He was up just after 7. Carly was already up, but I had woken up around 5 coughing and didn’t sleep well after that. I slept until close to 8. They skyped with Cherie, and August did some of his nonsense conversation. After that he came out and got his wooden giraffe, then we went in and played with the Duplo giraffe and had them eating different things. Carly made oatmeal and made it kind of runny – August liked the drips and tried to make it drip more. They then did some reading while I took recycling down. Or tried – once it came time to take it down August wanted me to do flopping and wouldn’t let me leave. Finally I told him I needed to go and he said “Dada doing recycling.” Later, Carly took him in to change him before we left, and he requested “super baby” as they went.
We left at 10:20. In the subway station I asked him what it said on the side of the vending machine and he said “Pepsi…Name of a mama drinks.” We made our way across the city to Hongik University Station. Carly went up to her hair appointment. August initially wanted to go up as well, but once he saw it he changed his mind. We went to the park right up the street (윗잔다리공원) – the last time we did this was in early winter, and I made him wear his hat for the first time. Carly found us that time by the sound of him crying about the hat. No such problem this time. We sat on a round bench and ate lunch, washed our hands in the bathroom (he is suddenly really into washing his hands), and wrote in his Hangeul book. When Carly found us with her nice new haircut, the two of them ate some sagwa and went on the teeter totter. Before we left, there were some guys practicing their rapping across the park and August really liked it.
We started walking, headed towards the park (홍익어린이공원) with the art fair we went to our first year here (where I bought my wallet). August rested his head, but by the park he decided he wasn’t going to nap – we weren’t surprised since he slept for so long during the night. We looked around all the booths, then went to find a park and coffee shop. August knew we were looking for a coffee shop and said “Coffee shop. Where are you?” Walked across the big street and looked in the university. Not a decent park area, but there was an interesting sculpture of 40 or so humans. August like them, and said “That looks like a woman.” (Although they were all men.)
We headed south, remembering that we had seen some interesting places the last time we walked down this street. We found a coffee and dessert place called Snob. Carly got a latte and August and I shared a slice of Earl Grey cake. Very nice.
From there we headed to a children’s park (와우어린이공원) I spotted on the map. Across the street we saw a sculpture outside a building that was a bunch of colorful spheres. August spotted it first and liked it. I asked if he wanted to take a photo of it, but he wanted to first take photos of the lines and arrow on the street, then a lamppost. Then the sculpture. The park we found was really a nice find: a cool play structure, lots of sand, faucets that August could play with, etc. We played quite awhile. Carly and I both took turns reading, and August mainly played with his water bottle, pouring water on the ground and sand. There was an older girl doing the same (5 years old) that August was really watching. He and I went over to the sand for awhile and he poured sand on his feet, then on my leg and shorts. And we watched ants in the sand. We ended up at the little sand area, where he climbed the short steps to the top of the little slide. Never went down it, but played “What does dada see?” for several minutes. We changed him, then headed out.
Carly needed food, and we found a Subway near the station. We both got sandwiches, and Carly and August ate a little before we left. Made our way home, then shared our sandwiches with him for dinner. I gave him a bath, after which he wore his froggy towel again. He nursed, and was falling asleep at 6:30. I went in and woke him up by hiding behind doors, etc., then he wanted “Bingul bingul bingul superbaby”. Did a lot of that, then he knocked the blocks off the table and we cleaned that up, song and robot style, then he drew on the floor and helped clean it up. We did some art, then he grabbed Carly’s carbonated water bottle and shook it for a second. He was a bit of a handful in his hyper state. He saw the cover of one of his books from class that has a penguin on a sled in the snow. It reminded him of the Pororo story we watched a week or two ago about Pororo and Loopy in the snow and Loopy being sad and he was talking about that a lot. We listened to Basho, and he was walking around in the cube. Finally, we went in for reading books and nursing. I was messing around with Green Monster, and set them up in between the beds, looking at Carly and August. I did it to annoy Carly (she finds them a bit creepy), but August thought it was hilarious. He was asleep just around 8.
New words/phrases: reading ‘Pepsi’, woman, superbaby (he’s said this before, but was really using it today), recycling (he at least knew this word, but used it in a sentence today)
On the subway:
First park:
Snob:
One of August’s photos:
Park:
Home:
Watching:
