I kept working, then came down at 4.

Carly made a great strawberry smoothie, but our supply of frozen strawberries is now running low. I talked to August about going running, something August had mentioned when talking about getting more exercise. We went out in the yard first, and August said to Carly, “You should teach me how to transplant.” He talked about how much of the yard work he does and said, “I want my percentage of the work in the yard to go up.” They then transplanted tomato plants, then he was playing on the slide with the water at the bottom, and its surface tension. He then had Carly set up a sort of waterslide. He played in that, and said, “It’s ticklish…it’s like I peed my pants but didn’t.”

He came in and I got him changed, then he showed me some yoga, and how flexible he is. He played with his rubber band chains and we did some slo-mo videos of them. He and I then went for our first run together, up to the park, then back down the back path and to the house. He spotted a feather and stopped to grab it, then said, “Hi feather, you’re going on a jog with us.”

He asked again, “What’s confidential mean?” We talked about why things like medical history are considered confidential, and how they could be used to deny people jobs. We sat on the swing and read more Wayside school And due was a new word.

Vivian and Colin called and they moved to Minecraft. It didn’t go well though. They kept jumping from world to world. First Vivian and August were trying to have a secret place without Colin, then Vivian suddenly left the world August was in and August couldn’t get in the world she was in. He went to a world and built a whole battle arena for them to PVP in, but then when he invited her she didn’t want to do it. He was getting upset at this point and hung up, and told Carly he was going to destroy their stuff, and then had a meltdown when we had to take the iPad away.

We were trying to get him to eat something, and finally Carly got him to eat some crackers and peanut butter, for some protein. I put on “Narcissus and Echo” for him, and I was finally able to go for a run. When I got back August met me at the door and told me to stay outside and told me, “We’re doing secret talk.” They moved that upstairs. He apologized, and to finish his evening time he played a little Magnus Kingdom, then found a new survival world. I played with him for his last 8 minutes, and he did a great job stopping when his time was up.

They went up and played chess together until 10. As Carly was talking to Cherie about Vivian’s infected tooth August said that he had thought Vivian had said “infected poop.” Abcess was another new word. Up in the bedroom he had dinner, then seconds, of rice and tofu and cheese

Carly gave him a bath, then he chose his clothes. He said something about it being unfortunate or a shame that he only had two shorts to choose from. We got in bed, but then when he was pretending to have hypothermia I pulled the blanket up for him but flipped the plate with crackers that was on the other side of him. I changed the sheets. He listened to “King Midas and the Satur’s Song” and “Pippo and Poppo Plan a Perfect Prison”. We brushed our teeth and he had a question about the trick in mating with a rook, and I got out my phone and showed him using Chess Tiger.

Back in bed he was pretending to be the last dolphin ever, and having babies. He was then the parent telling them, “No more television…that’s enough catfish lollipops for one day.” We listened to the Brian Eno and Roger Eno album, and he said he had some difficulty getting to sleep, but he was asleep around 11:50.

Just the end:

Rubber band chain:

Transplanting tomatoes:

Surface tension:

Water slide fun:

Water slide slo-mo:

Rubber band slo-mo: