I had thought about going for a walk in the morning, but decided to leave it for later in the day when places like Wi’am and the natural history museum might be open. But it turned out I wouldn’t have any time. Omar called, saying he and Marc were running late, and asking me when things started (he’d never given me a program) and asking me to stand in for him). Today was a smaller group, about 60, and the session was taking place in my hotel. It was now sort of a leadership conference, with representatives of the various organizations taking part. It was just intros at first, and as we got the tables set up I was sitting next to a guy named Peter, from FOSNA. Mitri Raheb spoke first, and Omar and Marc showed up during his talk.
Omar wasn’t impressed with how things were going, and I think he was focused on how today was his wife’s actual due date, so we decided to leave around noon. All in one car this time, and we drove first to Sabeel. My car was blocked in by someone else in the building, so while Omar sent a message to figure out who it was and get the car moved, he showed us the field at the end of the road. It turns out it is the battlefield of a major battle of the Third Crusade, and took place near well that is still there. And the road, the dinky little alley, is actually what used to be the main road between Judea and Sumeria. The burial site of a French prince or king was found by the battlefield a few years back. This is while the alley is in such bad shape—it can’t be touched pending archeological investigation.
Anyway, the car was moved and we parted ways. A straightforward drive home, although there were patches of heavy rain (it had been sunny when we left the hotel) and I was home by 2:30. They were upstairs and heard me, and he came down the stairs and said, “Dada!” He then told me that they had had brownie ice cream. I also learned that they had watched Shrek 2 today. He calls them Christmas movies, because Carly had been talking about watching a Christmas movie with him, and they watched a short with the first one that was actually Christmas related.
He then wanted to wash the walls. He said he had a chemical that changes things and is dangerous. Changes you into an animal. He critiqued me still wearing my business attire: “Why do you have these cloths on? I hate these clothes. Take these clothes off and put on your normal clothes. (Sigh) Srupid clothes.” He wanted a sponge, but ended up choosing a cleaning cloth like we use in the kitchen. He cleaned things with that, and the tile in the bathroom with q-tips, and then with the scrubbing toothbrush. He came down and scrubbed things with it, getting it wet in the sink. We were listening to John Prine and he started dancing around to the music.
We then played the tiger game, then he was a seal and we played a seal game. And then it was a beaver. I was reading on the bank of a river, etc. and would take the animals to the Audubon Society. Carly left to go to work to set up for tomorrow. He was a different beaver, and now the animals were coming into a house and the kids were keeping them as pets: “You give it your old blanket from being a baby because you’ve outgrown it and you put food at the entrance…” “And you see your sister coming in from playing hockey in the school…and you let her see it.” Some of the idea came as we watched a video with the woman from SciShow Kids to find out about baby beavers, and she had it with a blanket. In our game the beaver was lethargic and that was a word of the day. So they took it to Audubon.
When I objected, saying I was getting worn out with the games, he said, “There’s always new kinda of games in my head that I haven’t played…can’t we play one?” So it was preschool rest time. A beaver comes in. The class is upset but the teacher intervenes. Takes it to vet who takes care of it. The beaver ended up playing on the iPad during coding time. But August then requested a new game, saying I hadn’t gotten him a new game recently. And he said it needed to be harder. Then he decided it should be a music game: “It needs to be complex. Not complex: lots of features.” We tried Mindful Games, then a music app called Blocs Wave.
He then wanted to watch Coyote Peterson and chose a Brave Wilderness on tiger sharks. Carly got home, talking to Chuck and Cherie. I was making the spaghetti, and I told August his was on the table. He tasted it and it was hot. He complained: “You didn’t cool them down at all. What kind of person are you? You’re not my dada anymore!” Cooled it down and he ate most of it. Carly then went up for a shower. We played more beaver games, then he was turning into a chameleon, then a snake. It was more kids hiding the animals from their parents, then getting to keep them as pets.
Carly got a message saying that Taya had been sick and they weren’t coming tomorrow and August was upset. He started by saying he wasn’t going to be her friend anymore. Which reminds me that the other day he told me that while he would play with the other kids at school, including Eve, he had decided that the only real friends he needed were me, Carly, and Taya. He was then being a snake and pretending to eat me.
It was a hairwashing day, and he was going to get a lollipop. He was being slow going up though and I said, “Lollipops won’t like themselves.” He thought that was funny and he and Carly pretended to be lollipops licking themselves. Then, when he wanted my attention he said, “Pumping more listening-to-Zinnie chemicals in you!”
I took him up to the bathroom and he played in the sink. Sang a poop song and played with the eyedroppers, making his chemicals. I washed his hair, and as he couldn’t handle it anymore Carly sowed up with the lollipop.
He wanted to hear the poem from Shivers 2 and was reciting parts of it. But downstairs he decided to read Harry Potter with Carly. From that they chose ‘enraged’ as a word of the day. When Carly read the word ‘stupid’ he said that adults had to apologize every time they say an inappropriate word, while kids only have to apologize once a week. They then switched to Captain Underpants.
He went to the bathroom at 8:10, then we got him ready for bed. He was a little upset that I wasn’t putting him to sleep, but Carly was tired and wanted to go to bed. He got over and I heard a good amount of giggling, and he was asleep by 9.
Cleaning with the toothbrush:
Dancing to John Prine:
A new music app:
When Skoda Mama will defend herself with spikes:
It was made of… Song:
