He got up right before 6. I told him to lie back down. But he said “Go downstairs.” Carly heard and came in and patent about twenty minutes with him before they came down. He sat down and as a crane handed me Du Iz Tak? We read that and noticed the changing of the mushroom and grass this time, then he and Carly did the Hokey Pokey. We started to read the book again but Carly got him cereal and he went to eat that. He was being a caterpillar in a cocoon when Carly was ready to leave and she had to first watch him become a butterfly. After she left we were butterflies being eaten by birds for awhile, then he played with the chalk. He wanted to “dissolve” some in water, but I suggested food coloring instead. He had fun with food coloring and asked what I meant by ‘opposite’ colors. So we looked at color wheels. He had some food coloring on one of his hands and talked about his hands: “This hand is for playing and eating; this hand is for picking things up.” He then wanted to play Big Dragonbox Numbers. He was rather obsessed with that game all day, even turning a lot of our pretend play into Big Dragonbox Numbers.
We went out to watch the garbage truck, and I had a shop: “Shop, you sell motors that don’t need a lot of power to work.” While playing the actual Big Dragonbox Numbers with him he was being a caterpillar and wanting me to do the math problems: “Dada, can you do a bee math problem while the caterpillar turns into a butterfly?”
We went outside and did watering, etc. and back inside played the Orchard game, then he watched Wanda and the Alien and I went and took a shower. We then made banana bread together, and spent the whole time discussing Big Dragonbox Numbers. While it baked we ended up on the rug in front of the air conditioner. He lay on my chest and kept discussing Big Dragonbox Numbers. That was quite fun.
He was getting hungry. Looked in the fridge and he saw the new cartons of milk, one of which had robots on it: “Can I try the robot flavor?” We pretended it tasted like motor oil. While he drank that I cooked mushrooms and made pizza and put that in when the banana bread was done. He had an ice cream shop and accused me of stealing ice cream, so the police got me in trouble. And then he watched the Peg + Cat sorting episode.
We ate pizza and banana bread for lunch. He wanted to go do recycling, but was then sorting ice cream, and a worm sorting dirt. Then played lots of sick baby squirrel game – sometimes with a machine in it and with elements of Dragonbox Big Numbers mixed in. He rode his bike a bit in the house and sang along to “Sentimental Wars”. I went out and moved the car seats and cleaned the one we borrowed: “I got crumbs in that car seat when I ate crackers in the car…Does Cassie like clean things?”
Then back to Dragonbox Big Numbers. I was playing his Zinnie Songs playlist and he was singing along to “Somebody come and play” and then a couple of the Poli English songs, one of which was about crossing the street. When a rock song came on he said “I can’t sing along to this one…I can’t talk along to this one…I love the traffic one.” So we went back to that song and played it a couple of more sounds.
Then, before we left he was a machine: “It sprays out chemicals that changes the sounds.” He was then humming the tune to one of the Poli songs, but changing the sound to it. Then he was a machine that changed the color of traffic lights, so that yellow meant stop, etc.
We got out the door and he was playing with the stroller and tripped down the stair, taking the stroller with him. He curled up on his stomach and I went and picked him up. He was okay: “The machine is breaking down.” “The crane is picking up the machine.” He then played in the yard and got the stick things from the swings and broke them: “I’m just making more work for mama when she gets home.” He got on the teeter totter on his own and was riding fast – the weight was starting to tip up so I had to hold the other end.
We finally left at 2:30. Got to the school and parked outside. Went in, taking the car seat to Carly’s room, but found Cassie first. Then Carly came from the other direction. August gave air high fives to Cassie. Holly then found us and so did Grace, who gave him a high five. He said hello to another student who said “Hi, August!” But when Dudley said hi August said his voice part was broken. We went and did can recycling, then headed back to the library. We had planned on going swimming, but he wanted to go to the library. On the way he said “I’m a machine that makes librarians think you can play in libraries longer than ever.” I assured him that the library wasn’t closing early today, that it just closes early on Fridays. At the library we went back and got a bunch of books. Went to the stuffed animals and read The Mr. Fix-It Man, That’s How! (twice), Maisy Goes to Preschool, and How Scary! Who scares who from one to ten? We then read the Fix-It man book again. He went to the bathroom, then was running back and started to take an early right, as he often does, into the librarians’ office. He fell and get a bit of a rug burn on his knees – just enough to feel it. He was concerned about it, but didn’t get upset. In the toy corner he found a little plastic bee and we played a bee game for 10 or 15 minutes. He or I would use the bee to go get nectar for the baby bees back in the nest.
At 4:30 we headed out and met Carly outside. We went to the car and drove to the community center. We went downstairs to the class and met the teachers. Pretty sure I’ve met one of them – works in one of the shops or something. August was a bit nervous/reluctant at first, but then when they started running in circles he joined in. He kept holding his shorts, even though they were folded over. The class was mainly in Hebrew, so Carly helped him out as well. At one point I heard him say something like “I’m wearing out my parts when I run.” There was some game involving hula hoops on the ground. Carly didn’t understand the explanation, but August was fine, as he made up his own game: “You go in the circles they BLOW UP!” And it was quite funny when they would run in circles and he would run the wrong direction. They played duck, duck, goose. August got to do it, in English. In this version you said colors and when you said ‘black’ that was the person that chased you. Finally, there was a big obstacle course path set up. Kind of like Teuni Teuni, but all wooden stuff; a little different from all the soft, padded stuff in Korea. And he said something like “my motor’s starting up and I’m not done yet.”
He really liked the class, but then the bad news: the guy had neglected to tell us the classes might be full. And quite full by the sound of it. Carly talked to the guy afterwards, then to a woman. August is on a waiting list. There is also a ballet class, but it is just for girls.
We got home a little before 6. We all had some quiche for dinner, then played some iPad. Carly started to take him up for his bath about 6:30. He decided to fight it today. So skipped the hair washing. He was still quite upset in bed until I started suggesting we do nonsense things, like go to the playground, or eat a ton of chocolate. He was asleep at 7.
Photos:
Wanting me to play with him:
Unhappy with the new car seat:
On the library floor:
