He was up at 5:40. We started with some typing on Carly’s computer. After that he did some writing on paper before saying goodbye to Carly. He was asking for Spanish words and we looked them up in the Spanish dictionary app. He did some of that on his own and some typing in search. After that it was an arts morning: we did some painting, played with the slime, and mixed play dough colors. He wanted brown, and in discussing it I used the word ‘tan’. He said “Tan. I haven’t heard that in awhile.” Wr made worms of it and did the worm dance, which he and Carly had invented. He saw me look at my foot and asked about it. I said there was some dry skin and he said “I like dry skin.”
“Hey dada, lean over…cuddle, cuddle. We’re cuddling.” He pretended to be a snake and said “I’m Paja the snake.” Not sure where that name came from.” We played hide and seek with the play dough worms, with August hiding them around the house. Did some more translating and typing on the phone, then it was back to play dough. August was singing a “I’m a dancing worm…I broke apart!” song.
We watched part of a Puffin Rock episode and August made a nest against me and pretended to be a baby seagull. He then moved to Paper and did art while I took a shower.
More play dough and iPad art after that. He then played with Figure and I got ready to go. One of the sound is called dolphins and lava and he didn’t know what lava is, so we looked it up on YouTube. He was pretty fascinated.
Before we left he spelled “achoo” on his own. He wanted both kimbap and Pink Burger for lunch. The latter was closed. We got to Home Plus, and he still wanted a burger, so we got shrimp burgers at Lotteria. He saw signs under the counter and asked “I wonder what that says.” We ate our burgers. A cart went by, and August copied the sound of the clattering wheels.
We then went shopping for some fruit for lunch. We were getting some mandarins, and a guy who works there opened one for August and gave it to him. He ate the whole thing. We also got a nut/yoghurt bar. As he walked around he said “I like walking around.” And he was talking about the knocking over water from the Oh No! book, although I’m not sure why.
We went up to his class, and it was starting as we parked the stroller and got out. He heard a noise, and said “Let’s go see!” and ran in. He did great today, running around a lot at the beginning of class and walking the path and giving the teacher a high 5 instead of doing a forward roll. Today was all about 무지개 – rainbows. First we made a rainbow hat, which August liked wearing, then there were rainbow walking path activities, and one where you pressed raindrop shaped pieces into a rainbow. That was probably his favorite thing.
After class we ate the yoghurt and nut bar and got walking. After 15 or 20 minutes we stopped at the park by the stream and ate some mandarins. Then walked some more, exploring random streets we’ve never been on between Nowon and Sanggye. We stopped after another 20 or 25 minutes to watch a guy spray painting a new building. August really liked that. We tried one more stint of walking, walking to the train tracks and back in to Nowon, until we got to the department store. No sign of sleep, and we’d had 60 minutes of walking, divided into 3 chunks.
So we went to the play area in the department store. As we walked into the store, he said something to the woman who helped us with the door, then said “’You can go slow.’ Something like that. I said that to that woman, dada. I was joking to her.” We went up to the Ppippi House (삐삐하우스) play area. We went there once last year. A small place, but with a coffee purchase you get to play for an hour. He went in and played with the trains by himself for 3 to 5 minutes. Then came over and played with the magnets for a bit. It was pretty amazing – he hasn’t been in a playing alone sort of mood lately. And he hasn’t been interested in iPad much the last two days, except on the subway. After that he wanted me to play with him: filling up the trains and trucks at the gas stations, pretending to make phone calls, making tea, building part of a puzzle, spelling things with the magnets, etc. He asked what the Barbie dolls were, and gave them a long, odd stare. There was a girl there, and he paid a little attention to her, but not much. When they first met, he had been curious about a spot on her face. Her mom said mosquito bite.
I had to change him twice there: once right after we got there at 2, then again as we left at 3. The first time I changed him, he wanted to lay down, and was very thoughtful about it: “What’s that baby crying about?” Me: “Maybe it doesn’t want its diaper changed. Sometimes August doesn’t want his diaper changed.” Him: “But NOW I want my diaper changed.” “Sometimes I like like to lay down for a diaper.” The diaper at 3 was perhaps the messiest I’ve changed in a long time. And had to wait for a table the second time, then had a long wait for an elevator. Got out, went to Daiso, only to figure out that the big one is now gone. We hurried to the second one on the way home, and as I got there at 3:40 he was falling asleep. I got him out of the stroller and carried him downstairs against his desires, only to find they don’t have the big pads of paper. Sigh.
He fell asleep right away, with his head hanging out the side of the stroller, as is his wont nowadays. It started to rain as we walked home, so I hurried. I stopped to get his head in the stroller more comfortably, and literally as I was moving his head with my hands, a woman stopped at started telling me his head was uncomfortable. I did not take kindly to that one. By the time we got home I had the umbrella out. Not heavy rain, but enough.
At home I let him sleep until 4:40, then got him out. I let him lay on me in the reading area, and he was trying to go back to sleep as I read some Winnie the Pooh. At just before 5, Carly called. August heard her and started to whine. She heard and took a cab home. In the meantime, he had climbed into the stroller and wanted to go outside. But down on the first floor he refused to put on a coat, so we came back up. I was just getting his coat on him to try again when she got home.
They nursed and he recovered. He refused any dinner. Carly wanted to go shopping, and so did August. So I went with them. While Carly shopped at the pink building, August admired the meat. He really liked all the meats. But the dried fish/octopus/shrimp/etc. he called “disgusting”. Couldn’t blame him. He knows I don’t like the smell of it. We were waiting for Carly outside the market, and she went back in to get mayonnaise. He spotted her back inside and loudly said “Mama! Where you go?” Or something to the sort. As we got back up on the first floor he noticed it was dark and said “I love it during the night.” He was then a baby owl on our way home.
At home, he said “Mama eat cashews.” when she sneezed. Luckily, that was not the case. He and I watched some Puffin Rock. He was excited by the word ‘young’ in and wanted us to go back and rewatch that line a couple times. He pointed at it (in the subtitles) and said “That’s an NG word!” Still not eating dinner. Crazy, as he hadn’t had any food – crackers or anything, since a little after 1. He kept requesting breakfast foods instead. We are doing eggs for breakfast tomorrow, so will try to break the cereal routine and see if that helps.
Carly took down the compost and August played with the sink as I finished the dishes – Carly had done most of them earlier. I took his clothes off for a bath, which was ready, but he said “Mama wash you!” I was about to dunk him in for a quick bath when she returned. He recovered and had a very fun bath, but at the very end he refused to help put the letters away and got sad instead. They nursed, then she tried to go take a shower. He got upset, and she decided to take him in to bed and put him to sleep ins
tead. He was asleep by 9:30.:
Slime:
Shrimp burger:
His cubby:
Paint sprayer:
Play area:
Asleep:
Closet fun:
Spatula:
