He was up by 6:55. He had me carry him downstairs, but then curled up with the blanket and lay his head on my lap. I was hoping he’d go back to sleep. He hasn’t been getting tons of sleep lately. But the good news was that he didn’t wake up at all during the night again. That’s three nights in a row.
We read some of Last Kids on Earth #2 then played Minecraft. He got upset when I was going to stop plying and do other things, but we talked and then finished our time after. Bit. He had Cheerios and strawberries and we did Brother and Minecraft games. He had a story where Brother got more jaguars in the jungle, then had to come to an agreement with Greena. Sister helped him build a new place for the jaguars, after he had been trying on his own in secret but not making much progress. Then Brother was taking redstone lessons after Sister and Myna build a double rainbow. August made use of “Yadda yadda yadda…”
We next got our words stuff and did some reviewing, then added BL to the mix. He then wanted to watch mythology videos and watched the Ted-Ed series videos on Pandora, Icarus and Daedalus, and Arachne. Mortal was a word of the day.
Gilad then called on Skype as he was finishing the last video. They had scheduled to play Minecraft at 9:30. They played for an hour as planned and Gilad had to go. August’s time was up, but then he got upset with me when I wouldn’t play with him longer.
We had crackers and avocado and pate for lunch. We had talked about making a video/piece of music for Mr. Minke as a thank you. We tried a few ways of coming up with a song, starting with him playing a tune on the piano, then I was trying to capture it for him, learning it from a recording. That wasn’t working too great, so then we settled on me playing the drum while he sang the tune he’s been singing after counting “and a one and a two and a one two three four…” We did it once and it was perfect. Unfortunately, it had been practice and wasn’t recording a video.
We took a little break for more food, I think, and to get him dressed. While my back was turned he then fell while putting on his pants and leaning against the chair. He was a little hurt, and we watched part of the Nutcracker, then he requested another myth so we watched Midas.
Ada then emailed, saying now would be a perfect time to go pick up the set of dining room chairs she had in storage at the school. The upholstery on ours has completely fallen apart, despite them being new chairs when we moved here. So, we didn’t get around to finishing the Minke project.
We ran to school and she wasn’t in her office. Going in, we saw Ms. Anna leaving and talked to her. Turns out she is getting a degree up in Haifa, but works with the preschool in the garden every Friday morning. We looked around for her, but no luck. Along the way he asked, “Do you think the preschoolers are still preschooling?” We decided to hang out in the library, in sight of her door, and I played chess against myself. August requested I explain what was going on. It was going well when Ada showed up. I told him we could get back to it later, but that never happened.
She took us down to the end of the gym building and opened a storage room. August complimented a painting that was in there and she almost made us take one of the big paintings as well. They were quite abstract and August talked about how he liked abstract art. We had also looked at a couple of Ada’s sculptures that she has in her office when she wasn’t there.
We got the chairs out. While we did that, August had spied a bunch of winged ants on the wall. A new thing. When Ada left he asked to take photos, and took photos of the ants. He then took photos as I walked two of the chairs to the car. He got a good photo of me. A security guard helped me get them through the gate.
We drove the chairs home, then drove down to Beit Yehoshua; our other plans for the day were getting a popsicle/coffee and smoked meats down there. We were happy to see the coffee stand place open. They didn’t have the popsicle thing open, but he said there were a couple of flavors in there. August was excited about banana, peanut butter, and chocolate. He got that and I had a cappuccino.
We sat over at one of the bigger tables and read more of The 117-Story Treehouse. We eventually got going, and August talked about being a little cold, and drove up to the pool area and in to the meat place. They had moved the actual booth part inside the covered area now. We got half beef, and a quarter turkey and chicken. Potatoes as well, but only one beet, as that was the only one left. We went outside and August did some photography, then needed a bathroom. We went back inside for that, then got going.
He asked, “What’s a cemetery?” We talked about it, and I asked if he’d like to see one. There is a Jewish cemetery just west of the international school. I first stopped at the produce stand by the gas station on 553, next to Younes, the Arab restaurant. We haven’t actually been there since Holly first gave us a tour. We got yellow corn, broccoli, and strawberries. Then, headed west, we took the road at the sign that says ‘Cemetery’. But it turns into a dirt road right as you get off. I did another loop on the highway and drove around past the school.
We parked and walked around the cemetery for a few minutes. He said, “So there’s skeletons in there?” We talked about other things that people do with their bodies after they die. As we were leaving, I got a message from Carly saying she was packing up. We got in the car and caught her as she was just leaving the school. She didn’t see us, and August told me to honk. She got in and we went to the school and walked back in and got the other two chairs to take home. August showed her the winged ants and took more photos. He had also taken various photos and videos out the car window. We were home after 4:15.
He took a photo of the dog poop on the sidewalk: “I took a photo of the poop so we can always remember that poop…” He smelled the phone screen and said, “It doesn’t smell like poop.” He took more photos inside, then he and I went up the street so I could do recycling and he could take photos. As we were talking about what he could take photos of, he said, “There’s inspiration everywhere!” He took a bunch of photos, then played a bit on the playground. He saw the different sitting and spinning things, which he hasn’t played with in a long time, and said, “Hey! My old friends!” We also ended up talking about time, and he told me, “Dada, time is a physical thing…made out of something like photons.” He had me take various time lapse videos of him on the exercise equipment, and he did a time lapse of me doing funny things.
It got dark and we headed home and had some dinner. He then did painting with Carly. She was going to paint the pinecone photo that he had taken, but said it might look like poop. He told her, “Try your best and it will be okay.” I went for a run as he started watching myths. He watched a Cambodian one and the Icarus one again. I got home as he was getting upset as he wanted to watch another one, and he hit Carly. Carly and I were doing some clean up. It took him a while, but eventually he let me give him a hug. Still took him some time after that.
I went up and took my shower. He ate broccoli, then two bowls of cereal with strawberries. Back downstairs Carly said “Seriously?” to me about something, and I realized that’s where he gets the saying. He was then with Carly on the couch. He was singing some lovely tunes and trying to have her copy notes. He could tell when she’s in tune. She went and took a shower. I read some of the “Augustus Gloop” poem. But then he said he was still hungry. I gave him just a few Cheerios and three strawberries. He requested we listen to “The Cat Came Back”. We listened to it twice and he remembered it was from PKA. We then did Brother games: being jealous of two jaguar twins because he wants a friend like that, and sister jealous of Myna playing with Mumbo Jumbo.
We looked at pages he had marked in the The Earth book. August asked how many cells we have in us and ended up looking at https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-many-cells-are-in-the-human-body He willingly headed up at 8:30. I had suggested we could skip his bath today, as Carly had washed his hair last night and I wanted to get him to bed a little earlier as he seemed tired. Didn’t go as quickly as I had hoped, but he was asleep before 10. We watched some more of the Nutcracker and read some poems, then listened to some Ninja Focus, before he went to sleep.
Singing along to our song:
Cracker eating time lapse:
The view out his car window:
The moving ant:
Spinning:
Playground time lapses:
Painting time lapse:
