He came down at 6:45. They nursed, then were talking about the keyboard on her computer, which led to a discussion of typewriters, then videos of how a typewriter works. They were then typing and reading big numbers. They did something in the millions and August said “And that’s how many treats I have in my storage place where I store treats.” He walked little circles on the carpet for awhile, then I got him vitamins and banana bread. He and I then read Home and Mr. Brown’s Fantastic Hat. He went to Carly to nurse over in the red chair and I jokingly asked Carly, holding up Mr. Brown, “Isn’t this a sad book about losing a hat?” Carly looked at me confused, then August added “Because his hat turns into a tree.” Excellent timing.
He watched an episode of Wanda and the Alien, then went outside with Carly watering plants and playing with sticks. Playing with the trees made him want to play Namoo, so he did that while sitting outside at the table. I went and took a shower. When I came down he wanted his water bottle and chanted “is it in the backamapack? Is it upstairs? Is it in there? Is it out there?” Carly was making him a pancake and he ate that. We read more of Shel Silverstein’s Every Thing On It and he read in made-up languages that he was naming. They nursed then he went to the bathroom and asked about sharks:”What ‘man eating shark’ mean?” We discussed that and how there aren’t many animals that eat humans, then he thought of a lot more: “I’m a man eating brick!…Eats things with its tube.” “I’m a man-earing goldfish.”
We left for a walk at 10:30. One mission today was to get my hair cut. Stopped at the place by the pharmacy, but she was only doing nails today and didn’t seem to know English. As we kept walking August stopped to pull some weeds, and he also solved my problem by creating a machine that made a hair cutting place for me. I joked about whether it met code and how well it paid the workers and he said “My money process is broken.” and went on about how it couldn’t pay the workers. There was a place at the little mall, Shohan Hairdressers or something to that effect, and I stopped and got my hair cut there. They went on to Bachar Garden, the park by the library. They played a game where a tree was home and he ran around touching other things and getting points and then they would add up the points. Getting my hair cut went smoothly and then I caught up with them at 11:30.
He was up on the play structure and hid in the tube when I got there. He liked me drumming on the tube, but when I just peaked my hand around the end of it and waved, not touching him, he was afraid I was trying to tickle him. Even after I agreed to not tickle him and we shook hands on it, he called to Carly: “Mama! Come watch so dada doesn’t tickle me!” Did some more drumming, then he was done on the play structure and we got going. We walked around the block, finding a new kind of seed pod to take home, then headed to the coffee shop/cafe down the street, מלכין (Malkin).
We found out they actually have a full menu (when August and I peeked in it looked like just a coffee shop and some pastries). The waitress explained the menu to us as August started to play with all the toys. We got the tofu sandwich and cauliflower mashed potatoes with roasted veggies (onion, zucchini, spinach, and broccoli), blended iced coffees for me and Carly, and an orange and carrot juice for August. Carly and August played in the toys (mainly sorting out things that were in the wrongs spots – August’s idea) and I translated the menu.
The food came and August got upset that there was no ice in his juice. Carly took him out of the restaurant. When they came back, calmed down, they asked for some ice. He was happy once he put some pieces of ice in it. The food was wonderful. August ate some tofu, but mainly ate the cauliflower mashed potatoes and several bites of broccoli, and a couple bites of zucchini. And one bite of spinach. He claimed he got a bite of onion in his first bite of potatoes that I gave him and didn’t like it, but he kept eating them after that, so he wasn’t that bothered.
After eating he sat on my lap and we read The 13-Story Treehouse. We read the last few chapters, then started again at the beginning. About 1 they went to find a bathroom – apparently there is one around the back of the shops next door. Good to know, as we hadn’t found a bathroom downtown before.
We went over to the toy store. The woman remembered me from when I bought the bug viewer and stuff. She handed August a kaleidoscope. He spent much of our time in there trying out the different kaleidoscopes and also found an octopus magnifying glass he liked. It started raining while we were in the shop and the woman ran out to get the displays inside. The rain only lasted less than a minute, but it broke our 2+ month streak of not seeing rain.
In talking to the woman, August understood her English and answered her questions about his age and his name. He had answered the name question a couple days ago as well, so nice that he is answering people again. I bought the kaleidoscope (he had chosen one with no beads in it, with a picture of a person with a telescope on it) and we got going.
We went to the hardware store and Carly went to the post office to mail a postcard to her grandma. At the hardware store August walked around looking at everything with the kaleidoscope. We got masks and eye protection for sanding, and a saw, a paper towel holder. We went next door and looked at the produce store for the first time. They have spices in English, for future reference. We walked across to show Carly the other coffee shop/restaurant, then started walking home the back way, past the hardware store. Just as I pointed out the shortcut path from the small grocery store, August asked for food and we realized we had left the snack bag at the restaurant. So we used the shortcut to head pretty much straight there and it was still sitting by our chairs.
So then we walked home. We stopped to look at some low palm trees with big bunches of fruit on them. He read license plates, I got a few paperback English books that were left on a paper recycling bin, and we looked at a lot of interesting houses and yards.
Home at 2:45. As we got there he was saying things like “In 200 meters, go inside.” Carly then headed to the mall to look for some pants and do some grocery shopping. He watched an Ask the StoryBots and ate banana bread and apple, then played the sick baby chipmunk game. Carly was home at 4. She did some some cooking and we kept playing.
I then made a sun-dried tomato, red pepper, onion, and zucchini quiche. They played outside. Carly had brought a small wooden box for the small stuff on our big table. They painted that together, watered, and August picked a bunch of the sap off the tree. Inside she made him burrows. He was at first skeptical of her techniques and ran over to ask me how I make them. She got the yoga mat and he gave her a skeptical look and asked “exercise mat?”
We ate dinner (stir fry and the last of the pasta stuff) while the quiche cooked, then did more burrows. I told him it was hair washing day. He asked “Does that mean I will cry?” But I gave him a shower and washed his hair and he did really well. He was a rocket on the bed, then we heard someone drilling outside. He said “I think it’s a hurricane destroying our home.”
We went downstairs and he wanted some quiche. We ate some. He kept joking about his schedule being full and having to poop. Not quite sure what that was about: “My schedule is full. Poop!” Carly went upstairs for a shower. We read some more Shel Silverstein. Poems he particularly likes are: “Turning Into” (where ‘wow’ turns into ‘mom’), “Mistake” (with a snake coming out of someone’s bottom), and Tic-Tac-Toe (where someone gets a tack in their toe).
He then developed a random typing game where he was the typewriter hitting the paper a
nd I was typing random letters and numbers and punctuation, which I would call out as I type. He said “The more you type, the more mail you will get.” I would type a bunch, then send it in the mail, then he’d bring me back some mail. He then requested Mr. Brown’s Fantastic Hat. He speculated on why some of the fish closed their doors “why are the doors closed? I think they’re going to the bathroom.” He then played at being a bird flying away to go to the bathroom and come back to his nest. He built nests for both of us next to each other on the couch. Finally, he was being cells again: “I’m a sytotoxic (sp?) T cell.” Then made-up cells: “I’m an outlet cell.” That one zapped bad plugs to destroy them.
We went upstairs and looked at his glowing stars and planets in his bedroom, turning off the light while Carly skyped with Glecy. He was intially shy with her, hiding in the corned of the office by the chair, but then went back and said “Hi Glecy!” He helped me start to put the stickers on the back of the stars and planets so I could hang them up.
As we were headed to the bed, he said something about “Point turns to line turns to triangle turns to square.” Not sure where that came from. I’m pretty sure I used to do that while drawing shapes with him a long time ago but would be surprised if he remembered it. I left them in bed about 8:25 and he was asleep a bit after that.