Wednesday, December 20: Beet picking

It was another pretty restless early morning with Carly having to get him back to sleep a couple times. They stayed in bed until 6:15. When I got up a bit later they had been playing Wizard School and Carly was making him oatmeal with mango. They then did their crazy eating outside thing even though it was just 15 degrees out there. They came in after awhile and he wanted to type on my iPad. We added two new keys to the onscreen keyboard – one for ‘Mama’ and one for ‘Dada’. They then nursed, and Carly was reading a YA novel called Ghost. August asked her to read outloud. She did, and when he was done nursing he just lay on the couch and she read for awhile. She decided it was a bit depressing, then they went over and got paper and she taught him how to draw a stick figure. He said he couldn’t do it at first. He drew lines coming out of his and said: “The person is actually an alien!”

He was then playing with the blueberries and I went over and played with him. He was a machine going haywire and not following the rules. Then he used the blueberry that is a pinkish color and said it was a drone (or at first a satellite) and wanted me to steer it by remote control. So I was giving it directions on which way to go. To the toy piano where he was making things up, then played the tune again and asked “What’s that from?” He often sits with his left arm and head up on the couch now and plays with his right hand.

We got going and left to head up to Levet Israel in Binyamina. Stopped at a gas station and we figured out the gas card on our own and filled the new car for the first time. Stopped at another gas station just before Binyamina to use the bathroom and we saw Karen, from the school, who organized the beet picking.

Got to the field at 10:10. Jack was there, and I suggested to August that he ask how Nellie is doing. Jack said Nellie could use someone to come over and pet her, as Celeste is away on vacation. So we might swing by sometime. I walked/carried August up to the field. We were a bit behind when we got up to the field, and the rest of the group was listening to the organizer. I had us standing back a bit, but August was ready to get beet picking. He took off towards the field where other people were already picking, saying “Bye bye dada”.

We had fun picking beets. The area we worked in had less big beets this time. Liam (who August and I had once went swimming with at the pool) and his mom were there so we picked close to them. August was very into helping carry the buckets to dump them. He would use his “Super rocket turbo power!” to help. Near the end, Carly pulled a really big beet. August instantly decided he wanted to take it home. Carly argued it was too big, but he picked it up and started to haul it back to the car. I talked to him about it, and about how it would be too hard to cut. He said “Dada, you can cut it. You know everything!” How could I resist that? Also, he was looking pretty sad, so I gave in. The organizer kept putting out new bins as we filled them up, and August was asking me what my guess was for the goal for today. I was guessing a multiple of two, and August started counting by 2s, up to 100 and beyond. It turned out to actually be 9, and after the 9 were full we grabbed a bunch of beet greens and a couple of smaller beets as well and headed back to the car.

Jack almost convinced us to head farther north with him to do some flamingo watching, but we decided it was too far north and weren’t sure how much August would be into it. Maybe if we had binoculars. We drove through Binyamina to see if there was anything interesting and we didn’t find reason to stop. The winery if we didn’t have August with us.

We headed home, and Carly and I felt like a coffee. We went to Gutale, the other cafe in Even Yehuda and the one we haven’t been to. We got cappuccinos and August got a peach and mango smoothie. August and I had read some of the Magic Treehouse #32 in the car, and Carly tried to read a bit more with him here. He ended up doing some Memrise with me.

On the way back to the car the steering on his orange bike broke. The metal piece that attaches to the steering rod to turn the front wheel broke in two, so now Carly and I can’t steer. August can though.

We were headed over to Tiv Taam at the mall, so stopped at the bike shop and took it in. Long shot, but thought they might know someone who could machine a part. They said no. And get him on a two-wheel bike. August was into the steering himself thing though, so maybe a blessing in disguise as he suddenly took off, peddling himself around the mall. Carly went in and did some grocery shopping and he rode to the end of the mall, on the outside, and went down the ramp. He had to turn halfway. Did it three or four times, entirely on his own.

We met up with Carly and headed to the car. In town, when his bike broke, a guy came up to us trying to sell us random things, like snacks and perfume. Suddenly, it happened again. Same snacks and perfume, and now a massager thing that this guy (couldn’t have been the same guy) tried on my back. Strange. Also, he asked for 100 shekels for this cheap blasting thing, which was crazy.

In the car and out of the blue August said “I lost track…how many trees in the world.” Listened to more Jingle Bells on repeat on the way home.

Home at 3:40. I tried to call Omar at Sabeel but didn’t get an answer. They played out in car a bit, then came in and nursed. Inside, he used one of Carly’s shoes as a phone and was calling places to get them to fix cars, his stool, etc. He had a sort of script, and was telling them our address: “I live at Habrosh 1.”

I went out and finally tried riding my bike with the trailer attached. He watched and started to get interested in it. Tried on his helmet and he was okay with it (although we didn’t do the chin strap). He was showing interest in trying the bike for the first time. Maybe in the next few days.

Had some stir fry, then played the Hungry Cateepillar AR game and showed that to Carly. He played some toy piano, then we read Tallulah’s Tap Shoes. He was still hungry and I got him more veggies from the stir fry, no noodles, and he ate all of them and asked for more.

We went out and played Zinnie shop for quite awhile as it got dark. Don’t know if I mentioned hanging the battery light up in it so he has a light now. I bought the soccer ball from him, then got him to kick the ball back and forth with me. He said “This is so fun”. But then stopped about 10 seconds later.

Carly had taken a shower, then we took him in and got him ready for bed. He agreed he’d be dreaming about beets. And added “And VOLCANOES. And storms.” I left them at 7:10.