Carly got him up, or he got up on his own. They nursed and she headed to work. We watched Sarah & Duck and ate crackers and cheese. He really liked the line “Building block? You’re definitely NOT my sandwich.” After the episode about making a sand sea cow he turned it off and we acted out finding an occupied shell – he was the baby crab. We read a little of Clemetine’s Letter, then he wanted to go outside and play his music machine (stick) and metronome (teeter totter). Of a chair he said “It’s a scale fortune teller…it tells you what scale something is…major scale.”
As we went inside he told me “Dada, my shop isn’t open on Hannukah and Christmas.” He played with the alien and spaceship and collected dinosaurs for the international zoo in the Andromeda sector. There was also time travel. This was s we listened to Sun Ra’s “Space Probe”. Seemed quite appropriate. At one point he said a dinosaur would die in the zoo, so I had the alien assure him that a team of paleontologist would come and study the dinosaur’s habitat and recreate it in the zoo. Sometime later he remembered and asked how the team was doing.
We read most of Max Axiom Electricty and he was then a robot and I had a remote control. A lot of talk of motors and being tiny like an atom and motors. The remote control and robot were broken and he had me fixing them with superglue.
I opened Google Maps and discussed what to do. He said “I want to show you what I was thinking.” Although he mainly wanted to search for gas stations, which he proceeded to do around the world. He found one in Greenland.
He looked at the Berenstain Bears book on his own as I got his French toast ready. As he ate it I was learning perfect and bad in Hebrew so we debated which the French toast was.
He played a couple of Toca apps while I exercised, then was upset when I wouldn’t buy a new app. We went upstairs and I showered. He watched Sarah and Duck and ate a couple strawberries. He kept watching upstairs while I made lunch for us. I learned my lesson – he got a peanut butter and jelly/honey sandwich today.
He chose his lollipop from his stocking today and was talking about having it in the car: “…get buckled up, then I can have my lollipop! That rhyme-ed!”
We did his bath – another quick version with him pulling out the plug. In his room he played with all his bracelets and asked where they were all from. He talked about how much he liked them, but he didn’t want to wear one. He said they were for seven-year-olds.
We were ready to go, so he played outside a bit more and was singing “Down by the Station”. He asked where the song was from and I said his songbook. He asked if it was on his playlist and I said we didn’t have a recording of it. He asked if we could get one, so in the car I searched Apple Music and we found a tolerable version. He listened to it a few times on the drive to the beach before he let me change songs.
We left at 11:20. His lollipop lasted the whole way (20 minutes) plus a minute on the bike. We took the orange bike so we could do a beach walk. One of the songs that came on on his playlist was a song from his Poli class. He asked if there was one about street lights. I found that, and it tells you how to cross the street. He asked me “Dada, do you always do that?” As we got in the stroller he asked “Why are Smarties little circles and they don’t stick together…they are cutted in the middle?” We had found the Smarties wrapper as we got in the car, so he’d been thinking about it.
We parked up on the hill, but it turned out parking was free. He had fun driving on the sand-covered sidewalks though on the way down. We got to the beach, and didn’t get too far, because right away he spotted an elongated hill of sand that he said looked like a person. And he wanted to destroy it. He asked if I’d brought the sand toys. We set our stuff down and got out our implements of destruction. We played on the sand hill. It was a building at one point, as I started making channels down it and said it was erosion, and he told me no, it is a building. So then I was making channels and he was destroying them, literally sliding down the hill on his stomach to do so.
We stopped to go and have lunch. He ate much more sandwich today, of course. I had brought my yellow water bottle from Korea. We haven’t used it in Israel yet. He wanted to use it and asked “Do you remember how we make it work?” I asked if he remembered using it in Korea and told him he had first drunk from it when my parents were in Korea and we were on a hike. I said “Of course, I’m sure you don’t remember that specific time. He replied “I still remember that in Pacific time!” Very funny as it is rare that he confuses words like that.
Back on the ‘person’ I started making a big hole. Then, I made a perpendicular hole near the bottom of the hill. August was doubtful we’d get them to connect, but he ‘helped’. Eventually, it did, and I mentioned pouring water through to see if it would go through. He excitedly grabbed the bucket and ran off towards the water. Unfortunately, there was a jerk of a dog owner with three yappy puppies on the beach, and August ran by them. They dogs, who had been chasing a soccer ball around, started chasing August and literally jumped up on him. I had to run and grab August. He was traumatized. The dog owner called his dogs away, but offered no ‘Sorry’ or anything to us. Said dogs were later just wandering all over the beach and around the tables at the restaurant. I didn’t say anything to the owner, but should have. August and I shouted one away from us later on.
Anyway, I got water and that cheered August up. First bucket didn’t work. But after several buckets and straightening out the tunnel we had water trickling out the other end.
We decided to go for a walk at 1:15. We walked north along the beach to the end of the swimming beach. Then took the bike over a couple of rock places. We then cut to the east, off the beach, in search of the Israel National Trail, or at least where that portion of it is marked on Google Maps. We tromped our way through garbage-laden sand and dunes, over a busted guardrail, etc. But eventually gave up when it was clear there wasn’t anything between us and the road. We turned back and tromped back to the beach and walked back. Along the way he found some of the blobby rocks and kept one that did, indeed, look like a “Sea cow” rock. Back near where we started we stopped under a shade shelter and had a snack, then read The Berenstain Bears Too Much Birthday. He got on the bike and was ‘spying’ through his hands, then the handle. We left at 2:05.
As we walked up to the car he told me “I hate parties”. He said he just wanted the three of us and a cake for his birthday. He didn’t like the idea of a bunch of people at a party. I had Carly ask him later and he articulated it quite well. As we got to the car he used a couple of new phrases. He joked about calling the car Sputnik instead of Skoda. I said that would be a good name and that Carly would prefer that name over Skoda Mama. He insisted the car was still Skoda Mama or Carly though and said “I would prefer if you call our home Sputnik. If you care about that.” There was then some dog poop by his door and I asked if he wantedto get in the other door. He said “Well yes, if you (don’t) mind.”
I’d forgot to ask him about using the bathroom and he thought he needed to go, so we then drove down to the beach and walked in and used the bathroom. We then headed home. I stopped at the strawberry stand and August said he’d wait for me in the car. I got a couple containers of strawberries (25 shekels total).
We got home and made a smoothie. He said it made him turn into a strawberry. Which I then ate. But he said he was a strawberry with mold on it: “Some cyanobacteria on it! And volvox!” He learned those from the Classify It! app. That made me sick, then he went a
nd got the doctor stuff and checked me out and gave me medicine.
He was then being a kitten, and Carly got home a little before 4. She was asking what we did today and asked if we went to the beach. He replied “It seems to me we did.”
He went outside with her and was then being a baby. He went down his slide and helped water. I vacuumed the car. Then August and I got in the car and headed to his activity class. We were a little early, so we drove down to where the road to Kfer Netter has been closed. Don’t know why, except it is a legal thing. Very frustrating, as it is already insanely hard to get from one town to another here.
We went to his class. He had been positive about it all day, and started okay. Lasted about 10 minutes then came out and said he was leaving. Sat with me for awhile, then back in. She had a magic wand activity, and turned them all into snakes and they were crawling around (and I recognized the word for snake). When it was August’s turn he used the wand and said “I made you disappear!” When she had him choose an animal he said “Dog!” Then I heard him say “I made you disappear!” again. They crawled around acting like dogs, and he was the loudest dog – reflective of how he sees dogs as a species, I think. I also saw him standing in front of the mirror, staring at himself at one point.
He was then back out with me, sitting on my lap again. I took him to the bathroom and he saw they have the heart toilet paper: “My favorite toilet paper!” He speculated how much toilet paper they have, with all these people: “More than we do. I’m sure they get more rolls.” Back in to class again, then back out, saying “I’m tired. I can’t make it all the way through class.” Rested again, then he went back in for the last couple minutes. And at the end he stayed to help her clean everything up. When he came out he was very happy and excited that he’d made it. But as we walked up the stairs, unprompted, he said “So class was pretty good. But I don’t like class too much.” He then told me th teacher said he would stay in the whole class next time.
As I got him in the car he kicked off his shoes and then was looking for them. I spotted one, and he told me “I have better eyes than you.” He hasn’t mentioned that recently. Also didn’t work at that moment as I was the one that saw it. We got home and sat in the car for a few minutes as a song I liked was coming on. He got out of his seat and looked at the screen: “Is this song called Angel?” It was, indeed. I asked him what else he could read on the screen and he read ‘back’ and ‘up next’. The song was Depeche Mode’s “Angel” and he added it to his playlist.
Inside they nursed, then he had nutty noodles for dinner. Carly then had the computer typing messages to him. He was doing a good job of reading them. Carly took him upstairs and after they had been up there for some time I went up to see what was going on. I opened the door and Carly said “We’re going to bed!” They were playing with the kaleidoscope cards my parents got for us last Christmas, I believe. They were having a lot of fun, particularly when they realized we had two sets. We got him ready and brushed his teeth. I asked what he’d dream about. He said “I don’t know. Scary dreams and mosnters eating me.” Beaches? “Yes! And scary monsters.” Carly had to go do a few things, and he cuddled in on the bed with me. He wanted blankets and pillows pulled around him and he was being a baby “when you first met me”. I told him he had held my finger when they first gave him to me, so he did that. He then asked “Are you used to having me around?” Which I thought may have been a discussion that he had had with Carly, but it hadn’t been. I told him it had been a big change, but that I was always used to having him around. She came back and he was asleep about 8.
Kaleidoscope cards:
