Wednesday, October 31: Dance class

August was up early. At 5:35, just after Carly. She tried to see if he’d go back to sleep, but he didn’t. He shadowed her while she got ready, then was watching Wanda and the Alien when I came down at 6. When he was done with that, and had eaten first Cheerios and then his vitamins and zucchini bread, he wanted to do a stop motion animation. But when we went to set it up, the Big Fish project was missing from the app. They had been adding a bunch to it after making their own video yesterday. He didn’t get really upset, but he didn’t want to do stop motion anymore. Instead, he played with the light up beach ball. He had Grampa do something with it, then August was trying to take more air out of it by squishing it with different things.

He played with it a bit more, then I got us going and walking at 7:40. I put some lotion on his hand and he screamed and screamed about it hurting him. But when I explained we needed to do it to make the dryness go away and we should do it twice a day, he said, “Oh. Three times then.” On the walk we talked about what to do with his bottle caps. He said, “We could use them for a game. The big ones are easier and the little ones are harder. Like bottle cap catch.” He was then singing a wonderful “I’m a person that likes pollution” song. I recorded it. But after it was over he then told me why he likes pollution. It’s because he has a machine that makes good things out of pollution.

We got to class before the bell. But they were already meeting again. He knew we’d be back before dance and that he could make dance class shorter if he wanted. He talked to me outside though and told me “The whole preschool class needs to be shorter.” I got him to go to the meeting to hear about the day while I waited outside for a few minutes. He popped out after a minute and told me “Hey dada! They’re having a special kid over!” He was smiling, and ran back in.

I walked home, then my parents and I got ready and headed to Jaffa. We stopped at Ace on the way and got a tire pressure gauge as a low pressure warning has gone on in the car. We checked the tire pressures and they seemed okay, then headed on to Jaffa.

Took close to an hour to get there. Our usual parking lot is now a construction site, so drove around and found a spot on the street a couple blocks north of the market. Walked to the market and did some looking around. My parents got a couple things and I got a small wooden chess set as a Christmas present for August.

We stopped at Awni for lunch, all getting falafel sandwiches, then walked west to Kdumin Square where we saw the view and Andromeda Rocks. Then walked back through Abrasha Park, seeing the Wishing Bridge. Abouelafia Bakery and got some za’atar breads and a couple of other things. Back at the car we found a parking ticket, along with the other cars parked there. It was a delivery vehicle only area, but without a painted curb and no sign in front of us, only one behind that we didn’t see and couldn’t read. An Israeli woman returned to her car at the same time and read the sign to me and she was upset about it to. Meanwhile, there are cars parked all over the painted red and white curbs not getting tickets.

We drove back, a bit quicker this time, and had time to go into Even Yehuda and the bank so my parents could get cash.

We then drove to the school to pick up August. He went out on the bench and Andrea showed me that they’d put up an ‘I wonder…’ wall. August had put up ‘How does the universe work?’ Back outside, Anna told me about a recent article in The NY Times about restaurants outside of Tel Aviv. In particular a sourdough bakery she had just gone to and had thought of me, as Marion had told her I was working on sourdough starter.

August went up to dance class and stayed for all of it. Mom and Dad had gone to the library to look at newspapers, etc. and read, but the teachers were too noisy so they came back to the bench. At 4, when the teachers came back from their staff meetings, I told Anna that I had found the article and would visit the bakery. Cassie overheard, and asked me to give her some of my starter when it is ready.

We then headed to Carly’s classroom. There, August played school with her. He sat on the big stool and was of course distracted by it. They did math on the board, and August was trying to figure them out in his head, or whispering his thinking to himself as much as possible. For art time I drew a person on a boat with a sword getting attacked by two huge sea monsters. Carly then brought the plants over and he studied leaves, comparing them.

I asked him about the special student at school today, and he said it was a boy that liked to find treasures with him. And the boy was his age. Will have to talk to his teachers to learn more. We left at 4:45.

At home, Carly read Camille’s Team to him on Skybrary. He then watched Aardvark and Ant. I made raviolis and a rose sauce for dinner/lunches but we also had all the leftovers to choose from. August recited “Run, run, as fast as you can. You can’t catch me in the gingerbread man!” He said it was from literacy time with Ms. Vicky. I used the word ‘simultaneously’ and he said “Simultaneously! Word of the day!”

Mom and Dad gave him a couple more gifts, from the U.S. this time: a coin/medallion thing, and a shirt that makes him look like a robot. He then took care of Gramma and Grampa. He had them help him tape his flashlight to the side of the coffee table. He then had Gramma lying on the floor, reading a book, with her head on a pillow and her body covered with blankets. Grampa had things covering his feet to keep them warm. He kept asking what else they needed. He told me “I learned how to do that at preschool.’ Take care of people, that is, and he specifically mentioned taking care of Candy that one day after school.

Carly took him up and gave him his bath—a bath from the sink as he stood on the stool. He and I then read Hilda and the Black Hound (again). Now, ‘banished’ became a word of the day. We used the storytelling dice and told a story called The Making of a Jeweler. He went down and said good night, then we played a preschool game with a deerfox from a different universe that came into a preschool class. He was asleep at 8:30, seconds after complaining that he couldn’t fall asleep.

I’m a person that likes pollution song: