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He was up at 7:40. We read some Ramona Quimby, Age 8. He played Dragonbox Big Numbers and I typed. He ate some carrot cake and we finished Magic Tree House #21. I boiled eggs for later and made scrambled eggs with cheese and cauliflower and mushrooms for breakfast. We sat at the table and he ate about an egg’s worth. He then played Fritz and Chesster. I exercised and took a shower. He played some Tinybop Solar System, then came in and sat on the bathroom floor as I got ready to take my shower. I told him about how NASA had just launched a mission to study the sun, and that it would be the fastest thing we’ve ever made, and that he could watch the launch. I pulled it up on YouTube and we watched it, then he spotted a Pink Panther video. He watched while I took a shower and got us ready to go. He was laughing and laughing, like when he watches Curious George.

I had mentioned I’d found a treat when cleaning out the cupboard, and he was excited about it, but then joked “I’m expecting it’s just gonna be cilantro.” We left at 11:50. It turned out to not be very good, and so I told him about getting lunch at Ikea, and he put two and two together and remembered ice cream.

When we got there it was the busiest I’ve seen Ikea. Had to park further away than usual. When we went in August wanted lunch first. Not a long line, but it moved slowly. A couple women with a child cut the line, arguing there were two lines. A couple of other women in the line in front of me took it up verbally with them. I just did some pointing to the real line. August was a bit impatient, but we made it. Got our food (a hot dog for him and falafel for me) and two ice cream tokens. Not really anyplace to sit, then August decided he wanted ice cream first anyway. I gave in, and we shared one of the ice creams, choosing the soft serve with chocolate. I had the idea of saving the other ice cream until we were done and sharing both of them.

We packed up the food and started shopping. Walked around the top floor. He found one hopscotch. I grabbed some toy cooking utensils for his kitchen at home. We then stopped at a table and ate our lunch. Then headed downstairs and got a cart. Got a few more bins, a throw pillow for one of our pillow cases, a nice mixing bowl with a cover, and a cake pan. Did not find measuring spoons with long handles. This was a minor thing on my list, but August really wanted me to ask someone. I did, however, ask about sheets, as they didn’t have the small size that Maaian said in her preschool supplies list Ikea would have. I did ask, as they said they don’t carry sheets that small. So, we already have twin size sheets at home so didn’t get one.

We checked out. I was holding August as I signed the credit card thing and realized just a second late that this is something that August has really, really, really been wanting to do for me. He was very sad about that, but then had our second ice cream. With strawberry this time. He felt better. We left after 2:30.

We got to school and spotted Carly coming out of the library. We went to her classroom with her for a few minutes, then he and I headed to the pool. Carly got there later. In the pool he was quoting a line from Fritz and Chesster, the chess game. Something like “In winter’s cold and summer’s heat, the best time is when it’s time to eat.” We played with the kickboard, but mainly two squirt guns that were left there, likely from the party. We made games of shooting the flags, trying to catch the drops, and trying to hit each other. We also played with a ball, throwing it into the basketball hoop.

We left a little before 5, changed, and headed home to grab his x-ray. A good choice. The dentist was supposed to have received the x-ray via email, but didn’t seem to have done so. She looked at it, said yes the upper tooth is pushing, but that it is really early for an extraction. Kind of left us in limbo. She kept the x-ray and said she would talk to a pediatric colleague of hers and get back to us. August said that it isn’t bothering him quite as much, so for at the moment we are okay. Might have to seek a second opinion at some point.

I had told him he could have 20 minutes of iPad at home. He had soup for dinner, then spent it watching Pink Panther and laughing a lot. He had some of the iced tea I’d made earlier. Went outside for a little while, then practiced rest time. He started listening to music, but then powered off his phone. He had spent a couple minutes looking at the cat’s meow book on his own before were started, but then didn’t want to do it. He mainly put a bunch of books on the couch and lay on top of them. Which is progress, I guess.

I got ready for a run, and Cherie had just called to Skype as I was leaving. I got back at 8, and he came down from a bath a minute later. He told me “I just invented a bike that when it rains it has a parachute and it has a telescope on it and it has a bell that barks and it has automatic told up and down wheels that when you park it they go up and when you ride on it they go down.” And it had steel walls to protect from lightning.

Carly to a shower and he and I read Ramona Quimby, finishing chapter 2. We decided on ‘overwhelmed’ as the word of the day, and also discussed the meaning of ‘conspiratorial’ and ‘blissfully’. All words from the book. Carly took him up to do one Skybrary book in bed and they read What Does It Mean to be an Entrepreneur He requested me, but wanted Carly to put him to sleep. We told him it was one or the other and he stuck with Carly. I left them a little before 9 and Carly put him to sleep

Think I forgot to mention his crown. It is a silver plastic crown that he found hanging in a bush or tree the day he and Carly went to the park when I ran. A day or two ago we were up in the little room and he saw it, and he said it was something that he wouldn’t take with him when we move. Much like the old bicycle tire which he spotted outside the other day and said the same thing about. I don’t know whether to consider it a good thing that he plans to move, or a bad thing.

Also, I think I forgot to mention the white spider that Carly saw on one of the flowers yesterday. It was holding a bee at the time, but dropped it right before I took a photo. Carly figured out it is a crab spider. It was still on the flower today. Pretty sure it is one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomisus?wprov=sfti1

He woke up at 6:25. He came and picked me on the shoulder to wake me up, then headed downstairs to find Carly. She got him back to sleep 20 minutes later on the couch and then headed to work. I had been up late finishing an entry for Sabeel, so fell back to sleep on th couch as well.

He slept until 8:40. Even then he was curling up on the couch while I read him some Ramona Quimby, Age 8. We then read The Butter Battle Book, which he requested as “My grandfather took me out to the wall”, which is the second page of the book. Then, as I read the book, he read/had memorized the sign in it.

He then played Dragonbox Big Numbers and I got breakfast for us and typed. We then read Rice and Beans in Skybrary and it is about a girl who is adopted. So we made ‘adopted’ the word of the day. We also read Freda Plans a Picnic and Your Guide to Superheroes. I exercised and he was reading the written out numbers needed to switch to the parent area on Dragonbox Big Numbers. We played with the catapult, launching clay into the kitchen, then got to making carrot cake. He helped shred up the carrots, then helped add ingredients. When he was hungry he ate a carrot, then a full pack of the seaweed snacks we had brought from the U.S.

He asked what ‘smithereens’, and ‘pork and wee beans’ meant. And what ‘auditory’ meant from the superheroes book. He found and played Star Walk Kids. He passed the quiz on constellations and excitedly told me about it. I asked what he had learned and he said, “Well, there’s no place on Earth that you can see all the constellations…They pretended the Earth is a carousel.”

We had some carrot cake when it was done. It turned out well. Didn’t do frosting so as to make it a healthier snack, as opposed to a treat. We finally got going to Ra’anana Park at 2. He looked at the house across the street, under remodel, and said “Do you know how I can work on that house? With my brick cannon and paint cannon.” That was inspiration from the inventor book we had read in Skybrary. He watched Waze as I drove to the park. When we got there he wanted me to park right where I had placed the dot in the parking lot on Waze. Which meant a little extra walking to the pay meter.

We first went to the free library and found a couple of Roald Dahl books, Danny, Champion of the World and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. And a copy of Kipling’s Just So Stories. We then walked to the other end of the park and the sound area. We did the sound machine that you turn and he had me match his steps as he walked in circles. We went and sat on a shaded bench and had a snack/lunch – egg and apple. Saw a sign that said it was a scents and sounds garden, so discussed the word ‘scents’.

We finished up there (we also saw the green fruit on the trees) and walked across the lake to the western playground. Played on the rocking thing in the ground, then he said he was running out of power and had to charge in the spots of sun. He got in one of the swings and was in there for several minutes. Very mellow, and I was afraid it meant he was going to fall asleep in the car. He got out of that and played on the big swinging log. He said it charged him, and each set of ropes charged him a different amount. Additionally, they made different chords.

We went to the bathroom, then he spotted the talking disk things, where you’re spaced apart and you speak into the big disk and the other person can hear your voice.

We did a quick walk past the zoo, saying hi to the animals, and got to the car right at 4:18, which was the time we had paid until. In the car he played Tinybop Nature and something else and we were home at 5.

Carly was already home. He was grumpy about wanting to play iPad. Carly read the Spanish The Berenstain Bears. He then actually helped me wash dishes, rinsing and stacking most of them. He had some peanut soup, then some iPad time. They then skyped with Oma and Vivian, but he was falling apart. He didn’t like the suggestion that we had left his bike helmet there, and he was trying to be silly to have fun, but no once else was liking the craziness.

He and Carly then made another bracelet and I went for a run before 7:30. They were reading Ramona Quimby when I got back. I showered and he played with Cubetto, doing challenges. He had had Cubetto turn the wrong way and I heard him say “I don’t like to be wrong.” I helped him, then took him up for his bath. He used the shower head to rinse himself. He then had us do synchronized steps as we walked down the stairs. He cuddled with Carly and his eye was itchy. Thought it may have been some soap on his hand that didn’t get rinsed off. We read The Butter Battle Book. I was going to put him to sleep but Carly was ready to sleep, so I left them just before 10 and he was soon asleep.

Dancing on the tilting thing:

Relaxing in the swing: 

He came down just after 8. He asked for Dragonbox Big Numbers and I let him have the iPad. Carly was outside, reading, so I figured that would buy her some time. She was surprised to see him up when she came in about 15 minutes later. He and I stopped to read some more of Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and then a book in Skybrary about a kid inventor called Sam: The Incredible Inventor. We found the word ‘scheming’ in it and that was our word of the day. He and Carly then played Dragonbox Big Numbers together and I took a shower. August got upset about stopping with iPad, then they made a card for Ruby and Cedar.  He explained that the picture on the front was “a water squirter machine that’s coisonous.”

He drank lassi and tested out the catapult. We then got set up outside and took our family photo that is to go in his preschool classroom. He didn’t want to do it at first, but that changed when I taught him how the timer works. Afterwards, as I edited the photo, he helped out and wanted to do the filters. He wanted it black and white, then helped me post it on Facebook.

We read a few chapters of The 13-Story Treehouse then got going to the mall. We got there at 11:30. First time we parked underground. First thing we did was buy him a new toothbrush. It came with a pink watch so he was excited about that. We then found water bottles at a little stand in the middle of the mall and he got two: a big one for keeping in my backpack (a pink one, with bracelet things around it – I think the same as Selma had last year) and a smaller blue one for his classroom. He thought they were strawless bottles, and later I would take the straw out of the big one so he could use it as a tilting water bottle. So he’s gone from insisting on his one and only straw water bottle, which he’s used for 3 years, to preferring ones without straws.

Carly stopped to try a shirt at a store and August wasn’t happy when we didn’t get a smoothie at Rebar. We went downstairs and August wanted to walk through the colorful hallway to the bowling alley. Carly’s shoes weren’t fixed yet, then we went to the toy store. Not a lot of water toys, but we did get a small kickboard. We then went up and looked for a french press. Found a cheap one at the Home store, after seeing insane prices for the Bodum ones at another store.

We stopped at the nursery on the way home and he got his classroom plant and Carly got a couple things for the house. He chose a lavender pot to go with it.

We got home at 1:30. He rejected pad thai for lunch but had stir fry instead. Carly and I tried the french press. He and Carly went to play with the Legos but wanted Carly to decide what would happen in Legotown. She was trying to get him to think of things as well and he said, “Stop, stop. Just listen to me!” But then he concluded, “Let’s work together.” Basically, there ended up being a lot of tornadoes.

I started making west African peanut soup (https://cookieandkate.com/2013/west-african-peanut-soup/) They practiced rest time, decorated and baked the mug that my parents gave us a year ago, snuck an Oreo (he spilled the beans but told me it was made of leaves – don’t know where the Oreos came from), blew up one of the big balloons, and started making bracelets for his teachers. The first one was for Anna.

As I finished up, he was wanting more and more attention. He was hungry, and he some of the soup, which turned out quite well. He and Carly competed over the HomePod, getting it to play Josh Ritter and Chemical Brothers. He asked Carly “Mama? Is there a virus on your computer?”

Carly had gotten a text message saying that her shoes are now ready to pick up. So we decided to brave the afternoon traffic and also go to the beach. We left at 4:25. Parked underground again and I took him to the bathroom while Carly went and got her shoes. We parked outside the entrance to the beach and walked in.

August and I made little sand castles for the waves to destroy while Carly went out in the water. He then needed to go to the bathroom, so Carly took him so she could rinse off as well. I read. They were gone for quite awhile, as he had stopped to play in the small stream. When they got back, I went out into the water and they played with the sand toys, being pirates. Later, Carly went back out in the water again. They had been jumping over waves. I got him to sit in the shallow water, and he got more and more into it. He was lying on his stomach and pushing himself up with his hands, and calling them his “jacks”. They also sucked water up for him, which he stored in huge tanks. He was saying things like “A big wave is coming, Jacks!” Carly came back and we sat in the shallows for a long time.

We got home from the beach and had soup with rice in it this time for dinner. He watched some Sarah and Duck and I went for a run. She gave him a bath and when I got back they had been reading in the bedroom (the Cat’s Meow book, I think) and I went to drink some water. But August requested me. I took a quick shower and went in and told him an August story about going down the hallway and now finding  door but not having the key. He wanted Carly again. She was in for awhile, but he wasn’t going to sleep, so I went in while she went and got ready for bed. I sang a few of the usual songs and he was close to sleep. She came back, and he was asleep by 10:15.

He was up at 7:30. Played a lot of Dragonbox Big Numbers, then we read Pig Pig meets the Lion (we read it before) and Lucky Beans (which we really liked) in Skybrary. He had had some breakfast, but asked “Could I have noodles and butter?” This was from the book about the girl who raises a baby duck. At the beginning she only likes noodles and butter. August has never had that. Carly made him some and he really, really liked it: “Maybe you could make it for me every day…slippery too…yummy…yummy noodles, mama. Maybe you should make some for dada too. Do you like butter, dada?” “You’re a good cook, mama!” “Could you cook poop, mama?…Poop with cheese sauce and fried, please.”

They were then looking at yearbook photos of the teachers/staff when I went to take a shower. When I was done she had him practicing rest time. He tried the headphones, but only listened to a podcast for a few minutes. He mainly watched the timer, which is at least something. Carly cleaned, and I did the laundry and scanned some papers and her driver’s license, which finally came in the mail. Still no sign of mine.

He made songs in a couple apps, singing a “lucky” song along to one of them, and played Dragonbox Big Numbers. We made the word of the day ‘simultaneously’, as one of the music apps he used wouldn’t let you put notes in to play at the same time, but the other one does.

We had been invited to a birthday party today. It was for Ben, the little brother of Maya, who was in August’s hebrew class. The party was at the school pool. In the car, August said “Maybe I should ask the government to make cars that air conditioners (in the back) here too.” He remembered one of the cars in the States that had vents in the back. We were practicing using ‘simultaneously’ and he said “I can clap at the same time as cooking marshmallows…cuz I have three hands.”

We got to the pool. They got noodles to play with and I talked to Mandy for a couple minutes. Omri was there, and when I got in the pool the two of them were playing together. We played with her for awhile. We all got out to go have pizza. He ate a couple slices. Then back to the pool. He said someone had stopped him to take his photo on the way back. It was Sharna, their mom. We were in the pool some more, then it was time for cake. When we got out, August intently tied the strings of his swimsuit in a knot. We sang happy birthday, and he got a piece of cake, which he ate intently.

Back in the pool, I played with him for awhile while Carly read. He said, “Out teachers don’t use deodorant.” One of the lines from Captain Underpants that he has memorized and likes to recite. We played with a paddle board a bit and he wanted me to read the warning on it. Carly and I switched and they played with a diving ring.

We headed home. He played Dragonbox Big Numbers and we read The Butter Battle Book while Carly went to the store. He and I then walked up and did recycling for the first time since getting back. The plastic cage was overflowing, so he was scrunching things to fit: “I’m a good scruncher.”

Carly got home and he played a little Dragonbox Big Numbers, then we read Green Eggs and Ham, McElliott’s Pool (which he haven’t read much at all). Then played with the Lego town.

Doing some cleanup, I decided it was time to move the big backamapack not storage, officially retired. A sad retirement. On the bright side, I found 300 shekels in one of the pockets. I asked August if he had fond memories of riding in it and he didn’t really respond. I said “But it’s supposed to be your first memories of Korea!” He said it was second, actually. He then said something about eating sushi. I said, “You mean kimbap?” He got excited and said “Yeah!” So seemed like a real memory.

I went for a run and they read and sneaked a few iPad minutes. He was very giggly about this when I got back and they were ‘hiding’ on the couch. I took a shower, then gave him a bath and washed his hair. Amazingly, he let me spray his hair. He found it really tickly. I called Carly up to come and see.

He said good night to Carly and we brushed his teeth and did mouthwash. We read a poetry book on Skybrary called My Foot Fell Asleep and Dad’s First Day and something else. I retold the first Zinnie story with the tunnel and he fell asleep during it with his head on my shoulder and his arm and leg over me at 9:15. I lay there for awhile, not wanting to disturb him, and fell asleep for awhile myself.

Had a crazy day today taking August to the dentist and to get an x-ray. August has an extra baby tooth and it has started to bother him. He talks about it being itchy and puffy, and he’s chewing on everything: bracelets, his sunglasses, the edges of tables. It seems like the extra tooth above it is coming in early. He has hated the idea of the dentist in general, but about a week ago I asked if he wanted a dentist to help with the tooth. He said yes.

Anyway, he was up at 7:24. A faster wake up today. We read a couple of Skybrary books, What does It Mean to be Kind? and Keep Your Distance! (Which we’ve read before and is about math). Had some breakfast, then got going for his apppointment. Outside, he got to watch the claw truck for the first time since we got back.

Carly set up the appointment. Day before I figured out she had NOT called the place right in town, which I have pointed out and mentioned multiple times as the place we should go to the dentist. Instead, she had called some woman a few blocks away who has a dental practice in her home. We arrive, 8:30.

August got stressed as I parked the car, but then handled it very well once we were to the house. We followed the signs to the left around to the side of the house. Turns out it is just the one woman, no assistants.

She took us to the exam room and suggested he sit on my lap. This worked well. I lay back in the dentist chair and he la back on my stomach. I couldn’t see what was going on, but he seemed to open his mouth when she asked.

She inspected his teeth and told me his teeth looked good. No cavities or problems. And she said the extra tooth was fine and not a problem. I was confused and told her it was a problem. She said it wasn’t. This went back and forth a few times. Her English was good, but I think we were hung up on what she meant by ‘bothering’ him. She meant it wasn’t causing problems with the shape of his teeth and didn’t realize that August was uncomfortable.

Then, August did a great job of explaining it himself, pointing to where he said it felt itchy and puffy, and describing a pushing sensation. So she referred us for an x-ray machine. No assistants, and no x-ray machine. She gave me a list of places called, in Hebrew, ‘Tooth Light’. She suggested the one in Pardesiya, about a 15 minute drive to a mall up north.

August and I made it there and parked at the east end of the mall, then walked and walked, exploring every crook and cranny, trying to find the place. August herd kids playing and it led to a korean-style indoor play area in the basement of one building. We found a dental clinic, but the receptionist took a look at our flyer and claimed to not know anything about it. A customer, however, jumped up and told us it was downstairs. I thought she also said something about statues, but that didn’t end up being helpful.

We kept looking, and found anther hallway we hadn’t seen before. Turned out to be wrong, but a guy walking by saw the flyer in my hand. “X-ray?” he said. I said yes, and he pointed me downstairs and told me it was around the corner and down more stairs. Finally, we found it. There wasn’t a sign for it until you got to the actual door of the office.

We went in, and there was just one x-ray technician running the place and she had another customer. They phone kept ringing and ringing, and August didn’t like it: “Stop ringing!” He didn’t like the waiting, and told me that he had liked the running around the mall part, searching, better: “It’s more fun when we aren’t getting help.” To fill the time, we started playing Polytopia, the game he had found on my phone.

When it was our turn, it turned out the woman only spoke Hebrew. Another customer, however, translated for us and was nice enough to stay and help. The technician, on hearing that the x-ray was for August, immediately said she couldn’t do it, that the machine was too big for him. We talked her into trying. It looked like it would go well, and August stood on a stool to fit his head in the machine. When she tried to get me out of the room though he didn’t like that. So I stood in the room and held my hand on the back of his head.

She went and pressed the button, and it started turning around his head. When it went to turn all the way around I had to remove my hand. At that point August moved. The technician stopped and told us he had moved too much. August complained about the plastic thing in his mouth, saying he didn’t like how it was mushy. The woman translating and I tried to get August to try again. What’s more, the technician was against it. I thanked the translator for her help and August and I left.

We sat on a low wall and discussed it. August was pensive, sitting with his hands on his knees and his chin in his hands. He didn’t want to, but I said we’d head over to another location and that maybe the person there would be more helpful. I also explained that we now knew what to expect and the instructions wouldn’t take as long. And that he could pretend to be a statue and I’d count out loud and knew to switch hands when the machine went around.

The next closest location was in a mall directly west, closer to Netanya. It was where August and I had gone to eat at McDonald’s the one time. We found this location much more quickly and it was also much nicer. But best of all was the technician. She spoke English and was much nicer about it, although she was still surprised about a 4-year old getting an x-ray.

We went in and nailed it on the first try. August held still and I counted to about 20. When she said it was good I gave him a high five and congratulated him. Back in the car, August asked to see the x-ray. I showed him how you could see the extra adult tooth up in his gum, and how it is lower than all the other adult teeth.

I figured after dental appointments is no time to skimp on treats, so we decided to go to a coffee shop and get him a hot chocolate. We drove into Even Yehuda and parked in the dirt lot in the center of town. We walked over to Malkin, our usual coffee shop, only to find it closed. It was still mostly intact, the tables, etc., but there was dishwasher sitting in the middle of the floor inside and it had a sense of being completely closed.

So we walked to Gutale, the other cafe. I ws carrying August as we walked by the bank, and August grabbed my head and turned it to the left. There was our neighbor, David. We talked to him for a minute. August was trying to tell him “I’ve got an extra tooth!” and we had to get David to stop talking so August could explain.

We continued on to Gutale. Quite nice inside. The only time we’ve been there since its remodel we sat outside. We sat inside at a table for two. We ordered a hot chocolate, a latte, and their green shakshuka. The brought out bread with butter and what I think was date jam and August ate some of that. We finished most of our first game of Polytopia. He came and sat on my lap while we played on the phone. The food was good, and he ate a good amount of the egg. The root salad was mainly cucumber and tomato though, and not nearly to my liking like Malkin’s.

We headed to the car, but then realized we should get cash at the bank. August helped with the ATM. Back at the car, I realized we didn’t have his water bottle. So back to Gutale. I asked about a water bottle, and at first she thought I wanted to buy one. We straightened that out, and there it was, sitting in lost and found.

We went home and had some water drink, finished the game of Polytopia, and as he sat on the couch he asked “Is there any viruses on Mama’s computer?” We briefly talked about viruses while at the new exhibit at Madatech, as there was a screen with live monitoring of virus attacks. Probably also on a Magic School Bus episode or something. August had seen Gutale’s water meter as we were walking to the car, and he wanted to see ours, which he’s never seen. We got the keys and took a look at it in the driveway, t
hen left at 2:30 for school.

He wanted to use Siri in the car, but it doesn’t pick up his voice/from the back seat well. So when we stopped he climbed up and tried until he got it to play the Chemical Brothers. On our way into school he wanted me to carry him. At first he said it was hotter up high, but then he said “Because of the flowers. The bees make heat, you know.”

We went to the preschool and did our indoor portion of the scavenger hunt. Carly had also met with Anna and Marion today about ways to make him comfortable about school. We saw Andrea and Marion rearranging PKA, then in PKB he talked to Anna and Marion about the changes they’ve made (light table in forest, kitchen down where it had been). He asked Vicky the question for his scavenger hunt, and when she asked what he had done this summer he said “Nothing” and then stuck to it. He had a good argument with her and Anna over whether ‘nothing’ was ‘something’, and when Vicky kept asking him different questions to try to trick him into saying something he had done this summer he caught on and stuck with “Nothing”.

We finished the rest of the indoor scavenger hunt (he found a closet of toys up in PKC that he’d like to play with, Brown Bear Brown Bear for a book he’s read before). And he spotted the Knuffle Bunny book in PKC and said he remembered watching it in PKB – one of those story videos they would watch.

We went to the bathroom, then went to Carly’s room at 3:30 and we headed to the pool. Played there until close to 5. Carly talked about her meeting with Anna and Marion and mentioned that only two of the kids in his class had moved way. August immediately said “Blanka!” And then added “Emmitt.”

We changed in the bathroom and he washed his hands. He told me “Did you know foamy soap means you can get a lot of it? Ms. Anna said that. So you need to let me do that.” I had tried to limit how much of the foamy soap he put on his hands the other day and he gave me that argument then as well.

As we walked to the car he wanted me to pick him up and said “Say fine”. He said it a few times today and is something he used to do a long time ago. He also got into a who-loves-who more competition with Carly, except this time he said they could tie – something he’s never done before, as he always has had to win. He said I could tie as well.

We drove to Sushi Ishimoto and picked up food to go. August didn’t like not eating there, so I took him out to the car to wait. August ordered, through Carly, “Our usual”, that is the pad thai with shrimp, and Carly got us an order of sushi and tofu noodle dish. While we waited in the car he told me “Did you know I can actually touch the pedal now?” He was playing with Siri and said “poop”. She responded with “let’s keep it clean here.”

At home we ate dinner outside. He said “Did you know that flubong can cool off the sun in two seconds?” He hasn’t talked about flubong recently. I told him about how it would take 6 minutes to go dark. I used scissors to cut up all the shrimp for him, and he inhaled most of the sushi.

Played some Dragonbox Big Numbers, then we read The Butter Battle Book. I went for a run and when I got back they were finishing up his bath. they went in and read the gravity book and brushed his teeth. He then requested me. We read the cat mystery book and I told an August story, where he and Teegan get the tools. He remembered that it was Carly’s turn to actually put him to sleep though and requested her. She came up and he was asleep at 9.

Dentist’s chair:

Getting a sticker:

X-ray: 

He was up at 7:22. I went up and he leaned against the bookshelves. I suggested he go back in the bedroom. He went in and lay half on the big bed for a few minutes, stretching and yawning. He sat on the lower bed, head against the big bed. I suggested he lie down on the lower bed with me. Eventually he did. He rested until 7:38. He also rolled over so I could rub his back when I asked if he wanted me to.

We read three books in Skybrary: Picky Peggy, The On-Again, Off-Again Friend, and The Cow in Patrick O’Shanahan’s Kitchen. I then made french toast and we listened to Afro Celt Sound System this morning (yesterday was Steve Reich, and Tuesday was Brian Eno). He played a little Toca Blocks. We ate breakfast together. He rejected his milk. He then wanted to work on our Lego town.

We did for a few minutes, but then he brought up the Green Planet game. I set a timer and we played 5 minutes. Worked well. He then played Dragonbox Big Numbers while I typed and did some work. While playing Dragonbox Big Numbers I pointed out that collecting apples is the slow part, and called it the bottleneck. Made that the word of the day.

He wanted the scavenger hunt, so I went and wrote out his pr eschool scavenger hunt. He told me the Max and Ruby scavenger hunt only had 4 items. Mine has a lot more. He was frustrated we couldn’t go and do it right away.

He got distracted by some music apps and I made a mango apple smoothie. He requested the apple, and chose one for me. It turned out really well.

I then made the corn chowder, adding lots of mushrooms. “This was a good idea, right?” He ate some, but rejected the rest, saying he didn’t like the little floating things. Not sure what part that was.

We read The Butter Battle Book and Too Many Daves. He then played Dragonbox Big Numbers and I exercised. He is now drawing decent 5s and 6s, which he couldn’t do yesterday. I got us ready to go, but couldn’t find Carly’s swimsuit. I looked around for it and tried calling am emailing her. August was being pretty patient as I ran around the house, although he expressed his opinion that mama could just not swim. I thought maybe Carly had it, so we got going, and that turned out to be the case.

We got to school around 12:30. Anna was the first one we saw, just inside the entrance. Talked to her for a minute and August asked her “Hi, how was your summer?” like the instructions on the scavenger hunt said. He impressed people by reading that, and each time we found someone else he would very purposefully read it, whispering it to himself before saying it aloud. We went down to the preschool and found four more of them sitting t a table outside: Amelia, Marion, Michele, and Andrea, the new teacher.

One of them suggested we could go in the preschool rooms now, but another said it was too much of a mess. So we went to do the garden things. He found kale and tomatoes for the vegetables. We headed back up the stairs and found Maaian. Then by the drinking fountain he likes he spotted Myriam. We went in the library and saw Grace and Lillian sitting with two other girls outside the library. August was really chewing on his shirt. I couldn’t tell if it was because his tooth bothered him, it was a nervous thing, or both. Generally he seemed excited to see people, but I think it may have been overwhelming overall, although he also was the one saying he wanted to find more of the teachers on his list.

Inside he talked to Ilan, Amanda, and Liz. I had to take his shirt out of his mouth a few times. August got several comments on how tall he was and how handsome/stylish. It was quite the getup, with his sunglasses and hat and bracelet and Turn the Bass Up shirt.

We went back to the kids’ books. Along the way found a book called Dad’s First Day, by Mike Wohnoutka. We took that into the reading area and read that twice. He found it really funny, especially when the dad was hiding and then crying. He made at least some connection between the book and us. When they boy and dad are reading he said “Like you and me!” We went out to have a snack, and we saw John again and August said hi to him. August had some bar and apple and hard-boiled egg.

Back in the library we got Magic Treehouse #22. It is about the Civil War. August was afraid it was going to be a scary one. We read 7 chapters of it. Lot of new vocab and concepts for him, like slavery, although he didn’t really question that one. We did look up photos of things like ‘stretcher’, ‘trench’, and ‘snap the reins’.

In looking for more books to check out I found a We Both Read: Museum Day book and we read it together. And finally an I Can Read Book called The Case of the Cat’s Meow. We went to check out books and found Carly talking to Lillian in the library. We checked them out, then went to Carly’s classroom.

August’s behavior wasn’t great though. He’d been chewing on his bracelet the entire time in the library. Carly thought it best that we head straight home. So then August got upset about not swimming, so it snowballed. They played a little with the India board game, then we left.

We were home after 3:30. I went up to work at a quarter till and they read, starting with Dad’s First Day. They read The Case of the Cat’s Meow twice. Glad that was good, as there are several more in the series. They played Dragonbox Big Numbers and used the blueberries for the larger problems.

He came up once, yelling for me. Carly then asked about Skybrary and they read on that. I think maybe some we had read earlier and Ted’s Week and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. They came back up at 5 when Carly wanted to do laundry. He wanted iPad, but agreed to play with the guitar. We hooked it up and tuned and played around a little, but not much.

Back downstairs he started reading Magic Tree House with Carly, but he was bothering her so she stopped. I made him pesto noodles again, this time also adding in tofu. It was a really full bowl this time and he ate the whole thing. He went to the bathroom and managed to flick his underwear up in the air with his toe while taking it off and it went in the toilet. First time that happened. This morning though he was able to put his pajama pants on on his own while standing up.

We did some Dragonbox Big Numbers together. Then he and Carly went for a walk and ended playing at our park. He said they did a little shopping game and the space peeing game. I went for a run, over to the park in Bnei Bror and back. I was just out of the shower when they got back.

Did a little Legos with him, but he was putting a coin and a Lego in his mouth. I took him up and gave him a bath. He made concoctions with the different soaps and did a little of the tea game. He started to go down the stairs but realized it was cold and came running back up. We got his pajamas on. Downstairs he played with his slinky, saying it was his “puncharoo” to hit us with, then a tongue that he was licking us with.

We read The Butter Battle Book and Bartholomew and the Oobleck on my iPad. Then he said a good good night to Carly and I took him up to put him to sleep. He was mainly okay that it was my turn to put him to sleep, although then he a bit upset that mama wasn’t doing it in bed. He wouldn’t let me sing at all, so I told a second Zinnie story (the ones at the house). The next day he doesn’t find a door. Instead, he finds a note in the Zinnie house asking him to find the key. It is a metal nut. Dada makes a smoothie. Mama comes home at the end before he can decide what to do with the key.

August was lying on my spot on the bed, and I was in Carly’s, on my stomach. He was getting upset, and pushed me with his legs. I propped myself up a bit to get away from the pushing, and then he rolled over and snuggled under me, his head on the pillow, under mine. He cuddled like that for a couple minutes, my arm over him. He put his head up once to say “Dada, you’re not being nice to me.” He put it back down. After a couple minutes he roll
er over, facing the wall but still on the pillow, and was asleep at 9:25.

Earlier, we had logged into Wizard School to see what Vivian had been sending. It turns out it was mainly her sharing the videos the Wizard sends. Over and over and over again. August saw that her level was up to 25 and had to make sure his was in the 30s. Ugh. Leave it to her to figure out how to game the system to gain levels and to him to care about it.

Also, I think I left out my hug machine from yesterday. Before he went to bed I gave him a hug on the couch. I was a machine that was motion or sound activated, and when he did either I would hug him. He thought it was quite funny and kept wanting more hugs.

Teething:

He was up at 6:40, as I was about to head down the stairs. He found Carly outside and they cuddled on the couch. He didn’t remember having a funny dream. When we said Carly would go to work today and we’d go to Haifa he asked her “Is work fun for you?”

Carly headed to work about about 7. August played iPad while I typed, and he refound Dragonbox Big Numbers. Interesting to see how much of the game he had forgotten: both the game itself and the math, like reading the numbers. After a few minutes I convinced him to start a new game in it, since there wasn’t much to do. I think it will be a great game for him to play through again, as much more of the math will stick.

I took a shower, him in on the couch in the small bedroom, then we got ready to go. he had some apple. A couple times he asked where mama was and I had to remind him she was at work. We left at 9:30. He was decked out in his hat, bracelet, pink sunglasses, and binoculars. In the car he played more Dragonbox Big Numbers, but then he stopped. He closed his eyes for a minute, but was then looking out the window. Then, he did fall asleep. Very unusual, and I can’t remember the last time he took a nap so early. He slept from 10:05 to 10:40, when I was trying to find parking. We ended up parking at the end of the same dead end as last time and were walking at 10:55.

He asked me, “What’s an English muffin?” And asked if it was a muffin that speaks English.

We got to the Madatech science center and found that we had to pay. I just handed over my card, then, as she gave me the wristbands, I asked about the free days. She said it was free from 4 to 6pm on Wednesdays. I tried asking if the free days would come back, but she acted like I was crazy. I tried to explain that last year we had come several times and it was free, but it was like she didn’t believe me. Not a language barrier, as she spoke fluent English. Oh well, August is still free, but I’m about $25. Also, there is a special exhibit now, which probably explains why it is not free.

You enter from the actual front door now. Headed to the energy room for a little. He played with the solar panels, the water wheel, and then we did the trains that run by bike. We had 11:30 tickets for the special exhibit so we headed over there, stopping to have a bite of our peanut butter sandwiches before we went in.

The ticket taker made us take selfie photos on these screens before we went in. I thought you’d make use of them later, but there was no way to retrieve them, and we never saw the point of them. The exhibit is about apps and online identity, etc. Some of it seemed rather pointless, like these little survey things that I think were supposed to make fun of online surveys.

But there was a lot of cool visual stuff. August liked the screen where you swung around colorful swim noodle things and it made patterns on a large screen. Then there was a place where it took your image and put someone else’s eye on your image. Rather creepy. Next was a maze, where a screen showed you the routes that other people took. Really cool, except it was made out of fabric and there were two bigger boys tearing around it, acting crazy, and not following the paths. August didn’t like it at all and I stopped them a couple times. On the bizarre side of things was a mirror that supposedly could try to tell how old you were. For me it gave results between 14 and 31. And there was a booth with headphones where you could talk to a stranger standing a couple feet away. August and I talked to each other.

Another camera thing, that we couldn’t figure out what it was even supposed to do, and a wall thing that supposedly responded to emotions, but seemed to just randomly flip between ‘happy’ and ‘sad’, and then we got to the next really cool thing. It was a big animated wall with things like hot air balloons, trucks, and boats in it. You could take a piece of paper with an outline of a shape on it, color it, put it on a scanner, and watch it show up in the picture. August chose the boat and they gave him a handstamp: you could only do it once. We colored it, scanned it, and he really liked watching it show up. It was kind of like the fish thing at the Dr. Seuss Museum.

The best thing was last. It was an art installation called “Gravity”. It had big video screens down either side, with a few motion sensors on each wall. It projected videos of things like stars and planets and there was music. In a couple segments the motion detectors were used to make cool pictures from your outline and movement. This led to us discussing the word ‘avatar’, which had also come up a couple days ago when setting up an account on an iPad app. We made it the word of the day. In another segment it looks like you fly right close to a star, and August liked touching the star as it went by. We stayed in Gravity for probably a half hour, as after the second time it went by he wanted to stay until the star went past a third time.

That was the end of the exhibit, then we headed out to the outdoor area. He started at the bottom of the stream area and worked his way up. As we walked to it, he explained something about “I will say yes…to adventure.” There was a lot more to it, basically saying that for both Dada/Zinnie and Dada, Mama, and Zinnie adventures he will always agree to go on them. I loved how he explained it.

He loves the stream area and spent a lot of time with all the pumps and gates and things. At one point, his sunglasses fell off, into the water. He started screaming to stop them. They went through one gate before a girl could close it. The next girl caught on though and kept her gate closed so I could grab them. We finally left the stream at 1:05, mainly because I wanted some air conditioning.

We were briefly in the music room, then the Da Vinci room was full. So we went up to the magic room. He started acting like a magician as he showed me the things: “It’s just a normal bed!…It’s just a normal table!” He continued that through the chemistry room, showing me the fluorescent lights and things. A little of the optical illusions room, then we went to the bathroom. More magicianing in the dark room. It was pretty busy today, but August handled the crowds quite well. We went outside and had some snack, then the Da Vinci room was open. He played with those machines until there was something in the next room starting and they kicked everyone out to be quiet. Did the sound room again, then up the elevator (he wanted to ride the elevator up and down most of the time today, the first time we have, but it is a glass elevator).

Did the space room and talked about the seasons on one exhibit. Then to the air room and his favorite pumps and the controls on an airplane and parts of a jet engine. Optical illusion again, then the teeth room. He chose his favorite healthy foods. Did the telescope room, then down to the hall of mirrors where we used a microscope we’ve never used before and the zoetrope.

As we were wandering around, I asked about leaving soon. He said we should leave after we do all the exhibits. We’d now covered all the rooms and I pointed this out and mentioned we hadn’t done the playroom downstairs. We went downstairs and to the play area. A bit busy, and the only time he really complained about the crowds, but what he really meant was that he couldn’t find a free bucket in the water area.

Ended up in the blue blocks area. He said he was making a monster. When it was done, he explained it’s digestion, from where the mouth was to its stomach to intestines to where it pooped. Back out in the water area it was less busy and he got a bucket. Played a lot on his own, and called me over to help him fill the container with holes in it.

He was ready to go about 3:30, and I could tell he was getting hungry and tired out as he started talking about playing on the iPad and complaining that he wouldn’t have enough time to do everything he wanted to do in Dragonbox Big Numbers unles
s I gave him extra time – and we weren’t even in the car yet!

We went to the bathroom, then found a button to start the mysterious counting machine. Still mysterious, as it just turned the belt, but there were still no balls to be counted. We stopped at the gift shop for a minute and he played at the toy table.

We got walking at 3:50. A lot of cats around here, so we got up to 18 on our running total. And we saw a small lizard on a wall, so he started a count for lizards.

On the way home I heard him talking through the math, and also saw him doing a lot of math problems on his fingers. At one point I asked if he was figuring out some of the problems. He corrected me, saying he was figuring them all out. As we got close to home, he wanted me to help with a hard one. So I pulled over and parked. It was a three-digit problem involving carrying, so I helped him with it. We got driving again and he said he was going to rest, and closed his eyes. Luckily, not enough time to fall asleep.

We were home at 5:10. Saw cat 19. Carly opened the door for him, and he came and told me that I didn’t need to use my keys and mama had done it, and kept explaining it: “See, the door is open…”

Inside, he said he was hungry. I started cooking mushrooms and made him pasta with pesto and cheese and mushrooms. He and Carly went to play with Cubetto but it wasn’t working. He suggested the battery was dead. Carly got the screwdrivers and batteries and they fixed Cubetto together.

When he started eating the noodles he told me “I love it!” Randomly, he told us “Did you know there’s beetle wars? All the beetles in the world come up to a place and then they start fighting.”

I wondered if he was drawing from Fox in Sox. I suggested we read Seuss. We read the end of Fox in socks. Then The Butter Battle Book, which is what he had thought I was talking about, and he really wanted Carly to see it. I read it to him.

They played Toca Blocks for a few minutes, then we went walking to get our anniversary ice cream 6:40. He saw cat #20. At the mall he looked at the flavors, then told me to choose for him. He didn’t want to decide. I got tiramisu for him, cheesecake with crumbs for me, and Carly got chocolate fudge. We were all happy with our flavors. August told us “Happy anniversary!”

On the way back there were lots of negotiations over the order of skyping, brushing his teeth, and taking a bath. We ended on brushing first. Carly did that. Rather a struggle. He and I then skyped with my parents, as they have Skype working again. I went for a run and she gave him a bath. He was asleep at 8:40, right before I got back.

Carly had told me that the other day they made a welcoming card for Mikaela to go with the cookies. It was a dot painting and he had explained it was an atom to particle maker. Carly included the description in the card and Mikaela said she liked it and had the card on her fridge.

Also, the other day, as we were leaving the house, he pointed to the old bicycle tire that he had proudly brought home last spring (when he had his awful cat allergic reaction). He said he would leave it here when we moved to another country. I said he didn’t need to worry about when we would move again, and he asked if we would be here for the rest of his life.

 

He jumped on the bed with me at some point in the middle of the night. Threw himself right down next to me, but facing the wrong direction. He then proceeded to roll all around the bed for the next couple of hours, often with his feet on me or by my head. He was getting close to edge of the bed and I tried to block him with a pillow. I slept soundly for quite awhile, then realized that he was at the very far corner, at the foot of the bed. Carly picked him up and put him back down on the lower bed.

He was waking up about 6:30 and seemed surprised that he was back on that bed, as the first thing he said was “Why am I up here?” A slow wake up for all of us, and a few minutes later he said “It’s daytime.” We went downstairs and he had Carly read The Sneetches and he played some of the horrible Street Music Game and Khan Academy and others. Carly gave him  a hard-boiled egg and he ate that quickly, then had some Cheerios and milk. Carly also gave him some of the medicine as his tooth seemed to be bothering him.

He and I read The Butter Battle Book, then read it again. He and Cary played some version or Candyland, then he wanted to play with Cubetto.

‘Program’ was the word of the day. He and I played for while, then I went up and took a shower. He and Carly kept playing it and were doing challenges with Cubetto.

Carly headed to work at 9:45 and he and I did some Dr. Seuss Band, then tried out a couple of rhythm games to replace the one I don’t like. Not much success there. He then tried out Marco Polo World School and played Khan Academy Kids while I did some work. We played the comet/asteroid game together and finished a planet. I had hoped that would be the end of it, but he really wanted to start a second planet, and he would bring it up later in the day when pleading for more iPad time.

We read Kipper A to Z together, then after a bit of a meltdown over iPad we played with Legos for a long time. We finally built the rest of the set that Paul had got him, making the car garage and another car. We then started making a whole town, putting the street pieces from my childhood together and adding all the cars and people. We built a red house, then a couple of trucks.

Since he had rejected the spaghetti sauce yesterday, today I took the noodles and added olive oil and cheese, then added mushrooms and tofu and he liked that well enough. I let him use the iPad for Skybrary books and that went well enough. We read Ted’s Week, about a hedgehog bullied by blue jays, three times, then read Umma Ungka’s Unusual Umbrella, and Toads and Tessellations (which is kind of a cool math adventure story, but didn’t do a great job of actually explaining tessellations). He ‘snuck’ a watching of Lucy and Pogo in there, but I didn’t mind, since it is pretty much a book. He had some crackers and peanut butter as a snack.

I had just told Carly he was doing good, but that he was literally running circles around the table and we should get him outside soon, when he then had another meltdown over the iPad, wanting to play the aforementioned games again instead of just reading books.

He calmed down enough and we played with the monster card game from Korea up on the bed until Carly got home at 3:35.

I finally showed August the new binoculars I’d bought from REI, but he was less excited by them this time. We reluctantly got him going in the car and headed up to Ilanot, the tree place, and were walking at 4:35.

He had fun when we were there though. He poured water down a pipe coming out of the ground and we refilled our water bottles from a drinking fountain a couple times. He scanned a lot the QR codes on signs. We spent the most time admiring the eucalyptus macrocarpa (Mottlecah) and the Washingtonia robusta (Mexican Fan Palm). we were looking for a treasure for his treasure box but didn’t find anything today.

We got to the end and looped back. I then remembered geocaching and looked on the app and saw that there was a cache near the entrance of Ilanot. I gave August the phone to carry as we made our way to it. We found it in the middle of a tree with 5 trunks. He was very excited to find it and we high-fived.

We got to the car at 5:45. He really wanted to do more geocaching and I saw that there was one by the Drorim Mall, where Tiv Taam is. He told Carly about his extendo arm and how he stores everything he grabs with it inside him: “Extendo arm…trees, caterpillars, poop…inside me.”

We got to the mall. August and I walked over to the trail to find the cache and Carly went to go buy new headphones, as hers stopped working. He found the cache in a pile of rocks behind a rock bench.

We went and found Carly buying her headphones at Kravitz. They went to the bathroom and I got a cart. He sat in the cart and helped us shop. He did fine until we were checking out and he started to get grumpy. Said he was hungry but rejected a carrot.

He continued to be grumpy at home and rejected potatoes and veggies and teriyaki sauce. He then continued to meltdown over not playing iPad. Carly took him up after she’d eaten some food. He just fell right to sleep, at 7:20. No pajamas or brushing or bath.

I went for a run, then finished an entry for Sabeel (Al-Quds University)

Carly and I heard him laughing really hard in his sleep. Lasted a good ten seconds.

 

Despite going to sleep so early last night he managed to sleep through the night, although it took some work on Carly’s part. He had a couple of dreams that woke him up. For one he said something like “Let’s go back! Let’s buy that instrument!” He also flopped around on the bed a lot and kept rolling under the big bed.

He woke up just before 7. I think he called out “Hello”, as at first I was confused and didn’t think it was him I heard. Carly’s MacBook Air was having keyboard/trackpad issues so I was trying to figure those out. They delivered the cookies to Mikaela, leaving them by her gate. Back inside they read some of the Paddington chapter book. I had also made hard-boiled eggs, but he wanted a hard-boiled eggs.

I went up and did some work, then took a shower. He was adding clocks to the World Clock on his iPad when I popped downstairs. He went to the bathroom, then I got the screwdrivers and glue to fix the toilet paper holder that’s coming loose. I did that and he played with the tools. He remembered cutting apart toothpicks and I got him some so he could do that, then he worked on his “construction site” in the bathroom. He wanted me to help, and asked “Hey assistant? Could you get me the big screwdriver?” Carly made spaghetti as we did music games on the iPad. There was a new Kids Music app that he used to compose a song. Carly headed to work at 10, taking the car.

August drank the rest of lassi from yesterday and ate some spaghetti. He then had us play the pee game, where I pretend to fall asleep and have to go to the bathroom. Back on the iPad he was frustrated by the Street Music app, which I don’t like. We went and read The Sneetches. He ate a few crackers while I rested. He asked “Does everything have fatness?” It turned out he meant three dimensional objects, and depth.

We got all ready to go, planning to swim at the school pool, and then realized he was in his clothes from yesterday from sleeping in them. We changed him and left just after 12:45. He kept saying “You can’t teach a Sneetches.” Then, “Dada, did you know I collect every sound I hear?” And he was collecting sounds that we heard. He found a “treasure” as we crossed the street. The frame of a broken toy truck. He was enjoying steering, and steered us in circles a couple of times. I sang some songs to him (our hill song, “Sentimental Wars”, and “Ain’t that Beautiful”. He asked what “curse” means and that became our word of the day. It was from a line in the last song, which goes “So I curse the air I breathe…”

We got to school at 1:20. He’d forgotten the layout of the school a bit, and didn’t believe me on the direction to the pool. We looked at the painted mural of the world, then went to get our swimsuits on.

As he went to try the water he asked about the watering can he played with last year. I had thought about it on the walk but we didn’t have it. I had some crackers in a plastic container and we took those out and used the content as a toy. That worked well. It was hard to see in the water, but we had fun ‘losing’ it and finding it. In the water he had all sorts of sensors: cup sensors in his hands, ball sensors, sun sensors. His cup sensors wouldn’t work if his hands were in the water, and they could only tell him when they sensed the cup, not what direction it was in. One of the teachers, John, came by and talked to us. He had been in Oregon all summer. August mainly said his bad words, but said them into his cup so we couldn’t understand him. After John left we had a lot of fun making up funny names using different words, and August laughed a lot.

August had spent several minutes just sitting on the side of the pool, then was pouring water on my head with the cup. When he wanted me to get him in he mentioned his floaties, but then didn’t ask for them. So he was pretty comfortable in the water.

We got out at 2:40 for lunch. Him reluctantly. Had bars, a hard-boiled egg, apple, and some crackers. A fly kept landing on him and he said “That fly keeps putting it’s proboscis on me.” I remember Vivian saying that at some point.

We went back in the pool. As August was putting on his floaties this time, Omar called. I talked to him for 5 to 10 minutes and August did a good job of letting me talk, until he needed to go to the bathroom. I finished the phone call, we got the floaties off, and went to the bathroom. Had to go over to the auditorium as there was a very loud truck by the usual bathroom.

So then it was back to the pool again. Without his floaties at first. He was playing with the cup, pretending to be a duck with it on his mouth, when Carly showed up. He wanted his floaties on for awhile. Then we met Sharon, who is from Yorkshire, and is the secretary for Mike. August did much better with her, telling her his age and name, and talking about the pool. I also talked to her about Yorkshire.

August wanted to go play in Carly’s classroom, but also wanted to stay in the pool. That was solved when the lifeguard started closing the pool about 4:50. August got right out. We went to her classroom and they did a little math class. He was trying to chew on everything in the classroom. He remembered the board game about India and they got that out and played with it. He then lounged in the blue beanbag chair before we left at 5:20.

At home we accepted Vivian’s friend requests in Wizard School and sent her some stuff. They then skyped with Cherie and Colin. Colin was very excited to see August. Vivian was at the dentist. He played some Tinybop Earth, then went watering plants and played with the soccer ball with Carly. He had rejected the spaghetti due to small pieces of onion. He now had potatoes and veggies with teriyaki sauce.

He came up to me and was Shmorgadeboop, the cat. I took him up and gave him a bath and washed his hair. Went pretty well, except when he thought it would be fun to pour water on my shorts and I had to go change. Dried his hair with the hairdryer, then were downstairs at 8:05. He showed Carly the Street Music app.

I went for a run. She took him upstairs and brushed his teeth. She had the toothbrush start talking to him and he thought it was hilarious. He was really sleepy, as he then volunteered to turn off the light and was right to sleep at 8:37.

Both Carly and I tried to talk to him about preschool today and he told us he doesn’t want to talk about it.

 

They slept and slept. I listened to more of The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, did some typing and got some other stuff done, ate breakfast, and started listening to The Element by Ken Robinson. August didn’t wake up until almost 9:50. It was a lovely morning for me, but we’ll need to adjust the sleep schedule over the next week and a half to get ready for school. I took a shower, and Carly made him a piece of French toast. He was grumpy that we wouldn’t go upstairs and get his water for him, but he cheered up when food was ready. They talked about their plans, to go to Carly’s classroom and then to the plant store. In discussing the plant store he said, “Here’s what we’ll do: You’ll give me a collection, and I’ll choose within that collection.”

He and I finished reading Captain Underpants #3, then started #4. He finished the french toast, then Carly made him an egg and cheese, which he also ate. I stopped to make coffee, and he was saying the poop words. Carly and I decided to steer away from the Captain Underpants books. He and I looked at some paper chapter books we’ve thought about reading, but then he had the idea of watching Curious George. He watched a few minutes while Carly got ready to go, then they got going to school at 11:50.

I ate lunch, then got to work.

Air conditioning wasn’t on at school, so they didn’t stay there long. They then went to the plant store by Even Yehuda and came back with a box full of plants. August did a great job, helping to pick out plants.

When he got home he ran up to me in the office, excited to see me. He wanted to type on my iPad, so ended up using the predictive typing. He was reading a lot of words. He also wanted to choose the emojis, so I would type words so that the emojis would appear. He read a lot of those words too. Downstairs, Carly did more of that with him, then he and I did a lot of music on the iPad, using a new synth app. When listening to Chemical brothers on the HomePod he was dancing on the couch, then used Siri to stop the music.

Carly had been gardening outside and the yard is looking very nice. She still needed a few more plants, so we all got in the car and went to the big nursery to the east. August wasn’t too enthused about the trip. He said it was too hot. He did okay inside the nursery building. We went and saw the fish and he had fun with the wind chimes. He found gnomes, which reminds him of Gramma and Grampa’s house, and we let him pick one out. He picked out a couple of plants, including a pink cactus. He was grumpy about going outside though.

On our way back we stopped at the Arab restaurant (Younes) and I ran in and got baba gahnoush, hummus, tahini, carrots, cabbage, falafel, the roots thing, and a lafa then headed home.

At home he barely touched his food at all. He wanted to play the pirate game where I had things, but Carly was getting ready to take him to the beach (with the beach toys this time), a little before 6. But then, stepping up on the curb by the car, he really fell. Ended up with scrapes on both legs, his arm, and a bruise on his forehead.

After he calmed down, Carly was trying to make him a lassi, but he was having problems leaving her alone. We read The Sneetches, etc. then had lassi. He asked “How do you make a tomato snowman?” No idea why he asked about that. We moved outside and they were going to plant his seeds and then we were going to do more reading outside. I remembered tomorrow was a garbage day so I went to do the garbage. While I was gone he melted down and couldn’t stop saying “poop”. When Carly took him upstairs he was yelling things like “I’m doomed!… I’m really sorry!”

She made him do some independent time in the bedroom, playing with Duplos, while she sat outside the door. They came down at 8. At some point during the evening I was trying to ask him about his tooth. He said yes, it was hurting. Then revised it to itchy. We are going to contact the dentist tomorrow. He had some Cheerios and milk, then we decided on the words of the day: unsnarl (from the dictionary app, and apt, given his hair) and two-ply (which he learned in discussing toilet paper, and keeps asking about).

He sat on the couch and was quiet. I said it had been a hard day, and I asked him what had been the hardest part. He replied, “Has it been two weeks yet?” I asked if he was feeling stress about school. He pressed his eyes shut and wouldn’t answer. I asked him to use his thumb up/down and he gave me a clear thumb up. I tried to ask him more about it, but he wouldn’t answer. After a couple minutes I realized he was asleep on the couch. It was 8:20.