7:18. He walked out and laid down on the reading area. First thing he wanted was iPad, but we read the What Are Clouds Made Of? book and had fun with that. He wanted Korean apps, and made words on the magnet board. He was then writing on the etch-a-sketch thing. We were writing Korean words, and I got out the little booklet things from his classes. One of them looks like a phone, and he started calling the animals on the cards. I had one of them ask what he was doing today, and he said “Going to Children’s Grand Park …children’s museum.” He remembered from our discussion the previous evening. We watched some Puffin Rock and had Cheerios for breakfast. I had gotten out a quilt and it was folded and sitting on the couch. He asked what it was, and when I said ‘quilt’ he got on it and started quacking, and said “Quacking on a quilt.” – the line from the “A Ah Apples…” song. He then made a nest out of it and the pillows in the corner of the couch. First he said it was a duck nest, then a dung beetle nest (from Puffin Rock). He was then feeding Baby Q (which he jokingly called Baby T) dung. He then decided he was feeding Baby Q ice, and so we discussed ‘brain freeze’, which he found funny, and which he seemed to understand (probably from eating frozen mango).
We headed down. On the subway he did some art on the iPad, and a woman was impressed as he was writing words in Korean on the iPad. We got off, and I set August and the backpack on a bench. Someone then bumped into me from behind, and didn’t move away quickly. My first thought was to check my pockets. But it was a student from Sejong University (she had a jacket), and she slumped down on the bench next to August and started calling someone on her cellphone. My first thought was that she was drunk, but then I realized she might be really sick and trying to make it to her classes. So I got August out of there. He had leaked though, so we stopped in the infant room in the station and changed him. As we left, he was singing songs, and he would finish one and say that song was “for the pelicans…for the slime.”
We went up to the park and to the new Yes and Yes convenience store to get lunch. But they didn’t have kimbap or sandwiches. Instead of going back down into the subway station, we went across the street to the one at Sejong University. Good choice, as they have a good selection. Went to the children’s museum and ate in the cafeteria.
He saw the little kids area from the cafeteria and wanted to play there. So we went in. He did some climbing in the center area, then we went up to the kitchen area. He did some tea, traded an apple for something else with a “baby”, and climbed around on the little chairs, tipping them over and making a sort of fort out of them. He went down the slide on his own, then played with some of the puzzles. There is a new wooden puzzle that does shapes, and he really liked that one. Then he asked where the “light blocks” were. He was referring to the blocks in the light area downstairs. It was getting on to nap time now, and I said we would change him first. He didn’t want that, but we got him changed. He was clearly tired, so we headed out for a nap.
But like yesterday he was quiet and let me sing for 15 minutes or so. But then he wanted apple. We stopped on a bench and ate, then started walking again. He said he didn’t want to nap though, and did his letter yelling thing again. Didn’t want to deal with a lot of walking in the 40 degree weather again, so we headed home. On the way two separate maintenance trucks that zoom around the walkways in the park came uncomfortably close to us. I’ve never liked how they speed along the paths as if they were roadways, and not walking paths, and don’t bother to signal.
We made it in one piece though. On the subway, we ate some of his Halloween pretzels (bat and pumpkin shapes), then he was really into art on the iPad. A guy wanted to take August’s photo. I have no problem with him just snapping a shot, but I knew he wanted August to look up, and I didn’t want to interrupt August’s art, so told him no.
On the walk from the station, he was saying long lines of nonsense, then saying he was playing a joke on a Smurf: “You were making a joke on Handy Smurf.” We stopped to look in at Pink Burger, and the guy who owns Mama Juice started talking to us. He said it should be open this weekend. August wanted to read the Hangeul on the Mama Juice sign, and the guy was impressed, and helped August with the translations he didn’t know – like tangerine and persimmon. August needed no help with pronunciation though, as he is now about as fluent as I am – he easily read ‘Americano’ and ‘caramel macchiato’ off the menu in Korean. August was also going through all of the flavors and declaring which ones he has tried and which he hasn’t: “You have not tried that one before.” I told him we could get some juice when we went back out for a walk, and he chose persimmon.
As we walked up, he randomly said “Fishy McFisherton”. I asked where he got that, and he said “From Mama”. We were at home for awhile, changed him (he had leaked a little, again – no idea why. Almost no leaking since we’ve been back in Korea, then twice today), then headed out in the stroller for Home Plus. We stopped and got his juice and a coffee for me. The guy let August put the straw in, and some splashed on me. No big deal.
At Home Plus August got out of the stroller when I looked at diapers. He started acting like a puppy dog, barking and pretending to lick me. When I left that aisle, he was behind me. I took too long to get moving, and, as he was on his hands and knees acting like a dog, he started pushing the back of my legs and saying “you can do it Dada.” He kept doing this, and scooting along the ground, for quite some time. When not pushing my legs and telling me I could do it, he would bark along beside me. I had to pick him up a couple times when he was in the way/drawing too much attention.
Finished our shopping and headed home. He sang my numbers version of the “Bottom of the sea” song much of the way. Despite liking the song, he had been having some trouble picture it (it goes “there’s a 4 on a 3 on a 2 on a 1 in a zero at the bottom of the sea…”) and kept asking “What’s that mean?” So when we got home I drew a picture for him on the etch-a-sketch thing. We also ended up singing the “Five Little Ducks” song – a song which he generally likes now, but still calls sad. I made a version where at the end the mama duck goes swimming and finds her missing ducklings, and he really liked that because he liked the happy ending. (I don’t think I mentioned that he found one awful version of the song on YouTube where the mama duck lost all the ducklings, but then the dada duck called them and they all came back. Yuck.)
Carly came home as he was at the counter with me, helping to make banana bread. We included some persimmon this time. August didn’t ask to nurse right away, but then did, then came back and helped me finish up. At some point he said “You like helping dada.” I gave him the spatula at the end and he sat on the floor and intently licked it for a few minutes. Carly got him in to the bath. He went in just fine, and was having fun. But when she started washing him a switch flipped and he was exhausted and wanted out. It was a pretty straightforward trip to bed and fight to put his pajamas on, and he was asleep about 7:30.
Photos:
Banana bread:
