He was up at 6:20. Had a repeat of a week and a half ago when he went straight to the bathroom and said his penis hurt. Seemed to get over it faster this time, though it took a couple hours. Before Carly headed to work she said something to him about going to the beach today and he said “But you’ll miss all the fun!” Watched one Care Bear episode and ate a few Cheerios. We went outside and there was a strong smoky smell. Don’t know why. We spotted ants going towards the garbage for the first time, so I took that out and recycling. He wanted to take recycling to the cages, but we would end up waiting to do it. He decided to watch Lucy and Pogo, then went to the bathroom and got talkative: “Why in Korea when they had garbage they made heat and electricity?” He talked a lot about plastic and pollution: “I’m glass you can put on the ground and it lasts for millions and millions of years. It will never break down.” “A machine is filling me up with empty glass. Someone behind the machine is putting in empty glass to fill me up.”
He hadn’t eaten much breakfast and wanted toast and biscuit spread, which is gone. Did toast and honey instead and I took a shower. Back downstairs, as we got ready to go, he spotted more ants. He said: “They say they’re hungry.” And “When I eated my toast gravity pulled the seeds and crumbs down.”
We left a little after 9. I didn’t expect the bus until after 9:30, but wanted to make sure. We went to the bus stop and waited until the bus showed up on the sign and it said 30 minutes. So we went back to the house and got recycling and took it up to the cages. Had August do much of the walking, although he wanted me to carry him by the dog poop as he didn’t want to step on it. Did recycling, dropped off the bag, and made it to the bus stop in plenty of time to catch the bus at 9:40. He was watching the sign, telling me when the minutes changed. The actual cost of the bus is 6.80 for us. Don’t know why the first guy only charged us 4 shekels.
He just sat and looked out for much of the way and ate his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. While eating he said “I’m just as allergic to cashews as mama.” We played I Spy and I said a stop button. He had apparently already found all the stop buttons as he immediately pointed out about six of them: “That stop button or that stop button…” Before we got off at 10:30 he had been asking if ants could get on the bus, which led to a discussion of insect survival and dying. As we got off the bus he asked how we die. I asked if he meant the insects, which we’d been discussing, and he said no, “How do WE die?”
We walked around the block a bit, got in the backpack, and walked straight to the beach. We went to the bathroom and changed into our swimsuits and were in the water just after 11, at the spot we initially went to last time. School apparently doesn’t start until tomorrow, but for whatever reason the beaches were empty compared to last time. We spent about two hours playing at the beach. We went out floating a couple times, going out to a sand bar a little ways out that he could stand on and touching the waves that were breaking a bit. Back on the shore we used our stick to write words that either August or the waves would erase. August would say “The waves choose” whether he or the waves would erase it. We also watched kids out surfing and he liked the little fish swimming around. At one point he didn’t want to walk out to me because he didn’t want to step on the fish.
While sitting on me as we were in the shallows, he got his mouth too close to the water and took a mouthful. Had to get out and took him awhile to recover. Finally, he was making a hole with the stick, and before we left we went out for one more float in the water. Oh, and the kids next to us had a fishing pole and were trying to catch a little fish.
Just after 1 we went up to the showers and faucets to rinse off. August then spent about twenty minutes playing in the stream going from the showers into the sand. He would get his hands or feet sandy, then go over to the faucets and rinse them off. We got walking by 1:40, with him in the backpack. We went up the steps. Along the way he told a story about a cat he saw sleeping that ran off down the stairs and went into the water. The first part may have been true. Of another cat he asked “Can I take the cat home?” Yesterday, at Tiv Taam, when I was looking at cheese he wandered over to the aisle with pet food. He came back and asked if we could get a cat and cat food.
At the top of the stairs we walked north along the path at the top of the cliff. Maybe a half mile or so until we had a view of the next beach north. We also saw a paraglider go right over head, a big ship out on the horizon, and the docks or something up at Jaffa.
We were ready for a smoothie, so we walked back along the street to where the steps to the beach are, then our usual route back to the bus. We stopped for a smoothie and chose a peach and strawberry yogurt smoothie this time. We drank it on our way back. We stopped by the restrooms close to the bus station and paid a shekel to use them. Outside, he stood and drank the smoothie for awhile and offered me some. When we were walking he had been doing a drink for him, a drink for me.
We got to the bus station and lucked out this time, catching a bus immediately. On the way home we read some Hilo, then he watched Sarah and Duck with his headphones and I did some reading. We got off the bus and he played on the exercise equipment for a bit. We were home at 4:15.
We had just started reading the Shady Glade book and were discussing bird migration when Carly got home at 4:30. They nursed, then we finished reading Shady Glade. Carly was upstairs and he was pondering telling Carly about the mints AND Jaffa cakes that we had had on the way/when we got home. He giggled about it a lot, but then decided, I think, to keep it a secret.
We ate dinner, and he ate some of the rice and curry dish, but not a lot. Carly took him outside and they sat at the table and he showed her the Mammals and Plants apps from TinyBop on the iPad. Back inside, he and I read The Story of Babar, which involved discussing hunting, as Babar’s mother is shot by a hunter. He was hungry, and I sliced up the last golden apple. He was really excited about it, and ate 7 of the 8 slices, as he gave one to Carly because he wanted her to try it.
He wanted more apple, and wanted a machine to put water back in the dried apple, which he refused to eat today as he said it was too hard to eat. Carly took a shower and we read Hilo, then I got him some grapes when he was still hungry. I also got him to eat a few more bites of his dinner.
Carly gave him a shower, and in on the bed he said that Carly was the garbage power plant and his feet were the cranes picking up the garbage (his clothes). He keeps asking me where our garbage and sewage go, as in Korea we sort of knew that, as he knew about the power plant and the sewage treatment plant at Seoul Forest.
A couple days ago he was able to clearly communicate how when we put his shirt on it sometimes hurts him, so she is careful putting it on now. He was asleep about 8.
We used our dryer a couple times today. Carly dried a couple shirts she washed by hand, and then I did a full load of laundry in the evening. What a luxury!
Bus stop:
Beach:
Sharing:
Bus:
