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He woke up about 6:45 and we all got up about 7, although I’m the slowest dragging myself out of bed. He was watching Wanda and the Alien, which he hasn’t watched for weeks. I did a little Sabeel work. He paused and nursed, then he and I watched Hebrew color and Arabic letter videos. I then let him play a few minutes of Monster Kitchen while I got some breakfast. I got a call from Omar with not-so-good news: the board doesn’t want to offer me an hourly salary for the work, and instead wants a lump sum, and it isn’t all that large. Still might do some work for them.

Downstairs, August played on the piano and said “I played a new thing on my piano!…You like it?” He then did dot painting with Carly: “It has two stingers. It’s an alien jellyfish, you know.” He ate oatmeal and mango for breakfast, then I went up to take a shower. When I came down they were using the doctor stuff and taking care of the animals. They had saved Monkey Nice Bananas with a couple of heart surgeries. And also some cuts: “He ran into a fence!” They were currently taking care of. Peter Rabbit and listening to his heart: “It’s gonna be cold.” “It’s okay Peter, were gonna give you a shot.”

I gave him his bath. He was in robot mode: “I use high temperatures to destroy robots and stuff.” After his bath he asked me: “Are you like alien and us…and me?…you need to put on rockets and special equipment and stuff.” Then downstairs he asked Carly “Do you want to be like us, dada, and alien?” He then showed Carly how to fly around the room:”But use high speed” runs around “Now you try…do you need to practice more?” “It would be easier if you shot fire out of your hands like me.”

We got going to Tiv Taam. We drove over, but once there Carly went in first and he convinced me to let him play in the car. He was the driver: “Those are the two babies and we’re taking care of them…because we’re adults…which direction?…We’re off the highway so I’m giving you control…Okay, we’re at the place were going. Roll up your windows or I’ll do it. They’re not doing it for quite awhile.” So then he rolled them up. We were also spotting and counting cats from the car.

We got home at 12:15 to put away groceries. He picked up the doctor stuff with spaceship while humming the Moby song “Almost Love”, which had been playing in the car. They nursed. I saw the port that Carly had found at the store and said “Nicely done, girl”. August was repeating me, saying “Haha. Nicely done girl.”

We got going again, this time to Old Tel Aviv. As we left he said “I hope when we get back Monkey Nice Bananas will feel more better!” We read the entire Kipper Collection book on the way down. We parked along the river and were walking by 1:30. We stopped by the little park next to where Airport Megan lives – we knew she lived in the area, but stumbled upon the specific spot by accident as Carly and I both remembered it from waiting in the van after we were picked up at the airport. He went down the little slide, then had me taking burst photos of him as he rocked on a toy. We were walking again before 2. He was really lounging back in the small stroller.

We kept asking if he wanted a sweatshirt. He said “I blinked; that means no.” He finally accepted a sweatshirt late into our meal. He wanted another park, so we were going to walk over to Independence Park first, but as we walked through the Old Tel Aviv core he said “I Chang-ed mind.” about going to the park first. So we walked down to the same restaurant we had eaten at the last time we were in Tel Aviv: Halevantini. And we got the same lamb kebab and roasted cauliflower. August got orange juice instead of grape, and I got an espresso this time. And we sat outside. When we ordered the waiter confirmed how many coffees and orange juices. August tried ordering extra. He kept telling the waiter “Two orange juices!” We had a lovely feast, and left at 3:10.

August was then a butterfly, then a ladybug, as we walked over to the park. He said he was a ladybug, not a ladybird, so I said he must be American. He said “Yeah, I come from American.” We then talked about what that means.

We walked down to the beach. He took off his shoes and asked “Can you make sure nobody steals them?” He made tracks in the sand, trying to push the stroller, then headed to Carly on the beach. As he ran he tripped and fell. He lay there for a few seconds, then said “It didn’t hurt!” He then made a game of running around the beach and falling down. He and Carly then made ‘shwarmeepa’, goddess of the aliens out of sand and Carly told us about how she learned about human sacrifices by playing in the sand when she was 5. They destroyed that one, then we scooted back as the tide was coming in and made another one. They then went wading in the water (I had my shoes and did feel like the hassle, and I was doing language study on my phone) and he would take wet sand (the quicksand) up and drop it on the dry sand and mix it in.

We got walking, and headed north along the waterfront. Stopped at a bathroom and he went in with me. There was then a spot where the waves were crashing up on the boardwalk. We watched that, then August went over to the bike and found one of Carly’s opened granola bars with chocolate and ate the remaining pieces. As we got walking she let him have the crumbs in it. He said “I’ll hold that. I know what I’m doing.”

As we walked across the west bridge across the Yarkon River he started singing London Bridge. As we kept walking I realized he was singing my verses. I end with the guard drinking tea. He kept adding verses: “What if he doesn’t like tea either? Tea either? Tea either?” And finally “This is the last verse of this song, of this song, of this song.” I told him I liked his verses, and he told me he had added one earlier as well: “Glue and sticky glue stick”

We got to our car and left about 5:15. In the car he had rainbows coming out of our noses, from 91-Story Treehouse (or one of them). His rainbow, he said, stretched all the way to our house. He told Carly “Follow my rainbow, mama!”

We were home at 5:45. I told August I felt a little icky. He asked “Can I feel you?” They Skyped with Vivian, then Carly skyped with Glecy and he and I did Wizard School. I sent him a couple of bird pictures. We then got cookies and milk and he skyped with Vivian again. Vivian was staring intently at the screen and Carly asked if she was watching a video. She said “No, I’m not watching a video. YOU’RE the video.” Soon after that Skype stopped working on their end. August and I went and took care of the horse, who was sick and also had a bad cut.

Carly took him upstairs. I went upstairs and hid under the covers while he was on the toilet. They had a thoroughly Carly and August discussion about the toilets diet. Then had fun ‘scaring’ August when he was in the room. Brushed his teeth and I suggested he dream about beaches. He said “Beaches…and monsters attacking me and eating me. Bad dreams, you know. I always say that.” Left them 8:15.

Taking care of Peter Rabbit: 

Monkey Nice Bananas after surgery: 

From Wizard School: 

Tel Aviv. Lounging:

Rocking: 

At lunch: 

To the beach: 

Shadow: 

Cleaning his shoes: 

Watching the waves: 

He slept until just past 7. They got up a little later, then me. I came down as Carly was dragging the now painted swingset back onto the lawn. I helped pick up the plastic, and Carly found a spot where paint had leaked to the patio. August looked at it and said “Shmuel won’t be happy about that.” Carly started scrubbing it and August climbed on her back. I tried to distract him as she did it, then went inside with him and he wanted to look at the forecast. We then did Drops, which was fine for awhile. But he kept wanting to jump categories and do things like the ‘Jail’ category. When I said we needed to agree on a category he refused and got really upset when I turned the phone off: “Mama! Mama!” She came in and spent some time with him.

Carly wanted to go back outside and asked August to open his Zinnie store. He said he would when it was sunny, saying he had closed at 10:30, but would open again at 10:57. He went reluctantly, but went out with her and opened his shop.

He came in and said “We picked two carrots! I ate the carrots and I ate the greens, too!” He wanted to play Toca Robot Lab, but then wanted a different Toca app and I downloaded the free Toca Monster Kitchen. I went up to take a shower. When I came down he was eating popcorn and had been watching Planet Earth, although I don’t think he watched much. I asked Carly which came first, and it was the popcorn. He then played some Toca Blocks while we were getting ready to leave.

We left before 10:30. On the way down we finished reading Fortunately, the Milk. He had me skip some in the middle, sowe might go back and revisit it. I think I found the book funnier than him.

He was totally fine on the way down, until we got to the gate. Carly had to pay, and it was taking a few minutes. He had a meltdown while I kept him away from her so she could do that. But, now we have a year-long pass to the national parks and plan to make good use of it.

We first drove over to the bell caves – ancient limestone quarries. We started out there at noon. Stopped at the bathroom and got walking. August was really into the map and the different colored paths (wheelchair path and not). When we approached the caves I was carrying him and he said “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Can we go in there?” He was very intrigued as we walked around the caves, but also kind of scared, and wanted to be carried the whole time. Got him to stand and admire one of the caves for a minute, then to walk up some stairs on his own.

Back outside we continued walking around the bell caves area. He liked the area, but admitted that he was a bit scared and kept wanting to be carried. He also really liked the arrow markers that showed us which way to go. We stopped at a bench for a snack and ate some of our sandwiches, then got walking again. And he helped take some photos along the way. We were back to the bathrooms at 1:15. We ate an orange and he played with the buckets covering posts they were installing.

We then got in the car and drove to the parking lot at the south end of the park. We first went in the Sidian burial cave. August quite liked that as well, but wanted to be held the entire time. Then when they were walking out and I was still in the cave he was concerned that I come out as well. He didn’t want to leave me behind.

We then walked the half kilometer trail out to the remains of St. Anne’s church. August did some walking now. He liked standing on some rocks and being taller than us. We found a good chunk of limestone and had fun breaking it apart. He had a stick he called his wizard stick, then was using it as a walking stick. But after he fell a couple times walking down a hill he abandoned it. Along the way a park ranger over on the road yelled over to us to remind us the park closed at 3. It was getting close to 2:30.

We got out to the church and stayed there for a few minutes, then headed back. August spotted his stick on the way back and at first decided he wanted to take it home. But as we got to the parking lot he told Carly she could drop it. He was quite worried about how much time we had left and kept asking.

We briefly looked at the caves by the gift shop area but they were closed. We stopped at the bathrooms and he went in with me. We then went in the gift shop and I bought the three guide things they had in English: Birds of Israel, Bird Migration, and Reptiles and Amphibians.

We left at 2:50. He played iPad games, then we finished reading Magic Treehouse #32 (the Ice Wizard one). We got home at 4:10. He nursed, then ate two spinach pancakes that Carly cooked for him. He then asked for one more and I cooked one for him. Played some Wizard School, then we did Drops. He said “I think I chang-ed my mind.” He wanted a fourth pancake.

They then Skyped with Cherie and Chuck. She played the harmonium (old one) for him. And he played played piano for them: Yankee Doodle, the Arabic song, his arpeggios. He had a nice competition with Cherie, first typing big numbers, then small numbers: “Mine is bigger than yours!” “I don’t know, but it’s somewhere in negatives!” She was talking to him about his new bed on the floor, and asked when he’d sleep on his own. He said “Actually, I’ll never do that.”

After the Skype call he and I read more of The Sisters. He and I then Skyped with my parents. He hung up on them a couple times. They were leaving later in the day to head to Lake Stevens, and will be back Monday. August hung up on them a couple times. He really wanted to Skype with Vivian but she wasn’t online today. He was doing some big typing things with my parents though.

Carly then took him upstairs. He said he didn’t like the caves but thought the park was pretty cool. I asked if it was because the caves were kind of scary. He slouched his head and said”Yeah”. I told him to dream about caves and he said “caves and scary dreams.” He was asleep about 7:40.

Bell caves: 

Burial cave: 

Being taller than us: 

Limestone: 

The church and path: 

Reading the bird guide: 

He was up just before 7. Came downstairs and played Sarah and Duck Sleepover. Carly made him oatmeal and mango. He ate that, then he and I played more with the Lego set, putting together the police car. He was having fun putting the tires on all his fingers. Carly was doing yard work and was doing to take the yard waste across the street so he went to do it with her.

He came inside and we were looking at playlists in Apple Music and he said he wanted to make a new playlist. We added songs to a New Year’s playlist and he helped with that. We then went and put together the other car and other items from the Lego set, then started playing with both the cars. He had them racing, but the losing car had to go to car jail, which seemed harsh: “One minute. That’s good! Cuz one minutes long, but it’s not THAT long.” We shared some toast, then he told me “Dada, you broke a bad rule. You stole the chemicals in there that make me disappear.”

While playing with the Lego cars he found a little extra red piece stuck inside the frame of one of the cars. Got it out with a screwdriver. The set only called for one such piece, so August got an extra. Meanwhile, Carly was out working on the swing: finish sanding and starting to spray paint it. Inside, a car tried to escape from jail and August gave it a 19 second penalty. I explained good behavior and it got out early a few minutes later. The cars were then being invisible because of his chemicals, but playing a chord on his piano made them visible again.

We went and did a little Drops, then back to the cars. We discussed the movie. When he heard the name he wasn’t impressed, and seemed skeptical that it was any good: “It’s just called Cars?…Is it an exciting show?” One of us made his alien squeak, and we decided it was sneezing. August decided it was allergic to Legos.

I sat in the chair with the fabric over it, and August got in it behind me and played there with the alien for several minutes. I then went up and took a shower. When I came down Carly was making spinach Swedish pancakes and I got August upstairs pretty easily as she was about to use the blender. An easy bath, then back downstairs to eat spinach pancakes. He had two, then requested peanut butter on a spoon. He had several spoonfuls, and still likes to see the peanut butter as you scoop it up.

I was then trying to catch him to put his shirt on and he was running away. Thus started a game of ‘slow dada’ with me moving in slow motion. Lasted awhile. Finally, he played outside for a few minutes (teeter totter, etc.) before we left at 12:10. We’d been talking about how we were going to let mama have some work time (she has to work on National Boards renewal), but he tried to convince her to come with us.

We drove to Tamnoon Beach, which is the beach entry north of the main one in downtown Netanya. We were listening to Moby and the Void Pacific Choir remixes on the way – very sort of trance-y stuff. August asked why the song was doing the same note again and again, then called it an interesting song and requested it added to his playlist. It was the Moby Remix of Are You Lost in the World Like Me? He added another one to his playlist later. I was afraid he was going to fall asleep, because after he talked about that song he just sat there, silent, for the next 20+ minutes (in a trance). Finally, as we went through downtown Netanya he said “Can’t be much longer.”

Parked at 12:45 at the playground north of the beach entrance. There were some concrete animal statues and August immediately ran and started climbing on them. They were talking to him, and each time he ran to another one he would tell me to have it say something. The alligator was trying to eat him, the turtle had been lonely, etc. After 10 minutes or so we went to the playground. He spent almost the whole time climbing up on the play structure then sliding down the spiral slide. But each time he would tell me to wait at the bottom for him, then comment on how he was taller than me. Did that maybe a dozen times.

We got walking sometime after 1. He did a pretty good job of walking on the way down to the beach. He spotted a cat, then another. By the time we got down to the beach we counted 16. We decided to call this one Cat Beach for future reference. When I did carry him a bit, he said he was a machine pumping oil, and talked about the factories that were using his oil and what they were building. He did all of the stairs down on his own though, and there were a lot of stairs. He figured out he could skip two stairs at a time by hanging on the railing and stretching as much as he could. When we got to 16 cats he said “16 cats. That’s quite a lot.”

We made it to the beach, walked a bit south, and chose a perfect spot for a moat. We started by opening the cup set we had bought at Ikea. August really liked that, and the different patterns we could make with their bumpy edges in the sand. When I asked what shape he wanted for the moat this time he said “Right-angle trapezoid”. So we made a right angle trapezoid. I was making little towers with the sand I was scooping out and August wanted to make towers with the cups too, but was having trouble getting it down. He had me bring water up in the bucket once, but that was enough.

A little before 2 we decided to pause for a snack. August decided to destroy our moat and castle at that point. He used the hammer and rake and his feet, mainly. He then wanted to move up to drier sand and he chose a spot under a cover. There, he got down how to make the towers and made several.

We got leaving around 2:30. We paused to brush off sand and put my shoes on and kept counting cats – we were over 30, including a black kitten. August was back to talking about oil machines and factories: “Dada, can you be a bench-making factory?” He asked me to look at his cat counting gauge and I said I thought he was an oil pump. He replied “No, I’m an oil pumper but that’s how they designed me…Can you see my cat counter?”

We headed back. I carried him most of the way up the stairs but got him to do some walking to the car. Got there at 2:50. We drove to the complex with Ace Hardware and first went in to use the bathroom. August then rode the little merry-go-round and decided he was on the best horse, so we made sure we could tell which one it was next time. We went up the escalators and quickly looked at the bean bag chair store. Then realized there was a big babies/kids store up there as well. August played in the little baby play pen there with the baby toys, then back out in the mall wanted to get in the small kids play area. He crawled around on the foamy objects like the two small kids that were there.

We headed to Ace and I had to stop August from going into the couch stores as he wanted to try out couches. At Ace we got more spray paint for the swing, one more can for the bookshelves, took a photo of our car vac options, got a couple of hooks, and looked for outdoor chairs. Not the season for it. We paid, then headed home.

Carly met us outside the house at 4:20. We just handed off the paint so she could finish painting the swing. August and I then drove to his activity class. He was worn out from playing on the beach and wasn’t feeling up to class: “I don’t feel like class today.” he kept telling me. At one point I was standing in the corner of the classroom with him and encouraged him to go do one jump. He said “One jump, then we go home”. He went and jumped, then went straight out the door and up the stairs. I brought him back and he spent time playing with the toys. In particular he used a toy cell phone to call people – me, mama, Green Monster, Peter Rabbit, etc. He would tell them he wasn’t doing so good, he wanted to go home, etc.

Then, as he was playing with the phone, he suddenly disappeared into the classroom before I could even get the phone from him. He was in there for the last 15 or 20 minutes solid. I could never really tell what they were doing as th
e drapes were closed and a guy sat right in front of the entrance the whole time. When I asked what they had done he said “all sorts of things”.

We went to the car and drove into town and parked in the parking garage for the downtown grocery store. We went in and got pita and milk and a few other things. On the way out he was looking at a couple signs and wanted to translate them – things like ‘Prohibited’ and ‘On sale’.

We were home at 6:20. He wasn’t in a hurry to go in and wanted to play in the car. We went in and stated eating dinner. He hadn’t eaten much during the day and must have been famished: he had two spinach pancakes, two bowls of mushrooms and teriyaki sauce (I had to go cook him a second bowl), some pita, and part of an orange (in the grocery store he had seen some small oranges and got really excited about getting them).

He was then doing some time traveling and told me “You can do anything! You’re a time-traveling basket!” He remembered the chocolate chip cookies (he had seen cookies at the store and I reminded him he could have one at home). He ate a big cookie and drank a good amount of milk.

Then skyped with Vivian and family. Cassie sad everyone was super. August: “I’m super!” They played peekaboo and August and Vivian did a lot of typing back and forth.

He was fefinitely tired as we took him up close to 8. Carly’s got him doing a pretty good job of brushing his teeth by himself again. I said good night and he said “I’m gonna dream about BAD DREAMS.” I suggested moats and he said “Moats and bad dreams.” He’s been sleeping without socks but I asked if he wanted socks tonight. He said yes, but then when Carly put them on he took them off. Carly now asked if he wanted his socks on. He replied “Not even a blanket.” She said “Okay, crazy boy.” Him: “Okay, crazy mama.” I left them by 8:15. He was asleep soon after.

Tire bandages: 

Playing in the chair: 

Playground: 

Pretending to sleep down the slide: 

Beach: 

Merry-go-round: 

Recognizing Paddington: 

Buying paint: 

Class: 

He was up a little before 7. I heard him singing the Hebrew colors song downstairs. So when I came down and Carly was getting oatmeal for him I asked if he’d watched it recently. He then asked to watch it while he ate. Watched it several times, then we continued on to Arabic alphabet songs. We were watching one of his favorites and Carly, who was getting ready to sand the swings outside, realized it was the song he plays on the piano. I asked August if it was, and he said yes. He then went to the piano to confirm it, then said “So it wasn’t any app!” So Carly was correct, as she thought it was a Hebrew or Arabic thing.

We did Drops, although he found the word ‘beekeeper’ and instantly wanted to be a hive of bees pollinating fields. He would sit on the blanket (his hive) and I would carry him to a field (rug) and he was fly around pollinating it. We ended up upstairs doing this, then he was playing with the spaceship and we closed the windows in his room to see the glow-in-the-dark calendar and things on his ceiling.

Back downstairs I asked “Do you want to read a book, Z?” He had misheard me and said he said “I want a Pepsi!” We decided to read books on the iPad. He started laughing as I got the iPad. I asked what he was laughing about and he said “I don’t know, but you’ll find out!” He wanted to read The Sisters. We read some of that and we also read Pete the Cat Saves Christmas and the Pete the Cat Collection. He started playing Toca Plants and I went up and took a shower. When I came down I told him it was about time for his bath. When he finished doing something I started to take him up and he protested: “You said SOON it’s going to be your bath time.”

He played with the spaceship in the bath. Not a very long one today. Finished that and brought him down. Carly fixed up the last spinach pancake for him and he ate that and we listened to to Erasure and there was a song he liked. We were getting ready to go and he played some GarageBand, then was writing the first letter of words on the chalkboard. He’s been doing this since Carly turned the board around so the chalkboard is facing out. He did it with all our family the other day, with V for Vivian, Os for Oma and Opa, Gs for Gramma and Grampa, etc. and connected them all with lines.

I showed him my hat. He was excited and asked where it was found. I told him Carly had found it up on the office couch, under her clothes.

As we left at 10:50 it was really blowing. August said “I hope we’re not going to the sea. It will be windier there.” On the way up, as we stopped at a gas station, we named the car as Carly was filling up its tummy. We settled on ‘Carly Fabia’, or just ‘Carly’, much to Carly’s chagrin.

We finished reading Clementine on the way up. August then started an opposites game, asking me what the opposite of small, loud, etc. was. And I was asking him. We arrived at Ein Hod just after noon and parked in the visitor parking lot. We realized we hadn’t brought a stroller of any sort, but that was okay as there were so many stairs and dirt paths that it would have been a burden. We walked a path into the town, stopping to look at all the sculptures and down an old well. August really got into the art and taking photos of things: “That’s an interesting one.” We got to the main (small) square of the town and he started counting nice dogs and later added some cats to the counting. We walked through the Ein Hod gallery and he said he liked all of the art. He recognized a menorah, and we talked about what I meant when I said it was nice but “too much” (too decorative) for me to actually want.

Back out in the square he took more photos. He really liked a metal animal sculpture that was also a garbage can and a planter. We used ‘Portrait Mode’ and I explained it to him. He then excitedly told Carly about it and how the background was blurry.

We went down to the Art & Wear Gallery and talked to the husband of the husband and wife team that run it. He paints whimsical ‘visitors’ that come and I asked August which ones were his favorites. He gives tours of Ein Hod – definitely something we might do when we have visitors. At some point as we walked around August told me “The point is to follow mama.”

We considered doing the Dada museum, but a woman recommend the music box museum down the hill. It was a nice stroller-impossible walk down to it. We stoped along the way to look at and take photos of more sculptures.

The music box museum was also pretty cool. We didn’t do the historical part, as it cost money for a tour and we didn’t know if August would want to do it (later he emphatically said no, he didn’t want to do the tour). But we had a ton of fun in the gift shop, where you can play with tons of music boxes. We talked about how they work and played them and identified the songs. August recognized Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 on his own. And he got to he Hava Nagila for the first time.

We went back up to the square area and found the bathroom, then walked around a bit more before heading back to the car. A good mixture of carrying August and him walking (although I heard “I’ve got my dada!” plenty). He was walking as we got to the big sculpture of three musicians that we’d seen on our way in. As he passed he said “I really love that one.”

In the car, as we drove to Ein Hawd, August brought up Santa and asked if Santa was real. Back before Christmas we had just talked about it being a story. But it hasn’t come up for quite awhile. None of his presents said they were from Santa, although we’ve been reading a lot of stories that have Santa in them. In response I was asking who could leave presents in the house besides Santa. He thought about it and said “Mr. Toe”. I asked for clarification and he grabbed his big toe. Then grabbed the other big toe and said “Mr. Toe and Mrs. Toe”. Eventually got him to realize that Carly and I could leave presents, so didn’t outright tell him Santa wasn’t real.

To get to Ein Hawed you go down a short steep hill, then right back up a steeper hill on the other side. Luckily, all paved. Really nice area with lots of trees. We parked right outside of House Restaurant. The restaurant has an amazing view out to the Mediterranean. You don’t have to make any choices: it is a set menu at a flat rate. They just keep bringing out more and more dishes and you can ask for more of things if you like, but we didn’t need to do that. It started with a wonderful lentil soup, then involved a bunch of the smaller dishes (hummus, Turkish salad, rice in grape leaves, stuffed eggplant, etc.). Then came the entrees. Chicken, saffron rice and beef, a lamb dish. August liked the lamb but asked “But what is lamb from?” One small dish was liver. I tried it, but only ate one bite. August ate a bite too and said it was good, but didn’t want any more.

August was doing a great job of trying everything. He was talking about blowing up like a balloon. He ate lots of lamb. He was getting hyper, talking about “Im going to explode!” Carly took him out about 2:45 and I went to pay. I found out there was tea or coffee to come. I passed it up at first, but then Carly and August were at a table outside so we got one tea and one coffee. They came with little cakes with coconut. August shared the mint tea with Carly and I had most of the coffee. August was trying to get to my coffee. And he and Carly were doing a nice dance to keep the flies away from the cakes.

We left for real at 3:15. We read the Pete the Cat Collection and Peppa’s First Sleepover in the car. Carly had the idea of visiting a beach for sunset and we got off at Beit Yanai beach, just south of where the Alexander River flows into the sea. August was a bit concerned about going to the beach: “Okay, but it may be totally windy!”

At the beach August and I first started by following bird tracks as they meandered on the beach. Eventually we lost the track, but along the w
ay he noticed that it was digging in the sand. So then he was a bird digging holes, looking for insects to eat. He found a feather and played with that and put it in my backpack. Then we played in the sand. He wanted a moat and I asked what shape. He said triangle, so then we made an equilateral triangle moat.

August then spotted a playground on the sand and got excited. We went to it and he spent most of his time working on sliding down the fire pole. If it was a little closer to the platform I think he may have ended up doing it more on his own, but as it was he had to jump out pretty far and needed me to support him. He was getting pretty brave about it though and had the technique down. I would then let go of him as he hung on the pole and he was working on climbing and slipping down it.

We had fun watching the sunset, then went over to the bathrooms and then headed to the car, leaving just after 5. We were home at 5:30.

They Skyped with Vivian and Colin and Cassie. Colin is now sick. And we saw the two watches Vivian got from her grandmother. Carly did a pretty successful job of cutting his hair while he typed to Vivian. He had some harsh words for Carly though as she pressed her luck: “The POINT is to NOT do the hard ones!” And at one point with Vivian (they were typing long, long nonsense messages to each other) he got really excited about pasting ‘poop’ over and over.

After that we talked about making a rocket out of Duplos. So we watched a couple of Space Shuttle launches on YouTube. But then we remembered the Lego set from Paul. He and I put together the grey car together and he understood the process pretty quickly. He had fun putting the tires on his fingers and called them bandages. When it was done he had it be a rocket car: “Do you have your helmet on? Speeding off into the air…Can you be someone riding in a car up in the air?” And where was it going? “Into a museum, of course.” He also got the hologram thing and was experimenting with Legos of different sizes in it to see how well they would work.

We stopped playing at 8 and Carly took him upstairs and got him ready. He said he’d dream about “Rockets and cars and volcanos and monsters and music boxes and rockets…” I left them at 8:10.

Ein Hod. The musicians he loved: 

Waiting for a bus: 

His photo using ‘Portrait’: 

Dinner in Ein Hawd: 

The beach: 

Down the pole: 

Me helping him: 

I was up first for once, just before 7. August and Carly were p about 7:20. I was getting to head to Jerusalem and meet with Omar at Sabeel about possibly doing some English writing and editing for them.

While I was gone Carly gave August a bath and washed his hair. He finished his lollipop, which Carly realized is a good treat for him since it lasts so long. They walked up to town, stopping at the park on the right to eat a granola bar with chocolate in it. They went to the post office and had the longest wait ever, like 25 minutes, but August did great. They then walked to Gatule, the cafe, and had a smoothie with  strawberry, mango, and mango peach. They then stopped at the park by our house and played store, using the ship area as the store. He also made a big pile of books from the shelves at some point.

Meanwhile, the drive to Jerusalem went smoothly. The only hiccup was at the very end when Apple Maps wanted me to turn left at an intersection I couldn’t turn left. But it routed me around just fine. Parking was also easy and I parked on the back road just up the block from Sabeel, about 9:50. Just after I got out of the car and started walking south, I heard “Ryan!” Very strange to hear my name called when I was in a new place where I didn’t know anyone.

It was Omar, and he had seen me looking down at my phone. He gave me a ride the last half block to Sabeel and we headed up. The office was closed today, so cold at first. He made us coffee and we sat and started talking. We had a long meeting, basically 3 and a half hours. For awhile I was looking at a couple of text to show him what sort of feedback and editing I would provide. So nothing for sure yet, but I might do some paid editing, writing, and document development work for them.

I headed home at 1:30. My route home took me up 50, 45, 443, and 444. An interesting drive, as I got to see more of the walls, terraced hills, etc. All went smooth until the last 20 kilometers. Apple Maps wanted me to turn onto 4 where I couldn’t turn. It then only wanted to make things worse, wanting me to turn left again where I couldn’t, so I switched to Waze to get me back on 4.

So I got home a little before 3:30, about 20 minutes late because of that. They were outside in the yard, surrounded by a bunch of books. Back inside, on the couch August noticed I was dressed differently and wasn’t fond of my new look, and helped me take off my shoes and socks and tie and told me to go change. He was then spinning with my tie. I told Carly about my meeting and mentioned something about activities for people who are 80. August asked “I can do something when I’m 80?” We had pita and hummus, and August was stilling “just bread”. Carly was aiding and abetting as she totally just handed him bread and didn’t make him dip it in hummus. He thought that was quite funny.

I went up and changed. When I came back down they were were experimenting with water and measuring milliliters. I took him out for a walk at 4:10.

We first stopped at our park. He turned the bouncing seesaw into a contest thing: “If we bounce 19 more times I get a sink!” Then, playing store he bought a chimney for his web. These join the things like fire extinguishers and emergency exits that he bought for his web the other day. Over on the round swing he said”Mama was in charge of swinging the web. But you don’t have to.” And “This is spider day.”

He wanted to do more climbing, so he did some climbing on the things in our park, but they are more for older kids. So we talked about going to another park: “The one we goed to to have those chocolate bars. That was before the post office.” That’s the park on the right as we walk up into town. We walked up there and got there at 4:45.

Spent most of the time on different parts of the rope climbing structure. He was a spider, and one part of it was his bed, another was his living room: “I’m stuck in my living room.” He decided to turn the green hanging chair into his bedroom, so said “I used this chemical in my hands to turn things into my bed.”

He then went across the the play structure and had a store. He made me a sandwich, and announced that he had new smoothie flavors. As he was making me a smoothie a dog, luckily a nice one who had been wandering around the park, surprised him by coming in the small area he was in.

From there we went to the spinning thing and were planets spinning around the sun, the played on the Jeep thing – the battery thing was turned to a low setting and he said someone else had been using it. A ride on the motorbike, then playing on snakes and ladders, then back to the climbing stuff.

We left at 5:30. At home we had seitan and beet greens and french fries and rice for dinner. Carly left for a walk. He and I did some Marco Polo Arctic and got one card in Classify It, then moved to the couch and read a lot of The Sisters. Carly came home and headed up to a shower. He and I read some more of The Sisters, then Pete the Cat Saves Christmas. Carly took him up and got him ready for bed. I came up to say good night and he was being a kitten so I told him to dream about kitten-y things. He said “And a tornado! And bad dreams!” He gave Carly a funny chuckle after that. I left them just before 8 and he was pretty straight to sleep.

Before I left for Jerusalem: 

At the park: 

He was up about a quarter to 7. I heard them waking up but was still quite asleep as I was up late the night before. Finally I realized what day it was and got up and hurried downstairs before August. We made coffee and skyped with my parents and opened presents. The first box he grabbed was long and skinny and he predicted the thing inside would be long and skinny. It was a small telescope. When he opened the calculator/cash register that we had gotten for him at Ikea he took it outside played some Zinnie shop for a couple minutes before we headed back inside. He liked the monkey from Dee and Grant. When we asked him to name it he thought for awhile and decided on “Monkey nice banana” He introduced the monkey to the other friends. And Paul got August his first new set of Legos: A set from Cars. When we hung up August pointed out that it was an hour and 17 minutes and 17 seconds and that that was a very long Skype.

Carly had Swedish pancakes ready to go so we ate those. He ate more and more and more. He preferred them with cinnamon and sugar and called them cinnamon rolls, after gramma had mentioned cinnamon rolls during Skype.

We also had a lot of fun with the optical illusion thing, which makes it look like a frog is floating in the air. We found that a small scrap of paper also worked well, as did a Lego head. Carly later decided she wanted to take it into work to put on her desk, as students would love it.

Then we got Cubetto, the wooden robot kit that I had backed on Kickstarter. It teaches basic programming and logical thinking skills, like algorithms and subroutines and programs. And at the same time involves story telling and make believe. He started with me and we figured out the basics. Then he and Carly opened the Polar Expedition kit and started playing through that. When Cubetto wouldn’t go where they wanted it to August would say “Oh Cubetto!” We also opened the Logic expansion pack, which includes a random and a reverse command and had fun predicting what they would do.

August then wanted to go up and get the alien, so we did that and he introduced the alien to Cubetto. August and I then did Drops with the alien, then we got ourselves one last Christmas present – a subscription to Drops so we could use more time and also start using it for Arabic and French as well. Of course, I quickly realized the downside: In the free version you have to go in order and it starts with more useful things first. Now, we could choose any category we wanted, and August of course wanted to choose the last one (#99), which is ‘Spa’. So he had us learning things like ‘bathrobe’ in Hebrew.

Carly mentioned something about babies, and August said “I like babies. But I hate Christmas. But I love presents.”

I went and took a shower. Back downstairs Carly was getting ready for cookies. August was playing in the kitchen door and we realized he was getting the “crunchy” syrup off the outside of the syrup container and eating it. He started doing the peanut butter cookies with Carly. When he realized his stool wasn’t in the kitchen he started stressing out about it “Oh no!” even though it was just right outside. Initially hetold me “Besides, eating the ingredients is not worth it, dada.” But after having some spoonfuls of peanuter butter, he then started stealing the peanut butter chips, then other crumbs of things he could find. Carly observed “Youve stopped helping and are only stealing.” I then came up with my funniest joke for some time: “Ahh, a future politician.”

When Carly curtailed his chip and ingredient stealing he couldn’t handle it and got upset. They went upstairs for a time out. Came back down and didn’t make it any further. Back upstairs. So I took over making the balls and baking the cookies. He came down again. I asked “How’s he doing?” He said “Not so good.” He was better though and helped me finish up the rest. He rolled the dough into good balls and used the fork to make the cross hatches on top. He heard the song “Christmas in Prison” by John Prine on my iPad and asked to have it on repeat: “Could you put it back on the jail song. I really liked it. Could you add it to my playlist?” I talked to him about how he got upset but he claimed that nothing but time helped him calm down.

I let him lick the spatula, then got started on the chocolate chip cookies. I had invited Jack (his wife Celeste is in Italy on a vacation right now) to go with us to Chinese food in the evening. He invited us to go birding with him. Carly decided to stay home with August, but I decided to go.

So August and I quickly worked on the chocolate chip cookies. He started out helpful again, but when it came to chocolate chips he just wanted to start stealing a bunch again and melted down. I got everything together, except for combining the last two bowls and then baking the cookies.

Jack picked me up and we had a lovely couple hours of birding down at Yakum, just south of Ikea. It is where Carly, August and I had walked with him in the backpack. We were at the north end though, and Jack instead drove us down to the west entrance off of 2. We saw an egret, then a heron, then five or six other birds around the pond area. We walked around the paths after that, through the Roman cut to drain the swamp, etc. and didn’t see much else, but it was a great day for a walk and a beautiful spot, and we had a good chat.

We got home at 3 and I gave Jack his cookies. I then figured out that Carly and August had gone up to do recycling. I started to head up that way and they were on their way home. While I was gone they had opened the little ice cream toy (it came with his ice cream from the ice cream truck and I just found it in my pocket), finished the cookies, played on the iPad, and gone to recycling.

August and I then made the cookie deal: he would share one with me now, then get another cookie for dessert. Every day after this he would get half of a cookie as a snack, then a half as dessert. That would continue until we ran out. And I’d put them in the cupboard so they weren’t out torturing us all the time. We shared a chocolate chip cookie then played with the alien more, traveling through time with the help of the dinosaur book. Carly headed upstairs for a rest. We played Classify It, then he became a ladybug (9 spots, I believe) (random, because it wasn’t in the game) and wanted to eat aphids off of all our plants. We went outside so he could continue with all of our outside plants.

Carly came down and they skyped and watched Vivian and Colin opening presents. August was concerned about Vivian being sick: “Is there doctors there?” “Did you see Vivian throw up?”

Jack couldn’t make it to dinner as he was waiting on phone calls. We went to Ishimoto Sushi in town. Carly got the tofu noodle dish and I got a chicken rice dish. August liked both, but seemed to like mine better. A lot of yummy noises. I also ordered a root beer, but it was a malt root beer. Wasn’t on the alcoholic list, but tasted like beer. August didn’t really question not being able to taste it. As we left at 5:50 he asked “Did we get everything?” He was then being a ghost. Or warning us of ghosts: “Warning! Scary ghost!”

On our way back we drove over to the Kerns’ house and dropped off cookies. Only Jill was home though so we dropped them off and left. We were home at 6:15. August got his dessert cookie and was really excited, but then went straight to Carly and asked “Do you want some of my cookie?”

They played with the two balloons. August realized he could throw it up and catch it: “I’ve got it!” “You can have green and I have pink. Our favorite colors!” “I’ve got super power rockets on!” “I got you, balloon!” As much as he liked playing with them, he really liked the idea of popping them. Carly got a pin and he popped both of them.

He then spotted his stocking and since we hadn’t hidden it he wanted candy. We let him have a Dum Dum, whi
ch he enjoyed licking for 5 minutes or so, then saved the rest of. He was in a good mood and told Carly “I love you more than anything in the world!” He was arguing that he should get treats everyday: “Treats everyday. And healthy food too. But I won’t remind mama to give me healthy foods. So that’s a problem.”

We read Pete the Cat Saves Christmas and some of The Sisters. We got him ready for bed and he said he’d dream about “Santa…and scary bad dreams…and monsters eating me!” I asked what his bad dreams were about. He wouldn’t tell me but said I could guess. I asked if they are about pretty flowers. He said “Those aren’t nightmares!” I left them at 8:05 but he came back down 10 minutes later. We did more reading: More of The Sisters, the Fancy Nancy books, then Peppa Pig’s Christmas Wish. Thinking about the Fancy Nancy book he asked me “Tomorrow when were walking can we watch out for sidewalk cracks and step over them?” He said he knew it wasn’t bad luck, but that he would be fun. He went back up a little before 9. It still took awhile and I heard him a bit later. Think he was asleep around 9:15.

Telescope: 

Lines connecting family members: 

Chinese food for dinner: 

Monkey Nice Bananas: 

He slept until 6:35. Lounged in bed and didn’t say anything until “It’s 7. It’s almost 7:01 then we’ll go to sleep.” He wanted to go downstairs a little later. Came and “tickle hugged” me. We all got up at 7:15. Downstairs he found the alien and asked “Alien, why are you downstairs? Have you been exploring in your time machine?” He noticed that the alphabet magnets were off the fridge and replaced with the Hebrew word magnets. He said “Whoa. Who did that?” But didn’t play with them at first: “Alien, I’m gonna play on my iPad. Do you want to play too? I’m gonna play in nature. You’ll learn all about nature.” He played Earth. Then we did a lot of time travel with the alien. I used the Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life book to figure out which animals he and the alien could find as they traveled back in time. We then did our Drops sessions, focusing on transportation.

We learned that Vivian had gotten sick at a science center and thrown up, so August did a Skype video message to her, hoping she felt better and asking her what color her puke was. He then asked me to make up songs about throwing up in a library and a science center. Their time machine was having problems so we fixed it. He got quite create and was as big as 22 gigantic shoes stacked up.

When he calmed down a bit he decided to put the alien away. As we launched to go upstairs he described escaping gravity nicely: “Rocket is supposed to sneak away from gravity.” He put the alien away in his closet and said “Bye alien. Don’t think you’ll meet any dinosaurs up here.”

Back downstairs we read books: Pete the Cat Saves Christmas, a Fancy Nancy three book collection we purchased, and a Pete the Cat collection.

Carly was making both spinach pancakes and tzatziki sauce. August asked “Mama, what is all this blending for?” We read part of a comic book called The Sisters. Then pancakes were ready and we had some of those.

I went up and took a shower. Back downstairs he was getting upset about something and not cheered like I expected when I told him we’d wait on his shower as the water wasn’t hot enough. He calmed down and found Classify It on his iPad – the game where you classify organisms based on their characteristics. He played with my for several levels and he was really into learning from our mistakes, as when you redo a board and get 100% on a level you get an animal information card that we’d then read. Carly played with him, but he wasn’t trusting her on things. He said “I’ll ask dada.” There was a Venus fly trap, so we watched the YouTube video of the guy putting his tongue in one. Well, the first few seconds.

August then made a really cool song: “Sometimes you are right. Sometimes they are wrong. But guessing is fun.”

I got his bath ready, then asked if mama could give him his bath. He said “Okay. But I hate baths. Don’t spray my hair.”

We got ready to go to the mall and buy wrapping paper. It was raining as we left. We stopped at Gutale to ask about my missing hat. No luck. We read Berenstain Bears Too Much Pressure in the car. A quick trip to the Ir Yamin mall where we went to the party store and got wrapping paper, bags for cookie deliveries, and balloons.

Carly had the idea of going down to Argaman’s Beach. We were able to drive all the way down the hill and park right at the bottom as there was only one other car there. We walked down on the very windy beach. The waves were crashing nice and loud and the tide was up for maximum effect. We played around for awhile and just enjoyed the beach. I found a plastic hammer on the beach and gave it to August and he used it to hammer shells and rocks into the sand.

We then got in the car and drove a little to the north to where we had first walked with Carly along the boardwalk and he had played on a concrete bench. There is sort of an indoor space with several restaurants in it. We looked for a coffee shop and found that the convenience store had an espresso machine so we got a couple cappuccinos and an orange juice for August. We went out on the boardwalk and August sat on one of the benches and drank his juice. I put both of his sweatshirts on him and his socks. I was cold in just my one sweatshirt so suggested he and I go inside, where they had the heat lamps. He jumped at that. Carly stayed out to appreciate the sea.

We went in and sat in one set of chairs but a waitress came and gave us menus for the restaurant. So we moved over to in front of the convenience store. We studied French in Memrise until Carly was done and came in.   

In the car he started to take his socks off and I told him he could keep them on. He said “No I can’t!” We read Tallulah’s Tap Shoes and started The Little Prince. We got to Tel Yitzak and parked across from the nursery. Carly took him to the gas station to go to the bathroom. Meanwhile, I wandered next door to check out the bakery and restaurant. I was then surprised by Carly and August coming out of the restaurant – the sings at the gas station had led them around back to the restaurant bathrooms.

We went across to the nursery looked for plants. Carly taught August how to snap the snapdragons. He then found a flower plant that he instantly wanted. Petunias, I think it was. He also wanted the snapdragons, but we told him to wait on that. Carly also got a couple of plants that might not need much water to put them in the section of the kitchen boxes that are difficult to reach. One was a sort of cactus.

We left there at 3:20. Carly and I were talking about how to get the soil from the big bags out through the kitchen windows to the planter without making a mess. I suggested the bucket, and August said “You can buy it from me.” He was also blasting monsters and said “I electricitated you.”

At home he said he needed to charge and went and lay on the couch. He wanted the water bottle and got my backpack and was pulling it around on the floor, making shapes: “I’m spelling letters with your backamapack.” We played Classify It and he read sentences like “Living things that are green plants.”

Carly finished the planters and now our view from the kitchen is wonderful. It looks really good. As she was doing it she realized why I talked more about doing something with the planters – I’m taller and could see the ugly empty planters with the ugly dirt. She can see the plants too though and appreciate it.

I cooked a frozen pizza and we had that and beet greens for dinner and listened to Christmas music and played more Classify It. August requested some tea and drank a little.

I suggested we go out for a walk over to Tiv Taam to get our cooking baking ingredients. It had stopped raining but was really damp, and the smell reminded me of Lake Stevens. August agreed to ride in his big stroller, which we almost never use, so he could be more covered if it rained. At the mall we first stopped at the book store and they picked out some cards to send to people. An easy trip to Tiv Taam and we got ingredients for peanut butter and for chocolate chip cookies.

On the way back it was windier and drizzling more. Carly tucked extra sweatshirts around August to keep him warm. He was too cozy though as he was falling asleep by the time we got home at 7:10. His pants were wet from the drizzle so he took them off. He was feeling tired, as he said “My power is in the red”. We read some Fancy Nancy and Pete the Cat and got him ready for bed. I told him to dream about Santa Claus He added “and Fancy Nancy. And our house breaking down. And monsters scaring me. And monsters eating me.” I left them just before 8.

Tongue: 

Waves: 

Wind: 

Snapdragons: 

Pretending to sleep: 

Presents ready: 

Started waking up a bit after 5. They got up about 6 and I slept a bit longer. They played Wizard School and I had a bunch of art from August. I sent him a “love heart” (he came up with the term and sometimes asks me to draw a “love heart” and send it) then came down. He was watching Timmy Time and asked me to find the Christmas episode. He watched most of that, then nursed. Did Drops with me (we had 10 minutes), then he was getting a little rambunctious. He went upstairs with Carly. They played in the Zinnie room, doing the Old MacDonald puzzle nad reading some Boynton books. He came back downstairs and we read Magic Treehouse #32. He was scared of the ice giant though and I had to look ahead a few times. He would say “No, no, no!” when it got scary.

He had brought the Teuni Teuni alien downstairs with him this morning and was playing with it. When he went to nurse he asked “Alien, do you want to nurse?” Carly went upstairs for awhile and he and I did GarageBand with the keyboard and then languages in Memrise. Carly came back down and heated up for for him. He was playing with the alien and saving it from big monsters when I went up to take a shower.

When I came down they were outside and August was playing the shop game. He had the bowling pin phone ring and I answered it and told him his bath was ready. He hung up on me.

He went calmly to his bath though, taking the alien and spaceship with him and playing with them in the water. Back downstairs he did Wizard School. Carly was tired and resting on the couch with him next to her. When he wanted her to send him things on Wizard School she asked if he’d get her phone for her upstairs. He went right up and started searching for it. I hollered up to tell him where it was and he brought it back down. Another comfort step as I think it is the first time he’s gone to the other floor on his own without one of us. He wanted popcorn and then a movie so they watched Plaent Earth, then he did some Arabic with me.

After a lazy morning and lunch time we finally got moving in the afternoon. I mentioned Ra’anana Park. He said “But I’m worried about our time. Let’s go to the park we don’t have to pay for.” We decided on Winter Lake Park – not because of August’s objection, but because it was closer and Carly hasn’t been there. He played some piano with the alien, then we got going.

We drove around looking for a spot to park and ended up in the same spot August and I parked last time. We parked after 2. In the small park we parked near there were some kids on a little 4-wheeler. Carly simply mentioned to watch out for them and August got upset at them for some reason and started yelling at them. I think maybe he thought they were being dangerous. Calmed him down a bit and got him past by carrying him.

Got him on the orange bike after awhile and we did okay steering and walked to the playground on the southeast corner of the park.  As we got there I reminded him how we had listend to the “Signs” song and he said “I hate signs”.

He started by playing on the climbing thing. Carly played with him for a few minutes. They wandered to other things, like the rocking things, but he was quickly back at the climbing thing. I switched with Carly and it became his web. He was a spider, and said “I can go hours without eating.” He then had a food store and I asked “Can I buy junk food?” He replied “Yeah, if you buy healthy food too… strawberries…” But once we had food his ratios were interesting: “One strawberry, one whole cake.” He baked a pie and when he couldn’t remember ‘oven mitts’ he called them “My special taking out chocolate pie covering heat hands…That’s what I call them.”

We then spent a lot of time buying things for his web: appliances, cooking utensils, rugs, beds, chairs, straws, plates and bowls…it went on and on. Two that he thought of entirely on his own were emergency exits and “fire squirters” (extinguishers). Each item was at a different store, which was one of the other toys around the playground. We would run to it, find what we wanted, then run to another play thing where we had to spin once or something in order to pay. Then he would run back to his web. A lot of the items were on a thing he had to climb. He said “Mama’s a baby so she can’t climb up here.”

At one point he started to kick a soccer ball back and forth with a little girl. They kicked it back and for a couple of times, then he stopped and said “I know, we need balls!” and ran off to buy balls for his web.

I switched with Carly and she continued to play the game with him. He did a lot of running. He came over to me as I was studying Hebrew in Memrise. He read the sentence ‘He remembers the boy’ over my shoulder. He had never seen that sentence before. The craziest part was I think he may have translated it from the Hebrew, as in Hebrew there is an extra participle between ‘remembers’ and ‘the’ and he seemed to include it in his English sentence.

I switched back and we continued to play. I finally knew he was slowing down when he asked me to carry him across to the ‘store’ once. We finally convinced him to leave as the sun was starting to go down. We got to the car around 4:30.

We drove to the big Tiv Taam. Carly headed in to start shopping. I pointed out the moon and August said “Banana moon!” We went in and helped shop. He’s gotten much easier in grocery stores lately, which is nice.

At home Carly went out for a walk. He and I ate dinner on the floor at August’s request so we could read Tallulah’s Tap Shoes and Waiting on the iPad while we ate. He had rice today as he said he was getting bored of noodles. He then played with the Bloom music app, then Wizard School. I got out carrots and vegenaise and he had a ton of carrots.

We were listening to Christmas songs, then I put on the Constellations song on his playlist. He said “That’s not a Christmas song!”

We got him ready for bed and I asked what he’d dream about. His answer was a little disturbing: “Monsters…and our house burning on fire!…and monsters chasing me!” Carly: “Dont have nightmares!” Him: “I will!” I left them at 7:40.

What happens when we don’t cut his hair: 

His web: 

The store: 

We took our first trip up to Haifa today and it was our new favorite place in Israel.

He was waking up at 5. Somewhere in there he got up on the bed and came and pressed his head against mine on the pillow. Lay with me for a few minutes before going back over to Carly, who was down on the Zinnie bed. He was ready to get up but she said it was hard to stand up. So he was showing her: “See, easy peasy” I got up too and Carly made him Cheerios and strawberries and then went back upstairs while I stayed with him. He started with some Timmy Time. He then typed on my iPad, and then asked me to hook up the keyboard so he could play in GarageBand. Carly came down and I went up and took a shower. I heard him playing some nice loud guitar for her.

It was a bit hard to get him going out to the car, but we left just before 9. We read the Max Axiom Photosynthesis book on the way, and he was acting out a water cycle, with it going in his feet and out his head. He was also blasting monsters from the car. He ate some of his cucumber sandwich and said “It’s waterproof…it becomes a submarine sandwich.” That’s from The 91-Story Treehouse. We played Drops, then asked to listen to music. He said “I have an idea! When we go on a short trip we listen to short songs. And when we go on long adventured we listen to long music.”

Parking was reminiscent of Tel Aviv, so took some time to find a spot, but we eventually parked a few blocks east of the Madatech Science Museum. Carly had read about street art along Masada Street, a block north of where we parked, so we walked up and along that road to the science museum. Not a ton of art, but a fair amount, and a lot of cafes and interesting trees. But not too rich and fancy. We stopped along the way to look at different pieces of art, and August got out of the stroller to take photos a few times.

We got to the science museum at 10:45. It was really nice, but felt like kind of a ripoff: The website, in English, offered a good ‘first year resident’ discount. It didn’t mention you had to have the actual immigrant card. But since we came expecting that discount it meant we didn’t buy tickets online in advance, which would have saved over $10. So we had to pay the full amount, over $51 for me and Carly. Soon figured out that an annual membership would make sense for us, but the box office was then closed, and when I found someone to ask they said our ticket purchase today couldn’t be applied to the membership, which is pretty SOP (or should be), as far as I know. So kind of opaque/sleazy all around.

Anyway, the museum itself was pretty impressive, and much nicer and bigger than the ones closer to us. We first started with the preschool area, which is more of a play area. Pushed through some big tall ‘grass’ and used a periscope, then went through a little mirror maze, then played in the water area. I asked how the water stuff worked and he showed me how you pour water through funnels: “See? Easy peasy!” There was a blue blocks area (a la Seoul Children’s Museum and Philadelphia) and he played in there, mainly with Carly. After awhile he asked “Can we look for more sciency stuff please?” But first one more trip through the grass, then I took him to the bathroom.

We headed upstairs to the exhibit. First did the room on green energy. August was acting like he did in the last science center: wanting to do everything, but also wanting to be carried/held. After we’d gone through most of the room (solar panels, bikes that make a train move (I bashed my knee on a metal bar as Carly and I rode the bikes), geothermal, etc.) and headed upstairs to the ‘Green Home’ section I talked to him and asked if he was having fun, etc. He agreed he was and agreed he could walk and did get down and seemed much more comfortable after that. Had fun with the hand sensors in the green home area – he flushed the toilet several times.

Across the hall from there to the small room full of taxidermied animals between Mt. Carmel and the sea. I found a lapwing, which Jack had mentioned yesterday, then we moved along.

We went outside to the big outside area and had most of our fun there. Carly mainly sat and read as she was having a headache. But August had all sorts of fun with pulleys and levers and water. He pulled a barrel up with pulleys, turned an Archimedes water screw, I lifted him in a big globe using a huge lever (then other kids came, and other guys helped lift all of them), then we walked up the stairs to the higher part. There we tried one of those pedal helicopters together. We went a few feet, but it was difficult with him on my lap. I tried the swing attached to a pendulum that demonstrates transfer of energy. Really quite cool but August wouldn’t try it. Then to the water area, where there were all sorts of different gates using wheels and screws and levers, etc. and ways of picking up the water. Carly came and caught up with us here.

August kept talking about wanting to go in the globe thing again, so we went back and he pulled a ship up a ramp using a pulley and went in the globe again.

Back inside we found the Leonardo da Vinci room, which is really cool. All sorts of machines using gears and screws. Then August’s favorite room, the sound room. He sang into an oscilloscope, listened to the humming tubes, played with the binary counting machine, etc. I tested his hearing on one machine and it seemed like he might not have heard the lowest notes. When I tried him on it again he said he wouldn’t tell me if he could hear it or not.

They went to the preschool area while I figured out the membership thing, then August wanted to go back to the sound room, so we took him back again. Played a bit more, then left about 1:45. The museum closed at 2 (as most of the big museums seem to close early every day, not just Friday).

We got to the car after 2. He had counted 7 cats by then. We regrouped, then tried to walk up to the Baha’i Gardens. Up and up and up we went. I carried the stroller and Carly walked with August, who at first wanted to only go sideways up the steps, one at a time (not alternating). So not a quick walk up. August was sort of reciting “Hickory dock” as we went. No idea where he would have heard that recently. Saw a playground that had a dragon for a stairway, and paused for a snack.

Got up to what looked like an entrance, but it was closed. So we headed down to the car. August was singing Ants Go Marching and came up with “Eight by eight …build some shapes.”

We were getting hungry, so as we got back down to Masada Street we took a right and after a block found Cafe HaPina. Our favorite cafe in Israel. Mainly because of the food (the squash quiche and the zucchini pancakes were both amazing) but also because the guy, when he found out we were from Seattle, started talking to me about music (Screaming Trees, Pavement, Fugazi, etc.). August and I did some Memrise, then he played on the iPad and Carly and I both read while we waited for our food. When we left we bought two chocolate raspberry muffins.

Walked back to the car and as we drove to the Bahá’í Gardens August had most of one. Obviously he loved that. We spotted an entrance to the gardens and parked and walked through the tunnel back to the entrance. It was now about 4:30, so we didn’t have long. Really nice spot though and August liked it. We saw the Shrine of the Bab through a fence. Walked over to an area with a bunch of cacti and taught August the difference between ‘cactus’ and ‘cacti’. At first he disagreed, but by the end he was practicing them out. We sat on the ground to take a photo of them and realized the rocks were crushed brick (August found letters on one piece) and very red. I took August to the bathroom and he was licking the dust off his fingers. Then I realized his shirt was rather red.

In the bathroom he was pressing (imaginary) numbers and (imaginary) ghosts were coming out after we pressed an (imaginary) hand thing like the one that flushed the toi
let at the museum.

On the way out Carly learned which areas of the garden you can walk on your own (three small parts) and where you need a tour (everything else).

We got back to the car, and as we unlocked it August was saying “Timmy the combat comet”. Which I think is a Timmy Time reference and we just weren’t getting the end part (and he was probably making something up). By the time we left his count was 12: 10 cats and 2 nice dogs (he’d decided that he’d count nice dogs – one had been in the cafe).

We were in the car at 5. Listened to the 12 Days of Christmas. He was singing along, then suddenly falling asleep. Got the iPad out and RelationShape kept him awake. He made it without falling asleep and we were home at 6:15.

Inside I asked what his favorite part was and he said “everything “ Carly was reading on her Kindle and he was highlighting big words and asking what they met: “destination…what’s that mean?” And words like prefabricated, occasional. He then asked her to read out loud.

He was tired after the long day. We got him ready for bed and I suggested he dream about the science center. He added “and monsters and ghosts”. I left just before 7 and he was soon asleep.

He climbed up and asked me where mama was at 6:07. When I came down about 7 he was watching Timmy Time, but soon turned it off. He wanted to nurse. I distracted him for a few minutes by practicing Arabic with him in Memrise. He was then getting frustrated about not nursing until Carly got him over drawing pictures. Carly had him laughing over a picture they drew with people attached, then a big stack of things (person on a car on a tree on a cow etc.).

He and I then Skyped with my parents. He played the mystery tune for them a few times and a cool arpeggiated chord progression. He also hung up on them a couple times. Carly had been working on cooking the beet, so when that was done he ate oatmeal with mango and beets (on a separate plate) outside. Then Carly began her ambitious project of removing all of the old dirt from the planters around the kitchen. I cleaned our shoes from yesterday with the hose (and August’s help) and we used a stick to flick some cat poop off the fake grass, then I played store with him. He kept wanting to pick one of his little carrots today, so I went in and cut carrot sticks and he ate those and vegenaise and a couple crackers.

I went to take a shower and when I came back he was eating popcorn and watching Timmy Time. Carly had made eggplant sandwiches for her and me. I then gave him a bath. He sprayed me in the face with a squirt car. Went pretty well overall though as I was able to wash his hair. Back downstairs Carly had been removing dirt, but the last window was stuck. We got that open, then she continued and August and I used the last of the green paint to paint the back of the sign board a bit. August is excited to get more paint at Ikea.

I called Omar at Sabeel and things sound good. He wanted to meet in person in Jerusalem and we decided on tomorrow or Tuesday. Carly and I talked and decided on tomorrow, but later in the day he told me there would be demonstrations tomorrow and he didn’t know if he’d be able to make it to the office, so I’m planning on going to Jerusalem on Tuesday.

August requested mango so I thawed four pieces for him. He ate that and requested five more. He and I did Drops and French in Memrise while Carly showered. We got ready to go shopping and left at 1. I couldn’t find my hat before we left, and at some point I asked if he had put it in the Zinnie shop. He said “I think so.” Then, “Finding dada’s hat is one of the things I wanted to do today.”

We got to Ikea and found it pretty busy. Went pretty well though. We started upstairs, August looking for hopscotch. None upstairs, but he had fun playing on the beds and pretending to sleep, then going in a wardrobe and pretending to be teleported (a la The 91-Story Treehouse). We got to the kids’ stuff and he started playing with a kitchen set. Carly stayed with him and I continued on downstairs. We got another set of sheets for the Zinnie bed, 6 bags of potting soil, and other random items. Had planned on a dresser, but then weren’t sure if the box would fit with us all in the car, so measured the box. He and Carly caught up when I was looking at storage bins and wasn’t sure which ones Carly would want. He did some hopscotch patterns along the way.

Carly ran back to get a kid’s calculator and a set of cups for playing in the sand from the kids area, then met us at checkout. August had been helping to push the cart, and was excited about a hot dog. They went and got a hot dog and falafel sandwiches while I checked out, then we ate at Ikea.

We got home after 3. August started playing in the car and we unloaded everything. Carly put the dirt in the planters and I stayed with him. He was playing with Siri through the car, then he asked me “Water please, Ryan.” after Siri had called me Ryan.

We moved to the yard and he checked the Zinnie house: “I don’t see your hat. Let’s keep investigating.” I went and put his new sheets on the bed. He was running his store, but then stopped his delivery service to Carly, saying she had to come to the shop.

We headed to his activity class a little before 4:30. Sigal, the teacher, was already inside and there were no other kids. I started writing the checks, and Carly was with him. He went in the class a bit, but was kind of hyped up and panicky, especially after climbing on my back as I was writing checks and then falling forward and hitting his face on the table. After a few minutes he declared he was going home and headed up the stairs.

Carly and I switched. I got him back inside and we spent a couple minutes doing things like refilling his water bottle from the dispenser and playing with the latches board and a couple other toys. He then started going into class for a minute or two at a time. Several times he came back out though saying “See? I told you she was going to kill me?” After the first time he went in he came out and told me “You didn’t sneak!” Apparently Carly was going to “sneak” into the room for a couple minutes (Sigal had told her she could be in for awhile). He was getting more into it, but Sigal had them sit down. He started to come out and she called to August. August yelled to her “No! Sitting is boring!” When I got him back in again I heard him say “Sitting is boring!” to her again. But he was staying in longer and longer. They were doing things like ‘skiing’ on blocks and climbing over stools. I knew he was totally into it when I heard him telling her “I’m ready! I’m ready!” He made it to the end of class and was really excited when it was over. He told Carly “Class was fun!” and he was really smiling and excited for the rest of the evening.

At home we had some discussion about what was the best thing ever. My answer is ‘pie’, but he argued “Nothing’s better than nursing. That’s impossible!” and “Nursing is the most awesomest thing I’ve ever done.” But he also argued that the best thing ever is sap picking, and then “invisible infinity rockets”.

Carly headed him up some dinner and we ate outside. He played some Wizard School, then we read two Tallulah Books. As we were getting ready for bed he said “Oh yeah! We’ll see about that.” about something. I suggested he dream about class. He said “Class…and a volcano! And a storm!”

I left them at 7:20 and he was asleep soon after.

Learning to make change: 

Wanting to help scoop dirt: 

Teleporting in the wardrobe: 

Measuring at Ikea: 

Trying out the beds: