We started waking up a bit after 6. We got ready and tried to give August a shower and wash his hair but he got really upset so we didn’t really wash it. They played Seuss Band and then the House game while I took a shower. He was excited that he got to play the house game as it was supposed to be a “Backup for the car!” He stood between the beds and pretended his legs disappeared. Cherie left for a few minutes and he said “Oma vanished!” A couple minutes later he was playing on the bed and said “Aagh! Someone in our hotel room!” Referring to Chuck, who had been there the whole time.
We left a little before 8. When we got outside, windy and cool, August said “It smells good out here, right?” We went for a walk to find a place for breakfast, but nothing was open this early. We walked a couple blocks around where we had been yesterday. August spotted a person with dwarfism and totally commented on it, confused. We said hi and the guy was nice about it. We walked around some more and finally found a place called Ce Bon Cafe. A decent breakfast there. Carly and I got their version of the continental breakfast. August liked it as he liked putting together all the little things. He asked Carly “Mama, can you teach me about government? No, countries?” She taught him words like monarchy, anarchy, chaos He said things like “What’s the difference between kings and queens?” “Are kings bad people?” She taught him about democracies and he said “Let’s practice choosing a leader.” “What’s a leader do?” He then wanted to learn about being a teacher of a school and Carly talked about how the principal can decide what the teachers learn. She asked “What do you think the teachers should learn about?” His reply: “I think they should learn about PHOTOSYNTHESIS.” We finished at 9:45.
Bathroom didn’t have a toilet seat but I convinced him to go. Looking at the squares outside on the ground he asked “What’s diagonally mean?” We got walking and went the long way to find the ruins of Ayla at 10:20. Inside Carly taught August about trading and they pretended to lead their camels to the market and trade things.
Chuck and Cherie headed their own way for awhile and we went over to the mosque. We thought about going in, but it was closed for prayer at the time. August saw ant holes by the wall and tried to feed them/block their holes with leaves.
We got to the hotel after 11. He said there were invisible people in our bathroom – he had a power that made them visible. We then developed the stealing the AC remote game: I was a sloth, hyena, and snake. That game ended when he jumped on my back to squish the snake and when he got off he fell of the edge of the bed. He kept trying to play after that but I was rather done with the game. Chuck and Cherie moved their stuff to our room and went to get sweets from the Pistachio Sweets place.
Carly taught him about archeology and they pretended to be archeologists: “I found pink pottery…this is an ancient measuring cup.” They were digging and finding things and cleaning them off and putting things in a museum. He really liked answering the door whenever Chuck and Cherie knocked and they suggested they find bones. August liked that idea and found a spine. They were then explorers and found an old stone chair: “It’s carved out!” It was really cool and they kept it up for a long time.
We had scheduled our ride for 12:30 but it was running up to an hour late. I had seen a park called Princess Salma Park. We walked down there, passing a dilapidated Mercedes along the way. He and Carly were being archeogists outside. He kept saying “Yeah, garbage.”At the park, 12:45, August played with a teeter totter where the tires were really wearing out. Carly went and rested Andi got him to go around with me for a few minutes, being an underwater adventurer. There was a random set of seashell sculptures. The middle had a big Pearl, which we said was the Arctic Pearl. He named all the shells: “Eaty, snaily, munchy, pokey, clammy…”
He then went back to Carly and did more archeology and had me breaking the artifacts with a hammer.
I carried him back. He hummed a mystery song. He said it was not Wild Kratts. I thought it might be a Neil Young song. We will have to investigate.
We were back at 1:20. We Learned there was no school because of the dust, which had blanketed all the cars and outdoor seating areas at the restaurants.
We got driving and it took longer than I expected. Stopped for gas, then August finished one of Carly’s granola bars. Played a little Crazy Gears. When he opened his water bottle water squirted out due to the change in pressure. He got upset because his shorts and seat were a bit wet. Carly got out his blue coat and I put it under him and he was okay. We drove through a dust storm and ate some chips. We were leaning against each other and watched some Sarah and Duck. There was a wind farm and when I sat up to look at it he wanted to lean against each other again. We made another stop at the Petra View Giftshop and finally rolled in at the Candles Hotel at 4. At the giftshop they had cool chess sets I’m tempted to get for teaching August chess. Cherie got chocolate-covered nuts and shared some with me and August as we got back in the car.
August and I inspected the lobby. We saw a couple of game boards and I said maybe we’d have time later. He said “I have a time machine that makes time for things.” Turned out they only had backgammon pieces in them. Cherie talked to a couple from India. August fund that a bit boring so we went to the other end. There was a big fish tank but no fish. He said a funny “Fishy, fishy” several times trying to draw them out of hiding. Inspected other interesting stuff in the lobby, then we headed up to the room.
A small one here, but it will be fine. He was being whiney and Carly asked if he was tired or stressed out. He said “stressed out”. He relaxed, then was being a spark as we got going: “I’m a spark; so be careful.”
We all went walking looking for a restaurant. Like this morning when we couldn’t find anything open, we now couldn’t find anything open yet for dinner. We went up the hill, then came back down. Found a place called Oriental Petra and ended up with a great meal. I had another Turkish coffee and we shared a couple kinds of sambusak, musakhan, Nabataean sawani, tabboulah, Greek salad, and hummus. There was then a coconut cake thing for dessert. August started slow but ended up eating a lot. Impressive after eating a bunch of snacks in the car.
August was being loud in the restaurant though. Just so excited. He was making inventions with the silverware, then when someone’s phone was ringing he called out “Your phone!” When they brought out dessert he banged silverware on the table and said “listen to that loud noise”. Finally, we somehow got on the subject of broken fingers and Cherie told him how she had broken two of her fingers playing softball.
We walked down the street and looked a gift shop. I wondered if we should take him back to the hotel or keep him outside with all his energy. He said “Let’s keep this energy outside.” There was a benchy area and he ran around and was a rugrat with Chuck. We went down to the entrance of Petra and he liked the huge TV screen with commercials.
We stopped at a corner store for some snacks and he wanted to carry the basket. Just not with the heavy water in it. We carefully touched objects in the gift shop. On the wall back the steep hill he had a machine to help: “It only gives energy to people in your family.” Got to the hotel at 7:10.
In the bathroom he asked “Why is it when you move a curtain on a table fast, the plates won’t fall down?” He was asleep at 7:45.
Driving throug
h a dust storm:
A rugrat:
Rugrat running around: