He was up at 6:40, as I was about to head down the stairs. He found Carly outside and they cuddled on the couch. He didn’t remember having a funny dream. When we said Carly would go to work today and we’d go to Haifa he asked her “Is work fun for you?”
Carly headed to work about about 7. August played iPad while I typed, and he refound Dragonbox Big Numbers. Interesting to see how much of the game he had forgotten: both the game itself and the math, like reading the numbers. After a few minutes I convinced him to start a new game in it, since there wasn’t much to do. I think it will be a great game for him to play through again, as much more of the math will stick.
I took a shower, him in on the couch in the small bedroom, then we got ready to go. he had some apple. A couple times he asked where mama was and I had to remind him she was at work. We left at 9:30. He was decked out in his hat, bracelet, pink sunglasses, and binoculars. In the car he played more Dragonbox Big Numbers, but then he stopped. He closed his eyes for a minute, but was then looking out the window. Then, he did fall asleep. Very unusual, and I can’t remember the last time he took a nap so early. He slept from 10:05 to 10:40, when I was trying to find parking. We ended up parking at the end of the same dead end as last time and were walking at 10:55.
He asked me, “What’s an English muffin?” And asked if it was a muffin that speaks English.
We got to the Madatech science center and found that we had to pay. I just handed over my card, then, as she gave me the wristbands, I asked about the free days. She said it was free from 4 to 6pm on Wednesdays. I tried asking if the free days would come back, but she acted like I was crazy. I tried to explain that last year we had come several times and it was free, but it was like she didn’t believe me. Not a language barrier, as she spoke fluent English. Oh well, August is still free, but I’m about $25. Also, there is a special exhibit now, which probably explains why it is not free.
You enter from the actual front door now. Headed to the energy room for a little. He played with the solar panels, the water wheel, and then we did the trains that run by bike. We had 11:30 tickets for the special exhibit so we headed over there, stopping to have a bite of our peanut butter sandwiches before we went in.
The ticket taker made us take selfie photos on these screens before we went in. I thought you’d make use of them later, but there was no way to retrieve them, and we never saw the point of them. The exhibit is about apps and online identity, etc. Some of it seemed rather pointless, like these little survey things that I think were supposed to make fun of online surveys.
But there was a lot of cool visual stuff. August liked the screen where you swung around colorful swim noodle things and it made patterns on a large screen. Then there was a place where it took your image and put someone else’s eye on your image. Rather creepy. Next was a maze, where a screen showed you the routes that other people took. Really cool, except it was made out of fabric and there were two bigger boys tearing around it, acting crazy, and not following the paths. August didn’t like it at all and I stopped them a couple times. On the bizarre side of things was a mirror that supposedly could try to tell how old you were. For me it gave results between 14 and 31. And there was a booth with headphones where you could talk to a stranger standing a couple feet away. August and I talked to each other.
Another camera thing, that we couldn’t figure out what it was even supposed to do, and a wall thing that supposedly responded to emotions, but seemed to just randomly flip between ‘happy’ and ‘sad’, and then we got to the next really cool thing. It was a big animated wall with things like hot air balloons, trucks, and boats in it. You could take a piece of paper with an outline of a shape on it, color it, put it on a scanner, and watch it show up in the picture. August chose the boat and they gave him a handstamp: you could only do it once. We colored it, scanned it, and he really liked watching it show up. It was kind of like the fish thing at the Dr. Seuss Museum.
The best thing was last. It was an art installation called “Gravity”. It had big video screens down either side, with a few motion sensors on each wall. It projected videos of things like stars and planets and there was music. In a couple segments the motion detectors were used to make cool pictures from your outline and movement. This led to us discussing the word ‘avatar’, which had also come up a couple days ago when setting up an account on an iPad app. We made it the word of the day. In another segment it looks like you fly right close to a star, and August liked touching the star as it went by. We stayed in Gravity for probably a half hour, as after the second time it went by he wanted to stay until the star went past a third time.
That was the end of the exhibit, then we headed out to the outdoor area. He started at the bottom of the stream area and worked his way up. As we walked to it, he explained something about “I will say yes…to adventure.” There was a lot more to it, basically saying that for both Dada/Zinnie and Dada, Mama, and Zinnie adventures he will always agree to go on them. I loved how he explained it.
He loves the stream area and spent a lot of time with all the pumps and gates and things. At one point, his sunglasses fell off, into the water. He started screaming to stop them. They went through one gate before a girl could close it. The next girl caught on though and kept her gate closed so I could grab them. We finally left the stream at 1:05, mainly because I wanted some air conditioning.
We were briefly in the music room, then the Da Vinci room was full. So we went up to the magic room. He started acting like a magician as he showed me the things: “It’s just a normal bed!…It’s just a normal table!” He continued that through the chemistry room, showing me the fluorescent lights and things. A little of the optical illusions room, then we went to the bathroom. More magicianing in the dark room. It was pretty busy today, but August handled the crowds quite well. We went outside and had some snack, then the Da Vinci room was open. He played with those machines until there was something in the next room starting and they kicked everyone out to be quiet. Did the sound room again, then up the elevator (he wanted to ride the elevator up and down most of the time today, the first time we have, but it is a glass elevator).
Did the space room and talked about the seasons on one exhibit. Then to the air room and his favorite pumps and the controls on an airplane and parts of a jet engine. Optical illusion again, then the teeth room. He chose his favorite healthy foods. Did the telescope room, then down to the hall of mirrors where we used a microscope we’ve never used before and the zoetrope.
As we were wandering around, I asked about leaving soon. He said we should leave after we do all the exhibits. We’d now covered all the rooms and I pointed this out and mentioned we hadn’t done the playroom downstairs. We went downstairs and to the play area. A bit busy, and the only time he really complained about the crowds, but what he really meant was that he couldn’t find a free bucket in the water area.
Ended up in the blue blocks area. He said he was making a monster. When it was done, he explained it’s digestion, from where the mouth was to its stomach to intestines to where it pooped. Back out in the water area it was less busy and he got a bucket. Played a lot on his own, and called me over to help him fill the container with holes in it.
He was ready to go about 3:30, and I could tell he was getting hungry and tired out as he started talking about playing on the iPad and complaining that he wouldn’t have enough time to do everything he wanted to do in Dragonbox Big Numbers unles
s I gave him extra time – and we weren’t even in the car yet!
We went to the bathroom, then found a button to start the mysterious counting machine. Still mysterious, as it just turned the belt, but there were still no balls to be counted. We stopped at the gift shop for a minute and he played at the toy table.
We got walking at 3:50. A lot of cats around here, so we got up to 18 on our running total. And we saw a small lizard on a wall, so he started a count for lizards.
On the way home I heard him talking through the math, and also saw him doing a lot of math problems on his fingers. At one point I asked if he was figuring out some of the problems. He corrected me, saying he was figuring them all out. As we got close to home, he wanted me to help with a hard one. So I pulled over and parked. It was a three-digit problem involving carrying, so I helped him with it. We got driving again and he said he was going to rest, and closed his eyes. Luckily, not enough time to fall asleep.
We were home at 5:10. Saw cat 19. Carly opened the door for him, and he came and told me that I didn’t need to use my keys and mama had done it, and kept explaining it: “See, the door is open…”
Inside, he said he was hungry. I started cooking mushrooms and made him pasta with pesto and cheese and mushrooms. He and Carly went to play with Cubetto but it wasn’t working. He suggested the battery was dead. Carly got the screwdrivers and batteries and they fixed Cubetto together.
When he started eating the noodles he told me “I love it!” Randomly, he told us “Did you know there’s beetle wars? All the beetles in the world come up to a place and then they start fighting.”
I wondered if he was drawing from Fox in Sox. I suggested we read Seuss. We read the end of Fox in socks. Then The Butter Battle Book, which is what he had thought I was talking about, and he really wanted Carly to see it. I read it to him.
They played Toca Blocks for a few minutes, then we went walking to get our anniversary ice cream 6:40. He saw cat #20. At the mall he looked at the flavors, then told me to choose for him. He didn’t want to decide. I got tiramisu for him, cheesecake with crumbs for me, and Carly got chocolate fudge. We were all happy with our flavors. August told us “Happy anniversary!”
On the way back there were lots of negotiations over the order of skyping, brushing his teeth, and taking a bath. We ended on brushing first. Carly did that. Rather a struggle. He and I then skyped with my parents, as they have Skype working again. I went for a run and she gave him a bath. He was asleep at 8:40, right before I got back.
Carly had told me that the other day they made a welcoming card for Mikaela to go with the cookies. It was a dot painting and he had explained it was an atom to particle maker. Carly included the description in the card and Mikaela said she liked it and had the card on her fridge.
Also, the other day, as we were leaving the house, he pointed to the old bicycle tire that he had proudly brought home last spring (when he had his awful cat allergic reaction). He said he would leave it here when we moved to another country. I said he didn’t need to worry about when we would move again, and he asked if we would be here for the rest of his life.