He was up very early, at 5:30, just a bit after Carly was up. I believe they skyped with Chuck and Cherie at some point, and did math: He was writing really big numbers and Carly started to show him how to put commas in. Also, he wrote a subtraction problem that went into the negatives, so she drew a number line and introduced that. I was up around 7. He was making words out of magnets, and of one said “Maybe that’s an awesome music group.” We read Peppa Pig, the swimming and ballet ones, while Carly took down recycling. After she got back, he kicked me out of the parlor: “Dads go out there.” They read Pooh and nursed. He was then doing the shape matching game on the iPad, but wanted Carly to finish the actual shapes, so he could do the art/decorating part after each one. He had kind of a new whining sound to him as he was asking her to do this, saying “help mama. Help mama. Help mama.”
He took an early nap, and not an incredibly long one at that: 10:05 to 11:15. When he came out he was wide awake and ready to play, going straight to the iPad, and not mentioning nursing. On the iPad he was doing the Hangeul letters, holding them down so they repeated their sounds over and over. He was then asking me for their tempos. I used the metronome app we downloaded a few days ago to tap out the tempo and he could read off the BPM. He was then using the magnet app, writing Korean words, and learning the proper names of the Hangeul characters. We pulled up the page on Wikipedia that let us read them as well. Spent several minutes on that.
At one point he got up, grabbed my cough drops of the table, and hid them behind the backpack. Pretty random, but he found it funny, and did it a few times later as well. I was asking him why he hid them, and he answered with a chant, “me, po, do, gu…boom, kablooie…” then started running back and forth in the house and singing. He then went back to making up Korean words: “Maybe that is a toy you play with when you are seven.”
We went for a walk at 1. We needed to pick up cookies at Subway for our dinner later. August was singing ABC songs much of the way. At Subway he was happy to spot a 웨 on a sign. We went to Eunji Park, and August spotted animals on a railing, and called “Rabbit, kinkajou!” He sat with Carly and ate some of her sandwich, and was saying “want mild!” He was remembering the last time we got Subway and they talked about the sandwich being mild. There was a girl that was talking to us, and she said she was 7. August decided to insist that she was 6, and kept saying ‘6’ and pointing at her. A couple of women were also there, and we found out that one of them was from Mongolia. She had a daughter. The woman was a bit touchy with August and he didn’t like that, but otherwise we all kind of talked and played on the structure. The Korean woman helped August pronounce the park sign in Korean. August was asking who spoke Korean and who spoke English. To Carly he said “You speak Korean mama?” She said she spoke Spanish. He said “You speak oops words.” Carly asked “Do you speak oops words?” And he said “A little.”
We headed home. I rested and they did big numbers and typing. After that, we were getting ready to leave. August didn’t really want to leave – seemed a little nervous about going and meeting Logan and family. Closed the door to the parlor at one point. But convinced him with the idea of going down and getting ice cream and it being a secret.
We headed out and stopped at Baskin Robbins. Subway had been out of chocolate chip cookies earlier, and now Baskin Robbins was out of chocolate ice cream. Got a coffee and chocolate flavor. We walked over and took the bus to Wolgye, and walked to the park where Derek was playing with the kids. August played with Logan’s dump truck and we found beads and he buried them in the sand. I pushed Logan on the swing a bit. Jill came, and had Logan’s tricycle. Carly and I took turns pushing August on it. At some point August said “enjoy yourself”, which he said was from Pooh. We check later, and it is. He also said to himself “you’re a good climber…you’re a good builder.”
Derek and I walked to Paris Baguette to get buns and drinks for dinner. Carly and Jill took the kids, and were playing at the playground outside the apartment when we got there. August had been kind of upset and wanting to nurse, but the climbing wall thing cheered him up. He was reading the sign on the building in Korean and said it maybe meant “People Building”, then he wanted to go see Logan’s toys in it. He changed his mind and didn’t want to go inside, but I convinced him with a reminder of the ‘secret’ ice cream.
Inside he played with random toys. Logan had stickers and was putting insect stickers on Carly, and August joined in with that. He got Logan’s scissors, and pinched his hand in them and was bleeding. Carly had to nurse him, and he wasn’t happy about washing his hand off. But no need for a bandaid. He liked the rolls, but didn’t eat much BBQ pork. Finally, he said “Want to go home…want mama and zinnie and dada to go home.” His sign for being tired. So quickly to dessert. He was excited about sharing a raspberry cookie with me, and more excited when we let him eat some of the ice cream.
He did fine on the walk home in the backpack, singing numbers songs. We stopped for milk, then were home about 7:45. Carly made him some eggs and broccoli and he watched that. He went to the iPad, saw the Pooh book, and was singing lines of “Coddlestone Pie”. He ate his eggs, and quoted the Peppa Pig ballet book, saying “our favorite dance was the pas de deux”. We skipped a bath – I was amazed he had made it this late – but I got our toothbrushes out and brushed his teeth. He went to sleep a bit before 9.
