7:35. Very sad wakeup. I picked him up and held him on my shoulder. Lots of coughing and I thought he would throw up on me. But no throw up. When he calmed down a little bit but was still crying, I asked “What can dada do to help? He sobbed “ABCD”. Calmed right down. So we started with art. He was drawing circles. That is, calling them “circle” as opposed to Os or Qs. That is new. He did a lot of coughing in the morning, and twice said “Zinnie is coughing.” When I first changed him I changed his pants, then tried to change his shirt. He got upset as he didn’t want his owl shirt off. I would leave it on until we were ready to leave, and he still got upset then. While watching ABC songs, he reminded himself “No ABC songs on subway” (because there is no internet) and he was singing along a lot. We ate oatmeal for breakfast. I haven’t been pushing the medicine, but he remembered it himself and wanted it in the oatmeal. So I made him a separate bowl and we put in the medicine. Of course, he only ate a couple bites after that. After awhile he was “all done iPad” and wanted to read books. We read a lot: Kipper, Dog, and, one of the used books we bought last time at Salvation Army, I Spy at the Zoo. He liked it and we read it a couple times. He’s getting into the ‘I spy…’ sort of stuff.
We headed out a little after 10. As we walked through the park, he spotted new Vs: upside down ones in the posts holding up the trunks of trees. Of course, he also pointed out his usual assortment of O and V and I shapes along the way.
An uneventful ride down, except that the only people to tell me he was cold all day were two women on the train platform. While he was all bundled up, except he wasn’t wearing gloves.
We went first to the children’s museum. First went to the nature area. He had me ‘read’ the big version of The Giving Tree they had there a couple times. It is in Korean, so I have to make up the story the best I remember it. While I was sitting on the low chair, he said “Hug Dada” and hugged my legs. He’s not much into hugging, so that was kind of cool. He then went up into the tree house and spent time examining the gear/clothes of a…forester or botanist or whatever. There were two walkie talkies, and he was bending them together to make an ‘X’. Next, he wanted to go down to the basement. He led the way, walking down the entire ramp. He did his usuals: grabbing the shower head magnets and singing Spanish ABCs, Tesla coilsWe then went up to the spaceship area. Rather busy, and when August was playing with the control panels he got shoved by a bigger boy a couple times. August’s response is to screech at other kids when they do that, which frankly this boy deserved since he was twice August’s size and his supervisor didn’t do much about it.
August was a bit frustrated and it was 11:45 so I suggested lunch, which he agreed to. We went up and ate. After that, he stared out the window for awhile, then wanted to leave instead of doing more playing. He wouldn’t be ready for a nap for at least another 30 minutes, and probably longer, so I asked what he wanted to do and he said “See animals.” So we went to the zoo and ended up first at the outside birds. He got to see one of the white peacocks with its tail feathers up. We did the whole stretch of birds, then went around to the herbivores. He was really into learning their names (moutlons, guanacos, etc.) We got to see the kangaroos hop a bit. I wasn’t actually sure if he saw them hop or not, but later he told Carly “Kangaroos hop.” We then went across to the seals. The lower level was closed, but we could go up top and watch them from above water. I stood him on the ledge, with me behind him. He pressed his forehead against the glass and watched them. And watched them. For several minutes. He was also liking the feel of the glass with his hands, saying “Cold!” Those were the fur seals, then we went to the other end and watched the spotted seals. Again for several minutes. That was kind of cool because they were actually refilling the tank, so we got to see the big jets of water, and watch the water slowly get up to the seals lying on the bottom of the pool. From there we went across to the deer. Just watched them for a couple minutes, but August continued his cuddly day by pressing his forehead against mine, then his nose, and giving kisses – which he hasn’t done in months.
We walked back past the herbivores, then into the big cats, as he requested the jaguars. As we got to the elephants he kept saying “Elephants inside!” over and over, then, as we walked towards the primates, “Primates inside! Monkeys inside!”
We had spent quite awhile in the zoo, so it was a little long to his nap. Changed him and did our walk. He slept from 1:31 to 2:27. When he woke up in the coffee shop it was sudden, and he instantly said “Playground. Go outside.” He got agitated as I put everything away and got ready to leave. Unusual, as he has always enjoyed playing in the coffee shops.
We went to the new playground. He wanted to go on the big merry go round, so when it was empty he walked on it and I pushed him for awhile. Then we spent most of our time playing on the hopscotch area. Tracing and saying the numbers – much of it in Korean (in particular he pointed out 4, which is ‘sa’). Then we wrote in the sand, where he drew a Hangeul ‘O’ (ㅗ). He wandered around the sidewalk area, still drawing with the stick, where he was doing question marks and joked about peeing into a grate again.
We had been outside for about an hour and were getting cold so I wanted us to go inside. August wasn’t coughing though, and coughed very little throughout the day after his initial coughing in the morning. A lot less coughing than me. Anyway, we went back to the children’s museum. Back to the nature area where he did the animal noises thing and looked at the rocks (selenite, amethyst, quartz, etc.) Then across to the rest of the first floor (chalk, etc.) We played with the strips of magnets on the floor that we use to make letters and shapes. He invented a new term. He already has the ‘Q part’, which is the little line you add to an O to make it a Q. This time, he had a ‘V’ and he called the line you use to turn a ‘V’ into an ‘A’ the ‘A part’.
But by far the biggest toy of the day were the static cling magnet shapes. First, he was carrying around a purple ‘C’ shape. Then, he found two ‘O’ shapes. First, he realized they were on the other side of the window, so he had to walk to the other side to get them. Then he took one back to the original side so that one was on each side. He started walking around the first floor, experimenting with what surfaces they would stick too and which they wouldn’t. They stuck to another window, computer screens, glass, etc. and hung on the pegs for the fish thing. He also put them on his head and on his fingers. When they fell, or he dropped/threw them, he would say ‘Boop!’. That probably lasted 15 minutes.
It was now about 4:15 and we headed out. He had been really excited about getting a hand stamped when we got there. Even though they are mostly invisible, he kept pointing to it and saying “This!” or “Hand stamp!” When we came back to the museum, he got really excited when the woman at the entrance shined the blacklight on it and he could see it. So before we left I walked back over to her and had her shine the light on it once again.
We headed home and walked up to Carly as she was about to board the elevator up to the apartment. Back home, he had left over vitamins from the morning, since he isn’t eating the gummy kind we have as he doesn’t like how they stick to his teeth. He pretended to feed one to Pooh. He was then reading with Carly, including the Moby Dick book (which he primarily likes because of the Qs in ‘Queequeg’ and because of the gulls page and the sound
s they make) and the I Spy at the Zoo book. I went out and picked up some groceries and vietnamese food for Carly. August ate some of her fried rice – particularly the mushrooms – then some of the bread and soup I had.
We then let him watch some more ABC songs and he really started dancing and singing to these ones that have an electronic beat to them. I tried to take him in for a bath, but he had meltdown as I tried to take off his clothes. Carly came in and he calmed down. She gave him his bath, although it still had to be a quick one.
He brightened back up after that and was pretending to eat more things: “Yummy pillow. Yummy palabras. Eating this C, eating this dada.” Carly went to sleep and he did art with me. He was wanting me to write numbers at one point, but he was sitting on the paper. This became a joke as he kept trying to sit on the paper. He still likes to use two colors at once, both for himself and to watch us. He gets excited about choosing two colors to use for “both”. He was getting tired, but trying to avoid it. He wanted to “Sit with Dada” on the couch, but then he would want to type on the computer. We did sit together for awhile though. I suggested I lie down next to him while he nursed to sleep and he popped right up and said “Dada go in.” While nursing, he got up once and patted me a few times. He was asleep right about 9.
New words/phrases: square and triangle and circle in Korean, 4 (sa), Hangeul O, stamp for children’s museum, hand stamp, A part, other side, go on the subway, yummy crust, regular sees backwards seas, stand on the O, step on the O pattern, Zinnie dada do have fun
Children’s museum. Making an X:
Spaceship:
Looking out the window:
Zoo. Watching the seals:
Tiger:
Asleep:
Playground:
“Step 7”:
Making 11:
Children’s museum, part 2:
Holding the C:
Os:
Blue one on his fingers:
Home:
Dipping bread in the soup:
Hasn’t played with this in months. Interesting to see how much easier it is for him. He doesn’t have to lay it flat to push them in, and he can rotate them back and forth to get them to fit, including the heart:
Eating the computer again:
Sitting with dada:
