Author: Ryan/Dada

I was woken by a huge clap of thunder a little before 6:30. Just before 7, as Carly was about to head out the door, we heard “Mama!” from the stairs. She went up to see if he would go back to sleep. They came down about 7:20. We said goodbye to her (she took the car today, as it was pouring rain) then he did some typing on my iPad before remembering he wanted to buy Toca Tea Party. I agreed. He said “Yeah! Because I love tea!” And talked about how he’s had tea before. “Let’s buy a Toca app every OTHER day.”

He was singing “Do you know the muffin man…that lives in British new?” And “…that lives in New York City?” Got a video of part of it. The Muffin Man song is in one of his apps, so I’ll have to see what it actually says. Also, as we sat on the couch he said to me “Happy New Year!” When the Toca Tea Party app was ready we had a tea part with Peter Rabbit as it has three spots. We got through one tea party, but then his iPad restarted at the dish washing part.

I made him a spinach pancake for breakfast. Then he requested a strawberry smoothie, so I made a fresh strawberry smoothie. He entertained himself by setting a bunch of alarms throughout the day on my phone. I let a few go off over the next few hours before turning the rest off.

We read The Sisters and a big storm blew in. He pretended the thunder was monsters and was blasting them. He saw a face and said “Why’s that face lying down?” It was a sad face. We finished reading The Sisters, then he played the recorder. We then Skyped with my parents and heard about their trip to Everett and played piano.

After Skype, the number 14 came up for some reason. August told me “You can’t love that number. I do. Only one of us can love something.” But a minute later he changed his mind and said “You can love that number.” We played with the Lego cars, then he drew words and art on the chalkboard. Back to Tea Party for a tea party with Horsey and Marshy. We then played recorder and drum and comb together. We read the Lulu Witch book, then he sang from the songbook. Made up songs, but he wanted me to sing”Zip-a-dee-doo-da” and he really liked it so he ended up learning the words. We went upstairs and he watched Sarah and Duck and I took a shower.

Then gave him his bath and the power went out. The downstairs neighbor texted, asking if I could check his electrical box. Told him I was pretty sure the whole neighborhood was out, but we’d check the box when we were down with August’s bath.

We finished up and went down and out the front door. Actually, I did at first, and August, who had only put on pants, yelled at me to close the door. Later, I realized the heater was turned up to 30. He said he had done it because I was letting the cold air in. August came out with me so he could flip a circuit breaker for fun, and we watched the wind. It had blown over our bookshelves but they had luckily caught on the fence so little damage. The rain and wind though stripped some of the paint off.

Back inside August started making a big pile of stuff that he said was for the cars to drive down. It just kept getting bigger though, and he sang “Zip-a-dee-doo-da” as he built.

In the kitchen he found a bottle of soda water and asked “Is that the kind of drink that turns me into a bubble? The more I drink, the bigger I get! Until I pop! Then have to be a NEW bubble!” We put it in the refrigerator for later.

He went to his chalkboard and told me “Dada, I’m gonna make a piece of art!” He would tell me when he was done and ask me to take a photo. He added to the pile, then we ate pizza for lunch. I had cut mushrooms to put on a frozen pizza. He didn’t eat much of it. We were listening to music and he requested our New Year playlist. He then asked to listen to something that I love. But that was a new song. At some point we flipped to YouTube for something and he wanted to watch the orchestra version of Frozen that we’ve seen before. As he sat there watching it he said “I will NEVER be in an orchestra.” Wouldn’t explain why.

He wanted to play the Very Hungry Caterpillar apps but soon switched to Earth Primer. He had that on my iPad and I was doing Hebrew on my phone and we kept helping each other out. He would ask me to read what it said on his screen, etc. It was some good learning and tea time. We ended up playing the head pushing game, which he wins, so then I won the kissing game. I told him he could win the kissing game if he just kissed my cheek once. So he did, but then said “I don’t ACTUALLY kiss.”

He was eating more strawberries and crackers and kept eating and eating. I asked where it was all going. He was getting silly and said of his stomach, as he held up a book, “It’s about the size of this book.” He did some more chalk art, then took photos of me to be blurry. We were talking about going on a walk. Earlier in the day I had looked at the forecast and said it would rain until mama got home. Now he asked, as there was sun outside “Were the people that control the weather wrong?”

We went for a walk at 3:20. He said “It will be a Zinnie walk!” And it was, as he steered us basically the entire time. I realized there’s been a progression of Zinnie walks: first he just pointed the direction, then he could tell me the directions, and now he can steer himself.

Up by the pine tree park it started to rain and we ducked right under a bush that was hanging out. It was perfect, as it then poured for a minute. While there we got to see a nice big rainbow. We kept going up to town and he really liked the downspouts on the mall/grocery store building. I started to turn us around, but then he said there was actually something he wanted to see in town. So we turned back and kept going. We turned left and walked towards the hardware store. We were following the river of water that was flowing all the way down towards the grocery store. At about the hardware store we could see where a stream was coming down from in town, through the dirt, and across the road to join it.

It was good timing after he had just been looking at runoff, infiltration, and erosion in Earth Primer. We talked about those, and we also saw oil on the water, so talked about pollution and how streets, etc. increase runoff. We kept following the water, then down the street at the other end (where we’d followed construction water before) and we followed some more runoff down the hill towards home.

August was singing Ants go Marching and got to 33. For most of the numbers the ant was building things, like “stops to build an address” or “build a post” etc. He then stopped, then jumped to 91 and sang to 97. We walked over to the big drainage area from Kibuts Galuyot towards the bridge to the mall. There was a good amount of water running, and it was from the street, down the ditch and through the pipe to the sides of the highway. August said “Mystery solved!”

We were home at 4:25. Carly had been home for a bit. They opened the presents from Vivian and Colin: a poop fidget spinner, a piece of art from Vivian, and a shirt for Carly.

He got on his nursing mittens. He went to the bathroom and said “And besides! I don’t even need my stool anymore.” He’s obviously grown, as we got a stool for the downstairs bathroom for him, but now he doesn’t need it to wash his hands and can even turn the water on on his own.

He had more smoothie then went to the chalkboard. He’d asked me to draw something earlier and it ended up being triangles with numbers in them: “After I erase this number thing I will make the last picture of the day. That you can take a picture of.” He drew something and was doing made-up letters: “This is a weird alien words…accented pofingo…”

He wanted to play Tea Party but wouldn’t let Carly play. He then ended up in the Hangeul app – I think because when skyping he had been typing in Korean and gramma asked him if he could read it and he said he didn’t remember
. He was doing the musicians names, etc. that I used to not like and I didn’t mind now, since he was just practicing to remember the letters. He asked “Can it still matter? Could you still not like that?”

He was hungry, but rejected all of our food ideas, including the spinach pancakes. Then I thought of jam. Pancakes with jam did it. I made a second one for him and he got a bit demanding: “Dada, why’s my pancake taking so long? You should cook it faster.” “You forget-ed a fork. That’s gonna make you go to jail.”

Back on the couch he found the princess story maker app and we made a couple of pretty good videos. We read more of Magic Treehouse #14. August remembered the soda water and asked “Can I have some of that drink that turns me into a bubble?”

After that Carly took him upstairs to get ready and they did Drops. I asked him what he was going to dream about and he said “Bad dreams, rainbows, rain…and thunder!” I left them at 7:20.

Got to watch this one to the end: 

Looking too much like Emperor Palpatine:

His photo of me being blurry: 

Holding the umbrella as we watch the rainbow: 

Watching the water flow from downtown: 

Merry Poopmas from Vivian: 

I was woken a couple minutes before 6 by someone poking my face. When I came down they had finished nursing and he just sat on the floor, his back to the couch, for a few minutes. He then asked me to read The Magic Treehouse #13: Vacation Under the Volcano. We read a few chapters.

Carly left for work and we started to play a round of Toca Store. He sat and lay on the rug for several minutes. Then he threw up. He didn’t get upset. And in a small voice he said “I’m fine. I’m okay.” He then calmly sat on the couch with me. He threw up again at 7:25. The first time he was on the rug, but every time after that he made it to the hard floor. A very considerate thrower-upper. We finished reading Vacation Under the Volcano as we lay on the floor. He barely said anything during the morning. He spoke up about 8 when I mentioned crackers: “You mean those boring rectangle ones?” We read Berenstain Bears Stage Fright. He had some water and I took his temperature – 97.2 under his arm at 8:10 (mine 95.1, 96.5 mouth).

He threw up 8:13 for third time. As he was finishing he said, in a sad voice, “This is the worst day…ever.” We read Cam Jansen: The Ghostly Mystery. He threw up a fourth time at 9:10. Sat in my lap after that and wouldn’t answer any questions. He rolled off my lap and lay on the blanket. A couple minutes later, at 9:15, he was asleep on the blanket on the floor. I put the brown blanket on his legs.

The rain started at 9:30. August woke up, crawled to the hard floor and threw up at 9:40 (fifth time), then went back to sleep. I tried putting the brown blanket back on him a couple times but he kept kicking it off. At 10:20 there was a single huge crack of thunder, then the rain was back.

He slept until 12:15. He popped up and I asked how he was and he said “Pretty good!” Then “I’m gonna check if we have any popcorn?…We do! Can we have some popcorn?” “When someone actually gets sick, what can they eat?” He was talking about ten different things at once and a totally different kid. So we made popcorn. As he ate, I cautioned him to go slow. He said “Actually, I’m a caterpillar and I eat a little and drink a little each day.”  As he sat on the couch he very thoughtfully said “I don’t want you to get sick.” He gave a thumbs down, then two: “Thumbs two down.”

We read Berenstain Bears In the Dark, then ate some crackers and veganaise. I had suggested some Gatorade but he had said no. Carly suggested it again in an email so he gave in. He drank all of his Gatorade (mixed with a little water), then a second cup. I also cut up some strawberries and he ate some of those. We read three chapters of The Talented Clementine. At 1:15 he finally went to the bathroom: “I haven’t goes to the bathroom since all night!” He then asked “You notice I’m feeing good now?”

We then ate strawberries and crackers. Sitting on the couch he very randomly said “I hate poop. Well I hate dog poop. Cuz they don’t bury it. But I live cat poop.” We read some more Clementine, then the A Lime, a Mime, a Pool of Slime book about nouns.

He then went and played his piano. More so than ever before he was making up his own rhythms and patterns and attempting to make songs. It was really cool. He was then making up a song and showing me how to play it and teaching me. I’d then play it and he’d get a big grin on his face. He wanted to switch to GarageBand and the keyboard so we took them upstairs. I played Are You Sleeping on it and he made up a song: “This is a different song…Are you sleeping dada?”

I took a shower. While I was in the bathroom he asked for carrots. When I was done (and said he could skip a shower today) we went down and I cut carrots. But now he didn’t want any, and I had noticed he had gone back to sitting/lying on the rug and being quiet. He perked up a bit when he wanted his kaleidoscope and we went on a kaleidoscope hunt. Along the way we went outside to see if it was in his Zinnie shop but it was not. We admired all the flowers we have outside and commented on how they didn’t have flowers at Vivian’s or Gramma and Grampa’s right now. We put together our clues (he really liked having a mystery) and decided that mama had probably put it someplace when cleaning up on Tuesday. So we emailed her and she told us it was in a toy box. We found it and he used that several times through the rest of the day.

His temperature at 3:05 was 98.4. I gave him some Children’s Tylenol which he loved. An amazing breakthrough, as it is the first time he’s ever willingly taken medicine. We read more Clementine. The whole section about shoe shopping, which I found quite funny. The funniest thing we’ve read together, I think. August wanted a break from reading and I mentioned several things. He said “Walk…that’s what I need.”

By the time we got going, a little before 4, I saw Carly walking around the corner. We greeted her, then she went out with us for a walk around the block. Rain was threatening, so we stayed close. Back at the house she went in and we continued up Kibuts Galuyot. Didn’t get far. We saw a small tree blown over, then a branch that had fallen. Just past Holly’s house it started to rain, so we turned around and ran back to the house. Which was okay as he was falling asleep again.

With Carly he Skyped with Cherie. He has figured out how to save images from Google search then send them in Skype. He was sending her windows photos, for some reason. Then bugs, then cartoon pictures of smashed bugs. After that I took his temperature again, at 5:20, and it was up to 98.6. So that wasn’t what I expected. We read more Clementine as Carly made spinach pancake batter. He ate pancakes and then they did Scratch on her computer while I did dishes.

Carly went and took a shower and we read more Clementine, then What Do You Do with an Idea? August sang a little song: “monkey nice bananas…is in Egypt”. We then read Curious Geoege Cleans Up. He started a cracker/strawberry eating pattern. He’d eat one strawberry (cut in halves), then I’d give him one cracker. Repeat.

I got his pajamas on him and Carly took him upstairs at 7:15. He did much better with the toothbrushing today. They played Drops. Carly let him choose the ‘Spa’ and the magic categories. He said he’d dream about “Scary dreams and Drops”. I asked if he really has scary dreams and he said yes. When I asked him to describe one of his scary dreams he said “Monaters chasing me and eating me.” I told him monsters aren’t real – the most real monsters are the stuffed ones like Green Monster and he’s nice. I left them just after 7:30 but he was down at 7:47 (as he told me). We read The Sisters, then Lulu Goes to Witch School (which I bought quite awhile ago but we hadn’t read). Carly then read to him Everyone Poops and Gaston.

They went back up after 8:50 but he was down at 9:20. We finished the Clementine book, then read more of The Sisters. He did more cracker and strawberry. He did some calculator on the iPad, then figured out how to make a really cool piece of art using the Isosceles math app. Then had another cracker and strawberry. I spotted a cat sitting outside by our tree and picked him up to see. I commented on how it could go in the Zinnie shop. He said “I don’t think it wants to buy anything.” I took him up at 10:30 and he went to sleep.

Sick boy: 

Asleep on the floor: 

Still asleep: 

Admiring the flowers: 

Kaleidoscope: 

Fallen tree:

He slept up on the bed between us for awhile during the night. He kept banging around into us and the headboard, but it was nice to have him up there.

Carly got up earlier, setting an alarm, then August was up about 6:50. He and I went down together after he lay on the bed for a few minutes. At one point I had gotten dressed but lay back down. He said “I thought you were going to find mama.” When we went down he asked me what my guess was for where she was. I guessed thecouch. My guess was wrong, as she was coming in from outside.

I went back to bed as I had a bit of a headache. While I rested a bit longer, they organized the kitchen cabinets and she made him oatmeal. I came back down and August asked if we could by Toca Store – he’s seen it on the list of Toca apps a few times but I haven’t bought it for him. He told me “I love stores!” “But not real stores.” He told me that he would really like the app, and I think he even said “I promise!” So we got it. In it, one person sets up a little store with 5 items to sell. The person on the other side then buys things and pays for them. When your purse runs out of coins it is a magic purse and will give you a few more. Usually only once, but sometimes more than once. You only count to five, and there is no giving of change, so I didn’t think it would last us long. But it was the game of the day.

We played a few rounds, then I went and took a shower. When I came back down they were still playing. Carly had already warned him about his bath and he went, if not willingly, only reluctantly. In the bathroom he found the puzzle button thing and sang other songs to tune of Old McDonald. In the bath he talked about all of the toilet paper/paper towel rolls in the bottom drawer. I got one for him and he was a “spy cow”. He then dropped it in the bath. I took it out and it became an experiment to see how and for how long it would dry. He also tried to climb over me to escape his bath early.

I took him downstairs wrapped in his towel. Today he said “crack, crack, crack” and came out of his towel ‘egg’ and flew around the kitchen. We played Toca Store again. He was saying things like “Those are our best sausages! They cost…” He got that from Carly. Carly was cleaning as we played. We then did Drops. A new word came up. It flashed the Hebrew, then the English. With no picture or sound, August read ‘parents’.

Carly was making him a pancake, and I said we could read a book while he waited. He wanted to read a big book, and chose the dinosaur book. He said “Tbat will take longer than the pancake!” We read a little, then he was being a “meomite”. I asked what that ws and he said “A meomite is a tall poisonous plant that reaches 19 millimeters.”

We ate spinach pancakes, then he was making up a song and built something out of pillows. He Asked Carly to get him more pillows from upstairs. She asked what he was building and he said “No, it’s a secret. I’ll tell you when it’s done.” When it was done it turned out to be a cracker machine “It makes every shape of cracker!” He then added himself to the machine, becoming a conveyor belt at the beginning of it as he lay on the stool and put his feet up on the chair. It then turned into an amazing tomato machine “I made a magic sun…dada, do you want to make a dive sided cube tomato? Then put in the ingredients!” Not only that, it could make tomatoes of any shape: cubes, five-sided pyramids, etc.

We were getting ready to leave, and David, our neighbor, was outside the fence. August asked me if he had found his key. August has mentioned David’s missing key every time he’s heard/seen David. So I asked August if he wanted to ask David and he said yes. We went out, and I had August ask him. August asked it nice and loud. David told us he had found it in something in his house. So mystery solved.

We left at 11:50. August was talking about “There’s a key in our key!” I thought August was being silly, but then he asked to see my keys. I got them out and pushed the button to make the physical key come out of our key fob: “See, that’s what I was talking about.”

We drove to the garden center we had once seen in Ein Vered, with pictures of a kangaroo on its signs. It turned out to be bigger than we thought. We walked around to the entrance, and the woman took us to see the fish pond. Carly went off to look at plants and August and I started by trying out a bench and swing. Of the bench he asked “what kind of wood might it be?” We then walked around and looked at wind chimes. There was one kind that would tangle easily so I told him to be careful with that one, then for all of them after that he kept asking if they would tangle.

We went out and saw the trees, and found one with really interesting pink fluffy flowers. Carly got a roll of bird netting to try to keep the cats out of the new vegetable beds and a bag of manure. I took the bag to the car, then I showed August how the gate latch worked and he tried it. We all then walked back through and looked at the slightly neglected sample garden areas.

Carly thought it was going to start raining so we got going. We went and looked for the tractor museum, but the road turned rough and it was supposed to close in a couple minutes at 1. We could park and walk to it sometime. The same with the Parrot Farm to the south, we found.

We drove into town. We stopped at the strawberry stand and Carly got 4 cartons of strawberries for 40 shekels. The prices have come down, and that’s cheaper than the grocery store. We then went to the post office, where Carly mailed a postcard. We walked from there down to the grocery store. August was impatient for more “chocolate bar” and Carly ended up taking him out and I finished the shopping.

We were home after 2:30. He was obsessed with the Toca Store game, but I made a deal that we would play a round, then read a book chapter. We read a chapter of Polar Bears Past Bedtime, then played Toca Store. Then the first chapter of Clementine. More store. Then we finished Polar Bears Past Bedtime.

He and Carly then played the gas station game, which is just a him and Carly game (I asked to play it once, and he said no, it was just for mama). In it, the spaceship is the gas station and his two Lego cars race around and need gas and go and fill up. When he had them fill up he said “Dispense, dispense, dispense”. I think we were both surprised by that one.

We then started reading Magic Treehouse #13: Vacation under the Volcano. Carly had cooked an artichoke and they ate it together. He decided “I love artichoke!” He then typed on my iPad. He was typing and copying and pasting and testing autocorrect. He’d type a few letters and see what it turned into.

I made a fresh strawberry smoothie and we all drank that. Carly had put the netting up and spread the fertilizer. We did Drops and he was choosing different categories, but ones I agreed to. Carly had been talking about going to do recycling and I said we should go now. He asked “Can I go to the bathroom first?” Carly then said that she’d take him. He said “Dada, can I go with you? You’re the best person ever.” When Carly insisted she wanted to go, he said “No. You’ll mess up the garbage…cardboard in the plastic, plastic in the cardboard. Glass in the bags, bags in the glass.” He had used what I’d been saying earlier to explain why he should go help mama do recycling since she hasn’t done it too much.

But when it came time to walk out the door he was fine with Carly going with him. He sat on his orange bike only to find out the seat is still wet. They changed his pants and put a towel down. They did recycling and were then gone for quite awhile. I was correct in guessing that they had gone to the park and played store. I asked what he had bought and he said “lots of things”. One thing was apparently pink shoes. They were back at 6:25. He came in and asked “Dada? Do you want to make some
crackers?” We then fixed the roof of his cracker warehouse (earlier, he had jumped into the middle of his machine and I said he had jumped on the crackers. He claimed there was a roof – now, he said there were some cracks in it).

He wanted to continue the reading/Toca Store pattern. He chose A De Activista first and we read most of that. Then Toca Store. He then nursed. Carly noted it wasthe first time he’d nursed since the morning. I said “You’re a big kid” He said “Uh-uh”. We then finished reading The Sisters. He was hungry and Carly had made him the last spinach pancake. He was still hungry so we had some banana bread.

Carly took him upstairs and I straightened up. He had been reluctant to go upstairs until I had suggested he could help mama with Hebrew again. I went up and suggested he dream about Hebrew words. He said “Bad dreams…and Hebrew words.” I left them at 7:45.

Nursery: 

Artichoke: 

August was up first. After a few minutes he said “Time to get up!” He and I headed downstairs at 6:57, leaving Carly in bed for awhile. We read part of Read Polar Bears Past Bedtime. He requested Cheerios, no strawberries. We then did some Wizard School and he watched part of Storybots Christmas while I made smoothie. Watched a little more while he drank smoothie. He stopped the episode when he was done drinking. He and I took care of the animals. I had him say “Happy New Year!” to Carly. He then said “I HATE Happy New Years.”

Carly made spinach pancakes. I had to take him upstairs. He calmed down and stood on his stool while Carly started cooking them: “Yeah, but it looks like green throw up!” He played on the iPad a bit and I took a shower. I then took him up for his bath and was able to wash his hair without too much trouble. We watched Arabic alphabet videos, then he played with toys for quite awhile before I washed his hair. Carly had gone out for a wog.

We went downstairs at 11:15. He was hiding in the towel and Carly pretended he was missing. He called this the “Towel trick” and wanted to do it over and over. He then got off the couch: “Follow. Follow me, mama.” He started drawing on the chalkboard and said “Nothing happening here.” He drew letters. Carly went up to take a shower. He drew H2O on the board, then made boxes and lines around it. He then made up a new song on the piano and wanted me to hear it.

He was even more excited when he found the Amelia Bedilia Christmas book. He had mentioned it a couple days ago, in the car or somewhere, and I had doubted its existence. He got so excited. He remembered my doubt and was now telling me it was real. We have never read it before. We read it and he set it on top of the book shelves so we could read it later.

I had gotten him some lasagna, and when he went to the table he looked and said “Oh dear, no fork.” I got him a fork. He was then writing on the chalkboard and wanted words to write. But he only wanted to write the first letter so it “stands for” the words “because its easier”. Carly tricked him into writing ‘water’ on the chalkboard by having him write letters for 5 different words. He and Carly then played with the Lego cars and alien, starting the gas station game.

Carly went upstairs to do some work, and he and I played with Cubetto, playing through Cubetto’s First Day and Cubetto and August’s Camping Adeventure. He then went and checked on the animals. Peter Rabbit was better, so August wanted to take of the bandage. This proved difficult though due to Peter Rabbit’s fuzzy fur. It took me awhile to get it, and August was stressed about how it could ruin Peter Rabbit. When I got it off he said “NEVER put bandages on Peter Rabbit again.” He also listened to his own heart.

It had been raining pretty well but seemed to have lightened, so August and I got ready to go for a walk. He suggested the big stroller and climbed right in and waited for me. I went up and got the brown blanket and tucked it around him. We wandered around, this way and that, discussing where we might find some cover. The sun covers over the playgrounds provide some over, but aren’t designed to be waterproof, and after they are soaked it just drips through. We ended up at Tal Garden. No cover, as August had assured me would be the case, but the rain had stopped, so we paused and had a little snack.

We then got walking again and crossed back over and went up to the dead end of Kibuts Galuyot and back. I was singing Sesame Street songs and he got quiet. He was getting tired, and then pretending to sleep, but then actually getting close to falling asleep by the time we got back, about 2:40.

Inside they nursed, then he went outside with her, then came in for his kaleidoscope. He was looking at things, saying “Whoa, whoa, whoa…”

She then headed back upstairs to work and he and I made banana bread. To keep himself occupied he made a sculpture/machine out of all of the measuring cups and spoons and lids that were about.  He watched some Timmy Time while I cleaned up, then helped me with Hebrew in Memrise. He then surprised me by straightaway spelling some words in Hebrew in Drops. We were starting to learn ordinal numbers in Hebrew, and he recited English ordinal numbers up into the 30s.

The banana bread was done and I took it out. It slid out of the pan and he said “Ooh, that came out pretty easy!” While we waited for it to cool he gave me a checkup with the doctor kit. We then ate banana bread and he played with some music apps.

Carly came down and they Skyped with Vivian. Last day they can do that for a few, at least, as she goes back to school tomorrow. Carly hadn’t eaten her cookie yesterday, so there was actually one left from our Christmas batch and she let August eat it, with plenty of milk. He then showed his Lego cars to Vivian and Colin and was playing with them. Chuck and Cherie called in as a group call, but that splits the screen in half. Normally, August hates this as he gets into it with himself on one side and Vivian on the other. He hands up and calls her back as we haven’t figured out how to get out of it. So even though this was a different situation it looked the same, and he didn’t like it: “Go away, split screen!”

He was ready for bed. We went upstairs. We had gotten Drops installed on Carly’s phone, and they sat in bed for several minutes and he helped her with using Drops and learning Hebrew. Very fun to see. He also made up a song about making mistakes, and I got that on video. So cute.

As I went to say good night he first said “Happy New year” to me. I asked what he would dream about this year and he said “Numbers, Christmas lights, presents…” And then paused just long enough for us to think he was done before adding “and scary dreams!” I left them before 8:10.

Pretending to sleep: 

We were all up and out of bed a little after 7. August and Carly played a big game of ‘Where’s Carly’s phone’ while still in bed, and August was really laughing: “Maybe it’s a mystery!” After we were up, August helped me make the beds, helping to spread out the sheets. I asked him to put Carly’s pillow up on the big bed and he said “But, mama sleeps with me.” Downstairs he and I took care of Marshy, giving him a lot of shots and filling three cavities. August gave Carly a shot and she said it was her flu shot. He asked “Are there a lot of birds around‽” Bird flu has left quite an impression on the boy. He then went off and went to the bathroom on his own, which he has been doing more and more of.

Carly went outside and he played Itsy Bitsy Spider and Park Math while I made us toast. On the sorting activities he was sorting from right to left – he was also trying to read numbers from right to left the other day. We got a banana to eat and he ate one bite and said he was done. I tried it and it was another bad banana – no flavor. He ate some strawberry and earned some more toast and jam. He then played with the doctor stuff on his own – emptying it or and carrying things back and forth in the pet carrier. He made a pile of pillows and said “This is a pile of comfy things.” We were listening to our playlist of New Year songs. He then started cleaning up: “That’s not right” and he carried Carly’s water bottle to her. “That’s not right” and he returned a book to the shelves. He then walked around using his kaleidoscope to look at everything. I waltzed with him to Tom Waits’ “New Year’s Eve”.

He was hungry so I got him his leftover mushrooms and teriyaki sauce. He was still hungry, so I made him more. When he ate them all he said “You ate all those mushrooms!” he replied “I don’t need any more! Thank you!” We sat and finished Magic Treehouse #11: Lions at Lunchtime. Carly was in the kitchen making lasagne and he ‘stole’ lasagna noodles from Carly. He was then using the tongs to pick up the extra bits of lasagna noodles.

I went and took a shower, then came down to take him to his bath. He had a meltdown though when I tried to give him a bath. I let him go to Carly and a few minutes later she was able to succeed in getting him into the bath. When he came down he came and sat right next to me on the couch and said “Not so good” before I said anything.

He and I then got ready and took his orange bike up to the park. He wanted to play store. He said his web was plain and he needed things for it. And he told me he was the shopkeeper. Upstairs was the household goods, and downstairs was groceries. He bought 5 pink pillows, a pink rug, and pink juice. He asked “Is there a sweets and goodies sction?” The swinging seat thing in there was our scale for the dry goods section, and he bought things like flies and ticks. After one transaction he said “Nice doing business with you.” Back upstairs I suggested he buy art for his web. He got one piece of art and said “I want this art. It’s a picture of a child eating too much chocolate and throwing up.”

Before we left we went and were swinging in his web for a few minutes, relaxing, and he did a funny video. We were home by 12:15.

Carly got ready to go and they left at 12:40, leaving me behind to have some work time. I started by hassling the car company about the reimbursement they still haven’t deposited into our account, then sent an email to a law firm to ask questions about my work status. Then I started working on some Sabeel stuff.

They were home about an hour later, having first gone to the plant store. They mainly stayed outside and planted seeds. They planted tons of veggies: broccoli, lettuce, carrots. They planted some in pots, and a little lettuce in the corner of the kitchen planter, but mainly turned some of the empty space between the papaya plants into beds. And they got a couple of pots and flower plants. August had been cute, picking up different plants at the shop and bringing them to Carly “How about this one?” Carly picked out one of the plants and August picked out the other.

They then headed to Netanya Beach, the one right in downtown.They played down on the beach but it was quite windy. They went to the same cafe we’d gone to before, Rhythm Bar and Store, and got a ‘Summer’ smoothie and a tomato and olive pizza. They were home at 5:35.

August then Skyped with Vivian. She showed him her hula hoop and he said “Actually, we’ve done hula hoops in activity class.” August was wearing his space shirt and Vivian recognized it as one that Cherie had given him while he was in Pennsylvania. August was playing with his alien and spaceship. Vivian had some sort of spaceship as well and said “Its a real one. It’s an actual alien spaceship.” They then made competing nests out of pillows. He then had a cookie: “Look at this cookie! It’s so big! Yeah, it’s soooo good.” They were the last cookies from our Christmas batch.

He was then watching the Hebrew Color Team videos and sent the links to Vivian. I got a call back from the lawyer, basically with all good news about my Visa and being able to work and not having to worry about Amendment 27.

When I came back down he was having fun pulling books off the shelves. He went outside with Carly and did a little Zinnie house. Back inside he told me about Netanya: “We had too much fun!” I had told him before they left that they couldn’t have too much fun. He said they made a moat but “We didn’t get water for it though…We just didn’t want to.” I had hummed the Addams Family theme song at some point and he was now humming it and asking about words. So we watched a couple different versions of it on YouTube. We then took care of the zebra and other animals. He tried on my shoes at one point.

We read a few chapters of Magic Treehouse #12: Polar Bears Past Bedtime . Just past 8 Carly took him up and started getting him ready. I did some clean up then headed up to say goodnight. I suggested he dream about polar bears. He said “Bad dreams…polar bears and bad dreams.” I left them at 8:15 and he fell asleep quickly.

Noodle: 

On the ‘scale’: 

Thumbs down: 

Thumbs up: 

Skyping with Vivian face: 

Wearing my shoes: 

He woke up about 6:45 and we all got up about 7, although I’m the slowest dragging myself out of bed. He was watching Wanda and the Alien, which he hasn’t watched for weeks. I did a little Sabeel work. He paused and nursed, then he and I watched Hebrew color and Arabic letter videos. I then let him play a few minutes of Monster Kitchen while I got some breakfast. I got a call from Omar with not-so-good news: the board doesn’t want to offer me an hourly salary for the work, and instead wants a lump sum, and it isn’t all that large. Still might do some work for them.

Downstairs, August played on the piano and said “I played a new thing on my piano!…You like it?” He then did dot painting with Carly: “It has two stingers. It’s an alien jellyfish, you know.” He ate oatmeal and mango for breakfast, then I went up to take a shower. When I came down they were using the doctor stuff and taking care of the animals. They had saved Monkey Nice Bananas with a couple of heart surgeries. And also some cuts: “He ran into a fence!” They were currently taking care of. Peter Rabbit and listening to his heart: “It’s gonna be cold.” “It’s okay Peter, were gonna give you a shot.”

I gave him his bath. He was in robot mode: “I use high temperatures to destroy robots and stuff.” After his bath he asked me: “Are you like alien and us…and me?…you need to put on rockets and special equipment and stuff.” Then downstairs he asked Carly “Do you want to be like us, dada, and alien?” He then showed Carly how to fly around the room:”But use high speed” runs around “Now you try…do you need to practice more?” “It would be easier if you shot fire out of your hands like me.”

We got going to Tiv Taam. We drove over, but once there Carly went in first and he convinced me to let him play in the car. He was the driver: “Those are the two babies and we’re taking care of them…because we’re adults…which direction?…We’re off the highway so I’m giving you control…Okay, we’re at the place were going. Roll up your windows or I’ll do it. They’re not doing it for quite awhile.” So then he rolled them up. We were also spotting and counting cats from the car.

We got home at 12:15 to put away groceries. He picked up the doctor stuff with spaceship while humming the Moby song “Almost Love”, which had been playing in the car. They nursed. I saw the port that Carly had found at the store and said “Nicely done, girl”. August was repeating me, saying “Haha. Nicely done girl.”

We got going again, this time to Old Tel Aviv. As we left he said “I hope when we get back Monkey Nice Bananas will feel more better!” We read the entire Kipper Collection book on the way down. We parked along the river and were walking by 1:30. We stopped by the little park next to where Airport Megan lives – we knew she lived in the area, but stumbled upon the specific spot by accident as Carly and I both remembered it from waiting in the van after we were picked up at the airport. He went down the little slide, then had me taking burst photos of him as he rocked on a toy. We were walking again before 2. He was really lounging back in the small stroller.

We kept asking if he wanted a sweatshirt. He said “I blinked; that means no.” He finally accepted a sweatshirt late into our meal. He wanted another park, so we were going to walk over to Independence Park first, but as we walked through the Old Tel Aviv core he said “I Chang-ed mind.” about going to the park first. So we walked down to the same restaurant we had eaten at the last time we were in Tel Aviv: Halevantini. And we got the same lamb kebab and roasted cauliflower. August got orange juice instead of grape, and I got an espresso this time. And we sat outside. When we ordered the waiter confirmed how many coffees and orange juices. August tried ordering extra. He kept telling the waiter “Two orange juices!” We had a lovely feast, and left at 3:10.

August was then a butterfly, then a ladybug, as we walked over to the park. He said he was a ladybug, not a ladybird, so I said he must be American. He said “Yeah, I come from American.” We then talked about what that means.

We walked down to the beach. He took off his shoes and asked “Can you make sure nobody steals them?” He made tracks in the sand, trying to push the stroller, then headed to Carly on the beach. As he ran he tripped and fell. He lay there for a few seconds, then said “It didn’t hurt!” He then made a game of running around the beach and falling down. He and Carly then made ‘shwarmeepa’, goddess of the aliens out of sand and Carly told us about how she learned about human sacrifices by playing in the sand when she was 5. They destroyed that one, then we scooted back as the tide was coming in and made another one. They then went wading in the water (I had my shoes and did feel like the hassle, and I was doing language study on my phone) and he would take wet sand (the quicksand) up and drop it on the dry sand and mix it in.

We got walking, and headed north along the waterfront. Stopped at a bathroom and he went in with me. There was then a spot where the waves were crashing up on the boardwalk. We watched that, then August went over to the bike and found one of Carly’s opened granola bars with chocolate and ate the remaining pieces. As we got walking she let him have the crumbs in it. He said “I’ll hold that. I know what I’m doing.”

As we walked across the west bridge across the Yarkon River he started singing London Bridge. As we kept walking I realized he was singing my verses. I end with the guard drinking tea. He kept adding verses: “What if he doesn’t like tea either? Tea either? Tea either?” And finally “This is the last verse of this song, of this song, of this song.” I told him I liked his verses, and he told me he had added one earlier as well: “Glue and sticky glue stick”

We got to our car and left about 5:15. In the car he had rainbows coming out of our noses, from 91-Story Treehouse (or one of them). His rainbow, he said, stretched all the way to our house. He told Carly “Follow my rainbow, mama!”

We were home at 5:45. I told August I felt a little icky. He asked “Can I feel you?” They Skyped with Vivian, then Carly skyped with Glecy and he and I did Wizard School. I sent him a couple of bird pictures. We then got cookies and milk and he skyped with Vivian again. Vivian was staring intently at the screen and Carly asked if she was watching a video. She said “No, I’m not watching a video. YOU’RE the video.” Soon after that Skype stopped working on their end. August and I went and took care of the horse, who was sick and also had a bad cut.

Carly took him upstairs. I went upstairs and hid under the covers while he was on the toilet. They had a thoroughly Carly and August discussion about the toilets diet. Then had fun ‘scaring’ August when he was in the room. Brushed his teeth and I suggested he dream about beaches. He said “Beaches…and monsters attacking me and eating me. Bad dreams, you know. I always say that.” Left them 8:15.

Taking care of Peter Rabbit: 

Monkey Nice Bananas after surgery: 

From Wizard School: 

Tel Aviv. Lounging:

Rocking: 

At lunch: 

To the beach: 

Shadow: 

Cleaning his shoes: 

Watching the waves: 

He slept until just past 7. They got up a little later, then me. I came down as Carly was dragging the now painted swingset back onto the lawn. I helped pick up the plastic, and Carly found a spot where paint had leaked to the patio. August looked at it and said “Shmuel won’t be happy about that.” Carly started scrubbing it and August climbed on her back. I tried to distract him as she did it, then went inside with him and he wanted to look at the forecast. We then did Drops, which was fine for awhile. But he kept wanting to jump categories and do things like the ‘Jail’ category. When I said we needed to agree on a category he refused and got really upset when I turned the phone off: “Mama! Mama!” She came in and spent some time with him.

Carly wanted to go back outside and asked August to open his Zinnie store. He said he would when it was sunny, saying he had closed at 10:30, but would open again at 10:57. He went reluctantly, but went out with her and opened his shop.

He came in and said “We picked two carrots! I ate the carrots and I ate the greens, too!” He wanted to play Toca Robot Lab, but then wanted a different Toca app and I downloaded the free Toca Monster Kitchen. I went up to take a shower. When I came down he was eating popcorn and had been watching Planet Earth, although I don’t think he watched much. I asked Carly which came first, and it was the popcorn. He then played some Toca Blocks while we were getting ready to leave.

We left before 10:30. On the way down we finished reading Fortunately, the Milk. He had me skip some in the middle, sowe might go back and revisit it. I think I found the book funnier than him.

He was totally fine on the way down, until we got to the gate. Carly had to pay, and it was taking a few minutes. He had a meltdown while I kept him away from her so she could do that. But, now we have a year-long pass to the national parks and plan to make good use of it.

We first drove over to the bell caves – ancient limestone quarries. We started out there at noon. Stopped at the bathroom and got walking. August was really into the map and the different colored paths (wheelchair path and not). When we approached the caves I was carrying him and he said “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Can we go in there?” He was very intrigued as we walked around the caves, but also kind of scared, and wanted to be carried the whole time. Got him to stand and admire one of the caves for a minute, then to walk up some stairs on his own.

Back outside we continued walking around the bell caves area. He liked the area, but admitted that he was a bit scared and kept wanting to be carried. He also really liked the arrow markers that showed us which way to go. We stopped at a bench for a snack and ate some of our sandwiches, then got walking again. And he helped take some photos along the way. We were back to the bathrooms at 1:15. We ate an orange and he played with the buckets covering posts they were installing.

We then got in the car and drove to the parking lot at the south end of the park. We first went in the Sidian burial cave. August quite liked that as well, but wanted to be held the entire time. Then when they were walking out and I was still in the cave he was concerned that I come out as well. He didn’t want to leave me behind.

We then walked the half kilometer trail out to the remains of St. Anne’s church. August did some walking now. He liked standing on some rocks and being taller than us. We found a good chunk of limestone and had fun breaking it apart. He had a stick he called his wizard stick, then was using it as a walking stick. But after he fell a couple times walking down a hill he abandoned it. Along the way a park ranger over on the road yelled over to us to remind us the park closed at 3. It was getting close to 2:30.

We got out to the church and stayed there for a few minutes, then headed back. August spotted his stick on the way back and at first decided he wanted to take it home. But as we got to the parking lot he told Carly she could drop it. He was quite worried about how much time we had left and kept asking.

We briefly looked at the caves by the gift shop area but they were closed. We stopped at the bathrooms and he went in with me. We then went in the gift shop and I bought the three guide things they had in English: Birds of Israel, Bird Migration, and Reptiles and Amphibians.

We left at 2:50. He played iPad games, then we finished reading Magic Treehouse #32 (the Ice Wizard one). We got home at 4:10. He nursed, then ate two spinach pancakes that Carly cooked for him. He then asked for one more and I cooked one for him. Played some Wizard School, then we did Drops. He said “I think I chang-ed my mind.” He wanted a fourth pancake.

They then Skyped with Cherie and Chuck. She played the harmonium (old one) for him. And he played played piano for them: Yankee Doodle, the Arabic song, his arpeggios. He had a nice competition with Cherie, first typing big numbers, then small numbers: “Mine is bigger than yours!” “I don’t know, but it’s somewhere in negatives!” She was talking to him about his new bed on the floor, and asked when he’d sleep on his own. He said “Actually, I’ll never do that.”

After the Skype call he and I read more of The Sisters. He and I then Skyped with my parents. He hung up on them a couple times. They were leaving later in the day to head to Lake Stevens, and will be back Monday. August hung up on them a couple times. He really wanted to Skype with Vivian but she wasn’t online today. He was doing some big typing things with my parents though.

Carly then took him upstairs. He said he didn’t like the caves but thought the park was pretty cool. I asked if it was because the caves were kind of scary. He slouched his head and said”Yeah”. I told him to dream about caves and he said “caves and scary dreams.” He was asleep about 7:40.

Bell caves: 

Burial cave: 

Being taller than us: 

Limestone: 

The church and path: 

Reading the bird guide: 

He was up just before 7. Came downstairs and played Sarah and Duck Sleepover. Carly made him oatmeal and mango. He ate that, then he and I played more with the Lego set, putting together the police car. He was having fun putting the tires on all his fingers. Carly was doing yard work and was doing to take the yard waste across the street so he went to do it with her.

He came inside and we were looking at playlists in Apple Music and he said he wanted to make a new playlist. We added songs to a New Year’s playlist and he helped with that. We then went and put together the other car and other items from the Lego set, then started playing with both the cars. He had them racing, but the losing car had to go to car jail, which seemed harsh: “One minute. That’s good! Cuz one minutes long, but it’s not THAT long.” We shared some toast, then he told me “Dada, you broke a bad rule. You stole the chemicals in there that make me disappear.”

While playing with the Lego cars he found a little extra red piece stuck inside the frame of one of the cars. Got it out with a screwdriver. The set only called for one such piece, so August got an extra. Meanwhile, Carly was out working on the swing: finish sanding and starting to spray paint it. Inside, a car tried to escape from jail and August gave it a 19 second penalty. I explained good behavior and it got out early a few minutes later. The cars were then being invisible because of his chemicals, but playing a chord on his piano made them visible again.

We went and did a little Drops, then back to the cars. We discussed the movie. When he heard the name he wasn’t impressed, and seemed skeptical that it was any good: “It’s just called Cars?…Is it an exciting show?” One of us made his alien squeak, and we decided it was sneezing. August decided it was allergic to Legos.

I sat in the chair with the fabric over it, and August got in it behind me and played there with the alien for several minutes. I then went up and took a shower. When I came down Carly was making spinach Swedish pancakes and I got August upstairs pretty easily as she was about to use the blender. An easy bath, then back downstairs to eat spinach pancakes. He had two, then requested peanut butter on a spoon. He had several spoonfuls, and still likes to see the peanut butter as you scoop it up.

I was then trying to catch him to put his shirt on and he was running away. Thus started a game of ‘slow dada’ with me moving in slow motion. Lasted awhile. Finally, he played outside for a few minutes (teeter totter, etc.) before we left at 12:10. We’d been talking about how we were going to let mama have some work time (she has to work on National Boards renewal), but he tried to convince her to come with us.

We drove to Tamnoon Beach, which is the beach entry north of the main one in downtown Netanya. We were listening to Moby and the Void Pacific Choir remixes on the way – very sort of trance-y stuff. August asked why the song was doing the same note again and again, then called it an interesting song and requested it added to his playlist. It was the Moby Remix of Are You Lost in the World Like Me? He added another one to his playlist later. I was afraid he was going to fall asleep, because after he talked about that song he just sat there, silent, for the next 20+ minutes (in a trance). Finally, as we went through downtown Netanya he said “Can’t be much longer.”

Parked at 12:45 at the playground north of the beach entrance. There were some concrete animal statues and August immediately ran and started climbing on them. They were talking to him, and each time he ran to another one he would tell me to have it say something. The alligator was trying to eat him, the turtle had been lonely, etc. After 10 minutes or so we went to the playground. He spent almost the whole time climbing up on the play structure then sliding down the spiral slide. But each time he would tell me to wait at the bottom for him, then comment on how he was taller than me. Did that maybe a dozen times.

We got walking sometime after 1. He did a pretty good job of walking on the way down to the beach. He spotted a cat, then another. By the time we got down to the beach we counted 16. We decided to call this one Cat Beach for future reference. When I did carry him a bit, he said he was a machine pumping oil, and talked about the factories that were using his oil and what they were building. He did all of the stairs down on his own though, and there were a lot of stairs. He figured out he could skip two stairs at a time by hanging on the railing and stretching as much as he could. When we got to 16 cats he said “16 cats. That’s quite a lot.”

We made it to the beach, walked a bit south, and chose a perfect spot for a moat. We started by opening the cup set we had bought at Ikea. August really liked that, and the different patterns we could make with their bumpy edges in the sand. When I asked what shape he wanted for the moat this time he said “Right-angle trapezoid”. So we made a right angle trapezoid. I was making little towers with the sand I was scooping out and August wanted to make towers with the cups too, but was having trouble getting it down. He had me bring water up in the bucket once, but that was enough.

A little before 2 we decided to pause for a snack. August decided to destroy our moat and castle at that point. He used the hammer and rake and his feet, mainly. He then wanted to move up to drier sand and he chose a spot under a cover. There, he got down how to make the towers and made several.

We got leaving around 2:30. We paused to brush off sand and put my shoes on and kept counting cats – we were over 30, including a black kitten. August was back to talking about oil machines and factories: “Dada, can you be a bench-making factory?” He asked me to look at his cat counting gauge and I said I thought he was an oil pump. He replied “No, I’m an oil pumper but that’s how they designed me…Can you see my cat counter?”

We headed back. I carried him most of the way up the stairs but got him to do some walking to the car. Got there at 2:50. We drove to the complex with Ace Hardware and first went in to use the bathroom. August then rode the little merry-go-round and decided he was on the best horse, so we made sure we could tell which one it was next time. We went up the escalators and quickly looked at the bean bag chair store. Then realized there was a big babies/kids store up there as well. August played in the little baby play pen there with the baby toys, then back out in the mall wanted to get in the small kids play area. He crawled around on the foamy objects like the two small kids that were there.

We headed to Ace and I had to stop August from going into the couch stores as he wanted to try out couches. At Ace we got more spray paint for the swing, one more can for the bookshelves, took a photo of our car vac options, got a couple of hooks, and looked for outdoor chairs. Not the season for it. We paid, then headed home.

Carly met us outside the house at 4:20. We just handed off the paint so she could finish painting the swing. August and I then drove to his activity class. He was worn out from playing on the beach and wasn’t feeling up to class: “I don’t feel like class today.” he kept telling me. At one point I was standing in the corner of the classroom with him and encouraged him to go do one jump. He said “One jump, then we go home”. He went and jumped, then went straight out the door and up the stairs. I brought him back and he spent time playing with the toys. In particular he used a toy cell phone to call people – me, mama, Green Monster, Peter Rabbit, etc. He would tell them he wasn’t doing so good, he wanted to go home, etc.

Then, as he was playing with the phone, he suddenly disappeared into the classroom before I could even get the phone from him. He was in there for the last 15 or 20 minutes solid. I could never really tell what they were doing as th
e drapes were closed and a guy sat right in front of the entrance the whole time. When I asked what they had done he said “all sorts of things”.

We went to the car and drove into town and parked in the parking garage for the downtown grocery store. We went in and got pita and milk and a few other things. On the way out he was looking at a couple signs and wanted to translate them – things like ‘Prohibited’ and ‘On sale’.

We were home at 6:20. He wasn’t in a hurry to go in and wanted to play in the car. We went in and stated eating dinner. He hadn’t eaten much during the day and must have been famished: he had two spinach pancakes, two bowls of mushrooms and teriyaki sauce (I had to go cook him a second bowl), some pita, and part of an orange (in the grocery store he had seen some small oranges and got really excited about getting them).

He was then doing some time traveling and told me “You can do anything! You’re a time-traveling basket!” He remembered the chocolate chip cookies (he had seen cookies at the store and I reminded him he could have one at home). He ate a big cookie and drank a good amount of milk.

Then skyped with Vivian and family. Cassie sad everyone was super. August: “I’m super!” They played peekaboo and August and Vivian did a lot of typing back and forth.

He was fefinitely tired as we took him up close to 8. Carly’s got him doing a pretty good job of brushing his teeth by himself again. I said good night and he said “I’m gonna dream about BAD DREAMS.” I suggested moats and he said “Moats and bad dreams.” He’s been sleeping without socks but I asked if he wanted socks tonight. He said yes, but then when Carly put them on he took them off. Carly now asked if he wanted his socks on. He replied “Not even a blanket.” She said “Okay, crazy boy.” Him: “Okay, crazy mama.” I left them by 8:15. He was asleep soon after.

Tire bandages: 

Playing in the chair: 

Playground: 

Pretending to sleep down the slide: 

Beach: 

Merry-go-round: 

Recognizing Paddington: 

Buying paint: 

Class: 

He was up a little before 7. I heard him singing the Hebrew colors song downstairs. So when I came down and Carly was getting oatmeal for him I asked if he’d watched it recently. He then asked to watch it while he ate. Watched it several times, then we continued on to Arabic alphabet songs. We were watching one of his favorites and Carly, who was getting ready to sand the swings outside, realized it was the song he plays on the piano. I asked August if it was, and he said yes. He then went to the piano to confirm it, then said “So it wasn’t any app!” So Carly was correct, as she thought it was a Hebrew or Arabic thing.

We did Drops, although he found the word ‘beekeeper’ and instantly wanted to be a hive of bees pollinating fields. He would sit on the blanket (his hive) and I would carry him to a field (rug) and he was fly around pollinating it. We ended up upstairs doing this, then he was playing with the spaceship and we closed the windows in his room to see the glow-in-the-dark calendar and things on his ceiling.

Back downstairs I asked “Do you want to read a book, Z?” He had misheard me and said he said “I want a Pepsi!” We decided to read books on the iPad. He started laughing as I got the iPad. I asked what he was laughing about and he said “I don’t know, but you’ll find out!” He wanted to read The Sisters. We read some of that and we also read Pete the Cat Saves Christmas and the Pete the Cat Collection. He started playing Toca Plants and I went up and took a shower. When I came down I told him it was about time for his bath. When he finished doing something I started to take him up and he protested: “You said SOON it’s going to be your bath time.”

He played with the spaceship in the bath. Not a very long one today. Finished that and brought him down. Carly fixed up the last spinach pancake for him and he ate that and we listened to to Erasure and there was a song he liked. We were getting ready to go and he played some GarageBand, then was writing the first letter of words on the chalkboard. He’s been doing this since Carly turned the board around so the chalkboard is facing out. He did it with all our family the other day, with V for Vivian, Os for Oma and Opa, Gs for Gramma and Grampa, etc. and connected them all with lines.

I showed him my hat. He was excited and asked where it was found. I told him Carly had found it up on the office couch, under her clothes.

As we left at 10:50 it was really blowing. August said “I hope we’re not going to the sea. It will be windier there.” On the way up, as we stopped at a gas station, we named the car as Carly was filling up its tummy. We settled on ‘Carly Fabia’, or just ‘Carly’, much to Carly’s chagrin.

We finished reading Clementine on the way up. August then started an opposites game, asking me what the opposite of small, loud, etc. was. And I was asking him. We arrived at Ein Hod just after noon and parked in the visitor parking lot. We realized we hadn’t brought a stroller of any sort, but that was okay as there were so many stairs and dirt paths that it would have been a burden. We walked a path into the town, stopping to look at all the sculptures and down an old well. August really got into the art and taking photos of things: “That’s an interesting one.” We got to the main (small) square of the town and he started counting nice dogs and later added some cats to the counting. We walked through the Ein Hod gallery and he said he liked all of the art. He recognized a menorah, and we talked about what I meant when I said it was nice but “too much” (too decorative) for me to actually want.

Back out in the square he took more photos. He really liked a metal animal sculpture that was also a garbage can and a planter. We used ‘Portrait Mode’ and I explained it to him. He then excitedly told Carly about it and how the background was blurry.

We went down to the Art & Wear Gallery and talked to the husband of the husband and wife team that run it. He paints whimsical ‘visitors’ that come and I asked August which ones were his favorites. He gives tours of Ein Hod – definitely something we might do when we have visitors. At some point as we walked around August told me “The point is to follow mama.”

We considered doing the Dada museum, but a woman recommend the music box museum down the hill. It was a nice stroller-impossible walk down to it. We stoped along the way to look at and take photos of more sculptures.

The music box museum was also pretty cool. We didn’t do the historical part, as it cost money for a tour and we didn’t know if August would want to do it (later he emphatically said no, he didn’t want to do the tour). But we had a ton of fun in the gift shop, where you can play with tons of music boxes. We talked about how they work and played them and identified the songs. August recognized Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 on his own. And he got to he Hava Nagila for the first time.

We went back up to the square area and found the bathroom, then walked around a bit more before heading back to the car. A good mixture of carrying August and him walking (although I heard “I’ve got my dada!” plenty). He was walking as we got to the big sculpture of three musicians that we’d seen on our way in. As he passed he said “I really love that one.”

In the car, as we drove to Ein Hawd, August brought up Santa and asked if Santa was real. Back before Christmas we had just talked about it being a story. But it hasn’t come up for quite awhile. None of his presents said they were from Santa, although we’ve been reading a lot of stories that have Santa in them. In response I was asking who could leave presents in the house besides Santa. He thought about it and said “Mr. Toe”. I asked for clarification and he grabbed his big toe. Then grabbed the other big toe and said “Mr. Toe and Mrs. Toe”. Eventually got him to realize that Carly and I could leave presents, so didn’t outright tell him Santa wasn’t real.

To get to Ein Hawed you go down a short steep hill, then right back up a steeper hill on the other side. Luckily, all paved. Really nice area with lots of trees. We parked right outside of House Restaurant. The restaurant has an amazing view out to the Mediterranean. You don’t have to make any choices: it is a set menu at a flat rate. They just keep bringing out more and more dishes and you can ask for more of things if you like, but we didn’t need to do that. It started with a wonderful lentil soup, then involved a bunch of the smaller dishes (hummus, Turkish salad, rice in grape leaves, stuffed eggplant, etc.). Then came the entrees. Chicken, saffron rice and beef, a lamb dish. August liked the lamb but asked “But what is lamb from?” One small dish was liver. I tried it, but only ate one bite. August ate a bite too and said it was good, but didn’t want any more.

August was doing a great job of trying everything. He was talking about blowing up like a balloon. He ate lots of lamb. He was getting hyper, talking about “Im going to explode!” Carly took him out about 2:45 and I went to pay. I found out there was tea or coffee to come. I passed it up at first, but then Carly and August were at a table outside so we got one tea and one coffee. They came with little cakes with coconut. August shared the mint tea with Carly and I had most of the coffee. August was trying to get to my coffee. And he and Carly were doing a nice dance to keep the flies away from the cakes.

We left for real at 3:15. We read the Pete the Cat Collection and Peppa’s First Sleepover in the car. Carly had the idea of visiting a beach for sunset and we got off at Beit Yanai beach, just south of where the Alexander River flows into the sea. August was a bit concerned about going to the beach: “Okay, but it may be totally windy!”

At the beach August and I first started by following bird tracks as they meandered on the beach. Eventually we lost the track, but along the w
ay he noticed that it was digging in the sand. So then he was a bird digging holes, looking for insects to eat. He found a feather and played with that and put it in my backpack. Then we played in the sand. He wanted a moat and I asked what shape. He said triangle, so then we made an equilateral triangle moat.

August then spotted a playground on the sand and got excited. We went to it and he spent most of his time working on sliding down the fire pole. If it was a little closer to the platform I think he may have ended up doing it more on his own, but as it was he had to jump out pretty far and needed me to support him. He was getting pretty brave about it though and had the technique down. I would then let go of him as he hung on the pole and he was working on climbing and slipping down it.

We had fun watching the sunset, then went over to the bathrooms and then headed to the car, leaving just after 5. We were home at 5:30.

They Skyped with Vivian and Colin and Cassie. Colin is now sick. And we saw the two watches Vivian got from her grandmother. Carly did a pretty successful job of cutting his hair while he typed to Vivian. He had some harsh words for Carly though as she pressed her luck: “The POINT is to NOT do the hard ones!” And at one point with Vivian (they were typing long, long nonsense messages to each other) he got really excited about pasting ‘poop’ over and over.

After that we talked about making a rocket out of Duplos. So we watched a couple of Space Shuttle launches on YouTube. But then we remembered the Lego set from Paul. He and I put together the grey car together and he understood the process pretty quickly. He had fun putting the tires on his fingers and called them bandages. When it was done he had it be a rocket car: “Do you have your helmet on? Speeding off into the air…Can you be someone riding in a car up in the air?” And where was it going? “Into a museum, of course.” He also got the hologram thing and was experimenting with Legos of different sizes in it to see how well they would work.

We stopped playing at 8 and Carly took him upstairs and got him ready. He said he’d dream about “Rockets and cars and volcanos and monsters and music boxes and rockets…” I left them at 8:10.

Ein Hod. The musicians he loved: 

Waiting for a bus: 

His photo using ‘Portrait’: 

Dinner in Ein Hawd: 

The beach: 

Down the pole: 

Me helping him: 

I was up first for once, just before 7. August and Carly were p about 7:20. I was getting to head to Jerusalem and meet with Omar at Sabeel about possibly doing some English writing and editing for them.

While I was gone Carly gave August a bath and washed his hair. He finished his lollipop, which Carly realized is a good treat for him since it lasts so long. They walked up to town, stopping at the park on the right to eat a granola bar with chocolate in it. They went to the post office and had the longest wait ever, like 25 minutes, but August did great. They then walked to Gatule, the cafe, and had a smoothie with  strawberry, mango, and mango peach. They then stopped at the park by our house and played store, using the ship area as the store. He also made a big pile of books from the shelves at some point.

Meanwhile, the drive to Jerusalem went smoothly. The only hiccup was at the very end when Apple Maps wanted me to turn left at an intersection I couldn’t turn left. But it routed me around just fine. Parking was also easy and I parked on the back road just up the block from Sabeel, about 9:50. Just after I got out of the car and started walking south, I heard “Ryan!” Very strange to hear my name called when I was in a new place where I didn’t know anyone.

It was Omar, and he had seen me looking down at my phone. He gave me a ride the last half block to Sabeel and we headed up. The office was closed today, so cold at first. He made us coffee and we sat and started talking. We had a long meeting, basically 3 and a half hours. For awhile I was looking at a couple of text to show him what sort of feedback and editing I would provide. So nothing for sure yet, but I might do some paid editing, writing, and document development work for them.

I headed home at 1:30. My route home took me up 50, 45, 443, and 444. An interesting drive, as I got to see more of the walls, terraced hills, etc. All went smooth until the last 20 kilometers. Apple Maps wanted me to turn onto 4 where I couldn’t turn. It then only wanted to make things worse, wanting me to turn left again where I couldn’t, so I switched to Waze to get me back on 4.

So I got home a little before 3:30, about 20 minutes late because of that. They were outside in the yard, surrounded by a bunch of books. Back inside, on the couch August noticed I was dressed differently and wasn’t fond of my new look, and helped me take off my shoes and socks and tie and told me to go change. He was then spinning with my tie. I told Carly about my meeting and mentioned something about activities for people who are 80. August asked “I can do something when I’m 80?” We had pita and hummus, and August was stilling “just bread”. Carly was aiding and abetting as she totally just handed him bread and didn’t make him dip it in hummus. He thought that was quite funny.

I went up and changed. When I came back down they were were experimenting with water and measuring milliliters. I took him out for a walk at 4:10.

We first stopped at our park. He turned the bouncing seesaw into a contest thing: “If we bounce 19 more times I get a sink!” Then, playing store he bought a chimney for his web. These join the things like fire extinguishers and emergency exits that he bought for his web the other day. Over on the round swing he said”Mama was in charge of swinging the web. But you don’t have to.” And “This is spider day.”

He wanted to do more climbing, so he did some climbing on the things in our park, but they are more for older kids. So we talked about going to another park: “The one we goed to to have those chocolate bars. That was before the post office.” That’s the park on the right as we walk up into town. We walked up there and got there at 4:45.

Spent most of the time on different parts of the rope climbing structure. He was a spider, and one part of it was his bed, another was his living room: “I’m stuck in my living room.” He decided to turn the green hanging chair into his bedroom, so said “I used this chemical in my hands to turn things into my bed.”

He then went across the the play structure and had a store. He made me a sandwich, and announced that he had new smoothie flavors. As he was making me a smoothie a dog, luckily a nice one who had been wandering around the park, surprised him by coming in the small area he was in.

From there we went to the spinning thing and were planets spinning around the sun, the played on the Jeep thing – the battery thing was turned to a low setting and he said someone else had been using it. A ride on the motorbike, then playing on snakes and ladders, then back to the climbing stuff.

We left at 5:30. At home we had seitan and beet greens and french fries and rice for dinner. Carly left for a walk. He and I did some Marco Polo Arctic and got one card in Classify It, then moved to the couch and read a lot of The Sisters. Carly came home and headed up to a shower. He and I read some more of The Sisters, then Pete the Cat Saves Christmas. Carly took him up and got him ready for bed. I came up to say good night and he was being a kitten so I told him to dream about kitten-y things. He said “And a tornado! And bad dreams!” He gave Carly a funny chuckle after that. I left them just before 8 and he was pretty straight to sleep.

Before I left for Jerusalem: 

At the park: