I saw them up at 2:45am when I got up to get some Advil as I had a headache. August was watching a video about black holes and Carly was reading. They were asleep when I left at 7:30 to head to Sabeel.
I had gotten a good amount of sleep, but was very disoriented when the alarm went off. Wasn’t tired on the drive, but when I walked in the office I realized I was feeling a bit off. It didn’t help that there were more people than I’d ever seen in the office on a Friday, and I hadn’t had any coffee yet. Luckily, Omar made us Nescafé, and then a bit later one of the women brought around Arabic coffees.
Marie Claire was there. She’s interviewing women connected to Sabeel for her PhD thesis, and is also helping with Kumi and the antisemitism work. So it was the three of us meeting, as Marc was gone picking someone up at the airport. We had a good meeting, then I hung around getting some work done, and helped Omar and one of the interns figure out some medieval historical issues about Umar and the Jews and whether he welcomed them back to Jerusalem or not (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar’s_Assurance?wprov=sfti1)
I was going to leave, but stayed when Omar said he was going out to get lunch. He came back and they did a big office lunch. There was a main dish, then yogurt and a salad and bread and small figs.
While I was gone August started waking up around 10. He had fallen asleep about 3am. Carly did a lot of yard work. August played around on the slide and cut the buds off the sides of the tree like Shmuel had told him to do. She sent me a photo of him using rulers and markers.
I left there and was on track to get home at 3:30, but there were two accidents on 4. One involved a semi and something that leaked or spilled and a fire truck was spraying down the roadway.
I got home about 3:45. August asked who was at the door. He then shower me his “materials” for a mosquito trap. He found some ants on the floor, and we took the figs that were overripe and bowl outside And it became an ant trap.
We finally headed to the pool. Carly talked to the guards on the way in. She had to be pushy about it, as they’d just keep checking the one drawer where the keys are supposed to be and saying “It’s not my fault.” She finally talked to the head of security on the phone, and the guys there finally looked through other drawers and found the keys. They had been taken out of the envelope.
August and I headed ahead to the pool when it was clear that was going to take a while. I talked to Mandy, who was there with Jill and Grace. We got in the pool and stayed until the lifeguard asked us to get out at 5:50. August had asked about ‘stratosphere’ earlier and also asked what ‘more than likely’ means. He taught Carly the game where you shoot the kick board out of the water and try to get it through or over the railing.
Headed home in the car he was asking for dessert and we suggested a mango lassi instead. He was excited by that and said “I can taste it!” He randomly asked “Who’s the god of time?” I told him Chronos.
At home he did more alone time, to add to the 7 minutes he did earlier. We’re trying having him earn more iPad time through independent play time. I let Shmuel know we are back and he called and I talked to him. He is renovating the back yard to make it appealing to renters. Carly made the lassi.
August repeated the line “Petunia, darling.” Not sure where he got that, but he’s said it several times. He ate some frozen strawberries, then finished making his “safety hotel” that had lasers to protect it. Earlier it had been a “global hotel” with a ball “representing” a globe.
He earned enough time to watch an episode of Home, then we read Bodie the Troll and had peanut butter and crackers and broccoli for dinner. Carly had done more work outside and taken a shower. He had also asked what ‘coupon’ and ‘scholarship’ after he heard the girls in the pool talking about scholarships for some reason while they played volleyball in the pool.
Cherie and Chuck had done a FaceTime call for a few minutes while they were eating deep dish pizza. August wants deep dish pizza now. We went upstairs and August played in the sink. He invented a “poop spinner waterwheel” that he wanted to show Oma, so I took a video. He then made a “Phenomenon 3000” by putting two straws in the faucet and turning it on. He said it made air from the water.
On the toilet he wondered where the toilet paper stand is. It has been in his room since he decorated it. He wants it back in the bathroom, so asked “Well can we negatively decorate it sometime?”
He took a shower bath, and asked “What’s ‘dinosaur diction’?” Don’t know what he meant by that. He played around with the settings on the shower nozzle, then had me turn up the pressure more than he’s had it before: “Even a little higher…Yeah, that’s the stuff!” He sang “Now I’m really getting the pressure…turned off, turned off…”
After his bath he really wanted to do bubbles, so we blew bubbles upstairs. He spilled some of the bubble mixture in the office so I cleaned it up.
Downstairs I read a couple more chapters of Bodie Troll and he had a few crackers and peanut butter. When I finished chapter seven we sat on the couch for a couple minutes and he kind of turned his head towards me and rested a bit. He then turned the other way and said “Mama” and crawled in her lap. He fell asleep a minute later, about 10:45. That was a surprise. I went up and took a shower, and she carried him up to bed.
Mosquito trap materials:
The global hotel:
The kick board game with mama:
Safety hotel:
Poop spinner slo-mo:
Poop spinner water wheel:
