We all slept in today, which was good. He woke up a little after 7, then got up at 7:22. Because that’s what he read on the clock when he got up and what he wanted to tell me when they came down. He really wanted to turn on the air conditioner and was upset he couldn’t. Carly figured out he was just fine turning it on and then off. Problem solved. They built with Duplos.
They then went outside and discovered aphids, and ants eating those aphids, on the flower plant. August initially didn’t like bugs on the plants and wanted to destroy them. Came back in and Carly made some banana milk and we drank that, and while drinking it August requested “Fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth”. When he was done drinking he asked to watch it on the rug. He was then asking me what the notes were, then when it got to a loud part he said “I’m filling up with power.” as he spread his arms apart.
He then wanted to nurse and Carly set a 10 minute timer on her computer that he happily watched count down. When it went off his chocolate pancake was actually done so he ate that. He and I then read Oh My a Fly! (The pop up book of “There was an old woman who swallowed a fly), We haven’t read it in a long time, and now he was asking why she died, etc. and now seems to find it a bit disturbing. They then nursed as they hadn’t earlier after the timer.
Carly got out the vacuum cleaner and initiated clean up time. Got August to be a robot and he helped clean up Duplos. Carly then vacuumed and I did dishes while he watched the “How Do Airplanes Fly” episode of Ask the StoryBots using his headphones. I then finished reading The Wizard of Washington Square by Jane Yolen. It is the first book for the little free library as I had picked it up at a little free library in Stroudsburg this summer.
When he was done with his episode he then play-acted molecules and being a plane going from “China to Greenland”, but then it crash landed in Iceland. He FINALLY went to the bathroom after 10. That led to looking at Google Earth and Collins Atlas on my iPad. He found Gameti in the Northwest Territories and the Great Bear Lake: “I want to go there sometime.” We were looking at the different layers in Collins Atlas (population density, energy resources, etc.) and he was really interested in those (and their colors).
I went up and took a shower and they were outside. I came out and started clearing the dirt strip of garbage and the last of the tree things, and especially the cat poop which had been under the tree things layer and was now smelling up the front corner of the yard. August helped, using one of his little shovels as well. I then started hauling the stack of stones from the driveway area to place between the plants. August came and looked in the driveway area, making it past the small stream of water going into the street – it appears to be the runoff from the washing machine not draining properly.
We then got ready to go (plenty of hand washing) and walked up into town. First stop was the grocery store, where they did indeed have my debit card. So a quick end to that one. We then went to the department store where we got lightbulbs (I believe 6 of the old incandescent bulbs have burnt out since we’ve been here, so planning on the rest going soon) and twine for tying up plants. The guys were asking how much Hebrew we, and particularly August, know. August proudly recited the numbers to 10 for them.
We then headed to the pizza place. August remembered being there, as he said that we “always” get a pizza cutter to cut the pizza slices up. We got three: cheese, olive, and corn (the only three they had). August really liked the corn. We also got grape Capri suns with them (I don’t remember if that was part of the deal last time…I know we got one). We went to the little grocery store in town and got bananas and yogurt and a couple other things. August was looking at the soy milk section and wanted cashew milk. I said Carly would appreciate it if we didn’t get that. He didn’t like the other options though and threw his sunglasses. I picked him up, and he rested on my shoulder and feebly tried to be defiant “I’m…gonna throw…a whole box of…” But never finished the sentence and calmed down instead.
We then headed home at 1:30, going our back route. August requested we sing our Hebrew alphabet song, then wanted to stop at the little park we go through on Ha-Shalom Street. Carly sat and read. I sat on the bottom of the slide and he slid into my head. He did it repeatedly, shouting “Tzadi sofit” (the last letter of the alphabet).
We were home at 2:15. Carly went upstairs to do some work. He played around on the couch, making noise, and said”It’s supposed to play Beethoven but it only has Sentimental Wars on its storage.” He wanted to play Human Body so we did that. We put together the skeleton together, then was looking at the intestinal lining: “You’re the food breaking down… We’re gonna turn you into energy.” He was the intestinal lining and good germs attacking me.
He then played Toca Builders. I started reading a book. He then showed me what he was working on and had built all sorts of walls and stuff. He had really figured out a lot, as we hadn’t played this one much. He said one of the walls looked like a ‘U’ and said “I don’t mean ‘you’ like the you right here (pointing to himself) I mean the letter U.” I got a pita and we shared that, then we had fun making a colorful landscape in the game, using the builder that throws paint to throw colors all over the floor. I started falling asleep as we kept doing that.
We went outside and picked up more tree parts and I moved more stones. He went inside for a bit and spent a long time on the toilet (the first time in quite awhile) then nursed. They then came back outside. Carly did all the watering and August helped with that and first swept dirt off a big stone I had unearthed, then used the hose to wash it off.
Back inside Carly skyped with Cherie, who is now in Mexico and August figured out the machine for making food in GroForest and did that a lot. We ate spaghetti for dinner, then I took him up for shower at 7:10. Up in the play area, as I got him ready for his shower, he wanted to play: “You hit the dog…I want to play that for pretend…and I’ll be the dog killing you…Can I play that just for pretend?” Earlier, I think when we were in the yard (or perhaps when he was on the toilet), he had talked about how he doesn’t like dogs because they kill people. I explained that that rarely, rarely happened. He asked why, and I talked about how some people mistreat dogs and that makes them mean. He asked why they mistreat them, etc. So he was bringing it back now to play though it. I told him I didn’t like playing through sad games like that though.
He got sad when it was time for his shower and we had to power through that. He cheered up when he got the bed wet and was crazy on it. He was flipping his legs up in the air as he lay on his chest and kept asking: “What it exercise when I do this?” He would then change what he was doing and ask again. He was then a machine: “It goes to the cooling place where it stays for 224 days…the dough the machine burns…then it goes to the hardening process…I’m making jawbreakers…the dough is jawbreakers.”
We read Mr. Brown’s Fantastic Hat and he asked what ‘fussing’ meant. I talked about how mama and I make sure he brushes his teeth, takes a shower, etc. He said “I don’t like anyone fussing.” He wanted a nest and we went in on his bed to make it. I turned off the lights so he could see the stars: “Whoa! Whoa…Can I count them?…23.” Lights back on and playing with the nest, he sat up and lightly hit his head on the headboard. He quietly said “I bonked my head…go to mama.” He actually walked into the bathroom and stood on his stool and hid in his towel that was hanging there for several seconds.
He then went down and Carl
y came up. In bed he asked if she had to go to work in the morning. I left them about 8 and he was asleep about 8:10.