Author: Ryan/Dada

He woke me up at “6:37”. He was watching some Timmy Time when I came down, then an episode of Smurfs. He nursed and pretended to be one year old “Nuh, Nuh, Nuh, Nuh”. Played with Siri on the iPad, then we played with Legos. We made the boats and took them up to float them. He emptied out the Lego container to fill that. We did, but it wasn’t much room for the boats to float in and he then suggested the green bathtub. I said “That’s what I suggested in the first place.” He then was repeating that sentence.

Back downstairs August got upset, wanting to nurse before the timer was up. Told Carly once “Mama! You’re not paying attention to me!” Carly too him upstairs to calm down.

Then another confrontation with the downstairs neighbor. He hammered on the window with a broomstick. I went out, video on, and calmly told him that’s not how we communicate and offered to give him my phone number. Thought we were making progress when he went and got his phone and took my number. But then when I apologized and said that Carly had taken August upstairs as soon as he’d been loud he swung the broom at my head. I ducked and he hit the fence several times, then said “Son of a bitch. Take him out. I’ll break your bones.” Sadly, I’d stopped recording when I gave him my number.

Went in and called Shmuel and emailed Ada. Then I went upstairs and took a shower, after which Carly gave him a shower. He was upset up on the bed and she was getting clothes on him. Carly squeezed the bad mood out of him and I pretended it got on me. He thought it was funny when I pretended to have a bad mood.

Back downstairs we read Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day. He then play acted printing paper and buying a yo-yo. When I said I wasn’t very good with a yo-yo he said “You need to go to a yo-yo class.”

We got going at 11:25. Read Alexander and ate strawberries in the car. Parked and walked down to Argaman’s Beach. August was singing “Whats the name of that song”. Got to the beach at 12. Walked a bit south and played in the sand by some rocks. Brought the bucket at toys this time. They made sandcastles and August would put a shell on top and crush it. August needed to use the bathroom and I took him. He was running along the beach, singing about “negative infinity” to the tune of “What’s the Name of that Song?” The bathrooms were closed, so I had him pee in the sand up on the hill behind a little retaining wall. We got back to Carly at 12:35. He immediately told her “I peed on sand.” I got the stick out of the backpack and did some writing in Hebrew. August saw the stick and said “Sticky!” I drew a big Q and he stood in the middle of it. Then August used it to drew mem sofits, as Carly pointed out, probably his current favorite Hebrew letter (previously it had been tzadi sofit).

We left about 1 and walked up to the car, then across the street. There is a playground there and we played on it for awhile. Carly tried to go into the hotel to use the bathroom, but no luck. August was quite interested in the cubes that showed the weight of different materials. A boy demonstrated the bike that makes a funnel in a tube of water for him, then Carly and I did it.

We then drove up into Netanya and parked just north of downtown. Along the way I told him why I liked the windows closed in the car. He asked me to repeat the story.

We parked just north of the downtown core area, near the waterfront. Started walking and found Rhythm and Friends juice bar and cafe. Ordered a large iced coffee, a green mojito smoothie (August liked the sound of the mint in it – also had pineapple, almond milk, dates, and something else), and a cheese sandwich. August was dancing and pretending to play along to a Supertramp song so we added it to his playlist.

We went for a walk through the Independence Square area, then around some streets to the north, pausing at a little closed museum to look at the historic photos outside. Then across to the park area at the top of the cliffs. Admired the view and checked out some pokey aloe plants, then realized August and I were standing in an area dense with ants. He played in some sand and wanted me to pretend to step on his hand so his hand (a crab) could pinch me.

We headed home. On the way we read Alexander and Berenstain Bears Moving Day and ate some grapes. Home at 3:55.

He went to the bathroom then he and I took the box from the shelves to recycling. He had fun trying to stand on it first. Got our 10,000 steps at the park, then used the exercise equipment. He was asking how the different machines exercised him. Finally, played with the water fountains. He also said “Sorry, wheelbarrow. We ran out of wheelbarrow food.” We hadn’t been talking about wheelbarrows, so don’t know where that came from. He was watching the water pool on the concrete, so maybe he thought it was the shape of a wheelbarrow.

Back at home he played the Elmo Loves 123s game, then we had some dinner. Carly sliced up some apple or pear and August liked it. He offered me a piece and said “You have to try this.” We all then Skyped with Cassie and family, then with Cherie and Chuck. While Carly was using her computer to have an actual call with Cassie and Vivian, August was using my iPad to record a video for her.

After all that excitement, August and I read Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay. A really cool story and book. We brushed his teeth, then he ran a donut machine up on the bed: “I ran out of dough.” He was asleep about 8.

In a Q: 

Cuddling: 

Exercising. He is actually swinging his legs off the ground: 

He was up a lot in the night. At one point, after nursing, he asked Carly “Why aren’t you nursing me?” then fell asleep on his own. At another point I heard him have a big laugh in his sleep. At 5 I thought it was 7:25 and was happy to go back to sleep. He got up and I sent him downstairs and heard him say “Mama! I waked up at 6:40!”

I got up and made French toast. He was watching something and I asked “Do you want French toast?” He had a hilarious response as he distractly tried to tell me that he was running out of Cheerios: “Yeah…Umm, my Cheerios are…Could you cook it?” When he was done with his French Toast he started sticking his fingers in the syrup on his plate. Cute at first, but then he did his whole hand.

He remembered his pizza pillows from last night and asked”What happened to the pizza I was slicing last night?” Then “Let’s go back to putting pizza on the plates.” So we did that a bit. He then spent quite awhile sending Happy Thanksgiving messages to family members on Skype. Carly suggested they go outside and he tried to run out in socks but stopped when he saw it was wet outside. They decided to clean out the interesting bowl and throw everything away. He said “Bye bye interesting stuff in the interesting bowl.”

I took a shower, then we brought down the shelves to see how another set would look downstairs and considered a spot for the new wall hanging. Carly and I then were taking photos of each other holding it so we could see and he got into the action: “Can I take a photo of you as a wall hanging?” He took other photos, and we did some slo-mo video as well of him shaking his hair.

We got going and headed to Ikea. As we went down the stairs inside August said “Ikea’s huge…giant…. enormous.” Made quick work of our shopping, just grabbing plastic bags as we passed and heading straight for the book shelves, getting them in black. Then chose the worst line and had a long wait to checkout. Carly went and got us a falafel sandwich and a hotdog and fries and we ate those for lunch.

From there we went to Tiv Taam. The highlight for August was using Carly’s pen to cross things off the list. And he drew a map on his hands.

We got home at 1:40. He climbed on the Ikea box. Tried to ask him something and he said “Yeah but I’m on the box.” He also gave Carly a funny look when he climbed on it and we called them his cat eyes. He replied “Actually, I’m Zinnie. But I still lay on boxes.”

He ate a bunch of strawberries – the first strawberries of the season that we’ve seen in the store. I made zucchini bread and Carly put together the shelves. Both went well, aside from one minor break on the shelves, and August got upset when Carly wouldn’t let him hammer on his own. Apparently I let him hammer on his own. That really frustrated him. He hopped back and forth between us, helping with bread, then the shelves.

He eventually got upset about nursing and Carly took him upstairs for a timeout. I then took him to the cages at 3:45 to do recycling. We then went for a walk, and as we walked south towards the trail we saw a guy playing digeredoo in the little park. He liked that. We got home at 4:30. We had listened to “Alice’s Restaurant” while I made bread and August said “This is a Thanksgiving song!” Also listened to Dan Bern’s “Thanksgiving Day Parade” and when we got back I found a Storybots Thanksgiving song that he listened to several times. They then read part of Magic Treehouse #7.

We were the first to arrive at the party at 5:30. Good for August. He wandered around a bit and we got him some food early, just before 6. He was pretty fascinated by the video of a fireplace they had playing on the TV (Derek and Jill used to do the same thing at their place, but it didn’t attract his attention much back then). When August said he was ready to go home I instead got the iPad out. I had the Peanuts Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Halloween episodes on it. He watched part of Thanksgiving inside, then got a bit overwhelmed. I went outside with him and we watched together, sitting on the bench swing. Carly and I switched and I went inside. They came in a little later. I kept him around a bit longer, getting him more foods to try. He ate some more, then he and Carly decided to head home at 7:10.

Back at home he took a basic shower, but said he didn’t want to get the bed wet because “that’s boring”. He was asleep at 7:50.

I was home around 9. A lot of the conversation centered around Washington State, as Mike’s daughter is trying to get on the rowing team there, and they own a house up south of Bellingham.  Also, Holly’s daughter is looking at small places that would fit her and people were suggesting Evergreen.

Taking a photo of mama as a wall hanging: 

Drawing a map on his hand: 

Watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving: 

Our view of Carly: 

More food: 

On our way: 

Up the stairs to Jaffa Gate: 

Into the market streets: 

Graffiti: 

Incense: 

Lunch: 

Western Wall: 

Between: 

Gates: 

Selfie in the rain: 

T-shirt: 

Candied fruits: 

City wall: 

Big math numbers: 

Our first family trip to Jerusalem!

He was nursing around 5:20 and almost got up but fell back to sleep until 6:50. At one point he said “Why aren’t you nursing me?” after they had been nursing, but then fell asleep on his own.

They read some of Thieves of Ostia, which Carly is reading for school. Then he was quite upset when he couldn’t nurse again right away. We were getting ready to go and I went and took a shower. He was then watching Peg + Cat, including  “The Beethoven Problem”, which I watched with him. Carly made him some of ‘my’ oatmeal for breakfast (the instant kind). He was keeping it a “secret” from me and kept saying things like “Keep watching and you’ll see! Keep watching and you’ll find out!”

He was then singing the ZYX song phonetically, all the way through, following up doing it with the Hebrew alphabet song as well. This is something that is pretty much his own invention, although a couple of the alphabet songs we know, like A Ah Apples and the A Makes Ah songs have a phonetic component to them.

A bit rainy out as I started to take things out to the car. There was a little plane flying really low, and doing circles around the area so I told him about it. He came out and watched the plane with me and walked to the car with me. He was then humming Eine Kleine Nachtmusik fast and slow.

We left around 9, Carly driving. We stopped at the bank, parking in our usual spot around the corner. The ATM worked! Back at the car August wanted to show Carly the sculptures at the house and was upset when we drove away.

We played some GroGarden along the way and read some of Magic Treehouse #6. He found he had control of the window and asked “Why do I have control?” Carly: “I guess because I trust you.” Him: “Well, okay. We’ll see about that.” He also sang his sofit song. As we got to the parking garage west of the old city there was a big traffic jam getting into it. We finally made it in and parked around 11:30. We stopped at a bathroom in the mall area and as he came out he sang a “I shake my hands at home” song.

We walked west through the mall area, then into the old city at the Jaffa Gate, past the Tower of David, and straight to exploring the market streets. August was pretty much in control. He liked the steps and the little ramp things, and when we came to a fork he often chose the direction that seemed busiest. We meandered north of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and then to the east, then back south and east, eventually stopping at the Al Burma restaurant for lunch. Very cool underground interior. We got hummus, Turkish salad, and a shawarma plate. The hummus was green with likely pistachios so Carly skipped that.

We continued west and found the Western Wall. We watched there for several minutes. August was interested enough. He and I wandered around a bit. Before we left we stopped for the bathroom. I took him in, and he was fascinated by all the toilet stalls, which were numbered. He let me close the door to his stall while I went to the bathroom, and I heard him start to sing a “I’m going to the bathroom in toilet 19” song.

We walked south out of the Western Wall area at the Dung Gate, where a Jewish man put his hand on my head and said a prayer for us. We then walked along the city walls to the south and through the area around King David’s tomb, before walking back up along the walls on the west side. We read a couple signs about the history of the wall, but then it started to rain heavier. I was carrying him from the steps to the south, and continued carrying him as we made our way back to the Jaffa Gate.

We looked at rugs at a shop we had seen at the beginning, but couldn’t decide on anything. While we considered what to do next, August walked in circles in front of a shop, singing London Bridge. It was 2:30.

We decided to try to find the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by taking a street. We walked up the Greek Patriarchate Street, but it went down stairs and back into the underground market streets we had been in before. We found a rug and jewelry shop and found a rug we liked. Will looking at the options the salesman asked August which he liked and he replied “I really like all of them.” We bought a rug for 450 shekels. He also had a lot of Roman glass silver jewelry and I looked at that for a bit. We walked a little to the south and August spotted some candied fruit that he wanted for his treat. We got some papaya, kiwi, mango, and a couple other random ones. Then made one more attempt to find the church taking a little side street on our way back, but then realized it too headed down underground eventually, right back to the candy place.

We headed out, leaving 4ish. August was looking at Waze and telling Carly which direction to turn next, and in how many meters. We sang “We all sing with the same voice” and asked, of one line in the song, “Why they have two dadas?” He then sang “I’ve got three dadas, I’ve got a billion dadas…I’ve got seven Mama’s…I’ve got infinity sisters…” We then played with the calculator on his iPad and kept multiplying bigger and bigger numbers. When it got to over 300 digits it would give an error message that said “Infinity Duck”, which August found very funny. We then read a bunch of books: Oh Daddy, Loch Mess Monster, Click Clack Cows that Type, Peppa Goes to the Pool, Would You Feed It to the Monkey?, and Gaston. He watched a few Kipper stories and Timmy Time and we stopped at a gas station for a bathroom stop and were home after 6:50 as it rained.

We came inside. I think Carly and him had talked about Thanksgiving because he said “I’m thankful for you.”

Watched one more Timmy Time, then we read Edgar and the Puffin Rock moon book. He then played with the pillows and rugs as if they were pizzas and plates. He said “There’s a lot of pizza cutting going on here.” “I call them square pizzas” He was cutting the pizzas into all sorts of interesting shapes: “Sometimes I do rectangular shapes.” He then had a pizza shop and had me buying pizza. At some point he said “Dada, now you’re a crayon…yarok…it’s a color in Hebrew.” He remembers green.

Went up to the bed and brushed his teeth. He was then playing zombies: “I punch them to Neptune then when I’m on Neptune I punch them to the sun and they burn up.” He was then being a catepillar and turning into a butterfly. I told him to dream about catepillars and butterflies. He said “Caterpillars and butterflies is really cool.” I left them at 8:30 and he was soon asleep.

He fell off the end of the bed sometime in the middle of the night. Didn’t seem to bother him too much. But towards the morning he was nursing a lot. Carly got him back to sleep, but at 5:55 he woke me up shouting “Go!” in his sleep. He got up and went downstairs. When I went down a few minutes later he was watching Peg + Cat. Carly headed to school. We read Berenstain Bears Moving Day, then played Toca Blocks and Toca Plants. The latter is a pretty good puzzle sort of game as you figure out how to make all the new plants. We then Skyped with my parents as we won’t be able to talk on Thanksgiving. He was typing all the alphabets we know backwards, sort of, on the iPad keyboard. That is, he was typing ZYXWVU… but doing it in Hebrew, Arabic, and Korean to see what it would look like. He type a lot of words to them, but in the end kind of got upset when he wanted to type a word with the ‘z’ in the middle. My mom suggested ‘gazelle’ and we were typing that, but he had gotten it in his mind that he wanted it in cursive (I’d been talking about how Arabic letters change based on their locations in words, kind of like English letters in cursive) and when he realized he couldn’t type in cursive he got kind of sad.

After we were done Skyping he finished Peg + Cat and I exercised. We then went upstairs. He played with the calculator on my phone and I introduced him to the advanced calculator layout, with all sorts of new keys for him to learn. I took a shower. We then read a Peppa Pig book (the collection with seven stories) and Little Critters Fall Festival, then gave him a shower. Not too bad.

Got headed out at 11:20 to head to the bank. Again. Ada had come through with our temporary Israeli licenses yesterday, so we are back to driving the car. I tried to put August’s shoes on him, but he only tolerated them for a minute before deciding he wanted to go back to his green crocs. As we got in the car I said something to him and he replied “No it doesn’t, you silly old beast.” I laughed and asked what that was from. It’s from James and the Giant Peach. He was then being an animal but told me “You don’t know if I’m a mouse or a Plumdog. It’s a secret.”

He had been wanting to play GroGarden again at the bank, but when we got there he first played with the calculator on his iPad, then came in and played with the one on the desk for the rest of the time. The guy said he didn’t know why the account hadn’t been unfrozen, but he submitted the request again and got an email back saying it would happen during the night. As we got ready to leave, August realized he’d forgotten to play GroGarden. I let him play for a minute and told him he could play later at home.

We headed back to the car. He riffed on the Peg + Cat song, singing “The problem is solved, the other problems is not solved, everything’s on fire.”

At home he played GroGarden. He talked about Peg + Cat, as if he was Peg, and said “Cats not solving the problem with me, because he is sick, and in the bed.” Which as far as I know never actually happens in the show.

I made us tuna sandwiches and sweet potato fries for lunch. We ate that, then read Plants Vs Zombies Timepocalypse, then had a zombie laser fight with the pillows as the lasers. He had brought the paper mache ball from Vivian downstairs yesterday. He said he didn’t need it anymore and started to destroy it. The damage was already done, so I let him take the rest apart over the garbage can. NO ONE TELL VIVIAN THIS!!!

We then got out on a walk. I’d planned to drive to a park over by Ikea, but he requested a walk on his orange bike. I wasn’t sure how well the weather was going to hold up, so I didn’t press my plan. On our walk we discussed what the song “Sentimental Wars” was about and we talked about being sentimental about things from Korea. August then totally got jumped on by a little dog that was licking him. I actually had to push the dog off of him and shoo it away to its negligent owner. August didn’t like it, but didn’t scream or get upset. We then found the tunnel under the highway and walked through it. It has a really good echo and we spent a lot of time at one end playing with the echo. We walked through to the other side, past a big puddle, some horse manure, and a lot of graffiti to find it just ends in a dirt road now. On the way back through the tunnel he was looking down at his feet, slumping over the handlebars and said “something strange happened. I turned into a peddle.” And at some point he just shouted out “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik!” We got to the end of the trail, at the main intersection with the road that goes up past the school. We talked about going up to the school, but he decided against it, which turned out to be good as Carly stayed a bit late to finish up some grading.

Looking back over the fields he saw a cylinder-shaped building that he hoped was a waste treatment plant. We turned around at 3:10, went back and walked the dirt road at the north end of the strawberry fields (they area all covered by plastic domes now), almost getting back to the main road again, then headed home. He played in the dust and dirt along the way. He was turning us in circles and said “If we keep doing this I will change.” A reference to the Toca Plants and Elements games. I saw a big white bird (kind of owl shape) fly over and said “Come back bird!” He narrated “But the bird didn’t answer.”

We got home at 4. Played some GarageBand, then Earth Primer. We read/played through that, doing more of the section on water that we hadn’t done before. We read half of Max Axiom Magnetism. He asked for more Cheerios but was upset when I offered dinner instead. Carly was home at 5:30. He was falling asleep as they nursed. Woke him up with some Beethoven and Carly gave him a chocolate chip, then he played Earth and Animal Hospital on the iPad. We read the two Berenstain Bears books.

He went upstairs and after going to the bathroom washed his own hands, then brushed his teeth all on his own. We then did flops on the bed – fun in themselves and also fun because it makes Carly nervous. I told him to dream about flops. He then loudly stated “I don’t like showers!”

He didn’t fall asleep though, and came down at “7:28”. We read Biscuit Visits the Doctor, Would You Feed It to the Monkey, Splat the Cat, 1-2-3 Peas, and Hap-pea All Year.

He went back up to Carly. I heard some crying and I think he fell asleep sometime between 8:30 and 8:45. Carly fell asleep too though, and she woke up for a bit around 9:30.

A lot of dancing that has to go on here: 

Standing on the bricks: 

Pillow zombie lasers 1: 

Pillow zombie lasers 2: 

Bye bye paper mache: 

Echo in the tunnel: 

After his shower: 

Deciding he wants the shoes off: 

Our long walk: 

Really raining in the morning. He was up at 6:00. Carly let him on her computer, but he’s figured out how to use keyboard shortcuts to switch between programs and open and close windows, so he was messing around. He was watching Peg + Cat when Carly left. Had banana bread for breakfast. We switched to books, but we couldn’t find the Plants Vs Zombie book (Timepocalypse) that he wanted. We started reading James and the Giant Peach instead, but he bit his tongue. His response was to want to leave the house: “Can we go? Can we get out of here?”

So we went for a walk at 7:45. He said “I don’t really like the nighttime.” Not sure why. We sang the zero at the bottom of the sea song county by different numbers: 14, 11, 5. And made ups some new words for Ants go marching: 2 is achoo, 3 is sneeze. We walked around the Holly block, then headed over towards Jack and Celeste’s, but as we headed through the paths we felt a couple drops of rain. Looked up to see a huge dark cloud approaching. We turned around and started hurrying home. He was fine though: “My rockets is waterproof!” We made it in the gate and I pushed him up to the porch at 8:05. We had barely made it. It started pouring and I told him I was just going to leave the gate open for now. He was laughing as he asked: “Is it going to keep raining for millions of years? Billions? Trillions?”

We went back to looking for the zombie book. We used a flashlight to look under the couch. August said: “It’s really dirty in there. I don’t want books to get dirty.” He had also wanted to mop today and he was wiping the floor with the mop, although we didn’t use water. He found Green Marshy under there. We then went and checked the car and found the book in there. Back inside we read all of Timepocalypse. When we were done he was being the plants and I was the zombie. “Slap, slap, slap…I’m slapping you to the dark side of the moon.” Took me to a cylinder planet to burn me up.

He wanted me to sing Yankee Doodle in a specific key, so I showed him how to change where we start playing it on the piano and we played Yankee Doodle in different keys. He then wanted to switch to the electronic keyboard and we played GarageBand.

We headed upstairs and he watched Ask the Storybots while I took a shower. Afterwards, he told me “Dada, all I see is a bunch of elements. There’s a bunch of elements looking at us.”

We then left on a walk into town. First stop was the library, where we could now open an account. We looked at the same pollution book and clock books as last time and I found The Very Hungry Caterpillar to check out. After we translated a few more words in the pollution book he was sick animals again, and sang “I’m a baby fish, getting infected.” He then spotted a sign above the toy area and we translated the whole thing, with him doing a lot of the typing. It told parents to keep the area clean.

We went up to open our account and found that the pollution and time books are for library use only. Rather odd, as they are just old beaten up books. So we just got the caterpillar book. But we found out that the librarian’s name is Rifka and she lives at Habrosh 9, just four doors up from us.

From there we headed to the bank, where we tried the ATM and found that we couldn’t withdraw money. Last night we had found that at least two other teachers also couldn’t access there accounts. So we went upstairs. August played GroGarden while I talked to the bank staff. He also came in and played with the guy’s calculator. At one point I looked over and found him flipping through a newspaper, moving his finger on the lines as if he was reading. After about a half hour and talking to two people (and them calling other people) it seemed like the problem was solved: they thought there was missing paperwork on our account, like a W-9, but they checked and it was actually all there and was a mistake and the lock would be lifted “in a few minutes”.

So we went to the park where August scratched at the icky spot, which was kind of gummy due to the rain, with a stick. It reminded him of oobleck and he started asking me about that book. Kind of chilly and windy, so we then headed to the ATM, where we found our account still wouldn’t work. We hung around for a bit, trying to decide what to do. He played at the edge of the steps, looking down below. He wanted to go to a restaurant for lunch but I told him we’d do that tomorrow in Jerusalem. So we left there at 1:45 and went to the bakery instead. Got a few cheesy things and one chocolate one, which he called the poop one. Walked across the street, back to the park, and ate them, starting with the chocolate one. He quoted a Garfield strip: “What are you trying to do? Make us sick?”

From there we went back to the ATM yet again. Still didn’t work. Figured we’d come back tomorrow and try it and we headed home. As we walked past the park where we saw the fruit fight he remembered it: “Dada, when the kids were throwing that fruit the park cleaned itself up!” He then did a lot of talking about and pretending to fight zombies. And everything was a zombie: brick zombies, tree zombies, etc. His funniest was the “poop zombies” when we saw dog poop. Home after 2:30.

We finished James and the Giant Peach and he wanted to start from the beginning. We read Du Iz Tak instead. He then did some zombie playing: “I got brains for my brain cake…Can you be a zombie? Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight…” He also lay on the floor and put his arms and hands in the shape of a heart.

We then headed back out and walked up to the school and that library. He first played in the stuffed animals and pretended to be a slow turtle, crawling along the ground when we went to look for books. He pointed to the built-in benches and asked “Can we sit on those?” I said yes, and he replied “But they’re for not behaving.” He once saw a boy who was getting in trouble be told that he had to sit there because he was misbehaving.

He had wanted to check out Berenstain Bears books so we looked at those a lot. We sat and read four of them: Slumber Party, Messy Room, Blaze a Trail, and Green-Eyed Monster. We checked out Green-Eyed Monster and Moving Day, Magic Treehouse 6 and 7, and Max Axiom Magnetism. Carly found us and we left at 4:30 and got home at 5.

At home he was pretending to punch everything. I took a video to show Cherie what her Plants Vs Zombie books have wrought. They nursed and I gave him a shower that went just fine. He sent messages to Oma – I had him write “punch”. He didn’t really eat much dinner. We read Frog and Toad, Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Chores, and Peppa’s First Sleepover. Took out the piano keys and put them back in.

He went upstairs with Carly. While on the toilet they did toilet paper math with the squares of toilet paper. In the bedroom he had turned the fan on to oscillating. Carly turned it off and he said “What did you do to my osicillating machine? That’s insane!” They read some Pooh poems, then he was ready for sleep. I asked what he’d dream about and he replied “hurricanes and tornados…and magnets.” He was asleep at 7:45. Before he went to sleep I showed him that we’d made it to 20,000 steps for the day. He’s been wanting to do that.

Playing it like a piano: 

Bakery stuff: 

Making a heart: 

Reading books in the school library: 

Carly took my driver’s license to school today so Ada could take them in tomorrow along with all the other paperwork and get our Israeli licenses. So we were carless today.

He was up just after 5:50. He was scratching at the sheet – I think he may have been a cat, but when I asked he wouldn’t say anything. He went out and found Carly. Downstairs he played Dragonbox Numbers while she went to work. We did some of our gentle head butting and he said “I’m stronger…I win.” He asked “How do you spell The Eighth Garfield Treasury?” And “How do you spell cuh-mu-nu-fu-suh? That’s the sofits in Hebrew.” He’d made up that word a day or two ago, and I didn’t realize what it was: the sounds of the 5 ‘final’ sounds in Hebrew strung together. We read the entire Garfield book. His favorite from this collection is probably the “Booga booga booga” strip. He also was quoting “You’re driving me crazy.” after we read, which may or may not be from the collection.

He lay on floor eating zucchini bread and talking about Hebrew. And he asked “How’s our mold experiment doing?” He then wanted an “underground photo”. So he was a squirrel in a nest I built. Another Garfield quote came out: “Okay, who glued Odie to the ceiling?”

We next read a couple of the Plants vs Zombies books that Cherie sent. The early reader book isn’t much more than an instruction manual for the iPhone game that the books are based on. But the hardback books are collections of actual Dark Horse comics and pretty good. We read about half of the first book of them.

He was then asking to grow things in the house, which confused me at first: “Can I grow apple trees in our house…find a way to grow apple trees in the house? And pears? And plums? We need something…I know, Hungry Little Carepillar.”  Ah, he wanted to play the iPad game. Played that for a little while, then used the piano keyboard on GarageBand and with the tabla app. He started playing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” on the piano.

I made us a mango-pineapple lassi. While August was playing around he asked “Can I make poop pictures for Vivian?” Although we didn’t actually get around to it. He drank lassi and discussed the Hebrew alphabet. He said he got a chunk in his lassi and said “I think it’s a bite of chair. Yep, cuz I really like chairs in my smoothie.”

We went upstairs. He watched Peg + Cat. Watched one story together then I took a shower. I went outside and moved the couch in the storage area and identified that the leaking water in the street is coming out of the cover over the sewage system. The neighbors asked me about it yesterday, and since the landlord will be back in the country in a few days I figured I’d investigate more.

Outside he was walking around humming Yankee Doodle and asked me to sing. He said “Dada, when you sing words words come out of my word dispenser.”

We went for a walk and sang songs: Theres a zero at the bottom (he remembered it goes up to 14), Yankee Doodle, Ants Go Marching, and When Johnny Comes Marching Home. We stopped first at the bank, where we got good and bad news: the good news was that the checkbook we’ve been waiting for was actually there. The bad news was that she assured me there was nothing wrong with our account and that the cards should work. But they haven’t worked since Thursday.

We then headed to the pizza place and got a slice of cheese and a slice of corn. The guy invited August in back and we got to see the slices going through the oven and the pizzas in the big coolers, ready to bake. August was really nice to the guys, even calling out to the younger guy, who was in the back this time.

We ate our pizza, then walked over to the park by the library. He asked “Can you make the three electric spoons? They can shock you, so be careful.” He was then the Blabberwocky (from Peg + Cat) and I was cube that he stole. He then wanted me to sing London Bridge so we sang that. Next he was a raccoon and the play structure was his nest and he was defending it. He then found sap and holes on the trees and was touching them with rocks.

He then said he wanted to get more steps in, so we hopped back on the bike. We stopped at the hardware store to get more Tupperware and clear silicone. Card didn’t work there, and it hadn’t worked at the pizza place. Bank was closed by now (it closed at 1) so we’ll go back tomorrow. Outside the hardware store is the new sidewalk they’ve put in, still covered with sand. So August was playing around in it, doing circles while shuffling his feet, and said he was a merry-go-round.

We walked home along the main street and where the road is wide he started steering us in loops and circles. He said “There’s a pencil on each foot and it says we like graffiti writing.” We got home, but were a little short of 9,000 steps, so August wanted to do more walking. We walked up towards the dead end, then came back. While we were walking he said “I’m gonna spit on the ground.” That reminded me of how he used to spit all the time while we were in Korea. Think he dropped that over the summer.

We got our 10,000, and were home at 2:45. We did more GarageBand and keyboard, then a bit of the caterpillar game. He kept having the iPad fall over though and I was trying to get things together to make banana bread. We made banana bread, and he threw out another quote: “Here’s your cabbage smoothie, Terry darling.” That’s from one of the Andy and Terry Treehouse books, but I’m not sure which one.

He licked the mixer and then the spatula. While it baked we read Berenstain Bears Go to School and more of James and the Giant Peach. Carly was home about 4:50. They nursed, then he was upset when he wanted more. We eventually set a 10 minute timer. He waited for that, reluctantly, and the timer for the banana bread. When the bread was done, and after he had nursed again, he had a slice of that. We then had spaghetti for dinner. He only ate about half his bowl and wanted more banana bread.

Carly took him upstairs for a bath and he had quite a meltdown. She kept him in the bedroom while he was upset and refusing a bath. He was quite cuddly though, cuddling in her lap, as he told her he didn’t love her and was going to kill her and he wanted to go to me. Eventually they decided he could go to sleep. I brushed his teeth and he said he was going to dream about rocket ships. I wasn’t too sure he’d fall asleep, but he did, at 6:50. He really was tired.

Photos: 

Mean raccoon: 

Staeing raccoon: 

I got up early to head to the DMV to get my ID number. Carly already got one with Ada to purchase the car, but I need one for my license. August was up at 6:40. I left at 7 and they were reading the Magic Treehouse #4 pirate book.

I found the place easily enough. Lost out a little on the ticket lottery as I didn’t realize there was a list of names being made. But not too bad. It opened at 8, then I had maybe a 30 or 40 minute wait. No problems with getting the actual paper I needed. The next step is to get the green form with my photo on it. Carly got hers at a mall SW of home last week. I was north. I realized that I remembered a discussion on Facebook about a place to do it in Netanya. I also remember Jack saying he had gotten his right next to the office. Anyway, long story short, the eye glasses place turned out to be closed and I couldn’t figure out when, or if, it would open.

I headed home, and got here at 9:50. While I had been gone they had nursed, read Sneetches, did laundry and organized winter clothes, cleaned, and played some GarageBand. When I came in he ‘hid’ from me. He was then being cuddly, and was a baby slug, crawling on me: “slime, slime, slime”. He then watched Sarah and Duck with headphones while Carly vacuumed. Carly made popcorn and they ate that. I went out and put the pump and water bottle accessories on my bike and put air in the tire of the trailer. And I moved the bookcase to its spot by the gate.

Back inside Carly got ready and headed to the store. August and I played with Solar Walk and Toca Plants. We then headed out on a Zinnie walk. We ended up walking all the way north, past the library and around a block north of there. He didn’t want to stop at any of the parks we came across. We sang a lot of songs though: We all sing with the same voice, What’s the name of that song?, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, Ants Go Marching, Yankee Doodle, and This is the Song that Never Ends. When we sang Ants Go Marching and got up to 11 he asked “Does it keep going?” He had kind of forgotten our version of the song that goes up to 20. He kept giggling and laughing through the rest of the song. He then wanted songs that kept going and going.

We got to our park and checked our steps: 9,970. So we jogged around the circle and got to 10,000. He then needed the bathroom so we headed home at 1:30 and found Carly was home. When he saw the bookcase had shelves in it and doors on it he said “What? I can’t stand in it anymore.” He liked standing in it, although I never managed to get a photo of that.

Carly started making pickles, then I got ready to head to the mall for my green form. August was introducing her to Lightbot Jr. as I left at 2. This trip was even smoother. Right in and got my photo taken. I looked at a couple of other stores and sent a lot of messages back and forth with August. I was back before 4.

He was playing Toca Blocks and Carly was making pickles and spaghetti. He and I sent messages back and forth and he was reading them. A lot of practice sounding out words. I had him tickle hug and kiss mama, which he would go do after reading the sentence. He was then speaking in millipede language. Earlier he had been speaking dung beetle language.

Carly finished the spaghetti and we ate outside. She then headed upstairs to work and August and I read James and the Giant Peach. We then did Hebrew in the translator and on his cards. We then put together the Hebrew alphabet on the  fridge. He wanted to take blurry photos so we did that on the couch and did “underground photos” of him under the pillows. We had heard a Skype call from Cherie, so eventually went quietly upstairs and he burst into the office and said “Hi Oma! Hi Opa!” He stayed with Carly and skyped while I went down and did dishes.

Carly went to take a shower and we read on the bed: a Biscuit book, the Amelia Bedelia library book (he really laughed at the police officer saying she was in trouble, and had me re-read that page several times), and a bunch of the Winnie-the-Pooh poems. He kept wanting more poems, and not a story. Eventually he did decide to read “Tigger Gets Unbounced” but we didn’t get far before he was ready for sleep. He was asleep just after 8. Think he said he’d dream about pirates.

Measuring me against the stick: 

With his pillow: 

We headed to Nazareth for the day. But first, I had to get up at 1am to discuss The New Jim Crow with my book group. Carly also ended up getting up, as she was still not feeling well from the pistachios. I eventually got back to sleep, then in the morning he went downstairs and fell back to sleep, and started waking up again after 7. I got up at 7:45. He was watching Peg + Cat, which I eventually made him watch on the floor as he was getting zucchini bread crumbs everywhere. They nursed on the couch, then he said “I don’t want to go for a drive, mama squirrel…Besides, we’re trapped.” I was the owl, and he had me trapping them on the bed. I made him oatmeal. He got creative: “Mama heard us cuz she has microscopic tube…helps her hear microscopic things…like you…Look, you’re so tiny I can’t even hear you.” He got his water and a drop sprayed him: “Thank you, water bottle! You showered my hair a little bit.” He had me be an owl again: “Mama, I’ve been wanting to show you this owl that traps two squirrels…”

We left at 9:50. Carly drove so I could read to August. He was a machine: “I have gears that steer me. I have all the directions: north, south, east, west, northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast.” And “Dada, some books are written by Jon…Judd Widnick.” We read some of James and the Giant Peach. He then counted to 200 on his own. Just because. Then we read some of Magic Treehouse #4. He also used my phone to take some photos as we drove.

We got to Nazareth and parked – 30 shekels for the day was nice. First thing we saw was a shop selling lots and lots of Santa hats. We walked up the hill to the northeast, then back to the west and found the market. August walked the entire way and was really into exploring and choosing which street to go down next. When Carly stopped to look at postcards I had to basically convince him to not leave her behind.

We ended up at the Church of the Annunciation. We looked around outside the church and heard the bells, then Carly and August headed up the outside stairs to the bathroom. I went in to the downstairs area and heard some service in Latin. And I looked at the impressive doors with scenes from the life of Jesus.

I went up the stairs and found them outside. Carly went into the church and I stayed outside with him for a minute as he said he wasn’t ready to be quiet inside. But then he asked “Dada, can you go in and take pictures for me?” I convinced him to give it a try himself. We went in and he went to Carly. She took him outside for a minute a couple times when he wanted to make noise, but he did a pretty good job of staying inside, speaking invisible language and looking around. We mainly admired all the big mosaics set in the walls.

Back outside, August wanted to go on the zigzag walkway with me, so we did that. August wanted to take a photo of a date palm. Then we admired the stone work pictures on the ground. Then some Korea flashbacks: a guy got his attention and waved at him, and a woman patted him on the said and said “annyang”. It was a group of Korean tourists.

We left and walked back to the west and looked at a graveyard, then found a restaurant called Kitabon for lunch. We ordered a lemonade, bread (which came with yogurt and pickles), cauliflower, and a lamb and potato platter. All very good, and August ate quite well. There were some college students at the next table over looking at August and Carly told him to say hi and he said shalom. They said they say ‘Marhaben’, so I reminded August of the Arabic we’ve been studying the last couple days and he said ‘Marhaben’ to them a lot, and ‘Shukran lake (thank you).

We walked to the west again and saw Mary’s Well, then to the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, a competing site of the Annunciation, as there is an underground spring in it that feeds the nearby well. The church and entrance were crowded though so we didn’t go outside. August wanted to explore a bit, but was starting to reach his limit, so we headed out on a walk. Back west up another street. But he was getting worse, and told a girl “I’m going to hit you” or something to that effect. We found the site of the Cave of 40 Monks for future reference (it was closed anyway) and headed back to the car.

There, he really had a meltdown as we put him in the car and he wanted to nurse. We needed to go find a place to do that though and it involved me backing out of the tight parking lot, then driving out of the city. He actually calmed down and we considered keeping going, but decided to stop at a gas station area. They nursed in the car and went to the bathroom at the Cafe Cafe. They came back with some little bakery treats.

Carly drove the rest of the way home and he and I read more of the pirates book and played Toca Blocks and ate some snacks.

We were home around 4. They nursed and I put together by bookcase shelves outside and put the doors on. Quickly, though, as I was getting attacked by mosquitoes. August was being a handful, so Carly made him some oatmeal. He and I read Gustav, the Goldfish and Bartholomew and the Oobleck and he shared the leftover food from last night with me: ate a good amount of cauliflower and carrots and falafel.

Carly gave him a shower. I went upstairs after they were done and he said “Dada, I have two of everything: two arms, two legs, two eyes, two stomachs…” He and I played guitar and Carly took a shower. We then went to the bed and brushed his teeth. Carly came in and I said to him “You’re going to dream about…” He interjected “Hurricanes!” I left them before 7:40, but he came down at 7:50. We read Splat the Cat, Everyone Poops, Would You Feed It to the Monkey? and some Plumdog. He was ready for bed and was asleep after 8:30.

In the car: 

Exploring the market: 

In the Church of the Annunciation: 

Counting grapes: 

Reading at lunch: 

Looking at Mary’s Well: 

He announced himself a bit after 6:20, calling something down the stairs. Carly went and got him and they nursed. He then typed on my iPad. We had some zucchini bread, but he was getting crumbs all over the couch eating it there, so I put it on the table. But then he spilled the last little bit of coffee out of my mug while reaching for a book. Luckily very little damage. I assured him it was okay, but when it came to helping clean he kept saying “I can’t!” and “I won’t!” When he was first adament about not helping and told me to do all the work I carried him to the other rug. He hit me and knocked off my glasses. Eventually he hesitantly set paper towels on the spilled coffee on the table, but said he’d only use two fingers. He seemed bothered by the idea of touching the coffee itself. When we ran out of paper towels on the roll though he went and got anither roll from the cupboard, and when I decided to take the opportunity to do a full clean if the table he helped spray the cleaner. When he asked if he could do it I asked spray or wipe. He was a robot and said “My option is set to ‘spray’”.

We then read the full Max Axiom Forces and Motion book, some of it twice. I then vacuumed crumbs and paper towel bits and the rest of the rug. He watched Sarah and Duck using his headphones. His iPad gor stuck on the “Octogan Club” episode so we switched to my iPad. He played around with the vacuum and wanted me to switch the attachments. He looked down the hose and had an interesting story for what he saw inside. Exercised, then went upstairs to shower. He had switched to Peg + Cat.

Back downstairs we read most of the Smurfs #1 book. He ate the last of the tuna and I started making teriyaki salmon sandwiches for lunch. I wouldn’t have remembered the teriyaki part, but he reminded me. We paused to read some Garfield, then I finished making the sandwiches and we ate. He liked a Prophets of Rage song. He rolled around on th floor singing the Hebrew song. He then played with the Everything Machine app and the Creature Machine app while I put together the bike trailer. When I wouldn’t do something for him right away and he said something mean, I developed a strategy of freezing in order to slow down. Seemed to work as it cheered him up and sent a message; but have to use it sparingly so he doesn’t think it is a game.

Went outside to put the bike and trailer together. HE was walking on the stones and tripped and fell and I held him. Back inside he found the Very Hungry Catepillar app on my iPad. It is the new augmented reality app that we hadn’t used yet. We played with that and it is pretty cool. You actually see the catepillar crawling around on your floor and trees grow in your house and butterflies fly around.

He was then getting silly and said “I don’t like the light switch on the refrigerator that always puts mold in my salad.” I confirmed all that with him but have no idea where it came from. He was then asking about what year it is, and asked “How many years are there?” He was then talking about how old he is: “I’m really old. I was on the Earth when anything hadn’t been invented.” And claiming he was millions of years old.

We headed up to do recycling at 2. We had two Ikea bags full today so took a bit longer. We did that, then walked up the street to the dead end. Then he got funny: He started to ask if we were at the end of Israel, which is his usual joke, but then asked if we were at the edge of the world. I asked where he got the idea that the world had an edge, as the world is a sphere. He said “No it isn’t. The world’s flat. The ground is flat so the world is flat.” When I had him explain it again he eventually changed his mind and decided the world was now a cylinder. In the middle we were startled by a barking dog. He threatened to kill the dog, which isn’t really funny, but I can’t blame him when he yells back at them “Go! Go!”

We had to avoid dog poop on the way back, which he actually wanted us to drive over. When I refused I said I didn’t like dog poop. He asked “Why? But you like dogs!” I said well I prefer cats, and also cat poop as it is smaller and they bury it. So when we got home he was pretending to be a cat burying his poop.

We watered the plants and finished spray painting the shelves. He then said he wanted to read “Peppa’s first sleepover problem” (a portmanteau of sorts of the actual title and the title of a Peg + Cat story). As we started it I asked if he’d like a sleepover. He responded “I won’t ever go to a sleepover. Even when I’m a grown up.” He then pointed at the page and asked “Does that say Zoe Zebra?”

We went and picked up Carly at 3:30 then drove over to Argaman’s Beach. Carly had received a package from Cherie with three Plants Versus Zombies books in it, and they read some along the way. We parked and got out, but initially he didn’t want to go down to the beach. Carly gave him a couple of options, and he replied “Oh, I don’t want to do those options.” Of course, once we got down there he was running all around on the beach, using his rockets. We watched the sun set at 4:39. He was having fun smashing mountains of sand that Carly made, and following the motorbike tracks. He asked for a family hug, then wanted one, but had his hands full of sand. He was trying to be sneaky and get sand on Carly. We chased Carly, and he ‘raced’ her and said he won, but “That’s okay cuz you get 2000 love hearts.” He was getting sand on us, and called it “sandifying” us. So I threatened to “wavify” him.

We left around 5 and drove to Younes, the Arabic restaurant in south Even Yehuda. Carly picked out the food while I entertained August. We got 10 falafel, and Carly was sure she ordered fries. When I checked the bag though there was just a single fry. My best guess is that she asked for an order of fries, but he expected number of fries and thought she just meant one fry. May have thought she was crazy, or just wanted one to try.

We got home and I tried the hummus and told August he really needed to try it as it tasted different. He tried it and told Carly “Mama, this hummus is really good!” The food was all really good, but it turns out they use pistachios in the falafel and Carly ended up not feeling too well. Luckily, nothing like a cashew reaction.

We read some Garfield, then they nursed and she gave him a shower. We had received a letter from Cassie with pictures that Vivian drew of poop. That had reminded Carly of the poop tea game they played in the bath this summer. Carly and August played that during his shower and he got through it better. They read Wild About Books and some Winnie the Pooh. I came up and he and I played guitar and then switched to the sequencer in GarageBand. We made up a new sequencer game where we took turns adding a beat to the board until it was full. He was asleep at 8:15 after I told him to dream about electric guitars and sequencers.

Oh, and during the day we took a look at our mold experiment. We started it when we were making zucchini bread. Somehow mold came up in conversation, and I lamented having just thrown out two bites of banana bread that had started to go moldy. But later I found some grapes that were getting old. I cleaned out the jar that had the pizza sauce in it we didn’t like, put the grapes in it, and it is now our mold experiment jar.

Photos: 

Cheese: 

Bike and trailer:  

Beach: