Category: Uncategorized

He was up at 6:05. Watched two Magic Schoolbus episodes: desert and haunted house. He then asked “What do you want to do today?” We went to play Duplos and he asked “Can we make an electromagnet machine? Can we make a factory that makes The call of Cornelia?” (That was from the haunted house episode). He said “Dada, I usually count zero, one, two, three, four… But I discovered a NEW way: ZERO, one, two..” He then played with a stencil on the plastic box: “This is a straighten out machine…you put clothes there…it’s a simple machine…if you like flattened cloth, it flattens it out for you.” It was then flattening out fake playdough and I was making things out of it. He played with his new tractor, the robot, and the top. Sometime later he would say “I got it!”

We played with the instruments and made our own version of Street Music. As bad as an app that is, it has intrigued him, and seems to be working: we were trading complicated rhythms and he was able to copy mine and create his own. He found the stencil had fallen off the box and he said (jokingly) “I’m never gonna forgive you. Not even a little bit.”

He played a little Musyc, then sat patiently upstairs on the couch while I got peanut butter crackers. I took my shower, then when he was going to the bathroom before his bath I told him about today being Mother’s Day in Palestine. He immediately started crying – he wanted a special day for him. He told me “You mean happy KIDS day.” Had to hold him and take him to another room. Calmed down, then went back and took his bath and washed his hair.

Along the way he asked “Dada, what were the first humans that ever lived in the human world?” And he was pretending to wake a cat: “That’s why I never want to have a cat.” Because he thinks he will wake it up and it will scratch him.

Downstairs, in the plastic container with letters on it, he suddenly said “I founded my clock!” The paper analog clock I had made for him and that had promptly disappeared. He wanted to learn some times, so we did a little with that, then he played with the stopwatch on my phone and happily got to 1000 ‘laps’.

We then made a card for Carly, which turned into more of a chore than I had planned – he wasn’t really trying with the letters, then would mess it up when he didn’t like it. We were on try number 3 when he went to start scribbling on it and I grabbed the marker, but also pinched his finger. Eventually we came back to it and I did part of the writing and he did some.

He was then playing with the robot and had it in a “sad position”. We left at 11:30.

Driving has gone pretty smoothly the last couple months, but today was the worst – aggressive drivers, getting cut off, etc. Got to the museum and then to a parking garage. August really liked that we were going underground and kept saying “Whoa” and “Holy moly”. He was also excited to spot a cat in the parking garage, but was also concerned it would get killed by all the cars.

We were walking at 12:15. Parked the bike outside the museum and he played with cone-shaped seed pods.

We went in and had a great time in the art museum. August was intrigued by art from the moment we walked in. He really liked one with human birds, and led the way around the big hall. He definitely goes for the abstract and the weird stuff. He spotted a boat full of toothbrushes, and liked the title of one called ‘Painting is Not Tomatoes’. And we spent a lot of time looking at one called ‘Around the World in 92 Days’. We used the map guide to find info about paintings presented salon-style in one room. And there were some interesting multimedia things: a singing lightbulb, a weird animated face, and a roulette wheel that never stopped and dropped the ball. That one required a lot of explaining and we pretended to play roulette. Oh, and a hologram of a guy giving a girl flowers and them then kissing.

There was supposed to be a video room and it was paused when we first went through. We went back and it was still paused, intriguingly on a screen that said ‘Lesson IV: How to be invisible by disappearing’. I said something about how we probably weren’t supposed to touch anything, and he said “What do you mean? When you sit in chairs you touch something with your bottom, right?”

We went outside and had some sandwich and peeled an orange for snack. Went back inside and used the bathroom and looked around a bit more. In the bathroom we talked about his bug bites and he said they only itched when he scratched them. Then he said “So here’s a plan to not make it itch: just don’t scratch it!” We talked about art he could make and he decided he could make “cracker art”. Finally, we went in and filled his water bottle in the courtyard. There was a random ‘Visa’ sign that simply pointed to a wall. No listing anywhere for it being a piece of art, so we were both really amused by that. We talked about ‘guerilla art’ and he liked the idea of people hanging up random art in museums.

We walked back and paid and went to our car, 2:05. More “Holy moly” in the garage. We drove to the park. The art by the side of the road was gone. He enjoyed driving in circles as we decided where to go in the park. Looking out the window he said “Is there more stuff to bump into in the world or space in the world?” He decided on stuff.

We parked a bit south of our usual, then walked to the south playground, which we’ve never played at. We checked out the coffee shop but it was quite busy. He then followed the water (2:40) from the fountain outside as it goes quite a ways through a series of pools, where there are plants and fish. He spotted a frog.

Then to the playground, where we played in the little kids area the whole time. There was a big long sand machine, with different ways you could put sand in buckets and move it. The conveyor belt was our favorite. Tried to get him to leave at 3:30 but he kept wanting to do “One quick thing”. We got going and were in the car at 3:55.

He fell asleep on the way to Tiv Taam and slept from 4:12 to 4:24. Carried him around Tiv Taam, then got a cart when he woke up enough. We got water filters, beer, and some chocolate ice cream for the Mother’s Day gift. Stopped at the strawberry stand on the way home. He waited in the car and listened to music.

He asked “Can you live without a brain?” We discussed what sort of organs and parts you could and could not live without. We were home at 4:45. As we went in he guessed what Carly was doing: “preparing to teach her students”.

Gave Carly her card and the ice cream. He had to make it clear that it was also for him. He was kind of grumpy after that until I got him “Mad and” with broccoli. He sat and ate that and was better. I put the new filter in the Brita and you’re supposed to run two containers of water through it. He played with it while the water went through and told me when it was done. We then read a few chapters of Hilo 1. He wanted to reenact taking photos of his red spots when we went upstairs.

Upstairs, getting him ready to sleep, he wasn’t cooperating and Carly said she’d have to leave the room. He said “Why do you always say that? I’m getting bored of it FOREVER! You say mean words.” I left them at 8:10 but he wasn’t falling asleep. I went up and read/sang the Mother Goose book to him. I cleaned the bathroom ceiling and Carly did other things, then I left them at 9. He was still not ready to sleep. Heard crying at 9:15 but think he fell asleep soon after that.

Upside down robot:  

New shirt:

Art: 

Visa sign: 

Tipping the sand scale:  

On top: 

Exiting the shopping cart: 

He was up just after 6:50. He came down and was sitting on the couch for a couple minutes before he asked “Dada, can you have two pivot points in a machine, or just one?” He watched The Magic Schoolbus. An episode about flowers, which he had watched during my shower yesterday and was where he learned about stripes on flowers.

I made chocolate pancakes, but he wasn’t impressed; “You know, I REALLY want peanut butter and crackers” So he had crackers and I ate the pancakes. He then played with the alien and the alien brought rocks from moons of Neptune. August used his “bigger power” on the spaceship to make all its parts big enough to carry rocks from Neptune.

We went upstairs and I took a shower. I let him skip his bath today so we could get going quickly to the zoo. We listened to his music requests on the way down, and talked a lot about heavy traffic. He liked the idea that we were part of the problem if we were driving in the traffic.

We got to the zoo at 10:35. The song “Perfect Day” was playing as we got there. He said “Sometimes it isn’t a perfect day at first thenit turns out it is?” He spotted hippos hiding in the water on the first safari part, then we watched an ostrich drinking water from the pond and we named it ‘Drinky’ (like they name the animals in The Wild Kratts).

We were in the zoo at 11. We walked a path we haven’t been on before and saw a palm cockatoo holding and seemingly eating what appeared to be a rock. Need to figure out what it was doing. We sat on a bench and ate a snack – apple, raisins, and peanut butter sandwich. There is a little broken egg play area/photo spot. He got in and said “I’m the kind of bird that was all over th place in Korea.” A pedulgi (pigeon).

As we got walking again he saw a guy raking on the path in front of us and he said “Rake hazard reported ahead” in his Waze voice. We saw a school group entering the pin with the big tortoise. We watched the tortoise eating and little birds bathing in its pond. August saw the class in there and said “I hope they don’t disturb the tortoise.”

We went up and got a hotdog and an orange-colored fruit smoothie sort of thing (with seeds in it) at a concession stand. We got surrounded by a group of kids trying to get ice cream but managed to get our food.

We sat on a bench by the big pond and ate our hot dog. Then went to the playground at 12:10. Someone had left a hat on a hammock thing and August pushed the hammock until it fell off. He was then talking about how he was using his robot powers to push it. He wanted to go on the zip line things but didn’t like the idea of waiting in line. The zoo was the busiest we’ve seen – a lot of gan and school groups here now that the weather was nice.

He needed a bathroom so we got walking and the one by the entrance was the first we found. From there he wanted to do the rest of the driving part. So we got going. Took a lot of time on the driving part. We saw a zebra and gazelles running because they were startled by something. Then saw our first marabou. Finally, an ostrich stood right next to August’s window and we watched its feathers fluttering in the wind.

On the way home we listened to all the remixes of The Chemical Brother’s “Go”. He asked a lot of questions about pollution and asked if iPads, etc. make pollution. So a lot of discussion of being part of the problem/solution. He was talking to himself and playing with his water bottle. He was then calling to me. I turned down the music and he said “Right dada? I can see inside a dead hyena…when I look in this”.

He was talking about “I like pollution.” As we got to school before 2:15. He then laughed and said “I’m laughing about taking over the world.”

We first went to the library. Said hi to Amanda, then he crawled/sneaked through the stuffed animals to bump into Liz as a way of saying hi. Carly saw us and came into the library to say hi. He hugged her leg and said he loved her. We started to play with the chessboard, then he needed the bathroom. Came back and did a little more chess, then got going to the preschool.

At class I said I’d sit outside, then we compromised with me sitting inside. When Karen asked how he was doing he told her he was sleepy. But then when they did an activity at the beginning they were using the whole room so I moved back outside. He was fine for awhile, but then got upset when he realized he couldn’t see me. I came in and he was okay, but insisted I sit inside.

He was fine after that. He called me over twice to show/ask me something, but each time he then pushed my arm to push me away when he was done with me. So some progress.

After class Carly met us right outside the preschool. We headed home. In the car his water bottle got some water on Carly. He said “Bad water bottle that squirted on mama.” As we went in the house he was making little tunes, then saying things like “That’s the song for being done in the library” “…coding class”

He was talking about having macaroni and cheese when we got home and was calling it “Macaroni and…” as per my joke on Sunday. I joked about licking all the cheese off his mac and cheese.

I got him some mac and cheese and broccoli. He ate that, then Carly let him watch one more episode (the haunted house one) of The Magic Schoolbus. She then took him to the mall and grocery store to do some last shopping before her parents arrived. There, he played with a girl in the indoor play area, using the foam things. And they saw the Kerns. Did their shopping and came home. They were gone for close to two hours. I did work.

At home we got the presents from my parents out. He said they looked “Pretty amazing”. We skyped with them and opened the presents: a pink s’mores shirt from Chelan, a wooden robot, a metal tractor, a book called Because I had a Teacher, a board game called Before and After (that doesn’t have winners!), a wooden top, and some cow erasers and pencils from the pencil drawer in Chelan (including a Care Bears one that is a good 30 years old and never used).

It was close to 8 so we got off Skype and all went up to change the sheets and bedrooms. August helped, of course. We got set up in the office room and I left Carly and August at 8:15. Asleep soon after.

Following instructions while the teacher was hiding the iPads:

Playing at the mall: 

He woke up at 5:50. While Carly went to get the medicine, as he was warm again, he looked up on the bed and asked “Huh? Are you done with your shower already?” He then lay on the bed for several minutes while Carly got ready. He pretended to be camouflaged into the bed and asked Carly to find him. This continued downstairs, where he then turned into a living towel.

Carly thought it was funny that I was cold, and had August bring me a sweatshirt. He also picked up a book and said “Special delivery!” Then dumped it on the floor halfway.

She got him to go outside with him by saying there were animals in the yard. That turned into a poop yard: “Good! I love the poop yard. It’s 5 centimeters poop.”

He convinced Carly to work with him on the “water factory” out of Duplos before she went to work. He heard birds outside and said “That must be our chickens.”

Reluctant to let Carly leave. He grudgingly agreed to watch Julius Jr. He watched an episode and was excited to discover that the song at the end included the line “You’re as great as peanut butter.” That was they mystery line that he had been singing to the tune of the Llama Llama song. We found it on Apple Music and ended up listening to it a lot during the day.

I made chocolate pancakes but he only ate one eighth of his. Then said they weren’t cholatey enough for him. Got him to eat a little more, then we had popcorn with plenty of oil and za’atar and we watched an episode of Magic School Bus together. One about ants. Cherie had suggested that his mystery word from the other day was ‘crook’. I showed him the video and asked if that was what it was and he said yes, and said it was the guy on Wild Kratts who tries to cook endangered species.

We went upstairs and he watched one more on the Zinnie bed, now in the office. I took a shower. We then spent a long time playing mandolin and guitar plugged into GarageBand. We made a little song together. He asked what ‘borrow’ means and we discussed a story from Julius Jr., then he had us acting out different borrowing without permission examples. I used the letters from his ‘August’ magnet train and realized he doesn’t actually know how to spell ‘August’ yet. Need to work on that one.

Gave him a bath and played with the toys for several minutes. It was over 80 today, so had a lot of windows open to let the heat in. Had to close them all before we got going.

August was excited about going to his favorite pizza place and walking there. We stopped at Duplos before leaving, but suddenly he was up with his shoes on and ready to go out the door. He said “I know I sometimes so a great job of steering, but you still need to tell me where to go, right?” I suggested we would stop at the grocery store to look for Drano on the way, and he got cranky about that plan and that I wouldn’t change my mind right away.

We got walking at 12:00. As we walked he asked “Why can’t a baby stay inside a mama forever?” A bit later he nicely asked if we could please get pizza first. This time I said yes. We went VIPizza and got two slices. I also got an iced tea. We ate, then walked to the bank, as August chose that as the first errand. He helped me use the ATMs as we figured out which ones would work. We checked to make sure our US debit card worked and we got some cash.

He then wanted the park so we walked down to the library. I suggested the merry-go-round was a time machine again. He changed it to the Magic Schoolbus. In the bus we travelled up through the tree. He then said we were in a flower, in the nectar part. He told me what he knew about flowers and bees and told me that more lines means more bees – he must have learned that from Wild Kratts.

We sat on a bench and had the second grape juice thing from the pizza place. Think he still had a little fever as he was acting tired and said he was cool. He had me being an astronaut and getting upsidedownia. He was the doctor, and for each astronaut he would say something different: “If you want it to go away forever you have to have antibiotics…have to eat eight leaves…eat any food you like.”

We went to the small grocery store in town. August asked if he could sit on the floor while I looked for Drano. I couldn’t find it and he scooted on the floor as I moved around. Then said I was taking a long time. We went to the hardware store. The old guy, Eliaoh (sp?) helped us, and talked to us, and August, a lot. August was really out of it and seemed exhausted, and here was a guy asking him questions and joking with him. Handled it just fine though. We got a sink plug and Drano and August got some pink gardening gloves.

We left there at 2:10. August had bright rosy cheeks and was really quiet, but kept saying he felt okay. We were home at 2:35. Two of the road construction workers said something about his bike. August had enough energy to pedal himself for most of one slightly-downhill block.

We were home at 2:35. We watched a couple of Hebrew videos. For the numbers video he said that the girl who is 17 looks like Carly: https://youtu.be/7WwQL6hr02A He convinced me to let him watch Magic Schoolbus. I did library stuff. Finally getting most of the books out there.

With Duplos he made the slidanator: “When someone goes down it it gives them energy.” I then got him outside and interested in the bike. He watched me ride it around, then he got as far as putting on his helmet and sitting on the seat. Thought we might actually get riding. But once he was on it he was scared by the shakiness of it as I held the bike. So definite progress, but then he wanted off. He was asking about the gears though and he was learning all about changing them when Carly got home.

He was then stuck between learning about gears and asking Carly to teach him something. He stayed outside with Carly for awhile and played on the slide, then was a baby lying at the end of it. His hair was all sticking up with static, and I put his garden gloves on to show Carly.

Inside he was on the couch next to me and sleepy. He said he had an unsleepifier that made him not sleepy. He opened his eyes really wide after turning it on.

He then was learning from Carly: About trains, da Vinci, and how a baby is in the womb. They then got the number line out and were doing math, then read Stars, Stars, Stars, which is for the outside library. He said “I love the word twinkly.” He was then turning everything in to stars and cookies. They played with the musical instruments and he turned Carly into a button with his powers.

He ate Mac and cheese and broccoli, then they read much of Magic Schoolbus Inside the Earth. They nursed and he was falling asleep at 6:30. He hadn’t gone to the bathroom since getting home though, so I took him to the bathroom. We thought he’d go to bed soon after that but it wasn’t the case.

He and I then finished Hilo 3 and he immediately asked to read the first one again. We started that and read a couple chapters.

I took him up and put on his pajamas. We finished a chapter of Hilo, then brushed his teeth. He said “Row row row your boat…She makes up versions of it when she brushed my teeth.” Read a few more pages, then Carly said goodnight. He practiced with me for about 10 minutes. It was his idea, started downstairs, to practice with the stopwatch with me tonight. Good job of actually practicing this time.

He then wanted Carly but when he heard she was on the phone he got upset. I held him until she came up a minute later at 7:40. Surprisingly he didn’t fall right asleep. She switched with me again so she could call the woman back. She told him he could talk to me, so he was fine. We read Boynton’s Snoozers, including the “I’m not Sleepy” one several times. He was then singing a “Sleepy” song. Carly was back up at 8. Surprisingly again it still took awhile, but he was asleep about 8:15.

Gardening gloves:

He woke up at 7:25 and bonked his head on the side of the bed. Seemed more confused by it than hurt. We went down and he found Carly outside. She taught him about highlighting in Word, then they came inside.

They played with the writing board thing and squishy balls. They started read The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body. Carly and I were filling out the rest of the forms for registering August at school. We switched and I read the rest of the book and Carly made the chocolate pancakes. August ate 3/4 of one. Carly went up to do laundry and some work and August played with the salad spinner while I cleaned the kitchen. I would give him a measuring cup with water and say there was no way he could get it all dry and then he would. Lot of laughing.

I went and took a shower, then they were outside “We were doing science out here. Stick science and rock science…we we’re making hypothesises, too.” Interested in rocks because they had read the Magic School Bus in the Earth book. He weeded and hummed “Rocket Man”. He was really looking at plants: “I found something out!” “Look at those crazy roots!” “We’re saving you, papaya!”

I eventually took him up for his bath. He had bubbles in the bath and put his hand under them and said “It’s like inside a lung.” We then joked about snails/snarls in his hair when I brushed it. Downstairs he wanted his nursing mittens: “I like the comfiness of it.” He played with the writing board thing a little, then we got going.

Luckily, Carly realized that we needed to get his doctor to fill out a form for his enrollment at WBAIS. I was taking August to get his Typhoid vaccine today. So we left at 11:25 and drove Carly to the school and she ran in and printed off his vaccination record and the forms. We waited in the car listening to Chemical Brothers and Bjork “Earth Intruders”, asking about the song “Are these noises supposed to be in the song?”

We dropped Carly off at home then drove to Herzliya Park. They’ve taken out the pay station machines. August was happy about not having to pay. Got him on the bike and we took a walk up the road to look at some art and books that had been left out. Tempted to get some of the old wooden frames, at least. Got a couple of art books. We looked at the swamp area as we walked by.

Went back to Herzliya Park. He was a little worried about snakes as I took the path throug the nature area. We went to the little kids playground and I filled out the paperwork while he played. Had to past to move a few times and help him. Got that done and played a little more. He asked “When people don’t understand me, why don’t people understand me?” He said Bar doesn’t understand him. We talked about different languages, and accents, and him developing how he speaks. And as he played I called him ‘little boy’ a couple times. He kept correcting me: “You mean ‘little kid’.”

Also, we played the confusing game. He had started it when he claimed the playground was a different direction even though we were looking right at it. He kept asking me to confuse him.

We went to the bathroom and looked at the books and August popped some bubble wrap that was at the book area. We then headed to the car and drove over to the doctor. We went to the pharmacy to pick up the vaccine and ran into Liz, the librarian, and a second grade teacher out front. We got the vaccine and went upat 2:15. The doctor was a couple minutes late. August did well as we did paper work. Played around with the same puzzle as last time. He is 100.5 centimeters and 15.2 kilograms. He was fine with the exam, but caught on about the vaccination when Dr. Hurwitz asked him if he wanted a Spider-Man sticker. August realized it was a bandaid, not a sticker. He got upset during the shot, but was mainly concerned about the bandaid and that it was going to hurt taking it off. I suggested to the doctor we not put it on but he did it anyway.

In the car I took it off and August admitted it didn’t hurt. I had told August we could get a treat afterwards and he chose to go back to Herzliya Park and get a smoothie. So we drove back the park. He chose a strawberry and mango smoothie. We sat and drank it at a table. He said he was cold and we put on his coat. I was a little suspicious, but we were in the shade and there was a bit of a breeze. August was asking what ‘unusual’ means, and I ended up giving him examples of usual and unusual, real and unreal, and nouns. He picked up on the word ‘examples’ and later was using it with Carly.

He curled up on the chair and didn’t want to play so we got going. He fell asleep in the car at 4:21. I called Carly but that didn’t help. Pulled over and tried to wake him up. He sleepily said “Peanut butter and crackers…chocolate.” And said he wanted to sleep. He told me, still half asleep “Don’t do it. Just drive.” Pretty sure it was a reaction to the doctor visit/vaccination.

We were home at 4:45.  Took him out and handed him to Carly and she realized he had a temperature. Got him toms children’s Tylenol. We got a supportive call from Shmuel. He agrees that Shay should move out when his lease is up in May. During the call Carly mentioned we never have people over and August heard her and said “except that one time” when Lima came over. He was then cuddling in the blanket and hiding from Carly. Carly went upstairs and he heard her up there and got silly: “It’s funny we have coisonous lizards upstairs in cages…I accidentally left all the cages open…” “It’s just a talking lizard that doesn’t bite. It’s weird we gotted that from the store, right?” He tried to eat Carly, who was a lizard and said “Edible means that you can eat something.” And he talked about capturing flies and selling them to a restaurant to cook them.

He and Carly went and played with Duplos. He said he had an imaginary friend “Minoh…He’s really nice to me…So nice, I CAN’T EVEN STAND IT!” First time that has happened. He’s used the ‘I can’t even stand it’ line before. Don’t know where it came from. I took over and Carly went to cut non-skid pads for the small rugs. We rolled August up as a hotdog in them.

The window was open and he thought cold air was coming in. Carly told him it was warmer outside than inside and that he could go check. He went and opened the door on his own and went out, then called “You were right! I was very warm.”

Carly took him upstairs to put pants and socks on him so he could go out with her to take care of plants and avoid mosquitoes. But upstairs he wanted to play instead, so I stayed with him. He changed his mind after a minute though and I got him changed. He went out with Carly but ended up with wet feet and pants. Came back in and took off his pants.

Carly took down the Christmas lights and he found he could wind them up by spinning them on the ground. Had mac and cheese for dinner, then played a lot with the salad spinner again. I took him up. Carly got him ready for bed and we were going to switch, but he wanted to fall asleep with her. I left them at 7:40 and he was soon asleep.

Hotdog: 

Doctor:

Not feeling well:

He was up at 7:30. That woke me up. I went downstairs 8. They were sitting in the ‘parlor’ figuring out the watering system. He had some oatmeal, then they tested the sprinkler system and ate french fries outside. Back inside they played kitchen. “I learned that in food school.” We all went out for awhile. He was then a baby: “I was just born. Can you say ‘Wecome to the world?’”

Back inside we made a morning of cleaning and rearranging. He helped vacuum downstairs. Not bothered by the sound. We then went upstairs and moved furniture, August helping at every step. Mainly, we switched the Zinnie bed into the office (I’m going to sleep on that and Carly and August will be on the floor) and the couch into the Zinnie room (to be another sitting room) and the desk out on the porch to get it out of the way. When we were figuring out how to move the couch I suggested cutting it up into pieces with the saw. He thought that was pretty funny.

Also while we were moving he said “Every sound has a different color.” And he asked “What’s Gimlet Media?”

On his iPad he played some Toca Blocks. He looked at Netflix and said “I watched all that second season of Wild Kratts…so you were wrong.” I wasn’t sure what I was wrong about.

I took a shower, and he had more oatmeal. He and Carly were playing in the living room and ended up calculating how many seconds he had been alive. Word of the day was ‘digits’ as talked about the numbers on the computer. He then said “When we go outside we’re going to discover some new numbers.” Meaning number names past ‘nonillion’.

I gave him his bath. He was then hibernating. At one point he said “Let’s learn more about vibrations.” He was then a mysterious animal: “Scientists have been trying to figure me out…” “I don’t have thumbs because when I brachiate they get in the way.” He used his tail for holding on and to dig a little bit. “if I bite you, I would hold on until sunset and I have coison…it doesn’t make you die, just throw up.”

They left 1:35 and I worked. They drove to Ace and as they got close Carly wondered if there was a fast food place around. August spotted a McDonald’s out the window. They had a chicken sandwich there. They went to Ace, then to Tiv Taam. Played briefly at the playground, I think. They took quite awhile. On the way home he worked really hard to get the plastic off one of the toilet brushes and got it as the pulled up. They were back at 4:35.

Carly had bought a pair of gardening gloves. They each wore one and he was really into weeding. When they were done I tried to get him to go to the park. He was adamantly against leaving the house again. So we went upstairs and played with the Smurfs. I first made up a story where the Smurfs meet the new characters: the two purple figures from August’s treats from the ice cream truck and the two figures that came with his new tooth brush. They then all worked together to chase Gargamel away by tickling him.

August wanted to act out the story where the food storage burns down (from the comic books). We got the wooden blocks and he made a castle, then we acted that one out.

We then went downstairs, where Carly was making macaroni and cheese. He was eating the cheese, and I said “Don’t eat all the cheese or we’ll just have Mac and…” He got that and thought it was funny. We sat on the couch and read Will I Have a Friend? (One of the books we picked out at the book swap) three times.

He watched while Carly cut open the artichoke heart but didn’t eat any. We then read one of the early reader books he had chosen at the book swap. He ate some mac and cheese and broccoli and had seconds. We then read some new Smurf stories (volume 14 or so). Ate some apple slices, then I read some of The Young Dragon Book of Verse. Got the doctor equipment and we took care of Green Monster and Monkey Nice Bananas. Monkey had surgery. He was discussing heart massage, which had come up a couple days ago when he asked about touching the heart.

He then randomly told me “Did I mention I love you so much?” Carly said he had said the same to her in the car. He went to the bathroom, then asked to read Magic Schoolbus. Played in the parlor for a bit, then Carly took him up by 8:40. She put him to sleep by 8:55.

Sprinkler system: 

He was up just after 6:40. He watched some Wild Kratts. He said “When I push this purple button I’m the biggest animal in the creature world and I have the biggest brain in the creature world. And I have the biggest eyes in the creature world. And I’m the loudest animal in the creature world.”

We then did an obstacle course. Started by building a Duplo part together. We were listening to the new Decemberists and he liked “Cutting Stone”. He started asking about it right away and humming, then singing to the chorus. Did a big obstacle course and he talked about his power cord still being connected to the book swap. And he asked about blackouts and brown outs. We discussed ‘rationing’.

He watched Sarah and Duck and I played phone tag, going through 3 different numbers/people before ending up with August’s doctor. Carly realized August needs a typhoid shot again. Long process, but it eventually came down to we can get it Sunday at 2.

He lay on the floor with his initials bracelet for several minutes. I made him peanut butter crackers. He’s decided he doesn’t like the crackers and just licks off the peanut butter, then asks me to put on more peanut butter. He said again that he likes rectangles because they are pink. Squares red, circles yellow, ovals blue. He’s being consistent with his colors.

I took a shower, then was fixing the doors on the wardrobe in August’s room. He kept calling me back into the bathroom and was getting impatient and I was telling him to wait a minute. Which makes him want my attention more. He came into the room and started throwing the stuffed animals at me and said it was to make me not upset. I told him I wasn’t really upset, but that you give someone hugs to make them not upset. Finally he came over and gave me a hug. And I fixed the doors: screws had come loose on the wheels and it was riding low, scraping.

We got ready to and started to leave at 10:30. He’s been pretty good about letting me go and put stuff in the car while he plays in the yard. However, today I told him I was putting the backpack in but once I was out there he yelled to me, then came running out, upset, thinking I was leaving without him. Got him calmed down and actually left at 10:50.

He remembered the couple of little candies he had found (from Halloween) in the car yesterday. They were my backup to keep him awake/happy on long trips. He got to have a Swedish fish on the way down to Tel Aviv.

The doctor called back on the way down. August can get his shot on Sunday at 2. We listened to a lot of Chemical Brothers on the way down. August told me “I learned it’s easier to explore space than the deep blue sea.”

Parked in a parking lot near the Carmel market. We were walking at 12. He walked a bit, then I carried him as we entered the very busy market. He had fun pointing out interesting things. He was also using his “space and finder machines” to find us space in the crowd and where we wanted to go. A guy at a CD stand gave him a lollipop and we stopped at a less-busy square where we watched a couple people playing some steel drum things and he had about half of the lollipop. He asked me “What does ‘crack in the day’ mean?” Think that’s a mishearing from Wild Kratts.

We walked though more of the Carmel market (which is produce and other stuff), then found the less-busy Binyamin market, which is all arts and crafts. We were hungry and found the Druze Corner, which is a restaurant stand out in the middle of a pedestrian street. We got two sandwiches/wraps and sat on cushions and ate them. August got a peppery bite early on and was then cautious about eating, but he loved the bread and liked the yogurt and za’atar. He kept saying “Real delicate bread”. Eventually he ate more than half of a sandwich.

Spotted a couple cats while we ate and he pretended to be a kitten curling up on the cushion. We got him in the backpack and got walking at 1:20. We walked up through the Binyamin market to Magen David Square. He asked to walk again so I got him out. We walked down Allenby and then finished the circle (well, triangle) back to where we had lunch. On the way we saw an opera singer. We stopped and watched two songs. I had August give him some coins and he handed August a business card. Later August said he liked the second song best. There was also a balloon man close to a guitar player. We had stopped both times to watch for a minute. August said “But I don’t like balloons. All I want them to do is POP!…after they go in the air, of course.”

He was also big into pointing out abstract art on the walls/doors. Lots to choose from. A couple of alien looking ones we really liked. And he finished the lollipop.

Got him back in the backpack again and we headed away from the markets and towards the parks. We stopped and got two bottles of mango juice, then walked across to Hakovshim Garden. Drank some mango juice and played in the playground. There was toddler, a boy, wandering around and August was both interested and cautious of him.

Got him back in the backpack after 2:30 and we walked west towards the sea. August made up a “Let’s go see, the Mediterranean Sea” song. Caught the end of it on video. He then did a “Ekk! Stop filming me!” thing. But then promptly asked me to film him again so he could pretend to be annoyed and ask me to stop filming.

We got over to the sea and walked to the south to Charles Clore Park. We watched the waves for awhile, then walked down to the playground. August was talking/asking about how planets form and we ended up discussing the death of solar systems and stars. We didn’t find a restroom in either of the parks so he went by a tree, then went back and played on the play structure. There was a turning thing that he played with with another boy, who was turning it on the other side. Played around and pretended it was a boat. He said “Someone is brachiating our boat!” We went and sat and had more juice.

At one pint I went to the backpack and when I came back I patted him on his head and said “Tag, you’re it.” His response: “Why did you tag me? That’s unusual. We don’t play tag very much.”

He hung on a bar and talked about how he was brachiating like a spider monkey. And talked about how they don’t have thumbs. His phrase of the day today was “I have no choice but…”

He then wanted to play in sand and I pointed out the big beach volleyball sand area nearby. We went and played there. He buried his legs in sand and I was able to read a little. He wanted to move a couple times to be closer to other kids. Sadly, the girl had to leave as soon as we moved the first time. He and I made towns out of sand. He sat on a pile of sand and turned in a circle and made a volcano. Then made a path by dragging his feet.

He really didn’t want to leave and I was in no hurry. Finally, we headed out about 4:20.

We got to the car, but then had to get out of the car at the exit to pay. He was fine with me putting the window down. We listened to Story Pirates on the way home. Along the way he said “Most people call me Squarespace.” But insisted I call him Zinnie. He had a sour patch kid on the way back, but it didn’t last long enough. We listened to music and he was playing along, but he fell asleep at 5:17, right before we left Highway 4. We were home at 5:24 and I woke him up. He sleepily said “Can I have…I got my dada.”

They nursed, then went outside, where Carly was going to teach him about arguments. He came in and told me “I’m going to school bathroom.” He told Carly about how he was discovered by scientists. He was being hyper and said “I’m trying to empty my battery… It’s a pretty big battery.” He and I played snakes and ladders. Carly went to take a shower. I gave in and let him make up rules, but he decided it was more fun with mama.

We read some more of Hilo 3. Carly got him ready for bed and I went up at 8:30. He told me “Take a picture of my bot
tom…You never taken a picture of my bottom!” I did not.

Told him about my Yellowstone trip again and we talked about geysers and hot springs. He asked “What if there was no dams on the world?” And said “I’m a blob of jelly.” He wasn’t really trying to sleep and I almost switched with Carly. Kept trying, and he got upset and was crying. I decided to pick him up and held him for several minutes. He calmed down and I thought he was close to sleep so we tried lying down again. Couldn’t do it. He told me it was better standing up. Stood back up again, but this time he couldn’t stay calmed down. Carly took over at 9:20.

Market:

Druze bread:

Art:

Lollipop:

Shore:

Blasting me:

Sand:

He was up at 6:15. Carly had gotten him back to sleep a couple times in the late morning, but he still got up early. He got to watch an extra Wild Kratts as a result. He told me: “When you see me with your eyes you think I’m not that big, but with this microscope, yes.”

Afterwards, I went to get the wood glue out and he said “Do you want to play that glue, toothpick, and screw game?” He meant fix the hinges on the cupboard. We did that, breaking up toothpicks and glueing them in the screw holes. He had the idea of using the cutter on the pliers instead of the hammer to break them off (that’s how the guy on the video did it, but when I tried the toothpick just went flying). He had fun breaking toothpicks. We then left that to dry.

Went and built with Duplos. He wanted to figure things out himself: “Don’t tell me what to do.” “You can do some. I just want to figure it out. By myself.”

I then made him a walking path, starting with arrows on the ground, like he liked in activity class. The path kept expanding as he would ask for “More!” It ended up stretching from the red chair in the corner, across to the couch, then to the black chair. It utilized chairs, the stool, the stuffed animals, Duplos, etc. He was then ‘sick’ on the couch, gave himself a bandage cast like mine.

We then went and finished fixing the hinges. Door now works. He was then a sick whale, then a kitten, and I took care of them. I took a shower and he watched the crocodile episode of Wild Kratts, which he’s seen before. I asked what the best power was of the crocodile and he said “Be so protective…Could you be protective of me?”

He had his bath and I washed his hair. He was grumpy about that, and we went downstairs and sat in the chair together for a few minutes. He then hid under the blanket on the couch, then was playing with the doctor stuff on his own for a few minutes, blanket still over his head.  I started to make baked salmon with za’atar and lemon. While I did that he had naked time and played with a pot and steamed carrots, adding water. He then got a popsicle thing and played with the water with it and the measuring cup.

We ate lunch outside: the salmon, broccoli and cheese, and our iced raspberry tea. He asked “What’s another word that’s cool? What’s another word I don’t know?” “Why do you buy different bowls over time?” He was wondering why we have different bowls than he does.

He had also been surprised when the salmon was easy for him to cut and eat. I had used the word ‘delicate’ and that would be the word of the day.

He made a big nest out of pillows on the couch, then drew an abstract picture on the chalkboard, before we left for school a little after 1.

We went to the book swap and took a good amount of time looking around. He was patient about it. He chose a couple of early reader books on his own, and helped me choose some others. I was excited to find a book called Paddle-the-Sea, which I remember one of my teachers in early elementary reading to the class. I’ve thought of it from time-to-time, and even tried searching for it, but hadn’t found it. But there it was.

There was a toddler there and she and August sort of played together. August was acting like her: crawling, and then at one point mirroring her by putting his hands in his mouth. He crawled under a table and she wanted to follow. They spent a few minutes silently following each other around.

We ended up with 17 books and went back to make it an even 20. Out in the lobby he really liked the art on the wall – abstract cityscapes. He showed me all his favorites, including one with windows and the ones that were the most abstract. He then spent time touching all the little pottery object things attached to wall outside.

We stopped at the bake sale and got two cupcakes. Sat on a bench and ate those. He loved it, and ate a couple bites of mine as well. We went to the library, which was busy because of parent conferences. He headed to the Lego area and played with a dragon hand puppet, picking up Legos.

We went to the bathroom, then sat and played some chess. Matt Kerns came by and said happy birthday to him and asked about his birthday. August said that we made cake, then went on to tell Matt about the cupcake we just ate and that he ate some of mine.

We went back to the lego area and he made a cool vehicle thing that had a weird piece attached to a lego person’s head. It was fragile and August said “It’s really delicate.” Delicate was definitely his word of the day.

Getting ready to go to his class, he took my hat and put it on. He then played around in the lobby, using his mechanical arm to grab more cupcakes and books from across the school. He was also plugged into an outlet in the book swap room (he had needed to charge his battery there earlier).

We went to the preschool and went in to realize that there was no Hebrew class due to parent conferences. As we walked he told me “I now know every living thing has a DNA code.”

So we played at the playground. He made soup. I was surprised by one of his ingredients: “frosting…I learned that from my cooker school. I learned that from my Baker school. It teaches you to care and share…my school.” He went on the swing and now has the basics of pumping down. He went for a few minutes. We played on the slides and he slid into me. He went and played with the instrument, then found a wooden moon piece off of something and played with that. Carly called, and August started repeating everything I said, using the same tone.

He talked about having brain freeze: “Did you know I have brain freeze so I wasn’t thinking straight.” Finally, he was ripping apart the blueberry-like berries to get out the seeds when Carly showed up. They went on the regular swing together and talked about how he used to do that in the carrier when he was little. They then went on the disk swing together.

He fixed the car before we left and declared that it ran “Very smoothly and it works very well.”

Carly headed home and we walked up to his class. Class goes incredibly smoothly now. Highlight today were when Sigal rolled him up as a hotdog. He also talked about how he likes to look at himself in the mirror. At the end, when she throws a star to them and they pretend to eat it, he ran over to me and offered me a bite.

We stopped at the exercise equipment on our way back. We joked why there was one bite out of one of the apple pieces. He said “But it was most likely me.” It was.

We got to the car before 6. I said “I love you a ton of marsupials.” He said “I would say…miniaturizers and heat amplifiers.” Miniaturizers and heat amplifiers were his inventions (from Wild Kratts, I think) that he had been talking about all day. At one point he asked me which one I preferred and said “miniaturizer”. He then kept trying to convince me that heat amplifier was also cool.

We got home and he read a Magic Schoolbus book with Carly. Ate broccoli and cheese for dinner, then they read Gravity is a Mystery, another one of our new books. Carly said “Gravity…Now that word sounds funny.” To which August said “Yeah! And ‘keychains’!”

They played school together and she had him write ‘gravity’ on the chalkboard. I carried him up and Carly got him ready for bed. She killed a couple mosquitoes and August said “If there’s another one a clue will be if I wake up with itchy spots.” I left them just before 8

7:10. Seemed startled when he saw me as he came down the stairs. But not upset. I got to hold him for a few minutes. I had set the iPad on the table and he got it. The only words he said were the words to the Wild Kratts song as he sang it.

The imagination was at work:

“Let’s go in the time machine…it’s in the garbage can I used to cook my eggs…in my not-real house…it’s not really made for two people.” Not really sure where all that came from.

“My miniaturizer is magical. My heart gets smaller, my blood vessels get smaller, the things the blood goes through gets smaller, all the things in my body get smaller. Yeah, so it’s magical.” “Dada, why can we see veins through our skin. It IS my eye sensory power…” The miniturizer is from Wild Kratts, but the discussion of how things get smaller is his own.

He watched two episodes as I got things going in the morning. We went upstairs and he was first going to play something while I took a shower. I made peanut butter crackers, but then he came into the bathroom and was incredulous I didn’t bring up Cheerios too. I got those for him, then he watched a Sarah and Duck while I took a shower. Skipped a bath for him.

We were outside at 9 but stopped as he played with Carly’s shoes for several minutes. He made what he called the “Shoe detective”, which senses dangerous animals like rattlesnakes, although he then changed the name to the “anti-venom”. We were driving at 9:10.

We listened to music both directions. He primarily requested Chemical Brothers. Listened to some on random, but he specifically asked for the “Go” remixes that he likes a couple times.

We parked and took the small stroller the couple blocks to the museum. We walked downhill two blocks and one required him getting out and walking down stairs.

We got to the museum where they were continuing work out front. The walkway was gone and we sort of had to walk around the side and watched a digger working for a minute. Got arm bands (which he flat out refuses to consider wearing) and were playing in the toddler area at 10:30. He started in the water area for a few minutes, then we went to the blue blocks. We first made a monster, then knocked it down. He made a second monster, then said “Not enough abstract though.” He was really into things being abstract today. We then made a town. I brought him blocks and he said “Did you notice you’re doing teamwork?” When smaller kids came and took his pieces or knocked down his town he did a great job of not being bothered by it or joining in.

He mentioned going to the science part a couple times but kept getting distracted. We walked through the mirror and tall grass part, then he got inside the 3D shapes. Went to the bathroom, then up to the science area.

As we went up he said “There’s so much interesting parts I don’t know where to go.” We went through the energy area, discussing the different types. Spent the most time at the geothermal exhibit, which also includes a part about brownouts/blackouts. He’d bring that back up later.

We went outside and had a little snack (sandwich and apple). He then pulled the ship up and dropped it back down the ramp. We played with the Archimedes screw and saw a couple guys fixing the mirrored shields burning the ship display, which is apparently supposed to make smoke, and discussed that.

Wen’t back in and went to the sound room. We spent a lot of time watching the binary counting machine, which was broken last time. Went up to the puzzle area, then downstairs to the da Vinci room. He quite likes that one Anders kept asking what the machines were for. Then upstairs to the magic room, where I perfected my technique for pulling out the tablecloth. August played with the hovering ball exhibit for several minutes.

We went to the next room and did the smelling stuff, then played with the different-shaped bubbles and the big sheet bubble thing, which we’d never done. Lot of fun with that one, as he could make the bubbles and pop them and blow on them.

Spent a little ice in the teeth room, and saw a couple babies in there, then wanted to be a baby over in the microscope and telescope room. I wasn’t having much of that, and he asked why I don’t find it as funny as mama does. Thankfully, after that we went to the optical illusions room. There was a boy who was about 11 there with a guy and we followed them into the dark room. The other boy knew his stuff and was explaining everything to the man. August picked up on that, and really started to explain each exhibit to me. At one point he said “Did you notice I’m teaching you about it?” We did the shadows thing a couple times, then got going.

On our way out we stopped by the energy room again and ended up at the stationary bikes that run the train set. He is tall enough to sit on the bikes and sort of just start to peddle and make the train move slowly. Did that for 10 or 15 minutes.

We got the stroller and walked to Cafe HaPanina. He was counting cats along the way. He spotted the first two, then I spotted two. He didn’t like that and said he got to spot the next two. He was also pointing out abstract things as we went, mainly paintings, but also fences and tiles.

Got there about 2. There was a cat sleeping on a chair nearby the whole time. They had music on like Tambourine man, Simon and Garfunkel, Wild World, Starry Starry Night. We ordered the zucchini pancakes again. August had a mango, peach, and yogurt smoothie and I had a Turkish coffee. We got his iPad out and did a little art (abstract, of course), but mainly he talked and wanted to sing. Didn’t want to read either. It was fine, but he had a tendency to get loud. So not exactly an ideal coffee shop visit. I.e. I didn’t get any reading done.

August got a bit sleepy and pretended to be a cat sleeping with his head on the table. We petted the other cat, sleeping on a pile of papers by the front door, on our way out and left a little before 3.

Pointed out more abstract stuff on our way to the car. I had found a old battered painting of a man with a face made out of birds on the way there and sent a photo of it to Carly. Should have bought it to hang out on our porch. Forgot about it on the walk back.

We drove about 15 minutes to a park to the northwest. Parked and walked to it, only to find the play areas roped off. August found a broken bench, then we walked over to the exercise equipment and played on it. August really gets going on the one that swings side to side and we discussed how he can actually go farther than me because he’s short and thus his hips don’t hit the side.

We went to the bathroom, then on the way back he found a green rope climbing thing and wanted to climb on it. He hung from it and said he was a sloth. In the meantime he noticed that the tape was down from around the play structure. So we went and played on it. 10 or 15 minutes.

We left about 4:15. Listened to music the whole way home. He requested Chemical Brothers and the Elements song. We were home by 5:20.

He and Carly played with the magnets and stuff. He said to her “Mama, there’s real science to do!” He played the Robot Factory app for a bit. When he ran off to the bathroom he told me to design a robot. When he came back he said “You didn’t do the work I told you to do!”

Had some spaghetti for dinner, then did more playing with Carly. The did some sentences and math on the white board and Duplos. They made a really tall tower that he knocked down by blowing on it. I traded with her and we made a helicopter shaped thing, which he said was a wind turbine.

He ate the last piece of birthday cake. He was asking about da Vinci and said that da Vinci invented him as well. We went to the couch and read Madeline and the Bad Hat and part of Hilo 3. I took him up and got him ready for bed. Carly came in and he was asleep about 9.

Abstract: 

He was talking in his sleep. Carly had to get him back to sleep a couple times. He was up at 7:15. He watched an episode of Wild Kratts. We then played a little of that awful Street Music app. Then he found Chess. We did a little of the tutorial and then two games with the computer set at level 1. At one point he said “I love chess.”. We went to do magnet science and used a Duplo car to make a car we could push with a magnet.

Listening to music. He requested “Like I Used to Be” and asked to be picked up. We danced to it and “Endencino” and “Elements”. Then I set him on the couch and listened to other songs. During “Song for 5 and 6” he lay his head on my shoulder. We were listening to my Songs for August Zinn @ 4 playlist.

We started to head upstairs and he gave me a look and said “Don’t forget a little something something for me to eat upstairs.” Made him peanut butter crackers. He found wax from the cheese last night on the floor: “I think I have a special fluid that senses it. A microscopic fluid you can’t even see…” Sure that was from Wild Kratts. He watched Wild Kratts squid and sperm whale episode and I took a shower, after which he was making loud sperm whale noises. He wanted to play with the kaleidoscope cards in the bedroom so we did that. He was playing under the blanket and saying “Who knows what’s going down in the deep sea.” He was then stealing the kaleidoscope cards. He said “Do you know what’s going on?” When I said no he replied “Then you should learn it from a scientist!” He said “I’m in the subnivean zone!” That as definitely the word of the day and it came up a lot. That’s the area below the snow where animals are able to keep warm and live through the winter.

We did his bath and I had to hurry him a bit before the siren drill. He’s been pretty calm with the washing the last few days. We got downstairs and heard the siren drill at 11:05. They aren’t very loud from our house at all. We sat in the stairwell and discussed why that was the best place to be. I mentioned that Carly and her students were practicing going to the safe room at that same time. He seemed incredulous: “How do they practice going in the room? There’s a door and they go in it, right?”

We were going to Ace to get the duplicate keys for the kitchen door fixed, so I was studying them with the door to see what was wrong. August enjoyed messing with the door. He requested some of the fancy cheese and we ate some. He said “It tastes like salmon.” Because it is smoked. Also sliced an apple and he had a slice before we left at 11:35. I got him in his seat but he noted “I’m kind of loose.” I tightened it and he declared “More safe.”

We went to Ace and convinced the guy to grind down the edges of the keys. We also bought wood glue to fix the cabinet door and a couple of car wash mitts.

We then walked a couple blocks north to where the movie theater is (I carried him much of the way) and got a couple slices of pizza at a pizza place there. August was a sort of Waze machine that gives you options for how to get someplace and gives you the directions. Pizza place was much like the one in town (slices on cardboard, same sort of drinks) but had more pizza options. We sat and ate and he asked “What does three minutes flat mean?” And said “I can bake a cake in nine seconds flat.” Think it is a phrase from Wild Kratts. He asked about the word ‘instructions’ and also how the car can tell us where to go: “How can the car do that though?” He also asked “How do people make shows like Wild Kratts?” And he wondered how they know everything about the animals, and then how scientists actually study the animals.

We then drove the north route into Even Yehuda. As we parked down the street from the post office at 1:30, the song “Almost Loved” came now. He was excited and said “I think that was a mystery song!” One that he’d been humming at some point.

We didn’t take anything with us to the post office to mail a letter for Carly. Didn’t expect it to take as long as it did – probably close to 20 minutes. August wasn’t too happy about the wait, but we made it.

We were running short of time to go home and then walk, so we decided to just drive to school. Parked, then walked down to the preschool playground and found his class playing there at 2:15. A girl told us the sandbox was closed. August kept saying “I already knowed that” (he’s kind of big on claiming he already knew things) and when I said she was just being helpful he told me  “I already knowed that. But still…” He played on his own, taking all of the pieces of wood and stacking them and pretending they were a fire and roasting marshmallows. The class went in a little past 2:30. We helped clean the playground up a little and played a bit longer.

Went in at 2:50 and wandered upstairs and played with the old overhead projector which they are using as a sort of light table with transparent blocks. There were also 5 plastic lemons and oranges, kind of random, that we spun. And he wore a hard hat. He went in to coding class at 3:10. I sat right outside the room (partially because the AC was too cold in there). He called me in twice to show me what he was doing or to ask for help, but otherwise did just fine on his own. They did a color-by-numbers thing (his first experience with that) then did iPad coding games.

We went to the library and played with the chess pieces for awhile. I played one game. He is getting down the piece names, at least. We then went into the kids books area. He played with the Legos and I sat and read. Carly was staying late as she needed some planning time. August got hungry and we went out to eat an apple. August was asking me why I like to follow instructions and signs, then we heard the sounds of the robot team in the back part of the library. We went and watched them try out their new robot for the first time. Pretty cool. Liz and her daughter Lilian came and stood by us. They were eating an orange. August busted them: “They are eating in the library.” Liz said he was right and they would take it back to her desk.

He played a bit more, then we picked up the Legos and went out to eat the Larabar. That was where we were when Carly showed up at 4:55.

We were home at 5:15. The keys work, although a bit rough. August was itchy again today, and even had scratches on his leg from where he was scratching himself last night. August said “The cream we bought doesn’t seem to be doing biological magic.” ‘Biological magic’ seems like a Wild Kratts phrase as well and he kept asking about it. They played with magnets, we had some yellow cheese, then they did more Tetris.

I got him a bowl of broccoli and sweet potato. He ate the broccoli but said he didn’t like the sweet potato because of the texture. He ate more broccoli, then I got him a slice of cake. I then let him “sneak” a little more frosting when he said he wanted to just look at the cake again. We then read the Swap book from the library last week a couple times. He wanted back in the cake container, but I wouldn’t open it. We joked that there were lizards in it. He had a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter.

Carly took him up and got him ready for bed. I went up at 8 and he said he wanted to fall asleep with me. I told him about getting our first cat, Jupiter. Carly came back in and took photos of his itchy spots for the nurse. He asked why we have eyebrows and lashes. He was saying something about that then said “Grr” and flung himself over on his side, his forehead pressed against my lips. He was silent for a few minutes and I thought he was asleep. Then he whispered “How do we make plastic?” I said it was from oil and he said “But isn’t it a liquid?” He was scratching, so I went down and got the cream. Carly came up and also gave him some of the allergy medicine.

I stayed with him for another 20 minutes or so but he wouldn’t calm down like the one t
ime. He asked “What’s scientists?” I said we could answer his questions in the morning and he said “What do you mean? They’re very cool. And you might not remember them again.” “Where does everything in the world come from?…My hypothesis…Everything  comes from something else…but that doesn’t make sense.” Carly and I switched at 8:45 and she was back down just a few minutes later.

7:08. Called for Carly, then stopped mid-stairs and sat down when I said she was at work. Asked “What you mean?” He had some excellent morning hair, then when I said to smile for a photo for mama he gave a good friend of sorts. He watched an episode of Wild Kratts (on spider monkeys – brachiating is likely to be the word of the day), then we got season 2 of Sarah and Duck. Sarah takes the shallots for a bike ride and as they ride by the bread shop they call out “bluebirds!” I asked “bluebirds?” And August said “It’s a kind of bread.”

He played Monster Physics and just made a couple of inventions: a claw machine one, then a rocket. He wanted a big cage to keep the rocket from going all the way to space, so we made a huge rocket cage and had fun with the rocket bouncing around in it. He wanted the song “Rocket Man” and was first humming it. We then listened to the real song and I picked him up and we were dancing around to that  and Matt and Kim’s “Like I Used to Be”. He requested that song again, and twice when I set him down he asked to be picked back up.

He watched the Will Kratts giraffe episode while I took a shower. During his bath we watched a YouTube video called “The biggest Lego machine in the world”. He, being a machine, had all the parts: “I have that, I have that too…I have everything…including the Arctic Pearl.” He watched a second Lego machine video and started narrating it, and did it in song, singing something like “Then it goes down a winding inclined plane” to the tune of “Rocket Man”. He asked how smelling works, and we ended up watching two KidsHealth videos: smell and body shape.

He had naked time downstairs as I got snacks ready. He also requested to listen to “Electricity”. As he ate pasta he then had a mystery word that sounds like ‘quick’, but wasn’t. He came over to me, grabbed my head and pulled it down, and carefully said it into my ear. Couldn’t figure out what word it was. He asked “Why’s mama always want me to eat broccoli?” He was playing with the magnets on the floor and asked how magnets actually work. We watched a couple of videos about magnetism as we sat on the floor of the kitchen playing with the magnets. DUring the Dr. Binocs video it asks “Did you know that the Earth acts like a giant magnet?” August replied “I DID know that!”

He then ate all of his broccoli and got to have birthday cake. I told him we were done watching videos and were going to go. He said “But I like seeing things! … But you can learn things outside too, right?” We left at 1.

Outside, he discussed the difference between the words “Ultimate” and “alternative”. Both used in the song “Electricity”. “I’m the ultimate discovery…I’m an alternate discovery.” He was then poking his stick through the bamboo wall: “I’m gonna reach far into the deep blue depths!”

We drove to Kadima Forest. We had been there once with Carly. Found a quicker route this time as Apple Maps had led us wrong the first time. There was a big group of kids and parents there – some parents group thing. August was initially put off because he thought the playground was too busy. They were having some gathering though, so there were only a couple on the rope climbing structure. He climbed on that for a minute, then went over to the almost empty play structure and went back and forth on the bridge. But then he was ready for a walk.

We went and got the big backpack (the backamapack) out of the car. Went to a table and got him in it. He thought he was going to be too big, but felt just fine in it. We then wandered around the dirt roads in the park. He was in the backpack for 35 minutes and we did just over a mile. Just like it used to be. He hasn’t gained much weight, and I wasn’t carrying any iPad, etc. Along the way we spotted several flowers and some birds, and animal and human tracks in the dust. We found one place with a view across the fields, to the northwest, and he spotted the power plant off in the distance. He talked about having “eye power”.

I had found a decent walking stick along the way, which he held onto as we walked. When we got back to the playground area he stood on a couple of picnic tables and played with it, hitting the tables. He then started to draw pictures in the dirt and spin around with it. He asked me to translate a sign (where you put your ashes from fires), then he got to go to the bathroom outside.

We left at 3:10. Took the stick with us. He wanted to go to a less busy playground. We’d spotted a couple on our drive, so we drove back and stopped at one in north Even Yehuda, next to a synagogue. It was actually kind of taken over by teenagers when we got there, but he was intrigued that they were throwing around pieces of the broken ground cover stuff. And most of them took off soon after we started playing on the teeter totter sort of things. August then climbed up a tall ladder, and I’d toss pieces up to him and he would slide them down the slide. Played around like that for quite a bit. He also had me climb up in it with him, up the short ladders, then a tube you climb up. I didn’t fit too well, but made it, then we went down the big tube slide.

We got a drink, played with the broken buttons from an old cassette player, then he stacked pieces of the ground cover stuff on one side of a teeter totter thing and then shook them off by going on the other end.

We headed home about 4:15. Thought we were going to get home right after Carly, or spot her close to home, but actually got her just a couple blocks from work. I rolled down August’s window and he shouted “Hi Mama! Want a ride?”

We were home before 4:30. They played with magnets, then he and I read I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew. They then played with the Makey Makey and got into Tetris. I heated up dinner for him, and eventually they stopped. Well, August didn’t want to and had a big tired fit. He was crying “I’ll try to be good!” Carly got him calmed down. He ate his spaghetti, but skipped all the meatballs. When asked why he replied “No, because if I eat them it will turn me the size of a toe!” Carly mistakenly said something about him being a toe, and he said “No, the SIZE of a toe!”

When they had gone to the store yesterday, he had picked out one of those fancy cheese for me, the smoky yellow cheese. He spotted it and suggested we open it. We did. It reminded Carly and me of holidays and Hickory Farms. He and I played one of the new music apps a bit, then read some more of Sisters 3. When he went to the bathroom I finished his meatballs from dinner and joked I was the size of a toe. He joked that he actually was a toe and had fallen in the toilet.

Carly took him up 7:35. I went up about 7:50. Gave it a half hour with him. I was encouraging him to close his eyes and try for another minute at one point and he said “Why do you always suggest what I should do?” And he mentioned telling him what to eat, etc. He then asked “Can I suggest what you should eat?” I said yes, and he said “You should eat Crackers and cake and pasta and oatmeal and chips if you have healthy stuff…” He was very close, but wanted mama. I switched with her at 8:20 and she came back out after about 10 seconds.

Flowers:

Smokey:

 “Seeing power”. Power plant off in the distance: