Friday: Children’s Grand Park

A very smooth trip to Children’s Grand Park. They always are, but today was especially so. No problems with the subways, no one saying he was cold, and he barely got frustrated with anything the whole day.

He was up at 7:12. Upset for a minute but then straight to ABCDs using pastels. Then reading Kiss Good Night a couple times. The beginning and end of the book each show the neighborhood of the story at the beginning and end of the story, respectively. I pointed out to him that at the beginning the light is on in the upstairs, but at the end the light is out and the downstairs is lit up because Sam’s mom took the lamp down with her. So now he likes to flip back and forth and spot the differences, pointing “Sam’s mom…Sam asleep.” Then to typing on the computer. He now knows ‘dollar sign’ and ‘ampersand’ as he said them himself upon first typing them. Carly emailed us back in the morning saying “Good morning, Pumpkin Berry!” I told August the message and he said “Good morning, Pumpkin. Thank you Mama for blue!” – referring to the blue play dough that I just bought him. While on the changing pad getting ready to go, he started to get a bit random, which was a hint of what was to come for the day. He was making references to the “A is for Apple song”, and was then using numbers. He was saying things like “111 suns. 114 Qs”. He then continued with some more free association: “No 14 on the clock. Up to 12. No Hanguel Q. Becoming ‘No Hanguel Q’. Becoming blue.” He also requested translations for a lot of words into Spanish: pink, Cheerios, spoon, yellow, and letters.

We headed out about 9:50. On the subway, he continued to have fun with the first software bug he’s found: in the new Dr. Seuss ABC and Green Eggs and Ham apps, there are these little mini game things. Some present you with 4 letters, and you drag one of them to the correct spot. If you answer the question, then drag 2 of the remaining letters at the same time (using different fingers) to the answer spot, one will get stuck. And instead of bouncing back to its original location, it will stay where it is, and that will be its new ‘home’. I should probably get that on video so it makes sense… Anyway, he’s done it a few times now, and finds it funny when he gets it to happen.

Went straight to the children’s museum at the other end. The woman at the entrance knows us well, as after she stamped his hand she immediately grabbed the black light so he could see it. He first went downstairs, but just for a few minutes. Then up to the first floor for about 10 more, but it was really busy, and at 11:10 he declared it was lunch time (“More eat,” I think). So we went and ate. During lunch he was very particular about me cleaning up the crumbs he dropped – if he spit something out, he would back away from the table so I could pick it up. He would then point out little crumbs I forgot. He was also very neat today at home, closing doors, taking a container of lotion back into the bathroom, and closing play dough containers and putting them back in their basket. During lunch, he put the lid back on the strawberries when he moved on to something else, and in the play areas he returned a stuffed apple he found in the wrong area, and a static cling magnet before moving on to something else I was trying to show him.

Anyway, during lunch I tried singing non-ABC/numbers songs to him, and got the expected “No!” reaction and request for ABC songs. Finally, I got to him by singing “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. He still said no, but I said it used to be his favorite song so I wouldn’t give up. So I changed the lyrics to appeal more to (almost) 23 moth-old August: “Baa baa black Q, have you any Qs?” etc. That worked. He wanted to dump out the nutty noodles so they would be easier to grab. I poured some out on the lid. He then joked about pouring noodles into the strawberries, then the strawberries on the sandoo. He did set one strawberry on his sandwich for awhile. He also got the stick out of the backpack and was putting it on his head and writing ABCs. Finally, he was requesting a bunch of words in Spanish, including: dizzy (he had been spinning), noodles, sandoo, strawberries, mushroom, yummy, upside down, stick, cracker, and see. There were many words, both then and later, that he would request, but I wasn’t actually sure what he was saying in English. Oh, and he started say “What’s _____ Español?”

From there we walked the back walkway, thinking he would want to stop on the half floor or second floor, but he wanted to go all the way down to the first floor. Still busy, but he found things to do: play with the apples, turn the growing flower thing, spend a good chunk of time on the chalkboard (but not as much as Wednesday), and play with the floor magnets. He then wanted to play with the window magnets, and this is the only point where he started to get frustrated. It started out fine, but then he wanted one of the Os or the C shapes. He was about to get a C shape but another boy ran in front of him and got it. He then wanted one of the O shapes, but I wouldn’t let him have it as it was part of a picture a girls was making on the window. So he started to get frustrated. It was past time for a nap anyway, so we went up and got ready.

Outside, before getting in the backpack, he was stepping on my shadow. He then suddenly stopped and said “More sleep.” Despite being really tired, he took a bit longer than usual to put to sleep, probably because he decided he needed a snack. So he was eating for several minutes. He didn’t want to go on our usual route (probably because he was still eating), but once I was on it, if I tried to go off it (because he was taking longer to fall asleep) he would complain. Eventually he fell asleep and slept from 1 to 1:55.

He woke up and immediately started to say “ABCD” but changed his mind and said “More outside.” I asked if he wanted to be in our out of the backpack and he said “Stay in backpack.” So I quickly packed up and we took off. He rejected the idea of the playground, so we headed to the zoo. As we walked, he spoke his thought process out loud: “No giraffes. No kitty cats; kitty cats inside. Elephants.” As it turned out, the elephants were inside as well.

He was in the backpack this whole time as we first checked to make sure the cats were still inside, went and saw the seals, saw the herbivores (primarily the zebras), walked past the outside birds, then went into the tropical building (but just the first floor). The entire time he was basically a running monologue of free association and puns. Some of it included:

– “14 inside, 15 inside…100 inside” (talking about animals being inside, but then switching to numbers)

– “Grant’s Z 3…Grant’s Hangeul no sound” (I had been teaching him ‘Grant’s Zebra’, which he got, but then started riffing on it)

– “Z I N N I E spells 3, Z I N N I E spells zero, Z I N N I E spells Q, Z I N N I E spells numbers” (I was spelling ‘zebra’ for him and pointing out that ‘zebra’ and ‘zinnie’ both start with ‘Z’)

– “No 14. Up to 12, up to 11, up to O, up to Z” (randomly talking about clocks as we walked past the elephants and I was trying to ask him where he wanted to go next)

– “funny zookeeper” “becoming zookeeper, becoming fish” (we were in the tropical building, by his favorite zookeeper door)

– “up to 100, up to monkeys, up to Hangeul E, up to one, up to elephants” (again talking about counting up to a number again, but then switching to non-numbers)

Anyway, the highlight of our actual animal viewing was getting to see the naked mole rats actually eating, and not just sleeping in a pile, as they had just been fed.

From there he initially agreed to go to the playground. But when we got to the playground he said “No playground.” He did, however, want to
write ABCs on the low brick wall along the main path. So we played next to, but not actually in, the playground for the next 20+ minutes. He had the stick, and was suddenly whispering to himself for a couple minutes as he wrote on the wall. We were then away from the wall, and he gave me the stick and pointed up in the air towards the tree saying “ABC up there.” I started writing ABC in the air and singing the song, but he said “No! Quiet ABCD.” So then I had to whisper the song. He then wanted me to do it on the bush. At one point he also held up the stick so he could see it with his shadow, and was also stepping on my shadow some more. We found a little washer which he then traded for the stick. He spent several minutes dropping it on the ground to see it bounce and roll. He also placed it on several of the pictures, and on the ‘no sounds’ on a Hangeul sign.

We went back to the children’s museum for awhile. Downstairs again. We played with the household item magnets, now actually using them as magnets and getting artistic with them, and also making a ‘Q’ of them. He is also getting much better at stomping on the pressure pads that light up. Back up to the first floor, where he got to play with his window ‘O’, then back to the light area where we looked at our colorful shadows, used the shadow puppet blocks (mainly he liked the sheep) and he pretended to brush his teeth at the light table.

We played until 4:10 then got ready to head home. He chanted/sang animal sounds on the way to the subway. We got home a bit late, about 5:15. Carly wasn’t home, but August didn’t say a peep when I told him as such – he just headed for his markers. But she got home a minute later.

Nutty noodles for dinner and playing with play dough. He is starting to use the iPad as a pity reward – or trying to. That is, when I accidentally bumped him in the head, he immediately started saying “Dada get iPad.” Then, when he kind of tripped or bumped himself at the corner of the table he immediately requested it. I did give in and let him watch a few songs before his bath. But when his bath was ready and I mentioned ABCs with the squirt cars he immediately paused it. He made a show of complaining about going to his bath, but he went and opened the door to the bathroom himself. He went back to get Mama, but Carly then just walked him to the door and I went in with him, and he didn’t say anything about it. Bath went well, then I got him dressed. He was excited as he could wear his owls again (last night he could have, but actually chose to wear his Santa Claus pajamas instead). As I was getting him dressed, he said “Mama is doing dishes.” A good guess, as she had just finished them.

He pretty much went straight in to nurse with her. It was 7:30 or so. He took a long time to actually fall asleep – about 8:20 – but wasn’t fighting it.

New words/phrases: other side, sea lion, English pheasant, what’s ___ Espanol?, Mama is doing dishes