Carly woke him up before she left. He wanted to cut with the utility knife. I let him cut the mango for his oatmeal instead. He told me, “I once made a treat in my laboratory out of milk, starch, and maple syrup.” He watched the Berenstain Bears Bad Habit episode and we got ready. He wanted a present in his little piece of umbrella wrapping paper, and I wrapped a single Whopper candy. He was obsessed with presents after that. I told him that would lead to less presents in the future. We got out at a good time, 7:33. But just past the park I realized August didn’t have his sweatshirt on. He had his sweatshirt-like crab shirt on, but it wasn’t enough, so we went back and got it.
They hadn’t started meeting when we got there. Instead, they were having the kids bring the ponchos out of the bomb shelter. In fact, when Marion told him to go get his poncho from the bomb shelter that sounded odd to me. They always refer to it as the ‘safe room’. My suspicion was correct. In the evening August would be asking me about the ‘bomb shelter’ and said Marion saying it was the first time he’d heard it called that.
Anyway, he and Millie carried his out. August got distracted by Legos and didn’t help straighten it. I went over and said good bye and he reminded me to wait on the bench.
I was meeting with Julie Fisher and Rachel Gutman on the redesign of the website for the Consortium for Israel and the Refugees. Originally planned for 11, but it was switched to 12:30. I worked on the website in the morning. Drove to her house in Ra’anana and we met until about 2:40. Julie is the wife of Daniel Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel. He is in Florida right now, giving a speech to the JNF. So kind of odd, as I also work for Sabeel and we have an entry about the bad things the JNF does in the Kumi Now book. We got a lot of work done on the new website I’m doing for them.
When we left, Julie and I ended up at the school at the same time, although had gone different routes. She is on the WBAIS board and they are doing contract negotiations with the teachers. I had joked they should give the teachers everything they want, and should get those gas cards back for us.
I was at school about 3:10. Carly had picked him up and I found them in her classroom. No ice cream. He’d had a rough day: he had hit Simone because he had broken something of August’s, then subsequently blew a raspberry at Ms. Minnie. He hit Millie because she wouldn’t let go of the swing, and he hit a boy from PKC because he sat in August’s spot at literacy group.
I walked home and did some work, and they got home about 5:10. Outside he picked a broccoli leaf and wanted to eat it. Carly let him put salt on it to make it taste better. With me he then cut pieces of the iHerb box with the utility knife. He spotted his folding comb/brush and exclaimed, “Ah! My instrument!” He ‘played’ it for several minutes. He ate noodles for dinner. We were listening to a Beat Happening song, and he started singing “I’m gonna crush you.” Instead of “I’ve got a crush on you.” I made him stop.
We popped buttered popcorn and read Shivers. ‘Meanwhile’ was the word of the day. He then had me create an obstacle course. I took him up and he had a lollipop while I washed his hair. That went pretty well. He then brought up the ‘bomb shelter’ comment from Marion and ‘bomb shelter’ was a word of the day: “Bomb shelter stands the strength of a bomb…why do people have those rooms in the classroom in case there’s an emergency?”
We read more of Shivers #1. He was then jumping on the bed and told Carly, “I think we need to get a more bouncier bed, mama.” I think I half-convinced him that our bed is as bouncy as they come. He was then running around in circles on the bed: “I’m tiring out a turkey by running…10 percent, now zero…now to grind it up! And I eat it!…Don’t worry, I cooked the chicky.” I left them at 9:10 and he was soon asleep.
Carrying out the poncho:
Using the utility knife:
Playing the comb 1:
Playing the comb 2:
Taking my food:
Taking my food 2:
