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He got up at 5:50. He came over and patted me on the bed, then said, “You can sleep more.” When I got up a few minutes later found him working on animations in PowerPoint on Carly’s computer. She headed to school and he watched Smurfs. He had his vitamins, then had a pancake. He finished up a Smurfs, then we read the rest of The Flying Beaver Brothers. I had looked at StoryPark and there was a photo of him drawing on a mural of stick figures. He said he’s been talking about stick figures because of the art, but before that too because of Toca Band. As we got ready he had us play preschool games about a giant bird flying overhead, creating wind. I had people getting everything blown away from them.

We drove to school and went and dropped off the hummus. We then talked about the diaper drive and what the money and diapers were for. I walked him to class and we got there right at the bell. He went in and saw them starting to sit down for meeting. He asked what was after rest time and I reminded him I’d see him at noon: “Oh, yeah!”

I walked home, then at 11:30 my parents and I walked back to school. At the classroom August showed me the table for the parent-teacher conferences. There were flowers organized on it, and a tray of cookies. He said he could have one, and when I said I thought they were for the parents he had an instant meltdown. There was no recovering from it until we got to the car. He said sorry. He then told us about the play, Beauty and the Beast. He told us how each character was a different person, and that someone was a knife, and someone else was a teapot. We found out later that he had sat on Andrea’s lap the whole time.

We drove up to town and went to V.I.Pizza for lunch. Hector was there with his siblings and friends. August watched them playing around a bit, but didn’t join them. We got a full pizza—half corn, the other half mushroom and olive. Mom asked him if the pizza was good and he said, “Better than your Zinnie hugs.” He ate a good slice and a half.

I carried him much of the way back to the car. He was acting tired and I asked and he gave a thumbs up. At home we looked at a couple of new apps, and had the most fun with the WWF Free Rivers app, making a river on the floor of the kitchen. He then cuddled with me on the floor, and we were talking about inventing things. He remembered that we hadn’t gone to the bakery in town, and I said he could have some of his chocolate lips. He had the milk chocolate ones. He was then casting a growing spell that I think he made up: “Mighty magic, here I come. Mighty magic, rise up to the sun.”

The four of us drove back to school for the teacher conference. August went over to the playground with my parents and did a great job playing there while we waited. And waited. It was around 3:25 when they finished up meeting with Simone’s mom. The meeting went well. They told us that he had held hands with Yaya as they found flowers today, then cut the flowers together to decorate the table. The other day he had used all the caps that he had brought in to decorate the table for their shared snack time. He really likes making things in the building area, and had been making a washing machine earlier. An there were little strips of paper on a shelf. He had taken one to Marion and asked what it was for. She showed him how she likes to make a pattern of shapes. He then made a pattern of his own, and hung it from one of the strings in the middle of the room. She said he puts all the important stuff there. August told us he did, “Two patterns, actually.” And she told us about the stick figure drawing, and how he had been drawing one doing a yoga pose, and several others. I think she said he had drawn them of her. She said that when doing art he has always gone with “I’m going to do abstract” because that’s what he’s comfortable with, but he’s starting to branch out.

We were there for a little over 20 minutes, then went and got them on the playground. He had found a little sidewalk chalk and drawn a flower with roots.

We were home about 4. He quoted the Silo commercial again: “Strawberries were added to your inventory.” He was then playing doctor, and used his light to examine my ears, etc. He was then reciting “The past is the past. We move on. We MOVE On.” It is from Dragons Beware! and he was copying my timing and emphasis. We then read more of Dragons Beware! Working on a second full reading.

He then did card games with Dad. They started by looking at a real deck of cards, then switched to the computer card games. I was making dinner, cooking broccoli and fresh rice to go with the shrimp. August told me, “Dada, yoga isn’t my favorite part of school anymore. My favorite part is auditorium.” We ate dinner, then he did a “Nose greeting” with Carly.

We did more reading, then he was playing with his music box. I brought up the video of Beethoven’s Ninth and watched part of that, then he requested the third symphony. We started watching that. He saw the conductor with the baton and said, “See, I told you the conductor had two.” This was a reference to a day or two ago when he claimed that conductors used two batons. I was confused and said I only saw one baton in the conductor’s hand. He said, “Sorry, dada. Actually I was trying to make a joke. Sorry.”

As we listened to the symphony, we used the Apple Pencil and did art on his iPad. I drew a stick figure lying down, then he drew a blanket on it, which turned into a black hole. He then used the eraser to make lines through it and said it was a maze. He added colors and it turned into an underwater maze with monsters. He was then doing pictures on his own, and drew a face with four eyes: “Funny alien tiger. That’s nice to people…fun to play with.” Then a robot face. To Carly, who had come down, he said, “Sorry mama…For no reason.” Then he was drawing nets: “I’m trying to make it trap plankton.” He told Carly he didn’t want her to keep asking what each picture was. He told us to imagine in our heads. He then drew a stick figure and said it was “A tiny woman house spirit.” With big ears.

Carly took him up for a stool bath. When I took him up later there was stuff in a pink bucket and he said he had been mixing chemicals in the bucket. We read more of Dragons Beware!, getting through the exciting part. And he had some Cheerios. Carly came in to put him to sleep, and they were being silly. I left them at 9, and I heard him being loud for awhile after that. Then it was silent. Carly said he was hyper until suddenly he calmed down and was asleep right away.

Casting his growth spell:

On the playground with Gramma and Grampa:

Telebeepio:

Art and music:

Drawing stick figures (from Storypark)

Missing from his class photo

Showing off the flowers and cookies–right before a meltdown

Drinking from both of our drinks at once

Sleepy

River in the kitchen

Card he made for us

Flower with roots

Net to catch plankton

Carly eventually got August to sleep last night by using the flower visualization he had told her about from yoga class. His alarm on his iPad went off after 3am and Carly woke up. She went downstairs and got some rest/light sleep, but was mainly up after that. He said something like “Goodbye dada” or “See you later, dada” in his sleep.

He was then up at 6:30. He knocked on the bathroom door. I got out of the shower, but by the time I opened the door Carly was coming up the stairs. He said, “I want mama to do it.”

Once I was downstairs he finished watching some Smurfs, then we read much of The Flying Beaver Brothers and the Evil Penguin Plan. ‘Nimble’ was the word of the day from that.

We all got in the car and left at 7:10. August remembered his lollipop from yesterday and had more of it on the way to school. He said it tasted like cherry medicine, then he argued that it actually did have medicine in it. He then talked about other flavors also having medicine in them, but cherry would have the most medicine in it. He sang parts of “hokey pokey” and “I know an old woman who swallowed a five…” along the way. We dropped August and Carly off at school, along with all their bags of stuff.

From school Waze told us it was 2 hours 21 to the beach at Ein Bokek. Smooth sailing, and we made it just two minutes after that, at 9:48. We went and changed and went down to the beach. Mom and Dad went in first. Cooler than previous times, but pretty easy to get used to. We were in and out a couple times, and I sat on the beach for awhile reading my Camus. We then showered and changed and left right at 11:15, when parking ran out.

We drove a couple blocks north to the mall area and had lunch at the Cafe Cafe. I got a salmon sandwich and cappuccino. Dad had a watermelon and pineapple smoothie that was interesting. I had thought of walking up the wadi with them, but as I looked at our options for driving home a route that goes farther north on 90, past Jericho, then west south of Nablus was showing up. So I suggested we then go to Masada and make sure we leave early enough so we could see parts of the Jordan River valley, etc. before it got dark.

We drove to Masada, I bought a guide to wild flowers (the only one they had in English that I don’t have yet), and we took the cable car up. We spent an hour and a half or so up on Masada. I walked down all the stairs to the North Palace this time, then met up with them again. We got to overhear a couple of tour guides along the way, so learned more about the tower that the Romans pushed up the ramp, and about how they have been rebuilding the walls from the stones that were knocked over.

We headed back to the car and got driving. We drove north on 90 along the Dead Sea, spotting lots of sink holes along the sea, then continued north through the Jordan River Valley and past Jericho on our left. You turn west on 505, I think, and start climbing up into the hills. There were lots of trucks, and other people wanting to pass on a two-lane road, which made for a lot of craziness. An experience to remember, but not necessarily one I want to repeat, especially as it got dark.

We got home at 6:20. Came in the house to find Taya and Cassie there. August and Taya had played together really well while they talked. August showed off the huge pile of stuff they had made. I think it was a nest or hiding place of some kind. Carly said the day had gone well: he had played in her classroom for awhile, then when she took him to his class he explained that Carly was dropping him off because I was at the Dead Sea. Marion said she hadn’t liked the Dead Sea and asked what he thought. He thought for awhile, and said, “Too salty.” In the morning he had said he could just go to dance on his own, but he changed his mind and said he would like her to be on the bench in case he wanted to see her. She then went to her department chair meeting, and came back at 4. They then went and got a ride home with Cassie and Taya.

Cassie and Taya left. I had to accompany them out a couple times, as Taya needed to come back to use the bathroom. August came out into the yard and said goodbye a couple times. And Taya was making faces through the fence.

He finished his soup, then ate crackers and hummus. He said, “Hey Lisa, how much coffee is left?” He meant Alexa, and it is the line from an ad he saw on YouTube for a food vacuuming system called Silo. He continued: “These avocados stay fresh for a day. These avocados stay fresh much longer. That’s thanks to Silo…everything stays fresher with Silo.”

Carly told me that there is someone at work that is pregnant, and August heard her talking, so ‘pregnant’ became the word of the day. August and I did preschool stories, where robotic ants (rants, in Hilo) were showing up at the school and August was shoving his way past the teacher to get out of the room to do an EMP to stop it. He was then singing “There Was an old Woman,” which was from dance class. He also sang my Counting by 2s song. He got Dragons Beware and looked at it on his own for awhile before having me read some.

We then headed upstairs and he sang a “Seven little princesses” song. Which had lots of words to it , but it wasn’t clear where it was from. I found the Oh My a Fly! book and read it to him while he was on the toilet. Before his bath we read the little opening story of Dragons Beware! He really likes that part.

He took his bath at the sink and sang a song about a woman who couldn’t find numbers and went to spaceship and got broken and couldn’t be fixed so she died. He said, “Please don’t take a video of that.” He explained it was because he didn’t remember the words to sing it again.

We went downstairs and he said goodnight. We went upstairs and told a preschool game that was a sequel to the robotic ants one, where he is getting interviewed by a newspaper, and then attacked again. He was asleep by 9:20.

Dropping them off at school:

Mom and Dad in the Dead Sea 1:

Mom and Dad in the Dead Sea 2:

Bird at Masada:

Walking around Masada:

Our welcome home:

7 princesses song:

Dropping them off at school

Dead Sea

Masada

Pile he made with Taya

He was up at 6:40, a couple minutes after Carly left for school. He watched Smurfs, which ran a bit long past when we usually start to get ready to go (at 7:20). But when it finished he was ready to go in just a few minutes. He was singing “We all come together. We know what to do.” Which is from the not-for-children pirate song he wanted to listen to that he found yesterday. We were able to leave, with Grampa, at 7:35. I told the short version of the Robot Rules Enforcer story as we walked. He as then a Robot Rules Enforcer himself. When I reminded him that they were bad, he said he was a good enforcer, enforcing good rules like no war. He sang a short “I’m a Robo Rules Enforcer” song. About ¾ of the way, after he’d had his bar, he remembered the lollipop from last night and that I’d told him he could have the rest on the way to school. I had forgotten it, but he handled it really well. He got off the bike, but then I picked him up and he cuddled with me for a little bit, then was able to get back on the bike. No getting upset.

At the classroom he was right inside, talking to the teachers. I had to remind him to go say goodbye to Grampa. I talked to him about cleaning. He said he was the teachers helper but didn’t have to clean. So I made cleaning with the class the incentive for a treat later.

Dad and I walked home, then we took some time at home before leaving after 10. We made sandwiches to take with us for a lunch in the park in Ein Vered. We drove over to the nursery over there and had fun just looking around. I got a cool looking plant for the office upstairs, and Mom and Dad got a plant with really interesting leaves for Carly. That turned out to be a buy two, get one free deal, so they got three. I also got broccoli seeds and flower seeds to plant in August’s pot.

We then drove to Sabine, the chocolate shop/workshop. My parents got chocolate-covered coffee beans for Carly, chocolate lips for August, and chocolate-covered orange things for all of us. We then drove to the park in town and went and ate our lunch at a picnic table. Two cats came over and were begging, mainly from Mom, and she got scratched by one. We drove back to the nursery to pick up some soil and compost before heading home.

I then walked to school for library time. When I got there I had a few minutes so studied Hebrew while sitting on the bench. When I went in, August was making an art piece of out a leaf and metal brads and little bells and stuff, and wanted me to take a photo. Marion was very excited, and told me that August had a big day. They had gone over to the big field. She had Millie on one hand and August on the other as they walked the white center line across it. August hates walking on wet grass, and was grumbling and stopping the whole way, but did it. When they got to the other side she pointed out that the line goes around the edge and is like a path. He started walking around on his own, and then she saw him running all over the field having fun. Very cool. Andrea would bring it up later as well.

We went over for library time. He sat on my lap for part of it. Ilana was back and read Elmer and the Snow. Amanda had read the first Elmer book last week. He checked out a book called I Wished for a Unicorn. He had told me he wanted to show me something when we got back to the classroom, so we went back there afterwards and he showed me these magnet cube things. Kind of a paint-by-numbers with colorful cubes. He and Juhyeok played with those for a few minutes. I said goodbye to Juhyeok in Korean when he left, and August asked my why, then was saying it himself several times for the rest of the day.

One of the first things August had told me earlier was that he had hated the raisin things I had put in his lunch. They were actually yoghurt-covered blueberries. I told him that, and that I had meant them as a surprise as I thought he would really like them. But I understood if he was expecting raisins the taste was probably odd. He now asked to try them again, and knowing what they were he ate all of them. He had also eaten all of his lunch today, the full cup of carrots and lemon and all of the broccoli and shrimp and rice. So I let him have the lollipop now. Actually, I couldn’t find the one from last night, so I had brought a cherry one as replacement and he was okay with that. He then said, “Remember when I was talking like Selma. Now I’m talking like Eve.” I had forgotten about when he was doing an impression of Selma last spring.

Carly showed up and we walked home. He found snails along the way and carried one for a long time, wanting to feed it to ants, but he released it on some bushes before we got home. We were home at 4:40. Mom showed him the new plants and the chocolates. He had one of the orange ones, but then got upset when I said he could only have half of the white chocolate lips before dinner, then the other half after. I had to take him upstairs, but it didn’t last too long and we came back down and he had half.

He had soup for dinner, then half of the dark chocolate one, then asked for seconds on the soup. We sat and started Dragons Beware! from the beginning. He then asked for Corn Flakes. He cuddled with me and made me taller with a spell. He also cast one to make me “slightly smaller.” Gramma asked, “Do you want to help me play a game on the computer?” He replied, “Uh-huh! I was waiting for that!” He went over with her for quite awhile. He politely requested I refill his corn flakes at one point.

In the bathroom he invented something with the toilet paper: “toilet paper ripper.” He explained it: “tie it around your leg. Loose enough so the blood can go through…”

Carly took him upstairs for his bath. As he played, he knocked the spray bottle off with his elbow and it broke. He brought it down and asked me to fix it. It wasn’t happening, and he got mopey sad. Carly said they could do a funeral for it, and I suggested ‘funeral’ as the word of the day. He wasn’t enthused by it. He lamented, “I can never take a bath ever again.” I said he would be ‘odoriferous’ (which is used in Dragons Beware!) and also declared it word of the day. He was too sad to care about words of the day.

Carly finally got him back up and gave him his bath. I made his lunch and had to touch a pickle. He had tuna, carrot and lemon, a pickle, a couple potato tortellini things, and his lunch bar. Upstairs, he told her all about yoga. He showed her his plank pose across the chair, balloon breathing, how they say goodbye and “Namaste”, and a visualization they do where they imagine flowers that smell different ways.

He told me, “You have to come upstairs to do the most evilest game in the universe: story dice!” He had already chosen the dice, and told me he had planned the beginning of the story. He put his plastic belt on again, then made it into a necklace for Gramma and took a photo of her. He said, “You know what? There’s only one Smurfette in the whole world.”

I went up with him and we did the story, about an elf that comes from another dimension to help a wizard defeat a mechanical warrior attacking his tower. We brushed his teeth, then I suggested that it was late, and Carly would come in to go to sleep with him. He got sad at the idea that we weren’t going to do a preschool story. So we turned on the lamp and we did the one from earlier, of him destroying a rant (robotic ant) that was attacking the school. I told Carly he was ready for her, and while she took a couple minutes to get ready I sang to him and he cuddled against me, falling asleep. He was very close to sleeping when she came in.

I left them just a minute before 9 and thought he’d be right asleep. But then I heard crying. After a couple minutes I went up. He was sad because he couldn’t nurse, which he hasn’t done in months. He kept crying and sounded half asleep. He’s seemed stuffier and sick and just seemed exhausted, so we gave him some medicine to help him fall asleep. I left again and heard a few more minutes of crying. Finally, about 9:23, it went silent.

The Pirate Song:

August destroying a Rant story:

Getting chocolates:

Nursery

School creations

Looking at the new plants

His photo of Gramma

He was up at 5:50, seconds after Carly got up. I took a shower and went down and he was watching Smurfs. The keys he had found are magic keys now: “Abracadabra, turn my bike into a singing person.” We got going nice and early, but at the north corner of Vatikim he bit his tongue while eating his morning bar. No blood, but he acted like it. Had get him off the bike eventually and hold him while at the bench to make sure he wouldn’t run off until he calmed down. Eventually he did, and he wanted the rest of the bar. We then were late walking to class. He made up a tune using a dotted eighths rhythm. The basic rhythm of “If you’re happy and you know it” but it was a different tune.

We saw Tessa as we got to school, then got to class at 8:15. I reminded him about being a rule analyst, not a ruler maker. He agreed, but asked me, “Can you tell the teachers, cuz I might forget.” I sent them an email afterwards.

Went home, and a bit later we all drove up to the driver license office to renew my license, as the paper expires tomorrow, and my card never came in the mail. The mall, while it is getting worked on, is as bizarre as ever, as all the shops are closed now. But the licensing office has actually moved a few feet to a remodeled office, that even had windows. Only had to wait about 10 minutes, and it went smoothly.

We then drove to the Netanya waterfront. I parked along the waterfront, midway between the Landwer and downtown Netanya. We walked north, then down the hill to the beach. We stopped where August and I had had a slurpee thing last time and got iced teas/Diet Coke to drink while sitting out on the veranda. From there we took the elevator up to town and walked north to Red Burger Bar. They were out of hummus, so I got the fried sampler thing. Their fries were really good, the onion rings decent, the shnitzel just passable, and falafel disappointing. But I also got an order of green beans that was really good. My parents both got burgers that looked quite good. Heard “Walking in Memphis” and “Free Falling” and Crash Test Dummies “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”, Aerosmith, R.E.M., Sting, etc. at the two shops/restaurants we went to.

We walked north on the street for awhile before rejoining the cliffside path. Saw a lot of cats, and had looked at all the odd buildings on the way south. Now, we got to see a tow truck operator yelling at a cab driver.

We got to the car and got to school in time. I went in and got him. He had had a good day, although he hadn’t wanted to help clean up a couple times, saying he wasn’t a part of the class and that I had told him he didn’t have to. He kept doing things in the classroom and didn’t want to leave. Earlier, his plan had been to leave school right away today. He picked a bunch of berries from a tree around the corner of the preschool with my help and was now throwing them at things and saying “Fire!” He tried to throw them at people, but stopped when I threatened to take them away. Got the impression he was a little worn out by people and didn’t need Gramma and Grampa right now.

We went out to them, but immediately headed up to the library. He lay on the floor and sang a song. They sat out on a bench while he went in with me to use the bathroom, then to return Giants Beware! Eve was there and showed him the big fluffy new hedgehog and sloth stuffed animals they had gotten. He gave the hedgehog a nice hug. We got Dragons Beware! and I found a book called The Flying Beaver Brothers and the Evil Penguin Plan. He played on the rug with squares, first having me call out colors for him to jump to, but then reversing it, and wildly rolling around on the floor while I tried to call out all the colors he touched. He did a couple pieces of art on one of the computers, and in-between he was watching two girls play games on the other computer.

We checked out the books, then went out to the bench. My parents had come inside, but now came back out with us. He ate a piece of carrot and his raisins. As he ate the raisins he was pacing circles around me. He wanted me to tell the story about the school with all the rules, but I told him Carly was going to be there any moment. She showed up and was holding him when Bar came by. I didn’t hear the beginning of the exchange, but then she said, “You’re going to come give me a hug.” He got down and let her hug him. I think he finds her hugs especially tickly because of her hair.

We picked up the iHerb box (8 boxes of Cheerios and some other stuff) and left at 4:25. At home he had a KitKat, then asked Carly for carrot, lemon, and salt and he helped make it. Then he wanted more, and helped make that. She had taught him about it before, and she had learned it from an exchange student they had had. He then ate a good amount of the soup, at least the broth. He had asked me for a schnitzel, but then ate all this other food and never ate it.

He and Carly then made popcorn and he asked to watch something. But he went and he at first shared with Gramma but then told her she could have more when she was back at her house and made some herself. He then went over to Grampa. He asked him, “Can I ask you a question? Did you ever have chicken pox?” He then hung out with Grampa for a long time, sitting on his lap, as he played a card game on the computer. Dad had him read all of the words on the screen, and he did quite well. No problem with ‘undo’ and ‘redo’. He guessed “Amplify fish” at one point. It was actually ‘Auto Finish’.

I was watching the Brazilian Grand Prix and he came over in time to watch the last few minutes with me. We started Giants Beware! Gluteus maximus was a word of the day, then followed by ‘gargoyle’ and ‘fleeing’.

Carly took him upstairs for his bath. He played in the sink, making his cream concoction. He then snuck downstairs and sprayed it on our dry skin. He sprayed his nose again. Carly realized he was gone and came and got him and finished his bath as I did the dishes.

He started talking to Gramma and told Gramma to start on the easier levels and work to harder. He used the kitchen door as a visual to talk about the levels, and how only a few people in the world could do the hardest ones. He was talking about the game she had played yesterday. He was then trying to figure out math for something, and he described 48: “48 minutes. That’s two rest times and 8 minutes.” Apparently he had done it in the car yesterday as well.

He asked me to put him to bed. He said good night to everyone and I took him up. We discussed school. He argued that as a rules analyst and helper of the teacher that he wasn’t actually a part of the class and didn’t have to clean up, as he was too busy watching the other students and analyzing the rules. He was eating corn flakes and bit his tongue. This time there was blood. He asked for a lollipop much more nicely and handled the whole thing much better. Carly went and got him a lollipop.

He calmed down and we told The School with the Most Rules, the full version. I’d been recording it but the app crashed. He then agreed it was time to sleep. He rolled over and cuddled against me and I sang “Imaginary Bars”. He asked me to keep singing. I sang “Animal Life” and he was asleep by 9:10.

Rock my machine song:

Tune on the way to school:

Keister egg song:

New animals at the library:

On the computer with Grampa:

Piano tune and improv:

Giddy up:

In the early morning, after Carly had woken up, I got him back to sleep once. He woke up at 6:25. He told me, “You can sleep longer if you want.” Carly came in and they cuddled for a bit, then headed downstairs.

He watched Smurfs and Llama Llama and ate some corn flakes, then watched part of the Formula 1 qualifying (Brazil) with me. He told me, “I figured out a word of the day: radiation.” And he asked me if any plane flies over the speed of sound. We discussed these, then he asked, “Can I see a video of someone dying in a house?…like maybe they’re 143 years old.”

He started talking about his inventions and told me he sells his machines in stores around the world and told grampa he could buy machines. Dad suggested some kind of machine, and August said, “Oh no, no, no. They’re already invented. I just invent new stuff.” We sat on the couch and told the story about the school with too many rules.

I made pancakes. He ate two, but pushed the berries off his first one as they were too sour. Mom got him his second. He told grampa he sounded scary when he snores. I told him it was ironic since he had snored so loudly last night. I asked, and he said he fell asleep before the end of the story last night.

Carly came down and started to dance with him in the kitchen. He wanted to find a song to dance to on Siri and after a couple of attempts got Siri to play Chemical Brothers. He then played one of the math apps (Tiggly) with Carly. He was making guesses, but told her it was a hypothesis. He got into kind of a punky mood. He wanted to plan the day, as he has been requesting, and wanted to go to the science center in Haifa. He was appeased with the plan to get the music box combined with the possibility of ice cream.

As we got ready, he cast more spells: “Abracadabra I love mama more than I used to…mama and me love each other the same.” We left at 10:20, with Carly driving.

On the way up we read all of Hilda and the Bird Parade. He then did a preschool game with a huge bird making wind. We stopped at a gas station. Carly got gas and I walked around to find the air station. She pulled the car over and dad and I figured out how to use it and filled up all the tires. Back in the car h made another story combining Hilda and Giants Beware!, with a giant bird saving me from giants or a big attacking tree.

We got to Ein Hod at 11:40. August walked almost all of the time. First, we took the little path into it, and he had fun dropping things in the well/cistern. We then followed signs to Molikan, a pottery place. It was actually a long way, but it was a nice walk. August took photos along the way, and as we got close to the shop he found interesting bits of pottery and rocks and wanted to take photos of the different colors.

We looked around there a few minutes (August didn’t like it, as he couldn’t touch, although I picked up a few things and let him touch them—he seemed to think that was breaking a rule), then walked back through the ‘center’ of town. There was a yard with wooden sculptures and he quite liked them, although he was startled by a dog at one point. Mom said he seemed to love art. He said, “I love music.” We kept going, stopping at a bathroom, then looked in a place with paintings.

As we kept walking Carly was a bit faster than us, and stopped at a place and got some postcards. I was tempted to get a blank notebook. It was called NotaNota.studio.

August kept asking about the music box place. But he was being really patient. We got down to the Dada museum, and Carly suggested she take him to the music box place and the rest of us could do the museum.

That worked out well, as my parents and I had plenty of time in the museum. And it was quite worth it. We really liked the pieces made out of pencils downstairs, and peeked into the closed Dada Lab, which was actually the coolest space in the museum, full of stuff.

They had success finding the music box place. The nice dog that had followed us through the center of town followed them all the way down and Carly had to keep picking him up. He was carrying some plastic thing and the dog slobbered on it once and he didn’t want it anymore. At the music box shop he chose “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth. The guy glued it into a little box that he could paint later.

I called them, and met them where he was playing down the stairs a bit. My parents went to a couple other galleries. He showed me the music box, then was playing with a caterpillar. He was really into it, and kept carrying it around. He wasn’t bothered by the green slime on him. Eventually, he dropped it by an ant nest by a tree. Seemed like they were going to kill it. Carly took him to the bathroom and mentioned how this being into bugs and stuff was a new thing for him. He said, “I’m a nature person. I’m discovering nature.”

We drove over to Ein Hawd, the Palestinian village, only to find the restaurant closed. Or, sort of. He seemed to suggest there was a private event, and also told us we needed to make reservations. Which definitely wasn’t the case last year.

Carly had suggested we could walk around Zihron Ya’akov. So we headed there and ate dinner at the Tishbi winery restaurant. August was a bit hyper in the restaurant at first and Carly took him outside a couple times. I got the sweet potato and salmon raviolis to share with him, but he ended up eating more of Carly’s calzone, although he ate all the salmon I gave him. And the wine was good.

We then took our time walking north through town, on the pedestrian street. We watched a group of school kids doing a dance for some reason. And we looked in a couple shops. August was having fun dropping leaves into the drains. We stopped to study the old fountain/water system.

We got to the north end and crossed the street to Aldo, an amazing ice cream place. August, Carly, and I got a small scoop of the bubble gum and a small one of the salted caramel and shared them. August also managed to get several bites of both Gramma’s and Grampa’s.

We ate that at the shop, then walked back south through town. He was carrying his ice cream spoon much of the way before throwing it in the garbage. He was also dropping leaves in the drains.

We left at 5:10. He played his music box and I mentioned it was from Beethoven: “Beethoven’s Ninth? I didn’t know that!” He was then singing, “We all live in a banana submarine…sandwich submarine.” The song “A Little Uncanny” played, and he said, “Uncanny! Word of the day!”

We got home after 6. He hung out with Gramma for awhile. He talked about painting his box and I found our supply of paints outside. He chose his colors, but then said, “Let’s start later; I’ve got cuddling to do.” Didn’t actually end up doing any painting today. He sung the pirate song (“When I was one…”), then watched the video of it. We went upstairs and told the Preschool with the Most Rules while sitting on the couch.

He wanted a bath in the tub, so we did that. He added ‘database’, which I use in the preschool story, as a word of the day. He had seen the heater sitting outside the door and asked what it is, then wanted me to plug it in. I turned it on and he said he just wanted one of the bars on, but then when he found out the other one is broken he got upset and wanted me to fix it immediately.

Finally got his bath done, and he was talking about a power plant that burns plastic for power. We talked about the chemicals that are released and how they try to catch the bad stuff from the air. He wanted me to dry his hair with the hair dryer. I turned it on and he asked if it was on low, 1. I told him it was, but he didn’t trust me: “Okay. I’ll check.” He was being silly, etc. and I was pushing a button on him to get him to be nice or calm or something but he kept saying I pushed something else: “The crazy button!”

He went downstairs and watched Gramma playing a card game on the computer and talked about that with her. He said, “I think when you’re about to lose something you’re scared, and they produces juice in the body.”

I took him upstairs and got him ready for bed. Carly came in and I left them at 8:30.

Conducting with the plant:

Walking around the sculptures and surprised by a dog:

Floating the ship:

Playing with the ants:

Coming up the steps to me:

Showing me the music box:

Dancing around the cat:

Deep in the forest…audio link song:

Students dancing:

Two verses of the Pirate Song:

Putting air in the tires

Followed by the dog

A nice color

Dada museum

Caterpillar

A friendly cat

Dinner

The water system

Ice cream

Choosing his flavor for our next visit

Card game with Gramma

New pajama shirt

He was up before 5:30. He asked me to turn on the flashlight so he could turn on the lamp to see if he should get up. Carly came in. He was quite stuffy. They went out, then he came back in and asked for the dice. I told them where they were and they told stories with them. At one point they went outside while the rest of us were still in bed and he was chanting “Pollyndra Pack Wallace!” too loud for 6am so Carly made him come back inside.

When I came down he was watching Smurfs and they were eating pizza. I made the pancakes after awhile for breakfast. We were about to start reading Giants Beware! when he knocked my tea over. Luckily, not much in there. He talked about an experiment with a gigantic balloon that blew up borders. He then had me act out someone who wanted to go to another country but couldn’t so he blew up the border for me.

I was talking to Carly and lamenting how sick he’s been getting this year. She gave the ‘it’s building a healthier immune system’ argument. I said I didn’t really believe that, and that it’s just something people say to make themselves feel better about being sick (after all, people who don’t get sick also brag about their strong immune systems). As Carly and I were disagreeing on this, August caught her and said, “You said stupidest!”

He as still hungry so I made him oatmeal and mango. He told me to try to say “King of the dweebs…dweebs, like stupid people.” I wasn’t fond of him knowing the word ‘dweeb’, but it is from Hilo. I’ve never defined it for him, skipping over it as quickly as possible. So I was impressed he could define it, having figured out its meaning on his own.

He wanted to play with the guitar, so we went upstairs and did that. Carly was outside, working, and he wanted her to hear so we took it in the office and played it out the window. He went outside and put all of the tree things in the bag in order to get a Halloween treat. That only took a minute, so he came in and helped me do small things around the house. He then chose M&Ms, which he had me hide for him to find.

We read A Bed Full of Cats, then he watched Sarah and Duck. Carly then taught him the Brown Platypuses song, which is a song her homeroom made up. He really liked it. They then looked up an experiment and he was talking about frying plants in oil when I went up for a shower. When I came down he was adding spices and stuff to a pot on the floor. She had told him he couldn’t have too much of the oil because it is expensive. A couple minutes later he came over to her and asked, “Mama. Learning is more important than money, right?” When she agreed that of course it is he replied, “So you should put more oil in my concoction.”

They went to do recycling. He wanted me to add to his concoction while he was gone. When they came back he showed me a key ring he found. I potted the palm seeds I had picked up in Ilanot. Carly cleaned tables and vacuumed and helped him clean up the rubber bands. He was then doing the “Ugha Shaka” dance from Smurfs, holding my hands to do it and actually sort of teaching me the dance move.

The two of them played the Preposition Game. He was getting really silly. He was quoting Hilde: “How’s your little baby paper doing?” And Hilo: “Furback Clan!” He kept playing with the big broken rubber band, which he had been playing with all morning.

My parents and I went to do the grocery shopping at the big Tiv Taam. We took our time, but that was nice as it allowed me to figure out the bulk sausage counter (to get Italian sausage for the soup), bulk spices area (for cardamom for coffee) and a few other things. We were back at 3:20.

While we were gone they had walked over to the mall and gone to Aroma. They had a berry smoothie and a pastry thing. He played at the outdoor playground by himself for a good while. On the walk back he was finding snails and dropping them near the ant nests for the ants to eat. Carly said that I wouldn’t like that, and he told her to focus on how he was helping out the ants.

He was watering the plants when we got back from the grocery store, putting the hose into the entry pipe for the watering system to get water to come out of it. We went inside and he ate broccoli and shrimp, then we boiled his concoction. It went through some good transformations, making a green froth, as it boiled.

We then sat on the couch and told the story about a school with lots of rules. We repeated his favorite part a few times. Cherie called and talked to Carly. We read a few chapters of Hilo, volume 3. His nose was itchy, so he got his potion and sprayed it on his nose. We then read more Hilo, to chapter 7.

Carly then made the cat gut soup that she last made in Lynnwood. I took August up for his bath and got him going, including the Lego boat. Mom watched him as he played in there and I was able to go type in a different room.

We went back downstairs and had soup for dinner. He sang the platypus song and added a little dance movement at the end.

I took him upstairs for bed. He showed me his different emotional faces in the mirror. I mentioned we didn’t have a word of the day, and he chose ‘stick figure’, which he has heard somewhere. We looked up XKCD comics to see stick figures. I told The School with the Most Rules, then he was asleep at 8:10.

Rubber band music:

Balloon popping:

Not deep enough:

Legos with Grampa:

Floating the ship:

Echoy mode:

Loud guitar:

Guitar out the window:

Chubby giraffe…:

Brown platypuses song 1:

Brown platypuses song 2:

He woke up at 5:35. I saw him get up, pick the lamp off the floor and set it on the end of the bed, turn it on, turn it off, put it back down on the ground, then look out the window. He was trying to decide if it was time to wake up. He decided it was, then went down to Carly, closing the door after himself.

He watched Smurfs, then Llama Llama. He went to the bathroom and asked me, “Did you know that bees have tiny lungs?” He then invented a machine to look at them. He had watched a Llama Llama about planning for Mother’s Day, and was inspired to have a pancake. He agreed to help me make them. He tried to request some song on Siri and ended up with a song called, I think, “Amigo Ghost Town”. He liked it and added it to his playlist. He helped make the pancake batter. We talked about how it would be fun to plan Mother’s Day. And yesterday he told me he wants to plan our days more, like he used to.

As we got ready to go he sat on the couch and looked at Giants Beware! on his own. I asked if he wanted to take it to school to look at sometime, and he said no, but I took it anyway.

Dad walked with us this morning. On the way August found several treasures, including a broken light bulb and a big set of broken plastic straw building pieces that sort of formed a pyramid shape. He said this was a sort of sensor, and used it through a hole in a wall to spy on a family. He said he could tell the kids there like pancakes and the yard was full of poop. As we got close to school he found a zip tie that he said looked like a Hebrew letter, a dalet.

As we parked the bike we sort of met Bar and Ben’s new golden retriever puppy and talked to Ben about it a bit. We walked the hummus over and August handed it to Lillian, and he asked what the big jar with money in it was for. It was for the “No tushy left behind” fundraiser. Dad and I both gave him some coins to put in. We then walked to his classroom. He took the bucket of bottle caps in to give to his teachers. They were in the middle of dividing up the group for something and when Dad and I left after waiting for a couple minutes (as August reminded us) I saw him still kind of wandering around the room holding the bucket. So I was a little worried about him.

Dad and I drove the car home and after a little while at home the three of us headed to the Binyamin art market in Tel Aviv. We parked by the big synagogue and walked north, finding the kombucha shop that sells metal straws along the way. Didn’t open until noon though, so we would come back later. We walked up into the market and spent the next hour and a half looking through it. For a few minutes we dipped over into the flea market area, more crowded, so they could get some of the eye magnets. My parents were successful at shopping, getting a total of, I think, 6 gifts that fit in a small bag.

We thought about going to the Druze place August and I had been, but their seating area was smaller and full. We walked to the kombucha place and I got a pack with two metal straws and a bottle of pineapple mint to try with August later. From there my mom remembered she wanted to return to a stand near the beginning of the market with metal jewelry. We walked back there and she got a necklace. Next, we tried to go to Port Said for lunch, but were sat in front of a big speaker surrounded by smokers. We left, and were hurriedly looking for another place to eat. We found a bar called Shpagat with nice seating looking out on the seat. They had a small food menu that looked good. So we ate there and dad and I got drinks. Our waiter was skipping around to dance music and I realized Carly, August and I would have to come back here as they would like it.

We headed back, taking a convoluted but interesting route through Tel Aviv to get on 20, and got to school comfortably in time to pick up August. Marion was gone today, so Vicki had done a lot of filling in. I first talked to August and he said he had a better day, but that he needed to give Vicki a punishment as she wouldn’t let him play with a stick that Nicholas had played with at lunch. I talked to Andrea and she did say that things had gone much better with her.

August went in the makerspace room with Candy and played with some play dough. He took a photo of his creation. He also had a watercolor painting that he had done to take home.

We headed over to Carly’s room and helped her clean up. August helped eat some of the leftover pizza (he had also eaten all of his lunch—he’s suddenly eating a bunch more) and kicked around balloons and helped pop them. We packed everything up and folded some things, then all headed to the car. Carly’s Get to Know You Day had gone quite well.

In the car, August was singing an “All I have to do is break you” song—which had some more words at the beginning and was about the broken plastic thing he was playing with. As we got close to home he was moving it too close to Carly. And when she stopped him he got upset, and at the house Carly had to take him upstairs as he was having a meltdown (although afterwards he claimed to me that it wasn’t a meltdown).

Back downstairs he built with the Legos with Gramma and Grampa, building a ship and a house. He wanted to float the boat in the bath so I filled that up. He floated the ship, then wanted to get other Legos as sea creatures. We went back down, built some sea creatures, and took them back up. Once they were in the bath, August took off his clothes and climbed in the bath as well. The first tub bath he’s taken in awhile. He had taped a piece to the side of the ship as scientific sensors to study the ocean, but it came off in the water. I went and got more Legos and made a rig off the back of the ship. He played in the bath, making storms to damage the ship, and Gramma came up to hang out with him.

He got out, and we put on his heavier snowman pajamas. He wanted me to take a photo of him being cute. August took the phone and took a bunch of photos around the house. And he told me “I invented a machine that will let you climb the tallest mountain in the territory.” And he said ‘Roman’ was the word of the day, then in discussing that we added ‘civilization’.

Downstairs he had more pizza for dinner, then a bowl of broccoli, shrimp, and rice. He said, “Hey. That was yummy.” I commented on him eating more and he said, “I like food again.” He and I then shared the kombucha, using the metal straws, and I was surprised to find how much he liked it, because it was both fizzy and sour—things he generally doesn’t like: “I love it…I love the sourness…It gives me lots of energy. I changed myself to run on sour. I run on soury.” And he liked the fizzy. He was disappointed to find out that kombucha actually has less caffeine in it than the tea it is made from. He said he wanted some coffee now.

Mom and Dad started putting together the Peter Rabbit puzzle. I helped, and August did a little, but he wasn’t too fond of the idea.

He said good night to them, then we went upstairs and did the story dice. A story called “Another Pirate Escape”. We brushed his teeth, then he was talking about teleporting things to Lydia to change her. He played a little of the tea game with Carly, then said good night. We went in and did a preschool game. He was really tired and wanted me to think of the preschool game. I told a story about a school with thousands of rules enforced by robots, then he destroyed them with an EMP. He fell asleep around 9:15.

Even if it would song:

Kestrel catching lunch:

The electricity show:

The underground tour:

The hug trap:

With Nicholas and Sophia:

Hide and seek:

Watering the plants:

Spying on the house

In the Binyamin Market

Lunch at Shpagat

In the bathtub!

Being cute

Metal straw and kombucha

He woke up at 5:35. I saw him get up, pick the lamp off the floor and set it on the end of the bed, turn it on, turn it off, put it back down on the ground, then look out the window. He was trying to decide if it was time to wake up. He decided it was, then went down to Carly, closing the door after himself.

He watched Smurfs, then Llama Llama. He went to the bathroom and asked me, “Did you know that bees have tiny lungs?” He then invented a machine to look at them. He had watched a Llama Llama about planning for Mother’s Day, and was inspired to have a pancake. He agreed to help me make them. He tried to request some song on Siri and ended up with a song called, I think, “Amigo Ghost Town”. He liked it and added it to his playlist. He helped make the pancake batter. We talked about how it would be fun to plan Mother’s Day. And yesterday he told me he wants to plan our days more, like he used to.

As we got ready to go he sat on the couch and looked at Giants Beware! on his own. I asked if he wanted to take it to school to look at sometime, and he said no, but I took it anyway.

Dad walked with us this morning. On the way August found several treasures, including a broken light bulb and a big set of broken plastic straw building pieces that sort of formed a pyramid shape. He said this was a sort of sensor, and used it through a hole in a wall to spy on a family. He said he could tell the kids there like pancakes and the yard was full of poop. As we got close to school he found a zip tie that he said looked like a Hebrew letter, a dalet.

As we parked the bike we sort of met Bar and Ben’s new golden retriever puppy and talked to Ben about it a bit. We walked the hummus over and August handed it to Lillian, and he asked what the big jar with money in it was for. It was for the “No tushy left behind” fundraiser. Dad and I both gave him some coins to put in. We then walked to his classroom. He took the bucket of bottle caps in to give to his teachers. They were in the middle of dividing up the group for something and when Dad and I left after waiting for a couple minutes (as August reminded us) I saw him still kind of wandering around the room holding the bucket. So I was a little worried about him.

Dad and I drove the car home and after a little while at home the three of us headed to the Binyamin art market in Tel Aviv. We parked by the big synagogue and walked north, finding the kombucha shop that sells metal straws along the way. Didn’t open until noon though, so we would come back later. We walked up into the market and spent the next hour and a half looking through it. For a few minutes we dipped over into the flea market area, more crowded, so they could get some of the eye magnets. My parents were successful at shopping, getting a total of, I think, 6 gifts that fit in a small bag.

We thought about going to the Druze place August and I had been, but their seating area was smaller and full. We walked to the kombucha place and I got a pack with two metal straws and a bottle of pineapple mint to try with August later. From there my mom remembered she wanted to return to a stand near the beginning of the market with metal jewelry. We walked back there and she got a necklace. Next, we tried to go to Port Said for lunch, but were sat in front of a big speaker surrounded by smokers. We left, and were hurriedly looking for another place to eat. We found a bar called Shpagat with nice seating looking out on the seat. They had a small food menu that looked good. So we ate there and dad and I got drinks. Our waiter was skipping around to dance music and I realized Carly, August and I would have to come back here as they would like it.

We headed back, taking a convoluted but interesting route through Tel Aviv to get on 20, and got to school comfortably in time to pick up August. Marion was gone today, so Vicki had done a lot of filling in. I first talked to August and he said he had a better day, but that he needed to give Vicki a punishment as she wouldn’t let him play with a stick that Nicholas had played with at lunch. I talked to Andrea and she did say that things had gone much better with her.

August went in the makerspace room with Candy and played with some play dough. He took a photo of his creation. He also had a watercolor painting that he had done to take home.

We headed over to Carly’s room and helped her clean up. August helped eat some of the leftover pizza (he had also eaten all of his lunch—he’s suddenly eating a bunch more) and kicked around balloons and helped pop them. We packed everything up and folded some things, then all headed to the car. Carly’s Get to Know You Day had gone quite well.

In the car, August was singing an “All I have to do is break you” song—which had some more words at the beginning and was about the broken plastic thing he was playing with. As we got close to home he was moving it too close to Carly. And when she stopped him he got upset, and at the house Carly had to take him upstairs as he was having a meltdown (although afterwards he claimed to me that it wasn’t a meltdown).

Back downstairs he built with the Legos with Gramma and Grampa, building a ship and a house. He wanted to float the boat in the bath so I filled that up. He floated the ship, then wanted to get other Legos as sea creatures. We went back down, built some sea creatures, and took them back up. Once they were in the bath, August took off his clothes and climbed in the bath as well. The first tub bath he’s taken in awhile. He had taped a piece to the side of the ship as scientific sensors to study the ocean, but it came off in the water. I went and got more Legos and made a rig off the back of the ship. He played in the bath, making storms to damage the ship, and Gramma came up to hang out with him.

He got out, and we put on his heavier snowman pajamas. He wanted me to take a photo of him being cute. August took the phone and took a bunch of photos around the house. And he told me “I invented a machine that will let you climb the tallest mountain in the territory.” And he said ‘Roman’ was the word of the day, then in discussing that we added ‘civilization’.

Downstairs he had more pizza for dinner, then a bowl of broccoli, shrimp, and rice. He said, “Hey. That was yummy.” I commented on him eating more and he said, “I like food again.” He and I then shared the kombucha, using the metal straws, and I was surprised to find how much he liked it, because it was both fizzy and sour—things he generally doesn’t like: “I love it…I love the sourness…It gives me lots of energy. I changed myself to run on sour. I run on soury.” And he liked the fizzy. He was disappointed to find out that kombucha actually has less caffeine in it than the tea it is made from. He said he wanted some coffee now.

Mom and Dad started putting together the Peter Rabbit puzzle. I helped, and August did a little, but he wasn’t too fond of the idea.

He said good night to them, then we went upstairs and did the story dice. A story called “Another Pirate Escape”. We brushed his teeth, then he was talking about teleporting things to Lydia to change her. He played a little of the tea game with Carly, then said good night. We went in and did a preschool game. He was really tired and wanted me to think of the preschool game. I told a story about a school with thousands of rules enforced by robots, then he destroyed them with an EMP. He fell asleep around 9:15.

Even if it would song:

Kestrel catching lunch:

The electricity show:

The underground tour:

The hug trap:

With Nicholas and Sophia:

Hide and seek:

Watering the plants:

Spying on the house

In the Binyamin Market

Lunch at Shpagat

In the bathtub!

Being cute

Metal straw and kombucha

Think he was cold last night, as he kept getting closer to me, sharing a pillow. Eventually, I gave it up and switched sides. He sat up around 6 but lay back down and kept sleeping. He then came down at 6:35 and cuddled with Carly on the couch. He then wanted to play with PowerPoint on her computer. She headed to school and he watched Smurfs. As we got ready to go he sang “Do you start the letter from the top?” to the tune of If You’re Happy and You Know It. He said it was from literacy group. He also asked, “Do you know this solar system is tiny? Tinier than a quark! And we’re tinier than it!”

We walked to school and got to class a little earlier than usual. Marion was busy though (talking to another parent) and we tried to talk to Lydia once but then she walked away and was in a crowd by Marion. August was finding it hard to say the words, so I talked to Andrea and suggested he might be able to try later. I said goodbye and left and started to walk up the stairs. August came out and called, “Dada! You forgot something… To sit on the bench for a couple minutes. Or are you trying something new?”

I waited by the bench, then headed up to the library until the PTA meeting started. My main goal in attending was to start to make connections and figure out if there is a sort of community of parents of gifted students, as there doesn’t seem to be anyone on the admin/staff side that is focused on gifted students/education. To do that meant sitting through reports on the Green Committee, what’s going on in middle school, the elementary social/emotional curriculum, and upcoming event planning and budget issues. All of it was fine, except the last thing, which involved way too much discussion of which snacks to provide at high school sporting events. I did talk to one parent, Sarah Grens, who was a history teacher back in Texas, but homeschooled her three kids until they moved to Israel. She said that the first grade here at WBAIS where parents seemed welcomed into the classrooms was 5th grade, which isn’t exactly what we hoped.

Carly had driven in the morning, and after the meeting I drove home. My parents got ready and we then drove up to Ilanot and had a lovely walk around, looking at all the species of trees. We also saw a kestrel, then saw it fly down and catch something in the grass—a mouse or something. We were planning on going to the Netanya waterfront and eating there along the boardwalk, but decided we were running too late as we drove into town. So we went straight to the Poleg Mall. No luck finding wrapping paper, then we got a slice of pizza each and ate in the food court. We went looking for a pan for bread baking and found a possibility at Fox Home, but was undecided. We went down to get grapes (Carly had asked us to get grapes for the event tomorrow) but they didn’t have any in the grocery store there.

We had just enough time, and we stopped at Tiv Taam on the way back. I ran in and spent a couple minutes trying to find grapes that weren’t squishy. Got four containers and paid a crazy amount for them. Apparently it is the end of the season and they are expensive.

We drove up to school and went down to get August. I heard screaming as I walked up, and it was August. He and Simona had been picking string or something up off the floor and something happened. We talked to Andrea about his day. It had been a rough one. No hair pulling, but he had been getting upset with the teachers and yelling at Marion, Andrea, and Mini. I was able to have him talk to and apologize to all three of them before we left. In talking to him, before we did the apologizing, I had asked where this idea that he could make the rules came from, and he said it was just an idea that he had had. I asked him how well this idea was working out and he acknowledged it wasn’t going so well. I suggested we come up with a new idea.

He went outside with my parents and I talked to Andrea for another minute. When I came out he was playing with Dad over on the ship thing. August said there was an electricity show. Then they moved over to the car thing and first there was an underground tour, then the were making wood. “I discovered a word of the day: warped…from Grampa.”

We headed up to leave, but we ran into Sophia and Nicholas by the exit. Sophia asked if he wanted to play hide and seek and he said yes. He counted first. Sophia then asked me to play and we spent about 20 minutes playing.

Carly had a lot of setup to do for tomorrow’s event, so we left before she was done. We drove home and he helped me clean off all of the lids he’s collected so he could take them to school tomorrow. He then used the lid to a paint can to water all of the smaller plants. Inside, he played with Legos with Gramma and Grampa and made a house. At one point Dad was laying on the floor and August cuddled next to him. Carly got home. For dinner I made him more shrimp and he had rice and broccoli and shrimp with teriyaki sauce. He bit his tongue and it bled and he had a big meltdown when we wouldn’t get him a lollipop after he ordered us to. Carly took him upstairs and handled that one. He came back down and ate the rest of his dinner. I was very thankful for that, as I was afraid he wouldn’t eat shrimp anymore. He then ate seconds. Still hungry, he ate toast with peanut butter.

He went up with me and helped me move the bed back into the small room so we could all be together again. I then gave him a bath on the stool. For story dice he wanted me to use the same dice as yesterday: “We’ll use that again but make different details. But we’ll use the same dice.” “The deeper it gets the sillier it gets.” So I told the same story, but this time it was from the point of view of one of the pirates that attacked. We then finished reading Giants Beware!

We then discussed school, and we discussed the idea of being a rules analyst, and not the maker of the rules. He liked the idea, and said he was already analyzing the rules. We then played a preschool game, then Carly came in to go to sleep with him. I left them at 8:30.

Even if it would song:

Kestrel catching lunch:

The electricity show:

The underground tour:

The hug trap:

With Nicholas and Sophia:

Hide and seek:

Watering the plants:

Ilanot

Their last batch of really sticky slime became truly bizarre after the rain. Carly said it looked like intestines.

August’s photo of Grampa looking at the map of Israel

He woke up at 6:50. I asked him about sleeping with his head on the floor. When I got up he had his head off the bed. He thought about and said, “Yep.” He then told us,”When I woke up, it was hard to stand up and I just smashed down again.” Carly headed to work and he watched Llama Llama. When it came time to get ready to go, however, he got upset and said he could also watch something on YouTube. After a bit of a meltdown he calmed down, and we practiced saying “Dada, I’m not ready to get ready for school. Can we do something first?” I agreed to read something, but then he decided he just wanted a preschool game. We did that, then Dad walked to school with us and dropping him off went just fine. We waited a minute, as August instructed, then left and drove the car home.

We took some time at home, then my parents and I drove down to the complex with Toys R Us. They were doing their Christmas shopping for August and got him a heavy set of the magnetic shape blocks, a six-pack of play dough, and a bag of the magic sand stuff (that he had played with at Toys R Us in Korea). We stopped in the Super Pharm and looked in a few places for kitchen stuff. Saw August’s friend Sophia with her mom. The Druze sandwich stand was closed, so we decided on McDonald’s for lunch. We then drove up to the art store by the big Tiv Taam. They got him a kit of bubble science there.

We went home for awhile, then Dad and I returned to school to check in with August before his dance class. I had Dad walk in first. August didn’t seem phased. He was playing with these natural blocks and wood pieces and Dad helped out. Candy had insects she was putting on them. Andrea said he’d been playing with a couple of other students, making things there and using the green screen to make it look like they were on water or sand.

He ate half of a Balance Bar and refilled his water, then went up to dance class. Andrea had asked if I had a minute to talk. Turns out he had been quick to anger today. One time he wanted to make an announcement to everyone on the playground. When Marion said they wouldn’t all quiet down for him he got upset with her and called her the worst teacher ever, or something like that. And at meeting time there was a piece of cardboard that someone was playing with that is supposed to be put away somewhere and he got upset that the rules weren’t being followed. The worst was when he was helping to hang up little books that they had made. He was doing it with Lydia and they got into an argument over something. That part wasn’t clear to me. But it quickly turned to him screaming at her and then pulling her hair.

The good news is that each time he calmed down quickly. After the last one he was then building something and asked Marion to take a photo of it.

At home Carly and I talked to him about it. He said, “Ms. Myriam and Ms. Vicki and Ms. Andrea and Ms. Amelia are the worst teacher.” When Carly asked “What’s a rule you would like?” he responded, “I’ll have to think about it.”

She was then trying to read to him but he wouldn’t let her, saying he prefers me. He finally tried the lasagna and liked it. Really liked it. He ate a slice of carrot, then I got him more lasagna. And after that he had some shrimp. He then sang the hokey pokey and said it was the first time he’d heard that song, in dance class. Dad asked if that was the stomping we heard, and August said no, that was from the teddy bear song. He wanted more shrimp, and ate some with teriyaki sauce.

We then sat down to read and we started Giants Beware! from the beginning. Dad was talking about something and used the word ‘occupied’ (as in busy with something) and that became the word of the day. We read some more of Giants Beware! Then he made a Lego car witb gramma. He got sad about his car breaking, and I helped put it back together. We started building what would become a plane that would study oceans.

Then, suddenly, he wanted to go to his bath: “Dada, you keep adding stuff like youre doing. I’m going to go to my bath. Mama, come.” He spent a long time playing with the spray bottle, and made a mixture of water and cream and lotion that he would spray on our dry skin. When he came back down he looked at our plane and said, “That’s so cool!” I had only added one part. He used my phone to take a photo of it, then took other photos around the house. He was then singing a song from school: “Everybody sit right on the floor, not the ceiling, not on the door…” Tried to get him playing with Gramma again, and finally he was. He called “Slowcoach!” So I called “Wanda!” back. We called names from Wanda and the Alien back and forth and he was being pretty silly.

He made a ramp out of Legos, then figured out how to make it taller and longer. We took slo-mo videos of him rolling things down it. He went to the bathroom, then sang more of the pirate song. Back at the Legos, Grampa helped him find pieces. This is when he told us that his plane had sensors for studying the ocean. 20 of them.

He said good night and I took him upstairs. We had talked earlier about being to watch a YouTube video this evening, and he even mentioned it soon before we headed upstairs, but then he forgot about it. We went into the office to do a Storytelling Dice story. He got in the green chair and lay across the arms of it, his back suspended above the seat: “Plank! Yoga poses.” We did a story, “The Bee Expedition”, then he said goodnight to Carly and we spent one more night sleeping in the office.

We had a long talk about school. We practiced saying “Sorry for pulling your hair” and “Sorry for saying mean things” to Lydia and Marion.

In discussing the incidents, a theme emerged, where they were all about (perceived) unfairness and rule breaking. When he wanted to make an announcement on the playground proved to be the most interesting and he got the most emotional over it. Basically, he is bothered by (and will explain how he has been bothered by it since PKB) the chasing game that Juhyeok, Leonard, and Yaya play. His perception is that they get away with making gun noises, chase people who aren’t playing, and keep people from using the swings. He wanted to announce a rule that said if people broke the rules on the playground then they would get fun stuff taken away—then proceeded to list every possible fun thing that happens in preschool.

And with Lydia he said she wouldn’t stop taking his tape (or whatever it was) down. He said he was “confused” by Lydia because no matter what he does (say something, scream, pull hair) she keeps doing what he doesn’t want her to do. He then specifically talked about the hat stealing incident and another time when she chased or hit him with a stick. He said, “They all clump together into one bigger problem.”

He was asleep at 9:25.

Humming on the way to school:

Grampa helping with the wood blocks:

Humming and Legos:

Legos with Gramma:

Everybody sit right on the door song:

Ramp slo-mo 1:

Ramp slo-mo 2: