7:13. Wanted to nurse, so a little sad, but not too bad. Sat in the parlor for a minute, then remembered the iPad and wanted to play. On the Hangeul app he was asking what the words like ‘onset’, ‘coda’, ‘vowels’, and ‘syllables’ meant. So I taught him what syllables were and he seemed to get it, and was thinking of words for us to count the syllables of: computer, spatula, Althauser, water bottle, clothes. We ate banana bread and the leftover eggs for breakfast, and tried to get going a little earlier as we had our long trip to the zoo. Brushed our teeth, and when we were done he said “I’ll put mine away. I’ll be back soon.” At one point he was playing with the door magnets and had one stuck to his face and didn’t realize it. We left a little after 9.
On the train down he was saying “Spiralshipper”. He made clear he was talking about the Not a Box book, so we got that out and read it. He was trying to say ‘pirate ship’. Got off at the park and began our walk. August started saying “Dada is cute. Dada is pretty. Dada is beautiful.” Based on the ‘You are pretty’ etc. sentences in the Hangeul app. We stopped and got a sandwich and a rice ball thing and his mango soy milk (he asked for it on the subway, I think), then walked into the zoo and ate in our usual blue-green light area by the giraffes. Ate a good lunch, then was playing around: “What is cockroaches in Espanol?” “Dada speak Korean.” He ran around the table and and was pretending to write things like “Dada is pretty” and saying “I wrote that for dada.”
We changed him in the changing rooms, and talked about how he had gotten upset the last time (or maybe time before) we had changed him there. He remembered the spot, and said something like “I’m okay now.”
We got walking, intending to go to the tropical birds (one place we haven’t gone) or to the water birds or the beast pavilion, as those were the two areas he talked about when we looked at the map on the subway. But he pointed over towards the Insectarium (he had also been pointing off in the direction of the Australian Pavilion – don’t know if he was simply remembering location, as we couldn’t really see it, or if he was spotting signs) and wanted to go there. We went in and he got out of the backpack and played with the button thing and we identified several insects. I realized that the video they have repeating on several screens through the insect house has a song called “Sex Bomb“ as the soundtrack. We got in to the room with the turtles and water bugs and spent a lot of time there: he played the pretending to take care of the animals game several times with the turtles and then the cybisters (the round water bugs), and really wanted to know the names of all the water bugs. We went upstairs and quickly went through the spider area. Oh, and he had really liked the ‘super worms’ downstairs and would mention them later. We went out back to the area with all the frogs and toads and whatnot and read some tank temperatures. He spotted a gnome statue in the pond with water coming out of its mouth and was wondering why it was doing that.
You come out on the side closest to the Australian Pavilion and he wanted to go see if it was open. It wasn’t. But we saw the cassowary and saw kangaroos sort of hopping. He also saw the signs that tell you not to feed the animals and talked about those a few times through the day. Went to the butterfly garden area and changed him, then got walking. He was singing, and sang the ABC song, ending with “…x, y, Zinnias…” Then said he was going to sing a song about beetle and zinnias. He did. He sang songs mentioning zinnias and cockroaches a lot after that.
He fell asleep and slept from 1:30 to 2:39. Went to the Cafe Tiamo near the entrance and ate in the food area there. Nicer seating than at the usual spot, and wasn’t busy. However, I was startled about 5 times as other families kept dropping metal bowls on the floor or having kids knock over chairs. Luckily, August slept through it.
Walked to the other end of the zoo and the South American Pavilion, which he had also mentioned a few times. He really liked the crocodiles, and wanted a snack. There was a good bench area by them, so we got down and watched the armadillos, then he ate a Larabar and almost all the banana bread we had. He ate a lot today. Then played at taking care of the crocodiles. Eventually got going, particularly after he was finding it tempting to pick at the flowers. Stopped at the coatis and took care of one of them, then headed out. He started to do a lot of singing as we walked out of the building. He included ‘zinnias’ in a song a few times and asked “What was that song about?” I said “Sounds like it was about zinnias.” He said “Lots of Zinnias.” and laughed. Right outside he kept singing more songs, and was running around, literally running circles around me and singing songs about cockroaches and zinnias. He ended the ABC song with “next time won’t you cockroaches eating leaves.” Then had a series of them as we walked out of the zoo: “next time won’t you sing with…” elephants, cockroaches, ladybugs eating cockroaches, etc. He had me ask what the songs were about, and was adding things to his list of people going to work, saying things like “It’s about pampadoo, sopadoo, Gamle oct Havet, and Figure going to work. Lots of people going to work.” And laughing at his own joke again.
He had quite the audience of three older men watching him as he played iPad on the way home: Hangeul and Oceans, primarily. They were fine, although it was a little odd, although one time the guy who had gotten up from his seat to come and watched reached down and touched August’s hand as he was trying to play. I have him a ‘What the hell?’ look and said something like “Really?” One of the other guys told him not to touch August, although I didn’t understand the reason he said.
Anyway, we got home at 6. When August got in he immediately wanted to play iPad. A little addicted right now. But he wanted to play iPad instead of nursing, which has never happened, so there is that. He ate a good dinner, and a bit later Carly gave him a bath. He and I read Rain and Pete the Cat’s Old MacDonald. August read (or recited) much of the first several pages or Rain and did some singing of Old MacDonald. A little before 9 he wanted to play Figure, so we played that together for 15 minutes or so. We played with the animal magnets again, sorting them (or more like joking about putting the animals where they don’t belong). Went in on the bed for a little while, then he was ready to nurse. I left them a little before 10.
Morning:
Magnets:
On his face:
Walking:
Zoo:
