Tuesday, January 14: New park in Ra’anana with Gilad

I started waking up at 7:30. So much for that idea. I was finally able to get him out of bed at 8 and we headed downstairs. He lay on the couch and I covered him with the blanket, but told him he couldn’t go back to sleep. It took a couple encouragements to get him up and play Minecraft. When he sat up the first thing he said to me was, “Think I had a dream that I seriously had to go to the dentist for no reason.” And it was funny because he had just gone.

We basically had time to play Minecraft and have a quick breakfast, then we were on the road to Ra’anana, where we were meeting Gilad and Lauren at a park that was new to us. We were shooting for 9:30. I told them 9:40 before we left, and got to the park at 9:37, but then our parking adventure, filled with one-way streets, dead ends, garbage trucks, and delivery trucks began. Finally, after almost giving up, a car pulled out of a spot right near the park and we parked. On the drive down we had listened to Circle Round. One new story, where fleece was a word of the day, and then a second one, which he’d already heard, as I tried to park.

We walked into the park and found them. They played around for a few minutes and I went back to the car to get his bike. He ended up riding it a few feet in the park. We had also brought the keyboard, and the two of them played music for a while. Lauren was nervous that it was against the rules, as the signs in the park apparently said something about no electronic music devices during the day. Pretty sure they were referring to boomboxes, etc. and not the keyboard, which isn’t loud. But they didn’t play for too long, and there was a school out at recess at the time making much more noise.

We had also brought the binoculars, and August used them to “spy” on the people down at the lower playground. Eventually we headed down there (August not riding his bike) and played. Went on swings, and they played the airplane again. August was doing some good climbing across a horizontal ladder part. I also realized that the big tree near us was full of parakeet nests and we could see them working on the nest, using the binoculars. August was then putting Gilad in jail under a structure, and Lauren was helping to catch him.

They had to get going, and August and I kept playing for a while. We did a Bar and Sister game with them coming up with crazy ways to keep Baby Sister away from her diary. We then did a little Simple Rockets on the iPad.

We were getting hungry, so walked the block up to the main street (we were close to Gabi’s office). We were going to get pizza, and there were a few places to choose from, but when I spotted that the “Pizza and Ice Cream” place was closed August said he had to have ice cream. We were on a corner by a bakery place, which I had also considered, and decided to go there so we could get a bakery treat with lunch. But then, instead of having a sit down lunch, which would have ended up being much more expensive, we just went to the bakery part and got several sweet and savory things. And there was a pizza-like thing with peppers and onions that I got, and he had a za’atar bread. As we were making choices, he said that something would be “Scrumptious” and pointed out himself that it was first time he’s used that word.

We walked outside and to a little park next to it, and sat on a neck and ate. We then headed back to the car. As we walked he said he had a tune that he wanted to use for a new composition for Mr. Minke. We did a video so we could capture his idea.

He used my phone to take videos in the car as we headed home. As we got in the house he wanted to do his iPad time first, before doing the alone time. I was putting stuff down and just said we needed to follow the rules. Suddenly, he threw his shoes at me. I went upstairs to the bedroom. After a few minutes he came up and apologized and we cuddled/took a nap together for a while, then called a do-over (another word of the day).

He did his alone time, playing “Just a Little Love” in every key he could figure out. We did Greek mythology in Minecraft, which ended when he made a witch that killed me. I made a strawberry smoothie, then we watched a video of Benge, the synthesizer musician, demonstrating his synths, then we played with a couple of new synthesizer apps. We did a little dancing time, then had some toast.

We next did phonics time, watching the videos and making lists for TCH and CH. He watched the Kurzgesagt video on rogue planets, then we read in Rivet. We each read one, then shared the reading of Eat Your Broccoli, then watched Kurzgesagt’s “Three ways to destroy the universe” before watching a Marble Machine X video. We haven’t watched those in months, so have several to catch up on. Carly got home as we were watching it.

That was that, and he ended up making a bed in the kitchen out of cushions and blankets. He was a cat. Carly made him a salad. He then had Mac and cheese. He kept wanting us to act out arguments. We play acted some, then he told us he was putting them on his website as study material for arguments. Carly slipped and said she had “shut me down” on something. August caught it and said, “Mama, tell me how to shut him down. Please.”

He played piano, doing “straightforward” versions of “Always” and his “Creepy” song. That is, he was playing the notes, but changing them all to eighth notes, which made them sound more like a march. I was impressed that he could do that without messing himself up.

He was then playing new stuff. And Carly was asking him questions about how he knew what scale sounded good. He said, “Here’s a chord arpeggio,” meaning a progression, and played it for her. He was playing melodica as I left for a run.

I came back. They were reading on the couch. I went up and took a shower and when I came back down he was watching the Kurzgesagt video on the history of life and eating soup. He then had some cereal. I got him to do a little reading to me in Rivet, then we watched the start of the Body documentary that he likes on Curiosity Stream.

I got him upstairs so that Carly could give him his bath. Cassie called with with Colin. August wanted to show them his purple cape so I brought the cape and Cheerios up. He was then showing them how he could roll on the couch/bed. When he was talking to Carly he was pronouncing some word that ended -sts (like fists) and said it had two Ss in it. He told her, “Believe it or not, the brain doesn’t control blood pressure. The kidney does.” He was telling her other facts, like fat having signaling molecules. Etc.

I made some joke about eating tape, and he said, “Tape doesn’t have a lot of nutrients.” We were in bed at 9. We listened to “The Lute Player” on Circle Round. When I introduced him to a new album I thought we could listen to called Dissonance he let out an “Oooh.” I think we ended up listening to Benge though. Before he went to sleep he asked about the World Wars, asking, “How much destruction did they do?” I said we could look it up at another time. He was asleep around 10.

Song before we leave: