He came out at 7:07. Much too early, and he was sad to find mama gone. Still, didn’t last too long, and a minute later he wanted me to take him to the parlor: “You can play with Duplos when dada reads.” He ended up using all the regular pieces to build a big wall for the zoo. We then read books on the ipad – mainly Rain a couple times, then we got his iPad and he played the Ocean app. For every animal (moray eel, kinds of fish and octopi) he would want me to look up images of it in Google Images on my iPad. And we read Swirl By Swirl and he pretended to be a sleeping nautilus again on the parlor floor. I took a shower, then he wanted to go in on the bed. Made a nest, did some more reading, and then typed on the iPad. Back out in the living room, we did the piano keys, and he started playing patterns of notes he was making up, then trying to explain, using numbers, the pattern he was playing: “That was 1, 2, 2, 3…” We finally glued the broken piece with super glue and left it sitting until we got back. Played with some play dough, then brushed our teeth. He then let me brush his teeth, which was really cool. Usually he won’t let me touch the brush. But I did it today and he said it wasn’t tickly. Finally, before we left he was making monsters out of the Pororo magnets by putting several pieces together and asking what they were.
Headed to Bonghwasan Park. Bonghwasan Mountain is a little mountain (hill really) to the SW of us. August and I have been to Sinnae Park at the north end several times, and the first time walked up the hill to the top, where there is an old signal fire thing. There is another park on the south side, and that’s where we went today. A little harder to get to, as it takes train and bus. So we took the train to Junghwa and then the 1122 bus east. August sat in a seat of his own.
We walked around a few minutes until we found a coffee shop for future reference – Mancini’s Coffee. Then walked to the park. Spent a few minutes looking at the big map and telling him what the numbers were. Then we went and saw the waterfall that was off, and the big tile mural that is really cool. In the afternoon or evening I asked if he remembered what was on the mural, and he said “kimchi”, referring to the kimchi pots. Then headed into the park and got as far as the little playground (he had wanted to see the ‘rolling ball court’ (apparently Korean for croquet). Got down and sat on a platform and ate lunch. I had bought a crab and ham and cheese sandwich pack at GS25 last night, and he ate from both of those. Then played on the structure. He climbed up the rope ladders on his own, no problem, and went down the little slide a couple times.
He then wanted to read books on the iPad. Think this was because he was getting tired. Also, he really, really, really likes the book Rain. When he was asking to read it, we were on the play structure and he kept telling me what he wanted me to say: “Fine. I’ll do dada’s iPad.” We read Rain, and Pete the Cat’s Old MacDonald. He did a little more playing, and with my help climbed up the rocks to the exercise area. He had seen a barbell gently rocking in its spot after a guy used it, and wanted to inspect it. He stood up on the platform area, looking down and counting the rock steps for a couple minutes, then came back down. Got ready to go, and I agreed to read Rain one more time. His favorite lines are now: “Blasted overcoat.” “There goes my hair.” “It’s raining frogs and polliwogs.” “Hippity-hop.” Aand “Hardly. Dang puddle.” We got walking, and first went up and inspected the air compressor we kept hearing where people coming down from the trails clean off their shoes. August used it to blow air on the bushes, then I used it on his foot and leg. He was a bit scared of it at first, but then liked it. We got walking, and it took awhile. At first he wanted me to keep pretending to step in puddles and say “Dang puddles!” Then he spotted beautyberries – a lovely berry bush we first found at Olympic Park a few weeks back. And it was slightly windy, which really seemed to bother him as he was falling asleep.
Finally, he fell asleep and I want to the coffee place. He slept from 1:34 to 2:42. Which was definitely not long enough, and he woke up sad. He saw my iPad and wanted to draw, but that wouldn’t cheer him up. Eventually I was holding him and he just kept saying “No, dada. No, dada.” And asked “Can we go home?” And of course he asked to nurse a couple times. We headed home. He had calmed down right before the bus came, and he was fine after that, riding on his own again.
At some point I had realized and mentioned that we hadn’t listened to Basho (spanish songs) in a long time, so when we got back we got out his iPad and watched Basho videos. He kept saying “you can watch as much as you want.” And wanted to me to confirm that. Not sure where he got that idea, or phrase. He played with the magnets on the door. We made the alphabet, then he made a line of all the Hangeul characters to make one crazy word for me to pronounce. We went to the Duplos, and made a big duck, and worked with making it balanced so it wouldn’t fall over (or unbalanced so it would). He then wanted to make the “Australian Pavilion” from the big zoo, but we didn’t get too far.
Carly came home and they nursed. He started playing with the Duplo animals, and was pretending to have the zookeeper try to eat the animals (part of the carnivore, herbivore, omnivore game) and I reminded him a zookeeper is supposed to take care of the animals. I was then teaching him how the zookeeper does that, and we were having the zookeeper feed, clean, and examine the animals. He would then get another animal, etc. He made a T out of Duplos that looked like the University of Texas logo. Then, out of nowhere, he requested the video of letters going down water slides. He was referring to an ABC video that he used to watch. I think it has been months. Watching the Basho videos today must have jogged his memory. We watched a few ABC videos and found both that one, and the one of letters on a playground. We then read Rain again and he was laughing a lot at the lines.
We then put the piano keys in. The broken key works well. He asked how the piano broke, and when I said I didn’t know, he did his “I put ideas in there” thing to my head and we speculated on how it broke. I made up funny ones, like Carly playing the piano in the middle of the night. He said “Maybe Green Monster and Marshy were singing THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ROUND AND ROUND. Maybe.” Where he sang the all caps part really loud and in a Green Monster voice. Got him to do some of it on video, but sadly not in the same voice. He was on a roll, and talking about everything, and also randomly throwing out random lines from Rain, like “Blasted overcoat.” Carly commented on how August and I have so many inside jokes and it is just going to get worse. When he sang The Wheels on the Bus really loudly, that was a reference to GM singing to him over the (pretend) telephone. August was then saying “I turned it up to 70…I turned it to ‘loud room’”, which were references to changing the voice settings in GarageBand and the volume and tempo settings in Figure.
Anyway, he took a good bath with Carly, then was of course hyper before bed. He wanted to pretend to iron, (which we also did this morning with the blanket), then was pretending to make me touch the iron. I then tried to put a stop to that game by explaining we don’t hurt people. He then tried to start a pillow fight. Carly tried to put him to sleep at 8, but no luck. She came out to do something, then took him back. Still no. So she took a shower and got ready for bed. With me, we did a little reading, including Swirl by Swirl, but I told him it seems like the reading doesn’t seem to calm him down, but just makes his brain run faster, so we were going to go in and try to relax on the bed in the dark and sing songs. We went in and watched the clock click to 9, then hung out on the bed for a little wh
ile. He wasn’t too happy about that, but Carly came in, and he was able to go to sleep about 9:15 or 20.
Morning:
Being a nautilus:
Riding the bus:
Park:
Having difficulty getting to sleep:
Home. Hangeul:
