He was up at 6:30. As he left he told me, “But you need to wait. When it’s really bright out you can come down.” He likes his morning time with Mama. I came down an hour later. He stopped watching something and we checked his mold experiment in the pasta outside. He said it smelled like a toilet. Carly made him oatmeal and we read Shivers. I went up and took a shower, then we read more of Shivers. We are re-reading the first book. He wanted to paint eggs, but we’d have to cook them first and we were getting ready to go. He wasn’t happy about not being able to do it right away.
Instead, he watched the episode about how trees communicate of Magic School Bus. I was baking the two loaves of bread this morning, and when the first was done we had some bread. We got ready to go. August put pieces of frozen mango on toothpicks as popsicles and set them up in the styrofoam thing. He charged Carly pretend money to have one.
As we were heading out he talked about cooking fish and clams in his laboratory. Actually, he started by telling me he killed clams in his laboratory, but just to eat them. He said he snuck in to our kitchen to cook them: “Can you believe I use dangerous kitchen stuff in my laboratory? Like ovens!”
We were driving at 10:10. He was using the tire pressure gauge as a camera and was taking photos. He said, “Dragons…that’s something that exists in my world that sometimes comes. They’re pretty nice. But I like to eat them.” He then started telling me about his camera and what features it has: “Did you know photos can never get blurry on this one? It has fast working sensors.” He talked about it for several minutes and took photos of people and nature. He said he was going to add portrait and pano modes. And he asked about the words ‘portrait’ and ‘strangers’ “What do you call people we don’t know?” “What is the name of that mode that let’s you take photos of people easy?”
We read then read Shivers 1. He likes to make me apologize when I read the words that he’s not supposed to say. He made me apologize for saying ‘stooped’ as it sounded like ‘stupid’. He then looked at Google Maps on my phone for a few minutes. He gave it back and was quiet for several minutes, then fell asleep at 11:30. We parked in Akko and woke him up. A 15 minute power nap. We heard the call to prayer as we got out of the car.
We got walking. He stopped to get a piece of strapping and to destroy some dandelion-type flowers, knocking off the seeds. We walked through the walls into the old city, then up towards the visitor center to use a bathroom. The normal set was closed, so we had to walk up by the Orchard Garden and Carly and August went in. We went back down and August found a big rock that he could break by dropping it on the ground. Carly was having trouble with a contact, so August and I went and bought tickets for the Citadel of Akko. We went in and Carly got the audio guides. I carried August and he listened to the audio guide as we went through a few rooms.
As we walked down one hallway there was a display about graffiti from the Crusaders. August had asked earlier why the walls were built out of stone and not concrete. He now told me that the floor of his laboratory is concrete, but there are stones in the walls and that he carves symbols on each of the stones. Later, when we were done in the citadel, he would tell us he wanted to go back to find concrete buildings with tile on the floor. We saw the church area, and his favorite spot was in the big hall, where there was an animation projected on the ground showing a knight being punished, forced to eat outside where dogs ate his food. He watched it over and over and also did a lot of silly dancing on it.
We saw the well and he dropped a couple stones down, then we found the latrine area. ‘latrine’ was the word of the day. We then worked our way out. August would say he was done, but then want to look in the next building.
We walked and found Maadali for lunch. August wanted us to order everything on the menu. We got the cauliflower siniyya dish, fatayer (dough stuffed with a sweet herb mixture), and the halab kebab. And I got a beer, which was from Nazareth Brewery. They were really busy when we left, and it took me awhile to pay. They walked out the end of the hallway and August was breaking soft rocks with a bigger rock. He and I did that together for awhile.
From there we went for a walk, down narrow streets to the west until we got to the water. August stopped to look at and touch some garbage—old speakers and stereo stuff. He startled some cats: “Sorry, cats. I’m just looking at garbage.” A good garbage pile. Too bad it wasn’t across the street from our house. We dragged him away from it after a few minutes.
We followed the coast around counterclockwise. I looked down a hole and you could see the sea. I said the view was ruined by a water bottle stuck in it. August also spotted an actual tea/coffee cup in it. He wanted to go around to the other side so he could get both of them out of it. He didn’t realize it was a cliff on the other side.
We stopped to look at the view and he could see the cliff. He played with garbage and found a clothespin sort of clip. He took it and told us, “if you’re still terrified of it, you can just not look at it.” The two of them went across the street to use the bathroom in a shop that advertised one.
Carly went into a coffee shop to get a coffee. August and I went across the street and got an orange and pomegranate juice. August didn’t like it. I had a pack of sweetener in the backpack, and he liked putting that in, but said he’d still prefer something banana. We went back, but the English-speaking guy was gone. This guy didn’t know what I was talking about. They had bananas, but I think they just did squeezed juice, not smoothies. I asked Carly what they had in the coffee shop, and she spelled ’s-u-g-a-r’ and August figured it out what she had spelled. So that’s the start of the end of spelling stuff in front of him.
We kept walking, having to go up a ramp. At one point August asked if we could go up father. There were guys standing on the wall up there, and Carly thought he meant there and told him he wasn’t the correct age. Eventually, as we continued up the path, we realized August meant up the path “I’m not going up on the wall! You need to say you’re sorry, mama.”
He was fine with not getting another drink, and when he spotted a popcorn cart we got him a small bucket. He ate all except the little bits the two of us got. A lively atmosphere down at the south end, with lots of people, and the boat rides, slow and fast, out in the harbor. He stood and ate popcorn for a few minutes, then we kept going.
We made one more stop in a square where he found a length of wire and played with that. We kept going, and made our way slowly back to the hostel where Carly had stayed with students. Made slower by August being distracted by his wire, which he was tying around parts of his bike. Carly went in to put in her contact, and August tied his bike to a tree across the street and was playing when she found us. He was reluctant to leaving, want to play there more.
We walked back to the car. Read more of Shivers 1 on the way home until he was closing his eyes. Switched to watching The Cat in the Hat Knows About That and that kept him awake the entire way. He laughed hysterically at one point.
We were home at 6:30. He got 6 pieces of mango and set them up as popsicles on his styrofoam stand again. Carly Skyped with Cherie. August tried to sell me a popsicle for 20 dollars. I complained about the sign and he said, “Customer, didn’t you read the sign? It says ‘expensive store’.” He also was saying, “That’s what I say on my watch.” He said he learned that from Margo in the Shivers books. And he said, “I’m always hungry and I’m always up for a snack. And I always wanted to drink your blood.” Pretty sure he got the first part from something. I asked who drinks blood and he said, “Mosquitoes!”
We read more Shivers, getting close to the end of book 1 again. I gave him his bath. He played in the sink for awhile, whacking the soap with the metal spatula. I brushed his teeth and Carly came up. I left them at 8:34 and he was asleep by 8:50.
Popsicle holder:
His camera 1:
His camera 2:
Through the citadel:
Funny dance 1:
Funny dance 2:
Rock breaking:
Wire and wire song:
Loaf#7
Tiny crayons from Christmas
Progress on the Pepsi building
