Category: Uncategorized

Nursing 5:30 and up before 6. Very upset until close to 6:30. Dr. Panda Handyman with Carly. He and I read Curious George Cleans Up. They went downstairs and nursed and I went and laid down for awhile longer. When I came down he was playing TodoMath. I helped a bit with that. He has gotten into the Daily and Mission sections, trying to get the monsters you can earn. We read more of Magic Treehouse #10. Carly made sandwiches for us. I made my sandwich. August went to the bathroom, then was singing Yankee Doodle with all Z words. Then imagining “Dada, there’s a rocky cliff there…Ther s some smasher robots coming up. I must destroy those….Let’s destroy them together…You know, I’m pretty powerful.” “I crushed your hat becuaee it was a scary ghost.” Lots of swirling on the rug and getting dizzy.

I took a shower. They watched videos about beets. We left at 9:20. Carly drove the 42 kilometers up to Leket Israel Binyamina. August and I read The Cat on the Mat is Flat. We got there at 10:02 and parked and were confused as there was no one there. A bus with an Israeli school group and then a bunch of cars from WBAIS pulled in a few minutes later as we were out wandering around, looking at the mud.

We walked a couple hundred meters up to the beet field. We got to picking and August loved it. Really loved everything about it. He would help us pull, pull on his own, put the beets in the buckets, use his rockets to help us dump the buckets, compare the size of one beet to another, etc. He also liked the shapes of the beets, calling our attention to “interesting” beets. When everyone else first got there he was being antisocial and he and I walked behind everyone else over to the field. He warmed as we picked beets though. And we were picking next to Grace and Gaby, which added to the fun and also helped him: they would talk to him, and when he heard them say something he would ask questions, or be concerned when one got hurt and ask if she was okay.

The coordinator declared we were done around noon. 6 crates of beets picked. Took a group photo, then walked back to the car. August walked much of the way again before asking me to pick him up. He was then singing a “2017” song.

On the way home August reached over and pulled the door handle. Didn’t open, but set off the sensor and broke the seal a bit. Carly pulled off at the next exit and we figured out how to turn on the auto door locks. August was also looking at Google Maps on my phone and told Carly we were close to the Mediterranean Sea and was excited when we were able to see it. We then read Kipper’s Birthday.

We got home, used the bathroom, and grabbed the rice dish, juice, and zucchini bread we were taking to the middle school holiday/Holly’s birthday party. It was at Ilana (the librarian) and Howard’s house, right up near downtown.

August again did pretty well with people. A little shy at first, threatening to say “go”, but started to get him food, and that changes everything. Carly got a plate of food and he sat with her on the ground outside and ate a bit, then he and I went in and he played on the couch and in the beanbag. He kept being a snail or a squirrel getting stuck in it. Jillian came in and he was speaking squirrel language to her. Later, he was trying to speak car or squirrel language. He started that to the Hebrew teacher, then he said the only Hebrew he knew was ‘Shalom’. I said what about numbers, and he started to rapidly count in Hebrew, lying on his back on the beanbag, and got up to 49, I think.

He wanted some juice so we used his straw from his water bottle. When Carly came in and played with him on the bean bag he was getting stuck in sap. They sang “Happy Birthday” to Holly, then Carly got a plate of desserts first. They sat out on chairs and ate. August told me “The fruit salads really good.” I went in and got desserts and he shared more of mine. We also had some soda water. He turned to Carly and said “Did you turn off the oven?” A random reference to a little drawing in 91-Story Treehouse. As he was talking he kept saying “Besides…” and “Actually…”

Near the end, as people were leaving, he declared “I really liked all the foods except…except all the people.” But he had actually done quite well with people. In fact, as we were talking to בת-חן (the Hebrew teacher – Carly was discussing starting lessons with August, and I was discussing Hebrew songs with her that August likes), Ilana took Carly and August for a tour upstairs and August let Ilana pick him up to show him the roof.

We got home at 3:10. As we got to the house he said “Uh-oh. Something’s happening. I’m getting squishier and squishier. I think I’m turning to mud.” I think the “squishier” reference was to the beets and how some of them would be soft. August and I played with Legos and I made a rocket and we read Curious George Cleans Up. He wanted to go upstairs, where we found Carly in the bedroom. I rested and they went down and made popcorn and watched Planet Earth.

We went for a walk at 4:45. Walked down to where we thought we saw an owl yesterday, but no owl today. As we walked he declared “We’re mixing chemicals with a roasted chicken…We’re trying to figure out what makes the chicken explode.”  No idea where that’s from. He was also using his rockets to pretend we were flying off a cliff. I reminded him of Carly’s rule, which is ‘No having fun near cliffs’ and so he was then saying “We’re having fun on a cliff!” We walked to the end of that trail (at the highway) and back, then just counterclockwise around our block.

At home we played Math Tango and Carly cooked the beet greens she had brought home. August liked them and ate a good amount. We read Biscuit Goes to the Vet, Biscuit’s Hanukkah (which we bought for 99 cents) and Paddington. August was getting tired and asked to put his pajamas on on the Zinnie bed. He took a long time on the toilet and was talking the whole time: lots of talking of Pluto (he claims it is a planet) and pressing buttons and moving to a restaurant and typing in search… We got him dressed and in bed. I told him to “Dream about beets” and he said “and parties!” I left them at 7:25 and hew as asleep by 7:40.

Chewed beet: 

Bucket carrying: 

The fields:  

Carly was up early – 4 something. August was up sometime after 5:30. They read Berenstain Bears, had oatmeal, and did a lot of nursing. He had just started watching a Christmas Timmy Time when I came down. I watched it with him, then he started the Storybots Christmas. He paused it after a few minutes and wanted to read The 91-Story Treehouse. We read a couple chapters, starting from the beginning. Played some toy piano, then we went back to the book and got to page 120.

At 8:30 Carly headed to the store to do some grocery shopping before it got crowded. August typed a bit, then played Montessori Geometry. He then got a flashlight and was using it to turn other things into flashlights. He then played Math Tango and I exercised. Went upstairs to watch more Timmy Time and I showered. Carly got home as I was getting him grapes for a snack. I gave August a shower. Fine, as usual, until I started to wet his hair, at which point screaming breaks out.

They nursed, then he played with the flashlight again and was looking at belly buttons and teeth: “Are there anymore belly buttons to look at?” Carly tried to get him interested in riding his balance bike. SHe had it outside and said she was going to use it. He came and called up to me: “Mama takes my special blue bike and I want it back!” So he was interested in it, but still didn’t want to ride. I cut him some strawberries for a snack, then we read more of 91-Story Treehouse. We played Wizard School. I sent him a picture of a wizard, asking if August wanted to be his friend. August said “I’ll send you ‘no’. Cuz you’re dada. You’re not powerful.” I made a picture of a snowman and August named it “Wind”. We read the sample of a book called Clementine, kind of a Ramona Quimby sort of character, and August liked it. The school library has 8 or 9 of the books, so might be our next series. He was alternating between Cheerios and apples: “Could I have dried Cheerios? I finished my apple. There’s nothing in my hand anymore!”

Carly was making food, a rice dish. Then they made a Lego rocket. August came to me and said that I made big rockets but mama made small rockets. We had been missing almost all of his spoons. I found a couple in a drawer yesterday, then he found 3 in the Legos. Think they ended up there after he was putting things on the magic towel in the water. We are back to full kid spoons now.

I was getting stuff ready to make zucchini bread. August came and helped with a few things: peeling and grating zucchini, putting in some ingredients, licking the spatula. He and I got out on a short walk, about 15 minutes, doing more of the touching things to find out what would happen game. We came back to take out the zucchini bread. Got some to take with us, then walked up Kibuts Galyeot – counted a total of 17 dogs and cats. Near the end we saw the biggest cat we’ve seen – a huge fluffy orange cat under a car – followed by a kitten.

We were back at 4:10. Carly had been making pisole and it was done. August had been asking for “chippies” earlier, even though he hadn’t seen them. He somehow knew there’d be chips. We had some pisole and chips. He was joking around and said “Maybe some coffee will help.” He wouldn’t tell us where he got that phrase, but sounds like something I’ve probably said when we’re reading and I’m getting tired. He was also humming the Timmy Time theme song a lot. We read some of Magic Treehouse #10. He was getting sleepy, so we went up and brushed his teeth. He had a jolly time playing a game with Carly where they were hiding the remote under the blankets and laughing hysterically (well, he was, not Carly). He was asleep at 7.

Reading outside: 

Licking the spatula: 

Portrait of his feet: 

Walks. Big cat: 

Crushed watermelon:

Tunnel: 

They were up before 6. He sat in on his bed and watched a Timmy Time then the StoryBots Christmas while I typed. He paused Storybots and started typing on my iPad. Switched to Wizard School and made all sorts of art and little videos and audio recordings. Carly ran to school. He sang “Shanky Shoodle”, changing every word to start with ‘sh’ – he did this with a couple other songs during the day as well, and I think it is a reference to The 91-Story Treehouse when a character does something similar.

The meeting with Shmuel (our landlord), Ada (from school), and Shai (the neighbor) was scheduled for 8, out in our yard. Carly had coffee ready. August was fine with going for a walk, and everything went smoothly until he wanted to stay with Carly. He instantly started screaming when I tried to get his sweatshirts on. It was just a few minutes to 8, so I ended up hauling him out and clumsily getting the bike out of the gate and pushed August up to the park, him screaming all the way. He calmed down, but wasn’t happy. We spent a lot of time just standing up by recycling, him not wanting to move. Eventually we started walking and went around the Holly block. Could see them all still sitting outside, so we walked towards the bridge, then down the trail on this side to the old highway, then started to take the trail branch to the south that we’ve never taken. Walked by some orange trees, which was nice, then got a call from Carly.

She said that the meeting had gone well and that Ada and Shmuel and done a good job of being on our side. They wanted me to come back to meet and shake hands with Shai. I was reluctant to do so, but felt that if I refused that it would look bad. So August and I hurried back. Carly took August inside and I went and sat with them outside. Only took about 5 minutes, but this didn’t go so well. The one concrete positive from the meeting was that they agreed that if he was going to be driving really late that he would text us before going to bed to let us know he’d be sleeping in the next day. That’s something to work with.

We had gotten back close to 9. They left, then I went up and took a shower. August and I then drove Carly to school. When we got back we did more Wizard School. Really a lot of fun, and a lot you can do with it. There are also all sorts of educational videos, and August found one (on his own) on how to read music and watched it. We also added an account for Carly and need to put it on her phone. We read some 91-Story Treehouse. He was then in imagination mode and having us sit on chairs and stools and pushing buttons that would take us places, flying, etc. Then “When I eat honey we both start to spin. I think this is the thing that gets us out of here!”

We both had tea and he got the big dinosaur book down and we read bits of that. We were then hopping around (with me holding his hands) and he had us fall up the steps. In his bedroom he decided there were clues everywhere:”There’s lots of clues in here! Find a clue dada!” “That sign says it will get there and yuckier OVER TIME!” As we left his room: “bye bye clues!”

Downstairs he did some piano improv, then he continued with the clues and yucky things. We read more 91-Story Treehouse. I got him a flashlight and he looked around: “Clues! Are you in there?” He found “Green Marshy” under the couch. Found the chapstick in my pocket and put some on, then we were pretending we had empty brains (as happens in 91-Story Treehouse) and shining the flashlight in our ears.

He played TodoMath and then I shared one of those hearing test things on Facebook with him. I could hear up above 8000 and was surprised when he cut off by 8500. But it may have just been that the iPad’s speakers cut off at that point and he was slow in saying when it cut out for him.

I was doing some typing while he played TodoMath and he told me I was being mean. Some progress though, as when I asked what he meant he explained he wanted “more dada time”. He wanted me to play with him. So I did the catapult thing in Simple Machines with him. I then put Jimi Hendrix on the iPad and told him what we were listening to. He said “Like in the Treehouse books?” There’s a guitar player in them called Jimi Handrix. I said yes, and explained that he now understood the reference. We also did the pinball thing, trying to stack up as many pinballs as we could on each side. When he ran off to go to the bathroom he asked “Can you turn off my iPad? We don’t want it to waste electricity.”

We left to go to the recycling cages at 2:25. From there we walked around the Holly block. And then I heard it: the ice cream truck. It stopped for us, and he recommended something for the kids. I only had a 10 shekel coin and a 100 shekel note. He took the 10 shekel coin and said I could pay him the rest next time. August sat on his bike, eating the ice creamsicle. It was bubble gum flavor. Wasn’t melting too quickly, but eventually we headed home and ate the last of it out of a cup with a spoon. Heard the ice cream truck again and hurried up to the park, but lost the trail. I had grabbed more change and also wanted to buy one for Carly.

We walked north a couple blocks, then back south. We had remembered the Juicy Juice song I’d made up back in Korea and were singing that. We walked by some barking dogs and August said  “Sorry, I don’t have any treats for you.” “…Ice cream for you…If the dogs bark I won’t give them any ice cream.”

Then he got into a big game of wondering what would happen if we touched a certain bush, or stone, etc. It was from The 91-Story Treehouse, where they have a big red button and they don’t know if it will make rainbows come out of their noses or destroy the whole world: “What happens if we touch that tree? Let’s ask that thing and find out.” We wandered over and up Kibuts Galuyot and back down. We stopped outside the synagogue and while we sat on a bench we watched a video about the scale of planets, stars, galaxies, etc. I’d earlier seen posted on Facebook. August liked that, and we talked about the enormity of the universe. In the comments there was a link to “The Galaxy Song” from Monty Python and the Meaning of Life. So we watched that as well, as August found it funny – especially when he climbs into a refrigerator at the end. I told August I thought he’d be a big Monty Python fan eventually.

We got back to the house and played in the yard. August asked where his stick was. I realized that Shmuel had probably broken it to make sticks for some of our smaller plants earlier in the day. So we went in the storage space and got August a new stick. He was happy. August remembered that he wanted to watch the video of “We all sing with the same voice” from Sesame Street. He suggested doing it outside. So I put the iPad out on the patio and he watched a few Sesame Street songs while I raked up the tree mess from the wind and the rain we’ve had.

Carly came home and we eventually ended up inside. I made grilled cheese for dinner. They watched the how to read music video again. He paused it to come and eat and finished it after he was done eating.

We then finished The 91-Story Treehouse. On the iPad he found the songbook and soon remembered how he used to sing from it. He sang for awhile, then found ABC-DEF-GHI – the song that Big Bird sings. I pulled up the video and we watched it. I now have it down pretty well so was singing it as I took him upstairs. We brushed his teeth and got his pajamas on. Got him on the toilet with the bell.

Left them 7:30, but heard him upstairs 15 or 20 minutes later. He came down and told me “I waked up at 7:56.” “Mama isn’t letting me nurse.” We read the Berenstain Bears and the Sitter and finished the Science Project book and read more of Magic Treehouse 10. He went back to bed after 8:50.

From Wizard School: 

Checking to see if his brain is empty: 

Chapstick: 

Ice cream: 

Climbing: 

Watching Sedame Street outside: 

He woke up before 4. Carly got him back to sleep finally about 4:30. He was then up just before 5:30. Carly had him using the program she used for the Hour of Code and I heard “Meow, meow, meow” He also figured out how to use command+T to open a new tab. He ate a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. He did chord lookup in Piano Companion and Carly headed to work. We read a few chapters of The 91-Story Treehouse and then were pretending to be in a chocolate waterfall (from the book). I got out the Listening Lotto game and we played that. Turned out to be rather easy for him, identifying which picture went with which nursery rhyme we heard. I thought he’d at last learn a few new nursery rhymes, but that went pretty quickly too. We each had a board at first, but even though he won the first round he then didn’t like the idea of winning and losing, so we shared a board after that.

He was still hungry so I made some toast. I had a half and before I knew it he had eaten a piece and a half. He was talking about snow a lot and mittens and boots – that was from the three little kittens nursery rhymes. We brushed our teeth and listened to some Mr. Nicky, then left at 8:20 to meet Carly at the rental car office. She had driven the rental car and after home room headed down.

We got down there and I found a small parking lot across the street that was empty. We parked in there and August spotted a Smurfs picture painted on the wall of the building. Returning the car went smoothly, then Carly came across and we took her to school, listening to the dinosaur and water cycle songs along the way.

Back at home we stayed in the car and played for a long time. August played with the window controls, pretended to drive, and adjusted the fade and balance. We went through the radio and programmed all of the stations as well. Oh, and I let him honk the horn a couple times. He was also singing “Look up at the clouds and tell me what you see”.

We went in side and he played TodoMath and I exercised. He found the RelationShape game and was really into manipulating the shapes and matching them and I took a shower. He came in after my shower and asked “Can we have some dada time?” We played it together and he said “You know, dada, this game is pretty good.” And he said things like “We need to focus on this shape.”

I started a pizza in the oven then we gave him a quick shower. He was pretty happy, as I said I wouldn’t touch his hair today. We went down and ate pizza and made a banana, mango, and carrot lassi for lunch. He drank a lot of that, and ate some of the carrot before it went into the smoothie – it was much like the video from a year ago of him eating grated carrot.

He requested the elements song and he was singing along with it – he’s getting more and more of the words. We then read a few chapters of the Magic Treehouse #10 book. He went back to music and was walking around singing “Look up at the clouds” and chose others songs.

We got out for a walk at 2. He wanted to hear the clouds song again on my phone. We stopped by the entrance to the trail and were looking upat the clouds, which he said looked like people. We then sang “Down by the bay” I made up a line about grasshoppers, and he asked “Does grasshoppers sparkle things?” I was really confused until I got him to say it was from a Sarah and Duck Christmas episode. We went down and had fun in the echo tunnel, then walked up to the main road and took a left and walked up to the strawberry stand. It was closed, then we took a right and walked the dirt road home.

On the road we first spotted horseshoe prints, then tractor tracks, then dog prints so we followed all three. At the top of the hill we saw a school group coming. August initially said he was going to yell ‘go’ at them and started to. I threatened walking back the way we had come and he changed his mind. We stopped at the park on Vatikim and played with the ball thing. August was interested in which hole the ball would come out, but he wouldn’t get off the bike. So I played by myself. I finally got him off the bike when we found a big branch on the ground with thorns on it and he wanted to pick up the branch. We then stopped at our park and had a snack and listened to the Mr. Nicky dinosaur song on my phone.

We got home at 3:45. As we came in I said there was something I wanted to do when we got home but I couldn’t remember what it was. He said “Watch Sarah and Duck!” I said “Ahh, that’s it. Good job remembering.” He replied “Sometimes I remember things you don’t remember. But sometimes I don’t remember things you don’t remember. But this time, I do!” We figured out it was the Petal Light Picking episode, and there was indeed a grasshopper that hops across some glowing flowers, although it only lasts about two seconds. Interesting that he picked up on that. We then watched the Balloon Race episode. Carly got home, and they Skyped with Cherie.

Carly then headed to the bank to deposit some cash. August chose to stay here. We read the new Berenstain Bears books: Sitter and Visit the Dentist. August remembered Simple Machines (I had mentioned it when we were reading the Berenstain Bears Science Project book at the library yesterday and talking about wedges and pullies). So he played Simple Machines and Carly was home a bit later.

We had some dinner, then August was picking Carly’s backpack up and setting it on the couch. She asked “What are you doing with my backpack?” He replied “Lifing it up. I’m a pulley. I have six pullies.”

He was getting tired early, as was to be expected. We got him up and his pajamas on. I told him to dream about pullies. He was asleep at 7.

Looking at cloud shapes: 

Through the echoy tunnel: 

Following tracks: 

He was up with the alarm again. Around 3am he was up enough that I was afraid he was waking up for good but Carly got him back to sleep. He watched Timmy Time again this morning. As Carly was getting ready to leave, August decided he wanted to go for a walk. So we were getting ready as well and about to leave a minute after Carly left. But she came back, asking if we could give her a ride to work as it was about to rain. It then started pouring, and we waited a minute until it slowed before we hurried out to the car.

On the way we listened to “The Elements” song so Carly could hear her. As we got home he sang Yankee Doodle to the tune of London Bridge. We then played the new Montessori Shapes app. Kind of cool as it has all sorts of advanced shapes. We then skyped with my parents. August typed Arabic numbers to them. Afterwards, he was being a kitten. At one point he wanted some of the string from the roll of twine I was using to hang the hooks. I cut him some and he played with it like a kitten. I also took care of him, giving him (pretend) food and water. I finished hanging the hooks by the door in the entryway so now August can get down and hang up his own sweatshirts.

He played “Lightly Row” in Chordana and then watched one episode of Timmy Time. He then watched Arabic and Hebrew vocab songs. There is one that talks about learning Arabic to read the Koran, etc. and he was singing along to the words. I exercised and showered.

We then went downstairs to make some lunch. He was being cranky and trying to stomp on the floor and hit the living room wall. Had to take him upstairs a couple times, which just slowed down making lunch. We had falafel, sweet potato fries, and apple. We listened to the elements songs as we ate.

We then did some pretending: “Can we be lungs not getting oxygen?…a body dying on the moon?” “Words dying? That means someone put the wrong letter in us!” He wanted hot tea so we had tea and read the bacteria book. We were then hedgehogs. I liked his sentence: “It seems to me we have to curl up in a ball.” Next read Berenstain Bears The Trouble with Pets.

He got back to pretending, but forgot where we were: “Hey dada, what are we? Hedgehogs? Kittens? Oh, I’m a little puppy.”

We got ready to go, he played with a wire twisty tie thing and was impressed that he couldn’t ruin it, then we headed to school. Headed into the library about 2. He really liked the fireplace made out of books Christmas display with two of the stuffed dogs lying in front of it. Looked at that and the Christmas lights for a few minutes, then headed back to the kids section. Liz was there and asked him if he liked the display and he said yes. She was a couple aisles away after we grabbed a bunch of Berenstain Bears books to read, and I remembered that the online catalog had said that they had The 91-Story Treehouse. I suggested he go ask Liz and he went and asked “Do you have 91 Story Treehouse?” We read part of the Berenstain Bear Science Fair book, then went out and sat in the winter display area in a beanbag. He reached up and grabbed a book off the shelf and it was a Harry Potter book. I found Chamber of Secrets (they didn’t have the first book) and August first lounged there and pretended to read it by himself. We then read a few pages of it together. August liked that Harry was a wizard and some of the descriptions of the Dursleys.

We checked out our books and headed to the playground at 3:20. Wasn’t really rainy, but it was a chilly wind. He sat in the Jeep and was hungry so ate a whole banana. He started singing “Hop on the water cycle” and I didn’t even know what it was, but then he told me we listened to it in the car when we were listening to science songs. It is a song off of Mr. Nicky’s Science Project.

It got a bit rainy and windier, so we decided to head back to the library. We sat in a chair in the lobby and ate a Larabar. We listened to the Water Cycle song on my phone and Carly came and found us. She had gotten our insurance today AND got a call that our car was on the lot and we could pick it up. Well, sort of. Then they said it hadn’t been washed yet. But we pushed and said we were picking it up anyway so we could return the rental car.

So we drove to the Skoda dealership. August got to have one last spin in the spinny chairs, as an uncensored Eminem song, then a rather not-safe-for-work music video played on the big TV behind him. Carly did some signing and August played with Shmuel’s calculator (he was shy about asking for it, but we got him to do most of the asking, although he wouldn’t say ‘calculator’). Then it was out to the car. I got in and got the tour.

Then we were off. I put the car seat in the new car andAugust and I drove the new car home. Carly took the rental car to get gas. The navigation screen was really quite cool: it showed me the map, while my phone, in the holder next to it, showed the upcoming instructions. We were home at 5:30. Carly was home soon after.

We had dinner (he had chocolate pancake, soup, and pita). He was upset when I wouldn’t let him have more pita, even though he had barely touched his chocolate pancake (his loss, my gain). He melted down, ready for sleep. He needed to go to the bathroom though, and as he sat on the floor, crying, he said “I will NEVER do it! Can’t you just kill me?” Turned his mood around pretty quickly with the bell and letting him ring it to tell us he was done. I told him to dream about the new car and he was asleep at 6:50.

Had a good downpour a bit later. August then came out at 8:50. Carly took him back in and had him soon back to sleep.

Grumpy after his shower: 

Reading: 

Snack in the Jeep: 

New car! 

Hanging up his coat: 

He was up with Carly’s alarm. They got out of bed a bit later. He was finishing a Timmy Time episode when I got up, then he watched StoryBots Christmas. They nursed before Carly left. When Carly said she had to leave soon he said “I’m gonna cancel that out.” Carly left and we read two Berenstain Bears books: Get in a Fight and Bad Habit. Zucchini bread for breakfast. We pretended to be snails hiding in a shell when it rained or someone walked by. He wanted popcorn so we made a bowl, then read Amelia Bedelia and the Cat

He watched Sarah and Duck and I exercised and took a shower. He then played GarageBand and was looking up chords in Piano Companion. We went downstairs and I made sandwiches for lunch. He wanted spoonfuls of things so had some peanut butter, jam, and honey.

Somehow, we then became water, I think the sewage overflow that was leaking out of the driveway/storage area (not sure if I mentioned that Shmuel had come and fixed it while we were gon on Friday and he now wants us to not put toilet paper in the toilets): “Come on dada, let’s flow into the street…Where should we go now, dada water?” We turned it into acting out the water cycle, using the couch and pillows as the mountains that we would then erode before flowing back to the ocean, etc. Then: “We can pee upstairs. We’re clouds; we pee rain.”

As we went upstairs he got creative with his weights and numbers: “Do you weigh negative (something)?” “Thats a number with 99 quafzillion zeros after it.” Made his own shower mildly more manageable by pretending he was a cloud soaking up more water. Afterwards we ended up singing the “Down by the Bay” song and making up new verses that end the line “My mom will say, have you ever seen a…” One of August’s best was “eagle pooping on a seagull?”

He saw the ‘On this day…’ notification on my phone and we ended up looking at Day One. A year ago today we had gone to the Seoul Grand Zoo and there was a photo of him on the wrong side of a sign saying the waterbird area was closed. There was also a video of him finding out that he liked carrots and telling us to grate more carrots. The bird flu photo led to us acting out a bird being sick with bird flu and a zookeeper (with mask, gloves, etc.) taking care of it.

We left the house at 10 and drove north about a half hour to the Technoda Science Center. We had tried to come by here once with Carly on a holiday but it was closed. As we parked and got out he said “I want to blast that monster but there’s a person in the way.” He had spotted the tower from the coal plant just to the north and I told him about it and that it ran on coal: “So it makes a lot of pollution?” He then said

“The power plant I get my electricity from for my rockets runs on coal, actually.”

Not a very inviting place. We had to be let in the gate, but the security officer wasn’t at his post at first. Inside, there was no info. We paid our 24 shekels and she told us to start in the outside portion. No flyer, etc. She had to buzz us to the outside area. We went out and started with the water stuff: pumps and one of the spiral things, and a water wheel, etc. We talked about all the different ways of moving water and why it was so important. Then he needed to use the bathroom. The door we had come out was locked, of course, but there was no way to alert anyone. Knocked on the door, but no response. We checked the other doors and found a different door unlocked. Found a bathroom. First toilet we looked at had a sketchy looking toilet seat, He refused it, and we went to a different one: “It’s not pinchy, dada…No, I will never want to go to the pinchy toilet. Not for NINETY NINE years.”

We went back outside and went to the musical instrument stuff. Okay, but nothing too thrilling. We stopped and sat outside and ate our lunch. Played around some more, then he was ready for the inside area.

But first, we had to ask to go in that part, as the door was closed. We had to wait while they got a key and came and opened it up. She then left it unlocked. The odd thing was that there was a mother and her son already in there. So I don’t know what the heck was going on.

Luckily, the inside stuff was well worth our time and we spent a lot of time there. He got really excited by a funhouse mirror that made him look really tall:”I’m as tall as a seven year old!” “I’m like a 9,000 year old!”

Although he liked everything inside, he was nervous and wanted me to carry him everyplace, and often didn’t want to be set down. I think it has to primarily do with all of the loud, odd noises. He was always bothered by them at the science centers in Seoul, as well. So I carried him around for the first hour. It was only when we started going over things for the second or third time that he relaxed and was running around on his own.

One of our favorite things was the tracks that had these cars that you set on them and watched the run down – gravity and all that. I was able to remind him of the Max Axiom book and Newton. In fact, in one area there were pictures of Einstein and Newton on the wall and we were able to discuss them: he identified Einstein from Peg + Cat and Einsteinium in the “Elements” song, and I reminded him of Newton in the Max Axiom book. He then really liked playing with the magnets: both magnets stacked on a post, repelling each other, and train cars with magnets on each end. We had read that Max Axiom book on magnets so he had an idea about the different poles and the attraction/repulsion. Also, then had a tennis ball shooting air cannon.

They kind of randomly have a section of historical ship models, which as admittedly more fun for me, although he could read the years of their operation in Arabic, which was pretty cool. Other cool stuff included fluids not mixing, a section on optical illusions, a place where he could make heat hand prints, a place you could control a surveillance camera in the center of the room (also had these in Seoul – what do they have to do with science???), a whirlpool thing, a couple kaleidoscope things, a periscope, etc.

Oh, and the chair of nails. He walked up to it and touched it with one finger and said it was pokey. I explained though that when you sat on it your weight would be distributed and it wouldn’t be pokey. Before I could actually test my explanation to make sure it was correct, he simply turned around and started sitting on it. A cool bit of bravery, and a sign he was feeling more comfortable.

He also liked the three dimensional puzzles, and made progress with actually flipping pieces, and not just rotating them, when putting together ‘H’ and ‘T’ shaped puzzles. He has always found that difficult in the past.

There was a sort of infinite kaleidoscope thing and he was excited that there were and “infinity” of stars in it. Finally, in the black light area he had fun with the Tesla coil thing (I think that’s what it’s called, although I might be getting them mixed up).

We went back and covered his favorite section again (hand prints, surveillance camera, rotating pen thing), then made sure we’d done everything: I lifted him with pulleys while he sat in chairs, etc.

We finished up, then wanted to do the spiraling coin donation thing. Didn’t have any agora coins (the partial shekels). In fact, only had 5 shekel coins. We got him a grape juice out of a machine and had a 1 shekel coin left. Asked at the desk for change. They didn’t have any. So he rolled the 1 shekel coin down the ramp. It fell over though and didn’t roll very well. He wasn’t bothered though.

We went and sat outside and drank the grape juice: “It’s really good, dada.” I asked how he liked the science center and got an enthusiastic thumbs up: “I’m gonna put a thumbs up on the building with my shooting thumbs up machine.”

We went back inside to use the bathroom before we left. As we went in he asked “Is there anything for me to blast? I haven’
t blasted anything in quite awhile.” I bought a drink for the road and had another shekel coin, so we did the spiral again. Entertained a bunch of kids with it. August had fun making sure he saw it drop to the bottom. Afterwards, he said he made sure he didn’t blink – a reference to the Garfield strip where Garfield is staring at a tree in the fall with one leaf left, and when he blinks the leaf falls and he misses it.

We left after 2, so spent 3 hours. As I put him in his seat in the car he did the head pushing game (head butt) that he insists on winning. So I then started kissing him a lot and declared myself the winner of the kissing game.

We were listening to the Tom Lehrer Elements song. August would call out element names when he recognized them, then say things like “I turned into Californium.” I had sent an email to Carly saying, cryptically, “Today August sat on a chair of nails. He’s okay.” She called for details and to ask if I was kidding. I had her on speakerphone and asked August if he had sat on a chair of nails: “Yeah!”

We got to Ace at 2:30. Quick trip in, getting one can of spray paint for the back of the shelves, a power strip, and a small thing of nails.

Then to Tiv Taam where we made a quick trip, getting two boxes of popcorn (one butter, one plain) so Carly wouldn’t be out, apples, and bananas. Both Ace and Tiv Taam are out of the big stick-on hooks I was using for our coat hanging nook.

Finally, we looked quickly at the art store. August didn’t really want to look around. We want a globe, but they just had one and it wasn’t too impressive.

I emailed Carly, asking if she wanted us to pick her up. We had some time, so we sat in the car and listened to more science songs I found in iTunes. We then drove up and picked Carly up and headed home.

Carly cooked the rest of the chocolate pancakes and August ate one. He and I read Berenstain Bears Get Into a Fight, Class Two at the Zoo, and Cat on the Mat Is Flat – he wanted to act out many of the stories.

Carly went in the bathroom with him, and he said something negative/mean. She asked “Why do you say those negative things?” He responded with “Because negative times positive equals negative.” Not sure where he learned that – maybe from us playing with the calculator when we got to Infinity Duck on our way back from Jerusalem.

He was then playing chords on the toy piano and would walk to the iPad and type in the letters in a document. We then switched to the ‘Reverse Chord Lookup’ in Piano Companion and he spent a lot of time playing the chords in there and asking about their names. Really cool. And when Carly came to see what he was doing he was teaching her how to do it and play the chords. And he was teaching her: he modeled it, then told her it was her turn. When she missed a note he encouraged her to try again. Even cooler.

We took him upstairs for bed, although he kept wanting to do more and more chords, even as he was yawning and rubbing his eyes. In the bed he was a squirrel, then we all were, and he wanted a squirrel family hug. We talked about dreaming about “nuts and acorns”, then he added “water wheels”. He was asleep at 7:30.

Reading Arabic numbers: 

Counting reflections: 

Dada-Zinnie monster: 

Lightning: 

Ace. Playing with a saw: 

Reading time: 

He got up with with Carly around 7. I was up at 7:30. He watched Timmy Time. He was grumpy to Carly when she left for work: “Have a NOT good day at work.” A bit later I got up to go to the bathroom. When I was slow in actually heading to the bathroom he came over and was pushing me from behind, saying “If you never go to the bathroom I will smashify you.” We ate zucchini bread and after his episode was over he watched some of the Formula E race with me and he had us being racing cars. He was also really interested in all the numbers: battery percentages, power used, etc. He was upset when I put the iPad away but agreed to a walk.

We walked for 20 or 30 minutes. I had messaged Jack about returning his key but didn’t get a response. When we were over by the house though August said we were getting pulled in that direction and he seemed to want to visit. He spent some time blasting monsters in the park but wouldn’t get out to play around. We were back to the house after 8:40.

Once inside we were suddenly ants. The house was our nest and he wanted me to find crumbs for the baby ant. When he went to the bathroom he asked how the mouthwash got refilled: “Did it fill up itself or was it magic?” I asked if he wanted the real answer or to keep it magic. He decided “Keep it magic.”

He played Math Tango and was doing more of the puzzles on his own. He saw me typing a message and asked “Are you sending an email to Carly?” Later, in talking about how he could send messages to my phone he said “Just from Carly’s?”

I exercised while he played Math Tango, then he switched to Timmy Time and I took a shower, then gave him his. We went back downstairs at 10:40 and made sandwich pizzas – one with olives and one without. He helped me cut the olives off the pits.

Jack came over to pick up the key and when I answered the door Jack pretended to be the downstairs neighbor complaining about noise. August liked this, and was stomping around. As Jack left he said “Lets keep making too much noise…for Jack.”

August wanted tea and instead of putting sugar in it this time I used honey. I let August lick the spoon I used and he wanted more and got rather demanding. We ate our pizza and he got descriptive of the cheese: “gooey, ooey, poopy, waste water treatment plant-y.”

We then went upstairs to play GarageBand. He then helped me put the CD from the nursery rhyme game into the computer. Then in on the bed he decided were were bacteria and eating teeth: “Okay, dada germ.” He took the pillow cases off of the pillows to turn them into white teeth.

Throughout the morning though he was being pretty clingy. Even when he was playing by himself he would need me to come over every minute or two. So hard to get anything done.

I went out to start laundry and he knocked over the cardboard rocket and hid in it. We then played in it together and he wanted to take blurry photos and do videos.

We talked about what to do today and he said he wanted to go to noodle place – earlier he had wanted to go out for pizza. We made a game of throwing his pajamas and a paper towel roll up and down the stairs. Then we were looking at Google Maps to decide where to go today. He wanted to look around though so I used my phone, which at first he also wanted to control. Then he found a game on my iPad which I’d downloaded but never played called Looty Dungeon. I showed it to him, thinking it would be too stressful for him when the character got killed by a spike or fell in a hole. I was wrong. August liked getting the money in the treasure chests.

At some point he also helped spray WD-40 to get some of the windows moving better. I also got the long skinny window at the top of the stairs working to get some warm air in while we were playing up there.

Back to talking about what to do, I mentioned doing recycling. He said “I will recyclify you.” He suggested a small walk: “Let’s go for a little walk…just down the steps and back.” He was being a little grumpy.

Finally, we headed out for a walk at 3. He cheered up when I squeezed the bad mood out of him. He was then playing with the bad mood, saying he put it on the bike, a post, me, etc. Jack spotted us as he drove the other direction and stopped and asked if he could get a ride to the guy’s night tonight. August didn’t quite catch what had happened and asked what I had said. I explained that Jack had jus stopped across the street. He said “Hey. You can’t talk to Jack. He’s like 19 blocks away.” After he wanted a snack and I made him ask politely he said “Dada, could you stop making me say please?”

We stopped at the unnamed park on the right side of the street as we walk up into downtown. There were kids that had a table covered with cheap toys and one came over and asked, I think, if we wanted to buy anything. I declined, but a bit later they came and gave August a little package of plastic tools. He played on the snakes and ladders board while I tried to call the car rental place to extend our rental. They aren’t good at answering the phone. We then went over to the exercise equipment area and played around on that. I was talking about what would happen in the evening and August said he wanted to go out to dinner with me. We went back and he did more hopscotch and snake and ladders, then we left by 4.

We stopped at our park and he played on the green chair thing. Then continued home and got here at 4:15. I managed to get through to the rental car place and August played Toca Blocks. Carly got home, and I soon left to go pick up Jack and head to the guy’s night.

Only 6 of us this time. We headed to BBB again and I got the market burger. Rick rode with me over there. I told both our car stories and updates on the neighbor situation multiple times. At the end of dinner I was saying that hopefully next time my update would be that we got our car and had solved the neighbor situation, end of story, and other people could do more of the talking. We were all pretty undecided about seeing the film, Justice League, and almost didn’t go. But Bruce convinced us and 5 of us (except Chris) went. It wasn’t a great movie, but fun to see in the theater and we were all happy we did go.

While I was gone they went to a walk to the pharmacy to get shower caps for the pie throwing contest that was going to happen at school. He wanted to ask if they had shower caps and asked on his own “Do you have shower caps?” At the end he said “Lehitrah ot!” He was interested in the pie in the face thing and kept asking “Is this a joke?”

Back at home they ate popcorn and watched Planet Earth. He was more into it this time. They read a Berenstain Bears book and pretended to be animals. He was asleep about 7:30.

Rockets: 

Being blurry: 

Mandy picked up Carly at 6 and they headed to Jerusalem for their West Bank tour with Saveel. I didn’t see her in the morning and kept sleeping. August woke up at 6:30 and asked where mama was. When I said she had left for work he wasn’t not upset at all and barely mentioned her. He headed downstairs before me and ‘hid’ from me on the couch when I came down. He was then trying out all the light switches. He asked “Dada, where should we go today?” He asked it again at least once later. He doesn’t usually show much initiative in thinking about leaving the house.

We read a lot of the Peppa Pig treasury then sent messages and video to Carly. We played MathTango and then he requested tea, so we drank tea together. He played Yankee Doodle on the piano. I played the CD collection of Hebrew children’s songs that was playing in the sculpture at Ra’anana Park and he sat, listening and playing/humming along. He wanted to find something by blasting, so we blasted upstairs to find clothes for going outside. He then asked “Can we sneak up on GarageBand?”Don’t know why. We played guitar and recorded him singing Yankee Doodle. Still upstairs we watched Arabic alphabet and Hebrew colors videos. We discussed doing a longer Hebrew song with the nikkud (vowel marks) but he specifically mentioned the mem sofit with a dagesh in it, which shows up if you press and hold on the iPad/iPhone keyboard. So we looked up dagesh in Wikipedia and learned all about it, but no mention of it in a mem. So still a mystery.

I took a shower and he watched the StoeyBots Christmas special that was just released. I watched the end with him. We read much of the Peppa Pig collection. Got his clothes off for his shower, but he cuddled with blankets in his bed. He asked for more so I got him the blankets off our bed. He asked for the lights of so he could see the stars.

Got him through his shower, then we were aphids eating things. Not quite sure how that one started. He was playing with the weights by the guitar and managed to scare the heck out of me by rolling it across the carpet. It kept rolling, then down the stairs to the midway landing. No damage, but plenty of noise.

We got going. First stop was at a McDonald’s north of Even Yehuda. He got his first Happy Meal. He chose the corn sticks (the vegetarian option), apple juice, the Powerpuff Girls toy, fries, ketchup, and the fruit squeeze. I got a fish sandwich and shared his fries. He was a little bothered that I was eating fish, as he was still being an aphid and wanted us to be eating all plants. We chose everything with one of those computer screens, but the staff still managed to screw up his Happy Meal three ways: first, no ketchup. I went and asked for that. Then his squeeze was missing. Went and got that. Finally, he got the wrong toy. Luckily, he didn’t care, and in fact quite liked what he got: a little microphone thing that makes your voice echoey. So he sang through that.

We then walked around the outdoor mall. He was blasting monsters everywhere. We looked in the bookstore for awhile, finding Frog and Toad, Not a Box, and several other books in Hebrew. August wanted to get some and translate Hebrew words, but we didn’t get anything. Went and found the bathroom before we left, then drove north to Alexander Stream.

We had walked along Alexander Stream with Carly back when it was hotter. We hadn’t gone far. I put in a park on the west side of the highway this time and Waze took me on backroads to get there.

We got out at the park at 2:15. August had been getting drowsy as we got there. Went to get him in the backpack and he was leaning on a metal bench. “No, I don’t want to do this. I want to rest.” He rested for a minute then we got in the backpack. The park was where we had stopped last time with Carly when we found the locked gate across a bridge. The pedestrian gate was still locked, but there was vehicle gate right next to it that was just latched with a chain, but no lock.

We got walking and went about a mile downstream until August decided he wanted to turn back and we were running out of time. As we were walking he was singing an Ants Go Marching song with decimals: “The ants go marching 1 point 3…” With lines like “…to plant a garden…to put down fertilizer.”. When we had smelled a field with fertilizer he said “I think I smell a poop monster.” He was also wanting to send messages to Carly and have her respond but I said she might not as she had turned off her phone because the battery was low. He said “I think it’s form my powers, my power to keep things safe…Sorry, I don’t have my own battery, so I have to be connected to other people.” And when we decided to stop for a snack he steered me by my shoulders and said he was using his remote control.

On the way back we found a really thorny plant. He said “It will pointify you…There’s more of the pointifying plants.” As we got close to the end we were walking on a path that is basically a sidewalk along a dirt road. A truck was coming towards us and he said “You know there’s a truck coming by, right?”

When we got back to the gate we had a problem: the chain was now locked. Would have been a good additional mile to walk around. Luckily, it was loose so just enough space for us to crawl through. August went through first and I lowered the backpack over the fence, then squeezed through.

In the car we took the highway back and went to the Drorim Mall. We bought slippers for Carly for pajama day at school and had free samples at the health food store and bought a bar of soap and chipotle veganaise.

We drove home, dropped off our stuff inside, then walked over to Jack and Celeste’s house, about 4:30. We got Nellie and took her for a walk. Nellie came to the door at first, but then when we came in she actually seemed a bit scared of us and ran into the living room. Got the leash on her though and she was ready for a walk. We walked her for about half an hour. It took some adjustment for her at first: she would get wound up with August’s bike and a couple times she looked over and seemed startled to see August next to her. And when we walked along the main street she tried to keep away from the bike and kept going down into the street, into the parking strip. August was concerned about her.

We walked down to the big trail and back. Along the walk August reminded me it was two scoops of food, although he said he didn’t know which size cup. Back at the house I had August put the scoops in the bowl. As we walked home I asked him if he wanted to walk Nellie again sometime. He had seemed to have a lot of fun. But he gave two thumbs down and said “I don’t want to hear that again for a very long time.” Earlier, at the end of the walk along the stream he’d given two thumbs up, although he later adjusted it to thumbs between.

On the way home he told me to go faster and I said “faster, driver, faster” His reply: “Dada, I don’t do that anymore.” It was dark as we walked down the path behind our house and we stopped to look at some colorful lights in a backyard that changed color. I picked him up to see them. As we left he said “Bye bye glowing things even though they can’t hear cuz they’re not people.”

Home at 5:25. August was a puppy and I put water in a bowl for him and he drank it on the floor. He then played with the Dr. PetPlay app and we put Peter Rabbit in it. I got other stuffed animals down, but we didn’t get around to adding them. We sent some messages to Carly and figured out how to send a GIF of August sticking out his tongue.

I got dinner ready as he played with the pet app and we listened to the new U2 album and ate dinner. He was still pretending to be a puppy and opened the kitchen door, pretended to pee outside, and came back in. He was playing chords on the piano and naming out the notes: “C E G” He started that without being able to see the letters on the keys, so he’s starting to get them memorized. He th
en took the board out so he could see the letters.

He requested tea so we made tea for both of us and sat and read Amelia Bedelia Under Construction as we drank our tea. Brushed his teeth and watched some Arabic alphabet song videos, then read Yertle the Turtle. Carly came in the door just as we finished the story. He wanted to nurse and Carly took him upstairs. He said he’d dream about turtles and walking dogs. I left them at 7:45 and he was soon asleep.

Making funny faces: 

Slipping through the fence: 

Feeding Nellie: 

We were all awake before 7 but then had a lazy Saturday morning and didn’t get out of bed until close to 7:30. August was being a baby squirrel. Carly set him up on his bed and he watched one episode of Timmy Time and ate zucchini bread. He and I then sat out in the play area and read Kiss Goodnight, some Pooh poems and the story where he gets stuck, Plant a Tree with Me, and Frog on a Log. They nursed on the Zinnie bed.

We played Math Tango, the new app from Originator (they made Endless Alphabet, etc.) on the big bed, then went downstairs. Carly was making soup. I was carrying August around and we were a concrete truck, putting concrete down for a building. He ate a whole bowl of oatmeal and said he was getting more concrete. I went and took a shower. He said “Now I have a lot of concrete in me.” Carly had made the soup from a jar mix thing she had gotten at Tiv Taam. Didn’t have a ton of flavor, so August told me he chose spices to add to the soup. Turned out well in the end and we ate some. He played with the tracing Arabic app and showed Carly how it worked, then we did Arabic and Hebrew videos. He said “Dada, we’ve watched a lot of videos. Time to do something else.”

He and I went outside and did watering and he played with sap. He found that the big mass of sap at the bottom of the tree, which we’d been watching since we got here, is now gooey. Perhaps because of the rain? He poked holes in it with his big stick.

We left for a walk before 1. As we got close to the mall he said he was running out of power but “I have enough power to make it to the coffee shop and wait.” We went to Rebar and he and Carly got the same Creamy Cocoa smoothie, but without the hazelnuts this time. Drank it at a table for a minute, then August said we could go shopping. We helped out in Tiv Taam and all went well until we were checking out.

Carly had put the smoothie in the back of the bike. While we were bagging groceries he spotted it and went and grabbed it. I’m not sure what happened – if Carly was taking it from him or he was handing it to her or he just dropped it – but it fell a few inches to the floor, landing upright. But the impact burst the bottom and it started leaking. I spirited him and the smoothie out the door and told him he could quickly drink what was left. That didn’t really happen though as he tried to come back in the store, then when Carly tried picking up the cup all the rest poured out. It wasn’t much of the overall smoothie, but it doesn’t take much smoothie to make a big mess. We felt bad leaving the messes, but had no way to clean it up and we told the checker.

At the store August had chosen some tea. I was going to choose some new tea for iced tea anyway. Turned out it was lemon and ginger tea. And it was an excellent choice, both for hot tea for August and as iced tea. Made both when we got home and he remembered it. He really liked it,but I had made him a pretty full mug and as he sat at the table he spilled it. He initially told me he wanted it to spill, but I don’t think that was the case. He refused to help clean it up though. Then when I was doing part of it he was kicking me in the back, upset. I went up to Carly, who was re-washing the mattress cover by hand and switched with her. She got him to help with clean up, then come up and give me a good apology. I talked to him and he agreed he’d help clean up next time there was a spill. They then nursed and I did some dishes.

He played more Chordana, then after 3 we all went over to see Jack and find out about walking Nellie for them tomorrow while they are in the West Bank with Carly. August didn’t really like the idea of taking care of Nellie. But we went over and took Nellie out on a short walk with Jack and it went okay. On the way back or there August and I sang our numbers at the bottom of the sea variations.

We came home and August and I loaded up the bike with all the recycling and headed up to the cages. Did cardboard, then went home for the recycling. As we walked up to the house August said he smelled popcorn. He was correct – Carly had made popcorn. We went up and did all the plastic and glass recycling. Couldn’t get him to go for a walk or play at the park though as he wanted to get back and have more popcorn.

Came home and ate some more popcorn. Then he sang a song: “There’s an aquabent at the bottom of the moon…that’s another way of saying ‘chair’.” Carly was making chocolate pancakes for August and I pointed out how nice she is. He said “Nicest EVER mama…She’s so nice I can’t even…(thinking time)… understand her.” So cute.

We ate pancakes, then read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day. He was then acting out what we had learned about taking care of Nellie: “I’m a little cat. Can your take care of me? My owner’s gone.”  He was getting fur all over the house.

They read Berenstain Bears New Baby in Spanish. He was a cat again. I was feeding him and he was cuddling. I got curry, hummus, etc. for dinner and August wanted some too so we had a second dinner. He said he was ready to go upstairs and play on the bed. I said I needed a minute to finish eating and Carly said she’d go up and play with him. He said “Let’s do really little flops with mama, then really, really, really big flops with you.” Because he knows Carly doesn’t like the big flops.

I went up and we played in bed. More flops, then read some of Teddy and Co. (we just have the sample), then took blurry and burst photos. His first time doing burst photos so I was teaching him how that works and how you then choose which to keep. He was then a dog chewing pillows. I tried to get a good photo, but should have done a video. We read some Plumdog, then he ‘helped’ put on the sheets and was being crazy. He sneezed right before he started nursing. I asked “Are you going to dream about sneezes?” He said “Yeah” and gave a thumbs up. I left them at 7:40 and he was soon asleep.

Smoothie: 

Tragedy: 

Trying out the dog walking: 

Being blurry: 

We were all awake at 5:45, then out of bed around 6. Carly set him up in his room and he watched Timmy Time. I went in and watched an episode with him. They nursed. He asked me to squeeze the bad mood out of him. Was then typing and copying and pasting on my iPad. Carly headed to work. We read Berenstain Bears Slumber Party and Bad Habit. During the latter he interrupted me and said “I was also dreaming about drinking apple cinnamon tea in my sleep….please, please, please, please…infinity pleases times infinity pleases!”

We went downstairs and he was a space probe: “I’m gonna take pictures of the solar system while you make my tea.” When I gave him his vitamins he made a pentagon out of them on his own for the first time.

We then made zucchini bread. He helped a lot and played around on his own when he wasn’t. Licked the spatula and ate some strawberries and walked around singing “There’s a Q at the bottom of the sea” and reciting Hebrew numbers. I cooked the leftover zucchini and he ate the rest of the strawberries and a few bites of zucchini. He watched that ABCKids TV video and I exercised and took a shower. I then ran down and took out the bread then went back up and and we watched to Z in the video together.

Went down and ate some bread. “I want you to mow that zucchini bread.” Not sure where that came from. We read some more of the Magic Treehouse book. He asked “Are you gonna coral reef me?” I asked “What’s that mean?” “Get me all wet.” He’s really into turning things into verbs. He was then being a shark. I then took him up for his shower. They are going okay nowadays until you touch his hair. Vacuumed the couch and rugs due to his crumbs. Then as we were getting ready to go he said “Uh-oh. I pressed 30 9s…on those buttons over there…I don’t know what they do, but you push them and they do something…uh-oh, it’s happening…the house is moving! We’re being carried up to the moon!”

We left at 11:10. He chose a radio station and Led Zeppelin’s “All My Love” was playing. He said “This is good music.” I switched to the phone and we were listening to Chemical Brothers. Said he liked that too.

We got to Planetanya and paid to play in the science playground outside – just 10 shekels. And we got a button commemorating 60 years since Sputnik, so he and I talked about that a few times. The first big section we did was the curved mirrors and optical illusions. We pretended to be zombies and monsters in the mirrors. August said “This park is really interesting.” Then to the middle part with the gravity swing thing, gyroscope, etc. We had fun with those then went inside to use the bathroom. He got pinched by the toilet seat so we had to change toilets.

When we came back out we first walked to the entrance with a sign telling you to walk up to the building to pay. I mentioned something about us going in the wrong entrance and August wanted us to walk around to the correct entrance. I told him it was okay, as we had already paid, but we walked around anyway. We played with the curved disks that let you hear someone a long way away and talked back and forth. Then the sound areas, with the xylophones and vibrating rods, and frequency table things. And then he took what may be his first video of me as I walked in a giant hamster wheel.

Finished with walking down to the Japanese Garden and looked at fish and sat and ate leftover pizza and apples for lunch. We talked about the Japanese person who donated money. “Uh-uh. There’s no Japanese guy cuz he died, right?” Don’t know why he would assume that the person had died (or was a man).

We left at 1:15. He had me push a button: “We can go home in our MAGIC CAR! It can stay in the air all day….The whole Planetanya is floating.”

He had requested the “elements” song sometime recently and I had figured out he meant the Tom Lehrer song “The Elements”, from his Year 3 playlist. We listened to that a few times along with the They Might Be Giants and Blackalicious songs. But the Lehrer is his favorite and he’d repeat elements that he recognized: “Sodium, dada!”

We drove to the Ir Yamin mall. Parked and found the back entrance we didn’t think existed. Went to Rebar (the smoothie place) and got the Creamy Cocoa smoothie – the one he gets with Carly, but left the hazelnuts in. I figured out how to do the smoothie and shopping after his meltdown last weekend waiting for the smoothie: get him the smoothie first and let him drink it while I go into shops. We did that, but I wasn’t very successful: looking for more underwear for him, but didn’t find anything the same as what we just got him, and found slippers for Carly but they were pricey. She wants them for pajama day at school.

So we left at 2:25. We ere finishing up the smoothie and August kindly volunteered to do it: “I’ll finish it now. SOMEONE has to finish it.” As we walked to the car I almost walked by it as I forgot I’d backed in the spot. August said something. When I went back he then scanned the license plate with his hand and said “Identifying” and read off the numbers. I had him recreate it for a video, but it wasn’t nearly as perfect.

We listened to more of the elements songs and went to the Drorim Mall near our house. When we got out I saw he’d been playing piano on his iPad and was figuring out Yankee Doodle. He was in the Chordana app and told me he’d played “Lightly Row” a few times and likes that song.

We went in and made a quick trip: bought two more packs of underwear for August. He was upset when I signed the electronic signature pad. Then scouted out slippers for Carly and took photos. Then into Tiv Taam. He agreed to just getting milk, but I was able to stretch it to include pita. I let him help sign the paper slip, but the reminder about the electronic pad was too much. He got really said and as we walked out of the mall he kept reaching back, telling me to go back that way and buy something. As we got close to the car I cheered him up by squeezing out he bad mood, then he was squeezing it out himself: “I squeezed it out of myself…onto you.” We left at 3:15.

We turned by the school and I realized Carly was getting off. We stopped by the private pool and called her. Then went back and picked her up when she came out.

At home he played the piano and Yankee Doodle. He was trying to get Carly to hurry, probably to nurse, and said”Hurry, quick, before I meditate you!” She had mentioned meditating, I think, and he was jokingly turning it into a different kind of verb (the kind where you perform an action on someone/something….blanking right now).

He was then sending Carly messages using my phone. When he went to the bathroom he told me “Dada, you can keep sending Carly things.” Which is funny for at least two reasons (called her Carly and she was in the room, so why would I want to send her messages…)

They skyped with Cherie, then he and I Magic Treehouse 9. There was more looking to the end of the book to make sure they survived the cracking sub before we could keep reading. Sigh. We read some Plumdog, then watched Lucy & Pogo.

Started the blasting game by saying “I blasted that caterpillar that was going to teleport us to KOREA!” Then he was blasting things on the bed. He asked for water and I said that was a job for Superdad. When I got back he said “Thank you superdada!”

He told me “I’m gonna dream about airplanes.” I left them at 7:35 and he was soon asleep. Unfortunately, we both forgot to have him go to the bathroom before bed and he had his first wetting the bed experience at 9:30. Changed the sheets and his clothes and got him back to sleep pretty quickly.

Having tea: 

Planetanya: 

Waiting for the smoothie: 

Making faces in the car: