He was up at 6:57. I went in and he asked where mama was. I told him, and he loudly said “No!” and threw himself down on the bed. We lay there for a few minutes, then he took my glasses, put them on, and started playing with them: “Want you to poke you in the eye…Zinnie poke you in the eye.” He looked at me and said “You’re a stranger.” Remembering yesterday, he said “200 mango poop breads…we hand blueberry poop bread.” Then “We have banana bread? Can we go eat some?” He jumped on the bed and stood in the crack for a few minutes, wanting to play with the cords, before we actually went out and had banana bread. Had some of that, then he wanted some cereal. Got him a little bowl, then made a smoothie with spinach in it.
We worked on the Peter Rabbit puzzle, putting a good amount together. I took a shower, and when I came out, I heard him saying “Hello”. I looked out to find him sitting on the desk chair, pretending to talk on my old iPhone. Got down and we played with that for a few minutes – first calling Birdie, then a cicada, beetle, and ladybug. He would ask how they were doing, and they’d ask him questions.
We did the slurp game from yesterday with both some smoothie and his vitamins. He continues to be intrigued by my own omega-3 vitamins, and asking what they taste like, so I offered to cut one open so he could taste it, then not like it. But when I gave it to him, he bit right down, so fish oil squirted everywhere, getting on his face. Don’t think he liked it, but wasn’t disgusted either. But he was trying to wipe off his face. I went to get a paper towel, and he went and laid down on the carpet and started wiping his face on the carpet. I grabbed him right away, but apparently he got a little on it – later, Carly would happen to lay down in the exact spot and ask why it smelled like fish.
We used the vitamins to make octagons and nonagons and other shapes, then got ready to go. But of course then he wanted to play with blocks and make flat towers before we left, so we did that. On the train, we tried out a few new apps: one called Simple Machines, one called ShapeKit (where we did most of the tutorial), then one called Plants. He also did Simple Machines on the way home, really liking the bicycle one, and we read a couple Dr. Seuss stories. The one he remembered later, when I asked, was the Plants app.
We got to the park, grabbed one roll of kimbap from the woman with the stand, then ate by the rectangle pond. He did some dancing as he sat on the table to the Korean version of Do-Ra-Mi. He was then sitting and curling in my lap and eating all of the pieces of kimbap – including all of the carrot and mushroom – as if they were worms. That was fun. And a few times he said “Thank you birdie dada!”
From there we looked at the books for a couple minutes (they were open), then headed upstairs to play on the stairs. He was being slow up the stairs though, and people passed us, and got to the piano before us. He was disappointed for a second when I said we’d have to way, but then he got excited “Play at Tayo bus!” So we went down there and played for a good 20+ minutes. He pretended to drive this time, particularly to Carly’s work. He did a wonderful job of getting out of the way when new kids came in. When they left that area, he would ask me if he could play there again. Turns out we can also go in the yellow bus without paying, so went in there and did the same, and played on the chairs and watched a little Tayo. When he started to get a little sucked in by the TV we left. Went up to the piano and played with it for another 15 minutes. Played a lot of Wheels on the Bus and pretended to put in keys. It was windy, so he was pretending the keys were blowing away, like the leaves, and run and get them.
Changed him, then walked for a nap. Took close to 20 minutes, but he fell asleep from 1:24 to 2:42. Woke up in the downstairs coffee shop. He played with his music apps, quietly, then the Plants app. About 3:30 I asked if he wanted to do anything else before we left. He said Children’s Museum. Couldn’t get him to sidewalk chalk. One of these days.
We went there, and spent our entire time in the light area, playing with the light cubes, the light rods, and the light shape. And a couple minutes with the colorful shadows and the shadow animals. But in particular he was into the rods, which are colored cylinders of plastic that you stick in a grid and they light up. He was playing on his own, first saying he made a zebra, then it got more complex so it was nonsense words. Two bigger girls came over and started turning them all orderly: one row of red, etc. He got into that and we helped, then he got into doing patterns. He would put colors in an order, and call it a pattern. Not really getting the need for repetition, but then I would repeat the series, kind of making it into a song, and it would become a pattern. He started dancing to them as I chanted: “red, blue, blue, red, yellow, blue green…” Played with those until 4:17. With the blocks he mainly made flat towers, and we got where we were taking turns putting pieces on. He would destroy one, then ask “Shall we make more towers?” The shapes were the last thing. I made a butterfly, then he gave the butterfly ice cream, then decided it wasn’t ice cream. I took a photo right as he declared it wasn’t, then later in the evening he saw the photo and said “It is not ice cream”. Finally, he was making elaborate layouts with the shapes, and said it was our home. I asked where we slept, and he initially pointed to three different areas for the three of us. I questioned that, and he changed it, putting him and Carly together, but I was still on my own.
Thought he would be difficult to get out of there, but when I asked him to say goodbye to the shapes at 4:34 he said goodbye and waved to them and we were off. Changed him at the bathroom. I then had to go to the bathroom, and he just stood at the door of the bathroom, out of sight, and yelled “Dada! How are you doing?” while I went. Outside, he wanted to do shoes “on your own”. He was trying to stand and put them on, without me holding him, and with me just holding the tip of the shoe. He leaned on me a little, but it was fun to see him start to try to put his shoes on himself. Needed a little help getting his feet in, then he would do the straps. He got his spray bottle out, and was drinking from it, pretending it was different flavors, like pink gum: “I like the taste of it”
Headed home, standing for awhile, then got a seat. Walking home, we saw the fake waterfall on and watched it a bit. That is probably going to turn off soon. That and seeing the lotus flowers lose their petals have made me realize that we’re starting to have some of our ‘lasts’ in Korea: last lotus flowers, etc. He was singing to Wheels on the Bus, and started singing numbers to the tune. He got from 1 to 28. He then did some silly math, asking “C plus C equals…” He came up with the answer “C plus C is banana” as we walked by Mama Juice.
Had a few minutes at home before Carly got home. He first shouted his greeting to her, then turned to me and said “Mama’s computer’s here, dada.” A game of his to ask, usually 3 or 4 times a day, where mama’s computer went. I’ll say “She took it to work.”
They nursed, him calling her “mama bird”. He discovered the lock on the door. Carly explained about it, and then he promptly locked it with us out of the room. Then unlocked it. So, we are past the stage of worrying about him locking the door unintentionally and not being able to unlock it. We ate dinner, then Carly changed him and let him be naked after that. A funny question as he came back into the parlor. He asked me “Can you do your penis on the GROUND, dada?” Basically a very funny way of asking if he could sit on the ground naked (substitute ‘I’ and ‘my’ for ‘you’ and ‘your’ and it makes more sense – still working on the pronouns).
Carly gave him a bath and they played to
gether a bit. He then came in with me while Carly went to shower. He wanted to do nest with me, and actually wanted to pretend nurse, then pretended to go to sleep, cuddled up next to me. When he couldn’t sleep, he played with Duplos for a bit, then wanted to type on my iPad. He did, then got to the emoji keyboard. That went on for awhile, then he found the flag emojis, and got super excited and hyper about them – they are basically a playground of colors and shapes and stars and moons and other things to identify. He started jumping and climbing on my back, pointing at the screen to talk about what was on them. He would get down, type several more, then climb back up again. This lasted quite awhile.
I took photos, and he saw the camera, and when he was done, finally, with the flags, he wanted to play with the timer on the camera, which he remembers from finding once, long ago. He did that for a few minutes, and we got one good selfie out of that. Carly then found the fish spot on the carpet, and they did some Duplos. He put one piece on, and called it a “point”, which comes from playing with the vitamins, etc. and doing shapes. He then puts a second one down and calls it a “line”. He also started to make a “Q tower” that didn’t look anything like a Q. Carly asked if he was ready to sleep, and he said “I’m done sleepy sleeps”. But a bit later he was trying to push random things on my iPad, and melting down a bit when I wouldn’t let him. Seemed on the verge of sleep. Went in to try to sleep about 9. Thought they were both asleep, but suddenly August opened the door to the parlor at 9:30, and asked “what are you watching dada?” We got out the cards, focusing on the Spanish ones. He mainly used them to practice counting. He could do up to 5 on his own. Skipped 6. With 7 and above he would become unsure of losing his place as he counted the objects, and want me to help him point. He pretty much had 7 down by the time he went back in at 10 and went to sleep.
My glasses:
Phone:
Lunch:
Driving the bus:
Children’s museum:
Our house. Where I sleep:
Emoji:
