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He was up at 6:10. When he and I came down, Carly had two cups covering something on the floor in the kitchen. Carly had stepped on a lizard on the way to make coffee a few minutes later. They nursed and he did Google Earth and Excel on Carlys computer, and at some point I helped dispose of the parts of the lizard, taking them outside.

He watched two episodes of Wanda and the Alien and Carly headed to work. Cheerios and apples as he watched. We then went and played with the Legos, primarily making cars today using on the wheel pieces. We put a tree on the back of one of them and he said it was a farmer and he played with that one throughout the morning. He kept asking “Why babies can’t do Legos?” and I would explain about fine motor control and choking hazards. We then moved to the paper and added to his plane picture from yesterday.

Up on the couch he practiced going to sleep, setting the stopwatch and pretending to sleep. He was then driving his farmer on me. I asked “Where’s he taking the tree?” August answered “To Ra’anana Park.” We then read the Ancient Egypt chapter of 65-Story Treehouse, then stopped so I could find him a video of a snake charmer playing a punji. But mainly we found videos of snake trainers treating snakes badly.

Did more Legos and then he drew lines of symmetry on an oval he drew before dividing it smaller and smaller. Then another shape: “That’s a man-eating number line.” Back to the Legos, he figured out that a couple rectangular pieces had lines of 10 bumps and was counting them by 10s, up to 120.

We then did some Hebrew cursive on the paper. Then upstairs where he did TodoMath on his bed as I started laundry “Dada. I think it says ‘What number is 2 less than 71.’” I took a shower, then we went downstairs and prepared snacks. He played with his farmer more and said “The driver’s called Albajour…It’s in French.” The car kept coming apart and he would need help to put it back together.

We left at 11:15. He did a lot of asking for water and food along the way until I told him he could just wait a few minutes.We got to the Even Yehuda library at 11:40. At first he didn’t want to go in and was frustrated with me. But then I showed him the kids area and he started playing with the stuffed animals. We went in the little sitting room and got some Hebrew books. We spent a good amount of time starting to learn how to tell time on an analog clock in a book as he can count by 5s. There was another book whose title translated as Billy Saves Nature and the pictures were clear enough with that one and we looked through it a few times. Later, he would pretend to be animals affected by pollution.

We left at 12:30 when the library was closing and went to Ishimoto Sushi for lunch. This time we got the pad thai with shrimp. August asked if mama and I liked shrimp and fish, but then decided he would want to get shrimp even if mama was there.

He really liked the pad thai and the shrimp in it and we took a good amount of time eating. He then played Dragonbox Little Numbers and I helped and read for awhile.

From there we walked over to the park by the library. We went on the merry-go-round. There was a big spill of what looked like blueberry yogurt on the ground by a nearby tree and he talked about playing with it. When he got off he went and was playing with it with sticks and setting leaves in it. After awhile he accidentally touched it with a finger. I went and got his water bottle, but he got upset about it, thinking he had touched something he wasn’t supposed to touch.

When he calmed down he wanted to play a game on the play structure. He told me he didn’t want me tickling him or scaring him though, but I should bang on the tube. But when I did that he decided that was too scary as well and decided to go over on the swing.

On the swing we discussed what sort of toppings to get on the pizza we were going to take home. I suggested mangoes and he said no and explained: “Mangos are fruits and fruits are soggy things and that would make the pizza soggy…ducks eat soggy things.” Off the swing he went and was playing with some big piles of pine needles. When I pointed out that they were swept up like that he picked them all back up and put them back up in the pile. After pulling a few weeds he was then Hilo and was drawing portals in the dirt and pushing a button to suck me into the portal to trap me (Razorwark) in the void.

At 2:30 we got going. The plan was to go to VIPizza and get a pizza to take home for dinner. It had been open when we walked by before 2, and their hours on Facebook said they were open until 3 – and they were open at 3 last week when we walked by on Friday. But now it was closed.

We kept walking, and decided to go into the grocery store in the mall. We have pizza dough mix at home. Got a few veggies for pizza, then realized they had frozen pizza as well and got a couple of those. We also got two small bottles of orange juice.

We continued on and stopped at Citrus Garden park to drink the orange juice. I then wanted to get going, as there was a group of 5th/6th grade kids that were having a fruit fight. It was getting a bit out of hand and I didn’t want either of us to get hit by a flying orange. Also, I didn’t want August to think making a mess like that was okay. So we got going, but August saw an orange on the ground and wanted to take it. He figured out what was going on and got upset – first because he wanted to go back, but mainly, I think, because he wanted to clean up the mess and didn’t want the park ruined.

Eventually I convinced him we could go to Motek Garden and step on and collect oranges from the orange trees there. On the way, I noticed that a house had a koi pond in the yard and we stopped to look. He asked “Is this the Kerns’ house?” Apparently they have fish, although it wasn’t clear if they were big fish like this.

We stopped at the park for about 20 minutes. Collected about 8 oranges, and he stepped on several, and broke them open on rocks. There were a couple of guys practicing their rapping on a bench in the corner of the park. That as kind of cool.

We headed home as he needed to use the bathroom. We were home at 3:45 and rushed inside. He was struggling to get his shoes off and I told him that when he really needed to go he could go straight to the toilet and worry about taking his shoes of later. So he ran in wearing just one shoe. He made it, but managed to pee a bit through the crack between the lid and bowl – something that has surprisingly not happened to him before. He thought it was pretty funny, actually.

He was asking about big numbers and how many zeros they have after them: “Sept means seven…Oct means eight…I know nonillion. Non means nine and it has 30 zeroes!”

He was some sick animals and we played a little Legos, then we called Carly to see when she planned on coming home. August did most of the calling. We went upstairs to put clothes in the dryer and read Picasso’s Trousers on his bed. We came back down to start pizza and he was playing on the couch. At 4:45 the guy downstairs started knocking on the window with a broom, startling both of us. We ignored it and didn’t answer him.

We then read 65-Story Treehouse on the floor while August drank orange juice. Carly got home and I sliced pieces of pizza for us all. We read more Treehouse, then he went outside with Carly picking up stick things as a lot had fallen due to the wind. At one point he was trying to tell her about something and she didn’t understand what he was talking about. He clarified what word he was saying, saying “‘Here’ as in the place, not ‘hear’ when you hear something” or something along those lines, and providing some more examples. He then came in on his own and was writing the alphabet on the chalkboard. Not something he’s done before. He asked for my help at a couple points, but did most of it on his own.  

It was time for a shower and Carly su
ggested Beethoven during his shower. He watched the fourth movement of the 9th while he was on the toilet, then continued to listen as I gave him a shower. We then went in on the bed and he watched more. While he was watching he had a magic car: “will go past the moon, past Neptune, and all the way back to Earth! Where it will break EVERYTHING!” And “I have a triplet making reflecting sounding machine!”

We went down to get his water and Carly. As we went back up he volunteered “I’m gonna dream about magma plumes.” As Carly put on his pajamas the shirt sleeve was messed up and he said “There’s a glitch in it.” He was asleep at 7:40.

 

Pretending to sleep: 

Pad Thai: 

Oranges: 

He woke up at 5:30. We were all still in bed. In the 5:40s he started reading out the times on the clock. Went downstairs around 6. He and I started reading 65-Story Treehouse and were reading it when Carly left. We read 250 pages, starting at the beginning. Snacked on Cheerios while we read. We took a break and he watched Wanda and the Alien while I made a mango lassi. He moved the iPad to the kitchen floor so he could keep watching while he had the lassi.

We then read 50 pages of Plumdog. August acted out things like the dogs rolling in poop. We then moved to art. He drew a rectangle then divided it in halves, quarter, eighths, sixteenth, etc. On the other page he did long rectangles, then divided them into “thirds” lengthwise: “Now, I’m gonna make a machine.” We drew a plane, taking turns to color it in with the blue marker. He said  “That’s a walrus in the air.” He then sang a nice song: “Im the walrus, lost in the air.”

We then got the Legos (which had come in the large box) out for the first time. He chose a blue base and started making a rectangle, then adding rectangles inside, filling it up. He was talking and said “The voongadees take all the oxygen from the fire.”

We went upstairs and I took a shower and he watched one Wanda and the Alien. Only two episodes this morning, and he saved a third for later, although he never used it. We went downstairs and made a salmon sandwich for lunch. He played TodoMath and DragonBox Little Numbers. He ate his half of his sandwich (all but the last little bite) with my help (holding it). He acted out being the balancing scales in TodoMath and had me come up with math problems that would balance him. He was then a lost walrus, etc.

We went outside to do watering. He spent quite awhile making streams between the papaya plants. And he wanted to make sure mama’s favorite weed was watered. And he pulled a couple weeds as well.

Back inside he played with Legos on his own, adding to the structure he had made, then taking it apart. He was excited by a cone-shaped piece and we made a little rocket with it.

We left at 12:45. Over at the mall we stopped and he played on the airplane again. He wanted to make sure there were no wires lying around this time. He’s been interested in polygons again and asked me to look up the chart so we could find out the names of 12, 20, etc. sided polygons. Did that as he sat on the plane and the wing.

Then inside, where outside Tiv Taam there was a taste test thing happening for some Tenta vegan burgers. I tried them, but August, who has never passed up a free sample before, didn’t participate, as I think he didn’t want to have to talk to the women. The patties were good, although the spicy one wasn’t.

We did our grocery shopping. August sat in the cart and was generally just fine. We had to stop for several minutes while he watched a couple workers use pricing guns. He also started asking if things were symmetrical, mainly starting with the milk cartons, but moving on from there. That led to teaching him the word ‘asymmetrical’ and reminds me that on the trains yesterday he asked “What it called when the train is slowing down?” Seemed pretty clear that he was asking me for the name of a concept, which was interesting. So we had talked about ‘acceleration’ and ‘deceleration’.

As I said, shopping was fine until checkout, at which point he kept saying “Go!” to the woman doing check out. When we were done I had to talk to him and explain that he needed to stop saying that and be nice to people – or simply ignore them. Also, I felt comfortable tying later iPad usage to him not saying it. With reminders through the day, of course.

We got home with the intent of a quick turnaround and heading to school to get there before 3. But he wanted to read the ant section of 65-Story Treehouse so we read that. I then sliced an apple to take with us and he got involved with the Hebrew magnets. So I sat on the floor and we talked through the alphabet once.

We left right around 3. It was slow going, as there was a strong wind blowing at us. Well, most of the way. It swirled around and for a bit was helping us, but mainly it was in our face. He was asking about directions (north, etc.) and would continue to do so in the pool, asking what direction he was facing.

We spent about a half hour in the water. He was catching the wind in his hands and asking about directions. We got out at 3:55. Warm enough in the water, but a bit chilly in the wind getting out. August commented on evaporation. He was then asking if everything was symmetrical in the bathroom.

We got to Carly’s classroom and played on the bean bags while Carly went and made phone calls. Apparently, Skoda screwed up theVIN. Something Neville, the guy at the school, says he has not seen in 20 years. That’s a bureaucratic nightmare as our tax break is tied to it. So don’t know what happened: either they got the number wrong, or perhaps sold our car to someone else somewhere in Israel.

August did some sleep practice in the bean bags, then when we were done we headed to his activity class. He was a little disappointed there were no small things for him to carry in, but he helped Carly carry a big cushion thing.

Before class the teacher (whose name sounds like Seagall, but is probably spelled differently) gave him a bunch of high fives and he thought that was funny. There were a couple more kids today, two boys. The first several minutes of class he kept yelling “Are you going to chase me?” as that was his major concern. He basically spent every second in class this time. A few times over the last 15 minutes he would run out and ask “How many more minutes?” then run back in.

Had him say thank you to the teacher before we left, then on the way home we did a lot of discussing of symmetry of things and also discussed the moon, as it was almost a half moon now.

We were home at 6:10. They nursed, then looked at countries and photos on Google Earth. They went outside and Carly found that the rosemary clippings have started to grow roots. We had some dinner indoors, then I gave him a shower and Carly did dishes. Today he chose to go get the Zinnie bed wet. He then did a lot more practicing to sleep on the bed. When he was done with that we read Plumdog, getting from page 50 to 100. He was asleep by 8.

Looking for symmetry: 

Helping carry: 

6:40. He stood on the stairs awhile, grumpy. I went back down on the couch. He came down a minute later and ordered me “Dada do TodoMath” as he disappeared around the corner to go to the bathroom. We worked on TodoMath, doing the 100 board puzzle, then he watched an episode of Wanda and the Alien. We moved pretty quickly, having the last of the banan bread for breakfast and making snacks and sandwiches for lunch. He watched more Wanda and the Alien while I took a shower and we left the house at 8:50.

We caught the 11 bus, which August has been wanting to take and rode to Bet Yehoshua Station. We figured out how to get a ticket from the machine, then went and waited on the platform. It was an open track, so we sat on a bench and I talked about the importance of not going past the yellow line. I talked about the stations in Seoul and how most had the walls that made them safer, etc. In talking about getting hit by trains he asked “Did it happen 2000 years ago?”

We rode on the first floor of the train. Not exactly a scenic ride. August was doing fine, talking to me a lot and looking out the window. A guy started talking to us, saying August seemed very smart, but the train was boring. He then complained about how his grandchildren were constantly looking at cell phones.

Anyway, off the train at Tel Aviv Station at 9:45. As we walked down stairs he saw a big poster with Ironman and Spiderman. I think he recognized Ironman (possibly from the big statue at Toys R Us in Seoul). Then, as we were walking down a hallway he first pointed to a deer on an ad, then at an actor on a Blade Runner poster and asked “Is that Paperman?” His first invented super hero makes paper.

We walked a couple minutes to Hayarkon Park to the east. We found the big playground and August at first said it was Ra’anana Park, as the big wooden playground looks similar. He wasn’t in a hurry to get out the backpack so we kept walking. We found the aviary and went in. There were workers tearing much of it apart, but no obvious ‘closed’ signs. One worked did see us while we were in there, but didn’t say anything. We stayed in the first room area and saw some birds. Basically, it appears like the aviary hasn’t been properly kept for 20 years. Signs were missing and when there were signs they didn’t match the birds inside. We got a good visit from a couple birds though, and the red lory did match the sign. August said “When I get home I’ll be a baby red lory.” We also saw the snake and skink room.

We left and walked around the corner to the river and the Israel National Trail. We walked a little ways to the east along the river, past the playground in the aviary, which also had a worker in it. August said “Real ice skating musk oxes.” Really random at first, then figured out it was a Treehouse book reference to having “Real ice skating penguins” in one of their rooms. We also saw a kayaker and watched her paddling on the river.

We walked back to the west along the river, crossed a stream and saw a little waterfall from what was an historic mill site. We then stopped for early lunch at 10:40. We talked about grinding wheat at Folk Museum in Seoul and the water wheel at Olympic Park. We ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, then read a few chapters of 65-story Treehouse. Having finished the book we’ve started on a second reading, starting with the Egyptian chapter and the “king” (pharaoh).

We headed back towards the playground and he needed to use the bathroom. Walked past it and found a bathroom. There was an armed security guard with a group, like the armed guards that accompanied the school group to the Dead Sea. Also notable was the woman with headscarves everywhere. There were groups of them all using the swings together, which I knew Carly would especially like.

We got to the playground at 11:40. He first went on a swing, where he made bark for trees for me to assemble, banana bread dough for me to bake, and wires for me to use on electrical posts. He then played in the sand and dirt and I read. He found a bone, 2 or 3 inches long. Very clean and polished. He asked if it was human. I assured him it wasn’t – cat or dog or squirrel or something. I thought he’d want to keep it, but he buried it like the car at the beach: “It’s a treasure now…somebody else will find it.”

We then sat on the sand and read more Treehouse, reading to the end of chapter 11. We went and rinsed his hands off, then headed to the snack shop. He saw a couple women with head scarves and asked “Are those Kings?” I think because the pharaoh in the book has an Egyptian head scarf.

We stopped when he spotted a rolly slide. He wanted me to go down it first, so I did. But then he decided he didn’t want to go down. He crawled through a tube thing though and told another kid that came to use it too “Me first!” We looked at the snack shop, but it was busy being overrun by a school group of high schoolers. We wandered back to the playground, but after a minute went back to the snack shop when we saw the students leaving. We got a “pink flavor” slurpee. As we ordered he danced to the music playing.

We sat and took a long time drinking it as we had to keep waiting for it to melt. Finally, we headed back to the play ground and the big wooden play structure. Climbed up on it. Passed a group of teenage girls and they tried talking to him. He kept telling them “Go!” He made things worse as he went in a tunnel part I couldn’t follow through with the backpack. The girls continued to call to him and were rather annoying – it felt very Korean. They were saying “I love you!” and patting him on the head. So I understood his frustration. Eventually, I got him out and he went down a helter skelter to make his mistake. He asked me “Why did those girls want me to leave the park and go to their home instead of my home?” I think one of them may have joked something like “Come home with me!”

We climbed around some more and he found a stick which he said was a new Sticky. We used it to write some Hebrew in the sand, and he used it like a magic wand and we played a Hilo game, destroying robots. He wanted to leave the stick behind.

We stopped at the bathroom on our way out, and left the park right at 2. At the station there is a book stand out in the middle of the entryway. We were both excited to see the children’s book about an elephant walking on a wire. In Hebrew. It was one of just two books we could really read in Korean, and I was pretty sure we had kept our Korean version. Better yer was that it turned out to only cost 5 dollars, when I thought it was twice that.

We got a ticket and took the first northbound train. All seemed fine until I realized it didn’t stop at Herzliya. And then it didn’t stop at our stop. I figured an express train would at least stop at one of the Netanya stations, but it did not. The train didn’t stop until south Haifa. We had planned on going to the store once we got home, but that plan was out the window. Also, as we sat at Haifa and tried to figure out how to get back, it became clear that there aren’t really a lot of trains that stop in Netanya/Bet Yehoshua, which will rather limit our use of the train in the future as well.

One guy told me how to tell where a train stops and told me that they usually stop at Bet Yehoshua, but the next one didn’t. I had just figured out he was wrong – we couldn’t just sit and wait for a train to our stop – as that train was pulling away. The Moovit app was claiming we had to ride all the way back to Tel Aviv University and catch another line north. So, another 25 minutes of waiting. Luckily, August was all about 65-Story Treehouse and snacks, so we kept reading and reading.

Then, on the train (as we read more Treehouse) I looked at a map of the system and realized we should be able to get off at Binyamina and transfer to the ‘line’ that goes to Bet Yehoshua. Moovit (the app I finally found that does Israeli public transi
t) fessed up to this option, although wouldn’t work correctly with it. Anyway, so we transferred there and made it to the next blue line train. Read more Treehouse. I finally had him play iPad as my voice was wearing out and he watched/played Lucy and Pogo.

We got off and made our way to the highway and the bus stop. There was a pepper on the ground that he had fun stepping on. He said he needed to go to the bathroom, and I suggested he pee on the weeds/dirt at the edge. He wasn’t sold on the idea and I told him about how peeing on the grass in Pennsylvania. He seemed skeptical that he’d ever been excited by the idea. He held it until we got home.

The bus came and we made it home at 5:50. Carly helped him with the balancing activity in TodoMath. We had some dinner and she took him up for shower and I did dishes. He was asleep by 7:20.

Bone: 

Casting a spell: 

Looking out the train: 

Train accelerating: 

Reading together on yet another train: 

He was awake about 5:40 when Carly got up. She was able to get up though and he kept lying on the bed. About 5:50 he said something, th n started reading the clock “5:54…5:55”. We all went downstairs and they nursed. He then used Google Earth on her computer, finding countries and asking what they were (“What’s the one that starts with I and ends with Y?”), then doing Street View of places. Found some castles and rivers and lakes and whatnot. They nursed again, then she asked me to entertain him while she finished getting ready for work. I told the interrupting cow knock knock joke and he knew the last line. It is Hilo’s favorite joke. August then was silly on th couch and said “There’s interrupting cows everywhere!”

He then played Toca Blocks “for just a little while” and Carly headed to work. We then Skyped with my mom to say happy birthday. They weren’t online so we went all the birthday-related emojis we could find, then did a video. He sang Happy Birthday with me, then we sang again to include grampa since we didn’t sing for him last month. Only fair.

After that we listened to StoryBots songs and he was hooked to the music. Whenever it was a song from one of the episodes he would tell me what episode it is from. Did some good dancing that I got on video to the song about the color green. We then read some Hilo and then Plumdog, an illustrated journal told from the perspective of a dog. About 40 pages of it. I thought it was going to have a little more plot, but the art is nice and it is amusing, and August likes it. So a decent purchase.

He played some Big Numbers then my parents skyped back. He told them about his costume and that he will always love pink and 14 and Q. He played with the calculator on his iPad. After the call he played with ShapeKit and made a few interesting shapes, then Sesame Street Numbers. I reminded him of the rocket video, but we couldn’t find it in the numbers, so he switched to Elmo Loves ABCs to find it as a letter R video. At one point we tried the new geometry app, but it was one where you had to touch the invading monsters. Lasted about ten seconds before he decided it was too stressful and he shut it.

I had made pizza for lunch, and he ate most of a piece. I’d used the better sauce this time. He had been asking about how many days it takes the earth to revolve around the sun, so I had shown him how it all works, using him as the earth and the blueberries container as the sun. So he kept doing that and we would count off the years.

Upstairs he watched Wanda and the Alien and I took a shower. We then made a home for the hoglet in his bed and he talked about how long his legs are.

Back downstairs we brushed his teeth, then went and did Hebrew. He told me what letters to write in cursive. When I suggested we get going he said “Dada, I need to you learn all the letters of Hebrew first.” And then he stood up and applauded when we finished writing the letters. He then wanted to draw a “helping machine” “I said it’s a helping machine. It’s a machine fireman.” Finally, he wanted to clean up. He said he was done with the blueberries and put the container away, then he saw the Duplos under the table. He said he’d get them out and I could put them in the box.

It seemed like he had been stalling a bit as he wasn’t excited about getting going – he knew that we were getting flu shots and going to his dance class, which he was nervous about. But we left at 1:30.

At the school we got a drink at the drinking fountain with steps, then went to the library. First stop was the microscope where we looked at the few things they had. They’ve added a dead lizard, so that was nice. We also looked at the screen of my watch, my hat, and our coin pouch.

We then went to find a Treehouse book. No 39 or 52, but they had The 65-Story Treehouse. On the way to find it he said that he wanted to try it out in the library and if he liked it he wanted to take it home. We went and started reading it, and he was cracking up from page 1. He found all the new rooms that they added, then the fight with the ants, to be hilarious. As we were reading a third grade class started to come into the storytime area we were in. August saw them and started saying “Go away!” I took him out and he made a nest in the big stuffed animals and we kept reading there.

We checked out books (just that and a Philip Pullman book I hadn’t read – we returned the Perlutsky poetry book and issue of Ranger Rick, which he was never interested in) and met Carly just before 3. Straight to the nurse where we were about first in line for flu shots. August was strongly opposed. Carly went first, then I sat down with him on my lap and had to hold him and the nurse did his. Carly took him and started to head out. I got mine, then paid for the shots, got the bike and caught up.

August had gotten so upset that he threw up on the way to Carly’s room. In her classroom he wouldn’t calm down and nurse, saying “What are we doing here?” He kept spitting up more and more spit and we had a ton of tissues for him. He threw up again. I had him now, and had him looking outside at the strawberry field and that seemed to calm him down. She got him down to nurse in the bean bag chair but he was afraid “It will get worse!” He calmed down and they nursed and then read Treehouse while I went and got paper towels and cleaned up the mess.

Our big box from the United States had arrived, so Carly took him to the playground where a bunch of 8th grade girls were watching Taya (sp?), Cassie’s daughter, while I opened the box and put some of the small stuff (one of my books, the Legos, a vest) in my backpack. The two kids never played together: apparently she is really shy, and when August first saw her he told her to “Go away!”

But they both had a crowd of 8th graders (and Grace and Jill) playing with them. When I got there they were moving to the preschool playground. Carly went back to her classroom to do some work. He first made bark soup and some of the girls helped out: “We’re making soup that has big chunks of bark in it.” He then got the small pieces of lumber and was leading the girls to “storage” – a play structure thing they were dropping them in. He said they were still cooking, and talked about how everyone likes sugar and the big bark would make it extra sugary.

The other girls took Teya over to see some plants, so we went too. Then Gaby and a few of the girls gave us a tour of the greenhouse. They helped explain the hydroponic system to August, and I made connections to the Namoo app and what he has learned about roots and minerals. They let us taste the mint and he ate that.

We then met Carly at 4:15 and walked up to the studio for dance class. He didn’t want to go in at first, stopping at the bottom of the steps. Carly went upstairs and I took him in. I sat right outside the door and had him sit on my lap and told him we could just watch. We did a couple of board puzzles, then he went into class after there was actually music – he commented a couple times that they were just doing boring things when he peeked in through the crack. In the first few minutes he came back to make sure I was still outside the door. A couple minutes later he came and told me “I just did all that!” Then ran back. The teacher pulled back the curtain at one point and I briefly saw him crawling across the floor with the other kids. “I did it all the time!” At one point he thought the teacher was going to chase him so he came over, concerned. But he turned right around when the next song started. Gave him a high five at one point.

Made it to 5:06. Thought the teacher was going to chase him and he didn’t want that. He had had enough and wanted to go home. He was quite happy about class though. We headed home.

Back at home he did a little TodoMath. He finished his first Hundred Board Puzzle in it, with some help from me and Carly. We ate outside, then they watered and I did di
shes.

She gave him a shower then I played with him on the bed. We read a few chapters of The 65-Story Treehouse. He wanted to keep reading, but he was getting sleepy. I suggested he practice going to sleep on his own. We started at a minute of lying down and worked up: two, three, then four. Before I suggested five he said “5 is too big. Maybe when I’m bigger.” We went down and got water, then he wanted to go back up and do more practicing – still didn’t want to nurse with Carly. Did one, then two minutes again. Eventually we did 4 minutes and 14 seconds. There were a couple of times when he was starting to get sleepy and he realized it and said he wasn’t ready for it. He asked Carly to come up and I left them just before 8. He was asleep just after 8.

He was up at 6:40. A little upset (“Only mama can help me” “Mama’s nice; you’re not nice” “I’ll just get worse!”) but not awful. He wanted to go ou side so I opened the door right away. He sat on his bike. I said I needed a sweatshirt if we were going on a walk and he wanted one too. We went upstairs and got them and when I put his on he asked “How do sweatshirts keep you warm?”

We ended up walking for 55 minutes, getting back at 7:45. First around the block, then I ran in to get snacks. He spotted more letters: “That’s a T out of the road.” He’s also been into declaring “That’s a three-way road” at intersections. We then went up to the dead end, then across to Vatikim. He didn’t want to play in the park so we kept going, down to the strawberry fields. Then down around on the trail and past the fields that way. He was ready to head home so we turned around.

For the first half we sang ABC songs we haven’t sung much of recently. He mainly supplied words he’s learned from Metamorphabet.

When we got home I introduced a 3 episodes per day limit on his videos and we talked about the various mathematical permutations of that with different shows and number of stories in each episode. He was happy with it, so we will see how it works in practice. Shouldn’t be too bad, although there were days when I was sick that he definitely watched more.

He watched one Wanda and the Alien, then we made banana bread. As we were getting out ingredients he grabbed out about a dozen spices that he said we should put in. When we were done with the dough he then pretended to pour them in. We had music playing, and he really started dancing to the demo version of Drivin N Cryin’s “Not Afraid to Die”. He also really liked a Lee Renaldo song. He inspected the brown sugar and said it was a light brown sugar, where before it had been a dark brown. At the end he was explaining how he didn’t want me to take too much dough off the spatula before he could lick it: “Don’t scrape it off. I’ll take care of it.”

He then played around with a little bit of the 14 material. He said it said 14 on it and he was wearing it on his foot.

Took care of baby spider. Made bed, for our doctor tools.

Baby squirrel. I went up and got the sheet and we made a big nest. Baby squirrel and dada squirrel then hibernated through the winter, then gathered acorns. I referenced Frog and Toad, saying I wanted to sleep another month. He then did it too, then discussed reading the story. He saw Toca Plants first so I let him do that for a few minutes while the banana bread finished. We had been checking on it along the way.

The banana bread turned out really well, and he ate some and watched Wanda and the Alien. He finished his last episode as I took a shower and was fine with no more watching for the rest of the day.

In his bed and the play area he pretended to be various sea creatures: crabs, whales, etc. We then read After the Storm, after which he was being baby animals needing me to build homes for them (which is what happens in the book). Moved in on our bed where we built more homes and a nest.

Downstairs we did some Hebrew on paper. I wrote the alphabet 3 times. Third time was in cursive, at his request.

We then read a few chapters of Hilo 2. He wanted to Lee rand adding but eventually I needed to make some lunch.

Requested backwards ABC song. He’s been requesting that.

He played TodoMath. I made eggs but then he didn’t eat any. Eventually he said he’d have some when Carly got home. It was only 1. He was making progress on the 100 Board Puzzle and we worked on it together, then on some other things.

Then back down to Duplos and making a rocket for the dinosaur, which he calls a monkey. On paper then we did more Hebrew, doing variations of his name and also finding words that end in tzadi sofit, his favorite Hebrew letter. He drew a machine/robot/town. It had a waste treatment plant and 15 eyes. He said it was a “man-eating alien town”.

We played some squirrels hibernating, then went outside to water and pull weeds and gather nuts as squirrels. Inside we went back to hibernating. Sitting on the rug, he looked at the cover of the Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life book and said of the dinosaur “That monster’s going to bite its tongue really easily.”

We then read the rest of Hilo 2. This one has a cliffhanger ending, which I had to assure him would turn out okay. He was ready to jump in and get Hilo 3 but I said we could wait for awhile. And it was time to get out for a walk.

But first we had music time. First he was walking around, sort of singing, and inventing new musical notes, like dotted 22nd half notes, etc. I got out the keyboard, then we played with GarageBand for about a half hour.

We finally got out on his bike and went for a walk. Basically up towards the school, as Carly was heading home a little early today. We met her halfway, singing ABC songs, then walked back with her. We all stopped at Tal Garden. Carly went on the swing, August mainly played with the drinking fountain before going on the merry-go-round, and I did a little reading. He also found a seed which, when he was done with it, he threw in the bushes. He said “Bye little seed.”

We got home about 4:45. They nursed, then he played Big Numbers, getting help from both of us at different points. We had dinner, sitting at the table, but then Carly decided to move outside. I had just gotten some seconds and was about to head out when he bit his tongue. Blood on this one. They went back in and eventually he could nurse. While nursing he asked me to add “Moon (the Slips remix)” by Bjork to his playlist.

We all went back outside and he played around, going down the slide. I had him tell Carly what he knows about the months. We recite some of them when we’re doing the hibernating animals, and today he recited December through May and we were working on the rest. He’d say “Dada, can you talk more about the months?” For July Carly said “That’s when I was born.” He said “Then I like that month.” He was playing with the dustpan and before I could tell him to be gentle with it he hit it on the patio and a small piece of plastic broke off of it. Hewanted to bury it, so we dug a little hole for it.

Carly had spotted a planet by the moon and I finally saw it too. I got out Sky Guide on my phone and found out it was Saturn. August then played around with that, and I pointed to where the other planets are. He played with that for awhile, then wanted the globe. So we used Google Earth as we sat out on the grass. He found an interesting abandoned spot on the island of Tanna.

We headed in and Carly took him up for a shower at 7. Afterwards, I got called up when they spotted a spider by the bed. Couldn’t get it before it went underneath though. He wanted me to take care of the baby squirrel, and Carly decided it had measles, so we told him about measles and chicken pox. He then said he had a package of chicken from the Everything Chicken store. That got us back to the Everything Tickly store from yesterday, and we played that for a few minutes.

We went down to get his water, then I left them about 7:40 and he was soon asleep.

Morning walk: 

Playing on our slide in the evening: 

He started waking up after 4. They were up at 5:15

When I got up at a reasonable hour, August wanted to use my iPad for the Earth Primer app. Apparently he had been waiting for that. After that we Skyped with my parents. He told them about the balancing thing in TodoMath and showed them that. He kept working on TodoMath after the call. He’s adding and subtracting 5s and 10s in his head. Has counting by 2s pretty much down. Working better on the 100 puzzle. And he’s writing 3 digit numbers with his finger quite clearly.

I made French Toast for breakfast. He dipped his in the syrup: “I’m cooling it down by syruping it.” he then did TodoMath with Carly using blueberries after she came back downstairs. We then did a lot of goldfish games, with him being a goldfish that was hurt or lost, etc.

I went up to take a shower and they went outside. They planted a random seed that he found. He was then acting out the ants dying in what we were calling the “ant syrup”. He then wanted to go in and play TinyBop Earth so that he could pollute.

We then all got going to the mall. On the way over he was spotting letters in the wild: the canal was an I, metal pieces in a fence were an upside down V, the path with a round planter in the center was a P. At the mall Carly went on ahead and started looking for things for his Halloween costume. He decided he wants to be the number 14 again. This time Carly decided to make it out of fabric and attach it to his clothes. While she went into the mall, August and I played in the play area. He mainly played on the airplane. After about 10 minutes a guy came into the area and pointed out a wire a few feet from August in the corner. At first I thought he was a passerby and thanked him. I assumed it was just a dead wire, phone cord or the such, and suggested moving it and said the mall should know. But then the guy said he was with the mall and they were working on it. And it was electrical. I got cross with him and told him to put a sign on it, etc. You don’t just leave live wires unlabeled and in reach of kids when you’re 40 yards off working somewhere else.

We went inside, looking for Carly. There was a baby class going on in the play area there. At first August was watching what was happening. But then he started yelling “Go away” to them. Carly found us and we went into the art store. August chose the pink sparkly fabric stuff and we also got glue. I then stopped at the frame shop to ask about framing my Shepard Fairey print but they don’t actually do framing. August started yelling “Go away” to the babies et al again so Carly took him outside.

She decided to take him home and I went to Tiv Taam and did some grocery shopping.

I was home at 12. Carly was already working on the costume. I made sweet potato fries and helped him with math. Carly kept working on the costume and we made rockets with Duplos. He was then a goldfish, etc. They then played with the scraps and the glue, making little glue balls that he liked.

He was looking quite tired, so she took him up for a nap from 2:15 to 3:30. I woke him up. He kept turning away from me. I read the Mother Goose book but stopped to wake him up again. He went down to Carly and she nursed him. Then made popcorn with za’aten.

He then asked if he could watch Puffin Rock and instantly got upset when I said we could do something else. He grabbed a handful of popcorn and threw it on the carpet. He was having a really hard time calming down and Carly took him upstairs. Then our power went out. Just 3 minutes. They came down a couple times with him calm, but he wouldn’t pick up the popcorn: “I won’t pick it up…I don’t.” Finally, he agreed to pick it up when she held out his hands for him to put it into. He kept asking for help to do it, even though it was only 7 or 8 pieces. He kept rejecting robot cleanup with me, so that ended up being the key.

Carly thought he needed a little mama and Zinnie time, so they went on a walk at 4:50. They went to the little park up towards town, which I now see is labeled as Motek Garden on Google Maps. She went on the swing and he watched her – he was the parent. There were oranges falling from a tree in the park so they stepped on them and juggled them, although didn’t bring any home as Carly felt weird about that. And when they saw dogs along the way August was using his hands to fire laser beams at them, Hilo style.

They were back at 6:05. Heated up nutty noodles and we all ate outside. He then played at being lost animals several times. We then read Picasso’s Trousers three times, and he acted out being Picasso, wanting me to say “No, no, no” so he could say “Yes!” So I came up with all sorts of things that August does as the things that people said no to, then he would say “Yes!” Such as “You can’t make up your own languages, Picasso! No, no, No!” But Picasso said “Yes!” Others were be a robot, make rockets on the bed, make pictures with just red markers, etc.

We then read some Hilo, and he was ready for volume 2 of Hilo, so we bought that. While we waited for that to download, we read the sample of Plumbog, which is a graphic novel written as a diary of a dog. That will probably be our next purchase. We then read Pablo and His Chair.

Carly came over and asked if he wanted to learn more about Josephine and Zambia. When Carly said that they didn’t have electricity he asked “How does she get electricity for her iPads and stuff?” When Carly said they didn’t have iPads he asked “What can she have though?” And he also asked what sort of things they could do. So, working well so far.

I gave him a shower, which went quickly, then he made his rockets and we read more of Hilo 2. Carly put his full costume on and got him to tolerate it this time. Earlier she had tried the shirt a couple times and it had been a big production, with him freaking out about the stiffness of the numbers, and calling it all tickly. In fact, I had ended up joking that we must have gotten the clothes at the Everything Tickly store, then we joked about how the couch, etc. were all from the Everything Tickly store. Anyway, he tolerated it this time, and they practiced trick or treating and he got some chocolate. So I brushed his teeth one more time before bed. I left them in bed at 8:40 and he was asleep several minutes after that.

Earlier today he had asked why Watchy (my watch was waterproof). He knows that ‘because it doesn’t have holes in it’ is part of the answer, but then he asked “If it can’t plug in how does it charge?” Interesting thinking there, as he knows that things with electricity have to be charged. So we talked about how it uses inductive charging and charges through the back of it.

He was crowding me and pushing me with his feet during night. Then, I woke up enough to see him lying on his back with his left hand straight up in the air. He then dove over to his right, onto his stomach and into his usual sleeping position. He was itching at his ankle a lot during the night, and in the morning when I asked him about it it turns out he has three or four red spots on his leg from insect bites.

He got up with me at 6:45. Carly was already up. Down on the couch he asked how we could help Josephine if she wasn’t here. They went upstairs together for awhile, then he came downstairs to play games with me. He didn’t like my game, which involved throwing the friends (stuffed animals) at each other. He wanted an iPad game instead. We tried Astro Cat, a new game about the solar system that looked promising, but it was too advanced. He won the iPad from me and ended up playing Sarah and Duck Have a Picnic while I got up to clean the kitchen and get coffee. Carly was upstairs vacuuming.

Carly came down and they ate outside. He had Cheerios. I helped him water. Carly got sap on her hand. He and I moved the interesting week away from the wall and replanted it in the center of the planter so it could grow better. Back inside it was upstairs with Carly again. Then back downstairs to learn about lava with me while Carly did some work. He played Earth and I found an app called Earth: A Primer. We played that and really liked it – a lot to learn. He particularly liked ‘magma plumes’. We had pita and hummus to eat (well, I had hummus).

I went upstairs and took a shower. Downstairs Carly and I discussed what to eat for the week. Carly suggested tomato bisque and he said “Tomato bisque‽” He got upset when Carly got up to get food to eat. I had to take him upstairs. So sad. “Only nursing will help…Can we nurse? Just a little?…Please help…” Carly: “Let’s go upstairs.” Him: “To nurse?” Carly took him up and distracted him with toys.

Downstairs she left to head to the mall to start the shopping and August and I were going to follow. After she left though he calmed down and ate most of the apple that I had sliced for a snack. He even started eating his pasta, which he had refused, but the iPad froze and put an end to that as well.

We left at 1:15. We talked about going to Tiv Taam, which first he said was at the mall, but then he said he wanted to go to the Ikea one and go to Ikea: “To buy glass…you know, to hold liquid.” We met Carly on the other side of the bridge and walked back together. We dropped off the groceries and the bike and August and I took recycling and walked up to the cages. Took awhile doing that then we stopped in the park for another ten minutes or more to play with the drinking fountain, seeing how big we could get the pools.

We were hone after 2. Carly was doing some cooking. August had been taking about doing more Earth: A Primer when we got home so we did. He joked “You can’t see me!” We pretended we couldn’t see him and he thought it was hilarious. Finally he said “You can see me!” and we could see him again. We did drawing and spelling words on paper. He just wanted the pink/purple color. He drew a man-eating refrigerator. Then the lava burning things game: “Can you be a huge pile of carpets that goes out to Neptune?” We were then being magma plumes, which was sort of an interpretive dance.

Carly had been cooking nutty noodles and when they were done he ate a ton of them. I had to get him more twice. He then wanted milk and I gave him a cup on the floor with a straw. He spilled it, luckily just on the kitchen floor. Frustrated, he hit the cup across the floor. He did a good job helping me clean it up though and throwing away the paper towels. But then decided he could dry his feet on everything.

He was then a gold fish and the gold fish was having all sorts of adventures, being taken out of a tank, being captured, being placed in a desert, caught by a fisherman, being returned to a stream, etc. Then he was a squirrel: “Its winters so I’m hibernating.” We all went for a walk, heading up into town, very similar to the walk that August and I took on Friday. On the way back he wanted to pedal own his own, particularly down a little hill. I let him do that and he found it exciting. We stopped at Tal Garden, the park that had been closed while they painted some of the toys, and played there. Carly went on the swing and he did the motorcycle thing. He then got on the merry-go-round with me and really wanted Carly to get on as well, telling her he had a spot for her. She had no desire to go on though and we talked about motion sickness. So he asked her “Are you going to stay on there? You’ll get swing sick?”

He also played with the drinking fountain, watering the weeds, then we got home before 5:30. Hanging out in the yard, David brought by the their 2-year old niece or nephew. Talked to them through the fence. Carly invited them in, but David said he needed to go check in with the family and they didn’t return. August picked at the pitch and talked some nonsense.

Came inside and Carly skyped with her parents. I took him up for a shower that went very smoothly and included washing his hair. So that was a nice change. Carly made mango lassi and we drank that. Then the two of them read The Magic Tree House on the couch for 2 or 3 chapters.

They then went upstairs where they read a bunch more books in the play area: several Boynton books, Snappy Little Monsters, The I Love You Book, Wild About Books. I came up and took over reading the last one. I read it 3 more times. He kept being all of the different animals in the book and asking what they ate, then pretending to eat it. He decided he was ready to nurse and was sleep just after 8.

Holding up his robot shorts because they feel too long: 

Glass tile found in the dirt: 

Peeking out: 

Riding on his own: 

Hand on her shoulder: 

He was up about 6. I was up a few minutes later and heard him asking “Where’s dada?” Came out to find him lying face down on the rug in the play area. Downstairs he played Metamorphabet and of course had us look at ‘kaleidoscope’, which is one of his favorites and I helped him with the Q quilt puzzle. When Carly left it was tough on him and I twice had to haul him upstairs as he started stomping on the floor, and taking him upstairs just made things harder. Got calmed down and we played Sesame Street Play games.

He didn’t want to play Ankle Detector because from the description he could tell it would be “Too ticklish”. So we settled on one where you use towels as rock to get you across lava. We went upstairs to play it. We played for several minutes (good jumping with two feet practice, which they were working on in the class yesterday), then he was counting by 5s. He got up to 100 on his own, then needed a little help getting going on the 100s, then made it to around 200 before saying “Counting by 5 machine broke down”. I realized that he didn’t really know what lava looks like, so asked if he wanted to see a video. He had also been calling it guava (not clear if it was intentional or not), so then he asked for “a video of people getting burned up in guava”. We watched a few videos of lava destroying cans of Coke and ravioli and an iPhone, and a volcanologist getting close to lava then developed a game where he was lava and I was random things that the lava would burn. It started with me being things like Coke cans, but then went to houses and trees and stacks of paper and more trees and shelves and anything else he could think of. I had music playing and a Nine Inch Nails song came on and he started doing a fast dance to it and called it the lava dance.

We went downstairs at 9:50 and ate some of the bars we had bought and listened to the”I’m scared” song from StoryBots. He talked about it, telling me what was going on in the video, I think. He then had me act out someone being scared of sounds at a zoo. He was a dinosaur, lizard, snake.

Then back upstairs where I took a shower. He had watched the Bermuda Triangle problem on Peg + Cat and told me about it. We were then taking care of animals on his bed: spider, lizard, snake. Our getting sick scenario for a whale involved islands that were polluting the ocean. August’s solution? “Beep. I turned on a machine that destroys islands that pollute too much.” And then “Turned on a machine that kills germs cuz anyone doesn’t sell antibiotics.”

Next up: “Now the salamander.” “I live here and the foxes live right here…the foxes’ door is right next door…” The Fox was allergic to things: “something made my den fill with water and now mold is growing in there.” “One machine kills all the mold and another machine sucks up all the water and another machine cuts all the fur…it’s power is apples and it needs 100 apples.” It went on from there, which I got on video. Then he was bees: “And the tigers don’t like me so they sent fur to me to make me allergic all the time.” And scorpions. It was quite a selection of animals.

We went downstairs for an early lunch. I had pita and hummus while he had peanut butter and jelly on pita. We listened to Hebrew together and he would repeat and ask about words. Then some TodoMath. He worked on the 100 board puzzle. Which is a good challenge for him as spatial reasoning seems to be a challenge for him as he gets into puzzles. From there it was to the paper: “Could you draw objects and I’ll connect them to make a machine?” He drew a machine then: “Dada. Could you write math in the spaces?” He said it was a walrus machine and explained how it worked. We worked on counting by 3s, then he started a new picture on a new piece of paper and said it was a whale machine. We then did more acting out lava burning things.

We read some Hilo, then I got him outside. We did watering and played. I had the ipad set up outside playing Peg + Cat songs. He explained one song to me: “This is from where Flat Woman is flattening Bany Fox’s exercise ball…because Flat Woman likes flat things.”

We got out on a walk with no real goal or agenda. We went up through downtown, taking some of the last little streets in the south half of Even Yehuda that we haven’t walked on before. We went to the ‘Roller Skating Grounds’ to find out what that was. Unlike most of the possibly-interesting things listed in Even Yehuda, this place actually existed. Not too impressive though. It was a small outdoor concrete roller hockey arena. August played on the concrete bleachers, saying he was a machine that was supposed to know all of Beethoven’s songs but it only knew Ode to Joy. We went in on the court a bit, but he bonked his head on the metal railing a bit and wanted to go.

We walked into town, stopping briefly at a basic outdoor stage area in a grass triangle, then finding the dentist’s office and taking a photo of its sign. As we walked by the pizza place (it and the restaurant next to it are about the only things open) they had music playing loudly, and we said hi to the guy when we saw him outside.

We continued on towards home and stopped at the park to play. Planned to stay there until Carly shower up, but then August needed to go to the bathroom. So we headed home and were here at 4:30. I mixed up my water drink, which we haven’t had since Korea. When August saw the bottle he said “Huh? What are you doing? Water’s supposed to be clear. That’s red.”

Carly showed up a few minutes later as he was finishing in the bathroom. They went outside and I did the dishes. They came back in and discovered that the green mangoes are actually good. So Carly made the mango lassee. We drank that, then he was chanting and reciting all sorts of numbers. He wanted to play TodoMath. Eventually I said yes, saying “You are bursting with numbers.” which he found funny. I asked how long he wanted to play, and he said for a really long time. I asked if he could quantify that, and he replied “QUANTIFY it?” I explained, and he said 2077 minutes. 2077 is a new favorite number it seems as he uses it all the time when trying to come up with a big number.

Then a rough spell. While eating he bit his tongue. Then I took him up to a shower. He was really upset there was no mama. I got him to ask her to come up. Once he was in the shower she snuck off, but he realized and got upset and she had to come back up. Then, when I let him go get the bed wet he was disappointed by his rockets on the bed. I tried to get them to fly but he said they wouldn’t:   “Broken…someone cut the pieces.” He sulked for a minute, but then went back to the shower, got wet again, and made better rockets.

After that we went downstairs as he wanted to play the Space app. He talked Carly into doing the distance thing all the way out to Voyager 1. He taught Carly that Uranus is tilted, Voyager 1 exists, and there was something else.

Before bed Carly talked to him about doing a child sponsorship to help someone else out. He was, at first, opposed: “But then we’ll have less stuff!” He chose an older girl named Josephine in Zambia. As we tried to get registered he got too tired and was ready to head to bed. Up in bed we got ready and I said that tomorrow we could learn about lava and Zambia (and pointed out that they rhyme). He said “Learn about lava first.” He was asleep by 7:20.

His serious explaining face: 

Knuckle he scraped in the dirt: 

At the roller skating grounds: 

Watching the blender: 

He came down at 6:45. After they nursed Carly needed to get going. She was holding him and I started reading the Kipper Collection. That got his attention and he came over to me. She left, and we ended up reading all four stories. Had some zucchini bread, then played a little Metamorphabet. At the end of U there is a ‘U’ floating up into the sky holding an umbrella. He let the U enjoy the ride and just left the iPad on while he played at being a lamb (I tried to turn off the screen but had to turn it back on).

As a lamb he ate grasses and stuff. He told me “You’re tender dandelion…you’re tender rosemary growing.” We played the magic banana game and he was acting out the things when he figured them out instead of saying the word. From that it was to the Pip and Pop and Otto game and we made a stump for them.

He was then singing the ABCs to our Hebrew alphabet tune. I finally went and got him clothes so he didn’t have to hold his pajama pants up. I was fine until my stomach hurt again at 8:30. We were listening to music on random and he heard a Peg + Cat Song, then decided he wanted to watch the show. He said specifically The Hanukkah Problem and where they catch Triangulo. So he watched and I rested. At 9:45 we played the Shrew Crew and Mossy game. We made a big stump out of all the pillows and he got really into plugging the holes with “objects” like his pajamas and the objects from our magic banana game. ‘Objects’ has been one of his favorite words recently and seems to be a little awareness of the concept of abstraction.

We went upstairs and did Toca Builders on the bed. We finished turning all the trees turquoise but then he wanted to turn all the ground white. I told him I was a bit done with that. He played Toca Nature and I took a shower. After, he asked if I was feeling better. When I said I was he said “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!”

We went downstairs and got ready to go. Left right at 12:30 but before the end of the block I realized we could swim. Went back for the swim bag then walked up the back path and quickly headed to the bank, which closed at 1. Got there at 12:50. Figured out checkbook ordering at the ATMs this time and got the same 606 error message. So back inside and upstairs to the same offices where the guy had initially told me they wanted people to do things on their own. That had sent me on a quest to the website, the app, and the ATM and full circle only to find that the error message means it is a foreigner’s bank account and we in fact aren’t allowed to order checks on our own. They have to do it for us. So they did that, and we headed out.

We went to the coffee shop for a smoothie. Got a menu and was going to order a smoothie/shake. But then found out they didn’t have them today for some reason. Just juice. August got an orange and carrot again and I got apple. August was very insistent that he wanted ice in it though. August had us move into the main room as he thought it would be cooler. He was correct.

He played Pet Bingo on his iPad and was surprisingly good with some of the math, understanding the divide by 10 problems right away and doing well with others as well. But he was being loud at first, just talking at the top of his voice. Seemed kind of stressed over having to actually make the bingos, which isn’t really a big deal. Got him to calm down though and he was fine after that.

We left there at 2 and went across the street for a couple slices of pizza. We went up to the counter to see what they had. Their full selection of slices (cheese, corn, and olive) and a folded pizza thing (like a small calzone, but I forgot what they call it). August confidently ordered for us, saying he would have corn and a cheese for me. I changed his order for me to the folded pizza. He didn’t eat a lot of pizza though as after a couple pieces he got a piece of corn stuck in his teeth. He seemed more annoyed than anything. At one point he walked up to the front counter almost as if he was going to complain.

We left about 2:30 and walked some back streets to the school. We stopped to look at a big purple flower plant. It had a big long branch that hung down and rubbed against his leg. He said it was attacking him. Had a good overreaction when I moved it intentionally to touch him.

We got to the school before 3 and he wanted to swim. Spent a few minutes playing on the couches and looking at the big world map painted on the wall, then went in and got changed. Spent an hour in the pool, swimming and watching and dodging kids taking swim classes. I met Bart, the swim coach, who we have seen there before with his 4 year-old son.

We got out at 4 and Carly met us after we had changed.  We walked up to the studio. August and I had been talking about going to the activity class, and we talked more about it on the way up. He was hesitant about it as he didn’t want to be in a different room from us. He got off the bike right before we got there, and Carly had to persuade him the last little distance.

We had to wait a couple minutes for the teacher to arrive and open the studio. She saw him, and said hi, then asked if he could help carry things inside. He started to be intrigued, and carried a stack of cones inside. There were only two other kids at class today, sisters named Daria and Abigail. Carly and I talked to their mom. We sat right by the door, so August could come back and forth and see what was going on in class. Before class started he rolled a cylinder back and forth with one of the girls a few times. But when it started he hung out out in the waiting room. Their mom suggested that he help Daria, as she was smaller, but he said he didn’t want to help. He ran in a couple times to participate, but then was first concerned that the teacher was chasing him, then said the music was too loud. We got him to tell her those things, and she turned the music down. Finally, he was concerned that she was going to tickle him. Once he was able to tell her not to tickle him he was then more comfortable, and was inside for most of the rest of class. When the teacher was putting rings down and saying their colors and asking for things of that color, he ran out to us and asked “Is basil green?” Also, before and even during class he kept asking “Is this dance class?” Hard to keep the classes straight when they take place in the same room and he hasn’t been to either in a couple weeks.

So class went really well. We walked home and got here at 6:10. We spent time outside watering and picking up tree things that fell due to the wind, the went inside to play TodoMath and the new games in the updated version. There’s a 100 grid puzzle, a couple of matching things, etc. He was the asking me to count by 4s, 8s, 11s, etc. And since he keeps asking me what is after nonillions and I tell him he can make it up he finally settled on it being ‘baanillions’.

He seemed to be doing fine and wasn’t tired. He went to the bathroom and after that we said it was time for dinner, then a shower. But he couldn’t handle any of it. He was exhausted from the swimming and class. It was pretty much straight to bed and asleep by 7:25.

Photos: 

Filling cracks:  

Math and juice: 

Pizza: 

Map: 

Crawling into class: 

They got up at 6, I was up at 6:15. He was doing some tracing on his iPad and we all moved downstairs. August didn’t want to let Carly get ready for work though. Eventually she was able to do so and they nursed and he started watching Wanda and the Alien. When she left for work she kissed him goodbye, but when I told him to say “Love you mama!” he got anxious and tried to follow her out the door. Had to hold him back but it only took him a minute to calm down and come back to Wanda and the Alien. We watched a couple episodes, then got some zucchini bread and played some Sesame Street games – trying to high five with our eyes closed, invisible presents, and more of the magic banana.

We spent some time looking at the Collins World Atlas. I was feeling pretty well except that every few minutes my stomach would feel tied up in knots. So when he wanted to play Metamorphabet I let him do that and I laid down for awhile. He then watched two episodes of Ask the Storybots. He needed to go to the bathroom and said “2 plus 2 equals 4” when he saw the rolls of toilet paper on the back of the toilet. He was also counting by 5s on his own up to 30.

Back on the couch he played with the Space app and acted it out being a space probe: “You’re the people working on the photos of the planet that the machine sent.”

We went upstairs and in Toca Builders (Minecraft for 3-year olds) there is a landscape of trees. August decided we should turn them all turquoise with the cannon bot. We did that for quite awhile, then I took a shower.

Back downstairs he was doing a variety of dances and being silly – there was a math dance and a game dance. He was then a machine: “I’m a machine that finds things on the moon.” I would act out being an astronaut on the moon and drop something (kaleidoscope or telescope or machine, etc.) and then realize I was missing it when I got back to earth. The machine would then retrieve it super fast.

On the couch he sat on me and had me play sixteenth notes, etc. on his back and head. I spotted the scrape on his nuckle from yesterday that he wouldn’t let us wash or look at. He had received it when digging in the dirt at the playground, but didn’t say much about it at the time. Although in photos of him playing in the water after that he was holding his hand behind his back. Then, he wouldn’t let Carly wash it in the shower, or show it to us on the bed. He said it was better, but wouldn’t really let me look at it.

He was then a whale and asked what whales it. In that discussion I brought up ‘krill’ and realized he didn’t know what krill was. So we watched videos of krill and of whales eating krill.

We discussed how sick I was. He asked “Because you got in the zoo when it was closed?” He was remembering the bird flu and how the zoos were closed in Korea. I don’t know how he decided I had snuck into a zoo though and that is what made me sick.

Anyway, we were discussing bird flu, and he then asked how the zookeepers take care of the animals if the zoos are closed. I explained they could go in, and they probably had protective gear, etc. Which then led me to mentioning nurses, and Glecy when she was an Ebola nurse. So I wanted to show him what Glecy would have dressed like, so I Googled ‘Ebola nurse uniform’. Luckily, I previewed the images before letting him see, although not for the reason I expected. Several of the top photos were for ‘Sexy Ebola Nurse’ outfits. I didn’t know whether to be horrified or shocked or amused.

Anyway, from that we went and did art. He drew a robot that had a leaking eye so it got another eye from a friend. And we did some math. Then, as we were getting ready to go I found a container of Tic Tacs in the bottom of my backpack and let him have a couple. He swallowed the second one though and was upset about that and that I wouldn’t let him have another one. Upset, he tried to go out the kitchen door but then hit his foot with the door, making things worse. Finally, we left at 3:15.

He got the last Tic Tac, then was proud of himself for making it last until we were on the bridge across the highway. I then realized I had forgotten the snack bag, but he was okay with just Cheerios for the moment.

At the mall he played in the indoor play area and watched some remodeling going on at a restaurant next to it. He did a ‘riding on the bike’ dance and asked me to translate some words on a sign. We then went to the pharmacy and got a couple of medicines, then headed to Tiv Taam and did our grocery shopping. Not a basket in sight in the store and I didn’t have a coin. So I got a reusable grocery bag and used that as our basket. The store was pretty empty and August spent part of the time riding along on his bike.

After Tiv Taam we went to the health food store. At first he didn’t think there were any samples and started to walk out of the store. I said we were actually looking at the containers of snacks to buy something. He asked if we had to pay and I said yes. He didn’t like the idea and kept walking. I got him back to the store and we actually found some bars with raisins and stuff in them that were quite good. We ate a couple on the way home.

We headed home and took a longer route home. We crossed back over the bridge then headed south to the highway-turned trail and circled home from the south. We were here at 4:50. Carly was already home. They played outside and I rested upstairs. I came down and they went across the street and dumped out the tree things, then went for a walk around two blocks. They were back after 6:30. Had some pasta for dinner, then Carly gave him a shower and he was asleep by 7:30.

At some point he had asked Carly how we could eat food in the winter in Korea. Carly told him both about greenhouses and how we get food from other countries. So he then asked how we get food from other countries.

Finding machine: 

Watching the remodeling; 

Swimming. Or flting. Bonus of a kid doing a headstand out of his hair: 

The machine: