We heard the door and he came down at 6:14. He sat and lay on the couch patiently while Carly finished preparing her quesadilla before they nursed. They nursed, then he played with Word and Excel on her computer. She said goodbye and left, then he switched to his iPad and did Sketches for the first time in quite awhile. We did some art together, then he drew what he said was a big cliff. It turned into an imagination game where I bounced down the cliff and ended up at the planets, which for some reason I was trying to destroy. At first I couldn’t because they were liquid and gas, but then I had a special rocket. He then pretended to be a planet and had a special “floaty, float, float” voice and dance and said “I hope nobody destroys me.”
I finally got him to go to the bathroom when he said he wanted to watch Puffin Rock. We came back out and opened Netflix. He touched his icon and said he wanted to watch his fun shows, not mine. He then said something about me watching race cars (the only thing I ever watch with him around). He said “I like to watch your race cars with you. To see if they make any accidents. Because I love accidents.”
I had found some new apps and we had fun with Solar Walk Kids. Then tried Toca Elements, which I didn’t like at all. We took a break to watch the garbage truck and then had more luck. With the Toca Robots, but not much. I headed out to clear space in the driveway/junk area for the couch. August came out and told me about the robot app: “I want you to play it. It’s really fun. Fire comes out of its feet; it’s like a rocket robot.” We then made banana bread and he watched Sarah & Duck while I cleaned up, exercised, and took a shower. He went up and watched and played in his bed in his room while I took a shower. When I went into his room he started being a fish that had eaten too much fish food. I asked what that was from and he remembered the Dr. Seuss book. The alarm on my watch went off, telling me the banana bread was done, and I told him it was vibrating. He said “Like the coffee shops in Korea.” He remembers the circle things that many of the coffee shops had.
We had one slice of banana bread, then I made pizzas for lunch. We then had this conversation:”Mama let’s me do things I can’t do right now.” “Like what?” “Like eat chocolate before dinner. Cuz she’s so nice. Nicer than you.” “Ha. I don’t believe that.” “Why? Because you love me a ton of Qs?” Carly thinks the chocolate before dinner thing sounds vaguely familiar – perhaps he remembers chocolate pancakes for dinner or something like that.
We talked about what we were going to do today, and then for some reason we talked about fire departments. I noted we hadn’t seen a fire station in Israel yet, and he remembered “With Vivian?” – that is, when we saw the fire truck at the market in Stroudsburg. I also reminded him of walking by the fire station in Chelan. We then made Duplo rockets. I asked how tall it should be and he said “Taller than monkeys can even climb.”
Finally, about 1:30 we got in the car and headed out. We went to check on the table and the bookcase we had seen last night. I’d decided we should take them. Sadly, the table was gone, but the bookcase was there. I left a note on it, then we headed to Ace Hardware. On the road, just a couple minutes before getting to Ace, he had been singing a “I see the sticks of a helicopter” song. I pulled into the parking lot and looked back to find him asleep. For the next ten minutes I tried to wake him up. He told me he wanted to stay in the car, then would giggle when I tickled him, etc. But I gave up and let him sleep.
He was asleep from 2:05 to 2:55 while I shopped. Got paints and supplies for doing the swings and the bookcase. And a cover for the black couch we are going to store outside. Looked at ant killers, for a watering can (none), and smoke detectors (none). And found a cover for one of our outdoor lights, which was a nice surprise.
He wasn’t happy with me waking him up, and we took a bit longer in the store after that. Finally, we headed out. He had earlier been excited about going to the nursery as well, but now didn’t want to go. Once in the car though he was feeling better and agreed to go.
At the nursery he chose carrot and flower seeds, and I got cilantro. And we got two pots from the used table. As we went to pay, a woman came and took over the guy. She immediately gave August a butterfly ornament to put in a plant and told us the used pots were 10 shekels each. We paid and took the stuff out to the car, then went back to the used table, since that was such a good deal. Took up a metal can and a watering can, but the guy was back and insisted the price on the bottom was the actual price. Said no thanks and put them back.
We were home at 4:45. He wanted to play Dragonbox Big Numbers and came to me and asked “Can you get 200 apples so I can get 2 apples at once?” Which was pretty cool because it was the first he’s kind of talked through a math problem like that.
A big scary looking bee thing got in the house and I caught it on the kitchen window with the bug viewer. We looked at it for several minutes outside. He was concerned it was going to die for lack of air and food. I had to assure him it had air holes. We left it in there until Carly got home to see it.
Once she was home I took the car and went to get the bookcase. I had measured it earlier, but didn’t take into account the curve of the car doors as they near the roof. I got it in the back seat, but just barely: both of the back windows had to be down and it just barely fit. I meant to take a photo when I got back but forgot. I also picked up 4 bricks from a stack of bricks nearby to put the couch on them where it sits outside.
On the way home another score: I saw a bike chained to a house fence, for sale. I went home and found Carly and August watching Space Shuttle videos, both a landing and a liftoff. He was really enjoying that. Carly helped me unload the bookshelves, then I walked over to look at the bike. It is a mountain bike, and pretty used. The older guy was in the yard and I talked to him. He kept telling me it was “new”, even as I pointed out rusty bits on it. Reminded us of the black couch and how Shmuel kept telling us it was “new” despite all the evidence to the contrary. Anyway, I think he wanted 350 shekels, but I told him I only 300 on me, so I got it for that. He also kept asking me if it was for me. I think he wanted to make sure I wasn’t someone trying to get it for cheap to turn around and sell it for more myself.
Got home, and outside Carly had planted the plants she got at Ikea in the new pots. We worked outside a bit, starting to brush the swings. She brought August out and they nursed at one point. We ate dinner, and Carly read the end of 26-Story Treehouse. At one point he looked sad and they took a break. He said he was pretending: “Make me pretend sad…for funsies!”
We then played with Duplos. He was counting all the bumps on them. Carly went to take a shower. He was wanting to destroy things as I made them for him (and being a millipede to do it – we looked at photos of millipedes the other day and somehow (because of all the legs?) he has decided they are destructive creatures), and I’ve been trying to tell him that he needs to get permission from the other person when you’re playing with someone. So I wasn’t letting him destroy the zoo and told him we were leaving it up until tomorrow and we finished it, and it worked for a good amount of time and we were playing with the zookeeper, having the Duplo zookeeper take care of sick animals (and August was being the sick animals). But then he suddenly was a millipede again and destroyed part of the zoo. I first set him on the couch, but then when I went to clean up some of the mess he came back over and tried to destroy some more. And at one point he was on the couch chanting “Destroying things is fun.” I picked him
up and told him we were going upstairs for a timeout. But he saw Carly in the kitchen and thought that I was punishing him by taking him away from mama and he instantly started bawling. Not my intention so I quickly gave him to Carly.
She took him up to a bath at 8:10. Then in on the bed (after he got it wet) we said goodnight and they tried for sleep. Not a surprise when it didn’t work. They came down and he and I read the Neil Gaiman children’s book called Instructions for the first time on the iPad. August was quite intrigued by it. Carly made him toast, but he was confused when he looked at the table and only saw a grey plate; he wanted a “Zinnie plate”. He was still hungry so we let him have some banana bread.
He picked up the Alphabet animals book and asked “Can I read that LARGE book?” We read it and looked at the poster, then read Under the Sea with Me a coupe times. Carly had gone to bed, but he was remembering the Biscuit book where Biscuit steals food (which is cool as we hadn’t read it since Korea) and wanted to find it. We went upstairs to the books there and I was listing the books as I pulled them out of the drawer. He made up some on his own: “Here’s Biscuit wants to steal food…here’s Biscuit wants to go on the roof and fall off.” We went back downstairs and Biscuit’s Picnic twice and then Biscuit Wants to Play. Sitting on the couch, he looked around at the art and pottery and rugs and counted, unprompted, up to twenty and then said “20 things I like about the house…pottery, rug.”
He was yawning a lot and I suggested we both get ready for bed and go in together. So we went up to the bathroom and I brushed my teeth and he used the toilet. We then went in. He looked at the clock and said “10:38”. He’s really into telling time suddenly and mentions it when we are out of the room: when they were outside he had told Carly something like “The clock is still changing.”
Carly was sleeping and let him nurse a bit, but then I was trying to get him to lie on the bed and fall asleep. He had his head on the pillow next to Carly, and I would stop him from getting up. He made a few good attempts at it, but eventually started plaintively wailing “Mama…mama…mama…” Still not sleeping, so just before 11 I had to try to pick him up to take him out of the room. He started to cry, and like since he was a baby once that happened and he went to Carly he fell right asleep, at 11:05.
Broken rocket:
