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An unusual one: I was woken during the night by what must have been a cat jumping and running on the roof. I started waking him up at 8:35 and he was actually up before 8:45. Carly was back to school today, for meetings, as they start to open up next week.

Downstairs I read the Hardy Boys. He asked about the word dismissed, as in fires, then went and played piano. Something new, like he’d dreamed about it. It changed and then I got a video. He then started something sounding really dark and I took a video of that as well. He then told me it was super Locrian, using chords.

Gilad was ready to play Minecraft, so August got on. They went in one of Gilad’s worlds, then switched to their original world, Outpost Ahead, and blew up the crazy-long line of TNT they had built in it a long time ago. Gilad remembered it was my birthday tomorrow and wished me a happy birthday. He only had 30 minutes to play today. After that, we went to the piano and practiced some modes, and then did Earpeggio.

We then did our own Minecraft morning time, playing in the lucky block world. I figured out the ‘glitch’ that makes them stop working: the lucky blocks don’t work if the world is in ‘Peaceful’. Since they can make hostile mobs appear they will only work in ‘Easy’ or above. So now he’s addicted to the lucky block world again.

We headed upstairs after that, and spent a long time playing up there. We were waking each other up and annoying each other as we tried to sleep. He then had Bar making the exploding frogs, and them exploding all over Sister’s room: He called her “Bar…god of mischief.”

We went back downstairs, and I had a headache, so a good time to sit and watch the newest Iskall. After that he was Myna going OTT. He went on and on as Myna as I made pasta with pesto and corn and tofu for lunch, with asparagus on the side. As Myna he said, “I’ve made enough diamonds for GoodTimes to terraform with.” It was a line straight from Iskall.

We watched a Ted-Ed video about ants as we ate our pasta and asparagus for lunch. When the video described the flights of the new queens August explained “That’s a nuptial flight.” August really liked the pasta, but said the asparagus was oily. To emphasize his point (he eats the asparagus with his hand) a couple minutes later he went and washed his hands in the sink. All he said was “oily” as he walked back to the table.

He listened to a Circle Round for alone time, and asked, “What’s pull a fast one?” We then played in the lucky block world. He said, “I vowed then and there” which must be a quote from one of the stories.

Then we moved to music time. We watched the David Bennett video on polyrhythm. Both polyrhythm and polymeter were words of the day. August was playing a line he has in 4/4, 6/4, and 7/4. The Tiv Taam order arrived as he was doing that and I started cleaning it off and bringing it in. As this was going on August also told me, “I kind of believe in god…but God doesn’t care if we question…”

Carly got home as I was doing that. He showed her his rhythms, then she went up to take a shower. August was talking about his plants outside, and joked about them being “mineralvores.” He then cashed in 5 of his stars and he played a little Infinite Arcade with Carly, then switched to Minecraft and the lucky blocks. I played with him, and was joking about two villagers being my friends, but then their house caught on fire and I was consoling one of them when its friend died. August told me, “Dada, you’re so ceremonious.”

The two of them then played chess. Carly was mirroring all of his moves until that didn’t work and she lost a rook. She said “You betrayed me!” and he asked what betrayed me means. I went for a long walk. Ankle is doing well, but I thought it was a good idea to give it a rest. I walked over around the strawberry fields and paused to take some photos of the flowers and picking crates along the way.

When I got back they were playing Minecraft and Carly and Colin were with him in the Lucky Block world. Vivian then persuaded him to switch to her world. Or I thought she did. There was a little friction there about worlds and which to play in, and August just wanted to play in his own. They played there full time, then Carly was talking to him about making a video for Eve. She had talked to Heather, and Eve can’t return to school because of her lung concern, so she’s stuck at home. Heather said that August could teach Eve about Minecraft. August liked the idea.

He had dinner, more of the pasta, and Vivian called back. It turned out that Vivian and Colin were still playing Minecraft, and August didn’t like that. Cassie was sleeping and Jeff was working. Carly was trying to call Jeff, but August couldn’t handle it and got upset. We dealt with the meltdown, but then he had a second after realizing he couldn’t get his full ‘salary’. I took over after Carly hit her toe on the corner of the coffee table. Carly came back, and he calmed down enough and I got him to agree to go upstairs. We had almost gotten him calmed down with a podcast, before the second one, then upstairs he listened to “The Skylark”, then “Leopard’s …”, then “Sweet and Sour”.

Carly gave him a bath, and I finished up some mockups for work. August gave me some feedback along the way. Back in his room we did the Sister game where she finds out they’re in a simulation, then she goes back to tell Brother and he believes her right away. As we walked back to his room something about his loose tooth bothered him and he curled up on the bed for a few minutes. He wouldn’t tell me what it was. We then talked about what happened earlier. He was still pretty grumpy about it. We put on the Philip Glass: Solo Piano album, and he was asleep by 11:10.

Morning playing 2:

Morning playing 1:

Working on checkmate:

Working on interesting rhythms:

Playing in different time signatures:

Playing in Minecraft:

I started waking him up at 8:50 by trying to trim his nails. He’d asked me to last night, but I forgot because he fell asleep so late. He started to wake up, but allowed me to do his thumb a bit, which was the main one. Downstairs he played some piano, then started playing chess. Carly came down and he confronted her to play with him for a few minutes. I was able to take over and finish the game.

He kept playing and I made the sign with all of his subjects on it and put it up in the corner. He then played with Magnus Trainer as I made more scramble like yesterday. We then ate and watched the newest Grian video. He had asked yesterday if insects hear, so we watched a video on that. That got him wanting to watch Ants Canada, so he watched one of those, before we finally played Minecraft. He’d also been going back and forth to piano through the morning.

Then to piano, where I was introducing him to 5/4. Then he had a tune. He really had a song of the day, a tune he’s played before, but which he was playing around more with today. The one version I recorded today was very sad and melancholy. I did some tuning of the piano, then we watched a David Bennett video on brightness of the modes. We learned about Brightness versus Darkness. August really liked it, and I think it helped us both with memorizing them:

Lydian Augmented – 2 sharps

Lydian – 1 sharp

Ionian

Mixolydian – 1 flat

Dorian – 2 flats

Aeolian (minor) 3 flats

Phrygian – 4 flats

Locrian – 5 flats

Super Locrian – 6 flats

He asked, “What’s technical mean?” when he heard it in the end of the video. I then started to make us a chart of the above. Carly came down and agreed to play chess with him for a couple minutes. He was really needy about playing chess with her today, and every time she would come downstairs he’d want to play chess with her. When she had to go up to work he listened to the Stories Podcast story “Cybil: Hero of the American Rwvolution” for alone time. We played Minecraft in a lucky block world. Parkour was a new word.

Carly was then down for lunch and he chanted “Mama! Chessy chess is the bestie best. Let’s go!” As she was making food. They played chess and he won. He’s been pretty equitable about letter her win sometimes, but today he was allowing himself to undo moves that he didn’t like, but not her. She went back to work again at 4, and we were doing something, about to get to some learning activity, when she came down with Colin on the phone. It didn’t feel like a very productive day, because every time I was stressing August towards something we’d get interrupted.

He had fun with Colin though: “Yeah! You’re eating waffles! Yeah! Yum! Scrumptious!” We took Colin out and showed him the weeds and our game with the ball, and August showed him how he uses the broom as a lever on the swing. Talked to him for 15 or 20 minutes, then said goodbye. August and I did some piano and Earpeggio, then went upstairs to wrestle on the bed. We did the waking up game, and he had me waking him up this time.

When we came down Carly convinced him to go for a little drive, just to make sure the car was doing fine. They were gone a couple minutes. Back at home he and Vivian were having difficulty connecting on Minecraft. Vivian had been signed out of her account, and it took Carly calling Cassie to get it fixed. I was getting ready for a run. Then Vivian disappeared from the call. He was starting to get upset, but then realized she was in one of the worlds and they played together. Not sure if they talked again though.

I went for a run. When I got back they were still playing Minecraft. When he got off they had some dinner of leftovers: pancakes with peanut better, rest of the sandwich from lunch, and the scramble from this morning.

They then went outside for a few minutes, and when they came back in August did 40 jumping jacks as payment for the plants he didn’t water the other day. They then played chess and did some phone tag between them and Oma and Cassie. Colin wanted a poop skin in Minecraft and we helped Cassie with that, and Cherie was setting up the Zoom birthday for Thatcher on Saturday. August was being particularly demanding for Carly’s attention in playing chess, and was taking back moves himself but not allowing her to.

I took over with chess and taught him about setting up position. I taught him mating with two rooks, then he had fun trying to make up weird positions. It was suddenly 9:30 and I got him upstairs. He went to the bathroom and saw the toilet paper: “Hey! Hearts!” He’d been wanting the heart toilet paper for a long time, and I bought a package a couple months ago and we’re finally using it. I gave him a bath and he brought up the story “Dinosaur Christmas” and how they sing in the song about going extinct because they party so much. I taught him about irony and how we know why they really do go extinct.

His other top front tooth is now really loose, and actually bled a little. He says he really likes the feeling of a loose tooth as he gets to play with it. I don’t remember ever really enjoying the feeling. He then started talking about his dreams, telling me about a dream he had about a video game that doesn’t exist: “little characters…challenges, rainbowy blocks…I got lost in a forest…” And he told me about his dreams about Minecraft: “It makes me get extra Minecraft time in my sleep.”

He ate crackers in bed and we did a Brother and Sister game where they are in a simulation. elaborate was a word of the day. We went and brushed his teeth, then back in the bedroom he read the blue sign all backwards again. He then started a really interesting discussion when he asked, “Why do you feel so bad when you’re upset?” We discussed emotions and memories of being upset: he brought up getting upset with Vivian and Thatcher for running ahead on that walk at the lake house.

He asked about the difference between a world champion versus grand master in chess, and said the former was “more heroic”. I put on an album of Philip Glass: Itaipu. We continued with the emotions discussion, but that went pear shape. As in discussing hypotheticals I asked him how he would handle if Vivian and Colin couldn’t play Minecraft one day. Just the idea of them not being able to play became very upsetting to him, talking about revenge if they had made a choice, or if it was because of something really good (like going on a trip) how I would have to give him the same thing that they were getting or I’d be a bad parent. This went on and on, not improving, but not getting worse either. The album was over and I put on the Philip Glass: Solo Piano album again. I think he was finally, finally asleep at 11:40.

Song of the day:

Showing Colin the weeds and ball:

Chess with Colin, sort of:

Jumping jacks:

Discussing his dreams:

There were a couple flies bothering me around 6:30. August then got up at 6:45 and went to the bathroom. I got him back to sleep, then moved back to my bed about 7. Then Carly got up. I finally got back to sleep and got up late, after 8. I went up and woke him up at 9:05. He took a good ten minutes to wake up and start talking. He told me he had been waking up and going back to sleep a lot. He sat up and started reading the self-regulation list backwards. He needed help with some words, then read the whole thing backwards again.

We went downstairs and he played piano, then played chess while I had my coffee out in the yard before it got incredibly hot. He came and got me and we played chess. He showed me how he likes spinning the pieces around really fast on the board. After a good amount of that we watched the Seattle Symphony Morning Notes with a bassoon. Audition was a word of the day.

We then watched the newest GoodTimeswithScar and then went upstairs where he was my servant/slave again. I had him helping me get to sleep, and doing everything for me, like moving my arm, and putting pillows under my head, and rolling me on my side when I wanted to turn. I was then trying to order him to tell me a story, but he wouldn’t come up with one. I told him “Three Little Sluggies” instead, where three slugs make their houses out of moss, leaves, and diorite. The first two get eaten by the Big Bad Bird, and the third gets eaten by an owl when it leaves the house.

We went downstairs to finally play Minecraft. But first some piano, where we used the metronome to start practicing complex time signatures like 7/4. And then he watched an Ants Canada, where prolific and ASAP were new words. I made lunch. A cheese and turkey scramble as he pointed out we hadn’t had eggs recently. We ate inside and he watched a second Ants Canada video. When Carly came down he rushed to tell her about fire ants making air pockets and the size of the big ones. “Anyway, I need to get back to my video.”

It is fly season, and there was one flying around the house. August was actually letting it land on him, but then it was flying in his face and it got overwhelming for him. Shoed it away from him.

In Minecraft he couldn’t connect to the world on my phone, which is a problem, so we ended up playing in a new world mesa survival world that he built.

I had thought that August might want to learn about dyslexia, so we watched a Ted-Ed video about it. Carly came down though and he really wanted to play chess with her. She had time to do it for a couple minutes, then when she had to leave I introduced him to Magnus Trainer. He really, really liked it. Until we got to the point where he lost a heart for getting something wrong. He was really bothered by this and wanted to delete it right away. But eventually we signed up for a one-week free trial, which gives you unlimited hearts, and if he likes it he can pay for it with some of his stars that he earns.

We went upstairs again for some super strong wrestling. That is, he’d barely touch me and I’d fly across the bed. He was pretty amused by this, then switched roles, which had him doing most of the work and he commented on it being good exercise. He also was singing about random things and keeping time with his foot on the headboard. We did some Earpeggio together, almost finishing the first set of interval training, then went downstairs and he played more chess while we watched Frankenstein, which he had requested. He discovered an interesting position where he made a revealed check and showed me and I explained what it was and he practiced the term.

I played some piano, and then we got ready to go on an ant walk. First though he said he had a sliver in his leg. I could never see anything though. He was comforted by an ice cube in one of our new reusable plastic bags, and wanted to give the water to the ants. Carly came down before we left and he didn’t want her to know about the sliver at all. We went on our ant walk, doling out a grape and pieces of stale bread to two of the nests, along with water on a leaf. He had his chocolate bar, and we headed home.

As we got back to the house he asked, “Remember Library Tech Week?…there were a ton of kids trying to see the robot…that was before social distancing…” He did this a couple times today, remembering things pre-SD. Back at the house we found out that Israel Cassie is moving to northeast Even Yehuda, which is exciting. We told Carly about the food for the ants and he added, “It’s probably the new talk of the nest.”

Cherie and Chuck called, and they talked and Carly and August played chess. I went for a run. He then played Minecraft with Vivian and Colin, and called Cherie back when they were done. They talked about it being ant season, and August said, “I have like a hundred ways to kill the ants. Well, 3. One, I smash them. Two, use coison. Three, honey.” That is, he draws them with honey, then kills them. He set up chess to play with Carly and Cherie: “Boom. It’s time. For chess!”

He played chess with Cherie for a long time. That was fun to watch/hear. I was doing some work. When they hung up he called me on my phone, then had fun with the feedback that would produce. Carly got him upstairs for a bath, then they played one last game of chess. When he came by me on the couch he whispered to me that his sliver was gone. He told Carly, “You’re probably as easy as playing a duck. No hyperbole intended.”

In bed he ate his crackers and peanut butter and listened to “Leopard’s Rhythm” on Circle Round. We brushed our teeth and did a little of the Sister being a fire ant in Millie’s colony story. We then discussed the differences between the phrases ‘In the world’ and ‘on the earth’ and how ‘in the earth’ means something different. I made a joke about him being something when he grows up, I can’t remember what, and he said, “Besides I’ve planned to be a teacher.” Like Carly, and then like me too when he remembered I’m also a teacher. We had a discussion of how he doesn’t go to school and why, and then made a list of the subjects he is currently interested in. We came up with:

• piano/music

• Chess

• medical conditions

• coding

• Math

• Greek/languages

• folktales and myths

• War and government

• science

We listened to the Music 4 Hands album. He was doing a good job being quiet and lying down in the dark. But that album ended so I put on Glass: Solo Piano. At 11:30 he then woke me up with “here’s something Minecraft really needs: search for your worlds…” He was then trying to tell me something about the words in “Yankee Doodle”. It was the last gasp though, as he was then asleep, finally, by 11:35.

Reading the sign, backwards:

Chess silliness:

Working on 7/4:

Playing Simon Says:

Some singing:

Ants and grape:

Playing for Oma and Opa:

He was up at 8:25. I went up and talked to him as he lay on the couch bed for several minutes. He said he had gotten up and changed the temperature on the air conditioner at some point because he was too warm. Downstairs he went to the piano and started playing some cool stuff. He did a piano competition with Carly, then let playing. We got into analyzing whether he was playing in 8/8 or 9/8 and he played his rhythm both ways.

We played Minecraft, then Infinite Arcade. He was designing a level for me, and liked the default text of “Hot Diggity Dog, you won!” We had oatmeal, then watched Seattle Symphony Morning Notes with clarinet and harp. That gave him an idea for a Brother and Sister game and we went upstairs. He did a going upstairs dance, then was a chicken while going up the stairs. Upstairs he did the new student games, with Eliza (blind) and Elena, who had epilepsy, and then I thought to teach him about diabetes. We watched a few videos about children and Type 1 diabetes, then had a new student, Namebe, who had diabetes. From there we moved to Myna in her OTT (Over the top) Minecraft world before we went downstairs.

Carly was down, so he played chess with her for a minutes, then with me. I made tuna sandwiches for lunch and we ate and I played more chess. I then had us start a couple audiobooks: We listened to all of Jack Perlutsky Sardines Swim High Across the Sky and then started Jasmine Warga’s Other Words for Home. For his alone time though he listened to a new Circle Round story called “Sweet and Sour”. At the end he asked if honeybirds are real, and we watched a video of honey guide birds:https://youtu.be/hGC4nG0RqYI

. He then wanted to see a bee attack and we watchedhttps://youtu.be/RywRC6Wh4bQ

andhttps://youtu.be/suZQa1eWBLM

.

He then had a Brother game, part of which involved Brother getting powers for a short time, like the power to walk through walls, but then having it turned off and running into a wall. We had a cookie and milk, and he asked, “Can people be born without teeth?” Didn’t look it up, but led to a good discussion. We played Minecraft together. Minecraft is having problems on my iPad, so when we were done I figured out how to transfer it to my phone.

We then played piano together. He watched an Ants Canada video, then we went for an ant walk. I cut up two grapes to feed them, and he wore Carly’s sunglasses. He liked feeding the ants, but didn’t want to stick around to watch them.

Back at home we watched a video from Andrew Huang explaining how to count and practice complex time signatures. August played some piano, then we went upstairs for his meeting with Mr. Gabi. I had hung up the poster/list we’d made in our family meeting yesterday and August didn’t want Gabi to read it, so we turned the camera away. After that they played the tank game. I’m hoping we feel comfortable enough to start taking him to Gabi’s office next week or the next. At one point August came out and asked for food.

After his meeting he was walking around his room, banging on things and practicing counting odd time signatures. And we did some Earpeggio. We went downstiars and he did some piano with Carly, showing her his crazy fast runs.

They then played chess together, and he was winning at first, then intentionally letting her get pieces because he didn’t want her to feel bad. He was telling her everything he’s learned about chess strategy. Everything I’ve said the last couple of days has really sunk in.

They played with Vivian as well, and I went for a run. I came back and took a shower and did some work, mainly exchanging messages with Marc and Omar. He played more chess, by himself and with me, then we got him upstairs with the promise of a lollipop for washing his hair.

After his bath he played chess with me, then finished his pancake and peanut better and listened to “Mr. Know-It-All” He asked, “What’s suspect?” A word of the day. He then listened to “Three Clever Brothers” and crackers and peanut butter. I asked what his favorite stories are and he said “Rapunzel”, “Snow White”, “I’m Bored”, and “Mr. Know-It-All”.

He was then being baby brother, curled up in a pillow fort and pretending to be an egg. We went and brushed our teeth, then read a little of the book in consciousness. August asked “Can you have epilepsy when you’re asleep?” We looked it up and learned about nocturnal seizure.

Somehow time signatures were mentioned and a few minutes later he said, “Now I can’t go to sleep because I’m thinking of time signatures and counting them.” He was counting odd time signatures and getting better. He also explained that Simply Piano “isn’t my thing.” More specifically, that he doesn’t like it telling him exactly what notes to play and that he isn’t into sheet music because it isn’t creative. But that he wants to work on accuracy for Notion. He requested Beethoven’s Ninth and we listened to it and he was asleep before 11:30.

Song of the day:

Playing in 8/8:

Going upstairs dance of the day:

Talking about losing his teeth:

Practicing counting odd time signatures:

Chess with Vivian and Mama:

Chess with mama:

He came downstairs just before 8:15. I finished the Hardy Boys chapter we’re on and then he went to play piano. In Minecraft, survival, we worked on breeding cats so he could get another Jelly and after several cats (now all sitting in the library area) he had his second Jelly (as his first cat just happened to be a Jelly). And we also got the villagers in place so we could have more villagers.

We went and played piano, playing a long duet. We then watched educational videos I had saved for him: Crash Course on famine and drought (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgae8SA-rcI), where El Nino, labor, and malaria were words of the day. Then a SciShow on Jellybots (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFZAjQFyUO0). And finally a Big Think video on whether we are living in a simulation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDcNVZjaNSU). He only watched a couple minutes of it, but that was enough to get him thinking, and he had a Brother and Sister game where they were in a simulation. He was walking in circles around me as he explained it. That went on for a long time. I had made oatmeal for him and he kept taking one bite of it, then forgetting about it until I reminded him of it. He finally ate it.

We went outside for a few minutes. It was quite hot already. He watered plants and found a leaf with fungus on it. We took it inside and examined it with the microscope. We then had a discussion about the good to come out of drought and pandemics: hydroponic farming, better hygiene, etc. He went back and forth to playing piano a few times, and we talked more about our Minecraft plans.

I made hotdogs and we had grapes for lunch. He also finished his tuna sandwich from a couple days ago. He had us restart the Brother and Sister in a simulation game. Then a game of Sister finding an owl that Brother named Owly Ally (which is hard to say) in the park and saving her. Carly came down, and we ended up discussing the virus. He asked, “How’s Josephine doing with coronavirus?” We looked up Zambia, and it looks like they are just now dealing with an outbreak. We had a cookie and milk, then watched Iskall.

We went to learning time on the floor and used Swift Playgrounds and learned about ‘For’ loops. Did a few levels of that. He then wanted to be my slave and wanted me to order him around. I ordered him to do things like stand at attention and dance and play piano. We continued that upstairs for a bit with him waiting on me. Then we went downstairs where he I ordered him to let me beat him at chess. He happily did that, then I returned the favor by losing to him.

Carly came down a little before 4, and I went up to do some work. He was going to do alone time and play Minecraft with her, but instead they played chess most of the time. He told me, “I’m fond of playing chess with her.” She made him another hot dog and he now likes sauerkraut. He was listening to a folk tale when I came down and eating. When he was done he told me, “You’re free time have the last bit of sauerkraut” And he asked, “Before the coronavirus how long was your commute to Omar?…I just learned commute.” I think from the “I’m Bored” story.

He had fun typing with the voice dictation on my computer, then he played Endless Arcade for his 30 minutes. After 6, Colin called and they played Minecraft. I went for a run. I got back and took a shower. When I came down they were playing with the shape/color stacking cards—the ones that are like a puzzle. They called back, and Colin and Vivian and Cherie and everyone then sang happy birthday for their insect. August, traumatized by birthday celebrations, ran and curled up in the red chair. But he was okay with it. When he showed Cassie his missing tooth he said, “I’m a tooth losing maniac.” He was repeating Carly.

I made chocolate pancakes for myself. He has stopped eating them already, saying they are boring. But he was hungry, so I suggested putting peanut butter on it. He said he really liked it and ate a whole one. As he was about to finish it though I asked if he wanted more and he said yes so I made another, but then he never touched it. He was telling me how we should buy socks from Bombas(sp?) and reciting full sentences about their socks from their ad, which is in the “I’m Bored” episode. He now listened to it again, saying “I love it. I’ve done it three times.”

We then had our family meeting, where we introduced our plan (made with Gabi) for teaching self regulation and paying him a salary (stars) for using them, or not needing them. He loved the idea and said he’d never hit again. He was acting it out, and said, “I’ll just use a test subject” hit the paper, then pretended to talk to it and give it a hug and a kiss. Carly said something about adults needing to not hit and he said, “That’s why kids aren’t in the military…I’d accidentally shoot a skyscraper instead of the enemy…Hey boss, can the city rebuild the skyscraper I accidentally destroyed?”

After the meeting he went to the bathroom. He asked, “What’s a champ?” She asked where that was from and he said, “Lewis Hamilton…he’s my favorite race car player in Formula 1…he’s an expert at it.” Although he keeps slipping and calling him “Chris Hamilton”. He was being silly, and said, “You can’t really differentiate between me drinking mercury and being crazy and me being silly.”

Got him upstairs, and we were discussing what food he needed before bed, and I said a couple crackers. He set me straight on his numbering system. Some is 2, several is 3, somewhat is 3.5, a few is 4, and a couple is 5

He told me, “So you learned a lesson.”

And Carly told us about a funny email where a student explained she had taken her computer into the bathroom during a breakout room and needed assurance for her parents that she was doing something for class and wasn’t sneaking some social media time she wasn’t supposed to have.

Carly gave him a bath, and told her about the Kurzgesagt slinky on an escalator analogy of living. He told her something, then,“Isn’t that a nice riddle? I have a mastermind.”

He finished his food in the bedroom while listening to the new story “The Bunny’s Big Leap”, and then “The Bargain” and “Anansi and the Turtle”. All short stories. We then finished the National Geographic Kids magazine. He asked, “What’s a raptor?” He’d heard it in one of the dinosaur podcast stories.

We had lights out and were listening to the Trance Frienz album, starting at 10:40. He kept waking me up. He asked about dictators and passing laws, which we discussed, and human echolocation, which I said we could learn about tomrrow. He had a joke about feeling a book as a blind person. And he asked me, “How do you fall asleep so quickly?” “How do you close your eyes when you have to blink? Just so you know, sometimes I literally fall asleep with my eyes open.” I had talked about how you just let your eyes close and relax. But he won’t lie down and be quiet for more than a minute at a time. But then he did talk about it being hard to keep is eyes open when he is tired: “It’s like my eye muscles are getting weaker.” I had to start the album for a second time, and he was asleep by 11:25.

Song of the day:

Playing and singing:

Going upstairs song and dance as a servant:

Waiting for the insect birthday:

Happy birthday to a bug:

The funny mama voice and filming her:

He was up by 8:15. I went up, and about the first thing he said was, “What game was I going to play?” He was thinking of Infinite Arcade. Sometime during the night he had moved down on the lower bed, head towards the window. I asked if he had remembered this. He said, “Probably in my dream where one of my redstone machines wasn’t working…couldn’t get into a chest…so I moved to a farm that was working. It was in the nether.” “I also had a dream about lunch and a piece of a cookie and people falling in a chasm…and stuff like that.” He clarified that that was all in the same dream. He had also taken the container with the teeth in it out from under his pillow and put it on the headboard, and said he remembered doing it.

Downstairs he played Infinite Arcade for a few minutes, then we played in our creative world in Minecraft. When done he went and played piano. I went upstairs, and when I came down he was half naked, having just gone to the bathroom, and said, “Hey Papa” him half naked. He put on shorts we’re pretty sure he’s worn since he was 2. Carly made him a chocolate pancake for breakfast.

He remembered the money from the tooth fairy. I went up to check first, as I hadn’t actually remembered to put it under his pillow, having left it on top of the book case. He then came up and found his ten shekels. Back downstairs he played more piano, and for some reason I mentioned “Somewhere over the rainbow”. I showed him a video of Judy Garland singing it in The Wizard of Oz and then we watched a video of the Israel version.

We were then going upstairs. He went in with Carly for a few minutes, then I came back up when he was ready. We did the sleeping/waking up game, with the Family family getting in a big fight with the cats involved. That allowed us to wrestle around. He had a bit of a Myna and Minecraft game, is hen we talked about geocaches and ideas for hiding one near our house. He then had the idea to go feed the ants.

But downstairs we first got distracted with piano. We played a duet together, which was cool. He then wanted to play backgammon, so we got that out and remembered the rules and he played against himself. We ate some grapes and put some schnitzel in to cook, then went for the ant walk, feeding them bits of his pancake from breakfast.

Back at home he played with Other Mama (her shirt), then we watched the newest Grian video, then ate schnitzel. He listened to “I’m Bored”, a new story, on Stories Podcast for alone time. He then showed Carly some Infinite Arcade and then we played Minecraft in Survival. He was still hungry, so had more schnitzel. We then had a cookie and milk. We played another duet together on the piano and really impressed Carly.

Carly and I were meeting with Gabi, so we went and August got set up to watch Iskall’s videos from the beginning and had to have the proper kind of lollipop. August asked, “What’s surreal mean?” Iskall uses it at the beginning of episode 1. Carly and I met with Gabi, which went well, then I finished watching episode 2 with him.

Downstairs I played chess against the computer for him, and neutralize was a word of the day when I used it. Then we were back upstairs for a Sister game. It involved the waking up game, but had Baby Brother sleeping with her and waking her up. We ended up doing the hand snake thing, then my hand was a jumping frog that exploded when it got still. He was laughing hysterically. Then he had a game where Sister met a kitten in park. Turns out to be a homeless Millie, pretending to be a cat to get taken home (sort of an alternate back story for her). Then a version where she’s an owl in the jungle and injured.

Carly was getting him dinner and he requested coconut rice. Carly also made sparagus and broccoli. I went for a run and they played Minecraft, after which they watched a couple minutes of a documentary and had popcorn, then Cherie called and they mainly talked to her. I got home and took a shower and when I got out he came up and was asking me about having some of his iPad time from tomorrow early, today, so he could show Carly Infinite Arcade. I suggested he read one book to her and get a few minutes of iPad time that way:

Him: “You said exactly what she said.”

Me: “Wow, it’s kind of scary how we think alike. It’s like we’re perfect for each other.”

Him: “No. You’re not.”

Me: “We’re not!?”

Him: “Yeah.There’s some flaws. You get angry with each other sometimes.”

He went down and read to her, then showed her Endless Arcade. She took him up for a bath, then they played a couple of games: the shark game (from Cherie and Chuck), and then the balancing game (from Mom and Dad). Precarious was a new word. And he told her “You feel frustrated right now” when she was having trouble with the balancing.

I went up at 10. He was talking about his mistakes, I can’t remember in what, and Carly said she was impressed. He groaned and face palmed. In bed he was asking me about famine and drought and the Yemen war. Capitol was a word of the day, and he made a connection to Polytopia. He was then talking about something and said, “There’s a variable…it dissipates…I’ll call it D for Distance.”

We went and brushed our teeth, then he played his melodica and was asking about time signatures. He told me, “I’m going to test if reincarnation is real in a hundred years. I’m going to die: wait, what happens when you die?” Which then led to big discussion. We put on Rival Consoles, and he was asleep around 11:20.

End of a song:

Money from the tooth fairy:

Today’s upstairs dance:

Typing 1:

Typing 2:

Ant feeding:

Yummy cookie noises:

Lots of laughing:

His way of playing Simply Piano:

Simply Piano 2:

Simply Piano 3:

Reading to Mama:

He was up at 8:40. He went to the bathroom on his own, then came down to me. Carly wasn’t down yet. I was watching the start of the 4 Hours of Shanghai, which I’d never watched a few months ago when these sorts of things were still happening. He watched a bit with me, then started playing in Musyc. He eventually said it was time for Minecraft, and Carly played with him in our survival world. He asked, “What’s stubborn mean?”

He played piano, including a song that I recorded and really want to compose in Notion for him. He went and sat sideways in one of the red chairs with Carly. She said he should eat a hearty breakfast. Me: How do you do that if you’re a vegetarian? Him: Good joke! He then told her all the jokes he knows: “What’s a shark’s favorite game? Follow the bleeder.” “What’s a whale’s favorite game. Swallow the leader.” And of course, “Knock knock…Interrupting trombone…” And “Why did the duck cross the park? To get to the other slide.” And, “Why are fish so smart? They swim in schools.” (Not sure where he got that one.) He started to ask “Why are birds sometimes far from a flock?” But forgot the answer. Then made up, “Why are shorts so short? Because you only wear them for a short time.” He said, “I learned from dada. Dada, thanks for teaching me how to make corny jokes. To annoy mama.”

They went upstairs together to exercise and I finished putting the new keycaps on. He came down and ate Cheerios and listened to “Daniel in the Lion’s Den” and “Dinosaur Christmas” as I did that. That was his alone time, so the they played Minecraft. I made tuna sandwiches for him. Carly and I reminisced about Korea and Thailand coffee shops. When August saw lunch, the sandwiches with pickels, he said, “Yum! Just the kind of lunch I love!” While he ate she read a solar system book to him. We did a short Brother and Sister game while she did laundry. She came back down and read a Clementine book. He ended up piling the couch with pillows and a blanket as a sort of fort.

We did Earpeggio together, then he deleted some apps off of his iPad that he doesn’t want any more. We talked about which ones had data. He was happy to delete Toca World, as he said he had really messed it up as it was and he should restart it anyway. We had a cookie and milk, and he had a problem in that his cookie was too big to fit in the cup to reach the milk. When he was done eating I asked if he wanted a straw to drink the milk. He said he didn’t need a straw: “I could do it the old fashioned way: you know, before they invented straws and after they invented cups.”

Cleaning up the pillows was hard for him, but we got to an agreement on that. He and I then went outside and he watered plants. I had heard about the drought in Zimbabwe on a BBC podcast, and about the internet cable Facebook is laying around Africa. I mentioned these to August as he watered, then we sat in the swing and listened to them together, then found other stories to read and watch about them, like https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/14/facebook-building-undersea-cable-in-africa-to-boost-internet-access.html. We also discussed Starlink, which he as excited by: https://www.pcmag.com/news/public-trials-of-spacex-satellite-internet-service-to-begin-within-6-months. As we sat there some middle school boys walked by. August quietly tried to tell me something, not wanting to be heard. One of the boys was wearing a short with a creeper head from Minecraft on it.

We got up and played a little of our ball game and then he had a game with Brother meeting a person from the future with fast satellite internet. We went inside and watched episode 10 of Mumbo Jumbo. Carly made the chocolate pancakes, and we went upstairs for a Myna building OTT game. He also wanted to watche the epilepsy video again (https://youtu.be/MBfJozL7qHM).

I went for a run. He had chocolate pancakes for dinner, then some nectarine. Then played Minecraft with Vivian and Colin. I came back and showered and started watching the live FOSNA Nakba Day seminar on Palestine and Indigenous Struggles. Carly went for a walk, and August wanted to learn more about famine, so I was watching videos about it with August (like on the effect on elephants -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YudO_sqYY8U and farmers using hydroponics – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po2hAN_c0tk) and then he asked about famine, not just a drought, so we learned about Yemen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBMo2m1mdlY).

And then, very exciting, his front tooth came out. Carly got back and we showed her the tooth, and the two of them played chess, first in Chess Kids on his iPad, then on the chess app on my iPad. I finished the webinar, then got things ready upstairs and folded laundry. Carly got him up for his bath, then had him trying on new shorts for this year. We went in to his bed and he had a game with Bar playing Minecraft and teaching a mean girl a lesson. He asked, “What’s cutting edge mean?” He finished his Cheerios in the bathroom. I was wearing my KEXP shirt that looks like a video game and it reminded him of Infinite Arcade and he wants to play that tomorrow. I also told him about Galaga.

We brushed our teeth, then went in to bed. He asked if we could get another lamp like his by his bed, and I reminded him it was from Korea and we couldn’t get the same lamp. This had been a discussion several months ago. He got kind of sad and upset. It was clear he was afraid it would break sometime and he wouldn’t be able to have the same lamp. After a few minutes of persuading him we could fix most everything that could happen to the lamp he felt better.

He asked, “What’s B A R N spell?” Not sure where that came from. Finally, at 10:50, we had the lights off with the AC on and a DJ Spooky album. He asked, “You know in that religious thing where you reach enlightenment?” He meant Buddhism, and we discussed that. At 11:10 he then started talking about nuclear weapons, and made the analogy

“Like glass in a hammer storm.” He got back to talking about Buddhism again, and said “Since there’s so many things to be, there’s a tiny, tiny, tiny chance you’ll be it…No matter what we are we should appreciate it…be it mosquito or wasp or human…”

He randomly said, “just so you know if I meet a genie I’d wish for more wishes…according to the legend…”

He was then clarifying “taking for granted” versus “appreciating” as he had thought they meant the same thing. He said we should appreciate things, and compared it to a famine. Although he said that in a famine he still wouldn’t appreciate broccoli stems, but he would eat them.

Finally, he said, “I really want a dream about it snowing…or in real life would be even better.” And was asleep at 11:40.

Song of the day:

Finding which keys still have issues and a new song:

Another song of the day:

Chess with mama:

He was up at 8:40. He went to the bathroom on his own, then came downstairs and I greeted him at the bottom. He played piano for a while, then wanted to get to our Hermit Challenges in Minecraft. We did that. I challenged him to “Tame a pet”. We did it like they did in Hermitcraft, writing on pieces of paper and putting them in dispensers. I was about to suggest he ask Carly to help him write his, when he said he was ready. He had written “Min a dimed wif wuud picasis.” That is, ‘Mine a diamond with wood pickaxes.’ The first time he’s done so much guess spelling at once, and definitely the longest sentence he’s ever attempted to write.

A productive day in Minecraft: we also named the turtle that spawned on top of a lamppost and has been there for months ‘Shmorgadeturtle’. And I found two cats, and we each tamed one and named them Shmorgadeeboop (me) and Cute (him).

When we got off, he noticed that Gilad was on Minecraft. I had forgotten it was Friday. So they were playing together a couple minutes later. We showed Gilad around our survival world, then they went into a world of Gilad’s. It was going to be really warm today, and I’d gotten August into shorts. I went outside and worked out there while they played, after getting him oatmeal. Lovely, but a cement mixer soon drove up the block where they’re doing some sort of work and was making all sorts of noise.

He finished with Gilad right as I finished with work. He wanted to earn 2 stars. So first we did a Ms. Safe music time, doing a couple pages of the theory book, then watching a video about time signature tricks, which reminded me of what August does with triplets and duples sometimes and learned that the process is called a hemiola (https://youtu.be/0RLwXSbSErs).

He then earned a star by reading to me from Rivet. He easily jumped up a couple levels from where he’d been previously reading to me from, and read No! by Karen Vermeulen, which was really good, then one of those awful YouTube books, this one about elves on a shelf.

That gave him 5 stars so we played Minecraft, this time in the flat world and making snow golems everywhere, particularly to make snow on our mountain. He asked me, “What’s the ‘port’ part mean?” In the word teleport. After that he listened to the Max Goodname story about “The Magic Armor” again. We learned the word prestidigitation from it. We had the dark grapes and hot dogs for lunch, followed by cookies and milk. We then started “Max Goodname and the Silent Knight”, listening to half of the first episode.

He played some piano, then wanted to go upstairs. He agreed to have me read some articles I’d wanted to read to him upstairs. We started with a New York Times article about how praying mantises hunt, but got distracted by the mention of something called robber flies so we read more of the article on them (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/science/robber-flies-eyes.html?referringSource=articleShare) We learned about constant bearing angle, and how it involved trigonometry, and August practiced with his hands. Then in Haaretz we read parts of articles about reverse culture shock (from COVID-19) and about a kid who is transgendered, before getting to the article I had in mind, about giant viruses (Giant viruses https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-health/.premium.MAGAZINE-mystery-of-the-giant-virus-stargate-solved-1.8843231)

Carly was down for a bit, and August requested doing more Civic Mirror. Carly gave him one of her shirts to cuddle with to reduce some of the jumping on her, and it seemed to work: “Okay, this actually feels really good.” She told him about the Civic Mirror country of her students, and how a student was taking the president/dictator to court. August observed, “How do you take a dictator to court‽”

He agreed to go on an ant walk, and Carly came too. We took some old apple to feed the ants, and he divided it between three colonies: the usual one, a colony he saw with a path across the sidewalk, and a new one that popped up closer with really fast reddish ants. We studied each of those for several minutes, realizing that you could see the paths of the ants on the brick sidewalk from where they’d worn away the dust with all their walking.

Back at the house he played some synthesizer, then said, “Mama, back to Civic Mirror. I was a dictator.” I started working on keycaps. Carly was tired and went upstairs, so August and I watched Mumbo Jumbo episode 9. We then went outside and I worked on the keys and August was Myna talking about her megabase. He also watered the plants. He went in and was playing piano, sans a lot of the white keys, so he played in pentatonic, to just use the black keys. He came out and told me, “Here’s why i like playing in pentatonic…everything fits.” Back inside he played piano for me: “Here’s a warm sound…naturish.” “Here’s a song that sounds like a castle is being attacked or something.” And he told me, “I’m really interested in dynamics.”

We then walked back over to see how the ants were doing. The piece on the sidewalk was almost gone. It looked like they had left the peel. While the small piece on the red ant nest was gone, presumably they were able to pull it into the hole. His top front tooth is almost out and he’s wiggling it a lot. He randomly asked, “What’s cunning mean?” Probably from a story (maybe Loki?)

Colin called about 5:30 and we talked to him and Cassie. He told us that Oma and and Opa are camping. They are in Parker, Arizona. August asked, “Are they setting up a humble camp?” August and Colin called each other back and forth. It interrupted Vivian, as it also rang on her iPad, and she was sounding more teenager-y than usual today. August played piano for them and when Cassie asked if it was a song he had learned he said he just made it up. And said, “I’m not really into sheet music now. I’m into making stuff up.”

August and Colin wanted to start Minecraft early, and Vivian wanted ten more minutes of reading, so they waited. They then all played. Not sure which world they ended up in. Colin had a bit of a fit at some point, and August expressed some empathy for him, saying that he is probably tired now and that “I get tired when I have a fit.” And later was asking Vivian why she wouldn’t let Colin in her hangout area. He also randomly asked, “What’s blushing?”

I went for a run. When I got back they were outside teaching Oma about Minecraft. They were listening to “Max Goodname and the Silent Night” and having popcorn when I came down from a shower.

When he finished part one of that story I got him upstairs. He told me, “You should think of a Brother and Sister game scenario. You haven’t done that in a long while. Sorry, I’m a dictator.” Even though 95% of the think of the stories seems to be me. He spent a long time in the bathroom, asking along the way “What’s a tourney?”

We went to the bedroom and he had a Brother and Sister game where Myna had gone “OTT” (over the top) in Minecraft and made a huge dirt hut build. He ate his crackers and peanut butter, and said good night to Carly. We read more of National Geographic Kids, then listened to the Brian Eno and Harold Budd album The Pearl. He asked, “What’s cunning?” Then fell asleep right at 11.

Song of the day:

Music lesson time:

Playing a hemiola:

Hemiola 2:

Mama shirt:

Ants 1:

Ants 2:

Ants time lapse:

Synth time:

Playing pentatonic:

A warm song:

His first sentence!

He was up at 8:35. Called me up and asked for new pants. Gave him a pair and we decided they had gotten too small, so switched to shorts. As I made up the couch he asked “What’s RIP mean?” When we went downstairs he went to the bathroom and said “Here’s a fun out of tune double bass instrument you could play in the orchestra.” He was referring to the groaning noise that happens when you slightly push down the buttons.

We played in our survival world, then had oatmeal. I needed to finish up some work, so we watched the newest Iskall video and I worked. When it was over he went and played piano. I was finishing up an email, but he suddenly got really impatient for me to be done and started pushing me from behind, etc. I finished, but then went outside to take a break. He came out, and instead of calming down went the other way. We went back inside, where he had a big meltdown, to the point where Carly came down to help for a few minutes. She went back up as he was sort of calming down, and after a few more minutes we were doing okay.

He had asked about whistling the other day, so we found a Bright Side video on how to whistle and watched that and practiced. He then watched another Bright Side video or two, one of which was on ‘Lifehacks’. We moved to the microscope, where we had talked about examining the different kinds of salts and sugars. I got those out, along with pepper, sesame seeds, and something else. We studied a few of them under the microscope. They are things that are kind of big though—we probably would have been fine with a magnifying glass. We need to start figuring out better ideas for the microscope.

For lunch he ate the last of the salmon and French fries. A sort of fish and chips. He plated piano, then listened to “Billy Goats Gruff” for alone time. He had listened to “Dinosaur Christmas” yesterday. Not sure if I’ve heard that one. He asked, “What’s a precaution?”

In Minecraft we went to the nether in our survival world. He then spent a long time in the bathroom. He was Myna talking about her mega base. I had a headache, but not because of his explanation. I went upstairs for Advil, and August eavesdropped on Carly and heard them talking about Civic Mirror. He heard them talking about a constitution and not having one. He asked me, “What’s a constitution?” We went back downstairs and looked at pepper and oatmeal.

We got ready to go for a walk. We were talking about giving each other challenges in Minecraft, and then about how to give one to Carly, when she came down. We went for our walk and fed them a couple pieces of his snack bar. I had fun with some photography of the growth of the cacti and other things. We were discussing the microscope more and I mentioned pond scum. He asked what scum meant, so another word of the day.

He brought up food banks, and we had a long discussion about how they work and the ethical and practical decisions that go into people choosing to go to them. We then watched the Sarah and Duck Sea Cow episode, as we had read about manatees the other night.

Carly came down, and he started to get hyper. Carly and I were trying to finish the fruit and vegetable order. I asked if he needed a few minutes of Mama time and he said, “Pay attention to me!” That seemed to work pretty well. She gave him attention, and they discussed Civic Mirror and started to plan their own country and I finished ordering the fruit and veggies.

Carly made dinner (a couscous thing and rice and tofu) and I finished the piano key caps for the day (over halfway done) and he played piano, skipping the gap. He then played Minecraft with Vivian. He really liked the couscous dish again. Carly talked to Cherie and then played with them in Minecraft. I went for a run, and it was the first time in weeks that I ran the whole distance (3.5km), as my right ankle had been bothering me. So for a while I had just been walking, then working back into running gradually as the ankle took it.

When I got back August reading to her on Epic. Not sure he read enough though to earn a star. When I came down from shower she was reading Nate the Great to him. I had tried the same book a few months ago, and she came to the same conclusion as me that it wasn’t very good. August said something was “indeed” and Carly and I were quite amused.

I did a little work, and he made a book structure behind me and connecting to Carly. Carly was really tired. She got him upstairs though and gave him a bath. In bed he listened to “Max Goodname and the Song of the Basilisk”. Basilisk was another word of the day. He was then playing the waking me up game, and fed me Cheerioes as I slept. Carly came in and said good night. We went and brushed our teeth and then then read National Geographic Kids about more animals that are endangered/recovering, and about ways that people can help. Had lights off and an Olafur Arnalds album on right at 10:30, but didn’t help him get to sleep any faster. He woke me a few times, and said he couldn’t get to sleep a few times. He was finally asleep by 11:25.

Toilet instrument:

End of a song:

Song of the day:

More song of the day:

Loose tooth:

Improving around the missing keys:

Bubbles in the water bottle:

Called me in once during the night. His covers were down and I pulled them up. When I got up in the morning though he was on top of the blanket, with his head near the end of the bed.

He woke up just before 8:35. I went up, and he requested the waking me up game on the couch bed. His wart then came off while on the bed. Looks better already. We played that for quite a while until I heard Carly’s phone ringing and we took it down to her and he said good morning. He then headed back upstairs and we played more of it, finally going downstairs after 9:05 and he headed to the piano. I had replaced the broken key that I’d glued last night. He had a cool motif he was playing with. I recorded part of it, but missed where he’d been playing with it with two hands.

He went to the bathroom, then asked, out of nowhere, about whether people were still cutting down trees. I talked about here, the U.S., and Brazil, and reminded him about the cocoa bean activity where we’d made decisions about where to grow our beans. He asked about the word timber, so that was our first word of the day.

He requested the survival world, so we played in that. We then had oatmeal and watched GoodTimeswithScar. He played piano, then we went upstairs for the waking up game. And we did one more level in the Brother game before August had fun falling and jumping on the bed. Finally got him downstairs, and as he played piano I made him a flip book, which we’d heard about in the history of film video. He wanted me to do Earpaggio, so we did that, and he videotaped me doing it, and also took a time-lapse.

We then made cookies as we listened to DJ Spooky albums. He then listened to Stories Podcast, finishing the Max Goodname story. Stunt was a word of the day. He then listened to “White Flowers, Red Roses”. We had the rest of the salmon for lunch, and ate outside. He explained why he doesn’t like their “The Brilliant Firefly” stories. Basically, it is a superhero story. He then listened to “Thor in the Land in the Giants” and told me, “I’m really familiar with Loki after ‘Loki and the Golden Hair’.”

He went upstairs to tell Carly that cookies were ready, but when he found out the first sheet of them only had brown chocolate he decided to wait 15 minutes until some with white chocolate were done. That was impressive. We played piano, and I was learning “Daybreak”. He then watched an Ants Canada video. He asked me what poaches and maintenance meant. I was working on the new keycaps, and he also came out to ask me what advantageous means.

He came out and watered plants. Carly was then done with work, and he was bothering her, even saying that he had moved up annoying day again. I told him it wasn’t okay to switch to being annoying like this and he got upset with me. Carly took him upstairs, then he came back down and was supposed to talk to me about it, but started getting more upset, telling me “I need you to forget about it!” He really felt bad about being criticized. We got him calmed down, and a minute later he asked Carly, “What did I get upset about?” He then listened to “The Fairy’s New Year Gift”

I made dinner: baked teriyaki peanut butter tofu, lemony asparagus with a peanut sauce, and a packaged big couscous thing. He of course liked the last thing the best. He played Minecraft with Vivian. She downloaded some random world that had military equipment in it. I went for a run and then took a shower. He read to Carly for another star. They used Epic, and August was reading at up to Level H.

He brought the bowl of popcorn upstairs (not sure if they had been watching something) and hung out around me as I got to work. He was still hungry, and Carly brought up the rest of his dinner and he ate the tofu. He was passing on the asparagus, but when I said he could have a cookie if he ate it then it disappeared quickly. I told him he could leave his last usual bite. Carly was talking to Cherie, and August was teaching her about Minecraft. They also went downstairs so he could play piano for her.

I was still working, and Carly gave him his bath, then was reading to him from Older than Dirt. He was typing emails, and sent Cherie links to Mumbo Jumbo and other Hermitcraft videos. He was quickly finding each person’s first episode of season 7. I’m not quite sure how he was doing it. We said good night and went to brush our teeth. He called out “Vivian!” once when he meant “Sister!”

We read more of National Geographic Kids, reading about tamarins rhinos. August had a game with Brother meeting à tamarin scientist. prey was a word of the day when it turned out that Brother’s cats were preying on a rare population of tamarins.

He asked, “What’s luxurious mean?” It is from a Synctuition ad we’ve started to see on YouTube. It’s a horrible meditation app. August also learned the word luxurious from it, and said something about a “luxurious voice”.

He played his melodica, then I put on a Howie B album, Music for Astronauts and Cosmonauts. We very briefly played the waking me up game as we started to go to sleep. He randomly asked,

“What’s cahoots?” and was asleep around 11:30.

Morning piano 1:

Morning piano 2:

Falling on the bed:

Falling slo-mos:

A flip book:

Earpaggio:

Earpaggio time lapse:

Watering plants:

Melodica tune: