Tuesday, November 6: Even Yehuda Art Tour

He was very cuddly during the night. At 4:40 I heard him say “Are you making stuff (or this) up?” He repeated it four or five times in his sleep. He woke up with my alarm and sat up before I did and asked, “Are you going to leave now?” I tried to convince him that I’d lay with him for a few more minutes, but he insisted it was light out and he wanted to see Carly in the morning. He wasn’t convinced that he would be the only one out in the house. After a couple minutes Carly heard him and came and got him and took him downstairs. I got dressed and followed them down. He watched Pink Panther and I took a shower. As he was watching, apropos to nothing, he told me, 1“I want to try something: Dip carrots in butter and put salt on it. See how it tastes.”

We finished reading Hilda and the Black Hound, for our third complete read-through, at least, then turned to Hilo. We finished our fifth or so reading of Hilo 3 and read a few chapters of Hilo 4. He then wanted to watch something before we went. He tried to insist that it was a rule that he watch both YouTube and Netflix in the morning. I said that definitely wasn’t a rule, but he could watch one story on Netflix. He watched a Julius Jr. Mom asked him if he knew what time it was and when he said he didn’t know she said it was time for a Zinnie hug. He said “Oops” as she gave him a hug.

We all headed out to the car at 7:45 and drove to school. We walked him down to preschool. He thought it was a little odd that Gramma and Grampa were coming too. But as I carried him down the stairs I gave him a challenge to say three things to Lydia. He actually considered it, and we talked about things he could say and he liked the challenge. The first thing was going to be “Hi”. He then came up with “How are you?” and something else. We had taken a container of carrot bread, and he hid it behind his lunch box. I was hoping he’d remember it for snack time.

My parents and I went up to wait for the Even Yehuda art tour. There was time, so I went to the car and returned a few books to the library: Gay-Neck, which I just finished, the two Magic Tree House that he hasn’t been interested in, and Hilda and the Black Hound.

The art tour was a whirlwind. There were bout a dozen of us on it in total. One had a student in Carly’s class. Lydia’s mom was there. And the one other guy was Albert, from the Czech Republic. When I talked to him he really pushed Georgia as a good place to go on vacation.

Anyway, the first stop was the Even Yehuda history museum, which is across from the park by the library. I knew it was there, but we haven’t gone in yet, figuring it is all in Hebrew, which it is. It was interesting though. From there we drove to a house north of the school where we visited an artist named Ronit Schwartz, who paints mandalas (among other things) and is into rat therapy. Then it was to our neighborhood, where we went to the vintage clothing store, owned by Neva. She also has a nice backyard, and there were pastries. This was where I talked to Albert.

From there we headed to a place on Vatikim. I had guessed it was pottery, and I was correct. It was also right where August and I found one of our vases—possibly a discarded student work, as she teaches classes. She did a demonstration, and I took photos of the metal robot sculptures in her yard to show August.

Next stop was the house on the way up to town that has the mosaics on the wall outside, at Hahadarim 63. The artist (Ofra) wasn’t there due to health issues, but Ada had permission to take us into the yard to look around.

Next was another artist, Shmuel Slama (https://www.artavita.com/artists/15525-shmuelik-slama), northeast of the school, who has teaching studio in his basement. He paints, does papier mache, sculpts, photography, etc. He had one piece in Barcelona where he covered nude people with mud so they looked like sculptures, then he painted the floor around them. He had a wonderful house and was really interesting.

From there it was to north Even Yehuda where we visited the Spring scent shop that is actually in the industrial area, then to the boutique women’s clothing store right next door to Shabtai, then to Shabtai for lunch. I got a personal pizza with arugula and goose, while my parents got the Norwegian pizza. and we shared schnitzel strips and dad and I had a beer.

I talked a little to Zoe, who has two boys, about a possible writer’s group, and a little to another mom who has a first grade girl and is a Arab Israeli Christian from Nazareth. Didn’t get a chance to talk to Lydia’s mom, although I’d like to to see how Lydia is doing with August.

We went back to school and met the class as they left the library. I helped keep the line in order as they got ready to leave the library. Amanda had done library time as Ilana is gone, taking her mother back to New York. Marion and Andrea told me they kids really liked the bread, and were all saying thank you to August.

I asked August if he had done the challenge with Lydia. He said he had said “Hi, Hello,How are you doing?” but he had used his audio link to say it into her brain so she was confused by it. We sat on a bench and he ate some bread and carrot. He had checked out A Bed Full of Cats and we read that. He and I walked up to the drinking fountain and Bibo saw him and said, “That’s my friend August.” We met his sister, Lola, who is in 2nd grade.

August was interested in playing with Taya, so I took him down to Cassie’s room. But we found out that Taya had taken the bus home because Grace is sick. We then went to the library and got Hilda and the Bird Parade (a bit earlier, I couldn’t remember the name of the book we hadn’t read yet, but August did), a book called Giants Beware! and a book I found called The Last Giants by Francois Place. August spent a few minutes watching some elementary school girls playing games on the computer and I heard him laughing a few times.

Liz checked those out for us, then we got my parents and headed down to the classroom, where I was wondering if they’d want the book of photography from around the world that Shmuel Slama had given us. They weren’t there so we left it in his cubby.

We went to the car and drove up to the post office. August stayed in with my mom while Dad and I went in and he mailed a couple postcards and their ballots, which we made sure would be dated today.

At home, August had me read all of Hilda and the Bird Parade. He complained it was short. Then he ate some pozole. He did okay, although he picked the corn and beans out, saying that is all he likes. He went to the bathroom and asked me “Remember where I keep my inventions? In the couch.” I suggested it must be pretty full, but he said there was room for millions of people to store their inventions in there. He was then singing a song that went “The day I turned 2, I tied my shoe…A bottle of yum to fill my time and that’s enough for me.” He remembered the whole verse but said there was more. He said he learned it from Marion. We found it on YouTube as “Pirate Song” and he watched it a couple times.

We then read Giants Beware! The little boy in it used ‘savored, not scarfed’. So ‘scarfed’ became the word of the day. We read 50 pages, then he wanted a Halloween treat. He chose Skittles, and Carly, who had come down and was feeling a bit better, hid them for him while I went for a run. Apparently he doesn’t like the green Skittles.

When I returned I found them eating popcorn and he was watching a show about penguins. Carly went up to take a shower and then head to bed. We read more of Giants Beware! Around page 150 of a 200 page book. I had thought the library books would last longer.

We went up for his bath and he made a potion in the sink to slow down people at night time and make them sleepy sleep. We talked about wearing socks as I thought he might have been cold last night as he was so cuddly. He said it was okay as long as he could take them off during the night if his feet were itchy.

We got his pajamas on and brushed his teeth. When he said goodnight to Carly he told her he usually sleeps 9 or 10 hours and he wanted to see her in the morning. I took him down to say goodnight to Gramma and Grampa, then we went to our bed. We did one Storytelling Dice. He used a lot of dice, so it turned into a sillier one. Just after 9 I got the lights off, and for a preschool game he wanted me to come up with the scenario. He was really tired by this point. We had him be the deerfox, but this time he snuck onto the bus after the class had been on a field trip to a nature area. When they get back they make a bed for the deerfox out of pillows in the corner of the room. He was asleep by 9:15.

Museum

Ronit

Neva?

Sculptor

Mosaics Ofra 052-539-9139 Hahadarim 63

Shmuel Slama Thursday 7:30 to 10:30 054 599

Spring aroma shop

Art tour 1: