Carly left for the NHD competition about 6:10, and August was awake at 6:50. First activity of the day was looking for the stuffed animals in the closet, then we made letters out of Duplos. We had toast and then cereal for breakfast. At some point he thought he had a hair in his mouth and said “Hair in my mouth…take it out.” Then opened his mouth so I could stick my finger in to try and get it. He requested the rabbit dance from Bluie, then wanted Green Monster to join in as well.
At 8:30 I got the Skype call for my book group meeting. August at first sat on the couch, covering his eyes to hide from Skype. He then got on the iPad a few minutes later when we started our meeting, but a bit later went into the bedroom, on the bed. I took the iPad in to him, and he spent much of the rest of the meeting on the bed, playing with the iPad, mainly math or ABC songs. Every few minutes I would hear “More Dada in here” and I would go in with him for a minute or two before rejoining my meeting. Eventually, he got hungry and I lured him back out to the living room to eat.
All of the skyping went until about 10:30. August and I then got ready and left the house right at 11. Pretty straightforward trip down. In the station he was talking and then said “A N D and”. In Gunja, where we transferred, we stopped and got kimbap. Once we got to Olympic Park, we entered on the south side. August pointed out some curving benches to sit on, so we had lunch there. He said “want some red kimbap”, referring to the packaging of the kimbap we bought a few days ago (this kimbap was wrapped all in silver). He ate a lot of kimbap, then ate all of the crab we had brought. He wanted the big pieces which, a few months ago, he would shove in his mouth and then spit out. So I was warning him to take small bites. He took this to the extreme and was nibbling it like a bunny.
He liked the green path, and after he threw away our garbage he took off walking down the path. After a few minutes I put him in the backpack for nap time. But at first he was just enjoying the walk, looking for ducks and egrets and everything else. And he started chanting “ma, may, me, mo” which is from one of the Spanish ABC songs he watches. We came across a series of 20 or 30 animal sculptures, and he had to see and touch each one (well, he wanted too – I didn’t try to say no).
Finally, after about 25 minutes, I came to the spot where, last spring, I forced him to wear his green hat. I pointed the spot out to him and told him the story. We then used the bathroom, and started walking again. I told him it was sleeping time now. Another 10 minutes and he was falling to sleep as we came across the point where, after getting used to the hat that time, he first started pointing at things (birds, as it were). This time, he pointed off at birds in the same direction and sleepily tried counting them.
He fell asleep, and I went to the cheap cafe I should have gone to last time (when I ended up at the expensive restaurant on top of the history museum). It was perfect as a nap spot (3 dollar latte and not busy), except I had to listen to that horrible “Semi-Charmed Life” song and a Bryan Adams song on their stereo system. Luckily, not too loud. He slept from 1:17 t0 2:15. He woke up, and wanted out. Sat at the table for while and played on the iPad, mainly writing letters, and listening to the Hanguel pronunciations of characters.
A little before 3 we headed out with him in the backpack. He made it clear he didn’t want to go to the playgrounds. We walked over to the art museum, but it was between shows. I walked around to the sculpture area behind the museum, and got him out for a snack. At first, he wasn’t in to the location and didn’t want to play, and said no when I got the stick and then the ball out. But pretty soon he was playing with them. There was a metal ’S’ (for SOMA, the Seoul Olympic Museum of Art) and he rolled the ball on it and shook it. He then was bouncing the ball around (“Bounce to art museum”), then rolling it and hitting it with the stick (“up to art museum…up to museum closed”). He started to get back around to the front of the museum, then sent me back for the backpack.
We ‘wrote’ letters on the flower bed covers for awhile, then I convinced him we should head over to the history museum. We walked past another coffee shop, which at first he thought was the museum, saying “Museum open!” On the other side, we came across a little drainage ditch, ground covered with pine needles, and some grates over parts of the drainage ditch. He played with the pine needles, dropping them in the drainage ditch and through the grates. We then walked down a big hill (him taking big steps, holding my hands, over the drainage ditch) to the first floor of the art museum, where he wanted to sit on a railing overlooking a porch, 4 or 5 feet down. Okay when I was holding him, but then he wanted to do it on his own.
He walked all the way up the big hill on his own, pausing to let me help him across the drainage ditch, then we went to the Baekje History Museum. Carly didn’t like it, but August did. There were puzzles, and a room with blinking squares on the floor where the goal was…to run from one square to the next. Was never clear to me. He also looked at some of the dioramas. We finished by doing another magnetic puzzle downstairs, similar to the ones at the National Museum.
We headed home, out the north end now, requiring an extra transfer. When we got on line 7, I set him down next to a mom holding her daughter. August immediately launched into the entire Spanish ABC song for them, then sang the English ABC song for them. Got home a little before 6.
At home, I was showing Carly some of the photos/videos. He grabbed the phone and wanted to look through them himself. He would try to show them to Carly, but only for a second/upside down/with his hand covering the screen. But he was really excited by looking at what we had done during the day and said “Remember that…fun.”
Carly gave him a bath, and we read books in bed and fell asleep a little after 8.
New words/phrases: grifo agua, water faucet, mas Cheerios por favor, floating dalghi, spelling ‘and’, y (and), rompecabeza (puzzle), wawa jug, canciones ABCs, quadrado (square), kite
Hiding from my Skype meeting:
iPad on the bed for much of the meeting:
Olympic Park. Lunch:
Walking the green path:
Touching the statues:
After his nap:
By the SOMA:
Up the hill:
Baekje museum:
Puzzle:
Diorama:
More puzzle:
Girl on the subway:
Walking home:
Evening: