Carly’s last day of Chuseok Break before going back to school tomorrow. And we tried to go find Taco Rico, where August once spilled soda on me and him, only to find it was closed. And he wouldn’t go to sleep…
He was up at 8. Nursed and sorted the Spanish cards with Carly. They then skyped with Chuck and Cherie. After that, he played Figure, then Sesame Street Art Maker with me. When doing the aliens, he got behind me and was climbing on my shoulders. He let me give him a piggy back ride for a bit. He did play dough with Carly while I showered. One of them suggested something and he said “That’s a good idea. Let’s make it.” He mixed up some of the new playdough – he wanted Carly to separate it later. They worked on the ocean puzzle, then nursed. He did a little ipad, doingshapes both in the math app and the sorting game, then we got ready to go out for a walk and lunch. Carly went to the bathroom, but August was ready to go. He said “Let me open the door and tell mama we can go outside.”
We got going and walked down to find Taco Rico. We had been there twice before. Once Carly and I went, back in the winter before he was born, then August and I went when my parents were here. He was on my lap, and threw an arm up and knocked Chilsing cider on both me and him. Anyway, we couldn’t find it. I was 99% sure we were in the right area, so I looked it up in our old photos, and indeed it was now gone. Also realized it was September 19th, 2014 when we did that – almost 2 years ago. So we found a burger place instead. But August wanted to nurse, so we first walked into the university and found a place and nursed. Mosquitoes or something were attacking so we got out of there, or tried – August sat on the ground and played with the stroller first.
On the walk, August started Qing things, starting with me. He was also ‘reading’ license plates in “Stopadoo language”. In the evening it would be signs in general. And it got off to a rough start when we went past a ginkgo tree with berries on the ground. August said he wanted to get some, but we were already by it when I realized what he had said. I told him we’d find another tree. He got really sad, and couldn’t recover, even when we did find another tree like 10 seconds later. We eventually stopped at a little apartment complex playground and nurse. He wanted to play at the playground, so did one slide. He then got a bonus thing when Carly bounced him once on the teeter totter. Back in the stroller, he was happy about doing two things, as I had said he could do one thing.
Went to the burger place and got food, then headed to a park. Spotted a couple coffee shops for later reference. Went to 씨알어린이공원, just a little children’s park, but it worked. Ate, then Carly went on the one swing and August played on the sculpture. A lot of singing and chanting – he had a good “Konkuk University“ chant going at one point. He wanted to write Hangeul in the said, so got a stick and we did some of that. Off the structure, there was a little sand area with a low metal slide. He said “Let me show you something” then went and walked around the sand area and walked down and back up the slide. We played maybe a half hour, then wanted to head home in case he got needed a nap. I changed him before we left, then headed out.
We got home, and he got sad at the door. He didn’t get out of the stroller, but then got upset when I did the door code. Indeed, it was nap time. For both of them. They took a nap together from about 2:30 to 3:30. Nursed, then they made towers out of the blocks and then he decided to sort them by color. He then had the Duplo animals eating with me – the whole carnivores and herbivores eating thing game. He and Carly then did some play dough.
In the late afternoon, I took him out and we went to the spiderweb playground so Carly could do some work for tomorrow. He was fine with that. On the way there, I was singing the “A ah apples act as acrobats…” song. Slow going, as he now wants to know what every word and phrase in the song means…acrobat, act, daisy bunch, Ed and Edna exercise with eggs… Slow going, since it is somewhat nonsensical too.
At the park, he first spotted the spirals on the stepping stone things. Climbed those, then went on the shaky bridge. He told himself “you’re okay” on it. Climbed on the fake rock for awhile, then was counting the steps he’d taken – ended up being 20. Went over to the sand area, and pointed at the grates outside it: “no, you can’t put sand down there. Mama said that. I remember.” In the sand, a girl about his age came over and started helping filling the bucket and patting down the sand. Filled and dumped out several buckets with her, and they both liked stomping on the piles of sand that we made. August was hungry and we ate a banana bread Larabar. I mentioned I should make real banana bread, and a few minutes later he came to me and said “Can we make real banana bread?” So we talked about going to the store for bananas. He wanted to leave right away, but then saw other kids on the teeter totters. When they got off, he wanted to go play. On the teeter totter, I let him take his hands off, telling him now that he’s steady on the teeter totter that he could. Before we left, I took the stroller over by the girl and had August say goodbye. Her dad had her give August a gummi bear.
We walked to the pink building and got bananas and a few other things. August saw the bracelets, and I let him choose a set to buy. He also wanted another jello thing, but I told him he still had one at home from last time. That worked, and later he forgot about it, just as he had last time.
At home, August said “dada count bats.” Earlier, we had watched a couple of Sesame Street videos of the Count, since he was on Art Maker, but August didn’t know who he was. He then played Dragonbox Numbers on the iPad, getting into the puzzles more than he has in the past, and I started banana bread. Carly gave him a bath. A nice long one, and a lot of fun. I came in and watched him sing. And then he almost sort of sat down, although he was still on his feet, and holding onto the side. After his bath, he asked Carly “how’s your sliver doing?” Remembering the sliver she had a couple weeks ago. Getting towards bedtime, we started to clean up, and August really helped clean up the blocks. We went into bed and read Elephants Swim and Swirl by Swirl on the iPad. He then pretended to curl up and sleep like a chipmunk, snake, and nautilus, using a blanket for his nautilus shell. He had a lot of energy, and was then trying to do forward rolls. Near 10, I tried to talk to him about calming down for sleep. We watched the clock switch to 10:00. Now time for attempt #1.
But 15 minutes or so later, he and Carly came out to get some books. He also saw that the banana bread was ready. So I got him a slice and we all read some books in bed, mainly the porridge pot and turnip stories, and Manana Iguana. When Carly started reading that one, he said “There’s a little Espanol and English.”
Try again. But a few minutes later, after 10:30, he came into the parlor, saying “There’s poop in there.” I changed him, but there was no poop. Took him to the parlor so Carly could sleep. We read Paddington, and a Biscuit book. Tried to take him in at 11:11, but he wasn’t ready. So I took him back out. We read Curious George Goes to the Zoo, then I got ready for bed. We both went in at 11:30. He was nursing, but then I heard him talking quietly, then getting louder: “The ___ got a big ___.” Then math: “7 plus 7 is 14.” Then something about Duplos and shapes. He was trying to climb to me. When Carly wouldn’t let him, he said “No grabbing.” I sang a song or two, he did some more nursing, and was finally asleep just before midnight…maybe 11:57.
Made up words:
On our walk:
Park:
Spiderweb Playground:
Home:
Singing:
Spiraled up in his shell:
