I got up at 7:45 but went back to bed. I was woken up by “Mama!” at 9:31. That wasn’t good. I knew he wasnt ready to be awake. Spent the next half hour holding him. He wanted to go outside so I held him in the yard, and that helped a little. But eventually he said “I want the stroller.” We changed his clothes and left just after 10. Walked clockwise around a couple blocks and back to our place. He said he wanted to keep walking. So we went to the northeast. After five minutes or so I gave him his water and told him to drink. He did, then said he wanted to go home. Got back a little after 10:30. He cried once we got inside and he said he wanted to see mama. I held him on my shoulder and we stood in the air conditioning and he was asleep by 10:40.
I set him down on the couch (which I had figured out how to turn into a bed). He opened his eyes and looked at me for a bit but then closed them and went to sleep. Until 10:55 when he woke up, gave a cry of frustration, and said, I think “We’re not going to be there.” Perhaps referring to us going to visit mama at the school. But I told him to go back to sleep and, remarkably, he lay back down, turned on his side, and went back to sleep.
He was awake again at 11:35. Carly had said we could go to the school at any time, so we got ready and left at 12:15. It took less than 20 minutes to get to school, pushing the stroller. As we got near the entrance of the school, August pointed at a car and said “That’s the kind of car we’re going to get in Israel.” It was, indeed, a Chevy Sonic – the only kind of car we looked at with him.
We arrived at 12:35. Didn’t have long to look for her as we ran into her after just a few seconds. They found a bench and nursed and I grabbed some lunch. I ended up going up and getting my photo taken for an ID card, then August ate some watermelon and we looked a bit at the library. We then went to find a playground. Walked down the length of the elementary school, refilled our water bottles at a fountain, and left the stroller at the top of the stairs, and went to the big playground. Of course, the thing he most wanted to do was the biggest and most difficult for him, as it was crawling through these tire shapes that are hanging in the air and spaced wide apart. Got him over to the spider web thing instead, like that playground in Korea, and he asked “Can I go crazy?” Climbed up on the play structure, inching around in circles on the spirally pole, and was interested in the bird poop all over. I gave him a leaf that he could use to brush it off the play structure.
We went to Carly’s classroom a bit before 2:30. It is nice, with windows looking outside down both of its lengths. Hung out there a bit, then we all went down to the bathroom. He went in with me, and I found out his underwear was on the wrong way. I can’t even really explain how. I remember this morning thinking that his underwear was starting to get too small, and it was difficult to get down now. Obviously we were both really tired at 9:30. In fact, the plan was to go on the school trip to Ikea at 3. But first Carly was too tired. I still planned to go, but as we were playing at the playground I decided that rugs and sheets and whatnot could wait. Holly came by and we left at 2:50. She gave us a ride home.
We expected him to take a nap, but he didn’t. He occasionally starts singing our conversations now, and did that again. He watched some Sarah and Duck with me, and turned down more nursing at one point, saying “Nope. There’s not milk in there anyway.” I fell asleep, and got up before Carly left at 5:30 to go to the school dinner at a place down on the water in Netanya. When I had come out August was watching Puffin Rock. We watched the Dawn Chorus story together, then the one where they race. He wanted to pull out the other end of the table and he helped me do that. He was talking about Vivian pooping in the bathroom of the motor home and said “Sometimes I poop in motorhomes.” Which he never actually did. When he asked for a mint he started doing a whole happy mint dance and song, which was pretty cool. Then, as we put on his shorts or shoes, a “One foot and then the other” chant.
We walked up to downtown and the grocery store there. He had chosen it over going back to the other, and I thought we’d have good shade walking north in the evening. He was really tired in the grocery store, but did a good job of trying to not get frustrated and helping with the shopping. I had let him get another chocolate pudding thing, contingent on him helping, and when he would let out a small cry of frustration he would then check with me to see if I was going to put the treat back. He rode around in a cart and got out and walked part of the time. The woman who rang us up was nice and commented on his nice blue eyes. We haven’t left those compliments behind in Korea.
On the way home I pointed out the moon. He asked if the moon talked – a reference to the talking moon in Sarah and Duck. So the moon talked to him, reminding him of calling it a banana and a D moon in Korea. We stopped at a park about halfway and sat and he ate a peanut butter sandwich. He didn’t want to play at all and we headed home. The town was quite lovely as the sun set, and I’ve noted that it all smells better than Korea where we would get some sewage smell and the smell of rotting ginkgo berries.
At home he watched some more Sarah and Duck and I cooked a broccoli veggie burger pattie that we found at the store. It is a nice green inside. I put it inside a warmed half of a pita along with some mayo and cheese and he ate almost all of it. Right before it was done he had wanted to call mama, so I had let him do that. But when we hung up he got upset and I thought he was just going to cry until she got home and wouldn’t eat anything. Luckily, I calmed him down and he ate a decent dinner.
Carly was home at 8:35. He was lightly hitting her and he said “I never do it on purpose.” Which was repeating something she had said to him, about how when she pokes him with a fingernail, etc. and hurts him it isn’t on purpose. But his clearly are.
Carly gave him a shower and he went straight to sleep after 9. But then he woke up sniffling a couple times. Clearly he was coming down with a cold. I had give him some allergy medicine right before bed and he said his throat itched, which he has heard from Carly and her allergic reactions. I check the ingredients on the burgers to see if there was anything unusual in them and there wasn’t. After a couple wake ups and as his nose got stuffier it was clear that he had been talking about a sore throat.
I, having napped earlier, now couldn’t really get fully to sleep and when he got up fully awake at 1:30 it did not feel good getting up with him at all. He watched Sarah and duck in his room and I slept in 5 minute increments. He was getting frustrated with the stuffy/runny nose and around and around 2:30 he broke down crying and frustrated, saying “The snot’s not going away…It’s not going to go away. Is it going to?” Took 15 or 20 minutes, but finally by 3 he was able to get back to sleep.
Nap on the couch:
Playground at school:
At the grocery store:
View on our walk home:
Broccoli sandwich:
