Monday: Seoul Grand Zoo – This Is Our Blog

Seoul Grand Zoo

He woke up at 7:07 and came out and we cuddled on the couch for 7 minutes before he got up and sat on the couch chanting A A A A A A A A A. We ate Cheerios for breakfast and he spent some time tracing Hangeul on the iPad. We left the house at 8:20 and made the long trek to Seoul Grand Park. On the long walk into the park we watched a huge group of people doing calisthenics – had never done that before. We did our usual turning on of faucets on the walk in, and stopped to trace the Chinese written on the bridge with our fingers. The new glass bridge panels have drawings by kids on them, and he wanted to see the “Funny M” – I think it was something we saw last time looking at the drawings, but the drawings have changed since them.

We had stopped at the CU and bought some kimbap, eggs, veggie chips, and a mango soy milk. Once in the zoo we walked to the giraffes and sat at a picnic table, under blue-green glass, where we could watch the giraffes. We ate an early lunch, and played under the blue-green glass for awhile, then went and looked at the giraffes, then he got interested in the springboks to the left and we looked at them. I then changed him in the changing room for the first time, since we were close to the entrance – usually we are farther in the park. He is not at all fond of changing tables nowadays, worried about falling, although he never has. In fact, Carly says he woke up at 4 or so saying “falling, falling” to nurse (breaking his 3 night streak). But he doesn’t mind sitting on the changing table. Kind of changed that around as I started a “sit…lie down” game, making him do one, then the other. He thought this was pretty funny, and requested the game again as I packed up.

We were talking about what to do next – as usual, there is so much to do that our plans change from minute to minute. We were talking about going to the stream, but I told him we had to first walk to the playground, as we couldn’t go down to the stream where we were. He thought about this and said “Go up to the playground, THEN go to the stream.” Of course, on our way things caught our attention. He had mentioned going to see bats, so we did that along the way. We say the bats, kinkajous, and porcupines, and spotted the civet before we headed on. He had been carrying a gingko leaf since we left the changing room that he wanted to drop in the water, so when we got to the pedestrian bridge by the playground he dropped it in. We were able to see it on the other side of the bridge and watched it go downstream. He spent a few minutes looking at things from the bridge, then we headed down to the playground (turning on faucets on the way).

In the playground he played by himself with the shovel in the sand for several minutes and I read. He then wanted to go down to the water. We went down and climbed around on the rocks and scooped water, then stood/sat on the edge and dropped rocks in the stream. Trice he used “pretty please” on his own – which I assume he learned from Carly, as I don’t think I use it. Once when wanting help to step from one rock to another, and once when asking me to go find more rocks. We did that for quite awhile, then went up to change him again and get ready for a nap. Up there, there was a school group eating lunch. August wanted to go up to them and sing ABC. He wasn’t clear on who he wanted to sing ABC. I think he wanted to do it, but then when he walked up to them, I heard him saying a few things, but was too shy to sing.

We got walking, and first ate a Larabar, then he fell asleep quite quickly. I bought a cheap latte from a little stand and went into the cafeteria by the dolphin show and sat down. He slept from 12:57 to 2:18. He woke up and when I asked if he had had a good nap, he said “Yeah!” He really liked the flies on the window, and a kind of scary yellow and black insect that kind of looked like a mantis, and I saw grab a little fly and eat it. He wanted to read, so we went right outside on the other side of the glass and read Double Dare and Curious George. He drank water from my ice and remembered Double Dare, reciting “‘Onesie twosie’ he said in a mocking tone.” We looked more at the yellow insect before we left.

We made our way out of the park, stoping to see the elands, sable antelopes, lions for the first time, oryx, ostriches, and hippos. We went through the little animal sculpture area and played Smokey Sees. He had been saying things like “See the D” for dolphin, and at one point he said “See a K…This is funny.” As we walked, we heard a weed eater, and August was making the humming noise. And he imitated the squawking noise of the water birds. Before we left the park, we stopped and watched the flamingos. He made their noise as well, and watched them intently. He was then trying to count them. When we went to leave he said on his own “Bye flamingos!” As we walked out, a girl about his age ran around by my feet and he looked at her and said “She’s looking for food.” That’s what he says for all the animals he sees now too.

We made our way home. A guy on the subway was very impressed with August reading a Bob Book and talked to August quite a bit. We transferred to the 1144 bus – August wanted to see the Hello Kitty things in the vending machines, but they weren’t in there anymore. We got home about 5:30. Spent much of the evening with mama, and Carly gave him a bath. He read the Mat Hid Bob Book with me, but wanted to play hide-and-seek too: “Want to help in the book like Sam. Want a real one…helping Dot. Sad bout it.”

He lined up books to read in bed, and when he was ready to turn out the lights came out and said “Happy Birthday, Dada.” He was asleep about 8:20.

New words/phrases: plugged (referring to the faucets), more use of ‘then’, pretty please, 기린(giraffe), hay (pointing to what the giraffes were eating – not sure where he learned that)

Chanting “A A A…”