He was up at 6:30. They came down at 6:50 and said that mama was getting him fish food (Cheerios). I asked if he woke up as a fish today and he said uh-huh. He did some typing on my iPad, then we were doing the copy-all and paste thing. The iPad was being slow at that so I got out Magic Treehouse #6 and we finished that. He asked”So dada fish, can I have some zucchini bread?” We read Du Iz Tak. He was singing each page before I read it. When we turned the page he would put his hand in front of my mouth, sing the pages, then let me read. We moved to GarageBand and the keyboard. He’s playing Yankee Doodle more, but mainly interested in different octaves and scales. He was being different chords: “I’m A minor!”
He got the long cardboard tube and used it like a telescope: “I’m a spy cow.” That’s from the Treehouse books. Then he was a musical scale: “I’m actually a scale. No one named us. there’s thousands of us…billions…nonnilloins…And I need you to name me.” We decided on the QZ scale. He then wanted guitar and we went upstairs and plugged in the guitar and talked about chords a lot.
He watched Smurfs and I exercised and took a shower. While he finished a Smurfs I watched a few minutes of the last Formula 1 race of the season. August then watched with me for a few minutes, wanting to see cars crash. But he was also really interested in the numbers (places, intervals, gears, speeds). Then for a long time he was race cars on the bed: crashing into each other, slipping in the rain, crashing into the walls, going up and down gears, etc.
We went downstairs for lunch. He activated Siri on my iPad and was talking to it: “How are you doing?” “We’re making lunch!” We had some strawberries and two pizzas I made: olive and cheese. We ate our pizza and August had been looking at Google Maps and wondered why ‘Home’ didn’t have our pictures of home. I explained we didn’t post our photos of home to Google Maps. He wanted to, and I told him about his Instagram account and he wanted to post a photo. So we did the photo he took of me playing mandolin and he chose the filter, etc.
I then hauled him up for a shower. He was okay once he was in the shower and insisted on spraying my feet at the end. I put his new underwear on him when we chose clothes and he liked them. We did more guitar. He set a timer on my watch for 23 hours and I said it wouldn’t go off until lunch tomorrow. He said he had a time travel sensor: “Some sort of sensor that I touch it with my feet it goes to tomorrow lunch time.”
We went downstairs and read Berenstain Bears Moving Day. We then ate the pumpkin pie that Carly had left us, leftover from the party. His first pumpkin pie. Liked it well enough. We were still fish, and August kept saying we were surrounded by oil and asking how we would get through it. Got snacks together, then blasted through it out the door.
We left at 1:30 and drove down into Netanya a bit. When we got out of the car he was getting sleepy and leaned against the car as I got the stroller and stuff out. We parked by Shaked Garden in the Agamim neighborhood, which seems to be an immigrant neighborhood. As we got walking I said “Something smells good”. He said “It’s curry!”
At the park we first stopped at a bench for a snack of grapes. He wanted a note so we played the piano on my phone for a minute, then I made him go play. The park was empty but he complained about people: “I don’t like people. Just mama. Not you though.” Got playing though: a jeep thing, a shaky bridge, going down a tube slide to slide into me, playing on the slide and singing “Yankee and Doodle”. “Sandifying” each other. We then left at 2:30 on a walk.
We walked to the south and into Winter Lake Park at its northeast corner. We walked to the south and played at the big playground at the southeast corner. Lots of climbing equipment and turning things. He saw signs on the equipment and wanted me to translate. It said “For ages 4 and up”. He didn’t like that, despite my assurances that he could still play on it. He said “I don’t like signs”. It reminded me of “Signs” by Five Man Electrical Band, so I played it on my phone. He liked it, dancing to it, and said “Can I listen to that song again?” While I was standing near the climbing structure a hooded crow flew right behind my head. August saw it.
We continued walking around the lake and found the big wooden playground on the west side of the park. Started to play there, but he needed a bathroom. So we walked to the southwest corner and used a bathroom by the skate park. He played on a little hill outside, running down it, but then started yelling “Go!” towards people off in the distance. I said it wasn’t funny, and suggested yelling random stuff, like “Spaghetti power!” He liked that phrase and as we rode the stroller back towards the playground he said “I have spaghetti power!” His power would let us go through trees, poles, etc. I’d drive towards them and we’d pretend to go through things. We played around like that. Found a soccer ball in the center and kicked it around, but August wasn’t interested in the ball, just his powers.
I emailed Carly about picking her up from work, then he sent her a message. On our walk back to the car we smelled the curry smell again and investigated, walking to the east past the grocery store and around the square next to it and across the street. No luck, so we headed back to the car. He sent her more emojis when we got back to the car.
We picked her up at 4:45. He had my phone and was sending her messages while we sat there waiting for her, then more messages as they rode next to each other on the way home. He took off his shoes at the door but then tripped coming in the door and scraped his feet a bit. It was still bothering him after nursing. He was grumpy and said he didn’t like anything: “I don’t like chocolate or presents.” Carly started opening the box from Dee, then realized it was a Christmas present so stopped. August said “I don’t like Christmas.” I held him on my lap and we read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day twice, then The Berenstain Bears and the Green-Eyed Monster.
He opened Skype on Carly’s computer and saw that Cherie was online: “Let’s Skype with Oma!” He danced as it rang. She didn’t answer, so he left a message. Chuck called back and he skyped with him for awhile. We read Berenstain Bears Moving Day and much of the Peppa Pig collection after I had mentioned to Carly that it had two different stories about how they move to their new house. He then sang a new version of Yankee Doodle: “Princess Peppa goes to school riding on a pony, stuck a feather in her hat and became a wizard.”
He was a baby squirrel at bedtime. I told him to dream about acorns and he agreed. He then asked “Do squirrels nurse?” Excited when I said yes. I left him at 7:25 and he was asleep soon after.
Spy cow:
Hi:
Shaked Garden:
Sandifying:
Winter Lake Park. Where he didn’t like the signs:
Our water dilemma:
Photo he took:
