We were up just after 7. He was wanting me to steal Carly’s phone and then a tissue while in bed. Downstairs he ate Cheerios on the couch, then Cherie read Cam Jansen and the Lion Lunch Mystery. I let him watch Julius Jr. then it froze. He got sad and I let him watch on iPad. I went and took a shower. As I was finishing up my shower he wanted to come in and use the bathroom. While he was on the toilet I asked why he had to use this toilet and couldn’t go downstairs. He said the sink was plugged with gum. I asked who had been chewing gum in our house and he said “It was David (Dah-veed), the neighbor…He’s been doing it at night when we’re asleep…he should have a consequence.”
He discovered he could make mouth bubbles. In his bath he made bubbles and chanted “agitate, agitate, agitate, agitate…”
As we finished with his bath, Carly and Cherie left to go to the big Tiv Taam and Ace. Chuck had left a bit earlier and was planning to meet them at Ikea. While they were gone I hid eggs outside, then inisde. He tried his balance bike for a minute. He was hungry and wanted oatmeal. He told me to make it just like mama does. I said I was, but then he told me that mama makes it in a big bowl, then pours it into a Zinnie bowl. I just had it in a Zinnie bowl. I covered it with another bowl, but he hypothesized that there’d be too much pressure and oatmeal would still spill out. His hypothesis proved correct, although not much actually spilled out.
While I was making the mango part he brought over the meditation bells that Cherie brought and was using them as a pulley on his fingers. Right as I was telling him to take them over a rug he dropped them on the hard floor. May have been the moment that led to our later troubles, although it was 10am, so shouldn’t have been a big deal…
He then started asking questions: “A person doesn’t have arms. How do they do their jobs and stuff?” He then asked about people that didn’t have arms or legs and we talked about quadriplegics and services for people with handicaps. He also asked how prosthetics could work.
I realized that everyone else was gone so we could listen to our loud music. He chose the Chemical Brothers, and asked me to pick him up so we could have a dance party. Earlier, Carly had written ‘now’ on the blackboard and he had copied it. He now erased the ‘n’ and changed it to ‘wow’. He showed me the structure they had made out of Duplos, then took it all apart and we made a big block that was the layers of ground.
As we finished that up, Carly, Chuck, and Cherie got home. Ikea had been closed due to Pesach/Passover. I went up to rest for a bit, and they made watermelon juice.
I found out yesterday evening that Thursday had actually been Palestinian Children’s Day. When we had celebrated Palestinian Mother’s Day we had talked about how there was also a Children’s Day. So I told him that today was Palestinian Children’s Day. I was going to take him out to pizza and then to a park. He chose Ra’anana Park. He wasn’t happy about Carly staying home and asked, we’re not sure why, “Are you going to talk while you work?…You, know, say words with your mouth?”
They typed words on her computer and I got ready. They were robots talking to each other, then turned into robot pirates.
So August and I got going about 12:20. We drove into town but VIPizza was closed. We headed south on 4 and went to the mall. We went inside and Pizza Hut was also closed, although almost all of the other eating places were open. He wanted to play in the indoor play area though. No one else around. So we started playing in there. After awhile two girls came and one of them pretended to be a cat and the other, the older one, rode the squirrel thing and chased August. He had a lot of fun with that, even as he was a little scared and would hide on me. More and more kids showed up. He saw other kids doing forward rolls, so started doing them himself. We then worked on a head stand. He said he knew what that was: “I seed it in that christmas book…You know, that What Do You Do with h an Idea? book.” He also did the crab walk.
We were there for the busy time, then the crowds started to dissipate. We played attack squirrel ourselves now, and when other kids were playing with the squirrel he was pretending to be the squirrel (getting squished, etc.) when someone else was on it.
We took a break and he lay on the edge and rested, then we had a snack. It emptied out and once again we were the only ones. Played more attack squirrel. He kept asking what else he could do there, and I taught him the standing long jump and he practiced that, and we did more head stands.
We went to the bathroom at 2:30. He ripped off toilet paper on his own. I told him not to rip off more. He tried to convince me to let him rip more: “But when you practice something more you get better at it. Can I practice more?”
We went outside and he wanted to play in the outside play area, which was busy with kids. We played on the plane and pretended to fly to Cyprus, Morocco, South America, and San Carlos. There was a girl and a boy playing on the plane with us. The girl had colors waved into her hair and he was intrigued by that. He then went over on the train with another girl. She showed him her lemur stuffed animal. I asked, in Hebrew, what it was. she went and talked to her mom and came back and told me the Hebrew word for lemur.
Finally, after 3 hours of playing at the mall, he was ready to head home. He hadn’t shown interest in getting other food, and was fine that we never made it to Ra’anana Park.
We came home and I made a banana peanut butter chocolate smoothie. What he’d actually wanted last time I’d made a mango strawberry one. Carly said “This is really good.” He said “Yes. I agree with that mama.” She ended up drinking too much and it gave her a stomach ache. For something he said “I did. But I can try to do it again though.”
Carly went to Younes to get some of the salads and tamboon bread. August was in the bathroom and he was being photons. He could see all the colors. We talked about x-rays and utraviolet and infrared. He asked where the poop was before it came out of your body, so we looked it up in the anatomy app. We also looked up what the gallbladder and kidney do.
He noticed how the front axle tilts on his tractor, so we talked about why that is and then made a bumpy road for the tractor. Carly got home.
Cherie said we won’t starve tonight. He replied “What do you mean? We don’t ever starve at night.” He and I took the light up ball upstairs and played with it in the dark. Then did more road for the tractor. Carly went and lay down, then came down after awhile. August was being sick as well: “I’m sick cuz I tried-ed the smoothie.” He said he was copying her because “I’m the same except I don’t have any nursings.”
We all ate dinner outside. Carly went back upstairs for awhile. He wanted to follow but I bribed him to stay down with Julius Jr. He hadn’t eaten dinner (full on smoothie) but ate a stick of cucumber that Chuck gave him. He and I then read Thump, Quack, Moo. Carly came down and they had a little love competition. She then taught him a country finding game on the globe using hot/cold.
The three of us went for a little walk, about 30 minutes. Came back to find a stereo sitting up on the ledge outside our kitchen windows, blaring music into our kitchen. A gift from the neighbor. I reached out and turned down the volume. Got it all on video. The neighbor came out. Videotaped the entire confrontation. Chuck came out and talked to him as well. He tried to come in through our gate, which was locked. He then wanted Chuck to come over to his yard to discuss the situation. Anyway, we talked to the landlord. Neighbor is moving out at the end of the month. Really should have called the police, but the landlord was against it.
Carly had taken August upstairs, then had him watchin
g Julius Jr. He seemed pretty unaware of what had happened, thankfully.
Cherie had made a mystery berry pie (the frozen mixed berries they have at the store) and we ate pie and ice cream. As he ate he made yummy noises to the tune of “Rocket Man”. When he was done he said “I’m full of pie and ice cream”. We took him up, got him ready, and he was asleep by 8:40.