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He was up at 7:22. I looked up the stairs and he told me not to come up. He was happy and took a slow walk down, spotting the light on the wall and discussing his favorite screws where the railing meets the post. Downstairs he played Human Body and ate Cheerios. We went upstairs to get him some clothes. His upper lip was dry and bothering him so I got chapstick. The first one was out, so I let him have it and he ended up licking and eating the last little bit of it during the day. And his current tube of toothpaste was running out so we went up and got his next tube to use. He wanted water and I said I’d go upstairs and get his bottle, and he said “But, I’m gonna miss you.” In Human Body when you tap on the word labels they fall to the bottom and you can stack them. He said “I love my word stack.”

For breakfast I made 4 kinds of toast and we shared them: with yogurt, cheese, peanut butter, and biscuit spread. We watched Care Bears while we ate and after. The episode about Scare Bear and the first one are his favorites. When he was done with the toast he used the plates as a hat, then told me to wash them. Used some chapstick, then spent some time on ants.

We read three of our new books: more of Don’t Pollute, Splat the Cat Fishy Tales, and  Jumpy Jack and Googily. He said his penis was itchy again so we put on some cream, then did some exercise. Spotted some more ants and found a couple of raisins on the rug that he had apparently thrown there during breakfast for the ants.  We were listening to Bjork through the morning, starting with her first album. It will take quite awhile to get through it all.

We made pizza for lunch, him helping most with the cheese, and ate that and watched more Care Bears. I then went up and finally took a shower and he played Gro Recycling in the bathroom. Back downstairs, he sat on my lap on the rug and we read the Bill Peet book Farewell to Shady Glade. He really paid attention and had tons of questions through it. He found yet another raisin on the floor. He was claiming that he threw the raisins to the ants during the night: “Yeah but it was when I waked from sleep.” He did some dancing to Bjork before telling me it was too loud.

He wanted to watch something and I told him he couldn’t and he complained that he couldn’t do “ANYTHING”. We turned that into a gam, trying to lay on the couch and do nothing. He was then a machine: “This part and this part were making boxes for sunglasses to go in.” We ate a few of the round crackers and he was getting crumbs on the floor of the kitchen. Did a thorough job of sweeping to make sure we weren’t leaving anything for the ants.

We got ready to go to do recycling. He went to check on the weed plants and if they were ready to pick (thinking of his Gro Garden game). We watered the weeds with the AC hoses, then I took him into the driveway area to see all the junk. Had fun looking around in there for a few minutes, then back in the yard we watched a black and white cat drink from the dish of water we put out and then sit in front of the playhouse.

Then, the ants. August noticed them first. They had come up right outside the kitchen, holes everywhere along the edge of the patio. Worse, they were close to the door and tons were exploring the house. We went into major ant mode, eradicating them from inside the house, then trying to drive them away from the house with vinegar and cleaner and water. During this, August started ending every sentence with ‘dada’: “there’s a spider, dada. It might get in the house dada…It’s a feather dada. Birds lose their feathers dada? Why, dada?”

We called it good and left at 3:15. We went up and he helped with recycling. He didn’t want to play in the playground and just wanted to head home, so we did a little walk around the block and were back at 3:40. The ants were still all over outside, but hadn’t returned to the house, instead forming a line up the wall to something on the roof. We went upstairs to make sure they weren’t going in the house somewhere, and we saw an all-black cat drinking from the water dish.

We went downstairs and played the Flynne game and were planting trees: apple, worm, onion. He was a cloud, raining on the seeds, and said the sun was on his back (behind him). Carly got home and he told her about the cats: “The Little house is for cats and kids…but dada says they’re not pets.” I finally used the sealant I had bought to close up some of the holes around the big sliding door and around an old wire that goes into the kitchen.

We had some dinner, then we read two Peppa Pig books: Around the World and First Sleepover. At the end of Around the World they end up jumping in a muddy puddle as the sun shined. August said “That’s silly cuz muddy puddles show up when it’s raining.” He then played Human Body and said of the white blood cells he was playing with “I love those, dada.”

At 6 we walked over to Holly’s house to pick up the garbage can and a few other small things that she’d driven over for us from the school (they were extra items that Ada had). She also had a wooden shelving unit she thought me might like. We saw her cats and met the dog. It backed at first, and August covered his ears. We went in and saw the shelves but weren’t sure if we had a spot for them.

As we got back to the house August said “When I go in I need that sweet, sweet, sweet stuff.” He was referring to the biscuit spread. He played a little Human Body, then we used Sesame Play to find a game we could play. It gave us a game where you whisper a word as quietly as possible, then keep repeating it slightly louder until the other person guesses the word. August really liked that.

Just past 7 we went out for a walk. We headed to the west and south. We found a house that had at least 3 tractors in the yard, and we found a couple of houses that had really interesting old stuff as decorations on the outside walls. Walking back we ran into Holly walking her dog. Convenient, as we had found a spot for the shelving unit (in our entry way for shoes, etc.) and were going to her house to get it. We got it, and she helped us bring them back.

I gave August a shower and told him two of my Puffin Rock stories – Baba swimming and Flynne stuck on a cliff. We haven’t done those stories for months. In the bedroom he asked why there wasn’t a grey sheet. Said he likes the smell of the pink sheet. He told me “My bottom and my penis get itchy every once in awhile.” Then he was a machine: “The machine was stacking up banana peels with no bananas in it.” “My outlets aren’t supposed to be washed so a part of the machine puts covers on the outlets…” We also did some reading: Oh, Daddy and some Peppa Pig, I think.

I was going to try to put him asleep again, so we went downstairs to say goodnight to Carly and get his water bottle. I then tried getting him to sleep. We used the timer on my watch to practice lying down. I also pressed the watch against his arm so he could feel it vibrating when it went off. We did pretty well, and while he would talk about wanting mama or going downstairs he wouldn’t try to leave. Finally, he got so close: He was silent for 30 seconds and almost asleep. Then he got sad and started crying and said “I can’t do it!…I need to nurse!” Carly came in and we told him he did a good job trying and he was asleep at 9:45.

Photos: 

August and I slept on the couch bed until he woke up and I took him up to Carly at 3:45. Then, he was up at 6:34 but Carly got him back to sleep. She left, and he slept until he came down just after 7:50. I picked him up in time to see the street cleaner truck sweeping our street. Watched some Care Bears and he asked for the round crackers we had bought, so we tried some of those. We then had a piece of toast and our biscuit spread while I made eggs and cheese and cauliflower for breakfast. He ate a lot of that, and we read Peppa Around the World

Tried new shows. He wanted to try new shows on Netflix and we watched a minute of 3 or 4 of them and he (and I) didn’t like any of them. He settled on playing Gro Garden, which he hasn’t done for some time, then helped me clean the toilet.

We spotted some ants and August took credit: “I made crumbs for the ants…Normally, I make crumbs for th ants cuz I don’t like crumbs…” We went outside for a bit. There was a broken bit of the tile I was trying to match to a broken spot and August helped with that. And we investigated the sap situation on the trees. Back inside we took care of more ants, then he played Animal Hospital on the floor of the bathroom while I took a shower.

We discussed our plans and he wanted to know how pipes are both cleaned and made. We started with the Flynne game though. At one point he started talking about “How people die (kill?) themselves.” Turned out he was saying “their cells” instead of “themselves”. He was talking about cells dying in the body and getting new ones.

We then watched pipe and welding videos and how pillows are made. He was a machine: “I’m making something. I’m making some sort of material.” We got the books out to decide which to return to the library. We read Merle the High Flying Squirrel and A Birthday for Frances and he decided to return all the books. He played Human Body and I made lunch – a pizza which he ate most of.

Getting ready to go a little before 2 he saw me open the door and said “Are you going to leave me behind?…But I want you to leave me behind.” We walked to the school, and at the construction site he told me he had seen where the cement comes out of the big truck that was there. We first went to the library, which he was a bit frustrated with because he thought we were going to the pool first. But he helped choose 8 new books to check out: two Berenstain Bears (Don’t Pollute and Think of Those in Need), Bill Peet’s Farewell to Shady Glade (they also have Merle the Squirrel), The Story of Babar, a Charlie and Lola book called Look after Your Planet, a Splat the Cat book called Fishy Tales, a book by Sherman Alexis called Thunder Boy Jr. (that’s more for Carly), and a fun looking book called Jumpy Jack & Googily.

He had been complaining that he was too sweaty in the very cold library and that was why he wanted to go to the pool. But when he finished playing with the big stuffed animals (he took off his shoes) he was ready to go look for the butterfly garden. We went and found it. Very sunny, so he didn’t want to get out of the stroller, but he smelled some flowers from there. We then went and changed, heard the school bell while in the bathroom (earlier he had talked about wanting to hear the bell again), and got in the pool. He had gone to the bathroom when we changed, but about 3:40 he needed to go again, and we met Carly coming out of the bathrooms as we went in. Back at the pool they played in the pool for awhile while I sat and read. Then I got in and we did more chasing of mama. I also swam under August a couple times. There had been a mom and daughter swimming around earlier, and August got splashed a few times, and he loudly hollered towards them “Don’t splash me!”

We got out at 4:45 and changed and left. He ate a bunch of raisins on the way home and we were home before 5:30. He did the immune system on Human Body, making the person sick by allowing germs into wounds. We crossed out our goals on the whiteboard and then he played the Flynne game with Carly. He was the shrews and sprayed her a couple times, but it mainly turned into farming game a la Gro Garden, as he grew apples, potatoes, French fries, etc. for her, adding sun and water to them until the were ready to pick for her: “But I do grow toothpaste plants.” “I’m gonna grow rug plants.” He and I read half of Berenstain Bears Don’t Pollute and Peppa Pig Around the World and then all of Sarah and Duck at the Library. In that book, where they are trying to cheer up the donkey, I asked what helps him cheer up. He finally said “Blinking”. We used that on him, somewhat successfully, when he got upset at the end of his shower and when he hit his head.

I gave him a shower. He did just fine for most of it. I said something about me being his wonderful dada, and he joked: “No, you’re not my wonderful dada; you’re my mean dada. You’re always mean.” He was joking then, but then got quite sad and upset as I finished rinsing his hair. Carly came up, and he was playing on the bed and bonked his head on the wall. He was upset and it took some work to get him on the toilet. Carly was trying to cheer him up by sort of dancing in and out of the door. He was laughing a lot but then screaming and saying “If you don’t stop, I will hit you.” I left them at 8:10 and he was asleep by 8:20.

Photos: 

Pointing at pitch: 

Lair: 

He was up at 6:10, walked down and found Carly. Watched some Puffin Rock and said goodbye to mama, then had cereal for breakfast with a mix of our three milks (oat, soy, and cow). He played Human Body while we listened to Billy Joel’s Innocent Man album. We played Musyc together, and we would make something, then he would say “Too loud!” and erase it all. We took a plastic container outside and he filled it with water for the cats or birds, then he said “Now I’m gonna water our fake grass so it can grow.” Back inside he wanted to see how cardboard boxes are made so we watched a video, then watched videos of ice cream factories while he sat on the toilet and I showered.

Back downstairs I made us a bigger breakfast, as we shared three eggs with cheese and cauliflower. We then made green tea and lemon iced tea and put it in the fridge to brew and I started laundry. Playing Human Body he focused on the heart and lungs and we talked a lot about the red blood cells and their trips around the body. He asked what makes snot and tears and spit. When I talked about the glands he asked “Does Human Body show us the glands?” When I said no he got upset: “It doesn’t show us any of the fun parts though…I never get to see anything!”

Played one round of Animal Hospital, then I showed him the Pet Doctor app. You use it to be a doctor for your stuffed animals, taking a photo of them and answering questions about how they feel and making notes about their condition. We did it with Marshy and Green Monster, and would later do Bluie and, even later, Smokey.

But then the big game, which we called the Flynne game (from Puffin Rock). Basically, we took turns being Flynne the fox or Mossy and the shrew crew and they would wake Flynne up and make her run away with their scent glands. This lasted a long time. He got a little dark with it: “Oona and baba killed Flynne so she couldn’t eat the shrew crew.” Then said “I have a pretend show that’s about dying people. I’m gonna watch it now.” Back to the game: “I’m messing up your den, dada.” But also he was a machine: “It kills you really fast like this…so the doctor can’t fix you.” “I’ve got something in me that unsicks them.”

We then spotted a weird insect on the wall and caught it and put it in the bug viewer and looked at it. He ate a large cracker, then I said I needed to hang the laundry. He still wanted to play, so we set a timer for 10 minutes and did the Flynne game until it went off. I hung laundry and he talked the whole time about the game and the couch and pillows: “I don’t really like your den cuz there’s not enough color on the pillows…” He said he likes the striped pillow the best.

Back downstairs we talked about our plans for the day and our goals. We played more Flynne game, then watched the recycling truck pick up the limbs across the street. I made cauliflower and sweet potato fries for lunch and we tried the iced tea, which was good already. Did more Flynne game, then took care of Bluie. We stopped to sit at the table and eat lunch and watch Puffin Rock. I had a few of the fries but he ate most of them and didn’t like running out. He ate a lot of cauliflower too though. The recycling truck came back as we were getting ready to go to the grocery store and we left at 2:40.

We walked over to Tiv Taam at the mall. He did a pretty good job helping with the shopping. He is all into trying out new things, so I gave him a few minutes to choose a new milk and he chose a coconut milk to try. And while looking at peanut butter he found a biscuit spread I agreed to get as a treat. We also found pizza sauce and got long sandwich breads to use for pizza. He spotted a price gun thing sitting near an employee and asked if that was a price machine. I was surprised he knew what it was, but later Carly told me they had seen someone using one. He was at his limit though and was being cranky when I was bagging groceries. I asked if he was having a hard time and he said “Yeah.” While we were then getting mints and putting the backpack on, etc. he hit his head on a cart and got pretty sad. We then stopped at the health food store as I had seen salt and pepper shakers out in their display. Got those, then inside they had crackers and five spreads out as sample by the counter. August tried all of them. They also had samples of seed and nut bars and we tried those. Free samples really make him happy.

We got home at 4:30, before Carly as she was staying a bit late. We took care of Smokey and played the hospital game, making a hospital bed for him and Smokey (as first he said Smokey had been hit by a car and then he said he was as bad as Smokey). He was really closing his eyes trying to act asleep. We were doing that when Carly got home.

They nursed, then we had more green tea with sugar. August said “I need some extra to make my skin sweet.” And “It tastes brilliant when it’s like this cold.”

I made pizzas with cauliflower and seitan that Carly had just fried and those were really good. We then had toast with our biscuit spread, which he really liked and wanted me to let him eat spoonfuls of.

We looked at our goals. When writing them I had mentioned reading later and he had said “Yes, please!” We said we could read now and he said we could then cross it off. We’ve crossed things off a couple times, and at the store he was helping cross everything off the list. But he went ahead and erased the goals. We read Peppa Pig Around the World after we bought it and Sarah and Duck at the Library. We brushed his teeth, then Carly read Sarah and Duck Stay at the Duck Hotel. I looked up ‘helter-skelter’ to confirm what it meant and realized it was a spirally slide. I said we could start calling the spiral slides helter-skelters and August disagreed, insisting we call those ‘slides’ and the straight ones ‘helter-skelters’.

I took August up and gave him his shower. When we came out he thought he heard Carly watching something and he kept talking about her shows and “She has those boring videos she watches all the time.” He was a sock making machine tonight and would make socks then tell me I was a price machine and I’d put prices on them. He decided socks were 100 dollars a pair. They tried for sleep 8:10. No go. He went in the bathroom and hung out while Carly took a shower. He then came down and we read Peppa Pig Around the World and the dentist book twice. During the first book he asked “Why are they flying with the wheels down?” He’s never actually seen landing gear go up/down but we’ve talked about it multiple times when we are actually on planes and hear the noises. In Dentist George pours fluoride wash down his toy dinosaur’s mouth. August asked “Does it have a digestive system?”

He went back upstairs with Carly at 9:10. They were going to the bathroom first, and August was really articulating the order they were going to go and nurse, etc. Earlier, before we left the house, he was on the toilet and I stated the 4 or 5 things we were going to do before we left the house. He was repeating it, but adding things in, like washing his hands, that I had left out.

Still no sleep, and August wanted me to go to sleep with them, which he’s mentioned to Carly several times too, I think. So I got ready for bed and got in bed with him. He was quiet, but wouldn’t actually lie down between us, insisting on being sideways. He was kicking his legs over my back, which was actually a pretty good massage and he called it as much. Would have let him do that as long as he needed, but he would also reach up and grab Carly, or push on her with his head.

So around 9:30 I took him downstairs and I pulled out the sofa bed. I lay down and said I’d take him upstairs once he was falling asleep or asleep. He didn’t like the idea, and wouldn’t get on the couch, but he never made an attempt to walk upstairs. He wouldn’t get fully on the couch/bed until after I talked about how Vivian goes to sleep on her own, an
d I suggested we set a timer for a minute and see if he could lie down next to me. He said he didn’t want to do it, but slowly climbed on the bed anyway and did it. For the first minute I had to put my hand on his chest a couple times to keep him from sitting up. But then he kept lying there. He turned sideways for awhile as he kept asking when we could go upstairs, etc. but stayed on the bed on his own. Did the timer thing again and he did it on his own, no hand from me. Finally, he said something about wanting mama, said “No, upstairs”  and rolled over one more time, facing the wall, and was asleep by 10:20. That’s the first time he’s ever fallen asleep at night without Carly and nursing. And I think the first time he’s fallen asleep with me while lying down since my parents were in Korea.

Water dish: 

Taking car of Green Monster: 

Jumping: 

Sitting on me: 

Out of the lair: 

Our insect: 

Watching the tree trimming: 

Sweet potato fries and cauliflower: 

Squeezing his eyes shut: 

Pointing at pizza: 

He got up right at 6, climbed off the bed and went straight to the bathroom without making a noise, and went to the bathroom. But then he complained that his penis hurt. It was quite unlike anything that has happened to him before. After a few minutes, Carly called the school nurse, who didn’t think it was a bladder infection. And it got better through the day, so I think it came from wearing a wet swimsuit and riding in the backpack yesterday.

He wanted to watch more Care Bears and was watching that when Carly left for work. Had some Cheerios and raisins, and looked at both the tree trimming and street cleaning that happened this morning. Read a couple Peppa Pig books (started with First Sleepover), then made some toast. August didn’t like the toast much but wanted peanut butter and I let him eat peanut butter with a spoon. He joked about what was in the peanut butter: “There’s chocolate people in there…Blood in it! People blood in it!”

Players some Human Body, then had a round of ant killing, then played a bit with the markers. A little writing with them, at least for me, but then he had a couple between his toes and walked with them, calling them his stilts. When they came out he held them in his hands and used them more like very short crutches. He also talked about all the plastic we saw at the beach in the water. That was one of the big takeaways – there is a lot of plastic there.

Then, on his iPad he wanted to do a music app. First Notion, but we had troubles with that, then we ended up playing Musyc for the first time in a long time. We played awhile, then I tried to go upstairs to take a shower. He decided he wanted to come up with me and play it in the bathroom, so I helped him bring up the iPad. I took my shower, then we went back downstairs and played it even more.

August requested a cookie, and when I told him there was one more he said “One cookie‽ But then mama won’t have one!” I assured him she had had one last night. We also discussed what to bake next, and decided on some sort of bread if we can find bread pans. He finally went to the bathroom again and felt better, although it still bothered him.

A little more Human Body, then he wanted to put a chip of chalk into water to see what happened. He started with an orange piece and it turned the water orange, so he wanted to add other colors to it. We did our goals and discussed what we were doing today. He wanted to learn about how pencils are made. We then discovered ants going under the couch, so took some time for that one as well. He lay on the floor and showed off some of his yoga moves and wanted me to do them as well, although he said I wasn’t arching my back as much as him. Tough teacher. We brushed his teeth, and he did a good job both squeezing out toothpaste and brushing. He then wanted to leave some on the toothbrush to dry, so we did that.

In packing for our day out I suggested taking the tennis ball and the bug viewer. He was reluctant to take either as he is afraid we will lose them. We finally got going after 12:30. We walked to downtown and checked out the two coffee shops/cafes. The first, closest to us, has a sit down eating area that looked nice, but was a bit fancier than we were looking for. Their coffee/bakery area is nice but focused on sweet things. So we headed to the second one, which only had a couple of croissants and bread.

So we went across the street to the Sushi Ishimoto place. The waitress was on the phone when we went in so I struggled with a Hebrew menu. But then she brought me an English menu. We got a bowl of the regular noodles, with veggies and tofu. August was really hungry by now. The noodles were really good, although a bit pricier than the pizza place for a lunch (about 11 dollars for us, and we didn’t get drinks). When we were done he played around, waving his hair back and forth, and he did some Dragonbox Big Numbers on the iPad. He had to use the bathroom, so we did that. He asked “Why’s it smell so nice in here?” And while sitting on the toilet he randomly said “Wait a second – I’m gonna cut up all my concrete.”

We left there about 2 and went to the hardware store. We got light bulbs, more Tupperware, and WD-40. While picking out light bulbs the older guy was trying to help me and explain why I should learn Hebrew while simultaneously August was being impatient. As we left, August stumbled on a box. He speculated on what was in the box, deciding either light bulbs or candles: “I fell right on the wick.”

We left at 2:15 and I suggested we get a drink at the small grocery store. When we got there I got a drink but he said he only needed his water bottle. We also decided to try oat milk (as they were out of soy milk) and I got some mint tea for iced tea purposes.

We got walking, and he was making noises and said “I’m a fertilizer machine.” A big dog scared both of us from behind a fence, and August, violently, said “I just killed the dog so it wouldn’t bark anymore.” Back to the fertilizer machine: “I’ve got thousands of sucker tubes attached to me dada…all the fertilizer at once.” By the community center he said “There’s something you might want to see, dada…there’s thousands of them.” They were some sort of small round nuts from a tree.

We got to school about 2:50 and went in and changed into our swimsuits. Head the school bell as we were in the bathroom. He assured me he didn’t need to use the bathroom. We went in the water for a few minutes, then he did. Went and used the bathroom, which took awhile, then back to the pool. He saw a couple of girls walking towards the pool, then turning down the path that heads into the gym, and past the pool filter room. August asked “They want to look at the actual filter?”

Carly came and got swim fins and a couple of noodles. August was all over the pool with us, and I did the Jaws noise at one point and tapped them with one of the noodles. This turned into a big game, with August wanting to chase Carly all over the pool doing “dun dun” as he hung on my back. Very tiring. We got out at 4:30 or so, then changed out of our swimsuits. August was really bothering me about mints, but really he was hungry, so I was trying to get him to realize/vocalize that. He said he didn’t want raisins, but finally he agreed to some and ate most of the container.

We were home at 5:15. The toothpaste on the brush wasn’t entirely dry, so he wanted to make a nest to wait in. We got all the pillows from the bed and also a sheet. Carly got him spiral noodles for dinner, although he didn’t eat a lot. Didn’t learn about pencils, as he decided on erasers instead and we watched videos about erasers, soap, pasta, and paper. He tried the oat milk but decided “Hmm. I think it needs to be cold.” Carly gave him a shower, but he got really upset about the rinsing of his hair. Cheered up when he could get the bed wet. He was going crazy on bed avoiding hair brushing, and Carly took a shower. He continued to be all sorts of machines: making boxes, batteries, and dough, among other things. He was starting to slow down so we got his pajamas on him, then tried for sleep. He talked about wanting me there when he falls asleep.

That didn’t work and they got my iPad and did some reading.  Looked at my colors thing, read some Peppa, I think, and I heard August explaining how the sample books work. He fell asleep a little after 8.

Sushi restaurant: 

Pool: 

I heard the door at 6:54. I walked up the stairs and he saw me and he asked “What are you doing?” and then asked me to carry him down. Not upset or surprised at all that Carly were gone. Sat on the couch for a minute then needed to use the bathroom; likely why he woke up. We played Tio Mio together (an app where you change quadrants of a picture to make a person wearing the outfit of a profession, then you see a little cartoon of that profession), then he wanted to watch a new show and chose the Care Bears on Netflix. We watched a couple episodes and ate breakfast. We then read more of Astrosmurf before August spotted ants on the carpet. They were going for a raisin that he had dropped last night. While I cleaned up the ants he had a machine: “I’m using a machine with sharp spinner blades that kills lots of ants.”

We then read several Peppa Pig books: First Sleepover, Dentist, Santa. As we read them, he called the younger brother, George, ‘Colin’ a few times. Not sure he was doing it on purpose. While reading the dentist one we started talking about baby teeth versus adult teeth and I said that adult teeth people had until the end of their lives. He asked “Until you die?” I replied “Well, yes, everyone eventually dies.” To which he then asked “But not me?” I then explained that that was a very long way away and nothing to worry about or something. He stared off, thinking, for a few seconds, then I suggested we go back to reading. That was a tough one.

I found some more ants to chase out of the house, then made sandwiches, then we made his nest of pillows and played with that. We finally left about 11 and got in the backpack in the front yard. As we were doing that our neighbor pulled up and she had her niece with her. They came to say hi. The girl’s name was Emma, I think. She didn’t talk though. We then walked over to the bus stop where it said we had 28 minutes to wait. We ate some lunch, and August contemplated all the bolts and how the bus stop would come apart (I had pointed out that they had taken down the one across the street). The bus came a little past 11:30. He had fun looking out the window during the nearly hour-long bus ride. He spotted a few construction sites, and said a building looked like a theater just for grown ups: “And just buttons. Boring buttons.” He also seemed to think the bus was fast, perhaps because of the loud noise: “This is way faster than cars.” It was a comfortable ride though, compared to busses in Seoul. When it started filling up, there was a funny moment when he thought he saw a dog: “I see a dog back there..It’s hair!” It was actually a woman’s head.

We got off about 12:30, got in the backpack, and looked around a bit to try to figure out where we caught a bus headed home. We then walked down Herzl Street to the main beach in Netanya. I stopped at a concrete bench to make sure we had sunscreen and scraped my leg on the very pointing broken end of the triangle-shaped bench. We got down to the beach, found a good spot, put on sunscreen, and then before we touched the water he said he needed the bathroom. Luckily, there was a bathroom a short walk across the hot sand. We went and did that, then went to the beach on the south side of the little point we were on. Lots and lots of kids in the area.

We started playing a little before 1:30. He started with just playing with the waves on his feet for several minutes. We found a cheap plastic spoon toy and he played with that in the sand. After 20 minutes or so I got him to walk out in the water a bit, but he said it hurt on his leg. He actually did have a red spot that looked perhaps like a bug bite. Went back and played in the sand a bit, then I got him out in the water again. This time, he got out deep, and I had him floating out where it was over his head for awhile. We were right in front of the lifeguard hut, and they take their job seriously here (unlike at the school where they are on their phones): two guys with binoculars always looking out and regular announcements about “boys…” and “small boy…” and occasionally “girls…” that went past the rope, etc. I at least know those words in Hebrew.

We spent most of our time floating in the shallower water though and playing around. About 2:30 we went back in and played in the sand again. We made little sand castles and he waited for the waves to knock them over. Finally, at 2:40 he went back in for one last little wade in the water, then we got ready to go. We stopped at the showers to rinse off and he liked the low faucets and used those on his hands and feet.

We got walking about 3. On the way back up we stopped to admire the sculpture of guys playing music, and then we spotted a smoothie shop and stopped and got a delicious mango and banana (his choices) yogurt smoothie that we ate on the way back to the bus stop. At one point he wanted to save the rest for the bus stop, but I said we might not be able to take it on the bus. At the bus stop, at 3:40, he told one of his stories: “I’ve seen people take smoothies on the bus when they’re not supposed to, dads.”

We waited there a few minutes but then determined it wasn’t the right spot. We had to go inside the building to the inside bus terminal area. Found the spot for our bus, then proceeded to wait more than half an hour. Couldn’t find any way to figure out when the next bus was coming. Thought about taking him to the bathroom at one point, but was then afraid we’d miss the bus.

Finally, at 4:22 a bus came. Luckily, the route back is a little more direct and we got home about 5:15. We watched some Sarah and Duck on the way to keep him awake, as he was definitely falling asleep.

At home he first showed Carly the peeing part on the Human Body app. He also watched the white blood cells and asked “Do they have mouths?” He also likes the intestinal lining part. We made his nest and I was trying to get him to rest with me, but it turned into the waking me up game, with him getting Carly to come and wake me and me hissing or growling or whatever. He was laughing like crazy. He also ate some dinner with Carly. She took him up for his shower, then there was more silly time on the bed. We talked about going and reading stories, and for a minute he was insistent he was going to nurse, then come read stories, but then he changed his mind and said he was going to sleep. He was asleep at 7:30.

Pointing on the bus: 

Down to the Mediterranean: 

Beach 1: 

Beach 2: 

The beach: 

Smoothie: 

Silly: 

Watching the eclipse: 

He started waking up at 4:30 and got up at 5:20. The first thing he said was “I want my feet cold…freezing.” and took his socks off. They went downstairs and nursed, played on the iPad, read some books, and were outside when I got up. He came in to get the tweezers. Back inside he played the My Food and My Body apps and shared some of the pasta dish with Carly for breakfast. Carly went up to the bed and August wanted to go with her. Worked for awhile but he was getting crazy while she was resting: “I was a little crazy. Not a lot crazy.” “I’m not gonna go crazy EVER AGAIN!”

We went out while she took a nap. I took the DVDs of the things that Carly had dropped off to be digitized at the end of last summer and that Cherie had been keeping in the motorhome until we picked it up this summer. I converted them on the computer. Sadly, it appears like the cassette of their August 17th presentation went missing. August played some Animal Doctor while I got that going, then we went downstairs and he finished the rest of his noodles from earlier and we had some banana yogurt, which he liked this time. We then went outside and did the raisins in soda water experiment again. We also dropped in a coin and a piece of the tree things to see what would happen. Carly came down while we were still outside.

We then got ready to go and headed off to the mall. We first went to the pharmacy but didn’t get anything. At the kids area there was some mom and kids class going on. There was music playing and they were dancing. August watched. I headed down to Kravitz, the stationary store. They caught up a couple minutes later and spent several minutes looking at all the pencil sharpeners and erasers. I got some small markers to hopefully use with the Hebrew stencil and we got a flashlight.

We then headed back outside to go to Aroma, the coffee shop and cafe. We got a fruit smoothie with date sugar for August, I got a chai latte, Carly got an iced cappuccino, and we shared an Israeli breakfast, which had a bunch of options and sides: eggs with veggies, bread, a cucumber and tomato salad, olives, tofu, and probably a couple other things.

We sat in the corner and ate – all quite good. August played a little My Foods on his iPad and I studied the Hebrew menu and my book. Carly headed to Tiv Taam and started the grocery shopping and eventually we went to find her. In the store August really liked a pot holder thing that looked like a crocodile mouth and he used it to carry around the Tic Tacs we chose. He found the candy section and a Minions thing in particular. He tried putting the crocodile thing and the Minions thing in the basket for us to buy.

He fell asleep at 1:10 on the walk home. Carly took him up to the bed and at 1:55 she went up to wake him up, which took a lot of work. They played, then came down at 2:20 and had a cookie and milk. I went outside and sprayed more dirt off the walls, a UPS guy asked if he had the right street and then for David at number 3, who I could confirm was our neighbor, and I put our number 1 up on the fence next to the gate. I went inside and found August eating more pasta and cauliflower. After that bowl I got him a second, then a third. Carly got him a bite of the soup she was making after that. He was watching some Puffin Rock.

I had also gotten new stamp pads to use with our rubber stamps and we played with those for awhile. He found an empty paper towel roll and took it upstairs with Carly again to destroy it on the bed. They came down to cut his hair while he watched Puffin Rock. I helped, trying to hold his head and keep it straight. She did well, considering he wouldn’t let her actually cut too closely.

I cleaned off the patio again, as spraying the walls had left more dirt on it. Back inside we read part of the Rocket book before he wanted to play Human Body and Carly tried a little more hair cutting. I went out and taped up the slide.

Carly went upstairs to do some work. Playing Human Body or My Body, he was putting on the bandaids and said “I think the white one is polka nuts.” He meant polka dots, and I think was confusing it with ‘coconut’.

They went upstairs for awhile, then came down to go for a walk at 6. We headed to the playground, but August said “Hey! Why are we at this playground?” He wanted to keep walking, specifically to the mall. We kept walking north, and of course he wanted some Cheerios, but I hadn’t brought the backpack. He had a couple of Carly’s mints instead. We saw a house with a bamboo fence and he said that all of the houses with bamboo were his. I asked if he was afraid the monkeys would come and eat the bamboo (which he had asked about yesterday). He said, patronizingly, “No dada, the monkeys won’t eat all the bamboo.” As we got close to home he was chanting/saying hi to weeds, playground, trees, poop, etc.

We were home after 6:30. Carly said he could have cereal and milk and he was very, very excited about it, with his hand in the air. Carly called Chuck and Cherie, then went upstairs to talk to them. He sat at the table, eating, and watched Puffin Rock. He was laughing a lot. Carly gave him a bath while I changed the light bulbs around to find a place for the one we bought so we now have a light on the landing upstairs.

He and I then read Astrosmurf. About halfway though he said he was tired and we went up to Carly. Tried for sleep a little after 8 but came back down 8:20ish. We read Sarah and Duck at the library and got two new Peppa Pig books: dentist and Peppa’s First Sleepover. Carly had some food and August ate some bread with her, then she Skyped with Glecy for awhile. He then wanted more dried Cheerios. I said no, and he went to Carly and said “Dada said I couldn’t but you said I could.” His eyes got really big when he thought of that one. She hadn’t. He settled for a couple of raisins, then we brushed his teeth again and went upstairs. He fought sleep for awhile, but was asleep at 9:45.

Alligator hand: 

 № 1:

Reading Smurfs: 

He woke up at 7:40. I met him coming down the stairs. He looked down and said “What’s that tea noise?” He had just heard a spoon clang in Carly’s coffee mug as she got up. They nursed and then read Emma’s Eggs. Trying to change his clothes, he started walking around with his pants around his ankles. Carly had the big windows open as it was cooler (low 70s) this morning, then he helped close the windows and we turned on the AC when it got warmer. He wanted to try honey water and ice cubes again so I let him try it but he still didn’t like it. We then skyped with my parents for a short time as it was late for them.

We did a lot of cleaning through the morning: Carly did the floors and some laundry; I used the hose to clean some of the outside walls that are dirty and the patio, and I wiped the rest of the counter that still had the dust left from the work they did yesterday.

August had made a nest on the floor again and was jumping on the pillows and also getting cozy under them. I mentioned wanting a massage at some point and August told me to turn over and he pulled up my shirt and gave me a massage on my back. Very nice of him. We did the sleeping game, where he wakes me up, then we did rubber stamps and we learned the word for shoes in Hebrew and we practicing it through the day.

Eventually, about 12:15, we went on a little walk over to the Drorim Mall to see what is actually open on a Saturday. As we left our house he asked “Is a monkey going to eat our bamboo?” Surprisingly, quite a bit is, including most of the cafes and restaurants, and the grocery store, which multiple people had told us would be closed. Inside, August liked the big almost-dead moth we found on the floor.

We headed home, and as we walked he told a make-believe story about the pool: “I’ve seen people throw rocks in the pool at school…strangers…Little Rock’s that can go in the filter…yeah, for reals…not me though.” He was quite upset when we stopped at home, as he wanted to proceed straight to the school.

But we needed to stop to have some lunch and get changed into our swimsuits. We did that, and got on our way around 1:45. At some point he told me, and I have no idea why, “Sorry dada, you can’t take my monkey…my stuffed monkey.” He kept saying he wanted to forget his floaties like the first time we went to the pool: “I want to forget my floaties.”. I took them anyway, but then when I pretended we had forgotten them, to go along with his wish, he just kept pointing at them and saying they were right there.

At the pool he first went in without them. Played in the pool a few minutes that way, then he wanted the floaties on. Carly put them on and he swam all over the place. We stayed until a quarter to 4, when the pool would close. A couple times he talked about being ready to go home, but then when he got over to the stairs he would play on the stairs and want to stay. He was sort of standing on the second or third step down and jumping forward into the water, then turning around and swimming back to the steps.

We left at 3:45. He wanted a nap along the way, but didn’t fall asleep. At home Carly cooked veggies and I did the outside spraying. August and I did some more Hebrew stamps and stencils. Had the yummy pasta for dinner. Washing his hands, we did a “The germies go away.” chant and he said  “The germies say the germs aren’t going away.” I went upstairs to download Game of Thrones and August came up and was playing his Human Body app on the couch in the office.

We went downstairs and each time he walks down he talks about bumping the screws that hold the railing on and says that they are loosening because of it. He told Carly “I’m gonna play Human Body next to you, mama.” Looking at the blood part he really liked watching the white blood cells at work, saying “That’s a bad bacteria.” He yawned and told me “I’m not sleepy; I just need to rest.” We had a cook and milk and Carly took a shower. We then read Sarah and Duck and Biscuit Goes to School. We bought a new Sarah and Duck book about a trip to the library and read that. Finally, he looked at the songbook for the first time in a long time and was singing to it.

Carly tried brushing his hair but he got genuinely sad because it hurt. I then gave him a shower and he wouldn’t lean his head back at all. So then he rubbed his eyes, but had soap all over his hands and got it in his eyes. He wasn’t too happy about that at all. Got him ready for bed and he was asleep about 8:30.

Photos: 

Moth: 

Swimming: 

Blocks: 

He was up at 6:30 and just fine when Carly left. He and I read the three books we checked out from the library. Carly called to tell me that Shmuel was on the way to the house. I did some picking up and discovered that our yogurt experiment must have been a hit with a cat or a bird, as the container was empty in the middle of the yard.

Shmuel and Shy (the handyman) arrived a little later. August did a great job with them, although he still won’t tell anyone his name. He continued to watch Wanda and the Alien while they got to work. He was interested in what they were doing, and at one point we went outside to get a better look, and August used his tweezers to pull apart some of the tree pieces while standing at the top of his ladder. When they started doing some drilling though it was too loud for him so I let him go upstairs, where he sat on the couch in the office.

Then, Eve showed up to cut the drainage pipe for the washing machine. I stayed downstairs with Shmuel and Shy as they were showing me something. A minute later I hear knocking, and Eve yelling from upstairs. I went up to find the door closed and Eve locked out on the porch. August had come out of the room and closed it. Since the doorknob is broken and won’t turn you get locked out on the porch even if the button isn’t pressed. Shmuel and Shy had brought a know one to replace it,but hadn’t yet made it upstairs. Eve thought it was quite funny when he found out that August had locked him out, and said that he’d lock August out the next time he was here.

Shmuel and Shy were here until a quarter to 12. They fixed a lot of the windows so they would open and slide better and installed handles and new locks on several of them. They replaced the cracked grout along the edge of the kitchen counter, and fixed the door upstairs and several of the windows there as well. And they put outlet covers over the open boxes downstairs. Oh, and they also fixed the lazy susan in the cupboards and one of the broken hinges on a cupboard. Unfortunately, they missed one of those. But otherwise they did a great job and got a lot accomplished in that time.

They took a couple of work breaks, and I served them coffee at one point. I also put out snacks for them, then August and I made chocolate chip cookies, using the dining table as our counter as they were working in the kitchen. Cookies were ready right as they got ready to leave. I gave two to Shy and Shmuel (who says he can’t have sugar) took one for his wife. At one point August went to the bathroom and was asking why the ceiling wasn’t flat. He was then counting invisible babies on the stairs above us: “Ten babies standing on the upstairs stairs not holding on… they fell.”

After they left I finished baking the cookies and there was a lot of cleaning to do, between the baking stuff and all the mess they left. And while August and I were scooping out cookies he kept wanting more drops so he could eat the dough. When the cookies were done he had a cookie though and agreed it was better. He had the idea of dipping it in milk. I can’t remember if that’s something he’s done before or knows about. He was concerned though that Carly would want the dough too and even asked her about it in the evening. She assured him it was okay that she didn’t get any of the cookie dough.

Also, while they had been here and after I’d had an Israeli radio station, Kol Ha Campus, on. It had been Israeli music at first, then they were playing all English stuff: Rage Against the Machine, Beastie Boys, Jay-Z. It was all uncensored, which I wasn’t worried about, but I thought it was funny when I realized we were listening to Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff”.

And August found a line of ants coming in through the kitchen door and turned into an ant killing machine, spinning in circles and kicking and stomping with his feet.

We played some Human Body on the iPad and he did a pretty good job of putting together the entire skeleton puzzle on his own. Think he’ll be more into puzzles when they arrive from Korea. We talked about the party later and how it was for Celeste. He said “Who’s Celeste? Wait, is it a cat?” He did some playing on the couch, and asked why his stomach area is squishy. I told him it was because of bending and breathing and told him I’d show him. He asked “How are you going to do that? Are you going to cut me open?” He wanted to play the machine app (Simple Machine), so he did that and I took a shower. After his shower he told me about how Carly doesn’t have good apps on her computer: “She just has her boring videos and Puffin Rock…That’s all she has on her computer, dada.” He wanted to play the Mammals app so did a little of that. We then read parts of some of our paper books, although not a lot.

He had some peanut butter and jelly sandwich and chose cow’s milk to drink with it. He explained “Poop in cow’s milk I like because I love poop…I’m actually a poop machine.” He asked where his sandwich was and I told him I had set it next to his iPad: “Next to my iPad? THANK YOU, DADA!” He was then snacking on raisins, and a chewed little raisin bit ended up on the floor and then was on my finger. I said something about how no one would want to eat it, and he said “I would. Cuz I’m a compost.”

Finally, we did a lot of rocket time on the couch, going to different planets and “Time for liftoff!” Carly came home and rested for awhile and took a shower and got some food before we left for the party. While talking about treats at the party August said “My favorite thing is muffins. Chocolate muffins.” Funny because he’s never had a chocolate muffin.

He did some drawing with his chalk and was concerned when he would drop a piece of chalk and a little would chip off. He started smearing the chalk with his hand and wanted to know what it tasted like. I let him lick his hand once, but then he kept wanting to lick it. I didn’t think he would like it. He then threw all of the pillows and sheets on the floor and we moved back the coffee table and he jumped off the couch onto them.

Just after 5 we headed to the party. He slowly walked in but was bothered by how loud it was. It bothered him much less when we found some cheese he liked and then Susan brought us a piece of cake. Carly came over where we were in the living room and we went and got food from the table. August did some watermelon then treats, but then we found plenty of other things to eat. We tried different chips, had a couscous thing, a couple different kinds of sweet breads, a thing with grapes in it, etc. August kept saying “I’m going to try something else…I’m going to try another treat.” He was getting more and more bold, walking over to the table and through the crowds on his own.

He went outside with Carly for awhile, and they saw the dog poop. And Tom, the husband of the elementary principal, Sherry, showed August around outside. Inside, August patted the dog a few times and we looked around, and he spent a lot of time looking at the cake.

Carly and I talked to Chris, a high school Social Studies teacher quite a bit and found out his wife is from the Seattle area. I was talking to Jack and Heidi and told them about our plans to build a Little Free Library and put it outside our house, and I then met a high school science teacher who told me to talk to Ofir, the head of facilities at the school, as there might be old shelves/materials we can use.

Around 7 August really started to get silly outside, going back inside without us and telling us to stay outside, then looking out through the windows next to the door. He said he was going to sleep on the rug, then went in, closed the door, and lay down in the middle of the party. Back outside, with Jack and someone else, he started pulling his shirt up over his face and hiding. He tried combining his games, trying to open the door and go in while his shirt was still over his head.

Carly took him in to go to the bathroom, then we left a
bout 7:30. At home he did more jumping on pillows, offered Carly a green mango, and heard the downstairs neighbor’s motorcycle starting up. Carly took a shower and he went to the bathroom and played some Human Body. I took him up for his shower, and he went in and got the bed wet, telling me “I ALWAYS get the bed wet. REMEMBER?” Some more wrestling on the bed and he was asleep by 8:45.

Photos: 

Jumping: 

Party: 

Home: 

7:05. He sat on th floor upstairs and had a minute or being upset, then had me carry him downstairs where he lay on the carpet for quite awhile, silent until he spotted an ant and wants to follow it. Spent some time exterminating ants, then he watched Puffin Rock and ate Cheerios. He got a remarkable amount of milk on himself today, which usually bothers him, but today it did not.

Paused to go out and check on our soy milk experiment. All dried out now, so he wanted to add water. We added some and set it back out. He then wanted to find it what would happen to yogurt. He said he wanted strawberry yogurt and a banana, but then didn’t want either, so those became my breakfast.

He requested his airplane app, saying “‘ll play my airplane app and you dance to your music.” There had been no dancing happening; I think he just wanted some entertainment while he played his app.

He felt my pocket and asked “Are the mints still in there?” When I said no he gave a funny face and an exaggerated “Oooh? Where IS the mints then?” He asked for his water bottle and clarified “I don’t want water ON the couch; I want to DEINK water on the couch…When I drink water it goes in my hose…One end of my hose is attached to me and the other end is attached to that outlet.”

We put out our yogurt experiment: a little strawberry yogurt mixed with water. “Do the germs like the nutrients? I want to ask the germs…The green germs like the white germs…” Looking out at the lawn he said “I want to lawnmower shopping.” I reminded him we don’t have to mow our lawn.

Back inside we played some Gro Forest and I took a shower. Or tried to. He followed me up to play the iPad upstairs, then came in to go to the bathroom while I was in the shower. He then played with my deodorant while I brushed my teeth. He wanted some special milk, with honey. I gave him some, but he said that mama lets him squeeze the honey himself, and mama lets him have extra honey. We went over to the easel to play and do our goals, but were distracted by finding ants carrying bits of food out through the crack where the sliding windows go into the wall. We cleaned that up (August likes to kill the ants, but wants to leave the ones with food alone) then did our goals and played with stencils and rubber stamps. Actually, he mainly used them as blocks, using those and the cotton balls to make a house for ants. He grew a little frustrated when I mentioned all the blocks we have coming from Korea, as he wants them now. Finally, we read Skippyjohn Jones Lost in Spice and Albert (about a guy who holds a bird nest in his hand the whole time it has eggs in it). August didn’t like Albert, so we decided to return it to the library.

Eventually, it was time to head into town for lunch, etc. But I couldn’t find my coin pouch thing and was looking for that. August was getting impatient, I think, and started to do a lot of hitting. That delayed us further. We finally left, and took kind of a long route, zigzagging some new roads, until we reached downtown. Went first to the bank to deposit our cash. First ATM was Hebrew-only, but there is one inside that has English. August helped me, pushing most of the buttons and helping put the cash in the machine.

From there we walked to V.I.Pizza. We got two slices of the pizza they had available, a cheese with a few green olives, and each got a beverage. I asked for a knife to cut up his piece and we got a pizza cutter. He had fun trying to use it on the pizza. And he wanted to sit in the table closest to the corner so we were close to the stroller outside and no one could take it. When eating the crust he said “Dry mouth” – a reference to the Sarah and Duck book where she eats too much bread.

From there we walked to the hardware store. Got black tape, a blue folding stool for the bathroom, and some sealant to try to close some of the ant routes. We spent several minutes looking around the store. He liked seeing all the different parts, although he was reluctant to touch most of them.

It felt kind of early to head to the school and the park along the way. I knew he wouldn’t want to play in a park for too long. So we walked slowly. We stopped at the park we had walked by with Carly when we walked from school into town.  He climbed on a play structure a bit, went on the merry-go-round, sat and drank some water and we got out the iPad and played Gro Forest together, and then he wanted to go down a little slide but decided to was too sunny. Instead, he stomped on the tall grass, saying it was a musical instrument and that the song changed.

We continued on to school, and right before we got to the gate we heard the bell ending school. We had arrived a minute late, as students started to come out to their busses. The school has a single gate as its entrance and exit, so we were stuck for close to 10 minutes. August enjoyed it though, and as he watched them come out he made his machine noises and moved his arms back and forth like he was conducting or swimming. I asked what he was doing and he said “I’m putting all the people in my machine and putting them up into logs.” Slightly disturbing, but a reference to Gro Forest and the machine that cuts trees and turns them into logs.

Once in we went to the library. They have a huge selection of picture books. We could have stayed there a long time, and August kept wanting to read books there. We found The Wind Blew and read that, then read a Biscuit Halloween book. We ended with A Birthday for Frances, Biscuit’s Earth Day Celebration, and Rocket Writes a Story.

It was about 3:30 when we got going, but he first stopped to play with the big stuffed animals. He lay on them, and had me cover him up. He would have happily stayed there longer but I finally convinced him to go find mama. We went over to the pool and first went to the bathroom. It took awhile, and when we finally came out Carly was getting to the pool at the same time.

We went in, and Carly spotted an open shed with swim noodles and swim fins in it. She ended up getting noodles for him and her, and she wore swim fins. He tried the swim fins at one point but they were too big and he was upset there weren’t any smaller ones. The noodles were a good tool for August; as soon as he had one he let go of me and started swimming around out in the open. It was something he could still hold onto a bit but allowed him to swim on his own.

We had a good hour in the pool playing around. We tried stopping at the library to ask one of the librarians about when we could come in but they weren’t there. I saw the free books We then got going home, and had to stop a couple times to keep August from going to sleep. We stopped at Jack and Celeste’s house to borrow a big measuring cup so August and I could make chocolate chip cookies tomorrow.

At home we had some dinner and took August up for a shower. He kept asking “Could you put more soap on me?” I commented on how tan he was and he said “I know”. We all went in to wrestle on the bed and he was asleep about 8:20.

ATM: 

Hardware store: 

Playground: 

Library: 

Silly in bed: 

He was up between 6:30 and 6:40. Carly was upstairs when he woke up, and I went up a bit later and found him awake. Carly left at 6:50 and he handled that just fine. He played Gro Forest and ate dried Cheerios, then decided he wanted them with milk. I suggested he type to someone on Skype and he decided on gramma and grampa. He said “I used to do it all the time but now I don’t…Why?” He watched Wanda and the Alien while we waited for Eve to come and install the strip for the shower. The show has grown on me a bit; he certainly found it very funny in parts. Eve came and August did just fine with him. August said something about calling him “another grampa” after he left. I’m not sure where that connection came from. Playing Gro Forest: “Any of the fruits the bunny can’t eat…Because they’re just for the neighbors at my house.” And he kept talking like he was a robot: “My sensor told me to touch the flowers…the sensor actually sent a message.” I took a shower, and as I was still wet I heard him getting really upset. Eve was supposed to come back, but not until the afternoon, but I thought he may have come early. I rushed down to find that the iPad had restarted.

We went outside to check the soy milk experiment. It has gotten more wrinkly and gross, but not clearly moldy. He said “I want to see if water makes it liquidy again.” We also watered the plant. He said he didn’t want to do it because he wasn’t good at it. I convinced him he could do it. Up in his room he put all of the Korean coins in my pocket and we took them downstairs. He kept saying he wanted to use them for something. We made some of them shiny using vinegar. On the coffee table he used the coins to make a shape, and I asked if it was a snake. He said “I’m not making a snake, dada, I’m making a little nest for my screw.”

I tried to make sandwiches, but he went to the bathroom and wanted me to wait for him. I finally gave in and got one of the white chairs to sit on. Him: “Not that one…the poop chair…Mama’s poop chair.” We finished the sandwiches, and he let me just cut his in halves (well, quarters as opposed to eighths) today. He said “I need lots of jam to make my skin tasty.” He’s used variations of that line several times now.

We then took the club soda and raisins outside and did the sinking/floating experiment. We also used olive oil and he saw how olive oil and water don’t mix. He tried a raisin again, then changed his mind on them: “I started to like them!” “The spicy ones are for me.” And he tried drinking our water/oil/raisin mixture. Of the floating raisins he said “I’m going to make hose raisins sink by putting more raisins on them.” And it worked. For each thing I asked him to do he would say “Only if I eat one more raisin.” And at one point he realized the air conditioner was on and thought that mama might be home, as when we’ve been out and come home that’s an indicator that she got home before us.

Back inside he spotted a big line of ants going across our kitchen to the rugs. Think there were some crumbs on it, possibly from where he had eaten his sandwich standing at the counter earlier. We repelled that invasion, using a broom, cleaner, a mop, and our fingers. Back inside, he noticed some more ants over by the easel. Suddenly, twenty or so popped out of a tiny hole in the corner. Killed them and sprayed there and they stayed away. Going to talk to the guy at the hardware store about filling holes and keeping out ants. Ada and the landlord both said there’s pretty much nothing we can do, but it seems like closing up all the cracks would help…and be better come winter. On the bright side, haven’t seen any spiders since the first couple days we were here. They weren’t that bad, anyway, but maybe they stay away now that people are here.

We played with the cotton balls, then he wanted to see how candy was made. We watched a couple videos, and during one he pointed and asked “Is that extruders?” It’s a word he’s heard several times on these sorts of videos. He then had me carrying him around on his stool. I then got out the Hebrew rubber stamps, which he was excited about. Except for him it turned into covering his hands with ink. Also, we discovered that one of the rubber pads doesn’t match the letter on the back. It is one that is close though, so we might just live with it.

I had decided to hang around the house as Eve was supposed to return in the afternoon. Thought about heading over to the mall to get some lunch and play there, but August wasn’t excited by the idea. But about 2:30 he decided he wanted to go on a walk. In part because he wanted a Tic Tac. So we went out on a Zinnie walk bout 2:45. He chose our paths, and had us go around to the right and up the little path, through the park, and along the paths to the second park. He wanted to keep going along the road towards the school. I said we needed to stay close in case Eve came. When we were out in the sun August said “I just turned on my machine that makes more clouds.”

We went back to the house to check. No Eve. Kept walking, as he still wanted to, to the NE this time. He was quiet, and said he wanted more numbers songs. I was singing the one to the tune of ABC. We stopped and watched a couple cats, and  I gave him some Cheerios to snack on. He asked if they had honey, then said “If they don’t have honey I call them mama Cheerios.” Which comes right from Vivian. We ended up at the playground and he finished the Cheerios as he sat in the stroller. He dumped out the crumbs, calling it “seasoning”. He then called the container a shell – first a crab shell on his finger, then a “frog shell”. Later I realized he meant like an egg. He was still hungry, and I pulled a carrot cake Larabar out of the backpack. He said it was “disgusting”, but I reminded him how he had tried raisins again and liked them. He then ate the entire Larabar. Except for the very last bite, which he said was “gross” and gave to me.

He went on some exercise equipment and got really sad when I said that one of them was just too big for him as it was for older people. I got him to go on one of the swinging ones though, like the kind he first knocked himself over with when he was just a few months old. Now, he could hold onto the handlebars and everything.

We got home at 4 and did a lot more with the Hebrew stamps. I did all of our names in Hebrew, which surprisingly are all the same number of letters, despite (generally) a lot of vowel sounds not being represented in written Hebrew. He got more ink on his hands, and in his ear, and on his cheek. Carly got home at 4:20 just in time to see him all inky. She turned the air conditioner cooler and August said “When I’m really sweaty my hair feels gross.” He was getting rough with Carly, so we went upstairs to wrestle on the bed. I stayed for a few minutes, but then went downstairs in case Eve showed up. He didn’t.

Back downstairs he played some of his airplane app and kept wanting to show things to Carly, who was starting to cut up veggies for stir fry. He switched to an art app before I left to go to the store. I walked over to Tiv Taam. As I walked there the song “Big Hard Sun” played on my playlist. Seemed very appropriate. Was able to stock up a little on soy milk and juice so we aren’t always running out. Tried asking for ‘One bag, please’ in Hebrew, as I knew all the words. But she needed it repeated, then thought I meant one of the reusable bags. Should have asked what they call the regular grocery bags.

At home I got some dinner. Carly had found frozen seitan and basmati rice – with all our rice in Korea none of it was long grain. August wanted to brush his teeth, then he wanted a new show. We found Ask the Storybots, a Netflix show. Only six episodes, but it turned out to be perfect and August loved it. The first episode was ‘Why does night happen?’ And the second was ‘What makes an airplane fly?’ August loved that it
was about robots and had pipes and machines and everything. And he liked the songs. I liked the jokes and the special guests – Jay Leno was in the first, Kevin Smith in the second.

I took him up for his shower after that, then we went down, intending to read stories. Carly came down though and he was jumping on her.  We went back up to play on the bed. At one point he said he was safe next to Carly, then asked me “Can you unsafen me?”

I left about 8:20 when he seemed to be slowing down a bit and Carly took him to the bathroom. He was asleep about 8:30 or a little after.

Pretending to drink our oil, water, and raisin mix: 

Blue: 

Cat: 

Exercise equipment: 

Cotton ball: 

Ink: 

Jumping: