He and Carly, both asleep last a night at 8, were up at 5:30. She took him out to the park at 6:10. He mainly played on the teeter totter, and they were back at 7 as I got up. He ate some spaghetti for breakfast, then was watching our Zinnie videos in Day One on my iPad. He was very happily doing this when Carly left for work, and he said a nice goodbye to her, waving a few times, and she was able to leave without any tears. Such a change from two days ago. We had some cereal together, then I took a shower. He had the door cracked open and was feeling the water: “It’s a bit chilly…it’s a little hot.” as I turned the temperature up and down a little for him. I then spun him on the chair again, and then he got my deodorant and was playing with it. He of course wanted to wipe it on things, and kept wanting to wipe it on me. I kept telling him I had enough, so then he was saying “dada has enough”. A bit later we were out in the living room and there was a random counting card on the floor. He slid his foot on top of it and said “it’s a skateboard”. Pretty creative there. We watched some more videos, then he got the popsicle things out of the drawer and was singing/humming into them then saying “something like that”. Not sure where he got that phrase from. We brushed his teeth. That’s an activity that he insists on mainly doing himself nowadays, then finished getting ready to go. I got our old stick for writing in sand out of the closet and put it in the backpack. August immediately asked “Where’s the little stick? Oma and Opa’s house…maybe mama took it for work.”
We left for Children’s Grand Park at 9. I was a little worried about how it would feel with the backpack on now in the heat and with August heavier (and two iPads in the back) after the summer, but it was fine. August wore his sunglasses on the way to the subway station, and sang about this and that and everything on our way there. On the subway today he kept asking what was at each stop – so I would tell him which parks, or which trains we transfer to at each stop. Heading out, we tried to stop at our usual spot to get kimbap, but they only had spicy kinds. So we got a fruit and veggie juice box thing and smoky eggs there, then went to another shop and got kimbap. Oh, and they have finished the set of escalators at the exit, but they still aren’t on; there is a big sign explaining it is waiting for a safety inspection. Hurray for safety inspections, but it is now going on two years to put in this one small set of escalators. We went up to the park and walked over by the stream area and sat on a bench and ate an early lunch. He was actually taking bites out of the kimbap, seaweed and all. As we sat there, he walked around behind me and put his head on my back, then pretended he was a bumblebee landing on me. He also listened to the cicadas and said “Where the cicadas at? They’re all mixed in.”
There was just a trickle in the stream, but it would turn on at noon, so we decided to go to the children’s museum. He threw our garbage, and some other garbage he found on the ground, away, then we headed over there. We first stopped to change him. I pointed to one spot, a sort of bench area, to change him outside and he said “No. It is too dirty.” So we ended up in the bathroom, but with him standing on the changing pad. When we got to the children’s museum I was reminded that most childcares in the city are closed this week when we entered the children’s museum. Luckily, it wasn’t too bad once we got inside. And I’ve found all the parents inside to be pushier than school groups, but we didn’t have any problems with that today. Anyway, he played around on the first floor, spending a lot of time in the percussion room. He also was really interested when he heard other babies crying and wanted to go find them. He was talking about taking a nap, but then wanted to see what was downstairs. So we walked down and he was asking what was down there. I mentioned the big blue blocks and he remembered them, saying something about having to take his shoes off. Downstairs, he jumped on the circle things, then went and played with the blue blocks. A lot of other kids there, so August watched them, and he climbed over blocks and turned them over, etc.
We headed out, and he fell asleep pretty quickly, at 12:05. But then a wrench in the system: the coffee shops are changing ownership, and they only offer a few items right now. That was fine, but it was cash only, and I didn’t have any cash. Went to the coffee shop at the children’s museum, but it was packed. Went to the food court area, but no tables. Ended up outside on a platform, at least in the shade, but he woke up just before 12:50 – a short nap. He tried going back to sleep (“More.” “More what?” “More sleep.” I told him to put his head back down and close his eyes. He tried, but after a minute or two got upset) but couldn’t, so I got him out. He cuddled in my arms for awhile, but he had leaked, so eventually I changed him standing on the platform. He then played with the spray bottle, spraying me. After a little while he saw the botanical garden building and said he wanted to go to the “fishy place”. We went in, and he spent a couple minutes spraying water in at the fish. Then headed out and to the stream. But at the stream area he refused to get in, and just stood on the edge, playing with the spray bottle. I played in the water for a minute but couldn’t coax him in. He had been saying “Go home” for awhile, and started saying it again, so we headed home.
Spent the subway ride back picking broken pieces out of the remains of the alphabet letter crackers, and guessing what they may have once been a part of. Off the train, he spotted the three dimensional map of the station and we talked through it. He decided he wanted to exit through exit 1. When I asked why, he said he wanted to go to Home Plus (I had told him what was out each exit) and when I asked what we would do at Home Plus he said “Get tomatoes”. Seemed random at the time, but it turns out that when we had gone shopping the other day Carly had let him help choose which container of tomatoes to get. I was still planning to go out 6, our usual, when he spotted the map of the area near the exit. He said “Do this” referring to looking at the map. He started pointing out different parks, and I told him what they were. He pointed to the art museum and I told him what it was, and he decided that was what he really wanted to do.
So we went out exit 1 and walked to the art museum. There, he wanted to first go to the play area. As we went to it he said “mama says no, you cannot scream in there.” In the busy play area he climbed up into it, but then was kind of stuck as he wanted to come down the same way, but there were a bunch of other kids. Eventually he made it down, then went on the trampoline, where he jumped a bit, but then sat down and enjoyed bouncing when another girl jumped. Eventually, he had three other girls jumping with him, and they sat down in sort of a circle with him and were talking to him. He lasted another minute, then wanted to go. As we left he said goodbye to them.
He then wanted to see art, and the most exciting thing was a circle of those dancing blowup figures they often have at used car lots. They would come on for 20 or 30 seconds, then be off for a few minutes. We watched them 5 or 6 times. We walked around looking at other art as well, and made it to the second floor, but he started to leak. Went downstairs and got stuff out of the backpack (in the stroller area), and changed him on the first floor. Then went back up and to the library. Knew they had children’s art books in English, but we’d never actually made it in to see them. Turns out they have quite a few, and a very impressive collection of general art books in English. We grabbed a shapes book, an Andy Warhol children’s book (So Many Stars) and a couple others and sat down. We only lasted a couple minutes though (and August was really interested in the
big books, so we were looking at those as well) before the librarian to exception to anyone talking in her library with children’s books in it and told us there was someone reading so we needed to be quiet. Sigh. We were being quiet already (I was whispering; August wasn’t loud), so not much to do. I did ask if we could check out books and she said we could register for a card. Didn’t want to the take the time, and don’t know how long we can check them out for, but might be worth it. Of course, we didn’t even have time to decide what we would want to check out.
Anyway, we headed home, and August walked up to the door and punched in the door code all on his own. I then open the door, and he is able to lock it behind us. He helped me make my drink mix and then drank some with a straw. I was sitting on the couch and he got behind me and put his arms around my neck and said “Piggy back ride!” But then he wouldn’t let me actually pick him up. He doesn’t quite have the concept of the piggy back ride down.
Carly came home, and a little before 5:30 we headed next door to Todai for the APIS staff dinner, stopping at the bank on the way. He was excited about going out for dinner, but things changed when we entered the restaurant. He just kept repeating “Go outside, go outside.” We hung out in a corner of the restaurant away from the banquet room with everyone in it for about 15 minutes. They nursed, and I brought him juice and a plate of desserts to tempt him, but he knocked the juice away and only nibbled the food. We have up, and headed home.
At home he seemed really tired at first, but then I got him through a bath okay, he ate spaghetti for dinner (after a bath being a parenting mistake, but we kept it clean), played with the cherry tomatoes (and actually ate one after Carly cut it up for him – and got me to eat a couple), flushed the toilet for Carly, thought about peeing standing up (but Carly was helping him, and he made a bit of a mess and went back to sitting down) and managed to stay awake until 8. But when Carly took him in he fell asleep right away.
Drying off by rolling on the floor:
