Author: Ryan/Dada

He came out at 6:55. I was out watching the Formula 1 coverage. He came over and cuddled with me for a few minutes. He then wanted his iPad to play the chess app. I said I could go upstairs to get it. But he was concerned that I couldn’t pause the TV and I might miss the start of the race. I assured him there was a warmup lap before it started and I could get the iPad.

Went and got it, and he played as the race started. Carly did realize he had gotten up until she came down around 7:20. She helped him with the chess for a bit, then went upstairs. At one point he said something about “Since dada is watching this really cool race…” At 8 he decided to head upstairs as well and took his iPad.

I finished the race. They were reading the two dogs book when I came up. In at the table he argued with Carly about something and said his “But still enshugudorflug.” Made me wonder how many other kids have made up phrases that are supposed to win arguments? Carly went down to rest. He and I played more chess game, then read Garfield. We went in and got his vitamins, then he was pretending to be Cindy and had me pretending to feed him food on the floor.

I went down for a shower. Outside, he latched on to grampa. They did some gardening, checking on the plants from yesterday, then ended up in the garage. Gramma asked what they were doing in the garage and he said “Lots of questions.” She asked if grampa was giving good answers and he said “Yep. Right, grampa?” She went and got her camera, and when she came back he joked “How did Gramma get in here? We should have locked the door.” Grampa showed him the drill. August was being careful and also told grampa he needed to vacuum. He had called it “wood dust” at first, but switched to “sawdust”.

Inside we discussed selling the car. August got stressed and upset about the idea of selling it, but was also very cute about it. He said he liked his high car seat. We assured him that we’d keep the car seat, but eventually I had to take him downstairs to calm down. We came back up and Carly made him French toast. He and I played Legos. Made a tire truck and rockets. He then tested out our rockets. He sang “Dear Eliza”. Knew most of the verses. When Henry asked where to get the axe from he sang “From Ace, from Ace”. He then had me put together the little space shuttle and he launched that, having the boosters and fuel tank come off.

Carly and I got us ready to go to the beach and he went out with them to the garage to have Grampa blow up the floaty with the air compressor.

We left at 1:30. Over by Safeway I pulled in to park in front of the dentist office and I joked we should go to the dentist. He screamed and horrified by the idea. Once he understood it was a joke he kept telling me “Don’t make that joke!” He even told me to not tell the dentist joke again after the park when we were driving home.

We had to run back to get the towels, then went to Safeway. We dropped Carly off and she ran in to get snacks. We parked in the parking lot. He told me “Dont park next to a boy car.” He asked “What should we name this car?” He decided to also call it “Skoda Mama.”

Figuring the park parking lot would be full (and costs money), we parked on the side street by the strip mall. When August put on his sunglasses they fell apart again, but the screw was nowhere to be found. So we walked to the Variety Store. He chose two pairs, in different shades of pink, with polka dots on the sides.

We walked to the beach. He first wanted to play on a bouncy/shaky thing by the skatepark. He said something about being able to bounce and talk funny. I let him do that for a couple minutes, then he wanted to play at the playground but we convinced him on beach first. He was disappointed to find that it was gravely, not sandy, but then had fun playing in it. Carly went out floating and we played. I set up the stroller as an umbrella for him. We moved closer to the water and Carly tried to take him out on her lap. He said it was too scary and got off. Carly had made snack mix after the store and we snacked on that and he had apple. I went up and filled up his water bottle. He stood in the shallows and threw pieces of wood in the water. Wouldn’t go with Carly again though. Played more on the blanket with the sand toys, and I managed to read a little.

I took him to the bathroom, then he wanted to play at the playground. We went and told Carly, then went back there at 3:40. He was doing his teasing thing and saying funny things like “Na na na na na, you have a blister and I don’t.” At the playground I sat in the shade and he pretended the stairs were a bathroom with different stalls. He then did some store before going on another bouncy thing.

We went back down to get Carly, then got going. On the walk back to the car I suggested we go get frozen yogurt, right next to the bakery. It was a surprise for August, who yelled “Ice cream!” when we went in. When we said it was frozen yogurt he first said “Yuck!” He got excited by all the flavors though, and they eventually put together vanilla, peanut butter, chocolate, and something else. I sampled the peach and mango, and did a cone with cake batter and peach. We sat and ate all of that, then got home at 4:40.

He went out and fed the squirrels and birds with Gramma. And he swept the bird poop from the ramp thing. Inside he poured out the kaleidoscope things in a bowl with Carly and looked at those. He and I read some Garfield. We ate apple and some carrot whole my parents made tuna casserole for dinner. When we started dinner he said “Unle Paul should be here.” He ate the casserole and I think some green beans.

After dinner he played the chess game with me. He went to the bathroom, then pleaded for 3 more minutes of the “Kingdom game” (which is the chess game). Got his three minutes with Carly, then she gave him a bath.

Soon after, Peter and his family came by to pick me up. Peter came in with the two kids. August didn’t remember them, so he asked them their names. \

I left with them, saying bonjour to his mother-in-law. We drove down and parked by the park, behind Local Myth. Christine and her mom walked towards the new bridge, the rest of us did the loop the other direction. We walked through downtown, then found them back in the park. Peter and I stayed and sat on a bench and the rest went to BC MacDonalds and got ice cream.

While I was gone, they played some more chess game, then he fell right asleep about 8:30.

New sunglasses:

I heard him yell about 6:05. I ran and found him on the lower stairs. He said he didn’t want to go back to sleep, but he asked “Did I forget anything?” and wanted to go back to the room to check. We went upstairs and Carly met us. He said “Poop” as I handed him to her. His usual greeting to her. They went downstairs and came back up a few minutes later, carrying her ipad and having finished a level in Math Tango.

I then introduced him to the Magnus chess app that was just released. We played for a bit upstairs. It is basically August’s first adventure game and chess app rolled into one. Very cool, as he’ll totally understand how the pieces move and some basic chess strategy by the time he’s done with it. Also found out that he refers to the room downstairs as “The room where Uncle Paul watches soccer.”

We went downstairs and he played while I watched Formula 1 qualifying. The first time, I think, I’ve seen any Formula 1 on a big screen since I watched in a restaurant in Spain. He called the king hats in the game “Christmas hats”.

We went upstairs afterwards and Carly made eggs with cheese for breakfast. He was really excited about going to the dam and wanted to go right away.

I took a shower. They then skyped with Cassie and family. I watched the end of the Mexico versus Korea World Cup match. In the kitchen, Carly had an adventure with the ice maker in the freezer as it got blocked up. Paul helped fix it, and August helped pick the ice up off the floor. After I said something to Carly, August said “Nice move, Uncle Paul.”

August did some shrieking, and my mom taught him the word ‘banshee’. We were getting ready to leave and I realized we hadn’t put the new air filter in the car. August watched my dad put it in. We then left at 10:45, mom riding with us. August asked “Why do we have two cars?” Then “Look everybody! We have two cars!”

He and I read How I Became a Pirate, which he quite liked. He also repeated a new version of his chant that I heard him doing earlier: “I found a nut, but I’m pretty sure you’re a butt.”

We got to the dam at 11:25. Sadly, the cafe there was closed for just this weekend, messing up our lunch plans. We first went to the fish ladder. I mainly held him there. Lots of chinook to watch there, and he pretended to be fish going up and down river.

We then walked across to the museum and dam. As we looked down into the dam there was a turbine sitting out and he was wondering about it. I told August he should ask uncle Paul dam questions. He walked over to Paul and grabbed him by the leg and twice pulled him closer to the window. We then walked over to the view area where you can see the whole dam. Along the way he really wanted three lights lit up on the hand crank generator. Looking out at the dam, he and Carly talked about it, then my dad cam and joined them. We then sat there, eating Cheez-Its and apple.

Next, through the history museum area. He and Carly looked at the different kinds of rock and petrified wood. August was now eating Cheerios from a bag. They sat by the big canoe and raccoons, then I suggested he steer the steamboat. Made a game of that, having the rest of us come on with tickets.

Carly had the idea of going to the Alpenhorn. So no playground, but August was definitely more excited to get a milkshake anyway. As we walked up and go to the bathroom, he was at first complaining that 35 minutes to get a milkshake was a long time, but then he put it in perspective entirely for himself: “That flight was like nine hours. Compared to nine hours it’s still short.”

As we walked back down to the car, he spotted the drains for rainwater. He then asked “Thrn they use it?” I explained that no, they did not. It’s a very different situation than in Israel, where he’s learned about Tent of Nations and Palestinians in Ramallah using rain water.

We were driving by 1:20. He was starting to look tired. When I asked if he wanted to take a nap he gave me a thumbs up. Carly had requested Josh Ritter so that was playing. He asked “Mama, can I have a sleepy song? I’m taking a nap.” He was asleep from 1:32 to 1:54. When I woke him up at the Alpenhorn horn he said “Poopity doopity”.

We chose a raspberry shake. I got a Reuben, and Carly got a wrap. August was insistent he only wanted a milkshake. We talked about having to have other food, but then of course they prepare the milkshakes first, so he ended up only having milkshake. My parents got theirs first, so he got to try the Irish cream and blackberry milkshakes. When Carly set down her drink, he said “I’m guessing it is a Pepsi or Coke.” During our meal he told grampa to use his straw when he was only using his spoon, and told him he should push in the circles on his drink lid: “I love it.”

We got home at 3:05. He was out back watering things. He wanted Carly to turn it off, instead of turning it off himself. She said that if she did it he wouldn’t be able to use it for the rest of the day. She thought he was going to regret it later, but he said “No, I’m not going to regret it.”

I went downstairs and was cleaning some stuff out of my old closet. He examined rocks with Gramma, then they went outside and did some gardening. He was a lot of help as they planted a couple begonias. They were out there for a long time, and doing a lot of talking. I helped him take the garbage to the big garbage can and put away the potting soil, and mom headed inside as her foot was hurting. I helped Carly start the barbecue and she grilled the rest of the veggies and the corn on the cob that she and August and shucked a bit earlier.

August wanted to explore the garage, so we went in there. He wanted me to carry him though so his feet wouldn’t get dirty. He put different things in the clamp, had Grampa explain some of the car engine to him, then played with the metal lathe. Grampa came back in and August said he had questions for him. He asked him about the air compressor, then the lathe. Dad explained it, and then turned the lathe on for him.

He went in and ate his first corn on the cob actually on the cob. Basically inhaled that, then had some of the other veggies. We then played the Magnus chess game together. Then played with the toys I had brought up from downstairs in my closet: the Space Shuttle models and 747, a few rocks, and the kaleidoscope I built at the Seattle Science Center when I was a kid (some Halley’s Comet-related special event?). He wasn’t too impressed with the Space Shuttle models at first – he wanted me to turn it on and was disappointed when there was no battery. He then did some pipe cleaners with Carly, then she gave him a bath. Back out in the living room he played with the space shuttles again, this time having the little one launch, then lose its solid rocket boosters when they were out of fuel, then the main fuel tank. Just like he’s seen on the launch videos.

He saw my mom drinking a pink drink, so he got to have some of his ‘sugar water” as well. I left them at 8:30 but he wasn’t falling asleep. He came out with me and Carly went to bed. We watched the end of the Sounders soccer match together, then went up and he had peanut butter and syrup toast. I saw Iris do a flip in the grass outside. Paul was throwing a ball around for her. August and I went out to watch. August said “I’m not used to Uncle Paul being outside.” We went in and brushed his teeth. I took him down and as he went in I told him to just lay down next to mama and let her sleep. Apparently it worked, as he fell right to sleep and Carly didn’t remember him coming to bed.

I was woken by the light turning on at 4:48. It was August, leaving to find Carly. She came down and they were down stairs for a few minutes before leaving again. I was up at 5:15. They were reading one of the new books. They then went outside for a few minutes before returning. Carly went down for a break. August was fine for awhile. He was stacking stuff in front of the front door and we got his vitamins. We were going to play with the puzzle piece blocks when he asked where Carly was. He didn’t like the answer or the fact that I wouldn’t let him go downstairs with her. I carried him outside, where he quieted down a bit. Carly came and took him downstairs.

When they came back up he was carrying a Garfield book. We read some on the couch. He ws then in the kitchen with Carly but was pulling napkins out of the napkin holder and wasting them. When Carly took the dispenser away he couldn’t handle it and ended up going downstairs for timeout.

Carly had made him some eggs. She headed to Walmart to get an oil change and he sat and ate them. He was then asking me about fuel tanks on the big 747 we had been in. So I searched for a diagram and we talked about how the fuel tanks went through the wings. We went in and played with the puzzle piece blocks. He wanted to cover the cover of a book, but his first design had holes in it that he couldn’t fill. So I taught him an alternating pattern that would do it. We covered much of the cover.

He got tired of that, so I suggested a walk down to see the dam. He liked that idea, so we got going. No stroller. Just him walking and me carrying him. As we left he ws pretending to be some sort of time marching and said “Now I’ve got spider webs from ancient Africa.”

We walked down and looked at the river. By the baseball field there was a killdeer yelling at us and we watched it for a few minutes and speculated on where the nest would be. We walked by the playground, but there was water on the slide and August didn’t want to stop. We walked through the horseshoe area, then down by the dam to the waste treatment plant. We saw two marmots run across the ground below us. I saw a third on our walk back, right near our road, but it disappeared before I could show August.

August asked how the hillside by us stayed up and we talked about erosion and how plants prevent it. He worried that the wire on top of the fence by the dam had electricity in it and was warning the birds “Warning! Warning!” There was a bird down there that could almost hover like a hummingbird but was bigger. Didn’t figure out what that was. We walked down close to the fire department, then headed home. August was playing with the water thing in the backpack as I carried him and I eventually made him wait until we got home to play with it more.

We got home at 9:35. Carly had bought some squirt gun things at Walmart. they played with those outside, then he wanted peanut butter toast and honey. No honey, so we did syrup instead. He liked that. He wanted to wash off his sticky hands but didn’t like that he couldn’t reach the bathroom sink on his own. In the living room he said “Stupid house”. But then he disappeared. I went to find him and he was in the bathroom. He had gone back in and done some problem solving. He had figured out he could move the scale and use it as a stool, then reach it on tippy toes.

We went out and ate some blueberries. He was stuffing them up under his lips to make them look funny. Carly had rented a wet vac on her way back from Walmart, but it wouldn’t work. She now went back to get a different one. Turned out they had given her a wrong hose. She came back and started to do the wet vac. August and I had gone out there as well. When grape turned it on for just a second August got really upset. I carried him away, and he didn’t even want Carly and dad to use it. He was yelling “Everybody stop!” And telling me to go tell them to stop. But eventually he was okay with it and we walked around the other way, out into the alley, and he watched her using it.

Back in the yard he found the red watering wand. He remembered it, and we hooked it up and he did some watering, both of imaginary plants and real ones. Back inside he played on the typewriter and we watched some soccer. Carly took him upstairs and he had lamb and macaroni for lunch.

I came up and they were building a lego airplane. We were then getting ready to go. But dad went to blow air through the AC in our car and discovered that mice were in it again. He mentioned “Mouse poop.” August said to him “Did you say the bottom word?” “You get a consequence.” So Carly drove to Walmart to get a new one and do the grocery shopping. August chose to stay with me and the two of us and my mom walked into town to go to Bear Foods to look for fish oil vitamins for him and tea for me. He said a nice “Bye, grampa!” as we left.

He fell asleep right as we got there, about 2:45. So mom and I pushed him around the store. I got tea and an infuser and found vitamins for him. I had planned to get popcorn, but decided to save that for a time he was awake. We walked home, but stopped at the Habitat for Humanity store. Mom found a big XK restorer’s guide for dad, and I found a few books for August: Pirates Don’t Change Diapers, How I Became a Pirate, and a book of verse.

He woke up as I carried him in the house and took him to Carly, at 3:50. They were downstairs, then she brought him up for a bath. Did a lot of playing, but then he was furious about washing his hair. He shouted “Stupid you guys!” As we dried him, Carly asked about cutting his hair. He said we could cut it when it wrapped around the earth twice. And “Cut my hair when it’s wrapped around our planet like a ball of yarn.” A wonderful analogy, and very poetic. Out in the living room my mom said she liked his clean hair. He sarcastically said “Happy hoopity poopity.”

He then finished the book cover thing with Carly. We were then talking about when to have dinner. I said Carly was the biggest concern, as she got up earliest. August said. “No, I’M the biggest concern…Wait, dada’s the biggest concern. Cuz he has a couple more ages than you, right?”

I built Lego trucks with him after doing more sorting. He liked pulling out all of the wheels and axles and walkie talkies and steering wheels. Then we did all the heads. We sort of built part of a house as well. He was then pretendingto be Cindy and wanted me to sort of chase him with the lego truck. He would then hide, including under the kitchen table.

We had tacos for dinner. I went out and got a PBR to drink. Inside I said it reminded me of Ballard and Isakson. I did a “Leheim! Cheers!” with Carly’s glass, then August wanted to do it. He kept asking me to do it more with his cup: “I love that game!” “Leheim!…Prost!…Cheers!” After dinner he walked around living room making up and chanting nonsense words.

August and I and my parents went for a walk at 6:45. Carly stayed. There is music at the grandstand in Riverwalk Park every Friday for the summer. The band today was Polecat. A bluegrass, etc. group. We got there as the first set ended. Windy. We played I Spy, all four of us taking turns. When he learned there was music every Friday he said he wanted to come every week. He spotted a little bug crawling on my sandal. And he ate a variety of snacks, including one of our raspberry fig bars from Israel. Richard Uhlhorn came by and August got to meet him. We watched a few songs of the second set from up there, then I carried him down to the left of the stage. I held him part of the time, but also set him down. On the ground he walked around, looking down at the water through the railing, and he also did a lot of hair-waving dancing. There was a good crowd of other kids down there dancing.

We left as they played their encore song. Walked home and got here at 8:20. Gramma filled the water bucket at his request and he sprayed a little water. Inside we all sat n t
he living room and ate kettle corn. Plenty of it. Then he and Gramma played with Legos. She said her plane didn’t really look like Carly’s, but then August put a positive spin on it: “Oh, I know what it is. It’s a different kind of airplane.”

I brushed his teeth upstairs then I took him in to Carly at 9:10. He hadn’t really been looking tired, but when I asked he said he was ready to go to bed. Didn’t think about his pajamas. She barely woke up, and he must have fallen right asleep.

He went to the bathroom about 4:45. Then back to bed until a little after 5. He sat up and started talking about the stuffed bears: “the small and smiling one is the best”. I got it down and he said it was his favorite. Very cute for a minute, then he was bothered that it was wearing out.

We went upstairs and Carly got him an english muffin. I was outside with him for a couple minutes. We checked on the bird and squirrel food. They then ate outside, in back. They came back inside and bought and read some of the first Captain Underpants book.

He asked “Why, when I was one or two, I spent an entire flight buckling and unbuckling myself?”

August then watched an episode of The Magic School Bus – the first episode of season 2, since it is available here in the U.S. I got us some blueberries and raspberries. Cherie came as he was starting a second episode. He paused, then played Legos together. They took apart the space station (not sure when he had made that, as he’d taken his moon scene apart yesterday) and started something new.

I went and took a shower. Chuck and Cherie were leaving as I came up. He watched more Magic School Bus. We went into the kitchen and he turned on the fan and was dropping things in front of it. He asked “Did I do that experiment last year or not?” He saw the jar of jam on the table – it was jam with cayenne pepper in it. I told him it was probably spicy, but I don’t think he heard me. He got a spoon on his own and tried it. Seemed okay tasting it until I told him what was in it, then he thought it was spicy and ran and got his water bottle.

We went down and watched some soccer with Paul. He watched and asked “Are there girls? Like mama?” We were talking about how the game is played and I explained the goalkeeper tries to stop people from scoring. He said  “The goalkeeper’s not nice.” He was then singing “One wheels off and the others broken, won’t you’ve my darling.”

He spotted the old Underwood typewriter that was from Ed’s. We got it down and studied it. I then got the newer orange one down and we played with that. Put paper in it and there was just enough ink to show up a bit. I explained we couldn’t really get new ribbons and he didn’t like that: “But typewriters is fun, right?”

We went upstairs to eat. He had macaroni and blueberries, then peanuts. Paul had gone for a run and was back at 10:50. August asked “How come uncle Paul doesn’t talk much?” August and I did some iPad art at some point, and then he spent a long time doing Legos with Gramma. They were finding and sorting pieces – something he had also done with Cherie. “No uffing! Uffing means not doing much stuff, like reading…” They kept playing. He checked to make sure I was in the kitchen a couple times. He then told her all about bonds.

We went downstairs and watched Argentina get beaten. He did more typing on the typewriter. We talked about going to town to the bookstore and ice cream. He asked Paul “Are you going too?…Yeah!…You won’t just be bored watching soccer.”

He was in a good mode upstairs as we got ready to go. He asked “Do I have time for a quick dance?” And then did a little dance. 

We left at 1:30, all of us except dad, who was working on installing the blinds in the garage. As we walked he was an airplane with large cylinder motors going mach 2.

We got to the bookstore and started looking around. He went upstairs with Carly and found sample sets of these puzzle piece-like building blocks and loved playing with them. When I went up he said he was working on his ostrich. I talked to Libby and she has a friend who did theater stuff in Gaza and wrote a book called The Hour of Sunlight. I also talked to her about old bookstores in Chelan, but she didn’t remember the one that I remember that was between her current location and the bridge. Carly found one book for him and read a bit of it and he declared it really good. Two Dogs in a Trench Coat Go to School. Then I found Hilde Cracks the Case: Hero Dog! Mom bought those, using the rest of a gift card.

We then walked to the ice cream counter at BC MacDonalds. August and Carly shared a scoop of bubble gum. He was very excited about bubble gum and didn’t want to consider anything else. They ate that, and I helped mom with some of her coffee ice cream. August went to the bathroom and when he came back he saw the woman at the next booth. She had a cover on her laptop that looked a lot like the new cover to his iPad. I got out his iPad and he went and showed it to her.

On the way home we walked by the post office and went in. Mom’s birthday card to Dee had been returned as undeliverable, but the address was correct, so they took it to try again. We then got home at 3:20.

At home he played with the puzzle piece building toy with Gramma. He then found the laser pointer and played with it, wanting me to pretend to be a cat. He was then a plane again: “Now I’m an airplane with big cylinder motors going mach 9 faster than the speed of sound!” He was hungry and I made him peanut butter toast. I just cut it into quarters; we haven’t done eighths for quite awhile. But maybe because of the popcorn cracker math on the airplane he wanted them cut further, and he taught Gramma how to cut them into eighths the way he likes.

Carly was out washing and cleaning the car, making it as presentable to sell as possible. It’s going to be so nice now we won’t want to sell it. We could put a new head unit in it and it would feel almost new. Just need to keep the mice out…

We went downstairs and he played with the fan in the bedroom. Suddenly though he was cuddling with me. Very comfy, but unusual, as he was hiding his head as well. I asked why and he said “For funsies.” But it turned out he was also scared of the door noise. It was softly banging against the frame due to a draft.

We went upstairs and he controlled me as we went: “Command you go this way. Command you set me down.” We played with the puzzle piece things, and he built the “Oncresso 2000”. It made things bigger, I think. He heard my parents talking about how Iris was trying to steal Cindy’s food, so then he was acting that out.

We did leftovers for dinner. He had mushrooms and asparagus and macaroni. He wanted to earn more macaroni. He went over and got the oranges, but then when he convinced Carly to peel one for him he didn’t really eat it. A bit later he was begging for a carrot instead. Wasted food aside, it is impossible to say no when a kid is begging for a carrot. He ate a lot, but then seemed full. Carly gave him a bath. We were going to wash his hair, but he was really tired and pleading not to do it. We said tomorrow during the day. Took him down and he was asleep at 7:20.

Photo:

Ice cream: 

Fan:

They got up about 4:30. When I got up an hour later and went upstairs he told me about how they had gone to the bathroom and come upstairs and had sugar water and oranges and I should have done it with them. They had done some Legos on the floor, making a moon scene. Think they had also done some reading, or at least had books out. 

Carly tried to go downstairs and rest, but after he ate his last piece of orange and had the sugar water she had left he wanted to go downstairs. He started to make noise at the top of the stairs so I carried him into the living room, away from my parents’ open door. But then he got sad and said I wouldn’t let him sleep. Carly came up, then took him downstairs. Quiet for awhile, then they were in the bathroom.

They came up a bit later and Carly said they were going to the store. They left out the back. August found a Cheerio in his stroller and threw it off the porch: “Maybe a cat will eat it or maybe they won’t notice it and it will turn into dirt.” They left about 6:50.

I did Sabeel work. They went to the coffee shop and had a scone. They went to the grocery store and August played with the scale, stacking things on it. Chuck and Cherie helped pick out meat. I did a couple hours of work, then got in the shower. Carly and August got back while I was in the shower. He did Legos with my mom a bit.

Carly told him about Captain Underpants. He and I bought the second book and read 11 chapters. He liked the ‘things get worse’ idea and then acted it out, having laser beam cows, shoes that sucked me up, etc. “Cuz things are getting worse and worse.”

He ate carrots and cauliflower. Carly used the phrase “A goodly amount.” He picked it up and immediately started using it. He tripped and fell in the kitchen: “Idiot house”.

He was then uutside playing in the sand. I sprayed him with the little squirt gun as he stood up on the porch. It made spots on his shirt, and he requested “More polka dots!” He let me shoot him several times. I was wearing my new shoes. August spotted them and said. “Soccer shoes. Like Dion.” I took him to the bathroom, then he sat on Oma’s lap and was viruses, etc. attacking her. Her immune system was then fighting off the diseases.

We went outside to the garage. He didn’t like grampa just talking to me about car stuff, although he really picked up on grampa’s mention that he may have dropped something in the engine and kept asking about it. We went upstairs and my mom came up as well. He found a tool that he used to clamp things. He did that as we discussed what had changed. There is an air conditioner up there now and they just got blinds for the window.

We went outside and he was clamping things on the porch. He played in the sand, selling it to Oma. Not much for customer service, Cherie said.

Inside he had some of the sugar juice (the fruit cocktail, watered down a bit for him), then requested more noodles and broccoli and cauliflower. I got that for him then went down and watched some World Cup with Paul.

He went under the dining table and had Cherie bring him three objects. He would guess what they were, then used them in an experiment. He rubbed them with a pillow from the couch and said “Because cats go on it so much…Tada! It smells like a cat.” They did a second round, and he requested no cat toys. He then suggested they use teamwork to find objects. His eyes were starting to itch, so we washed his hands and then headed outside and played in the sand. We were flattening it, then he took a bucket up the stairs and dropped some of it off one of the middle steps.

Carly took him down to see if he’d take a nap. No such luck. Carly showed him the new iPad case and he was very excited about the case. Brought it up and I also explained it was a new iPad. He was less excited about that, but he did like that it wouldn’t restart on him.

Came back upstairs and Gramma asked him to go outside with her to feed the birds and squirrels. They were out there for quite awhile. They watched a squirrel get the peanuts and take them to bury them. August commented on it just being the two of them out there, but he was okay with that and they stayed out quite a bit longer.

Back inside he ate a bunch of blueberries that I got for him. We were going to do art on his new iPad using the pencil, but then he wanted to be with Carly, who was resting on the couch. When she went downstairs to rest and he was supposed to stay with me he got really upset. She came back up after a couple minutes and they went downstairs. They at least had some quiet time.

Chuck and Cherie came back. They had driven out to check out Bear Mountain Ranch. My parents made a macaroni salad, Carly cut the veggies (asparagus, mushrooms, zucchini) and marinated it, and they got the ribs baking in the oven. I came up and August was in the bath. I played with him in a bath for awhile, then Carly took over and got him out. I went out and grilled all the veggies and the lamb patties.

We ate outside. He ate a ton of mushrooms, some asparagus, and some meat that Carly had chopped up for him. When he was done he said he was full, then started asking “Can I go to sleep now?” I got him to cuddle on my lap for  minute but it didn’t last long. Carly took him inside, and he went right to the couch and fell asleep on it. She took him down to bed at 6:10.

Blueberries: 

I think they went to sleep about 10:30. I was up a couple times during the night, but slept okay. I got up at 5:20, feeling good. A little before that, August had started to get up, and I think said “Switch shoes”. Carly told him it was a dream and got him back to sleep. They then slept and slept. So no up in the middle of the night craziness this year. Carly was down about 7:25. She said he had actually woken up twice talking about his shoes.

Kayla and Thatcher were out about 7:30 and I heard them say something about August. Then I heard “Dada!” I took off running upstairs. Met him at the top of the stairs. I picked him up and said “Good morning, ZZ.” Kayla said “That’s not ZZ, that’s August.” Downstairs he started playing with the nesting dolls. Thatcher came and played with them too, then Kayla showed up too and they played around the coffee table. As part of a discussion carly reminded him “We don’t like competitions.” To which August honestly responded with “Well I do if I win in the end.”

They had breakfast and August and Kayla developed a full Abbott and Costello sort of routine:

Kayla: “Stop copying me, August.”

August: “Stop copying me, mama.”

Kayla: “That’s MY mama.”

Repeat. They did all of the people, then random things that Kayla struggled to pronounce: Scotland, flubong, escalator, Shmorgadeboop. They were also repeating things like “what the heck?” “oh my gosh” “oh my God” The first of which I think Kayla learned from Thatcher.

They left and took Thatcher to school and August played up in the play room with Cherie. I did some Sabeel work down at the table. They came back with Kayla, and then I left on my cell phone adventure. The plan was to try Verizon this summer. I drove the car Chuck and Cherie were using (actually Claremay and Steve’s) over to Northgate. I’d forgotten that the iPhone 5 was T-mobile/ATT only, so I left the Verizon store and headed to AT&T. Along the way I got on the free wi-fi though and realized I could do one phone on each just as cheaply as two phones on AT&T or Verizon. So I got Carly’s phone set up, then went back and did mine. Got back in the car and realized that data wasn’t working. On either. Went back to Verizon and they went to work on my phone. The only thing the phones had in common though was that they had both been used in Israel. No thanks to them (they were stuck on an error message in switching SIM cards at their end) I realized that there was a ‘Profile’ still on the phone for Golan, our Israeli company. Removed that, and each phone worked.

Got back at noon. While I was gone August and Kayla played together the whole time. August took a bath and she played with him from outside the bath. They ate tamales for lunch. August liked the pork or chicken one. When I got back they were playing in the play room. I got some lunch. At one point Carly and I walked up and August ran to us and said “Mama Dada! We’re playing in here.” And ran back. A little later the two of them were playing in Kayla’s room on what had been our bed with one of those basic wooden ramp and ball things.

Everyone got all ready to go and said goodbye. I heard some very sweet goodbyes between August and Kayla, who was holding a couple of her stuffed animals (a giraffe and something else). We left about a quarter to 1.

August sat in the back in the middle between Carly and Cherie. He was wired for the first hour or so, singing his “Eaten by a consequence…” song. he was also having difficulty controlling the spitting noises and with squeezing Cherie’s arm. Carly and I switched in Monroe when we stopped for gas. He and Cherie played a game on her tablet that involved saving cats. He had fun with that, but got a bit obsessed with it.

We stopped at the rest area at 3. He asked me to teach him how to use the water fountain, then was really excited about it, and said that it was the easiest water fountain he’s ever used. In the car there was more of the saving cats game. At one point Cherie said We’re not very good at the game yet. August suggested “We should go to coding class to do it.”

We got to Chelan at 4:40. He immediately said “We can see how big my maple tree getted.” I walked around the side of the house with him and he told me “Watch out for the sprinklers. Remember the sprinklers?” The tree was almost as tall as him, but not quite. Mom got Dad and they joined us at the tree. August wasn’t entirely sure they were who they said they were at first.

We saw Cindy outside, and inside he told Carly he’d just seen one of the cats. He played with a cat toy and then was rubbing his eyes. He said he was both tired and they were itchy. Washed them a couple times but no major reactions today. When he was asking about the layout of the house I mentioned the upstairs and the downstairs. He asked “What about middle stairs?” Pretty sure he was being funny, but there is the landing that goes outside there, so that ended up being the middle stairs.

I checked out the shoes I had ordered. We have a nice stack of boxes waiting for us. Chuck and Cherie had gone tand checked in to their hotel, then walked back. We then all walked to Local Myth, except for Carly, who drove. She was tired.

We saw Paul and got a table in back. August had fun playing with the Mr. Potato Head toys. He also liked seeing Paul a few times. On the way there he had pointed out he has three uncles and was chanting their names. While we waited, he ended up getting 4 straws and using them simultaneously to drink his water. I took him up to the counter and he stood there watching them throw pizza dough around. When a finished pizza came up, he said “Thank you, Uncle Paul” although he was in back the moment.

Paul brought out the appetizer plate. August ate the whole pickled asparagus, some bread, and tried one of the slightly-spicy olives. When pizza cme he had parts of two pieces. He was then done and tired and ready to head home. Carly took him home in the car. The rest of us stayed and finished off the second pitcher of beer (I’d also had a Boot Strap IPA). Lot’s of talk of upcoming trips to the Mediterranean, etc. Nice idea of all of us meeting in Mexico for winter break some year. I looked at flights though and that is a lot of travelling from Israel to there. Maybe with a stopover it would be doable. Or two.

At some point today (in London or Seattle, I think) I had another good talk with him about timezones, and how our Monday was actually 34 hours long, but would only be 14 hours long on the way back. It seemed to make a little more sense to him this time, probably because he was living it.

Carly got up first, then got him up at 5:30 while I was in the shower. She said the first thing he said was something related to poop – from one of their ‘games’, I think. I was hurrying right before 6 to finish the berry brains for breakfast and finished the dishes and tape the last drain (Carly had already done most of the roach and ant stuff – she had woken to a dead roach on the counter, being eaten by ants), and he was stressed about time. We were just fine though, and the cab was a few minutes early and we left right at 6. Carly said that while they were outside and waiting for me to come out of the house they did “mindful spitting” instead of mindful breathing.

The cab driver was great and the traffic was fine. Just over a half hour there. August asked about Groove Armada song “At the River” playing on the radio. He asked what ‘fond’ meant. And he liked that the car (a Skoda Octavia) had air conditioner vents in the back (his major critique of our car and the rental car). Of the switches/lights on the ceiling between the driver and me he said “That looks like a little alien face.”

Our usual critique of airports is how many freaking lines you have to go through. Today it became how many lines you have to stand in if you also don’t know what you’re doing. So we went to check-in first, where we were told we’d have to check one of our carry-on backpacks (which really seemed unfair, as there were 3 of us and we only had two carry-ons in the first place), but then told we had to go back and stand in a baggage security line first.

So got all that done, then saw Jack and Celeste and after we finished checking in, then we stopped to get a couple of breakfast pastries and a coffee and saw them again. This time, without Nellie. They were going through Germany on their wy to Florida and their 8am flight was already delayed to 9:15 and they were afraid they were going to miss their connection. Later, I found out that they got on their plane, only to wait 3 hours on the tarmac, poor Nellie underneath. And yes, they missed their connection. Weather related, apparently.

At the gate we did a quick Skype with my dad to say happy father’s day, then the two of them played hide and seek. Ended up boarding later than they told us. Carly took the stroller to see if she could check it in and August went with her. They were gone for a few minutes, and I realized the guys sitting a row over were American musicians, although I didn’t figure out who they were. I figured that out as a woman stopped to get her photo taken with one of them. I then heard them talking about finishing songs, and one was traveling with a guitar. Sent a photo to my friend Mark, but we couldn’t figure out who it was.

Got on the plane and August got to sit by the window. Just tall enough to see a little for takeoff. He was asleep at 10:05, right after takeoff. Woke up before 11. A happy boy. Carly looked at the map of our fight with him. On the first flight I managed to watch Stand by Me, broken into several pieces. Carly was in the middle, so she was with August most of the time. He watched a little Sarah and Duck, but it turned out the cord for his headphones is going bad. He also played Math Tango and Dragonbox Numbers. He switched to the middle and we read some of Sisters 3. He didn’t like his ears popping on descent and said something like “Stupid plane”. I told him it was science that was causing his ears to pop and he said “Stupid science.” He held Carly’s water bottle so we wouldn’t forget it, and made up a chant: “But the king wants it there. But the Israel wants it there.”

A bad omen in London: the stroller wasn’t waiting for us. They theorized that it had gone to main baggage claim and it would meet us in Seattle. We weren’t sure why they thought that, and that it wouldn’t just end up going in circles on the carousel until it missed our flight. Not much we could do about it.

August was a little worried about that. As we walked to our next gate in the same terminal we stopped at a customer service stand and Carly went to ask them about the stroller. August played with one of the line ropes again, letting people and imaginary animals go through. He’s also been saying “Hey goofball” the last couple of days, and I think it might be from my parents.

We stopped at Starbucks and he got a pineapple, apples & carrots smoothie juice box. I got my first caramel macchiato since moving to Israel, and Carly got a latte. First learned of our gate number when it ws assigned through a notification from Kayak. They went and ran around, and I sat and enjoyed my drink and read. They came back and August asked me to supervise hide and seek. He had also jus started rolling around on the terminal floor for fun. They were starting to load, but it was a 747 so we had some time and were in group 5. So I got him to run around a bunch, playing tag.

He was stressed out though when we started to board, and actually bit me on the shoulder. Pretty sure he was just trying to bite my shirt, which he’s done in the past, but actually scraped some skin.

We boarded at 3:15. He sang the tuna fish song, making the words more abstract: “Eaten by a consequence…internet…timeout.” He had, earlier, when they were playing around, pointed to someone and asked “Are you the backup captain?” Now, we heard an announcement that said there were actually two backup captains. he said “Three captains on this plane? Oh my gosh.”

We took off at 4. I sat next to him, with him looking out the window. We then did some popcorn cracker math. They had done this on the first flight, breaking them into fractions, which he is into. He talked about sitting out on the wing and we talked about the actual speed of the air, etc. so then he was putting crazy things on it, like a galaxy: “With my unweightifier I could do it.” “What would happen if I put 9888 suction cups on top and 9888 suction cups on the bottom?” They brought snack and he had yummy pretzels and apple juice.

He switched to the middle seat and gave Carly drawing challenges. He told her she had to draw alligators and gave her a certain amount of time. He then helped color. Dinner came. I got the chicken curry and they got the pasta. He then played Math Tango with me. Cloudy over Iceland, but then I saw ice in the water. Pointed it out to August, and we watched and talked for about 10 minute as we flew over the coast of Greenland. That was fun.

I switched with Carly when he was looking sleepy (she had taken him to the bathroom). But he couldn’t get to sleep. The lights were still on for one, although he was clearly sleepy. I switched and sang to him. He was cranky and actually punched me in the cheek, although luckily not too hard. After a cupole more songs we switched again, and she got him to sleep at 10:30pm, Israeli time. I listened to music, Wolf Hall, and did some reading. I looked out windows in back. Had fun looking down at Ellsmere Island and later the Great Slave Lake and iced in lakes before that. And what would be Wood Buffalo National Park.

He woke up 2:40 Israel time, 4:40pm Seattle time. We landed and deplaned. He didn’t like the idea of more lines, but it went really smooth and he was in a good mood. As I carried him down the hall he told me “Jump into my head.” I asked him to explain and he said that he had drilled a hole in the top of his head that I could jump into, then he would fill the hole with super glue, but it was okay because he could take the super glue out with something sharp.

We got to baggage claim and got our two bags right away. Carly walked over to the oversized luggage area and there was the stroller. We went out and up the es
calator and there were Chuck and Cherie. Before 6. Carly took him to the bathroom and he liked the paper towel dispenser, saying he’d never used one like that before. When we got out to the car he joked about riding on the top of it.

In the car Cherie had brought a big bag of dried mango. She couldn’t get it open, but I did. August claimed credit: “No, I did it with my super laser beams.”

He was a little frustrated by the car ride, but we made it, getting to the house before 7. Right before we got there he got nervous: “I don’t want to visit them.” When we got there he stayed in the car for a few minutes and I stayed with him. But Kayla can read people. She looked in at him and said “potty”. He laughed, so she said it again. And again, and again. We learned that Eddy is sick. Got August out of the car. He had me carry him at first, especially past Eddy. Got him inside on the couch.

They went upstairs to the play area for a few minutes, and he was now comfortable with Thatcher and Kayla. We went down and had dinner. Derek and made wonderful halibut, and a farro salad. August wanted to go upstairs, so I went up with the three of them. They played with the keyboard and microphone, then they got sidetracked in Thatcher’s room, looking at a spider he had caught earlier. Back in the playroom they were gathering blocks with the wooden trucks, then building a house out of blocks. I was doing all the building and asked August “Who’s building the house, man?” Kayla told me “That’s not a man, that’s August.”

We then went outside as they got ready for bed. Carly and I had taken turns taking showers). Cherie, Carly, and I went out front with August. He and I did some bubbles and he played around, then we all sat in the new sitting area (where Thatcher used to dig) and August made rock cake using rocks, etc. We moved to the back. I was ready to go to sleep and headed upstairs, about 9:30. I was asleep before 10, and they were up around 10:30.

He woke up just before 7:15. He sat on the stairs and tried to convince Carly to go up. Eventually got him downstairs. Had his vitamins and he and Carly built with the straws a bit, then they went outside to set up the solar oven and check the temperature. They were out a bit longer, then he came in and asked where his spider web poker (the little pointy metal thing) was. I told him he last had it outside after he had me wash it yesterday. He spent about five minutes whining about it as he lay on the floor of the kitchen, complaining that he might never find it. When I made it clear that I’d help him look, he got up and went out and immediately said “I found it!”

Carly went upstairs. For awhile I kept working and he played on his own. He sang songs about Judge Gavelhead and PKB. When I asked him about them, it was almost like he didn’t even realize he was doing it. I started building with him and we were building a house from the design booklet. Carly headed to school for an envelope for our car keys. We skyped with my parents as we built. At one point he was chanting “immediately”. Another vocab acquisition. We talked about our plans in Chelan and the idea of going out to pizza the first day so we could see Paul. He liked the idea of Paul serving us.

Sometime after we hung up he ran to the bathroom, which is where he’s allowed to say those words as much as he wants, and sang a poop song. Then ran back. Then he told us “In Emmett and Leonard’s chasing game they call the bad person ‘Buttman’.” He’s told us that exact sentence about a hundred times. They are also the source of his inspiration in this regard.

Looking at the house he said “It’s really gorgeous.” They worked on it and I took a shower.

Carly then took him to Poleg Beach. I stayed to work and type, but mainly ended up dealing with creating frequent flyer accounts and checking into our flight. They were back at 12. He told me “We got soaked wet…then we were pooping everywhere…hitting people…punching people…saying I don’t love you.” None of which was true, as his swimsuit wasn’t damp at all. They had played in the sand though, and learned about plastic in the ocean. When Carly was trying to get water for their creation, there were small pieces of plastic everywhere in the water. Like we’ve never seen before. Sounded awful.

We got our stuff together and headed to the leftovers party at Ilana’s house. We took the berry brains and ice cream and a bottle of wine. This party was inside. August had fun playing on the bean bag chair in the middle for awhile, then we got to eating. It turns out he really likes tuna casserole. When he was done eating, he and Carly played with the straw building set that we had bought (later, as we worked on final packing, he would be a little upset that we couldn’t take the set with us on the plane, as we had just bought it). We also had berry brains. August also had an interesting theory on his eating: “If I have another bite I will explode, just for your warning…a treat will make me a little less full.” They did grab some sort of treat for him to eat later, I think.

We got going about 2:30. Rebecca was there, and I suggested he go over and tell her he was a s’more. He was a little shy, but Carly went with him, then he was totally into it and got some great squeezes. He also impressed her by knowing her name. Then, right as we were leaving, Jack and Celeste got there. So we got to actually say goodbye to Jack as well.

As we walked to the car I mentioned needing to skype with my dad again as we’d forgotten to say “Happy Father’s Day”. Carly felt horrible as they hadn’t said anything to me, but I hadn’t even thought of that. She told August to say it to me and he said “Pfft. Happy Pooper’s Day.”

We swung by the store in town and I got a couple of things. When I came out, August was upset. He was upset about a timeout for saying poop, etc. and now couldn’t be quiet. He was horrified by the idea that he was supposed to be quiet and said he just couldn’t do that.

He had recovered by the time we got home. He was also more positive about Father’s Day: “Can I make a present for dada? For Father’s day?” He said “Snot snot snot” and ran and got his own tissue. Which was a first. I went upstairs to do some packing.

A bit later I had him come upstairs with me. I continued packing and we built with the letter/random blocks. A prison. His choice. He then got sad about not taking his straw toys. However, he convinced me to pack his blue fan from Korea (he’d really been thinking about it earlier in the day, before the party, and I found it) and as I cleared out our regular backpack he wanted to take the slinky and squishy ball (both from Bar, I think) and I fit them in as well.

Downstairs he asked “What’s influence mean?” Pretty sure from talking about how Emmitt, etc. have influenced his vocabulary. He was then talking about how he had eaten magic prunes. Then told a pretty cool story: “I sneaked into a scientist place then I found out that the scientist had a little bucket to poop in so I pooped in the bucket and when the scientist realized the squishy poop was there the scientist studied it.”

I then took him with me to park the car at the school over the summer. We took the bike for the walk back, and a box of recycling. We drove to the school and parked it in a nice spot by the tennis courts. I told him to give Skoda Mama a pat goodbye, and he also gave it a nice hug. Didn’t get a photo of the first hug, but then he was afraid the car alarm would go off. I convinced him it wouldn’t (not even sure if it has one) and he gave it some more hugs and pats.

We went to the guard station to drop off the keys, then in the school to recycle all of our cans. August then had the idea of walking around the “entire school” one last time. We walked over towards the fields. He saw the view and said “Ooh, let’s sit on the bench”. We sat there for a minute, then walked back. Didn’t do the whole school, in part because there were a couple of small kids – like barely toddler small – and he ran past them as fast as he could so they couldn’t get him. Funny boy.

Out in the parking lot, as we walked back to make sure we’d actually locked the car, he started pointing out car genders/sexes based on his dark=boy, light=girls theory. We checked on the car, then headed home. Always thinking, he asked “Why didn’t I go to preschool since I was three?” I talked about how we had just moved, he didn’t like the idea of preschool until recently, etc.

We’d forgotten to do the other recycling when we left (we’d also seen Panina again and told her we’d be gone for the next six weeks) so I’d transferred it all to an Ikea bag. We stopped at the cages and did recycling. There was a pink, well-used but function, scooter there that he at first talked about taking home. He then tripped over it and fell pretty hard. Don’t know if it was that, or he just forgot about it, but he didn’t end up taking it home.

We were home at 8. Carly gave him a bath and got him ready for bed. I left them at 8:40. He was telling stories. Carly said he kept using the phrase “It’s my last opportunity to…” He requested me and I came up at 9. He looked at the scab from his burn on his finger one last time, then was pretending to sleep on the bed. He said he’d get in his real spot, then I could turn off the light. He did that, he ‘pretended’ to sleep, and he was asleep just after 9:10.

He got up at 5 or so and went to the bathroom. He then got up at 7:15, turned off the air conditioner, and went to the bathroom again. He was outside with Carly when I went down.

We played the Green Planet app for a little bit, shooting comets, after he really, really got sad when I said I didn’t think we should play it anymore. I then went up and took a shower. When I came downstairs they were reading Go Dog Go with him practicing his reading. Then they read the Gravity is a Mystery book.

Carly went up to get ready. He spiraled one of the sticky string things from school and I said he’s really been developing his fine motor control since going to preschool. He asked “What’s gross motor control?” I’ve never discussed the difference with him, nor discussed gross motor control, so he learned that from someone else.

We got ready to go and Carly drove us south of Netanya a bit to a mall area. We first went to Toys R Us. August was surprised. He said he thought that Toys R Us was in Korea. We got some markers and crayons for the plane, and Carly saw a set of stray building block things, like the ones they had in the library for tech week, on sale so we bought the set. We went to the Ace there and got roach killer, then to the little Druze bread stand to get our lafah/taboon sandwiches. We got two, along with a container of yummy dolmadaki (the stuffed grape leaves things) and sat at a table outside and ate.

We then went to the big Tiv Taam. Carly hurried inside to start shopping and he wanted to go to the playground. We played there for a little while, but very hot. He liked a little “Little boy in the slide/little boy is inside” song I made up about him. We then went inside. He and I went and found some of the raspberry fig bars like the ones we had had at the WBAIS cafeteria the other day for the plane ride, and one to have in the car.  I then took him to the bathroom and we met Carly back at the car.

In the car he ate the bar and we were discussing travelling speed of light plus one (which happens in The Magic School Bus Rides Again). We were home at 1:20. He and Carly built with the straw building blocks we had bought at Toys R Us. I put stuff away, then went up for some work time.

I heard August screaming “Dada!” as if there was an emergency happening downstairs. Turned out Carly had just suggested some alone time. I ended up downstairs with him, making letters out of the straw things.

I went back upstairs and they made a solar oven. He called me down again when he couldn’t find his shoe inside and Carly was still outside. It was in the middle of the floor. At 4:50 I came down and Carly was cutting up the first mango of the season and August was eating it. I said we could go do recycling soon and go to a park. He said. “No! Having too (much) fun.”

Eventually I took him out. We had three big bags of recycling to do since we didn’t take any last weekend. So it took awhile. August mainly did the glass, but helped with some plastic as well. A small cat came by and looked at us. August responded by standing on the seat of his bike and putting his arms up in the air to make himself as big as possible and growled at it to make it leave him alone. That cat actually circled around and came back a few minutes later and he did the same thing. Then, a few minutes later a different cat, the same size and from the same direction, so probably from the same litter, tried to walk by. August did the same thing and this time the cat actually turned around.

When we were done we went for a walk. August suggested the treasure hunt playground. But then I suggested we go say bye to Jack and Celeste and Nellie. He really liked that idea, so we headed that way. Jack was gone, but Celeste was there. I held Nellie for awhile so he could see her, although he was too scared to pet her. Airport Heidi was helping move furniture out. But Jack was gone. So we said goodbye to them and headed home.

Close to our house I saw a tiny, tiny bird up on a wire. But before I could point it out to August there was a car behind us. I got us to the side, and it turned out to be our neighbor Panina. She talked to us about the heat, and when she left the little bird was gone. We were home at 6:50.

He went to the bathroom. There was water on the floor under the sink (Carly had cleaned bathrooms). He put his shorts in the water, and I asked him why. He said “My brain told me to, so I did.” He ended up naked, and then thought it was funny to put his shoes on. He then was singing “Naked boy with shoes with the penis sticking out, the butt sticking out…”

He and Carly then made tea with the plants from school, and he suggested “Let’s do a non-blinking contest.” He ate some more oatmeal, then I took him up to his shower. While in the bathroom he drank from Carly’s spray bottle but complained it was running out, saying “Somebody’s been using my spraying bottle to spray her hair.” Hilarious as it is, after all, hers. Played for long time in the tub, then asked to make a gift tea cup again. When I washed his hair he was very upset about it, saying mean things about me. But as soon as we were over using the hair dryer he was helping to dry my shirt and shorts with it since he had gotten them wet.

Carly took over and got him ready for bed and he went to sleep pretty quickly, at 8:50.

Carly had just said to me “I’m leaving now” at 7:07 when we heard the door and August call “Mama!” So she went up with him for awhile before she headed to work. He was coughing a lot this morning and then threw up in my hands at one point. Just seemed to be gag reflex, and he later told me he had a bit of zucchini bread stuck in his throat. He watched Magic School Bus and one Ollie and Moon. He remembered that claw toy form yesterday and requested a claw toy sometime. May a robotic claw… Carly suggested some Gatorade, so we got some. At first he was disappointed there was no blue, and we talked about going to Tiv Taam on our way to Ra’anana Park to get blue Gatorade. Eventually though he decided to have lemon, and the topic was dropped. We discussed when it is okay and not okay to say ‘poop’ and other such words, and he said it was “Still confusing.” But we ended up playing the poop tea game, from Vivian and Colin last summer, and he was laughing a lot. I ended up being dung beetles so they would like the tea. At one point he said “I have any time of disgusting tea, so I definitely have throw up tea. And I have stomach mucus tea!”

As we got ready to go he asked “Are there monsters in the house? That’s why I always go to the couch…every day.” Kind of odd. He then ended up playing with Green Monster and the friends. First holding all of them, then wrapping himself and them with stuff, and eventually pillows. He dropped his water bottle on his foot. Ended up doing a couple of time outs as he was in a bad mood. He told me “You’re just a stupid dumb old potato.”

We talked about getting to Ra’anana Park so we could go to the small zoo when it was open. Then he basically asked why we weren’t just going to the big zoo. So we upgraded our plans. On the way he fell asleep, from 10:50 until getting to the zoo at 11. I woke him up for the driving part.

The first animal he really studied was the eland, which was close to the car. He spotted the fur hanging from its throat, the fuzzy part on the back of its head, the black patches on its knees. We kept going, taking our time. At the zoo we walked in, got water, then headed straight. He drove us to the food stand for lunch. No hotdogs, so we got two pastry things. A rectangle with mashed potatoes in it, and a triangle with cheese. And we got an orange juice.

We sat on our usual bench by the pond and ate. Lots of crumbs from the pastries and the chickens were attracted. He had fun feeding them with the crumbs and bread. He noticed that one was chasing away other chickens, and that another chicken jumped on the bench as soon as we left. We ended up discussing the word ‘aggressive’ . He got upset when I talked about people pushing in lines sometime, and said he doesn’t like that.

From there he headed back and to the right. He stopped at a cage where we first spotted a sloth. Then he spotted a big turtle and a small turtle, then a really big lizard. No signs for any of them except the sloth though. He called it a mama turtle and baby turtle, but then we spotted even smaller turtles. And several more of the lizards, some eating some leaves. And we watched the big turtle drink from the water. He was then being the baby animals: “I’m the little baby turtle.”

We were there for quite awhile, and as we left I lamented the lack of signs for the animals. He had some invention that would solve that and tell us what they were, but it kept going and going: “It can tell you why there’s no oxygen in space…how the multiverse forms…everything!” We stopped to look at the Cape Hunting Dog, then went over to where the emus and kangaroos are. He said “Dada, I’m pretending to be something that eats bark. There’s bark there. Can I pretend to eat it?” He then wondered what ate bark and we looked it up, and came up with deer and squirrels in the late winter. We looked at the bats and watched them, then kept going.

Got back to the playground where he wanted to play the hungry squirrel game. Sometimes the squirrels would need to eat some bark at the end of winter, other times he would have enough nuts to make it. In our game I would be the cells complaining that we needed food, then his brain would decide to eat bark. The taste buds and stomach would complain though. Later he extended it to a human eating all sorts of things when they were starving.

He went to go climb on a structure, but realized he had a scratch on the back of his knee. No idea where it came from. But he wasn’t happy. He ended up sitting on/with me. We discussed preparing for nap time next year, and he liked the ideas of learning to read better so he could read books by himself, and also practicing listening to music and podcasts on his own using headphones. He gave a thumbs up to both.

We left at 1. He asked what “Jingle jingle with the keys” means. It is from Magic School Bus, when Ms. Frizzle suggests they can take the bus. So then he was repeating it and trying to use it.

We got in the car, and he was concerned when I didn’t buckle him. He buckled himself, clicking the big buckle for the first time, just to be sure until we got to animals. We stopped and watched Thompson gazelle under a big lovely tree with flowers. He spotted an even smaller gazell and said it was a gazelle “in PKB”. We got a call from Carly and talked to her for a minute, pretending he was out riding the animals, etc. Could tell she was amused. We stopped and looked at addax, then did the lion part. After that we discussed ‘aggressive’ more, then left and got to Ramat Gan Park at 2.

We started riding his bike through the park to the playground. Suddenly, the right handle came off. He must have been leaning on it, because he went flying off of it. A little scrape on his left elbow. Not bad for how it looked. He held the left hand awkwardly for quite awhile, but it went away as he played.

He asked how, when he coasts on the bike, pushing on the pedals slowed it down. He thought it had something to do with helping gravity. I tried to show him how he was applying a force in the opposite direction of how the tire spun.

At the playground he went straight to playing with the sand with a couple of small boys. There were plastic cups to use with the sand. He wanted me to go get more sand a couple times, but I was able to do a little reading and work. He road the motorcycle thing with another boy for awhile. Had to threaten leaving as he was saying his ‘bad words’ and joked about throwing a cup at a little kid. He was then singing a wonderful “I don’t want to go to Ace” song after I mentioned we were too late to go anyway. He kept developing the tune and starting again.

He opened a little shop for me for a bit. Selling leaves, a pacifier we found on the ground, etc. He was then asking “How many seconds in a year?” And how many minutes, hours, etc. We then looked up how many Mercury years in a Earth year, Neptune years, etc. He bit his tongue on an apple. Not bad, but it was time to go anyway. Left at 3:15.

He told me about Buttman, and that that is always the villain in the games that Emmitt and Leonard play.

As we got near the entrance, he pointed and shouted “Look! It’s that plant to make tea!” And it really was the scented geranium that they used for their tea. In the bathroom August decided to pee standing up, something he did once at home a few days ago.

On the drive home he started falling asleep, but then I started the poop tea game and that woke him right up. As we got close to home, having not spoken about the speed of light at all, he said “Dada, I know light is on fastest thing in the universe, but the universe is smaller than the multiverse. So there could be something out there that’s faster than the speed of light.” Which was some really cool logical thinking, and I explained that to him.

Then, he said he was faster than the speed of light, and from another universe. But I pointed out that he was now in this universe,
so his point about the fastest thing in the universe being light really wasn’t true. Eventually, he realized that he still had to be the fastest thing, and said “I’m faster than the thing that’s faster than the speed of light.”

To add to the paradoxes, he was then talking about how he had everything inside him, including tornadoes, and that a tornado sucked the car that he was in into him. We admired that one for a bit, then went inside.

Inisde Carly showed him a new app on her school iPad. Puppet Pals, I think it was. He made a ballerina and Abraham Lincoln say some funny things.

When she said she didn’t have students today he told a story about how he flew to her classroom and found her keys on the ground and unlocked the door and used his tornado power to suck her in. Then he used his tornado power to suck in her students and said “Okay, now it’s class time!” He also sucked in students from elementary school. Sounded like she had a pretty big class she suddenly had to teach.

Carly then took him with her to school to drop off our potted plants from inside. It sounds like the custodians will water the plants in her room over the summer, so they’re better off there. I went upstairs to do Sabeel work. They were gone for a good amount of time. Carly had leftover art supplies, including big tongue depressors sticks and thick stickers, and he made a big structure out of them. They got home, then went over to Holly’s as she had some plants to give away. Unfortunately, Carly saw the message a bit too late, as we now had more plants to drop off at school. August went with her, then they came back.

I was still working and Carly gave him a bath. When I came down he had eaten a variety of things for dinner. He showed me the structure he had made. He called it a giraffe. It was pretty cool. I taught him about 2-D and 3-D figures.

Carly went to take a shower. I asked him if he had ever met the other PKA teacher listed in the yearbook and we agreed we’d never met her. We looked at the preschool section, and he said “I think Ms. Amelia is the nicest teacher in the school…Because she has a smile.”

I took him up. We brushed his teeth and finished reading Cam Jenson and the Mystery of the UFO. He insisted he was falling asleep with mama tonight. I left them at 8:50. It took awhile though, and he was asleep around 9:10.

Car part of the zoo: