Wednesday: Dobongson – Iris Garden and Bukhansan

He was up right at 7. Silently walked out, into the parlor, then down the hall, opened the door, and out into the hall. He pulled me after him. He silently walked halfway through the building – away from the elevators. He stopped, and when I asked if we could go back to the apartment he whispered ‘yes’ and let me pick him up. As we walked he whispered ‘Go find mama’. Back inside, he wanted me to sit on the couch and he sat on my lap for a few minutes. He then wanted crackers, but turned to the idea of a Larabar. I agreed to that one and he ate a whole Larabar. He then made a mess of the play dough stamps while counting them and sliding them on the floor, and we then made play dough letters and then marbles and dancing worms for quite awhile. He’s getting good at rolling the worms. He also washed my soap again, so it wouldn’t stick, he said. And he saw the box from my parents, and talked quite a bit about erasing the letters and about typing “P N instead of P O…1226 instead of 1225…Q instead of P…What you type Q about?”

We went in the reading area and read some Winnie the Pooh – more of the flood story and a couple poems. He wanted to watch Puffin Rock, but wanted me to watch with him, so I did that for awhile and he was cuddling with me, then I took a shower. He had started some writing on paper before I went in, and did more after. On his own he wrote 코끼리, 맛, 꽃, 토끼, 뚝섬.

He did some painting, and I started getting us ready to go. He wanted some bread “little toast”. He then requested Sketchbook, and I let him use my iPad and the Pencil. At one point he went in to the changing room to study the way the letters are written on the toy box. He occasionally just sits down and looks at all those letters. It was similar to how sometimes he will run off to go check how a Korean word is written on one of the posters. He also wrote ‘me’ on his own and was able to sound out and write ‘you’ and ‘and’ when I asked. He can also now make new files on Sketchbook, and I introduced him to layers.

Next was hiding the animals, particularly Turkey. He’s getting more clever with this as well. Lot of laughing involved with this. I had a diaper out to put on him, but first put it on his head as a hat. He then played with the camera, then came out to me and said “dada turn diaper hat.” Had him take a photo of me, then he wanted to do Pano. He tried that out a bit, but told him t would be better outside.

Got him changed. Then he sang one of his usual tunes but said “You changed it…why you changed it?” When I asked why he changed it, he said “It was getting old.”

He wanted to paint before we left, and opened up to a blank page. He said “Best page ever.”

We finally headed out and found we had just missed the big kimbap making day in the park.

He did some Pop Poppin Hangeul app on the train – the first time he’s used that in weeks. At the station we read some signs, then walked to the Iris Garden. We admired the view and a few pigeons, then sat down and ate lunch. He opened the sweet potatoes, and sang a song “That’s the goguma, that’s the goguma, go- go- go- go-, goguma means sweet potato.”

He headed down the ramp and we went for a walk after I packed up the food and followed him. He was pretending to be a frog, I think it was, as we walked up and over the bridge. He then walked off the path and into the grass for awhile. We were walking through the park again when I realized he needed to be changed. We went into the changing room and did that, then when we came out he wanted to head to the street. We decided to head up to Bukhansan. While putting him in the backpack he looked up at the ‘Book & Cafe’ sign and said “You erased the ampersand…you erased the emoji.” The former would change it to just ‘book cafe’, which he knows, and the latter referred to the little cartoonish figure the sign had as its logo.

We got walking about 1:20. By the station he said “I smell kind of a bad yuck.” Then kept guessing what was making the smell. But the smell went away, and he said “Huh. I haven’t seen the smell.” Walked for 10 minutes or so, but he wanted banana chips, so we sat in the children’s park, him still in the backpack, and ate a few until he was ready to walk. Another 15 minutes or so and he fell asleep at 1:54. We went to 우리동네 커피집, a coffee shop I had added to Google Maps last spring but we haven’t been to. He slept to 3:15.

Walked up into Bukhansan. Once we got up to the bridge we stopped because August wanted a snack and wanted to take some photos. While eating, he leaned against me and noted that his legs were “Like a 4”. I took a photo of that, then let him take some photos. He got my leg in a photo of leaves, and I suggested he take one without my leg, but he said he wanted my leg in it. He also tried out some panorama shots. He pooped, so we needed to change him outside, standing up. Did it on a rock and went fine except the wet wipe was pretty cold for him. Got him in the backpack and he was singing silly lines, like “The banana breads in the Cat…”

On the walk back down he said something looked like poop. It was moss on a rock. So we studied that. As we continued to walk, we sang the “We’re going home to mama” song together, then he sang a series of songs, which he claimed were Japanese, French, and Chinese songs. And of course the Spanish ABC song, which he now sings all on his own, including the words at the end in Spanish.

Back down on the street, he was asking about the orange cone signs blocking the right lane. They said ‘No smoking on them’, but also the name of the store. Other stores had the right lane blocked with signs as well. Not sure why stores get to block off the street. Anyway, we discussed that, and as we walked he sang “blocking off the street”. Finally, he spotted a truck that was a portable shoe store. And he spotted that it had some of those wobbly head things as decorations.

On the way home I successfully (and kindly) kicked two guys out of the seats reserved for pregnant women. We were home at 5:30. They nursed and played hide and seek. He drank some water and soy milk and was going in to the sink to spit. His bottom was itching, so Carly took off his diaper and put on some cream. It kept bothering him though, so we started a bath soon. He did some art with Carly first, while I hung up laundry. He asked her why we don’t have brown paint, and she said that most people probably prefer the other colors. He disagreed, or argued that people should like brown, saying things like “People choose the brownish color.” Brown has definitely been his favorite for the last week or two. I gave him a bath. Went smoothly except he kept squirting me with the squirt car at first. After his bath, he told me to hide, but then ran off to hide himself. Carly brought him back to look for me, but he decided to go out in the hall. I had been standing in the bedroom, holding up the blanket to hide behind. I came out and was the blanket monster, which resulted in a lot of laughing. I then did go out in the hall with him for a few minutes and he wandered around. He and I then did a typing game, where I typed a word and he tried to read it, then he typed a word and I read it, etc. Worked quite well. By the end he had developed his own rules, telling me to stand in the parlor or kitchen or somewhere else while he typed and insisting the word was a secret: “now dada you stand here…it’s a secret.” But after we were done he asked “What’s a secret?”

Around 9 we went in to bed. He chose Pete the Cat – Pete’s First Pet to read. He read much of the first few pages. He’s really intrigued by the page where Pete’s paints are empty, and wanted me to come up with many examples of things going empty – and he came up with his own: our paints running out, out of time. He was asking what ‘show and tell’ are (it is in the book) and I explained and asked what he would take to Teuni Teuni if there w
as show and tell. He thought about it, and said “Juice…orange juice.” He also randomly asked “What bones are?” So I explained those. He let me put his diaper and pajamas on, no fuss. He wanted to nurse and went looking for mama, not realizing she had fallen asleep next to us several minutes ago. I left them at 9:30 and he fell to slee quickly.

In morning he had said the nautilus song was a playdough song.