He was up just after 6. When I came down a little later he took my iPad when I set it on the table. He and Carly played a little Ear Wizard, which is a ear training app where you identify chord progressions. Think he would have played more except he doesn’t like that you run out of chances when you make mistakes. Carly headed to work and August, who keeps asking for a new Toca app, played a couple that I realized we already own (Toca Kitchen and Toca Band) and I made the last of the pancakes. He ate a few bites, but wouldn’t eat any more. We did the AR view in Drops for a bit, then he wanted to measure the spiky plant in the indoor planter, after we talked about how it had grown a lot. But we couldn’t find the tape measure. He was excited: “Another mystery!” Exercised, then we went up and watched the “Fancy Park” episode of Sarah and Duck together.
I took a shower, then we watched the “The Play” episode together. He mainly ate strawberries and crackers for breakfast. We did his bath and he spent a lot of time watching the Marble Machine and then animated musical instruments (Animusic, I think it is called) videos.
Downstairs, he took blurry photos of me, then had me take blurry photos of him. He chose the best one and chose a filter, so I posted it to Instagram. While I started to get lunch together he, who was just wearing underwear, lay face down on the rug in the kitchen in the sun.
He asked for peanut butter on a spoon and said “There’s crunchies in there! There’s zookeepers in there!” And he ate a few carrot sticks dipped in pesto veganaise. Finished making sandwiches for lunch, then we put together the piano together. He played the piano and was making some cool patterns so I took a video. He saw me, and wanted to perform for a second one. He was performing for the camera, then wanted to watch it.
I said he could have a Tic Tac in the car, and he asked if it was a mint one. I said those weren’t out there, but he had a box of mint ones from Christmas. That reminded him of his stocking and he wanted something from it. He chose Smarties and was very, very excited. I also got out a balloon and we were blowing it up and letting it go. He really liked that too, but wanted to get in his car seat so he could have those Smarties.
As we got our shoes on he did the head pushing game, the kissing game, then we made up new ‘games’: he did the bonking game, bonking his head against my leg. We left 11:30.
In the car I gave him his Smarties. He ate them slowly, making half of it last until Ra’anana Park. We listened to his playlist and he requested the Teuni Teuni theme song again, then a repeat of Pil Pilon as we got to the park. We went to pay. August was very concerned about enough time – he wanted to pay for a whole day. We paid right at 12, until 3:15. August wanted to see the engine of the car so we popped the hood and spent a few minutes looking, then we headed into the park.
We decided to go over to the instrument area first. He said “I loved the instruments part…there were so many monsters there!” He remembered blasting monsters last time. He had spotted a cat near our car, then said “Its a good time for cats to be around. Cuz it’s a nice day.”
At the instrument area there were other kids doing the turning thing. He was patient and played other things first. And he banged on a harp thing and said he was playing along. We eventually sat on a low wall and ate some lunch. When other kids were done, then we went and played with it. I peeled an orange and August didn’t want any at first. He gave in and ate a piece and told me “Oh! It was good! You were right!” While spinning the music box thing and listening to the songs he said of one “it had ‘הילדים’ (children) in it!” And he kept talking about how many steps he was getting, walking around in circles.
Before we left we used the QR code scanner on a few of the plants, and we were admiring the different kinds of oranges in the trees. There is a variety of citrus fruit that looks like small oranges the size of olives. August and I picked one and tried it. Like a strong lemon, but with an orange-ish taste to it.
We got walking and after discovering the ‘zig zag’ sculpture (I first read ‘zig zag’ on a metal sign, in Hebrew), composed of 3 metal pieces that align to make a zigzag if you stand in the right location, we made it to the concrete maze/play area. he wandered around in that for a bit, using the telephone and finding a sweatshirt someone had forgotten. We then continued on to the first playground we had played at with Carly when we first visited the park – the big covered one. August remembered of part of it that “it was taped (closed off) last time”. He played on the big swinging log thing and made music. He told me he wanted to spit and I got him to go over off the playground area. I asked him “why’d you spit?” He replied “For funsies. Because I wanted to go back to spitting.” While on one of the toys he described his store. It had all sorts of random things: “17 baby swings…” Back on the swinging log he made music again and asked “Can you pretend to shoot heavy metal balls that make notes?” This was a reference to one of the Animusic videos, where marbles bounce off of wires to make music.
He did a lot of singing of “She’ll be coming around the mountain.” I got a phone call from Omar at Sabeel. August did a pretty good job of letting me talk. He had me swing him around on a spinning thing and he got pretty dizzy. We left that playground at 2. I pointed out a sculpture of a cow and the Hebrew word for ‘cow’ (I’d also read the word for horse on another). He said “I hate cows. They’re stinky.”
Finally, we went and played at the big playground, notable for the acorn rocket and the huge wooden play structure. The acorn was in use so he wanted to play in the log again, but it looked like there was water in there. I gave him permission to use his sweatshirt (which he wasn’t wearing) to dry it up, but then he said it wasn’t working. It was something sticky. Oops. He rode in the acorn rocket with a couple of other kids. The mom pushed and sang a little “Jingle Bells” along with him.
Back out he climbed on some little platform things. He asked “were those in Korea?” They have spirals on them and they had them at the spiderweb playground. He ran over to the pointy rope climbing thing. He saw a sign on it and said “I hate signs”. He then asked what ages it said and I said 5 to 12. He got really sad and started to cry. Picked him up and held him in my lap and tried to explain what ‘designed for’ means. He kept saying “I can’t do it…I can’t” then defiaintly “I CAN do it.” Finally, he started to calm down and I reminded him of “making mama nervous” photos. So he climbed up on it and had fun taking a making mama nervous photo. Then he ran and climbed up a metal ladder and asked me to take another making mama nervous photo.
Then it was to the big wooden play structure. Climbed up and went around on that for awhile. But then as he was going down one of the steep, shallow staircases he slipped, about three steps up. He held on tight to the railing though and swung around, holding himself by one hand, until his feet landed on the ground. He was a little hurt and dazed, but not too bad.
Played around on some of the smaller structures on the way back to the stroller. On was a time machine or the such: “Done! We’re at Anavacanda!” He sneezed and I counted them. He asked “Why do you always count my sneezes?”
We went to the bathroom before 3. He used the wheelchair stall and said that’s the one he always uses. He was asking about the bars, and liked raising and lowering the bar that is movable. He washed his hands well and now likes to dry his hands, but they just had hand dryers in this bathroom. I used it, but he said it was still too loud for him.
On the way to the car I stopped a free library, so
I stopped. Got a Hebrew book of short children’s stories and an English version of Saul Bellow’s Herzog. We got to the car just before 3:15, much to August’s relief. As we got to the car he said “Our Fabia Mama is right there.” In the car he was looking off at something and I asked what. He said “I’m spying at the sun.”
He’d been asking to get hot chocolate at the store, so we stopped at Tiv Taam at the mall. He had the second half of the Smarties on the way and was falling asleep as we pulled into the parking lot. We went in and got crackers, then had difficulty finding the hot chocolate mix. I asked a woman, in Hebrew, where the hot chocolate was. Was stumped though when she responded ‘Lo Ivrit’. She spoke Russian. August and I eventually found it though.
We drove home. I called Carly as I though she might be walking home. She was, and just a few seconds away from where we were when I called. One of the first things he said was “Can you show mama the making her nervous pictures?” I asked if I could tell him about his fall. He did a great job of saying I could tell her, but not so he could hear it. I think he said something about keeping it a secret from him, and being quiet. We told him I could wait and tell her later.
We were home before 4:30. He was on his teeter totter and taught Carly the term “Time signature.” When I told him I’d be leaving he said “Yeah! I get mama time!” I asked what he’d dream about tonight and he said “Bad dreams…and Smarties!”
For the Guys’ Night Out I drove, picking up Jack. Rick then joined us for the ride over. There were eight of us total. No movies in the theater worth watching, although I’d hoped we’d go see the Star Wars film. But everyone had already seen that. We had dinner at Rubinstein instead, which is a bit pricier. And involved lots and lots of meat.
While I was gone August ate dinner, then had hot chocolate outside. They ate popcorn and watched about 20 minutes of Brother Bear. They read a couple of books and he was asleep at 8.
Being blurry:
Lying in the sun:
Lunch:
My sweatshirt:
Zigzag:
Pensive of the swing:
Acorn robot instrument:
A making mama nervous photo:
