They got up at 6:20. I was up at 6:40. They were reading Plumdog. I took over and Carly drove to Herzliya for her first appointment of the day. While reading Plumdog he first asked what keyhole surgery was, so we looked it up. A few pages later it was talking about the age of different people in dog years, and I wasn’t certain what the conversion was. August said “Google!” When we finished with Plumdog we switched to language apps. I wanted to try Drops and Memrise with him. He didn’t like Drops at first as it shows your 5 minutes counting down in the corner. We did some Hebrew in that, then in Memrise he wanted other languages, so we did some French, then some Arabic. Did a good amount of language, then switched to Wizard school and exercise. On his toy piano he played the tune he’s been obsessed with (he now plays it in multiple keys) and asked “What’s this from?” I turned music on on the iPad and it was a Moby song. He instantly started dancing to it, so he had another Moby dance party. I said he seems to really like Moby, Erasure, and New Order. “Actually, I like other bands too.” In one of the remixes they kept repeating “Los Angeles” and I mentioned how I’d like to go back to California sometime. He said “What? You mean the element.” He knows ‘Californium’ from “The Elements” song.
He was running around, trying to stay away from me, and saying that if I touched him I’d burn up: “Dada, I’m the hottest thing there ever is…I’m the fastest thing…You know I’m faster than the light.” We then switched and were listening to Christmas songs. We went upstairs and he watched the Timmy Time and Storybots Christmas episodes while I took a shower. We then did his bath and he pretended to be a flower, which made him more okay with getting wet. He didn’t know about the soap though: “I don’t know if I like soap on my stem.” I said I was washing off aphids and he liked that. When he was done he told the letters floating in the water “Time to get out of the pool! Pool closing!” Yesterday I taught him the secret to using the suction cups on the letters and numbers bag. I got the little sewing scissors and he let me cut one tuft of long hair. He was brave about that, but then wouldn’t let me do any more.
Carly got home at 10:10 as we were about to get out of the shower. They nursed, and she asked him how the bath went. He accused me of spraying him, which, in fact, did not happen at all. He then played piano: “Dada if you play the piano it sprays water on you. It’s good I played it because I’m a BABY FLOWER.” (Squeaky voice at the end there). He then transposed that little mystery song he plays into D flat. He asked for popcorn and said “The plain kind so it’s healthy.” Then he said to Carly “You know, let’s watch a movie…the polar bear one.” “Why we always eat popcorn when we watch movies?” He watched a good part of the first episode of Planet Earth, which they’ve watched before. He then helped me glue more book labels in the books.
Carly was making stir fry in the kitchen and he asked what the recipe was that she was making. He found out there would be noodles involved and said “Dada, you know I love noodles, right? More than mangoes. More than Qs! I like them, but I like noodles MORE.” When it was done we ate stir fry outside. He liked picking the noodles up himself. And while he was eating he asked Carly which burner she had cooked the mushrooms on. The food reminded me of Vietnam for some reason and Carly and I talked about the night before I got sick there. A couple minutes later he said “Tell me more things about Vietnam.” Usually he calls it boring talk if he isn’t involved. Although often he also doesn’t like it if we’re talking about him.
About 1 we got going and headed first to the Even Yehuda library to return the Hebrew copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which was due today. We realized we hadn’t brought August’s vaccination records with us, so headed back home and I ran in and got them. Carly drove us to Herzliya and to where the pediatrician’s office was supposedly located. We found a house. Carly called and the Herzliya Medical Center and got us to the correct spot a block away. But then it was 1:50 and no one was answering the door. August had a 1:45 appointment. The doctor showed up at just before 2.
August was not happy about going to the doctor and very worried. He was reluctant to go in at first, but then the doctor asked if he liked puzzles and pulled out a board with magnet shapes on it. August was into that and did it twice. Overall he handled it well, and let the doctor look in his ears and listen to his chest, etc. He did say “I hate doctors” a couple times, but it wasn’t horrible. The doctor measured him at 14.5kgs and 98cm. August was a little upset about being measured short. I noticed August didn’t have his feet all the way back though. I’ve consistently measured him at 100 or 101cm and had just measured him, with shoes on, at 101. I told August that and he wanted to put on his shoes again and I re-measured him.
The doctor said August was doing fine with everything, although encouraged us to work on playing with other kids, etc., which is our own assessment. In asking questions though we realized that August has used glue (he was just doing that with me), but we haven’t had him use scissors. The doctor also asked if he could draw a person, and August said he didn’t know. So the doctor asked him to try and August drew what he called a “weird person”. We’re also not sure if August entire has hopping down, and he hasn’t really worked on dressing himself yet.
We got to the car and I drove us south a couple minutes to Carly’s next appointment (all check-up/getting to know doctors appointments today, but they rather spread things out here). August and I played in the car for a few minutes. I talked about how nice the doctor was and that he was from South Africa and had said he had lived in Texas. August asked “Is there rattlesnakes in the United States?” When I said yes he said “Then I should have told him watch out for the rattlesnakes.” This goes back to when we learned of a poisonous snake in India and I told him he should tell Korea Megan to watch out for it. Anyway, I told him he could tell Gramma and Grampa that so he recorded a Skype video for them. He had also said “I hope they haven’t got bit by a rattlesnake”. We were then listening to Jingle Bells on repeat and he was singing it but only but only some words (like ‘jingle’ and ‘way’) to make a sort of accompanying part.
We then took the orange bike and headed down to the beach. There were stairs so I had to carry the bike down a couple times. He talked to the bike, asking how it felt about being carried and telling it it was okay.
Down on the beach we headed north on the packed sand. Went about half a kilometer and came across a runoff area that leaves a sort of channel in the sand. We played there for 40 minutes or so, using the shovel and rake and bucket to play with the sand of the ‘cliff’ at the edge of it. A wonderful time at the beach – just warm enough and we could enjoy the breeze.
About 4 we headed back south. His shoe fell out at one point and we had to backtrack. We had paid for parking until 4:15. Carly had waited forever to see a doctor, then met us at the car right about that time. August were a couple minutes after her as we were looking at a sculpture and debating whether it looked like a person or not.
She then had to go to another office at the main medical center for a blood draw. She started walking up there after we paid for more time, then August and I stopped at one building for a restroom. It was being used, so we went on up to the building Carly was in and found a bathroom there. We walked a bit more, then went back and hung out in the car for a few minutes until Carly called.
She walked down to the pharmacy and August and I packed up and drove to get her and arri
ved just as she called to ask where we were. I kept driving and we headed home, getting her at 6.
We had dinner but he said he was full of the snacks in the car. Luckily it was a lot of fruit. We played Wizard School, then August and I did Hebrew and Arabic together in Drops and Memrise. He was tired so we got him ready for bed. He said he’d dream about “Nursing, and Qs, and cupcakes, and chocolate. And doctors, too.” I left them at 7:15.