A happy wake up at 7:11, although he kept the door cracked for a few minutes before coming out. Went straight to play dough letters, and a constant stream of talking: “Dada did that”, “mess”, “blue marker”, “blue letters”, “B on fingers” etc. He was playing with the magnets on the door, and made ’14’. He then turned them upside down (and eventually switched their places) and said “Upside down 14”. We made eggs and he was trying to eat all the cheese, but started spitting the pieces out, but then got upset when I took the cheese away. When I turned off the burner he kept pointing and saying “Quiet”.
At some point I let him listen to ABC songs. He also started watching Timmy Time, but only the intro song. My least favorite line of the theme song is “Trying to be cool. He’s number 1” (Really? He’s a sheep in preschool.) Anyway, August started walking around chanting “Number one!” because, of course, it is a number.
He ate breakfast a bit later, and dipped his eggs in ketchup. I also let him try thousand island. He was impressed by it because it was cold (but then again, so was the ketchup), but preferred the ketchup.
Changing him to leave, he requested his owl shirt. I let him choose a different shirt. Took a couple out, and he rejected them, then said “animal shirt”. I don’t know if he was specifically asking for the shirt I then took out, or if he was saying he wanted (like the owl shirt) a shirt with animals on it. We will see how this progresses.
We left about 9:45 and got to the children’s museum by 10:30. Went downstairs and literally were the only people down there the entire time (maybe 20 minutes). He did the usual (shower magnets singing ABCs, Tesla coils, skin microscope (although he was upset that it was broken), and we made a tunnel out of the blue blocks, which he promptly pushed over. The one ‘new’ thing was saying that the orange bags look like our bag “for class” (we keep our books for the 5-Touch class in it), then putting a round blue block in it and figuring out how to dump it out.
He then headed upstairs. The first floor was chaotic, as the school groups are back (they haven’t been there the last few weeks – extended break?). August went for the window and floor magnets. There was an announcement and the big kids started to leave, which I thought was a good thing and told him, but he got upset because they were leaving. Another group came though, which I guess was good, but then he kept getting crowded, bumped into, etc. and would screech each time. This time he took two of the floor magnets (actual magnets) and experimented with where they would stick (answer: no where). Then spent much of his time in the back part, with the light activities (shapes on a light board, etc.) About 11:20 I convinced him we should go up for lunch. As we walked up the ramp, he could see back into the first floor area. He pointed and said “Busy!” We went up and ate. During lunch he was saying his 70 numbers. He now says 78 the most, for some reason, and was joking “78. Oma say that.” When he knows it was 76 and 79 she was saying (because that was when me and Carly were born).
We then wandered down from the 3rd floor on the back walkway and played in the career/household/food area for the first time. He did some hammering, went to the vet area (where a bigger kid kept bothering him, so August left), looked at the food (curry, specifically), and quickly played with the vacuum cleaner (but it didn’t make noise, so…). Then down to the construction site, where he crawled through an unfinished wall, then watched the big kids operate the big crane for a few minutes, on his hands and knees.
At that point he was ready to leave, and after changing him we got out of there about 12:20. He was saying he wanted to go home, and after putting him in the backpack he said he wanted to head to the subway. He even tried to protest a bit when he saw me start up our usual sleeping path. But he was soon asleep at 12:39. Went to the lower coffee shop, but he woke up at 1:15. Short, but it saved us from the paint fumes. They were outside the back entrance, and I had noticed just a whiff of them after we had sat down. But then several people went in and out to the bathrooms and it got pretty strong. Him waking up forced my hand, as he wanted to stay in the backpack and walk (I took him out, and he wanted back in). I started to go to our usual spot, thinking he might fall back to sleep, but he again protested. So I turned, and headed across the pond area, and to the south path.
He was quiet for 10 minutes, and thought he might drifting off, when suddenly I heard “Seals this way.” So we went and saw the seals. I thought he wanted out, but he got upset when I started to do that. He wanted to stay in the backpack. We watched the sea lion, then the fur seals for several minutes, then the spotted seals for several minutes. Eventually I asked if he wanted to get going and he said “Get going.” He would then say that as we continued around the zoo and he wanted me to move on. From there we went to the deer, then the other herbivores (trying to teach him that word and what it means). He was most interested in the zebras. Then went and saw the outside birds. The golden pheasant was walking figure 8s around two posts, which was interesting, but also alarming – it reminded me of the jaguar in the old Woodland Park enclosure that would endlessly walk the same path in its small cage over and over (I think they’ve improved it since then, but not entirely sure). From there he wanted to see the cats. Alas, all the cats, including the lions and tigers and leopards, are now back inside someplace. He wasn’t happy with that, and kept requesting “More kitty cats.”
We were able to see an elephant – they had the doors open, but chains across the entrance so it couldn’t really come out. From there we went to the water birds, then to the meerkats (at least ‘cat’ is in the name) and finally to the horses. I took a break here (he was in the backpack the whole time), and he decided he wanted to go home to mama. I suggested multiple things, and he decided the book room at the children’s museum and drawing in our notebook would be good. So we went back to the children’s museum. On the way, we finally saw cats: three of the feral cats outside Peace Coffee. We got close to them and he Qed them a lot, then we continued to the museum.
At the museum he got to see his hand stamp, then we went in. We never made it to the book room, as he played on the first floor the entire time. After his slow wakeup, he turned into a very happy August. He looked at the rocks (selenite, etc.) then did the fruits/veggies seasons puzzle thing. Only got frustrated once, when he was trying to put a stuffed apple (he had been dropping it and rolling it along the floor) away and there was a kid in his way. He put it away because he had seen the chalkboard and wanted to write on it. We ended up spending the rest of our play time there – 20 to 30 minutes – writing ABCs in every possible pattern and tracing and erasing them. I was getting hungry, and finally convinced him we should go up for a snack. Went up and he ate a lot: strawberry, a bit of my bar, and our sweet potato and pumpkin snacks. This time, getting into the 70 numbers, he said “‘Dada’s 76.’ Mama says that.” Snacking took a long time, and we finally finished up, changed him, and headed out a little after 4. In the subway station he took note of the UNICEF sign/map. He pointed out the “rainbow” on it, and really liked the word ‘play’ on it. Back in Hagye Station, as I put him in the backpack, he started mentioning “spotted seals”, then also said “fur seals”. First time he’s said those.
On the walk home, he was singing the usual ABC song by himself. I noticed that he had the rhythm down, including the LMNOP part, all
the pauses (like between P and Q), and last two lines, down almost perfectly. I think he rushed one pause. I then sang the A is for Apple song. When I sing it, I pause after ‘for’ each time and what for him to fill in the item. In the past, this has always thrown off the rhythm, as I have to wait through a pause until he supplies it. But now he has it down to where he was (most of the time) getting the timing down, which is really impressive as the timing changes for three syllable items. That is, one and two syllable items (like ball and igloo) come in on the downbeat, but the three syllable items (like gorilla and kangaroo) come in a half beat earlier to get in that extra syllable. And once we were home I heard him trying to sing the “Duh duh duh…” part that comes between each ‘verse’ of four letters – I’ve never heard him singing it before, as he has only paid attention to actual words.
Got home at 4:50 or so. Told August as we went up that we would have to wait for mama for a few minutes. He handled it just fine. Said “Miss mama” once, then “Wait for mama.” He was using markers when she got home a couple minutes after 5. He was drawing with Carly and can now write good Fs and Gs. I found out, yesterday I think, as we walked across the park that if I spelled out several words he could tell me what they were. Carly was trying this with him, then writing them out. He knows zoo, dog, cat, mama, book, and home almost instantaneously and can also get coffee and cafe.
I had told him we were done with videos for the day, but then he was typing on my computer and somehow managed to get to the desktop. He then put the cursor on the Teuni Teuni video, and hit spacebar to open it and have it start playing. He was very, very proud of himself, so I let him watch some. He wanted to read Moo, and then Cat several times, so he would pause it for those.
After Carly took her shower she got his bath ready. When he heard it was ready he went into major stall mode, twice saying “Sit with dada” and getting up and leaning against me. Eventually I got the big orange ball and tried to lure him in. He was interested in it, but I still had to force him in. But once in, we started using the squirt car to write ABC on the shower door. He had it at one point and accidentally squirted me. I joked ”Who did that?” and he replied “Dada do that…people do that…Q do that.” Eventually, got most of the washing down without a hassle, although he still complained about his face. Then, he didn’t want to leave his bath, wanting to just do ABCs. Eventually I had to convince him to get out.
During his snack at the children’s museum, he had asked me what ‘sweet potato’ is in Spanish by saying “Go-guh-ma Español.” (It is ‘batata’.) As we were leaving the children’s museum, and I was about to put his shoes on, he kept saying something, until I realized it was in Spanish: “calcetines” (socks). And in the bath, he asked me “Bubbles español?” (burbujas) But as I got him out and started drying him, I said “Saca, saca, saca” like Carly always does. He said “No! English.” More of the code switching/things that belong to Mama thing. With Carly in on the bed, he asked “Nursing español?”
Looked like he was going to sleep with her shortly before 8, but it turns out he was having trouble getting to sleep. Carly got up for a minute, and he was not happy to see me. I tried to get close to him, but he pushed me all the way down the hallway, afraid I was taking her place. He was finally asleep, I think, about 8:45.
New words/phrases: busy, space ship, seals this way, get going, children’s museum that way, calcetines (socks in Spanish), rainbow
Waking up:
Playing in the morning:
Children’s museum:
Singing at lunch:
Qing the cats:
UNICEF sign. ‘Play’ and rainbow:
Tempted by the ball:
