No Memorial Day off here, which makes me wonder just how ‘American’ this school is. I mean, Carly got Memorial Day of in Korea.
August was up just before 7. The garbage truck had helped, I think. I heard him call “Dada, come up!” I went up, and he was standing at the window, trying to see out. Sadly, can’t see much out of that window. Downstairs he lay on the couch for a few minutes. He watched some Ollie and Moon and was totally singing along to the “Opposites” song in it. Has most of the words down.
We got going, and on the way he invented “Infinity laser rockets.” Which are really efficient.
Took about 20 minutes to drop him off. Had to hand him to Anna at the end, but right before that he had re-read the schedule from morning to lunch all on his own and said “Oh, okay.”
I walked home then drove down into Netanya to find the Interior and Population Ministry office. I need to figure out if I can work in Israel or if I need permission of some sort. I have a work visa, but there is a line in the status of forces agreement that says I need permission from officials to work for someone besides the U.S. military, etc. A long journey that basically resulted in me finding out they only give out numbers until 8:30. I then filled out the online form to request a meeting, but there is no way to pick a time or date. Hadn’t heard back by the end of the day.
Drove back home, had some lunch and did a little Sabeel work, then walked back to school.
He was in a great mood when I picked him up. He excitedly showed me a structure he had made out of blocks and shells and rocks and things, and how he had put rocks on a certain part to stabilize it. The figures at the top he said were the PKB students. Outside the classroom he found a hula hoop on the ground. He played with that for a minute, then Myriam came by and hooked about hula hooping with him. He placed the hula hoop over her, then said “I captured Ms. Myriam!” As we were walking up the elementary school steps, he saw a woman coming down – the one that had said he should be in magazines. He said “Ms. Michelle!” She said he had made her day, because she didn’t realize he knew her name.
We went upstairs and had a snack outside the library. At one point he spotted “I seed Shary!” Then he pointed to someone else and joked “Another Shary!”
We went outside to the bench in the grassy area. He was doing fine until he had the idea of going swimming. I reminded him he had turned down the idea this morning, so we hadn’t brought the swim bag. He got upset and insisted we go get it. Then, he was playing in a puddle and I told him not to get his shoe in it. Sure enough, he got his foot wet and the two things were enough for him to meltdown. Israel Cassie saw him upset and slipped me two lollipops.
He calmed down, and we headed back to preschool. He had agreed to go back for Playball class. When we went in, Marion showed him his first glazed teacup. That was very exciting for him. It was a little past 2, but the lights were still all out. And 5 or 6 kids had fallen asleep during rest time. Dion showed up and was a little confused as well.
We went over for Playball and I sat on the grass. Only 7 kids for class. August came over to me a couple times – he refused to play the first game, because Dion said he was the big bad wolf and going to eat them. He watched, in suspense, from next to me and was gasping and waving his arms excitedly when Dion would catch someone. When I first started encouraging August to go back over he said “I don’t need a ‘come on’. No ‘come on’ or ‘but’ or ‘but still’” I got August to go back over after that for the cockroach game: They placed a beanbag on their foot then kicked it away, making a “Yuck” sound as if they were kicking a cockroach off their foot. August played the rest of the time. I didn’t really watch, but we later talked about what he was learning in the class and he talked about practicing kicking and throwing.
So the compromise we had come to involved walking home, getting the swim stuff, then driving back to school. We discussed the immune system on the walk home and got here at 3. He told me that Anna said he was ready for PKC. We made water drink, and he was concerned I got more: “But you got more…an entire KIDNEY full.” He then started singing a song about a germ getting eaten by a fish, etc. up to a whale. He then kept going, saying planet, “the place where the planets are” (solar system), galaxy, and universe. I thought the song must have come from music class, but he told me they actually hadn’t had music class today and that the song had actually come from Oma. Which sounds familiar, but he hasn’t sung it at all since they left.
We drove to school and headed to the pool. On the way we saw the custodian who is usually by the library. August initiated and gave her a high five. She was impressed by that. Omri and her family were at the pool. I got August in and he was rather jumpy about possibly getting splashed after his experience on Friday and screeched a lot. Calmed down a bit though and we had fun, and Omri played with him a bit.
Eventually he was ready to leave. We got out, and as we got ready to go he started talking to a woman who was sitting there, who he at first thought was Reia’s mom. She wasn’t, and instead she has a son who is in kindergarten. August was making her laugh with spit bubbles. He told her about the preschool teachers and she said she didn’t know them. I told him he could ask her about the kindergarten teachers and she said they were Ms. Amy and Ms. Susan. He liked learning that and kept repeating the names. As we left to go he was yelling “Bye!” to her and to Omri. I told him he needed to practice saying it nicely so we walked over to Omri so he could say it calmly.
We found Carly as we were leaving. He wanted to change in the bathroom, not her classroom, so I changed him, then we all went to the car and drove home. At home he had one of his flour-filled stress balls outside and it broke when he rubbed it on the wall outside the front door. Carly set up the vacuum cleaner and he had fun vacuuming it up.
Before we had left for school he had found a dead lizard on the ground by the door. We now studied it. He said it felt squishy, and pointed out its little mouth and little hands and feet. Eventually the tail came off, and we discussed that, then we went and buried it in a hole by the papaya plants so it could turn back into dirt.
We had dinner outside – he mainly shared veggie burgers with us, then ate an apricot. He asked Carly to cut open the pit, which she was able to do. They played outside and I started dishes. Didn’t last long, as they came in with him upset. He was yelling “Please let me knight you with a stick!” and kept screaming “Please!” She had knighted him with a stick, and he wanted to do the same to her, but she didn’t want the pointy stick around his head.
She took him upstairs, and I headed up and traded with her after a few minutes. He eventually calmed down, and we started being birdies on the bed. He said “I love you two enshumgedorflugs.” Back downstairs he got whiney about knighting her again. He had some peanut butter crackers, then dropped a cracker on his shirt, then the couch. Cleaned it up, then took him up to the bath. Let him play, then washed his hair.
We went in and dried his hair with the hair dryer. He wasn’t standing close enough at first, and when I explained it he said “Is it the problem of the burning ship thing?” A cool connection to make. He was talking about the Archimedes story/invention of using mirrored shields to set a boat on fire. And I’ve explained how it isn’t actually possible – in part because you can’t get enough shields to reflect on the ship. He has also talked about having tons of fans blowing on something, and I’ve talked about how you could only have 20 or 30 fans blowing on something, because the others would be
too far away to really feel.
Also, randomly, he just said “I feel like this used to be Dion’s house.”
We went downstairs and he had peanut butter crackers. He was then punching the balloon thing that Carly had bought him at the toy store. He was frustrated at first because she could do it and he couldn’t, but now he’s figured it out.
Carly was reading a book and mentioned the village of Abu Ghosh. He was asking about it and they discussed the 1948 war. She used an analogy of being forced to share a toy. He then asked her about positive and negative things and told her “Positive feelings is good feelings and negative feelings is bad feelings.”
We took him upstairs to get ready for bed. This time he told me he loved me 9888 enshumgedorflugs. I asked what it would take to get to 10000 enshmugedorflugs and he said “Go to Haifa.” He spent more time tying up the toothbrush, then I left them at 8:50. Took some time, as he was down at 9:20 to get water. Heard them for awhile after that before he fell asleep.