I heard the door at 6:54. I walked up the stairs and he saw me and he asked “What are you doing?” and then asked me to carry him down. Not upset or surprised at all that Carly were gone. Sat on the couch for a minute then needed to use the bathroom; likely why he woke up. We played Tio Mio together (an app where you change quadrants of a picture to make a person wearing the outfit of a profession, then you see a little cartoon of that profession), then he wanted to watch a new show and chose the Care Bears on Netflix. We watched a couple episodes and ate breakfast. We then read more of Astrosmurf before August spotted ants on the carpet. They were going for a raisin that he had dropped last night. While I cleaned up the ants he had a machine: “I’m using a machine with sharp spinner blades that kills lots of ants.”
We then read several Peppa Pig books: First Sleepover, Dentist, Santa. As we read them, he called the younger brother, George, ‘Colin’ a few times. Not sure he was doing it on purpose. While reading the dentist one we started talking about baby teeth versus adult teeth and I said that adult teeth people had until the end of their lives. He asked “Until you die?” I replied “Well, yes, everyone eventually dies.” To which he then asked “But not me?” I then explained that that was a very long way away and nothing to worry about or something. He stared off, thinking, for a few seconds, then I suggested we go back to reading. That was a tough one.
I found some more ants to chase out of the house, then made sandwiches, then we made his nest of pillows and played with that. We finally left about 11 and got in the backpack in the front yard. As we were doing that our neighbor pulled up and she had her niece with her. They came to say hi. The girl’s name was Emma, I think. She didn’t talk though. We then walked over to the bus stop where it said we had 28 minutes to wait. We ate some lunch, and August contemplated all the bolts and how the bus stop would come apart (I had pointed out that they had taken down the one across the street). The bus came a little past 11:30. He had fun looking out the window during the nearly hour-long bus ride. He spotted a few construction sites, and said a building looked like a theater just for grown ups: “And just buttons. Boring buttons.” He also seemed to think the bus was fast, perhaps because of the loud noise: “This is way faster than cars.” It was a comfortable ride though, compared to busses in Seoul. When it started filling up, there was a funny moment when he thought he saw a dog: “I see a dog back there..It’s hair!” It was actually a woman’s head.
We got off about 12:30, got in the backpack, and looked around a bit to try to figure out where we caught a bus headed home. We then walked down Herzl Street to the main beach in Netanya. I stopped at a concrete bench to make sure we had sunscreen and scraped my leg on the very pointing broken end of the triangle-shaped bench. We got down to the beach, found a good spot, put on sunscreen, and then before we touched the water he said he needed the bathroom. Luckily, there was a bathroom a short walk across the hot sand. We went and did that, then went to the beach on the south side of the little point we were on. Lots and lots of kids in the area.
We started playing a little before 1:30. He started with just playing with the waves on his feet for several minutes. We found a cheap plastic spoon toy and he played with that in the sand. After 20 minutes or so I got him to walk out in the water a bit, but he said it hurt on his leg. He actually did have a red spot that looked perhaps like a bug bite. Went back and played in the sand a bit, then I got him out in the water again. This time, he got out deep, and I had him floating out where it was over his head for awhile. We were right in front of the lifeguard hut, and they take their job seriously here (unlike at the school where they are on their phones): two guys with binoculars always looking out and regular announcements about “boys…” and “small boy…” and occasionally “girls…” that went past the rope, etc. I at least know those words in Hebrew.
We spent most of our time floating in the shallower water though and playing around. About 2:30 we went back in and played in the sand again. We made little sand castles and he waited for the waves to knock them over. Finally, at 2:40 he went back in for one last little wade in the water, then we got ready to go. We stopped at the showers to rinse off and he liked the low faucets and used those on his hands and feet.
We got walking about 3. On the way back up we stopped to admire the sculpture of guys playing music, and then we spotted a smoothie shop and stopped and got a delicious mango and banana (his choices) yogurt smoothie that we ate on the way back to the bus stop. At one point he wanted to save the rest for the bus stop, but I said we might not be able to take it on the bus. At the bus stop, at 3:40, he told one of his stories: “I’ve seen people take smoothies on the bus when they’re not supposed to, dads.”
We waited there a few minutes but then determined it wasn’t the right spot. We had to go inside the building to the inside bus terminal area. Found the spot for our bus, then proceeded to wait more than half an hour. Couldn’t find any way to figure out when the next bus was coming. Thought about taking him to the bathroom at one point, but was then afraid we’d miss the bus.
Finally, at 4:22 a bus came. Luckily, the route back is a little more direct and we got home about 5:15. We watched some Sarah and Duck on the way to keep him awake, as he was definitely falling asleep.
At home he first showed Carly the peeing part on the Human Body app. He also watched the white blood cells and asked “Do they have mouths?” He also likes the intestinal lining part. We made his nest and I was trying to get him to rest with me, but it turned into the waking me up game, with him getting Carly to come and wake me and me hissing or growling or whatever. He was laughing like crazy. He also ate some dinner with Carly. She took him up for his shower, then there was more silly time on the bed. We talked about going and reading stories, and for a minute he was insistent he was going to nurse, then come read stories, but then he changed his mind and said he was going to sleep. He was asleep at 7:30.
Pointing on the bus:
Down to the Mediterranean:
Beach 1:
Beach 2:
The beach:
Smoothie:
Silly:
Watching the eclipse:
