Carly got him up around 8. He had some breakfast and played some of his Minecraft time, but not all of it, as we got going. We left about 8:45. We were headed up to the rocky beach with the pools up north where we had gone last week. This time, Tessa and family were meeting us there.
In the car we read the My Little Pony: Friends Forever story about Rarity and Babs and watched the episode where Rainbow Dash gets a pet. We know now the story about how she gets a turtle named Tank that has a helicopter attached to his back so he can fly.
We stopped at the gas station by the beach and they went in to the bathroom. I remembered that August had wanted a stick to push himself around in the water. I found the perfect stick off in the bushes. He was very happy about it.
We parked before 11. As we got out he discussed the sculpture. He wasn’t too impressed with it, comparing it to how he used to just do nonsense rhythms while drumming, but now he’s doing actual rhythms. I think what he was saying is that he used to just do totally abstract art, but now he does art that is more meaningful. I asked if it makes more sense, and he said, “Kind of do and kind of not.” He was then being silly, asking, “where is Gilad? Where is Eve? Isn’t Omri’s supposed to be in the boat on the sea? Why can’t I see the titanic?”
We sat in the shade of the sculpture and ate our sandwiches. Well, Carly and I did. August refused to eat, which wasn’t a good sign. We headed down to the beach, and that lasted about a minute. He slipped and caught himself with his hand. He tried to shake it off, but it was kind of raw, and he lost it. He wanted to go to the car and leave. We took him up in the shade and he wasn’t recovering. He wasn’t being logical, like repeatedly telling Carly to get away from him, but he was on her lap.
Tessa and Ofir and the kids showed up. They headed down to the beach. August wasn’t doing any better, so Carly took him and sat in the car. He ate some popcorn and calmed down and was talking. They finally came back to the beach. Had a good 45 minutes or so wading around and exploring. Carly got to do some floating. I very briefly talked to Tessa about her classes. Tessa mentioned something about mermaids hiding in seaweed. August then seemingly made it his mission to gather different kinds of seaweed to prove to Tessa that mermaids don’t exist.
He showed her some, but then she headed off with Nava. Ofir and Liam were off floating. I was with August for 15 minutes or so while we gathered seaweed and found snails. Carly came back and August asked her to go get Tessa and Nava, who were now out on the sea side of all the rocks. Carly went, but didn’t come back. August started asking why they weren’t coming back, and eventually started to worry about it and wouldn’t wait anymore, and started to make his way out.
It turned out that what had happened was Nava had pooped, and Tessa was washing it out in the water. I guess she was washing it out in the sea side so it wouldn’t be in the calmer pools. But they were pretty far out so I’m not sure. Anyway, Carly was helping watch Nava through all this, so couldn’t leave.
August had completely lost it by the time we made it out there and headed back in. He blamed Nava for it all, so we worked our way back in and grabbed our stuff and headed for the car. Ofir and I had a short funny conversation about the deep conversation we’d had and how it had really changed our deepest beliefs.
Neither August nor I ended up doing any floating. We left around 1:30, stopping at the gas station to all use the bathroom. I drove home, taking a route that headed east of Haifa to get home. We let August watch My Little Pony when he started to fall asleep. He watched two more episodes. We got here around 3.
I made coffee, then we played a Brother game where he found animals in Minecraft. There was a hybrid animal. He pointed to his body, explaining: “This is the wolf part, this is the donkey part, and this is ocelot feet.” The animals kept hurting Brother.
Carly made salad, and I got to see him eat it this time. He then remembered the Green Planet game, so I let him check on that and play it for a few minutes.
August and I then went out for a ride on my bike. This time we went even further, going close to 2 miles. I measured it this time, and it was close to 1.5 miles by the time we got back to the house. But then he was asking how the gears worked and we walked it, changing the gears so he could see, and then he wanted to ride some more, so we went out for a few more minutes. When we got back we saw Adam and he helped me lift the bike into the yard. They were getting ready to go, then David and all the kids came over because they wanted to see the bike.
Carly wasn’t downstairs, so we called her on the phone. August did the calling, and he said she was upstairs in the bedroom. He asked her to come down. We then let him watch a StoryBots episode about music and I helped Carly brainstorm for work.
They then did his evening time on Minecraft and I went up to work. He ate a bunch of food, one item at a time: salad, sweet potato raviolis, persimmon, a fried egg. They were playing with the electronics kit when I came down. I then read My Little Pony: Friends Forever stories to him: Rainbow Dash and Spitfire, Luna and Spike, and Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor. We went upstairs and played a Brother game where Bar makes an interstellar space boom. Then there was craziness with Brother’s tigers.
Carly took over and did his bath, including hair washing. At one point he said he’d do something “But only if you apologize for being on Tessa’s side.” There was a lot of drama, but he didn’t really get upset. I also heard him ask, “Who has the most control in this family?”
Before going to bed he asked to know more about Sacajawea (like what happened to her after the expedition—they had watched a Ted Ed video about her) and waste treatment plants. And he asked about floodlights and what a supernova looks like. I said we could look them up tomorrow. They had also learned about pomegranates earlier, as well as genetics and Mendel and his peas. And pointing to the mandala, he asked, “And also, HOW DID OMA DO THAT??”
I left them at 9:35 and went for a run.
Playing at the rocky pools:
Playing on the rocks:
Eating salad:
Working on the balance bike:
Brother game with Sonic Rainbooms:
