This Is Our Blog

He was up around 6 to go to the bathroom. He tried to go back to sleep on his own and lay there for a few minutes. They got up at 6:10. They read That’s not a Hippopotamus and made a stump. He had milk, and was playing Airplane on the iPad when I got up a bit later. We played chipmunk game and snake. He said there was an egg pipe into our house, bringing eggs for the snake. I went up to take a shower and as I went I heard August try to understand where he came from, asking Carly: “But where were you when you weren’t anywhere?…In your tummy?…Were you underground?…we were all born?” and asking how he got in mama.

We were getting ready early to go to the beach before it got really busy and hot. Before we left, he asked “Do I have all my clothes on?” Something he’s been doing regularly before we leave the house. So far we haven’t forgotten his pants or anything. We left at 8:50. Carly drove and we went to south downtown Netanya and parked by Argaman’s Beach. We walked north along the trail for 15 or 20 minutes. We stopped in the shade of a hotel where August played on these snake-like concrete benches and Carly went to find a bathroom. He climbed over those, then found plastic spoons that he took and threw in the garbage. Carly came back, and we headed back south. He was a machine that was making drinks for me, starting with a “Bottle of wine.” Which I think he knows because I wouldn’t get him out of the cart in the wine section at Tiv Taam yesterday. He also found a metal nut on the ground and said “I want to go home and start a bolt collection.” But a minute later he decided he didn’t want it. A small dog walked by and he shouted “Don’t lick me!”

We got back to the car and kept walking down the hill to Argaman’s Beach. The beach here isn’t sheltered like the other beach, so the breaking waves come right to shore. August spent most of his time playing in the sand, and Carly and I took turns going out and floating and swimming. The second time I went out far enough that I couldn’t touch the bottom. That was far enough. August waded in with me for awhile. We went up to the showers and August played in the sand and faucets and the stream from the shower area.

We left there at 11:20 and stopped at the bathrooms, then made the steep walk up the hill to the car. We got to the big Tiv Taam at 11:50. Actually, first we were going to go to Arcaffe to eat, but it was crowded. So we went and got a cart. Carly had to go back to the car to get a 5 shekel coin to get the cart. Then, after just a minute in the store, August and I parked the cart and went a few feet away to get corn. We turned around and someone had stolen our cart. Not only theft (albeit of about $1.50), but also we couldn’t get another cart. And there were no baskets available. Luckily, we found a big kid car/cart and used that. Very difficult to steer around the store with its crowded and narrow aisles though.

August found two Skittle-type candies in the car thing as he rode in it. He didn’t even think of eating them though, instead wanting to take them home to see what would happen if he put them in water.

We finished shopping, Carly went and got the car, and we were home at 1:20. Played a little iPad, then we played that the shrew crew was in the hospital. We read Peg + Cat The Chicken Problem twice. Carly cut up a mango for him and he ate all of it, then had some of the rice stuff. We read A Pocket for Corduroy. Carly was making spaghetti, and August had a little of that. He nursed and pretended to be a baby in Carly, tasting what she ate. We were then pretending to be cats:

Him: “There’s infinity poop in your bottom.”

Me: “How’d it get there?”

Him: “From your infinity of eating.”

We were then a garbage truck and power plant: “LOADS of power.” “This is a meter that shows how much garbage there is.” He then wanted to go recycle, but first played upstairs, throwing all the dirty clothes down the stairs. They nursed, and he was falling asleep. Woke him up by saying it was popsicle time. We had gotten some at the grocery store. We went and ate them outside. They were raspberry with raspberry ice cream in the middle. Carly swept the tree things that fell because of the wind last night. It was probably more than I picked up all through the week. August picked one of them apart using his tweezers, sitting in front of the kitchen door, with raspberry all over his face. He went to the bathroom and we finally started to get going to the playground at 5:15.

But while I was locking the door he somehow fell on the steps. Carly came out to comfort him, then he was distracted by something falling from the tree. Carly went back inside, and I was able to get him to head to recycling after we watched a bird singing for a minute.

We walked up and did all our recycling, then went to the playground. Went on the standup teeter totter, but then he bonked his head a bit when he was getting off. A first, as when he got upset his first inclination was to run home. I stopped him before he got out. I picked him up and took him over to the drinking fountain. He usually really likes it as it drains to the grass. Got him to calm down, though he didn’t care about it. Instead, he saw a little boy going to pee in the bushes, then I got him interested in the green hanging chair thing. Then, we remembered the game we had talked about playing earlier: Hilo. He was generally Hilo and I was the bad robots and he was destroying me by attacking me and putting leaves and water in my parts and having it rain on me, etc. He is now one of those boys we used to always see pretending to be superheroes in the parks in Korea.

He found a bottle in the playground and we went over to the plastic cage and recycled it. By the recycling he started stuffing my pockets with leaves (to break the bad robots). We were standing close to the garbage and I told him I wanted to get back in the playground, away from it. He said “I LOVE stinky garbage. I LOVE stinky garbage.”

It was getting close to sundown, the end of Shabbat, and the playground started to fill up. August both liked this, but was also bothered by how busy it was. He saw other kids playing in just their underwear and he wanted his shirt off. Took that off, and he went and played on the play structure and went down the slide a few times. Busy, but we managed to do the game where he slides into me once or twice.

Eventually he said “I want to go home cuz there’s all this barking and kids…But why are there all these kids? It’s close to nighttime soon.” We actually kept playing, and it was me, getting quite hungry, who eventually got us to head home about 6:20.

Carly had baked some of the spaghetti, because that’s a thing we can do now. We ate dinner, then he played the Space app with Carly. Carly took him up to a shower, then he got the bed wet and told me “I want to play blanket fights.” When I said we didn’t really have blankets he said he couldn’t do anything. Eventually we read some Hilo, then Carly came up. He kept wanting to read, but also wanted to nurse. Eventually sleep won out and he went to sleep about 7:45.

Photos. Playing on the benches: 

Playing at the beach: 

Popsicle: 

Shirt off at the playground: 

He woke up at 6:10. They nursed, then came down and read the Look After Your Planet Charlie and Lola book while I installed the Space app on his iPad. He and I then read it as Carly headed to work. We opened the windows as it was slightly cooler this morning, then played some owls and shrews before he went to the bathroom. Played the Space app on my iPad, then Simple Machines. Then we played the Pip and Pop owl game, hunting for mice, etc. Then we had some banana bread for breakfast. After that we went out to fill the cat water and pick up the tree things. Then back inside and more owls. Somehow that changed into a robot game and he was breaking me. He watched Wanda and the Alien and I exercised then took a shower, after which we had more banana bread. He was then a bad robot: “It’s painting your eyes and feeding you paint.” Pip and Pop were sick, and he did a lot of talking about white blood cells.

We talked about our plans and goals for the day, and for some reason he started talking about chocolate. I mentioned that I don’t love chocolate like he and mama do, and he asked “You don’t love chocolate?” He seemed incredulous, although this isn’t news to him. He lay on the floor, quiet, and I went to get things ready to go. After a minute I noticed that he was still silent, and curled up on the floor. I went over and asked if he was okay. He whispered something into the floor, and when I asked him what he said he said more loudly “You don’t love chocolate!” And then he started crying. I picked him up and we ended up sitting together on the couch. He calmed down once, but started crying again. Eventually, he was okay and played the Space app while I made lunch.

Packed lunch for at the park, then we looked at our library books. He went back and forth between wanting to return them all to the library and wanting to keep all of them forever. We read That’s NOT a Hippopotamus, then got outside at 11:50. A few minutes outside playing on the teeter totter, then left right at noon. He asked if we could go to a gas station in case we ran out of gas.

In the car he played the Airplane app and said that the characters wanted to go to another country. When I asked which country, he said “all the countries”. We parked and were in Ra’anana Park at 12:30. That was pretty much the limit of his comfortable driving for now, I think. He spent the last couple minutes wanting to be unbuckled.

He got to put coins in the parking meter, then we went in and found a bench and ate some lunch. Or at least I did, as he only ate a couple bites of peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He didn’t have much of an appetite today. Then playing with the leaves and dirt, before going on a swing for quite awhile, doing more machines, like an electric swing machine. We eventually went over to the acorn spaceship. He complained he didn’t have a spacesuit though as “Any store doesn’t sell spacesuits.” He played with the tunnel thing while we waited for a baby, but then only spent a minute in the acorn rocket.

We spent a few minutes discussing the concept of ‘space’ and trying to understand it, then I suggested we head over to the zoo. He asked “Cuz flamingoes is my best?”

We went to the zoo and watched the chlorocebus monkeys, then he needed to go to the bathroom. Did that, and were talking about why people need wheelchairs and how limbs can’t grow back (“Why?”). He started playing with the dried grass, etc. and said he was making grass smoothies. While he did that I took photos of the emu and sika deer. We then walked over and saw the caspian turtle and tried to find the mara. There were a few water birds (said they had pelicans, but didn’t see any) and he started crushing up feathers and leaves on the ground and making feather and leaves smoothies.

About 2 we got going, and went to a water fountain where we got a drink and washed off his hands. He then promptly grabbed a handful of dirt and got muddy hands which required a re-washing. Got driving at 2:13, headed towards WBAIS.

He fell asleep right as we got to the school. Carried him in, still mostly asleep, and he started to wake up for the big stuffed animals and Amanda, who greeted us. We went and got two Tomie dePaola books, Tom and Pancakes for Breakfast, which we read in his nest of stuffed animals. Weren’t all that impressed with either, and decided at the end not to check out any new books (since he couldn’t decide we had just brought all of them, in case). We also met Marina, who had previously taken our photo while we read in the library and who is working with Carly on student research projects.

Before we left we went and looked at books a bit and August discovered that in a corner of the library they have a big container full of hand puppets and stuffed animals, and other toys. More reason for us to spend more time here in the future. We left at 3:15 and then went to the cold drinking fountain, with steps, then on the way back towards the hedgehog the guy who is running the trip next week started talking to me. August started picking up leaves and dropping them through the railing to the ground below (when the wind didn’t blow them back), and that was where we still were when Carly found us at 3:30.

Almost went back to Carly’s room to play the student and teacher game, but decided on home instead, and got here at 3:45. Carly cooked the new veggie patties we had found, then we realized there were a bunch of new ants in the kitchen – they had found a gap in the patch job on the wall behind the sink. At first it wasn’t clear where they were coming from though, so I looked under the sink with the flashlight. August liked this and helped out. Patched the hole.

They nursed, and at one point August said “Don’t mind if I do.” Which was pretty funny. I think I finally figured out that it is something that Mossy the shrew says on Puffin Rock. Talking about the ants, August very politely said “I don’t mind if they get my food from the ground…Can they get the food from the floor?” We then played the animal game, taking care of sick shrews, etc. He and I were then sort of cuddling on the couch while Carly got ready to go on a walk. She joined us for a bit when we were too lazy to get up.

We finally left at 5:40, Carly driving, and went to a parking lot by the community center in northern Even Yehuda. August liked all the branches and pieces of bark in the windy parking lot. We got walking and walked around several blocks. Almost convinced Carly to take a painting by a garbage can and turn it into a zombie for her friend Paul, and we almost took an old wooden chair we saw elsewhere. Turned around at one point because of a dog wandering the street. As we went August would want leaves and branches from the ground and would rip them apart.

We got home at 6:45. He asked “Can I play the planets game? Learn all about the solar systems?” So he played Space for awhile. Carly took a shower and we played the chipmunk game, talking about the seasons. Carly took him up and gave him a shower, then he was hyper on the bed. I stayed with him and he was crazy for a minute, then I got my iPad. We read Peppa Big Ballet Lesson and The Curious Garden, and then bought Peg + Cat The Chicken Problem. He talked about how if he loved it he’d want to read it over and over and over again, never stopping. We read it twice, but I decided that was enough. Carly came up, and August made sure he got a kiss from me. He was asleep about 8:40.

Spaceship:

Sika deer: 

Playing in the library. He has a sore tummy: 

Crry branches on our evening walk: 

Peeking out: 

He woke up at 7:15. Silently came down and lay on the floor. Sat up when he spotted two birds on the wire outside. Sat there for awhile. Went to the bathroom, and we heard the garbage truck go by. Missed it by the time we went outside. But then August wanted to take stuff up to recycling. So we got the bag and headed out. The garbage truck now went by on the east-west street and we went and watched it pick up a couple cans. We then walked up and did the recycling, and on the way back got to see the street sweeper truck doing its job up close. August picked up some caps from bottles that were left on the ground and wanted to throw them away at home, so we put them in our bag.

As we got home he speculated on where the actual garbage goes, since we don’t know where it goes here. He said “Maybe it goes to Korea where it’s turned to electricity.” At home we tried the coconut milk, then had Cheerios with a mix of milks for breakfast. He wanted to play more Music for Kids and did a few more levels. He took his shirt off because it had gotten a little wet from the milk. He wanted me to build a stump. I asked if I should turn music on and he said “I love music! New music. Every day I want you to play new music.” We then played a lot of the owl game, talking a lot about times of day, and owl pellets.

Hungry, so had some banana bread, then he was talking about his water bottles and trying to remember how many big ones and small ones we have, which led us to talk about the one we lost at Teuni Teuni class. He saw crumbs on his chair and brushed them on the floor when I told him not to. He wanted me to play, but I told him I couldn’t since I had to clean up after him. He stood by the kitchen door, quiet, for a minute while I cleaned, then he came up and gave me a hug and said “Hug…make you play with me.”

We were now being the mice, then he was a turtle hibernating. We weren’t sure about the details of turtle hibernation so we looked it up and read it. Played a little Music 4 Kids, then watched Wanda and the Alien and laughed a lot while I took a shower.

We got ready to go, and about something he was asking “Why?” When I didn’t answer all of his repeated ‘why’ questions he asked “Will you explain all my questions to me?”

We left the house at 11:25. Outside he looked at the weeds, etc. and said there were boxes all over me. Then said I was a vacuum. Then he said there was blood in the boxes. Then random batteries. He saw ants by the weeds and talked to them: “Ants there. I think they’re eating the plants. Sorry ants! We just have weeds. Of some sort.”

We left for real at 11:45. As we got in he was combining the Wanda and the Alien theme song with the Sarah and Duck one: “Wanda and the Alien. Quack.” We drove down to the big Tiv Taam by Ikea. We finally found a parking spot then went and got a cart. He put the coin in. We were shopping by 12:10. He did pretty well in the store for quite awhile, but we were there for a long time. He spotted meat, and on his own said “Meat! I don’t like meat that much! I don’t like to eat animals.” We spent a long time shopping and finding things. We found pie crusts, then went and got a pie can and discussed making quiche. He asked what quiche was, and I described it. He remembered having it in Chelan: “You had it at gramma and grampa’s?” He liked looking around the kitchen supplies area, kind of a store in a store, and made machine noises and dragged me over to look at things. I also got a clear glass mug.

We found the bathroom in one of the corners, then went and finished our shopping. He helped me unload the cart onto the conveyor belt, and after I paid I said something and he said “Oh, okay dada crane.” We had apparently been cranes putting things on the conveyor belt. We folded up the stroller, which we had left outside, then took the cart to the car and unloaded, then returned the cart.

We were both hungry, and thought about going to a cafe, but while driving I realized it was in the same complex where I saw Dunkirk, and I think we had to pay for parking. Couldn’t find street parking, and August liked the idea of going straight home.

We got home before 2:30. We made a banana, mango, plum, blackberry, yogurt smoothie that turned out quite well. I hurriedly cleaned up, then we hopped back in the car and went and picked Carly up at school at 3:30.

I drove us to the Skoda dealership in Ra’anana. There, we were led to the snack area where a guy named Jakob made us coffee drinks and August got a slice of chocolate cake. Carly then started the paperwork with Shmuel, the same guy who had helped us before. We traded off with August, with me talking to Shmuel about the exact car we wanted. August had fun spinning in the chairs. I joked that I had told him no spinning, and he told me “You joke all the time!” He was getting crazy, and at one point told me “You didn’t un-crazy me!” Carly took him out and he was a waste treatment plant out on the stairs. Back inside with me he pretended to be a broken machine that destroyed all the cars and popped the balloons.

We ended up getting the high-end Skoda Fabia in the denim blue color we liked. Pretty much exactly the car they had on display, but we got the lighter interior, which is half grey. The only thing I didn’t ask about is whether the top will be white. We also got the backing camera and they are going to check about putting on the roof racks. Not too worried about the outside appearance, as we really like the color anyway, and we got the exact interior we wanted. Well, I would have also liked the big sunroof, but those are aren’t available anytime soon. We paid 2000 shekels today, then the embassy files paperwork, etc.

We got home at 5:30. We had some dinner, then he and I played the owl games. He was Pip and Pop and they were needing blood transfusions. And “Pip and Pop saw something…something spongey and soft…a sea sponge.” Carly Skyped with Chuck and Cherie. August wasn’t a great Skype partner as we were looking for books in Skybrary and read The Ink Garden of Beother Theophane and Albert the Fix-It Man. We then read some Hilo.

Carly took him up to start his shower, then I washed his hair. After making his water rockets on the bed he wanted the Space app, so we played that together, discussing the planets. He then sat on a pillow and we pretended that was a rocket launching. He went asleep about 8:40.

Morning: 

Recycling: 

Smile: 

Pushing (and doing a silly walk) at Tiv Taam: 

Waiting for the blender: 

Drinking the smoothie: 

Signing the car paperwork: 

He was up at 7:02. Nice and happy and came down and took several minutes on the couch to wake up. Had some Cheerios on the couch and watched Puffin Rock. He got creative: “I’m sure a bird is going to put a hole in the roof and put a lot of empty garbage in here…I’m gonna get my hole machine that makes holes in our house.” “The ants can eat my stomach acid…Only if I eat them I will let them.”

He played Human Body for awhile. And “When my crumbs stay in the air gravity helps it fall to the ground so the ants can eat it.” And he had a machine that put blue circles in, like the ones in Human Body that track blood cells through the heart: “The machine is putting more of the circles in your body.”

Being owls we headed outside and found things to smell. He decided to kill some of the weeds using his rake: “It’s killing the weeds cause it’s sharp and pointy.” I found a big nail over in the dirt strip, and he used it to break up clumps of dirt. And he talked about wanting to see cats drink from the water.

We went back inside and took care of shrews with blood infections and other problems: “I ated a cloud! I drinked all the water so it not rain. The shrews didn’t want it raining so the shrews dranked all the water up in the clouds.” I prescribed vegetables for the shrews and he ended up having them eat things like celery juice. We ended up looking up what shrews actually eat, as in Puffin Rock they just eat berries. So then he had them eating worms and stuff.

He was hungry and we found the salmon. Opened a can and he proceeded to eat the whole can, chunk by chunk and the last two pieces of pancake that he had left from earlier. Shmuel called about bringing the papaya plants someday, and Carly texted to let me know she was headed to Holon to get the number for getting a car. She was successful with that and we plan on going to order a car tomorrow.

In eating the fish we talked about meat and fish and eating animals. He played Gro Recycling while I showered. Then we made banana bread. He was most excited by the brown sugar, but also helped with the mixing and pouring. He enjoyed checking on it occasionally as it got bigger in the oven. He played Music for Kids and we worked on the music challenges on it. The banana bread was ready so took it out and had some. It turned out really well and he liked it. Too much, actually, as I realized I should have had us eat lunch first. Now he just wanted banana bread. I heated up pilaf and mushrooms but he didn’t want it. I put it in a container to take with us.

Randomly, he said “When mama gives me a shower she never opens the window…If mama lets the mold grow I will kill the mold. Yeah, I will kill the mold when it grows on my clothes.” I had told him why I had opened the bathroom window after my shower, but that was a couple hours earlier.

We got ready to go, and he had the idea of doing recycling, so we walked up and did that with the four or five things we have. We then got in the car and left, about 2:10, and drove over to a park I had seen just a little north of the school. There are all sorts of new climbing things there, and he spent some time going from one thing to the next to try them out. He was a little upset that some things, like the hamster wheel kind of toy, were in the sun. He ended up on a swing and spent a long time there – his first long swing session in Israel. While on the swings he wanted me to look on my phone and figure out where we should go after he was done playing. And he talked about how he was getting bored of the bowl he broke and wanted a new one anyway.

He was then an electric post machine (like light poles he saw around us) and had me put them up. He switched to being a banana bread dough machine, then said “Now it’s an electric post machine now.” I had thought he said toast. I told him that and then he was: “Next it’s gonna be robot toast you can eat with grapes and chocolate and raspberries on it.” He was making loud machine noises and they went on and on: “The machine needs a lot more power than the one that killed you and pollutes the earth completely!” “More so any neighbors can’t live on earth!” “Now the machine barely needs any power.” Then a machine that made hard candies (that kids broke their teeth on) and that made the step things for the playground. Some machines barely needed any power (like our new light bulbs) while other barely needed any pieces (perhaps the ‘reduce’ part of RRR that I discussed with him earlier). Finally, he was a gummy worm machine.

He got off the swings at 3:20 for water, and was ready to go. We were going to go into town and to the hardware store to get a new bowl to replace the one he broke. He then asked “Can you look on your phone, see where we should go next after we buy a bowl, please?” And looking at my watch he asked “Why is your watch waterproof? Cuz normally things that are electric aren’t waterproof…How’s it get more electricity then?”

We went to the hardware store after parking in a parking lot area behind the small grocery store. August found a pink cup with unicorns on it that he really wanted, so we got that. I was showing him a different pink cup with a fairy doing magic on it, but he said he learned more from the unicorn cup. He also found a smaller cup with a knight on it. He was talking about how they would be cups to get when he got bored of his other ones and broke them. I said no, no. No need to break things. We can go ahead and get them. We got two bowls – one like the one he broke and one with a cow. And he really liked a plate with two sections to it that I showed him, so we got that.

We walked past city hall, stopping to count the cats along the way and look at a gutter, and went across to the toy store. No forks there. He saw all the toys but just said they were all things he didn’t need. He wanted to go to the health foods store. He recognized it as a place with samples, even though the one where he had samples is over at the mall. This was a different branch of the same chain. We went in and they did have cracker and spread samples at the counter. Tried all those, then found a big jar of natural peanut butter and a container of apple and strawberry juice for us to share. He also did a little “samples” song and dance while we were in the store.

Left ther about 4:05 and went to the car. Turned on the AC and we sat in the back. He ate his rice and mushrooms and we shared the juice, which was really good. He kept telling me “You can have some if you want to.” We talked about going to the school and finding the hedgehog. I mentioned it was like Spikey on Puffin Rock, so he thought it was a baby. I said probably not, and he replied “Bu I love baby cats and hedgehogs? How will I ever find baby hedgehogs?”

I had to climb over the seat to get to the front as there are child locks on the back door. We left by 4:30. As we were driving he asked “Wait, does this car use gas?” He was a little upset to find that our new car would use gas too. I assured him the next car we buy (in several years…) might be electric. He was okay with that. And he said he was happy we had a car as he is getting bored of our house.

As we got to the school he suddenly went quiet and I looked back to find him sleeping. Or pretending to. Hard to tell as he had sunglasses on.

At the school we parked on the street and walked in, him singing, and got a drink of cold water by the office. He was happy there were steps up to the drinking fountain. We went down and looked in at the preschool (it was being remodeled and surrounded by construction fence when we saw it before), and he played with the toys outside, microwaving a plastic apple in a microwave. We talked about how this is where he could go to school when he was 4.

We then went to find the hedgehog. Found the outdoor habitat, but also realized they might put it inside for the evening. We had taken enough time at the preschool, so decided to look another da
y. We went upstairs to the bathroom. On the toilet he said “I don’t think anyone knows where the pee and poop goes, dada.” He then talked about the whole process of sewage back to water.

We went to Carly’s classroom at 4:55. He wanted to play the student game. Carly was the teacher and suggested a few topics, and he said “Machines!” They did a hammer machine, then she showed him the printer and they printed things from her computer. She then taught him about capitol letters, and he wrote on a small whiteboard. When they changed topics he moved to a different seat and said it was a different classroom for learning different things. He then said that when he came to school he had a machine that made classrooms.

Finally, while Carly went to get ready to leave he played on the bean bags doing a squirrel game, gathering nuts, then sleeping on the bean bag through the winter.

We headed home about 5:30. At home I got out the new bowls and cups and August showed them to Carly. They went outside nod I joined them after a bit. He was digging in the dirt with his rake and breaking up clods of dirt so they’d make dust in the air. He saw a dog wandering across the street and talked about how it couldn’t get in the yard and that he doesn’t like dogs because they lick and bark. He had been drinking milk: “Only cats can get in here. Cuz I love cats. But, can I get back to drinking my milk?”

Back inside I made pizza and they went up and he took a shower. I made a seitan and cauliflower pizza and a salmon and mushroom one. He came back down and ate pizza, really liking both of them.

He told Carly “Remember, I go crazy really fast.” And said “I want to play blanket fight. That’s where you throw blankets at each other.” We went up on the bed. He talked about just liking people: “Things that are not people I don’t like.” “Not robots; sometimes they’re scary.” I think that was a reference to Hilo, which has some bad robots in it. He was asleep by 8.

Earlier, he had been concerned about his Zinnie bed, not liking that it doesn’t have a mattress on it. He wanted to take the mattress out of our big bed and put it back. We talked about him sleeping in his own room and he asked about coming in if he woke up during the night. So he’s thinking about it. I told him when our stuff from Korea arrives we might be able to have mattresses in both places.

Also, at some point this morning he was putting his floaties on his feet and asking if you could swim that way. He had the idea that you might walk on the water.

Bug eyes for mama: 

Spatula: 

Banana bread: 

Thumbs up: 

Student game: 

Squirrel: 

New bowls and cups: 

Carly said that at some point August dreamt he was washing himself – he had his hands together as if he was rubbing soap in them, then was rubbing them on his body.

I heard the bedroom door slap shut (he often closes it behind him) at 6:34 as Carly was still closing the gate. He later told me he heard the air conditioner noise and that woke him up. He was tired but happy and I held him for several minutes standing in the kitchen. He spotted the coffee maker flashing and we talked about the contents of the canisters. He commented on not wanting to eat or drink flour.

I made a chocolate pancake for each of us and he watched Puffin Rock. He went to the bathroom, then we read Biscuit is Thankful, Berenstain Bears Go to School, and Berenstain Bears Trouble with Chores. Brushed his teeth, then Skyped with my parents. When talking to them he said he wanted a kitty and a cat. When they asked what he would name them he said “Same as gramma and grampa’s”. My mom also said “Now if gravity would just stop dropping crumbs for the ants,” referring to how he was dropping crumbs from his mouth. August responded “Gravity never stops!” We also told them about how he got mints inside yesterday and how he wanted to keep it a secret from Carly. He told them “Don’t tell anybody.” He then played Mammals while we skyped and he noticed that the elephant was literally leaking food from its stomach and falling to the floor. A very odd glitch for the app.

After we got of Skype we played the Pop, Pip, and Otto game. They went on a conveyor belt that he had made to their stump, then they were machines. He then directed some playing based on one of the episodes: “Otto, you go find eggs. The shrew crew and Mossy will find good berries for them in the meadow…Its not blue or white so it’s not a seagull or Puffin egg.” We also did some Flynne game. He pondered why you can’t eat water, after he said he was hungry but then just wanted water. He walked to the bathroom and as he did so said “All sorts of interesting ways to go…through those lines…streets.” Referring to the lines on the floor.

Out of nowhere (or maybe we were talking about killing bugs) he asked about dying: “You disappear just like that…whoosh…you die slowly? Not right away?” We talked about that a little.

He was hungry and wanted apple, so I cut one up. He talked about our house in Korea and apparently his opinion has changed and he now says he likes this house: “I didn’t like our house…I just like this house…I just like this house…I don’t like other things…I don’t like neighbors…mama…dada.” “No I didn’t at all. I didn’t like the wood. I didn’t like the wood floor. I like tile, so I like this house.” He climbed under my shirt to be warm at one point.

We read Take Care of Our World, which is a cool app/book with lots of animals in it. Then he played Highlights Shapes while I took a shower, then we explored the new forest level in Aniscience as we sat on the couch and he watched/read Little Green Riding Hood while I made pizza for lunch. We sat and ate lunch together, then we noticed flies buzzing around the house. Not sure if they came in when we had the door open for a couple minutes when we were out in the yard, or through the open window in the bathroom upstairs, but I killed three of them with the flyswatter and their may have been a fourth.

Back to animal games with the pillows, he wanted the sheet, so we went and got it and I made a stump/lair with chairs and it as the roof. He tried going on it and fell right through, but ended up bundled up. So he lay there and it was his hospital bed. The shrews were sick and couldn’t talk. He started blinking, which has meant ‘yes’ or something in the past, but he told me “The blinking doesn’t mean that…Means I want to blink.” He just lay there being cute, then was sort of just talking to himself for quite awhile. At one point he was reciting part of the Lucy and Pogo story, where the narrator asks you to count her claws.

We listened to Led Zeppelin II as I realized he hadn’t heard them yet. And also a Robert Plant album. We got ready to go and he played a little Human Body. He tried to convince me to play, saying “If you don’t play this dada you’ll NEVER learn about the human Body!!!”

He wanted to do recycling, so we took the bag and walked up, then came back to the car and left at 2:25. He was trying to get Tic-Tacs out and said “This container said it’s not gonna let me have a yellow one!”

We drove over to the Tiv Taam at the mall. A very direct walk, but a convoluted drive that probably takes just as long or longer. We parked, got out the stroller, and went in. Left the stroller by the entrance and he sort of hopped/crawled through much of the store. He was really excited about fruits and we got apples, bananas, and plums to try. He was also a machine destroying the store for a minute or two. But we made a quick shopping trip of it and left at 3:15.

As we got in the car he saw a paper cup and other garbage in the parking lot. He said “I hope people put garbage where the claw picks it up.” He talked about it polluting the earth, and I said that at least the mall should come around occasionally to clean it up and something about how they are responsible for keeping their land clean or they could get in trouble with the city. He thought of our own house and said “But, I made a mess with pillows.” I assured him that wasn’t what I meant.

As we drove out of the parking lot he looked out the window and talked about how he gets tired of foods, etc. but that he never gets tired of the things he sees when we are going on walks and adventures and on the bus and driving.

We made it to school and parked in the parking lot. Went to Carly’s classroom but she had decided not to swim. So we went just the two of us. He got really said when he saw the metal recycling can and we realized we hadn’t brought the small metal altoids container to recycle. I eventually got him in the pool and that cheered him up. There was a swim lesson going on and he was fascinated by that. He saw kids goofing around and asked “They don’t want the teacher to teach them?”

We mainly played with bubbles, with me doing the splashing thing to pull bubbles under him, then him popping all the bubbles on us. The first lesson got over, then a bit later he said “It’s Jill and a boy!” He had recognized Jillian, one of the Kerns, coming into the pool. He said hi to her as we got out, then watched a little of their lesson as we got ready to go.

We got to Carly just at 4:30 and we all drove home. As we walked to the car he was a post machine, making more posts and cutting up something for building sites (as we had been driving he was pointing out everything he recognized, including the half-done house that isn’t painted). He also told Carly he likes bus rides that last “Hours and hours…because I love busses so much.”

We got home at 4:45. They nursed and he chanted “I want something something milk, cuz there’s no milk in the nursing.” He ate the pilaf and veggies for dinner and was really liking it (he had seemed to be getting a little tired of both chocolate pancakes and pizza already). He had dropped some on his chair, but then brushed it on the floor. Carly talked to him about picking it up, and he decided to eat it instead: “Cuz I LOVE my dinner. I’m gonna pick it up from my chair and eat it.”

Carly cut up a plum and he ate a couple bits of it through the evening, although he said he didn’t like it. We went outside and he looked at the sap and we filled up the cat water with fresh at his request. Back inside he wanted that milk he never got. He got upset when Carly was going to make it with honey and not sugar: “Dada’s something, something milk!” Carly gave in, and told him she poured in too much sugar. He was thrilled by this, and kept it a ‘secret’ from me for several minutes before deciding to tell me: “M
ama gave me too much sugar! Enough to make me sick!”

Carly told him to go to his lair after that, but he said “But I don’t have a lair!” Carly asked him what that was made out of pillows, et. And he said “Just a hospital bed.”

Carly left to go to Back to School Night, taking the car. As she was about to go out August said “I want a hug and a kiss from mama.” He played Gro Recycling for awhile, then was doing the talking to himself playing thing, although I couldn’t catch what it was about. He was still hungry and ate most of a banana, then some of the pilaf and mushrooms. He talked about wanting to wake up with mama and watch Sarah and Duck. Wasn’t clear if this was something he was remembering or a new idea of something he wanted to do.

We went upstairs and he took a shower. He was covering his eyes to see shapes and colors and told me “I want to look up why you see colors and shapes and robots and stuff when you close your eyes.” I was surprised by the ‘robots and stuff’ part.

In bed we read Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed and finished the first book of Hilo. He was doing fine until 8:47. Then it really sunk in that mama wasn’t home to put him to bed. He got sad and I held him. Eventually we went downstairs and I was holding him in the kitchen. He would calm down for a minute and would think he might go to sleep. He paused being upset too to go to the bathroom again. When I wouldn’t let him outside we ended up sitting on the floor with him in my lap. That was when he got upset with me, repeating “Mama’s nice. You’re not nice.”

I was telling him we could go outside in the yard if he calmed down a bit, and finally he did, although he got upset again for a bit when we realized that Carly had the stroller in the car. So I carried him for a walk at 9:15. Which was quite nice. We saw a cat sitting on the corner on the sidewalk, and saw it again on our way back. Walked past the house and up towards the park, then turned around again when I saw Carly pull up. I had kept expecting him to put his head down and fall asleep, but he didn’t.

She was home at 9:25. He was happy to see her and went in and was asleep just after 9:30.

Hiding in my shirt: 

Being cute: 

Finding Cheerios: 

Sap: 

Up at 6:40. He came down the stairs, but then wanted me to take him upstairs, where he lay on the bed for a couple minutes. He then wanted to go downstairs, and I held him in the living room for several minutes. Finally, he was hungry so he watched Puffin Rock and I made him a pancake. We then played the owl game: “Mossy’s doing something in the meadow! They’re gonna fly over there! Come on, Otto! Mossy’s finding mice for Pip and Pop!” After playing that for quite awhile he watched Wanda and the Alien and I exercised, then we went back to the owl and Mossy games, with Mossy being a patient: “You put brain medicine in there that makes the brain confused of something.” “Doctor! Every machine you used is not working right!” “All the bones is working right but the bone marrow isn’t!” “The heart is working well.” I ended up putting robot parts on him. And he was repeatedly calling me ‘doctor’: “Why you putting pillows on me, doctor?”

I took a shower and he was on the toilet. Went downstairs and he played Namoo and I made pizza. In talking about our plans he had earlier said that he wanted to go back to the park we went to yesterday, but now he said “I want a different park every day.” We looked at Google Maps together, then played more of owls not feeling well. I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which he ate half of, and sliced up an apple for a snack. We did more doctor game, taking care of the owls and shrews and rabbit, then Carly called while he was on the toilet. Before we left he was talking about the Mammals app, saying “When I ask the animals if they’re hungry they keep saying they’re HUNGRY!” He had left one piece of pizza, so I got him to eat it before we left. He bit his tongue eating last bite of pizza. Earlier, when we were eating pizza, he had slipped walking to his chair and fell.

We finally left at 1:05 on our first drive together without Carly in the car. I had given him the iPad app and he’d chosen RioMio before we left. As we drove away he said “Bye bye house”. Yesterday, as we had left Ra’anana Park, he had said “Bye bye, park.”

We went to the Ilanot arboretum just north of Even Yehuda. Had some difficulty getting to it. First tried to go to the portion on the west side of Highway 4, but started to go on a once-paved road that was now a mess. I feared for our little car, so turned around. Google Maps took me on the highway, but wanted me to take a left turn where I couldn’t. So I exited to the right, to the Ilanot portion on the east side. I thought it didn’t matter, as from the photos it looked like there was a path under the highway connecting them.

Anyway, this part at least turned out to be an arboretum. We parked and got in the backpack on a bench. We got walking and had a great time. Almost all of the trees are labeled, and August wanted to stop at every sign to see what kind of tree it was. There were flat fir-type needles that he liked taking off their branches when I picked them off from the ground for him, and we looked for a tree like the ones at our house. There a hundred species at least, and a lot of them are really interesting trees. We stopped to look at seeds and cones and different leaves and needles. We walked the entire paved path to the east and then the north, then looped around and headed back towards the car. August started a “We’re going back the way we came” chant that lasted several minutes and turned into a song, before reverting back to the chant. We found the tunnel under the highway, but it is now closed off.

We talked about what we were doing next, but he said he wanted to ride a bus: “But I like to ride busses!” Five minutes later: “Can I get a bus ride home?” We pondered how the path to the tunnel no longer existed and he said “Maybe a scary monster took it away.”

We got back to picnic tables and chose one in the shade. He started playing with the pine needles, making a mountain. He was pouring dust on it with his hands, and said it was a “pine needle washing machine”. The dirt he put in it was the soap.  Cassie, Vivian, and Colin called and skyped for a few minutes. August was focused on his pine needles, but paused to say hi and bye and listen a bit when Vivian played piano for him. Later, when he told Carly about it, he remembered that Vivian had skyped to play piano for him, so he had been paying attention.

We ate our apple and more of the sandwich. We had walked for about an hour, then played in the pine needles for a good half hour. Finally, after 3:30, we headed to the bathroom. August explained what we were doing next: “I want to wash my hands, go to the bathroom, go home…and have a nice dinner with mama.” When he saw inside of the bathroom he said “This is like a Korea bathroom in Children’s Grand Park?” Not sure why he said that. He spotted the urinals and said “Urinals. No. They might have sensors. I do NOT like sensors.”

We got going, and had a bit of adventure. I went out the eastern exit, as I would have to turn north on the highway. It was a big, nice dirt road out the back, and it looked like I could get to a paved road pretty easily. But I’m finding Google Maps is not so good here, and some of their lines didn’t even seem to correspond to what I saw, or were really rough lines along power lines, or rough roadways for those ATVs. I found a nice gravel road running north or south, but at the north end there was a gate, and at the south end it ended. Made it back to the arboretum and took a right on the highway and turned around at the next light.

August had been playing Mammals, and I kept hearing elephant noises. I was focusing on navigating and driving, and finally made it home at 4:10. I turned around to find him asleep. He was still sitting up, so I think it had just happened. He slumped over as I watched. I got him out of his vest, and he said “No” to going inside, and lay down on the backseat and fell back to sleep. I took him in and stood him up, and he lay down on the rug and fell asleep again. I got him awake at 4:20, telling him he could have some mints. He perked up and told me “The fruit ones are the waking up mints…because they have good sugar.” He got a couple Tic-Tacs, then said “Don’t tell mama you had inside mints?” He was then pretending to be a dying beetle.

We got up and read Corduory Goes to the Library. At the end there is a reference to Little Red Riding Hood and we discussed that. He wanted to plat the Little Green Riding Hood story/app on my iPad. He did that, and was proud of himself for going through the whole story.

I started making food: a pancake for him, cauliflower, mushrooms, and a new batch of iced tea, this time the Earl Grey we like. Carly got home and they nursed, and he told her we didn’t find a tree like we have here. He ate his pancake, and he left the last bite. I told him he got that from his mom, and he asked “Did mama do that in college?” He played the My First Orchard and My First Orchestra apps and we looked at the orchestra together. He and Carly read Jumpy Jack and Googily. I gave him a shower and washed his hair, and he was drinking from the shower head. In bed they read part of the Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent book. He was tired, and went to sleep at 7:30. He woke up at 8:10, but Carly got him right back to sleep.

Weed watering: 

Arboretum: 

Closed path: 

Pine needles and Smokey: 

Sleeping: 

Drinking from the shower head: 

Reading Cyrus:

He wanted to nurse at 5 something. Carly was already up so I went and got her. He went back to sleep, then was up at 6:27 and went straight to the bathroom. Nursed but didn’t go back to sleep, so they went downstairs and played the owl game and had a chocolate pancake, which he sat at the table and carefully ate, making yummy noises. He and I played the chipmunk game “Dada chipmunk, you can be the weather changing.” Then to owls. They kept throwing up owl pellets but also were getting sick. He was Pip and Pop and I was the animal doctor and inspected him. He then crawled back in the stump and was silent for a few minutes.

We watched a SciShow Kids video on owl pellets, then he changed to being shrews: “The Owl’s want to be shrew crew now.” They got sick eating bad berries: “They ate mud and shells and outlets and light switches and pans, light bulbs, mugs, plants, sinks, bathtubs, containers, baskets…”

Carly took him outside for a few minutes and they mixed food coloring, then we came back in and did more animal games. I then went up and took a shower and when I came down he was watching Wanda and the Alien and laughing a lot.

We were then waiting for Mandy and getting ready to go. She was taking us to pick up our rental car. Running late though, so we had some time. I got him some grapes and he did his “The grapes clogged my pipes.” game where I then have to unclog him. He was being cranky, a combination of being tired and nervous about what was going on. I went out to the junk in our driveway and found shelves from old kitchen cabinets that we might be able to use for our library. I had turned on Michael Jackson’s Bad to celebrate its 30th anniversary. While I was out August wouldn’t let Carly turn it off as he said he really liked it. We all went outside for a little while and he talked more about digging up the weeds. He also said “I have a little gear on me that turns me up and down and left and right…There’s a handle on it, see?”

Mandy and Jillian turned up after 11:30 and we headed over. I sat in the middle and gave August red and yellow mints. He swallowed one, dropped another. I gave him a replacement red, but when I wouldn’t replace the one he swallowed he started to melt down. We got to the Enterprise at 12 and they dropped us off.

It wasn’t the fastest service, and Carly had quite the task in getting August calmed down. Finally he did, and played some Creature Garden and Gro Forest, I think. We eventually got our car, a well-used Kia Picanto, and left about 1.

I drove the north route into Even Yehuda, getting used to the car. We gt home and Carly took August up and he was asleep just after 1:30, then awake a little after 2:30. Nursed, then played Namoo, saying “I like to show mama things that are really interesting…This game teaches you about trees, mama.”

Carly cooked mushrooms, then gave him some pilaf on the couch and dropped a little on it. He excitedly told me “I was eating on the couch…Mama foegot to set me on…Got on the orange pillow…” He ate the rest at the table, making yummy noises.

We got ready to go and left at 3:30, with Carly driving this time. We drove down to a Skoda dealership a few miles away in Ra’anana. August was talking more about getting cats, specifically “Can we buy robot cats sometime?”

Parked and went in, and pretty much decided on getting the Skoda Fabia. The size and features we want, and the diplomatic discount was impressive. August spent his time spinning in one of the chairs and loved that.

We left about 4:20 and drove over to the Ra’anana Park. It is a big park and maybe sort of our new Children’s Grand Park. Not as big, but with two big playground areas and a small zoo. We parked near the west end, paid, and walked east. Saw a couple of interesting birds on the way, and there are a lot of sculptures. We got to the first playground, a big covered one, and mainly played on a big spinny thing and Carly went on the big swinging beam. We then went up and walked around a slightly bizarre concrete maze sort of area. We found a fuzzy backpack decoration and August rubbed it on his neck.

We had been looking for a drinking fountain and looked at one sculpture. Carly commented on the artist who made it. August misheard an thought she was talking about the sculpture itself: “It’s not a person! It’s made out of metal! Not bones and skin and intestines and everything!”

Headed farther east and found the second huge playground area. Even more kids here. He climbed up stairs, along with other kids, and was amazed they were all going “All at once!” He went down the slide. He spotted a hanging capsule thing and said “It looks like an acorn rocket!” Tried out all sorts of other things, then went in the rocket thing for a good amount of time. Carly skyped with Cherie as we played around there, then walked around the big circle, playing with other things. August and I went on one of those parent/kid swing combos.

Close to 6:30 we started to leave. We got the stroller and walked around the big circle, stopping to try out the exercise equipment. Stopped at the bathrooms and left there at 6:40, walked by the zoo area, and headed back to the car.

I drove, and we got home at 7:25, just as it got dark. Inside Carly made him a pancake and he told me “Hey dada, I was just saying in the car I want to eat those pancakes every once in a while.” We all ate dinner, then played the Pip and Pop game, followed by a new yard waste game in which we put the branches in a can, then the truck came and dumped the cans, then it got chipped into mulch. He was talking about something and said “Little microbes ate it all up and pooped it out.”

We read Chicka Chicka ABC twice and Tiny Rabbit’s Big Wish, then took him up to his shower. Carly gave him his shower. In on the bed he sang his “Bee-uh bee-uh” song, which is about nursing, but added a whole dance, with his hands palm together, to it.

I thought they were both asleep about 9, but at 9:25 she sent him back down. He played Sarah and Duck Sleepover and we did Solar System together, discussing the different planets. We read Loch Mess Monster and part of Hilo, then went up and I got ready for bed and he used the bathroom, then we went in at 10:35. Still took him awhile to fall asleep, and it was after 10:45 before he was asleep.

Photos. Morning: 

The rental car: 

At the Skoda dealership: 

The car we will order: 

Ra’anana Park: 

He came down just before 7:30. Carly and I were both on the couch. He picked up his shorts on the way down the stairs, left from last night, and handed them to us. He then asked about the pile of student papers next to Carly, and then noticed the air conditioner was off. He went to get the remote, but it was next to me so I handed it to him. He replied “Oh, okay. Thank you.” He went and turned on the air conditioner and said “17. 17 for mama.” I asked what about me, and he gave me a look and said “I don’t like warm things. I don’t like hot things.”

He had some cozy time with Carly, then when she went to go to the bathroom he was upset and said “I’m gonna miss you forever.” I offered to get him some milk and he said “Milk with something something cuz mama doesn’t have nursing in her nursing.” Carly mopped and we read Berenstain Bears Go to Camp and looked at photos of bears. Carly made toast and I cut it for August. She started bleaching the cabinets. I opened a door, and as August was playing Namoo on my iPad, I went up and took a shower. Back downstairs August wanted to head upstairs because of the cleaner. So we went up and hung out in the office. He played the Creatures Gallery app – an animal version of Robot Factory. Then the space music game.

We went back downstairs. They nursed and we ate crackers in the white cheese, which is kind of a cross between cottage cheese and cream cheese. We then played the May the rabbit game, followed by a lot of the Pip, Pop, and Otto game. He told me “You can be the stump.” First played with me, then Carly. We then invented the Shady Glade game, based on the book. I had left the raisins in the oven overnight, then we put them out in the sun. We tried them, and he really liked them “One more dried grape, then we’re done.” He said that three or four times, then we left the rest out to keep drying.

Inside, he went on the toilet. He takes the toilet paper off and makes the binging noise when he’s done. Supposedly. But now he keeps doing it even when he’s not done. So when I didn’t come back he was asking “Why isn’t dada coming back‽”

We went for a walk at 11:45 over to the mall. We went to Arcaffe, just for drinks this time. I had a macchiato and they shared a cold chocolate (chocolate milk) and orange and carrot juice. He was shocked we had a chocolate drink: “Why did you let me have a chocolate drink‽” When Carly offered him the orange and carrot he said “Uh-uh”. He then played Everything Machine and Carly went to the grocery store. He played for a couple more minutes, zoned out a bit, and wanted to drink the mist. As we paid, the waitress asked us if we were tourists, then the woman at the table next to us talked to us for a minute when she heard me mention the American school.

August wasn’t too happy with the grocery store, as he kept saying it was too cold. We managed to help with shopping a bit though, figuring out which one was spinach, getting more of the good Earl Grey tea, and more Tic-Tacs.

We went home, where Carly started making the healthy chocolate pancakes. August couldn’t believe his luck: “Mama’s letting me have chocolate things without having dinner‽ She needs to read that monkey book?” That’s a reference to the Should You Feed It to the Monkey? book I often remind him of when he wants too much candy or sweets.

He was being grumpy, so eventually Carly took a break from cooking and they went and wrestled. I made pizzas, then after we ate we played more Pip and Pop and Otto game. We went in the stump and pretended to sleep. He closed his eyes and was silent for a good five minutes. Carly cut up an apple from him and he said “Sour. I love sour things.” He kept referring to me as ‘Otto’, and said “Otto. You sleep while I go get pillows upstairs.” He built a big stump and said “Huh‽ how the Owl’s gonna get in here? How the Owl’s gonna get in this stump?” That turned into a smelling game, with the owls taking turns finding interesting things for the other owls to smell.

Carly was making the healthy chocolate pancakes, and it was time to cook them. He watched that, then ate a couple, making yummy noises the whole time. He then kept having me build the stump and he would destroy it. He wanted an Oona and Baba game and when I asked what that was he decided they would make sand castles out of the pillows.

He and Carly nursed, then when Carly got up he was dramatic again, saying “Mama’s not even going to be friends with me.” He also started saying he was sleepy. We went outside to sweep the tree things and check the raisins. Then back in for more Pip and Pop and Otto game. Carly skyped with Cassie. August said “But we ALWAYS nurse when we Skype!”

We went for a walk about 6:15, just up to the playground without a stroller. We took the recycling and did that, and when he was done with the plastic and glass he played with things from a tree on the sidewalk there for several minutes. Then in to the playground. August pushed Carly on the big round swing, and we went on the big teeter totter thing. Played around a bit more then headed home. He told me “I sometimes eat clouds.”

At home we read Chicka Chicka ABC and part of Spiral by Spiral. He really liked the picture of the snake and chipmunks curled up in their underground homes, and he wanted to curl up like them. So he did that, first as a snake, then a chipmunk. As a chipmunk then he started gathering acorns, which he pronounced ‘air-corns’. That became the big game, and we would grow oak trees and gather the nuts for him. He even had an acorn machine: “Turned the air-corn machine on.”

I took him up for his shower at 8. He was reciting the seasons from our hibernating chipmunk game: “Summer, winter, summer, winter…winter, summer, fall…Someone broke the weather machine.” And worried about his acorn machine: “Someone attack-ed my acorn machines down there! A monster! Do you see it down there in the drain?”

After his showerhe went and got the bed wet as usual, but spent a lot of time describing the different rockets in the wetness, rockets going to Jupiter and Mars and Saturn and back to earth. Went back down and did more acorn game, then up to bed and he was asleep about 9.

Photos: 

Raisin: 

Groceries: 

He was up at 6:53. Upset that mama was gone, so he sat on the curvy part of the stairs for some alone time and calmed down. Came down and we talked about the shells and how and what clams eat. Mammals on my iPad. I made a selection of toasts for breakfast and he watched the first episode of Care Bears. As he finished he turned to me and said “Dada! The blue Care Bear stole the honey, then Beastly stole the honey from the blue Care Bear.” At first he was excited by the chunky peanut butter, but he has not decided he doesn’t like the chunks, so I had to eat the chunks off the toast. Luckily, the jar is almost empty. He was, however, excited by the fruit chunks in the strawberry yogurt.

He decided “I want to see how you make yogurt and cream. Did you hear me dada?…cream that goes on your bottom and penis…and then cream for cooking. And next time I watch how things are made I want to see CLOTHES.” We watched a video about yogurt, then one about chains. He then said “I might build a clothes machine in the kitchen.” Penis was bothering him a bit this morning, but not for long.

About 8:50 we went out for a little walk. He wanted to put recycling in the cages and had remembered that he saw Carly put something in our recycling bag. And I had thoughts about the table that was across the street, and painting it for his Zinnie house or for the play area upstairs. The table turned out to be cheaper and bigger than I remembered, then we walked up and recycled the two plastic containers. On the walk back he was walking and saw some foam and said “Foam! What’s all the foam I see in this country from‽” At home he wanted to take the cans to the school to recycle and I said we could in the afternoon. “When we see the moon?” He’s noticed that the moon is visible in the sky in the late afternoon now.

He made his clothes machine, then was lying on the pillows and bothered a bit by the itchiness. We put grapes outside for raisins. We chose the first half-cloudy day since we’ve been here for it. He watched Puffin Rock and ate grapes and Cheerios. I went and took a shower. August wanted to do more recycling and said “I want to go recycling shopping!” Checked on the grapes and seemed like one was missing; maybe a bird got it. We discussed goals for the day and he said he wanted the teacher game and reading books and recycling at the school. He wiped chalk in his hair and I told him not to unless he wanted it to be a hair washing day. He celebrated it not being a hair washing day by singing a “Not a hair washing day” song and hopping laps around the living room. He then made a music machine out of pillows in the kitchen, which he destroyed and then hopped on the pieces of to make them make noise.

We then made a machine in our usual spot. This one was a noodle machine: “I’m the noodles and you’re printing them…here’s purple noodles and green noodles and blue noodles. Could you print the right color on them dada?” Played that for quite awhile. We turned the ceiling fan on, and tried the different speeds. It rattles a bit when fast and we talked about foreground versus background sounds again. I spotted a bird out our window, not getting a grape, and we watched a pair of them in one of our trees.

Then he developed another big game. We were planting trees, then veggies and other fruits. Then he was May, the rabbit from Puffin Rock, sleeping in a burrow and eating all of the plants before I could harvest them. “Turnips and radishes‽ May loves those!” I put up an electric fence and he dug under it, but only wanted regular fences after that.

We made pizza for lunch and he ate most of one of our long slices. He went to the bathroom, and then back out in the kitchen he walked in front of the kitchen door: “When I walk back and forth that opens to make warm air for you. Cuz you like warm things.” We played with his shells from yesterday and he said one of them ate plastic. I said it got sick and he was surprised: “But, clams eat garbage‽” We had previously talked about how clams clean the water and now talked about organic garbage versus inorganic. He kept being May: “May LOVES pizza!…May just wants shirt and underwear.” He spotted ants in the kitchen and talked about a cleaner he had to kill them: “Type of cleaner…they can’t live on earth at all.”

He’s really been into the Tinybop apps, so I got the Everything Machine, Monster, and Creative Garden ones and we tried out the first two. We played around with sound things in Everything Machine, then made a really cool monster on his iPad. The app crashed and we lost his first monster. He kept asking “What vanished completely mean?” We switched to my iPad and the app worked much better on it and he made a second monster.

He wanted the little feather we saw fall from one of the birds earlier so I went and found it. Back inside, by the door, he said “Oh dear! There’s a bunch of ants there!” We battled ants, then did the noodle machine one more time.

He went to the bathroom, and while sitting on the toilet he was pressing on his eyes and we talked about the colors and shapes. I said something about being careful about pushing on his eyes because it could hurt, and he asked if it could damage his eyes. Got into a discussion of blindness, and of guide dogs. At first he thought I was talking about a toy dog, not a real dog. So after he got off the toilet we watched a couple videos about guide dogs. I then couldn’t remember why we had started talking about guide dogs in the first place. I asked him, and he said “I’m keeping it in my head so you can’t talk about it…I’m keeping it in my brain so you can’t remember it.” Luckily, I remembered on my own.

We got going to the school around 2. We stopped at Jack’s house for a few minutes to talk to him about helping us with the little library. August got to throw the dog toy for the dog a couple times.

We then continued on to school and got to the library at 2:30 or so. He played with the animals, making a nest, then I suggested we go get a couple books to read in the nest. We got a couple of Corduroy books (A Pocket for Corduroy and Corduroy at the Library) and a new book called That’s NOT a Hippopotamus. We went back to the nest of animals and read the Library book. A woman came over and said something about looking perfect and took our photo together. But then he mainly pretended to be Baba’s snail, from Puffin Rock, used the sea turtle as his shell. He wanted me to say “Baba sad” when he dug underground, then would say “Found you, baba!” The bell rang, and they announced the library would close at 3:15. So we went back and found two other books, as we had turned in 5. We also got Bill Peet’s Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent and Berenstain Bears Go to Camp.

We headed to the pool, stopping to recycle the aluminum cans. We then stopped to eat some raisins, and that’s where Carly found us. We were lazy, and almost didn’t go swimming, but I said we should. We changed and went in the pool. We mainly played in the deeper end, and August near the end really got serious about swimming, and swam almost the entire length of the pool, a very serious look on his face, and got out at the steps. We changed and left by 4:40.

On the way home he said “I want a cat in our yard. I want to buy dirt so the cats can bury their poop.” I asked if he could tell Carly what animal he was being at the library and he kept a secret again. He wouldn’t tell her and said “I like to keep questions in my brain.” He then invented a cat machine and was a cat machine for much of the walk home, spraying out cats that went all the way to our yard. He told Carly “You can absolutely get allergic.” He used the word ‘absolutely’ a couple more times, then later I got him to tell me where he learned that word: from Carly. She does say it sometimes, and sometimes tells him “Abso-fruitly”. He then invented a cat vacuum cleaner, which sucked up the cats and their fu
r. He then said the cats then just lived in the vacuum cleaner and played with toys, at which point he made up a toy machine that attached to the cat vacuum cleaner and sprayed toys into it, but “They soon wear out and break down.”

We got home at 5:10. He went in and said “I’m gonna hide somewhere to keep things in my brain.” Our raisins were still grapes, so we put them in the oven. We ate dinner and played more of the May game. He played Mammals, then we read some Hilo and had Cheerios with milk. We then read That’s NOT a Hippopotamus and part of Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent. Carly took him up for his shower, then I brushed his teeth. They tried for sleep before 8. They came down and he and I read Berenstain Bears Go to Camp. When I explained camp to him and staying with friends he asked “How you make friends?” And something about about the book got him asking about animals dying, then he asked “Are you gonna die?” When I talked about it being a long time for now he then said “I want to stop talking about it.”

He got tired and went upstairs for bed. Went to the bathroom and I heard him talking about his cat machine again. They went in and he was asleep about 8:35.

Touching the growing sap:

Getting printed on the conveyor belt: 

Funny look: 

His first monster: 

Reading in the nest: 

Playing fetch: 

He was up at 6:20. Had a repeat of a week and a half ago when he went straight to the bathroom and said his penis hurt. Seemed to get over it faster this time, though it took a couple hours. Before Carly headed to work she said something to him about going to the beach today and he said “But you’ll miss all the fun!” Watched one Care Bear episode and ate a few Cheerios. We went outside and there was a strong smoky smell. Don’t know why. We spotted ants going towards the garbage for the first time, so I took that out and recycling. He wanted to take recycling to the cages, but we would end up waiting to do it. He decided to watch Lucy and Pogo, then went to the bathroom and got talkative: “Why in Korea when they had garbage they made heat and electricity?” He talked a lot about plastic and pollution: “I’m glass you can put on the ground and it lasts for millions and millions of years. It will never break down.” “A machine is filling me up with empty glass. Someone behind the machine is putting in empty glass to fill me up.”

He hadn’t eaten much breakfast and wanted toast and biscuit spread, which is gone. Did toast and honey instead and I took a shower. Back downstairs, as we got ready to go, he spotted more ants. He said: “They say they’re hungry.” And “When I eated my toast gravity pulled the seeds and crumbs down.”

We left a little after 9. I didn’t expect the bus until after 9:30, but wanted to make sure. We went to the bus stop and waited until the bus showed up on the sign and it said 30 minutes. So we went back to the house and got recycling and took it up to the cages. Had August do much of the walking, although he wanted me to carry him by the dog poop as he didn’t want to step on it. Did recycling, dropped off the bag, and made it to the bus stop in plenty of time to catch the bus at 9:40. He was watching the sign, telling me when the minutes changed. The actual cost of the bus is 6.80 for us. Don’t know why the first guy only charged us 4 shekels.

He just sat and looked out for much of the way and ate his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. While eating he said “I’m just as allergic to cashews as mama.” We played I Spy and I said a stop button. He had apparently already found all the stop buttons as he immediately pointed out about six of them: “That stop button or that stop button…” Before we got off at 10:30 he had been asking if ants could get on the bus, which led to a discussion of insect survival and dying. As we got off the bus he asked how we die. I asked if he meant the insects, which we’d been discussing, and he said no, “How do WE die?”

We walked around the block a bit, got in the backpack, and walked straight to the beach. We went to the bathroom and changed into our swimsuits and were in the water just after 11, at the spot we initially went to last time. School apparently doesn’t start until tomorrow, but for whatever reason the beaches were empty compared to last time. We spent about two hours playing at the beach. We went out floating a couple times, going out to a sand bar a little ways out that he could stand on and touching the waves that were breaking a bit. Back on the shore we used our stick to write words that either August or the waves would erase. August would say “The waves choose” whether he or the waves would erase it. We also watched kids out surfing and he liked the little fish swimming around. At one point he didn’t want to walk out to me because he didn’t want to step on the fish.

While sitting on me as we were in the shallows, he got his mouth too close to the water and took a mouthful. Had to get out and took him awhile to recover. Finally, he was making a hole with the stick, and before we left we went out for one more float in the water. Oh, and the kids next to us had a fishing pole and were trying to catch a little fish.

Just after 1 we went up to the showers and faucets to rinse off. August then spent about twenty minutes playing in the stream going from the showers into the sand. He would get his hands or feet sandy, then go over to the faucets and rinse them off.  We got walking by 1:40, with him in the backpack. We went up the steps. Along the way he told a story about a cat he saw sleeping that ran off down the stairs and went into the water. The first part may have been true. Of another cat he asked “Can I take the cat home?” Yesterday, at Tiv Taam, when I was looking at cheese he wandered over to the aisle with pet food. He came back and asked if we could get a cat and cat food.

At the top of the stairs we walked north along the path at the top of the cliff. Maybe a half mile or so until we had a view of the next beach north. We also saw a paraglider go right over head, a big ship out on the horizon, and the docks or something up at Jaffa.

We were ready for a smoothie, so we walked back along the street to where the steps to the beach are, then our usual route back to the bus. We stopped for a smoothie and chose a peach and strawberry yogurt smoothie this time. We drank it on our way back. We stopped by the restrooms close to the bus station and paid a shekel to use them. Outside, he stood and drank the smoothie for awhile and offered me some. When we were walking he had been doing a drink for him, a drink for me.

We got to the bus station and lucked out this time, catching a bus immediately. On the way home we read some Hilo, then he watched Sarah and Duck with his headphones and I did some reading. We got off the bus and he played on the exercise equipment for a bit. We were home at 4:15.

We had just started reading the Shady Glade book and were discussing bird migration when Carly got home at 4:30. They nursed, then we finished reading Shady Glade. Carly was upstairs and he was pondering telling Carly about the mints AND Jaffa cakes that we had had on the way/when we got home. He giggled about it a lot, but then decided, I think, to keep it a secret.

We ate dinner, and he ate some of the rice and curry dish, but not a lot. Carly took him outside and they sat at the table and he showed her the Mammals and Plants apps from TinyBop on the iPad. Back inside, he and I read The Story of Babar, which involved discussing hunting, as Babar’s mother is shot by a hunter. He was hungry, and I sliced up the last golden apple. He was really excited about it, and ate 7 of the 8 slices, as he gave one to Carly because he wanted her to try it.

He wanted more apple, and wanted a machine to put water back in the dried apple, which he refused to eat today as he said it was too hard to eat. Carly took a shower and we read Hilo, then I got him some grapes when he was still hungry. I also got him to eat a few more bites of his dinner.

Carly gave him a shower, and in on the bed he said that Carly was the garbage power plant and his feet were the cranes picking up the garbage (his clothes). He keeps asking me where our garbage and sewage go, as in Korea we sort of knew that, as he knew about the power plant and the sewage treatment plant at Seoul Forest.

A couple days ago he was able to clearly communicate how when we put his shirt on it sometimes hurts him, so she is careful putting it on now. He was asleep about 8.

We used our dryer a couple times today. Carly dried a couple shirts she washed by hand, and then I did a full load of laundry in the evening. What a luxury!

Bus stop: 

Beach: 

Sharing: 

Bus: