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He was up even earlier, before 6:35. Carly brought him down and he cuddled for a couple minutes, then wanted his iPad. I read Polly Porcupine’s Painting Prizes to him in Skybrary and Carly headed to work. He leaned against me with his head on my shoulder. He then played Minecraft and I exercised, then he had mango and oatmeal for breakfast. I started reading volume 5 of My Little Pony to him.

We switched to Legos. He left up the big structure we had made yesterday and started making boats. His first attempt didn’t work, then we started discussing it. ‘Pontoon’ became a word of the day. I went upstairs to get the cards for the train, but could only find one. Ended up moving around everything in the bedroom and cleaning up, but no luck. Eventually gave up. He did more floating experiments in water downstairs, then was looking at Google Maps and ended up in Bangor. As we got ready to go he asked Siri for train stations and listened to her list the closest ones. I can tell that his pronunciation has gotten better, as Siri now understands him most of the time, and he’s been able to add songs to his playlist all by himself. Siri was telling him how far away the stations were “As the crow flies” so he asked me what that meant.

We got driving at 10. Wonders of wonders, we got the second-to-last parking spot down at the train station. As we got there he told me that trees have 3 parts: the “neck” (the trunk), the “arms” (branches), and the “hands” (leaves). I asked about the roots, and he decided they were the “throats” or “underarms.”

We got our tickets and only had to wait a minute for the train. We looked out the window for a couple minutes, then he wanted to play Polytopia. He hasn’t played it in months, but the association with riding the train is strong. I had planned for us to go up to the beach south of Haifa, which you can walk to from the train station. He really doesn’t want to go to a beach though, so decided on Hayarkon Park instead. As we left the station though I saw signs pointing to “Lego Space Park”. I started following them, noticing that other families were going the same way, and eventually August caught on that something was different. I told him to look at the signs, and he figured out that one said ‘Lego’.

We got to the entrance, then realized everyone had tickets. I asked a guy where to get tickets, and he pointed back the direction we had come. We walked back that way to where the tickets were being sold for the Nick City thing, only to find out that the guy had been wrong. Eventually we ended up in the correct place. I was trying to look up on my phone how much it cost, and it said 110 shekels, quite pricey. But it turned out to be about 75 per person (about 20 dollars). More than I had planned for the day, but not horrible. And instead of doing a sit down lunch we ended up just getting a slice of pizza and popsicle. Much cheaper.

Of course, the other trade off was I had planned to have a nice leisurely lunch and couple of coffees and work on reading with him while we looked out at the Yarkon River. Instead, it was three hours of sensory overstimulation.

We got inside and wandered around to get our bearings. He had me carry him a bit. It was definitely exciting, but really missed the mark on what it could be: I thought there’d be a lot of sculptures made out of Legos. There were only 3. I thought you’d get to see the Star Wars Legos, etc. and do things with the Technic and Minecraft Legos—STEM sort of stuff. There was none of that. There were a lot of Duplos and Legos to play with, but they were the basic kinds.

Eventually, we settled down at one of the Duplo places and built a sort of house together. We wandered again, and played in the play area. Kind of like a little kids area with ball pits, etc. He developed a game where I would carry him to something with his eyes closed, then he’d be surprised by it, play for a few minutes, then want to be carried somewhere else. The most fun he had was jumping into a ball pit.

For lunch we went over to the cafe area. A zoo. He went to the bathroom and then we e got a piece of cheese pizza and went out and ate it in the entryway. He was really interested in the macaroons that the coffee counter had, but I convinced him he might not like them. He got a fruit lollipop instead, that turned out to be perfect; it was lemon at first, then had a gummi thing in it, then was a red flavor.

We went back in and did some climbing over the area where the statue of a NASA rover was, then went and waited in line to play in the pretend grocery store. He waited patiently for that (maybe 15 minutes or so), then we watched some kids dancing to a video thing. Finally, there was a “tent” thing that was a small black dome held up by an air compressor. We waited in line, just missing going in to the next show. We didn’t know what it would be. We were first in line for the next one. We took our shoes of and went in, and it was a short IMAX-sort of film about the solar system. In Hebrew, but it was still fun to watch. August lay back and used me as a pillow to look up at it.

While waiting in line for the video he had really gotten into the music and had me Shazam a couple of them and was dancing around with the velvet rope. After it, he literally just ran 8 or 10 circles around a relatively empty part of the floor.

He wasn’t interested in the laser battles thing, nor the zip line, but he said he was interested in the indoor climbing wall, but the line was too long. I told him we could find someplace else to do that some time. He decided we were done just before 2. We exited through the Lego store. I showed him the Mindstorm and Technics sets and he was interested, but he didn’t want to look around, which was nice.

We walked across the big pedestrian bridge to the park, getting there at 2. I wanted to stop in the shade and get a snack, and when he asked for his iPad and I thought that was a good relaxing activity I realized just how overstimulating the last 3 hours had been.

While we sat there he asked about ‘Lancelot’, as in My Little Pony there is a joke referring to “Sir Sleeps-a-Lot”. I told him about Arthur and Lancelot, and August explained that he was a better knight than Lancelot.

He wanted to do a geocache. We got walking. We walked into the garden area and he said it was too hot in there—this was the one that was one too much for him last time. He still wanted to find one, just not that one. There was another about the same distance away, by the cactus garden, and we went and found that. It had little trinkets in it, and he wanted to exchange something for the little butterfly. I didn’t have any of his treasures worth trading, so I let him put a shekel in instead.

From there we walked to the playground, which was on our way back to the train. Took another break there, as it was really, really hot. We talked about how something like the Lego place, being expensive, was sort of a once-a-month sort of thing. He said the next expensive thing he wanted to do was to go up in the hot air balloon (well, actually, helium) ride there in the park.

We watched it and talked about how it worked, and he rode a little rocking thing, then we got walking at 3:25. He asked “What’s lubricate mean?” At some other point he was talking about oiling machine parts. Not sure where that came from.

We just missed one train headed home, but the next one was at 4:05. A full train, so we sat on the floor at the top of the stairs and he played Polytopia. We got to the car, and got driving. I knew he was going to fall asleep, so tried to keep him awake with strawberry mints. Didn’t work, and he was asleep by the time we got to the school to pick up an iHerb box. I literally carried him in one arm to the guardhouse, then carried the box back in my other arm. He opened his eyes a bit. Back at home I carried him in and he slept on the couch.

I got changed and left and went over to Jem for guys night. A big turnout, 17 I think. I mainly talked to the middle school teacher Jeff, about music, and the new principal, also named Jeff. It turns out that this Jeff taught in Chelan for 7 years, starting in 2000. He knew many of my teachers. He had grown up in Wenatchee.

August had slept for another ten minutes after I left. I got home at 7:40, as most people were leaving after beers and appetizers at Jem, and didn’t go on to Abadie Burger for burgers.

August had some mango, and had been talking to Carly about pyrotechnics (from My Little Pony, of course). He also talked about how “I can get big air.” He had heard the phrase on something.

We read Redwall, and I gave him a bath. I went to bed with him. Thought he was totally asleep, but at 10 he asked if he’d gone to the bathroom, and wanted to go again. He probably fell asleep by 10:15.

Floating the Lego boat:

Walking through Lego Park:

Hyper while standing in line:

Doing some shopping:

Line dancing:

More dancing:

Running circles:

Better than Lancelot:

Finding the geocache:

He came down at 6:54. I asked if he wanted to go back to the bed or downstairs and he pointed downstairs, then had me carry him the rest of the way. He sat on the couch for a couple minutes, then wanted his iPad. I said we needed to read a book first, and he chose Happy, Healthy Ajay in Skybrary. We read that, then he watched the Minecraft videos. I exercised, then made french toast for breakfast. I had extended his time on the iPad so he could finish the video he’d been watching, but then when he was done with that video he insisted on watching for the rest of the 15 minutes and got upset when he couldn’t. Rather uncharacteristic as he has handled it so well.

We read My Little Pony and finished the pirate story. Today was, I thought, going to be the first meet up of homeschooling families at Ra’anana. August first was hesitant to go, both because of meeting strangers, and because he was afraid of it raining, but eventually agreed to go. Then, when it turned out no one was going until next week he didn’t want to go again, but agreed to Herzliya Park.

We built with Legos, adding on to what he had built with Carly yesterday. This was to be a regular activity today. He then balanced between the red chairs. He wanted to do a Brother and Sister game called “Reflections”, after one of the My Little Pony stories he really likes. We went up, and it was about a girl that could control the weather, turn trees to candy, etc. We then did the whole Sister and Brother competing over Baby Sister. He then got a case of the giggles, and thought I was going to tickle him. He was squealing over my hand, just lying on the bed. He would yell “Refrigerator!… You’re suspicious.”

He asked if it was possible to light up a shady area with mirrors. When I said yes, he said he wanted to buy a bunch of mirrors, like 15, from Max to try it. We were playing in the Legos again, and I found his zipper pull treasure in the Legos. Not the one from a few weeks go that he found and lost at the school, but an older one. He remembered that it made things louder and quieter. It was from over a year ago, and I’d been correct about its fate:

From August 3, 2018:

“He saw the metal thing on the table “Can I have my setting changer?” He played with that, but then asked “Can I have my volume changer?” It was the broken zipper pull with an R and an O on it. He really wanted it, and he went to ask Carly. We went to look for it, but no luck. He explained what he remembered of it: “At the hotel with the lovely bathroom and two big beds…and with the wood…made out of concrete…it was a really special hotel.” He was describing when he found it in Ramallah, on a walk with Carly to the store. We showed him the little purse and that it wasn’t in there. He wouldn’t let it go, later asking me if I could make a new one, and if we could look in the vacuum cleaner for it. He only had it for a week before we left for the summer, unfortunately I explained it could be anywhere: still on the floor somewhere, mixed in with his Legos, dropped on one of our walks, etc. I remember him playing with it after we got home from Ramallah.”

And from when he found it:

From June 10, 2018:

“They went to the store and I took a shower. It was closed, but August came back with an OR treasure: a rubber end of a zipper pull with the letters OR on it. They ate the popcorn crackers and broken them apart into puzzles. He called it his volume changer. The O raised his volume, and the R lowered it.”

I had us all packed to go, even had my shoes on, when August said he wanted lunch before we left. I got him an egg salad sandwich. We then decided it was too late for the park, as it would be hot. I showed August a closer park we haven’t been to, and the blue of the surface initially looked like water, and August wanted a water park/playground. I told him we needed to move back to Korea. I looked, but couldn’t find any sort of wading pool within driving distance.

So we read My Little Pony, then played with the Space gravity app together. Back over at the Legos he made a research boat, and I wrote the Lunch Robot pages for the day. We did our reading time, then he started creating a sculpture of objects on the couch. He said, “I’m setting up a surprise for Eve.” He paused to do his skipping around the house, or rather cantering or whatever it is. Back to his sculpture, he said “It’s not really a sculpture…it shows how you can use ordinary things to make creative things.” He also added a little cup with cinnamon so it also had a smelling component.

We got ready to go to school and arrived a few minutes early. We took a quick look at the library, and the librarians commented on him having a haircut and I said it was just clean. But we then picked up Eve and she said something in the car about his hair, and he said it was different because he was pushing his hair to the side now. He had intentionally been keeping it straight down so people wouldn’t see the circle on his forehead.

August told her he had a surprise for her, and when we went in she was so excited about his sculpture. August had really wanted to show her things on Minecraft, but she wasn’t all that interested in Minecraft, so they kind of played individually at first. But then they both worked together to make a potion thing. Then outside Eve was happy to find their experiments from last week.

August got his air conditioning potion from upstairs, and they played with that as well, and they wanted to make their fort. I got the bundle of sticks and they wanted to make a sort of teepee. We used 5 sticks, and I got a sheet.

They had had crackers and meat as a snack, and now went in for juice. Eve drank the coconut water, then had some mango juice like August. They played with the Zinnie house, with Eve being a shopkeeper.

Carly got home just before 5. Heather was running late, after planning to get her at 4:45.

August and Eve were then a couple. I heard her ordering him around in the house. Bit later August went running by me and yelled “I’m going for a walk, honey!”

She left just after 5. August and I ate nutty noodles and read My Little Pony. “What in tarnation is going on?… What’s ‘tarnation’ mean?” Word of the day.

We built with Legos while Carly worked. She had had to listen to a coworker complaining a lot during the day and didn’t get much work done.

We switched and I went up to work. He explored Minecraft. Up in the bathroom he made a foam mix and washed himself.

Thought I was going to leave them at 8:50. He was hungry though and needed oatmeal first. He told us “Do you know when I look at junk I see the billions and trillions of things they can be created to…even an old kitchen sink.” He kept talking about how he does that. It was pretty cool. I finally left them a little after 9 and went for a run.

Talking to Siri:

Random songs from Siri:

Eyeball movement:

Singing about the table:

Working on his stick sculpture:

Skipping:

Explaining the sculpture:

Eve’s reaction to the sculpture:

A new mixture together:

Playing in the house 1:

Playing in the house 2:



He came down at 7:14. On the couch a couple minutes then we read part of the Magic Up Your Sleeve book. He asked for an invisible ink pen and I gave him the one from this summer. He played with that, mainly writing on his arms and my hand. He said “That’s the other world. Where there’s another me,” as he looked at the mirrored apple logo on my iPad. Yesterday he had called it the “upside down world” and I told Carly I hadn’t let him watch Stranger Things.

He spotted the Langton’s Ant app on my iPad. We hadn’t looked at it yet. It demonstrates how a simple algorithm first produces chaos, but then pattern. We talked about that for a while and watched it and let it keep going. On his iPad he then played the Space app, which lets you model how the gravity interacts between planets, comets, stars, etc. He played that as I exercised, then switched to Minecraft. He asked “What’s ‘revolutionize’ mean?” A word of the day. I think it is from an ad.

He asked me, after Minecraft, what I thought being a zombie feels like. That went on a few minutes. As we ended he walked away and repeated “active consciousness” to himself, a phrase I had just used.

We went outside. I got bamboo sticks out from the bundle, unwinding the wires, to use as beams for the cardboard ceiling of his fort. We talked about how they would work. I ended up getting four sticks instead of two as he wanted two to play with. He also had a paper towel roll he was using to play with them.

Inside, he was trying to decide what the paper towel roll should be. He said it should measure something: “Something like a tensiometer or something like that…it measures tension.” “How bout it’s a math stick?” We checked on the ant app.

He then wanted to do a Brother story where he was in jail, and asked “What could help him get out of jail?” I asked how he got in jail, and August said “That’s a whole back story.” I’ve used that term as we’ve run into hints of stories in My Little Pony that we don’t know about, probably from the TV show.

I tried to clean off the white board for listing projects we are working on. Water and a paper towel weren’t doing it, and August suggested a magic sponge, which he had just used with Carly to clean the stool and other things. He got it out. It worked, but he kept putting too much water on it. I dried off the board, and got him to squeeze out the water, but it didn’t take much for it to seep under the edge and start ruining the board.

We went upstairs for the Brother escaping from prison game. Bar broke him out of jail, but it caused a huge jail break in the process. Which led to everyone in the jail ending up in different voids. Lots of fighting of monsters, and eating of cake, etc. He said one void was full of lollipops, and I had them getting the “Lollipop” song stuck in their head. August thought the lollipop song was pretty funny.

We got his iPad so he could look at the hydrogen atoms. He did that for a bit, then we headed downstairs and read My Little Pony. Looking forward to September 1 when we can check out more volumes, as we are on our third read through of volumes 1 to 6.

He ate an egg salad sandwich and some nectarine for lunch. He asked “What’s complimentary colors?” We discussed that and ‘clashing’. He then asked “What’s miscreants mean?” Also from My Little Pony. He talked about some plant and said “It’s a who knows plant.” It was the set up for a joke: “It’s for making noses!” He then asked “What’s a neuron?”

He remembered our story from months ago about a girl and a lotion factory (in turn influenced by Story Pirates). This time it was a Brother game where he had dry skin and went to the lotion factory. Then, “I have another story. It’s how he gets itchy in the first place. It’s the backstory!” He was bitten by mosquitoes and scratched a lot. He then asked “What’s hypothermia?” And then was quoting My little Pony: “Throw these miscreants in the dungeon immediately!”

He talked about replacing the cap to the Apple Pencil and I showed him the options I had found on Amazon. We then watched “20+ Space Facts that Aren’t in Textbooks” (https://youtu.be/FfwAKqNM7U0) and “10 Facts about Our Planet You Didn’t Learn in School” (https://youtu.be/BRXdjc5yxVs). He had a vanilla popsicle, then we finished reading volume 2 of My Little Pony.

He was then asking Siri for things, and we found out that if you just say things like ‘tomatoes’ it assumes you are looking for a restaurant, it seems. And August got it to recommend places 5000 miles away and 700 and some miles to the west somewhere. He also asked for a random song and came running to me and said “Siri played a song called “Wiggle” by Snoop Dogg!”

We then got headed to school. Parked, then realized we had left the swim bag sitting at home. Drove home and ran in and got it, then back to school. As we walked by the cafeteria, Reia ran out and said they were eating first, then would join us. At the pool Natalie was already there with Corinne and Elise. Then Rita showed up with Omri and Jonathan, and Cassie showed up with Taya. Hao finally showed up with Reia and her sister, Rayan, sometime later, and Carly got there after 4. So a good turnout at the pool.

We got home after 5. I got him nutty noodles for dinner, and he had seconds. We read My Little Pony. Then I went upstairs and worked for just over an hour. August earned iPad time by doing math, and when I came out he was watching videos on the couch upstairs while Carly took a shower. I sat next to him and did a bit more work. We went down and read more My Little Pony. We finished the Big Mac story.

I gave him a bath and washed his hair. He had the chocolate from Tiv Taam that was the backup treat from our last trip there. He then went and told Carly all about it, but warned her it had nuts in it. We read a little more My Little Pony, then he had a small oatmeal. He wanted more Brother but I just couldn’t. Too tired. He then told me about math concepts in his math, including something called “so-on”. I left them just after 9 and went for a run. Right before I said goodnight he lay back and bonked his head on the corner of the ipad.

Invisible ink on his arm:

Stick arms:

Dancing with his keys:

Caveman dancing:

Three noodles:

Noodle arms:

I started waking him at 7:30. Just so tired and he kept closing his eyes or lying back down. Finat forced him up before 7:50. He still flopped back over on the bed and lay there for several more minutes. Finally, I got my iPad and started reading Astroboy. We read that about twenty minutes before heading down.

We read more Astroboy, then started over again with My Little Pony volume 1, as we finished 6 for the second time yesterday. He had oatmeal.

He asked about neutron stars and we looked up how big they are. Pretty amazing. I compared the size of one to the city of Netanya, but weighing 1.4 times our sun. He then said he had a round container in his lab that contains a neutron star. It is actually a crusher that is crushing it smaller and smaller, to the size of an actual neutron.

We went upstairs for a Beother game. Bar took them to her lab, showing them the neutron star. Then had Baby Sister prank calling. He suggested the space station. More prank calls. Searched the garbage dump again “I find new species of slug.” A lot more playing, then finally downstairs before 10.

He had his cheap snap bracelet in two loops together and said “Hey, this looks like a termite mouth. Well, a grandpa termite mouth.” I can’t explain that one. I started boilings eggs, and went outside for a few minutes. I sat on the lounge chair and he got his used piece of gum and was stretching it. He said it was his talent. And it was Baby Sister’s gum. He says he also has talents for pushing button and blinking. He kept stretching the gum inside.

He watched a Julius Jr. and I exercised. He then played Minecraft. He wanted to show Vivian a cave he found. Sadly, she goes back to school today, so it will be a while before he can talk to her again. I made egg salad, and then he ate the first sandwich I gave him. We read My Little Pony. He then ate a full second one.

He asked what ‘accessorize’ meant. It is from the book. He thought it meant ‘going up’, but I figured out he was thinking of ‘ascending’. He then had a Brother and Sister game idea: “But it’s a great one…it’s when Bar accessorizes the car…adds gadgets.” We did a short Brother game on that. He asked “Did you know bathrooms are the ultimate discovery?”

We worked on the cardboard fort. I did the wall and roof. He worked on the power supply and the vacuum cleaner, using his electronics kit with the vacuum cleaner thing.

We went back downstairs and I started to do the word writing. But he saw an app on my iPad that models a hydrogen molecule. It turned out to be way too confusing to explain, but he played around with it for a long time. He was studying Brother’s Brain: “I figured out why you’re getting headaches a lot. I dug around in your memories and found you’ve jumped off skyscrapers a lot.” He also had a lot of radiation in his body. Then he was studying the baby in the mother. There was a problem with the umbilical cord.

Induced wotd

Now there is a Baby Brother as well.

He read several words that I wrote and reviewed the ones he had done earlier. He went to the bathroom, and then caught a bug on the floor. He studied it for a while, then let it go outside. He was sitting on the floor and looking at the Magic School Bus book and asked me to read it. I read Inside the Human Body.

He finally got his clothes on, but went to the bathroom again:

“I need to go to the bathroom because I thought about going to the bathroom.” He asked “What’s a mane?” Another word of the day.

I got out crackers and meat and hummus for a snack. Tried to do it outside, but he wanted to go in.We ate inside and read My Little Pony. He asked about the “Secretariat Comet” and ended up watching the real Secretariat win the triple crown. He had pomegranate juice and I had iced coffee.

I hung up the photo that had fallen, and we played with Legos and I researched credit cards (the school is changing payroll stuff, and Carly was in a meeting bout it). I made a sculpture and August helped add to it, then he made a car. He couldn’t get all of the wheels to roll, so I taught him about level wheels using a straw to show him the angles. We listened to Velvet Underground.

I had knocked the Apple Pencil off the book shelves, and when August picked it up it was missing the cap. I was looking for it, didn’t find it, but found a piece of rotting up under the couch. That led to us vacuuming behind the couch. August helped me with that, and he was also playing on my iPad, starting with the hydrogen app again and then using a new musical rhythms app called Concentric. It is really quite cool and really helps you visualize rhythms. He showed it to Carly when she got home.

I went upstairs to work after we ate nutty noodles for dinner. August ended up eating two and half bowls. A good day of eating for him.

I worked for 1.5 hours. He had his evening video time while Carly took a shower. When I came out he watched a short Ted Ed video about viruses.

He wanted more food, and when I had learned how much he had eaten I said I was more than happy to get him a snack. He asked “Why are you MORE than happy?” I said I was just regular happy then. A subsequent conversation added ‘snark’ and ‘recipient’ to his vocabulary.

In the bathroom he had chemicals that take away humidity. He said they were “antihumistic.” And he recited a script I had used between Brother and Baby Sister. He seemed to remember several lines, but it involved Brother asking “How do you do that?” She replies “Magic” He says “But magic isn’t real. And she says “I have my ways.” He made his humidity chemical while playing in the sink, then played in the shower. He started talking science: “Water is the enemy of concrete.” “Wash me and I can tell you more science.” “Time is a negative physical thing.” Once out of the bath he then went and told Carly his science. She had the idea that he should have his own YouTube channel where he explained scientific concepts. We went down and he had some dry Cheerios as a snack. I left them at 9:20 and went for a run.

Gum stretching:

Hydrogen atoms 1:

Hydrogen atoms 2:

Echolocation tracker:

Suds squirter:

He came down at 7:45. He cuddled with Carly and after a minute asked “Can you teach seventh grade when I’m in seventh grade?”

He watched Julius Jr. When done, I was making him oatmeal and he was cuddling with Carly, but as usual got too rough and then was a bit upset with her when she stopped. He went and clammed on the couch. He then started building a sculpture on the couch out of books and other things on the coffee table. It turned into a school, with a playground: “This part is the morning meeting place, because they take morning meeting outside. It’s actually a school.” It had a power plant, and an outdoor screen for movies, and a tissue was a cover that raised up with a button. It protected the screen and “it’s a signal blocker so the kids can’t use the remote and watch videos when they’re not supposed to…it’s fingerprint locked.”

We decided he had the world record for best couch sculpture “made out of books and tissues.” “When I started I didn’t know it would be like this.” It also had a smoke stack, a gate, a fort, and a place for rest time.

He practiced standing and hopping on one foot, then was kicking and hitting a balloon up in the air. Getting pretty good at each.

He expressed surprise that he had made his sculpture on his own. He added the circle protractor to the school: “Its a harder and harder hopscotch.” It also made bubbles, that people could get stuck in.

Carly went to the store. He ate a dolma when he saw me eating one. He was then doing all sorts of yoga types of moves. When he was supporting himself with his fingertips or thumbs he said I couldn’t do them because he was concerned about my broken finger.

He was then walking in circles, in thinking mode. He told me about a hover board that comes right to you. He then talked about his funny gadgets: “Go go gadget tiger catcher. Go go gadget giraffe slicer. Go go gadget piece of cake. Go go gadget hoverboard…”

We went up for a Brother game. They went in Space Slug. Baby Sister wasn’t allowed to go. They discovered a new metal called “plutinum” “extra stretchy and breakable string cheese”. Bar and Baby Sister thought about scary things in the void and they kept coming real.

Downstairs he wanted to sit on the couch so destroyed the school. Carly got home. He had egg and french toast. I read My Little Pony.

They left at 11. He was repeating “38th time’s a charm.” Which is from My Little Pony.

They first went to the pool. Tessa and Nava were there. They then went to Gabi’s. Street construction meant they had to find a different place to park. They walkie talkies that August has been excited about didn’t work (they must be broken, as Carly bought backup batteries in case Gabi forgot), so they spent the first 20 minutes brainstorming how he could contact Carly if they needed to. August discussed tin cans, but explained they wouldn’t work with the door closed. He discussed binary code, then made a sort of Morse code by knocking on the door. He decided his message was too complex though. Carly then went and sat in the waiting area and they mainly played with the rubber swords for 30 minutes.

They got home and he came up and said hi. Cherie and Chuck called and I did a little more work. He also had a Swedish pancake. When I came down August was having a silly time. I tried to call the gas company as we need a refill. No luck, as I couldn’t get someone who spoke English.

He was being incredibly silly: he wanted to put one of his rings in his nose, then wanted Carly to take a picture of his bottom, which he has asked for before. She finally said okay, then deleted the photo after he saw it. He was then putting all of his clothes on by himself, then taking them off. They mainly turned out backwards and inside out, which he says he likes. “I have a case of the giggles!”

I finally got him upstairs, as Carly was making nutty noodles. I said “Hurry, or we’ll have to listen to Mama’s show.” He cracked up.

Upstairs it continued to be silly for quite a while, with Brother telling Baby Sister to poop on sisters bed. I Taught him air quotes and wink. Some more craziness, then back downstairs and we read My Little Pony. He ate nutty noodles.

He asked Carly “What’s conclusion mean?” And then “What’s prologue?” Words of the day. He also asked “What have you taught your students?” She told them she taught her writing acronym PEE (Point, Evidence, Explain). He asked “How do you do that?” Carly did an example explaining why nutty noodles are delicious

We read more My Little Pony, finishing the diamond story. He had a fruit popsicle. Then more Brother game, with him (Bar) showing magic tricks. He was inspired by the My Little Pony story.

I went for a run then shower. They talked to her parents and he had oatmeal.

When I was back he told me about how he floats more easily when he takes a deep breath and we talked about why that is. “I learned it by ACCIDENT. That’s my favorite way to learn stuff.”

We then skyped with my parents. The Jag is back together, and Paul climbed Mt. Baker this week. August asked if he used an air tank.

August showed off how he can stand and hop on one foot. He can do it for more than 15 seconds, although he doesn’t want me to time him. “I’m even a blinking expert. I’ve had practice. I can even blink on one foot!”

I took him upstairs. He wore a hairband and looked in the mirror. He chose mismatched pajamas and socks for bed. I washed him and brushed his teeth, and left them before 9:10.

Couch sculpture 1:

Couch sculpture 2:

Wall licking:

Crazy time:

Showing off his blinking:

Carly got him up at 8. He watched a Bright Side video on what would happen if all the volcanoes erupted at once, and then a Julius Jr. episode. He had oatmeal and some zucchini bread. He told me “I discovered something called a super star…a trillion neutrons of gasses.”

We were driving at 9:30. He buckled himself as we got in. He was quiet for several minutes as we drove. Then told me “On my planet, time is backwards…if you wanted to go the shortest route it would be the longest route.” We stopped at one gas station but it was closed, then found a second along the way. He went in with Carly to go to the bathroom. He used his binoculars a lot, especially as we got into Jerusalem. We didn’t do any reading or iPad on the drive.

We parked at the open parking lot by Jaffa gate and walked in. August commented on how dirty the bricks are. He also asked if we had walked up that staircase before, and when I said yes he talked about how we had walked on those same bricks in the past. We also contemplated how thousands of others had done so as well.

We found the door to the Wujoud Museum, where I was to interview Nora Kort at 11:30. We then took a right and walked up a back pathway we’d never been on before, going up to the top for a minute. August spotted a butterfly and tried to catch it.

We then headed back, to a coffee shop over by the Tower of David, at the Christ Church Guest House. It was close to 11:30, so I stopped at the museum and they went on and found it. I was buzzed up. Nora wasn’t there yet. I looked around, and went up on the roof. Quite a view of Jerusalem, with the domes in the distance, and the empty pool (emptied by Israel in 1967 and empty since) next to it. I went back up on the roof to hear the church bells at noon.

Nora showed up and met with an older Palestinian man first. when her assistant brought out Arabic coffee and biscuits, they invited me and and the three of us chatted for about 20 minutes. He then left, and I started my interview, talking about women in leadership/peacebuilding. Very Palestinian approach, as I was there to get a specific story, but it took us about an hour to get to the piano stor. In fact, August and Carly showed up before that, and hung out in one of the rooms, playing I Spy. Luckily, it was a lovely place, with good AC, and plenty of interesting stuff for I Spy. She finally told the story of her mother’s piano, which was much more convoluted/complex, and rather less dramatic than the way Omar had told it. near the end she introduced me to a woman who had just lost her house to a home demolition two weeks ago over in Silwan.

I took August and Carly up and showed them the view from the roof and explained the history of the pool.

We then walked back to the car and I drove us to the science center. I backed in parked, as August had requested I start doing, and we went in. There were new exhibits on da Vinci and simple machines. And the maker space was open, but only had an hourly class thing in it.

He played with the thing that blows a ball up in the air, and experimented using Carly’s sweatshirt and his hat. I then went and got a sandwich and ate as I was starving. They had had pizza while at the coffee shop. I found them and switched with Carly. They had walked through the ‘Will robots love?’ doorway several times to up the counter, then ended up playing with the dancing paper clips, which is where I found them.

He and I saw a musical sculpture thing that was new, then ended up in the new simple machines area. He slid blocks down boards and spent quite a bit of time turning the screw thing to lift balls (instead of water). I told him about Sisyphus. We went over to the new brain exhibit. Then to the spinning things, then over to the spinning conveyor belt. You put wooden cars on it and they were launched on two surfaces, with different materials, and you would see how the friction was different on them and the cars would go further on one side than the other. He played with the nuts on bolts with different threads.

We then went up to the top part, where he wanted me to make one of the paper helicopter things. I did that, and it worked quite well. Then August started finding used paper airplanes and shooting them out of the paper airplane launcher. He could do it on his own, and did it over and over and over and over. This was when I realized he was doing an odd blinking thing, putting his eyes up and to the right and blinking a few times. I thought it was a cute thing he was doing at first, but he seemed to be doing it a lot, as if his eyes were dry or bothering him.

When we finally left there we went down to the first floor and played in front of the infrared camera. From there it was to the ball room near the front, and we played in the little dark room in the corner, with all the different lenses looking out. We realized there was a smaller little corner behind it with mirrors on all the walls and he went in there and played around and danced. We played in this “spy place” for a long time, and that’s where we were when Carly found us.

We then went to the sand play area for the first time. There are air compressor nozzles out there for cleaning off your shoes. Totally reminded me of Korea. He played with those, then went to choose some food. He ended up with a tuna salad sandwich. Buying packaged food like that was also very Korean. He ate, then played some more. He walked around the edge, balancing.

We left a little before 5. He wanted me to carry him down the stairs so he wouldn’t get “stairsick”. He claimed it was a real thing, although he’s never been stairsick, he said. He told me not to be someone who stands in line if I get another job “Because it’s a really hard job.” We had talked about people being paid to wait in long lines a couple days ago. Carly drove home, and we read some My Little Pony on the way home when I was afraid he might choose to nap.

At home we read more My Little Pony, then I went for a run and took a shower.

We went upstairs for a Brother game. He had made an invention with a toilet paper tube with a string tied to it. Bar asked what Baby Sister likes: “Danger”. And the game went from there. The tube invenrion shot What ever they thought about, like candy, or nails for Brother’s playhouse, although he managed to have them hit his forehead. Bar then had her medical bots come and take care of him. That was a new detail August came up with.

I got him in the bathroom and he played in the sink. He asked if Rainbow Dash was a boy or a girl. He then declared “No, Rainbow Dash is a girl. AND A BOY!” He discussed which was the best pony again and said “I’d like to be Rainbow Dash.” I asked him what he liked about her and he said “Liking to not run away.”

He was playing with the toilet paper roll invention and said “I should throw this in the shower then pull it out. That would be heroic.”

I washed him, then he played with the little flashlight and put a pink balloon over it and turned out the lights in the bedroom. He also looked at Cherie’s mandala and we talked about how she could make the shoes so geometric. He then was saying something and we practiced the ‘l’ sound. I showed him where my tongue was and he practiced saying ‘little’. He then went to show Carly when he was making the sound, telling her “Mama! You’re little!” And he said “Celestia sells sea shells by the sea shore.” Which is from My Little Pony.

I left them at 9:30.

On TV at the museum I saw two bands worth looking into: Wondergaap, Gizzmo from Fete de la Musique. Which was interesting, because it was a French music festival with bands singing in English on an Arabic TV channel.

Trying to catch a butterfly:

Blowing clothes:

New sculpture:

Turning the screw:

Conveyor belt 1:

Conveyor belt 2:

Conveyor belt slo-mo:

Our paper helicopter:

Airplane launch:

Infrared fun:

Mirror fun:

I woke him up at 7:30. Took him several minutes to wake up on the bed. Sat up or opened his eyes a few times. Finally headed downstairs just before 8. We watched a few minutes of the race, then reviewed the sign language words we had learned the other day (mom, dad, baby) and learned brother, sister, and eat. He said he could use that one.

He watched Julius Jr. and I exercised. He had me watch a big dominoes video with him, then we read the My Little Pony pirate story. ‘Mutiny’ was a word of the day. We went upstairs and I started laundry, but nothing happened. I figured out the water was off to that part of the house, so went out. But I found all three handles off. I ran back and forth testing things, and ended up with all three handles in the other direction. But we had had water to the house last night and this morning. Strange.

August had played with the Legos while I did that, and made a little remote control car. He had had a whiteboard eraser that was going to erase anything it touches in Brother stories, but now turned into the remote for the car. We went and played Brother stories with it. Brother kept crashing the car while trying to drive it. It was then a research drone, doing research. August got off on a tangent, telling Brother scary stories:

“One time at preschool a kind saw a girl Ina red dress holding up three fingers…This one is real. Then the day after that he saw her again and she was holding up FOUR FINGERS. Spooky!” I loved how he included the “this one is real.” Also, the story is based on one he saw on that Bright Side video, but he never understood that the reason that the girl puts up another finger (it is in a photograph) is that she’s killed another person.

He also told me “The universe is a circle of stretch rope. If you go over that rope you go out of the universe. Did you know that? The universe is just a rope, in space. That’s simple technology.” And he had goggles that give him any vision “thru vision…to see through walls.”

As he went to the bathroom at 10 he said “Brother, tell me on the comment section below if you know any top horror stories.” So then I was telling him ‘scary’ things that had happened to Brother: Once he had had to use a really dirty bathroom, and there was no soap! August reminded Brother that he always had backup soap, but then when Brother looked for it it had vanished. August (as Bar) then helped him look back in time and they realized that the dad had taken it when he was out.

Then, Brother told him that his sandwich had disappeared on an airplane. Sister then admitted that she had stolen it with the whole “look over there” misdirection, and she couldn’t believe he had fallen for it. August thought that was hilarious: “Haha! That’s the funniest story ever!”

August then talked about the “lavis world (lava world)…green nothing world.” based on Minecraft.

We went downstairs and played Blue Apprentice. Ate some pita. We went upstairs for more Brother and Bar with the rings. In a void, assuring Baby Sister the void wasn’t scary, but scared her. They were then attacked by tentacles and she used the rings to fight them off. We went down to try Carly’s mango ice cream. I had left it on the counter to thaw a bit and scraped off the freezer burned surface. The rest was just fine, and he ate a bowl. He explained how “Everyrhing needs power.”

We went outside and he played with a plate as a frisbee. He wanted to sit on my bike, and that led to me getting down the kid trailer thing. He hosed it off and I hooked it up. He sat on it while I pushed us around a circle of the yard. He liked it, but was done. He wanted to try on his helmet, but didn’t actually want to use it. I took it out on the street and rode in circles a few times, but that was it.

Back inside he reminded me about wanting to be able to control his dreams. He wants to dream about being in jail to know what it is like. He told me “Cuz I actually feel and think in my dreams…I want to poop in my pants, kill, spit on the couch in my dreams…” We read a few pages of a book on lucid dreaming. He said he liked it, but that was enough.

He then did art on the iPad for a while. He wore his swim goggles and pretended they were infrared goggles. He want to practice blowing bubbles so he chewed gum. He used the analogy of making a parachute shape and blowing into it. Seemed like he was getting the idea down, but not stretching the gum out enough. As he practiced he danced to Massive Attack.

He asked “Can I have a head drink?” By which he meant a hat with cans on it and straws down to your mouth. He said from Pink Panther, but also from Plants Versus Zombie, and Ben Braver has something similar. We read more My Little Pony.

Bar then invented a space slug. Then a space rainbow. Both were ships. The latter was actually the SpaceRain. He explained take off and landing and how they tilted up and down. Radiation. He was taking Baby Sister along. Wanted to do the funnest part of the SpaceSlug. “Then you’ll see real St. Elmo’s Fire.” He had me look up if St. Elmo’s Fire is actually dangerous, and it seems like it is.

The Brother/Baby Sister game turned into Baby Sister wanting Bar to have things that would protect her from doing dangerous things (like jumping in a hole through the Earth) but Bar said she couldn’t do it, but then encouraged her to do it herself: “You just start inventing, then you love it…then start inventing! Go Baby Sister!” Those ended with some invention that caused something to explode by Brother, and with the Baby Sister saying “Brother go boom!” August loved the line and kept repeating it. We had also eaten crackers and meat for lunch at some point.

We left at 2:45 and drove up into town and parked across from the hummus place. We went in and got a container of hummus. August spent a good 5 minutes playing with and studying the samples of fake grass outside a store next to it. We then headed to the pool.

It was the middle school pool party. So Carly just walked home instead, as it would have felt like work. We handed off the hummus to her so she could take it home and try it. August and I headed to the pool, and he was a bit wary of the pool party going on. Luckily, we found Omri’s family, including her dad, playing in the little pool. We ended up spending most of our time there, with August, Zohar, Omri, and their dad (and another dad with a preschooler) throwing around a ball. I mainly relaxed in the water, and help August get the ball when it came our way. He asked “What’s accessory mean? What’s biographic mean?” And one of the songs that played at the pool party was “Groove Is in the Heart” which I think he would like.

We finally went to the big pool about 4:30. Didn’t have much time though, as they ordered the kids out of the water even earlier than usual. August was eager to follow the orders to get out of the pool. And he started to panic for a couple seconds when he was out and I went to get a ball that was floating and he lost me in the sort-of-crowd until I called his name.

Out of the pool we hung out with the others and had some snack. I had brought enough zucchini bread to share a slice with all the families we knew there: Omri and family, Natalie and her kids, and Tessa’s family.

We got home at 5:15. When he was getting changed, he put his underwear on his head and fooling around. He was storing stuff up in his head. He was then doing spins on the floor, standing on a Lego piece. Finally got clothes on and had some soup and went outside with Carly. He then did the page of words that I’d written out for him (the ‘Word Spy’) with her and I went for a bike ride and took a shower.

He was watching Julius Jr. and having oatmeal when I came down. He went to the bathroom and put his clothes on himself, getting his underwear inside out. He said it was even comfier. He then talked about how “Sometimes I bring back memories at bedtime. And I just brought back a memory: at bedtime when I have a dream, I’ll try to realize it’s a dream.” I think he meant he remembered things from earlier in the day. And he also talked about his power: “And my power…I can see two pictures in my head at the same time.” “It’s totally cool.” He talked about that one months ago.

We read My Little Pony. ‘Thesaurus’ was another new word. I looked up some examples for words he said, including ‘ring’. He then practiced: “I have tons of hoops.” We also did ‘ribbon’ and ‘sad’. Carly took him upstairs and I washed him. He had the little set of keys he had found on the floor of Max (like for luggage or a box) and was scratching things with them, settling on one of his cardboard pieces. I left them at 9:30.

We talked about his sticker chart that is still up on the fridge earlier today and he still likes it up.

We also heard Black Black Eyed Peas today and I think he would like them. I also remembered how we had once walked by a car playing Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication and wanted to listen to it more.

Frisbee practice:

Chewing gum:

Sort of dancing and trying to blow a bubble:

Watching the splashing:

Crazy and watching the ball throwing:



He was up on his own a little before 7:40. I was watching the race again, so he watched that for a while. He found his iPad and started watching Julius Jr., so I exercised. August had me get down his rings, and we had breakfast at some point. Shmuel arrived at 8:40 and started working on the water. He had me turn on the water while he looked, and it turned out a tap under a sink had been left open. Don’t know why water hadn’t come out earlier, but he said that was what it was.

Shmuel brought us a bag of plant clippings he said would grow, so August and I planted them. August had taken off his pajamas and put on his underwear and shorts without me asking. August told me he had heard one of the librarians talking of a “sweaty water bottle” so I explained what that meant. I made coffee for Shmuel and he came up and I talked to him. August played around a bit, then got a little extra watching time.

We went upstairs and played a Brother game with the rings. All of the kids were given rings and could do powers with them. They were all holding each other up in the air at one point. And when he was flying Brother would run into everything.

We went downstairs and played Blue Apprentice together. We’ve moved on to a part about ecosystems. He ate frozen mango and crackers. The game had him analyzing jackaloon farts, which he thought was pretty funny.

We got going on our errands around noon. We drove down to the big Tiv Taam, which seem chaotic and crowded getting there. For some reason traffic was really crazy getting in the parking lot, then an ambulance came by. But once in the lot there were tons of spots. August did a great job helping in the store. I had him reading the list to be part of the time, although he was more interested in telling me how fast to go, although that didn’t work too well. He directed me to where the rice crackers are when I didn’t know. He chose two Russian candy treats so he’d have a backup if he didn’t like the first one. As we were checking out, I heard a woman yelling loudly in English at someone about how you say ‘excuse me’ to someone when you bump them and don’t push through. I was hoping it was no one I knew. A minute later I saw two East Asian women come by, looking slightly mollified. I think it was probably a culture clash between the East Asian push through without saying anything culture and a loud American.

Missed our hour of parking time by 2 minutes so had to pay for another hour. Not sure if we could have then gone back in the entrance and used the hour or not. Didn’t matter, as I lucked out and got a spot in the crazy Max parking lot. We walked in with the mission of finding a set of rings like Taya had, metal straws, and rubber bands. Actually, the most important thing was supposed to be Velcro tape for our homeschooling calendar, but I forgot that yet again. But first August found a pink and purple neck pillow with those sequins on it and he really, really, really, wanted it. It was 15, so I told him I’d pay five and he could pay ten. He was very happy about that, but two minutes later realized the pillow wasn’t comfortable because of the sequins and we put it back. We eventually had to ask about the rings and he was excited to find those. No luck on the straws, but we got rubber bands. We also got a lemonade to share on the way out. August had been hungry on the way in, so he had stood outside and eaten the raspberry jello he had chosen at the store.

Got out of the crazy parking lot (really difficult to back out, and as we got in the car August had actually talked about how it is easier to tell if a car has people in it if they are packed backed in, and asked me to always park that way in the future for the safety of other people—I might work on that, as it definitely would have helped getting out here as well) and were home by 3.

On the walk to the car I found yet another of the pink rings on the ground. Then figured it out: I was certain that Taya had started yesterday with 8 or 9 rings, more than the 6 that remained between them by the time she left. She had apparently dropped one on the walk from the car when we took her home.

Shmuel and Shai were working, loudly, when we got home. We put away a few of August’s things, like the set of rings, that he didn’t want Nava and Liam to play with, then we went upstairs to play a game with the new rings. Way too loud though, so that didn’t last long.

He got more watching time (on YouTube), with headphones on, to get away from the noise, and I made zucchini bread and popsicles by myself and started getting snacks out.

Carly got here with Tessa and her kids, Liam and Nava, a bit after 4. They started with the snacks, and August loved the new meat I let him choose. I told Liam that we weren’t going upstairs today, as that was the first place he headed. August was clearly stressed about it, and started to get even more upset when Liam tried to sneak up later.

Carly and Tessa played with the kids as they talked. They played Guess Who, with August playing with Carly. They then went outside, and August didn’t want them going in the Zinnie house. He went in with Carly first and got out all the things he didn’t want to share and I put it upstairs. He was fine after that, and shared the house with Nava.

August found vines sneaking up from the yard below and growing in the area next to his house. He got scissors and cut them all off. He then found the frisbee, and I taught him how to throw it. He got the basic throw down pretty well, and was very excited by it. It was an old frisbee though, and cracked when it hit the fence or tree after a few minutes. He wasn’t bothered though.

Zucchini bread was ready and I brought out a plate and it was devoured by them, particularly Nava, although she only liked the inside and not the crustier outside, and she went through about 10 slices.

Back inside they played another game of Guess Who. They left before 6. Almost a tragedy as they left: Liam saw the keyboard under the white table, and started to step on it. I saw him do it, and as he started to actually put his weight on it I grabbed his foot to stop him. Made August upset though as he thought it may actually be broken, so he didn’t want to say goodbye to them.

After a bit Carly went upstairs. August and I did our reading time (ten words I had written from the list, and a Lunch Robot). He was then drawing circles, etc. and doing art. A couple minutes later I realized he was back to doing a better grip with the pencil, and realized it might be the angle: he was sitting with it propped up on his legs, whereas yesterday we had it flat on the ground. He was then playing around with different grips, and getting silly about it: “Ms. Vicky would love this.”

We were talking about shapes and he did a water drop, and I taught him ‘teardrop’, a word of the day. We read My Little Pony, reading the pirate story.

I then went for a run and took a shower. He was asking Carly about how a microwave works, like the circuits. He then asked me “Can you teach me about time?…No, I mean the plant thyme…Just kidding, I want to learn about binary code. Are there any books about binary code?”

And a minute later he said “What’s my vision over here called?… I’m using my peripheral vision to see you mama.”

He had oatmeal and tries the mango ice cream. He didn’t eat much, and ‘Freezer burn’ was a word of the day. We read More My Little Pony upstairs, then Carly came in and I left them at 9:30.

Enjoying the chair:

Playing Guess Who:

Learning to frisbee:

Trimming the plants creeping in our yard:

I started waking him up at 7:30 and he was up by 7:40. We read D.W.’s Guide to Preschool, then he watched videos and ate oatmeal and I exercised. He watched big marble races. He told me of one shape “That like a bladder, cuz it’s shaped like that and the pee comes out there.” We then went upstairs for a Brother game where Bar made a weapon using all of Sister’s marbles. They used robot suits to go look for money in a dump. It sort of turned into a competition between Little Sister and Brother to find cool stuff, with Littler Sister finding amazing things while Brother found things like pennies. Of the machine he said “It’s called the marble spinner cuz it flings radioactive marbles…This will be a doozy, cuz I have a googolplex or marbles.” Little Sister hurting him by playing while in the robot suit. We ended with a machine that allowed them to access different voids. One was a void full of pies, and I tried to find a classic pie to the face skit. I was thinking Abbott and Costello, but no luck. We watched the Watched I Love Lucy chocolate factory assembly line bit instead and he thought that was hilarious.

We went downstairs. He wanted to play with Guess Who. He wouldn’t play the game, but it was a machine that could identify people. He then watched a Julius Jr episode. I wrote some Lunch Robot and a couple pages of words: one page of random words from the sheet of 100 that he hadn’t tried to read yet, and then a page of space words. I had him circle the words on the first page that he knows, and he got most of them. He then was practicing drawing ovals and squares and circles. He did a few pages. I was trying to get him to practice pinch grip, but he has gone backwards in this regard and prefers to hold it ham fisted style. Will have to work on that more.

We read My Little Pony issue #9. He asked what a ‘landlubber’ is. It is from Julius Jr. So a word of the day. He then had a little Brother game where they were making up rules as they go, like the Julius Jr. episode. We then read the next issue of My Little Pony.

We left at 11:50. One small game/story where Bar was riding a super scooter and flashing past Brother. In the car he told me about his WDHAA, which was a kind of fake tree that cleans air. And he’d also made some sort of UFO. As we got out he asked “What’s Mayor Mare?” It is a name from My Little Pony, and I explained the joke.

We looked at the preschool class lists and he found ‘Taya’ in PKC. Found out from Cassie that they don’t have separate classes for different ages this year, so Taya’s class has 3, 4, and 5–year olds. Seems odd.

Taya was eating lunch, then they started to play. They were digging with the shovel and looking for bugs:

Taya: I hate bugs.

August: Well I love bugs. They’re so interesting.

When Cassie changed Kai August was interested in the yellow poop. August and Taya then did the teeter totter together, the most I’ve ever seen him do that.

They then decided it was time to leave and go to our house. August definitely wanted them to come, which was nice, given his reticence to have people over. They held hands a bit as we walked out.

Taya rode with us. She wanted to vest in the car until she saw it, then wanted the seat. At the house they took a while to settle in, not knowing what to do. Finally, I asked if they wanted to do art, and then came up with the idea of the egg drop. They worked on their egg things. Taya finished first, and threw hers from the slide a couple times and it didn’t break. She then had me drop it from the window, and it did. I let her do a second one. August was going to have his in his pinch pot and break the pinch pot, but never finished it. He then wanted me to drop it from the window attached to a string. It fell from the drying though as I was just lowering it, and it broke.

When there were a couple broken eggs on the fake grass I suggested they hose it off. I was inside when I heard the noise of someone getting sprayed. Taya was full on spraying him with the hose…and he was liking it. Pretty amazing. After a while he wanted dry clothes. He got a shirt and underwear on, but never put shorts back on.

They took care of the baby and were doctors, with me as their patient. They were writing down my symptoms. August asked for the Apple Pencil and took my symptoms in binary. He let Taya write and draw as well.

Taya and I played Guess Who, and August watched. I was then blowing up balloons and they were taking them outside and playing with them and popping them. Carly got home, and Kai woke up from a long nap on the couch. August made funny faces with Kai, and watched another diaper change. Taya and August had also played with modeling clay for about 10 minutes. Finally, they made some sort of clock-like creation using a round stencil and things like cotton balls.

Before they left, he said of Kai, “I never want him to age.” And told Kai “You aren’t overstaying your welcome! I want you to stay forever!” They also joked about a sleepover.

The only rough moment was when Taya had decided to take back the two plastic rings that she had given August earlier in the day. August got really said and went and huddled in the corner and started crying. She gave him two rings, then eventually gave him two more, then regretted those. Cassie made her keep things the way they were though. We also learned that Cassie hates balloons. They left sometime before 6.

Carly read to August. I went up and did some work, and they finished reading the Caveman book. I then went for a run. They were upstairs when I got back and he asked me to get him one of his rings. He told her they were priceless, then joked it was because he would sell them for nothing.

Downstairs I heard him trying to convince Carly that zombies must be real somewhere in the universe since it is infinite.

I took a shower, and Carly read a new book while he ate oatmeal, then gave him a bath as I did some clean up. I heard water running through the wall that Shmuel/his workers had been working on by our couch. I went out and found the water meter running like crazy, and could hear water dripping/flowing in the construction area. We filled up all our containers, and I shut off water to most of the house (we still have it to the washing machine area though) and told Shmuel. He later called back and said they’d be back in the morning.

We were in bed at 9:30. He had a short Brother game with a girl with An infinite long tongue. He wanted a song, and wanted me sing “Ants Go Marching” to 20. For a story I told him about The writing contests in elementary school. He told me that in space you could communicate with sign language. He was asleep right at 10.

Digging with Taya:

Teeter Totter with Taya:

Taya’s egg drop:

First time getting sprayed by a hose:

Popping Taya’s balloon:

Popping his balloon:

Funny faces with the baby:

He woke up at 7:40, just as I was about to go up and get him. He had insisted on socks before going to sleep last night, but then took them off during the night, which explained why he was shoving his feet into my side for much of the night. I had put socks back on him when I got up at 6. Couldn’t find matching though, so he had one pink and one blue. Now, I had been watching the 24 Hours of Le Man and he sat and watched that for several minutes. He then told me that he had a race car that was a hover car, and that the wheels turn up. Sounded like he’s seen Back to the Future. That gave him an idea for a Brother game where Bar climbs out of her seatbelt and goes on the roof of the car and installs jet engines.

First though we had breakfast and read My Little Pony. We then went upstairs for the hover car Brother and Sister game. Turned into turning brother into a robot. That was just a dream. Then Bar had a robot suit for Little Sister. Downstairs we kept playing, then had fun reading the Who Done It? book. He read parts of it. He decided he wanted to be the character that peed on the ground. I said the one that ate all the jam.

I had gotten out a page with the first 100 words a child should learn. August saw it and asked what it was and then started picking out words he could read. He resisted efforts to consider them in order, and instead wanted to pick them out at random. He kept saying it was fun, and probably picked out about 50 he could read before he was done with it for now. He told me “There should be a word like electromagnetic radiation or something like that. I want to be able to read about science…”

He watched things, starting with a Dr. Binocs about how we grow. Then big marble races, which he is fascinated by. He had agreed to walk over to the mall so I could get a hair cut, but he wanted crackers and meat before we left and just kept eating and eating. It turned into an early lunch, so I decided we’d just drive to the mall and then go to school.

So we ate and read a lot of My Little Pony. He told me “If it was my birthday I’d get a ton of sleep. Ha, mixed up measurements.” He had more food, then we read the Who Done It? book again. He asked what ‘hold it’ means, as in “Who couldn’t hold it?” First word of the day. Then more My Little Pony. We read through issue 5.

He’s asked a few times “Which pony would you be?” A new concept with him. His favorite is clearly Rainbow Dash. As I discussed what the ponies liked, he pointed out though that if I was that pony (like Rarity, who likes fashion design) that I would like that thing as well. He gave Carly the same argument later in the day when he asked her.

We were then discussing robots and artificial intelligence. He said “I have robots and they’re my minions…and they don’t have emotions, so they don’t get upset.”

He asked “What’s ‘that ain’t flying’?” From My Little Pony. Another word of the day. Finally, before we left he used his tool set to tighten the screw on my sunglasses, then rebuilt his magnet car, now having the design memorized.

We drove to the mall. It was already after 12, so we didn’t take any extra time there. We went in and I was able to get my hair cut right away. August was fascinated with the cut hair and played with it. He picked up some that fell like a big ‘T’ on me at one point.

From there we went to the candy stand and August got what we thought was rock candy. It was a kind of rock candy, of sorts, but it is chocolate, covered with a shell that looks like rock. He now also wants ‘real’ rock candy, but was happy with this. He had some as we went out to the car.

As we got out of the car at school he showed me a magic trick, where he held two squares, one why and black, with two fingers. When he flipped them over the black and white switched sides. Not sure what the squares are from.

As we walked in he asked “What’s monarchy?” Another word. We went down and found Omri and Jonathan down on the big playground. They played there for a while and went on the swings. Omri and August then played around the sensory path, and used some of the stones like chalk on a sidewalk. Rita took Jonathan first to the car, then to the library and Omri stayed with me. We walked over to the nature reserve and they played inside the tent, clearing off the space in the center and doing some dancing on it.

We then headed to the library and met up with them. Marina showed us the VR goggles. Rather disappointing for August, as it was more trouble shooting and figuring out how they worked than actually using them. The new set she started with doesn’t work with my phone (Android only), then the older pairs wouldn’t work with my bigger phone. We used her phone, and we were able to use this cube thing to hold a sun and solar system, but that was about it. Reia and Omri and Jonathan were also there and wanted turns. August avoided the ‘my turn, my turn’ line, and played with the stuffed animals, stacking them up on a chair and climbing on them. Finally, I couldn’t see if there was anything else to do with the app, as I couldn’t get Marina’s phone out. Amanda worked on it for a good ten minutes before getting it out.

August and I headed over to the pool at 3, with Rita and her kids already there. Natalie and her girls showed up a bit later, then Carly showed up around 4. I got out when Carly got in. August figured out he could touch the bottom of the pool if he tilted his head back. That was cool.

I took him to the bathroom once, then he had some Doritos with Omri and the girls. He likes the ‘grill’ flavor now, after not liking them the other day, and asked if we could get some sometime.

He stayed in the pool until Elise and Corinne got out, then joined them in the little pool for a few minutes.

We walked out with Natalie and Elise and Corinne, then drove home, getting here at 5:15.

As we came in he asked “What’s the Horse head Nebula?” From My Little Pony and “What’s a cyborg?” I explained, and he said his top half is robot. He cuddled with Carly and showed her the word list. He told her “Mama, you’re as great as peanut butter.” they read Who Done It? together, with a flashlight under a blanket, then I read him more My Little Pony. We had gotten him soup for dinner, then I read to him as he ate part of the frozen treat he had made yesterday.

We went upstairs and did some Brother games, then while he went to the bathroom Carly took over and gave him a bath while I did some work. She got him all ready, then I went in and read The Lorax and There’s a Wocket in My Pocket. She came back in and I left them sometime before 9:30.

Real ninja moves:

Dancing in the nature reserve:

Trying the VR goggles:

Pool splashes: