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We were all slow to get up after 7. Downstairs I got him his vitamins and allergy medicine and he asked me about bonds and played with the Duplos and Lego chain, humming. He and Carly then did school. They made the word ‘Amazon’ out of Duplos, there she used the globe to show him the river on it. She made him oatmeal and he made that, then he and I did more globe study: hemispheres, the time zone thing, degrees of latitude. He then wanted Piano Maestro so we set up the keyboard and he watched me play Piano Maestro. He then ate some of the potato and eggs that Chuck had made for him. Carly was grading, but he wanted her to teach her more. They did more globe learning and he wanted to learn how to spell words like ‘globe’. He asked why we have silent letters like ‘k’.

He played Coral Reef, then we did Robot Lab together. I went up and took a shower. I heard him ask Carly “How do you get the honey IF the bees sting you?” And he and Cherie discussed the difference between Omazon versus Amazon. Cherie used the brush from Chuck to successfully brush his hair.

They were headed to Jaffa and I was going to stay home and work on the big-picture analysis of the project for Sabeel. He was a little concerned about not having me sitting next to him in the car, but of course it went really well.

They left at 10:40. They went to the Jaffa Market and found a cool metalworks shop, then walked the back streets and hills of Jaffa and found an artist’s shop called Studio of Julien Roux. They went someplace for lunc hand had chicken kebabs and salad for lunch. They used the stroller on their walks. They stopped to get coffee, but realized they didn’t have the ipad for August and he wanted something to do. The shop was being slow to take their order so they left. Finally, they found a playground and played with a feather.

They were back after 3:30. We played duplos, then he destroyed the whole thing and broke all the bonds. He talked about a “Funky monkey wrench” and where he had heard of that “Oh, I remember. (whispers) Julius Jr.”

Outside Carly hid the eggs for him. He told her she wasn’t supposed to give hints, even if he asked for them. He tried out his balance bike, and he suggested I take the big bike out for a ride so I did that.

He and I then went out for a little walk at 5:20. On the way towards Vatikim I smelled barbecue, but he said he had smelled a mint smell. We got to the park over ther at 5:30. There was a barking dog and August had a potion that kept the dog away from us. Played on one of the rocking things and down the slide a few times. We headed home and August smelled the barbecue this time. He was excited by the smells, and at the house he said he smelled cauliflower and was excited by that as well.

We were home at 5:50. He went in and washed his hands and then came right out to the table and we ate the yummy baked pasta and cheese and vegetables they had made. August asked for more and more cabbage. Chuck asked him “What do you think of it?” August said “Opa’s making fun of me.” August then said he didn’t like being called a rugrat, but he wanted Carly to tell Opa not to call him that. Carly asked if he could tell him himself (he was right there0. August: “No. Cuz he’ll eat me.” And “I need more cabbage.”

The neighbor had come home from work while we were on our walk. As we were sitting outside I got a complaint. Before 6pm. He proceeded to complain that we had woken him up. He invited me down for coffee, but kept insulting me and there was no way I was going down.

Chuck and Cherie walked over to the mall again. August said he was still hungry and Carly made pita and peanut butter for him and he ate it all. Serious eating. We read 5 chapters of The 13-Story Treehouse on the ipad. Carly took him up and Chuck and Cherie were back just as he was going to bed. He was asleep soon after 8.

We were all up around 7. I put stuff away upstairs and August and Cherie were doing a big pretend bubble bath that lasted a long, long time – the bubbles covered every place August knew, then all the countries, then the whole universe. August then ate his oatmeal and mango that Carly made. Cherie went upstairs and August came over to me and played Robot Lab on my iPad. When Carly came down he went to her and they ended up reading the 52-Story Treehouse. August was acting out having all the things like a really strong hair dryer that blew all our hair off. He said he had snake repellent for the snakes and ladders game. For each thing “I have that too!”

I took a shower, then remembered skyping with my parents. We skyped with them and August did much better. He spent a lot of time looking at himself in the video, making faces and pulling down his eyelids. My mom taught him the words ‘parallel’ and ‘perpendicular’ after he showed them that he knew what ‘diagonal’ meant by walking diagonally on the floor tiles. I drew them on the chalkboard, then August was really thinking about it, drawing parallel and perpendicular lines.

After he went to the bathroom we said goodbye. He then tasted chalk and said it was yummy, then tried dumping out all the Duplos.

Cherie then took him outside and they painted Easter eggs. He had a lot of fun. But he liked finding the Easter eggs even better. She hid them outside and he was so excited to go find them. After two or three times of finding the eggs I asked if he wanted a smoothie. He said “Ready to find. So no time for smoothie.”

Eventually he agreed to a smoothie and was playing with the honey container while I made it. Chuck told him he should put it on the counter and August called out “Opa’s telling me what to do!” It was a mango and strawberry smoothie with orange juice and he really liked it: “I love it. I love it more than you love me.”

Cherie was then making apple crisp. August was going to have a hard time waiting. I took him up for his bath. He sat in the bath and played with bubbles for a long time: “I’m gonna attack. I’m gonna make a war.” Admiring all of his bubbles, he whispered “Holy mackerel”. But then he made a game of scooping them out of the bath and said “I hate bubbles.” That was why he was taking them out of the bath.

We finally finished his bath and went downstairs. For lunch he ate rice, peanut butter, apples, meatballs. And Cherie let him try the apple crisp.

We packed up and headed to Poleg Beach. We got to the busy beach at 2:30. It was windy and warm, and there were tons of kite surfers out on the water. I counted more than 50. We plopped down in a spot and August immediately got to paying in the sand. I went for a walk down to the stream area and where most of the kite surfers were, then came back. He and Carly had been playing in the sand. He was saying “Holy mackerel” a lot and asked what “originally” means.

I then took over playing with him for awhile so Carly could read. We were pirates burying treasure, then sailing away, then coming back later to retrieve our treasure. One time he said it had been replaced by garbage and that Opa had stolen the treasure. He wanted to make Opa walk the plank. He was talking like a pirate and has a good pirate voice. We were pretending that Carly couldn’t know about our treasure, and when I was afraid I’d accidentally said “treasure” so she could hear he covered by telling her I’d just said “Tr”. So after that we were just calling it ‘tr’.

He loved the sand so much he didn’t want to go in the water at all or for a walk. I waded in the water and roamed the beach a little as Carly started playing with him again.

We left the beach at 4:20. He was eating Cherie’s snack mix and was eating all of it. I tried some and it is definitely spicy. I told him if he liked that he should be able to eat anything that I eat that is spicy. We stopped at the strawberry stand and Carly got two packs of strawberries. Took exact change so they couldn’t try to talk her into getting 4.

Chuck and Cherie went to the mall to look for food, and Carly went to school. I hid eggs for August. We did several rounds. Carly was back at 5:40. She had brought the globe from her classroom: “Mama gotted me a globe from her classroom. Wait, how can she teach her students?” He and Carly looked at it and he marveled at the size: “We go everywhere and it’s very big.”

Carly hid the eggs outside. With me I had taught him ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ as hints to find an egg. He asked Carly to do it, but he changed it all on his own, telling her that a high noise (and raising his hand) would mean he was getting close, and a low noise meant getting farther away.

He had two hilarious cartoon moves today: When we were skyping and he had to go to the bathroom he picked a leg way up in the air, perpendicular to the ground, paused, then swung it towards the bathroom and started running to the bathroom. Now, when Carly was doing the high and low thing he did a funny lunge to see if she’d get higher or lower.

They went outside and he picked a couple carrots and ate them. And a third. She asked if he wanted another and he said “Well, I could deal with another carrot, of course.”

Cherie and Chuck had brought back what they thought was sausage from the store, but it turned out to be some sort of interesting fake sausage. We ate dinner, and August said “Just so you know, the sausage thing that isn’t sausage is very good.”

He went to the bathroom and was in total music mode. Then Cassie and Colin called on Skype while we were starting to eat the apple crisp. Had a long skype call with them. August was impressed with how much apple crips there was: “With all these people eating it it still isn’t gone.” He was then grabbing at Chuck or Cherie’s leg and was asked “What do you want out of this leg?” August replied “Your BLOOD!” We were done skyping at 7:25.

I went upstairs for a bit and Derek called on Skype. I went down, and we took August up to bed. we had a good session of mosquito killing. I left them at 8:35. He wasn’t going to sleep though and gave Carly a “real” so she would go get me. I went up and we read one chapter of The 52-Story Treehouse. He seemed sleepy, so I turned off the lights and sang a few songs. He started singing along to “Imaginary Bars”. Carly took a shower, then came back in. I left them about 9:10. 

He was up at 6:40, right after Carly closed the door. We all got ready to go and were driving at 7:40. We read the Cars book and a few chapters of Hilo 3 in the car. Otherwise, he was rather obsessed with treats.

Got to Sabeel in north Jerusalem just after 9. They all went in to meet Omar and stayed for 10 minutes or so. We were talking about getting the families together sometime and Omar joked that his daughter could teach August how to throw stones. Funniest thing I’ve heard.

Omar and I met for about a half hour, developing a plan for continuing the project we’re working on. Carly, Cherie, Chuck, and August drove down and parked near the Educational Bookshop and had an early lunch, getting sandwiches there. They bought an activity book for August, with mazes, word searches, etc. in it and borrowed a pencil. August caught on to the activities pretty quickly and was soon doing mazes on his own. Carly ordered a sandwich for me. When I was done I took a bus down there and met them. I bought a couple books on learning Arabic (level 1 and a phrasebook) and a copy of The Way to the Spring for Chuck and Cherie.

We then walked over to the Garden Tomb, one site that some claim is the possible location of Jesus’s crucification and tomb. I sat and ate my sandwich, then walked around and caught up with them. I spotted them down below and called to them. When I came down to where they were he was saying “Do you have the feeling someone’s watching us?”

We first walked towards the Temple Mount. Omar had told us it opened at 12:30 to 1:30, and so had something I had read online. We found out that you enter over by the Western Wall and it was open an hour later – they had switched to the summer hours – so we walked back towards the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We stopped at a bathroom at 12:30 then kept walking. We first went to a 4th century Greek Orthodox Church. We took a quick look inside, then sat on a bench outside. I went back and looked in as they were chanting and the others came over to listen. I held August, and a priest gave August a little charm thing.

We then found the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Busy at the entrance, so Carly stayed out to people watch and read. When August realized Carly wasn’t with us he wanted to go back out to her. We went out, but then I convinced him to go back inside. We walked around, first up to the Calvary Chapel, then around the much emptier parts of the church, until we ended up by the tomb of Jesus. Did not, of course, join the huge line of pilgrims waiting to go in. Instead, we talked a bit about domes. Then found out that Chuck and Cherie were already back out with Carly so we headed out.

We then made our way to the Western Wall. Entered and looked around, then made our way to the line for the Temple Mount complex. Looked long, but it moved pretty quickly. Looked at the mosque, then sat and read the guidebook. August also asked us about what country we were in. Told him it was complicated. Caught up to the rest as they sat on the stairs below the Temple Mount. August needed a bathroom, so we spent most of the rest of our time up there looking for a bathroom. Finally, Carly found a bathroom just down from one of the Muslim-only gates and was allowed to go down. I walked around for a minute more, then Chuck and I were waiting for the three of them at 2:30 when security started rather forcefully making us leave. We were able to wait by the west gate though until they came back from the bathroom.

From there we worked our way back west, past the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and to the shop where we had bought the wall hanging we have in the living room. Along the way August spotted the snow globes. After we had left the church the first time and were hurrying to the Western Wall, August had spotted snow globes “like mama has in her classroom”. He then got really sad when we hadn’t stopped to look at them. Carly later spotted  another shop that had snow globes and he dismissively said they were different. Well on the way back he now spotted the exact same shop and was really excited. We looked at them, and Cherie said she’d buy him one. He chose one with a windmill in it. After an uncomfortable bargaining session, Cherie got it for 40 shekels.

Also, while we were walking and I was carrying August his job had been to look back and make sure that the other three were all with us. He did that quite well. I then gave him a second job: finding a fresh juice place. He liked doing that as well. We found a place and ordered two drinks. When I asked the guy how much it was he said 20 shekels. Then, when he saw I had pulled two 20 shekel notes out of my pocket he suddenly said it was 20 each. We ended up paying the extra, but at least the juice (pomegranate and orange mix) was really good. And August got to actually watch the pressing this time.

We found the shop and Chuck and Cherie found a wall hanging similar to ours. Much nicer interaction with the shopkeeper. We then headed north and Carly led us through backstreets and back to the Damascus Gate. As we were walking he asked me “What does ‘academy’ mean?” Wasn’t sure where he learned that word. he was then being imaginative and talking for a long time about sounds he was hearing as we walked. He finally decided the sounds were coming from the sky. Then, he was counting everything in the universe. And he asked “What does ‘for future reference’ mean?” Something he’s heard from me.

We walked to the east and then back up to the area where the Educational Bookshop is. We found the little Abu Ali restaurant that Omar had recommended. Nothing fancy, but it was perfect. We ate an early dinner of falafel, hummus, and salad. Took the rest home for dinner. As we walked back to the car he told me “You’re very, very super strong.”

We were driving close to 4:45. On the way home Cherie was calling him “Peanut boy” as he ate all her peanuts. At some point I sang the “Problem solved” song from Peg + Cat. We talked about how we haven’t watched that show in quite awhile. He said “Well it’s good we have that stuck in our head.” Did some iPad art and watched some Sarah and Duck. He ate pretty much all the food we had left for him: apple, peanut butter sandwich, etc. I had Carly drive 444 home so I could use the iNakba app and point out the remains of the Palestinian villages along the way.

We were home by 6:30. Played with some Duplos, then he wanted to find mama. Found her outside. He was then getting sleepy and he joked “I need some coffee.” He then climbed behind a pillow and said “I’ll just go in here one second…I’m not sleepy; I’m wide awake.” He ate stir fry for dinner. And he asked “What’s humanity mean?” Another one I’m not sure where he heard it. We tried to Skype with my parents, but they had chipmunk voices in the first call. When we hung up it gave me the stars for feedback and I accidentally touched the 1 star instead of letting him do it. We tried again, but he just wanted me to hang up. Carly took him up stairs and he went straight to sleep in just his clothes, about 7:50.

At some point during the day he gave a good “Oh, Opa” after Chuck had said a joke.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre:

Western Wall:

Temple Mount:

He slept all the way until around a quarter to 8. He stayed with me for a few minute while Carly got ready. They went downstairs and I was slower – I had the worst night of sleep I’ve had since before the trip as I was bothered by mosquitoes much of the night. When I came down he was eating oatmeal and mango and proceeded to eat the whole bowl.

Went outside with Carly, then he ate egg and potatoes that Chuck had made. He and Carly were making the Maze of Doom out of Duplos. I took a shower, then gave him a bath and washed his hair. He was actually sitting down in the bath and playing today. He let me wash his hair that way for awhile, but then he was done. He is mainly upset about it being wet, and he liked the idea of a hair dryer. So Carly got the hair dryer and used it on him and he liked that. For his clothes we put on the green camel shirt that Cherie got him at Petra.

Back downstairs we started playing with Duplos. He said “Speaking of mama, let’s go find mama.” When I said something about not bothering her he said “But Mama’s very important.” We built more Maze of Doom. Thawed frozen mango for him. He ate a bowl, then had seconds. Someone said “You really love that mango.” He responded “What about other things I like? Like treats and pink?”

Cherie and Chuck and August and I went for a walk and Carly stayed home to work. We went up to the Snakes and Ladders playground. He and I went on the spinning thing, then he wanted to do some Drops in Hebrew. He then went and tickled Cherie and wanted to play store with her. First it was an ice cream store, then a burger store. He then had a crazy everything store. He sold her one of everything and had a million arms to deliver it to me.

They ended up in the jeep thing – the one he and I use to drive around the world. For them it somehow turned into a fighter plane and they were fighting bad people: “south America” “There’s a lot of bad people in Iceland”. Finally, he insisted I take him through one round of Snakes and Ladders before we leave.

Did that, then walked up to the grocery store. That went fine except he was upset about not getting to put the wine in the bags. He was then grumpy about the post office, complaining there is nothing fun to do there. He was surprised though when I just took a few seconds.

We walked the back roads home, getting here at 2:20. He saw Carly and joked “There’s another person in our house.” I came down from upstairs and was sitting at the table. August was watching Cherie cut vegetables and said “Dada! Dada!” When I asked what he wanted he said “Nothing”. Then “I wanted to confuse you.” He and Cherie did the pretend bath thing: “Let’s practice sitting down in a bath tub…for pretend with water in it.”

I went upstairs to rest for a bit, then I came down and Carly, August, and I went to do recycling. Took some convincing. He only wanted to do the glass, and at first suggested that I should go up and do everything else on my own, then come back and take him to do the glass. Eventually we all went at the same time and he helped with the cardboard and plastic as well.

He and I then read some more of The 52-Story Treehouse. He was then pretending to take a bubble bath: “The cosmos is full of bubbles!” He destroyed the Duplo maze, chanting “Destroy the Maze of Doom! Destroy the Maze of Doom!” He and I then read to chapter 11 of The 52-Story Treehouse. We were being silly and ignoring Carly, joking that “She’s still at recycling.” Cherie had made stir fry and we all ate outside, then Cherie had gone upstairs. August wanted to wake her up, so he started knocking on the chalkboard and chairs. He got two knocks with a Duplo on the floor. A few seconds later I got a complaint from the neighbor. Seriously less than 8 knocks total, and only 2 on the ground. Sigh.

Anyway, Cherie came down and August did a pretend bath and he had polka dot pink goggles. They went upstairs for awhile, then they came back down and Carly made a bunch of popcorn and he ate popcorn with Chuck and Cherie. He had a lot of fun wrestling with Chuck over the popcorn. Until August got rather violent: “I’ll take away your heart!”

He and I finished reading The 52-Story Treehouse, then I took him upstairs. He saw Carly with wet hair from her shower and he told her “You should try a hairdryer sometime.” We got him ready and I left them after 8:20. He wasn’t going to sleep, and we switched at 9. I just lay next to him and sang a few songs. He kept kicking his foot against the bed but didn’t say a word. He went from still kicking the bed one second to snoring the next at 9:15.

He started waking up at 6:30 we were up at 6:45. We heard Chuck and Cherie up and I told him he should go yell “Happy birthday!” Instead, he decided he wanted to be a mouse and went and scratched on their door. We all packed up and cleaned up the place. He went outside and was an archeologist with Carly outside. They left a little museum of garbage out on a tile. We packed up and took showers and got ready to go. Carly took him down to the playground and he played on the exercise equipment before we left. He showed me his garbage museum and we left at 8:40.

We drove through town but nothing was open. We went up to the visitor center and walked up to the cafe there. It was open, and we ordered two of their big breakfasts: one with an omelette and one with shakshuka. August and I went over a couple times to see the climbers setting up at the top of the cliffs. He seemed to already kind of know how it worked (the ropes and being tied on), and when we went back he told Carly all about it, including new information. He ended with “So it’s actually safe!” But then added “Only dada can’t go down any cliffs.”

Breakfast was good. And it included some matzah. The shakshuka was a lot better than the hostel one. August’s favorite part was the chocolate spread for the bread.

We left breakfast before 10 and drove over to the sculpture park. August was being grumpy as he had wanted a treat in the car but he had just had the chocolate toast. And he was complaining about not having a winter. So he wasn’t too excited by the sculpture park and said he didn’t like the one with swings. It was an interested spot for a sculpture park, right on the edge of the crater cliff. But kind of big, basic monolithic sort of sculptures. Wouldn’t rank it too high on my sculpture park list.

Left there at 10:40. He was still grumpy over treats but got into doing some shaky art. And he definitely cheered up when Cherie started giving him bits of cookies. He was hiding it from me. When I said he smelled like cookie he laughed and said “Someone gave me cookie-flavored tic tacs to make my breath smell like cookies.”

We stopped at a crazy busy Pas gas station. It was on the southbound side so we had to turn around to get to it. That also meant that all of the vacationer traffic heading south was using it. Rather a zoo. I filled up the car while Carly took him to the bathroom. We left before 12 and Cherie decided we should head home instead of Jerusalem.

He wanted to learn how to change the time on her watch. She started by telling him she’d tell him when he was 15 or something. She then knocked off a couple years. He said “The limit to how long I can wait is one hour.” When we went around curves he would hold his arms out to hold up me and Cherie, even though we were assuring him we weren’t squishing him like yesterday. He said “This is the problem with having Oma and opa around.”

We read the Cars book along the way and were home at 2:10. When he was in the bathroom he had a bee scare. he screamed and told me a bee had flown in. I didn’t actually see it, so didn’t entirely believe him. But back out in the living room he spotted it by the sliding windows. I started to try to get it out and he got really scared and I told him to go over to Opa and he ran over to Chuck on the couch. I got the bee out. When I went upstairs, telling him I was doing so, he came with me saying “don’t ever leave without me.”

I made him a peanut butter and honey sandwich, his first in a week, and he was excited: excited “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” “This bread that I’m eating is pretty good.” We were talking about it being Cherie’s birthday and what she wanted to do with it, and he said “What do you mean? I have control of your birthday?” She asked what he was going to do with it and he said “Mess it up.”

Carly went to get food at Younes and to water her plants at school. August and I were lying on the floor together. He said “I like everything…even war.”  When I asked why he said “Because the bad people are destroyed.” We then talked about how that isn’t often the case. He took me and Cherie upstairs to “explore” for Opa. Chuck had gotten his phone working with the Israeli card.

August and I ended up playing with the magnetic drawing board. I was writing words for him to read and he said “When you’re done with that word, spell ‘Wikipedia’.” We then talked about different kinds of encyclopedias and he asked how you could edit Wikipedia. I looked at the page for Even Yehuda and found a typo on it. It said “one the south” when it meant “on the south”. So I had him make his first Wikipedia edit to fix the typo.

Carly got home and he was so excited; “Mama! Mama! Mama!” We had an early dinner outside. I cut up some strawberries. He ate the meat when Cherie told him not to. Cherie said something about colorful foods being healthy and I joked about skittles. He said “Speaking of Skittles, we should have Skittles sometimes.”

They worked outside (August helped Chuck pick up the tree things) and August and Carly ended up sitting in the swing and talking. Chuck walked over to the store to get eggs and I was inside, typing.

August came in and was hungry. Chuck had just gotten back and had apples. I suggested apples and peanut butter. He was upset at first as he wanted Cheerios. He said “Together!? That doesn’t sound good!” But just a few seconds later he was telling Carly that he was going to have Apple and peanut butter. We went down and sliced an apple and he ate about 3/4 of it with peanut butter.

Carly started to vacuum so we fled upstairs. He wanted to find Oma and opa and said “Where is everybody?”

We came back down and read the first four chapters of The 52-Story Treehouse while Carly took a shower. He was getting sleepy, so we headed upstairs and got ready for bed. I left them at 7:55 and he was asleep right away.

We woke him up at 8. He had slipped off the bed and was cuddled against the edge of the bed. Carly called him cute, then he was standing in his pajamas, looking in the mirror, and made a cute face and said “I’m cute!” In the bathroom, as he sat on the toilet, I started the shower on low so it wouldn’t leak. He asked “Are you peeing in the shower?” When I helped him wash his hands he said “You’re getting my pajamas wet. Now I’m not so cute.”

They went up to breakfast to get coffee and chocolate cereal. I took a shower then headed up. He wondered why opa liked toast and told him he should have protein. Lots of discussion of what foods have protein and other nutritional value. He was excited when he cut his own egg with a butter knife. He was slow but ate a good breakfast.

Back to room at 9:10. We discussed what we were doing today. When I talked about getting back to the car he said “Investigate those holes in the car” He meant the speakers. On the drive into Jordan or up to Petra he had noticed the speaker grills on the door. We then realized we don’t know where the speakers are in our car. As we packed up, he played a lot of the AC remote game – wanting me to push buttons on the tv remote and hiding the AC remote. I put my hat on him, calling it a “Hatty attacky”

We headed down to lobby and he went outside with Carly. He told me “We’re playing follow the leader.” They were hopping around on the squares. He went up the stairs where the lights got farther apart from each other and was almost doing the splits. The van arrived right at 10 to pick us up. I sat in the back with August. As we drove out of town we said “Goodbye Candles Hotel” “Goodbye Wadi Musa” “Goodbye Petra”. He started singing “Stop and look before you cross the street”. He was then a happy boy as he ate one of Carly’s granola bars and hummed. He randomly asked “Why do I like the word ‘highway’?” “What if I get bored of it?”

Some difficulty when he decided to start putting crumbs in the speaker vents and didn’t want to stop when I told him to. We had fun doing art on the iPad though. the van was shaking so much that it was impossible to make a straight line, so we invented what we call “Shaky art”. Did a good amount of that, then we played a little Scratch Jr. with PBS characters, then he watched Sarah and Duck.

We stopped in Aqaba to pick up the guide, then went to the crossing. Went predictably slow but smoothly. He looked at the straps on the backpack and asked “You know what mochatrons do? They make things easier.” He saw Chuck carrying a few bags and asked “Why is opa so strong?” Stopped as we cross the actual line between the countries and took a photo of August standing on it. Our car was covered in dust from the storm and someone had written “I am Mosh” in Hebrew on the hood.

We got going and drove down into Eilat. Parked and I put our backpacks down in the car while they walked ahead and chose to eat at the Ginger Asian restaurant. we got a noodle dish, gyoza, and egg rolls to share.

We then walked down to the water at the Um Rush Rush park/historical site. August and Carly had fun being archeologists, then August had powers that let him crush concrete and steel. Walked back to the car and got driving to Mitzpe Ramon. August had some problems with the Apple Pencil, so did art with his fingers at first. He and Cherie then did a good amount of art together and they pretended to be Sarah and Duck. He watched an episode and ate some crackers. He dropped a piece of cracker in his shirt and called to Carly “Mama! There’s a piece of cracker in here and IT’S TICKLISH!” I finally figured out his mystery song that he’s been humming: “40 Years in the Wilderness” by Bruce Cockburn.

We got to Mitzpe Ramon and got settled in at our AirBnB place. He was hyper and happy with the house. Chuck and Cherie went for a walk. We tried to catch up to them so we walked to the gas station but couldn’t find them. We went to the playground and he had fun smashing a grape on the ground. I went and got the sand toys from the car. Carly went for a walk to the lookouts into the crater/canyon and he and I played with sand. He was a bit sad that two of the cups were stuck together and we couldn’t get them apart. He was building things and said “Maybe I should make a tower out of it, then I won’t see it.” Carly came back and I went for a walk. Wasn’t quite sure where I was going though and it seemed too far, so turned around. Found a really nice metal fence though. He was building a castle of rocks when I got back and said it was to “protect people like during a war”. A guy was working out at the exercise equipment nearby and had music playing. August suddenly broke out dancing.

Carly headed back to the house. We stopped at the exercise equipment and he turned the bike one with his hands. He was a generator and I turned things on in a pretend house, including lots of inventions, until it took up too much power and he broke down. We were back at 6:25. We used the leftovers from lunch for dinner and August got really into the game of what would make him stronger, eating them over Cherie’s (fake) objections: “Tofu makes me really, really, really, really, REALLY strong.” He was really persistent in trying to cut broccoli with his fork. He finally got it cut and was really proud of himself. When he was done he told me about all the healthy food he had eaten.

He and I then got a board game from the shelf: Bingo. An easy one to play in Hebrew. He didn’t want it to be a winner game though, so we had three boards out together and played to see which would get a bingo first. Chuck and Cherie went out for a walk. We played and it took quite awhile, but t was fun.

Carly and I then gave him a shower. Backed off on washing his hair when he reacted badly to the idea. Afterwards he pretended/acted out taking a bath and sitting down in it, etc. with Cherie. We got the beds ready, turning the two sofa beds into one huge bed for the three of us. There were tons of blankets in the house and he made a big pile on the bed and played in it, calling it “Sheet and pillow land”. He was asleep by 9.

Splits: 

Standing on the border:

Dirty car: 

Heard the call to prayer at 4:56. August rolled around a lot in bed and fell off the bed three times. He woke up kind of startled at 7:30. I came out from taking a shower and he felt my neck and forehead and hair. Carly said he was being a good argheologist. She then told him I could nurse him today. He said he would investigate and came and put his hand down my shirt and said she was wrong.

Breakfast was up on the 4th floor. A decent buffet and August and I peeled a hard boiled egg together and other foods. Chuck had a lot of packing and stuff piled on his plate at the end and August was impressed: “You ate a lot!…Why did you have so much food?” We left the hotel at 9:15, got our tickets at Petra, and were walking with August in the backpack at 9:45.

Petra was amazing – no need to go into details. August and Carly were being archeologists, and he was really interested in the green horse poop. He liked the water system into the city and asked a lot of questions. I carried him in the backpack for awhile, then he walked and we took turns with him. When he was hungry Carly sneaked granola bar to him in the backpack so supposedly I didn’t see it. He that that was really funny. We got to the Treasury and he got out of the backpack. He saw two camels walking, one tied to the other: “They’re connected!” We slowly made our way through the rest of Petra, looking at gift shops and the ruins, through the street of colonnades, to the end where we sat at a picnic table and had our lunch from the hotel and our snacks.

I took photos of Smokey while we were there, then when we got going we walked up the path towards the monastery a little, just to where the steps began. Chuck had joked that he needed a sign saying “No donkey” as we were asked if we needed rides dozens of times. It was fun to see the Bedouin horsemen and musicians and families, but there were way too many people coming up to you and aggressively trying to get you to take a ride. And then the child labor; children selling postcards or leading donkeys, etc. when the brochure clearly said it was illegal.

The Treasury was impressive (and I liked telling August the story of how a pharaoh supposedly hid a treasure in the urn carved at the top – now pocked with bullet holes from people trying to get the treasure), but my favorite spot was the theater. Would have loved it if they had performances of Greco-Roman/etc. plays going on there.

We headed back, stopping briefly to have Carly take photos of August and me in the backamapack, perhaps for the last time, and Vivian’s Minnie Mouse shoes at Petra. We set a faster pace on the way back and stopped at the Why Not Shop shop for a break, a little before 1:30. I bought a fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice and an orange juice and we shared those. While the rest sat and rested I went a little ways up the stair/trail that was right there to get a few down at the valley.

We walked some more, August walking and carrying him, then put him in the backpack at the Treasury. I then carried him the last 2km out through El Siq. At one point I pointed out to August that a couple horses, walking slowly, were faster than me. He said they weren’t faster than him, and he gave me some energy. I then passed them up again. When the horse drawn carriages rattled by, fast, August would warn me that they were coming. We were done right at 3.

We sat in the shade and Cherie did some gift shopping. We got back to the hotel and unwound a bit, then left after 4. We met Chuck and Cherie down in the lobby. August started to run, slipped on the thick rug by the table, and hit his chin on the glass table. Left a little mark on his chin but could have been much worse.

We went to a coffee shop we had spotted just down the hill. He watched some Sarah and duck with his headphones and we read. He was hungry and they weren’t open for food so I went across to the minimart. The guy was from Yemen and helped me with a little arabic. I got a yougurt, dried apricots, and a couple of little seed/nut bars. Went back and August was happy with those. He read the Critters Fall Festival book with Cherie. She’s great with the reading strategies: asking him for predictions, looking at details, etc. They then read Lulu the Witch and read part of Pablo and His Chair. A boy came and gave him a cookie thing before we left. Carly took him to the bathroom and we left at 5:40.

Chuck and Cherie went back to the hotel and the three of us went for a walk up the hill and onwards up behind our hotel. The wedding procession of cars, which we had seen earlier, after Petra, drove by and their were people calling out to us. When a second car went by with loud music playing August broke out dancing in my arms as I carried him. We also saw a bunch of chicken. Admired the view of the valley from up there then headed back.

Back at the hotel he and I waited downstairs in the lobby and played with the rainbows produced by the sun hitting a crystal bowl. When Carly and then Chuck and Cherie came down he showed them the rainbows. One of them was trying to teach him something about prisms and light and he said “I already knowed that. I just haven’t told anyone yet.”

At 6:30 we went to the Alqantarah Restaurant up the hill, where we had tried to go yesterday. It was a set menu, with salads, then gifta and kofta as main dishes, then the harisa (coconut) dessert. He made inventions out of silverware while we waited. Carly asked “Can I walk across it?” He said “Be careful: there’s no railing.” I then had my fingers fall of and sue him. When August asked what that meant Carly stole my fork. We then had a big court case with Chuck as my lawyer. When August heard we were doing a court case like we had once done in Carly’s classroom he pounded on the table and called “Order in the court!” He remembered that part. We continued the case until the salads came. August was the judge and since he had seen Carly take the court he sentenced her to 3 minutes of jail. Think she only served a few seconds.

Anyway, the food was great. He ate a lot and was getting strong from the chicken. He would then go under the table to grab Cherie’s leg and show her how strong he was. At one point I taught him the phrase ‘I don’t have to prove anything to you’. Then to Chuck he said “I don’t have to prove anything to you…but I’m stringer then rugrats.” He said he was so strong that “I can even hold up gravity.”

We had dessert, then just before 8, as Carly took him to the bathroom, I ran back to the hotel to use the internet to by a ticket to a Posies concert this summer as it went on sale at 8pm. Wasn’t working at first, just getting a generic error message from Ticketmaster, which quickly reminded me that Ticketmaster is one of the worst companies in the world. It turned out I just couldn’t order the ticket from abroad – when I connected to a VPN and it thought I was in the U.S. it worked just fine. But they couldn’t be bothered to tell me why it wasn’t working in the first place.

I read Kipper’s Birthday to him and Carly brushed his hair. Turned off the lights and they nursed. At 8:50 I heard him whisper “Mama, can you tell me a story of when you were a kid?” Sometime after 9 I had him get up on the bed with me. I sang him some songs and he just lay with me for awhile. Finally, he said he wanted to go back to mama. He went back down to her and fell asleep about 9:55.

We started waking up a bit after 6. We got ready and tried to give August a shower and wash his hair but he got really upset so we didn’t really wash it. They played Seuss Band and then the House game while I took a shower. He was excited that he got to play the house game as it was supposed to be a “Backup for the car!” He stood between the beds and pretended his legs disappeared. Cherie left for a few minutes and he said “Oma vanished!” A couple minutes later he was playing on the bed and said “Aagh! Someone in our hotel room!” Referring to Chuck, who had been there the whole time.

We left a little before 8. When we got outside, windy and cool, August said “It smells good out here, right?” We went for a walk to find a place for breakfast, but nothing was open this early. We walked a couple blocks around where we had been yesterday. August spotted a person with dwarfism and totally commented on it, confused. We said hi and the guy was nice about it. We walked around some more and finally found a place called Ce Bon Cafe. A decent breakfast there. Carly and I got their version of the continental breakfast. August liked it as he liked putting together all the little things. He asked Carly “Mama, can you teach me about government? No, countries?” She taught him words like monarchy, anarchy, chaos He said things like “What’s the difference between kings and queens?” “Are kings bad people?” She taught him about democracies and he said “Let’s practice choosing a leader.” “What’s a leader do?” He then wanted to learn about being a teacher of a school and Carly talked about how the principal can decide what the teachers learn. She asked “What do you think the teachers should learn about?” His reply: “I think they should learn about PHOTOSYNTHESIS.” We finished at 9:45.

Bathroom didn’t have a toilet seat but I convinced him to go. Looking at the squares outside on the ground he asked “What’s diagonally mean?” We got walking and went the long way to find the ruins of Ayla at 10:20. Inside Carly taught August about trading and they pretended to lead their camels to the market and trade things.

Chuck and Cherie headed their own way for awhile and we went over to the mosque. We thought about going in, but it was closed for prayer at the time. August saw ant holes by the wall and tried to feed them/block their holes with leaves.

We got to the hotel after 11. He said there were invisible people in our bathroom – he had a power that made them visible. We then developed the stealing the AC remote game: I was a sloth, hyena, and snake. That game ended when he jumped on my back to squish the snake and when he got off he fell of the edge of the bed. He kept trying to play after that but I was rather done with the game. Chuck and Cherie moved their stuff to our room and went to get sweets from the Pistachio Sweets place.

Carly taught him about archeology and they pretended to be archeologists: “I found pink pottery…this is an ancient measuring cup.” They were digging and finding things and cleaning them off and putting things in a museum. He really liked answering the door whenever Chuck and Cherie knocked and they suggested they find bones. August liked that idea and found a spine. They were then explorers and found an old stone chair: “It’s carved out!” It was really cool and they kept it up for a long time.

We had scheduled our ride for 12:30 but it was running up to an hour late. I had seen a park called Princess Salma Park. We walked down there, passing a dilapidated Mercedes along the way. He and Carly were being archeogists outside. He kept saying “Yeah, garbage.”At the park, 12:45, August played with a teeter totter where the tires were really wearing out. Carly went and rested Andi got him to go around with me for a few minutes, being an underwater adventurer. There was a random set of seashell sculptures. The middle had a big Pearl, which we said was the Arctic Pearl. He named all the shells: “Eaty, snaily, munchy, pokey, clammy…”

He then went back to Carly and did more archeology and had me breaking the artifacts with a hammer.

I carried him back. He hummed a mystery song. He said it was not Wild Kratts. I thought it might be a Neil Young song. We will have to investigate.

We were back at 1:20. We Learned there was no school because of the dust, which had blanketed all the cars and outdoor seating areas at the restaurants.

We got driving and it took longer than I expected. Stopped for gas, then August finished one of Carly’s granola bars. Played a little Crazy Gears. When he opened his water bottle water squirted out due to the change in pressure. He got upset because his shorts and seat were a bit wet. Carly got out his blue coat and I put it under him and he was okay. We drove through a dust storm and ate some chips. We were leaning against each other and watched some Sarah and Duck. There was a wind farm and when I sat up to look at it he wanted to lean against each other again. We made another stop at the Petra View Giftshop and finally rolled in at the Candles Hotel at 4. At the giftshop they had cool chess sets I’m tempted to get for teaching August chess. Cherie got chocolate-covered nuts and shared some with me and August as we got back in the car.

August and I inspected the lobby. We saw a couple of game boards and I said maybe we’d have time later. He said “I have a time machine that makes time for things.” Turned out they only had backgammon pieces in them. Cherie talked to a couple from India. August fund that a bit boring so we went to the other end. There was a big fish tank but no fish. He said a funny “Fishy, fishy” several times trying to draw them out of hiding. Inspected other interesting stuff in the lobby, then we headed up to the room.

A small one here, but it will be fine. He was being whiney and Carly asked if he was tired or stressed out. He said “stressed out”. He relaxed, then was being a spark as we got going: “I’m a spark; so be careful.”

We all went walking looking for a restaurant. Like this morning when we couldn’t find anything open, we now couldn’t find anything open yet for dinner. We went up the hill, then came back down. Found a place called Oriental Petra and ended up with a great meal. I had another Turkish coffee and we shared a couple kinds of sambusak, musakhan, Nabataean sawani, tabboulah, Greek salad, and hummus. There was then a coconut cake thing for dessert. August started slow but ended up eating a lot. Impressive after eating a bunch of snacks in the car.

August was being loud in the restaurant though. Just so excited. He was making inventions with the silverware, then when someone’s phone was ringing he called out “Your phone!” When they brought out dessert he banged silverware on the table and said “listen to that loud noise”. Finally, we somehow got on the subject of broken fingers and Cherie told him how she had broken two of her fingers playing softball.

We walked down the street and looked a gift shop. I wondered if we should take him back to the hotel or keep him outside with all his energy. He said “Let’s keep this energy outside.” There was a benchy area and he ran around and was a rugrat with Chuck. We went down to the entrance of Petra and he liked the huge TV screen with commercials.

We stopped at a corner store for some snacks and he wanted to carry the basket. Just not with the heavy water in it. We carefully touched objects in the gift shop. On the wall back the steep hill he had a machine to help: “It only gives energy to people in your family.” Got to the hotel at 7:10.

In the bathroom he asked “Why is it when you move a curtain on a table fast, the plates won’t fall down?” He was asleep at 7:45.

Driving throug
h a dust storm: 

A rugrat: 

Rugrat running around: 

He was up 7:10. We packed and got ready to go. He was happy here that he could climb up on the platform next to the sink and wash his hands from there. We talked about our plans and I said we were going to Jordan. He responded “Did you say fly to Jordan? Our car isn’t used to flying?…How? You think our car can drive underwater?” We loaded the car and said goodbye to the room. Had another full breakfast. People spotted some small ibex or something right out the windows. We stopped at reception to use the bathroom and were on the road a little before 9.

Stopped for gas about 45 minutes later at a Paz Yellow. An odd place to hear “To Be with You” playing on the speakers. I got a couple mango uncles for us and we left before 10:30. August and I drank one and saw a lot of acacia trees, rocks, and wadis out the windows. I read about 9 chapters of Paddle to the Sea to him then he played Seuss Band with Cherie. We passed signs to a sculpture park along the way and I marked it for the next time we come that way. Also saw a couple ostriches inside a fenced area. Cherie had a cracker mix that had spicy crackers in it. August kept eating all the different kinds of crackers, asking if they were spicy too even as he kept eating them. He watched one Sarah and Duck, then we parked at the crossing at noon.

We rearranged things and left the car and walked to the crossing. August got upset when we had him walk and Carly had to pick him up. His one moment of nervousness. He then did really well as we made our way through. Very few other people, so it went pretty easy. At one point we sat on a bench for a few minutes and admired a mosaic. He asked what a border is and we talked about natural and political borders. He was then making borders on the ground dividing one country from another.

On the Jordanian side our guide met us and passed us through the rest. We had two cars and August and I sat in the back of one with Carly in front. Our driver was Rebecca. She is from Italy and recently moved to Jordan. We got to the hotel, Hotel Jardanah at 1:30. Well, 12:30, as we found out that Jordan doesn’t move to daylight saving time for a couple days. As we waited in the lobby he told me how he didn’t have the bottle cap anymore. He had been playing with a bottle cap as we arranged our car – it had been some sort of spinning machine or something – and I had thought he had picked it up on the ground. He then dropped it when Carly picked him up. I didn’t pick it up as my hands were all full. He now excitedly told me that it had been the mango bottle cap and that he had littered; “My first time littering!”

We have a big room here at the hotel. August had fun jumping on the bed and played with the remote. It was too loud and he said “We need to control that puppy!”

After awhile we all headed out to the south and west for a walk. Ended up at a place called Memories Castle for lunch. While we waited for the food, Carly took him to the bathroom and they had a hypothetical discussion around the question “Could we send someone to the sun right now?” I walked up the block at one point to look around. We got our drinks; August had the best mango drink we’ve had and I had a Turkish coffee. Again, very good. Food finally came. Carly had ordered a couple of the salads and hummus and I got the traditional meal of Jordan. Chuck got the fish and Cherie a chicken and lemon dish and we all shared around.

We left there at 3:10. Went to the Mina Bazaar shop across the street. A guy that worked there was sort of chasing August when August wasn’t responding. I picked August up and he was actually having fun. He wanted to instead chase the guy, but Chuck had by then started talking to him. We looked around a little more and August was blasting things and the guy, then with Carly headed back to the hotel.

We were back to the hotel at 3:30. He had the power to take away abilities. When I threatened to sleep in the bed by the key so I could simply pull it out when I was too cold, he took away my ability to control the AC.

Chuck and Cherie were back and we left before 4. We walked down towards the shore. We stoped by a fountain for a couple minutes while Cherie and Carly went into a gift shop run by a feminist organization. We then continued on. The sidewalk had accent bricks making shapes that sort of looked like Tetris pieces and August was jumping on them, playing Tetris.

Down at the beach we found a spot and stayed there for the next hour and a half. A busy beach with dozens of boats picking up people and taking them out for short rides. August at first didn’t like the rocky sand but then kept playing and playing with it. He also liked the garbage, and was playing with that. He and Carly had a bit of a game called Rock or Garbage? I waded in the Red Sea a few times (we figured out the gulf was called two different things depending on which language you use). A girl, 6 or 7, came over and talked to us a little. August wasn’t too interested though. He said he was “too busy”. He made power pouring sand, and they made a blob monster. A couple of college students came and did a video of me and August making fools of ourselves (well, me) trying to repeat Arabic words they said.

Finally, we gave him five minutes more of playing time. It was getting dark soon. We got ready to go and I asked if he wanted to touch the water before we left. He agreed and we waded in the water a little. Kind of a mistake as he now wanted to play in the water. He played for a few minutes, making his feet wet, then dry, and dropping sand in the water.

On the walk back we heard the call to prayer and Carly taught him about praying. He asked questions about praying and god. Carly was nice enough to let us stop at Pistachio Sweets and August and I chose two things. We got those and took them back to the hotel. As I carried him he showed us how he was working on blowing his nose.

We got back at 6:15. He really liked the idea of sharing the treats with Oma and Opa so we went to their room and shared them. He was getting crazy on their bed though so we eventually headed to our room. The lamps were hardwired into the wall, so to move the beds together I took the lampshade off of one. A new toy for him that entertained him for a long time. After awhile he asked “Dada, can I wear this as a hat or not?” He did that, and we played a lampshade game where I tried to push the dangling things under it and he pushed them out. On the floor he spun around and asked “Are you amazed by me spinning around on one foot?”

Finally, we were on the bed and talking about how fun travelling was. I was asking him how much he wanted to travel places and he had a yes meter where he lifted his legs up to show how much he wanted to travel places. Basically, he really wants to go to every country.

He was asleep at 7:45.

Up a little after 7. He had a good night of sleep. We went down for breakfast at 8. Cherie tried to show him how to close his lips around his spoon. He said “I was doing it my way…yucky.” He ate a lot: eggs, baby corn, tuna, fish, sponge cake, and frittata with me, then chocolate cake and a lot of cereal with Carly.

We stopped at reception to get the park passes and use the bathroom, then headed out just after 9. On the drive he said to Cherie “I don’t think you forget-ed the aphids…you know, the things that taste like tic tacs…Altoids.”

At Masada we went to the gift shop first. I managed to find the little foldout guides to mammals and trees and shrubs in English. As we waited in line for the cable car he was humming Endendino and told us “I’m not getting any attention.” Got him a spot standing looking out the back of the cable car on the way up.

Up at the top the rest of them headed to the north and I went on my own down to the southern tip, which August and I had not gotten to last time. Saw an interesting black bird watching over its nest, I think. On my way back north along the west wall Carly called saying August wanted his sunglasses. So I hurried to the north and found them sitting on benches in the shade at the north lookout area. We sat there for several minutes, listening to the tour guides, which was quite interesting.

On the way down we looked out the back again. We looked around at the Avaya store and saw their Bible verse on the wall. I took him to the bathroom then we got driving before 12. Cherie read a chapter of the Magic Treehouse book.

We got to Ein Bokek and parked in the public parking. We got walking and August remembered the beach toys. I went back and got them and payed for parking while they got changed. I got changed and we set up out spot under a shade cover. I played in the sand with August for awhile and we played a game of me making cup castles as fast as possible and him destroying them. We then buried his legs and feet.

Carly and I then went down and floated together and Cherie played with August, burying his legs and him breaking out. Apparently he was saying “Holy mackerel!” a lot. We had a nice float. Longer than I floated last time. Cooler and more refreshing, although the hot water last time made the experience even more surreal.

August agreed to go down to the water but when I got him down there he wouldn’t even let me put his feet in. I set him on the shore and he ran back up to camp. But he really liked playing in the sand – it was perfect building sand – and he liked the Israeli pop music the group of teenagers next to us had playing. He did not like the shower part at all.

We went over to the Hordus Pizza place and sat outside. Chuck and Cherie got us a couple pieces. During lunch he said “When you eat food and your body throws it up is it because the food is icky?” And “Can I be a baby that throws up if it eats cashews?” He ate two and a half slices of pizza. We talked about going to the stream we had gone to last time and he asked “The stream where we did the storytelling rock?”

We left at 2:15 and made the short drive over to the stream. We walked up under the bridge and were at first shocked to find the stream gone. Luckily, we walked a little further and found the stream. A little less water, and it disappeared into the gravel. We walked up and found a spot to play in. August picked up a storytelling rock as we walked. He was hesitant to walk in the stream at first: “Another problem is there is rocks in my shoes.” We picked a spot and got out the picnic mat and did he storytelling rock and ignoring rock routine. Carly then started building a dam in the stream and that became his big project. I walked farther up the stream by myself and went farther than we had last time, up to where I think Carly went with her students. Some teenagers asked me to take their photo for them, and there was another group up there with their empty guns. People were still walking further up the stream, but it got narrow.

I went back to the spot where everyone else was. August took off his clothes and had naked time in the stream as they worked on the dam.

Eventually we got going and drove back to the hostel, getting there at 4:20. We were playing on the bed and he made up  a pink world where everything is rocks but there is no gravity. Carly went and took a shower, then I took one. He watched a Sarah and Duck, then Carly gave him a shower. He dreaded it but then had fun in there. He came and cuddled with me and said he was “Snug as a bug in a mudg in a judg”. He had fun loudly trying to squish a water bottle, then we all headed out for dinner, back to the same place as yesterday.

Still good, but a little disappointing all around. Carly’s salad was wilted. We got the ravioli with the mushroom alfredo sauce to share between the three of us but it was a smaller serving. I got a strawberry milkshake. August liked it, but it was closer to a strawberry milk. Cherie tried to tell him a story about Carly as a girl, but August dismissed the idea: “When mama was a girl? That’s just a nighttime thing that mama does.”

After dinner, as they paid, I walked around with August. We looked at a couple plants and ended up in a smoocharoo contest. Think he was leading 8 to 7.

The others were ready and we all walked up the hill, looking at the plants. He asked about guerrilla art again. He had gotten a citrus candy from Cherie and told her about crunching it at the end. People went into the hotel to use the bathroom and August and I sat on a bench and had some water. He wanted me to invent a generator. I came up with a flower smelling power generator. People smelled flowers and their sniffing turned the generator. August liked that and we acted it out. Carly took him to the bathroom, then as we were walking he asked

“What’s holy mackerel mean?”

We got driving at 7:20.” More talk of flubber with Cherie and drooping skin: “I don’t want to have flubber; people will tickle it…why is there more gravity when you’re older?”

At the hostel he asked “Does gravity pull down light?” So we talked about how gravity affects light. I put his pajamas on over his shirt. He said “That’s unusual!” We played a little Seuss Band. We then read Hunches in Bunches. He laughed a lot, then was ready to nurse. It took awhile, but not too bad. He was asleep at 8:25.