Carly was up about 4:15 and left to go hike up the Snake Path with the kids and see the sunrise. August woke up at 5:50 and was quite upset. He was still sleepy and wanted to go back to sleep. It was still really dark and he didn’t understand it was morning: “I want to call mama! Mama’s never coming back? She’s staying up all night? I’m sleepy! I don’t want to sleep with dada!” He settled down a couple times and we watched the sunrise out the window with him resting on my shoulder. But then he would get upset again. He directed me to the bathroom so he could go while he was still upset.
Finally, about 6:15 he calmed down for good and decided to read The 26-Story Treehouse. We read four chapters then stopped for a cookie, then read chapter 5. He said “Every page we go on I want another cookie.” I let him have one more cookie after another chapter. He ate part of it hand held it up and said “It’s a U.” He also wanted me to be the cookie not wanting to be eaten. I convinced it it was yummy and then it was happy with being eaten. He then switched into squirrel mode and said “Sorry Dada squirrel, I need the ice cream part.” So we read chapter 6 of the book, which has the ice cream part. We played some squirrel game and were resting. He then played Sarah and Duck Sleepover and I rested, then watched Sarah and Duck while I took a shower and cleaned and packed.
I commented that his sunglasses were etting pretty scratched up and we should buy new ones. He said “No. Or find some people have lost…I want to do that.” Carly’s group was running a little later than planned and were waiting for a cable car down. So August and I went up to breakfast. As we went up the stairs he sang a “Up to the sky” song. We got cereal and a variety of other things for breakfast. We beat the students there so I could also get to the coffee machine. We ate breakfast at a table by the windows with a view of the Dead Sea. Carly got there, then went with us back to the room after breakfast. But he didn’t nurse at all because Carly was sweaty after the hike: “Are you gross?”
We played more baby squirrel game in the room (he made up a “bumpadee” song) and then left at 9:30. We drove up to the visitor’s center this time as we were in a hurry. He was impatient with the ticket line not moving and started to point at and tell the people in front of us to “Go faster!” and I had to threaten to get out of line. He was being a price machine and putting price stickers on everyone and everything: “It cost 17” I asked what it was and he said “wine glass. Will you buy it?” He was then saying “Price, price, price…” as he put stickers on everything. I put a sticker on him and asked how much he cost. He said “14. Cuz that’s still my favorite number.”
We were some of the first people on the cable car and he got to look right out the front. He loved the trip up, and we got a great view of the path that Carly had been on earlier. Up at the top we took a few minutes looking out at the view, then got going inside Masada. He started on up the stairs and then we stopped at a bench to look at the big map model. Initially I was carrying him around. He did okay for awhile, looking in the storerooms. He then sat in the sand and was playing in it, pretending to bury and dig up cat poop. He wanted me to pretend to touch it, then to smell it, which I said no to.
We continued on to the northern fortress and he was starting to get impatient and wanted to go back down. But Carly had told us about a model of the water system so we needed to at least find that, and I wanted to see the western side where the Roman path had been built. I put him in the backpack and he did better after that. We found the water model and he got down to pour water in that and watch it go down the paths into the holes. We talked about how that was actually a model of the mountain, and sort of looked at how the hills corresponded to the map.
An odd moment was when I heard music playing and realized that there was music playing at a stage area. It was The Bloodhound Gang’s “Bad Touch” with the lines “You and me baby ain’t nothing but mammals, so let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel”. An odd song to hear playing in a place where you’re not even allowed (according to Lonely Planet) to eat.
Carly called to tell me they were leaving early. I had hoped to follow the busses back, so this wasn’t happy news. August was ready to head down the cable car anyway, so we hurried over and caught the cable car down. By the time we got down, found the elevator, got in our car, opened the gate of the hostel, parked, went in and used the bathroom, got our bags from behind the counter, and got going they had been gone for about 20 minutes. Carly said they were stopping somewhere along the way, but I figured that wouldn’t be soon and there was no reason to try to follow them.
So when Waze suggested a slightly different route on the way home that ran a little farther north than highway 1 I decided to take it. It took 90 north, then 1, but the veered to the north on 437, went through a checkpoint and across to 50, then up to 443 and on to 4 and home.
At one point along the Dead Sea, stuck behind a line of slow traffic anyway, I pulled over at a viewpoint to have a good look at the Dead Sea and get August a snack. We then continued on, and I saw some big caves in the cliffs to my left, a bunch of actual sinkholes to the right, and a sign for “An old cemitery (sic)”. Will have to check that one out next time we are in the area. It reminded me of when Carly and I were in England and we saw a sign for ‘Ancient Castle’ and had to go check it out.
The 437/50/443 route was certainly interesting, as I saw two boys riding a donkey, a cement factory (or something of the sort), two Israeli soldiers in full gear standing next to the husk of a burned out car, two checkpoints, and big sections of the wall.
August for his part, had been talking about falling asleep before we left the hostel, telling me that he was still going to be sleeping when we got home. The reality was different: he watched some shows and played on the iPad. At one point he stopped playing, and sort of hugged it and closed his eyes for a few minutes but didn’t fall asleep. He said he was done with the iPad and went without it for 30 or 40 minutes. He closed his eyes a few times, but didn’t go to sleep. Instead, he kept asking “Are we to our street yet?” He started to get frustrated, especially when we got on 4 and traffic slowed down. So I gave him the iPad back.
We got home at 2:15. We played the baby bee game, with dada bee bringing nectar for the baby bee. And: “Can you say ‘I want some honey to make my blueberry honey cake?’” “I have a cup of honey you can use for your blueberry honey cake!” He described an elaborate cake with all sorts of fruits on it, but then said “It burned and caught on fire then exploded.” I cooked a couple of the okara patties and he ate one with ketchup, then we went back to the bee game, only this time he wanted the police to get people in trouble for waking up the baby bee. We went out and checked on the tomato plants: he was shocked to find two plants growing, then a black cat ran out from under the wooden stand. Then August reached for the watering can and tipped it over and broke it. An exciting minute. The cat just want and lay down behind the Zinnie house. He watered the plants and weeds and filled up the cat water, then we left at 3:20 to go get Carly. He kept asking me “Can you say…?” and it was basically the Pipe Conductor story from Peg and Cat.
We got Carly and came home. They nursed and he played some iPad. Planets, I think. They then read a few pages of The 26-Story Treehouse, but then he stopped her, saying it was a secret. He wanted to read it with me a few minutes later, so we read more of it. He wanted dry Cheerios so Carly got him some. We had him ask nicely, and he said “The nicer I g
et…The nicer I say it, the more I get?” Carly then made some scrambled eggs for him while I read. We also read most of Berenstain Bears and Baby Make Five.
They went upstairs to play on the bed for awhile, then were back downstairs playing on the couch: “Can you be a hundred and sixty and seventeen viruses growing in babies bodies?” “Can you be a machine that makes the baby feel better right away?” He calls this “medicine water” and it drowns the germs.
Carly went up to do laundry and we finished Berenstain Bears and Baby Make Five, then read Sarah and Duck Stay at the Duck Hotel and the the Mickey Mouse book. I got a book called Space Dog but it is not much better, although the art is better. When I gave in and read the Mickey Mouse book he said “Fine. Finesy Minesy.” It was time for his shower, so he flipped through Hilo and I read it in fast forward. I then took him up and gave him a shower, washing his hair. He got the hair wet, and as we were getting him ready for sleep Carly and I were talking about how he was sad in the morning. He didn’t want us to talk about it. He was asleep about 6:40.
Photos. Same sunrise as Carly:
One sock cookie-eating boy:
Looking down on the trail Carly walked up:
Masada:
A stop to look at the Dead Sea:
Home:
Tomato plants:
