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He was kicking me a lot in the night. Once, when I was fending him off, he told me to stop touching him. Think he was dreaming.

He and I were both up at 7:25. We went downstairs and he went to Carly. She told him about ideas she had bout finding stuff to take apart. When he needed to go to the bathroom she tried to get him to do it without her having to go watch him. He’s pretty insistent about it since we got back, even wanting to see our eyes. When I asked why yesterday, he said he wanted to ask what I wanted him to make in his laboratory. He said the same to Carly.

He and I got a lot of fish in Dragonbox Big Numbers, then while he waited for a tree to be made in the game we started Captain Underpants #10. We read a few chapters, and Carly, having received an email from Ofir, saying he’d like to help with getting stuff to take apart, etc., walked up to the school to talk to him. We read a little more, then August wanted me to tell the counterfeiting story again. This time it was a kid buying a watch instead of ice cream.

I did that, then he played with the circuit set on his own for awhile. We then worked on it together, then started another of the actual projects. We had strawberries and cereal for breakfast, and as I got it I heard cats fighting outside. We went outside and saw them staring each other down, down in Mikaela’s yard. He has, over time, made a spaceship out of the two dead D batteries that he got at the library. He first had Carly glue them together, then added a small circuit board from one of our projects. Yesterday, he had her add the nut he found across the street and the dreidel that he had found under the couch. Now, he took the headphones that he found on a walk and had me glue them, trailing out the back of the spaceship. He was calling it his “old fashion rocket ship.” He was talking about wireless and non-wireless, and I think that was part of what made it old-fashioned was because it was wired headphones, not wireless.

Carly got home and we opened the package and looked at the new tools. I had ordered a 90-piece set for working on electronics. He looked at them for a few minutes, then they went back to school using the car and brought back a monitor and two printers.

They started taking apart a printer. When they used one of the new tools to take out a part he brought the tool over to me and told me all about it. I went up to take a shower. Carly then headed to the nursery. She went over to the one to the east, only to find it closed. That is the second one that has closed. So she drove north to the one on highway 4. And she also bought a big container of beautiful strawberries while she was there.

August and I took apart the printer a little more, then he went and watched Hilda. We then took apart the monitor. He was remembering the first monitor and how we didn’t take it all the way apart because of a warning on it about electricity. I couldn’t quite remember what we had decided, and August said, “I swear you said it.” Carly had been looking into electrical experiments, and suggested they make a battery out of coins, saying that the agorot are copper. I doubted they were, and August defended her, saying, “Mama said we’d try it. So don’t be fussy.”

They walked to the store to get vinegar for their experiment, and were back at 3. August had been insistent that he would only walk to the store with her if they only got vinegar. I think she also managed to get milk and one other thing. They then made their batteries. They found they’d get a high voltage (like 2.2) but it still wasn’t lighting up the bulbs, etc. So we started to learn and speculate about amps and volts. When I came down Carly told me that he was a little afraid of one spot on the floor, where they had put their batteries together, because one of the snap circuit pieces had been wobbling funny and they didn’t know why, and he thought it was scary. They figured out that it rocks back and forth longer than you would expect if you bump it. He finally got over it later in the day.

I had finished an essay for work, and now made a shopping list. August got hyper, and Carly headed to the store at 4:45. He was hyper, so we went upstairs and played a brother and sister game with a seal. ‘Blubber’ was a word of the day. The game had the brother and sister (always both played by me now, with him being the animal) getting stranded on an island and befriending a seal, which they first intended to eat, but then changed their mind. It then helps them catch fish. When they are eventually rescued, after island hopping and finding ways to stay safe from a tiger, they refuse to go on the ship until the seal can come with them. Carly had gotten back, but we kept playing for several minutes.

Eventually, I wanted to go downstairs and make dinner—the coconut and ginger curry. I had found the bag of pennies, and they now made a battery out of them. As we ate, we talked about how August wanted to move someplace where it snows. We then talked about just taking a vacation to see snow. August got upset when Carly said she didn’t want to go to a snowy country over winter break, just someplace in Israel with snow. She took him up for a timeout.

She took a shower, and August finished his dinner, then ate three of the strawberries. We talked about them tasting like candy. Finally, he had toast and we read more of Amulet #7. We then Curious George Goes to the Bookstore, and ‘tier’ was another word of the day. Finally, we read more of Captain Underpants #10.

We went up for his bath, and he made up a really cool tune on the toilet. I gave him a bath and washed his hair. Tootsie Roll was his treat. In the bedroom he told me he had made a slicing machine that was totally safe for babies to use. And he talked about how he wanted to do sticker charts again, because he thought they would help him do better. He asked if there were yellow stickers, and said they could be for things that were between green and red. All his own ideas. The air conditioner isn’t working, and we were trying to figure out why. The plug worked, and so did the remote control. Might be a problem.

He was then jumping around and doing math problems on the bed and asked about counting by 11s. I helped him with it, then he did it on his own. He was then counting by 5s, figuring that out on his own. We brushed his teeth, Carly came in, and I left them around 9:15.

Making music with his noise circuit:

Opening our new tool set:

Looking at the new tools:

Taking apart the monitor:

Reading the circuit board:

Testing their battery 1:

Testing their battery 2:

Counting by 5s:

He was up about 7:35. He found Carly outside, then they cuddled on the couch. He watched Berenstain Bears, then switched to Hilda. He said it was “like switching planes…now I’m on the Hilda bus.”

Carly went to get the car. I let August watch an extra episode as I went and took a shower. That was a mistake, as when he was done he had a meltdown about watching more. I calmly took him up, and when Carly got home a few minutes later she stayed with him for awhile. He eventually apologized.

He did art with Carly, cutting up the Hebrew cookbooks. They made a card for Mandy, and August asked Carly to make a shield that goes on his arm. Not entirely sure how he came up with that idea. Think they also started a card for Mikaela.

They then walked to the grocery store to get a few things. They saw what he calls the “poop flowers” on the way—the big white flowers with brown/purple spots in the center. He ate two and a half bananas on the way back. They were back around 1:40.

He was grabbing at Carly so she took him up for a timeout, which I finished. We discussed his coins from Greece and ended up discussing making money, and ‘counterfeit’ was a word of the day. He asked for a story about counterfeiting. So I made up a story of a kid drawing a dollar bill and buying ice cream with it, then going to jail. He liked the story and wanted it again and again. Each time he would do a different ice cream flavor. I told it 4 or 5 times before saying that was enough. We read Nick and Tesla #2 and ‘congealed’ was another word of the day.

Carly made some sushi, but August is now less excited bout it. He and I went for a short junk walk, just up to the recycling area. Didn’t find anything, but across the street from our house he found a nice round nut. Back in the house it ended up under the couch. We moved the couch and recovered a lot of other things as well. He ate rice and soy sauce and cucumber sticks.

They then drove over to Mandy’s to pick up the plants and to giver her the card and the chocolate from Greece. They came back and I came down and he was testing batteries forCubetro. I did some Cubetto with him. He picked at the iPad we took apart and we discussed motherboards and daughter boards. He then was talking about “Titanium girl!” Like a superhero that he’s made up. We started a circuit, then he went to the bathroom and asked what I wanted him to make. He made a robot assistant for me, like in NextGen. We were listening to the new Chemical Brothers album. He did some dancing to it, then wanted me to pick him up. That ended up with me spinning him to get him dizzy. We did that until I had had enough.

He had fun piling things around my legs as I recovered. I needed to sit down, then he piled stuff around me. When I got too warm we put everything away and I took him with me to do recycling. He noticed the long shadows, and had his shadow out in the street where it got runover by bicycles. He was then tracking ants until I was done. He did help a little.

Back at home I did something I haven’t done in a long time: read Captain Underpants to him. It was book 9. Carly cooked fresh broccoli from the garden and he ate a bowl of it. She then made pancakes. She used the big salt though, and the pancakes had salt chunks in them. August liked it that way though, so we just ate them like that. I think he ate three of them.

We read some more, then Carly gave him a bath. I had a headache and lay down for awhile. In bed, I finished the Captain Underpants book. For a story I told him about my band trip to Disneyland. He kept interrupting, thinking it was illegal to go on a trip like that.

He told me he wanted to live somewhere where it snows in winter. But with no tornadoes or hurricanes. Discussed France etc. But he said he couldn’t do the language.

When I told him it was time to turn off the lamp he did his crazy kicking and accidentally kicked me. But then he said he didn’t care. Carly talked to him, then he apologized and I put him to sleep. I sang Sesame Street songs, then Skip to My Lou. He fell asleep as I sang Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. He was asleep at 9:40.

When will we?:

Finding a lot of dusty stuff:

Cubetto getting stuck:

Dancing to the new Chemical Brothers:

Circuit music:

He was up about 7:10. Carly was with him for awhile, then she got ready to leave. She was heading to the Ancient Agora today. He watched a few of the Rube Goldberg machine videos and I did a little work. He ate a couple strawberries and we both had a digestive. He watched a couple episodes of Hilda, and we played GarageBand. He asked about making a song, and we started to layer drums, bass, and a melody. He said, “It sounds like a real song.” Carly got back from the Agora. She had been the first person in. It wasn’t yet 10, and she suggested I had time to go for a walk.

So I downloaded the Rick Steves audio tour of downtown Athens (she had listened to the Agora tour and really liked it) and took the subway up to Syntagma Square and started there. I saw part of the changing of the guard ceremony across the street, with the funny stepping and skirts with 400 pleats on them, then walked west through town. I got a donut along the way, saw the church in the middle of the street, the cathedral and the older church next to it (with recycled pieces from the Agora and tombstones), walked to Hadrian’s Arch (which we’d been by before), then finally to the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, where my Greek was good enough to realize that one of the stones somehow commemorated a year that Byron had spent there. Turned out it used to be the site of a Capuchin Monastery where he stayed.

I hurried back to the Airbnb place, getting there by 11:40. I had planned to eat a little, but the cleaning woman had already shown up and was waiting for us. So Carly ran the garbage down, we went up and grabbed our stuff, and took off before 12. While I was gone they had finished packing up. August had vacuumed for an allowance, earning a total of 45 agorot, aided by the fact that he ate some crackers and then needed to vacuum again.

As we left I suggested he say goodbye, and he said, “Bye Athens hotel. You’re pretty fancy…bye balcony things.” The second was as we walked down the stairs and he looked out the window one more time.

We went and took the subway one stop north to Acropoli and walked to where there are a lot of restaurants. Busy now as it’s as lunch time. We squeezed into a small table at Spezie. We only had two chairs, and August sat on my lap when we ate. Carly took him to play across the street and I ordered our food: the mixed pita, a Greek coffee, and a melon and other fruit juice that August had ordered. They came back and ate, then while they went to the bathroom I moved our bags across the street. While I stood there, a few students came up to me and gave me a survey about our trip, and rewarded me with a bag of pasta.

Carly and August came out, and we walked to the subway and headed to the airport. When buying our tickets, there were two teenage boys ‘helping’ people with the machines. We had to shoo them off, as our cards weren’t working and it was taking awhile.

Finally, we got going. We rode an elevator up one level when we transferred, and compared to the elevator where we had stayed, this elevator was huge. August said, “I liked that huge elevator. It could fit the Kerns in all wresting backpacks, right?”

We took the long train out to the airport. He liked looking out the windows. We made it through all the lines, and got to our gate, A5, at 3:30. August randomly asked, “If you wanted to full an airplane with chicken, would you need thousands of chickens?” Later, when we were getting off our flight, he asked if a peregrine falcon could git in an overhead bin.

I took him to the bathroom, then went to fill water bottles. He was worried I was taking so long and Carly called me. She went to the bathroom. August randomly said, “I love you. I love mama. I love you dada.” We got in a little love battle, loving each other equally but acting like it was a competition. They have Greek books tied to some of the seats, and I read him the first page of Nikos Kazantzakis’s Freedom and Death.

Carly went to Starbucks. He went with, then they came back. She went and got us an early grey latte. And a chocolate muffin. He as getting worried about her and wanted to go check on her, luckily she showed up.

We saw our plane, and it was a 777, bigger than the 737 parked nearby. She had him run around and do jumping jacks. They finally started boarding at 5:20.

We read more Nick and Tesla, ‘minor’ being a word of the day. He then watched a few episodes of Dr. Seuss and I finished reading Frogs. As we descended he did lots of talking about temperatures and how many lights and cars he could see. He kept talking about temperatures around the world as we got off and waited for the stroller, which took an amazingly long time. As we walked through the airport and I pushed him he asked for “Military speed” in the stroller. That comes from knowing that military planes fly faster than commercial flights. August’s expired visa was no problem.

We got a cab and headed home. He fell asleep at 8:45. He was impressed with the cab. He called it an SUV taxi, although it was really just a big hatchback. We were home at 9:05 and I tried to take him up and put him back to sleep. He tried, and was quiet until asking for mama at 9:20. I had her come up, but he got hyper, so after a couple minutes they came down. He went outside with her to see the plants. There is a flowering broccoli, but new one as well.

Inside I did some reading with him, reading all of the Dr. Seuss book about the Kwuggerbug.

We then went upstairs, and I left him with Carly after 10:20.

Our GarageBand song:

Changing of the guard ceremony:

Playing on the subway to the airport:

Stretching at the airport and “I’m a Boeing 747”:

A song:

Watching the plane take off:

He was up about 7:10 as I took a shower. Full of energy from the start. He randomly said “Cock-a-doodle-doo” something. He saw a bug on the floor and said that bugs were generating power for him. As he ate strawberries for breakfast he asked for more points. I left at 7:35 for my own morning at the Acropolis.

I walked up to the west entrance and had about ten people in front of me. I had a lovely walk up. I was most impressed with the Theatre of Dionysius because of the birth of theatre. I spent my time there and with the Odeon of Herodes, then made my way up to the Acropolis. Still not very busy until I had made my way around the full Acropolis and got back to the north side. so I headed down, taking the west exit.

I then went up on Areopagus Hill, where Paul had preached, then walked over to the hill with the Pnyx (where Pericles spoke), seeing the small church along the way, then walked back east, climbing the path to the Monument of Philopappos and then finding my way down to the stairs on the east side, and took the straight walk back to our Airbnb place.

I was back by 10:40. He was playing Dragonbox Big Numbers and Carly was filing his nails. They had read a Skybrary book (Dizzy Dancing), watched a couple of the machine videos and an episode of Hilda, did a lot of imagining games involving his lab, and experimented a lot with the circuits.

While playing he sang a “One hundred and fifty apples” song. When he had enough apples to get rocks he said, “Enough for one rock feast.”

I helped him a little and he’s really working on his math. He then made a tape creation on the window, taping his shoe to it and filling it with leftover carrots.

Carly gave him challenges like touching his elbows and my toes before she let him in the bathroom. She then taught him how to use the key in the bathroom. He sang a couple of other songs he made up and kept saying “A bit dippy” from the Skybrary book. As we got ready to go he remembered buying his light up shoes for the archeological dig place last summer.

We walked to the subway and took it to Thissio, transferring along the way. We found a restaurant called Sin Athina and had lunch. We got a savory crepe with turkey and a wrap with salmon. We haven’t had a lot of success eating as much Greek food as we would like. Even though this place called itself Greek, most of that was the main entrees of lamb chops, etc. I got a mixed juice for August that was really good. He did some origami with the placemats before deciding to bite one.

We left about 2:15 and checked out the Herakleidon Museum. It didn’t sound very kid friendly though, and August didn’t want to go. He did, however, love playing with a rope between two poles outside, pretending it was a jump rope and having me pretend to jump it. We were going to take August to the Illusions Museum. I didn’t really have any interest in going there, so asked if I could go to the Ancient Agora. Carly agreed, so I took off for that. They played with the rope for a long time and he was really into it until a guy came out of the building to tell them to not play with it. August was upset and Carly scooped him up and took him away.

They went to the museum and had fun there. She sent me a photo of him standing on a ceiling. He really liked one of the spinning ones.

Meanwhile, I loved the Agora, and mainly followed the tour of it in the Rick Steves book. Again I particularly liked the remains of the old theatre, and also following in the steps of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, etc.

I met up with them at Pagotomania. August had had bubble gum ice cream and they were reading Captain Underpants. They were at an exciting point and he wanted to keep reading so I sat down and read.

Before we headed home I walked him over to one of the stands along the roadway and let him choose a set of Greek coins or stamps. He chose the coins.

We headed home, ate spaghetti for dinner, and made a circuit. He was climbing on my back while I was doing something and falling off. We then all walked down to the grocery store. He found another tiny worm along the way. He had twenty cents, so got two gums: a hamburger gum (with red stuff inside that looked like ketchup), then a peppermint gum. He liked the hamburger gum, but the peppermint was too strong.

Back at the apartment we watched most of NextGen. He didn’t want to watch the denouement. He played a little Dragonbox Big Numbers. Carly was skyping with her mom, so August talked to Oma for a minute. I read some Skybrary with him. First a little book about Athens. We were talking about flags and national anthems, and he asked about the songs, so ‘national anthem’ was a word of the day. We also read the Nervous Noggin book.

We were going to wash his hair, but he got upset about his choices for the tree for washing his hair. I got him calmed down and gave him a bath. He had some cereal and milk, and I reminisced about odd 80s cereals. He told me he made a cereal that has 2888 cups of sugar. Carly put him to bed, and I left them at 9:30.

View from the Acropolis:

150 apples song:

Tape creation:

Playing with the rope:

Illusions museum 1:

Illusions museum 2:

Illusions museum 3:

Mama reading to him:

Musician on the train:

Circuit and song:

Just making the circuit smaller song:

Carly headed to the Acropolis at 7:30. She got to the east entrance in plenty of time before it opened at 8 and had already purchased her ticket. So she was one of the first people in, and actually the first one up to the Acropolis. She saw the changing of the guard ceremony that happens.

August was up by 8:10. He cuddled on my lap for quite awhile and played the game where he eats my snacks but finds out they had something in them. ‘Carrion’ was a word of the day. He then wanted a brother and sister imagining game. They found an owl, and ended up naming it Swoops. When he had breakfast he wanted to add points for eating a bunch of strawberries. Brought him up to 50432.

We then watched more of NextGen. He stopped to go to the bathroom, and told me how he makes things out of all sorts of broken machines: refrigerators etc. He built me one of the robots. It cost me 4000 euros. He stood on the toilet and looked out the window for a long time and used infrared to track a thief. Like in the movie. He asked why our hotel was the “fanciest thing” then sang a “fanciest thing” song.

He was playing with something and I was about to take a shower when Carly called. We went down and let her in. It was 9:40. I took a shower. He played Infinite Arcade and Khan Academy Jr., and we watched the Marble Machine X video, #77. He ate the rest of my cheese and chicken sandwich from the grocery store, and we discussed our plans. He was saying “Next stop, Syntagma.” after I was trying to remember how to pronounce it. He really has it down. And he told me “I’ll climb the Acropolis with you, dada.” Later in the evening he told me he had just been joking.

We started to change him, but he put his pajama pants on like a cape, then put on his underwear and was being Captain Underpants. He was pretty hyper for awhile. He was jumping on Carly, who was on the bed. I reminded him of our family guidelines: “Oh, yeah.” On the bed he started chanting “The bunny scout guideline is useful, is useful.” The bunny scouts part is from Max and Ruby but he said he made up the line. It turned into a full performance art piece, as he put up the curtains into the door and turned off the lights, and got Carly to chant with him.

We finally got going after he made a chain of all the circuit parts. At the subway station he collected a few more receipts from the ground. Every time we get subway tickets or receipts when we pay for meals he folds the receipts into different origami shapes of his own making. We transferred and got off at Evangelismos. We walked north, up the hill and found a quiet restaurant called Filippou for lunch. We got an artichoke salad, tzatziki, and chicken souvlaki with veggies. Carly and I shared a Greek coffee. August and I played more Polytopia.

We then walked up all the steps to the funicular up to Mount Lycabettus. August had me carry him up the first two major sets, but then did the entire last set on his own. We had a few minutes to wait for the funicular, so we looked in the gift shop. August was picking up and looking at a lot of little things and did well.

He loved the funicular, which goes up through a tunnel. He stood at the glass and looked out the back. Up at the top we looked around and admired the view. It was really bright up there so we all put on our sunglasses. We went to the bathroom, then headed down on the next train. It wasn’t as crowded as the one up, and he asked why. I said, “I think most people walk.” He replied with, “Huh? Are you crazy?” We all sat on the front row, which made Carly nervous, so then August started singing a “We’re all gonna fall down” song all the way down and even as we got off.

We walked down the stairs and to the site of Aristotle’s Lyceum and the Ancient Gymnasia. Carly stayed out and read Captain Underpants while I went in. Not an incredibly exciting archeological site, but interesting to see. We then walked over to Yoleni’s, where we had eaten lunch a few days ago. August and I chose a jar of honey, Carly chose something for Mandy for watering the plants, and August chose an orange chocolate muffin for a snack which he ate as we walked.

We went to the subway and walked home. He sang an “Everybody breaks bonds with me” song. As we got close he recognized the street and we discussed ‘landmarks’. We have a couple on the way to our place: a Beetle under a cover, which hasn’t moved, and August pointed out the building that has circles in its concrete walls. We were back at 4:55.

We played with Infinite Arcade, actually changing it up and discussing how arcade games work, and Carly walked to the store for a few things. She also got him another roll of tape and AA batteries, as the ones in the circuit set are going dead.

She got home and we had carrots in the tzatziki and hummus. He liked this tzatziki. He played with circuits and made music. He had some carrots and drank strawberry juice. Carly made spaghetti for dinner and we ate.

August and I then went on a geocache walk, this one to a site a couple blocks south of the last one. He ran much of the way, stopping at each street. We found it pretty easily, and he had us sign it “Pee, Poop, and Boop.” On the way back we walked through a little park, then he found a tiny little worm. He talked about taking it back to show Carly, but when I asked what we’d do with it in the apartment he decided to just take a video of it, then leave it by some plants. He created a unit of measure called the “micrometer” to measure small insects, and told Carly all about it. It was pretty dark in the streets when we got back at 8:30.

He showed her the photos, then she gave him a bath. He asked if there were families with one dada, two mamas, and two sets of twins. He seemed mainly shocked by the idea of a family with seven people in it.

He wanted me to put him to sleep, saying “I would love that!” We read some of Nick and Tesla, I sang a little, and he asked for a story. He’d been asking about the radiators in the apartment, so I told him about the old ones we had in elementary and middle school, and how they would make noise, and how you’d be hot if you sat close to them but cold if you were on the other side. Lights off and quiet for several minutes, then, as usual, he had one last question: “Dada, do you think the strongest person in the world could bend a big block of steel?” He fell asleep at 9:52.

I forgot to mention that yesterday, on our walk back in the evening, the garage where we’ve spotted old Mini Coopers had its doors fully open. There was a car in back that looked like an XK140 at first glance. The guy was standing there and said it was from 1937 and used in WWII as an ambulance, then converted into a family car. Didn’t catch exactly what it was.

Looking out the bathroom window:

Tracking the burglar with infrared:

Captain Underpants:

Some music while he plays:

The bunny scout guideline is useful:

Silly faces at lunch:

Finishing the stairs:

Funicular 1:

Singing on the way down:

We’re going to fall down song:

Everybody breaks bonds song:

Running to the geocache:

Tiny worm:

He was up about 7:40. He went out with Carly to the patio and sat on her lap and had a good talk while she had her coffee. He came in and talked about when he had looked at satellite pictures on Google Maps. He asked how to switch it to satellite images and I told him about ‘layers’ on a map. He built circuit #92 with Carly. One of the capacitors broke off its piece though, and he was upset about that. I made soft-boiled eggs. As he ate he questioned whether the eggs were chicken eggs, since they were brown.

I played in the bedroom with him. He closed one of the curtains in the door, and the other in the sliding door, making a sort of nest area. He called it, “The secret thinking spying room…so I’ll lay down this pillow so I can think about spying.” He decided we were aliens. He was a baby hatching from me, like seahorses. We were waiting to eat Carly as she came out of the bathroom. He played with her in the bedroom now for several minutes, the same sort of game.

He went to the bathroom, then was making stuff for us in his lab. I asked for a portable car that we could pack in the suitcase. We were planning on going up the funicular but Carly realized it was closed today.

We finally got going around 11:45. We walked to the subway and he was making food for us from flies along the way. We initially were going to take the tram, but the tracks are overgrown and it clearly wasn’t running. We later found it running farther south, but it now stops for some reason and doesn’t go any further north. So we took the subway, and got off at Evangelismos. We actually had a couple extra stops, as we went one stop in the wrong direction on the second line. He wanted to keep riding the subway though.

Outside the station he started playing along the edge of a path with an old piece of gum and a couple bugs. He ended up with a pillbug crawling on his hand. He took it with him as we walked, and let it go after a few minutes. We took the stroller today, and that made things easier. As we walked up the steps to the children’s museum he found some snails. We were in the museum right after 12.

It is free, which is nice. He was hesitant at first, thinking it looked like little kid stuff, but it turned out great. He started playing store with Carly, and I sat down and did some reading about homeschooling. They went through the grocery store area and wrapped up meat for each other and he weighed his groceries. Carly said there were a couple of English kids there but August wasn’t interested in playing with them. She often uses a British accent when playing with August, so had to be careful not to use it.

I caught up to them again in a room full of math stuff. He was playing with strings on a big geometric board thing. He said they were power lines. Carly was sitting and reading, and I did more. When he was done with that, I showed him the big compass with chalk on a blackboard floor. He drew curves, then was ready to get going for lunch.

We walked south to the restaurant Mavros Gatos. August was saying the phrase “Mind your own business, silly.” He learned it from Captain Underpants (they’re now on book nine, I think, and have also read book twelve, out of order), where it actually says ‘beeswax’. August insisted on going barefoot in the restaurant again.

We ordered the lamb chops, tzaziki, and a Greek salad. August tried the meat but found it too chewy. He mainly ate bread with a little tzaziki on it and french fries. He liked lemon squeezed on some of them. Not the healthiest meal, but he was really savoring it. Then, at the end, the waitress brought a little plate of free desserts, which August and I shared and Carly avoided due to nut reasons. We had played Polytopia while waiting.

It was raining lightly, so we put on our rain clothes. August was fine with it though, at least for a few blocks. We walked towards the Panathenaic Stadium, the stadium from the first modern Olympic Games. But the rain grew heavy as we got there. We stopped at the shelter of a newsstand across the corner. I ran across and looked at the stadium through the fence—at least a little history for today.

We waited several minutes as it seemed like a clear spot was coming, but it moved slowly, and the break in the clouds just filled with other clouds. We spent a few minutes trying to hail a cab, but they were all full. August was handling it well though. We decided to try to cross the street to catch a bus. We walked a block to a light, only to find there was no crossing. We tried to cross but got to the median and realized there was a fence on the other side. August wasn’t handling it quite so well now. We retreated across the street and got under cover of a building along with a bunch of guys waiting by their scooters. Carly was downloading the taxi app used here when I finally hailed a cab.

He took us home, where August went out on the patio with Carly for awhile as it had stopped raining, then played Polytopia with me. It started raining again, and August asked, “Is it duck and cover rain?” He’d gotten that from Carly. A bit later he asked, “It was a bad day, right?”

We discussed the phrase “mind your own business.” It is from Captain Underpants so I blamed it on Carly. He had different ideas: “Your fault actually. You’re the one that made it so I’m into learning words…word of the day and stuff.” He spent several minutes using his tape to make a spiderweb of it under the coffee table. He was then the spider and ate me, and sang “saving the rest for lunch. Saving the rest for dinner.” We worked on a circuit. For the next hour or so August had a tough time, getting stir crazy and hungry, probably. He had some cereal and milk (so his bones would be stronger, he said—and he had had carrot and strawberries when we got back) and we went for a walk at 7:25. Still nice and light out.

No stroller this time, and he did fine. He told us of his garbage car invention, which ran on garbage. We sort of did a random walk to the south, past the grocery store, then west to the main street. Saw some good graffiti, and the tram in operation. Went up on a little graffiti-covered pedestrian bridge then headed back. Stopped at the pizza place to get a medium pizza with meat and veggies and one of those sub-shaped cheese pizzas again. While we waited he counted pizza boxes. He counted 74 at first, then saw more. The other day he had counted to a hundred for the fun of it.

While we waited for the pizza we walked over to the grocery store. There’s a little park area so Carly gave him tree0-touching challenges on the way. He ran around a little in the store. While Carly finished up, I took him next door to the little shop to see about buying something with his 20 cents. I had him give a euro to the woman sitting outside. He had his money in one hand and the money for her in the other and was making sure he didn’t mix them up.

In the little shop he looked at his options, then bought a piece of gum for 10 cents. He was happy about that, then even happier when he realized there were two pieces of gum in it. We went back and found Carly and he chewed on on the way home. We went and got the pizz Nd headed home.

We got back at 8:25. He took the tower things from the pizza and put them together and said it looked like a temple. from the Polytopia game, that is. He had more strawberries, and eventually I was able to give him a bath and washed his hair with minimal fuss. Finally left them to go to sleep at 9:50.

Holding a roly poly:

Athens children’s museum 2:

Athens children’s museum 1:

Waiting out the rain:

Tape spider web:

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He was up at 7:50. He got his shoes on (he’s now refusing his Crocs, as he’s used to his Minnie Mouse shoes and socks) and went out side with Carly for a couple minutes. They came back in and I showed them photos of Notre Dame. They cuddled on the couch and I took a shower.

He watched Joseph’s Machine videos and had crackers and cheese for breakfast. We got going right at 9. He watched the Berenstain Bears where sister plants an apple tree, and as he went to the bathroom he told Carly about how he planted an orange tree where the junk pile is across from our house so no one can put garbage there. He had talked about that plan weeks ago.

On the walk to the busy street to the South he saw inside a car garage, then talked about how he took apart a whole car and used the parts for his inventions.

We caught a cab. After a couple minutes I saw a place called Kinky Opera. August heard me and thought the name was funny. The taxi dropped us off by the Blue Star office we’d seen on a map. They directed us to another place if we had a reservation. We looked around inside E8 and couldn’t find it, then Carly led us to another office she saw on the map. Success there. We stopped at a D’espresso and I got a sausage pastry and a cheese one (that turned out to also have ham). We walked to E9. No boat, so we sat outside the smoky sitting area and sat and ate some of the pastries. Then we were looking at the tickets and realized the vessel name was FDXVII. On our walk over I had seen the Flying Dolphin XVII and pointed it out. That turned out to be our ship.

So we walked back over to it. August asked how you get on. I said that workers might help. “By lying down and you walk on them?” He spotted a little olive tree and looked on it, then had fun climbing on the planter boxes for a few minutes.

We got on the boat and found seats at the front right. It took about 40 minutes to get over. August looked out for several minutes, then in open water played on his iPad. On the island we walked left from the dock. Carly suggested getting food first, but August said he just wanted a treat and I wasn’t yet hungry. We should have eaten first though and August was grumpy the whole way and didn’t want to spent time at the beach at all when we got there. He found some treasures though and insects along the way. In particular an earwig thing near the beach, then a beetle as we walked back through town.

We spent about ten minutes at the beach. We sat and he ate a Balance Bar, but still wanted to head straight back. Also, the Temple of Apollo archeological site was closed on Tuesdays. But we could see it through the fence. As we walked back he told me about his “Infrared defaus tracker”, which sprayed infrared ink on someone and then you could track them. We paused so August could climb in a tree, and I looked at n odd old Ford that seemed to claim to be a Taurus, but was older than that.

We made it to a restaurant called Rembe. Not very Greek, but we had a table on the edge outside looking out at the water. We got the Thai appetizers, and Carly got a chicken club. August ate some of both, but mainly liked the prawn and shrimp from the appetizer. I had a cappuccino viennois (with whipped cream) and let August help with the whipped cream. He got a taste of coffee and hated it. It was a beautiful clear day but he was still negative about rain, arguing, “Water is evaporating to make clouds.”

We got walking, south this time, at 2. We played at a little beach area. He found a bone, maybe 5 inches long. He asked, “You like how I’m really interested in wildlife now?” He carried it around for a few minutes before agreeing to take a photo of it and leave it behind. We started looking for a treat for him and walked back north, taking the narrow streets into town, window shopping along the way. He picked a flower head that sort of looked like fuzzy garlic and told us he makes cotton from them. He was then making articles of clothing at our request and charging us for them in Euros.

He caught a butterfly and had me do a slo-mo video of it. As we kept walking he talked about having a butterfly live in his hair and lay eggs there, then they would go and come back to his hair. Finally, he found a daddy long legs sort of spider and made it run.

We looked at the Tower of Markellos for a couple minutes, then headed back towards the water. We found an ice cream place called Dodoni back by the water and August got a small vanilla caramel brownie. We ate that out at a table. He reminded us of seeing cotton candy in Akko – we had told him the popcorn was better and got that, but he remembered the cotton candy machine and now compared it to the one at the International Day.

And I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that he’s been refusing to sit on any cushioned seat in restaurants. Here, that has meant removing or flipping up the cushions to sit on the metal chair. We used the bathroom, then headed across and out to the end of the docks.

Threw a few rocks. He looked at the big chain and anchor with Carly. We then went and found where the boat would be. He played with a couple of big ropes, then we started reading Nick and Tesla. One page in the boat showed up. While we waited to board, a big group of German or Scandinavian tourists walked right up in front of everyone. Led to some pushing and solving while boarding. We had our exact same seats in the exact boat, but August was convinced this boat was bigger.

We saw the church and lighthouse we would have walked to if August was back in the backpack days and easy to haul around.

He fell asleep after humming to himself for five minutes or so. He woke up as we got off the boat at 4:45. I carried him as Carly led us to the subway station. We got seats, and he watched our progress on Google Maps on Carly’s phone and we looked out at the graffiti on other trains. As we transferred he told me about a locking invention that could lock anything. We took the train four more stops, then as we walked to our place he was trying to spot Smart Cars and sang, “Come over here cute, cute car.”

We found an orange I could reach and picked it. We got back at 5:50 and Carly cut it up. Smelled better than it tasted, but he was happy about it and ate several bites. He made a circuit thing all on his own, then played Toca Plants with Carly. Had some leftover pizza. Another new phrase for August is “Ahem!” and he said it several times today. He also talked about how he and Carly had taken apart his soil and pH sensor thing at home the other day, since it didn’t work well anymore.

We left at 7:20 and walked down to the grocery store. As we walked down the street and he noticed the sun was low he said/joked that he had woken up a couple minutes ago and we hadn’t gone to the island yet. He claimed it was the morning.

He did a ton of running around the grocery store and outside in the open area. Carly had him give a woman sitting outside some money; I had had him give some money with me to a woman on our way back from the National Garden yesterday. Afterwards, he was asking if men/boys could be poor, as we have only seen women. And he wondered why they all use cups.

We got back at 8. He told us he was making a strawberry out of chemicals in his lab. “I’m gonna do what a plant does.” We taught him about ‘synthetic’ and that was the word of the day. “It’s for a competition. I’ll win a golden trophy.” Carly brushed a crumb or something off of him and he asked, “Was there a crane fly on me?” He played with the tape and put some tape on my forehead. We read some Nick and Tesla, then he had a meltdown when he wanted to keep doing circuits and it was time for a bath. Carly took him in to bed right before 9.It was a big, long meltdown. I went in at one point to try to help, but it wasn’t. He was finally asleep after 9:30.

Climbing on the dock:

Fast ferry:

Playing with a beetle:

Caught a butterfly:

Butterfly slo-mo:

Over to the chain:

Big ropes:

He was up at 7:45. We had a good first night. He had immediately closed his eyes and fallen asleep when Carly was done reading. Although Carly was awoken in the middle of the night by an alarm that he had turned on on his iPad. He watched a couple of the machines videos, then Berenstain Bears. I’d finished my journaling and put in some work before they got up.

He watched some things, mainly Berenstain Bears, then was outside with Carly. He found Avo, a new game I had put on his iPad, and started that. I went and took a shower. They finished the free portion of it as I got out, and he got upset when I said we could buy the rest later. After he calmed down he was playing with the circuit set and then remote controlled me with the TV remote. I had made scrambled eggs for breakfast and he didn’t eat much then. Now ate a couple slices of apple after I peeled it. I said it was getting late. He said it wasn’t. I meant for morning, “If you catch my drift.” He replied, flatly, “No, I didn’t.”

Carly and I finally did travel notices for our credit cards, and we got walking at 10:50. As we walked to the station, he and Carly were talking about the hills and the choppy sidewalks. Carly used the word ‘topography’. A word of the day. He said he liked the shapes of the cars in Israel better than here, despite liking all the cute cute cars. He tried sucking on Carly’s backpack strap but she wouldn’t let him. Yesterday, she had told him to stop doing that when he started doing it to mine. I told her she was about four years too late, as he’s always been doing that.

We took the subway, much emptier, up two stops and got off by the parliament building and walked up to the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology. He did a lot of walking today and was checking his step counts a few times.

The museum was pretty cool, although the written descriptions could use a lot of work. We first went up to the musical instruments part. Spent some time in the room where you can play the games, making things out of the shapes. August and I went back in and saw the first keyboard instrument.

We then went down to the technologies portion. August had fun with the Archimedes screw and the fire truck. A guy came and demonstrated the crossbow machine. Carly led us downstairs to the big model of a ship. That was one step too creepy for August, as it was kind of dark down there, and he turned around and headed back upstairs without us. We had also gotten a demonstration of the ‘miracle’ temple doors, that open because of a fire. I had read about that one a day before in the book from my parents. August now showed it to Carly. The woman also showed us the door bell that makes bird sounds, and August liked activating that one by moving the door.

He paused for a snack, then we looked at the other end. We used the pulley thing quite a bit, but another woman came along, and wasn’t fond of him pulling the rope end. I’m not sure why. That kind of ruined it for him. We went upstairs the the astronomy section. Played with a few things there, including a mirror that makes noise when you raise or lower it. One last demonstration, of a fountain, then we headed out. At the entrance though they said we could get a coin if we post a review on TripAdvisor. So I did that and August got the coin.

We left the museum at 12:50. He was unhappy because it looked like it might rain. Carly got him to put on his rain coat and he kept the hood up the entire time. We walked north a couple blocks to a restaurant, but it was too fancy. Contemplated a cafeteria-like place, but headed back south and found a shop called Yoleni’s that also had a restaurant. A good find. We ordered two gyros, one chicken and one with egg, and the tzaziki with bread. August made a joke, I think, calling it “Drizzlyland”.

We played Polytopia until the food came. August loved it. Oil dripped out of the bottom of the piece he was eating and he said, “I like how it’s filtering out the oil.” Then, “This is too good!” And then, “Like the goodest healthy thing I’ve ever had.” In his entire life. Then to Carly: “Actually, it’s not. I think some of your food is better.”

We played more Polytopia, then left at 2:20. As we walked south to the National Gardens, he pointed at a cigar a guy was holding and asked what it was. The guy said, “a cigar.” He was then asking me about the difference between cigars and cigarettes.

Our walk through the gardens was pretty quick. Outside of wanting to pick an orange for a minute he wasn’t interested in stopping and we made our way quickly south. We stopped to look at turtles in one spot for a minute, then for a couple minutes in another spot. Near the Temple of Olympian Zeus he examined some flapping bird toys hanging from a tree, then hurried us along.

It started to rain as we were literally five or six minutes from our place. He kept requesting a taxi, but did quite well with the rain. We watched from a dry spot, then moved a bit further. Then more rain. We were now right across from the Lostre Cafe as it started to hail. I carried him across the street and Carly covered him with the umbrella. We got in just as it started to get bad. Thunder and lightning and really heavy hail for ten minutes or so. We watched as the employees ran out in it to bring in the cushions from outside. Carly and I shared a cappuccino and August got a chocolate ice cream. August kept going to the door and reaching out and getting hail stones. He first tried putting them in our waters, then made a mixture in his empty ice cream cup. He said, “When it hails like his I call I marathon one.” There was a song playing that Carly recognized and August liked. It was “Rip tide” by Vance Joy.

The rain stopped and we hurried home in a break. Got here at 4:20, just in time as it started raining again. We bought the rest of Avo and he played a lot of that. I went and rested, then worked. Carly planned and booked our ferry trip tomorrow. And we listened to the new album of ambient works by Moby.

It was raining and we were hungry, so I braved the rain and walked down to Pizza Fan. I explored a little on the way and found a grocery. I bought a roll of scotch tape, which August has been wanting. It was pouring now, and the streets were turning to rivers. I had to go partway down a block to cross the street to the pizza place. There, I ordered two sub-shaped pizza things, a salad for Carly, and tomato garlic bread. It was really bad on the way back, and I had to duck under branches in tight sidewalks to avoid the rivers. Had to go through a river once and ended up with a wet right foot.

While I was gone they read books, drew machines, and did circuits. I got back after 7:30. We ate. It was all very good. Judging countries by their pizza franchises puts it above Korea and Israel. He stole Carly’s water bottle and poured it in his.

He basically finished Avo, and experimented with his circuit set. Carly took him to his bath. While they were talking before it he said “What is the what?” A Carly phrase. I took him in to bed. I read the first two stories, about Zeus and Hera, to him from a Bernard Evslin book, then we did a visualization of an ant riding a paper boat down a gutter and sewer, ending at a sea, in a rain storm. He did a lot of tossing and turning and fell asleep by 9:55.

I watched coverage of the Notre Dame fire, too much, before heading to bed.

Ancient Technology museum 1:

Ancient Technology museum 2:

Ancient Technology museum 3:

Ancient Technology museum 4:

Ancient Technology museum 5:

Fake birds:

Screech noise:

Watching the hail:

Watching from the coffee shop:

Hyper before a bath:

He was up at 9. We did pretty well scrunched in the small bed. He played Mammals while we got ready, mainly feeding the elephant and making it poop, and talking to Carly about animals.

We went out walking after 9:30. Smart Car “I call it a cute cute car.”A couple very closed blocks away we found Cafe Appolonia. August insisted on eating inside, but then didn’t like the comfy chairs and insisted on standing while he ate. Carly gave him some challenges, like walking up and down the stairs. Carly got a club sandwich and I got the eggs Benedict with salmon. We both had cappuccinos. Carly tried to take August to the bathroom. They were outside, around the corner somewhere. It was dark, with motion sensors, and August was scared and wanted to be picked up. Carly pushed on a door and a woman said something and August let out the loudest scream. They decided to go back to the hotel.

We walked back to the hotel at 10:40. August wanted to watch television. First we found the end of a marathon. August liked watching something live, and we saw a woman win it. He then changed the channel and ruined the Formula 1 race for me, as we saw Lewis Hamilton win. Carly and I were trying to decide how to get to the AirBnB place. August said, “Well while you decide I’ll keep watching the robot video.” “This graphic violence part.” He found a music video for “Ignis” by Rompasso and we added it to his playlist. “Watching complete non-educational stuff.”

We packed up and headed to our Airbnb place. It was about a 5 minute walk to the station. Along the way, August found a car covered in sequins, and a huge grasshopper about 3 inches long. We figured out the subway system, just missed one train, then took a packed train 4 stops south. I had the stroller and a couple backpacks and was taking the stairs to avoid the big crowds. Felt like Korea again, walking the stairs with August in the backpack and holding groceries.

We got to the apartment at 12:30. August spotted a bunch of “cute cute cars” along the way. I spotted lots of Peugeots, Citroens, and Renaults.

Andrew showed us around. August was calling it “super fancy” before we got there and Carly was nervous. She need not be, as August loved it. They sat out on the balcony for awhile. Inside, August ate a bar and I helped him build circuit #99. We threw the hedgehog pillow around. We left at 1:25 to find a grocery store. Most are closed on Sunday, but we walked to a small one called the OK Store. The song “Let’s Talk about Sex” was playing as we looked around. We got some snacks, cheese, eggs, apples, carrots, coffee pods, juice, etc.

We headed back to the condo. He found a cartoon called Leon and Cam. We tried the fruit drink and ate the package apple pastry that reminded me of Seoul (particularly the little shop in the Children’s Grand Park subway station with the guy that called August “Kimbop boy” where we would buy a similar thing). We opened his drink only to find that it was Paw Patrol branded water in a tinted plastic bottle. He thought that was pretty funny.

More circuit (he discovered that the different remotes make different noise patterns) and cartoons, although now he was watching Inspector Gadget on his iPad. We got going back out at 4. August was very negative about it, saying he was afraid of the rain. We talked a lot about the forecast and light rain versus heavy rain, but he wasn’t convinced. We got him outside, in part because I gave him Carly’s old phone, now set up as a camera for him with a wrist strap. He took a few photos on the way down, then outside.

He was reluctant to leave the awning of our building. We got him to, but then had to carry him the entire way to the park, Lambrakis Hill, that we were walking to. Then, when we were there, he had a sort of mini panic attack, not wanting to be set down, clamping his eyes shut, etc. Carly took him, and we headed back. On the way back though the sun came out and he calmed down and we were able to get him to walk. He found another dead insect. Along the way too there was a little dog backing at us from a balcony. There was a purple curtain hanging down and you just saw the curtain moving as it barked. We all found that pretty funny.

We walked right past the condo and headed towards the subway area. We decided to head north, past the Acropolis, to the Monastiraki Flea Market and Pittaki Street, which is lit up at night. We were ultimately unsuccessful with these, neither looking at the flea market nor seeing Pittaki, but we still had a good walk.

We did some window shopping both directions, saw our first views of the Acropolis, and went to a restaurant called Ather just north of Monastiraki Square for dinner. We ordered the spaghetti and the chicken souvlaki. While we waited we played some Heads Up! Kids on my phone, then the empire building game, Polytopia, that he’s been requesting. The food was good and he ate a good amount. Carly took him to the bathroom, and he was scared again and screamed because of the hand dryer.

We left after left after 6:40. On the walk earlier (grocery store?) he had seen a bunch of flies and said he made something to suck them up, and then made found out of them. He had been making things like fly soup and mosquito pie for us. He did more of that now. He found a few treasures along the way, include a plastic-y strip that he bent into a shape. We took a different street back part of the way with lots of shopping on it and Carly commented on wanting to buy everything. August said he had a ton of money and could buy things for us: “maybe a couple suitcases, some jewelry…some mosaics for myself…” Near the end he was simply buying everything with eyes on it for Carly.

About the halfway point back we stopped at Kayak Ice Cream. Quite a place. August chose cookies and cream, and while Carly got it he asked me, “Isn’t it funny I’m getting ice cream?… I’m getting away with some treats!” We went upstairs and he ate it, then we continued the walk home, stopping to look at some birds in cages. We also saw a funny looking brown dog inside a shop. It was cute, and looked out at us. August reached out and hit the glass door, and the dog suddenly jumped at him, barking. Startled us all. Luckily, he found it funny. He picked a couple of pine needles off a tree and said, “This is Mr. Long Legs” and played with them as Carly carried him. He dropped them a couple times and asked me to get Mr. Long Legs, using a funny voice. He asked “Why so many cute cute cars?” And, “Do you think Lydia when she lived in Greece had a cute cute car?”

We got back about 8. August found a cartoon with bees, in Greek, and I made Carly and myself coffees using the pod coffee maker. He volunteered that if it started raining he’d be hitting and hitting. Earlier I’d congratulated him on a great adventure and he said, “I still hate the rain.” He says he doesn’t like the wetness and the coldness. We all sat on the couch and were watching his cartoon. He didn’t like that: “We’re not ALL going to watch this. I’m going to turn it off if you keep watching.”

Carly gave him a bath standing in the shower area, then he and I played the blue mook game. I got the pullout bed ready. Carly was putting him to sleep and I was going to sleep there. I left them at 9:15. They read Skybrary books and I think he was asleep about 9:45.

Huge grasshopper:

Being carried in Athens:

Touching a dead bug:

Walking in Athens:

Buying us everything with eyes: