At 5:30 he woke up just enough to say “Nurse and read” a few times. They nursed and nodded off until we all got up at 6. Once he woke up he was full of energy and ready to go; while Carly was still here he pointed up at the Ergo and said “Get in this”. And right after she left, he wanted to get in the backpack at 7. He got his Double Dare book and put it in the backpack on his own for us to take. I was able to postpone leaving until 8, as we needed to get ready. We sang “Warm Kitty” and he changed ‘kitty’ to ‘kitties’, ‘fur’ to ‘furry’, and ‘purr’ to ‘purring’. He ate some grapes as I cut them for a snack, and he would point to the top of the grape and say “Dada eat this part.”
So we left at 8. Trains were packed, so we waited for a second train and made it on, getting a seat after two stops. Got to the park about 8:45 after stopping for kimbap, eggs, and a mango yogurt drink to try. Checked the hours on the children’s museum but it opened at 10. So I took us to the old playground, but he decided he wanted to new one. So we walked over the hill, which took us by the outdoor theater. He pointed across the theater to where we ate on Friday and said “Ate squash salad over here.” As we got down to the playground he spotted the drinking fountains and said “Want to turn on the water, sir.”
We ate an early lunch of the kimbap and some egg. He was ready to do everything at the park. First he was talking about what to do in the playground: “Do play on the sand. Do play on the funny shapes. Do play on the swings. Do play on the slide.” There was a loud bird above us, and he was pointing up at the trees, trying to see it. He changed his mind about the playground, as first he wanted to see the frog fountains. We walked over and saw those, then he wanted to go in the conservatory and see the fish. We startled a cat inside, which we watched for a minute before it disappeared in the plants. Kind of a cool place to live as a cat. We saw the fish and the water outside. We heard a loud bird – the donkey sounding one – and I said it might be the storks or pelicans, and he wanted to go see those. We went in and first watched the penguins for several minutes, with him standing on the railing. He apparently saw a zookeeper open the door in the exhibit and set down a penguin, as he suddenly started talking about it, and the penguins had moved over towards that door. I was looking at him though and missed it. We then went over to the rest of the birds, first looking at the black swan which was right by the glass and looking at us. We went upstairs, and figured out that the storks make a sort of clicking sound, but the donkey sound wasn’t repeated while we were there. I said we should ask Oma, so we recorded a little video message to her where he asked “What sound do pelicans make?”
Now we went to the playground. He let me put on the “sun cream” and then he found bottle and played in the sand and watched some teenagers on the swings. We walked across to the faucets and dumped water on plants and found a little car in the drinking fountain. He wanted to throw rocks in water, so we walked to the fountains by the robots and threw little rocks in those, then walked up to the rectangle pond and had a snack. He wanted me to ID more songs using Shazam, and still wanted me to eat the stem end of the grapes: “Dada get the stem out.” He was listening to the music and sort of dancing, and said he was writing names as he drew in the air.
Changed him, walked, and he went quickly to sleep. He slept from 11:55 to 12:53. He woke up, I got him out, and he said a couple things, but then he put his head on my arm and fell back to sleep to 1:43. He woke up a bit, but his feet up on the table, then dozed off for another 3 or 4 minutes before waking up for good.
From there we went to the faucets by the foot paths. We played there for over an hour – we were in the shade by the time we left, but were in the sun to begin with. Thought his cheeks were turning red and put sun screen on – he did a good job of letting me. We used both the coffee cup and his water bottle, mainly splashing water on the ground and pouring it down the wall.
I remembered the books we had brought and asked if he wanted to read. We found a bench and read Double Dare. I then said it was about time to go. He said “Read Bob Books for a minute.” I started to respond, saying “You are just-” and he said “Thinking. Thinking about Bob books.” So we read another new Bob Book, changed him on the bench, then he played with the bushes for a few minutes while I got ready to go. We headed home little before 4.
Went to the grocery store next door and got some shopping done. His find was some coconut peanuts, so we got those . He also remembered the letter crackers he found with Carly, but I said we still had some at home. We played at home for a little while after he ate 3 pieces of crab and some coconut peanuts. At 5:30 we went down to the elevators and surprised Carly pretty well when she got off 5 minutes later.
They nursed and read Frog on a Log. Carly fed him, and I gave him a bath. Later we read The Jet (not getting sad this time, but playing with the plane) and As Big As with me. He sat up against the pillows, then bonked his head backwards, thinking it was pillow, but hit his head instead. He managed to say “Sad about this” before he started to cry. Carly consoled him, and a bit later took him in to bed and he fell asleep right away, about 8:50.
New words/phrases: stem, sesame seeds
Pointing at the bird:
Penguins:
Looking at himself on the phone:
Playground:
Rocks:
Bench:
Asleep on me:
Slightly awake:
Feet on the table:
Water:
Reading:
Studying the bushes:
Home. In the cube:
Reading with mama:
