Category: Daily

He came out at 7:05, asked for Mama, and got his shoes on and went outside to where she was out at the table. They were out there for several minutes, talking, and Dad came down. August came in and Carly had given him a leaf of the lettuce mix. We ended up discussing ants and bees, and the different kinds of them within a nest/hive, and then he remembered Brave Wilderness. We watched some on his iPad, watching the episode about water snakes, then parts of ones about seals and by river otters. These were cut short because he was pretending to be a seal and baby river otter. I would find them in the park on a bench. Next he was a snake.

He remembered the apple pie-like bread thing that Carly had bought for yesterday but we hadn’t opened. I got him a slice and he ate it. He said it was good but, “But not as good as I thought it would be.” He ate two more slices and said he wanted the whole thing. He then watched Smurfs (a longer episode that focused on the two boys). Mom made him a fried egg. He was initially disappointed, as he thought it was going to be scrambled eggs, but he ate the whole thing. He then wanted more of the apple thing, so I got him some, but he ignored it at first.

Instead, he was singing the “I want to sing and dance” song as he played with rubber bands and the Bob Books boxes. We did the forest story with the bird that saves me from a tree after my boss sends me in the forest to get firewood. He then typed on my iPad and changed the font to the symbols font and had fun figuring those out and making things out of them. He decided that, “When I type a message it goes to a satellite…to a machine in the ocean that’s always cleaning garbage…That’s a digital code that tells the machines stuff.” “Now, stop interrupting me, please.” The garbage went to the machine that makes things out of pollution. They then make more pollution. “It’s a circle!”

I went upstairs to take a shower. He went over with Dad, who was playing cards on the computer. When I came down he was outside with Carly, eating her peanut sauce stir fry. Which was apparently supposed to be a secret as I wasn’t allowed to be out there, and a bit later August joked about having a lot of sugar out there.

We left after 11, and on the way down I read most of The Last Giants. Lots of big words in it, but bric-a-brac was most interesting and became the word of the day. We parked at the first big park along the river and got walking. August found plenty of treasures, and got upset when we wouldn’t let him touch a dead snail. He was also holding Carly’s hand once and tripped over her foot and fell and lightly scraped his knee.

We got to the end of the river and watched the Mediterranean for a bit. August was acting like he was out of power, and putting his head down on the bike. He was then running his bike tire into the wire fence and bouncing off of it. The boardwalk has wooden hills on it, and he was coasting his bike down them. We stopped again, and he discovered there were tiny snails all over the concrete. He was then throwing them into the water for the sea creatures to eat.

We went to Greg Cafe and had a late lunch. Carly got a couscous dish and I got a potato and cheese dish. He really liked the cheese, which is a nice surprise as he usually doesn’t. He got a mango and banana smoothie and really liked it it. Which is good, because he had changed his mind and wanted pineapple instead of banana, but I had forgotten when I ordered. They had gone to the bathroom, then were over finding tiny snails. They came back to eat, then went back to the snails one more time.

We headed out around 3, but he wandered over to the sandbox area and spent a few minutes building a structure with Gramma. We then started to walk back, and stopped at Coffee Station for ice cream. He chose a dark chocolate with sprinkles, which we shared. We talked about going to the play later, and he told us, “I want to go to every play. Unless I’m sick.” He threw a couple of the sprinkles on the ground and was saying “Sprinkle died.”

We walked back to the car and were driving around 4. I read the rest of the book, then he had a story that we acted out where I was a kid and found a seal on the slide. I took it to the vet, then it ended up living in the zoo. There was then a closing on it, where I got to visit the zoo as part of a field trip and go and see the seal. He repeated this scenario with a river otter, then plankton.

We were home about 5. Carly dropped us off and then drove up to the grocery store to get more popcorn for the popcorn sales at school. He told me about someone named Frida: “Frida is someone in my class.” I said I didn’t think that was true. “I do…she has been visiting and now she’s a part of the class.” He was then a cat that he said had been injured by a hunter. He had lost an ear and an eye. Carly got back just in time to be the veterinarian. He was communicating with us in a sort of sign language. He was then several injured seals, one at a time, and she would fix him. He had the toy ladle and said,”I invented a new brain tester…” and was his head. It was a sort of reflex test, and if you had a reflex it meant your brain was okay.

Carly stayed home, but the rest of us headed to school for the play. There were snacks in the lobby, and August got a heart cookie. We went in and he sat on my lap for most of the play. Before it started I asked if he knew the rules about watching a play, and he told me you could clap when you wanted and laugh when you wanted, but otherwise had to be quiet. And preschoolers could get up to go to the bathroom. At one point he moved to his chair for about 5 minutes, but was then back in my lap. He told us before we got there that preschool hadn’t stayed for the whole thing the first time. But he sat through it just fine. Lillian was Cogsworth, and Carly had students that were Belle, Mrs. Potts, and Lefou.

After the play, August stood up for the standing ovation. Out in the lobby I let him get one more cookie, and we were going to say hi to Lillian but we lost her in the crowd.

We got home, and he was pretty sure that Carly was asleep because it was “the middle of the night.” She took him up and gave him a quick bath. We got him ready for bed and I left them right at 9 and he was soon asleep.

I want to sing and dance:

Working on his sleeping spot:

Walking along the river in Tel Aviv:

Playing with the fence:

Coasting down the hill:

Playing in the sand:

Making his kitty nest:

Kitty sign language:

Beauty and the Beast 1:

Beauty and the Beast 2:

When I went in to bed last night, August had the covers over him. I think Carly had put them on him. I shared the bed with him, and he used the covers all night, which I’ve never seen him do before. And he was stealing them from me, as he was rolling away, towards the other bed, and had the covers wrapped around him.

He called down for Carly about 7:10. She went up, then came back a minute later, carrying him. He was with her on the couch for a few minutes, then she went up to do laundry and he just lay on the couch for a few more minutes. He then got the plastic piece that held the feta in the container. He was playing with it yesterday. He used it as a mask, then asked, “Remember how I’m a robot Rules enforcer? On the fun scale you have to have 902 fun.” I said that sounded like a lot of fun, and he sounded more like a fun enforcer. “Yeah, I’m a fun enforcer.”

He asked for his iPad and watched the coral reef episode of Wild Kratts. I made pancakes for breakfast and he left his last bite. Carly then started an experiment. She heated water for him in a pot, then he put things in it to see if they would dissolve. The two big experiments were the last piece of pancake and a couple of green Skittles. He got to eat a couple of other Skittles. He decided he doesn’t like red Skittles either, but says he likes the lemon ones because he likes the lemony-ness. He wanted a hair to add, and he put a piece of tape on his hair: “It worked! I gotted a hair by putting tape on my head! It hurted a little bit though.” Carly headed to the grocery store.

He asked me what ‘specific’ meant. I’m not sure where he picked it up. We talked about ‘specific’ versus ‘general’ and made them words of the day. He then got one of the toy pans and started taping it to the coffee table. Adding things to this structure would be a major project of the day. We did a fair amount of iPad art, then he switched to the Toc and Roll music app.

Carly got home. August chose ‘culturally’ as a word of the day from the back of a book Mom had. He ate a slice and a half of pizza for lunch and said “VIPizza is the best pizza ever!” Carly and I were discussing where she should get lunch for a school thing. August had been talking about his pizza, and got confused: “Wait, am I supposed to talk in this conversation?” We explained what we were talking about, and he suggested the sushi/noodle place.

He spent some time pretending to be a baby with Carly, then he did some vacuuming. That ended when he wanted the small nozzle for it and I couldn’t find it. While I looked he got distracted by something else. Carly and I finished. Mom took him up, on the bike, to do recycling together. That was their first trip together, alone. It went quite well. Dad and I sat and talked about the Palestinian situation. August came back with a big round stick, like a shovel handle. He went outside with Dad to play with it.

They were taking about making machines involving flip flops and all sorts of other things

Back inside he was eager for Eve to get here. He was holding me up with his feet, then knocking me over. I turned out the new Mumford and Sons album and I ended up picking him up and he cuddled against me for a few minutes. Carly reminded him that she used to dance with him like that to a different Mumford and Sons song. He started adding more to the tape/piano key/tissue box/kitchen pan/cardboard sculpture at the end of the coffee table.

Eve and her mom, Heather, got here at 1:30. They excitedly started playing together at the toy kitchen, then ran upstairs for a minute. They came back down and started playing doctor. They started checking Heather’s symptoms. August said, “Dr. Eve, is there any other symptoms?” They started getting crazy taking out Heather’s bones, etc. We blew up some balloons for them, and they took them outside and played in the Zinnie house. August was either delivering things to the house, or it was a store. They were going in and out of the house, saying “Bonjour!” to each other, which they learned from Marion. They went on the seesaw a few times, and Carly would put her foot on the base. One time, Eve wanted her to come and do it and was calling, “August’s mom! August’s mom!” August told her, “It’s Ms. Althauser.”

Carly and Heather took the two kids to the playground. They weren’t there for a long time, and came back carrying a bunch of big leaves they had collected. August made a tableaux on the chair with the leaves and the Zinnie kitchen plates, and then a couple of straws taped to the arms. I was a patient for awhile, but luckily they weren’t removing my bones. August was taping a lot of stuff.

Eve didn’t want to leave, but they had things to do, so Heather eventually was able to drag her away. They’ll definitely be getting together to play again. I got August to plant the flower seeds with me in the pink pot, which I then placed outside the office window upstairs. August really wanted all the seeds to be piled together in the middle. I tried to get them spread out, but don’t know how successful I was.

August found the Bloom app on my iPad and made music with it. He found the sleep timer setting, and we listened to it for an hour. Carly headed to school to print something, then to Younes to pick up some Arab food for dinner. August and I listened to Bloom and told some forest stories. He then ate a bowl of broccoli and rice, no shrimp. We watched the latest Wintergatan Marble Machine X update video, then Carly got home. August had wanted Beethoven’s First, so we then watched that, as Carly went up to FaceTime with Chuck and Cherie. August went up eventually and told them about school. They came down and we ate dinner. He mainly ate the lafa bread and fries, but also a few bites of the lamb. He had two french fries, one long and one short, and said, “Look. Toddler, grown up.”

He and Carly then blew up a balloon and put chocolate chips in it. Mom and Dad gave us their leftover Euros, and gave August 5 specifically for him so he could buy something of his choice in Greece. A bit later August said, “I found out the word of the day: midair.” When I asked where that was from he said, “From 2009th…from when I was born.” He was then being pretty silly and asked, “Did you know I can count to one at the speed of light?”

I asked if he was ever hyper like this at school. He said no. “I want to be calm and quiet at school and get it out at home.” And he said, “Come on Henry, let’s go catch a frog.” From a story from somewhere, I think, but I’m not sure what.

He and I then played with the balloon, knocking it up and watching the chocolate chips bounce around. He was wearing my watch. I got him up to the sink for a sink bath. He played with his mixture in the bucket for a long time, adding soaps and lotion and water. He told me he had another word of the day: “Innersan…it’s from mooka Mook. It means stupendous.” More talking in mooka mook. He got me to put a little mouthwash in the small container he was using: “Smells dentist-y. I know, that can be a thing that helps you remember…just the dentist.” I finally washed him.

Carly had had the heater on in the office, so he went in there. He found a small square thing that sort of looked like an eraser or sponge. He poked holes in it with a nail he found, and called it a sponge. He then had me telling a story about someone going door to door, looking for their lost sponge, but then being sad when they find out someone has poked holes in it. He found Carly’s post-it notes and hung a couple up. He told her: “I did it to remind you to do the washing…maybe Gramma can come in here and see it.”

We got him ready for bed and I said good night after 8:20. Standing on the steps, he was sitting on one and I put my sock on his head. He liked it, like a scalp massage, but Carly didn’t like the sound. He wanted me to keep doing it. He tried to convince me to put him to sleep, but then, when it was clear that wasn’t going to work, he tried to convince Carly to do a story dice story, telling her: “Your story dice stories are the best.” I left them at 8:30 and went for a walk.

Art project with Gramma:

Sitting on the swing with grampa:

Kitchen with Eve:

Zinnie house with Eve:

Teeter totter slo-mo:

Teeter totter with Eve:

His chair art piece:

Bloom music:

Balloon experiment:

Admiring his creation

Playing with the water tubes

Admiring his work

Sort of playing school

He took a photo of his finished work

Adding to his concoction

Posting post-it note reminders

Poking holes in the sponge thing

Carly had parent teacher conferences today, so my parents and I took August to the science center in Jerusalem. Planned to do more, but it was really rainy.

At some time during the night a storm hit. I was asleep, but woken up enough to know I had rolled onto my back. Eyes still closed, there was a very bright flash, then a loud clap of thunder. Then the rain hit. It rained and rained until letting up around 7.

He was up about 7, while I was in the shower. Came down and found them laughing on the couch. He wanted Cheerios and Carly got him the bag of them she had had for a snack for him the other day. He kind of grumbled, but didn’t say much, then lay on the couch, sort of using them as a pillow. Eventually I realized he wanted them in a bowl, not a bag. Happy now, he carried his bowl out, still wearing his pajamas, and we drove Carly to school.

Back at home he just rested on the couch for several minutes while I made sandwiches for lunch. He was then hungry and wanted pancakes and requested cinnamon and vanilla as secret ingredients. As I made the pancakes he wrote times on his box with his “treasure pencil”. He was writing things like how long we were going to spend at the science center. He wrote ‘4:00’ after I taught him about the Colin.

He was then singing a song from school, likely dance class: “If your hands wiggle jiggle then dance about…” Dad asked him about hearing the storm and August said he didn’t: “That’s cuz when I’m asleep I have my ears blocked up, sealed with steel!” “Grampa, do you think you could make an ear like that in your garage?” The other day asked if Grampa could fix anything in his garage.

We ate pancakes. August left the final wedge of it. He was then having fun with scissors, cutting rubber bands and tape and paper towels. He was then singing a very nice song about us: “You are the best parents I’ve ever seen…Mama is the best mama ever…” He was then naked, and did a funny galloping dance around the entryway. He wanted me to do a slo-mo, then burst of him. He was then trying to remember his magic spell from yesterday, and I had to look it up to tell him it was the “Mighty magic” spell. He was then repeating it over and over as we left.

We got ready to go and headed to Jerusalem. Took the highway 4, then 1 route. No traffic, as it was a Friday. Not entirely relaxed though as it was raining much of the way. We got to the science center and parked right near the entry. Very few people there, which was very nice. We went in about 11. August did his usual wandering around, getting the lay of things. A little before 12 I convinced him to pause for lunch. We went downstairs to the tables and ate. I’d made us tuna sandwiches and some of his carrots stuff. At 12 I took him to the bathroom, then I headed out.

They stayed until 2. He was busy the whole time. Mom said they’d suggest he move on to something else, but he would really stay focused on what he was doing, and often went back to something he had done before. When I talked to him, the one thing he really told me about was sending message to other countries, using “lightning.” I.e. electricity. It was a telegraph system, and he had told them he was sending messages asking them to visit, or hoping that he could visit them. At 2 they were trying to get him to go to the bathroom, but at first he wanted to wait for me. And he suggested there would be a bathroom at where I had my meeting. When Dad pointed out he wouldn’t be going there, August finally relented and went into the bathroom with him. He said that people would think he was his Dad instead of his Grampa.

I had a fine meeting with Omar. The accountant was there, and we figured out that the reason my paycheck hadn’t gone through was that my branch had closed, so our information had changed. I logged into my account and we found that both our branch number and account number are now different. We talked a little about next steps for planning year 2 of the Kumi Now project.

I left there a little before 2, and got to the science center at 2:08. I drove past Lifta both ways, and past the Knesset once. Perfect timing, as they were walking down the stairs. The rain had let up and I was hoping maybe we could stop at a park, but now it had started to get rainier again. We stopped at the top of Lifta for a couple minutes to see it, and it started raining harder as we stood there. We drove home, taking 1 to 444, then 5. I pointed out all the odd/interesting stuff along 444 that I’ve seen, but never actually visited, because I’m always on my way to or coming back from Jerusalem.

We were home before 4. Carly was already here. Conferences had gone well for her today. August requested a smoothie, and we discussed ingredients as we headed in. He wanted apple and mango, and cinnamon and honey as the special ingredients. We joked about calling the honey ‘snail slime’. I made the smoothie, and August was keeping the special ingredients secret from Carly. She asked “Whats the secret ingredient?” With a very serious face he told her, “I’ll tell you when you’re drinking it.”

We read more of Dragons Beware!, finishing it again. He rolled up the Star Wars bookmark and taped it. He said, “I love bookmarks! It’s just that there’s so many other things I can make.” He then went upstairs with Carly for awhile. When they came down he was acting like a baby.

I then made shakshuka for dinner, which turned out quite well. He stayed busy with Mom and Dad. August primarily liked the egg from it. He played some Dragonbox Big Numbers with Carly, then I played with him when she went to take a shower. We then played a preschool game where there was a monster, then he was a robot saying “initiating emergency exit…You would be all separated to your homes…” He was then teleporting the teacher and students to and from their homes.

I was talking to him about school and asked if Eve took naps at school, as Carly had been arranging a play date with Eve tomorrow and Eve’s mom had said she still took naps. August asked, “Why do you ask?” He then told me “Judson doesn’t really…” I remembered that August said that he and Judson mess around during rest time. He told me, “One time we messed around the entire rest time…”

I was going to go for a run, but decided it was too cold and was just going for a walk instead. He wanted me back before his bath time. Carly said, “I don’t know why you think I’m incompetent.” He replied, “Yeah, I know. Sorry.”

I went for a walk and Carly gave him a bath. When I came back they were watching videos of Vivian and Colin. Carly made him oatmeal, then seconds. He talked to me about how he closes his eyes and then he can shrink inside himself and see tiny things like quarks. Very well said and I wish I had a video of that.

We went upstairs at 9:10. He told me “Did you know that falcons, I think it’s a kind of bird, can fly 368 kilometers an hour?” We brushed his teeth, did a short preschool game, and he curled up and went to sleep.

Cutting things:

Cutting his hair:

Mama is the goodest person in the world ever:

Casting a spell to help the starter:

At the science center 1:

Slo-mo ribbon:

Science center 2:

Slo-mo wave:

Science center 3:

Initiating emergency sequence:

Taping mama to make her softer and cozier:

Cheerios in a bowl in the car

Scissors

His funny dance

Bloomfield Science Center

Getting them at the science center

Shakshuka

He got up at 5:50. He came over and patted me on the bed, then said, “You can sleep more.” When I got up a few minutes later found him working on animations in PowerPoint on Carly’s computer. She headed to school and he watched Smurfs. He had his vitamins, then had a pancake. He finished up a Smurfs, then we read the rest of The Flying Beaver Brothers. I had looked at StoryPark and there was a photo of him drawing on a mural of stick figures. He said he’s been talking about stick figures because of the art, but before that too because of Toca Band. As we got ready he had us play preschool games about a giant bird flying overhead, creating wind. I had people getting everything blown away from them.

We drove to school and went and dropped off the hummus. We then talked about the diaper drive and what the money and diapers were for. I walked him to class and we got there right at the bell. He went in and saw them starting to sit down for meeting. He asked what was after rest time and I reminded him I’d see him at noon: “Oh, yeah!”

I walked home, then at 11:30 my parents and I walked back to school. At the classroom August showed me the table for the parent-teacher conferences. There were flowers organized on it, and a tray of cookies. He said he could have one, and when I said I thought they were for the parents he had an instant meltdown. There was no recovering from it until we got to the car. He said sorry. He then told us about the play, Beauty and the Beast. He told us how each character was a different person, and that someone was a knife, and someone else was a teapot. We found out later that he had sat on Andrea’s lap the whole time.

We drove up to town and went to V.I.Pizza for lunch. Hector was there with his siblings and friends. August watched them playing around a bit, but didn’t join them. We got a full pizza—half corn, the other half mushroom and olive. Mom asked him if the pizza was good and he said, “Better than your Zinnie hugs.” He ate a good slice and a half.

I carried him much of the way back to the car. He was acting tired and I asked and he gave a thumbs up. At home we looked at a couple of new apps, and had the most fun with the WWF Free Rivers app, making a river on the floor of the kitchen. He then cuddled with me on the floor, and we were talking about inventing things. He remembered that we hadn’t gone to the bakery in town, and I said he could have some of his chocolate lips. He had the milk chocolate ones. He was then casting a growing spell that I think he made up: “Mighty magic, here I come. Mighty magic, rise up to the sun.”

The four of us drove back to school for the teacher conference. August went over to the playground with my parents and did a great job playing there while we waited. And waited. It was around 3:25 when they finished up meeting with Simone’s mom. The meeting went well. They told us that he had held hands with Yaya as they found flowers today, then cut the flowers together to decorate the table. The other day he had used all the caps that he had brought in to decorate the table for their shared snack time. He really likes making things in the building area, and had been making a washing machine earlier. An there were little strips of paper on a shelf. He had taken one to Marion and asked what it was for. She showed him how she likes to make a pattern of shapes. He then made a pattern of his own, and hung it from one of the strings in the middle of the room. She said he puts all the important stuff there. August told us he did, “Two patterns, actually.” And she told us about the stick figure drawing, and how he had been drawing one doing a yoga pose, and several others. I think she said he had drawn them of her. She said that when doing art he has always gone with “I’m going to do abstract” because that’s what he’s comfortable with, but he’s starting to branch out.

We were there for a little over 20 minutes, then went and got them on the playground. He had found a little sidewalk chalk and drawn a flower with roots.

We were home about 4. He quoted the Silo commercial again: “Strawberries were added to your inventory.” He was then playing doctor, and used his light to examine my ears, etc. He was then reciting “The past is the past. We move on. We MOVE On.” It is from Dragons Beware! and he was copying my timing and emphasis. We then read more of Dragons Beware! Working on a second full reading.

He then did card games with Dad. They started by looking at a real deck of cards, then switched to the computer card games. I was making dinner, cooking broccoli and fresh rice to go with the shrimp. August told me, “Dada, yoga isn’t my favorite part of school anymore. My favorite part is auditorium.” We ate dinner, then he did a “Nose greeting” with Carly.

We did more reading, then he was playing with his music box. I brought up the video of Beethoven’s Ninth and watched part of that, then he requested the third symphony. We started watching that. He saw the conductor with the baton and said, “See, I told you the conductor had two.” This was a reference to a day or two ago when he claimed that conductors used two batons. I was confused and said I only saw one baton in the conductor’s hand. He said, “Sorry, dada. Actually I was trying to make a joke. Sorry.”

As we listened to the symphony, we used the Apple Pencil and did art on his iPad. I drew a stick figure lying down, then he drew a blanket on it, which turned into a black hole. He then used the eraser to make lines through it and said it was a maze. He added colors and it turned into an underwater maze with monsters. He was then doing pictures on his own, and drew a face with four eyes: “Funny alien tiger. That’s nice to people…fun to play with.” Then a robot face. To Carly, who had come down, he said, “Sorry mama…For no reason.” Then he was drawing nets: “I’m trying to make it trap plankton.” He told Carly he didn’t want her to keep asking what each picture was. He told us to imagine in our heads. He then drew a stick figure and said it was “A tiny woman house spirit.” With big ears.

Carly took him up for a stool bath. When I took him up later there was stuff in a pink bucket and he said he had been mixing chemicals in the bucket. We read more of Dragons Beware!, getting through the exciting part. And he had some Cheerios. Carly came in to put him to sleep, and they were being silly. I left them at 9, and I heard him being loud for awhile after that. Then it was silent. Carly said he was hyper until suddenly he calmed down and was asleep right away.

Casting his growth spell:

On the playground with Gramma and Grampa:

Telebeepio:

Art and music:

Drawing stick figures (from Storypark)

Missing from his class photo

Showing off the flowers and cookies–right before a meltdown

Drinking from both of our drinks at once

Sleepy

River in the kitchen

Card he made for us

Flower with roots

Net to catch plankton

Carly eventually got August to sleep last night by using the flower visualization he had told her about from yoga class. His alarm on his iPad went off after 3am and Carly woke up. She went downstairs and got some rest/light sleep, but was mainly up after that. He said something like “Goodbye dada” or “See you later, dada” in his sleep.

He was then up at 6:30. He knocked on the bathroom door. I got out of the shower, but by the time I opened the door Carly was coming up the stairs. He said, “I want mama to do it.”

Once I was downstairs he finished watching some Smurfs, then we read much of The Flying Beaver Brothers and the Evil Penguin Plan. ‘Nimble’ was the word of the day from that.

We all got in the car and left at 7:10. August remembered his lollipop from yesterday and had more of it on the way to school. He said it tasted like cherry medicine, then he argued that it actually did have medicine in it. He then talked about other flavors also having medicine in them, but cherry would have the most medicine in it. He sang parts of “hokey pokey” and “I know an old woman who swallowed a five…” along the way. We dropped August and Carly off at school, along with all their bags of stuff.

From school Waze told us it was 2 hours 21 to the beach at Ein Bokek. Smooth sailing, and we made it just two minutes after that, at 9:48. We went and changed and went down to the beach. Mom and Dad went in first. Cooler than previous times, but pretty easy to get used to. We were in and out a couple times, and I sat on the beach for awhile reading my Camus. We then showered and changed and left right at 11:15, when parking ran out.

We drove a couple blocks north to the mall area and had lunch at the Cafe Cafe. I got a salmon sandwich and cappuccino. Dad had a watermelon and pineapple smoothie that was interesting. I had thought of walking up the wadi with them, but as I looked at our options for driving home a route that goes farther north on 90, past Jericho, then west south of Nablus was showing up. So I suggested we then go to Masada and make sure we leave early enough so we could see parts of the Jordan River valley, etc. before it got dark.

We drove to Masada, I bought a guide to wild flowers (the only one they had in English that I don’t have yet), and we took the cable car up. We spent an hour and a half or so up on Masada. I walked down all the stairs to the North Palace this time, then met up with them again. We got to overhear a couple of tour guides along the way, so learned more about the tower that the Romans pushed up the ramp, and about how they have been rebuilding the walls from the stones that were knocked over.

We headed back to the car and got driving. We drove north on 90 along the Dead Sea, spotting lots of sink holes along the sea, then continued north through the Jordan River Valley and past Jericho on our left. You turn west on 505, I think, and start climbing up into the hills. There were lots of trucks, and other people wanting to pass on a two-lane road, which made for a lot of craziness. An experience to remember, but not necessarily one I want to repeat, especially as it got dark.

We got home at 6:20. Came in the house to find Taya and Cassie there. August and Taya had played together really well while they talked. August showed off the huge pile of stuff they had made. I think it was a nest or hiding place of some kind. Carly said the day had gone well: he had played in her classroom for awhile, then when she took him to his class he explained that Carly was dropping him off because I was at the Dead Sea. Marion said she hadn’t liked the Dead Sea and asked what he thought. He thought for awhile, and said, “Too salty.” In the morning he had said he could just go to dance on his own, but he changed his mind and said he would like her to be on the bench in case he wanted to see her. She then went to her department chair meeting, and came back at 4. They then went and got a ride home with Cassie and Taya.

Cassie and Taya left. I had to accompany them out a couple times, as Taya needed to come back to use the bathroom. August came out into the yard and said goodbye a couple times. And Taya was making faces through the fence.

He finished his soup, then ate crackers and hummus. He said, “Hey Lisa, how much coffee is left?” He meant Alexa, and it is the line from an ad he saw on YouTube for a food vacuuming system called Silo. He continued: “These avocados stay fresh for a day. These avocados stay fresh much longer. That’s thanks to Silo…everything stays fresher with Silo.”

Carly told me that there is someone at work that is pregnant, and August heard her talking, so ‘pregnant’ became the word of the day. August and I did preschool stories, where robotic ants (rants, in Hilo) were showing up at the school and August was shoving his way past the teacher to get out of the room to do an EMP to stop it. He was then singing “There Was an old Woman,” which was from dance class. He also sang my Counting by 2s song. He got Dragons Beware and looked at it on his own for awhile before having me read some.

We then headed upstairs and he sang a “Seven little princesses” song. Which had lots of words to it , but it wasn’t clear where it was from. I found the Oh My a Fly! book and read it to him while he was on the toilet. Before his bath we read the little opening story of Dragons Beware! He really likes that part.

He took his bath at the sink and sang a song about a woman who couldn’t find numbers and went to spaceship and got broken and couldn’t be fixed so she died. He said, “Please don’t take a video of that.” He explained it was because he didn’t remember the words to sing it again.

We went downstairs and he said goodnight. We went upstairs and told a preschool game that was a sequel to the robotic ants one, where he is getting interviewed by a newspaper, and then attacked again. He was asleep by 9:20.

Dropping them off at school:

Mom and Dad in the Dead Sea 1:

Mom and Dad in the Dead Sea 2:

Bird at Masada:

Walking around Masada:

Our welcome home:

7 princesses song:

Dropping them off at school

Dead Sea

Masada

Pile he made with Taya

He was up at 6:40, a couple minutes after Carly left for school. He watched Smurfs, which ran a bit long past when we usually start to get ready to go (at 7:20). But when it finished he was ready to go in just a few minutes. He was singing “We all come together. We know what to do.” Which is from the not-for-children pirate song he wanted to listen to that he found yesterday. We were able to leave, with Grampa, at 7:35. I told the short version of the Robot Rules Enforcer story as we walked. He as then a Robot Rules Enforcer himself. When I reminded him that they were bad, he said he was a good enforcer, enforcing good rules like no war. He sang a short “I’m a Robo Rules Enforcer” song. About ¾ of the way, after he’d had his bar, he remembered the lollipop from last night and that I’d told him he could have the rest on the way to school. I had forgotten it, but he handled it really well. He got off the bike, but then I picked him up and he cuddled with me for a little bit, then was able to get back on the bike. No getting upset.

At the classroom he was right inside, talking to the teachers. I had to remind him to go say goodbye to Grampa. I talked to him about cleaning. He said he was the teachers helper but didn’t have to clean. So I made cleaning with the class the incentive for a treat later.

Dad and I walked home, then we took some time at home before leaving after 10. We made sandwiches to take with us for a lunch in the park in Ein Vered. We drove over to the nursery over there and had fun just looking around. I got a cool looking plant for the office upstairs, and Mom and Dad got a plant with really interesting leaves for Carly. That turned out to be a buy two, get one free deal, so they got three. I also got broccoli seeds and flower seeds to plant in August’s pot.

We then drove to Sabine, the chocolate shop/workshop. My parents got chocolate-covered coffee beans for Carly, chocolate lips for August, and chocolate-covered orange things for all of us. We then drove to the park in town and went and ate our lunch at a picnic table. Two cats came over and were begging, mainly from Mom, and she got scratched by one. We drove back to the nursery to pick up some soil and compost before heading home.

I then walked to school for library time. When I got there I had a few minutes so studied Hebrew while sitting on the bench. When I went in, August was making an art piece of out a leaf and metal brads and little bells and stuff, and wanted me to take a photo. Marion was very excited, and told me that August had a big day. They had gone over to the big field. She had Millie on one hand and August on the other as they walked the white center line across it. August hates walking on wet grass, and was grumbling and stopping the whole way, but did it. When they got to the other side she pointed out that the line goes around the edge and is like a path. He started walking around on his own, and then she saw him running all over the field having fun. Very cool. Andrea would bring it up later as well.

We went over for library time. He sat on my lap for part of it. Ilana was back and read Elmer and the Snow. Amanda had read the first Elmer book last week. He checked out a book called I Wished for a Unicorn. He had told me he wanted to show me something when we got back to the classroom, so we went back there afterwards and he showed me these magnet cube things. Kind of a paint-by-numbers with colorful cubes. He and Juhyeok played with those for a few minutes. I said goodbye to Juhyeok in Korean when he left, and August asked my why, then was saying it himself several times for the rest of the day.

One of the first things August had told me earlier was that he had hated the raisin things I had put in his lunch. They were actually yoghurt-covered blueberries. I told him that, and that I had meant them as a surprise as I thought he would really like them. But I understood if he was expecting raisins the taste was probably odd. He now asked to try them again, and knowing what they were he ate all of them. He had also eaten all of his lunch today, the full cup of carrots and lemon and all of the broccoli and shrimp and rice. So I let him have the lollipop now. Actually, I couldn’t find the one from last night, so I had brought a cherry one as replacement and he was okay with that. He then said, “Remember when I was talking like Selma. Now I’m talking like Eve.” I had forgotten about when he was doing an impression of Selma last spring.

Carly showed up and we walked home. He found snails along the way and carried one for a long time, wanting to feed it to ants, but he released it on some bushes before we got home. We were home at 4:40. Mom showed him the new plants and the chocolates. He had one of the orange ones, but then got upset when I said he could only have half of the white chocolate lips before dinner, then the other half after. I had to take him upstairs, but it didn’t last too long and we came back down and he had half.

He had soup for dinner, then half of the dark chocolate one, then asked for seconds on the soup. We sat and started Dragons Beware! from the beginning. He then asked for Corn Flakes. He cuddled with me and made me taller with a spell. He also cast one to make me “slightly smaller.” Gramma asked, “Do you want to help me play a game on the computer?” He replied, “Uh-huh! I was waiting for that!” He went over with her for quite awhile. He politely requested I refill his corn flakes at one point.

In the bathroom he invented something with the toilet paper: “toilet paper ripper.” He explained it: “tie it around your leg. Loose enough so the blood can go through…”

Carly took him upstairs for his bath. As he played, he knocked the spray bottle off with his elbow and it broke. He brought it down and asked me to fix it. It wasn’t happening, and he got mopey sad. Carly said they could do a funeral for it, and I suggested ‘funeral’ as the word of the day. He wasn’t enthused by it. He lamented, “I can never take a bath ever again.” I said he would be ‘odoriferous’ (which is used in Dragons Beware!) and also declared it word of the day. He was too sad to care about words of the day.

Carly finally got him back up and gave him his bath. I made his lunch and had to touch a pickle. He had tuna, carrot and lemon, a pickle, a couple potato tortellini things, and his lunch bar. Upstairs, he told her all about yoga. He showed her his plank pose across the chair, balloon breathing, how they say goodbye and “Namaste”, and a visualization they do where they imagine flowers that smell different ways.

He told me, “You have to come upstairs to do the most evilest game in the universe: story dice!” He had already chosen the dice, and told me he had planned the beginning of the story. He put his plastic belt on again, then made it into a necklace for Gramma and took a photo of her. He said, “You know what? There’s only one Smurfette in the whole world.”

I went up with him and we did the story, about an elf that comes from another dimension to help a wizard defeat a mechanical warrior attacking his tower. We brushed his teeth, then I suggested that it was late, and Carly would come in to go to sleep with him. He got sad at the idea that we weren’t going to do a preschool story. So we turned on the lamp and we did the one from earlier, of him destroying a rant (robotic ant) that was attacking the school. I told Carly he was ready for her, and while she took a couple minutes to get ready I sang to him and he cuddled against me, falling asleep. He was very close to sleeping when she came in.

I left them just a minute before 9 and thought he’d be right asleep. But then I heard crying. After a couple minutes I went up. He was sad because he couldn’t nurse, which he hasn’t done in months. He kept crying and sounded half asleep. He’s seemed stuffier and sick and just seemed exhausted, so we gave him some medicine to help him fall asleep. I left again and heard a few more minutes of crying. Finally, about 9:23, it went silent.

The Pirate Song:

August destroying a Rant story:

Getting chocolates:

Nursery

School creations

Looking at the new plants

His photo of Gramma

He was up at 5:50, seconds after Carly got up. I took a shower and went down and he was watching Smurfs. The keys he had found are magic keys now: “Abracadabra, turn my bike into a singing person.” We got going nice and early, but at the north corner of Vatikim he bit his tongue while eating his morning bar. No blood, but he acted like it. Had get him off the bike eventually and hold him while at the bench to make sure he wouldn’t run off until he calmed down. Eventually he did, and he wanted the rest of the bar. We then were late walking to class. He made up a tune using a dotted eighths rhythm. The basic rhythm of “If you’re happy and you know it” but it was a different tune.

We saw Tessa as we got to school, then got to class at 8:15. I reminded him about being a rule analyst, not a ruler maker. He agreed, but asked me, “Can you tell the teachers, cuz I might forget.” I sent them an email afterwards.

Went home, and a bit later we all drove up to the driver license office to renew my license, as the paper expires tomorrow, and my card never came in the mail. The mall, while it is getting worked on, is as bizarre as ever, as all the shops are closed now. But the licensing office has actually moved a few feet to a remodeled office, that even had windows. Only had to wait about 10 minutes, and it went smoothly.

We then drove to the Netanya waterfront. I parked along the waterfront, midway between the Landwer and downtown Netanya. We walked north, then down the hill to the beach. We stopped where August and I had had a slurpee thing last time and got iced teas/Diet Coke to drink while sitting out on the veranda. From there we took the elevator up to town and walked north to Red Burger Bar. They were out of hummus, so I got the fried sampler thing. Their fries were really good, the onion rings decent, the shnitzel just passable, and falafel disappointing. But I also got an order of green beans that was really good. My parents both got burgers that looked quite good. Heard “Walking in Memphis” and “Free Falling” and Crash Test Dummies “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”, Aerosmith, R.E.M., Sting, etc. at the two shops/restaurants we went to.

We walked north on the street for awhile before rejoining the cliffside path. Saw a lot of cats, and had looked at all the odd buildings on the way south. Now, we got to see a tow truck operator yelling at a cab driver.

We got to the car and got to school in time. I went in and got him. He had had a good day, although he hadn’t wanted to help clean up a couple times, saying he wasn’t a part of the class and that I had told him he didn’t have to. He kept doing things in the classroom and didn’t want to leave. Earlier, his plan had been to leave school right away today. He picked a bunch of berries from a tree around the corner of the preschool with my help and was now throwing them at things and saying “Fire!” He tried to throw them at people, but stopped when I threatened to take them away. Got the impression he was a little worn out by people and didn’t need Gramma and Grampa right now.

We went out to them, but immediately headed up to the library. He lay on the floor and sang a song. They sat out on a bench while he went in with me to use the bathroom, then to return Giants Beware! Eve was there and showed him the big fluffy new hedgehog and sloth stuffed animals they had gotten. He gave the hedgehog a nice hug. We got Dragons Beware! and I found a book called The Flying Beaver Brothers and the Evil Penguin Plan. He played on the rug with squares, first having me call out colors for him to jump to, but then reversing it, and wildly rolling around on the floor while I tried to call out all the colors he touched. He did a couple pieces of art on one of the computers, and in-between he was watching two girls play games on the other computer.

We checked out the books, then went out to the bench. My parents had come inside, but now came back out with us. He ate a piece of carrot and his raisins. As he ate the raisins he was pacing circles around me. He wanted me to tell the story about the school with all the rules, but I told him Carly was going to be there any moment. She showed up and was holding him when Bar came by. I didn’t hear the beginning of the exchange, but then she said, “You’re going to come give me a hug.” He got down and let her hug him. I think he finds her hugs especially tickly because of her hair.

We picked up the iHerb box (8 boxes of Cheerios and some other stuff) and left at 4:25. At home he had a KitKat, then asked Carly for carrot, lemon, and salt and he helped make it. Then he wanted more, and helped make that. She had taught him about it before, and she had learned it from an exchange student they had had. He then ate a good amount of the soup, at least the broth. He had asked me for a schnitzel, but then ate all this other food and never ate it.

He and Carly then made popcorn and he asked to watch something. But he went and he at first shared with Gramma but then told her she could have more when she was back at her house and made some herself. He then went over to Grampa. He asked him, “Can I ask you a question? Did you ever have chicken pox?” He then hung out with Grampa for a long time, sitting on his lap, as he played a card game on the computer. Dad had him read all of the words on the screen, and he did quite well. No problem with ‘undo’ and ‘redo’. He guessed “Amplify fish” at one point. It was actually ‘Auto Finish’.

I was watching the Brazilian Grand Prix and he came over in time to watch the last few minutes with me. We started Giants Beware! Gluteus maximus was a word of the day, then followed by ‘gargoyle’ and ‘fleeing’.

Carly took him upstairs for his bath. He played in the sink, making his cream concoction. He then snuck downstairs and sprayed it on our dry skin. He sprayed his nose again. Carly realized he was gone and came and got him and finished his bath as I did the dishes.

He started talking to Gramma and told Gramma to start on the easier levels and work to harder. He used the kitchen door as a visual to talk about the levels, and how only a few people in the world could do the hardest ones. He was talking about the game she had played yesterday. He was then trying to figure out math for something, and he described 48: “48 minutes. That’s two rest times and 8 minutes.” Apparently he had done it in the car yesterday as well.

He asked me to put him to bed. He said good night to everyone and I took him up. We discussed school. He argued that as a rules analyst and helper of the teacher that he wasn’t actually a part of the class and didn’t have to clean up, as he was too busy watching the other students and analyzing the rules. He was eating corn flakes and bit his tongue. This time there was blood. He asked for a lollipop much more nicely and handled the whole thing much better. Carly went and got him a lollipop.

He calmed down and we told The School with the Most Rules, the full version. I’d been recording it but the app crashed. He then agreed it was time to sleep. He rolled over and cuddled against me and I sang “Imaginary Bars”. He asked me to keep singing. I sang “Animal Life” and he was asleep by 9:10.

Rock my machine song:

Tune on the way to school:

Keister egg song:

New animals at the library:

On the computer with Grampa:

Piano tune and improv:

Giddy up:

In the early morning, after Carly had woken up, I got him back to sleep once. He woke up at 6:25. He told me, “You can sleep longer if you want.” Carly came in and they cuddled for a bit, then headed downstairs.

He watched Smurfs and Llama Llama and ate some corn flakes, then watched part of the Formula 1 qualifying (Brazil) with me. He told me, “I figured out a word of the day: radiation.” And he asked me if any plane flies over the speed of sound. We discussed these, then he asked, “Can I see a video of someone dying in a house?…like maybe they’re 143 years old.”

He started talking about his inventions and told me he sells his machines in stores around the world and told grampa he could buy machines. Dad suggested some kind of machine, and August said, “Oh no, no, no. They’re already invented. I just invent new stuff.” We sat on the couch and told the story about the school with too many rules.

I made pancakes. He ate two, but pushed the berries off his first one as they were too sour. Mom got him his second. He told grampa he sounded scary when he snores. I told him it was ironic since he had snored so loudly last night. I asked, and he said he fell asleep before the end of the story last night.

Carly came down and started to dance with him in the kitchen. He wanted to find a song to dance to on Siri and after a couple of attempts got Siri to play Chemical Brothers. He then played one of the math apps (Tiggly) with Carly. He was making guesses, but told her it was a hypothesis. He got into kind of a punky mood. He wanted to plan the day, as he has been requesting, and wanted to go to the science center in Haifa. He was appeased with the plan to get the music box combined with the possibility of ice cream.

As we got ready, he cast more spells: “Abracadabra I love mama more than I used to…mama and me love each other the same.” We left at 10:20, with Carly driving.

On the way up we read all of Hilda and the Bird Parade. He then did a preschool game with a huge bird making wind. We stopped at a gas station. Carly got gas and I walked around to find the air station. She pulled the car over and dad and I figured out how to use it and filled up all the tires. Back in the car h made another story combining Hilda and Giants Beware!, with a giant bird saving me from giants or a big attacking tree.

We got to Ein Hod at 11:40. August walked almost all of the time. First, we took the little path into it, and he had fun dropping things in the well/cistern. We then followed signs to Molikan, a pottery place. It was actually a long way, but it was a nice walk. August took photos along the way, and as we got close to the shop he found interesting bits of pottery and rocks and wanted to take photos of the different colors.

We looked around there a few minutes (August didn’t like it, as he couldn’t touch, although I picked up a few things and let him touch them—he seemed to think that was breaking a rule), then walked back through the ‘center’ of town. There was a yard with wooden sculptures and he quite liked them, although he was startled by a dog at one point. Mom said he seemed to love art. He said, “I love music.” We kept going, stopping at a bathroom, then looked in a place with paintings.

As we kept walking Carly was a bit faster than us, and stopped at a place and got some postcards. I was tempted to get a blank notebook. It was called NotaNota.studio.

August kept asking about the music box place. But he was being really patient. We got down to the Dada museum, and Carly suggested she take him to the music box place and the rest of us could do the museum.

That worked out well, as my parents and I had plenty of time in the museum. And it was quite worth it. We really liked the pieces made out of pencils downstairs, and peeked into the closed Dada Lab, which was actually the coolest space in the museum, full of stuff.

They had success finding the music box place. The nice dog that had followed us through the center of town followed them all the way down and Carly had to keep picking him up. He was carrying some plastic thing and the dog slobbered on it once and he didn’t want it anymore. At the music box shop he chose “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth. The guy glued it into a little box that he could paint later.

I called them, and met them where he was playing down the stairs a bit. My parents went to a couple other galleries. He showed me the music box, then was playing with a caterpillar. He was really into it, and kept carrying it around. He wasn’t bothered by the green slime on him. Eventually, he dropped it by an ant nest by a tree. Seemed like they were going to kill it. Carly took him to the bathroom and mentioned how this being into bugs and stuff was a new thing for him. He said, “I’m a nature person. I’m discovering nature.”

We drove over to Ein Hawd, the Palestinian village, only to find the restaurant closed. Or, sort of. He seemed to suggest there was a private event, and also told us we needed to make reservations. Which definitely wasn’t the case last year.

Carly had suggested we could walk around Zihron Ya’akov. So we headed there and ate dinner at the Tishbi winery restaurant. August was a bit hyper in the restaurant at first and Carly took him outside a couple times. I got the sweet potato and salmon raviolis to share with him, but he ended up eating more of Carly’s calzone, although he ate all the salmon I gave him. And the wine was good.

We then took our time walking north through town, on the pedestrian street. We watched a group of school kids doing a dance for some reason. And we looked in a couple shops. August was having fun dropping leaves into the drains. We stopped to study the old fountain/water system.

We got to the north end and crossed the street to Aldo, an amazing ice cream place. August, Carly, and I got a small scoop of the bubble gum and a small one of the salted caramel and shared them. August also managed to get several bites of both Gramma’s and Grampa’s.

We ate that at the shop, then walked back south through town. He was carrying his ice cream spoon much of the way before throwing it in the garbage. He was also dropping leaves in the drains.

We left at 5:10. He played his music box and I mentioned it was from Beethoven: “Beethoven’s Ninth? I didn’t know that!” He was then singing, “We all live in a banana submarine…sandwich submarine.” The song “A Little Uncanny” played, and he said, “Uncanny! Word of the day!”

We got home after 6. He hung out with Gramma for awhile. He talked about painting his box and I found our supply of paints outside. He chose his colors, but then said, “Let’s start later; I’ve got cuddling to do.” Didn’t actually end up doing any painting today. He sung the pirate song (“When I was one…”), then watched the video of it. We went upstairs and told the Preschool with the Most Rules while sitting on the couch.

He wanted a bath in the tub, so we did that. He added ‘database’, which I use in the preschool story, as a word of the day. He had seen the heater sitting outside the door and asked what it is, then wanted me to plug it in. I turned it on and he said he just wanted one of the bars on, but then when he found out the other one is broken he got upset and wanted me to fix it immediately.

Finally got his bath done, and he was talking about a power plant that burns plastic for power. We talked about the chemicals that are released and how they try to catch the bad stuff from the air. He wanted me to dry his hair with the hair dryer. I turned it on and he asked if it was on low, 1. I told him it was, but he didn’t trust me: “Okay. I’ll check.” He was being silly, etc. and I was pushing a button on him to get him to be nice or calm or something but he kept saying I pushed something else: “The crazy button!”

He went downstairs and watched Gramma playing a card game on the computer and talked about that with her. He said, “I think when you’re about to lose something you’re scared, and they produces juice in the body.”

I took him upstairs and got him ready for bed. Carly came in and I left them at 8:30.

Conducting with the plant:

Walking around the sculptures and surprised by a dog:

Floating the ship:

Playing with the ants:

Coming up the steps to me:

Showing me the music box:

Dancing around the cat:

Deep in the forest…audio link song:

Students dancing:

Two verses of the Pirate Song:

Putting air in the tires

Followed by the dog

A nice color

Dada museum

Caterpillar

A friendly cat

Dinner

The water system

Ice cream

Choosing his flavor for our next visit

Card game with Gramma

New pajama shirt

He was up before 5:30. He asked me to turn on the flashlight so he could turn on the lamp to see if he should get up. Carly came in. He was quite stuffy. They went out, then he came back in and asked for the dice. I told them where they were and they told stories with them. At one point they went outside while the rest of us were still in bed and he was chanting “Pollyndra Pack Wallace!” too loud for 6am so Carly made him come back inside.

When I came down he was watching Smurfs and they were eating pizza. I made the pancakes after awhile for breakfast. We were about to start reading Giants Beware! when he knocked my tea over. Luckily, not much in there. He talked about an experiment with a gigantic balloon that blew up borders. He then had me act out someone who wanted to go to another country but couldn’t so he blew up the border for me.

I was talking to Carly and lamenting how sick he’s been getting this year. She gave the ‘it’s building a healthier immune system’ argument. I said I didn’t really believe that, and that it’s just something people say to make themselves feel better about being sick (after all, people who don’t get sick also brag about their strong immune systems). As Carly and I were disagreeing on this, August caught her and said, “You said stupidest!”

He as still hungry so I made him oatmeal and mango. He told me to try to say “King of the dweebs…dweebs, like stupid people.” I wasn’t fond of him knowing the word ‘dweeb’, but it is from Hilo. I’ve never defined it for him, skipping over it as quickly as possible. So I was impressed he could define it, having figured out its meaning on his own.

He wanted to play with the guitar, so we went upstairs and did that. Carly was outside, working, and he wanted her to hear so we took it in the office and played it out the window. He went outside and put all of the tree things in the bag in order to get a Halloween treat. That only took a minute, so he came in and helped me do small things around the house. He then chose M&Ms, which he had me hide for him to find.

We read A Bed Full of Cats, then he watched Sarah and Duck. Carly then taught him the Brown Platypuses song, which is a song her homeroom made up. He really liked it. They then looked up an experiment and he was talking about frying plants in oil when I went up for a shower. When I came down he was adding spices and stuff to a pot on the floor. She had told him he couldn’t have too much of the oil because it is expensive. A couple minutes later he came over to her and asked, “Mama. Learning is more important than money, right?” When she agreed that of course it is he replied, “So you should put more oil in my concoction.”

They went to do recycling. He wanted me to add to his concoction while he was gone. When they came back he showed me a key ring he found. I potted the palm seeds I had picked up in Ilanot. Carly cleaned tables and vacuumed and helped him clean up the rubber bands. He was then doing the “Ugha Shaka” dance from Smurfs, holding my hands to do it and actually sort of teaching me the dance move.

The two of them played the Preposition Game. He was getting really silly. He was quoting Hilde: “How’s your little baby paper doing?” And Hilo: “Furback Clan!” He kept playing with the big broken rubber band, which he had been playing with all morning.

My parents and I went to do the grocery shopping at the big Tiv Taam. We took our time, but that was nice as it allowed me to figure out the bulk sausage counter (to get Italian sausage for the soup), bulk spices area (for cardamom for coffee) and a few other things. We were back at 3:20.

While we were gone they had walked over to the mall and gone to Aroma. They had a berry smoothie and a pastry thing. He played at the outdoor playground by himself for a good while. On the walk back he was finding snails and dropping them near the ant nests for the ants to eat. Carly said that I wouldn’t like that, and he told her to focus on how he was helping out the ants.

He was watering the plants when we got back from the grocery store, putting the hose into the entry pipe for the watering system to get water to come out of it. We went inside and he ate broccoli and shrimp, then we boiled his concoction. It went through some good transformations, making a green froth, as it boiled.

We then sat on the couch and told the story about a school with lots of rules. We repeated his favorite part a few times. Cherie called and talked to Carly. We read a few chapters of Hilo, volume 3. His nose was itchy, so he got his potion and sprayed it on his nose. We then read more Hilo, to chapter 7.

Carly then made the cat gut soup that she last made in Lynnwood. I took August up for his bath and got him going, including the Lego boat. Mom watched him as he played in there and I was able to go type in a different room.

We went back downstairs and had soup for dinner. He sang the platypus song and added a little dance movement at the end.

I took him upstairs for bed. He showed me his different emotional faces in the mirror. I mentioned we didn’t have a word of the day, and he chose ‘stick figure’, which he has heard somewhere. We looked up XKCD comics to see stick figures. I told The School with the Most Rules, then he was asleep at 8:10.

Rubber band music:

Balloon popping:

Not deep enough:

Legos with Grampa:

Floating the ship:

Echoy mode:

Loud guitar:

Guitar out the window:

Chubby giraffe…:

Brown platypuses song 1:

Brown platypuses song 2:

He woke up at 5:35. I saw him get up, pick the lamp off the floor and set it on the end of the bed, turn it on, turn it off, put it back down on the ground, then look out the window. He was trying to decide if it was time to wake up. He decided it was, then went down to Carly, closing the door after himself.

He watched Smurfs, then Llama Llama. He went to the bathroom and asked me, “Did you know that bees have tiny lungs?” He then invented a machine to look at them. He had watched a Llama Llama about planning for Mother’s Day, and was inspired to have a pancake. He agreed to help me make them. He tried to request some song on Siri and ended up with a song called, I think, “Amigo Ghost Town”. He liked it and added it to his playlist. He helped make the pancake batter. We talked about how it would be fun to plan Mother’s Day. And yesterday he told me he wants to plan our days more, like he used to.

As we got ready to go he sat on the couch and looked at Giants Beware! on his own. I asked if he wanted to take it to school to look at sometime, and he said no, but I took it anyway.

Dad walked with us this morning. On the way August found several treasures, including a broken light bulb and a big set of broken plastic straw building pieces that sort of formed a pyramid shape. He said this was a sort of sensor, and used it through a hole in a wall to spy on a family. He said he could tell the kids there like pancakes and the yard was full of poop. As we got close to school he found a zip tie that he said looked like a Hebrew letter, a dalet.

As we parked the bike we sort of met Bar and Ben’s new golden retriever puppy and talked to Ben about it a bit. We walked the hummus over and August handed it to Lillian, and he asked what the big jar with money in it was for. It was for the “No tushy left behind” fundraiser. Dad and I both gave him some coins to put in. We then walked to his classroom. He took the bucket of bottle caps in to give to his teachers. They were in the middle of dividing up the group for something and when Dad and I left after waiting for a couple minutes (as August reminded us) I saw him still kind of wandering around the room holding the bucket. So I was a little worried about him.

Dad and I drove the car home and after a little while at home the three of us headed to the Binyamin art market in Tel Aviv. We parked by the big synagogue and walked north, finding the kombucha shop that sells metal straws along the way. Didn’t open until noon though, so we would come back later. We walked up into the market and spent the next hour and a half looking through it. For a few minutes we dipped over into the flea market area, more crowded, so they could get some of the eye magnets. My parents were successful at shopping, getting a total of, I think, 6 gifts that fit in a small bag.

We thought about going to the Druze place August and I had been, but their seating area was smaller and full. We walked to the kombucha place and I got a pack with two metal straws and a bottle of pineapple mint to try with August later. From there my mom remembered she wanted to return to a stand near the beginning of the market with metal jewelry. We walked back there and she got a necklace. Next, we tried to go to Port Said for lunch, but were sat in front of a big speaker surrounded by smokers. We left, and were hurriedly looking for another place to eat. We found a bar called Shpagat with nice seating looking out on the seat. They had a small food menu that looked good. So we ate there and dad and I got drinks. Our waiter was skipping around to dance music and I realized Carly, August and I would have to come back here as they would like it.

We headed back, taking a convoluted but interesting route through Tel Aviv to get on 20, and got to school comfortably in time to pick up August. Marion was gone today, so Vicki had done a lot of filling in. I first talked to August and he said he had a better day, but that he needed to give Vicki a punishment as she wouldn’t let him play with a stick that Nicholas had played with at lunch. I talked to Andrea and she did say that things had gone much better with her.

August went in the makerspace room with Candy and played with some play dough. He took a photo of his creation. He also had a watercolor painting that he had done to take home.

We headed over to Carly’s room and helped her clean up. August helped eat some of the leftover pizza (he had also eaten all of his lunch—he’s suddenly eating a bunch more) and kicked around balloons and helped pop them. We packed everything up and folded some things, then all headed to the car. Carly’s Get to Know You Day had gone quite well.

In the car, August was singing an “All I have to do is break you” song—which had some more words at the beginning and was about the broken plastic thing he was playing with. As we got close to home he was moving it too close to Carly. And when she stopped him he got upset, and at the house Carly had to take him upstairs as he was having a meltdown (although afterwards he claimed to me that it wasn’t a meltdown).

Back downstairs he built with the Legos with Gramma and Grampa, building a ship and a house. He wanted to float the boat in the bath so I filled that up. He floated the ship, then wanted to get other Legos as sea creatures. We went back down, built some sea creatures, and took them back up. Once they were in the bath, August took off his clothes and climbed in the bath as well. The first tub bath he’s taken in awhile. He had taped a piece to the side of the ship as scientific sensors to study the ocean, but it came off in the water. I went and got more Legos and made a rig off the back of the ship. He played in the bath, making storms to damage the ship, and Gramma came up to hang out with him.

He got out, and we put on his heavier snowman pajamas. He wanted me to take a photo of him being cute. August took the phone and took a bunch of photos around the house. And he told me “I invented a machine that will let you climb the tallest mountain in the territory.” And he said ‘Roman’ was the word of the day, then in discussing that we added ‘civilization’.

Downstairs he had more pizza for dinner, then a bowl of broccoli, shrimp, and rice. He said, “Hey. That was yummy.” I commented on him eating more and he said, “I like food again.” He and I then shared the kombucha, using the metal straws, and I was surprised to find how much he liked it, because it was both fizzy and sour—things he generally doesn’t like: “I love it…I love the sourness…It gives me lots of energy. I changed myself to run on sour. I run on soury.” And he liked the fizzy. He was disappointed to find out that kombucha actually has less caffeine in it than the tea it is made from. He said he wanted some coffee now.

Mom and Dad started putting together the Peter Rabbit puzzle. I helped, and August did a little, but he wasn’t too fond of the idea.

He said good night to them, then we went upstairs and did the story dice. A story called “Another Pirate Escape”. We brushed his teeth, then he was talking about teleporting things to Lydia to change her. He played a little of the tea game with Carly, then said good night. We went in and did a preschool game. He was really tired and wanted me to think of the preschool game. I told a story about a school with thousands of rules enforced by robots, then he destroyed them with an EMP. He fell asleep around 9:15.

Even if it would song:

Kestrel catching lunch:

The electricity show:

The underground tour:

The hug trap:

With Nicholas and Sophia:

Hide and seek:

Watering the plants:

Spying on the house

In the Binyamin Market

Lunch at Shpagat

In the bathtub!

Being cute

Metal straw and kombucha