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He was up a little before 6:30. He went down and cuddled with Carly. They got talking about anatomy and he remembered the anatomy apps on his iPad. When she left, deciding she could risk it as it wasn’t rainy right now, he sat at the table and played with one of his anatomy apps, explaining why it was the best one. He randomly asked, “What’s ‘legendary’ mean?’ So a word of the day. He then switched to Aardvark and the Ant.

We got going, waited a few extra minutes as we were taking the car. In the classroom he was excited to see new stuff out, but he fixated on a bowl of rubber bands that Andrea had up high and wasn’t putting out yet. It almost became a problem, but I think he was doing okay when I left.

I went to the library for a little while, then drove to Herzliya to Marka’s house, PTA president, for the sustainability committee meeting. That was a lot of listening, and I left there at 11:30 and got back to school just in time to get to school before it ended for the half day.

August was in a good mood, but had done a lot of the ripping today. He seems to be moving from one behavior to another. He showed me the three books he had gotten at the book swap and said “Thank you for giving me the money.”

As we left we saw the elementary school gardening club setting up a table to sell succulents. August chose a small one for 10 shekels and we got going. It was drizzling as we left, and as we were halfway to the car it suddenly started raining harder. I didn’t have an umbrella, and his raincoat was in my backpack. We started running, then I picked him up the last little bit. He handled it well, and didn’t even need to change his pants when we got home.

We ate sushi for lunch and listened to Erasure. I went upstairs and started laundry. He asked, “Does the internet go at light speed?” We talked about that, and he asked, “What’s instantaneous?” Another word of the day. Downstairs we played with the circuits set. He asked about the word ‘jiffy’ and said it was from Berenstain Bears: “see you in a jiffy, Lizzie.”

We went and read Two Homes, one of the books he had chosen (along with Good Books, Good Times! and Puss in Boots. Back at the circuits set I found our bottle of bubbles and he blew bubbles from the air blower. He spent some time taking macro photos, then ate a bunch of strawberries I sliced up, followed by a small bowl of oatmeal. I got a message from Candy’s mom saying that Candy had a praying mantis that she wanted to give to August as a birthday present. I asked August if he’d want to play with Candy and he said, “Dada, I would always want to play with a nice person.” They were running errands though, so not available to play right now. But they came and dropped off the mantis. Candy then ran back to give him a hug.

He wanted to paint the shelves for the Zinnie house. The weather was clearer, so we went for it. He started with helping hammer the larger nails, but got frustrated when he couldn’t do it well. We went in and he watched Aardvark and the Ant. I went out and finished the hammering, then he came out to paint.

We painted together for awhile, then he stopped when I was getting concerned he was going to get paint on his shirt. He didn’t want to change it, and played around the yard, looking for insects, etc., while I did more painting. He was talking to himself, then told me, “I was just calling my mama…not my mama walking home, my mama on my planet…I have two mamas and two dadas.” I think inspired by the book he got, but that was a mom and dad that lived apart.

I helped him look for insects for a bit, then it started raining. He went in as I tried to clean up the yard and turn up the edges of the plastic so that paint wouldn’t run on the grass. Carly got home at 4:40, having walked through the rain. She showed him the books she got at the book swap, and also an old broken iPad someone had given her. One of the books is Magic Pickle: “I make magic pickles in my laboratory. They give you big strong muscles that make you really strong…” She also got The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Horrible Harry and the Mud Gremlins, a Cam Jayson book, an A to Z Mystery book, and a Magic School Bus chapter book.

I told Carly about how he had parents on his planet, and he said his other mom’s name is “Quarkenzorkenmork….I call her Quark.” I went up to do some work. He hung a string up in the kitchen, but then was acting really tired. Carly took him up, and he was asleep at 6:15, still in his clothes.

He woke up at 7:30 or so and Carly got him back to sleep. Then again at 8:10. I got him back to sleep this time, and he slept through the night.

I went back up and worked on Sabeel stuff for a long time. Almost finished the revised calendar.

At one point August sneezed about 8 times. Didn’t wake up though.

Bubbles from the circuit set:

Toilet paper holder creation:

Painting the shelves:

During the night he had a moment where he clattered against the wall. He then sort of sat up, and when he lay back down he hit his head against the headboard. He started to crawl off the bed, but fell back asleep lying face down on another pillow. That lasted about ten minutes, when he got up and climbed off the bed. He repeated something unintelligible to her a few times, but then lay down and fell back to sleep.

Carly got him up at 6:45. When he let her go to work he just sat on the couch for a few minutes. He watched Pink Panther and I made oatmeal. When I told him the oatmeal was ready he told me, “This is a GOOD Pink Panther. I love it.” It was called Pink Panther Vs. Frankenstein.

When we got to class before the bus kids, August started telling his teachers how there were more seats and people at the robotics competition than you could see on the monitor in the library. He told Marion there were “more seats than in a 747!”

I went to the book swap and got just one book, a Mr. Man collection of twelve stories. I then rode home and did just a little work and finished chopping up the strawberries for his party, then took the car back to school. When I got there, Carly said they were setting up for his birthday, but that August was up with Vicky. He had wanted to sit next to Lydia during morning meeting, but then got upset with Leonard when he was in the way. We waited a couple minutes, and when I went up they were on their way out.

Outside, they were having the kids set up all of the plates and they were doing art of things August likes all over the paper tablecloth: lots of giraffes, robots, and monsters. We started with the healthy snacks we had brought: bell peppers, strawberries, cantaloupe, and the banana bread. Then they did cake. Carly was able to stay for the singing, then had to go to teach her class. We had cake, then the party had to end as Ms. Liron was there for drama. Although, it wasn’t drama time like usual. She is very pregnant, and sitting down with the kids isn’t easy. So she had them playing outside. That probably worked out best for August, as he did fine through that.

I quickly ran up to the library and found Marka. She had wanted to prep me for the sustainability committee meeting tomorrow, and also talk about what they’re needing for the PTA webpages that they want to set up.

I met with her, then had a little time in the library to work, then went to pick up August at 12. When I got there he asked, “Why are you here?” He showed me the ribbons that he and others had been tying to the railings of the stairs, then he said he wanted to stay until they went to lunch. I went out on the bench and started responding to email, but Marion came out a couple minutes later and said he didn’t actually want to be a part of the meeting; he was just building with blocks. He had made something pretty cool, and agreed to leave with me.

We went up and got the leftover snacks, which I had placed in the staff room fridges. August spied Zoe, Eve’s sister, having lunch out in the cafeteria and was excited about that. We then went to the book fair. He chose one book, The Lucky Puppy, and I got The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, and an old book called The Mice Who Loved Words (which, for a second, I thought might be a book I remember from childhood about mice who steal letters from a printing press. It isn’t, but is still an interesting looking old book).

We went to the car, and August went and looked for insects in flowers nearby. We caught some sort of insect on them. He also told me that, yesterday or so, he had found a birdie egg on the ground in the butterfly garden. Marion had said it was a good experiment breaking it open and finding yolk in it.

We then drove down to Ikea. He did a good job there. He really liked looking at all the model kitchens and bedrooms. He kept commenting on how cool or awesome they were, and liked trying to turn on the stoves. He also liked the display that made it look like six different stove tops in one kitchen.

He did one hopscotch, but then mainly rode in the cart. We chose pillows for the Zinnie house: two bigger cushions, and four throw pillows. We also got a can of white paint for the shelves, and he liked the idea of an analog clock, so we got a cheap one of those to hang up. We also got batteries. We also tried out desk chairs. And he was sucking on the strap of the backpack and commenting on how he liked the flavor of it. As we got near the end, several guys in blue outfits and makeup ran by, filming themselves. We’d seen a couple of guys in odd outfits earlier as well.

As we got up to checkout, August convinced me to let him in with the pillows, and he lounged in the cart until we had to take everything out. We stopped to get lunch. He had a hot dog and I had the falafel. He ate the whole thing, then we each got an ice cream cone. We went outside to find about 20 younger guys all in various states of dress in costumes. No idea what was going on. It is early for Purim. August liked their funny costumes, and as we put our cart away we saw several of them do a race with the shopping carts, which the Ikea employees appeared to reluctantly allow.

He fell asleep on the way home, about 3:20. I could not wake him up. He kept sleeping on the couch, and I tried several times to get him up. I was out vacuuming the Zinnie house and getting the pillows together. At one point I thought he was awake, and I went out for a minute but returned to find him asleep. Finally, I put on Pink Panther and woke him up and he slowly woke up to that. It was after 4.

We went out to the Zinnie house and checked it out. August liked the pillows and clock. Carly got home. He was rough with her at first, so she took him up to wrestle. He then agreed to a haircut, lollipop-abetted, of course. She made it look much neater. Afterwards, he put his shirt on all by himself. It just happened to be backwards and inside out.

He took Carly out to the Zinnie house and they sat in there together for a couple minutes, talking about the clock. August compared the different kinds of hands on it to different sizes of candles. He came in to go to the bathroom, then did a good job of taking apart (by himself) the thing they had made with the construction kit while we figured something out with Carly’s phone.

I went upstairs with him, as he wanted to play a Brother and Sister game where they capture a peregrine falcon and it attacks them. ‘Profusely’ was a word of the day from that (i.e. how much I was bleeding after a talon cut me). We went down and read The One in the Middle is a Green Kangaroo by Judy Blume. He liked it. Carly made sushi and he ate that for dinner. We then headed back upstairs, where we played the game where he turns into a cat after I accidentally give him cat medicine. The cat then gets passed from owner to owner, as it is always causing problems. That somehow turned into a shopping game, where I was a pepper pot (an Eric Idle reference) buying stuff: hedge trimmer, to seeds, to chainsaw. Each thing led to a problem (too much trimming, too many plants) that required the next item. Somehow, this ended with me being a human ant nest stuck in a zoo. I don’t know how.

He went to the bathroom, then made a big creation out of rubber bands and other items on the toilet paper roll holder. It was a machine that transfers power. He was learning how to tie rubber bands together. When he had given Deborah’s puzzle piece back she had given him two rubber bands. He had tied them together, but on accident. He asked me how to do it. I taught him, and he had it down pretty well by the end. Although he still needed me to hold the one he was tying the other to.

I washed him, then he sang a “Ladybugs eat aphids” song. He ate some Cheerios, then I read him the I’ll Take a Nap! book. He laughed crazily again. I commented on the bunny in it being Knufflebunny, or something like that, and he said he had watched the Knufflebunny story in PKB last year.

Carly came in and we got him ready for bed. I left them about a quarter to 9.

Art at his birthday party:

Happy birthday from his class:

Art on the stairs:

Finding cool stuff at Ikea:

Trying out the spinny chair:

The taste of the backpack:

9V battery song:

Discussing the clock in the Zinnie house:

Laughing to the Elephant and Piggie book:

He was up before 6:10, stuffy. He went out, then came back in the bedroom with Carly. He lay on the bed for a few minutes. Requested cream for his nose. Downstairs he watched Julius Jr. When Carly was heading to work he asked why she was going to work if he was staying home from school.

When he was done watching, we looked at the app on his iPad that goes with his watch. We played the turn of the game that he earned with his full day of activity. It involves BB-8, the robot that is on his watch. ‘Droid’ and ‘scavenge’ were words of the day. I went up to take a shower. He came with me and waited. On the wall of the bathroom I found a mosquito and a small skinny crawly thing and caught them both in the bug catcher and he studied those while I took a shower. As we went downstairs he wondered if the bug was poisonous, and talked about how he himself is “pure coison.”

As we left the house to get going, the street sweeper people were in our are and we said good morning to a couple of them. August was taking his time, looking at things on the ground and bugs on the wall. We finally got going at 8:40.

We drove to the Shlomo Group Arena for the robotics competition. He was impressed by the size of the building. We first walked around the teams’ area, seeing some of the robots up close and a lot of their tools. He was quite impressed, but it was all very loud and crowded and overwhelming. We made our way up to the seats, entering at the top. We found seats, and he spent most of the time asking about how many seats there were and whether it was more than a 747, etc. When he wasn’t doing that he was asking me to use Shazam songs that were playing. I think we did four. He watched one of the matches from my lap.

We were there about an hour before he decided he was ready to go. We found the WBAIS booth on our way out and saw the robot. None of the teachers were there though. We went and found a bathroom and looked around some more. August was running back and forth, so we did slo-mo videos of him running.

We paid and drove north to a mall that has a McDonald’s. We got there about 11:20 and it opened at 11:30. We went upstairs and found a pharmacy, and found an electric toothbrush for him. The checker gave him a bunch of stickers. The mall was open to the outside and there were little birds flying in and out. He said, “If I was a bird I’d really really really like being in here.”

We went down to McDonald’s and had fun making our order on the screen. He had a happy meal with chicken nuggets, choosing barbecue sauce to try. He decided on ice cream for dessert, and I got an apple pie. We read some of The 104-Story Treehouse, which just came out, while we waited. We ate, then had to go ask for our desserts.

He decided our next stop was Ganei Yehoshua Park. This is where we went the one time we took the train down to Tel Aviv, and where we started with Chuck and Cherie when we walked down the river to the waterfront.

We got there and he dug in the cracked dried mud for insects. We went to the big playground and climbed around a bit, remembering when he slipped once on the steep stairs. He went on the baby swings, and made up a game where I misheard something he was asking for and told him he couldn’t have it and he was laughing hysterically. Climbed on a small play structure and he requested a story. Specifically, the retelling of Booger Girl and the Lotion Factory. He had to remind me of it. We retold that, then went back to looking for bugs in the dirt.

As we did that I got him to wander over towards where the old play area had been. We confirmed that it had been torn down. He walked across the path to the river side and found some insects there, which soon got switched for a bug he found on some flowers. We came across the small zoo and watched the deer eating. August was startled by a pigeon that got close to us, then started a game first of trying to touch the pigeon (we couldn’t), then simply following it around the park. He did that for a few minutes, then we went over to where the aviary had been. It too is gone.

He decided he was done, but I suggested we go see the lake. He liked the idea of water bugs, so we walked over to it, to where there is a cement walkway along the edge, but no railing. He chanted, “Don’t jump in the water! Definitely a safety hazard!” He found a dry palm leaf and started playing with it. That lasted at least twenty minutes. He swung it around, then we tried it to see if it would float. He was afraid we’d get in trouble for putting it in the lake. Then we were pushing the end to the bottom to feel how deep it was. Then he was pulling it out and making it rain on the ground. Eventually, we set it sailing across the water and got going.

There were more stops for bugs, first in a big hollow stump, then as we smelled some smelly plants, then on some flowers he liked to smell. I noticed some snails in the middle of the flowers and said, “You have to be careful not to suck a snail in.” He gave me the most unimpressed “Oh, Dada” yet.

As we walked back to the car he asked, “If I found a bag of gold that was worth like 5000 dollars…in an old completely broken down abandoned city?…would you let me keep it?” There were more and more scenarios that were increasingly outrageous. He somehow things that if he found tons of money we would let him but anything he wanted. Not that he has much of an idea of what he would buy.

We left the park at 3:15. He fell asleep from 3:30 to 4:05. I drove into Even Yehuda as we had some shopping to do. I carried him to the fruit store. We had to get stuff for his school party tomorrow: he chose a cantaloupe, bell peppers, and strawberries, and we got bananas for banana bread. And a few things Carly requested. We then walked to the car and dropped things off. The old Sushi Ishimoto building is now a little convenience store, leaning towards just snacks. He commented that it could be goof for his reward sheets. We decided to call it ‘Moto’ as there is no sign up, and for some reason the letters ‘Moto’ are still on the building from ‘Sushi Ishimoto’.

We then went over to the new grocery store, Stop! City. He talked about the plastic bag that carried a lot of weight of the fruits and veggies. He said it was “Pretty darn thin. Ha. Like Gramma says.” He learned the phrase ‘pretty darn’ from her. At the grocery store we got hummus and a couple other things. He helped out, and I let him get a vanilla yogurt. Out on the street he saw an SUV and was looking in the wheel well at all the bolts and the springs.

We were home about 5:10. He had his yogurt, tried out his new toothbrush, and then we figured out how to use the top toy from his Happy Meal. He practiced and started to get it pretty well. Carly got home, and we got him lasagna. He spit out a bite, not liking the texture of the meet. He was hyper with Carly but calmed down for Pippi Longstocking. He asked what ‘Burglar’ meant so that was a word of the day.

He helped me with the banana bread, then had a timeout after he said a mean line from Hilo and knocked things on the floor. From there Carly gave him a bath, then made him oatmeal for dinner. While she made it he was pretending to be sick. When I was the doctor and I accidentally gave him cat medicine he turned into a cat. We played different variations of that until the oatmeal was ready.

We read the first story in the Seuss book from the library. I went up to take a shower and they kept reading the book. I put him to bed. He sang a song about a skyscraper he built that touches space. Then it went to the sun. We did a beetle visualization, and he was finally asleep at 9:30.

Little green bug:

Watching the robots:

Watching the competition from my lap:

Seat slo-mo:

Running slo-mo 1:

Running slo-mo 2:

McDonald’s ice cream:

Laughing on the swing:

Trying to touch a pigeon:

Playing follow the pigeon:

Palm leaf 1:

Palm leaf 2:

Tiny ants:

Evermore song:

Trying out the new toothbrush:

Figuring out the top:

He came down at 6:30. I directed him to Carly outside. They came in and cuddled, then he ate oatmeal and watched Berenstain Bears. When he got dressed we put on his watch. He seems a little disappointed, in that it is smaller than mine, and it doesn’t have a stopwatch/timer. We got going, and had a smooth walk to school. Got in a couple minutes before the bus kids, and he went right to talking to the teachers, and showed off his watch. They were switching things up, and were going to start outside in the morning.

I went home and worked, then needed to run and get cash before going back to school. I rode up into town, went to the ATM, and then to school. I finished listening to Home Deus along the way and got to school a little early.

I did some typing in the breezeway, then as I went to walk to the preschool Marion and August came out of the preschool. August ran off a bit and I had to catch him. When I caught up we sat down and he told me there’d been a good half of the day and a bad half. When we went back Marion confirmed as much. He had been great through the morning. Part of it had been for planning his birthday. He stayed consistent on the kind of cake and the healthy snacks for Wednesday.

As we got ready to leave, he asked when he would eat lunch with his class again. That kind of surprised me, as he doesn’t seem ready to spend a longer time. Then, as we walked home I asked why he hit Andrea. He said because he didn’t think I was coming to pick him up. He thought he was staying until the end of the day. I thought maybe I hadn’t made it clear that I’d pick him up at noon. But later, I talked to Andrea and she thought it was because they changed the schedule. I’ve been picking him up when they’re on the playground still. But today they were inside an hour before I got there. So she thought he thought it was later.

We walked home, stopping a few times along the way to look at or discuss things. At home he wanted to catch an insect, but I wanted to hurry in and get him some lunch before 1. He was eating some lasagna and cantaloupe when Shani, the occupational therapist, showed up.

He was excited to see her, and had fun. She had me stay with them and explained things as she went. She started with pencil activities and had him copying shapes, then choosing which shape in a series matched the one at the top of the page. Basic pencil and IQ stuff. She then had him drawing a picture of a person. He then added to it, adding the dad, then putting them both in a dungeon, then adding all sorts of colors to the dungeon picture. She gave him a “magic coin” to hold in his pinkie and ring finger while he wrote, as he was holding the pencil upright, but with all his fingers. She then used two hair bands tied into a figure 8 to wrap around his wrist and help him keep the pencil tilted back. She called it the “magic bracelet.” She next had him completing dot patterns that had him draw lines between them, then had him cut the shapes out with scissors.

She then had colorful hair band sort of things and images on cards with the different colored bands on different fingers. She held up her hand and asked him to match the pattern. He did that, as long as he could be creative and make his own creation on his hand when he was done.

Finally, she had a game involving magnetic circles with shapes and colors on them. It was called ‘Clack clack’ in Hebrew. You rolled two dice and then picked up the circles that had pictures that matched. August liked the magnets, but when he found out it was a winning game he said he wasn’t playing.

So, her big recommendation at home at this point is playing winning games with him and modeling them. I told Carly we had to start playing dominoes in the evening. She said that at school she really wants them to have a safe space for him, and she suggested a pair of headphones to block out sound if he needs things quieter.

It went fine overall. Given his problems at school, I was annoyed when she spent the first 20+ minutes on pencil and scissors techniques. He’s picked up holding a pencil upright just fine with Vicky the last couple of months. And I can’t find any set of standards that stress penmanship before kindergarten or first grade. So it seems ridiculous for both Dr. Aviv and her to worry so much about it. Sure, keep working on it at school, but no need for an intervention. I’ll wait for the report, but if we’re (or the insurance company is) paying for sessions with her, I want to make sure time isn’t wasted on handwriting.

August wanted to play one of his games with her. Initially he wanted the shark game, but then he changed his mind and showed her the building set. He had her adding pieces, and she explored what decisions he’d let her make on her own.

We said goodbye to her, then got ready to go back to school for STEM class. We caught a crane fly out on our wall before we got going. We got to STEM class and he took the crane fly in. They read a book called Caps for Sale and then used playdough as a base, stuck spaghetti noodles in it (dry), and tried to build towers with beads and Honey Nut Cheerios. He now wants Honey Nut Cheerios. Andrea said they had an exciting moment when the crane fly got out, but they got it back in.

We then went and hung out in the library. He first played with the Legos by himself for several minutes. He then started playing with the rocking chair. He stacked books and book dividers on it, and put a stool on it. He then pulled over a chair and sat on that. The dots on the stool were his keyboard buttons, and everything else was part of a big music machine. This occupied him for quite awhile. I found five books for us to check out: two Elephant and Piggie books, Short Stories for Little Monsters by Marie-Louise Gay, Seuss’s Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories, and The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo by Judy Blume (since he’d liked Freckle Juice).

When he was ready to go I warned Carly we’d be showing up soon. We got to her classroom at 5:10. She got ready to go. Out on the table he spotted a bee that was just sitting there and we caught it. Looked like it was bout to die. On the drive home he started chanting “Tweedle dumb an tweedle dumber”, which is a line from Berenstain Bears.

At home they started to read Pippi Longstocking but didn’t get far as he was being punky. I went up to work. Carly made sushi and they ate that for dinner. When I came down they got a skype call from Andrea and Kayla to wish August a happy birthday. He and I read the Elephant and Piggie books. He laughed hysterically for I Will Take a Nap! and also liked Can I Play Too? Carly took him up for a bath. She was tired, so was going to put him to sleep as well. I left them around 8:30.

Working on his pencil technique with the OT:

Musical machine 1:

Music machine 2:

During the night he asked for chapstick once. Later, he yelled “Dada!” in his sleep, as if something was wrong. Carly and I were both instantly awake. Carly said it was a bad dream. He repeated “bad dream” and went back to sleep.

He was up at 6:10. I got up at 7. They were working on circuits. We called my parents and they sang him “Happy Birthday”. He wasn’t too impressed with that. He says he doesn’t like the song and won’t allow “that stupid song” at his birthday party. We opened the presents from them and Dee and the Garmin Vevofit jr. watch from us. My parents got him a toy construction set and a different kind of electronics kit. Dee got him a telescope, a rain coat, and shirt. We started by putting together the plastic duck part and making that portion of it (there are 4 basic sections to the whole set).

I made him oatmeal. Carly was making lasagna and he helped test the noodles. We got back to the kit. Another portion has an arm that spins due to a motor. It hits a bell when you touch a wire with a wand. However, August noticed that when it is slow it doesn’t hit. He asked, “Why when the motor is going it rings the bell, but when it’s not it doesn’t?” I asked him why he thought that was, and he said, “Because it stretched out.” We finished the four electric kit parts and Carly finished the lasagna.

He wanted to play with the construction set with her. She asked, “Our own creation?” He replied with, “Nooo, we’re going to follow the instructions.” I went up and took a shower.

August and I then got going on a walk. He found a spider in the book case outside and we had to capture that first. We hurt it a bit though, and on the walk he switched it out for an ant. Before we left he talked about how he was making the Zinnie house off limits to visitors until he had his insect zoo completed. I pointed out he had a week, and we could work on the Zinnie house between now and his birthday. Along the way he asked, “What’s a water pistol?” So that was a word of the day. He also talked about being a bird: “It I was a bird I’d like to eat caterpillars, centipedes, fish, crabs…”

Our main objective on the walk was to get longer nails at the hardware store. We got there at 12:20. He showed me a few things he’s interested in, like a wire brush to go on the drill, but he was fine with just getting nails. I also got a magnetic nail holder that might help avoid hitting his finger. The older guy there gave him some of the bamba (puffed peanut) snack. We then went next door to the fruit and veggie place. We got two boxes of strawberries, and August spotted a cantaloupe so we got that. All quite cheap.

From there it was to VIPizza, where we got three slices of pizza to take home. August wanted to eat there and took some convincing, but he was okay with it. On our walk back we came across a dozen or so mugs that someone was throwing out. He wanted to get some. We ended up with 3: a Praha mug and a flower mug, both of which he chose, and a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves mug from Poland that I liked.

As we walked by the movie theater building he was talking about a.) how big it is and b.) how we only use the grocery store in it. I mentioned we could see a movie there sometime, but then remembered that most of the kids movies are always dubbed. He asked what that meant, so a word of the day. On the way back he sang a really wonderful song about how his cake was going to be yummy, and that it was his birthday. Didn’t manage to get that recorded, really.

We were home at 1:10. Carly showed us the cake, and he added the toppings: the 5 6 and 7 candles, the small sprinkles, the start sprinkles, and then the sprinkles he remembered from “that food party.” It was the container of four different kinds of sprinkles that we had gotten at Ilana’s ‘get rid of your leftovers’ party at the end of last school year.

He let us sing to him (I had lit the candles using the latest lighter that he’s found) and then we ate cake. He was quite happy with it. He quoted a line from Hilo 3: “A wee bit of a nutty, and I like a wee bit of a nutty.” A few times he told her, “Mama, I love the cake you made me.”

He wanted to go to Herzliya Park and catch fish. So we packed up and got going. I read The Witches as we went. He fell asleep right as we got there. We sat in the car and let him sleep for 15 minutes. I carried him to the pond area, and he took a couple minutes of laying on us before he woke up. What did it was me trying to catch fish. I caught two pretty quickly. Carly went and got us cappuccinos. I caught a third fish. We kept hearing frogs talking amongst the bushes. Carly finally spotted one, quite close to us. Carly talked about making disturbances in the water. He asked, “What’s disturbances?” Another word of the day. Carly took over and caught some fish. We were asking if he wanted his hat on. He replied, “I look ridiculous if I have my hat on.” Cary also said something about “chitter chatter” and he liked the phrase.

We left at 4:20. On the way home I read more of The Witches. When I read the line “Laughing their heads off” he said “Hyperbole!” And two more words of the day, ‘gadget’ and ‘carpenter’ as we neared the end.

Soon after we got home we skyped with Chuck and Cherie and opened the presents from them (a tool set, a Shark Attack table game, and three shirts). He modeled the tool belt. Carly then cut up some of the cantaloupe. They watched a video bout cantaloupe. When Carly was concerned that the one we got might to be a good one, she had him practice saying “Better luck next time.” It turned out to be a good one. He talked about the healthy snacks he wanted for his birthday (in addition to the cake the class would be cooking) and he decided on cantaloupe, yellow and red bell pepper (“Like ‘Belle’…from Beauty and the Beast”), strawberries, and banana or zucchini bread (depending on what was ripe).

We ate lasagna for dinner. He had put another one of the juices (sugar waters, as he calls them) from the pizza place in the fridge. I had told him he could have it tomorrow, but when he said he wanted it a minute later he got upset, and spit in my face when I tried to take him upstairs. Carly took him up and gave him a bath. I then went in and we finished reading The Witches. We then finished Hilo 3 and read part of Hilo 4. He also had some Cheerios. Carly took over for a few minutes with him while I got some tea.

I then went in to put him to sleep. We did a fish visualization again. I started to sing to him. He was fine for awhile, but when I started to sing “Puff the Magic Dragon” he requested a different song, as that is the song that Mama always sings. He was acting kind of weird after that. He said a couple times that he was going to Mama. He insisted for awhile that I give him three lollipops, and another time that I give him the sugar water. Twice he got off the bed and curled on the floor when I block his path. I thought he was going to fall asleep there. He climbed back up on the bed though, and he was asleep at 8:45.

Presents 1:

Presents 2:

Presents 3:

Building set:

Circuits set 1:

Circuits set 2:

Circuits set 3:

Cake tastes good:

Decorating his cake:

Blowing out his candles:

Studying the fish:

Frog noise:

More presents 1:

More presents 2:

I think they were up sometime around 6:30. I was up at 7:15. They had finished one Captain Underpants book and bought another. He had gotten a chocolate treat from blowing his nose after he had sneezed like ten times. We’re pretty sure it is all allergy related, as he seems to get worse when we’re out looking for bugs. He’s taking a daily allergy medicine, but might think about talking to a doctor. He also tried out the red telescope, which he or Carly had found last night.

When I came down they were working on a circuit project. I helped him finish it. I’d say he’s doing just fine with the puzzle organizing, when it is something he understands and cares about. He went outside with Carly, and she found him a spiky green caterpillar we’ve never seen. Looking at the tree, he said, “Oh, it’s getting to sap season.” Inside, we looked up the differences between grubs and caterpillars, then finished The Magic Tree House #50. I made him oatmeal, then we were looking for his iPad. When I couldn’t find it, August said, “A witch took it. No, this house is witch free. I killed all the witches.” He was then asking me if there was anything I wanted him to build in his laboratory: “Would you like a mirror that obeys your every command?”

He watched Max and Ruby and I went up and took a shower. When I came down he was bothering Carly with his supposed cuddling and ended up with a timeout. He went out with Carly, and I went out as well. He spotted two dogs out on the street, then a cat in our yard. Carly and I discussed the book she was reading (Haroun). He and I got ready for a walk, and he said, “With my first mate, the spikey caterpillar.”

We didn’t go for a walk though. We hung the piece of art on wood to the right of the door of the Zinnie house and got talking about the house and he liked the idea of making a bug zoo on shelves we would build out of scrap wood. We looked in the house’s junk area, behind the locked gate. He found large snails, and a set of two keys that it turned out were for that gate and the main gate to our house.

On his Zinnie house we decided to take the front board off so it was easier to get in. I started the screws with a screwdriver, then he finished taking them all out with the drill. We measured for shelves: 65cm wide, 120cm tall, 20 to 30 cm deep.

He asked, “What’s a booster rocket?” He thought it was a jet pack like in Pink Panther. He talked about his shipping business: “I’m shipping food glue. It looks like Elmer’s glue, it smells like Elmer’s glue, BUT, on the bottle it says ‘Food Glue’…and when it dries it’s totally invisible… The more ice cream flavors Coca-Cola you put in, the stronger it will be.”

As we measured and found wood to use for shelves, he was talking about one of the tools: “This is pretty handy…’Handy’. I learned that from Grandpa.” He then had the idea to make a welcome sign like from school. We would do this one on wood though and it would go above the door. We got wood and worked on sawing the pieces. He mainly watched me doing it, and was pretty content playing around me for quite awhile.

Inside, Carly cut apples and made peanut butter and honey to dip it in. August kept putting his fingers in it though, and I took him up for a timeout. Wrestling with the pillow and clamming worked, then we did the rocking and a baby fish visualization, with the fish being caught by August. When he was finally able to talk about it, he said he could choose to do the rocking earlier and I should hold him instead of closing the door.

We went back out to the shelves. I had them all cut and was tacking them together. August and I were taking turns with the hammer. He was hammering nails into scrap pieces. He hit his finger and got upset. Carl took him up for another timeout. I finished the shelves for the day and had them up in the Zinnie house. The idea is to get bigger nails to make it more solid, paint them, and then attach them to the wall.

Inside he looked at the grape experiment. I said it hadn’t changed, and used the word ‘stasis’, which he asked about. I made the last of the chocolate pancake batter and he ate two of them.

He and I finally went for a walk at 4:40. We walked our now usual route down to the old highway. He looked out across all of the light poles along the highway and the electric poles and we discussed them. There is a big tower a bit to the south that is definitely a cell tower/other antennas.

We spotted some butterflies, the first of the spring, and caught a skinny green beetle that was missing one antenna and a 7-spotted ladybug. We looked around a bit more, then headed home, and were here at 5:25.

Carly was talking to her parents. August talked to them and we looked up the kind of butterfly we had seen in our new butterfly brochure. Carly then headed to the store, walking, to get a few things. He and I replaced the batteries in the small flashlight, then went out for a walk. He unlocked our gate on his own. We walked up towards town, stopping at that green area along the way. He wanted me to catch a crane fly in the gloaming. I trapped one in the container, only to find that I had caught two of them. That was exciting: “This is a pretty cool find.”

We got home, and he wanted to go back outside to look at the stars with his telescope. I also took the binoculars, and we were looking at the sliver of the moon when Carly got home. Inside, he ate sushi, then Carly read him Captain Underpants. He cuddled with me on the couch, and when he wanted to stop I joked, “That’s the saddest second of the hour.” He liked that phrase and repeated it, then asked what the saddest moment of my life was. I suggested it was when Gramma was really sick. We didn’t get into details, but he asked, “Is that common?”

He was upset about his bath, but we got through washing his hair by listening to the “Murakami” song. He was then hopping on one foot 4 or 5 times per try on the bed. First I’ve seen that. Playing with the pillows he said he was “Holding my rocket boosters.” He then said he wanted me to get him a rocket booster/jetpack.

He built a pillow structure around me. I was patient with it, but after he showed Carly I got out, and he was upset with me for that. Carly came to put him to sleep and I left them at 8:15.

Taking out screws with the drill:

Extra tickly:

Hammering:

Hammering and hitting his finger:

Humming “Beautiful”:

Humming, carrying insects, and steering with his feet:

New song:

He was up at 6:15. He cuddled with Carly and ate oatmeal and watched something. As we got going he played with the front door keys, jingling them over his balance bike and casting a spell. We got walking at 7:33. He released the caterpillar up by the park. The other kids had just gotten there when we arrived, but I was able to talk to Marion and show her the chart we had made last night. We’d forgotten to deliver the hummus first, so I did that and headed home on my bike.

I rode back at noon. They were in the classroom this time, and as I came in I heard Andrea complimenting him on complimenting something that Leonard had built. They had celebrated Leonard’s birthday today. Marion added a few more things to his chart, and was very excited for the day. Of the chart we made she said, “this is gold.” He had used curling up like a clam to calm down a couple times, at least. He’d also been very busy with bugs today, reporting his findings to people, and then asking questions about and hunting for rolly pollies, worms, and beetles. Marion drew a picture of a root beer float and said he definitely deserved it today, and he asked to give him a hug. Ms. Vicky came by and gave him a hug as well.

As we got going, he told me, “I learned something from Ms. Marion…” He said that a cracked egg will bake in the sun. As we were walking, he asked, “How’s a car motor stay on without turning the wheels?” That led to a lot of discussion of motors and gears and clutches.

We got home before 1. We made our root beer floats. He hummed “I Know an Old Woman” and said he remembered it from dance class. He then made his “Rocket Man” yummy noises as he had the root beer float. He concluded the root beer wasn’t sweet enough, so he let me finish that, but be enjoyed the ice cream.

We had some lunch, then got headed back to school at 2, taking the car. We met Carly by the preschool, then joined the big circle for the welcoming project preschool event. August was a bit hyper to start with. They did songs at first. His class listened to/sang a song called “I am the Earth”. Of the songs August complained, “This has nothing to do with tiles.”

But then it was time. PKA went over to the covered portion by the kindergarten. They had their rough drafts they had done on paper, and now had paint to paint on a tile, which would then be glazed. He was very intent on painting it. He said he wasn’t following his plan, but it was based on it. We then had black paint to paint his welcoming word over the background. He initially wanted like a whole sentence. He shortened it to ‘Welcome preschool’. He got the okay from Andrea to do that, and I’m the one that got to paint on all the letters.

Carly had to head back to class to let Alex, who had been covering her class, go and pack up. Everyone else headed out, and we were the only ones left on the playground. Really weird that no one else stayed to play on the playground. August randomly asked, “What’s Shakespeare?” I feel he’s heard the name somewhere, but he couldn’t tell me where. We played around for awhile. He asked, “Are north east south west different than up down left right? Why?” He wandered over to his classroom and gave Marion and Andrea some advice on the classroom as they were deciding what to do for next week. He remembered that there was supposed to be cake and snacks at the welcoming project. Marion told him that the group nearest it had eaten it all. He was upset by this, and still grumpy when Carly showed up a little later.

We drove home. He was outside with Carly for a bit, then I headed upstairs to do some work. They read Captain Underpants. Carly was making sushi when I came down. He was saying that he remembered the reporter in the Captain Underpants book from the previous book they’d read. While he was eating sushi he spit one out and said something mean about it. Carly went upstairs for a break. He finally went up and apologized to her.

He came down and worked on his soup. When he went to the bathroom he had fun peeing on a piece of toilet paper again. While finishing his soup he tried got get the oatmeal out, but dropped it. He helped clean up, then played with the drill.

I had found a Learn Engineering videos bout how a manual transmission works and we watched that:

And then one about how cell phones work:

He had put a toothpick in the drill and was spinning it, but then roughly set it down on me, toothpick first. Carly took him up for a timeout when he wouldn’t clean up and was acting out. He was upset that I wasn’t happy about getting poked. She gave him bath. He came down and had some toast and we read Hilo 3.

I took him up for bed. We did a slug visualization. He asked asked why Carly had taught her students a song about a drill that drills down into the Earth last semester. No idea what he was talking about. I’ll have to ask her. He was asleep by 9:15.

Key music to our alarm:

His electric transmission:

Root beer float:

Light and sound 2:

Painting his welcoming project tile:

Sliding down the stairs on his knees:

Drilling in plastic:

Light and sound 1:

He got up just after 6, a little stuffy. he went downstairs and read Pippi Longstocking with Carly. I made him oatmeal. Carly went to get ready, and he watched Max and Ruby while he ate. We got going right after 7:30. He had a hair clip in on the way to school, but when we got to his classroom it wasn’t in his hair. I asked where it was, and he said he took it out. He said he hadn’t dropped it, but it was nowhere to be found.

I rode home, then picked him up at 12. He ran to me, very excited. He had two red dots, both for knocking things off tables when he was upset.

We walked home. As we got close he asked, “When we move to another country, let’s live in a rich house.” When I asked why, he said, “So I can buy stuff by myself.” When I asked what he wanted to buy, he said maybe another iPad, although he didn’t explain why.

I had brought the bug catcher to him. He had me release the two beetles and their mushrooms in the park. We then walked to where he originally caught the big ant and released it there. He wanted a bee, and we looked around out the flowers. I caught a flying ant instead. He decided that wasn’t too interesting though and let it go after a few minutes.

When we walked in the house it was really quiet, and we noticed how echoey it was. The refrigerator wasn’t making any noise, and we didn’t have the heater on yet. For a second we thought the power was off. I made him a chocolat pancake and we also had corn crisps, pita, and hummus. He realized he could watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving so he did that. He asked “What’s ‘formal’ mean?” So that was a word of the day.

He got bored with that, then he asked me if there was such a thing as internet waves. We looked up wi-fi, and read about how they are radio waves. I then found a chart of the electromagnetic spectrum, and we discussed the chart. I talked about how there are cameras that let you see infrared, and scientists study x-rays and gamma rays with other scientific equipment that shows us those rays. Not missing a beat, August asked how we could see the infrared rays, s if the camera recorded them, they’d still be infrared when they came out of the screen. I thought that was incredibly insightful, because most people would just accept that it happens. So I explained how camera shifts the rays into the visible spectrum so we can see an approximation of what it would look like. We then found this cool video using an infrared camera:

He then jumped from that to asking if the heart runs on electricity and, if so, how does the body make electricity. We watched

Which for us basically said that electricity is produced through a chemical reaction.

We then used the iPad and Apple Pencil to draw a chart of ways that he can respond to frustration. He chose all the colors and brainstormed most of the good and bad reactions. He was pretty excited by it, and the idea that he could choose a different reaction that would get him a green sticker instead of a red.

He then made a “leftover soup”, although we’re running out of things we don’t want, given his prolific soup making of late. But we found enough, and left it for completion in the evening.

On the way to school the song “Murakami” played on one of his playlists. He requested it added to his playlist, then said he wanted to listen to it on the way home.

We walked into the school as Marion was taking kids to the bus. Lydia in particular said hi to him, and August asked, “Why is Judson stylish?” He was wearing sunglasses. Down in the classroom we found Anita and Simone. He was going to swim lessons, and August discussed swim lessons with her for a couple minutes. He claimed he would never take swim lessons. But that he would learn on his own when the temperature was warmer.

We found Eve and her mom, and we took Eve out to the playground. Taya came out with us for a few minutes, as Cassie needed to meet with the teachers, but Taya snuck back in and went to Cassie. August and Eve were playing in the swings, and gust was running around, and carried a chair to the boat thing and filled it full of chairs. Taya came back out as they were undoing and doing knots. Cassie came out and got Taya and they left, and August and Eve ended up down in the kitchen area. Eve was pretending that rocks were treasures, and he kept telling her they weren’t until I said, “Use your imagination.” He replied, “Oh. Imagination. I thought they were real.”

They were doing a lot of climbing on the kitchen stuff and shelves. August was trying to keep up with Eve. We then headed to the bigger playground. There, they kept up the climbing thing, and each of them kept telling me to look to see the next thing they were doing. I was trying to read, and told them they were supposed to be playing with each other, not impressing me with their climbing.

We headed to the auditorium and checked in with Heather. She was hanging art, and August got a couple of sticky things from her, which he then put on a tree outside. We had a few minutes, so we walked over to the nature reserve. we used the bug catcher and caught a tadpole and they looked at it together. We released it, and I think got a caterpillar to take. August was doing a great job sharing the bug catcher with Eve, although I could tell he was anxious about it. I could tell, and when she wanted to carry it on the way back I reminded him she’d be leaving in a minute and she wouldn’t take it with her.

We said goodbye, then he wanted to go back to the nature reserve. We did, and caught three tadpoles this time. We released them, caught something else, I think, and headed to Carly’s classroom just before 5. I can’t remember what he was talking about, but he asked, “Why are we not so impressed now?” Meaning we had been surprised by something the first time we saw it, but then it gets less exciting when you see it again and again.

As we got in the car he asked Carly, “When you retire, can me and dada go with you?” We didn’t know what he was talking about and asked. He pointed at the retirement home and said, “The retirement home.” So adorable.

We got home and Carly was going to make tempura. But she realized the soda water was just a bottle that we had refilled with tap water. So I quickly drove up into town and grabbed soda water and a couple of other things at the grocery store. Came back, and August ate some leftover sushi, then the tempura when it was ready. We read a couple chapters of The Witches. He then wanted Iggy Peck, Architect, but I said we could wait and check it out from the library.

When I said it was time to go take a bath he instantly got frustrated. We sat together and looked at the printed out version of the chart we made. He added ‘be a clam’ to it, by which he means curling up, his head down and his back up. Thought that was a great one, and he said he likes that. He was then able to do that, then after a minute offered a compromise, which is also on the good side of the list. He wanted to do an imagining game first. It was the one where he cooks the saber tooth tiger into a stew. He then picked every kind of veggie he could think of to put in the stew.

As he sat on the toilet he put toilet paper on the seat so he could drip his last drops of pee onto it. He said, “Dada, come! Look at my genius invention.” When he got off the toilet he said, “My foot is tickly.” His foot had fallen asleep. He compared it to “when we first came to Israel and I put my foot on that.” He pointed to the round plastic cover by the toilet. The incident he was remembering actually took place downstairs, and he claimed he had been shocked when he stepped on the plastic access cover. It has never happened again, although he told me he intentionally avoids it. Very odd.

Carly came up and took over after he brushed his teeth. I left them at 8:30.

Carly had talked to Vicky today. She said that August had announced “I’m leaving now” a couple minutes into literacy group. She told him her attention would stay here at the table. He left, but was soon back. They think a lot of his current behavior (knocking stuff off of tables) is an attempt to get more teacher attention, which is what he really wants.

Taking a chair to the boat:

Knots:

Running to the nature reserve:

Tadpoles:

Releasing the tadpoles:

I am… song:

Full outfit:

Carly woke him up. He finished watching the Wallace and Gromit movie. As we got ready to go he was playing with the walking stick from Korea and asked, “Did you lie to me? Is this really a gun?” I said it wasn’t, of course, but that led to a line of questioning about whether you can take guns on airplanes. He knows, from experience, that we always have to dump out liquids on planes. We got going right at 7:30. As we left, he looked at the little library and said, “Dada, you red to put this outside. No one’s gonna ask for a book if it’s in the yard…set a reminder.” I told him we need to discuss it with mama. He told me to set a reminder.

Nice and early to school and I was able to say good bye and leave. When I came back I was a bit early and watched them playing on the playground. Lydia spotted me, and August came running over. He then told me to watch from the grass while he kept playing. He and other kids were having fun chasing Nancy, the substitute teacher, around. And at one point Vicky had him come over to me and tell me how he had done a good job of calming down fast today. He had three red stickers though.

We left when they took the class in for meeting. I then realized we needed a note for guards in order to leave. We went back down and sat on the bench for a few minutes, then went inside. August went right to the cupboard where he knew the sheets were. I filled one out, and Andrea signed it for us.

We came home, and I heated the rest of the tempura veggies and he ate them with sweet and sour sauce. And we made a mango and strawberry smoothie. He then climbed on my lap and cuddled at the table while we listened to Stehen Malkmus. He seemed to be a bit cold and covered himself with my sweatshirt.

We went and read Treasure Island and finished it. We discussed the word ‘sincere’ and that was a word of the day.

It was library time today, so we drove back to school. When we got to the school they were still over at the playground. Lydia spotted him and came running, yelling “August! Come, come!” and pulling him by the hand. A great greeting. They brought the class in. I tried to put his hair clip in, but Lydia saw me doing it and asked why a boy had a hair clip, and August took it out, saying he didn’t want to wear it.

He sat with them for the brief meeting before going to library time. Andrea gave them a wink when they were looking at her, and when August got his wink he told me, “I got the wink!”

We went up to library time. Back to the usual routine. She read Green Eggs and Ham. One boy punched another in the stomach and I had to take them to the teachers. Then I had to escort a couple of students to the bathroom. He checked out a Captain America Golden Book. As we were getting going I told Andrea how he was on the superhero bandwagon now, and that it wasn’t my favorite bandwagon.

When school was over we went back in the library and played with the Legos. He wanted to look for the steering wheels. Think we found six. As we looked we made an abstract sculpture. We went to the bathroom once, and when we came back the WBAIS robotics team was about to start a round of their competition, which was streaming on a TV in the library. So we watched that. August didn’t like it: “I hate it becuase everyone was acting like they were a part of the game.” Basically he didn’t like the cheering and excitement. We went back to the Legos. He saw Amelie and Jill playing the shooting game on the computer. He talked to them, and they were calling each other “nubby” etc. He then watched them playing for awhile. Interesting to see Amelie in particular interacting with her friends, as she’s quite different than when she is calmly playing on the computer around her mom in the preschool.

We watched another round of the robotics competition. August watched as well. They won both, and later would end up winning the competition, their first win.

Thunder was starting, and then rain. We went to Carly, and it was raining a bit as we left. Packages had arrived from my parents and Cherie. After putting on our raincoats we headed to the car and were home after 4.

We had hummus and pit and crackers and Carly made sushi. August told her, “Mama, you make better sushi than the shrimp place does.” He meant Sushi Ishimoto. We ate, and he was then asking about lightning, and it hitting the house. I used the word ‘disperse’ and we discussed its meaning, so a word of the day.

We started reading King of the Sky but didn’t make it far, as we got talking about Korea, although I don’t remember why. But Carly asked him if he remembered Teuni Teuni and the teacher. He said he remembered them and specifically said he remembered climbing on things. We were then looking at photos and videos.

He then picked up the apple he had made into a sculpture at home yesterday, took out the toothpicks, and started chomping into it. He’s never done that before. He was really excited about it, and went up to show Carly what he was doing. He said it was better than slicing up the apple.

Back downstairs we made popcorn and watched two of the Hilda episodes we’ve already seen. He didn’t want to watch the last episode yet. Carly came down and we did a little role playing, with her being Andrea, saying she couldn’t look for bugs with him right now, and him responding appropriately.

He then suddenly started looking under the couch and came up with a puzzle piece. He said that Ms. Deborah had asked him to look for it. He was very happy about finding it, and we took a photo and sent it to her. Carly took him upstairs to wrestle. I did dishes. She gave him a bath and he played in the sink. Deborah wrote back, and he was happy about that.

He was randomly saying “Pieces of eight, pieces of eight” like the parrot in Treasure Island. Still early for sleeping, so he said, “Let’s do a visualization with the light on. But don’t expect me to calm down or go to sleep cuz this is just for funsies.” So we did a worm visualization, which was tricky because of the lack of visualizing. We had to imagine feelings and sounds. We then did some wrestling and the food game. He needed Cheerios, so we got some, and he said he wanted to go to the library in town again. I looked up the hours, and remember why we don’t. The only couple of days they are open in the afternoon they don’t open until 4.

Carly came in and we got him ready for bed. He brushed his teeth and I left them at 8:35.

On the playground with the preschool:

Watching the robotics competition:

Watching the girls play on the computers:

Walking through the rain:

Eating the apple:

An unfortunate song:

Oh my, quite a night. August seemed to sleep fine, but I didn’t. He kept turning sideways and kicking me in the head. Three times. Another time he hit me in the head. I remember reflexively hitting his arm off my head. He slept on. Either he put his hand back on my head, or did that later and just kept it there. He then woke up a little after 6:30, I think when Carly was about to go wake him up.

They came down and cuddled. He was in no hurry to watch or eat anything. He told Carly not to go to work. She eventually got going and he sat there for another minute or two, then eventually got up to eat his oatmeal. After awhile he asked to watch something and he chose a Hilda episode we’ve already seen, about the lost village of elves.

We were walking right at 7:30. It was supposed to lightly rain today, but there had been a big downpour about 6:15. Carly had braved it and walked. It looked decent enough so we walked as well. Went fine for us as well.

We were the first ones in the classroom. Andrea greeted us. I put his stuff away and told him I was going to leave. Andrea went and talked to him. She had a list of what was happening today and talked to him about checking them off as they went through the day. Don’t know if she came up with this on her own, or if Vicky had forwarded Deborah’s report to them, in which she suggested visuals for showing him the schedule and teaching the transitions. I was happy to see that in the report, as it is something we’ve been missing and asking for all year. The visual schedule really helped in PKB. But now he asked her, “I don’t really need that, so why did you come up with that?” I didn’t hear a full answer, but hopefully she was eventually directly with him, and talked about how he was having troubles at transitions, and they need to figure out how he can do them better.

I was able to leave the classroom before 8. I went home and worked, then came back to pick him up. I found him out on the bench with Marion. He had had trouble in mindfulness, and ended up downstairs with Andrea and Marion. He was sort of stewing for awhile, it sounds like, then was able to have fun with them and was happily talking to Marion about things while sitting on the bench. It had been a rough day overall, but he was calming down quickly each time. So that was the positive.

While he went to STEM class, I went and talked to Vicky, I suggested he shouldn’t be going to school right now, and we decided on half days, with me picking him up at noon. In STEM class I think they read Iggy Peck Architect (Andrea also mentioned, later, something about a book about someone building things out of pancakes) and were then making things out of sliced apples. August didn’t want his sliced, and instead made a creature of some sort. He later told me it was in the middle of being abstract, as you could see legs and other features. At the end of class August was then tying strings onto the shelves and chairs again, making a spider web like last week.

We then walked home. At home, August got another apple and did another apple sculpture. He then wanted to catch crane flys so we went for a walk. Got as far as crossing the street. First found a daddy long legs and caught that, then let it go and we watched it run. Then a crane fly. We went back to the house and Carly got home.

They went out and picked the first full-sized broccoli, growing up in the window planters. August bit right into it and started explaining how it tasted different “more spicy.” He ate quite a bit and gave each of us some to taste. They then came in and cooked it and she made him a pancake for dinner. He spent a long time in the bathroom, which meant a lot of talking to us. He now tells us, mainly Carly, “You’re the second best thing.” Sometimes I’m tied for second, other times I’m just third. He’s the first best thing, apparently.

He and I read Treasure Island. ‘Rations’ and ‘peckish’ were words of the day. A bit of a rough spot as he had a small timeout for touching Carly when she didn’t want to be touched, then downstairs I was talking about his day with him and he reached out and ripped the paper we were looking at.

Carly took him up for a bath, then they read Captain Underpants. I came up and he brushed his own teeth again with the fluoride toothpaste. As I put him to sleep we did a lizard visualization, then had a good discussion about growth mindset. As he was falling asleep, he said he had one more thing to tell me. He said he didn’t need the Lunch Robot notes in his lunch any more as he eats his lunch now and he hasn’t been reading them. He was afraid that I would think that he was saying he hated the notes. I assured him I didn’t, and that I really liked how he was able to explain that to me. He was asleep around 9.

Apple creature:

Tasting the fresh broccoli: