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Carly woke him up just before 8. The first thing he talked about was the “alien cards”: the card game from Korea. They’re actually monster cards. He informed her that monsters and aliens are the same thing, but aliens live in outer space. He came downstairs, asking for the Pink Panther. We read some Ramona Quimby, then he helped Carly paint the corner unit in the front hallway. They’re painting it a nice blue color. I skyped with my parents while they did that, and August came over. Paul had just arrived back from his trip to hike Mt. Adams and had to work in the morning, so didn’t talk to him. But he had been gone a week. My parents had gone to a Jag car show in Spokane, then stayed at a restore in Idaho called Stoneridge and driven up to the northeast corner of the state to Metaline Falls on the Pend Oreille River. None of us have really been up to that corner of the state before and I’d like to see it sometime. August typed to them and did symbols using the ‘Option’ key and numbers in Arabic.

He then played Quick Math Jr. and I took a shower. Carly did some rearranging, putting one of the green drawer things from Korea downstairs to hold August’s toys down there. Carly then helped me start to do more of the moving upstairs. The small desk is back out on the patio, out of the way. The big dresser took its place in the bedroom so there is actually a dresser in there. Eventually the small grey couch will come out to the play area and the big desk will move in the small room to be the office.

They left at 11:25. I made lunch and did some work. They were back at 12:10. They had just gone to the toy store by the train station. They had gotten paint to paint his big box/rocket, a swim noodle that “shoots bubble gum jam”, and some glue for something.

They worked on painting his box. Carly had done laundry, and we put the blue shirt that Atsuko had given him when he was a year old on him. It finally fits. They left again. They went to Tiv Taam. He did an arm time machine where he spins his arm around like he does when he runs and he went to different time periods: “before humans…just molecules…the big boom.” The last being his moniker for the Big Bang. We haven’t discussed different time periods recently, so not sure where that came from. But not totally surprising. They also went to the crafts store in the mall and got more paint for the corner unit.

They were back at 3. He did more painting with Carly. He then did more exercising with my watch. He decided to run around in circles on the rug for 5 minutes, but he slipped and fell. He didn’t cry out or anything, but ignored me when I came over. He did some self-soothing, and just lay on the floor by himself for upwards of ten minutes. When he got up he came over to me on in the kitchen and said “Dada, close your eyes.” He took me to the couch and buried me in pillows. And he said “I think I love you.” He then did more balloon machine. I roasted the sweet potatoes to make purée for the bread we were going to make later. And I made a mango smoothie for us all.

Carly was working outside. She keeps stepping up the landscaping, especially in the planters around the kitchen. He helped me make the maple sweet potato bread, then made scary monsters out of the monster cards on the couch. Carly came in and they played with the straw building things. She made a long snake sort of thing that he would blow in and other things would come out of it. Later it would produce chairs and stools for us in the thousands.

He wanted to do more exercise with my watch. He went outside and was running around got the 30 minutes of exercise. He really wanted to get the calorie goal as well. He slid down the slide on his stomach, backwards, then got the hose and washed off the slide as it was dirty. He came in and ate some of the bread fresh out of the oven, then Carly had him watch a video on the different colors of poop. I’m not sure what started that, although I think it had something to do with the dual definitions of ‘stool’.

He and I went out walking again at 6:50. We saw cat #28 on our way up. He also stopped to look at a big, shiny, new BMW motorcycle and asked questions about it. He said he has a cat sensing power. I said I didn’t have that ability, but maybe I just needed to practice sensing cats. He said, “I have a machine that does it and you have a power. So we just need to upgrade your power.”

He had been using my watch so much today that it was down to a few percent and wasn’t going to last through the walk. He took it off and gave it to me so he wouldn’t have to see that happen. He wanted the snakes and ladders playground again. There, we played the spaceship game. And he was singing a spaceship song.

We went on the spinning thing and that was his spinning time machine. “I have my arm machine and this one.” He spun around, just relaxing in it. Started singing his counting song: “And a one and a two…” He told me, of this song, “Remember that song I sang this summer and it went to a thousand? I updated it and it goes to a million now. Can you help me singing it?” But then he started talking about which time period he was in: “We’re in the ape one now.”

We left at 7:30 and got home by 7:50. I hadn’t mentioned it recently, but he suddenly said “We need a word of the day!” We reviewed the words from Ramona Quimby, Age 8 that we had discussed in the morning (brooded, indignant, arthritic) and chose ‘brooded’.

When he wanted his water he said “You’re a stray. Could you get my water bottle please, stray cat?” Carly made him noddles and mushrooms for dinner. We read more Ramona. He repeated some of his favorite lines from it. As we went upstairs he called Carly Bigfoot. Carly commented on Ramona being a bad influence too.

We started his bath at 8:20. I washed his hair and he did a little art on the door. We used the hair dryer on his hair and since he hadn’t had his 20 minutes of iPad after dinner we negotiated one pink panther Pink Pink Pink Pink episode. He watched that and had more bread. He initially ran to Carly  and wanted her, but I said he was going to bed with me again and he was fine with that. He said goodnight to her and we went upstairs and brushed his teeth. We were in bed with lights off and singing to him before 9:15. He was asleep at 9:25.

Shirt that Atsuko bought him when he was a baby:

Carly went and woke him up at 8. We talked recipes and decided to make creamy thai carrot sweet potato soup. He said he wanted peanut butter, then Carly made him peanut butter syrup toast again. We read the Supernuisance chapter of Ramona Quimby, then the book It Starts as a Seed that we checked out yesterday. August then suggested we do daily challenges in Nature Cat. We went out and listened to birds in the morning and recorded them, then drew a picture of things you wear in the rain. He drew a coat. He then sat at the table and played Endless Reader with Carly while I went to take a shower.

She made him pizza, but it turned out to be spicy sauce. I ate that and we made him a new pizza while he played the Gus Hebrew app. When he got the new pizza he said “I love it!” Carly and I were talking about the school and Carly said she thought she had the best classroom in the school. He said “No, Mandy’s science room is the best.” But his best line of the morning was “I don’t have to eat spinach AND I don’t have to clean up…says me.”

We got going and got to the school pool at 10:30. As we walked through campus he described the painting over the cafeteria area as looking like gummy worms. And he talked about the painting of an alien spaceship abducting a cow (good question as to why it is there) and called it a sad or “serious alien”.

When we got to the pool Tessa and her two kids were there. August and Liam ignore each other though so we just played with him, but talked to Tess about school. Then Sharna and her kids, Maya and Ben, showed up. I talked to her husband about Ben’s first day of preschool yesterday. Ben is in PKB and he had to stay with him/on campus the whole day. August and I were playing with the kickboard and shooting it out of the water. It hit him right in the face once. Cried, but no damage. Did some time without the floaties. He’s not expressing interest in swimming, but I think he watches Maya and Liam swimming around and has ideas. He’s definitely very comfortable in the pool now.

We got out at 12:40 to get a snack, then went back in the pool for awhile. It was time to go when August started to shiver.

We drove down to the big Tiv Taam. August asked “Do you think you’ll park in th spot that has that  pumper thingy?” We did. The pumper thingy turned out to be a piece of metal sticking out of the ground in the dirt. It is at an angle, and sort of like a pedal on a piano.

Inside I had the list so did most of the shopping with the cart. Carly took him to get one of those pastry snacks and they had cheese and honey in them. They did some challenges for me, finding groceries we needed. He spotted dried strawberries with sugar on them and was very excited when I agreed to get them. Earlier, he had spotted a round tin of hard candies which he said was exactly like what Oma has and didn’t like it when I said no. I also found Pez candy refills for his Smurf Pez dispenser.

We left at 2:25. While talking about his teeth I called them baby teeth and he responded with “Baby teeth? Are you just calling me a baby?”

At home he played PBS Science and the Namoo app. In the Namoo app he’d keep calling us over to show us his favorite part of photosynthesis, etc. Carly made them scrambled eggs and veggies.

I made a thai sweet potato and carrot soup. I used less than half of the curry paste it called for, but it turned out to be too spicy for August and Carly. I ended up with really good soup for me though. Carly also made pasta and mushrooms for him. They did the cranberries and fizzy water experiment and read It Began with a Mistake. They then went upstairs and did more beading, finishing the third bracelet for his teachers from last year and this year. He basically did it all on his own.

He then exercised with his watch. I heard him ask “Mama, are you impressed?” He watched one episode of the Pink Panther. He cuddled with Carly and said “I’m leaning on your breast.” He’d never used that word before and asked where he learned it. He said from Oma.

He drank the cranberries and fizzy water experiment and said “It’s like fizzy water infused with cranberries!”  In the bathroom he decided he didn’t like the tile pattern because it wasn’t like a chessboard, but the rows shifted: “I think the floor is ugly…I want them to line up.” He took a long time in the bathroom, then had me use his recycling machine/conveyor belt machine. He asks me what I need to recycle, but I can’t find a bin, and then his conveyor belt takes it away. He started it when we were by the bathrooms after going to the beach after the science center last Wednesday.

I helped wash his hands after he was done. When we finished he asked if I had used soap. I had. He didn’t believe me, and even went out and told Carly I hadn’t used soap on his hands. He did his balloon machine on the couch, fulfilling orders for balloons that I would make up. That started a few days ago as well.

I took him out for an evening walk.  Couple blocks away, he yelled “Hi doggy!” to a dog hanging out the window of a passing car. As we got closer to the snakes and ladder park, he said something was “5 meters, 3 inches.” I tried to explain that he was mixing measurement systems. He didn’t agree: “No! It’s right!”

We got there at 6:20. He was wearing my watch and wanted to exercise, so we went in on the exercise equipment. After playing in there for several minutes (he found an arm machine he could use, and found he could sit on the swinging machine and swing back and forth, thanks to “momentum!”) he went over to the climbing area and did more exercise. He ran in circles around it and had me tell him how fast or slow to go. Finally, he sort of rested on the climbing wall shapes. We left before 7.

On the way back he spotted the moon again (we’ve had great views of the moon waxing and the three planets in the sky) and a plane flying close to it. He explained though that the moon was a lot farther though and it was an optical illusion.

We were back at 7:10. He asked “How’d people wash things before they had sinks?” He ate a carrot, then noodles and butter. Then ate more carrot to earn even more noodles and butter. He wanted ‘breast’ to be the word of the day. I went for a run at 8.

When I got back he started quoting Pink Panther lines: “Try artichoke with liver, yum, it’s the best.” “No more Mr. Nice guy.”

He and I read the rest of Magic Tree House #22, which is about General Washington crossing the Delaware River. We discussed the words commander-in-chief, caption, and spy. August decided they should all be words of the day. Carly had given him a bath. I took him up to brush his teeth. In the middle of that he asked, “Did you know we’re on a gigantic horse? That goes around the sun.” Then started to brush his teeth again. Carly came in and I  left them at 9:55.

Bracelets for his teachers:

Pez:

He came down at 6:51 and queitly curled up on the couch at the other end from me. He watched a couple Pink Panthers and had some Cheerios. We got ready to go and were walking just after 7:30, getting to his class just before 8.

They are starting school outside each day, in the covered area next to PKA. I like that idea. August played with the magnetic blocks again, and Hector came and played next to him. August kept asking me to tell him what to do next, and saying “Convince me” to do it. He did go and talk through the schedule for the day with Andrea. She said they would play at the larger playground later and asked if he liked it, he first had to clarify which playground she was talking about, as he knew about both of the other playgrounds. When she said she meant the preschool playground she then asked what his favorite parts of the playground are. He replied “My favorite thing is the instruments and the wood.” Another good sign was when he let me go in to rearrange his snack bag. He did follow me in after a few seconds, but then he went back out and hung out outside, talking to Anna when she walked by.

I was the only parent that stayed. At all. I did see a dad sitting outside of PKB for awhile. I talked to August about me going to the PTA coffee at 9. He didn’t want me to leave. At about a quarter to, Marion suggested the three of us sitting together. We sat on the stairs so we could still see the rest of the kids. Marion talked about learning from Andrea, and I mentioned we were considering starting a compost. She said they were starting composting too at school, and that they would be getting chicks in October and that the preschool would help with them. Also, Candy saw that August was sad and came over to help.

There had been negotiations, and August agreed to let me leave for a half hour. He wasn’t happy when I left, but he wasn’t really upset either. As I ran up the steps I looked back and Candy waved to me.

The PTA coffee was just awful instant coffee and people standing around mingling when I got there. So I went out and sat on one of our usual benches and typed until I heard it get quiet. I went to the back of the library where they were doing the presentation and stayed until 9:30 when I went back to check in with August. They were just coming out after reading a story and were going to have snack. He was being grumpy and refusing to have snack, but Andrea said he had done fine. And when I said I wanted to go back to the presentation he volunteered I could go for another half hour.

So I went back. Nothing substantial to the meeting, although Anna, Tomaso’s mom, is pretty funny and made some good jokes about drinking. When she was done she said “That’s it. The power of my drinks is over.” I then headed back to the preschool at 10:06. August was going into the art room with Marion to find painting paper (although he later told me no one painted). He seemed fine, so I asked about leaving until the end, telling him it was about an hour and a half. A bit surprisingly, he just said “Okaaay” and let me go.

I went up to the library and worked, running into Tom Marshall, Shary’s husband, for a minute. August was standing at the doorway, holding his water bottle and snack bag, patiently waiting for me, when I got there a couple minutes before 12. Totally calm. Andrea said they had built solar panels together for the animals so they could get power.

He and I headed up and sat on our bench and ate our hard-boiled eggs, Cheerios, and apple for lunch. He wouldn’t tell me much more about his day, except for which blocks (the wooden ones with the plastic in the middle) he used for the solar panels. He also tried to tell me that he’d made a post to hold up the cover over the walkway. I mentioned we didn’t have a word of the day, and he thought of ‘instantaneously’, a good companion to ‘simultaneously’. We practiced what ‘instantaneously’ meant, then eventually went in the library.

We went and he first got Magic Tree House #22 and started reading that. Didn’t get very far. He wasn’t really into looking for books either, but he was intrigued that we were the first people to look at the new books. And he agreed to get The Case of the Hungry Stranger, another Crosby Bonsall book. For new books I found It Starts with a Seed and The Book of Mistakes, both of which have amazing art and I got Philip Pullman’s The Scarecrow and His Servant, which might work as a chapter book for him after we finish Ramona.

We went to check out the books and Liz told us about a podcast called The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian. She thought he might like it. Also, the author has his son on at the end of each episode and she said the son reminds her and her daughters of August every time they hear it.

We left at 1:20. On the way out he was wearing my watch again and was running through the school to get exercise. He stopped to look at a couple water meters, and sang a song based on “Change of Time”

At home I made a mango smoothie. August then wanted to finish the exercise ring on my watch, so we exercised. He wanted the yoga mat out to use and he exercised with his 1kg weight. We then did rest time. Tried the podcast but he wanted that off. We just lay on the floor, resting. He switched from the floor to the chair a couple times, but only talked to me a few times.

He then started a game of hiding the weight for me to find. He would leave a mark with a marker on the floor as a clue. He did a pretty good one where he dumped Legos out of a box and put the weight in instead. Eventually though he wanted my help finding good hiding places, which I explained wouldn’t work because then I’d know where the good places were. I suggested we hide it for Carly, and we hid it up under the dining table on a ledge.

We read The case of the Hungry Stranger, played some Piano Maestro, then Carly got home. We had her look for the weight right away. She tried to get more out of him about preschool today. The first thing he told her was that I left. Besides that he wouldn’t provide any additional details. He found Notion, the music notation app on his iPad and played with that a bit, then switched to PBS Science. We then did the Nature Cat daily challenges outside. Drew birds flying, animals at night, and took a photo of a plant that has grown indoors (the one that is taller than him).

With Carly he talked about a machine that would instantly change the floor:

“Floor changer…it turns the ground into different materials…glass, rock…iPads… they’re not bolted down or anything. You can just pick one up and play with it…now turn it into sausages…now turn it into hats…now turn it into water bottles with water in it…”

He remembered doing Hebrew in the Drops app. But he was disappointed to find that they apparently took out the AR mode in it, where he liked popping the bubbles. He then claimed he didn’t like peanut soup: “I don’t like how it is squishy in my mouth.” That’s from the Picky Peggy book. Can’t remember what she didn’t like. When it actually came he said “Yummy!” And he ate it.

For his 20 minutes after dinner he watched Pink Panther and laughed a lot. I went for a run. When I came back August was eating a root beer lollipop and she was cutting his hair more. I asked what had happened to the two weeks. 

I read him some more Ramona, then he had peanut butter and syrup toast. On the couch he climbed behind Carly and said “I’m talking behind your back.” That was a pretty good joke. I’m not sure where he learned the phrase, although maybe in Ramon. I grabbed him and he told me “I really love you but you’re really sweaty, so you should drop me.”

I took a shower and she brushed his teeth and they read more Ramona. He then requested m
e. I went in and told an August story where he and Teegan get taken into the tunnel by Ms. Robin and meet the human on the other side of the door before they have to return. They are late getting back and Ms. Anna forbids them from playing in the trees.

I then sang to him. He did a lot of rolling around and I fell asleep too. I think he fell asleep a little after 9.

August got his watch wet in the pool on Tuesday and it stopped working. I took it apart, and this morning it was working gain. He was up at 7:27. Very sleepy as he went to the bathroom. We read a chapter of Ramona Quimby, Age 8. The word of the day is ‘nuisance’, as Ramona’s teacher calls her one. He then watched Pink Panther and we ate the last of the carrot cake. We set a timer, and played the Green Planet game for 5 minutes. While I took a shower he played Dragonbox Big Numbers. When picking up the groups of apples he was practicing counting by 10s.

Somehow, he ended up wearing my watch, and found the Activity app, which shows your calories burned, exercise minutes, etc. He saw the exercise bar go up, then kept doing more minutes of exercise to make it go up. He would have me set a timer for 2 or 4 minutes, exercise, then look to see the meter go up. He really wanted to get it full before we left, so we were a little hurried when we finally left for his one-hour back-to-school thing.

We left at 9:37, so I walked fast to make it there by 10. He was still wearing my watch. We had agreed he’d take it off before going into class. On the ride he told me “Did you know some of my food is stars? I have a big tube and…” He went on to explain how his tube goes up to the sky and he sucks in stars to eat. Then I said he accidentally sucked up a planet instead, and that turned into a game where he was sucking up everything in the universe.

We got to school just as Juhyeok and his mom were arriving. We said hi, then passed them to go park the bike. She stopped me and asked if we’d been to Korea. She had spotted the Home Plus bag I was using to carry stuff. I pointed out that the bike was also a Pororo bike from Korea.

We then headed down to the preschool. They had a board out front with the class lists up. We found him listed first under PKA, with Marion and Andrea as his teachers. Either class would have been fine, but I had a slight preference for PKA as, personally, I would have felt a bit claustrophobic up in PKC. Also, it is great he gets one of his teachers again, and Marion and Andrea are a good combo: Marion with the gardening and food interests, and Andrea with the STEM background. She even mentioned maker spaces and robots in her intro. Oh, and is from Portland, Oregon before teaching in Norway. He has a lot of students in his class from last year: Reia, Candy, Derin, Leonard, Yaya, Juhyeok, and Hector, I think. Also Sophia, Nicholas’s sister, who he played hide and seek with last year. And 3 or 4 new kids. Omri and Selma are in PKC, which is kind of disappointing, as they were probably the most welcoming towards August each day.

Anyway, we went in and the first things to do were find a place for his plant and choose a cubby, or “box” as August insists on calling it. We then played with the magnetic blocks for most of the time. Juhyeok and his mom, Taeun, came over as well. I talked to her about Seoul. They had left in 2013. Mike came through and they talked about the elephant. Mike said the elephant has now turned blue, and August said it was hiding up in PKC right now.

They had an iPad set up for stop motion animation. Kind of funny, as both teachers, then Maaian showed it to August as something cool in the class this year. They also have a document camera.

For the last 20 minutes they had a meeting during which they introduced themselves. August sat on my lap, and Reia was next to us. We were right by a little tea set, so quietly played with that. On difference this year is that we have to bring snack Monday thought Thursday. When they were talking about drinking/snacks August turned to me and said “I can drink somebody’s blood.” After the stars and this there was one other thing a bit later that he joked about eating, but I couldn’t remember what it was later.

We were the last to leave. We got a calendar, but they ran out of the postcards. We headed to the bike and started walking up into town. We stopped on a shaded bench by the community center to have a bar for a snack. Up in town we found the pizza place closed. Disappointing, as pizza really sounded good to us. Also, the alternative, Sushi Ishimoto, was pricier. Should try to get him to like the Israeli place again.

We ordered our usual pad thai with shrimp and an order of the crispy roll. We made shapes out of the chopsticks, then he drew some art in Paper on his iPad. Made things pricier when they brought us the crispy salmon roll instead. But it was really good. He didn’t like the wasabi mayonnaise decorating the plate, but scarfed down two of the four sushi. I’m sure he would have done more, but refused more as it was too messy running down his arm. He then ate most of the shrimp, and some of the noodles. Slight mishap near the end when he was washing off his hand in his cup and spilled it. The waitress, who we had not seen before, was helpful though and brought paper towels. She earned her tip.

As we got walking he heard a pipe making noise near the hardware store. We went to investigate and he found the water meter was really moving, faster than he had ever seen. Pretty exciting. As we left, he asked, “Remember when we saw those sailboats going over the Atlantic ocean?”

We then stopped at the snakes and ladders playground. He was wearing my watch again and wanted to get more exercise minutes and fill the calories ring. So we went to the exercise equipment. I talked to him about ‘gamification’. We then went to do more exercise in the climbing area. I wanted to rest and lay on the ground while he curled up in the “hammock” area. I called it our siesta and he said “Siesta? I learned that in that Moon show.” He meant Ollie and Moon. I told him about Madrid, when Carly and I rested in a park during the heat of the day after going to a museum.

When done with that we went and played the plane and escaped luggage game and we went on the spinny thing. We then left at 1:40. He talked about watching “Pink Paddington”, his name for Pink Panther. Specifically, he remembered the one in which the slurpee machine fills up the building.

We were home at 2 and found that episode and watched it. I then gave us a few more minutes of playing Green Planet as we were close to finishing a planet. Did that, then went outside and did the Nature Cat daily adventures. we did more listening, and drew a picture of a papaya plant, and took a photo of things that could be recycled. A cool little app-aided daily routine.

Speaking of recycling, we then loaded up the bike and went up to do recycling. He talked bout his crunching powers as he helped do the cardboard.

We went back home and practiced rest time. He mainly lay on the floor, which is a good start. We then read more Ramona and a few Skybrary books: Yoko Yak’s Yakety Yakking, Umm Ungka’s Unusual Umbrella, and Scrubba Dub, Carlos. He was hungry and ate a whole carrot. Carly came home as we read the last one and we told her about preschool.

He added to his music composition and we worked on sort of adding chords to it. He then found the PBS Science app and did a little of that. Also a very cool find.

I initially made him peanut soup and rice for dinner, but then he requested pita and hummus. Carly had the soup, and I got him the pita and hummus and some milk. After he ate that he had his 20 minutes of iPad time and chose to watch the Pink Panther. I watched a bit of it with him, and he was a little frustrated when time was up, but I thought was okay. Carly was cutting up mangoes so we would use them up, and he wanted to go watch. I went up to start his bath. Things fell apart downstairs and I heard him screaming. I came down and tried to talk to him. He was still wearing my watch and wanted it off. I helped him take it off, but then he grabbed it from my
hand and threw it at me and it fell on the ground.

Carly gave him a timeout and I went up to finish the bath. I came down and took him up, then talked to him and calmed him down. He wanted to talk to mama and we went downstairs so he could talk to her and get a hug.

I gave him a bath. It turned into an art session. He used different soaps to make a picture on the door. I then had to go get Carly to do an rot viewing. He then made lots of bubbles and splattered them on the wall, Jackson Pollock style. I showed him some Pollock paintings on my phone. August seemed to like it, but asked if Pollock’s art was better than his.

Downstairs he smelled mango and thought there was a lassi for him. Carly made him one, then went to take a shower.

We tried to Skype with my parents, but they weren’t online. He typed some random things instead, and then also ‘I love you’. August had talked about sending things to Vivian on Wizard School when he was in the bath, but then decided he just wanted me to delete it from his iPad because he didn’t like that Vivian was sending him more stuff and her level was going to get higher. I told him he was the only one turning it into a competition. Now, we did do a little Wizard School on my iPad, sending her a couple things and watching some of her creations. He switched to art though and drew things in Paper.

We then turned to reading. We read some of chapter 4 of Ramona Quimby, Age 8. He was getting sleepy, so we went upstairs to read Dad’s First Day. Carly took over for me and they read that, then she brushed his teeth. I said goodnight, then they were in and out of the bedroom a couple times, getting ready, before they were quiet about 9 and then asleep.

YouTube seems to find this video of August smearing soap on the shower door breaks their guidelines, even though it only shows him from the chest up. I’ve filled out the little appeal form; we’ll see if they ever change it back:

He was up at 6:34. But not really up, as he lay on the couch for close to 10 minutes. He got up and went and found his iPad. He said “I want to show you something” and asked where the world clock was. He showed me the stopwatch was still running and it was up over 330 hours. He was very excited about this. I’ve been making sure we start each day with books, but last night I reorganized his iPad, hiding/getting rid of a bunch of apps and adding in a few PBS apps and a math game we’d tried a couple years ago called Quick Math Jr. that I thought he might like. He noticed the changes and wanted to try Quick Math Jr. so did that for awhile. We then did Skybrary and read Percy Gets Upset and Zero, Zilch, Nada. He then went to  his Dragonbox math apps.

He sang a line and part of a tune: “That you’re never gonna get to touch.” He thought it was Josh Ritter. I figured out it was “Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living)” by the Eels, which is on his Songs for August Zinn @ 2 Years playlist. It was also cool because he was sounding more like an actual singing voice and not just a little kid’s voice.

He found the Word Wizard app on his iPad. The app where you trace letters in words and you can add your own. He hasn’t used it in a couple years, but I thought it was a good one to bring back. The old version stopped working with the upgraded iPad, so our old word lists (of family members and animals, mainly) don’t work/exist anymore. He remembered the lists, actually, and I had to tell him that. We had fun re-recording some of them. I started a list of our words of the day and he traced some of those. Then he wanted to do body parts. We added a bunch, with him doing the recordings, and he switched to Human Body to look for more words. He would find something (blood vessel, bacteria, etc.) and I’d make a note of it so we could add them later. He found some other games he hasn’t played recently (Endless Wordplay, Metamorphabet, and Music4Kids) and played those as I took a shower and we got going.

At one point we were discussing the science center, and he was trying to remember it, since we’d only been in the exhibits once, and decide if it would be more fun than the Madatech science center in Haifa.

He had to play with his barrier stick outside before we left. It is his long taped-together bamboo stick that he puts between the boards of our walkway. I acted as someone trying to get through and it would open or close for me. We left before 10:30.

He requested Chemical Brothers on the way up and looked at the map on the phone as we drove. We went up 4 this time. He looked like he was going to fall asleep, but made it.

We parked a block south of the museum. Things didn’t look promising, as the building that the exhibits are in is under construction. Luckily, it turns out it is still open as they add an extension to it and a floor or two on top. However, the museum was also very busy. Much, much busier than last time, when it was just us and one or two other families. We first dropped a few coins in the spinning thing. I’d found 4 of the 10 agora coins in the car. Then we made our way around the inside for 30+ minutes. Hard to get turns on things, like the big car track. He was a little discouraged, but still having fun. Mainly, he played with the whirlpool making machine. I would be a fish swimming in a normal old pool (we were thinking like McElliott’s Pool) and then I’d find a button underwater and push it and it would make a whirlpool I’d get dizzy in. He also wanted me to make fun of each thing, as if it was his science experiment, then he’d amaze me with it. That was from a Captain Underpants plot.

I was hungry, so convinced him to head outside for awhile. I grabbed a quick bite, but he was too interested in science to eat much yet. Did a little science, mainly some of the water things and driving the solar-powered boats, then went back inside. Managed to play with the car track a couple times and wandered around everything else a few times as well. Periscopes, funny mirrors, dark area, magnets, infinite mirrors, chair of nails, etc.

Then back outside for lunch at 1. He really was hungry, as he ate both of the hard-boiled eggs I had brought, leaving me the last bite of each. He did more of the water pump things, then needed the bathroom. We went in the other door and wandered around, looking into the medical classroom at the anatomical models, then used the bathroom and filled our water bottles. He spent several minutes watching other kids play with the coin spinning thing, but was frustrated as they only had one coin and weren’t letting it drop to the bottom. Seeing it drop is his favorite part. He wanted to do more coins, but was upset I hadn’t brought more. He got to watch one, at least. Outside, we saw a helium balloon floating away and instead of liking that he said he really wanted to let one go as well – a desire he’s talked about before, since he skipped that possibility after refusing a balloon at the fair in Pennsylvania.

We went back to the car. We looked at the map, debating what to do next. Finally decided to go down to Olga Beach, right down the hill. We had gone there once before. We didn’t have our swimsuits, but we had the beach bag with toys.

We got down to the beach and put down our stuff. He was soon down to his underwear and playing in the water. The beach here is kind of different, with the waves crashing a ways out, but having a long in and out distance. So even though it was just a couple inches deep where he played, the waves could splash pretty high. So he never lay down, although he sat for awhile. He said things like “I love this water” a couple times. He also found a bigger plastic shovel where we put down camp, and we took it home later. He also asked “What would happen if you put a cat in the water?”

Around 3 he needed to use the bathroom, so we decided to head out. The bathrooms were open this time, so that was nice. Used it, then got going. as we left, a woman who had been at the beach with her dog was smoking near the parking lot. She asked where I was going. I said Netanya. She said perfect, and that I could give her a ride to her home in Hadera. I politely refused, saying my wife wouldn’t want a dog in the car. And pointing out we were heading south, not east. She was upset about this, and I got August to walk away. At the car I explained to him why I didn’t give her a ride. The easiest thing to point out was asking hm if he wanted a rather large dog riding next to him in the car. He said “No!”

Then, as we were about to pull away, another woman, An African woman this time, got my attention. She needed her car jump started. I wouldn’t have been able to help, but she had the cables. This one I happily agreed to. Moved our car over and August got out to watch. I had to position the car a little closer, and August chose to stay with the woman while I moved the car. That was very brave of him. I think he also liked seeing the motors. I heard him telling her his name. On the second attempt we got the car running.

We drove to Even Yehuda and stopped at the big grocery store in town. Main reason was to get the last item on his preschool list, a box of wet wipes. We also got some produce that Carly requested, a bottle of wine to celebrate Carly’s first day, and coffee and milk. He spotted a pudding cup with M and M sorts of candies on top. Something he’s wanted before but never had. I agreed, and he agreed to share it with mama as another first day celebration.

When we got back to the car and I put the groceries in I realized that one of the handles on his bike was missing. I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t see it in the trunk at all either. Back at home, I went back out to the car and this time found it. It had fallen inside the beach bag when I put the bike in the car.

At home he and I went outside and did the daily challenges in the Nature Cat iPad app. He drew pictures of a couple rocks, we recorded the sounds we heard as we sat under a tree and discussed them, and he drew a picture of his favorite bird, a puffin. Inside, we read Percy Gets Upset again and made the word of the day ‘scowl’. We also read the Vicuna Vacation book and he had the app read Picky Peggy to him. He doesn’t usually choose the narration over me.

He had had some stir fry and rice, but mainly ate the rice and tofu. He now agreed to just eat a carrot and ate the whole thing. He and I then went out and planted his classroom plant, then I let him have his pudding treat, which he shared with the two of us.

Carly took him upstairs and gave him his bath and they cleaned the bathroom. I did most of the dishes, then went for a run. When I got back he was having an apple lollipop. He had let her trim his hair. Just a little off the back, but it didn’t bother him, and it looks much nicer now. He agreed that he’d let us cut it again when it grew “6 or 7 inches”. We suggested every two weeks instead and he agreed to that and I set a recurring reminder.

I talked to him about his first day tomorrow and how it was just an hour and suggested we could go out for lunch afterwards to celebrate. He asked Carly, “Will you celebrate my first day of school with me?” We told him we could all celebrate together this weekend.

I went upstairs and took a shower. On the way up I heard him telling the cashew knock knock joke with Carly.

He requested sleeping with me. I told Zinnie story #4. I then sang some songs and he was asleep by 9:05.

By the way, I don’t think I’ve mentioned his ‘box’ versus ‘cubby’ preference. He really wants me to call it his ‘box’ at school, not ‘cubby’. This goes back to last year. In telling one of these stories a few days ago I used ‘cubby’ and he told me to use box. And he told me that when we went to the jumping place this summer and put our shoes in one he heard me call it a cubby and he noticed. We laughed about that one. But then a day or two ago I jokingly referred to it as a ‘cubby’ in a story and he said ‘I HATE it when you call it that!” So ‘box’ it is.

Stopwatch up to 311 hours:

Egg:

Beach:

Jump starting the car:

He was up at 7:40. We read some Ramona Quimby, Age 8. He played Dragonbox Big Numbers and I typed. He ate some carrot cake and we finished Magic Tree House #21. I boiled eggs for later and made scrambled eggs with cheese and cauliflower and mushrooms for breakfast. We sat at the table and he ate about an egg’s worth. He then played Fritz and Chesster. I exercised and took a shower. He played some Tinybop Solar System, then came in and sat on the bathroom floor as I got ready to take my shower. I told him about how NASA had just launched a mission to study the sun, and that it would be the fastest thing we’ve ever made, and that he could watch the launch. I pulled it up on YouTube and we watched it, then he spotted a Pink Panther video. He watched while I took a shower and got us ready to go. He was laughing and laughing, like when he watches Curious George.

I had mentioned I’d found a treat when cleaning out the cupboard, and he was excited about it, but then joked “I’m expecting it’s just gonna be cilantro.” We left at 11:50. It turned out to not be very good, and so I told him about getting lunch at Ikea, and he put two and two together and remembered ice cream.

When we got there it was the busiest I’ve seen Ikea. Had to park further away than usual. When we went in August wanted lunch first. Not a long line, but it moved slowly. A couple women with a child cut the line, arguing there were two lines. A couple of other women in the line in front of me took it up verbally with them. I just did some pointing to the real line. August was a bit impatient, but we made it. Got our food (a hot dog for him and falafel for me) and two ice cream tokens. Not really anyplace to sit, then August decided he wanted ice cream first anyway. I gave in, and we shared one of the ice creams, choosing the soft serve with chocolate. I had the idea of saving the other ice cream until we were done and sharing both of them.

We packed up the food and started shopping. Walked around the top floor. He found one hopscotch. I grabbed some toy cooking utensils for his kitchen at home. We then stopped at a table and ate our lunch. Then headed downstairs and got a cart. Got a few more bins, a throw pillow for one of our pillow cases, a nice mixing bowl with a cover, and a cake pan. Did not find measuring spoons with long handles. This was a minor thing on my list, but August really wanted me to ask someone. I did, however, ask about sheets, as they didn’t have the small size that Maaian said in her preschool supplies list Ikea would have. I did ask, as they said they don’t carry sheets that small. So, we already have twin size sheets at home so didn’t get one.

We checked out. I was holding August as I signed the credit card thing and realized just a second late that this is something that August has really, really, really been wanting to do for me. He was very sad about that, but then had our second ice cream. With strawberry this time. He felt better. We left after 2:30.

We got to school and spotted Carly coming out of the library. We went to her classroom with her for a few minutes, then he and I headed to the pool. Carly got there later. In the pool he was quoting a line from Fritz and Chesster, the chess game. Something like “In winter’s cold and summer’s heat, the best time is when it’s time to eat.” We played with the kickboard, but mainly two squirt guns that were left there, likely from the party. We made games of shooting the flags, trying to catch the drops, and trying to hit each other. We also played with a ball, throwing it into the basketball hoop.

We left a little before 5, changed, and headed home to grab his x-ray. A good choice. The dentist was supposed to have received the x-ray via email, but didn’t seem to have done so. She looked at it, said yes the upper tooth is pushing, but that it is really early for an extraction. Kind of left us in limbo. She kept the x-ray and said she would talk to a pediatric colleague of hers and get back to us. August said that it isn’t bothering him quite as much, so for at the moment we are okay. Might have to seek a second opinion at some point.

I had told him he could have 20 minutes of iPad at home. He had soup for dinner, then spent it watching Pink Panther and laughing a lot. He had some of the iced tea I’d made earlier. Went outside for a little while, then practiced rest time. He started listening to music, but then powered off his phone. He had spent a couple minutes looking at the cat’s meow book on his own before were started, but then didn’t want to do it. He mainly put a bunch of books on the couch and lay on top of them. Which is progress, I guess.

I got ready for a run, and Cherie had just called to Skype as I was leaving. I got back at 8, and he came down from a bath a minute later. He told me “I just invented a bike that when it rains it has a parachute and it has a telescope on it and it has a bell that barks and it has automatic told up and down wheels that when you park it they go up and when you ride on it they go down.” And it had steel walls to protect from lightning.

Carly to a shower and he and I read Ramona Quimby, finishing chapter 2. We decided on ‘overwhelmed’ as the word of the day, and also discussed the meaning of ‘conspiratorial’ and ‘blissfully’. All words from the book. Carly took him up to do one Skybrary book in bed and they read What Does It Mean to be an Entrepreneur He requested me, but wanted Carly to put him to sleep. We told him it was one or the other and he stuck with Carly. I left them a little before 9 and Carly put him to sleep

Think I forgot to mention his crown. It is a silver plastic crown that he found hanging in a bush or tree the day he and Carly went to the park when I ran. A day or two ago we were up in the little room and he saw it, and he said it was something that he wouldn’t take with him when we move. Much like the old bicycle tire which he spotted outside the other day and said the same thing about. I don’t know whether to consider it a good thing that he plans to move, or a bad thing.

Also, I think I forgot to mention the white spider that Carly saw on one of the flowers yesterday. It was holding a bee at the time, but dropped it right before I took a photo. Carly figured out it is a crab spider. It was still on the flower today. Pretty sure it is one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomisus?wprov=sfti1

He woke up at 6:25. He came and picked me on the shoulder to wake me up, then headed downstairs to find Carly. She got him back to sleep 20 minutes later on the couch and then headed to work. I had been up late finishing an entry for Sabeel, so fell back to sleep on th couch as well.

He slept until 8:40. Even then he was curling up on the couch while I read him some Ramona Quimby, Age 8. We then read The Butter Battle Book, which he requested as “My grandfather took me out to the wall”, which is the second page of the book. Then, as I read the book, he read/had memorized the sign in it.

He then played Dragonbox Big Numbers and I got breakfast for us and typed. We then read Rice and Beans in Skybrary and it is about a girl who is adopted. So we made ‘adopted’ the word of the day. We also read Freda Plans a Picnic and Your Guide to Superheroes. I exercised and he was reading the written out numbers needed to switch to the parent area on Dragonbox Big Numbers. We played with the catapult, launching clay into the kitchen, then got to making carrot cake. He helped shred up the carrots, then helped add ingredients. When he was hungry he ate a carrot, then a full pack of the seaweed snacks we had brought from the U.S.

He asked what ‘smithereens’, and ‘pork and wee beans’ meant. And what ‘auditory’ meant from the superheroes book. He found and played Star Walk Kids. He passed the quiz on constellations and excitedly told me about it. I asked what he had learned and he said, “Well, there’s no place on Earth that you can see all the constellations…They pretended the Earth is a carousel.”

We had some carrot cake when it was done. It turned out well. Didn’t do frosting so as to make it a healthier snack, as opposed to a treat. We finally got going to Ra’anana Park at 2. He looked at the house across the street, under remodel, and said “Do you know how I can work on that house? With my brick cannon and paint cannon.” That was inspiration from the inventor book we had read in Skybrary. He watched Waze as I drove to the park. When we got there he wanted me to park right where I had placed the dot in the parking lot on Waze. Which meant a little extra walking to the pay meter.

We first went to the free library and found a couple of Roald Dahl books, Danny, Champion of the World and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. And a copy of Kipling’s Just So Stories. We then walked to the other end of the park and the sound area. We did the sound machine that you turn and he had me match his steps as he walked in circles. We went and sat on a shaded bench and had a snack/lunch – egg and apple. Saw a sign that said it was a scents and sounds garden, so discussed the word ‘scents’.

We finished up there (we also saw the green fruit on the trees) and walked across the lake to the western playground. Played on the rocking thing in the ground, then he said he was running out of power and had to charge in the spots of sun. He got in one of the swings and was in there for several minutes. Very mellow, and I was afraid it meant he was going to fall asleep in the car. He got out of that and played on the big swinging log. He said it charged him, and each set of ropes charged him a different amount. Additionally, they made different chords.

We went to the bathroom, then he spotted the talking disk things, where you’re spaced apart and you speak into the big disk and the other person can hear your voice.

We did a quick walk past the zoo, saying hi to the animals, and got to the car right at 4:18, which was the time we had paid until. In the car he played Tinybop Nature and something else and we were home at 5.

Carly was already home. He was grumpy about wanting to play iPad. Carly read the Spanish The Berenstain Bears. He then actually helped me wash dishes, rinsing and stacking most of them. He had some peanut soup, then some iPad time. They then skyped with Oma and Vivian, but he was falling apart. He didn’t like the suggestion that we had left his bike helmet there, and he was trying to be silly to have fun, but no once else was liking the craziness.

He and Carly then made another bracelet and I went for a run before 7:30. They were reading Ramona Quimby when I got back. I showered and he played with Cubetto, doing challenges. He had had Cubetto turn the wrong way and I heard him say “I don’t like to be wrong.” I helped him, then took him up for his bath. He used the shower head to rinse himself. He then had us do synchronized steps as we walked down the stairs. He cuddled with Carly and his eye was itchy. Thought it may have been some soap on his hand that didn’t get rinsed off. We read The Butter Battle Book. I was going to put him to sleep but Carly was ready to sleep, so I left them just before 10 and he was soon asleep.

Dancing on the tilting thing:

Relaxing in the swing: 

He came down just after 8. He asked for Dragonbox Big Numbers and I let him have the iPad. Carly was outside, reading, so I figured that would buy her some time. She was surprised to see him up when she came in about 15 minutes later. He and I stopped to read some more of Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and then a book in Skybrary about a kid inventor called Sam: The Incredible Inventor. We found the word ‘scheming’ in it and that was our word of the day. He and Carly then played Dragonbox Big Numbers together and I took a shower. August got upset about stopping with iPad, then they made a card for Ruby and Cedar.  He explained that the picture on the front was “a water squirter machine that’s coisonous.”

He drank lassi and tested out the catapult. We then got set up outside and took our family photo that is to go in his preschool classroom. He didn’t want to do it at first, but that changed when I taught him how the timer works. Afterwards, as I edited the photo, he helped out and wanted to do the filters. He wanted it black and white, then helped me post it on Facebook.

We read a few chapters of The 13-Story Treehouse then got going to the mall. We got there at 11:30. First time we parked underground. First thing we did was buy him a new toothbrush. It came with a pink watch so he was excited about that. We then found water bottles at a little stand in the middle of the mall and he got two: a big one for keeping in my backpack (a pink one, with bracelet things around it – I think the same as Selma had last year) and a smaller blue one for his classroom. He thought they were strawless bottles, and later I would take the straw out of the big one so he could use it as a tilting water bottle. So he’s gone from insisting on his one and only straw water bottle, which he’s used for 3 years, to preferring ones without straws.

Carly stopped to try a shirt at a store and August wasn’t happy when we didn’t get a smoothie at Rebar. We went downstairs and August wanted to walk through the colorful hallway to the bowling alley. Carly’s shoes weren’t fixed yet, then we went to the toy store. Not a lot of water toys, but we did get a small kickboard. We then went up and looked for a french press. Found a cheap one at the Home store, after seeing insane prices for the Bodum ones at another store.

We stopped at the nursery on the way home and he got his classroom plant and Carly got a couple things for the house. He chose a lavender pot to go with it.

We got home at 1:30. He rejected pad thai for lunch but had stir fry instead. Carly and I tried the french press. He and Carly went to play with the Legos but wanted Carly to decide what would happen in Legotown. She was trying to get him to think of things as well and he said, “Stop, stop. Just listen to me!” But then he concluded, “Let’s work together.” Basically, there ended up being a lot of tornadoes.

I started making west African peanut soup (https://cookieandkate.com/2013/west-african-peanut-soup/) They practiced rest time, decorated and baked the mug that my parents gave us a year ago, snuck an Oreo (he spilled the beans but told me it was made of leaves – don’t know where the Oreos came from), blew up one of the big balloons, and started making bracelets for his teachers. The first one was for Anna.

As I finished up, he was wanting more and more attention. He was hungry, and he some of the soup, which turned out quite well. He and Carly competed over the HomePod, getting it to play Josh Ritter and Chemical Brothers. He asked Carly “Mama? Is there a virus on your computer?”

Carly had gotten a text message saying that her shoes are now ready to pick up. So we decided to brave the afternoon traffic and also go to the beach. We left at 4:25. Parked underground again and I took him to the bathroom while Carly went and got her shoes. We parked outside the entrance to the beach and walked in.

August and I made little sand castles for the waves to destroy while Carly went out in the water. He then needed to go to the bathroom, so Carly took him so she could rinse off as well. I read. They were gone for quite awhile, as he had stopped to play in the small stream. When they got back, I went out into the water and they played with the sand toys, being pirates. Later, Carly went back out in the water again. They had been jumping over waves. I got him to sit in the shallow water, and he got more and more into it. He was lying on his stomach and pushing himself up with his hands, and calling them his “jacks”. They also sucked water up for him, which he stored in huge tanks. He was saying things like “A big wave is coming, Jacks!” Carly came back and we sat in the shallows for a long time.

We got home from the beach and had soup with rice in it this time for dinner. He watched some Sarah and Duck and I went for a run. She gave him a bath and when I got back they had been reading in the bedroom (the Cat’s Meow book, I think) and I went to drink some water. But August requested me. I took a quick shower and went in and told him an August story about going down the hallway and now finding  door but not having the key. He wanted Carly again. She was in for awhile, but he wasn’t going to sleep, so I went in while she went and got ready for bed. I sang a few of the usual songs and he was close to sleep. She came back, and he was asleep by 10:15.

He was up at 7:30. Played a lot of Dragonbox Big Numbers, then we read Pig Pig meets the Lion (we read it before) and Lucky Beans (which we really liked) in Skybrary. He had had some breakfast, but asked “Could I have noodles and butter?” This was from the book about the girl who raises a baby duck. At the beginning she only likes noodles and butter. August has never had that. Carly made him some and he really, really liked it: “Maybe you could make it for me every day…slippery too…yummy…yummy noodles, mama. Maybe you should make some for dada too. Do you like butter, dada?” “You’re a good cook, mama!” “Could you cook poop, mama?…Poop with cheese sauce and fried, please.”

They were then looking at yearbook photos of the teachers/staff when I went to take a shower. When I was done she had him practicing rest time. He tried the headphones, but only listened to a podcast for a few minutes. He mainly watched the timer, which is at least something. Carly cleaned, and I did the laundry and scanned some papers and her driver’s license, which finally came in the mail. Still no sign of mine.

He made songs in a couple apps, singing a “lucky” song along to one of them, and played Dragonbox Big Numbers. We made the word of the day ‘simultaneously’, as one of the music apps he used wouldn’t let you put notes in to play at the same time, but the other one does.

We had been invited to a birthday party today. It was for Ben, the little brother of Maya, who was in August’s hebrew class. The party was at the school pool. In the car, August said “Maybe I should ask the government to make cars that air conditioners (in the back) here too.” He remembered one of the cars in the States that had vents in the back. We were practicing using ‘simultaneously’ and he said “I can clap at the same time as cooking marshmallows…cuz I have three hands.”

We got to the pool. They got noodles to play with and I talked to Mandy for a couple minutes. Omri was there, and when I got in the pool the two of them were playing together. We played with her for awhile. We all got out to go have pizza. He ate a couple slices. Then back to the pool. He said someone had stopped him to take his photo on the way back. It was Sharna, their mom. We were in the pool some more, then it was time for cake. When we got out, August intently tied the strings of his swimsuit in a knot. We sang happy birthday, and he got a piece of cake, which he ate intently.

Back in the pool, I played with him for awhile while Carly read. He said, “Out teachers don’t use deodorant.” One of the lines from Captain Underpants that he has memorized and likes to recite. We played with a paddle board a bit and he wanted me to read the warning on it. Carly and I switched and they played with a diving ring.

We headed home. He played Dragonbox Big Numbers and we read The Butter Battle Book while Carly went to the store. He and I then walked up and did recycling for the first time since getting back. The plastic cage was overflowing, so he was scrunching things to fit: “I’m a good scruncher.”

Carly got home and he played a little Dragonbox Big Numbers, then we read Green Eggs and Ham, McElliott’s Pool (which he haven’t read much at all). Then played with the Lego town.

Doing some cleanup, I decided it was time to move the big backamapack not storage, officially retired. A sad retirement. On the bright side, I found 300 shekels in one of the pockets. I asked August if he had fond memories of riding in it and he didn’t really respond. I said “But it’s supposed to be your first memories of Korea!” He said it was second, actually. He then said something about eating sushi. I said, “You mean kimbap?” He got excited and said “Yeah!” So seemed like a real memory.

I went for a run and they read and sneaked a few iPad minutes. He was very giggly about this when I got back and they were ‘hiding’ on the couch. I took a shower, then gave him a bath and washed his hair. Amazingly, he let me spray his hair. He found it really tickly. I called Carly up to come and see.

He said good night to Carly and we brushed his teeth and did mouthwash. We read a poetry book on Skybrary called My Foot Fell Asleep and Dad’s First Day and something else. I retold the first Zinnie story with the tunnel and he fell asleep during it with his head on my shoulder and his arm and leg over me at 9:15. I lay there for awhile, not wanting to disturb him, and fell asleep for awhile myself.

Had a crazy day today taking August to the dentist and to get an x-ray. August has an extra baby tooth and it has started to bother him. He talks about it being itchy and puffy, and he’s chewing on everything: bracelets, his sunglasses, the edges of tables. It seems like the extra tooth above it is coming in early. He has hated the idea of the dentist in general, but about a week ago I asked if he wanted a dentist to help with the tooth. He said yes.

Anyway, he was up at 7:24. A faster wake up today. We read a couple of Skybrary books, What does It Mean to be Kind? and Keep Your Distance! (Which we’ve read before and is about math). Had some breakfast, then got going for his apppointment. Outside, he got to watch the claw truck for the first time since we got back.

Carly set up the appointment. Day before I figured out she had NOT called the place right in town, which I have pointed out and mentioned multiple times as the place we should go to the dentist. Instead, she had called some woman a few blocks away who has a dental practice in her home. We arrive, 8:30.

August got stressed as I parked the car, but then handled it very well once we were to the house. We followed the signs to the left around to the side of the house. Turns out it is just the one woman, no assistants.

She took us to the exam room and suggested he sit on my lap. This worked well. I lay back in the dentist chair and he la back on my stomach. I couldn’t see what was going on, but he seemed to open his mouth when she asked.

She inspected his teeth and told me his teeth looked good. No cavities or problems. And she said the extra tooth was fine and not a problem. I was confused and told her it was a problem. She said it wasn’t. This went back and forth a few times. Her English was good, but I think we were hung up on what she meant by ‘bothering’ him. She meant it wasn’t causing problems with the shape of his teeth and didn’t realize that August was uncomfortable.

Then, August did a great job of explaining it himself, pointing to where he said it felt itchy and puffy, and describing a pushing sensation. So she referred us for an x-ray machine. No assistants, and no x-ray machine. She gave me a list of places called, in Hebrew, ‘Tooth Light’. She suggested the one in Pardesiya, about a 15 minute drive to a mall up north.

August and I made it there and parked at the east end of the mall, then walked and walked, exploring every crook and cranny, trying to find the place. August herd kids playing and it led to a korean-style indoor play area in the basement of one building. We found a dental clinic, but the receptionist took a look at our flyer and claimed to not know anything about it. A customer, however, jumped up and told us it was downstairs. I thought she also said something about statues, but that didn’t end up being helpful.

We kept looking, and found anther hallway we hadn’t seen before. Turned out to be wrong, but a guy walking by saw the flyer in my hand. “X-ray?” he said. I said yes, and he pointed me downstairs and told me it was around the corner and down more stairs. Finally, we found it. There wasn’t a sign for it until you got to the actual door of the office.

We went in, and there was just one x-ray technician running the place and she had another customer. They phone kept ringing and ringing, and August didn’t like it: “Stop ringing!” He didn’t like the waiting, and told me that he had liked the running around the mall part, searching, better: “It’s more fun when we aren’t getting help.” To fill the time, we started playing Polytopia, the game he had found on my phone.

When it was our turn, it turned out the woman only spoke Hebrew. Another customer, however, translated for us and was nice enough to stay and help. The technician, on hearing that the x-ray was for August, immediately said she couldn’t do it, that the machine was too big for him. We talked her into trying. It looked like it would go well, and August stood on a stool to fit his head in the machine. When she tried to get me out of the room though he didn’t like that. So I stood in the room and held my hand on the back of his head.

She went and pressed the button, and it started turning around his head. When it went to turn all the way around I had to remove my hand. At that point August moved. The technician stopped and told us he had moved too much. August complained about the plastic thing in his mouth, saying he didn’t like how it was mushy. The woman translating and I tried to get August to try again. What’s more, the technician was against it. I thanked the translator for her help and August and I left.

We sat on a low wall and discussed it. August was pensive, sitting with his hands on his knees and his chin in his hands. He didn’t want to, but I said we’d head over to another location and that maybe the person there would be more helpful. I also explained that we now knew what to expect and the instructions wouldn’t take as long. And that he could pretend to be a statue and I’d count out loud and knew to switch hands when the machine went around.

The next closest location was in a mall directly west, closer to Netanya. It was where August and I had gone to eat at McDonald’s the one time. We found this location much more quickly and it was also much nicer. But best of all was the technician. She spoke English and was much nicer about it, although she was still surprised about a 4-year old getting an x-ray.

We went in and nailed it on the first try. August held still and I counted to about 20. When she said it was good I gave him a high five and congratulated him. Back in the car, August asked to see the x-ray. I showed him how you could see the extra adult tooth up in his gum, and how it is lower than all the other adult teeth.

I figured after dental appointments is no time to skimp on treats, so we decided to go to a coffee shop and get him a hot chocolate. We drove into Even Yehuda and parked in the dirt lot in the center of town. We walked over to Malkin, our usual coffee shop, only to find it closed. It was still mostly intact, the tables, etc., but there was dishwasher sitting in the middle of the floor inside and it had a sense of being completely closed.

So we walked to Gutale, the other cafe. I ws carrying August as we walked by the bank, and August grabbed my head and turned it to the left. There was our neighbor, David. We talked to him for a minute. August was trying to tell him “I’ve got an extra tooth!” and we had to get David to stop talking so August could explain.

We continued on to Gutale. Quite nice inside. The only time we’ve been there since its remodel we sat outside. We sat inside at a table for two. We ordered a hot chocolate, a latte, and their green shakshuka. The brought out bread with butter and what I think was date jam and August ate some of that. We finished most of our first game of Polytopia. He came and sat on my lap while we played on the phone. The food was good, and he ate a good amount of the egg. The root salad was mainly cucumber and tomato though, and not nearly to my liking like Malkin’s.

We headed to the car, but then realized we should get cash at the bank. August helped with the ATM. Back at the car, I realized we didn’t have his water bottle. So back to Gutale. I asked about a water bottle, and at first she thought I wanted to buy one. We straightened that out, and there it was, sitting in lost and found.

We went home and had some water drink, finished the game of Polytopia, and as he sat on the couch he asked “Is there any viruses on Mama’s computer?” We briefly talked about viruses while at the new exhibit at Madatech, as there was a screen with live monitoring of virus attacks. Probably also on a Magic School Bus episode or something. August had seen Gutale’s water meter as we were walking to the car, and he wanted to see ours, which he’s never seen. We got the keys and took a look at it in the driveway, t
hen left at 2:30 for school.

He wanted to use Siri in the car, but it doesn’t pick up his voice/from the back seat well. So when we stopped he climbed up and tried until he got it to play the Chemical Brothers. On our way into school he wanted me to carry him. At first he said it was hotter up high, but then he said “Because of the flowers. The bees make heat, you know.”

We went to the preschool and did our indoor portion of the scavenger hunt. Carly had also met with Anna and Marion today about ways to make him comfortable about school. We saw Andrea and Marion rearranging PKA, then in PKB he talked to Anna and Marion about the changes they’ve made (light table in forest, kitchen down where it had been). He asked Vicky the question for his scavenger hunt, and when she asked what he had done this summer he said “Nothing” and then stuck to it. He had a good argument with her and Anna over whether ‘nothing’ was ‘something’, and when Vicky kept asking him different questions to try to trick him into saying something he had done this summer he caught on and stuck with “Nothing”.

We finished the rest of the indoor scavenger hunt (he found a closet of toys up in PKC that he’d like to play with, Brown Bear Brown Bear for a book he’s read before). And he spotted the Knuffle Bunny book in PKC and said he remembered watching it in PKB – one of those story videos they would watch.

We went to the bathroom, then went to Carly’s room at 3:30 and we headed to the pool. Played there until close to 5. Carly talked about her meeting with Anna and Marion and mentioned that only two of the kids in his class had moved way. August immediately said “Blanka!” And then added “Emmitt.”

We changed in the bathroom and he washed his hands. He told me “Did you know foamy soap means you can get a lot of it? Ms. Anna said that. So you need to let me do that.” I had tried to limit how much of the foamy soap he put on his hands the other day and he gave me that argument then as well.

As we walked to the car he wanted me to pick him up and said “Say fine”. He said it a few times today and is something he used to do a long time ago. He also got into a who-loves-who more competition with Carly, except this time he said they could tie – something he’s never done before, as he always has had to win. He said I could tie as well.

We drove to Sushi Ishimoto and picked up food to go. August didn’t like not eating there, so I took him out to the car to wait. August ordered, through Carly, “Our usual”, that is the pad thai with shrimp, and Carly got us an order of sushi and tofu noodle dish. While we waited in the car he told me “Did you know I can actually touch the pedal now?” He was playing with Siri and said “poop”. She responded with “let’s keep it clean here.”

At home we ate dinner outside. He said “Did you know that flubong can cool off the sun in two seconds?” He hasn’t talked about flubong recently. I told him about how it would take 6 minutes to go dark. I used scissors to cut up all the shrimp for him, and he inhaled most of the sushi.

Played some Dragonbox Big Numbers, then we read The Butter Battle Book. I went for a run and when I got back they were finishing up his bath. they went in and read the gravity book and brushed his teeth. He then requested me. We read the cat mystery book and I told an August story, where he and Teegan get the tools. He remembered that it was Carly’s turn to actually put him to sleep though and requested her. She came up and he was asleep at 9.

Dentist’s chair:

Getting a sticker:

X-ray: