I got him back to sleep at 6, but he was back awake at 6:35. I came up and sat next to him as he lay on the couch and almost fell back to sleep. It was about 15 minutes before he pointed that he wanted to go downstairs. I carried him down and he spent a few more minutes curled up on that couch. We then read a lot ofMonster’s Beware, then we each had one of the coconut balls. He played PBS Science for a little while, then needed to go to the bathroom. Afterwards, he told me “Here’s something I can do with the little portals I can make: I can clean the floor. And you know where I teleport the dust? 400 million years in the past!”
We talked about the cent and dollar signs for a minute and downloaded a Google Map on his phone so he could use GPS while we were up in Haifa. He played a little Dragonbox Little Numbers and I got us breakfast and packed to go.
We drove down and parked in our spot and caught the 9:25 train north. We readMonster’s Beware. August asked “What’s a diplomatic breakthrough?” That was a good phrase of the day. We played Polytopia, and transferred trains in Binyamina. At one point he asked me, “Do you know what migrating for humans is? Traveling on planes for the summer.”
We got off at Haifa Central Station, and walked west, stopping right at 11, as it opened at a pizza place called Donatello. We ordered a small pizza, with corn on all of it and sweet potato on half. We also got a grape juice. We had the full indoor seating area to ourself, and we read moreMonster’s Beware. August didn’t eat a whole lot—I don’t think he was really all that hungry, and the pizza wasn’t as good as VIPizza. So we ended up with half a small pizza in a box. I carried it with me for part of the way, as we continued west to the train museum. But eventually I folded up part of the box and made it fit in the backpack. It made it all the way home remarkably intact.
It was an interesting neighborhood to walk through, part old Haifa and part port area. And not crowded like the rest of downtown. There were a couple of neglected Arab cemeteries along the way.
We got to the Israel Railway Museum, which involves going through security, then walking over a big bridge. It turns out the this area was the original Haifa East Station, sadly not used now. Later, we saw the monument erected outside the station when it was built. When we got to the museum we were told it was technically closed today (not clear why), but they let people walk around anyway. And for free. All that was missing was, it seemed, that they didn’t have a couple of videos playing.
It was an interesting museum (the last railway museum I went to was, I think, in York, and there was also the museum up in B.C.—too late to find one in Korea), and there was a lot about how the trains were used in the wars, and how they and the tracks were targets for both Jewish and Arab forces under the Mandate. August really got into telling me how old the different trains old, how much they weighed, how fast they were, etc.—all incredibly exaggerated, of course. He was a little nervous in places, either afraid of going in some of the the darker cars, or unsure if we were allowed to go in them (he’s always bothered when I might be going somewhere we might not be able to go).
August also told me all about how one of the older engines shot bombs, etc. There was, as I said, a lot about their use in war, so he was processing some of that. We had gone out the back of the big building, then back through the building, then looked at the things outside on the front side of the building. My favorite car was the wooden passenger car inside, with wooden benches, etc.
At some point he was x-raying my bones for some reason, and told me that the color he uses for his x-ray is “Tiger red…ultrared.”
We went back over the bridge, and headed to the last area, an indoor hall. August saw the sign pointing the other way to the exit though, and started to get upset when I wanted to go in the last building. I tried to convince him we could just go in for a minute and sit, as it was nice and air conditioned (nothing else he been), but he wouldn’t go for it. So we walked back towards the other train station, seeing the second cemetery along the way.
About halfway we found a nice Korea-style coffee shop called Butterfly Caffe. I say Korea-style, because almost all of them here are actually full cafes, with kitchens, and are always crowded. Not many reasonably-priced, coffee and snack places with comfortable seating and plenty of space. So we got two small brownies and I got a cappuccino. August played Polytopia, and I read Colin Meloy’s Wildwood (which I’ve been wanting to read, and was downloaded on August’s iPad, since he was using my phone). Eventually he got up and was dancing to the music playing in the coffee shop, and played a piano in the corner.
We left around 2:15. He told me, “Dada. Did you know I can drink water and shoot it out my bottom? Or my head?”
We got to the station, bought tickets, and hopped the first train. We took the slow route, as that train stopped in Atlit. We had about 20 minutes to wait and played Polytopia until the train to Binyamina came. We stood, looking out the door on that train. Then had another few minutes to play until our final train. We played Math Tango and he read a Bob Book,Play Ball.
Carly called and asked us to stop at Younes to pick up stuff for dinner. He was falling asleep as we got there, and I held him as I went in and ordered. I had to set him down to open the door to the car, and he leaned against Skoda Mama with his eyes closed.
He fell asleep right away, then it took longer getting home, as I couldn’t get across the the lanes to make the left I needed. We were finally home about 5.
He cuddled with her, and Carly and I ate dinner. He was taking photos with Carly’s phone, and setting alarms, and didn’t want to give it up and had a meltdown. It was kind of a rough evening. He came back down and they did story problems for a long time as he ate dinner, eating all of his pizza and carrots, and checking answers on his calculator. I gave him a couple as well. But he hit me when I said no to iPad, and she took him upstairs for awhile.
He came back down and she took a shower. He pretended to paint my face with the watercolor set. I wanted a tiger, and was getting upset when he painted me as other things (tomato, etc.) We went upstairs and did a Brother game, where he gets grounded by Sister after accidentally hurting the tiger when it squishes his origami. He almost had a meltdown, or had a bit of one, after he threw a pen at me after I said not to, and slammed the door after I said it needed to stay open. I think he just needed a little crying time, as it went well after that. We did a long game of real life Polytopia of sorts, where I was a giant that wasn’t too smart and accidentally was destroying everything on my own team. August was then introducing the idea of child soldiers, and I was other soldiers trying to get him to go home. He had Breaker, the sword fromMonster’s Beware, and was basically acting out Claudette, who wants to be a famous warrior bashing monsters, etc.
I got him in the bathroom and playing in the sink, and he ended up washing himself with soap bubbles from the sink, including his hair. I think it was the soapiest and wettest he’s ever been. He called it his shaving cream as he put bubbles on his head. That took a long time, then I helped him rinse off and we dried his hair. Sadly, he slipped and fell in the bathroom when he ran back in to show Carly how he had lifted up his feet, one at a time, to rinse them in the sink.
He asked me to put him to sleep, but I told him I’d just spent two hours with him and that Carly was going to tell him about the time that aliens invaded Centralia High School. He said that never happened…because the only aliens live in other galaxies. I was able to leave them about 9:10.
Railroad museum:
Explaining the trains 1:
Explaining the trains 2:
Dancing in the coffee shop:
Story problems:
Washing his hair 1:
Washing his hair 2:
