Category: Uncategorized

A topsy turvy day as we were at school in the morning, which seemed to kind of confuse August, and I managed to break a little finger, which led to hours of waiting and not much else in the evening. 

He was up at 6:25. In a science mood in the morning as we played Human Body, Classify It!, and Math Tango. I made us French toast. When it was ready he said “Podtastic!”, which is from the narwhal book.

Another day of getting moving quickly in the morning. But first he made up a song on the piano and wanted to record it for the blog. After the video he said “lovely!”

I took a shower. He came up and waited for me. There is some water damage of the trim around the door, right at the bottom, which he likes to pick at but I’ve told him not to. He picked at it again and I told him not to. He replied, lawyer-like, “But you said I could destroy it faster than the water!” I had to clarify the meanings of ‘could’.

I was hurrying arønd tø get ready to gø and he said “You’re so fast! I could miss you everywhere!” He was playing with Duplos as I put on his clothes and I accidentally knocked over part of what he was building. When we were done he politely asked “Dada, next time could you not destroy something I’m making?”

We headed to school. On the way we listened to a New Order song and he talked about it sounding animated – like the Animusic videos, I think he means electronic, and that it was fast. He called it “super music”: “I’ve been playing super music.”

We were originally supposed to meet Carly and then Cassie at 8:45, but both Cassie and Mayan, who runs the preschool, were running late. Then the registrar suggested that August should go as well. So we went to do our preschool tour. August lasted a couple minutes inside, mainly covering his eyes to hide from people, and we saw Bar, but then Carly had to take him outside. We continued with the tour, and ended up outside by the playground. Carly had to go teach, so she brought August to me. I held him for a couple more minutes and we tried to ask him if he had any questions. He said “I just don’t like it.” to Maayan.

We left and walked to the library. August looked down towards Bat-Hen’s classroom and asked “Are you a little sad she got in a car accident?” I don’t know if I mentioned that, but that’s why August didn’t have a Hebrew lesson this week, and won’t next week.

In the library we got to play with the Makey Makey kit and the fruit piano that had been built with it. He loved it. We saw Jill, the youngest of the sisters and he said “We haven’t seen them in awhile.” We also played with circuits – a couple different types of toys. But he kept going back to the piano made out of bananas, a potato, and playdough. He also liked making molecules with a kit and asked “How strong are the bonds?” He reluctantly went with me about 10:30 to go home. We needed lunch eventually and I had a headache. We planned to come back in the afternoon and play a lot more before his activity class. Things didn’t quite go as planned.

He got upset before we left the school, and continued in the car, and then in the house. I thought he might be ready for a nap give his short nights of sleep. At home then I hurried up the stairs to get my Tylenol. Near the top one of my feet slipped a little. I didn’t fall, but struck my arm out to grab the railing and instead punched a post. It did not feel good.

Got my Tylenol and went downstairs. He watched Llama Llama and I lay down for awhile and felt a little faint. I was able to pick him up a bit later and he said “It’s good you can still pick me up.” He played with the bottle brush from the sink. Then we did some Seuss Band. He said that oh the places you’ll go, the cat in the hat and Dr. Seuss’s ABCs are his favorite songs on the game.

Carly had made me an appointment for 3 down at the Herzelia Medical Center. We went back to school. Listened to the Dr. Seuss Songbook on the way but he said he didnt like them: “Not the real Dr. Seuss songs.”

Played more with the piano and stuff in the library. We looked at an Ispy book and read a little of the Alexander book where he doesn’t want to move. But August said “No, it’s to black and whitish.”

Then Carly came a little after 2 (she was done teaching at 1:30) and drove us down. I went in and they headed to town on his bike. They went to a coffee shop and had a sandwich and hot chocolate. They then walked down to the beach. There was a sculpture of an angel riding a bike and August wanted to take a photo for me. They played on the beach with the sand toys and made a big pile of sand.

Meanwhile, I was stuck in slow hospital hell. Took about 20 minutes to do all the new-patient paperwork, then I walked down the street to Dr. Shaun’s office. Waited until my appointment at 3, then found out he was running 15 minutes late getting to the office. He showed up and that went fine. He said he suspected a fracture and wanted an x-ray. Then I might go back to him to him to get it taped. So back to the international clinic office with some paperwork, where another woman photocopied my insurance card. Again. Then down to x-ray, where I had to get a number, wait to talk to the desk, then wait for my name to be called. Got the x-ray and could see it was broken. Then I was supposed to wait for a disk with the x-rays. I waited, and waited. Then caught the technician, and he looked for it and told me a couple minutes. Asked another woman about it. Eventually the doctor came over on his own and he got involved. Had to leave, then come back. He got to look at them and said it was broken at the end so I should see an orthopedist, But I still had to wait for the disk. And they’d set up an appointment for me. Waited some more. Finally, a disk. But they told me to wait.

Carly and August had come down while I waited four the disk. They then went at 5:20 to see about getting my prescription for me, then got involved up at the international office. August had fun scratching a candle. Finally, Carly succeeded and got me an appointment at 7:30.

We left, first having trouble figuring out where to pay for parking, then stopped at the pharmacist where I met my new favorite person in Israel: he snapped to attention and did everything quickly and efficiently.

We headed home and had just enough time to get some food. August bit his tongue and was ready for bed. Before I left them he talked about the candle that Carly wouldn’t let him scrape: “That was the worst bit ever.” “I really wanted it to be scraped.” I left them at 6:45.

Green french toast:

With mama while I had my appointment:

Sculpture he knew I would like:

We had a good day at the science center.

He was up early, at 6:10. I picked him up and carried him down and we cuddled on the couch. He watched Llama Llama and Carly headed to work. We then read If I Ran the Circus. He kept saying things like “Wow, that’s dangerous” “That’s impossible.” He played Seuss Band while I exercised. He himself was then a music game like Seuss Band. He played with Duplos and was humming a slow version of “Strumming on the old banjo” from “I’ve been working on th railroad.” He asked “What’s ‘for future reference’?” Sounds like something I say, but I didn’t remember saying it recently. He made an espresso machine out of Duplos. It was old and broken “It needs to be delivered to the tractor museum.”

I took a shower, him hanging out in the bathroom. He was getting in my way as I tried to hurry, and I apologized for being grumpy. He gave me a nice hug. He made up a song as he played with Duplos. I was then getting sandwiches ready. He kept coming up with just one thing he wanted me to do. Than another thing. I was having to say no a lot, which he isn’t to. He told me “Dada, you’re a little mean.” Of course, he had also just drawn on the wall a bit with the compass and pencil. Then, we left right at 9. On the way out he scratched some point on the bookcase. I started to lecture him about it and he instantly plugged his ears. I asked if he was blocking me out. He said “Yeah, I’m blocking you out.” Had to laugh at that.

On the way we first listened to Story Pirates. Along the drive he must have thought about the Dragonbox geometry app as he said something like “I want to get better at the geometry app.”

He just made it to Haifa. Couldn’t last much longer in the car. And he didn’t fall asleep. We were in the museum (free again) at 10:35. Went to the bathroom, then up and played with the Da Vinci lift, like at Tiv Taam. Up to the second floor and wandered around a bit, but no place for long. Went in the dark room for a minute and did our shadows, but he was still in nervous mode and wanting to be held a lot.

We went outside and sat and ate some lunch. He then wanted to go through the outside stuff. Lifted him in the globe thing, then continued on. We both did the pendulum swing, then spent most of our time slowly going down all the water stuff. He loves the water wheels with the cups on them and would just turn and turn and turn them. Farther down the hill we found another one, but instead of pouring water right back into the pool it plays three different bells. That was really cool. While he was turning and turning he would say “Look at all that water!”

Back inside we played in the da Vinci room, then went up to the puzzles area and through the sound room. He then wanted the teeth room. Were in there a bit, then when the microscopes and telescopes room was empty of a class we went over there. Spent a lot of time looking in those. The telescope has fake stars in it. You move it around and it is as if you are looking at the night sky. He started to say “That’s Pluto and that’s Saturn and there’s Venus and there’s the sun.” I thought he was making it up, but he wasn’t. He was actually reading them off the labels.

Out in the lobby area he saw the donation box and wanted to put coins in so I got coins out for him. We went downstairs and played in the play area. He was the biggest kid in the blue building blocks area and I told him he needed to be careful around the babies. He said “But some big kids don’t do that! I want to be like that!” He was kind of being a punk, at least in words: at one point he said “I’m gonna hit these people with it” when he had a long skinny one and when he did something he said “I hope that’s not okay.” There was a mom with a baby and a boy, Philip, just a little smaller than August. Philip was going crazy, and August joined right in. I had to stop August a couple times, but at least he wasn’t the craziest one. Mainly they just destroyed the blue blocks that no one was playing with.

I told him we needed to leave at 2 and got him away from there. He wanted to play with the water stuff and we did that for several minutes. Finally, there is the spot with some cushy walking things and some shapes you can climb in. He went in a cube, then wanted to go in the dodecahedron. There was a bigger kid that was sort of going in and out of it. August tried to go in and the kid sort of pulled it away. But then seemed to be done with it again. August wanted to get in again, then the kid came back with a long strip of rubbery stuff and tried putting it around August’s neck and choking him. The kid hadn’t said a single word to us yet. I stopped that, but then a minute later the kid started chasing August and tried putting it around his neck again. I stopped it, August was screaming, and the mom, who was on the phone, finally came to see what was happening. She spoke English but mainly seemed confused. I explained what happened and gave her the piece of rubber. She said it wasn’t their’s. She did talk to her kid in Hebrew, but let them keep playing, and neither of them offered any sort of apology. I just really don’t get this no apologies thing. We saw it several times in Korea.

August wanted to do a walkthrough of the tall grass/car wash/bridge area, then we went and used the bathroom again. We went to the gift shop and looked in there for a few minutes. He played with some gears on the sample table. We left at 2:30.

I mainly carried him back to the car. We hadn’t brought a stroller, which was good as the street we parked on is under full construction and hard to navigate. When we got to where it is closed to traffic he announced “Hazard spotted ahead!” in his Waze voice. We peeled an orange and ate it in the car. We finished the newest Story Pirates, then listened to part of a science podcast and he was repeating facts. I suggested we get going and he said “After I eat this whole orange and get in my seat and get buckled.”

When we got driving at 3 he told me “Drive safely!” We listened to the elements song. There was a lollipop that I told him he could have when he saw the power plant. But before we were out of Haifa he already had his eyes closed. I gave him the lollipop and that kept him awake awhile. When he was done he set down the stick and then went to sleep. He was asleep 3:30 to 4:07 and I was able to listen to some of my audiobook (A Horse Walks into a Bar).

At home I woke him up and we cuddled on the couch and watched Llama Llama. Carly got home as he was eating nutty noodles. Carly had made extra food to deliver to a family and she went and delivered that. August wanted a smoothie and I made a banana mango smoothie. First he wouldn’t get off the couch to drink it – he wanted to drink it there. He finally came down on the floor. When he first tasted it he said “It’s gross.” And he was making his little “yuck” noises. But he drank it, then wanted more, and later said I should make more of it sometime.

We read the Narwhal book twice. When Carly got home I went upstairs to rest and they Skyped with Vivian. She was at home again due to snow and has her first violin lesson on Thursday. When they were done skyping August said he wanted to come up to sleep with me, but when he came in he didn’t, instead wanting to play kaleidoscope cards, which was fine as I was already up. We did kaleidoscope cards and Carly watered plants, then took a shower.

We played Seuss Band, then I got some food and he kept playing. I came back and did more playing and as I played he was being the da Vinci lift and the gates affecting water pressure. Carly took him upstairs for bed and I left them around 8. But he was soon back down. We worked on Math Tango together – he’s getting better with adding 10s – and then he played Busy Gears. It’s cool to see his problem solving on that one as he figures out how to connect the wheels, place the gears, and set up the pully. We took him b
ack up to bed and I left them at 9:50.

Waking up:

Pumping: 

Telescope:

Donating: 

Pulling me by the strap:

Waking up again:

He was up at 6:40. Down on the couch he looked out the window at the sunrise and said “Look at the purply sky.” A little later he spotted a Duplo across the room and wanted me to do robot cleanup with him. We did that and then went back to the couch/bed and he played with Melody Jams music app. He played Seuss Band and I started reading a new book I got, The Land Between Two Rivers: Poetry in an Age of Refugees. We then read How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Strange Shirt Spot, Tadd and Todd, Too Many Daves, and There’s a Wocket in My Pocket.

August asked me “How do you close one eye and open the other eye?” And then he was trying to do it and couldn’t. He had to hold one eye closed. Later, he pretended to have an eye patch and asked if an eye patch would hurt. We did more Seuss Band and traded off doing songs. I made him a peanut butter and honey sandwich and exercised. He went into question mode: how many colors are there, how do iPad screens make color (he now knows ‘pixels’) and “How does faucets make water go up if there isn’t gravity?” There was a discussion and lots of nonsense questions regarding water pressure. More: “How can people make water?” “What happens if a person is really strong and they walk on glass?”

He was then pretending to be a sewing machine: “Dada, I’m an old sewing machine.” “What are you sewing?” “Nothing. I’m an old sewing machine.” But then he had me use him to sew different things. He asked me “Is Llama Llama repetitive?” Not the name, but the actual show. He knows I don’t really like Max and Ruby because it is so repetitive. Luckily, Llama Llama is much better. We watched Llama Llama. It showed Llama Llama falling to sleep in his own bed. August said “I don’t fall asleep like Llama Llama… because I like sleeping with you.”

I left him watching downstairs while I went upstairs to take a shower, but he followed me up and waited in the bathroom while I showered. I started talking about our day, and only got to talking about going to get pizza, which he agreed to, but then he said “I don’t feel like I’m good enough to go to school.” He was picking at a wall again and I told him we don’t need to damage the walls. He replied “What do you mean? That’s because I’m a mean person.”

We watched a little Adventures of Zee, then gave him a quick bath. He was then pretending to have an eye patch using his towel. We talked about going over to the mall and trying the new Pizza Hut: “It’s new, so I don’t feel like it.” He talked me into going to VIPizza in town. I put on his clothes – the long-sleeve green shirt with his stars over it and he said “I like my comfy clothes.” He then talked to Green Monster and told him that August’s clothes were comfier than his comfy caves.

As we got ready to go I could only find one of his turquoise shoes. He put one of his green Crocs on the other floor and said “I want to go like this. I want to wear not the same shoes.” I let him do it and he was like that for the rest of the day. Finally found his other shoe under the coffee table in the evening.

We left after 11. Lots of “I wonder why…” statements/questions on the walk into town: there are lines there (on the ground), that’s tied on (little Israeli flag banner), a cord is sticking out, that sign is there…

We got to the pizza place at 11:30. Think they were just opening as they didn’t have slices out yet. We ordered mushroom and a corn. He mainly ate mushroom. He said the juice was really good and said “Thank you for the juice you got me.” While we waited, then ate, we read I Had Trouble Getting to Solla Sollew and The Sleep Book by Dr. Seuss. We left there at 12:15. On the way to the grocery store he was talking about his alphabet that goes beyond “Q”. It covers every word in the world, I think he said.

We took the bike through the store. He was lifting the front of it up to show how strong he is. We saw packaged cooked beets and he wanted to buy some. Left with just the huge broccoli and chicken breasts for the nutty noodles Carly was going to make.

On the walk home he was talking about his parts and blasting monsters, which he noted he hasn’t done for quite awhile. We stopped at our park and played a bit. We went on the teeter totter thing and he asked “How does it shake? Is it a little mechanism?”

We were home after 1. On the couch he observed “Dada, I don’t really like playing with stuffed animals.” He watched Llama Llama for a bit while I rested, cuddled up next to me, then got ready to go to the school. Carly via text asked if he’d want to play school with her. He said “Actually I do! After we play with the magnets. Actually, I don’t. The magnets will be more fun.”

On the walk to school we learned left and right in Hebrew and he was making up a left and right song. He wanted to put it on the blog, and I said I had to take a video. He then spotted the picture on the electrical box and said he also wanted to put that on the blog. I mentioned how he had more energy and he said “I feel better because of that rest…I was a tiny bit worn out.”

At the library we found the marbles and blocks moved to the back. He made a magnet sculpture, then we mainly played with the regular marbles and wood blocks on the floor, making little paths for the marbles. Then we found the makedo toys, which are tools and pieces for making things out of cardboard. We had seen Ilana do a green screen thing with a student, so I installed the app on my phone and we did that, having August be a seagull in front of the Mediterranean. We also dug through the Legos a lot, but August’s favorite was the straws and connectors set. A big rectangular solid was already build and August wanted to be in it, then promptly destroyed it. He built a cube by himself, then wanted us to build a bigger one, saying “Next time I’ll be a dog that’s barking at you cuz I don’t like to be in the cage all day.”

Carly came and brought me a latte. I went out of the library and drank it and did some reading. I saw Bar and her mom go in, then I went and told Carly. They were playing with the Legos and gears. When they were done playing August wanted to go find Bar. We found them in the little kids book area. August and Bar were crazy together, climbing around the sitting area, standing on stools to see who was taller, jumping from the ledge across the reading carpet, and spitting at a fly to make it go away. Yes, you read that correctly.

Bar had to go to her dance class. We checked out our books: Berenstain Bears and the Red-Handed Thief, Young Cam Jansen and the Zoo Note Mystery, The But in a Jug Wants a Hug (which we’ve read before), and Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea, which Liz had recommended to us.

As we walked out, he said “I hope Bar has fun at her dance class.” They were actually close, so then he was able to tell her himself. He was a music machine on the way home. I had intended to drive, but when it got time to leave earlier he really wanted to ride his bike. So plenty of walking for me today. We were home at 5:05. His music machine broke: “No. My gears had broke. My gears that pluck the strings broke. Their teeth broke.”

With August and I both dealing with colds (I’ve just had a headache and a sore throat at night), I’ve asked him how he’s feeling on a scale. He turned it into a 0 to 11 scale. He was having a fought time now and I asked how he was doing. He said “On a scale of 11 I used to be 11 but now I’m zero.”

A bit later to Carly he said “Remember what I did with bar in the library? I stood on a stool on a high thing and I spitted at a fly trying to get it to go away…and I wasn’t supposed to do that.” He also turned the temperature nob on the oven to see what it would do when it is off: nothing.

Played Seuss Band. When I was busy he reluctantly let Carly play, but was then helping her and encouraging her. He ate a lot of cauliflower for dinner. At some
point, when he wanted to eat something messy on the couch, we joked about how it was hard to wash the couch, and to soak it you’d have to use a hose. Like Curious George does. August laughed and said “No, it’s impossible to borrow something from a farm.”

While I held him he spotted the measuring cup on his medicine and said “That gauge had been there for ages.” We read Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea and The Bug in the Jug wants a Hug. He then ate nutty noodles, then we read Young Cam Jansen and the Zoo Note Mystery. He totally rejected the Berenstain Bears book though as it was a chapter book and in black and white. He only does color.

He watched some Llama Llama. He brought up the fly thing again and Carly or I said “You like to break rules with Bar.” He said “Only when she tells me to!”

Carly took him upstairs. They played kaleidoscope cards. I left them at 7:45. SHe called me up at 8. He and I played more kaleidoscope cards. He told me “I like the symmetrical ones, but not TOO symmetrical.”

We read some of The Sisters 2. Almost done with it. Before he went to sleep he lay on the bed and said “You’re the best dada ever” Sweetest thing ever. But then he added “Except when you hurt me.” I think he was referring to earlier when I grabbed his arm to stop him from running around the ipad on the couch. And there was that nipping his ear with the scissors thing. And I’ve bonked him a couple times with the car door. We used to laugh about how Carly was the one always bonking him in Seoul, as he’d walk up from behind and she’d run into him.

I left them at 8:35. I later heard some crying and he didn’t fall asleep until 9:30.

Wearing my watch:

In the cage:

Building:

Gears:

Trying to be taller than Bar:  

At one point during the night he got up on the bed on his own and slept next to me, leaving Carly down on the bed on the floor. At another, Carly had gotten up to go get him some medicine. I didn’t hear that, just him a minute later saying “Mama, mama” and leaving the room. I got up and followed him down and was then confused as I thought Carly was up at 2:30, sick or something. Twice during the night he fell back to sleep while not nursing.

He woke up about 6:15. Carly tried to get him back to sleep but he was ready to get up. When I came down a little later he gave me a nice warm welcome. Carly was heating up the rest of his hot chocolate from last night, as he had asked to save it for later.

Carly headed to work and he was playing Math Tango. He got a couple dance parties and danced along. As he played he suddenly said “I hope mama has a good time.” And he also said “I love animusic videos.”

I made us green french toast and he ate a whole price. He had started playing Seuss Band while I made it, and we played a bit more together after we ate. We then read On Beyond Zebra and he made up a lot of his own letters. I went to the bathroom and he had it read Green Eggs and Ham to him.

We rested apps from his iPad. He suddenly remembered that Dungeon Keeper or Looty Dungeon app that the had played for a couple days then I deleted. He got really sad for a few minutes: “Could you please find it again?”

Gave him some medicine and Gatorade and he asked “When we were sick at Thatcher’s house why did they only want us to drink a sip of gatorade?” Acted out not sipping and throwing up. “Dada, why didn’t I have to go to the doctor?”

We played some Dragonbox Elements. Getting into angles of triangles now. At one point he told me “Next time we do it I will figure it out myself.”

We read The Bippolo Seed, then he started watching Animusic videos but his iPad froze. I got my iPad, but he was then upset about the battery level and I said it didn’t need to be plugged in and he got upset. Calmed him down and we read Undet, Over, By the Clover: What is a Preposition? He then said he wanted to watch anothrr race. But then he spilled the kernels of the popcorn on the couch. I got the vacuum cleaner and he got really sad when I vacuumed. He said he needed to watch the cars again. He basically seemed sick/tired like yesterday, so I gave in. Plugged in my ipad using the fraying cord. He wanted me to tape it like the other one so it would last longer, so I got the tape. He watched part of the race, pushing the emoji buttons. Then recovered some energy and played more Seuss Band. We then read Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

He watched Llama Llama while I took shower. After which we were back playing on the couch again. Kept expecting him to take a nap but he never did. And he didn’t want to go outside or do anything else. Played with the Arabic ocean app and Toca Home, then he decided he did want a walk.

We got going outside at 2:45. We played with the alien a bit, then August told him “Go to the time of dinosaurs, alien! Don’t get eaten! If you see any, trap them. Put them in the secret place in your spaceship.” He asked me to get him a new stick since Carly had disposed of his last one. I did, and he played with it for a couple minutes, but then decided he didn’t like sticks anymore. So he broke it into pieces and wanted to throw it away.

We walked up to our park and played there for a few minutes. We went on the bouncy thing together. We then walked up to the snakes and ladders park. Along the way he was asking all sorts of cool questions: “Why does cocoa smell good, but it isn’t sweet? How many people does the Earth fit? How does paint stick to things? How can bricks get in the ground? How can Electricty kill you? How can screws make things attach?” And “How can ground hold itself up if there’s empty space under it?”

At the playground we played on the snakes and ladders board quite a bit, then he went over to the climbing part and played there. Coming home we walked out the back way and took a long route home. We stopped at the little alligator bench in our park for a slice of apple.

At home he watched the Arabic Adventures of Zee app. And I found out that the guy’s night today was cancelled as no one could make it. Carly got home as I was making a mango smoothie for all of us. August skyped with Vivian, who didn’t have school today because of ice. Carly had the computer on the couch but he kept standing up and walking around it. He got upset when she moved the computer off the couch. I brought him some spaghetti as he sat at the table, still on skype. But he didn’t want it, asking Carly “Could you take that away?”

He asked for a second cup of smoothie, but being grumpy and/or funny he first asked if it was fresh, then kept claiming it was moldy and making little disgusted sounds as he drank it. He drank it all anyway. Carly took him up and they played with kaleidoscope cards. I left them at 6:15 and he was asleep nice and early.

He was up right after 7. Carly was brushing her teeth and he went to her. The first thing he said to her a minute later was “It’s impossible for you to love me more than you cuz I love you infinity times in finity times infinity.” Which was a coninuation of a discussion from last night, I believe.

He watched Timmy Time and had some Cheerios and banana bread. Carly left at 7:40. I told her to have fun with the teenagers, as she was driving 4 teenage girls up to the thing in Lod. Carly gave a little laugh, and August picked up on it and asked: “What? You’re not gonna have fun with the teenagers?” We had a little Cheerio fight, which he started by casually turning to me and throwing a Cheerio at me. The iPad restarted – something that hasn’t happened while he’s in the middle of something for quite awhile – and he got upset and crawled into my lap. Eventually got him some more crackers and peanut butter. He asked “What’s bridge in Hebrew?” We looked that up and he hummed the mystery song while he ate the crackers.

He then watched some Animusic videos and hummed/played along to Acoustic Curves, which is his favorite. Watched a few more of those and discussed them. He was then looking for his big water bottle. I finally found it where he had hidden it behind a couch cushions, probably last night, and forgotten it. He laughed and said “Mystery solved.”

We went and did some drawing with colored pencils, then played with Duplos. He made an espresso machine out of them. We was the saying a word that he claimed was real, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Had to do with a person being sick. But then he claimed he learned it in South America. We made a couple of odd-shaped rockets and he flew them around. One fell apart while we were flying it and pieces slid under the couch.

We went upstairs and he played the Creature maker app. I took a shower. Did some more creatures with him, then it was his bath. He played with toys in his bath. When I went to get the iPad, he climbed out. When I picked him up he cuddled with me, then cuddled in my lap for along time and we started watching the Formula E race. We did that for quite awhile and I kept asking if he wanted to go to the bed and keep watching. He agreed, and let me first give him a basic sponge bath. We watched the rest of the race in the bed on the floor. He was watching it and pushing the emoji buttons.

He said he felt okay and still wanted to get pizza. We got ready to go and got him on the bike. But we only made it a couple blocks. He had his eyes closed and wasn’t steering. He didn’t object when I said we were going to turn around and go home. We had left at 1:15 and were back just after 1:30.

I pulled out the couch into a bed and he lay down and I put the blanket over him. I took his temperature and got 101.0 under his arm. He was falling asleep and I went and got Children’s Tylenol and had to wake him up enough to drink it. He was asleep at 1:50. While he slept he rolled over and ended up with Marshy on his head.

I woke him up 2 hours later, showing him Smurfs 2. He watched a couple minutes and then said “I don’t like this.” I didn’t either. Found a different new show instead, Llama, Llama. He watched that and I made a mango smoothie. Carly was home after 5. Her Conflict Resolution Program event had gone well, and she liked Lod.

August ate some popcorn, then had some more medicine, then some hot chocolate. They read a couple Peppa Pig stories, Edgar Gets Ready for Bed, and Peg + Cat The Chicken Problem. He then watched part of Brother Bear.

They went upstairs to bed and I said good night and left them at 7:30 and went for a walk. I was back at 8 and August came down. We read The Sisters, then watched Hebrew colors videos and then played Seuss Band. Carly Skyped with Cherie, and August played Seuss Band for her. We eventually took him back upstairs to bed and I left them at 9:30.

Tall spaceship:

First cuddling:

Watching racing:

Nap on the couch:

He was up just before 7. They were outside for awhile. And did some Wizard School. I think I heard him singing about Pluto. And he watched some Timmy Time. He was lying on the floor and Carly was watching Nas Daily videos when I came down just before 8. He was asking if they had woken me up. They did glittery glue: “This is a card for the persons that doesn’t have very much food.” Carly had told him about getting food for the refugee preschool. Did that for awhile, then he asked to play the Monsters game he had wanted to play last night. Got out my iPad and he showed Carly how it works.

Talked to me about teeth falling out. “What if it happens to a grown up?” “How strong is the tooth?” I told him about Carly’s friend Paul falling on his bike and knocking out his tooth. He wanted to know “How big was the bike? And how tall was the bike? And how fast was he going? How safe was he, mama? What was he doing that made it dangerous?”

Carly was talking about meals versus snacks and August said “I don’t call them ‘meals’ cuz I think that’s a gross word to say…What ‘meals’ mean, actually?” He was being indecisive about what to eat. He had agreed to alternate popcorn and oatmeal, but then wouldn’t eat more oatmeal. He and I did some glitter glue painting, then he asked me to move the piano back over “where the friends are”. It’s been over by the Duplos for a few days. He was playing “Row your boat” He took his clothes off because he wanted to be cold. Then he tried to take a blurry photo of him on the couch. He said “I’m gonna get you in this magafan. It’s the sharpest thing in the universe.”

We went upstairs to get clothes for him as he said he wanted to go for a walk. He asked “What’s oatmeal? It’s a funny word to say.” He played music machine on drying rack. I put the blue like-grampa shirt on him and he said and he said “When you finish putting it on I’ll change into to a smurf.” His underwear was also blue. On the way down the stairs he pretended they were squeaking. I said our stairs weren’t likely to squeak, so he asked why stairs would squeak. We talked about wood stairs. He wanted to hear the explanation again so asked “Could you talk about that more?”

Carly had gone to the store to do grocery shopping for us. We read The Smurf Apprentice (him being a Smurf had reminded him) He then ate all his oatmeal, then I got the popcorn for him. We read the rest of the Smurf book. Carly was home at 11. August went to his piano: “I’m gonna take all the keys out except lower C. I’m gonna make a song with just one note.” He did that, then we put the keys back in and he played Row Your Boat. He turned to Angeles and said “Lets call this Merry. It looks like a Merry.”

Carly was trying to get him interested in going to the beach as I was going to have some work time. He wasn’t excited by the idea he said “Then we’ll go for a walk. I’m gonna be kinda lazy today.” I took a shower. He was playing with Legos, then I took him up to his bath. He asked how people went to the bathroom before toilets. I told him about chamber pots. Turned out to be the discussion of the day as he asked about them a few times.

We played two games of Snakes and Ladders. I won first, then he won’t be second. Each time though we said that everyone would win so we kept going with the second piece until it finished. He was giving me licorice when we were tied on square, knowing I don’t like licorice. Carly got him hot chocolate, then I went up to start working. They went for a walk and did recycling. They tried to go to a park but a dog was following them everywhere. They came back and played outside and I’m sure Carly took care of the plants.

They then went to the store again, to get food for the kindergarten for refugees in south Tel Aviv. August was very helpful in the store, then helped carry the groceries into the school. He carried diapers on his head. They got home at 4:15. I was working on reworking an essay on art as resistance. Didn’t finish it, but got most of it done and figured out how to finish the rest of the entry.

When they came in he said “Dada, you need to get me another bamboo stick because mama ripped mine.” Turns out the story was that he had poked his in cat poop and then poked Carly with it, so it got taken away and I think she broke of the end of it.

Carly was cooking spaghetti on the stove when the gas ran out. At first we thought it was completely out, but finally realized that we had to switch to the second tank. Carly got him peanut butter and crackers, but he didn’t like that she had broken the crackers into smaller bites. He said he wanted me to do them in the future. He was then a crazy marble machine on my lap, as his head was in my hand and I bounced his head on the couch. Also he has now started to claim that the peanut butter just soaks into his hands. He was going crazy on the couch and said “It’s because I had hot chocolate. Your plan didn’t work!” The plan being to give him hot chocolate earlier in the day so it didn’t affect going to sleep.

He and I read The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Dinosaur Bone, then had spaghetti. As some point we also read YoungCam Jansen and the Double Beach Mystery. Carly was cooking an artichoke, but he wanted to go to the playground with me. I suggested she would save the artichoke for him. When she said she would he said “Thank you mama!” and went and gave her a hug. He then told her “You keep watching that video.” We left at 5:30.

He steered us to the playground and to the exercise equipment and mainly played there. He was climbing on things and seeing what he could do, and trying to make me nervous. He asked “Why’s baby swings have ropes? So they don’t look up and get metal in their eyes? Like Colin’s swing they built him. It was ropes. I still remember that.” Moved around to different things, and he was standing with one foot out on something and told me “I don’t want you to miss it!” He was playing on the teeter totter sort of thing that you stand on and a boy came over and got on with him. After that August asked me “What’s Timbuktu? What’s Constantinople?” He was thinking of Dr. Seuss’s Hop on Pop. Which we read several days back.

On the way home we walked around the Holly block. He said “Timbuktu is a funny word… Constantinople is a funny word.” One of the street lights was out and he speculated on why. He came up with the bulb was out, it was out of electricity, a circuit is broken…”so many ways.” We were home at 6:05.

They shared the artichoke. Then he remembered the fan and wanted me to turn it on. We did that, and Carly didn’t realize it was on until a good half hour later. He went to the bathroom, and told me he likes sleeping next to me. Out of the bathroom he asked “Mama, do you always make noises when you wake me up to nurse?” At first we thought he meant in the middle of the night when he wants to nurse, and Carly was incredulous. But then we realized he meant in the morning when she gets him up before she goes to work.

He and I went and played with the Duplo “maze” he had built with Carly earlier. “Only animals can play in it. It has hay all over it. You can eat the hay.” He destroyed that, then he and I made a new structure.

Back on the couch, thinking of the fan, I think, he asked me “Do things wear out when you use them or when you don’t use them?” And asked “What’s the first square Berenstain Bears book we ever read?” Pretty sure it was Double Dare, which we got in Korea at one of the used book stores and Carly first started reading to him. We read No Girls Allowed, then Carly took him upstairs. He told her “You always drink alcohol.” Which a.) isn’t true b.) he said because the topic had come up earlier in regard to why her friend Paul had fallen off his bike. Also, this morning when she was watching the Nas Daily videos he heard the term ‘Zionist colonizer’ a
nd was then asking “Zionist colonizer? Who’s a Zionist colonizer?” and repeating it.

I came up and said goodnight and left them just before 8.

A big first for us: he had a play date with a new friend/family – not just family or someone we know through work.

He was up about 5:50: “Where’s mama?” Downstairs they got the heart model out to play with. He played with his bassoon and was humming a tune and asked if it was another mystery song. It was “She’ll be coming around the mountain”. He then was a fancy music machine with lasers and tubes and different levels. As Carly was leaving he sang a little “I love you too” song. Carly has an in-service day and I asked if she might be coming home early. August very politely asked if she could come home early. He then watched Timmy Time. After that he started making up games on the couch: “It’s impossible for my rockets not to destroy all the things that are scary.” “I haven’t use-d my rockets in quite awhile.” So then he had me finding monsters in the cracks in the couch: “But I heard some gurgling noises in there…In there. Go investigate.”

He and I then made banana bread. We got that in the oven, the ndid some Duplos. He said “I’m making a gravitational force thing.” “It’s in the tractor museum but you can still see how it works.” He played the mystery song on his comb. “Could you find that song? It’s on my playlist. I love that song…well soon. Solve that mystery. Why do I love mysteries?”

I took a shower, then gave him a bath. We took out the banana bread and waited for it to to cool a little, then had some. He told me”I discovered that when I eat popcorn I drink lots of water.”

We left at 9:25. Along the way he asked me “How can captains steer ships and hold cutlasses if they’re very, very sharp?” We also talked about Pluto and its planet status. He asked “Does it matter what I call Pluto?” He decided to call it a planet. This is a result of the Story Pirates story about how Pluto was sad when it was called a drawl planet.

We got to Bar’s house at 10. They live a block north of the Even Yehuda library. Bar let us in. They started out okay, and I talked to Ayelet, her mother, a bit. Bar gave him a vitamin C that he really liked. They played downstairs with the kitchen stuff. Then it was upstairs to the main floor. They watched some of the Troll movie and had snacks. Bar had some white chocolate chips and made him eat veggies to earn them. He had one piece of cucumber, then I got the carrots I had brought for him, as he didn’t like the peppers or tomatoes. But then ther were also those wafer cookie things with chocolate in them and he had a few of those. We had met Bar’s brother, Ben, who is in kindergarten. He has an extensive Lego collection and likes to keep them in sets. So touching the Legos was out of the question. August wasn’t too interested in them though. But there was also a set of magnetized building block things. Ben showed us a barn he had made out of them, but then also said we couldn’t play with that.

One of Ben’s friends came over, Diane, I think, and I got to use a little Korean with her dad. August liked the big TV and at one point told me “We should buy one of those”. But he lost interest in the movie and wanted to play with other things. We played with those magnet things, building a second building: “I call it a barn that was really old and the animals died.” Bar came and played with him a bit. I had made a hat of sorts out of this clay stuff they had, and Bar came and put it on his head. He said “Im listening to the sea.”

Bar then with her dad went upstairs and got upset about something. August wanted to go up and check on her, but then her brother told us that we should leave her alone when she is upset and that she had once scratched him. August then got upset – I’m not entirely sure why (because he had been told he couldn’t go upstairs, or that she might hurt him) – and I had to pick him up. He told me “You shouldn’t have bringed-ed me here!”

But then they both calmed down, and Bar took August upstairs. I had been talking to Moshe earlier during snacks/troll time. Now talked to Ayelet for awhile. But after awhile I heard August crying and he came downstairs. Bar had decided they were going to take a nap, and had changed him into Ben’s pajamas – even changed his underwear. But the shirt was too much, it turned out. He doesn’t like us putting shirts on, and he really doesn’t like them getting stuck on his head. When he calmed down he told me “I didn’t want to change my clothes. I’m used to mine.” Bar brought down a big elephant and giraffe, and they watched more troll movie.

They went downstairs and played with a light thing in the dark. Then it was lunch time, but August refused to eat anything. He had had so many snacks I wasn’t surprised. He told me “I’m having a little hard time.” But after lunch they all four went downstairs. Ben was in charge as they played chicken tag with the huge balloon chicken left over from Bar’s birthday party, then some sort of other tag. Ben got out snakes and ladders and it was August’s first big kind board game. I helped him, and he was okay with the not winning. It was Bar who wanted to cheat to win and got upset, and her mom took her upstairs. I stayed down with the three remaining kids and they played a hungry hippos sort of game, then Ben threw the marbles around, or hid them, and August and Diane would find them. And somewhere in there August had played with a light up sword and was talking about cutlasses.

August found a new musical instrument – one of those cheap harmonica/keyboard things. And he really liked it. Bar eventually heard it and came down and said it was hers and took it, but August didn’t complain. We went upstairs with her and the two of them sat in a seat together and watched the movie and played with toys. Finally, I dragged him away at 2:50. As we walked he said “Maybe we should visit her two times…just two.”

We stopped at the snakes and ladder playground and played there for awhile. He climbed up into the rope thing and took my hat and wore it. He then found he could climb under the big geometric shapes.

We walked home and were home about 3:40. Warm enough that I opened the windows. They had given us a leftover gift bag from Bar’s birthday: a snakes and ladders game, a pencil, eraser, glitter glue, and a squishy monster toy like he’d played with at her house. I did dishes, and we played a round of snakes and ladders. Carly came home. August  was lying on the floor playing with the squishy monster thing and listening to an Ian McNabb song called “You Stole My Soul”. August started singing along but changed the line to “Don’t you kow you stole my sock”. He told me “There’s so many things to post to the blog.”

He did a little glitter glue (and we sharpened the pencil at some point), then ate soup for dinner and had popcorn. He talked about how Ben wasn’t very nice; and how it wasn’t nice to knock down Ben’s toy (he and Bar had knocked down the bard with some fake flowers they were swinging around).

We skyped with my parents for 20 minutes and started to talk about plans for them to visit next year. He and Carly played snakes and ladders. And he told me he always wanted to sleep next to me. When he was tired he wanted me to carry him upstairs. When Carly tried to pick him up he requested I take him. She got him ready, then I went up and said goodnight and left them after 7:15.

He got up at 6:30. They nursed, then he asked “Where’s my bassoon?” He then played music with it, including his latest mystery song. He asked for crackers with peanut butter, but was upset when I said they had to stay on the coffee table. “You can call someone who can clean a couch.”

Finally, right before Carly left he was somewhat okay with sitting on the couch and keeping the bowl of crackers on the coffee table, with the table pulled close to him. But then he looked at them and said “They all look gross to me…Yeah, cuz they’re slobbery with peanut butter.” He looked at them suspiciously for awhile, then asked if I was making him eat the crackers. I said no, he was the one that had requested crackers. He finally chose one, after touching them a few times. He started by slowly licking it, as if he was unsure what it was. Finally, he just got around to actually eating the crackers.

He asked why zoos are closed sometime (e.g. at night) and I talked about peace for the animals. He said “But what if they hear a rocket blasting into the sky and it wakes them up?” I acknowledged that could be a problem, but not a likely one.

Some interesting conversations: “You know, how did people wipe away snot in the past?” “If they wiped it on their sleeves that’s kinda gross.” He made a Duplo sculpture and sang a “Caring for the leaf” song, then asked “Dada, how did people get to the Earth if there were no people to make other babies?” So a nice discussion of evolution. We got out the keyboard and played Dust Buster and Piano Maestro. He watched Animusic videos and I exercised.

I made a smoothie of all our leftover fruits: last of the strawberries, last of the blackberries, and last of the mangos. He played on the couch while I did that. Drank some smoothie, then he played the mystery song on piano. Randomly, he asked “Why’s bunk beds dangerous? You know, cuz they’re up high?” And “Why do some tape measures go up to a certain distance, then go higher than that?”

We went upstairs and I took a shower and he played GarageBand on his iPad. Recording samples and playing. After my shower he wanted to play TodoMath with me. He was doing the missions and on the barn activity he was acting like Cam Jenson: “Click. In my picture I see-d one pig about to go in there.” He was having difficulty with the matrix activities at first, but then was getting better and sort of chanted “I’m getting good with matrix.” He was then pretending to be a lamb and asked if lambs like baths. I said yes. But then he was getting upset in the bath when I washed him. I asked what was wrong and he said “I’m a special lamb.” That doesn’t like baths. He was pretending.

Downstairs he was talking about pencil sharpeners “Dada, what would a pencil sharpener do if you put your finger in it and turned it?” “Why don’t crayons need a pencil sharpener?” He ate crackers and peanut butter after having more carrots. We were then sitting on the red chairs. First separately, then he was on my lap, talking about electricity. We were talking about what would happen if someone touched electricity, and of course the possibility of it killing you came up. He asked “What does it feel like before you die?” He was then playing with Duplos again, making sculptures and sang a “Static electricity” song.

We left at 12:40, him on the bike. He was pedaling a lot on his own and making music as we went. He talked about how a baby couldn’t ride a bike because it would fall off and I said that’s why they need strollers with buckles. He asked “Is there airbags in case the baby falls out?” I told him he should invent that. We had a fine trip to Tiv Taam, then came home at 1:45. I commented on how warm it was and how I liked that for winter. He said he wanted a cold winter. I told him he was probably stuck with a warm-ish winter until he was 18. But he said he wanted me to move with him because he might get lost in Greenland. Then, as he rode on his own, he said “It’s funny how I can push myself now. I could ride away to Greenland. I could ride away to the ocean. I could ride away to the shore. I could ride away to the Mediterranean Sea.”

We were home at 2. He found the clay he had thrown out the door the other day and threw it away in the garbage can: “I’m tall enough!” Inside he said “It’s good I didn’t come out of my mama early…I was lucky.” He was asking for cracker and I said we could make sandwiches instead. He said “Oh no! I miss-ed my chance!” We ate peanut butter sandwiches. He was asking if I put too much honey in it, enough to make him sick. I said I had, but that I cast a spell so he wouldn’t get sick. I showed him the motion of my spell. He said my spell was tricky, so he might get sick anyway.

Randomly, he said “Dada, I can’t really get along with people…I think they’re mean.”

We got ready to go and drove to the school. Carly was then taking the car to go to a doctor’s appointment and we were walking to his class, using his orange bike. In the library we returned 2 Cam Jenson books. We checked out two more, Lost Tooth and Double Beach Mystery. We read Lost Tooth, then wandered over to the seating area when he spotted the chess sets. We set up a chess set and talked about it, then he spotted the big box of blocks on a table further down. We went over there and also found sets of those round ball bearing-type magnets. August had a blast playing with those: “series of magic pipes…but the magic force is getting old…So I put it to the series of magic pipes museum…they make new things.”

Ilana came over and told us there was a special week next week – Library tech or something – and the idea was to make videos like https://youtu.be/QQ9gs-5lRKc There is a board set at an angle on the ground next to the table. So then August and I were making paths for the balls to roll down. I found a book of 50 Israeli short stories and checked that out while he was playing. I finally got the little sets of marbles separated and pulled him away from the magnets and marbles and we headed to his class, but first went and recycled some cans we had brought with us.

He was the only person at class, and for several minutes he and Sigal did yoga positions using some cards she had of kids doing animal yoga poses, like a frog. He was really enjoying that, so that when Abigail and Daria showed up with their dad August actually got upset. He does like his individual attention time. But he ended up doing quite well in class. All the parents were in there, and I may have actually done the least redirecting, etc. of the parents. They started by pretending they were walking on the moon. And walking on their heels and toes. Also working on jumping off the mats with two feet (something he was also doing, while holding the arms, of the red chairs before we left home), hopping on two feet, standing on one foot, etc. And they did more of the yoga cards: he was a bear, tree, mountain, slide, and others.

His biggest difficulty in class might be waiting for her to set up the course at the end of class. Waiting is hard. Good practice for him. I basically had to hold him. But then he had fun with that, and as we left class he said “That was so fun!” He went and used the bathroom before we left (his idea).

We got outside and I had received a message from Carly saying she was on her way. August at first said he didn’t want to be picked up and wanted to walk home. But then he wanted to stop at the playground. He told me it was too dark for AR view to work in Drops. He got to play about 10 minutes before Carly showed up. His reaction when I said I saw her: “Oh no. No, wait. I’m not even finished yet.” We talked about class and I said “They did yoga poses in class” August finished the sentence with “and I was very good.” Carly told him she was going to teach him about humility.

Carly stayed and played with him for another 20 minutes or so and we left at 6:10. In the c
ar he asked her “What kids were in your class?” “How was class today?”

At home he had some noodles, then got angsty over his treat – he wanted hot chocolate but it was too close to bedtime. Finally he settled for candy cane. He happily sucked on it and hummed his mystery song. When he was done he said “I’m like magnets, but stickier.” Because things stuck to him. Carly had him say ‘simile’.

He was pretty quickly to bed after that. Hit his head on the edge of the bed a bit and was then ready to sleep. I left them right around 7.

Carly got him up right before she left again. Really groggy on the couch for awhile, then wanted to play Busy Gears. As he played, he asked “Can you do some laundry, please, dada?” Good remembering that he and Carly had told me before he went to bed that we should do laundry today. He had commented on the laundry basket being full. I started laundry, then came down and we read The Wing on a Flea. He then looked at the songbook and was making up music. He found in the back that he could rate the iBooks and he talked about how much he liked the songbook so he gave it five stars. He then opened other books and rated them.

We bought a new book, Sarah and Duck have a Quiet Birthday and read that. He then watched Animusic videos and played along as I made a smoothie. We discussed advertisements and Rebar. He talked about how he doesn’t even know what some of the ads are selling. And he told me that the Rebar ads are about 4 hot drinks. He then sang a “Mima mema more” version of his latest mystery song. And he asked me “Could you add that to the blog? It’s a lovely song.” He was then a space robot studying Mars and other planets.  I took a nice photo of him explaining that he could withstand any hot temperature.

We built a big structure with Duplos. While we were building he asked me why people get runny noses. When I did it helped protect against germs he told me “Oh, I learned that. I learned that in school.” He stood by the tall straight plant and it is almost as tall as him. He said “When two things are the same, you know…” Then turned into a plant. This is a running joke of his, that when two things are the same in some way they turn into the same thing.

We re-read the Cam Jenson Circus Mystery book. He then watched a couple videos of acrobats while I took a shower. He played his upstairs music machine, then I gave him his bath. I had made some falafel and french fries. He rejected falafel and when I asked if he’d eat french fries he replied “No, I’m more interested in physics…I’m more interested in physics and gears.” He had found a coin somewhere and threw it off the couch. He told me “I throwed the coin off in the distance.” And he told me “Dada, I really liked the background photo you had on your iPad before you changed it.” That was weeks and weeks ago. Can’t remember what it was before, although we looked through some of the photos to find it. He played some Monster Physics. Then he asked “What’s capes?…Why does superheros wear them?” I asked where he learned that and he said “It was in activity class.” And he added “Do capes look superhero-ish?”

He was having naked time as he hadn’t put clothes on after his bath. He pushed all the cushions and stuffed animals onto the floor and made a mouse nest. He was  also a sick mouse a lot today. Earlier he had been a sick mouse and was telling his “friends” that he couldn’t play with them for seven hours because he was sick.

We played some Dust Buster, then he did a little Piano Maestro. He passed the last chapter 1 song, and practiced a song with two notes a little. He drank the rest of the smoothie and asked for some thawed mango. He asked “You know, how do tight rope walkers stand on…” Lots of talk of tight rope walker discussions and questions today. He made up a song, then said “So much things to add to the blog. Could you take a video of the next song?” He was singing and hitting the toy syringe with a spring on it on the couch as a rhythm instrument. Soft couch, but surprisingly it broke the top off of it. I told him I’d try to super glue it later.

We went for a walk, finally, after 3. We stopped and did recycling, then went to the park. He said “Dada, I like living close to a park.” Of course, he’s always liked close to a park. In the swing he opened his locker and said “We’re out of milk and chocolate-covered flies.” We played around on the ‘store’ structure for awhile, then he hopped on the bike. Made it as far as the exercises equipment where he jumped off and we played for a few minutes. We then walked over to Tal Garden a little before 4. When I said where we were headed he asked “Do you mean the one with a helter skelter?” He played on the motorcycle thing, then went and spit on the edge. He said “I spitted! In PUBLIC!…I was doing some things we weren’t supposed to do not public.” He had been talking about peeing at the other park. Back on the motorcycle he randomly talked about all sorts of things. He asked why Jack lived at the house across the street. He then added “You know, it’s not a very nice house.”

Switched to the merry-go-round and we went really fast on it. He wanted to do that a few times. He then had an art supply store on the slide. He adjusted his sweatshirt: “Dada? Could you let me control how high and how low the zipper is? It was really high up. So I put it down.” He spotted Jack leaving his house and we said hi. Back in his art supply store he said that everything was magical so the pencil sharpeners wouldn’t cut his finger.

We left at 4:25. He asked “Can we listen to I’ve bee working on the railing road?” I sang it a few times, him humming along. Then he said “I said actually to listen to it.” We listened to the Pete Seeger version several times and took a walk around the Holly block, getting home at 4:40. He asked “Could we do an iHerb order?” We were looking at Larabar options when Carly got home.

He ate some soup for dinner, then Carly let him have a piece of the candy cane. He started playing GroRecycling and I went upstairs to the office to work. They took a long time getting ready for bed and played with the kaleidoscope cards. They came and got me and I went in and said goodnight and left them at 7:20.

Carly got him up before she left. When she left he wanted to play a shapes game. He started with a few minutes of Busy Shapes, but I think was finding that too easy. He tried to switch to RelationShape but realized he’d passed all the levels in that. We looked at the art he had made in the game. He said “You know, dada? It seems like you like all my pictures.” So we purchased Busy Gears, and it worked well: he hasn’t used gears before and it was a little more challenging than Busy Shapes.

We ate the last of the apple muffins. He told me “I LOVE the apple muffins you made.” He was humming a new mystery song, just a line really. No idea what it is. He was kind of stuck on the mystery song while I made sandwiches. He also mused on different subjects: “In Korea did we think the little water was for outside and the big water bottle was for inside?” “Now I love the rectangle crackers. Why do I love the rectangle crackers?” And he was a claw machine: “I was a claw machine that could do everything humans can do…Pretty impressive, eh?”

We went upstairs and he played with the pen light from his doctor kit and asked how the the switch on it worked. We talked about circuits.  And he asked how they animated the falling light video we watched the other day. He played GroRecycling and I took a shower. He had also played the drying rack as a music machine, so as we were leaving when I asked if he needed to play his machine before we left he said “I already did my music machine. It was upstairs, silly.”

It was so slow leaving with him, as he keeps wanting to do one more thing. I made things slower as well as I bonked his foot with the door as he was getting shoes on. He recovered from that and we finally left at 9:45.

With traffic it is close to an hour each way to/from the zoo. Made much more bearable/useful since Carly sent me that podcast article. We listened to Story Pirates going both directions. We caught up with the new ones, but have a lot of their older ones still available. And plenty of other podcasts to listen to.

As we got there I pointed out the big Ramat Gan Park, which we haven’t been to. He wanted to stop and go there. We parked and got out his bike. Immediately saw a lot of cats. About 10:40. Looked at a map and started off on a walk around the park. Nothing too exciting at first, and the gardens outside the natural history museum are fenced off due to work on the paths. But then we got around to a huge covered playground. Played on a big ropey/trampoline-y thing, then he found two of the green seats to lounge in for lunch. Played around a bit more and made our way to the other end, hoping on and off other toys: played with spinning platform things, down a slide, spin in a teacup, on a motorcycle, etc. But then he found a little area where a few other kids were playing with sand.

That was just before 11:30 and lasted until noon. He helped a girl put sand in a round thing. Told me “She’s putting sand in there. I don’t know why.” He was sharing sand toys and gave a shovel back to a girl when she asked. I asked if he wanted his coat :”Sorry, I’m too busy.” And he told me “You notice how we’re all playing together?”  Except they were apparently taking all the sand from the “Baby” sitting on the ground. Eventually, they were going back and forth between the play area and the sand area, getting more sand. This went fine until he stood up and clotheslined himself on the rope thing he was under. He was quite a ways away from me and I thought he was okay at first, as he was quiet as he walked towards me. But then when he got close he started crying and threw down the bucket thing.

As I held him and he was crying, a woman came over to me and, in English, told me that August should be wearing a sweatshirt. And socks with his shoes. Because he was cold. She pointed to his runny nose as evidence. I showed great self restraint as I told her flatly that it was warm for us (it was 18), and the reason he had a runny nose and was upset was that he had just gotten hurt. Then I ignored her. As Carly pointed out later though, it would have been more culturally okay to yell at her here.

Anyway, we got going at 12:15. We stopped for a snack, and August said “What would make me happy is you using a pencil sharpener.” We went to the bathroom. He used a regular stall, but when he was done he found a wheelchair stall with a sink his size and he said he could use it next time.

We got in the car and drove right next door to the zoo. Paid, make sure I’d taken away window control from August, and started driving through the safari area. I let August get out of his car seat so he could move around the car to look out the windows. He was supposed to sit while I actually drove, but of course liked to push that – he sat on the edge of his seat, holding the handle above him and the seat in front of him. Saw rhinos and zebras and gazelles and ibex. Then hippos and birds at the pond.

Parked in the parking lot at the zoo and walked in. First stop was a giant tortoise. August was whispering really quietly. In the car we had talked about how the rules on the big sign said not to startle the animals. He was taking that to heart. Then the playground. He climbed up a big rope ladder area, then was walking around up above my head. Definitely a making-mama-nervous playground. There were single log bridges with rope hand rails and big holes you could fall through. Then we realized there wasn’t an easy way for him to come down. The only slides were the two metal pole kinds, and he was starting up out of my reach. He ended up coming down the way he went up, and I got up a bit and helped him climb down backwards.

He climbed around a few other places. In one spot he said “I can climb up here without you spotting me is SO COOL!” He went down the two pipe slide a couple times, starting as high as I could lift him up. He said “I’m. Holding. On. As tight as. I. Can.”

We then got going. Looked at a tortoise skeleton display, then stopped to looked down at the crocodiles: “Good that we can’t get chomped since there’s a bridge.” He then said “I’m an animal cuz I’ve been driving that magical water bottle…a crocodile.” And he chomped me. We headed back towards the giraffes. Stopped at the children’s zoo. We watched a rat in a cool enclosure, then saw people in the pen with the sheep and goats. August told me to go in, but he was going to wait outside. So I went in and petted a goat. I got him to come in with me holding him. Eventually I got him standing on the ground, watching them eat (there was a zookeeper feeding them). But he was hesitant to touch them. Got him to pet a sheep a couple times, but mainly he declined. He was a machine not working right. As we left, he asked me “What happens if someone does something wrong at the zoo?…Like scrapes an animal?” I think he was afraid of hurting the animals. We left there at 2:10.

We saw an odd structure, with big trampolines suspended in the air. I said it looked like something acrobats might use. He didn’t know what acrobats are so we watched a few seconds of a video. We kept going and saw the elephants and giraffes. He was drinking from his water bottle and turning into things. Tried to find the Komodo dragon, but it seems the exhibit is being worked on. Saw the penguins being fed on our way back. We looked into the restaurant area to see what they have, for next time. He liked the gorilla statue out front and hugged it and gave it a kiss. Then we sat and had a snack. And discussed the wires “gymnasts”/acrobats walk on. He then climbed on a big tortoise statue. He said he was practicing climbing. Went fine until he slipped off. There are a couple steps near it, and he went down those as well. At first it looked like he might spin and go head first, but luckily went down feet first. He hit his left had a bit hard though. Had a small cut on it and treated it gingerly for awhile after that.

We stopped at the infor
mation desk to get annual memberships. The guy had a colorful little box on his desk and August kept asking about it. The guy showed us it was full of keys, then August asked what they were for. August also said he didn’t think the guy had a pencil sharpener.

We went and put the bike and stuff in the car. The guy from information caught up with us – the computer had had a problem and he needed the numbers on our membership cards again. August and I then went to the bathroom. August said “Maybe to sharpen a pencil you could just go upstairs.” It turned out that he was talking about the pencil sharpener at home, and was still concerned that he could get hurt by it. He wanted the sharpener itself upstairs.

We drove through the rest of the safari area. Lots of hippos and he liked the elands. Said the black spots on their knees looked like bandages. Then it was through the lions area. That was pretty cool. We stopped by some zebras for a snack. We were finishing an orange. I offered him a Larabar if he was still hungry. He told me “I always tell you: I am tired of blueberry Larabars.” 🍊

Listened to Story Pirates on the way home. Got here 5:15. Nursed, then he was hyper. He said “I’m a bunch of electrons jumping around.” Played some Busy Gears, then ate a good amount of noodles and veggies for dinner. While he ate he asked “How do you get treats on Halloween if you don’t have a costume?” I said you pretty much have to hav a costume: “Cuz people like to see you in a costume?” We then read Cam Jansen and the Circus Mystery. He had some soup, and we watched a couple of high wire act videos. After all of our talk today of acrobats we had then read the circus book. A nice coincidence. Carly let him have another piece of the candy cane.

He played with the pillows and said “You know I’m building a tractor, right?” THen he wanted popcorn. They had that and watched some Planet Earth. She took him upstairs at 7:30. I told him to dream about sheep, and he added “and lambs”. I left around 7:45.