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He was up at 7:22. I went up and he leaned against the bookshelves. I suggested he go back in the bedroom. He went in and lay half on the big bed for a few minutes, stretching and yawning. He sat on the lower bed, head against the big bed. I suggested he lie down on the lower bed with me. Eventually he did. He rested until 7:38. He also rolled over so I could rub his back when I asked if he wanted me to.

We read three books in Skybrary: Picky Peggy, The On-Again, Off-Again Friend, and The Cow in Patrick O’Shanahan’s Kitchen. I then made french toast and we listened to Afro Celt Sound System this morning (yesterday was Steve Reich, and Tuesday was Brian Eno). He played a little Toca Blocks. We ate breakfast together. He rejected his milk. He then wanted to work on our Lego town.

We did for a few minutes, but then he brought up the Green Planet game. I set a timer and we played 5 minutes. Worked well. He then played Dragonbox Big Numbers while I typed and did some work. While playing Dragonbox Big Numbers I pointed out that collecting apples is the slow part, and called it the bottleneck. Made that the word of the day.

He wanted the scavenger hunt, so I went and wrote out his pr eschool scavenger hunt. He told me the Max and Ruby scavenger hunt only had 4 items. Mine has a lot more. He was frustrated we couldn’t go and do it right away.

He got distracted by some music apps and I made a mango apple smoothie. He requested the apple, and chose one for me. It turned out really well.

I then made the corn chowder, adding lots of mushrooms. “This was a good idea, right?” He ate some, but rejected the rest, saying he didn’t like the little floating things. Not sure what part that was.

We read The Butter Battle Book and Too Many Daves. He then played Dragonbox Big Numbers and I exercised. He is now drawing decent 5s and 6s, which he couldn’t do yesterday. I got us ready to go, but couldn’t find Carly’s swimsuit. I looked around for it and tried calling am emailing her. August was being pretty patient as I ran around the house, although he expressed his opinion that mama could just not swim. I thought maybe Carly had it, so we got going, and that turned out to be the case.

We got to school around 12:30. Anna was the first one we saw, just inside the entrance. Talked to her for a minute and August asked her “Hi, how was your summer?” like the instructions on the scavenger hunt said. He impressed people by reading that, and each time we found someone else he would very purposefully read it, whispering it to himself before saying it aloud. We went down to the preschool and found four more of them sitting t a table outside: Amelia, Marion, Michele, and Andrea, the new teacher.

One of them suggested we could go in the preschool rooms now, but another said it was too much of a mess. So we went to do the garden things. He found kale and tomatoes for the vegetables. We headed back up the stairs and found Maaian. Then by the drinking fountain he likes he spotted Myriam. We went in the library and saw Grace and Lillian sitting with two other girls outside the library. August was really chewing on his shirt. I couldn’t tell if it was because his tooth bothered him, it was a nervous thing, or both. Generally he seemed excited to see people, but I think it may have been overwhelming overall, although he also was the one saying he wanted to find more of the teachers on his list.

Inside he talked to Ilan, Amanda, and Liz. I had to take his shirt out of his mouth a few times. August got several comments on how tall he was and how handsome/stylish. It was quite the getup, with his sunglasses and hat and bracelet and Turn the Bass Up shirt.

We went back to the kids’ books. Along the way found a book called Dad’s First Day, by Mike Wohnoutka. We took that into the reading area and read that twice. He found it really funny, especially when the dad was hiding and then crying. He made at least some connection between the book and us. When they boy and dad are reading he said “Like you and me!” We went out to have a snack, and we saw John again and August said hi to him. August had some bar and apple and hard-boiled egg.

Back in the library we got Magic Treehouse #22. It is about the Civil War. August was afraid it was going to be a scary one. We read 7 chapters of it. Lot of new vocab and concepts for him, like slavery, although he didn’t really question that one. We did look up photos of things like ‘stretcher’, ‘trench’, and ‘snap the reins’.

In looking for more books to check out I found a We Both Read: Museum Day book and we read it together. And finally an I Can Read Book called The Case of the Cat’s Meow. We went to check out books and found Carly talking to Lillian in the library. We checked them out, then went to Carly’s classroom.

August’s behavior wasn’t great though. He’d been chewing on his bracelet the entire time in the library. Carly thought it best that we head straight home. So then August got upset about not swimming, so it snowballed. They played a little with the India board game, then we left.

We were home after 3:30. I went up to work at a quarter till and they read, starting with Dad’s First Day. They read The Case of the Cat’s Meow twice. Glad that was good, as there are several more in the series. They played Dragonbox Big Numbers and used the blueberries for the larger problems.

He came up once, yelling for me. Carly then asked about Skybrary and they read on that. I think maybe some we had read earlier and Ted’s Week and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. They came back up at 5 when Carly wanted to do laundry. He wanted iPad, but agreed to play with the guitar. We hooked it up and tuned and played around a little, but not much.

Back downstairs he started reading Magic Tree House with Carly, but he was bothering her so she stopped. I made him pesto noodles again, this time also adding in tofu. It was a really full bowl this time and he ate the whole thing. He went to the bathroom and managed to flick his underwear up in the air with his toe while taking it off and it went in the toilet. First time that happened. This morning though he was able to put his pajama pants on on his own while standing up.

We did some Dragonbox Big Numbers together. Then he and Carly went for a walk and ended playing at our park. He said they did a little shopping game and the space peeing game. I went for a run, over to the park in Bnei Bror and back. I was just out of the shower when they got back.

Did a little Legos with him, but he was putting a coin and a Lego in his mouth. I took him up and gave him a bath. He made concoctions with the different soaps and did a little of the tea game. He started to go down the stairs but realized it was cold and came running back up. We got his pajamas on. Downstairs he played with his slinky, saying it was his “puncharoo” to hit us with, then a tongue that he was licking us with.

We read The Butter Battle Book and Bartholomew and the Oobleck on my iPad. Then he said a good good night to Carly and I took him up to put him to sleep. He was mainly okay that it was my turn to put him to sleep, although then he a bit upset that mama wasn’t doing it in bed. He wouldn’t let me sing at all, so I told a second Zinnie story (the ones at the house). The next day he doesn’t find a door. Instead, he finds a note in the Zinnie house asking him to find the key. It is a metal nut. Dada makes a smoothie. Mama comes home at the end before he can decide what to do with the key.

August was lying on my spot on the bed, and I was in Carly’s, on my stomach. He was getting upset, and pushed me with his legs. I propped myself up a bit to get away from the pushing, and then he rolled over and snuggled under me, his head on the pillow, under mine. He cuddled like that for a couple minutes, my arm over him. He put his head up once to say “Dada, you’re not being nice to me.” He put it back down. After a couple minutes he roll
er over, facing the wall but still on the pillow, and was asleep at 9:25.

Earlier, we had logged into Wizard School to see what Vivian had been sending. It turns out it was mainly her sharing the videos the Wizard sends. Over and over and over again. August saw that her level was up to 25 and had to make sure his was in the 30s. Ugh. Leave it to her to figure out how to game the system to gain levels and to him to care about it.

Also, I think I left out my hug machine from yesterday. Before he went to bed I gave him a hug on the couch. I was a machine that was motion or sound activated, and when he did either I would hug him. He thought it was quite funny and kept wanting more hugs.

Teething:

He was up at 6:40, as I was about to head down the stairs. He found Carly outside and they cuddled on the couch. He didn’t remember having a funny dream. When we said Carly would go to work today and we’d go to Haifa he asked her “Is work fun for you?”

Carly headed to work about about 7. August played iPad while I typed, and he refound Dragonbox Big Numbers. Interesting to see how much of the game he had forgotten: both the game itself and the math, like reading the numbers. After a few minutes I convinced him to start a new game in it, since there wasn’t much to do. I think it will be a great game for him to play through again, as much more of the math will stick.

I took a shower, him in on the couch in the small bedroom, then we got ready to go. he had some apple. A couple times he asked where mama was and I had to remind him she was at work. We left at 9:30. He was decked out in his hat, bracelet, pink sunglasses, and binoculars. In the car he played more Dragonbox Big Numbers, but then he stopped. He closed his eyes for a minute, but was then looking out the window. Then, he did fall asleep. Very unusual, and I can’t remember the last time he took a nap so early. He slept from 10:05 to 10:40, when I was trying to find parking. We ended up parking at the end of the same dead end as last time and were walking at 10:55.

He asked me, “What’s an English muffin?” And asked if it was a muffin that speaks English.

We got to the Madatech science center and found that we had to pay. I just handed over my card, then, as she gave me the wristbands, I asked about the free days. She said it was free from 4 to 6pm on Wednesdays. I tried asking if the free days would come back, but she acted like I was crazy. I tried to explain that last year we had come several times and it was free, but it was like she didn’t believe me. Not a language barrier, as she spoke fluent English. Oh well, August is still free, but I’m about $25. Also, there is a special exhibit now, which probably explains why it is not free.

You enter from the actual front door now. Headed to the energy room for a little. He played with the solar panels, the water wheel, and then we did the trains that run by bike. We had 11:30 tickets for the special exhibit so we headed over there, stopping to have a bite of our peanut butter sandwiches before we went in.

The ticket taker made us take selfie photos on these screens before we went in. I thought you’d make use of them later, but there was no way to retrieve them, and we never saw the point of them. The exhibit is about apps and online identity, etc. Some of it seemed rather pointless, like these little survey things that I think were supposed to make fun of online surveys.

But there was a lot of cool visual stuff. August liked the screen where you swung around colorful swim noodle things and it made patterns on a large screen. Then there was a place where it took your image and put someone else’s eye on your image. Rather creepy. Next was a maze, where a screen showed you the routes that other people took. Really cool, except it was made out of fabric and there were two bigger boys tearing around it, acting crazy, and not following the paths. August didn’t like it at all and I stopped them a couple times. On the bizarre side of things was a mirror that supposedly could try to tell how old you were. For me it gave results between 14 and 31. And there was a booth with headphones where you could talk to a stranger standing a couple feet away. August and I talked to each other.

Another camera thing, that we couldn’t figure out what it was even supposed to do, and a wall thing that supposedly responded to emotions, but seemed to just randomly flip between ‘happy’ and ‘sad’, and then we got to the next really cool thing. It was a big animated wall with things like hot air balloons, trucks, and boats in it. You could take a piece of paper with an outline of a shape on it, color it, put it on a scanner, and watch it show up in the picture. August chose the boat and they gave him a handstamp: you could only do it once. We colored it, scanned it, and he really liked watching it show up. It was kind of like the fish thing at the Dr. Seuss Museum.

The best thing was last. It was an art installation called “Gravity”. It had big video screens down either side, with a few motion sensors on each wall. It projected videos of things like stars and planets and there was music. In a couple segments the motion detectors were used to make cool pictures from your outline and movement. This led to us discussing the word ‘avatar’, which had also come up a couple days ago when setting up an account on an iPad app. We made it the word of the day. In another segment it looks like you fly right close to a star, and August liked touching the star as it went by. We stayed in Gravity for probably a half hour, as after the second time it went by he wanted to stay until the star went past a third time.

That was the end of the exhibit, then we headed out to the outdoor area. He started at the bottom of the stream area and worked his way up. As we walked to it, he explained something about “I will say yes…to adventure.” There was a lot more to it, basically saying that for both Dada/Zinnie and Dada, Mama, and Zinnie adventures he will always agree to go on them. I loved how he explained it.

He loves the stream area and spent a lot of time with all the pumps and gates and things. At one point, his sunglasses fell off, into the water. He started screaming to stop them. They went through one gate before a girl could close it. The next girl caught on though and kept her gate closed so I could grab them. We finally left the stream at 1:05, mainly because I wanted some air conditioning.

We were briefly in the music room, then the Da Vinci room was full. So we went up to the magic room. He started acting like a magician as he showed me the things: “It’s just a normal bed!…It’s just a normal table!” He continued that through the chemistry room, showing me the fluorescent lights and things. A little of the optical illusions room, then we went to the bathroom. More magicianing in the dark room. It was pretty busy today, but August handled the crowds quite well. We went outside and had some snack, then the Da Vinci room was open. He played with those machines until there was something in the next room starting and they kicked everyone out to be quiet. Did the sound room again, then up the elevator (he wanted to ride the elevator up and down most of the time today, the first time we have, but it is a glass elevator).

Did the space room and talked about the seasons on one exhibit. Then to the air room and his favorite pumps and the controls on an airplane and parts of a jet engine. Optical illusion again, then the teeth room. He chose his favorite healthy foods. Did the telescope room, then down to the hall of mirrors where we used a microscope we’ve never used before and the zoetrope.

As we were wandering around, I asked about leaving soon. He said we should leave after we do all the exhibits. We’d now covered all the rooms and I pointed this out and mentioned we hadn’t done the playroom downstairs. We went downstairs and to the play area. A bit busy, and the only time he really complained about the crowds, but what he really meant was that he couldn’t find a free bucket in the water area.

Ended up in the blue blocks area. He said he was making a monster. When it was done, he explained it’s digestion, from where the mouth was to its stomach to intestines to where it pooped. Back out in the water area it was less busy and he got a bucket. Played a lot on his own, and called me over to help him fill the container with holes in it.

He was ready to go about 3:30, and I could tell he was getting hungry and tired out as he started talking about playing on the iPad and complaining that he wouldn’t have enough time to do everything he wanted to do in Dragonbox Big Numbers unles
s I gave him extra time – and we weren’t even in the car yet!

We went to the bathroom, then found a button to start the mysterious counting machine. Still mysterious, as it just turned the belt, but there were still no balls to be counted. We stopped at the gift shop for a minute and he played at the toy table.

We got walking at 3:50. A lot of cats around here, so we got up to 18 on our running total. And we saw a small lizard on a wall, so he started a count for lizards.

On the way home I heard him talking through the math, and also saw him doing a lot of math problems on his fingers. At one point I asked if he was figuring out some of the problems. He corrected me, saying he was figuring them all out. As we got close to home, he wanted me to help with a hard one. So I pulled over and parked. It was a three-digit problem involving carrying, so I helped him with it. We got driving again and he said he was going to rest, and closed his eyes. Luckily, not enough time to fall asleep.

We were home at 5:10. Saw cat 19. Carly opened the door for him, and he came and told me that I didn’t need to use my keys and mama had done it, and kept explaining it: “See, the door is open…”

Inside, he said he was hungry. I started cooking mushrooms and made him pasta with pesto and cheese and mushrooms. He and Carly went to play with Cubetto but it wasn’t working. He suggested the battery was dead. Carly got the screwdrivers and batteries and they fixed Cubetto together.

When he started eating the noodles he told me “I love it!” Randomly, he told us “Did you know there’s beetle wars? All the beetles in the world come up to a place and then they start fighting.”

I wondered if he was drawing from Fox in Sox. I suggested we read Seuss. We read the end of Fox in socks. Then The Butter Battle Book, which is what he had thought I was talking about, and he really wanted Carly to see it. I read it to him.

They played Toca Blocks for a few minutes, then we went walking to get our anniversary ice cream 6:40. He saw cat #20. At the mall he looked at the flavors, then told me to choose for him. He didn’t want to decide. I got tiramisu for him, cheesecake with crumbs for me, and Carly got chocolate fudge. We were all happy with our flavors. August told us “Happy anniversary!”

On the way back there were lots of negotiations over the order of skyping, brushing his teeth, and taking a bath. We ended on brushing first. Carly did that. Rather a struggle. He and I then skyped with my parents, as they have Skype working again. I went for a run and she gave him a bath. He was asleep at 8:40, right before I got back.

Carly had told me that the other day they made a welcoming card for Mikaela to go with the cookies. It was a dot painting and he had explained it was an atom to particle maker. Carly included the description in the card and Mikaela said she liked it and had the card on her fridge.

Also, the other day, as we were leaving the house, he pointed to the old bicycle tire that he had proudly brought home last spring (when he had his awful cat allergic reaction). He said he would leave it here when we moved to another country. I said he didn’t need to worry about when we would move again, and he asked if we would be here for the rest of his life.

 

He jumped on the bed with me at some point in the middle of the night. Threw himself right down next to me, but facing the wrong direction. He then proceeded to roll all around the bed for the next couple of hours, often with his feet on me or by my head. He was getting close to edge of the bed and I tried to block him with a pillow. I slept soundly for quite awhile, then realized that he was at the very far corner, at the foot of the bed. Carly picked him up and put him back down on the lower bed.

He was waking up about 6:30 and seemed surprised that he was back on that bed, as the first thing he said was “Why am I up here?” A slow wake up for all of us, and a few minutes later he said “It’s daytime.” We went downstairs and he had Carly read The Sneetches and he played some of the horrible Street Music Game and Khan Academy and others. Carly gave him  a hard-boiled egg and he ate that quickly, then had some Cheerios and milk. Carly also gave him some of the medicine as his tooth seemed to be bothering him.

He and I read The Butter Battle Book, then read it again. He and Cary played some version or Candyland, then he wanted to play with Cubetto.

‘Program’ was the word of the day. He and I played for while, then I went up and took a shower. He and Carly kept playing it and were doing challenges with Cubetto.

Carly headed to work at 9:45 and he and I did some Dr. Seuss Band, then tried out a couple of rhythm games to replace the one I don’t like. Not much success there. He then tried out Marco Polo World School and played Khan Academy Kids while I did some work. We played the comet/asteroid game together and finished a planet. I had hoped that would be the end of it, but he really wanted to start a second planet, and he would bring it up later in the day when pleading for more iPad time.

We read Kipper A to Z together, then after a bit of a meltdown over iPad we played with Legos for a long time. We finally built the rest of the set that Paul had got him, making the car garage and another car. We then started making a whole town, putting the street pieces from my childhood together and adding all the cars and people. We built a red house, then a couple of trucks.

Since he had rejected the spaghetti sauce yesterday, today I took the noodles and added olive oil and cheese, then added mushrooms and tofu and he liked that well enough. I let him use the iPad for Skybrary books and that went well enough. We read Ted’s Week, about a hedgehog bullied by blue jays, three times, then read Umma Ungka’s Unusual Umbrella, and Toads and Tessellations (which is kind of a cool math adventure story, but didn’t do a great job of actually explaining tessellations). He ‘snuck’ a watching of Lucy and Pogo in there, but I didn’t mind, since it is pretty much a book. He had some crackers and peanut butter as a snack.

I had just told Carly he was doing good, but that he was literally running circles around the table and we should get him outside soon, when he then had another meltdown over the iPad, wanting to play the aforementioned games again instead of just reading books.

He calmed down enough and we played with the monster card game from Korea up on the bed until Carly got home at 3:35.

I finally showed August the new binoculars I’d bought from REI, but he was less excited by them this time. We reluctantly got him going in the car and headed up to Ilanot, the tree place, and were walking at 4:35.

He had fun when we were there though. He poured water down a pipe coming out of the ground and we refilled our water bottles from a drinking fountain a couple times. He scanned a lot the QR codes on signs. We spent the most time admiring the eucalyptus macrocarpa (Mottlecah) and the Washingtonia robusta (Mexican Fan Palm). we were looking for a treasure for his treasure box but didn’t find anything today.

We got to the end and looped back. I then remembered geocaching and looked on the app and saw that there was a cache near the entrance of Ilanot. I gave August the phone to carry as we made our way to it. We found it in the middle of a tree with 5 trunks. He was very excited to find it and we high-fived.

We got to the car at 5:45. He really wanted to do more geocaching and I saw that there was one by the Drorim Mall, where Tiv Taam is. He told Carly about his extendo arm and how he stores everything he grabs with it inside him: “Extendo arm…trees, caterpillars, poop…inside me.”

We got to the mall. August and I walked over to the trail to find the cache and Carly went to go buy new headphones, as hers stopped working. He found the cache in a pile of rocks behind a rock bench.

We went and found Carly buying her headphones at Kravitz. They went to the bathroom and I got a cart. He sat in the cart and helped us shop. He did fine until we were checking out and he started to get grumpy. Said he was hungry but rejected a carrot.

He continued to be grumpy at home and rejected potatoes and veggies and teriyaki sauce. He then continued to meltdown over not playing iPad. Carly took him up after she’d eaten some food. He just fell right to sleep, at 7:20. No pajamas or brushing or bath.

I went for a run, then finished an entry for Sabeel (Al-Quds University)

Carly and I heard him laughing really hard in his sleep. Lasted a good ten seconds.

 

Despite going to sleep so early last night he managed to sleep through the night, although it took some work on Carly’s part. He had a couple of dreams that woke him up. For one he said something like “Let’s go back! Let’s buy that instrument!” He also flopped around on the bed a lot and kept rolling under the big bed.

He woke up just before 7. I think he called out “Hello”, as at first I was confused and didn’t think it was him I heard. Carly’s MacBook Air was having keyboard/trackpad issues so I was trying to figure those out. They delivered the cookies to Mikaela, leaving them by her gate. Back inside they read some of the Paddington chapter book. I had also made hard-boiled eggs, but he wanted a hard-boiled eggs.

I went up and did some work, then took a shower. He was adding clocks to the World Clock on his iPad when I popped downstairs. He went to the bathroom, then I got the screwdrivers and glue to fix the toilet paper holder that’s coming loose. I did that and he played with the tools. He remembered cutting apart toothpicks and I got him some so he could do that, then he worked on his “construction site” in the bathroom. He wanted me to help, and asked “Hey assistant? Could you get me the big screwdriver?” Carly made spaghetti as we did music games on the iPad. There was a new Kids Music app that he used to compose a song. Carly headed to work at 10, taking the car.

August drank the rest of lassi from yesterday and ate some spaghetti. He then had us play the pee game, where I pretend to fall asleep and have to go to the bathroom. Back on the iPad he was frustrated by the Street Music app, which I don’t like. We went and read The Sneetches. He ate a few crackers while I rested. He asked “Does everything have fatness?” It turned out he meant three dimensional objects, and depth.

We got all ready to go, planning to swim at the school pool, and then realized he was in his clothes from yesterday from sleeping in them. We changed him and left just after 12:45. He kept saying “You can’t teach a Sneetches.” Then, “Dada, did you know I collect every sound I hear?” And he was collecting sounds that we heard. He found a “treasure” as we crossed the street. The frame of a broken toy truck. He was enjoying steering, and steered us in circles a couple of times. I sang some songs to him (our hill song, “Sentimental Wars”, and “Ain’t that Beautiful”. He asked what “curse” means and that became our word of the day. It was from a line in the last song, which goes “So I curse the air I breathe…”

We got to school at 1:20. He’d forgotten the layout of the school a bit, and didn’t believe me on the direction to the pool. We looked at the painted mural of the world, then went to get our swimsuits on.

As he went to try the water he asked about the watering can he played with last year. I had thought about it on the walk but we didn’t have it. I had some crackers in a plastic container and we took those out and used the content as a toy. That worked well. It was hard to see in the water, but we had fun ‘losing’ it and finding it. In the water he had all sorts of sensors: cup sensors in his hands, ball sensors, sun sensors. His cup sensors wouldn’t work if his hands were in the water, and they could only tell him when they sensed the cup, not what direction it was in. One of the teachers, John, came by and talked to us. He had been in Oregon all summer. August mainly said his bad words, but said them into his cup so we couldn’t understand him. After John left we had a lot of fun making up funny names using different words, and August laughed a lot.

August had spent several minutes just sitting on the side of the pool, then was pouring water on my head with the cup. When he wanted me to get him in he mentioned his floaties, but then didn’t ask for them. So he was pretty comfortable in the water.

We got out at 2:40 for lunch. Him reluctantly. Had bars, a hard-boiled egg, apple, and some crackers. A fly kept landing on him and he said “That fly keeps putting it’s proboscis on me.” I remember Vivian saying that at some point.

We went back in the pool. As August was putting on his floaties this time, Omar called. I talked to him for 5 to 10 minutes and August did a good job of letting me talk, until he needed to go to the bathroom. I finished the phone call, we got the floaties off, and went to the bathroom. Had to go over to the auditorium as there was a very loud truck by the usual bathroom.

So then it was back to the pool again. Without his floaties at first. He was playing with the cup, pretending to be a duck with it on his mouth, when Carly showed up. He wanted his floaties on for awhile. Then we met Sharon, who is from Yorkshire, and is the secretary for Mike. August did much better with her, telling her his age and name, and talking about the pool. I also talked to her about Yorkshire.

August wanted to go play in Carly’s classroom, but also wanted to stay in the pool. That was solved when the lifeguard started closing the pool about 4:50. August got right out. We went to her classroom and they did a little math class. He was trying to chew on everything in the classroom. He remembered the board game about India and they got that out and played with it. He then lounged in the blue beanbag chair before we left at 5:20.

At home we accepted Vivian’s friend requests in Wizard School and sent her some stuff. They then skyped with Cherie and Colin. Colin was very excited to see August. Vivian was at the dentist. He played some Tinybop Earth, then went watering plants and played with the soccer ball with Carly. He had rejected the spaghetti due to small pieces of onion. He now had potatoes and veggies with teriyaki sauce.

He came up to me and was Shmorgadeboop, the cat. I took him up and gave him a bath and washed his hair. Went pretty well, except when he thought it would be fun to pour water on my shorts and I had to go change. Dried his hair with the hairdryer, then were downstairs at 8:05. He showed Carly the Street Music app.

I went for a run. She took him upstairs and brushed his teeth. She had the toothbrush start talking to him and he thought it was hilarious. He was really sleepy, as he then volunteered to turn off the light and was right to sleep at 8:37.

Both Carly and I tried to talk to him about preschool today and he told us he doesn’t want to talk about it.

 

They slept and slept. I listened to more of The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, did some typing and got some other stuff done, ate breakfast, and started listening to The Element by Ken Robinson. August didn’t wake up until almost 9:50. It was a lovely morning for me, but we’ll need to adjust the sleep schedule over the next week and a half to get ready for school. I took a shower, and Carly made him a piece of French toast. He was grumpy that we wouldn’t go upstairs and get his water for him, but he cheered up when food was ready. They talked about their plans, to go to Carly’s classroom and then to the plant store. In discussing the plant store he said, “Here’s what we’ll do: You’ll give me a collection, and I’ll choose within that collection.”

He and I finished reading Captain Underpants #3, then started #4. He finished the french toast, then Carly made him an egg and cheese, which he also ate. I stopped to make coffee, and he was saying the poop words. Carly and I decided to steer away from the Captain Underpants books. He and I looked at some paper chapter books we’ve thought about reading, but then he had the idea of watching Curious George. He watched a few minutes while Carly got ready to go, then they got going to school at 11:50.

I ate lunch, then got to work.

Air conditioning wasn’t on at school, so they didn’t stay there long. They then went to the plant store by Even Yehuda and came back with a box full of plants. August did a great job, helping to pick out plants.

When he got home he ran up to me in the office, excited to see me. He wanted to type on my iPad, so ended up using the predictive typing. He was reading a lot of words. He also wanted to choose the emojis, so I would type words so that the emojis would appear. He read a lot of those words too. Downstairs, Carly did more of that with him, then he and I did a lot of music on the iPad, using a new synth app. When listening to Chemical brothers on the HomePod he was dancing on the couch, then used Siri to stop the music.

Carly had been gardening outside and the yard is looking very nice. She still needed a few more plants, so we all got in the car and went to the big nursery to the east. August wasn’t too enthused about the trip. He said it was too hot. He did okay inside the nursery building. We went and saw the fish and he had fun with the wind chimes. He found gnomes, which reminds him of Gramma and Grampa’s house, and we let him pick one out. He picked out a couple of plants, including a pink cactus. He was grumpy about going outside though.

On our way back we stopped at the Arab restaurant (Younes) and I ran in and got baba gahnoush, hummus, tahini, carrots, cabbage, falafel, the roots thing, and a lafa then headed home.

At home he barely touched his food at all. He wanted to play the pirate game where I had things, but Carly was getting ready to take him to the beach (with the beach toys this time), a little before 6. But then, stepping up on the curb by the car, he really fell. Ended up with scrapes on both legs, his arm, and a bruise on his forehead.

After he calmed down, Carly was trying to make him a lassi, but he was having problems leaving her alone. We read The Sneetches, etc. then had lassi. He asked “How do you make a tomato snowman?” No idea why he asked about that. We moved outside and they were going to plant his seeds and then we were going to do more reading outside. I remembered tomorrow was a garbage day so I went to do the garbage. While I was gone he melted down and couldn’t stop saying “poop”. When Carly took him upstairs he was yelling things like “I’m doomed!… I’m really sorry!”

She made him do some independent time in the bedroom, playing with Duplos, while she sat outside the door. They came down at 8. At some point during the evening I was trying to ask him about his tooth. He said yes, it was hurting. Then revised it to itchy. We are going to contact the dentist tomorrow. He had some Cheerios and milk, then we decided on the words of the day: unsnarl (from the dictionary app, and apt, given his hair) and two-ply (which he learned in discussing toilet paper, and keeps asking about).

He sat on the couch and was quiet. I said it had been a hard day, and I asked him what had been the hardest part. He replied, “Has it been two weeks yet?” I asked if he was feeling stress about school. He pressed his eyes shut and wouldn’t answer. I asked him to use his thumb up/down and he gave me a clear thumb up. I tried to ask him more about it, but he wouldn’t answer. After a couple minutes I realized he was asleep on the couch. It was 8:20.

We all had a full night of sleep, although we got to sleep pretty late. August just woke up once and Carly went down on the lower bed with him.

I listened to Paevment and typed while Carly enjoyed the morning outside. He woke up at 9:48. He only wanted mama though and she had to carry him down.

He fell back to sleep. Finally got him to wake up to eat Israeli French Toast and milk. We then read What Do You Do with an Idea?, The Sneetches, Paddington, and a Bob Book. I had gotten a phone call from an unknown number while reading, then a WhatsApp message. It was Mikaela, our new downstairs neighbor. She had plugged in an electric kettle and it had knocked out all the electricity to her apartment. We let her in the gate and showed her where the breakers are and turned the power back on for her.

August then played a little Teach Monster, then we did a Q Bot battle. He asked, “Why am I powerless without my Q Bot?…What does ‘powerless’ mean?” We made that the word of the day, and -less words in general. I think maybe he got it from Captain Underpants.

I went and took a shower and he went outside with Carly. Inside he did a math game on the iPad, then ShapeKit. I helped him finish up an animation, then Carly tried to get him to do some independent time. They negotiated time and place and toys (8 minutes, upstairs on the bed, and Duplos) and headed upstairs.

They did that for awhile, then he was spraying things with the spray bottle upstairs, cleaning them. He was singing the chorus to Josh Ritter’s “Change of Time”. Which made Carly happy. Kind of surprised that he picked that one up. We’ve certainly listened to it before, and it may have been on yesterday, but he hasn’t said anything about it before.

They then headed to the store. They left at 1:40. I had some lunch and did some work, and they were back at 3:00. He came and jumped on the couch and went behind the pillow, talking about machines he had been making: “92 thousand, 800 machines”. He had found two treasures, a 10 shekel coin and a small hamsa. One was in the parking lot and one was in the store. He put them in his treasure box. They had bought some sweet cheesy pastries and he gave me the one and a half that were left.

They made popcorn and Carly made mango lassi and he watched Max and Ruby while I got things ready for cookies. He and I then made chocolate chip cookies. Carly wanted us to make some as a moving in gift for Mikaela. He did a little independent time with the straws. He then asked Carly, “What does parody mean?” I think I’d used the word when discussing a storyline in Captain Underpants or something like that.

We then headed to the beach. We forgot the beach toys yet again, but at least had swimsuits and towels. August said he was okay to play without toys. By the time we parked and got down to the beach it was 6:40. There was a tide pool with kids playing in it and August went right to it, playing on his own. Carly went in the water. After a few minutes he came and asked me to go get the sand toys, but then went back to playing in the water on his own. He had found a little bottle cap and used that as a toy. Carly came and played with him for awhile, then I went in the water. When I came in, Carly went out for a second time.

The last of the tide pools dried up at 7:40. August played with it to the last moment. The last of it went so fast I couldn’t get over to my backpack to get the phone. He drew some snaking lines in the sand, then said he needed to use the bathroom, so we headed out.

He changed into shorts in the car and asked Carly about all the gauges in the car. I said I didn’t know why car companies always include tachometers in cars when most people never look at them, and he suggested we could Si the companies to put in Fahrenheit and Celsius meters instead. We were driving at 8.

He spotted Venus as we drove, then Jupiter and Mars. We talked about Celsius and Fahrenheit, then he had his own temperature scale, -2 was freezing and boiling was 9888. We discussed who uses celcius and Fahrenheit and I introduced Kelvin.

Back at the house, Carly took a shower, then I tried my new running shoes. It was also the first time I used my wireless headphones with my watch. I ran the trail and thought it would make a nice loop, but it smelled really bad down by the chicken coop area. I’d never smelled it like that, although I’d heard people say it could smell bad. I was back at 9:30 and took a shower. They were in the bedroom when I got back, and I think they had done some reading.

I then brushed his teeth, and as we went downstairs I had to explain how Skype works to him. It ws almost like he’d forgotten how skype works, it’s been so long since we’ve used it regularly.

When we got home and he and Carly were washing off their feet with the hose, he was annoying Carly by touching her. Kind of been an ongoing problem, so she had decided that he needed to go to sleep with me tonight. He now plead with her: “Did you change your mind on that? Or not?” “Are you still thinking about it?”

My parent still weren’t on Skype, and hadn’t been for the last couple of days, so I called them on the phone. August and I talked to them on speakerphone. He then had fun looking at and asking me about all the activity data on my phone.

I took him up for a bath. He played for awhile, then got out at 10:50. He’s having some impulse control issues, and he went ahead and dropped the slinky down the stairs after I had reminded him we don’t drop hard things and I’d specifically told him not to drop it. When I told him he couldn’t play with it anymore he complained I grabbed everything from him. I had recently taken a sponge thing from him in the bath when he had thrown it at me, for fun, covered in soap, and a flyswatter that he was touching everything with. I pointed out I hadn’t actually grabbed the slinky from him, he had dropped it down the steps, and he actually conceded that point.

Downstairs, he got upset again about Carly not putting him to sleep. I cheered him up by telling bad jokes. Jokes like: “Donald. Trump.” And he would break out laughing. And “What do you say when there’s an elephant in the room? AAAAAHHH!!! There’s an elephant in the room! Run for your life!” And “What does mama say?” And I repeated the last thing she had said. Carly told me to look up actual jokes, so I did, but I felt vindicated when, after several of those, August wanted me to go back to my own jokes.

I took him upstairs just after 11. He was really upset at first, and wouldn’t let me touch him. I just had to block the door. After awhile he started to come to me and climb in my lap, but was hitting me. But eventually he was cuddled in my lap and arms like a baby as I sat on the floor near the door. I sang “Drifting” and he asked to move to the bed. Took him up there and sang “Animal Life” and he fell asleep. I knew he was asleep when he had a big hypnagogic jerk at 11:26. Haven’t really seen that with him before.

Carly was up, jet lagged, when August woke up around 2am. He got up on the bed with me, and I was able to get him to fall back to sleep with me 2 or 3 times. Good cuddling time. He was restless though, and about 3:15 he woke up for good and Carly came and took him. I guess he needed to go to the bathroom, as that’s where he headed. At 6:30 he came running in to see me and woke me up. Carly and I switched. They had played Candyland, been hanging out in the small bedroom upstairs, and playing with the straw building blocks and playing DragonBox Numbers. Carly was able to sleep, sort of, for about an hour while he played on the iPad. She said it was painful though when he’d wake her to ask what something said. Brought back memories of when I was sick and on the couch with him and doing the same thing.

Candyland was a gift from Cherie. We managed to fit it in our luggage. I was initially resistant, as he now owns my two last favorite children’s board games based on chance: chutes and ladders and Candyland. I don’t have positive memories about those games as a kid. But as long as he and Carly like them, and leave me out of it… I’m more looking forward to doing puzzles with him, and more skill-based and cooperative board games. My parents still have games like The Farming Game and Sherlock Holmes that I’d like to play. Can’t remember if Clue is still up there, but that will be fun as well.

August and I went down and he really wanted to watch the Curious George Christmas episode with me. Not playable on Netflix anymore, so we bought it and watched it together on the couch. Watched the whole thing (no scary parts) and then went to play with Duplos. He asked if you could do diagonal lines and I said no, but showed him how to do diagonal lines in pixel art. After I made an X it turned into me being a pirate and hiding things for him to find.

Eventually, he wanted to go for a walk to find more treasures for his treasure box. First though he was hungry and I made scrambled eggs and mushrooms while he started Math Tango from the beginning on his own on his iPad. We ate together, then he played Math Tango while I got us ready. 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.

He went in with Carly a little after 9, as he seemed tired, but they came down at 9:30, him asking me to look for the volume changer outside treasure 📦 bowl (August saw me typing and put the emoji in there). We read the rest of Captain Underpants 2. Then he watched Carly make a lassi. He came to me and asked “Did you know it’s mango season?”

He then started playing with his Q robot. He was doing shows where I was the audience, unimpressed with just a Q, but then amazed when it turned into a robot. That turned into me being different monsters and he was Q Bot, fighting me. We wrestled on the couch doing that. I didn’t have much energy though, as I was tired.

He and Carly decided to head upstairs to try sleeping again at 11. That left me with the couch downstairs and I rested as well. At noon or so I went up and joined them. Carly and I slept until about 2 and came downstairs. I had some lunch and then went to tak a shower. Carly tried to wake him once but he wasn’t responding, so tried again about 2:30. She bribed him with a lollipop, then he ate that as he watched some Magic School Bus. He snuggled against me as he watched, Andi started to fall asleep again. I went upstairs. They had popcorn, then went to work outside. August started rolling the soccer ball down the slide as I came back out. And Carly met the new downstairs neighbor, Kayla. August and I played with the ball, rolling it up and down the slide and throwing it. He still didn’t have shorts on, and when he went down the slide he showed just how dirty it is. He got the hose and washed off the slide and did some watering. I helped clean off the chairs and table and did a full wash of the patio, which August helped with.

Inside, he said, “Put a reminder on your phone to only play Zinnie Songs…every year…on my birthday…” So I did. He played on his toy piano and made a game of playing a line that I then copied. He then requested Piano Maestro, but we were getting ready to drive down to the beach. We got driving and realized we had neither his bike nor beach toys. We decided to park up by the boardwalk and just do some walking.

We got walking at 7. He stopped and gave a Cheerio to some ants. As we walked he saw a little viewing loop and said “Let’s take the longcut.” We walked north to the place where the benches are and the ice cream shop. Watched the setting sun, then headed back.

We stopped at the playground we had been to with Chuck and Cherie. Carly read and I went up on the structure with him. He sat on the netting and wanted me under him, so I went down below. He had initially said the playground was too busy, even though there were only 5 or 6 kids. There were two boys though running around and he said they were being crazy.

After 15 minutes or so he ran over to Carly and wanted to play tag. We played tag. Initially I say on the bench, which was base, and would tickle them if they spent too long on base. Carly spotted a ship out on the water. August asked, “What do you think is on the ship? Pirates?”

We walked back at 8. We had started counting cats, and he spotted number 3. We decided to keep counting up, not restarting each day. We’ll see how that goes. We got back to where the Cheerio was. It had moved to the other end of the bench. No ants anymore. They had gone in for the day, apparently. A mystery on how the Cheerio had moved though.

In the car we joked about how you used to have to use lights in order to read books. He played the math arcade game and he’s starting to catch on to the speed of it. Sort of. “Obstacle” is the word of the day, based on discussing how to play the game.

Back at the house we had some of our raspberry iced tea, which he had helped make before we left. I made a frozen pizza, but he rejected that. We worked on reading after discussing preschool and our strategies for dealing with rest time. He only wanted to read Captain Underpants though, so we tried that a little. Then some of one of the iPad reading apps.

I took him up and gave him a bath. I’d forgotten how much I dislike how everything ends up wet in our bathroom. We took the straw building blocks downstairs and built the helicopter together. We drank more raspberry iced tea. Colder now.

He played Khan Academy Kids and ate a carrot. Khan Academy is a little on the easy side for him now, but really well done (and free). It will better fit him as he gets a bit farther. Unfortunately, it only goes up to basic math for now. Hopefully they’ll be adding to it.

He handed the last of the carrot to Carly, then bit his tongue chewing the last bite. He started howling, and there was blood. He sobbed, “Does anybody have a treat for me?” And then requested not brushing his teeth. Upstairs he refused to go to the bathroom. He finally calmed down and did so and we got him ready for bed. I left them at 11:25 and he fell right t
o sleep.

We woke him up 6:30. Everyone was up a little earlier today, and Chuck and Cherie, of course. Vivian was up as well to wish August goodbye. They had a little time playing with an RC car before we left, then we were out the door before 8:15. Carly sat up with Jeff and I sat with August. He ate some apple and played Toca Plants. We were talking about our journey today and he made “Atlantic Ocean” the word of the day.

We were to the airport at 9:45. Took us awhile to figure out where to check in, but it went pretty smoothly. We got to our gate area and got coffee drinks and they played hide and seek. I downloaded some books on his iPad. They went and did challenges, then went and filled up their water bottles. There was a place with fake grass for service animals to go to the bathroom on. August would point it out to me when I took him to the bathroom. I took him for awhile and we looked in a little convenience store. There were plastic candy containers with different characters and features on them – he particularly liked the ones that were electric hand fans. I convinced him we didn’t need one, but he spent several minutes testing them all to see which worked. We also found a TV at a restaurant that was showing some transatlantic yacht race. August quite liked that and we watched it for quite awhile. We ran around during commercial breaks.

We boarded about 1. And then sat. And sat. We were told we were delayed for “some weather”. August played Toc Plants and the new pirate app. He handled it pretty well, although at one point asked “Are we over the Atlantic Ocean?” About 2:45 they made a general don’t-know-how-long-it-will-be announcement and let people out of their seats. But just a few minutes later they announced we were leaving and people had to scramble to their seats. I think we were first in line, as we were suddenly taking off. We were off at 2:55. We were also sitting in the middle seats of a 787-9 so didn’t have a view. August was disappointed to hear that, but was then fine.

As we took off, Carly said, “It would be good for him to stay awake 5 hours.” August responded by immediately falling asleep. He slept until 4:20. They had recently delivered dinner and he liked the chicken and rice. He ate some of mine, then somehow flipped Carly’s on the floor. I took him to the bathroom. He played various apps, then watched some Sarah and Duck. Carly ordered more chicken for him. Carly was watching I am Legend. August thought that Will Smith looks like Derek. I think because of the hair.

He looked up at the bright light over him and said that it looked like a radar or compass. He sang “Dont want to waste, a cannon ball.” as he played the pirate game. He watched a half hour or Curious George but wouldn’t watch any more. He had been laughing the whole time, but said it got scary. Several times they would walk around the plane and he would laugh as he passed me. Carly finally got him to watch Magic School Bus.

Breakfast came and August didn’t eat any. As I tried to eat, I was most annoyed by the woman in front of me. Second flight in a row where someone in front of me put their seat back for the entire flight, even when she was sitting forward watching the video. When she was lying back, she would reach up and hold onto the top of the seat. Twice she grabbed my hair as I leaned for word on my pillow against the screen. And as I was trying to eat it put her hands literally four inches from my face. I remember a few flights back an airline that made people return their seats to the upright position during meals. Now my favorite airline.

He set a timer on his iPad so he could look to see how much time was left on our flight. He used the screen several times to look at the path of our flight. He told me “You know my Magic School Bus maker? I packed it in a suitcase.” That was something from earlier in the summer.

August was getting really tired. We landed at 8:10am on the 2nd, Israel time. Made it through immigration and got our luggage. He fell asleep as we went to get a cab. Got him in a cab, and he slept on the cab ride. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes. I carried him up to the bedroom and lay him on the lower bed, about 10:30. He was very asleep, and didn’t seem to move a muscle for at least an hour.

I had barely slept on the flight. Not sure if Carly got much more. She was ambitious though and wanted to go shopping. So she went and did that. I did a little unpacking, and set up the Apple HomePod, and tried to sleep, but no luck. I took a shower and Carly woke him up after 3:30. He was quiet on the couch, and the first thing he said to me was “Remember my coins up there? Can we play hide and seek?” He was then cold, and I covered him with pillows and stuffed animals. They talked about the yard and he asked “Can I grow tomatoes?”

Carly made a mango lassi for us all. Good to be back to Israel, at least for the mangoes. Carly liked the HomePod, saying it was my best speaker purchase ever. Carly mentioned skyping with Oma and Vivian, etc. and August got sad about not being with them.

I got August’s treasure box and he looked at his stuff and we discussed the coins. I then hid a bunch of them under things on the couch. He found them, but then remembered he’d been wanting to play Toca Elements. He had requested it a couple days ago and I’d forgotten to put it on his iPad. He requested it on the plane, then again once we had landed. I had installed it in the airport as we waited for luggage, but then he had fallen asleep.

He played that, then went outside for a bit with Carly. Our watering system had been turned off. Some plants had made it, others hadn’t. I talked to Shmuel at some point, and he said he’d turned it off because it was leaking too much. He says we need a filter and pressure regulator. He had watered the plants three times over the summer though. The papayas have grown a lot (except for the one stunted one) and one is almost as tall as I am. The cactus she left in the window box was doing great, so maybe a few more cacti this year.

Back inside we made a full squirrel nest. He then played Math Tango on my iPad in the squirrel nest.

Carly took him to her classroom. They left at 6:55, and were back by 7:40. I slept a bit. They brought back some of the plants she had taken to her classroom. He lay on the couch and put his feet on the wall. When I told him not to do that he said, “It’s not even your wall.” For dinner he ate carrot, the rest of his smoothie, and some potatoes and mushrooms. I had a veggie burger.

We read a Captain Underpants book. We made ‘underestimate’ the word of the day. He then asked “What’s red handed mean?” As an aside I wondered if it was a racist term and he asked “What’s racist mean?” (I looked it up. It is not. The red is a reference to blood.)

We all went for a walk at 8:55. Stopped at the park and played a minute of the shopping game. He said he had to buy new stuff for his spider web because it was all moldy. We walked north a bit, then circled back around to our house. Carly realized we need to work on crossing the street with him, which is going to be hard as I’m so used to strolling across our streets as their is no traffic. We were back at  9:20. He said “You know what? We haven’t played with out piano.”

We read some more Captain Underpants, then he played some of the Monster Learn reading app. He asked “Are we staying here for the rest of my life?” We took him up and brushed his teeth. They were reading, more Captain Underpants, I think, when I left them before 10:40. He fell asleep pretty soon.

He was up around 8:30. Colin was up early, and Jeff headed to work. Vivian was up soon after, then Cassie got home from work. I took a shower, and August was sending me things in Wizard School. I sent him a photo of his water bottle with a face on it. The kids ate the last of the coffee cake, then they sent more Wizard School videos while Cassie made eggs and cheese.

They ate the eggs, then we were planning on all going to the store and a park together. But then the kids were having a hard time. It ended as Cassie was cleaning out a toy box and Vivian wasn’t letting Colin play with things. August got involved, and started to play with some blanket. Colin also wanted it. Vivian sided with Colin and told August he couldn’t play with it. August got upset, and when it wasn’t being resolved he completed the downward spiral by slapping Vivian.

So we ended up going to Weis just the three of us, and no park. August was upset as we took him out, then calmed down in the car. We mainly got snacks for our airplane day, and some things that Cassie needed. We also got some coffee for them and some cash.

We left at 11:25. We did the usual counting down for him to get to his seat thing, and he said we should include “half of a one” in there. So we made “one half” the word of the day.

At home Vivian was watching Magic School Bus. Colin played in the box, and August gave him nuts. Colin fell over, but was okay. Cassie went up to rest, and I got Colin and August spaghetti. Everything was peaceful for while, but then August got frustrated that Vivian was skipping ahead and controlling the video selection. He yelled at her and Carly took him and Colin outside. I understood his frustration on this one: she was literally going through episodes in 5 minutes, and I can’t imagine, growing up, when the cousins would completely control what was watched and the TV.

Anyway, outside they were over on the swings, then came in to get a hammer and Carly smashed a walnut for them. They were then on the back porch playing with the lawnmower. August came in with me and we fixed the part that had come loose on the catapult. He went out and was frustrated that Vivian was still watching her show and not playing with him. He played with the mechanical ring toss game (they had played with it once when I wasn’t there), then had some Life cereal and soy milk. Cassie came down and Vivian stopped watching the show. August was happy again, and told her about Toca Plants. I heard him say “I’ll tell you a secret. There IS a Hoca Toca plant game…” They got his iPad and played Gro Recycling instead. I went outside with Colin and we played in the backyard with the roller coaster thing and running around being motorcycles.

He and I saw Chuck and Cherie coming and I picked him up and we ran to the front as they honked and pulled in at 2:10. They pulled in across the street and first took the car off, then pushed the trailer over. Then backed the motor home into its spot. When August gave Cherie a hug he asked “Do you have any Oma treats?”

The kids went in the motorhome and Vivian and August were sitting in the passenger seat and Cherie was giving August a lesson in good posture when I checked on them.

I left on a final shopping trip: first to Best Buy, where I was amazed by all the drones that they sell, and bought an Apple HomePod, then to TJ Maxx, where I got a couple pairs of shorts, then to Target, where I got underwear and a baseball cap for August. I’ve been wanting to get him a baseball cap because we’ve always liked how he looks in mine, and with his long hair getting in his face I’m hoping it will help keep it out. The hat is red and blue and has a picture of a right triangle on it and says “Alright, alright.” As I finished at Target, Carly called and said they were ordering pizza. So I went straight to Teresa’s Pizza in Mt. Bethel. It was a nice drive, as it took me over to Water Gap and down the river – roads we haven’t driven this trip, nor last.

While I was gone they played games like Candyland, hung out in the RV, helped Cherie open all the packages she had had sent here, and washed his hair. And he ate a good amount of veggies.

I was back after 5. We had our pizz dinner, then August and Colin drawing on the whiteboard. Which was going really well until Vivian took away the small black marker, saying it was only hers. August quit playing, then he went and played Candyland a bit with Carly, then Vivian came and let him have the marker.

Soon after dinner it was time for ice cream out back. August took a ice cream cone, but wanted his ice cream separate in a bowl. They then went out to the motor home with Cherie.I went to check in them and all three kids were in the bed with her. They were singing “Little Bunny Foo Foo” and then discussing the splat balls. A bit later August came running in to see me/us. I met him outside but he tripped on the sidewalk and fell on his knees.

I carried him. Not quite as quick of a recovery as yesterday, but not too upset based on past scrapes. Cherie taught him what ‘dab’ means and dabbed the blood. She then took him and Vivian out to the motor home to play the cat tablet game to make him feel better.

At 8:15 I went out as they were coming in. They were running around and chasing fireflies. Cherie and Chuck were going to bed and amazed to hear that the kids stayed up to 10 or 11. Cassie said that Jeff had been saving one final frog firework as a grand finale, so they stayed a bit longer. August pointed to the nasturtiums and told Cherie that you could eat them, but  “They’re a tiny bit spicy.”

Jeff lit the firework, and it was pretty impressive. August even uncovered his ears for the end of it. Afterwards he wanted to go inside, but asked “Is there gonna be any more exciting things out here?”

Inisde he hugged Vivian. Then they did baths. August had taken his earlier, but he went in to play the tea game. August was then excited to show Vivian Toca Plants. She ended up doing most of the playing and switched to a different app. So when it came time to stop he didn’t want to: he said it was because she’d been doing most of the playing and they hadn’t been able to make any of the plants. But it was also because he knew their time of playing together was coming to end and he didn’t want it to stop, I think.

We took him in to brush his teeth. Vivian came in and sat next to them as Carly stuggled to brush his teeth. Vivian said “August gets in trouble a lot, doesn’t he.” Carly said something that August felt agreed with her, and he said “Stop teasing me…Like you’re teasing me cuz I get timeouts every single day.”

We said goodnight, and I left the two of them after 10:20 and they were both soon asleep.

Posture lesson:

New hat:

Fireworks time:

August was up at 8:30. I think he initially went up to Cassie in the kitchen, as I heard him say “No, other mama.” He and Vivian then tried out the catapult and it works nicely. Retied the strings after awhile to make it fly further. They ate coffee cake and I went out with Colin for while and did the roller coaster. I then went in and took a shower.

August wanted to call Oma on the phone and they wanted to know when they were arriving, so Cassie and the kids called and left a voice message for her. August had the long curvy straw and Colin grabbed it and ran. He lay down on one of the stairs, sort of hiding. I took it from him and asked if he’d stolen it from August. He gave me a big grin and nodded his hair and said “uh-huh”.

All the kids were then up in Vivian’s room. She had her jewelry box out and was looking at all the stuff, but Colin and August couldn’t touch any of it. August says he wants music boxes and jewelery, specifically a charm necklace with a toothbrush. He and I talked about how we can get music boxes up at the one village in Israel.

We decided to head to Smithfield Beach National Recreation Area. We had thought about the pool, but it was a bit cool for that. Figured Smithfield would have rocks and paths and other things.

I drove the red car, and Carly and Cassie came with all the kids. I led. We got there, paid to park, then headed down. The water was high, so no beach, and the lifeguards weren’t even down there. He and Vivian ended up playing with the faucets and pouring water down a pipe that said ‘Water’. Vivian was jumping in the mud. I went for a walk to the west to check out the river access points. Nothing more beachy down that way. Went back and we all sat at a picnic table and had lunch. Colin walked around, declaring us all firetrucks and other things. We saw lifeguards head down to set up the swimming area and Vivian and Colin and Cassie went down to see. Carly went to the bathroom. August and I stayed at the table. He was acting rude and we almost went to the car for a timeout, but we did decide on the word ‘potential’ as the word of the day.

The lifeguards went down to the water. We all migrated over that way. Vivian went right it, and August changed into his swimsuit. When he waded in the water he said he was looking for something for the sharing bowl. The mud made it hard to see though. I picked rocks up with my feet for him. So at first it seemed disappointing, but they played for quite awhile. When they stopped most of the wading they came in and used the bench toys to make mud soup, all three of them. We were able to sit and read. Colin was tired, and hanging out with Cassie on the towels, and Vivian and August then started digging a stream, but turned it into their own rock-lined pool.

We decided to head to the Llama Ice Cream shop we had seen on the way. It was cheap. The sign said one scoop was $2.75. But when Cassie got her own, then later when I got ice cream for Colin, it was only $2.12. And it was really good ice cream. I had caramel cinnamon and Vivian and August both had bubble gum with sprinkles. Carly got dolce leche and hung out with Cassie outside by the car, as Colin was asleep, having fallen asleep right away. The shop had lots of flavors, including fruits like tamarind, mamey, lucina, and cherimoya. I tried the tamarind.

The woman’s daughters invited Vivian and August to watch TV, so they watched some talking baby movie while they ate. August asked Vivian “Have you had-ed lavender ice cream?…Well I have.”

We got to the Pocono Zoo at 3:15. A little pricey, for what it was. And busy at first. But the snakes were being fed, and August was serendipitously in front of a tank as they moved down the row, or he’d never have seen it. But he got to see a snake strike an already dead mouse. We were separated from Carly and Vivian. We went to the outside, hoping we could loop around through another door to find them. No luck. On our way back August was ahead of me. A man steered a stroller out of the door, backwards, while talking on the phone, and ran right into August, knocking him down and stepping on his foot.

We found Carly and he calmed down. Petted a bunny, then went outside. Carly went and purchased a bottle for feeding the goats and they shared that. And Cassie got some of the pellet food to feed them. Some more wandering around (Colin really liked the toys in the primate cages), then they wanted to feed the bear. Cassie got a cup of food for that.

On our way out, August played with the stuffed rattlesnakes. We headed back, but Carly called me and we had to pull over and switch August to the red car. He got upset and had thrown something in the car. He wasn’t happy bout being separated and lamented “See what you’re doing to me?” “I already got my foot stepped-ed on!”

Got to the house house about 5. The three kids climbed in the back of Jeff’s old pickup and climbed on the load of rocks in it. Then went to the swings for a minute.

Had stir fry for dinner. August was calling Vivian some nonsense name. She said, “Please stop! It’s driving me crazy!” When she did it back to him he said “It’s not funny to me!” Pretty funny. They were working on their recycling draw bridge, which they’ve been discussing doing on and off all day. A nice idea, but they got distracted. They ended up playing in the bathroom sink together. I heard him say “Do you dare me to eat bubbles?” Vivian taught him the “Do you dare me…” construction on this trip.

He mentioned seaweed treats to me. Apparently he had liked them at Stephanie’s/Ruby’s house. We are going to try to find them for the flight.

They went out to the toy kitchen outside and played with bubbles. I pushed Colin on the rollercoaster. Then, I heard August yelling. I started to run to him, then looked back to see that Colin and fallen, car and all, off the top of the rollercoaster ramp. I ran back to him and helped him up. Cassie brought August around the corner. He was upset, but with an actual scraped knee was handling it pretty well. He totally got over it when Vivian said “Do you want to see a bandaid I got at the store? You’ll probably want to wear it forever.” “Yeah.” They ran inside. He didn’t put on a bandaid, but at least he was open to the idea.

They were inside doing a “winning” game on the whiteboard, where August was the judge and he chose whether Carly or Vivian had the better picture. “I like being the judge.” They then went outside and were doing challenges, telling each other where to run and what to touch.

They went back outside and played with the bubbles. They had a bubble insect trap after one or two gnats got caught in the bubbles. I did a lot of running with Colin. Back inside they played the box game, with Colin inside. Big box with small holes in it that Jeff had cut in it as eye holes for them. But they ended up being used to drop nuts in to Colin and he would eat them. 

Cassie and Carly did the baths for the kids. They spent a lot of time on baths and I think there was a lot of playing in the bath.

We started reading the first Captain Underpants book and Vivian came in and they said good night and she left. After a couple chapters she came back, looking for her toothbrush, then asked to read with us. But then August said he was hungry. They both went out and had toast. I took August back and we read to chapter 11 or so. Vivian slipped a picture of a heart under the door. Carly came in and I left them at 10:15. He was asleep after 5 minutes.