Had a good short downpour about 5:40. August was up right at 6. He played some Dragonbox Little Numbers. Carly headed to work and we switched to reading all of the book, from start to finish (except for the ones about Jon’s dating which I skip). We then went outside and he found his mud bricks in the bike. Took them over and melted them with the hose. The rain had knocked down a lot more of the tree things and he helped me pick them up. It rained lightly on us as we did that. He sang a”We’re robots” song as we picked up. He found a shiny little round thing and I said I had thought it was a beetle. He said “No. I’m sorry to say it isn’t.” He wanted to dump out the bag of tree things so we took it across the street.
We were back inside before 8:40. He pulled a big stack of books, Hebrew and English, that he wanted to read. We started with the Hebrew elephant book. Translated a few words, then made up the story from there. Translated a little more on my phone, then he got into typing random Hebrew or Arabic and seeing what it would produce. He was then translating Arabic numbers into English. We discovered the translation service works fine for numbers up to a million, then starts to break down. He wanted to do more Arabic, so played Zee’s Alphabet on the floor while I got ingredients ready for banana bread. He kept calling me over to see each letter and word.
He then helped with all of banana bread. Felt luxurious using a full set of bowls (unlike the taped together bowl I was using at the end in Korea) and the hand mixer for the first time. August liked the hand mixer, although it is too big for him to use entirely on his own.
He did some more Dragonbox Little Numbers while I cleaned up. We went upstairs and he watched one episode of Wanda and the Alien. Didn’t want second episode. I took a shower, then we headed back downstairs to check on the banana bread.
It was ready. He played a little of the forest app while I took it out and cut it, then made a phone call to Skoda. Carly had talked to the embassy and determined that we had to go with the new chassis number. So I called Skoda and talked to Shai to clarify that, and he said they were going to give us 2000 shekels back due to the hassle and delay.
We did more with the elephant book, then he was a sick bird, due to pollution. We then headed over to the Duplos and he started to make a zoo on his own, building a fence around the entire big piece. He was then asking about shapes and how many lines of symmetry an octagon has. I drew it, but then went to show him on the iPad in the shapes book. From there he wanted to do art. He titled his first piece “Round bus” and the second was “It’s an interesting cow…a died cow. and when it is dead it is green.” Drew a ouple more pieces, then we spent a long time on the coloring book. Randomly he talked about “Gymfobens is a play structure just for kids and animals and babies. Not for big things…”
He was humming Eine Kleine Nachtmusik together so we ended up watching it on the iPad and watching the entire thing together. We were then looking at the shapes book and he wanted to make red spirals. We went and drew them on paper. He is starting to quote Garfield now, namely “Almost, but no banana” (actually “Close, but no banana”)
We then headed to the park with his balance bike. We first went on the exercise equipment. He did the leg press and was a heart pumping – he explained how the blood was going through him and to the lung to get oxygen. He wasn’t getting on his balance bike so I said I would have all the fun. That got him. He said “No! I want to have all the fun!” He rode his balance bike and was the city pound catching me (which happens in Garfield). Also in Garfield Jon talks about going jogging. August didn’t know what that meant, so I showed him and we were jogging around in circles together.
But that turned into racing, with him declaring he won every race. So I said he needed to share the winning and let me win sometimes. He had some difficulty with that idea: “I’m gonna win all the time.” “Can you share the winning? Thumbs up or thumbs down?” He gave me a big thumbs down with a grunt. He also spent some time picking up several pieces of garbage and throwing them away.
We headed back towards the house to get the orange bike and go for a walk. I was pushing him on the balance bike and when we got to the house he wanted to keep going so he could practice his balance bike. We continued on around the corner and then up the back path, back to the park, and then finished the loop around to our house again. We were back to the house (again) at 3:50 and switched to orange bike.
We went on a Zinnie walk of sorts and ended up at Tal Garden, the little park. He went on the crocodile thing and then we did the merry-go-round. We headed home and got here at 4:25. As I was getting the nike up the stairs August said “Dada. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is beautiful.”
He watched an episode of Ask the StoryBots (Airplanes) and I made a banana mango lassi. Carly got home just as I finished that. We drank the lassi, then Carly showed August a video of people counting to 100 in Hebrew. We then did the iPad coloring book with the Apple Pencil, which we had left to charge while we went on a walk. He had mushrooms and pesto and pasta for dinner. We then read more of Plumdog, stopping about 12 pages short of the end, then read After the Storm. Carly took him up and gave him a shower, and he was asleep a bit before 8.
Pretending to sleep:
Painting the round bus:
Brushing off the water:
Exercise:
Bike:
Merry-go-round:
