Carly woke him up at 7:20. Downstairs I got his vitamins and water for him. After a few minutes he said “Ollie and Moon, please.” He watched a few episodes of it, then said “Dada, I’m done with my show. What should we do with THIS free day?” He taped a couple things on his string, then asked “Dada, do you want to go on a dada-Zinnie adventure now?” When I asked if he wanted to go for a walk he said “No. Something in the car….You know, like we do.” “Where’s mama” “Then I will pop my shoes on and go outside…See, I’ve got my clothes on, my shoes on, and I’m ready to go outside.”
He went outside with her for a few minutes, but they then came back in. He said “I need some naked time.” He had gotten a little wet. He did some taping, then they did a catapult experiment together. I made us all some eggs for breakfast. He then had some toast, and said “I love carbohydrates!” Randomly asked “Whats a camel’s hump for?” And “Where does a camel get water?” He wrapped himself in the string and stuff at one point (he had taken down the line that had been hanging up in the kitchen) and had sat in the iHerb box, being a squirrel, I think it was. He rocked in it and fell over backwards.
We got going and left at 11:45. We found and stopped at a toy store with a red pirate on it, down in an industrial area by the train station that we’ve never been to. As we were looking for it he asked “Why can’t we drive cars in the building Haifa?” “Like up the stairs…” He meant the science center. No idea why this idea came up. He was frustrated from the beginning with the toy store as we said we wouldn’t buy anything today. We were mainly looking for a slide, as his is breaking. But inside, no slides, Carly got some art supplies and got a big balloon thing for him and one for her. And I got some pads of paper. She blew up one of the balloons there.
We then went to Tiv Taam. He rode in the cart most of the time and ate a granola bar. I ran around doing a lot of shopping. It was a big load. Just under 1000 shekels, so she had us throw a couple cans of tuna in to bring it over 1000 and we got a 10% discount. I took him to the bathroom, and on our way back he said “For future reference, I see mouthwash.” ‘For future reference’ is a phrase he learned for me, and I had actually thought the same thing in my head when we walked by the display.
We were home at 1:40. They had fun with the big balloon things. I did not. He was then having Carly be a scientist making mistakes, then they were silly on the couch. He did more taping, taping a string to a Cheerios box. They debated ‘teached’ versus ‘taught’. And he asked “How big is an inch of a minute?” We did the teasing game, which is back on track and about talking to the other person and getting help from the teacher.
He and I left at 3:20. We went up and did recycling, then headed onward to the treasure hunt park, which is one a block off the path to school. We got to the park before 4. There was a very friendly cat. It went up and was lying on the play structure. August was then being a cat and was pretending to sleep a few feet away. The cat got up and went to check him out. August was nervous when it got close: “I’m scared!” But after that I was petting it and it was rubbing against me and August got more and more comfortable with it. We talked about how to pet cats and how to avoid their tummies and how they mark territory, etc. August was eventually petting it and like when it would rub up against his legs. He declared “I’ll call it Shmorgadeboop.” We did some of our hunting for treasure, but he kept going back to the cat. He was rubbing his eyes, but wasn’t admitting his eyes were itchy. Back to treasure, we had a pirate ship but he said it did not have a plank: “This is a nice ship.” And when we sat on the three person rocking thing, the cat came over and lay in the middle when we shook it, then was rubbing against August again and then climbed in my lap. August then sang “Cat, cat, cat in a lap” to the tune of the Smithereens’ “Top of the Pops”.
We left at 5, saying goodbye to Shmorgadeboop. We then stopped at our park. He then had a candy machine or something and said he was giving some to everyone at school. But only two: “Everyone gets two pieces because you have to savor it.” Talked about it being fair. He was then exercising, and started calling me John, as that was my name in the teasing game as we had walked: “You can play the teasing game at home, John.” We left at 5:30.
At home Carly was skyping with her parents. He and I shared one of the berry brains that Carly had made to celebrate my birthday, with vanilla ice cream, of course. Carly was making a salad and he was intrigued by the green onion. He tasted it, then threw the rest of it back on the counter: “Not gonna eat this puppy.” He asked Carly about “three before me”, which he had asked me about but I didnt know what he was talking about. It is something the elementary teachers use, apparently, to encourage students to ask three classmates before asking the teacher. He told her to “Explain”. He was then practicing it with her. We ate outside, and Carly and I opened a bottle of moscato wine we had gotten at the store. August said “How about you, glass with alcohol in it?” Earlier had listed things that Carly liked and included ‘alcohol’ in the list, along with things like chocolate and tea.
Spent some time outside, then Carly took him up for his bath while I made his lunch for tomorrow: I had boiled some eggs and gave him one of those, along with half a banana (he ate the other half), grapes, etc. He and I then shared another berry brain. He was very polite about it, offering me bites. We got Oliver and the Seawigs out to read, but he liked the bookmark, which has three of the Star Wars droids (C3PO, R2D2, and another on it). He was asking about it, and I explained the droids, then he was wanting to know the story, so I explained Star Wars. Of course, that led to a discussion of the empire and the rebels, so then he was being a bad government and telling me what to do. We finally read a chapter out of Oliver and the Seawigs. August really liked the phrase “Scornful snickers” and repeated t a couple of times. We then read If you take a mouse to school.
We took him up and got him ready for bed. I left them at 8:45. It took awhile, but he got to sleep.