Carly woke him up after 7. I heard a lot of laughter and when they came down he said “Watch out, I’m throwing up everywhere!” “I threw up on the Christmas tree!”
Carly headed to work. I got him some dry Cheerios. He wanted a fort and we first made one out of just pillows, like our old Flynne dens. He wanted it bigger though, so we made a squirrel den using the chairs and blankets and played the nut gathering and hibernating game. We then read Kiss Good Night in the fort.
He spilled out the balloons and I ended up blowing up about a dozen of them to play with. The coffee maker was sitting on the floor from when Carly brought it back from school on Friday. He put a balloon on top of it, but then started singing a song about coffee that followed its journey from becoming a liquid in the coffee maker, into your mouth, through your body, out the penis, into the toilet, through the sewer system, through the waste treatment plant, and then back to our house. He kept adding more stops along the way, all on his own, like mouth and kidneys.
We somehow got on the subject of how many feet animals have (I think he made a monster with three legs on the fridge). He was then “I’m a tricapod…I’m a tonapod.” Lots of feet. He watched Max and Ruby, then accidentally broke his bracelet. Luckily, they didn’t fly everywhere and we set it aside so I could fix it later. I took a shower and he watched on the bed. When I was done with my shower I heard him calling to me. I went in and he said “Dada, look at me! I have nursings!” He had Carly’s bra wrapped around him. Yesterday he had been joking about actually growing “nursings”. Downstairs he got meta: “How much times does people think?…What things are thinking?” Sang the coffee song again. Went to the bathroom and was crouching and being silly and somehow got poop on the seat.
Shmuel came over just as we were getting ready to leave. He had brought us a couple of plants to match the other ones he had given us. We said we could plant them later, but he said he might have time to do it. They were planted by the time we got back. As we got in the car, August said “We should talk to him about the black stuff from the refrigerator…we don’t want it to happen again.” He also noticed how dirty the sidewalk still ws, despite his spraying yesterday. I suggested he needed a broom too. So he invented the “Hosebroom”.
We left at 10:30 . I’d packed three of the energy balls, so he did an “experiment” to see how messy they were in the car. They were fine, but had just come out of the freezer.
August wanted to go to the beach first, so I agreed to that. We got to Jaffa and parked in our normal lot. Just a couple blocks to the south end of Alma Beach. A small beach here, and the tide looked high. Carried the bike down and found a spot. Put on sunscreen and mainly played burying his feet and legs, then him breaking out. The tide was still coming in though. One wave got pretty close and I remarked it might fill up the hole I’d dug next. But a couple minutes later the next big one came and almost got us. August jumped up and scampered back. We moved several feet back and thought we were safe, but the next big one came even further. August stood up and I picked him up to ‘save’ him.
One more move back, so he was sitting on the bottom of the sea wall with his feet in the sand. Kept playing. The tide chased everyone else who had been on the sand away at the end of the beach. We were fine though until the little white dog came sniffing around. August has been more scared of dogs recently. Don’t know why it has come back/gotten worse. No dog incidents. He’d been doing okay with Nellie and had started counting non-barking dogs, but he’s been really hesitant as-of-late. There was a small black dog running around on the beach when we got there and he almost didn’t want to go down on the sand at all. Got him on the sand though and then he was okay watching it and a larger dog running back and forth on the beach, as they stayed away from us.
But the white dog came close a couple times and he was not having it. No barking and no licking. It never touched him. It came back again when August was sitting on his bike to go. I petted it, but he just started yelling and getting really upset. I had to pick it up and hand it to the owners to hold while I got us going.
We got up the stairs and walked to across the roundabout to Cafe Bistro Rogette. We had a seat outside in the shade. Went in and used the bathroom first, then ordered a pizza with mushrooms and cheese, a cappuccino for me, and a forest berry milkshake. Not sure what ‘milkshake’ meant, as it often means smoothie here. Haven’t seen a proper milkshake. But the other flavor options were vanilla and chocolate. When the waiter brought the drink it looked brownish, and August realized it was chocolate. The best mixup ever, in his opinion.
We read a chapter of Oliver and the Seawigs, which is looking really good. Then the pizza came and we ate. He didn’t eat a lot, but joined me in eating the green olives. I broke pieces off for him and he ate probably two olives worth. He was pretending to have a chocolate egg that I couldn’t have and held out his hand. I pretended to eat the pretend egg he was pretending to hold and he let out the loudest scream I think I’ve ever heard. Luckily we were outside, but I still expressed my displeasure with that.
It was mid-70s, but August said was cold, so put on his light blue coat. A few minutes later he said he was still cold. Didn’t have pants with us, so he used the extra shirt as a blanket for his legs. We talked about Palestinians and the government and immigration and being luck and inequality.
We went inside to pay and August had fun playing along the bar. He was reluctant to leave, and one of the waiters patted him on the head as he played there and I got an awesome shot of it.
We left after 2. We walked to the parks to the southwest, where we’d been with Carly before. I didn’t remember a playground, but thought it was worth a shot. And also a nice walk. We wandered through Hamuze’on Garden, past the theatre, and through Abrasha Park. Found a little fountain and he played there, and smashed a nice big olive on the sidewalk. I talked about doing more walking, and he said “Yeah! A dada and Zinnie adventure! Without mama…so we can explore some more.”
We kept walking and tried to follow signs for a bathroom that took us across to square by St. Peter’s Church. No luck, but we went to the ones that we’d used when we were in the are with Carly. It was 2:40. Then walked back to the car, stopping to admire a handmade motorbike/sidecar, and then looking at a metalworking shop.
Got driving about 4. Listened to Story Pirates and finished episode 20. We heard “Peter McNurney” listed in the credits. He got excited and pointed it out. It’s a name he’s been repeating recently and asking about, but we had no idea where it was from. At least I didn’t. Tried to keep him awake with music, but he fell asleep from 4:21 to 4:45.
Got home and woke him up and took him in to Carly. She told us about her day and I made a rice thing and mushrooms for his lunches and got his lunch together for tomorrow. He played with the balloons and one accidentally popped. He liked it and wanted to pop all of. He then sang the “…bowl of jelly…Santa’s belly” lines from “My Christmas Amoeba”. Don’t know when we listened to that last, and don’t remember him singing it before.
He ate an energy ball and his hands were messy. Washed them in the kitchen sink, then spent a lot of time playing in it. When he was done I took him up to his bath. On the toilet he sang a “Oliver and the Seawigs” song. Carly took over – they played red light green light and Simon says (which he pronounces funny). They were back down at 7:45 and he turned on all the lights. He played Tinybop Earth. I made myself some tea, then another fort, which he reques
ted. We did a couple of squirrel winters – lots of nuts and seeds talk, and our winters, where we pretended to sleep and wake up for nuts, were really long and quiet. Nice calming activity for him, I think.
We also read another chapter of Oliver and the Seawigs. I took him upstairs and we read a few Frog and Toad stories. Brushed his teeth, but wasn’t happy when he reached over and squeezed the toothpaste in my hand and toothpaste went everywhere. Luckily not on the bed, but had to clean the iPad. He talked about how he liked to sleep up on the bed with me, but wanted to fall asleep with mama. He said he’d “try to remember” to climb up with me. Carly came up and I left them at 9:40 and he was asleep after about 10 minutes.