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He got up right about 7. Heard them start playing with the magnet science kit a few minutes later. I came down and joined them a half hour later and did more magnets with them. They went outside and he ate oatmeal. Came back in and they did Makey Makey stuff – doing the bongos and the guitar ones. He said, with the magnets, I think, “I did an experiment to see how strong the bonds were before the bonds break!” August asked what “but still” meant and I used ‘despite’ in my answer. Carly then joked about what ‘despite’ means. I was heading upstairs to my shower, and Carly taught August ‘bifurcate’ as the word of the day. Think they ripped up a piece of paper.

I took a shower, and when I came down she was vacuuming and August was watching Julius Jr. with his headphones. He got all dramatic over having to take a bath and had to nurse. Then to Carly: “There’s one more thing you need to be nice to me: Let me love you more than you love me.” I took him upstairs for his bath. He shook his slinky and said “That’s like sound waves.” Bath went fine, then he watched Sarah and Duck and ate peanut butter crackers. He requested they do some science before they left, so they did some more magnets. That kit got a lot of use today.

They left at 11:30. They went to the plant store out east. Got plants for her classroom, tomato seeds, and pots to transfer the broccoli into. I worked. They were back after 12:30. They did magnets outside. August dropped one of the magnets and it broke, but it still works because, well, it’s a magnet. He ate broccoli and a piece of cake. And they planted tomato seeds with orange juice as an experiment. I came down to see how they were doing “Hi little ZZ.” He said “You say ‘Hi big ZZ.’ I just turned 4.” He had more oatmeal outside.

They left again. They dropped off the plants at her classroom but didn’t spend a lot of time there, then went to Tiv Taam to do some general grocery shopping. I had more work time.

They got home and Carly got to making spaghetti. August and I did yet more magnets and Makey Makey. I was then trying to get him to go do recycling with me. He got the big foam piece form the magnet set and was playing with it. He asked how styrofoam gets in the ocean. He called it “My most precious foam ever.” All amusing until he started to break it apart himself. I had to take it away and throw it away again (it had been thrown away once, but Carly realized we were missing the white disk that was part of the set).

Finally got him to go at 5:15. We went and did cardboard and glass recycling. Plastic was more overflowing than ever. Don’t know what’s happened to their pickup schedule, but it has been bad for a few weeks. The park was too busy, he said, for playing. He suggested the snakes and ladders playground. I warned that it might be busy too and he changed his mind. He decided to walk around the Holly Block a couple times. We also walked up Kibuts Gulyout, counting cats. And we made up a song about preschool. Something like “Preschool, what will it be like? You’ll learn lots of stuff, it will her be enough, you’ll have lots of fun, in the classroom and out in the sun…”

He spotted a sign he wanted to translate by the synagogue park area. It says ‘No dogs allowed’. He was then joking about magically making traffic on the street and said “There’s more traffic than in the tunnel to Solla Sallew!”

We were home at 6:10. We read Madeline (I had gotten a free copy of that and Madeline and the Bad Hat at the library). He didn’t eat much, even though Carly had made spaghetti and meatballs and sweet potatoes. I finished off the last of the soup.

He watched an episode of Wild Kratts, then we watched Omar in Mexico on Facebook while Cherie watched as well. After that was over he went to the bathroom and talked about having a malfunction. Carly didn’t understand him at first because he pronounces it “mile-function”. She had him say ‘poisonous’, which he still pronounces ‘coisonous’.

I took him up and got him ready for bed. We read Barnyard Dance and The I Love You Book. For each page of that book he would then ask me if I loved him like that. So when I read “I love you when you are sick” he would ask “Do you love me when I am sick?” I would say yes, then read the next page. He did that for every page, right through “Do you love me just the way I am?” So cute, and also good pronoun switching practice.

He talked about going to sleep with me, but when Carly came up to say goodnight he changed his mind. And she was ready to go to sleep too. He was asleep around 8:30.

He was up at 6:35. I said happy birthday and told him mama was downstairs. He started to go down, calling for her, but she didn’t respond. I figures she was outside so accompanied him down and helped him find her outside. A bit later he ate his oatmeal and mango outside. They came in and she taught him some spanish and he destroyed the power plant. They shared the musical instruments, then did some glitter glue. He said he liked it on his hand: “I squish it and glub it and moosh it and…”

He then opened the presents from us: the play kitchen and accessories.

He pretended the grapes were prunes and was pooping everywhere. Don’t know why I didn’t take a video of that. Carly started putting together the kitchen, which came in about 70 parts.

I skyped with my parents. August was pretending to be a baby, so not too communicative at first. Got him to start giving them hints as to what his present was, starting with stovetop of his kitchen. They got it when he brought the faucet, I think.

After skyping, Carly and I were discussing the cake and what shape it would be. He had previously said he wanted square. Carly asked him “Do you want a rectangle cake?” He replied “Yeah, because I like pink.” Interesting synesthesia response. I asked “What color are squares?” “Black. I mean red.”

He watched two episodes of Wild Kratts and Carly sat outside, reading and enjoying the clouds. August went and got her and when he came back in he said “The inside is a disaster.” They went back to working on the kitchen.

I went up and took a shower. Back downstairs they went outside and ate more oatmeal. The kitchen was half done and he and I played restaurant. I would cook all sorts of strange dishes for him. We let him skip his bath as it was his birthday. When he was in the bathroom he took off the roll of toilet paper and asked me “Do you wonder why I have this toilet paper…Its because SOMEONE got peanut butter on the safety bed!” And broke out laughing. He was repeating my line from the other night when Carly was wondering why I had a roll of paper towels upstairs.

He then had his own Thai restaurant and served food to Carly: “What food would you like from Thailand?” We played dominoes, then he played a little Gro Recycling on his iPad. I asked him what color triangles are and he answered “Triangles are green, squares are red, and circles are yellow.”

We took his bike and all walked over to the mall. Parking lot was nice and empty on a Saturday, but August pointed out that the playground was busy. We went to Rebar and ordered a medium banana and chocolate smoothie and sat on a bench in the sun and shared that. We then went to Tiv Taam and did a little grocery shopping, mainly for his cake. They found both regular birthday candles and a ‘4’ candle.

We then headed home, getting here before 2:30. He ran a Thai restaurant and I made a batch of raspberry iced tea – our first iced tea in a few months. He was impatient and wanted to try it right away, so drank a little outside at the table. He wasn’t too impressed, and I didn’t think it had much flavor yet. Carly said she thought it tasted strong enough and I said Carly’s sense of taste was better than ours. He didn’t like that: “Uh-oh. Eck.” He wasn’t really convinced when I tried to explain that it was neither a good thing or a bad thing.

He was a bit whiney for awhile. But turned around when he and Carly had popcorn and broccoli. I went and got a little popcorn and he informed me I had to have some broccoli too. Carly worked on the kitchen and I made the cake with August. He played kitchen with Carly while I then made the frosting. Talking about something she was making he said “I don’t want it until the day that no cars drive on the street.” Referring to Yom Kippur.

We then left for dinner at 5:10. Outside he picked up his shovel and said his joke again: “Do you want to know why I have the shovel?…Its because SOMEBODY got poop on the safety bed!” He was then a plant, wanting to be watered. He asked me to make up a song and we came up with:

“August is four

What is that good for?

Having a cake

And a kitchen we will make.”

We parked a block from Sushi Ishimoto. They’ve changed the menu, so didn’t have an English menu. Translated the online menu though and we got a couple kinds of veggie sushi, the Thai shrimp soup, and the shrimp pad Thai. August used his chopsticks and the wooden ones and said “I put sticks in there and made a lovely sculpture.” He liked the sushi but had trouble eating it: “How can people eat this‽” The food was all very good. He made a very good choice for his birthday dinner. As we finished up they skyped with Cherie and Chuck from the restaurant and August tried wearing the headphones to hear them.

We went for a little walk through downtown, then headed home. Continued the skype call with Cherie and Chuck and August opened his present from them: the Magnet Science kit and the Makey Makey kit. He instantly got into the magnet kit when they opened it up to play with the magnets. They had to hang up to start their English class and we had cake. We sang for him and he blew out the candles.

We had milk and cake at the table. Then Cassie called and we skyped with them. Carly took him up and got him ready for bed. I went up and we played some music apps, then read Tallulah’s Tutu. He wanted Carly and I got her. I left him at 8:35 and he fell right asleep.

He was up at 7:12. I was in the bathroom and heard him coming down. I called out to him, but he didn’t say a word and just headed to the couch. He was quiet for a good 8 minutes as he just woke up on the couch. Then requested Cheerios and Wild Kratts. Watched two episodes then we went and played with Duplos. Actually, it started with him wanting the slinky and I said it might be in with the Duplos. We made a big structure, which was later a power plant, and I said “But still not the slinky.” He replied with “Yep, but let’s not give up. Let’s still try to find Slinky.” And told me “I love building structures!”

I had turned on the new version of Endencino and he wanted it on repeat. After awhile, as he hummed and played in the air, he said “Turn the music off, dada.” Like he couldn’t go back to building because he had to play along with the song. Kept humming it though.

We went upstairs and he had peanut butter crackers and watched more Wild Kratts and I took a shower. I got our snacks together as he finished watching an episode. There was lots of talk about rattlesnakes and roadrunners as he took a bath. When he emptied out the bath toys he said “There’s the slinky!” We’d forgotten he had it in the bath yesterday. He took a long bath. When I was out of the bathroom he poured water on my stool, which was quite funny, to him at least, but then he poured water on the floor. I was able to wash his hair for the first time in four weeks. Did that and got his hair brushed.

We went downstairs and he destroyed the apple core with the apple slicer before we left. At the door he spent a few minutes playing with Carly’s shoes and laces: “I’m trying to figure out how mama puts her shoes together and I’m not sure how.” He was humming Endendino.

We got going and listened to his playlist on the way down. Parked north of the Yarkon River, by the power plant, at 11:25. He liked that, and as we got going he said “I do everything in the world and I’m a part of the power plant.” And he talked about a special microscope and said “The special microscope with all the technology is called the BAC.”

We got walking and headed north, past the lighthouse and towards the airport. He was talking about how complicated he was and I said something about not being able to understand his technology and he said I could because “I discovered a book that had everything in it.”

We stopped at the beach by the airport. We went down and he found a clear gelatinous blob that turned out to be a dead squid or something and he poked at it with a stick. I also started taking photos with my big camera for his birthday portraits. He was really interested in the camera and I showed him how you can change the aperture.

He mentioned needing a bathroom, so we got going. He had a new mystery song and we stopped to record it. We then stopped at a boardwalk area for a snack. We also played more with the camera and he was trying to take photos. He asked what would happen if the aperture was too open and I showed him, and he figured out that the opposite would make it too dark. There was was hole in the deck and he said “Warning, warning” in a robot voice. We were discussing the hole and whether it was supposed to be there or not, and he told me “Still, cracks happen.”

We took a slight detour to take a quick look at the big playground. He spotteda couple chairs and said you could eat in those chairs. I said we too bad we didn’t have our pizza yet. He said “Yeah, but still. Are you going to say ‘Good spotting’?”

“Yeah, but still” was the phrase of the day. He said it 50 to 100 times. We continued  on and found a bathroom. He really liked the toilet bursh holder “Its really colorful. Abstract. It looks like a tuba.” And then the toilet paper: “Whoa. I love those abstract pictures on it!”

The pizza place seems to not exist anymore, but there was a place called Greg Cafe. Busy though, and we put our name on the waiting list. I said we could go somewhere else if he liked, and mentioned the McDonald’s. He said we could go but shouldn’t get “The squeezing thing you didn’t want in the car.” Took me awhile to remember the fruit squeeze thing he got the last and only time we’ve been to McDonald’s in Israel, which was several months ago. I didn’t know if the lid would go back on, so I had told him he could have it at the restaurant or wait until we got home.

Anyway, he was happy to wait and we got into Greg Cafe and ate inside. He ordered the pizza with corn. I had the salmon shawarma. For his smoothie we ordered mango and pineapple. Then found out that they were out of mango. And strawberry. And banana. We tried melon and pineapple with a yoghurt base. I had a macchiato. Lots of “Yeah, actually.” He talked about the Eretz museum and asked about the rotating exhibits: “what is it called?” “temporary”

Had a good lunch, and we played with the camera more. He tried taking photos of me looking at books. He had spotted a book on Marie Curie when we first came in, and we ended up getting it as his birthday book later. He ate some pizza, had some smoothie (didn’t drink a lot, but he talked about how it was good, and a new flavor), and ate a few chunks of my salmon. There was a dessert thing that camewith his – a little roll with chocolate in the center and frosting to dip it in. There was leftover frosting so he used his fingers. Messy, so I got out our apples and the crusts from the peanut butter sandwich and he used those to finish the rest. I asked if he wanted more pizza and he said “I’d totally love more.” It was too cold for him though so we took it for home. Finally flagged someone down to get the check and we then went to look at books.

Also considered getting a nice edition of Greek myths, but they were in plastic and couldn’t see them. Settle on the Marie Curie book, then he found a box of dominoes. He’s been interested in those so we chose those two items. As we went up to play they started to put up fences closing the book side. He was a bit concerned we were going to get locked in.

We left and went across to the pretty-big playground August had spotted. A busy place. He did some climbing, crawled in a bike rack (he was a mouse), and made his way over to the pirate ship play structure. Spent a good amount of time there. He played with the telescope and said”I see someone coming on the ship. I want them to…What’s it called when they have to go in the water and die?…Yeah, walk the plank. I want them to walk the plank!”

We slowly made our way back to the bike. He stopped at a table and lay down on the bench for awhile. Then got a turn in the round thing and lounged in there.

We went back over to the boardwalk and to the carousel. He first went on the donkey, which rocks. Mid-ride I switched him to one of the horses, which goes up and down.

After the ride he wanted to play in the sand area. He was dropping sand to see it blow away, then dragging his hands through to make tracks. We went to the far (north end) and he spent several minutes just playing with his shoes and the sand. I went and sat over on the edge and read for awhile. We saw an older boydrive a four wheeler over the edge. He fell 3 or so feet onto the sand. Luckily no one below and he cried a bit but was okay. August came over to me and stole my hat and went and filled it with sand. Hard to pull him away as it was such a nice spot and moment. At one point, as we played in the sand he said “Do you want to know if I’m excited to turn four?…I am.”

We left at 4:10. Stopped at the bathroom again. Then we rode over a little hill thing in a square between some buildings. He got off the bike and went on top of it and pretended it was the Tortuga, the ship in Wild Kratts, and that it couldn’t swim nd he fixed it so it could. That’s a storyline in one of the episodes.

We paused on the bridge to look at the river. He asked “What happens if you out
a cup in there and drink it? Would it be salty or not?” We talked about that and he spotted a pipe/tunnel emptying into the river.

We were driving at 4:35. “Canon in D” came on his playlist and he wanted it on repeat and I said no – too much sleepy music. We listened to super music instead. We got home at 5:15.

Carly was outside. We went and looked at the plants and he noticed that Carly had watered the plants. Carly showed us a broccoli that is growing. We went inside and they opened the dominoes. He said “The person that used their pieces first wins, but NO WINNING IN THIS GAME!” Carly made popcorn and they ate it outside. She hadn’t put enough za’atar on it for him so she had to make his own bowl with more. He came in and used the bathroom. He asked me”How does electrons go through metal if it’s a solid?” And “How does wind work?” Ones to look up later.

He went back outside with Carly and a minute later I heard a squeal. He had bit his tongue. He came in saying “I won’t eat popcorn anymore!” They read the Marie Curie and he took photos of Carly with my camera. We talked about the SD card of the camera and a bit later he asked me “What’s ‘information’?” He told Carly “Can you be someone taking a photo with a special camera and I’ll be the information and I’ll be the camera reading the information?” Acted that out a few times.

He ate some pasta for dinner and then showed Carly our Duplo “Powerplant” from earlier. He told her “Only people that have superpowers can understand it.” They made a Lego powerplant. I took over and added to it. He told Carly “That’s the crown. I told dada not to destroy it because I love it.” And at some point we were playing in the kitchen and he started Qing things.

Carly went to take a shower. He sang from his songbook, then we played Musyc. I took him up to get ready for bed. He told me jokes as I carried him: “Why’d the doorbell ring?…Because it’s human.” “Why’d the clog get drained?…Because it’s full of water.” He really laughed at those.

Carly went to bed with him and he was asleep by 9.

Pre-birthday lunch:

He was up at 6:40, right after Carly left. Not enough sleep. Got to hold him for a couple minutes, then he requested Wild Kratts. He watched the hummingbird episode, then just a little Max and Ruby. We played a little Seuss Band then read Oh the Things You Can Think!, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, and The Cat in the Hat. Ate some peanut butter crackers then played with Duplos and his slinky. We were making tall DNA-like structures with the Duplos, then he was using the slinky like a whip to knock them down. He found if he hit the stool legs with the Slinky it wrapped around them and got stuck, which concerned him at first, but then he liked it.

Did a big kitchen mixing experiment using more oil this time and I exercised, then we watched the Wild Kratts seahorses episode together and went upstairs. He watched the dolphins episode as I took a shower. He came in the bathroom saying “Click click”. We went downstairs for Seuss Band and to listen to “Electricity” on repeat. He requested it and said “I was thinking about it.” He was playing Wild Kratts and said “Let’s power suit this.”

Went back upstairs for his bath. We hooked all the cups together and he put the toy basket thing on the edge of the tub, leaning against the wall and put all the toys in it to test how strong it was.

Back downstairs he ate a good lunch: several strawberries, some soup, and milk, which he requested. He said”I figured out wht mama wants me to drink milk so much. Becuase it makes your bones healthy and strong.” He then said “I turned into an animal that has ecolocation!” And “My health meter says I need to eat ONE MANGO!” He had also eaten some frozen mango for breakfast.

He then talked about all his senses and how he was built. Went on for minutes. He was discussing both ecolocation and the platypus sense. He explained how his senses attached to his system. He opened all the doors on him: “I’m the best discovery ever!” “I have ALL SENSES! Can you believe it?”

We were getting ready to go and I asked if he needed any cream. He wasn’t itching, so I didn’t put any on. But he said”But what if it’s itchy but I just didn’t notice?”

He randomly said “I remember something about an island…They turned it into a jail…Then they turned it into a museum. Because it got too expensive.” I asked “Where did you learn that?” “Maybe from mama. Mama knows a lot of things. Why does mama know a lot of things?” Turns out Carly had told him about Alcatraz when she told him about her trip to San Francisco.

We left at 1:20. He ate the last Haman cooking on the way, making it last the whole trip. We listened to Story Pirates on the way and he was asking me more about Squarespace when we got out of the car.

We went to the library first, at his request. No books, but he played with the stuffed shark for a few minutes, carrying it around. He heard the printer and said “What do you mean? You said the power is out.” We hadn’t discussed that since the morning when Carly told us that all the power was out in the school. But it had come on  after a couple hours.

We ended up over at the chess set and clock. He wanted me to play, and I played two blitz games against myself. He enjoyed that. I was then teaching him the names of the pieces, how they move, and how they are set up.

About 2:20 we headed to the preschool playground. Part of the PKB (his class) class were out on the playground. A girl ran over and offered him an apple, then Ms. Marion came over and offered him some more. He was a little overwhelmed at first, and went off on his own to play the musical instrument by the sandbox, then to play in the sandbox. But then some of the other kids were playing around the sandbox, and when it was time for them to go in and get ready to go he helped clean up the sandbox toys. He then wanted to head inside with them.

We went in and watched them get ready to go. Class was kind of crazy today, perhaps because of the earlier power outage. The bus kids left, leaving August and Ori and Junyeok. They all played with the light table and built with blocks on it. Junyeok showed August how the switches to turn the table on worked and he was really excited. He had also found a few buttons on the floor, and then we were trying to solve the mystery of where they go. He found where they went on the craft table.

He was having fun so it was a little difficult to get him to head to Hebrew. We made one more stop on the way when he found the water table was outside with water in it and the bead things were all big.

Then up to Hebrew. He did fine. In fact, he had the opening activity down, where they pass the ball around asking each other their names. He passed the ball to the next boy, repeating “Shalom. Me ata?” after Myriam. They did color games, finding red, yellow, and orange things around the room. He was carrying his shoes around for a few minutes as he searched for things until Myriam convinced him to set down his shoes. Four other kids there today, Maya, Lana, Tomaso and one other girl. They were rather crazy too.

They moved to the table to color a sheet of orange, yellow, and red fruits and veggies. I helped August a bit with that, but not a lot. Myriam noticed that August kept yawning.

After class we went out and played with the water table for several minutes. And the musical instruments. Then we went over to get the bike and he played on the car thing for a few minutes. Breeze was kind of cool and I asked if he wanted his coat. He said “Teleport my creature power suit to me.”

Carly had taken the car to Ikea to get the play kitchen and accessories for his birthday. August and I walked up to his class. He headed down the stairs and announced “I’m here!” Parents were in the room today but didn’t have much to do. I mainly stood at the side. They were pushing the big foam things around and stopping, and he would lay on his all funny. He yelled something about Endencino  to me and it took me a minute to realize it was an instrumental version of the Hebrew song. Very different from the one we have. I figured out it was from Ensemble Baby Oriental and we listened to it later at home.

He was getting tired in class, but made it. At one point he came and said “Low battery, low battery. Is there an outlet in here?”  There was another game where they took rings from one end to put them on cones on the other. He was concerned it was a winning game, but it wasn’t and he really liked it.

His favorite part was the walking path at the end. It was a pretty good one. There was a sort of log part to walk across. He refused my, and everyone else’s, hand every time he walked across it, saying he could do it himself. Sigal is great, but sometimes tells the kids how they’re supposed to do something, when it doesn’t really matter. On the course she first told August he was supposed to slither like a snake, but then realized his hands and feet thing, straddling two blocks, was “Very good idea.” She came over and told me he had had a very good idea too.

Carly was waiting for us outside. She told August the ‘secret’ about his hotdog waiting at home and he excitedly told me. We went home and ate outside, listening to the new music. Back inside He played a little Toca Blocks.

Carly took him up and got him ready and they read some ‘baby’ books like The I Love You Book. I went up at 7:10. The bottom of one foot was itching, and he was confused because there wasn’t a red spot. I went and got the cream, then we tried a little more. He said he needed mama, so I switched with her at 7:45. She told me I had done the hard part, as he then fell right to sleep.

She wrapped the presents in the evening. We also got a box from Cherie, but the box from my parents hasn’t come.

Cocoa mix:

Shark carrying:

Paying attention:

Not needing a hand:

He woke up while I was still up on the bed, about 6:25. He was scratching at his hands and had been itching a lot during the night. He had seemed to develop itchy red spots before his bath yesterday. Ended up with them on his feet, hands, face, and neck, and one on his lower back. They didn’t seem to be spreading though. A bit later I found some Cortisone in the bathroom, so we didn’t have to go to the pharmacy.

Carly headed to work and he watched Wild Kratts. We played Seuss Band. He’s getting pretty good. We then read a lot of Dr. Seuss: The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, To Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street, and Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

I was trying to find the “I Can Dance” song from the preschool yesterday. Not available from iTunes, but finally found it. Need to buy it though. We went and played the camping book with Cubetto and listened to music. One of the obstacles for Cubetto looks like an X and he really got into talking about why X is useful (as a letter, a plus sign, multiplication). In a robot voice he said “Z is very useful cus it is used in zigzags.” Finished the Cubetto camping book, then had some toast with peanut butter and one with cream cheese.

He asked “How can planets be made without people? They don’t have hands?” We discussed the universe and galaxy formation and the Big Bang, etc. “But where’d the dust come from?” I asked his idea: “From a different world.”

He also asked “Why they use the word ‘sister’?” My etymology answers aren’t always satisfying for him: he likes when I can explain the parts of a word, like bicycle. For sister I showed him the OED entry for it and how it came from different languages. Not exactly what he wanted.

We went up and I took a shower. Then he played for a long time in the bath. Allowed me to do some clean up upstairs and put his bed in order, fix the closet doors, etc. In the bath he told me “I’m gonna tell you something about me. I can walk on water.” Me: “Oh, like that animal? The…” “Monitor lizard!” He had learned that on Wild Kratts. At the end of his bath he said “I’m a rubber ducky that came alive.”

He played with the CAR puzzle on his clean bed. I remember when that was too hard for him. He was humming the “Christmas Ameoba”. He talked about not wanting to ever sleep on his bed because he was worried about falling off it. I pulled out the lower bed which he called the “safety bed”. And he practiced rolling off the top bed to see how it feels.

Went downstairs and said I was going to make grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. He said he didn’t want any. I asked “Don’t you like grilled cheese sandwiches?” He replied “Yeah, but not anymore. Remember, things change.” With this last sentence he was giving me a big grin; he was throwing a line I had used upstairs back at me. I had told him that when he said he wouldn’t want to sleep in his bed.

Made a mango and strawberry smoothie and he basically just ate that for breakfast. He was asking how water actually evaporates and we watched a couple videos on the water cycle and evaporation. His big takeaway was that he molecules don’t break apart when they float into the air.

He asked “What ‘hyena’ mean?” Then “What ‘wild’ mean?” I explained ‘wild’ versus ‘domestic’ and he had some difficulty wrapping his head around how animals live on their own:  “Someone has to be with them if they have a baby.” When discussing how they eat: “What do you mean? They have to cook it.”

I let him watch one more Wild Kratts and they used the word ‘adaptation’. He got really excited. A day or two ago he’d been asking me what ‘aventation’ meant and I didn’t know what word he was talking about. He explained that he had meant ‘adaptation’: “We solved the mystery!”

He then asked “Dada, why don’t humans know why all the stuff in the world come to life?”

We got going and down to Poleg Beach about 1:30. He was wearing his pink sunglasses at first but it turns out they are loose on his head and fall off. Switched to the other ones. He had some struggle getting through the sand with the bike down to the beach, but made it. We watched where the stream reaches the sea, then walked along the beach and found a shaded spot to play. Somewhere along the way he asked “How does the force work though?” when referring to gravity. Told him we’d have to look it up.

Got out the beach toys and started playing. First smoothing sand, then burying our feet. Stopped to eat a couple of our cookies. A girl who turned out to be two and a half came over and dropped a blue shovel by August and picked up his pink one and took it back over towards where her mom was. August saw, but wasn’t bothered by it. He ended up being totally cool with sharing all the beach toys with her. She also sat on his bike a lot and played with it and he didn’t mind at all. Such a huge change from a few months ago when he talked about how he’d never let anyone touch his bike, and when we parked it places he was afraid other people might take it or use it.

They didn’t interact a whole lot, but played next to each other. Later, he and I were down near the water and he started spinning around on his hands and feet, making lines in the sand. She joined in and was following him around. The mom came over and talked to me. The girl’s name was Alili (like hallelujah in English). The mom talked about how she’s a stay-at-home mom and how great it is because they do things like go to the beach. The first person I’ve met in all this time who has had the same view on it. And Alili is heading to school next year, mainly for the ability to socialize more, so kind of like August. The mom had also been asked to do a drama program for 4-8 year olds at WBAIS. She was a drama teacher for 10 years and adapts Hebrew stories into plays for kids. She didn’t know how well it would work in English though so she declined.

Back up in the sand, as we were burying our feet, August would be a crab under the sand and then pinch me. We also buried our feet together. We talked about what ‘technology’ means and he said “I’m a so complex technology.” In packing down the sand he said “Get stronger, your majesties!” He had me hold him like a baby and he pretended to fall asleep. He then saw a sign that warns about rip currents and how to swim out of them. I explained it to him, then we acted it out several times. He was the current, and I was the swimmer either swimming the correct way (to the side) or just trying to go back to shore and getting pulled out instead. He’d then tell me to “Swim to the side!”

He went down to the water and he was making shapes with the round cups. Alili and he mom left, then he had me bring buckets of water up and pour them in a little tunnel thing he had made. When I came up once he was cuddling in the sand next to the backpack. He was a bird and it was his nest and he was sleepy. This lasted for several minutes. We added to the nest with the blue bag and the picnic mat over him.

We got packed up and got going. Pushing through the sand to get to the wet sand we actually lost the left wheel of the bike. August fell over. He found it all very funny though. The wheel went back in and still seems usable though, although looser than the right one. We tried to go to the bathroom but they were closed. On the way to the car he saw a white car and said we should get a car like that. He said he would still call the white car “Skoda Mama”. I said it wasn’t even a Skoda. He replied “Well then people will be confused…Yeah, that’s my destiny.”

He asked me to put Cortisone on and requested it “everywhere” it was itchy. More specifically he wanted “Where it starts to be footed.” That is, his ankle. He said his feet bothered him in the night.

We drove up to school (we were listening to old Story Pirates episodes on our drive today) and picked Carly up  a block from sc
hool. I drove them home then I drove to the new Herzliya Medical Center for my follow-up with the doctor. Got there right at 5, but had some reading time until I was called about 5:40.  He looked at it, then said we could take it out. He just reached over and pulled it out before I could say anything. A slight aching after he did it, but not much.

Horrible traffic on the way home. Got here at 6:50. When I arrived they were upstairs. He was saying he wanted to go to bed, and he wanted to sleep with me. He was pretending to yawn. We didn’t think he seemed all that sleepy. I showed them the piece of metal that had been taken out of my hand. About 3 inches long.

Downstairs he played with the vegetable steamer, which we had indeed bought as a toy for him when he liked the one at Derek and Jill’s house. He kept saying “I can’t believe it gets so small!” He was into confusing us mode when Carly asked about something and he said it was from “planet Groovy”. I asked where ‘Planet Groovy’ was from and he replied “Windows!”

He ate some more pasta for dinner. He asked Carly “Mama, why is there borders that make countries in-between?” We had discussed borders a bit when he was asking what a passport is for. There was also more talk of why we can’t know everything – how there’s always more stuff happening and things to learn about.

We played some Seuss Band and read I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and On Beyond Zebra. One more Seuss Band song then we went upstairs. I tried to get him to sleep. He was itchy so I went and got him the cream. I switched with Carly about 9 and they were both asleep soon after that.

He was up at 6:10. He stopped to go to the bathroom on his way downstairs. He wasn’t clear on whether he wanted oatmeal or not but eventually he told Carly he did. While he ate he told me “You should put some music on.” Listened to Idan Raichel.

We played with Duplos when Carly went to work. He was making things that balanced. He played with his bassoon and contemplated moving infinitely slow and an infinitely slow rhythm. Then played with his lever in the chair.

He asked to play Robot Factory and did that for a short time before switching to Toca Nature. When he made a bunch of mountains and made it cold he said “I coldified it with my colder machine.”

When we Skyped with my parents he wasn’t answering questions with straight answers and everyone ended up confused. He invented Confused Day: “This is called confused day. Everyone gets confused. I should invent a non-confused machine…I’m being confused!” He was then pretending to be Cynde the cat for much of the call.

After Skype he wanted to play with Cubetto: “Let’s do the story of it. Every map has a story, right?” We played through the Cubetto’s First Day of School book. Back on the couch he said “There’s rules you have to follow when you’re an adult. Like not hurt people. It’s okay if it’s an accident though.”

He watched Wild Kratts and I exercised. He was then talking about the show: “I have platypus sensory power…electro-reception…I have that sense. It senses electrical charges.”

We went upstairs and I took a shower, then he had his bath. He played for quite awhile, breaking up a small piece of the bar of soap that had broken off. In his room he looked at the insect: “I’m looking at the little hairs. That’s pretty cool…I discovered there’s little hairs under it.”

We took it downstairs and he released it outside. It flew away after a minute. He was then watering plants with parts of the sprayer. I refilled the tube part several times and he could squirt water out of it.

He was singing rocket man and we figured out it was apparently one of the mystery songs he’s been doing, just with a simplified rhythm. He asked me to sing it several times, then wanted to listen to it on repeat. He was asking questions about what it was about and why the guy was lonely. He said “Well, lonely with people, but not with ALIENS!”

He ate yogurt and orange for lunch. Not much. He then talked about an “Organic shark”. I got the slinky that he got at the restaurant with lunch yesterday and he played with that.

We went out the kitchen door and were getting ready to leave. He was playing with something and I said I was going to open the gate. He didn’t hear me, and I heard him trying to open the kitchen door. He thought I was inside and had locked him out and he was sad.

Held him, then we left at 1:10. We were singing Rocket Man and Let it Be on the way up. I told him how I had sung Let it Be to him in Bangkok to put him to sleep. At the school I had my ID ready. Carly had forwarded an email explaining that they were getting stricter about ID cards and security checks.

We first went to the preschool playground. He at first thought I meant we were going to the big kids playground. He argued he was a big kid and so that was the preschool playground. I explained there were even bigger big kids there. He played on the playground by himself for a few minutes. He talked about some food that he and Carly like but I don’t (pickles? Mustard? Artichoke?). I said that was okay because he and I like salmon but she doesn’t. He said “I only like it when you and I like something and mama doesn’t.” And “I want you to at least try it.”

Then much of the PKB class (his class) showed up. They had been picking flowers for Selma’s birthday while some of the other kids took naps. They played on the playground and August kept a little distance, but followed them. One boy, who is also in the coding class, came over to him a couple times.

We then went in for the birthday party. They started with a circle on the floor. August went and sat in the circle and they introduced him and me to the class. They listened to a song and pretended to play instruments to it, which August loved. For her birthday they asked how many fingers is four and August held up four fingers. When they asked who else was 4 August excited joined in the “Meee!” and raised his hand. They did another song, “I can dance”, which has them starting still, then getting up and dancing. Finally, Selma’s mom read a book they had bought for the preschool and he listened attentively.

They then moved to the tables for snack time. He ate a little pear, but mainly the animal crackers, which he wanted to show me. Sang happy birthday, then there was a chocolate cake with blueberries on it. He got a big piece, and I ended up helping him eat it, it was that big. It was then time for kids to head to the busses. August helped me and Selma and her mom pick up a container of colorful counting sticks that had been knocked on the floor (perhaps by her little brother), then August had some time to go up and play with the blocks up in the loft area.

We went up to coding class. He was doing so well I thought I’d try to go back down and ask his teachers a question about when he should start. I explained it to him and he said okay. But when I came back a minute later Karen was holding him and he was crying. I took him and we went out of the room. He pointed to the tissues and then told me “That didn’t go well!” He wanted to go right back in though. He sat at the table and played Scratch Jr. and one other app the whole time. I read and he was asking Karen a lot of questions and patiently waiting for her when she was helping other kids. I spent more time trying to help another kid who was wandering off. I only went to August for a minute where he showed me the level he was on and I helped him figure out what a box did. He then showed me a different level and explained what algorithm he’d have to use – he’s really picking up the algorithmic thinking from this and Cubetto.

When class was over we went out to the small play area on that side of the building. He pretended to cook and we found a block he used to play the musical instruments attached to the wall. There was a platform thing on the ground and I played music and he danced, then we switched.

We went up to the library and he returned three books and we went and found the next Zita book. He was jumping off the reading area, all the way to the second squares. He called it his “performance”. We checked out the book and went over and looked at the chess set. There was a chess clock and I was explaining how it worked when Carly showed up.

He was reluctant to go but we got him out. Carly took him to the bathroom and we got going. We got to our park at 4:50 and wanted to play. Carly headed on home. He first played on the teeter totter thing: “With my hand tools I can do any kind of potion.” And we discussed his birthday cake. Basically, he wants chocolate and a number 4 candle. We went up on the play structure and were catching bouncy beans that escaped (from Julius Jr.): “There’s a lot more bouncy beans. I’m going to turn on my propellor. Can you push the button with a picture of a propellor on it?” He was then inventing: “Inner vision scope…it shows you how different animals see.” “This machine tells you how cool something is.”

I was getting cold and suggesting we head home. He finally decided it was time and we headed home at 5:25. He showed Carly the slinky and I heard him say “…and it’s a winding inclined plane.”

I made dinner – pasta with mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, etc. He was outside with Carly and they did school. She wrote sentences for him and he read them off the chalkboard. My mom had done the same thing with him earlier on skype. He came over to use the food processor to grate the cheese.

We ate dinner, then he
wanted to watch Wild Kratts with Carly. They watched the lion episode together. He then sat with me and we read part of the new Zita book. He made a shaker instrument out of his bassoon and a toilet paper roll.

He was sleepy, so I took him upstairs and Carly got him ready for bed. I came back up a little before 8. I told him about my friend Steven and baseball cards in elementary school. He wants baseball cards now. He then turned towards me and cuddled up and fell right asleep by 8:05.

He was up at 6:55. He watched Wild Kratts then we watched a little of the Formula E race. I got him some peanut butter crackers. We played Seuss Band, then read the rest of Zita the Spacegirl, then started from the beginning again. We discussed asteroids and meteors and the like and he said he could blast “meteor showers”. Not sure where he learned that phrase. He spent time blasting things and talking about how strong his rockets are.

We played one game of Carcassonne. He saw the ad for Super Monsters on Netflix and said “Well, I’m more super.” He watched more Wild Kratts and I exercised. He talked about power suits and superpower disks: “If I have too much food in me I will have a malfunction (mile-function)…I can just handle 19 piles of food.” He made up a letter on the chalk board (like On Beyond Zebra) then we played with the musical instruments and he invented one. He said “I say activating a lot.”

We went upstairs. “I don’t think anyone else eats peanut butter crackers except me.” Yesterday, when we were walking back from town, he said he thought he was the only person that counts cats. He played with the GarageBand sampler and I went to take a shower. He came in and played in the bathroom while I finished. He used Carly’s spray bottle to pour water in the sink: “Look! You don’t want to miss this meteor shower!”

While August was taking his bath I got a message from Betsy saying that today would actually work the best for meeting up. She is an ELL teacher at Mountlake Terrace High School, and her son worked in Korea and I met up with him once. Anyway, August and I had already decided to head to the beach, so I suggested we meet up in Netanya. They had said 30 minutes, so August and I hurried and got ready to go. But it turned out they were faster than they thought, as they were already in Netanya.

In the car we listened to “Electricity” on repeat. August was picking up on words like “ultimate” and “discovery” and “alternate: and discussing them. He was also talking about being a generator: “If they didn’t discover me they would have run out of power. So it is good that they discovered me.”

I gave them the coordinates of Winter Garden Park, but when we got there it turned out they were on the east side. So  August and I drove around and found them. We discussed options and left it up to August. He wanted to play at the spiderweb playground first, so we stayed there.

Played there for 20 minutes or so. I accidentally said he’d start preschool in a couple weeks and he heard: “What? A couple weeks? But it is supposed to be next year.” He seemed okay with my explanation that I meant ‘several’ weeks and that I was starting with him.

He went to the spiderweb and told us it wasn’t sticky. He got glue to make it sticky, but needed scissors to open the glue. He showed Betsy and Shlomo one of the shops he buys things from. They we went on the wheelchair merry-go-round and Betsy went on with him and Shlomo pushed.

Shlomo mentioned ice cream to him, so August was ready to go. We stopped at the bathroom, then led them over to the waterfront and parked near the hotel. Back at the playground August had found a strip of plastic that he then gave to Betsy and she wore as a bracelet. Now, out of the cars, August was telling us that plastic doesn’t break down into dirt and that we should recycle the piece of plastic. So we took it from Betsy and put it in our recycling bag.

We walked on the cliff path and want to the Landwer Cafe down there. They treated us to lunch. August and I had sweet potato and ginger patties with rice. He ate a bit, but not a ton. August was getting impatient for glidha (ice cream). So we left and walked up to the Italian ice cream place at the other end. August chose the Smurf flavor (it was blue, with a picture of a Smurf next to it) and I got caramel. We went outside and ate our ice cream. August didn’t eat all of his, and he joked “I stopped when I got to the Smurf bones.” I said that was some pretty dark humor for a three year old. He then ate most of the rest of mine instead. He liked mine better. He accidentally spilled a little out on the boards, then spilled the rest on purpose when he was done.

We stopped on the walk back up and took photos with the Mediterranean in the background. He stuck his tongue out for photos. He took a good photo of the two of them. I held him up, but he had control of the phone.

They had talked about how they had met at a kibbutz 30-some years ago. He was living there and she was volunteering. They talked about what kibbutz life was like, with the full community deciding things like who got to travel and which kids would go to college.

Said goodbye at the cars and pondered still going to the beach, but realized we didn’t have time. Called Carly then picked her up at school. She asked him what did you do today? He wouldn’t give her a straight answer: “Nothing. Just sat on the couch…Went to California. No, the age of Palestinians.” When she asked what kind of ice cream he had he said “Magical ice cream that gets colder the more you eat.”

We were home at 4:25. He played with instruments and did math ad Duplos with Carly: “But it’s not JUST a bridge.”

I then got going to the guys night. Just four of us today. And Jack was still recovering from some surgery. We went to the Beer Shop place and had a beer (I had a Petrus Aged Red), then got a falafel at the falafel place before heading to Black Panther.

He was asleep at 7:45. They had read some Sisters 3, so he took Marshy up to bed with him, like Maureen with her bunny. They talked about San Francisco before he went to sleep.

He woke me up at 5:53. I went with him to the stairs, then Carly came up and asked if he wanted to go back to sleep. She tried to get him to sleep for awhile but I think they were up around 6:20. They went outside for a bit and talked about how plastic doesn’t biodegrade. And they played with the musical instruments box and played school and he called her Ms. Althauser. I came down a little after 7 and he told me he was playing Toca games on my iPad. Carly then had him finish up what he was doing and offer me the iPad as they had practices. I let him keep playing while I got tea.

He wanted to do an experiment so we took stuff outside and showed Carly what happens when you include oil in the mix. He got some curry powder on his coat and Carly hurried to wash it out. He watched Wild Kratts and continued to watch it as Carly gave him a bath. It went better as he was distracted by the show. But when he came down to me he sat on the couch and said “Bad bath”, unprompted. We did a little Duplos. He asked “What does ‘including’ mean?” Then practiced it “Including the Arctic Pearl.” (The one from the Wild Kratts walrus episode he had been watching.)

They left to head to Ace. August remembered the tape measure in case they needed to measure cushions. They left at 10. They went to Ace and Tiv Taam. Got keys at Ace but the kitchen door keys didn’t work when we tried them. He wanted the candy at the candy stand in the center of the mall and got upset about not having it. They had to sit down and have a talk about it. A few minutes later when they stopped at a bench he wanted to have another talk about it.

Carly had wanted to get a plant for her classroom but they didn’t have the one she wanted at the plant shop at the mall. August really wanted to go to her classroom though so they went anyway. Had fun wearing a crown again.

He didn’t like her music selections or singing for him in the car. They were back 12:35. I’d gotten a good amount of work down and watched TWD in the process.

They ate soup and we opened the green cheese August and I had bought a week ago and ate some with crackers. I was getting him some and he was impatient: “Can I have some? Mama’s the only one eating any.” “It’s good for me cuz I’m a mouse.” Played a little more Duplos before we left. He called Carly “Ms. Althauser?” He calls her that and she calls him “student August” when they play school. He made a zero-gravity machine. Or rather it solved the problem of not having gravity and makes gravity.

We got walking. He was humming/singing the Bippolo Seed. Then did the radio station thing and had me sing Sentimental Wars and On Top of Spaghetti. Got to the hair place in town and Carly got her hair cut. August watched for awhile. Not as exciting as mine, I think, as no clippers involved and August said he didn’t like the scissors. We walked across to look at the toy/stationary store. He played with balls, and then I spotted sunglasses. Got him two pair: a blue-grey pair and a pink pair. Went back and showed Carly.

We walked into town to Malkin. Carly pointed out I talked a lot about sidewalks, as they are finishing the new block of sidewalks headed into town, some sidewalks in town, and then reopening the space in front of the new mall. Realized that I hadn’t cared about sidewalks when I was carrying him in the backpack everywhere, but now sidewalks matter with the bike.

We ordered the green shakshuka with roots salad and then our usual drinks (latte for me, blended coffee for Carly, hot chocolate for August). August was almost indifferent when I asked him what he wanted to drink: “Umm, yeah, fine.”

After lunch August climbed into the ball basket thing and rested in there. He was sort of in a sugar coma or something. I sat on the floor and read Thumbelina to him. He went and looked at the sewing machine again before we left and I was standing with him and we were once again repeatedly warned that there was a needle. Still no needle. Rather amusing.

We left and Carly took him to the bathroom behind the building. I was happy to be able to read a few of the plant signs on the plants planted outside the health food store. We got walking, and he was asking about/using ‘uncommon’ and ‘including’. I said we could teach him a word of the day, and Carly taught him ‘laconic’. He then wanted Carly to teach him about Palestinians. We said it would be easier at home.

I suggested Carly head home to work while we stopped at the snakes and ladders park but he wanted her to play. I brokered a compromise and she played for 5 minutes. We got there at 3:40. He was her escaping luggage. He wanted to drive to Icelaska (which it turns out might be a place in Julius Jr.) then went on the spinning thing with Carly. Carly then headed home. We continued the driving game. He invented the grabinator to catch the escaping luggage (him). We played some Drops AR view to review Hebrew. Then he ran a toy store, where I bought a chess set and he had a countries board game that he invented where you spin and go to different countries. He told me “I want to remind you of something: mama needs to go to the park more often.”

He was then a cold bird and flew to a warm place. I asked here and he said Thailand: “Dada Birdy, this is our bird nest.” He asked “How long can a bird fly?” We looked it up and found that some swifts stay aloft for 2 to 3 years.

Went over and climbed on the rope structure, then he played with the skateboard on rails thing and we talked about momentum and gravity. We left at 4:30. Walked the back route. He wanted to listen to the Electricity song on my phone, so we did that.

Got home at 4:50. Carly was outside. He wanted to play Toca Blocks. Then wanted Carly to teach him something. I tried to teach him musical rhythms, but he wanted Carly. She came in and they did math class. He wanted to make super music and did it in Musyc. Ate some beet greens for dinner and said that was enough. We then read a good chunk of Zita. I carried him up and Carly got him ready. I went in at 7:25. He asked for stories and asked me about 19, I told him about about moving to Seattle at 18. He asked “Were you sad?” He did a good job tying to sleep, but then was saying “I got the candy…I got the treat.” He was pretending to dream about the candy at the mall and talking in his sleep. He started to get sad so I went and got Carly at 8. He asked her for a story and she told him about how Cassie and Christy M. wore the same clothes when they were 5 or 6. August got sad because he wanted to wear the same clothes as someone. Fell asleep by 8:15.

He was up at 6:20. I heard him tell her she could read her book (about an Israeli and Palestinian friendship) and asked her to teach him about it. He told me “I always wake up in the night cuz my power cells are full.” He went outside and played Musyc with Carly. He then came in and played Musyc with me on the couch. Came up with word questions: “What antidote mean?…What counteract mean?” Played some Seuss Band, then Dragonbox Elements. He copied something Carly said, asking “How on Earth am I gonna solve this puppy?”

Carly couldn’t find her pick comb and we eventually found it in the cupboard under the sink. That turned into a game of me hiding it in the bathroom, play area, or his room and him finding it. There was a ladybug sort of insect in his room and we caught it and looked at it. He took the whammy bar off of the guitar and saw the screw part and said “That’s a winding inclined plane.” Using the bug viewer he said “I’m lucky someone didn’t buy this cuz I love bugs.”

Right before they left he went over to where the blanket was folded up and said “I need to do something before we go…I haven’t done this in awhile.” And pulled it out and dropped it on the floor. The winter-long battle between Carly the folder and August the unfolder.

They left at 9:20. The first went to Appolonia (he he liked the it sounded like Castedonia), as Carly is going to be taking a field trip there. Unlike last time, August had a lot of fun there this time. There were a wooden ballista and catapult that he climbed on. And a lot of families with smaller kids. They then went to the big Tiv Taam and did grocery shopping and played on the playground there.

They were back by 1:30. He knocked and I let him in. He told me “We learned about history. Yeah, right mama?” He went to the bathroom and asked me “How does a vacuum cleaner work?” He wanted to find Carly and didn’t realize she was resting on the couch. We searched the whole house, first the yard, then going upstairs, then back to the first floor, with him giggling and looking for Carly the whole time.

Heated up some beet greens and ate them outside. He was then getting really tired and got upset about not being able to use the food processor as a toy. Carly took him upstairs at 2:20 for a few minutes. Came back down and played a little Robot Lab, then GarageBand. He had some peanut butter and crackers, then asked for more. When I took the plate he joked “You took my buttocks!” Carly was watching a video as she made soup. He played loud and said “Mama! You can’t hear your video! I’m playing hard rock guitar!” Carly realized she’d bought mint instead of basil. I suggested we could make mint lemonade and August said “Yeah, mint lemonade! That’s a great idea!”

Carly needed to wash some green and he asked “Can I salad spinner that?” Like how he versed that. He got upset again as I tried to take him out. They nursed, then I got him to help me go do recycling. We then went to the park at 4. He made potions and turned into a creature that made concrete nests. He saw two girls on the swing/his spider web and joked the girls had broken into his safe. He then saw a teenage girl walk past the play structure and thought it was Carly, actually calling out to her a couple times. We went over and played on the exercise equipment. He saw another kid pour some water on the ground so he wanted to do it too. Used his water bottle and refilled it a few times from the drinking fountain.

He got on the bike and we did a little walk, but circled back to the playground and sat on the crocodile bench for a snack. He asked for a Bippolo Speed story. That is, instead of ‘Bippolo Seed’. I made up a story where a honey badger found the lost Bippolo seed and then used it to accidentally wish to go as fast as possible in a race, but then couldn’t slow down and just kept going and going at Bippolo speed. Didn’t get a good review though as he said “That wasn’t very good.” I think because he thought it focused too much on the seed part and not the speed part.

He asked a few times today “What does bellow mean?” He meant like the blacksmith uses, but then later he was asking about the other definition since I had mentioned it. Another little walk and I thought we were going farther, but then he steered us home at 4:45. On the way he asked for a new verse to the On Top of Spaghetti song. Came up with

That is unless

You want a tree

That grow spaghetti

And sauce for free

If that is the case

Here is your plan

When you have to sneeze

Remove your hand

We got home and when Carly went to the bathroom he turned the light off on her – punishment for locking the door so he couldn’t get in. He ate artichoke with Carly outside, then we read some of Zita the Spacegirl. He then did school time with Carly and they did math, then played with Cubetto. He helped clean up and said “It’s not a game with a winner. It’s teamwork.”

Soup was ready and we had some soup for dinner. I noticed that the lights were on on the car and went out and found that the dial was turned. They played a round of cooperative go fish, then we had a cookie. He spontaneously started to make up and tell jokes: “Why did the cookie fly away? It was a bird…Why did the book move? It was a human.”

I took him up and got him ready for bed, then Carly came up and said goodnight. At one point he asked “How can we stop the Earth from having too many people?” He asked me for more stories. Took awhile, but he fell asleep at 7:45.

He woke me up with “Dada?” at 6:18. He went down with Carly and they started reading Hilo 3 a couple minutes later. They read about 40 pages before she headed to work. He watched a bit of a video on how candy is made, then I found one on a loom. Watched part of that. He requested toast and ate it on the floor, then typed on my iPad. He then became a millipede/centipede that wanted to fly (like on Julius Jr.) and had me inventing things for it, and then a caterpillar that was eating everything in the house.

He watched Julius Jr. and I exercised. He asked why Mars is named Mars and I explained the name, which ended with us discuss different gods and he liked the example of Atlas holding up the world. Played some Duplos and he told me “Dada, I was made inside a computer…The people that ran the computer made-ed me. So I have a computer inside me…do you think that is real?…Why can’t we go inside a computer?”

We went upstairs and was going to play GroRecycling on his iPad but suddenly his iPad had an activation lock on it, which I’ve never seen. Took a few minutes to figure that out, then we played the game together and he changed to one Timmy Time story and then the Wild Kratts worm episode. I took my shower. Remembering the Eretz museum he asked “What bellows mean?” “What they call it a blacksmith? Because he was black?”

Gave him a quick bath then we worked on our shopping list and had some peanut butter crackers. He asked “What wee bit mean? My battery will last a wee bit.” He chose the coconut chew Larabar to try today from our iHerb order and he spotted the bag of recycling I had set by the door earlier and said we should do recycling. I thanked him for reminding me and he said “I like it when I know things I need to remind you.”

Outside he hit the fence with his stick and asked “Is this what they used when they didn’t have electronic beat machines?” And he surprised me by asking “Dada, was there a time when there was one human on the Earth or not?” Apparently he had also asked Carly this question. We talked about evolution and how it doesn’t work that way.

He played in the yard and let me walk up the block to get his bike out of the car. We then walked over to the mall. In the grocery store he spotted strawberry yogurt and said it was funny that they had the thing we ate when we first moved into our house in Israel, and he asked why Ada left the food for us. So there’s one memory that’s sticking.

We stopped and got strawberries from the table in the Friday market on our way back and were home by 12:40. He asked “What does modify mean? Do you want to modify my battery?”

As I was putting away groceries he was being whiney for peach juice and he was playing with the broken cabinet door. It ended with having a timeout on the couch. When I was done I asked him to choose a cup for juice, but he spotted the popsicle makers instead. So we made a popsicle. We then had some juice, and he wanted to play Musyc. He said he was going to make me something boring. He made three circle dispensers that just dropped circles off the screen – so no music or sound. It was my punishment for giving him a timeout and not letting him do things.

We watched the Wild Kratts honey badger episode and learned a lot from that as he ate meatballs for lunch and I got us prepared to make cookie dough. We made the dough and I realized that I wouldn’t be able to knead it properly with my cast. Which was okay as we were going to refrigerate the dough and finish the cookies after dinner. He did a pretty good job of kneading it on his own though.

We cleaned up a bit and finally left at 2:15. Had thought we might see some of the Purim festivities at the school but we were later than I expected. Okay as we had had fun. In the car he had taken his stick, and he wanted a super music song. Found Bjork’s “Innocence” on his playlist and he was dancing to it with his stick. As we got to the school he talked about how he is good at music. I let him out of the car but then told him I wanted to back the car up a bit. He was a bit nervous as he stood on the sidewalk and watched me start up and move the car without him.

As we went in he told me all his powers. There were a lot of them including “Cactus power, breathing in smoke power…” He said “Now you know all my killing powers…” but assured me that they were just for killing monsters and animals that wanted to eat people. He then asked “Why do they call it the universe? Why is there that ‘uni’ in it?” Speaking of powers, earlier he had told me that his everything power doesn’t really exist because you always learn things.

We went to Carly’s classroom. We had brought the sewing kit and tape so Carly could further fix the beanbag. We were going to drop it off, then go up to the exercise equipment towards the studio as he had asked several times to go there so he could go faster than light again. But once in the classroom he wanted to watch her sew. And he played on the stool that can zoom up and down. He really liked the purple thread, but Carly wanted the red. Carly said she was going to see his shirt to his arm. He said “That’s funny.”

I went to the library on my own. Picked out a book on Greek mythology called Z for Zeus and found a graphic novel called Zita the Spacegirl, which might be a good followup to Hilo. When I returned they had the India board game that Carly had found under her sink.  I did two notes of the Jaws song and he instantly said “I’m scared!” Haven’t even done it for months. Funny how much he reacts to it, and it’s not like I really traumatized him with it.

He said to Carly “Let’s learn more about people that use swords.” And he used the plastic sword to poke off my hat. He and I played with the India game and he stacked the game pieces on top of the globe.  I offered to help, I think after I bumped the globe with my foot and knocked them off at one point and he said “And I want to do all of it myself. It’s kind of that thing.” He then really enjoyed wearing a crown from the costume box. He was asking constant questions of Carly – what she used things for, what she taught her students, etc. They got the crosses out of the box and did a parade and he wanted her to teach her about the Crusades. We left at 3:50. He said “I had so much fun in tour classroom.” So we had kind of planned to move more quickly today and get to school early enough to see some of the Purim stuff (it turned out the parade had been at 1), but we had a fun day nonetheless.

We drove home and Carly suggested cooking and eating the beet greens. She said “They’re magical.” To which August replied “But Dada said that magic doesn’t exist.” He was excited about doing the job of spinning the greens in the spinner. Then played Musyc. He asked “What definition mean?” Kinda some meta-etymology there, asking for meanings of words about the meanings of words. Ate the greens, then Carly found the popsicle he and I had made earlier. He got to eat it. His hands were cold though so he asked for the nursing mittens and wore those.

He helped Carly clean up duplos. I looked at Airbnb for places to stay in BC this summer. He used his headphones and watched Sarah and Duck and peanut butter crackers while she vacuumed. I tried to get him to read books but he went and got Carly to finish cookies. He told her “I have a health meter in my body and it is at half so I can eat cookies until it’s down to zero.” That is, the popsicle had taken it half down, but he could still eat more unhealthy food today.

Carly finished the kneading for us, then he and I used a cup as a cookie cutter and made the cookies. When I turned on the oven August went and asked Siri on the iPad “Siri, how long do snickerdoodles take to bake?” We also made the cream cheese and chocolate filling. We made most of the cookies into the traditional triangle shape. I did two with jam, the rest with chocolate since we made plenty of
filling and that was the preference of two-thirds of the family. August found the triangles difficult so started doing different shapes and made one cookie into a square and it ended up looking like a flower. He also made a sort of hotdog one.

When we were done and they were in the oven he said “I was helping you cuz your hand is broken. I was helping extra.” He was being a worm on the couch (from Wild Kratts – and he had me using a slime detector and spraying him with slime so he wouldn’t dry out during the day). We read some Hilo, then had a cookie. Then Skyped with my parents. He remembered that my mom really liked cinnamon rolls and snickerdoodles – when he was supposed to tell them what we made, those were the first things he said.

Carly took him up and I skyped with them for a few more minutes, discussing summer plans. When I went up he sang a cool song to Row Your Boat including words like “watchy, row your boat, brush your teeth”. I left them at 8:35. They nursed, but he asked Carly to tuck him in, then he fell asleep on his own.

He had also asked Carly to teach him about Palestinians earlier in the day.

Yesterday we picked the new Larabars up at school. He tried a peanut butter and chocolate chip yesterday, and a chocolate coconut chew one today.