We had a good day at the science center.
He was up early, at 6:10. I picked him up and carried him down and we cuddled on the couch. He watched Llama Llama and Carly headed to work. We then read If I Ran the Circus. He kept saying things like “Wow, that’s dangerous” “That’s impossible.” He played Seuss Band while I exercised. He himself was then a music game like Seuss Band. He played with Duplos and was humming a slow version of “Strumming on the old banjo” from “I’ve been working on th railroad.” He asked “What’s ‘for future reference’?” Sounds like something I say, but I didn’t remember saying it recently. He made an espresso machine out of Duplos. It was old and broken “It needs to be delivered to the tractor museum.”
I took a shower, him hanging out in the bathroom. He was getting in my way as I tried to hurry, and I apologized for being grumpy. He gave me a nice hug. He made up a song as he played with Duplos. I was then getting sandwiches ready. He kept coming up with just one thing he wanted me to do. Than another thing. I was having to say no a lot, which he isn’t to. He told me “Dada, you’re a little mean.” Of course, he had also just drawn on the wall a bit with the compass and pencil. Then, we left right at 9. On the way out he scratched some point on the bookcase. I started to lecture him about it and he instantly plugged his ears. I asked if he was blocking me out. He said “Yeah, I’m blocking you out.” Had to laugh at that.
On the way we first listened to Story Pirates. Along the drive he must have thought about the Dragonbox geometry app as he said something like “I want to get better at the geometry app.”
He just made it to Haifa. Couldn’t last much longer in the car. And he didn’t fall asleep. We were in the museum (free again) at 10:35. Went to the bathroom, then up and played with the Da Vinci lift, like at Tiv Taam. Up to the second floor and wandered around a bit, but no place for long. Went in the dark room for a minute and did our shadows, but he was still in nervous mode and wanting to be held a lot.
We went outside and sat and ate some lunch. He then wanted to go through the outside stuff. Lifted him in the globe thing, then continued on. We both did the pendulum swing, then spent most of our time slowly going down all the water stuff. He loves the water wheels with the cups on them and would just turn and turn and turn them. Farther down the hill we found another one, but instead of pouring water right back into the pool it plays three different bells. That was really cool. While he was turning and turning he would say “Look at all that water!”
Back inside we played in the da Vinci room, then went up to the puzzles area and through the sound room. He then wanted the teeth room. Were in there a bit, then when the microscopes and telescopes room was empty of a class we went over there. Spent a lot of time looking in those. The telescope has fake stars in it. You move it around and it is as if you are looking at the night sky. He started to say “That’s Pluto and that’s Saturn and there’s Venus and there’s the sun.” I thought he was making it up, but he wasn’t. He was actually reading them off the labels.
Out in the lobby area he saw the donation box and wanted to put coins in so I got coins out for him. We went downstairs and played in the play area. He was the biggest kid in the blue building blocks area and I told him he needed to be careful around the babies. He said “But some big kids don’t do that! I want to be like that!” He was kind of being a punk, at least in words: at one point he said “I’m gonna hit these people with it” when he had a long skinny one and when he did something he said “I hope that’s not okay.” There was a mom with a baby and a boy, Philip, just a little smaller than August. Philip was going crazy, and August joined right in. I had to stop August a couple times, but at least he wasn’t the craziest one. Mainly they just destroyed the blue blocks that no one was playing with.
I told him we needed to leave at 2 and got him away from there. He wanted to play with the water stuff and we did that for several minutes. Finally, there is the spot with some cushy walking things and some shapes you can climb in. He went in a cube, then wanted to go in the dodecahedron. There was a bigger kid that was sort of going in and out of it. August tried to go in and the kid sort of pulled it away. But then seemed to be done with it again. August wanted to get in again, then the kid came back with a long strip of rubbery stuff and tried putting it around August’s neck and choking him. The kid hadn’t said a single word to us yet. I stopped that, but then a minute later the kid started chasing August and tried putting it around his neck again. I stopped it, August was screaming, and the mom, who was on the phone, finally came to see what was happening. She spoke English but mainly seemed confused. I explained what happened and gave her the piece of rubber. She said it wasn’t their’s. She did talk to her kid in Hebrew, but let them keep playing, and neither of them offered any sort of apology. I just really don’t get this no apologies thing. We saw it several times in Korea.
August wanted to do a walkthrough of the tall grass/car wash/bridge area, then we went and used the bathroom again. We went to the gift shop and looked in there for a few minutes. He played with some gears on the sample table. We left at 2:30.
I mainly carried him back to the car. We hadn’t brought a stroller, which was good as the street we parked on is under full construction and hard to navigate. When we got to where it is closed to traffic he announced “Hazard spotted ahead!” in his Waze voice. We peeled an orange and ate it in the car. We finished the newest Story Pirates, then listened to part of a science podcast and he was repeating facts. I suggested we get going and he said “After I eat this whole orange and get in my seat and get buckled.”
When we got driving at 3 he told me “Drive safely!” We listened to the elements song. There was a lollipop that I told him he could have when he saw the power plant. But before we were out of Haifa he already had his eyes closed. I gave him the lollipop and that kept him awake awhile. When he was done he set down the stick and then went to sleep. He was asleep 3:30 to 4:07 and I was able to listen to some of my audiobook (A Horse Walks into a Bar).
At home I woke him up and we cuddled on the couch and watched Llama Llama. Carly got home as he was eating nutty noodles. Carly had made extra food to deliver to a family and she went and delivered that. August wanted a smoothie and I made a banana mango smoothie. First he wouldn’t get off the couch to drink it – he wanted to drink it there. He finally came down on the floor. When he first tasted it he said “It’s gross.” And he was making his little “yuck” noises. But he drank it, then wanted more, and later said I should make more of it sometime.
We read the Narwhal book twice. When Carly got home I went upstairs to rest and they Skyped with Vivian. She was at home again due to snow and has her first violin lesson on Thursday. When they were done skyping August said he wanted to come up to sleep with me, but when he came in he didn’t, instead wanting to play kaleidoscope cards, which was fine as I was already up. We did kaleidoscope cards and Carly watered plants, then took a shower.
We played Seuss Band, then I got some food and he kept playing. I came back and did more playing and as I played he was being the da Vinci lift and the gates affecting water pressure. Carly took him upstairs for bed and I left them around 8. But he was soon back down. We worked on Math Tango together – he’s getting better with adding 10s – and then he played Busy Gears. It’s cool to see his problem solving on that one as he figures out how to connect the wheels, place the gears, and set up the pully. We took him b
ack up to bed and I left them at 9:50.
Waking up:
Pumping:
Telescope:
Donating:
Pulling me by the strap:
Waking up again:
