A big day: rolling play dough with his palm and mixing colors for the first time, a new Smokey Bear app, GarageBand on his own, skyping with Vivian, building with wooden blocks for a long time, singing in a subway station, standing on the subway, and taking apart the piano keys, cleaning it, and learning how it goes back together…
He was up at 6:44. He heard the door when Carly left and said “Where mama go?” But he wasn’t really upset. Looked out the window after a minute, rubbed his elbows on it, and the started knocking the dominoes off the edge and singing.
A little later, we were doing math with our fingers and he asked “3 hundred plus one hundred”. I showed it to him on my fingers, then he walked up to me a minute later holding up five fingers and saying “five hundred”. He then wanted to play with play dough, and as I was opening it he said “Talk to me”. Of course, about trees when I asked. He had a red ball go to Safeway, and got up and took it to the window “The ball is driving…the ball is all done shopping.” Did more math. He also has developed the skill of rolling a ball of play dough with his palm. He then mixed a little blue and purple on his own, so then we mixed more colors. That was fun.
I had downloaded a Smokey Bear app/story, and we read that and he showed it to Smokey. He really liked that. We would read it a couple more times on the subway later on. He was watching Kipper, so I went to take a shower. As I was showering, he came in and asked for GarageBand. I told him to look for ‘Music’, and bring it in to me if he couldn’t find it. He came back with it, and I showed him. I then heard him singing into the sampler on his own. I took off his diaper and he had some naked time. Did some sculpture with the plastic pieces, then made soup. He left a couple skype messages, then Vivian called. Talked for about 20 minutes. He played the piano for them, then mooned them when I went to get him a diaper and had set down the iPad, sang “Six little monkeys jumping on the bed…”, and cooked things in the microwave for her.
We were getting ready to go. Had had some Cheerios for breakfast, but he was still hungry, so got his spoon and was eating peanut butter. He pointed in the jar and said “Zookeeper in there.” I’d forgotten that one and it has been months since he said that.
We left, and the train to Sangbong was full, so we stood. He did some standing on his own, and I was making him hold on to me and the bar. He would do even more standing like this on the way back on line 7. Luckily, on the long train we had a seat. We got off at the National Museum stop. First went to CU and he very excitedly picked out apple juice. We went and sat on a bench near the pond and ate. He enjoyed his kimbap, and was showing it off to me. I dropped a piece of crab, and we noticed ants finding it. By the time we were done eating it was swarming with ants, so I said we’d come back and check on it before we left.
As we walked up to the actual museum, I was trying to see if he remembered it, and then he said “where you stamp, stamp”, making a rubber stamp noise. I’d forgotten about that. So yes, he remembered. It was surprisingly busy inside, and initially we got a ticket for 1:30, but it was only 12:15. Luckily, the guy at the entrance took pity on us and let us in. They had changed it around. Gone were the big puzzles and some other things, but now there was some Silk Road and Silla stuff, and a couple hills (based on the Silla burial mounds) to play on. And different rubber stands. He did the rubber stamps and played on the hills (climbing up, and crawling through a tunnel), but the big thing was these little wooden Tetris-like blocks. He got his hands on them and he went into the zone. He used up all the blocks he had at first and said “That’s a building.” I asked “What kind?” His reply, “I don’t know!” He kept building structure after structure. When he first ran out of pieces, and a kid had abandoned other blocks, he tentatively reached over and said “I can use this.” This went on for just over 30 minutes. I got some reading done when I wasn’t watching what he was doing. Finally, he said “One more piece, then we do something else.” After that, he just had time to color on some fish and worm shapes. The main draw there though was turning the crayons in their plastic tubes. Then the session was over (at 1:20) and we headed out.
Refilled his water in the water machine he really likes (he is fascinated by all of them now, and wants to know if the hot is ever working. So far, no). Got in the backpack and went out the back of the museum and walked. He fell asleep and slept from 1:47 to 2:58, waking up in the coffee shop. Surprised he slept so long as it is the loudest coffee shop we nap in.
He wanted to go, so I put on the backpack and started walking. We went and saw the special exhibit on ancient artifacts from norther Afghanistan. It was pretty amazing, particularly the intricate scenes carved on ivory. We then went to the little gift shop and chose a gift for Carly. He wanted out of the backpack to look. He chose a Hangeul notebook for her, but then also a notepad. I had told him one thing, but he really wanted two things for her. We found a different, more colorful and oddly shaped notepad for her, then bought the two things. We stopped at CU and chose M&Ms for her as well. Both places I let August hand over the stuff and debit card.
We went and checked on the crab. Completely vanished. Probably the ants, but we can’t rule out human or animal interference. He really enjoyed the long moving sidewalks on the way through the station, and was fascinated by the red and green lights showing you which walkway you could and could not walk on. In the subway station, he started singing and walked away from me and stood to perform for a few seconds. Got that on video, then stopped, but then he started to add in hand motions, so I started recording again. Then he spotted some of the machines and kept singing as he said he wanted to do the machines, incorporating lines to that effect in his song.
He had remembered the apple cookie I had bought at CU and that I told him we could eat it on our way back as a treat. I had been thinking about on the platform in case we had to wait. But for once we just caught the train here. He remembered on the train, so we ate the cookie as we went. When we transferred to the 7 there weren’t any seats, and we stood the whole way, with him at my feet, holding on to my hand and/or the post.
We got off and put him in the backpack and headed out. As we were walking, I glanced back. August, always observant, asked what I was looking for. I said I thought mama’s bus might be coming. Then a bus drove by and I observed that it was the 1137. He said “That’s not mama’s bus.” (She rides the Nowon 15.) For each bus that went past that wasn’t the 15, he would then repeat that.
We got home and he really wanted to wait at the elevators. So we went and waited, but after 10 minutes or so we headed back in. She showed up a couple minutes later. One of the first things he said was to ask Carly if they could do the colorful thing. He was referring to one of the gifts. So she opened her August 17th gifts. I had written ‘Happy August 17th!’ On the paper her had stamped at the museum, and their was the notebook that turns into the shape of a vase, the Hangeul notebook, and the of M&Ms.
Carly prepped dinner for us, then he mainly hung out with me. He was curious about the piano keys, so we ended up taking them all out, washing them, vacuuming out the piano, and putting it back together. A good opportunity to teach him about the notes A to G and flats and sharps. He wanted to keep vacuuming, so we did more of the floor. He wanted to do GarageBand, and I showed Carly how he starts dancing when he turns on one of the auto play bass lines. We read Kipper’s Birthday a couple times (he’s been having me read that one story over and over). Then he requested that I give
him his quick bath today. We washed the animals again. When we were done, I was trying to get the towel off the hook on the back of the door without standing up. I’ve tried a few times before and failed. This time, I figured it out (you kind of have to twist when you yank). That was exciting, but then August wanted me to get it BACK ON the hook. And I did, on the first throw. Now that was exciting, and he started high giving me using Sophie, so we called that a Sophie five. Then, once he was out of the bath and I dried him, he said “thank you dada”.
He talked about going to sleep after that, but it ended up taking quite awhile. I was in on the bed with them, and we started listing the things we had played with today. He kept saying “Want ‘more you played with’”. It was a long, long list, but we eventually ran out of things, I think. He was also asking for more finger math, 3 plus 3, etc. Then he said “How you do 12 fingers?…It’s trickier.” He was then holding up six fingers, and hitting the bed with them, saying “Hitting with 6!” Finally, he was off to sleep about 9:30.
Morning:
Lunch:
Children’s history museum:
Finding an August 17th gift:
Red and green lights:
Singing:
On the subway:
Standing:
home:
