His first Teuni Teuni class today, and he climbed all over the big kids structure at the park. And a lot of playing in nests.
August gave me a good kick in the nose at some point during the nice, and rolled into the headboard in the process. He didn’t wake up though. He was up at 7:25. Walked down the hallway and quietly asked for me first. Only when I picked him up did he ask where mama was. He didn’t get upset at all, just put his head down on my shoulder a bit. First activity was doing all the piano keys, then took them out. As he took them out, I asked if he wanted to build a tower. His reply: “After you take those out. AFTER.” He used ‘after’ a couple other times during the day. Built towers for awhile, then we shared a bagel. Then read some Bob Books. Haven’t done that for awhile. I was doing most of the reading, but he did some. I took a shower, and he was identifying vegetables on the iPad, then we played with Marco Polo Oceans, mainly building the boat and sub over and over. Really into the building games. Then got out the wood puzzle with shapes and played with that, making pictures and shapes in it. He then did one of the small Daiso puzzles on his own. I gave some advice on where pieces went, but I never touched it. That was impressive, as those puzzles are actually kind of difficult to get the pieces together.
He wanted to play in the nest, so we went in the bedroom. As soon as he got in the nest, he started talking about the music box at the children’s museum that doesn’t work. He was then pretending to be sick, and I got a medicine dispenser to play with. Brushed our teeth in there as well. At one point I asked if he wanted to pee, and he replied “I just do not have pee, dada birdie.”
He was so into the nest that it took some work to get him out of the house by 11:30. His class was at 11:50. Had mentioned class several times and he hadn’t said anything. Once we got there though and went upstairs he knew exactly what was going on and didn’t go in. He kept saying something like “Dada go in. Zinnie stay out here.” He got a little upset when he saw the teacher and we backed out for a minute. When I took him back in he was mainly sad and pleading. Kept saying “No dada. No. No dada.” He didn’t do any of the intro stuff (no walking path or forward rolls), but when the toys came out he slowly, slowly got drawn in. First I sat down with him clinging to me, then got him standing, but he stood on my feet and tried to climb me. But then he finally accepted it – I think it was when he got to help with clean up on the first activity that he was hooked. Class was all about leaves and ginkgo trees, and there was one activity where they used nets to catch dragonflies. At the end he was good enough with the teacher to sit for his treat, and then bow and sort of say thank you and goodbye. Went out and he wanted to play on the little vehicles that you can sit in. He saw one of them moving, and suddenly he wanted one that moved as well – in the past the idea scared him. After some fighting with the coin machine (it only gave me 600 won for my first 1000 won note), I got the helicopter going for him. He liked that, and I told him we could do it again after class next week.
Went downstairs and did grocery shopping. Got a few things and discovered carrot apple juice for smoothie purposes. Went home and made a smoothie and salmon sandwich for lunch. We ate, then he wanted to try falling asleep in his nest. Didn’t want me in the room. Gave him a couple attempts and it didn’t work, so we went out in the stroller. Walked around for 20 or 25 minutes, and now after 2. He wasn’t falling asleep, and when I asked him about it, he wanted to go to a playground. Didn’t even mention a coffee shop. So we went to Wild Chrysanthemum Children’s Park. He got out of the stroller and immediately went to the climbing wall. This park has a big play structure, which he has wanted to go on before, but you have to be able to climb to get on it at all. He needed help with one step, then was up. I climbed up, and we made our way around the structure: rope floor thing, a shaky bridge (where August went first, telling me “It is not shaky. A little shaky.”), then climbing down to a platform, then getting used to the shaky platform (scared him at first, but by the end he was standing on it as we shook it), climbing back up the net part, then down a slide with me.
As we got up to the slide, he said “Dada. Thanks for helping me.” So sweet. We went over to get some water, and the wind blew the stroller away. He got worried about that, but it hit a little toy thing a few feet away and stopped. He then went over to the sand, and climbed into a little enclosure, using climbing walls. The tricky part was turning around to go down the other side. Inside, I got the shovel for him, and he started drawing lines in the sand. At one point he asked me “How you doing dada birdie?” He kept drawing, and started drawing homes, mainly “mama and Zinnie and dada’s home” but also for other people. He drew a lot on his own, but eventually wanted me to help. I got in several times. We would draw rooms, and say what they were, and what was in them. We had a music room, with piano, etc. and he requested an amp (from GarageBand). It had gotten sunny, and he was sweating pretty good. This kept going, and I was telling him I wanted to read my book in the shade. He would get me back in for a minute and said “Sigh Dada. Fine. I’ll do some.” Which is his way of mocking/copying me, telling me to sigh and say “Fine, I’ll do some.” But eventually I told him I was out of ideas and didn’t want to play in the sun; he could either play by himself and I would read in the shade, or we could both move and play in the sand in the shade. Reluctantly, he gave in and climbed out and moved to a shady spot in the sand.
I had thought about taking him to a coffee shop at 4, but he had just kept playing. We continued in our new spot until 4:30, and may have stayed later, but saw the stroller blow again. He ran and sat on it so it wouldn’t move again. When getting him to move, I had told him I was out of ideas. Now, getting ready to leave, he commented on my head being empty of ideas, and when I asked if he was out of ideas too he said yes. Before we left though he started talking about where I helped him and, after I put on the brake, he got out and played with the climbing wall (letter shapes and all) and sat on the worm again before we left at 4:40.
Carly was a little late getting home. August had started playing on his own when we got home, so I was able to do some clean up. They nursed, then we’re playing with Duplos. They broke at one point and he said “It’s not Zinnie’s fault.” I think they were building a house for the zookeeper at first, then it was a house for us. He looked at it and said “It’s a nice building.” He was opposed to taking a bath, but eventually he let me take him in, and we had fun with the letters. First, I was pretending to get upset when the letters wouldn’t stick to the door for me, but they would for him. So I had him ‘teach’ me how to get them wet first. He was making nonsense words on the door, and we started to act them out to show what they look like. After his bath he finally ate some dinner with Carly.
He wanted his nest, so we all went in the bedroom. As soon as he climbed in, he said “The music box in the children’s museum does not work.” Very interesting that he associates the music box with his nest. I asked if he wanted a blanket. He really looked like a big kid with his head on a pillow, and his hands resting on the blanket covering him. He asked Carly “how you doing mama bird?” Then we were finding worms. He found one: “That is a sweet one that has blackberry juice in it.” He got a little hyper doing jumps/falls onto the bed. After finding a few more worms (and slugs – he was pretending to eat slugs) he went to sleep pretty quickly around 7:40.
Morning:
Teuni Teuni class:
Heliopter:
Watching the mouse:
Park:
Home:
