Today we learned that:
A. They have little puppy lockers to put your little dog in while
you shop. Looks just like the ones you would put your coat in, with
a glass door, but also air holes. Video proof below.
B. August likes clam chowder. He ate the chunks of potato and clam. And he chose sweet potato pizza, and had no problems with the chunks of sweet potato, corn, or onion.
Carly doesn’t have students this week due to the GCP trips so left a bit later for work. August was awake about 7, before she left. He was watching ABC songs after she left, but was full of energy from the beginning; he was ‘hiding’ from busses, ducks, etc. in the songs, making up nonsensical “A is for Apple” lines like “F is for goo-uh-goos”, and running around the table so he could say “Upside down ‘26 letters from A to Z’”.
We left at 10. Took the bus to Sangbong then the subway one stop north. Need to remember to just take the (different) bus all the way up next time, as we had to wait a long time for a train. Korean students are still on break. It wasn’t too busy when we got there, but was pretty crazy by the time we left.
He ignored the train, bouncy/climbing area, big ball pit, house area, bouncy bear, and digging area. Instead, spent most of our time with:
– the magnetic shape magnets (when I started to put a few pentagons together he said “Teuni Ball!”)
– the little kids ball pit. He discovered that each ball had two numbers on it. He wanted to find 14, but they only went up to 12. But ‘1’ and ‘4’ were on the same ball, so it was pretty much 14. At one point, he wanted his water so we got the water bottle. When done, he said “Dada drink it” (which is often how we deal with food he doesn’t finish). I then pretended to drink it and say “Ahhh”, which got him laughing. So he would point to someplace else, often just a foot or two away (like he did with the ‘QUACK’ cards) and then say “Dada drink it here!”).
– The bristly blocks. Made some letters out of them and he stacked them a bit.
– Air hockey. He was starting to catch on to using the paddle and hitting the puck, but mainly used his hands. But his favorite was dropping it through the goal and taking it out of the slot down below.
– Walking and crawling across the floor keyboard. Also, he got a couple of little wooden beads that had come from the digging area and lay on the keyboard to play with them.
– At the end, we went into the building block area. Sadly, they got rid of the wonderful animal blocks area, and don’t appear to have the hammering stuff or little letter blocks we played with last time. And there is no coloring wall. Instead, they’ve put in a Legos/Duplo/other blocks area which is all the rage here in South Korea. Kind of a shame, as they didn’t open the area until 12, after we had been there more than an hour, and it makes it feel like school, as there are now sets of desks (with edges around them to keep pieces from falling). Luckily, they did have a nice wooden puzzle number set and we beat the crowd to the area. August played with the wooden numbers for probably 20 minutes, taking them out and lining them up, putting them back, etc. As he lined them up, he would very slowly sing our 1 to 30 (well, 20 in this case, as that is as high as they went) song.
He would have played with the numbers longer, but it was now 12:30 and he was getting tired. We still needed to eat lunch and get him ready for a nap. So we went out to the cafeteria area. He chose the sweet potato pizza, which is what we had last time, and I got a bowl of clam chowder. This is the place that is pretty much a duplicate of Costco. But there food area is definitely better. Last time, August wouldn’t eat the chunks of sweet potato or the onions. This time, he ate everything, and was asking what the corn was as he ate it.
Knew he was definitely ready to go when he wanted to go back downstairs to see if there were any puppies in the lockers (there had been one on our way up, but wasn’t now). Got him ready for his nap and headed out. Took a little walking, but he fell asleep. Found a little clothing/coffee shop down the block from the fake cookie place we went to last time. He slept from 1:38 to 2:49. Woke up and did some letter writing on the iPad, but didn’t want to stay long.
We stopped by the Vic Market again to change him, then headed out walking. Walked a block over to the river, then headed south. Saw a few ducks and egrets as we walked, but he was most interested in snow. Touched snow a little, but the best thing was breaking off the icicles from the back of the bike area covers. He could do this from the backup. Did that and kept walking. Walked to Nowon, crossed the river, then caught the bus (Z’s choice between more walking and catching the bus home).
Got off the bus, and August didn’t want to go to Home Plus. He also didn’t want to go home. He wanted to get down and play in the snow. Spent a good half hour in the park. Mainly, he went around with the stick and broke up chunks of snow. I showed him the snow on top of the bushes, and he liked making it fall through the branches. He also liked walking up close to the pigeons, and was counting them. Then, he went up the little hill and watched the big kids having a snowball fight and driving their remote controlled cars (the ones with the big wheels); “Car on the snow”. Two of them drove their cars up to August and were shaking the wheels back and forth. August first went up and touched one of them, then started dancing back and forth with the cars. Moment of the day right there. That went on for a good minute. It was almost 5, so I called Carly and she was almost home. At the same time August decided his hands were too cold and he wanted to go home. So we walked out of the park and met Carly and went up home.
After a bit at home I went to Home Plus on my own. I had to change his 5-TOUCH class back to the Friday class because Jihong’s mom had to change his class, and I picked up diapers as well. At home, I was surprised when August asked “‘Dada’s shoes’ espanol?” and before I could say anything answered his own question “Zapatos de papa.” Carly says she probably covered that construction with him, but not in the last few days. When asking about something else I had to look up he often jokes “Same” before I am done. But this time he changed, saying “Maybe same…maybe similar.” Finally, he started stepping on my shadow and joked “Why you stepping on me?” We also did hide and seek with Green Monster and friends on his request before going out and doing the rabbit/green monster dance. He had added in the “Hey!” part of the song, but now calls out what he wants them to shout each time, often letters “A…B…C…green agua!”
At 7:30 he wanted nurse. I asked if he was tired and he said “Go to sleep.” So Carly took him in. But he wasn’t ready yet. He came out with me while she took a shower. We read in the reading area. I put new books on the book stands and it worked, as we read at least two of of there: Can’t you sleep, Little Bear? and Hippos Go Beserk. He decided to shake water on the floor from his water bottles, so cut that off. He then wanted read Kipper’s A to Z on the bed, which we did. He sang the whole ABC song for Carly in plurals “As, Bs, Cs…” I head him do at least part of this once, but have no idea where he got the idea. Not from us. He even said the ‘Xs’ part correctly. Finally, after being back out in the living room, Carly suggested we go in to the bed. as he ran down the hall he said “Let’s go to bed.”
He continues to come up with more A is for… lines. Today it was “T is for Teuni ball…X is for x-Ray”.
New words/phrases: pyramid, air hockey, beads, sopa (soup), clam chowder, crust
part, maybe same, maybe similar
Dog locker:
Play area:
Beads on the keyboard:
A big lunch:
Nap spot:
Writing on the iPad:
Walk home. I think you can figure this one out:
In the park:
