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We all had a full night of sleep, although we got to sleep pretty late. August just woke up once and Carly went down on the lower bed with him.

I listened to Paevment and typed while Carly enjoyed the morning outside. He woke up at 9:48. He only wanted mama though and she had to carry him down.

He fell back to sleep. Finally got him to wake up to eat Israeli French Toast and milk. We then read What Do You Do with an Idea?, The Sneetches, Paddington, and a Bob Book. I had gotten a phone call from an unknown number while reading, then a WhatsApp message. It was Mikaela, our new downstairs neighbor. She had plugged in an electric kettle and it had knocked out all the electricity to her apartment. We let her in the gate and showed her where the breakers are and turned the power back on for her.

August then played a little Teach Monster, then we did a Q Bot battle. He asked, “Why am I powerless without my Q Bot?…What does ‘powerless’ mean?” We made that the word of the day, and -less words in general. I think maybe he got it from Captain Underpants.

I went and took a shower and he went outside with Carly. Inside he did a math game on the iPad, then ShapeKit. I helped him finish up an animation, then Carly tried to get him to do some independent time. They negotiated time and place and toys (8 minutes, upstairs on the bed, and Duplos) and headed upstairs.

They did that for awhile, then he was spraying things with the spray bottle upstairs, cleaning them. He was singing the chorus to Josh Ritter’s “Change of Time”. Which made Carly happy. Kind of surprised that he picked that one up. We’ve certainly listened to it before, and it may have been on yesterday, but he hasn’t said anything about it before.

They then headed to the store. They left at 1:40. I had some lunch and did some work, and they were back at 3:00. He came and jumped on the couch and went behind the pillow, talking about machines he had been making: “92 thousand, 800 machines”. He had found two treasures, a 10 shekel coin and a small hamsa. One was in the parking lot and one was in the store. He put them in his treasure box. They had bought some sweet cheesy pastries and he gave me the one and a half that were left.

They made popcorn and Carly made mango lassi and he watched Max and Ruby while I got things ready for cookies. He and I then made chocolate chip cookies. Carly wanted us to make some as a moving in gift for Mikaela. He did a little independent time with the straws. He then asked Carly, “What does parody mean?” I think I’d used the word when discussing a storyline in Captain Underpants or something like that.

We then headed to the beach. We forgot the beach toys yet again, but at least had swimsuits and towels. August said he was okay to play without toys. By the time we parked and got down to the beach it was 6:40. There was a tide pool with kids playing in it and August went right to it, playing on his own. Carly went in the water. After a few minutes he came and asked me to go get the sand toys, but then went back to playing in the water on his own. He had found a little bottle cap and used that as a toy. Carly came and played with him for awhile, then I went in the water. When I came in, Carly went out for a second time.

The last of the tide pools dried up at 7:40. August played with it to the last moment. The last of it went so fast I couldn’t get over to my backpack to get the phone. He drew some snaking lines in the sand, then said he needed to use the bathroom, so we headed out.

He changed into shorts in the car and asked Carly about all the gauges in the car. I said I didn’t know why car companies always include tachometers in cars when most people never look at them, and he suggested we could Si the companies to put in Fahrenheit and Celsius meters instead. We were driving at 8.

He spotted Venus as we drove, then Jupiter and Mars. We talked about Celsius and Fahrenheit, then he had his own temperature scale, -2 was freezing and boiling was 9888. We discussed who uses celcius and Fahrenheit and I introduced Kelvin.

Back at the house, Carly took a shower, then I tried my new running shoes. It was also the first time I used my wireless headphones with my watch. I ran the trail and thought it would make a nice loop, but it smelled really bad down by the chicken coop area. I’d never smelled it like that, although I’d heard people say it could smell bad. I was back at 9:30 and took a shower. They were in the bedroom when I got back, and I think they had done some reading.

I then brushed his teeth, and as we went downstairs I had to explain how Skype works to him. It ws almost like he’d forgotten how skype works, it’s been so long since we’ve used it regularly.

When we got home and he and Carly were washing off their feet with the hose, he was annoying Carly by touching her. Kind of been an ongoing problem, so she had decided that he needed to go to sleep with me tonight. He now plead with her: “Did you change your mind on that? Or not?” “Are you still thinking about it?”

My parent still weren’t on Skype, and hadn’t been for the last couple of days, so I called them on the phone. August and I talked to them on speakerphone. He then had fun looking at and asking me about all the activity data on my phone.

I took him up for a bath. He played for awhile, then got out at 10:50. He’s having some impulse control issues, and he went ahead and dropped the slinky down the stairs after I had reminded him we don’t drop hard things and I’d specifically told him not to drop it. When I told him he couldn’t play with it anymore he complained I grabbed everything from him. I had recently taken a sponge thing from him in the bath when he had thrown it at me, for fun, covered in soap, and a flyswatter that he was touching everything with. I pointed out I hadn’t actually grabbed the slinky from him, he had dropped it down the steps, and he actually conceded that point.

Downstairs, he got upset again about Carly not putting him to sleep. I cheered him up by telling bad jokes. Jokes like: “Donald. Trump.” And he would break out laughing. And “What do you say when there’s an elephant in the room? AAAAAHHH!!! There’s an elephant in the room! Run for your life!” And “What does mama say?” And I repeated the last thing she had said. Carly told me to look up actual jokes, so I did, but I felt vindicated when, after several of those, August wanted me to go back to my own jokes.

I took him upstairs just after 11. He was really upset at first, and wouldn’t let me touch him. I just had to block the door. After awhile he started to come to me and climb in my lap, but was hitting me. But eventually he was cuddled in my lap and arms like a baby as I sat on the floor near the door. I sang “Drifting” and he asked to move to the bed. Took him up there and sang “Animal Life” and he fell asleep. I knew he was asleep when he had a big hypnagogic jerk at 11:26. Haven’t really seen that with him before.

Carly was up, jet lagged, when August woke up around 2am. He got up on the bed with me, and I was able to get him to fall back to sleep with me 2 or 3 times. Good cuddling time. He was restless though, and about 3:15 he woke up for good and Carly came and took him. I guess he needed to go to the bathroom, as that’s where he headed. At 6:30 he came running in to see me and woke me up. Carly and I switched. They had played Candyland, been hanging out in the small bedroom upstairs, and playing with the straw building blocks and playing DragonBox Numbers. Carly was able to sleep, sort of, for about an hour while he played on the iPad. She said it was painful though when he’d wake her to ask what something said. Brought back memories of when I was sick and on the couch with him and doing the same thing.

Candyland was a gift from Cherie. We managed to fit it in our luggage. I was initially resistant, as he now owns my two last favorite children’s board games based on chance: chutes and ladders and Candyland. I don’t have positive memories about those games as a kid. But as long as he and Carly like them, and leave me out of it… I’m more looking forward to doing puzzles with him, and more skill-based and cooperative board games. My parents still have games like The Farming Game and Sherlock Holmes that I’d like to play. Can’t remember if Clue is still up there, but that will be fun as well.

August and I went down and he really wanted to watch the Curious George Christmas episode with me. Not playable on Netflix anymore, so we bought it and watched it together on the couch. Watched the whole thing (no scary parts) and then went to play with Duplos. He asked if you could do diagonal lines and I said no, but showed him how to do diagonal lines in pixel art. After I made an X it turned into me being a pirate and hiding things for him to find.

Eventually, he wanted to go for a walk to find more treasures for his treasure box. First though he was hungry and I made scrambled eggs and mushrooms while he started Math Tango from the beginning on his own on his iPad. We ate together, then he played Math Tango while I got us ready. He saw the metal thing on the table “Can I have my setting changer?” He played with that, but then asked “Can I have my volume changer?” It was the broken zipper pull with an R and an O on it. He really wanted it, and he went to ask Carly. We went to look for it, but no luck. He explained what he remembered of it: “At the hotel with the lovely bathroom and two big beds…and with the wood…made out of concrete…it was a really special hotel.” He was describing when he found it in Ramallah, on a walk with Carly to the store. We showed him the little purse and that it wasn’t in there. He wouldn’t let it go, later asking me if I could make a new one, and if we could look in the vacuum cleaner for it. He only had it for a week before we left for the summer, unfortunately I explained it could be anywhere: still on the floor somewhere, mixed in with his Legos, dropped on one of our walks, etc. I remember him playing with it after we got home from Ramallah.

He went in with Carly a little after 9, as he seemed tired, but they came down at 9:30, him asking me to look for the volume changer outside treasure 📦 bowl (August saw me typing and put the emoji in there). We read the rest of Captain Underpants 2. Then he watched Carly make a lassi. He came to me and asked “Did you know it’s mango season?”

He then started playing with his Q robot. He was doing shows where I was the audience, unimpressed with just a Q, but then amazed when it turned into a robot. That turned into me being different monsters and he was Q Bot, fighting me. We wrestled on the couch doing that. I didn’t have much energy though, as I was tired.

He and Carly decided to head upstairs to try sleeping again at 11. That left me with the couch downstairs and I rested as well. At noon or so I went up and joined them. Carly and I slept until about 2 and came downstairs. I had some lunch and then went to tak a shower. Carly tried to wake him once but he wasn’t responding, so tried again about 2:30. She bribed him with a lollipop, then he ate that as he watched some Magic School Bus. He snuggled against me as he watched, Andi started to fall asleep again. I went upstairs. They had popcorn, then went to work outside. August started rolling the soccer ball down the slide as I came back out. And Carly met the new downstairs neighbor, Kayla. August and I played with the ball, rolling it up and down the slide and throwing it. He still didn’t have shorts on, and when he went down the slide he showed just how dirty it is. He got the hose and washed off the slide and did some watering. I helped clean off the chairs and table and did a full wash of the patio, which August helped with.

Inside, he said, “Put a reminder on your phone to only play Zinnie Songs…every year…on my birthday…” So I did. He played on his toy piano and made a game of playing a line that I then copied. He then requested Piano Maestro, but we were getting ready to drive down to the beach. We got driving and realized we had neither his bike nor beach toys. We decided to park up by the boardwalk and just do some walking.

We got walking at 7. He stopped and gave a Cheerio to some ants. As we walked he saw a little viewing loop and said “Let’s take the longcut.” We walked north to the place where the benches are and the ice cream shop. Watched the setting sun, then headed back.

We stopped at the playground we had been to with Chuck and Cherie. Carly read and I went up on the structure with him. He sat on the netting and wanted me under him, so I went down below. He had initially said the playground was too busy, even though there were only 5 or 6 kids. There were two boys though running around and he said they were being crazy.

After 15 minutes or so he ran over to Carly and wanted to play tag. We played tag. Initially I say on the bench, which was base, and would tickle them if they spent too long on base. Carly spotted a ship out on the water. August asked, “What do you think is on the ship? Pirates?”

We walked back at 8. We had started counting cats, and he spotted number 3. We decided to keep counting up, not restarting each day. We’ll see how that goes. We got back to where the Cheerio was. It had moved to the other end of the bench. No ants anymore. They had gone in for the day, apparently. A mystery on how the Cheerio had moved though.

In the car we joked about how you used to have to use lights in order to read books. He played the math arcade game and he’s starting to catch on to the speed of it. Sort of. “Obstacle” is the word of the day, based on discussing how to play the game.

Back at the house we had some of our raspberry iced tea, which he had helped make before we left. I made a frozen pizza, but he rejected that. We worked on reading after discussing preschool and our strategies for dealing with rest time. He only wanted to read Captain Underpants though, so we tried that a little. Then some of one of the iPad reading apps.

I took him up and gave him a bath. I’d forgotten how much I dislike how everything ends up wet in our bathroom. We took the straw building blocks downstairs and built the helicopter together. We drank more raspberry iced tea. Colder now.

He played Khan Academy Kids and ate a carrot. Khan Academy is a little on the easy side for him now, but really well done (and free). It will better fit him as he gets a bit farther. Unfortunately, it only goes up to basic math for now. Hopefully they’ll be adding to it.

He handed the last of the carrot to Carly, then bit his tongue chewing the last bite. He started howling, and there was blood. He sobbed, “Does anybody have a treat for me?” And then requested not brushing his teeth. Upstairs he refused to go to the bathroom. He finally calmed down and did so and we got him ready for bed. I left them at 11:25 and he fell right t
o sleep.

We woke him up 6:30. Everyone was up a little earlier today, and Chuck and Cherie, of course. Vivian was up as well to wish August goodbye. They had a little time playing with an RC car before we left, then we were out the door before 8:15. Carly sat up with Jeff and I sat with August. He ate some apple and played Toca Plants. We were talking about our journey today and he made “Atlantic Ocean” the word of the day.

We were to the airport at 9:45. Took us awhile to figure out where to check in, but it went pretty smoothly. We got to our gate area and got coffee drinks and they played hide and seek. I downloaded some books on his iPad. They went and did challenges, then went and filled up their water bottles. There was a place with fake grass for service animals to go to the bathroom on. August would point it out to me when I took him to the bathroom. I took him for awhile and we looked in a little convenience store. There were plastic candy containers with different characters and features on them – he particularly liked the ones that were electric hand fans. I convinced him we didn’t need one, but he spent several minutes testing them all to see which worked. We also found a TV at a restaurant that was showing some transatlantic yacht race. August quite liked that and we watched it for quite awhile. We ran around during commercial breaks.

We boarded about 1. And then sat. And sat. We were told we were delayed for “some weather”. August played Toc Plants and the new pirate app. He handled it pretty well, although at one point asked “Are we over the Atlantic Ocean?” About 2:45 they made a general don’t-know-how-long-it-will-be announcement and let people out of their seats. But just a few minutes later they announced we were leaving and people had to scramble to their seats. I think we were first in line, as we were suddenly taking off. We were off at 2:55. We were also sitting in the middle seats of a 787-9 so didn’t have a view. August was disappointed to hear that, but was then fine.

As we took off, Carly said, “It would be good for him to stay awake 5 hours.” August responded by immediately falling asleep. He slept until 4:20. They had recently delivered dinner and he liked the chicken and rice. He ate some of mine, then somehow flipped Carly’s on the floor. I took him to the bathroom. He played various apps, then watched some Sarah and Duck. Carly ordered more chicken for him. Carly was watching I am Legend. August thought that Will Smith looks like Derek. I think because of the hair.

He looked up at the bright light over him and said that it looked like a radar or compass. He sang “Dont want to waste, a cannon ball.” as he played the pirate game. He watched a half hour or Curious George but wouldn’t watch any more. He had been laughing the whole time, but said it got scary. Several times they would walk around the plane and he would laugh as he passed me. Carly finally got him to watch Magic School Bus.

Breakfast came and August didn’t eat any. As I tried to eat, I was most annoyed by the woman in front of me. Second flight in a row where someone in front of me put their seat back for the entire flight, even when she was sitting forward watching the video. When she was lying back, she would reach up and hold onto the top of the seat. Twice she grabbed my hair as I leaned for word on my pillow against the screen. And as I was trying to eat it put her hands literally four inches from my face. I remember a few flights back an airline that made people return their seats to the upright position during meals. Now my favorite airline.

He set a timer on his iPad so he could look to see how much time was left on our flight. He used the screen several times to look at the path of our flight. He told me “You know my Magic School Bus maker? I packed it in a suitcase.” That was something from earlier in the summer.

August was getting really tired. We landed at 8:10am on the 2nd, Israel time. Made it through immigration and got our luggage. He fell asleep as we went to get a cab. Got him in a cab, and he slept on the cab ride. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes. I carried him up to the bedroom and lay him on the lower bed, about 10:30. He was very asleep, and didn’t seem to move a muscle for at least an hour.

I had barely slept on the flight. Not sure if Carly got much more. She was ambitious though and wanted to go shopping. So she went and did that. I did a little unpacking, and set up the Apple HomePod, and tried to sleep, but no luck. I took a shower and Carly woke him up after 3:30. He was quiet on the couch, and the first thing he said to me was “Remember my coins up there? Can we play hide and seek?” He was then cold, and I covered him with pillows and stuffed animals. They talked about the yard and he asked “Can I grow tomatoes?”

Carly made a mango lassi for us all. Good to be back to Israel, at least for the mangoes. Carly liked the HomePod, saying it was my best speaker purchase ever. Carly mentioned skyping with Oma and Vivian, etc. and August got sad about not being with them.

I got August’s treasure box and he looked at his stuff and we discussed the coins. I then hid a bunch of them under things on the couch. He found them, but then remembered he’d been wanting to play Toca Elements. He had requested it a couple days ago and I’d forgotten to put it on his iPad. He requested it on the plane, then again once we had landed. I had installed it in the airport as we waited for luggage, but then he had fallen asleep.

He played that, then went outside for a bit with Carly. Our watering system had been turned off. Some plants had made it, others hadn’t. I talked to Shmuel at some point, and he said he’d turned it off because it was leaking too much. He says we need a filter and pressure regulator. He had watered the plants three times over the summer though. The papayas have grown a lot (except for the one stunted one) and one is almost as tall as I am. The cactus she left in the window box was doing great, so maybe a few more cacti this year.

Back inside we made a full squirrel nest. He then played Math Tango on my iPad in the squirrel nest.

Carly took him to her classroom. They left at 6:55, and were back by 7:40. I slept a bit. They brought back some of the plants she had taken to her classroom. He lay on the couch and put his feet on the wall. When I told him not to do that he said, “It’s not even your wall.” For dinner he ate carrot, the rest of his smoothie, and some potatoes and mushrooms. I had a veggie burger.

We read a Captain Underpants book. We made ‘underestimate’ the word of the day. He then asked “What’s red handed mean?” As an aside I wondered if it was a racist term and he asked “What’s racist mean?” (I looked it up. It is not. The red is a reference to blood.)

We all went for a walk at 8:55. Stopped at the park and played a minute of the shopping game. He said he had to buy new stuff for his spider web because it was all moldy. We walked north a bit, then circled back around to our house. Carly realized we need to work on crossing the street with him, which is going to be hard as I’m so used to strolling across our streets as their is no traffic. We were back at  9:20. He said “You know what? We haven’t played with out piano.”

We read some more Captain Underpants, then he played some of the Monster Learn reading app. He asked “Are we staying here for the rest of my life?” We took him up and brushed his teeth. They were reading, more Captain Underpants, I think, when I left them before 10:40. He fell asleep pretty soon.

He was up around 8:30. Colin was up early, and Jeff headed to work. Vivian was up soon after, then Cassie got home from work. I took a shower, and August was sending me things in Wizard School. I sent him a photo of his water bottle with a face on it. The kids ate the last of the coffee cake, then they sent more Wizard School videos while Cassie made eggs and cheese.

They ate the eggs, then we were planning on all going to the store and a park together. But then the kids were having a hard time. It ended as Cassie was cleaning out a toy box and Vivian wasn’t letting Colin play with things. August got involved, and started to play with some blanket. Colin also wanted it. Vivian sided with Colin and told August he couldn’t play with it. August got upset, and when it wasn’t being resolved he completed the downward spiral by slapping Vivian.

So we ended up going to Weis just the three of us, and no park. August was upset as we took him out, then calmed down in the car. We mainly got snacks for our airplane day, and some things that Cassie needed. We also got some coffee for them and some cash.

We left at 11:25. We did the usual counting down for him to get to his seat thing, and he said we should include “half of a one” in there. So we made “one half” the word of the day.

At home Vivian was watching Magic School Bus. Colin played in the box, and August gave him nuts. Colin fell over, but was okay. Cassie went up to rest, and I got Colin and August spaghetti. Everything was peaceful for while, but then August got frustrated that Vivian was skipping ahead and controlling the video selection. He yelled at her and Carly took him and Colin outside. I understood his frustration on this one: she was literally going through episodes in 5 minutes, and I can’t imagine, growing up, when the cousins would completely control what was watched and the TV.

Anyway, outside they were over on the swings, then came in to get a hammer and Carly smashed a walnut for them. They were then on the back porch playing with the lawnmower. August came in with me and we fixed the part that had come loose on the catapult. He went out and was frustrated that Vivian was still watching her show and not playing with him. He played with the mechanical ring toss game (they had played with it once when I wasn’t there), then had some Life cereal and soy milk. Cassie came down and Vivian stopped watching the show. August was happy again, and told her about Toca Plants. I heard him say “I’ll tell you a secret. There IS a Hoca Toca plant game…” They got his iPad and played Gro Recycling instead. I went outside with Colin and we played in the backyard with the roller coaster thing and running around being motorcycles.

He and I saw Chuck and Cherie coming and I picked him up and we ran to the front as they honked and pulled in at 2:10. They pulled in across the street and first took the car off, then pushed the trailer over. Then backed the motor home into its spot. When August gave Cherie a hug he asked “Do you have any Oma treats?”

The kids went in the motorhome and Vivian and August were sitting in the passenger seat and Cherie was giving August a lesson in good posture when I checked on them.

I left on a final shopping trip: first to Best Buy, where I was amazed by all the drones that they sell, and bought an Apple HomePod, then to TJ Maxx, where I got a couple pairs of shorts, then to Target, where I got underwear and a baseball cap for August. I’ve been wanting to get him a baseball cap because we’ve always liked how he looks in mine, and with his long hair getting in his face I’m hoping it will help keep it out. The hat is red and blue and has a picture of a right triangle on it and says “Alright, alright.” As I finished at Target, Carly called and said they were ordering pizza. So I went straight to Teresa’s Pizza in Mt. Bethel. It was a nice drive, as it took me over to Water Gap and down the river – roads we haven’t driven this trip, nor last.

While I was gone they played games like Candyland, hung out in the RV, helped Cherie open all the packages she had had sent here, and washed his hair. And he ate a good amount of veggies.

I was back after 5. We had our pizz dinner, then August and Colin drawing on the whiteboard. Which was going really well until Vivian took away the small black marker, saying it was only hers. August quit playing, then he went and played Candyland a bit with Carly, then Vivian came and let him have the marker.

Soon after dinner it was time for ice cream out back. August took a ice cream cone, but wanted his ice cream separate in a bowl. They then went out to the motor home with Cherie.I went to check in them and all three kids were in the bed with her. They were singing “Little Bunny Foo Foo” and then discussing the splat balls. A bit later August came running in to see me/us. I met him outside but he tripped on the sidewalk and fell on his knees.

I carried him. Not quite as quick of a recovery as yesterday, but not too upset based on past scrapes. Cherie taught him what ‘dab’ means and dabbed the blood. She then took him and Vivian out to the motor home to play the cat tablet game to make him feel better.

At 8:15 I went out as they were coming in. They were running around and chasing fireflies. Cherie and Chuck were going to bed and amazed to hear that the kids stayed up to 10 or 11. Cassie said that Jeff had been saving one final frog firework as a grand finale, so they stayed a bit longer. August pointed to the nasturtiums and told Cherie that you could eat them, but  “They’re a tiny bit spicy.”

Jeff lit the firework, and it was pretty impressive. August even uncovered his ears for the end of it. Afterwards he wanted to go inside, but asked “Is there gonna be any more exciting things out here?”

Inisde he hugged Vivian. Then they did baths. August had taken his earlier, but he went in to play the tea game. August was then excited to show Vivian Toca Plants. She ended up doing most of the playing and switched to a different app. So when it came time to stop he didn’t want to: he said it was because she’d been doing most of the playing and they hadn’t been able to make any of the plants. But it was also because he knew their time of playing together was coming to end and he didn’t want it to stop, I think.

We took him in to brush his teeth. Vivian came in and sat next to them as Carly stuggled to brush his teeth. Vivian said “August gets in trouble a lot, doesn’t he.” Carly said something that August felt agreed with her, and he said “Stop teasing me…Like you’re teasing me cuz I get timeouts every single day.”

We said goodnight, and I left the two of them after 10:20 and they were both soon asleep.

Posture lesson:

New hat:

Fireworks time:

August was up at 8:30. I think he initially went up to Cassie in the kitchen, as I heard him say “No, other mama.” He and Vivian then tried out the catapult and it works nicely. Retied the strings after awhile to make it fly further. They ate coffee cake and I went out with Colin for while and did the roller coaster. I then went in and took a shower.

August wanted to call Oma on the phone and they wanted to know when they were arriving, so Cassie and the kids called and left a voice message for her. August had the long curvy straw and Colin grabbed it and ran. He lay down on one of the stairs, sort of hiding. I took it from him and asked if he’d stolen it from August. He gave me a big grin and nodded his hair and said “uh-huh”.

All the kids were then up in Vivian’s room. She had her jewelry box out and was looking at all the stuff, but Colin and August couldn’t touch any of it. August says he wants music boxes and jewelery, specifically a charm necklace with a toothbrush. He and I talked about how we can get music boxes up at the one village in Israel.

We decided to head to Smithfield Beach National Recreation Area. We had thought about the pool, but it was a bit cool for that. Figured Smithfield would have rocks and paths and other things.

I drove the red car, and Carly and Cassie came with all the kids. I led. We got there, paid to park, then headed down. The water was high, so no beach, and the lifeguards weren’t even down there. He and Vivian ended up playing with the faucets and pouring water down a pipe that said ‘Water’. Vivian was jumping in the mud. I went for a walk to the west to check out the river access points. Nothing more beachy down that way. Went back and we all sat at a picnic table and had lunch. Colin walked around, declaring us all firetrucks and other things. We saw lifeguards head down to set up the swimming area and Vivian and Colin and Cassie went down to see. Carly went to the bathroom. August and I stayed at the table. He was acting rude and we almost went to the car for a timeout, but we did decide on the word ‘potential’ as the word of the day.

The lifeguards went down to the water. We all migrated over that way. Vivian went right it, and August changed into his swimsuit. When he waded in the water he said he was looking for something for the sharing bowl. The mud made it hard to see though. I picked rocks up with my feet for him. So at first it seemed disappointing, but they played for quite awhile. When they stopped most of the wading they came in and used the bench toys to make mud soup, all three of them. We were able to sit and read. Colin was tired, and hanging out with Cassie on the towels, and Vivian and August then started digging a stream, but turned it into their own rock-lined pool.

We decided to head to the Llama Ice Cream shop we had seen on the way. It was cheap. The sign said one scoop was $2.75. But when Cassie got her own, then later when I got ice cream for Colin, it was only $2.12. And it was really good ice cream. I had caramel cinnamon and Vivian and August both had bubble gum with sprinkles. Carly got dolce leche and hung out with Cassie outside by the car, as Colin was asleep, having fallen asleep right away. The shop had lots of flavors, including fruits like tamarind, mamey, lucina, and cherimoya. I tried the tamarind.

The woman’s daughters invited Vivian and August to watch TV, so they watched some talking baby movie while they ate. August asked Vivian “Have you had-ed lavender ice cream?…Well I have.”

We got to the Pocono Zoo at 3:15. A little pricey, for what it was. And busy at first. But the snakes were being fed, and August was serendipitously in front of a tank as they moved down the row, or he’d never have seen it. But he got to see a snake strike an already dead mouse. We were separated from Carly and Vivian. We went to the outside, hoping we could loop around through another door to find them. No luck. On our way back August was ahead of me. A man steered a stroller out of the door, backwards, while talking on the phone, and ran right into August, knocking him down and stepping on his foot.

We found Carly and he calmed down. Petted a bunny, then went outside. Carly went and purchased a bottle for feeding the goats and they shared that. And Cassie got some of the pellet food to feed them. Some more wandering around (Colin really liked the toys in the primate cages), then they wanted to feed the bear. Cassie got a cup of food for that.

On our way out, August played with the stuffed rattlesnakes. We headed back, but Carly called me and we had to pull over and switch August to the red car. He got upset and had thrown something in the car. He wasn’t happy bout being separated and lamented “See what you’re doing to me?” “I already got my foot stepped-ed on!”

Got to the house house about 5. The three kids climbed in the back of Jeff’s old pickup and climbed on the load of rocks in it. Then went to the swings for a minute.

Had stir fry for dinner. August was calling Vivian some nonsense name. She said, “Please stop! It’s driving me crazy!” When she did it back to him he said “It’s not funny to me!” Pretty funny. They were working on their recycling draw bridge, which they’ve been discussing doing on and off all day. A nice idea, but they got distracted. They ended up playing in the bathroom sink together. I heard him say “Do you dare me to eat bubbles?” Vivian taught him the “Do you dare me…” construction on this trip.

He mentioned seaweed treats to me. Apparently he had liked them at Stephanie’s/Ruby’s house. We are going to try to find them for the flight.

They went out to the toy kitchen outside and played with bubbles. I pushed Colin on the rollercoaster. Then, I heard August yelling. I started to run to him, then looked back to see that Colin and fallen, car and all, off the top of the rollercoaster ramp. I ran back to him and helped him up. Cassie brought August around the corner. He was upset, but with an actual scraped knee was handling it pretty well. He totally got over it when Vivian said “Do you want to see a bandaid I got at the store? You’ll probably want to wear it forever.” “Yeah.” They ran inside. He didn’t put on a bandaid, but at least he was open to the idea.

They were inside doing a “winning” game on the whiteboard, where August was the judge and he chose whether Carly or Vivian had the better picture. “I like being the judge.” They then went outside and were doing challenges, telling each other where to run and what to touch.

They went back outside and played with the bubbles. They had a bubble insect trap after one or two gnats got caught in the bubbles. I did a lot of running with Colin. Back inside they played the box game, with Colin inside. Big box with small holes in it that Jeff had cut in it as eye holes for them. But they ended up being used to drop nuts in to Colin and he would eat them. 

Cassie and Carly did the baths for the kids. They spent a lot of time on baths and I think there was a lot of playing in the bath.

We started reading the first Captain Underpants book and Vivian came in and they said good night and she left. After a couple chapters she came back, looking for her toothbrush, then asked to read with us. But then August said he was hungry. They both went out and had toast. I took August back and we read to chapter 11 or so. Vivian slipped a picture of a heart under the door. Carly came in and I left them at 10:15. He was asleep after 5 minutes.

He was really laughing in his sleep for awhile around 7. He was awake at 8:15. We did some of the bouncy game on the bed. He was asking what we were going to do today. He wasn’t happy about the driving and is getting tire of it: “Why is driving only in hours?” He was ready to get out the door and to a coffee shop: “Mama, could you put on your shoes please?” And he velcroed my sandals for me. We left at 8:50.

We drove for a few minutes to Blue State Coffee. August got apple cinnamon oatmeal, while we got bagels. He told a story about a dog getting a warning about something. As he ate his oatmeal he dripped some on the table, then licked it off. He asked Carly “Does that make you nauseous? The licking the table part.” He was then in a grumpy mood about the iPad. He really wanted to play, and said he hadn’t gotten to play it at the last two hotels.

We left at 9:30 for a walk around downtown. We saw the site of the first pay phone, then he explained how to make a telephone from sand and use it in a sing-song voice. Lots of interesting things to see in Hartford: the Old Statehouse (sadly closed today, so we could see the oddities museum in it), the site that Stephen A. Douglas campaigned, sculpture outside the art museum, “Forgotten Connecticut” paintings on the sidewalk, the Linden building, a very out-of-place building of 60s(?) glass blocks, an umbrella sculpture, etc. And one of those abstract orange metal sculptures that seem to be common – I’ve wanted to figure out if it is all the same artist, or different artists. Construction around this one though meant we couldn’t see a sign for it.

He wanted to go down a wooden ramp I’d joked bout going up, then I spotted a regular ramp across the street. I raced him up it and then back down, pretending we were a race car. He enjoyed that. Only. Minute later though he decided he was done with a walk. We headed back. On the way we saw the Ancient Burying Ground.

We got back to the coffee shop and Carly took him in to use the bathroom. He did not handle waiting well, yelling a couple times.

We got driving. He played the reading game, and decided the word of the day was ‘mineral’. We played a little of the comet game together, then read more of the Roscoe Rules book. He didn’t seem to be enjoying it s much as yesterday though, so we switched and finished reading the second Captain Underpants book.

We drove two hours, and stopped at the Waterwheel for lunch. I drank a dirty hippy (chai and espresso) and we ordered vegetable don (veggies and brown rice) and a tofu bahn mi. Carly had taken him to the bathroom, and then outside to do some challenges while waiting for food. He took me over to look at some leopard print stools he had seen, and he weighed some produce on a hanging scale. We went back and ate. He’d done well enough in the restaurant that we went and got a treat for the road. He chose an apple cinnamon scone.

On the drive we read a couple of book samples (Ada Lace, Detective Dot). He then hit me in the face. Harder and more direct that I think he intended, but I wasn’t happy about that. We then re-reading Hilde Cracks the Case: Bear on the Loose. He lasted until just before we got back, then he hit me again. Carly took him out for a timeout t the entrance to Kirkridge.

We got to the house at 3:10. They were playing around, and Colin said “Aha! I found you August!” We walked over by the lake, and I was being motorcycles with Colin. He just kept running and running. I’ve never seen him with so much energy. Vivian and Colin met a couple with a dog. August asked if Vivian could pet it. They talked, and the woman said “mamas are the best.” August said “Yeah, cuz she’s nursed me four years”. We kept walking and Colin and I hid from the rest. They found us, then Colin led me out on the spot. He then really wanted Carly to see the pond and his dinosaur tattoo. He then spent a good minute chasing a dragonfly, then he was a dragonfly as he kept running on the way back. Finally, he saw a grasshopper and he was then a grasshopper.

We were back after 4 and they had popsicles. There were plastic eggs, and August really got into putting nuts in them and hiding them for Colin. Vivian went up to her room for alone time. When August heard this he wanted alone time too. This year though he wanted it in his own room, which was a nice change. He went in and told me “Could you scream in here when Vivian is done with alone time?”

There was noodles for dinner, then he was saying “poop”. Vivian told him not too, and he had a meltdown. He kept saying things like “Vivian’s just ordering me around!…You’re just ordering me around!…I want to do it my way!” As he calmed down I tried talking to him about the Sesame Breathe app again, and how the monster chooses to calm down. He said “Stop taking about it! Or I will have to delete that app.”

They ended up outside, playing on the rollercoaster track thing. He had to go get his shoes and was afraid of the bees. I pushed Colin on it. He and Vivian found more things for the sharing bowl. Then he came running over “Ata…uhh, mama. Can we go for a walk to find things?”

I read in the bedroom. They had gone over to the swings, but then came in for a timeout when he hit Colin over something. Then another timeout when he was repeating the “Don’t pee your pants” line from Hilde to Vivian and she didn’t like it. There were a couple minutes of quiet while August and Vivian watched a Magic School Bus together. But then Vivian was skipping ahead through scary parts. August didn’t like the skipping, and didn’t like having control. Efforts to mediate proved fruitless, as neither would budge.

Carly and August came back, asking about the catapult kit. Colin was already asleep, so Vivian, August, and I spent the next hour or so working on the catapult. Well, they helped for part of it, then mainly played with the clay for the balls, then licked the batter out of the big bowl after Jeff made coffee cake.

They took a bath and Carly did the tea game. I washed him. Vivian and August were being generators in the bath, giving people power. At one point August said “I love everybody!”

We got him ready, and I left bout 9:50 and he was asleep at 10.

Hartford:

At lunch in Milford:

Saturday, July 28: Dada/Zinnie adventure around Concord

Carly left round 7 and went and got coffee at The Works Cafe, then caught a Lyft drive out to where her workshop was on Compassionate Listening, at NH Conference Church. August woke up at 8:28. He asked for Carly and I reminded him she was at her class and we were going to the science center. He said “Alrighty.” He got down and lay on the floor for awhile, then went to the bathroom. He then had a cereal bar and watched Magic School Bus while I took a shower and packed.

We took out our backpacks, then checked out and left at left 9:55. We left our car at the hotel and walked into town, to The Works Cafe. At the corner a big fire truck went through the intersection. He asked, “You think that fire truck was out on a call?” That was cool, but it reset the lights at the intersection, apparently, and we’d already realized the lights take forever up here. Waited a couple more minutes with other people, then crossed. I realized it was 9:59 and ran up to the clock tower. We hadn’t heard it, but the clock said 10:01 and we’d missed the ringing.

At The Works we ordered a classic smoothie, an egg and cheese sandwich, and a latte. We sat outside and looked at all of the fire trucks across the street (a ladder truck, a hose truck, an ambulance, and a regular truck) and discussed how fires are fought.

August looked at his smoothie cup and asked what ‘chill’ meant. We discussed its meanings, and I suggested it as the word of the day. He then said that ‘development’ was the word of the day. I realized he meant from the Hilde book, where there is a housing development in the woods.

We finished eating and got to the car at 10:40. He whispered “You know what I built at the hotel? A 9000 story garbage can that when you say open it opens and when you say closed it closes.”

We drove to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. At one point I was able to tell him about McAuliffe and the Challenger as we looked at a photo of the crew. Anyway, we got in just at 11. Started by making a stop motion video, then played with these rotating things that make a rhythm. He danced to that. His favorite activity, which we came back to multiple times, was making pictures with gears – sort of a Spirograph meets a turntable. Did some of those, then went to the space area. Upstairs we was the floating balls, Newton’s pendulum, and a exercise bike that was about exercising on a mission to Mars.

We went back downstairs when he spotted things he hadn’t done. Played with the scales, then headed to find a bathroom. That took us down the hall to the planetarium. He then piloted a shuttle lander simulator once, then we played with wooden blocks. I did the challenges, while he was more creative (a “Tiny zoo”). Back to the simulator one more time after it cleared out.

Then back to the rotating rhythm thing and gear spirographs. He made one for Carly. A cool sound frequency thing followed, and a different Spirograph sort of thing, using a screen and a sort of digital drawing board. A shadow activity, then a video thing that has you walk a certain pace and takes a video, then has you walk half speed and speeds up the video to see them in sync. Some more gear and chains stuff, then a running thing. A cool globe, more scales, more wooden blocks…it kept going. The final thing we played with was three chairs that show the effects of doubling. It starts with a small chair, then a chair that is twice the size, then a huge chair that is twice the size of that. You can measure them different ways.

As we walked out, we went to the gift shop. He immediately saw a kit for making a catapult and loved it. He then saw one of those black hole donation things, where the coins roll in a circle. He remembered he had found some pennies in the car so we went to get them. We found 2 quarters and 4 pennies. So then I told him I had spotted a penny squished in the gift shop. We had done one at the natural history museum the day before as well.

We went in and squished a penny, then did the black hole. He remembered the catapult. It was cool, and my only hesitation was luggage. We got it, and then a small liquid hourglass – something he could actually play with in the car.

We got in the car and had a snack and this time he did the reading game on his iPad. We left at 1:50. The first time he had held my phone and watched the directions. We went west of town to the Mill Brook Gallery & Sculpture Park. Spent about 15 minutes outside looking at sculptures. He wouldn’t let me by the two hanging iron monkeys sculpture. We went inside and looked around. A lot of cool stuff. We did some talking about materials as we looked around.

We then drove to the southeast and arrived at the Audubon at 3. We went inside and looked at the reptile room. Living reptiles, but lots of taxidermied animals as well. We went to the bathroom, and discussed the word ‘development’.

He requested I tell him another story. We first went to the car and got Cheerios. He said “Dada, I love you…Dada, I really like you.” We started walking, and he requested the story again. He told me “At restaurants, it’s actually a Z story.” So I told a Z story about meeting an elf in a cafe called Z’s Cafe. We got down to a bench by Turkey Pond and sat there. He counted the “gummies” on the bench. These were the remnants of (I think) moss patches, which (I think) looked like chewing gum spots to him.

The place closed at 4, though I don’t know if that applied to the trails. So we got going. He led on way back at first, and almost ran into a garter snake on the way back. We watched it slither off. He then asked for a Zinnie story, in which Ms. Robin asks for help for tools.

We got back at 4, and he figured out the controls for the moon roof and we drove with it open. He was then telling himself a story about someone named Georgie, though I didn’t catch any details.

We had time until we picked Carly up after 5, so we drove over to Rollins Park. He wasn’t too enthused about playing at the playground, but we ended up walking the edge of it, working on our balance. He was holding his water bottle to his chest with one hand, and holding his hair back with the other. He played on the play structure a little, figuring out how to go up a shaky cylinder ladder, then came down a slide.

We could see the big thunderstorm coming, and lighting off in the distance. We kept checking the weather app and radar to see how far away it was. We headed back to the car at 4:45 and the rain hit about 2 minutes later.

It was quite a downpour as I drove to the church. The long day and the sound of the rain put him right asleep, and he slept from 4:52 to 5:10 when Carly woke him up. A woman at the workshop helped her get to the car with an umbrella.

I drove at first, along the river on 3A. We kept taking 3 south, and had to stop when August bit his tongue eating carrot while he played the reading game. We drove until we stopped for dinner at the Lobster Boat restaurant in Merrimack.

We had a nice dinner of lobster bisque, alfredo pasta with shrimp, and a couple of salads. I had a beer. August ate a lot of shrimp until he got one with some shell on it.

As we left it was pouring, but the radar info said it was supposed to stop soon. So we waited in the entrance. Sure enough, after 5 minutes it basically turned off.

Carly took over driving from there. We read Hilde Cracks the Case #4. He then watched Sarah and Duck. He stopped watching the lemon cafe one because he remembered that the cafe closes before they can order and he doesn’t like that. He then played the feelings game from Sesame Street, the human body machine game.

We got to the hotel and up to room right at 10. He liked the lemon water in his water bottle, which we’d filled from his cup at the restaurant. Earlier, he’d had pineapple infused water from the hotel when we left. Carly took a shower and I made the complimentary ba
g of popcorn.

We read Captain Underpants and ate popcorn. We read most of the preview of the Roscoe Rules book until we stopped at 10:45. He was asleep a little after 11.

Flying the shuttle:

Sculpture:

Audubon hike:

Park:

Rain:

We had a wonderful museum day today.

I caught up with Formula for the most part (didn’t finish the race) and took a shower. He slept until 9:12. I dressed him, and he went and admired himself in the mirror: “Good…you dressed me up good.” We went down to breakfast in the hotel. He and Carly used the pancake machine to make a pancake. That was pretty cool. As they walked away, another kid told them another pancake was coming.

We were back to the room before 10. In the elevator August was taking too long to push the button so I reached over his head and did it. He didn’t see what happened, and thought the machine had chosen for us. So back in the room he had us act the elevator thinking for me, after I didn’t push the button in the elevator.

We got going up to the museums. Carly had ordered an 11 o’clock entrance to the Seuss museum for us, so when we got up about 10:30 we first went to the natural history musuem. He liked looking out at the big tyrannosaurus, then he and Carly made earthquakes with a machine. We looked at the minerals and crystals and then I sat down and worked on our BECU stuff while they looked around a bit more.

It was then 11 so we headed over to Seuss. The Seuss museum was really busy, so he spent a lot of time just wondering around, saying it was too busy. I lost them for a few minutes as I looked at the Theodore Geisel exhibits upstairs. I really liked some of the individual pictures and family cards he had drawn. Eventually though we found a video of The Butter-Battle Book playing. It was near the beginning, and August sat down to watch. The sound from the TV was incomprehensible, so I narrated the story for him for awhile. For awhile it was self-explanatory enough, then when it got to the last weapon I heard him narrate the weapon creation process for himself. We talked about the ending, and he had an amazed look on his face when he realized they were equally powerful at the end. I suggested that ‘stalemate’ was the word of the day and we discussed what it meant, and in chess.

The crowds had calmed down and we went around some more. The main thing he did was the McElliot’s pool activity where you decorate a fish, then push a button and it swims across a big screen that looks like an aquarium. He did 20 fish or so.

Then he was done. Carly and I both liked it, but thought it needed one more floor of activities to be really substantial. Lots more Seuss stories that could be covered. We also saw the new mural, after the one from I Saw It on Mulberry Street was taken down due to the Chinaman character.

We went outside to find that they had dance music playing and a big bubble machine going. August ran through the bubbles a bit, but mainly he just stared at the bubbles, entranced.

We went back to the natural history museum. I got my debit card to work. He saw the donation box and told Carly he wanted to give more money to the museum. We went upstairs to the area we had started in before and repeated some of the stuff and looked at the T-Rex again. He pointed to the big humerus bone in a display case down below and told Carly it was from a dinosaur that was twice as big as the T-Rex. She asked how he knew that. We had looked in there earlier when she had gone to the bathroom. It was from an herbivore, like an allosaurus or the such, that was said to be up to 92 feet long, compared to the 40 feet of the T-Rex.

We found a balloon artist without any customers. August was intrigued, but asked if her balloons had helium. She said no, in fact they aren’t allowed in the museum, but he still said no. Carly asked some advice on how to get into balloon animal making and the woman gave some pointers. August watched while she made a sword for another kid, then he chose an alien hat. He wore it for a few seconds, then it went on the stroller. But he really liked watching.

He didn’t want to go in the Clifford the Big Red Dog exhibit, but when we went down the stairs there was someone in a Clifford costume. And August loved it. He was trying to figure out if it was a person or real, and started looking for evidence. He saw the zipper, but said it had a tail, and toes. He felt it, and a couple times he said it felt like someone was inside, but he wasn’t sure. He asked Clifford a bunch of questions, and gave him a hug and high five. It was soooo cool.

We then went downstairs to the animals/aquarium area. This was my favorite part. August really liked the exploration drawers, where you pulled them out and found all sorts of things: bones, sea stars, shells, etc. etc. Watched a little of a catfish video, then went to the bathroom. We walked around the rest and got going.

We ate lunch at the nearby cafe. Carly ordered (sandwiches for us, and mac and cheese, soup, and apple sauce for August) and August and I claimed a table outside. We heard a balloon pop. As we left, we realized it was the alien part of our hat; it had gotten hot in the sun and popped.

Now, he saw someone in a Cat in the Hat outfit and went over and talked to it for a minute and gave it high fives.

We next went into the art musuem. We explored three of the galleries pretty fully: the middle one, the American painting one in back, and a more contemporary gallery on the right. We spent a lot of time looking at the big mural painted in the 40s. Carly explained it to him and he was most interested in how the artist won a contest to paint it.

He was hungry and talked about having “Snunch” (the term we had coined for having snacks for lunch). We left at 2:20.

We drove and drove and drove. We read the next Hilde book in there. About 15 minutes from Concord August started asking about a gas station for a bathroom. We got to the hotel after 6:30. He was looking desperate, so I told her to stop out front, and I grabbed him and ran in. We made it. He talked about pee making things sticky, and suggested “A tiny suction cup in the pee.” We did the boingy, boingy, boingy, bounce game, then left before 7.

We spotted a Chinese restaurant and decided to go there. We got lo mein and shrimp and pea pods and a couple of spring rolls. He suggested something to us and said “Oh yes, I thought so. I thought you would.” Dinner was good, then we walked into town. We saw the capitol building and Carly realized that the clicking of her backpack straps made an echo. We got August out of the stroller to run out some energy. He ran around for about 5 minutes. We walked farther up through town.

There was a storm off in front of us so we turned back. We stopped at a square and saw an odd sculpture of Lincoln and a crow. We then got to the clock tower, and when August found out that it rang at each hour he wanted to wait, even though it was 26 minutes. We waited 26 minutes. He was very patient about it, and very happy when it went off at 9. We headed back and got back to the hotel at 9:10.

Carly gave him a bath. Put his pajamas on, then she took a shower. I was lying on the bed, and he climbed on it, and on my back, and said he was a massage machine. He ws then a tattoo machine:  “you earned three tattoos…one heart, one flower, one circle…Every time you get two massages you get three tattoos they are different.” “Calculator, telephone, and round red button.”

We finished the Hilde book and read 10 chapters of a Captain Underpants book. He said “You should really stick to what you know, like tea parties…you know, the mean-agers.” It was a line from Hilde.

Once again he was having trouble going to sleep with Carly. I took him over on the other bed, and after some more struggling and talking about how we go to sleep, he fell asleep to my left, lying on my arm. I fell asleep too, then woke up a bit later. I rolled him from the edge of the bed and made a pillow wall on the other side of him. I think we fell asleep a little after 11.

He came out at 8:15. Colin was first to spot him, as he sat at the counter. Ate some egg and English muffin for breakfast. Cassie went for a run as they ate breakfast and Colin watched a car video. I took a shower. They played Magnus Kingdom and then both Vivian and August were going to wash their hair. Vivian was going to wash her hair in the kitchen sink. August was intrigued by the idea and wanted to watch her first, but then Vivian changed her mind and refused to wash her hair. So I washed his hair in the bathtub. He fought it at first, but then got through.

He was acting out, but it turned out he was stressed about the trip we were packing for and we talked bout that. We had talked about the word of the day a bit earlier, ‘vigorously’, and now he told me “Rub my back the word of the day, please.”

Carly was out with Cassie by the garage and cars, cleaning out the car and vacuuming it. He wanted to make his Nom Noms smell nice like Vivian’s. She had used the bathroom spray and the rose water on them. So August yelled out through the window, “Tia Cassie, can I use your perfume to make my nom noms smell really good?” She said yes, and he sprayed the orange spray into the bag. But then he decided they were sticky and he was afraid the spray was making the color come off of them. So he washed them in the bathroom sink, and explained to me what he had done: “to the second drain” “Now a lot of water is in the sewer system.” And then he got broader and explained the whole well system here: “from the wet sand” “for washing our hands, and drinking, and flushing the toilet…”

Vivian came in and announced they were having popsicles. Him: “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” They ate them out front, and he asked “Can air conditioners keep it from melting?” Inside, he then had Cassie microwave the rest of it to make popsicle juice He narrated the whole process to me. He and Vivian were then playing in on the beds. I came in and he was standing on the windowsill. He had his hand on the stick for the blinds. Just as I told him to be careful and not pull on it, he said he could hang from it and pulled. The blinds came down and hit him on the head and the stick came off. Luckily, the blinds are the clip-in kind. Nothing was broken, and he recovered quickly.

Vivian came in and started reading a book to August, but when August said something she didn’t like she stopped reading. When I tried to help her, thinking she was having trouble with a word, she told me she was reading in her head because she didn’t like what August had said. I made her go read out in the other room.

She was being moody because we were leaving, but as we left at 11:45 she ran out, bringing August his Nom Noms. Carly drove. We saw three deer, then he said his “Stop and look if you want to go up” thing. He also read a “Water. Caution” sign.

We chose to stop in Dansbury, Massachusetts for lunch as there was some sort of sculpture park there. On the way we noted as we crossed states. We had some adventures in parking, but then found parking at the Motherhood on Main Cafe. As we parked, August said, in his Waze voice,”You found your destination.” Inside, there were a lot of choices. We ended up with a tuna salad sandwich, veggie soup, turkey sandwich, and a sunrise smoothie (strawberry, mango, and orange). They gave us a metal number, 3, to put on our table. August really liked that, and hung it on the back of his chair. We talked but where we were and he said “Connecticut should be the word of the day tomorrow.” While we waited he walked around looking at the different salt and pepper shakers, as every table had different ones. The food came and was okay, but the soup was too spicy for him and he didn’t really like the tuna with dill. And the bread was hard toast. Carly went and got him a grilled cheese sandwich as well and he ate some of that. He danced to a guitar version of “We are Young” that was playing, then randomly asked “Why can’t you park in the middle of the road?”

When we finished we walked through town, stopping at a couple of their history stations (they have a bunch of boards telling the history of the town) and saw the 7 or so sculptures in their sculpture area. We got driving again. August and I read Hilde Cracks the Case #3.

We got to the hotel, the Holiday Inn Express in downtown Springfield, MA and to our room, 203, at 7. He really liked the squishy carpeting and said “Sinking into my socks like mud.” Which we thought was an excellent simile, despite not wearing socks. He asked “Was that hyperbole?” The beds were tall and he complained “I can’t even get on the beds!” But there was a foot stool he could use. He explored the room, figuring out the switches and remotes and pointed at the ironing board: “Is that a canoe?”

He climbed on a bed, and we made a big game of “boing, boing, boing, boing, bounce’ where I’d bounce him on the bed four times, then, flop him down on it. He was laughing a lot, then laughing more and more as I started to malfunction and do different things when I bounced him. As I did it, he had turned on the little reading lights, which were on articulated arms and said “The lights are cheering you on.”

We headed out for a walk, and headed to the Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden a couple blocks away. It was 7:30 or so. We got up to it and started identifying the statues. He identified one girl as Daisy Head Maisy, but I think it may have been Sally from The Cat in the Hat. We saw Thideick and August remembered reading it to him at 5 months in Centralia when I had a broken arm. When Carly went to the other side of the rope to climb on the statues (the ropes simply said it was too hot, but it wasn’t now) he was hesitant to break the rule, but eventually did, and hugged Dr. Seuss. We were talking about running out of time, and he went and said “I got my stroller.” And “We spented all our minutes.”

We walked down to the other end and saw the Lorax, which I was very excited about, then the security guard came and said it was closing and talked to us as we walked out the north end.

We walked back down through town (stopping to see the mice running around a park, and the statues there) and tried to get down to the riverfront park, but that entrance was closed and it would take a few blocks of driving to cross the train tracks. So we walked back up to town, seeing the moon on the way.

Next mission was food, but the Italian place we walked to was closed for vacation until July 31st. There wasn’t anything else open, except for a chicken place Carly had seen. We talked about going back to the hotel and ordering something, but then I saw that it also had pizza. We went in and ordered two chicken sandwiches for us and a slice of cheese pizza for August and an order of fries to share. Turned out it was cash only, and it took most all the cash we had. While we waited, Carly and I tried out debit cards in the ATM but couldn’t get them to work. August and I played I Spy.

We got our food and walked back to the hotel. We pulled out the table and ate. August asked “Is there geoduck in my pizza?” I said no, and besides, it would more likely be lobster or crab or clams that you’d get in this area. A minute later he said “I think I got some chewy crab.” He explained “You said there there was crab in this country.”

He watched some Sarah and Duck. We then watched the timer and stopwatch and ate a little more while Carly took a shower. He talked about having “A sweet tooth” and reminded me that was from the dog Zeus in the Hilde book. I brushed his teeth, and I mentioned that we all needed to go to the dentist once we are back in Israel.

He was then crazy and not going to sleep. I lay next to him and told three stories:

An August story. He comes back to Israel and is playing outside in the yard on his own for the first time and finds a door in a tree. It leads to a tunnel full of animal statues. It eventually ends, he returns, and h
is parents don’t believe him when the door disappears.

A Zinnie story. First day of preschool. Makes friends with a girl named Teegan. They find a door in a tree. There is a stairway that leads up and they meet Ms. Robin, who is as big as they are. She serves them work cookies and tea. Ms. Anna calls and they have to leave, but promise to return. They decide to not tell anyone else about it.

The second Zinnie story. Later that day, Teegan and Zinnie are playing on the computer. They were excited by the idea, but it is easy math. They decide to explore the wires inatead, and find themselves inside the computer. They almost get lost, but manage to find their way out. They realize they need to be careful, and also need to figure out what is going on.

After a few more minutes of him being problematic and taking him to the other bed for a couple minutes, he was quiet and fell asleep just before 11:30.

He woke me up during the night. He didn’t realize that Carly was down on the lower bed next to him already. He’s been waking Carly up more since we’ve been in Pennsylvania and have had separate beds. Sometimes, he’s gotten up and not realized she’s next to him. the other morning, Carly heard a kid outside the room calling for “Mama!” She got up, thinking it was August. It was actually Colin, and she was surprised to find August quietly sleeping next to her.

He was up around 8. We had Chess Kids working on both our iPads, so played a little with Carly between them, although not a complete game. He didn’t like that it was time. I took a shower, and they did Duplos and a construction site with Colin. In the bedroom I sang the “Lost my helmet in the spaceship” song and he wanted all the words so I had to get the phone. I sang a couple of the other songs we’ve written. He asked “What’s drooped mean?” The word of the day was ‘doomed’, and I think I’d been explaining when a house plant was beyond saving and used the word.

He did Wizard School by himself and drew a picture. He told me “That’s a kidney and there’s pee going down to the bladder.” We were getting ready for the fair and discussed how there aren’t backpacks allowed in the fair. He said “We’re not taking any weapons… They’ll trust us.”

We left before 11. It poured on the way down. We parked and waited for the rain to let up, then went in. We saw some of the milk cow judging, which was certainly interesting to see. We then walked through the barns, looking at the different cows, then the goats and sheep and pigs. One of them was named ‘Vivi’. August was a little upset there wasn’t one named ‘August’.

We got through those, then went up to the playground, which was drying out. They played there while I got us a cheese pizza. We took that and sat under the covered area and ate. When we were leaving, about 12:50, I think August said he’d hit Vivian, as I then heard him pleading “Don’t tell my mom!” We ended up going back to the playground first. I helped him up on top of the truck, where Vivian had climbed earlier. He was then the driver and he told me to ride in back. He said we were going to “River, Ohio.” That’s from the Two Dogs in a Trench Coat book, I think.

We left for real at 1:10. I had suggested the library, so Cassie took Colin so he could have a nap (although I don’t think he took one) and we took Vivian with us and we drove to the library in Stroudsburg. Google Maps took us on some roads we had never been on. We saw an interesting church, and a rails-to-trails trail that I didn’t know existed. We listened to Story Pirates  episode #22.

We got to the library at 1:50. Inside, he told me “Last time, I walked diagonal.” We went to the kids room and they went and looked at the turtle, Yertle. They played with the stools and found books. August found a di Paola book we didn’t end up reading. Carly got a couple of Clementine books for Vivian, and I found Robo-Sauce. After awhile, we took those, and a couple of Peppa Pig books, and checked them out. I got two cappuccinos at the friends of the library coffee shop there and the kids each got fruit snacks. Vivian got the mixed fruit ones, and August chose strawberry. Nice to see him not needing exactly the same thing.

We found a table, and Carly read them a Peppa Pig book and Robo-Sauce, which they liked. I read a little of our next book group book, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. As we walked out, August was acting like a robot: “Robo pee activated” “robo grab”. We left at 2:50.

We listened to Story Pirates #23 and Carly took over driving. We were home at 3:15. He found a truck on the floor and wanted to put it away. Cassie had put the big box of them upstairs in Colin’s room, so August took it all the way up to put it away. He had me programming him again. Going down the stairs we counted 14, which I said was his favorite number. He reminded me “100 is my favorite number.”

Cassie and her kids read the books and August and I did wizard school. I was then outside with Colin, playing with bubbles. Back inside, Vivian was playing Magnus Kingdom on her iPad. Colin was trying to touch it, and August did a good job of using his words: “Colin, let Vivian play it on her own for a few seconds.”

We had seitan and cauliflower wraps for dinner. August liked the cauliflower. They were crazy in on the bed. August came and asked for his superhero towel. I put it on him, and as he went to go back to the bedroom Vivian saw him and asked for it and he gave it right up. They then went out to the swings with Carly.

Cassie took Colin in for a bath, and we took Vivian with us, back to the fair. We took Cassie car this time. We left at 6:40. At the fair we went into the exhibits hall. August liked looking at the baked goods, and he quickly caught on to the colors of the ribbons, and went walking around, pointing them out. Carly and Vivian came back from the bathroom, and we looked some more and they pointed out ribbons. Together, they agreed on a slice of chocolate cake from the baked goods sale. And outside we bought a funnel cake.

We found a spot and ate the funnel cake. We told them the cake was for at home as we didn’t have forks. We then went over to the other exhibits hall. August really liked the fruits and veggies. They had veggies that had grown oddly, and also ones used in art projects. He and Carly talked about a large kale plant. And there was a purple cauliflower: “Look, look, look. It won first place cuz it’s purple. One of my favorite colors!”

On our way out, he and Vivian were judging mud puddles. We went to the bathroom. When I brought him back, Vivian and Carly had balloons. August made it clear that he didn’t want one, and that Vivian should just let hers go. He said “If I want a balloon, I would just let it go!” We got an apple dumpling, also for home, and left at 8:20.

In the car, August said “Hey Vivian, say stop sign ahead.” She wouldn’t fall for his bait. When she sees the red signs with an arrow she knows the literal meaning is ‘Stop ahead’. But August says it means “Stop and look if you want to go up.” And that drives her crazy.

When we got to the house he asked uncle Jeff to feel something if it was wet. A bit later, when Carly asked Cassie if she had tasted something to see if it had nuts in it, he said it ran in the family. The four of us (I apologized to Jeff that they weren’t vegan) the desserts.

They got in the bath and there was more exploding tea. He asked “Why don’t I have electric toothbrush yet?” Sick of exploding tea, I managed to sneak out of the bathroom and they played by themselves. Carly and Cassie took over baths a bit later and let them delay hair washings until the morning.

We got him ready and I left him with Carly at 10. About 20 minutes later though he wanted me to sing. I went in for about half an hour. Sang some hours, but he isn’t too good about trying to fall asleep nowawdays, rolling around and wanting to turn things on, etc. He finally requested Carly and she went in just before 11. I think he fell sleep soon after, but they both fell asleep.