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He was up right at 6:40 again. I said “Is that ZZ?” He replied “Don’t come up!” and slowly made his way downstairs. He went and turned on the fan and a light switch, then sat on the couch. All very calm. He asked to play Robot Lab. He went to the bathroom and told me to make a new robot while he was gone. He was then singing a Counting by 2s song to the tune of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. He’s done that a bit before – that is his own mashup. When I said the legs were rectangles on his Robot he said “The legs are cylinders.” He had us acting out the Terry monster scene from 78-Story Treehouse. While I was getting vitamins and banana bread he was looking at his Hebrew alphabet on the fridge and added letters: “I have 14 made-up Hebrew letters.”

We read three chapters of the new Magic Treehouse book (#2), Then read a lot of The 78-Story Treehouse, to page 280 or so. Then we got out the Hebrew alphabet workbook he hasn’t used yet and he spent a lot of time tracing letters and singing his Hebrew alphabet song – even including some of his made-up letters even though he wasn’t looking at the fridge.

He decided on a walk at 8:30 but said he wanted to stay in his pajamas since it would just be around the block. He had some Larabar and water on the walk. We went over to Vatikim, then south and back over to our house. He sang the whole ZYX (backwards ABCs) song on his own and we did a lot of counting by songs. We looked at some old furniture and talked about painting old furniture. He really liked the idea.

We were home at 9. He ran straight to the couch and was a sick baby walrus. It was sick due to pollution from a factory and swallowing plastic bags. Next he was a baby shark. We went outside and he helped water plants. Got maybe ⅔ done then he wanted to play GarageBand. He did that on my iPad while I finished up with the watering and tying up some of the tomato plants.

He did some of the coloring book, then we watched the Hebrew counting book twice. He then watched Charlie Brown while I finished making my sandwich and his grilled cheese. We ate lunch, then watched a Coyote Petetson video, which Cherie had recommended as it is Thatcher’s favorite. August was then  a red velvet worm.

He played a little Dragonbox Little Numbers and was learning counting by 9s on his own and was chanting “9, 18, 27, 36”. He got the big dinosaur book we have and asked me to read about tyannosaurus rex. We then read part of After the Storm. He then typed arabic on my iPad and saw the character counter. He got up to four digit numbers: “Four digit numbers is cool!”

He was then a robot that needed charging, then we went outside for a moment. We read some Garfield, had a pillow fight, then read the Elephant on a Line book in Korean. He spotted Dragonbox Algebra on my iPad and we played more of that than we had in the past. Sort of understanding the rules, and I think he’ll really get into it at some point, but still pretty hard. Switched to Google maps and was figuring out how to do walking directions on his own – to places in Uzbekistan, etc.

He went and took apart his zoo and dumped out the Duplos, just in time for us to head to the grocery store. He was fine on the walk over, and as we got a cart and as he started riding in it. But then he was making noise and I had to pull him out and head out of the grocery store. That did the trick, and he agreed to go back in. He was still a little surly, but stayed quiet, and said he was talking in an “invisible language”. I think he discovered he could think mean thoughts but not say them outloud.

We did the rest of the shopping, including getting some lentils and tuna for a family that they are helping at school. At first August wanted to make sure he got the same things, so we also got tuna. But he was okay when I didn’t get lentils for us, and when I asked how many bags we should get for the family he said 3. At the end I was getting popcorn for us and got two boxes, but he said the second box was for the family, so we will donate that as well.

Took apart his zoo

We were home at 3:30. At the store I had reminded him of his Halloween candy. I let him choose, and he got one Starburst, a red one. I cut it in half and he chewed on it, walking around as he enjoyed it. Walked in circles in the kitchen for a couple minutes, then would say “It dissolved”. Then watched Charlie Brown for the second time today.

He went to the bathroom, and getting of the toilet said “Dada. I’m learning basketball. Do you want to play?…You throw the balls and catch them…they go through the nets…” I asked “Where did you learn about basketball??” “From people in the country.” I mean, he has seen, very very briefly, people playing basketball, but we’ve never discussed it. Don’t remember it from any of his books. Think I may have pointed out kids playing basketball at the school a couple weeks ago.

We then went out again and rode his balance bike up to the playground. He first went to the exercise equipment so we exercised. He went to all of the machines he can use, then he jogged around with me a few times. We were then playing with the drinking fountains when Carly showed up.

We walked home and they went out and picked tomatoes. He did more Dragonbox Little Numbers, then Google Earth on Carly’s computer. He found a couple really nice spots in Scotland I’d like to visit. He did some Excel math and I prepared some falafel for dinner. He ate those, then had pasta and pesto and mushrooms as well.

We read more of James and the Giant Peach. Got to the giant insects part and he was insects crawling on me. Carly took him up to the shower and I actually gave him his shower. He was still being cranky and mean after his shower, so I said he couldn’t get my side of the bed wet anymore and dried him off. He was mad at me about that, and only grudgingly said sorry to me a bit later for saying mean things. When he said “I love you” before going to bed it sounded very much like he was 13. He was asleep right at 7.

Up at 6:40. He was upset at first but calmed down on the couch and spent a few minutes waking up. Was counting on his fingers and counting by 11s and then wanted to look at the shapes book. We read Elmo’s ABC Book on the iPad and he learned another knock knock joke. We then read about 80 pages of 65-Story Treehouse. He watched one episode of Ask the StoryBots (Where Do French Fries Come From?) then we ate some toast at the table. We then read all seven stories in Peppa Pig story collection, which was just released. He then asked to play the Robot Lab game. Actually a nice little game as it had him doing a little problem solving. As he was making a robot: First arm: “Fire to burn people.” Second arm: “Rainbow to make rainbows so when people are sad it cheers them up.”

We moved upstairs so I could take a shower. But discovered that the internet wasn’t working. Back downstairs to troubleshoot, and restarting the modem did the trick. Later, August would pretend to be the wi-fi router or the modem, talking about what color he was blinking, or how many of his lights were turned on.

Back upstairs he watched Wanda and the Alien and I took a shower. Downstairs we read the end of Plumdog, then started at the beginning, then read some Garfield. He was then reading the Hebrew alphabet off the fridge and singing his Hebrew song with extra letters. He’s added additional ‘sofit’ letters at the end and an extra ‘yod’ in the middle, and kept adding more.

Then some more Garfield. I then made a mango lassi and let him lick out the tablespoon after I did the honey. We drank our lassi, then he recited a big Hebrew number and said “That’s 22!” He remembered the structure of them from watching that video once.

I made grilled cheese sandwiches for us and he ate his whole sandwich, minus some crust. He was singing and said “I made a Counting by 11s song.” He sang it some more, then counted by 11s. He asked me what came after 110, and we worked on going up to 220 a couple times. He then said “How do you count by 12s?”

He did a little Duplo zoo, then asked me to add animals while he want to the bathroom. He’s been repeating lines from the books we’ve read. From Garfield: “That’s my hot water, Garfield. I was going to make tea.” “Garfield!” “Okay, who ate my socks?” From Plumdog: “I’m gonna bite your stupid head off.” He then did a little more coloring book as I got snacks. We then practiced telling knock knock jokes, and he’s starting to understand playing both sides. He knows the ‘Boo who?’ one from Elmo and the ‘Interrupting cow’ one from Hilo 2. I also taught him the ‘Aren’t you glad I didn’t say banana?’ one.

We next inished reading Magic Tree House #1 and discussed which books to return. He randomly asked “How do you write עץ (tree)?” So I showed him on paper. We went outside, and before we left he wanted to wash off his little rake and shovel.

We left at 2:20. He wanted more knock knock jokes. I looked some up, then he would ask for ones about things: “tree” “fence” etc. The best one I made up was: “little red riding” “little red riding who?” “No, Little Red Riding Hood!” And he really laughed to cows go/cows go who?/cow’s don’t go who, the go moooo! one that I looked up.

We got to the library around 2:45. They had two Treehouse books we hadn’t read and he chose The 78-Story Treehouse. And we got the second Magic Treehouse book. He wanted to sit on the highest level of the reading area to read, he said because he wanted to see the pumpkins that were hanging up. I said “Ah yes, there are pumpkins.” To which he replied “Not any pumpkins, Halloween pumpkins.” That’s phrasing he got from the Treehouse books which start “We live in a treehouse. Not any treehouse, a 78-story treehouse.”

He was getting a bit hyper in the reading area but we were the only ones there. He was running around in circles on the rug and counting rug squares by 4s. We read 5 chapters of 78-Story, then he was sucking me up with a straw (something that happened in the book) and playing on rug.

He was being a bit loud with his voice and when he couldn’t quiet down I got him out to the big stuffed animals. But along the way he kept chanting “red, red, red” (being the wi-if router) and wouldn’t stop. We had to have a talk outside the library, then he turned down his volume back in the library. We checked out our two books, and Liz showed him a music playing and dancing dog toy thing. August liked it but seemed a bit disturbed by it as well. We looked a little at some other decorations, then Carly showed up. Before we left, August spotted two legs sticking out from under a pile of books – it was the witch from the Wizard of Oz. He was really amused by that and looked at them for a couple minutes, wondering if it was going to scare him.

We walked up to his dance class. He said on the way that he had plenty of energy and had done extra charging. Once there he had some difficulty at first as the waiting room was quite full. He yelled “Go!” A few times. We took him outside, then Carly stayed up at the top of the steps and I got him back down and into class. I thought he did quite well – he came and checked with me a few times, and asked how much time was left. He left for one minute and had a bite of banana bread, then went back in. Spying through the curtain, I saw him actually sitting down with the other kids several times. But when he came out at 5:12, with 3 minutes of class left, the teacher came over and said that all of his trips to the door were really hard for her.

He said he was done, so we got going – nice leaving a minute early anyway as the waiting room is already a zoo with everyone waiting for the next class. Oh, and I met Rachelle, the WBAIS PE teacher who told Carly about these classes via email. She had a daughter in the next class. Carly got to meet her too, as they actually hadn’t met face-to-face.

Anyway, on the way home he did a lot of bike riding on his own. We were home at 5:50.

He did a little Robot Lab, then I got It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown going and we all sat at the table and watched it. I wasn’t sure how much he was following it, but when I offered to skip through the Red Baron part he said no, and when it was over he asked if he could watch it again. I said another day.

He looked at Google Maps with Carly. When he had to go to the bathroom he told Carly how many more places she was supposed to look at. Carly took him up for a shower and I did dishes. I came up and they tried for sleep but he wasn’t ready. He came downstairs and we read 78-Story Treehouse while she took a shower. We went up and I left them at 8:02 to try for sleep again. He came back down at 8:16, which I know exactly as he announced it as he came down, having read it on the clock.

We read 7 chapter of James and the Giant Peach, then went back up just before 9. He actually wanted to try to go to sleep with the timer. He set it for just over 6 minutes. But after about two minutes he wanted to nurse. He was asleep soon after 9.

A phrase he liked today was “The gloaming”, which is from Plumdog.

Smashing an orange on the tree: 

Reading and smelling the fir branch: 

The witch’s legs: 

Watching Charlie Brown: 

Trying to sleep on the stair: 

Had a good short downpour about 5:40. August was up right at 6. He played some Dragonbox Little Numbers. Carly headed to work and we switched to reading all of the book, from start to finish (except for the ones about Jon’s dating which I skip). We then went outside and he found his mud bricks in the bike. Took them over and melted them with the hose. The rain had knocked down a lot more of the tree things and he helped me pick them up. It rained lightly on us as we did that. He sang a”We’re robots” song as we picked up. He found a shiny little round thing and I said I had thought it was a beetle. He said “No. I’m sorry to say it isn’t.” He wanted to dump out the bag of tree things so we took it across the street.

We were back inside before 8:40. He pulled a big stack of books, Hebrew and English, that he wanted to read. We started with the Hebrew elephant book. Translated a few words, then made up the story from there. Translated a little more on my phone, then he got into typing random Hebrew or Arabic and seeing what it would produce. He was then translating Arabic numbers into English. We discovered the translation service works fine for numbers up to a million, then starts to break down. He wanted to do more Arabic, so played Zee’s Alphabet on the floor while I got ingredients ready for banana bread. He kept calling me over to see each letter and word.

He then helped with all of banana bread. Felt luxurious using a full set of bowls (unlike the taped together bowl I was using at the end in Korea) and the hand mixer for the first time. August liked the hand mixer, although it is too big for him to use entirely on his own.

He did some more Dragonbox Little Numbers while I cleaned up. We went upstairs and he watched one episode of Wanda and the Alien. Didn’t want second episode. I took a shower, then we headed back downstairs to check on the banana bread.

It was ready. He played a little of the forest app while I took it out and cut it, then made a phone call to Skoda. Carly had talked to the embassy and determined that we had to go with the new chassis number. So I called Skoda and talked to Shai to clarify that, and he said they were going to give us 2000 shekels back due to the hassle and delay.

We did more with the elephant book, then he was a sick bird, due to pollution. We then headed over to the Duplos and he started to make a zoo on his own, building a fence around the entire big piece. He was then asking about shapes and how many lines of symmetry an octagon has. I drew it, but then went to show him on the iPad in the shapes book. From there he wanted to do art. He titled his first piece “Round bus” and the second was “It’s an interesting cow…a died cow. and when it is dead it is green.” Drew a ouple more pieces, then we spent a long time on the coloring book. Randomly he talked about “Gymfobens is a play structure just for kids and animals and babies. Not for big things…”

He was humming Eine Kleine Nachtmusik together so we ended up watching it on the iPad and watching the entire thing together. We were then looking at the shapes book and he wanted to make red spirals. We went and drew them on paper. He is starting to quote Garfield now, namely “Almost, but no banana” (actually “Close, but no banana”)

We then headed to the park with his balance bike. We first went on the exercise equipment. He did the leg press and was a heart pumping – he explained how the blood was going through him and to the lung to get oxygen. He wasn’t getting on his balance bike so I said I would have all the fun. That got him. He said “No! I want to have all the fun!” He rode his balance bike and was the city pound catching me (which happens in Garfield). Also in Garfield Jon talks about going jogging. August didn’t know what that meant, so I showed him and we were jogging around in circles together.

But that turned into racing, with him declaring he won every race. So I said he needed to share the winning and let me win sometimes. He had some difficulty with that idea: “I’m gonna win all the time.” “Can you share the winning? Thumbs up or thumbs down?” He gave me a big thumbs down with a grunt. He also spent some time picking up several pieces of garbage and throwing them away.

We headed back towards the house to get the orange bike and go for a walk. I was pushing him on the balance bike and when we got to the house he wanted to keep going so he could practice his balance bike. We continued on around the corner and then up the back path, back to the park, and then finished the loop around to our house again. We were back to the house (again) at 3:50 and switched to orange bike.

We went on a Zinnie walk of sorts and ended up at Tal Garden, the little park. He went on the crocodile thing and then we did the merry-go-round. We headed home and got here at 4:25. As I was getting the nike up the stairs August said “Dada. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is beautiful.”

He watched an episode of Ask the StoryBots (Airplanes) and I made a banana mango lassi. Carly got home just as I finished that. We drank the lassi, then Carly showed August a video of people counting to 100 in Hebrew. We then did the iPad coloring book with the Apple Pencil, which we had left to charge while we went on a walk. He had mushrooms and pesto and pasta for dinner. We then read more of Plumdog, stopping about 12 pages short of the end, then read After the Storm. Carly took him up and gave him a shower, and he was asleep a bit before 8.

Pretending to sleep: 

Painting the round bus: 

Brushing off the water: 

Exercise: 

Bike: 

Merry-go-round: 

The clock changed back an hour during the night, so it was around 2:45 that August sat up saying “I want to read books”. He didn’t go back to sleep and I got up with him at 3:25. We read After the Storm, Where the Wild Things Are, and Biscuit Gors Camping. He refused to read more and went back upstairs at 3:50 and to Carly. He didn’t go back to sleep though and started reading the clock: “5:02” (actually 4:02). I took him downstairs again. He watched 3 episodes of Wanda and the Alien and I got us Cheerios. He was then talking about his treehouse and it had “Saw ice skating cave with real ice skating saws. It has 67 million blades.” He then counted to 100 by 2s. We read the ancient Egypt chapter of 65-Story Tree house, then he was talking about numbers and lying on the couch, We read the future chapter of the book, then went back upstairs and we fell asleep with Carly. She got up at some point, then he was up at 7:15. I was up a half hour later.

They went out and harvested a few cups of basil from our plant. August then played Dragonbox Little Numbers and Carly made pesto. We read some Garfield and he was laughing hysterically. Carly went upstairs to make a phone call to Skoda. She and I traded off as we dealt with the car fiasco. Finally, close to 11 I was off the phone. Carly had gone up to take a shower and August got to watch one more story of Wanda and the Alien. When she was done I took a shower. They had done a collage on paper while I was gone.

We planned to go to town to do some grocery shopping and get a coffee. When we left we found that someone had thrown an egg just short of our front porch. We rinsed that as best we could. August chose the bike over the stroller even though he seemed really tired. We made it about two houses before he stopped the bike. We tried to switch to the stroller but no luck. In the end Carly stayed home with him and I just went to the mall. Got cash at the ATM and went grocery shopping. I got enough to load up my backpack and the two reusable bags.

I was back at 1:45. He hadn’t taken a nap and was playing GarageBand as they sat outside. We continued with GarageBand inside after I put away groceries then moved to Legos making rockets. He told me to try to touch the rocket and it would fly away and he’d laugh. He was singing a line from a StoryBots song: “Hurricane…fight with a tornado”. Carly took over and I went to make a sandwich. The tired boy was having a hard time so they took a break and went upstairs.

We then went for a walk just before 3. Walked down to the strawberry fields. August played in the dirt and watched ants by the field. He ate almost a full apple on the walk. We stopped at the park and Carly continued on home. He sat in the green chair thing he couldn’t play with yesterday. He started the thing where he made up mean things to say, but stopped it quickly this time when I said we’d just go home. We went on a couple of the shaky things then he was ready to head home. We walked the long way around the Holly block. He stopped to play with hard red mud and decided to take a couple pieces of it home in the back of the bike.

We were home at 3:50. He ran to the bathroom with one shoe again. He asked how to count by 11s and learned in about one minute, then ran and told Carly how to count to 110 by 11s. He learned about the modes on the air conditioner, then we did more Legos, making little cars for the astronauts to drive around on. Carly wanted to vacuum so we cleaned up all the Legos. Then had French toast for dinner.

We read After the Storm and Garfield – more hysterical laughter. Carly took him up for a shower, then I finished it with the hair washing. He got the bed wet. He was really tired, but it was only about 5:40. He agreed to skype with gramma and grampa and we skyped with them for about 45 minutes. Helped keep him awake just long enough. He did a lot of emoji typing to them and showed off some of his multiplication skills. He also put together a couple of impressive sentences explaining the basil harvest to them.

I left Carly with him at 6:35 and he was instantly asleep. She was out by 6:40.

So early: 

Playing with his hair: 

His favorite thing on the playground, supposedly: 

He was up at 6:45. I got up an hour later, having had my book group meeting. I had been up from 1 to about 3:30. He was doing his Wanda and the Alien watching binge style today, after just watching two episodes the last two days. All 3 this morning. He wanted me to sit on the couch so he could cuddle in behind me like a nest while he watched. After that he was animals sick from pollution that we took care of. It rained hard for a minute outside and we paused to watch the rain. When the last episode was over he and I went and played with Legos. I made him a rocket and he said it was Astrosmurf’s: “it’s not smurfing off!” He then have me invent rocket fuel.

He then played TodoMath: he finished the level 10 100 puzzle on his own, then was working on quick multiplication. He understood the concept pretty well.

He then went upstairs with Carly to start making a rocket out of the dryer box and toilet paper rolls. Carly grabbed the Picasso’s Trousers book to use as a straight line and he didn’t want her to ruin the book.

They did that for quite awhile and I cleaned the kitchen. He came down as I was peeling some of the oranges from yesterday. He ate a few slices of them, then had a slice of pizza and “cupcake milk”. He asked for more Wanda and the Alien. I explained we had been lazy this morning and needed to do something else. He said “I want lazy iPad Saturday!” He went and lay down on the couch, being lazy. He set 5 minutes on my watch and sort of pretended to sleep. He was doing different funny sleeping poses: “I’m upside down…I’m a bat.”

Carly made us a mango lassi, then they read some 65-Story Treehouse together. He was then chanting “Aardvark! Cheesesticks! Poop poop!” He was being hyper while she was trying to rest. I spun him around, then we played some Duplos and made up different things to chant.

Carly went upstairs to work and he and I went up and did recycling. We then went to the playground, but he was upset to find other kids using his “favorite” part. He started saying “Go away!” I stopped him, and then he had a good idea of going over to the exercise equipment and playing there. But over there he was making up languages and then saying that “That means ‘Go away’” or “That means ‘I’m going to cut them’”. When I told him not to do that he would then do one that was nice, but then he would do a mean one again. When he said something mean to me we headed straight home, a bit after 1:30.

Carly and I talked to him on the couch. She was trying to get him to practice “I’m uncomfortable”, which is what he used to say. He wouldn’t say it, and at first said “I’m gonna get worse”. But then he at first started to write things like “I’m uncomfortable.” in the air, but wouldn’t say it out loud. I pretended to be Eve and then Shmuel so he could practice. Finally, he said “I’m shy. I’m gonna go upstairs.” He then lay down and pretended to restart “Do you see the apple?”

They nursed, then he was still having a hard time. They went upstairs as he saying he wanted to sleep I finished reading The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman just as August came back down. We read some 65-Story Treehouse, then we had a nutty noodle linner outside. Carly had cooked the interesting shape pasta, including the ones that he says look like ghosts. I was then trying to figure out where he learned about ghosts. There is the Scare Bear episode of the Care Bears, but the ghost in that looks like a bear, not the sheet sort of ghost. I think we also read a Biscuit Halloween book from the library, and last year he did see a few minutes of A Charlie Brown Halloween at the Halloween party. But not a lot of ghosts overall, but he understands the concept and that they are in a dark house.

Anyway, then back inside where he was more animals suffering from pollution (fish, sea otter). We made a Duplo rocket, then Carly took over and I went and lay down for awhile, getting back up at 4.

Carly got his costume on. He opposed it at first but was okay when it was on, especially since she was giving him a chocolate chip every 10 minutes. When he was in the bathroom with her he told her he was afraid of the Halloween party we were going to. Some good communicating there.

We left a bit early, and between chocolate chips he kept asking “What minute is it?” The party started at 5 and we got there about 10 minutes early. He looked around at costumes, Carly got a green trick or treat bag for him, and I got a hotdog that he ate part of while we waited.

We went in and wandered around. First did the trick or treating, which he really liked. When he was walking on his own across the grass he was dancing to different songs. A bit later he was really dancing to “Ghostbusters”. After trick or treating we went through the hedge maze, which he basically ran through, I think to get out of it quickly.

Then did some of the activities: a ring toss thing, then sitting at the art table where he colored a picture of jack-o-lanterns and put stickers on it. Did a different ring toss thing. And they walked the cakewalk together for a few minutes until he won something. He chose a chocolate brownie. Every 10 minutes he could have another piece of candy. He had Skittles, M&Ms, Sour Patch Kids, and more M&Ms. He was doing a good job of sharing with us, giving pieces to Carly in particular without being prompted.

We went and waited for popcorn for awhile – figured it would be the slightly healthier alternative to candy for awhile, but the crowd waiting for popcorn was large, and the supply limited. We talked to Ada for a couple minutes, and August admired costumes – in particular he spotted someone dressed as a minion, and he liked the wizard costume of the popcorn person. Earlier, there had been someone dressed as Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus.

He was okay with heading home, so we decided against popcorn. We left at 6:05. As we were walking home he said “When we go home we really need to brush my teeth.”

At home we read 225 pages of 65-Story Treehouse. He was then an elephant, putting out fires with his trunk “That was from cigarette butts.” (Another reference to the book at the library yesterday). Carly took him upstairs for his shower, then he and I read more Treehouse downstairs, then went upstairs and read  After the Storm on the bed. He got a little hyper and was chanting “Aardvark, cheesestick, poop poop” before he nursed with Carly. He was asleep by 8:25.

He was up at 6:10. When he and I came down, Carly had two cups covering something on the floor in the kitchen. Carly had stepped on a lizard on the way to make coffee a few minutes later. They nursed and he did Google Earth and Excel on Carlys computer, and at some point I helped dispose of the parts of the lizard, taking them outside.

He watched two episodes of Wanda and the Alien and Carly headed to work. Cheerios and apples as he watched. We then went and played with the Legos, primarily making cars today using on the wheel pieces. We put a tree on the back of one of them and he said it was a farmer and he played with that one throughout the morning. He kept asking “Why babies can’t do Legos?” and I would explain about fine motor control and choking hazards. We then moved to the paper and added to his plane picture from yesterday.

Up on the couch he practiced going to sleep, setting the stopwatch and pretending to sleep. He was then driving his farmer on me. I asked “Where’s he taking the tree?” August answered “To Ra’anana Park.” We then read the Ancient Egypt chapter of 65-Story Treehouse, then stopped so I could find him a video of a snake charmer playing a punji. But mainly we found videos of snake trainers treating snakes badly.

Did more Legos and then he drew lines of symmetry on an oval he drew before dividing it smaller and smaller. Then another shape: “That’s a man-eating number line.” Back to the Legos, he figured out that a couple rectangular pieces had lines of 10 bumps and was counting them by 10s, up to 120.

We then did some Hebrew cursive on the paper. Then upstairs where he did TodoMath on his bed as I started laundry “Dada. I think it says ‘What number is 2 less than 71.’” I took a shower, then we went downstairs and prepared snacks. He played with his farmer more and said “The driver’s called Albajour…It’s in French.” The car kept coming apart and he would need help to put it back together.

We left at 11:15. He did a lot of asking for water and food along the way until I told him he could just wait a few minutes.We got to the Even Yehuda library at 11:40. At first he didn’t want to go in and was frustrated with me. But then I showed him the kids area and he started playing with the stuffed animals. We went in the little sitting room and got some Hebrew books. We spent a good amount of time starting to learn how to tell time on an analog clock in a book as he can count by 5s. There was another book whose title translated as Billy Saves Nature and the pictures were clear enough with that one and we looked through it a few times. Later, he would pretend to be animals affected by pollution.

We left at 12:30 when the library was closing and went to Ishimoto Sushi for lunch. This time we got the pad thai with shrimp. August asked if mama and I liked shrimp and fish, but then decided he would want to get shrimp even if mama was there.

He really liked the pad thai and the shrimp in it and we took a good amount of time eating. He then played Dragonbox Little Numbers and I helped and read for awhile.

From there we walked over to the park by the library. We went on the merry-go-round. There was a big spill of what looked like blueberry yogurt on the ground by a nearby tree and he talked about playing with it. When he got off he went and was playing with it with sticks and setting leaves in it. After awhile he accidentally touched it with a finger. I went and got his water bottle, but he got upset about it, thinking he had touched something he wasn’t supposed to touch.

When he calmed down he wanted to play a game on the play structure. He told me he didn’t want me tickling him or scaring him though, but I should bang on the tube. But when I did that he decided that was too scary as well and decided to go over on the swing.

On the swing we discussed what sort of toppings to get on the pizza we were going to take home. I suggested mangoes and he said no and explained: “Mangos are fruits and fruits are soggy things and that would make the pizza soggy…ducks eat soggy things.” Off the swing he went and was playing with some big piles of pine needles. When I pointed out that they were swept up like that he picked them all back up and put them back up in the pile. After pulling a few weeds he was then Hilo and was drawing portals in the dirt and pushing a button to suck me into the portal to trap me (Razorwark) in the void.

At 2:30 we got going. The plan was to go to VIPizza and get a pizza to take home for dinner. It had been open when we walked by before 2, and their hours on Facebook said they were open until 3 – and they were open at 3 last week when we walked by on Friday. But now it was closed.

We kept walking, and decided to go into the grocery store in the mall. We have pizza dough mix at home. Got a few veggies for pizza, then realized they had frozen pizza as well and got a couple of those. We also got two small bottles of orange juice.

We continued on and stopped at Citrus Garden park to drink the orange juice. I then wanted to get going, as there was a group of 5th/6th grade kids that were having a fruit fight. It was getting a bit out of hand and I didn’t want either of us to get hit by a flying orange. Also, I didn’t want August to think making a mess like that was okay. So we got going, but August saw an orange on the ground and wanted to take it. He figured out what was going on and got upset – first because he wanted to go back, but mainly, I think, because he wanted to clean up the mess and didn’t want the park ruined.

Eventually I convinced him we could go to Motek Garden and step on and collect oranges from the orange trees there. On the way, I noticed that a house had a koi pond in the yard and we stopped to look. He asked “Is this the Kerns’ house?” Apparently they have fish, although it wasn’t clear if they were big fish like this.

We stopped at the park for about 20 minutes. Collected about 8 oranges, and he stepped on several, and broke them open on rocks. There were a couple of guys practicing their rapping on a bench in the corner of the park. That as kind of cool.

We headed home as he needed to use the bathroom. We were home at 3:45 and rushed inside. He was struggling to get his shoes off and I told him that when he really needed to go he could go straight to the toilet and worry about taking his shoes of later. So he ran in wearing just one shoe. He made it, but managed to pee a bit through the crack between the lid and bowl – something that has surprisingly not happened to him before. He thought it was pretty funny, actually.

He was asking about big numbers and how many zeros they have after them: “Sept means seven…Oct means eight…I know nonillion. Non means nine and it has 30 zeroes!”

He was some sick animals and we played a little Legos, then we called Carly to see when she planned on coming home. August did most of the calling. We went upstairs to put clothes in the dryer and read Picasso’s Trousers on his bed. We came back down to start pizza and he was playing on the couch. At 4:45 the guy downstairs started knocking on the window with a broom, startling both of us. We ignored it and didn’t answer him.

We then read 65-Story Treehouse on the floor while August drank orange juice. Carly got home and I sliced pieces of pizza for us all. We read more Treehouse, then he went outside with Carly picking up stick things as a lot had fallen due to the wind. At one point he was trying to tell her about something and she didn’t understand what he was talking about. He clarified what word he was saying, saying “‘Here’ as in the place, not ‘hear’ when you hear something” or something along those lines, and providing some more examples. He then came in on his own and was writing the alphabet on the chalkboard. Not something he’s done before. He asked for my help at a couple points, but did most of it on his own.  

It was time for a shower and Carly su
ggested Beethoven during his shower. He watched the fourth movement of the 9th while he was on the toilet, then continued to listen as I gave him a shower. We then went in on the bed and he watched more. While he was watching he had a magic car: “will go past the moon, past Neptune, and all the way back to Earth! Where it will break EVERYTHING!” And “I have a triplet making reflecting sounding machine!”

We went down to get his water and Carly. As we went back up he volunteered “I’m gonna dream about magma plumes.” As Carly put on his pajamas the shirt sleeve was messed up and he said “There’s a glitch in it.” He was asleep at 7:40.

 

Pretending to sleep: 

Pad Thai: 

Oranges: 

He woke up at 5:30. We were all still in bed. In the 5:40s he started reading out the times on the clock. Went downstairs around 6. He and I started reading 65-Story Treehouse and were reading it when Carly left. We read 250 pages, starting at the beginning. Snacked on Cheerios while we read. We took a break and he watched Wanda and the Alien while I made a mango lassi. He moved the iPad to the kitchen floor so he could keep watching while he had the lassi.

We then read 50 pages of Plumdog. August acted out things like the dogs rolling in poop. We then moved to art. He drew a rectangle then divided it in halves, quarter, eighths, sixteenth, etc. On the other page he did long rectangles, then divided them into “thirds” lengthwise: “Now, I’m gonna make a machine.” We drew a plane, taking turns to color it in with the blue marker. He said  “That’s a walrus in the air.” He then sang a nice song: “Im the walrus, lost in the air.”

We then got the Legos (which had come in the large box) out for the first time. He chose a blue base and started making a rectangle, then adding rectangles inside, filling it up. He was talking and said “The voongadees take all the oxygen from the fire.”

We went upstairs and I took a shower and he watched one Wanda and the Alien. Only two episodes this morning, and he saved a third for later, although he never used it. We went downstairs and made a salmon sandwich for lunch. He played TodoMath and DragonBox Little Numbers. He ate his half of his sandwich (all but the last little bite) with my help (holding it). He acted out being the balancing scales in TodoMath and had me come up with math problems that would balance him. He was then a lost walrus, etc.

We went outside to do watering. He spent quite awhile making streams between the papaya plants. And he wanted to make sure mama’s favorite weed was watered. And he pulled a couple weeds as well.

Back inside he played with Legos on his own, adding to the structure he had made, then taking it apart. He was excited by a cone-shaped piece and we made a little rocket with it.

We left at 12:45. Over at the mall we stopped and he played on the airplane again. He wanted to make sure there were no wires lying around this time. He’s been interested in polygons again and asked me to look up the chart so we could find out the names of 12, 20, etc. sided polygons. Did that as he sat on the plane and the wing.

Then inside, where outside Tiv Taam there was a taste test thing happening for some Tenta vegan burgers. I tried them, but August, who has never passed up a free sample before, didn’t participate, as I think he didn’t want to have to talk to the women. The patties were good, although the spicy one wasn’t.

We did our grocery shopping. August sat in the cart and was generally just fine. We had to stop for several minutes while he watched a couple workers use pricing guns. He also started asking if things were symmetrical, mainly starting with the milk cartons, but moving on from there. That led to teaching him the word ‘asymmetrical’ and reminds me that on the trains yesterday he asked “What it called when the train is slowing down?” Seemed pretty clear that he was asking me for the name of a concept, which was interesting. So we had talked about ‘acceleration’ and ‘deceleration’.

As I said, shopping was fine until checkout, at which point he kept saying “Go!” to the woman doing check out. When we were done I had to talk to him and explain that he needed to stop saying that and be nice to people – or simply ignore them. Also, I felt comfortable tying later iPad usage to him not saying it. With reminders through the day, of course.

We got home with the intent of a quick turnaround and heading to school to get there before 3. But he wanted to read the ant section of 65-Story Treehouse so we read that. I then sliced an apple to take with us and he got involved with the Hebrew magnets. So I sat on the floor and we talked through the alphabet once.

We left right around 3. It was slow going, as there was a strong wind blowing at us. Well, most of the way. It swirled around and for a bit was helping us, but mainly it was in our face. He was asking about directions (north, etc.) and would continue to do so in the pool, asking what direction he was facing.

We spent about a half hour in the water. He was catching the wind in his hands and asking about directions. We got out at 3:55. Warm enough in the water, but a bit chilly in the wind getting out. August commented on evaporation. He was then asking if everything was symmetrical in the bathroom.

We got to Carly’s classroom and played on the bean bags while Carly went and made phone calls. Apparently, Skoda screwed up theVIN. Something Neville, the guy at the school, says he has not seen in 20 years. That’s a bureaucratic nightmare as our tax break is tied to it. So don’t know what happened: either they got the number wrong, or perhaps sold our car to someone else somewhere in Israel.

August did some sleep practice in the bean bags, then when we were done we headed to his activity class. He was a little disappointed there were no small things for him to carry in, but he helped Carly carry a big cushion thing.

Before class the teacher (whose name sounds like Seagall, but is probably spelled differently) gave him a bunch of high fives and he thought that was funny. There were a couple more kids today, two boys. The first several minutes of class he kept yelling “Are you going to chase me?” as that was his major concern. He basically spent every second in class this time. A few times over the last 15 minutes he would run out and ask “How many more minutes?” then run back in.

Had him say thank you to the teacher before we left, then on the way home we did a lot of discussing of symmetry of things and also discussed the moon, as it was almost a half moon now.

We were home at 6:10. They nursed, then looked at countries and photos on Google Earth. They went outside and Carly found that the rosemary clippings have started to grow roots. We had some dinner indoors, then I gave him a shower and Carly did dishes. Today he chose to go get the Zinnie bed wet. He then did a lot more practicing to sleep on the bed. When he was done with that we read Plumdog, getting from page 50 to 100. He was asleep by 8.

Looking for symmetry: 

Helping carry: 

6:40. He stood on the stairs awhile, grumpy. I went back down on the couch. He came down a minute later and ordered me “Dada do TodoMath” as he disappeared around the corner to go to the bathroom. We worked on TodoMath, doing the 100 board puzzle, then he watched an episode of Wanda and the Alien. We moved pretty quickly, having the last of the banan bread for breakfast and making snacks and sandwiches for lunch. He watched more Wanda and the Alien while I took a shower and we left the house at 8:50.

We caught the 11 bus, which August has been wanting to take and rode to Bet Yehoshua Station. We figured out how to get a ticket from the machine, then went and waited on the platform. It was an open track, so we sat on a bench and I talked about the importance of not going past the yellow line. I talked about the stations in Seoul and how most had the walls that made them safer, etc. In talking about getting hit by trains he asked “Did it happen 2000 years ago?”

We rode on the first floor of the train. Not exactly a scenic ride. August was doing fine, talking to me a lot and looking out the window. A guy started talking to us, saying August seemed very smart, but the train was boring. He then complained about how his grandchildren were constantly looking at cell phones.

Anyway, off the train at Tel Aviv Station at 9:45. As we walked down stairs he saw a big poster with Ironman and Spiderman. I think he recognized Ironman (possibly from the big statue at Toys R Us in Seoul). Then, as we were walking down a hallway he first pointed to a deer on an ad, then at an actor on a Blade Runner poster and asked “Is that Paperman?” His first invented super hero makes paper.

We walked a couple minutes to Hayarkon Park to the east. We found the big playground and August at first said it was Ra’anana Park, as the big wooden playground looks similar. He wasn’t in a hurry to get out the backpack so we kept walking. We found the aviary and went in. There were workers tearing much of it apart, but no obvious ‘closed’ signs. One worked did see us while we were in there, but didn’t say anything. We stayed in the first room area and saw some birds. Basically, it appears like the aviary hasn’t been properly kept for 20 years. Signs were missing and when there were signs they didn’t match the birds inside. We got a good visit from a couple birds though, and the red lory did match the sign. August said “When I get home I’ll be a baby red lory.” We also saw the snake and skink room.

We left and walked around the corner to the river and the Israel National Trail. We walked a little ways to the east along the river, past the playground in the aviary, which also had a worker in it. August said “Real ice skating musk oxes.” Really random at first, then figured out it was a Treehouse book reference to having “Real ice skating penguins” in one of their rooms. We also saw a kayaker and watched her paddling on the river.

We walked back to the west along the river, crossed a stream and saw a little waterfall from what was an historic mill site. We then stopped for early lunch at 10:40. We talked about grinding wheat at Folk Museum in Seoul and the water wheel at Olympic Park. We ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, then read a few chapters of 65-story Treehouse. Having finished the book we’ve started on a second reading, starting with the Egyptian chapter and the “king” (pharaoh).

We headed back towards the playground and he needed to use the bathroom. Walked past it and found a bathroom. There was an armed security guard with a group, like the armed guards that accompanied the school group to the Dead Sea. Also notable was the woman with headscarves everywhere. There were groups of them all using the swings together, which I knew Carly would especially like.

We got to the playground at 11:40. He first went on a swing, where he made bark for trees for me to assemble, banana bread dough for me to bake, and wires for me to use on electrical posts. He then played in the sand and dirt and I read. He found a bone, 2 or 3 inches long. Very clean and polished. He asked if it was human. I assured him it wasn’t – cat or dog or squirrel or something. I thought he’d want to keep it, but he buried it like the car at the beach: “It’s a treasure now…somebody else will find it.”

We then sat on the sand and read more Treehouse, reading to the end of chapter 11. We went and rinsed his hands off, then headed to the snack shop. He saw a couple women with head scarves and asked “Are those Kings?” I think because the pharaoh in the book has an Egyptian head scarf.

We stopped when he spotted a rolly slide. He wanted me to go down it first, so I did. But then he decided he didn’t want to go down. He crawled through a tube thing though and told another kid that came to use it too “Me first!” We looked at the snack shop, but it was busy being overrun by a school group of high schoolers. We wandered back to the playground, but after a minute went back to the snack shop when we saw the students leaving. We got a “pink flavor” slurpee. As we ordered he danced to the music playing.

We sat and took a long time drinking it as we had to keep waiting for it to melt. Finally, we headed back to the play ground and the big wooden play structure. Climbed up on it. Passed a group of teenage girls and they tried talking to him. He kept telling them “Go!” He made things worse as he went in a tunnel part I couldn’t follow through with the backpack. The girls continued to call to him and were rather annoying – it felt very Korean. They were saying “I love you!” and patting him on the head. So I understood his frustration. Eventually, I got him out and he went down a helter skelter to make his mistake. He asked me “Why did those girls want me to leave the park and go to their home instead of my home?” I think one of them may have joked something like “Come home with me!”

We climbed around some more and he found a stick which he said was a new Sticky. We used it to write some Hebrew in the sand, and he used it like a magic wand and we played a Hilo game, destroying robots. He wanted to leave the stick behind.

We stopped at the bathroom on our way out, and left the park right at 2. At the station there is a book stand out in the middle of the entryway. We were both excited to see the children’s book about an elephant walking on a wire. In Hebrew. It was one of just two books we could really read in Korean, and I was pretty sure we had kept our Korean version. Better yer was that it turned out to only cost 5 dollars, when I thought it was twice that.

We got a ticket and took the first northbound train. All seemed fine until I realized it didn’t stop at Herzliya. And then it didn’t stop at our stop. I figured an express train would at least stop at one of the Netanya stations, but it did not. The train didn’t stop until south Haifa. We had planned on going to the store once we got home, but that plan was out the window. Also, as we sat at Haifa and tried to figure out how to get back, it became clear that there aren’t really a lot of trains that stop in Netanya/Bet Yehoshua, which will rather limit our use of the train in the future as well.

One guy told me how to tell where a train stops and told me that they usually stop at Bet Yehoshua, but the next one didn’t. I had just figured out he was wrong – we couldn’t just sit and wait for a train to our stop – as that train was pulling away. The Moovit app was claiming we had to ride all the way back to Tel Aviv University and catch another line north. So, another 25 minutes of waiting. Luckily, August was all about 65-Story Treehouse and snacks, so we kept reading and reading.

Then, on the train (as we read more Treehouse) I looked at a map of the system and realized we should be able to get off at Binyamina and transfer to the ‘line’ that goes to Bet Yehoshua. Moovit (the app I finally found that does Israeli public transi
t) fessed up to this option, although wouldn’t work correctly with it. Anyway, so we transferred there and made it to the next blue line train. Read more Treehouse. I finally had him play iPad as my voice was wearing out and he watched/played Lucy and Pogo.

We got off and made our way to the highway and the bus stop. There was a pepper on the ground that he had fun stepping on. He said he needed to go to the bathroom, and I suggested he pee on the weeds/dirt at the edge. He wasn’t sold on the idea and I told him about how peeing on the grass in Pennsylvania. He seemed skeptical that he’d ever been excited by the idea. He held it until we got home.

The bus came and we made it home at 5:50. Carly helped him with the balancing activity in TodoMath. We had some dinner and she took him up for shower and I did dishes. He was asleep by 7:20.

Bone: 

Casting a spell: 

Looking out the train: 

Train accelerating: 

Reading together on yet another train: 

He was awake about 5:40 when Carly got up. She was able to get up though and he kept lying on the bed. About 5:50 he said something, th n started reading the clock “5:54…5:55”. We all went downstairs and they nursed. He then used Google Earth on her computer, finding countries and asking what they were (“What’s the one that starts with I and ends with Y?”), then doing Street View of places. Found some castles and rivers and lakes and whatnot. They nursed again, then she asked me to entertain him while she finished getting ready for work. I told the interrupting cow knock knock joke and he knew the last line. It is Hilo’s favorite joke. August then was silly on th couch and said “There’s interrupting cows everywhere!”

He then played Toca Blocks “for just a little while” and Carly headed to work. We then Skyped with my mom to say happy birthday. They weren’t online so we went all the birthday-related emojis we could find, then did a video. He sang Happy Birthday with me, then we sang again to include grampa since we didn’t sing for him last month. Only fair.

After that we listened to StoryBots songs and he was hooked to the music. Whenever it was a song from one of the episodes he would tell me what episode it is from. Did some good dancing that I got on video to the song about the color green. We then read some Hilo and then Plumdog, an illustrated journal told from the perspective of a dog. About 40 pages of it. I thought it was going to have a little more plot, but the art is nice and it is amusing, and August likes it. So a decent purchase.

He played some Big Numbers then my parents skyped back. He told them about his costume and that he will always love pink and 14 and Q. He played with the calculator on his iPad. After the call he played with ShapeKit and made a few interesting shapes, then Sesame Street Numbers. I reminded him of the rocket video, but we couldn’t find it in the numbers, so he switched to Elmo Loves ABCs to find it as a letter R video. At one point we tried the new geometry app, but it was one where you had to touch the invading monsters. Lasted about ten seconds before he decided it was too stressful and he shut it.

I had made pizza for lunch, and he ate most of a piece. I’d used the better sauce this time. He had been asking about how many days it takes the earth to revolve around the sun, so I had shown him how it all works, using him as the earth and the blueberries container as the sun. So he kept doing that and we would count off the years.

Upstairs he watched Wanda and the Alien and I took a shower. We then made a home for the hoglet in his bed and he talked about how long his legs are.

Back downstairs we brushed his teeth, then went and did Hebrew. He told me what letters to write in cursive. When I suggested we get going he said “Dada, I need to you learn all the letters of Hebrew first.” And then he stood up and applauded when we finished writing the letters. He then wanted to draw a “helping machine” “I said it’s a helping machine. It’s a machine fireman.” Finally, he wanted to clean up. He said he was done with the blueberries and put the container away, then he saw the Duplos under the table. He said he’d get them out and I could put them in the box.

It seemed like he had been stalling a bit as he wasn’t excited about getting going – he knew that we were getting flu shots and going to his dance class, which he was nervous about. But we left at 1:30.

At the school we got a drink at the drinking fountain with steps, then went to the library. First stop was the microscope where we looked at the few things they had. They’ve added a dead lizard, so that was nice. We also looked at the screen of my watch, my hat, and our coin pouch.

We then went to find a Treehouse book. No 39 or 52, but they had The 65-Story Treehouse. On the way to find it he said that he wanted to try it out in the library and if he liked it he wanted to take it home. We went and started reading it, and he was cracking up from page 1. He found all the new rooms that they added, then the fight with the ants, to be hilarious. As we were reading a third grade class started to come into the storytime area we were in. August saw them and started saying “Go away!” I took him out and he made a nest in the big stuffed animals and we kept reading there.

We checked out books (just that and a Philip Pullman book I hadn’t read – we returned the Perlutsky poetry book and issue of Ranger Rick, which he was never interested in) and met Carly just before 3. Straight to the nurse where we were about first in line for flu shots. August was strongly opposed. Carly went first, then I sat down with him on my lap and had to hold him and the nurse did his. Carly took him and started to head out. I got mine, then paid for the shots, got the bike and caught up.

August had gotten so upset that he threw up on the way to Carly’s room. In her classroom he wouldn’t calm down and nurse, saying “What are we doing here?” He kept spitting up more and more spit and we had a ton of tissues for him. He threw up again. I had him now, and had him looking outside at the strawberry field and that seemed to calm him down. She got him down to nurse in the bean bag chair but he was afraid “It will get worse!” He calmed down and they nursed and then read Treehouse while I went and got paper towels and cleaned up the mess.

Our big box from the United States had arrived, so Carly took him to the playground where a bunch of 8th grade girls were watching Taya (sp?), Cassie’s daughter, while I opened the box and put some of the small stuff (one of my books, the Legos, a vest) in my backpack. The two kids never played together: apparently she is really shy, and when August first saw her he told her to “Go away!”

But they both had a crowd of 8th graders (and Grace and Jill) playing with them. When I got there they were moving to the preschool playground. Carly went back to her classroom to do some work. He first made bark soup and some of the girls helped out: “We’re making soup that has big chunks of bark in it.” He then got the small pieces of lumber and was leading the girls to “storage” – a play structure thing they were dropping them in. He said they were still cooking, and talked about how everyone likes sugar and the big bark would make it extra sugary.

The other girls took Teya over to see some plants, so we went too. Then Gaby and a few of the girls gave us a tour of the greenhouse. They helped explain the hydroponic system to August, and I made connections to the Namoo app and what he has learned about roots and minerals. They let us taste the mint and he ate that.

We then met Carly at 4:15 and walked up to the studio for dance class. He didn’t want to go in at first, stopping at the bottom of the steps. Carly went upstairs and I took him in. I sat right outside the door and had him sit on my lap and told him we could just watch. We did a couple of board puzzles, then he went into class after there was actually music – he commented a couple times that they were just doing boring things when he peeked in through the crack. In the first few minutes he came back to make sure I was still outside the door. A couple minutes later he came and told me “I just did all that!” Then ran back. The teacher pulled back the curtain at one point and I briefly saw him crawling across the floor with the other kids. “I did it all the time!” At one point he thought the teacher was going to chase him so he came over, concerned. But he turned right around when the next song started. Gave him a high five at one point.

Made it to 5:06. Thought the teacher was going to chase him and he didn’t want that. He had had enough and wanted to go home. He was quite happy about class though. We headed home.

Back at home he did a little TodoMath. He finished his first Hundred Board Puzzle in it, with some help from me and Carly. We ate outside, then they watered and I did di
shes.

She gave him a shower then I played with him on the bed. We read a few chapters of The 65-Story Treehouse. He wanted to keep reading, but he was getting sleepy. I suggested he practice going to sleep on his own. We started at a minute of lying down and worked up: two, three, then four. Before I suggested five he said “5 is too big. Maybe when I’m bigger.” We went down and got water, then he wanted to go back up and do more practicing – still didn’t want to nurse with Carly. Did one, then two minutes again. Eventually we did 4 minutes and 14 seconds. There were a couple of times when he was starting to get sleepy and he realized it and said he wasn’t ready for it. He asked Carly to come up and I left them just before 8. He was asleep just after 8.

He was up at 6:40. A little upset (“Only mama can help me” “Mama’s nice; you’re not nice” “I’ll just get worse!”) but not awful. He wanted to go ou side so I opened the door right away. He sat on his bike. I said I needed a sweatshirt if we were going on a walk and he wanted one too. We went upstairs and got them and when I put his on he asked “How do sweatshirts keep you warm?”

We ended up walking for 55 minutes, getting back at 7:45. First around the block, then I ran in to get snacks. He spotted more letters: “That’s a T out of the road.” He’s also been into declaring “That’s a three-way road” at intersections. We then went up to the dead end, then across to Vatikim. He didn’t want to play in the park so we kept going, down to the strawberry fields. Then down around on the trail and past the fields that way. He was ready to head home so we turned around.

For the first half we sang ABC songs we haven’t sung much of recently. He mainly supplied words he’s learned from Metamorphabet.

When we got home I introduced a 3 episodes per day limit on his videos and we talked about the various mathematical permutations of that with different shows and number of stories in each episode. He was happy with it, so we will see how it works in practice. Shouldn’t be too bad, although there were days when I was sick that he definitely watched more.

He watched one Wanda and the Alien, then we made banana bread. As we were getting out ingredients he grabbed out about a dozen spices that he said we should put in. When we were done with the dough he then pretended to pour them in. We had music playing, and he really started dancing to the demo version of Drivin N Cryin’s “Not Afraid to Die”. He also really liked a Lee Renaldo song. He inspected the brown sugar and said it was a light brown sugar, where before it had been a dark brown. At the end he was explaining how he didn’t want me to take too much dough off the spatula before he could lick it: “Don’t scrape it off. I’ll take care of it.”

He then played around with a little bit of the 14 material. He said it said 14 on it and he was wearing it on his foot.

Took care of baby spider. Made bed, for our doctor tools.

Baby squirrel. I went up and got the sheet and we made a big nest. Baby squirrel and dada squirrel then hibernated through the winter, then gathered acorns. I referenced Frog and Toad, saying I wanted to sleep another month. He then did it too, then discussed reading the story. He saw Toca Plants first so I let him do that for a few minutes while the banana bread finished. We had been checking on it along the way.

The banana bread turned out really well, and he ate some and watched Wanda and the Alien. He finished his last episode as I took a shower and was fine with no more watching for the rest of the day.

In his bed and the play area he pretended to be various sea creatures: crabs, whales, etc. We then read After the Storm, after which he was being baby animals needing me to build homes for them (which is what happens in the book). Moved in on our bed where we built more homes and a nest.

Downstairs we did some Hebrew on paper. I wrote the alphabet 3 times. Third time was in cursive, at his request.

We then read a few chapters of Hilo 2. He wanted to Lee rand adding but eventually I needed to make some lunch.

Requested backwards ABC song. He’s been requesting that.

He played TodoMath. I made eggs but then he didn’t eat any. Eventually he said he’d have some when Carly got home. It was only 1. He was making progress on the 100 Board Puzzle and we worked on it together, then on some other things.

Then back down to Duplos and making a rocket for the dinosaur, which he calls a monkey. On paper then we did more Hebrew, doing variations of his name and also finding words that end in tzadi sofit, his favorite Hebrew letter. He drew a machine/robot/town. It had a waste treatment plant and 15 eyes. He said it was a “man-eating alien town”.

We played some squirrels hibernating, then went outside to water and pull weeds and gather nuts as squirrels. Inside we went back to hibernating. Sitting on the rug, he looked at the cover of the Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life book and said of the dinosaur “That monster’s going to bite its tongue really easily.”

We then read the rest of Hilo 2. This one has a cliffhanger ending, which I had to assure him would turn out okay. He was ready to jump in and get Hilo 3 but I said we could wait for awhile. And it was time to get out for a walk.

But first we had music time. First he was walking around, sort of singing, and inventing new musical notes, like dotted 22nd half notes, etc. I got out the keyboard, then we played with GarageBand for about a half hour.

We finally got out on his bike and went for a walk. Basically up towards the school, as Carly was heading home a little early today. We met her halfway, singing ABC songs, then walked back with her. We all stopped at Tal Garden. Carly went on the swing, August mainly played with the drinking fountain before going on the merry-go-round, and I did a little reading. He also found a seed which, when he was done with it, he threw in the bushes. He said “Bye little seed.”

We got home about 4:45. They nursed, then he played Big Numbers, getting help from both of us at different points. We had dinner, sitting at the table, but then Carly decided to move outside. I had just gotten some seconds and was about to head out when he bit his tongue. Blood on this one. They went back in and eventually he could nurse. While nursing he asked me to add “Moon (the Slips remix)” by Bjork to his playlist.

We all went back outside and he played around, going down the slide. I had him tell Carly what he knows about the months. We recite some of them when we’re doing the hibernating animals, and today he recited December through May and we were working on the rest. He’d say “Dada, can you talk more about the months?” For July Carly said “That’s when I was born.” He said “Then I like that month.” He was playing with the dustpan and before I could tell him to be gentle with it he hit it on the patio and a small piece of plastic broke off of it. Hewanted to bury it, so we dug a little hole for it.

Carly had spotted a planet by the moon and I finally saw it too. I got out Sky Guide on my phone and found out it was Saturn. August then played around with that, and I pointed to where the other planets are. He played with that for awhile, then wanted the globe. So we used Google Earth as we sat out on the grass. He found an interesting abandoned spot on the island of Tanna.

We headed in and Carly took him up for a shower at 7. Afterwards, I got called up when they spotted a spider by the bed. Couldn’t get it before it went underneath though. He wanted me to take care of the baby squirrel, and Carly decided it had measles, so we told him about measles and chicken pox. He then said he had a package of chicken from the Everything Chicken store. That got us back to the Everything Tickly store from yesterday, and we played that for a few minutes.

We went down to get his water, then I left them about 7:40 and he was soon asleep.

Morning walk: 

Playing on our slide in the evening: