He was up just before 7. Came downstairs and played Sarah and Duck Sleepover. Carly made him oatmeal and mango. He ate that, then he and I played more with the Lego set, putting together the police car. He was having fun putting the tires on all his fingers. Carly was doing yard work and was doing to take the yard waste across the street so he went to do it with her.
He came inside and we were looking at playlists in Apple Music and he said he wanted to make a new playlist. We added songs to a New Year’s playlist and he helped with that. We then went and put together the other car and other items from the Lego set, then started playing with both the cars. He had them racing, but the losing car had to go to car jail, which seemed harsh: “One minute. That’s good! Cuz one minutes long, but it’s not THAT long.” We shared some toast, then he told me “Dada, you broke a bad rule. You stole the chemicals in there that make me disappear.”
While playing with the Lego cars he found a little extra red piece stuck inside the frame of one of the cars. Got it out with a screwdriver. The set only called for one such piece, so August got an extra. Meanwhile, Carly was out working on the swing: finish sanding and starting to spray paint it. Inside, a car tried to escape from jail and August gave it a 19 second penalty. I explained good behavior and it got out early a few minutes later. The cars were then being invisible because of his chemicals, but playing a chord on his piano made them visible again.
We went and did a little Drops, then back to the cars. We discussed the movie. When he heard the name he wasn’t impressed, and seemed skeptical that it was any good: “It’s just called Cars?…Is it an exciting show?” One of us made his alien squeak, and we decided it was sneezing. August decided it was allergic to Legos.
I sat in the chair with the fabric over it, and August got in it behind me and played there with the alien for several minutes. I then went up and took a shower. When I came down Carly was making spinach Swedish pancakes and I got August upstairs pretty easily as she was about to use the blender. An easy bath, then back downstairs to eat spinach pancakes. He had two, then requested peanut butter on a spoon. He had several spoonfuls, and still likes to see the peanut butter as you scoop it up.
I was then trying to catch him to put his shirt on and he was running away. Thus started a game of ‘slow dada’ with me moving in slow motion. Lasted awhile. Finally, he played outside for a few minutes (teeter totter, etc.) before we left at 12:10. We’d been talking about how we were going to let mama have some work time (she has to work on National Boards renewal), but he tried to convince her to come with us.
We drove to Tamnoon Beach, which is the beach entry north of the main one in downtown Netanya. We were listening to Moby and the Void Pacific Choir remixes on the way – very sort of trance-y stuff. August asked why the song was doing the same note again and again, then called it an interesting song and requested it added to his playlist. It was the Moby Remix of Are You Lost in the World Like Me? He added another one to his playlist later. I was afraid he was going to fall asleep, because after he talked about that song he just sat there, silent, for the next 20+ minutes (in a trance). Finally, as we went through downtown Netanya he said “Can’t be much longer.”
Parked at 12:45 at the playground north of the beach entrance. There were some concrete animal statues and August immediately ran and started climbing on them. They were talking to him, and each time he ran to another one he would tell me to have it say something. The alligator was trying to eat him, the turtle had been lonely, etc. After 10 minutes or so we went to the playground. He spent almost the whole time climbing up on the play structure then sliding down the spiral slide. But each time he would tell me to wait at the bottom for him, then comment on how he was taller than me. Did that maybe a dozen times.
We got walking sometime after 1. He did a pretty good job of walking on the way down to the beach. He spotted a cat, then another. By the time we got down to the beach we counted 16. We decided to call this one Cat Beach for future reference. When I did carry him a bit, he said he was a machine pumping oil, and talked about the factories that were using his oil and what they were building. He did all of the stairs down on his own though, and there were a lot of stairs. He figured out he could skip two stairs at a time by hanging on the railing and stretching as much as he could. When we got to 16 cats he said “16 cats. That’s quite a lot.”
We made it to the beach, walked a bit south, and chose a perfect spot for a moat. We started by opening the cup set we had bought at Ikea. August really liked that, and the different patterns we could make with their bumpy edges in the sand. When I asked what shape he wanted for the moat this time he said “Right-angle trapezoid”. So we made a right angle trapezoid. I was making little towers with the sand I was scooping out and August wanted to make towers with the cups too, but was having trouble getting it down. He had me bring water up in the bucket once, but that was enough.
A little before 2 we decided to pause for a snack. August decided to destroy our moat and castle at that point. He used the hammer and rake and his feet, mainly. He then wanted to move up to drier sand and he chose a spot under a cover. There, he got down how to make the towers and made several.
We got leaving around 2:30. We paused to brush off sand and put my shoes on and kept counting cats – we were over 30, including a black kitten. August was back to talking about oil machines and factories: “Dada, can you be a bench-making factory?” He asked me to look at his cat counting gauge and I said I thought he was an oil pump. He replied “No, I’m an oil pumper but that’s how they designed me…Can you see my cat counter?”
We headed back. I carried him most of the way up the stairs but got him to do some walking to the car. Got there at 2:50. We drove to the complex with Ace Hardware and first went in to use the bathroom. August then rode the little merry-go-round and decided he was on the best horse, so we made sure we could tell which one it was next time. We went up the escalators and quickly looked at the bean bag chair store. Then realized there was a big babies/kids store up there as well. August played in the little baby play pen there with the baby toys, then back out in the mall wanted to get in the small kids play area. He crawled around on the foamy objects like the two small kids that were there.
We headed to Ace and I had to stop August from going into the couch stores as he wanted to try out couches. At Ace we got more spray paint for the swing, one more can for the bookshelves, took a photo of our car vac options, got a couple of hooks, and looked for outdoor chairs. Not the season for it. We paid, then headed home.
Carly met us outside the house at 4:20. We just handed off the paint so she could finish painting the swing. August and I then drove to his activity class. He was worn out from playing on the beach and wasn’t feeling up to class: “I don’t feel like class today.” he kept telling me. At one point I was standing in the corner of the classroom with him and encouraged him to go do one jump. He said “One jump, then we go home”. He went and jumped, then went straight out the door and up the stairs. I brought him back and he spent time playing with the toys. In particular he used a toy cell phone to call people – me, mama, Green Monster, Peter Rabbit, etc. He would tell them he wasn’t doing so good, he wanted to go home, etc.
Then, as he was playing with the phone, he suddenly disappeared into the classroom before I could even get the phone from him. He was in there for the last 15 or 20 minutes solid. I could never really tell what they were doing as th
e drapes were closed and a guy sat right in front of the entrance the whole time. When I asked what they had done he said “all sorts of things”.
We went to the car and drove into town and parked in the parking garage for the downtown grocery store. We went in and got pita and milk and a few other things. On the way out he was looking at a couple signs and wanted to translate them – things like ‘Prohibited’ and ‘On sale’.
We were home at 6:20. He wasn’t in a hurry to go in and wanted to play in the car. We went in and stated eating dinner. He hadn’t eaten much during the day and must have been famished: he had two spinach pancakes, two bowls of mushrooms and teriyaki sauce (I had to go cook him a second bowl), some pita, and part of an orange (in the grocery store he had seen some small oranges and got really excited about getting them).
He was then doing some time traveling and told me “You can do anything! You’re a time-traveling basket!” He remembered the chocolate chip cookies (he had seen cookies at the store and I reminded him he could have one at home). He ate a big cookie and drank a good amount of milk.
Then skyped with Vivian and family. Cassie sad everyone was super. August: “I’m super!” They played peekaboo and August and Vivian did a lot of typing back and forth.
He was fefinitely tired as we took him up close to 8. Carly’s got him doing a pretty good job of brushing his teeth by himself again. I said good night and he said “I’m gonna dream about BAD DREAMS.” I suggested moats and he said “Moats and bad dreams.” He’s been sleeping without socks but I asked if he wanted socks tonight. He said yes, but then when Carly put them on he took them off. Carly now asked if he wanted his socks on. He replied “Not even a blanket.” She said “Okay, crazy boy.” Him: “Okay, crazy mama.” I left them by 8:15. He was asleep soon after.
Tire bandages:
Playing in the chair:
Playground:
Pretending to sleep down the slide:
Beach:
Merry-go-round:
Recognizing Paddington:
Buying paint:
Class:
