I was up at 6 when Carly left to go to the hospital to see a doctor because she wasn’t feeling well. August slept until 7:30. He woke up and started coughing a lot, his sinuses clearing, and he threw up a little. After that, he ate three crackers and watched some ABC songs. Then we started drawing on the paper. I slipped him much of his morning medicines in his Cheerios and milk.
Carly was home a little after 10. I then took August down to see his doctor a little before 11. We had a long wait. We drew a little on the iPhone, but mainly he just had Endless Academy open – he wasn’t playing, but wanted the background music on. If I tried to turn it off he wanted it back on.
The doctor visit went well. Cold progressing normally. He got upset as we went into the room, but grabbed the stuffed animal monster she had on the corner of the desk and held and looked at it during the exam. A nurse handed him a candy during the exam, and he said a couple things during it. When it was over, he immediately asked me to open the candy. And when he was down on the floor he actually said hi to the doctor. He was then calm and let me talk to her. When we were leaving, he actually said “bye” and “thank you” at my urging. I was really talking up how the doctor helps us feel better before, so I think it worked a bit.
It took awhile in the waiting room though and he was getting frustrated. So I took him back home first, then came back down to the pharmacy and filled his prescriptions. When I got back up, he was asleep. He and Carly took a nap together from just before noon until just after 1.
He woke up slowly, and was just sitting in bed for awhile. I went in and laid down with him, and we ended up doing a little wrestling. I rolled over to him, and he used his head to push me back, then his hands.
Carly had to go back to the hospital for a pointless follow up. August and I started by playing with the Duplo animals. Light through the window was making a rectangle on the ground, and August called it a one and touched it: “touch one.”
We then did some drawing, then I gave August his cough medicine. Again, I’d been talking about how it helps with his cough, and he is starting to figure that out. He took it straight from the dropper and drank the whole dose. In return I let him watch ABC songs on the iPad. At one point he started wildly drawing ‘zeds’ on the screen with his fingers. He ate close to 4 strawberries while on the iPad, which wasn’t bad, given his small appetite. Also, when he was watching a song about shapes, he got excited by the rectangle because it looked like a Hangeul M (ㅁ). Carly got home at 2:15.
I wanted to get out of the house and give Carly some resting time, so around 3, August and I headed out. He made a desperate plea for the backpack, pulling all the coats off of it and trying to climb in, but eventually I let him walk to the street, then got him in the stroller. He fought it until I offered him a cracker, then it was no problem. I’d planned to go to Toys R Us and play in Hageulbi Park for a little while. But he was coughing a little on the walk and didn’t want to possibly make it worse by spending any more time outdoors. So we went to Toys R Us. Took him out of the stroller once inside, and he started stomping around, saying “walk, walk, walk”, happy to be out of the stroller.
He immediately remembered there was a play area here. I didn’t want to go today (had just done back-to-back play areas) so told him no. He then said “Play area closed” and I went along with that. It is confusing, because the art museum and children’s museum are closed on Monday. Anyway, we went into Toys R Us. He looked at and touched (“touch!”) some big stuffed bears they had in a cardboard display while I looked at books they had out on display. It was like the first time we bought a bunch of books at TrU. I got the Moo and Dog books by the same guy that did the Cat book August has liked so much. And I got a little Eric Carle book called something like How Things Grow. We then went and looked at art supplies. Was happy to find that Crayola sells oil pastels in a cardboard box – exactly what I wanted, as not a ton of plastic waste like the Korean crayons. Also got more washable markers. Wanted slim markers as well, but the only ones I saw at first were the 50 packs. And August kept trying to pull open the 50 packs and pull out a marker. He got really frustrated that I wouldn’t let him and I picked him up. He did some of his light hitting, but he knows he’s not to hit, so then he started pinching my face a bit. He had started that once a couple months ago, but that was it with me, although Carly said he did it once to her too. Anyway, we talked about not hurting dada, etc. and eventually I found a 20 pack, which was perfect.
My new plan was to get a smoothie at Smoothie King in the food court and sit and read the new books and draw. August initially liked the idea, wanting to use his new art supplies right away. Unfortunately, I hadn’t brought a notebook with us. So we went upstairs to Lotte Mart, where I knew they had a good selection of cheap notebooks. I wanted a little notebook for the backpack, but August wanted a “Big” notebook, which he said in a low voice, as opposed to a “little” one (high voice). It was a good opportunity to use the word “both” again, as we got both. We found a little black one with monsters on the cover, and a big one with a pigeon on the front. We’ll use that one for our next big notebook.
We got those, but when we got down to the food court he changed his mind, wanting to go home. So we went and got our coats on. I was talking to him about the idea of a coffee shop, which he approved of, but then we got back around to just getting a smoothie and drawing here. This time he liked the plan. But then as we tried to choose a smoothie and wait in line he got impatient and started to miss Mama again. So we headed out, with him saying “color at home.”
I let Carly know we were coming home, then as we got near See and Me had the idea of going to the library. August approved, and we headed down that way, only to find it is also closed on Mondays. So we headed on home.
At home, he ate a ravioli and a half for dinner. Carly gave him a quick bath. He tried out the new markers, and was working, with Carly’s help, on holding two markers at once, like he has us do. He also had the markers scattered on the floor and was making numbers out of them, first 11. It is funny though, as the markers can be several feet apart and he will call them 11, pointing from one to the other. I then had him do a hundred and eleven, and then 1111. He was doing the latter, but when he said it it came out “a thousand eleven.” He also was writing a pretty good 1 2 3 4 over and over. The 4 is pretty abstract though.
Finally, he drank another dose of medicine from the bottle. This time, he was even holding it himself part of the time and working on tilting his head back so he could get some.
As Carly took him in to go to sleep a little after 7, he requested a diaper change even though he had just put a diaper on after his bath. When we said no, he didn’t need one, he pointed to the bed and said “change diaper here.” We change his diaper most nights after he has fallen asleep and right before we go to bed to make sure it lasts to morning. It seems like he has an awareness that we change his diaper in bed, as we never do it any other time.
New words/phrases: yeah for Qs (I said yeah for crackers), I love coloring, medicine in the goo-uh-goos, pastels, it’s number one (etc. from YouTube number video), (I) like letter X, wear our coats
Carly was up at 4 or before with a fever that spiked to 39. I heard her on Skype – she had been talking to her dad. At 4:30 she woke me up, wanting to go to the hospital. I talke
d her out of going that moment, as it was 3 degrees, I didn’t know if there were taxis, and I didn’t want her out alone in the middle of the night. I told her to wait for light, but at 6 she came in and said she wanted to go. I had not been able to sleep in between and had been doing a lot of coughing. Made for a long day.
Waiting at the doctor:
After his nap:
Touching the sun one:
Toys R Us walk:
Back home:
