Carly woke him up at 6:30. When he came down to me he was a hedgehog, as Carly was wearing her WBAIS shirt with a hedgehog on it. He curled up to me (being pokey) and ate some worms. We typed a little on my iPad and Carly headed to work. He found Gus on the Go Hebrew Stories on my iPad and we spent close to a half hour working our way through the Three Little Pigs. The app really works well for scaffolding vocab.
He wanted to switch to Wizard School, so we got his iPad and he did a lot of art. I was also writing words in English and Hebrew and he was sounding them out. He watched some Sarah and Duck and I made us a smoothie and we watched together. He walked around the room waving back and forth and said he was a wobbly tube man (a reference to 91-Story Treehouse, I think it was – one of them, at least). We read Curious George Cleans Up and I then exercised while he watched more Sarah and Duck. He then pretended that I was trapped in a whale, then said he was a whale. I had thought he was stuck inside the whale with me, but he clarified: “Noooo, I’m a whale and you’re sick inside ME.” We then did squirrel games: I was going to work and leaving him at home alone (he never mentions where Mama Squirrel is), there were snakes in the meadow, then we were driving in the squirrel car together (which apparently has two bathrooms in it).
We then read Biscuit Loves the Library. When I was done he asked me to read it backwards, so I did. As squirrels we were then driving to the nut store, and he had us go upstairs to another nut store. This store let us eat the nuts. I said “That doesn’t seem good for their business” He forcefully replied “ACTUALLY, it is.”
He played Sound Rebound and I took a shower. When I came out he asked “Did you not like your shower?” I assured him I did, and he said “But you SPRAYED yourself!” Then “Did you get water in your eyes?”
We made pizza with corn (left over from making the pisole) and ate that and listened to music. He chose songs while I worked on hanging up a couple of the photos that had fallen. He was singing quite a bit of the 12 Days of Christmas, although when I took a video he mainly hummed. We then made banana bread. August helped the entire time, and started by mashing up the bananas with a knife and fork. He said “Bananas, are you okay?” And said “I’m a cutting and stabbing machine.” The entire rest of the process, and pretty much the entire day, was an ongoing dialogue with inanimate objects, with me having to supply the responses. He talked to the bananas and eggs constantly as they got mixed up with the other ingredients, then to the banana bread itself in the oven: “Bananas, are you happy bleeding in there?…Cuz they’re human bananas. I told you.”
We put the banana bread in the oven (he had gotten brown sugar and cinnamon along the way and liked the mixer and spatula), then heard the ice cream truck. I raced us out, which, given that he’s three and there are two locked doors to go through, took awhile. He has a lot of business up on the dead end though, so it was easy to catch up. We bought a bubble gum one for Carly and a mango popsicle for August, and paid back the ice cream guy the 2 shekels we owed him from last week.
We started counting cats on the way home: 5. At home we hung up lights in the kitchen and on the railings and bannister. Had to switch them once and adjust a few times, so quite a process. August helped as much as he could, and kept talking to the lights: asking if they liked being hung up, turned on, etc.
We ate some banana bread. He sat at the table slowly eating it and making yummy noises and listening to the music. We were listening to David Bowie all afternoon, after listening to his playlist earlier.
Carly got home after 1:50 following her half day. August had been so great and helpful with me today but he switched once she got home and just wanted to nurse. He was upset as tried to get food and ate outside. Finally got him to play Math Tango and he surprised me by reading several full sentences that he’d never seen before on his own. He was then making up music on toy piano: “there’s a piano in the meadow. It’s stuck in the sand. It’s a magic piano. When I play it it sinks in the sand.” He then gave Carly a piano lesson, showing her how to play Yankee Doodle and how to make chords. We talked about going to do recycling and he wanted Carly to come as well. He asked if she knew how to do recycling. She hasn’t really done it. When she went upstairs to get ready he said “Mama doesn’t know a lot of things.”
We went to recycling with Carly. Got most of it done but then he needed the bathroom. We came home, and Carly stayed here. He and I went and finished recycling, then walked around the Holly block, then saw Holly walking Doby as we continued to walk down Kibuts Galyeot. We walked down to the big Israeli flag, then took the path across the field to the trail. We’d never done that before as there is a flight of steps. He was talking to the bike as I carried it up and down the stairs. ‘And down’ because once we were up he decided he wanted to go back down by where the Israeli flag was to see what was at the end of the block.
We had been adding to our cat count and got to 15 (give or take one) by the time we were home at 5:15. They nursed and he wanted the nursing mittens so I got them. We had dinner and he ate a lot of beet greens. There was a lot of saying “Oh, dada” to me, which Carly has taught him to say when I say something funny. Carly and I were talking about Sabeel and she mentioned the tour she went on. He shouted”Tour? There’s no tour around here!” Carly explained he probably didn’t realize it but she had gone on a tour with other people. He said “When we taked care of Nellie?”
We read Berenstain Bears and Too Much Pressure and they nursed. Carly was trying to convince him to let her cut his hair. He said “I will NEVER let you cut my hair.” I got him to say “I want to look like the boy in the Sesame Street video.” There’s an old Sesame Street video that I’d found when he was a year old or so (in the ABC or 123 app) that I showed to Carly and told her I liked the hair on the boy in it. She didn’t like it at all.
He wanted to watch something so we watched the Peg + Cat episode with The Hannukah Problem. He went upstairs with Carly and wandered down in underwear and socks a bit later. Took him up and we got him ready for bed. I told him to dream about Christmas. He added “and volcanos…and tornados.” He was asleep about 7:20.
Kitchen lights:
Stomping on recycling:
Cuddling in the chair:
Up the stairs:
