He was up nice and early at 6:09. He had a lot of energy in the morning. He traced and wrote in his Hangeul books, then was marking on his fingers again and wanting me to blow on two fingers at once: “Blow on two.” He was sitting on the table doing this, then started throwing all the markers on the couch. I said “You are…” and he said “Crazy!” I got him to clean up by singing the clean up song and kind of moving him like a robot, with him grabbing the markers and putting them in the container. He kept saying “More!” We cleaned up, then he was banging the marker container on the table and liking the sound. We did some of the stickers and tracing in the Hangeul 1 book. He watched some videos, then we made oatmeal with mango. After that, he was sitting on my chest on the couch and chanting letters and numbers, and hid behind his shirt. We then spent quite awhile looking at the family photos on the walls. He was really into learning the names, and had me repeat them over and over – he also liked finding all of the grandpa photos, all the Paul photos, etc. He particularly liked the Heaton photo with the whole family lined up, ming over the names again and again, and spelling Bill. We then read some books with Baby Q. We had a whole stack of the Bob Books out that we hadn’t read, and August was having Baby Q choose: “Baby Q wants to read all of them…Baby Q is telling you…Baby Q is telling you to read…Want to hold lots of them.” We read Little Bug and Play Ball, but August got sad that he couldn’t hold the ball, and responded by putting his head down on Baby Q and cuddling.
We got ready to go, and headed out. Class went well, being the last of the session. The teacher handed out the photos of the kids with him, and August’s turned out really well. Today was about crabs, and they used crab hands things to pick up fish, and they walked sideways through tight spaces. There was also a dressing like a lizard thing, which August didn’t do, and a fun toy giraffe that you stood on, then pulled up on the head to make the neck longer. August had a couple good playing with the teacher moments, with a lot of laughing, although he came running to me each time wanting up. At the end of class we did a group photo, and August didn’t like that, but it was much better than last session.
Because of the high pollution again today, I decided to go to the children’s museum again. So we basically did a repeat of Tuesday, playing in the children’s museum, then going to the coffee shop. But today he took a nap, and then we went back to the children’s museum in the afternoon. By the time we were heading down it was getting close to his nap time. He actually spent several stops in the backpack on the floor, and asked for Camel and put his head down. Eventually he got up and wanted out on my lap. We bought a couple rolls of kimbap, then headed to the children’s museum. He wanted to look at the boards painted by children near the entrance to the park, then we went in and went straight up to eat. At lunch, he tried the radish yet again (although he passed on it the last few times) and he was quite excited to find he liked it: “Radish. Like it.” And then he found he liked the cucumber, too.
From there we got ready for a nap and went outside. He tried to play for a few minutes around the round benches. He saw a set of kid backpacks and wanted one – this was the second time he has been intrigues by other kids’ backpacks: “Zinnie want a little one.” I let him play a couple minutes ( he played on the grate and found a couple insects) then suddenly he wanted Camel and got really sad; it was clear that was really tired, and wanted “Camel as a pillow”. I told him “Want Camel” could be his signal for when he is tired. He fell asleep quite quickly. Went upstairs and he slept in the cafe from 12:41 to 2:06.
After he woke up (when I asked if he had had a good nap, he again replied with “Yeah!”), there was a slightly younger boy that was carrying 4 straws. On his shirt was a circle with a star in it. I asked what shape was on the boy’s shirt, and August said “dongilrami” (circle). I hadn’t expected him to answer that in Korean. August was also counting the straws in the boy’s hands, and when they left I told August he should say goodbye. He did. To the straws: “Bye 1 2 3 4!” We heard a nice instrumental version of “Country Roads” by (Shazam tells me) Robert Anderson as August ate some ice. Will have to look it up. August dipped his fingers in the water, then wanted me to blow on them.
We looked at National Geographic (an article on ants) for a minute, then headed back to the children’s museum. We played on the first floor, and the big thing was the “bee backpack”. He was intrigued by it, then wore it around for several minutes, going up into the tree house area, then back down. He set it down at one point and I hung it back up, but then he wanted it back and was sad when someone else was using it. I got him to go write on the blackboard instead, and he was drawing single and double Korean characters and having me say them: “Dada say the single ㄱ, dada say the double ㄲ”. He also played with the minerals and the little tunnel thing behind them. Before we finished he was able to try on the two butterfly backpack things. When done there, we went up to the reading area and did some reading. He was hungry, so we went back up to the cafeteria and ate some more lunch. There was a woman with a daughter born the same month as August. She was asking August a lot of questions, then August was picking up crumbs of some Bugle-type snack and asking me what they were. He was really into this mystery, and when I went to grab the backpack, he got down on the floor under the table and was looking at more crumbs. She told him either to not touch the crumbs or eat them – I didn’t exactly see what happened – but when I came back over a couple seconds later and picked him up he got really, really sad. She asked if he had bumped his head and I said yes, although I didn’t think that was it.
He cuddled on me, and I didn’t change him in the children’s museum as he just kept being sad. In trying to figure out why he was sad I gave him several options: me, his head, the woman, or the snack, and he said “woman”. I then figured out that he didn’t like her telling him “No”. Eventually he calmed down and I changed him standing up in the grass near the front bathrooms. He played on the Little Prince snake/elephant statue thing, trying to climb it: “No se puede.”
We headed home and got home a little after Carly. Nursing time in the reading area, then dinner. Carly was feeding him spaghetti and he was being silly. I baited him with “Zinnie you are…” and he said “Crazy!” But then he added “Crazy bout mushrooms!” Carly gave him a bath, then they nursed. We went to write in his Hangeul book and said “I don’t have a marker.” Later, he wrote on the floor, but then helped clean it. He took books in to bed and lined them up, and we read Frog on a Log? and did some more Hangeul book in bed. He wanted Green Monster or Bluie and went out to the couch to get them. I was still in the bedroom, but Carly saw him ponder which one to take back to the bedroom. Back in the bedroom with Green Monster, I said that Green Monster was lonely without Bluie, and we went out and got Bluie. We played with the two of them, then he was ready to nurse and fall asleep, and was asleep at 9:20.
He has transitioned to saying “Translate it” when wanting a word in Spanish or Korean, where he used to say “Look it up!”
New words/phrases: 동그라미 (circle), 별 (star), slippery, ZonePerfect Bar, translate
Reading and being sad with Baby Q:
Class:
What he wouldn’t do:
On the subway:
Children’s Museum:
The Little Prince thing:
Home:
Knocking them off her head:
