He walked out at 8:10 and surprised Carly in the kitchen with a loud “Mama!” She changed him and nursed, then I suggested he hang out with me: “No dada…no reading…do with mama.” So he did puzzles with her. Asking himself “Where do you think this goes?” Carly made carrot pancakes for breakfast. Took a moment to get used to them, but I really liked them with the cream cheese sauce – basically like carrot cake. August liked them too. He was then playing with me on the xylophone. He was making a lot of noise, and we played “The People on the Bus” – I made up lines for Jeff and Andrea. Also figuring out the tongue twister song. I started playing the Basho and Friends Spanish songs on Apple Music – August knows them from YouTube videos. For each song that came on he would want to know what it was called. He particularly liked hearing the ones he knew from YouTube and he sang along. He sat on my lap and brushed his teeth. We were at the computer, and he saw the little box under it that holds cords. It says “Je Veux Toujours Etre Avec Toi” on it, and he wanted to know the words. So he started learning French. He in particular got ‘Je’ saying “Je is I”. In the evening he would see it and repeat it. When I changed him before we left, I sang the “Sailor went to Sea” song. He really liked it this time (you say ‘see’ or ‘sea’ a lot, which sounds like the letter), and he would sing random letters instead of ‘C’ while I sang. He requested it a few times through the day.
Carly had made enchiladas for Nathalie and Rex, so we headed down a little after 11 to deliver it. As we walked from Junghwa Station, he requested “More done esta” – that’s his favorite game with Carly nowadays.
There, he got to meet the 8 day old baby – patting his hair and pointing out his eyes and nose, etc. He also got to look at a 26 Letters book that they had and drink some pumpkin juice. He and Chloe did some coloring – he was intrigued by her and her coloring books, and also the sound she made for a sheep when he was coloring a sheep. We left a little after 1 and headed home for his nap.
He slept from 2:10 to 3:05, but then fell back asleep awhile with Carly in the reading area. They read a Bob Book about lollipops and he thought it was really funny – particularly the line “Polly wants a lolly-pop!” – which he repeated over and over. He was then typing on Carly’s computer and typed Mama, Dada, and Zinnie. He then came out and we did some more puzzles.
A little before 6, I got him out for another walk so Carly could do some work. We walked up to Chrysanthemum Park. As we entered the park he said “No mama right here.” as if he didn’t remember being at this park with her. Although later, over by the sand and water fountain he would claim “Mama here!” – and he has played with her there, although it has been quite awhile. As I got him out of the backpack we were on a bench against a wall and window that was really dirty. He touched it and got some dirt on his hand, and he started talking about when he had gotten some grease on his finger while riding the bus a couple weeks ago: “Grease from bus…Hands ok…Grease from a window. Remember that.” We went and played with the water first (“This is a drain.”) then played in the sand: destroying hills of sand from other kids, looking for and burying garbage, etc. He felt something in his shoe, so came and sat on my lap on the edge and we took it off and he shook it out. But then he started reaching down from my lap to the sand below and playing in the sand with his shoe. Finally, I got his shoe cleaned and back on, and he went over to the play structure. This is the structure that is rather tall and difficult to access – no easy stairs here, just climbing walls and rope ladders. Of course, he wanted to go up, and wanted to go down the big slide with me. We couldn’t both get up though, so he had to settle for me helping him up the climbing walls and me placing him most of the way up the slide. We went back to the sand and played. It suddenly got chilly when the sun went down so I forced his sweatshirt on him. We then had a little snack to distract him from it. He got interested in the wooden toys you can sit on. He didn’t want to sit on them, but would keep pointing around saying “See a snail…see a worm.” and would go over and shake them. He played a little longer, nice and independently, then wanted me to lift him back up the climbing walls. We left around 7:15 as the street lights were coming on. There was a brick wall along the way with bumps on it. He had been counting the bumps on the way there. When there was a set of 4 bumps he counted “5” a couple times and I would say “Count them again.” On the way back, he was saying it to himself. We stopped outside 7-Eleven to read a sign in Korean. He particularly likes the double consonants now (ㅃㅉㄸㄲㅆ) as they are kind of rare, so was excited to spot aㅆ. I was carrying our stick, as we had almost forgotten it, and he asked for it and was poking the sign with it.
Back home, we had some dinner. Carly gave him a bath, then he came out and wanted to play in the sink. He was content standing on the stool for awhile, then wanted up on the counter. He played up there for quite awhile. At 9:10 or so I tried to wrap it up and wanted to go read books with him. He started to get upset though and seemed tired. So Carly took him in to bed. Alas, it didn’t work and he was back out at 9:50. He went in the bathroom with Carly and came out with the ducky from his bath, excitedly repeating “K with the ducky!” He set the ducky by the paper and got a crayon and started drawing Ks for the ducky. But he quickly switched to coloring in shapes, all on his own – I think watching Chloe and seeing the coloring books had really made ‘coloring in’ click for him. He was coloring in shapes on the paper, saying “Do mosaic…color the shape…see some white” all on his own. Sometime after 10:30 I suggested we go read in bed. He hopped up and said “Get some books”. He then took 3 or 4 books in to the bed, one at a time. We read the lollipop book and a little of the Korean textbook and another Korean book I had just gotten of the shelf earlier today. He and Carly fell asleep a little later, around 10:45.
Walking home:
– “count them again”
Playing in sink
In bed at 9:10. Back out at 9:50.
“K with the ducky.”
Doing mosaic
Reading on the bed
Asleep 10:45
New words/phrases: single G, double G, con (with), reading Pepsi, je, anneyo
Morning:
Meeting the baby:
Home:
Park:
Him taking the selfie:
The worm:
Hangeul on the sign:
Home. Playing in the sink:
Mosaic and K with the ducky: