He was quite cuddly during the night, putting his arm over me a few times. He sat up once during the night and I got him to lie back down with his head on a pillow as he was stuffy. He came down at 6:40 and got comfy on the couch. He hadn’t seen Carly upstairs, so when she came down a couple minutes later he was quite happy.
She headed to work. He finished watching a Wild Kratts episode about racing a cheetah and I made oatmeal and we ate together at the table. We read a little of The Witches, but then Carly called. She had left her tights. So he and I got them and drove them to her. We pulled up outside the school and he opened his window and handed them to her. As she walked away he called out, “I love you, Mama!”
Back at home he wanted to watch a Shaun the Sheep. Lots of laughing, and coughing, as he did that. He got demanding after that, then we read The Witches for awhile, then he got demanding again. But then we came up with a plan for the day and things went smoothly after that. He watched Shaun the Sheep once more and I took a shower. We were then getting ready to go, and I went up to get a few books we might read together. He came up, found the Little Golden Book version of The Sorcerer’s Appretnice and sat on my lap and had me read it to him twice.
I realized he hadn’t gone to the bathroom yet and it was 10:30. I expressed my amazement and he said, in his superhero voice, “Super bladder!” He went to the bathroom and we got going. He asked, “Why do people make things out of glass?” Specifically, he was asking because glass breaks easily. We talked about different things made out of glass, and practical versus aesthetic reasons. When I was trying to explain that some people prefer the feel of glass for drinking out of over a plastic cup, he understood, and said he preferred cups made out of pottery, and that that is breakable too.
We left at 10:50. In the car he told me that we could cut the strings he had tied around his seat off sometime. And he explained the wires he had wrapped around the headrest posts: “They’re for the grown-up safety system.”
We listened to music on the way to Herzliya Park. We parked at the south end and walked straight to the fish pond. We put some water in the bug catcher, and tried to catch a fish with the net. Unfortunately, the fish were acting different, and swimming away from us today. I gave it a try, and after a few minutes was lucky and caught one. He took it out of the net and held it, then put it in the bug catcher. We examined it for a few minutes. I remembered the Wild Kratts and how one of the brothers is always naming the animals they meet. I asked which one it was, and August said he thought it was Chris. He then named the fish after him, so it was Chris the Fish. August suggested at one point that we could take the fish home, but I explained why we couldn’t and he accepted that. He returned Chris to the water and we headed back to the car.
Before we had gone to the park he had seen the first aid kit in the trunk. He now said, “I want to wear a bandaid for fun.” Notable because he used to hate the idea of them. He put it on his forehead, then switched it to his hand. Eventually it ended up on my hand. We left at 12:10.
We drove over to a pizza place called Garlic Pizza. Had to park a ways away and walked to it. He was examining car sizes again today, comparing everything to Skoda Mama. He told me he has an SUV for his laboratory car. Later in the day it would change to a van, because he said that was even bigger.
August got a slice of cheese and I got mushroom. We sat inside at August’s request, although it was warm enough to sit outside. He got a can of mango juice and used his Final Straw. After we ate, he sat on my lap and I read Mike the Knight: The Tricky Trail, then we traded pages reading Biscuit Goes Camping. I then tried with I Really Like Slop! but he wouldn’t go for that. I knew we were listening to. New York radio station, and I asked the guy what it was. It was the Gaylord Fields show on WFMU.
We paid, and right outside the pizza shop August found a huge snail crawling across the ground. We examined it, and had it crawl on a leaf. August picked it up, and eventually let it free over on a bush.
We walked back to the car and headed over to a park. Couldn’t park near it, so we continued on. August had been arguing for ice cream before his doctor’s appointment and so I decided we had just enough time for that. We parked in a lot and walked to Glidha (literally Hebrew for ‘ice cream’). She gave August tastes of a couple of flavors, and he got a small cup of a flavor called Hershey’s. He shared it with me, then we walked to the International Clinic to check in. Then we walked back to Dr. Hurwitz’s office.
The appointment was at 2:30. We were a few minutes late, and the doctor was a few minutes later. August did really well and was very patient. Pretty good, as it took awhile. The doctor took a long time asking me basic questions again. Clearly he didn’t remember us, which is fine, but then when we got to talking about August’s vaccinations I showed him the vaccination record, signed by him, and he was shocked. He thought August was a new patient, and had been creating a new file for August. Apparently this was a big hassle to undo. He had put August in under ‘Althauser’ this time, but had been under ‘Niman’ the first time. August answered all the questions he asked, and drew shapes and a picture of a person for him. August weighs 16.4 kg (19%), and is 107.5 cm tall (40%). August handled the physical exam quite well despite being very ticklish. I didn’t have to hold him or help at all. He got a little concerned when the doctor checked his abdomen and penis, but August told me later it was because he thought the doctor was going to give him a shot.
No shots right now. I need to figure out if August got 3 HepB shots (only two are listed in the vaccination book from Korea—but he probably had the first one at Yeon and Nature). Otherwise, I learned that they give the third chicken pox and MMR shot in 1st grade here, and DTaP in second, and it is through the schools and he thinks the American school is participating in that now. He agreed though that we should get the MMR booster before going to the states, since there is the outbreak in Washington, but right now there is a shortage of the MMR booster in Israel. He said to wait three months and see if the supply had improved. Otherwise, we can still do it, but need to order it and get it from a different pharmacy and bring it to him.
As we left, another couple went in with a baby. August and I went to use the bathroom on the floor and it was locked. We looked around the rest of the building, no luck. So we walked back to the international clinic and used the bathroom there. August called it the fancy bathroom, and he looked at the wooden boat and bag of shells they had in it.
We got driving home, and he asked for the Kraftwerk song, “The Robots”. And then fell asleep at 3:50. We were home at 3:10, but he was really asleep. I carried him in and he continued to sleep on the couch. I finally started watching the first episode of Hilda on Netflix and pulled him on my lap and he woke up about 4:20 and watched it with me. It had been too scary for him when we first tried it (she is chased by a troll at the beginning) but we have since read the books and they aren’t scary and he was fine with it now.
Carly was home a little before 5. They went up and wrestled. He came down and ate soup, then played some Dragonbox Big Numbers. I went up to do some work. They made popcorn and he ended up with a timeout over it for some reason. After that I did his bath and washed his hair. He handled it well, although not quite as enthusiastically as last time.
We went in on the bed, and ‘hub’ became the word of the days after asked if a big airport is bigger than a forest. He described a big airport as one where you transfer like when you’re going from Europe to South America. So I taught him the word ‘hub’ and how it is like a wheel. He told me how he has an airport bigger than the Amazon and it has launchers that launch airplanes with air, like the things that blow balls up in the air in science centers. Carly came in and I left them right about 9.
Catching weeds:
Examining Chris the Fish:
Chris the Fish:
Returning Chris the Fish to the pond:
Big snail 1:
Big snail 2:
At the doctor:
