He was up at 7:45. We had a good first night. He had immediately closed his eyes and fallen asleep when Carly was done reading. Although Carly was awoken in the middle of the night by an alarm that he had turned on on his iPad. He watched a couple of the machines videos, then Berenstain Bears. I’d finished my journaling and put in some work before they got up.
He watched some things, mainly Berenstain Bears, then was outside with Carly. He found Avo, a new game I had put on his iPad, and started that. I went and took a shower. They finished the free portion of it as I got out, and he got upset when I said we could buy the rest later. After he calmed down he was playing with the circuit set and then remote controlled me with the TV remote. I had made scrambled eggs for breakfast and he didn’t eat much then. Now ate a couple slices of apple after I peeled it. I said it was getting late. He said it wasn’t. I meant for morning, “If you catch my drift.” He replied, flatly, “No, I didn’t.”
Carly and I finally did travel notices for our credit cards, and we got walking at 10:50. As we walked to the station, he and Carly were talking about the hills and the choppy sidewalks. Carly used the word ‘topography’. A word of the day. He said he liked the shapes of the cars in Israel better than here, despite liking all the cute cute cars. He tried sucking on Carly’s backpack strap but she wouldn’t let him. Yesterday, she had told him to stop doing that when he started doing it to mine. I told her she was about four years too late, as he’s always been doing that.
We took the subway, much emptier, up two stops and got off by the parliament building and walked up to the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology. He did a lot of walking today and was checking his step counts a few times.
The museum was pretty cool, although the written descriptions could use a lot of work. We first went up to the musical instruments part. Spent some time in the room where you can play the games, making things out of the shapes. August and I went back in and saw the first keyboard instrument.
We then went down to the technologies portion. August had fun with the Archimedes screw and the fire truck. A guy came and demonstrated the crossbow machine. Carly led us downstairs to the big model of a ship. That was one step too creepy for August, as it was kind of dark down there, and he turned around and headed back upstairs without us. We had also gotten a demonstration of the ‘miracle’ temple doors, that open because of a fire. I had read about that one a day before in the book from my parents. August now showed it to Carly. The woman also showed us the door bell that makes bird sounds, and August liked activating that one by moving the door.
He paused for a snack, then we looked at the other end. We used the pulley thing quite a bit, but another woman came along, and wasn’t fond of him pulling the rope end. I’m not sure why. That kind of ruined it for him. We went upstairs the the astronomy section. Played with a few things there, including a mirror that makes noise when you raise or lower it. One last demonstration, of a fountain, then we headed out. At the entrance though they said we could get a coin if we post a review on TripAdvisor. So I did that and August got the coin.
We left the museum at 12:50. He was unhappy because it looked like it might rain. Carly got him to put on his rain coat and he kept the hood up the entire time. We walked north a couple blocks to a restaurant, but it was too fancy. Contemplated a cafeteria-like place, but headed back south and found a shop called Yoleni’s that also had a restaurant. A good find. We ordered two gyros, one chicken and one with egg, and the tzaziki with bread. August made a joke, I think, calling it “Drizzlyland”.
We played Polytopia until the food came. August loved it. Oil dripped out of the bottom of the piece he was eating and he said, “I like how it’s filtering out the oil.” Then, “This is too good!” And then, “Like the goodest healthy thing I’ve ever had.” In his entire life. Then to Carly: “Actually, it’s not. I think some of your food is better.”
We played more Polytopia, then left at 2:20. As we walked south to the National Gardens, he pointed at a cigar a guy was holding and asked what it was. The guy said, “a cigar.” He was then asking me about the difference between cigars and cigarettes.
Our walk through the gardens was pretty quick. Outside of wanting to pick an orange for a minute he wasn’t interested in stopping and we made our way quickly south. We stopped to look at turtles in one spot for a minute, then for a couple minutes in another spot. Near the Temple of Olympian Zeus he examined some flapping bird toys hanging from a tree, then hurried us along.
It started to rain as we were literally five or six minutes from our place. He kept requesting a taxi, but did quite well with the rain. We watched from a dry spot, then moved a bit further. Then more rain. We were now right across from the Lostre Cafe as it started to hail. I carried him across the street and Carly covered him with the umbrella. We got in just as it started to get bad. Thunder and lightning and really heavy hail for ten minutes or so. We watched as the employees ran out in it to bring in the cushions from outside. Carly and I shared a cappuccino and August got a chocolate ice cream. August kept going to the door and reaching out and getting hail stones. He first tried putting them in our waters, then made a mixture in his empty ice cream cup. He said, “When it hails like his I call I marathon one.” There was a song playing that Carly recognized and August liked. It was “Rip tide” by Vance Joy.
The rain stopped and we hurried home in a break. Got here at 4:20, just in time as it started raining again. We bought the rest of Avo and he played a lot of that. I went and rested, then worked. Carly planned and booked our ferry trip tomorrow. And we listened to the new album of ambient works by Moby.
It was raining and we were hungry, so I braved the rain and walked down to Pizza Fan. I explored a little on the way and found a grocery. I bought a roll of scotch tape, which August has been wanting. It was pouring now, and the streets were turning to rivers. I had to go partway down a block to cross the street to the pizza place. There, I ordered two sub-shaped pizza things, a salad for Carly, and tomato garlic bread. It was really bad on the way back, and I had to duck under branches in tight sidewalks to avoid the rivers. Had to go through a river once and ended up with a wet right foot.
While I was gone they read books, drew machines, and did circuits. I got back after 7:30. We ate. It was all very good. Judging countries by their pizza franchises puts it above Korea and Israel. He stole Carly’s water bottle and poured it in his.
He basically finished Avo, and experimented with his circuit set. Carly took him to his bath. While they were talking before it he said “What is the what?” A Carly phrase. I took him in to bed. I read the first two stories, about Zeus and Hera, to him from a Bernard Evslin book, then we did a visualization of an ant riding a paper boat down a gutter and sewer, ending at a sea, in a rain storm. He did a lot of tossing and turning and fell asleep by 9:55.
I watched coverage of the Notre Dame fire, too much, before heading to bed.
Ancient Technology museum 1:
Ancient Technology museum 2:
Ancient Technology museum 3:
Ancient Technology museum 4:
Ancient Technology museum 5:
Fake birds:
Screech noise:
Watching the hail:
Watching from the coffee shop:
Hyper before a bath:
