Category: Uncategorized

Carly took the car this morning as it was raining. We could have driven her, but she had just brought August downstairs and he was still waking up. And I didn’t plan on using it for anything today. August asked for Skybrary. When I said we could do that he said “Thank you!” We read Scrubba Dub, Carlos (after which we started singing Row Your Boat or a made-up Scrubba Dub song everytime we washed his hands), Pig Pig Meets the Lion, and Nina Nandu’s Nervous Noggin.  During the second book August asked “Do Lions chomp and hurt you?…Then lets not have a lion in our house.”

He asked for his water bottle and for me to fill it, then said “Pink and sink rhyme!” We played some Seuss Band and were making a pretty good team on one of the difficult songs. He was just playing the low C and I’d do the rest. We were getting closer to 60,000 points on it. I got him to switch to Dust Buster and Piano Maestro for a bit, then we read more of volume 2 of The Sisters. I gave him peanut butters on his beloved rectangle crackers and he loved it.

He watched Marble Machine and asked if it was powered by air. I said no, and wondered where he got that idea. He told me of a dot painting he had done with Carly: “It was a dot painting and mama designed it to have air going in it to move the marbles.” I made a mango and strawberry smoothie. He was watching more music machines and asked “When did people first discover drums?” He was then a music machine: “The guitar still plays but the strings and bells don’t work.” “You better go to the store if you want to fix my strings. You need super glue and you’re out of super glue.” “You know, it’s funny that the batteries aren’t working. I think you got the wrong kind of batteries. These batteries are for a marble machine. This is a music box.” “Nevermind, I’m a paper machine. It doesn’t have many parts so it can play 19 BILLION songs in a row…It’s the same kind of paper machine I watch on YouTube or something.” He was thinking about another machine by the maker of the Marble Machine that plays a song on paper like a player piano.

Exercised and he watched Kipper, then I moved him upstairs and I took a shower. I took him in and found new Animusic videos for him to watch. He said “You should add this to our blog!” It was “Starship Groove” by Animusic. We also watched one called “Heavy Light”. Gave him his bath and washed his hair. Quickly, and with him not happy as I wouldn’t let him drain all the water out right away.

Out in the play area he played with the drying rack as a music machine and we pretended light was playing it like in the video. He then wanted me to play guitar along to it so I connected it to GarageBand on my phone. Eventually I wanted to get some lunch.

I made a pizza with olives and za’atar. He played Seuss Band all on his own for several songs.  He wouldn’t even consider my pizza and wanted more crackers and peanut butter instead. He told me he still liked pizza in a show though, telling me flat out: “I think so. Their pizza is better.”

For some reason he decided yesterday that he wants to break the small wooden giraffe. He was playing with it again today and kept talking about wanting to destroy it. So I put it up on a high shelf to protect it from him.  We read more of The Sisters. Then I got all of our library books. There was a Clementine, a Cam Jansen, two Magic Treehouse, and one Max Axiom Sound book that we’ve never read but had had for about 3 weeks. We decided to return them and get books he’d rather read. He said “Let’s not tell the librarian.” I said they wouldn’t care and didn’t think they’d even ask. But later when August set the big stack of books on the desk one of them said “You read all those books?” I just didn’t answer.

We did the Cam Jansen picture thing though in the book we were returning (the Summer Camp Mysteries), then we finished the Max Axiom Food Chains book. We opened the colored pencils and drew with those a bit. We discussed the difference between markers and pencils again, as they don’t have lids like markers. We also discussed what would happen if the world ran out of gas or food. He went to the bathroom and we did a washing his hands song. He was then humming “Dont Stop Believing” (which is on Piano Maestro) as we made a dog house with a slide for the Duplo dog. He then played a little on his own, then played GroRecycling and let me finish some typing.

We left at 2:05. As we left he told me “Next time we play the Dr. Seuss instrument and we have the same sound a couple times please remind me to change it. Cuz I might get bored of the same sound over and over.” As we walked by a barking dog he said “Everytime a dog barks at us a coisonous liquid senses how loud the barking is and it makes the barking go away.” A little disturbing.

We got to the school and went to the library. We read a Berenstain Bears detectives book, then checked out three Young Cam Jansen books (Ice Skate Mystery, Circus Mystery, and 100th Day of School Mystery), The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Dinosaur Bone, The Punctuation Station, and Under, Over, By the Clover: What is a Preposition? (which I knew Carly would like). And Mr. Bliss by J.R.R. Tolkien, which I had never heard of.

August put the big stack on Amanda’s desk. As we checked them out August was cautious or concerned about something and I explained it Amanda, and told her about how he was concerned about the pencil sharpener I had bought him. Just then I noticed August was looking at the electric pencil sharpener and he asked me what it was. He then got to use an electric pencil sharpener for the first time and loved it, especially when it just rotated the pencil really fast. Out on the free books stack I found a diamond in the rough: The Wing on a Flea: A Book about Shapes. It is from the early 60s, and on the inside it is dedicated to someone named Peter and signed by the author, Ed Emberley, with a little drawing of a bus with it. Sadly the dust jacket is missing andthe spine is pretty damaged.

We went to the playgrounds. First the preschool one, but no one was there. Then the larger one. He started playing and climbing around. I had brought 8 crackers and 8 slices of apple today. Starting with the walk, he said that he each one was magic and would turn him into something. I got to choose what, so he had been a jellyfish and and otter, among others. We sat on the little mushroom-shaped steps and ate an apple. I tried to turn him into a mushroom, but he said it had to be something that moved. Carly showed up at 3:40 as she wanted to head home a bit early. He said “Oh, no.” when he saw her. He still wanted to play.

So Carly walked home, leaving the car for us. There were two girls, sisters, also playing at the playground, and suddenly August was over on the teeter totter playing with them. He then followed them as they played on the big play structure. He ended up back on the teeter totter with them a couple more times. The younger one was crying at one point and he was pointing that out: “That person is crying”. They started to leave, so he was ready to go as well. He wanted to play school and asked me if I knew how to print things in Carly’s classroom. I said I didn’t have a key to her classroom, so he was ready to go home instead.

Stopped and went to the bathroom, then on the way out of the school we saw Bar and her mom. I talked to her and set up a possible play date on Wednesday. We left at 4:15. He speculated on what Bar’s house might be like: “Maybe Bar’s house is pink cuz sometimes I see her wear pink clothes.” (She was dressed in a tutu with a couple other girls.)

Randomly, he asked me “Does a two hump poop actually exist?” He was thinking about the Everyone Poops book, which he read with Carly a week or two ago. We listened to the rest of the Marshmallow Shooter Camp story on Story Pirates on the way home.

Home at 4:30. Before we went in the house he wa
nted to look at the power meters and wires and discussed how the numbers on the meters worked. After awhile I got him some of the noodles dish for dinner. I set it on the table. The pencil sharpener was somewhat close to him. He saw it and said: “No! Not that! I’m gonna put the pencil sharpener right there.” He set it on the corner far away from him. After a good amount of dinner, Carly let him have a bit of the candy cane (she had mentioned getting treats for her students, and the mention of treats had done it).

He then told Carly “Uh, mama. It’s not gross when tea is cold.” Carly tried to get him to go for a walk, but he wasn’t budging. He read Young Cam Jansen and the Ice Skate Mystery with me instead. Then showed GroRecycling to Carly. At one point he asked her “Mama, can you pretend I’m a black and white printer?”

He and Carly then did a pumping heart model out of cups and straws and balloons. He was very excited when they got it working: “Cool! We invented our first machine!” When she was fixing it she set the big scissors on the ground and they were too close to him: “Big scissors!”

They played with the model for quite a bit, then headed upstairs to get ready for bed. I took him the small water bottle before he went to sleep and told him it would turn him into a frog, bird and hippo during his dreams. I left them at 7:50.

He and I both got up at 7:15. They nursed then we played Seuss Band. I passed the “Cat in the Hat” song for him but then had to draw a line – the last two are just too hard and I’d rather spend my time practicing real piano than Seuss Band. Carly made spinach pancakes. The first pancake was fine and August ate it all up and wanted a second. But the second one seemed like the spinach had started to go – the spinach tasted real strong. We decided to let him try it anyway, but he had the same opinion and gagged on his first bite. Weird, as it was one batch of batter and Carly had tasted the first pancake too.

He alternated eating thawed mango and popcorn and Carly went to the store. Still on Seuss Band he told me “See, that’s the rhythm i was talking about.” We then switched and read sone Dr. Seuss: Happy Birthday, Daisy Head Maisey. I did some exercise while he played Seuss Band on his own.

Carly called from the store, then August wanted to send her messages. He figured out he could draw pictures in Messages through Sketches and drew her a picture and asked if I like it. I said I did, and he said “Yeah, it’s pretty abstract.”

He’s been interested in baby toilets since he sees one in the bathroom at activity class and he’s been acting like a baby. He asked “Dada, how can babies go on the baby toilets like at Vivian’s house?” And he told me “I don’t ever want you or mama to leave my home.” I asked what he meant and he said “To leave me. To go to another place I can’t go.” Turned out he was talking about a babysitter, as we were talking about the Kerns girls babysitting him sometime.

He dropped some books on the floor and I said I was sick of the mess-making game. He replied “I’m sick or washing my hands all the time. Why can’t my hands be dirtier and dirtier?”

He wanted to go for a walk on his orange bike. As we were getting ready to go he asked “What happens if the Earth has more and more people? It would be overflowing? People would die?” We discussed that, then he asked the big “What happens when I die?”

We got going at 10:25. Carly came home right as we left. We took recycling up and did that, then walked west towards Tal Garden. By the synagogue a dog started barking at us like crazy. It was loose on the other side of a short fence. We stopped and August finished his popcorn and had some water. Eventually it crossed in front of us and headed to the left down the street. August and I went to the right. It ignored us for a bit, but then started running back at us, barking. I had my dog rocks ready, but when I turned it scooted into a driveway and stopped. We continued up to the end of the block, then circled around to our park. I tried to get August to play, but he was bothered by one wet spot on the big teeter totter that I didn’t want to clean up. We went on the spider-web swing for a couple minutes. I lay down and he stood on the edge. He remembered the password for the locker I had installed on his web.

We were home at 11:10. He then tried out his music machine (stick) to see if it worked when it is wet (it does). They nursed, then August said “I want one of my friends to nurse.” He got the stuffed horse. Carly said no. They did more dot painting. Carly asked him something and he replied “I don’t know about that. Anything else you want to talk about?” They were making magical turbines. Carly said she was making Es for the electrons in her generator but August didn’t like that idea: “You shouldn’t have done that.” And got a little upset about it.

He ‘raced’ her to the couch. He said “I always win. Even when I visit Vivian.” Oh my. I took a shower. He was eating more mango and drinking water. They were magical: “I made the mango magic cuz it makes The Sisters come to real life.” “We need the mango meter to go up to 18 then that will happen.” He ate it all, then said “Poof!” The Sisters had appeared. For the next magic I said our yard would fill with cats. He asked. “What if all cats in the world come to our yard?” I said it would make Carly sneezy. So he finished his water and said “There! It’s all Sneezy!”

For lunch he ate some noodles and pesto. Carly let him have a bit of the “sugar plum” candy cane from Thatcher and family. He told me “You should have a piece sometime. Not a curvy one though.” He wants to save those pieces for himself. After he ate it he said “We need to brush my teeth really good.” I gave him his bath. He watched Animusic videos. Downstairs he made a sculpture for Carly out of Duplos. He said “I like pink and purple. Why are they so pretty?”

The noodles and veggies were done and he had some. He told Carly “Thie is good, mama. You should make it more often.” Played more Seuss Band, then read more Dr. Seuss: Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? and Happy Birthday to You!

We walked to the mall and went to Rebar to get a smoothie. August Said “I see the ad!” It was the Rebar ad from YouTube. Got the usual chocolate peanut butter smoothie. First ate at a table, then moved to a bench to stay in the sun. August asked “Mama, how many Spanish words do you know in Spanish?” And on the bench he brought up “I’ve seen a Kipper video of Arnold floating up to the sky to a mountain I think and he could eat it.” It got around to a discussion of how watermelon isn’t my favorite fruit. August said “You should because it’s all juicy.”

We then went in the mall. Found that the place that had been worked on was Now a pizza hut. And like other pizza places, the only meat on the menu is tuna. We were considering getting a wooden box to paint for him but in the crafts store he wanted to grab things. I said “Let’s skip it today.” They both heard “Let’s give it to Dave.” and were confused.

They went to the bathroom and I looked in the bookstore. August and I then went in Kravitz and found colored pencils, a pink see-through pencil sharpener, a green and pink eraser, and a little pack of modeling clay. He also really wanted a magnifying glass, which we noted for birthday time. Carly had gone to the health food store and gotten peanut butter and a couple things at Tiv Taam.

August wanted to stop at the playground outside, so we did and he ‘flew’ the plane, then was climbing on it and the train, trying to make us nervous. Carly had a headache, so on the way home we let her walk the short way home and we took the long way. Sort of. August had been fixated on mama having to pee all the time, but then when I explained that she had a headache he decided he wanted to be loud. He turned us around and we headed home, but I got him to walk up Kibuts Galyout a bit before going home.

We were home before 5. At the door, as I talked about needing to be quiet, he seemed stuck between not going in because he was afraid he’d be too loud and wanting to go in and be really loud to be ‘funny’. Being loud won out. I almost had to take him upstairs. He skyped with Vivian and Carly went upstairs. We played with the clay we had just bought. Vivian drew a picture of August that was really cool. We mixed red and white clay to make pink, and he made a solar panel. Eventually, Vivian disappeared so we hung up and August went upstairs to Carly.

They came down and Skyped with Cherie and Chuck. I had to take him upstairs for being loud. Came back down and apologized  we played the Seuss Band app and I got dinner for him while Carly talked to her parents. He ate two bowls.

I mentioned how he should watch Puffin Rock again. He said “I don’t like that anymore. I changed what I like. Now I like Kipper and Max and Ruby.” He watched a Kipper. He played with the clay with Carly and ended up smooshing it all together. Luckily, a pack is less than 3 dollars. “I like squishing things. It’s like we’re back in Korea.” Once it was in one big ball he decided to get rid of it: “Can we drop it outside and never notice it again.” He kept saying this, and eventua
lly we let him put it in a plastic bag and throw it out the front door. He was spinning something and I said “Good spinning” He replied “Why? Is it making Tic-Tacs?”

Derek and Andrea and family then called on Skype and they talked for a good while. August and I then read a bunch of books in Skybrary as they kept skyping:  Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, Albert the Fix-It Man, Freda Plans a Picnic, Hungry Fox and the Midnight Pies, Alphabet: A Zipping, Zooming ABC.

Carly took him upstairs and got him ready for bed. I said my usually “I love you a ton of Q.” He said I should love him more than a ton. Not quite the infinities he argues with Cherie and Carly about. That led to a discussion of why Q, and I explained it was a unit of love measurement that I made up. I left them at 8:50.

During the night he got up to go to the bathroom. Sometime later he was having a bad dream. He came down at 7:10. He climbed on the couch with Carly and said “I sleeped extra.” Carly asked if he remembered either going to the bathroom or his bad dream. He was quite for a few seconds then said “Actually Kan”. He repeated it a couple times but wouldn’t clarify. I asked if that was what his dream was about and he nodded. They nursed then Carly went out to try to save her broccoli in a pot that had been damaged by the rain or cats. August played with the frog, then went and asked if he could have the treat from Thatcher. Took him all of a minute to remember that.

He ate Cheerios and used Carly’s phone to send me messages, both the typed and touch kinds. He sent me a touch one that looked like a sun. Carly said something about it and he said “Actually I call it a it ball of burning gas and magma and stuff.” Sun message he sent on Messages as he ate Cheerios.

I left  at 8:15 for Jerusalem. Driving to Jerusalem on a Saturday was the best thing ever as there are almost no cars out. More bikes and runners than cars. Took just a little over an hour, taking the ‘long’ route. I got to Sabeel in Jerusalem about 9:45 so after I parked I walked around the block a bit. Seth pulled up and we met for the first time in person. I tried out some Arabic on him and found out that the Modern Standard Arabic I’ve been learning is rather different form the colloquial Palestinian Arabic. Meeting with Omar went well. He had brought breakfast foods. We met for three hours and got things pretty organized as to next steps and who is doing what. Before I left Omar let me take a copy of A Time to Remember: Palestinian Towns and Villages and a book called A Rhyme for Every Time.

I then went to the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem. I was first confused, as I walked in and there were only books in Arabic. The guy was funny though and walked me across the street to their other location, which has English-language books and a coffee shop. Omar had called ahead and I could charge books to Sabeel if they were related to the project. So I got four books that way: Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature, Palestinian Music and Song, Inside/Outside: Six Plays from Palestine and the Diaspora, and Palestine’s Children by Ghassan Kanafani. And for myself I found a guidebook called Palestine and Palestinians. And I got some really nice postcards for Carly and a calendar of Palestinian authors.

Had a nice drive home and got here at 4:15.

While I was gone they had made orange eggs for breakfast, gave him a bath, and made popcorn in a pan and watched 40 minutes of Brother Bear. It started pouring, so they stayed inside much of the morning, but went for two walks when it was nicer. The first was just around the block, with him walking. They played I Spy and he did one that was “I spy something that goes up and down.” The answer was stairs. They got back and went back out for another walk on his bike. They did sort of a Zinnie walk, wandering around. Back at home there was a narrow window where it was sunny and Carly was able to go sit outside. They also read Curious George and the Aquarium and Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race at some point.

When I got home they had been doing dot painting and were working on the rocket. He was hiding from me in the rocket. Their dot painting had been of a generator. He was talking a lot about generators. Carly and I talked about my meeting. August interrupted to ask “How was your meeting?” Carly went out for a run. He ate an apple muffin and we studied the Cam Jansen picture again and answered the questions. We then played Piano Maestro. After that he “tricked” me by putting food colony in my water. That turned into an experiment. He put so much cocoa and other stuff in that things were floating. So we got clean water and compared and talked about density and surface tension. At one point he said “There should be a good play area in a shop or something.” He wanted to go play somewhere.

We played the Seuss Band instrument, then read Hop on Pop. Went back to the instrument. In playing the songs we unlocked a clarinet part to the instrument. He really liked it and said “Add it to the blog. People should see those.” He was playing Mary Had a Little Lamb. He opened Skybrary and we read a book called Hungry Pie and the Midnight Pies while he ate rice and sweet potato. Discussed the five senses, as that was what the book was about. He liked the stickers in the Skybrary app and played with those.

For some reason we were talking about making lists of books. August said “Dada, you should make a list of the books you read to me.” We then read a book about Martin Luther King Jr. Day, then headed upstairs as he was getting tired. He went to the bathroom and was then a chocolate chip powered musical mechanical arm machine. He was singing a new song and asked if it was a mystery song. He could sing it again, so I took a video of it to try to figure it out later. In Skybrary we read a book called What Does It Mean to Be Green?, then a book about tools called Toolbox. There was a vice and I reminded him of using a vice with grampa this last summer. He said he wanted to do it again “if he still has it”. Brushed his teeth and got him ready to go to sleep. I told him to dream about “Tools”. He agreed and then said “and secret ones”. I left them at 9:30.

Between 12 and 1 at night he got up and went to the door. Kind of stood there, then Carly called him back. She asked if he needed to go to the bathroom and he said yes. So she got up with him. When they came back she tried to put him back to sleep on the lower bed. He sat up and said “Sleep up with dada. I like him.” So he climbed up on the bed and promptly fell back to sleep between us. Later there was a huge peel of thunder that woke me for a minute.

He woke up at 6:30. When I sat up for a moment he came up on the bed and stole my pillow. Downstairs he played with the frog instrument and said “Dada, I love this frog thing.” He used the stick like a magic wand and made me disappear and reappear.

Carly almost had a window for walking to work, but then it was starting to rain harder and harder. So we drove her to work, which was a good decision as it was pretty hard for awhile. Finished the Story Pirates episode we had started yesterday. Back home he was a bit grumpy. Managed to read A Snowy Day. Then he watched Max and Ruby. I heated up some apple muffins and buttered them but he only ate half of one. As we put Monster Physics on his iPad he said “I want to put monster physics on her work iPad so she can show her students that game.” He played that for awhile.

He told me “Today we should go to science center at IKEA. The one mama went to. You know. You know. You said that.” Confusing until I realized he meant ‘Haifa’, not ‘IKEA’. He ate noodles and broccoli for breakfast, then we did some Piano Maestro. We went upstairs. He asked “Dada, could you be someone playing with a giraffe made out of fragile papier mache?” He was referring to the little wooden giraffe what we weren’t sure what it was made out of yesterday. He watched Kipper and I took a shower. Gave him a short shower. After his shower he asked “When you and mama have jobs could you stay with me?” We talked about it and how preschool was still 7 months away and we could prepare for it in the meantime. I asked if he’d like to visit the preschool classroom a few times to see what it was like. He liked that idea. I also said I’d be volunteering at the preschool so I’d be there sometimes. He said “But mama said they’re only the same age”. I told him that just applies to the students.

Back downstairs he remembered Toca Store and we played three rounds of that. He went and played his piano and made up a song and told me “It’s called ‘Changes Automatically’” He did another one and when I asked what that was he made up a word. I asked what it was again and he explained “Its a French word.”

We left for town at 11:30. Parked just behind the library, which was nice as it was raining pretty hard. I carried him to the entrance to the library. It was closed. Supposed to be open until 12:30, but a sign said it closed at 11:45 today. It was 11:46. We looked at the gutter pipes and other pipes for a minute, speculating what they were for.

Then we decided to walk to Gutale for lunch. As I carried him he made up a song to the tune of “Skip to My Lou”: “Down through the pipes, down through the ground…” I think it was about the water, at first at least. Then it turned into “Up into the air, up into the sky…” and got more fanciful as it was up into other things. Finally he switched to “Right into…” and was going to all sorts of things that he saw and thought of: solar system, etc.

And then another shock: Gutale was closed. Under renovation. We decided to walk back to the other coffee shop, Malkin. Got our usual table and ordered the alfredo pasta, hot chocolate for August, and a latte for me. While we were waiting we went and looked at the antique sewing machine in the corner. August really liked it and I explained how it worked. We could turn the handle and see it go up and down. Anyway, he went back to it a couple times. The food was good and August loved his hot chocolate. He used a spoon to eat the foam off the top, then scoop out the chocolate at the bottom. Then we used the straw from his water bottle to drink the rest. It was so much that he had enough and let me drink the rest of it. He wandered back to the sewing machine and I was watching him gently play with it, turning the wheel. A woman that worked there though saw him and started yelling at him. Another woman joined in. When I got him and brought him back over to the table he looked at them in shock and then the woman rather patronizingly told him it was sharp, like a knife, and showed him where the kid toys were, etc. Rather scared him and he was ready to leave. Of course, the ironic thing was that there was no actual needle in the sewing machine, and apparently the women didn’t notice that. Also, I had already noticed a difference from Korea, where in coffee shops after we bought something we were almost always left along. Here they are always checking in, and a total of four people interacted with us. Good for learning some Hebrew (I learned “Is everything okay?”, which is just ‘everything’ and ‘okay’ together as a question. Both words I know, but hadn’t heard them asked that way), but not so good for a quiet, private moment in a coffee shop.

Anyway, we walked back to the car. Still raining. By the library we watched the water running off the paved area by the playground and then going into a small tree area where it was actually absorbing into the ground after making a little stream. Talked about runoff and infiltration.

Got to the car at 1:25. There, he asked “Dada, why were the Berenstain Bears written back before there were iPads?” Then a cool question: “What did people first invent?” Followed by “How can people study volcanos?” Because volcanos are so hot. We discussed and tried to answer each the best we could.

We drove a bit and listened to Story Pirates. He was then being a donut machine. We stopped at the school at 1:45. He looked up at the screen and saw the Story Pirates logo, which is a skull and crossed pencils. He asked “Is the pirate flag to say ‘Aargh, we’re pirates’?” Which is an awesome question. As we walked with the umbrella he was being a sunflower. He said he got his water through his hands as he held them out to get the rain.

At the library we went back and got a few books. He wanted to play on the computer but a class was coming into that room. We went out to a bench. Kind of loud as there were high schoolers in the library. He said “Please” and wanted to be picked up for a minute. He looked out into the center of the building and started talking about a solar-powered marshmallow machine. We read a Cam Jansen book (Pizza Shop Mystery). Then we did the study-a-picture-then-answer-questions-game at the back. He really got into studying the picture and talking through what he saw: people, what they were doing, their clothes, what they carried, colors of things, objects. We then got a second book and just did the picture thing out of that one. We realized we hadn’t really studied their faces, so we started doing that as well.

Suddenly, there was a flash of lightning followed by a huge clap of thunder. Kids throughout the library started screaming. Figured it hit the school someplace, and turns out Carly saw sparks off the fence outside her window. School got out and put the books away and played with a toy spider, then went and found Carly. Along the way he sang a new mystery tune. He said “I’m pretty sure it’s from Kipper when Arnold goes up to the sky in his balloon. I’m pretty sure he has ice cream.”

With Carly he asked “What did you teach your students?” They then played school, taking turns being teacher. He got her gavel and put it on a chair, then started hitting it and said “Order in the court! Order in the court! You stole dada’s workbook!” We had a trial and both presented our sides. He eventually let her off.

They played more school and printed things.

We got home at 4:10. He said “I want you to put me to sleep. It’s my baby’
s naptimes, remember?” I went up and had some work time as I wanted to finish some stuff before going to Jerusalem tomorrow. They did dot painting and made a generator. I came down to him at 7. We went upstairs and played with the kaleidoscope cards. He was saying things like “Do you like how the pink and the square things go to get her?” “Mine’e gonna be a nice complex one.” In the bathroom he had noticed the toilet paper holder under the roll was empty so he went and got three rolls out and filled it.

He also tried to convince me to let him have a snack: “Could I have a little snacky snack? I ate-ed SOME dinner. Talk to mama, please.” Carly came up and he was asleep by 8.

Earlier in the car he had also asked “Can we eat stars?” That led to a discussion of black holes – a new concept for him. He asked “Can a black hole fill up?”

6:05. Lots of laughter in his sleep. Then popped up and ran out “Dada?”

Took Carly to work. It was pouring as we left, and Carly covered August with an umbrella as I carried him. I drove around the block and we admired the channel taking water over to the highway. We had to drive about 25 km/hour there and back as the roads have inches of water on them in some places. Water was coming up from manhole covers in places.

Back at home August asked for hot chocolate. I made him some, and he said “Mama should try cold tea.” I had just sent an email to Carly joking that my coffee was still warm.

While I was in the kitchen and he was on the couch he asked “With so many people on the earth, how can the earth have so many?” We talked about sustainability and overpopulation – Agricultural Revolution for almost 4-year olds.

Today he wanted blue eggs. So we used blue food coloring. Of course, with the yellow eggs they still turned out green, but it was a darker blue-green. But the allure of colored eggs has worn off and he only ate a bite or two, then was upset when he couldn’t have other things. We played some Monster Physics together and finished the last four levels, then started over with another monster. Because it is so open we could use different strategies for passing the levels again. We ate carrots and veganaise and crackers. He passed a few levels on his own, then needed help to make a ramp up to a big bridge he had made on one level. I said it might be too steep of a ramp and he said “I can’t take apart my bridge! It’s the prettiest bridge I’ve ever made!” Out of nowhere he said “Mama should get her hair cut…cuz her hair is so long.”

We went upstairs and I took a shower. He watched one Sarah and Duck. We went downstairs and had a peanut butter and honey sandwich, then played Piano Maestro.

We then went upstairs for his bath. He asked “Can you help me make up a song about someone that is pooping in the kitchen?” He liked what I came up with and said “It was pretty good so you should add it to the blog.” He saw something that was pink and said that pink and purple are his favorite colors. I said I preferred blues and greens. He replied “Well you should totally like pink and purple. Those are the best colors. Do you know that?”

In the bedroom he tried picking more paint off the wall under the window. He explained “I’ve been chipping off the paint cuz when we move to another country the school is going to paint it.” I had to explain again that in the meantime we would have to deal with it, and we planned on being here for quite awhile.

He made a big pile of pillows and jumped on them from the bed. He wanted me to put a video of him doing it on the blog. He wanted me to pretend to be a little kid seeing a scary movie and he acted out the movie, full of monsters and robots and lasers. When I tried to get him to do another one he said he had frozen and his internet connection wasn’t working.

We went downstairs and made applesauce muffins. He started by getting all of his ‘ingredients’ out for them. He helped with the fun bits (e.g. honey). He told me “About the apple sauce: you got some on the flour container.” I let him lick out the honey cup. He kept saying that I gave him too much. We had to take off his shirt and he ended up with a sticky tummy. I think he was wiping his hands on it. Washed his hands three times.

While they baked he sang “Oh honey won’t you mow, oh honey won’t you mow my grass…” to “Oh Dinah won’t you blow your horn.” Not sure where the mow the grass idea came from, or which ‘honey’ he was referring to.

We read some of the new Sisters books. He said “I don’t really mind the presents I get. If I don’t get all the presents on my wishlist…” He was remembering one of the pages we read last night where the sisters make their Christmas wishlists. We waited a bit after the muffins came out to eat them. They were horrible stuck to the paper but were still good.

We then played more Monster Physics and did some Hebrew. He played his toy piano and was playing  “I’ve been working on the railroad.” Carly decided the weather was good enough to walk home. So he and I left at 4:25 to go to his activity class. I saw Carly walking the other way and waved.

We were the first ones there and Segal talked to him about it maybe being a private class today. She also talked to him about maybe her music being too loud. He had said as much early on in class, then one week her solution was just to not use music. Abigail and Daria showed up, and Segal said the parents could sit inside if they wanted. So I sat inside and was able to keep August in the full class. I could also redirect him when he just refused to sit by the mirror, etc. Really worked better, and I didn’t have to do too much. And despite her efforts to keep it quieter I still saw August cover his ears a couple times and she would turn the music down a bit. But then it would be louder again. I don’t know what was going on there. It was still incredibly loud.

Anyway, a fourth kid, יב (Yav), showed up as they did a Spider-Man game. They took turns showing what the Spider-Man doll was doing. August had his be a rocket. Segal protested, as his rocket (running around with the doll over his head, making a rocket noise) was basically what they had just done (running). I suggested a jumping rocket and that worked. After that they were snakes, then they were rolling on the floor. I haven’t actually seen him roll like that before. Ditto for walking backwards and then walking on their hands and feet.

Yav and Daria spent much of class outside the room, so it was a small class. All the others disappeared near the end of class, so at the end it was just August. And when class was over August helped her clean up. When he came out to me he was very excited about making it through class.

While he helped I went out and talked to Shiley, whose son is Ori in the next class. She had lived in Pittsburg for a couple years in high school but was otherwise born and lived in Even Yehuda. She told me of a Israeli show called פרפר נחמד (cute butterfly) that is sort of like Sesame Street. When August came out he saw that Ori had an eye patch and was concerned that he was hurt. We had to ask – it was for treating a lazy eye. We talked to Shiley a bit more and August went to the bathroom.

Then when we got home we had to drive around the block to find a spot. So we were a bit late. Carly came out and met us. A present from Andrea and Derek and the kids had finally arrive – they sent it in early December. We opened that. There was a book called The Snowy Day, which I had almost bought on iBooks at one point, and a frog musical instrument that August really liked. And a bag of chocolate coins and a Santa Clause.

They then Skyped with Colin. He got upset about his food choices. Carly took him upstairs, then they came back down for a little while before going up again. She said he needed to go to the bathroom. He said “I just went to the bathroom, silly.” Came back down again as he was finally ready to eat dinner. Carly got him rice and broccoli and seitan. I found a video of the פרפר נחמד show on YouTube and we watched part of it. He then went upstairs. When I asked what he’d dream about he told he didn’t want me to tell him what to dream. So maybe the end of that. He was asleep about 7:15.

He was up about 6. He woke up and Carly heard him and came in. After they nursed he asked her “Did you wake me up to nurse?” And seemed a little upset that she hadn’t. He watched Kipper until we gave Carly a ride to work. Back home he watched some more Kipper and requested sweet things for breakfast. Instead, we made green eggs with mushrooms, spinach, olives and za’atar. He helped put the food coloring in.

We ate our eggs, which turned out quite nice and green. Then he asked “Can I watch the seconds hand on your phone in the clock?” And he asked “How did the clocks work way, way, way in the past?”

We then started the crystal growing experiment that we’d bought at the art store months ago. Once that was started we played with piano and took it all apart. Then back to Monster Physics. He made an all pink monster. He made an invention, saying “My design’s gonna be complicated.” We had fun working through more problems and only have a few left.

I exercised, then made a strawberry and frozen berries smoothie. He made a Lego sculpture and then we put the piano together. We went upstairs and he played TodoMath. And wouldn’t let me take a shower. In fact, he was being rather needy and teenager-y today and it was hard to get anything done. Earlier, he kept needing my attention when I was making the smoothie. The first time distracted me from the fact that I hadn’t tightened the base. Then, I poured milk in, and immediately had to go attend to him. I came back to find milk all over the counter.

Anyway, I took a shower. When he went to the bathroom he suddenly started asking questions about surfing. He asked “Will you drown?” if you fall off the surfboard. We talked about how you could swim, how the surfboard is attached to you, etc. He kept calling me into his room to show me things. One was using the doctor tweezer things around his toe. He asked me if I could do it. It fit around my toe too. He said “It’s great that we can both do that.”

He took his bath. No hair washing today. He said we shouldn’t do it again “Until we visit Vivian…that will be a challenge.” Yes it would be.

On the landing he took the Christmas lights off the corner of the bannister and they started to come down. He said he wanted to take them down because it wasn’t Christmas anymore.

He played GarageBand while I made some lunch. He was figuring out The Farmer in the Dell. He then opened Piano Maestro and changed my icon in it to match the pink horse that he has: “Its cooler than the robot one.” We played some Piano Maestro.

We got going at 2. He wore his Minnie Mouse shoes and remembered Vivian giving them to him. He asked if that meant that when Vivian was an adult that he could get all of her kid shoes. In the car he was remembering the Magic Treehouse book we read a few weeks ago: “In the story how could the ice wizard take off his eye?”

We drove down to the big Tiv Taam. We put our money in and got a cart. We parked our cart by the kitchen supplies and walked over to look at muffin tins. August took the bags out of the cart because he wanted to carry them. It was just a minute, but when we went back to the cart there was a woman trying to take it. I said “Lo!” and went to take the cart. The guy with her, in Russian, joked to me about letting her take the cart. I just glared at him and took the cart. It’s not like they were waiting around to see if someone had abandoned the cart. And who would abandon a cart right there with $1.50 in it?

August wasn’t super into shopping, but got through it. He was entertained along the way by first watching a lift truck and asking how it worked. I told him there was a display in the DaVinci exhibit at the science center that we could play with next time. And he started to spot and try out all the steep ladders that were around the store. He tried three.

Back at home we added some of the glow powder to the crystal experiment. I put groceries away and cut up a carrot and got out veganaise for him. Carly got home. He remembered that we had downloaded more Arabic apps from the makers of Zee’s Alphabet. They weren’t too great, but there was a storybook one, in English, that was pretty good that he read/watched all the way though. For dinner he requested more green eggs. He ate two eggs worth, then still wanted more, but that was all I had made. Carly got out strawberries and yogurt and honey. They then skyped with Vivian and company for a long time. Vivian was showing them a scary picture she drew. August was making things out of Legos and said “I’m gonna make something with the Legos that’s more scary than the picture!”

Carly had thought he was ready for bed a bit before 7. But he then came to me and we read the zipper page of How Things Work (he had asked about zippers in the car earlier). We then bought the second Sisters book. While we waited for it to download we read some of the first Sisters book, then the Red book, about a crayon. We then read a little of The Sisters, book 2. We got him ready for bed, and I asked him what he was going to dream about. He was trying on my glasses at the time and said “Blurries”.

Left them just after 8. But he came down at 8:30. He said he had woken up from a dream. He said “I dreamed about getting in trouble in Thailand.” I asked what he got in trouble for. He replied “What do you mean? It doesn’t make sense.” When I asked WHO was in trouble he said “Just mama and me.” When I asked why he said “Taking the sink apart…it said ‘Warning, don’t take apart. A sign right on the table. Big piece of paper. Upper case letters. And a Big X mark. I think it was someone’s favorite sink.”

He then did a little mashup of songs and sang “Mary had a farmer in Dell…” We read Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race and Young Cam Jansen and the Molly Shoe Mystery. Carly took him back up at 9:05. She took him to the “Upstairs cousin” toilet. Because the toilets talk to August and they are cousins.

He has been bothered by water down his arms when washing his hands the last couple days. I was being careful to make sure it didn’t happen during the day today and he said he still got water down his arm and wanted his shirt off. I felt inside the shirt after I took it off and couldn’t feel anything. It then happened with Carly this evening. He was also climbing on everything today. We were slow in the grocery store because he kept climbing on and standing up in the cart. At home it was the couch and the edge of the bed.

Pink monster: 

Tiv Taam: 

His find: 

Ladders: 

Skyping with Vivian: 

Added photos to Friday and Saturday. 

The rain started today and it is looking like the rest of the week will be rainy. He was up after 6. Watched Kipper, then we took Carly to work and listened to Story Pirates on the way. Wasn’t raining on the way there, but started raining pretty well on the way home. He watched more Kipper, then after I gave him vitamins he asked about them, then turned into a machine of turbines that were grinding up fish. I made eggs with mushrooms and olives and cheese and za’ater. He ate a good amount of that, then got stuff out of the cupboards for an experiment.

We did a mixing experiment, then skyped with my parents. We showed them some of out experimenting. He wanted popcorn, but started to get upset when I said one of the smaller bags. We said goodbye on skype, talked about it, and he agreed to the plain popcorn and we put some real butter on it. Watched a little more Kipper and I exercised. Went upstairs for a shower and he played TodoMath – making change, etc. I could tell he’s getting better, but he kept jumping to the highest levels and wanting help, even as I was trying to get in the shower. After my shower he asked “Can I play with the giraffe in my room?” He had it walking around the room and making little giraffe voice noises. And he gave it a name. He found the rest of his doctor supplies and we played with those a bit.

Then his bath. He watched Marble Machine and Animusic videos. He was really into them and let me really wash his hair. He then described his own music machine: there were lasers and solar panels and levers and all sorts of things. He was also letting me trim his ear, which went well until I was almost done and he twitched and I nicked his ear. There was a little blood, but more snot. I managed to keep him from seeing any blood.

We went downstairs and had a popsicle, then did Hebrew in Drops. We played Piano Maestro, and while practicing songs he started to play the melody up an octave. Progress. He was asking what was/wasn’t a children’s song and wanted me to call non-kids songs children’s songs. I sang and we listened to “Imaginary Bars”, which I used to sing to him all the time. He was asking what it was about and we talked about dreams not making sense. I asked him. He said “Sometimes they doesn’t. Sometimes my dreams make sense and sometimes they do.”

We played Monster Physics and had a ton of fun figuring out all the puzzles. We got to a hard one, and he made a big invention and had fun turning on the rockets and destroying parts of it.

We got going at 3, but were suddenly delayed when his trip to the bathroom turned into a long trip to the bathroom. As we headed to the car August said “I love ads…we should buy all the things they want us to buy.” He was specifically talking about the short ads in the Kipper videos on YouTube. And he had to do a little of his music machine before we left, and he asked “Do you think I like music or not?”

We got to school and Bat-Chen’s classroom just after 3:15 and she wasn’t there. We hung out there for a few minutes, then went up to the library. August was ready to find a book and grabbed the stepping stool and was looking up at the shelves. But I suggested we go look one more time. We went back downstairs and she was there. We figured out the miscommunication, but she went ahead and gave him a slightly-short lesson. They did more art and watched a song about the rain that he really liked, called גשם גשם משמיים. At the end she gave him another crem-bo treat like last time. I suggested he go and share it with mama, and Bat-Chen gave us another one for Carly.

We went up to her classroom and they had their treats. He wanted to print something, then wanted to play school. They played school for a long time. She asked him “Have people ever walked on the moon?” He replied “Yes, but they don’t want to fall down and break the air system.” At one point he said he wanted to be the teacher and he went up and was writing math problems on the whiteboard. They played for a long time. When they were done he came over to me on the beanbag chairs and we played dada and baby owl for a minute while Carly got ready to go. It was about a quarter to 6 before we left.

We listened to the end of Story Pirates 4 in the car and were home just before 6. At home he was playing a song on his ‘bassoon’ that we recognized and he wanted to know what it was. It was a new mystery song. I knew it was a Christmas song, and he said it had a ‘meba’ in it: “a germ”. He said it was a “Christmas intelligent song”. Which was a cool phrase for a Christmas song that taught us something. I search our iTunes library and found it: “My Christmas Amoeba”. He listened to that several times. At one point he laughed and asked “Dada, how can he even hold a microscopic candy cane?”

He then danced to the 12 Days of Christmas. We played more of Monster Physics, having way too much fun with it. We tried something out and he said “That’s a good experiment!” I got out carrots and veganaise and he ate a bunch. But I made the mistake of taking the second to last one. I saw him pick up the last one and set it down a couple of times. He seriously wouldn’t eat it, even after I talked to him about it. He wanted me to cut up more carrot. I did, and he ate a few more pieces.

Took him upstairs just before 8. He had his water bottle in his mouth, hanging from his mouth by the straw. He said “Actually, bathroom first.” and it sounded funny. Carly called him ‘straw boy’.

Carly suggested he dream about popsicle sticks “and popsicles, and sugar…and french fries with top on them.” Didn’t explain what ‘top’ was. He finished by saying “I love you dada “ in a scary voice. He was asleep around 8:20.

Hebrew: 

Carly’s classroom: 

Typing on her computer: 

Carly brought him down just before 7. He took over ring on my iPad. He informed me I’d forgotten the space after ‘Lego’ in the button he made yesterday. So I added that in. Carly headed to work. He told me the machine got enough sunlight inside to make music as it pasted/typed. He made his own music this time. Did that for several minutes until the app started to freeze as the document got too many characters (over a million). He then found Monster Physics, a game I purchased a few days ago on the iPad but we haven’t played yet. He created a monster, then we went through the tutorials and played a few levels. Very open-ended problem-solving game. I made him a peanut butter and honey sandwich for breakfast. He said “I like you cuz you got new games for me.”

We then played Piano Maestro for a good amount of time. He didn’t play on his own though as he said he didn’t want to make mistakes.

He was playing with his initials bracelet and we were talking about what to do with it once it was too small for him. I mentioned keeping it in a little box like Carly has. He liked the idea of a treasure box, and I mentioned that Carly could paint one, like she’d painted the green one on the table. He liked the idea and added “But she needs to make sure it’s pink.”

Then an interesting discussion. He asked “Why aren’t there evil knights anymore?” He had asked this question once before. We talked about knives and cutlasses and guns. He lay in a line on the floor and said “I’m an old gun that was used in the 1900s.”

I exercised, then he wanted to do another experiment. He got a bunch of things out of the cupboard. We spent a good long time pouring things in. He was doing a good job of slowly pouring in the spices, etc. so he did most of the pouring. At first we just made purple water, then added cinnamon and clove. I let him drink it with a straw before we started adding all the curry powder, etc.

He went and was playing toy piano. He asked “Dada, can you stay with me? You know, when you and mama both have meetings?” Turns out, I think, he was talking about not wanting to go to preschool on his own. We took the piano all apart, then he filled it with Legos, then we dumped it out. He did a little dance, being a motor, which was one of his coolest dances. Alas, I didn’t get it on video.

He was making a random thing out of little Legos and I asked if it was a sculpture. A minute later he said “Dada, why do you like sculptures so much?” I asked what his favorite kind of sculptures are and he said “abstract”. I asked why he likes abstract sculptures and he said “It’s good to have abstract things…they make it look cooler.”

We went upstairs, and the first thing he watched today was Kipper while I took a shower. He then had a quick bath. He was then a music box and he played Sentimental Wars, Skip to my Lou, and the Juicy Juice store song. He got off his bed and said “It can also walk and talk.”

We went downstairs and picked two books (Max Axiom Electricity and 26-Story Treehouse) to return to the library. Earlier I had hung the ‘Breathe’ poster on the wall above the couch by hammering in a nail. He had said it made a good rhythm. He played with the hammer on the couch, being a music machine that played Deck the Halls. He told me “You should make one up about candy. Cuz we get candy at Christmas.”

We were getting ready to go to school. Initially he had first wanted to walk up to the Snakes and Ladders playground, but then decided he wanted to go straight to school. He was still a music box: “You can wind me up at school. But not in the library. I like making music.” I got snacks and FINALLY convinced him to drink from the small water bottle – I made it all pink and that helped. We still took the big one with us though.

We left at 1. We went to the library first. I grabbed some Berenstain Bears books and a couple of mystery books while he did some art on the computer. We read Berenstain Bears and Too Much Teasing, The Berenstain Bears Don’t Pollute (Anymore), and The High-Rise Private-Eyes #1: The Case of the Missing Monkey. While reading the last book we discussed favorite books. He claimed “My favorite food is brussel sprouts and beans.”

In the middle of reading he wanted a snack and we went out to the table outside the library. While there the preschool class came and stood in line to go into the library. Bar was there and saw August and said “That’s my special friend.” August went over and we talked her for a minute. She was carrying The Jungle Book.

We checked out Young Cam Jansen and the Molly Shoe Mystery and The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race at 3 when the bell rang and then went to the preschool playground. When the elevator announced we were on the 0 floor, August said “Thank you, elevator.”

We played at the preschool playground for awhile. At first there were two girls there, one of which we had talked to when we saw Bar. August and her shared ways of going down the slides. But they left with their moms after just a few minutes. We played there a bit more, then went over to the big playground. No kids there at all. Played there until awhile after 4. Climbing, etc. and a lot with the teeter totter, as he is interested in why one of the tires is more broken than the other end.

We went back to the library and he did some more art, then we sat and read Berenstain Bears Count Their Blessings. We went to put that away and he found all the scissors, pencils, etc. left out from the preschool class. We’ve neglected teaching August to use scissors, so now was the day. I had him cutting scrap paper on his own after a few minutes. Earlier he had asked if we had any paper to recycle outside the library and I had said no. I now gave him the scraps and told him he could go recycle them. On the way he ran into Carly entering the library. He recycled the paper and we used the bathroom then headed home.

He and I stopped at Tal Garden at 5:10. Carly continued home. He was a music machine with the merry-go-round. Then played on the slide with another kid around. I heard the moms talking and realized they were talking about bears with the kids, and also recognized ‘apples’. August randomly asked “Dada, what’s a police sketch.” A reference to The Sisters, as one of them had drawn a police sketch when her stuffed rabbit went missing. He saw a kid with a toy sword (a cutlass, in fact): “I should get one of those.” “I bet everyone in the world has a sword like that.” Sounded right out of the Berenstain Bears Count Their Blessings when Brother and Sister whine about the toys their friends have. Although I don’t remember them using that phrasing at all.

He wanted to play store, and decided on a candy store. I realized he needs to try taffy at some point.

We left for home about 5:30. He was covering his ears and still trying to hear me. At home they nursed and he developed a little game of kicking one of her feet off the couch. He ate a little pasta, then was hiding under a pillow on the couch so I was sitting on him. He went and tried to sneak a cracker – upset and screamed when Carly said no. She took him upstairs, and it was clear he was ready for bed early. I told him to dream about telescopes and he gave me a thumbs up. I left them at 6:30.

Licking peanut butter off a spoon so it won’t drip on him: 

Balancing on his fingernail: 

School playground: 

Tal Garden: 

He was up a little after 7. They nursed, then Carly made French toast. When Carly was making him more he set his fork on the syrup on his plate. Carly washed it off for him, but August told her she should have dried it. He wouldn’t use it until I suggested he go and dry it off with the towel in the bathroom.

.

He and I discussed the north and South Pole and what languages people spoke in different people. We talked about how people survive at the north and south poles, and how you would save someone’s life by letting them into your research station. He put a paper towel roll on his arm and said “This is my armor!”

I got out one of his small water bottles to see if he would drink from them again. Only having one water bottle that he’ll drink out of is kind of a pain, as we have to take it everywhere, in and out of the backpack, etc. He said he wouldn’t use it, but was initially excited about taking it on trips. That turned out to not be the case.

He wanted to play Piano Maestro and got the piano keyboard. First just played in GarageBand. He played something new that I recognized. It was “Lightly Row”. A little mystery what song it was until he showed me it was from Chordana. We then played Piano Maestro. Mainly me again, but then he did a little, trying one with two notes. When we were done I went up and took a shower. They did some reading out on the patio (Amelia Bedelia and What Do You Do with an Idea?) and played with the kaleidoscope cards. When I came down they were taking pasta and spinach out and ate outside.

Carly was going to take him to the plant nursery and the tractor museum over in Ein Vered. I told him Bat Chen told us about tractor museum. He asked “Did she say it in Arabic or Hebrew?” I told him English. He replied “What‽ She speaks English too‽” I guess he has mainly heard her speak Hebrew.

Carly took him up for his bath. He said she doesn’t do ten second baths. So I explained. After his bath she made him popcorn. I helped him season it. We did a little translating in the shapes book we got from the library.

They left at 11:10. They went to tractor museum first. Parked at the end of the pavement and walked up the dirt road. At the museum they first showed him the toy trucks, which he didn’t care about. But then there was a display of old typewriters and he loved that. They tried to bring out markers and stuff for him at one point but he said he didn’t need to do that now. He liked sitting on the tractors and pretending. They were machines would pick the fruit and squeeze it into juice. The steering wheels had arms that handed you juice: plum and orange, carrot and orange, etc.

Then to the plant store. Carly said it is fun to go with him now as he’s interested and helpful. He chose a flat green plant. Carly got some other plants to fill in the pot where one was broken by the wind and got a new big pot. And plants to further fill in the kitchen window boxes. And a second plant for inside.

I worked while they were gone on Sabeel stuff. They were back at 2:10. He helped outside a little. He came in to use the bathroom. He heard the Strand of Oak song “Hard to Be Young” and said “Add this to my playlist…I like this band. It’s one of my favorite bands.” I asked what his favorite part of the trip was and he said “Sitting on those tractors was pretty fun.” He then typed and made buttons on my iPad, then measured things while I measured the wall for a picture.

He wanted food, but didn’t eat curry. He then Skyped with Vivian for a long time. They were being ghosts, putting blankets over their head. Played their turning off the cameras game. August said “It’s getting close to bedtime.” It was only 4. Vivian went to get something from her room, so August headed up the stairs as well: “I’m showing Vivian something from my room.” He came back with the bracelet we made this summer with our initials on it. She came back with books from school that she then read to us.

I talked about walking into town with him to mail Carly’s postcards and go to the hardware store to get nails. He said “I don’t feel like sending the postcard. I’m a little bit hyper.” Still skyping with Vivian, August wanted to do another experiment. So he got out a bunch of spices and we did another mixing experiment on the floor. Vivian asked if he liked it here and I asked what his favorite part of Israel is. He said “That we have a park close.” He played some piano for Vivian, with Ono three keys in it. He actually played a pretty cool song that got really intense, then slowed and faded at the end.

We said goodbye to Vivian and I eventually got him going out the door. He said “Dada, don’t forget Mama’s chocolate bar. Because one time we went to the library and I got some on the way there, and some when we were done…at the park.”

We left at 5:10. Outside, he played his music machine, then talked about how he was turning the rake into new levers to play notes like a typewriter.

He ate pieces of the chocolate bar along the way. He forgot at first, then was concerned that he wasn’t eating the pieces at the right spots. Convinced him that was okay. We got to the post office. The number machine was broken, so he wondered what our number would be next time. He lay across the seats and I quickly paid for the postcards. We went across to the hardware store, where he really, really wanted a pink-handled dustpan or broom or stool. He was okay when we didn’t get any of them. Got our nails and another set of Tupperware. 

We headed home at 5:40. As we walked he asked how they got the tractors to the tractor museum, as they were too old to work and too heavy to carry. Really cool questioning. He asked for water 4 times on the trip, but I had just taken the little bottle. He refused to drink from it. I tried to convince him that the small bottle was magic in different ways, but each time I said a way in which it was magic he said he added the same magic to his bottle at home.

We got to the snakes and ladders playground before 6. He finished the crumbs of the bar and then set about seeing if he could make mama nervous: “Well, the point is can I do anything that makes mama nervous here? Maybe I can’t; I don’t know.” He posed and said “Well go ahead (take a picture). Make mama nervous. I’m not being safe.” He asked for water again: “I want water. NO, I don’t want to.” When he remembered it was the small bottle.  He climbed a couple things, then up into the netting area. He was actually quite safe, and wanted to practice climbing up a little higher than he has before, but was asking how I could reach him if he did. He didn’t really go any farther, but thought about how to do it.

We left there at 6:15, then stopped again at our park. We went up into the ‘store’, but this time it turned into a space station. He said “Theres a cafeteria in here. Would you like something to eat? We have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…” Got silly listing things, then said “Would you like one of each?” He had me go float out in space several times in my spacesuit. He was talking about/asking about going to the bathroom in space a lot. At one point he said he didn’t want to go to space because you couldn’t go to the bathroom in your spacesuit.

We were home at 6:50. When he saw his big water bottle he said “There you are!” It then turned him into a butterfly, which was one of the magic things I said the smal one could do. Carly made him a sandwich. It was peanut butter and honey. With broccoli. I later told Carly it was the most parent-ish thing she’s done. August didn’t fall for it: “Mama, it’s really just broccoli! There’s no type of green honey.” He wouldn’t eat it, and he wouldn’t eat the other food options and got upset. Carly took him upstairs and got him half-pajamed. He played a little with the kaleidoscope cards, then Carly went outside. We ended up following. She showed us how all of the sh
ade plants really curled up their leaves/flowers at night.

Back inside he asked me “What happens if someone doesn’t have a wife?” I said then they’re single, etc. He asked “Why is a lot of people single?” I said maybe they like being single, or maybe they haven’t found someone they love. He replied “We find-ed someone we love: mama.”

He went and played the piano. Suddenly, he played Ode to Joy, although I’ve never heard him practicing it. Surprised me. I took him upstairs and he did some singing from the songbook. We read some of The Sisters, and he really wanted to buy the second book. I told him he was going to sleep in a minute when Carly came in and we didn’t need to buy it today. He wasn’t happy with that answer. I told him to dream about typewriters. I left them just after 8 and he was asleep soon after. 

Tractor museum: 

Toilet paper he liked and wanted a photo of: 

At the park in the evening: