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He got up at 6:40. Carly was still here but I met him on the stairs. He gave me a “You? Again?” Which was at least better than yesterday. They cuddled on th couch and she did more of the massage/pressure she’s been trying with him. She headed to work just before 7. He watched something on YouTube (Berenstain Bears, I think it was), then had oatmeal. He didn’t eat much, and I’m thinking he might be getting tired of it. We then read part of Hilda and the Black Hound before he got down to take apart more of the calculator. He said that he would give the parts that he is collecting in bags to Andrea to use at preschool.

I went up for my shower. He watched Shaun the Sheep. He yelled up in the middle, as he had run out of time. When I came down he finished that episode, then had us do an imagining game where I was relaxing in a blowup pool and he was a porcupine with a blue belt who calmed and popped my pool. Clearly must have come from the show.

He dressed himself entirely again. Pants on backwards again, and he needed help getting the shirt in the right shape, but we’re making progress. He then had another imagining game, of a girl who had boogers over her stomach, dried lips and legs, and never drinks water or ate fruit with water in it dehydrated. This was based on a Story Pirates story we heard. I turned it into a story where her family went to a lotion factory for a tour and she fell ina vat of lotion.

We left, and parked down by Tiv Taam at 10:40. He told me that, “When you’re sleeping…I’m in a nighttime event…treats, flowers, people dancing to electronic music…but to get into the event you need the ticket…I set up the event.” We went into Tiv Taam and got ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies. He’s in a strong “I want that” mode, but we did pretty well working through the different shops we went through. We did decide to not go to the Apple store (I wanted to get another high speed charger) because he remembered the drones and when I asked if he could just look t them he knew he’d get upset. In Tiv Taam I let him get a big chocolate egg as long as it was a Valentine’s present for Carly.

We went back to the car, and I spotted the new Max store, that Heather had told me about, up the street. We then walked up there to get cookie cutters, which he’s been wanting for cookies and playdough. Another tough store. He had fun looking at and pretending to fight the superhero costumes, then really wanted things like a kitchen timer that ticks. We got out with just the cookie cutters and no tears.

From there we drove up to Ace and parked up on the roof for the first time. We found a screwdriver set with the star bits that we need, and got out even though he wanted saws, a sander, a drill. As I waited for the slow checkout line, he saw the drinks cooler and wanted a flavored water. Since he’d done so well I let him choose one.

Out in the car we tried that, then he requested “The Robots” in the car. And then fell asleep. Apparently that’s his sleepy song. He fell asleep at 12:10 and we were home about 12:25. At the house though our neighbor talked to me about a friend who is trying to rent out a house and she was wondering if I could share it with the school community. We also exchanged phone numbers. Took quite some time though and August kept sleeping in the car.

I finally carried him in and he lay on the couch and fell back to sleep. He really seemed to need the sleep as I couldn’t wake him up. He woke up enough once to blow a little raspberry at me and went back to sleep. I got ingredients ready for cookies and made a salmon sandwich, then woke him up by pulling him on my lap and starting the second episode of Hilda. He slowly woke up, around 1:20.

When that was over we went and made cookies. He wanted half of them white and half milk chocolate, so we divided the batch before adding chocolate chips. We got those baking, then he went and started taking apart more of the printer with the new bit. He ate an okay amount of his sandwich, then chose the biggest white chocolate chip cookie to eat. He told me, “Dada, sometimes I drink ankethol in my laboratory…Oh, And sneakily I put ankethol in the cookies.” He went back to the printer and realized he could undo a bunch of screws that had been under the buttons of the printer. He then made a connection to the calculator, which had also had a lot of screws securing the board holding the keys, and remembered my hypothesis that it was because all the pressure would crack the board if it was only held on in a couple places.

We got ready to go, taking a container of cookies, and left in the car at 3. As we walked down to his meeting with Vicky, Andrea, and Marion, he said something negative and I taught him the word ‘pessimistic’ as the word of the day.

The meeting went really well though. He and I were the first ones in there, and he showed me the container of candies that is the treats for when the adults have meetings. Vicky was the first in and he sat under the table and told her everything about making the cookies. The teachers came in, and he sat next to me, before switching by crawling under the table to Carly, as Vicky had him draw himself, then did a big thought bubble in which we listed his ideas on how to use his words, hands, and feet in good ways. One of the things he said for hands was “to do useful things.” Basically, after that Vicky then introduced the daily sticker chart. we list the day’s treat at the bottom, and he gets green stickers for using his words, hands, and feet for the positive reasons, and red for negative. As long as he gets less than two red in a day he gets the treat. Also, he’ll have a half day tomorrow, then on Friday (the whole school does), then we’ll plan for a full day on Wednesday (there’s no school on Monday/Tuesday).

I dropped them off at home, then drove to meet with Dr. Aviv. This was…less effective. Basically, I had thought we would talk about emotional development and strategies of a gifted child, how to identify stressors before they turned into fits, etc. But it was all about setting boundaries as parents and literally how we need to not engage with him when he has a bad day at school. There was more, but not much productive. It didn’t hurt to reflect on our own parenting, and how there may have been signs we could have caught sooner (when he started hitting at home over winter break, we could have communicated with the school in advance to let him know his behavior had changed), but that literally could have been the first 10 minutes as good parenting reminders and we could have gotten into the specialty stuff after that. Ugh.

While I was gone they did some wrestling and he had oatmeal. I think they also did some reading, and Carly talked to him about using the term ‘dizzy’ for when he starts to feel stressed out. That’s from the Emotional Intensity in Students book that I found and that we’re both reading.

I got home at 6:30. We spent more time taking apart the printer together. He had me do the ‘The girl who was afraid of water’, another variation of the Story Pirates story I mentioned earlier. read the Elephant and Pig book We’re in a Book!, then he read A Big Guy Took My Ball. We then read the poetry book about inventions that I checked out (Here’s What You Do When You Can’t Find Your Shoe).

I took him up and gave him a bath. He set up a soap factory in our house and explained to me how it works. I brushed his teeth and Carly came in. I left them at 8:55. I was afraid he was going to have difficulty going to sleep given his long nap, but it sounded like it didn’t take too long.

He told me today that Carly could do the massage/pressure thing on him to make him feel better, but that my way of making him feel better is telling jokes.

Talking to the superhero costumes:

Spatula and yummy noises:

Working on the printer:

Humming Hey Man:

Telling Ms. Vicky about the cookies:

Our soap factory:

He was up at 6:50. I went up to greet him. He wasn’t happy that mama was gone and told me as such. He took a few minutes on the couch before he felt better. He asked for his iPad and watched a couple videos of Lego marble machines and one Berenstain Bears. We then had oatmeal and mango for breakfast. He then wanted presents and I wrapped his little broom. He liked that one, and really thanked me for it. He wanted another, so I wrapped a shell, a highlighter, and a few q-tips. His response was quite different this time though. He called it the worst present ever. But then proceeded to color his hand with the highlighter.

We read a little of The Witches, then he played a little with a new space app from PBS. Didn’t hold his attention for long though and he switched to the Berenstain Bears. He requested hot chocolate, so I said he could have some if he’d then read me a book. He agree.

He went to the bathroom, and told me of a scary machine he has: “Do you know that I have in my laboratory a machine that can cut a person in two pieces, fix them, then put them back together and they’d still be alive?” “It puts anesthesia in you and you can have fun cutting people apart” “remember the giant tanks you see attached to Ikea? That’s how big the tanks of anesthesia are.” “You could have a little fun with it, maybe. Well, I could.” “It even allows you turn the person into another type of human…someone with powers like me…I’m a robot and I can feel, learn, think…’

He had me show him the back of the toilet and asked if you could drink the toilet water in back. He then got the Brita filter pitcher and gave me a long explanation of how it works, but continued on to describe a machine with it that cleaned the water from the back of the toilet and made it so you could drink the water straight from the pitcher. Thankfully, he didn’t want to actually run water from the toilet through it.

I got him to dress himself. He’s generally been doing his own underwear and pants, but not his shirt (although he’ll do the arms). He was resistant to the idea, but when I got it into a circle for him he got excited and put it on himself. Just need to practice so he can do the circle part himself now.

We compared the speakers, as he’s been wanting to do. We hooked up our old set next to the Apple speaker and played music through each. He could tell that the Apple speaker is louder. We then got back to trying to read, and he said he had lied to me and wasn’t going to read. We went up for a timeout, but he agreed quickly, and then downstairs he read all of I Broke My Trunk! to me. He then watched a Shaun the Sheep and I took a shower.

I surprised him with a printer I found when I was out for a walk last night. “Thank you, dada. I love it…When you found it, did you think I would love it?” We started taking apart the printer, then paused for lunch. I made a salmon sandwich and we also shared the leftover eggs and cheese and tofu from their trip to Aroma on Sunday. As we ate he said, “I think grampa would prefer working with wood pieces…cuz he’s kind of a wood person. AND also he’d have to buy a lot of electronic tools.”

We went back to the printer. Of the flat plastic pieces with wire in them he said, “It’s wire tape…I learned about it at robot school…kinda boring. You shouldn’t go to robot school. Seriously. Do you believe me? Uck. It’s so stupid. I wished I never goed to it.” Unfortunately, we were using an Allen wrench to unscrew the star-shaped screws. It just barely worked, and about halfway into the printer it got just dull enough to stop working. He handled it well, and we talked about trying to buy the correct screwdriver later.

He remembered wanting to get a coconut, and I told him about drinking right out of a coconut in Indonesia. I explained that they had chopped the coconuts open and we drank right out of them. He was shocked: “No doubt!?” “Was your lips on it…was it rough?” He has this idea that coconut water should be stored in cans, as opposed to bottles, etc. and he said we could use a metal can to store it in when we get it out. It said we couldn’t, to which he responded: “But seriously, we have cans…you were wrong.”

At some point he talked about recycling paper, and we watched a video on how to do it. A video about restoring a rusty knife then came up, and we watched part of that (https://youtu.be/hS9PA6SuyyU). August kept pointing at the tools he was using and saying we should buy that. When I balked at committing to buy things like a lathe he got upset and we stopped watching the video, although we were able to finish it later.

We got ready to go, finally, and he put the long pink wire in the drill and was playing with it. We finally got walking at 1:30. A slow walk into town as he kept stopping (a broom/branch-looking thing, etc.) and dragging his feet. We went to the bulk foods store. He chose a coconut and also asked to get the toppings for his cake. He chose small pink balls and pink stars. The coconut was only 2 dollars.

We then went to the hardware store. Didn’t find the screwdriver/drill bit we needed. But he had fun looking at everything, and kept asking “What’s this?” He was disappointed that I wouldn’t let him buy anything. He wanted a new drill or a hot glue gun or something. He got over that and we were able to head on to toe school. Along the way I found a big calculator that we could take apart. He was excited by that. He then saw a piece of metal embedded in the dirt and got off to investigate. It turned out to be a good one. It was the metal part of an old hoe. August almost immediately said we could soak it in vinegar to get rid of the rust, which is what the guy did with the knife.

We got to school and went down to his classroom. They were at the library. No hat in his cubby. Hoping we can be reunited with that soon, as he walks around holding his hair back a lot. We went to the playground where he played on a scooter thing until PKB was done and we got Taya. On the playground they sat on the big swing a lot together and basically stared at each other and giggled. We got some snacks out and Taya had our Cheerios. August spotted an interesting beetle on top of the car and we looked at that. They went over and did some cooking in the kitchen, using some greens from the garden, until I said they’d taken enough from the garden.

Back at the car the beetle had moved, and we found it climbing down the car. We followed it across the ground, and eventually August and I got it on a big stick and he took it over and released it on the tree. Taya had disappeared and I found her in her classroom, getting her water bottle. We went back and saw it crawl up the tree, and August named it “Zorkinflox”.

We then all headed to the library. August and Taya found the little tent in the kids area, a new thing, and played in it. They got books to look at, but mainly pretended they were escaping the rain. The entrance wouldn’t really stay closed, so August went and got two pieces of tape and they worked for a long time to try to close it better. Cassie came about 4:15 and gave them each a fruit snack. We headed out so they could eat them. Taya checked out her books, and we went out in the lobby and they ate those. They left, and we went back in the library.

Carly had walked home, and August wanted to keep playing. He went and got the big ship, then spent a long time taking apart these colorful blocks things and putting them in the ship. Then disaster, as he went to take down the big box of them and it tipped towards him and spilled everywhere. He didn’t want to clean up at first (too big of a mess) but I did some, and he got into the rest of it. That took us to 5, then we went and checked out our books: Berenstain Bears and the Prize Pumpkin, two Elephant and Piggies (A Big Guy Took My Ball and We Are in a Book!), a poetry book about inventions called Here’s What You Do When You Can’t Find Your Shoe, Hilda and the Black Hound, and a picture book called King of the Sky that I found that looked interesting.

We went back down to the preschool playground to retrieve the Cheerios container that Taya had had. As we went down the stairs we saw Andrea coming up. She said hi, and that she would see us tomorrow. August didn’t really know about the meeting tomorrow, and replied with, “See you NEVER. Cuz I’m NEVER going to school.” But as we found the container and got walking home I talked about the plan, and he was quite open to going back half days. He sang a nice tune on the way home and we got here at 5:45

He showed Carly everything we had bought and found and done today. We then went in the kitchen and tried sawing the coconut open. That didn’t work too well, so we switched to the drill. We did 4 holes and got the water all drained out. August tried it with his finger and said it tasted bad. Carly and I both tasted it and it had definitely gone bad. Seemed fermented. August handled the disappointment quite well, and we had had fun opening it.

We went and took part the calculator. He then FaceTimed with Vivian and Colin for quite awhile, showing them what he was doing. Colin asked for the tractor and I brought it from upstairs to show him. He very excitedly told them about how he was taking things apart. He hung up the calculator’s printer ribbon, closing off the kitchen. He told me, “Sorry, it’s really hot, but the pool’s still closed.”

We went back to the calculator. Carly took him upstairs for a bath, and I FaceTimed with Peter, who is on snow day #4 in Edmonds. August came down and I went upstairs with him and we read The Boy with a Problem. He asked me to tell him a story from when I was a kid about school, and I told him about Lisa who was a frenemy in 1st grade (like him and Simone).

We had the lights out at 9:15. He was stuffy and took awhile to go to sleep. Asked me a couple questions along the way, and right before he went to sleep he asked if I still had the batteries in my pocket from the library and he wanted me to take them out. He was falling asleep but at 9:30 had a big coughing fit. Took a few more minutes after that for him to fully fall asleep.

Broom present:

Paperclip and drill:

Taking apart the printer:

Plate slo-mo:

Drill and wire slo-mo:

Drill and wire generator:

The interesting insect:

Cooking with Taya:

With Taya in the swing 1:

With Taya in the swing 2:

Rhythmic tune on the way home:

He was quite cuddly during the night, putting his arm over me a few times. He sat up once during the night and I got him to lie back down with his head on a pillow as he was stuffy. He came down at 6:40 and got comfy on the couch. He hadn’t seen Carly upstairs, so when she came down a couple minutes later he was quite happy.

She headed to work. He finished watching a Wild Kratts episode about racing a cheetah and I made oatmeal and we ate together at the table. We read a little of The Witches, but then Carly called. She had left her tights. So he and I got them and drove them to her. We pulled up outside the school and he opened his window and handed them to her. As she walked away he called out, “I love you, Mama!”

Back at home he wanted to watch a Shaun the Sheep. Lots of laughing, and coughing, as he did that. He got demanding after that, then we read The Witches for awhile, then he got demanding again. But then we came up with a plan for the day and things went smoothly after that. He watched Shaun the Sheep once more and I took a shower. We were then getting ready to go, and I went up to get a few books we might read together. He came up, found the Little Golden Book version of The Sorcerer’s Appretnice and sat on my lap and had me read it to him twice.

I realized he hadn’t gone to the bathroom yet and it was 10:30. I expressed my amazement and he said, in his superhero voice, “Super bladder!” He went to the bathroom and we got going. He asked, “Why do people make things out of glass?” Specifically, he was asking because glass breaks easily. We talked about different things made out of glass, and practical versus aesthetic reasons. When I was trying to explain that some people prefer the feel of glass for drinking out of over a plastic cup, he understood, and said he preferred cups made out of pottery, and that that is breakable too.

We left at 10:50. In the car he told me that we could cut the strings he had tied around his seat off sometime. And he explained the wires he had wrapped around the headrest posts: “They’re for the grown-up safety system.”

We listened to music on the way to Herzliya Park. We parked at the south end and walked straight to the fish pond. We put some water in the bug catcher, and tried to catch a fish with the net. Unfortunately, the fish were acting different, and swimming away from us today. I gave it a try, and after a few minutes was lucky and caught one. He took it out of the net and held it, then put it in the bug catcher. We examined it for a few minutes. I remembered the Wild Kratts and how one of the brothers is always naming the animals they meet. I asked which one it was, and August said he thought it was Chris. He then named the fish after him, so it was Chris the Fish. August suggested at one point that we could take the fish home, but I explained why we couldn’t and he accepted that. He returned Chris to the water and we headed back to the car.

Before we had gone to the park he had seen the first aid kit in the trunk. He now said, “I want to wear a bandaid for fun.” Notable because he used to hate the idea of them. He put it on his forehead, then switched it to his hand. Eventually it ended up on my hand. We left at 12:10.

We drove over to a pizza place called Garlic Pizza. Had to park a ways away and walked to it. He was examining car sizes again today, comparing everything to Skoda Mama. He told me he has an SUV for his laboratory car. Later in the day it would change to a van, because he said that was even bigger.

August got a slice of cheese and I got mushroom. We sat inside at August’s request, although it was warm enough to sit outside. He got a can of mango juice and used his Final Straw. After we ate, he sat on my lap and I read Mike the Knight: The Tricky Trail, then we traded pages reading Biscuit Goes Camping. I then tried with I Really Like Slop! but he wouldn’t go for that. I knew we were listening to. New York radio station, and I asked the guy what it was. It was the Gaylord Fields show on WFMU.

We paid, and right outside the pizza shop August found a huge snail crawling across the ground. We examined it, and had it crawl on a leaf. August picked it up, and eventually let it free over on a bush.

We walked back to the car and headed over to a park. Couldn’t park near it, so we continued on. August had been arguing for ice cream before his doctor’s appointment and so I decided we had just enough time for that. We parked in a lot and walked to Glidha (literally Hebrew for ‘ice cream’). She gave August tastes of a couple of flavors, and he got a small cup of a flavor called Hershey’s. He shared it with me, then we walked to the International Clinic to check in. Then we walked back to Dr. Hurwitz’s office.

The appointment was at 2:30. We were a few minutes late, and the doctor was a few minutes later. August did really well and was very patient. Pretty good, as it took awhile. The doctor took a long time asking me basic questions again. Clearly he didn’t remember us, which is fine, but then when we got to talking about August’s vaccinations I showed him the vaccination record, signed by him, and he was shocked. He thought August was a new patient, and had been creating a new file for August. Apparently this was a big hassle to undo. He had put August in under ‘Althauser’ this time, but had been under ‘Niman’ the first time. August answered all the questions he asked, and drew shapes and a picture of a person for him. August weighs 16.4 kg (19%), and is 107.5 cm tall (40%). August handled the physical exam quite well despite being very ticklish. I didn’t have to hold him or help at all. He got a little concerned when the doctor checked his abdomen and penis, but August told me later it was because he thought the doctor was going to give him a shot.

No shots right now. I need to figure out if August got 3 HepB shots (only two are listed in the vaccination book from Korea—but he probably had the first one at Yeon and Nature). Otherwise, I learned that they give the third chicken pox and MMR shot in 1st grade here, and DTaP in second, and it is through the schools and he thinks the American school is participating in that now. He agreed though that we should get the MMR booster before going to the states, since there is the outbreak in Washington, but right now there is a shortage of the MMR booster in Israel. He said to wait three months and see if the supply had improved. Otherwise, we can still do it, but need to order it and get it from a different pharmacy and bring it to him.

As we left, another couple went in with a baby. August and I went to use the bathroom on the floor and it was locked. We looked around the rest of the building, no luck. So we walked back to the international clinic and used the bathroom there. August called it the fancy bathroom, and he looked at the wooden boat and bag of shells they had in it.

We got driving home, and he asked for the Kraftwerk song, “The Robots”. And then fell asleep at 3:50. We were home at 3:10, but he was really asleep. I carried him in and he continued to sleep on the couch. I finally started watching the first episode of Hilda on Netflix and pulled him on my lap and he woke up about 4:20 and watched it with me. It had been too scary for him when we first tried it (she is chased by a troll at the beginning) but we have since read the books and they aren’t scary and he was fine with it now.

Carly was home a little before 5. They went up and wrestled. He came down and ate soup, then played some Dragonbox Big Numbers. I went up to do some work. They made popcorn and he ended up with a timeout over it for some reason. After that I did his bath and washed his hair. He handled it well, although not quite as enthusiastically as last time.

We went in on the bed, and ‘hub’ became the word of the days after asked if a big airport is bigger than a forest. He described a big airport as one where you transfer like when you’re going from Europe to South America. So I taught him the word ‘hub’ and how it is like a wheel. He told me how he has an airport bigger than the Amazon and it has launchers that launch airplanes with air, like the things that blow balls up in the air in science centers. Carly came in and I left them right about 9.

Catching weeds:

Examining Chris the Fish:

Chris the Fish:

Returning Chris the Fish to the pond:

Big snail 1:

Big snail 2:

At the doctor:

He got up at 6:50 and told me to keep sleeping as he left the room. Downstairs they read some Pippi and he used the food processor to figure out how to use the other kind of blades and shredded up a hot dog. When I came down Carly was making Swedish pancakes and he called me Mr. Grumpyface and tried to convince me to try the hot dog. He gave us a long explanation about air pressure pushing something from a balloon and through a straw into an empty glass.

He ate his swedish pancakes, then watched some Wild Kratts. He finished an episode and then went out to Carly. They decided to go on a walk and Carly went up to get ready. The power went out right at 9. I figured it out when I started asking Siri to play some music and she wasn’t responding, and simultaneously August went to turn on the bathroom light and it didn’t work. I texted Mikaela to let her know the power was out. She and I had both heard a loud sound right before we realized the power was out.

I noticed a bruise on his knee. He told me he had made bruise paint in his lab, and also made permanent bruise paint. I told him I didn’t think there would be much of a market for that. They left for a walk at 9:10. But were back after just a minute. They had taken his bug catcher, but when she said they could take turns carrying it he hit because he didn’t want to. She took him up for a timeout. Eventually, they ended up going for a walk around the neighborhood without the bike. They came back, then headed out with the bike, headed for a coffee shop at the mall.

I typed and worked for awhile (and chatted with Mikaela and Derek, back in Korea), but with batteries running down and not knowing how long it would be, I decided to go out for a walk at 11:10 and find them. I first walked over to the transformer equipment that August and I had just looked at yesterday. Nothing obviously wrong, but there was a layer of fresh dirt put down on the sidewalk and street under it. I don’t know what the connection would be, but it was new.

I then walked over to the mall and met up with them as they were leaving Aroma. They had gotten an egg and mushroom dish. He’d eaten a good amount of that and also had a pastry treat. They had read some Pippi Longstocking. August spotted the playground and we went there for a few minutes. He stood on the plane and explained a big long scenario that I didn’t catch. He had me pilot the plane and repeated it. Basically, I was piloting a plane and realized there was a boy/robot on the wing. I was making announcements to the passengers as I tried to get him off the wing. He weighed more and more until I had to do an emergency landing.

He wanted to keep playing, but Carly pointed out it was supposed to start raining. We walked back, and it started raining right as we got back to the house. We went in and he wanted his pants changed, although there were only a few drops. Carly figured out how to call the power company and did that. Meanwhile, the rain had slowed and I heard a gate, so I went out to try to find someone on our street to see if their power was out. When I failed to find someone and came back August hit me or said something and I took him up for a timeout.

As we were sitting and talking after the timeout, Carly told us the company said the power would be on at 2:40 (an oddly precise time estimate). August was stressed out about the power being off and started crying. Took him downstairs to calm him. He figured he could watch some Sarah and Duck on his iPad since it was downloaded

Carly left a little before 12:30 to go to work and do some work and grading. She spent a lot of time on the phone, calling the occupational therapist and speech therapist that Vicky referred us to, and also setting up a doctor’s appointment for tomorrow. He’s almost 5, so might as well get the annual checkup and vaccinations out of the way while we have the time.

He gave me an earring he had made from 3 treasures and glued together. I think Carly helped him with it. I wore it as we went upstairs to have a pillow fight. He told me I should take it off, and he put it on the counter while we played. We had a pillow fight, then played more brother and sister game. He then came up with a prank or experiment we would do, making a metal box and bolting it to a wall and putting a sign on it that says ‘fire danger’. We would “Sneakily put a tube in there with a toxic flame…” and install video cameras and watch fron another house that had monitors in it. Wasn’t clear what was supposed to happen, but he acted that part out.

We went downstairs and shared a bar. He said since we don’t have parents “do you know what that means?” We could buy whatever we wanted. To him that meant, “Drill and drill bits…fishing pole, net…”

We read some of The Witches, then he found a 3 color ball point pen and played with it, then quickly took it apart to figure it out. Carly called me about the appointments. We were then brother and sister again. We played catch with one of the paper mache balls, then he wanted to play with Cubetto. We used the magnet blocks to make a house for Cubetto, then he closed it up and had Cubetto pushing it around. He was frustrated when it fell down.

We went back up to play on the bed, then came down for crackers. He gave a long monologue as a plane captain about having to make an emergency landing (basically what I had said earlier, I think) and I complimented him on his monologue. ‘Monologue’ was the word of the day. He sang a song that went, “mama is the best thing in the world. Better than you, better than Oma, better than anyone in the world, better than anything in the world.”

He wanted to go to town and buy a net for catching fish. As we got ready, the power came back on right at 3. Outside, he was trying to scratch paint off the book shelves. He said, “Me and the clouds working together as a team…” We were walking at 3:20. We saw Mikaela walking home and he told her we were going to buy a net. As we kept walking he said she sounds like Ms. Ilana. Not entirely obvious to me.

Straight walk into town and right to the little pet store. The woman helped us and he had about 5 sizes to choose from. Chose the second smallest. He played with it as we headed back out and went over to the bank. The ATMs were working and we got cash. We started to walk home and got as far as across the street and suddenly it started pouring. I pointed us to the covered area outside the old Sushi Ishimoto location (it has moved into the new mall) and we sheltered from the rain for a few minutes and put on raincoats. It lightened, and I used the umbrella for a couple minutes as we got going.

It stopped, and he played with the net in the water from the gutters at the older mall. Closer to home he spotted a big SUV and decided that’s what he wants. He told me, “I just love big cars.” He also learned ‘SUV’.

At home we had hot chocolate and were drinking that when Carly got home at 4:45. They cuddled, then I went up with him to wrestle and she started making the bean soup. We did lots of superhero battling. He was Brainiac and Hilo and I was Super Dada. We went downstairs and Carly FaceTimed with Cherie and Chuck, and we read I Broke My Trunk, then Hilda and the Stone Forest. We first looked at the end, the started it again.

Carly came down and they played Dragonbox Big Numbers on the couch. Did a great job stopping it and putting it away when he was done with a math problem. He told us, “Don’t be proud of me.” We had soup for dinner. He took his under the table to eat, but then rejected it and looked kind of guilty when he told me he wasn’t hungry.

He was scaring us, mainly Carly, from where he hid under the table. Did that too many times then got him on to something else. Carly tasted his soup and realized it tasted funny from being in the freezer to cool down. She got him some fresh to try, but he didn’t at first. We played on the couch. I was as moving his hands faster than light and exploding etc. Carly then took him up for a bath. He said, “First let’s do the bathroom action thing we invented…” I’m not sure what that is, but there was a lot of laughing. She then washed him, and I took over.

We wrestled and then read The Witches. In it, it talks about the boy’s parents having a will. After we finished reading he asked, “Did you make one of those things?” He seemed happy to know I had, but didn’t ask more. I told him that Opa helped us though.

We went downstairs. He tried the soup and liked it now, so I gave him a bigger bowl. He ate that, then I let him have one of his quiche cookies. We went back upstairs with a few Cheerios as a final snack. He talked about how the glue didn’t work on the earring as it was coming apart: “So I’ll just solder it together.” Except when he says it it sounds like ‘saldred’ He also talked about the speakers he had seen in a box that Carly was looking in. They are the speakers we had in Korea, but haven’t used here. He said they were really loud, and he had paid 2 billion dollars for them. If they get broken it takes 90 weeks to fix them.

He said good night to Carly, then we did the raining school visualization that he requested and had lights off at 9:15. He was snoring about 9:30.

Explaining the toxic flame experiment:

Cubetto in a house:

Playing with the new net:

Scaring us:

We all slept in this morning. Sometime before 7:30 he got up enough to come and climb on me, pressing his head against mine. He fell back asleep and rolled away from me. At 7:40 we both got up. Downstairs he cuddled with Carly, then she read him Pippi Longstockings. Much more successfully this time. He said, “I’m a thing-seeker.” He watched some Wild Kratts, then wanted to make more quiche cookies. He made them triangular this time, with tops on them.

We read Hilda and the Troll. As we talked about the map in the front I said that was where it ‘takes place.’ He said, “Takes place. I learned that from Ms. Vicky…like the book Stick Man takes place in a forest.” We read the book and took out the cookies. We then read Hilda and the Stone Forest. He got upset when I said I couldn’t do something and had a timeout. I took a shower and he had some food with Carly. He cookie once he agreed to clean up the broccoli he had made a mess of on the table.

I went up to work for a couple hours. Catching up on Sabeel work and also made progress on the website today. They did paper mache outside, making a couple balls, and made slime from the leftover mixture. He shredded a carrot all on his own. I came down at 2:30 and they were outside. He came and showed me a praying mantis that Carly had found and put in his bug catcher. He told me all about it: “It has a triangular head…” He told me about the big odd spider by the door as well.

After awhile I got him out on a walk. We went up and did recycling first. Lots of random stuff (a heater, toaster oven, bucket with dried stuff in it) by the garbage area that he got to inspect. Also, it was our first time using the new container, where you can recycle milk cartons, metal cans, and other plastics.

It was threatening to rain on and off. We dropped off the recycling bags and continued on over to the park where he’s blasted monsters in the past. We sat on the merry-go-round and he tried the blueberry bite things. Those were a disappointment, but we had other snacks. Spun him on that for a bit, then he wanted to do the running barrel thing: “Let’s do this, grumpy dada.” He likes me to tell him where to walk to, then to act grumpy when we don’t go anywhere. We played around for a bit longer, then it started to lightly rain. We got walking home at 5:15. Stopped along the way to look up at the electrical lines and the equipment up a pole. I used the word ‘regulate’ and that was the word of the day.

At home they went upstairs to wrestle, then came down and read more of _Pippi Longstockings _. They had some apple and peanut butter, and I was working on the website.

We left for school about 6:50. August asked, “Can we get a big big car when we move to another country?” Earlier he had seen a big car and said he wanted one like it. It was an arts night produced by high school students that was titled, The Mad Project. It was a fundraiser for an organization (Yeladim) that helps children in the foster system.

We got there at 7, when it was schedule to start, but it was Israeli time, so doors didn’t open for another 20 minutes. He got an ice cream cone with cake in it, and we talked to Heather and Mikaela. He had worn his light-up shoes and was stomping around in the dark outside. Mikaela talked to him about his shoes, asking if the dogs had names. He doesn’t know there names (or that they’re from a show). When she asked if he liked dogs he said no, but he thinks that Bibo (I think it was) at school “Is the kind of person that likes dogs.”

We went in and looked at the student art in the silent auction. August liked the geometric pictures, and there was a piece made of small toys glued together and painted black that I considered for the office. We looked at the photography for awhile, then they opened the doors and we went in. We sat near the back. August did great through it, although he was making his shoes flash sometimes. But mainly it worked to have him do that as his clapping between acts. Extremely talented students (the singing, in particular, is a nice improvement). August asked me to look up one song that played, during a solo dance piece, so we could listen to it later. It was “Youth” by Troy Sivan. Other highlights were the first duet (‘Best Part”), the acapella group, and the Michael Jackson drums/bass/piano thing at the end.

We left during the speech from the CEO of the organization at the end. Outside, August asked why there were lights in the ground. I said maybe because they were pretty. He gave me an “Oh, Dada” for that.

At home he had oatmeal. Then he kept saying, “Hey, grumpy face”. We listened to “The Robots” and I got him ready for bed. On the bed he sat on me and did an imagining game where he was making me pee. His pressure was my kryptonite. I was Super Dada.

Carly came in and I left them at 9:30.

Watching the hail:

Telling me about the spider:

Art night:

He was up just before 6:30. Cuddled with Carly, had oatmeal, then watched Shaun the Sheep. Didn’t watch a lot, then wanted to thaw quiche dough and make the little cookies. He told me, “Did you know that hard plastic has a higher melting point that this plastic that moves around (bags)? I discovered it in my laboratory. I put it in a plastic testing machine.” He remembered the Keebler crackers so we tried those and we thawed some quiche dough and he made his tiny chocolate chip cookies. We continued listening to Ian McCullough albums.

We read Fox in Sox. Then he remembered the pate and we tried that on the new crackers. He liked that and was making lots of yummy noises. His cookies were done, and he ate a few. He initially wanted to give one to Carly, but they were too tempting through the day and he ended up eat them all. He then asked what moles on your skin are. I read an article about them to him, then he did a good job of explaining moles to me and how they get darker over time, like the one on my forehead. He then told me that hair doesn’t have nerves: “Only eyelash hairs and the hairs that are there (eyelashes) have nerves.”

For school time we worked on cutting curvy shapes with scissors, which is hard for him. Then we were writing out letters and funny phrases. He would write one or two random letters, then I would make a word out of it and he’d read the word. We’d make funny phrases that way. We did some GarageBand. He’s getting into the idea of a rhythm, and when I was playing a drum pattern on my iPd he was doing his keyboard improv to the rhythm.

We watched the latest Marble Machine video (which used the metaphor of slaying a dragon) and then looked up how elephant poop is made into paper. We found this good video on the process:

. He wanted me to drink the seed mixture he’s had in the tube up in the bathroom for a few days. It smelled odd, and he said we forgot to wash soap out of the lid. He agreed I didn’t have to try it if there was soap in it.

I found a bag upstairs that had some seriously moldy oranges in it and we took some photos and got rid of that. Outside he found a green tree thing and told me how the sap was “a super slow process.” There was sap around the base of it, and he claimed the sap came from the green parts and went back to the tree. Rather backwards there, but cool how he was inspecting it and trying to explain it.

He was going on about a sidewalk sealant he says he has and said it was permanent, but then he said “Well, but nothing’s really permanent…” But then he decided that ink on paper was, but then he invented something that would suck ink out of paper. He discovered a planet that has everything for life “in a megatelescope.”

A slightly rough spot when we were discussing celebrating something and he said he had had a celebration for hurting Marion. So a timeout and discussion for that. We exercised, then got ready to go. He wanted to try the other kind of ‘string’ cheese (think it translates as ‘valley cheese’ as opposed to mozzarella). But it isn’t stringy, and he didn’t like it. I offered to eat it for him and he could get another one, but he said he’d already started it and should eat it. Which was pretty amazing.

We left at 12:15. We were listening to his playlist, some of the newer songs he has added, and he fell asleep for a 10 minute nap at the end.

At the park we got the bike out and started walking. He directed us over by the playground and towards the food stand. He pointed to it, and I reminded him we weren’t getting a smoothie. We had talked about it at home. He accepted this quite well, so after we had eaten some lunch I decided we could get a smoothie. We went and ordered the ‘orange’, which was supposed to have strawberry and mango. The one we ended up with clearly only had strawberry. And not too sweet, but it was nice and creamy. He wasn’t too excited by it. He wasn’t too happy with the guy, but again handled his disappointment well.

While we had been waiting for the smoothie, he had looked in the ice cream freezers and seen the cone-shaped ice cream treats. I suggested he could convince Mama to come back here sometime for ice cream. He said the only time he has had ice cream like that was “when we went to the beach with Gramma and Grampa.” I also told him of a time, I think, when he was a baby when Carly got one like that (or something similar) in Olympic Park in Korea, but she probably hid it from him. He was okay with that as he had been a baby.

We rode his bike up the big play structure, halfway. He then climbed down the climbing ramp and said I could go down a different way and meet him. He was okay for the minute it took me to go around with the bike. He was then climbing on the rope structures, and asked a lot of questions about their metal parts and how they were anchored in the ground. Carly called and we talked about books from the library, as she was checking some books out for us.

I got a couple rounds of Hebrew in, then he wanted to move to the little kids area. He did this by climbing over the short fences to get there. Something new for him. He ran around, going down the hills in curves, and asked why he didn’t fall over like when he was on the bike. I explained center of gravity and pointed out how you naturally lean into a turn, and how you could do that on a bike as well. He ran around some more, then was the captain of a ship and truck that would drop me off where I didn’t want to go, like in the middle of the ocean. When I said that was too mean we switched to the brother and sister game. Slightly better, although he’s altered it to where we intentionally had a pillow fight to destroy our house, then we ran away, and he called our parents and they yelled at us for destroying the house. A rather interesting storyline he’s developed that doesn’t really relate to anything he’s read or seen, as far as I can tell. He was also using phrases like, “In good news…” and “Unfortunately…”

We started on a walk, and stopped at the little free library. He let me get a couple of Roald Dahl books (Glass Elevator and Maltilda), Freckle Juice by Judy Blume, and a book called Incognito Mosquito Takes to the Air. We walked to the south end of the park, using the western path. He headed for the sand area and played there, mainly with the conveyor belt. A girl found a big caterpillar and called it a snake in Hebrew. Her dad came over and told her it was a caterpillar. I understood both of those. August played with it, and I eventually had to talk to him and make him stop bothering it. We put it at the base of a tree, and later it was gone, one way or another.

He kept playing with the conveyor belt, and with a couple of girls made a big mountain of sand with it. We went to the bathroom and had some snack and he wandered over to the big play structure at that end, which he’s never actually played on. He explained how he enslaved caterpillars using machines he places on them, and they go around pooping to fertilize trees. He, all on his own, started trying to justify how what he was doing was okay (I think because he thought it was a good cause) compared to Zach on Wild Kratts who puts machines on animals to control them just for his own gain. He ate the last of the cheese cracker sandwiches, then commented on the playground: “So people put a lot of work into this.” Back at the sand area, he stood on a platform thing and said, “Today’s book group meeting: What do you know about frogs?” It was then a competition, with me playing both people. One knew all about frogs, the other said funnily inaccurate things.

He would have stayed at the park until after dark, but finally I got him going. Sort of. We walked up along the path area and stopped at the fish. Spent another 20 or 30 minutes here. He put his hand in the water and found out that the fish come up and tickle you, like the ones that eat the dead skin on your hand in the aquarium in Seoul. He managed to catch two fish with his bare hand. The second one he had out of the water for a few seconds and it jumped out of his hand when he was trying to have me take a photo of it.

Finally got him away from there. He went and scared a flock of parakeets, then we walked north along the east side of the park. He was talking about speaking through multiple megaphones to make it really, really loud. He wanted to tell people to catch fish. He wanted to stop at exercise equipment and play. We did stop at a plastic recycling bin, as he wanted to get a bottle to take home for something. He was indecisive, but ended with a Coca-Cola bottle, thinking it would be hilarious to tell Carly he had drank that much soda.

There was a small boxer sort of dog on the path and we rode around it. August was singing a “Sonic boom” song that he wanted me to record, then we were getting our stuff in the car and at the trunk, then went to the right side of the car to let August in. I opened it to find a dog curled up where his feet go. August was not happy about this. I managed to pick the dog up to take it out. It didn’t have a number on it. I held it and looked around for a couple minutes for someone who might help, like someone who works at the park. Then the dog trotted off on its own. It headed back into the park, so hopefully someone else would help. August, by the way, was very against helping it, and certainly never wants a dog or cat in the house. He says they will make a mess everywhere. He said, “Unless we get one from the store. For a little while. In a cupboard, locked shut…there’s no possible way I’d let you take care of a lost doggie. If I was a doggie I’d have a phone number on me.”

Finally, he realized he hadn’t found any treasures today. I said he had gotten the bottle. He dismissively explained, “That’s just something I found on the garbage! Treasure is cool interesting things I find on the ground!”

We were driving at 4:50. We listened to his playlist in the car. Made it home without another nap. He took the Coca-Cola bottle up to Carly, joking that he had drunk it all. Carly was changing at the time though, so we didn’t keep the video.

Downstairs we looked at all the books that Carly had checked out today. I read him part of Hilda and the Stone Forest, then got him to read the Mat Hid Bob Book to me. Carly tried to read Pippi Longstockings to him, but he was being hyper and rude to her and I had to take him up for a timeout at one point. I got him some dinner and we ate, then Carly took him upstairs for a pillow fight. They also skyped with Cherie and he played in the sink making concoctions.

He came down to me and she took a shower. We had some water drink, at his request, then he asked me why you would die in 2 seconds in space if you could live longer on Earth without air. I said I didn’t know where he got the 2 seconds thing, but I was pretty sure it was longer than that. But there are also the heat/cold issues of space. I asked if he wanted to be an astronaut. And he said no, because it is too dangerous. And that the rocket might blow up. I then asked what he wanted to be he first gave a rather pragmatic answer: he had a long time before he had to think about it so he didn’t have a choice now. Eventually he did say, “Probably teach. Like mama.” When I reminded him I had also been a teacher he said, “Huh!? Is that why you know so much stuff?” Then he claimed he wouldn’t have a job. When I asked what he would do he said, “Take care of someone…take care of a baby.”

We finished reading Hilda and the Stone Forest. Then we skyped with my parents. Talked about the snow in the U.S. and more to come. He was silly after the call. He went to the bathroom, then didn’t have his pants on and asked me to tie his shirt on as an apron. And was acting silly. He sang a song that went, “I’m robot apron, in robot apron…and I’m also poopy.”

I gave him a bath, then he was doing tricks jumping off the bed. He had a small box that used to have paints in it. It has random papers in it, and he said they were advertisements for events. He said, “New things come and old things go.” He took out the poop party ad (he’d drawn poops on a piece of paper) and said that was already past. He gave me a ticket for a different event: “This is the crown contest..and the winner has the gold piggie with a piggie made of gold.” It changed to a clown contest when he thought that was funnier.

He said goodnight to Carly. We did a butterfly visualization, and had lights off at 9:10. He asked me something at one point. I was half asleep, and when he started to lightly snore around 9:30 and I go up I couldn’t remember what it had been.

Choose-ed instead of chose

Buyed-ed instead of bought

Killed-ed instead of killed

Taked-ed instead of took

Put-ed instead of put

Meeting quiche cookies:

GarageBand tune:

Drill and paperclip slo-mo:

Climbing down the ramp:

Climbing the netting:

Showing his speed:

Phoning the parents:

Big caterpillar:

Comparing himself to Zach:

Nibbling fish:

Trying to catch fish:

Chasing the parakeets:

Sonic boom song he wanted to record:

He slept until 7:33. He watched Shaun the Sheep, then switched to YouTube for Wild Kratts. He had oatmeal in there. We watched a long commercial for a Sky Valet suitcase together, in which a guy has his suitcase stolen, then recovers it, and he now wants us to buy that kind of suitcase before this summer. Surprisingly, he let me go upstairs to take a shower while he stayed down on the couch. He finished up the Wild Kratts video he was watching, then we were discussing how we could do literacy group at home. He said that Ms. Vicky had all sorts of supplies for literacy group, so we couldn’t do it at home.

We played with the blocks for awhile, and made some abstract mazes. I started paying attention to what letter sounds and what irregular verbs and adjectives he mispronounces so we could start talking about them. As we built, I made up a song where we repeated ‘We made…’ and ‘We built…’ to work on those verbs. I noticed, through the day:

‘r’ sound versus ‘l’ or ‘w’ (bar vs ball, car versus cow)

maked-ed instead of made

buyed-ed instead of bought

steal-ed instead of stole

build-ed instead of built

gotted instead of got

comed instead of came

was instead of were ‘The security guards was there.’

goed instead of went

gooder instead of better

He played with the kalimba. Yesterday we had unscrewed it to see how it works and put it back together.

For literacy time we pulled out a big sheet of paper, then took turns naming numbers for the other person to write down. I got to see his pinch fingers on the marker, and he is doing just fine. His numbers are clearer than they used to be, particularly his 3s. We also did a joint piece of art. And while he went to the bathroom he made up words for me to write on the paper. He then worked with the scissors on how to cut out all of the numbers and words from the paper. For science we then set up the microscope, and we were looking at the edges of the different kinds of knives, which was pretty cool, to see how rough they are in places. And we looked at the wheat, where we discovered that the long things on it, while looking very smooth, are actually covered with little barbs along their edges. ‘Barb’ was a word of the day.

We then made a smoothie together for lunch, with fresh bananas and strawberries and frozen mango. He squished the banana and we talked about how it gets more liquidy when is is smashed. We drank that at the table, then he came and sat on my lap and discussed electric fences and non lethal guns as we listened to Ian McCullough albums. He said he invented a gun that didn’t kill people and was used for being in charge of a place. Pretty sure he hasn’t overheard anything about Israel’s use of rubber bullets, and it turned out there was something like that in the Monsters Vs. Aliens movie we watched.

We moved to Skybrary and read Umma Ungka’s Unusual Umbrella, then Oliver Otter’s Own Office. I wanted him to read me a Bob Book, then we made a deal that I would read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and he would then read. When it was his turn he first claimed that he had fooled me, but I said he couldn’t get away with lying. So he agreed and read Plums, only needing help in a couple places. He was randomly quoting Hilo books during the day, including, “In my house we’d be hitting each other with sticks right now.”

We did some exercise, then he wanted to use the string as a leash again. We got it tied on his wrist, then he needed to go to the bathroom. After that, he lost interest and had me take it off.

I realized we could make a big pyramid with the magnet blocks, and we ended up making the largest tower possible with the blocks we have, with a pyramid roof.

We then headed outside. Looked around the yard a bit and he spilled some of the fluid out of his rotting pasta experiment (which actually doesn’t look that bad or moldy at all, after a couple months, which is kind of surprising) so I sprayed it with the house.

We got walking at 1:40. We walked over past the mall and on into Bnei Dror and to the park in the center of it. We had fun spotting all the big pipes through the village (I don’t know why their water pipes are so exposed in places) and sang a song about how “We went…” by things (as opposed to ‘We goed…’).

So all was well until we got to the park. We got to the playground and he spotted one of those rolling slides, like a conveyor belt sort of thing. He got as far as saying something about how he didn’t know this park had one before he tried walking up it and fell flat on his face. This was his one difficult moment of the day, as he tried taking it out on me, saying things like “You’re the worst dada ever.” I was clear with him through the day that there was a zero tolerance policy for the mean words/behavior now, and it worked pretty well. Here, it meant I would keep him at an arm’s length and not comfort him until he apologized and said he’d make good choices and then I’d pick him up again. It took him several attempts here, although through the rest of the day there was never more than a small slip.

We spent some time playing on the merry-go-round. He was pushing me first, then I was pushing him and he was lying down on the bench. I was doing 10 minute of Hebrew while he did this. Then he spotted a dog. It was an old, calm dog that didn’t come close, but he wanted up, and the park was over for him. We left the park at 2:35.

We walked back to Tiv Taam and he sat in the cart and we did grocery shopping. The first time I’ve gone grocery shopping with him in quite awhile. We’ve gotten in the habit of usually Carly going on the weekend. It went really well, with us agreeing on some new foods to try (he picked out a sausage, Cornflakes (which he remembered from Gramma and Grampa), some healthy-looking coconut and chocolate bite things, a pack of cracker and cheese sandwich things (like from when I was a kid), and some crackers. Oh, and we got a peach Snapple, as it was the perfect bottle for his timer. He also wanted a different kind of cracker, but it said they were ‘spicy’. I got it for myself though.

After Tiv Taam we went back out to the stand right outside where we had seen tea infusers on our way in. We chose one with green on it for Carly, then had to wait a few minutes for the woman who runs it to come back. He spent this time by running around, and running into me. She came back, and I also got some ‘black tea’ from their bulk container. I’ve been looking for a bulk tea place. They only had ‘black’ and a ‘chai’. A good start.

On the way home he found a stick, which he said was a spy camera. In the yard he showed me how it worked, and explained how it had a camera at the end, then projected the image in the air. We were home at 4:05.

We had some Snapple. He was excited about having some caffeine and told me he fooled me because he also put coffee in it and was having a lot of caffeine. Carly got home and he showed her the new infuser. He then made tea for me using the new infuser, the new black tea, and a cinnamon stick. Turned out quite well.

They played the preposition game and I cooked the chicken with taco seasoning, cooked a pepper, and heated refried beans. We had burritos for dinner. Well, August just ate the refried beans. He went to the bathroom, then told both of us about the depth of the ocean. He said it was up to 40 skyscrapers deep (probably from Wild Kratts—he’s also been talking about their submarine), then he had made a stack of skyscrapers that went all the way to the sun. He had glued them together so they wouldn’t float away. And he had taken them from towns, and the towns weren’t too happy about it.

I went upstairs to work for an hour, then we switched and Carly took a shower. She had given him a bath and he’d played with stuff in the sink. He filled it with bottles, and the faucet was hitting them and splattering lightly out of the sink. He had me experience it. He needed pajamas, and I said they were downstairs. He said something about the bear pajamas “Again?” When I asked if he wanted to wear a different pair, he said yes, and exasperatedly explained, “That’s what having more pairs of pajamas is for!”

In on the bed we read Corky Cub’s Crazy Caps on Skybrary. We then discussed his cookie plans. He wants to make little cookies out of quiche dough tomorrow, and I suggested we make cookies on Sunday and take them to his teachers. At first he said not Marion, but then he changed his mind, and said he wanted to include a poem that rhymes. Which seemed promising, although he didn’t explain what he wanted the poem to be about.

He read the Bob Book called The Trip, then we read a few chapters of volume 4 of Hilo. ‘Brimstone’ was another word of the day. Carly was ready for bed, so I left them just before 9.

The kitchen was a mess, so I listened to the Jerusalem audiobook and listened to a good chunk of it while I cleaned.

Destruction slo-mo:

Trying to sweep:

Picking yellow things:

Running to me in the mall:

New tea infuser song:

Splattery sink creation:

Carly got him up about 6:45. I made him oatmeal, and after he cuddled with her for a few minutes he went and ate. He went to the bathroom, and Carly headed to school. He was then playing with the walking stick from Korea and gently swinging it around and singing a song, presumably about it. It was a more graceful, high-pitched melody than he usually sings. I think I caught “we don’t use it anymore…” I recorded some, but it was after the best part.

He got his iPad, and told me that he invented an iPad that you could open and could be fixed. Little did he know that he was reflecting the thoughts of lots of people who think such things should be more fixable. I noticed that Shaun the Sheep is on Netflix for us. A couple weeks ago I was mentioning to Carly that he might like the Aardman movies. Anyway, he watched an episode and did a lot of laughing.

It was supposed to rain, so Carly wanted us to drive. We left by 7:50. I commented on the rain smell as we left. He said, “and that only happens when it’s rained a little and there’s still some drops in the air that haven’t settled down.” As we got in the car he told me the fence across the street should have been made out of polished wood or metal or concrete. He’s afraid it will rot because it was getting wet.

Drop off went fine. The bus kids were there, but hadn’t started meeting yet. I walked home and worked primarily on the website, then got a call from Vicky about 10:45. I walked to school and picked him up. He had had an issue in Ms. Liron’s class. He said she didn’t want him to play with the carpet. Vicky said something about how she wanted him to cross his legs when he was sitting. He had gotten upset and left the room, which Vicky said was a good thing, and gone downstairs. From there it gets hazy. Marion took him into the atelier (which I later learned August knows how to pronounce, and Andrea calls it the ‘calm room’, but he knows to switch the name based on which teacher he was talking about). She was holding him and not letting him leave that room to go out into the empty classroom. He ended up scratching her wrist, and threw a play dough container that gave her a cut above her lip. So, clearly should have talked to Marion yesterday to see what had happened with her.

She was back from the nurse when we went downstairs. He said sorry and we headed home, taking the car.

At home we discussed gluing or taping together plastic tube pieces he had outside, but did neither. We then read some Skybrary books:Write On, Carlos! and Great Choice, Camille!

For lunch I only let him eat things out of his actual lunch. He started with the bar, then ate the banana. Later he would eat the chopped carrot, string cheese, and tuna. We went back to Skybrary and read Percy Gets Upset and Gertie Gorilla’s Glorious Gift. He told me about a drill bit that he invented that lets you make straight lines in wood. He then talked about how he thought a pizza cutter could cut wood, so I let him take it out and try it and he realized it didn’t work so well. I also let him hammer away at the circuit board (goggles on this time) for awhile, before remembering there were a couple components on there that I wasn’t sure about. I talked about “worrying” and he kept telling me not to.

Inside, he talked about how he has an electric fence around his lab, or a “toxic flame”. He explained what ‘toxic’ meant. We did the brother and sister imagining game. He created a scenario where they were running away and living on their own. They found an abandoned house to live in, and the people left money there so they went to the store. In character, we made things out of magnet blocks that were also left in the house.

He wanted to make a timer. That is, a bottle with water and glitter in it that sinks to the bottom. We didn’t have any bottles, so we walked up to recycling and fished a good bottle out. He also got a spray bottle. We went back and made a timer. We experimented with oil and water, and he liked the oil. He used his sequin things, and put in some food coloring as well, that especially looked cool at first. He managed to play on his own while I wrote emails to Vicky and Dr. Aviv. We then went upstairs for a pillow fight, then came back down to eat his string cheese. Still hungry, he ate the carrot, then wanted his tuna in a sandwich. So I made a tuna and teriyaki (he was the one that remembered we used to do teriyaki sandwiches) sandwich and he ate most of it.

I did a little more work on the website, and he played for a few minutes. We ran around the house and were acting like the brother and sister on and off. The timer rolled off the table and the lid broke, but luckily only a drop leaked out.

Looking in the utility drawer he found an old almost-empty tube of sealant. It was all dried up, and he used the bread knife to cut up the dried sealant. We washed it, then he sawed a carrot into chunks. We each ate part of it. For some reason, the word ‘foible’ came up and was the word of the day before August declared it wasn’t.

We went back and read more Skybrary: The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse and we had started reading Your Guide to Superheroes when Carly got home.

She talked to him about the day was of course upset. He wasn’t able to admit that he felt bad for Marion, but he was clearly troubled. She was sitting on the black chair and he lay his head in her lap, his feet still on the floor, and ended up falling asleep at 5:15. She picked him up and he woke up a bit, but he fell back to sleep on the couch. We let him sleep, and I tried waking him up at 6:25. He just didn’t seem like he was waking up though, so I got ready for bed, being exhausted myself. I figured I could try to get some sleep with him, so that if he woke up in the middle of the night I could get up with him.

Well, Carly carried him up to the bed and cuddle with him, but he never fully fell back to sleep, and at 6:50 he got up, quite awake. I was ready for sleep.

Downstairs on the couch they read I Really Like Slop! a couple times. Or maybe three. He really likes the funny ending: “Dont push it, Bub!” I took over and we finished reading the superhero book. We started to read Izzy Impala’s Imaginary Illnesses. But he said he didn’t like it becuase she lies. So we moved on to Dilly Dog’s Dizzy Dancing, then Emma’s Friendwich. We then red more of Hilo, volume 3.

He was hungry, so ate a good bowl of shredded carrots, then had a bowl of oatmeal. I read more of Hilo 3 to him at the table, then we finished on the couch, and started volume 4.

Carly took him up for his bath. She told him about the 6th graders who are running an experiment trying to turn guinea pig poop into paper. They talked about this a lot. I came up and was on the bed with him for a few minutes. He talked about how when he drinks from his water bottle he is “Constantly delivering it to my stomach.” He said with his pink water bottle (from Korea) he would drink just for the fun of delivering the water like that, and not becuase he was thirsty.

Carly was tired, so we left her by 9. Downstairs, we read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, then Breathe. We discussed Marion (he still wasn’t too repentant) and the possibility of baking cookies. It was too much for him and he hid behind me and cuddled for a few minutes.

He then had a mystery song he was humming. He could only tell me we listen to it in the car, but not recently, and it is a guy with a lower voice. Finally, I figured out it was “Hey Man” by the Eels. We listened to it on my phone. Finally, we read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and went upstairs at 10:15. He snuck away from me and went and cuddled next to Carly on the little bed. He wasn’t too bad though. He was taking a long time to fall asleep, and at a quarter to 11 I pulled him up to the big bed. He was asleep a few minutes later. He had rolled over and was actually lying, stomach down, on top of a pillow.

End of his walking stick song:

Experimenting with the pizza cutter on wood:

Hammering the circuit board:

Destruction slo-mo:

Mystery Song (“Hey Man”):

He was up before 6:05. He watched Max and Ruby this morning. Carly made him oatmeal. She headed to work. He got upset though when it was time to turn it off. We did a timeout, but he recovered. We had a good walk to school, and walked in at the bell. He was wearing his flashing shoes, so I knew he’d want to show them off. So I talked to him in advance about not running in and yelling, then I held his hand as we went in. It went well, as they were standing up to start a song and dance. He did a quiet noise to announce his presence, then joined in with dancing to the morning song.

I left and rode my bike home. Sabeel work and also made progress on the website. And watched the Super Bowl in the background.

I rode back to school. I was a bit early, about 1:50, and was standing outside the classroom doing a little more Arabic when suddenly I heard a scream, then he came bursting out of the door and hugged me and said he loved me. He was followed by Leonard and Lydia and Ms. Andrea. She said he had heard her say it was almost library time, so he guessed I was outside and got excited when he saw me out the window.

I went in with them. He showed me how he was using a paintbrush to put glue on a piece of wood. His shoes were a hit, it seemed: Taya thought he had Reia’s shoes on (I think she has similar) and Lydia said he was a girl because of the shoes and long hair. Also, she called me by my first name several times. Leonard also gave me a few hugs (when they’d run out, he and August had hugged me, and August commented it was a Leonard, Dada, Zinnie hug). He also had me hold his feet and showed me how he could walk on his hands. August then wanted to do the same thing. Did that for a minute, then got back to helping clean up.

We headed to library time. I almost asked them to go in with us, as all of the craziness happens right at the beginning. But Ilana was out sick today with a bad cough, so Liz took over. Also, Simone’s mother was also there. So maybe just because of the change in personnel, the class acted very differently. Easily the best they’ve been since maybe the first couple weeks of school.

It was warm but very windy today, and for some reason it makes a loud whistling sound at the back of the library. Liz let them look out the windows to see the wind in the trees, and August and I thought we could see the Cloud Bridge from there. For the book she read Tikki Tikki Tembo, probably due to the Lunar New Year, and because Ilana has been doing classics. I pointed out I remembered it from kindergarten or first grade and Eve’s dad, who had also joined us, said that he’d been in a play based on it. The kids did well, and August sat on my lap.

For checkout time he got a book with a built-in clock called Tick Tock Dog. Then when it came time to check out he saw the box with batteries to be recycled. He wanted to take some home, but when Amanda said they weren’t for taking home, he started to act out, both towards her and towards me. I compromised, saying he could take some of the small watch batteries, but then as we were walking away he said really mean things about Amanda, and I took the batteries away and put them back.

We walked straight home. He talked about the issues today: Bibo and Millie had been pulling on him, so he said something mean to them, and he had said something mean to Ms. Marion. He didn’t provide much more detail to either, and I hadn’t talked to either of the teachers after school since we left after the library incident.

We read his library book, then he had a few Cheerios. Next, I reheated the mushroom pizza he hadn’t eaten for lunch. He had at least eaten his half of a banana for lunch. He ate the pizza, about half a slice, but that would pretty much be it for the rest of the day.

He used our pizza cutter on his pizza and was shocked that ours is bigger than the one at VIPizza. He kept asking, “Why do we have a BIG pizza cutter?” He asked if I was sent to the timeout corner a lot in school. When I said not really he concluded, “So you tried to be a good student? That’s why you’re a good dada?” He told me that he and Simona try to break each other’s Lego creations: “It’s kind of a mean game.” As we were sitting at the table, talking, we were listening to the 1979 album from The Human League, called Reproduction. He asked, “Why don’t we ever listen to this kind of music at school?” He wished they listened to more electronic music at school, too. He was now sitting in my lap and we played our head butting game. He then invented “En-bug-adorflug”, which he says is even bigger than enshmugadorflug and infinity.

We went upstairs to do the imagining game on the bed. Had a pillow fight with all the pillows and pretended to destroy the house. He then pretended to call our parents and tell on me.

Carly got home just before 5 and I went to watch the Rebuilding Alliance’s congressional briefing on Palestine. I’ve been exchanging emails with the director, and another woman, Angela, from Jahalin Solidarity, that I’ve worked with was also involved. I watched the first hour, then went downstairs and had the second half, when kids from Susiya and Al Khan al-Akbar testified, playing down there.

August wanted popcorn, but never had any as he didn’t eat more than a couple bites of his dinner of mac and cheese and broccoli. He got a string and had me tie it to his wrist, and he was my cat on a string. Carly went up to take a shower. He ate his couple bites, but that was it. We read two Skybrary books, Freda Stops a Bully and Frances Frog’s Forever Friend. ‘Frisky’ was the word of the day.

I took him upstairs for his bath. He made a couple mixtures: the first was with some seeds from a bag he found in the freezer (someone had given them to us last year and we don’t know what they are. They were in the freezer, we think, because Carly didn’t like the smell of them.), putting them in a small tube with water. The second was his lollipop from yesterday in water, and he liked the lollipop-infused water and kept drinking it.

The sink had mostly filled up as I ran the water to warm it up. August then dipped his hair forward and started washing it himself. A miracle! He then didn’t complain at all as I washed the rest. And as we blow dried his hair, I had to brush it to get out the bits of glue that were still in it from STEM class yesterday. He handled that without a problem.

On the bed he jumped around and had me take videos. He was a little disappointed when he saw them and he wasn’t as blurry as he wanted to be. Brushed his teeth and said good night and I left them at 8:20.

Tying up the plant:

Pillow fight destroying the house:

Phone call to my parents:

Jumping 1:

Jumping 2:

Jumping 3:

He woke up at 6:50. I heard him, but was in the downstairs bathroom. I hurried out and found him at the halfway point of the stairs. He was upset that Carly had already left. I got him to refrain from hitting me, and carried him down to the couch to cuddle with me. But then he surprised me and slapped me. We went upstairs for a timeout and to work on it. We didn’t come down until 7:10 or so. He was sneezing a lot this morning, and sneezed four times on the way down the stairs.

I let him watch a little Magic School Bus as I got us ready. After 7:30 I tried to get him going, and he talked about not wanting to go to preschool. And he pointed out he hadn’t had breakfast. So I gave into being late and let him finish the episode and I got him breakfast. He cheered up after that. He talked about wanting to play at home with me, but he didn’t fight leaving and we were out the door at 8:08. I had to run back for his water bottle, but was luckily just a house up the street. We kind of sang our conversations on the way to school, and when he was dragging his feet to wear out his shoes (he’s decided he wants new shoes, and wants to try on the Minnie Mouse shoes after school) sang a nice “wearing out my shoes” song to the same tune. But he wouldn’t repeat it for a video.

As we got close to school, he told the rule was that I couldn’t poop on him. I said that was good to know, and we ran through other rules, like not dropping pianos on him. I said it was hard to know, since he was a robot and all, and he had me pretending to throw fireballs at him, but they would bounce off.

We parked the bike and headed in. He was in a good mood, and made a funny noise to the guard, who made a funny face and noise back. Down at the classroom, 8:30, they were still having a meeting. I stopped him before he could run in and yell, but when he went in he ran up to the circle and made a funny noise, similar to what he’d done with the guard. It was a little better than yelling, at least.

I went home and worked. Little volunteering for the Consortium website too. I rode back and picked him up. He ran out and told me he’d had a good day but there were two or three hitting incidents, but no crying. One was when a girl from another class kicked him and he kicked back. The other was when he and another boy were erasing the whiteboard and Millie didn’t want them to and grabbed August and he hit her. He was happy to say there was no crying though, and he has stopped using his mean words.

He had STEM class, and when I went in he excitedly showed me the big piece of art he had made using cardboard, glitter paint, and tape. Andrea said they had also used hammers and safety saws today, although August didn’t do any hammering. We told her about how he’s been using tools at home. August had also shown me little clay houses they had made, and talked about how the little things in Ms. Marion’s had been broken, so he broke one two (it didn’t really look important). I asked Andrea a few questions from the parents’ list about upcoming events. Nothing for Valentine’s and they’ll be doing activities with the older grades for Lunar New Year, but parents aren’t invited.

We went over to the playground and August showed me how the toys have been painted new colors. He had some snack, and randomly asked, “What is a hemisphere?” So a word of the day. August then took us over to the garden and he was trying all the plants. He liked the mustard greens the best, saying it had the most flavor. We also went over and tried the mint. Spent a minute on the teeter totter as well, then when he finished his Cheerios we went up to the library to checkout some Elephant and Piggie.

We met Carly at the entrance and went in, and he chose three of the books: I Really like Slop, I Broke My Trunk!!, and I Can Fly!. We all walked home. He stopped at the billboard along the way to rip off some old pieces of signs.

At home he wanted to try our drill in wood (he’d been talking about it at school, and what would it would and wouldn’t work on). He got a scrap of wood outside, and drilled two holes in it with my help.

We went in and he had mac and cheese and broccoli for dinner. He saw me having the veggies and noodles and he wanted some of that as well, so he had that for seconds. He and Carly read two of the new books, then I read the third to him. He wanted to do an imagining game on the couch, so I pretended to be a rock. He asked, “But you’re really dada, right?” This morning I had pretended to be the backup/robo dada for some reason, and he had asked the same thing. He went to the bathroom and he was quoting lines from Hilo, like “Ill lick your butt so hard…”

I started to clean up the magnet blocks, and Carly helped him put the ‘wheat’ in the oven to dry it. We had noticed it was starting to open up as it sat in the vase and dried. He then walked over to me, but stepped on staples on the floor. I saw him standing there. He had pulled out the staples from his foot, by his big toes, and looked sad. At first it didn’t look like it was going to bleed, but then it definitely did. I held him on my lap, while Carly got tissues, then a bandage for him. He was really upset, but then I got him to discuss the pain scale. He said it was currently a 3, but had been an 8 earlier. I was then trying to trick him into saying it dropped to 2. He then kept requesting that I try to trick him.

Carly went up to take a shower. We lay on the floor and he requested the pee visualization again. We did that, going all the way through the pee and water water cycles. He then said his foot was a 1, then a 0. He went to the bathroom and decided to take the bandage off.

We went upstairs and I remembered he’d wanted to try on the Minnie Mouse shoes. But then I found the light-up dog shoes we’d bought in Chelan for the fossil dig. He tried them on and said they were comfy and wants to wear them to school tomorrow.

I got him ready for bed. He had gotten a lollipop when he was hurt, then had a few more licks, and I put it away in its wrapper on the dressed. When I stepped out of the room he went and grabbed it again to get another lick. When I told him not too, he explained it was a natural consequence of me leaving the room, and compared it to how there are natural consequences at school, like when someone gets out of line they lose their spot in line.

We brushed his teeth, and he was asking about explosions, and cars blowing up. I said I didn’t exactly know what it sounded like, as all of my knowledge is from movies, and they are often exaggerated. Exaggerated was another word of the day.

Carly came in and I left them a bit before 9. A lot of laughing before he fell asleep.

Checking on the glue experiment:

Trying the greens:

Taking down old flyers:

Drilling holes in wood:

The dried ‘wheat’:

Metal that’s soldered: