Tuesday: Uijeongbu – This Is Our Blog

He was up at 7:52. Sat with me a minute, but then leaked. I went to change him, and he said “Poop and pee in there.” He was joking thought, as it was just pee. We watched a Korean video, and were looking up a lot of words from it. We then read Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late several times, with him reading more of it. We played hide and seek and did some flipping. I had asked early if he wanted to go to Children’s Grand Park or Uijeongbu – our polluted days choices – and a couple times later he mentioned going to Uijeongbu. He was also excited about riding the little train up there.

So, after brushing his teeth we headed on up right about 10. That’s when I found that Camel was missing. Camel had fallen down as we hurried from McDonald’s to APIS yesterday, and I had tucked it into the strap of the backpack. It was still there after stopping at Morning Glory, so likely fell out when I sat down and hurried to put together Carly’s present. So I told August he would have to use his hat or just the backpack as his pillow.

We took the U-Line over to city hall, then walked south, to enter the park from the south end this time. Along the way, he spotted two of those dancing balloon people things. He said their sound was “W W W W”. We crossed the street and he watched them and also hid from them. We could see a children’s park about a block away, so we went and checked that out. He was initially excited by the sand area, but then remembered the big park (he also kept saying “Read Everyone Poops” and I was telling him that would be later in the day) and didn’t want to get out of the backpack. We grabbed a Korean children’s book about two mice out of the library box thing (to return to one of the other boxes they have around) and headed on our way.

In the park we headed to the sculpture and pond area, which we haven’t been to in our last few visits. We actually walked up the hill, looking for faucets, and found them at the foot walking path area. Across the path from us was a climbing wall: “Bumpy wall. Want to climb it.” We started by getting out the picnic mat at his request and eating lunch. He then played with the faucets for quite some time. We then sat and did some reading: the Curious George bilingual book, and a little Korean. While playing in the water, there was a pigeon hanging out close to us, and August noticed it a couple times, and its absence once. When it got close to nap time, he mentioned wanting Camel, but I reminded him Camel was missing. He asked for Smokey instead, and ended up using Smokey as a pillow. But first, we played some ‘Dada Sees’. I said rocks or path, and he pointed at one spot, then pointed to another spot and said “also right here”.

It took a while to get him to sleep, as he kept singing, but not too long. He had a nice nap from 1:41 to 3:02 in the book cafe. When he woke up it was sudden, saying “Want to play on iPad!” But then when he was out he wanted to read Everyone Poops. We did that once, then he wanted to find other books, and sit on the steps by the books, and explore, and eat…his afternoon was kind of like this, wanting to do some of everything. We looked at books a bit more, then headed outside.

We walked past the platform (“Want to see the faucet” he says of the big J-shaped pipe out of the top), and over to the playground area. He spotted a bench and we sat there and did a little Hangeul workbook, then he was exploring. He started watering plants with his water bottle: “Ooh, refreshing.” He then came to a little ditch, and he had the idea of stepping down into it and going up the very steep hill on the other side: “Zinnie can do it…Can you do this?” (seemed to be talking to himself there). He kept talking about this, and I got about 30 seconds of video, where he outlined his plan to step in the leaves, then go up the other side and asking me to hold his hand. We tried that a little, then I got him to explore elsewhere. He was smelling the yellow flowers and going “Ooh!” He saw bees, and when one flew off he said “Back to the bees nest.” He was also talking about missing the buzzing of a bee (sad about it), although it wasn’t clear if he liked the buzzing or didn’t. He decided he wanted to take photos, so he took a bunch, mainly of little rocks or plant things that he set on the little wooden barrier fence next to the path. When he was deciding where to place a rock to take its photo, he kept saying “Where it should be”. He had talked about playing in the faucets, but we never made it there. We threw our cup away, and he took a photo of the garbage can, then we changed him on a bench. He saw the bathroom we’ve used in the past and said “Dada go pee in there.”

We headed home, and got home about 5:25, before Carly. We went back out to the elevators to wait, but then decided to head downstairs. As the doors opened on the first floor, Carly was standing there. We went back up, and I started to put together nachos for dinner. August slipped up and grabbed a chip and was excited about eating it. He didn’t actually eat much dinner though. He and Carly had been doing their usual nursing and reading, and sometime after dinner he and I were playing with the Loopimal app. He was really in to how the animals were dancing to the music, finding them funny. He was then trying to dance like them, and spin. He wanted to do a flip in the air like one of them, so we went to the reading area and I was giving him forward rolls. He then said he wanted TWO forward rolls at once – I think he even said something about “sangsaengnim”, referring to how the teacher would sometimes do multiple forward rolls. Se we did two. Then he wanted 3 in a row, then 4…we got up to the 6 or 7 range before his shorts kept coming down and he’d want to stop. We calmed down a bit and read What I Need a couple times. He pretty much has that one down now.

I gave him a bath, and a miracle happened: on a non-hair washing day, he asked me to wash his hair. That is quite a change. I then hung up laundry, and August played with stuff from the toy box while I did so, then climbed into a laundry basket and sat there. He then went and read and nursed with Carly in bed, and fell asleep about 9.

New words/phrases: also, bee nest, 가무기 (crow)

Awake: