He announced himself a bit after 6:20, calling something down the stairs. Carly went and got him and they nursed. He then typed on my iPad. We had some zucchini bread, but he was getting crumbs all over the couch eating it there, so I put it on the table. But then he spilled the last little bit of coffee out of my mug while reaching for a book. Luckily very little damage. I assured him it was okay, but when it came to helping clean he kept saying “I can’t!” and “I won’t!” When he was first adament about not helping and told me to do all the work I carried him to the other rug. He hit me and knocked off my glasses. Eventually he hesitantly set paper towels on the spilled coffee on the table, but said he’d only use two fingers. He seemed bothered by the idea of touching the coffee itself. When we ran out of paper towels on the roll though he went and got anither roll from the cupboard, and when I decided to take the opportunity to do a full clean if the table he helped spray the cleaner. When he asked if he could do it I asked spray or wipe. He was a robot and said “My option is set to ‘spray’”.
We then read the full Max Axiom Forces and Motion book, some of it twice. I then vacuumed crumbs and paper towel bits and the rest of the rug. He watched Sarah and Duck using his headphones. His iPad gor stuck on the “Octogan Club” episode so we switched to my iPad. He played around with the vacuum and wanted me to switch the attachments. He looked down the hose and had an interesting story for what he saw inside. Exercised, then went upstairs to shower. He had switched to Peg + Cat.
Back downstairs we read most of the Smurfs #1 book. He ate the last of the tuna and I started making teriyaki salmon sandwiches for lunch. I wouldn’t have remembered the teriyaki part, but he reminded me. We paused to read some Garfield, then I finished making the sandwiches and we ate. He liked a Prophets of Rage song. He rolled around on th floor singing the Hebrew song. He then played with the Everything Machine app and the Creature Machine app while I put together the bike trailer. When I wouldn’t do something for him right away and he said something mean, I developed a strategy of freezing in order to slow down. Seemed to work as it cheered him up and sent a message; but have to use it sparingly so he doesn’t think it is a game.
Went outside to put the bike and trailer together. HE was walking on the stones and tripped and fell and I held him. Back inside he found the Very Hungry Catepillar app on my iPad. It is the new augmented reality app that we hadn’t used yet. We played with that and it is pretty cool. You actually see the catepillar crawling around on your floor and trees grow in your house and butterflies fly around.
He was then getting silly and said “I don’t like the light switch on the refrigerator that always puts mold in my salad.” I confirmed all that with him but have no idea where it came from. He was then asking about what year it is, and asked “How many years are there?” He was then talking about how old he is: “I’m really old. I was on the Earth when anything hadn’t been invented.” And claiming he was millions of years old.
We headed up to do recycling at 2. We had two Ikea bags full today so took a bit longer. We did that, then walked up the street to the dead end. Then he got funny: He started to ask if we were at the end of Israel, which is his usual joke, but then asked if we were at the edge of the world. I asked where he got the idea that the world had an edge, as the world is a sphere. He said “No it isn’t. The world’s flat. The ground is flat so the world is flat.” When I had him explain it again he eventually changed his mind and decided the world was now a cylinder. In the middle we were startled by a barking dog. He threatened to kill the dog, which isn’t really funny, but I can’t blame him when he yells back at them “Go! Go!”
We had to avoid dog poop on the way back, which he actually wanted us to drive over. When I refused I said I didn’t like dog poop. He asked “Why? But you like dogs!” I said well I prefer cats, and also cat poop as it is smaller and they bury it. So when we got home he was pretending to be a cat burying his poop.
We watered the plants and finished spray painting the shelves. He then said he wanted to read “Peppa’s first sleepover problem” (a portmanteau of sorts of the actual title and the title of a Peg + Cat story). As we started it I asked if he’d like a sleepover. He responded “I won’t ever go to a sleepover. Even when I’m a grown up.” He then pointed at the page and asked “Does that say Zoe Zebra?”
We went and picked up Carly at 3:30 then drove over to Argaman’s Beach. Carly had received a package from Cherie with three Plants Versus Zombies books in it, and they read some along the way. We parked and got out, but initially he didn’t want to go down to the beach. Carly gave him a couple of options, and he replied “Oh, I don’t want to do those options.” Of course, once we got down there he was running all around on the beach, using his rockets. We watched the sun set at 4:39. He was having fun smashing mountains of sand that Carly made, and following the motorbike tracks. He asked for a family hug, then wanted one, but had his hands full of sand. He was trying to be sneaky and get sand on Carly. We chased Carly, and he ‘raced’ her and said he won, but “That’s okay cuz you get 2000 love hearts.” He was getting sand on us, and called it “sandifying” us. So I threatened to “wavify” him.
We left around 5 and drove to Younes, the Arabic restaurant in south Even Yehuda. Carly picked out the food while I entertained August. We got 10 falafel, and Carly was sure she ordered fries. When I checked the bag though there was just a single fry. My best guess is that she asked for an order of fries, but he expected number of fries and thought she just meant one fry. May have thought she was crazy, or just wanted one to try.
We got home and I tried the hummus and told August he really needed to try it as it tasted different. He tried it and told Carly “Mama, this hummus is really good!” The food was all really good, but it turns out they use pistachios in the falafel and Carly ended up not feeling too well. Luckily, nothing like a cashew reaction.
We read some Garfield, then they nursed and she gave him a shower. We had received a letter from Cassie with pictures that Vivian drew of poop. That had reminded Carly of the poop tea game they played in the bath this summer. Carly and August played that during his shower and he got through it better. They read Wild About Books and some Winnie the Pooh. I came up and he and I played guitar and then switched to the sequencer in GarageBand. We made up a new sequencer game where we took turns adding a beat to the board until it was full. He was asleep at 8:15 after I told him to dream about electric guitars and sequencers.
Oh, and during the day we took a look at our mold experiment. We started it when we were making zucchini bread. Somehow mold came up in conversation, and I lamented having just thrown out two bites of banana bread that had started to go moldy. But later I found some grapes that were getting old. I cleaned out the jar that had the pizza sauce in it we didn’t like, put the grapes in it, and it is now our mold experiment jar.
Photos:
Cheese:
Bike and trailer:
Beach:
