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He was up at 7:05. Nursed then typed on my iPad. I made Israeli eggs, as I called them (with za’ater) for him and me. “Mama, I like za’ater!” He said he liked it because he also liked it on popcorn. He and Carly then typed a message to Josephine: “I love you so much.” He and I then went upstairs and read The 39-Stoey Treehouse. After the rabbits in the book play hide and seek, he and I ended up playing hide and seek in the bed. He mainly wanted me to hide. When it was his turn to hide he’d either get too excited as soon as I started counting, or he’d just cover his head, and as soon as I finished counting he would jump out and yell “I’m right here!” He took some photos with my camera, then we headed downstairs.

I asked if he wanted more of the carrots and potatoes we’d had with breakfast. He did his blinking, which means he is full. I think he may have started that yesterday at the cafe. He saw Carly’s bookmark, which had candy corn on it, and he asked “Can I smell that bookmark?” He got one with gummy worms on it at the library and had smelled it as well. Reminds me of when he would smell candy at Home Plus.

We went and did Hebrew block letters. He would tell me how to draw them. They nursed. He said “If you don’t let me nurse, I’ll not be nice to you.” Then apologized. I went and took a shower. They were doing a timer until he could nurse again when I got back down. He wasn’t happy about that at first, but then kept requesting more time on the timer. Eventually they nursed, then Carly made a bowl of popcorn and they went outside and ate it. They talked about clouds and airplanes. He asked if it was the same airport we met Airport Megan at. He was making a lot of his yummy noises as he ate popcorn.

Sometime after 11 we got going for a walk. August remembered cookies as we were getting ready, and I gave him half a cookie at the start. He immediately wanted more after that and was upset when we wouldn’t give him more. We got across the bridge, but then he was stopping the bike. We waited in a shady spot for him to feel better. Let him watch a timer for a bit. Wasn’t happening. Carly agreed to carry him, and thought that might work. Eventually we got to the cafe on the grounds of the retirement community. We got a table, but the place was busy. When we found out they only had juice, August insisted on a smoothie. We decided it wasn’t going to work, so Carly took him over towards the small park nearby. I tried to get us drinks to go. I was told I could order up at the register, but I waited for one woman to pay, then the cashiers were busy and finally I gave up.

I went and found them. They’d made it to the edge of the grass and were sitting down, playing with grass. He was taking pieces of grass and trying to balance them on some leaves. Played there a bit longer then got his bike and got going. We went to the mall and to Rebar – the first smoothie place August and I ever went, but we haven’t been back. August and I got a strawberry and raspberry smoothie, and Carly got a chocolate one. We sat on a bench outside the mall and drank them. I read James and the Giant Peach and we got to chapter 16. We switched benches to get away (a bit) from the flies that were mainly focused on the ice cream place. Before we left he ran a couple good circles in the area in front of the mall entrance. We left the mall before 1:30 and walked home the long way.

On the walk he said “I’m gonna dream about cookies.” He then made up a complicated recipe for making chocolate chips. When we got to the house at 1:50 he was practicing counting about 100 in Hebrew.

We read Garfield, then they Skyped with Cassie. He did some typing and Excel, then they tried to call Korea Megan (now in India) and that didn’t work so they messaged her. I made a couple frozen pizzas. As we ate that he asked “How do you spell zombie attack?” After pizza he made up a game of throwing pillows off the couch. He was then running across the floor to Carly and fell and hit his head a bit. While he was nursing we were joking around and tried to get him involved. He said “Too sad”.

Awhile later he wanted to look at our steps for the day. It was about 8200. So he wanted to go out for another walk. Carly was reading outside, so we said bye to her. We walked up to the end of Kibuts Galuyot St. then walked over to HaHadarim St. and down to our park. Along the way we set some timers, first for 10 minutes. And we sand the A Ah Apples song  and Elephant, Elephant, which I’d suddenly remembered I used to sing for him long, long ago. We got home at 3:45 and had gotten just over 10,000 steps. He wanted to get to 20,000. He said “I know. We can go to Ikea then the mall…” I declined. He went to the bathroom, then wanted to play with the sequencer on GarageBand. I initially set him up over by the Duplos, as Carly had come in and lain on the couch. But August picked up the iPad and moved it to be next to Carly.

After that we went upstairs and ate apple and read James and the Giant Peach. We went and got more apple and kept reading. Carly cooked zucchini, and we came down for that. Then back upstairs for more reading and to eat some dry Cheerios. Then back down for more zucchini and to get more Cheerios. We went up and did even more reading. We got to chapter 22. He was then being a silkworm and I made a cave for him with the blanket which he called the magic leaf pile as it could get smaller and bigger.

He was getting tired and asked to go brush his teeth. We went downstairs to do that and he played with his comb as a Chinese instrument and played Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. I brushed his teeth. Then they briefly Skyped with Cherie. When Carly asked if he wanted to call her he said “Okay, but can I type ‘I love you, Oma.’” Cherie and August got into a contest over who loves the other more. August said “I love you impossible infinities!”

Carly cut August’s hair, or at least parts of it, while he watched the Peg + Cat Arch-villian episode. He tolerated it for awhile, but not long enough. We went upstairs before 8 and I left them about 8:10.

Retreating from the haircut: 

Before I went to sleep he sat up in bed. After a minute he lay back down on his back, fully leaning against me. When I went to fall asleep I was able to turn onto my back. He still used my stomach as a pillow and I put my arm around him and fell asleep like that. He eventually slid off, but slept with his head pushed against my shoulder for quite some time.

He was up at 6:50. He was halfway down the stairs when I said “Hi, ZZ.” He turned around and quietly went back upstairs. I gave him a minute. I started to head up the stairs. He heard me and yelled “No!” I told him I’d be on the couch. I heard him play with the blocks for a little bit, then he made his way down and crawled on the couch.

First thing he wanted was Toca Elements. We played that a little, then read a lot of our new Garfield book and wasthen a baby squirrel that had nightmares. Then to GarageBand where we recorded piano and then played with the sequencer. After that he found the app about symphony instruments. It was still set for Korean, so he was practicing his Korean. Then a little more programming in the Lightbot app, making the robot jump now. Then exercise and Toca Blocks. We went upstairs and in Toca Blocks we discovered that combining blocks made new things. We discovered a bunch of new things then I went to take a shower. He came into the bathroom and said “Im destroying all the things we discovered!” With a fun smile on his face.

After my shower I gave him his. He protested, but not as bad as yesterday. We then went downstairs and got ready to go. He was instantly ready when I said he could have a cookie on the bike. He ate his cookie 🍪 as we walked into town. When he was done he said he wanted to give people cookies 🍪 , and explained that he meant when we were off the current street, which didn’t have a lot of people. I said we hadn’t brought cookies with us and he turned us around. We almost went back, but it was quite a ways. Also, I started to talk about people we could give cookies to: the guys at the hardware store, the woman at the toy store. He seemed less excited about it when it was actually people he knew. Also, I think he might have been hoping to get more cookie for himself.

So we continued on into town. There around 11:30. The pizza place was closed. Not a huge surprise. But so was the sushi/noodle place. We thought about our usual coffee shop, but then I decided to try the other one. But we got there and it was really busy.  So we went back to Malkin Cafe, our usual coffee shop. We got a table for two inside and ordered an olive pizza and our usual orange and carrot juice for him an apple juice for me. We read some James and the Giant Peach while we waited. And he spotted a photo on the wall. We went over to look at the random photos and it was one of Miss Piggy and Kermit. After he was full he played some Dragonbox Big Numbers while I finished up. He was doing pretty well with his subtraction.

We walked over to Bachar Garden, the park by the library. Got there at 12:50. The merry-go-round was a time machine: “Do you want to go to ancient Egypt? It’s just 7 kilometers away.” “You’re in the time of dinosaurs.” And “You’re a teacher. Say ‘You just got eaten by a dinosaur.’” Had me say that several times. He played in the dried smoothie again, scraping it with a stick until I realized there was an actual nail on it. Took the nail out. He then tapped me on the head with the stick: “I was touching you on the head to get your attention.” “Holly can hit that person with a stick…Jack and Celeste can…” Told him that wasn’t okay, then he was hitting things, making noise: “Just getting people’s attention.” But then he really bonked me on the head. Got that on video.

He walked around the tree a lot, and eventually was ready to go. First we went over to the drinking fountain to fill his water. There were other kids and he started shouting “Go!” I got him to stop and say “sorry” instead, so then he was repeating that: “My thing sequencer is just on ‘go’ now…I turned it on ‘sorry’ now.”

We left at 1:15. As we walked he wanted to spell words in Hebrew. We looked up real words, like thousand and infinity, and he was also making up spelling of words in Hebrew. At the cafe he had also been reading Hebrew letters off of signs.

We stopped at the little park for a snack and discussed delivering snacks. When I mentioned Jack and Celeste, he asked who Celeste was. I reminded him that Celeste was Jack’s wife. He then asked what ‘wife’ meant. I explained using me and mama. He then said “And I’m zucchini bread’s wife…Why you’re zucchini bread’s wife? Because I really like zucchini bread.”

We got walking home again and he said he wanted to watch something when we got home. I suggested we watch outside and could use the picnic mat. He said he was bored of the picnic mat. I said we hadn’t used it in months, and he reminded me we had used it at the Mediterranean Sea. He did all of this in a loud robot voice. He got totally random after that, talking about spinning. I finally realized he was thinking about spinning because the tree house spins in Magic Tree House. He instantly started laughing and simultaneously strongly denying that was the connection. He instead said it was a fan. There was a lot to it, but it blew us and the bricks of the path to Japan. Then it was snowing in Egypt. And now he has 10000 rockets.

We got back a little before 2. We watched the Christmas Problem episode of Peg + Cat on the picnic mat and shared a cookie. He watched another episode and I sat next to him and read. We went inside after that and he watched a timer for awhile and we listened to Peg + Cat songs. Then his Year 1 playlist. He was then sick animals. We then looked at some books and finally read Little Red Hen. Carly got home at 3:50 just as we were finishing that up.

They went outside for awhile. He was then upset, wanting more cookies. I heated up carrots and cauliflower and potatoes for him and he ate those. He and I then went on our cookie walk. Delivered to Jack and Celeste first. Just spent a couple minutes there, then walked over to Holly’s. Her gate was locked so we called her and she came out and got a couple cookies. August ate half of his cookie on the way to Jack and Celeste’s, then half on the way to Holly’s. He was then upset about not getting more after that.

Got home and they nursed. Then they did a lot of art together. They used the dot paints to make a machine that made monsters. Then they did a card for Josesphine and he wrote several sentences to her, like “What shape do you like?”

He and I did some coloring book on the iPad and he drank some milk as we sat on the floor. We then went upstairs and read about 3 chapters of The 39-Story Treehouse. I left them about 8:10 and he was asleep soon after.

Sleeping: 

Sentences for Josephine: 

He started waking up at 5:40 or so. I got up first and went down to make coffee. When they came out of the bedroom he went to the stairs and I heard him say “I’m going down here at 6:04.” But he ended up staying upstairs while Carly got ready. They came down and he did some Excel and was then typing when Carly left. When I suggested reading he wanted to go upstairs to do it. So we took The 39-Story Treehouse up on his bed and read. Since we’ve started getting bookmarks at the library, he likes putting them in the middle while I’m reading. When I need to turn the page he takes the bookmark out, then places it back in the book when I turn the page. Repeat. Looking up at the ceiling, he asked how we remove the planets when we leave the country. We talked about how we’re not moving anytime soon, so they can stay up there. We finished the book.

We started laundry, then he was being a rocket taking off, and invented “3, 2, 1 Bul-gamps!” Don’t know what gave him that idea. Although in the Treehouse book they do a countdown, but it turns out that one of the characters can’t count, so it is like 10, 9, 4, 7, 5, etc. and he also had me do that several times today.

Downstairs he played with the sequencer in GarageBand. Really got into making shapes and patterns and letters today and seeing what they would sound like. We then played a bit with a new music app called SoundForest that is kind of interesting, and then Lightbot Jr. in which you program a little robot to do things. Think that will be promising in the future. Did get him thinking about right versus left, and the challenge of his left versus the robot’s.

We went back upstairs and he watched Wanda and the Alien and I took shower. We then built with the blocks and I blew over a tower. He was then doing it, and I remembered how much trouble he used to have trying to blow out air. So he was practicing it for awhile. A bit better now.

I then took him in for his shower. He said “You first. Can you do another shower?” It didn’t go any better than an evening shower. He escaped once and ran into his room. At least when it was over and I got the brush he let me brush his hair without getting upset. We were in on the bed and he asked “Can I just watch a timer with 11 minutes and 29 seconds?” So he just watched the timer countdown, and each time the minute changed on the clock on the table he announced the time: “11:00…11:01…” It seemed to calm him down. Eventually he said “Don’t shower me anymore…Don’t wash my hair.” I gave him a choice of outfits and he chose the planets outfit. He said “11:11. Is that when you got married?…What married mean?”

We then went downstairs and made cookie dough. He helped, but kept asking for sugar and chocolate chips and dough. Despite having brown sugar and a small supply of chocolate chips along the way. Had to be patient.

When we were down mixing, but before baking, he wanted to take the piano apart. We took out the metal rods, then took them upstairs to use the triangle and drum sticks on it. Played with the drums, etc. for awhile so we’ll. Went back down and started baking the cookies. When he was distracted from asking for more dough by stabbing the butter and saying “I’m getting textures in the butter.” I let him keep doing it. He was already hungry, so I made him a grilled cheese sandwich and he ate that while we waited for cookies to make. We then each had a cookie. Worth the wait.

There was one slice of the apple left and I offered it to him: “But I just had that sugary stuff. It will taste sour. See?” And ate a bite of the apple. While I was working on cookies and dishes he had been playing with the Hebrew magnets and it turned out he had put the whole Hebrew alphabet together. He asked me if it was correct. Then it was over to the piano where he took out the keys and we worked to put them back in.

We played with the sequencer in GarageBand again and made shapes. We discussed who we could give cookies to at school, and he first thought of Mandy. He was then a sick fox and cuddled with me on the couch and told me “I’m worried about class.” He then played with the stopwatch on the iPad.

Before we left he had a long narrative about direction-telling mittens, schools, and a clock store: “My mitten told me to go this way…I bought it at my school…there’s a clock store at my school…” And it continued on to: “I’m called Box Jimmy Brick Towel…I have 1000 rockets on my back.” No idea where the idea for that nickname came from. Then “I’m Zinnie now. But I still like machines!”

As we got going he sang a song: “To school and class and back to home.” We had planned to go in the pool, but about halfway I realized I’d forgotten his floaties. At first he wanted to go back for them, but we decided it was too far. We got to school a little after 3 and went to deliver cookies. Couldn’t find Megan or Holly, so went down to Mandy. The three girls were also there. I had August ask if they wanted cookies, but then he got upset, saying “I don’t want to share!” I gave them cookies, and Mandy gave him a Toblerone in return that made things a bit better.

We stopped and he ate the Toblerone and was feeling better after that. He agreed to share more cookies but wanted me to do the sharing. So we headed to the library and shared a cookie with Liz, one of the librarians. I then got him to ask about Garfield books and she showed us where they were. We got them all down and he chose the 7th Garfield Treasury. We found a couple bean bags and read it. Liz said she was going to share the cookie with Lillian, who is one of Carly’s sixth grade students, and a bit later Lillian saw us and said the cookie was really good. When we checked out the book it was then Lillian who checked it out, and we shared another cookie with them, which Lillian was going to share with her little sister.

August and I then changed out of our swimsuits and then went and found Megan and gave her a cookie. Holly was now gone, but August saw the magnetic dart board outside the middle school office. We played with those for a few minutes, with August standing on a desk and me holding him, until Carly came out and was ready to go.

We headed to class. August was in a really good mood. He told a story about saying shalom to kids all over the world, then having a cannon with infinity hearts in it. He also told me that “Faster driver faster” was from Lucy and Pogo. Before class he and the teacher did a whole high fives routine, that also included using their feet. Then downstairs we shared cookies, and Daria’s mom asked him to choose a cookie for Daria. So August picked one out and handed it to her. Once class started he didn’t want to go in at first, then was coming out a lot. His repeated line today was “I don’t know what they’re doing.” I’d look in and say “Uh, they’re throwing bean bags everywhere. Go have fun throwing bean bags everywhere.” In the middle he stayed in for a good amount of time though. But near the end he came out saying he was tired and ready to go.

He was then on the grumpy side on the way home. At home they nursed, and he told me to fall asleep. I pretended to fall asleep, and he just went back to nursing. Carly asked why I was asleep and he said “Because I told him to fall asleep.” When they were done he and I played GarageBand. He found the voice recorder and we recorded him singing several times. One of us got food for him and he sat and ate. He ate a good amount, but said “The cauliflower is over-pepperized.” and came and got his water bottle.

A bit later he said “I’m a silkworm. I’m writing my book. The first chapter is called sparecrow.” He wanted to show Carly Toca Elements so we played that for awhile. He was getting sleepy so we went upstairs to read. We read some of the Mummies in the Morning book. I left them after 8 to go to sleep. But he was back down 8:15 or so. He had been reading the time off the clock every
time it changed. We finished readying the mummy book, then he went back upstairs and was asleep by 9.

Cookie: 

Library: 

Two photos he took: 

Lillian checking out his Garfield book: 

Squirrel nest before class: 

Trying my glasses: 

August was up just after 6:10. He said “Mama?” from the top of the stairs. Came down and they nursed. He did some math in Excel and then was typing words on my iPad. We had finished ‘kaleidoscope’ when Carly was leaving and he asked to type ‘I love you’. She left, and his next request was ‘glass window’. After that he had fun making emojis and having me to read the nonsense story that resulted. He read a couple words on his own, kind of like yesterday when he was pretending to read the books in the library and picked out a few words. We then finished 52-Story Treehouse. He was then an ant and wanted an ant nest. We made a big nest and then read to chapter 10 of James and the Giant Peach. We then destroyed the nest and he watched A Day for Eeyore and I made a mango lassi.

After lassi we did some Hebrew and exercised. He said he’d do a weight if I did. He used one weight and said it was because he lost his other hands. We then read 6 chapters of The 39-Story Treehouse. We went upstairs and took his Hebrew workbook. On one page we translated the boxes with writing prompts. One was ‘I like’ and he said “ice cream”. So I showed him how to write it in Hebrew and he wrote it in the box. I took a shower and he played Dragonbox Little Numbers. On his bed we then watched the Hebrew numbers song, and then found one about Hebrew colors. Then we watched a playlist of Hebrew children’s songs. He leaned his head against my back as he watched them.

Downstairs I put Dragonbox Egg Crack on his iPad and he did a few levels on his own. He was then being Garfield:”I ate 10 quarts of mayonnaise and 7 quarts of chicken.” We read some Garfield. He talked about getting more Garfield books but looked on iBooks and they are expensive there. But then I figured out how to search the school library and I found five books we can check out.

He had corn and rice and then sweet potato fries for lunch. He started repeating “You know what I like about you? You’re so docile.” Which is a Garfield comic. We then added in the rest of the strip where Garfield attacks Jon and then says “I don’t like being pegged.” We acted it out several times.

We went outside and spent quite awhile watering the plants and picking up the tree things, as a good amount had fallen because of the wind. While watering the papayas and tomatoes, he takes time to make a “stream” from one plant to the next. When he got to the sunny part he asked me to do the next plant. He took back over and realized I hadn’t done a stream and chastised me for not continuing the stream.

Back inside we read a couple more chapters of The 39-Story Treehouse, then he did some Legos on his own.

We left by 2:10. I had talked about how we could make chocolate chip cookies tomorrow to take to his activity class. He was not happy about the idea of giving all our cookies away, and only slightly calmed by assurances that he would have cookies too. So he was grumpy on the way over. I’d mentioned the park, but when we got past the mall he was surprised we weren’t going to the mall. He cheered up when I reminded him about the park, and really cheered up when we started playing.

He went to the merry-go-round and had me get on. He explained it was just for adults but he could get on because he was the driver. First he asked me where I wanted to go and I said Iceland, but he said busses don’t go to other countries. I said to the beach then. It then turned into a time machine, which also turned into a lesson about the numbering of years: “You’re really close to ancient Egypt. You’re in the 1960s…Yeah, you’re a couple thousand years off but you’re pretty close!…You’re to when dragons were here!” We talked about how it is now 2017 and he was born in 2014: “Huh? How’s it get to the 2000s? I thought it was still the thousands!”

He then found some sap on a tree, and played with that for several minutes. He would get his fingers sticky, then we would head over to the drinking fountain to wash it off. He kept talking about the sap “slowly unstickafying” and being “unstickafied”. Carly thinks she might have come up with that one. He also wanted to keep checking our step count. We went and looked at the free library briefly, then got going.

We went to the mall and went shopping. He stayed on the bike and I used our reusable bags as our cart. He forgot he had to keep sitting though and started jumping in his seat once and tipped over backwards. Had to pause and take him out the bathroom once. We finished and headed home.

We came home and played GarageBand until Carly got home. They nursed and I got food out. August wasn’t eating much and was being a bag of French fries wanting to go to the grocery store, sitting on a pillow and wanting one of us to carry him. Through serious negotiation he agreed to have two bites, then I’d carry him. But he only ate one bite and refused a second. Ended up getting really upset and Carly took him upstairs. Got him calmed down until she said it was shower time. We decided to try to do showers during the day and skipped a shower.

He calmed down and started playing around: “What should I have for breakfast? 1 quart of mayonnaise and two quarts of iPads. What should I have for dinner? One quart of carpets.” That’s from Garfield, who puts a quart of mayonnaise on his salad.

Carly had cooked cauliflower, and we went down and he ate a good amount of that. We went back upstairs and read 3 chapters of Mummies in the Morning, the third Magic Treehouse book, then more of The 39-Story Treehouse. I left them about 7:10 and he was asleep soon after that.

Exercising and talking about his hands breaking off: 

Practicing his Hebrew numbers: 

Chastising me for not doing the stream: 

Unstickified sap at Drorim Garden: 

Skittles song: 

More sequencer drums and dancing: 

Reading in the fort

Measuring

Writing ‘ice cream’

Merry-go-round

Picking sap

Swinging

Reading cursive

A photo he took off me

Photo we took off Carly

Writing ‘ice cream’ in Hebrew: 

Park: 

Reading cursive letters: 

He was up at 5:55. He did some math in Excel on her computer, doubling his sums in a nice layout, and was watching Peg + Cat when she left, and decided to use all his episodes in the morning. He was then a baby elephant and wanted me to make him a nest. After that we were squirrels and made a bigger nest. We would winter, then he would say we were diggers destroying the nest: “First we do it gently, then harder. Can we do it together?”

He requested GarageBand and played that while I got ready for making banana bread. He then had me playing Itsy Bitsy and Yankee Doodle. We made banana bread, and he was pretty impatient to lick the spatula. We went and did some Hebrew alphabet on paper and exercised together. He played Dragonbox Little Numbers while I took a shower. We ate some banana bread, and I made him a grilled tuna sandwich while I had quiche for lunch. He ate a bunch of the extra tuna out of the bowl while I made the sandwich, then a good amount of the sandwich. He then had more banana bread as a baby squirrel, saying it was his breakfast. A good amount of food, considering he’d also already had a couple bowls of Cheerios and most of an apple.

I commented on a pillow being in the kitchen and asked how it got there. He said he slid it in there, and showed me how he rode on it. I asked “Hey pillow! Where are you going?” He replied “The pillow just wanted to go for a walk…it’s just going for a walk.” The pillow was then a bus: “Not just a magic bus: a super magic bus.” “Can you lift it up? I’m going to th South Pole!”

He played in his squirrel nest on his own, asking about multiplication problems. Had a strip of paper or something that he was playing with sort of like a cat. I did dishes, then we did more Hebrew; he was singing funny Hebrew songs. He then had me practice sleeping as he was playing with the stopwatch and timer.

We started to go to the cages at 12:35 to do recycling. He said”I’m a squirrel. We’re gonna ride our squirrel bike.” But then he got distracted by the toy piano and asked me to play “Sentimental Wars”. He then started taking the keys out and he did some piano improv after he liked something I was playing. We took all the keys and metal parts out and put it back together.

We went and did recycling. He wanted to do plastic and glass first. He asked if there was any glass and I said I wasn’t sure. He asked to check, and did so by knocking the bottom of the bag on the ground to see if it made a glass noise. He took over most of recycling and did it really fast, like in fast forward, while he hummed. He said he had rockets on his back to get the plastic up to the various heights. At first he had 7, but then he kept adding more and more rockets. By the time we were home he had 1000 rockets – enough to take him to Neptune.

Back at home we read a little of The BFG and decided on books to take back. He was fine taking The Enormous Crocodile back. He said “That one’s a little sad.” We headed out, and out on the street there was a small dog wandering around. He said “I’m going to slap the doggie on the bottom.” I have no idea where that idea came from. We left at 2:05.

We sang different songs on our way up to school: Sentimental Wars, Electricity, etc. At the school he used the bathroom by the library and I picked up a couple books from the free book shelf. We went down the elevator and went to check on the hedgehog. The hedgehog has a big enclosure with all sorts of things to hide in, so don’t think we’ll ever see it unless someone gets it out. He wasn’t that interested anyway.

We went back to the library and he played in the stuffed animals. I was looking at a selection of memoirs they had out and read the beginning of The Glass Castle, which starts with a 3-year old getting burnt while cooking hotdogs. August then wanted me to read it, and when I said it was an adult book with no pictures he was just more insistent. So I read him the opening part, realizing it was actually a good cautionary tale, and it talked about the ice and skin grafts. We then started to head back to the kids section, but he stopped part way and went on a bean bag chair. I said the books there were more for mama’s students and he said he wanted to pretend to be a student. The first book he pulled out was Robot Visions by Isaac Asimov. I read him parts of that – his first Asimov. He pulled a couple other books and cuddled on his back in the chair next to me, running his finger over the lines and pretending to read. I was able to read the entire title story of Robot Visions. At one point we tried to go back to use the microscopes, but the bulbs were burnt out in both, so we went back and did more reading. When he grabbed another book he said “No pictures but I love it.”

Eventually we did go and look at books to check out. They had both 39 and 52-Story Treehouse and August really wanted to get both. We also got Magic Treehouse #3. We checked those out and sat on the stuffed animals and started reading 52-Story Treehouse.

Before we went in the library to begin with he had asked me what ‘Hello’ in Hebrew was. 30 in Hebrew sounds similar, so he was getting them straight. He was then saying “shalom” to people as we went to see the hedgehog, and to Liz at the desk. He said it to her again when we checked out books and she’d asked if he’d just been to a Hebrew class. So when Carly came and was talking to him, he said something about his class, and said “You know, my Hebrew class.”

We headed up to his dance class, which he seemed prepared for and happy about. At class he was saying “shalom” some more, and before class started he was dancing to the music playing in the studio. And we talked about the clock and where the hands would be. All went smoothly until class started. I got him to head in for the “Boring part” but he came right back out. Then, while I was holding him he said he wanted to go on the couches. But the couches were being used by adults, and when I said he wouldn’t be able to use them he got really sad: “Never‽” Carly held him for a bit out in the stairwell and when she tried to bring him back in the waiting room he screamed. We switched back and I held him for awhile. I managed to get him back in the waiting room, but he wasn’t even interested in looking through the curtain with me. He was just ready to go home.

So we headed home, getting here by 5:30. They nursed, but he was being squirmy and grabby so they stopped. He was upset while she got food. They eventually nursed and he calmed down and he and I read 52-Story Treehouse to the middle of chapter 6. Carly got him food. He wanted to look at the steps on my phone. It was over 10,000 and he asked if we could get to 20,000. He said “We can get there by riding in my pillowcase time machine.”

Carly gave him a shower, then he was making music on the bed. We both watched him for awhile. Took a video of him making music, then he watched himself. We brushed his teeth and read Biscuit Wants to Play and Biscuit Plays Ball while Carly took a shower. He was then asleep around 7:15.

The 1000 rockets on his back thing continued throughout the day and he mentioned it several times.

Photos: 

Playing in the burrow: 

Blast off: 

The wind: 

Choosing some Isaac Asimov: 

He woke up at 5:55 and went straight to the bathroom. When he saw Carly he told her what time he had woken up. They nursed, then he wanted to type words. Carly let him use her computer. As she got it out he played with her computer case, rubbing the little bumps inside it: “I hope mama doesn’t mind if I make bumps in here.” He did math in Excel. Started at 7000 and kept doubling until he got to over 28 million. At one point he did a lovely face for the number 189. And at one point he said “I might have to stop at infinity.” We read Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day as Carly headed to work. He then watched/played Lucy and Pogo, then typed on my iPad: “I’m writing a list of things we should do today.” “I’m writing down Fahrenheit numbers to write how hot the countries is.”

He wanted to watch Winnie the Pooh, so first watched Winnie the Pooh ABCs. As the intro music played for the next episode he lay on the couch and said “When I watch Winnie the Pooh notes come out of my feet.” He then watched A Day for Eeyore. He played with his brush as if it was a grater: “Im getting carrots for my apple-carrot bread…Mama said three cups.”

He was then a baby kangaroo. I made him a pouch, which later got destroyed by an asteroid, according to him. Turned into a pillow fight. He played Dragonbox Little Numbers while I made us a lassi. He then discovered Endless Alphabet again. After lassi he was nimals needing rescue, like an elephant in the ocean. He was then a bird giving me bird flu. When I was sick he then told me that one of the pillows was a doctor. Eventually he said “Catch the doctor!” and threw the pillow at me. He was then sick numbers, like 77, and I was a teacher talking to students about substituting numbers. As he said that more and more numbers were sick eventually math was cancelled. He said one of the numbers had measles.

We went upstairs and he did more Endless Alphabet on the bed: sap, refreshing, prank, revitalized. He was then weird machine as he lay on my lap, such as one that took oil which made him explode and count minutes. Then: “I have a bag of flour and I make it into soy powder and I make that into water and it flows out of me into the sea then it comes back salty.” Another: “Can you grind a rock in my grater and it turns it into wheat and I turn it into bark and when it’s all the way through my conveyor belt it turns out it’s fork…Can you get rocks from the desert?” And another: “You’re in someplace strange but it’s not your home…there’s lots of machines that do anything….this machine makes hair. It comes out my hole then you glue it on your head.” There were more.

Eventually, he turned back to Endless Alphabet and I was able to take a shower. We then went outside and watered all the plants. He did a lot of that and I picked up the tree things. He also picked off the dead leaves from the bougainvillea cuttings. He got hungry, so back inside he requested a bowl of corn and ate that and more of his lassi. I was also making him a corn pizza. He had been eating his lunch on the kitchen floor, then was putting together the Hebrew alphabet on the fridge. He took a couple steps back and stepped on the plate with bites of pizza on it. I had to hold him by the foot while I grabbed a paper towel so he didn’t wipe it off on everything in sight. After that he was upset with his pizza and wouldn’t eat the non-squished pieces.

Instead, he went and did some drawing on paper with a marker, then was drawing with chalk on the chalkboard. A piece of white chalk broke off and he wanted a cup of water to put it in. He had a lot of fun dissolving it. He then did some typing in Arabic on his ipad, but kept wanting mine. He went back and finished the alphabet on the refrigerator, then started making a new zoo with Duplos. I was getting us ready to go, then picked him up. He said “I’m a carpet famished…give me some fuzzes…Thats what carpets is made of.” ‘Famished’ was an Endless Alphabet word. Finally, he was admiring the plant growing inside in the planter and asked me to measure the new branch of it that is now as tall as all the others.

We left at 1:45. We walked north. He talked about wanting to see us get to 10000 steps. We went to the nameless big playground on the right as we walk up to town. We sat in the car (which he calls a plane) and snacked on our grapes and crackers. Then spent a lot of time playing on the snakes and ladders board, doing some hopping, addition, and counting by twos. We went on the spinning thing a couple times. Then back in the “plane” where we went on Zinnie Air flights to Japan, then Egypt. He chose the destinations. Turned into time machine as he had us going back to ancient Egypt, then farther back.

We got going awhile after I got a call from the hardware store. We stopped and I went in to buy the new handle for the shower. He stayed on his bike, but kept yelling that he wanted to see our step count. From there we walked west down the street, past where they are making a new sidewalk. There was water running down the side of the street, and we followed it to the end of the block, then it turned left, our direction. We followed it, riding the bike through the water, and we got to the front of it, where it was still flowing. We spent a good 15 minutes watching it slowly make its way down the hill. We would ride through it when there were no cars and see our tire tracks. Near the next intersection it made its way across to the far side of the street, then curved back to our side of the street: missing the only set of drains we saw the entire way. As it slowed even more at the intersection where it was flat we said bye, bye to the water then kept going.

Several times he said “Faster, driver, faster.” Not sure where he got that, but it sounds like something he heard somewhere. He kept wanting to see the step count and at one point told me “I’m impatient.” We stopped at Motek Garden to step on oranges and he rode the rocking wooden boat thing. He then said he needed the bathroom so we kept going.

We got home a little before 4. We checked our step count and we got just over 10000 and he got to see the confetti. He played Dragonbox Egg Hatch and shared my mint iced tea that I had made. He then asked “Can you make my pouch?” He was a baby kangaroo again. Carly got home and got some food for him. He wanted to watch more Winnie the Pooh and requested the Shapes and Sizes episode (which he hasn’t seen in months).

I left a few minutes before 5. Jack picked me up and gave me a ride to the school. There were ten of us total. We went and had dinner at the BBB burger place, then went and saw Thor: Ragnorak at the theater. On the silly side of superhero movies, but very funny and fun to see in the theater. I got home just after 10.

While I was gone August basically nursed and kept asking to go upstairs to bed. He fell asleep by 6:40. 

Incoming pillow: 

Park: 

Waiting while I go in the hardware store: 

Watching the water go down the street and skip the drain: 

Second playground: 

I was woken by a mosquito. Got up and realized it was a Sunday while I was getting dressed. Went back to bed in the Zinnie bed after a few minutes. He was up around 6:30 and I got up by 7. They were on the couch. He wanted to type and started on his iPad, but he was doing his fast typing and it was lagging, so he switched to using my iPad. Then watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I made us all French Toast. We ate breakfast, then we read all of The Enormous Crocodile and then some of 78-Story Treehouse. He then nursed and played with Carly and the friends on the couch. He agreed to set the timer for one hour before he could nurse gain.

He then had a ton of fun taking photos with the iPad. It was set up on the couch, so he would get items and position them behind the camera and take photos. He also took photos of his pajamas and hands and I showed him how to also use the front-facing camera. He took a photo of himself and said “Mama, look at this! It looks like I’m flying!” He made a big stack off all the other items that he took photos of: books, blanket, sandals, etc.

Carly had found a weird worm thing in the bathroom this morning and she put it in the bug viewer. We watched that, and he also took a photo of it.

They got ready to go for a walk. As they went out the door he told her “I’m a chicken. I’m gonna follow you into space.” Even funnier for her since she didn’t know it was a reference to a Peg + Cat episode. They left 9:30. Walked down and played in sand by strawberries. Before they left he’d been asking to take more photos on their walk and he took a photo of a tree. They were back at 10:15.

When they got home he immediately headed upstairs – he’d talked about lying in bed when they got back. They played up in the bed. He reluctantly told me I could go up too but be on the other bed. Came back downstairs and played on his iPad with Google Maps, the calculator, and then his Space app. He made a mess of items on the moon and I asked who would clean it up: “Anyone doesn’t. The moon is supposed to have messes.”

We read the Alphabet book after which he was acting like a zorilla after we looked up photos of it. He kept pointing at Carly, who was cooking a rice dish, potatoes, and carrots in the kitchen: “What’s that? It’s something scary. Really scary.” We then twice read the little Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day book that we’d bought long ago at a used store in Seoul.

He then went and helped Carly with the cooking. He helped with scooping up rice and peeling carrots. He was then hungry but only ate a couple bites of quiche. He spotted the corn in the fridge though so I added some cheese to it and he ate two servings of it. I also heated up some pizza and he ate a little of that.

He got upset when he wanted to nurse. After we made him wait a bit he got to nurse, then played Mammals on his iPad. We then did Duplos and we made a roof for our house, then put together the tractor and trailer. He filled the house with stuff through the windows and door, then did a countdown and we destroyed the house. He also destroyed the zoo. So we did a robot cleanup (he was  EightyBot) and put all the Duplos away.

He went to the kitchen and came back and told me “The rosemary wasn’t as strong as I thought.” I took the paper I’d folded up as my pattern for doing making the clock, cut the edge straight, and traced the edge and gave it to August as a dodecagon. Carly’s rice dish was done and he ate a ton of it after asking for seconds. He asked “What broccoli helps your body do?” He was then a sick baby squirrel that needed broccoli to help him get better. Carly wanted to vacuum, so he listened to Beethoven’s Ninth while Carly vacuumed using headphones. He yells really loud when he has them on and they are slipping off. After that he took more photos on the iPad.

We got ready to head into town to get something to drink and do some errands. Outside, he went in his Zinnie house and wondered why there wasn’t stuff in it to play with. As we got walking at 2:45 I asked what he wanted in there and be said “machines”. Also, we spotted flowers growing on both Carly’s tomato plant and the tomato plant we have have in a pot.

We walked up into town and went to the coffee shop. Carly and I got blended coffees and August got the orange and carrot juice. We got it to go and walked over to the park by the library. He started by yelling “Go away!” But calmed down when we said we’d leave. I reminded him of the blueberry mess that he’d played with last time and he went and found it still dried on the ground. This time he wanted to scratch it with his fingers. He came back to the bench where Carly was writing a postcard for Claremay and Steve. He wanted to write things on it: “Can I write How are you?” “Can I write I love you?” “Can I write How are you doing?” He did write some of that, and Carly talked about how they could write more letters at home.

We left at 3:20 and first went to the bathroom. I took him in, then Carly went and he wanted to go in the toy store. We went in and he played with the kaleidoscope. He and the woman that works there were looking through kaleidoscopes at each other. She said she had seen us by Habrosh. Turns out her friend, who works across the street at the sushi place, lives in the house across from us.

We then went to the post office. At first Carly was just going in, but he wanted to go in too and he wanted to help mama. When there was nothing for him to do he was upset. We went across the street to the hardware store. While I got sealant (for the bottom of the toilet) and a lightbulb and asked about the shower handle (should be in tomorrow) he kept being grumpy with Carly on the sidewalk. When I came out he ran the other way and into the produce store, where he yelled “Go away!” a few times.

I got him out, then we headed to the grocery store. Carly carried him and I commented on how he doesn’t often just get held any more. He asked if he could still get that (hugged and carried). Very cute. I did the grocery shopping – just apples and feta, and I got us a couple small bags of Doritos to try out. They tended to be sweet in Korea, so we’ll see if they’re any different here. I saw him sort of run into the produce section and do one “Go! Go away!” Carly got him back to looking at the displays by the door (he likes the prices on them).

We walked home, getting here at 4:30. They nursed, then he and I walked across the street and released the insect, since we didn’t know if it would eat our plants. We talked about good and bad insects for gardens and then he was acting out us being aphids and ladybirds.

Back at the house he asked “Can I take a photo of a photo?” Carly gave him carrots and potatoes and rice and he ate all of that. He then wrote a letter to Vivian . He first wrote “How are you doing?” But he decided to make them all funny letters so it’s not really readable, but it looks nice. He wrote a similar letter to my parents. I writing one letter he drew a lone and said “A line across like the equator.”

We then did Hebrew, mainly writing cursive on paper. But he was then looking at the pronunciation practice part and was reading several English words (the translations) entirely out of context. He read ‘bell’ and ‘here’ and a few others. He took some photos with his iPad, and I showed him a photo of Carly carrying him earlier. So then when he was cuddling with Carly on the floor by the couch he asked me to take a photo of them hugging.

We then read James and the Giant Peach, starting from the beginning, and read about 8 chapters. Carly took him up and gave him a shower. He had asked to skype with gramma and grampa a couple times, so it was now late enough. We skyped with them. He spent most of the time typing emojis and arabic. But they got to see some of his Skype dancing at the beginning, and he answered several questions. He said he was ready to hang up. He was
ready to sleep. They had gotten a bunch of snow overnight. When we were done he went and told Carly we had Skyped for 40:38.

We got him ready for bed and I left them before 7:40. He was asleep soon after that.

Coffee shop. Wonder how many people actually end up reading the Spanish book here: 

Being carried: 

Wanting his photo taken with mama:

He was up at 6:09. They nursed, then played Dragonbox Plus. I went over to help. We then read eight chapters of The 78-Story Treehouse. We then went and played with Duplos. We added a pattern to the wall of the zoo, then made a house. He then acted out sucking me up with a straw – I was the puddle and he used the Duplo tub as a straw machine. That was from the Treehouse book.

He then watched a couple episodes of Peg + Cat and I went and took a shower. He then asked “Can I spell words on your iPad, dada?” He spelled a few words. One was rather creative: “I want to spell ChairShoe…it’s a robot chair that makes shoes.” Did more nonsense typing, and we played on the piano. We then played with the new version of GarageBand, trying out all of the new sounds and the sequencer. He pointed to one symbol and said “I know what that one is: chimes.” Eventually played other music apps, pausing once to nurse.

We got ready to go and headed to the store at noon. He was fine until we got over there, then before we went in the store started yelling “Go away!” I made him stay outside with me for a minute and he got really sad, separated from mama. We went in and after a couple minutes Carly took him and carried him around for the rest of shopping.

I paid, and found them outside doing the chocolate game: he had a chocolate chip, then had to wait 3 minutes, then 6, etc. We were up to 15 by the time we got home. We took the long route, along the trail, home and were here by 1:30.

He did more typing in Korean/Arabic/Hebrew and then was asking me to play songs on the toy piano. We played Wheels on the Bus, Yankee Doodle, The Ants Go Marching, Twinkle Twinkle, etc.

Carly skyped with Cassie. August ran over very quickly to say hi to Colin and Vivian. But later Vivian got his attention by hiding under a blanket or something and being a green blob. August took me upstairs, climbed on the bed, and hid under the covers and asked me to touch his head. He was being a blob like Vivian and wanted to say the same thing, so we went down and asked what Vivian had said: “I’m a big green blob!” He also pretended to be a ghost, saying “I’m a Halloween ghost!” And then he was a baby squirrel hibernating. He lay right next to my head, and wanted to watch the stopwatch on my watch. Did that for several minutes, then asked if he wanted to read a book. He went and got The World of Babar. We read parts of that, then he was a blob again: “Something squirted me with green paint so now I look like Vivian.”

We went downstairs and they nursed and ate some quiche. Then back to the algebra app. We finished all the levels, then it repeats the levels, this time with all numbers/variables instead of the cartoon symbols. I was happy to see how well August was doing on the early levels. He was then playing it with Carly, who hadn’t really played it much before and so was still trying to figure it out. He was helpful: “Wrong” “Did you cry?” “Now you got it!” “Mama, did you get one star?” “Dada, can you help mama?”

I then started making an analog clock for August, using a Cheerios box. He helped color the hands, then I cut curvy shapes out of the leftover box for him so he could color them while I finished the box. Finished the clock, using a paper clip as the center.

He and I then headed out with his balance bike at 4:40. I had moved the seat on the balance bike lower as Carly had seen kids with lower seats. He rode it a bit on his own as we walked up to the park, then I pushed him. At the park we spent some time on the exercise equipment. He wasn’t too happy with all the other kids around and I said “They’re not bothering you.” He replied “No dada, you’re wrong. They are.”

He wanted to go back to the house and switch to the orange bike and go for a walk, so that’s what we did. Sang some of our old songs (“Mama love August…”) but mainly Wheels on the Bus. We walked to the north east, then at the second street circled back to the west and down HaHadarim and past the park. We kept going down to the trail and headed west for several minutes. Almost entirely dark by now. A woman commented on us singing Wheels on the Bus and commented on it and said “Swish swish swish” – referring to the wipers verse, which I’ve always done as “back and forth”. Funny, as I remember a couple other people seeming to think I was singing it wrong by doing it that way. Anyway, August also made up his own verses, including “The pictures on the bus go … … …” as he looked over at the graffiti. It was funny, as the pictures didn’t make any noise.

At some point he said, referring to the chocolate game, “When I get home I’ll ask mama how many minutes there are and she’ll say zero.” As we headed home he started excitedly chanting numbers and letters and words, including ‘Andy’ and ‘window’. He explained it was information for his computer. We were home at 5:40 and he remembered and asked for chocolate. Carly was skyping with Cherie and he went and did some of his counting songs/skills for her. After the call we read some Plumdog, back up to page 100 and something. Carly brought him grapes. While he finished those up we watched the Hebrew counting video.

I gave him a shower and washed his hair. He wasn’t happy at all but suffered through it. On the bed I brushed his teeth, then tried brushing his hair with his brush/comb. He held it and played it as an instrument, showing me how you play each side to make the bristles “vibrate”. The harder he played the bristles, the louder he said it was. He said it was an instrument from China. Carly managed to brush his hair and I left them at 7:45. He was asleep before 8.

Reading together: 

He woke up at 6:55. The moment he heard me come towards the stairs he yelled “No!” He made his way downstairs and asked for “Dragonbox Egg Crack”. So we played some of the algebra app. Got some zucchini bread. When we got to the highest chapter (set of levels), when it actually starts looking like math, he did some playing on his own and clearly understood a good chunk of it. I was impressed. He went to the bathroom and said “After I go to the bathroom I’m gonna make an electrical bed…it keeps people warm in the winter.” He was then a baby squirrel in a nest: “I have a measurement, I have a machine that tells me how long the days is…it says 10 percent. That’s low long the day is.”

We then made a fort and read the rest of Magic Treehouse #2. He then pretended to be a cat: “I bury my poop and I’m orange and yellow and black. I have legs and a tail. I’m a kitten!” We shared a banana, then he did some Arabic, tracing in different apps. He then made a zoo wall, but didn’t put any animals in his zoo. He played a little Robot Lab and I exercised, then we went upstairs. He watched a Peg + Cat (the first episode) and I took a shower.

Downstairs he watched another episode, where they go to space and eat baby corn. He was then corn: “I’m a baby corn plant that’s sick.”

We went outside and talked about going to town for lunch. He asked “Can I watch Eine Kleine Nachtmusik when we get back from Eine Kleine Pizza?” Before we left he went to the bathroom. The second he jumped on the toilet, before he started going, he started saying “I’m done. I’m done…I’m just playing a joke.” He was then telling a story as he pretended to be the 100 chicks from Peg + Cat: “I’m a hundred chickens…we have a hundred schools where we learn to fly. And our home is a 100 polygon with 4 legs.”

We left at 11:45. We walked up into town. Town was surprisingly busy today. No idea why. We went to the bank and got cash, then to the hardware store and they said they’d order a new shower handle for us. He was too hungry to stop at the toy store. Wanted to get an analog clock teaching thing. We were to the pizza place by 12:30. And it was closed. We weren’t the only ones confused, as other people were trying to open the doors and go in. No sign.

So we went next door to the bakery and got 5 little pastry things to tide us over until we could get home and bake a frozen pizza. Which was actually August’s idea, as he said we could still have pizza even though the pizza shop was closed.

Thought about going to the toy store, but it was also surprisingly busy. And figured we could make a clock at home. We went to the grocery store and got a few things, including corn to put on our pizza, at August’s request.

We headed home and stopped first at Motek Garden at 1:10, where he squished oranges as EightyBot, but complained the oranges were too hard/there weren’t enough of them. He then played with a dried palm frond, waving it over his head. We didn’t stay long and got walking. He then made up a song about EightyBot trying to fish but not getting a fish, but needing to keep trying.

We then stopped at the pine tree park at 1:30 and he sang more of the EightyBot song as he sat on the slide. Came down and played in the sand, then wanted to take photos of himself, making all sorts of funny faces. He then wanted to take photos of a tree trunk and the weird growth at the bottom of the drinking fountain.

We left twenty minutes later and headed home. As we got home he talked about a new machine: “I have an electric pillow signing machine…it signs out pillows when people go to a playroom.” It was also quiet so it wouldn’t wake people up.

At home he watched Charlie Brown and I made us a mango and banana lassi, then added the corn and baked the pizza. He ate that, and I started preparing the quiche. He played Toca Blocks, first making a treehouse “Rooms for my friends”, then a Smurf village. Preparing the quiche was slow as he kept wanting me to help.

Carly was home after 4. I got the quiche in the oven. They nursed, then we went outside. August was eating cilantro leaves, then holding his long stick “diagonal” and playing with it. He then hugging/climbing on me, but then he was a cactus. He had me plant him and then he grew.

Inside we read the Stars, Stars, Stars book (a freebie from the library) for the first time, and he pretended to be different temperature stars. He then played with Google Maps and was going through the walking directions as he walked to Iceland and Uzbekistan. We read chapter 11 in James and the Giant Peach. He asked what fainting was and I reminded him of Carly fainting at Thatcher’s. He said “That was at Vivian’s” and was pretty insistent about it. But he remembered that he was also sick. He was then being a silk worm and offering me silk for different things. I used the term”Harvest the silk” and he replied “What, but they’re not plants!!” I reminded him of honey.

They nursed, then Carly read him some Plumdog for the first time. They ate some quiche when it was finally done (they’d had a bit to eat already). They then shared the chocolate treat from the bakery.

Carly gave him a shower. He was singing the Hebrew song loudly. He came back down and was typing Arabic on my iPad, then we finished reading The 78-Story Treehouse. Back on my iPad he started asking how to spell random words and would type them. He typed: ‘and the zero book kaleidoscope chair’. He was then typing really long numbers.

He was ready for sleep. We took him up and he was intensely crazy on the bed for a couple minutes. I left them but then heard some crying happening. But then it ws quiet, and he was asleep by 8:30.

Waking up: 

Pine needles: 

Paying with the diagonal stick: 

He was up at 5:45. After nursing he did math in Excel. He started at 7000 and kept saying his result until he got to 448000. He then typed in Arabic on his iPad. Did some Little Dragonbox Numbers as Carly went to work. He’s clearly getting better with mental subtraction. He went to the bathroom and started making a “25 20 15 10 5 0 That’s how we count backwards by 5s!” song. Wanted to read books: “I want to read Plumdog, the Dog Who Crashed to Earth…I want to read Emma, the Woman Who Crashed to Earth.”

We made a fort and read Peppa Story Collection one and a half times in it. He then ate a whole apple. Played Little Dragonbox Numbers and he made up a counting by 6s song. We tried more of the algebra app. Too hard for him, but he likes it. We then went upstairs and he watched Ask the StoryBots while I took a shower. It was the Why is the Sky Blue? episode. I came out of my shower and asked him so why is it blue, and he then had us acting out being air molecules and blue wavelength light.

We went downstairs and made zucchini bread. He helped with both the peeling of the zucchini and the grating of it. In fact he did most of the grating of the two cups of zucchini. While it baked we read more Plumdog, then I made tuna melt sandwiches for lunch. He ate most of his. We were listening to music and he liked a Drivin N Cryin song and seemed to like the new Weezer. We then spent a lot of time on Hebrew, doing cursive and block letters. He wrote some letters, and we were learning some words. We then spent a lot of time reading and translating Goldilocks and the Three Bears from Hebrew. That actually seemed like a good way to learn it together.

He then had us acting out Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Ran through the whole thing two or three times. He then had us acting out the Robot Lab iPad game, sans iPad. I was the robot, getting stars, then he was the magnet taking me out at the end of the level.

HE then got the Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life book and had me reading about random prehistoric creatures, which he would then act out.

At 1:50 we walked up to the cages and did the recycling. We came back and changed into swimsuits. We took some time with Duplos and put the last of the Duplo zoo stickers on some of them. We then made some rockets. He held one at an angle and said “It’s flying diagonal.”

We left at 2:30. As we left he told a long story about his ‘nahaleim’ (‘shoes’ in hebrew). About how he lost them then he found them then they wore out so he got new ones but they were worn out too “but all the shoes in the whole world were too old…” It went on.

Perhaps even cooler was that as we were walking he developed a whole robot counting song, where each number was a number of something on his robot body. He had one leg, which I learned when he restarted from 1. He had 8 arms, 9 powers, 10 batteries…

We got to the school and went and did the can recycling. A lot of cans had built up so he was excited to do them all. We then went to the pool and were in at 3:10, after going to the bathroom. We were the only ones in the pool for most of the time, until a woman came to do laps near the end. August said “I’m a lonely ball floating down the river…” He was being the ball from Plumdog that bounces over the wall and they just watch go down the river. I hadn’t really planned on swimming, but then when we were talking about what we could do at the school I gave it to him as an option and he immediately said that was what he wanted to do. It was a great decision, as it felt really good. The air was a little cooler, but that made walking into the pool really easy. And there were no swim lessons to stay out of the way of.

We got out close to 3:50. He wanted to get out using the ladder at the deep end. He was then a robot (“Eightybot” – which he was all day, saying it was another way of saying ‘Dino-roar’ and that it meant he loves 80) that rusted when he got out. So funny.

We changed out of our suits and then he sat on the black couch outside and ate some apple and zucchini bread as a snack. We met Carly at her classroom at 4:15 and he pretended to go from his home (the beanbags) to school (a desk): “Bye bye. I’m going to school…I’m learning about machines.”

We walked up to the studio and his class. He was being shy with the teacher at first, but mainly for fun, I think. He made a nest on the couch with the pillows and said “I’m in my green squirrel bed.” In trying to get him to come out a bit less to ask me about the time, I showed him the analog clock in the studio. We talked about the minutes, and where the minute hand would be at the start and end of class. At first he was still coming out a lot, mainly to ask what it meant when the minute hand was at 10, 11, etc. And he had to go to the bathroom. But after that he really got into playing. They were using frisbees to bat balls around on the floor. So didn’t see him for about 20 minutes, then at 5:25 he came out with what I at first thought was a sad look. But he said “I’m tired” and I picked him up. He got up really early, so not a surprise.

We headed home, admiring the gibbous moon, and for as tired as he had seemed he perked right up. More snacking – apple and a Larabar along the way – then just past the community center I realized the bike handle had fallen off. Carly continued on with him and I walked back to try and find it. Found it less than a block away, at the other end of the community center by the statues. Caught up with them and walked home together.

We were home about 6. He and I did a little more Dragonbox Plus (the algebra one) while he ate pasta and pesto and mushrooms. Carly gave him a shower , then in bed he wanted to be in a squirrel nest with me and read books. He went and brought back Amelia Bedelia, Bookworm and Biscuit Wins a Prize. We read those, then he went and got Me and My Dad and Wild About Books and the Babar book. We read the first two but then he was too tired. We went down and got his water bottle, but he told Carly he wasn’t ready for her to come up – he wanted to practice minutes.

He set a few minutes on the timer and we tried that, then I introduced him to the stopwatch and time how long he could lay still, eyes closed, and not talking. Started at 11 seconds, but got up to around 40, I think. We got Carly and I left them at 7:40. He was asleep within 10 minutes.