August and I ventured out on an adventure with Jill and Logan to a play area none of us had been to before.
August woke up at 6 and said “explanation point…question mark” before Carly nursed him back to sleep. We were both up when he then woke at 7:30. We heard one long, like 5+ second cry, and went in. The first thing he said was “Owls, owls”, then he talked more about owls as Carly took him in to the parlor.
He then skyped with with Vivi and got to see them having fun in a bath. He wanted to take a bath, saying “Zinnie take a bath.”
Sometime after that he was marching around the house singing ABC songs.
August and I headed out at 9:30. We took the bus over to Wolgye and met Jill and Logan on the northbound platform. August did not react well to seeing them, getting his very sad look and crying. A lot. Like when we tried to go see Jill and Rosie a few months ago. August has been fine with them the last few times we have seen them, but we have always been with Carly. Best theory right now is that he sees Logan with his mom and is sad that his own mama isn’t there.
We made got on the train and took the 3 stops north and found our way to Vic Market, where the play area is located. The entire way, if he wasn’t complaining or crying, August was saying “No, no, no.” He finally warmed up a bit when we went inside and he started reading signs and numbers.The market was open (it is like the Korean competitor to Costco), but we went upstairs only to find that the play area didn’t open until 12 today because of the holiday. It was 11:40.
Of course, both the kids saw the play area and wanted to go in. August no longer wanted to head home. We decided to stay and hang out in the food court area. The kids walked around, explore the ramp/stairs/bridge in the entrance to a closed Korean restaurant, then sat at a table and drew: Logan in August’s notebook and August on the iPad. We then watched some ABC songs and Timmy Time and all got a sweet potato pizza to share for lunch.
We finished up lunch right at 12 and went into the play area. We took our shoes off and put them in bin 5 or, as August said, “Cinco”. So then we were counting them in Spanish, in order. We got to 15 and I stopped. He then said 16 in Spanish, and continued on up through 25. I know that Carly has said the numbers up past 15 with him, but never had him do it himself. I’ve never tried going past 15. So quite a surprise.
It is like all the other play areas we have been to (although the Tayo and CoCoMung ones are a little different as they are tailored to their TV shows), with a bear to bounce on, a pin board thing, a ball area, a floor piano, etc., but it was in really nice shape, had a few extra things, and all of the sets of blocks, etc. were mostly complete and organized.
Logan rode the train by himself for the first time. August wanted to go in, but didn’t want to be put on the train (and they wouldn’t let parents ride). But I think the real reason was that he didn’t actually want to go on the train at all, but wanted to play in the track area, and was upset that I wouldn’t set him down to do so. Kind of like the ice rink where he didn’t care about the ride thing at all.
We did all the usual things, and spent most of our time playing with a set of small wooden letter and number blocks. He started with J and then found the letters in order to U (where he lost interest). For each, he would set the letter out in the room, but they were really spread out. Interesting. He then played with a hammering thing next to Logan, and we finished with a wall where you could write with crayon. He just colored, and of course we did ABCs.
As we left and walked with Jill and Logan to the subway, August was asking for a lot of Spanish words, particularly colors (he is now big into gold and silver). Jill’s Spanish is pretty good, so she helped. We said goodbye to them at the subway, as August was about ready to fall asleep, so I was just going to go to a coffeeshop. By now he was good friends with Jill and Logan and said a very nice goodbye and waved.
We walked for another 5 to 10 minutes and he fell asleep. We went in a nice coffeeshop that appeared to be called Coffee and Cookie. Although it turned out the only cookies they had were little prepackaged cookies. I got an iced blended coffee thing, and he slept from 2:12 to 3:08. When he woke up he didn’t want to get out of the backpack and just wanted to get going. So we headed home, taking the subway south one stop where we could transfer to a bus headed home. Unfortunately, the bus directly home wasn’t coming for 26 minutes (holiday schedule) so we went to take the 1161. But the one we waited for was headed the wrong direction (it is that weird turnaround area at Changdong). Third time a charm.
Although as we waited a woman told me he should be wearing a scarf. A scarf. Note: he was in the backpack, where his sweatshirt and coat bunch up around his neck so there is no place for a scarf. And it was 44 degrees – the warmest it has been in 3 months, and it was the first time anyone has told me he should be wearing a scarf. I didn’t even have my heavy coat zipped. The guy that was with her came over really close to August and was asking him “Aren’t you cold?” several times before he back away. I was telling Carly about this via Skype and she told me I should start laughing wildly when I get these things. So I tried laughing (but not wildly) when she then told me, right before we got on the bus, that his hands are cold.
Anyway, we made it home about 4:15. A lot of art and singing. Carly and I both cleaned our bathrooms, and he helped scrub the floors and the mirrors. He really liked all the colorful bottles (of course) and (of course) started saying things like “Yummy blue,” referring to the glass cleaner. I told him they were all yucky, so he turned to his new favorite colors, saying “Yummy gold, yummy silver.” Then “Use gold.” And finally, since we don’t have a gold bottle “Find gold.” So he was looking around for gold. Yes, he is looking for gold.
It was now around 5:30 and he requested ABC songs, so he watched some for awhile. He had some spaghetti for dinner #1. After dinner, Carly was reading the new Alphabet book with him and he got really excited about the poster in the back. It is in English, but he was pretending it was Spanish and looking for Spanish letters and words on it. But first he identified the ‘yak’ and the ‘jaguar’ on it. He was pointing at animals in the book and saying “What’s this?” (Similarly, when asking for translations to Spanish, he has switched from his usual “___ Espanol” to “What ____?” – sometimes adding “espanol” to the end, but pretty implied by now.)
He was then hanging out with me and saw me eating the leftover pizza from lunch and wanted some. This became dinner #2. He ate a good chunk of pizza, most of his leftover egg in the fridge, all but one of the strawberry pieces leftover from lunch, a chunk of my bar, and then 3 crackers. Not bad. Especially as he needs some more calories to gain some weight.
I got an email from my parents saying they were heading to Everett for the next couple days, so we jumped on Skype about 7:30 and caught them before they went to bed and talked for about 20 minutes.
Carly went to bed about 8. He had been about to nurse with her, but then wanted water, but it was empty. So I had gone to the kitchen with him to fill it up. But then he opened the freezer and was tasting the cold freezer door and pretending to eat the naan through it. He then wanted up to look through the fridge, calling everything yummy and asking for translations of things like juice, milk, citron tea, smoothie, and jam. He then spotted two coins
on the table that he wanted to take in to Carly, so we did that.
Finally, we were back out, first doing more art (oh, and earlier he had been spelling/writing “O P A Opa”), where I was teaching him ‘periwinkle’ (one of the crayons were were using) and ‘perspective’ (as the H and I that I wrote looked like I and H as we were at 90 degree angles), then reading several books: Picasso’s Trousers (where he started saying “quotation marks!” and I could further teach ‘perspective’, what with the painting faces from the front and side at the same time thing), I Spy at the Zoo (wanting translations of leopard, elephant, and panda), Puff the Magic Dragon, Kiss Good Night, How Things Grow, and, finally, Alphabet. He said it was the “last one” but was then upset (tired) when I took him in to Carly close to 9:15. I think it took awhile to get him to sleep, but he was probably asleep around 9:30 or a little after.
New words/phrases: blueberry, juicy, naranja (Orange), auto bus, ramp, up to dose; no catorse, counting to 25 in Spanish, What’s this?, yak, money, 50, lamp, quotation marks
Waiting for the play area to open. Exploring the closed restaurant:
Drawing while he waits:
Play area. Egret:
Coloring on the wall:
Fell asleep holding my finger:
Heading home:
Evening:
Alphabet poster:
Tasting the freezer:
