He was stuffy during the night and woke up a few times: “Dada, make me not stuffy.” He was up at 6:40. After a few minutes of sitting and leaning against me he went downstairs. She made him oatmeal. He was down for awhile before Carly came up and got his iPad. I went down after her and he was watching a little Wild Kratts, then Berenstain Bears. Ads work, and he has really been wanting Angry Birds 2. So we downloaded it, with the understanding he could just play a few minutes. He did that, and caught on quickly. He then stopped, and was acting out the different birds on the couch.
He asked me for a piggy back ride. We talked about his lab and he still wouldn’t give me the passcode. In the kitchen he then did a rosemary bread experiment, putting foil in the bottom of a pot, then using flour, baking soda, rosemary, and chocolate chips (a good choice, as he of course got to have some as well). He had hung up one of his pieces of art on the freezer using the mounting stuff he now likes. He showed me how he can open the freezer while on his stool: “So now I can ask for treats whenever I want.” He hung up more stuff with the two-sided tape. He then had a scenario for us to play: I was a boy playing a video game. I was startled by a lion behind me. It turned out to be a mail carrier (like in Shivers) and had a note about my parents being in trouble. It led on a voyage for me across islands looking for them. I found diamonds along the way, and there were various animals along the way (birds, snakes, etc.) whispering which direction I should go along the way. The story was all his, but he liked my jokes when I had the character be literal about the directions and run into trees and other objects. ‘Perish’ was the word of the day as I used it in the note from the parents.
He ate a lot of spaghetti for dinner, then had some of his frozen treat as we got ready to go. We were out to the car when he realized he hadn’t gone to the bathroom, so we went back for that. We left at 12:20.
In the car we mainly talked. He asked if someone had invented a rain hat. I said they had, and we looked at photos on my phone of different rain hats. He thought there were kids that looked like Candy and Sophia. In the parking garage he saw the big fans on the ceiling and explained how they worked like a refrigerator to keep the garage cool. I had just explained to him yesterday, as he discovered the refrigeration unit at the olive section of the bulk food store, why a refrigerator (or our air conditioner) turns on and off.
We went into the natural history museum at Tel Aviv University. Bought tickets, and spent a few minutes looking at the displays on the right as you go up the ramp. Then he wanted to go to the downstairs section. This is where they have the living insects (and a few other animals). That was the best part for us. Lots of fascinating stick bugs and videos of insects building things (one raises a shell off the ground using silk and uses it as a home) and an ant colony and all sorts of others. He was hungry so we went to the tables area and sat there for quite awhile. We ate the fruit peel thing that Carly had found. He liked that, but later would not like the other flavor at home.
We then worked our way upstairs. We made our way though a couple of rooms full of skeletons and statues. Learned that lions had been wiped out in the area by the crusaders. Then there was a room with a video about the sea. We watched the end of it, in Hebrew. Then a boy ran over and started it again in Hebrew. August saw this, and ran over and pushed the English button. It restarted the movie. We grabbed him, the boy came back and pushed Hebrew again, and August was not happy. Carly took him for a timeout. I followed, but lost them, and ended up walking back and forth for several minutes. She had taken him in the bathroom. He had calmed down but wasn’t letting it go. He was still saying mean things, and blowing raspberries at her. I took him, and I think we were planning to take a break. But then he was telling me he was going to kill the other boy. He then blew a raspberry right in my face and spit all over me. Startled, I tried to put him down quickly, but then he slipped through my left arm and fell the last foot. Hurt his foot a bit and a shoe came off.
That was the end of things. We headed back to the car and headed home. We red a little of Bone #2 in the car. At home he was upset about not playing the iPad. Carly took him upstairs for a few minutes. They then went on a walk towards the strawberry fields. He came back with a couple treasures. A plastic piece of a crown, and a short piece of rebar.
We made a shopping list and Carly headed to the store. We started re-reading Monsters Beware! from the beginning. He then watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving while I started to cook the curry, with potatoes and cauliflower for diner. He played with the can opener, using it on paper. He wanted to drink coconut milk. When it turned out we had a can of coconut cream instead he was disappointed and didn’t like it
Carly got home and I finished cooking. He set alarms on his iPad and played with the stopwatch. They skyped with Vivian and Colin. The two of them were pretending to swim, as they had gotten ready to go to the pool, but then found out the pool was closing early and it wasn’t worth it to go. August wanted to show them his jumping on the bed upstairs. Carly then came back down and he spent several minutes upstairs on his own, talking to Vivian and also Colin. Carly asked him if he’d been talking to Colin, and he said yes, but it wasn’t really a conversation.
He got me to come up, and he went and got pajamas and other clothes from his closet and started tying them around me as scarves for my neck and legs and arms and as a hat to keep me warm. He was acting like an adult dressing me for the cold.
We went back downstairs. He remembered his oven experiment from earlier, and he got me and Carly to try it. Tasted like baking soda. Eventually we said goodbye.
He was hungry, and ate a bowl of the curry. Kind of surprising as Carly thought it would be too spicy for him. He then wanted oatmeal, and we agreed he could have some. Carly would make it and I’d give him his bath. We went upstairs. While he was on the toilet, he asked how war works and trying to stab the other side with swords. He wanted to see videos of war with swords, and I said he couldn’t see real videos (nor would I let him), but the closest was movies or videos games, and that he’s already seen video game ads with that sort of fighting. He asked, “Can you show me a not-real war? Where the north side wins? And the south side gets dead?” No idea where the north versus south idea came from. Haven’t discussed or read about the Civil War with him.
Washed him, not quite as smoothly as yesterday, but not bad, and Carly came up. I left them about 8:50. I don’t think it took too long for him to fall asleep. I went for good walk. No threat of rain now. Listened to The Written World, which I am close to finishing.
At the natural history museum:
Jumping for Vivian:
Dressing me to keep me warm:
