He was up by 7:30. Cuddled with Carly, then on his iPad looked up the Rube Goldberg videos, then watched Wild Kratts and Aardvark and Ant, then a couple of BrainPop Jr. videos. He went outside with Carly and hot glued parts of the toner cartridge together. He told her about how he wants a soldering iron. Carly called the hot glue gun ‘precarious’ and that was a word of the day.
We spent a lot of time packing throughout the morning, then Carly and August went over to the Kerns’ house with some plants for them to take care of. Back home, he started making a path across the fake grass with the boards. He had me get 4 more for him from the junk area. They were paths across water with crocodiles in it. One board had nails in it, and we used the hammer to get them out. He wanted me to play with him, but then got distracted with the parts of the toner cartridge, and played in the dirt making a mud stew for quite awhile. He asked for spices, and I got him flour and oatmeal to put in his stew. He wanted the oatmeal ground up, so he used the food processor to cut it smaller.
I made a frozen pizza for lunch. We ate that and I ate some of the leftovers as well. They went outside and I did some work. Back inside, we read more of Amulet #6. We were planning to take the car to school and then walk back. Throughout the day August kept asking how much longer until we leave for Athens. We had originally planned on leaving at 5, but changed it to 4:30. Anyway, August was a little upset about taking the car and walking back. It turned out he was afraid we’d get rained on. We looked at the forecast, full of 0% rain, and was then okay.
As we got ready to go I picked up August’s hat, which had been lying on the floor by the door. There was some slug slime on it. Don’t know if it was the escaped slug, or one that had snuck in through the door. We drove to school and walked home. Along the way August found two Hebrew cookbooks and wanted to take them to write it. He’s been wanting to write in discarded books, so Carly carried them home.
We got home at 2:20.We read more Amulet, and he asked what ‘riveted’ and ‘overheard’ meant. We set the gecko free out in our yard. August had fun doing that. We then finished Amulet #6 and started #7. As we waited for the cab, he wondered “How many cool projects?” had he done with us.
The taxi was there right on time. August sat in the middle and liked seeing the meter and the driver’s phone and called it really comfy. He spotted cell phone towers. We got to the airport and did the usual airport lines. Only hiccup came and we were told that August’s visa had expired last week. That was when his original passport expired. Oops. We could take him out, but then he’ll have to come back in on a tourist visa when we come back to Israel. We got through security and made it to Camden Food Co. just after 6. Got a broccoli quiche and iced tea and two cappuccinos. As we sat there I asked him where he would like to visit next. He thought, and Carly suggested Egypt. He asked, “Are there tornadoes in Egypt?” When she said no, he agreed we could visit there next. Carly gave him challenges, running to different places and back. He did tons more running today and as we got to the food place he was showing off his galloping. Carly gave him challenges to spot words on signs and he spotted words like ‘free’ and ‘coffee’ and a few others.
We walked down to our gate, D9. August looked at a plane and asked what it was. We went through the process of looking at Google Images and comparing and identified it as a Boeing 737-800. I then realized it said as much on the side of the plane. It was a good exercise though. Carly Skyped with Cherie and Chuck and August told them about going to Athens. After that, Carly gave him challenges, they ran around, he went with me to fill the water bottles, they played some I Spy, he played with Codesparks a bit, and we read some of Nick and Tesla #2.
He was anxious to line up for our flight as soon as possible. As we waited in line and started to walk down to the plane he hummed and made music, stopping only to point out his stroller on the way. We sat near the back right of the plane. No one behind or in front of me or behind August. He sat in the window seat and I was in the middle. We discussed takeoff together as it happened—all the sounds and science of it. He watched some Inspector Gadget cartoon, laughing a lot. He got sleepy and we got him a blanket. We had some turbulence. He was asking how fast we were going. He said, “Faster than a peregrine falcon, faster than a cheetah, faster than motorcycles, faster than race cars, faster than bullet trains…faster than the fastest robot ever…” He got a little bottle of water and drank from it, and when done said, “Goodbye, cute little water bottle!”
They brought warm sandwiches for snack. He and I got one corned beef and one egg one to share. He ate a lot of the egg out of that one and part of the other sandwich. He fell asleep at 10:10. Slept through landing, and woke up at 11:15 after we got off the plane. We went through the airport, went to the bathroom, and were outside at 11:40. He said, “It’s not below freezing, but pretty cold.” We got a taxi (54 euros) and he fell back asleep after 12. We got to the hotel just after 12:20.
The room was tiny, and they had funnily put a sort of crib bed up at the end of the bed. We put it out in the hall and called the front desk to tell them. There wasn’t room for our stuff with it in there. We we quite cozy in the bed. August was being hyper for awhile, playing with the lights and TV, but then fell asleep about 1.
His walking path:
His stew 1:
His stew 2:
Bike music:
Releasing the lizard 1:
Releasing the lizard 2:
Running through the airport:
Skyping in the airport:
Walking to the plane:
