Carly remembers him laughing in his sleep sometime last night. He slept all the way until 8:23. I had my book group meeting to discuss *Breakfast at Tiffany’s* starting at 7:30, and was done a little after 9. Carly was going to do the recycling, but August didn’t want to let her go: “Dada do recycling. Mama Zinnie have fun.” After I got back, he was playing the piano and singing, sort of doing ascending scales. Then he did it a few times, only not pushing the keys as he went, but just singing notes. Suddenly, he decided he wanted to go outside, a little before 10: “Want mama to come.” At some point he was reciting lines from the shapes book, which they had read several times during the morning. As we left, he accidentally elbowed Carly in the face, then kissed her and did a nose rub to make it better.
We first went down to the ATM, where he was not happy having to wait for Carly again. We then went to Home Plus. Carly went ahead to do shopping, while I kept him occupied. He walked through the first basement, touching all the clothes as he went, then looked at aquariums. We went down the walkway, and he looked at food a bit, we found mama, and he grabbed the Yachae crackers – they hadn’t had them in a box in some time, but he found them. He then happily carried his discovery as we left the store.
Carly headed home to start making nutty noodles, and we stayed in the park. He first played on the bench in front of the art museum. A woman came up and was talking to him and wanted to shake his hand – he put his arm out and shook hers. We then we went into the play area in the art museum. He played in there for several minutes, but mainly stayed on the steps/cushions, mainly listening to and entertaining the adults. He was done there and wanted to go look at art. As we walked down the stairs to the basement level he slipped and somehow fell sideways on the stairs. Didn’t really hurt him, but he decided he wanted to head home.
Of course, plans changed when we got to the faucets. Played there, then went over to the playground. There, he stood on one side of the elliptical with both feet while I held his hands and we figured out how to make him go in circles. We went back to the water, and finally I coaxed him home at 12:20 as I was wanting lunch.
At home Carly finished making the nutty noodles. While we waited, August and I shared some salmon and crackers. And he played more “Do you write on this?” He then got quite upset that he couldn’t go in the kitchen, but eventually she was done and he enoyed some nutty noodles. He pooped, and was jumping with poop in his diaper and found that funny. There was something on the floor, and he said “That’s not a chair for Zinnie to sit on.”
He fell asleep and had a long nap, sleeping until 2:58. Carly had left about 2:30 to go to graduation. He was sad to find her gone: “want mama. Want to read.” He wanted to work on the “Cada Semilla“ song, so we watched the video several times and had the words up on the phone while we did. Then watched some Korean songs, and he requested milk in is green cup. He also requested some frozen mango, but then only played with it.
Around 3:30 we headed out, headed for Madeul Stadium or points farther north. We went to a park we had missed in our wanderings up there before, called 사랑어린이공원 (Love Children’s Park). We walked around and saw it had a fountain area that would turn on at 5. So we wandered around a bit more, but he wasn’t quick to get out of the backpack. We ended up looking at the map, and it became a lesson in maps, in that he would point to one of the numbers on the map, then I would turn around and show him what it was on the ground. He seemed to really get it, and kept pointing to objects and numbers over and over. Probably spent 10 or 15 minutes there.
Then got him out and he did a little climbing on the play structure, then we waited for the fountain to turn on. It did, and we found that only two of the jets worked fully. This was actually really nice, as there were two that barely sprayed at all, and one that was about a foot and a half high. He could play with those. He was hesitant at first, but got more bold. I got the bucket, and he spent much of the time filling it from the taller one and dumping water down the drain: goes down the drain”. For the last few minutes some bigger kids came and were spraying the water around, but August seemed to like watching them. He wasn’t happy when it turned off, and we did a little more map fun. While at the map, he saw two girls standing on the ends of a teeter totter. He wanted him and dada to do that. Then, a boy was crying (it was the boy whose mother, earlier, had had him pee into a random bottle, then she set it on the curb around the park – August hadn’t seen that, but later he saw the bottle and wanted to hold it, and I had to tell him no). August wanted to see, so we walked by, then back again the other way. August wanted to stop and watch, but I wouldn’t do that, and he wasn’t happy with me.
But we made it out of there, then walked a bit more north to remind ourselves what the park north of that was like – we had been there sometime last spring and had played in a faucet. We saw one of those little book exchange booths and August picked out a Korean book about a rabbit who receives a letter, so we took it with us.
Got home about 6:30, a little after Carly. Ate nutty noodles for dinner, then he had a lot of fun watching videos of himself. He decided he wanted to “Type to gramma”, so we did that. He saw the Frida book, and said “That’s mama’s book, Frida.” Since August had liked the map today, Carly drew him a map of the apartment, with things labeled on it like “The table August sits on“. He enjoyed reading it and writing on it. He played in the sink, and at some point I had given him a bath. I changed him, and he said “What is it the messy on the butt? Just poop.” He and Carly went to sleep about 9:30.
New words/phrases: surprised, forget, mango chiquita,
Piano:
To Home Plus:
Crackers:
Waving bye bye to mama (long after she was gone):
Hanging out with the adults:
Water:
Love Children’s Park:
Home:
