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I started waking him at 9:15. Up at 9:30. I read the first couple stories in the book Apollo: The Brilliant One. We learned the words muse and prognostication as words of the day.

We then went into the bedroom and wrestled. I was tossing him around like he was in a storm and used a lot of our new words, like sinews and muses and Typhon. We went downstairs at 10:15 and for his morning iPad time he played one of the older LEGO games. We switched to Minecraft, where he had the idea of making a copy of our survival world and making it creative so that we could use that as a test world, particularly to plan his new sky tunnel. We did that, and it was a really good idea. I could go up in the sky and see our builds in a way I’d never seen before.

He played some piano, then we had oatmeal for breakfast. He then read the first third of an I Can Read level 1 book called Dirk Bones and the Mystery of the Haunted House to me. We watched a SciShow video about animals without mouths, then started the Wayside School Arithmetic book, figuring out how elf+elf=fool. He started to get bored by it, but I pulled him around and when he mostly understood how it worked he was excited to tell Carly.

He played with the Sound Rebound app and talked about my work with me. We discussed the videos I had worked on, and he asked, “Do you think someone in the world is watching your video right now?” We then went upstairs and had fun wrestling before doing some upstairs learning time, watching videos on Sleepwalking (https://youtu.be/OUeN4uHEaGY), concussions (https://youtu.be/O8R1x6Co6OY), and light-headedness and fainting (https://youtu.be/0-Mwr1D_Qec andhttps://youtu.be/exH-wgTORfs

).

When we went downstairs Carly was home. He had corn and rice and cantaloupe for lunch and they played chess and he played piano. Carly went up to work, and at some point he did alone time, listening to a story. For his Minecraft time we played in a new Advanced Sky Block world, or something of the sort. I did my role of growing the trees and expanding from the one tree to more of a forest, and when August commented on how I do that in all of the sky block worlds I said it was appropriate since that was Grampa’s job.

We went outside, and he had more cantaloupe as we sat on the bench. We discussed his warts and also calluses, which he doesn’t have. He said, “You don’t have to worry about me getting callouses. I’m not going to be a guitar player, I’m going to be a teacher!” When I asked where piano fit in that he added, “That’s what I should be: a piano teacher!”

Carly came out and he randomly explained symbiotic relationships to her, starting with the example of a monkey eating bugs off of a tiger. It came up that he was the one that had been confident that the cantaloupe was ripe yesterday, and he said he thinks he learned how to tell in preschool. He said he had taught mama how to do it, and she should pass it on. He added, “This should be taught from generation to generation… and I should teach my kids, or kids… it could be a family heirloom. What? It seems like a pretty good thing to pass on.” We noted his use of big words like heirloom (must be from a story?) and he said, “I want to study big words. They’re interesting…I’m a conversation starter.”

We looked at the WBAIS CoronaZine that Ilana put together. He wasn’t much into it, but I read some of the student poems to him, and taught him about acrostic poems and we made one up together:

Mommy mommy mommy

Always in the garden

Many salads she has eaten

Always with tomatoes

We also read a poem from 5th grade Eve, Liz’s daughter. Carly found a whole pack of slugs, and August took them across the street to release them. He released them in the sun by an ant nest, seeming to think they should be punished. He let me shield them from the sun with a branch with leaves though. Back in the yard he helped water. Carly said something to him, and his response was, “Beats me. I’m just a kid. I don’t know anything.” He doesn’t like to turn on and off the water now, as the handle is inside his big weed. I asked why that was, and he told me “The leaves have a weird smell.”

I got him back on the bench and he read the next third of the Dirk Bones book to me. He told me he likes to do “rash reading”, where he reads quickly and guesses at words. He said I should only correct his words at the end of every two pages, and that he doesn’t like stopping as he goes. I told him that was a good idea and we could work on that. I then started reading the first Percy Jackson graphic novel to him. He really liked that, so I went ahead and bought them all on Apple Books, as they are 99 cents each right now.

Inside he played a bunch of piano. On one piece he asked, “Did you like how the bass was random?” He was really playing around with rhythm. It was now close to 6. He’d been wanting to do his hour of Minecraft a bit early; Vivian and Colin couldn’t play again today because they had friends over. Should be back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. They played in the Minecraft test world, and I played with them for a few minutes, finding some spider spawners we can make use of in the survival version. I then went for a run.

When I got back he was playing with Sound Rebound and he was watching the balls pile up at the bottom: “You pretend they’re Internet speeds… the chance ones is business internet.” The different layers are different internet speeds and another layer is an upgrade. We had talked about our speeds earlier when he had done a Speedtest and it was the fastest we’ve seen in Israel (38mbps). I showed him how it had been 80 in Korea.

I took a shower, and when I came down he was playing chess. He asked us, “What’s abundance mean?” He also asked Carly to read Junie B. Jones and I think they read a little. He then helped me make strawberry scones and played more chess and Sound Rebound. We ate the scones, which were okay but not as good as the banana ones had turned out, then Carly gave him a bath.

He declared, “We should do something special on the day in the middle of the summer and winter…solstice.” He was then asking her about capitalism and the role of government. “Is there any country that didn’t have a government?”

I came up and took over. He first listened to “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”: “I love this story. Even though in this version the boy doesn’t get chopped up by the wolf.” Next was “Sophia and the Snowflake”. When that was over he randomly asked, “What’s fiber optic internet?” That led to a discussion of speed versus bandwidth, and of video buffering. Buffer was a word of the day.

As we went to brush our teeth he asked, “You know how people say being kind is treating people the way you want to be treated? What if the person wants to be treated differently?” That led to a good discussion. We brushed our teeth, then discussed asexual reproduction (which came up because of the story of the birth of Jesus) and that led to a discussion of species, and, after asking who the first humans were, a discussion of the paradox that there are many species in our past ancestry, yet no single dividing line between them, so that if you start with him and work backwards you would say that every previous generation was the same species, and yet you’d get back to the first organisms.

We went back in bed, and he pretend to have amnesia, but also remember everything (reminded me of the “One dark morning” poem): “I have severe amnesia. I remember I met you before.” Somehow, that led to a discussion of whether a brain could ever be kept alive in a jar, and what life would be like without any sensory imput, and whether you could make artificial eyes, etc. When I talked about how awful it would be to just be a brain and said I’d go crazy, he asked, “What’s your concept of driving someone crazy?”

He was really having trouble settling down, and kept asking and telling me things. We listened to the Glassworks album again and, he eventually told me it was too Spooky. I put on a Benge album he had liked (the pop one) and he was finally asleep sometime around 12:15.

Explaining a symbiotic relationship:

Releasing the slugs:

More slugs:

Piano bit 1:

Piano bit 3:

Piano bit 2:

Scone dough:

Piano bit 4:

I went and got him up at 9:30. Lot of stretching, then he talked about making a tunnel in Minecraft. I read from the Hades book, getting close to the end. The book taught him sinew. Downstairs we played Minecraft, doing some PvP (he’s much better than me) and mining competitions. When he wanted to fight in Minecraft he said he’d change his skin to something more appropriate. And chose “Riot Police 3”. We haven’t discussed those events at all, so totally a coincidence. Carly and I called back and forth a few times as we figured out mail, library, and flight refund stuff.

He ate French toast for breakfast and we did some Sister and Myna Minecraft games and watched Grian. Then the “Nutag-Homeland” film (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tueWBOtqBSA&t=195s) and we talked about how it was done.

He played a cool piano piece, then we went upstairs for wrestling. There were lots of rhinos and titans and magical things. Downstairs for more cool piano. He found a spider on the wall and didn’t want it captured or killed so it would eat the flies. He then had me composing something for him. I asked what he want and he told me “Just compose” so I called it that. Carly got home as I was finishing that up with a messy chord.

He listened to a story for alone time, then played a little Simple Rocket before playing Minecraft with Carly. When she agreed to play, he said, “Yes! Thank you for playing!” Randomly, he said, “Just so you know, when I get to a job I won’t be a miner.”

I made schnitzel for lunch and Carly made rice. We ate outside and he ate the schnitzel and the last of the watermelon and his rice with teriyaki sauce. He went to the bathroom and asked, “What’s a mandatory evacuation?” Clarified mandatory. We read the Hades book on the bench swing, and he had seconds, then third on the rice, finishing it off. At that point Carly came out and asked what had happened to the rice. Oops. The book mentioned the sphinx and we looked up more information about them.

He also asked about the difference between fainting and being knocked out, and how they happen. Talked a little, and said we’d look up more later. He asked, “What’s depressing mean?” So another new word.

He cashed in five stars and we did more challenges for each other in the flat world. I ended with an archery challenge that worked pretty well. I think they played some chess, then a bit before 6 they started playing Minecraft together. Vivian and Colin were at a lake or something today so couldn’t play. August had been upset yesterday upon learning about it, but he handled it well today. I went for a run, then took a shower. August was then playing chess with Cherie. Once they got it set up they played lots and lots of chess. Against each other, and also against the computer.

Carly made him corn and he had that and seconds. Carly had placed a fruit and veggie order, and he also had one of the first mangoes of the season, followed by cantaloupe. August asked if I liked cantaloupe and I explained my whole fruit scale to him, which ends with watermelon and then cantaloupe at the bottom, and right above tomatoes. August said, “In. Accurate.” Carly doesn’t eat it either, and August said, “Let me get this straight: I’m the whole person in this whole family that eats cantaloupe?” Then did a face palm.

He talked about his plans for a tunnel to Carly’s area in our survival world. Through the air: “That will take a lot of material.” And to himself: “Yeah. Rash decision.” While doing dishes Carly had accidentally turned on the water to hot instead of cold, then put her hand in it and actually burned it. She had a bag with ice in it, and August wanted one as well to play with. As we were getting upstairs he was asking me if poop was conscience what would its idea of heaven be. It was a pretty crazy scenario, and he admitted, “There’s a lot of IFs here…it’s iffy.”

Upstairs he wanted to verify that the Pi shirt that Cherie sent him had the correct digits of pi, so he looked at Pi on my phone to verify and had fun looking through millions of digits of it. I got him to take a bath, then Carly agreed to a quick game of chess with him.

He ate his crackers in bed and asked me about how the famine was doing. We ended up reading about the current locusts: https://www.foxnews.com/science/vast-locust-swarms-east-africa-5-million-people-hunger-famine?cmpid=prn_newsstand He also said, “Here’s how technology is affecting poor people…” And had the idea that it would make piracy harder because more people and stuff are flying instead of going on ships.

He listened to “The Dinner Date” and “Sweet and Sour”. He asked me, “How much does a mail carrier make?”

We listened to a new-to-us Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan album, Body and Soul, I think, then when he was saying he couldn’t sleep I switched to the Bruce Brubaker & Max Cooper album Glassforms and he fell asleep by 11:45.

Thumbs down to more:

Musician at work:

Chess with Oma:



I started waking him up about 9:15. He was up by 9:30. About the first thing he said was that wanted me to pretend to be someone having a failing business: “You be a business failure…” We did that, then went and took care of our teeth. Shmuel called for no particular reason. He was talking about the meters and how often we should square up. I have no idea how this is supposed to work, and need to get Ada involved.

Downstairs he played some amazing piano, and he said that the scale he was using wasn’t a minor scale, but was similar. He showed me, saying, “It’s a cousin to a minor scale…” Which was a great analogy that he came up with on his own. He had a sneaking song that I made up words to (“Sneaking, sneaking up the stairs / You won’t know until I’m there”) and then he had a jazz song where he sang “chess, chess, chess, chess” to it. We did a video and sent it to Shmuel, as he’s been asking for another video.

We read some of the Hades book, where he learned the phrase “dire consequences”. He then moved to Minecraft. When he told me what he was going to do, he then said, “okay, son” in his Dad voice and told me that’s what I was supposed to say, when I didn’t respond. Watched an Ants Canada video after that, and fortify was a word of the day. I made French toast for breakfast.

We ate, then went upstairs to wrestle. Wrestling with August has always been more of an imaginative activity, with pretending to be strong and hurt and a lot of throwing of pillows. But today he was pretending to be a baby rhino, and then an elephant. He suddenly got a lot more forceful, as he was pushing against me as the animals. So good for his exercise. I was a series of animal babysitters, which kept getting killed or scared off. It went beyond animals, as he was things like a baby black hole, baby planet, etc. We also did more amnesia camp.

We went downstairs. He listened to a Stories Podcast about the Maccabees and Hanukkah for alone time, then one after that. For the Hanukkah one it first sounded like nonfiction to him, but when they got to the miracle part he said, “Oh, it IS a folk tale. That didn’t really happen.” He listened to a second short one, then he had a new game in a new flat world: making challenges for each other. Kind of little levels, like we’ve been having Brother do in the Brother and Sister game. He did a couple for me, that were things like figuring out how to get in a chest that was surrounded by fire, then using the contents to get to the top of a platform, then I did one for him that involved getting inside an obsidian mountain I made, which was packed with zombies, then finding a chest that had stone (for making a furnace) and other things in it. He then had to figure out how to get out, as it had been a one-way door.

Carly came home, and had a package from Cherie and Chuck. We ate a lunch of the noodle dish outside, then Carly came down and he opened the package. It had three math-related t-shirts and a tin of alligator poop mints. They went inside and played chess, then when Carly had to go back to work he and learned how to play Crazy 8s. We had time to play one hand, which he won, then we went upstairs and he had his session with Gabi. They mainly played the tank game. I talked to August later about possibly going back to Gabi’s office soon, and August wasn’t sure, because he likes playing the tank game so much. They play together now against the computer. I wasn’t sure why he likes the game so much, and he reminded me it’s because “I really like war and government.”

He went downstairs and spent 5 stars to play Minecraft with Carly. I started to do some work. He had kind of a hard time getting off. He then told me that he had a pet wither. He had managed to trap it somehow, and said he could go in and feed it things like cows, but that it couldn’t get out. At 5:30 I went back up to work for the online session of work, which then lasted until 7.

He had cucumber and crackers and meat and French fries that Carly made for dinner. When I came down he had had some toast and butter because he had a sore stomach. He had another piece of it with me. His stomach got better, I think, as he didn’t mention it again that evening. There had been some drama with Vivian and Colin, where August wanted to go to a new world because the one they were on was lagging, and when they said no he put water and lava on something. I never fully understood the drama, even when August talked to me at length about it later, as it didn’t sound like it would be that difficult to fix.

He and I played three more hands of Crazy 8s. I won two, then he won one. Cassie and Colin called and Carly and August talked to them. Vivian wouldn’t talk. Colin and August talked about what had happened in Minecraft. When I went for a run August and Colin were being silly, playing “Army Man” together. Carly gave him a bath, then I took a shower. They were doing math problems in the bedroom. Carly’s toothbrush turns on on its own sometimes, and August said maybe it turns on at night. I said it hadn’t woken me up at all, and he said, “It will never wake me up. I’m a master of sleeping.”

In bed, as he ate his crackers, he listened to a story about a monkey being tricked and, the story of Christmas, and a story about a boy and a sprite, “If I could Change My Skin” The host talked about Patreon and he asked what threshold means. Another word of the day. We discussed the lockdown as we brushed teeth, and why it had been so strict in the country where the Ants Canada videos are filmed (which isn’t, actually, Canada). Permitted was another new word.

Back in bed he brought up the Minecraft issue and we discussed that. He then started Would you rather? He first asked if I would rather have just arms or legs. He chose getting his own food during the day over putting himself to sleep, and sleeping with open windows to sleeping with the light on. He asked about bush babies, an animal from one of the stories. I showed him photos and he said, “Bush baby eyes is amazing.” We also discussed servals, and how he used to like the servals in Seoul. We listened to a Cluster album, and he took a long time to fall asleep. He got up to go to the bathroom again, after having gone when we brushed our teeth. He knew I was getting frustrated when he kept asking me questions and I wanted him to stop talking, and sometime around midnight he said, “One thing about Minecraft…you don’t have to react…” He told me something, and I sort of grunted in agreement. He said, “I think you’re saying ‘Oh, cool.’” He was finally, asleep sometime around 12:15.

Song of the day:

Math Shirts from Oma and Opa:

Chess with mama:

Army man with Colin:

He woke up at 8. “Bad dream. I woke up.” Got him back to sleep, then woke him back up at 9:30. We finished the fourth Boxcar Children book, then read about Poseidon in the Bernard Evslin book. We took care of our teeth, then went downstairs. Out the kitchen window I spotted a bird eating his berries on his weed. I picked August up to watch. “So that’s where they’re going! Relationship!”

He played some piano, then we played Minecraft. He played more piano, then we had oatmeal for breakfast and watched Iskall.

We went upstairs for wrestling. I was babysitting a baby rhino. Gored was a word of the day. Then there was an amnesia camp involved. Downstairs we read some of Have a Hot Time, Hades book. Then he listened to a couple of Stories Podcast stories for alone time. In Minecraft he flew around one of the Sky Cube worlds on his own, then started a new world. His time was up and I hadn’t joined him and he wasn’t entirely happy about that.

Carly got home, and raced upstairs for a meeting, and August and I had grilled tuna sandwiches and watermelon for lunch outside. Read a little more of Hades. He was playing on the slide and I was sitting on the grass reading to him. He saw flies drinking the watermelon juice left on his plate. He talked about wanting to leave meat out so that we could grow maggots.

He played a lot of piano, and has changed his style again. He was doing stuff with lots of grace notes, and I asked why it sounded differently and he talked about how he was using notes outside of the scale he was on. It was really cool that he was consciously exploring that.

We watched Ted-Ed on Alzheimer’s (https://youtu.be/yJXTXN4xrI8) and “How Memories Form and How We Lose Them” (https://youtu.be/yOgAbKJGrTA). Then the new Kurzgesagt on “Could Solar Storms Destroy Civilization?” He played some Simple Rocket, then I got him on a walk. We fed the ants some hummus, then grabbed his water bottle and walked over to the banana flower area and sat on the bench. I read more Hades and round trip was a word of the day.

We came home and he had us play a little Would You Rather? Carly came down, then I got him to read a book on Rivet to me before we watched BDubs. We learned the word lambasting from that.

I had to go up to work at 5:30. At 6 I had a meeting with our financial advisor about the change of accounts to a new firm. Carly had to come up and switch with me for a bit as the account is in her name. I then worked until about 8. They had dinner and played Minecraft. She was reading Jake Drake: Class Clown to him at one point. I went for a run as he was exploding rockets in Simple Rocket. He had some cucumber and hummus, and told me he’d already had two dinners. He played some amazing piano for us. He told Carly she needed to play in minor keys, and she said, “This summer you can teach me the minor scale.” To which he replied, “This summer? Oh yeah, cuz it will probably take an entire summer.”

We got him upstairs and I gave him a bath. In bed we read a little of Hades, then he listened to “Good News, Bad News”. He did some Would You Rather, asking me, “Would you rather bathe yourself in fire ants or feral ants?” We brushed our teeth, then listened to Benge’s Experiental Non-Vocal Electronic Pop and he was asleep by 11:30, which was nice.

Morning music:

Morning music 2:

Ant feeding:

Walking and discussing Minecraft:

Song of the day:

Blowing up rockets:

Song of the day 2:

Carly added masks at school:

He had good timing and called out at 9:30 as I was walking up the stairs. We read some Boxcar Children upstairs, and played with the stuffed animals, particularly Marshy. He asked why the Titanic sunk and if ships now have grand staircases. We looked up photos of cruise ship interiors and exteriors. In discussing the Titanic I taught him the word hubris Downstairs he told Carly he wanted to go on a cruise ship and he did his (annoying) baby cry.

We played Minecraft in his sky cube world, then I made oatmeal and an egg for breakfast. August persuaded Carly to play piano, then I played with him. Carly went up to a meeting, then August and I went up to the bedroom and wrestled. We went back downstairs and watched Grian, then read chapter 13 of The Boxcar Children. He played some piano, then we watched a few minutes of the CNN Sesame Street town hall on racism. He was quite interested in it.

He then used five stars to play some Minecraft with Carly. Randomly he said, “Hey mama. I’m a socialist, just so you know…we’re basically all socialist…(capitalists) don’t help poor people…I totally agree with socialism.” He and I had discussed socialism and capitalism a couple days ago. Carly left, and we ate a lunch of crackers and cheese and plum and watermelon and chocolate milk.

Some more piano time, then we read chapter 14 of The Boxcar Children. I got him to do a video of jokes for Eve, and that went better today. We then watched a video to learn about amnesia, learning about retrograde and anterograde amnesia.

We went upstairs and played a Ms. Safe game a bit and did some wrestling. I started getting tired so suggested we go back downstairs. We went outside and watered his weeds and he wanted to do alone time outside. He listened to “King Midas”, then we heard a song “Ode to Odd” from the host’s band, Old Wild Eyes. He liked that, so we added it to our library. Then he listened to a short story about fairies. For Minecraft we started another copy of the Sky Cube world from the beginning, just in survival.

He was going to read to me but instead ended up doing rhythms in GarageBand. He discovered the ‘chance’ feature. Carly got home and he wanted to play chess. He told her, “Mentally prepare yourself to lose.” Which was a line he stole from her. I had brought him his water bottle, and a while later he thought that the AC had cooled his water. I told him I’d put ice cubes in it.

I made dinner, the soy noodle recipe, and he started Minecraft with Vivian and Colin early. Carly helped them talk through some sort of Minecraft problem, where August didn’t want Vivian to do so much in creative. They agreed to switch to Vivian’s Poop world, but then August couldn’t connect to the world. So he and I played together in our survival world instead.

We all ate dinner. August came up to me in the kitchen and told me, “This is a nice dish. It has a lot of flavor.” I had turned off the air conditioner as the evening was cooling. August said, “Can we turn the air conditioner on? It’s kind of silent.” And he looked at our shelf and said, “We have so many devices!”

I went for a run as August was reading the Sid the Science Kid book to Carly. A few minutes into my run they called me on FaceTime so he could tell me he’d read the whole book: “Thousands of words.” When I got back they were running circles in the yard. While I took a shower and got some work done they made a card for Vivian and Colin (a Charlie Brown and truck for them) as Carly is sending Cassie some masks.

August watched the newest Mumbo Jumbo, and told me later that they had talked to Oma, who was in Seattle. He said, “Kayla has quite a dollhouse collection going.” “A skunk fainted on the roof.” Of the dollhouse, that is. They played some of the Simple Rocket game, then they came up and he took bath. Carly took a shower, but at first he discussed the definition of ‘stupid’ with Carly, and found out that he’d been given a wrong definition in preschool. To which he concluded: “I learned my lesson: never get advice from a preschool teacher…they’re not detailed enough.”

In bed, as he ate crackers, he said, “I think the people in the LEGO app think they’re conscious: our decisions are decisions they THINK they make.” This was based on a conversation we had had a couple days ago, but took it a bit further. He was grumpy when I said there wasn’t time to do a Brother and Sister game. We went and brushed our teeth instead, and still grumpy he sang a couple of “mean songs”, which were generally quite cute. This did lead to a discussion of racism and insulting people based on their skin color. He very quickly decided he’d never say anything like that though.

We listened to the same Benge album again. All of his talking, which went on and, meant it was probably 12:20 before he was asleep.

Morning piano:

The end of a pretty song:

Wanting me to tell the jokes:

Jokes for Eve and a silly dance:

Geometric beats:

Chasing mama:

Song of the day:

He was up at 9:30, right as I was going in to wake him up. He asked for new shorts—I think he was just sweaty. He told me he had a crazy dream about cockroaches battling ants in a terrarium. As we went downstairs after mouthwash he asked, “What’s the United Nations?”

Downstairs I read a few chapters of The Boxcar Children. He then wanted to play Minecraft and Carly came and played with him. She made him an egg for breakfast, then I made him a second. And then a third. Don’t know when the last time was he’s eaten such a large breakfast. I think Carly had also given him fruit or something. He watched an Ants Canada video while eating. He asked me about the phrase vice versa, from the video, and would end up using it several times.

He played some piano and we watched the Hermitcraft Recap video for week 1. We then went upstairs for a good amount of wrestling. We came back downstairs and he played some piano, then listened to “Jasper’s Shell” on Stories Podcast before playing Minecraft in a sky block world. Carly and I were sorting through all of the library books from the school and I searched the house for a couple. We have a mystery of a book, about Hera, that I don’t remember checking out. August had leftovers from last night for lunch and they played chess. I then played him, and it was a close game and he was okay with me checkmating him at the end. He didn’t even request any take backs through the game, so like our first complete, full game.

He played piano, then was setting up funny chess positions for me. I set up our little whiteboard to make a list of things to do with August each day so we don’t forget things. I had KEXP on, and the DJ, Gabriel Teodros, said something about waking up. August asked me, “Hey, Dada? Do you always wake me up or does my body wake me up?”

We went outside and he watered his weeds. He said he saw a big spider go under the swing, but then we couldn’t find it. He figured out how to jump on and off the swing without touching the frame of it. I read more Boxcar Children and it talked about writing letters. He was confused and asked what letter meant: “like Morse code?” I explained that whole paper thing. Another new word was ranch. In the book men show up to try to get an old woman to sell her ranch. August, putting two and two together, realized that criminals could target old people: “Here’s something a criminal could do: go to someone who’s dying…pay me a thousand dollars.” And sell them a fake medicine. Another word he asked about was acquainted.

Inside we watched the Crash Course World History “Fall of Rome” video and he asked for a video of actual war, so we watched a short video of naval ships in World War II. Carly then started a new book with him, Jake Drake: Class Clown, that seemed pretty good. He liked it, but after a few minutes led me by the end to the stairs to go upstairs for more wrestling and a little Myna and Sister game.

We went downstairs and Carly put on a documentary about asteroid impacts and made popcorn. I went upstairs for a while, then went for a run. There was a little time between the end of the documentary and 6 and they had called to talk to Colin. Vivian had answered, then they were calling back to get Colin but no one was answering on FaceTime or the phone. August got a little frustrated, but was then playedying Musyc when I left for my run.

I came back and they were playing in Vivian’s Poop world. Carly trimmed my hair after I took a shower. Carly was then watching West Wing and said it was the best show. A minute later August said, “Mama, you know how you said it’s the best show ever? It’s boring.” I had cooked up the rest of the cilantro tofu for dinner and we had that along with the last of the left overs.

August downloaded a new sky block world. And he and Vivian and Colin got extra time in that. They got off at 8. He was then talking to me about it and told me, “I used to think sky block wouldn’t be my thing, but it’s totally my thing.”

We got him upstairs, and I made a joke. Carly asked August why I made jokes like that, and August immediately responded, “In his habitat it’s natural for him to make corny jokes all day long.” He also said something about her being in her natural habitat and doing something. She gave him a bath and washed his hair. He was then walking around, enjoying his lollipop, and I told him to feel the sugar coursing through him. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back. Looked like a true sugar junkie.

We said good night to Carly, then in his room we Skyped with my parents. We had a good talk with them and didn’t hang up until 10:10 or so. He then listened to “King Midas” on Stories Podcast. He had finished his crackers and had some Cheerios, so we then went and brushed our teeth. The next story, which we didn’t have time to listen to now, said something about it being a religious story. We talked about myths and religions and how they are related. Back in bed we listened to a Benge album called Meme Tunes. August randomly said, “We should have casserole sometime.” He also talked about how he loved the egg today. Had lights off at 11 and he was asleep by 11:50 today. Progress, a bit.

Another ending:

Their sky block world:

Crybaby song 1:

The crybaby:

The crybaby game:

I went up and woke him up at 9:30. Gilad was already ready to play Minecraft, so I got him downstairs after a few minutes and they play for about half an hour. He played piano as I finished up the work I was doing. He played an amazing piece that I wished I had been able to record. We had eaten the last two scones for our breakfast. We then headed upstairs for lots and lots of wrestling. We aren’t covering much ground nowadays, but at least he’s getting some exercise.

I finally got him back downstairs as I was hungry. He realized that he hadn’t actually had his full morning time, and his time with Gilad was short as well, so I let him play a bit more, in his island world.We were listening to some Made in Heights. For lunch I got together some crackers with tuna and watermelon and tofu and we ate outside. He had a full Myna and Sister Minecraft game with Myna making something called “saplings of luck” and a wither farm. Sister would plant a sapling of luck and something random would grow. One time it was a bunch of villagers and August said they were saying “Vengeance! Vengeance!”

We went back upstairs (he did a “going upstairs” song and dance) for more wrestling, then watched a video about cataracts, and part of the first Crash Course World History video about the Roman Empire. We then did a Ms. Safe game with a new student with cataracts, named Idontno (after Ms. Safe misheard her say “I don’t know”).

We went downstairs and he played chess with Carly and I went up for a Zoom meeting with Marc and Omar for work. Carly had stayed home as she didn’t have much to do at school anyway and wasn’t feeling entirely well. They went outside and played chess, and were out there when I came down. I made a peanut noodle dish with bell peppers, broccoli, and broccoli for dinner and we ate inside.

He had called Colin a bit, then at six had Minecraft time with them. He was working on what started as his fishing platform in Vivian’s “Poop” world. It has now become a huge building, and he is really paying attention to details and had to rebuild a whole facade because he had built it one block off.

I went for a run. After Minecraft time was over he played chess with Cherie. She ad a new computer, so they could use Zoom and play chess on a share board using screen sharing. That still had some issues, but they did pretty well.

They played until about 9:20 and I then got him upstairs. We played on the bed, doing an alive, dead, coma game, which was actually pretty funny. I noticed him playing with a tooth and deduced it was loose. He wouldn’t admit it and told me, “You’ll forget it by tomorrow.” Apparently he tells Carly that as well. I was pushing him on what sort of things we’ve forgotten, but he didn’t have many examples. We were then discussing our daily schedule and plans.

Carly and I were trying to talk as he was being hyper and rolling on the bed. I used a certain voice to tell him he could be on the bed or in the bathroom, and he was laughing like crazy. He told me, “Stop using that voice! Stop being funny!” He called it the slave owner voice, after first calling it the bossy voice. “Give me back my independence!”

Carly gave him a bath and he was discussing her Minecraft builds and how he wants to build a mega base. He said to her, “With all due respect your house…” I got him into his bedroom and he ate his crackers and peanut butter. He listened to a short story called “Dropping the Ball” Then the full “Max Goodname” story. I didn’t realize there was a version of it that had it all in one file and not divided into parts, so it was 40 minutes long. I fell asleep for part of it. We then went and brushed our teeth. He overheard Carly talking to Cassie about medical advice for someone who was sick. August also told me, “Here’s something I want to learn how to do: be a criminal…I’d never steal anything. Well, except iPad time.”

We listened to a new (to us) Benge album. I squeezed his hand, and he said, “That actually feels really good. I can’t believe it feels good.” So I actually spent about 5 minutes squeezing his hands, and it seemed to help relax him. He did better going to sleep today not getting frustrated, and at one point as he started talking to me and realized I was mostly asleep he stopped himself. He was asleep right after midnight.

Just the end:

Song of the day:

Going upstairs dance:

His complex Minecraft build:

Chess with Oma:https://youtu.be/dFxNA9Lg2Bk

Silly time:https://youtu.be/a33M39SvbnE

He was laughing like crazy at 5:50. Heard him say a few things, but didn’t catch it. I woke him up at 9:30. He stretched for a long time. He was wearing his shirt backwards again today. Yesterday he had had I in the right direction, after having it backwards for three days before that. Seems rather intentional. Or at least he doesn’t care.

I read some Boxcar Children, then he got up and we did our teeth. Downstairs he played some piano and I got us scones for breakfast. He ate and I read more of the Boxcar Children. We discussed phrases like led aside, let alone versus let (her) alone, and call her (meaning to yell to someone as opposed to a phone).

We then went to Minecraft. He initially agreed to survival, but then remembered his exploding city. After Minecraft we went up for a bunch of wrestling. He also started a game of Would You Rather. He asked if I would rather he had been born blind or deaf. That was a really interesting one, as I would have chosen deaf, but knowing how important music is to him now that seems like it would have been a terrible choice. I asked if he’d rather just be able to play piano or a synthesizer for the rest of his life and he chose the synthesizer. Interesting, as he doesn’t play it too often now. I’m wondering if a full weighted keyboard is in his future if he stays serious with it.

When we’re wrestling he doesn’t actually like to get grabbed or held, so it is mainly pushing and pretend to get hurt. He talked about what was “in the limits” and what wasn’t, and it mainly seems like he really doesn’t like feeling trapped, especially not his arms/hands. That explains a lot, from his responses to hugs, to being held when he’s upset. I said it was kind of surprising, since he had grown up in the backpack, but then I added that in the backpack his hands and legs were free. And he then remembered though how much he hated the rain cover. I was surprised and excited that he remembered that, but then asked if he remembered anything else about it, as it would be kind of sad if the only thing he remembered was the worst part of it. He then said he remembered drinking from the backpack, using the nozzle. He also said he liked the orange color of the rain cover, we discussed it more, and he realized the orange color he liked was the orange of my own rain jacket, the hood of which would be right in his face.

We then did some upstairs learning, watching a video about concussions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvjK-4NXRsM) and then one about comas (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXN2-5h2id4). Through all of that we discussed terms like anxiety, depression, diagnose, culprit, dementia, and stimuli. And learned about the_Glasgow Scale_. He said that we then had to apply what we learned, so he acted out being someone that hit their head, then got a concussion and was in a coma.

We were upstairs for a long time, and came down after 1 to find Carly home already. Carly had brought a big chessboard home, so they played together on that. We went upstairs to get his phone for alone time, but it would be quite a while before that happened. He saw Carly carrying her backpack and coffee and other things upstairs and asked her, “Why are you gearing up like that?” I made tuna sandwiches for lunch, and he played some wonderful piano. We ate outside in the chairs, and he analyzed chess on the iPad. Back instead we watched Crash Course Computer Science #1 and learned again about Babbage and Lovelace.

He played more piano, then I agreed to play Candy Land. We did a couple quick games of that, then played two rounds of Mastermind, first with him guessing, then me. That went quite well. He was a little confused at the end though, asking what color you would use for “right spot, wrong color”—which is an impossibility. He was confused, then a couple minutes later basically said “Oooh, I got it.” Then he was confused again, before saying, “Wait…it clicked again.”

He played piano and said he found a five note scale: “It uses the same notes as b minor but only five notes and they’re in a different order.” Colin called early, and August did the sleeping and playing thing again. He wanted the marbles, so we finally opened the bag of them and he played with them on the bed and showed Colin. While still talking to Colin he came out and randomly told us, “Every year our couch is like a jackpot. Sometimes there’s even money.” Colin wanted to see water bubbles, so they went to the sink, and asked if the marble would float. August looked out through the porch area as he talked to Cassie and Colin: “I can see seven different kinds of trees out of that view.”

They hung up, then he did alone time, listening to “The Leaky Pot” and then we played Minecraft as he continued to listen to the last part of “Soft: The First Dog” and then “The Croc from Doonadoo”. He was blowing things up in Minecraft. I got up to start getting him dinner or something, and he ended up getting off a few minutes before Vivian then called for their evening time. I went for a run.

Even involved a lot of chess, and Carly was getting burned out on it. He had spaghetti and raw tofu with cilantro for dinner. And watermelon. After that was all over he wanted to wrestle upstairs again. He had a funny “going upstairs” voice and was laughing at his own voice.

We did a lot of wrestling upstairs, and hallucinate was a new word after something in a story about a shot that made someone see Barney everywhere. He was laughing hysterically at one point and told me to stop being so funny. I was just looking at him.

Carly gave him a bath, and he was telling her all about Minecraft stuff. I got his crackers and we went to his room. He listened to “Big Beautiful Wall” and asked about the word murmur. Then a story about the origins of Valentine’s day, then a couple shorter things as we brushed our teeth and he finished up with part two of “The Seal Skin Girl”.

Back in bed he saw an email from Cassie, asking if he prefers poop, chess, or Minecraft. He replied with the “Hmm” emoji, followed by the word “Minecraft”, which he typed with my help. He sent that, then said they should have include piano to make it even a harder choice. He then sent an email that was all emojis. Finally had lights out at 11:05. We listened to the whole Sowiesoso album from Cluster, then started it a second time. He woke me up a few times. He asked “What’s sufficient?” We discussed that and insufficient. At 11:40 or so he woke me up to ask, “What’s dementia?” He was grumpy when I said we’d learn about it tomorrow. At 11:50 he woke me to say he couldn’t sleep. And a few minutes later he was starting to get upset and saying “I’m never gonna get to sleep:” I changed the playlist to his playlist of his sleepy songs: the songs I used to sing to him all the time, but was definitely too tired to sing to him right now. That seemed to help a bit, and he was asleep, finally, at 12:10 to “Idaho”.

Morning piano:

Chess on a big board:

Song of the day:

Laughing at my face:https://youtu.be/Rc1Z3s2DUCE

He called me in once during the night, 3am or so. He had thrown off the cover and was really stuffy. I was a little afraid he was getting sick. In the morning he was up at 8:20 and actually out at the couch bed. When I came up he asked if it was time to wake up. I said it was up to him and he chose to go back to sleep. We went in his room and he fell back to sleep pretty quickly. I left after a few minutes, then came back at 9:10 to start waking him. Tried a couple times with his eyes opening, then him rolling over and going back to sleep. I had him up around 9:30 but he was very slow to get up.

At 9:45 I started reading the next Boxcar Children book, about a ranch. He asked about the phrase too proud, so a word of the day, and then really about it, saying “You can be proud, but not TOO proud.” He also connected it to bragging, and seemed to suggest that bragging would make you too proud. We went and did our teeth. August asked about shrugging, and was then practicing.

Downstairs he played a little Happy Glass, mainly for ads, then we switched to Minecraft, exploding things in a world he downloaded. He came up with a game for himself, placing the TNT in sort of geometric algorithms, where they could be diagonals of different slopes, but nothing could be completely straight. He was really into it and kept showing me and explained: “Cuz it goes with stuff I like, like math…it’s all about sequences, and I love sequences.”

He did his alone time right after, listening to the Stories Podcast story about the kid that wants to be powerful and takes turns as being things like the wind and a mountain. He gave a big “Haaa” laugh at the end. He had oatmeal, then finished the story, or the next one. Then said, “Time for my TNT secrets.” He did more exploding, then we went outside. We did a Myna and Sister game, then discussed Sister’s age. He wasn’t sure of her age, but by asking him about people he knows he declared she was older than Vivian but younger than Grace. When I suggested 13 he said she shouldn’t be a teenager, so we finally settled on 11.

He agreed with me on something, marking the second time today that he had said I was right about something, he played some piano, and we talked about how people know they own stocks, and how they used to be on paper. He talked about criminals stealing them or making fake ones, and we made connections to money and counterfeiting.

We started making the scone dough, and had most of the stuff mixed when Carly got home and he played chess with her. He then helped finish the scones: he had had fun with using his hands to squish in the butter, and now enjoyed playing with the dough on the counter, getting his hands covered. When done I let him lick his hands. He told Siri, “Hey Siri, I’m eating scone dough.” She responded with “You’re a true gourmand.” She will also say “Bon appétit” and we defined both. He had Siri define the latter for him, and she said it was a salutation before eating, and he asked, “What’s a salutation?” I explained, and he made the connection to sun salutation in yoga and we talked about why it is named that.

When the scones were ready we shared one, then he had one of his own and took some to Carly to try. She said it wasn’t carpety. On the piano he was playing something quite amazing, then told me it was in a pattern of time signatures that goes 8/8, 10/8, 7/8. Crazy that he’s working around with tempo and rhythm like that.

We ate a lunch of crackers and tuna and apple and chocolate milk outside in the chairs. I read a little Boxcar Children, but then he wanted us to go through the whole simulation in a simulation game. That went okay, but then the chair I was sitting in suddenly broke. Think I got it fixed though.

Back inside we looked for wart videos, and he watched the removal of a foot wart that looks similar to his. He handled it quite well. We then played with GarageBand and hooked up the keyboard. He found the exact sort of sound he wanted, saying “The gushing is really what I wanted to play.” He called me over a bit later and said, “Before I was asking how you use diminished chords. I figured it out.” And showed me what he had come up with.

I then had him do a video for Eve and Zoe, of him telling his jokes. It sort of worked, but he wouldn’t tell them to the camera. Think we will try again tomorrow. Maybe it will be easier for him with practice.

He asked, “Can we do writing math? I have a very generous deal for you.” He then decided it was actually a “neutral” deal, as it was good for each of us: one minute of Minecraft for one minute of math. So we did Ms. Safe math at the chalkboard, working on multi digit addition and subtraction with carrying. He can do problems up to 20 in his head, like 20-12. Carly came down and he told her about the neutral deal. He started his 15 minutes of Minecraft and Colin called.

He took some sort of break between his 15 minutes and when it was time to play with Colin and Vivian. I think he had Carly played chess. They then started playing Minecraft in his new city exploding world. Colin couldn’t get in and was getting frustrated. They handled that, with Vivian switching worlds to play with Colin. August was a little annoyed and didn’t want to switch, so I played with him a little before getting ready for a run.

They finished up that, had spaghetti for dinner, and were playing chess when I got back. When I came down he was scooping out watermelon at the counter and eating it. The fruit and veggie delivery had come just as I got back from my run. The rest of the evening was a lot of talking and playing with Colin. Colin wanted to sleep with August, so August went up to the bed to pretend to sleep. I went with, and Colin was telling us when to sleep and when to play. August and I played the Suspend Junior game. August showed Colin his robot from Spenser. We went downstairs when he wanted crackers with peanut butter. He was also doing a lot of talking with Cassie and explained what motivates him to do math when she asked him. He explained our deal, and also said he does it for fun.

When Cassie and Carly started talking food preferences, after August told her about the scones, I think, August sang a “My parents is doing grown up talk” song. Colin stayed on the line as they went up and August had his bath. They finally said good night. It was almost 10. I took over. He now ate his cold watermelon (he hadn’t liked it warm straight out of the watermelon so much) and ate Cheerios as he listened to “With Our Powers Combined”, then “Inch High Samurai”, which he’s heard a few times. He asked about why slaveowners treat slaves badly, and said it wasn’t right, although he mainly had a practical argument about how people respond to motivation. He said, “I’d be nice…that’s the way to motivate people…” He asked about when my finger had a piece off of it. It turned out he meant Carly’s, and I showed him photos of when she had the tip sewn back on.

We brushed our teeth and got headed to bed. We listened to Brian Eno’s The Drop and he was asleep around 11:40.

Explaining his TNT patterns:

Squishing butter into the scone dough:

Changing time signatures 8/8, 10/8, 7/8:

More time signatures:

Song of the day:

More synth:

Music instead of jokes:

Music and telling his jokes:

He was up just before 9. We ended up cuddling in the couch bed. I then read more Hardy Boys. We are almost to the end of the first book, with the brothers trapped in the water tower. We brushed our teeth, the. discussed “dance monkey”, which he says is on a Simply Piano ad, as we headed downstairs. He had said something that sounded like it, then I started to make up a “Dance Monkey” song, and he said “You know the dance monkey song!?”

Downstairs he played some piano and randomly asked, “Can someone take advantage of someone’s honesty?” We played Minecraft in lucky blocks, dealing with lots of lag from too many entities. We ate the last of the banana bread for breakfast, then finished reading the Hardy Boys.

He headed to the piano. He played with playing lines at different intervals: half step, third, fifth. He played in A sharp minor and E sharp major. And did “funky punky” music and sang his teenager song and danced around. He didn’t want to do a video for Eve, although he had talked about wanting to do one for her last night. Instead, he wanted to do alone time and requested to listen to “I’m Bored”. He listened to that. He paused it to come over and ask me, “Isn’t it crazy that three Kurzgesatz videos ago, I’m using Kurzgesatz videos as a unit of measurement, there wasn’t any coronavirus? But now there’s the pandemic?”

He finished the story but was saving his time for later. I mentioned he had 20 stars now, and he did all the math on the stars, dividing it into groups of 5 and figuring out that could get him a total of 2 hours of iPad time. But we went upstairs and did a lot of wrestling and laughing. “Banana” is the stop word, and when he says it I freeze, mid-motion, and then he escapes and says “Go” and then laughs hysterically when I miss him and get upset.

We came down and did his iPad time, doing more lucky blocks. We then did reading time, and he read a good chunk of a pretty long book about the Space Shuttle. We then watched a Fuse School video about evidence of the Big Bang, then watched highlights of the Space X flight to the ISS as we sat outside and ate apple and schnitzel for lunch. He asked, “What if some kind of chaos happened in Dragon X and the computers malfunctioned?” We discussed backups and getting help from Earth and he asked about control from Earth. We then watched a Kids Academy chess video on draws:https://youtu.be/iv9hez4QO84

Then one on forks. Carly got home, and he showed her positions in the video and where to put the pieces to make a fork.

They played chess and I went in and did dishes. We then realized that the internet wasn’t working. What’s more, half of the power in the house was out. I turned the power on and off, but no luck. Carly went up and had to teach. She managed to use the hotspot on my phone. I eventually got the internet working by running an extension cord across the floor to the modem. August was getting some extra Minecraft time. August was in the process of spending 8 coins to get a new app, a cool Lego game in Apple Arcade, when the power went out, so that was consoling him until we could get it installed. He then played the new app, which is a cool puzzle sort of game, where a child Lego creation is following a parent as they hike and go camping.

We then got ready to go for an ant walk and feed them some brown sugar and leftover schnitzel. We got talking about seeds or planting or something that reminded me of the “Cada Semilla” song I used to sing to him. I sang some of the song, which talks about caring for your seed with love, to which August’s response was “But it doesn’t have feelings, okay!?”

We went over and fed the ants. He gave the nest by the tree, which we also saw carrying their brood around, both chicken and brown sugar and said, “Eat the healthy stuff first!” We came back to the house and sat on the bench and talked there. Was going to read but we ended up talking about other things until it was time for his call with Gabi. I took him upstairs and got him connected. Carly was in the office and monitored while I went for an earlier run.

I then came back and went straight to work after a shower. It was the online session for Sabeel today. I met them online at 5:30, it went until 7:30, then we debriefed until 8. When I came downstairs they were playing chess. I saw Carly squander a lead. She was up a rook in the end game and just needed to promote a pawn, but then dropped the rook so it ended as a draw. He played some chess with me, then the computer. He had the computer play itself and it ended in a draw by repetition. This was exciting to him and we analyzed it to see why.

He then made a couple videos for Eve. One was a song on piano, but when he was done he went and curled in the chair. The second was trying to get him to say something, as he said he was saying something quietly for her to read lips. Eventually he whispered it in my ear and I said it, “Thank you, Eve.” He’s feeling really shy about saying things to her directly.

He had some spaghetti, and was Myna talking about her big builds: “It’s a titan maze; you know, where the titans live.” He went to the bathroom, where the light is burned out. He had me do the animal documentary again as I shined my flashlight on my phone for him: “And here we have a wild August, going to the bathroom in its native habitat. Notice how it sheds its lower fur…” Carly then took a video of me to explain to Jeff why one space after a period is better than two. August was making funny noises from the bathroom, then was pretty hyper upstairs as Carly got him to take a shower.

We went in to the bed and he had his crackers and listened to “The Noblest Tale” on Circle Round. New words were underserved noble. As we went out to brush our teeth it somehow came up about Carly being a twin. August sang a twin song that went “People all have blue shirts / they are identical” He’s been singing more lately, and yesterday, as he and Carly played chess at the table, I had a Ball of Wax album playing and he was repeating a song he’d never heard before line for line. Which means I probably need to be more careful about certain lyrics now. August saw something on Carly’s computer where she was listed as Carolyn and he asked why. When she said it is her real name he was shocked: “What? You’re actually Carolyn!? You’re like keeping a secret from me!” They talked about how she and Vivian have the same middle name. August said, “And also it’s Gold!” As he likes to pronounce their last name that way instead of Gould.

I skipped floss at first and August pointed it out and I said he was keeping me on my toes. He asked what on my toes means, and we explored that, and he ran back and forth upstairs testing it. He was humming a tune he plays on piano. And told me, “I think it would be interesting if our piano had 24TET.” Based on a video we watched. That means it would have quarter steps between keys instead of half steps.

In his room he examined my toes and told me they feel old, but assured me they look fine from a distance. He then had a sort of game where we were singing everything we said to each other. He had a switch to turn it on and off. We discussed more videos for Eve, like telling jokes he knows, and we played more would you rather. He asked what headway means.

We talked about falling asleep, and he talked about how it is hard to just let his eyes just close without doing so forcefully, so it seems that is still slightly hard for him. I looked at the red spots on his arm. They look like bad mosquito bites maybe. But not getting worse. He talked about wanting to learn more about warts, so I put that on the list for tomorrow. He could be a doctor with his ability to handle those photos and videos. He then asked, “Here’s one mindracking question: what it I had been born blind?” We discussed that, and concluded that while it would have changed what we had focused on, much of what we done would have been the same.

He asked about how people learn to read braille, and that got us into a discussion of how people learn language and reading, whether it is sound or braille or sign language. Finally, he explained the difference between happy and excited. He associates excited with anticipation, like waiting for summer, whereas happy doesn’t involve anticipation, like someone unexpectedly giving him money.

We listened to a Benge album, and he was asleep sometime before midnight. I fell asleep as well so not sure exactly when.

Song of the day:

Playing melodies a third apart:

Teaching mama about chess forks:

Ant feeding:

Ants carrying the brood:

A song for Eve:

A message for her:

Music for Carly’s videos: