Wednesday: Parks in north Nowon

He was up at 5:55. He was on the iPad when Carly left, doing Sago Mini Monsters, when Carly left and was fine with that. But at 7:20 it sunk in that mama had left and he got upset. He kept trying to go out in the hall, and was upset with me when I wouldn’t let him go out. Eventually, he started pulling my backpack off the stroller so he could get in that. When I agreed to go for a walk he calmed down. We grabbed a couple things and headed out, and took a walk along the stream. After a few minutes he started the “Ingredients…oops!” game, where I list ingredients in the Larabars or banana bread and include things like beetle spit, say “Oops!” and he laughs. We paused to watch an egret in the stream, then came home – a 20 to 30 minute walk.

He played on the iPad while I showered, and was lying on the floor when I came out. A couple times through the morning he asked “Where mama go?…Can you find her?” but didn’t get upset again. We tried to skype with my mom to see how my dad was doing, but she wasn’t online. August left a video message instead, then left messages for oma and mama.

August wanted to read Winnie the Pooh, and we were reading the first story, about the bees, when we realized that August was wearing his bee pajamas. Then, I noticed that he was wearing a Winnie the Pooh diaper. Next, he got up and was playing with the balloon from the park, the blue balloon, when we got to the part about Christopher Robin giving Pooh a blue balloon.

Cherie then called us back and we talked to her for a few minutes. We stopped so we could get ready to go, and Cherie sent one of the video emojis. August loved that, and was thrilled when he figured out how to send them back. Kept him busy sending her emoji after emoji (and then Carly), while I got ready. I don’t think she realized what she would unleash. A bit later, my mom was online, and we skyped with her and Paul. Dad is doing okay; sleeping a lot.

Back to Winnie the Pooh, I sung a few lines from the song. He wanted to know more about it, so I looked up Winnie the Pooh episodes on YouTube. We watched the song, and parts of a couple episodes. There is a Winnie the Pooh special about letters and numbers, and we watched a portion where Christopher Robin teachers Pooh about rhyming words. August was interested in that. We watched one full short video, and as it was about to end, August said “Want another one”. That was interesting, as there was no obvious clue that the video was ending – rather, he could tell that the plot was ending. I also noticed this when we were making up Kipper stories. When I get to the end of the story, whether it be because the plot is resolved, or clues in the tone of my voice, August would often then say “The end.” Interesting understanding of storytelling and/or plot.

Eventually we headed out, sometime after 11. We were taking the 1137 bus up a couple stops north of Nowon (he chose bus over subway). He started to fall asleep on the bus, but managed to keep him awake. He perked up as we looked at some music-related murals as we went under the roadway to get to the west side. Spotted one nice coffee shop for later reference, then walked over to 용화어린이공원. Didn’t expect much, just a spot for lunch, but it turned out to be a nice spot and a well-equipped playground. I had just brought sandwich, banana, string cheese, etc. today and we ate on some covered benches. He rebounded and had us joking about throwing up on beetle and grasshopper nests. I have no idea where he gets his sense of humor. He kept asking if he could climb the brick wall around the park. Answer: No. Got him over to the play structure, where he went back and forth over the short rope bridge a few times. He wanted to go on the long one, but I eventually talked him out of that. Went down a slide together, and he climbed up a climbing wall with a slight slope to it. About 6 feet tall. He was saying “I can do it” to himself, then switched to “I can’t do it.” but kept climbing. Near the top, he started singing “…with your hands in your pockets, and your pockets in your pants…” and when he got to the top he stood up and finished “all the little fishies do the hootchie cootchie dance.” Finally, he wanted me to make mistakes with words, and his favorite was when I ‘accidentally’ called him Colin, Thatcher, or Vivian.

He’s been doing more whispering, and as we walked to put him to sleep he was incorporating it into his singing. Then, I told him it was time to sleep and I was singing to him, but he would randomly whisper “seven”. He fell asleep and we went to another coffee shop we found called Cafe Teapot. He slept from 12:46 to 2:02. He popped awake, sort of, and immediately said “dada do oops word in Korean.” But then he sort of stared out the door and stretched. Staring at the door, he started saying things like “if you walk through there and it is closed, a grasshopper will bite you…”

He wanted to go outside, so I got on the backpack and we got going. Checked out another park (온곡어린이공원), but pretty dull and he wanted to skip it. Got to the big neighborhood park (온수그린공원) I’ve been to once (I remember reading Crow Planet while sitting there) and we walked around. Found a big library building at the end of the park. Went in and found the children’s library area. Walked around, and he liked looking around for a few minutes (numbers on shelves, letters on the walls, pictures, etc.) I found the English section and it was pretty impressive, but August wanted to leave. Tried to convince him otherwise, but he wouldn’t listen to it.

Went back to the entrance and sat down on a bench so I could have a break and get some food. He got out. A grandmother brought a little boy over and they gave August a couple of rice cake things. He ate those, then some of our other food. We took some selfies, and he was asking about the buttons, particularly ‘slo-mo’. So I showed him what it does by taking video of him dancing. He liked that. He then was making up Biscuit books he wanted to ‘read’: Biscuit Steps on a Mooka Mook, Biscuit Spills the Juice, Biscuit Spills the Crackers, Biscuit Steps on a Mooka Mooksa (it’s a sequel to the first one).

We headed out, cutting through Nowon proper this time. He was singing songs, and after each wanted to know how long it was: “how many seconds that is?…the mooka mook song.” That was a result of Skyping: at the end of the call with Cherie and then with my mom he noticed the timer and wanted to know more about how they told you how long the call was. He was also singing his usual ABC songs, which he now ends with a different “won’t you sing with…” One today was “next time won’t you sing with blood?”

We stoped at 엄지어린이공원 and he wanted to play. But first he just got out and lay on hits stomach on the bench for awhile. The bench was around a square grass area and tree stump. We discussed the difference between the words ‘stomp’ and ‘stump’ and he stomped on the stump. He then wanted to weed, mainly picking out dry pieces of grass. Another boy had collected acorns, and August looked at one for a minute, then gave it back. We learned that acorn is ‘도토리’. We got a lot of other kids talking to us in the short time we were there: a couple of girls as he climbed the climbing wall, then an older boy, in some English, up on the structure.

We left at 4:30 and walked the rest of the way home. He was singing songs in his languages, and at the end would end with a word and say “…that means ‘the end’…that means ‘start’.” He was also making up new words and odd definitions: “’doadoado’…that’s a boring name for chalk…that’s another name for kitty.”

Got home and he played on the iPad for a few minutes. But then he noticed that Carly wasn’t home yet (she had stopped to do fingerprinting on the way home) and went and opened the door and stood looking out for a couple minutes until she showed up. A bit later he pulled up the calculator app on the iPad and was playing
with that. He was trying to do multiplication and called me over to explain multiplication. He had a bit to eat, and a bit later said “Your tummy feels better.” Didn’t know it hurt, so asked if he had just felt hungry, or if it hurt. He said “hurt”. Wasn’t entirely sure if he was just pretending or serious, so asked, and he said “real.”

I gave him a bath, which went well. Back out, he went straight for the table and wanted the iPad. When I said it was asleep he got upset. Clearly a tired boy. Carly took him and he wanted to go into the bedroom. He was asleep about 8:40.

Morning: