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He was up around 7. They read Captain Underpants, then he was watching something when I came downstairs after 8. He stopped watching and wanted to do an imagining game. But he got distracted with the stapler and put staples into a plastic straw. He said it was a science experiment and that he’s “see how it flows into my mouth…my hypothesis is that the liquid is going to leak out of the holes.”

He decided he wanted to go play in Carly’s classroom. Right now. And was upset about not going. Carly was making pancakes. I had to take him upstairs and talk about how we didn’t want him cranky like that all weekend. Would have made for a long weekend. Luckily, he cheered up after that. We went downstairs and ate pancakes. In the bathroom he talked about a new machine: “I invented a machine that can make a comic book real.” But it sucks all the power out of the world. He was in funny mode after that and stole a bite of my pancake.

In discussing school he told me he normally sits with Eve and Judson. But said that Judson is the baddest person who told August not to talk to him ever again. He then wrote in one of the Korean notebooks while I made him another pancake. He said he was doing homework. He had asked for something to write with and I gave him the pen I got from the conference last week. It turns out that is what he meant when he’s been asking me for a “permanent marker.” When the pancake was ready he told me “Thank you for giving me that.” He clarified he meant the pen. After he was done eating he yelled up to Carly “Hey mama! Dada gave me a permanent pen to write with on a notebook!”

He sat next to me and wrote and drew in one of the music notebooks now. He said that Vicky wouldn’t want him to write with a permanent pen (sounds like they use pencils) and when he was tracing the letters he said he was doing homework for literacy group. Sang a “You’re the best in the world” song and said he was signing up for music class. He then got the notebook designed for math and said he was doing homework for coding class.

After that he had me play with the music apps on his iPad and he was tracking the sound in the notebook. He then wanted to go to Carly’s classroom. When I said it would still be awhile he said, “You are not nice. I’m going away from you now.” Carly said they could go soon after he had asked her nicely. I talked about going to the artisan fair, and when I explained what it was he said he could sell “This sparkly, glow-in-the-dark artwork.” The glitter and glue piece he had made with Carly.

They left a little after 10 and were home about 11:40. I finished up what I was doing and came down. I thought I had heard him getting screechy with Carly and I asked him what he had been grumpy about. He said, “I don’t think I had been grumpy. I don’t remember being grumpy.” He was now playing Toca Plants.

I asked what he had done at her classroom and he said he did a lot of “tracking” and also “I even made up a whole story on Mama’s computer. But not with words, just pictures. And you can think up words in your head.” He said it was about “A boy that lives in a magical world.”

He ate noodles, then added a song to his playlist after not wanting a Hebrew song. We were listening to his playlist and he asked Siri to skip the Hebrew song. He hasn’t liked them at all, even though he loved them last year.

He wanted an imagining game, and gave me a scenario where I came down the stairs and drank portal juice and it changed the color of my skin. Then I told my mom, and Hilo came out of the tube thing. Someone had been inventing in our house. We then took care of Hilo. He ended with “And then it is chapter 2.” Chapter 2 was taking care of him and figuring out he was a robot as he was heavy and didn’t have a heartbeat. It turned out his name was ‘I’ and he was from a different universe. And he runs on water. In chapter 3 we take him outside. He makes a hole in the ground and grows a flower.

We eventually got headed to the Artisan Fair. We had been missing August’s water bottle since yesterday, and we found it, along with Eve’s and Carly’s food container, sitting on the concrete wall next to where we had gotten in the car yesterday to head home. August had been keen on getting food at the Artisan Fair, and I soon learned why: he directed me straight towards Heather and David’s booth, where they were selling cookies that he made. Against my protests that we were ourselves going to make snickerdoodles tomorrow (so I was encouraging chocolate chip, or a different flavor), August choose snickerdoodles. And Carly delivered the water bottle. We sat on a bench and ate a couple cookies.

I walked around with August a bit more, looking at other tables. One woman made really nice clothing for kids, and there were a couple of tables with pottery. There was one table with little bottles of perfume, and August whispered to me that he could use some perfume for his potions. I thought about getting it for him for Christmas, but forgot later. Didn’t make it all the way around though, as Eve found us, and they were sprinting off and headed to the playground. I went down there with them.

They were silly together on the playground. On the teeter totter they chanted “We’re on the poop pump!” I was actually able to sit and do some reading. Eve said, “Lets go to the restaurant and poop on everything…” They ran around, over to the garden and back, pretending to poop on everything.

We wandered over to the big playground and Eve met up with her sister and another girl. They disappeared after awhile. August had gotten distracted with a pen and notecards he had found on the playground. He sat up in the big play structure, drawing. He was there for several minutes and just needed me when he wanted another notecard. He told me he was drawing cookie shapes. We then went back to the robot game from earlier and he was scanning everything, chanting “0511” or some variation thereof. When I asked “Do you want to get food, robot?” He replied “Affirmative.”

On our walk back we ran into Eve again. She came with us and we got Carly in her classroom, then went over by the amphitheater area. I bought a hamburger, falafel sandwich, and a bowl of sweet potato soup. It was really good, and fairly cheap. Carly and I ate it all, as August was having way too much fun with Eve, climbing around the amphitheater and drawing on the notecards, doing research together.

Before we left, August and I went over to one of the pottery tables and I got a tumbler/mug and he really liked these tiny pots, so we got one of those. Got a deal of 100 for the two of them, and she gave us a kumquat and an orange as well.

We got home about 4. He spotted a bunch of felt scraps and fabric over in the dump area, which was almost an awesome find, but some of it was getting dirty, and I convinced August not to take it, except for one piece of pink fabric with some thread sewn to it. Inside, he cuddled with Carly and joked about nursing. Carly and I were discussing grocery shopping, and I mentioned hot dogs. August said he didn’t like hot dogs anymore, and I simply commented on how he used to. He said, “Dada, I’m sorry. I’ll try hotdogs.” But then he adamantly said, “But NOT turkey and cheese.” Although he would try “Just stretchy and puffed up cheese.”

She headed to Tiv Taam. He was remembering Hilda and the Bird Parada and started to make up a game: “Remember the salt water blue animal with it’s mama…” Got distracted though and ate strawberries and Cheerios. He then ‘lied’ to me when he hadn’t actually eaten all the strawberries: “Dada! I ate all the strawberries!” Made ‘fib’ a word of the day.

We did some of the space Math Tango, and he told me he had made a frog with Ms. Dorene in art class. He also asked “Are electric eels real?” And we watched a TED-ED video about them:

And played an electric eel game.

He had told me yesterday that he was done with the monster magnets on the fridge and wanted them down. So I went and got the letter magnets and switched them with the monster ones. I was then making words for August. He wasn’t super into reading them, but he wanted me to make more and more words.

Carly got home and he ate more noodles and stir fry, then strawberries. He watched part of the Formula E qualifying with me. He then used his stick and was being a border guard with it as the barrier. He would let us through if we paid: “Cash, please.” I don’t quite know where he got this view of border guards (although we have discussed borders and restrictions on movement before. We were then back to the electric eel game again. He wanted me to buy something and told me it was a dollar. I tried to slip him just a shekel instead, but he said, “It has to add up to a dollar.”

He was then playing with straws in the kitchen and sawing one with a butter knife. He cut his left pointer finger a little. He was quite upset, but let me put on a plaster. As he was trying to calm down he asked me “Can we do a visualization?” It was a visualization of a tree and baby birds. I think he was talking about another visualization and said, “Oh, the character Pinnochio. Real, three dimensional.” He told me his version of Jack and the Bean Stalk: It ends with the giant climbing up. He sees the boy leaving with the goose that lays the golden eggs, and the boy gets away: “I think. I don’t remember the rest.” We then read Pinnochio, and read the first two chapters. He did a lot of laughing.

He got really silly as he wore a wire hanger (one he found as a treasure quite awhile ago) around his body and became “Captain Hook”. He hung grocery bags from it and was swinging around.

Took him up to his bath, then downstairs he had some soup, which Carly had finished while we were upstairs. First, “This is the best soup ever.” A couple minutes later though he said, “Worst soup ever…I lied. It was a joke. Funny to lie.” He ate the soup and was telling jokes, like “What did the mug go to the tea shop?” Each of them ended with the punchline “No thanks, I’d like a peanut instead.” He then explained that you should blink in your sleep to help keep your eyes moist. We went upstairs at 8:40.

I read another chapter of Pinnochio. I took his growing photos, which he is now really into. He asked if we would keep doing them when he was grown up: “Even when I’m a big brother?” Carly and I gave each other a look. Carly was going to sleep with him and I left them after 9.

Making music in his music notebook:

More music notebook:

Tracking the music:

Preschool humor with Eve:

Fighting monsters:

Captain Hook 1:

Captain Hook 2:

He was up at 6:35. He opened Netflix and searched, with my help, for Wild Kratts. He watched that, then Carly headed to work. I hadn’t drawn the comic for his lunch, so was doing that over at the table. He came over and wanted to draw lunch robot with me. I drew a separate one of just the melted robot for him to draw on. He said he drew the mama robot looking for the baby robot. He had drawn rosy cheeks, he told me, to show it was the mom. And he drew a sun, he also told me, to show that it was hot. She was melting because of the sun. Not sure if the visual clues are something he’s picked up on on his own, or through drawing with the other kids, or through reading books with the teachers.

We rushed out the door. It was nice and sunny, but not necessarily really warm. After a couple blocks I realized he wasn’t wearing his sweatshirt. He said he wasn’t cold. But as we got closer to school, in the shade of buildings, he looked cold and I offered him my coat again. He wore that, wrapped around him, for the rest of the walk.

Dropped him off, then I went to drop off the hummus, then sat in the library for a few minutes and read, then went to the elementary parent coffee in the elementary conference room. Kelly was talking about reading strategies for young children. Nothing really amazing from it, but it was a good hour to think about reading.

That ended at 9:30, then the preschool ‘Sharing Our Learning’ event started at 10. They had us sit with our kids and just provided a sort of overview to the room, pointing out the different stations. August was telling me about caterpillars (a combination about things he’s learned but also clearly things he was making up) and also told me “You’re the best looking dada.” At the end of the meeting the students raise their hands and tell the teachers what they are going to go do. August has this down, as he excitedly kept his hand up to tell them he wanted to go to the stapling area.

We started with that, and he used a small stapler to make a stuffed animal for me to cuddle with when I sleep. First it was an elephant, but as he aded more he said it was abstract.

There was tea and hot chocolate outside. But when we got there the hot chocolate was out. We asked Marion where the supplies were, then went to the kitchen and made a full pitcher of hot chocolate. We had to go into PKB to do that, and August went and told Vicky why we had to come into her classroom. While there, we talked to Vicky about literacy group. Started because she asked him how we were making hot chocolate and his answer included tree bark and other ingredients. I said it was hard to get a straight answer out of him, and she said she knew this from literacy group. She said they had recently been reading fairy tales, and had been changing the endings. He made a version of Jack and the Beanstalk where the giant was climbing the beanstalk.

Back out at the tables he had hot chocolate and I had tea. Millie and her mom and sister came out, and I went and washed mugs for them while August stayed with them. Got to talk to them for a second, but then August was done (he had seconds on the hot chocolate) and wanted to go back inside. We spent a little time sewing buttons on the burlap, then I left at 11.

Rode home, then drove back and picked up August and Eve. They ran straight to the playground when they saw me. Candy ran as well, but was soon picked up. They went on the big swing, then ran around fighting monsters. Carly showed up. The idea was to show her around the classroom, since she couldn’t go earlier. Wasn’t going to happen though. I went in the classroom though to get our stuff, and Carly said they could go play in her classroom.

So we all went over there, and August and Eve spent a lot of time drawing EKG or sound charts on paper. They were “tracking” the sound we made, and then a monster’s heart. When Eve said she was tracking a monster’s heart and was then going to take it out of its body I said I understood why she and August were friends. She put her hand out and said “Cuz we’re both scientists!” She drew another one and said it was Jeff’s hearbeat. August was confused and asked, “My Jeff?…The one I visit every summer?”

They spent some time with the smart board, Eve was trying to get a staple out of the stapler and poked her finger. Carly put a plaster on her finger and asked if Eve needed a hug. Eve gave her a big hug. She calmed down and said she was ready to go to August’s house.

We were home at 4:10. They played in the yard for awhile. August had a big snail shell and was sitting on the swing, and said, “Try not to bump my little snaily. I love my little snaily.” Carly was sweeping up the tree things. Eve asked what she was doing and August replied, “Sweeping the garden. She loves the garden.”

August finally convinced her to go inside. Inside they got straight to the medical supplies and Eve was a dentist looking at my teeth. They got into the art supplies and were doing more charting and “research” on my teeth. They started stapling together their sheets of paper and made a big structure out of it. I cut up a bunch of strawberries for them, twice.

Heather showed up about 5:15 and picked up Eve. August then had some toast with peanut butter and syrup and August explained the booklet he had made at school to me, then we read Amulet 3. Made ‘congregate’ the word of the day. And “You’re down in the dumps!” was the phrase of the day. August had remembered it. He ate some noodles for dinner, then was silly while he went to the bathroom: “The baby boss says…” We played a snail/slug game and he was a slug (Sluggy) and I took him upstairs (home). He was then an alien. Then a new scenario: “You’re just walking up a hill then you get bited by a rattlwsnake then you go to the hospital. Then you go home and the same rattlesnake is here.” We read some more Amulet.

He ate a second dinner of noodles and stir fry, then we made some water drink. He stole a noodle from me or something and told me “You’re supposed to be funny angry now.” Carly took him up for his bath. He stapled a cuddly thing for her as well, using the sparkly red stuff. I folded laundry and she bathed him. She then took a shower. On the bed he was yelling “Technological thinking!” Then cuddled and was saying “Warning! Low power.”

I brushed his teeth and he said goodnight to her and I put him to sleep. Sang a couple songs and he was asleep about 9.

Just work on YOUR drawing:

Stapling felt:

Eve giving a scenario:

Tracking sound waves:

Poop and his snail friend:

Doing their research:

Explaining his book from school:

He came down at 6:45. He thought Carly was still here as he told me it was still the nighttime because it was dark. I told him he was up a little early, but it was because it was dark. Downstairs he didn’t want to watch anything, and instead started playing with the magnet science kit. Played with that for several minutes, then said, “Dada, can I ask a question? After vitamins can I play an imagining game?” “So you find a silkworm when you’re in your house, just in your ordinary house that protects you from wolves and stuff, and tigers, cuz your house is out in the jungle, you see a baby silkworm inside it, I mean a baby snake, and you take the snake to class the next day and you take your Makey Makey, but not the real one over there, and the snake watches the kids code with it…okay? And you do the rest.”

We did that for awhile, then started to get ready to go. I asked him about the Meet Santa event on Saturday, and he told me “I never want to meet Santa Claus. I do not think he would be nice.” So we’re not going, although I think he would like it. Thought we were going to be out the door nice and early, but he now insisted on watching something. He watched a Brainpop Jr. video about Antarctica. We then rushed out the door and I was running. He said, “Sorry for making us rush.”

Dropped him off and rode my bike home. When I came back and picked him up he said he was sewing and I could wait on the bench. They had burlap out and were sewing using plastic needles, yarn, and big buttons. He did that for several minutes. Eve was also there, and we talked about our plans for tomorrow. They agreed they wanted to play at school, then go to our house. She got picked up and we went out on the bench for a minute, then moved up to the library bench.

Eve was actually still on campus, and ran over, away from her sister, to say hi to August. He had some snack and had me tell the story about the “school that was burnt to a crisp.” He then had a new scenario: “You are at your home and feel a strong wind and you see a baby dragon…”

We went to Carly’s classroom at 4 and found the meeting running long, but breaking up. We headed home at 4:10. August had remembered wanting the Toca Kitchen (a couple times in the last few days) so we installed that. He watched Berenstain Bears while he waited for it to load, then had fun playing the game. He talked about it being a science experiment, as he tested to see what each person would eat.

Jeff showed up at 5:10. August was super excited and went and screeched at him, and showed him his snails. He then wanted to release the snails while Jeff was there. We all went across the street and he dumped them out. Back in the house he talked about how he was in charge of Jeff and we were in charge of August. He told Jeff that if he wanted a treat or to use the sticky tape that he had to ask August and August might say no. Jeff asked something like ‘What if I cry?’ August responded with “I don’t know. It’s up to your brain.” He also told Jeff about how he likes to plan things. And that “I planned the day out in Korea.” He has really remembered this and brought it up a few times. He remembers how, with our open days, I’d talk to him about what we were doing each day in the morning.

We got headed to the Younes restaurant (aka “the Arab restaurant”). Jeff sat next to August in the back (although August had talked about, before we left, that even though Jeff was a kid like him (his brother), Jeff could sit in the passenger seat because he was tall). As we drove, he gave Jeff a tour of the neighborhood: “That’s where we buy medicine.” “That’s the playground.” Jeff asked if it was a good park, and he said “Yes, but not as nice as the snakes and ladders park.” Jeff asked him more about the Snakes and Ladders Park, but August told him, “Well, I can’t cuz I’m telling you fast. But I could do it on lightning speed…” He then did it in lightning speed, which was just a “Boop.” He also told Jeff about how he learned to sew at school today. Pretty impressive how he volunteered that.

We got to the restaurant, and August sat next to Jeff. He was pretty hyper (August, not Jeff) and having difficulty keeping his voice down. I went and read Amulet to him a couple times and let Carly do the deciding and ordering. Dinner went well though. August was excited by all the “little meals” and particularly liked the beets. I had forgotten his water bottle, so we got what I thought was a bottle of lemonade drink, but was actually grapefruit. He drank a good portion of that, then wanted water, so we got a water as well.

On the drive back August looked out the window and said, “I see the planet I came from.” Jeff asked when he had come to Earth and August said, “Nonillions of semesters ago.” As we got home he said to Jeff, “We’re going to play with you at our house.”

Jeff played with the building straws with him for a little while, then we gave Jeff a tour of the house before we left. August gave the tour upstairs. August then showed him the potions he has made in the sink and that are now lined up in the Zinnie bedroom. Jeff left sometime after 7.

Carly took August up for a bath. He came back down and used his scissors to cut up a piece of the red sparkly fabric. We then read some Hilo 4 and made ‘lured’ the word of the day. I took him upstairs. We read one more chapter, brushed his teeth and said good night, then I did an ocean visualization for him, after he requested one. He was asleep a little after 9. I was tired and had gotten ready as well and fell asleep with him.

Sewing 1 :

Sewing 2 :

Crawling on the desks :

Screeching at Uncle Jeff :

Releasing the snails :

Explaining his powers to Uncle Jeff :

Playing with Jeff :

Showing him the potions :

‘Hiding’ from Uncle Jeff

He was up at 6:50. He came down and we spent some time discussing Lunch Robot and his ideas for how the robot should be upgraded before he then watched some Llama Llama. Got going and to school before the bell.

During the day they watched the elementary musical. I learned this because we later asked when the last time was that he had gone to the bathroom. He said they made them go to the bathroom before the musical. And the musical was about Christmas and there were chimney sweeps.

I went rode my bike home. Just north of our park I saw a big bench sort of thing out by a disposal pile. I rode home then walked back and gave it a look. Too heavy to carry home, but in good shape, so I went back and got the car. I was lifting it into the car when the claw truck showed up. I had come back just in time. In fact, one of the guys with the truck helped me push it in and lower my seat to get it to fit as much as possible. Got it home and cleaned it off and it will fit well in our entryway. Very much like what I had been thinking of buying.

I worked, then returned to school at 1:30 to meet with Zoe, a parent I met on the arts tour of Even Yehuda, about starting a writing group. I had enough time after that to run over to the auditorium and get a snack for me and August. I got a cup of yogurt that came with little chocolate balls to put in it, and a small pastry thing for him.

When I got to the preschool I walked in as August started yelling at Candy, up on the stairs. I think she had taken something, but his response was not in proportion. I grabbed him and took him outside. He calmed down, and was able to say “Sorry for hitting you.” Candy was so nice about it. She handed him a couple of pictures she had drawn, one of a flower, I think to make him feel better, and went and picked a flower for August to give to his mommy, and she picked one for her own mommy. When her mom showed up I told her how nice Candy had been about it.

August didn’t really like the yogurt but ate the pastry, then headed up to dance class. He stayed for all of dance class. It was the last dance class of the semester. Afterwards he showed me his robot. He told me he had made it Ms. Dorene’s class. He used scissors to trim the yarn on it.

We went to the library and sat out on the chairs in the lobby and had some snack. He had dumped out most of his snack—crackers, Cheerios, and raisin—for the birds to eat. He wasn’t very happy to not have a lot of options now, but ate his peaches. He also spent a few minutes looking at the art pieces. He’s been fascinated when we’ve come through for library time, and it has been a challenge to get him to not touch them, but this was the first time we really talked about them and he told what he liked and didn’t like about them. He liked the more geometric parts and parts that looked like tunnels or caves, and didn’t like the messier/more random bits.

I found a bunch of children’s books on the free shelves and we went into the library to read. He went in first while I packed things up, and when I walked in I heard him asking Amanda “What did you learn?” She then said, “I learned Ms. Liz speaks Lithuanian.” I later tried to ask him why he asked her that, but he couldn’t tell me.

We went back in the reading area, but I couldn’t get him to calm down to read. There were too many distractions, in particular a bunch of kids playing computer games. There were a few boys playing a first person shooter. Which I thought was rather annoying. But before we left August did go over to a rack of books and found a book all on his own, The Invisible Boy, that he wanted to check out. He took it to Amanda and checked it out, and I took all of the free books (five or so) with us. We then sat outside the library and read The Invisible Boy while we waited for Carly to show up.

She got there, and we walked out. He stopped at the security guard and said “Jiggo jaggo” to him, being silly.

We walked home and got here around 5. He sat on the floor and drew a picture of the internet, then watched some Llama Llama. We talked about Jeff visiting tomorrow and he said,“Okaaaaay. Uncle Jeff.” In his ‘Fine. Whatever.’ voice. He ate a good about of pita and hummus, then was still hungry and ate stir-fry and noodles. He was getting silly and trying to touch our bottoms. He said, “I’m Judson…I don’t make good choices.” Carly and August read one of the free books I got called Nelson Makes a Face. We made ‘mussed’ a word of the day. He and Carly were then dragons and he was learning how to blow fire. He then wanted a piece of his Halloween candy and read Bob Book for it. Carly and I joked about how we didn’t want him to think that reading was just for money, but I said maybe he’d grow up to record audiobooks or be a paid storyteller.

I took him upstairs and he played in the sink. He used soap to scrub the sparkles off the piece of sparkly cloth/stuff that had been his mask the other day. He was making up Gaston lines, and made up on his own: “No one shovels quilts like Gaston…drives around town putting stickers on houses like Gaston…”

In the bedroom we read one of the other free books, I Been There. I really liked it, then realized the author and illustrator were from Sesame Street. I turned it over to see a photo I recognized. It was Northern J. Calloway, and I recognized him from the “What’s the Name of that Song?” Sesame Street video we’ve watched so many times:

We then read Amulet 2 and read over half of it. Brushed his teeth and Carly came in and I said goodnight. I left them at 8:35 and I went and scrubbed mold off the ceiling of the bathroom. They were quiet by 9, after hearing them talk about preschool and how he supposedly makes electronic inventions on his own.

Fun with scissors :

His favorite piece of art at the library :

Drawing the internet :

When I went upstairs to go to bed I heard a whistling noise. It was August whistle-snoring. Quite loud. He woke up once during the night: “Dada, could I please have the chapstick?” I got if for him, he put it on, then lay back down and went back to sleep. In the morning it took me a few extra minutes to get up as he rolled over and put his arm around me.

He was awake right at 7. I went up to greet him and I went in the bedroom to turn off the heater. As I followed him down the stairs, he said, “You can keep sleeping.” I said that sounded good, but I was already up. He watched something and we got going in good time. He played with his toilet paper rolls for a few minutes. On the walk to school he was singing a song about honey bees. At first is was more of a rap, but when I asked to film it he put it to a tune that he’s used before.

Got to school a few minutes before the bell. They were already meeting. It finally clicked for me: they are starting meeting as soon as they bring the bus kids in. Since at least 11 of the 13 kids are here by then (10 on the bus, then Eve is dropped off early–only August and Candy are left), they have decided to go straight to meeting so there’s one less transition. So I think we’ll try to turn our alarms a bit earlier in the morning and get there when the busses drop the kids off.

I rode my bike home, then rode back for library time. When I came in August was helping to decorate a birdhouse the kids had made out of pieces of wood, and which Marion said was glued together with hot glue. August later, at home, talked about how we needed a hot glue gun to glue things together, like rocks.

We walked them over to library time. Reia’s mom wasn’t there today, so Marion and Andrea accompanied them to library time. Ilana read a book called Whistle for Willie, then had the kids try to whistle. Lydia was starting to get it, and I gave her a high five. The kids had been kind of crazy with the trying to climb up on the benches at the beginning, and I took August aside to remind him he needs to follow the rules. He had then gone and sat next to Andrea during library time. He curled up in a ball on the floor for the songs and chants, but then sat up and paid attention to the story. During checkout time he chose Will Sheila Share?.

August followed Marion and the kids for the bus and joked with her that he was riding the bus today. We then headed down to pick up Taya. August ran right past PKA to go and get her. Took some time to help her find her doll’s bottle, and her water bottle in the classroom. Meanwhile, August had gotten scissors and was cutting grass again. Once they were out on the playground I went back and got August’s stuff.

We sat and ate snacks, and Taya had a bunch of little Christmas tree ornaments that she originally claimed were from home, but turned out to be from in the classroom. She called them her “Keys” and had them hanging from her finger. I read Will Sheila Share? to them a couple times.

They played in the car, and August sang a full song about how sound comes in the ear and hairs move and a signal goes to the brain. We went on the big swing and August wanted me to be a baby and they were pushing me in it and singing “Rockaby Baby”. August got out the telescope that he had made out of a paper towel roll, yesterday, I think and played with that. They were starting to get a little hyper and I was talking to them about being nice to me when Cassie showed up. They repeated the behavior with her and we had to talk to them again.

They left a little after 4 and we followed them up, trailing behind. He played with a line keeping people off some of the grass. Carly had brought the car and was going to drive to the store. Outside the inside gate August started finding snails in the bushes and played with the ants. We had a debate about how to treat the snails and ants and he said he didn’t like my voice. I explained it was because I didn’t like being mean to the animals (he had just been throwing snails in the air). He agreed to be nice to them. When he was telling me I shouldn’t tell him how to play with the animals he told me, “That’s what my teachers say: be in charge of yourself.”

We then got walking and he then stopped again once we had crossed the traffic circle. He was finding more snails, and found a plastic cup and got about ten snails to take home, along with some leaves. We talked about where to put them at home, and settled on his bug catcher.

We were home at 5:20. I found the bug catcher and we put in the snails and he started watching Max and Ruby. Carly got home just a couple minutes after we did. He wanted to playa little Math Tango Space and asked me to get his notebook again so he could write down evidence. We played that a bit. Carly was making stir fry noodles, and after August had the last of the spaghetti, he then ate some stir fry. He told me, “The chemicals in my lab are so beautiful…Once I made pasta that was rainbow sparkly…” Carly headed upstairs for awhile.

I was looking at news and told him that NASA had found evidence of water in an asteroid. He then told me all about water in the solar system: “Venus is the wettest…the driest is the moon.” I took a video of part of his explanation of how he’s exploring the solar system and searching for water with his instruments. And he talked about how he was bringing water back to Earth: “The Earth has a meltdown that going to happen in two decades…Because we don’t have enough water to give to people on Earth because there’s 14 billion people on Earth.” He had me taste the water he’d brought back, saying it tasted like the place it comes from. His idea of a planet needing water/food from someplace else and facing a collapse comes from a story he had me tell him a couple weeks ago, where he wanted an alien exploring a different planet. Coincidentally, it also comes up in Prelude to Foundation, by Asimov, which I am currently rereading, but haven’t talked to him about.

I remembered that NASA has lots of videos and suggested he might like them. We watched part of the current spacewalk on the ISS, live, and then a video of the Soyus MS-10 launch failure. We made ‘trajectory’ and ‘failure’ words of the day.

Realized it was late, and I took him up for his bath. He played in the sink for awhile, then I washed him. In the bedroom he complained that he wanted me to put him to sleep, as I tell more stories. He told Carly, “You kind of love me too much cuz then you fall asleep with me too much. Sorry, mama.” I told him a quick preschool story about him stopping an asteroid, but he wasn’t entirely happy with it. He was tired though, and I left them at 8:40 and he was asleep about 9.

Honey bees song:

Silly noise with Taya:

Singing about hearing:

On the big swing:

Discovering water in the solar system:

Decorating the birdhouse

He was up just after 7. Watched Berenstain Bears and then started talking about electricity as we got ready to go. He told me, “Tiny bits of electricity are the smallest things in the universe…You pass right through them but you don’t get hurt.” He then asked, “How do you measure sound?” When I talked about decibels he said, “Actually you measure it in 1 wavelength, 2 wavelength…”

We hopped on the bike and headed to school. He stopped at the spot where we had found that tomato plant last year. He talked about how maybe it used to be a garden, and told me “I found a clue…there was a plant marker. But I don’t think it’s here anymore.

Walked home and worked, then rode my bike back and picked him up. It was just August and Eve there after school, with Mini. She realized that Hector had left his backpack, so I finally convinced her I could run it up to him. August stayed there with Eve. Eve had wanted to go play on the playground with August, but we told her I didn’t have permission to pick her up.

August was doing art, using a marker to make straight lines. He asked to do art with the ruler again at home. Eve was running around and lured August out to run in circles on the grass. She got picked up, and August took scissors out and spent a long time cutting grass with the scissors. Someone walked by and joked about him saving time for the grounds people. We walked over towards the garden and he said, “I’m really finding out about nature in this playground.” He listed snails, slugs, and beetles.

He decided I should go get him a treat from the cafeteria and quickly got upset. But he calmed down and ate more of his snack as he sat on the circle swing. Kind of stuffy again. He stood up on the swing and said, “Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus!” He said they didn’t have yoga today because they’re working on the floor in the everything room. He said they had literacy groups instead and that’s when they read Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.

We did the place of forgetting game. We then wandered down and looked at the garden and tried some of the plants. We looked at the walking path and the curved railing they are making along it, then August wanted to play at the big playground. I went and got our stuff.

Carly showed up and we walked up to the library to return Amulet #1. As we went in the corridor to the middle of the lower level of the library building he said, “The hall of monsters.” I asked who called it that, and he said “Everybody…because it’s so dark.”

We got walking. Along the way he jumped off and grabbed a bamboo stick on the ground. He said, “My staff!” He immediately threw it down and said, “I hate it. It’s wet.”

When we got almost all the way home I realized his handle was missing. Carly headed on home and August and I turned around and retraced our steps. We didn’t have to go far, as we found it on the sidewalk on the other side of the park.

We got home. He asked me to get out the markers and paper and stencils and he was very focused on his art for quite awhile. He told Carly he wasn’t hungry because he was focusing on art. We were having spaghetti for dinner, and he was having the worms and calling them worms, and told me, “You’re going to be the little wormy and I’m gonna eat you up.”

We ate dinner, and he was quite stuffy. He was making dark jokes about eating the worms or being a dragon or something and I said ‘disturbing’ was the word of the day. He replied, “That is so NOT the word of the day.” In his best teenager voice. When he told me, “Let’s be dragons and fight and kill humans and stuff.” I told him “Go read Captain Underpants.” Carly and I had been debating whether the books I’ve been reading him about dragons, etc. or her introducing him to Captain Underpants had been a worse idea. He asked me, “I love reading Captain Underpants, don’t you?”

They read some Captain Underpants, then he went back to art. He drew a picture and told us “It’s a person getting ground up into a machine.”

On my iPad he opened Math Tango, which he hasn’t played for quite awhile, and we found there is a new half of it that is bout multiplication and division and is set on a space station. We started playing that, and it starts with teaching counting by 2s and 5s. I worked on it a little on his own, actually telling me to stop helping him. He then wanted me to play it, and he got a notebook and a marker and started writing down the lists of numbers. I was explaining my thinking on one, and he said, “Oh, you’re using the evidence.” He then said he was “Writing down the evidence.” Also, he automatically was holding the marker the ‘correct’ way. This weekend he was telling me he would hold his pen that way at school for Ms. Vicky, but at home he’d still hold it the other way. He drew a picture, and I think this time it was a person in a dungeon.

He asked me what what ‘tome’ meant. He had heard it in a book, but wasn’t sure which book. Maybe Nimona, or Amulet. He went to the bathroom and yawned on the way: “Dont worry. That wasn’t a sleepy yawn. It was just a normal yawn.” He dried his hands on me after washing his hands and said, “Thank you for being a towel.”

He did some more art: “A person walking into something…a dungeon.” He then tried getting the magnet kit out instead of going up for his bath. As Carly went to get him he took the magnetic balls and put them on his head and out his hat over them. Carly got him upstairs just fine, but then he got fussy. She got him through his bath.

When he came downstairs he asked about ice cream…we’d forgotten that had been mentioned today. I told him he needed to earn it, and he did a good job of putting away the markers and stencils and stickers. He had a small bowl of ice cream, then said good night to Carly. She said there was no way I was getting him asleep by 9. But I came close, and he probably would have gotten to sleep more easily if he wasn’t really stuffy.

We went up and read a Skybrary book (Carlos Writes His Name, I think) while he ate his Cheerios. He then went to the bathroom, then we turned on the lamp and did the dragon egg preschool story. We worked on blowing his nose, and put chapstick on his dry upper lip. Turned off the light and sang a couple songs and he managed to fall asleep.

Cutting the grass:

I’m Major Have So song:

Using the stencils:

Squeeze your finger silliness:

Carly had the Compassionate Listening Seminar that she had set up at the school today with about 18 other teachers. She took the car in the morning, and August was up at 7:20. He was quiet on the couch for a few minutes, then asked me “Dada, can we play an imagining game? It will be a new idea. I think you’ll understand.” It was a beaver game with me and my brother playing in the kitchen. A beaver then came in the house, and we took care of it, then took it up to our bedroom. That involved us going upstairs and making a nest on the bed. We played up there for a long time, over an hour, and he was then a cat, and then a bat, all with similar games. We also came up with Gaston verses, like No one snores like Gaston/hunts wild boar like Gaston/No one adds two plus two equals four like Gaston. When I had the kids going to head to school when he was a bat, he told me “In some cultures they do school at night time. So the bat goes with them!”

He played his new music app for awhile, and he told me “Imagining games is my favorite!” He was a beaver again and the beaver hid iPad. As a bat he was flying around. I read The Night Before Preschool, then he wanted storytelling dice. The story was about a turtle ship and a pyramid. Still being an animal, he told me”So this imagining game is going to go on the entire day.” He then watched a Berenstain Bears where they helped Farmer Ben and waited for rain. I started to fall asleep.

He was then hungry and we went down and made and ate french toast. He then requested a visualization, although he gave it more of plot, telling me it was about a girl who goes out exploring and never finds her way home. It became a story called The Blanka Adventure. He played with the wine bottle opener and and his puffy “Hanako” stickers. He found that if he pushed the tip through the sticker he could take off the paper covering the back. He did this to all of them, sticking them on the table, my iPad, the kitchen door, and other things. He wanted more stickers and I found the ones up in his closet, including the Pororo, shapes, numbers, and little funny stickers from Korea. He put a lot of them on the fridge, then used the stencils to make art.

He then was drawing lengths of lines for me to measure with the measurement app. They were lines with dots on the ends, like line segments, and he said he saw someone drawing them on a commercial. We debated why Vicky wants him to hold his pencil differently. He said he would hold it one way at school, but his way at home. He drew lines on his catapult for me to measure. We were listening to my Sad Holidays playlist, which has all my favorite Christmas songs on it. August forgot Carly was at work and asked, “Can I see mama right no? Or is she at work?…I thought she was still in bed.”

August then got his 1kg weight and started exercising and made up some exercises for me. He then went back to drawing shapes. He said, “downright disturbed despondent and depressed” and reminded me it is from the Butter Battle Book. He did more stickers, then wanted to do more imagining games. I was finishing something up, and he did a great job of expressing his impatience: “Dada, please. I want to do the imagining game and you’re running me out or patience.” We ended up doing the cat game on the bed again.

At 12:30 I realized he hadn’t gone to the bathroom. He told me, “Dada! Don’t have that face!” It was me being shocked. A couple times during the day he thought my usual face was my angry face and I had to tell him I wasn’t upset. He finally used the bathroom a couple minutes later. He played with a piece of string and told me, “Dada, when you have a string tied around your big toe like this it only means one thing: you want to remember something.” Seems vaguely familiar from a book we read (Ramona, maybe?) but maybe something he picked up at school. And he told me, “I’m never going to die. Like a battery you can recharge me.”

He didn’t really eat any lunch, and requested the “Yoga app”. He listened/followed the mindfulness app for awhile, and realized it had a timer. He set the timer for three minutes and did art on my iPad–for longer than three minutes. Looking at Day One I realized that we had gone to Children’s Grand Park 3 years in a row on this date. The first one was when I took him to the restaurant for lunch and the women held him and he took a straw.

I got snacks ready and he played with a couple music apps and we left at 2:10. We had rather missed our sunny window, and it was a bit clouded over now, although still nice. Chilly though, and he decided to wear three layers of sweatshirts.

We just walked up to our park and got to playing. He told me “Here’s the rule: you always have to say sorry when you say something you’re not supposed to. Go it?” I asked “Will you follow the rule?” Him: “No.” He had some good hyper time, then wanted to sit on the little alligator bench for a snack. He wanted to sit on my lap and we did that for awhile, but then switched to a regular bench as that was more comfortable for me. He ate apple and Cheerios. He then developed a ‘game’ where he told me to listen to something in nature—the birds or trees—and then would start yelling to interrupt my listening. He had me tell the Blanka story again. He then had another imagining game. He said it took him a long time to think up and he could only do a couple each year.

He told me it was about me climbing on a mountain and finding a seal. So it turned into a story about a “place of forgetting” and saving a seal that was drawn there and returning it to the sea, where it was reunited with its parents. He had me repeat it, then he found a big snail next to a big puddle in the parking lot. He put it over by a push, then washed his hands in the drinking fountain.

He then took my watch to track steps. He saw a guy come and start exercising. And said, “That guy is not beautiful.” We then told stories about a bird and a beaver on the path between worlds—continuing the stories from the visualization of the girl that couldn’t find her way home.

When it was time to head home I convinced him to walk the Holly block. He stopped at the garbage area across from us and got a few treasures and we were home at 4:30.

He talked about working on his bridge, but then got busy with the stencils. He told me “No, I’m focused on this.” Carly was home from a very successful workshop at 5. He was working on his art and showed Carly his “geometric pictures.” He got a bit hyper, but then got her to work with him on the bridge. She got the black tape and they worked on it a bit, but then he went back to the regular paper and made a model for himself of what the bridge should look like. We tried to ask him something and he told me, “I need to be as focused as I can on the bridge.”

We ate spaghetti for dinner, and he was singing about his wormy noodles. He stepped on the tape dispenser and hurt his foot. He wanted a lollipop. Carly said he could have something better—ice cream—after his bath. August wanted it now and Carly offered a spoonful now. He insisted on all of it now, and got upset when she said no. She took him upstairs to calm down, then gave him a bath. She scrubbed his forehead to get off the marker. I straightened up downstairs so it looked respectable. Carly had started by doing the dishes.

They came down and had their brownie ice cream. As she scooped it up he danced in excitement to the T-Bone Burnett song that was playing.

We read Frances Frog’s Forever Friend on Skybrary, then headed upstairs. He spent a long time in the bathroom. Finally got him in the bedroom and brushed his teeth. He wanted a preschool story about dragons. It ended with the mama and baby dragon frying the school. He asked for a second pair of socks. I asked why, and he said, “I don’t want to tell you cuz you might feel bad for me.” I asked if his feet had been cold last night and he admitted yes. As I went to get a second pair he said, “Thank you. I’m well taken care of.”

We put on the second pair, then he told me when I could turn the lamp off. He took off his socks, one layer, then the next. As he tried to go to sleep he pressed his feet up against me, like I had suggested. He’s been sleeping sideways, with just his head pressed against Carly, and I suggested that he, and especially his feet, would be warmer if he was parallel. He tossed his head about and I was falling asleep. Right at nine he reached out and tapped me on the face. I started to sing another song but he was instantly asleep. Waited just a few more seconds and I was able to get up.

Putting Hanako stickers on the table:

Stickers on the fridge:

Drawing shapes with the stencils:

Teaching me an exercise:

Bouncing at the playground:

I had thought about going for a walk in the morning, but decided to leave it for later in the day when places like Wi’am and the natural history museum might be open. But it turned out I wouldn’t have any time. Omar called, saying he and Marc were running late, and asking me when things started (he’d never given me a program) and asking me to stand in for him). Today was a smaller group, about 60, and the session was taking place in my hotel. It was now sort of a leadership conference, with representatives of the various organizations taking part. It was just intros at first, and as we got the tables set up I was sitting next to a guy named Peter, from FOSNA. Mitri Raheb spoke first, and Omar and Marc showed up during his talk.

Omar wasn’t impressed with how things were going, and I think he was focused on how today was his wife’s actual due date, so we decided to leave around noon. All in one car this time, and we drove first to Sabeel. My car was blocked in by someone else in the building, so while Omar sent a message to figure out who it was and get the car moved, he showed us the field at the end of the road. It turns out it is the battlefield of a major battle of the Third Crusade, and took place near well that is still there. And the road, the dinky little alley, is actually what used to be the main road between Judea and Sumeria. The burial site of a French prince or king was found by the battlefield a few years back. This is while the alley is in such bad shape—it can’t be touched pending archeological investigation.

Anyway, the car was moved and we parted ways. A straightforward drive home, although there were patches of heavy rain (it had been sunny when we left the hotel) and I was home by 2:30. They were upstairs and heard me, and he came down the stairs and said, “Dada!” He then told me that they had had brownie ice cream. I also learned that they had watched Shrek 2 today. He calls them Christmas movies, because Carly had been talking about watching a Christmas movie with him, and they watched a short with the first one that was actually Christmas related.

He then wanted to wash the walls. He said he had a chemical that changes things and is dangerous. Changes you into an animal. He critiqued me still wearing my business attire: “Why do you have these cloths on? I hate these clothes. Take these clothes off and put on your normal clothes. (Sigh) Srupid clothes.” He wanted a sponge, but ended up choosing a cleaning cloth like we use in the kitchen. He cleaned things with that, and the tile in the bathroom with q-tips, and then with the scrubbing toothbrush. He came down and scrubbed things with it, getting it wet in the sink. We were listening to John Prine and he started dancing around to the music.

We then played the tiger game, then he was a seal and we played a seal game. And then it was a beaver. I was reading on the bank of a river, etc. and would take the animals to the Audubon Society. Carly left to go to work to set up for tomorrow. He was a different beaver, and now the animals were coming into a house and the kids were keeping them as pets: “You give it your old blanket from being a baby because you’ve outgrown it and you put food at the entrance…” “And you see your sister coming in from playing hockey in the school…and you let her see it.” Some of the idea came as we watched a video with the woman from SciShow Kids to find out about baby beavers, and she had it with a blanket. In our game the beaver was lethargic and that was a word of the day. So they took it to Audubon.

When I objected, saying I was getting worn out with the games, he said, “There’s always new kinda of games in my head that I haven’t played…can’t we play one?” So it was preschool rest time. A beaver comes in. The class is upset but the teacher intervenes. Takes it to vet who takes care of it. The beaver ended up playing on the iPad during coding time. But August then requested a new game, saying I hadn’t gotten him a new game recently. And he said it needed to be harder. Then he decided it should be a music game: “It needs to be complex. Not complex: lots of features.” We tried Mindful Games, then a music app called Blocs Wave.

He then wanted to watch Coyote Peterson and chose a Brave Wilderness on tiger sharks. Carly got home, talking to Chuck and Cherie. I was making the spaghetti, and I told August his was on the table. He tasted it and it was hot. He complained: “You didn’t cool them down at all. What kind of person are you? You’re not my dada anymore!” Cooled it down and he ate most of it. Carly then went up for a shower. We played more beaver games, then he was turning into a chameleon, then a snake. It was more kids hiding the animals from their parents, then getting to keep them as pets.

Carly got a message saying that Taya had been sick and they weren’t coming tomorrow and August was upset. He started by saying he wasn’t going to be her friend anymore. Which reminds me that the other day he told me that while he would play with the other kids at school, including Eve, he had decided that the only real friends he needed were me, Carly, and Taya. He was then being a snake and pretending to eat me.

It was a hairwashing day, and he was going to get a lollipop. He was being slow going up though and I said, “Lollipops won’t like themselves.” He thought that was funny and he and Carly pretended to be lollipops licking themselves. Then, when he wanted my attention he said, “Pumping more listening-to-Zinnie chemicals in you!”

I took him up to the bathroom and he played in the sink. Sang a poop song and played with the eyedroppers, making his chemicals. I washed his hair, and as he couldn’t handle it anymore Carly sowed up with the lollipop.

He wanted to hear the poem from Shivers 2 and was reciting parts of it. But downstairs he decided to read Harry Potter with Carly. From that they chose ‘enraged’ as a word of the day. When Carly read the word ‘stupid’ he said that adults had to apologize every time they say an inappropriate word, while kids only have to apologize once a week. They then switched to Captain Underpants.

He went to the bathroom at 8:10, then we got him ready for bed. He was a little upset that I wasn’t putting him to sleep, but Carly was tired and wanted to go to bed. He got over and I heard a good amount of giggling, and he was asleep by 9.

Cleaning with the toothbrush:

Dancing to John Prine:

A new music app:

When Skoda Mama will defend herself with spikes:

It was made of… Song:

Quite an unusual day for all of us. I went to Bethlehem for the Kairos Palestine conference, Carly had to supervise for the sports marathon in the evening, and August played with Eve after school and had Gabby and Jill as babysitters while she did supervision.

He came down at 6:50. He and Carly were lizards on the couch, then he watched one Berenstain Bears. He was then making pink thread that he said could before spiders’ homes. I was frantically getting ready to go, and we were a little slow getting out the door and in the car. I had aimed for 7:15 and it was about 7:20. In the car Carly reminded me that it was culturally appropriate to be late here. August asked what ‘culturally appropriate’ means. I called it the word of the day and Carly explained. August then clarified, “You mean ‘phrase’ of the day?” Because just four days ago I explained that ‘Flipping the entire industry on its head’ was a phrase, not just a word.

He did a school game scenario in the car with Carly and said he had blue hair. He said he decided to have blue hair now. He had seen Jill in his classroom yesterday after school with her blue hair. Carly asked if Jill still had blue hair and I said it was fading as it wasn’t permanent. As we got out of the car August explained that “I invented permanent dye and permanent tye die shirts.”

Heather and Eve and Zoe were walking in as I dropped them off, and as I got back in the car he was excitedly saying hi to Eve. They went to her classroom for awhile and August had fun sitting on a student desk, eating oatmeal with her, and greeting middle schoolers as they came in. It was pretty amusing.

I got to Sabeel right at 8:30. Omar, Marc, and I met for about 30 minutes to plan our presentation on Kumi Now for later in the day, then we drove to the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, me with Marc following Omar in is car. I helped them set up the table with the books, then we went downstairs to the conference hall for the last of the morning talks. There was then a coffee break and I started getting introduced to people. Nice to put faces to the names that I see on email or on articles/books.

Then to a breakout session on the political situation. They were supposed to be feedback groups on various topics, and the question was basically ‘How do we keep the question of Palestine on the agenda?’ I understood why Omar has been saying about how people like to analyze and make reports, but action is actually hard, as even though the moderator asked for specific action ideas, the first 10 minutes was people giving philosophical answers about where the answers should come from, or one versus two states, etc. I spoke up to give a plug for Kumi Now.

My group got done a little early, so I decided to head out for a little walk. Marc had put my coat somewhere, so I went out without it. I was heading out with a woman from Sri Lanka, who had been in my group, and thought I was crazy for not having a coat. I explained I had lived in Korea. On my little walk I saw a comic scene. Three guys were pushing a huge pellet laden with boxes of fruit down the street. But it was starting to twist and lean (definitely squishing fruit at the bottom). As they stopped in the street it held up traffic. After there were about three cars stopped the honking started.

After that it was upstairs for an excellent lunch. And got introduced to more people, and others pointed out to me, like Mitri Raheb, and Angela, from Jahalin Solidarity (whom I have talked to on the phone).

During the day Vicky sent an email about the Week of Code in preschool this week. She included a reflection from August: “Signals in our bodies are like codes, they tell us what to do with our body. The code goes from our brain to our body then we move.”

After lunch Omar, Marc, and I planned our presentation a bit more. Then it was back downstairs for a panel discussion. We then gave our 10 minute presentation. I outlined what a weekly entry looked like, what sort of advocacy actions we have, the website, and how organizations can get involved with year 2.

There were then reports on the recommendations from the small group meetings, closing remarks, and then it was over. Marc had gotten hit by a trunk door while putting books in Androus’s car and he and Omar went to get plasters (err, bandages).

The full Sabeel delegation, including from the different ‘Friends’ groups (with people from the U.S., Belgium, Norway, and UK), of about 12 people then walked a few blocks to a restaurant for dinner. Plenty of good food. I mainly talked to the woman from England. She used to be a defense attorney, then stayed at home to raise her kids for 10 years, and now works with/in Romania, I think it was. We talked a lot about American and British politics and lack of hope thereof, about places in England, and British television, and August and raising kids (and Sir Ken Robinson etc.).

I also met Tarek, the director of Friends of Sabeel North America today. He was studying in Austin when Carly was. Funny moment when he started to ask when Carly was there, but then he said “Well probably not because you’re so much younger than I am.” I was like “How old are you!?” Because I was thinking the exact same thing about him. We each thought the other was in his mid-20s. Turns out that he is 41. I think Carly would like him. He’s a gay man living in Houston. Which reminded me of Paul and Caleb living in Nashville and Atlanta—not exactly bastions of gay culture.

Anyway, Omar talked to him after dinner, and he verbally agreed to putting me on staff through FOSNA and then deducting my salary from their Sabeel contribution. They will talk details tomorrow. It will work out well for all involved, as Sabeel has to pay double taxes on me here in Israel due to my visa. Like 45%. Whereas through the U.S. it will be much less for me and for them.

A bit after 8:30 I called Carly (not enough signal to skype). August was busy doing something. I think he said I was interrupting something—his cutting or gluing or something. Oh, and he called me ‘Ryan’ at first. I think he said I was ‘Ryan’ when on a trip or working. Talked for a few minutes and said good night.

Walked back to the cars, then Marc realized he forgot his bag at the restaurant. Followed Omar and it was a convoluted drive back to the restaurant. Then on to the Paradise Hotel, where I was checked in by 10:30.

I talked to Carly the next day to find out more about his day. She had arrived to pick up him and Eve after school. It was just the two of them there. It seems like they are the only kids that never ride the bus now. They were hyper and in trouble a few times for saying things like poop. They went to the library so that Carly could start to set things up for Sunday. Ilana got Legos out for them and they played with those. Carly then took the two of them to Heather’s classrooms. They set up easels and paint and put on aprons and painted together. From there they said goodbye to Eve and went to get a hamburger for dinner, although August mainly ate the bread. They watched some of the middle school hockey, and she said he was mesmerized by it for about ten minutes. Someone had slime that looked like hamburger buns, but I’m not quite sure what that is.

They walked to Carly’s classroom and set up painting supplies. They had a few minutes and walked around. When he saw Gabby and Jill he ran off to them. They watched him in Carly’s classroom while Carly went and did her supervision from 6 to 8. She returned to her classroom in the middle to get a different book, and he told her “You’re not supposed to be here yet!” They apparently painted/drew a “nubby machine” together.

The room was completely cleaned up when Carly came back. Rob gave them a ride home. It was pouring by then, and they had to step through deep water just to get in the car. They skipped a bath, and I called to say good night just after 8:30. He was asleep a little father 9.

Watching Berenstain Bears:

Dropping then off:

His glued creation from yesterday

Dropping them off

A real book!

Marc selling books

Hanukkah sticker August had put on my watch yesterday

Bethlehem

Working on the presentation during lunch

Omar during the presentation of Kumi Now

Waiting for Gabby and Jill

Friends of Sabeel dinner

Don’t know if this is what he painted with Carly and Eve, or with Gabby and Jill

Drawings with Gabby and Jill

It was hippie day for Carly. August came down at 7:10. Watched Max and Ruby and ate Cheerios and apple. He looked at the prehistoric book again and found the page about the Hobbit people. He told me, “They live on tree bark and leaves, for the moisture, and the moisturest one of all: poop. Shake your booty butts, guy!” He was then chanting, including “shake your booty butt…The biggest booty butt of all, the reptile!” Think he got the shaking thing from a kid at school, perhaps Omri. And the reptile part came as he looked at the cover with a dinosaur on it.

Carly had found a break in the rain and decided to walk to school. August and I weren’t so lucky. It started raining hard about the time we normally left. I had been entertaining the notion of actually walking, but that idea vanished. I then figured we could wait a few minutes to see if it let up to make getting to the car easier. It did not. Instead, it got heavier and heavier. We had to leave, so with him with his orange umbrella and me with my black umbrella we hurried to the car.

Things were only worse on the other end. We parked behind a woman who has a son in PKB and they were doing the same thing. Although I had time to tell August I heard the song “Walk the Dinosaur’ playing in their car. I got August on the sidewalk with his umbrella and pointed the right direction and he started making his way to school. I realized I had left my keys in the car and had to get them. He just kept heading to school on his own.

He did amazingly, and seemed to enjoy watching the water as he walked all the way to the classroom. His pants were absolutely soaked. He wanted them changed, but wasn’t too upset. I dried out his shoes and changed his pants and underwear and was able to leave.

I had worn my Tom’s, which I thought was a mistake, but any shoes I had worn would have ended up soaked. Already drenched, I figured I might as well walk home. That was an experience. I learned first hand the drainage routes of rainwater through town. Since there are no drains it all runs down the roadways, thus making stepping from a crosswalk onto a sidewalk impossible without stepping in water up to your ankle. Probably had to step in water so deep 6 or 7 times on the way back. There was also som good thunder and lightning, although luckily none as close and scary as the one crash that sent me diving into the car later.

I worked until about noon, then was going to go get a haircut. Carly called and said she was sick and coming home. She drove home, and it started raining harder, so I figured I’d use the car to go to the mall. As I got into the car there was a bright flash. I literally had just enough time to think ‘Well i didn’t get hit’ and then there was a shotgun blast of thunder and I crumbled into the car.

I drove to the mall. No one waiting at the barber so I got my hair cut, then grabbed a few groceries since I’d be taking the car the next couple of days. Also got more toothpaste for August. Going back to an earlier brand as he finds the newest one too spicy.

Carly had been nauseous, mainly, and rested at home. But luckily didn’t get worse. I got back, then a bit later went and picked up August. Andrea told me they had spent a lot of time indoors today, but had gone over to their usual area for lunch, and had been able to go for a little walk near the end of the day. August was walking around, finding scrap paper and things to cut with a pair of scissors: “I’m really into cutting.” While I was there he told Andrea all about permanent tape that he had invented and how most people shouldn’t touch it, unless they really are careful with it. They have a full shelf of organized doctor tools and August had made a couple things out of paper. He had made a new reflex hammer out of paper—apparently of his own volition, as Andrea was surprised—to replace one that had been lost.

He picked up a picture on the table and started cutting it a bit. I asked if it was his picture and he said it was. I asked what it was a picture of and he said, “Mama, Dada, baby trapped in a dungeon.” I think I was doubtful it was his because he hasn’t pictures with a lot of writing on them before. I took a photo though, and realized later it said ‘Mama Dada Baby’ in his handwriting. Sadly, we had left it on the table and it is probably gone. We were distracted by Eve taping a stick up in the doorway so no one could come in. August helped, and they were getting hyper. When first her parents, then Marion came, the adults removed the stick. Eve had a meltdown over this. August wasn’t happy, but handled it, but then had a bit of a meltdown when he insisted we go to the cafeteria for a treat and I said now. He started to walk away, telling me, “Dada, come HERE!”

Eventually we sat on the bench and had a snack. I opened the banana for him that was in his snack. He said, “What kind do of person are you?…Dadas are supposed to give boys bananas! Girl kids like bananas.” But he ate it all. He also joked, “Bananas don’t grow on trees! They come from factories.”

He didn’t want to go to the library, so we headed home. At home Carly got him to tell her one things about preschool: “I drawed a lot.” He wouldn’t tell her any details about his picture, but eventually told us that Mini helped him spell the words.

Carly went upstairs. I made hot chocolate for August and me, but he decided he wanted his Halloween treat first. So he helped clean up pieces of paper on the floor to get that. He chose sour Skittles, and promptly put them in the hot chocolate. He told me, “I won’t do that thinking game with stickers today.” Not quite sure what he was talking about. And he told me, “You make a great cup of hot chocolate.” He said he liked it with the skittles in it too, although he didn’t eat them, nor did he eat the ones left in the bag. He said he didn’t really like the sour ones.

He had fun putting a bunch of stickers on me. We started reading a graphic novel on the iPad called Nimona. He liked it, but it is a little too much on the dark humor side of things and I changed a couple words as we read. We could keep reading it, but I’ll probably switch us back to Shivers, etc. if I can. We chose ‘infiltrate’ as a word of the day.

He watched some Berenstain Bears, then went to the bathroom. When he came back he then scratched his menorah decoration. He held the scratcher like a pencil: “Ms. Vicky really wants me to do it the way she does it. But when she’s not looking I do it the wrong way.”

He ate noodles with shrimp for dinner. He’s growing tired of the dinners though. Carly had some plain toast and butter. He then wanted some of his own toast. He got upset when I said he needed peanut butter on it though and he hit me. So I said no toast. We read more of Nimona, then we switched to Shivers. He then ate a whole banana, so I then made him toast with peanut butter and he ate it. It started pouring outside. He said he had another word of the day: ‘alternate’ versus ‘ultimate’.

He got his scissors and went around cutting everything I’d let him cut. I then heard David outside shouting “Hello! Neighbor!” It turned out that they have water coming in there house from where it connects to our house. I let him in and we went up and he saw that there was no water on our side. He then headed back. August had found one of those tiny sour oranges and cut it neatly in half with his scissors and offered them to David and myself. I licked it to be kind, but it may have been the most sour one yet.

He did more cutting. Carly had been resting upstairs. She came down and I went upstairs and started packing. She made him more toast. He spent a long time in the bathroom. He found a clean q-tip and I let him clean the wall with it: “You said it. These are really good for cleaning…I’m making the walls Mexico-y, like Oma does.” He then had his spray bottle and was spraying things with mist. He said, of the bathroom, “So please start calling it the Mexican room.”

He went downstairs with a flashlight. He told Carly, “You’re school appropriate. What’s ‘appropriate’ mean?” Discussed the meaning. He got my phone and sat on the couch with us and recorded himself telling hero stories (where they’re never heard from again). He told me about a constellation: “The big yawn. That’s actually a constellation.”

He said goodnight to Carly and we headed upstairs. He told stories as he jumped around on the bed. He asked for a preschool story and I told a story about a preschool where it rained so much that the preschool floated away and it went down the highway like a waterslide and ended up in the sea, where everyone was rescued. We turned the lamp off. He then requested a visualization of a girl going on an adventure and never finding her way back home. That went on for several minutes. There was a lot of lightning that we kept seeing through the window. He was then trying to go to sleep, but kept having thoughts. He asked, “What’s the smallest thing you know?” I talked about quarks, then the Planck length. We argued about Planck space, as he argued there was no limit to how small something could be. He loves the idea of infinity, and couldn’t understand a finite smallness. Not sure if I also talked about how the size of the universe is also finite, or if I decided to leave that for another day. He was asleep at 9.

Walking with his umbrella to school:

Blocking the doorway:

Finding things to cut:

Making the walls Mexico-y:

His superhero story, version 1:

His superhero story, version 2:

Performing his plays:

His superhero story, version 3:

Mama, Dada, and Baby trapped in a dungeon

Carly on twin day

Hippie day