He slept until 6:35. Lounged in bed and didn’t say anything until “It’s 7. It’s almost 7:01 then we’ll go to sleep.” He wanted to go downstairs a little later. Came and “tickle hugged” me. We all got up at 7:15. Downstairs he found the alien and asked “Alien, why are you downstairs? Have you been exploring in your time machine?” He noticed that the alphabet magnets were off the fridge and replaced with the Hebrew word magnets. He said “Whoa. Who did that?” But didn’t play with them at first: “Alien, I’m gonna play on my iPad. Do you want to play too? I’m gonna play in nature. You’ll learn all about nature.” He played Earth. Then we did a lot of time travel with the alien. I used the Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life book to figure out which animals he and the alien could find as they traveled back in time. We then did our Drops sessions, focusing on transportation.
We learned that Vivian had gotten sick at a science center and thrown up, so August did a Skype video message to her, hoping she felt better and asking her what color her puke was. He then asked me to make up songs about throwing up in a library and a science center. Their time machine was having problems so we fixed it. He got quite create and was as big as 22 gigantic shoes stacked up.
When he calmed down a bit he decided to put the alien away. As we launched to go upstairs he described escaping gravity nicely: “Rocket is supposed to sneak away from gravity.” He put the alien away in his closet and said “Bye alien. Don’t think you’ll meet any dinosaurs up here.”
Back downstairs we read books: Pete the Cat Saves Christmas, a Fancy Nancy three book collection we purchased, and a Pete the Cat collection.
Carly was making both spinach pancakes and tzatziki sauce. August asked “Mama, what is all this blending for?” We read part of a comic book called The Sisters. Then pancakes were ready and we had some of those.
I went up and took a shower. Back downstairs he was getting upset about something and not cheered like I expected when I told him we’d wait on his shower as the water wasn’t hot enough. He calmed down and found Classify It on his iPad – the game where you classify organisms based on their characteristics. He played with my for several levels and he was really into learning from our mistakes, as when you redo a board and get 100% on a level you get an animal information card that we’d then read. Carly played with him, but he wasn’t trusting her on things. He said “I’ll ask dada.” There was a Venus fly trap, so we watched the YouTube video of the guy putting his tongue in one. Well, the first few seconds.
August then made a really cool song: “Sometimes you are right. Sometimes they are wrong. But guessing is fun.”
I got his bath ready, then asked if mama could give him his bath. He said “Okay. But I hate baths. Don’t spray my hair.”
We got ready to go to the mall and buy wrapping paper. It was raining as we left. We stopped at Gutale to ask about my missing hat. No luck. We read Berenstain Bears Too Much Pressure in the car. A quick trip to the Ir Yamin mall where we went to the party store and got wrapping paper, bags for cookie deliveries, and balloons.
Carly had the idea of going down to Argaman’s Beach. We were able to drive all the way down the hill and park right at the bottom as there was only one other car there. We walked down on the very windy beach. The waves were crashing nice and loud and the tide was up for maximum effect. We played around for awhile and just enjoyed the beach. I found a plastic hammer on the beach and gave it to August and he used it to hammer shells and rocks into the sand.
We then got in the car and drove a little to the north to where we had first walked with Carly along the boardwalk and he had played on a concrete bench. There is sort of an indoor space with several restaurants in it. We looked for a coffee shop and found that the convenience store had an espresso machine so we got a couple cappuccinos and an orange juice for August. We went out on the boardwalk and August sat on one of the benches and drank his juice. I put both of his sweatshirts on him and his socks. I was cold in just my one sweatshirt so suggested he and I go inside, where they had the heat lamps. He jumped at that. Carly stayed out to appreciate the sea.
We went in and sat in one set of chairs but a waitress came and gave us menus for the restaurant. So we moved over to in front of the convenience store. We studied French in Memrise until Carly was done and came in.
In the car he started to take his socks off and I told him he could keep them on. He said “No I can’t!” We read Tallulah’s Tap Shoes and started The Little Prince. We got to Tel Yitzak and parked across from the nursery. Carly took him to the gas station to go to the bathroom. Meanwhile, I wandered next door to check out the bakery and restaurant. I was then surprised by Carly and August coming out of the restaurant – the sings at the gas station had led them around back to the restaurant bathrooms.
We went across to the nursery looked for plants. Carly taught August how to snap the snapdragons. He then found a flower plant that he instantly wanted. Petunias, I think it was. He also wanted the snapdragons, but we told him to wait on that. Carly also got a couple of plants that might not need much water to put them in the section of the kitchen boxes that are difficult to reach. One was a sort of cactus.
We left there at 3:20. Carly and I were talking about how to get the soil from the big bags out through the kitchen windows to the planter without making a mess. I suggested the bucket, and August said “You can buy it from me.” He was also blasting monsters and said “I electricitated you.”
At home he said he needed to charge and went and lay on the couch. He wanted the water bottle and got my backpack and was pulling it around on the floor, making shapes: “I’m spelling letters with your backamapack.” We played Classify It and he read sentences like “Living things that are green plants.”
Carly finished the planters and now our view from the kitchen is wonderful. It looks really good. As she was doing it she realized why I talked more about doing something with the planters – I’m taller and could see the ugly empty planters with the ugly dirt. She can see the plants too though and appreciate it.
I cooked a frozen pizza and we had that and beet greens for dinner and listened to Christmas music and played more Classify It. August requested some tea and drank a little.
I suggested we go out for a walk over to Tiv Taam to get our cooking baking ingredients. It had stopped raining but was really damp, and the smell reminded me of Lake Stevens. August agreed to ride in his big stroller, which we almost never use, so he could be more covered if it rained. At the mall we first stopped at the book store and they picked out some cards to send to people. An easy trip to Tiv Taam and we got ingredients for peanut butter and for chocolate chip cookies.
On the way back it was windier and drizzling more. Carly tucked extra sweatshirts around August to keep him warm. He was too cozy though as he was falling asleep by the time we got home at 7:10. His pants were wet from the drizzle so he took them off. He was feeling tired, as he said “My power is in the red”. We read some Fancy Nancy and Pete the Cat and got him ready for bed. I told him to dream about Santa Claus He added “and Fancy Nancy. And our house breaking down. And monsters scaring me. And monsters eating me.” I left them just before 8.
Tongue:
Waves:
Wind:
Snapdragons:
Pretending to sleep:
Presents ready:
