This Is Our Blog

He was up around 7:30. Got in a short Skype with my parents and discussed a little planning for their trip in the fall, then got started on our busy morning of packing. I had put the cargo holder bag on top of the car, then when I saw Carly going out to it I ran out to tell her something. August noticed we were both leaving and ran out after us. A bit later we both went upstairs and he came up too and asked “Why do you keep sneaking off?” Chuck made potatoes and eggs and August and I had some before we left.

We drove off at 10:15. He had been asking about the lollipop every day since getting it, so had some right after we left. Then saved some for later. We read the Cars book, then he ate some grapes. Ate the rest of the lollipop around the airport.

First stop was Lifta. We almost stopped at the hill as it was steep. But we decided to keep going. He held our hands and walked most of the way down and through the village. I carried him most of the way back up. In the village he liked the abandoned buildings and kept asking to be taught about the Palestinians and why they were forced out of their homes. He was also concerned about the kids swimming in the spring since we didn’t know how deep it was.

We got driving at 1. He ate a ton of pickles and claimed “I like pickles more than anything in the whole universe.” Even more than treats.

We made it to Tent of Nations, the Palestinian farm that Carly had gone to with Sabeel (they had also gone to Lifta). We were there just before 2. We waked up and one of the Brothers showed us around. August said “This farm is kinda weird.” because we didn’t see lines of crops. We looked at some of the farm equipment, an old karob tree, and one of the caves. When Daod was done with a group of Germans he then talked to me and Chuck and Cherie in the big cave while Carly took August outside.

After that we spotted a big lizard. August then spotted a little one. August and I talked about the rain collection system, the solar panels, and how the water is gravity fed down to the taps in the bathrooms.

On the way out Cherie spotted another beetle. August and I also talked about the terracing (natural and man-made) and the settlements.

We left after 3. He joked around with Cherie a lot and played with her arm: Oma’s arms are like dough…it’s cute, unbelievable…whoa…shakey, shakey…” I was helping navigate us through Jerusalem. Eventually I got the iPad out and he played the House game, then watched a couple of Sarah and Ducks. He then started playing I Spy right before we got to the Ein Gedi Hostel.

As we got in a bus pulled in behind us. Carly and Chuck headed up to check-in. It was a Korean Christian student group. As I carried August up he got a lot of looks and still some “Agee!” Made us homesick for Korea.

We checked in, then figured out the restaurant was to the south. I drove now and we went to the village of Ein Gedi. The hotel restaurant buffet was expensive and too much food. They directed us down to the place by reception. On the walk down we saw the view of the wadi and their was an ibex sitting on a rock. And we saw the big ficus and baobab trees. Got down to the coffee shop area where August and I had gotten a frozen drink last time. Sat out on the deck and had a great meal. August and I got sweet potato raviolis and shared them. I had a cappuccino. We shared some of Chucks pizza as well. August had skipped the pita sandwiches that Carly had made for lunch so he made up for it by eating a ton at dinner.

He was. Ring thoughtful at dinner. Asked me “What’s the name for recycling food?…Why aren’t there composts places everywhere?” Then out of nowhere:  “I know you say there’s an infinite amount to learn, by how can there be an infinite amount to learn when there’s not an infinite amount of anything?” Cherie complimented us on our parenting and I asked him how we were doing. He gave a flat “Not so good.”

He and I went in the giftshop while they paid. He had spotted squishy light up toys.

Got back to the hostel at 7:45. He said “Good thing there’s no drain flies.” While washing his hands as there was no plug. We put all three beds together. H had an opinion on which one to sleep on. Carly disagreed. I asked how much fun he had had. He rated himself instead: “I did a great job today, so I get a ten.” I asked “How did mama and Dada do?” “On a scale of one to ten…Two.”

Brushed his teeth and he was asleep at 8:20. I read a good amount of The Way to the Spring after that.

He was up about 7:15. When I came down he was playing with the Legos and magnet set on his own. Cherie said he had been humming and digging through the box on his own. He had also had some oatmeal. He asked me why his Lego crane was falling over and then about counterweights, so we built a crane out of Duplos and experimented with it. Cherie did some yoga with him. They joked around with Oma hairs, then I realized the plant was the same height as him or taller. He stood on his tippy toes and claimed he was still taller.

We played with the microscope and looked at our fingers and his bowl and leaves. We then went out and looked at the progress of the watering system, which Carly was working on. He told me “Look at this calculation screen…I can type in a name…” He could give himself a new name, like Bar, but we would still call him Zinnie. We read the Thump, Quack, Moo book, then he ate some of the potatoes and eggs that Chuck had made. He went upstairs together and he asked about the edge of the universe. When I said we couldn’t actually travel to the edge, his rockets of course could and he was blasting through the edge of the universe and into Hilo’s universe. There was a beeping noise from somewhere and he said it meant there was something wrong with the universe I asked “Can it be fixed?” He replied “Well, just me of course.”

It reminded me of the argument he had with Carly a couple days ago about whether the Earth was in space. He argued that in space there wasn’t any gravity, so the Earth wasn’t in space. He kind of won that argument with her.

I took a shower and he waited in the bathroom. He asked how a water filter works, then we were acting out the water molecules making it through a filter and the bacteria not making it. Gave him his bath and washed his hair. He didn’t like it, of course, and had me just hold him for a few minutes downstairs. Once I set him down in his towel he said “I’m gonna wear this all night and all day.”

He had some peanut butter and almond butter with crackers and I had some lunch, then we all got going. We drove up to town and parked at the west end. Walked to Malkin and had lunch there. August with hot chocolate and me with a Turkish coffee. The five of us shared a green shakshuka and a cauliflower dish. Worked out just right.

I took him to the bathroom, then we all walked over to the park by the library. He went on the merry-go-round with Carly, had me and Carly get upsidedownia, played tag with us, and went down the slides and played on the teeter totter with Carly. Of the teeter totter, which was really bouncy on the tire, he said “I like wearing out things.”

We walked back to the grocery store in the basement of the mall and got snacks for our trip. I was going to walk August home with Chuck, but August didn’t want to separate from Carly. So she took him in the car and Chuck and I walked. Home about 3:40.

August and I tried the candied fruit we had bought then did art together on the iPad. Did some dot connecting pieces (where I make dots and he connects them) and a mosaic that we did together. We then watched part of the Australian Grand Prix together. He went upstairs with Carly for awhile, then we did more iPad art. He heard a noise upstairs and wanted to investigate. It was Cherie’s hairdryer.

I went out and tried the cargo carrier on top of the car. They had made potatoes and broccoli for dinner. We all ate outside. Cherie joked about taking August to the United States with them in their luggage. He liked the idea of going to the U.S. with them but insisted he would sit in his own seat. He got sad when we said we would actually do that but it would be a few months.

After dinner I went up to do some work. He had peanut butter crackers, read some Zita, and Carly blew up the ball. He came to me close to 8 and Carly took a shower. We went down and he wanted to see the rain cover on the backamapack. He was really interested in it and we talked about how we had used it and the reasons he didn’t like it. He said he didn’t like it because I couldn’t hear him. hadn’t thought of that before, but when we had it on it meant that my orange coat was also on and there was a lot of rain noise, so it probably was hard to hear each other.  A couple times he asked me “Why are you so nice?” For no apparent reason.

We went up and got ready for bed. he talked about his batteries and blasted the house to Hilo’s universe. We had talked about reading up in bed but he was too tired. I left them at 8:20 and he was asleep soon after.

He was up at 7:30. He told me he slept well, then said he thought mama was out watering the plants. He got up on the bed and looked out the window and spotted her outside. He wanted to go down and tell her it was a cloudy day so she should come inside.

He went out with her and eventually they came in and tried to get the microscope working. She went up to do laundry and we got it working. We looked at our skin, the rug, a Cheerio, the aluminum of the computer. He picked up on the word “individual” and used it later in the day.

He spent more time outside with Carly, then came in and showed her and Cherie Toca Elements. I took a shower. When I came down they were figuring out the watering system with Chuck. They went outside with it. Carly would pretty much have it done by the evening.

He came back in and I made him oatmeal with mango and he shared some pita and hummus with me. He went back out for awhile. Progress was being made on the system. Back inside he was making monster noises (because of his cough) on the kitchen floor. I cuddled with him on the floor for a bit then we discussed doing some art on the iPad. I realized everyone was done with showers though so we went up and did his bath. Another bubble town.

He did a kitchen mixing experiment with Cherie and they had a lot of fun. As they watched the dye mixing in the water he said “It’s a crazy, complicated spiderweb, right?” Carly came in and he ate pickles. Then played with Makey Makey and magnets on his own. Carly cleaned out her purse. He found a container with a single Tic Tac and told me “I’m gonna have this mint tic tac. It’s my destiny.”

I got snacks together and we all headed to the car. Carly took out the booster seat and he sat in the middle between me and Cherie. He immediately lamented not having a window, but did okay. We read the Cars book from Dee on the way over. We parked in the middle of the Netanya waterfront and walked south. Kind of a hazy day. He climbed on mushroom statues, then really liked sitting on a statue of an elderly couple sitting on a bench. He said “I know I don’t have short hair, but I can still be cute in some ways, right?” There was an abstract sculpture that he told me to take a photo of. I had him help take a photo of Chuck and Cherie in front of it.

We got to a playground we hadn’t been to and played there for quite awhile. He wanted snack on the net thing because I said we had eaten on one at Children’s Grand Park. Had a snack there and played around, then he, Carly, and I played tag over near the bench that Chuck and Cherie were sitting on.

We headed back about 3:15. He wanted me to take another photo of him on the same statue. We saw a big line of big ants – they’d cut a path through the grass. August wanted to step on them though and I wasn’t happy about that.

We left in the car at 3:25. We stopped at Ace for more tubing for the watering system. We also got a new small pan and a rolling pin. We stopped at the gas station and I got out to help/watch Carly. Thought he would be okay as Cherie was with him. But he must have had flashbacks to that one time as he still got upset.

On the way up to the Younes restaurant he was playing with Cherie’s watch and joking about “inflicting pain” on her. He and I stayed in the car while they went in and got food. We listened to music.

We were home at 4:40. He was playing with the Makey Makey on his own, then humming along to his favorite Decemberists song. He and Carly were getting carrots and going to do Tetris with the Makey Makey when I went up to work.

There was lots of laughter with Cherie. I came down about 7:20. He was eating “too much” broccoli and getting stronger and stronger. While wrestling with Cherie he got scared by something. Calmed down with Carly.

He hung on a bit longer, but then was having trouble not messing up Cherie’s folding of laundry. We took him to bed and after I said goodnight he was asleep quickly, about 8:45.

I woke up around midnight being attacked by mosquitoes. Because August was with me I didn’t have the covers up as far as I usually do. Sleeping with August in the bed was fine, but the mosquitoes weren’t. It was also quite warm. So after awhile I moved him down to the lower bed and was fine for the rest of the night.

He was up at 7:40. Heard him coughing and went up. He had turned off the fan. Took him down to have some water. More coughing. Cherie gave him a new shirt with a piano on it. He said “Now I can play music when I don’t have my piano!” He played a song on the toy piano for her. It was quite a good song, with a nice ending. Cherie asked if it was a made up song and when he said it was she called him a composer. He said “But I still don’t call myself a composer, okay?”

We lost an hour during the night due to daylight saving time. So unfortunate that it was the first day we’ve actually needed to be somewhere in the morning. We got out of the house quickly though and headed to the school for his ‘interview’. Since they already know us it was more of just a trial run.

In the car “Go” was finishing up. He requested it again, loud this time.

Got to school at 8:30.

Ori, a student, greeted him, announcing “August is here!” and gave him a laminated paper leaf and invited him in the forest area. August didn’t want to join the group reading a story. We discussed what ‘free choice’ meant and he chose to play with blocks on the light table. I noticed his voice was starting to sound a little hoarse. He was doing a lot of yawning through the morning and rubbing his eyes and mosquito bites.

A group came from the library. Emmett gave us Corduroy, then when Omri came she showed us what was in her purse: nothing. Candy then came and played at the light table with him. Candy pointed out that her shirt matched Omri’s purse and August pointed out he had pink on his shirt as well. Candy asked his name and gave him a block. They built a tall tower until it fell. Mariam took kids out to feed the birds and she explained the bird restaurant to us.

Preschool has a relaxed start to the day and the last students showed up close to 9. Then it was time for morning meeting. I had told him I would be somewhere in the room while he played. He specifically told me I should be in the forest area. He sat with them for the meeting. They did a couple songs. He came over between them and told me something about “we’re going to plug in the computer now.” Don’t know what he was talking about. They discussed the schedule for the day and explained it to August. They went to wash their hands for snack and he ran over to me to tell me that he got to go with the first group because he had pink on his shirt.

He had two rough moments. He had asked me to come with him while he washed his hands. It got busy in the sink area though so I hung back. I didn’t realize they were also having the kids go to the bathroom. Mariam came and got me a minute later as he was in the stall but wanted me. Snack was amazing. They had fresh broccoli from their garden, white cheese, a graham cracker, and egg salad. He ate a good amount. There’s a boy in his class, Leonard, that looks a lot like Colin and seems to be a bit of a clown. There were 12 kids total today and it sounded like one girl was gone on vacation. Another 2 boys are coming after spring break.

August’s second rough spot was when they were done with snack. They line up and wash their own plates. He first wanted me to wash his plate. I said he could do it. But he didn’t want to get his hands wet. He reluctantly did it, then when she had him flip the plate over water spilled onto his feet. He wasn’t happy about the wet shoes. We dried them out and he calmed down.

The class then went out to the playground. August went out and got a pan and wanted to make a strawberry cake. Anna asked if he had had any of the strawberries from the fields around here and he gave a long explanation of how the strawberries at the store were gross so we get our strawberries from the strawberry stand and they are good there. He made some strawberry cake, then one of the girls found a blue bit of oil pastel on the ground. She gave it to August. He told me about it, then proceeded to get his hands covered. We went inside to wash his hands. He played inside for a bit but was coughing a lot and rubbing his eyes. He said he was sleepy a couple times and agreed it was time to go. We said goodbye to everyone and went outside to say goodbye to Anna. She told the kids to say goodbye to him, then August was giving them a “Bye, bye, bye, bye…” as we left.

As we got home he said his fan predictor said it was time for us to turn on the fan over the couch. We told Cherie about preschool and they did magnet science. She thought experiment #10 wasn’t very good. He said “Well, its still science. And science is cool.” I went up to take a shower and August came with me. I was looking for something and he said “In the Leonardo da Vinci room?” That is apparently the name of our bedroom.

He was wanting a treat and I said he could have a popsicle after I was done: “Nothing’s happening until dada takes a shower.” He said “What do you mean? I’m moving all the time.” During his bath he poured some soap in and made “bubble town” Cherie taught him the word “agitate”.

Downstairs he had the popsicle and I couldn’t remember if it was mango or peach. I told it was ant flavored instead. He told Chuck and Cherie “Dada says it’s ant flavor” “peach ant…it’s an undiscovered ant”.

He wore his nursing mittens while he ate the popsicle. We got walking to the mall with Cherie and Chuck and he finished it as we left. He wanted to keep his mittens on though and wore them all the way to the mall even though the temperature was close to 90.

We looked around the market a bit and parked his bike along a fence as everything was so busy. We all went to Tiv Taam he rode around in the cart. He liked the picture on our Trader Joe’s shopping bag: “I love that picture…it’s a Josh Ritter picture.” I think it reminded him of the style of art on our Josh Ritter poster. We found Chuck and Cherie and paid then headed out. We stopped at the music stand in the mall and the woman showed him a pink ukulele. She was convincing me that a ukulele is the easiest instrument for him to learn chords on… I asked which was his favorite and expected him to say the pink one, but he instead pointed to the one with Plants vs Zombies on it.

We were home by 2:40. Chuck and Cherie went up to rest. August had Mac and… and raspberry tea and pita and hummus. I went upstairs to do laundry and he stayed downstairs playing with his Legos. That doesn’t happen very often. We discovered there was an extra chain piece in our Lego set. August sat playing with them and sang a “Two chainies” song.

I offered to pick Carly up as it was hot and she was tired. She agreed so August and I headed to get her. He saw the seed pods from the art museum in the bike and asked “When’s the cone tree gonna be in season?” And he spotted the black cat sitting in our yard under the swing.

We picked up Carly, then on the way home spotted the pair of laughing doves, likely the same couple I saw by our window earlier, doing their dove dance together on the side of the street.

At home, August helped water plants out the windows. He then played with Legos on his own. I read and Carly finished watering plants outside. He and I then finished reading Hilo 1. Carly came in and they nursed, then I made a strawberry and mango smoothie and we had that. At the mall we had also gotten almond butter at the health food store and August wanted to try it. We liked that. He then went upstairs with Carly to do some “Exploring!” He called me up for questions about the tooth brush. Told him it was Chuck or Cherie’s so he should ask them. He later went up with Chuck and Cherie. Came back down wi
th his other pair of new pajamas, with a moon and space stuff on them: “They’re amazing!…I love them.”

Cherie said that was all of the presents except for the ball that was still upstairs. He went up with her to get it. She told him to be careful: “I already knowed that! I have that information in me already. I just haven’t told you.” It is a big blow up ball that lights up when you bounce it. He called me up and Cherie was closing the shades in the small room. Played with it up there for awhile then took it downstairs.

He then helped Cherie open the bottle of wine, doing most of the turning. The two of them then went out and she was teaching him about the parts of flowers and how pollination works. Carly went out as well.

He was getting sleepy so we took him up. He helped me and Carly try to get all the mosquitoes in the room. There was one stubborn one that we gave up on, but I think I got it later after he went to sleep. He was asleep about 7:30.

They arrived at 5:04. August woke up before 6 and Carly got him back to sleep. He was then back up at 7. A little shy to see Cherie, but warmed up quickly. She gave him ‘Zinnie sleep mode’ pajamas, then he made her food from his kitchen. Cherie mentioned needing to learn his words and he taught her words: “picture…mug…light table, spring”. He then covered her with pillows. Carly headed to work and he played a song for Cherie. He made it up and called it “Abstracto”. He explained how the piano works “They pivot on those points…”

We did the rhythm game and he explained the internet routers and the AC remote to her. He had her play the rhythm game with him, then drew an “On Beyond Zebra” letter for her “I use it to spell Smudgamufudge”. Which meant pillow. Then it was off to playing dominoes with her. He told her about his powers “claw power…killing power…but I just kill bad stuff that isn’t humans…” “There’s no button that makes information come out; just a button that makes the information to IN…There’s a magic thing about my computer: it never gets full.”

He paused and ate some strawberries and Cheerios for breakfast. He turned into a drain fly when he had a slightly green strawberry.

He talked forces with Cherie and they used Peter Rabbit to experience centrifugal force. He got out the Magnet Science box and she read the instructions for the experiment that is also a game. he said “No winners. I make everything no winners. Just for fun.”

Cherie headed up to bed. He did some Musyc and GarageBand, then watched one Magic Schoolbus episode, about a bakery. We then headed out to do recycling. He peed at 10 for the first time this morning. We walked up and did recycling, which took awhile, especially as we had to walk back to the house when we realized the water bottle had fallen out of the back of the bike when it had tipped over, then went in the park and exercised in the exercise area. He was a spider monkey climbing on the equipment and also just exercised. He was doing pushups using a bench. He had me take a couple of making mama nervous photos and said “I love these making mama nervous photos.”

We were home at 10:45. He started banging on things in the house so I had him do that outside and told him we could make music out of the sounds. We did a bunch of samples in GarageBand, recording things like ‘grass scrape’ and ‘teeter totter’ and several others. He then made a song and called it “Monster music”.

Inside he wanted some frozen mango. He ate that out at the table. Concerned when his paper towel blew away. He asked “Why do people sometimes sneak art into a museum?”, Referring to our discussion yesterday. Of the Visa sign he asked “Did we think the sign in the museum was good? … yeah, I really liked it too.”

We vacuumed out the car and the vacuum cleaner turned off a couple times. We paused and made raspberry iced tea for later, then water drink for now. As he sat drinking some of that at the table he called to me “Maybe the bag is full.” Indeed that was the problem. He was then being a cat.

Chuck and Cherie were up after 12:15. I took him up to see Opa and August quickly started playing with him and I went and finished the car. August came down and got his new green tractor and took it upstairs and I heard hm showing it to them. He then came down with a case from the plane that Chuck had given him and another one of those brush/comb things. And I got my new iPad keyboard and set it up.

Back upstairs he was doing laps around Cherie as he told her things, then came down with her and they went out to the”Poop yard” for a bit. When Chuck sneezed he counted his sneezes, then explained to them “I count cats and sneezes with dada.”

We had all cycled through to get showers (August got to skip today), then we headed to school at a quarter to 2. We first headed to Dvorah, who was helping set up a cell phone for them. We saw Ada and August really liked her necklace with big plastic circles on it. Cherie liked Ada’s hair with metallic pieces weaved into it. August told Cherie he likes her hair just the way it is. While Chuck did that, the rest of us ended up in the library.

In the library a student had a mannequin in pieces in chairs. August really liked it and shook hands. He played in the stuffed animals with Cherie and was a worm eating a hole though her. He sort of introduced Cherie to Liz. With Cherie we went back to the kids section and they played games (Cherie would tell him which square to jump on next) on the squares rug and I looked for books. Got Magic Treehouse #15, The 52-Story Treehouse, Young Cam Jansen and the Lions’ Lunch Mystery, and Thump, Quack, Moo. August took them to check out, then he and I did a little chess.

The bell rang at 3 and we took Chuck and Cherie over to Carly’s classroom. Hard to get him out of there, but after a couple potato chips we headed over with Carly and Cherie to the preschool. Class was rambunctious at first so we hadn’t missed much yet though we were a few minutes late. I sat in the room and Cherie sat out in the hall at first. Earlier, when August and I had talked about plans for the day, he a couple of times said “But Oma and Opa won’t be at the preschool, right?” But he was fine with them being at activity class. I think he is starting to pick up on the fact that the other kids don’t have family at those classes, but they do at the activity class. Of course, he was just fine with Cherie being there once it happened.

Mariam sort of told the story of Pesach (most of the kids were interrupting and distracting, but she had August’s attention; “What IS Passover?”0, then they started coloring. He asked for my help with that and he was coloring every petal on a flower a different color. Cherie came in and we switched for the rest of the class.

After class we met Chuck and Carly downstairs and we all went out next to the water tables with the water beads. August played with Tomaso there. Carly took Chuck and Cherie in the car back to the house. August and I stayed a bit longer. It was only as he and I cleaned up, right after Tomaso had to go, that he told me they had been squishing the water beads. Sounded like Tomaso had started it.

We walked up to class. Just him and one of the new girls, Adele. They were so cute together, especially when they were crawling like snakes. Another boy (Lahvi? Levi?) showed up a bit later. The three of them had a ton of fun. August needed a pause when he fell over and hit his face on the plastic tubs but he was right back to it.

He was pointing things out and explaining them to Chuck and Cherie all day. In the car he had asked Cherie “Are you trying to learn English words?” as she was actually trying to understand how he says them. As we drove down the street he pointed out the exercise equipment he likes to play on and said “I know you have exercise equipment in the country you live in but…”

We got to Younes, the Arab restaurant, at 5:45. We had a wonderful full meal there. August ate some corn and carrots and really liked the taboon bread. Of the meats he didn’t eat much, but liked the chicken, I think. And he liked the lemonade with mint. After dinner he first was crawling under the table, helping pick up food we had dropped as Carly and Cherie packed up the leftovers. We then stood and watched a guy making the taboon bread. We first saw him putting it in the taboon oven and taking it out, then making the round balls out of the dough. August named him “Stickyhands”. Finally, the guy let him touch some of the dough and August took big bites out of it. The host gave August a lollipop.

We got his hands unsticky while Carly took Chuck and Cherie over to the gas station to get water. August agreed to save the lollipop for later in exchange for ice cream when we got home.

We were home close to 7. The excitement continued as Dee’s package had arrived. August and Carly opened it. He got a nic
e shirt, a box of Lego Cars, and a Cars Track Stars! book. Cherie had also brought him a digital microscope and a Countries of the World card game.

We then had a little ice cream along with the biscuits they had brought from England. August wanted to nurse, but for the first time ever said “Okay, I can wait.” We were all impressed and Cherie taught him the term “delayed gratification”. August and I made one of his Lego cars, then i went up to kill mosquitos in our room.

He had been playing and talking to Chuck and Cherie on the couch – there was a pulling her hair game. I got him to calm down and he wanted to read Dr. Seuss on my iPad. I took him upstairs and he took a very long time going to the bathroom. He told everyone “If you need to go to the bathroom you can go downstairs.”

He wore his new pajamas and Carly cut out the tags. Then went to bed at 8:40. He did a little science experiment to see how far away the bookmark could be from the fan and still flutter in the wind. He told me “I’m adjusting to having them over.” Earlier he had done a good job explaining why he doesn’t want his hair cut – because he doesn’t want to be cut.

I left them at 8:50. I was up about 9:40. He was still awake – just couldn’t shut off after such an exciting da. I asked if he wanted to get up on the bed with me. He said yes and climbed up. He kneeled and looked out the window, then put his arm on the head of the bed and rest his head on it and closed his eyes. It looked like how he would sleep in the backpack. After a few minutes he lay down on the bed. A couple minutes later I moved him to the wall side and he was asleep at 9:55.

Rhythm game with Oma: 

Push-ups: https://youtu.be/QeaG0QjdKPI?rel=0

Monster music: 

Making iced tea: 

Being a worm eating Oma the apple: https://youtu.be/39OwJFfFoGg?rel=0

Square jumping game with Oma: 

Playing at the water table with Tomaso: 

Activity class – snake crawling: 

Activity class – rolling the big ball: Activity class – beanbag throwing: 

Presents from Dee 1: 

Presents from Dee 2: 

Presents from Dee 3: 

He was up at 6:05. Watched two Magic Schoolbus episodes: desert and haunted house. He then asked “What do you want to do today?” We went to play Duplos and he asked “Can we make an electromagnet machine? Can we make a factory that makes The call of Cornelia?” (That was from the haunted house episode). He said “Dada, I usually count zero, one, two, three, four… But I discovered a NEW way: ZERO, one, two..” He then played with a stencil on the plastic box: “This is a straighten out machine…you put clothes there…it’s a simple machine…if you like flattened cloth, it flattens it out for you.” It was then flattening out fake playdough and I was making things out of it. He played with his new tractor, the robot, and the top. Sometime later he would say “I got it!”

We played with the instruments and made our own version of Street Music. As bad as an app that is, it has intrigued him, and seems to be working: we were trading complicated rhythms and he was able to copy mine and create his own. He found the stencil had fallen off the box and he said (jokingly) “I’m never gonna forgive you. Not even a little bit.”

He played a little Musyc, then sat patiently upstairs on the couch while I got peanut butter crackers. I took my shower, then when he was going to the bathroom before his bath I told him about today being Mother’s Day in Palestine. He immediately started crying – he wanted a special day for him. He told me “You mean happy KIDS day.” Had to hold him and take him to another room. Calmed down, then went back and took his bath and washed his hair.

Along the way he asked “Dada, what were the first humans that ever lived in the human world?” And he was pretending to wake a cat: “That’s why I never want to have a cat.” Because he thinks he will wake it up and it will scratch him.

Downstairs, in the plastic container with letters on it, he suddenly said “I founded my clock!” The paper analog clock I had made for him and that had promptly disappeared. He wanted to learn some times, so we did a little with that, then he played with the stopwatch on my phone and happily got to 1000 ‘laps’.

We then made a card for Carly, which turned into more of a chore than I had planned – he wasn’t really trying with the letters, then would mess it up when he didn’t like it. We were on try number 3 when he went to start scribbling on it and I grabbed the marker, but also pinched his finger. Eventually we came back to it and I did part of the writing and he did some.

He was then playing with the robot and had it in a “sad position”. We left at 11:30.

Driving has gone pretty smoothly the last couple months, but today was the worst – aggressive drivers, getting cut off, etc. Got to the museum and then to a parking garage. August really liked that we were going underground and kept saying “Whoa” and “Holy moly”. He was also excited to spot a cat in the parking garage, but was also concerned it would get killed by all the cars.

We were walking at 12:15. Parked the bike outside the museum and he played with cone-shaped seed pods.

We went in and had a great time in the art museum. August was intrigued by art from the moment we walked in. He really liked one with human birds, and led the way around the big hall. He definitely goes for the abstract and the weird stuff. He spotted a boat full of toothbrushes, and liked the title of one called ‘Painting is Not Tomatoes’. And we spent a lot of time looking at one called ‘Around the World in 92 Days’. We used the map guide to find info about paintings presented salon-style in one room. And there were some interesting multimedia things: a singing lightbulb, a weird animated face, and a roulette wheel that never stopped and dropped the ball. That one required a lot of explaining and we pretended to play roulette. Oh, and a hologram of a guy giving a girl flowers and them then kissing.

There was supposed to be a video room and it was paused when we first went through. We went back and it was still paused, intriguingly on a screen that said ‘Lesson IV: How to be invisible by disappearing’. I said something about how we probably weren’t supposed to touch anything, and he said “What do you mean? When you sit in chairs you touch something with your bottom, right?”

We went outside and had some sandwich and peeled an orange for snack. Went back inside and used the bathroom and looked around a bit more. In the bathroom we talked about his bug bites and he said they only itched when he scratched them. Then he said “So here’s a plan to not make it itch: just don’t scratch it!” We talked about art he could make and he decided he could make “cracker art”. Finally, we went in and filled his water bottle in the courtyard. There was a random ‘Visa’ sign that simply pointed to a wall. No listing anywhere for it being a piece of art, so we were both really amused by that. We talked about ‘guerilla art’ and he liked the idea of people hanging up random art in museums.

We walked back and paid and went to our car, 2:05. More “Holy moly” in the garage. We drove to the park. The art by the side of the road was gone. He enjoyed driving in circles as we decided where to go in the park. Looking out the window he said “Is there more stuff to bump into in the world or space in the world?” He decided on stuff.

We parked a bit south of our usual, then walked to the south playground, which we’ve never played at. We checked out the coffee shop but it was quite busy. He then followed the water (2:40) from the fountain outside as it goes quite a ways through a series of pools, where there are plants and fish. He spotted a frog.

Then to the playground, where we played in the little kids area the whole time. There was a big long sand machine, with different ways you could put sand in buckets and move it. The conveyor belt was our favorite. Tried to get him to leave at 3:30 but he kept wanting to do “One quick thing”. We got going and were in the car at 3:55.

He fell asleep on the way to Tiv Taam and slept from 4:12 to 4:24. Carried him around Tiv Taam, then got a cart when he woke up enough. We got water filters, beer, and some chocolate ice cream for the Mother’s Day gift. Stopped at the strawberry stand on the way home. He waited in the car and listened to music.

He asked “Can you live without a brain?” We discussed what sort of organs and parts you could and could not live without. We were home at 4:45. As we went in he guessed what Carly was doing: “preparing to teach her students”.

Gave Carly her card and the ice cream. He had to make it clear that it was also for him. He was kind of grumpy after that until I got him “Mad and” with broccoli. He sat and ate that and was better. I put the new filter in the Brita and you’re supposed to run two containers of water through it. He played with it while the water went through and told me when it was done. We then read a few chapters of Hilo 1. He wanted to reenact taking photos of his red spots when we went upstairs.

Upstairs, getting him ready to sleep, he wasn’t cooperating and Carly said she’d have to leave the room. He said “Why do you always say that? I’m getting bored of it FOREVER! You say mean words.” I left them at 8:10 but he wasn’t falling asleep. I went up and read/sang the Mother Goose book to him. I cleaned the bathroom ceiling and Carly did other things, then I left them at 9. He was still not ready to sleep. Heard crying at 9:15 but think he fell asleep soon after that.

Upside down robot:  

New shirt:

Art: 

Visa sign: 

Tipping the sand scale:  

On top: 

Exiting the shopping cart: 

He was up just after 6:50. He came down and was sitting on the couch for a couple minutes before he asked “Dada, can you have two pivot points in a machine, or just one?” He watched The Magic Schoolbus. An episode about flowers, which he had watched during my shower yesterday and was where he learned about stripes on flowers.

I made chocolate pancakes, but he wasn’t impressed; “You know, I REALLY want peanut butter and crackers” So he had crackers and I ate the pancakes. He then played with the alien and the alien brought rocks from moons of Neptune. August used his “bigger power” on the spaceship to make all its parts big enough to carry rocks from Neptune.

We went upstairs and I took a shower. I let him skip his bath today so we could get going quickly to the zoo. We listened to his music requests on the way down, and talked a lot about heavy traffic. He liked the idea that we were part of the problem if we were driving in the traffic.

We got to the zoo at 10:35. The song “Perfect Day” was playing as we got there. He said “Sometimes it isn’t a perfect day at first thenit turns out it is?” He spotted hippos hiding in the water on the first safari part, then we watched an ostrich drinking water from the pond and we named it ‘Drinky’ (like they name the animals in The Wild Kratts).

We were in the zoo at 11. We walked a path we haven’t been on before and saw a palm cockatoo holding and seemingly eating what appeared to be a rock. Need to figure out what it was doing. We sat on a bench and ate a snack – apple, raisins, and peanut butter sandwich. There is a little broken egg play area/photo spot. He got in and said “I’m the kind of bird that was all over th place in Korea.” A pedulgi (pigeon).

As we got walking again he saw a guy raking on the path in front of us and he said “Rake hazard reported ahead” in his Waze voice. We saw a school group entering the pin with the big tortoise. We watched the tortoise eating and little birds bathing in its pond. August saw the class in there and said “I hope they don’t disturb the tortoise.”

We went up and got a hotdog and an orange-colored fruit smoothie sort of thing (with seeds in it) at a concession stand. We got surrounded by a group of kids trying to get ice cream but managed to get our food.

We sat on a bench by the big pond and ate our hot dog. Then went to the playground at 12:10. Someone had left a hat on a hammock thing and August pushed the hammock until it fell off. He was then talking about how he was using his robot powers to push it. He wanted to go on the zip line things but didn’t like the idea of waiting in line. The zoo was the busiest we’ve seen – a lot of gan and school groups here now that the weather was nice.

He needed a bathroom so we got walking and the one by the entrance was the first we found. From there he wanted to do the rest of the driving part. So we got going. Took a lot of time on the driving part. We saw a zebra and gazelles running because they were startled by something. Then saw our first marabou. Finally, an ostrich stood right next to August’s window and we watched its feathers fluttering in the wind.

On the way home we listened to all the remixes of The Chemical Brother’s “Go”. He asked a lot of questions about pollution and asked if iPads, etc. make pollution. So a lot of discussion of being part of the problem/solution. He was talking to himself and playing with his water bottle. He was then calling to me. I turned down the music and he said “Right dada? I can see inside a dead hyena…when I look in this”.

He was talking about “I like pollution.” As we got to school before 2:15. He then laughed and said “I’m laughing about taking over the world.”

We first went to the library. Said hi to Amanda, then he crawled/sneaked through the stuffed animals to bump into Liz as a way of saying hi. Carly saw us and came into the library to say hi. He hugged her leg and said he loved her. We started to play with the chessboard, then he needed the bathroom. Came back and did a little more chess, then got going to the preschool.

At class I said I’d sit outside, then we compromised with me sitting inside. When Karen asked how he was doing he told her he was sleepy. But then when they did an activity at the beginning they were using the whole room so I moved back outside. He was fine for awhile, but then got upset when he realized he couldn’t see me. I came in and he was okay, but insisted I sit inside.

He was fine after that. He called me over twice to show/ask me something, but each time he then pushed my arm to push me away when he was done with me. So some progress.

After class Carly met us right outside the preschool. We headed home. In the car his water bottle got some water on Carly. He said “Bad water bottle that squirted on mama.” As we went in the house he was making little tunes, then saying things like “That’s the song for being done in the library” “…coding class”

He was talking about having macaroni and cheese when we got home and was calling it “Macaroni and…” as per my joke on Sunday. I joked about licking all the cheese off his mac and cheese.

I got him some mac and cheese and broccoli. He ate that, then Carly let him watch one more episode (the haunted house one) of The Magic Schoolbus. She then took him to the mall and grocery store to do some last shopping before her parents arrived. There, he played with a girl in the indoor play area, using the foam things. And they saw the Kerns. Did their shopping and came home. They were gone for close to two hours. I did work.

At home we got the presents from my parents out. He said they looked “Pretty amazing”. We skyped with them and opened the presents: a pink s’mores shirt from Chelan, a wooden robot, a metal tractor, a book called Because I had a Teacher, a board game called Before and After (that doesn’t have winners!), a wooden top, and some cow erasers and pencils from the pencil drawer in Chelan (including a Care Bears one that is a good 30 years old and never used).

It was close to 8 so we got off Skype and all went up to change the sheets and bedrooms. August helped, of course. We got set up in the office room and I left Carly and August at 8:15. Asleep soon after.

Following instructions while the teacher was hiding the iPads:

Playing at the mall: 

He woke up at 5:50. While Carly went to get the medicine, as he was warm again, he looked up on the bed and asked “Huh? Are you done with your shower already?” He then lay on the bed for several minutes while Carly got ready. He pretended to be camouflaged into the bed and asked Carly to find him. This continued downstairs, where he then turned into a living towel.

Carly thought it was funny that I was cold, and had August bring me a sweatshirt. He also picked up a book and said “Special delivery!” Then dumped it on the floor halfway.

She got him to go outside with him by saying there were animals in the yard. That turned into a poop yard: “Good! I love the poop yard. It’s 5 centimeters poop.”

He convinced Carly to work with him on the “water factory” out of Duplos before she went to work. He heard birds outside and said “That must be our chickens.”

Reluctant to let Carly leave. He grudgingly agreed to watch Julius Jr. He watched an episode and was excited to discover that the song at the end included the line “You’re as great as peanut butter.” That was they mystery line that he had been singing to the tune of the Llama Llama song. We found it on Apple Music and ended up listening to it a lot during the day.

I made chocolate pancakes but he only ate one eighth of his. Then said they weren’t cholatey enough for him. Got him to eat a little more, then we had popcorn with plenty of oil and za’atar and we watched an episode of Magic School Bus together. One about ants. Cherie had suggested that his mystery word from the other day was ‘crook’. I showed him the video and asked if that was what it was and he said yes, and said it was the guy on Wild Kratts who tries to cook endangered species.

We went upstairs and he watched one more on the Zinnie bed, now in the office. I took a shower. We then spent a long time playing mandolin and guitar plugged into GarageBand. We made a little song together. He asked what ‘borrow’ means and we discussed a story from Julius Jr., then he had us acting out different borrowing without permission examples. I used the letters from his ‘August’ magnet train and realized he doesn’t actually know how to spell ‘August’ yet. Need to work on that one.

Gave him a bath and played with the toys for several minutes. It was over 80 today, so had a lot of windows open to let the heat in. Had to close them all before we got going.

August was excited about going to his favorite pizza place and walking there. We stopped at Duplos before leaving, but suddenly he was up with his shoes on and ready to go out the door. He said “I know I sometimes so a great job of steering, but you still need to tell me where to go, right?” I suggested we would stop at the grocery store to look for Drano on the way, and he got cranky about that plan and that I wouldn’t change my mind right away.

We got walking at 12:00. As we walked he asked “Why can’t a baby stay inside a mama forever?” A bit later he nicely asked if we could please get pizza first. This time I said yes. We went VIPizza and got two slices. I also got an iced tea. We ate, then walked to the bank, as August chose that as the first errand. He helped me use the ATMs as we figured out which ones would work. We checked to make sure our US debit card worked and we got some cash.

He then wanted the park so we walked down to the library. I suggested the merry-go-round was a time machine again. He changed it to the Magic Schoolbus. In the bus we travelled up through the tree. He then said we were in a flower, in the nectar part. He told me what he knew about flowers and bees and told me that more lines means more bees – he must have learned that from Wild Kratts.

We sat on a bench and had the second grape juice thing from the pizza place. Think he still had a little fever as he was acting tired and said he was cool. He had me being an astronaut and getting upsidedownia. He was the doctor, and for each astronaut he would say something different: “If you want it to go away forever you have to have antibiotics…have to eat eight leaves…eat any food you like.”

We went to the small grocery store in town. August asked if he could sit on the floor while I looked for Drano. I couldn’t find it and he scooted on the floor as I moved around. Then said I was taking a long time. We went to the hardware store. The old guy, Eliaoh (sp?) helped us, and talked to us, and August, a lot. August was really out of it and seemed exhausted, and here was a guy asking him questions and joking with him. Handled it just fine though. We got a sink plug and Drano and August got some pink gardening gloves.

We left there at 2:10. August had bright rosy cheeks and was really quiet, but kept saying he felt okay. We were home at 2:35. Two of the road construction workers said something about his bike. August had enough energy to pedal himself for most of one slightly-downhill block.

We were home at 2:35. We watched a couple of Hebrew videos. For the numbers video he said that the girl who is 17 looks like Carly: https://youtu.be/7WwQL6hr02A He convinced me to let him watch Magic Schoolbus. I did library stuff. Finally getting most of the books out there.

With Duplos he made the slidanator: “When someone goes down it it gives them energy.” I then got him outside and interested in the bike. He watched me ride it around, then he got as far as putting on his helmet and sitting on the seat. Thought we might actually get riding. But once he was on it he was scared by the shakiness of it as I held the bike. So definite progress, but then he wanted off. He was asking about the gears though and he was learning all about changing them when Carly got home.

He was then stuck between learning about gears and asking Carly to teach him something. He stayed outside with Carly for awhile and played on the slide, then was a baby lying at the end of it. His hair was all sticking up with static, and I put his garden gloves on to show Carly.

Inside he was on the couch next to me and sleepy. He said he had an unsleepifier that made him not sleepy. He opened his eyes really wide after turning it on.

He then was learning from Carly: About trains, da Vinci, and how a baby is in the womb. They then got the number line out and were doing math, then read Stars, Stars, Stars, which is for the outside library. He said “I love the word twinkly.” He was then turning everything in to stars and cookies. They played with the musical instruments and he turned Carly into a button with his powers.

He ate Mac and cheese and broccoli, then they read much of Magic Schoolbus Inside the Earth. They nursed and he was falling asleep at 6:30. He hadn’t gone to the bathroom since getting home though, so I took him to the bathroom. We thought he’d go to bed soon after that but it wasn’t the case.

He and I then finished Hilo 3 and he immediately asked to read the first one again. We started that and read a couple chapters.

I took him up and put on his pajamas. We finished a chapter of Hilo, then brushed his teeth. He said “Row row row your boat…She makes up versions of it when she brushed my teeth.” Read a few more pages, then Carly said goodnight. He practiced with me for about 10 minutes. It was his idea, started downstairs, to practice with the stopwatch with me tonight. Good job of actually practicing this time.

He then wanted Carly but when he heard she was on the phone he got upset. I held him until she came up a minute later at 7:40. Surprisingly he didn’t fall right asleep. She switched with me again so she could call the woman back. She told him he could talk to me, so he was fine. We read Boynton’s Snoozers, including the “I’m not Sleepy” one several times. He was then singing a “Sleepy” song. Carly was back up at 8. Surprisingly again it still took awhile, but he was asleep about 8:15.

Gardening gloves:

He woke up at 7:25 and bonked his head on the side of the bed. Seemed more confused by it than hurt. We went down and he found Carly outside. She taught him about highlighting in Word, then they came inside.

They played with the writing board thing and squishy balls. They started read The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body. Carly and I were filling out the rest of the forms for registering August at school. We switched and I read the rest of the book and Carly made the chocolate pancakes. August ate 3/4 of one. Carly went up to do laundry and some work and August played with the salad spinner while I cleaned the kitchen. I would give him a measuring cup with water and say there was no way he could get it all dry and then he would. Lot of laughing.

I went and took a shower, then they were outside “We were doing science out here. Stick science and rock science…we we’re making hypothesises, too.” Interested in rocks because they had read the Magic School Bus in the Earth book. He weeded and hummed “Rocket Man”. He was really looking at plants: “I found something out!” “Look at those crazy roots!” “We’re saving you, papaya!”

I eventually took him up for his bath. He had bubbles in the bath and put his hand under them and said “It’s like inside a lung.” We then joked about snails/snarls in his hair when I brushed it. Downstairs he wanted his nursing mittens: “I like the comfiness of it.” He played with the writing board thing a little, then we got going.

Luckily, Carly realized that we needed to get his doctor to fill out a form for his enrollment at WBAIS. I was taking August to get his Typhoid vaccine today. So we left at 11:25 and drove Carly to the school and she ran in and printed off his vaccination record and the forms. We waited in the car listening to Chemical Brothers and Bjork “Earth Intruders”, asking about the song “Are these noises supposed to be in the song?”

We dropped Carly off at home then drove to Herzliya Park. They’ve taken out the pay station machines. August was happy about not having to pay. Got him on the bike and we took a walk up the road to look at some art and books that had been left out. Tempted to get some of the old wooden frames, at least. Got a couple of art books. We looked at the swamp area as we walked by.

Went back to Herzliya Park. He was a little worried about snakes as I took the path throug the nature area. We went to the little kids playground and I filled out the paperwork while he played. Had to past to move a few times and help him. Got that done and played a little more. He asked “When people don’t understand me, why don’t people understand me?” He said Bar doesn’t understand him. We talked about different languages, and accents, and him developing how he speaks. And as he played I called him ‘little boy’ a couple times. He kept correcting me: “You mean ‘little kid’.”

Also, we played the confusing game. He had started it when he claimed the playground was a different direction even though we were looking right at it. He kept asking me to confuse him.

We went to the bathroom and looked at the books and August popped some bubble wrap that was at the book area. We then headed to the car and drove over to the doctor. We went to the pharmacy to pick up the vaccine and ran into Liz, the librarian, and a second grade teacher out front. We got the vaccine and went upat 2:15. The doctor was a couple minutes late. August did well as we did paper work. Played around with the same puzzle as last time. He is 100.5 centimeters and 15.2 kilograms. He was fine with the exam, but caught on about the vaccination when Dr. Hurwitz asked him if he wanted a Spider-Man sticker. August realized it was a bandaid, not a sticker. He got upset during the shot, but was mainly concerned about the bandaid and that it was going to hurt taking it off. I suggested to the doctor we not put it on but he did it anyway.

In the car I took it off and August admitted it didn’t hurt. I had told August we could get a treat afterwards and he chose to go back to Herzliya Park and get a smoothie. So we drove back the park. He chose a strawberry and mango smoothie. We sat and drank it at a table. He said he was cold and we put on his coat. I was a little suspicious, but we were in the shade and there was a bit of a breeze. August was asking what ‘unusual’ means, and I ended up giving him examples of usual and unusual, real and unreal, and nouns. He picked up on the word ‘examples’ and later was using it with Carly.

He curled up on the chair and didn’t want to play so we got going. He fell asleep in the car at 4:21. I called Carly but that didn’t help. Pulled over and tried to wake him up. He sleepily said “Peanut butter and crackers…chocolate.” And said he wanted to sleep. He told me, still half asleep “Don’t do it. Just drive.” Pretty sure it was a reaction to the doctor visit/vaccination.

We were home at 4:45.  Took him out and handed him to Carly and she realized he had a temperature. Got him toms children’s Tylenol. We got a supportive call from Shmuel. He agrees that Shay should move out when his lease is up in May. During the call Carly mentioned we never have people over and August heard her and said “except that one time” when Lima came over. He was then cuddling in the blanket and hiding from Carly. Carly went upstairs and he heard her up there and got silly: “It’s funny we have coisonous lizards upstairs in cages…I accidentally left all the cages open…” “It’s just a talking lizard that doesn’t bite. It’s weird we gotted that from the store, right?” He tried to eat Carly, who was a lizard and said “Edible means that you can eat something.” And he talked about capturing flies and selling them to a restaurant to cook them.

He and Carly went and played with Duplos. He said he had an imaginary friend “Minoh…He’s really nice to me…So nice, I CAN’T EVEN STAND IT!” First time that has happened. He’s used the ‘I can’t even stand it’ line before. Don’t know where it came from. I took over and Carly went to cut non-skid pads for the small rugs. We rolled August up as a hotdog in them.

The window was open and he thought cold air was coming in. Carly told him it was warmer outside than inside and that he could go check. He went and opened the door on his own and went out, then called “You were right! I was very warm.”

Carly took him upstairs to put pants and socks on him so he could go out with her to take care of plants and avoid mosquitoes. But upstairs he wanted to play instead, so I stayed with him. He changed his mind after a minute though and I got him changed. He went out with Carly but ended up with wet feet and pants. Came back in and took off his pants.

Carly took down the Christmas lights and he found he could wind them up by spinning them on the ground. Had mac and cheese for dinner, then played a lot with the salad spinner again. I took him up. Carly got him ready for bed and we were going to switch, but he wanted to fall asleep with her. I left them at 7:40 and he was soon asleep.

Hotdog: 

Doctor:

Not feeling well:

He was up at 7:30. That woke me up. I went downstairs 8. They were sitting in the ‘parlor’ figuring out the watering system. He had some oatmeal, then they tested the sprinkler system and ate french fries outside. Back inside they played kitchen. “I learned that in food school.” We all went out for awhile. He was then a baby: “I was just born. Can you say ‘Wecome to the world?’”

Back inside we made a morning of cleaning and rearranging. He helped vacuum downstairs. Not bothered by the sound. We then went upstairs and moved furniture, August helping at every step. Mainly, we switched the Zinnie bed into the office (I’m going to sleep on that and Carly and August will be on the floor) and the couch into the Zinnie room (to be another sitting room) and the desk out on the porch to get it out of the way. When we were figuring out how to move the couch I suggested cutting it up into pieces with the saw. He thought that was pretty funny.

Also while we were moving he said “Every sound has a different color.” And he asked “What’s Gimlet Media?”

On his iPad he played some Toca Blocks. He looked at Netflix and said “I watched all that second season of Wild Kratts…so you were wrong.” I wasn’t sure what I was wrong about.

I took a shower, and he had more oatmeal. He and Carly were playing in the living room and ended up calculating how many seconds he had been alive. Word of the day was ‘digits’ as talked about the numbers on the computer. He then said “When we go outside we’re going to discover some new numbers.” Meaning number names past ‘nonillion’.

I gave him his bath. He was then hibernating. At one point he said “Let’s learn more about vibrations.” He was then a mysterious animal: “Scientists have been trying to figure me out…” “I don’t have thumbs because when I brachiate they get in the way.” He used his tail for holding on and to dig a little bit. “if I bite you, I would hold on until sunset and I have coison…it doesn’t make you die, just throw up.”

They left 1:35 and I worked. They drove to Ace and as they got close Carly wondered if there was a fast food place around. August spotted a McDonald’s out the window. They had a chicken sandwich there. They went to Ace, then to Tiv Taam. Played briefly at the playground, I think. They took quite awhile. On the way home he worked really hard to get the plastic off one of the toilet brushes and got it as the pulled up. They were back at 4:35.

Carly had bought a pair of gardening gloves. They each wore one and he was really into weeding. When they were done I tried to get him to go to the park. He was adamantly against leaving the house again. So we went upstairs and played with the Smurfs. I first made up a story where the Smurfs meet the new characters: the two purple figures from August’s treats from the ice cream truck and the two figures that came with his new tooth brush. They then all worked together to chase Gargamel away by tickling him.

August wanted to act out the story where the food storage burns down (from the comic books). We got the wooden blocks and he made a castle, then we acted that one out.

We then went downstairs, where Carly was making macaroni and cheese. He was eating the cheese, and I said “Don’t eat all the cheese or we’ll just have Mac and…” He got that and thought it was funny. We sat on the couch and read Will I Have a Friend? (One of the books we picked out at the book swap) three times.

He watched while Carly cut open the artichoke heart but didn’t eat any. We then read one of the early reader books he had chosen at the book swap. He ate some mac and cheese and broccoli and had seconds. We then read some new Smurf stories (volume 14 or so). Ate some apple slices, then I read some of The Young Dragon Book of Verse. Got the doctor equipment and we took care of Green Monster and Monkey Nice Bananas. Monkey had surgery. He was discussing heart massage, which had come up a couple days ago when he asked about touching the heart.

He then randomly told me “Did I mention I love you so much?” Carly said he had said the same to her in the car. He went to the bathroom, then asked to read Magic Schoolbus. Played in the parlor for a bit, then Carly took him up by 8:40. She put him to sleep by 8:55.

Sprinkler system: