They were up before 6. He sat in on his bed and watched a Timmy Time then the StoryBots Christmas while I typed. He paused Storybots and started typing on my iPad. Switched to Wizard School and made all sorts of art and little videos and audio recordings. Carly ran to school. He sang “Shanky Shoodle”, changing every word to start with ‘sh’ – he did this with a couple other songs during the day as well, and I think it is a reference to The 91-Story Treehouse when a character does something similar.
The meeting with Shmuel (our landlord), Ada (from school), and Shai (the neighbor) was scheduled for 8, out in our yard. Carly had coffee ready. August was fine with going for a walk, and everything went smoothly until he wanted to stay with Carly. He instantly started screaming when I tried to get his sweatshirts on. It was just a few minutes to 8, so I ended up hauling him out and clumsily getting the bike out of the gate and pushed August up to the park, him screaming all the way. He calmed down, but wasn’t happy. We spent a lot of time just standing up by recycling, him not wanting to move. Eventually we started walking and went around the Holly block. Could see them all still sitting outside, so we walked towards the bridge, then down the trail on this side to the old highway, then started to take the trail branch to the south that we’ve never taken. Walked by some orange trees, which was nice, then got a call from Carly.
She said that the meeting had gone well and that Ada and Shmuel and done a good job of being on our side. They wanted me to come back to meet and shake hands with Shai. I was reluctant to do so, but felt that if I refused that it would look bad. So August and I hurried back. Carly took August inside and I went and sat with them outside. Only took about 5 minutes, but this didn’t go so well. The one concrete positive from the meeting was that they agreed that if he was going to be driving really late that he would text us before going to bed to let us know he’d be sleeping in the next day. That’s something to work with.
We had gotten back close to 9. They left, then I went up and took a shower. August and I then drove Carly to school. When we got back we did more Wizard School. Really a lot of fun, and a lot you can do with it. There are also all sorts of educational videos, and August found one (on his own) on how to read music and watched it. We also added an account for Carly and need to put it on her phone. We read some 91-Story Treehouse. He was then in imagination mode and having us sit on chairs and stools and pushing buttons that would take us places, flying, etc. Then “When I eat honey we both start to spin. I think this is the thing that gets us out of here!”
We both had tea and he got the big dinosaur book down and we read bits of that. We were then hopping around (with me holding his hands) and he had us fall up the steps. In his bedroom he decided there were clues everywhere:”There’s lots of clues in here! Find a clue dada!” “That sign says it will get there and yuckier OVER TIME!” As we left his room: “bye bye clues!”
Downstairs he did some piano improv, then he continued with the clues and yucky things. We read more 91-Story Treehouse. I got him a flashlight and he looked around: “Clues! Are you in there?” He found “Green Marshy” under the couch. Found the chapstick in my pocket and put some on, then we were pretending we had empty brains (as happens in 91-Story Treehouse) and shining the flashlight in our ears.
He played TodoMath and then I shared one of those hearing test things on Facebook with him. I could hear up above 8000 and was surprised when he cut off by 8500. But it may have just been that the iPad’s speakers cut off at that point and he was slow in saying when it cut out for him.
I was doing some typing while he played TodoMath and he told me I was being mean. Some progress though, as when I asked what he meant he explained he wanted “more dada time”. He wanted me to play with him. So I did the catapult thing in Simple Machines with him. I then put Jimi Hendrix on the iPad and told him what we were listening to. He said “Like in the Treehouse books?” There’s a guitar player in them called Jimi Handrix. I said yes, and explained that he now understood the reference. We also did the pinball thing, trying to stack up as many pinballs as we could on each side. When he ran off to go to the bathroom he asked “Can you turn off my iPad? We don’t want it to waste electricity.”
We left to go to the recycling cages at 2:25. From there we walked around the Holly block. And then I heard it: the ice cream truck. It stopped for us, and he recommended something for the kids. I only had a 10 shekel coin and a 100 shekel note. He took the 10 shekel coin and said I could pay him the rest next time. August sat on his bike, eating the ice creamsicle. It was bubble gum flavor. Wasn’t melting too quickly, but eventually we headed home and ate the last of it out of a cup with a spoon. Heard the ice cream truck again and hurried up to the park, but lost the trail. I had grabbed more change and also wanted to buy one for Carly.
We walked north a couple blocks, then back south. We had remembered the Juicy Juice song I’d made up back in Korea and were singing that. We walked by some barking dogs and August said “Sorry, I don’t have any treats for you.” “…Ice cream for you…If the dogs bark I won’t give them any ice cream.”
Then he got into a big game of wondering what would happen if we touched a certain bush, or stone, etc. It was from The 91-Story Treehouse, where they have a big red button and they don’t know if it will make rainbows come out of their noses or destroy the whole world: “What happens if we touch that tree? Let’s ask that thing and find out.” We wandered over and up Kibuts Galuyot and back down. We stopped outside the synagogue and while we sat on a bench we watched a video about the scale of planets, stars, galaxies, etc. I’d earlier seen posted on Facebook. August liked that, and we talked about the enormity of the universe. In the comments there was a link to “The Galaxy Song” from Monty Python and the Meaning of Life. So we watched that as well, as August found it funny – especially when he climbs into a refrigerator at the end. I told August I thought he’d be a big Monty Python fan eventually.
We got back to the house and played in the yard. August asked where his stick was. I realized that Shmuel had probably broken it to make sticks for some of our smaller plants earlier in the day. So we went in the storage space and got August a new stick. He was happy. August remembered that he wanted to watch the video of “We all sing with the same voice” from Sesame Street. He suggested doing it outside. So I put the iPad out on the patio and he watched a few Sesame Street songs while I raked up the tree mess from the wind and the rain we’ve had.
Carly came home and we eventually ended up inside. I made grilled cheese for dinner. They watched the how to read music video again. He paused it to come and eat and finished it after he was done eating.
We then finished The 91-Story Treehouse. On the iPad he found the songbook and soon remembered how he used to sing from it. He sang for awhile, then found ABC-DEF-GHI – the song that Big Bird sings. I pulled up the video and we watched it. I now have it down pretty well so was singing it as I took him upstairs. We brushed his teeth and got his pajamas on. Got him on the toilet with the bell.
Left them 7:30, but heard him upstairs 15 or 20 minutes later. He came down and told me “I waked up at 7:56.” “Mama isn’t letting me nurse.” We read the Berenstain Bears and the Sitter and finished the Science Project book and read more of Magic Treehouse 10. He went back to bed after 8:50.
From Wizard School:
Checking to see if his brain is empty:
Chapstick:
Ice cream:
Climbing:
Watching Sedame Street outside:
