He came out at 8:15. Colin was first to spot him, as he sat at the counter. Ate some egg and English muffin for breakfast. Cassie went for a run as they ate breakfast and Colin watched a car video. I took a shower. They played Magnus Kingdom and then both Vivian and August were going to wash their hair. Vivian was going to wash her hair in the kitchen sink. August was intrigued by the idea and wanted to watch her first, but then Vivian changed her mind and refused to wash her hair. So I washed his hair in the bathtub. He fought it at first, but then got through.
He was acting out, but it turned out he was stressed about the trip we were packing for and we talked bout that. We had talked about the word of the day a bit earlier, ‘vigorously’, and now he told me “Rub my back the word of the day, please.”
Carly was out with Cassie by the garage and cars, cleaning out the car and vacuuming it. He wanted to make his Nom Noms smell nice like Vivian’s. She had used the bathroom spray and the rose water on them. So August yelled out through the window, “Tia Cassie, can I use your perfume to make my nom noms smell really good?” She said yes, and he sprayed the orange spray into the bag. But then he decided they were sticky and he was afraid the spray was making the color come off of them. So he washed them in the bathroom sink, and explained to me what he had done: “to the second drain” “Now a lot of water is in the sewer system.” And then he got broader and explained the whole well system here: “from the wet sand” “for washing our hands, and drinking, and flushing the toilet…”
Vivian came in and announced they were having popsicles. Him: “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” They ate them out front, and he asked “Can air conditioners keep it from melting?” Inside, he then had Cassie microwave the rest of it to make popsicle juice He narrated the whole process to me. He and Vivian were then playing in on the beds. I came in and he was standing on the windowsill. He had his hand on the stick for the blinds. Just as I told him to be careful and not pull on it, he said he could hang from it and pulled. The blinds came down and hit him on the head and the stick came off. Luckily, the blinds are the clip-in kind. Nothing was broken, and he recovered quickly.
Vivian came in and started reading a book to August, but when August said something she didn’t like she stopped reading. When I tried to help her, thinking she was having trouble with a word, she told me she was reading in her head because she didn’t like what August had said. I made her go read out in the other room.
She was being moody because we were leaving, but as we left at 11:45 she ran out, bringing August his Nom Noms. Carly drove. We saw three deer, then he said his “Stop and look if you want to go up” thing. He also read a “Water. Caution” sign.
We chose to stop in Dansbury, Massachusetts for lunch as there was some sort of sculpture park there. On the way we noted as we crossed states. We had some adventures in parking, but then found parking at the Motherhood on Main Cafe. As we parked, August said, in his Waze voice,”You found your destination.” Inside, there were a lot of choices. We ended up with a tuna salad sandwich, veggie soup, turkey sandwich, and a sunrise smoothie (strawberry, mango, and orange). They gave us a metal number, 3, to put on our table. August really liked that, and hung it on the back of his chair. We talked but where we were and he said “Connecticut should be the word of the day tomorrow.” While we waited he walked around looking at the different salt and pepper shakers, as every table had different ones. The food came and was okay, but the soup was too spicy for him and he didn’t really like the tuna with dill. And the bread was hard toast. Carly went and got him a grilled cheese sandwich as well and he ate some of that. He danced to a guitar version of “We are Young” that was playing, then randomly asked “Why can’t you park in the middle of the road?”
When we finished we walked through town, stopping at a couple of their history stations (they have a bunch of boards telling the history of the town) and saw the 7 or so sculptures in their sculpture area. We got driving again. August and I read Hilde Cracks the Case #3.
We got to the hotel, the Holiday Inn Express in downtown Springfield, MA and to our room, 203, at 7. He really liked the squishy carpeting and said “Sinking into my socks like mud.” Which we thought was an excellent simile, despite not wearing socks. He asked “Was that hyperbole?” The beds were tall and he complained “I can’t even get on the beds!” But there was a foot stool he could use. He explored the room, figuring out the switches and remotes and pointed at the ironing board: “Is that a canoe?”
He climbed on a bed, and we made a big game of “boing, boing, boing, boing, bounce’ where I’d bounce him on the bed four times, then, flop him down on it. He was laughing a lot, then laughing more and more as I started to malfunction and do different things when I bounced him. As I did it, he had turned on the little reading lights, which were on articulated arms and said “The lights are cheering you on.”
We headed out for a walk, and headed to the Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden a couple blocks away. It was 7:30 or so. We got up to it and started identifying the statues. He identified one girl as Daisy Head Maisy, but I think it may have been Sally from The Cat in the Hat. We saw Thideick and August remembered reading it to him at 5 months in Centralia when I had a broken arm. When Carly went to the other side of the rope to climb on the statues (the ropes simply said it was too hot, but it wasn’t now) he was hesitant to break the rule, but eventually did, and hugged Dr. Seuss. We were talking about running out of time, and he went and said “I got my stroller.” And “We spented all our minutes.”
We walked down to the other end and saw the Lorax, which I was very excited about, then the security guard came and said it was closing and talked to us as we walked out the north end.
We walked back down through town (stopping to see the mice running around a park, and the statues there) and tried to get down to the riverfront park, but that entrance was closed and it would take a few blocks of driving to cross the train tracks. So we walked back up to town, seeing the moon on the way.
Next mission was food, but the Italian place we walked to was closed for vacation until July 31st. There wasn’t anything else open, except for a chicken place Carly had seen. We talked about going back to the hotel and ordering something, but then I saw that it also had pizza. We went in and ordered two chicken sandwiches for us and a slice of cheese pizza for August and an order of fries to share. Turned out it was cash only, and it took most all the cash we had. While we waited, Carly and I tried out debit cards in the ATM but couldn’t get them to work. August and I played I Spy.
We got our food and walked back to the hotel. We pulled out the table and ate. August asked “Is there geoduck in my pizza?” I said no, and besides, it would more likely be lobster or crab or clams that you’d get in this area. A minute later he said “I think I got some chewy crab.” He explained “You said there there was crab in this country.”
He watched some Sarah and Duck. We then watched the timer and stopwatch and ate a little more while Carly took a shower. He talked about having “A sweet tooth” and reminded me that was from the dog Zeus in the Hilde book. I brushed his teeth, and I mentioned that we all needed to go to the dentist once we are back in Israel.
He was then crazy and not going to sleep. I lay next to him and told three stories:
An August story. He comes back to Israel and is playing outside in the yard on his own for the first time and finds a door in a tree. It leads to a tunnel full of animal statues. It eventually ends, he returns, and h
is parents don’t believe him when the door disappears.
A Zinnie story. First day of preschool. Makes friends with a girl named Teegan. They find a door in a tree. There is a stairway that leads up and they meet Ms. Robin, who is as big as they are. She serves them work cookies and tea. Ms. Anna calls and they have to leave, but promise to return. They decide to not tell anyone else about it.
The second Zinnie story. Later that day, Teegan and Zinnie are playing on the computer. They were excited by the idea, but it is easy math. They decide to explore the wires inatead, and find themselves inside the computer. They almost get lost, but manage to find their way out. They realize they need to be careful, and also need to figure out what is going on.
After a few more minutes of him being problematic and taking him to the other bed for a couple minutes, he was quiet and fell asleep just before 11:30.
