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He was up at 6:05. After Carly left we started reading the 8th Garfield Treasury. We read all of it and then part of the book we own. He was then typing on Skype on my iPad. He wanted to send messages to me though so I got his iPad so he could send messages from his account. I was getting ready for us to make zucchini bread. He saw my phone and said he wanted to type on that. I said he didn’t need three devices. He got upset and ended up saying “I want 14 devices!” We made zucchini bread. He did most of the peeling and some of the grating. We were listening to Bjork and I said I had a dream that we went to Iceland. He said “I had the same dream…cuz I want to go to Iceland…Lets go to Iceland sometime.” We then listened to Ask the Storybots. He stood on his stool at the counter for a good 20 minutes dancing and singing along to the Storybots.

He then played Toca Blocks as I finished up. He kept saying “Oh no!” When you delete blocks it’s a little monster thing that chomps them and says “Ammyang”. So he would say “Thank you ammyang thing!” He wanted GarageBand, and I reminded him of Figure. He played with that, and when I showed him the Gamle Oct Havet sound, which was his favorite, he clearly remembered it as he started laughing and got really excited. We exercised and listened to some Arabic, learning ‘Hello’ and ‘Thank you’ etc. He asked what we would learn after Arabic. He decided all on his own: “Hebrew then Arabic then French then German.”

We went upstairs and he watched Peg + Cat and I took a shower. We came downstairs and took out the bread and had some, then I made tuna melt sandwiches for lunch and we ate and watched Peg + Cat together for awhile. After lunch we sat on the couch and read ten chapters of The 52-Story Treehouse. He saw the electric keyboard and wanted to play that, so we brought up GarageBand and played that. He’s back to picking out all the notes (the Cs, Ds, etc.) on the keyboard. Hope he’ll want to start playing songs again soon.

I got everything set up outside for more painting of the little library. He then came out and helped. He accidentally made a hole in the plastic: “I accidentally made a little hole in the plastic…but what if the ink goes through the whole to the green light and it get blue ink in Shmuel’s nice fake grass?” He kept walking around and talking about light bulbs and ink. The painting went okay, but was a little frustrating for him as he can’t do the spray can on his own and I was mostly keeping him back to avoid the spray and fumes. We got agonizingly close to finishing when the spray can ran out.

He went in and played Human Body and did the whole skeleton puzzle on his own. I snuck up and put some more sealant under the shower divider that Yve put in, as it has been leaking again. August has slowly gotten better about going to the bathroom on his own and letting me go to the other floor without having to follow me. He asked me to install Toca Blocks on his iPad. As he watched the circle fill up to show it was installing he asked “Why’s that have to be slow? I want it filled in right away!”

We got going. Carly was going to see the dress rehearsal of the play, so we weren’t going to go to school first today, and I was taking him to his activity class on my own. We first drove down to Ace Hardware. He played Toca Blocks for a minute but was then quiet. His eyes were closing as we got to the store. I carried him in and quickly grabbed the can and paid. He had his head on my shoulder the whole time and I thought he might be asleep. Luckily he was still awake. I took the north route back to Even Yehuda, which is a mistake around 4. As we were stuck in traffic he fell asleep at 4:12. Parked at the park just south of the studio ten minutes later and got him up with talk of zucchini bread and Tic Tacs.

Had planned on playing at the park a bit, but we were running late and he was waking up. So we went for a walk in the stroller. The first thing he said after waking up was to tell me that a cat that ran away from us was probably afraid of his bluthentorp machine, which somehow chooses a color, like purple, then squishes you if you like purple with a weight that weighs 1000000% heavy.

We went to class and he carried down a round thing. He was hesitant at first. Told me several times “I’m scared.” And “I really don’t want to sit.” He was in and out several times, especially early on, but he is hardly the only one in this class. At one point he came out, couldn’t really get to me, and turned around and said to himself as he walked back in “Well, okaaayyy. I will try it.” With about 15 minutes left he came out and said he was getting tired. But then she was putting down the squares with textured objects glued to them, like he used to really like in his 5-Touch classes, and that got him back in. They were also crawling through the expanding tunnel things, something that he found too scary back in 5-Touch. Afterwards he told me it was still a little scary.

He made it to the very end of class this time, and when he confirmed with me “That’s zero minutes (left)?” he was excited that he’d made it to the end of class.

We walked down to the park where we parked and played for about 10 minutes. Mostly on one of those Jeeps with two handles on it, so we pretended to put out fires. When I wasn’t on it, a slightly older boy came and climbed on next to August, grunted at August, sat there for a minute, then left. When August needed to go to the bathroom we got in the car and headed to the school.

At the school we used the bathroom in the performing arts center building. We heard the play happening, but when I asked if he wanted to see if we could peek in, he instead headed out the doors. He then took my hand and led me around the campus, zooming down the hill, then over to Carly’s classroom. It was locked, so we zoomed back, then up next to the main gates. We sat on a bench to read. He asked “Do we have Max Axiom?” We didn’t, but we had the Magic Treehouse ninja book. We read that until Carly came out. When she came out he wanted to keep reading. The cats were really friendly and August had fun petting one.

We then headed home and got here at 6:30. I gave him a shower and Carly put together dinner. We ate, then played on GarageBand. Carly took him to bed at 7:35. He said “I’m gonna dream about…” Me suggesting what he dreams about has become a game. I said “Ninjas” and he gave me a thumbs up.

He didn’t fall asleep though and he came down at 7:50. Carly took a shower and we read the rest of the ninja book. He was then asleep by 8:30.

Falling asleep at Ace: 

Walking the textures: 

Sitting with the class: 

Climbing at the playground: 

On the Jeep: 

He was up at 5:55. Down on the couch, after nursing, he found the sentence building app on his iPad and played with that for awhile. He then watched an episode of Wanda and the Alien and Carly headed to work. We read Edgar and acted it out a lot. I made an Edgar bed for him on the couch. We then read part of Stars, Stars, Stars and acted out someone staring at the sun. He became a seeing eye dog. He was also the light from the sun and I was the Earth and he ran across the room to me. “What other dwarf planets are there…We COULD use my Space app.” He was then Haumea and would revolve while I travelled to him in a rocket. He was then a space probe: “I took photos of the solar system for you.”

We went upstairs and played electric guitar and mandolin for a long time. He picked up the Jokey Smurf toy and was giving me exploding presents. He said it meant that he wanted to read Smurfs. So we went down and read all of Smurfs #5: Smurfs and the Egg. Exercised and he made words with Cookie Monster. He was having fun not sharing the cookies with Cookie Monster. We then read a little of the Dinosaur book and he played Metamorphabet before we turned to the Garfield 8th Treasury and finished that.

We went upstairs so I could take a shower. He was going to play Toca Builders. He was doing other stuff though and came in before I started my shower and said “Oh shoot, dada. Your iPad just turned off.”

We went downstairs for lunch. We had falafel and sweet potato fries. While I got that ready he took all the spices out of the cabinet and lined them up, saying he was getting what he needed for his recipe. He was a millipede, and said “That’s how many spices I need for my really hot spicy cake.” We ate lunch and discussed our plans today, which now included going to the Skoda dealership as the embassy paperwork has come through. Again. He said “Yeah! I get to go to the spinny chairs!” He then asked “Can I read a Dr. Seuss book? The one about the star problem?” So we read The Sneetches and Other Stories.

We then got going. We were going to Ace Hardware, as the showerhead had broken while Carly was taking a shower yesterday, a music store for guitar strings, and then to Tiv Taam for groceries. To Ace Hardware first, where August helped me remember what color of paint I needed for the shelves. He described the can and that it was spray paint, and a light blue, then helped verify I had the right color. We also found a pizza cutter and got our showerhead. He noticed he wasn’t in a stroller and asked why. I told him we would get the stroller when we were done with Ace.

We went out to the car and put the stuff in the trunk and got the stroller. He needed the bathroom, so we went looking for one and found one in the SE corner of the complex. Used the bathroom, then he went on the little merry-go-round nearby. It went up and down. He called it not the not-very-merry-go-round – a reference to The 39-Story Treehouse where they have one that goes too fast and throws everyone off.

We then walked a block north and found the music store. Got a set of strings and tried out the xylophones, etc. and looked at the keyboards and guitars and drum kits. Showed him a few things related to GarageBand – the hi-hat and guitar pedals. I pointed out the acoustic guitars and he instantly said “Let’s get an acoustic guitar. Can I have one?” We looked at the drum kits after that and I asked which he would rather have. I thought he’d say drums, but he stuck with acoustic guitar.

We walked back to the car and drove to Tiv Taam. A pretty quick trip there, in part because more than half of the store is closed for remodel. No frozen food at all, other things ripped out, no cereal aisle, etc. We found a new toothbrush for August. It is some sort of animal and pink. He wasn’t happy that I couldn’t find fluoride-free toothpaste though. August was getting tired of shopping, but just put his head down on the bar of the shopping cart in front of him.

We went to the car and headed to pick up Carly. Almost got hit by a car that was cutting through traffic. Took the next light, but it was one early, into Beit Yehoshua. Then got stuck behind a big truck hauling hay. Which then had to turn. So took a few minutes longer. August had wanted to send Carly messages as we were leaving, so he held my phone the whole way and sent her lots of messages.

Got to the school just in time as August was falling asleep. Carly got in and had him watch Peg + Cat on my phone – the first time he’s watched something on my phone, but it kept him from falling asleep before the dealership.

We parked at 4 and paid for parking until 5:10. Thought that should be plenty of time. We went and did the paperwork and played in the dealership. A lot of spinning in the chair, but he kept getting loud about how it was a “secret” from me or Carly so then we were going outside. He made pipes and did his sewer game there a bit. For the last stint outside with him he was jumping off of the top step holding my hands and he was a rocket going to different places. Sometimes he wouldn’t launch when we got to zero because he had a glitch. And for about 10 minutes we were all in the office and August wanted to do paperwork too. Carly got out a folder from her backpack and we borrowed a pen. August wrote all of his names, the date, the month, and probably a few other things.

At 5:05 he and I headed to the car to wait for Carly. When I explained why we were going, that our time ran out at 5:10 and that if you stay too long you might get a ticket and have to pay extra money,  he was very concerned that we make it on time. We did, and Carly showed up right behind us.

We were home before 6. I made the grilled cheese sandwiches. They nursed and played with the splat balls. We ate dinner, then Carly gave him his shower. I did dishes and they went outside and watered plants and he played on the slide. They were in at 6:50 and Carly went up to take a shower and he and I went up to play guitar – after he first hummed/sang Ode to Joy and named and played the notes on the toy piano. We then read Berenstain Bears Go to School and The Red Hen and he was asleep by 8.

He cuddled up with me for much of the night and I shared my blanket with him. He woke up at 6 and Carly got him back to sleep. But we heard him yell and think a bad dream woke him up at 6:30. He watched Peg + Cat and Carly headed to work. We then finished rereading The 39-Story Treehouse and also The 7th Garfield Treasury. Another line from Garfield he keeps repeating is “Oh sure, hog the floor.”

I then made a mango lassi and he played Toca Blocks. He then played with the GarageBand sequencer and we then went upstairs to the guitar where he was really liking the sustain effects. He went into his room and saw the piles of clothes on his bed. They were the clothes, mainly Thatcher’s old clothes, that were in the boxes from the U.S. He made a mess on his bed and told me to tell him to clean it up. Then he really wanted all the clothes put away so he helped me sort them and I put them in his closet. He got upset though when I got a couple sheets that were hanging and folded them. He kept grabbing them so I couldn’t fold them and wouldn’t stop.

We read the Edgar book and played “Nevermore” and then he did the coloring book on the iPad and I took a shower. He switched to Toca Builders and Robot Lab and we had fun calling the magnet the “magnet-a-floofer”. We were upstairs on the bed and he had to go to the bathroom. He said what he has been saying every time he goes to the bathroom: “I’m gonna go to the bathroom. When I’m done you will come.” I then gave him his shower. Slightly better today.

Went downstairs for lunch. He ate the rest of the zucchini and cheese, shared the last of the pizza with me, and then we had onion rings. We built a Duplo rocket, then did some Hebrew on paper. He got out his doctor stuff and gave me a shot. He then asked “Can I make a card for Josephine?” I cut a piece of paper and we started on a mosaic but he lost interest and ended up using his Hebrew notebook instead. We went and played with the splat balls and had fun making slo-mo videos of them hitting the ground. We read some more Garfield.

We left the house at 1:35. Had a Tic-Tac as we got in the car. As I put him in his seat he said “When you get older you get a little shorter.” Apparently he and Carly had discussed this. We drove up into town. He was tracing some Arabic. We parked around the block from the bank and got cash at the ATM. On the way back we stopped to look at some statues at a yard and he picked dead leaves out of a bush.

We then drove into Beit Yehoshua. We parked at what appeared to be a promising bike path. Got out the stroller and got walking, only to find it is the shortest bike path in the world. Like 50 meters. I sang a little “Pathy path” song and he kept wanting more, then was singing it on his own. We wandered a couple of other paths between buildings and sidewalks. I found a Minions sticker on the ground and he wanted to throw it back on the ground so someone else could find it. We walked past something and I said I thought it was a school. He said “Yep, see: school.” He had read it off of a sign. He then asked “Is the school microscopic?” The first word on the sign said ‘Microsoft’.

We wandered around a bit more. Translated a few words on signs for him. Then made our way up to the playground. Sat on the merry-go-round and ate half of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He needed to use the bathroom. We got in the stroller and walked around and found one. As we walked he told a story about how someone had put an 8 on his gate and it gets bigger when he grows and will soon be a 9.

Didn’t play at the park long and he was ready to head to the school. Along the way I found a car with a Pearl Jam bumper sticker. At the car I picked him up to put him in and he put his arms around me and I held him for awhile. He then reached out and was moving the car door back and forth. He said “We’re a machine. The sticky stuff is going on the conveyor belt. The sticky stuff is sap. It’s being turned into honey.”

We left at 3:15 and drove to the school. We went to the library and quickly found a bunch of books: The 8th Garfield Treasury, Magic Treehouse books 4 and 5, Du Is Tak? again, a graphic novel called Max Axiom, Super Scientist: Forces and Motion, and a book called Ada’s Violin. We started to read a little of Garfield and Max Axiom, then went and checked them out and then read on the stuffed animals. I started to say “We didn’t get…” and August finished my sentence with “a single bookmark.” Liz wasn’t at her desk, so we did without. We walked up to the drinking fountain with steps and got a drink, then met Carly on the walk back to the library.

We drove up to his class. On the way he seemed surprised that he could control the window and I hadn’t taken control away from him. I said I trusted him, and he said “What does trust even mean?”

He was fine with class and looking forward to it. But as we walked down the stairs he asked Carly if she could go in the room with him. He then talked about how they close the doors and he can’t see us, and he’s locked in the room and can’t come out. We tried to convince him that he could come out, but he wasn’t convinced. Not sure if it was my talk about trying to come out of class less, or perhaps the teacher had said something to him at the end of that class two weeks ago. I’ve also talked to him about coming out of the Thursday class less, and he’s been okay with that.

So we didn’t even make it into the waiting room and turned around and headed back to the car. I asked if we could try again next week. He said “Yeah…maybe.” with a good 3 second pause between them.

At home I made grilled cheese sandwiches and heated up soup. They skyped with Cherie and Chuck. He talked with them more than usual and sent a lot of messages. After they hung up and we had all eaten August and I were sending messages back and forth on Skype as we sat next to each other. He was doing really well with reading all the sentences I sent him. He’s definitely reading now. Of course he’s been doing bits of reading for a long time, and I’ve suspected he can read a lot more than he lets on or wants to show, but today he was demonstrating his reading a lot more.

We read part of the Magic Treehouse #5: Night of the Ninjas and the Forces and Motion book. He was then having me be a passage from Toca Blocks and he would travel through me by climbing over me. Brushed his teeth and was pretty straightforward getting him up to bed and asleep at 7:45.

Cleaning his bed: 

Photo he took of me: 

Hebrew magnet: 

World’s shortest bike path: 

Sandwich on the merry-go-round: 

Peael Jam sticker:  

Skyping with Cherie: 

Carly woke him up just before 6:30. He came downstairs at 6:45, in a very good mood and requesting Garfield. We read Garfield and Carly headed to work. We read all of the 7th Treasury and he had some Cheerios and Larabar. He was then reciting a lot of Garfield lines: “I miss those days…encore, encore.” We started reading Garfield again. I said the author’s name, Jim Davis, and he joked about it: “No, not that author: Jim Widnick” “There’s a sticker on every page of the book.” Judd Widnick is the author of the Hilo books.

We skyped with my parents. He kept asking them to send him emojis. “I’m ready for the kiss now.” He sang the Hebrew letters song for them. Got to 40 minutes on the Skype call. And he did the lip thing where you rub your finger up and down to make your voice sound funny quite a bit – he learned that from Garfield. And he got to eat a cookie to show them what we made.

He went to the bathroom right after we were done, then we went upstairs and got him clothes and added the toilet paper roll to the collection as he requested. Back downstairs we watched the garbage truck pick up our garbage. He then watched the Why is the Sky Blue? episode of Ask the StoryBots. We were then typing on the iPad and I showed him how to copy and paste and keep doubling. We got over a million characters, which was very exciting for him.

He watched Wanda and the Alien and I took a shower. We played Toca Blocks for awhile then I gave him his shower, which he hated. We went down and read all of Mummies in the Morning (the Magic Treehouse book) for a second time, then some more Garfield. He was hungry and ate some zucchini and cheese, then we went outside to water and pick up a bunch more of the tree things that had fallen. We did machine cleanup of the tree things. He was then playing with new sap on the left tree. It looked whiter and foamier than the other sap. He was touching it and I thought he was just going to get a little sticky. But then he came over with big gobs of it all over his hands. We washed most of it off with the hose, then went inside and washed them more. Didn’t bother him too much apparently as he went back and got his hands a bit more sticky again. It gave him the opportunity though to say “It’s no use. I can’t get it off.”

Back inside we read yet more Garfield. He really likes the one with “Oh no, morning found me.” He was then repeating: “I can’t cook. I’m out of tofu.” He claimed it was an Egyptian guard in The 65-Story Treehouse that said it, but I don’t remember the guards even talking about cooking, much less tofu.

After he went to the bathroom he ended up riding his balance naked. He was then talking about the “nikud”, the vowel system in Hebrew. “I’m tzadi sofit. I’m an end sound. I make ‘ts’.”

We got headed out the door at 1:45. Took awhile to change the seat in the car, etc. and get going. We drove to the very planned and artificial-feeling neighborhood north of Even Yehuda, east of Netanya Stadium. There’s a mall at the southwest corner I wanted to check out, but it turned out nothing is open in it yet. There are also several parks to the west, situated in the center squares of the planned blocks. We parked and hopped in the stroller and headed to the first park, Herzog Garden and got there at 2:20.

We paused and he ate some banana chips as a snack. But before we actually started playing he was saying mean things towards other kids, mainly “Go away!” We started to leave, but then he really wanted to play in the park. We walked around to the other side of the park, and I let him get out. He was being a machine that was broken: he explained he had both red things and green things – the red things were bad things to do, like hit people, and the green things were good things, like throw acorns (presumably not at people). He pretended that he was doing both things. We sat on a bench by the playground for more snack and talked about why he could joke about killing things like weeds, but not people. One of his choices/switches was now “Picking to death weeds”. He also used the “It’s no use.” line again. He did a lot of running around as a rocket, and said he started slow and it took him 2000 years to speed up. We ran around the playground together, on and off a little hill, and he asked me to fix his red/green switches. Did some more racing around and went down a slide once, then decided to get going.

Back in the stroller I gave him a small container of Cheerios. Not sure if he had a bad grip on it, or just thought the lid was still on, but he turned it over, dumping them all out. Most landed in his lap and the stroller so we were able to save most of them. We left at 3:10. We walked to the east and south, checking out four other parks, but he wasn’t interested in stopping. He was most interested in getting to 10,000 steps.

We got back to the car and headed to the school. Carly had told me that all three of our boxes from the U.S. had arrived. Her Hebrew class was over at 4:15 and we were going to pick up her and the boxes. He got quiet as we drove through north Even Yehuda and I told him not to fall asleep. As we drove by the studio where his classes are I looked back to see his eyes closing. He was asleep a maximum of 5 minutes by the time I got him out of the seat. He rolled over and tried going back to sleep on the back seat. I got him out of the other side and carried him in. He woke up more when we got to the library, although he immediately kicked off his shoes and said he was going to fall asleep in the stuffed animals: “I’m going to sleep in here.” But then he said “It’s my 3D video phone. I better answer it.” He used his shoe as a phone and I was Mr. Big Nose (from the Treehouse books). He was then a tortoise and I was Tortoise Mr. Big Nose.

We went to Carly’s classroom and she had cleared off a cart. I used it take the boxes out, then made a second trip with bike trailer parts. While I was doing that he was playing on the beanbag chairs and picking up beans that were leaking out and they printed some pages from the computer. Carly and I carried things on our last trip and he walked out to the car.

We got home and he played Toca Blocks while I started opening boxes and Carly made grilled cheese sandwiches. We now have a full set of knives and all our supplies for hanging up the rest of our art. And the framed Breathe and reading posters to hang up.

We ate, and he kept saying “I’ve been waiting to play guitar.” So I went up and got the cords and we plugged it into the iPad and started playing guitar. We moved upstairs to be nice to Carly. A lot of August pushing down frets and asking what that note was when I played it. And he liked changing the amps and pedals on GarageBand.

Eventually we went downstairs and they opened the four splat balls that my parents had put in the boxes. Those were a lot of fun. Carly put on a timer for 7 minutes until he used the bathroom. That worked. Back with the balls he was throwing them at the ground and said “Look at this, Girl.” Called her that several times. They also opened the decorate it yourself mug present from my parents. They actually had it in Chelan this summer but we were so busy we never used it.

August and I then played with all of our ‘new’ Legos while Carly took a shower. By ‘new’ I mean the Legos from when I was a kid. I was remembering which ones were mine and which were Paul’s. We mainly put together all the people, and I did something we probably didn’t do 30+ years ago: put the long hair on the police officers and fire fighters. We also put together the police and fire boats.

We cleaned up all the legos, then read most of the Frog and Toad stories we have. He wanted to read them, because the mail carrier Lego figure reminded him of the  Letter story. Also brushed his teeth.

They first attempted to go to sleep after 8. But he sat up and said “It’s no use.” He came down the stairs and told me “I woke up
at 8:22.” But Carly took him back up and they read The Sneetches and Wild About Books. But he was back down at 8:44. He was talking silly and said “I’m speaking millipede language.” He opened Plumdog on the iPad and read it in millipede language, then had me read a good chunk of it in English. We then read a new BabyLit book I got called Edgar Gets Ready for Bed. We read it twice and he was Edgar saying “Nevermore!” He was then August, also saying “Nevermore!” I would say things like “Take a shower!” and he’d say “Nevermore!” Finally, we read The Fall Festival. He was ready now, and he was up and asleep by 9:20.

Among the plants (and wiping sap in his hair): 

Naked biking: 

The grin: 

Asleep:  

On his 3D video phone: 

Wearing my hat: 

Reunited with more of our stuff:

Pouring out Legos: 

He came down just after 7. They nursed, then he sat next to me and I noted how he looks older with short hair. He spotted the “tortoise milk” out on the counter and ran over to see it. He He did some math in Excel and I went upstairs to take a shower. He watched a couple episodes of Peg + Cat and I left just before 9 to walk to the rental car company. I reversed my path that I walked last time when I returned the car. 3.7 miles in just less than an hour. Got attacked by a couple little dogs as I took the little road that led to the dirt road through the fields. One bit onto my shorts and hung there for a few seconds. I grabbed rocks and threw a couple and managed to get by them.

Got to the rental car dealership just before 10 and, unlike last time, they took my documents and started everything right away. Just had to wait a couple minutes, during which August started texting me messages from Carly’s phone. He can type ‘one’ and sent a bunch of random autosuggest messages. The car is a black Mitsubishi. Got home by 10:30.

They were putting new sheets on the bed and he showed me the “underground” – the inside of the duvet cover. I helped him play in that for awhile (he hibernated with Smokey and took Peter Rabbit on a tour, showing him the underground pipes). I went downstairs to get some water and food and we went back up to play for a bit. He also spent quite awhile sending text messages back and forth from my phone and Carly’s phone.

We then took the car out for our first drive in awhile. We headed to the mall in Kfer Sava. Carly needed to get her photo taken for her Israeli driver’s license. I need to do it too, but first need to also get an ID number, which I’ll do next Sunday. August did fine in the car. As we got close to the mall and he was looking out the window he said “That tree is unpredictable.” We got to the mall a little before 12.

You get your photo taken at an eye place, although we don’t need eye exams. While Carly waited August tried on glasses and sunglasses. He had said he wanted to help Carly, but there was no paperwork for him to help with. We then went out and played on the playground in the park area south of the mall. They first went on a little climbing thing, then August played briefly in a little mushroom house. Went on a round swing with Carly, then we played the big whack-a-mole type game using red and green lights a few times. August helped a little, but mainly liked watching us or another kid do it, and seeing the numbers on the scores increase.

We then found a bathroom, then walked across the rest of the park to a street with shops along it. Found a falafel place and got two sandwiches, some friends, and lemonades. Carly finally had a falafel sandwich here. Sat at a table on the sidewalk and ate. August really liked the falafel, so we’re making progress.

We walked back to our car and headed to the Drorim Mall to do grocery shopping at Tiv Taam. Carly went in to start shopping and August and I sstayed in the car. He got in the driver’s seat with me and played with the electric mirrors and sent Carly a lot of messages and monster stickers on her phone. He and I got out of the car and went and played in the outside play area for 5 or 10 minutes. Climbed in the train and asked me to join him. He went on one of the cars and got his shoe wet, so he took that off and played with one shoe on, jumping on the dots on the ground.

We then went to Tiv Taam and found Carly. I carried him part of the way there. He helped bag groceries, then we made him walk back to the car, no carrying, as we had too many bags.

We got home at 3:20. ُTo encourage him to walk to the car we had called the covered area a portal to another world and he ran through it. That also reminded him of Toca Blocks and exploring the “Other worlds”. So when we got home he wanted to play that. Did that, and then Carly skyped with Cherie. More of the “I love you impossible infinity” routine at the end.

He and I went upstairs to play more in the underground and read The 39-Story Treehouse. Then went downstairs and read part of Mummies in the Morning. I remembered I had a bookmark in one of my books and gave it to him so he could put a bookmark in the mummy book. We then watched Hebrew videos: the numbers video, the colors song, then a couple other color ones. He was then singing the colors song to himself.

He ate some of the tomato soup that Carly had made, then had me typing stuff that he could then copy and paste over and over again. He did some Excel math, then I was typing words for him to read. We headed up to bed and got his pajamas on, but it went downhill from there, with him making “I’ll kill you” jokes. He didn’t like our negative response to those jokes, then he refused to go to the bathroom. After a lot of screaming and “I won’t!” Carly put a diaper on him for the first time in about three months. I left them at 8:30 and he was soon asleep.

Wrapped in a blanket while he slept: 

Trying on glasses: 

Lunch: 

Waiting for us to finish eating: 

He was up at 7:05. Nursed then typed on my iPad. I made Israeli eggs, as I called them (with za’ater) for him and me. “Mama, I like za’ater!” He said he liked it because he also liked it on popcorn. He and Carly then typed a message to Josephine: “I love you so much.” He and I then went upstairs and read The 39-Stoey Treehouse. After the rabbits in the book play hide and seek, he and I ended up playing hide and seek in the bed. He mainly wanted me to hide. When it was his turn to hide he’d either get too excited as soon as I started counting, or he’d just cover his head, and as soon as I finished counting he would jump out and yell “I’m right here!” He took some photos with my camera, then we headed downstairs.

I asked if he wanted more of the carrots and potatoes we’d had with breakfast. He did his blinking, which means he is full. I think he may have started that yesterday at the cafe. He saw Carly’s bookmark, which had candy corn on it, and he asked “Can I smell that bookmark?” He got one with gummy worms on it at the library and had smelled it as well. Reminds me of when he would smell candy at Home Plus.

We went and did Hebrew block letters. He would tell me how to draw them. They nursed. He said “If you don’t let me nurse, I’ll not be nice to you.” Then apologized. I went and took a shower. They were doing a timer until he could nurse again when I got back down. He wasn’t happy about that at first, but then kept requesting more time on the timer. Eventually they nursed, then Carly made a bowl of popcorn and they went outside and ate it. They talked about clouds and airplanes. He asked if it was the same airport we met Airport Megan at. He was making a lot of his yummy noises as he ate popcorn.

Sometime after 11 we got going for a walk. August remembered cookies as we were getting ready, and I gave him half a cookie at the start. He immediately wanted more after that and was upset when we wouldn’t give him more. We got across the bridge, but then he was stopping the bike. We waited in a shady spot for him to feel better. Let him watch a timer for a bit. Wasn’t happening. Carly agreed to carry him, and thought that might work. Eventually we got to the cafe on the grounds of the retirement community. We got a table, but the place was busy. When we found out they only had juice, August insisted on a smoothie. We decided it wasn’t going to work, so Carly took him over towards the small park nearby. I tried to get us drinks to go. I was told I could order up at the register, but I waited for one woman to pay, then the cashiers were busy and finally I gave up.

I went and found them. They’d made it to the edge of the grass and were sitting down, playing with grass. He was taking pieces of grass and trying to balance them on some leaves. Played there a bit longer then got his bike and got going. We went to the mall and to Rebar – the first smoothie place August and I ever went, but we haven’t been back. August and I got a strawberry and raspberry smoothie, and Carly got a chocolate one. We sat on a bench outside the mall and drank them. I read James and the Giant Peach and we got to chapter 16. We switched benches to get away (a bit) from the flies that were mainly focused on the ice cream place. Before we left he ran a couple good circles in the area in front of the mall entrance. We left the mall before 1:30 and walked home the long way.

On the walk he said “I’m gonna dream about cookies.” He then made up a complicated recipe for making chocolate chips. When we got to the house at 1:50 he was practicing counting about 100 in Hebrew.

We read Garfield, then they Skyped with Cassie. He did some typing and Excel, then they tried to call Korea Megan (now in India) and that didn’t work so they messaged her. I made a couple frozen pizzas. As we ate that he asked “How do you spell zombie attack?” After pizza he made up a game of throwing pillows off the couch. He was then running across the floor to Carly and fell and hit his head a bit. While he was nursing we were joking around and tried to get him involved. He said “Too sad”.

Awhile later he wanted to look at our steps for the day. It was about 8200. So he wanted to go out for another walk. Carly was reading outside, so we said bye to her. We walked up to the end of Kibuts Galuyot St. then walked over to HaHadarim St. and down to our park. Along the way we set some timers, first for 10 minutes. And we sand the A Ah Apples song  and Elephant, Elephant, which I’d suddenly remembered I used to sing for him long, long ago. We got home at 3:45 and had gotten just over 10,000 steps. He wanted to get to 20,000. He said “I know. We can go to Ikea then the mall…” I declined. He went to the bathroom, then wanted to play with the sequencer on GarageBand. I initially set him up over by the Duplos, as Carly had come in and lain on the couch. But August picked up the iPad and moved it to be next to Carly.

After that we went upstairs and ate apple and read James and the Giant Peach. We went and got more apple and kept reading. Carly cooked zucchini, and we came down for that. Then back upstairs for more reading and to eat some dry Cheerios. Then back down for more zucchini and to get more Cheerios. We went up and did even more reading. We got to chapter 22. He was then being a silkworm and I made a cave for him with the blanket which he called the magic leaf pile as it could get smaller and bigger.

He was getting tired and asked to go brush his teeth. We went downstairs to do that and he played with his comb as a Chinese instrument and played Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. I brushed his teeth. Then they briefly Skyped with Cherie. When Carly asked if he wanted to call her he said “Okay, but can I type ‘I love you, Oma.’” Cherie and August got into a contest over who loves the other more. August said “I love you impossible infinities!”

Carly cut August’s hair, or at least parts of it, while he watched the Peg + Cat Arch-villian episode. He tolerated it for awhile, but not long enough. We went upstairs before 8 and I left them about 8:10.

Retreating from the haircut: 

Before I went to sleep he sat up in bed. After a minute he lay back down on his back, fully leaning against me. When I went to fall asleep I was able to turn onto my back. He still used my stomach as a pillow and I put my arm around him and fell asleep like that. He eventually slid off, but slept with his head pushed against my shoulder for quite some time.

He was up at 6:50. He was halfway down the stairs when I said “Hi, ZZ.” He turned around and quietly went back upstairs. I gave him a minute. I started to head up the stairs. He heard me and yelled “No!” I told him I’d be on the couch. I heard him play with the blocks for a little bit, then he made his way down and crawled on the couch.

First thing he wanted was Toca Elements. We played that a little, then read a lot of our new Garfield book and wasthen a baby squirrel that had nightmares. Then to GarageBand where we recorded piano and then played with the sequencer. After that he found the app about symphony instruments. It was still set for Korean, so he was practicing his Korean. Then a little more programming in the Lightbot app, making the robot jump now. Then exercise and Toca Blocks. We went upstairs and in Toca Blocks we discovered that combining blocks made new things. We discovered a bunch of new things then I went to take a shower. He came into the bathroom and said “Im destroying all the things we discovered!” With a fun smile on his face.

After my shower I gave him his. He protested, but not as bad as yesterday. We then went downstairs and got ready to go. He was instantly ready when I said he could have a cookie on the bike. He ate his cookie 🍪 as we walked into town. When he was done he said he wanted to give people cookies 🍪 , and explained that he meant when we were off the current street, which didn’t have a lot of people. I said we hadn’t brought cookies with us and he turned us around. We almost went back, but it was quite a ways. Also, I started to talk about people we could give cookies to: the guys at the hardware store, the woman at the toy store. He seemed less excited about it when it was actually people he knew. Also, I think he might have been hoping to get more cookie for himself.

So we continued on into town. There around 11:30. The pizza place was closed. Not a huge surprise. But so was the sushi/noodle place. We thought about our usual coffee shop, but then I decided to try the other one. But we got there and it was really busy.  So we went back to Malkin Cafe, our usual coffee shop. We got a table for two inside and ordered an olive pizza and our usual orange and carrot juice for him an apple juice for me. We read some James and the Giant Peach while we waited. And he spotted a photo on the wall. We went over to look at the random photos and it was one of Miss Piggy and Kermit. After he was full he played some Dragonbox Big Numbers while I finished up. He was doing pretty well with his subtraction.

We walked over to Bachar Garden, the park by the library. Got there at 12:50. The merry-go-round was a time machine: “Do you want to go to ancient Egypt? It’s just 7 kilometers away.” “You’re in the time of dinosaurs.” And “You’re a teacher. Say ‘You just got eaten by a dinosaur.’” Had me say that several times. He played in the dried smoothie again, scraping it with a stick until I realized there was an actual nail on it. Took the nail out. He then tapped me on the head with the stick: “I was touching you on the head to get your attention.” “Holly can hit that person with a stick…Jack and Celeste can…” Told him that wasn’t okay, then he was hitting things, making noise: “Just getting people’s attention.” But then he really bonked me on the head. Got that on video.

He walked around the tree a lot, and eventually was ready to go. First we went over to the drinking fountain to fill his water. There were other kids and he started shouting “Go!” I got him to stop and say “sorry” instead, so then he was repeating that: “My thing sequencer is just on ‘go’ now…I turned it on ‘sorry’ now.”

We left at 1:15. As we walked he wanted to spell words in Hebrew. We looked up real words, like thousand and infinity, and he was also making up spelling of words in Hebrew. At the cafe he had also been reading Hebrew letters off of signs.

We stopped at the little park for a snack and discussed delivering snacks. When I mentioned Jack and Celeste, he asked who Celeste was. I reminded him that Celeste was Jack’s wife. He then asked what ‘wife’ meant. I explained using me and mama. He then said “And I’m zucchini bread’s wife…Why you’re zucchini bread’s wife? Because I really like zucchini bread.”

We got walking home again and he said he wanted to watch something when we got home. I suggested we watch outside and could use the picnic mat. He said he was bored of the picnic mat. I said we hadn’t used it in months, and he reminded me we had used it at the Mediterranean Sea. He did all of this in a loud robot voice. He got totally random after that, talking about spinning. I finally realized he was thinking about spinning because the tree house spins in Magic Tree House. He instantly started laughing and simultaneously strongly denying that was the connection. He instead said it was a fan. There was a lot to it, but it blew us and the bricks of the path to Japan. Then it was snowing in Egypt. And now he has 10000 rockets.

We got back a little before 2. We watched the Christmas Problem episode of Peg + Cat on the picnic mat and shared a cookie. He watched another episode and I sat next to him and read. We went inside after that and he watched a timer for awhile and we listened to Peg + Cat songs. Then his Year 1 playlist. He was then sick animals. We then looked at some books and finally read Little Red Hen. Carly got home at 3:50 just as we were finishing that up.

They went outside for awhile. He was then upset, wanting more cookies. I heated up carrots and cauliflower and potatoes for him and he ate those. He and I then went on our cookie walk. Delivered to Jack and Celeste first. Just spent a couple minutes there, then walked over to Holly’s. Her gate was locked so we called her and she came out and got a couple cookies. August ate half of his cookie on the way to Jack and Celeste’s, then half on the way to Holly’s. He was then upset about not getting more after that.

Got home and they nursed. Then they did a lot of art together. They used the dot paints to make a machine that made monsters. Then they did a card for Josesphine and he wrote several sentences to her, like “What shape do you like?”

He and I did some coloring book on the iPad and he drank some milk as we sat on the floor. We then went upstairs and read about 3 chapters of The 39-Story Treehouse. I left them about 8:10 and he was asleep soon after.

Sleeping: 

Sentences for Josephine: 

He started waking up at 5:40 or so. I got up first and went down to make coffee. When they came out of the bedroom he went to the stairs and I heard him say “I’m going down here at 6:04.” But he ended up staying upstairs while Carly got ready. They came down and he did some Excel and was then typing when Carly left. When I suggested reading he wanted to go upstairs to do it. So we took The 39-Story Treehouse up on his bed and read. Since we’ve started getting bookmarks at the library, he likes putting them in the middle while I’m reading. When I need to turn the page he takes the bookmark out, then places it back in the book when I turn the page. Repeat. Looking up at the ceiling, he asked how we remove the planets when we leave the country. We talked about how we’re not moving anytime soon, so they can stay up there. We finished the book.

We started laundry, then he was being a rocket taking off, and invented “3, 2, 1 Bul-gamps!” Don’t know what gave him that idea. Although in the Treehouse book they do a countdown, but it turns out that one of the characters can’t count, so it is like 10, 9, 4, 7, 5, etc. and he also had me do that several times today.

Downstairs he played with the sequencer in GarageBand. Really got into making shapes and patterns and letters today and seeing what they would sound like. We then played a bit with a new music app called SoundForest that is kind of interesting, and then Lightbot Jr. in which you program a little robot to do things. Think that will be promising in the future. Did get him thinking about right versus left, and the challenge of his left versus the robot’s.

We went back upstairs and he watched Wanda and the Alien and I took shower. We then built with the blocks and I blew over a tower. He was then doing it, and I remembered how much trouble he used to have trying to blow out air. So he was practicing it for awhile. A bit better now.

I then took him in for his shower. He said “You first. Can you do another shower?” It didn’t go any better than an evening shower. He escaped once and ran into his room. At least when it was over and I got the brush he let me brush his hair without getting upset. We were in on the bed and he asked “Can I just watch a timer with 11 minutes and 29 seconds?” So he just watched the timer countdown, and each time the minute changed on the clock on the table he announced the time: “11:00…11:01…” It seemed to calm him down. Eventually he said “Don’t shower me anymore…Don’t wash my hair.” I gave him a choice of outfits and he chose the planets outfit. He said “11:11. Is that when you got married?…What married mean?”

We then went downstairs and made cookie dough. He helped, but kept asking for sugar and chocolate chips and dough. Despite having brown sugar and a small supply of chocolate chips along the way. Had to be patient.

When we were down mixing, but before baking, he wanted to take the piano apart. We took out the metal rods, then took them upstairs to use the triangle and drum sticks on it. Played with the drums, etc. for awhile so we’ll. Went back down and started baking the cookies. When he was distracted from asking for more dough by stabbing the butter and saying “I’m getting textures in the butter.” I let him keep doing it. He was already hungry, so I made him a grilled cheese sandwich and he ate that while we waited for cookies to make. We then each had a cookie. Worth the wait.

There was one slice of the apple left and I offered it to him: “But I just had that sugary stuff. It will taste sour. See?” And ate a bite of the apple. While I was working on cookies and dishes he had been playing with the Hebrew magnets and it turned out he had put the whole Hebrew alphabet together. He asked me if it was correct. Then it was over to the piano where he took out the keys and we worked to put them back in.

We played with the sequencer in GarageBand again and made shapes. We discussed who we could give cookies to at school, and he first thought of Mandy. He was then a sick fox and cuddled with me on the couch and told me “I’m worried about class.” He then played with the stopwatch on the iPad.

Before we left he had a long narrative about direction-telling mittens, schools, and a clock store: “My mitten told me to go this way…I bought it at my school…there’s a clock store at my school…” And it continued on to: “I’m called Box Jimmy Brick Towel…I have 1000 rockets on my back.” No idea where the idea for that nickname came from. Then “I’m Zinnie now. But I still like machines!”

As we got going he sang a song: “To school and class and back to home.” We had planned to go in the pool, but about halfway I realized I’d forgotten his floaties. At first he wanted to go back for them, but we decided it was too far. We got to school a little after 3 and went to deliver cookies. Couldn’t find Megan or Holly, so went down to Mandy. The three girls were also there. I had August ask if they wanted cookies, but then he got upset, saying “I don’t want to share!” I gave them cookies, and Mandy gave him a Toblerone in return that made things a bit better.

We stopped and he ate the Toblerone and was feeling better after that. He agreed to share more cookies but wanted me to do the sharing. So we headed to the library and shared a cookie with Liz, one of the librarians. I then got him to ask about Garfield books and she showed us where they were. We got them all down and he chose the 7th Garfield Treasury. We found a couple bean bags and read it. Liz said she was going to share the cookie with Lillian, who is one of Carly’s sixth grade students, and a bit later Lillian saw us and said the cookie was really good. When we checked out the book it was then Lillian who checked it out, and we shared another cookie with them, which Lillian was going to share with her little sister.

August and I then changed out of our swimsuits and then went and found Megan and gave her a cookie. Holly was now gone, but August saw the magnetic dart board outside the middle school office. We played with those for a few minutes, with August standing on a desk and me holding him, until Carly came out and was ready to go.

We headed to class. August was in a really good mood. He told a story about saying shalom to kids all over the world, then having a cannon with infinity hearts in it. He also told me that “Faster driver faster” was from Lucy and Pogo. Before class he and the teacher did a whole high fives routine, that also included using their feet. Then downstairs we shared cookies, and Daria’s mom asked him to choose a cookie for Daria. So August picked one out and handed it to her. Once class started he didn’t want to go in at first, then was coming out a lot. His repeated line today was “I don’t know what they’re doing.” I’d look in and say “Uh, they’re throwing bean bags everywhere. Go have fun throwing bean bags everywhere.” In the middle he stayed in for a good amount of time though. But near the end he came out saying he was tired and ready to go.

He was then on the grumpy side on the way home. At home they nursed, and he told me to fall asleep. I pretended to fall asleep, and he just went back to nursing. Carly asked why I was asleep and he said “Because I told him to fall asleep.” When they were done he and I played GarageBand. He found the voice recorder and we recorded him singing several times. One of us got food for him and he sat and ate. He ate a good amount, but said “The cauliflower is over-pepperized.” and came and got his water bottle.

A bit later he said “I’m a silkworm. I’m writing my book. The first chapter is called sparecrow.” He wanted to show Carly Toca Elements so we played that for awhile. He was getting sleepy so we went upstairs to read. We read some of the Mummies in the Morning book. I left them after 8 to go to sleep. But he was back down 8:15 or so. He had been reading the time off the clock every
time it changed. We finished readying the mummy book, then he went back upstairs and was asleep by 9.

Cookie: 

Library: 

Two photos he took: 

Lillian checking out his Garfield book: 

Squirrel nest before class: 

Trying my glasses: 

August was up just after 6:10. He said “Mama?” from the top of the stairs. Came down and they nursed. He did some math in Excel and then was typing words on my iPad. We had finished ‘kaleidoscope’ when Carly was leaving and he asked to type ‘I love you’. She left, and his next request was ‘glass window’. After that he had fun making emojis and having me to read the nonsense story that resulted. He read a couple words on his own, kind of like yesterday when he was pretending to read the books in the library and picked out a few words. We then finished 52-Story Treehouse. He was then an ant and wanted an ant nest. We made a big nest and then read to chapter 10 of James and the Giant Peach. We then destroyed the nest and he watched A Day for Eeyore and I made a mango lassi.

After lassi we did some Hebrew and exercised. He said he’d do a weight if I did. He used one weight and said it was because he lost his other hands. We then read 6 chapters of The 39-Story Treehouse. We went upstairs and took his Hebrew workbook. On one page we translated the boxes with writing prompts. One was ‘I like’ and he said “ice cream”. So I showed him how to write it in Hebrew and he wrote it in the box. I took a shower and he played Dragonbox Little Numbers. On his bed we then watched the Hebrew numbers song, and then found one about Hebrew colors. Then we watched a playlist of Hebrew children’s songs. He leaned his head against my back as he watched them.

Downstairs I put Dragonbox Egg Crack on his iPad and he did a few levels on his own. He was then being Garfield:”I ate 10 quarts of mayonnaise and 7 quarts of chicken.” We read some Garfield. He talked about getting more Garfield books but looked on iBooks and they are expensive there. But then I figured out how to search the school library and I found five books we can check out.

He had corn and rice and then sweet potato fries for lunch. He started repeating “You know what I like about you? You’re so docile.” Which is a Garfield comic. We then added in the rest of the strip where Garfield attacks Jon and then says “I don’t like being pegged.” We acted it out several times.

We went outside and spent quite awhile watering the plants and picking up the tree things, as a good amount had fallen because of the wind. While watering the papayas and tomatoes, he takes time to make a “stream” from one plant to the next. When he got to the sunny part he asked me to do the next plant. He took back over and realized I hadn’t done a stream and chastised me for not continuing the stream.

Back inside we read a couple more chapters of The 39-Story Treehouse, then he did some Legos on his own.

We left by 2:10. I had talked about how we could make chocolate chip cookies tomorrow to take to his activity class. He was not happy about the idea of giving all our cookies away, and only slightly calmed by assurances that he would have cookies too. So he was grumpy on the way over. I’d mentioned the park, but when we got past the mall he was surprised we weren’t going to the mall. He cheered up when I reminded him about the park, and really cheered up when we started playing.

He went to the merry-go-round and had me get on. He explained it was just for adults but he could get on because he was the driver. First he asked me where I wanted to go and I said Iceland, but he said busses don’t go to other countries. I said to the beach then. It then turned into a time machine, which also turned into a lesson about the numbering of years: “You’re really close to ancient Egypt. You’re in the 1960s…Yeah, you’re a couple thousand years off but you’re pretty close!…You’re to when dragons were here!” We talked about how it is now 2017 and he was born in 2014: “Huh? How’s it get to the 2000s? I thought it was still the thousands!”

He then found some sap on a tree, and played with that for several minutes. He would get his fingers sticky, then we would head over to the drinking fountain to wash it off. He kept talking about the sap “slowly unstickafying” and being “unstickafied”. Carly thinks she might have come up with that one. He also wanted to keep checking our step count. We went and looked at the free library briefly, then got going.

We went to the mall and went shopping. He stayed on the bike and I used our reusable bags as our cart. He forgot he had to keep sitting though and started jumping in his seat once and tipped over backwards. Had to pause and take him out the bathroom once. We finished and headed home.

We came home and played GarageBand until Carly got home. They nursed and I got food out. August wasn’t eating much and was being a bag of French fries wanting to go to the grocery store, sitting on a pillow and wanting one of us to carry him. Through serious negotiation he agreed to have two bites, then I’d carry him. But he only ate one bite and refused a second. Ended up getting really upset and Carly took him upstairs. Got him calmed down until she said it was shower time. We decided to try to do showers during the day and skipped a shower.

He calmed down and started playing around: “What should I have for breakfast? 1 quart of mayonnaise and two quarts of iPads. What should I have for dinner? One quart of carpets.” That’s from Garfield, who puts a quart of mayonnaise on his salad.

Carly had cooked cauliflower, and we went down and he ate a good amount of that. We went back upstairs and read 3 chapters of Mummies in the Morning, the third Magic Treehouse book, then more of The 39-Story Treehouse. I left them about 7:10 and he was asleep soon after that.

Exercising and talking about his hands breaking off: 

Practicing his Hebrew numbers: 

Chastising me for not doing the stream: 

Unstickified sap at Drorim Garden: 

Skittles song: 

More sequencer drums and dancing: 

Reading in the fort

Measuring

Writing ‘ice cream’

Merry-go-round

Picking sap

Swinging

Reading cursive

A photo he took off me

Photo we took off Carly

Writing ‘ice cream’ in Hebrew: 

Park: 

Reading cursive letters: 

He was up at 5:55. He did some math in Excel on her computer, doubling his sums in a nice layout, and was watching Peg + Cat when she left, and decided to use all his episodes in the morning. He was then a baby elephant and wanted me to make him a nest. After that we were squirrels and made a bigger nest. We would winter, then he would say we were diggers destroying the nest: “First we do it gently, then harder. Can we do it together?”

He requested GarageBand and played that while I got ready for making banana bread. He then had me playing Itsy Bitsy and Yankee Doodle. We made banana bread, and he was pretty impatient to lick the spatula. We went and did some Hebrew alphabet on paper and exercised together. He played Dragonbox Little Numbers while I took a shower. We ate some banana bread, and I made him a grilled tuna sandwich while I had quiche for lunch. He ate a bunch of the extra tuna out of the bowl while I made the sandwich, then a good amount of the sandwich. He then had more banana bread as a baby squirrel, saying it was his breakfast. A good amount of food, considering he’d also already had a couple bowls of Cheerios and most of an apple.

I commented on a pillow being in the kitchen and asked how it got there. He said he slid it in there, and showed me how he rode on it. I asked “Hey pillow! Where are you going?” He replied “The pillow just wanted to go for a walk…it’s just going for a walk.” The pillow was then a bus: “Not just a magic bus: a super magic bus.” “Can you lift it up? I’m going to th South Pole!”

He played in his squirrel nest on his own, asking about multiplication problems. Had a strip of paper or something that he was playing with sort of like a cat. I did dishes, then we did more Hebrew; he was singing funny Hebrew songs. He then had me practice sleeping as he was playing with the stopwatch and timer.

We started to go to the cages at 12:35 to do recycling. He said”I’m a squirrel. We’re gonna ride our squirrel bike.” But then he got distracted by the toy piano and asked me to play “Sentimental Wars”. He then started taking the keys out and he did some piano improv after he liked something I was playing. We took all the keys and metal parts out and put it back together.

We went and did recycling. He wanted to do plastic and glass first. He asked if there was any glass and I said I wasn’t sure. He asked to check, and did so by knocking the bottom of the bag on the ground to see if it made a glass noise. He took over most of recycling and did it really fast, like in fast forward, while he hummed. He said he had rockets on his back to get the plastic up to the various heights. At first he had 7, but then he kept adding more and more rockets. By the time we were home he had 1000 rockets – enough to take him to Neptune.

Back at home we read a little of The BFG and decided on books to take back. He was fine taking The Enormous Crocodile back. He said “That one’s a little sad.” We headed out, and out on the street there was a small dog wandering around. He said “I’m going to slap the doggie on the bottom.” I have no idea where that idea came from. We left at 2:05.

We sang different songs on our way up to school: Sentimental Wars, Electricity, etc. At the school he used the bathroom by the library and I picked up a couple books from the free book shelf. We went down the elevator and went to check on the hedgehog. The hedgehog has a big enclosure with all sorts of things to hide in, so don’t think we’ll ever see it unless someone gets it out. He wasn’t that interested anyway.

We went back to the library and he played in the stuffed animals. I was looking at a selection of memoirs they had out and read the beginning of The Glass Castle, which starts with a 3-year old getting burnt while cooking hotdogs. August then wanted me to read it, and when I said it was an adult book with no pictures he was just more insistent. So I read him the opening part, realizing it was actually a good cautionary tale, and it talked about the ice and skin grafts. We then started to head back to the kids section, but he stopped part way and went on a bean bag chair. I said the books there were more for mama’s students and he said he wanted to pretend to be a student. The first book he pulled out was Robot Visions by Isaac Asimov. I read him parts of that – his first Asimov. He pulled a couple other books and cuddled on his back in the chair next to me, running his finger over the lines and pretending to read. I was able to read the entire title story of Robot Visions. At one point we tried to go back to use the microscopes, but the bulbs were burnt out in both, so we went back and did more reading. When he grabbed another book he said “No pictures but I love it.”

Eventually we did go and look at books to check out. They had both 39 and 52-Story Treehouse and August really wanted to get both. We also got Magic Treehouse #3. We checked those out and sat on the stuffed animals and started reading 52-Story Treehouse.

Before we went in the library to begin with he had asked me what ‘Hello’ in Hebrew was. 30 in Hebrew sounds similar, so he was getting them straight. He was then saying “shalom” to people as we went to see the hedgehog, and to Liz at the desk. He said it to her again when we checked out books and she’d asked if he’d just been to a Hebrew class. So when Carly came and was talking to him, he said something about his class, and said “You know, my Hebrew class.”

We headed up to his dance class, which he seemed prepared for and happy about. At class he was saying “shalom” some more, and before class started he was dancing to the music playing in the studio. And we talked about the clock and where the hands would be. All went smoothly until class started. I got him to head in for the “Boring part” but he came right back out. Then, while I was holding him he said he wanted to go on the couches. But the couches were being used by adults, and when I said he wouldn’t be able to use them he got really sad: “Never‽” Carly held him for a bit out in the stairwell and when she tried to bring him back in the waiting room he screamed. We switched back and I held him for awhile. I managed to get him back in the waiting room, but he wasn’t even interested in looking through the curtain with me. He was just ready to go home.

So we headed home, getting here by 5:30. They nursed, but he was being squirmy and grabby so they stopped. He was upset while she got food. They eventually nursed and he calmed down and he and I read 52-Story Treehouse to the middle of chapter 6. Carly got him food. He wanted to look at the steps on my phone. It was over 10,000 and he asked if we could get to 20,000. He said “We can get there by riding in my pillowcase time machine.”

Carly gave him a shower, then he was making music on the bed. We both watched him for awhile. Took a video of him making music, then he watched himself. We brushed his teeth and read Biscuit Wants to Play and Biscuit Plays Ball while Carly took a shower. He was then asleep around 7:15.

The 1000 rockets on his back thing continued throughout the day and he mentioned it several times.

Photos: 

Playing in the burrow: 

Blast off: 

The wind: 

Choosing some Isaac Asimov: