He woke up at 7:35. He went and cuddled with Carly outside for several minutes. We finished the poems in I’m Just No Good at Rhyming, then watched episode 12 of My Little Pony. Wallow was a word of the day. He played some Minecraft, then we were getting ready to leave on an adventure to up north. He ate oatmeal and mango, and kept reciting and riffing on lines from “The poem that’s called the door.” So I read that whole series of four poems to him again. He found his U.S. coins and really wanted to buy something from Carly, so she sold him a piece of the honey candy.
We were driving by driving by 9:50. Out of nowhere he asked, “Remember how the sky was all grey in Korea?” I asked what “Children’s Grand Park” brought to mind. He said, “that bridge with the take gardens…carrots.” He’s talking about the inside bridge with a play garden area. He only played with it once or twice. Really interesting that that that would be the thing that he remembers. I asked what else he remembers of Korea, and he said, “Remember that time we went to the park and there were all those balloons or flags up? Something special…” I later realized he probably meant the buddhist lanterns. He talked about wanting another Dada-Zinnie adventure.
He also talked about how he has a power to block out sound: “like if we’re in a noisy coffee shop.” He uses it on us too. We read Bone, Volume 4. He also made shapes with his hands and said, “I just found art with my fingers.” We watched one episode of My Little Pony that I had downloaded for the trip.
We parked and walked up to the entrance of Rosh Hanikra. Carly has been here twice with her school groups. It is cable car down to the old railroad line that used to cross into Lebanon. There is a series of tunnels you can walk through in the grottos on the coast, and also two segments of train tunnel you can walk through, before it basically ends in a wall of concrete towards the Lebanese border.
As we walked up and waited in line, I pointed out one girl with a Rainbow Dash toy, and August spotted a girl with a My Little Ponies dress. As we looked out over the sea he said, “Off in the distance it looks like the edge of the world.” There was a covered waiting area where he enjoyed the fans and had some snack. Right before taking the shortest cable car in the world down, he sang a song based on the “The Poem Called the Door,” repeating “And his father before…” At some point he was talking about Minecraft, and talking about what things are realistic and which aren’t. I talked about how you can’t actually make a sword out of glass/obsidian. He said, “Technically it’s possible…” But it would just break easily. Nice use of ‘technically’.
He really liked the tunnels, but then was ready to head home. He had a peanut butter and honey sandwich, and liked that. But he also tried Carly’s hummus and cucumber and carrot sandwich and really liked it, and also the bread, which he had told me he didn’t like before.
We walked though the train tunnels and saw where the theater is. We then took the cable car back up.
We walked out and got going. August was very negative about going to a beach, and reluctant to go to a coffee shop, although he was talked into that. We drove to one place but it was closed. August played in the toy area outside, jumping in a little trampoline.
We then drove a bit further south and found an open Aroma coffee. It took some time to park, and August started to get really frustrated. Carly found a spot right close though, and we went in. We ordered an Israeli breakfast and August got a sweet cheese pastry. Carly and I shared a cappuccino. I read My Little Pony to him. There were new characters, and August asked me, “How do you make up voices?” Our food came, and of his pastry he said, “I’m freaking out; it’s so good.”
Carly had shown him photos of the beach, and we convinced him to at least see it. His opinion really changed once we got there. As we started to find treasures and he waded around he said, “Amazing, mama. This is the best beach I’ve ever been to.” We found crabs, shells, little fish, and hair ball things. He slipped on the rocks once and almost fell in. He handled it well, and asked for his swimsuit.
I went up and changed and got his swimsuit. He changed, and slipped on the rocks three more times, and was okay with it. Carly went up and changed, then we worked our way around the sculpture area and to the right.
As we were all floating, he asked for his vest and I went and got it. He then wanted a stick to push himself around with. I looked for one, then went up to the car when he was convinced there was one in the car. There were only the flimsy unicorn horn sticks from the other day. When he needed to go to the bathroom I took him up by the bushes.
We left after 5. In the car he told us, “You’re the toughest parents I’ve ever met…I learned that from timeouts…learned good things…” Carly looked for a bathroom at a beach area but it looked like you had to pay to go in. As she drove out of the parking lot, I saw a car stop in front of another car and a guy jump out and jump on the hood of another car.
We read more My Little Pony (the FIENDship is Magic series) and finished reading Bone Volume 4 before it got to dark. He watched a Brainchild I had downloaded, then a Home to make sure he stayed awake until we got home.
At home he FaceTimed withVivian and Colin. We then played Minecraft. Carly got him raviolis and meatballs for breakfast. We read some of The 117-Story Treehouse. We ate an apple and watched a couple videos of how ant colonies battle each other. I took him upstairs and I did his bath. He told Carly that “I’m a digital formation” and everyone is. And he said he had set a new world record for calculating pi. I left them at 9:45 and went for a run.
Sharpening the tile:
And your father before – song:
In the tunnels 1:
In the tunnels 2:
Random trampoline:
At the sea:
Wading in the sea:
Floating in the sea:
