Author: Ryan/Dada

He was up about a quarter to 7. I heard them waking up but was still quite asleep as I was up late the night before. Finally I realized what day it was and got up and hurried downstairs before August. We made coffee and skyped with my parents and opened presents. The first box he grabbed was long and skinny and he predicted the thing inside would be long and skinny. It was a small telescope. When he opened the calculator/cash register that we had gotten for him at Ikea he took it outside played some Zinnie shop for a couple minutes before we headed back inside. He liked the monkey from Dee and Grant. When we asked him to name it he thought for awhile and decided on “Monkey nice banana” He introduced the monkey to the other friends. And Paul got August his first new set of Legos: A set from Cars. When we hung up August pointed out that it was an hour and 17 minutes and 17 seconds and that that was a very long Skype.

Carly had Swedish pancakes ready to go so we ate those. He ate more and more and more. He preferred them with cinnamon and sugar and called them cinnamon rolls, after gramma had mentioned cinnamon rolls during Skype.

We also had a lot of fun with the optical illusion thing, which makes it look like a frog is floating in the air. We found that a small scrap of paper also worked well, as did a Lego head. Carly later decided she wanted to take it into work to put on her desk, as students would love it.

Then we got Cubetto, the wooden robot kit that I had backed on Kickstarter. It teaches basic programming and logical thinking skills, like algorithms and subroutines and programs. And at the same time involves story telling and make believe. He started with me and we figured out the basics. Then he and Carly opened the Polar Expedition kit and started playing through that. When Cubetto wouldn’t go where they wanted it to August would say “Oh Cubetto!” We also opened the Logic expansion pack, which includes a random and a reverse command and had fun predicting what they would do.

August then wanted to go up and get the alien, so we did that and he introduced the alien to Cubetto. August and I then did Drops with the alien, then we got ourselves one last Christmas present – a subscription to Drops so we could use more time and also start using it for Arabic and French as well. Of course, I quickly realized the downside: In the free version you have to go in order and it starts with more useful things first. Now, we could choose any category we wanted, and August of course wanted to choose the last one (#99), which is ‘Spa’. So he had us learning things like ‘bathrobe’ in Hebrew.

Carly mentioned something about babies, and August said “I like babies. But I hate Christmas. But I love presents.”

I went and took a shower. Back downstairs Carly was getting ready for cookies. August was playing in the kitchen door and we realized he was getting the “crunchy” syrup off the outside of the syrup container and eating it. He started doing the peanut butter cookies with Carly. When he realized his stool wasn’t in the kitchen he started stressing out about it “Oh no!” even though it was just right outside. Initially hetold me “Besides, eating the ingredients is not worth it, dada.” But after having some spoonfuls of peanuter butter, he then started stealing the peanut butter chips, then other crumbs of things he could find. Carly observed “Youve stopped helping and are only stealing.” I then came up with my funniest joke for some time: “Ahh, a future politician.”

When Carly curtailed his chip and ingredient stealing he couldn’t handle it and got upset. They went upstairs for a time out. Came back down and didn’t make it any further. Back upstairs. So I took over making the balls and baking the cookies. He came down again. I asked “How’s he doing?” He said “Not so good.” He was better though and helped me finish up the rest. He rolled the dough into good balls and used the fork to make the cross hatches on top. He heard the song “Christmas in Prison” by John Prine on my iPad and asked to have it on repeat: “Could you put it back on the jail song. I really liked it. Could you add it to my playlist?” I talked to him about how he got upset but he claimed that nothing but time helped him calm down.

I let him lick the spatula, then got started on the chocolate chip cookies. I had invited Jack (his wife Celeste is in Italy on a vacation right now) to go with us to Chinese food in the evening. He invited us to go birding with him. Carly decided to stay home with August, but I decided to go.

So August and I quickly worked on the chocolate chip cookies. He started out helpful again, but when it came to chocolate chips he just wanted to start stealing a bunch again and melted down. I got everything together, except for combining the last two bowls and then baking the cookies.

Jack picked me up and we had a lovely couple hours of birding down at Yakum, just south of Ikea. It is where Carly, August and I had walked with him in the backpack. We were at the north end though, and Jack instead drove us down to the west entrance off of 2. We saw an egret, then a heron, then five or six other birds around the pond area. We walked around the paths after that, through the Roman cut to drain the swamp, etc. and didn’t see much else, but it was a great day for a walk and a beautiful spot, and we had a good chat.

We got home at 3 and I gave Jack his cookies. I then figured out that Carly and August had gone up to do recycling. I started to head up that way and they were on their way home. While I was gone they had opened the little ice cream toy (it came with his ice cream from the ice cream truck and I just found it in my pocket), finished the cookies, played on the iPad, and gone to recycling.

August and I then made the cookie deal: he would share one with me now, then get another cookie for dessert. Every day after this he would get half of a cookie as a snack, then a half as dessert. That would continue until we ran out. And I’d put them in the cupboard so they weren’t out torturing us all the time. We shared a chocolate chip cookie then played with the alien more, traveling through time with the help of the dinosaur book. Carly headed upstairs for a rest. We played Classify It, then he became a ladybug (9 spots, I believe) (random, because it wasn’t in the game) and wanted to eat aphids off of all our plants. We went outside so he could continue with all of our outside plants.

Carly came down and they skyped and watched Vivian and Colin opening presents. August was concerned about Vivian being sick: “Is there doctors there?” “Did you see Vivian throw up?”

Jack couldn’t make it to dinner as he was waiting on phone calls. We went to Ishimoto Sushi in town. Carly got the tofu noodle dish and I got a chicken rice dish. August liked both, but seemed to like mine better. A lot of yummy noises. I also ordered a root beer, but it was a malt root beer. Wasn’t on the alcoholic list, but tasted like beer. August didn’t really question not being able to taste it. As we left at 5:50 he asked “Did we get everything?” He was then being a ghost. Or warning us of ghosts: “Warning! Scary ghost!”

On our way back we drove over to the Kerns’ house and dropped off cookies. Only Jill was home though so we dropped them off and left. We were home at 6:15. August got his dessert cookie and was really excited, but then went straight to Carly and asked “Do you want some of my cookie?”

They played with the two balloons. August realized he could throw it up and catch it: “I’ve got it!” “You can have green and I have pink. Our favorite colors!” “I’ve got super power rockets on!” “I got you, balloon!” As much as he liked playing with them, he really liked the idea of popping them. Carly got a pin and he popped both of them.

He then spotted his stocking and since we hadn’t hidden it he wanted candy. We let him have a Dum Dum, whi
ch he enjoyed licking for 5 minutes or so, then saved the rest of. He was in a good mood and told Carly “I love you more than anything in the world!” He was arguing that he should get treats everyday: “Treats everyday. And healthy food too. But I won’t remind mama to give me healthy foods. So that’s a problem.”

We read Pete the Cat Saves Christmas and some of The Sisters. We got him ready for bed and he said he’d dream about “Santa…and scary bad dreams…and monsters eating me!” I asked what his bad dreams were about. He wouldn’t tell me but said I could guess. I asked if they are about pretty flowers. He said “Those aren’t nightmares!” I left them at 8:05 but he came back down 10 minutes later. We did more reading: More of The Sisters, the Fancy Nancy books, then Peppa Pig’s Christmas Wish. Thinking about the Fancy Nancy book he asked me “Tomorrow when were walking can we watch out for sidewalk cracks and step over them?” He said he knew it wasn’t bad luck, but that he would be fun. He went back up a little before 9. It still took awhile and I heard him a bit later. Think he was asleep around 9:15.

Telescope: 

Lines connecting family members: 

Chinese food for dinner: 

Monkey Nice Bananas: 

He slept until 6:35. Lounged in bed and didn’t say anything until “It’s 7. It’s almost 7:01 then we’ll go to sleep.” He wanted to go downstairs a little later. Came and “tickle hugged” me. We all got up at 7:15. Downstairs he found the alien and asked “Alien, why are you downstairs? Have you been exploring in your time machine?” He noticed that the alphabet magnets were off the fridge and replaced with the Hebrew word magnets. He said “Whoa. Who did that?” But didn’t play with them at first: “Alien, I’m gonna play on my iPad. Do you want to play too? I’m gonna play in nature. You’ll learn all about nature.” He played Earth. Then we did a lot of time travel with the alien. I used the Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life book to figure out which animals he and the alien could find as they traveled back in time. We then did our Drops sessions, focusing on transportation.

We learned that Vivian had gotten sick at a science center and thrown up, so August did a Skype video message to her, hoping she felt better and asking her what color her puke was. He then asked me to make up songs about throwing up in a library and a science center. Their time machine was having problems so we fixed it. He got quite create and was as big as 22 gigantic shoes stacked up.

When he calmed down a bit he decided to put the alien away. As we launched to go upstairs he described escaping gravity nicely: “Rocket is supposed to sneak away from gravity.” He put the alien away in his closet and said “Bye alien. Don’t think you’ll meet any dinosaurs up here.”

Back downstairs we read books: Pete the Cat Saves Christmas, a Fancy Nancy three book collection we purchased, and a Pete the Cat collection.

Carly was making both spinach pancakes and tzatziki sauce. August asked “Mama, what is all this blending for?” We read part of a comic book called The Sisters. Then pancakes were ready and we had some of those.

I went up and took a shower. Back downstairs he was getting upset about something and not cheered like I expected when I told him we’d wait on his shower as the water wasn’t hot enough. He calmed down and found Classify It on his iPad – the game where you classify organisms based on their characteristics. He played with my for several levels and he was really into learning from our mistakes, as when you redo a board and get 100% on a level you get an animal information card that we’d then read. Carly played with him, but he wasn’t trusting her on things. He said “I’ll ask dada.” There was a Venus fly trap, so we watched the YouTube video of the guy putting his tongue in one. Well, the first few seconds.

August then made a really cool song: “Sometimes you are right. Sometimes they are wrong. But guessing is fun.”

I got his bath ready, then asked if mama could give him his bath. He said “Okay. But I hate baths. Don’t spray my hair.”

We got ready to go to the mall and buy wrapping paper. It was raining as we left. We stopped at Gutale to ask about my missing hat. No luck. We read Berenstain Bears Too Much Pressure in the car. A quick trip to the Ir Yamin mall where we went to the party store and got wrapping paper, bags for cookie deliveries, and balloons.

Carly had the idea of going down to Argaman’s Beach. We were able to drive all the way down the hill and park right at the bottom as there was only one other car there. We walked down on the very windy beach. The waves were crashing nice and loud and the tide was up for maximum effect. We played around for awhile and just enjoyed the beach. I found a plastic hammer on the beach and gave it to August and he used it to hammer shells and rocks into the sand.

We then got in the car and drove a little to the north to where we had first walked with Carly along the boardwalk and he had played on a concrete bench. There is sort of an indoor space with several restaurants in it. We looked for a coffee shop and found that the convenience store had an espresso machine so we got a couple cappuccinos and an orange juice for August. We went out on the boardwalk and August sat on one of the benches and drank his juice. I put both of his sweatshirts on him and his socks. I was cold in just my one sweatshirt so suggested he and I go inside, where they had the heat lamps. He jumped at that. Carly stayed out to appreciate the sea.

We went in and sat in one set of chairs but a waitress came and gave us menus for the restaurant. So we moved over to in front of the convenience store. We studied French in Memrise until Carly was done and came in.   

In the car he started to take his socks off and I told him he could keep them on. He said “No I can’t!” We read Tallulah’s Tap Shoes and started The Little Prince. We got to Tel Yitzak and parked across from the nursery. Carly took him to the gas station to go to the bathroom. Meanwhile, I wandered next door to check out the bakery and restaurant. I was then surprised by Carly and August coming out of the restaurant – the sings at the gas station had led them around back to the restaurant bathrooms.

We went across to the nursery looked for plants. Carly taught August how to snap the snapdragons. He then found a flower plant that he instantly wanted. Petunias, I think it was. He also wanted the snapdragons, but we told him to wait on that. Carly also got a couple of plants that might not need much water to put them in the section of the kitchen boxes that are difficult to reach. One was a sort of cactus.

We left there at 3:20. Carly and I were talking about how to get the soil from the big bags out through the kitchen windows to the planter without making a mess. I suggested the bucket, and August said “You can buy it from me.” He was also blasting monsters and said “I electricitated you.”

At home he said he needed to charge and went and lay on the couch. He wanted the water bottle and got my backpack and was pulling it around on the floor, making shapes: “I’m spelling letters with your backamapack.” We played Classify It and he read sentences like “Living things that are green plants.”

Carly finished the planters and now our view from the kitchen is wonderful. It looks really good. As she was doing it she realized why I talked more about doing something with the planters – I’m taller and could see the ugly empty planters with the ugly dirt. She can see the plants too though and appreciate it.

I cooked a frozen pizza and we had that and beet greens for dinner and listened to Christmas music and played more Classify It. August requested some tea and drank a little.

I suggested we go out for a walk over to Tiv Taam to get our cooking baking ingredients. It had stopped raining but was really damp, and the smell reminded me of Lake Stevens. August agreed to ride in his big stroller, which we almost never use, so he could be more covered if it rained. At the mall we first stopped at the book store and they picked out some cards to send to people. An easy trip to Tiv Taam and we got ingredients for peanut butter and for chocolate chip cookies.

On the way back it was windier and drizzling more. Carly tucked extra sweatshirts around August to keep him warm. He was too cozy though as he was falling asleep by the time we got home at 7:10. His pants were wet from the drizzle so he took them off. He was feeling tired, as he said “My power is in the red”. We read some Fancy Nancy and Pete the Cat and got him ready for bed. I told him to dream about Santa Claus He added “and Fancy Nancy. And our house breaking down. And monsters scaring me. And monsters eating me.” I left them just before 8.

Tongue: 

Waves: 

Wind: 

Snapdragons: 

Pretending to sleep: 

Presents ready: 

Started waking up a bit after 5. They got up about 6 and I slept a bit longer. They played Wizard School and I had a bunch of art from August. I sent him a “love heart” (he came up with the term and sometimes asks me to draw a “love heart” and send it) then came down. He was watching Timmy Time and asked me to find the Christmas episode. He watched most of that, then nursed. Did Drops with me (we had 10 minutes), then he was getting a little rambunctious. He went upstairs with Carly. They played in the Zinnie room, doing the Old MacDonald puzzle nad reading some Boynton books. He came back downstairs and we read Magic Treehouse #32. He was scared of the ice giant though and I had to look ahead a few times. He would say “No, no, no!” when it got scary.

He had brought the Teuni Teuni alien downstairs with him this morning and was playing with it. When he went to nurse he asked “Alien, do you want to nurse?” Carly went upstairs for awhile and he and I did GarageBand with the keyboard and then languages in Memrise. Carly came back down and heated up for for him. He was playing with the alien and saving it from big monsters when I went up to take a shower.

When I came down they were outside and August was playing the shop game. He had the bowling pin phone ring and I answered it and told him his bath was ready. He hung up on me.

He went calmly to his bath though, taking the alien and spaceship with him and playing with them in the water. Back downstairs he did Wizard School. Carly was tired and resting on the couch with him next to her. When he wanted her to send him things on Wizard School she asked if he’d get her phone for her upstairs. He went right up and started searching for it. I hollered up to tell him where it was and he brought it back down. Another comfort step as I think it is the first time he’s gone to the other floor on his own without one of us. He wanted popcorn and then a movie so they watched Plaent Earth, then he did some Arabic with me.

After a lazy morning and lunch time we finally got moving in the afternoon. I mentioned Ra’anana Park. He said “But I’m worried about our time. Let’s go to the park we don’t have to pay for.” We decided on Winter Lake Park – not because of August’s objection, but because it was closer and Carly hasn’t been there. He played some piano with the alien, then we got going.

We drove around looking for a spot to park and ended up in the same spot August and I parked last time. We parked after 2. In the small park we parked near there were some kids on a little 4-wheeler. Carly simply mentioned to watch out for them and August got upset at them for some reason and started yelling at them. I think maybe he thought they were being dangerous. Calmed him down a bit and got him past by carrying him.

Got him on the orange bike after awhile and we did okay steering and walked to the playground on the southeast corner of the park.  As we got there I reminded him how we had listend to the “Signs” song and he said “I hate signs”.

He started by playing on the climbing thing. Carly played with him for a few minutes. They wandered to other things, like the rocking things, but he was quickly back at the climbing thing. I switched with Carly and it became his web. He was a spider, and said “I can go hours without eating.” He then had a food store and I asked “Can I buy junk food?” He replied “Yeah, if you buy healthy food too… strawberries…” But once we had food his ratios were interesting: “One strawberry, one whole cake.” He baked a pie and when he couldn’t remember ‘oven mitts’ he called them “My special taking out chocolate pie covering heat hands…That’s what I call them.”

We then spent a lot of time buying things for his web: appliances, cooking utensils, rugs, beds, chairs, straws, plates and bowls…it went on and on. Two that he thought of entirely on his own were emergency exits and “fire squirters” (extinguishers). Each item was at a different store, which was one of the other toys around the playground. We would run to it, find what we wanted, then run to another play thing where we had to spin once or something in order to pay. Then he would run back to his web. A lot of the items were on a thing he had to climb. He said “Mama’s a baby so she can’t climb up here.”

At one point he started to kick a soccer ball back and forth with a little girl. They kicked it back and for a couple of times, then he stopped and said “I know, we need balls!” and ran off to buy balls for his web.

I switched with Carly and she continued to play the game with him. He did a lot of running. He came over to me as I was studying Hebrew in Memrise. He read the sentence ‘He remembers the boy’ over my shoulder. He had never seen that sentence before. The craziest part was I think he may have translated it from the Hebrew, as in Hebrew there is an extra participle between ‘remembers’ and ‘the’ and he seemed to include it in his English sentence.

I switched back and we continued to play. I finally knew he was slowing down when he asked me to carry him across to the ‘store’ once. We finally convinced him to leave as the sun was starting to go down. We got to the car around 4:30.

We drove to the big Tiv Taam. Carly headed in to start shopping. I pointed out the moon and August said “Banana moon!” We went in and helped shop. He’s gotten much easier in grocery stores lately, which is nice.

At home Carly went out for a walk. He and I ate dinner on the floor at August’s request so we could read Tallulah’s Tap Shoes and Waiting on the iPad while we ate. He had rice today as he said he was getting bored of noodles. He then played with the Bloom music app, then Wizard School. I got out carrots and vegenaise and he had a ton of carrots.

We were listening to Christmas songs, then I put on the Constellations song on his playlist. He said “That’s not a Christmas song!”

We got him ready for bed and I asked what he’d dream about. His answer was a little disturbing: “Monsters…and our house burning on fire!…and monsters chasing me!” Carly: “Dont have nightmares!” Him: “I will!” I left them at 7:40.

What happens when we don’t cut his hair: 

His web: 

The store: 

We took our first trip up to Haifa today and it was our new favorite place in Israel.

He was waking up at 5. Somewhere in there he got up on the bed and came and pressed his head against mine on the pillow. Lay with me for a few minutes before going back over to Carly, who was down on the Zinnie bed. He was ready to get up but she said it was hard to stand up. So he was showing her: “See, easy peasy” I got up too and Carly made him Cheerios and strawberries and then went back upstairs while I stayed with him. He started with some Timmy Time. He then typed on my iPad, and then asked me to hook up the keyboard so he could play in GarageBand. Carly came down and I went up and took a shower. I heard him playing some nice loud guitar for her.

It was a bit hard to get him going out to the car, but we left just before 9. We read the Max Axiom Photosynthesis book on the way, and he was acting out a water cycle, with it going in his feet and out his head. He was also blasting monsters from the car. He ate some of his cucumber sandwich and said “It’s waterproof…it becomes a submarine sandwich.” That’s from The 91-Story Treehouse. We played Drops, then asked to listen to music. He said “I have an idea! When we go on a short trip we listen to short songs. And when we go on long adventured we listen to long music.”

Parking was reminiscent of Tel Aviv, so took some time to find a spot, but we eventually parked a few blocks east of the Madatech Science Museum. Carly had read about street art along Masada Street, a block north of where we parked, so we walked up and along that road to the science museum. Not a ton of art, but a fair amount, and a lot of cafes and interesting trees. But not too rich and fancy. We stopped along the way to look at different pieces of art, and August got out of the stroller to take photos a few times.

We got to the science museum at 10:45. It was really nice, but felt like kind of a ripoff: The website, in English, offered a good ‘first year resident’ discount. It didn’t mention you had to have the actual immigrant card. But since we came expecting that discount it meant we didn’t buy tickets online in advance, which would have saved over $10. So we had to pay the full amount, over $51 for me and Carly. Soon figured out that an annual membership would make sense for us, but the box office was then closed, and when I found someone to ask they said our ticket purchase today couldn’t be applied to the membership, which is pretty SOP (or should be), as far as I know. So kind of opaque/sleazy all around.

Anyway, the museum itself was pretty impressive, and much nicer and bigger than the ones closer to us. We first started with the preschool area, which is more of a play area. Pushed through some big tall ‘grass’ and used a periscope, then went through a little mirror maze, then played in the water area. I asked how the water stuff worked and he showed me how you pour water through funnels: “See? Easy peasy!” There was a blue blocks area (a la Seoul Children’s Museum and Philadelphia) and he played in there, mainly with Carly. After awhile he asked “Can we look for more sciency stuff please?” But first one more trip through the grass, then I took him to the bathroom.

We headed upstairs to the exhibit. First did the room on green energy. August was acting like he did in the last science center: wanting to do everything, but also wanting to be carried/held. After we’d gone through most of the room (solar panels, bikes that make a train move (I bashed my knee on a metal bar as Carly and I rode the bikes), geothermal, etc.) and headed upstairs to the ‘Green Home’ section I talked to him and asked if he was having fun, etc. He agreed he was and agreed he could walk and did get down and seemed much more comfortable after that. Had fun with the hand sensors in the green home area – he flushed the toilet several times.

Across the hall from there to the small room full of taxidermied animals between Mt. Carmel and the sea. I found a lapwing, which Jack had mentioned yesterday, then we moved along.

We went outside to the big outside area and had most of our fun there. Carly mainly sat and read as she was having a headache. But August had all sorts of fun with pulleys and levers and water. He pulled a barrel up with pulleys, turned an Archimedes water screw, I lifted him in a big globe using a huge lever (then other kids came, and other guys helped lift all of them), then we walked up the stairs to the higher part. There we tried one of those pedal helicopters together. We went a few feet, but it was difficult with him on my lap. I tried the swing attached to a pendulum that demonstrates transfer of energy. Really quite cool but August wouldn’t try it. Then to the water area, where there were all sorts of different gates using wheels and screws and levers, etc. and ways of picking up the water. Carly came and caught up with us here.

August kept talking about wanting to go in the globe thing again, so we went back and he pulled a ship up a ramp using a pulley and went in the globe again.

Back inside we found the Leonardo da Vinci room, which is really cool. All sorts of machines using gears and screws. Then August’s favorite room, the sound room. He sang into an oscilloscope, listened to the humming tubes, played with the binary counting machine, etc. I tested his hearing on one machine and it seemed like he might not have heard the lowest notes. When I tried him on it again he said he wouldn’t tell me if he could hear it or not.

They went to the preschool area while I figured out the membership thing, then August wanted to go back to the sound room, so we took him back again. Played a bit more, then left about 1:45. The museum closed at 2 (as most of the big museums seem to close early every day, not just Friday).

We got to the car after 2. He had counted 7 cats by then. We regrouped, then tried to walk up to the Baha’i Gardens. Up and up and up we went. I carried the stroller and Carly walked with August, who at first wanted to only go sideways up the steps, one at a time (not alternating). So not a quick walk up. August was sort of reciting “Hickory dock” as we went. No idea where he would have heard that recently. Saw a playground that had a dragon for a stairway, and paused for a snack.

Got up to what looked like an entrance, but it was closed. So we headed down to the car. August was singing Ants Go Marching and came up with “Eight by eight …build some shapes.”

We were getting hungry, so as we got back down to Masada Street we took a right and after a block found Cafe HaPina. Our favorite cafe in Israel. Mainly because of the food (the squash quiche and the zucchini pancakes were both amazing) but also because the guy, when he found out we were from Seattle, started talking to me about music (Screaming Trees, Pavement, Fugazi, etc.). August and I did some Memrise, then he played on the iPad and Carly and I both read while we waited for our food. When we left we bought two chocolate raspberry muffins.

Walked back to the car and as we drove to the Bahá’í Gardens August had most of one. Obviously he loved that. We spotted an entrance to the gardens and parked and walked through the tunnel back to the entrance. It was now about 4:30, so we didn’t have long. Really nice spot though and August liked it. We saw the Shrine of the Bab through a fence. Walked over to an area with a bunch of cacti and taught August the difference between ‘cactus’ and ‘cacti’. At first he disagreed, but by the end he was practicing them out. We sat on the ground to take a photo of them and realized the rocks were crushed brick (August found letters on one piece) and very red. I took August to the bathroom and he was licking the dust off his fingers. Then I realized his shirt was rather red.

In the bathroom he was pressing (imaginary) numbers and (imaginary) ghosts were coming out after we pressed an (imaginary) hand thing like the one that flushed the toi
let at the museum.

On the way out Carly learned which areas of the garden you can walk on your own (three small parts) and where you need a tour (everything else).

We got back to the car, and as we unlocked it August was saying “Timmy the combat comet”. Which I think is a Timmy Time reference and we just weren’t getting the end part (and he was probably making something up). By the time we left his count was 12: 10 cats and 2 nice dogs (he’d decided that he’d count nice dogs – one had been in the cafe).

We were in the car at 5. Listened to the 12 Days of Christmas. He was singing along, then suddenly falling asleep. Got the iPad out and RelationShape kept him awake. He made it without falling asleep and we were home at 6:15.

Inside I asked what his favorite part was and he said “everything “ Carly was reading on her Kindle and he was highlighting big words and asking what they met: “destination…what’s that mean?” And words like prefabricated, occasional. He then asked her to read out loud.

He was tired after the long day. We got him ready for bed and I suggested he dream about the science center. He added “and monsters and ghosts”. I left just before 7 and he was soon asleep.

He climbed up and asked me where mama was at 6:07. When I came down about 7 he was watching Timmy Time, but soon turned it off. He wanted to nurse. I distracted him for a few minutes by practicing Arabic with him in Memrise. He was then getting frustrated about not nursing until Carly got him over drawing pictures. Carly had him laughing over a picture they drew with people attached, then a big stack of things (person on a car on a tree on a cow etc.).

He and I then Skyped with my parents. He played the mystery tune for them a few times and a cool arpeggiated chord progression. He also hung up on them a couple times. Carly had been working on cooking the beet, so when that was done he ate oatmeal with mango and beets (on a separate plate) outside. Then Carly began her ambitious project of removing all of the old dirt from the planters around the kitchen. I cleaned our shoes from yesterday with the hose (and August’s help) and we used a stick to flick some cat poop off the fake grass, then I played store with him. He kept wanting to pick one of his little carrots today, so I went in and cut carrot sticks and he ate those and vegenaise and a couple crackers.

I went to take a shower and when I came back he was eating popcorn and watching Timmy Time. Carly had made eggplant sandwiches for her and me. I then gave him a bath. He sprayed me in the face with a squirt car. Went pretty well overall though as I was able to wash his hair. Back downstairs Carly had been removing dirt, but the last window was stuck. We got that open, then she continued and August and I used the last of the green paint to paint the back of the sign board a bit. August is excited to get more paint at Ikea.

I called Omar at Sabeel and things sound good. He wanted to meet in person in Jerusalem and we decided on tomorrow or Tuesday. Carly and I talked and decided on tomorrow, but later in the day he told me there would be demonstrations tomorrow and he didn’t know if he’d be able to make it to the office, so I’m planning on going to Jerusalem on Tuesday.

August requested mango so I thawed four pieces for him. He ate that and requested five more. He and I did Drops and French in Memrise while Carly showered. We got ready to go shopping and left at 1. I couldn’t find my hat before we left, and at some point I asked if he had put it in the Zinnie shop. He said “I think so.” Then, “Finding dada’s hat is one of the things I wanted to do today.”

We got to Ikea and found it pretty busy. Went pretty well though. We started upstairs, August looking for hopscotch. None upstairs, but he had fun playing on the beds and pretending to sleep, then going in a wardrobe and pretending to be teleported (a la The 91-Story Treehouse). We got to the kids’ stuff and he started playing with a kitchen set. Carly stayed with him and I continued on downstairs. We got another set of sheets for the Zinnie bed, 6 bags of potting soil, and other random items. Had planned on a dresser, but then weren’t sure if the box would fit with us all in the car, so measured the box. He and Carly caught up when I was looking at storage bins and wasn’t sure which ones Carly would want. He did some hopscotch patterns along the way.

Carly ran back to get a kid’s calculator and a set of cups for playing in the sand from the kids area, then met us at checkout. August had been helping to push the cart, and was excited about a hot dog. They went and got a hot dog and falafel sandwiches while I checked out, then we ate at Ikea.

We got home after 3. August started playing in the car and we unloaded everything. Carly put the dirt in the planters and I stayed with him. He was playing with Siri through the car, then he asked me “Water please, Ryan.” after Siri had called me Ryan.

We moved to the yard and he checked the Zinnie house: “I don’t see your hat. Let’s keep investigating.” I went and put his new sheets on the bed. He was running his store, but then stopped his delivery service to Carly, saying she had to come to the shop.

We headed to his activity class a little before 4:30. Sigal, the teacher, was already inside and there were no other kids. I started writing the checks, and Carly was with him. He went in the class a bit, but was kind of hyped up and panicky, especially after climbing on my back as I was writing checks and then falling forward and hitting his face on the table. After a few minutes he declared he was going home and headed up the stairs.

Carly and I switched. I got him back inside and we spent a couple minutes doing things like refilling his water bottle from the dispenser and playing with the latches board and a couple other toys. He then started going into class for a minute or two at a time. Several times he came back out though saying “See? I told you she was going to kill me?” After the first time he went in he came out and told me “You didn’t sneak!” Apparently Carly was going to “sneak” into the room for a couple minutes (Sigal had told her she could be in for awhile). He was getting more into it, but Sigal had them sit down. He started to come out and she called to August. August yelled to her “No! Sitting is boring!” When I got him back in again I heard him say “Sitting is boring!” to her again. But he was staying in longer and longer. They were doing things like ‘skiing’ on blocks and climbing over stools. I knew he was totally into it when I heard him telling her “I’m ready! I’m ready!” He made it to the end of class and was really excited when it was over. He told Carly “Class was fun!” and he was really smiling and excited for the rest of the evening.

At home we had some discussion about what was the best thing ever. My answer is ‘pie’, but he argued “Nothing’s better than nursing. That’s impossible!” and “Nursing is the most awesomest thing I’ve ever done.” But he also argued that the best thing ever is sap picking, and then “invisible infinity rockets”.

Carly headed him up some dinner and we ate outside. He played some Wizard School, then we read two Tallulah Books. As we were getting ready for bed he said “Oh yeah! We’ll see about that.” about something. I suggested he dream about class. He said “Class…and a volcano! And a storm!”

I left them at 7:20 and he was asleep soon after.

Learning to make change: 

Wanting to help scoop dirt: 

Teleporting in the wardrobe: 

Measuring at Ikea: 

Trying out the beds: 

It was another pretty restless early morning with Carly having to get him back to sleep a couple times. They stayed in bed until 6:15. When I got up a bit later they had been playing Wizard School and Carly was making him oatmeal with mango. They then did their crazy eating outside thing even though it was just 15 degrees out there. They came in after awhile and he wanted to type on my iPad. We added two new keys to the onscreen keyboard – one for ‘Mama’ and one for ‘Dada’. They then nursed, and Carly was reading a YA novel called Ghost. August asked her to read outloud. She did, and when he was done nursing he just lay on the couch and she read for awhile. She decided it was a bit depressing, then they went over and got paper and she taught him how to draw a stick figure. He said he couldn’t do it at first. He drew lines coming out of his and said: “The person is actually an alien!”

He was then playing with the blueberries and I went over and played with him. He was a machine going haywire and not following the rules. Then he used the blueberry that is a pinkish color and said it was a drone (or at first a satellite) and wanted me to steer it by remote control. So I was giving it directions on which way to go. To the toy piano where he was making things up, then played the tune again and asked “What’s that from?” He often sits with his left arm and head up on the couch now and plays with his right hand.

We got going and left to head up to Levet Israel in Binyamina. Stopped at a gas station and we figured out the gas card on our own and filled the new car for the first time. Stopped at another gas station just before Binyamina to use the bathroom and we saw Karen, from the school, who organized the beet picking.

Got to the field at 10:10. Jack was there, and I suggested to August that he ask how Nellie is doing. Jack said Nellie could use someone to come over and pet her, as Celeste is away on vacation. So we might swing by sometime. I walked/carried August up to the field. We were a bit behind when we got up to the field, and the rest of the group was listening to the organizer. I had us standing back a bit, but August was ready to get beet picking. He took off towards the field where other people were already picking, saying “Bye bye dada”.

We had fun picking beets. The area we worked in had less big beets this time. Liam (who August and I had once went swimming with at the pool) and his mom were there so we picked close to them. August was very into helping carry the buckets to dump them. He would use his “Super rocket turbo power!” to help. Near the end, Carly pulled a really big beet. August instantly decided he wanted to take it home. Carly argued it was too big, but he picked it up and started to haul it back to the car. I talked to him about it, and about how it would be too hard to cut. He said “Dada, you can cut it. You know everything!” How could I resist that? Also, he was looking pretty sad, so I gave in. The organizer kept putting out new bins as we filled them up, and August was asking me what my guess was for the goal for today. I was guessing a multiple of two, and August started counting by 2s, up to 100 and beyond. It turned out to actually be 9, and after the 9 were full we grabbed a bunch of beet greens and a couple of smaller beets as well and headed back to the car.

Jack almost convinced us to head farther north with him to do some flamingo watching, but we decided it was too far north and weren’t sure how much August would be into it. Maybe if we had binoculars. We drove through Binyamina to see if there was anything interesting and we didn’t find reason to stop. The winery if we didn’t have August with us.

We headed home, and Carly and I felt like a coffee. We went to Gutale, the other cafe in Even Yehuda and the one we haven’t been to. We got cappuccinos and August got a peach and mango smoothie. August and I had read some of the Magic Treehouse #32 in the car, and Carly tried to read a bit more with him here. He ended up doing some Memrise with me.

On the way back to the car the steering on his orange bike broke. The metal piece that attaches to the steering rod to turn the front wheel broke in two, so now Carly and I can’t steer. August can though.

We were headed over to Tiv Taam at the mall, so stopped at the bike shop and took it in. Long shot, but thought they might know someone who could machine a part. They said no. And get him on a two-wheel bike. August was into the steering himself thing though, so maybe a blessing in disguise as he suddenly took off, peddling himself around the mall. Carly went in and did some grocery shopping and he rode to the end of the mall, on the outside, and went down the ramp. He had to turn halfway. Did it three or four times, entirely on his own.

We met up with Carly and headed to the car. In town, when his bike broke, a guy came up to us trying to sell us random things, like snacks and perfume. Suddenly, it happened again. Same snacks and perfume, and now a massager thing that this guy (couldn’t have been the same guy) tried on my back. Strange. Also, he asked for 100 shekels for this cheap blasting thing, which was crazy.

In the car and out of the blue August said “I lost track…how many trees in the world.” Listened to more Jingle Bells on repeat on the way home.

Home at 3:40. I tried to call Omar at Sabeel but didn’t get an answer. They played out in car a bit, then came in and nursed. Inside, he used one of Carly’s shoes as a phone and was calling places to get them to fix cars, his stool, etc. He had a sort of script, and was telling them our address: “I live at Habrosh 1.”

I went out and finally tried riding my bike with the trailer attached. He watched and started to get interested in it. Tried on his helmet and he was okay with it (although we didn’t do the chin strap). He was showing interest in trying the bike for the first time. Maybe in the next few days.

Had some stir fry, then played the Hungry Cateepillar AR game and showed that to Carly. He played some toy piano, then we read Tallulah’s Tap Shoes. He was still hungry and I got him more veggies from the stir fry, no noodles, and he ate all of them and asked for more.

We went out and played Zinnie shop for quite awhile as it got dark. Don’t know if I mentioned hanging the battery light up in it so he has a light now. I bought the soccer ball from him, then got him to kick the ball back and forth with me. He said “This is so fun”. But then stopped about 10 seconds later.

Carly had taken a shower, then we took him in and got him ready for bed. He agreed he’d be dreaming about beets. And added “And VOLCANOES. And storms.” I left them at 7:10.

Drawing a person/alien: 

Drone: 

The big beet: 

How I decorated it in Wizard School:

Taking a rest from biking outside the mall: 

In the Zinnie shop: 

They got up at 6:20. I was up at 6:40. They were reading Plumdog. I took over and Carly drove to Herzliya for her first appointment of the day. While reading Plumdog he first asked what keyhole surgery was, so we looked it up. A few pages later it was talking about the age of different people in dog years, and I wasn’t certain what the conversion was. August said “Google!” When we finished with Plumdog we switched to language apps. I wanted to try Drops and Memrise with him. He didn’t like Drops at first as it shows your 5 minutes counting down in the corner. We did some Hebrew in that, then in Memrise he wanted other languages, so we did some French, then some Arabic. Did a good amount of language, then switched to Wizard school and exercise. On his toy piano he played the tune he’s been obsessed with (he now plays it in multiple keys) and asked “What’s this from?” I turned music on on the iPad and it was a Moby song. He instantly started dancing to it, so he had another Moby dance party. I said he seems to really like Moby, Erasure, and New Order. “Actually, I like other bands too.” In one of the remixes they kept repeating “Los Angeles” and I mentioned how I’d like to go back to California sometime. He said “What? You mean the element.” He knows ‘Californium’ from “The Elements” song.

He was running around, trying to stay away from me, and saying that if I touched him I’d burn up:  “Dada, I’m the hottest thing there ever is…I’m the fastest thing…You know I’m faster than the light.” We then switched and were listening to Christmas songs. We went upstairs and he watched the Timmy Time and Storybots Christmas episodes while I took a shower. We then did his bath and he pretended to be a flower, which made him more okay with getting wet. He didn’t know about the soap though: “I don’t know if I like soap on my stem.” I said I was washing off aphids and he liked that. When he was done he told the letters floating in the water “Time to get out of the pool! Pool closing!” Yesterday I taught him the secret to using the suction cups on the letters and numbers bag. I got the little sewing scissors and he let me cut one tuft of long hair. He was brave about that, but then wouldn’t let me do any more.

Carly got home at 10:10 as we were about to get out of the shower. They nursed, and she asked him how the bath went. He accused me of spraying him, which, in fact, did not happen at all. He then played piano: “Dada if you play the piano it sprays water on you. It’s good I played it because I’m a BABY FLOWER.” (Squeaky voice at the end there). He then transposed that little mystery song he plays into D flat. He asked for popcorn and said “The plain kind so it’s healthy.” Then he said to Carly “You know, let’s watch a movie…the polar bear one.” “Why we always eat popcorn when we watch movies?” He watched a good part of the first episode of Planet Earth, which they’ve watched before. He then helped me glue more book labels in the books.

Carly was making stir fry in the kitchen and he asked what the recipe was that she was making. He found out there would be noodles involved and said “Dada, you know I love noodles, right? More than mangoes. More than Qs! I like them, but I like noodles MORE.” When it was done we ate stir fry outside. He liked picking the noodles up himself. And while he was eating he asked Carly which burner she had cooked the mushrooms on. The food reminded me of Vietnam for some reason and Carly and I talked about the night before I got sick there. A couple minutes later he said “Tell me more things about Vietnam.” Usually he calls it boring talk if he isn’t involved. Although often he also doesn’t like it if we’re talking about him.

About 1 we got going and headed first to the Even Yehuda library to return the Hebrew copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which was due today. We realized we hadn’t brought August’s vaccination records with us, so headed back home and I ran in and got them. Carly drove us to Herzliya and to where the pediatrician’s office was supposedly located. We found a house. Carly called and the Herzliya Medical Center and got us to the correct spot a block away. But then it was 1:50 and no one was answering the door. August had a 1:45 appointment. The doctor showed up at just before 2.

August was not happy about going to the doctor and very worried. He was reluctant to go in at first, but then the doctor asked if he liked puzzles and pulled out a board with magnet shapes on it. August was into that and did it twice. Overall he handled it well, and let the doctor look in his ears and listen to his chest, etc. He did say “I hate doctors” a couple times, but it wasn’t horrible. The doctor measured him at 14.5kgs and 98cm. August was a little upset about being measured short. I noticed August didn’t have his feet all the way back though. I’ve consistently measured him at 100 or 101cm and had just measured him, with shoes on, at 101. I told August that and he wanted to put on his shoes again and I re-measured him.

The doctor said August was doing fine with everything, although encouraged us to work on playing with other kids, etc., which is our own assessment. In asking questions though we realized that August has used glue (he was just doing that with me), but we haven’t had him use scissors. The doctor also asked if he could draw a person, and August said he didn’t know. So the doctor asked him to try and August drew what he called a “weird person”. We’re also not sure if August entire has hopping down, and he hasn’t really worked on dressing himself yet.

We got to the car and I drove us south a couple minutes to Carly’s next appointment (all check-up/getting to know doctors appointments today, but they rather spread things out here). August and I played in the car for a few minutes. I talked about how nice the doctor was and that he was from South Africa and had said he had lived in Texas. August asked “Is there rattlesnakes in the United States?” When I said yes he said “Then I should have told him watch out for the rattlesnakes.” This goes back to when we learned of a poisonous snake in India and I told him he should tell Korea Megan to watch out for it. Anyway, I told him he could tell Gramma and Grampa that so he recorded a Skype video for them. He had also said “I hope they haven’t got bit by a rattlesnake”. We were then listening to Jingle Bells on repeat and he was singing it but only but only some words (like ‘jingle’ and ‘way’) to make a sort of accompanying part.

We then took the orange bike and headed down to the beach. There were stairs so I had to carry the bike down a couple times. He talked to the bike, asking how it felt about being carried and telling it it was okay.

Down on the beach we headed north on the packed sand. Went about half a kilometer and came across a runoff area that leaves a sort of channel in the sand. We played there for 40 minutes or so, using the shovel and rake and bucket to play with the sand of the ‘cliff’ at the edge of it. A wonderful time at the beach – just warm enough and we could enjoy the breeze.

About 4 we headed back south. His shoe fell out at one point and we had to backtrack. We had paid for parking until 4:15. Carly had waited forever to see a doctor, then met us at the car right about that time. August were a couple minutes after her as we were looking at a sculpture and debating whether it looked like a person or not.

She then had to go to another office at the main medical center for a blood draw. She started walking up there after we paid for more time, then August and I stopped at one building for a restroom. It was being used, so we went on up to the building Carly was in and found a bathroom there. We walked a bit more, then went back and hung out in the car for a few minutes until Carly called.

She walked down to the pharmacy and August and I packed up and drove to get her and arri
ved just as she called to ask where we were. I kept driving and we headed home, getting her at 6.

We had dinner but he said he was full of the snacks in the car. Luckily it was a lot of fruit. We played Wizard School, then August and I did Hebrew and Arabic together in Drops and Memrise. He was tired so we got him ready for bed. He said he’d dream about “Nursing, and Qs, and cupcakes, and chocolate. And doctors, too.” I left them at 7:15.

It was a rough morning – August was waking up around 4:30. He had nursed earlier as well, making it a really rough night for Carly. They got up by 5:30. I got up after 6:30. As I got up he was getting really upset because Carly wouldn’t let him have the noisy thing from the Old MacDonald puzzle. Carly tried to go to bed but couldn’t get to sleep.

Downstairs he calmed down when we pretended to be on Treehouse levels (the bed was out and it looked like a platform): chainsaw juggling, upstairs to ice skating, ice cream: “I’m gonna get monkey ice skating board…It’s a real ice cream flavor. It tastes like monkeys.” We then sat in the play area and read book: Biscuit Picnic, Opposites, Barnyard Dance, Happy Birthday!, Moby-Dick, Tickle, The I Love You Book, and a good chunk of The New Kid on the Block. We moved in on the bed for the last book. He was laughing pretty well at some of the poems. Then he got silly: “When I said muggle wuggle the sticks under there disappeared.” And “Everywhere I go, the calculator sews and sews…it seems our whole house up.” He was rhyming nonsense words, like “uppa moopa appa dappa”. We traded these back and forth as we walked downstairs.

They went upstairs to nurse about 8:15. Carly had cooked eggplant so I had a sandwich. He fell asleep but Carly didn’t. He came down at 9:40. When he saws Carly he asked “What were you doing down there?” We had been working on some errands: getting our 2000 shekels from Skoda (the other associate seemed to be cleaning up after our actual dealer again, as I had to resend him a voided check) and making doctor checkup appointments.

I took a shower. The silicone I put down last night didn’t completely solve the leaking, but it is better. When I came down he was sitting between the couch and the coffee table, with the books covering his lap. I then gave him a bath. We were spelling words and found 8 ‘ook’ words we could spell with them. He took the ‘k’ away from ‘brook’ and asked if ‘broo’ was a word. I said no, but that ‘bro’ was a slang word short for ‘brother’. After his bath he said “What’s the short word for brother again?” I told him and he said “Don’t EVER call me bro.” He said bye to the letters as we left.

Downstairs he played some TodoMath as we got ready to go. I had found Kadima Forest on Google Maps and it was less than 20 minutes away. Give how tired people were today we figured we shouldn’t go too far. He played outside a little before we left.

We got there about 1:15. A little tricky getting in as the maps led us to the east side of the park, but the road that seems like it should be (and used to be) an entrance is closed. Found a dirt road in, then eventually found our way to the playground and picnic area. As we left we found the paved road out the southwest side of the park.

It is a really nice pine forest, open beneath the trees. He climbed on a big rock, then we went over and he climbed up a rope climbing structure. Got up to the second level himself, then I helped him up to the third. Climbed around in that a bit, and he worked on lowering himself through the ropes to get down. Went over to the regular play structure for a few minutes and he went on a swing and climbed on it. Carly had gone and rested in the car.

We went and sat on a picnic bench and Carly came out with us and we had cheese and crackers. Carly had gotten crackers that were in all sorts of interesting shapes, including quadrafoils. August said  “I don’t see any right angle trapezoid crackers”.

We then got out his orange bike and went on a walk on the dirt roads around the park. August liked the garbage dump, and on the way back he was singing a song about how he liked it. It ended when he smelled the garbage and said “Ewwww”. We also admired the big trees. August spotted a drinking fountain and commented that it was an old one, then played with it as it just went straight on the ground.

We left before 2:30 and stopped at home to drop off the bike. We had talked through the plan with August, which was to drop it off and then go to Ikea. He was fine as we dropped it off, and he and I read Berenstain Bears Think of Those in Need and Too Much Junk Food. But when we got to Ikea it was surprisingly full. Then, right after I got him out of the car he fell as he went to Carly and scraped his knee. Carly called off the Ikea trip and we headed home. A good call, as he then had a bit of a meltdown on the way home and had to apologize for saying mean things.

He had calmed down by the time we were home. Carly said something and he joked “With me, you never know.” Played a little of the shape matching game on the iPad, then he had dinner and he went outside with Carly and was doing more of the selling game. Only his business has evolved now to meet his customer’s (Carly’s) needs: he was now delivering. Carly would call him on the bowling pin phone, he would answer on his, tell her what he had in the store, and he would then deliver it to her at the table. He came in to go to the bathroom, and as he did he told Carly “Maybe YOU can sell ME things.”

August and I had started to play with Dino Walk (an app that shows how the globe has changed over millions of years, and has information about animals, etc. from different time periods). I wanted to go for a walk, but they were both too lazy, so eventually I went on my own. I walked for about 25 minutes, listening to an episode of Afghanada. I saw Holly walking her dog – she was surprised to see me on my own. When I got back they were playing Dino Walk. When I got back we switched to Earth Primer and we read/played through a lot of that.

He was seeming tired, and so was Carly, so we went up and got him ready for bed. I left them about 7:10. We decided he’d dream about erosion “and earthquakes” and the Zinnie shop.

I went downstairs and started watching Rogue One. Only got a few minutes in though as they came back down after 7:25. August and I read the rest of Plumdog, then Tallulah’s Solo, Tallulah’s Tutu, Pablo and His Chair, Biscuit Goes to School, Peppa’s Chrisrmas Wish, and Hug Machine twice. We had Cheerios and banana bread while we read. He then got down and sat and played piano slowly, doing big intervals, with his head resting on the couch. Looked very tired. Carly took him up at 8:45.

He was up around 6:30. When I got up I heard him playing chords and saying numbers on the toy piano. When I came down he was in the bathroom. As I helped him he said “I’m never going to give you your iPad back…I’m going to remodel your iPad.” (A reference to Fortunately, the Milk). He had used it to watch Sarah and Duck. Carly was drinking her coffee outside and he went out with her for a few minutes, eating his oatmeal, then came in and used my iPad to play Wizard School. We sent each other things for quite awhile. He then nursed and played Scratch on Carly’s computer, then wanted to read Berenstain Bears and the New Baby but only wanted Carly to read it, not me. He ended up watching a video about jail with Carly and had good questions: “What are other really bad rules they could break?” “Are they stuck in jail forever?” “When the person goes to jail does the person that got the iPad stolen get it back?” “Can we watch a better video of someone breaking a really bad rule?”

I took a shower, then Carly headed to the plant store and I took him up for his bath. He was throwing the letters out of the bath and said “They’re sea sponges!…You can scrub me with the sea sponges.” We were listening to Christmas music, mainly the new Minus 5 album. He then spent a lot of time watering the toys in the basket (kind of looks like a flower pot) with the water can. I commented on how I needed to do the silicone to try to reduce the leaks under the barrier that Yve put in. August said “Silicone? Is that an element?” “I turned into silicone.” When he was out of the bath he was then the silicone, blocking the water. Naked, he put up his arms and a leg to block the water from going to the other end of the bathroom.

Out in the play area we were now listening to Moby and the Void Pacific Choir. He started dancing, so we had a little Moby dance party. I picked him up and he said “Are you using your watch?…But dancing is exercise too.”

Carly was home 10:20. We heard a noise and investigated. She was bringing all the plants and pots in. She’d bought a couple of big pots, then za’ater and flowers and other plants for one side of the kitchen boxes. August asked for popcorn so I made that. He wanted the plain so I could put za’ater on it. Carly remembered how he used to flap his hands when he was excited. He tried it, but said “I don’t do that anymore.” When I made the popcorn I asked how much za’ater Carly usually puts on it. She said just a little. He said “You don’t want to waste the za’ater.” Then told me “When I had oatmeal mama almost putted on all the honey container!”

I also had out carrots and pesto vegenaise to dip them in. August kept eating carrots, even as the popcorn was available. He ate a lot of them. He told Carly “Mama! You should have some popcorn! It’s SO good.” We took the carrots and popcorn out on the outside table and ate there.

He was then playing in the Zinnie house. Carly was doing the plants and I was working on the library, putting the glass in, the plaque on, etc. August started a shop out of his Zinnie house, selling things to Carly and me. Carly went and got coins and we used those. Carly replanted his carrots to a bigger pot and he got to pick one and eat it and the greens: “It’s the tiniest carrot I’ve ever seen!”

In his shop he offered to sell Carly some cardboard, which I needed for painting the board for the library sign. I told him I’d give him twice what the other woman was willing to pay. He said “Actually the other woman really wants it but you can borrow it anytime.” I had the two pieces of cardboard to use under the painting, but when I went to get something I came back to find it missing: he had reclaimed it and it was now back in the shop. He had earlier done the same thing with the broom Carly was using and she had to repurchase it.

He helped me paint the sign green. He was talking to the paint and the boards, asking them how they felt about the process. We finished that and went inside at 12:30. I put a frozen pizza in the oven and while he waited he ate beet greens. We ate, sitting at the table and listening to Christmas music, and then got going up to the Ilanot arboretum.

We got walking a bit after 2. We had taken apart his orange bike and figured out it could fit in the trunk of the car so he rode that around Ilanot. He liked the hills, and got pretty good at rolling down the hills. Also, he realized there were QR codes on all the tree signs, so wanted to scan each of them with the phone. He wanted to do all of them, so then I told him he could only do it on trees he really likes. So he was asking “Do I really like that tree?” Or asking Carly if she liked that tree, then if she said yes he’d say “Okay, let’s scan it!”

We got back to the beginning around 3, but then we spent several minutes repeatedly rolling down a hill on the bike. Carly got a couple minutes to sit and read. We went over to the picnic table area and he started playing in the pine needles. Carly skyped with her mom. Last time August and I were here we skyped with Cassie. While they were Skyping August and I played around and I realized that some of the pine trees above us (the Turkish pines (pinus brutia) or the stone pines (pines pinea) were showing crown shyness, which I’ve been wanting to see since I read about it.

We got going and from Ilanot you have to travel north on the highway and turn around. Got stuck in traffic a bit. We made it to the Tiv Taam at the mall and Carly went in to shop. August and I stayed in the car. He got in the driver’s seat and played the whole time. He was doing a lot of singing to “Jingle Bells”.

We got home after 5. We were dipping some of the new oval-shaped crackers and carrots in yogurt and vegenaise. He did a couple of puzzles with Carly: the undersea one and Peter Rabbit. I thawed the soup, did some dishes, and made us grilled cheese sandwiches. We ate and August got us all playing Wizard School. Carly sent him a picture of a menorah. He then asked for a picture of 3 candles, since he is three.

Carly cooked the beet. She put some in the freezer to cool it down for him. He asked me “Could you be somebody taking something into a freezer?” He has me act out things all the time, but this was an odd one as I just put something in a freezer. Earlier we had been acting out getting tattoos again. He gave a piano lesson to Carly, then we were trying to figure out the little tune that he was playing and often hums. Pretty sure it is from some app we’ve used, but not sure which one. We looked at a few but couldn’t find it.

We also had the Hanukkah donuts that Carly got at the store. In the car when we were guessing what she had purchased that was Hanukkah related, August said ‘dreidel’ and ‘menorah’.

He was ready for bed, and laid out the order of things: “Number 1 is brushing my teeth, number 2 is going to the bathroom, number 3 is nursing, number 4 is going to sleep…” Before I even asked he said “I’m going to dream about machines and squirrels and mice.” I left them at 7:55.

New plants: 

In the Zinnie house: 

First carrot: 

Arboretum: 

Skyping: 

Crown shyness: 

Singing in the car: 

Menorah picture: 

Sometime after 12:30 during the night he sat up and said “I need to go to the bathroom.” So I took him. As I carried him back he said “Read a book”. I said we needed to go back to sleep. He crawled up to Carly. I asked Carly about it later and she didn’t realize he had gone to the bathroom.

Around 5:30 he had been nursing for a long time and Carly had had enough. He got really upset and wouldn’t calm down. Carly took him to the Zinnie bed. I went and got his water and a snack and the iPad. At first he was even angrier when I tried to play Storybots or something. Eventually he calmed down and started to play something and I went back to bed. I was getting up, slowly, around 7 and he came in and was pulling the blanket off of me. Carly had brought the big piece of styrofoam in from the laundry area and he had me carry him on it.

Downstairs he showed Carly how to play Yankee Doodle again, then they made the hologram thing she had brought from Planetanya. They went in the bathroom to get it to work. You get it to work by setting it on a phone/iPad playing a video from YouTube. Back out in the living room he just watched the video on its own.

Carly was in winter break cleaning mode right from the get go. She wanted to turn our bed and return the rolling bed from the Zinnie bed to his room and set up a mattress on the floor next to our bed for him. So I ended up doing much of that, with Carly’s help turning the bedframe a couple times as we had to stand it up. I finished putting the beds and mattresses back together and they ate oatmeal outside and took care of plants.

Back inside I read Plumdog with him for awhile (he really likes that book), then I went and took a shower. He was doing TodoMath. Let him play a few more minutes, then I took him up and gave him his bath. More squirt cars and we had the letters swimming today (which we used to do in Korea). When we were done he used his foot to pick up the letters and talked about them not wanting to go back to the bag (again, from Korea).

He talked to Siri and we got ready to go, then was playing with Scratch and Carly’s computer. He would do something and tell Carly “What did you do to my computer?” And he told me “It’s Mama’s computer, dada. Don’t interrupt me. Or you’ll have to pick the papaya plants. And weed the garden.” I wasn’t actually interrupting him, but it was a line from Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners. Then he was using the red marker as a wand to make us disappear and reappear.

We got out to the car with Carly driving and we drove up to Caesarea. On the way we read some Clementine. He spotted a McDonald’s sign and said “McDonald’s! We can eat at McDonald’s!” I was surprised he recognized the sign so easily, as we’ve never really talked about it.

We first went to the Casesarea beach with a Roman aqueduct running along it. We sat under the aqueduct, then went down on the beach and played around. August wanted to make a moat, so Carly went up on the beach and they made a moat around her. He then got upset though when he wanted to fill it with water but we didn’t have anything to do it with. He wanted to go home and was trying to walk back up to the car but we wouldn’t go. Finally, convinced him to take off his shoes and feel the crunchy sand. He then had fun picking up chunks of sand and destroying them. Initially we weren’t letting him “sandify” us but eventually it turned into a game. Spent some time burying his feet in the sand and they were crabs. Carly was surprised that he knew that sand was broken up rocks, but he knows erosion pretty well from the Earth apps and from our time playing at that stream by the Dead Sea.

We headed back to the car, trying to get sand out of everything and failing. Drove to Caesarea National Park and got tickets for just the Crusader city part, as it was about 2:30. Saved the Roman portion for another time. August liked going over the bumpy path in the stroller, but he liked the ramp more, saying he liked to run up ramps. We wandered around the harbor and out to its farthest point. Carly made fun of me for taking a photo of the power plant. She didn’t think many people would do that.

We walked back to the lawn area  about 3:15 sat and had a snack. A baby came over to us, interested in the snacks and did a nice roll. August wasn’t impressed with the roll or the baby. August was eating a grape, a piece of pear, then getting a chip. He was okay with the order, but didn’t like saying “please” each time, so was pushing buttons in the air and claimed that “8 8 works without a please.”

Headed home about 4. We read part of Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman on the way. He was really interested in the part about the aliens wanting to remodel earth.

At home they Skyped with Korea Megan for over half an hour. Gave her a tour of the house, and I talked to her about how the trucks have ‘Horn OK Please’ painted on them there. So that Carly could talk to her I was ‘entertaining’ August by spinning him around and made up a little chant:

I’m entertaining Zinnie

By spinning him around

By lifting him up

And flopping him down

Eventually August said “Dada, stop entertaining me.” After Skyping we read some more of Fortunately, the Milk. Then all three of us were doing Wizard School. I told him “I’m going to send you the funniest thing ever.” He said “You mean the Treehouse books?” I sent him a picture that said ‘Robot poop’. Perhaps not as funny as the Treehouse books, but it got a good laugh from him.

He was then getting tired and Carly was talking about reading to him and he slipped and hit his chin/neck on the corner of the coffee table. No real damage, but it hurt. Carly took him up and he was ready for bed. For dreaming I suggested beach and ruins. He said he’d dream about “Beach and robot poop and ruins and Wizard School”. I left them about 7:10. He was asleep soon thereafter.

Wanting to go home: 

Back to the sand: 

Feet as crabs: 

Caesarea. Photo Carly made fun of me for taking: 

Snack spot: 

City walls: