Friday: 5-Touch and Children’s Grand Park

He slept until 8:24. Sat on the couch, waking up for several minutes. When he came out he pointed a bit away from him and said “Dada here.” When he got on the couch and I was following him he kind of put out his hand and said “Ahh” as if he was telling me he needed some alone time. Eventually I was able to sit down next to him and he turned and whispered “iPad” and grinned. We made oatmeal for breakfast, then were spelling words – he is into ‘enormous’ and was spelling ‘teeth’, which he recognized was like ‘teen’ and ‘three’ and ‘tree’: “Teen and three have two Es! Tree has two Es!” He got on the iPad and we wrote in Paper, playing “This is a?” At one point I took too long and he answered himself: “This is a…quacking bird.” We then were figuring out the smart draw tool in Paper, and he was working on drawing squares and circles.

When we went to get ready to go to class, I picked him up off the couch like yesterday. He complained, but instead of screaming and pinching like yesterday, he said “No grabbing!” Much nicer. We made it to class as it was starting. He avoided the songs at the beginning, but was sucked in by bubbles, then of course sticker time. He could tell when she said to put the books away, as he suddenly started sticking really fast to finish up all the stickers. The kids then all got dancing ribbons, which he was excited about at first, but then she played a song they were supposed to wave the ribbons to. He lost interest in the ribbons because the song had counting (in Korean) in it, and he was following along, putting fingers in the air. The main activity was about playgrounds today, and she demonstrated (in a rather long fashion) four toys: a balance beam, basketball hoop, soccer goal, and ball target. They then had ten minutes or so to play with them. He did the target thing a bit (although he wouldn’t throw the balls, just walk up and place them right on the numbers). But he spent most of the time with a soccer ball, throwing it over the net and occasionally setting it down and kicking it.

At the end of class he got an Eddy handstamp. Eddy is a fox character on Pororo. I mentioned there are foxes at the zoo, and that became the must-see animal of the day. From class we headed to the subway, then to the park. I suggested three places we could eat lunch, one being the picnic table we read at last time. I think that won out because I mentioned the rectangular pond, and he liked the shape. We went up there and ate lunch. There were a bunch of workers working all around the building doing various things. Several were working near us, then left. He then said “Where the workers?” He got on the table and wanted to stand – I took a photo of him standing on the table before making him sit after that. We walked to the garbage to throw away our garbage, but held onto the plastic straws to recycle later.

After lunch we changed his diaper and put him in the backpack. We went to see animals – since he had slept so long I didn’t have high hopes for a nap. We saw the primates, including the chimpanzees (finally out in their cage), then went in saw the prairie dogs, meerkats, otters, and fennec foxes. Later, as we were leaving the zoo, he would say “Bye meerkats!” And at the fennec foxes we were comparing his handstamp to the foxes, when two women with kids came up next to us and started pointing to the foxes and saying “Eddy!” We then went and walked around the elephants, etc. While watching the elephant it walked behind the wall and August said “Elephant hiding.” He was very excited when he could see it walk out the other side. We walked around, getting a good view of the lynx for once, and seeing the red foxes as well. We then stopped in the square and had a snack and played around a little. He inspected the recycling bags. We were sitting on a square curb around a tree and he started walking on it. When he came to me he said “Dada in way. Walking through dada.”

Put him in the backpack and started on a walk. He first insisted on going in the tropical building, so we did that. At the fish tank he looked at the sign identifying three kinds of fish and then wanted to find them in the tank. First time that has happened. We walked out, quickly saw the horses and goats, then I insisted on walking. He got frustrated when I walked by water faucets without stopping, but he quieted down quickly and went silent. After about 15 minutes he fell asleep. He slept 2:35 to 3:35. When he woke up, a woman called his name. It was the same woman we met last week, who lives in Sweden and has a son named Noam (after Noam Chomsky). So I got to tell her that August’s middle name is after an historian. We talked to them and he ate some ice, then we headed outside. Played in the water faucets for a bit, using my cup to pour on the ground. About 4 I tried to head out, but he saw the playground. We compromised and spent a few minutes reading the Hangeul on the playground that says “Chalk Doodle Area”.

Headed home and got to Brownstone a little after 5. August tried taking his hat off as we got to the elevators, but it fell backwards so the strap was around his neck. I set him down in the elevator lobby to get it off, and Carly caught up to us there. We went up and they nursed, then he wanted to play with balloons with me. He got out the new blue balloon and I blew it up. He said he wanted me to tie it, but I said we should let it fly around a few times first and let it go. He got sad and ran to Carly. I blew it up and tied it, then we were playing with it and it was popped – loud enough to make my ear ring and kind of startle August. He went and had Carly pick him up and he cuddled with her a little.

Carly made a smoothie with spinach. August was spelling a word (‘fork’, I think) with her and when she said ‘or’ he said “Like ‘orange’” – he’s been noting that for a couple days now whenever a word comes up with ‘or’ in it. He got Angeles down off the couch and took was using Angeles’s hand to feel the textures on the floor.

At 6:30 we headed down and met Megan and Torrey at Baskin Robbin’s to celebrate Megan’s birthday. We all got comes. I got the flavor with Pop Rocks in it, as that was one that August wanted. He shared my ice cream and Carly’s (she had something chocolate-y). We then went for a walk around the park and ran into Charlie from APIS. We were standing near the bridge talking and a dance class was going on by the stage area. August was watching them and started copying their arm movement. He also took our ice cream cone paper things over to the garbage. He was patient for a couple minutes but then wanted to go to the playground. So we all walked over there. August ended up on the teeter-totter with Carly and Megan. They were on for a long time, and August was thrilled. He was also looking up and reading ‘Brownstone’ on our building and spotting the “D moon”.

Megan and Torrey left, and we stayed a little longer. August pulled himself up onto the play structure for the first time – he was getting close a couple months ago. He walked back and forth on the shaky bridge with Carly and sat with her up on the platform. I did some hiding from him. He was content to just keep sitting with Mama, but they were kind of in the way, so eventually we headed home.

Carly gave him a bath and washed his hair. A lot more reading and nursing after that, and he fell asleep about 9:45.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘has’, ‘banana’, “look up what it means”, “something’s in the Picasso’s Trousers. It’s the balloons!”, spelling ‘uh-oh’, “sit with Angeles”

Waking up: