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It was a big day. It started when Carly got him up. As she woke him up the first thing he did was give her a big smile, eyes still closed. When they came down after 6:50 he asked me a couple times “Are you going to take me to my bath?” It seems like he may have been having a dream about bath time.

Carly headed to work. He messed with making buttons and copy and pasted a huge document on my iPad. He went to the bathroom and I wasn’t happy when he unrolled the roll. He explained he would do it while he was three and stop at four. I got him an apple and some crackers and he watched a new Sarah & Duck about scarf lady. He said “I think the telephone is knitted! I think the whole house is knitted!” And he was laughing a lot through the whole thing. He watched the show and I did Arabic and Hebrew. He got down and we put the keys in the piano and he requested a piano video. We did two.

When I exercised he has been wanting me to use the Seven app again, which tells you what to do with an animated person. He asked if the app would know if I stopped doing lunges: “Thr police will come?” And he asked “Does that person pee?”

Played with both his kaleidoscope and telescope, then played a song for me: “This song only needs the white keys.” We went upstairs and I took a shower. He wanted to get going to the science center today but it was difficult to get him to focus, as he kept getting distracted. We did a very short bath for him, but he was first distracted by Carly’s spray bottle.

After his bath we got him dressed. Chose his robot shirt for the science center. He asked “Who gave me that robot shirt? When I put it on I feel like a robot!” Couple minutes later: “I love this robot shirt!”

We were in the play area and I had random music we hadn’t listened to playing on the iPad. A long track by Thurston Moore, which is basically an homage and exploration of guitar feedback, came on. He asked “What is this? I love this song! Could you add it to my playlist?…You should totally add this to my playlist!”

He started sitting in the rocking chair and banging the wall: “When I bang the wall it gives me chocolate ice cream! Don’t you know that? I love this ice cream shop…And the harder I bang the chocolate-ier it gets…those bangs were a bit too chocolate-y.” I then noticed that the banging, which he had mainly done a couple days ago when I was in the shower, was actually chipping the paint. Worse, there was a big scratch below it. He said he had been doing it with his finger. I think he was enlarging something that was already there, but we talked about how he couldn’t damage the wall.

He watched the Marble Machine covers video while I made lunch: “Dada, I’m playing all those instruments inside me.” An ad came on and I commented that it wasn’t his favorite ad : “I STILL like it. It’s about brushing your teeth.” He played with the pillows and set them up between the couch and the table: “Can I try to relax on it like you did?” He then reenacted me from yesterday lying on them and falling through.

Trying to get out the door, he played a chord on the piano and asked what it was. We looked it up on my phone, then outside he played his “music machine” – the one with his long stick, the rake, the swing, etc. As he walked out to the car he said “see? Easy peaey!” He got his chocolate snowman once in his seat. Then asked “How did candy appear in my stocking?”

As we drove up to Hadera and the Technoda science center he was singing, making things up. He sang about a monster trying to bite, wanting a mystery, and cake and cookies.

Parked at 11. We had just gotten a fuel message saying we needed to refuel and he wanted to read it. Once on the sidewalk he had to act it out: “Can I pretend to be a car and we run out or gas and we’re stuck in the middle of the highway?”

We went in only to find that the inside museum part is now closed for a year or so for renovation. Major bummer, as it was the funnest thing we’ve found within 30 minutes. The outside part was open and they let us in for free. There was a big group of students out there, so we walked around the water stuff first, then sat to eat lunch. They were Palestinian students, and a bunch of the guys were playing music and dancing, which August liked. I had made my new toasted pita sandwiches, with a variety of options: using mushrooms, cheese, pesto, etc. August wasn’t impressed.

I started working on my Arabic typing, translating some of the words on a sign. As the students cleared out a little August wanted to go over to all the music stuff. We wandered around that side for quite awhile, playing with everything, particularly the long tube that you talk and listen to, so you hear the delay.

We now had the place almost to ourselves. He tried the water bucket on a pulley and it was hard. I noted it was a single pulley so it was hard. He looked at the other one and said “That’s not a single pulley!” Did that, then the pump, which he could push up, then hang in the air as he pulled it down.

He asked “What’s the best way to get water?” I started talking about modern water systems. He said “No, I mean in the past!” We did the screw thing (Archimedes’ screw?), then finally went and figured out the remote controlled solar-powered boats, with the help of the attendant that was there. We were the only people out there but the attendant still told me I couldn’t actually touch the boat when I tried to show August how the rudder work.

But we had fun, then finished up outside we went inside and did the coin thing, dropping them into the funnel thing. August and I had stocked up on 10 agora coins before we left, and August had gone out to his calculator in his Zinnie shop to get more.

We raced one around, then waited for a group of school kids to clear out, then we did more. More students came in, and one student put about 10 coins in at once. August liked that, and said “Who wins?” He also started singing our Juicy Juice song. When we were done we went and used the bathroom. He was excited about the sink: “Yeah! The sink is exactly my size.”

He wanted to do Drops, so we sat out on a bench in the hall and did AR view in Drops and reviewed words. When we did boy and girl he said “I’m a ילדה(girl)  I’m not a ילד(boy)” Of course, a minute later he said “I’m a kitten.” I was then talking about how it was too bad the museum part was closed and said “I’m disappointed about the cars on the track” He told me “You don’t have to be.”

When we went to get out we found that the gate outside was locked, and no one was in the guard station. We went back in and the desk area was empty too. After a minute someone came, then buzzed us through the door.

We stopped at the car, then walked a block west to the park and playground that we had played at with Carly when we first came here. He climbed up into the play structure and was excited to be taller than me, then came down the big slide. I got a call from Seth regarding the Sabeel work and August let me talk for a few minutes while I talked to him. August and I then wandered around a bit, playing, then went over to a big merry-go-round that, when you turn it, the individual seats then turn as well. Pushed him on that for awhile.

We then got back to the car at 1:30 and August played in the driver’s seat. He discovered the windshield washer fluid worked. I then had the idea of going down to the beach, which was close.

We got to the beach at 2:15. I parked, and got August out of his seat. August was giggling and smiling as I turned off the car. I asked him what wasso funny and he said “I trick-ed you that my window was open!” I had to turn on the car again to raise his window.

We walked down to the beach and found a good spot. Made circles with the cups, then he chose a diamond shape for the moat. After awhile he had more fun destroying the moat and castles than bu
ilding them. He washed his hands off in the sea, then asked me to bury his feet in the pool that was forming as the tide came in.

We were leaving 3:25. We tried to find a bathroom. As we walked, he asked “Why does persons have to have fingernails?” A bit later he asked “Can I have some mime mineralim (mineral water)?” He had remembered the term from the Drops drinks category.

I got a call from Bet-Chen, the Hebrew teacher at the school, saying she had time to do a Hebrew lesson with us today at 4. So I conferred with Carly, who thought the lesson would go better without her there, and August and I hurried back to Even Yehuda.

Along the way I stopped at a gas station. Thought we had it down by now, but this station was giving me different choices. As I was trying to figure out it, I realized that August was really upset and crying in the car, trying to get out of his seat – he had been calling to me but I couldn’t hear him, and he couldn’t open his window as the car was off. I was about to give up (we still had plenty of range for getting home and all), but an attendant came and helped.

August calmed down and watched the numbers on the pump. The attendant thought we must be cold, just in our t-shirts. Back in the car August asked “Is Skoda Mama’s tummy full?” We talked more about the Hebrew lesson and he shouted “Nooooo!” More funnily, he objected, something along the lines of “Hebrew TEACHER‽ But, we have Drops and Memrise (apps we use on my phone)!”

We got to the school and Heidi directed us to the floor below the library, telling us that was where the language teacher classrooms are. August had fun as we hunted down room 468. August had brought his kaleidoscope in the car, and I had suggested he bring it to show the teacher. He took it in to see her, and instantly warmed to the Hebrew lesson, particularly when she gave him a chocolate cupcake. They played with matching fruit and vegetable cards, talked about the cupcake, played with a big ball (he started counting in Hebrew as he bounced on it). For much of the time he was mainly parroting everything back that she said – quite well, but kind of funny. I realized later that it was because he’s used to Drops and Memrise and repeating back what we hear.

They finished by watching a couple of Hebrew songs on YouTube – a couple of color songs and a version of one of his favorite Hebrew children’s songs.

We finished up, then went outside and Carly met up with us and we headed home. Carly commented on how the seat was moved back and asked if August wanted it moved forward. August loudly responded “I WOULD NOT PREFER IT FORWARD AND WHAT ARE TOU TALKING ABOUT?” So funny.

We were home at 5:20. He showed Carly his music machine, and of the teeter totter he says “The faster it goes, the faster the BEAT!” “There’s another way it works…”

Inside we got dinner, and I made a sandwich like I had for lunch for Carly and me. August reminded me “The one you should have brought was peanut butter and jelly!” On the way to school he had also told me “Dada, my favorite sandwich is peanut butter and jelly.” I told him I got the message. He had nutty noodles for dinner, then Carly made him hot chocolate.

On the iPad he played with Musyc, then spent a lot of time composing a song and would occasionally ask me to add notes too. He asked me to be a sleeping fox – we haven’t done the Flynne game in a long time. After playing that for awhile, I put on my socks. August said “A fox doesn’t put on socks!” I said “But what about Fox in Socks!” and we talked about when we got that book for him: it was at Whatthebook when my parents were there. Carly had then taken August back via the subway, losing a hat along the way. My parents and I had gone on to the Korean War Memorial.

Anyway, we read Fox in Socks, Green Eggs and Ham, Gustav the Goldfish, and The Zax.

Took him upstairs and Carly got him ready for bed. He told me he’d dream about “science…and scary dreams, and scary monsters, and monsters eating me.” I left them at 7:45.

But he was back down at 8:20. We read Fox in Socks again, Hop on Pop, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut, and The Foot Book. He stood up and played the wall hanging as an instrument. Took him up and left them at 9:20.

He had lots of “I wonder…” questions today.

Quicksand: 

Wall hanging instrument: 

Being blurry: 

Carly said he wanted to read books at 3am, but luckily went back to sleep. He slept later than me for once, only just barely. I had just made it downstairs when we heard “Mama?” at 6:25. Carly headed to work and he was playing on the iPad, typing. He asked “How many words are there?” We looked up some numbers on how many in English and all languages. And I was explaining how there were thousands of languages. He said “Like Frenchinado. It’s a new language. It has nineteen million…”

I made French toast and straweberries. He ate almost a full piece. As he was almost done I asked if he wanted another and he said yes. I had just cracked another egg when he changed his mind and said he was full. He wanted to do food coloring experiments and I said yes and he went to get out the containers. He told me blue had leaked and held up his hand, covered in blue. It could have been disastrous, but wasn’t. When they had organized they had put the spices, etc. in plastic bins. It had just gotten on that and wiped off. Same with the counter where he set the leaking container. We went and washed our hands. They were slightly blue all day, but nothing else was.

On the iPad I suggested he find the app with Muffin Man in it. No luck, but he played with a few apps along the way and had fun in the Monster Lab app making monsters. In Hebrew he used the AR view in Drops and was going through the categories one after another, reviewing. When we had a lot of words in a category he would say “We’ve done a fair amount of that.” We exercised. He asked “What happens if you don’t exercise for a whole year and it (phone) reminds you? A police officer would come?”

He said the black chair was a pipe, so we climbed in it to explore. There was a treasure chest, then a sucking machine in it that sucked us over to the square rug, which was a “whirlpool in a wardrobe”. He said it sucked off his clothes and started to take off his clothes. That was a reference to the Treehouse books where they have a whirlpool and it sucks off their pants. The whirlpool took us to another world.

He said he wanted to go for a walk, so we left at 9:45. Started up north and found a bag of books. Rescued an old Hebrew dictionary, a couple of random Hebrew children’s books, and Dr. Seuss’s Happy Birthday book, in Hebrew. That was the big find. We dropped those off at home, then we wandered down towards the trail. Ended up at the little not-much-of-a-park. I reminded him how he had blasted monsters there once, so he was doing that. He climbed on the rocking log thing, then we went over to the merry-go-round. Played a bit more, then we sat on the merry-go-round and studied Hebrew.

I explained to him how 2nd person pronouns (you) are gendered in Hebrew and gave him examples. He got grumpy and insisted that I use the girl pronoun when talking to him. I said okay. Then a minute later he was still grumpy and told me “It doesn’t matter” which pronoun he chooses. A cat wandered over and was nice to us and I pet it a bit. I told August though that you have to be cautious around cats you don’t know because they might scratch. He didn’t want me to pet it anymore. He was then a kitten, climbing on my lap.

He eventually got out and got on his bike and was riding around the little park area on his own. Then he was a cat again: “I’m going to scratch the furniture when we get home…I’m gonna snag some of my אמא’s clothes when we get home.” At first I thought he was still being a kitten and he meant he was going to scratch the clothes. But then he talked about using them in one of his piles, and I realized that he meant he was going to ‘snag’ them as in ‘steal’ them. It was a word he got from The Sisters, as one of the girls ‘snags’ her sister’s clothes. Also, I liked the use of Hebrew instead of ‘mama’.

We left at 10:30. I thought we were going home, but he initially drove us towards school. He asked “Can we go back to bus rides sometime?” I said yes, in a couple days we could. He drove us up the block, then back down and said he wanted to sit at the bus stop for fun. So we did. But when I asked what we were doing there he said he had “tricked” me and we were actually going to take a bus. I pointed out we couldn’t take his bike, and I didn’t have money for it. But it’s as a good trick.

We were home at 11. He really wanted nutty noodles for lunch so we had those. He then was setting up pillows and things (books, spice containers) and told me “I was trying to debug the computer!” First I thought he learned ‘debug’ from Carly while playing on Scratch, but the I realized it was from The Sisters when the older sister ‘debugs’ the computer by surrounding it with chairs so her sister couldn’t bug her.

We decided to get some new Sarah and Duck cartoons, so we got season 5. Watched one together, then I took a shower. He was hungry, so we went down and made a smoothie. We then a did count-to-ten superfast bath for me, then he helped me clean things up downstairs and we searched for our library books to figure out what to return. We found the noun book and Berenstain Bears Stage Fright book upstairs.

He asked “What if we learned-ed all the words to learn?” I said there’s always more to learn. He responded “Like us learning French?”

We left at 1:25, on his orange bike. He got a chocolate snowman from his stocking. He took a bite and said “The chocolate snowman said ‘Oww’.”

We got to school and first saw Airport Megan. He did a good job talking to her. We parked the bike and went in and he returned the books, carrying them all over to Liz. Then walked across to the cafeteria and did our metal recycling. Been awhile, so the bag was pretty full. He can now stand on his own and just get it in the container. Hard for him to see the hole though, so he preferred me to pick him up.

As we walked back to the library he asked “Do you remember the first time we came to the library and it was closed?” I couldn’t believe he remembered that, but it was true. We met Amanda and she said the library was closing. We saw Ada as we entered the building and talked to her for a minute. We went in the library and set down our stuff. He looked up at a framed puzzle of penguins and said “That’s a lovely puzzle.”

We went to look for books, and he was really into finding books and would have checked out about 20 if he could. We got a stack and started reading You Wouldn’t Want to be a Medieval Knight in the reading area. A preschool class came in. They said he could stay for story time with them, but he wanted to go away. So we went to the corner with all the beanbags and he made a wall of them. We read a little more of that, then read Berenstain Bears and Baby Makes Five and  Too Much Birthday.

He wanted to go play, so he scooped up all the books and just carried them up to Amanda to check them out on his own. We walked down to the preschool playground. On the way down the stairs he was looking to blast things and he declared a woman coming up the stairs a monster and started to blast her. I tried to stop him, but she found it amusing and blasted him back. He played at the music wall and play kitchen by the entry of the preschool, then headed to the playground.

At the playground he played the xylophone tubes and then set about doing some cooking with the pots and stuff. There were some slightly older girls playing together and they got in an argument. August would pause and watch them. Then, one of them came over and started helping him fill up the pot with wood chips. He told me “That one helped me fill it!” She started playing with him, and told the other girls “This is my best friend.” One of them said “Do you even know his name?” So she asked. I told August to ask back, and she said “My name is B-A-R.” (It is short for something.)

August was attached. They cooked together, then he followed her over as she used the dirt/sand to put out a fire in the
castle they were pretending was in the passage through the building. They were picking some leaves, then the girls all ran off and all the way to the big playground. He said “I need my leaves…I’m following her!” And chased after. I watched from the passageway. It is the farthest he’s every played away from me – maybe 50 to 70 meters. He followed them back around the other way a couple minutes later.

He and Bar (and Olivia) were then getting dirt wet in a pan and getting their hands dirty. I rinsed his off once with his water bottle, then the second time he just stuck his hand on in, getting it nice and dirty. He followed them into the preschool a couple of times, and I went through with them once. He, Bar, and Olivia lay on the grass a bit, a distance away. Once, when coming back from the preschool, he saw Olivia go through a metal archway/trellis. He commented on it, and I started to show him the vines that were planted and how they were starting to climb it.He was interested at first, then said “No time!” and ran off.

Bar and Olivia and their parents left about 4. August and I put all the pans, etc. away (something no one else seems to do ever), then went up to the entryway of the library. I looked at the free book shelves and saved Patrick McManus’s They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They? and Eugene Ionesco’s play Exit the King, which I was particularly excited about.

Leaving the library Carly talked to another teacher, who asked August his name. He first replied “Zinnie”, which was interesting because he had told Bar “August”, then said “I call myself Zinnie and August nowadays.”

We left at 4:30. He had been so calm and happy all day it had to change at some point. He was wanting to ride on the wrong side of the bike path, then yelling at people on the way home. Carly picked him up and carried him the rest of the way and he was better.

At home they looked at the plants outside, then had nutty noodles for dinner. He wanted the marble machine video, but instead we found these videos of other Rube Goldberg-type marble machines. August was fascinated and watched video after video of them. He went outside with her for a short bit. He wanted tea, so I brought him cinnamon and honey tea. They skyped with Colin. Colin was excited to see August and still calls him ‘Ata’ and was telling him about the digger in the video they were watching.

August and I then read a good chunk of The Sisters before Carly took him upstairs. They read a little of the Medieval Knights book, but then switched to baby mode. Read a couple of the little nursery rhyme books, one of the Pigeon books, and part for Brown Bear, Brown Bear. And they looked at the kaleidoscopic stacking cards that my parents got him last year.

I suggested he dream of marble machines. I left them at 7:40.

I watched episode 3 of the new season of Black Mirror (haven’t watched the other episodes yet), then did some Sabeel work. When I went to bed I heard him whine in his sleep “Can I do anything?”

Food coloring: 

AR view in Drops: 

Chocolate snowman: 

Spying: 

Reaching recycling: 

Playing with Bar: 

He was up just after 6. When I came down a little later he took my iPad when I set it on the table. He and Carly played a little Ear Wizard, which is a ear training app where you identify chord progressions. Think he would have played more except he doesn’t like that you run out of chances when you make mistakes. Carly headed to work and August, who keeps asking for a new Toca app, played a couple that I realized we already own (Toca Kitchen and Toca Band) and I made the last of the pancakes. He ate a few bites, but wouldn’t eat any more. We did the AR view in Drops for a bit, then he wanted to measure the spiky plant in the indoor planter, after we talked about how it had grown a lot. But we couldn’t find the tape measure. He was excited: “Another mystery!” Exercised, then we went up and watched the “Fancy Park” episode of Sarah and Duck together.

I took a shower, then we watched the “The Play” episode together. He mainly ate strawberries and crackers for breakfast. We did his bath and he spent a lot of time watching the Marble Machine and then animated musical instruments (Animusic, I think it is called) videos.

Downstairs, he took blurry photos of me, then had me take blurry photos of him. He chose the best one and chose a filter, so I posted it to Instagram. While I started to get lunch together he, who was just wearing underwear, lay face down on the rug in the kitchen in the sun.

He asked for peanut butter on a spoon and said “There’s crunchies in there! There’s zookeepers in there!” And he ate a few carrot sticks dipped in pesto veganaise. Finished making sandwiches for lunch, then we put together the piano together. He played the piano and was making some cool patterns so I took a video. He saw me, and wanted to perform for a second one. He was performing for the camera, then wanted to watch it.

I said he could have a Tic Tac in the car, and he asked if it was a mint one. I said those weren’t out there, but he had a box of mint ones from Christmas. That reminded him of his stocking and he wanted something from it. He chose Smarties and was very, very excited. I also got out a balloon and we were blowing it up and letting it go. He really liked that too, but wanted to get in his car seat so he could have those Smarties.

As we got our shoes on he did the head pushing game, the kissing game, then we made up new ‘games’: he did the bonking game, bonking his head against my leg. We left 11:30.

In the car I gave him his Smarties. He ate them slowly, making half of it last until Ra’anana Park. We listened to his playlist and he requested the Teuni Teuni theme song again, then a repeat of Pil Pilon as we got to the park. We went to pay. August was very concerned about enough time – he wanted to pay for a whole day. We paid right at 12, until 3:15. August wanted to see the engine of the car so we popped the hood and spent a few minutes looking, then we headed into the park.

We decided to go over to the instrument area first. He said “I loved the instruments part…there were so many monsters there!” He remembered blasting monsters last time. He had spotted a cat near our car, then said “Its a good time for cats to be around. Cuz it’s a nice day.”

At the instrument area there were other kids doing the turning thing. He was patient and played other things first. And he banged on a harp thing and said he was playing along. We eventually sat on a low wall and ate some lunch. When other kids were done, then we went and played with it. I peeled an orange and August didn’t want any at first. He gave in and ate a piece and told me “Oh! It was good! You were right!” While spinning the music box thing and listening to the songs he said of one “it had ‘הילדים’ (children) in it!” And he kept talking about how many steps he was getting, walking around in circles.

Before we left we used the QR code scanner on a few of the plants, and we were admiring the different kinds of oranges in the trees. There is a variety of citrus fruit that looks like small oranges the size of olives. August and I picked one and tried it. Like a strong lemon, but with an orange-ish taste to it.

We got walking and after discovering the ‘zig zag’ sculpture (I first read ‘zig zag’ on a metal sign, in Hebrew), composed of 3 metal pieces that align to make a zigzag if you stand in the right location, we made it to the concrete maze/play area. he wandered around in that for a bit, using the telephone and finding a sweatshirt someone had forgotten. We then continued on to the first playground we had played at with Carly when we first visited the park – the big covered one. August remembered of part of it that “it was taped (closed off) last time”. He played on the big swinging log thing and made music. He told me he wanted to spit and I got him to go over off the playground area. I asked him “why’d you spit?” He replied “For funsies. Because I wanted to go back to spitting.” While on one of the toys he described his store. It had all sorts of random things: “17 baby swings…” Back on the swinging log he made music again and asked “Can you pretend to shoot heavy metal balls that make notes?” This was a reference to one of the Animusic videos, where marbles bounce off of wires to make music.

He did a lot of singing of “She’ll be coming around the mountain.” I got a phone call from Omar at Sabeel. August did a pretty good job of letting me talk. He had me swing him around on a spinning thing and he got pretty dizzy. We left that playground at 2. I pointed out a sculpture of a cow and the Hebrew word for ‘cow’ (I’d also read the word for horse on another). He said “I hate cows. They’re stinky.”

Finally, we went and played at the big playground, notable for the acorn rocket and the huge wooden play structure. The acorn was in use so he wanted to play in the log again, but it looked like there was water in there. I gave him permission to use his sweatshirt (which he wasn’t wearing) to dry it up, but then he said it wasn’t working. It was something sticky. Oops. He rode in the acorn rocket with a couple of other kids. The mom pushed and sang a little “Jingle Bells” along with him.

Back out he climbed on some little platform things. He asked “were those in Korea?” They have spirals on them and they had them at the spiderweb playground. He ran over to the pointy rope climbing thing. He saw a sign on it and said “I hate signs”. He then asked what ages it said and I said 5 to 12. He got really sad and started to cry. Picked him up and held him in my lap and tried to explain what ‘designed for’ means. He kept saying “I can’t do it…I can’t” then defiaintly “I CAN do it.” Finally, he started to calm down and I reminded him of “making mama nervous” photos. So he climbed up on it and had fun taking a making mama nervous photo. Then he ran and climbed up a metal ladder and asked me to take another making mama nervous photo.

Then it was to the big wooden play structure. Climbed up and went around on that for awhile. But then as he was going down one of the steep, shallow staircases he slipped, about three steps up. He held on tight to the railing though and swung around, holding himself by one hand, until his feet landed on the ground. He was a little hurt and dazed, but not too bad.

Played around on some of the smaller structures on the way back to the stroller. On was a time machine or the such: “Done! We’re at Anavacanda!” He sneezed and I counted them. He asked “Why do you always count my sneezes?”

We went to the bathroom before 3. He used the wheelchair stall and said that’s the one he always uses. He was asking about the bars, and liked raising and lowering the bar that is movable. He washed his hands well and now likes to dry his hands, but they just had hand dryers in this bathroom. I used it, but he said it was still too loud for him.

On the way to the car I stopped a free library, so
I stopped. Got a Hebrew book of short children’s stories and an English version of Saul Bellow’s Herzog. We got to the car just before 3:15, much to August’s relief. As we got to the car he said “Our Fabia Mama is right there.” In the car he was looking off at something and I asked what. He said “I’m spying at the sun.”

He’d been asking to get hot chocolate at the store, so we stopped at Tiv Taam at the mall. He had the second half of the Smarties on the way and was falling asleep as we pulled into the parking lot. We went in and got crackers, then had difficulty finding the hot chocolate mix. I asked a woman, in Hebrew, where the hot chocolate was. Was stumped though when she responded ‘Lo Ivrit’. She spoke Russian. August and I eventually found it though.

We drove home. I called Carly as I though she might be walking home. She was, and just a few seconds away from where we were when I called. One of the first things he said was “Can you show mama the making her nervous pictures?” I asked if I could tell him about his fall. He did a great job of saying I could tell her, but not so he could hear it. I think he said something about keeping it a secret from him, and being quiet. We told him I could wait and tell her later.

We were home before 4:30. He was on his teeter totter and taught Carly the term “Time signature.” When I told him I’d be leaving he said “Yeah! I get mama time!” I asked what he’d dream about tonight and he said “Bad dreams…and Smarties!”

For the Guys’ Night Out I drove, picking up Jack. Rick then joined us for the ride over. There were eight of us total. No movies in the theater worth watching, although I’d hoped we’d go see the Star Wars film. But everyone had already seen that. We had dinner at Rubinstein instead, which is a bit pricier. And involved lots and lots of meat.

While I was gone August ate dinner, then had hot chocolate outside. They ate popcorn and watched about 20 minutes of Brother Bear. They read a couple of books and he was asleep at 8.

Being blurry: 

Lying in the sun: 

Lunch: 

My sweatshirt:

Zigzag: 

Pensive of the swing: 

Acorn robot instrument: 

A making mama nervous photo: 

He was up at 6:48. He whispered to me “Time to wake up.” When I came down a little after 7 she was making him oatmeal. Carly tried to get him outside and mentioned the sun. He said “You mean that bright thing in the sky‽” We read The Sisters instead, then he made a pillow pile. He wanted more pillows from upstairs and Carly tried to get him to go get them on his own. He wanted her to do it, but she told him that the “guidebook” said that he was old enough to do it. That sort of worked, and she went up with him and showed him how he could push them downstairs.

But upstairs he wouldn’t clean up the mess from yesterday with her. Eventually I traded with Carly and he calmed down and I got him to clean it up with me. They nursed, then Carly needed to head to work for the Conflict Resolution project. He and I plugged in the guitar and played GarageBand. He then switched to Piano Maestro and mainly had me play it. He wanted me to pay for it so I could play more songs, but he only tried it once and said he wouldn’t do it more: “Too hard”.

As he was looking at the guitar chord lying on the floor he saw a crescent shape in it. We took out laundry and went downstairs. He added his animals to the pile of pillows, putting them in caves. We then played Toca Plants on the iPad. I talked about how creating the new plants is a kind of puzzle, and how he likes other puzzles. He said “I love the puzzles.” I mentioned other puzzles he has liked, and mentioned the Busy Shapes game. He wanted to play it, but I said it was too easy for him now, but he insisted, saying “I like the baby one.” So we downloaded it so he could have some nostalgia time with it. I exercised, and he played with the AR mode in Drops. We just discovered it. Basically, it is a fun way to review the words you’ve learned. You move the phone around and see bubbles with pictures in them around your room. You pop them and see/hear the Hebrew word. He was telling me he knows the spa words and how to read the letters correctly.

Upstairs I took a shower and he watched one Sarah and Duck and ate strawberries and crackers. He had a good bath. He was throwing the letters up in the air, which was good when he kept them in the bath area. He then had an excellent hair washing, as he pulled out the plug as I was doing it and thought it was really funny that I had to wash him quickly, so wasn’t bothered at all by me actually doing it: “Sorry, there’s no more water left. We did’t make it in time.” But actually it did. I made salmon sandwiches and we had those with strawberries for lunch. We were listening to an album called Teacher and the Rockbots and he had his foot on mine and we were doing more pumping in time to the music to make it go. If we stopped he would then pause the music and say the machine had stopped. We’ve done that a couple times now.

We talked about the bicycle and third wheel trailer. I assured him he could go on it and it was safe. He said “Are you sure, dada? I’m seems to me it isn’t safe.”

He was playing piano and I interrupted him to put on his pants. I actually apologized first for interrupting him, then he said “Next time you do it I will…Could you not interrupt me?” I liked the ‘I will’ in there as I think he was starting to say a threat, like ‘hit you’, but thought better of it. I went upstairs to do something, and he called “Come listen to my song…hurry before it is over.” He played that and another improv for me. After that he got up and I picked him up. I said I loved his music and he said a very sweet “Thank you” and gave me a big hug.

He went back to the piano and took the keys out and said “The London Bridge is falling down!” He then put the keys in randomly and was seeing how they would sound. We took the innards out of the piano and played with them using the xylophone sticks. He also played with his kaleidoscope.

We finally got ready to go outside and watch me ride the bike around a bit (without him on the trailer): “Yeah! I really want to do that! I will be excited!” As we took it outside he talked about things he likes to do: “But the most fun thing to do is play music” “…watch you ride that three-wheeler bike.” “But the most fun thing I’ve ever done is THROWING AWAY THINGS IN THE CAGES!” He watched me ride. He was interested, but first said he would ride when he was an adult. When I pointed out it was for kids he said “Maybe when I’m seven.”

We went for a walk at 1:45. Apropos to nothing he asked me “What is geography?” So I explained. He was driving us in funny loops and stuff in the park and said “You know we’re writing funny letters right?”

We got up to the snakes and ladder park (his request) at 2. Let him coast down the grass hill once, then he went and started his store. He said “We’re a small things store!” On the structure he sang a little song: “Falling down a passage / And it goes to a dark-making village.” Which I thought was an impressive rhyme. We played around the rest of the park: the Jeep, the spinning thing, etc. At one point: “I think I’m running low of Zinnie power…I have 9 percent.” I had to charge him by turning the spinning thing over on the structure. Climbed through the rope structure with my help, then we went to snakes and ladders: “Let’s pretend the snakes is ladders, and the ladders is snakes!”

We did some more AR view in Drops, then went on the spinning thing. We were being Earth spinning around the sun. He was talking to Jupiter, then when I got off he made me Jupiter.

Finally, we went and relaxed in the round swing. He said “I love this place”. I asked for clarification and he meant that park. He then asked “Can I have שוקולד הם (sounds like ‘chocolate ham’ – means ‘hot chocolate’)?” I said I didn’t know if there was any left at home. He replied “If there isn’t that’s okay, but if there is dada could you get me some chocolate ham?”

We left at 3:15, taking the back route out of the park, so a slightly longer walk. We stopped at our park and did the store again. He did a couple of funny GIFs for Carly as we sat up top, then we spotted Carly walking home and called to her. She came up for a couple minutes, then we all walked home at 3:45.

I found the hot chocolate. Carly made it and I put his hot chocolate outside. They went outside and I joined them after drying off a chair. He requested more hot chocolate, and Carly gave him the last little bit. He tasted it and said “It was pretty hot.” Didn’t cry, but was sad and climbed into Carly’s lap. After a minute he went and drank the rest of it.

We all went inside and he skyped with Vivian for a long time. There was a lot of hanging up on each other and calling back. Vivian said that Colin had pooped. August said “I’m gonna hang up. I don’t want to smell the poop!”

Nutty noodles for dinner. August told Carly (his idea) “Should have done a haircut when we skyped with Vivian.” August and I played Wizard School and he was doing more people/monsters/robots than he has done in the past. My favorite sort of looked like a family of 4 together, but when I asked what it was he said “A winnicado…it’s one of the meanest monsters in the world.”

We took him up for his pajamas and when he got those on without too much of a fuss I gave him some of our treat bread. We then brushed his teeth. When I said I love him a ton of Qs he said “I love you ONE star.” I asked if I could have more stars and he said “I shoot stars at you.” I asked what he was going to dream about and he said “Stars…and scary dreams.” Left them at 7:20.

Animals in caves: 

After his bath: 

Snakes and ladders park. His thinking face: 

Climbing: 

The Earth: 

GIF for Carly (not sure if this will work): 

Hot chocolate: 

The Winnicado: 

In the middle of the night he got up on the bed in between us. He then turned sideways and put his head on my chest and used me as a pillow for quite awhile. Apparently he was using Carly more like a soccer ball. At some point she straightened him out. He was up at 6:20. I was still trying to sleep and he came and tickled me to wake me up. They went downstairs and ate popcorn and watched Timmy Time. And I heard him playing piano. When I came out he was upstairs and starting to make a mess/pile in his room. But he wanted to add more and more stuff, and when we wouldn’t let him keep getting more he was upset and locking us out of his room. Carly got him to calm down and played with him a bit, then he and I played in the main bedroom for awhile.

We went downstairs and played Math Tango for awhile. Carly made him a pancake but he only ate half. I took a shower and they went for a walk to the park, where they mainly played store. I studied some Hebrew, then was going to go find them and they got home as I was heading out, at 10:50. August asked for some strawberries and crackers and was singing “Do you know the cracker man?” I heated up some french fries and he rejected those. I questioned what 3-year old doesn’t need french fries. He and I were then singing Zip-a-dee-do-da together.

We all got going on an errands mission at 11:10. As we got in the car he sang the words to Jingle Bells to the tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man? We first went to Ace. We got a space heater for the bathroom, an extension cord so we can use our vacuum cleaner on the car, and a new electric kettle as our first one died. ANd Carly bought a couple of candles.

From there we headed to Tiv Taam. August and I played out the playground while Carly went and started shopping. He went on some of the rocking things, then up on the play structure he went down the straight slide several times. There was another girl there and she went down the spiral slide so he wouldn’t do that until after she left. His favorite part though was the Tiv Taam price stickers that someone had put on top of one of the rocking things. He spent several minutes humming and scratching them off with his fingernails.

When he was done we went in to see if Carly was done shopping. We called her and she said she was by the lentils, so a little later, after we had helped a little bit and were checking out, he used her pen to draw a map on his hand and said “Do you see where we seeing my finger map? And the lentil section is right there.” He also added the bathrooms to his map.

We were home at 12:45. He played in the car for a few minutes until he needed to use the bathroom: “There’s pretend babies there. Did we take away control?” Inside we tried out the new heater and played Tea Party. And he made another big machine out of all the pillows. It was a water machine that made water and put it in bottles. Carly made a pancake for him. He also drank some milk, but dripped some on the table. He helped me clean that up.

Carly was cooking, making nutty noodles, and August had some raw tofu: “I like the raw tofu!…Mama, why is raw tofu good?” We read chapter 9 of Magic Treehouse $14. I had some chai tea and August wanted some. I gave him some, further cut down with some milk. He really liked it and asked for more. I suggested we look for decaf chai sometime at the store.

I was trying to get August out for a walk as we were getting in Carly’s way in the kitchen. But then he got interested in helping Carly and helped her grate cheese and do other things. He had some nutty noodle before we left, and she started on the lentil soup.

We got going and went up to do recycling. The cardboard cage was open so he was excited about walking into it. Then, at the glass recycling someone had left several wine bottles out on their own and a bag full of wine bottles. So August had fun recycling all the glass, which was shattering quite well in the bin. We then went for a walk. We went around the Holly block. He said we were going to go seven times. Near the end of the second block we actually ran into Holly and her daughter. August pointed out a cat to her and we told her what we call the block. August said his walk meter was at half and that “I made it out of clay.” A reference, I think, to the statues in the Magic Treehouse book which it had said were made out of clay. He said that meant that he wanted to go home for awhile, then we could go on more of a walk. We were back at 3:40.

We played some Classify It, learning a good amount as we worked through some of the advanced levels, and Drops. They nursed, then briefly skyped with Cherie. Carly had realized that the parsley was missing from our Tiv Taam trip, so August and I left on another walk at 4:25. We went over to the mall. We figured out the parsley and found some matches for the candles. I had suggested we’d get a little something extra, and we went back to the sweet breads. I was thinking like the honey bread, but he saw one with dark stuff in it. He thought it might be chocolate. I told him it didn’t really look like it. He said it would be okay if it wasn’t chocolate because it would still be good.

We were back by 5:30. Carly was skyping with Cherie. We had the treat bread and turned out to be fig and coconut. Actually pretty good. They then skyped with Vivian. She and August were skyping for a long time, and eventually August stopped Skyping and we realized Vivian was gone. So Carly hung up. Vivian called back a minute later. Vivian and Cassie were talking to August and he was spinning the fidget spinner. Cassie asked what he was doing and he said “I’m spinning my poop.” When they were done there was sort of a race to hang up. August cut off her last sentence and said “Sorry. I already hanged up.”

He ate a little of the soup Carly had made, then we were doing Drops. I told him we had to do ‘Geography’ before ‘More Geography’. He did about two words with me before he went and asked Carly if he could use her phone so he could do the ‘More Geography’ section on his own. He asked me to send him a video on Wizard School, so I sent him three: one that looked like the phone was flying up the stairs, another of Puff talking in dragon language, and one of Angeles’s head slowly coming in and out of the frame, silent. He watched those, then as Carly took him upstairs to get ready for bed I sent him one more of Monkey Nice Banana’s head coming into the frame, then going around in a circle. I sent it to his iPad, then set up the iPad in the bedroom so he’d see it when they went in the bedroom. He thought that was pretty fun.

He was being pretty crazy before bedtime. When I asked what he’d dream about he said “Bad dreams and Wizard School” I left them at 7:25 but he came down at “7:52”. Carly took a shower. We read A Violin for Elva, then had two strawberries and crackers. We read 20 pages of The Sisters, then we finished Magic Treehouse 14. We took him back upstairs about 8:50 and he fell asleep that time.

He took a photo of his pile: 

Outside Tiv Taam: 

Trying out the heater:

More machine: 

Squeezing lemons:

Holding parsley and looking at the meat: 

I was woken by a huge clap of thunder a little before 6:30. Just before 7, as Carly was about to head out the door, we heard “Mama!” from the stairs. She went up to see if he would go back to sleep. They came down about 7:20. We said goodbye to her (she took the car today, as it was pouring rain) then he did some typing on my iPad before remembering he wanted to buy Toca Tea Party. I agreed. He said “Yeah! Because I love tea!” And talked about how he’s had tea before. “Let’s buy a Toca app every OTHER day.”

He was singing “Do you know the muffin man…that lives in British new?” And “…that lives in New York City?” Got a video of part of it. The Muffin Man song is in one of his apps, so I’ll have to see what it actually says. Also, as we sat on the couch he said to me “Happy New Year!” When the Toca Tea Party app was ready we had a tea part with Peter Rabbit as it has three spots. We got through one tea party, but then his iPad restarted at the dish washing part.

I made him a spinach pancake for breakfast. Then he requested a strawberry smoothie, so I made a fresh strawberry smoothie. He entertained himself by setting a bunch of alarms throughout the day on my phone. I let a few go off over the next few hours before turning the rest off.

We read The Sisters and a big storm blew in. He pretended the thunder was monsters and was blasting them. He saw a face and said “Why’s that face lying down?” It was a sad face. We finished reading The Sisters, then he played the recorder. We then Skyped with my parents and heard about their trip to Everett and played piano.

After Skype, the number 14 came up for some reason. August told me “You can’t love that number. I do. Only one of us can love something.” But a minute later he changed his mind and said “You can love that number.” We played with the Lego cars, then he drew words and art on the chalkboard. Back to Tea Party for a tea party with Horsey and Marshy. We then played recorder and drum and comb together. We read the Lulu Witch book, then he sang from the songbook. Made up songs, but he wanted me to sing”Zip-a-dee-doo-da” and he really liked it so he ended up learning the words. We went upstairs and he watched Sarah and Duck and I took a shower.

Then gave him his bath and the power went out. The downstairs neighbor texted, asking if I could check his electrical box. Told him I was pretty sure the whole neighborhood was out, but we’d check the box when we were down with August’s bath.

We finished up and went down and out the front door. Actually, I did at first, and August, who had only put on pants, yelled at me to close the door. Later, I realized the heater was turned up to 30. He said he had done it because I was letting the cold air in. August came out with me so he could flip a circuit breaker for fun, and we watched the wind. It had blown over our bookshelves but they had luckily caught on the fence so little damage. The rain and wind though stripped some of the paint off.

Back inside August started making a big pile of stuff that he said was for the cars to drive down. It just kept getting bigger though, and he sang “Zip-a-dee-doo-da” as he built.

In the kitchen he found a bottle of soda water and asked “Is that the kind of drink that turns me into a bubble? The more I drink, the bigger I get! Until I pop! Then have to be a NEW bubble!” We put it in the refrigerator for later.

He went to his chalkboard and told me “Dada, I’m gonna make a piece of art!” He would tell me when he was done and ask me to take a photo. He added to the pile, then we ate pizza for lunch. I had cut mushrooms to put on a frozen pizza. He didn’t eat much of it. We were listening to music and he requested our New Year playlist. He then asked to listen to something that I love. But that was a new song. At some point we flipped to YouTube for something and he wanted to watch the orchestra version of Frozen that we’ve seen before. As he sat there watching it he said “I will NEVER be in an orchestra.” Wouldn’t explain why.

He wanted to play the Very Hungry Caterpillar apps but soon switched to Earth Primer. He had that on my iPad and I was doing Hebrew on my phone and we kept helping each other out. He would ask me to read what it said on his screen, etc. It was some good learning and tea time. We ended up playing the head pushing game, which he wins, so then I won the kissing game. I told him he could win the kissing game if he just kissed my cheek once. So he did, but then said “I don’t ACTUALLY kiss.”

He was eating more strawberries and crackers and kept eating and eating. I asked where it was all going. He was getting silly and said of his stomach, as he held up a book, “It’s about the size of this book.” He did some more chalk art, then took photos of me to be blurry. We were talking about going on a walk. Earlier in the day I had looked at the forecast and said it would rain until mama got home. Now he asked, as there was sun outside “Were the people that control the weather wrong?”

We went for a walk at 3:20. He said “It will be a Zinnie walk!” And it was, as he steered us basically the entire time. I realized there’s been a progression of Zinnie walks: first he just pointed the direction, then he could tell me the directions, and now he can steer himself.

Up by the pine tree park it started to rain and we ducked right under a bush that was hanging out. It was perfect, as it then poured for a minute. While there we got to see a nice big rainbow. We kept going up to town and he really liked the downspouts on the mall/grocery store building. I started to turn us around, but then he said there was actually something he wanted to see in town. So we turned back and kept going. We turned left and walked towards the hardware store. We were following the river of water that was flowing all the way down towards the grocery store. At about the hardware store we could see where a stream was coming down from in town, through the dirt, and across the road to join it.

It was good timing after he had just been looking at runoff, infiltration, and erosion in Earth Primer. We talked about those, and we also saw oil on the water, so talked about pollution and how streets, etc. increase runoff. We kept following the water, then down the street at the other end (where we’d followed construction water before) and we followed some more runoff down the hill towards home.

August was singing Ants go Marching and got to 33. For most of the numbers the ant was building things, like “stops to build an address” or “build a post” etc. He then stopped, then jumped to 91 and sang to 97. We walked over to the big drainage area from Kibuts Galuyot towards the bridge to the mall. There was a good amount of water running, and it was from the street, down the ditch and through the pipe to the sides of the highway. August said “Mystery solved!”

We were home at 4:25. Carly had been home for a bit. They opened the presents from Vivian and Colin: a poop fidget spinner, a piece of art from Vivian, and a shirt for Carly.

He got on his nursing mittens. He went to the bathroom and said “And besides! I don’t even need my stool anymore.” He’s obviously grown, as we got a stool for the downstairs bathroom for him, but now he doesn’t need it to wash his hands and can even turn the water on on his own.

He had more smoothie then went to the chalkboard. He’d asked me to draw something earlier and it ended up being triangles with numbers in them: “After I erase this number thing I will make the last picture of the day. That you can take a picture of.” He drew something and was doing made-up letters: “This is a weird alien words…accented pofingo…”

He wanted to play Tea Party but wouldn’t let Carly play. He then ended up in the Hangeul app – I think because when skyping he had been typing in Korean and gramma asked him if he could read it and he said he didn’t remember
. He was doing the musicians names, etc. that I used to not like and I didn’t mind now, since he was just practicing to remember the letters. He asked “Can it still matter? Could you still not like that?”

He was hungry, but rejected all of our food ideas, including the spinach pancakes. Then I thought of jam. Pancakes with jam did it. I made a second one for him and he got a bit demanding: “Dada, why’s my pancake taking so long? You should cook it faster.” “You forget-ed a fork. That’s gonna make you go to jail.”

Back on the couch he found the princess story maker app and we made a couple of pretty good videos. We read more of Magic Treehouse #14. August remembered the soda water and asked “Can I have some of that drink that turns me into a bubble?”

After that Carly took him upstairs to get ready and they did Drops. I asked him what he was going to dream about and he said “Bad dreams, rainbows, rain…and thunder!” I left them at 7:20.

Got to watch this one to the end: 

Looking too much like Emperor Palpatine:

His photo of me being blurry: 

Holding the umbrella as we watch the rainbow: 

Watching the water flow from downtown: 

Merry Poopmas from Vivian: 

I was woken a couple minutes before 6 by someone poking my face. When I came down they had finished nursing and he just sat on the floor, his back to the couch, for a few minutes. He then asked me to read The Magic Treehouse #13: Vacation Under the Volcano. We read a few chapters.

Carly left for work and we started to play a round of Toca Store. He sat and lay on the rug for several minutes. Then he threw up. He didn’t get upset. And in a small voice he said “I’m fine. I’m okay.” He then calmly sat on the couch with me. He threw up again at 7:25. The first time he was on the rug, but every time after that he made it to the hard floor. A very considerate thrower-upper. We finished reading Vacation Under the Volcano as we lay on the floor. He barely said anything during the morning. He spoke up about 8 when I mentioned crackers: “You mean those boring rectangle ones?” We read Berenstain Bears Stage Fright. He had some water and I took his temperature – 97.2 under his arm at 8:10 (mine 95.1, 96.5 mouth).

He threw up 8:13 for third time. As he was finishing he said, in a sad voice, “This is the worst day…ever.” We read Cam Jansen: The Ghostly Mystery. He threw up a fourth time at 9:10. Sat in my lap after that and wouldn’t answer any questions. He rolled off my lap and lay on the blanket. A couple minutes later, at 9:15, he was asleep on the blanket on the floor. I put the brown blanket on his legs.

The rain started at 9:30. August woke up, crawled to the hard floor and threw up at 9:40 (fifth time), then went back to sleep. I tried putting the brown blanket back on him a couple times but he kept kicking it off. At 10:20 there was a single huge crack of thunder, then the rain was back.

He slept until 12:15. He popped up and I asked how he was and he said “Pretty good!” Then “I’m gonna check if we have any popcorn?…We do! Can we have some popcorn?” “When someone actually gets sick, what can they eat?” He was talking about ten different things at once and a totally different kid. So we made popcorn. As he ate, I cautioned him to go slow. He said “Actually, I’m a caterpillar and I eat a little and drink a little each day.”  As he sat on the couch he very thoughtfully said “I don’t want you to get sick.” He gave a thumbs down, then two: “Thumbs two down.”

We read Berenstain Bears In the Dark, then ate some crackers and veganaise. I had suggested some Gatorade but he had said no. Carly suggested it again in an email so he gave in. He drank all of his Gatorade (mixed with a little water), then a second cup. I also cut up some strawberries and he ate some of those. We read three chapters of The Talented Clementine. At 1:15 he finally went to the bathroom: “I haven’t goes to the bathroom since all night!” He then asked “You notice I’m feeing good now?”

We then ate strawberries and crackers. Sitting on the couch he very randomly said “I hate poop. Well I hate dog poop. Cuz they don’t bury it. But I live cat poop.” We read some more Clementine, then the A Lime, a Mime, a Pool of Slime book about nouns.

He then went and played his piano. More so than ever before he was making up his own rhythms and patterns and attempting to make songs. It was really cool. He was then making up a song and showing me how to play it and teaching me. I’d then play it and he’d get a big grin on his face. He wanted to switch to GarageBand and the keyboard so we took them upstairs. I played Are You Sleeping on it and he made up a song: “This is a different song…Are you sleeping dada?”

I took a shower. While I was in the bathroom he asked for carrots. When I was done (and said he could skip a shower today) we went down and I cut carrots. But now he didn’t want any, and I had noticed he had gone back to sitting/lying on the rug and being quiet. He perked up a bit when he wanted his kaleidoscope and we went on a kaleidoscope hunt. Along the way we went outside to see if it was in his Zinnie shop but it was not. We admired all the flowers we have outside and commented on how they didn’t have flowers at Vivian’s or Gramma and Grampa’s right now. We put together our clues (he really liked having a mystery) and decided that mama had probably put it someplace when cleaning up on Tuesday. So we emailed her and she told us it was in a toy box. We found it and he used that several times through the rest of the day.

His temperature at 3:05 was 98.4. I gave him some Children’s Tylenol which he loved. An amazing breakthrough, as it is the first time he’s ever willingly taken medicine. We read more Clementine. The whole section about shoe shopping, which I found quite funny. The funniest thing we’ve read together, I think. August wanted a break from reading and I mentioned several things. He said “Walk…that’s what I need.”

By the time we got going, a little before 4, I saw Carly walking around the corner. We greeted her, then she went out with us for a walk around the block. Rain was threatening, so we stayed close. Back at the house she went in and we continued up Kibuts Galuyot. Didn’t get far. We saw a small tree blown over, then a branch that had fallen. Just past Holly’s house it started to rain, so we turned around and ran back to the house. Which was okay as he was falling asleep again.

With Carly he Skyped with Cherie. He has figured out how to save images from Google search then send them in Skype. He was sending her windows photos, for some reason. Then bugs, then cartoon pictures of smashed bugs. After that I took his temperature again, at 5:20, and it was up to 98.6. So that wasn’t what I expected. We read more Clementine as Carly made spinach pancake batter. He ate pancakes and then they did Scratch on her computer while I did dishes.

Carly went and took a shower and we read more Clementine, then What Do You Do with an Idea? August sang a little song: “monkey nice bananas…is in Egypt”. We then read Curious Geoege Cleans Up. He started a cracker/strawberry eating pattern. He’d eat one strawberry (cut in halves), then I’d give him one cracker. Repeat.

I got his pajamas on him and Carly took him upstairs at 7:15. He did much better with the toothbrushing today. They played Drops. Carly let him choose the ‘Spa’ and the magic categories. He said he’d dream about “Scary dreams and Drops”. I asked if he really has scary dreams and he said yes. When I asked him to describe one of his scary dreams he said “Monaters chasing me and eating me.” I told him monsters aren’t real – the most real monsters are the stuffed ones like Green Monster and he’s nice. I left them just after 7:30 but he was down at 7:47 (as he told me). We read The Sisters, then Lulu Goes to Witch School (which I bought quite awhile ago but we hadn’t read). Carly then read to him Everyone Poops and Gaston.

They went back up after 8:50 but he was down at 9:20. We finished the Clementine book, then read more of The Sisters. He did more cracker and strawberry. He did some calculator on the iPad, then figured out how to make a really cool piece of art using the Isosceles math app. Then had another cracker and strawberry. I spotted a cat sitting outside by our tree and picked him up to see. I commented on how it could go in the Zinnie shop. He said “I don’t think it wants to buy anything.” I took him up at 10:30 and he went to sleep.

Sick boy: 

Asleep on the floor: 

Still asleep: 

Admiring the flowers: 

Kaleidoscope: 

Fallen tree:

He slept up on the bed between us for awhile during the night. He kept banging around into us and the headboard, but it was nice to have him up there.

Carly got up earlier, setting an alarm, then August was up about 6:50. He and I went down together after he lay on the bed for a few minutes. At one point I had gotten dressed but lay back down. He said “I thought you were going to find mama.” When we went down he asked me what my guess was for where she was. I guessed thecouch. My guess was wrong, as she was coming in from outside.

I went back to bed as I had a bit of a headache. While I rested a bit longer, they organized the kitchen cabinets and she made him oatmeal. I came back down and August asked if we could by Toca Store – he’s seen it on the list of Toca apps a few times but I haven’t bought it for him. He told me “I love stores!” “But not real stores.” He told me that he would really like the app, and I think he even said “I promise!” So we got it. In it, one person sets up a little store with 5 items to sell. The person on the other side then buys things and pays for them. When your purse runs out of coins it is a magic purse and will give you a few more. Usually only once, but sometimes more than once. You only count to five, and there is no giving of change, so I didn’t think it would last us long. But it was the game of the day.

We played a few rounds, then I went and took a shower. When I came back down they were still playing. Carly had already warned him about his bath and he went, if not willingly, only reluctantly. In the bathroom he found the puzzle button thing and sang other songs to tune of Old McDonald. In the bath he talked about all of the toilet paper/paper towel rolls in the bottom drawer. I got one for him and he was a “spy cow”. He then dropped it in the bath. I took it out and it became an experiment to see how and for how long it would dry. He also tried to climb over me to escape his bath early.

I took him downstairs wrapped in his towel. Today he said “crack, crack, crack” and came out of his towel ‘egg’ and flew around the kitchen. We played Toca Store again. He was saying things like “Those are our best sausages! They cost…” He got that from Carly. Carly was cleaning as we played. We then did Drops. A new word came up. It flashed the Hebrew, then the English. With no picture or sound, August read ‘parents’.

Carly was making him a pancake, and I said we could read a book while he waited. He wanted to read a big book, and chose the dinosaur book. He said “Tbat will take longer than the pancake!” We read a little, then he was being a “meomite”. I asked what that ws and he said “A meomite is a tall poisonous plant that reaches 19 millimeters.”

We ate spinach pancakes, then he was making up a song and built something out of pillows. He Asked Carly to get him more pillows from upstairs. She asked what he was building and he said “No, it’s a secret. I’ll tell you when it’s done.” When it was done it turned out to be a cracker machine “It makes every shape of cracker!” He then added himself to the machine, becoming a conveyor belt at the beginning of it as he lay on the stool and put his feet up on the chair. It then turned into an amazing tomato machine “I made a magic sun…dada, do you want to make a dive sided cube tomato? Then put in the ingredients!” Not only that, it could make tomatoes of any shape: cubes, five-sided pyramids, etc.

We were getting ready to leave, and David, our neighbor, was outside the fence. August asked me if he had found his key. August has mentioned David’s missing key every time he’s heard/seen David. So I asked August if he wanted to ask David and he said yes. We went out, and I had August ask him. August asked it nice and loud. David told us he had found it in something in his house. So mystery solved.

We left at 11:50. August was talking about “There’s a key in our key!” I thought August was being silly, but then he asked to see my keys. I got them out and pushed the button to make the physical key come out of our key fob: “See, that’s what I was talking about.”

We drove to the garden center we had once seen in Ein Vered, with pictures of a kangaroo on its signs. It turned out to be bigger than we thought. We walked around to the entrance, and the woman took us to see the fish pond. Carly went off to look at plants and August and I started by trying out a bench and swing. Of the bench he asked “what kind of wood might it be?” We then walked around and looked at wind chimes. There was one kind that would tangle easily so I told him to be careful with that one, then for all of them after that he kept asking if they would tangle.

We went out and saw the trees, and found one with really interesting pink fluffy flowers. Carly got a roll of bird netting to try to keep the cats out of the new vegetable beds and a bag of manure. I took the bag to the car, then I showed August how the gate latch worked and he tried it. We all then walked back through and looked at the slightly neglected sample garden areas.

Carly thought it was going to start raining so we got going. We went and looked for the tractor museum, but the road turned rough and it was supposed to close in a couple minutes at 1. We could park and walk to it sometime. The same with the Parrot Farm to the south, we found.

We drove into town. We stopped at the strawberry stand and Carly got 4 cartons of strawberries for 40 shekels. The prices have come down, and that’s cheaper than the grocery store. We then went to the post office, where Carly mailed a postcard. We walked from there down to the grocery store. August was impatient for more “chocolate bar” and Carly ended up taking him out and I finished the shopping.

We were home after 2:30. He was obsessed with the Toca Store game, but I made a deal that we would play a round, then read a book chapter. We read a chapter of Polar Bears Past Bedtime, then played Toca Store. Then the first chapter of Clementine. More store. Then we finished Polar Bears Past Bedtime.

He and Carly then played the gas station game, which is just a him and Carly game (I asked to play it once, and he said no, it was just for mama). In it, the spaceship is the gas station and his two Lego cars race around and need gas and go and fill up. When he had them fill up he said “Dispense, dispense, dispense”. I think we were both surprised by that one.

We then started reading Magic Treehouse #13: Vacation under the Volcano. Carly had cooked an artichoke and they ate it together. He decided “I love artichoke!” He then typed on my iPad. He was typing and copying and pasting and testing autocorrect. He’d type a few letters and see what it turned into.

I made a fresh strawberry smoothie and we all drank that. Carly had put the netting up and spread the fertilizer. We did Drops and he was choosing different categories, but ones I agreed to. Carly had been talking about going to do recycling and I said we should go now. He asked “Can I go to the bathroom first?” Carly then said that she’d take him. He said “Dada, can I go with you? You’re the best person ever.” When Carly insisted she wanted to go, he said “No. You’ll mess up the garbage…cardboard in the plastic, plastic in the cardboard. Glass in the bags, bags in the glass.” He had used what I’d been saying earlier to explain why he should go help mama do recycling since she hasn’t done it too much.

But when it came time to walk out the door he was fine with Carly going with him. He sat on his orange bike only to find out the seat is still wet. They changed his pants and put a towel down. They did recycling and were then gone for quite awhile. I was correct in guessing that they had gone to the park and played store. I asked what he had bought and he said “lots of things”. One thing was apparently pink shoes. They were back at 6:25. He came in and asked “Dada? Do you want to make some
crackers?” We then fixed the roof of his cracker warehouse (earlier, he had jumped into the middle of his machine and I said he had jumped on the crackers. He claimed there was a roof – now, he said there were some cracks in it).

He wanted to continue the reading/Toca Store pattern. He chose A De Activista first and we read most of that. Then Toca Store. He then nursed. Carly noted it wasthe first time he’d nursed since the morning. I said “You’re a big kid” He said “Uh-uh”. We then finished reading The Sisters. He was hungry and Carly had made him the last spinach pancake. He was still hungry so we had some banana bread.

Carly took him upstairs and I straightened up. He had been reluctant to go upstairs until I had suggested he could help mama with Hebrew again. I went up and suggested he dream about Hebrew words. He said “Bad dreams…and Hebrew words.” I left them at 7:45.

Nursery: 

Artichoke: 

August was up first. After a few minutes he said “Time to get up!” He and I headed downstairs at 6:57, leaving Carly in bed for awhile. We read part of Read Polar Bears Past Bedtime. He requested Cheerios, no strawberries. We then did some Wizard School and he watched part of Storybots Christmas while I made smoothie. Watched a little more while he drank smoothie. He stopped the episode when he was done drinking. He and I took care of the animals. I had him say “Happy New Year!” to Carly. He then said “I HATE Happy New Years.”

Carly made spinach pancakes. I had to take him upstairs. He calmed down and stood on his stool while Carly started cooking them: “Yeah, but it looks like green throw up!” He played on the iPad a bit and I took a shower. I then took him up for his bath and was able to wash his hair without too much trouble. We watched Arabic alphabet videos, then he played with toys for quite awhile before I washed his hair. Carly had gone out for a wog.

We went downstairs at 11:15. He was hiding in the towel and Carly pretended he was missing. He called this the “Towel trick” and wanted to do it over and over. He then got off the couch: “Follow. Follow me, mama.” He started drawing on the chalkboard and said “Nothing happening here.” He drew letters. Carly went up to take a shower. He drew H2O on the board, then made boxes and lines around it. He then made up a new song on the piano and wanted me to hear it.

He was even more excited when he found the Amelia Bedilia Christmas book. He had mentioned it a couple days ago, in the car or somewhere, and I had doubted its existence. He got so excited. He remembered my doubt and was now telling me it was real. We have never read it before. We read it and he set it on top of the book shelves so we could read it later.

I had gotten him some lasagna, and when he went to the table he looked and said “Oh dear, no fork.” I got him a fork. He was then writing on the chalkboard and wanted words to write. But he only wanted to write the first letter so it “stands for” the words “because its easier”. Carly tricked him into writing ‘water’ on the chalkboard by having him write letters for 5 different words. He and Carly then played with the Lego cars and alien, starting the gas station game.

Carly went upstairs to do some work, and he and I played with Cubetto, playing through Cubetto’s First Day and Cubetto and August’s Camping Adeventure. He then went and checked on the animals. Peter Rabbit was better, so August wanted to take of the bandage. This proved difficult though due to Peter Rabbit’s fuzzy fur. It took me awhile to get it, and August was stressed about how it could ruin Peter Rabbit. When I got it off he said “NEVER put bandages on Peter Rabbit again.” He also listened to his own heart.

It had been raining pretty well but seemed to have lightened, so August and I got ready to go for a walk. He suggested the big stroller and climbed right in and waited for me. I went up and got the brown blanket and tucked it around him. We wandered around, this way and that, discussing where we might find some cover. The sun covers over the playgrounds provide some over, but aren’t designed to be waterproof, and after they are soaked it just drips through. We ended up at Tal Garden. No cover, as August had assured me would be the case, but the rain had stopped, so we paused and had a little snack.

We then got walking again and crossed back over and went up to the dead end of Kibuts Galuyot and back. I was singing Sesame Street songs and he got quiet. He was getting tired, and then pretending to sleep, but then actually getting close to falling asleep by the time we got back, about 2:40.

Inside they nursed, then he went outside with her, then came in for his kaleidoscope. He was looking at things, saying “Whoa, whoa, whoa…”

She then headed back upstairs to work and he and I made banana bread. To keep himself occupied he made a sculpture/machine out of all of the measuring cups and spoons and lids that were about.  He watched some Timmy Time while I cleaned up, then helped me with Hebrew in Memrise. He then surprised me by straightaway spelling some words in Hebrew in Drops. We were starting to learn ordinal numbers in Hebrew, and he recited English ordinal numbers up into the 30s.

The banana bread was done and I took it out. It slid out of the pan and he said “Ooh, that came out pretty easy!” While we waited for it to cool he gave me a checkup with the doctor kit. We then ate banana bread and he played with some music apps.

Carly came down and they Skyped with Vivian. Last day they can do that for a few, at least, as she goes back to school tomorrow. Carly hadn’t eaten her cookie yesterday, so there was actually one left from our Christmas batch and she let August eat it, with plenty of milk. He then showed his Lego cars to Vivian and Colin and was playing with them. Chuck and Cherie called in as a group call, but that splits the screen in half. Normally, August hates this as he gets into it with himself on one side and Vivian on the other. He hands up and calls her back as we haven’t figured out how to get out of it. So even though this was a different situation it looked the same, and he didn’t like it: “Go away, split screen!”

He was ready for bed. We went upstairs. We had gotten Drops installed on Carly’s phone, and they sat in bed for several minutes and he helped her with using Drops and learning Hebrew. Very fun to see. He also made up a song about making mistakes, and I got that on video. So cute.

As I went to say good night he first said “Happy New year” to me. I asked what he would dream about this year and he said “Numbers, Christmas lights, presents…” And then paused just long enough for us to think he was done before adding “and scary dreams!” I left them before 8:10.

Pretending to sleep: 

We were all up and out of bed a little after 7. August and Carly played a big game of ‘Where’s Carly’s phone’ while still in bed, and August was really laughing: “Maybe it’s a mystery!” After we were up, August helped me make the beds, helping to spread out the sheets. I asked him to put Carly’s pillow up on the big bed and he said “But, mama sleeps with me.” Downstairs he and I took care of Marshy, giving him a lot of shots and filling three cavities. August gave Carly a shot and she said it was her flu shot. He asked “Are there a lot of birds around‽” Bird flu has left quite an impression on the boy. He then went off and went to the bathroom on his own, which he has been doing more and more of.

Carly went outside and he played Itsy Bitsy Spider and Park Math while I made us toast. On the sorting activities he was sorting from right to left – he was also trying to read numbers from right to left the other day. We got a banana to eat and he ate one bite and said he was done. I tried it and it was another bad banana – no flavor. He ate some strawberry and earned some more toast and jam. He then played with the doctor stuff on his own – emptying it or and carrying things back and forth in the pet carrier. He made a pile of pillows and said “This is a pile of comfy things.” We were listening to our playlist of New Year songs. He then started cleaning up: “That’s not right” and he carried Carly’s water bottle to her. “That’s not right” and he returned a book to the shelves. He then walked around using his kaleidoscope to look at everything. I waltzed with him to Tom Waits’ “New Year’s Eve”.

He was hungry so I got him his leftover mushrooms and teriyaki sauce. He was still hungry, so I made him more. When he ate them all he said “You ate all those mushrooms!” he replied “I don’t need any more! Thank you!” We sat and finished Magic Treehouse #11: Lions at Lunchtime. Carly was in the kitchen making lasagne and he ‘stole’ lasagna noodles from Carly. He was then using the tongs to pick up the extra bits of lasagna noodles.

I went and took a shower, then came down to take him to his bath. He had a meltdown though when I tried to give him a bath. I let him go to Carly and a few minutes later she was able to succeed in getting him into the bath. When he came down he came and sat right next to me on the couch and said “Not so good” before I said anything.

He and I then got ready and took his orange bike up to the park. He wanted to play store. He said his web was plain and he needed things for it. And he told me he was the shopkeeper. Upstairs was the household goods, and downstairs was groceries. He bought 5 pink pillows, a pink rug, and pink juice. He asked “Is there a sweets and goodies sction?” The swinging seat thing in there was our scale for the dry goods section, and he bought things like flies and ticks. After one transaction he said “Nice doing business with you.” Back upstairs I suggested he buy art for his web. He got one piece of art and said “I want this art. It’s a picture of a child eating too much chocolate and throwing up.”

Before we left we went and were swinging in his web for a few minutes, relaxing, and he did a funny video. We were home by 12:15.

Carly got ready to go and they left at 12:40, leaving me behind to have some work time. I started by hassling the car company about the reimbursement they still haven’t deposited into our account, then sent an email to a law firm to ask questions about my work status. Then I started working on some Sabeel stuff.

They were home about an hour later, having first gone to the plant store. They mainly stayed outside and planted seeds. They planted tons of veggies: broccoli, lettuce, carrots. They planted some in pots, and a little lettuce in the corner of the kitchen planter, but mainly turned some of the empty space between the papaya plants into beds. And they got a couple of pots and flower plants. August had been cute, picking up different plants at the shop and bringing them to Carly “How about this one?” Carly picked out one of the plants and August picked out the other.

They then headed to Netanya Beach, the one right in downtown.They played down on the beach but it was quite windy. They went to the same cafe we’d gone to before, Rhythm Bar and Store, and got a ‘Summer’ smoothie and a tomato and olive pizza. They were home at 5:35.

August then Skyped with Vivian. She showed him her hula hoop and he said “Actually, we’ve done hula hoops in activity class.” August was wearing his space shirt and Vivian recognized it as one that Cherie had given him while he was in Pennsylvania. August was playing with his alien and spaceship. Vivian had some sort of spaceship as well and said “Its a real one. It’s an actual alien spaceship.” They then made competing nests out of pillows. He then had a cookie: “Look at this cookie! It’s so big! Yeah, it’s soooo good.” They were the last cookies from our Christmas batch.

He was then watching the Hebrew Color Team videos and sent the links to Vivian. I got a call back from the lawyer, basically with all good news about my Visa and being able to work and not having to worry about Amendment 27.

When I came back down he was having fun pulling books off the shelves. He went outside with Carly and did a little Zinnie house. Back inside he told me about Netanya: “We had too much fun!” I had told him before they left that they couldn’t have too much fun. He said they made a moat but “We didn’t get water for it though…We just didn’t want to.” I had hummed the Addams Family theme song at some point and he was now humming it and asking about words. So we watched a couple different versions of it on YouTube. We then took care of the zebra and other animals. He tried on my shoes at one point.

We read a few chapters of Magic Treehouse #12: Polar Bears Past Bedtime . Just past 8 Carly took him up and started getting him ready. I did some clean up then headed up to say goodnight. I suggested he dream about polar bears. He said “Bad dreams…polar bears and bad dreams.” I left them at 8:15 and he fell asleep quickly.

Noodle: 

On the ‘scale’: 

Thumbs down: 

Thumbs up: 

Skyping with Vivian face: 

Wearing my shoes: