He got up at 5 or so and went to the bathroom. He then got up at 7:15, turned off the air conditioner, and went to the bathroom again. He was outside with Carly when I went down.
We played the Green Planet app for a little bit, shooting comets, after he really, really got sad when I said I didn’t think we should play it anymore. I then went up and took a shower. When I came downstairs they were reading Go Dog Go with him practicing his reading. Then they read the Gravity is a Mystery book.
Carly went up to get ready. He spiraled one of the sticky string things from school and I said he’s really been developing his fine motor control since going to preschool. He asked “What’s gross motor control?” I’ve never discussed the difference with him, nor discussed gross motor control, so he learned that from someone else.
We got ready to go and Carly drove us south of Netanya a bit to a mall area. We first went to Toys R Us. August was surprised. He said he thought that Toys R Us was in Korea. We got some markers and crayons for the plane, and Carly saw a set of stray building block things, like the ones they had in the library for tech week, on sale so we bought the set. We went to the Ace there and got roach killer, then to the little Druze bread stand to get our lafah/taboon sandwiches. We got two, along with a container of yummy dolmadaki (the stuffed grape leaves things) and sat at a table outside and ate.
We then went to the big Tiv Taam. Carly hurried inside to start shopping and he wanted to go to the playground. We played there for a little while, but very hot. He liked a little “Little boy in the slide/little boy is inside” song I made up about him. We then went inside. He and I went and found some of the raspberry fig bars like the ones we had had at the WBAIS cafeteria the other day for the plane ride, and one to have in the car. I then took him to the bathroom and we met Carly back at the car.
In the car he ate the bar and we were discussing travelling speed of light plus one (which happens in The Magic School Bus Rides Again). We were home at 1:20. He and Carly built with the straw building blocks we had bought at Toys R Us. I put stuff away, then went up for some work time.
I heard August screaming “Dada!” as if there was an emergency happening downstairs. Turned out Carly had just suggested some alone time. I ended up downstairs with him, making letters out of the straw things.
I went back upstairs and they made a solar oven. He called me down again when he couldn’t find his shoe inside and Carly was still outside. It was in the middle of the floor. At 4:50 I came down and Carly was cutting up the first mango of the season and August was eating it. I said we could go do recycling soon and go to a park. He said. “No! Having too (much) fun.”
Eventually I took him out. We had three big bags of recycling to do since we didn’t take any last weekend. So it took awhile. August mainly did the glass, but helped with some plastic as well. A small cat came by and looked at us. August responded by standing on the seat of his bike and putting his arms up in the air to make himself as big as possible and growled at it to make it leave him alone. That cat actually circled around and came back a few minutes later and he did the same thing. Then, a few minutes later a different cat, the same size and from the same direction, so probably from the same litter, tried to walk by. August did the same thing and this time the cat actually turned around.
When we were done we went for a walk. August suggested the treasure hunt playground. But then I suggested we go say bye to Jack and Celeste and Nellie. He really liked that idea, so we headed that way. Jack was gone, but Celeste was there. I held Nellie for awhile so he could see her, although he was too scared to pet her. Airport Heidi was helping move furniture out. But Jack was gone. So we said goodbye to them and headed home.
Close to our house I saw a tiny, tiny bird up on a wire. But before I could point it out to August there was a car behind us. I got us to the side, and it turned out to be our neighbor Panina. She talked to us about the heat, and when she left the little bird was gone. We were home at 6:50.
He went to the bathroom. There was water on the floor under the sink (Carly had cleaned bathrooms). He put his shorts in the water, and I asked him why. He said “My brain told me to, so I did.” He ended up naked, and then thought it was funny to put his shoes on. He then was singing “Naked boy with shoes with the penis sticking out, the butt sticking out…”
He and Carly then made tea with the plants from school, and he suggested “Let’s do a non-blinking contest.” He ate some more oatmeal, then I took him up to his shower. While in the bathroom he drank from Carly’s spray bottle but complained it was running out, saying “Somebody’s been using my spraying bottle to spray her hair.” Hilarious as it is, after all, hers. Played for long time in the tub, then asked to make a gift tea cup again. When I washed his hair he was very upset about it, saying mean things about me. But as soon as we were over using the hair dryer he was helping to dry my shirt and shorts with it since he had gotten them wet.
Carly took over and got him ready for bed and he went to sleep pretty quickly, at 8:50.