Dream Forest turned out to be a dry place, but we had fun anyway. And we found a new music app to have fun with.
Before I went to sleep last night, August sort of woke up and said “The juice one. Please, dada.” He then slept until 7:36. He called “Dada!” I went in and he asked “Where’d mama go?” Stretched and rolled around on the bed for several minutes. Told him about Dream Forest and he said “Today we can go? Today? Today dada?” ‘Today’ basically means ‘now’ to him. I was singing the “Ton of Qs…yes I do” song to him, and he changed it to “A ton of Ts…yes I see!” – nice job with the rhyme too. We ate oatmeal and mango for breakfast, and he was typing to Carly, and also using the voice transcription to type things to her. They exchanged a couple messages in the morning. We then tried out the Musyc app, and he had a lot of fun with that. From there, playing with Duplos: “That is the dragon. I should not touch it…Should Zinnie touch the monster?” I took a shower, then realized the guy was supposedly coming at 10 to fix the hot water heater. So we hurried and got ready to go. August insisted on playing with my vitamins though: “The monkey ate the spicy soup.” Then “bye, monkey” as he put the vitamins away. We left right at 10.
As we walked by the pink building, I told him about how he used to point out the letters on it. This started a new game, as he started saying “How you doing?” to letters on it, then everything he saw: Q, 9, bus, black car, etc. He also raised the ‘bzzzzt’ game, where one of us touches something, and the other says “bzzzzt” as if he got shocked. Got on the 100 bus, and he sat on his own.
We walked through Dream Forest, finding that the stream and fountain are now only on on the weekend. And the wading pools are malfunctioning anyway. So we went to GS25, getting kimbap, eggs, and a peach drink for lunch. Sat and ate those. When we were done, I handed him a piece of garbage and he walked over and threw it away on his own. He also sort of played with a cleaning woman through the glass. He wanted to go inside, and we went up and saw the free art show. A design show of prints and posters. A lot of shapes to point out, and we talked about which ones August would like to make. He also got kind of loud as it was echoey. Okay though, as we were the only people. As we left, the woman gave us a pack of waffle crackers. We sat and ate one of those.
He really wanted to go in the coffee shop, so we went in and got an orange juice and went in the book area. Played there for an hour or so. He can now do the things on the wall – sliding the objects around – with no problem. Played a lot on the iPad, and looked at some books. There were a couple of girls that were being kind of hyper, so that inspired him, and he did some running around. He also climbed on one of the little tables and laid on it for awhile.
When we were done there, we went upstairs and changed him. He saw the little door sensors that count how many people go in and out of the bathroom and turn the lights on and off accordingly, and I showed him how they work, and we went in and out several times to see. We then went to the sitting area near there, which is empty and kind of dark. He played around there for 20 or 30 minutes, playing with the seats made out of wire and trying to pick them up, and pretending to find insects (a lot of cicadas) and touch them, or say they are dead, and then grabbing them and releasing them or throwing them away. We also played with the voice memo app on my phone, recording him singing a few times.
Went walking, headed for APIS, out the north entrance to the park. He fell asleep right before we got to the Cafe Bonito, near the second tree playground, which I’d seen but never went in. Went up and had a view out the second floor windows. Slept from 2:10 to 3:12. When he woke up, I put on the backpack and we kept walking. We walked to Gaksheem Children’s Park, across from APIS. It too is shut down as a water park. Went to the regular playground part and played there. He spent most of his time climbing up and down the steep slope with boards on it: “This is a tricky one. I can do it.” He could also climb in the little animal things on springs and rock on them – although he needed help getting out: the first time he needed help, he pretended to push the call button in the elevator. I did the voice for that, and he asked for help. And at the top of the hill he played on the exercise equipment – the spinning one had low enough handles for him. He was singing and making up Wheels on the bus lines and said “The bus in the bus goes bus, bus, bus”.
Right before 4:30 we walked over to the other park across from APIS, Angol Children’s Park, to meet Carly. He had just enough time to try to climb one metal ladder thing, then crouch and watch a girl play with two Transformer toys. Then Carly showed up. On the bus home he sat with her, then I picked him up before we got off. He wanted to get closer to the bus driver, then said he wanted to touch the AC controls. I said that was the bus drivers job. August said it was his job, and I said “No, that is your hobby.” When we were outside, he reach over towards Carly and said “Mama is my hobby.”
I made him a quesadilla for dinner, then we played with the piano keys – together and then by himself. They nursed, then we did more Duplos. He had earlier made what looked like a swan, then said there was a swan’s nest, and pretended to turn a light on and wake up the baby swan and it would cry. Then he’d turn the light off and the baby would go back to sleep. This game went on, and I started to pretend to be the mama swan, snapping at him to keep him away from the baby. He realized that Carly was taking a shower, so he went over to the door and kept shouting “Hey mama! How you doing?” She would answer, he’d ask again, etc. Then he suddenly said “Let me check something.” He went in the parlor, climbed up on Carly’s chair, and started playing with her computer and said “I’m just doing typing.” I actually opened up a Word document for him and he typed for awhile.
We then went out and played with blocks. He knocked down what I was building and said “Let me build it better.” He went in to pee and told Carly “Want to do it on my own…I’ll be done soon.” A bit later I asked if he was ready for a bath. He replied “No. I’m just too clean.” I gave him a bath, which went fine. He wanted me to throw the towel up again to get it caught on the hooks, and I managed to hook three at once. That was very exciting, and of course he wanted me to replicate the feat. I couldn’t. Took awhile to get him to sleep – it was 10 or a bit after by the time he was asleep.
In the morning, with all that time, I finished my journal typing, and finished reading Elect Mr. Robinson. Overall I liked it, and I liked his style and vision. But the novel didn’t deliver on the promise of the setup. Could have been so much more.
Morning:
Lunch:
Art:
Cafe Dream:
Playing in the arts center:
Park:
Park 2:
Evening:
Q:
