Saturday, December 30: Old Tel Aviv

He woke up about 6:45 and we all got up about 7, although I’m the slowest dragging myself out of bed. He was watching Wanda and the Alien, which he hasn’t watched for weeks. I did a little Sabeel work. He paused and nursed, then he and I watched Hebrew color and Arabic letter videos. I then let him play a few minutes of Monster Kitchen while I got some breakfast. I got a call from Omar with not-so-good news: the board doesn’t want to offer me an hourly salary for the work, and instead wants a lump sum, and it isn’t all that large. Still might do some work for them.

Downstairs, August played on the piano and said “I played a new thing on my piano!…You like it?” He then did dot painting with Carly: “It has two stingers. It’s an alien jellyfish, you know.” He ate oatmeal and mango for breakfast, then I went up to take a shower. When I came down they were using the doctor stuff and taking care of the animals. They had saved Monkey Nice Bananas with a couple of heart surgeries. And also some cuts: “He ran into a fence!” They were currently taking care of. Peter Rabbit and listening to his heart: “It’s gonna be cold.” “It’s okay Peter, were gonna give you a shot.”

I gave him his bath. He was in robot mode: “I use high temperatures to destroy robots and stuff.” After his bath he asked me: “Are you like alien and us…and me?…you need to put on rockets and special equipment and stuff.” Then downstairs he asked Carly “Do you want to be like us, dada, and alien?” He then showed Carly how to fly around the room:”But use high speed” runs around “Now you try…do you need to practice more?” “It would be easier if you shot fire out of your hands like me.”

We got going to Tiv Taam. We drove over, but once there Carly went in first and he convinced me to let him play in the car. He was the driver: “Those are the two babies and we’re taking care of them…because we’re adults…which direction?…We’re off the highway so I’m giving you control…Okay, we’re at the place were going. Roll up your windows or I’ll do it. They’re not doing it for quite awhile.” So then he rolled them up. We were also spotting and counting cats from the car.

We got home at 12:15 to put away groceries. He picked up the doctor stuff with spaceship while humming the Moby song “Almost Love”, which had been playing in the car. They nursed. I saw the port that Carly had found at the store and said “Nicely done, girl”. August was repeating me, saying “Haha. Nicely done girl.”

We got going again, this time to Old Tel Aviv. As we left he said “I hope when we get back Monkey Nice Bananas will feel more better!” We read the entire Kipper Collection book on the way down. We parked along the river and were walking by 1:30. We stopped by the little park next to where Airport Megan lives – we knew she lived in the area, but stumbled upon the specific spot by accident as Carly and I both remembered it from waiting in the van after we were picked up at the airport. He went down the little slide, then had me taking burst photos of him as he rocked on a toy. We were walking again before 2. He was really lounging back in the small stroller.

We kept asking if he wanted a sweatshirt. He said “I blinked; that means no.” He finally accepted a sweatshirt late into our meal. He wanted another park, so we were going to walk over to Independence Park first, but as we walked through the Old Tel Aviv core he said “I Chang-ed mind.” about going to the park first. So we walked down to the same restaurant we had eaten at the last time we were in Tel Aviv: Halevantini. And we got the same lamb kebab and roasted cauliflower. August got orange juice instead of grape, and I got an espresso this time. And we sat outside. When we ordered the waiter confirmed how many coffees and orange juices. August tried ordering extra. He kept telling the waiter “Two orange juices!” We had a lovely feast, and left at 3:10.

August was then a butterfly, then a ladybug, as we walked over to the park. He said he was a ladybug, not a ladybird, so I said he must be American. He said “Yeah, I come from American.” We then talked about what that means.

We walked down to the beach. He took off his shoes and asked “Can you make sure nobody steals them?” He made tracks in the sand, trying to push the stroller, then headed to Carly on the beach. As he ran he tripped and fell. He lay there for a few seconds, then said “It didn’t hurt!” He then made a game of running around the beach and falling down. He and Carly then made ‘shwarmeepa’, goddess of the aliens out of sand and Carly told us about how she learned about human sacrifices by playing in the sand when she was 5. They destroyed that one, then we scooted back as the tide was coming in and made another one. They then went wading in the water (I had my shoes and did feel like the hassle, and I was doing language study on my phone) and he would take wet sand (the quicksand) up and drop it on the dry sand and mix it in.

We got walking, and headed north along the waterfront. Stopped at a bathroom and he went in with me. There was then a spot where the waves were crashing up on the boardwalk. We watched that, then August went over to the bike and found one of Carly’s opened granola bars with chocolate and ate the remaining pieces. As we got walking she let him have the crumbs in it. He said “I’ll hold that. I know what I’m doing.”

As we walked across the west bridge across the Yarkon River he started singing London Bridge. As we kept walking I realized he was singing my verses. I end with the guard drinking tea. He kept adding verses: “What if he doesn’t like tea either? Tea either? Tea either?” And finally “This is the last verse of this song, of this song, of this song.” I told him I liked his verses, and he told me he had added one earlier as well: “Glue and sticky glue stick”

We got to our car and left about 5:15. In the car he had rainbows coming out of our noses, from 91-Story Treehouse (or one of them). His rainbow, he said, stretched all the way to our house. He told Carly “Follow my rainbow, mama!”

We were home at 5:45. I told August I felt a little icky. He asked “Can I feel you?” They Skyped with Vivian, then Carly skyped with Glecy and he and I did Wizard School. I sent him a couple of bird pictures. We then got cookies and milk and he skyped with Vivian again. Vivian was staring intently at the screen and Carly asked if she was watching a video. She said “No, I’m not watching a video. YOU’RE the video.” Soon after that Skype stopped working on their end. August and I went and took care of the horse, who was sick and also had a bad cut.

Carly took him upstairs. I went upstairs and hid under the covers while he was on the toilet. They had a thoroughly Carly and August discussion about the toilets diet. Then had fun ‘scaring’ August when he was in the room. Brushed his teeth and I suggested he dream about beaches. He said “Beaches…and monsters attacking me and eating me. Bad dreams, you know. I always say that.” Left them 8:15.