He got up to nurse a little after 6 and Carly thought he was waking up. He fell back to sleep though, and slept until 8:13. About 12 hours. But rough waking up, until I got him doing “Cabeza, hombros, brasos, manos” on the changing pad. He then continued to sing it as we were out in the parlor. We did more, much more, of the hearing letters game and that continued throughout the day. We then worked on the alphabet puzzle, which he is slowly getting better at, and ate some breakfast. As I prepared food for lunch, he wanted peanut butter on a spoon. A fork, actually, so I got him his Spongebob fork. He grabbed the peanut butter jar and pointed into it, going “A a a a…” as more of the hearing letters thing. We skyped with my parents for awhile, then continued to get ready to go. He was requesting his minions shirt long before we got to the room to change him, but he then changed his mind. He had requests for a “blue shirt”, then a “silver shirt”, but couldn’t agree to any. Eventually ended up with his long-sleeved car shirt and he didn’t complain once it was on. Finally, we did some Spanish typing before we left.
We had to wait awhile for the #9 bus, so were walking around looking at things, particularly things that were spinning (a fan in a heating unit, things outside the cell phone store). Took the bus to Kwangwoon University Station, then the subway downtown. The subway was full, and August was still in the backpack, so I set him down and he was fine for several stops, eating a snack. But then he got antsy, and wanted me to pick up the backpack. By Dongmyo, 6 stops short, he really wanted off. Planned on getting off and catching the next train, but he wanted to leave the station. Looked at the map and realized we could go see Dongmyo Shrine, which we’ve never done, then walk along the main stream downtown. So that’s what we did. He wanted backpack time, as he didn’t want to get out at the shrine, and then was excited about walking along the water, and started talking about seeing duckies.
It took awhile, and there was a slight wind blowing in our faces much of the time. A couple times, as it was cold and I was getting hungry, I asked if he wanted to go up the stairs to find someplace inside, or continue along the stream, and he chose the stream. We did see some ducks, a lot of big fish, and lots of pigeons. We admired the artwork along the way, and he pointed one out, that involved big squares in different colors. I took a couple photos of it and the part he liked (he was pointing out a reddish-pink square) and said something like “You know, you can tell me if there are things you want me to take a picture of.” He understood that, as a few minutes later he started pointing and saying “Take photo this”. His list included the ground, a light fixture, a stone panel under a bridge, and, at the end, the waterfall at the beginning of the stream. Once we got inside he would tell me to take a photo of the pig sculpture and, later when we were in the art gallery, several of the things in there.
Anyway, 2.5 miles later we were to City Hall and went down to the big Citizens Hall area, which has galleries, history exhibits, a sitting area, coffee shops, etc. We found a place to eat lunch, and there was something going on on stage. A couple guys were introduced and they started singing a pop/rap song. August was initially captivated by the lights above the stage that changed color: “Blue! Verde! Yellow! Amarillo!…” He was captivated during the whole song. When the song was over, it was done. August wasn’t happy about this, and initially yelled “No!” a couple times, then got incredibly sad and put his head down on my leg for a few minutes. Even as his mood recovered, he started talking about it, saying things like “More one song…only one song…more two songs…one song more please” When I asked him how many songs they should have played, he said “Fourteen songs”. We were there for 20 minutes or so, eating, and he continued on like this. At one point, he started dancing to some of the background music, and as I took a video he stopped, then walked up to a woman that was sitting there and sang the ABC song to her.
He was back to being in a grand mood, but it was time to try a nap. I took him in to the nice changing room. As I changed him, he made up a “Favorite number is yema (yolk)” song, then had fun counting the rabbits on the wall behind the couch.
We walked through the sound gallery, which has an exhibit of Claude Monet paintings that have been brought to life, to have things moving in them. This genre of art is pretty big in Korea and we have seen similar pieces many times. These were probably some of the better ones. Anyway, he initially commented on the colors, then the music that was playing: “Colors!….Sad.” At the other end, there was a big picture of Monet. August called him a zookeeper, then wanted a “photo of zookeeper”. As we were leaving he said “Bye Monet!”
We walked around downtown to put him to sleep. As you might expect, this took awhile, as there was so much to see and hear. So twenty-some minutes later he fell asleep and we went up to the coffeeshop at the top of the library building. Not as nice as I remember, and they screwed up my order, bringing me chamomile tea. He slept from 2:25 to 3:22. When he woke up, he wanted to go outside. So we went out on the roof gardens for a minute, then down the stairs and outside, then into city hall. We went up to the 8th floor to the art gallery there, but the show opens tomorrow. So one floor farther up to where there are post-it notes you can write on and post on a whiteboard. August did this once before last spring. He wanted to get out of the backpack now, but when I took him out I found he had leaked (just changed him before the nap!?) Luckily, right next to a bathroom. Changed him, then did some writing on the post-its. He could just stretch and place the post-its on the bottom of the boards.
From there we went back down to the Citizens Hall. Sat on a bench and ate pretty much the rest of our food for a snack, then went into the show. Lots of interesting poster-sort of art, with interesting animals and creatures, so August liked it pretty well, except for not being able to touch. He directed me to take photos of several. We bought a couple postcard things before we left, and as we were leaving, a woman gave August a little hedgehog pin. We found a place to get our coats on and get ready to go, and settled for putting the pin on the orange strap on the backpack that I use for holding my coat.
We headed out. Two seats the entire way this time, and we did Sesame Street Art Maker the entire way to Kwangwoon. Caught the bus home from there. He had a seat, and I stood and kept him from hitting his head on the window when the crazy bus driver turned. We were home about 5:40, a few minutes before Carly, who had stopped to get rotisserie chicken from a truck. When she got here, August grabbed the “presents for mama” (the postcards) and took them to her.
In the evening, she fed him, and I ran down the the GS25 for milk. We used the iPad to read books in Reading Rainbow, and then some Dr. Seuss. For some reason we got on the pirate voice/cap’n/matey thing and August was laughing like crazy, and that continued as I took him in for a bath. There, he went on and on with random ABC songs and improvisations. I asked him what he wanted to do tomorrow, and he said “Chips for happy birthday” (a reference to the confetti in the Happy Birthday book which he in turn thought looked like the colorful chips at the party on Friday). Even after telling him his birthday wasn’t for two days, that is what he kept saying. So yes, he is somehow excited by this birthday thing. He has been saying “Turning two!” a lot as well.
Carly took him in to sleep, but he recovered and wasn’t ready yet. Came out to me on the couch, and we started singi
ng the “Mama loves August, Mama loves Zinn…” pronoun song. We expanded it, including “Green Monster loves August…” etc., then I was taking suggestions from August, and he added letters (“Z loves August…”) but was also requesting people (“Opa and Mama”). I took him back in on the bed and we kept at that for awhile. We turned the light off, and he was still trying to escape bedtime. He was trying to make it out the door and said “no bedtime…more happy birthday”). Carly grabbed him and he calmed down, and was asleep around 9:15.
New words/phrases: manteca de cacahuete, spelling ‘quiz’
Singing “Cabeza, hombros…”:
Peanut butter:
Walking along the stream:
One of the things August requested I take a photo of:
Watching the music:
Not an exciting video, as he stopped naming off the colors of the lights, but you can get a sense of the music:
Sad. Note the sad lip:
Then all this happened:
Another photo request from August:
Counting bunnies:
Sound Gallery. You can hear him say “Sad” near the end:
Another requested photo, of the zookeeper. Err, Monet:
Asleep with hands on the table:
Post-it notes:
Q spotting:
Art gallery. He requested some of the photos:
Back home. Singing in the bath. This is long, but he just kept going and going…:
Birthday plans: