We covered a lot of ground today. He was sleeping upside down for the later half of the night and slept in until 8:01. He stood right outside the bedroom doorway being upset for a minute tops, then said “ABCD on the paper” and was fine. We had Cheerios and strawberries for breakfast, then got ready to go and headed out by 9:30. We walked to Derek and Logan’s house by Wolgye Station, with the intention of going with them to Dream Forest. Derek had this one more day off (like most people in the city) unlike Carly and Jill. Anyway, when we got there they cancelled as Logan was not doing well.
August actually did better going to their place today than yesterday. He started to complain a little as we wen’t to the building, and was crying in their apartment, but I think he might have calmed down if we stayed. Anyway, so instead of carrying on without them, August and I hopped on the subway and did the two quick transfers to get us back on our normal line and headed to Children’s Grand Park.
The children’s museum was busy with families, as school was still out. August was excited by the hand stamp, but then a little annoyed by all the people. We wandered around the nature area for awhile, then ended up at the chalkboard, where we spent ten minutes or so. But then he wanted to go someplace else because there were “Too many people.” In fact, when he would hear an announcement on the intercom he was getting upset, saying “More big kids” – after our last experience with the announcements being for the rotation of the school groups he (logically) assumed that was what all the announcements were about.
We tried going downstairs, but it still looked busy to him. We headed upstairs, and he decided it was time to eat an early lunch (about 11:10). That was a good call though, as the lunch room was pretty empty. By noon it would have been a zoo.
We had stopped in the subway and bought some kimbap. So we ate that and a banana and some of our peanut butter sandoo for lunch. He was in a good mood, performing the ABC song for anyone that would listen. We were also reviewing the punctuation/symbols he knows, and at one point was going around drawing tildes on things with his finger: “Tilde on the wall…Tilde on the amarillo.” When I got out the banana he joked about putting it on the kimbap. He set the banana on it, and I joked that it was a sculpture. So then he was setting the banana on the kimbap and sandwich, saying “sculpture.”
From there we went down to the little kids area. Spent all our time there in the back half, going up to the little kitchen area once. Mainly played with the big cube toys, looking at the clocks on the side and playing with the sliding animals. He also played with the magnet thing and with a couple of the little puzzles. He did the butterfly puzzle three times and was figuring out the turning of the pieces. When we went upstairs to the kitchen area, we found these little wooden tea cups. He was drinking tea, saying “Mama’s tea hot.” Upstairs he found both a stuffed crayon and a wooden piece that he recognized belonged downstairs. So we went downstairs and put both away. At one point he was asking for a cracker, but I said we couldn’t eat in there, so he said “No eat in the little kids area.”
Eventually he wanted to “Find Qs.” I convinced him we wouldn’t find any in that area and we should go next door to the book area. So we went over there and looked at books for awhile, reading a few of their English Nuk Books – he really liked the Oh No! one. We found a total of 5 Qs or so – one from the book on shapes (square) and the rest in titles of some other foreign language books they had (perhaps vietnamese?).
It was past time for a nap, so we headed out for our usual walk. But first he wanted some crackers, then just kept singing. After 40 minutes I gave up and we went and played at the old playground (Adventureland). We mainly wrote in the sand. He was having me write his name (Zinnie) and he would trace it. He wanted me to write up in the grassier area, but I said that wouldn’t work. He kept asking, so I told him to try. He did, then said “Nope, doesn’t work.” He wandered up the stairs to the second playground and drew on the rubbery surface for awhile, then came back down to the sand area where he wandered over to the train area and played with the things in there. We also spent a little time at the musical instruments on the one remaining drum.
He was then done with the playground. We decided to go to a coffeeshop – I didn’t tell him I would try to get him to sleep along the way. It was now past 2, so last call for a nap. It didn’t work though, so after a few minutes I suggested we go see animals first. He agreed, so we did that. The zoo was really busy, but now the crowds didn’t bother him. Also, most of the animals were out, starting with the elephant. We then went to “See kitty cats”. Everything was out except for the lynx and servals. So he Qed the leopards, etc. Then we took a little break on a bench and ate the apple cookie I had gotten earlier. We then saw the primates, most of which were out (except for the chimpanzees and one of the macaques).
Done with the zoo, it was now approaching 3:30. We went to the downstairs Peace Coffee. As we were going, August explained why he was excited for a coffee shop: “smoothie dal-gee”. So we got a berry smoothie. No coffee for me, but that was okay because it was really good. Much busier than usual, so we sat at a little table at the big round area. Drank the smoothie and mainly did art on the iPad. He did some on the Paper app, but has gotten back into the Sesame Street Art Maker app. He also did some numbers apps, and was tracing the numbers in Intro to Numbers, saying “Work on 8.” He also said “opposite” when starting on the second side of the zero. Not sure where that came from.
We left about 4:15 and changed him. On the subway he was doing more Sesame Street art – he was really into the glue and glitter and rainbow bush in the Abby picture. We got home a little after 5, a few minutes after Carly.
I was meeting Derek at 7 to go down to Itaewon to help him review a couple of restaurants, so left by 6:45. Before I left, Carly gave him a bath and we did some art. He wasn’t much into eating. Don’t know if he ate any more after I left. Probably not, as he was nursing and probably on his way to sleep when I left.
We went to Little Baja, which had moved into a bigger place, and a new place called Gino’s New York Pizza. Both good; I had a root beer float at the pizza place. Got home just before 11.
New words/phrases: no eat in the little kids area, mama’s tea hot, nope doesn’t work, work on 8, opposite, glue, sequins
Children’s museum:
He claimed it looked like an ampersand…:
His first sculpture:
Little kids area:
Drinking Mama’s tea:
Finding a 14:
Book he liked:
Playground after not taking a nap:
He had just been saying “No, no, no” when he saw me heading to our usual nap path:
Apple cookie:
Sesame Street Art Maker:
His new song involves adding ‘1’ into the ABC song a few times: