A lot of talking in his sleep last night. This morning, calling out “nursing…nursing please” over and over before he actually got up. I couldn’t tell if he was actually asleep or awake for several minutes. In the morning he played Endless Alphabet, wanting me to translate everything to Spanish (machine, contagious, bellow…) When he was done with that he went and got the A de Activista book and we read that a few times, him asking “Where is Y?” or whatever letter is next, and finding it on the page.
Headed to Teuni Teuni class and got there a few minutes early. Class went well. August let the teacher pick him up, and later did a forward roll. After that he came and wanted to be held for a minute, but much better than wanting to leave. And for the most part he participated in all the activities (except wearing the outfit, of course). He took a minute out to go look at mirror August and press their foreheads together. And he avoided the ramp area, which was full of kids, when he was planting the flowers, preferring to simply walk around a couple times. At the end of class we got our Teuni Teuni DVD, then I realized the water bottle we had brought in was gone. Someone had walked off with our water bottle. Not a big deal, but quite annoying, as August realized what had happened and was getting upset “More blue wawa…” and we had planned to head straight to Dream Forest, not go home. We went down to Home Plus, but their water bottles were too expensive, so we headed home. Out in the park August first played on one of the bike ramps for a minute, then on the wooden benches outside the museum and walking up and down the stone paths. We then went home and took the opportunity to put the hydration system back in the backpack.
We walked the 2 miles to Dream Forest. He was really into “This is?” today, pointing to everything from ‘service station’ to ‘car lift’ and ‘gas pump’ to ‘cloud’ and ‘motion detector’ ‘air freshener’ and ‘speaker’. He also wanted to look into the garbage cans to see what was in them – something he has started doing the last couple of days (started at Uijeongbu). They have flowers out in front of the visitor center now, and he really liked those. Then said “Go see deer” and “More into Dream Forest.” So we went up to the deer. He didn’t want to get out at first, but changed his mind. Ended up eating some strawberries, and requesting the “Bye fuzzy” thing (several times through the day). He went and fed the deer by putting dead grass through the fence, and got to pet one of the deer. He was really into Spanish as well, figuring things out like ‘sad deer’ and ‘messy deer’.
Had expected him to fall asleep on the walk to Dream Forest. That didn’t happen. Now we tried again, walking through Dream Forest. Still no. So we stopped on the big steps near a sculpture and had some more food. He ate well today, just not much at once, spreading it across 5 or 6 snacks. While sitting there, two little dogs came over and August was trying to pet them; finally succeeded. He was in full talking mode, singing the A is for Ah song a lot. It was cloudy, and he looked up and saw the sun and said “D moon” and “This is?” He then joked “Where the selenite? Selenite up there!” He looked over at the performance arts building and said “Go in art museum. Get apple juice.” This was the first time he impressed me with his memory today, as we only got him a juice once, about a month and a half ago. And it was an orange juice, but we were deciding between orange and apple since they were out of strawberry.
Anyway, we went walking again. He was talking about waking up in a coffee shop, and seemed to be tired. But then as we were walking he wanted to touch the berries on trees and just kept singing and asking about more things. When I wouldn’t let him touch the berries, he started to get upset and screaming. He kept saying something like “More screaming big fall asleep.” We stopped again at a bench near an apartment complex. He ate some crackers, then we had banana chips. He started feeding me some, saying “For dada.”
At this point we gave up on the nap. I told August we wouldn’t be going to a coffee shop and playing on the iPad if he didn’t take nap, and he seemed to understand and be fine with that. Tried to go to the art gallery in the performance arts building, but they don’t reopen until April 5th. A bit later we walked to the children’s art museum and they don’t have a show until April 9th. Both were closed when we were here at the beginning of February, so they must be on some extended winter hiatus. Changed him in the building, then we sat on a bench and had some more food. He counted the round and square chairs, showing he could count up to 5 on his own. He got out the broom from the backpack and swept the benches, then was dropping it through the cracks.
We walked down to check on that second art museum, then up past the playground. Walking down he had preemptively said “No playground”, but now he saw that round turning thing and changed his mind. We got down, played on that, had another snack, then he played around a bit more. Next to the playground, that is, not actually in it. He wanted to throw garbage away, so I found some things in my pockets, then we spent several minutes looking into the different recycling and garbage bags.
We were about to walk to APIS and meet up with Carly to walk home, but I had to change him again. We went back in to the building to do that, which took awhile, then had to hurry to APIS to meet Carly at the park at 4:30. As we were walking along the river, he said “See deer” and pointed in front of us, a good 50 yards before we could actually see the deer mosaic. More good memory, as the only time we have looked at the deer mosaic was that last time (early February) that we walked by. We stopped to say hi (he touched it, and said it was cold, and pointed out the antlers), then walked on to the park across from APIS, getting there a minute before Carly. When she got there he wanted to nurse, so we went to the top of the hill and sat on a bench. Then we all walked home. We were singing “A makes Ah” over and over, and each time he would sign ‘again’. As we crossed the street by the pink building, suddenly he pointed at the landscaping and loudly said “Caiman!” (alligator). He thought the big rock looked like an alligator.
At home, he did some reading with Carly and ate quesadilla for dinner. He did some typing on the computer. Then, while eating, he bit his tongue and was very sad. He was playing with Puff and Angeles, and remembered having Angeles feel the textures on the play area squares – something I don’t think we’ve done since December. So we did that for awhile, then Carly gave him a bath. No washing his hair tonight, but he was talking about it a lot, so Carly was teaching him to say “You make me saw when you wash my hair” while getting him dressed. We played some fort time on the bed, hiding from each other, then he want to sleep about 8.
August told Carly about the water bottle incident, saying “sad bout blue wawa. Blue wawa at class. Somebody took wawa.” When I went to bed later, August was talking in his sleep, saying “More typing please.” Carly says he does a lot of letter writing in the air when he is asleep.
New words/phrases: trunks, berries, take Smokey to the zoo – see the zookeepers, no throwing on the ground, N O no, where’s the iPad?, cuenta conmigo (count with me – from a Spanish song on YouTube)
Class:
In the park:
Putting the hydration system in the backpack. He couldn’t remember how to make it work at first, until I said “Just like nursing”. We now refer to it as ‘agua nursing’:
Deer:
On the stairs:
Broom:
Playground:
Walking to APIS. The deer:
His alligator (caiman):
Home: