Category: Daily

Carly woke him up before she left. He had oatmeal and watched Smurfs. He was okay with stopping a Christmas episode in the middle when we got going. We were walking at 7:32. Very nice. As we walked by the retirement home we saw a garbage truck going in the parking lot and he asked why. He then asked what it is called a ‘retirement home’ when it is so big. I think we decided ‘retirement condos’ was better. He also asked again why people live there.

I dropped him off at school without a problem. But apparently right after I left he had his first problem: He wanted to bring scissors to morning meeting and got upset when Marion said he couldn’t. Took him a long time in the atelier to calm down after he had pulled some leaves off of plants.

I rode home and worked, then drove back in hopes of going to Max, as August wanted to get an egg timer as his reward if he had a good day. I was early, about 1:50. As I walked in, Marion said “Good”. Which I thought meant they’d had a good day. But then I realized August was with Andrea. Her “good” had meant good that I was there. August had come in from playground time for rest time and Andrea could tell something was wrong. She thinks he had an issue with a PKB kid, but we never knew for certain and August didn’t remember. August told me he was pulling a table over his mat for his home for rest time. Rather unfortunate, as it sounds like he was trying to make a calm space. But it was making noise, and Andrea stopped him from moving it. He tore a couple small papers that had been on a wall, and a random doily. I think he’d just been sitting with Andrea since then. I took him out and we sat on the bench. The other kids had gone out to the playground, so we had some time.

We went back in and used an annoying roll of tape to tape the pieces back together and hang them back up. The other kids came back and we all went to library time.

The good news was that there were three other parents today (Eve’s dad, Simone’s mom, and Reia’s mom). The bad news was that for library tech week Ilana had changed things up. She had them sit on the floor outside the entrance and showed them the art pieces made out of printer parts (the inspiration for August collecting the pieces for Eve’s mom). She called them up 4 at a time, but of course all of the kids jump up. So I took over directing groups of kids.

Got through that, then inside she showed them an iPad app that points at a special shirt on a mannequin and shows you anatomy. Of course, only a couple kids could see at once, and so they were pushing and shoving. Candy started shoving to get in, so I had to stop her. She resisted until Reia’s mom then took her for me. And of course there were all sorts of other displays by the high school students showing anatomy, but Ilana told the kids not to touch those. Which is what all the kids that couldn’t see wanted to do. Funny moment though, as Leonard, in particular, kept trying to look inside the mannequin, not understanding that the pictures were just from the iPad. So she had to let them all look inside to see that there wasn’t a beating heart in the mannequin.

Finally, we got back to the kid book room. There, they had a few minutes to make paper airplanes or play with the straw builders. August ran straight to those and was building. When it came time to check out books, August wasn’t interested and went without a book today.

We went back to the classroom. Hector’s mom was talking to Andrea, and August went over to apologize to Andrea. He also, confusing both of us, told her, “Mama has two baby sisters.” When we asked for clarification he said they were actually babies, and they were really small and he could hold them and put them in baskets like one that was next to them.

Anyway, he apologized, and we went outside. He gave me a hug at one point, and I asked if he hugged his teachers like that. He replied, indignant, “Are you kidding me? After what they two have done to me?”

He showed me where the kids earlier had been finding bugs under pieces of wood. No insects now, so we wandered around with his bug catcher looking for a bug. We walked the little foot path, and I put the cup over a small moth in the grass on the other side. I had to go around to the other side of the fence to actually catch it. August didn’t know what I was doing and picked up the cup and lost the moth.

We looked for a few more minutes, wandering around the elementary school, but with no luck. So we headed over to the nature reserve. There, he didn’t see caterpillars at first. He then found them: “They’re hiding in the shade…Now I understand.” We wandered around the nature reserve. He said, “I got the hang of it.”

We met Carly by the middle school a little before 4:30. While we waited for her to change he picked up more caterpillars from the stairs of the outdoor stage. Had quite a few by now. We walked out. Dudley saw him at the gate, and talked to him about the caterpillars. As we walked to the car August talked about his delivery trucks delivering electronic equipment to other people. It reminded me of when I went to the UW and lived on 15th, and a guy tried to sell me speakers out of the back of a van once.

We drove home. We read more of the Magic Tree House book. ‘Miracle’ was the word of the day. The lesson in the book (about Houdini) is that it takes lots of practice to become good at something. I asked August what they had learned, and he said, “Hard work.”

He had me carry him upside down. For dinner he ate some of the stir fry but not much. We caught a jumping spider and he watched it for a minute, then took it outside and released it. He had me carry him upstairs and we watched 80s videos while we played on the bed. He was sister and I was the brother. He said, “Let’s get our gold so we can go in the fancy seats in the plane with two layers.” He meant a 747. We went downstairs, and he had us flying to Italy. Carly was the flight attendant, and we would ask for things and she would just throw them to us. He was laughing a lot.

We went back upstairs, but he soon wanted to go downstairs and do the similar thing with Carly again. When I said I didn’t want to he said he didn’t like me any more and went down. She brought him back up, but he slid to a meltdown. I stayed in the bedroom with him until he calmed down enough to request Carly. She came up and was able to pick him up to comfort him.

I went downstairs, and they found and then lost some sort of bug. He played in the bathroom, then accidentally put his hand in the hot water in the sink. He was very upset about that. She got him washed.

He and I watched a couple of Skybrary books: Field Day and Goodnight Baby Bear. He had some oatmeal, then Carly made the last Swedish pancake, and he ate that. We started reading the Mickey Mouse graphic novel version of Treasure Island, which was on sale. While it downloaded after we bought it we switched and read a chapter of Shivers. I was half asleep, and he told me about how he’d had a really good day at school. I agreed, but that he needs to work on having a good day with the teachers too. I told him he’d just get in more trouble if he kept telling people he’d kill them. He asked who he’d have to talk to when he was in elementary school, etc. and I gave him the names of the principals. When he asked what about when he was an adult, I said they might call the police. This terrified him, and he started crying. He was also clearly very tired. I’d made a similar connection with something a few days ago (I think about ‘stealing’ something or telling a lie) and he’d handled it okay, and decided to not do whatever it was. Carly came down and took over trying to comfort him. He wasn’t happy with me. Carly assured him that he’d be okay, and he lamented, “I’ll never get the hang of it!”

We took him upstairs and he was calmed down enough that he let me brush his teeth. He still wanted Carly to put him to sleep though. I left them at 8:30. She’s found that telling him he needs to go to sleep if he wants to see her in the morning works really well. Today he just rolled over on his side, away from her, and fell asleep.

Today was Ms. Michele’s birthday (PKC teacher). They had a gathering of all the kids on the small covered play area. There’s a video on Storypark of everyone getting up to dance to a song. August, and at least one other kid, stayed sitting. Andrea very lovingly checked in with August and tried to get him to get up, but he didn’t want to.

Building during library time:

Collecting caterpillars:

Picking up the escaping caterpillars:

Carly woke him up and brought him down about 6:40. He was holding his foot, but didn’t complain about it hurting. He watched The Pink Panther and ate oatmeal. He asked for seconds on oatmeal. I made a half-bowl and he ate all of that. As we got ready to go he asked me, “Do you think Simone’s mom is nicer than you?” He didn’t come right out and say as much. But when I asked why he asked he said because she had given him so many treats yesterday. I pointed out that some of those were because he hurt his foot.

We got walking at 7:37. Along the way he looked down one of the short side streets that we’ve never gone down and said, “The next time we go on a dada Zinnie drive I’ll try to remember that. We haven’t done dada Zinnie drives for awhile.”

He got off the bike and I noticed he limped a bit on the way to class, but he didn’t say anything. I had put a short sleeve shirt on him today as it was getting to the mid-70s. He at first took off his sweatshirt, but wanted it back on. When I picked him up later he would still have it on, and say he didn’t want it off. I said goodbye and he said, “I don’t need you to wait on the bench.”

I went home and worked. Mainly got all of our old Squarespace blog moved over to the new WordPress site. Some rough edges, but mostly done. That took too much of the morning, then I moved to Sabeel work. Starting to get up to speed on InDesign so that Marc and I can collaborate on the manuscript.

Rode back to school. Had finished listening to The Tomb of Atuan (Le Guin) this morning and now started on Second Foundation (Asimov).

Simone’s mom went into the classroom at 2:50. I followed. August excitedly ran over to me, but I think that was because he wanted his snack before STEM class and I wouldn’t give it to him before the bus kids left. He was a little frustrated by that, but I slipped back outside, and then I actually had to go back in to remind him of it a few minutes later. He had one red sticker today, having hit Simone in the head when Simone wouldn’t let him see the bug he had caught. August told me it took him a long time to calm down.

He also told me that Simone had given him and other students some of the lemon cake. I think that might have been part of the reason for the email from Marion reminding parents that treats have to be for everyone in the class. On August’s sheets for the day they’ve started briefly describing what he gets the stickers for, and I know that he brought flowers to the teachers at some point, and helped them with getting scissors at another.

He ate his snack, then had STEM class. The read The Very Busy Spider and were then learning to weave spiderwebs. He was attaching his to one of the shelving units, and apparently got a bit frustrated at one point, but got through it. At the end of class he ran out to tell me it was cleanup time. I went back in with him, and he did some ‘robo-cleanup’ on his own. During class I talked to Anita and invited Simone to his birthday party. They should be able to come. Before we left, I asked August if he had apologized for hitting Simone. He said he didn’t think so, and walked over and apologized.

We got walking at 4:10. I brought up the incident at school, asking why it took a long time to calm down. He put his head down on the bike and said, “I don’t want to talk about it. And I don’t have an explanation.” He was looking at different kinds of trucks and told me how he has delivery trucks for his lab.

As we got closer to home, he brought up how Simone’s family has a record player. He was not a fan, and explained to me how you have to change them, and can’t just ask it to play music, and they take up space, and cost a lot of money. He told me, “Whatever you do, do NOT buy a record player.” I was listening to him talk about the record player and had slowed down. He asked, “Why is the bike moving so slowly?” Finally, we saw a woman walking on the street pushing a suitcase. He asked, “Remember that suitcase with jagged wheels on it?” It was an ad on YouTube for Bluesmart. He reminded me how it could go over different surfaces and it had a charger in it and said we should buy it.

At home we got our ice cream, using ginger snap cookies that Carly had in the cupboard from something at school on top, and watched an episode of Hilda (“The Storm”). Carly got home. We spent some time playing with the circuits, then he started talking about needing to squish green monsters if we saw them because green monsters are bad. I asked about our Green Monsters, and he dismissively said, “Aagh. He’s just made out of like, cloth. These are real. And alive.” He went on and on and about the monsters.

He talked about how he was poisonous to eat: “I’m pure coison…What’s ‘pure’?” So ‘pure’ was a word of the day. He also found the furniture pad stickers. He keeps wanting to stick them on things, but I haven’t let him. Today I let him have one. He told me, “When I’m 17 I’ll buy some.” He was on a roll, and started talking about needing to ship sticky rice to his planet to feed all the robots. “90 million…billion…quadrillion…” He remembered his big numbers that far, then skipped to ‘octillion’, so I reminded him of the ones in-between. The silliness led to me pretending to eat him and getting poisoned on the couch.

Carly came down. She was talking to her parents. August talked to them a little. In the kitchen August kissed the bag of sticky rice and said he loved it, “But I don’t love the sticky rice as much as you.” Carly had mentioned that Simone likes Michael Jackson music videos, so August and I watched some music videos, like Daft Punk’s “Technologic” and Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”, while she made sushi. He was very excited by that, and ate a lot of it. And he liked the orange soy paper that she also got.

I took him up and washed his hair. We then played on the bed: he was jumping on me a lot and played the game where he steals my hidden food. He was insistent on reading some Shivers, so I read a few pages of the second book, before leaving them a little after 8:30.

Music on the bike:

Cutting shapes:

Spinny thing slo-mo:

Green monsters:

Running to mama:

Drying his hair:

He had a bad dream. Then was up early, at 5:50. He watched some Berenstain Bears and had oatmeal. I was up an hour later. Carly started cleaning things out, and she found his old brown tube that he used as a musical instrument. She asked if he was done with it, and he said, “I’m never done with it!” He started playing it again, making music. I think she was able to get rid of it a bit later. He went outside, and with just a little help from me nailed two nails onto the Zinnie house to hang up keys on. He was basically able to do it by himself; I just helped to keep them straight. Inside, he took over vacuuming and was singing “Hey Man.” We were doing more cleaning. He got the photo book from the artist here in Even Yehuda, and looked at a photo of Buddhist monks in Thailand, wearing orange robes. We discussed the photo and why they dressed like that.

I then took August out on a walk. First, we went across the street and released the caterpillars and, after taping up the microwave (August helped with the duct tape), placed the microwave over there.

We then walked over to the mall. We discussed the meaning of ‘insect’ and ‘bug’, so ‘insect’ was a word of the day. Along the path near the mall we looked for insects. I caught a little flying insect by putting the catcher upside down over the plant it was on. I talked about thinking about something ‘rationally’, so that was another word of the day.

We went to Tiv Taam and got a few groceries. We also got a pack of saltine and cheese crackers. We ate those as we walked back, stopping to look at microphones at the musical instruments stand. Back outside he released the bug, then we found a pill bug and three different ladybugs. He released those, then caught an ant, but let it go when we found what we at first called a centipede.

It turned out that he was releasing the insects quickly because he didn’t want them to bake in the sun. Marion had warned him about that. I assured him they’d be fine on the way home. On the walk back he studied the old wall that has styrofoam in the middle of it.

Earlier, when releasing the caterpillars, he had started to cross the street on his own. I had called to him and he had stopped, but he was doing it right, having stopped first and looked both ways. Now, as we walked back, I let him lead the way and practice crossing.

We were home at 10. He wanted to feed the insect. I looked it up and realized it was a millipede. He got some old leaves for it, but then got impatient when it didn’t start eating right away. He would release it out in our garden pretty quickly.

He ate some of the broccoli casserole dish, then was climbing on Carly. I went up to take a shower. When I came down they were working on the electricity kit. We read Magic Tree House #50 pleats word

Upstairs to wrestle and bladder game

I rest and he went downstairs to Carly

He wanted to go looking for bugs by the strawberry field instead of going to the beach before Simone’s. He had me spin him around for awhile, then we did the rocking thing on the floor.

The two of them got walking about 1:05. I spotted the bug catcher in the kitchen and put on my shoes to chase after them, since Carly hadn’t taken her phone. They had realized it though and I met them at the gate.

They were back at 1:50. They sat on the swing for a few minutes before coming in. They had found several insects, but Carly said he was quite dissatisfied with them. He said the ants were boring at first, but then decided he liked them the best.

Carly made popcorn and sliced an apple and they ate those on the couch. He randomly said to me, “You dropped me…in the museum.” At least he finds it funny now. He’s talking about when I was carrying him in the Natural History Museum and he did a raspberry right in my face and I was startled and tried to put him down, but he slipped in the process and fell the last foot or two.

Before we left we asked if he was hungry, and he said, “I can eat the food at Simone’s house.” He then sang, “I’m pretty sure they have food, I’m pretty sure I love you, I’m pretty sure I’m walking away from you…hugging you.”

We drove to Herzliya and got to their house right at 3. It’s a nice, new house, and they just moved there within the last couple months. It’s faced Israeli construction issues though—the kitchen ceiling collapsed without warning after they moved in.

August and Simone got to it. It is a little different, as Simone is much different than Taya or Eve. He too is more into parallel play, although they still interacted a fair amount. They went outside for a few minutes to look at snails or something, then went down to the play room. When they went upstairs August first wanted me to go up with them. They climbed in the bunk beds, then tried to jump on the parents’ bed.

Back downstairs, Anita put a Michael Jackson album, Bad, on the record player. Meanwhile, Carly and I were talking to Anita. Her husband works as a financial director for Philip Morris. The kids went back downstairs, and now we all went down. Anita helped build a big Playmobile castle, while the boys played with Legos. A typical exchange between them went like this, August starting: “Look at this powerful thing.” “Yeah.” “Yeah, cool.” August found Simone’s electric toothbrush and loved it. He kept playing with it, and we had to stop him from putting it on anything. We definitely need to get him an electric toothbrush.

When I suggested we needed to leave soon to go home for dinner, Anita offered to cook some pasta. So we stayed for dinner. We’d had a coffee earlier, and now there was Chianti wine. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we had lemon cake earlier, which they had baked together. August and Simone played out in the back yard. They started throwing rocks in the small pool, and Simone claimed it was allowed. I didn’t believe him for a second, but asked Anita. They were then playing at locking Carly outside, and that was pretty funny. They usually eat their pasta quite al dente, so cooked it further for us.

We all sat at the table and ate, then we adults were still talking at the table and August and Simone were playing in the living room. They’d brought up some Legos and were playing with them. More Michael Jackson was playing (I had tried to put some other music on, but Simone really liked Michael Jackson). I was over looking at the records again, when suddenly August screamed behind me. He had leaned on the glass coffee table, which has a wooden base. It had tipped and the glass had landed on his toes.

Anita and I got the glass off of him and I picked him up and sat on the stairs by the door. Luckily, no broken skin, and, eventually, clear there was no broken toes. Luckily, it had hit all the toes, and not just one. He was inconsolable though. He calmed a little to have a little of a popsicle that Simone brought him. And I think he got more lemon cake, and she sent us home with a bunch more cake. He refused an ointment.

So we headed home. He wouldn’t wear his shoes. He calmed down enough for me to read some of _Hilo 2 _ in the car, and after we got home we sat and finished the book. We took the iPad upstairs but never started the next book, as planned.

Did a bit of a sponge bath, then he was cuddling with Carly on the bed. He called for family hugs. He was telling Carly she didn’t love him, and said, “I’m just trying to make you squeak.”

We had talked about inviting Simone to his birthday party, and he liked that idea. He then also suggested Candy as well. Carly and I were wondering how big we can make it without feeling like we have to invite everyone. As I put him to bed, he now changed his mind and suggested Millie: “She acts kind of cute. Cuter than Candy.”

August got frustrated when he realized he hadn’t worked on his wood project with Carly this weekend. We talked about how there isn’t time to do all the fun stuff in one day.

As he was quiet and about to go to sleep, he told me, “Dada, I have something good to tell you…The pain is at a 1.” He was asleep just before 9.

Playing his instrument again:

Hammering a nail on his own:

5-legged bug:

Sitting and humming:

Climbing to the bunk bed:

Legos with Simone 1:

Legos with Simone 2:

Locking mama out:

The blocking game:

Around the post:

He was up at 6:54. The first thing he said to me was “anesthesia” to give me a shot to put me to sleep, then as he closed the door he said “wake up shot.” Downstairs they read Captain Underpants. I came down and we played the sleep/wakeup shot game, then he had a swedish pancake.

I went upstairs and did laundry and typed and they did more reading, then went outside. I saw him walking around with the bug catcher. I did dishes.

They went over across the street to look for insects. He came back with an ant. He asked me to look up what they eat. We decided on giving it some leftover apple. He told it “Don’t worry, ant. We’ll at least give you apple to eat…sorry, we fooled you, using a clear thing…”

He asked what ant poop looks like, and we ended up watching parts of

. We learned that that one species at least is known to chew through plastic.

He watched a Berenstain Bears. About a pumpkin contest. I read We Are in a Book and he played around with the ant. He then sang a “we are being read” song to the tune of “This Old Man”.

He went to the bathroom and said he wanted to go for a walk. And he also wants a terrarium like they have at school. I got him clothes and Carly got ready. Space came and I told him about the Vrigin Galactic flight. We watched a video of it, and he asked if it had parachutes for landing like an airplane. He was thinking of the Space Shuttle, but I found videos of 747s landing to show him. As he and Carly headed out the door I heard him ask, “Are rockets that carry people bigger than airplanes?”

I took a shower, then went to meet up with them. They were already walking back though and I met them on the path. They had released the ant on the way over and caught a caterpillar but then let that go to catch “A giant ant. I love it…it has giant legs.” At Aroma he had had a cookie. Carly got the Israeli breakfast and he ate some of the potatoes and stuff from that.

At home we took apart more of the microwave. I used the word ‘kept’ and August misheard me and thought I said ‘cut’. I talked about how it is pronounced, and how it is kind of odd (the ‘p’ is a guttural stop), and told Carly, and we discussed similar words. Made it a word of the day. We took apart more of the microwave. We tried to light up the bulb with a 9V battery, but it was a 220V bulb so didn’t work. He got upset by that and needed a timeout. Carly took over and I went and made myself lunch.

They went for a walk towards the fields. They left right at 1, and were back at 1:40 with three ants and a ladybug: “And they’re interacting fine with the different species of animals.” He sang a “I am a very small robot” song and we made a shopping list.

He and Carly then went to the boardwalk in Netanya. I got the job of grocery shopping and carrying everything back. I got to listen to my book (The Tomb of Atuan) so I didn’t mind too much. They left at 2:20. I did a little typing, then walked over to the mall. Loaded up just about as much as I could carry. Made me miss Korea, where the grocery stores were even closer.

The walked along the waterfront. August did a great job of patiently letting her look out at the sea. Although, at home he cast a spell on Carly so she wouldn’t stare at the sea anymore. They then went to school, where packages have piled up for August’s birthday, and August filled the bug catcher with caterpillars near the middle school office.

They got home a little after me. A friendly grey and white cat followed them in the yard and hung around outside the house, sleeping by the kitchen door. It followed us around outside. I petted it a little, and August giggled a lot, and he especially liked it when it rubbed up against Carly and got cat fur on her pants.

Inside, Carly and August played with the electricity set. He told us, “Robots have twenty nerves in their hairs; humans don’t have any.” He was playing with the set on his own, and switched out one kind of switch for another. He was really excited that he had made it work differently and showed us. We realized that if you hit the fan blade upwards when it is spinning fast it will fly like a helicopter. He read my mind, suggesting we do a slo-mo video of it.

August wanted to go with me to Sushi Ishimoto again to get dinner. We left at 5:55. We started driving, and I noticed a flashing light on the sidewalk. I told him I’d be right back and quickly jumped out to see what it was. It was the broken part of something, involving a little battery pack, and some wires that led to a red, a blue, and a green light, which flashed. Don’t know what they used to be in.

He played with it on the way up, realizing that if he touched the broken wire to certain spots it would complete a circuit and light up the blue light, but that it wouldn’t work in other places.

At Sushi Ishimoto we got the iPad menus. He got one, and got to reading it. He read ‘Rice Dishes’ and wanted a rice dish. We got the same orders of sushi as last time, the shrimp stir fry, and the classic noodles with tofu.

As we walked to the car he realized we could see stars, and he said we could see “My Planet”. He then made a joke and confused me, as when I said “Your planet” he said I was wrong, as his planet is actually called ‘My Planet’. We joked about that as we got in the car. He remembered when we had to jumpstart someone’s car, wondering if we’d ever have to do that to our car. He then joked about destroying power plants: “Dada, did you know I’m breaking down all the good energies…I’m just making coal ones. I like coal ones.”

At home we had dinner. He was talking like crazy, and Carly and I were quite amused. Carly remembered it was the 10th anniversary of our first date. We had remembered our anniversary season before it started, but had then not thought about it much until now. August asked what a ‘date’ was and she talked about how we had eaten dinner together. Since we were sitting there eating dinner together, he asked, “So this is a date?”

We ended up talking about squid and crab a lot. In part because Carly had had squid in its own squid ink in Spain. And she remembered that August had liked crab meat in Korea. We haven’t looked for that here, although I haven’t seen it. I told August I’d gotten sticky rice today at the store. He made me show him, so he could see how it looked different from our usual jasmine rice. He was excited about it, and Carly is excited about making sushi.

She gave him a bath. We needed to get him to bed as we had our consultation with Dr. Postma at 9:15. He went and started playing with the electricity set all on his own though, and I didn’t want to interrupt that, even though I had popcorn ready for him. He probably spent at least 15 minutes playing by himself. Perhaps a new record. He came over and we watched an episode of Hilda (about a ghost that cleans a bedroom) and had popcorn. Carly put him to sleep, and he was asleep a little before 9.

She said he’s showing awareness of his own interests: He asked her earlier, “I’m really into bugs right now, aren’t I?” As we try to figure out what sort of things trigger stress in August, one thing that happened today (overall he had quite a good day though) was that Carly dropped her water bottle and it rolled under the car. He was able to calm down when she talked about how it wasn’t really important, and that they could try different things to get it, and buy a new one instead if need be.

Our consultation with Dr. Postma went well. We’ll probably consult with him twice a month or so for the next few months. He was impressed with how much progress we’ve already made in a week, and how well August is able to talk about things.

Fooling the ant:

Ant and apple:

‘We are being read’ song:

Ant with a stinger (he thinks):

A visiting cat:

Experimenting with the switches:

Propeller slo-mo 1:

Propeller slo-mo 2:

Planning to attach the blade to the food processor:

The lights thing:

Playing by himself:

First he lay over the top of me and kept sleeping so I couldn’t get up. When I was sure he was back to sleep I got up and got dressed. As I was closing the door though I heard, “Dada.” I went in and lay back down with him for another five minutes until he decides to get up at 6:15.

He cuddled with Carly for a good amount, then sat at the table waiting for oatmeal. He then watched a Berenstain Bears and we got ready to go.

I dropped them off at school, then continued on to Jerusalem. August really liked Carly dropping him off and picking him up. He showed her the big rolls of paper that they have that he thinks she should get for her own classroom (but not home, as we already have a big roll of paper). But otherwise it sounds like he had a rough day: 5 green stickers and 4 red. When Carly got there to pick him up he was outside with Andrea and a few students, and trying to squish a caterpillar. He has decided they are poisonous, and he doesn’t, at least temporarily, like them anymore. Carly said a girl said they were poisonous, backing up August when he was telling Carly.

At home he let Aviva go across the street and he tried out the other blade in the food processor, slicing a carrot for fun. He had nutty noodles for dinner.

I got home at 5:15. He hid behind Carly on the couch. I had to take him upstairs for a timeout for saying mean things, then we talked about what he really meant. Back downstairs we discussed the incident papers from school and did a picture for Yaya. He then sang a “Sorry for hitting at the school” song. We read Hilo, and ‘parallel’ was a word of the day. We finished volume 1, then read half of volume 2. He was hungry, and went and scooped up his own oatmeal in a bowl. I helped him finish it. He ate, then in Skybrary we read Keep Your Distance twice. He said he loves it. We then read half of A Child’s Calendar by John Updike, but he kept going back to water freezing on a pond and asking if you could break the ice, etc. Eventually he was telling me about his huge polluting scuba suit that ran on gasoline and could move you around.

Carly him a bath and then in on the bed he put his pajamas on all funny and was dancing around declaring “I’m danger dandy and I like to show myself…Im Danger Dandy, I pee in people’s bladders…” He kept asking if he could go out in public dressed like this. He had me get a pair of pants to tie around his waist to cover his bottom as well.

Carly said goodnight and went to take a shower, and he ended up asking “How do they cut wood?” So we watched a video of how boards are cut. He told me he has all the wood and metal working tools in his lab. And electronics tools and chemistry tools and astronomy tools, etc. And he told me, Dada, after today, no one in this house will ever touch a caterpillar.”

His brain was really going, and he asked why, if the earth was curved, it seemed flat. Explained that for awhile, then he asked how he could tell that a sound was above him or below him. So we talked about hearing and the speed of processing sound. We talked about science at school, and he said he and Andrea were the only ones that really like science in PKA. Had the lights off and he was quiet at 9, and sleep within a couple songs.

Sheep:

Allen wrenches:

Picture of him and Yaya:

His polluting scuba suit:

Danger Danzey 1:

Danger Danzy 2:

Danger Danzey 3:

He was up at 6:20. I was up but he bear me downstairs. When I came down he was telling Carly all about telephones. Like that they have one with buttons in the preschool, but there are old ones that you used to turn. I can’t remember where he heard about that, but it sounds familiar. He then told me: “Dada, today I’m inventing a translator to tell us in English what every single creature in the world–well, if you want to talk to an English person and you speak Hebrew…”

He asked me to check to make sure his caterpillar wasn’t dead. Aviva was fine. He watched a Berenstain Bears, then in something that was really funny but also gross, he was playing with my toothbrush and used it to “tickle” the caterpillar.

When he went to the bathroom before we left he asked about Carly taping the lock to the bathroom door: “You know what? Why were you afraid of me locking it if I could reach it until I was 16 or 17?”

We got walking at 7:35. He declared he was walking, which negated our on-time start, but it was nice for him to walk. He made it about a third of the way to school. A few houses up he spotted a huge snail and we got a video of it moving around. He was asking about what could break other things, like steel and diamonds, and asked what colors diamonds were. I told him about the variations and why, and he went on to talk about a rainbow diamond. I think he had made it.

We still got to school before the bell. He went right back to the new puppet area. I broke up some hitting between Eve and Simone, then headed out. I didn’t talk to her, but I learned who the speech therapist is that will be working with August.

I worked, then rode my bike up to Gutale and met with Marka about gifted/student support at the school. They are going through a recent diagnosis, and some academic/social issues at the school. I then rode to the school and was talking to Reia’s mother for a few minutes. When the kids started to come out, Lydia came up to me and told me that a caterpillar had peed on August and it was really hard to wash off and that he was up with Ms. Andrea. I went up and he was in the office. I thought he was upset about the caterpillar pee, but it turned out that he and Lydia had been putting water in the caterpillar enclosure, and when Marion told them to stop he got upset. He had ripped a couple of their notes/posters up there and was helping to tape them back up.

I sat with him and Vicky and Andrea and processed that incident. But he was happy that he’d done the calm space thing a couple times on his own. He only had one red sticker on his sheet (although this was clearly a second one). Andrea told me he had done the raspberry at her for the other. He had then stuck his tongue out at her, and argued it wasn’t bad like the raspberry.

But he also told me how he had felt the “bubbly feeling” a couple times and gone to a calm space. Very proud of it, but he couldn’t give me details on where he went. Sounds like once it was into the office.

We caught up with Eve and Zoe outside on the playground. He got right to playing with them and I talked to Heather. Lots of talking to other parents today. She then went to load the kiln, and I helped the kids on the swings. They were going on ‘box’ style with two people on at once. August did it with Eve and Zoe twisted them up and let go.

Heather came back with paper and markers to make posters for the girls’ basketball game. Heather asked what he wanted written on the paper for his sign. Not knowing what the heck she was talking about, he told her “ET3”. A little more explanation later, and he agreed to a big “GO”.

Cassie had called, asking if she could bring Taya over with us while she continued a meeting. She did, and Taya went and played on the playground with Gabe. When August and Eve and Zoe were ready to head to the gym, Taya was still playing with Gabriel and refused to listen to me. August started to get upset. He didn’t want Eve to leave without him. So Orlee, Gabriel’s mom, said she could take Taya to Cassie.

We went to the game and the three kids spent some time holding up their signs and cheering. Eve and Zoe were yelling “Go, falcons!” August was saying things like “Go, trees!” Although I can’t remember what things he was putting in there.

After awhile they got hungry. They had snuck some of August’s snacks in the gym, then Heather came back with some bars. I took the three of them up the stairs so they could eat outside the gym and look down on the game. Down on the floor, Mike invited them to run on the court during halftime. August was a bit hesitant about that, but followed Eve around a few times. They also climbed on the pads at the end of the gym, and raced down and back the hall to the drinking fountains several times.

We got going close to 5. We met Carly as she was walking towards the gym. Zoe was calling him “August-Poggest” and he was giggling, calling her things like “Zoe-Pooey.” Carly noted that he responds similarly with her as he does with Bar.

We walked home. He ate some dinner, then he and I sat down to do something for Marion for hitting her when she made him stop pouring water in. I asked what his favorite thing to do with Marion is and he said, “Finding stuff in nature, like snails.” When it came time to draw it though he didn’t know how to do it. I had the idea of doing a video for her instead. He did a first take, then did something at the end of it that ruined it. For the second take he did it as a song, which was a nice touch.

He asked Carly, “Are we poor?” He was thinking about the photo of Josephine on the fridge. August and I read something, Hilo, I think, and we read the word ‘hooligan’, so that was the word of the day.

Carly took him up for his bath, then I took over to put him to bed. He reminded me that he’d gone to the gym before with Carly to see hockey. He remembered the “great” loud music that time. Somehow we got talking about the size of the universe and that there isn’t an edge. I explained the best I could, but he said that was “confusing”. He then claimed, “I’m a 90 dimensional August”. We also talked about how safe shells are for crabs, did a lava visualization, and did the rocking thing after he asked me to. Thought he was about to sleep when he said, “Dada, I have another question for you: Would a block of steel get crushed if it was at the bottom of the deepest sea in the word?” He finally fell asleep at 8:45.

Message for Marion:

Explaining his translator machine:

Big snail:

Mendameter Screw song:

Building with the caps:

Spinning on the swing with Eve:

Running with Eve:

Cheering at the basketball game:

Running on the basketball court:

Running to mama 1:

Running to mama 2:

He was up at 6:35. He went downstairs and ran to Carly and they cuddled on the couch. When she had to get ready he started watching Pink Panther. I finished his snack and lunch (Carly had made him quesadilla) and oatmeal and he ate that at the table.

All went smooth in the morning, and we were walking at 7:37. Got there after the bus kids, but he happily went and started playing. I may have blown it though, as we forgot about the hat. I was about to walk away when he came out with Marion. He was upset and hitting her because she took away his hat. It took five or six minutes for him to calm down. Eventually though, he picked a flower for her and took it in and apologized to her and gave her the flower and I left.

I went home and worked, then returned to school to meet with Vicky at 2pm. We’d been meaning to meet to discuss literacy group. No issues to address, but just out of curiosity on my part to know what they’re doing. She showed me the tile rhyming game they’ve been working on. She said he’s improving at it, but the difficult part for him seems to be looking at the pictures, converting that to a word, and then thinking of the sound. If you just say a word for him, like ‘dog’, he can easily tell you a rhyming word. He’s making progress on his pencil holding and writing. And she showed me all of his art/writing in his journal. His art is becoming more figurative with practice; I’m not entirely convinced this is a good thing, as the way they go about it seems to tell him that abstract isn’t as good and figurative art. And she talked about the stories he’s been writing. Like changing Jack and the Bean Stalk and something else. They did their own stories most recently. He drew a picture of him walking away from his house. When they went back the next day to expand them, he didn’t want to add to it, although he watched everyone else and commented on discussions about their stories. Eventually he told her that it was him walking down the street with his monster, but he said he didn’t know how to draw that, so she helped him.

A few minutes before 3 I walked out, as the yoga class was getting out. He spotted me. I was surprised, as he wasn’t supposed to be in yoga today. He told me, “I had a rough end of the day.” But it turned out that it had actually been pretty good. No issues with other students today, and the one other red sticker was for blwing a raspberry at Andrea. And he was in yoga because he had left Playball and come inside, then Ms. Rina suggested he go in yoga class with her. He asked me, “Did you know yoga came from one country?”

He said there were two times that he felt the “bubbly” feeling today and went to a calm space. He was very proud of this, and a bit later asked me, “Do you like how I felt the spinning feeling and I walked away and found a calm space?”

Outside he looked at the flowers on the trellis and commented on how the vines had grown over the whole thing. He had some snack, and wandered over on the other side of the elementary school, where Bar saw him and ran over and gave him a big hug. He was very excited by it. He wandered back and into the classroom, and Marion used him to test how high she should hang the puppet theater that they were making. August had told me he had made a second hand puppet, with wings or feathers, I think, but had then cut it up. Andrea told me he had been animating it, so we might still get to see it at some point.

We got going, and as we got upstairs we saw Ms. Rina. She told me how he had been reluctant to go into yoga today until she told him about how it came from India, etc.

As we went out he stood in front of the security guard and sang a very funny song that went something like, “Snoggle snoggle door door.” And had some dancing with it. As we walked out he asked me, “What’s the difference between a gate and a door?” We left at 3:50. Something reminded him of jello, and specifically, “The kind of jello we had all the time in Korea.” Not entirely sure what he is talking about. He told me it wasn’t in plastic cups.

As we walked he talked about “If I was a bird…” and having nests up at the top of a tree or on a skyscraper. We saw a lift truck changing a street lamp, and he said he had a lift truck that he used to study bird nests. We were home around 4:45.

Since he had technically gotten two red stickers I couldn’t take him to Kravitz to pick something out, but I told him that otherwise he had had a very positive day, so he could have the rest of his ring pop and we could watch an episode of Hilda.

Carly got home, and we read some Hilo, finishing book 5 again today and starting again from the beginning of the series. He had nutty noodles and I kept reading to him at the table. He got the caterpillar new food, choosing part of the lavender plant. When I suggested it might be too smelly for the caterpillar, he was tough on it: “Huh. I don’t care. That’s the food it gets today.” When we said he was being tough, he replied, “Pretty hard juice, baby.”

We went upstairs and wrestled on the bed. He went to the bathroom, and when he washed his hands I told him he had plenty of soap. He asked, “what’s plenty?” So ‘plenty’ was a word of the day. He played with and talked about his ‘chemicals’.

We went downstairs and made popcorn. We started to read Hilo, and he said that watching something was the best thing ever. I said something like “Watching something is better than dada reading to you?” He immediately said, “I take it back!”

We then talked about today at school, and he asked to see the chart. We reviewed it, and made a couple of revisions. We went upstairs and he had a little more of the lollipop while I washed his hair. Went smooth again, but he didn’t like when I tried to dry his hair with the towel. In the bedroom, as we used the blow drier, he did a good job of explaining how he doesn’t like the squishing feeling on the wet hair.

We talked about what I’d learned about literacy group, and he asked about ‘figurative art’, so another word of the day. I went downstairs to get something and told him to put on his pajamas while I was gone. I started talking to Carly, and after a couple minutes August started yelling for me, then came down. He had had a grin on his face when I left, and we now knew why. He was singing a “Jangle of the keys” song, and came down with his pajama pants on his head, and the shirt tied around his waist. He was hilarious.

When he calmed down from that, he said, “I like Aviva.” And said, “We’re going to let it out in th tree, so it can come down and see us…a pet caterpillar until we move…”

Up on the bed he told me all about a robot bug teacher that he made for himself out of parts from a toaster and other things. She is small and he can carry her around. He had used gold that he found to pay for tools, like wrenches. The robot bug teacher makes him do what she says, but sometimes he makes her do what he says. He said, “My robot teacher I made said I’m big enough to use the phone.”

Upstairs, I read him part of Freckle Juice. We started from the beginning, but then skipped forward so that we could read the part where he makes the juice and gets sick. Carly came in. He told her, “I think I need to love you less because I love you so much I think I’m gonna die.” I left them at 8:25.

Walking the little hill:

Caterpillar feet:

Knife experiment:

He got up just after 6:30. When I came down he was finishing up his oatmeal and then watching the Berenstain Bears. He was talking to Carly. He asked what a word meant and she explained. Would have been a good word of the day but none of us could remember what it was a few minutes later. They discussed the wood project. He said”I don’t like hard things. I only like easy things.” He was smothering her and she moved to the black chair. He wouldn’t stop, and she went upstairs. Got him to go up and apologize after awhile.

He remembered the caterpillar, which he had put in the bedroom on the counter. He picked it up and was going to go take it outside and let it go. But then he thought it was dead and set it down. Apparently he had talked to Carly about being afraid of it dying. It wasn’t dead though and started moving so I showed him. August then took it outside and got it mustard greens after I dumped the old plants and the poop out of it. Inside we watched the caterpillar start chowing down on the leaf. Got a good closeup video of it.

We then skyped with my parents. He showed them the caterpillar and told them all about it. Paul was in the screen at first and August went and hid from him.

Carly talked about taking August to the cafe in Netanya, and August said he wanted to take the caterpillar with him. He and I built with Legos, and made a structure to hold up the caterpillar enclosure. I asked if he had named the caterpillar and he named it ‘Aviva’, another name from Wild Kratts. Meanwhile, Carly had been productive, figuring out how to pay for our car security system (the free year had run out) and ordering the emotions set thing.

They left at 9:45. They went to our usual cafe and had a mango and banana smoothie that was really good, and a salmon bagel sandwich. August ate all the salmon and Carly had the veggies. They also read a lot of Captain Underpants. August rode on the little carousel at the top of the big steps in Netanya. We’ve seen it before but he hasn’t ridden that one. They then went down and played on the beach. They had good luck with weather, as they had sun while it seemed pretty cloudy and windy here.

They got back at 2:10. They had found a big microwave on the side of the road, between, August told me, an orange recycling bin and a car. I carried it in from the car and we cleaned the grease off of it and started taking it apart. As we were talking about it we talked about the parts that would be in it, and how it worked. August didn’t understand why I said it makes microwaves. August, confused, said, “What? Microwaves are big! They can’t fly though the air!” So ‘microwave’ became a word of the day.

We got stuck a couple times. For one, it had some of the star-shaped screws on it, but our star-shaped bits just wouldn’t work on them. So August got frustrated, but both times he told me he was at a 4 or a 5 and we were able to calm down. We stopped for an early dinner, although it was more like my late lunch. We had nutty noodles. We got back to the microwave and I pried the bottom open. He told me, “You’re the master of song. I’m gonna make a book about you…becuase you pried it open. Hmm, maybe about how you’re smart.” The second time he got upset was when he poked his finger with a wire. It got red and started to bleed a little. We were able to get him a bandaid and he calmed down.

Carly was getting messages on her phone so we took it up to her in the office. Downstairs he wanted me to play checkers with myself, so I did that. He then got broccoli leaves for Aviva the caterpillar. We sat on the couch and read, finishing Hilo, book 5.

I took him up for his bath. He had started to call us “Head burglars” after they got back. That is, people who steal heads. No idea where that idea came from. He was talking about it again, and explaining it sounded disturbing. He tried to make it okay, saying, “Only bad people like people in wars, pirates…” He also joked, “I’d like an alien to attack me, then I could scrape, punch, hit, spit…”

We went downstairs and I let him lick some of the ring pop that he got at Taya’s birthday and has been wanting to try. We sat on the couch and read through the chart and he suggested a few changes. He insisted that it have areas between the numbers in the rubric. I said he could simply describe himself between numbers. Sounded very much like Carly’s discussions about rubrics with Jeff at school. Carly came down as we were talking, and August cast a “Sound shield!” when he didn’t want Carly to hear us. She reminded us of what had happened on the beach: he had gotten upset when he got his pants wet in the water. They were able to change them and calm down.

We ate popcorn and watched episode 5 of Hilda. He commented on a section looking like a time lapse and I explained what a ‘montage’ is and made it another word of the day.

Afterwards, I suggested he might be ready to see a movie in a movie theater this summer with Vivian or Thatcher. He discussed the sizes of movie theaters versus the theater he knows at school, then explained he had built a hug movie theater that stretched across the ocean. It had billions of screens and it sounded like you actually had to take a plane to go to them.

He was still hungry so I cut up an apple and he had a couple slices. He talked about the teacher in Hilda being short, and he said, “My teacher at robot school was this tiny!” “Like, they were afraid of the kids. It was embarrassing. Down right embarrassing…DUMB right embarrassing, my teacher called it.” ‘Down right embarrassing’ is a phrase from the Berenstain Bears episode he watched earlier.

We took him up and got him ready for bed. I left him and Carly at 8:20.

Caterpillar eating a leaf:

Telling Gramma and grampa about the caterpillar:

Rhythm on the microwave:

Casting a spell:

Funny noises for his song:

Feeding the caterpillar:

He got up after our usual get-ready-for-school alarm went off at 7:20. I got up but was still upstairs and heard him telling Carly how he stores stuff underground so that we can actually have more stuff than the preschool. It isn’t his lab though, as that is even deeper, in magma. He didn’t eat much oatmeal, but wanted a treat that we’d talked about yesterday. He watched a Halloween Berenstain Bears episode, then ate some apple. He told us about his compost machine. He said it could take rotten food, and that “it neutralizes it”. He seemed to conflate it with adding nutrients, but also seemed to know that that meant getting rid of the odor.

He’s been saying “Huh” a lot recently. A little concerned it is a hearing issue, but he’s also been doing it as a joke to annoy us, so hard to tell. We played with legos and added to the lego tower. He was adding guns, and explaining what they all did. More of what he learned from Simone at school. He said of the tower,”There’s two awkward levels.

“

I let him destroy it, then he finished the rest of his half of the apple. He chose a cookie and ate it while we watched part of the Formula E race. He lost interest in that after a few minutes, and went in the kitchen, where Carly was cleaning out the fridge. He wanted to make a soup, and got a big pot. He used a lot of the getting-old-but-not-moldy ingredients: almond butter we didn’t like, curry paste that was too old, etc. It was quite a mixture.

He boiled it, and Carly headed to the store. We watched a little more racing, and ‘rookie’ became a word of the day. When he wanted to go do something and I was still watching he told me, “Remember, screen time. We can’t look at screens for the entire day…dada, I’m making a point.” He wanted to play with the Duplos. I said we needed to clean up the Legos first and we started with a robo-clean up. He had wanted to do the Duplo zip line again, but he changed his mind and wanted to watch me build a tower instead. He told me, “I’m kind of made for supervisor.” He found a random piece of paper and said, “I’m gonna read what the old village used to say…if anything’s hard you need the supervisor. The supervisor’s August.”

We discussed Korea memories. He said he had pictures in his head of not going to school and taking naps in the backpack, and the back of my head and singing songs. I kept adding to my tower and at one point he said, “Wow. Really lovely.” He told me that even though he’s a robot, his brain is still developing. It has ten parts, but will have billions more. When my tower got taller and taller (I was trying to get it to the ceiling) he made a safe room under the table and chairs using pillows and watched from there. I made it, and he was excited to show Carly when she got home.

He tried the new hummus with her, then made an earl grey chocolate tea for me using the french press. He talked about the pieces of tea that wouldn’t float up anymore and asked for that word again. He meant ‘waterlogged’. We’ve used that word a few times, but I don’t know if it’s made it as a word of the day.

He buried Carly in pillows on the couch and I went up to take a shower. When I came down they were looking at checkers, but he wanted her to play by herself as it was a winning game. He got a timeout for repeatedly grabbing her and touching her shirt, which he really likes the feel of (a sensory thing).

I took him out for a walk at 12:05. He was singing lines from “Hey Man”. Our goal was to find more things to take apart. We walked around the Holly block, but no luck. So we continued on up to the Snakes and Ladders Park. He went on the play structure, then the spinny thing. He asked what it was actually called, and the best I came up with was what he had said: ‘spinny thing’. He ate the corn crackers, then we played the luggage game on the jeep. He had us do a quick game of snakes and ladders, then he played on the motorcycle and I got some great photos of him.

We got walking at 1:20 and headed north to get tofu, which Carly had forgotten earlier. We went over to one more recycling area. Nothing to take apart, but there was a squeegee he wanted to take home. I convinced him it was broken. Then I spotted a caterpillar. We had the bug case, and we put it in that along with a weed I pulled.

We walked up to the grocery store on the corner. Along the way he saw something that at first he thought was interesting, but turned out to be boring. I taught him ‘deceiving’ and that was another word of the day. We got the tofu and a roll of crackers, and he went and got a strawberry yogurt. Again, the same kind he remembers from when we moved in. He said it was healthier than the chocolate pudding, but still really sugary.

We headed home at 1:45. We saw dark smoke off to the east. He said it was “a really fast Coca-Cola factory” making a lot of pollution.

He carried and watched the caterpillar the entire way home and talked about it. At home he showed it to Carly and told her everything about it, like how we’d seen its feet. She had been making nutty noodles, and we ate some and watched a little more of the race. He went outside when Carly said it was time to tear out the next papaya plant that is dying. She tried to help him saw it, but was too nervous, so I took over.

He came back in after awhile and we watched the end of the race, then read a couple chapters of Hilo #5. He wanted something to take apart, and I couldn’t think of anything we had. He pretended to give me something and said, “Fake oxygen in you to make you think harder.” He found a paperclip and bent it and put it in the drill. Carly watched a video about woodworking with kids, and I went up to do some work. At one point I heard him come in the house and yell to me, “Dada, mama’s taking a long time to saw this piece of wood. Ha.” I heard him from upstairs. He didn’t wait for a response and went back outside.

After awhile they came back in and he came upstairs and told me they were going to the hardware store, and I wasn’t supposed to look outside because I couldn’t see what they’re working on until they’re done. I helped them get ready to go, and he took the caterpillar. He said, “We’re showing the caterpillar around the town.” He had talked about showing it our house when we were walking home. He then hummed “Better Not Wake the Baby” to it

They went to the hardware store and were back at 4:50 and kept working. I know they got a saw, a clamp, and some screws. At about 5:30, as I was heading down to see how it was going, they came inside. He had gotten upset when a screw kept getting stuck and couldn’t calm down. I went in the bedroom and did as he had said, just blocking the door so he couldn’t get out or really hurt me, and stayed calm. It worked and the whole thing, including processing, took no more than 10 minutes.

He had more nutty noodles, then upstairs he found me sorting through some papers. There were some empty file folder sorts of things and he claimed one and put it down with his stuff in the closet. We then wrestled and did the time machine game on the bed. He asked me to tell a story, and specifically requested the preschool and the dragon egg story. Except he changed the ending: instead of the dragons destroying the school, he initially said it should be the class pet. But then he changed his mind, and the dragon rather unintentionally destroyed the school, and the teacher rescued it and took it home as a pet. When the dragon destroyed everything it included “even the disco ball.” He then wrote a further ending to the story: “Then she realized she doesn’t know how to take care of dragons, so she takes it to someone who writes stories about dragons, and they say ‘I don’t really know about dragons’ so she takes it home and studies it. And she realizes it looks weird.” Then she let it go to live on its own.

For bath time he went to the bathroom, then wanted to fade color out of his shirt by putting it in hot water. He said Carly had let him do this with towels. I told him that must have been brand new towels, but he wanted to try it with his shirt anyway. So he did that. He then had his small washcloth and we did a funny faces game, holding it in front of my face, then having a different funny face. I washed him (he’s handling baths so much better now) and then he talked about making a chemical and having us drink it and it would make us do anything he said. He wouldn’t have to say please or thank you, and he could say it in a grumpy tone and we’d still do it. He thought that was pretty funny.

In the bedroom he put on his pajamas and found a fuzz on his leg. He said an elf put it there: “Elves play tricks on their owners sometimes.” He explained that owners can ban them if they want, if the tricks are too mean. He was getting “ban” and “abandon” a bit confused, which just made it cuter.

We went down and all watched episode 6 of Hilda and ate popcorn that we buttered ourselves and then half a cookie again. He chose episode 6, skipping 5, because 6 looked really spooky and he said he liked spooky things. When the episode was over he got upset about not watching another one. I took him upstairs and he calmed down quickly. He said he’s more ticklish when he starts getting upset: “Well, I am more ticklish when I start spinning…now I’m normal ticklish.”

We played on the bed, doing the anesthesia and scaring me game that he and Eve had developed. He went to the bathroom and I killed a mosquito. He checked in with Carly, asking, “Mama, did you ask your students where they get their sticky rice from?” He had really liked the sticky rice in the sushi, and she mentioned she had students who eat sticky rice a lot and that she’d ask them. She hasn’t actually been back to school yet though. I left them at 8:15. Didn’t take too long for him to fall asleep.

Adding guns to our tower:

Admiring the tower from his safe room:

Shwoing mama the tower:

Touching Mama’s feet:

Sawing the papaya plant:

He woke at one point in the morning and fell back asleep with his head on me. He was up at 6:53. He went down to Carly. I heard laughter, and he had oatmeal and they read Captain Underpants. I finally made my way downstairs. He watched a dominoes video then Wild Kratts. I was then holding him upside down, at his request, and he took his shirt off. Carly said he had done this with her the other day, also taking off his pants. Sure enough, he managed to get those off as well. He had energy, and Carly took him upstairs to wrestle. He ended up making a potion with a ton of ingredients in it. He called me up and showed it off to me. Downstairs, he did some satellite work (typing in Pages to control his satellites) and then they went for a short walk and I took a shower. They got back 10:50.

He had some of the “yummy noodles with tofu” and made yummy noises throughout. He then asked, “Can you shake me fast with two pillows?” We went upstairs to do that, and at one point he fell off the bed again as he rolled away from me. He didn’t hit the ground as hard this time. And when he was still upset he asked me to shake him. It then turned into the time machine game, where he leaves the time machine when he’s not supposed to. He got out of the time machine back when there were other species of humans. He had armor that kept him safe and he stayed in the past and said he invented this like beds and concrete that he needed.

We got going to Tel Aviv at 11:40 with Carly driving. August told me at some point, “Dada, did you know the smaller a car is, the faster it goes? So an SUV is slow. So I like our car.” He didn’t want to read in the car. He listened to music and pointed out the fruit billboard to me and a train that went by. He fell asleep at 12:14 and had a nice ten minute power nap.

Cassie was in a conference call, and so after I pulled Cassie’s car forward so we could park behind her we went over to the park, where Taya was with her babysitter. August played on the teeter totter first and was shy to go over to Taya. When she spotted me she then spotted August and ran over to him. And they were off.

Taya introduced us to all of the gan kids that were there with their teachers. I think we met about 7 of them. Carly went to get coffees for me and her, and when she came back she found me surrounded by 3-year olds who were chattering away, particularly a girl named Emily who was telling me everything. August climbed on the benches with them and Taya, then he wanted to show me the merry-go-round. They all followed and got on as well. I didn’t have to push, as there were two boys that did most of that. Taya then wanted on the kid swings and the preschoolers followed, and I was pushing all of them and also August on the merry-go-round.

It was time for lunch, and we followed Taya and her babysitter back to the house. Taya was grumpy as she was hungry, and it went back and forth as to whether we were going to go out, or eat food there. In the end we ate there, and Cassie had made chicken soup and put out things like cucumbers and hummus and tuna.

Taya and August had fun with temporary tattoos. I ended up with two cats on my arm and Carly had something on her hand. August played a lot with a big helium balloon from her birthday that was losing its helium. There was also a big tube with art supplies and stuff in it that we opened, although neither of them really used it. They ran around crazy for awhile as well.

We ate, and the kids interacted a bit more, but there were signs that they’d had enough. Taya had taken something away from August and put it in her room, followed by all of the things from the tube and a few other things. She had then set up a store. He and I bought a few things from her.

Then, August found a karaoke microphone that needed new batteries. August has been wanting a microphone for weeks and was really excited about it. The screwdriver they had wasn’t the right size, but I got it to work. August knew where they kept batteries and he got them. Taya came over and was interested as well. As soon as I got it back together and working Taya grabbed it and wouldn’t give it to August. August lost it, and Carly took him to Cassie’s bedroom. It was a rough one, and the first time Carly’s seen him really lose it. She had me come in after a couple minutes.

He calmed down enough eventually to get going, and we left at 3:30. Cassie was taking Taya to a science class. In the car he fell asleep around 3:50. I carried him in and he kept sleeping on the couch. We let him sleep until Carly woke him up at 5:40.

He woke up with a lot of energy, and was really on for the rest of the day. We made him oatmeal. I tried to talk to him about what happened and he told me, “I’m not ready to talk about it.” He chose to do it after his bath in his pajamas. They read a little “Pippi Stinkstockings” and he asked, “Can I clean the floor with my feet?” They made pads for his feet, but I’m not sure if he actually skated with them.

He went to the bathroom and told me, “I force-ed my body not to poop at school. Cuz I need a check and I heard my teachers say they don’t do that. So I just pee.” So we agreed that he needs to work more on wiping himself, wiping at least twice before he asks us for help. He seemed happy with that idea. When he was getting dressed he walked over to me and asked, “Can you put those on?” as he pointed to his pants. He then wiped his wet hands on me and said, “Just kidding. I can do it myself. I just wanted to do that.”

And he said, “Dada, I already told you that everything in our house is part of a soap delivery system.” For some reason we said something about soccer, and watching it with Paul. He said, “Remember how I was afraid of uncle Paul? I’m still afraid of uncle Paul.” “I’m just afraid of him upstairs. When he is downstairs I’m not.”

We built with Legos and he supervised as I built a skyscraper out of them. He told me, “You must be a brave dada” to build that tall and we talked about how I had built a lot at Gramma and Grampa’s house. He talked about how we have invisible elves in our house (like in Hilda) and said, “That’s the elf uncle Paul. There’s an elf named uncle Paul.” He asked “What’s a vent?” and that became a word of the day as we talked about different kinds of vents. He said,”I invented a binifroscope.” “It can see the stuff that is in empty space that’s so tiny.”

Carly and August inspected his soup from yesterday before she dumped it out. He decided it was thick from the molasses. He then said, “I need to go back to work.” Supervising me, that is. The instrumental version of the Hebrew song “Endencino” came on and he complained that he didn’t like the Hebrew songs anymore. I pointed out this version didn’t have words. He replied, “It doesn’t have words. That’s a problem with it. I like songs with words in it.”

We went upstairs and there was more elf talk: “I need to get Rimono, another elf in our house. Rimono likes water. I’m going to put him here. With his family. His whole family likes water.”

I gave him a bath. Afterwards he talked more about elves: “A bad elf, but it’s not trying to be better like me, stole a raspberry, so I put it in the sticky timeout room.” “Marlaco. She just wants to get a cake from the store room for her next birthday.” “He’s called Vehicle becuase he likes inventing new kinds of vehicles.”

We processed on the bed and he did a great job talking about it. He said that he didn’t mean any of the mean things he says when he’s upset, and he said he doesn’t like being held. That we should just block the door so he can’t get out. We went downstairs to where Carly was talking the Cherie and Chuck and he talked to them.

We then made popcorn and all three of us watched episode 4 of Hilda. I got all three of us half a cookie. He did a good job of apologizing to Carly for earlier. We took him up and got him ready for bed and I left them 9:30 and I went for a walk.

Ingredients of his soap creation:

Playground with Taya:

With the gan kids:

Merry-go-round with the gan kids:

Crazy with Taya:

A tune before bed he wanted recorded: