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He was up at 7:05. He slowly woke up on the couch and watched two stories of Ollie and Moon, ending with the Smigus Dingus one (the Polish holiday where they throw water on each other), which he’s already seen. He would talk about it several times during the day. As we got ready to go he said “I’m thinking of made up rhyming words that make ing.” He also sang a little song: “I was running in a button store / I fell down and broke a button.”

We were walking right after 8:40. He joked he had cancelled school because peanuts had been found on campus. I dropped him off at 8:15. We discussed schedule and then when I was trying to leave he asked “Can a teacher hold me?” Anna came back with clay stuff and put it on a table and he asked her “Can you help me?” I sat him on a chair and was able to say goodbye and leave.

I talked to Marion about leaving him through rest time. She strongly thought that wasn’t a good idea, and in fact we decided I should pick him up a few minutes earlier so he isn’t wandering around at the beginning of rest time. She said she thinks the reason he is good/happy at that time is because he knows he is being picked up – that he’d go back to being upset again if he had to stay through rest time.

That works just fine for me. I just have Maaian’s voice in the back of my head and the insistence that he should go full time. But I’m much happier listening to the teachers and going on what they want. I’m curious what Maaian thinks about all this and if she’s said anything to them. Although I don’t really want to know.

I worked in the library, then went back to the preschool to volunteer at 11. They were finishing up a birthday book story from Nicholas’s birthday, which had been after snack. They then had me work with the word factory – having kids copy down words for the tea party book. Yaya and Juhyeok came and worked with me first, copying down words like ‘bees’ and ‘honey’ and ‘apple cobbler’. The two of them and Selma then copied the whole alphabet out, because they wanted to (Yaya started the idea). It was a lot of fun, and I used some of the same phrases to help them draw letters as I had with August when he was learning them. K, in particular, a couple had trouble with, so I wa showing them “Line down, sideways V, turns to K.” August, meanwhile, had a little difficulty as he wanted my attention, but he didn’t want to copy down words. He settled down pretty well to my right though, playing with the magnetic letters and making cranes and pulleys out of the strings and magnet pencil things for the ABC boards.

When it was time for lunch I got his lunchbox for him and told him I’d see him after lunch. He headed out the side door, I did a little cleanup, then left and went up to a bench in the center grass area and ate my own lunch.

I went back at 12:50 and they were still finishing up lunch. So I stayed outside with the ones that were being slow, which included August. They had introduced me as ‘Mr. Ryan’ today, the first time, I think, so it was funny to be called ‘Mr. Ryan’ about a hundred times. As we were finishing up, Selma called dome ‘Mr. Clown’. Anna thought that was funny, and Omri and August got into the act of calling each other funny names. August called me “Mr. root of a tomato plant.” Anna really thought that one was funny.

He and I got going at 1:05, and something he did yesterday was take water in his mouth with his water bottle and ask if he could spit it on the ground. I would say yes to the dirt, etc. I called it his water language since he could just point and mumble. So today he said “I will ask to spit in water language.”

We went up to our usual bench spot. August continued the silly name calling with random people as they walked by or he saw them off in the distance. He called out to some teenage girls walking by “Hey, Ms. Annas.” Others were “Hey Ms. Althauser.” “Hey, drinking fountain.” “Hey, Ms. Mike.” Then “Ms. Bat-Chen”. It was actually her. She stopped and talked for a minute. We discussed the Hebrew message and video that Shmuel had sent me on WhatsApp and she let August try the rice cake she was carrying. He said “It tastes like a rice cracker.” And didn’t like it. He was also wanting to call people “Ms. tusic” and other names like that, but luckily no one was close when he called those out, and I was able to stop him from using ones like that.

We went into the library, among the stacks again, and did some iPad art. Some more dot connecting, and some teasing game, then he drew a picture for Carly’s fake birthday. He drew a picture of a toilet for her, which was perfect, and filled it with pee. In explaining it he said “There’s a tank in the toilet to pee and poop in. I love you! Best friend! Toilet!” Wasn’t clear if he meant Carly was the best friend, or the toilet, and to whom. A class came in went in for library time. A girl gave him a high five. I thought it might have been one of the Kerns (well, Jill) or Omri’s sisters but August said it wasn’t one of them.

We then headed to the cafeteria. Got an iced cofffee for me, a hot chocolate for August, and a cappuccino for Carly. We took them to Carly’s classroom and as we went in he yelled “Happy fake birthday, Ms. Althauser!” She said it was good timing as she’d just finished an hour-long meeting with Ayal about the department next year. I told her about my volunteering and he said he wanted to learn how to draw a K: “I forgotted.” She showed him, and he made up some letters. I’d been reading (in the Already Ready book Maaian had loaned me) how kids normally develop writing skills, and one step is making up letters as they pretend to write. August was into making up languages for a long time (and still sort of is) and has made up some On Beyond Zebra letters, but I was wondering if he’d get into making up ‘real’ fake letters and now he sort of was.

He also told Carly about the crossing guards slowing down traffic on the way to school. He was then a student in her fake class. Carly named off some random names and he chose Hildegard. Carly tried to call him Hildy and he made it clear “Hildegard, not Hildy.”

A little after 3, he and I headed to the pool. Spent about 40 minutes in. He sat on the steps and played with the watering can for awhile, then I got him in with me. For the last 10 minutes or so I took off his floaties again and he played around that way. We went and changed in the bathroom, then stopped and were playing ping pong.

Carly had driven the car today so she could go to the store. By chance we were leaving as she was. He saw her across the grass, ahead of us and yelled “Ms. Althauser!” She didn’t turn around, and as she was about to go out the gate he started screeching “Mama!” She turned around, but didn’t realize it was August until she saw him.

Carly asked if he wanted to go to the store, so they left in the car and I walked home. They went over to the mall. They were back a little after 5:30. He had been upset about not playing at the mall after shopping, and I guess shopping wasn’t the greatest. He continued to have a meltdown as he remembered the blueberry brains and wanted to eat that – before dinner. Got him to eat some mushrooms and milk using the usual reverse psychology, then he had oatmeal and mango. He was now doing fine.

I took him up for his bath, then we were going to have the dessert. He threw a balloon of water on my shorts though after I told him not to. I switched with Carly and took over the dishes. Sadly, things continued to go downhill. He hit her, so she said he couldn’t have a blueberry brain. That completed the meltdown, as he pleaded with her: “I’ll be nice!” But then he fell asleep, naked, at 7. Really what he needed. We managed to get clothes on him later.

Earlier discussed what kids liked. He at first said there wasn’t anything specifically he liked. But then he said science. I asked about art and po
ttery. He said “Art and pottery…definitely.”

He didn’t want to wake up. I started waking him up about 7:20, then gave up and lay with him for a few minutes. Finally brought him down 7:45. Still no talking for a few minutes, although he ate his vitamins. He watched one Ollie and Moon, then we hurried off to school, taking the car.

I got there and volunteered first thing in the morning this time. Didn’t have much luck getting Emmitt interested in drawing a picture for the page, but August drew a picture of tea spilling everywhere: “The pink and the green is the persons, and the orange is the tea, okay?” I then helped Nicholas make a train, helping hold the paper so he could cut the pieces apart, then cut the tape to tape it together. Meanwhile, August was making big sculptures out of pieces of wood. I volunteered until after 9:30. They were having a late morning meeting. When August saw the schedule today he said “That’s easy!” Then he was getting to ring the bell for morning meeting and was just fine with me saying goodbye.

I drove the car home and worked and had lunch, then drove back. When I picked him up at one he was lying on the floor, resting: “not on a bed…the morning meeting rug.” As we left he said to Anna “Have a good rest time!”

I asked what the highlights of the day were, and he first said me picking him up. Then “Having you stay here for a little while to help with the tea party book…Why you always help with the tea party book? Cuz me and Emmitt couldn’t do it by ourselves?”

We sat outside library. He said they read Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You See? in Creative Movement class and acted it out. Then said “We did mindfulness and yoga with Ms. Stacy.” with a grin on his face. When I said I could message Ms. Anna and ask if that was true he said “No! Don’t do it!” As he snacked on his cheerios he asked a bunch of questions, like

– where are all the 4th graders?

– what does Mike do?

– what’s ‘k’ (sound)? What’s ‘sh’?

He was being totally social. He told the Shery, the ELL teacher, all about how he likes dry Cheerios and his other favorites snacks and sweet things like honey and brown sugar and white sugar.

Then he saw Mike and asked “Have you ever seen that elephant?…You know, the one you told me about…” “I think it was actually a joke!” They talked for a good minute. After Mike left he said “I don’t like Mike cuz he’s a government. A bad government that tells people what to do.” Later I would tell Carly it was her fault that he doesn’t like government, as she taught him about government. But then I realized I’d told him about Star Wars yesterday and this comes from my description of the Empire.

He also talked about “Dextra…he’s in 4th grade…he lives across the street from us. I seen him walk by. I say ‘hello, Dextra!…like juhyeok cuz he sometimes gets mad.” We then went in the library and I downloaded a few reading/word apps since he’s interested in letter sounds again. He played some Endless Wordplay and Intro to Words, then started some art. Ms. Amelia came by and we talked to her. He told her he was doing “two letter games and art game.” I asked if she also goes by Ms. H. She does not, and doesn’t know who that is. So still don’t know who Ms. H is, who August has talked about several times. In art I asked if he’d like to write some words for the tea party book: “No. We’ll do the dots game. I’ll do the dots and you connect them.” We talked about the symbiotic relationship of squirrels and trees, as squirrels spread the seeds.

We then walked over to coding class. It was the last session, so at the end he got a certificate. Later in the evening Carly was talking about how she was told that certificates are really a big thing in Israel. I got this one out and showed her. He had fun in class and let me sit outside and work. He spilled his granola and I went in and helped clean it up. Then he spilled it again.

After class we went down and he played with the ball and tube thing with the pieces that connect to the wall magnetically. We were playing with that and had a pretty good path going when Carly showed up. We stayed a few more minutes, then he was rather disappointed when we wouldn’t go back to Carly’s classroom to play there. I reminded him of the pomegranate lollipop, the second of the two that Israel Cassie had given us yesterday, and he was happy with that. Gave it to him when we left on his bike at 4:15. Ate it faster though, as it only lasted half the way home. He said it was because he liked it more than the peach one.

At home I got ingredients out and we started making the Logan bread. He was helpful throughout, and got to try the ingredients. First time using molasses, and he said it tasted like “metal balls”. I let him lick out the measuring cup that we’d used for honey, and he joked “Someone’s been licking honey.”

He talked about how he is a robot kid and asked “You think there’s any other robot persons out there? I don’t think so, on the Earth. I’m pretty special, right?”

He ate two hard boiled eggs for dinner “Where’s the smoke?” He meant the yolk, but that started us discussing smokyy eggs and Korea. He pretended we were in Korea: “Let’s go somewhere on the U-Line!” He was asking where we would go in Korea, and I said if we had one day we could go to Children’s Grand Park, but if we had two then we could go north as well. He said we’d have at least 3 days, so we started planning our Korea vacation.

We were then over in the kitchen, and he was playing with tape. He had already realized that if you get flour on the tape it isn’t sticky. But he discovered that if he put the tape in water it would start sticking again. he was excited about his discovery and told us all about it a few times: “I was doing a science experiment with tape and flour and water to see if it would stick…and the water wins to stick it with surface tension.” He then had fun pulling the sofa bed out, three or four times. He would pull it out on his own, then ask me to put it back and then do it again. We talked more about symbiotic relationships (bees and flowers). He then showed me lion, tree, and cobra poses from yoga class.

Took him up for his bath. Figured out that Dextra is from Hilo (Dexter). Played for awhile, and we realized that the pink clay he had gotten with Carly was some sort of magic clay that was still soft, even though it hasn’t been in a bag or anything for weeks.

Downstairs he shared the bread and milk with mama. I asked if he wanted to share some of the bread with PKB and he liked the idea. He was then a student from Carly’s class. He said his name was ‘Wizabel’. Carly went up for a shower and we watched the Hebrew numbers 1 to 100 video. He said the girl at 17 looked like mama again, and he said another girl looked like Bat-Chen. He spotted a Brave Wilderness episode, and we watched the whole 22 minute episode on warrior wasps. A very suspenseful one and we learned a lot.

Went upstairs with Carly. He wa upset we hadn’t read. I left them 8:40 or so. She was going to read to him – Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, I think. Took quite awhile. She said the only true thing he would tell her about school was about me volunteering. Everything else involved him being the size of an atom and sneaking around the school.

He told me nobody played with him outside now. The teachers haven’t been giving him challenges, and he doesn’t like the chasing games. Also talked about couple of other kids not being friends with each other for awhile, or the rest of the day, and he was wondering why. He said he hasn’t done that.

No Memorial Day off here, which makes me wonder just how ‘American’ this school is. I mean, Carly got Memorial Day of in Korea.

August was up just before 7. The garbage truck had helped, I think. I heard him call “Dada, come up!” I went up, and he was standing at the window, trying to see out. Sadly, can’t see much out of that window. Downstairs he lay on the couch for a few minutes. He watched some Ollie and Moon and was totally singing along to the “Opposites” song in it. Has most of the words down.

We got going, and on the way he invented “Infinity laser rockets.” Which are really efficient.

Took about 20 minutes to drop him off. Had to hand him to Anna at the end, but right before that he had re-read the schedule from morning to lunch all on his own and said “Oh, okay.”

I walked home then drove down into Netanya to find the Interior and Population Ministry office. I need to figure out if I can work in Israel or if I need permission of some sort. I have a work visa, but there is a line in the status of forces agreement that says I need permission from officials to work for someone besides the U.S. military, etc. A long journey that basically resulted in me finding out they only give out numbers until 8:30. I then filled out the online form to request a meeting, but there is no way to pick a time or date. Hadn’t heard back by the end of the day.

Drove back home, had some lunch and did a little Sabeel work, then walked back to school.

He was in a great mood when I picked him up. He excitedly showed me a structure he had made out of blocks and shells and rocks and things, and how he had put rocks on a certain part to stabilize it. The figures at the top he said were the PKB students. Outside the classroom he found a hula hoop on the ground. He played with that for a minute, then Myriam came by and hooked about hula hooping with him. He placed the hula hoop over her, then said “I captured Ms. Myriam!” As we were walking up the elementary school steps, he saw a woman coming down – the one that had said he should be in magazines. He said “Ms. Michelle!” She said he had made her day, because she didn’t realize he knew her name.

We went upstairs and had a snack outside the library. At one point he spotted “I seed Shary!” Then he pointed to someone else and joked “Another Shary!”

We went outside to the bench in the grassy area. He was doing fine until he had the idea of going swimming. I reminded him he had turned down the idea this morning, so we hadn’t brought the swim bag. He got upset and insisted we go get it. Then, he was playing in a puddle and I told him not to get his shoe in it. Sure enough, he got his foot wet and the two things were enough for him to meltdown. Israel Cassie saw him upset and slipped me two lollipops.

He calmed down, and we headed back to preschool. He had agreed to go back for Playball class. When we went in, Marion showed him his first glazed teacup. That was very exciting for him. It was a little past 2, but the lights were still all out. And 5 or 6 kids had fallen asleep during rest time. Dion showed up and was a little confused as well.

We went over for Playball and I sat on the grass. Only 7 kids for class. August came over to me a couple times – he refused to play the first game, because Dion said he was the big bad wolf and going to eat them. He watched, in suspense, from next to me and was gasping and waving his arms excitedly when Dion would catch someone. When I first started encouraging August to go back over he said “I don’t need a ‘come on’. No ‘come on’ or ‘but’ or ‘but still’” I got August to go back over after that for the cockroach game: They placed a beanbag on their foot then kicked it away, making a “Yuck” sound as if they were kicking a cockroach off their foot. August played the rest of the time. I didn’t really watch, but we later talked about what he was learning in the class and he talked about practicing kicking and throwing.

So the compromise we had come to involved walking home, getting the swim stuff, then driving back to school. We discussed the immune system on the walk home and got here at 3. He told me that Anna said he was ready for PKC. We made water drink, and he was concerned I got more: “But you got more…an entire KIDNEY full.” He then started singing a song about a germ getting eaten by a fish, etc. up to a whale. He then kept going, saying planet, “the place where the planets are” (solar system), galaxy, and universe. I thought the song must have come from music class, but he told me they actually hadn’t had music class today and that the song had actually come from Oma. Which sounds familiar, but he hasn’t sung it at all since they left.

We drove to school and headed to the pool. On the way we saw the custodian who is usually by the library. August initiated and gave her a high five. She was impressed by that. Omri and her family were at the pool. I got August in and he was rather jumpy about possibly getting splashed after his experience on Friday and screeched a lot. Calmed down a bit though and we had fun, and Omri played with him a bit.

Eventually he was ready to leave. We got out, and as we got ready to go he started talking to a woman who was sitting there, who he at first thought was Reia’s mom. She wasn’t, and instead she has a son who is in kindergarten. August was making her laugh with spit bubbles. He told her about the preschool teachers and she said she didn’t know them. I told him he could ask her about the kindergarten teachers and she said they were Ms. Amy and Ms. Susan. He liked learning that and kept repeating the names. As we left to go he was yelling “Bye!” to her and to Omri. I told him he needed to practice saying it nicely so we walked over to Omri so he could say it calmly.

We found Carly as we were leaving. He wanted to change in the bathroom, not her classroom, so I changed him, then we all went to the car and drove home. At home he had one of his flour-filled stress balls outside and it broke when he rubbed it on the wall outside the front door. Carly set up the vacuum cleaner and he had fun vacuuming it up.

Before we had left for school he had found a dead lizard on the ground by the door. We now studied it. He said it felt squishy, and pointed out its little mouth and little hands and feet. Eventually the tail came off, and we discussed that, then we went and buried it in a hole by the papaya plants so it could turn back into dirt.

We had dinner outside – he mainly shared veggie burgers with us, then ate an apricot. He asked Carly to cut open the pit, which she was able to do. They played outside and I started dishes. Didn’t last long, as they came in with him upset. He was yelling “Please let me knight you with a stick!” and kept screaming “Please!” She had knighted him with a stick, and he wanted to do the same to her, but she didn’t want the pointy stick around his head.

She took him upstairs, and I headed up and traded with her after a few minutes. He eventually calmed down, and we started being birdies on the bed. He said “I love you two enshumgedorflugs.” Back downstairs he got whiney about knighting her again. He had some peanut butter crackers, then dropped a cracker on his shirt, then the couch. Cleaned it up, then took him up to the bath. Let him play, then washed his hair.

We went in and dried his hair with the hair dryer. He wasn’t standing close enough at first, and when I explained it he said “Is it the problem of the burning ship thing?” A cool connection to make. He was talking about the Archimedes story/invention of using mirrored shields to set a boat on fire. And I’ve explained how it isn’t actually possible – in part because you can’t get enough shields to reflect on the ship. He has also talked about having tons of fans blowing on something, and I’ve talked about how you could only have 20 or 30 fans blowing on something, because the others would be
too far away to really feel.

Also, randomly, he just said “I feel like this used to be Dion’s house.”

We went downstairs and he had peanut butter crackers. He was then punching the balloon thing that Carly had bought him at the toy store. He was frustrated at first because she could do it and he couldn’t, but now he’s figured it out.

Carly was reading a book and mentioned the village of Abu Ghosh. He was asking about it and they discussed the 1948 war. She used an analogy of being forced to share a toy. He then asked her about positive and negative things and told her “Positive feelings is good feelings and negative feelings is bad feelings.”

We took him upstairs to get ready for bed. This time he told me he loved me 9888 enshumgedorflugs. I asked what it would take to get to 10000 enshmugedorflugs and he said “Go to Haifa.” He spent more time tying up the toothbrush, then I left them at 8:50. Took some time, as he was down at 9:20 to get water. Heard them for awhile after that before he fell asleep.

Carly woke him up at 7:20. Downstairs I got his vitamins and water for him. After a few minutes he said “Ollie and Moon, please.” He watched a few episodes of it, then said “Dada, I’m done with my show. What should we do with THIS free day?” He taped a couple things on his string, then asked “Dada, do you want to go on a dada-Zinnie adventure now?” When I asked if he wanted to go for a walk he said “No. Something in the car….You know, like we do.” “Where’s mama” “Then I will pop my shoes on and go outside…See, I’ve got my clothes on, my shoes on, and I’m ready to go outside.”

He went outside with her for a few minutes, but they then came back in. He said “I need some naked time.” He had gotten a little wet. He did some taping, then they did a catapult experiment together. I made us all some eggs for breakfast. He then had some toast, and said “I love carbohydrates!” Randomly asked “Whats a camel’s hump for?” And “Where does a camel get water?” He wrapped himself in the string and stuff at one point (he had taken down the line that had been hanging up in the kitchen) and had sat in the iHerb box, being a squirrel, I think it was. He rocked in it and fell over backwards.

We got going and left at 11:45. We found and stopped at a toy store with a red pirate on it, down in an industrial area by the train station that we’ve never been to. As we were looking for it he asked “Why can’t we drive cars in the building Haifa?” “Like up the stairs…” He meant the science center. No idea why this idea came up. He was frustrated from the beginning with the toy store as we said we wouldn’t buy anything today. We were mainly looking for a slide, as his is breaking. But inside, no slides, Carly got some art supplies and got a big balloon thing for him and one for her. And I got some pads of paper. She blew up one of the balloons there.

We then went to Tiv Taam. He rode in the cart most of the time and ate a granola bar. I ran around doing a lot of shopping. It was a big load. Just under 1000 shekels, so she had us throw a couple cans of tuna in to bring it over 1000 and we got a 10% discount. I took him to the bathroom, and on our way back he said “For future reference, I see mouthwash.” ‘For future reference’ is a phrase he learned for me, and I had actually thought the same thing in my head when we walked by the display.

We were home at 1:40. They had fun with the big balloon things. I did not. He was then having Carly be a scientist making mistakes, then they were silly on the couch. He did more taping, taping a string to a Cheerios box. They debated ‘teached’ versus ‘taught’. And he asked “How big is an inch of a minute?” We did the teasing game, which is back on track and about talking to the other person and getting help from the teacher.

He and I left at 3:20. We went up and did recycling, then headed onward to the treasure hunt park, which is one a block off the path to school. We got to the park before 4. There was a very friendly cat. It went up and was lying on the play structure. August was then being a cat and was pretending to sleep a few feet away. The cat got up and went to check him out. August was nervous when it got close: “I’m scared!” But after that I was petting it and it was rubbing against me and August got more and more comfortable with it. We talked about how to pet cats and how to avoid their tummies and how they mark territory, etc. August was eventually petting it and like when it would rub up against his legs. He declared “I’ll call it Shmorgadeboop.” We did some of our hunting for treasure, but he kept going back to the cat. He was rubbing his eyes, but wasn’t admitting his eyes were itchy. Back to treasure, we had a pirate ship but he said it did not have a plank: “This is a nice ship.” And when we sat on the three person rocking thing, the cat came over and lay in the middle when we shook it, then was rubbing against August again and then climbed in my lap. August then sang “Cat, cat, cat in a lap” to the tune of the Smithereens’ “Top of the Pops”.

We left at 5, saying goodbye to Shmorgadeboop. We then stopped at our park. He then had a candy machine or something and said he was giving some to everyone at school. But only two: “Everyone gets two pieces because you have to savor it.” Talked about it being fair. He was then exercising, and started calling me John, as that was my name in the teasing game as we had walked: “You can play the teasing game at home, John.” We left at 5:30.

At home Carly was skyping with her parents. He and I shared one of the berry brains that Carly had made to celebrate my birthday, with vanilla ice cream, of course. Carly was making a salad and he was intrigued by the green onion. He tasted it, then threw the rest of it back on the counter: “Not gonna eat this puppy.” He asked Carly about “three before me”, which he had asked me about but I didnt know what he was talking about. It is something the elementary teachers use, apparently, to encourage students to ask three classmates before asking the teacher. He told her to “Explain”. He was then practicing it with her. We ate outside, and Carly and I opened a bottle of moscato wine we had gotten at the store. August said “How about you, glass with alcohol in it?” Earlier had listed things that Carly liked and included ‘alcohol’ in the list, along with things like chocolate and tea.

Spent some time outside, then Carly took him up for his bath while I made his lunch for tomorrow: I had boiled some eggs and gave him one of those, along with half a banana (he ate the other half), grapes, etc. He and I then shared another berry brain. He was very polite about it, offering me bites. We got Oliver and the Seawigs out to read, but he liked the bookmark, which has three of the Star Wars droids (C3PO, R2D2, and another on it). He was asking about it, and I explained the droids, then he was wanting to know the story, so I explained Star Wars. Of course, that led to a discussion of the empire and the rebels, so then he was being a bad government and telling me what to do. We finally read a chapter out of Oliver and the Seawigs. August really liked the phrase “Scornful snickers” and repeated t a couple of times. We then read If you take a mouse to school.

We took him up and got him ready for bed. I left them at 8:45. It took awhile, but he got to sleep.

I heard the door open at 7:40. He called “Turn off the air conditioner.” I went upstairs and turned it off, then he went back in and lay on the bed. I lay down next to him. He asked “Is it a free day?…Let’s go on a dada-Zinnie adventure…like the one on your birthday.” I asked what about mama, and he said she could stay at home.

We then went downstairs and he went out to Carly. She asked how he was and he said “Good. And how are you?” I heard him explain which chair outside is his favorite and how he doesn’t like the cracked one because it is broken. As they came back in he asked her “Do you want to go on a Dada and Zinnie and Mama adventure?”

He wanted to play the teasing game while she made him oatmeal. I redirected the game back to its original purpose a bit, what to do when someone is teasing someone else, then he had his oatmeal, but got distracted with being a witch and making potions under the table.

We were debating something but then he said he had magic powers. I asked “How can I argue against magic powers?” He then said he would make a cow: “I’ll mix a special chemical to make two enormous horns growing out of its back.” Then made a hall of mirrors “I can protect you with my chains…when you feel lost I can pull them and save you.”

I went up and took a shower. When I came down they were doing a science experiment. they had a string hung up from the oven to the kitchen door and were shooting a balloon along it, learning about force and momentum. He then turned it into an experiment of seeing how much weight he could tape onto it: “My hypothesis is that when there’s too much force then the knots will break. Carly was talking about vocabulary and the book Crispin and used the word “Medieval”. He asked about it and a couple minutes later I heard him repeat the word to himself.

He was hungry so had some peanut butter and honey toast. He was then talking about Korea, and asking where we would go on a dada-Zinnie in Korea. We walked about Children’s Grand Park and Dobongon and Uijeongbu.

We left at 10:40, headed to Tel Aviv and the Eretz Museum. Carly drove and August had us pretending we were in Korea. We talked about going to Children’s Grand Park and I mentioned visiting the robot sculptures. He said “And you be the robots?” So seems like he still remembers that part.

Carly got the perfect spot on the street right outside the museum and we were in at 11:20. He was singing as we went in, a list of made-up words, and said “I’m singing all the rocks that hadn’t been discovered.” Carly spotted Ada in the gift shop and we went in there and said hi and looked for a few minutes.

We went through to the museum grounds and first walked over to Sundial Square and saw all the sundials. August learned a bit how they worked. We then walked to the glass building. August was hungry so he and I sat outside on a bench and had a snack while Carly looked around a bit. We then went in and Carly showed him the archeological glass furnace and the glass knight. August explained to her what the knight was, pretending he was an archeologist. Carly mentioned that glass wasn’t a solid and then he told her about jello. I remember that we had once had a similar discussion, but that was several months ago. A nice connection. He then said “Lets go dig some more!” They were archeologists a few more times, then we went across to the Nehushtan building and he showed her the Roman coffin he had touched.

Outside we stopped at the drinking fountain and while on the bike he sang a digging song and continued to be an archeologist. From there we went to the coffee shop. Rather pricey, so we got one cappuccino and one hot chocolate to share, and then a pasta dish with large shells stuffed with a spinach and cheese mixture.

Finally, we went to the Map: Reading Between the Lines temporary exhibit. Took the elevator up and down to that. August really liked the big robotic machine drawing a map of Israel in sand, and the video screen next to it where notes were played when metal disks on the video were hit with light. We looked around some more, liking the ceiling, which had different colored papers hanging from it in some approximation of a map of Israel, and some other pieces. But August had the idea of going home and making a surprise at home – drawing a map of Israel in some sand – and he even sang a “map it of sand” song as I carried him around. So he was ready to go.

He and Carly went to the bathroom and I look around the gift shop. He and I then sat in the lobby and read If You Take a Mouse to School while Carly looked. When Carly came back he asked her “What’s onomotopeia?” It’s a word I’ve mentioned a few times, and it is written on the chalkboard by the Mouse in the book.

We then walked down the block and turned and walked over the river and went to the big playgrounds on the other side. I looked at the free library thing (got Brave New World, The Island of Dr. Moreau and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) in wonderful old covers) and they played on the play structure. He apparently went down the slide on it. I pushing him in one of those hanging spinning chairs. Carly went and sat on a bench. August was complaining the playground was too busy so I pointed out that the big wooden structure, just to the west, was empty.

We headed that way, stopping at one one of those little merry-go-rounds. We sat on it and had a snack. We talked about our adventure and he said “With mama even gooder.” Up on the wooden structure he was an archeologist. He thought a king had lived there. He was then a king ordering me around. I brought the food up and we sat up at the top, having more snack. We were sitting up there when Carly came up.

We went across the path to Coffee Zoo and got a hot dog. Sat at a picnic table and shared that. Then back to the first structure, which was less busy. He and Carly took turns going down the elevator sort of thing.

We stopped at the bathroom and walked the same way back to the car. As we were leaving the playground he had found a small piece of sidewalk chalk. Back close to the car, by the museum, he got it wet in the big drinking fountain and was writing on the ground, making an experiment of how it changed when it was wet.

On the way home we stopped at a gas station. Carly ran in to get milk and a couple of things. When she came out I said she was fast. August said “Maybe she didn’t pay them.” Same joke I was going to make. I joked maybe she just came back with a bag and he liked that, saying “She just went in and said ‘Could I have a bag?’”

We were home after 5. He had been pretty messy with his granola in the car and I’d had to stop him from throwing it. As we got out he started throwing the ample amount in his seat all over the place and only stopped when I pulled him from the car. Took him in to Carly, then I set up the vacuum cleaner and brought him out to clean. He did a great job of that, vacuuming most of the back seat area all on his own. He said “I love cleaning up in cars with the vacuum cleaner.” He also did the trunk with me helping him stand on the back bumper.

Inside, he asked of Carly “Let’s play santin says.” That’s how he says ‘Simon says’. That’s how he always says it, but he says he’s saying ‘Simon’. He can also tell the difference when Carly says ‘santin’ or ‘Simon’. Very interesting.

We ate dinner outside – veggie burgers. He wanted to mix water drink and milk as an experiment so I got another cup and we did that. He said he liked it. Wasn’t bad, actually. After dinner he played around with dirt and helped with adding compost to some plants. Went inside to the bathroom and was a bit wet, so had naked time after that. Then more time taping things on the string.

Carly took him upstairs to his bath. He asked her about ‘symbiotic relationships’. I know we’ve used the phrase talking about animals and trees, and it has come up with othe
rs as well.

Downstairs we played on the couch. Ended up with me pretending to sleep, and he would poke me, and I’d talk in my sleep, saying random things I was dreaming about, like “giraffe hospital’. He found this hilarious. He did some as well.

I took him up to get ready for bed. Brushed his teeth and he tied string around his toothbrush. He said “I hate wars.” Agreed. “I hate dogs. Disagreed. We talked about the noise of the air conditioner and he said “I dream about that sound in my sleep all the time.” He was asleep around 9 again.

I started waking him up at 7:30. He did not want to wake up. I eventually carried him downstairs and he lay on the couch for a few minutes. Ate his vitamins but didn’t say anything. He watched one Ollie and Moon. On the couch he asked me “What’s negatives and positives?” I asked what kind of negative and positive and he said “In your brain…emotions.” Before we left he had a complaint about school, about how he doesn’t get to do as much as the other kids: “They make stuff out of clay that gets fired faster than mine.” I explained this was because they did a lot of it before he started going, and then he missed glazing his teacup when we left early one day. I told him he could ask one of the teachers about when he’d get to glaze something.

We left at 8:15. At one point we heard a dog barking repeatedly, “every second”, so August meowed every second. And then talked about how it was less annoying than barking, right? This was a conversation we had once, where I said meowing sounded better to me because it isn’t as loud and it sounds nicer.

At school we asked about the glazing and found out one of the other kids had glazed his teacup for him. He was happy about that. He wasn’t entirely thrilled with me leaving, but for the first time this week I left without him having to be held or yelling. He was standing close to Anna in the clay area.

I picked him up at 1. He gave me a “scribble paper” he had drawn and a nice flower. We decided to leave the flower in his cubby and pick it up after the tea party. As we walked out he said to it: “See you after tea party!” As we were out front of the classroom Myriam walked by and he loudly said “Hey, Ms. Myriam!” He so seldom goes out of his way to say hi to people, so still notable.

We walked up to outside the library and sat at what’s becoming our regular outdoor bench. He did a science experiment, ate a bunch of his fruit, and lay on the bench across from me for a little rest. I asked if he was a baby squirrel, then a couple minutes later when I asked about going into the library he said “Yes, dada squirrel.” He told me that today he had played with Reia with the light blocks. He said there were no challenges on the playground today. Anna had told him to do something else. He had done some yesterday though. After another question he said “Ehh. Let’s go inside. I’m a sleepy baby squirrel.”

In the library he played on the stuffed animals. He asked “What’s ‘serious’?” Then asked for examples and added “I like examples. Why?” We played the squirrel game for awhile, with me just sitting next to his pillows and refilling his nut supply when he asked me to while trying to read a little of my book.

Then took him back to the tea party. He got to sit next to Ms. Michelle. I don’t know who that is though. We got August his short straw, which I’d brought for him today, and I went and sat in the staff room. He first came in after the tea party about 20 minutes later. Got him to go back out to play, but then Omri and Ori then came in. Marion then had them sitting down for a meeting, and it was clear August was going to keep getting distracted by me, so we headed out. He said to Marion “Happy three days off!” And they had a conversation about how it was only two days. But later I realized that his ‘free’ and ‘three’ sound similar and he seemed to say that she had misunderstood him, as he does call them ‘free days from preschool’.

As we walked out he said “By plants! Bye preschool!” We paused to look at the baby falcons (we’ve noticed they look like they might be flying, or close to flying, as they keep flapping their wings) and he said “Hey chickity chicks!”

We went to the entrance to the library and had a snack again. Shary introduced me to Leslie, who used to work in a preschool and is another parent volunteer. Didn’t learn anything more than that. August was talking about Uijeongbu and we pretended to ride the u-line. In the library we did a little reading of the Magic Treehouse book.

After the bell at 3 we walked over to Carly’s classroom. He was singing the bell to students. He told Carly “I’m ringing the bell for all the students but not the teachers…I was ringing the bell for your student.”

The plan was to go swimming with Carly. I had brought her suit, but mine wasn’t in the bag. Got him changed, then we all walked over to the pool. On the way we found Omri and her mom and siblings sitting at a picnic table by the cafeteria and eating pizza. They asked us to join them. August ate two pieces of pizza and he and Omri had a lot of fun.

Then on to the pool. Omri came with us while her mom got changed. Started out well enough. Bar was also there, and so was Ms. Myriam. August didn’t believe it was her at first, until she was close. But then he kept getting splashed. Then the worst one: A kid jumped into the pool on the steps, right towards August. That made a big splash of water go all over him. The wettest he has been. We had to get him out of the pool and took several minutes to calm him down. He was furious.

We packed up and he calmed down, but then as we left he lamented “Why were we at the pool for just like a second?” We all walked home, but he was having problems with mean words and hurting plants along the way. At our park I had to switch with Carly and let her push him. He then had a meltdown with Carly upstairs at home. A few minutes later he came down and apologized.

He spotted his vitamins and said “Let’s take extra and see what happens to me! An experiment!” We told him we would not do medical experiments on him. We then taught Carly the teasing game, or at least how it was supposed to be played. We ate dinner, then he went outside with Carly and was happy wasting water and was then raking, sort of, with the broom with a stick though the handle.

I took him up for his bath and he spent a long time in there. He was then in the bedroom with Carly, and was practicing tying knots with a red and a white piece of yarn that came from somewhere. He came downstairs and she took a shower. We read The Chicken Problem and Lulu Witch. He ate several peanut butter and crackers, then finished the apple and grapes from his lunch. I went to get him more food, and saw a lizard chasing a white moth outside our windows. He told me “You’re distracted.” But then we saw the lizard actually catch and eat the moth.

Headed back upstairs, and he finally fell asleep close to 10.

He was up at 7:05. I came up and he quietly said “Turn off the air conditioner.” We went downstairs and he lay on the couch for a few minutes. He realized he had wet clothes, although they were pretty dry now. He said he hadn’t had an accident: “I think it was from when I was the plants.” He watched some Ollie and Moon before we left. At school I was able to leave him about 8:45. We had done the dance from schedule to benches outside to looking to see what was available. At one point August said “Tell Ms. Anna to come out.” But she was dealing with multiple kids a she was helping them make mugs in the pottery area. We got a chair for him next to her, but then when I tried to leave he slid on the floor and made it hard for me to pick him up: “I’m heavy!” She held on to him as I left and he told me “You can’t do it!” But he quieted down as soon as I was gone.

I stayed in the library and he ran in a little before 10:30 saying “Come with us!” She read a story called Bubble Trouble for story time, then August chose another school-themed book to checkout: If You Take a Mouse to School. Then Ilana blew bubbles for them out on the lawn and they had a blast runnng all over the lawn popping bubbles.

I walked with him back to school. The other kids sat on the floor and started looking at their books. I took August’s book out but he dismissively said “Why did you take it out? I don’t want to look at it myself!” He let me take it back out a minute later though and actually read it.

I then had my first stint of volunteering, working with August and Emmitt to make a page about how to not spill your tea. It went well, although the conversation part stretched their attention spans. But that was partly because I hadn’t anticipated being in the same room with all the other kids, and how many would come over to us and be distracting. Then, Emmitt started running over to the rug and back. August would of course follow. We did some of our talking over on the rug. They came up with good ideas for how to not spill, and we took some photos of them holding teacups with the handles turned to the side. I then showed them drawing on the iPad with the Pencil. Just introduced it for now, and the two of them and Nicholas played around for a few minutes. I then left them to be babies, I think it was, with Selma and headed back to the library.

I went back to pick him up at 1. We went to the library, and he played in the stuffed animals. He wanted me to a bird “Please? With sugar on top?” I had us move outside as he wasn’t treating it like a library, more like his own play area. We went out to one of the benches on the path across the lawn. He told me “These are the times I went to the bathroom at preschool: before snack, in the middle of lunch with Hanako.”

He was then in elementary school and told me “Doing science experiments is the most exciting thing you can do in elementary school classes.” “Like mixing chemicals.” He said it was more exciting than book reading or writing. He did a few experiments, using random ingredients that I would pretend to give him. First he made electrical slime, that would shock you if you touched it, then “I’m going to make a fertilizer that makes plants grow at the speed of sound!” He had a suit that he wore the entire time that would protect him from the chemicals and the electricity.

At about 2:15 I took him over to his yoga class. we were a little early, so we sat and read the mouse book. Yaya showed up a couple minutes later, well before the class. He had apparently gone ahead on his own. When the previous class left Ms. Stacy invited them in. He was reluctant to go in, but when it came to Anna closing the door he went in. When they came out he and Selma came and talked to me. She told me that they did ABC poses. August added “And we did lion breaths.” Selma the said to August “That was fun, August.”

We walked back to PKB and had a snack on the bench outside the classroom. There is a plastic yellow chair next to the bench that is wet almost every single day. No obvious source of the water, so August has been speculating about it. My best guess is a sprinkler pops up and gets it. He’s said maybe a leaking roof or pipe. Anyway, he went in and asked Ms. Anna.

We then went up to the classroom for Hebrew class. Myriam clearly wasn’t there. He walked around the room, loudly asking “Ms. Miyriam? Where are you!?” When she came up he and the two girls (Maya and Ledu) hid under the tables. He let me sit out in the hall, doing some work. I went in when they got booklets. She was teaching them body parts and possessives today, as in ‘My nose’. She said that earlier he had been the first to understand and find ‘black’ in the classroom. She said he could draw a self-portrait on the cover, and had him go and study his face in the mirror. He listed what he saw and said cheeks, and chin and eyebrows and hair and nostrils…nose was actually the last thing he said. Maya asked what ‘nostrils’ were and Myriam had August explain to her: “Two holes that you use to breathe.” He then drew his self-portraits, giving it lots and lots of hair as he likes his hair. It turned out really well.

After class we went downstairs and he used the bathroom in PKB. Then walked to Carly’s classroom and he sang Down by the Bay and did a monster science experiment the way. In her classroom he ate a little of her leftover pasta from lunch, then she put him in the green screen she had set up for the video her students are making. They went downstairs to play with the hula hoops for a few minutes, but got distracted by Mandy who let them play with some science things – one was something that you held and a red liquid went up a tube.

August and I then headed to activity class and Carly headed home. Class went fine except for near the end when he fell of a cushion thing and said he wanted to go home. Made it to the end though. When he was picking up the half-sphere berry looking things, he held one near each side of his head and managed to give himself a good tickle with them. That was pretty funny.

We hadn’t taken the car, so we had the whole way to walk home. Stopped at the park near there though and played for about 30 minutes. He was being grumpy when kids wanted to go through the tube that he uses as his space station. With his science experiments he first made a baby, then made a cushion for a couch.

Finally headed home about 6:20. He was saying he hates dogs, and I explained that was probably overdoing it, and we discussed the spectrum of words from love to hate. He then put it in his own words and did a pretty clear job of reciting a spectrum of words. He was still being pretty negative and I told him he could choose to be happier. He said he couldn’t, that that wasn’t possible, and I told him if he kept talking like that I was going to sic Oma on him.

We were home at 6:50. He had picked a lovely little white flower on the way, and as we went in the yard he said “Wilting flower, you can make it!” But then he picked up a tree thing in the yard, and a few seconds later realized he had lost the flower. He must have dropped it down through the cracks. He was so frustrated by that: “But we picked the best flower ever.” He wanted to pick a flower from the yard, but I wouldn’t let him do it. Carly said he could though. He told one of us “I will just spit on you.” Back inside Carly wanted to give him a raspberry on his tummy, which he doesn’t like anymore, but he agreed to let her do one more ppppt on his tummy for the rest of his life.

She took him up for a bath. He told Carly what hypothermia was. Played in the bath for a long time. We got him ready for bed and I left them at 8:40. He wasn’t falling asleep though so I was up before 9. We read If You Take a Mouse to School and Where is My Emalee Green? I left them again about 9:15. He was asleep before 9:40.

He was up exactly at 7. As I went up he asked “Is this a free day of preschool?” I said yes and he asked why and I started to say “Because it’s my bi-“ And he said “MY birthday.”

He watched two Ollie and Moon stories and said he was done watching. A minute later he saw that his iPad had restarted. He called it something like “bad iPad” and said he was being mean to the iPad I said to be nice, because he should think of the iPad as being sick and we need to be extra nice to things and people when they’re sick. He asked “When can you NOT be nice to someone?” I said well when someone else is being mean to you or another person. But I explained you can just ignore them – so you’re not being mean to them either, just not nice. But then I didn’t want him to think you should just ignore when someone else was getting bullied or hurt so I talked about when you or a teacher should intervene.

That led to him wanting to practice, particularly the line “You have five seconds to be nice and walk away!” Of course, it turned into a big game for the day, escalating to him using his rockets to intervene and stop mean people, up to: “I can defeat any war!” “I’m so powerful I can turned you into a dead fish that’s just bones!”

My parents and brother left a skype message saying happy birthday, so we then skyped with them for about 10 minutes. August wanted to get going to Haifa though, so it was short. August suggested a couple of experiments: he wanted to leave out his leftover Cheerios to find out how stale they would be when we came back. I explained we’ve already done that one and it would be a waste of Cheerios. He also described hanging string by both ends from the side of a table with tape and putting wooden beads on it to see how strong the string is: “like an arch.” Carly sent a photo of a barn owl that had decided to sleep by the middle school office. She suggested we come see it on our way, but August said “I don’t want to take time out of our Haifa trip.” We ended up driving about 8:40. On our way out the door he suggested Haifa would be cool, and clarified, without me asking, “I didn’t mean cool like a lot of interesting things, I meant cool weather.” Impressed that he could explain the different meanings and also that he knew it would be cooler. Perhaps Carly had said something about the weather last time we went.

Listened to music on the way up. Right at the end he started throwing Cheerios around the car because he was bored. He was pretty proud of that. The street we usually try to park on was closed, so we got shuffled up this other street, but it worked out as we found parking at the end of a dead end up a hill. Walked to Madatech and were soon inside, parking the bike, going to the bathroom, then up to science.

Spent a little time in the energy room, mainly with the thing you can spin to see how gas and petroleum separates from rock. Then upstairs to the microscope and telescope room: He read Venus, Neptune, Sun, Uranus, Mars, and Mercury on his own. in the teeth room we discussed Ph. Then to the planets room where we did moon phases and our weights on planets. Big bubbles in the chemistry room and August pointed out that there are no scents left in the scent area. A rather sad display. In the magic room I did the bed of nails and August then played with the floating ball trick. Got some funny shots of him breathing in the “fresh air” as it blew his hair everywhere. Then the optical illusions room where we saw some optical illusions we haven’t seen before. And the air room, where we launched the bottles with air and played with the other beach ball Bernoulli’s principle thing and a couple of the other displays.

We went outside and had a snack at 11:40, and our cookies. August had us sit on the Pi bench. He sat on a 6. Then the outside area – Archimedes screw, the pulleys, and then a long time with the globe you can sit in, then using a lever people can lift you. A woman with two kids came, and we took turns lifting the woman, or her and I lifting the kids, etc. August and I went up to the sun that you sit in and spin. He then found little beads of rubber on the ground.

We discussed leavin and how it would be our last time here for awhile. He said he didn’t want to go to the da Vinci room. Once back inside though he did want the sound room. He spent a lot of time watching the binary machine and played with a couple of the other exhibits. Mainly he sat on the bench for the stereo sound thing and started making rhythms using the drum stick sort of thing. Maybe he needs a drum set… He also sang “do re mi” into the oscilloscope.

Headed back downstairs, but then he decided to play in the play area, first with the blue blocks. He wanted to make sculptures, and he asked “Do you think I should knock it down like we did in Korea?” He knocked one down on me and I taught him ‘avalanche’. When he finished with that he went into the water area, which was now empty. He played around on his own for a few minutes and I was able to read. But then he wanted to make a water system on the big board thing at the end. He would direct me where to put the faucets, etc. as it is too splashy for him. Made a pretty impressive system by the time we left.

We went to the bathroom. Along the way he told me “When I was sleeping mama thought I was too excited about the science center and coffee shop cuz I was being squirrley and stuff.” Back out, he decided he wasn’t done yet. He wanted the rest of the play area, where we walked through the tall grass stuff and did the hall of mirrors. He climbed in the big dodecahedron thing and called it a bird nest. He called it “birdie Philadelphia”. I had mentioned the Alice in Wonderland hall of mirrors area at the children’s museum there when we were doing the mirrors area.

We finally left at 1:45. We walked up the hill (we had his bike) to go eat at a place called Lucca that has waffles. Sadly, it was closed. We went a little further up the hill to Rai. August wanted the last outside booth and proceeded to play with tree bits on the ground. We ordered a focaccia pizza thing with cheese and a kind of pork. I got a cappuccino and August got a hot chocolate. We read a few chapters of Magic Treehouse #18. Not as stressful as the Titanic book, at least not yet. August asked “Isn’t it crazy I get chocolat ham (hot chocolate) when it’s not winter?” The food came. It also had olives and cucumber with it. Where we were August could look over a low wall at a walkway below, He was talking/yelling at some dogs that went by. He and I were then playing the mean game, where I would act as the mean person and he would stop me. Usually first with a verbal warning. But he’d want me to do meaner and meaner things, so then he was more like a superhero stopping me from destroying the planet or universe.

We went inside and used the bathroom. Posters on the wall in Arabic, and the bathroom doors were decorated with comics in Arabic. Hadn’t been sure since the menus were in Hebrew, although the pork option had suggested it wasn’t a Jewish place. So likely Arab Christian. Anyway, we got walking and to the car and were driving at 3:25.

He played some Todo Math and then some of the Earth app, but then started falling asleep. Got upset when I tried to wake him up. But I got his attention back when I started saying I could destroy the universe with my machine once he was asleep. So he was zapping my machines. Managed to stay awak all the way home and were were home after 4:30.

At home there was a white-throated kingfisher out on the power lines, making its call over and over. First time I’ve seen one. August was acting crazy, and Carly took him to the store at 5. They walked over there. She at the security guard asked him his name. “August Zinnie Zinn…and some other names.” They were back at 6. They went outside for a few minutes, then he came inside to the bathroom. He then had a grocery bag and was spinning things in it. Mo
re hyper from him. She ok him upstairs to calm down.

Back downstairs he ate some curry, then he and I went up to the bedroom for the snail nest and birdie game. Then in to the bathroom and bathtub where we did the peeing game. Got his to switch to playing with bubbles and he had me be Leonardo da Vinci inventing an agitation machine (like a washing machine).

I washed his hair, then we went in to the other room and blow dried his hair. Carly took over. He had just found a Halls cough drop on the ground and started to unwrap it. I told Carly he had it, and she took it away from him. He was shattered. I think because he was so close to getting to taste it. He was inconsolable. Carly agreed to let him have a couple of Smarties or whatever they were, which she had gotten at the store for her students for something (August had had some earlier). He agreed, but he wasn’t impressed. When we were trying to convince him that it would have been too strong for him and he wouldn’t like it he wailed “I didn’t even get a chance to try it!” And he talked about how much he loves lemon things, and chewy lemon candy. Although I don’t know if he’s ever had any.

We got him calmed down I left them at 8:20. He was asleep pretty quickly.

He slept on my side of bed, so I slept in the middle. He was up at 7:25. He mentioned again how he’s run out of good shows to watch, so I found something new on Netflix. The first one looked promising, but is just in Arabic, but then we found the Ollie and Moon Show. He watched the first 11 minute episode. Funny, and with a global/friends focus. And a snail as a character. He asked what ‘energized’ meant, then asked what not energized is. So I taught him ‘lethargic’. He asked “What’s the god of weather called? Zeus? That throws the lightning bolts?” He then asked who the god of the sea is, and I could just name Neptune. I blanked on the Greek name.

We got walking about 8. He spent much of the time talking about dozens or hundreds of fans drying zucchini bread. At preschool he didn’t want the extra cookie I had brought to make him feel better. We sat outside at the elementary school bench for a bit. Inside we found the goggles picture of Ms. Stacy he had mentioned – it was the picture for the schedule, with her and the students pretending to make goggles with their fingers. He didn’t want to let me go, but so much better than yesterday. I handed him to Anna inside, and this time he just loudly said to her “Let’s go for a walk in the yard! Let’s go for a walk outside!” I left at 8:45.

As I was walking up the stairs I saw him leaving with Anna and Emmitt for a walk to the garden. I later found out that they picked a bunch of carrots (white, orange, and purple today) and more strawberries. When I came to pick him up at 1 he was playing with a big ball of clay, hitting it with a rolling pin. He looked up and was surprised and asked how I got there so soon. He showed me a picture that Omri had given to him. He was happy about that. Anna gave me a thumbs up, and August and I headed out.

We went upstairs and sat at a picnic table outside the elementary office. He said “Ms Leron had the first shirt I’ve ever seen. It makes me want to wear it.” He said because of the colors, at least purple and pink. We heard the bell and he sand along, then said “At preschool they asked me to times to sing the school bell two times.” And “Library time is my nother best time cuz I get to see you.” We saw Bat-Chen and she talked to us for a minute.

We then went to the library and he returned the Perlutsky book and Zita. We went and sat out in the lobby and had a snack. Debbie, the registrar, came and talked to us. She was really nice to him. Knows how to talk to kids. She asked him about preschool and he told her “Preschool is the funnest class.” She asked who his teachers are and he named everyone except Marion and Anna – Vicky, Myriam, Ms. H, and probably someone else. She said she wished she could go to preschool instead of work. After she left he said “Why does she want to go to preschool and not work?” Ada then came by, and she talked to us. She talked a little about the intern moving in downstairs and how she wants to start setting up the apartment for her.

We had a couple tic tacs, then went in the library. We got a couple books, then read them on beanbag chairs: This Book Just Ate My Dog! and Magic Treehouse #17: Tonight on the Titanic. This one proved too scary for August. I had to go to the end and show him how it ended, then he was still covering his ears at point and I skipped several pages. We put it back and got #18 and a book called Has Anyone Seen My Emily Greene? We read the latter, then checked both out. Went to the bathroom after the bell rang, then Carly found us and we headed to the preschool.

Carly stayed with him during coding class. He ate pretty much every last bit of food we had with us. And he let Carly sit outside the door. I was next door, meeting with Anna and Marion about how I can help with tea party book project. Still seems odd that the simple answer isn’t ‘help with the kids in free time while a teacher pulls one or two away at a time to work on the project’. Instead, they’re having me do some of the pull out to have kids work on their pages for the book. But I get to start with August and Emmitt and work on a page about how to not spill at the tea party. They showed me a video of the class discussion they had about tea parties, and August sat their patiently with his hand up for about 4 minutes waiting to be called on. That was amazing to see, since at home it takes about 10 seconds of me and Carly talking before he’s shouting “I’m not getting any attention!”

Anyway, afterwards Carly headed back to her classroom. August played with some horseshoe magnets in PKA, figuring out what they attach to.

We then walked home. We stopped to see what food was left and I found a picture of his name in his lunch box. I was confused at first, but then figured it must have come from coding class and Ms. Karen. He claimed Bat-Chen had done it. He sang Down by the Bay most of the way home, making up verse after verse. a few of them rhymed: “stick eating a brick” “goose drinking some juice”.

We were home at 4:40. He asked “Dada, what’s Poseidon?” I realized that’s the name I couldn’t remember this morning. He was then singing a snippet of a song about Poseidon. Seemed to be just enough to make me think it was a real song, and he said it was from music class. We were then trying to list the students in his class alphabetically. We realized the first 5 letters are all covered: August, Blanka, Candy, Devin, Emmitt. We were most of the way through the alphabet when Carly got home at 5:20. He was then asking her to list her students’ names.

He made up ‘weframium’: “another substance to make houses out of that is stronger than concrete.” We he dinner (curry) inside, then a cookie. He then went outside with Carly. Took him up for a long bath. We were talking about field trips and we were kids from his class. He was then asking “who’s Ms. Amelia? Who’s Ms. H? Who’s Ms. Seechin?”

We went downstairs, and I was carrying the iPad. We were listening to the Jimi Hendrix album that just came out, and he said “I’m going down the stairs the rhythm of the music.” We read a couple chapters of Magic Treehouse #18. Then had energy balls, then mango. He almost spilled the mango juice on the couch, intentionally, when he was done. He was upset when I snatched it out of his hands.

Upstairs, he was a little upset it was my birthday and not his tomorrow: “I’m mixing a potion to make it my birthday too!” “In my birthday I go around the world in FIVE seconds…it’s funner” “My power comes from every dam in the universe.” “When it’s daytime, remember to say happy birthday.”

He found his little car (from Bat-Chen) next to the bed and I told him how I was going to sleep a couple nights ago and found out I was lying on it.  Carly spotted a mosquito, so we had a mosquito hunt. He reminded us of the bug zapper light. Left them just before 9. he was down at 9:20 for water bottle. She tried again with him. Got quiet around 9:40. But she said he didn’t fall asleep until about 10.

He woke up right at 7. Downstairs he lay on the couch and I got his vitamins and some banana bread. I got his iPad and saw that he had last watched some Puffin Rock. He must have watched it while I was taking a shower or before I was up sometime. He didn’t think it was yesterday though. He watched some more until I got us going.

The preschool protests started as soon as I started to put clothes on him, but I was able to get him out the door right at 7:40. A good walk to school, then at his classroom things went as expected. A little interest in the toys, but then he wanted to sit at all of the benches outside. He ate some of the nut treats, then Anna came out to us on the bench. He got really upset and sad and was clutching to me. As I held him he said “Squeeze me tighter. Why are you not squeezing me tight enough?” He mumbled “I hate you” a few times, either to me or Anna. It was a difficult one. I handed him to her at 8:25. As I left him he yelled “You stupid thingie!” Harder too because he had more language to talk about when I could pick him up and why and everything. I hung around up by the elementary school office for a minute and I think he quieted down pretty quickly, although I wasn’t sure if they went for a walk or went inside the building. She was going to call me when he’d had enough for the day.

I worked in the library, and that call came a few minutes after 1. I picked him up about 1:10. He was sitting on Anna’s lap, facing her, out in the snack area. He wasn’t crying, but was clearly sad. They had been talking about the things he was going to tell me about. He had picked a big white carrot and some strawberries with Anna after I left. August later told me they were going to have a special strawberry snack for the kids before meeting, but forgot. He also made a “special mug”. It was the third technique the kids were learning to make mugs. When August told me about how he did it he whispered, but it was a long explanation involving cardboard and plastic and a snake of clay. Before we left he asked Anna if he could take home a round piece of blue plastic he had found on the ground as one of his treasures. It appeared to be a sort of bottle cap. And he asked for a ball of clay she said he could take home. She said yes to both, and he told me the clay was the scraps from making his mug.

We got going, and headed up to the library. He played inside the entrance to the library with the stuffed animals as we talked more, and he returned a couple of books (78-Story Treehouse and the Magic Treehouse). He talked about a photo he saw of Ms. Stacy wearing goggles – think it was the family photo with Emmitt in the preschool.

As we hung out in the ‘cafe’ area of the library building, he spotted Carly walking across the grass, away from us and wanted to follow her. We lost her after she went in the auditorium/art building. He and I looked around at some of the art, then she showed up – she had been getting a costume for a video her students are doing.

A couple minutes with her, then she left and he had me pick him up so he could touch all the pottery shapes on the wall, then he played with the dirt in the big pot of porcelain and metal flowers outside.

We got walking and were home after 2:30. He was talking to me the whole way home but it was hard to respond as it was so hot. At home he told me there was one song in morning meeting and hummed it: Down by the Bay – but he told me not a silly version like me because you can’t be silly at school. The silly line at school seems to be one he’s trying to figure out, because on the one had he seems disappointed that he can’t be sillier at school (they’re always wanting kids to be quiet, etc.), but on the other hand he doesn’t like the silliness of the boys he says are silly because they are too loud and scary (today he told me several times about how the boys were in trouble for throwing all the plastic animals down from the treehouse).

We talked about his music class and he said there was “Chickity polka dots tails song, bunny rabbit song, scarecrow song, a whale and snake song, a country song, and a language game.” He seemed to know what he was talking about, because he sang good chunks of at least the first three through the rest of the day. I was trying to find the first song on YouTube, but only came across Down by the Bay, and he really liked this version: https://youtu.be/uSq6dLrdh4M. “Why do I feel safe with you around than without you and mama?”

While at school he had told me that other people had better lunches because they had cookies in their lunch. Normally I wouldn’t take the bait, but I wanted to continue this positive day at school thing and suggested we could find a healthy cookie recipe at home. And we had extra time. As it turned out, we had just enough ingredients to make chocolate chip, banana, and peanut butter cookies: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/vegan-egg-free-chocolate-chip-peanut-butter-and-banana-cookies Substituting almond butter for peanut butter.

So we were making those when Carly got home at 4:30. We finished making cookies, then had rice and curry for dinner outside. I taught him how to negotiate when he wanted a cookie. I started by saying he needed 40 more bites, he said 1. He was a good negotiator and got me down to 5. He chose a cookie, then ate a little more than half before handing it to me and saying “I can’t finish my cookie because I’m full.”

He was asking her about her students. And he asks her to name the off so he can choose a name. Or today he said “I’m one of your students that’s Japanese…Today I’m named sunburn.” He had a special chair that was taller than her classroom. Carly and I were talking and Carly got him to go break up the roots of the dead broccoli plant and water plants. He went down the slide and was singing a Friday song, which I think may have been from music class.

Inside he got his clay from school wet, then we read a bit of Oliver and the Seawigs. August was then a student (Lillian) and misbehaving. He got distracted by taping a piece of paper to the table. After several pieces I realized he was was using the tape dispenser all on his own.

I took him up to the bath. He wanted the Julius Jr. song with “Knock Knock” in it. We listened to a lot of Julius Jr. songs but couldn’t find it. Then it was more peeing game with Hanako peeing during nap time. Apparently this really happened, as he says she had to change clothes during rest time once.

We went downstairs and he was singing going to the bathroom songs with Carly. He sang a song about two people going  to the bathroom and taking up the two stalls and another person pees her pants because she can’t wait. He said it was Omri and it actually happened.

For some reason, a discussion of synesthesia came up again and he claimed that  4 is turquoise, 7 is red, 10 is black, 1 is yellow, 2 is grey, 3 is yellow also, 4 is green. We discussed ‘fair’ and played a fair game with the kids wanting a fair amount of sparkles.

I carried him up and Carly got him ready. I left them right at 9 and he was soon asleep.