Author: Ryan/Dada

He was up with Carly’s alarm. They got out of bed a bit later. He was finishing a Timmy Time episode when I got up, then he watched StoryBots Christmas. They nursed before Carly left. When Carly said she had to leave soon he said “I’m gonna cancel that out.” Carly left and we read two Berenstain Bears books: Get in a Fight and Bad Habit. Zucchini bread for breakfast. We pretended to be snails hiding in a shell when it rained or someone walked by. He wanted popcorn so we made a bowl, then read Amelia Bedelia and the Cat

He watched Sarah and Duck and I exercised and took a shower. He then played GarageBand and was looking up chords in Piano Companion. We went downstairs and I made sandwiches for lunch. He wanted spoonfuls of things so had some peanut butter, jam, and honey.

Somehow, we then became water, I think the sewage overflow that was leaking out of the driveway/storage area (not sure if I mentioned that Shmuel had come and fixed it while we were gon on Friday and he now wants us to not put toilet paper in the toilets): “Come on dada, let’s flow into the street…Where should we go now, dada water?” We turned it into acting out the water cycle, using the couch and pillows as the mountains that we would then erode before flowing back to the ocean, etc. Then: “We can pee upstairs. We’re clouds; we pee rain.”

As we went upstairs he got creative with his weights and numbers: “Do you weigh negative (something)?” “Thats a number with 99 quafzillion zeros after it.” Made his own shower mildly more manageable by pretending he was a cloud soaking up more water. Afterwards we ended up singing the “Down by the Bay” song and making up new verses that end the line “My mom will say, have you ever seen a…” One of August’s best was “eagle pooping on a seagull?”

He saw the ‘On this day…’ notification on my phone and we ended up looking at Day One. A year ago today we had gone to the Seoul Grand Zoo and there was a photo of him on the wrong side of a sign saying the waterbird area was closed. There was also a video of him finding out that he liked carrots and telling us to grate more carrots. The bird flu photo led to us acting out a bird being sick with bird flu and a zookeeper (with mask, gloves, etc.) taking care of it.

We left the house at 10 and drove north about a half hour to the Technoda Science Center. We had tried to come by here once with Carly on a holiday but it was closed. As we parked and got out he said “I want to blast that monster but there’s a person in the way.” He had spotted the tower from the coal plant just to the north and I told him about it and that it ran on coal: “So it makes a lot of pollution?” He then said

“The power plant I get my electricity from for my rockets runs on coal, actually.”

Not a very inviting place. We had to be let in the gate, but the security officer wasn’t at his post at first. Inside, there was no info. We paid our 24 shekels and she told us to start in the outside portion. No flyer, etc. She had to buzz us to the outside area. We went out and started with the water stuff: pumps and one of the spiral things, and a water wheel, etc. We talked about all the different ways of moving water and why it was so important. Then he needed to use the bathroom. The door we had come out was locked, of course, but there was no way to alert anyone. Knocked on the door, but no response. We checked the other doors and found a different door unlocked. Found a bathroom. First toilet we looked at had a sketchy looking toilet seat, He refused it, and we went to a different one: “It’s not pinchy, dada…No, I will never want to go to the pinchy toilet. Not for NINETY NINE years.”

We went back outside and went to the musical instrument stuff. Okay, but nothing too thrilling. We stopped and sat outside and ate our lunch. Played around some more, then he was ready for the inside area.

But first, we had to ask to go in that part, as the door was closed. We had to wait while they got a key and came and opened it up. She then left it unlocked. The odd thing was that there was a mother and her son already in there. So I don’t know what the heck was going on.

Luckily, the inside stuff was well worth our time and we spent a lot of time there. He got really excited by a funhouse mirror that made him look really tall:”I’m as tall as a seven year old!” “I’m like a 9,000 year old!”

Although he liked everything inside, he was nervous and wanted me to carry him everyplace, and often didn’t want to be set down. I think it has to primarily do with all of the loud, odd noises. He was always bothered by them at the science centers in Seoul, as well. So I carried him around for the first hour. It was only when we started going over things for the second or third time that he relaxed and was running around on his own.

One of our favorite things was the tracks that had these cars that you set on them and watched the run down – gravity and all that. I was able to remind him of the Max Axiom book and Newton. In fact, in one area there were pictures of Einstein and Newton on the wall and we were able to discuss them: he identified Einstein from Peg + Cat and Einsteinium in the “Elements” song, and I reminded him of Newton in the Max Axiom book. He then really liked playing with the magnets: both magnets stacked on a post, repelling each other, and train cars with magnets on each end. We had read that Max Axiom book on magnets so he had an idea about the different poles and the attraction/repulsion. Also, then had a tennis ball shooting air cannon.

They kind of randomly have a section of historical ship models, which as admittedly more fun for me, although he could read the years of their operation in Arabic, which was pretty cool. Other cool stuff included fluids not mixing, a section on optical illusions, a place where he could make heat hand prints, a place you could control a surveillance camera in the center of the room (also had these in Seoul – what do they have to do with science???), a whirlpool thing, a couple kaleidoscope things, a periscope, etc.

Oh, and the chair of nails. He walked up to it and touched it with one finger and said it was pokey. I explained though that when you sat on it your weight would be distributed and it wouldn’t be pokey. Before I could actually test my explanation to make sure it was correct, he simply turned around and started sitting on it. A cool bit of bravery, and a sign he was feeling more comfortable.

He also liked the three dimensional puzzles, and made progress with actually flipping pieces, and not just rotating them, when putting together ‘H’ and ‘T’ shaped puzzles. He has always found that difficult in the past.

There was a sort of infinite kaleidoscope thing and he was excited that there were and “infinity” of stars in it. Finally, in the black light area he had fun with the Tesla coil thing (I think that’s what it’s called, although I might be getting them mixed up).

We went back and covered his favorite section again (hand prints, surveillance camera, rotating pen thing), then made sure we’d done everything: I lifted him with pulleys while he sat in chairs, etc.

We finished up, then wanted to do the spiraling coin donation thing. Didn’t have any agora coins (the partial shekels). In fact, only had 5 shekel coins. We got him a grape juice out of a machine and had a 1 shekel coin left. Asked at the desk for change. They didn’t have any. So he rolled the 1 shekel coin down the ramp. It fell over though and didn’t roll very well. He wasn’t bothered though.

We went and sat outside and drank the grape juice: “It’s really good, dada.” I asked how he liked the science center and got an enthusiastic thumbs up: “I’m gonna put a thumbs up on the building with my shooting thumbs up machine.”

We went back inside to use the bathroom before we left. As we went in he asked “Is there anything for me to blast? I haven’
t blasted anything in quite awhile.” I bought a drink for the road and had another shekel coin, so we did the spiral again. Entertained a bunch of kids with it. August had fun making sure he saw it drop to the bottom. Afterwards, he said he made sure he didn’t blink – a reference to the Garfield strip where Garfield is staring at a tree in the fall with one leaf left, and when he blinks the leaf falls and he misses it.

We left after 2, so spent 3 hours. As I put him in his seat in the car he did the head pushing game (head butt) that he insists on winning. So I then started kissing him a lot and declared myself the winner of the kissing game.

We were listening to the Tom Lehrer Elements song. August would call out element names when he recognized them, then say things like “I turned into Californium.” I had sent an email to Carly saying, cryptically, “Today August sat on a chair of nails. He’s okay.” She called for details and to ask if I was kidding. I had her on speakerphone and asked August if he had sat on a chair of nails: “Yeah!”

We got to Ace at 2:30. Quick trip in, getting one can of spray paint for the back of the shelves, a power strip, and a small thing of nails.

Then to Tiv Taam where we made a quick trip, getting two boxes of popcorn (one butter, one plain) so Carly wouldn’t be out, apples, and bananas. Both Ace and Tiv Taam are out of the big stick-on hooks I was using for our coat hanging nook.

Finally, we looked quickly at the art store. August didn’t really want to look around. We want a globe, but they just had one and it wasn’t too impressive.

I emailed Carly, asking if she wanted us to pick her up. We had some time, so we sat in the car and listened to more science songs I found in iTunes. We then drove up and picked Carly up and headed home.

Carly cooked the rest of the chocolate pancakes and August ate one. He and I read Berenstain Bears Get Into a Fight, Class Two at the Zoo, and Cat on the Mat Is Flat – he wanted to act out many of the stories.

Carly went in the bathroom with him, and he said something negative/mean. She asked “Why do you say those negative things?” He responded with “Because negative times positive equals negative.” Not sure where he learned that – maybe from us playing with the calculator when we got to Infinity Duck on our way back from Jerusalem.

He was then playing chords on the toy piano and would walk to the iPad and type in the letters in a document. We then switched to the ‘Reverse Chord Lookup’ in Piano Companion and he spent a lot of time playing the chords in there and asking about their names. Really cool. And when Carly came to see what he was doing he was teaching her how to do it and play the chords. And he was teaching her: he modeled it, then told her it was her turn. When she missed a note he encouraged her to try again. Even cooler.

We took him upstairs for bed, although he kept wanting to do more and more chords, even as he was yawning and rubbing his eyes. In the bed he was a squirrel, then we all were, and he wanted a squirrel family hug. We talked about dreaming about “nuts and acorns”, then he added “water wheels”. He was asleep at 7:30.

Reading Arabic numbers: 

Counting reflections: 

Dada-Zinnie monster: 

Lightning: 

Ace. Playing with a saw: 

Reading time: 

He got up with with Carly around 7. I was up at 7:30. He watched Timmy Time. He was grumpy to Carly when she left for work: “Have a NOT good day at work.” A bit later I got up to go to the bathroom. When I was slow in actually heading to the bathroom he came over and was pushing me from behind, saying “If you never go to the bathroom I will smashify you.” We ate zucchini bread and after his episode was over he watched some of the Formula E race with me and he had us being racing cars. He was also really interested in all the numbers: battery percentages, power used, etc. He was upset when I put the iPad away but agreed to a walk.

We walked for 20 or 30 minutes. I had messaged Jack about returning his key but didn’t get a response. When we were over by the house though August said we were getting pulled in that direction and he seemed to want to visit. He spent some time blasting monsters in the park but wouldn’t get out to play around. We were back to the house after 8:40.

Once inside we were suddenly ants. The house was our nest and he wanted me to find crumbs for the baby ant. When he went to the bathroom he asked how the mouthwash got refilled: “Did it fill up itself or was it magic?” I asked if he wanted the real answer or to keep it magic. He decided “Keep it magic.”

He played Math Tango and was doing more of the puzzles on his own. He saw me typing a message and asked “Are you sending an email to Carly?” Later, in talking about how he could send messages to my phone he said “Just from Carly’s?”

I exercised while he played Math Tango, then he switched to Timmy Time and I took a shower, then gave him his. We went back downstairs at 10:40 and made sandwich pizzas – one with olives and one without. He helped me cut the olives off the pits.

Jack came over to pick up the key and when I answered the door Jack pretended to be the downstairs neighbor complaining about noise. August liked this, and was stomping around. As Jack left he said “Lets keep making too much noise…for Jack.”

August wanted tea and instead of putting sugar in it this time I used honey. I let August lick the spoon I used and he wanted more and got rather demanding. We ate our pizza and he got descriptive of the cheese: “gooey, ooey, poopy, waste water treatment plant-y.”

We then went upstairs to play GarageBand. He then helped me put the CD from the nursery rhyme game into the computer. Then in on the bed he decided were were bacteria and eating teeth: “Okay, dada germ.” He took the pillow cases off of the pillows to turn them into white teeth.

Throughout the morning though he was being pretty clingy. Even when he was playing by himself he would need me to come over every minute or two. So hard to get anything done.

I went out to start laundry and he knocked over the cardboard rocket and hid in it. We then played in it together and he wanted to take blurry photos and do videos.

We talked about what to do today and he said he wanted to go to noodle place – earlier he had wanted to go out for pizza. We made a game of throwing his pajamas and a paper towel roll up and down the stairs. Then we were looking at Google Maps to decide where to go today. He wanted to look around though so I used my phone, which at first he also wanted to control. Then he found a game on my iPad which I’d downloaded but never played called Looty Dungeon. I showed it to him, thinking it would be too stressful for him when the character got killed by a spike or fell in a hole. I was wrong. August liked getting the money in the treasure chests.

At some point he also helped spray WD-40 to get some of the windows moving better. I also got the long skinny window at the top of the stairs working to get some warm air in while we were playing up there.

Back to talking about what to do, I mentioned doing recycling. He said “I will recyclify you.” He suggested a small walk: “Let’s go for a little walk…just down the steps and back.” He was being a little grumpy.

Finally, we headed out for a walk at 3. He cheered up when I squeezed the bad mood out of him. He was then playing with the bad mood, saying he put it on the bike, a post, me, etc. Jack spotted us as he drove the other direction and stopped and asked if he could get a ride to the guy’s night tonight. August didn’t quite catch what had happened and asked what I had said. I explained that Jack had jus stopped across the street. He said “Hey. You can’t talk to Jack. He’s like 19 blocks away.” After he wanted a snack and I made him ask politely he said “Dada, could you stop making me say please?”

We stopped at the unnamed park on the right side of the street as we walk up into downtown. There were kids that had a table covered with cheap toys and one came over and asked, I think, if we wanted to buy anything. I declined, but a bit later they came and gave August a little package of plastic tools. He played on the snakes and ladders board while I tried to call the car rental place to extend our rental. They aren’t good at answering the phone. We then went over to the exercise equipment area and played around on that. I was talking about what would happen in the evening and August said he wanted to go out to dinner with me. We went back and he did more hopscotch and snake and ladders, then we left by 4.

We stopped at our park and he played on the green chair thing. Then continued home and got here at 4:15. I managed to get through to the rental car place and August played Toca Blocks. Carly got home, and I soon left to go pick up Jack and head to the guy’s night.

Only 6 of us this time. We headed to BBB again and I got the market burger. Rick rode with me over there. I told both our car stories and updates on the neighbor situation multiple times. At the end of dinner I was saying that hopefully next time my update would be that we got our car and had solved the neighbor situation, end of story, and other people could do more of the talking. We were all pretty undecided about seeing the film, Justice League, and almost didn’t go. But Bruce convinced us and 5 of us (except Chris) went. It wasn’t a great movie, but fun to see in the theater and we were all happy we did go.

While I was gone they went to a walk to the pharmacy to get shower caps for the pie throwing contest that was going to happen at school. He wanted to ask if they had shower caps and asked on his own “Do you have shower caps?” At the end he said “Lehitrah ot!” He was interested in the pie in the face thing and kept asking “Is this a joke?”

Back at home they ate popcorn and watched Planet Earth. He was more into it this time. They read a Berenstain Bears book and pretended to be animals. He was asleep about 7:30.

Rockets: 

Being blurry: 

Mandy picked up Carly at 6 and they headed to Jerusalem for their West Bank tour with Saveel. I didn’t see her in the morning and kept sleeping. August woke up at 6:30 and asked where mama was. When I said she had left for work he wasn’t not upset at all and barely mentioned her. He headed downstairs before me and ‘hid’ from me on the couch when I came down. He was then trying out all the light switches. He asked “Dada, where should we go today?” He asked it again at least once later. He doesn’t usually show much initiative in thinking about leaving the house.

We read a lot of the Peppa Pig treasury then sent messages and video to Carly. We played MathTango and then he requested tea, so we drank tea together. He played Yankee Doodle on the piano. I played the CD collection of Hebrew children’s songs that was playing in the sculpture at Ra’anana Park and he sat, listening and playing/humming along. He wanted to find something by blasting, so we blasted upstairs to find clothes for going outside. He then asked “Can we sneak up on GarageBand?”Don’t know why. We played guitar and recorded him singing Yankee Doodle. Still upstairs we watched Arabic alphabet and Hebrew colors videos. We discussed doing a longer Hebrew song with the nikkud (vowel marks) but he specifically mentioned the mem sofit with a dagesh in it, which shows up if you press and hold on the iPad/iPhone keyboard. So we looked up dagesh in Wikipedia and learned all about it, but no mention of it in a mem. So still a mystery.

I took a shower and he watched the StoeyBots Christmas special that was just released. I watched the end with him. We read much of the Peppa Pig collection. Got his clothes off for his shower, but he cuddled with blankets in his bed. He asked for more so I got him the blankets off our bed. He asked for the lights of so he could see the stars.

Got him through his shower, then we were aphids eating things. Not quite sure how that one started. He was playing with the weights by the guitar and managed to scare the heck out of me by rolling it across the carpet. It kept rolling, then down the stairs to the midway landing. No damage, but plenty of noise.

We got going. First stop was at a McDonald’s north of Even Yehuda. He got his first Happy Meal. He chose the corn sticks (the vegetarian option), apple juice, the Powerpuff Girls toy, fries, ketchup, and the fruit squeeze. I got a fish sandwich and shared his fries. He was a little bothered that I was eating fish, as he was still being an aphid and wanted us to be eating all plants. We chose everything with one of those computer screens, but the staff still managed to screw up his Happy Meal three ways: first, no ketchup. I went and asked for that. Then his squeeze was missing. Went and got that. Finally, he got the wrong toy. Luckily, he didn’t care, and in fact quite liked what he got: a little microphone thing that makes your voice echoey. So he sang through that.

We then walked around the outdoor mall. He was blasting monsters everywhere. We looked in the bookstore for awhile, finding Frog and Toad, Not a Box, and several other books in Hebrew. August wanted to get some and translate Hebrew words, but we didn’t get anything. Went and found the bathroom before we left, then drove north to Alexander Stream.

We had walked along Alexander Stream with Carly back when it was hotter. We hadn’t gone far. I put in a park on the west side of the highway this time and Waze took me on backroads to get there.

We got out at the park at 2:15. August had been getting drowsy as we got there. Went to get him in the backpack and he was leaning on a metal bench. “No, I don’t want to do this. I want to rest.” He rested for a minute then we got in the backpack. The park was where we had stopped last time with Carly when we found the locked gate across a bridge. The pedestrian gate was still locked, but there was vehicle gate right next to it that was just latched with a chain, but no lock.

We got walking and went about a mile downstream until August decided he wanted to turn back and we were running out of time. As we were walking he was singing an Ants Go Marching song with decimals: “The ants go marching 1 point 3…” With lines like “…to plant a garden…to put down fertilizer.”. When we had smelled a field with fertilizer he said “I think I smell a poop monster.” He was also wanting to send messages to Carly and have her respond but I said she might not as she had turned off her phone because the battery was low. He said “I think it’s form my powers, my power to keep things safe…Sorry, I don’t have my own battery, so I have to be connected to other people.” And when we decided to stop for a snack he steered me by my shoulders and said he was using his remote control.

On the way back we found a really thorny plant. He said “It will pointify you…There’s more of the pointifying plants.” As we got close to the end we were walking on a path that is basically a sidewalk along a dirt road. A truck was coming towards us and he said “You know there’s a truck coming by, right?”

When we got back to the gate we had a problem: the chain was now locked. Would have been a good additional mile to walk around. Luckily, it was loose so just enough space for us to crawl through. August went through first and I lowered the backpack over the fence, then squeezed through.

In the car we took the highway back and went to the Drorim Mall. We bought slippers for Carly for pajama day at school and had free samples at the health food store and bought a bar of soap and chipotle veganaise.

We drove home, dropped off our stuff inside, then walked over to Jack and Celeste’s house, about 4:30. We got Nellie and took her for a walk. Nellie came to the door at first, but then when we came in she actually seemed a bit scared of us and ran into the living room. Got the leash on her though and she was ready for a walk. We walked her for about half an hour. It took some adjustment for her at first: she would get wound up with August’s bike and a couple times she looked over and seemed startled to see August next to her. And when we walked along the main street she tried to keep away from the bike and kept going down into the street, into the parking strip. August was concerned about her.

We walked down to the big trail and back. Along the walk August reminded me it was two scoops of food, although he said he didn’t know which size cup. Back at the house I had August put the scoops in the bowl. As we walked home I asked him if he wanted to walk Nellie again sometime. He had seemed to have a lot of fun. But he gave two thumbs down and said “I don’t want to hear that again for a very long time.” Earlier, at the end of the walk along the stream he’d given two thumbs up, although he later adjusted it to thumbs between.

On the way home he told me to go faster and I said “faster, driver, faster” His reply: “Dada, I don’t do that anymore.” It was dark as we walked down the path behind our house and we stopped to look at some colorful lights in a backyard that changed color. I picked him up to see them. As we left he said “Bye bye glowing things even though they can’t hear cuz they’re not people.”

Home at 5:25. August was a puppy and I put water in a bowl for him and he drank it on the floor. He then played with the Dr. PetPlay app and we put Peter Rabbit in it. I got other stuffed animals down, but we didn’t get around to adding them. We sent some messages to Carly and figured out how to send a GIF of August sticking out his tongue.

I got dinner ready as he played with the pet app and we listened to the new U2 album and ate dinner. He was still pretending to be a puppy and opened the kitchen door, pretended to pee outside, and came back in. He was playing chords on the piano and naming out the notes: “C E G” He started that without being able to see the letters on the keys, so he’s starting to get them memorized. He th
en took the board out so he could see the letters.

He requested tea so we made tea for both of us and sat and read Amelia Bedelia Under Construction as we drank our tea. Brushed his teeth and watched some Arabic alphabet song videos, then read Yertle the Turtle. Carly came in the door just as we finished the story. He wanted to nurse and Carly took him upstairs. He said he’d dream about turtles and walking dogs. I left them at 7:45 and he was soon asleep.

Making funny faces: 

Slipping through the fence: 

Feeding Nellie: 

We were all awake before 7 but then had a lazy Saturday morning and didn’t get out of bed until close to 7:30. August was being a baby squirrel. Carly set him up on his bed and he watched one episode of Timmy Time and ate zucchini bread. He and I then sat out in the play area and read Kiss Goodnight, some Pooh poems and the story where he gets stuck, Plant a Tree with Me, and Frog on a Log. They nursed on the Zinnie bed.

We played Math Tango, the new app from Originator (they made Endless Alphabet, etc.) on the big bed, then went downstairs. Carly was making soup. I was carrying August around and we were a concrete truck, putting concrete down for a building. He ate a whole bowl of oatmeal and said he was getting more concrete. I went and took a shower. He said “Now I have a lot of concrete in me.” Carly had made the soup from a jar mix thing she had gotten at Tiv Taam. Didn’t have a ton of flavor, so August told me he chose spices to add to the soup. Turned out well in the end and we ate some. He played with the tracing Arabic app and showed Carly how it worked, then we did Arabic and Hebrew videos. He said “Dada, we’ve watched a lot of videos. Time to do something else.”

He and I went outside and did watering and he played with sap. He found that the big mass of sap at the bottom of the tree, which we’d been watching since we got here, is now gooey. Perhaps because of the rain? He poked holes in it with his big stick.

We left for a walk before 1. As we got close to the mall he said he was running out of power but “I have enough power to make it to the coffee shop and wait.” We went to Rebar and he and Carly got the same Creamy Cocoa smoothie, but without the hazelnuts this time. Drank it at a table for a minute, then August said we could go shopping. We helped out in Tiv Taam and all went well until we were checking out.

Carly had put the smoothie in the back of the bike. While we were bagging groceries he spotted it and went and grabbed it. I’m not sure what happened – if Carly was taking it from him or he was handing it to her or he just dropped it – but it fell a few inches to the floor, landing upright. But the impact burst the bottom and it started leaking. I spirited him and the smoothie out the door and told him he could quickly drink what was left. That didn’t really happen though as he tried to come back in the store, then when Carly tried picking up the cup all the rest poured out. It wasn’t much of the overall smoothie, but it doesn’t take much smoothie to make a big mess. We felt bad leaving the messes, but had no way to clean it up and we told the checker.

At the store August had chosen some tea. I was going to choose some new tea for iced tea anyway. Turned out it was lemon and ginger tea. And it was an excellent choice, both for hot tea for August and as iced tea. Made both when we got home and he remembered it. He really liked it,but I had made him a pretty full mug and as he sat at the table he spilled it. He initially told me he wanted it to spill, but I don’t think that was the case. He refused to help clean it up though. Then when I was doing part of it he was kicking me in the back, upset. I went up to Carly, who was re-washing the mattress cover by hand and switched with her. She got him to help with clean up, then come up and give me a good apology. I talked to him and he agreed he’d help clean up next time there was a spill. They then nursed and I did some dishes.

He played more Chordana, then after 3 we all went over to see Jack and find out about walking Nellie for them tomorrow while they are in the West Bank with Carly. August didn’t really like the idea of taking care of Nellie. But we went over and took Nellie out on a short walk with Jack and it went okay. On the way back or there August and I sang our numbers at the bottom of the sea variations.

We came home and August and I loaded up the bike with all the recycling and headed up to the cages. Did cardboard, then went home for the recycling. As we walked up to the house August said he smelled popcorn. He was correct – Carly had made popcorn. We went up and did all the plastic and glass recycling. Couldn’t get him to go for a walk or play at the park though as he wanted to get back and have more popcorn.

Came home and ate some more popcorn. Then he sang a song: “There’s an aquabent at the bottom of the moon…that’s another way of saying ‘chair’.” Carly was making chocolate pancakes for August and I pointed out how nice she is. He said “Nicest EVER mama…She’s so nice I can’t even…(thinking time)… understand her.” So cute.

We ate pancakes, then read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day. He was then acting out what we had learned about taking care of Nellie: “I’m a little cat. Can your take care of me? My owner’s gone.”  He was getting fur all over the house.

They read Berenstain Bears New Baby in Spanish. He was a cat again. I was feeding him and he was cuddling. I got curry, hummus, etc. for dinner and August wanted some too so we had a second dinner. He said he was ready to go upstairs and play on the bed. I said I needed a minute to finish eating and Carly said she’d go up and play with him. He said “Let’s do really little flops with mama, then really, really, really big flops with you.” Because he knows Carly doesn’t like the big flops.

I went up and we played in bed. More flops, then read some of Teddy and Co. (we just have the sample), then took blurry and burst photos. His first time doing burst photos so I was teaching him how that works and how you then choose which to keep. He was then a dog chewing pillows. I tried to get a good photo, but should have done a video. We read some Plumdog, then he ‘helped’ put on the sheets and was being crazy. He sneezed right before he started nursing. I asked “Are you going to dream about sneezes?” He said “Yeah” and gave a thumbs up. I left them at 7:40 and he was soon asleep.

Smoothie: 

Tragedy: 

Trying out the dog walking: 

Being blurry: 

We were all awake at 5:45, then out of bed around 6. Carly set him up in his room and he watched Timmy Time. I went in and watched an episode with him. They nursed. He asked me to squeeze the bad mood out of him. Was then typing and copying and pasting on my iPad. Carly headed to work. We read Berenstain Bears Slumber Party and Bad Habit. During the latter he interrupted me and said “I was also dreaming about drinking apple cinnamon tea in my sleep….please, please, please, please…infinity pleases times infinity pleases!”

We went downstairs and he was a space probe: “I’m gonna take pictures of the solar system while you make my tea.” When I gave him his vitamins he made a pentagon out of them on his own for the first time.

We then made zucchini bread. He helped a lot and played around on his own when he wasn’t. Licked the spatula and ate some strawberries and walked around singing “There’s a Q at the bottom of the sea” and reciting Hebrew numbers. I cooked the leftover zucchini and he ate the rest of the strawberries and a few bites of zucchini. He watched that ABCKids TV video and I exercised and took a shower. I then ran down and took out the bread then went back up and and we watched to Z in the video together.

Went down and ate some bread. “I want you to mow that zucchini bread.” Not sure where that came from. We read some more of the Magic Treehouse book. He asked “Are you gonna coral reef me?” I asked “What’s that mean?” “Get me all wet.” He’s really into turning things into verbs. He was then being a shark. I then took him up for his shower. They are going okay nowadays until you touch his hair. Vacuumed the couch and rugs due to his crumbs. Then as we were getting ready to go he said “Uh-oh. I pressed 30 9s…on those buttons over there…I don’t know what they do, but you push them and they do something…uh-oh, it’s happening…the house is moving! We’re being carried up to the moon!”

We left at 11:10. He chose a radio station and Led Zeppelin’s “All My Love” was playing. He said “This is good music.” I switched to the phone and we were listening to Chemical Brothers. Said he liked that too.

We got to Planetanya and paid to play in the science playground outside – just 10 shekels. And we got a button commemorating 60 years since Sputnik, so he and I talked about that a few times. The first big section we did was the curved mirrors and optical illusions. We pretended to be zombies and monsters in the mirrors. August said “This park is really interesting.” Then to the middle part with the gravity swing thing, gyroscope, etc. We had fun with those then went inside to use the bathroom. He got pinched by the toilet seat so we had to change toilets.

When we came back out we first walked to the entrance with a sign telling you to walk up to the building to pay. I mentioned something about us going in the wrong entrance and August wanted us to walk around to the correct entrance. I told him it was okay, as we had already paid, but we walked around anyway. We played with the curved disks that let you hear someone a long way away and talked back and forth. Then the sound areas, with the xylophones and vibrating rods, and frequency table things. And then he took what may be his first video of me as I walked in a giant hamster wheel.

Finished with walking down to the Japanese Garden and looked at fish and sat and ate leftover pizza and apples for lunch. We talked about the Japanese person who donated money. “Uh-uh. There’s no Japanese guy cuz he died, right?” Don’t know why he would assume that the person had died (or was a man).

We left at 1:15. He had me push a button: “We can go home in our MAGIC CAR! It can stay in the air all day….The whole Planetanya is floating.”

He had requested the “elements” song sometime recently and I had figured out he meant the Tom Lehrer song “The Elements”, from his Year 3 playlist. We listened to that a few times along with the They Might Be Giants and Blackalicious songs. But the Lehrer is his favorite and he’d repeat elements that he recognized: “Sodium, dada!”

We drove to the Ir Yamin mall. Parked and found the back entrance we didn’t think existed. Went to Rebar (the smoothie place) and got the Creamy Cocoa smoothie – the one he gets with Carly, but left the hazelnuts in. I figured out how to do the smoothie and shopping after his meltdown last weekend waiting for the smoothie: get him the smoothie first and let him drink it while I go into shops. We did that, but I wasn’t very successful: looking for more underwear for him, but didn’t find anything the same as what we just got him, and found slippers for Carly but they were pricey. She wants them for pajama day at school.

So we left at 2:25. We ere finishing up the smoothie and August kindly volunteered to do it: “I’ll finish it now. SOMEONE has to finish it.” As we walked to the car I almost walked by it as I forgot I’d backed in the spot. August said something. When I went back he then scanned the license plate with his hand and said “Identifying” and read off the numbers. I had him recreate it for a video, but it wasn’t nearly as perfect.

We listened to more of the elements songs and went to the Drorim Mall near our house. When we got out I saw he’d been playing piano on his iPad and was figuring out Yankee Doodle. He was in the Chordana app and told me he’d played “Lightly Row” a few times and likes that song.

We went in and made a quick trip: bought two more packs of underwear for August. He was upset when I signed the electronic signature pad. Then scouted out slippers for Carly and took photos. Then into Tiv Taam. He agreed to just getting milk, but I was able to stretch it to include pita. I let him help sign the paper slip, but the reminder about the electronic pad was too much. He got really said and as we walked out of the mall he kept reaching back, telling me to go back that way and buy something. As we got close to the car I cheered him up by squeezing out he bad mood, then he was squeezing it out himself: “I squeezed it out of myself…onto you.” We left at 3:15.

We turned by the school and I realized Carly was getting off. We stopped by the private pool and called her. Then went back and picked her up when she came out.

At home he played the piano and Yankee Doodle. He was trying to get Carly to hurry, probably to nurse, and said”Hurry, quick, before I meditate you!” She had mentioned meditating, I think, and he was jokingly turning it into a different kind of verb (the kind where you perform an action on someone/something….blanking right now).

He was then sending Carly messages using my phone. When he went to the bathroom he told me “Dada, you can keep sending Carly things.” Which is funny for at least two reasons (called her Carly and she was in the room, so why would I want to send her messages…)

They skyped with Cherie, then he and I Magic Treehouse 9. There was more looking to the end of the book to make sure they survived the cracking sub before we could keep reading. Sigh. We read some Plumdog, then watched Lucy & Pogo.

Started the blasting game by saying “I blasted that caterpillar that was going to teleport us to KOREA!” Then he was blasting things on the bed. He asked for water and I said that was a job for Superdad. When I got back he said “Thank you superdada!”

He told me “I’m gonna dream about airplanes.” I left them at 7:35 and he was soon asleep. Unfortunately, we both forgot to have him go to the bathroom before bed and he had his first wetting the bed experience at 9:30. Changed the sheets and his clothes and got him back to sleep pretty quickly.

Having tea: 

Planetanya: 

Waiting for the smoothie: 

Making faces in the car: 

He was nursing a lot at 3am. A restless night. Closer to morning he rolled against the headboard and threw his legs over my head. We both slept that way for awhile before he took over most of the bed and I moved to the edge of the pillow. Up around 6. We were upstairs and he said “Dada, go in there and turn the air conditioner on.” I went in the bedroom and turned it on. He giggled and announced “I turned it on 17!”

Downstairs he started watching Timmy Time. I was sitting next to him and he said “When I was sleeping back there, dada fish, I had a very bad nightmare.” I asked “Did real Zinnie have a bad nightmare too? Is that why you had a tough night of sleep?” He gave me a thumbs up. When Carly headed to work he said “I don’t love you.” Which is often his grumpy reaction to her leaving now.

We then spent awhile typing and copying and pasting on my iPad. He then started singing Ants Go Marching and walking around the house. He’s been adding verses himself the last few days. He started with one he’s done before “The ants go marching 90 by 90, the little one stops to break his knee, and they all go marching…” He expanded it, with verses like “The ants go marching 2 books by 2 books, the little one stops to smash a chair, and they all go marching into the underground, to get out of the rain…”

He wanted me to take a photo of him and he made funny faces. He then used the camera as a machine to scan Marshy and Green Monster. Took care of me as a syringe that turned into a flea comb and “coison” to kill fleas – based on the Animal Hospital app.

He played some Word Wagon on my iPad and was excited about silent E words, we then organized his apps and he had fun with that, and then finally he played with Comic Maker as I made a started making a lassi. He helped me put the ingredients together, and when we got to cinnamon he asked “Is this the last thing but not least?” (As in ‘last, but not least’)

He then used my phone to send messages to Carly. She actually responded, which we didn’t expect. We read Berenstain Bears Slumber Party and part of the Magic Treehouse #8 book, where they go to the moon. He was nervous about them running out of oxygen and we had to stop. We then had to act it out: “Can we be two blood cells not getting oxygen…can we be the two lungs not getting oxygen? Can we be bacteria? Dada germ? There’s ton of teeth here.”

We looked at some of the new Hebrew flashcards and used the translation app to figure some things out. We then shifted into being mice and hibernating. Next he watched Sarah and Duck while I exercised and took a shower.

Back downstairs he wanted a music app on my iPad and he found Bloom, a generative music app from Brian Eno that we haven’t used. We spent a long time on it, playing with the delay settings. He liked it on a long delay and waiting for the repeat. Really cool how he got into it. He the moved to the toy piano and was figuring out Yankee Doodle in the key of F sharp.

We then finished Magic Treehouse 8, but only after I looked at the end so I could assure him that the two characters were okay. This is the single most Carly-like thing about him, as she will do that for movies. Near the end of the book, when they realize the stars make a mouse shape and that Peanut, the mouse is special, August got excited. I asked “Why do you think Peanut is special?” He exclaimed “Morgan!” Morgan had been under a spell and was in the stories the whole time, transformed into a mouse. He got so excited when he figured it out.

I put a pizza in the oven and gave him his shower while pizza cooked. He stood on my feet again, something he’s done every day, while I gave him a shower. Makes it hard to wash him. Can’t tell if he’s bothered by the floor being too cold or too hot. He’s not very communicative about proper temperature.

After his shower we were “blasting” everywhere, me picking him up and him firing his rockets to move us around, trying to find Angeles’s socks. That mission accomplished, we went downstairs and he got really excited by a Bjork song, “Innocence” (Sinden Remix), and was dancing all over the downstairs. He sat and ate a piece of pizza for lunch.

He wanted to read the ninth Magic Treehouse book and said something like “I wonder what adventure…?” He was then excited by the beginning of it. We went upstairs and played some guitar, then read Peppa Pig Dentist Trip. Made a game of calling him the names of book and show characters (Peppa, Garfield, Oona, etc.) and he thought that was really funny and kept asking for more.

Finally, we got going and were out the door at 1:50. We drove down past Ikea and just across Highway 2 to the area west of the Poleg Interchange. There is a strip of parks at what’s called Zohar Square. Parked about a block away and walked in the stroller. Stopped at the playground area in the middle of the park and he got on a rocking thing. Then spent quite awhile blasting monsters and dragons and walking on the low wall around the playground. Eventually we got back in the stroller and continued walking.

There was a pedestrian path headed north, and we followed it, then up and across a big pedestrian bridge. Found a park area to the north and kept walking around as he didn’t want to stop and play. He wanted to keep walking but I told him we needed to get back to the car and go do grocery shopping and pick up Carly. He said he wanted to be late picking up mama.

We got back to the car at 3:10 and let him have an “extra mint”. He first said he would keep it a secret from Carly, but then said he could talk to her right now: “I can hear her cuz I have a power that when I say something it goes over to mama.”

We drove to Tim Taam. Should have been a quick trip, but took longer than expected. They’ve now torn apart more parts of the store. Then, I picked a bad line again: only one guy in front of me, but it took forever. Employee was on the phone a couple times, forms were being filled out. But at least I recognized a couple Hebrew words in conversation for the first time. August had put his head down on the cart again and told me he was tired. The guy behind us in line entertained him by poking his (the guy’s) stomach with his (the guy’s finger) and making a funny noise with his (the guy’s) lips.

Finally outside we returned the cart and got going. And hit traffic. I said something about how it would be nice to be able to rocket to the school because we could skip the traffic. He disagreed: “Dada, there’d still have to be traffic cuz there’s rockets in space.”

August had mentioned going to the bathroom before we got to the store, but once in the store he said he could wait until class. But then the slow line and traffic happened and he was saying he really needed to go in the car. I offered to pull over at a bus stop and he could go in the dirt, but he refused. When we got to the school I ran him in to the performing arts building and took him to the bathroom.

We got to class about 4:40, which normally would have been fine, but today it was starting at 4:30. We walked in with other people who were also late, but August didn’t like the slight extra busy-ness. Perhaps because we didn’t walk in with the teacher like usual, or because he was already tired, he decided he just wasn’t doing class today. Got him to look in for a minute, but that was it. He told us he was afraid of the teacher, even though this is the teacher he really likes.

We headed hom and got there at 5. He said he wanted to “Just lie on the couch.” When Carly pointed out that that meant not nursing he thought it was funny. They nursed. He was grumpy about having to stop and threatened to throw a pillow at Carly. She said he’d have to have a timeout. He thought about it and asked her “Can you throw this at yourself?”

Had some dinner, then Carly read him the letter from Josephine. He liked that. They then skype called me from the table while
I was on the other side of the room. We read half of the You Wouldn’t Want to Live without Bacteria book, then Magic Treehouse #9. He’s really getting into the predictions thing. When they got into the mini-sub he said “I think that will help them find the thing for the R word thing.” “R word” meant ‘riddle’ – he just couldn’t remember the word.

He was then pretending we were in a sub. He was pushing an ‘8’ button to steer us down: “I can’t see anything now.”

Did a lot of flops on the bed and he pretended to be the skipping CD player in the musical sculpture at the park. He was the laser and I was the disc. Brushed his teeth, and he was being a mouse. I suggested he dream about cheese and we agreed he’d dream about mice and cheese. He was asleep at 7:35.

Photos: 

By Zohar Square: 

Tiv Taam: 

The closest he got to class:

He woke up around 5:40. At 6 he told Carly “I have to call someone on your phone.” Downstairs he played some Dragonbox Big Numbers then they read part of Berenstain Bears Trouble with Pets. I let him play Toca Robot Lab on my iPad as Carly left. We Skyped with my parents. They asked about his Cars shirt and I told them that a few nights ago, when Carly put it on him, he said “But. I’m not Colin. I don’t like cars.”

We then watched the “What’s the Name of that Song?” Sesame Street video as we’ve been trying to remember all the words. That led to watching other Sesame Street songs. YouTube then switched to an Ants Go Marching video. He was surprised it stopped at 10 and had forgotten that we made up our 11 to 20 verses. It was raining outside this morning and we had a good downpour for a few minutes.

We finished reading Trouble with Pets, then he was a puppy panting on the floor. We next read Bad Habit. Then we acted out, several times, him being a puppy and tearing up the house while I went shopping. He also needed a shot. We read 3 chapters of Magic Treehouse #8: Midnight on the Moon book. Then pulled up a video of astronauts walking on the moon. We’d watched a video of astronauts falling down before, but he didn’t want that one – he didn’t want to see them fall down. We then watched several Arabic alphabet songs videos, finding a couple with the same song that we liked.

He then spotted the collection of songs from ABCKidsTV that he used to watch: https://youtu.be/_UR-l3QI2nE He watched that while I exercised and showered. We then finished the video. Went downstairs and heated up the leftover salmon sandwich from yesterday and made a grilled cheese sandwich and cut up strawberries for lunch. We watched and sang along to Sesame Street songs, and found some new ones: He quite liked ones from Adam Sandler and Norah Jones. Then gave him a shower.

Shmuel called while I was giving August his shower, then again as we were leaving. He asked if he had left his purple bag with papers in it here. An odd conversation as that was weeks ago, and he instantly rejected my suggestion he might have left it in the locked garage.

August and I drove to Ra’anana Park. We parked at the east end at 1 and paid for parking until 3:10. We took the stroller and walked to the west end of the park and around the pond. On the far side of the pond we came across the musical sculptures garden: different xylophones, harps, etc. in varying states of working order. But his favorite was a big yellow sphere with a handle out of the top. You walked (or ran) around in circles and it played Hebrew children’s songs. We played with that for a long time. He asked me to turn it and said “I’m gonna play my strumming instrument. It has all the notes in the world!”

We took a break to read Berenstain Bears Bad Habit, then to have fun taking some photos. We then read another chapter of Magic Treehouse #9. He’s kind of scared of this one, afraid that they’re going to get a leak in their spacesuits on the moon. We also had a snack. A smell wafted past and he said “Dada. I smell something good. It smells like oatmeal.”

He was worried about parking time, and would continue to be, asking repeatedly what would happen if we stayed too long or left early. As we left that spot at 2:35 I said we could call it the music spot at Ra’anana Park. He added “And this is my favorite place!” We continued the walk around the pond, then headed back to the east end. As we went he was having us fight all sorts of dragons, etc. He had freezing power.

We looked at the zoo for a few minutes. He wasn’t really into it though, saying he didn’t like deer. But of the emu he said “Huge, giant, enormous!” We stopped at the bathroom, then walked to the car, getting there a little after 3. But that took us by the playground and he decided he wanted to stay longer. So we put more time in the meter, until just after 4 and headed back. At first he changed his mind right away: “Let’s go home now.” But we ended up playing on the exercise equipment for quite awhile. He’d use one piece of equipment, say he was ready to go, but then see another machine he’d want to use.

He saw a spider web under one chair and asked “What will happen if I touch it?” I said “Maybe a spider will come and wrap you in a thread and save you to eat you later.” He replied “No! It won’t….Could you joke about that?” Me: “I just did.” Him: “Could you joke about it again?”

We then went over and played at the acorn spaceship. He said he was going to a “A tree planet with air.” He then found the fake hollow log and decided we were termites: “Dada termite! Eat the log!” “Can we go to our termite car?”

We left after 3:50. We drove over to Wiz Kids, which is an English book/game store nearby. August wasn’t very excited about it, so didn’t get a long look around. Ended up buying a couple sets of Hebrew flash cards and a couple of games – one storytelling game and one about nursery rhymes – out of their sale area.

Lots of traffic and we got home just before 5. As we got out of the car he spotted Carly walking down the street towards home.

They nursed and I got stuff out for dinner. I asked if Carly wanted tea and she said yes, and August said he wanted tea as well. I asked if he wanted apple cinnamon tea and he said yes. He was then surprised and very excited about the apple cinnamon tea I made for him and that it was just his. He drank the whole cup.

We read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, then looked at the fairy tale game. He threw his empty water bottle at me, so I took him up to the bed. We ended up doing flops on the bed and he wanted mama to come up to go ballistic. He was then a baby squirrel curling up in my arms so I thought he was getting tired. I went down to get books. He came down, carrying Marshy, and slipped and fell on the floor. I distracted him by taking care of Marshy, who had slid into the chair leg. August was then being a syringe, hopping as he didn’t have feet. He then wanted us to take care of Green Monster, operating for a broken humerus.

He played with the calculator on Carly’s computer – billions, etc. then wanted to Skype with someone. They called Glecy but he was upset that Carly wouldn’t let him play the little video emojis.

We took him back upstairs and he was plenty hyper for awhile. Brushed his teeth, then he and Carly had a came passing things in a circle under the cover and out from under the cover. He was doing a ton of laughing. As we put him to sleep I said “Have a good sleep.” He responded “Okay, I’ll dream about air conditioners.” I left them just before 7.

He walked downstairs at 8:50 as Carly was skyping with Glecy. Shocked us as he hasn’t done that for a long time.

Being a dog chewing everything: 

Perched on the stool from Nazareth: 

Ra’anana Park. Posing for a photo: 

We talked about how we used to use changing tables all the time. He remember not liking them for awhile: 

Exercising: 

Acorn rocket: 

Being termites: 

In Wiz Kids: 

He was up at 5:45. Watched Smurfs as Carly left. We then read several chapters of Magic Treehouse #7: Sunset of the Sabertooth. He was being Peanut, the Mouse, who is cold and cuddling behind my back and watching me read over my shoulder. We got into taking photos, then he wanted to go for a walk and take pano photos. We got our warm clothes on. He was being a fish again and said he pulled up his sweatshirt zipper with his fins. Outside he pulled some weeds near the door, then we got on our walk at 7:50.

We wandered around singing songs to Tal Garden. We played with the soccer ball in the ball chute thing, but that just lasted a couple minutes. He wanted to take a panoramic photo. He was protective of the ball, wanting to put it back in the bike so no one would take it. There wasn’t anyone else in sight. I convinced him to set it on a seat next to us. Took a few photos, doing them together, then he wanted to keep walking. He was doing rocket blasts with his hands, Hilo style, and when we got to the little park south of us (where the didgeridoo player was) he blasting all sorts of monsters that were going to come out of the bushes and attack me or throw up on me. Did one more pano photo and blasted more monsters, then headed home.

We finished reading Magic Treehouse #7 then got our books together to take back to the school – 7 in all. He then watched Timmy Time. We went upstairs to start some laundry. He said “Today’s washing day. Tomorrow’s dragon day. I fight dragons with my rockets.” Then he asked “Dada, can we actually play the guitar with GarageBand?” We ended up playing mandolin instead. He would choose chords on the phone that he wanted me to play.

I exercised and took a shower while he watched Timmy Time and Smurfs, then gave him a shower.

Back downstairs I cut strawberries and made teriyaki salmon sandwiches for lunch. He ate all the strawberries before I could join him at the table. Listened to Chemical Brothers and he loved it, adding the first two songs to his playlist. He then requested Toca Robot Lab so he played that for a bit.

As we got ready to go he played with the cardboard tube from the rug, simultaneously trying to destroy it and saying he wanted to keep it forever. He asked if we could ship it and when I asked why he said he wanted it forever.

I had planned on driving down to another park in Netanya, then going to the Ace store. But August really wanted a walk on his orange bike instead. So we did that, leaving at 1. We walked up to the dead end, adding to our cat count – think we were up to around 18. He said “I always use number magic to put numbers on the animals.” In fact, as we kept walking we were fighting more monsters and robots and he had all sorts of powers: “Let’s use our brick lasers” “Really heavy falling tree power” “Hurricane power”

We didn’t walk for long and decided to head to school early. On the way I let him hold the container of new crackers. When I went to get him out, I found him eating them like a sandwich, six crackers at a time.

We went to the library. Returned 3 Magic Treehouse books, Du Iz Tak, Ada’s Violin, and 2 Berenstain Bears books.  Ilana said there was a class coming in soon so August and I went and grabbed a bunch of Berenstain Bear books, a Star Wars book, two Magic Treehouse books, and a book called You Don’t Want to Live Without Electricity. We went back to our usual bean bags and read much of the electricity book, then three Berenstain Bears books: Learn about Strangers, Forget Their Manners, and Ghost of the Forest, which we read twice. August figured out right away that the third ghost was Mama Bear and thought it was really funny.

We went to the bathroom once, and while we were there he was saying big numbers. When I had trouble following them, he said he had “Comma power” and put in commas so I could understand the numbers.

When he was done in the library he carried the seven books we had to check out up to the desk. He realized that Liz was gone, but Amanda helped us out and checked out the books. She asked what we had done over Thanksgiving and I mentioned that we had gone to the beach. I said we had made sandcastles, and he added “And moats”.

We left the library at 3:10. Put on his sweatshirt and he wanted to pull up the zipper on his own, which he’s been doing recently. He’s been doing other things more independently too, like he can usually push the drinking fountain buttons on his own now.

We first went to the preschool playground. Spent most of the time cooking “toad spots” in a pan and tasting that. Looked up and saw the moon and we talked about the gibbous moon, which he joked was the “give us moon”, so we kept telling the moon to give us things. Then he was asking why we couldn’t walk on the big chunks of wood and we talked about stable versus unstable and demonstrated by having him crouch down and I tried to shove him off balance, which he found quite funny.

We went to big playground and he spun around a post saying “Go go go” until I got him to stop. We went up to his rocket and climbed in that. Think we went to Neptune. Back down on the playground he heard two girls tell a boy (a brother, I think) that their game was “Girls only”. August was concerned about that and kept watching them. He wasn’t sure if he could go on the play structure. He was then saying “Only big boys can play!” as we played around.

Done there, we went back to the library building, riding the elevator up after using his rockets to fly him across the lawn. We sat outside the library and he sent Carly messages on the phone. He was ready to go, so at a couple minutes to 4:30 we walked a slightly long way to Carly’s classroom. Ayal saw August practicing saying “Mama! Time to stop working! It’s 4:30!” He liked that as a bit earlier he’d said something to us about how Carly should go home. We burst through the door and August delivered his line really well.

We got home at 4:50. He was falling asleep as they nursed. Got him back awake by Skyping with Cherie, then we ate dinner. Tried to get him to read some of our new books, but he was tired and didn’t feel like reading. He lasted until 6:45, at which time I left them to sleep. I asked what he was going to dream about and he said “Helicopters!” He was asleep by 6:50.

Rockets: 

V: 

Cracker sandwich: 

Reading: 

Doing circles: 

In his rocket: 

He was up at 6:30. They came down at 6:50 and said that mama was getting him fish food (Cheerios). I asked if he woke up as a fish today and he said uh-huh. He did some typing on my iPad, then we were doing the copy-all and paste thing. The iPad was being slow at that so I got out Magic Treehouse #6 and we finished that. He asked”So dada fish, can I have some zucchini bread?” We read Du Iz Tak. He was singing each page before I read it. When we turned the page he would put his hand in front of my mouth, sing the pages, then let me read. We moved to GarageBand and the keyboard. He’s playing Yankee Doodle more, but mainly interested in different octaves and scales. He was being different chords: “I’m A minor!”

He got the long cardboard tube and used it like a telescope: “I’m a spy cow.” That’s from the Treehouse books. Then he was a musical scale: “I’m actually a scale. No one named us. there’s thousands of us…billions…nonnilloins…And I need you to name me.” We decided on the QZ scale. He then wanted guitar and we went upstairs and plugged in the guitar and talked about chords a lot.

He watched Smurfs and I exercised and took a shower. While he finished a Smurfs I watched a few minutes of the last Formula 1 race of the season. August then watched with me for a few minutes, wanting to see cars crash. But he was also really interested in the numbers (places, intervals, gears, speeds). Then for a long time he was race cars on the bed: crashing into each other, slipping in the rain, crashing into the walls, going up and down gears, etc.

We went downstairs for lunch. He activated Siri on my iPad and was talking to it: “How are you doing?” “We’re making lunch!” We had some strawberries and two pizzas I made: olive and cheese. We ate our pizza and August had been looking at Google Maps and wondered why ‘Home’ didn’t have our pictures of home. I explained we didn’t post our photos of home to Google Maps. He wanted to, and I told him about his Instagram account and he wanted to post a photo. So we did the photo he took of me playing mandolin and he chose the filter, etc.

I then hauled him up for a shower. He was okay once he was in the shower and insisted on spraying my feet at the end. I put his new underwear on him when we chose clothes and he liked them. We did more guitar. He set a timer on my watch for 23 hours and I said it wouldn’t go off until lunch tomorrow. He said he had a time travel sensor: “Some sort of sensor that I touch it with my feet it goes to tomorrow lunch time.”

We went downstairs and read Berenstain Bears Moving Day. We then ate the pumpkin pie that Carly had left us, leftover from the party. His first pumpkin pie. Liked it well enough. We were still fish, and August kept saying we were surrounded by oil and asking how we would get through it. Got snacks together, then blasted through it out the door.

We left at 1:30 and drove down into Netanya a bit. When we got out of the car he was getting sleepy and leaned against the car as I got the stroller and stuff out. We parked by Shaked Garden in the Agamim neighborhood, which seems to be an immigrant neighborhood. As we got walking I said “Something smells good”. He said “It’s curry!”

At the park we first stopped at a bench for a snack of grapes. He wanted a note so we played the piano on my phone for a minute, then I made him go play. The park was empty but he complained about people: “I don’t like people. Just mama. Not you though.” Got playing though: a jeep thing, a shaky bridge, going down a tube slide to slide into me, playing on the slide and singing “Yankee and Doodle”. “Sandifying” each other. We then left at 2:30 on a walk.

We walked to the south and into Winter Lake Park at its northeast corner. We walked to the south and played at the big playground at the southeast corner. Lots of climbing equipment and turning things. He saw signs on the equipment and wanted me to translate. It said “For ages 4 and up”. He didn’t like that, despite my assurances that he could still play on it. He said “I don’t like signs”. It reminded me of “Signs” by Five Man Electrical Band, so I played it on my phone. He liked it, dancing to it, and said “Can I listen to that song again?” While I was standing near the climbing structure a hooded crow flew right behind my head. August saw it.

We continued walking around the lake and found the big wooden playground on the west side of the park. Started to play there, but he needed a bathroom. So we walked to the southwest corner and used a bathroom by the skate park. He played on a little hill outside, running down it, but then started yelling “Go!” towards people off in the distance. I said it wasn’t funny, and suggested yelling random stuff, like “Spaghetti power!” He liked that phrase and as we rode the stroller back towards the playground he said “I have spaghetti power!” His power would let us go through trees, poles, etc. I’d drive towards them and we’d pretend to go through things. We played around like that. Found a soccer ball in the center and kicked it around, but August wasn’t interested in the ball, just his powers.

I emailed Carly about picking her up from work, then he sent her a message. On our walk back to the car we smelled the curry smell again and investigated, walking to the east past the grocery store and around the square next to it and across the street. No luck, so we headed back to the car. He sent her more emojis when we got back to the car.

We picked her up at 4:45. He had my phone and was sending her messages while we sat there waiting for her, then more messages as they rode next to each other on the way home. He took off his shoes at the door but then tripped coming in the door and scraped his feet a bit. It was still bothering him after nursing. He was grumpy and said he didn’t like anything: “I don’t like chocolate or presents.” Carly started opening the box from Dee, then realized it was a Christmas present so stopped. August said “I don’t like Christmas.” I held him on my lap and we read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day twice, then The Berenstain Bears and the Green-Eyed Monster.

He opened Skype on Carly’s computer and saw that Cherie was online: “Let’s Skype with Oma!” He danced as it rang. She didn’t answer, so he left a message. Chuck called back and he skyped with him for awhile. We read Berenstain Bears Moving Day and much of the Peppa Pig collection after I had mentioned to Carly that it had two different stories about how they move to their new house. He then sang a new version of Yankee Doodle: “Princess Peppa goes to school riding on a pony, stuck a feather in her hat and became a wizard.”

He was a baby squirrel at bedtime. I told him to dream about acorns and he agreed. He then asked “Do squirrels nurse?” Excited when I said yes. I left him at 7:25 and he was asleep soon after.

Spy cow: 

Hi: 

Shaked Garden: 

Sandifying: 

Winter Lake Park. Where he didn’t like the signs: 

Our water dilemma: 

Photo he took: 

They got up at 6:36. He was upset and wanted to keep nursing. When I came down they were playing with Legos, making a base to protect their spaceship from aliens. August said “Only the nice ones can come in.” He was singing his mashup between When Johnny Comes Marching and The Ants Go Marching.

We read the rest of Max Axiom Magnetism and part of Plumdog. We shared some zucchini bread. August then looked at Google Maps, asking “Where should we go today?” He then wanted to watch Kipper. Started with Arnold’s Balloon Trip on YouTube.

I went and took a shower. Back downstairs they went outside for a bit. August came back in and we were hedgehogs. He started saving grubs and worms for later, as we learned that hedgehogs do (by paralyzing them). And “We’ll also make worm bread. That’s gonna sound good for us but not humans though.”

He and I went for a walk at 9:30. He was singing songs really low and said “I’m playing in a lower octave.” Then “The scale I’m singing in is called blues smash. It sounds like people smashing water.” We wandered around and eventually up to the dead end and back. We were counting cats and ended up with 8 cats and one lizard on our walk. We eventually ended up at Tal Garden and he wanted to use the ball thing where you throw the ball in the top and it comes out of one of three tubes. We headed home for a ball, but figured he’d want to stay home. We were home at 10:10. He said “Can we eat a grub? This is our secret refrigerator.”

I spent some time hanging new hooks up for the photographs above the dining table and some other pieces we’d taken down when the previous sticky stuff failed to work. They went outside, then upstairs to get ready to go to the mall. They had a secret, which August eventually told me: getting a chocolate smoothie. He helped me hang hooks by peeling off the old tape and then helping put the new strips on the hooks.

We left about noon. Made it over to the mall and started clothes shopping. August wanted to get the smoothie first. He made it through the first shop, where we just bought some underwear for him (which he hasn’t been wearing for a couple months), and sort of made it through the second (where Carly got one pair of pants for him to see how the size works). But he had a meltdown when we said we were going to the grocery store next. Carly took him out the back mall doors while I went and did the shopping. I tried calling Carly, then walked around the mall myself. She had forgotten her phone and gotten locked out. She grabbed one more item, then we paid and headed for a smoothie.

August was doing much better – the getting locked out and walking around had really distracted him – and they went for a smoothie. I went back to the second store to look for socks (no luck), then to מאיה, the health food store, where I found some fluoride-free toothpaste for August. I found them out on the bench, drinking the smoothie. I helped August finish it and Carly ran in to the pharmacy and to the cleaner to pick up a blanket we had dropped off. When Carly came back August said “Thank you mama for the smoothie.” We headed home at 1:20.

August wanted to walk the long path home, but Carly was carrying the blanket. August told her to take the short way, and we would see her at home. He kept wanting to know what key we were singing in, so when we got home at 1:45 I installed the Piano Companion app on my phone we we’d always have a piano handy to play a note.

Carly had made salsa, so we had some of that and other food. August primarily likes the cilantro out of the salsa so will ask me to pick that out for him and put it on his chips. Carly went outside, and he played on her computer with Excel and Maps. He was singing the Peanut Butter and Jelly song to himself and making up nonsense words. When Carly made him a sandwich earlier he had asked me to sing it, then we were singing it on our walk. I put up pictures and a few more hooks, organizing our entryway.

After 3 we got in the car and drove over to Udim, south of Ikea and went to the Udim Reserve. Put August in the big backpack. We walked up a short trail that ended at a cliff where they had cut through to make a channel to drain the swampland to the west. Walked back down that, then down a dirt road that was supposed to take us over to the National Trail. I said “Oh, There’s no bridge here.” He immediately responded “Then why are you still walking‽” We walked north on a parallel dirt road. August was being a bit demanding for snacks so we ignored him. He said “I’m going to use a different tone now.” We looped around to the car and left at 4:15.

We drove to Ikea and had a wonderful shopping trip as August was having a ton of fun. He found a couple of hopscotch courses on the floor and hopped on them and followed footprints and arrows on the floor. He hung from the handle of the cart while Carly pushed it. We got a rug to put in the kitchen and a few small things. We got a hotdog, fries, and falafel sandwich (and an orange juice) and sat and ate them there. He was then spotting ‘exit’ in Hebrew on the floor. All was well until we exited, then right as we went through the checkpoint he tripped and fell, I think looking back at the guy talking to us.

In the car he sent messages to Carly from my phone. At home they Skyped with Oma and Opa and he traded messages with Chuck. He then found the long cardboard tube from the rug and Carly went outside with him so he could play with it. They played tug of war with it, and after winning a couple times he let Carly be the strongest.

Back inside he found the tape measure and was measuring everything, pretty accurately now. He played GarageBand on his iPad to play electric guitar – which Carly wasn’t excited about, but then I told him that was a great idea and he agreed. We read to chapter 8 of Magic Treehouse 6, then Carly took him upstairs.

They were being fish up on his bed. He went to the bathroom and was speaking different languages. He was still a fish until I said that fish don’t nurse. As I said goodnight to him he said, unprompted, “I’m gonna dream about magnets.” I left them at 7:40 and he was asleep by 7:50.

In the backamapack: 

Udim Reserve: 

Ikea: