He was up before 6:10, stuffy. He went out, then came back in the bedroom with Carly. He lay on the bed for a few minutes. Requested cream for his nose. Downstairs he watched Julius Jr. When Carly was heading to work he asked why she was going to work if he was staying home from school.
When he was done watching, we looked at the app on his iPad that goes with his watch. We played the turn of the game that he earned with his full day of activity. It involves BB-8, the robot that is on his watch. ‘Droid’ and ‘scavenge’ were words of the day. I went up to take a shower. He came with me and waited. On the wall of the bathroom I found a mosquito and a small skinny crawly thing and caught them both in the bug catcher and he studied those while I took a shower. As we went downstairs he wondered if the bug was poisonous, and talked about how he himself is “pure coison.”
As we left the house to get going, the street sweeper people were in our are and we said good morning to a couple of them. August was taking his time, looking at things on the ground and bugs on the wall. We finally got going at 8:40.
We drove to the Shlomo Group Arena for the robotics competition. He was impressed by the size of the building. We first walked around the teams’ area, seeing some of the robots up close and a lot of their tools. He was quite impressed, but it was all very loud and crowded and overwhelming. We made our way up to the seats, entering at the top. We found seats, and he spent most of the time asking about how many seats there were and whether it was more than a 747, etc. When he wasn’t doing that he was asking me to use Shazam songs that were playing. I think we did four. He watched one of the matches from my lap.
We were there about an hour before he decided he was ready to go. We found the WBAIS booth on our way out and saw the robot. None of the teachers were there though. We went and found a bathroom and looked around some more. August was running back and forth, so we did slo-mo videos of him running.
We paid and drove north to a mall that has a McDonald’s. We got there about 11:20 and it opened at 11:30. We went upstairs and found a pharmacy, and found an electric toothbrush for him. The checker gave him a bunch of stickers. The mall was open to the outside and there were little birds flying in and out. He said, “If I was a bird I’d really really really like being in here.”
We went down to McDonald’s and had fun making our order on the screen. He had a happy meal with chicken nuggets, choosing barbecue sauce to try. He decided on ice cream for dessert, and I got an apple pie. We read some of The 104-Story Treehouse, which just came out, while we waited. We ate, then had to go ask for our desserts.
He decided our next stop was Ganei Yehoshua Park. This is where we went the one time we took the train down to Tel Aviv, and where we started with Chuck and Cherie when we walked down the river to the waterfront.
We got there and he dug in the cracked dried mud for insects. We went to the big playground and climbed around a bit, remembering when he slipped once on the steep stairs. He went on the baby swings, and made up a game where I misheard something he was asking for and told him he couldn’t have it and he was laughing hysterically. Climbed on a small play structure and he requested a story. Specifically, the retelling of Booger Girl and the Lotion Factory. He had to remind me of it. We retold that, then went back to looking for bugs in the dirt.
As we did that I got him to wander over towards where the old play area had been. We confirmed that it had been torn down. He walked across the path to the river side and found some insects there, which soon got switched for a bug he found on some flowers. We came across the small zoo and watched the deer eating. August was startled by a pigeon that got close to us, then started a game first of trying to touch the pigeon (we couldn’t), then simply following it around the park. He did that for a few minutes, then we went over to where the aviary had been. It too is gone.
He decided he was done, but I suggested we go see the lake. He liked the idea of water bugs, so we walked over to it, to where there is a cement walkway along the edge, but no railing. He chanted, “Don’t jump in the water! Definitely a safety hazard!” He found a dry palm leaf and started playing with it. That lasted at least twenty minutes. He swung it around, then we tried it to see if it would float. He was afraid we’d get in trouble for putting it in the lake. Then we were pushing the end to the bottom to feel how deep it was. Then he was pulling it out and making it rain on the ground. Eventually, we set it sailing across the water and got going.
There were more stops for bugs, first in a big hollow stump, then as we smelled some smelly plants, then on some flowers he liked to smell. I noticed some snails in the middle of the flowers and said, “You have to be careful not to suck a snail in.” He gave me the most unimpressed “Oh, Dada” yet.
As we walked back to the car he asked, “If I found a bag of gold that was worth like 5000 dollars…in an old completely broken down abandoned city?…would you let me keep it?” There were more and more scenarios that were increasingly outrageous. He somehow things that if he found tons of money we would let him but anything he wanted. Not that he has much of an idea of what he would buy.
We left the park at 3:15. He fell asleep from 3:30 to 4:05. I drove into Even Yehuda as we had some shopping to do. I carried him to the fruit store. We had to get stuff for his school party tomorrow: he chose a cantaloupe, bell peppers, and strawberries, and we got bananas for banana bread. And a few things Carly requested. We then walked to the car and dropped things off. The old Sushi Ishimoto building is now a little convenience store, leaning towards just snacks. He commented that it could be goof for his reward sheets. We decided to call it ‘Moto’ as there is no sign up, and for some reason the letters ‘Moto’ are still on the building from ‘Sushi Ishimoto’.
We then went over to the new grocery store, Stop! City. He talked about the plastic bag that carried a lot of weight of the fruits and veggies. He said it was “Pretty darn thin. Ha. Like Gramma says.” He learned the phrase ‘pretty darn’ from her. At the grocery store we got hummus and a couple other things. He helped out, and I let him get a vanilla yogurt. Out on the street he saw an SUV and was looking in the wheel well at all the bolts and the springs.
We were home about 5:10. He had his yogurt, tried out his new toothbrush, and then we figured out how to use the top toy from his Happy Meal. He practiced and started to get it pretty well. Carly got home, and we got him lasagna. He spit out a bite, not liking the texture of the meet. He was hyper with Carly but calmed down for Pippi Longstocking. He asked what ‘Burglar’ meant so that was a word of the day.
He helped me with the banana bread, then had a timeout after he said a mean line from Hilo and knocked things on the floor. From there Carly gave him a bath, then made him oatmeal for dinner. While she made it he was pretending to be sick. When I was the doctor and I accidentally gave him cat medicine he turned into a cat. We played different variations of that until the oatmeal was ready.
We read the first story in the Seuss book from the library. I went up to take a shower and they kept reading the book. I put him to bed. He sang a song about a skyscraper he built that touches space. Then it went to the sun. We did a beetle visualization, and he was finally asleep at 9:30.
Little green bug:
Watching the robots:
Watching the competition from my lap:
Seat slo-mo:
Running slo-mo 1:
Running slo-mo 2:
McDonald’s ice cream:
Laughing on the swing:
Trying to touch a pigeon:
Playing follow the pigeon:
Palm leaf 1:
Palm leaf 2:
Tiny ants:
Evermore song:
Trying out the new toothbrush:
Figuring out the top:
