Up at 6:40. He came down the stairs, but then wanted me to take him upstairs, where he lay on the bed for a couple minutes. He then wanted to go downstairs, and I held him in the living room for several minutes. Finally, he was hungry so he watched Puffin Rock and I made him a pancake. We then played the owl game: “Mossy’s doing something in the meadow! They’re gonna fly over there! Come on, Otto! Mossy’s finding mice for Pip and Pop!” After playing that for quite awhile he watched Wanda and the Alien and I exercised, then we went back to the owl and Mossy games, with Mossy being a patient: “You put brain medicine in there that makes the brain confused of something.” “Doctor! Every machine you used is not working right!” “All the bones is working right but the bone marrow isn’t!” “The heart is working well.” I ended up putting robot parts on him. And he was repeatedly calling me ‘doctor’: “Why you putting pillows on me, doctor?”
I took a shower and he was on the toilet. Went downstairs and he played Namoo and I made pizza. In talking about our plans he had earlier said that he wanted to go back to the park we went to yesterday, but now he said “I want a different park every day.” We looked at Google Maps together, then played more of owls not feeling well. I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which he ate half of, and sliced up an apple for a snack. We did more doctor game, taking care of the owls and shrews and rabbit, then Carly called while he was on the toilet. Before we left he was talking about the Mammals app, saying “When I ask the animals if they’re hungry they keep saying they’re HUNGRY!” He had left one piece of pizza, so I got him to eat it before we left. He bit his tongue eating last bite of pizza. Earlier, when we were eating pizza, he had slipped walking to his chair and fell.
We finally left at 1:05 on our first drive together without Carly in the car. I had given him the iPad app and he’d chosen RioMio before we left. As we drove away he said “Bye bye house”. Yesterday, as we had left Ra’anana Park, he had said “Bye bye, park.”
We went to the Ilanot arboretum just north of Even Yehuda. Had some difficulty getting to it. First tried to go to the portion on the west side of Highway 4, but started to go on a once-paved road that was now a mess. I feared for our little car, so turned around. Google Maps took me on the highway, but wanted me to take a left turn where I couldn’t. So I exited to the right, to the Ilanot portion on the east side. I thought it didn’t matter, as from the photos it looked like there was a path under the highway connecting them.
Anyway, this part at least turned out to be an arboretum. We parked and got in the backpack on a bench. We got walking and had a great time. Almost all of the trees are labeled, and August wanted to stop at every sign to see what kind of tree it was. There were flat fir-type needles that he liked taking off their branches when I picked them off from the ground for him, and we looked for a tree like the ones at our house. There a hundred species at least, and a lot of them are really interesting trees. We stopped to look at seeds and cones and different leaves and needles. We walked the entire paved path to the east and then the north, then looped around and headed back towards the car. August started a “We’re going back the way we came” chant that lasted several minutes and turned into a song, before reverting back to the chant. We found the tunnel under the highway, but it is now closed off.
We talked about what we were doing next, but he said he wanted to ride a bus: “But I like to ride busses!” Five minutes later: “Can I get a bus ride home?” We pondered how the path to the tunnel no longer existed and he said “Maybe a scary monster took it away.”
We got back to picnic tables and chose one in the shade. He started playing with the pine needles, making a mountain. He was pouring dust on it with his hands, and said it was a “pine needle washing machine”. The dirt he put in it was the soap. Cassie, Vivian, and Colin called and skyped for a few minutes. August was focused on his pine needles, but paused to say hi and bye and listen a bit when Vivian played piano for him. Later, when he told Carly about it, he remembered that Vivian had skyped to play piano for him, so he had been paying attention.
We ate our apple and more of the sandwich. We had walked for about an hour, then played in the pine needles for a good half hour. Finally, after 3:30, we headed to the bathroom. August explained what we were doing next: “I want to wash my hands, go to the bathroom, go home…and have a nice dinner with mama.” When he saw inside of the bathroom he said “This is like a Korea bathroom in Children’s Grand Park?” Not sure why he said that. He spotted the urinals and said “Urinals. No. They might have sensors. I do NOT like sensors.”
We got going, and had a bit of adventure. I went out the eastern exit, as I would have to turn north on the highway. It was a big, nice dirt road out the back, and it looked like I could get to a paved road pretty easily. But I’m finding Google Maps is not so good here, and some of their lines didn’t even seem to correspond to what I saw, or were really rough lines along power lines, or rough roadways for those ATVs. I found a nice gravel road running north or south, but at the north end there was a gate, and at the south end it ended. Made it back to the arboretum and took a right on the highway and turned around at the next light.
August had been playing Mammals, and I kept hearing elephant noises. I was focusing on navigating and driving, and finally made it home at 4:10. I turned around to find him asleep. He was still sitting up, so I think it had just happened. He slumped over as I watched. I got him out of his vest, and he said “No” to going inside, and lay down on the backseat and fell back to sleep. I took him in and stood him up, and he lay down on the rug and fell asleep again. I got him awake at 4:20, telling him he could have some mints. He perked up and told me “The fruit ones are the waking up mints…because they have good sugar.” He got a couple Tic-Tacs, then said “Don’t tell mama you had inside mints?” He was then pretending to be a dying beetle.
We got up and read Corduory Goes to the Library. At the end there is a reference to Little Red Riding Hood and we discussed that. He wanted to plat the Little Green Riding Hood story/app on my iPad. He did that, and was proud of himself for going through the whole story.
I started making food: a pancake for him, cauliflower, mushrooms, and a new batch of iced tea, this time the Earl Grey we like. Carly got home and they nursed, and he told her we didn’t find a tree like we have here. He ate his pancake, and he left the last bite. I told him he got that from his mom, and he asked “Did mama do that in college?” He played the My First Orchard and My First Orchestra apps and we looked at the orchestra together. He and Carly read Jumpy Jack and Googily. I gave him a shower and washed his hair, and he was drinking from the shower head. In bed they read part of the Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent book. He was tired, and went to sleep at 7:30. He woke up at 8:10, but Carly got him right back to sleep.
Weed watering:
Arboretum:
Closed path:
Pine needles and Smokey:
Sleeping:
Drinking from the shower head:
Reading Cyrus:
