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He slept really close to me most of the night, sharing a pillow. He was up right at 7. Carly made him oatmeal and he watched Pink Panther. We got ready to go and I mentioned something about making sure there was nothing dangerous in our backpacks. August said, “I do have some lemon spray I’m gonna spray all around the building…” We were driving at 7:45.

He was quiet for awhile, then said, “Dada, I’m in control of some dangerous stuff. Bombs that cut down trees and fire out of the roof…mainly to kill birds and make earrings out of them.” “Maybe if Tenita(sp?) was here she’d buy all of them.” That’s from Wild Kratts, as she’s the one always trying to make fashion accessories out of animals.

We parked on the street by Herzliya Medical Center. They’ve taken out the pay meters, but the signs still say you have to pay. August and I stayed with the car while Carly went in and got her routine blood work. We walked around a bit and then played in the front of the car.

She came back, and we drove to Tel Aviv, parking in a lot just north of the embassy at 9:20. August told us “I do NOT have coffee in my laboratory. Well, I could make some scientific coffee.” We walked around the block to make sure we knew where the embassy entrance was, then we walked down to the beach and played on a jeep thing in the playground. August was a driver and driving me around. I could choose what speed to go, and he’d use the hand brake to pump gas into the vehicle.

Carly wanted coffee, and we had plenty of time, so we walked up to Embassy Coffee just north of the embassy. We each got cappuccino and August got a small chocolate croissant. I got a little bread with cream cheese in it. While there we learned that we can’t take backpacks or phones into the embassy. We rented a locker and put all of our stuff in.

We then went to the craziness that is the embassy. There was one line area and no signs. A woman directed us into a line. After about 10 minutes I thought it was odd that everyone was speaking Hebrew. Carly went to ask, and was directed to the same line again. We stood there a bit longer, then a guy working the line said we were in the line for visas, and directed us back to the security guards. We looked around, walked to the other end of the embassy, and was directed back to where we had come. It turns out there is a small line by the entrance that just looks like the big line. I found a little double headphone sort of plug and that kept August entertained until we got inside. He was pretending to shoot shocks at people.

We got inside, but at security they said my watch couldn’t go in. And kept directing me through the metal detector, but then telling me to go back even though it hadn’t gone off. Carly took the key back and put my watch in the locker and found us. We had gotten a number and now waited in a room full of other people. Carly and I both wished we had had books, and it turned out they were okay, but we had left them in the locker as I couldn’t find any info online about what could be brought in. There was a sign once we were standing in line, but by then it was too late.

August and Carly did some hide and seek and August watched the soundless cartoon that were on and played a little with the baby toys that were there. Finally it was our turn. I did all the paperwork. August wanted to yell into the microphone, so the staff member offered August a clipboard to draw on. He and Carly drew together. When they were out of paper, August got random pieces out of the garbage cans and would clip them to the clipboard.

I finished the paperwork and paid, then we were told to wait until the consular staff called us up. We waited and waited until we were literally the last people there. August made up a game using the abacus on the baby toys, where he would combine the colors on it and I’d explain what sort of color I thought it would make. Finally, it was our turn and we went and held up our hands and affirmed that everything we had submitted was true to the best of our knowledge, got our other documents back, and were free to leave.

We had first gotten in line just before 10:30 and it was after 1:1o as we walked away. We went and got our stuff from the locker. The guy said he’d been waiting for us. We think he was ready to close up.

We walked the short walk to Mexicana for lunch. Quesaidilla with corn for August, eight shrimp, and a burrito with a salad that Carly and I shared. And August and I (mainly him) had an horchata. We ate and left at 2:10. They went outside while I waited to pay and were writing on leaves and hiding them when I went out.

While we headed to the beach, I mentioned something about Korea (we had been comparing this trip to the embassy to our trip to the embassy after he was born—that was much easier) and where he was born and August reminded me he was thousands of years old and from another universe. I asked what happened to his original parents. He said, “My original parents died” I asked what happened and he replied, “That would we a story for another time.”

He spent a few minutes climbing up and down a slanted wall in a park area, then we headed to the beach. I went to get the beach toys from the car and realized I didn’t have my keys. I was afraid they had been left in the locker, but it turned out Carly had them in her purse. I really got the beach toys now and August was digging in an area away from the water, close to two other boys. They were being a bit territorial and August didn’t like that, but didn’t want to move. Eventually Carly got him to move, first in the sun, then closer to the water. They dug together, then went up and down on the beach while I read.

He then had me finding the little foil hearts that were all over the beach. Not as many as were on Vatikim that one day, but still several. He was immediately reburying. He then found a sort of seat that someone had made out of sand. He called it “My potty station.” He had me add a bigger tank and he was playing the poor game for a bit, pretending he lived on the beach. We were then adding other features to the structure. He had a predator deterrent that would poke a predator if it tried to sit on the potty station. We joked around with that, getting poked because the chair was in ‘test mode’.

We packed up and started to leave at 4 but he stopped at the playground. Played there for awhile and then sat on the stairs and had some snack. There were a guitar player and drummer at the top of the steps. They were playing the same jam the entire time we were there. I called it the song that never ends. We went up the stairs, then watched the sun dip below the horizon from the lookout there. August was playing on the slipper benches. He kept falling off, but was okay with it. He didn’t want to leave, and eventually we dragged him away.

We were driving after 5. We read Shivers, and ‘goose bumps’ was the word of the day. We were home by 6.

He watched the Berenstain Bears “The Trouble with Adults” and giggled when he saw the title and first picture and said it was going to be the sillliest one ever. He convinced Carly to light one of our emergency candles and they had fun with that. He poured water on it to put it out once.

He ate some corn and pita, then played Kings and Queens as I did the next steps on the bread, making the dough. I walked down the stairs with him, and he said, “Dada, know what? I love you.” He and I discussed the after school activities for the rest of the year. He decided on STEM (with Ms. Andrea), although at one point he also wanted art and dance.

I chatted with Cassie about the classes and play dates for him and Taya. She said that Taya talked about August every day on their trip to South Africa. When I asked August if he wanted to play with her Monday or Tuesday, he asked which was a shorter wait and went with Monday.

Carly give him his bath, after he played at the sink for a long time. He had come back down for a butter knife and a metal spatula. She washed his hair, and I brought up a lollipop for him. He said we could throw the green ones away as he only likes the purple.

He came down while I turned the dough once, then we went up and finished reading Shivers 3 for the second time. He requested the excerpt from the fourth book and was upset when I said the next book wouldn’t come out for several months. I turned off the lights and he said, “Tell me when you are going to turn off the light.” I told him the“The School with All the Rules” story, then turned off the lamp. I sang “Imaginary Bars” and he was soon asleep, just after 9:10.

I didn’t make it out for a walk, but did place an iHerb order, make the loaves ready to bake in the morning, and gave Zoe feedback on the first chapter of her novel.

At some point today he declared, “I’m evil! I’m detestable! I’m a pirate!”

Styrofoam sound wall thing:

His timeline of when we lost the keys:

Driving the Jeep:

Cutting his quesadilla:

Climbing the wall:

Playing by the other kids:

With Mama in the sand:

The song that never ends:

Playing at sunset:

Studying the candle:

Best mirror dance ever:

He came down at 7:35, a little after me. He cuddled nicely with Carly for several minutes, then started getting hyper. I tried asking him if his feet were cold during the night, but he wouldn’t answer me. He made one Berenstain Bears episode, then made a spicy soup. He did it in a pan, and we heated it on the stove. He had a couple small pieces of bread that he soaked in it.

Carly took recycling down to the bins, then when she came back she asked August if we could throw away his treasures outside. He said that was fine and we threw away all the stuff out by the front porch. He saved a round metal piece at first, but then came back and said we could throw it away “I made a copy of it in my lab.”

He made a second greensand experiment and was outside when I went upstairs and took a shower.

When I came down he was watching Max and Ruby. They had also gotten a piece of styrofoam from the junk pile across the street. It looked like a wall, and they painted it. She made him oatmeal, then we got the news that Eve wasn’t coming as she was having a bad day. He curled up on the floor, then moved to my lap. He was really disappointed. After a few minutes we transitioned into the tiger game. He then wanted to do another imagining game: “One that starts normal and ends with chaos.”

Carly had an appointment in Herzliya, and August initially wanted to go as well. I said we could go to a park after dropping her off. He insisted he go into her appointment and couldn’t compromise on that, so Carly went and he and I stayed at home.

He wanted to type to satellites in Pages on my iPad, so he did that, then wanted a bandaid to put on the iPad. He put it where the crack was. He then wanted more, and used a total of 4 to make pads where the iPad touches the keyboard when it closes. He called them “Pinchpads”, which seemed to be a term he got from school, but I’m not sure what from. We listened to the newest Prodigy album and heated up the leftover Swedish pancakes and he helped put on the cinnamon and sugar. He snuck up on the kitchen counter to turn on the cat ornament. As he was wanting sugar he asked me, “When you were a kid with Gramma and grampa did you want to taste all the ingredients and have lots of meltdowns?”

He ate the pancakes and asked me, “What did you learn when you were 4?” I told him I remembered learning that a baby goat is called a ‘kid’ in preschool and I learned how to do macaroni art. He wanted me to show him how to do macaroni art and we’d get to it later. He wanted to watch something, and asked why I had Netflix on my iPad. I said I watched shows too, but he told me I wasn’t supposed to watch as much as him: “Don’t watch so much cuz that’s for kids. You’ll get in trouble. You can watch less…” He watched the seahorse episode of Wild Kratts.

He went to the bathroom, and said he had made a sucking machine like on the show he’d just watched. He uses it to study rocks and clams. He then asked for frozen mango and pineapple and made toothpick lollipops. We read Shivers 3 and ‘bellow’ was the word of the day. We did the macaroni art, making a face, but he wanted me to do 95% of the work.

Carly got home at 2:30 and I headed upstairs to do some work. He made a structure for her to lie in on the couch. He was hyper, and I heard him telling Carly “Stop it!” a lot as they were playing round. And I heard him say he’d cleaned the glass table.

They then went to the store and school. I think to school first. She has a new door now with a nice big window. And the room had been cleaned and didn’t smell like cats. August wrote letters on the whiteboard, and I think he did a lot of his work, satellite and other, as they were there for a long time. They then went to the store. August figure out on his own and said to her, roughly, “I figured out the trick to getting stuff at the store: kids can only ask for healthy stuff.”

They were back at 6. He was then sitting on the couch and asked, “Can I have water please mama please dada?” I started to look for it and then realized he was giggling. He had it hidden behind his back. He told me he wanted an orange food that he had seen both on an add and at the store. it turned out he was talking about a chicken pattie. As I prepared one for him he said, “Ads work, right?” At least he is aware of it.

He has also been wanting corn, and Carly got fresh corn cooked that. He wanted it on the cob, but quickly changed his mind and wanted it cut off again once he tried the cob. We ate dinner, then read Shivers. He was turning pages and said, “This is the pirate page you’ve been looking for.” That’s a play on the subtitle of the book: “This is the Pirate Book You’ve Been Looking For.”

He requested water drink and I made that and tea for myself and we read. He went to the bathroom, then when he came out he wanted Carly and me to line up and he asked “Who likes pepperoni pizza?” When we raised our hands he then ran by and tagged us. This is a scene straight out of the book.

I tried to get him up to his bath. But then Carly realized the extra set of keys for the front door was missing. I had taken then out of the door around the time we were throwing away his treasures and they may have ended up getting thrown away. Eventually I gave him his bath. He said good night to Carly, and we were in bed at 9.

He was hyper though. He said “I need to get a new butt.” I talked about the weekend, and he said, “You can’t really call it the weekend because every day feels like the weekend right now.” And, “It’s the weekend weekend, I would say.” Then he said, “I just said ‘I would say.’” Some self-awareness there.

He then was imagining: “I’m growing my two hands into dorsal fins. That will take all night. So when you wake up don’t be afraid.” that went on for awhile. It was then wings, and his feet were turning into wings as well so he had four wings. Finally, a story. He gave me his version of Jack and the Beanstalk. He said there was no trading for the beans, the boy just found them. And his mom hit him for doing dangerous things. It ended with the boy climbing up and never being seen again. With lights off and singing it seemed like he was going to sleep, but it took awhile. At one point he sat up and asked, “Dada, can you get me a net so I can catch fishes?” He finally fell asleep around 9:45.

Styrofoam sound wall thing:

His timeline of when we lost the keys:

Throwing away the treasures

Pulling up the dying tree

In the classroom

I was up at 7:30, getting ready, when August woke up. He got up and went out, closing the door behind him. I said good morning and “I’m coming out” as he closed the door. He opened the door again and just stuck his head back in and looked at me. I said “I’m coming out” again and his head disappeared and he closed the door. Downstairs he cuddled with Carly, then they went upstairs. He was talking about “fake cuddling.” They came back down a couple minutes later with the sewing kit and my old shirt. They sat on the rug and he said, “What should we sew up now?”

He worked on the “quilt” then said he could do it on his own. He immediately asked me to do “a imagining game.” Carly protested, saying he just said he was going to sew. He replied, “The sewing will be part of the imagining game. You got it?” So I was his brother and he was my sister, and I was going to get dressed and he (she) was sewing my shirt into a blanket and I was upset about it. Eventually, he put it on my legs as I typed as a blanket.

I offered to make pancakes for breakfast. They requested Swedish pancakes, so I made Swedish pancakes for the first time. Went okay, although they weren’t pretty and it was more stressful than a breakfast should be. August got one of the bigger plastic ziplock bags and filled it with ice and water. He took it outside and threw it and it didn’t break until he threw it against a tree. He liked that, but his pajamas were wet so he asked me to change him. He wanted a pajama day, but I got him regular clothes.

We finished the Swedish pancakes and ate them. I was doing partial pancakes as we can’t do the full pan without ripping them. I tried on a smaller pan but they stuck to that.

He wanted to continue with the imagining game and we called each other “sister” and “brother.” If I forgot and talked in my normal voice he’d say, “Talk in your boy voice!” He watched one of those balancing game videos on YouTube, then one on how clay is made. He then had the idea, still in character, to go out and find more greensand and put it in water to see if it would dissolve and make sand.

We went out and I got the hammer and he showed me where the big blocks of greensand are. It turns out they are actually old tiles, I think, buried along the edge of the house. I pulled up a couple big chunks and he whacked them apart with the hammer. He wanted a container and I got one from recycling. He put all the rock bits in and then we filled it with water and froze it.

Still my sister, we went inside to read. I told him he should read since he was the older sister. He opened the Bob Books app on his iPad and read a few sentences to me. He then taught me how to make mandalas using the app, then how to do art in the Montessori Preschool app. He asked, “Brother, do you want to do your favorite thing? Decorating the inside of paper cups?” We did that, then went and sewed on the shirt.

We then read a few chapters of Shivers 3. He didn’t want me to stop, but I needed to go take a shower. They read Captain Underpants, and he was watching Wild Kratts when I came back down. He stopped, then was acting out Wild Kratts power suits: “Trapping you with chaos!” He turned it into an imagining game with me: “And a harpy eagle flies into your room…”

We left at 1. But first, on the way to the car, he saw a stick sticking out of our fence. It was a pump that pumped rocks into his laboratory. On the drive he asked me, “Remember that place we went with Gramma and grampa with the fossils?” He said he teleported rocks to his lab to study. Not with hammers, but microscopes. We discussed kinds of scientists, and he said he did all the kinds of science. And he asked, “What’s a scientist that studies the ocean?” So ‘oceanographer’ was the word of the day.

We got to the Herzliya Park and parked at the south end and walked across the street to the mall. The photo place, Held, was right in the entrance area, across from Aroma. We first went down to find a bench though as August was hungry. He spotted a Rebar and a “something something” had been part of the plan. We sat and he ate the toasted cheese sandwich Carly had made him, then Carly got his usual chocolate and peanut butter smoothie for him, with mango in it this time. He sat on the counter and drank that and we each had a bit.

We then went and got our photos taken. Super quick. He and I both got our photos taken and we were out of there in about three minutes.

We went back and got the bike from the car and went into the park. Carly went into the cafe there and got us each a cappuccino. We spent quite awhile right around that area, as August got interested in the ponds. We spent a long time trying to catch a small fish with a plastic container he’d found. I had one once but it jumped out. He was trying to make a distraction so I could catch a fish. This was right out of the Shivers book. He told me to “Whistle… Sing a song” to distract them.

When we didn’t have any luck with that, he and I went to the series of pools and walked up and down them. He started walking across the shallow areas, getting his feet wet. We found snails and he talked about how he was going to take them home, to his lab I think, and roast them. “Remember, were not going to eat them, so don’t get grossed out.”

Eventually it was too chilly and Carly and I wanted to get walking and he released the snails. We got walking to the north. He spotted one of the snake signs and had Carly read it. Saw a couple flocks of birds flying south. I stopped at the free library and they started in at the playground. He didn’t want to do any slides, much to Carly’s chagrin, and just wanted to be in the swings. To annoy her he said, “Nicest day ever. No sun, and clouds all day.”

Before we left he had me go look for worms in the muddy area of the grass. No worms. We left at 4:10. In the car he mentioned something, maybe we were talking about the distractions he was trying with the fish, and he said it was from Shivers: “From the ship with the expensive air.” Which is how the fancy cruise ship is described at one point. We finished the book, then started it from the beginning.

At home he was cranky again, and rude to Carly in rejecting the soup. He ate some of it though after I reminded him he liked it. I went up to work. Sometime later she brought him up for his bath. He played in the sink. He poured out his hair potion and made a new one instead. I asked what it was for and he said, “It kills grubs.” Specifically, you pour it down the drain and it kills the drain flies. She washed him, and tied a bracelet, one of the treasures he’s found, for him.

I came out and took over with him at 8:15. He said he had watched a movie with Carly. He told me it was about a city of robots that was flooded and they were all electrocuted except for one superhero that was actually a human. But it turns out it was actually Christmas Chronicles. He had completely made up the flooded city thing. Carly said he hid a few times and looked forward once to make sure the kids were okay, but otherwise it was really good.

We read more Shivers 3 and I talked about being a nicer robot. He acknowledged he had had a hard day and seemed to suggest it was because he was bored. We read a few pages of Sisters, volume 1, and Carly came up at 9. He went to the bathroom and she put lotion on his knuckles and a spot on his foot, both of which have been really dry. I left them by 9:10.

There had been thunderstorms and lots of rain on and off. I lucked out and got a little window where I went out for a ten minutes walk, listening to The Mere Wife. Lightning flashing in every direction, but calm here. After 10 minutes it started raining and the wind picked up. I had my rain coat and also an umbrella with me, but I was right around the corner and could tell it was a matter of seconds or minutes until it was pouring, so I hurried back. Later, there was a good amount of hail.

Hammering 1:

Discussing the clay experiment:

Harpy eagle power:

Happy eagle power 2:

Looking at the fish:

Releasing the snails:

Hail:

Hail: https://youtu.be/Qkquat6yYzY

They were up about 7. I said happy new year, then went back to sleep for a bit. When I came down he was starting to paint his music box pink. He told Carly, “I think you can do your work cuz you might mess with the design I make.” When he wanted turquoise to add I went upstairs to look, but just found a baby blue, which he was very happy with. He finished that, then got hungry. Carly made him oatmeal with mango and date syrup. When he requested more date syrup I told him I shouldn’t add more because the chef might get upset. He was then singing “mama chef” over and over to the tune of the verse of “Beautiful”.

He had taken the empty nutrasweet box and taped it to the wall and said it was for mail. He now cut off the top flap of it, but when he pulled it off he ripped the back top of it. He got upset and took it all down. I helped him fix it by using scissors to enlarge the top, and he taped it back on the wall. Carly went and sat out in the sun.

He made a necklace (Carly had found the stretchy thread when she was vacuuming yesterday) and I glued it for him. He watched a little Pink Panther, then ate more of his oatmeal. He then bounced from activity to activity: He took some photos with the “birthday camera”, then wanted me to write on small pieces of paper so he could clip them together. Only did a couple of those, then wanted a small water balloon. I made one for him, and he tied a string to it. He wanted a second, but I said one was enough inside.

Eventually he took the one outside to show Carly, then he wanted to try to pop it. It was small, so just bounced until he rubbed it against a tree. He had me blow up 5 or 6 more, popping most of them, but leaving one sitting in the sun to see what would happen.

I went up to a shower. They were working on ‘thank you’ cards when I came down. August was into the art part, but less into discussing the presents. August asked me to film them and I said know. Carly said it was a wise choice. When August insisted I film I told him I’d stick with ‘wise’.

I then made a wind tester for him, at his request. It was a piece of paper with part of it rolled up to be a tube around his arm. The rest was the flap of paper hanging off for testing the wind. He wanted me to decorate it with crayons. I started a tree on one side and he helped draw it. He then requested a boom box on the other side, so I drew that.

We next finished reading Ramona the Pest. He next wanted “A imagining game.” It was the one with the light on the highway that turned out to be a kid going through the lines.

We started to get ready to go. Carly had put a patch on the pair of pants he was wearing today. When August saw her doing it he insisted the patch go on the outside of the pants, knowing it would bother him on the outside. Carly remembered we were going to the post office and needed to make envelopes and finish a letter to her grandma. Meanwhile, August had wanted to pack things to take. I got him his backpack and he’d put things like his lip gloss, necklaces, bracelet and other items in it, and was now wearing it, repeatedly asking (but at least being patient) when we would be done because he was “ready for an adventure.”

We left at 1:30. We parked in town and walked to the new ice cream and gelato place. August knew we were going for a “something something” but didn’t know what it was. He was very excited when I directed him into an ice cream shop. He chose Oreo cookie, then when the guy asked if we wanted two flavors he added bubble gum. And sprinkles for the top. We sat outside and shared it. Carly said the bubble gum flavor wasn’t overwhelming. August picked up on this to try to convince us to not eat it: “Everybody stop eating, it’s too overwhelming.” When we were done and getting ready to go, August ran into the ice cream shop, started dancing to the music, slipped and fell down, and got back up and kept dancing.

We then went to the post office. Carly went in and I waited outside. August went in at first and stood in the middle of the floor in a rather odd pose before going out. That didn’t take long, then we drove up to Habanim Garden, a park in the north end of town.

We played on the round spinny thing—it reminded me of the first one he played on, in Dream Forest in Seoul, then went to the swings. I pushed him a bit while Carly read, then she took over and I read. he wasn’t interested in playing on the play structure. So we went for a walk, first on the streets in a circle around the park, then down in the neighborhood we once walked around before. Stopped and looked at a lot of aging construction trucks, then headed down towards the place we had parked before. Jeff called on FaceTime, and as Carly talked to Vivian August said he wanted to show Vivian “Something scary” across the street. He described seeing an animal in the fence and said it was “a jaguar”—it was orange. We went across and I could tell there was an animal in there. As the talked, I walked around the house and discovered it was a very large black dog, with orange on its chest.

We said we’d call when we got home and finished the walk down the street and back. We then drove into town and to the new grocery store in the basement of the new mall. August was being cranky, and Carly went in to shop on her own. We were deciding on whether to walk home using the bike, or go into the store. We went down and first checked out the bulk foods store to the left. August wanted to get something. There were cake decorations (shiny balls) he wanted for his birthday. We went in the store but he ran to Carly, jokingly saying he wanted everything. After checking out he admired the picture on the wall outside.

We drove home and August did FaceTime with Vivian and Colin, then did Wizard School with Vivian, then some art on his iPad. He wanted to watch something, and he snuck a BrainPop Jr. video on telling time. Can’t really complain about him learning something.

We then read Nimona and finished it for a second time. Shmuel had tried calling while I was reading, then there was a knock at the door. It was Shmuel with his handyman Shai, here to fix the gate. August went out to watch for a minute. They fixed it, very ad hoc, by drilling through the top of the handle enclosure and putting a nail through the broken piece to make it stay. Nice of them to come, but Shmuel made it sound like it was a favor, and it was actually our responsibility as tenants to fix things like this and the front door. But he did remind us about cleaning the filters on the HVAC units. Which we used to do in Korea, but hadn’t thought to do here. I cleaned them, and what do you know, it helped.

August told me about a new invention of his: “I made a new invention made out of REINFORCED steel…the transmit BEI…” It transmitted things…

He had oatmeal and then some soup for dinner, and he helped me to put the tape the power strip under the dining room table so the cords are nice and neat on the table. While I had been cleaning the vents, they had started sewing upstairs, using my old library card shirt to cut and sew. They were turning it into a quilt.

Carly gave him a bath and I went up at 8:25. He told me “You are GOOD at telling stories.” We did a story using the dice, “A Plague of Cacti”, then Carly took over to put him to sleep. I left them at 9. I went for a walk, listening to The Mere Wife.

Painting his music box:

Water balloon 1:

Water balloon 2:

Oreo cookie:

Dancing in the ice cream shop:

Climbing the rotating thing:

Sewing a quilt:

He went back to sleep once. He’s been turning sideways in the bed again, feet towards me, and I had to straighten him up a couple times. He woke up at 7:10. He told me, “I’m going downstairs. You go back to sleep.” I came down before 8. They had read I Been There. He was watching Pink Panther. Carly went out to enjoy the sun, which is back for at least a bit. I got tea and cereal and vitamins for August. He stopped watching and asked for oatmeal with date syrup. I asked if he wanted strawberries too and he said yes, but then wasn’t impressed when he saw the final product.

We sat and ate together. He didn’t complain about the strawberries anymore, but he didn’t eat a whole lot. He got his shoes on and went out with Carly for a minute, then asked me to help him find his scissors using his echoy voice: “Can you find them-em-em-em?”

I then couldn’t keep up with him: he wanted to hang up our art from yesterday, then wanted to push toothpicks through paper, then wanted to cut a styrofoam ball in half, then wanted to paint a piece of cardboard to make a table out of it. I got the art up, cut a piece of cardboard, and he painted it.

Carly came in and a minute later I found the putty container in the middle of the rug by the heater. It was upside down, and had stuck to the rug. Carly did her best to pick it off, then we followed instructions online and put ice in a plastic bag to try to freeze it. We will see how it goes. The rug is ruined otherwise. August knew we were upset and curled up on the floor. I said to Carly that at least it hadn’t been the couch. He told me “There are more important things than a rug.” Eventually he watched a few minutes of Pink Panther. Carly came in and he stopped. He started playing with her, asking her to be his seal mom, etc. He told her, “My feetsies are cold.” She said, “You should put on your socks.” He immediately replied, “I won’t.” They then went up to wrestle on the bed.

He played in the sink and made a hair cleaning potion out of hair gel, water, and soap. I let him out someone me before my shower. I took a shower, and when I came down they were outside. August came in and told me he was earning an allowance: a half shekel for weeding. We rearranged his treasures and used the middle-sized container for his savings. I found a half-shekel piece for him Nd also gave him eight 10 agora pieces. We counted it up. He said that when he had enough he could buy something in the store on his own, like an apple.

We read some Nimona, and there’s a reference to Robin Hood so I explained who Robin Hood is and made it the word of the day. The third Shivers book came out today, so we started reading that. We started getting ready to go to a new bakery for lunch, and August got a big cardboard box (the one his electronics set came in) and packing things to take. I don’t remember what all was in there, but it included books for us to take and toys. He said, “I like to carry lots of stuff around with big boxes.” We left at 12:45.

He was quiet on the way up after he had requested we listen to “Better Not Wake the Baby”, and I read a book by myself for awhile, but then he closed his eyes. I got his attention again by reading Shivers 3. We got to Elhanan Bread Culture and went inside. A decent place inside, but a rather small sitting area, and nothing fancy. Their breads looked amazing though. A guy translated the menu for us, and we stopped him after a couple items. Their specialty is a big spread of food on a butcher block board: scrambled eggs, potatoes, quiche, salads, fruits, tahini, cheese, and of course big slices of bread. And Carly and I got a cappuccino to share.

It came pretty quickly and we ate and ate. Very good. I think it was about $35, but not bad as it fed three people. We could have had another adult with us and I think we still would have eaten enough. August liked the eggs and potatoes and bread. He also ate a radish and a half, saying it didn’t have much flavor, but was too lemony. Of the quiche he said, “I’m terrified of that” because it had big chunks of something in it. I had thought garlic at first, but we then thought it was a kind of mushroom.

I had told him we could get a dessert afterwards, so I took him up to choose. The first thing to appeal to him had been the lemon custard pie. We pondered a couple other things now, but went with the “crown cake” as he called it, because the peaks on it reminded him of a crown. It was a big piece, and again enough for the three of us. It took some time to order it, and August got to see how they slice the big loaves of bread. I thought about buying a loaf, but figured we had spent enough so decided against it.

We stopped at the bathroom and then went for a walk into the kibbutz of Mishmarot. We were walking at 2:45. August had developed a new noise he could make without opening his mouth, and he made it as we walked, and said he could communicate with all the animals using it. We passed a dog, walking on its own, and I asked what he said. He said, “What I said was ‘Good morning dog.’” He spotted a stump and ran over to it and started a sort of performance. In a loud voice he said, “Ladies and gentlemen! We have time for one more question!” But then wouldn’t really answer my questions or fulfill my request for a song or dance.

We looked for another bakery in town but couldn’t find it, then circled back past a school and to the playground. He was concerned it belonged to the school and we couldn’t play on it. I assured him it was okay. He went on the swing and I pushed him. We played around, then went over on the bench with Carly. He asked what ‘terrified’ meant, and that was another word of the day. For one of the words today he said he wanted to stop doing words of the day. It turned out to be one of those things that he wants to have control in though, because he said we’d still do it for two more years. He just didn’t like me saying I’d do it as long as I felt like it.

He and I read more of Shivers as we sat on the bench. We then got going just after 4. Stopped at the bathroom again, then drove home. He asked out of nowhere “What’s the difference between locate and identify?” And said he wanted to know “because I’m a scientist.” Carly had music playing, and he told her “Mama, remember, no playing sleepy types of music. This is sleepy music…Play something loud. I know, play Michael Jackson!”

We listened to a couple tracks off of Thriller, then he wanted me to read Shivers. We got about two-thirds done with the book by the time we got home.

I went up to work for awhile. When I came down an hour later August had drawn dots on his foot and there was a spicy Zinnie soup boiling on the stove. And Carly had washed the putty spot and it had come out, much to our surprise.

I took him upstairs, with a lollipop, for his bath. He developed a game where other kids were jealous of his lollipop, so the teacher let everyone have one. He then had a second, and they all wanted a second. Mayhem ensued, with the kids going crazy and destroying everything. He asked, “Can we do that chaos thing again?” Which shows he knows what ‘chaos’ means, as we hadn’t used that word the first time around. I washed his hair and he made it through, but with the usual screaming.

He had put some of his concoction in his hair before we washed it. He now wanted to use it more often, and when I said he could only use it before washing his hair he decided we should wash his hair more often. He excitedly went down to Carly and asked, “Can we change up to three times a week to wash my hair, since I’m using that chemical?”

Downstairs he had Carly take the egg out of his soup. He then smashed it up in a bowl, getting it out of the shell. He and Carly had eaten dinner earlier, now I was having mac and cheese and broccoli, and August wanted me to try the egg. I did, and he helped by fishing out the pieces of shell. Basically a hard-boiled egg, sort of tasting like egg drop soup. He told me, “Here’s a school manner you should follow: Always eat all of your school snack and lunch.”

We then read Ramona the Pest. We almost finished, getting halfway though the last chapter. He was bouncing on the couch, off my hand. We then went upstairs and got him ready for bed. I brushed his teeth and left them at a quarter to 9.

I went for a walk, listening to The Mere Wife. Back at home I watched Bandersnatch on Netflix, finished reading The Fall by Albert Camus, watched some Indy Car (I’m mid-season), and finished with reading some of Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending. Which, car race aside, I realized was a kind of dark way to end the year.

Packing his box:

Our big lunch:

His new noise:

Presenting from his stump:

Swinging his stick:

His egg soup:

Bouncing on the couch:

Putty on the rug

He woke up at 6:45. I was on the lower bed, and he said , “I thought Mama was sleeping with me.” I climbed up on the bed and he fell back to sleep for another half hour. He was lightly talking in his sleep during this time, which he also did yesterday when he went back to sleep. I got up at 7:15 and was still in the room when he woke up again. He said he had to close the door behind him and I could go back to sleep. I came down a few minutes after him, and he was using cut-up post-it notes to make art. He asked me to make another sloth for him, and Carly made a crane for him instead. She then did a magic trick of making him origami flowers—making the ones from Korea appear out of the berry flower hanging in the kitchen. They’ve been there since it arrived from Korea. He wasn’t impressed.

He and I read The Book that Eats People, then on the iPad read Goodnight, Already!, Rain, and a little Nimona before he got hungry for breakfast. I made french toast, and he helped by spraying the pan with Pam between rounds of french toast. Carly managed to take a little nap on the couch. He and I ate. He ate two slices, putting strawberries on them himself, and proudly leaving the last bite of the second piece. He started to go bother Carly, so I suggested he play on his iPad. The Montessori Preschool game, I think.

After awhile he went and was trying to wake her up. She was getting up, but he was bothering her so I took him upstairs for a minute. We came back down, and the sun came out, and they went outside for a couple minutes. They came back in and Carly got her french toast. He was on the floor with the paints and said, “Mama, we used to always make paintings together, now we never do paintings.” Carly said that was a major guilt trip. He kept it up as she ate her french toast. They then did paint together, and had the idea of painting bookmarks for the librarians.

He then made a dish in a pot: water, salt, baking soda, hot paprika, garlic powder, brown sugar, oil, and cinnamon. We had fun looking at it along the way, and he used the electric mixer on it and then saw how things swirled around in it. Then he added pasta and wanted to boil it on the stove. We did, and when it was done he wanted the pasta strained out of it. We showed it to Carly, who was appropriately disgusted. They basically smelled like cinnamon noodles, and I ate one, much to August’s delight.

August the found a cosmetics thing, then wanted makeup for himself. He referenced an episode of Max and Ruby. I would later realize, and he verified, that this is where the rosy cheeks idea came from when he drew the mama robot. Anyway, she let him use a lip gloss she had bought on accident. He put lip gloss on Carly. She wouldn’t let me take a photo. Then he had fun putting it on himself. He made a scary face for a photo and looks liked a zombie August. He then wanted to put it on me. When I hesitated he said, “I think you’re just nervous. Ruby did it!” So I let him, a couple times. He had me lay down on the floor while he put it on my cheeks and ears. He told me, “You have to respect me cus I’m dressing up you.” Not sure if that is a Max and Ruby reference, but it sounds like it comes from somewhere.

He went upstairs to Carly for a few minutes. They came down and he made a ‘present’ using a big plastic bag that he filled with random stuff and then twisted shut. I shopped for underwear for him on Amazon. He talks about not liking the boy-specific ones with trucks, etc. on them. So looking for more gender-neutral stuff in colors he might like. A startling lack of unisex kids underwear on Amazon, but found one company to try this summer in the states. I had also bought him a watch earlier in the day. Would have gotten it for Christmas, but he reminded me of wanting a watch just a few days before. It is a Garmin Vivofit Jr. 2. With little robots on it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075G59RS7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_DQCkCb40N1K9M Now he can track his activity and steps and tell the time.

I went up for a shower. Carly then let me go work. Their plan was to go to the mall when it stopped raining and buy August his own lip gloss. I went up to do some work, and made initial good progress on an entry about Nabi Saleh.

It rained longer than the forecast had said it would, and we didn’t leave until 3:30. August just had a light sweatshirt on, and Carly asked if he was cold and wanted another sweatshirt. He replied, “I like being cold. And I AM cold.” As we left, Carly pointed out one of the bird feeders they had made out of a Cheerios box. There was a second, made out of an egg carton, that I would see later.

August first had to look at the junk pile across the street. Nothing of use. Then we saw a big stream of muddy water running in the runoff channel. And more branches down on a tree that was broken in the windstorm last year.

At the mall Carly realized that the pharmacy was still closed, although it appeared they were close to reopening with the new branding. We went down to the Tiv Taam. Along the way August wanted to get free samples in the health food store and I told him we could do that afterwards. He went with Carly in the store and she let him pick out a lip gloss. He got a lighter pink. I went in the Delta and looked for underwear for him, but they were basically out of his size anyway. We then went back to the health food store and had free samples. He asked to get something and I agreed. He was excited, and later thanked me for letting him choose something. He chose these little bar things filled with sticky date stuff. He almost switched to ice cream, but I pointed out he’d have to wait for that. So we got those and a tub of peanut butter.

We started walking home and stopped on the first pedestrian bridge, over the stream, and watched the water. We got sticks and leaves and dropped them in. Sticks you immediately lost, but you could see the green leaves.

We were home by 4:30. He played with the ball of green string, then we read a couple chapters of Ramona the Pest. I taught him the word ‘gloaming’ when we were talking about going back out for another walk. He didn’t want to go, so Carly just worked out in the yard while we read.

He got the putty from Andrea and family and we played with that. He wanted to fire it in the catapult, but the arm had come loose and needs to be glued again. Carly was upstairs, and her parents called. He wanted to use the electric piano keyboard and we hooked it up to his iPad. But then he just wanted to make mistakes while I played in Piano Maestro. He then wanted to play with the guitar, but I told him we needed to wait until Carly was done talking. He didn’t respond well to that.

I was talking about getting some dinner and he told me, “Don’t get too excited about making food…cuz you’re going to make art for me first.” We made two collaborative pieces on big pieces of paper. I started by drawing houses and he added to them, making more rooms and windows and other things. They turned out quite nice.

I was then putting dinner together (mac and cheese and broccoli and seitan) when Carly came down. He played with the putty with her, until she decided it was too messy and it got put away.

They then Skyped with Vivian for long time. Colin was dressed in a costume and they went upstairs and August changed into his okygen costume. Carly wanted to take a shower so I came up when I finished a small work thing. He was jealous of something Vivian had.

We took the laptop downstairs and August tied a green string around it while Vivian was showing us something. There was a funny exchange where Vivian told August a ‘secret’—she is eleven days older than Thatcher and August couldn’t tell Thather. August then told her that he could make himself any age, and that she couldn’t tell her mama.

When Carly was done we did goodbye and I started to take August up for his bath. Carly took over and did that. I then came up to put him to sleep. We read The Boy with a Problem(one of the free books from the library) and We Are All Wonders. He had a small scrape on one of his fingers that was bothering him and he asked me to put a bandaid on it.

He fell asleep by 9:20, I think, but I fell asleep as well. I got back up at 10 and went for another nighttime walk, listening to The Mere Wife this time.

Playing with a thread:

His cinnamon noodles:

New lip gloss:

Muddy water:

Dropping a leaf in:

Collaborative art 1:

Collaborative art 2:

A fib:

Trading secrets:

I shared the big bed with him. He woke up at 6:30 and I told him to go back to sleep. He lay next to me and fell asleep until 7, when I felt him climb over me and down to carly. He fell back asleep again until we all got up at 7:40. He was full energy right away, wanting to play the tea game with her. He was silly and lay on top of her and said in a funny voice “I aaam yoouuurr funny blanket.”

He spotted a fly on the door and tried hitting it with his hand. Missed it once, then it landed again and he claimed he killed it with his hand. Carly didn’t believe him at first, but then he produced the body. He then carried it to the garbage on the fly swatter.

Downstairs, he played with Medly on his iPad, making picture songs. I dealt with a small work thing, then he traced things using my iPad as a light source as I made scrambled eggs for breakfast. We ate, then he found his magazine and at first filed it on shelf. He then wanted me to read it, but didn’t like that I couldn’t translate the French for him. They were then being seals cuddling together.

We then started Nimona from the beginning. ‘inanimate’ was the word of the day. Midway of chapter 4 he got up and got a plastic container from the drawer. Didn’t say anything to me. He was at the door with his shoes on, unlocking it, when Carly came down and asked what he was doing. He said, “Harvesting leaves…harvesting greens.” He came back in with a fair amount of leaves and announced we would use it for cooking, so he was putting it in the refrigerator.

Carly headed to the store at 10:40. He played Montessori Preschool on the bed while I took a shower. He, of course, came in right as I was getting done, asking if I was done, and letting in all the cold air. I asked what is was doing in the app, and he said counting, but it was easy. Downstairs I encouraged him to try TodoMath, but he didn’t want to stick with the stuff he didn’t know yet, and he got bored of the easy stuff. Instead, he went and covered my mug with a plastic bag and rubber band and said he could now carry it around. He then wanted to make a drink.

He got the plastic bag that had held the squishy sand and asked me to wash it out. He then put it inside the empty mug (so the mug wouldn’t get dirty), put in cold water, lots of honey, and three pieces of mango, then put it in the freezer for exactly a minute, then added two pieces of pineapple. Carly got home at this point, about noon. He was very excited and told her all about it. He got out three straws and made us all sit down and drink it together.

I then headed upstairs to do some work. I was up there for awhile when Carly came up and said they were heading to school. No door, so they played/worked in the office. They got back and he had done fine, but he told me he should have chosen to stay home. And that he’ll never have fun in the rain. It sounded like the office wasn’t as fun as her classroom.

I did some account stuff, mainly figuring out that our toll road bills actually are being paid automatically. August helped grate cheese. But then he got hungry and was having trouble waiting for the mac and cheese to be ready. I heated up the rest of the eggs from this morning for him and he ate those. He then ate mac and cheese when it was ready. The wait was worth it, as he said, “Best. Sauce. Ever.”

Carly headed upstairs to work. He had the idea of me doing origami for him. Not sure how that started. He requested a flamingo (from Sarah and Duck, where John folds origami flamingos that run away) so I watched a YouTube video and made one. He colored it with crayon before and during the folding. He was impressed with the outcome, so then of course requested a second. A sloth. That was a bit more difficult, but I managed it.

He then started a game where he hid the origami animals and I was a boy trying to find them. But he didn’t like it when I actually found them. He used a word from Berenstain Bears when I did, calling me “smug.” I was supposed to pretend to not be able to find them. He hid them in the fridge and I pretended I couldn’t find them. Instead, I was looking under all the pillows and tossing them on him as I looked. He thought it was really funny.

He also took dried macaroni, which he had painted earlier, and put it in a bowl and added water and other seasonings and we covered it with plastic. It was an experiment and he wants to see if it gets moldy. I told him we’d transfer it to a plastic bin tomorrow so it doesn’t ruin his good bowl.

With the pillows he made a house on the couch. I was another kid through all this. The house had things like a jail cell. We sat down to do some reading. We read a little of Wildwood, but be wasn’t into that. We read more of Ramona the pest instead. Ramona uses a worm as an engagement ring. He said, “Engaged…word of the day!”

I asked if he was hungry, and he requested oatmeal and date syrup. I made a small bowl and he ate it and requested seconds. I made another small bowl and he ate a bite or two. It was then time for a bath. We negotiated, and he wanted half of a story that I made up in my head before we took a bath. I told him half of the Adventurer I’d planned involving the map, then we headed upstairs. On the toilet he talked about how he pees eggs. Lots of powerplant talk – pee goes to a powerplant and makes air. The eggs produce “a tiny amount of fresh air.”

We went into the bedroom and started a new Storytelling Dice story. Carly was getting ready and was faster than I expected. So I just gave him a teaser of the story and said goodnight to them at 8:50. I then went for an evening walk in the damp but not raining night, listening to Forward the Foundation.

His drink recipe:

Painted macaroni experiment:

His tracksy dance:

Pine cone Carly decorated

His drink in a bag

His armor

Origami

A piece of art

Our house

Drums

He got up right at 7. When I came down he was sitting with Carly on the couch and had all of the art supplies I had given him in the little case. A little post-it sign on the wall said ‘The wall of magic” and his snake was hanging from a string on the wall hanging. They wouldn’t explain what they’d been up to though. The kitchen floor was “The Door of Enters” and the hall to the stairs was “The Hall of Monsters.”

August requested Nimona, so we read more of that. Carly went upstairs to work but made oatmeal with date syrup for August first. August had found the paper clip I had used to fix Pinnochio last night (his legs had come apart, and the elastic band was pulled up inside his body) and wanted one that wasn’t bent. I went and got him a couple. He asked how they work and I taught him.

He watched some Berenstain Bears and saw another ad for LingoKids. So we tried it on his iPad. He was disappointed when he realized it was too easy for him. It looks really good, but is for English language learners, and he requested I delete it off his iPad. He went back to watching Berenstain Bears and I went to take a shower.

We read more Nimona as he ate a second bowl of oatmeal, with mango this time. I taught him the word ‘backstory’ and that was the word of the day. We also discussed flashbacks, and when there was another flashback he said, “I hate backstory.”

He and Carly were getting ready to walk to school. He put the box he’s been playing with recently on his head. He was wearing it as Carly got him dressed: “But I’m still dressed as a box…for my fashion show…but then I need to put my box back on so people think I’m a box.” He was then walking around the front yard wearing the box.

They left at 10:40, after August picked up all of his treasures littering the front porch and yard and put them in the cardboard box. Looks a little better now.

They went to school primarily to print stuff off—our paperwork for our passport renewals (me and August) and things Carly needed for her NB renewal. She doesn’t have a door to her classroom as they are replacing them with doors with windows. She realized the cats had been sleeping on an old office chair the kids use. Luckily, she had taken all of the bean bag chairs to the office before break. He sat and was doing his “work” on papers she gave him. Part of it involved communicating with satellites. The printer stopped working so they went and finished in the middle school office.

She called me a little after 1 as I was finishing up work for the day. They were going into town to get some food. So I finished up and walked into town to meet them. They had decided on Gutale and ordered a pasta dish, some bread with tahini and other things, and a mango and pineapple smoothie. I ordered a large cappuccino to share with Carly. We ate, and then August and I read Nimona. Before we left they went to the bathroom, and I spotted a ‘Korea’ postcard on the wall, and that they serve Althaus brand tea.

We left at 2:40. Carly headed home to work, and we headed to Motek Garden. August had requested a park we’ve never been to before, but we’ve been to all of them in walking distance. I suggested Motek, as we haven’t been there since before summer. I described it as the park with all the oranges. He said, “I think I have a picture of it in my poistronic brain.”

As we were walking he stopped about five times on the first block. One was when I glanced in a statue store. He saw one of a naked cherub lying down. He thought that was funny and said, “You got me in the booty butt mood.” He then stopped for a branch on the ground. It smelled really lemony and we took a bit with us. He then stopped to look at a cactus. And to make his handlebars green using leaves and a rock as a hammer. And on the next block he stopped for a plant that he thought might be lemongrass.

We finally made it to Motek Garden at 3:15. He got on the swinging long thing and said, “Please rock me like a chimpanzee.” He then had me tying a piece of long grass (the lemongrass) to the chains. He found one intact orange and we ended up poking it on a stick and flinging it around. We played with a couple of other oranges as well. He was talking mean, and got him off of that by suggesting a book. We read a couple chapters of Ramona the Pest on my phone as he hung out on the play structure. Finally, he ended up climbing on the fence/entrance to the park and taking making-mama-nervous photos. And he found another leaf and tied it through the bars.

We got walking and over on the west side of the pine tree park he got off to inspect a big drain grate in the middle of the road. Turned into a game of dropping things down to see if they would float. On the walk I had commented on how he’s learned to identify plants at school. Now, he picked up a seed pod and I wondered what it was. He said, “Carob maybe?” I asked where he learned about carob and he said in the nature reserve.

We almost headed home after that, but he decided to play in the Pine Tree Park instead. We played on the walking thing, with me pretending to get upset when he wouldn’t walk anyplace, as he was walking in one place. I was holding him up, but he’s gotten a bit more solid on it since last year. The birds in the trees above us started making a bunch of noise, unrelated to us. August started chanting “Buh! Buh! I’m disturbing your nest!” He asked if ‘baba’ was the first word he had said, and I reminded him it was ‘nana’.

He then had the idea of me collecting beautiful leaves to wrap as a present for him at home. I did end up collecting a lot of leaves, but didn’t get around to wrapping them. He also found two big pine cones and wanted me and Carly to decorate them for him as gifts. We were wandering through the middle of the park (I realized we’ve never actually gone across it) and he found a red ribbon on the ground. I pointed out that a lot of trees had them wrapped around the trunks. So he wrapped the one he found around a trunk.

We got walking. He turned back, wanting to take the back road home. We got home at 4:50. Carly had called, saying she was going to head to the store, but decided not to. For dinner, Carly and I made a packet of risotto and cooked the tofu seitan. He ate a good amount of both. We then sat on the couch and finished Nimona. Carly took him up for a bath. My parents were then on Skype so we skyped with them before they head to Everett tomorrow. He was making picture songs in Medly and was intent on that so didn’t talk to them much, although he shared his music with them.

I took him up and put him to sleep. He wanted a story and I started to tell a new Adventurer story, but then he remembered the first one, where the Adventurer sets out and wanted me to retell it. I told about half of the story before realizing it was past 9. And he was really tired, anyway. Sang a little, and he was asleep at 9:15.

The box going to school:

The statue:

Painting the bike green:

Orange flinging:

Silly dance:

Yelling at the loud birds:

Discussing the first word he said:

Twice in the early morning he woke up and fell back to sleep. The first time he sat up, crawled to me, and lay back down. He pushed his feet into me, so I thought he might be cold and put some covers over him. Later, around 6, he was up and went to Carly and asked to go “downstairs’ but she told him to lie back down and he fell back to sleep again. At a quarter to 7 the thunderstorm started. I finally left the room a little before 7:30. He woke up again and looked at me for awhile, then rolled away from me and fell back to sleep yet again.

He came out at 7:40. We had left the door unlatched as we didn’t think he knew how to open the doors here, which have a latch you have to lift up. He went to Carly and cuddled, then went to the bathroom, then back to her.

He brought up the subject of being able to buy things when he sees them in shops, and was upset when we said he couldn’t buy things when he sees them. He curled up on the floor. Carly introduced the idea of an allowance and I said it would be fun to learn about money, but he rejected that idea, at least for now.

It was supposed to rain hard all day and Carly didn’t like the idea of being stuck in the little apartment all day, so we decided to head back to our real home. We started packing up. August realized there is a hole in the wall between the laundry closet and the bathroom, and he played with that, putting things through the hole He was pretty silly and crazy as we packed up.

We left there at 9:20. As we went down the stairs he told me, “I can make an optical illusion…It’s just a transmitted 3d video.” Things changed when we got in the car. I drove, and he sat silently the entire time, except to ask me to add a Flaming Lips song to his playlist.

At home I went up to work. He played with playdough for quite awhile, then watched Berenstain Bears. I came down for a break and Carly was making him oatmeal. Carly and I were talking, and she said something about Mandy. August thought we were teasing Mandy and told us, “PLEASE don’t do any teasing about Mandy anymore. She’s my friend. Well, one of my friends.”

They then tried to go for a walk and made it about halfway to the Snakes and Ladders Park. I had my phone out in case they needed to be rescued. It didn’t pour on them, but it got really windy soon after they left and they turned back. They watched Angela’s Christmas, which is short, and we’re watching The Polar Express and eating popcorn when I came down, done for the day. He said it tasted like macaroni and said, “More macaroni-like” as he added more salt. He was saying, “Oh no!” and hiding during the movie.

He watched a good chunk of the movie before needing to to to the bathroom, after which he didn’t go back to it. Instead, he told me about a machine he made for wrapping or delivering presents. And he wanted to make presents for Vivian. He made a couple of small presents, wrapping the second in a piece of art he made. Inside were just small things from his treasures. He was then acting hyper, and I used the word ‘fickle’ so that became the word of the day.

We next did imagining games: first he was a tiger, then a snake. Then a version of the silkworm game. As a silkworm he saw the chess set and then had me play a chess game against myself. As I went to the kitchen for something he told me, “We need a little brother for me to get distracted to (from) you.” Don’t know where he got that idea.

He got a small piece of wrapping paper and wanted me to wrap presents for him. So first I gave him one of those marshmallow tofu-looking things from Andrea and Derek. Then a part of the blender. then a piece of sourdough bread and a kumquat. He wanted more than one present at a time. I went up and raided his closet, and wrapped three presents: a box of chalk (from Korea), scissors (the cheap decorative ones from Korea), and colored pencils (that, I believe Meg Pendleton had given him).

He wanted even more, so I did another round: the case from the plane from Oma or Opa, small post-it notes, a pack of stickers (from Korea), and two little rings of notecards (one which had been for English words when he was first learning words, and the other was Korean words for me).

Carly took him up for a bath and I did dishes. They did the tea game in the bathroom and he was giggling a lot. She then got him ready for bed and put him to sleep. I left them at 8:40 and everything was quiet by 9.

Writing sentences for him to read:

Making wrapping paper:

Writing a poem about a bear:

Opening a present:

Second Christmas with regifted things:

He got up and went to the bathroom at 4:45. Luckily, he came and fell back to sleep. At 6:45 he woke up and made a big point of having me keep resting. They got up and went out and played with Taya’s magnet blocks until I got up at 7:30. When I came out they growled at me. They were wolves. August then pretended I was a boy and ate me. He then wanted me to be the parents. He asked Carly, “Mama wolf, do you want to help me finish that boy’s parents.” He repeated basically the same process as tigers. “Do you want to take a bite or his brain? It’s really good. The thinking part.”

I got him vitamins and cheerios and he ate next to me at the counter. He went and cuddled on Carly, then they got ready to go on a walk together. I heard him say “It smells like elephant butt.” A Hilo reference.

He was all sorts of hyper. He had his own that he found yesterday. He came up to me and was demanding “Get me winter clothes now!” Carly said something about leaving before he got in trouble. As they went out the door he told me, “You can’t get me now.” But was very sweet in saying goodbye. They left just after 8:30.

They walked around and wrote on leaves and hid them. They went to the grocery store and got several little pastries, sweet and savory. They then stopped at a coffee shop and Carly got a coffee. He wasn’t too patient about this, as he wanted to eat the pastries. They walked down by the river a bit and then were back at 9:45. He came in with a stick with a leaf at the end of it. Carly had written on both sides of the leaf—one side had writing about the multiverse, while the other was pictures. He was asking me how we could hang it up, sticking out from the wall.

He was distracted from that though when Carly mentioned the pastries for me. He tried to appropriate them, but eventually patiently sat next to me and shared the sweet one with me.

At 10 the air raid sirens went off. They are louder here than at our home. I quickly checked Twitter and found they were a drill. August was in the process of watching Berenstain Bears and Max and Ruby. Meanwhile, I was figuring out the coffee machine, starting with an espresso and eventually making a latte.

Carly went outside to read in the sun. After Max and Ruby, August wanted me to be his patient. He had me lay on the big red cushion, after first asking me if I was allergic to dogs (there is dog fur on it). He asked me my symptoms and I said a few things. He said, “You have five symptoms. That’s pretty bad.” to fix one the would require “a bandaid and then two pills every day for three weeks.” He was writing the symptoms on a piece of paper with his pen, then we went and got some toys from Taya’s bed to be doctor tools. He got a pretend laptop, and said he was using it to gather “more data” on me.

We finally got ready and left on a walk at 11:35. We got to the corner of the block and Carly went back to change into sandals. He had been carrying the mallet from sand toys and worked on his bike with the mallet while we waited for her. He realized he could put leaves on the metal and hammer them and they left a green color. He said he had learned about that at school. We continued walking and he he kept humming/singing an Erasure song. He spotted a sign about not peeing on the sidewalk. It had a humorous picture on it, of a toilet telling a dog it couldn’t pee. He turned this into a game, with me being kids needing to pee and him being a toilet and wagging his finger at me and saying no. And he stopped at one place to hang up a sign for some art show that had fallen on the ground.

We got to the beach just south of the port, close to the Sheraton, where Jeff stayed, just before 12:30. August got out the sand toys and started playing. He said, “This is so satisfying.” The two of them mainly played while I finished reading Beowulf. They buried one of his ‘treasures’ and he said, “Maybe Taya can find it when she digs here.” They were then pirates, and she was the captain: “O captain! O crew! I see a treasure…an X!” When I was done I played pirates with him, and I said something about how he must have done well on the test to become a pirate. He said he had, he’d gotten the best score. Then a few seconds later he said, “Just kidding. I’m a pirate so I skipped the test.” It turned into a pirates and tigers game where he was a tiger eating me, the pirate.

We left just before 2. We had seen a little pizza place but it was closed. August needed a bathroom so we found one. They went and I found another pizza place a few blocks away. On the way August was singing “Beautiful” loudly. We got to Pizza Domino Frishman at 2:20. Carly ordered three slices and a salad for us while we claimed a table outside. Perhaps the last time we’ll be dining outside for awhile, as rain is supposed to come tomorrow. He got napkins out for everyone. We ate, sharing pizza, and Carly and I also having a salad. August was still hungry so we got a fourth slice.

We paid and looped around to the south, stopping to look in at an art gallery and also seeing some metal robot sculptures. I said it reminded me of the robot sculptures at Children’s Grand Park in Seoul and asked if he remembered them. He said he did and that, “I have a picture of it in my poidyronic brain.” He found a business card on the ground, and he stopped at a table and how he had a passcode that worked with the card when he scanned it and it allowed him to do things.

Then, as we passed near the embassy, he saw a dog, on its own, wearing clothes. He pointed it out and was pretty excited. He then said it was dog, and that he had made special clothes that he put on dogs to control them so that they would deliver mail. He had then cancelled all the mail trucks and people because he had made something better. Furthermore, the clothes ran on moon rocks, and he had some machine mining moon rocks for him. It was a pretty amazing story.

As we waited to cross the road back to the beach, he picked some leaves off an interesting plant and called it a “coral plant.” He then picked up a magazine on the ground. It was called Torah Box. He was pretty excited about it though, and had it open on the handle bars in front of him as he steered us long the beach path.

We found a playground with a water pump on the beach and stopped to play. About 3:30. Carly sat and read on the bench things and I sat on the edge of the playground and read a little. He played with the pump and sand stuff with two other girls, one older than him and one younger. He would call me over occasionally to help out with something. He had me finding shells and pieces of garbage for him and he made a island and decorated it in one of the water basins that fills up with the water from the pump.

He finished with the water area and played on the little play structure for the last few minutes. He called us over and had me walking on the shaky bridge as he shook it back and forth. As we were about to leave he found zip-ties on the rope climbing part and asked us wait until he was done winding them up. We left at 4:40, just as the sun was about to set.

Stopped at the bathrooms again. As we walked we discussed getting a light dinner. He at first said we had to go just to the house, but then decided, “We can get a light dinner as long as I read my magazine.” Carly laughed at that and he told her not to laugh. She protested, saying it was adorable. He said, “You can find me adorable, but don’t laugh.”

He was then asking her “Uh, what’s you’re favorite color?” Repeatedly, which is what she does to him to get him to say something cute. They were saying back and forth, but he wouldn’t actually answer. Then he said, “brown.” He thought it was hilarious when we responded by stopping and looking shocked.

He was then humming “Better not wake the baby,” which we haven’t done for awhile. I talked about how we could actually subscribe to a magazine for him, and ‘subscribe/subscription’ became the word of the day.

We stopped at a hardware store for fly swatters for our real house and he got a scrubbing pad for art projects. He did a good job of staying calm and using his words to convince Carly to get it. We then stopped at the grocery store to look for coffee beans, but no luck.

We got back to the house. He remembered a tea candle he had found earlier. I got it, and we lit it. I made myself an espresso. He was then having us sing “Happy Birthday” to him and he’d blow out the candle.

August and I then went to read. I remembered there were a couple of Chemical Brother videos with robots/androids I’d been meaning to show August so we watched those. We then read Tallulah’s Tutu. He ate nutty noodles for dinner, then was plying mama/baby games with Carly. He finally convinced her to be mosquitoes. I found a couple of videos about mosquitoes that August and I then watched.

We read the book Chrysanthemum, which I bought awhile ago. And also Papasaurus. He was still hungry, so he ate the last of a slice of pizza from lunch. We then read The Bad Seed

More candle. Played with the candle more, then I took him in for a bath.

He stood in the empty bathtub, playing for a few minutes. I went to get the iPad so we could listen to music. He got out, and said he was itchy. He wouldn’t get back in the bathtub. When I asked why he wouldn’t, he said “It’s different.” Carly took over and convinced him to submit to a bath by being birds.

He was then telling me “You’re the baddest dada ever.” We sat on the couch and read a couple chapters of Nimona, then got him ready for bed.

He was exhausted from a day on the beach and being in a new place. He requested to go to sleep with Carly tonight, which doesn’t happen often. I left them at 8:50 and he was asleep less than ten minutes later.

Singing the Erasure song and seeing a sign:

Playing at the beach 1:

Playing at the beach 2:

Humming “Beautiful” and asking about his volume:

Pumping water:

Waves:

Waves slo-mo:

Blowing out the candle for his ‘birthday’:

Taking care of me

His magazine