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He was up at 6:35. He cuddled with Carly, then when she was leaving he called for a family hug. Very sweet. He had oatmeal, and we filled out his sticker chart for today. I drew ice cream on it and a picture of Hilda, as we planned to watch episode 3 of Hilda together. We then read the second half of Hilda and the Black Hound. We got going, and he did a great job of asking for different pants, explaining that the ones with the little holes are too cold. We changed those quickly and were walking at 7:33.

A little windy and chilly on the walk to school. I gave him a different bar for his morning bar, and he said it was the best bar ever. We got there a couple minutes before the bus kids. Marion had told me they had a big meeting last week about other kids keeping their hoods up and the conclusion (not sure if it was just preschool, or all elementary) was that kids couldn’t wear hats. She said it was okay for today, but we’d have to come up with another option for next Wednesday. I got him to hand the paper for Andrea to her. Simone was gone (I think they went to Italy for the short break), so we put it in his box.

I went and worked from the library. I saw an amusing little scene as I sat there. Ilana and Amanda saw that the latest puzzle was finished, but one piece was missing. They looked around for it and Ilana lamented that it was a new puzzle. About an hour later some high school girls came in and one of them gave the last puzzle piece to her friend so she could finish it. I went over them and told them what I had seen, but told them I wouldn’t tell on them. I think I heard them saying the could go tell her they had found the last piece. I also saw Amelie, Marion’s daughter, playing chess, and being really nice to a first grader she knows.

I went to pick him up just before 12. As I walked up I saw the door swing open, with him riding on it. So I went straight in. They were sitting down for their closing song and he was hyper. He managed to ride the door one more time before I corralled him to the meeting and he joined in for the song.

He then excitedly told me he got to get ice cream. He had one sticker. He said something like “Hmm, now I need to decide to get ice cream at a store or at home.” I had planned on a store, but it was windy out, so I said walking around wasn’t going to be the best. He knew we had vanilla ice cream in the freezer, and yesterday had said that’s what he wanted. I said he could have chocolate syrup on it. And then he suggested his pink sprinkles as well.

He wanted to show me his bug animation, but Andrea was busy with Candy and Eve. Then he remembered ice cream, so we got going. We saw Marion, sitting by the guard station. He talked to her for a minute, then just walked out and headed home. I ran and got him back, and Marion told him he should have just one treat, not billions (she jokes with him about how his numbers are always huge). He then ran to Carly’s classroom to tell her about his day. She wasn’t there though, presumably already off to one of her meetings.

So we walked home. We stopped by the construction site on Vatikim to look at the interesting paving stones (it looks like 4 to 6 individual stones, but is actually one block) and discuss how they are held solid, and also discuss the big panel of rebar that appeared to be used as a drive way for construction vehicles. It was windy, but warmer, and actually quite pleasant. At home we opened a window to hear the wind. He told me the red sticker was for blowing a raspberry at Marion when she told him not to make salad on the playground using the garden plants. So cool there was no hitting, and no incidents with other kids. And to be honest, if it was a little raspberry like he said (not in her face), I don’t think it is quite fair to even count those.

And he said he didn’t go to the bathroom until late in the day. He hadn’t gone at all this morning, and I’d let him leave without going. I had meant to suggest he go when we got to school, but I’d forgotten.

At home we got our ice cream. He wanted his in a cup. He had vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and pink sprinkles, and half a cookie on the top, like he’d seen at the ice cream place on Friday. I had a small scoop of ice cream and a full circle. He initially said I had more cookie than him, but then he decided it was fair. We sat and ate our ice cream lunch and watched Hilda. He then cuddled on my lap, and then wanted to do the brother and sister game.

We went upstairs, and he wanted them to solve a mystery. So I had them hear cows outside while they were sleeping. We then went downstairs and followed the clues (hoof prints, poop, and truck tracks) until we found a new dairy and it had an ice cream place, so we had ice cream.

He used scissors to cut a random piece of paper into interesting shapes. Maybe something he’d been working on at school. He requested I wrap up a present. I decided to give it a try again, and I went upstairs and found an old ethernet cable we’ll never used. I wrapped it up in a paper towel and taped it and put his name on it. He wasn’t happy about the present though, as he didn’t have anything to plug it into, and didn’t want to pretend. I switched it out with a USB cable, which would plug into the circuit board from the printer we took apart. He was happier, but still grumpy because he couldn’t plug the other end into anything.

He went to the bathroom and said he pooped a lot. He then said he had a machine to chop up big poops in the pipes like a banana. I had made rice and a packet of curry and lentils. Mild again. Again too spicy for him. He ate a few bites though, then talked about having rice with something else. He asked how the rice cooker works, and we discussed converting electricity to heat, and ‘conductor’ was the word of the day.

We looked at photos of options for his hair. He said no hat was okay, but he just wants to go without a hairband or sweatband or bandana at school. I found out that small hairbands are popular among men in tennis, and it made me think that they should do some sort of diversity lesson at preschool, as I’ve had three different girls ask me why he has long hair, as only girls can have long hair.

We went upstairs, and he said he had an energy meter. He told me, “you’re at the middle, I’m full” I asked and he said that Marion had less than me, and Andrea had more. We played on the bed, and I was rocking him back and forth on the bed. He had me put pillows on both sides of him while I did it, and he said, “This is the best coziness ever.”

Carly got home. He took his shirt off, and I had him put it on by himself. We said we were impressed, and he said, “I’m not impressed” We then made a coconut milk, banana, and mango smoothie. He drank that, then was singing a “before the next meeting” song.

Carly went upstairs. He read A Big Guy Took My Ball! and I read Here’s What You Do When You Can’t Find Your Shoe. He then watched an episode of The Magic School Bus about flies and spiders. We went upstairs and had a nice pillow and stuffed animals fight. It was nice until he ran across the bed, threw a pillow at me, and his momentum carried him off the bed and he fell.

He was upset, and Carly took over. He calmed down and came downstairs and had soup. They then made popcorn and watched their usual nature show. She took him upstairs and gave him a bath and they played upstairs. I think they read some Pippi Longstocking. She brushed his teeth.

I came up and he was doing jumps on the bed. We read more of The Witches and did a whale visualization. He started talking about hunting whales, and for some reason talked about making a new animal: “I’ll make a new animal…just with a cardboard box.” At 8:10 he told me I could turn off the light. I sang the Big Numbers song, and he was asleep by 8:30.

Running to find mama and tell her about his day:

Hinges:

Falling of the bed:

Big bed jump:

Generator for his jump:

Jumping slo-mo:

It was a very rough day in some ways, but made good progress in others.

Carly got him up before she headed to work. When she left I distracted him by reading We Are in a Book! He then watched an episode of Berenstain Bears. As we got ready to go he told me about his battery charging machine. You put one in the middle that is empty and two on outside and they charge the one in the middle.

As we were hurrying out the door to make sure we got to class before the bus kids, the meter reader came to the gate. A quick process, but it gave August another thing to be interested in. Talking about power usage, referring to his labs all around the world, he said, “So when I leave my laboratory in a place I always turn the power off so I don’t waste electricity.”

We got to class and filled out one of the sticker charts that Carly had printed out. The chosen treat for today was ice cream. The other kids came in and I said goodbye. Smooth so far.

I went and worked in the library for awhile, then went over to the PTA meeting. The normally dull PTA meetings got a bit interesting, as Anna complained that none of the parents affected by the cafeteria company (last year’s company is threatening to sue a bunch of parents who claim they don’t owe money) showed up for the meeting today. That led to a big discussion of how to make the meetings more relevant. For one, the principals now attend and give reports, but they basically just explain what he’s been sent out via email. Which is step forward from last yer, when they didn’t even want to address the PTA. Anyway, I ended up talking to Mark, Anna, and Herschel until 11.

At 12:20 I went down and waited for them to come out at lunch. I went in when I heard crying. Andrea had just accidentally closed his fingers in the door. They told me that he had, generally, had a really good day. They had had fun over in the nature area by the middle school (Carly later said she had seen him) and had spent a lot of time in the maker space and had made an animation of his bug (although I don’t know what the bug is).

However, near the end of the day he had had an issue with Simone. That incident had resulted in two red stickers, which meant he couldn’t get ice cream. When he heard this he really got upset, and as I took over with him he said mean things about Andrea, and then to me. Marion and Andrea had told me they had found that the green stickers weren’t sticking, and they needed to get new ones. I later learned from August that the whole Simone incident happened because Simone took one of his green stickers. Also, there was no crying.

Anyway, it was very close to being a very different day: if the stickers had stuck, or I’d picked him up at 12 like they first said and not 12:30 as Marion revised it to in the morning, if I’d gone in a minute earlier and he hadn’t gotten his fingers pinched. As it was, it went from being a very good day to a rather rough rest of the day very quickly.

We drove home and he had a slice of peanut butter toast and a full half an apple. When I peeled it he asked me why I had done that. Trying to be a bit more strict about home time but also being productive, I said that he first needed to make a card/picture for Andrea and Simone before I would play anything else with him. It took him awhile to want to do this, but eventually he drew a picture of Andrea wearing a space suit, and a picture of him and Simone finding treasures together. I would then write his words explaining what the picture was, and the words he said for his apology.

The picture for Simone was a process: he first said that he and Simone were finding treasures together in a dungeon. Which was fine. The prompt from me was to draw a picture of him and Simone having fun together. But he drew the picture of himself with a sad face. So I had him do a second draft. This one was good, but then as he explained it he drew bars over them, and they were trapped in the dungeon. He was getting into story mode, and losing the thread of the apology. So he drew a third draft. This time, he gave them funny looking bodies, which was okay. Then as we were getting the words, he explained that a door slammed and he drew bars again.

The fourth time was the charm, although even that took some doing. He drew them again, but gave them funny eyes and swirly mouths and said they were “stunned”. At first he said it was because they had found so much treasure, which was fine, but then he was in story mode and insisted they were stunned because the door had slammed, trapping them. I finally talked him back around to the purpose and he agreed they were stunned because they had found so much treasure.

We were doing better, but the next step was wrapping the big chocolate egg for Carly for Valentine’s. He couldn’t handle not getting a surprise himself, and we went for a timeout upstairs. I initially stayed out of the bedroom, but after a couple minutes I asked if he wanted my help calming down. He said something like, “No calm thing!…Yes please.” I held him on my chest and did the rocking back and forth at calming (not crazy) speed. He was then just crazy for a few minutes, rolling around and quoting Hilo randomly. That turned into a game of stacking all of the pillows on him.

I started laundry, then we headed downstairs and he ate more apple, which earned him another slice of toast. I was on the couch, and he started pressing sideways against my legs so they would act like a spring and push him back to the side. He wanted that more and more, although I was afraid he’d trip and go flying across the floor.

He got on the couch and opened the Hilda book we’ve been reading, and spent a few minutes just paging through it by himself, humming as he did so. He found the bookmark, then looked for another minute before asking me to read it. We read the rest of it, then he started a brother and sister at school game. An alien comes down (a robot) and warns them about something. But then he discarded that and we ended up shopping with our parents and sneaking candy into the cart for our secret underground cave. We wore suits that hid us, and hid in the cave eating the candy. All out of his mind. Eventually I suggested we sneak out together, and we went out for our real walk over to the mall at 3:40.

It was really windy. He pointed to the flower that Carly and I had talked about last time and said, “The plant your like only grows in Israel and only in winter…” And told me a bunch more about it. He told me we should get the flowers before they are gone. On the dirt path part to the parking lot he asked why plants don’t grow there and ‘compacted’ became the word of the day.

Shopping is difficult for August now, as he wants everything. First we went to the pharmacy and got contact solution. He was tempted by beverages and snacks. Then we went to Kravitz for stickers and found those and another notebook for me for Lunch Robot. He wanted other stickers, then scissors (remembering that Carly said we needed three more pairs so we could always find them), and a few other things. Got out with just what we came for.

We went and sampled things at the health food store. Along the way he also wanted something from the jewelry stand (it is nice, and the woman makes it right there) and longed for the candied things at the stand outside Tiv Taam.

He was doing well though, and I gave him a green sticker for doing so well. Tiv Taam was a bit too much though. We went for things like milk and fruit. I told him he could suggest healthy things and we could discuss them. We did end up with a carton of coconut milk, the cheese crackers, and a kiwi to try. He was asking for a lot, and the last straw was a plastic juicer thing that you push into an orange or lemon. He got upset about a no on that, and I almost gave him a red sticker for that, but he was able to calm down and not get one.

On the walk back we discussed the big electrical poles and wires. He wonders why they are different shapes and sizes. We were home at 5. Carly took him upstairs to wrestle. He did a good job talking to her. Can’t remember what she said he said though. Back downstairs he confused her with the totally random sentences, “Uh, can you give me a day off today? I have a frog butt problem.” The words ‘frog butt’ are from Hilo, but the rest is random.

He had a timeout with her over something he said, then he came down and ate soup. He claimed it wasn’t soup becuase it was too think. When Carly asked him what he would call it he said, “Sludge.” He did the rocking thing with me on the floor, this time on silly speed. We read some of King of the Sky, one of the books I checked out, then he ate the rest of the soup and then had a cup of the coconut milk, which was much better than what was in the coconut. Still not straight-from-the-coconut-in-Indonesia good, but much better.

He didn’t like when Carly said it was bath time, and she got him to practice saying “I don’t like that” over and over. She gave him a bath, then got him to help with putting pillows away a bit. Thet read Pippi Longstocking and he had Cheerios. And he had apple slices with peel on it. He didn’t say as much, but I think maybe he’s had apples with peel on them at the shared snack at school.

I came up at 7:30 and she left us ten minutes later. I brushed his teeth. He volunteered, “Why do they make literacy group too easy just teaching letters all the time?” “The card rhyming thing I told you about was too easy.” I asked him what the best part of the day at school was, and he said, “My friend.” When I asked which one he said, “I can’t tell you.” He then said he was the only one that could see the friend. Not exactly an imaginary friend though: he was referencing the elves in Hilda that only she can see. We talked about school some more, and he said, optimistically, “Maybe I could choose not to hit.”

For a visualization he asked for a piece of dry skin. So we visualized being a little piece of dried skin that is on someone’s forehead and has a view of the world like Hilda riding a giant. It is then covered by a hat, then falls off, is on the floor, is vacuumed up, and ends up turning to dirt in a landfill. Had lights off at 7:55 and I sang a couple songs and he was out by 8:05.

Squished with the pillows:

Looking at a book:

Being Brother and Sister and hiding:

Frog butt song: