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He was up a little after 6. At first he lay back down for a few minutes, but then got up. He stayed with Carly upstairs for awhile while she got ready. He was sad to see her go, but in a grumpy way. We spent some time doing math with the blueberries. Really cool to see him talking his way through math problems on his own. He then pretended to be germs, which made him what to watch How the Body Works videos. We did that on the couch and he ate Cheerios and apple. He then wanted to watch Puffin Rock. He chose one and told me “This is the one where Flynne’s lair is messed up with fur.” I said “full?” and he said “No. With fur. Not full. You know, fur.”

He wanted to send emojis to someone and chose Vivian. He then made a made a machine with his bowl and apple cup and tore up his tissue and put it in the bowl. He then lifted this machine with his feet. He asked “Why is the first word ‘Care’?”, referring to ‘Care Bears’. I explained it was because they take care of each other and other people. He replied  “I want them to just be called ‘Bears’…That means they don’t help people out then?” He watched a little of the Jealousy Tea episode (one of his favorites), then said he was done. We played catch with Peter Rabbit after he threw it to me and then when I threw it back he caught it. He was into ‘catch’, although he declared himself the winner when he caught it. Tried to explain it was a cooperative thing.

He went to the bathroom and noticed the toilet paper was new: “flowers and spiraly things.” He spotted a scrap of toilet paper on the ground and said “Dada, I’ve seen that toilet paper for ages.” He then counted the feet on the pattern on his stool. We headed to Duplos where we made rockets and he worked on trying to say patterns of colors. He was then a sick baby squirrel, but when I went up to get the doctor tools it destroyed the hospital bed. He then watched Peg + Cat while I took a shower. He’s really started singing the theme song.

We went downstairs to take care of baby squirrel, then went outside and painted his pot pink. He helped with most of it, then wanted to watch Ask the Storybots. He watched the episode about French fries while I finished the pot and then made pizza. When that episode ended he said “Ask the Storybots wanted me to watch another show.” I realized that both Peg + Cat and Ask the Storybots have albums on iTunes and added them to our library.

We went outside and watered, and August played with the hose. He was spraying the lawn: “Dada, the sun is making it hot there so I’m making it cool there.” Back inside we did some Hebrew letters on the pad of paper before he turned to drawing maps on the paper. He then said it was a machine: “This is a machine that moves planets.” He was then being silly with Duplos and markers. We then looked at books and decided to return 4 to the library (26-Story Treehouse, Berenstain Bears, the ABC book, and something else) and then read Du Iz Tak, which he still decided to keep.

We left at 1:50. Carly had said it would be fine for him to take a nap, and he fell asleep at 2:05 as we got close to the school. We had taken the small stroller at his request. I sat in the library and read while he napped. I also got a couple more books for the little library. Carly came in and started to talk to me, but he started to wake up so she left. He woke up at 3:05, and I asked if he wanted to look at books or go swimming. He said “go swimming” so I pushed him over to the bathroom by the pool. But now he was pressing his eyes shut. I got him in the bathroom, but he didn’t want to change. I managed to change into my swimsuit, but then he suddenly started calling “Mama! Mama! Mama!” and crying.

We ended up walking around the campus, trying to not bother people, as I tried to get him settled down. He’s not really used to naps now, and has never woken up from a nap at school, where he knows mama was at. He finally calmed down around 3:40 as I put him back in the stroller. He ate Cheerios outside the library in their ‘Library Cafe’ area. At 3:55 I asked if he was feeling better, and offered him thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs sideways. He did thumbs sideways for getting there. He ate for a couple more minutes then wanted to go in the library. Once he finished off the Cheerios we went in. We went and got four books to check out: 13-Story Treehouse, Home by Carson Ellis (same as Du Iz Tak), Mr. Brown’s Fantastic Hat, and one he spotted called Peach & Blue.

We walked up to the studio for his dance class. He went to the bathroom and played on the couch, but when the time came for class to start he was having none of it. Carly went back and forth with him to the door a few times, and inside once or twice, but he would immediately want back out. When he started to participate once he almost immediately had his foot stepped on and started crying. August said at one point that he thought we were going home (we’d talked about the class earlier, but probably not since he woke up) and at another that he didn’t like all the kids in there (it is a much bigger class than the Thursday one). It was also difficult because the area in front of the door was full of other moms sitting around and talking. Not a lot of space down there. He and Carly read the Home book and Mr. Brown’s Fantastic Hat, which he found pretty funny.

So we headed home. He cheered up on the way. We stopped at the school so Carly could go to the bathroom. He sang a colors pattern song and had a couple good patterns going. He seemed to listen to his container of apples slices at one point, which was pretty fun.We got walking from there at 5:15. He was singing a counting by tens song that he seemed to have made-up and he read a few license plates.

He wanted to stop at the park by Jack and Celeste’s house at 5:30. Carly went on home and we played with the drinking fountain first. He then found a branch from a thorn bush and handed it to me. He then decided it was too dangerous for me to hold and told me to put it down. He went and got on the merry-go-round and offered rides “Who wants to ride?…Well you’re just in time.” He then surprised me by counting backwards from 20 – something he’s gotten from watching those Space Shuttle launches. He turned me on the merry-go-round, first sitting in it with me, then getting out and running along beside it, which was rather impressive as well as it wasn’t something I knew he could do.

We got home at 5:50. He got out of the stroller and went around the side of the house and checked on the pink pot to see if it was dry. We got Carly and she came out to see it. He told Carly the table was her favorite color and the pot was her favorite color. They nursed, then we did some more Hebrew, then had some dinner. He was then making silly rockets out of Duplos, and laughing a lot as he had them fly into space.

On the couch I showed him the Peg + Cat and Storybots music on my phone and we listened to some of our favorite Peg + Cat songs (the theme song, the circle one where Pig sings “I still like triangles.”, Sorty Sort Sort). We read Grade 2 at the Zoo, then the start of 13-Story Treehouse, then Grade 2 again, which is quite funny. I gave him a shower, then they tried for sleep a little after 8. He was back down at 8:35.

We mainly read 13 Story Treehouse and he went back up at 9:20 and soon fell asleep.

Photos. Lifting: 

Painting the pot: 

Playing in the library: 

Growing: 

He woke up at 3:50 and couldn’t get back to sleep. I took him downstairs at 4:20. He asked for something to eat and I got dried cheerios. He then wanted to read Charlie Cook three times. I then got him some apple and let him watch Peg + Cat while I pulled out the bed and rested. He’s still stuffy and now coughing a bit.

Carly came down about 6:15. She had overslept a bit. August nursed after she made quesadillas, then said he wanted to play with the blueberry math blocks: “Race you!” and ran over to them. He was frustrated when Carly couldn’t play with him but then played with me. He suggested we make groups of 7. We did that, then he made a long string of them and counted all 32 of them. Then he added one more and counted them all to 33.

Carly said goodbye close to 7. He huddled on her feet and said “keep me”. Then he pretended to be a parasite and did just fine when Carly left – he wanted to go learn more about the immune system, so we did that. He loves the How the Body Works series from kidshealth.org with Chloe and the Nerve: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRmb5AxU-JXgajvrrcozhkhMeSWa0XI0Z

I fell asleep for a just a little bit before he woke me back up. He wanted some milk, and I let him choose from his three different sized cups. He said “small, medium, large…Huge…Super huge…Can you think of other kinds of bigging?” So we discussed words like enormous and gigantic. He got a little upset when mangos not ripe and I realized there was only one banana.

Upstairs where he played Big Dragonbox Numbers and I took a shower. He was showing me his planning/impulse control in Dragonbox Numbers as he showed me he had enough apples for getting gold, then showed me he could get stone, but if he got the stone he wouldn’t have enough left for the gold, so he went back and got the gold. He was then a machine: “I’m a really lour machine that makes cups out or old cups.” More math thinking in hundreds: “We need 600 apples to get 6 cupcakes.” And more machines: “I’m a machine that can make magical music from nowhere.” “That means it gets sound all the way from in Venus…Say ‘whoa’”.

Downstairs I made us French toast and a little banana and mango smoothie. We were listening to Mermaid Avenue Volume 3 and he added the song “Chain of Broken Hearts” to his playlist. As he drank his smoothie he said, out of nowhere, “Dada. Sometimes mama gets a bug in her mouth and she closes her mouth and she eats it…Silly mama.” Turns out this was based on a conversation he had with Carly yesterday after a bug flew in his eye. He also randomly asked “Why did our vacuum cleaner turn off on its own in Korea?”  He then speculated “What if all the vacuum cleaners in the world were turning off on their own and getting too warm?” He then acted this out on the couch.

We went and wrote our options for the day on the whiteboard. He drew a machine on the chalkboard, then erased pictures I drew on the whiteboard, first of an ant and then, at his request, a millipede. First thing we agreed to do on the list was water the plants. He ran outside in his pajamas. I got him changed into some shorts, and we went outside and I first put down some ant poison. As we walked to do that he asked “The company that made my shoes is called Crocs?” He then played with the hose in the dirt after scraping some old glue or something off of the boards near the faucet. I did most of the watering and some sanding on the swings while he was playing over there. He got his shorts wet and took them off, having some naked time outside.

Back inside he only wanted to play on the iPad on the couch. He lay on the couch trying to convince me – smurf village, make things, etc. Lots of rubbing his eyes. He switched to being a worm hibernating for winter “This is where I come out from underground…In the steps that aren’t painted…The non-painted platform.” He was talking about the steps in front of our house. Wasn’t interested in doing other things on our list – he was tired and just wanted to play onthe couch.

We went upstairs at some point and he talked about how we have 17 stairs. I said that was good as it was mama’s favorite number. He got a little upset as it wasn’t his favorite number. He surprised me by going to the top of the steps and pretending to take away 3 steps to make 14. He was still hungry so he ate some more of his french toast. He then played with the Hebrew magnets and we spent a good amount of time with the alphabet. He raced me to the bathroom, then had a breadstick as we went walking at 12:50.

We took the big stroller, hoping he would fall asleep for a nap.  We walked over to Jack’s house and I quickly checked in with him about going to the guy’s night thing tonight. He said he was going but not driving. So I planned on riding my bike this afternoon to meet up at the school. But Carly’s Hebrew class ended up being cancelled so I had enough time to walk.

After we left there August wanted to go across the street to the park and see the drinking fountain where he had played the other day, spraying it into the dirt. I turned it on and he watched for a minute from the stroller, just staring at the water as it made a stream in the dirt. I asked if he was ready to go for a walk and try to fall asleep and he said “Okay”. We started walking to the south, then back home, and he fell right asleep.

I pushed him into the house and he slept in the stroller until 1:06. He woke up at 1:48 enough that he wanted out of the stroller. I took him out and put him on the couch. He was upset at first, and I wasn’t sure he would fall back to sleep. When I said something to him he was swiping at me and telling me to go away. So I was just quiet, and then he turned over and curled up against me and the back of the couch and fell back to sleep. It’s the most awake I’ve seen him be and be able to fall back to sleep. Impressive. After awhile I tried to start waking him up. I tried several times. He would sit up with his eyes open, then throw himself back down on my lap or the couch and close his eyes, back asleep. Finally, I got him awak at 2:52. He lay on the couch for a good ten minutes before asking “Can I have Cheerios?” Finally, he got off the couch about 3:05.

I got him some Cheerios and milk. He ate for a minute at the table, then asked “Can I watch Peg + Cat while I eat?” He then asked for more milk for his cereal, as he had drank it all with his spoon. So I got him more. He drank all of that, then wanted even more milk, and he drank most of that. He paused watching Peg + Cat to pretend to be a present that is too heavy to pick up – he had watched a Christmas episode of Peg + Cat that, I think, involved sorting presents by size and weight. I then had the box of coins out and he was playing with the coins and pretending to be a coin sorting machine, taking coins off a conveyor belt.

Carly was home a little after 4. At the end of one episode, as he sat at the table, Pig sang “I still like triangles” and he turned to me and giggled, knowing that I really like that line from a different episode.

I took off about 4:35 and walked to the school. Met the other guys at the gate, then we got in two cars and headed over. We first went to a place called Beer Shop which was a decent beer place and had a beer. We then walked over to a falafel shop and had a wonderful falafel sandwich. They put whole eggs in their falafel as well, which I am told is a little unusual.

Then across to the movie theater where we watched It. Definitely a good one to see on the big screen. And a good film. Felt much like Stranger Things (since one of the actors is the main boy in that not surprising) or Super 8, or Goonies or E.T. I kept waiting for the 27 year jump to when they were adults, concerned as I didn’t know how long the film was. Turns out it is just part 1 – there will be a sequel.

While I was gone they went back over to Jack and Celeste’s and got some trimmings from t
he bougainvillea and came back and put them in water and dirt. August helped pull all the flowers off, then wanted to do experiments with the petals, putting some in vinegar and water and others in honey and water. They also ate some dinner, played with blueberries, took a shower, and he was asleep at 9:15.

Photos: 

Erasing the millipede: 

Cozy: 

Watching the water:

Not waking up: 

Falafel:

He started waking up around 6:30. I was already downstairs and heard them playing. He was being a cold virus, then making mucus, etc. in bed. They then came out and put together his name train and the letters argued about the order they to in. They came down and August watched the rest of Formula 1 qualifying with me. Pretty stuffy this morning.

I made French toast for breakfast for us all and he had a pretty bad bite on his tongue. He then watched videos on the immune system and was calling out “C cells!…M cells!” I went and took a shower, and Carly cleaned out the car. We got going and left at 9:20, Carly driving.

In the car he sang a numbers in Hebrew that he made up, going up to six. Looking out the window: “I see a crane off in the distance.” When we stopped at a light off the highway he asked if he could open his window. I said yes and he asked “Cuz were going zero kilometers an hour?”

Our first stop was ACE. This time, I found the smoke detectors. August watched a show on coral reefs on all the TVs, and we also got an Allen wrench set and a can opener, which we had somehow overlooked purchasing until Carly needed to open a can of beans for the soup yesterday.

We then drove over to the big Tiv Taam. But first we walked around the rest of that little complex and went in the art store that August and I had spotted but never been in. It turned out to be a really cool store, with all sorts of stuff for kids. We got a pack of glow-in-the-dark stars and planets for August’s room, a volcano thing, a crystal growing thing, and a Hebrew workbook. There was a pink cup with flamingos on it that he really wanted. I said no to that, but when he saw pink glitter glue I let him get that. He played a game of finding me in the store.

We then headed to Tiv Taam and concluded that Sunday mornings are definitely the time to go. The emptiest we have seen it. We got a good load of groceries, then headed out. Finally, we stopped at the nursery. August chose a rectangular pot for painting pink and Carly got another pot and a couple plants to put in it. We got home at 11:30.

As we were unloading August was playing hide and seek, sort of, hiding right out in the open. I asked if he was in a bag and he said “I’m not in that bag cus I’m not a grocery.” We had some lunch and he played Dragonbox Numbers. They were outside planting plants when I left at 12:30 to drop off the car.

Dropping it off was much easier than getting it in the first place. Dropped it off and then started walking home, right at 1. Took exactly one hour and was 3.8 miles. Listened to much of a Billy Bragg live album along the way. Stopped and looked in a little grocery store we’ve only drive by, and realized the doors in small concrete structures are entries to underground shelters. I was able to cut across one field on a dirt road, which was nice; the rest was on regular roads.

I was home at 2. They had planted plants, watched more germ videos, and nursed and read some books. They had also opened the stars and planets and looked at them. And Carly had put out some of the ant poison that Cherie had sent.

When I got home they did the little volcano with baking soda and vinegar and had a lot of fun with that. We then read Peg + Cat, which led to him wanting to watch the show. He did that, and I started making a pasta and veggies dish for dinner. They went for a short walk, basically their walk yesterday, and were back at 4:15. He was shocked that dinner wasn’t done yet.

I finished dinner and Carly did some grading while he played Toca Blocks on the floor. Carly asked if he was ready for dinner and did a thumb in the middle, something he had developed with Carly earlier: “Thumb in the middle means almost ready.” We ate dinner outside, something we can now do as we have three chairs. The black cat came and visited. The water was out so I went and filled it. The cat retreated behind the little house but then came and drank.

August checked the spots of ant poison several times, and he questioned why there was a pile of borax on the patio. He helped Carly sweep it up, then wanted to vacuum what he couldn’t sweep and he actually did some vacuuming when I got it for him.

We were going to go get a branch of bougainvillea from Jack and Celeste but we didn’t end up doing that today. He watched more health videos. Appropriately, the last one he watched was on brushing his teeth, so he did a great job letting me brush his teeth.

He got upset though with the idea of a shower. I got him upstairs, but Carly gave him a shower. When he wanted to nurse he said “I’m air beuh-being”, which is better than grabbing her. Said goodnight and he was asleep before 8.

A couple times now he has gone into the bathroom on his own, turning on the light and everything. In the past he would want me to turn on the light. Still needs one of us in when he is done though.

Watching sharks at the hardware store: 

Pink paint: 

Cheese: 

Eating outside: 

I had my book group meeting from 1:30 to a little past 3. I got up at 1:20, got dressed, and went downstairs. Not ideal to get up in the middle of the night for a meeting, but there was no distractions or noise from August, so I was able to pay more attention than usual and we had a good discussion of Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman. A little hard to get back to sleep though, and it was close to 4 before I did.

He woke up at 6:45. Played on bed and then they went downstairs about 7. I was up at the same time but slower to get up and head down. I heard one motorcycle scream down the highway. When I went down I found the reading Charlie Cook’s Favorite Book. He was then walking in circles on the square rug and said “I’ve been spinning for awhile so could you check my oatmeal?” He went outside to check on the tomatoes and told Carly “Say ‘I don’t speak robot language.” as he was making robot sounds. Back inside he was being a crab and pinched me, saying “I like to pinch people. That’s what crabs do.” They did some math with the blue blocks, then I took over and we were counting by 6s and he was making 6s form 2s and 3s and 4s and talking through the math problems as he did them himself. We did robot cleanup to clean them up.

They went for a walk. He ate breadsticks and was reading off license plate numbers, almost entirely correct. Israeli license plates generally have a 2-digit number, a 3-digit number, and a 2-digit number. He sometimes stumbled on the 3-digit numbers. Carly spotted a couple of discarded chairs. They walked in the street a bit, but mainly stayed in the shade. They were back at 9:35.

He did some typing on my iPad, then he and Carly planned on going and doing recycling. He told me “We’re gonna go to the cages while you keep typing, dada.” He had wondered if I had thrown anything away while they were gone. They walked up to the cages and I was in the shower when they got back. Came down and August was playing Elements. He was asking about the names so we pulled up the actual table of elements and looked at the names.

We all went outside and did some sanding and watering, then went inside and they nursed. We were then wrestling and being silly – he was trying to get to Carly but she was making soup.  We looked at the Hebrew flash cards and he wanted to look at numbers. But he really wanted to learn million, billion, etc. He found a vitamin from this morning on the ground and ate it. Then he played a long game on the couch of him pretending to eat millions and billions of vitamins.

He did some Dragonbox Numbers, then more blueberry math, then he wanted to record himself playing piano, so we did that. He raced Cary to bathroom and won. I joked “Was that Vivian?” Then while he was on the toilet he joked about how I could tell it was him – not a pink shirt, ringing a bell, making machine noise. The racing to the bathroom thing has now made a comeback, with him racing Carly to the bathroom whenever she needs to go.

We ate Carly’s yummy soup and breadsticks for lunch, then he played Elements with Carly. While he was watching or playing something on the iPad, Carly got the scissors and approached to cut his hair. He looked at her and flatly said “Put the scissors away.” He went to the bathroom, and Carly said she needed to change his shirt. From the other room I said “poop?” She had actually said ‘soup’ was on his shirt. August said “Dada’s joking? Why dada like to joke so much?” He came out, and I was cutting up apple for our trip. He asked”Is that apple all for me?” When I said it was he replied “Yay! Thank you!” He was then acting out (or having both of us act out) Gargamel spells.

We left on another walk at 2:40, all of us. We basically retraced their earlier walk, and I carried the two chairs. After the second, he first stopped to look at and smell some pink and orange and yellow flowers we stopped at the pine tree park and August wanted to go down the slide. Before we got there he was asking why the people had gotten rid of the chairs, and suggested “I think they said ‘Time for a change ‘“

We got to the park at 3. He climbed to the top of the slide and spotted a brown spot on it. He talked for a few minutes about how he didn’t think it was bird poop, as bird poop is white, before he finally went down. He then went down several times, hitting his feet on the side of the slide as he stood at the top in order to get the sand out of his shoes. He said it reminded him of the sand and tires and the teeter totters in Korea. I remember the teeter totters on the tires in Korea, but don’t remember hitting his shoes to get sand out on them. Then again, it seemed like he was talking about tires around a play area, which sounds vaguely familiar. He was pretty sure though.

He was talking about sand falling out or blowing away or something and having an adventure and told me “You’re sand saying ‘Me too. I want to go for adventure.” At one point, he said something like “I was Vivian hearing you to slide.” Sadly, that’s how I had it written in my notes, and it doesn’t make sense. Can’t remember what he actually did or said – maybe something about hurrying? But then a few minutes later I heard him say to himself “August, there’s a rock in your shoe.” in a familiar voice. I said “Wait, was that voice Vivian’s?” He looked at me, grinned, and said “Yeah.”

He then went over to the other little sand play area with the rolling thing (this is where he and I once played and he was concerned about poop in the sand and thought he saw a dung beetle). I sat on a bench, reading, and then I heard them talking about nutrition. They had a long discussion as he sat on the bench about vitamins and different foods and protein, etc. It was really cool. Later, on the way home, he was closing his eyes to sleep and saying things like “I was trying to close my eyes but I couldn’t cuz I had a lot of sleep and I was getting a lot of vitamin D.” Which is some odd logic, but interesting.

Before we left the park he was finding little cones and wanted to plant them. I said they were open, and didn’t have seeds in them, but then we got some green ones off the tree and will try those. He also looked up and identified which trees the big cones were from. Carly and I also marveled at what appeared to be an odd growth at the bottom of the drinking fountain.

On the way home, about 3:45, he worked on reading license plates and we found some being seed pods that we took with us. Really walking down the middle of the street this time and enjoying all the kids riding by on their bikes. We were home at 4:10. Outside we washed the chairs and used a hammer to open one of the seed pods. Bright yellow seeds inside, although we found out that the material around the seeds was scratchy, kind of like fiberglass. August was the first to complain about it itching. We washed our hands and he did okay.

We planted the seeds from the seed pods, then my cilantro seeds, and then his carrot seeds. He kept asking things like “What does cilantro give you?” We would look it up and tell him vitamins A and K, etc.

Carly then made the banana drink/smoothie. August was then a bit restless, and I suggested riding his bike. I meant the balance bike, but he was excited about going out on his orange bike and going for a long ride, and even wanted to check my phone to see how far we were going. And he said we could go without Carly and she could stay at home.

We left at 5:25. Right before we left he had a slice of apple and told Carly “Mama, I think apples help the stomach acids break down the food.” Outside I decided to make it a Zinnie walk and reminded him what that meant. He directed us west, then around some streets and eventually across the foot paths to the park by Jack and Celeste’s house.

He said “That’s a park I always see.” He climbed up the ladder thing and went down the helter skelter, then went on the merry-go-round. He went on
the motorcycle ride thing, and would get off and spin in circles and discussed getting dizzy and how it was an optical illusion. He then played with the water fountain, which flowed into the dirt, talking about making weeds grow. Then he said “Dada, let’s ride a little bit more on my bike.” It was now 5:50.

We kept going, covering the last of the streets in Even Yehuda to the south of us that we’d never been on. He spotted some seed pods in a tree, somewhat different from the ones earlier. He said “They’re not zucchinis cuz zucchinis aren’t straight.” He read off more license plates, then spotted an Israeli flag. We stopped and discussed flags, and looked up the German, Korean flags, etc. He was asking me what the blue, green, and yellow flag is that we’ve seen, but I’m not sure what he meant. He said it was in Korea, but it wasn’t the Korean flag.

He spotted the sunset and admired it, then interrogated me about my watch and phone, asking me how long I had had each and where I got them. I said The Apple Store. He didn’t believe me, saying “No, the apple store sells apples.”. I reminded him they have apples on the back, but he didn’t seem convinced.

He was then asking how how to spell words – crack, roots, zebra, car. And then said “When we get home I want to learn all the letters in Hebrew.” And then observed “I see the moon starting to come up. It’s a half moon right now.” Finally, he was asking how windshield wiper and what they’re for. He wasn’t looking at a car at the moment, and I’m not sure where that came from. Don’t think he’s seen them in use anytime recent.

When we got home he ran inside and said “Mama, we did a sunset walk and theres a half moon.” We were home at 6:25. Had some soup, then Carly went up to take a shower. He and I were going to do Duplos but then decided to go upstairs to get paper for Hebrew. Didn’t do that either. He ended up on the bed in his room and said “I was a whale and I ate the biggest dada in the Mediterranean Sea.” He was really comfortable in his bed and we were talking about him sleeping in it sometime. He then was pretending to sleep. I was giving him some advice on how you go to sleep, and he described to us he sometimes falls back to sleep when “Mama and Dada are downstairs.” He then wanted to practice falling asleep and told Carly”Mama, you go do laundry.” He wanted me to watch him though. He picked up Carly’s bear and said”I call this Scrappydoo.” Carly and I had been trying to remember what he calls it. It has had a few names, but this sounds familiar.

I gave him his shower and washed his hair, then on the bed he said “I have a machine that figured out the names of numbers after nonillion.” He came up with all sorts of names for numbers, even those beyond infinity. He was asleep about 8:20.

Riding in the street with Carly: 

Getting off the sand: 

Little cones: 

Helter skelter: 

Merry-go-round: 

He was having bad dreams and was sort of up at 12:57, so kind of correct when he said he’d wake up in the 12s. Carly got him back to sleep, then he woke again at 2:30 and I got Carly. He was stuffy through the night, and talking in his sleep a few times. A bit of a cold, it seems. He was up at 6:12. He lay on the bed and played around a bit. He looked at the clock and said “I woke up in the 12s….no, it was 21.”  It was now 6:21. Carly asked if she could cut his hair: “Nor now. Maybe later cuz it’s still shady out there. Say ‘okay’.” He was then pretending to be a Venus flytrap again. He’s been doing that for a couple days.

I spent some time cleaning upstairs, emptying one box that hadn’t been emptied and organizing the shelves in August’s room, then I went down at 7. A little cooler in the mornings now, so Carly had all the windows and doors open. He was looking at my bike, then we heard “Its starting to tip!” It had fallen/slid over. He wasn’t hurt, but it was rather scary. They nursed and read Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book. He then went upstairs and sat on his bed and watched one Care Bears episode while Carly vacuumed. He called down for food and water. I got him dried Cheerios and water once he asked politely. Carly went upstairs and I went downstairs with him. We read Charlie Cook again, then played owl and shrew games with the pillows. I then made him a couple pieces of French toast. He sat at the counter and ate it all save one bite, of course. He then played the Little Caterpillar app and I took a shower. Downstairs he played a little of Elements, then acting them out as he heated or spun or electrified them.

We were talking about going to the store and he was discussing the Tiv Taams – “little one at the mall” and the “Ikea one”. He went to the bathroom, then was talking about his hotel, which apparently had 200 stories. He was the elevator going up and down and taking Marshy or me to the different floors. He said one floor had hundreds of pieces of art that I had to set up. He was also talking about the Care Bears cookie episode: “Say some Care Bears making cookies”

We left at 11:05. We first drove to Ein Vered, a town a couple miles to the west on 553. Found a nursery there and a little store. Forgot to check on the swimming pool though. Then we went to the mall. Carly ran into start shopping while August and I parked. It was very busy, but we found a spot in the big south lot. We went in and helped with shopping. Got some za’ater and popcorn to try it on. We went to the other end of the mall so Carly could get something in the pharmacy. August started playing in the little play area, hopping around. I went into the crafts store to look for paint. I came out and August was running all over, touching the different colors in the play area: Carly would tell him which ones to go touch and he’d run to them as fast as possible. He took a break from that to go in with me and choose a pink color he liked. Carly saw a stand run by a woman with a headscarf. She was making something that sort of looked like a savory crepe. It was Druze bread, with za’ater and sesame seeds, cheese, and parsley in it. We got one, then went out the back entrance and sat on steps and ate it. August liked it and ate several bites.

From there Waze found an odd backroad that took us north to the gas station. I needed to ask another guy for help getting gas started, but I think we’ve got it now.

At home we put away groceries. Shmuel had called while we were at the store. He had left the papaya plants in a box and told me he would be back to plant then. He also planted two mystery plants, one at each end of the dirt strip along the house. August spotted the breadsticks we got awhile go and we ate a couple. I told him he needed to eat it outside due to the crumbs. He thought it was funny to run inside. He kept doing it after Carly said she’d have to take it away. He was quite upset when she did so. They read the Alphabet and Cat books, then he watched a Peg + Cat and ate an apple. Then another half of an apple. He and I read They All Saw a Cat a couple times. He then saying things like “Which constellation has more stars?” They were questions from the quizzes in Star Walk Kids. He was also quite stuffy at this time. We did some Star Walk Kids and Carly hung pillow cases upstairs.

We went for a walk at 5:20, him on the bike. He said “Now, take the exit.” Then he sang an ‘exit’ song. A short walk, down to the southwest. Maybe 20 or 25 minutes. As we came home he and I played I Spy. Back at home they went outside. Carly doing some sweeping, and he went down the slide. Carly made him oatmeal for dinner, then took him upstairs for his shower. Back down he ate dinner, then we read They All Saw a Cat a couple times, a new book called Pablo and His Chair (plot is very similar to the Bear and a Piano book), and part of Hilo. We were discussing routines as I had him guess what we hadn’t yet done today. He was very cuddly with me as I brushed his teeth. On the bed he had some machine time until he wanted to nurse, and was asleep about 7:20.

Yom Kippur began at sundown, and groups of kids started riding around the streets in the dark, loudly. Kind of odd, given the otherwise silence. The house across the street was also having a gathering out in their yard. I heard a woman loudly saying “I’m not afraid of anybody. I say what I have to say. I’m not diplomatic.” 

I went to bed a bit earlier than usual in order to get some sleep before having to wake up at 1:15 for my book group meeting to discuss Norse Mythology.

Plants from Shmuel: 

Druze bread: 

Interesting tree: 

A little before 6 August started sleeping with his head against my back and I thought he was about to wake up. A minute later he did in fact sit up, but then lay back down, his head still against my back. When I got up at 6:15 he was still pressed against me and I expected him to wake up. Instead he scooted a bit more I to my spot and kept sleeping. He slept until exactly 7, or at least that’s when I heard the door. I met him halfway and he got sad and sat on the midway landing. Back downstairs he went to the door but didn’t want to go out. He eventually calmed down on the couch, sitting on my lap and giving me a frowny face. He then sat next to me for awhile, his legs stretch out in front of him. Carly emailed back giving him extra Os in “soooo much”. He typed some nonsense and a bunch of Os, giving her extra Os back. He told me to tell her that he loves to tear paper, as he was currently shredding his tissue. Also, I asked him what he did with his crusts yesterday and he said “On the floor”.

Dragonbox Bog Numbers and Google Maps while I tried to figure out what to do (and membership information for the big zoo in Tel Aviv). We had some banana bread, then while he watched the Space Shuttle I got some breakfast. “I can’t wait until it lifts off into space.” “But you can’t jump in the liquid planets?” We dealt with ants over by the sliding door and then made a big rocket, using a pattern. He then started robots cleanup to clean up the duplos. We then started to build a zoo but he wanted to be a millipede and destroy it, so it turned into me just making short patterns and him destroying them. He asked “How does a millipede see?” That was a reference to They Saw a Cat, a cool book on got on the iPad and we read last night about how different people and animals all see the same cat. August then started counting the fence pieces using Hebrew and we added pieces until we were up to 9 or 10.

He watched some Care Bears and ate apple and banana bread. I addressed more ants and pulled the unnecessary hose for a water purifier that was coming out of our kitchen counter. In the process I noticed a small leak maybe forming under our sink. Some exercise, then August switched to the Little Caterpillar app and I went up to take a shower. He came in before I could start and said something about the game being short “boop!” Then he was sad and said he wanted it longer. I went back out and we realized that you put the caterpillar to sleep, and it eat and play more, etc. until it becomes a butterfly. While it is sleeping, little colored circles come out of its head. August asked “Is that its dreams?”

We then went outside and painted the plant stand/table. Actually a long process: putting down the drop cloth, did some sanding and wiping, then got to painting. We did the legs first, then turned it over and did the top. August helped through most of it, until the top was all green. We went over to the hose and washed him off. His feet were pretty green, as were his arms. I had had him painting in just his underwear, which was a good call. He had bumped into the side of it and had paint all over his right thigh. He was still kind of damp, so I didn’t want him in on the couch, so I put my iPad in the kitchen doorway and he played it, naked, while I finished the sides of the table and did touchup. Used the whole can. Turned out quite nice, although it could use a second coat in places. Won’t be noticeable though with plants on it.

Inside I made some pizzas and ate a pita and hummus while I did so. August had some pita, then when the pizza was cooking he wanted more. I said no, he could have pizza when it came out. He was convinced I misheard him: “I didn’t say pi-ZZA, I said pi-TA…You know, the soft bread I was just eating?”

We started to get going, and the plan was to go to an organic vegetable store just west of the school, then going swimming at the pool until going to his activities class up at the dance studio. But he decided he wanted to go for a walk “around the block” and was upset when I said we weren’t doing that. He calmed down, but when we got outside at 2:50 he simply sat on the bike, then was asking me politely for just a short walk. He asked if we were going by the house we always see. I asked which house, and he said “The house we always look at…With the dog.” I asked “Do you want to go by there?” He thought about it and said “I think so. I think I feel like that…Yeah, I do.” Also, as we were leaving he was sort of swinging at me and I called him “hitty boy” and asked why. He explained “Every time I cry we’re about to leave home I hitt you…Cuz I don’t like leaving home.”

So we went for a walk around the block, just up past the pharmacy, around to the left, and then back south, using the back path. A couple times he asked “What are their names again?”, referring to Jack and Nellie.

We really left at 3:10. While the place we were going, in Bet Yehoshua, was just a little ways past the school, to get there on a paved road you have to drive around to the north or south. We took the north route, and as we got close I realized he was falling asleep. He was asleep about five minutes. Couldn’t find the veggie stand so I parked on the side of the road and got him out. He was still trying to fall asleep, and I carried him on my shoulder as we looked around. Saw some horses, then walked to the west. There was a place with some sculptures out front, but nothing that looked correct. We saw a few cats, then he said “I’m looking for cats in random places.” Back at the car I set him down. He found a cone-shaped seed on the ground, then looked up and he identified which tree they were from. He then spent ten or fifteen minutes digging just in the dirt behind the car on the side of the road. I let him throw a rock into the brush and then he asked “What if you could throw…To another country…Into space…Another planet…All the way back to earth.”

We left at 4, and drove through more of Bet Yehoshua. Found some bike trails and a park, then made our way to the school using the southern route this time. Picked Carly up right at 4:20, then drove up to the studio. He took a minutes getting dirtier in the dust where we parked, then when we got in we took his shoes off and washed his hands right away. He had said “Sorry, there’s a shoe in my rock.” to one of the other kids as we came in. Carly also pointed out that I’d dressed him in the light blue shorts, which fall down, so we changed him into the backup pair I had in the backpack. He said “Hey! I’m not supposed to be naked in classes!”

The teacher came in and we met her. She asked August his name, and this time he actually answered with “August”. She didn’t hear him though, and I asked him if he could tell her his name. He said “Can you tell her you love Qs?”

We were out of the room again during class. This class was more like a physical games class, like Teuni Teuni or the one we tried at the community center. There were 4 kids to start, but I think it got up to about 7. They had stools and hula hoops that they played with and climbed on and jumped off of. She had them duck walking in circles and running. He came out at one point and told Carly “The machine is rusting!” Another time “But the machine is broken! There’s a rock in it!” He was getting tired by the end, but went back for the final obstacle course thing.

After class we headed home and had dinner. He and Carly read The Alphabet From the Sky, then I went on a little bike ride to try out my bike. First rode up the street to the NE, then came back and took the path that goes to the bridge over to the mall but continued on the trail on this side and took it until it almost hit the road that goes up to the school.

Came home and gave him a bath. Then on the bed. He was talking about winning, and had been doing it with Carly and the alphabet book, wanting to turn each page into a competition. He hadn’t been doing it w
ith me in the library. We asked where it came from and he said “I start that!” I started to suggest it came from somewhere else and he shouted “Vivian!” I’d actually been thinking of the little horse racing mini game in the Hebrew app we play. He agreed, saying “No, that horsey game.” Although Vivian was also an influence.

We went downstairs and read Charlie Cook twice. He was then talking about a magical cake: “Luckily I put magical eggs in there that make it grow bigger and bigger and makes more cake pieces…Yay! I won the cake eating! Can you say “Ahh, I didn’t win.” I’d also reminded him of the Care Bears episode involving a cake eating competition and he was reenacting it.

We brushed his teeth, then in bed I asked him “What do you want to dream about?” He thought about it and said “Pianos, painting, painting pots, and making smoothies…Let’s go to bed!” Before I left he said “I think I’m gonna wake up in the…12s!” Which is a terrifying thought. I left them at 8, but he came back down at 8:10. As he came down the stairs he asked “Are you watching race cars? I want to see if any of them crashes into the wall and breaks.” It has been weeks since he’s seen any racing. He went and sat on the rug and looked at his socks. He said “My foot still hurts there…Accident…At dance class.” I asked Carly later if he had gotten hurt during class today and she said he had fallen down once.

He then lay on his back and held the vacuum cleaner nozzle above him. He said “I’m playing with my vacuum cleaner.” I asked “Who plays with vacuum cleaners?” He replied “Me.” I asked “Like tia Cassie?” And he said “Yep. When they were babies. When they were twins. They used to play with vacuum cleaners.” We got up and read They Saw a Cat Twice, then part of The Little Prince. He went up at 8:40 and was asleep soon after.

Paint on him: 

Finished table: 

He was up at 5:55. Carly heard him in the bedroom and came in with him. They came down awhile later. He found the fridge magnets and we spent a little time with those. He then requested some music. I started a song I was listening too last night by Drab Majesty and August liked it and wanted it on his playlist. A minute later though he paused it and said “A digger was going to destroy he music so I stopped it.” He then wanted the new space app (Star Walk Kids), so while I installed it on his iPad he took over mine and played Toca Plants.

A made eggs and he watched Space Shuttle launches. We ate eggs and cauliflower and zucchini and cheese for breakfast and he had some apple. We then read The Hungry Smurfs and part of Astrosmurf. I read some poems from Prelutsky’s Something BIG Has Been Here, then he ate more apple and walked in circles in the kitchen.

He then started playing Star Walk Kids and asked for a mango smoothie. I started making it, then he needed to use the bathroom. In the bathroom he was looking at the colors of the door hooks and talking about patterns. He was actually getting it, in that he was saying a sequence of colors and repeating it. In the past he’s been able to do some pattern completion in books or with Duplos, but hasn’t successfully made patterns on his own.

Carly called me saying they needed some of our car paperwork at school. So I scanned that and he went and played with the Hebrew letter magnets. He was sorting them by color and asked about a couple of the letters. I finished the smoothie and we drank that and watched space shuttle videos. He then played Toca Blocks and did more smurf storytelling with it. And figured out a few more things in the app.

We went upstairs and he watched Care Bears and ate banana bread on his bed while I took a shower. He was then a sick giraffe. Earlier I had mentioned that he had slept 11 hours last night. He brought it up, saying “I sleeped 11?” I was talking about how that was better than the previous night and he was asking why, so I was explaining how your brain processes things from the day and how he had been worn out by dance class the previous day. He said”Your brain is putting it together?” Then he acted out the previous day, having him and me make robot sounds for the processing sound: “Can you say beep boop…Hebrew…dance class…” “Your brain puts it together?”

He then went back to being animals, and acted out variations on stories he knows: he was a whale eating me and getting sick (like in 26-Story Treehouse), then he was making my room messy looking for one of my favorite things (like Cat looking for Peg’s favorite crayon).

Back downstairs he wanted to learn Hebrew numbers, so we did some Hebrew. While he went to the bathroom I looked for some more Hebrew apps. Found a good one on numbers, another Gus one that actually does stories, and a couple more to try out. Already looking like much better apps than anything I ever found for Korean, so very promising. So we did some Hebrew, interrupted by him spotting ants carrying a big crumb of banana bread that he had dropped. We watched them carry it to the door, then dealt with the line of ants remaining. He said “A piece wanted to fall down and attract the ants.”

Finally, we got going on a walk. Carly had seen another cabinet, smaller this time, that might work for a library. It was over near Jack and Celeste’s house. When we got over to the street the yard waste truck was driving up it, picking up yard waste. We followed it up, but no cabinet. But we were entertained by that and also a digger at a construction site. We went back and went to pay Jack and the dog Nellie a visit. We stayed maybe 15 minutes. The first thing that Jack said was that he had seen a cabinet just up the street a couple days ago and thought about calling me. I told him that’s why we were actually in the area but it was gone, but that I had gotten a different one. August did okay. Threw the toy for the dog a couple times, then sat on my lap eating apple and banana bread while Jack and I sat and talk. He was cuddling next to me being a baby squirrel getting everything slimy and gross. When Jack and I talked about the Dead Sea August chimed in with his opinion about how it was really warm. When I got up he continued to play in the chair. A couple of times he started to be a bit rude, saying “Stop talking!”

We headed home. I asked if he wanted to keep walking and go to a park. He didn’t want a park, but he wanted to do recycling. I left him in the stroller and went in. We had just done recycling yesterday, but there were 6 or 7 things to do so we went up and recycled those. Home at 1:45.

He played Toca Blocks and I got lunch together. He had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I had hummus and pita. He went out and checked on his tomato plants. Back inside he hypothesized “They have interesting leaves so maybe they’ll have interesting tomatoes.” We brushed his teeth and he stated “I want to stop learning Hebrew and learn some other language.” I pointed out that was rather impractical. More re-enacting, this time re-enacting building the rocket in Astrosmurf, complete with smurfs peeking through the fence.

We went outside and he found a feather in the yard and said “It’s pretty big. Maybe it’s from an eagle.” We added it to the ‘interesting bowl’ on the outdoor table that has all the stuff we’ve found. Then outside where we found a ping pong ball in the street. He wanted to put it in the interesting bowl as well, but I’d already locked the gate. He let me throw it over the fence to do later.

We left at 2:45 and went to the school. Got to the library just before 3. He realized he was thirsty and really wanted to go to the drinking fountain with the steps. On our way out the bell rang. He said school was over and seemed to like all the kids suddenly appearing. Got a drink, then went back to the library. Ilana let me grab a few of the discard books for our little library. August and I went back to the kids section and found The Alphabet from the Sky. He was pretty good at finding the letters, and we just got through the whole book in time. Carly found us at 3:30. We ended up checking out that and Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book.

We drove to the Skoda dealership. August remembered the pipe game and spinny chairs. And the chocolate cake. We were saddened to see that that whole coffee bar area was gone. Almost a good enough reason to cancel our car order… Carly went and worked with Shmuel on the paperwork/payment. August made pipes out on the steps, then we went in and played in the spinny chairs. Then “Come on! Let’s make more pipes!” He made pipe, installed it to the waste treatment plant, then acted out the whole going to the bathroom/through the pipes/to the waste treatment plant process. Back inside he ate some PBJ and banana bread and apple. He played some Hebrew on the iPad. Then we went and looked at the car. Looking underneath the back first for the gas tank. Then I figured out how to open the gas cover (on the passenger side – the worst thing about the car so far – can’t stand it being on that side) and hood and we looked at the engine. He was very interested in all the fluids and the radiator and fuses. When we opened the hood he remembered “in Chelan the mice in the car.” Back at the spinny chairs he was walking around, counting in Hebrew. He has 1 to 4 down, I think, and we were working on 5 and 6.

We left at 5:45. On the way back Carly was talking to him about having Friday off and holidays. He said “when you have honey bread?” Earlier I had told him that honey bread was for special days.

We were home at 6:15. Carly had a food cramp as she got in the house. August went up to her and asked “Are you okay?” Then he hit here and said “don’t be hurted.” Carly made more pasta – the fun pasta that he found at the store. He said”They’re all different things so they’re hard to chew.” “Mama! Why you think these noodles is h
ard to chew?” He ate all his noodles and then said “Hey! Did somebody take my noodles?”

Watched more space shuttle videos then I took him up and gave him a shower and washed his hair. In on the bed we skyped with my parents. When dad answered August said “Happy birthday! Happy birthday! Happy birthday!” over and over, and I was able to tell him happy birthday in Hebrew. Carly put him to sleep about 8 and I kept skyping with them.

After Carly went to bed I found ants on the counter and realized they had dug through behind the coffee maker. So I spent time cleaning that up and patching it. Then I checked on the sliding door area and found a big trail over to under August’s chair. At lunch I had thought he had eaten his sandwich crusts. He had not. There were two pieces of crust on the floor, swarming with ants. How we didn’t see this at dinner I have no idea. So I cleaned all of that up and did more patching under the sliding door.

Photos. Lazy time: 

Hebrew magnets: 

Visitng Jack and Nellie: 

Cuddling with a shark: 

Spinny chair: 

He was up at 6:50. Way too early, as that was less than 8 hours of sleep. He went to the front door and was whiny that Carly was gone, but didn’t want to go out when I opened the door, and didn’t really cry. He went and destroyed the zoo. When I walked to the kitchen he asked “Are you not going to like me?” I assured him that wasn’t the case, but I didn’t want to play Duplos yet. He wanted to read The Smurf King, so we read some of that. He was then a music machine, then we did more reading. Had some Cheerios and banana bread for breakfast, then read the entire Smurfette story, skipping all the really sexist stuff. He asked me “Can I play Big Dragonbox Numbers to learn about math?” So of course I had to let him play. We then read Pussycat Pussycat a couple times. He went over to the Duplos and picked up a big chunk of Duplos and said “This is a piece of a broke up cottage…This is a piece of an old broken up treehouse that I found in my yard…” He remembered ‘cottage’ from 26-story Treehouse.

Yve (as I now believe it is spelled) came over just past 9 to help move the bed and the couch. He came in and August started giggling at him. Yve joked about taking Duplos for his own kids and August said “Mama and dada got them for me…” August told him he was making houses out of Duplos. Yve and I moved out the couch, then the parts of the beds to his truck. August was getting upset as we got finished, and after Yve left I figured out why. He curled up on the grey rug and said “My houses keep breaking…every time I try to build it…” He didn’t want to go back to Duplos right now. Instead, he asked to play the app with the letters and they change into different things. He was referring to Metamorphabet. He played with that for a few minutes, then told me he was done with the iPad.

He came upstairs as I was rearranging the landing area and putting the books on his shelves. He looked at the Bob Books boxes and chose Jumper and the Clown. We went downstairs and read it a couple of times. He was then pretending that I was peddling a space ship and he was making the rocket noises. He pretended to be in space: “Some red rocks floated all the way to the moon from Saturn…that’s gonna make the moon red! I’m gonna show my friends all the rocks.” He wanted to watch Space Shuttle videos and said “I want to do the mama one again.” Meaning the one he watched with Carly last night. I then found a video of astronauts on the ISS, so he could see them floating in space. He asked “How do you go to the bathroom in space?” But before I could find a video that might explain he decided he wanted to watch candy being made. While watching a video about how jelly beans are made he asked “What starch is?…That thing you used with Vivian?”

I made the okra patties for lunch, then sweet potato fries. We ate that, then I finally got him out of his pajamas. Naked, he started playing with the piano and said

“I was thinking what song we could play with just those three keys.” Somehow it turned into him wanting me to sing a song as a robot, but the robot only had one note. He was then burning the robot up as I played a robot song. He was then giving me more keys, so I could sing more notes, and basically counting to 100. He was then counting all the keys, up to 25. We played “Sentimental Wars” and he did some piano improvs for quite awhile.

We went upstairs and I finally took a shower. He sat on his bed and played Toca Blocks. He was getting sad and tired. Totally seemed like he needed to take a nap. He didn’t like the idea of the old stroller at all, even though it would be more comfortable for him.

I got him some banana bread before we left and he was counting the bites. We looked at books to decide which to return to the library whenever we make it to the school library. For Tacky he said “I’m done with it cuz I don’t like those hunters.” We read Under the Sea with Me, then he looked at the Animal alphabet poster. He asked me “Can I learn the letters in Hebrew?” So we pulled up the Gus Hebrew app and had fun with that for awhile.

We finally headed out at 1:30. He whined and looked so sleepy in the old stroller. He was pressing his hand against the window in the cover and plaintively repeating “Dada, dada, dada…” I was touching his hand through the cover. He got quiet once, but then started crying and saying dada again. Then quieted, and was okay by the time we got to the mall. But not asleep.

We first stopped at the book store where we got a set of Hebrew flashcards, the Hebrew version of Spot’s Big Book of First Words, a book of animals in Hebrew, and a set of Hebrew magnets. We went to Tiv Taam and did some quick grocery shopping (as we went, he was pointing at things and giving them prices: “10 shekels, 8 shekels, 20 shekels” When I asked him to keep telling me prices he said he put stickers on them and told me to look at the stickers), and then stopped at Kravitz to get a tape dispenser since our first one was breaking. While in Tiv Taam August said “He clock in my bedroom is changing, dada.” He had said something like this earlier in the day as well. We then went to the bike store, where I got a helmet, pump, water bottle cage, and lock. I was carrying August in one hand and caught my toe on a bike in the aisle. Managed to awkwardly keep from dropping August and sort of set him down with one hand on a chair.

August still claimed he didn’t like the stroller, but there was no complaining. We were home at 2:45. We had some late lunch and August played Toca Blocks, pretending he was making a map to the Smurf village and that Gargamel was trying to find it, but then making blocks that would hide the village from Gargamel and telling him “You can never find the Smurfs, Gargamel.”

I loaded up the stroller with all the rest of our recycling – our regular recycling and also the last of the boxes and paper from the shipment. I remembered why I like this stroller so much – it can hold so much. We made a quick recycling run and August helped with the smaller stuff. We went back and dropped off the stroller and got in the car. As we did so he asked why I say I love him a ton of Qs. I reminded him about C turns to O turns to Q and how we would look for Qs in books and not find many. He said he still Qs things and so he did some Qing now, and also talked about Zing things, as he says that’s the other letter he likes.

On the drive over to the school he told me “I’m looking for busses with 11 on them. Cuz I love the number 11 too.” We picked Carly up at 4:10 and drove up to his dance class. He was talking about the couches in there that he likes. We were early, so there were just a couple other kids. He pretended to be a sick squirrel and said”Baby squirrel’s gonna feel well when there’s more kids there.”

When I walked him into the dance room as it was starting he said “My motor’s turning on.” and started making motor noises. Starting today the parents couldn’t be in the room with the class. Carly checked on him through the window a couple times. He was in there until 4:57 when the teacher brought him out, saying he wanted to go out. He walked up to Carly and said “I’m out of power.” Carly gave him power and she asked if he was ready now. He said “Yep” and she opened the door for him and he went back in and seemed to be just pretending to be a robot, doing his shutting down thing. He lasted a couple more minutes, then came back out: “Yep. I want to take a little break out here.”

They went upstairs for that break, then Shmuel from the Skoda dealership called back. Carly had been talking to them about some questions we have about paying for the car. While I now tried to wrestle answers from him, Carly tried to get August back in the class, but there were only a few minutes left and he was done. So we headed home. He still said he had fun, but that it was confusing and he was tired. In the car he said “The robot kept breaking down cuz
I didn’t have a place to charge.”

We got home and they nursed and I put the Hebrew magnets on the door. He watched space shuttle videos and I got his dinner ready. He ate a bit then Carly took him up to his shower and I actually gave him his shower. There was some playing on the bed, then he was asleep at 7:05.

Photos. On the floor: 

Greeting Yve: 

Beautiful, empty entryway:  

Landing area: 

His bedroom: 

We heard the door and he came down at 6:14. He sat and lay on the couch patiently while Carly finished preparing her quesadilla before they nursed. They nursed, then he played with Word and Excel on her computer. She said goodbye and left, then he switched to his iPad and did Sketches for the first time in quite awhile. We did some art together, then he drew what he said was a big cliff. It turned into an imagination game where I bounced down the cliff and ended up at the planets, which for some reason I was trying to destroy. At first I couldn’t because they were liquid and gas, but then I had a special rocket. He then pretended to be a planet and had a special “floaty, float, float” voice and dance and said “I hope nobody destroys me.”

I finally got him to go to the bathroom when he said he wanted to watch Puffin Rock. We came back out and opened Netflix. He touched his icon and said he wanted to watch his fun shows, not mine. He then said something about me watching race cars (the only thing I ever watch with him around). He said “I like to watch your race cars with you. To see if they make any accidents. Because I love accidents.”

I had found some new apps and we had fun with Solar Walk Kids. Then tried Toca Elements, which I didn’t like at all. We took a break to watch the garbage truck and then had more luck. With the Toca Robots, but not much. I headed out to clear space in the driveway/junk area for the couch. August came out and told me about the robot app: “I want you to play it. It’s really fun. Fire comes out of its feet; it’s like a rocket robot.” We then made banana bread and he watched Sarah & Duck while I cleaned up, exercised, and took a shower. He went up and watched and played in his bed in his room while I took a shower. When I went into his room he started being a fish that had eaten too much fish food. I asked what that was from and he remembered the Dr. Seuss book. The alarm on my watch went off, telling me the banana bread was done, and I told him it was vibrating. He said “Like the coffee shops in Korea.” He remembers the circle things that many of the coffee shops had.

We had one slice of banana bread, then I made pizzas for lunch. We then had this conversation:”Mama let’s me do things I can’t do right now.” “Like what?” “Like eat chocolate before dinner. Cuz she’s so nice. Nicer than you.” “Ha. I don’t believe that.” “Why? Because you love me a ton of Qs?” Carly thinks the chocolate before dinner thing sounds vaguely familiar – perhaps he remembers chocolate pancakes for dinner or something like that.

We talked about what we were going to do today, and then for some reason we talked about fire departments. I noted we hadn’t seen a fire station in Israel yet, and he remembered “With Vivian?” – that is, when we saw the fire truck at the market in Stroudsburg. I also reminded him of walking by the fire station in Chelan. We then made Duplo rockets. I asked how tall it should be and he said “Taller than monkeys can even climb.”

Finally, about 1:30 we got in the car and headed out. We went to check on the table and the bookcase we had seen last night. I’d decided we should take them. Sadly, the table was gone, but the bookcase was there. I left a note on it, then we headed to Ace Hardware. On the road, just a couple minutes before getting to Ace, he had been singing a “I see the sticks of a helicopter” song. I pulled into the parking lot and looked back to find him asleep. For the next ten minutes I tried to wake him up. He told me he wanted to stay in the car, then would giggle when I tickled him, etc. But I gave up and let him sleep.

He was asleep from 2:05 to 2:55 while I shopped. Got paints and supplies for doing the swings and the bookcase. And a cover for the black couch we are going to store outside. Looked at ant killers, for a watering can (none), and smoke detectors (none). And found a cover for one of our outdoor lights, which was a nice surprise.

He wasn’t happy with me waking him up, and we took a bit longer in the store after that. Finally, we headed out. He had earlier been excited about going to the nursery as well, but now didn’t want to go. Once in the car though he was feeling better and agreed to go.

At the nursery he chose carrot and flower seeds, and I got cilantro. And we got two pots from the used table. As we went to pay, a woman came and took over the guy. She immediately gave August a butterfly ornament to put in a plant and told us the used pots were 10 shekels each. We paid and took the stuff out to the car, then went back to the used table, since that was such a good deal. Took up a metal can and a watering can, but the guy was back and insisted the price on the bottom was the actual price. Said no thanks and put them back.

We were home at 4:45. He wanted to play Dragonbox Big Numbers and came to me and asked “Can you get 200 apples so I can get 2 apples at once?” Which was pretty cool because it was the first he’s kind of talked through a math problem like that.

A big scary looking bee thing got in the house and I caught it on the kitchen window with the bug viewer. We looked at it for several minutes outside. He was concerned it was going to die for lack of air and food. I had to assure him it had air holes. We left it in there until Carly got home to see it.

Once she was home I took the car and went to get the bookcase. I had measured it earlier, but didn’t take into account the curve of the car doors as they near the roof. I got it in the back seat, but just barely: both of the back windows had to be down and it just barely fit. I meant to take a photo when I got back but forgot. I also picked up 4 bricks from a stack of bricks nearby to put the couch on them where it sits outside.

On the way home another score: I saw a bike chained to a house fence, for sale. I went home and found Carly and August watching Space Shuttle videos, both a landing and a liftoff. He was really enjoying that. Carly helped me unload the bookshelves, then I walked over to look at the bike. It is a mountain bike, and pretty used. The older guy was in the yard and I talked to him. He kept telling me it was “new”, even as I pointed out rusty bits on it. Reminded us of the black couch and how Shmuel kept telling us it was “new” despite all the evidence to the contrary. Anyway, I think he wanted 350 shekels, but I told him I only 300 on me, so I got it for that. He also kept asking me if it was for me. I think he wanted to make sure I wasn’t someone trying to get it for cheap to turn around and sell it for more myself.

Got home, and outside Carly had planted the plants she got at Ikea in the new pots. We worked outside a bit, starting to brush the swings. She brought August out and they nursed at one point. We ate dinner, and Carly read the end of 26-Story Treehouse. At one point he looked sad and they took a break. He said he was pretending: “Make me pretend sad…for funsies!”

We then played with Duplos. He was counting all the bumps on them. Carly went to take a shower. He was wanting to destroy things as I made them for him (and being a millipede to do it – we looked at photos of millipedes the other day and somehow (because of all the legs?) he has decided they are destructive creatures), and I’ve been trying to tell him that he needs to get permission from the other person when you’re playing with someone. So I wasn’t letting him destroy the zoo and told him we were leaving it up until tomorrow and we finished it, and it worked for a good amount of time and we were playing with the zookeeper, having the Duplo zookeeper take care of sick animals (and August was being the sick animals). But then he suddenly was a millipede again and destroyed part of the zoo. I first set him on the couch, but then when I went to clean up some of the mess he came back over and tried to destroy some more. And at one point he was on the couch chanting “Destroying things is fun.” I picked him
up and told him we were going upstairs for a timeout. But he saw Carly in the kitchen and thought that I was punishing him by taking him away from mama and he instantly started bawling. Not my intention so I quickly gave him to Carly.

She took him up to a bath at 8:10. Then in on the bed (after he got it wet) we said goodnight and they tried for sleep. Not a surprise when it didn’t work. They came down and he and I read the Neil Gaiman children’s book called Instructions for the first time on the iPad. August was quite intrigued by it. Carly made him toast, but he was confused when he looked at the table and only saw a grey plate; he wanted a “Zinnie plate”. He was still hungry so we let him have some banana bread.

He picked up the Alphabet animals book and asked “Can I read that LARGE book?” We read it and looked at the poster, then read Under the Sea with Me a coupe times. Carly had gone to bed, but he was remembering the Biscuit book where Biscuit steals food (which is cool as we hadn’t read it since Korea) and wanted to find it. We went upstairs to the books there and I was listing the books as I pulled them out of the drawer. He made up some on his own: “Here’s Biscuit wants to steal food…here’s Biscuit wants to go on the roof and fall off.” We went back downstairs and Biscuit’s Picnic twice and then Biscuit Wants to Play. Sitting on the couch, he looked around at the art and pottery and rugs and counted, unprompted, up to twenty and then said “20 things I like about the house…pottery, rug.”

He was yawning a lot and I suggested we both get ready for bed and go in together. So we went up to the bathroom and I brushed my teeth and he used the toilet. We then went in. He looked at the clock and said “10:38”. He’s really into telling time suddenly and mentions it when we are out of the room: when they were outside he had told Carly something like “The clock is still changing.”

Carly was sleeping and let him nurse a bit, but then I was trying to get him to lie on the bed and fall asleep. He had his head on the pillow next to Carly, and I would stop him from getting up. He made a few good attempts at it, but eventually started plaintively wailing “Mama…mama…mama…” Still not sleeping, so just before 11 I had to try to pick him up to take him out of the room. He started to cry, and like since he was a baby once that happened and he went to Carly he fell right asleep, at 11:05.

Broken rocket: 

He was up about 6:30. I was already downstairs and first heard him at 6:50. They didn’t come down until 7:14. As he came down the stairs he was looking at the black rocks in the tile: “Im looking to see if there’s any dog poop…The black is dog poop.” We first went and built a Duplo zoo. He had Cheerios for breakfast, and we all ate together at the table. We then read the first four chapters of 26-Story Treehouse. Carly made mango lasse with the blender. We read one more chapter as we drank mango lasse. Carly took over and read chapter 6 and I took a shower. I came down and the “digger” destroyed our zoo. We were then building a house and he was destroying it mid-building. I talked to him about how that wasn’t really nice to the person you’re playing with. He asked “Can I destroy it at the end?” But then destroyed some of it soon after, using his “I’m remodeling!” excuse again.

We got ready to go and he get on the tricycle. We walked over to the mall and went to Tiv Taam and got a few things. Then Carly went to the plant store and got a gift for the woman she was meeting with today, and to Aroma for some coffee for someone else.

We got back just after 10. He built a rocket and then killed some weeds quickly before we left again, this time in the car headed for Ikea. We had just an hour to shop at Ikea and we finished in 55 minutes. We got a sheet for his bed, a set of bookshelves for his books, a couple of nice drawer organizers for the kitchen, a couple of plants (tomato and basil), and a few other small things.

We came home just after 11:30. We had some lunch, then they nursed, and Carly left at 12:30. We went upstairs. He played some Dragonbox Numbers, then came and helped me build the shelves. He screwed in six of the screws using the allen wrench, and he did some hammering. He then watched Peg + Cat and ate Cheerios and apples while I rehung the growth chart and hung up the tire swing piece of art and the dream catcher and put the new sheet on his bed. He got in the bed under the sheet and pretended to be asleep. Looks like quite a big kid. He then made a game again of messing up his bed and went and got all the dirty clothes out of the basket and threw it on his bed, then said”I’m living in a pile of rubbage.” (A nice combo of rubble and garbage).

We ended up playing with Google Earth after he requested to play with a map. He was starting at our house then swiping across the Mediterranean to find places we should visit. He found Greece, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, etc.

Earlier he had found his little Q robot in the bottom of his closet and asked where it came from. I had talked about Nathalie and Chloe and he had asked for a photo of Chloe. We didn’t get around to it then, but as he was playing with the friends on his bed he also asked about Angeles, the doll, and Turkey, the elephant. So I pulled up Photos on my phone, and as you can find photos by locating them on the map, I was able to find Nathalie’s house and the photo of her giving him the Q, a photo of Carly buying Angeles, and a photo of August sucking on Turkey’s trunk after we bought it.

We eventually headed downstairs. August wanted milk, so I got him some (he refuses to use any of his old water bottles or cups from Korea – he now only likes his “big clear water bottle” that he’s used all summer and the cups we’ve bought in Korea) and he sat on the floor and drank it and I had some pita and hummus. He had eaten some apple upstairs, and now ate some pita. He wouldn’t dip it in yogurt though once he found out it was plain yogurt. We practiced our Hebrew numbers, then opened the Hebrew Gus app that we had briefly played with months ago. We played that for quite awhile, learning colors and numbers and animals and body parts, etc. We were playing that when Carly got home by 5.

She had had a good meeting with a Palestinian woman who had had a student at WBAIS. She and Mandy had gone together to talk about ideas for school. They nursed, then he and I did more Hebrew on the couch. He kept saying “I give up” but then wanted to keep playing.

We got ready to go for a walk, but he wanted me to stay home – he wanted some alone time with mama. I talked to him and think he doesn’t like it when we are talking about things and he feels ignored. He was also keeping something from me, telling me “Sorry, it’s just the baby squirrel’s”. He ‘let’ me go on the walk though and was just fine.

We walked north to the north playground, then circled back to the right and back home, through the neighborhood where August and I had been chased by small dogs. We had seen a metal patio table along the way that would have made a good restoration project, if we could have gotten it home, and I found a wooden cabinet with glass doors that I considered for my little library. Might have been able to fit it in the car. Carly was concerned it was too big/heavy though and I didn’t go back for it. Don’t know what I’ll do now.

We walked back through the nearby park, which was the busiest we’ve seen it. At home, he and I read two Smurf stories. Carly gave him a shower, then on the bed he pretended to be a Venus fly trap, as there are flowers and plants on the bedspread and he recognized one that looks like a fly trap. He was hungry and Carly got him and apple. I held a piece up for him when he set it down and he was nibbling it from my hand. He was then a rabbit nibbling a plant and I was a plant. He ate most of an apple. He also talked about hunters, and I asked how he knew about hunters and he said “the story about the elephant and the mama gets killed by a hunter.” Babar, which we had only read once. And when he was a rabbit he had a magic hole in him through which we could see the food, poop, etc. inside him.

Carly had found a little Nebraska bell in her box of stuff and gave it to him to use in the bathroom instead of clanking the toilet paper holder. He used it in the bathroom before going to bed and sleep at 8:10.