The day started kind of rough. He, and thus Carly, was up at 3 something. They were skyping with Vivian when I got up at 4:30 and Carly went back to bed. But in that time August had suddenly started drawing big Ds. He also stacked all the pieces of the puzzle on the puzzle board and said “I did it.” With me we put numbers stickers on paper. I wasn’t up for long, as he went in to nurse just before 5. But he was awake again with Carly about 5:40.
In the morning, we were listening (not watching) Teuni Teuni a lot. When the song about helping your mother/father came on he said “help your mama.” He’s been really good about cords lately. Not an issue at all. But this morning he took the computer cord and put it in his mouth. I of course stopped him, then a bit later he said he said “Yummy” I said, “What’s yummy?” He replied “Cord.”
He quickly built on his drawing of Ds by also drawing As and Ps, and little ‘b’s.
It was cold, cold, cold today. It said 6 degrees when Carly left, but a bit later my phone said it was 3, while weather.com said it was 10 but ‘feels like’ -2. So we weren’t going to spend any extra time outside. We left the house about 10. He of course has reverted to not wearing his hat or hood, and refused both all day today. Luckily, we didn’t have any long walks. We walked across the park with the intent of going to the art museum play area for a little while, but he didn’t want to go, instead wanting to go straight to Home Plus (“Home Plus fun”).
So we went to Home Plus. Got a big box of Crayola crayons. He gave up the basket, which he had been carrying, and carried them around the store for several minutes. We then went downstairs and got a few groceries, then headed up to his class. We were early and we had bought some dried persimmons which he was excited about, so we tried those. He liked them, but he didn’t like the skin and kept picking that out of his mouth. So I don’t know if he’ll keep eating them.
As we went up to class, he was excited about class once, saying “Yes” multiple times when I asked if he wanted to go to class and see his teacher. Class was a little tough though, as he was getting tired. He’d already been awake 5 and a half hours by the time class started. Class was all about shapes today, and by the end of class he was starting to learn the Korean words for square and triangle, in particular. He even asked what square was in Spanish (I told him we’d have to look it up or ask mama later). Twice in class I had to pick him up and hold him for awhile as he was getting tired. But he kept rebounding, and about halfway through class he started talking about the stickers he knew were coming at the end. At one point we were stacking shapes on larger shapes (categorizing what was in our bag) and he sort of did one. He then walked to the door. I went over and then he pushed me back, saying “Dada do circle.” I took him back and I did it, but then he really got into it, and sorted all sorts of shapes. Then, when we were done with that activity he was really into sorting the shapes back into sets in the different bags. The next activity, shape drums, was less to his liking, I think because of the noise. He didn’t want to drum at all. He loved the stickers though, and the final song. At the end of class he said “Class fun!” He’s also doing really well about saying “thank you” to the teacher and bowing, both at the beginning and end of class. He still hasn’t caught on to saying “chu-soy-oh” (please give me) when she hands things out though.
Back from class, he surprised me by saying “Timmy Time. Makes a puzzle.” requesting the cartoon we watched yesterday. I had tried showing it to him again this morning and he just said “No.” He only lasted a couple minutes though before saying “No” and turning it off though. We ate stir fry and strawberries for lunch though and watched the rest of it while we ate.
He was really into saying “Patience grass-“ and waiting for me to say “-hopper” Carly started it this morning as she was saying it to him.
Finally, after eating lunch and lasting a bit longer while coloring, he was happy to get in the stroller and fell asleep in about 7 minutes of walking the halls. He slept from 12:59 to 1:36, then woke up. I picked him up and he fell back to sleep on my shoulder. I had been laying down for a few minutes to rest when he woke up, so I sat/laid back down in the reading area and slowly shifted to the ground in all the pillows. He slept on my chest from 1:39 to 1:53. Not long, but it was nice. And when he woke up I pretended to still be asleep. He got up and looked at books, then played with Duplos, then found the iPad and started drawing on it. I lay there for about 10 minutes before he left the room and I had to follow. And then he continued to draw, on paper this time, by himself for several minutes.
I gave him the choice between staying home and going to the Namu play area and he chose the play area. But first, we needed to get some cleaning done. He helped vacuum a little, and drew and played Endless Spanish while I picked up and hung laundry. We left about 3:45 and got to the play area at 3:50. He did all the usual things, but he is getting a bit more independent in his playing. At one point I was sitting up in the play structure, and he climbed down into the ball area, then out of it, then was playing around the play area for several minutes by himself. I had a good vantage point from which to watch him. At one point we were by the big octopus and I was holding him up so he could touch it. He then rested his head on my should and said “more sleep”. He rebounded a bit, then around 5 was starting to miss mama. We then sat down on the ground near the octopus for several minutes and were ‘drawing’ numbers on the floor and resting. He perked up again and made it to our end time at 5:50 without getting tired or mentioning mama again. He turned our new line “Dada loves you a ton” into “Dada loves you a Q”, which makes sense in his world, since Qs are the coolest thing ever. The air hockey table has the word ‘speed’ on it about 30 times, so I taught him the word, then he would walk by, pointing to them, saying “speed, speed, speed…” Finally, an interesting moment was when he was putting his arms back and doing his flying. He said “becoming eagle” and “flying”, then said “eagle” a couple more times. It is the first time he’s pretended to be a specific animal.
We left right at 5:50. He did a good job of saying “bye bye” to the man working there (although he isn’t saying “hi” or waving to anyone to greet them nowadays). When we got there we had put our shoes in locker 14, which is one of his favorite numbers. And I told him to remember it. Sure enough, as we walked to the lockers I asked “What number did we put our shoes in?” and he said “14”. We got home just after 6 and he was happy to see mama. She fed him and gave him his bath while I did the dishes. He surprised us a couple times in the evening: he called his water “agua” for the first time. And then, when drawing on the paper, he was suddenly drawing and saying “oval”, a shape I taught him, but weeks ago (and it wasn’t part of his class today).
Pretty much all of his playing this evening involved drawing on the paper or putting on number stickers, either by himself or with me or Carly.
Carly took him in to go to sleep about 7:45 and he fell asleep quickly. He’s been doing well today, only coughing a little, and most of that when we were out in the cold, dry air, or when we just got back inside from it. In fact, we were going to go to Costco this afternoon, but because the cold air was so rough on both of us this morning I thought better of it. He has never liked cold, windy air – it has always woken him up if he is sleeping in the carrier, and when he gets wind in his face,
even much warmer, he kind of does a panting thing like it is uncomfortable to breathe. Supposed to be really cold the rest of the week, so will be staying inside as much as possible for the next couple of days. At Children’s Grand Park tomorrow we’ll stick to the children’s museum, coffee shop, and maybe the tropical building. No playground for us.
New words/phrases: 5 in the D, how bout (number sticker), push 1 first floor, home. More go home and see mama (after I was pointing out Home Plus through the window of the play area), coches here, agua, oval
3am:
Zinnie’s tea:
Carrying his new crayons:
Playing in his letters area:
Class. A little tired as he watches sangsaengnim introduce shapes:
Kids gathered around:
Asleep:
Drawing with two markers. Right handed:
Doing his part:
Namu play area:
As we were playing in the ball area, this classic and racist (as you count down the Indians, it is about them dying…) song came on. Carly and I had just been talking about this song the other day, as the tune is based on “Michael Finnigan”, like the One-yuh song Carly and August made up. Anyway, of course because it has numbers in it August picks up on it and instantly starts singing it:
Hanging out on the floor:
Qs:
Numbers:
Climbing up:
Pondering:
Knocking down my tower:
“Speed”:
Happy:
