Category: Uncategorized

He was up at 7:20. We sat on the couch and I asked if he wanted to read Hilo. First thing he said to me today was “What do you mean? We’re in the age of dinosaurs. It hasn’t even been invented.” He asked for Cheerios and while I got them he then asked “I will tell you something: how do you make the weird cone that goes with ice cream?” So that led to watching a video about how ice cream bones are made, then his old favorite ink video, which he said he remembered. We paused from that to watch a Sesame Street video of Endendino (https://youtu.be/TdpjO_8L3r8) and listen to the version we have.  He finished a second ink video, then wanted to play Musyc. He talked about how making lines and having shapes bounce off them to make music isn’t really real, and that he calls that ‘super music’.

He was interested in zucchini bread when I had it with butter, so I got him some. We read some Hilo from where he’d gotten with Carly. He asked “Can I have a shirt with a Z on it?” And said “I have way more powers than Hilo…magic power, and rule power, and knowing everything power.” We read through chapter 6. Played some Sound Rebound and then I showed him the video Sumoud https://youtu.be/g3R9E6T-rRU, about a Palestinian family who has had their home destroyed, skipping much of it to focus on the parts with Sumoud in it. He was grumpy after that, I think still processing what we’d talked about about being nice to people. He said he was doing things I wouldn’t like, but then wouldn’t stop so we had a timeout on the ouch.

We then made and had a strawberry and mango smoothie. Drank that, then he wanted to do an experiment. We added oil this time and then had fun adding food coloring to the water or oil. Then, when we started added cinnamon, baking soda, etc. it got really clumpy, making a bumpy landscape at both the top and bottom of the water. And making blobs sink and bubbles go back up. August did a great job of cleaning up all the bottles when we were done.

He watched Julius Jr. and I took a shower. We watched the Marble Machine update video but skipped through much of it and then videos on how candy canes and ice cream sandwiches are made. Gave him his bath. He sang Endendino and scrubbed with the toothbrush. He got the bar of soap and played with it in the bath, making the water white and losing the bar under all the toys.

Downstairs he wanted to play Toca Blocks. And he spotted something in the game that he thought we hadn’t discovered how to make – a mailbox. He wanted to figure it out, but I said it may take a long time. He said “Yeah, but we can try. That’s what discovering is Al about.” He spent some time trying to make it by combining blocks – he called the advanced blocks “The specialies”.

He wanted meatballs for lunch so I made him 4 and he ate most of those. We got leaving after 2. He played instruments with his stick from yesterday outside, then he started singing “Oh my goodness he stays awake for weeks.” He made up a new tune and took words from my song about him not falling asleep but added the “Oh my goodness” part on his own.

We were taking a bunch of supplies, including the iron and ironing board, to Carly so she could fix one of her bean bag chairs. There are little flexible rubber pieces on it and in the car he speculated what they are for: “My only idea is…”

Talking about his new version of the not sleeping song and the tune/patterns he made up he said “It didn’t exist until I made with up.” Which I think goes back to a conversation I had with him months ago where I explained why I liked abstract sculptures, because when a sculptor makes a new shape it is the first time it has ever existed.

Got to school about 2:30. Saw his future class down on the playground, but they were going back in right as we got down to the preschool playground. August played on the playground for awhile, then about 2:50 the classes started to leave to go to the busses. We went into his classroom and he looked around. He went under the loft and liked the rather curvy mirror on the wall and how it made the floor look hilly/holey. Maaian came through and talked to us. August told her how he accidentally erased a little from the whiteboard and she said it was okay. He also told her how he liked the mirror. He then went up to the loft and was commenting on how messy it was up there as it hadn’t been cleaned up. The teachers came back and I talked to Anna about when we could come and visit. We settled on Tuesday at 2 as they will be having a birthday party then. August dropped down a couple of pieces to me (well, tried to get them past me) from the loft, then we got going to the Hebrew class.

We went up to the class. He went right over and sat in the circle. I sat off to the side more and read most of the time. More about Purim today. We had to change rooms as carpenters were coming in. In the other room they did a Purim song and got noisemakers and each got a triangle Purim cookie. And they got masks. I went and fixed August’s and another girl’s when the strings were pulling out. August wore his on his head a little, but not much. He loved the cookie and noisemaker though. They did the story again and August got to hold Mordechai.

So he did a great job in class. We took our time heading out. He played with the squishy little ball things and checked on a couple things downstairs before I got him out the building. He’s sounding pretty positive about going to school now.

We went to Carly’s classroom where he got to watch the custodian vacuuming up all the beads from the beanbag chair that she couldn’t pick up. He then wanted Carly to teach him about continents and oceans after he spotted the big maps they had made up on the wall and asked her if her students had made them. He then taught her about kiwi birds and remembered they were birds that didn’t fly and lived on an island.

August and I got going to walk up to his class and Carly headed home. We got to the studio and it was closed. Oops. Clearly no class due to Purim. We started to walk back to school and the car. He stopped at the exercise equipment along the way and got on the elliptical machine and talked about going faster than light. I said I couldn’t really measure how fast he was going on the machine and he said “Yeah, but how do you know that…you do. I programmed you to know that.” He got off of it and spent a lot of time making it go even faster with his hands. He also did some sit-ups on the bench.

Spent quite awhile there, then went across the street to the playground so I could get a drink. He stopped and said I could continue on to the drinking fountain on my own. He went to the platforms he could climb on. He did that, climbed in the pod things, climbed on the play structure, and shared a small teeter totter thing with a smaller boy. He was acting like a baby too. I had been reading when he started saying “goo goo gaa gaa”. I asked “Is that a sign you want me to play with you and put my book away?” He gave me a thumbs up.

Finally walked to the car and on the way home he had me repeat the 4 Non Blondes song “What’s Going On?” I like when he asks me to add a song to his playlist when we are already listening to his playlist.

It was hard to park at home due to some Purim thing across the street so we had to park up the block. We were home at 6:20.

He played some Toca Blocks then ate couscous and peas for dinner. He had trouble eating the last of the peas before he could have more meatballs. I said that someone who was faster than light should be able to eat the last 7 peas pretty fast. But then he got crazy and sort of flipped his plate pretending to be fast. Got him to help clean up, and to eat a few more peas, but he didn’t want squished ones. He ate a couple bites of meatballs, but was started to fall apart. On the couch he started balling, I think basically when Carly suggested it was time to go upstairs. I carried him up to the toilet where he just kept s
obbing but didn’t fight it. Carly got him ready, then I said goodnight and left them at 7:20. We both thought he was going to fall asleep in a few seconds but then he calmed down and started asking her for stories. It was closer to 7:50 when he fell asleep.

He was up at 6:30. Heard him call “Dada!” Went up and found him in the bathroom. “Where were you?” He had expected me to be on the bed, I think. He went to the bathroom then Carly brought him down. He wanted to go nurse in the “parlor”. Apparently he had remembered that aspect of the ‘parlor’ after all the times Carly said “Let’s go nurse in the parlor” back in Korea.

He had some difficulty letting Carly go to work. He went and held onto her backpack and said he was going too. He watched some Julius Jr. and Llama Llama. He can sing most of the Llama Llama theme song now.

He went to add to his waker upper machine. He then asked to put together the watering system. I didn’t know where it was so he wanted me to pick him up and he would use his rockets to look for it. We look around the house and he told me about how his fire came out of his feet, and that it bounced off of things like sound waves. Then the fire came out of his head.

Couldn’t find the watering system. We were listening to Chemical Brothers and he sort of danced to a song, playing his drum machine. He then requested the Elements song and we listened to more of his playlist. He made the “freegeometry” shape out of Duplos. It was just a cube, but if you pushed the button on top books about geometry came out. And if you put books in it that AREN’T about geometry they would turn into geometry books. “Tri book…shows you everything that has three of something.” “Look! I finished the thingiematron! When you push it, books come out about thingies…like bicycles and tricycles.”

He wanted to plat the Elements app. He played that and I exercised, then helped. We finished discovering all of the elements. He also found Carcassonne, the board game, on my iPad and we started to just make a town with it. I called the medical center about reducing the size of my cast. She was supposed to look into it but never called me back.

We went upstairs so I could take my shower. I started some new show on Netflix for him, about a musical, but he switched to Julius Jr. After my shower, back in his room, he asked me “Have they discovered an electronic lever?…But how? Motors just spin.” Talked about that a bit, then he wanted to play more Carcassonne. We actually figured out the rules and played one full solitaire game. “Alternative” was his word of the day. Not sure where he picked it up, but he asked for it to be defined a few times and kept using it. Then to Music Memos again. He asked “What underappreciated mean?” That was from the Julius Jr. episode he had watched, about a robot that was underappreciated.

We did a quick bath for him and headed downstairs. He played a little Human Body. Asked “What’s problematic mean?” We discussed white blood cells and germs. And he asked “What’s aerodynamic mean?” Don’t know where he heard that one. And “What’s friendship?”

We left at 11:30. Sort of. He wanted to play in the car. There, he wanted to hear the Llama Llama song. Not on Apple Music but I found it on YouTube and figured out how to have it repeat. Listened to it several times. Later, and on the way home, he would be singing a lot of the words.

We got driving and listened to the ‘extra’ Story Pirates episode – he had me repeat the beginning several times to listen to the theme song.

We got to Ganei Yehoshua Park along the Yarkon River in Tel Aviv, parked, and were walking at 12:20 with his bike. The last story we had heard was about how a kid had taken 10 years to invent a no-veggie machine. So as we got ready and left August was talking about his own no-veggie machine, that took 20 years and contained every food except veggies.

We were going into the park to eat lunch. First found a little playground and played there. August climbed on the fence, then saw all the babies as there was a mom’s group in the playground. Most of them were leaving but a few remained. August was then a baby, and I had to carry him from place to place. At one point he had me rock him like a baby and he pretended to fall asleep in my arms, with his head hanging back a bit over my arm. Bigger, but reminded me of when he was small. He was having me sing “Rock Me Mama” to him to put him to sleep.

Played around for awhile there and went on the swings, then I got him to go. We walked up the river to the pedestrian bridge and across to the other side. He wanted to stop and eat so we found a bench facing the river. Had our peanut butter and honey sandwiches and the salmon salad. He ate most of the salmon.

He’s started to also ask what words mean. During lunch he found a big rusty nail and was poking a post with it. He asked “What is ‘post’ from?” I taught him the word  ‘etymology’ and he practiced saying that. Meant to look up ‘post’ in the OED but didn’t get around to setting up my library access to it as we sat there.

We got walking and went to the big playground, which is where we were headed. He played on the wooden structure first. He played on his own, with other kids, mainly on the shaky bridge and I started reading a book about immgrants and refugees in Israel, called The Unchosen. He got off the structure and was shaking the bridge with his hands. He asked “Dada, I’m shake-i-atron…I attach to something and I shake it…Do you want me to turn it off? My battery is at 27.”

He wanted to move to the second set of toys, so we got the bike and moved over to that. He spun in a hanging sphere thing, then pretended to sleep in a circle that was sort of like a hamster wheel. He needed to use the bathroom and when I said we could find one he was the one that found a sign. I spotted a free library thing and he said “Oh no!” and talked about how he doesn’t like me finding them.

Only took a minute, then walked down and used the bathroom. We crossed back over the river on the main road. I had to carry the bike up stairs and he found a stick along the way. He carried it as he rode the bike. When he joked about hitting someone with it when I had asked him to do the opposite when someone was walking the other way I the bridge we had to stop and have a serious talk about it. I had threatened to take away the stick, and he then had all sorts of questions about for how long and what I would do with the stick, etc.

We paused to look at the river (we had seen boats and ducks on it) then kept walking to the Eretz Israel Museum. When we were having all the fun in the park I gave August the option of leaving the museum for another day a couple times. He insisted he wanted to go.

We got in and purchased a ticket, which wasn’t too bad, and I fit the stick in the backpack (sort of). We first went to the Man & His Work exhibit. Spent a lot of time at the outside area where they have displays of the tools used for different jobs in the past, like weaver, shoemaker, baker, blacksmith, carpenter, etc. It was a hit with August, who had tons of questions and kept pointing things out. Realized we should also watch videos of a loom and blacksmith later.

We then went in the main building for the exhibit. As we went in and I read something about it being about Israel I quietly told August it was also called Palestine. Similar stuff in there that we talked about. The main thing we discussed were the traps for catching animals, namely the ones that look like jaws. He had me tell him about them a couple times. We did a quick walk around the rest of it, then headed out.

We sat on a bench outside and had a snack (mainly zucchini bread). “I don’t call it thirsty, I call it hungry.” He’s also previously told me that I should always include my water bottle when I tell him what food we have. And didn’t think much of my food/drink comparison.

Next, we worked our way back to the center and up the ramps, stopping at a drinking fountain, and made our way to the building with the history of coins in the region. Which, given all the empires, etc. is substantial. He liked looking at t
he coins, particularly the tiny ones.

We stopped for bread next to a cool archeological mosaic and found a tiny pink blob on a sign. I wouldn’t let him touch it and he speculated on what it was: “Maybe it’s a kind of gelatin.” Don’t know where that came from. He also asked “How can wind carry things up if it doesn’t have arms?”

We next went to the Nechushtan exhibit, about the history of the Timna Valley. He really liked the fake cave you walk through and the display on the history of copper work. But the best part was the 1800 year-Old Roman lead coffin, which was just sitting out where you could touch it. It had designs all over it as well. So I let August touch it and he was really impressed. Came back to it a couple times.

Finally, nearing closing at 4 we went into the building on the history of glass work. From its beginnings to contemporary Israeli glasswork. He really liked a tall hanging piece, then the fact that the round building really echoed. He did a little singing. All was well until we were walking around and he started to say he wanted to show me a piece. Just as I said something about the knight made out of glass. He turned around and pointed the same thing out to me and the said “You just said that. Grr.” He then lay down on the floor, grumpy. He stayed grumpy for awhile. He said he wanted to start the whole building over. We did a little, but it was almost 4.

We went and found the bathroom before we left. As he sat on the toilet he told me. “I didn’t like how you did that glass person.” We briefly looked at the museum store (he said something about “Not more books!” but actually it was glass stuff I wanted to point out to him) and got walking at 4:05.

On the walk he was asking about the distinctions between ‘impossible’ versus ‘improbable’. He maintained that liking tomatoes is impossible. We got to the car and left at 4:30.

He was singing a line from Llama Llama “you’re as great as peanut butter” and asking why they say ‘peanut butter’. We listened to the song again and they don’t say that line. Not sure if he made it up, or there are more/different words in the actual shows.

Took a little over 50 minutes to get home. On the way we finished Story Pirates and he told me about the fastest thing in the universe: “Light isn’t the fastest thing in the universe. I’M the fastest thing in the universe.” We then listened to his playlist and he really liked the Endendino song, a Hebrew children’s song (https://youtu.be/MXooV9yW7V4). We listened to it 4 or 5 times and were singing along. We got home before 5:30. We saw the black cat on the platform above the door and named it ‘Sof al Hakatino’, which is a line from the song he had just been singing (http://www.hebrewsongs.com/song-endendino.htm)

We had Carly come out and see the cat, then he went in with her and was being silly on the couch. Not sure how he still had so much energy: “I have know everything power…I told dada I win the love game and the knowing everything one.” I got him noodles, couscous and peas, and meatballs for dinner. He ate a lot of food. He helped Carly water the plants through the windows and she went out to water the rest. He talked about the traps from earlier and asked another etymology question: “Why’d they use the word ‘trap’?”

He watched some Julius Jr., then I tried to get him to read books with me. He ended up reading with Carly instead. She read The Knowing Book, which I had gotten at the library, but he didn’t really like that. But then she started Hilo 3 and he really got into that. A lot of laughing.

She took him upstairs and the got ready and read some more Hilo (to page 72). I then went up about 8 and switched with her. He cuddled next to me and asked me to tell him stories from when I was a kid. He asked for age 2, and I told him my vague memories of moving to our new house. He said that mama couldn’t remember 2, but he also said my story was boring.

We started talking about love at some point and I told him he will always have my love. “What if I lose it?…What if I forget?” We also talked about how some people need more love and about loving Palestinians. He wants to learn about them. We tried going to sleep several times but he was very talkative. Asked for stories from when I was 6 and 7. Told him about the writing competition we used to have at school. Did the timer several times, counting in my head, but he never made it past 40 seconds of being silent and still.

Finally, a bit after 8:30, I agreed to go get Carly. He said “If I can’t do it I hope you still love me.” And “Will you love me when I’m 9? 10? 11? Infinity? 100? But what if I only make it to 99?…I don’t like that.”

Still took him awhile to fall asleep with Carly. She almost got up to finish getting ready for bed herself first. But then he fell asleep about 8:50.

He did a lot of walking on my feet today, seeming to remember it from when he was smaller: “This is how we walked when I was a baby?”

Traps: 

Glass: 

A hard time: 

Cat: 

He came out at 7:40. I was going to wake him up if he wasn’t up by 7:45. He wasn’t bothered by Carly being gone. Cary had asked him last night, when he was late going to sleep, if it would be okay if she didn’t wake him and he said yes. Been a long time since she wasn’t here in the morning and we didn’t know how he would respond. He rested on the couch and then watched Juliue Jr. Two episodes. When I took a good morning photo for Carly he stuck his tongue out. When he was done watching he took Duplos under the table to his inventing space, listened to the Julius Jr. Theme song on repeat, and made a machine: “The horn waker-upper…you tip it over a little bit and it honks that horn.” “You can destroy it if you want…And besides; it’s a very cheap machine. And fragile.”

He was picking at his favorite old pillow to destroy. He said “I just make it worse over time. Not very fast.” He watched the latest Marble Machine update video and the Marble Machine of course and ate some peanut butter crackers. I suggested a peanut butter and banana smoothie. He said “Im excited about the new smoothie!” He drank a lot of smoothie and then danced to the new Matt and Kim song “Like I Used to Be”. He found the spring that he’s been playing with and rolled it across the floor and said it was an optical illusion as it looked like it was spirally one way or the other. He then had me pretend to invent a hydroelectric generator. He asked me “What’s your hypothesis? Mama says that scientists make hypothesis.” And “Could you be a scientist trying to figure out why light is so fast?” So we watched video on that one, which basically came down to ‘because it doesn’t have mass’. Then watched a SciShow Kids episode on ‘why does your leg fall asleep?’

We went upstairs and he played with Carly’s brush and comb: “I’m designing something…it affects the marbles. This makes it go straight and this makes it go up.” I took a shower and he watched Llama Llama. He looked at my ear and asked “Next time you’re a grown up could you wear earrings for a long time?” He had asked Carly about the closed-up holes on her ears a few days ago.

Gave him a bath and we talked about center of gravity as he was practicing standing on one foot. Said that was the word of the day, then he also said that ‘spring’ and ‘force’ were words of the day. And he asked “Why do optical illusion happen?” Went downstairs and he asked Siri questions on my iPad: “What is a Ferris wheel? What is a tricycle?” Then played with a couple of music apps and then Piano Maestro. Rather hard to get him going as there was always something else to do. Back to his machine: “Waker upper machine. Is that the word of the day?”

We left at noon. Started with the new Story Pirates (13) but then he wanted the Elements song. We got to Gimel Gimel Gimel, which is right across the street from the Skoda dealership. We went in and soon were in back where they were taking our roof racks out of the box. August and I watched the cars on lifts for a couple minutes, then went in and sat in the waiting room. He saw news on the TV and said he didn’t like that, but enjoyed playing with the spinny chairs. We then found the guy who had helped us and he said they’d install them. So we went across the street to Landwer Cafe and had lunch.  August chose the pasta with cream sauce and I had the shakshuka sandwich. August had a mango smoothie with an orange juice base and I had a latte. August kind of learned to not order off the kids’ menu. He liked the noodles but the cream sauce was basically milk. We twice read the little Thumbelina book I’d grabbed from the box by the playground yesterday.

We could see from the restaurant that the car was done so we headed back. A guy demonstrated how to take the racks off and put them back on. And I saw Shay, who was one of the guys who had sold us the car. He started talking to me about how he has a niece and nephew at WBAIS. I had already put August in his car seat. He could see me, but it’s as too long and he got upset. So I got him out of his seat and we played in the front of the car. I tried to call the Herzliya Medical Center but couldn’t get through. Holding and more holding. My dream was that we’d be able to head over there in the afternoon and get my cast shortened. But August liked learning and saying the word ‘medical center’ and called it the word of the day as well.

So we headed to Herzliya Park. He told me before we left that he didn’t want to go to the snake area though. We got to the park at 3:10. Tried to pay at two pay stations, but neither worked. He went to the bathroom and I grabbed a book of F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories from the free library. He was a baby in a pram on the merry-go-round, then we went on the big structure for a minute, but then he wanted the little kid playground. We played around there, going from thing to thing. I found a little scoop on the group and he took it over to the sand area and pretended to be a baby playing in the sand. He then had fun twisting it to break it. He had it twisted and said “That’s like a winding inclined plane, right?” Had it pretty broken but then he pinched his finger in it.

Then we headed to the big structure, riding the bike around on the paths before parking up on it and walking around in the tunnel parts. Then up to the big slide. Watched a few other kids go down, and he considered going down on his own, but wanted to go with me. We went down and he wanted to go again. We filmed the second time down. He said he wanted to go down a third time, but then right after us a boy came flying out, head first, and landed head/shoulders first on the ground and started crying. A big sister and dad came right down after. Don’t know how that happened.

We got going, stopping by the drinking fountain and refilling his water bottle. He then wanted to play on the exercise equipment, which was near the car. Stopped there for 15 minutes or so and tried out all the exercise equipment. Watched a guy that was sort of climbing up and swinging around on a high bar and he sort of tried to do the same thing on a lower bar.

We left right about 5. Listened to all of the Story Pirates on the way home, then some music. Waze took us up 2, then on a side street and across a new route that took us to 551 and then up 4. A nice drive, and we saw an interesting looking sun before it set, had to stop at a train crossing, and August spotted the gibbous moon. He said he was tired at one point but stayed awake.

We were home just before 6. Played Seuss Band and one of the geometry app. He took a long time in the bathroom, then drank a lot of the leftover smoothie from the morning. Carly said something about someone being selfish and he asked what that meant. He said “I like doing that, by I haven’t done it much though.” Had more smoothie: “I’m having a lot of liquid before night time.”

I went up to do some work and they played Musyc. He didn’t eat noodles, but ate a little persimmon. They played Duplos and he did the waking up machine for her. And they read What Do You Do with an Idea? I came down at 8:30. He acted like a baby in a pram and Carly wondered how he knew the word ‘pram’. They nursed, and Carly mentioned he was going to try going to sleep with me. He said “But I’m a baby; I need my nutrients.”

She took him up and brushed his teeth and I went up about 8:45. I turned off the light and right away he pulled covers up and tried to go to sleep. He was quiet with his eyes closed for a few minutes, then said “Dada, can you sing a sleepy song?” I sang “Imaginary Bars” and “Idaho”. He said “Uhh, I don’t like this.” I told him to try two minutes of silence and I’d tell him when the timer was up. He turned back towards me and closed his eyes and fell right asleep at 9:05.

I was up before 7. I figured he’d wake up whenever I got up so I lay in bed and read. Carly came in and woke him up at 7:45. We went downstairs and soon Glecy called. August kept wanting the phone. I distracted him first with his vitamins, then Carly went upstairs and he made art in Zen Studio. He chose random colors for the template ones, then drew pictures of his own. He didn’t want me to watch, then would show me when he was done. He made a crown, a key, and then “It’s a B and T factory.” Next was a building “It sells Valentines.” He then did some looping in Auxy Music. He requested some of my drink mix so we mixed up some of that. He was then getting a bunch of items out of the cupboards for an experiment and he did a mixing experiment with Carly. He taught her about how cocoa powder doesn’t taste good.

I took a shower, then took him up for his bath. He was playing with his bracelets and said “I’m lucky that I have four bracelets.” We were getting ready to go, and as we did we solved a bunch of mysteries, which he found really exciting: We were missing a nut that went to his toy piano. I got him a flashlight to look under the couch. He found the missing dice from the snakes and ladders game. We then found the nut as well. Next, Carly couldn’t find her water bottle. I found that in one of the shopping bags from their trip yesterday. Then, we couldn’t find her keys. August had just been wearing her other key ring around his neck, saying that he was dressed up, but we didn’t think he had had her car key. I found it in the recycling bag by the door – probably Carly dropped it there when returning from the car and moving the bags. Although a slight chance it was August’s doing.

We drove up to the Leket location in Nahalal, on the way to Nazareth. Got there at 12:15, which was a good thing as that was when all the other people from the school showed up. We had to drive a bit farther, then had to walk to get to our destination. Before we left I had started to feel a bit ill, and was really nauseous in the car. No idea why. I’d brought books for us, but August mainly played Gro Forest on the way up.

Anyway, I was feeling better by the time we got walking. We took the orange bike and walked down a few dirt roads and paths to get to the beet fields. The three of us worked a little slowly, as I didn’t want to get my cast dirty and Carly suffered from allergies. August had a lot of fun though. He found a lot of really big beets this time, unlike last time when they were rather small. He was activating his claw machines to pick up beets, and helped me dump buckets a few times. Before we left he used the outhouse, which he was pretty excited about, and we washed our hands from the big jug thing of water that they had. Also interesting. And much of the time that we picked there were fighter jets (F-15s?) and helicopters flying around overhead.

Back at the car about 2:20 I picked up a broken piece of plastic from the ground to scrape my shoe. August really, really wanted that piece of plastic. Eventually I let him scrape off his shoes. He liked that but got frustrated when he couldn’t get much.

We drove the 15 minute drive over to Bet She’arim National Park. A few minutes longer, actually, as Apple Maps hadn’t the memo on a street change. Bet She’arim National Park is a UNESCO site as well for its necropolis of 30-some caves. We got there a little after 3 and it closed at 4, but that was fine since we have a pass. We saw some donkeys wandering around, and some sort of fashion photo shoot going on. We started walking and saw a few caves up on the hill, but none we could go in. Turned into a bunch of stairs so we turned back. Down below we went into the cave that is now a museum. August got really quiet and had Carly carry him the whole time. Couldn’t quite tell what he was thinking, although he did say things like “Whoa” a couple times. And he pointed out the different colored lights that were set up and had questions about coffins.

Back outside it was after 3:40. An employee said we could stay past 4 if we moved our car outside the gate. I went and did that. When I got back Carly took August to the bathroom. I went into another cave system, the one with 130 coffins in it. But only had 5 minutes or so as then the same guy was closing that. So Carly and August didn’t get to see in there.

They got back and we decided to head home, just after 4. August listened to some of his playlist in the car. Then he was threatening to fall asleep. I surprised him with episode 3 of Wild Kratts being downloaded on his iPad. He watched it twice (a lot of giggling) and that got us home. About 5:10.

The nausea had come back so I went up and lay down for awhile. Carly took allergy medicine and let him watch Llama Llama since we were both sick. I was down at 6. He had told Carly the cave was his favorite thing of the day, even better than the beet picking. He had also eaten a lot of the noodle dish for dinner and earned some dried cheerios.

Carly went to bed and we read Dr. Seuss stories: The Rabbit, the Bear, and the Zinniga-Zanniga, What Was I Scared of?, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Played some Seuss Band in between. Cherie had let me know of a concer that their friend Omar was playing in Mexico and we watched the live stream of that on Facebook and played Toca Blocks. In Skybrary we read a Geoege Washington Picture Book. Finally, he requested some peanut butter crackers.

I took him up and had him go to the bathroom and put on his pajamas. I left them at 8:40. He said “I hope dada doesn’t have much work.” She brushed his teeth, then it apparently still look him quite awhile to fall asleep, as it was close to 9:30 when he did.

Cave: 

He was sleeping between us when he woke up at 6:20. Rested and nursed in bed for awhile before they got up. I was up at 7 and they were watching part of “The Deep” from The Blue Planet. He was then a baby squirrel. He then showed me his popcorn machine and how it puts on “salt, extra oil, and too much za’atar.”

They nursed and then read The Sound of Silence. Carly tried to get him to rate the book when they were done. She explained the stars, then he changed them: “I have rule power on the stars: 1 is sad, 2 is lots of noise, 3 is sound of silence, 4 is eh, and 5 is wonderful” They then read the Seuss book Time for Up and My Many Colored Days.

He played with the Atlas app, then showed Carly Rockmate and Zen Studio. She headed out to read and work. We tried to skype with my parents but they didn’t appear online. We played Musyc and August kept saying things like  “The music is awesome.” He then played with Notion. Looking at his list of compositions he said “I love these so much. I can’t stand it. Let’s never delete any of them.” He went to the bathroom and asked “What’s ‘hilarious’ mean?…You’re hilarious.” Then to Duplos. He said “Look how much progress I’m making.” He was making a new popcorn machine and on this machine the popcorn slid down a slide once it was popped.

My parents then did call on Skype. They were online but Skype is having issues. August answered a couple of questions and then said “I’m doing all the talking.” And he showed them his popcorn machine. It was late for them, so not a long call.

He helped Carly water the plants through the kitchen windows and I took a shower. When I came down they were taking crackers and peanut butter outside to eat. Carly then took him up to his shower. Before he went he had drank from his pink water bottle and I said the magic would make him like getting in the water. He joked “Dada, you were wrong for the first time.” I had joked I was never wrong. But he also said, on his own, that he’d maybe stop getting upset about his baths.

Carly gave him his bath and he did indeed get upset. He came down and interrupted me working. Then back to the Duplos and popcorn machine. Finished it, then made a new attachment part. He ang a funny Yellow Submarine song and discussed having songs stuck in his head.

Carly was outside, and he asked “Dada, do you mind me if I go out with mama?” They were outside and ate food. Inside he was a baby squirrel and cuddled with me. We discussed opposable thumbs and which animals have them and which don’t.

They left for a shopping trip at 1:20. At Ace they got a watering system for the plants and a sprayer to spray their cat repellent mixture around the yard. They then went to Tiv Taam. August didn’t want to play on the playground outside as there were too many kids.

They were back at 2:40. He hummed a song for me: “Maybe it’s a song I heard, maybe I made it up.” He helped figure out how to use the sprayer and spent a lot of time spraying the yard and helping put down orange peel pieces.

I got him out for a walk at 4:15. I managed to avoid the oranges with the bike as we went out the gate. He said “Good job, dada.” He then asked, as we walked, “What’s the esophagus?” “How can food get stuck in your esophagus?” That’s a reference to Darrin, who we found out was in the hospital.

He first wanted to go to our park and to his lab in the teeter totter thing: “I’ll do a spell that does is both pink.” “Screws, unicycles, trees, leaves, shaky things, baby toys…”

We played around with the ‘store’ area and swing, then went over to look at a big box of books that was left by the paper recycling: “Why do you love books so much?” Went back to the park for a few minutes. He asked “Why don’t you let me be mean like other kids?”

We got walking again by 4:50. We went to the snakes and ladders park. On the way he saw a guy running with two dogs and said “That’s hilarious.” He asked about what would happen if one thing went one way, and another thing went a different way. He said he was talking about machines, but he was inspired by the guy and dogs. He spotted some water gauges and we looked at those. Walked the back route into the park. He spotted the half moon and said that name makes more sense than ‘D moon’.

Got to the Snakes and Ladders Park after 5. It was busy and he immediately said “Let’s go then.” But I got him on the spinning thing with me where we are planted. Then played snakes and ladders. He wanted me to drive the jeep thing and asked “Can I be your luggage?” He was the luggage in the back as I drove us around the world: South Pole, “Let’s go where the animal kiwi lives.” He was then escaping luggage, escaping out of the back of my car.

Went over to the climbing stuff for awhile, then on the U-shaped sliding thing. He asked “Can we be a pendulum?”

We walked home. He asked to add punctuation to the A Ah Apple song. So it was verses like “Period period period period period period…” He heard an electrical box that was humming so then he was an electrical box.

We were home just before 6. He asked “Dada, why do you always call mama ‘girl’? But she’s not a kid.” In the bathroom he made a big mess of toilet paper. We had to have a talk about that and he helped clean it up.

He then did art in Zen Studio and played Seuss Band. We read The Cat in the Hat and Oh, the Places You’ll Go. Carly then Skyped with Cassie.

He ate noodles for dinner. He drank from his pink water bottle and said “I turned into DNA!” He then watched a DNA video with Carly.

Carly looked out and saw that the usual black cat was back and seemingly unbothered by all the citrus in the yard. In fact, as she had the door to the kitchen open the cat came right over to us.

Carly took him upstairs. I went up about 8:30 to try to put him to sleep. He tried for awhile, but said he was “Sad” without mama. Just wanted to get him used to the idea of lying in the dark with me, so didn’t push it. We switched at 8:45 and he fell asleep a bit after that.

He got up at 6:10. Sat up with me for a couple minutes, then said he was going to go find mama. When I came down he was watching episode 2 of Wild Kratts again, about whales and squid. He had been telling Carly about water pressure. When Carly headed to work he said “I love you so much” without any prompting. He showed me the Duplo that he and Carly had made last night and sat there admiring it for awhile. He then destroyed it and we made a big snake-like sort of structure that he then had the sisters play on.

Over on the couch he said “We should try a new food today.” It turned out he meant in a restaurant. We read a little of the Thea Stimson book, then watched one Smurfs story and a Julius Jr. episode. He then went and invented things under the table and on the couch. He asked me to clean the floor under table. He found the spring and made a bubble machine from it. We looked at the “Imagine” shirts that Cherie had sent for him and me, a black for me and pink for him. He said “What? I thought they would be different…I like the shirts Oma sent us.”

We then did a sort of hide and seek game with the spring hiding it in the shoes, etc. and giving him clues. We went up and I started a Wild Kratts episode for him. He chose the walrus episode. I meant to go take a shower while he watched but I ended up watching the whole thing. I then took my shower. He started another episode but then stopped it and came into the bathroom. In his room he hid the C from car puzzle from me, then was hiding it from himself. He said “I already looked under, between, front, and back of all the animals.”

He played with the squirt gun from the zoo in the bath. We went downstairs and he took the keys out of the piano, then helped me put it back together. He was then pretending to be a whale that was so big it destroyed our house. He was asking a lot of questions and making it har for me to make a smoothie. He told me “If you tell me when you were a kid it might not be exciting.” Made a banana and mango smoothie and we drank that. Then played Sound Rebound and Rockmate, a new little music app that we bought, and Zen Studio, which is sort of a meditative geometric coloring book thing.

He wanted more crackers and peanut butter and said “I’m gonna be thankful for that. Please. That’s how I’m gonna get you to give me crackers.” Instead he ate the peanut butter sandwich from yesterday. He wanted more and I told him there was just one slice of bread and I could make a half. He said he didn’t want but I made it anyway. He was surprised to find it folded over – he had pictured just a slice of bread with peanut butter on it.

We got going and he was out on the bike when I went back in the house to get the backpack he yelled “Buuuuuuh!!!” I asked “What was that?” “Uhh, a loud noise.”

We walked over to the mall. It was busy because of the Friday market. He went and played around the playground for a few minutes. Sort of tried to run around with some other kids, but mainly climbed on things. He then said he was ready to go.

We went inside to the hair place and the guy, Egan, was able to fit me in. August walked around the chair, wearing my hat backwards, and watched him cut my hair. Pretty fascinated. At one point he said “Look at all those special tools!” And when he used the blow dryer August went “Whoa!” Later August would say he didn’t like how the guy moved my ears. That would be really ticklish for August. Egan gave him a couple little candies. He ate one lemon Mentos while he watched and another after. When we got to the grocery store I couldn’t find the fruit chew thing for a second. August started to get upset, then I found it and he happily announced “Mystery solved!”

Did our shopping, but no raspberries, fresh or frozen, for our breakfast bread recipe. Got zucchini instead for zucchini bread. He did most of the putting of food on the conveyor belt. On the walk home he decided on the long way, but then we went down the steps that lead to where the big Israeli flag is.

At home he said he didn’t want to make the bread today. We played the kids world atlas app and he liked the game where you put a flag where you think an animal lives and it then shows you how close you are. We were discussing the different continents and which animals live there. Then some of the Rockmate app, and finally Zen Studio. He did some of the templates, then drew a picture on his own and said it was a police app. He went to the bathroom and was now a whale again that could go “Twice as deep as the deepest whale that ever lived could dive.”

Then to Duplos: “It’s going to be my greatest invention ever…it’s not done yet but I call it a popcorn projector.” Carly came home. He kept working on the popcorn machine and added a part that adds toppings. He joked “It has za’atar, baby dinosaur bones…” Carly went outside and he and I kept playing Duplos. He was upset when I wouldn’t let him watch a show or eat Cheerios. Carly came in and we were getting food. She told story of when she was pregnant she tried to run to go get pizza at school but couldn’t. She ended by saying “But I still got pizza.” I said “Surprisingly, a Hollywood film hads never been made about this saga.” August was saying something and stopped to say “Oh, dada” and went back to his sentence.

He ate a little peanut sauce and rice and tofu. We did more of the atlas app and pins game. They read The Sound of Silence and finished it upstairs. He had tried to complain that Carly doesn’t read as well as I do, claiming “She makes up words.” Then read The I Love You Book. I said good night and he was asleep by 7:30.

A busy afternoon, and he was pretty worn out by the end of activity class.

He and Carly had a restless night. He was up at 5:55. I was awake but slow to get up. Carly brought Cheerios in to the bedroom for him, then he moved up on the bed with me. He then lay down next to me and put his legs under the cover. We stayed there a good 20 minutes before I finally got up. They nursed, then played snakes and ladders. The started to make up crazy rules in snakes and ladders, like goin up the snakes and down the ladders and being able to steal the other person’s roll. Carly headed to school a bit later than usual, taking the car to take the rocking chair to her classroom. August played Toca Blocks. He was asking my help for somethings, but a theme started for the day started: “I can do that myself…I already knowed that.” He told me “I don’t remember if I sleep-in.” And “You shouldn’t set alarms cuz I always hear them.”

He ate some peanut butter crackers. He said “There should be a limit to how many blocks you can use in Toca Blocks.” I said “But that would make it hard.” Him: “Then it would be a challenging game.” Me: “Dada doesn’t much like challenging games.” Him: “But then you get to learn from your mistakes.” Me: “That’s true.” A bit later, after I told him we’d discovered everything I knew about in the game, he said “Can you delete Toca Blocks from my iPad? I don’t like it anymore.”

He sang  “Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream… microscopic dreams.” I was updating apps on my iPad, and he was afraid that an update would change one of the apps he dances to: “Don’t ever install (update) apps I dance to…cuz I like to dance to them a lot.” We tried toSkype with my parents but they weren’t online. He played Fox and Sheep Music Box and I exercised.

We then went upstairs and I introduced him to Wild Kratts, the other show that Derek reminded me Thatcher loves. As we watched episode 1 August said “I love this…as much as Thatcher does.” I liked that he didn’t say “more than”. I watched a little, then took a shower. After my shower I finished episode 2 with him, then he wanted to play with the Smurf figures. I used them to tell a story where Gargamel kidnapped Baby, but the Smurfs got Azrael, then traded to get Baby back.

We did his shower, then went down stairs where he played with his pivot point and lever. He said one of those was the word of the day, and I suggested ‘water pressure’, which he had loved from Wild Kratts: “Yeah, that’s the word of the day.”

We left at 11:30. We saw David next door, and he pointed out that there was a guy working on our water pipes (they are connected), installing a new meter he said that would make it cheaper. Didn’t quite understand that. On the way to town August pedaled fast and I called it Mach speed, so we ended up discussing the speed of sound and the sound barrier. We got to the hair place. It was open, with two people cutting hair, but they said they were booked today. Odd, as the first time I walked in it was just one guy working and not busy. I put my hat on August, backwards, and he got on the bike and wore it much of the way into town before saying “I like your hat but you can have it back.” He pointed to where they’re installing a new sidewalk and said “They’re making progress on that.” He then said it for the new mall across the street, and later for a house we saw on the way to school.

We went to the coffee shop and got our usual table. I had told him I knew what we were ordering for lunch, but that he could have whatever drink he wanted, and of course it was the hot chocolate. I had a latte. He was surprised when it had marshmallows on top this time. When the server noticed my hand and asked about it August commented that everyone notices it and asks.

I heard the Beatles’ “Blackbird” playing on the stereo and pointed it out to August he said he liked it. When the next song was “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” I said something about it and he started talking about how he wanted to point out the songs. We practiced some Hebrew using the popsicle stick things from class last week. Then our green shakshuka came. It was spinach in a cream sauce with Bulgarian cheese and an egg. And it came with a little loaf of bread that we used to for dipping. The side was roots salad, with skinny sticks of beets, potatoes, and carrots. August asked “Why if you have a mustache you get egg in it?” And said “That’s spinach-y goodness.” He ate a lot of all of it, including the spinach.

He was generating power from the fans overhead and also said “I use a lot of power. That’s why I made a lot of hats for everyone to wear that provide me power.”

We heard U2’s “Moment of Surrender” and I pointed it out. He liked it and wanted it added to his playlist and said “I call it a better name…’The life of breeze’.” Then “Dada, you don’t really let me point out songs. I want you to let me point out songs all the time.” He then played with the abacus and tilted it to make an included plane. We discussed friction, and winding inclined planes, and he was a winding inclined plane winding up a rope. We then built a raft and a magic treasure box out of some plastic building block things.

We got going and walked to the park by the library. We went on the merry-go-round. We’d seen a few babies in prams, so he pretended to be a baby now, sleeping in a pram. I had heard Elton John’s “Rocket Man” in Everything Sucks! on Netflix the other day and thought he would like it since he always has rockets. I played it. He didn’t like that I know more songs than him: “Can you let me listen to more songs than you? Please? Can we please listen to songs you’ve never heard? But you need to not watch it.” I suggested he listen to some new music with Carly when I wasn’t around and he could tell me about it. I asked how that sounded: “Not so good. I want to listen to music by myself.” He then broke out crying.

He sat in my lap for a few minutes and we got going. He insisted on going home as there were fun things there that would make him feel better, but when he calmed down he was okay headed to school. There were some loud mynah birds that flew by. He didn’t see them and I said I could point mynah birds out to him sometime. He grumpily said “I’ll point out minah birds to YOU.”

We were walking at 1:50. Stopped at the construction site to watch the work and he pointed out the rods and I told him it was rebar, which we’ve discussed before, but not while seeing it, and we discussed what it is for. As we got walking he lifted up his shirt and said “Dada, I want to tell you something…see that little system? It beeps whenever there’s an earthquake.”

A few times he mentioned wanting to get a new handle for his bike to replace the right one, as it is kind of scratched up around the edge. I told him to not think about it and he said “It’s messed up…I can’t stop noticing it.”

We were at the WBAIS library after 2. We returned 5 books. They have things up for the lunar New Years and he learned he was born in the year of the horse. He didn’t like that I was year of the dragon and Carly was year of the goat. He wanted us to have the same one. He started crying again and we sat on a bench. We went back to the book area he did a little art on the computer. I found 4 books that he liked the look of: The Sound of Silence, My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss, Great Day for Up by Dr. Seuss, and a Thea Stilton graphic novel called Mystery at Sea.

He needed the bathroom so we went. He saw a pipe coming through the wall and we followed it to the drinking fountain. Back inside he took the books to Liz to check out. He told her and Amanda “I’m in a do it by myself mood.” I told them about the I Can Do It Myself book. And he asked me “Can you let me do everything on my own?” We went back into the kids book area for awhile and did
treasure hunts, using the books on the shelves and beanbags and squares on the floors for clues.

At 3 we headed to the preschool. We stopped by Bat-Chen’s classroom but she is still not back. At the preschool we had a few minutes to hang out downstairs. Bar asked him to come to her house again. They were all discussing ages and August told the director he is a 5-year old now. We went up to Hebrew class, which was all about the story of Purim. She told it with hand puppets. Then they cut out pictures of the characters and glued them on paper and colored them. August had a lot of scissors practice, with me holding the paper. They then finished with listening to a song which we’ve heard before: “My little little clown, why won’t you dance with me?” They danced around to it and August had a lot of fun with that. I sneaked down the stairs for a minute. He saw me going down. I came right back up and he wasn’t upset but wanted to know what I was doing.

Words: king, queen, the end (hasof?) Who is he? Who is she? People: Haman, Esther, Mordechai, King Ehash Verosh

Other girl: Leduh

He had played at the kitchen stuff outside and we were outside discussing how he felt about me not being there all the time when Carly showed up. She had driven to Ikea after school to get more stuff for her classroom.

He said “Oh no” when he saw Carly. He still wanted to play. We went over to the playground and he played on top of the car, then we played on the teeter totter, and he had to go cook in the wood chips area for a minute before we left.

Drove up to activity class. Carly tried to start class with him but he just wanted to nurse. I took over. There was a new girl and mom in class today. August did fine through the animals part and then we played with plastic squares. We were taking turns being horse and rider with it when he hit his mouth on it going in. We went out and took a break with Carly. We went back into class for a few minutes, but then when they were picking up the squares he was upset when Yav got some of the yellow squares.

He was still upset as she got out the parachute. But he loved the parachute part, which he called a tornado. He liked picking up the balls and throwing them back on top of the parachute. They picked up the balls, then he wanted his water bottle. He was drinking from that and walked behind Sigal who was walking backwards. He was really upset and I was about to take him out but he said “I don’t want to miss the tunnel part!” He did the tunnels part for a couple minutes, but kept being upset. He said “This is not good!” We headed out, leaving just a couple minutes early.

At home he was still having a hard time. Carly told him his dinner choices and he wanted me to change the dinner choices. He played Duplos with me, then Carly and I switched and kept playing Duplos. I went up and did some work. They also read some of Thea Stilton.

He came to see me. He excitedly told me about eating dinner and eating enough that Carly gave him dried cheerios. I said we had had a busy day and he said “That’s why I was wored out at activity class.” And he told me that the most upsetting part of the day was actually when they were picking up the balls after the parachute was over and he didn’t get to pick up many of them. I hadn’t even realized he was upset about that.

I took him in to bed and he practiced putting on his own shirt and pants on his own. He’ll get both those down pretty quickly if we have him practice. We brushed his teeth. Carly came up and he started a little competition on who loved whom the most. I said we all tied and all won, and he said that mama said that mamas win. To Carly he said “I love you more than any mama or dada has ever loved anyone.” As I left he said “I hope dada doesn’t need a lot of work.” I left them at 7:25. I heard them come out a few minutes later as he had to get a drink of water. He fell asleep without nursing. He suggested they do the timer thing that I do. It took him a few minutes and was asleep a little after 7:45.

Carly was back to regular school again. He was up about 6:30. Came down and I picked him up and held him until Carly came out of the bathroom. After Carly left he wanted peanut butter crackers. He saw them on the plate and said  “That’s shaped like a toilet. I’m about to eat a toilet.” He watched Julius Jr. and ate his crackers. We then made a Duplo machine and exercised. He played the Me app for a bit, then we did some Wizard School. I wanted to get going to the zoo, so we went upstairs. Had to play with the Smurf figures briefly, then I was able to take a shower. He came in and had fun locking my watch for a minute. When I put on lotion he wanted me to make letters. He said one looked like a letter from shakmook language and said “I’ve been teaching birds to read shakmook language all day.” He wanted a Thatcher treat during our drive but said “I’m afraid to tell mama. She might say ‘aargh’…that’s my hypothesis.”

He also decided he wanted to make a backwards A ah apples song. Downstairs, I got his clothes off, then he had some naked time before I got them on. He put just his shoes on and said “Why do we always have Dr. Seuss songs stuck in our heads?” We were then humming a Seuss song and he was dancing around with the mop. Pretty funny.

Got him dressed, then cleaned up a bit. We had found a few of the math blueberries in the container with the musical instruments. He was playing with them and said “They do make a great noise. Maybe that’s why they’re in the instruments.” We left just after 10. Listened to music on the way down, mainly the Julius Jr. song on repeat many, many times. Took just over an hour on the way down. No reduction of traffic after rush hour, apparently.

We went to the zoo first this time. For the driving part August mainly stood up in the back seat, holding on to tightly to the headrests on the front seats. We saw a hippo walk into the water.

At the zoo part we went in and played first at the playground for a few minutes. He went on the zip line things twice. He then decided he was ready for lunch. We went into the restaurant area. He got a hotdog meal and I did the hamburger. The hotdog and hamburger were okay, but the fries left a lot to be desired. He was excited though that canned mango juice was an option and we both went for that. His meal came with a little plastic water gun. August talked about how Carly would want to eat outside, but he wanted to eat inside. We read Seuss’s You’re Only Old Once.

We got going and took about an hour walking the primates loop of the zoo. He posed as gorillas in a cut-out photo thing. At the gorillas they have a family tree of the gorillas, there are eight or so. Apparently Lukas, the patriarch, is kind of famous, as I heard two groups pointing out Lukas and calling him by name before I even found the sign. Then a high school group came and the tour guide was pointing them out by name. August was on his bike, and the high school girls rushed and shoved in front of him to take photos, but then one of them noticed and pulled him right up to the glass. We headed on to the orangutan and gibbons. There are ropes that you can hang on, and August did that.

We got going on a walk around the loop. Saw all sorts of primates. They have a lot. We saw a baby baboon and he asked about the baboons’ bottoms, so we read the sign. Then saw a mandrill up close, eating some plants. He walked on a balancing log by a bats cage, then needed a bathroom, so we kept going. Not a long time in the zoo itself, but August wanted to do more of the driving part. Went to the bathroom by the parking lot at 1, then went to do more of the driving part. August said “What does stupendous mean? Treats is stupendous!” After he ate some apple I let him share the last cookie from our batch.

This time August sat in the front seat. Saw most of the herbivores, like the antelopes and addax and wildebeest. Listened to old Story Pirates stories as we went. In one of the author interviews they sang a song called “I Sing You a Song”. August liked it and we found it on Apple Music and added it to his playlist. The lions were sort of hidden in the bushes this time.

I backed up at one point and August saw the backup camera screen. A few times he wanted me to put it in reverse so he could turn the wheel and see the lines change. The most exciting part was when we drove by the ostriches. They are curious of the cars. One walked right by August’s window and he said “Hi, ostrich!” Another came and looked in mine and pecked at the window.

We then went to the big playground in the Ramat Gan park next door. About 2:15. I mentioned that we hadn’t watched the nature show that Thatcher likes and that Oma recommended to us for a long time. I told him to remind me at home but he reminded me right away. He said “I reminded you here!”

He drove us along the brick edging as we went, which makes his voice sound funny as he sings, and apparently especially with his fingers in his ears. We got to the playground but played for just a minute with the sand toys which I’d brought along before he needed a bathroom. We found a nearby bathroom, then came back. He went on the big wheelchair accessible merry-go-round. He sat in one of the seats and said “This is small. There’s no WAY a wheelchair could fit in here.” He then sat in one of the little spinning seats and got himself spinning. He lounged in that and said “This is the life.” A reference to the Plant a Tree with Me book, which we haven’t read in a long time.

Had a bite of hotdog. Then said “I need a treasure map. Because we’re pirates’.” We did a bunch of silly treasure hunts, making him run and climb around the playground. Something binged ay one point and he said “It was my hotdog maker. It bings every time it makes a new kind of hotdog .” At one point we ran to the spider web thing and he said he won at first, then said “Actually, it’s a tie.” He’s liked the idea of ties since I introduced them.

He kept wanting to do one more treasure hunt. Finally pulled him away close to 3:30. Stopped at a part where there are little ramps to let him roll down them in the bike several times. He looked at the lake and wondered how deep it was and hypothesized about that. We then walked around the lake for the first time. He got a little upset when I said we didn’t have time to go to the coffee shop. But he liked a little sculpture garden, and climbed on one of them and wanted a photo of a couple others.

Got back close to the car at 4. There was a sax player sitting on a bench, and repeating a 4 note line that August liked and was repeating. August noted that it was actually 3 separate notes, as one was repeated.

We got driving and were listening to Story Pirates. At the end of one he heard them mention Twitter and asked about Twitter, then specifically told me about Plumdog and how Plumdog’s owner dresses her up and posts the photos on Twitter. He also said we should try Squarespace for free, as that’s one of the ads. He was impressed to find out that our blog is on Sqaurespace.

He had been doing the radio station thing on his bike and one of the songs I sang was “Take Me to Church” and he had asked if I made it up. I said no and explained how we used to listen to it and he’d fall asleep. Well on the drive back we switched to music – more Julius Jr. several times – then I played that song. It went quiet in back and I looked back and saw him with his eyes closed. And grinning. But he was also getting sleepy for real. Called Carly and had her talk to him. She promised him hot chocolate if he stayed awake. Then put on some “super music”and more Julius Jr. etc. He managed to stay awake. Although we forgot the hot chocolate.

We were home by 5:30. Carly and I were talking about her teaching and he asked her “Could you teach me something about Israel?” “Why do different countries have different people?” “Why do people eat different foods?” “What did
you teach your students about Israel?” Carly was telling him about different people and holidays in Israel and she told him about Yom Kippur “What is God?…How does God help you?” He was excited to find out that the Muslims spoke Arabic, and that a lot of them lived in Jordan, which he knew about, and asked why they lived there. He asked “Is there another name for Gob…you know; the person that helps you not die.”

Carly then Skyped with Derek. Thatcher told us about the lizard he caught. August was being a baby and cuddling with us. Afterwards, August and I watched Coyote Peterson, which  was the show I was thinking of earlier. We had asked Derek for the name. August chose a video where he is bitten by a giant desert centipede. August watched the first few minutes over and over: “That’s the cool part.” He liked the centipede bite and also the guy getting bit by a big snapping turtle.

He played a couple minutes of Robot Lab, then Carly took him upstairs. We finished the last round up on the bed. I left them at 7:15. August urged me to not stay up too late again.

He came down at 7:10. Carly was outside so I picked him up and we went out to get her. He cuddled on my shoulder, and told her “I sleeped in.” They nursed and he requested Cheerios. He snacked on them, not doing anything else, and asked me “Why do I always want Cheerios and peanut butter crackers in the daytime?” He then watched Julius Jr. I did some work while they put keys in the piano randomly, then took out the insides of the piano. August ended up over in the red chair showing Carly how he uses the mop as a lever: “That’s a pivot point, and that’s a pump pushing it up and down. I’m teaching mama how a lever works…See, it’s harder.” I took a shower. They had been playing with the wood blocks as dominoes, making a tower, and making a playground. They had found that the cylinder ones don’t make good dominoes. When he finished his playground he said “Look, that’s a great challenge for kids.”

Carly didn’t leave for Model UN/Conflict Resolution until 9:30. As she left I got August to tell her to have fun. He added “But not much of fun cuz I don’t want to miss out on the fun.” Then “Mama! I want to come with you!”

We built a playground, then went up and did his bath. He scrubbed the shower, I started laundry, and we watched a couple Marble Machine videos. Back downstairs I made French toast and he ate two full pieces. He asked me to bring down the instruments container and we played those. He took apart the cheap tambourine. Then played some music apps: Auxy, Bloom, and GarageBand: “I like drum kits a lot.”

He ate four and a half strawberries and said he wanted pizza. I heated us up a couple of slices and took it outside to eat. We went out for a few minutes, but he barely tried his pizza. It was rather quick after breakfast, and he had also said he wanted to eat pizza at the shop. I got some of the books to put in the library and wrote a couple a couple numbers inside the covers. August got upset that he couldn’t write and stopped helping do the tape. Over on the couch he demanded crackers and threw his bowl. I went to pick him up and take him upstairs for a timeout and he untaped my cast and I stepped on one of the piano keys and cracked it.

We sat on the bed and he calmed down, then we went down and glued the piano key. He said unwrapping my cast had been my punishment for not letting him write. We then ended up acting out germs and white blood cells on the couch. He then sang the line “Emily Pearl is a big girl” to Old MacDonald. I realized it was a line from a Skybrary book called I Can Do It Myself! Which he only read once or twice.

He wanted to play Human Body but then found the Me app by the same company. We already own it but haven’t played it, so downloaded it, but then it froze. We went in the kitchen where I was looking for my drink mix stuff. He had gotten some random items out of the cupboards, then spilled the popcorn and some of it had fallen on the floor. He was first a Sweep-a-matic 3000. Then a Picking-up-machine 4000 (the new model). I looked behind the oven and took the microwave down to do it. He helped me clean the top of the microwave.

Carly got home at 1:50 as I was making the drink, having found what I wanted up on the top shelf. August excitedly told her about how the drink mix works, then drank a lot: “I like-ed that.”

I was sitting under the black chair and he crawled under it and swept with his hand. He played under there, pushing me from below. Then he sat in the chair and had me do it to him. He ate some more strawberries, then we got ready to go on a walk. He played with the Teuni Teuni Monster Drum and rolled it on the floor. He speculated on why it rolled back to him, and Carly taught him ‘hypothesis’: “My hypothesis is momentum.” He had also seen some tomato slime on the cutting board and thought it was ice cream. He kept talking about it: “Mama confused me once. I thought the tomato was ice cream.” We said he could eat his cookie on the bike. I put it in the snack bag and he wondered where it was: “I smell a cookie. That’s a hint.”

We went for a walk. We walked down to the tunnel that echoes, as Carly hasn’t been there yet. August showed her how we were magnets as we walked. Got done with the tunnel at 3 and headed back. August had wanted to go to the park by Jack’s house, but on the way back changed his mind. We had a good discussion on the way back about “rule party” and how he needs to be in charge sometimes.

We were home at 3:30. I was feeling tired, so Carly took him to the store. They drove to the big Tiv Taam at 4 and were back at 4:50. I watched some Altered Carbon and did some work. When he was home he was hungry and I heated up some peas and meatballs for him. He ate that, then he wanted to play blocks with him. He said “Oh, I have control but you can play with me.” A reference to our earlier discussion about being in charge sometimes. I asked him how shopping went and he said “I behaved 100 percent. But I lost Mama’s list.” They found it. I talked to Carly later and she said he stayed in the cart the whole time, then did most of the putting things on the conveyor belt and most of the bagging at the end.

We then did Duplos and made a structure: “We’re putting on the finishing touches then we’re done.” We had the zookeeper play on it and he said “It’s for acrobats.” Then he said it was a machine. We played part of a snakes and ladders game, then read Monster Party. He got the salad spinner out and played with that.

Carly made ginger peanut sauce and spring rolls and we ate some of those. August got to lick the spatula off, but then basically threw it at Carly when he was done. After a little timeout with her he went back to his Duplo machine. He said “This cord is called the umbilical cord.” He was then on the couch with Carly and they played out a little routine they’ve developed: Him: “Why do you always say…?” Her: “Why so you always say ‘Why do you always say?’?” Him: “Why do you always say ‘Why so you always say ‘Why do you always say?’?’” Etc.

Carly went up to take a shower and he and I read the Cat and Alphabet books. We then read two Bob books from the Sight Words collection. Or rather, he read them. We haven’t read anything from that box since we’ve been in Israel. We read book 17, “The Old Truck”, and I just read the first word of each page and he read the rest. Sentences like “Can Ted make the old truck new?” We then read book 20, “Before and After”. He read it almost entirely on his own, with sentences like “Before a snack, Peg will wash her hands.” Carly came down and saw the end of it. She then realized the books have little activities at the beginning. That book suggested using words like ‘when’, ‘while’, ‘until’ in sentences. Carly asked if he could do it, and he was just making up nonsense. Then I modeled for him, using a funny sentence. He caught on and we did several. He laughed a lot, and would ask if we thought his sentence was funny. We looked at the activities in a couple others and discussed those as well. One was listing adjectives. He did a pretty good job of listing adjectives, and came up with ‘unlovable’.

We played some more of the Me app, which had frozen earlier in the day. August made a cool picture of himself, then drew a picture of an alien.

Carly took him up and got him ready for bed. Did a little kaleidoscope cards. I left them at 8:15.

Word of the day was ‘Castledonia’, which is one of the places they go in Julius Jr.

He woke up sometime after 6, but then fell back to sleep until 7:10. He watched Julius Jr. When Carly said he’d stop after an episode and then they’d reada book and play outside he agreed, but then turned and said “Dada, what do you think of that?” He sneakily started to watch another episode, then reluctantly agreed to play with Carly before she headed to school for the MUN/Conflict Resolution thing: “Okay.” They went and played Duplos: “That part’s pretty amazing, right?” He was doing some good humming/singing while they played.

I went upstairs and did a little work, then came back down before 9. They were still playing Duplos and had made a treehouse. She headed to school for the MUN/Conflict Resolution thing. We did a little more Duplos, then read some Smurfs, including the Clockwork Smurf story. He said he liked the other version, so then we watched the episode with Clockwork in it. I exercised. He picked up on a line in the Smurfs and said “They’re going to give him a taste of his own medicine.”

He went in the bathroom and asked me “Can you pee in garbage cans or not?” When I said no, and why would you be able to he replied “Because gross things go in garbage cans.” We went upstairs and he played some Sound Rebound and I took a shower. He came and hung out in the bathroom. He was playing with the fold-up stool and said “When they didn’t have drawbridges and doors they used this kind of door.” as he rotated the stool back and forth.

We did his bath, then went downstairs and he had some naked time. We had bought some of the meatballs at Ikea and I’d started those before his bath. He liked the meatballs, but then I set them in a bowl of broccoli and cheese. Carly had come home for lunch. He then got picky, and wanted the stir fry instead, but didn’t like the little cheese that had stuck to his meatballs. I think Carly traded some out for him and he ate some meatball, but nothing else.

I headed upstairs and worked, coming down at 12:55. They had been outside, and were now back at the Duplos. He had made a plant growing machine. August had wanted to play the alien and gas station game this morning and they didn’t have time. He asked for it again and she played it with him before she left. First time I’d seen it, and he was doing a lot of laughing as the gas sprayed everywhere, etc.

She headed back to school. He asked “Why did mama tell us we should go outside…she wants everyone to be outside when it’s sunny?” he was then a sticker finding machine, and I carried him around to find stickers. He was then the trapinator machine and we used treasure maps we got different places (eBay, etc.) to find treasure and he would detect traps. Ended up in the bedroom and we played with kaleidoscope cards.

Carly hadn’t been clear on her afternoon/evening plans and we hadn’t heard an update, so we were trying to figure out what to do. We were planning on walking up to town and trying to get my hair cut. We talked about picking up a pizza to bring home and we talked about noodle pizza and things I missed from Korea. Made a list. He says he didn’t miss anything. But he got kind of excited about noodle pizza.

He found Auxy on my iPad and we made another song. The program suggested the name ‘Jealous Wombat’ and he really liked that. We exported it as a video, and then he played with the settings a lot, figuring out how to change tempos and keys and scales on the fly. He was a machine changing with the tempo.

We got ready to go, and as we were going outside Shmuel was here. He said he needed to take a photo of the power meters. We talked a little and he said he wasn’t doing very well, but didn’t elaborate on why, and August wanted me to “make it up”. He also talked more about his missing purple bag.

We walked to town and stopped at the mall. Sadly the hair place was closed. We looked at a little toy/stationary store we hadn’t looked at before. August found a pink squishy ball kind of like the one he got from Bar. He played with it in the store and found out that it lit up. He wanted to buy it, but was then fine with putting it away when he was done.

We then stopped at the hardware store to see if they had keychains, as two of the metal loops on mine were all bent and the keys were falling out. The owner just happened to have two metal rings in his hand from something he had just stocked and gave them to me. Perfect.

We continued on to the pizza place. Took a few minutes translating the menu for fun and ordered a large pizza with mushrooms and Bulgarian cheese on half. While we were there we read There’s a Wocket in My Pocket, The Bippolo Seed, and Oh the Places You’ll Go! August ate a whole piece of pizza. I held the slice at first for him, then he was able to hold it by himself. We also had our usual juice packs.

Carly left school about 4:30 and came and picked up us and the pizza. We were home before 5. Carly and I had more pizza. She ate outside. August tried bringing the broom inside at one point, then was scraping the “gross stuff” on the ceiling outside the kitchen door. I had gone upstairs and when I came down he told me how Carly had changed her mind: first telling him he couldn’t do it, then saying it was okay.

We played with Duplos and he made machines: the tall-vi-nator 3000, which made things tall, and the “The Low-fat 3000…the name doesn’t mean anything.” Then a cookie shooting machine, and a gumball machine. He kept asking “Do you want to build a machine with me? I’m the greatest inventor ever!”

We talked about how he doesn’t miss anything about Korea. Said he remembers Logan. Debated whether August was a quiet kid. When I said he knew a lot of words so probably did more talking than a lot of kids his age. He then stopped talking to show how quiet he was. He also told us he didn’t want us to keep talking about Korea.

Carly was talking about what she did today and asked how much I knew about Hamas. August interjected, saying “I know a lot about Hamas…Do you want me to teach you?…They fight on the stove…and they EAT people!” Carly told me that he he hadn’t nursed during the night, but she still had a restless night due to bad dreams. He said  “I had so many bad dreams too! It’s just that I didn’t tell you them.” August said to Carly “Can I ask you a question? Tell me about when you were a kid.” Apparently she often tells him stories about when she was a kid before he goes to sleep.

They did some colored pencils, drawing parts of a cell. We then did blocks, and he made a machine that makes amphibians. He sang a short “zolta zebra flew away” song. Carly took him upstairs and he took a long time in the bathroom. I had set up the book display boards this morning, and he took all the books off of it, saying those were were the ones dada said he could read before bed. They read Ameli Bedelia Under Construction. I left them at 7:40.