Category: Daily

He woke up at 6:28. I tried to convince him it was too early but he going down. We read on the couch for awhile and I got him vitamins, then he watched a Wild Kratts. “Dada, in my laboratory, I watched a 16 thousand hour video. Full. I watched the entire thing.”

We went outside and he used the saw to saw the yellow tubing. He wanted to hammer it to the house, so I started it but decided it was too early (7:40) for so much noise. He got upset and we went back inside.

He was hungry, so I made us pancakes. He was eating one when Carly came down at 8. He was very happy to see her. They sat on the couch together for several minutes, then he asked me to get his special straw. He showed it to her and explained all about it, and demonstrated how to clean it. He found an optical illusion with it, as the colors get blurry when he waves it around fast, then I showed him the bendy straw optical illusion by holding it in the middle.

He told Carly how he uses people in his chemicals, then he went and got the banana strawberry juice from the fridge and explained the machine to her, and how the other rows of the same juice looked like they were bad from the sun. He gave the rest to her to have.

They then went outside for a few minutes, then back inside they did an art project together. August had them making letters out of yarn glued on paper. Probably an idea that came from school. He was being cuddly, and told her, “You’re the sweetest thing ever.” When we talked about how Bryan bought a cuddly cat in the West Bank he was then a cuddly cat. I mentioned he wanted to go to another country this summer, and he told her “Iceland! Iceland!…I want to be cold! I want to wear a scarf!”

Carly went up to take a shower and he and I finished reading Amulet book 5. She came back down and they kept working on their piece of art, adding paint to it.

When I came back down they were outside. Carly had made food, and he had bumped her as she walked outside and it had all spilled and she was making it again. Outside, he was hammering and used his small stool to finish hammering in the nail we had started this morning. He then got on the inside of the railing and looped it over to the other side and hammered the other side all on his own, making a handle for him to hold onto.

He wanted to do more sawing, but didn’t know of what, so I suggested we squeeze oranges. He liked the idea, and he worked on cutting oranges on his own and got pretty good with it. Unfortunately, while lining up a new one to cut, he scraped a finger the tiniest bit. He had quite a reaction to it. Carly took him in to rinse it off, and the frustration came and went and took several minutes before he was okay. Dramatic like his knee scraping was last night.

I squeezed a few more oranges and the orange juice turned out really well. He wanted some of his own, watered down and sweetened a bit, so I got him a cup. Unfortunately, he knocked it over on the outside table before tasting it. I cleaned it up and Carly was with him. He was kind of falling apart, and made things worse by ripping the glass eye off the wall, taking a lot of paint with it. I had been telling him I needed to take it down carefully when it was done.

He curled up on the rug, silent, for several minutes, while I finished cleaning. I then picked him up and held him as we walked around the yard for awhile. Carly was cleaning the patio and transplanting plants, and she decided it was time to take down the red lantern, which has been really damaged by the wind and rain. Basically, half of the plastic is just gone. Interestingly, the shapes of the flowers and animals, which are painted on, mainly remain, the paint being enough protection to keep it intact. August had fun fully destroying the lantern, and then I got him a new cup of juice. He finished it just as I was coming out to work at the table.

He decided to go inside, and after a couple minutes insisted that Carly come in to cuddle. He wasn’t patient or polite about it though, and when he couldn’t be she took him upstairs for a timeout. After that they were playing on the bed.

He came down and was using a whiney voice. Really seemed tired, but then I realized he had only had a pancake. I made him a lunch of broccoli and meatballs. He ate it all, Carly made popcorn on the stove top. We then started reading Amulet book 6. ‘Improvise’ was the words of the day.

After awhile he got Carly to go upstairs to wrestle with him. He was rather hyper, and admitted he was smothering her when he came down. She had gotten him dressed, and he had his orange piece of ribbon and wanted it tied in his hair: “Anyway, could you tie this around my hair?” She tried to get him to try on his sandals, and he wouldn’t do that. She gave him a present from Spain: a pen from the hotel. He liked it, but then asked her for another present. He suggested she make something with his art supplies. She said she would, if he decorated the wrapping paper for it, so he reluctantly agreed to do that.

She took the paper and came back with a present. It was a Kinder Egg from Spain. It had a clicking robot fidget toy, and he enjoyed the chocolate stuff. The toy is separate from the chocolate now, so it isn’t inside the chocolate.

I headed to the store, walking, about 2:15 and they headed out for a walk. I saw them over by the garbage pile. They got a large plastic flower pot, and a round ring of metal. I was home about 3:15. They had been painting the plastic pot and were now doing challenges, with him running around the yard and touching things. Touching me was part of one when I came in.

I asked about their walk. It hasn’t gone well, as he had wanted to go on a bus ride and didn’t like not being able to do it right away.

I had purchased Scotch tape and he opened it with the wine bottle opener. Carly asked me “Did you want to take August to that place?” She meant the hardware store (which we had talked about doing), but he heard her and said, “Yeah, to the BUS stop so we can take a BUS somewhere.”

He cuddled with her on the couch for awhile and I heard him say, “I love you so much, I just want to put you in my soup and eat you.” That sounds like a line from something, but I don’t know what.

He got his iPad and realized he could watch on VLC. Need to fix that. But it is solving itself, as he only has the two Charlie Brown specials to watch on there. He watched a bit of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and stopped.

We made oatmeal. He chopped the mango and we joked about what we would put in it. He was singing, “I want to know, what you’re thinking, tell me what’s on your mind today…”

He ate the oatmeal and I started making dinner. Carly had gone up for some alone time, as he was being quite smothery. When she came down they started watching Monsters Vs. Aliens. I finished making dinner, then watched the rest of it with him. I preferred the Shrek movie, but this was pretty good as well. He was getting tired, and started demanding I get him a megaphone and microphone.

The curry I made was a bust. It was from a ‘mild’ packet on iHerb, but was spicier than the last one. And it had cashews. So Carly couldn’t eat it, and August decided it was too spicy. He went to the bathroom, then realized he had accidentally washed his hands twice. He asked me to put his pants on, then before I could reply said, “Wait, why should I ask you when I can do it myself?”

So for dinner he ate a good serving of broccoli, then had a pancake with cinnamon and sugar and butter, like a Swedish pancake. He didn’t eat much of it though as he didn’t like the texture and taste.

He sat with me and I talked to him about the week. He told me he didn’t want to go to school anymore and only wanted to learn things from me and mama. He played with the glue a bit, then I took him upstairs. He said he’d give me a massage, and then was the (rather rough) massage machine on my back. He was then trying headstands on the bed. He told me, “Ms. Andrea always says try, try, try!”

I gave him a quick bath, then we read all of The Meeting. We had a little pillow fight at his request, then brushed his teeth. Carly came in and I left them at 8:15. I went for an evening walk, listening to The Emissary.

Hammering the hose:

Slicing oranges:

Destroying the lantern:

Present from Spain:

Challenges:

Spinning thing:

Spinning thing slo-mo:

We got up at 6:40. The first thing he said was, “Is there no school today?” After a minute we got out of bed. He first did a very random “Moose” song and dance. He sat on the couch for a few minutes then went to the bathroom. He then asked me if it is possible to hammer nails in our walls. He told me about the “3-I-I-B…G-I-I-C” parts in his robot brain.

He got the circuit board again, and this time wanted to use a knife to break pieces off. I let him use a steak knife for a few seconds to saw the fragile pieces, then remembered the pliers had a wire cutter portion. He used them to get another small piece off, and we used the macro lens to photograph them.

He wanted to watch Wild Kratts, and yesterday we had realized there is only one season of Wild Kratts available on Netflix now. There are full episodes on Netflix, but not a ton, and I don’t like the ads. So we purchased a pack of episodes on iTunes. Which are nice, because they have the portions at the beginning and end with the real Kratt brothers. He watched the episode where they do a race to find the fastest animal and I made pancakes.

I was watching the episode with him and they explained what ‘stamina’ means. I said it was the word of the day, and he replied, “No. Not the word of the day. Wild Kratts can’t choose the word of the day.” He wore the strainer on his head as he watched.

We wrapped Taya’s present. Earlier he had drawn a “Snowman kind of character” on the inside of the paper. As I wrapped it, he decided the ends should only be partly folded, meaning the present basically had wings. He taped them solidly.

We ate pancakes and strawberries, then we opened the packages from yesterday. One was a t-shirt about reading that Cherie had bought for me. She had mentioned it on Facebook, but I’d forgotten about it. It is a nice shirt. He took a photo of me wearing it so I could send it to Carly and Cherie, and he decided it was a good bed and curled up on it on the couch.

The other package was the Final Straws, which I ordered several months ago and were supposed to come by Christmas, but the company had screwed up shipping. He really liked them, especially his, which is rainbow-colored and has a pink case. Mine is silver with a blue case. He remembered the juice from the science center and got it out of the fridge to drink with his straw. He was excited that it is long enough to use with the bottle without having to hold it up. Then, we cleaned it, and he liked the squeegee part that you pull through to clean it. I know that will be Carly’s favorite part.

I took a shower and he waited in the bathroom with me, playing around with things. We got dressed and ready to go. He said, “Isn’t it cool that I have Taya, a friend in PKB, And I’m older.” He needed to go to the bathroom and said, “With you watching…because of monsters.” He had earlier said it was scary being in the bedroom while I take a shower and that was why he had come in with me.

We left right at 10:30. We were to the mall at 11, but the entrance to the parking garage was gated shut. We drove around the big block, following another car, and found a random building to park in, south of the hospital. I didn’t think until later about how parking at the mall would have been free. And, indeed, the entrance I thought was to a hospital parking lot also leads to the mall.

We walked past the hospital and to the mall and ran into Eve and family as we were heading down to the Gymboree. This party was a big production. Probably 30+ kids, food all over, an entertainer running games with the kids, etc. It was a bit overwhelming at first. August was most attracted to the food, and he started with a sweet roll while I had a bagel with salmon. I then generally made him go treat/healthy/treat/healthy. Surprisingly, a couple times he chose to just eat a big leaf of lettuce, instead of something like a strawberry.

He was in and out of the show. Sat on my lap for much of it. Didn’t really want to participate. Couldn’t blame him. It was pretty crazy, and in a little room that was too small. When the show finished he did play around in the room a bit, especially after pizza came and we had a slice and then the cake came and we sang happy birthday. He liked sneaking into Taya’s birthday chair when she wasn’t there.

So now we went into the actual play area. Still quite chaotic, but much better. Not really up to Korean standards (the ceilings were low, for one, which made the whole thing rather claustrophobic) but still fun. He went on the slow merry-go-round thing, then did some bouncing, then threw some cubes back and forth with Eve. Zoe took him back in the bouncing area. I was able to do some reading while he played with them.

He wandered out of the play area and claimed he was bored at once. We practiced the telephone number song. We now had cupcakes and he got a goody bag from Cassie. Back in the play area he jumped with Zoe again and I played a ball throwing game, trying to hit a balloon we tied to the railing of the bouncy area, for awhile before he went back to playing with Zoe and Eve.

We went and found the bathroom, then played together in the ball pit area (after he had me show him how deep it was) and basketball. It was emptying out now as the party wound down. Taya came in and he and Taya started playing. I was able to talk to Cassie for a few minutes. She seemed sick (her voice was mostly gone) and worn out, but was heading to Belgium on the Space Camp trip tomorrow. When Cassie was leaving and trying to get Taya to go with some relatives he said, “No. I want her to be here forever and ever and ever and ever.”

A few minutes later he told me that Taya was still in the ball area. The relatives were just trying to call to her to get her out. I went and told her it was time to go and she obediently headed out. August and I then played hide and seek for a good long time. It was perfectly developmentally appropriate for him. He would never have handled looking for me for 10 or 20 seconds before. But this was just the right combination of safe and scary for him.

We were the last people there for quite awhile. It was technically open, but there was no one else there anymore. We left at 2:20 as he wanted to explore the rest of the mall. We found a gourmet chocolate stand and he talked about how he could get one some other time: “I want to come to this mall another day. Like once a week.”

We did a little Zinnie adventure as I carried him and he pointed which direction to go. It led us outside and around some sidewalks by the hospital, then we headed to the car. He stopped to examine a leaking fire pipe and discussed wanting rain boots. He spent some time chasing pigeons that weren’t too afraid of him, and found a broken lighter that he really wanted to be useful somehow.

He wanted to go to the same beach in Tel Aviv that we had been to with Carly. I drove that way. I figured it might be busy, but wasn’t prepared for what I would find. August fell asleep at 3:05, about 5 minutes before I got to the garage—the same one we had parked in with Carly. I drove around the whole place for a few minutes, then finally found a family getting in the car. But then up ahead of me I saw a car pull out. So I gave up that spot and headed up there. Only to find it wasn’t actually a spot. I parked there, and thought about chancing it. There were cars parked illegally all over the place. But the parking seemed to have calmed down, and since August was still asleep I got back in the car and kept looking. Lasted another 20 minutes or so before I gave up and paid 14 shekels for the pleasure of driving around the parking garage for more than half an hour.

And I had seen in action something I’d recently read about, where people jump out of cars and scour the parking lot looking for a spot, and then stand there saving it until their friend can show up with the car. Really disadvantages cars with only one adult in them.

Then, the side lane that you come out on was bumper to bumper, even though the Main Street was empty of traffic. It has its own light, and took another 10 minutes to make it to the light at the end of the block. But finally some good luck. I had put in directions to Poleg Beach in Netanya, but figured I’d keep my eyes open for another garage a couple blocks away. I didn’t have to do that though, as I found a spot on the street. Curb wasn’t painted. It was by a construction zone. I inspected the sign, and it appeared to say just no parking until 3pm. The family parked in front of me showed up and I asked them, and he confirmed my reading of the sign. We had found free street parking just a block from the beach.

August was waking up. It was now 4. A 55 minute nap, and he had napped 3 days in a row. I think I’ve been tiring him out. We walked to the beach and the first activity was having me bury his feet. We would move a little each time. I then suggested we walk up the beach a bit to see if we could find the playground. As we walked we saw a big flock of seagulls attracted by something on the beach by the water. August and I both thought they were big shells, but he went closer to investigate and it was rolls of bread. It turned out we were farther away from the playground than I thought, so we just picked a spot and started working on a sand sculpture.

We worked on a sculpture using our sand toys. At one point he said, “My teachers always says ‘Add more!’” We saw a couple of drones flying above the beach and they looked pretty cool. He said he wants one, and was sad when I suggested it might not be right away. He was cuddling on me and was giving me lots of raspberries on my neck and cheeks and hands today. He said he learned it from Mama.

We watched the sun go down at 5:07 and played a little more. I was a little kid getting my sculptures destroyed. We left at 5:20. He said he needed to use the bathroom so we walked a bit further north to the bathroom. On the way we practiced the phone number song and I asked him who he could ask for help here if he couldn’t find me. He thought about it for a minute and said, “Someone with kids.” That was a great answer. We talked a little more about what to do if you’re lost, and as he went to the bathroom he told me, “The lost kid area in my laboratory is like a zoo…when the parents aren’t there I can just look like them.” “I even have have a lost parent room. It has iPads to do your work on.”

From there we walked to the car and were driving at 5:45. We had interesting discussions on the way home as we drove through Tel Aviv. He asked about surgery, which had come up sometime earlier, and how all the blood doesn’t just come out of your body when they cut into you. I told him there is a really sharp knife call a scalpel and scalpel became our word of the day. We talked a bit more about that and he started talking about how he experiments on people in his lab. This led to a discussion of ethical experiments and what that means. He assured me that the only people that he kills in his lap to get their blood were people that wanted to die. He explained that they were all people who have lived full lives and are now ready to die and asked for his help so he helped them die. It was like a full argument for euthanasia, which he has never heard about before.

Earlier, we talked about his upcoming birthday and he has changed his mind. He now wants a party just like Taya’s and at the same place and with a lot of people. Carly wasn’t too excited to hear this. He talked about the cake he wanted and he said he wants stars, infinity signs, and computers on top with birthday cake icing. He wants his to be round though.

As we got closer to home he talked about having a satellite in space, and it had tubes from it to see with and they had actual eyes at the end. We ended up discussing the possibilities of alien life. Oh, and he talked about wanting to go on a bus ride again and seemed particularly fond of sitting at the bus stop, waiting for a bus. We were home at 6:35.

For dinner I made him a chicken patty and broccoli and he ate a good deal of broccoli. He went to the bathroom, and he asked, “Can I control my body?” We got into that, and it turned out he particularly was talking about babies, and he said he never wanted to have one, and he wondered if mamas just told their bodies to have a baby. I gave the briefest explanation, but he mainly focused on the DNA combining and inherited traits, and what he got from me and mama.

We made popcorn and buttered it and sat on the couch. He chose the fourth Shrek movie and we watched it together. I liked it more than I thought I would. When he finished the bowl of popcorn he said he needed another bowl as there was still a lot (an hour) of the movie left. I got him some Cheerios instead. I haven’t seen him watch a full movie, so that was interesting to see.

We skipped a shower and went upstairs before 9. He went to the bathroom and peed, but then when he sat on the bed there was a little poop. He had thought he just had gas. He said, “I hate my body.” He had said something earlier on the toilet when he had dripped some pee. I assured him it was not a big deal and we just changed the sheet.

I said we could never skip brushing his teeth, and he speculated on if there was ever a scenario where we would. I said if we were out late and he fell asleep in the carry and we just carried him up to bed we would probably just let him sleep and not brush his teeth. He said, “What about when you say you love me a ton of Qs?” I said I’d say it to him in his sleep, and told him I sometimes said things to him in his sleep, thinking at least part of his mind was at least hearing it. He said he couldn’t, and it kind of blew his mind when I talked about how his brain wasn’t fully off when he was asleep. He said that when he was asleep it was like he was dead. But then he remembered he was a robot, and concluded, “The only part of me that’s on when I sleep is a warning system.”

He wanted a visualization about pee, so he was a drop of pee, produced by a kidney and ending up being destroyed by a waste treatment plant. It took him a lot of trying to fall asleep, and he partly blamed the visualization. He said it wasn’t calming, but was too funny. He was quiet for several minutes, then asked, “What if you don’t use a sharp knife to cut you open?” He then ended up, somehow, with more, he thought, poop on his finger. I whisked him to the bathroom to wash him well. Back in bed there was another period of silence. He then said, “Dada” and put his hand on my throat before finally falling asleep at 10:05.

Opening the Final Straws:

Sawing the circuit board:

Taya’s party 1:

Taya’s party 2:

Playing in the play area 1:

Playing in the play area 2:

Playing in the play area 3:

Learning my phone number:

Hide and seek:

Chasing pigeons 1:

Chasing pigeons 2:

Sand sculpture:

He woke up at 6:45. He waited for me to get dressed and we went downstairs. The first thing he really said was, “If I finded a superglue bottle on the ground and it was full of superglue, could I squirt it all out outside?” He played around with tape and stuff as I got oatmeal ready. He watched a Wild Kratts about crocodiles and alligators and then got ready. It was a pretty smooth morning. He got a little upset when it was time to go, but he didn’t talk about not wanting to go. He just wanted me to read.

We were walking at 7:40. On the way to school we were singing our “Alligator” song. He started making up verses, including ones about a robotic drill and one about a motor. A little reluctance at the classroom, but he went and sat next to Ms. Rena all on his own. He knew we are going to get ice cream if he has a good day. And maybe get a present for Taya, if we could make it to Toys R Us by 4. He is convinced she needs a stuffed animal for her present.

I went to the library and sat and worked and listened in on the elementary parent coffee, which was about the elementary math curriculum. Preschool parents hadn’t been invited, so I figured it wasn’t very focused on preschool. At 10 I then went to the Parent Education Program meeting in the multi-purpose room. The speaker was Dr. Deborah Gilboa, and she was speaking on “Raising Resilient Kids”. It was good, but lasted over 2 hours. I walked home and worked for an hour and a half, then drove to school.

When I got there Lydia was outside, crying. I was afraid it had something to do with August, but apparently she was just missing her mom. When August ran out he was in a good mood. He told me he had a good day, but after rest time, on the playground, boy from PKB (Chen, I think) had taken his rock and he had hit Chen. We went inside. Marion had gone to the bus, but Rena was there. She said there had also been a time in the morning where he hadn’t been happy with her when she made him clean up blocks, and that he had threatened to hit Reia.

I told him we weren’t getting ice cream. He didn’t handle that too badly. We got going, and drove to Toys R Us. He fell asleep for the last 5 or 10 minutes. I carried him into the store, and he woke up and spotted a tub of stuffed animals. He looked through it and found a llama. That was it. Taya’s toy. He wanted something for himself, but I said no. But near the registers we found those snap bracelets, with the sequins that flip over. Only 2 dollars each. He got a blue one for Taya, and a pink one for himself. On our way out I stopped to get some wrapping paper from the wrapping station. He wasn’t sure we were supposed to take it without paying, and basically made me ask the security guard by the door. I did, and then he was okay with it.

He stayed awake on the way back. We stopped at the school and took a grocery bag in and went to the orange trees.I had run into Zoe and met her husband in the library earlier, and then saw her again as we entered the school. August and I were filling up the bag with oranges. Plenty to choose from. She had picked up her 1st grade son Lincoln from piano lessons at the school, and they came to get oranges too. On the walk back, August and I looked at the tractors and mowers, then he found a round filter of some sort that he said looked like a honeycomb. We stopped and checked Carly’s box and got a couple small packages, and then at the guard station we got the iHerb box.

We were home around 5. He opened the iherb package with his scissors. He took the plastic cushion things from the box and was popping them, all on his own. He then used tape to hang the strand up from the kitchen door to a cabinet, and called it a “Christmas decoration”. He was limping and said his right foot was bothering him.

We ate the last of the curry and rice for dinner, then we made a batch of popcorn, put butter on it, and watched a short documentary called The Search for Life in Space. He watched it, but claimed he wasn’t too impressed. We skyped with Carly, as he was looking tired and she was heading out to dinner with the group soon. It wasn’t a long skype, as he was grumpy.

He was hungry and wanted oatmeal. He wanted to chop mango, but we are out. He decided to try with pineapple, so he chopped that. He decided he didn’t like it too much with the pineapple, and I agreed, but he ate most of it. We finished reading The Return of Zita the Spacegirl. He got his circuit board from the monitor and found a couple screws on it we hadn’t taken out. I tried, but they were too tight, and he was a bit upset I couldn’t take them out.

We headed up for a bath and I mentioned not having a word of the day. He came up with ‘established’ and we discussed what it means. He had a rather screamy bath, and I think it was today that when I told him to stop screaming he told me, “You know I get upset when I take a bath!”

In the bedroom he asked me about my name as a kid and didn’t believe it was the same: “Did you grow up having the name Ryan?…No!…Cuz that’s an adult name! Like mama…” He played on the bed, and at one point hugged me and said, “Did you know something? I love you so, so, so, so much.”

He was speaking randomly through his wood sculpture/musical instrument, and said things like, “According to vacuoles and things being cancelled because of the United States of America and going to another planet.” And, “You know, if you ever find a roast human on the ground, the secret ingredient to make it sugary is salt.”

Brushed his teeth and got him to bed. He requested a visualization, and we did a visualization on visualizing ‘nothing’. He talked about colors he could see and fell asleep by 9:15.

New verses of the alligator song:

Snap bracelet 1:

Snap bracelet 2:

Popping packaging:

Cutting pineapple:

Playing with his sculpture:

Opening the Final Straws:

We slept until a little after 7. I woke up with a really sore ankle. Has never happened before, but it went away after a few minutes. Downstairs he watched Wild Kratts and I got oatmeal for breakfast. When he went to the bathroom he asked me if hammers could break bones, like the dog bone he found in the dirt last year. He talked about metal and said that ‘amphacork’ was the strong metal from his planet. Then he was telling me about the subs he has that carry a lot of people.

His wood sculpture came apart so he re-glued it using more glue. He learned that you need to use more to make it stay together. He found little Mickey Mouse coloring book set from an airplane flight and got the markers out from it. I found a pencil case from Korea that he could put them in and he liked it and wants to use it now. I took a shower and he played a little Angry Birds. As we got ready to go he was asking a lot of questions bout knives and glue. He couldn’t find one of his shoes, and we remembered he had tied it to me using some of his pajamas last night.

We left at 9:30. He told me more about his amfihsubs. Which are actually airplanes he builds. They have printing presses on them and are for discovering things. Kind of like helicopters but more complicated. We listened to “I Want to Know” by the Thompson Twins and he requested it on repeat.

We were headed to the science center in Hadera. As we drove by the mall he spotted a couple of those blow up wavy arm guys. He hasn’t seen any for a long time, and knows them from one of the Treehosue books. We got to the science center and went in, only to find that the main museum is closed again, and actually being remodeled now.

We rolled a few coins down the vortex thing, then we went back to the car and headed north to Haifa. We were listening to an ‘Indie Songs for the Family’ playlist and the Broken Social Scene cover of “Puff the Magic Dragon” came on and he reminded me he didn’t want sleepy songs because he didn’t want to take a nap.

We parked in our usual dead end. We were in the science center before 12. No play area, and we headed straight to science after the bathroom. We went to the sound room for a few minutes, then I convinced him to go out side and have a snack. We then played around the outside portion. I lifted him in the globe for quite awhile, then he was in the spinning sun. He saw another bot walk on the walking circle thing and he tried that. He wanted to see if he was big enough to do the helicopter by himself, but he was upset to find out that it was chained up.

And then it was back down the water portion, with the different gates and pumps. At the bottom of the hill he spotted the vending machine for the first time. We got a bag of crunchy Cheetos and we sat down and he got to have those for the first time.

I convinced him to go up to the special exhibit. I had mentioned not knowing if it was open. I meant I thought it might be closed down, as it is temporary, and I didn’t want him to be disappointed if it was. But he thought I meant ‘closed’ as in for the day, and it took some convincing him that we could stay in it once we were there. There was almost no one else in there.

We did the blurry screen at the beginning, then the big head thing. More blurry screen, then we worked our way through, doing the other big head thing, the happy/sad thing, the coloring the circles and putting them on the screen, etc. There is the digital map of computer virus attacks, and he talked about how it was network connections between his labs that he has all over the world. Next, we did the Pictionary game where the computer tries to guess what you’re drawing. He was mainly silly about it, but a few times took it serious and got the computer to recognize his drawings.

Finally, we went back to the beginning and played with the blurry screen again. He got the props and asked me to use them as props and to use the area in front of the screen as my stage and put on a play. Perhaps an idea from preschool? So I did a version of Beauty and the Beast.

We headed back to the building, and this time got a strawberry banana juice from the machine and drank part of that. He decided he did want to stop at a beach on the way home, so we got going t 2:45. Outside the science center he spent some time finding peach and maroon colored rocks. We got back to the car (he was walking and having me carrying him—we’re using the bike less and less). Along the way he talked about how he has sensors that automatically count all the cats and birds that we see, and it doesn’t include duplicates.

In the car we were listening to music. He fell asleep from 3:20 to 4 when I woke him up at Hadera Stream Park. This is the stream that runs just south of the power plant. We parked on the south side. He was slow to wake up, and I carried him down to the beach. It was really windy, and we stopped to put his sweatshirt on after a minute. We got down to the beach. August said he didn’t want to play there, as it was too shelly, but I think it was mainly too windy. Because then he started following bird tracks and looking for treasures. As we were walking back along the stream, a small round thing was blowing along the ground and he followed it, and saved it before it blew into the stream.

We then followed the path up the stream as far as we could. We stopped to look at some of the sculptures, and to throw a stick in one of the fountains that flows into the river. As we looked across at the power plant he said the four smokestacks were different sizes. It was an optical illusion as they were progressively farther away from us. He found a nice piece of pumice and that was the word of the day. He said it was like soft white rock he’s found at school. He found a really big piece of it, but then left it behind when he hurt himself a little somehow.

We heard an announcement over the loudspeaker that the park was closing, and listing the cars still, including our Skoda. The signs had said open until dark, but apparently it meant sunset, which was a few minutes away (about 5:05). We got to the just before 5, not the last one, and got going at sunset.

We were home at 5:30. We had quiche for dinner, then made popcorn and read Amulet book 5. He bit his tongue. A bad one, and he spit blood-covered popcorn on the couch. He then kept running around the house, rubbing blood on his sleeves, screaming, anytime he could get away from me. I had to yell “Stop!” to get his attention. The blood slowed, and we read more of Amulet and ate more popcorn, finishing it.

He asked me, “Dada, next summer can we go to a house that has a TV? So I can watch movies?” We went upstairs and he was looking at out space heater and asked if a stick would burn if it touched it. I asked how long the stick was on there, because it wouldn’t burn if it was a quick touch. He replied,”No, it sitted on there for as long as a bird sitted on a wire.” He took a long time on the toilet, and I did some reading. We did his bath, then we skyped with Carly. She asked, “What was the best part of the day?” He said, “The best part of the day is you” and leaned over and hugged me.

Carly said that the Alex and Cherie’s flight was 9 hours late. August asked, “Did they make a joke in security?” I guess we had mentioned not making jokes to security to him at some point. I took a shower and then we discussed why we have 1 of some organs and 2 of others, which we’ve wondered about before.

In the bedroom he played with his wooden sculpture. With a straw and bracelet thing attached it has turned into a musical instrument and he made music. We put lotion on his hand and lip and had lights off before 9. He requested a visualization and we did a visualization where he was an ant getting food and taking it to the nest. We talked about how the heater regulates temperature and ‘thermostat’ was a word of the day.

It was hard to get to sleep but he really tried, rolling around a lot, and pressing his forehead and cheek against mine. He fell asleep at 9:40 while holding onto my arm.

Coin vortex:

Sound song 1:

Sound song 2:

Walking circle:

Big Zinnie:

Blur screen 1:

Blur screen 2:

Blur screen 3:

His laboratory connections in mooka mook:

Pictionary of sorts:

Following bird tracks:

The rolling thing:

Stick in the fountain:

His musical sculpture:

Carly was picked up by a taxi at 5:30. I managed to get up and say goodbye and crawl back in bed. I didn’t know how August would respond in the morning, so after I woke up I went back up and stayed in the bedroom until he woke up at 6:40. It turned out I had nothing to worry bout.

We went downstairs and he ate oatmeal and everything went smoothly. We walked to school and dropping him off went without a hitch. Marion was gone, and Ms. Rena was there for the morning, which I think was a nice surprise for him. As I left I heard Lydia or Eve saying “August is the best. I love him so much.”

I went to the library and worked from there for the day. Around 11:30 Andrea emailed me and sent me a couple photos and said that morning choice time was going really well. He had made something out of a stick and beads and pipe cleaners, and was painting a plastic bottle. At one point during the day I walked over and around the big field and found all the orange trees he’d told me were over there. Lots of oranges and I picked one and ate it.

When I picked him up he immediately told me he had had a good day. His nose/top lip had gotten pretty bad though and were all brown and starting to get scabby. He walked in circles on the grass and told me about how he could recombine DNA: “You can break it apart and recombine that code.” He sat on the bench and ate some cashews. Taya and Eve were hanging out with Grace and going to play on the playground, but he didn’t want to play with them, and instead wanted to get going.

We walked upstairs and he saw plants in pots outside the 3rd grade. He told me the pots were actually made from plastic, although it looked like fabric. He had learned this on Monday and showed me where the table was where they had learned about them. Must have been part of the earth day celebration. he tiptoed through some flowers that had been planted around trees, then told me how cheetahs are stupid because they can only run at top speed for bout 40 seconds. He told me that was their weakness, then talked about the weaknesses of other animals: “The weakness of the clam shells, dada, is that one creature of the sea can drill through the shell and make it a liquid and just eat.”

We went to the library and got The Return of Zita the Spacegirl. I asked Amanda if they could track down the 5th and 6th Amulet books, which were due back in early December. She looked it up and it said they were turned in. I then spotted them on the shelf waiting to be re-shelved behind her. They just came back today. We got those and left at 4:10. We saw these doors down below into the hillside, sort of, below the library with warnings about electronic equipment. He explained how he made the equipment in there.

Finally, as we started walking home I told him I had eaten an orange today, and mentioned that we have a juicer. He got really excited about juicing oranges and wanted me to find the juicer when we got home. He then started talking about “The robotic Dion I’m making…” Dion is the Playball teacher. He said it looks and feels just like Dion on the outside, but inside it has machines and space and everything. And it was huge. This was like Zita, where there ends up being a huge Zita robot. He said he had fun at Playball today, but that he still hates Playball. I asked why, and he replied, “Because I always hate playball, silly Billy.” And he told me he wants to travel more, and wanted to go to every country. Except for ones with tornadoes and hurricanes, of course.

We stopped at home and dropped off our stuff and took the car up to town and parked in the dirt lot. As we walked to VIPizza, he asked, “Where did we park?” I told him him we had just parked in the dirt lot. Without a pause, he told me, “I was talking to my invisible robotic tree trunk. I was asking it where I parked my invisible dog.”

At VIPizza they had cheese slices and anchovy slices. I asked if he wanted to try anchovies. He called back “Never!” As we ate he told me lions are picky eaters as they won’t eat anything that has been dead for awhile. We speculated on lions and scavengers would have different stomachs. We talked about how this was the best pizza ever, and I said I wished we could eat at Pizza School again so he could compare them. He didn’t remember Pizza School at first, but then I mentioned noodle pizza, and he perked up and I could tell he actually remembered that. He told me he could give me some noodle pizza from his lab, tied with a bow, “with perfect cheese.”

He had a cheese slice and I had one of their stuffed things, which they also put hard-boiled egg in and serve with ranch dressing. And then it happened: I had to get him a second piece. He had corn this time, and he ate most of it. He asked to go to the bathroom and as we walked back there I said I hadn’t thought to ask him at school. He said, “Don’t worry about it.” We left there at 5:25.

As I walked back I said something about having good Dada and Zinnie time. As we got in the car he sang “August loves Zinnie and Dada time. Just kidding!” Then he said it the other way and with “Just kidding!” again.

We were home at 5:45. I remembered how we used to say thank you to parks when we left them, and he asked, “Can we still do it?” we got a bag and walked over to the tree near the cloud bridge and picked a bunch of the small sour oranges. We went back and had a fun, and made a mess, squeezing them. It was really strong stuff. We kept adding more and more water and a bunch of sugar and fake sugar. Then, we finally got something drinkable by putting some of that (we had filled the glass water bottle) in a cup and and adding more water and sugar.

He watched a Wild Kratts and took the frozen treat out. Too frozen, so let it thaw. He wanted oatmeal, and I let him cut the mango all on his own. We then skyped with Carly. He gave her a hug on the iPad, but also got sad and told her he didn’t like her. Carly had had a good trip to Spain. August was grumpy, but softened when she offered to tell “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. He lay on the couch as she told him the story.

He ate the frozen treat and oatmeal. He broke off a big piece of the frozen stuff and gave it to me. We read a few chapters of The Return of Zita and skipped his bath. We started to talk about a word of the day. I proposed some word I had taught him today and he said no, that it should be ‘motherton’. He said it was from a song he’d heard at school; “Motherton can’t you live.” He said it was a song about nature. Couldn’t figure it out, but I thought it might be about Mother Nature, and I talked about ‘personification’ when he asked what Mother Nature is (and I also mentioned us saying thank you to parks). He said, “Personification, word of the day!”

We brushed his teeth and got in bed. We discussed wedding rings after he gave me his ring, as it is too big for his finger (he had made it at school). That discussion led to a discussion of living with someone. He told me he was never moving out, and flatly said, “And I won’t get a job. I refuse to get a job.” We had lights off at 9. He made some funny noises, then requested a visualization about a hair. He was asleep about 9:30.

Trying to tape the automatic doors:

Explaining an invention:

Discussing the pizza:

Squeezing oranges:

Slicing mango:

Carly got him up before she left, about 6:40. He watched a Magic School bus episode about pollution. His nose has been runny and has been bothering him so we used some chapstick before we went. We were walking before 7:40. Everything seemed pretty normal, although he did talk about not wanting to go to school.

But when we got to his classroom he went to get an orange from a basket that Lydia or Eve was holding. When they said he couldn’t he got upset and grabbed one. I had to make him give it back, and he was saying mean things to them, and tried to hit Marion. I took him out and we talked on the bench for a few minutes. Took him back in and Andrea came and took him, suggesting they look at the photos that he and Yaya took in the nature reserve yesterday.

Then, about 10:30, I got a call from Vicky. She had August in her office. She had him tell me over the phone what had happened: they were on the playground and there were four people on the swing (the limit). Eve wouldn’t let him get on, and he threw a chair (one of the small plastic ones) at her and hurt her. She was okay, and after August had talked to Vicky they had gone and checked on Eve. She was okay and August had apologized.

I drove and picked him up. We talked about it in Vicky’s office. She had to do the talking now; he was much more talkative over the phone. We headed out. After we walked by the security guard he said, “I don’t like the security guard anymore cuz he see-d me out of class.” We left at 11.

At home we sat and finished reading The Meeting, started it again. There was then a knock on the door. It was Shmuel, and he was giving us a few plants. He was still working in Mikaela’s yard, and said he’d be around for about an hour. I asked if he wanted coffee, and he said when I was ready, and I could call down to him. So August and I planted the plants. We put the droopy one with purple flowers in the big colorful vase we found, the one with red flowers in the old metal bucket that we first used for growing tomato seeds, and the two smallest plants in the pink pot that I have up on the ledge outside the office, but the flower seeds haven’t grown.

And yesterday, when he had been here and left the ladder, he had also left a bush. He had seemed shocked that Mikaela had pulled it up. But it was mostly dead, with just one small living shoot. Carly was just going to toss it, but now August was wanting to use the saw. We picked off the small growths on the tree, and I lifted him up to use the saw on a couple. So, we also took that dying plant and used the saw to cut off the dead chunks, then planted it over by the fence near the Zinnie house. An experiment to see if it will survive. I aid it had a “slim chance of survival.” August made ‘slim’ the word of the day.

I made coffee, but when I went out I realized that Shmuel had left. I mentioned having too much coffee now, so August got a bowl and had me pour coffee in it and he made concoctions and poured them into his water bottle.

We did more sawing and hammering. He had me nail a piece of bamboo to his Zinnie house as a wind tester. He then wanted to go inside and do a brother and sister scenario. He introduced it with: “Right behind you there’s a ravenous bear.” We played out the scenario. He (as the sister) saved me from a bear dressed as a crocodile.

I then pulled up the Mind Yeti app (which the elementary school uses for their mindfulness program) and we watched a couple of mindfulness videos. He then wasn’t happy when I wouldn’t read him Monsters Beware! I had told him we weren’t going to read any of the books involving fighting will he was hitting at school. Instead, we read the newest Hilde book, Tornado Hits!. He wanted oatmeal and I made him eat more of his lunch first. We finished the book, and he sang a song at one point. He played with the drill, then we read The Bad Seed twice.

Back outside, we cleaned out the Zinnie house and swept it. Threw a way a lot of the old balls and random toys that were out there when we moved in, and got all of the plastic plant pots out. He told me he knew how to use the saw because of Marion. He had watched her use it when he was with Hector.

Carly got home and he got hyper. I took him upstairs and tried to listen to Mind Yeti with him. He really doesn’t like it. But eventually he said he could turn on calm and happy robot modes if I asked him. He also said he would be okay with me saying visualizations to help him calm down. He just doesn’t like the app.

Downstairs we ate dinner, and he asked for a second bowl of curry.

He cuddled with Carly and asked her to tell “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. The boy’s name was Johnjoe, and wanted to be a scientist. He said “I’m a good rememberer…In dada’s stories there used to be Dr. Figlemeister.” She told the story a few times. August wanted the boy to fool the townsfolk multiple times.

She took him upstairs for bath. I did dishes and his lunch. They made a tent on the bed, using the purple bucket and clothes hampers to hold up the blankets. She then went to take a shower and I read Breathe to him. We then finished reading The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow . He asked me, out of the blue, “Can we go to Thailand this summer?” He was playing with a couple of runner bands and calling them his headband, although he was putting them on his toes and feet. I turned out the lights and he wanted a visualization. I had him being a leaf floating down a stream. He was asleep at 8:55.

Drill fun:

“It’s masking paper” song:

Indian spiderwebs…or roots:

He was up a little before 6 when I was getting dressed. He went down and cuddled with Carly for several minutes. He watched a Magic School Bus, then played with his drill. Carly said he should tell Heather about it and he called it his “long intensiled (utensiled?) drill.” Carly dressed him in earthy colors for the Earth Day celebrations today (a school-wide dress thing). We got going at 7:20 and I dropped them off at school. Carly said that taking him to class wasn’t as smooth as the last time she did it. She cheered him up and got him going by saying he could have Mama-Zinnie time after school if he wanted to skip STEM class.

I drove to Sabeel. Waze took me a new route: south on 2, east on 5, and then south on 60. A new section of the West Bank that I drove through. I got to Sabeel at 9:30, just a couple minutes after Omar and Marc. Omar made Turkish coffee and we met in the office (Androus was mailing out the newsletter on the usual tables) until about 12:30. Reorganized the book, in theory, but should also make things easier/more sustainable in the long run (again, in theory). Omar also talked about parenting and how the baby isn’t sleeping much, and he’s running out of parenting tricks to manage Ghada. We had kak and yogurt and falafel and oranges for lunch, with Androus and the woman that was also there. Omar and her talked about some online game, a first-person shooter, that everyone seems to play (PUBG, which is apparently pronounced ‘papa ji). I told them that the kids at school play that annoying Shellshockers on the library computers.

I drove back, getting gas along the way. I got to school about 3:30. I went to her classroom but it was locked and I saw August’s stuff inside. I found them over at the cafeteria. He was eating a pastry thing.

He had hit Lydia today, although it didn’t sound as bad. She had been pushing him (not clear if it was literally or physically) to do something. He said she wasn’t upset by it. He had had to sit and draw again, presumably with Ms. Vicky, but Carly didn’t actually talk to a teacher. When she had gotten there, he had said he had a piece of paper to give her and he told her this.

We went back to Carly’s classroom. He had drawn a restaurant machine on the board, and now explained it to me and added things: a spot where you put in the recipe you want, arms so it can deliver the food, a table people can sit at, and eyes on the table so it could see.

We walked to the car and were home about 4. They stayed outside, planting a bunch of seeds (peppers) and making a sign for the ‘sensor fence’. I got his dinner ready (curry and rice), then Carly read to him. They started with Tar Beach, then read I Been There, then started Monsters Beware! from the beginning as they ate popcorn. I baked the second loaf of bread. They then went up to wrestle on the bed and I did some typing and work. August fell off the bed and was hurt for a minute but was okay.

Downstairs the second load finished. He wanted to cut his slice in half with the bread knife. As I tried to helped him he told me, “Dada. I. Don’t. Need. Your help.” We ate, then he had fun taking the hairband out of Carly hair, repeatedly, as she sat on the chair.

She made him pick up the clothes. Earlier, she had let him bring down the clothes so he could make a clothes sculpture on the drying rack. Carly took him up and gave him a bath. Carly had noticed the full moon, so I took August out and we looked at it.

He was still hungry so I made him oatmeal. He was playing with the drill with the paintbrush in it, and he asked me to do a slo-mo video of it, which turned out pretty well. We finished reading Bone #2, then read the fox and badger book, The Meeting. One of the books had the term ‘party pooper’ in it and August made that the word of the day. We went upstairs and he asked, “Can we wrestle? I have my wresting moves down!” So we wrestled around on the bed. The most we have actually wrestled. He asked questions about boxing as we headed downstairs for him to say goodnight to Carly.

He took the tape dispenser back up and taped a couple things, then I brushed his teeth. He wanted a story, so I told a story called “A Day in the life of Shmorgadeboop“, where the cat spends the day pretending to be a tiger and meets August at the park and gets chased home by dogs. Then sang a couple songs and he was asleep at 8:45.

His restaurant machine:

Clothes sculpture:

Paintbrush drill slo-mo:

He was active during the night. He kept turning sideways and rolling towards the end of the bed. The first time he was using my feet as a pillow and I felt him about to roll off the end of the bed and I sat up to grab him. I don’t know how I sensed it was about to happen a second time.

He was up at 6:50. He raced downstairs to Carly. She talked about being independent, and he made an art project on his own. When I came down at 7:30 he was watching a Wild Kratts about salmon. When he was done he cuddled with Carly. She then tried to get him to do the independent thing again. He said he’d do a chemical at the sink, but he needed one of us to sit upstairs. Carly reminded him he’d been up there on his own for several minutes yesterday when he was taking to Vivian and Colin. He said that was different because it was entertainment. When she said this was entertainment too, he replied, “No, only talking entertains me.”

So I went up. The playing in the sink thing lasted a few minutes, but he regularly needed my help. He then wanted to wash old clothes with his chemical in the washing machine. He decided in the purple bucket would be okay, but downstairs he got distracted by the heater and seeing if we could throw things in the path of it and it would blow them.

Back on the couch he asked Carly to be mama and baby butter chunks. Then, mosquitoes. Then, “Can we be mama and baby wasps? So we could sting multiple times without getting dead?”

They then went outside. August was playing with my bicycle pump and wanted to blow up the tires, so I helped him do that a little. Carly also wanted to get another planter to go on the fence. August wants to fill up the big plastic planter that Shmuel left for us. I suggested it could be August’s own planting space, and he and I discussed where it could go. I went back inside and they stayed out. He had some experiment where he was pumping air into the bag. He was blowing them up like balloons. The first worked quite well. I went out to help with the peanut bag, but we couldn’t stop it from leaking too much.

His next activity was using the piece of rebar he found yesterday and the hammer to break apart our big rocks. Carly told him he had to wear goggles, then I helped and held the rebar. We had some success in breaking off chunks big enough that Carly would use them in the plants beds. I was back inside a few minutes later when he came in and cut paper and asked me to write ‘Warning. Electric Fence.’ He hung signs up on the inside and outside of our fence.

He then used the parts from the watering system to make some sort of watering system outside. When I went out he was making a drainage system that would go into one of the plastic pipes coming out of the concrete.

He asked me to make him oatmeal with mango. We made it together, but he didn’t want it microwaved at all. I had overdone the mango in thawing it, so that added a little heat, but not much. He ate the whole bowl. I was listening to the “Fractal Zoom” CD single on repeat. Actually 8 or 9 tracks.

He played a few minutes of Angry Birds and I went upstairs to brush my teeth and get ready for the day. Carly cut up strawberries and he was eating them, but claimed that some of the pieces had the hard middle in them and wanted those parts cut out. He claimed it was the ‘pit’ of the strawberry. Carly argued that strawberries don’t have pits, but he disagreed. He told us, “Parents doesn’t know everything!” When he had enough strawberries he ate some of his frozen stuff. He spent a few minutes arguing with Siri, trying to get Siri to “play every song in your database.”

Carly got us in major cleaning mode. I spent some time cleaning upstairs. When I came down he was starting another oven experiment, making ‘cookies’ of flour, baking soda, and chocolate chips. He wanted to add water to them and asked me to get the eye dropper. He was then trying to get water on them and told me, “Its harder than putting a baby to sleep.”

We then read some of of the first Shivers book. He then watched The Magic School Bus, the tree communication episode. He was upset when I wouldn’t give him more time. Carly took him, then I took over.

Back downstairs we took his cookies out of the oven (they’d been turned off earlier) and he tried them out. He said, “It’s kind of a good and kind of a bad snack.”

I worked on the bread dough, and he had rice and curry for dinner, then I made him oatmeal, which he ate outside. They washed the car and he made his drainage system.

They came back in and Carly talked about going to the nursery. She said they needed a pot. But not the other kind of pot. He picked up on the joke and asked,

“Pot? What’s the other kind of pot?” Carly just said it was a drug. He then told us he has all sorts of drugs in his laboratory.

He wanted to set up composting and wanted to put all the compost from the freezer in the bucket. Carly explained that we couldn’t just start it that way, but she emailed someone at school about getting a recycle bin. They went and did recycling and got materials (leaves, etc.) for his soil he’s trying to make.

Carly did quiche and he and I did art. We did a big picture together. He got the drill and put crayons in it for his “scratch pad”. We drew with that, and he drew where the machine kept chemicals and where it kept drugs. Carly and August painted with the drill while I did the crust of the quiche. Carly loved the drill painting and didn’t notice when August told her he was wiping the paint from his hands on the floor. They also they made popcorn.

We read more of Shivers. He kept repeating the “Son of a flotsam” line, so ‘flotsam’ became the word of the day. We ate quiche for dinner, and he had a little more of his cookies before Carly said that was enough—not because he was eating cookies, but because of all the baking soda it was kind of grossing us out.

On the couch we started reading The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow, then he used tape to hang up our art above the couch. I gave him his bath and washed his hair. He was asking questions about boxing (not sure how this has come up as a topic, but in one of the books we’ve read recently it referenced that one of the characters used to be a boxer) and we watched aa couple minutes of Muhammad Ali in the ring. He always shivers, but shuns warm water, the heater, etc. Today he actually told me he was cold, which is progress. Went okay though and we got his hair dried and got him ready for bed.

In bed he told me, “I hate princesses…I only like nice girls that AREN’T princesses.” We then read more of The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow. He said “Humph” again about something. He had said it several times today. Got it from one of the books. I left the two of them at 8:45. I went for a walk and finished listening to The Written World, then listened to more of Foundation.

Pumping up the bag:

Hammering the rocks:

Tasting his cookies:

A drainage system:

Crayon drill:

Crayon drill 2 – drugs and chemicals:

Flotsam song:

He was stuffy during the night and woke up a few times: “Dada, make me not stuffy.” He was up at 6:40. After a few minutes of sitting and leaning against me he went downstairs. She made him oatmeal. He was down for awhile before Carly came up and got his iPad. I went down after her and he was watching a little Wild Kratts, then Berenstain Bears. Ads work, and he has really been wanting Angry Birds 2. So we downloaded it, with the understanding he could just play a few minutes. He did that, and caught on quickly. He then stopped, and was acting out the different birds on the couch.

He asked me for a piggy back ride. We talked about his lab and he still wouldn’t give me the passcode. In the kitchen he then did a rosemary bread experiment, putting foil in the bottom of a pot, then using flour, baking soda, rosemary, and chocolate chips (a good choice, as he of course got to have some as well). He had hung up one of his pieces of art on the freezer using the mounting stuff he now likes. He showed me how he can open the freezer while on his stool: “So now I can ask for treats whenever I want.” He hung up more stuff with the two-sided tape. He then had a scenario for us to play: I was a boy playing a video game. I was startled by a lion behind me. It turned out to be a mail carrier (like in Shivers) and had a note about my parents being in trouble. It led on a voyage for me across islands looking for them. I found diamonds along the way, and there were various animals along the way (birds, snakes, etc.) whispering which direction I should go along the way. The story was all his, but he liked my jokes when I had the character be literal about the directions and run into trees and other objects. ‘Perish’ was the word of the day as I used it in the note from the parents.

He ate a lot of spaghetti for dinner, then had some of his frozen treat as we got ready to go. We were out to the car when he realized he hadn’t gone to the bathroom, so we went back for that. We left at 12:20.

In the car we mainly talked. He asked if someone had invented a rain hat. I said they had, and we looked at photos on my phone of different rain hats. He thought there were kids that looked like Candy and Sophia. In the parking garage he saw the big fans on the ceiling and explained how they worked like a refrigerator to keep the garage cool. I had just explained to him yesterday, as he discovered the refrigeration unit at the olive section of the bulk food store, why a refrigerator (or our air conditioner) turns on and off.

We went into the natural history museum at Tel Aviv University. Bought tickets, and spent a few minutes looking at the displays on the right as you go up the ramp. Then he wanted to go to the downstairs section. This is where they have the living insects (and a few other animals). That was the best part for us. Lots of fascinating stick bugs and videos of insects building things (one raises a shell off the ground using silk and uses it as a home) and an ant colony and all sorts of others. He was hungry so we went to the tables area and sat there for quite awhile. We ate the fruit peel thing that Carly had found. He liked that, but later would not like the other flavor at home.

We then worked our way upstairs. We made our way though a couple of rooms full of skeletons and statues. Learned that lions had been wiped out in the area by the crusaders. Then there was a room with a video about the sea. We watched the end of it, in Hebrew. Then a boy ran over and started it again in Hebrew. August saw this, and ran over and pushed the English button. It restarted the movie. We grabbed him, the boy came back and pushed Hebrew again, and August was not happy. Carly took him for a timeout. I followed, but lost them, and ended up walking back and forth for several minutes. She had taken him in the bathroom. He had calmed down but wasn’t letting it go. He was still saying mean things, and blowing raspberries at her. I took him, and I think we were planning to take a break. But then he was telling me he was going to kill the other boy. He then blew a raspberry right in my face and spit all over me. Startled, I tried to put him down quickly, but then he slipped through my left arm and fell the last foot. Hurt his foot a bit and a shoe came off.

That was the end of things. We headed back to the car and headed home. We red a little of Bone #2 in the car. At home he was upset about not playing the iPad. Carly took him upstairs for a few minutes. They then went on a walk towards the strawberry fields. He came back with a couple treasures. A plastic piece of a crown, and a short piece of rebar.

We made a shopping list and Carly headed to the store. We started re-reading Monsters Beware! from the beginning. He then watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving while I started to cook the curry, with potatoes and cauliflower for diner. He played with the can opener, using it on paper. He wanted to drink coconut milk. When it turned out we had a can of coconut cream instead he was disappointed and didn’t like it

Carly got home and I finished cooking. He set alarms on his iPad and played with the stopwatch. They skyped with Vivian and Colin. The two of them were pretending to swim, as they had gotten ready to go to the pool, but then found out the pool was closing early and it wasn’t worth it to go. August wanted to show them his jumping on the bed upstairs. Carly then came back down and he spent several minutes upstairs on his own, talking to Vivian and also Colin. Carly asked him if he’d been talking to Colin, and he said yes, but it wasn’t really a conversation.

He got me to come up, and he went and got pajamas and other clothes from his closet and started tying them around me as scarves for my neck and legs and arms and as a hat to keep me warm. He was acting like an adult dressing me for the cold.

We went back downstairs. He remembered his oven experiment from earlier, and he got me and Carly to try it. Tasted like baking soda. Eventually we said goodbye.

He was hungry, and ate a bowl of the curry. Kind of surprising as Carly thought it would be too spicy for him. He then wanted oatmeal, and we agreed he could have some. Carly would make it and I’d give him his bath. We went upstairs. While he was on the toilet, he asked how war works and trying to stab the other side with swords. He wanted to see videos of war with swords, and I said he couldn’t see real videos (nor would I let him), but the closest was movies or videos games, and that he’s already seen video game ads with that sort of fighting. He asked, “Can you show me a not-real war? Where the north side wins? And the south side gets dead?” No idea where the north versus south idea came from. Haven’t discussed or read about the Civil War with him.

Washed him, not quite as smoothly as yesterday, but not bad, and Carly came up. I left them about 8:50. I don’t think it took too long for him to fall asleep. I went for good walk. No threat of rain now. Listened to The Written World, which I am close to finishing.

At the natural history museum:

Jumping for Vivian:

Dressing me to keep me warm:

He was up before 6:30. He was with Carly for awhile, and was singing a little jazzy song about me for awhile. He had Cheerios and watched Wild Kratts. As we were getting ready for school he suddenly asked for oatmeal. I made a small bowl for him using the last of the oatmeal and we hurried out after that, walking at 7:44. On the way to school he told me bout a bunch of inventions, including one that was bolted to the wall, talking about how it was attached, before he revised it and it was on the roof. I think it had a lot of voice commands. Then he had a rocket that would slow down traffic (he had asked why traffic was slow by the Israeli school) by either getting in the way, or being a distraction. It didn’t have a button to slow it down, although he said it had a brake, but the brakes were reverse rockets.

A couple of time he forgot it was a half day. He asked again what was after rest time as we went down the stairs. When I reminded him he said something like, “Oh, a short, easy day…I can work in my lab at school the whole time.”

I went to the library for a few minutes, then met with Stephanie and Johnell about writing group (or really the first meeting) in the staff lounge, after getting a cappuccino. Johnell and I then got a table in the library and sat there until we picked our kids up at the end of the day. I was able to work on typing and Sabeel work and also listen/watch a bit of Cat’s sessions.

I went and picked him up. It was him, Eve, and Judson today after school. Andrea took them into the back room. August and Eve put on safety goggles as they played with playdough. August figured out that electricity doesn’t go through playdough as he tried to add it to a circuit that Judson was playing with.

We got going, and I gave August one of the cereal bars on the way. He said he liked it more than the other bars. As we exited the school he was explaining to me how he could eat concrete and other things. He spotted a small bolt stuck in a bush and stopped to get that.

We headed north into town. He talked about how he made a car that could shock people, but he assured me it had warning signs on it, and he described signs we’ve seen for danger, including the one of a guy getting shocked in the monitor we were taking apart. Of himself he said, “I should put a sign on it that says warning this robot doesn’t just have spit. It also has snake venom.” He also described a fleet of metal-detecting robots he uses to find gold. Kind of like his fleet of mail delivery dogs.

He told me he knows how to start and zip his sweatshirt. He’s done it at school, he says. And he walked a good amount of the way into town. Sadly, VIPizza was closed. August was grumpy about it, but was very excited when I suggested going to the new restaurant/cafe in the mall. We headed there and found a table inside. He chose a peach smoothie to drink and wondered if he’d ever had a peach one before, and I got a cappuccino. There were several Asian dishes listed, but as I asked if one and then the next was spicy she informed me they all were. So, we got the sweet potato raviolis.

He came over and sat in my lap and we read Monsters Beware! He liked the peach smoothie but wasn’t too excited about it, although by the end he finished it. He really liked the glass it came in, which looked like a pineapple. He curled up in my lap and actually told me he was sleepy. When the food came he just ate a bite of it. He didn’t complain at all, but he didn’t really like or want it. So I ate half, and would take the other half home to Carly, who had them for dinner.

We read more, then eventually decided to get going. He wanted oatmeal at home, but didn’t want to stop at the store to buy any. Finally, he relented. We were going to go downstairs. He remembered the bulk foods store and asked to go there. He said he remembered that they had oatmeal, and he asked if we could get the nuts that Carly wouldn’t like. I said it was funny that he suggested that, because I had joked to Carly that we would do that when she was gone next week. But when I told August we could wait until she was gone, he told me “If you can do it now you shouldn’t wait…my teachers told me that…Or maybe you told me that…” In the face of a lesson on procrastination I realized he had me.

So we went down there and he had fun doing the scooping. We got a container full of oatmeal, and a paper bag of cashews. He also spotted large peanuts in shells, and we got some of those. He saw coconuts as well, and when he told Carly about the store later he said he was going to get one the next time we go.

We got walking and stopped to try the peanuts. They were kind of a disappointment. August liked cracking them on his bike, but the skin doesn’t easily come of these. Even when we laboriously scraped it off (which was kind of fun) he decided he didn’t like the taste. I gave in and let him try the cashews instead of saving them for when Carly was gone. A good decision, however, as he really liked them. He ate several on the way home.

We were home at 2:40. We opened the Christmas card from my parents, which came today. It is a 3-D card and he liked that. We read Breathe. He was in awe that the author had written something to him in the front. In the book, he read “yoga studio” with no problem. We then finished Monsters Beware! and he ate a lot of cashews.

He wanted to have the new oatmeal, so he had a bowl. It seemed to make a creamier oatmeal than our usual Quaker Oats. He used the two-sided sticky stuff and hung things on the wall. He stuck his music box, one of the glass eyes, and the passport photo of himself on the wall to the right of the kitchen door.

Carly got home at 3:55. He went outside with her and hammered open some peanuts for her and me. She wasn’t too fond of these peanuts either. He watched some Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, then had a Swedish pancake that Carly made. I made a second, but it fell apart. He ate it anyway.

The two of them read Breathe. He was then in on the toilet, talking about his lab. He wouldn’t tell me the passcode to his lab. I kept trying to ask him different ways and he wouldn’t let it slip. He did, however, give me the code to his “robotic gym.” I went up and folded laundry. They played school and did art, making a really cool picture that started as separate machines and melded into one, then tracing his hand and decorating them.

He and I read The Legend of Zita and ‘stray’ became another word of the day, followed by ‘vacuum’ when he asked about what was in space. He had some difficulty accepting a what a vacuum is, but we talked about it for several minutes, using several different examples to talk about density, and I think it was starting to make sense to him.

I took him upstairs and he mixed a new chemical in the new container that came with my toothbrush head today. In the office, he started dancing, watching himself in the mirror on the wardrobe. He told Carly to dance like him: “You need to do every move that I do.”

He said goodnight to her. In on the bed he joked, “What’s around you in space? Tiny microscopic mes. Tiny microscopic Zinnie’s.” He told me he has a sore throat and had some water. We finished The Legend of Zita and read Tar Beach, another one of the books I got from the free shelf at the library. It is about living in the city (New York, or the such) on a really hot day. A nice find.

I had lights out at 9. After being quiet for several minutes he said, “Dada, when we go to another country; like Greece, we need to go to a hotel where they have refrigerators that get colder and warmer.” I don’t know why, as he was quiet again and then fell asleep just father 9:10.

Napkin writing:

Scooping peanuts:

Can I have another cashew?:

Art with mama:

Talking about their art: