6:53. He was just starting to leak. Half asleep. Said “wait by the elevators” a couple times. Changed him, then cuddled on the reading area. Then he started working on the snaps in the activity book, then got the Duplo animals to play with the octopus page again. Out in the living room, he wanted to choose music videos on the iPad, then wanted the ‘more sad babies’ game. I was trying to get him to say reasons the baby might be said, but he said “Dada has more ideas.” We had oatmeal and mango for breakfast, but not together. He changed his mind about the mango going in, but then ate it separately. When I went to take a shower, he wanted to get naked so he had some naked time. After my shower we brushed our teeth, and he wanted to count the “stuff” on the table, then started adding more things: “14 stuff…17 things”. We skyped with my parents. Didn’t do much talking, as August was loud, so they mainly watched him play: a lot of time spent with the dominoes, which he has pretty much figured out. Took a long time to get out the door, as there was so much he wanted to do. Didn’t leave until 10:30 or so.
At the station, August chose to get kimbap from GS25, and also chose a mango soy milk drink. We went and sat near the stream and ate lunch. Once done, he threw away our garbage and hung out with his favorite garbage cans. Then we went to the stream and he walked right in. It was past noon, so fully turned on, and he kept commenting that it was deeper now (last time was before noon). We walked up and down the stream, and made a game of spraying a dandelion with the squirt bottle.
He was ready to get napping, so we changed him by the stream and started walking. Took awhile though. Along the way we found an interesting tree with some prickly fruit on them. He picked a couple and I found one on the ground when I set him down in the coffee shop, asleep, after 25 minutes of walking. Slept from 1:03 to 2:22. We were in the downstairs coffee shop, which is technically a new name/management, but looks exactly like it used to (same fake flowers, even) but with all the Peace Coffee signs and products removed. New management hasn’t done anything to personalize it yet (and their menus are still just printed paper and inaccurate – they’ve charged me more than it says on the menu for the 3 things we bought this week). Anyway, when he woke up we played a new game on the iPad called Artie’s Magic Pencil. He liked that, and we played together for 15 minutes or so.
He decided he wanted to go back to the pool from yesterday and was a bit sad when I said we didn’t have time. He agreed on the children’s museum though. On the way there we walked by the big metal I Seoul U letters. He hit them all, making noise, and joked that “Now they’re all sad”. Got our ticket for the children’s museum and saw a woman wearing a shirt that said ‘surfing seriously harms you and others around you’. No idea. We first went downstairs, where he wandered around a bit and then ended up at the blue blocks. Played around a few minutes, then when the two other kids left he focused on making a sculpture. He pooped and I needed to change him, and eventually I convinced him we could go and come back. But once we changed him, he wanted to go to the toddler area.
There, the busiest area in the museum, we went upstairs to the cooking area. There, he spent a lot of time making tea and pouring it for us to drink. He came up with some interesting kinds of tea: “chocolate mango tea” “It’s brown sugar tea.” We went back down, and he played with the magnet thing in the puzzle corner. A girl came over, and they played with it together. She had a tray with plastic foods on it, and they ended up playing together for several minutes, pretending to eat the food. They also were hitting it together, and we did the wooden sailboat-shaped puzzle together a few times. Got a photo of them playing where it looks like she is about to punch him, but she was just being silly and kind of dancing. After she wandered off, I suggested we could go someplace less busy. He pointed to the book area and said it might be quieter. So we went over there and ended up playing with a new game they had that involves a plastic container and a lot of colorful marbles. There are rings that allow you to make layers of marbles in the donut-shaped containers. Anyway, August and I were doing that, and realized the pieces were all messed up with the other set of the same game. So we got both sets and were sorting them out. Was doing that when a woman who works there came in and told us we were only to play with one set. I thought there must be someone else wanting to use it, but I looked around and there were only two other kids in the whole room, happily doing other things. Besides, there were plenty of other toys. I said “Fixing, fixing” and pointed out all the other toys. More confused than anything. Went back to it and she left. By this point we were running late from our usual, but it was okay as Carly was staying late at work. August wanted to just keep playing with everything (there was also a game involving ice cream cones that he played with).
Finally, we headed out. Ate a Larabar and crackers on the ride home. He did a lot of singing as we walked home from the train station in the rain. Got a bit wet, but felt good, so didn’t stop to put on hats or anything. Got home at 5:45. August pressed the call button in the hall. Oh, a new game has been him pretending (wherever we are) to push the call button in the elevator. I then ask if there is a problem, and he explains something funny he wants help with (stacking a block, wanting soy milk, etc.). They nursed and we ate dinner. He and I played more of the Artie game, with him wearing his headphones. We then did more dominoes. He went downstairs with Carly to get milk, then I gave him a bath. He was laughing pretty good as I used a funny voice, but started to complain when I washed his hair and was requesting mama. She peeked into the room and he was laughing, as I would turn around and she wouldn’t be there. He thought it was hysterical. He and I went in on the bed while Carly showered. He wanted 16 books on the bed, so started putting books on. Around 12 he had to start going out and getting more from the living room. He ended up putting 17 on the bed. We didn’t really do any reading though. Carly tried to put him to sleep once, but he came out to me at 8:55. We read the Dog and Alphabet books (first time since we’ve been back), then he got some Korean books, including the badger one. When I found the picture of the badger and rabbit on the swings, I reminded him of the summer and how he wanted to go to the sky like that. He started saying “Want more” and pointing outside, but had difficulty saying more of what. Finally I said “Outside?” and that was it. It was clear he was ready for sleep at that point, so they went back in to bed at 9:26 and fell asleep.
He’s been saying ‘meh’ and ‘eh’ recently for when he doesn’t care, or for no. Think he gets that from me.
Morning:
Counting stuff:
Skyping and dominoes:
Children’s Grand Park:
Stream:
Coffee shop. New app:
Children’s museum:
Little kids area:
Getting big for this:
Marble thing:
Heading home:
Evening: