Author: Ryan/Dada

He slept on the bed between us the whole night. He’s still a crazy sleeper sometimes, but has calmed down when there’s a limited space.

He woke up 5 something. Back to sleep when I got Carly. Up again a little before 7. They were outside all morning.

When I went down awhile later they were sitting at the table outside and Carly was teaching him about cacti. He had to store more: “Well I can store 9000 gallons!” He was then a cactus that got more and more amazing. I heard him talking about stabilizers at one point. I was inside making scrambled eggs.

“I’m a magic broccoli plant. I just grew that way. Everyone expected me to be normal but I turned out magical.” Pipe made out of magic steel that gives him air when he goes out to space. No nutrients, no water, no dirt. Just air. Spikes all over.

He spotted a spider with black and white stripes on it in the kitchen and we trapped it. He took it outside and studied it. We later let it go. 

We ate our eggs with cauliflower outside. He told me “I learned there’s a zoo up that way and the animals escaped and ran down the street to the recycling.” I taught him the word ‘skeptical’. He told me again “I just learned there’s bad things in all the countries of the world except Jordan.” He hasn’t mentioned that for a couple weeks. Still can’t explain why there was nothing to blast in Jordan; there just wasn’t. He kept going after that but I lost the train of thought.

He then sat outside and watched some How the Body Works videos. I went up and took a shower. When I came back down they were building a pyramid. I took over from Carly. We talked a lot about ant nests and whether they could flood. Continued with the Duplos and the bladder game, mainly. Carly and I worked on a shopping list. When August found out what the plans were and that they didn’t involve school he said “Does that mean I won’t be by myself in preschool? Pretty special day!” We left at 10:10.

August spotted one of Carly’s granola bars in the car and wa rather whiney about it. Carly gave him some and he very sweetly said he wanted to help out in the stores. Didn’t exactly work out ideally. We went to Ace first, and just ended up getting a screen to install in the bathroom window. Then to Tiv Taam. A big load today, mainly focused on possibilities for August’s lunches. Got all sorts of things (dried apples and apricots, peach apple sauce, couscous and rice things, rice cake things), and also bought him a new lunch bag of his own (with monsters on it) and a pink container that fits right in it. We also saw Mike, the head of school.

We were back before 12. I started putting the groceries away and they played school. I made him a “preschool practice lunch”, using his new stuff. A couscous and veggies dish in the main container, with dried apricots next to it and his honey granol mix in a separate container and a container of the peach apple sauce. I gave it to him in the lunch box and he was able to open all of it on his own, except for the peach apple sauce. I’ll probably repackage that in a container he can open so we can also save it when he doesn’t eat it all.

We also watched a lizard out on our kitchen planter boxes, chasing after bugs and jumping around on the plants. August played with the salad spinner. He eventually put the colander on it and poured water in. After a couple pours I realized he had put it on the wrong part of the salad spinner and the water was going right through to the rug. He took it outside after that and used the hose to play with them. He was filling it up and calling it a bladder, then pouring it out on the fake grass.

Carly cooked an artichoke and they ate it together. I then got him to head to recycling with me at 1:45. Three very full bags of recycling to do. We saw David on the way and talked to him. August kept saying something like “You keep chewing gum in our house!” Luckily, David didn’t understand what he was saying.

We went up and did recycling. August actually did a lot, and there were a couple bags of glass that other people left that he was able to do. He was then using a yogurt cup to collect pollen from some flowers. He poured the pollen in the plastic recycling and then said “I feel bad.”

We then went to the playground. He said “Only a few kids. Good. I can handle a few kids.”…”What should we spend our time with?” A woman borrowed our phone so a girl could call her mom. We then went over to the exercise equipment. There was a girl August’s age there. August kind of walked up to her and made some funny noises. I told him to say hi instead. When my back was turned I heard one of them saying “hello”. August later told me he was the one that started talking first. When I turned back around she was motioning August to follow her. He ended up running after her all the way across the park to the play structure.

I soon met the girl’s mom. The girl is named Ella, and her mom is Sara. She has another child, Raum, who is 9 and was riding around on his bike. Sara is a single mom and finishing up 26 years in the military, where she works in cyber operations. She’s thinking of helping do tours for people coming to Israel for their bar/bat mitzfahs, etc. when she is done (in June).

August and Ella did a lot of running around, played on the teeter totter thing a couple times, and had orange drink. August had two cups, and didn’t use a straw. August also pretended to turn into Ella. That was about as big of news as making a new friend. They ended up in the swings. They were trying to touch and hold hands while the were swinging. So cute. They managed to do it while they were “in sync”, a phrase I taught him. We talked about inviting them over sometime, and settled on next weekend, since Ella would be in school tomorrow.

They then had to leave, so we got going as well. Sara said Ella wanted to Sahel his hand or hug hm and August gave Ella a full, real hug. Also so cute.

As we walked home he said “I played with someone for the first time at this park, right?” We were home at 3:10. He and I put out some of the ant killer out outside the sliding windows, where they’ve started to find their way into the house. Carly had made lemon chicken, so he had some of that. I then made a mango, strawberry, and banana smoothie and he drank that outside. We discussed floods and water seepage.

We then got in the car and drove over to Brenda’s house. She had some surgery and Carly took her the lemon chicken. August and I looked around the house a bit while they talked, then outside she showed August the fountain and the fish in the pond. We were home at 5:10.

“Mama, can you teach me something?…fractions.” They did that with the blueberries. I got him and I some lemon chicken for dinner. He was then putting objects in his blue clay and was an archeologist. He would then dig an object out and line it up on a pillow in his museum display and we’d speculate when it was from and who used it.

He and I left for walk a walk at 6:30. Cherie had asked about skyping right as we left and August wanted to Skype when we got back. We walked around the Holly block. We got wet by a sprinkler right across the street and August liked it, so we walked by a second time. We then walked the path down to the old highway, along it a bit, then circled back to home. Back by 7.

Carly was on Skype with Chuck and Cherie. He had the last cookie, then some milk. He kept saying “Oh, snapdragon!” as he admired his bubbles. He then made a mess with milk then was upset when I cleaned it up. Carly convinced him to head upstairs with the idea of experimenting with the balloon.

He sang a “Boopa boopa boo, won’t you be my friend?” Song as they went up the stairs.

I took over the bath after awhile. Got that finished, then him into his pajamas. Carly came up and brushed his teeth. He remembered the garbage-powered power plant in Korea and he was creating garbage for my pow
er plant. He said  “Through the night and even at preschool I’ll keep producing garbage…it will go through the air to your powerplant…Remember, I’ll produce extra garbage pills!” I left them at 8:30.

But then he was down before 9. He ate crackers and watched the start of the 6 Hours of Spa with me. He told me he would sleep with me on the big bed and Carly would be down below. We went up and he used the bathroom and I got ready for bed. He made up a machine called the “Gearamakeraton”. It makes gears. We opened the back of the toilet so he could see it flush.

We got in bed at 9:30. He went up and down between the beds before finally falling asleep with Carly about 9:45.

He was up at 6:58. I heard him turn off the air conditioning, then close the door before he came down. He watched a Max and Ruby and wanted to make a “bladder” out of Duplos. A pyramid, that is. We made a small one and he had a Duplo kid pee once.

We got going. He chose the coconut pineapple wrapper treat from International Day.

On the way he simply asked to look at the schedule before I leave. He also expressed concern that Carly wouldn’t know where to find him for the tea party. And we talked about asking for help with his lunch (he said he had asked for help closing his Cheerios) and strategies for rest time (trying to look at They All Saw a Cat or his Kipper book).

Went smoothly when we got there and we looked at the schedule. He didn’t want to let my finger go. He asked if they could work on the stream. When Anna said yes he let me go.

I went and worked in the library, primarily on Sabeel stuff. I took some breaks and went for a walk around campus. And at one point I watched the falcons on the webcam on the big television set up outside the elementary office. I saw the mother come back with a bright green lizard. The 5 babies all woke up and fed on the lizard. Most of the action took place off the bottom of the screen. I could see the tail and one leg of the lizard, and and the beaks of a few of the babies as they had stringy lizards parts coming out of their mouths.

Carly went to the tea party at 1:30. August greeted her by handing her the invitation they had made for her. The big news was the dead baby bird that had been found on the preschool playground. August later talked about raising his hand in class and said he had raised it to give his hypothesis on why the baby had died: “because it started flying and it just couldn’t make it.” They had mint tea at the tea party and kale chips and beet chips. He ate a good amount of those, and also the bread and honey.

Anna said that he had played with Reia quite a bit and she thinks they should play outside of school.

I had gone to Carly’s room after 1:30. They showed up at 2:10. He was hungr but had refused to eat anything else from his lunch. I think he had basically just eaten Cheerios again. He ate a little more of it with me. Carly got her leftover rice and green beans and tahini and falafel. He really liked the green beans and ate some of the rice as well.

Eventually, he and I left. We went briefly to the library. He talked to Gaby, the intern, then we went back to the kids section. We had talked about getting an “anthology” of Greek and Roman mythologies. While we looked he was standing on a stool and Ilana crouched next to her to put some books away and he was touching her fluffy hair. He changed his mind about checking a book out right now, and instead wanted to head to the pool. He told me “With my untouchifier I picked up a sparkly gold box to take home. I found it in a treasure chest.”

We changed in the bathroom and then went to the pool. Just a little after 3 but there were already a few people there, so we could tell it was going to be busy. Omri and her family were already there, including her father. Carly then showed up a few minutes later. And more and more people. Not uncomfortably busy, but busy enough. August and Omri didn’t really end up playing together this time. We did some time without the floaties, then put them back on. He also wanted me to get a kickboard for him. He used it a bit.

He didn’t want to leave, so we hung out until about 4:30 before going home, getting home a little before 5. I was asking him more about school and he told me he walked around eating Cheerioes during rest time. The teachers asked him to stop, but he didn’t. I figured rest time was going to be the hardest part of the day without me.

They read Sally’s Room and the poetry book from Perlotsky. He ate crackers and peanut butter, then oatmeal. We played with Duplos, making more structures that were either Bladders or rectums this time. he kept saying “That last step is a doozie.” Whch he from The Magic Schoolbus Rides Again. He says they stepped out of the bus and turned into ancient animals.

I took him up to his bath. He had a new machine: “Girlboyodifier…it turns a boy into a girl.” Played with bubbles. Washed him and then we went into the bedroom and I brought up books. We finished the poetry book, read Sally’s Room, then about two chapters of the 78-Story Treehouse. Carly came in and I left them at 8:15. He was soon asleep.

His invitation to Carly: 

He came down at 6:25. When Carly left he wanted to play with Duplos but first kept asking me questions, like “Could you knit a house?” Which led to a discussion of what houses are actually made of and why. We played with duplos, and the piece of twine became a high wire. To make the animals go on it, we would attach Duplos underneath them as a counterweight to hold them upright. Also a lot of discussion of pivot points and center of balance.

He watched one episode of Max and Ruby, then chose his wrapper treat for the morning, one of the mango hard candies. He said it had an interesting flavor from the beginning, and when he was done told me “The flavor was kind of grassy.” A good conversation on the way to school: He was asking about surface tension, which led to a discussion of mercury, but then to how it is poisonous, which led to mad hatters and Alice in Wonderland and how you can have problems with the brain. He pretended to be a mad hatter and was forgetting how to drive the bike, running us into a pole.

When we first got to the preschool I gave him his water bottle. Instead of walking inside he headed around the corner of the building and towards the playground. When I caught him he said “I’m not gonna do preschool anymore.” But I picked him up and took him in and he was okay. He tried to walk out the door one more time when I asked Anna some questions, but after we looked at the schedule I set him down inside the classroom and he told Anna they should work on their stream and I said bye and walked out. Easy peasy. I was out by 8:15.

They showed up at the library a little after 10:30. As they lined up outside the library I heard one of the girls say “This is my new friend August!” August later told me that Candy said it. When they came in he was happy and didn’t see me. Junyeok spotted me first and pointed me out to August. He was so smiley and cheery when he saw me.

I went with them to library time. He liked the songs and finger puppet parts, but was a bit squirmy during story time with Ilana. The read the book ORQ and the sequel. Candy sat on the stool and invited August to sit next to her. But he was then copying Candy and she was encouraging him. Good I was there.

For the preschoolers they set out books on the table for them to choose from, and they can check out one. He checked Sally’s Room by M. K. Brown

I helped walk them back to the preschool. When I dropped him off he didn’t want me to leave because he couldn’t read the book on his own. But he was okay with playing blocks with Omri and just let me leave. Told him I’d pick him up at 1.

I came back at 1. They had the lights out for the start of rest time. He was near the door, chomping away on Cheerios. We went outside and sat on the bench. Anna opened the window to the staff room and said he did great. And that he played with Reia, Derin, and Omri a lot. He told me he had snack today, a first. It was Cheerios. Honey Nut ones, it sounds like. He said he had milk with them, but no banana. And all he ate of his lunch was his Cheerios. Still, much better that he’s eating something. And he was in a much better mood.

We discussed Mercury poisoning and brain diseases and damage all the way home and were here by 1:30. He drank the rest of the smoothie from yesterday. He asked “Have you ever heard of a basil and banana smoothie?” Then told me “My tongue is six meters long.” “600 meters long.” and joked

“What’s an umbilical cord? Is it a cord with electricity in it that goes to a baby?”

We played more highwire. He sang an “All aboard the choo-choo train” song as they went down the line. He pretended the old pillow is a backpack again, and when I said he had a real backpack in Chelan he said “Well, I like pretending a pillow’s my backpack. I can take it to school with my stuff in there, right?” He then told me all the crazy stuff he carries in his backpack. He then sang several lines of “Animal Life” loudly while I made a pyramid.

The pyramid was then the bladder of a Duplo kid.

We drove back to school. Had a few minutes before his Hebrew class so played with some of the new blocks in the classroom. Upstairs there was a guy working on the door to Maaian’s office, so August watched some of the grinding and drilling. Hebrew class went fine. I sat near the door. He had me come over to help him color, but otherwise did fine. They reviewed their words from the hungry catepillar story. She had told them what ‘air conditioner’ was at the beginnng of class. At the end she was reviewing the sheets with each kid. When she finished with August he asked “What about air conditioner?” (Matzgan)

Carly had walked home, so after class we went to the big playground for awhile. He found a big hula hoop and we played with that. He was rolling it and would say “Make it nice and balanced and give it lots of umph.” He was getting tired of the playground so we got going. We headed to the car to eat some yogurt in the air conditioning. As we walked up the stairs he made a spotted some sort of connection, then said “I like connections.” They often point out connections they make in class by saying “Connection!” He told me that earlier he had walked all the way to the library.

In the car he told me “I really don’t want to go to activity class.” I gave in and said we didn’t have to go. He didn’t eat any yogurt or sandwich. We got home a bit after 4:50.

Carly read him his library book, Sally’s Room and he was laughing a lot. I got him mushrooms with cheese and peas with butter. He ate some, then said “Let’s eat outside.” Outside he did some watering and shared a little of my veggie burger, but mainly wanted bread. He got frustrated when I wouldn’t give him more.

He watered more and I did dishes. He came in and took off his shorts. Sang an awesome song that he later said was about books: “this one’s unusual…” He was then talking about/annoying Carly with poop and “spitland”. He wanted an “alternative” and he came up with cauliflower. He ate a few pieces of that. And he corrected Carly, saying particles are smaller than atoms. He then had crackers and peanut butter and we talked more about ways people can get brain damage.

He heard the Marble Machine song on the ipad and wanted to see the video. So I turned it on and he followed it up the stairs to his bath. He said he made a machine out of everything that had ever been made: “fossils…adio stations…narwhals…paper towels…” “It makes stuff for another universe to form that’s completely different!” A shorter bath without toys. He did an amazing job of letting me wash his hair. No complaining, then when we went to the other room we didn’t even use the hair dryer. He had been watching Animusic in the bathroom and now switched to KidsHealth videos.

We went to the bedroom and flossed and brushed his teeth. I talked about how well preschool is going but mentioned missing dada/Zinnie adventures. he got sad at that: “We don’t do dada adventures.” And put down his head. He had also told me “Don’t brush my teeth. This means you.” ‘This means you’ is a phrase he picked up, I think, from Max and Ruby and was practicing today.

We read two chapters of The 78-Story Treehouse. Carly came up and I left them at 8:20. She didn’t have any luck and they came down at 9. He kept saying he was hungry. He had a cracker with peanut butter, then two slices of apple with peanut butter.

He asked me to make chocolate cake with my mouth. I said the secret ingredients were “love and spit. And some of my dinner.” He liked that. Carly taught him the words ‘trepidation’ and ‘sustenance’. He asked “Can we listen to Josh Ritter?” and August turned on some music.

We all went up and he went in the bathroom and used the toilet while I got ready for bed. We were all in bed about 9:45. He climbed up on the bed with me, then slid back down with Carly for a mi
nute before climbing back up on the bed and falling asleep in her spot, his head facing the foot of the bed, by 10.

Library time:

His book:

Hula hoop:

He was up sometime after 5. Thankfully, he told Carly “Let’s go back to sleep.” He woke up at 6:54 and came down. Quiet for a couple minutes, then the first thing he asked was “What wrapper treat am I gonna get today?” He ate Cheerios and one watched one Magic Schoolbus, then part of a Max and Ruby. When he went to the bathroom to get ready for school he remembered and said “Don’t leave me at preschool!” We talked it through a bit then, then he was okay for the walk.

We left after 7:50. He had his small pink hard candy. He then asked “Why is the Earth big if it’s actually really small?” As part of our universe discussion last night we had discussed Carl Sagan and NASA’s ‘pale blue dot’ photo of the Earth and how it made the Earth seem small (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot#Reflections). We now had a long discussion of ‘perspective’ and ‘viewpoint’ on the walk to school, and talked about how the earth must seem to a cat and an ant. And we talked about the book They All Saw a Cat.

He was fine until we got to the door of the preschool and then he started to get sad. He wanted me to stay and play with him. We looked at the schedule, and I said I’d come sometime after playground time. Told Anna 11. We sat on the bench just for a minute then I left him with Anna a little after 8:20. No holding onto my fingers this time. As I walked away I heard him say “What are we going to do out here?” to Anna.

I went up to the library and worked and read and studied Hebrew. No reports/photos from the teachers today, although when I was sitting in the adults room later Anna said that today he was playing on his own a lot, that is, without her having to be there.

When I showed up at 11 Derin saw me and said “August! Your dad is here! Your dad is here!” August was drinking from his water bottle and smiled when he saw me. His cheeks were red and he was sweaty and had clearly just been outside. He also clearly wanted to play more. He asked if I could go sit in the adult room. So I did, reading Returning to Haifa. He also told me “They said everyone would get a big pffff.” I didn’t know what he meant by that, but later in the day he explained that they were getting big drinks of water, and that was how to say ‘drink of water’ in mooka mook language.

At 11:20 he came in, showing me his empty bag of Cheerios, and said “That’s enough for today.” Marion was reading Green Eggs and Ham. I convinced him to go listen to the rest of the story. Although I then heard him say “I’m doing sound waves.”

He made it all the way to lunch, and wanted me to come out for lunch. It was going so well I thought maybe I’d be able to leave again after lunch. But things changed at lunch. Got him set up and he opened his strawberry yogurt. But then he dropped it on the ground. About half an inch of it spilled out and he couldn’t handle it. I cleaned it up and that didn’t help. He had wanted me to scoop it up – the sort of reaction he used to have. He wouldn’t eat anything, and ended up crying in my lap, demanding a treat to make him feel better. Emmitt had had a big meltdown right at the beginning of lunch when he didn’t get the chair he wanted, and this seemed Emmitt-inspired. At one point he said “Dada, could you just cut me in half?” and then kept repeating “Do something! Do something for me!”

So we left at 12:20. We got to his bike, and he actually said he didn’t want to leave school yet. We discussed the options though (library, back to preschool without me, etc.) and he chose to continue on to home. Before we got home he asked “What’s an arthropod?” Then “What’s busted mean?” When I explained ‘broken’ and ‘caught’ he asked “Does busted mean wrong?” I initially said no, but then he said “What do you mean? I heard it in The Magic Schoolbus…they were trying to make a map of the world.” I think their theory/hypothesis had been proven wrong, so in that case he was correct, it more accurately meant ‘wrong’ than ‘broken’.

And he also asked “How does your muscles move?” All these questions led to watching KidsHealth.org videos while he ate mushrooms and potatoes with melted cheese. He ate good amount of that, then we had crackers and peanut butter and crackers and Brie. He ate a lot more. He needs to start eating snack at school so he doesn’t get so hungry. Think that is why he was cranky. We also watched videos about arthropods. He was asking how centipedes defend themselves, and he decided he was a centipede with rockets so he could blast into space so predators couldn’t get it. He ended by watching a video about narwhals.

We got ready to head back to school and he talked me into taking his floaties. He talked about how he really likes them and that he likes be able to have control. And he told me that at school he had worked on his bridge but it kept falling down. When I put my swimsuit on he told me “That swimsuit looks great on you.” And admired its lava-ness.

We drove to the school and got to the pool right at 3. We had the pool to ourselves for awhile. He went in with the floaties and we were playing around. Then Omri, from his class, showed up with her mom and two older sisters and her baby brother. She wasn’t wearing floaties, but couldn’t swim, so August let me take his off and we tried that for awhile. He watched Omri holding onto the side and copied her. He didn’t like getting splashed by her, intentionally or not, although by the end of the time he was doing better about the incidental splashes. We got a kickboard and I at least introduced him to the idea of it and he played with it a little. Omri then put on floaties, so August’s went back on as well.

Carly came at 4 to check in. He wanted to stay as long as Omri. We had been in the sun since 3 though so I didn’t want to spend too much longer in the direct sun. August agreed to 10 more minutes so she left and came back. He was reluctant, but I got him out of the pool at 4:20. Carly was sitting and reading over by table tennis. August wanted to watch them play and asked about how points are scored. He said “I like watching winning games but not being in them.”

We headed home. On the couch he said he was an animal that sees hot things as red, warm things as orange, cool things as light blue, and cold things as dark blue. We’d been talking about that book They All Saw a Cat again.

He was whiney. Hungry again. He was rubbing his penis on things, but through his clothes. Carly was trying to explain why that wasn’t okay and I said “Uncouth”. He said “I don’t like that word.” Carly agreed that it wasn’t a great sounding word. He said he was going to hit me for hit and came and hit me in the leg. Carly sat him down and got him to apologize.

His mood changed when he sat at the table and ate his spaghetti. He came and helped me grate the Parmesan and wanted to do it himself and was doing pretty well. After he had a decent amount I made a banana, strawberry, and mango smoothie. We drank it outside. He was then watering plants with the hose and I went in to do dishes. He came in and took his pajamas off as he had gotten them wet. He had some naked time and a cookie. He took the cookies out to Carly to offer her one.

She came in and took him up to start his bath. I then went up. He was playing with the soap bottle but I thought it was the empty one. Suddenly he said ‘I’m pouring the pink soap in!” Most of the bottle went in. So he had a good bubble town today. He asked about guess versus hypothesis. We played guessing games and he liked that. Mainly with him thinking of a letter or number or animal or color and me guessing. He then asked me the difference between ‘tomb robber’ and ‘archeologist’.

Out of his bath he wanted some time with me in the bedroom, but then wanted to fall asleep with Carly. It was 8, so I told him he needed to get to sleep. He said a short book. We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You
See? and Plant a Seed for Me. Neither of which we had read in awhile.

Carly came up and took over. As I left I heard him start telling Carly his story of what he did while I was gone: “I sneaked to the middle school and gobbled up the students’ castles. Then I went to the kindergarten and ate orange peel. Then I went to the preschool and did clay.” He was asleep by 8:30.

His smile when I returned:

Vase we found on the way home this morning:  

He was up about 6:20. I was in the shower and he came in and used the bathroom. I finished and he went down to Carly. When I came down a minute later and Carly headed upstairs, August asked me “Nights go quick, right?” We talked about how we don’t dream the whole night, and don’t remember all of our dreams, so it seems shorter.

Carly headed to work and he had his peanut butter toast for breakfast. I got the ipad out for him but he never watched anything as he kept talking and asking questions. He asked me “What does winnify mean?” “How do you win in a game?…the game with real money…you know, spin, spin, spin…” He meant roulette, which we had seen in that one sculpture at the Herzliya Art Museum. So we talked about it and then other games and sports.

Before we left we looked around for materials for his bridge with Anna. He got a plastic container out of recycling, a Cheerios box (last night he had told us that he told Anna that they only had the sugary Cheerios at the little Tiv Taam – don’t know why that would have come up), and outside we got some sticks of bamboo and a regular stick.

We left about 7:40. He got the Haslerky treat from the International Fair. He said it was licorice, but also tasted like mint. Sucked on it most of the way to school. He had me sing a few songs using his ‘radio’, and as we got close to school he told me that when we had gotten home yesterday he had felt some static from the wires in the little bathroom. Confusing, as there aren’t any wires, or things with wires, down low in that bathroom. He said they were under the bathroom and he could feel them through the floor, apparently.

As we got to the corner of the school he then asked if I was going to leave him today. He didn’t like my answer, but didn’t get really upset. I did have to pick him up at the bike rack, and he was hesitant at the preschool door and told me not to leave right away. But he was excited when I had him show Anna the bag of materials. It looked like a good time to leave, but he picked up on it and asked me not to go. It took a few minutes. I picked him up and showed him the schedule cards, then asked if he wanted to say goodbye by his materials or out on the bench. He requested a private moment out on the bench. I took him out and we talked for a couple minutes. He asked “What if they run out of food?” And “Where will you go?” He was much calmer through the whole thing. Eventually I told him I was going to hand him to Anna. He said no, but didn’t fight it, although he didn’t want to let go of my fingers. He was calm enough as I walked away that he was talking to her, and I was able to give him a thumbs up before I went around the corner of the building.

Got this report from Maaian on his morning without me:

August is doing really well this morning. Anna said the transition into the classroom was much quicker, and he was engaged until around 9:00am when everyone transitioned to Morning Meeting. Then, he had a moment of feeling upset, and Anna was able to talk with him about his feelings and take a break outside. He then went back to participating and continued the

sculpture that he began yesterday. Some of his classmates also joined in to help with the creation, which was wonderful.

Later on, August joined everyone for snack and engaged in conversation with a few classmates. He and Ori played with the bucket of bubbles and soap water for the dishes and shared some good laughs.  He later had a great time playing at the sand box with Derin and making “a storm”.

When I picked him up at 10:40 they were over on the PKA side again. He said “Dada, dada, dada… That’s enough for today.” I saw his sculpture before I left. There had been all sorts of animals and things added to it by him and the other kids.

We walked over to a bench in the center of campus and sat and ate an early lunch. I asked him about preschool, and then he asked me “What kind of work did you do in the library?”

We then went in the library. Back in the little kids section we found Liz. She was struggling to fit all the books on the shelves and asked August for advice. He found one or two places that another book could go. She asked him questions about his teachers and preschool. He didn’t actually name his main teachers, and told her she was in PKA now. He actually was in there when I picked him up, so maybe that was what he meant. Or he was being funny. She suggested a book called Oliver and the Seawigs (think it helped her find room on her shelf – she was also checking out a book for her daughter from that shelf). We went and read a few pages of it. He liked it, so we checked it out. Before we left he looked at a 750 piece that was sitting on a table, partially completed. And then destroyed the corner. And tried to keep destroying it when I stopped him. His consequence was having to wait while I rebuilt it. He was not happy about that.

While sitting on the bench we had talked about baking cookies for Teacher Appreciation Day (they are celebrating it a week early here). He had settled on snickerdoodles. We drove down to the big Tiv Taam and did our shopping, and also got crackers (he had reminded me we were going to go to the store for crackers) and looked for Cheerios. Still no luck. Oh, and we chose some Brie cheese to try. Along the way he told me “You could use a rocket I’d you have a deadline.” This is an ongoing discussion about what a ‘deadline’ is, and how at the end of every 13-Story Treehouse book they use something to get their book to the publisher just in time.

He also asked what ‘access’ means. Once I explained he said “I have a way to access libraries when they’re closed: JUST BREAK THROUGH THE ROOF! Take a ladder and climb up and break through. Right?”

Shopping was quick, but no cream of tartar so decided to substitute baking powder. And we stopped to go to the bathroom. We were home a little after 1. Got straight to making cookies. He made up a “5 4 cherry” song and repeated it several times. He was helping a lot but being whiney about wanting to try more of the dough, etc. paid off though when he said “That was better than just the cookie dough.” He had just had a little dough with cinnamon and sugar. I reminded him I was right that he should wait for it. Then, when he ate an actual cookie he said “THIS is even BETTER than cookie dough and cinnamon and sugar.”

We headed back to school and got to the preschool at 2:45. After the bus kids left he gave the bag of cookies to Ms. Anna. I didn’t foresee him taking the cookies out to show her though, and Emmitt saw one and wanted one. Didn’t mean for that to happen. He then gave bags to Ms. Myriam and Ms. Vicky. They both wanted to give him a hug and he reluctantly accepted, turning so it was a backwards hug. When Ms. Marion came back from the bus he delivered the final bag. When I was asking him who he wanted to make cookies for, Ms. Vicky was actually the first he mentioned.

Then up to coding class. He had agreed in advance to let me sit out in the hall as long as the door was open, but Karen wanted it closed for the air conditioning so I just sat inside. At 3:35 he ran over to me and said “I’m doing a great job!” with a big smile on his face. I saw him show Karen a spit bubble, and she actually asked him to do it again. He said “Bubbles. Spit bubbles.”

Afterwards we went out on the playground. Carly showed up a few minutes later. He played with Nikolas and Sophia, first over in the kitchen area. Carly and I talked to their mom, Anastasia and learned that she and her husband are geophysicists for oil companies (although she’s not working now). August went on the big swing with Carly, and the other two joined in. They/we then played several rounds of hide and seek. At one point Sophia said she was doing a trick and did something. August wanted to do something, then came over to me and whispered “How do you do the crabwalk?” I reminded him, and he and Sophia
ended up crab walking across the ground.

We got going. Along the way he asked me “The sun is always giving us all this heat, so why is the Earth cooler than the sun?” We discussed that.

At home I got him cauliflower and potatoes and milk and he ate dinner outside. I was inside doing dishes and she brought him in for a break from outside. I was asking what he had done, and finally he said his guess was that he had hit her with his stick. He went out and apologized for that, but Carly said that wasn’t it – he had sprayed her with the hose.

Back inside she took him to his bath and I made lunches. In the bath he was repeating “Oliver Boliver Butt” from Too Many Daves. Downstairs he asked “What’s gooseberry? Is it a berry made out of goose, or a goose made out of berries?” He finally ate more of his cauliflower. I had added ketchup and that helped a bit. He asked “What’s ‘wellthen’?” Turns out he meant ‘well then’. Something I say, I think.

Carly went to take a shower. He had a cookie. Then asked “What happens when you die?” We discussed that, then the conversation meandered to Israelis and Palestinians and he said he wants to go back to Farin’s house. He asked me to sing Knickknack Paddy Whack. We ended up looking up words for it and he spotted the Barefoot Books video of it that they’d watched in class. There’s also a song they’ve listened to a few times, the telephone song, that he was humming a lot today and told me they had heard in morning meeting (he said he listened better today) and I should get.

Then made him some oatmeal. He ate about half of it, then told me “I’m ready to go to bed now.” Up on the bed, not wanting to go to the toilet yet, he said “I’m just going to hang out for awhile.” He asked about new rocket engines being tested. I had mentioned NASA was testing new things and we need to look those up sometime.

When he was brushed and flossed and ready for Carly he said “I’m gonna tell mama what I did when you were gone today. It’s going to be another silly story.” Yesterday he had told her that he had eaten orange peel at the kindergarten, then eaten the kindergarteners. He reused that story with me when he had sprayed Carly with the hose and didn’t want to tell me what he had done.

Left him 7:45. His story today was that he had snuck to the library and eaten all the books, then eaten the desks and chairs in the kindergarten. She called me up at 8. He wanted me to sing. I was exhausted and got ready to go to bed with him. I asked why he couldn’t get to sleep and he said it was because he was stuffy. We talked about what might happen to the universe, then I did some singing for him. But then we were just silent for a few minutes and he was asleep on the bed by 8:30. I read a little, then went to sleep as well.

Delivering cookies:

While I was gone:

He was up at 6:40. Nice and quiet. Downstairs he lay in the sun on the couch for a bit before asking for peanut butter toast. He had two slices and watched Max and Ruby. We got going, and had a good conversation reviewing all the sense beyond the basic 5. We got going at 7:40. The garbage truck pulled up as we left and the guy said “Boker tov!’ to us. We watched them for our block, then got going on our lovely walk to school. He ate the pack of gummy bears along the way and compared them to the gummy worms he’s had in the past.

He settled down at the clay table and decided to make a machine. I had told him I was going to work, and I talked to Anna and she said it was a good time to try me leaving. He, of course, did not react well to learning that I was going to return the library books and work in the library. At one point he escaped from me and started running to the library on his own. I caught him, then he, Anna, and I sat on the bench and talked. He calmed down a bit, enough to talk, but was still quite upset. He did a lot of talking, which was good as he could talk through his feelings. Highlights: “What if something happens to me?” “What if I don’t get any food?” “But I have fun with you!” “But it’s going to be so much fun!” (Going to the library, that is) “Why aren’t you holding me tight?”

I went to the library, and within 3 minutes Maaian called to tell me that he had already stopped screaming and was sitting with Anna outside, still screaming, but having a conversation. And while I was on the phone Sheri, the elementary principal, came to check to make sure that I was doing okay. Maaian called a couple minutes later, after I had texted asking if I should stay away longer than 9, and suggested I just go home. felt that was a bit much, so told her that I’d stay at school and come back for lunch unless they called me to come back earlier. I had a feeling that he’d be aware enough to know that we had said I’d be coming back and start to get upset at some point when I wasn’t. Also, my lunch and snacks and backpack were still down there, so I had to get them somehow.

Maaian called back at 9:20 saying he was still doing well, but that he is really logical and kept remembering that I had said I’d be back soon. exactly what I thought would happen. So Anna told him I’d be back at snack time. Maaian suggested I then take him home for the rest of the day. I didn’t really get the logic of that, but went along with it. We’d be back at 3:20 to meet with them.

I went back at 9:45. He was sitting at the clay table with Anna and Nikolas, playing with clay. Anna had told us about a book of machines and things made out of wood. They had used that as inspiration and were making a bridge over a stream. Nikolas had made a river otter in their stream and Anna had made some fish. They explained it to me and then I let them keep engineering their bridge. I heard her say “okie dokie” and he liked it: “I like okie dokie!” They found a black hair and joked about hair and wondered whose it was. They went and looked at the photos to decide whose it might be. He decided it could be Omri’s. He was laughing hysterically as they joked about it and ended up talking about how they needed to interview people to figure out who it came from. Hector suggested that someone had snuck in and put it in the clay intentionally. I would later compare that idea to August’s idea that David was sneaking into our house and chewing gum. Anna suggested they keep the stream scene intact and he could find materials for a bridge and brings them: “What if it has sharp edges?” When Anna didn’t quite understand him he rephrased it: “Would you allow it if it has sharp edges?”

They talked about the water cooler and how there was a red one for hot but it didn’t work. He said maybe it was to trick kids. He then told her how all of his rockets, etc. are invisible to trick people since we don’t think they’re real but they actually are. Anna talked about how they put the scissors up high to keep them safe “because we love all the kids.” August said “And me? Yeah!”

August told her that he makes up words at home: “I have a fair amount of names.” He then went on a long explanation of ‘Flubong’, although she probably lost the thread to how it related to how he makes up words since he didn’t tell it was called flubong for a few minutes. He then told her about the Untouchifafier.

We didn’t end up leaving until 10:20, after he decided not to go to music class. As we walked he asked “Was it amazing I only got sad a couple times?” We went to the library and he was excited about checking out books. We found a Jack Perlutsky book of poems called What a Day at School it Was! (Seemed appropriate), The 78-Story Treehouse, and Magic Treehouse #16. We went and sat in the bean bags and he said “I can’t wait to read that book.” We read the full poetry book and he did a lot of laughing in it and asked a lot of questions. He then wanted The 78-Story Treehouse and started singing a “78 has so much stuff to see” song. We read a chapter of it before he got hungry.

We left 11:20 and had a snack – za’atar bread and spaghetti and Cheerios. Je was asking me about “The space station things” that he sees on houses and I figured out he meant satellite dishes. We talked about how they worked. we had left his water bottle at the preschool, so we went back there and grabbed it. While we were there Marion grabbed the computer and showed us that the baby kestrals had hatched.

We left the school at 11:50. He was okay with leaving the bike in the bike rack. He said it would be safe there. A big difference from when he was afraid to let it out of his sight at parks. We drove down to the Ir Yamin mall. We were looking for a swimsuit for me and a baseball hat for him. We found me a swimsuit at Fox. He chose a red one because he said “It looks like lava.” I agreed on it and tried it on. In the changing room he really examined and styled his hair in the mirror. We bought it, the went and got a smoothie at Rebar. He chose the FreeBerry because it had cinnamon in it.

He started telling me about when I was gone: “…did morning meeting. Well, I didn’t really listen or anything.” He lay down on the floor a few times and slept. Anna would later talk about how this was a strategy that he used to calm down. I would also find out, between him and her, that she had helped him go to the bathroom over in the PKA bathroom and they had gone for a walk to the garden and looked over to see the building that I was in. We were done at 1. He squeezed the styrofoam cup with his hand after I asked him to. We talked about a consequence and he calmed down, etc. I told him to “Keep that in your head” when thinking about impulses. But as we were walking away he said “I won’t keep that in my head. Throw it away in my head.”

We looked at a few shops for a baseball cap for him. Not a lot of stores with kids hats. He started singing Bjork’s “Earth Intruders” and then wanted to play “Let’s destroy the Earth!” So we pretended to blast things as we went through a store. He tried on a couple hats in one store. he really liked the pink baseball hat, but both were tight on him already and wouldn’t last long. And I didn’t like the pink.

We left at 1:25. We listened to “Earth Intruders” and then David Byrne. He fell asleep just before home, at 1:43. I was getting him out just three minutes later, but then he was falling back to sleep on the couch. It was 1:58 by the time he was fully awake and talking. We made some water drink and shared it, and he had some peanut butter sandwich. He kept coughing out bites today. In part it seemed to be because he just kept talking and would forget to swallow. He talked about his trip to PKC and the nature reserve yesterday and asked “How in the world did they let us go to another class?”

We drove back to school after getting swimsuits and finding his towel. As
we walked from the car he told me “I just finished a machine I’ve been working on all my life. The EVERYTHING MACHINE! It allows you to do everything at once.”

Outside the library I saw Shay sitting in his cab 13839. The first time we’ve spotted him outside our street, and it is the day after he moved out. It was just at 3 o’clock and he was waiting to pick someone up. Don’t think he saw us.

We first went to Carly’s classroom, then we all walked over the preschool. He had a lot of fun showing Carly around the room and showing her the teacups. I took him to the bathroom, then we went up to the meeting. He almost played with the blocks on his own outside the office, but didn’t like the door closed. he chose to watch Sarah and Duck on the floor using his headphones. The meeting went okay – we at least have a plan for the week and know where everyone stands. But our big takeaway was that Maaian, the preschool director, thinks that 40 minutes of volunteering a week is a lot/adequate. As Carly pointed out, that sounds like any public school anywhere and isn’t consistent with what she had told us in email, in person, and is in their preschool handbook and philosophy, which talks about “daily basis” and “as much as the parent’s schedule allows” etc. Big disconnect.

For the last few minutes, after 3 or 4 Sarah and Ducks, Carly went out with August and they build with the blocks. August showed me what the had made when I came out.

Carly went to do some work and August and I went to the pool. He was mainly excited about the towel from Oma: “I’m lucky I have this towel.” In the pool he at first wasn’t impressed that I had forgotten the floaties. But I told him I didn’t mean to bring them. I carried him in the pool a bit and he asked his worried questions. After a few minutes he went over to the steps and played there in the water, mainly splashing water out to be filtered, and I did some swimming.

We got to Carly’s classroom at 5. He had some more za’atar bread. More spitting out and talking to him about swallowing more often. Up to spit up #6. He told Carly “I took your students castle with my untouchifier.” We left at 5:25.

At home he had cauliflower and potatoes for dinner outside. There were a couple more bites spit out. We then shared a pineapple yougurt. They played outside and I did dishes. Carly took him up to a bath. I came up after awhile and he was splashing bubbles outside the bath: “It’s like bubble town but outside the bath!” He asked me “What’s an artifact?” Also, one of his new words is ‘rare’ and he used it several times today.

Downstairs he had yet another invention today: magic plant that only needs air. He asked me (of this and the everything machine): “Do you consider those to be my two greatest inventions in my life?” We talked about some of his other inventions, like his Mooka Mook language. He decided “Enshumgedorflug is the best, best, best, best one.” And he said “English is kind of a crazy language. Why?” We talked about that, and I mentioned loan words, like hummus. He said “Speaking of hummus, can I have some?” We had crackers and hummus. I was surprised with how much hummus he ate.

I told him to tell Carly about his everything machine and he sold it to her: “The everything machine. It does everything ever invented all at once!” He then asked me “Dada, when you do projects do you get to keep them?” he was talking about his stream and bridge project at school and wondering if he could keep it. I said he probably could. A couple times today he pretended to be Candy and asked me “Can you make my name Candy and call me Candy?” We then had a discussion of ‘fair’ “Can you give me an example?” He talked about the helpers in yoga and said “But I never get to be a helper!” He talked to Carly about being her helped and we reminded him about all the things he helps with, like watering and planting (they had transplanted a tomato plant when they were outside).

Carly took him up. Left them 8:30. He told her something like “I want to tell you something that really happened. Dada left me.” When she asked him more about his feelings though he talked about how he had eaten an orange peel at the kindergarten, then had eaten the kindergarteners. Me up after 8:50 to sing songs. He was eventually ready for Carly. I got her, and he was asleep about 9:30.

While I was gone: 

During our meeting: 

Cozy quick-drying towel: 

He was waking up around 6. Then got up around 6:30. When I got up they were sitting outside eating toast with peanut butter and playing Namoo. They were looking up what process proteins do. A bit later she was teaching him how light makes colors. I found the beads he had found in the mall play area and brought them out to him. He played with them on the table: “No escaping beady! No beadies escaping in this land!” When he was done he put them in the outside treasure bowl. When he finished his toast he left one bite, as usual: “I’m full. I just leave-taking one bite of crust.”

He brushed off the green plant table with a paintbrush. He and I went inside and read some of the Zita book and Monster Party. He then wanted to play with Duplos. We built a pyramid and it was dedicated to an ancient Egyptian zookeeper. Then we had a nice archeologist open it and study all the stuff and create a museum exhibit out of it. Two more pyramids followed: one dedicated to the harvest, and another the burial place of a farmer. Carly had taken a shower, then we switched and I went up.

We left at 10:30. I drove and we picked up Robin, a teacher at a school in north Even Yehuda, at a bus stop near Kefar Sava. We were going to meet with Fatin, the Palestinian woman Carly knows in Tira, and a teacher there so they could plan their event bringing together students from the three schools.

We met the other teacher at the gas station in Tira and she took us to the Alef middle school in Tira where they were having a Palestinian Folk Day. People were wearing traditional clothing, there was food, music, etc. She showed us around and introduced us to the principal and a sheik. Then took us out and gave us some food: some really, really sweet things that August liked but even he eventually said they were too sweet, and za’atar bread, which August really loved. We then went inside to see a music performance. There was a woman playing a drum and a guy playing oud. We all stayed in and watched for awhile, then they all left to go to the office and have their meeting and August and I stayed for a few more minutes. He enjoyed it, but it was really loud, and eventually he realized mama had left. There was a woman that had said she wanted a photo with him – she had joked with him that they had the same eye color (hers were brown) – but she chose the wrong moment to approach him as we left the building and he wasn’t in the mood for a photo.

We listened to the music from outside and was fine, then he started drawing a lot of attention from middle school girls, who were coming up and touching his hair and cheeks and tickling him. It got worse as the performance was over and we were suddenly in a sea of middle school students. My first advice to him was bad advice – I told him to tickle back. Bad, bad advice, as then they tickled him more. I had been holding him, and actually lost him as he slid out of my arms and to the ground, where he was scooped up by a couple of girls. I got him back, and my next piece of advice worked much better. I told him to do high fives. The teacher who had liked his eyes also intervened and helped get the girls to give him some space. It also made me realize that my 5 or 6 words of Arabic are pretty inadequate.

Once he was high-fiving he had a lot of fun with it, and was even smiling a lot when they touched his hair or cheeks. He admitted he liked the attention. After a few minutes he remembered mama and we went exploring, sort of looking for her. We went in the school a little, then I asked if we should do more exploring: “Yeah! Exploring!” There was more music, outside now, and we watched it. when Carly and the rest came out he told her “We were listening to new Palestinian and Arab music! It was really good!’

We got in our cars and they led us across town to Fatin’s house. She got us coffee, and him orange juice. We sat in the living room with them for awhile, and he also tried a walnut. We then looked around the house at all the knickknacks. She had lived in Nigeria and had a lot of giraffes and elephants around. He then spotted a snow globe with the Eiffel Tower and said “Maybe she lived in Paris!” But then we kept looking at the knickknacks in that area and realized they were from several different countries. I asked him to revisit his hypothesis and he revised it, saying she had probably just been to those places.

I had the iPad but he wasn’t too interested. So we went outside, where she has a really nice yard with all sorts of plants. He said “I bought a lot of chickens for the people who live in this house too!” So they could have a poop yard. He found some balls and we kicked them back and forth, then we looked at plants, touching some cacti and aloes. They were done just after 1 and he used the bathroom then we got going.

We dropped Robin off and got home at 1:40. Carly went upstairs to rest. I was getting tired of making Duplo pyramids, so we made a Greek temple instead for the archeologist. We read Wecome to the Symphony and I put the dining room table ends up as we don’t really need that much table. We’ see how that feels. He had fun copying Carly again, and had done it earlier in the day. They went outside and played and took care of the yard. She made him a super stick by taping together two sticks so he could better reach the tree branches to hit them.

Inside he was taking bits off the broken ball. We talked about impulses and thinking about them, as he was putting the pieces under the couch. He then wanted to practice it, and practiced having the impulse to throw a book, but then deciding that it wasn’t a good idea.

Our next event of the day was International Day at WBAIS. We left at  3:30.  We went in and got right to the countries and treats. Spain (a potato thing), Switzerland (August said “The cheese smells like poop.” But he liked the chocolate.), Germany (a pack of gummy bears for later: “I remember way back in Korea we had gummy worms.”), India (some savory things for once). He spotted Ms. Vicky (his music teacher) and was really, really excited. That was really cool to see. He’s only had class with her twice and seen her briefly one or two other times. Puerto Rico, Panama. There was more chocolate in here and some cookies, one of which, he said, the frosting tasted like marshmallow. We saw Gaby, and he excitedly told her that he’d had treats.

We walked across to the other side: Japan, Kazakhstan (more chocolate), Czeck Republic. In a few places he got treats in wrappers and we convinced him to let us save them for later. I commented that we hadn’t seen anyone in his class, then we spotted Omri. He liked that and we went over and said hi.

We lasted about an hour, then headed home. But first, there were boxes to pick up. An iHerb order and an Omazon box.

We got home and opened the iHerb box. Vitamins weren’t too exciting, but as he explained to Carly: “But then I was so excited about the water mix dada gotted!” We made some and shared it. Then the package from Oma: tons and tons of plastic eggs. I filled 8 of them with random objects (rubber bands, keys, coins, a tissue, Carly’s wristband from the fair, etc.) and hid them outside. He went out and found a couple, then said “I think I got to the point I need a hint.”

Shmuel came and said that Shay was supposed to be moving out any minute, so out of an over abundance of caution, August and I took our egg hiding inside. Hid them once and he found them. Then he was playing with them on the coffee table and ‘hugging’ all of them. I added two more to the mix, and he saw what I had put in them as they came apart in his hugs. He said “You shouldn’t have put them close to the hugaroo machine, right?” Then had a “Don’t put them close to th hugaroo machine” chant.

He ate some potatoes, then there was some of the sausage for him, which he seemed to decide he didn’t like without trying. He was having the start of a meltdown as he was still hungry. he said “You know I don’
t like it, mama. Don’t force me to eat it anymore.” Carly suggested to me that these fairs weren’t worth the meltdowns afterwards.

I got him up to his bath. We watched some of the Formula E race. He then did a good job letting me wash his hair. He started to get upset when I started to wash it, but then let me do the rest. We went and used the hairdryer, then he told me “I want some naked time.”

The cauliflower was ready, so he ate a bunch of that and some potatoes. He assured me though that “I’m just staring at the potatoes.” Carly went up to a shower. When I was slow to get up, he said “Or did you forget to get up?” Which is something that Carly says about herself sometimes.

He ate a bunch more and had milk and we watched the race. Lots of talk about energy and batteries and regeneration. Also, we talked about Paris and the Eiffel Tower, which he had seen in a snow globe at Fatin’s house. “I spotted the Eiffel Tower!” He noticed the flag of Switzerland next to the driver’s name. He had gotten a sticker of the Swiss flag and we put it on my shirt and I was still wearing it. The drivers name is Rosinquist, and August liked it and kept repeating: “Rosinquist!”

Requested the “I Can Dance” song. We listened to that and he hummed and danced in his chair. I then took him upstairs after 8:10. She got him ready and called me up. We had a nice little conversation after he asked what’s your brain for? I left them at 8:25 and she put him to sleep on the big bed so he could sleep with me. He was asleep just after 8:30.

And did I mention, Shay moved out!

Za’atar bread: 

International Day:

Flowers:

He was up at 7:10. He sat on the bed and watched Max and Ruby and I fed him piece after piece of toast with peanut butter and honey. We then had a long Skype call with my parents. First upstairs on the sofa bed, then moving downstairs. Upstairs he played with the pink clay, which worked well except when he put it on his head like a kippah and then I realized he’d need his hair washed. Downstairs he tried himself up with string. They asked if he had played piano recent and he said no, so he would now and he want and played an improv with them. When we were done Carly had just taken the black chair out in the yard and I tried to keep him in for a bit. But he went out, telling me “You can read The 52-Story Treehouse by yourself.”

I made slime with August for the first time. Carly wanted to be able to take breaks and also work on the yard. So that was fun. As we did that we saw Jack and Celeste stop. Celeste delivered their key to Holly so she could walk the dog and Jack looked at a bird. We said hi.

August then made up a wonderful song about how he likes to eat contact solution. Not much to say about that.

I went and took a shower. Back downstairs he was asking me about school and had insightful questions about it getting harder: “Why if you read a book that’s too hard you don’t like it?” “Is that why school gets harder and harder?” “Why?” I gave him an example of a math problem that would be too hard for him. He immediately wanted to know “What’s prime mean?” “What’s division mean?” So we got the blueberries out and were doing division. After a few minutes he was doing some basic division problems with them.

I told him that with preschool we haven’t been doing much music recently and we should go up and change the strings on the mandolin, changing all 8 of them. We did that and listened to Simon & Garfunkel. He was making bridges with the old strings and then heard “Bridge over Troubled Water” and said “Hey! I’m making a bridge!”

To trim the strings I sent him downstairs to get the pliers with the wire cutters. I reminded him how he had had the idea to use them when we were fixing the cabinet door with toothpicks. He was excited to be reminded of his good idea and went down and told Carly and she was able to find the pliers. He then cut up several toothpicks. I then took him upstairs and he helped me cut the strings. He then helped me tune, and was himself a machine running a tuner.

He went downstairs and told Carly what he was, then they played with Duplos. They made a volcano and it had things inside of it. They were then playing with the foamy blue clay. He was hungry so had more oatmeal. I was sitting on the couch playing with the mandolin. He pretended I wasn’t there: “Mama, where’s dada? I think we should call dada on his phone.” “Dada, are you in Jordan?” Then: “Mama, my name is Selma.” “When I split into Selma there is also cake mix” “chocolate cake…with blueberries!” He remembered what kind of cake she had for her birthday that one day we visited the preschool.

He and I then read Go, Dog, Go, then we got ready and left at 2:25. I drove us to school. We went to Carly’s room and she printed out some things. He played in the classroom for a couple minutes. We then drove home and dropped Carly off and the two of us continued on to the grocery store. We drove to the little Tiv Taam. He explained how he got sound through the speakers and how all of his parts are invisible – his monsters blasters, etc.

Things went well at Tiv Taam until we were about done. He had been stacking all the groceries behind him in the cart, but then had the idea of squishing them with his whole body, then when he wouldn’t stop I had to forcefully hold him up to stop squishing them. He didn’t like that, and I had to pull him out of the cart. We ended up with a squished loaf of bread and three split bananas. Could have been worse. As we were talking and I was explaining he needed to apologize, he said “Oh dada” When I asked why he had said that he said “Mama told me to say oh dada to everything.” Carly got in trouble for that one.

We put the groceries in the car and went to the outdoor playground, at 4:05, which was very busy. But he claimed otherwise: “It’s not busy, silly.” He then claimed to only count 5 other kids. He stood around for a minute deciding what to do, then asked if I had any of the nut treats. When I said no he let out a yell of frustration and grabbed my legs and head-butted me, unfortunately right in the crotch. We left and headed to the car.

We got home at 4:20, and with Carly he continued to have a meltdown. He kept saying “Can you do something nice for me?” We got him calmed down and made dinner. Carly made dinner, and I had gotten some new veggie burgers and found hamburger buns at the store so I made one of those. Good food, and a lot of it, made August feel much better. He said “The sauce makes it perfect”. And he ate several bites of the burger patty and some of my mushrooms.

When he was done eating he went to the top of his slide and sat there and swung his stick around. He was warning us to “Be careful!” He asked “Where did I hear ‘impulse’?” I had used it to explain to him recently how following through on his impulses after we say no to something is what’s been getting him in trouble. He set his stick on the bars and said “That’s a pretty slippery material, ey?” He then sang a “I like impulses” song. He then moved on to the Thumbkin song, singing “Where is pointer? Where is pointer?…” He slid down the slide with his stick and got his shorts wet: He had sprayed off his slide earlier to clean it.

We went inside and he was hungry so ate several mushrooms. He was then swinging around one of those old splat balls and it burst open over his kitchen. He was still hungry and I got him spaghetti and put it on the table. I asked “Did you see your spaghetti?” He replied “No! U was having too much fun doing other stuff.”

They then skyped with Chuck and Cherie. He then asked me “Why is the Earth tilted?” So we looked that up and talked about early planets bumping into each other. Then there was a skype call with Vivian.

I took him up for a bath. He was impatient to get in, so we stopped it really shallow. He measured it this way: “It’s like a couple toilet papers deep.”

Afterwards he was still hungry and asked for peanut butter and crackers. When I got it for him he asked where the toast was. I said he had asked for crackers. He said “Toast too, please.” He just got crackers.

On the couch he was singing “Head, shouldera, knees, and toes.” He then asked “Dada, what’s a reinforced celery door?” Which is from The 52-Story Treehouse. And led to a discussion of ‘reinforced’.

A couple times today he started copying Carly, everything she says, which frankly is really funny. She was complaining about my book club and said “I hate this book club.” He was copying her and had fun repeating that one.

I took him up and he did a good job flossing his own teeth. we brushed them, then Carly came up and I left them at 8:30 and he was soon asleep.

Clay on his head: 

Slime with me: 

Comfy: 

Rain: 

He woke up before 6 but fell back to sleep until 6:40. Downstairs he was having a tough time until we got some oatmeal in him. He was upset that Carly’s bag of Cheerios was bigger than his and she got two yogurts. He watcher the Magic Schoolbus but then we had to take a timeout when he was trying to squish his vitamin and hit me when I stopped him. He apologized and I then got him toast with peanut butter and honey and he watched some more. Carly helped make his lunch then took the car to work.

We left right at 8. He spent the first half of the walk talking about all the things he could eat: cars, the highway, steel. He did a great job steering, navigating Vatikim as there was a ton of cars on the narrow road going both directions. He would know which way the cars were going to go and turn to the side. I complimented him on his steering. He asked what the weakest thing was and we talked about surface tension. He made up the word ‘flubond’, which either means no surface tension, or a liquid with no surface tension.

At school they had a cool set of K’nex sort of wooden building blocks out. I tried to get him to build with the other kids and I went in the break room. Maaian asked me to help change the tub on the water cooler, and he liked seeing that done finally. He played a little out with the blocks and came in and showed me a couple of things with solar panels. But then he insisted I got out with him. I explained how I was tired and getting over being sick and he tried to generate power for me. When I said it wasn’t working he said “But my generator’s not working?” in a sad voice.

Carly called and told me that she was feeling dainty “Oh-no! What if she throws up befor she gets home…But what if she throws up and it gets all over her clothes because she doesn’t have a bowl?”

I went out with him. He wanted to cut with scissors. At first he refused to try using one hand, saying both hands was the most fun. But I cut some shapes and we discussed them, then he suddenly figured out how to do that on his own. He did a bunch of cutting, then wanted me to cut more shapes. I did more shapes and we started talking about lines of symmetry. We used these cool blocks on the table to yeah rectangle versus parallelogram and square versus rhombus. We folded up a square of paper and drew the lines of symmetry. He realized he could keep folding the triangles and make more lines of symmetry. A group was making bread and he heard something about scoops. He said “Everyone’s going to do two scoops, but not me, cuz we’re having too much fun.”

At 9:30 they had morning meeting. He said “Morning meeting is the worst part!” but he sat through the whole thing for the first time this week. He hasn’t liked it since I tried to leave last week. Then the bathroom and out to snack. He washed his plate and everything while I sat and read. They were then looking for volunteers to go with the PKC class to the nature reserve on campus. August went up with Omri, Candy, and Blanka. We had some time in the upstairs classroom before we left. He sat down with Ms. Seychen and learned how to put beads on a string. He was really into it.

We then walked over to the nature reserve. August didn’t like standing in lines on the way over. There we saw tadpoles and August liked exploring the little paths. He played in the yurt for a bit, then we went and explored more, finding flowers and snails and a bee. He and Blanka climbed on the old tires that lined the path. He asked me what “Draw from” means. I explained, then he said “So the spit glands draw from the water you drink to make spit?”

We were there for 30 or 40 minutes, then headed back to class, joining back up with PKB. He went outside with Marion and helped water flowers using a cup and a bucket of water. He then went in and played with the block things with Blanka. At one point she handed him something and said “I made it for you.” I watched for a few minutes then I went and typed. August came in in a couple minutes and said “okay” then ran back out to play. Such a relief. A couple minutes later he came in and asked “Is anything ever going to happen to me?” Then he asked what the schedule was, before deciding he could go and play some more. Didn’t really happen though, as then Nicholas came in the room. I had to go back out with both of them.

They had a brief meeting where Anna talked about the tea party, which was going to be early today. The kids were in charge. Three or four of them did most of the work of picking things for the tea, getting out the mugs, organizing chairs. August took out a chair but then didn’t know what to do so he sat there waiting. He was hungry for bread and honey but did a decent job of waiting until the tea was ready. He got a second big piece of the bread and honey when Nicholas didn’t eat his.

Lunch was immediately after, so not surprisingly he didn’t eat a lot. Blanka got him his water bottle. I went inside to get something and August came in. Blanka came in too and they played with the blocks up on the table this time.  No rest time today. They just watched the video story about the bear and the bees. August ate his Cheerios during that.

Then it was over to the auditorium for Peter and the Wolf. I sat between him and Nicholas. As the auditorium filled up with the elementary school, August said “We’re all working together to make as much noise as we can!” On stage August noticed that the wolf was lit in red and the other animals were lit with yellow. We talked about the symbolic meaning of the colors. Later, during the performance, he noticed that the lights on the players turned red when it was the wolf’s music. The program was designed for elementary students, so pretty entertaining. The conductor demonstrated what a conductor can do and how the instruments sound. August was excited to recognize the first piece, the William Tell Overture. They played a Western-themed piece that I should know the name of, then Peter and the Wolf. August needed to go to the bathroom in the middle so I took him. He had gone right before we had left the preschool too.

We went back and made it to the end. It was really cool to see some of the students, like Omri and Ori and August, really getting into the music. Others were getting squirmy or tired (like Yaya, who clearly wanted to fall asleep). As we headed back to the classroom they realized that Emmitt was missing. He had been with Maaian, so they figured she had taken him, but August and I went back to look, just in case. August had fun looking, and joked “I’m not Emmitt, right?”

As we walked back he talked more about his substance with no surface tension: “Do you know what flubong is used for?…Its really clumpy stuff…you make houses out of it.”

They went out on the playground. He played on the seesaw and did some cooking. Inside they did a couple of songs and I read a poem by Jack Perlutsky about flying without a plane for Poem in Your Pocket Day (a day late, but the preschoolers didn’t know this).

I did the dishes as the other kids left. August ate some of his snack mix and wandered around. He also helped me look through cupboards to figure out where things went. He came over to me and said he had been reading the names on the mugs. I went over and he showed me. He read Selma, Hector, and Juyeok. Despite not really seeing the names in other places.

He wanted to play on the big playground so we went there. He was imagining at first: “Under my shirt…Magnetic blades that can stick to any material, including burning magma and burning fire…” Selma was there, and Sophia from PKC. He turned into Selma, then the three of them were pretending to be each other. They then played hide and seek, and August counted and found them a few times. Sophia was funny as she was the main one that wanted to play, but just kept spinning on the spinny thing, saying we couldn’t see her because she was spinning.

When they left so did we. We went
to the car. August asked if he could rip the tag on his vest and I said no. He ripped it anyway. I threatened a timeout at home and he got upset. We sat and talked about that. We left after 4:10. He wanted Story Pirates so we started episode 17. He asked “Is barf real?” Somehow we ended up talking about doctors getting sick and he was surprised: “Huh? Doctors get sick?…But they wear those special clothes.”

At home we checked on Carly, who was feeling better. He played with the old slime, out at the table. As he started playing with it he chanted “yes, yes, yes”. We then spotted several parakeets in the bushes across the road. He talked more about flubong: “very coisonous…only birds can eat it.” He did some sweeping with the broom, then he found a slug and picked it right up and Carly how they breathe.

He had a piece of cinnamon sugar toast to hold him over until dinner. I got him a plate of cauliflower and a corn schnitzel, cut up and with his pesto veganaise to dip it in. He started to eat and said it was really good. I was happy, as he hadn’t eaten the schnitzel when we first got it. But it turned out he meant the cauliflower. He ate all of it, then all of mine. When he tried the schnitzel he choked on the first bite. So still no schnitzel for him. but then he also ate Carly’s quesadilla.

David brought over a 4-month old baby to show us – his granddaughter. So cute. He noticed mosquito bites on August and said he’d give us a bug zapper. He doesn’t like them but his wife has several of them. He came back a few minutes later and told us to keep it. Very funny.

Carly took him up to his bath and I did dishes. She started cleaning though and eventually had to go lie down. I took over the bath. He was talking more about flubong and about how there is so much of it in the world. He also said that it can’t go through liquids, but it can soak through solids. So if you pour it on the ground it will keep going until it hits the water table. He asked a few times today what “super stumpers” are. It was from a gameshow thing on The Magic Schoolbus. I ended up asking him random trivia questions. He was asleep by 8:10.

Tea party: 

Bread and tea cup: 

Ready for the concert: 

What happens when I leave Carly in charge for a minute: 

Slime: 

He was up just before 7:20. I had gotten lunch and field trip supplies ready already, then jumped in the shower while he was with Carly. We were driving to school today so we could drive to his field trip and because of activity class in the afternoon.

On the way he asked if oil had to be changed like in a car. Don’t know where this came from. Then about how it was done. We also listened to “Go” so he could show me the part at the end that he’d been humming.

We got to his class in time for the pre-field trip meeting. Then walked out with them to the bus before heading to our car. We listened to his playlist for awhile, but then he said he wanted to listen to new songs. The farm is called Halbrecht Farm Food Garden. Took about 25 minutes to get there, a bit north of Netanya.

We parked and walked in and found his class. They were sitting down for their morning snack. I met a dad, Hershel, of a boy in PKC named Ryan. And then I spotted Selma’s dad, Sergio. He was wearing the same Osprey child-carrier backpack that I carried August in. He had his two-year old son in it. That was fun to see. August and I went over and reminisced about the backpack and August told him how he didn’t like the rain cover.

Then the three classes each went to a different station. We did beekeeping first. The guy was pretty good and did a decent job of keeping the attention of 4-year olds. He showed us a honeycomb from a hive that was right there. August sat on my lap. At the end the guy asked if they had any questions. August shouted “How do the bees get the nectar out of the flowers?” But he didn’t hear and then wrapped up the session. August speculated that the bees go IN the flowers, as opposed to butterflies that have their long tubes.

Next up was the animals. No lecture here. she just took them to a wheelbarrow of food and had then start feeding the sheep and goats, then feeding the bunnies and guinea pigs. I didn’t know how August would react to this, as he had gone last year from liking to feed the sheep to just wanting me to feed them because he didn’t want to get bit. But he got right to it. She then took us over to the chickens and they went in and saw where they roosted, then were throwing feed around for the chickens. A rather chaotic scene, with 15 preschoolers in a chicken coop. I had a chicken eat out of my hand, and August followed suit. She then took us over to the baby chickens and they all got to pet a baby chick. He said it felt “soft and silky”.

They then had a few minutes to play at the playground. He first was digging with a rake, then I found a shovel. He and Blanka were filling up a wheelbarrow together, then she wanted the shovel and he let her take it.

Our last activity was picking things in the garden. They all got paper bags and the woman led them into the garden where she showed them several plants and let them pick it. The first was lavender (he loved smelling it), then there was lemongrass, which she said was a lemon popsicle, then lemon geranium, which he says “smells beautiful”. Finally, there was dino kale and she had them all take bits and roar. Along the way he also picked a small tomato “for mama” and was asking what other greens we could pick for her. We got some beet greens right at the end.

We were surprised to find that there was no bread making. That had been the part August was most excited about. It turns out there had been some miscommunication and it wasn’t in the contract, although we later found out it was in emails. Anyway, we headed back. On the way we saw the bus pull over for some reason. So August and I took advantage and stopped at the strawberry stand to get strawberries as well.

We got to the school just as they were going in. They read Paper Bag Princess for storytime, then talked about what they liked on the field trip. He said “I liked-ed feeding all the animals!”

For lunch he sat at a table with Omri and Reia and we did some Hebrew with Omri. August was then doing magic, turning me into things. Candy then came around sharing a bag of chocolate treats with everyone.

During rest time I read Corduroy, If Rocks Could Sing, and Tin Forest. Afterwards they watched videos about bees, including one from SciShow Kids. They then watched videos of the story/song Driving My Tractor, and the songs Over by the Meadow, Knick Knack (from Barefoot).

They all got their backpacks and then headed up to yoga class. They were airplanes as they walked up there, which August really liked. Emmett got hurt right before he went into the yoga class. It would have been Carly’s teaching nightmare if she were in the same situation as the yoga teacher is actually Emmett’s mom. So he was upset and climbing in her lap and climbing over her while she was trying to teach yoga to preschoolers. She did really well though. They each got on a mat and she read a book with poses in it. One involved tickling yourself and he was really honestly being tickled by himself and laughing. They then played a game where they passed a ball around using just their feet. And finished with a fun “Bootcamp Yoga” song.

I’d been feeling like I had allergies since last night, but it was getting worse. In the library we sat outside the entry and had a Tic-Tac break. He had fun sneaking a few. We then went in and I read one chapter of Magic Treehouse #15 to him but I was so stuffy. We went out for a snack break. He asked “What’s a ‘bummer’ mean?” Anna had said it when she was talking about how they didn’t get to make bread. We went back in the library and I managed to read the last couple chapters of the book.

We went out to head to activity class. Rain was threatening and there was supposed to be a thunderstorm. So we drove the car up to the park which is just a block from the studio. He played at the park for a few minutes, sitting in the round thing. He had asked what “radar” is (from a Sarah and Duck episode) and was now a radar himself.

We went up to activity class. Adele was excited to see him again. Class started well, but after about 15 minutes August said he was done. Too tired. It had been a long day. We left class at 5:05. He played with the little toys for a few minutes before we decided for sure to leave. August and I had a fun Hebrew moment when we heard Etai’s mom saying “bakbook” to him, which we both recognized as ‘water bottle’ – we had learned it in our lesson on Monday, then reviewed it with Omri earlier.

Raining a bit when we left, so coats on and umbrella up. On the way I realized I had left my water bottle in the studio. We drove there and then ran in to get it. August, the boy who refuses to use any water bottle except his one favorite one, kept telling me “but you have other water bottles.”

We left again and were home at 5:45. He told her about the tomato he got her: “A nice, cute red one.” “And beet greens!” Carly made a smoothie, which I had told him we could have. He bumped into her in the bathroom and said, falsely, “It was your fault.” He drank his smoothie and asked me questions until I went upstairs.

I slept. Carly managed to clean the kitchen, then brought August up for his bath. There was a lot of crying about that, then more when she tried to get him to sleep in the other room where she had been sleeping. They came into the regular bedroom to help him calm down. I woke up enough to tell what was going on, but that was about it. He calmed down but wasn’t going to sleep. He went downstairs and had dry cheerios. I got up and came down. He finished the Cheerios and wanted more, but insisted on something with sugar. This ended with him crying “I’m not tired!” repeatedly. I eventually picked him up and he was able to calm down. Upstairs we hunted for mosquitoes, killing one, and I left them about 8:40 and he was soon asleep.

Yoga class: