He was up a little before 7. I walked him down and he slouched around on the rug. He climbed up behind Cherie on the couch and talked to her and played with her hair. Sent a drawing message to Carly. I made him oatmeal and mango. As he got up at the table he asked “What are your lips for besides talking?”
I took a shower and we got ready and left the house at 8:20. We found the yoga studio in Ra’anana, just a block west of the Skoda dealership and dropped Cherie off for a class. Chuck, August, and I then drove to try to find the ‘Restored Garbage Mountain’ on Google Maps. Drove down some dirt roads but didn’t see anything that looked tall enough.
We continued on to Ra’anana Park instead. A short but nice visit there. August wanted to go over to the music area. I said we’d stop and show Opa our favorite sculpture. He asked “Favorite sculpture in the universe?” I said no, in Ra’anana Park. He wasn’t impressed and said “You get a pffft for that.” ‘pffft’ being the noise with his lips that he always makes when he isn’t happy about something. We stopped at the zigzag sculpture and August still enjoyed it, then we spotted the tractors and other farm equipment displays. He drove a tractor and said it was also a juice machine: “I do fruits and veggies and mixes.” When I ordered a juice he would pull a lever and then a hand would reach out and hand me the juice.
We went to the music area and turned the spinning one and played with a couple others. We then walked back and used the bathroom. The back part of the zoo was open and we went in there for the first time: martens, chipmunks, porcupine, pelican, storks, jungle cat, peacocks, and others. August noted that the birds were trapped in the cages.
We left right at 10:30 and went and picked up Cherie. Timing was perfect. We then drove on to Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv. Got walking at 11:15. We took the north side of the river downstream, then the south side on the way back.
We had a nice walk down, stopping to look at some graffiti along the way. August was talking and singing the whole way. He made up one song and asked if I liked it, then requested that I record his next song.
We got down to the boardwalk area and stopped at Greg Cafe, where August and I ate the day before his birthday, at 12:30. August and I shared the sweet potato ravioli and he got the strawberry and mango smoothie with yoghurt – I think the best smoothie we’ve had. And I got the sahlab – a drink made from hot orchid cream, with coconut, pistachios, and cinnamon on top. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salep?wprov=sfti1
August and I headed across to the sand area while they waited for the check. Got some sunscreen on us and proceeded to play in the sand for a long time. There was a big pile of sand that August started by attacking, then he was burying his feet and legs. Then he asked me to do it. And again. And again. And again. Probably 20 or 30 times total. Sometimes with him lying on his stomach. He really liked the feeling of it and the coziness of the warm sand. While I was sort of on my hands and knees he burrowed under me and said it was his nest in the sand. Meanwhile, Cherie and Chuck relaxed on a bench and Chuck walked the boardwalk a bit. We also got to watch a lot of planes taking off from the airport. Some modern planes, but then also a lot of smaller planes that looked like vintage military planes. Or maybe just trainers.
On the walk back we stopped at a few playgrounds: the first was the big one right by the waterfront, where we had not played the last time. He ran off and did a walking course, then ran to the other end where there was a pirate ship that rocks. We sailed and dug up treasure. Then up on the big play structure. He wanted me to follow. At one point I had to take the backpack off and push it ahead of me through a climbing tube. August went on without me and let me struggle. He then went down the big slide, then I did.
The second was a small one where he just wanted to walk on one of the rolling things.
And the third was a playground we had played on before when we walked across to the south side of the river. He was trying to climb a plastic structure that looked like tree routes. He was talking about how he was trying to choose his route. Earlier we had investigated and discussed the big climbing wall on the other side of the river.
We also saw a lot of different forms of transporation; sail boats, row boats, roller blades, etc. I asked what sort of thing he’d like to learn and he said something like “I can basically make mama nervous with just about anything”.
We stopped at the bathroom and August and I went and paid for the parking, then we were driving at 4:35. He asked again where the bubble came from for the Big Bang. We dropped Chuck and Cherie off at Tiv Taam to get milk and a few other things. They then walked home. We took advantage of having the car to ourselves and listened to “Go” a couple times. He pointed out what part of the song was his favorite. Earlier, the Eels song “Hey Man” came on and August was excited because it was the mystery song he had been humming before we left the house.
When we got home and he saw Carly outside he said “Can you teach me what you taught your students?” When Chuck and Cherie came in the door her asked “Did you have a good time at the store?” They all ate dinner outside (August ate a lot of nutty noodles and broccoli and cauliflower. When I asked “Do you want broccoki and cauliflower?” He replied “Oh yeah” I heard him ask Carly “Can you teach me about diagrams?” He had asked me on our walk about diagrams.
Carly hid the eggs inside, but then they spent a lot of time outside, with her doing the flowers and plants. They came in he found the Duplo eggs, then she hid them again. Earlier, when I was upstairs, another one of the squishy balls had burst. This time more dramatically, luckily on the tile floor.
He found the eggs, then she took them upstairs to hide. While he waited on the couch with me he said “Wait, where’s that bear that I got at that hospital?” Earlier in the day he had also been talking about the pipe heating system in Korea and how we could see all the pipes under the sink. They were having a good time upstairs and eventually she got him ready for bed. I came up and said goodnight and he was asleep at 8:30.