Carly got him up before she left. When she left he wanted to play a shapes game. He started with a few minutes of Busy Shapes, but I think was finding that too easy. He tried to switch to RelationShape but realized he’d passed all the levels in that. We looked at the art he had made in the game. He said “You know, dada? It seems like you like all my pictures.” So we purchased Busy Gears, and it worked well: he hasn’t used gears before and it was a little more challenging than Busy Shapes.
We ate the last of the apple muffins. He told me “I LOVE the apple muffins you made.” He was humming a new mystery song, just a line really. No idea what it is. He was kind of stuck on the mystery song while I made sandwiches. He also mused on different subjects: “In Korea did we think the little water was for outside and the big water bottle was for inside?” “Now I love the rectangle crackers. Why do I love the rectangle crackers?” And he was a claw machine: “I was a claw machine that could do everything humans can do…Pretty impressive, eh?”
We went upstairs and he played with the pen light from his doctor kit and asked how the the switch on it worked. We talked about circuits. And he asked how they animated the falling light video we watched the other day. He played GroRecycling and I took a shower. He had also played the drying rack as a music machine, so as we were leaving when I asked if he needed to play his machine before we left he said “I already did my music machine. It was upstairs, silly.”
It was so slow leaving with him, as he keeps wanting to do one more thing. I made things slower as well as I bonked his foot with the door as he was getting shoes on. He recovered from that and we finally left at 9:45.
With traffic it is close to an hour each way to/from the zoo. Made much more bearable/useful since Carly sent me that podcast article. We listened to Story Pirates going both directions. We caught up with the new ones, but have a lot of their older ones still available. And plenty of other podcasts to listen to.
As we got there I pointed out the big Ramat Gan Park, which we haven’t been to. He wanted to stop and go there. We parked and got out his bike. Immediately saw a lot of cats. About 10:40. Looked at a map and started off on a walk around the park. Nothing too exciting at first, and the gardens outside the natural history museum are fenced off due to work on the paths. But then we got around to a huge covered playground. Played on a big ropey/trampoline-y thing, then he found two of the green seats to lounge in for lunch. Played around a bit more and made our way to the other end, hoping on and off other toys: played with spinning platform things, down a slide, spin in a teacup, on a motorcycle, etc. But then he found a little area where a few other kids were playing with sand.
That was just before 11:30 and lasted until noon. He helped a girl put sand in a round thing. Told me “She’s putting sand in there. I don’t know why.” He was sharing sand toys and gave a shovel back to a girl when she asked. I asked if he wanted his coat :”Sorry, I’m too busy.” And he told me “You notice how we’re all playing together?” Except they were apparently taking all the sand from the “Baby” sitting on the ground. Eventually, they were going back and forth between the play area and the sand area, getting more sand. This went fine until he stood up and clotheslined himself on the rope thing he was under. He was quite a ways away from me and I thought he was okay at first, as he was quiet as he walked towards me. But then when he got close he started crying and threw down the bucket thing.
As I held him and he was crying, a woman came over to me and, in English, told me that August should be wearing a sweatshirt. And socks with his shoes. Because he was cold. She pointed to his runny nose as evidence. I showed great self restraint as I told her flatly that it was warm for us (it was 18), and the reason he had a runny nose and was upset was that he had just gotten hurt. Then I ignored her. As Carly pointed out later though, it would have been more culturally okay to yell at her here.
Anyway, we got going at 12:15. We stopped for a snack, and August said “What would make me happy is you using a pencil sharpener.” We went to the bathroom. He used a regular stall, but when he was done he found a wheelchair stall with a sink his size and he said he could use it next time.
We got in the car and drove right next door to the zoo. Paid, make sure I’d taken away window control from August, and started driving through the safari area. I let August get out of his car seat so he could move around the car to look out the windows. He was supposed to sit while I actually drove, but of course liked to push that – he sat on the edge of his seat, holding the handle above him and the seat in front of him. Saw rhinos and zebras and gazelles and ibex. Then hippos and birds at the pond.
Parked in the parking lot at the zoo and walked in. First stop was a giant tortoise. August was whispering really quietly. In the car we had talked about how the rules on the big sign said not to startle the animals. He was taking that to heart. Then the playground. He climbed up a big rope ladder area, then was walking around up above my head. Definitely a making-mama-nervous playground. There were single log bridges with rope hand rails and big holes you could fall through. Then we realized there wasn’t an easy way for him to come down. The only slides were the two metal pole kinds, and he was starting up out of my reach. He ended up coming down the way he went up, and I got up a bit and helped him climb down backwards.
He climbed around a few other places. In one spot he said “I can climb up here without you spotting me is SO COOL!” He went down the two pipe slide a couple times, starting as high as I could lift him up. He said “I’m. Holding. On. As tight as. I. Can.”
We then got going. Looked at a tortoise skeleton display, then stopped to looked down at the crocodiles: “Good that we can’t get chomped since there’s a bridge.” He then said “I’m an animal cuz I’ve been driving that magical water bottle…a crocodile.” And he chomped me. We headed back towards the giraffes. Stopped at the children’s zoo. We watched a rat in a cool enclosure, then saw people in the pen with the sheep and goats. August told me to go in, but he was going to wait outside. So I went in and petted a goat. I got him to come in with me holding him. Eventually I got him standing on the ground, watching them eat (there was a zookeeper feeding them). But he was hesitant to touch them. Got him to pet a sheep a couple times, but mainly he declined. He was a machine not working right. As we left, he asked me “What happens if someone does something wrong at the zoo?…Like scrapes an animal?” I think he was afraid of hurting the animals. We left there at 2:10.
We saw an odd structure, with big trampolines suspended in the air. I said it looked like something acrobats might use. He didn’t know what acrobats are so we watched a few seconds of a video. We kept going and saw the elephants and giraffes. He was drinking from his water bottle and turning into things. Tried to find the Komodo dragon, but it seems the exhibit is being worked on. Saw the penguins being fed on our way back. We looked into the restaurant area to see what they have, for next time. He liked the gorilla statue out front and hugged it and gave it a kiss. Then we sat and had a snack. And discussed the wires “gymnasts”/acrobats walk on. He then climbed on a big tortoise statue. He said he was practicing climbing. Went fine until he slipped off. There are a couple steps near it, and he went down those as well. At first it looked like he might spin and go head first, but luckily went down feet first. He hit his left had a bit hard though. Had a small cut on it and treated it gingerly for awhile after that.
We stopped at the infor
mation desk to get annual memberships. The guy had a colorful little box on his desk and August kept asking about it. The guy showed us it was full of keys, then August asked what they were for. August also said he didn’t think the guy had a pencil sharpener.
We went and put the bike and stuff in the car. The guy from information caught up with us – the computer had had a problem and he needed the numbers on our membership cards again. August and I then went to the bathroom. August said “Maybe to sharpen a pencil you could just go upstairs.” It turned out that he was talking about the pencil sharpener at home, and was still concerned that he could get hurt by it. He wanted the sharpener itself upstairs.
We drove through the rest of the safari area. Lots of hippos and he liked the elands. Said the black spots on their knees looked like bandages. Then it was through the lions area. That was pretty cool. We stopped by some zebras for a snack. We were finishing an orange. I offered him a Larabar if he was still hungry. He told me “I always tell you: I am tired of blueberry Larabars.” 🍊
Listened to Story Pirates on the way home. Got here 5:15. Nursed, then he was hyper. He said “I’m a bunch of electrons jumping around.” Played some Busy Gears, then ate a good amount of noodles and veggies for dinner. While he ate he asked “How do you get treats on Halloween if you don’t have a costume?” I said you pretty much have to hav a costume: “Cuz people like to see you in a costume?” We then read Cam Jansen and the Circus Mystery. He had some soup, and we watched a couple of high wire act videos. After all of our talk today of acrobats we had then read the circus book. A nice coincidence. Carly let him have another piece of the candy cane.
He played with the pillows and said “You know I’m building a tractor, right?” THen he wanted popcorn. They had that and watched some Planet Earth. She took him upstairs at 7:30. I told him to dream about sheep, and he added “and lambs”. I left around 7:45.