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He was up at 6:10. He stopped to go to the bathroom on his way downstairs. He wasn’t clear on whether he wanted oatmeal or not but eventually he told Carly he did. While he ate he told me “You should put some music on.” Listened to Idan Raichel.

We played with Duplos when Carly went to work. He was making things that balanced. He played with his bassoon and contemplated moving infinitely slow and an infinitely slow rhythm. Then played with his lever in the chair.

He asked to play Robot Factory and did that for a short time before switching to Toca Nature. When he made a bunch of mountains and made it cold he said “I coldified it with my colder machine.”

When we Skyped with my parents he wasn’t answering questions with straight answers and everyone ended up confused. He invented Confused Day: “This is called confused day. Everyone gets confused. I should invent a non-confused machine…I’m being confused!” He was then pretending to be Cynde the cat for much of the call.

After Skype he wanted to play with Cubetto: “Let’s do the story of it. Every map has a story, right?” We played through the Cubetto’s First Day of School book. Back on the couch he said “There’s rules you have to follow when you’re an adult. Like not hurt people. It’s okay if it’s an accident though.”

He watched Wild Kratts and I exercised. He was then talking about the show: “I have platypus sensory power…electro-reception…I have that sense. It senses electrical charges.”

We went upstairs and I took a shower, then he had his bath. He played for quite awhile, breaking up a small piece of the bar of soap that had broken off. In his room he looked at the insect: “I’m looking at the little hairs. That’s pretty cool…I discovered there’s little hairs under it.”

We took it downstairs and he released it outside. It flew away after a minute. He was then watering plants with parts of the sprayer. I refilled the tube part several times and he could squirt water out of it.

He was singing rocket man and we figured out it was apparently one of the mystery songs he’s been doing, just with a simplified rhythm. He asked me to sing it several times, then wanted to listen to it on repeat. He was asking questions about what it was about and why the guy was lonely. He said “Well, lonely with people, but not with ALIENS!”

He ate yogurt and orange for lunch. Not much. He then talked about an “Organic shark”. I got the slinky that he got at the restaurant with lunch yesterday and he played with that.

We went out the kitchen door and were getting ready to leave. He was playing with something and I said I was going to open the gate. He didn’t hear me, and I heard him trying to open the kitchen door. He thought I was inside and had locked him out and he was sad.

Held him, then we left at 1:10. We were singing Rocket Man and Let it Be on the way up. I told him how I had sung Let it Be to him in Bangkok to put him to sleep. At the school I had my ID ready. Carly had forwarded an email explaining that they were getting stricter about ID cards and security checks.

We first went to the preschool playground. He at first thought I meant we were going to the big kids playground. He argued he was a big kid and so that was the preschool playground. I explained there were even bigger big kids there. He played on the playground by himself for a few minutes. He talked about some food that he and Carly like but I don’t (pickles? Mustard? Artichoke?). I said that was okay because he and I like salmon but she doesn’t. He said “I only like it when you and I like something and mama doesn’t.” And “I want you to at least try it.”

Then much of the PKB class (his class) showed up. They had been picking flowers for Selma’s birthday while some of the other kids took naps. They played on the playground and August kept a little distance, but followed them. One boy, who is also in the coding class, came over to him a couple times.

We then went in for the birthday party. They started with a circle on the floor. August went and sat in the circle and they introduced him and me to the class. They listened to a song and pretended to play instruments to it, which August loved. For her birthday they asked how many fingers is four and August held up four fingers. When they asked who else was 4 August excited joined in the “Meee!” and raised his hand. They did another song, “I can dance”, which has them starting still, then getting up and dancing. Finally, Selma’s mom read a book they had bought for the preschool and he listened attentively.

They then moved to the tables for snack time. He ate a little pear, but mainly the animal crackers, which he wanted to show me. Sang happy birthday, then there was a chocolate cake with blueberries on it. He got a big piece, and I ended up helping him eat it, it was that big. It was then time for kids to head to the busses. August helped me and Selma and her mom pick up a container of colorful counting sticks that had been knocked on the floor (perhaps by her little brother), then August had some time to go up and play with the blocks up in the loft area.

We went up to coding class. He was doing so well I thought I’d try to go back down and ask his teachers a question about when he should start. I explained it to him and he said okay. But when I came back a minute later Karen was holding him and he was crying. I took him and we went out of the room. He pointed to the tissues and then told me “That didn’t go well!” He wanted to go right back in though. He sat at the table and played Scratch Jr. and one other app the whole time. I read and he was asking Karen a lot of questions and patiently waiting for her when she was helping other kids. I spent more time trying to help another kid who was wandering off. I only went to August for a minute where he showed me the level he was on and I helped him figure out what a box did. He then showed me a different level and explained what algorithm he’d have to use – he’s really picking up the algorithmic thinking from this and Cubetto.

When class was over we went out to the small play area on that side of the building. He pretended to cook and we found a block he used to play the musical instruments attached to the wall. There was a platform thing on the ground and I played music and he danced, then we switched.

We went up to the library and he returned three books and we went and found the next Zita book. He was jumping off the reading area, all the way to the second squares. He called it his “performance”. We checked out the book and went over and looked at the chess set. There was a chess clock and I was explaining how it worked when Carly showed up.

He was reluctant to go but we got him out. Carly took him to the bathroom and we got going. We got to our park at 4:50 and wanted to play. Carly headed on home. He first played on the teeter totter thing: “With my hand tools I can do any kind of potion.” And we discussed his birthday cake. Basically, he wants chocolate and a number 4 candle. We went up on the play structure and were catching bouncy beans that escaped (from Julius Jr.): “There’s a lot more bouncy beans. I’m going to turn on my propellor. Can you push the button with a picture of a propellor on it?” He was then inventing: “Inner vision scope…it shows you how different animals see.” “This machine tells you how cool something is.”

I was getting cold and suggesting we head home. He finally decided it was time and we headed home at 5:25. He showed Carly the slinky and I heard him say “…and it’s a winding inclined plane.”

I made dinner – pasta with mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, etc. He was outside with Carly and they did school. She wrote sentences for him and he read them off the chalkboard. My mom had done the same thing with him earlier on skype. He came over to use the food processor to grate the cheese.

We ate dinner, then he
wanted to watch Wild Kratts with Carly. They watched the lion episode together. He then sat with me and we read part of the new Zita book. He made a shaker instrument out of his bassoon and a toilet paper roll.

He was sleepy, so I took him upstairs and Carly got him ready for bed. I came back up a little before 8. I told him about my friend Steven and baseball cards in elementary school. He wants baseball cards now. He then turned towards me and cuddled up and fell right asleep by 8:05.

He was up at 6:55. He watched Wild Kratts then we watched a little of the Formula E race. I got him some peanut butter crackers. We played Seuss Band, then read the rest of Zita the Spacegirl, then started from the beginning again. We discussed asteroids and meteors and the like and he said he could blast “meteor showers”. Not sure where he learned that phrase. He spent time blasting things and talking about how strong his rockets are.

We played one game of Carcassonne. He saw the ad for Super Monsters on Netflix and said “Well, I’m more super.” He watched more Wild Kratts and I exercised. He talked about power suits and superpower disks: “If I have too much food in me I will have a malfunction (mile-function)…I can just handle 19 piles of food.” He made up a letter on the chalk board (like On Beyond Zebra) then we played with the musical instruments and he invented one. He said “I say activating a lot.”

We went upstairs. “I don’t think anyone else eats peanut butter crackers except me.” Yesterday, when we were walking back from town, he said he thought he was the only person that counts cats. He played with the GarageBand sampler and I went to take a shower. He came in and played in the bathroom while I finished. He used Carly’s spray bottle to pour water in the sink: “Look! You don’t want to miss this meteor shower!”

While August was taking his bath I got a message from Betsy saying that today would actually work the best for meeting up. She is an ELL teacher at Mountlake Terrace High School, and her son worked in Korea and I met up with him once. Anyway, August and I had already decided to head to the beach, so I suggested we meet up in Netanya. They had said 30 minutes, so August and I hurried and got ready to go. But it turned out they were faster than they thought, as they were already in Netanya.

In the car we listened to “Electricity” on repeat. August was picking up on words like “ultimate” and “discovery” and “alternate: and discussing them. He was also talking about being a generator: “If they didn’t discover me they would have run out of power. So it is good that they discovered me.”

I gave them the coordinates of Winter Garden Park, but when we got there it turned out they were on the east side. So  August and I drove around and found them. We discussed options and left it up to August. He wanted to play at the spiderweb playground first, so we stayed there.

Played there for 20 minutes or so. I accidentally said he’d start preschool in a couple weeks and he heard: “What? A couple weeks? But it is supposed to be next year.” He seemed okay with my explanation that I meant ‘several’ weeks and that I was starting with him.

He went to the spiderweb and told us it wasn’t sticky. He got glue to make it sticky, but needed scissors to open the glue. He showed Betsy and Shlomo one of the shops he buys things from. They we went on the wheelchair merry-go-round and Betsy went on with him and Shlomo pushed.

Shlomo mentioned ice cream to him, so August was ready to go. We stopped at the bathroom, then led them over to the waterfront and parked near the hotel. Back at the playground August had found a strip of plastic that he then gave to Betsy and she wore as a bracelet. Now, out of the cars, August was telling us that plastic doesn’t break down into dirt and that we should recycle the piece of plastic. So we took it from Betsy and put it in our recycling bag.

We walked on the cliff path and want to the Landwer Cafe down there. They treated us to lunch. August and I had sweet potato and ginger patties with rice. He ate a bit, but not a ton. August was getting impatient for glidha (ice cream). So we left and walked up to the Italian ice cream place at the other end. August chose the Smurf flavor (it was blue, with a picture of a Smurf next to it) and I got caramel. We went outside and ate our ice cream. August didn’t eat all of his, and he joked “I stopped when I got to the Smurf bones.” I said that was some pretty dark humor for a three year old. He then ate most of the rest of mine instead. He liked mine better. He accidentally spilled a little out on the boards, then spilled the rest on purpose when he was done.

We stopped on the walk back up and took photos with the Mediterranean in the background. He stuck his tongue out for photos. He took a good photo of the two of them. I held him up, but he had control of the phone.

They had talked about how they had met at a kibbutz 30-some years ago. He was living there and she was volunteering. They talked about what kibbutz life was like, with the full community deciding things like who got to travel and which kids would go to college.

Said goodbye at the cars and pondered still going to the beach, but realized we didn’t have time. Called Carly then picked her up at school. She asked him what did you do today? He wouldn’t give her a straight answer: “Nothing. Just sat on the couch…Went to California. No, the age of Palestinians.” When she asked what kind of ice cream he had he said “Magical ice cream that gets colder the more you eat.”

We were home at 4:25. He played with instruments and did math ad Duplos with Carly: “But it’s not JUST a bridge.”

I then got going to the guys night. Just four of us today. And Jack was still recovering from some surgery. We went to the Beer Shop place and had a beer (I had a Petrus Aged Red), then got a falafel at the falafel place before heading to Black Panther.

He was asleep at 7:45. They had read some Sisters 3, so he took Marshy up to bed with him, like Maureen with her bunny. They talked about San Francisco before he went to sleep.

He woke me up at 5:53. I went with him to the stairs, then Carly came up and asked if he wanted to go back to sleep. She tried to get him to sleep for awhile but I think they were up around 6:20. They went outside for a bit and talked about how plastic doesn’t biodegrade. And they played with the musical instruments box and played school and he called her Ms. Althauser. I came down a little after 7 and he told me he was playing Toca games on my iPad. Carly then had him finish up what he was doing and offer me the iPad as they had practices. I let him keep playing while I got tea.

He wanted to do an experiment so we took stuff outside and showed Carly what happens when you include oil in the mix. He got some curry powder on his coat and Carly hurried to wash it out. He watched Wild Kratts and continued to watch it as Carly gave him a bath. It went better as he was distracted by the show. But when he came down to me he sat on the couch and said “Bad bath”, unprompted. We did a little Duplos. He asked “What does ‘including’ mean?” Then practiced it “Including the Arctic Pearl.” (The one from the Wild Kratts walrus episode he had been watching.)

They left to head to Ace. August remembered the tape measure in case they needed to measure cushions. They left at 10. They went to Ace and Tiv Taam. Got keys at Ace but the kitchen door keys didn’t work when we tried them. He wanted the candy at the candy stand in the center of the mall and got upset about not having it. They had to sit down and have a talk about it. A few minutes later when they stopped at a bench he wanted to have another talk about it.

Carly had wanted to get a plant for her classroom but they didn’t have the one she wanted at the plant shop at the mall. August really wanted to go to her classroom though so they went anyway. Had fun wearing a crown again.

He didn’t like her music selections or singing for him in the car. They were back 12:35. I’d gotten a good amount of work down and watched TWD in the process.

They ate soup and we opened the green cheese August and I had bought a week ago and ate some with crackers. I was getting him some and he was impatient: “Can I have some? Mama’s the only one eating any.” “It’s good for me cuz I’m a mouse.” Played a little more Duplos before we left. He called Carly “Ms. Althauser?” He calls her that and she calls him “student August” when they play school. He made a zero-gravity machine. Or rather it solved the problem of not having gravity and makes gravity.

We got walking. He was humming/singing the Bippolo Seed. Then did the radio station thing and had me sing Sentimental Wars and On Top of Spaghetti. Got to the hair place in town and Carly got her hair cut. August watched for awhile. Not as exciting as mine, I think, as no clippers involved and August said he didn’t like the scissors. We walked across to look at the toy/stationary store. He played with balls, and then I spotted sunglasses. Got him two pair: a blue-grey pair and a pink pair. Went back and showed Carly.

We walked into town to Malkin. Carly pointed out I talked a lot about sidewalks, as they are finishing the new block of sidewalks headed into town, some sidewalks in town, and then reopening the space in front of the new mall. Realized that I hadn’t cared about sidewalks when I was carrying him in the backpack everywhere, but now sidewalks matter with the bike.

We ordered the green shakshuka with roots salad and then our usual drinks (latte for me, blended coffee for Carly, hot chocolate for August). August was almost indifferent when I asked him what he wanted to drink: “Umm, yeah, fine.”

After lunch August climbed into the ball basket thing and rested in there. He was sort of in a sugar coma or something. I sat on the floor and read Thumbelina to him. He went and looked at the sewing machine again before we left and I was standing with him and we were once again repeatedly warned that there was a needle. Still no needle. Rather amusing.

We left and Carly took him to the bathroom behind the building. I was happy to be able to read a few of the plant signs on the plants planted outside the health food store. We got walking, and he was asking about/using ‘uncommon’ and ‘including’. I said we could teach him a word of the day, and Carly taught him ‘laconic’. He then wanted Carly to teach him about Palestinians. We said it would be easier at home.

I suggested Carly head home to work while we stopped at the snakes and ladders park but he wanted her to play. I brokered a compromise and she played for 5 minutes. We got there at 3:40. He was her escaping luggage. He wanted to drive to Icelaska (which it turns out might be a place in Julius Jr.) then went on the spinning thing with Carly. Carly then headed home. We continued the driving game. He invented the grabinator to catch the escaping luggage (him). We played some Drops AR view to review Hebrew. Then he ran a toy store, where I bought a chess set and he had a countries board game that he invented where you spin and go to different countries. He told me “I want to remind you of something: mama needs to go to the park more often.”

He was then a cold bird and flew to a warm place. I asked here and he said Thailand: “Dada Birdy, this is our bird nest.” He asked “How long can a bird fly?” We looked it up and found that some swifts stay aloft for 2 to 3 years.

Went over and climbed on the rope structure, then he played with the skateboard on rails thing and we talked about momentum and gravity. We left at 4:30. Walked the back route. He wanted to listen to the Electricity song on my phone, so we did that.

Got home at 4:50. Carly was outside. He wanted to play Toca Blocks. Then wanted Carly to teach him something. I tried to teach him musical rhythms, but he wanted Carly. She came in and they did math class. He wanted to make super music and did it in Musyc. Ate some beet greens for dinner and said that was enough. We then read a good chunk of Zita. I carried him up and Carly got him ready. I went in at 7:25. He asked for stories and asked me about 19, I told him about about moving to Seattle at 18. He asked “Were you sad?” He did a good job tying to sleep, but then was saying “I got the candy…I got the treat.” He was pretending to dream about the candy at the mall and talking in his sleep. He started to get sad so I went and got Carly at 8. He asked her for a story and she told him about how Cassie and Christy M. wore the same clothes when they were 5 or 6. August got sad because he wanted to wear the same clothes as someone. Fell asleep by 8:15.

He was up at 6:20. I heard him tell her she could read her book (about an Israeli and Palestinian friendship) and asked her to teach him about it. He told me “I always wake up in the night cuz my power cells are full.” He went outside and played Musyc with Carly. He then came in and played Musyc with me on the couch. Came up with word questions: “What antidote mean?…What counteract mean?” Played some Seuss Band, then Dragonbox Elements. He copied something Carly said, asking “How on Earth am I gonna solve this puppy?”

Carly couldn’t find her pick comb and we eventually found it in the cupboard under the sink. That turned into a game of me hiding it in the bathroom, play area, or his room and him finding it. There was a ladybug sort of insect in his room and we caught it and looked at it. He took the whammy bar off of the guitar and saw the screw part and said “That’s a winding inclined plane.” Using the bug viewer he said “I’m lucky someone didn’t buy this cuz I love bugs.”

Right before they left he went over to where the blanket was folded up and said “I need to do something before we go…I haven’t done this in awhile.” And pulled it out and dropped it on the floor. The winter-long battle between Carly the folder and August the unfolder.

They left at 9:20. The first went to Appolonia (he he liked the it sounded like Castedonia), as Carly is going to be taking a field trip there. Unlike last time, August had a lot of fun there this time. There were a wooden ballista and catapult that he climbed on. And a lot of families with smaller kids. They then went to the big Tiv Taam and did grocery shopping and played on the playground there.

They were back by 1:30. He knocked and I let him in. He told me “We learned about history. Yeah, right mama?” He went to the bathroom and asked me “How does a vacuum cleaner work?” He wanted to find Carly and didn’t realize she was resting on the couch. We searched the whole house, first the yard, then going upstairs, then back to the first floor, with him giggling and looking for Carly the whole time.

Heated up some beet greens and ate them outside. He was then getting really tired and got upset about not being able to use the food processor as a toy. Carly took him upstairs at 2:20 for a few minutes. Came back down and played a little Robot Lab, then GarageBand. He had some peanut butter and crackers, then asked for more. When I took the plate he joked “You took my buttocks!” Carly was watching a video as she made soup. He played loud and said “Mama! You can’t hear your video! I’m playing hard rock guitar!” Carly realized she’d bought mint instead of basil. I suggested we could make mint lemonade and August said “Yeah, mint lemonade! That’s a great idea!”

Carly needed to wash some green and he asked “Can I salad spinner that?” Like how he versed that. He got upset again as I tried to take him out. They nursed, then I got him to help me go do recycling. We then went to the park at 4. He made potions and turned into a creature that made concrete nests. He saw two girls on the swing/his spider web and joked the girls had broken into his safe. He then saw a teenage girl walk past the play structure and thought it was Carly, actually calling out to her a couple times. We went over and played on the exercise equipment. He saw another kid pour some water on the ground so he wanted to do it too. Used his water bottle and refilled it a few times from the drinking fountain.

He got on the bike and we did a little walk, but circled back to the playground and sat on the crocodile bench for a snack. He asked for a Bippolo Speed story. That is, instead of ‘Bippolo Seed’. I made up a story where a honey badger found the lost Bippolo seed and then used it to accidentally wish to go as fast as possible in a race, but then couldn’t slow down and just kept going and going at Bippolo speed. Didn’t get a good review though as he said “That wasn’t very good.” I think because he thought it focused too much on the seed part and not the speed part.

He asked a few times today “What does bellow mean?” He meant like the blacksmith uses, but then later he was asking about the other definition since I had mentioned it. Another little walk and I thought we were going farther, but then he steered us home at 4:45. On the way he asked for a new verse to the On Top of Spaghetti song. Came up with

That is unless

You want a tree

That grow spaghetti

And sauce for free

If that is the case

Here is your plan

When you have to sneeze

Remove your hand

We got home and when Carly went to the bathroom he turned the light off on her – punishment for locking the door so he couldn’t get in. He ate artichoke with Carly outside, then we read some of Zita the Spacegirl. He then did school time with Carly and they did math, then played with Cubetto. He helped clean up and said “It’s not a game with a winner. It’s teamwork.”

Soup was ready and we had some soup for dinner. I noticed that the lights were on on the car and went out and found that the dial was turned. They played a round of cooperative go fish, then we had a cookie. He spontaneously started to make up and tell jokes: “Why did the cookie fly away? It was a bird…Why did the book move? It was a human.”

I took him up and got him ready for bed, then Carly came up and said goodnight. At one point he asked “How can we stop the Earth from having too many people?” He asked me for more stories. Took awhile, but he fell asleep at 7:45.

He woke me up with “Dada?” at 6:18. He went down with Carly and they started reading Hilo 3 a couple minutes later. They read about 40 pages before she headed to work. He watched a bit of a video on how candy is made, then I found one on a loom. Watched part of that. He requested toast and ate it on the floor, then typed on my iPad. He then became a millipede/centipede that wanted to fly (like on Julius Jr.) and had me inventing things for it, and then a caterpillar that was eating everything in the house.

He watched Julius Jr. and I exercised. He asked why Mars is named Mars and I explained the name, which ended with us discuss different gods and he liked the example of Atlas holding up the world. Played some Duplos and he told me “Dada, I was made inside a computer…The people that ran the computer made-ed me. So I have a computer inside me…do you think that is real?…Why can’t we go inside a computer?”

We went upstairs and was going to play GroRecycling on his iPad but suddenly his iPad had an activation lock on it, which I’ve never seen. Took a few minutes to figure that out, then we played the game together and he changed to one Timmy Time story and then the Wild Kratts worm episode. I took my shower. Remembering the Eretz museum he asked “What bellows mean?” “What they call it a blacksmith? Because he was black?”

Gave him a quick bath then we worked on our shopping list and had some peanut butter crackers. He asked “What wee bit mean? My battery will last a wee bit.” He chose the coconut chew Larabar to try today from our iHerb order and he spotted the bag of recycling I had set by the door earlier and said we should do recycling. I thanked him for reminding me and he said “I like it when I know things I need to remind you.”

Outside he hit the fence with his stick and asked “Is this what they used when they didn’t have electronic beat machines?” And he surprised me by asking “Dada, was there a time when there was one human on the Earth or not?” Apparently he had also asked Carly this question. We talked about evolution and how it doesn’t work that way.

He played in the yard and let me walk up the block to get his bike out of the car. We then walked over to the mall. In the grocery store he spotted strawberry yogurt and said it was funny that they had the thing we ate when we first moved into our house in Israel, and he asked why Ada left the food for us. So there’s one memory that’s sticking.

We stopped and got strawberries from the table in the Friday market on our way back and were home by 12:40. He asked “What does modify mean? Do you want to modify my battery?”

As I was putting away groceries he was being whiney for peach juice and he was playing with the broken cabinet door. It ended with having a timeout on the couch. When I was done I asked him to choose a cup for juice, but he spotted the popsicle makers instead. So we made a popsicle. We then had some juice, and he wanted to play Musyc. He said he was going to make me something boring. He made three circle dispensers that just dropped circles off the screen – so no music or sound. It was my punishment for giving him a timeout and not letting him do things.

We watched the Wild Kratts honey badger episode and learned a lot from that as he ate meatballs for lunch and I got us prepared to make cookie dough. We made the dough and I realized that I wouldn’t be able to knead it properly with my cast. Which was okay as we were going to refrigerate the dough and finish the cookies after dinner. He did a pretty good job of kneading it on his own though.

We cleaned up a bit and finally left at 2:15. Had thought we might see some of the Purim festivities at the school but we were later than I expected. Okay as we had had fun. In the car he had taken his stick, and he wanted a super music song. Found Bjork’s “Innocence” on his playlist and he was dancing to it with his stick. As we got to the school he talked about how he is good at music. I let him out of the car but then told him I wanted to back the car up a bit. He was a bit nervous as he stood on the sidewalk and watched me start up and move the car without him.

As we went in he told me all his powers. There were a lot of them including “Cactus power, breathing in smoke power…” He said “Now you know all my killing powers…” but assured me that they were just for killing monsters and animals that wanted to eat people. He then asked “Why do they call it the universe? Why is there that ‘uni’ in it?” Speaking of powers, earlier he had told me that his everything power doesn’t really exist because you always learn things.

We went to Carly’s classroom. We had brought the sewing kit and tape so Carly could further fix the beanbag. We were going to drop it off, then go up to the exercise equipment towards the studio as he had asked several times to go there so he could go faster than light again. But once in the classroom he wanted to watch her sew. And he played on the stool that can zoom up and down. He really liked the purple thread, but Carly wanted the red. Carly said she was going to see his shirt to his arm. He said “That’s funny.”

I went to the library on my own. Picked out a book on Greek mythology called Z for Zeus and found a graphic novel called Zita the Spacegirl, which might be a good followup to Hilo. When I returned they had the India board game that Carly had found under her sink.  I did two notes of the Jaws song and he instantly said “I’m scared!” Haven’t even done it for months. Funny how much he reacts to it, and it’s not like I really traumatized him with it.

He said to Carly “Let’s learn more about people that use swords.” And he used the plastic sword to poke off my hat. He and I played with the India game and he stacked the game pieces on top of the globe.  I offered to help, I think after I bumped the globe with my foot and knocked them off at one point and he said “And I want to do all of it myself. It’s kind of that thing.” He then really enjoyed wearing a crown from the costume box. He was asking constant questions of Carly – what she used things for, what she taught her students, etc. They got the crosses out of the box and did a parade and he wanted her to teach her about the Crusades. We left at 3:50. He said “I had so much fun in tour classroom.” So we had kind of planned to move more quickly today and get to school early enough to see some of the Purim stuff (it turned out the parade had been at 1), but we had a fun day nonetheless.

We drove home and Carly suggested cooking and eating the beet greens. She said “They’re magical.” To which August replied “But Dada said that magic doesn’t exist.” He was excited about doing the job of spinning the greens in the spinner. Then played Musyc. He asked “What definition mean?” Kinda some meta-etymology there, asking for meanings of words about the meanings of words. Ate the greens, then Carly found the popsicle he and I had made earlier. He got to eat it. His hands were cold though so he asked for the nursing mittens and wore those.

He helped Carly clean up duplos. I looked at Airbnb for places to stay in BC this summer. He used his headphones and watched Sarah and Duck and peanut butter crackers while she vacuumed. I tried to get him to read books but he went and got Carly to finish cookies. He told her “I have a health meter in my body and it is at half so I can eat cookies until it’s down to zero.” That is, the popsicle had taken it half down, but he could still eat more unhealthy food today.

Carly finished the kneading for us, then he and I used a cup as a cookie cutter and made the cookies. When I turned on the oven August went and asked Siri on the iPad “Siri, how long do snickerdoodles take to bake?” We also made the cream cheese and chocolate filling. We made most of the cookies into the traditional triangle shape. I did two with jam, the rest with chocolate since we made plenty of
filling and that was the preference of two-thirds of the family. August found the triangles difficult so started doing different shapes and made one cookie into a square and it ended up looking like a flower. He also made a sort of hotdog one.

When we were done and they were in the oven he said “I was helping you cuz your hand is broken. I was helping extra.” He was being a worm on the couch (from Wild Kratts – and he had me using a slime detector and spraying him with slime so he wouldn’t dry out during the day). We read some Hilo, then had a cookie. Then Skyped with my parents. He remembered that my mom really liked cinnamon rolls and snickerdoodles – when he was supposed to tell them what we made, those were the first things he said.

Carly took him up and I skyped with them for a few more minutes, discussing summer plans. When I went up he sang a cool song to Row Your Boat including words like “watchy, row your boat, brush your teeth”. I left them at 8:35. They nursed, but he asked Carly to tuck him in, then he fell asleep on his own.

He had also asked Carly to teach him about Palestinians earlier in the day.

Yesterday we picked the new Larabars up at school. He tried a peanut butter and chocolate chip yesterday, and a chocolate coconut chew one today.

He was up at 7:20. We sat on the couch and I asked if he wanted to read Hilo. First thing he said to me today was “What do you mean? We’re in the age of dinosaurs. It hasn’t even been invented.” He asked for Cheerios and while I got them he then asked “I will tell you something: how do you make the weird cone that goes with ice cream?” So that led to watching a video about how ice cream bones are made, then his old favorite ink video, which he said he remembered. We paused from that to watch a Sesame Street video of Endendino (https://youtu.be/TdpjO_8L3r8) and listen to the version we have.  He finished a second ink video, then wanted to play Musyc. He talked about how making lines and having shapes bounce off them to make music isn’t really real, and that he calls that ‘super music’.

He was interested in zucchini bread when I had it with butter, so I got him some. We read some Hilo from where he’d gotten with Carly. He asked “Can I have a shirt with a Z on it?” And said “I have way more powers than Hilo…magic power, and rule power, and knowing everything power.” We read through chapter 6. Played some Sound Rebound and then I showed him the video Sumoud https://youtu.be/g3R9E6T-rRU, about a Palestinian family who has had their home destroyed, skipping much of it to focus on the parts with Sumoud in it. He was grumpy after that, I think still processing what we’d talked about about being nice to people. He said he was doing things I wouldn’t like, but then wouldn’t stop so we had a timeout on the ouch.

We then made and had a strawberry and mango smoothie. Drank that, then he wanted to do an experiment. We added oil this time and then had fun adding food coloring to the water or oil. Then, when we started added cinnamon, baking soda, etc. it got really clumpy, making a bumpy landscape at both the top and bottom of the water. And making blobs sink and bubbles go back up. August did a great job of cleaning up all the bottles when we were done.

He watched Julius Jr. and I took a shower. We watched the Marble Machine update video but skipped through much of it and then videos on how candy canes and ice cream sandwiches are made. Gave him his bath. He sang Endendino and scrubbed with the toothbrush. He got the bar of soap and played with it in the bath, making the water white and losing the bar under all the toys.

Downstairs he wanted to play Toca Blocks. And he spotted something in the game that he thought we hadn’t discovered how to make – a mailbox. He wanted to figure it out, but I said it may take a long time. He said “Yeah, but we can try. That’s what discovering is Al about.” He spent some time trying to make it by combining blocks – he called the advanced blocks “The specialies”.

He wanted meatballs for lunch so I made him 4 and he ate most of those. We got leaving after 2. He played instruments with his stick from yesterday outside, then he started singing “Oh my goodness he stays awake for weeks.” He made up a new tune and took words from my song about him not falling asleep but added the “Oh my goodness” part on his own.

We were taking a bunch of supplies, including the iron and ironing board, to Carly so she could fix one of her bean bag chairs. There are little flexible rubber pieces on it and in the car he speculated what they are for: “My only idea is…”

Talking about his new version of the not sleeping song and the tune/patterns he made up he said “It didn’t exist until I made with up.” Which I think goes back to a conversation I had with him months ago where I explained why I liked abstract sculptures, because when a sculptor makes a new shape it is the first time it has ever existed.

Got to school about 2:30. Saw his future class down on the playground, but they were going back in right as we got down to the preschool playground. August played on the playground for awhile, then about 2:50 the classes started to leave to go to the busses. We went into his classroom and he looked around. He went under the loft and liked the rather curvy mirror on the wall and how it made the floor look hilly/holey. Maaian came through and talked to us. August told her how he accidentally erased a little from the whiteboard and she said it was okay. He also told her how he liked the mirror. He then went up to the loft and was commenting on how messy it was up there as it hadn’t been cleaned up. The teachers came back and I talked to Anna about when we could come and visit. We settled on Tuesday at 2 as they will be having a birthday party then. August dropped down a couple of pieces to me (well, tried to get them past me) from the loft, then we got going to the Hebrew class.

We went up to the class. He went right over and sat in the circle. I sat off to the side more and read most of the time. More about Purim today. We had to change rooms as carpenters were coming in. In the other room they did a Purim song and got noisemakers and each got a triangle Purim cookie. And they got masks. I went and fixed August’s and another girl’s when the strings were pulling out. August wore his on his head a little, but not much. He loved the cookie and noisemaker though. They did the story again and August got to hold Mordechai.

So he did a great job in class. We took our time heading out. He played with the squishy little ball things and checked on a couple things downstairs before I got him out the building. He’s sounding pretty positive about going to school now.

We went to Carly’s classroom where he got to watch the custodian vacuuming up all the beads from the beanbag chair that she couldn’t pick up. He then wanted Carly to teach him about continents and oceans after he spotted the big maps they had made up on the wall and asked her if her students had made them. He then taught her about kiwi birds and remembered they were birds that didn’t fly and lived on an island.

August and I got going to walk up to his class and Carly headed home. We got to the studio and it was closed. Oops. Clearly no class due to Purim. We started to walk back to school and the car. He stopped at the exercise equipment along the way and got on the elliptical machine and talked about going faster than light. I said I couldn’t really measure how fast he was going on the machine and he said “Yeah, but how do you know that…you do. I programmed you to know that.” He got off of it and spent a lot of time making it go even faster with his hands. He also did some sit-ups on the bench.

Spent quite awhile there, then went across the street to the playground so I could get a drink. He stopped and said I could continue on to the drinking fountain on my own. He went to the platforms he could climb on. He did that, climbed in the pod things, climbed on the play structure, and shared a small teeter totter thing with a smaller boy. He was acting like a baby too. I had been reading when he started saying “goo goo gaa gaa”. I asked “Is that a sign you want me to play with you and put my book away?” He gave me a thumbs up.

Finally walked to the car and on the way home he had me repeat the 4 Non Blondes song “What’s Going On?” I like when he asks me to add a song to his playlist when we are already listening to his playlist.

It was hard to park at home due to some Purim thing across the street so we had to park up the block. We were home at 6:20.

He played some Toca Blocks then ate couscous and peas for dinner. He had trouble eating the last of the peas before he could have more meatballs. I said that someone who was faster than light should be able to eat the last 7 peas pretty fast. But then he got crazy and sort of flipped his plate pretending to be fast. Got him to help clean up, and to eat a few more peas, but he didn’t want squished ones. He ate a couple bites of meatballs, but was started to fall apart. On the couch he started balling, I think basically when Carly suggested it was time to go upstairs. I carried him up to the toilet where he just kept s
obbing but didn’t fight it. Carly got him ready, then I said goodnight and left them at 7:20. We both thought he was going to fall asleep in a few seconds but then he calmed down and started asking her for stories. It was closer to 7:50 when he fell asleep.

He was up at 6:30. Heard him call “Dada!” Went up and found him in the bathroom. “Where were you?” He had expected me to be on the bed, I think. He went to the bathroom then Carly brought him down. He wanted to go nurse in the “parlor”. Apparently he had remembered that aspect of the ‘parlor’ after all the times Carly said “Let’s go nurse in the parlor” back in Korea.

He had some difficulty letting Carly go to work. He went and held onto her backpack and said he was going too. He watched some Julius Jr. and Llama Llama. He can sing most of the Llama Llama theme song now.

He went to add to his waker upper machine. He then asked to put together the watering system. I didn’t know where it was so he wanted me to pick him up and he would use his rockets to look for it. We look around the house and he told me about how his fire came out of his feet, and that it bounced off of things like sound waves. Then the fire came out of his head.

Couldn’t find the watering system. We were listening to Chemical Brothers and he sort of danced to a song, playing his drum machine. He then requested the Elements song and we listened to more of his playlist. He made the “freegeometry” shape out of Duplos. It was just a cube, but if you pushed the button on top books about geometry came out. And if you put books in it that AREN’T about geometry they would turn into geometry books. “Tri book…shows you everything that has three of something.” “Look! I finished the thingiematron! When you push it, books come out about thingies…like bicycles and tricycles.”

He wanted to plat the Elements app. He played that and I exercised, then helped. We finished discovering all of the elements. He also found Carcassonne, the board game, on my iPad and we started to just make a town with it. I called the medical center about reducing the size of my cast. She was supposed to look into it but never called me back.

We went upstairs so I could take my shower. I started some new show on Netflix for him, about a musical, but he switched to Julius Jr. After my shower, back in his room, he asked me “Have they discovered an electronic lever?…But how? Motors just spin.” Talked about that a bit, then he wanted to play more Carcassonne. We actually figured out the rules and played one full solitaire game. “Alternative” was his word of the day. Not sure where he picked it up, but he asked for it to be defined a few times and kept using it. Then to Music Memos again. He asked “What underappreciated mean?” That was from the Julius Jr. episode he had watched, about a robot that was underappreciated.

We did a quick bath for him and headed downstairs. He played a little Human Body. Asked “What’s problematic mean?” We discussed white blood cells and germs. And he asked “What’s aerodynamic mean?” Don’t know where he heard that one. And “What’s friendship?”

We left at 11:30. Sort of. He wanted to play in the car. There, he wanted to hear the Llama Llama song. Not on Apple Music but I found it on YouTube and figured out how to have it repeat. Listened to it several times. Later, and on the way home, he would be singing a lot of the words.

We got driving and listened to the ‘extra’ Story Pirates episode – he had me repeat the beginning several times to listen to the theme song.

We got to Ganei Yehoshua Park along the Yarkon River in Tel Aviv, parked, and were walking at 12:20 with his bike. The last story we had heard was about how a kid had taken 10 years to invent a no-veggie machine. So as we got ready and left August was talking about his own no-veggie machine, that took 20 years and contained every food except veggies.

We were going into the park to eat lunch. First found a little playground and played there. August climbed on the fence, then saw all the babies as there was a mom’s group in the playground. Most of them were leaving but a few remained. August was then a baby, and I had to carry him from place to place. At one point he had me rock him like a baby and he pretended to fall asleep in my arms, with his head hanging back a bit over my arm. Bigger, but reminded me of when he was small. He was having me sing “Rock Me Mama” to him to put him to sleep.

Played around for awhile there and went on the swings, then I got him to go. We walked up the river to the pedestrian bridge and across to the other side. He wanted to stop and eat so we found a bench facing the river. Had our peanut butter and honey sandwiches and the salmon salad. He ate most of the salmon.

He’s started to also ask what words mean. During lunch he found a big rusty nail and was poking a post with it. He asked “What is ‘post’ from?” I taught him the word  ‘etymology’ and he practiced saying that. Meant to look up ‘post’ in the OED but didn’t get around to setting up my library access to it as we sat there.

We got walking and went to the big playground, which is where we were headed. He played on the wooden structure first. He played on his own, with other kids, mainly on the shaky bridge and I started reading a book about immgrants and refugees in Israel, called The Unchosen. He got off the structure and was shaking the bridge with his hands. He asked “Dada, I’m shake-i-atron…I attach to something and I shake it…Do you want me to turn it off? My battery is at 27.”

He wanted to move to the second set of toys, so we got the bike and moved over to that. He spun in a hanging sphere thing, then pretended to sleep in a circle that was sort of like a hamster wheel. He needed to use the bathroom and when I said we could find one he was the one that found a sign. I spotted a free library thing and he said “Oh no!” and talked about how he doesn’t like me finding them.

Only took a minute, then walked down and used the bathroom. We crossed back over the river on the main road. I had to carry the bike up stairs and he found a stick along the way. He carried it as he rode the bike. When he joked about hitting someone with it when I had asked him to do the opposite when someone was walking the other way I the bridge we had to stop and have a serious talk about it. I had threatened to take away the stick, and he then had all sorts of questions about for how long and what I would do with the stick, etc.

We paused to look at the river (we had seen boats and ducks on it) then kept walking to the Eretz Israel Museum. When we were having all the fun in the park I gave August the option of leaving the museum for another day a couple times. He insisted he wanted to go.

We got in and purchased a ticket, which wasn’t too bad, and I fit the stick in the backpack (sort of). We first went to the Man & His Work exhibit. Spent a lot of time at the outside area where they have displays of the tools used for different jobs in the past, like weaver, shoemaker, baker, blacksmith, carpenter, etc. It was a hit with August, who had tons of questions and kept pointing things out. Realized we should also watch videos of a loom and blacksmith later.

We then went in the main building for the exhibit. As we went in and I read something about it being about Israel I quietly told August it was also called Palestine. Similar stuff in there that we talked about. The main thing we discussed were the traps for catching animals, namely the ones that look like jaws. He had me tell him about them a couple times. We did a quick walk around the rest of it, then headed out.

We sat on a bench outside and had a snack (mainly zucchini bread). “I don’t call it thirsty, I call it hungry.” He’s also previously told me that I should always include my water bottle when I tell him what food we have. And didn’t think much of my food/drink comparison.

Next, we worked our way back to the center and up the ramps, stopping at a drinking fountain, and made our way to the building with the history of coins in the region. Which, given all the empires, etc. is substantial. He liked looking at t
he coins, particularly the tiny ones.

We stopped for bread next to a cool archeological mosaic and found a tiny pink blob on a sign. I wouldn’t let him touch it and he speculated on what it was: “Maybe it’s a kind of gelatin.” Don’t know where that came from. He also asked “How can wind carry things up if it doesn’t have arms?”

We next went to the Nechushtan exhibit, about the history of the Timna Valley. He really liked the fake cave you walk through and the display on the history of copper work. But the best part was the 1800 year-Old Roman lead coffin, which was just sitting out where you could touch it. It had designs all over it as well. So I let August touch it and he was really impressed. Came back to it a couple times.

Finally, nearing closing at 4 we went into the building on the history of glass work. From its beginnings to contemporary Israeli glasswork. He really liked a tall hanging piece, then the fact that the round building really echoed. He did a little singing. All was well until we were walking around and he started to say he wanted to show me a piece. Just as I said something about the knight made out of glass. He turned around and pointed the same thing out to me and the said “You just said that. Grr.” He then lay down on the floor, grumpy. He stayed grumpy for awhile. He said he wanted to start the whole building over. We did a little, but it was almost 4.

We went and found the bathroom before we left. As he sat on the toilet he told me. “I didn’t like how you did that glass person.” We briefly looked at the museum store (he said something about “Not more books!” but actually it was glass stuff I wanted to point out to him) and got walking at 4:05.

On the walk he was asking about the distinctions between ‘impossible’ versus ‘improbable’. He maintained that liking tomatoes is impossible. We got to the car and left at 4:30.

He was singing a line from Llama Llama “you’re as great as peanut butter” and asking why they say ‘peanut butter’. We listened to the song again and they don’t say that line. Not sure if he made it up, or there are more/different words in the actual shows.

Took a little over 50 minutes to get home. On the way we finished Story Pirates and he told me about the fastest thing in the universe: “Light isn’t the fastest thing in the universe. I’M the fastest thing in the universe.” We then listened to his playlist and he really liked the Endendino song, a Hebrew children’s song (https://youtu.be/MXooV9yW7V4). We listened to it 4 or 5 times and were singing along. We got home before 5:30. We saw the black cat on the platform above the door and named it ‘Sof al Hakatino’, which is a line from the song he had just been singing (http://www.hebrewsongs.com/song-endendino.htm)

We had Carly come out and see the cat, then he went in with her and was being silly on the couch. Not sure how he still had so much energy: “I have know everything power…I told dada I win the love game and the knowing everything one.” I got him noodles, couscous and peas, and meatballs for dinner. He ate a lot of food. He helped Carly water the plants through the windows and she went out to water the rest. He talked about the traps from earlier and asked another etymology question: “Why’d they use the word ‘trap’?”

He watched some Julius Jr., then I tried to get him to read books with me. He ended up reading with Carly instead. She read The Knowing Book, which I had gotten at the library, but he didn’t really like that. But then she started Hilo 3 and he really got into that. A lot of laughing.

She took him upstairs and the got ready and read some more Hilo (to page 72). I then went up about 8 and switched with her. He cuddled next to me and asked me to tell him stories from when I was a kid. He asked for age 2, and I told him my vague memories of moving to our new house. He said that mama couldn’t remember 2, but he also said my story was boring.

We started talking about love at some point and I told him he will always have my love. “What if I lose it?…What if I forget?” We also talked about how some people need more love and about loving Palestinians. He wants to learn about them. We tried going to sleep several times but he was very talkative. Asked for stories from when I was 6 and 7. Told him about the writing competition we used to have at school. Did the timer several times, counting in my head, but he never made it past 40 seconds of being silent and still.

Finally, a bit after 8:30, I agreed to go get Carly. He said “If I can’t do it I hope you still love me.” And “Will you love me when I’m 9? 10? 11? Infinity? 100? But what if I only make it to 99?…I don’t like that.”

Still took him awhile to fall asleep with Carly. She almost got up to finish getting ready for bed herself first. But then he fell asleep about 8:50.

He did a lot of walking on my feet today, seeming to remember it from when he was smaller: “This is how we walked when I was a baby?”

Traps: 

Glass: 

A hard time: 

Cat: 

He came out at 7:40. I was going to wake him up if he wasn’t up by 7:45. He wasn’t bothered by Carly being gone. Cary had asked him last night, when he was late going to sleep, if it would be okay if she didn’t wake him and he said yes. Been a long time since she wasn’t here in the morning and we didn’t know how he would respond. He rested on the couch and then watched Juliue Jr. Two episodes. When I took a good morning photo for Carly he stuck his tongue out. When he was done watching he took Duplos under the table to his inventing space, listened to the Julius Jr. Theme song on repeat, and made a machine: “The horn waker-upper…you tip it over a little bit and it honks that horn.” “You can destroy it if you want…And besides; it’s a very cheap machine. And fragile.”

He was picking at his favorite old pillow to destroy. He said “I just make it worse over time. Not very fast.” He watched the latest Marble Machine update video and the Marble Machine of course and ate some peanut butter crackers. I suggested a peanut butter and banana smoothie. He said “Im excited about the new smoothie!” He drank a lot of smoothie and then danced to the new Matt and Kim song “Like I Used to Be”. He found the spring that he’s been playing with and rolled it across the floor and said it was an optical illusion as it looked like it was spirally one way or the other. He then had me pretend to invent a hydroelectric generator. He asked me “What’s your hypothesis? Mama says that scientists make hypothesis.” And “Could you be a scientist trying to figure out why light is so fast?” So we watched video on that one, which basically came down to ‘because it doesn’t have mass’. Then watched a SciShow Kids episode on ‘why does your leg fall asleep?’

We went upstairs and he played with Carly’s brush and comb: “I’m designing something…it affects the marbles. This makes it go straight and this makes it go up.” I took a shower and he watched Llama Llama. He looked at my ear and asked “Next time you’re a grown up could you wear earrings for a long time?” He had asked Carly about the closed-up holes on her ears a few days ago.

Gave him a bath and we talked about center of gravity as he was practicing standing on one foot. Said that was the word of the day, then he also said that ‘spring’ and ‘force’ were words of the day. And he asked “Why do optical illusion happen?” Went downstairs and he asked Siri questions on my iPad: “What is a Ferris wheel? What is a tricycle?” Then played with a couple of music apps and then Piano Maestro. Rather hard to get him going as there was always something else to do. Back to his machine: “Waker upper machine. Is that the word of the day?”

We left at noon. Started with the new Story Pirates (13) but then he wanted the Elements song. We got to Gimel Gimel Gimel, which is right across the street from the Skoda dealership. We went in and soon were in back where they were taking our roof racks out of the box. August and I watched the cars on lifts for a couple minutes, then went in and sat in the waiting room. He saw news on the TV and said he didn’t like that, but enjoyed playing with the spinny chairs. We then found the guy who had helped us and he said they’d install them. So we went across the street to Landwer Cafe and had lunch.  August chose the pasta with cream sauce and I had the shakshuka sandwich. August had a mango smoothie with an orange juice base and I had a latte. August kind of learned to not order off the kids’ menu. He liked the noodles but the cream sauce was basically milk. We twice read the little Thumbelina book I’d grabbed from the box by the playground yesterday.

We could see from the restaurant that the car was done so we headed back. A guy demonstrated how to take the racks off and put them back on. And I saw Shay, who was one of the guys who had sold us the car. He started talking to me about how he has a niece and nephew at WBAIS. I had already put August in his car seat. He could see me, but it’s as too long and he got upset. So I got him out of his seat and we played in the front of the car. I tried to call the Herzliya Medical Center but couldn’t get through. Holding and more holding. My dream was that we’d be able to head over there in the afternoon and get my cast shortened. But August liked learning and saying the word ‘medical center’ and called it the word of the day as well.

So we headed to Herzliya Park. He told me before we left that he didn’t want to go to the snake area though. We got to the park at 3:10. Tried to pay at two pay stations, but neither worked. He went to the bathroom and I grabbed a book of F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories from the free library. He was a baby in a pram on the merry-go-round, then we went on the big structure for a minute, but then he wanted the little kid playground. We played around there, going from thing to thing. I found a little scoop on the group and he took it over to the sand area and pretended to be a baby playing in the sand. He then had fun twisting it to break it. He had it twisted and said “That’s like a winding inclined plane, right?” Had it pretty broken but then he pinched his finger in it.

Then we headed to the big structure, riding the bike around on the paths before parking up on it and walking around in the tunnel parts. Then up to the big slide. Watched a few other kids go down, and he considered going down on his own, but wanted to go with me. We went down and he wanted to go again. We filmed the second time down. He said he wanted to go down a third time, but then right after us a boy came flying out, head first, and landed head/shoulders first on the ground and started crying. A big sister and dad came right down after. Don’t know how that happened.

We got going, stopping by the drinking fountain and refilling his water bottle. He then wanted to play on the exercise equipment, which was near the car. Stopped there for 15 minutes or so and tried out all the exercise equipment. Watched a guy that was sort of climbing up and swinging around on a high bar and he sort of tried to do the same thing on a lower bar.

We left right about 5. Listened to all of the Story Pirates on the way home, then some music. Waze took us up 2, then on a side street and across a new route that took us to 551 and then up 4. A nice drive, and we saw an interesting looking sun before it set, had to stop at a train crossing, and August spotted the gibbous moon. He said he was tired at one point but stayed awake.

We were home just before 6. Played Seuss Band and one of the geometry app. He took a long time in the bathroom, then drank a lot of the leftover smoothie from the morning. Carly said something about someone being selfish and he asked what that meant. He said “I like doing that, by I haven’t done it much though.” Had more smoothie: “I’m having a lot of liquid before night time.”

I went up to do some work and they played Musyc. He didn’t eat noodles, but ate a little persimmon. They played Duplos and he did the waking up machine for her. And they read What Do You Do with an Idea? I came down at 8:30. He acted like a baby in a pram and Carly wondered how he knew the word ‘pram’. They nursed, and Carly mentioned he was going to try going to sleep with me. He said “But I’m a baby; I need my nutrients.”

She took him up and brushed his teeth and I went up about 8:45. I turned off the light and right away he pulled covers up and tried to go to sleep. He was quiet with his eyes closed for a few minutes, then said “Dada, can you sing a sleepy song?” I sang “Imaginary Bars” and “Idaho”. He said “Uhh, I don’t like this.” I told him to try two minutes of silence and I’d tell him when the timer was up. He turned back towards me and closed his eyes and fell right asleep at 9:05.

I was up before 7. I figured he’d wake up whenever I got up so I lay in bed and read. Carly came in and woke him up at 7:45. We went downstairs and soon Glecy called. August kept wanting the phone. I distracted him first with his vitamins, then Carly went upstairs and he made art in Zen Studio. He chose random colors for the template ones, then drew pictures of his own. He didn’t want me to watch, then would show me when he was done. He made a crown, a key, and then “It’s a B and T factory.” Next was a building “It sells Valentines.” He then did some looping in Auxy Music. He requested some of my drink mix so we mixed up some of that. He was then getting a bunch of items out of the cupboards for an experiment and he did a mixing experiment with Carly. He taught her about how cocoa powder doesn’t taste good.

I took a shower, then took him up for his bath. He was playing with his bracelets and said “I’m lucky that I have four bracelets.” We were getting ready to go, and as we did we solved a bunch of mysteries, which he found really exciting: We were missing a nut that went to his toy piano. I got him a flashlight to look under the couch. He found the missing dice from the snakes and ladders game. We then found the nut as well. Next, Carly couldn’t find her water bottle. I found that in one of the shopping bags from their trip yesterday. Then, we couldn’t find her keys. August had just been wearing her other key ring around his neck, saying that he was dressed up, but we didn’t think he had had her car key. I found it in the recycling bag by the door – probably Carly dropped it there when returning from the car and moving the bags. Although a slight chance it was August’s doing.

We drove up to the Leket location in Nahalal, on the way to Nazareth. Got there at 12:15, which was a good thing as that was when all the other people from the school showed up. We had to drive a bit farther, then had to walk to get to our destination. Before we left I had started to feel a bit ill, and was really nauseous in the car. No idea why. I’d brought books for us, but August mainly played Gro Forest on the way up.

Anyway, I was feeling better by the time we got walking. We took the orange bike and walked down a few dirt roads and paths to get to the beet fields. The three of us worked a little slowly, as I didn’t want to get my cast dirty and Carly suffered from allergies. August had a lot of fun though. He found a lot of really big beets this time, unlike last time when they were rather small. He was activating his claw machines to pick up beets, and helped me dump buckets a few times. Before we left he used the outhouse, which he was pretty excited about, and we washed our hands from the big jug thing of water that they had. Also interesting. And much of the time that we picked there were fighter jets (F-15s?) and helicopters flying around overhead.

Back at the car about 2:20 I picked up a broken piece of plastic from the ground to scrape my shoe. August really, really wanted that piece of plastic. Eventually I let him scrape off his shoes. He liked that but got frustrated when he couldn’t get much.

We drove the 15 minute drive over to Bet She’arim National Park. A few minutes longer, actually, as Apple Maps hadn’t the memo on a street change. Bet She’arim National Park is a UNESCO site as well for its necropolis of 30-some caves. We got there a little after 3 and it closed at 4, but that was fine since we have a pass. We saw some donkeys wandering around, and some sort of fashion photo shoot going on. We started walking and saw a few caves up on the hill, but none we could go in. Turned into a bunch of stairs so we turned back. Down below we went into the cave that is now a museum. August got really quiet and had Carly carry him the whole time. Couldn’t quite tell what he was thinking, although he did say things like “Whoa” a couple times. And he pointed out the different colored lights that were set up and had questions about coffins.

Back outside it was after 3:40. An employee said we could stay past 4 if we moved our car outside the gate. I went and did that. When I got back Carly took August to the bathroom. I went into another cave system, the one with 130 coffins in it. But only had 5 minutes or so as then the same guy was closing that. So Carly and August didn’t get to see in there.

They got back and we decided to head home, just after 4. August listened to some of his playlist in the car. Then he was threatening to fall asleep. I surprised him with episode 3 of Wild Kratts being downloaded on his iPad. He watched it twice (a lot of giggling) and that got us home. About 5:10.

The nausea had come back so I went up and lay down for awhile. Carly took allergy medicine and let him watch Llama Llama since we were both sick. I was down at 6. He had told Carly the cave was his favorite thing of the day, even better than the beet picking. He had also eaten a lot of the noodle dish for dinner and earned some dried cheerios.

Carly went to bed and we read Dr. Seuss stories: The Rabbit, the Bear, and the Zinniga-Zanniga, What Was I Scared of?, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Played some Seuss Band in between. Cherie had let me know of a concer that their friend Omar was playing in Mexico and we watched the live stream of that on Facebook and played Toca Blocks. In Skybrary we read a Geoege Washington Picture Book. Finally, he requested some peanut butter crackers.

I took him up and had him go to the bathroom and put on his pajamas. I left them at 8:40. He said “I hope dada doesn’t have much work.” She brushed his teeth, then it apparently still look him quite awhile to fall asleep, as it was close to 9:30 when he did.

Cave: 

He was sleeping between us when he woke up at 6:20. Rested and nursed in bed for awhile before they got up. I was up at 7 and they were watching part of “The Deep” from The Blue Planet. He was then a baby squirrel. He then showed me his popcorn machine and how it puts on “salt, extra oil, and too much za’atar.”

They nursed and then read The Sound of Silence. Carly tried to get him to rate the book when they were done. She explained the stars, then he changed them: “I have rule power on the stars: 1 is sad, 2 is lots of noise, 3 is sound of silence, 4 is eh, and 5 is wonderful” They then read the Seuss book Time for Up and My Many Colored Days.

He played with the Atlas app, then showed Carly Rockmate and Zen Studio. She headed out to read and work. We tried to skype with my parents but they didn’t appear online. We played Musyc and August kept saying things like  “The music is awesome.” He then played with Notion. Looking at his list of compositions he said “I love these so much. I can’t stand it. Let’s never delete any of them.” He went to the bathroom and asked “What’s ‘hilarious’ mean?…You’re hilarious.” Then to Duplos. He said “Look how much progress I’m making.” He was making a new popcorn machine and on this machine the popcorn slid down a slide once it was popped.

My parents then did call on Skype. They were online but Skype is having issues. August answered a couple of questions and then said “I’m doing all the talking.” And he showed them his popcorn machine. It was late for them, so not a long call.

He helped Carly water the plants through the kitchen windows and I took a shower. When I came down they were taking crackers and peanut butter outside to eat. Carly then took him up to his shower. Before he went he had drank from his pink water bottle and I said the magic would make him like getting in the water. He joked “Dada, you were wrong for the first time.” I had joked I was never wrong. But he also said, on his own, that he’d maybe stop getting upset about his baths.

Carly gave him his bath and he did indeed get upset. He came down and interrupted me working. Then back to the Duplos and popcorn machine. Finished it, then made a new attachment part. He ang a funny Yellow Submarine song and discussed having songs stuck in his head.

Carly was outside, and he asked “Dada, do you mind me if I go out with mama?” They were outside and ate food. Inside he was a baby squirrel and cuddled with me. We discussed opposable thumbs and which animals have them and which don’t.

They left for a shopping trip at 1:20. At Ace they got a watering system for the plants and a sprayer to spray their cat repellent mixture around the yard. They then went to Tiv Taam. August didn’t want to play on the playground outside as there were too many kids.

They were back at 2:40. He hummed a song for me: “Maybe it’s a song I heard, maybe I made it up.” He helped figure out how to use the sprayer and spent a lot of time spraying the yard and helping put down orange peel pieces.

I got him out for a walk at 4:15. I managed to avoid the oranges with the bike as we went out the gate. He said “Good job, dada.” He then asked, as we walked, “What’s the esophagus?” “How can food get stuck in your esophagus?” That’s a reference to Darrin, who we found out was in the hospital.

He first wanted to go to our park and to his lab in the teeter totter thing: “I’ll do a spell that does is both pink.” “Screws, unicycles, trees, leaves, shaky things, baby toys…”

We played around with the ‘store’ area and swing, then went over to look at a big box of books that was left by the paper recycling: “Why do you love books so much?” Went back to the park for a few minutes. He asked “Why don’t you let me be mean like other kids?”

We got walking again by 4:50. We went to the snakes and ladders park. On the way he saw a guy running with two dogs and said “That’s hilarious.” He asked about what would happen if one thing went one way, and another thing went a different way. He said he was talking about machines, but he was inspired by the guy and dogs. He spotted some water gauges and we looked at those. Walked the back route into the park. He spotted the half moon and said that name makes more sense than ‘D moon’.

Got to the Snakes and Ladders Park after 5. It was busy and he immediately said “Let’s go then.” But I got him on the spinning thing with me where we are planted. Then played snakes and ladders. He wanted me to drive the jeep thing and asked “Can I be your luggage?” He was the luggage in the back as I drove us around the world: South Pole, “Let’s go where the animal kiwi lives.” He was then escaping luggage, escaping out of the back of my car.

Went over to the climbing stuff for awhile, then on the U-shaped sliding thing. He asked “Can we be a pendulum?”

We walked home. He asked to add punctuation to the A Ah Apple song. So it was verses like “Period period period period period period…” He heard an electrical box that was humming so then he was an electrical box.

We were home just before 6. He asked “Dada, why do you always call mama ‘girl’? But she’s not a kid.” In the bathroom he made a big mess of toilet paper. We had to have a talk about that and he helped clean it up.

He then did art in Zen Studio and played Seuss Band. We read The Cat in the Hat and Oh, the Places You’ll Go. Carly then Skyped with Cassie.

He ate noodles for dinner. He drank from his pink water bottle and said “I turned into DNA!” He then watched a DNA video with Carly.

Carly looked out and saw that the usual black cat was back and seemingly unbothered by all the citrus in the yard. In fact, as she had the door to the kitchen open the cat came right over to us.

Carly took him upstairs. I went up about 8:30 to try to put him to sleep. He tried for awhile, but said he was “Sad” without mama. Just wanted to get him used to the idea of lying in the dark with me, so didn’t push it. We switched at 8:45 and he fell asleep a bit after that.