Sunday, March 10: August turns 5!

During the night he asked for chapstick once. Later, he yelled “Dada!” in his sleep, as if something was wrong. Carly and I were both instantly awake. Carly said it was a bad dream. He repeated “bad dream” and went back to sleep.

He was up at 6:10. I got up at 7. They were working on circuits. We called my parents and they sang him “Happy Birthday”. He wasn’t too impressed with that. He says he doesn’t like the song and won’t allow “that stupid song” at his birthday party. We opened the presents from them and Dee and the Garmin Vevofit jr. watch from us. My parents got him a toy construction set and a different kind of electronics kit. Dee got him a telescope, a rain coat, and shirt. We started by putting together the plastic duck part and making that portion of it (there are 4 basic sections to the whole set).

I made him oatmeal. Carly was making lasagna and he helped test the noodles. We got back to the kit. Another portion has an arm that spins due to a motor. It hits a bell when you touch a wire with a wand. However, August noticed that when it is slow it doesn’t hit. He asked, “Why when the motor is going it rings the bell, but when it’s not it doesn’t?” I asked him why he thought that was, and he said, “Because it stretched out.” We finished the four electric kit parts and Carly finished the lasagna.

He wanted to play with the construction set with her. She asked, “Our own creation?” He replied with, “Nooo, we’re going to follow the instructions.” I went up and took a shower.

August and I then got going on a walk. He found a spider in the book case outside and we had to capture that first. We hurt it a bit though, and on the walk he switched it out for an ant. Before we left he talked about how he was making the Zinnie house off limits to visitors until he had his insect zoo completed. I pointed out he had a week, and we could work on the Zinnie house between now and his birthday. Along the way he asked, “What’s a water pistol?” So that was a word of the day. He also talked about being a bird: “It I was a bird I’d like to eat caterpillars, centipedes, fish, crabs…”

Our main objective on the walk was to get longer nails at the hardware store. We got there at 12:20. He showed me a few things he’s interested in, like a wire brush to go on the drill, but he was fine with just getting nails. I also got a magnetic nail holder that might help avoid hitting his finger. The older guy there gave him some of the bamba (puffed peanut) snack. We then went next door to the fruit and veggie place. We got two boxes of strawberries, and August spotted a cantaloupe so we got that. All quite cheap.

From there it was to VIPizza, where we got three slices of pizza to take home. August wanted to eat there and took some convincing, but he was okay with it. On our walk back we came across a dozen or so mugs that someone was throwing out. He wanted to get some. We ended up with 3: a Praha mug and a flower mug, both of which he chose, and a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves mug from Poland that I liked.

As we walked by the movie theater building he was talking about a.) how big it is and b.) how we only use the grocery store in it. I mentioned we could see a movie there sometime, but then remembered that most of the kids movies are always dubbed. He asked what that meant, so a word of the day. On the way back he sang a really wonderful song about how his cake was going to be yummy, and that it was his birthday. Didn’t manage to get that recorded, really.

We were home at 1:10. Carly showed us the cake, and he added the toppings: the 5 6 and 7 candles, the small sprinkles, the start sprinkles, and then the sprinkles he remembered from “that food party.” It was the container of four different kinds of sprinkles that we had gotten at Ilana’s ‘get rid of your leftovers’ party at the end of last school year.

He let us sing to him (I had lit the candles using the latest lighter that he’s found) and then we ate cake. He was quite happy with it. He quoted a line from Hilo 3: “A wee bit of a nutty, and I like a wee bit of a nutty.” A few times he told her, “Mama, I love the cake you made me.”

He wanted to go to Herzliya Park and catch fish. So we packed up and got going. I read The Witches as we went. He fell asleep right as we got there. We sat in the car and let him sleep for 15 minutes. I carried him to the pond area, and he took a couple minutes of laying on us before he woke up. What did it was me trying to catch fish. I caught two pretty quickly. Carly went and got us cappuccinos. I caught a third fish. We kept hearing frogs talking amongst the bushes. Carly finally spotted one, quite close to us. Carly talked about making disturbances in the water. He asked, “What’s disturbances?” Another word of the day. Carly took over and caught some fish. We were asking if he wanted his hat on. He replied, “I look ridiculous if I have my hat on.” Cary also said something about “chitter chatter” and he liked the phrase.

We left at 4:20. On the way home I read more of The Witches. When I read the line “Laughing their heads off” he said “Hyperbole!” And two more words of the day, ‘gadget’ and ‘carpenter’ as we neared the end.

Soon after we got home we skyped with Chuck and Cherie and opened the presents from them (a tool set, a Shark Attack table game, and three shirts). He modeled the tool belt. Carly then cut up some of the cantaloupe. They watched a video bout cantaloupe. When Carly was concerned that the one we got might to be a good one, she had him practice saying “Better luck next time.” It turned out to be a good one. He talked about the healthy snacks he wanted for his birthday (in addition to the cake the class would be cooking) and he decided on cantaloupe, yellow and red bell pepper (“Like ‘Belle’…from Beauty and the Beast”), strawberries, and banana or zucchini bread (depending on what was ripe).

We ate lasagna for dinner. He had put another one of the juices (sugar waters, as he calls them) from the pizza place in the fridge. I had told him he could have it tomorrow, but when he said he wanted it a minute later he got upset, and spit in my face when I tried to take him upstairs. Carly took him up and gave him a bath. I then went in and we finished reading The Witches. We then finished Hilo 3 and read part of Hilo 4. He also had some Cheerios. Carly took over for a few minutes with him while I got some tea.

I then went in to put him to sleep. We did a fish visualization again. I started to sing to him. He was fine for awhile, but when I started to sing “Puff the Magic Dragon” he requested a different song, as that is the song that Mama always sings. He was acting kind of weird after that. He said a couple times that he was going to Mama. He insisted for awhile that I give him three lollipops, and another time that I give him the sugar water. Twice he got off the bed and curled on the floor when I block his path. I thought he was going to fall asleep there. He climbed back up on the bed though, and he was asleep at 8:45.

Presents 1: