Carly eventually got August to sleep last night by using the flower visualization he had told her about from yoga class. His alarm on his iPad went off after 3am and Carly woke up. She went downstairs and got some rest/light sleep, but was mainly up after that. He said something like “Goodbye dada” or “See you later, dada” in his sleep.
He was then up at 6:30. He knocked on the bathroom door. I got out of the shower, but by the time I opened the door Carly was coming up the stairs. He said, “I want mama to do it.”
Once I was downstairs he finished watching some Smurfs, then we read much of The Flying Beaver Brothers and the Evil Penguin Plan. ‘Nimble’ was the word of the day from that.
We all got in the car and left at 7:10. August remembered his lollipop from yesterday and had more of it on the way to school. He said it tasted like cherry medicine, then he argued that it actually did have medicine in it. He then talked about other flavors also having medicine in them, but cherry would have the most medicine in it. He sang parts of “hokey pokey” and “I know an old woman who swallowed a five…” along the way. We dropped August and Carly off at school, along with all their bags of stuff.
From school Waze told us it was 2 hours 21 to the beach at Ein Bokek. Smooth sailing, and we made it just two minutes after that, at 9:48. We went and changed and went down to the beach. Mom and Dad went in first. Cooler than previous times, but pretty easy to get used to. We were in and out a couple times, and I sat on the beach for awhile reading my Camus. We then showered and changed and left right at 11:15, when parking ran out.
We drove a couple blocks north to the mall area and had lunch at the Cafe Cafe. I got a salmon sandwich and cappuccino. Dad had a watermelon and pineapple smoothie that was interesting. I had thought of walking up the wadi with them, but as I looked at our options for driving home a route that goes farther north on 90, past Jericho, then west south of Nablus was showing up. So I suggested we then go to Masada and make sure we leave early enough so we could see parts of the Jordan River valley, etc. before it got dark.
We drove to Masada, I bought a guide to wild flowers (the only one they had in English that I don’t have yet), and we took the cable car up. We spent an hour and a half or so up on Masada. I walked down all the stairs to the North Palace this time, then met up with them again. We got to overhear a couple of tour guides along the way, so learned more about the tower that the Romans pushed up the ramp, and about how they have been rebuilding the walls from the stones that were knocked over.
We headed back to the car and got driving. We drove north on 90 along the Dead Sea, spotting lots of sink holes along the sea, then continued north through the Jordan River Valley and past Jericho on our left. You turn west on 505, I think, and start climbing up into the hills. There were lots of trucks, and other people wanting to pass on a two-lane road, which made for a lot of craziness. An experience to remember, but not necessarily one I want to repeat, especially as it got dark.
We got home at 6:20. Came in the house to find Taya and Cassie there. August and Taya had played together really well while they talked. August showed off the huge pile of stuff they had made. I think it was a nest or hiding place of some kind. Carly said the day had gone well: he had played in her classroom for awhile, then when she took him to his class he explained that Carly was dropping him off because I was at the Dead Sea. Marion said she hadn’t liked the Dead Sea and asked what he thought. He thought for awhile, and said, “Too salty.” In the morning he had said he could just go to dance on his own, but he changed his mind and said he would like her to be on the bench in case he wanted to see her. She then went to her department chair meeting, and came back at 4. They then went and got a ride home with Cassie and Taya.
Cassie and Taya left. I had to accompany them out a couple times, as Taya needed to come back to use the bathroom. August came out into the yard and said goodbye a couple times. And Taya was making faces through the fence.
He finished his soup, then ate crackers and hummus. He said, “Hey Lisa, how much coffee is left?” He meant Alexa, and it is the line from an ad he saw on YouTube for a food vacuuming system called Silo. He continued: “These avocados stay fresh for a day. These avocados stay fresh much longer. That’s thanks to Silo…everything stays fresher with Silo.”
Carly told me that there is someone at work that is pregnant, and August heard her talking, so ‘pregnant’ became the word of the day. August and I did preschool stories, where robotic ants (rants, in Hilo) were showing up at the school and August was shoving his way past the teacher to get out of the room to do an EMP to stop it. He was then singing “There Was an old Woman,” which was from dance class. He also sang my Counting by 2s song. He got Dragons Beware and looked at it on his own for awhile before having me read some.
We then headed upstairs and he sang a “Seven little princesses” song. Which had lots of words to it , but it wasn’t clear where it was from. I found the Oh My a Fly! book and read it to him while he was on the toilet. Before his bath we read the little opening story of Dragons Beware! He really likes that part.
He took his bath at the sink and sang a song about a woman who couldn’t find numbers and went to spaceship and got broken and couldn’t be fixed so she died. He said, “Please don’t take a video of that.” He explained it was because he didn’t remember the words to sing it again.
We went downstairs and he said goodnight. We went upstairs and told a preschool game that was a sequel to the robotic ants one, where he is getting interviewed by a newspaper, and then attacked again. He was asleep by 9:20.
Dropping them off at school:
Mom and Dad in the Dead Sea 1:
Mom and Dad in the Dead Sea 2:
Bird at Masada:
Walking around Masada:
Our welcome home:
7 princesses song:
Dropping them off at school
Dead Sea
Masada
Pile he made with Taya
