He was up right at 8:00. Very sad for a couple minutes, but then he got down and started reading all of the word signs in his language (after actually reading ‘la ventana’) and then playing with the Duplos. Banana bread for breakfast, some iPad, and getting ready to go, and we left about 9:40.
He sang on the way to the subway. When we went through the turnstile he kept saying “We sneak”. He was referring to the little informational Larva videos that they show on the monitors in the stations and trains. In one, it shows the characters trying to sneak through a turnstile without paying. I assured him that we had paid.
We got to the mall about a quarter to 11. We went to Cheongdam and walked from there since the weather was good. Found a bench outside to eat on. It was a boat-shaped bench, and August was crouching on it and, I think, he forgot it got narrower and at one point fell off. A pretty hard fall, but no damage. As we went in towards the aquarium, he kept pronouncing ‘aquarium’, and we had been sitting near a sign that said ‘aquarium’ in both English and Korean (it sounds the same) so had been reading that.
At the aquarium, it became clear right away that he was much more into the fish names this time. That is because of the Marco Polo Oceans app he has been using, and all the looking up of butterfly fish, octopi, etc. So a lot of “What is this one called?” Near the beginning we saw pufferfish, butterfly fish, and clown fish, which he’s all seen in his app. Later we could see coral, giant pacific octopus, sea turtles, lion fish, and a few more that he knew. We also saw the random squirrels they have, and one was running on a wheel. We watched it and I explained what it was doing. It that stopped running and did two flips in the wheel. August said “Octobut” a couple times and I was confused as to what he meant. He then said “A for, A for…flip.” It was the ‘A ah apples act as acrobats’ song. He was trying to call the squirrel an acrobat.
We saw a lot of fish. Some of our other favorites were the blue tang, zebra eel, and electric eel. And we got to watch the beavers coating their fur with their oil. His favorite part, as he told both me and Carly later, was the touching area. And this time we got to touch an eel and he reached the spoon worms this time. In fact, later in the day I mentioned that, and couldn’t remember the name of them and he said “spoon worms!” We were in the aquarium for a couple hours. Like last time we were worn out by the end, so didn’t spend as much time on the big animals or mammals. Next time. It was because he was focused so much on the names. Oh, and we did the rubber stamp thing this time as we went through. So he was interested in knowing what each area was called and what was next. One of the stamps was broken though, and that left an impression. We did the penguin stamp twice to fill in the spot.
From there we went to the infant area and ate a second lunch. He had eaten all the crackers and most of a Larabar in the aquarium, so I was surprised when he ate a bunch more. Had a lot of fun speculating about all the other babies and parents going in and out, and why they were crying, what they were doing, and where they were going.
From there we went to the bookstore. He played with some lamps, then down in the toy area they had these cool little blocks that he played with for 10 minutes or so. We looked at books, but nothing caught our eyes. We headed out, and he fell asleep in due order.
Found a coffee shop attached to a hospital. GNG Cafe or something like that. A nice place, and cheap. Being right across from the Lamborghini dealership in Gangnam I was expecting someplace more expensive. We could have just as easily ended up in a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and paid 7 bucks for a latte, but instead found one for 2 bucks. Anyway, he slept from 2:05 to 3:18. A peaceful wake up, and he wanted me to walk again. So we got going and walked to 해주세요서비스, a little children’s park a couple minutes away, and about the only one anywhere close in that part of the city. Stopped to look at a sculpture in a housing area along the way.
At the park he was still waking up, so stood in the bench area for a few minutes, and finished the Larabar. Played for awhile, climbing on the shaky bridge and narrow bridges, and going down a couple slides. Both times he went down a slide he ended up getting shocked when he touched the structure again. Something clicked. I asked “Is that what happened at Ttukseom?” Last time there he had remembered hurting his finger on the play structure and I was thinking it was a pinch, but I couldn’t figure out where he would have gotten pinched. But I think he had been shocked. Anyway, he at least liked that explanation, and kept mentioned getting shocked at Ttukseom. In fact, on the train home we were looking out the window and saw the J-Bug building and I pointed out the playground. He said “Where you got shocked.” He finished playing at the playground by climbing and rocking on the little toy things. He was then singing “Rocky, rocky, rocky like a butterfly fish…rocky, rocky, rocky like a pufferfish…”
We headed home, and got here just after 5. Carly got home a few minutes later. As we walked today there was a lot of singing and talking about polygons, both real and imaginary. Real ones like ‘nonadecagon’ and ‘tridecagon’, and made up ones like ‘nonatripolygon’. They nursed, then he wanted to paint with her. So they did that, trying to figure out what each sponge print looked like. He then played Oceans on the iPad, then did the crazy sentences and Cookie Monster ABC app. He and I then played with Duplos, making a cage for the alligator and some letters. He and Carly then did math with the zookeeper, at his request. At one point he was drawing Ks on the paper with a crayon, and just giggling after each K. I was just watching from the kitchen, then he started quoting from Cookie Monster – he says a line about “That cookie should hang in a museum…or in my tummy”. We had talked about the line earlier in the day. He was finding it funny now, thinking of each of his Ks as a cookie for Cookie Monster.
Carly gave him a bath. After that, he was doing a Hangeul app with Carly. We had been doing it on the subway home. It is a decent app, but their word puzzles are stupid: a few useful words, but then three sentences for ‘You are pretty’, and then a couple dozen names of K-Pop groups and their songs. So he was excited when he could tell Carly that one was a musician, and he picked up the iPad and came out to me to confirm, saying “That’s a musician, Dada. Think so. That’s a musician.”
We took him in for bed a bit later. I had just eaten some sesame crackers and he smelled them, so I had to get him some. I asked if he wanted to read a book, and he said “Nope. That’s not my plan.” He wanted to build a nest instead. He was playing in his nest, and pretended to be a coconut octopus: “You get out of your coconut shell…you’re sleeping in your coconut.” He was asleep around 9:15.
After he woke up:
Train. His favorite map:
Aquarium:
Looking at sardines:
Jellyfish:
Book store:
Playground:
Headed home:
Home:
