Friday: Long Friday – This Is Our Blog

Dream Forest, delivering groceries, visiting Carly, and putting him to (almost) sleep

Carly had the middle school lock-in until 9pm tonight, so she wasn’t going to be home until late.

August was up at 6:52. I heard him laughing a lot and maybe talking in his sleep before he came out. He looked around a bit but didn’t say anything. I asked if he wanted alone time and he said yes. But he stood in the hallway for a bit then came and sat on the floor by my feet by the couch. A little later he took over typing on my iPad. I typed some sentences to him and then he started changing font colors, spacing etc. He played at that for several minutes, humming to himself.

We then watched some Puffin Rock and had the last of the banana bread for breakfast. I then got the train set out from under the bed and we had fun putting it together and playing with the train for a bit. We then went in and were writing musical notes on paper. We listened to Basho and Friends through the morning. He was joking around, chomping things and me, then playing with the Duplo alligator. He wanted the zookeeper to take care of the alligator, and the zookeeper fixed a broken tooth and told the alligator it could only chomp on soft things. So August went around finding all the soft things that the alligator could chomp on. We then went back to paper and were writing ñ words and musical notes. He drew a bit on the floor, and said “look what I did.” “Was it an accident?” “No, it was on purpose.”

We were in the bathroom and he wanted to make bubbles in the sink. We did that for quite awhile and had a nice sink full of bubbles. He used the spray bottle on the bubbles and we found we could spray tunnels in the bubbles. We said the bubbles were coral and the tunnels had eels and fish in them. He found a hair in the bubbles and took it out and dropped it on the floor, saying “You go down there.”

He played more Musyc, and discovered on his own that you can attach shapes to other shapes. I took a shower, then we cuddled in the nest together and watched Puffin Rock. We then got ready to go, and he was saying “No one messes with my brother.” A line from Puffin Rock. He was also rocking on the board from the top of the piano. He calls it his skateboard. He used my toothbrush to carefully brush my teeth. Finally, he saw me taking my vitamins and wanted to make shapes from them: something we haven’t done in a long, long time. So I agreed and we spent a few minutes doing that, making a nonagon and others.

We got going around 11. He was singing as we walked south to catch the 100 or 111. He was using clicks of his tongue as notes sometimes. On the bus, as we went through the short tunnel he chanted “tunnel, tunnel…”

At Dream Forest we walked up to GS25 and got some triangle kimbap, a thing of peaches, and a blueberry yogurt. He wanted to sit at the tables outside, in the shade, so we did that and ate for a few minutes. But he was getting cold, so wanted to go inside. We went in and sat on a bench on the second floor and ate some more. He was joking around and started chomping me, but chomped through my jeans and got skin. It hurt and I had to push him away to stop him from doing more. He got sad at this, and sat on the ground and put his head against my leg. I explained what he did, and he said sorry. He rebounded, and got Smokey out of the backpack and was throwing him around. We went up and changed him, then on the way out I stopped in the bathroom to blow my nose. I heard him say “Dada’s snot is glorious.” So funny. I didn’t understand where that came from, then a bit later he said “Bernie’s shell is glorious.” That’s the hermit crab on Puffin Rock and it is a line from the show.

As we had been sitting inside eating lunch, I looked at my phone to find a message from Derek, saying he had food poisoning and was wondering if I could pick up some groceries for him. At the same time I saw an email from Carly saying we could come visit her before the lock-in from 3:30 to 4:30 now – we had planned on 4:30 or 5. So our plans dramatically changed. No nap at Cafe Dream, or going to the children’s art museum show. We headed out the north entrance of the park and walked to the stream. As we waited to cross at the light, two women were next to us. The older woman was blind, and fawned over August, touch his arm and pulling his coat over his hand. We crossed the stream and paused to look at the deer mosaic. As we got close to APIS, there are pictures of animals on the wall, and August was naming them off. A penguin was missing its back half, and August called it an ‘alien bird’. He saw a monkey one and said “maybe a wangsimni.”

We went to the grocery store across from GS25. I made him stay in while I got most of the groceries. He then wanted out to look at the meat. He was doing a good job of not touching it too much, but didn’t like my hovering. He grabbed my finger and moved me several feet away and said “I moved him away. You stay.” I was a little incredulous that he referred to me in the third person. Played there a bit more, then he got two samples of mandu. I mentioned paying for the groceries, and he asked what would happen if we didn’t pay. I mentioned the police coming, and he kept asking about that: “Why the police would come?” We paid and went across the street to the park. On the way over he saw phone booths and pointed at the buttons and said “I want to mess with those.” In the park he said “This is my playground.” I went to put him in the backpack and he said “My poop is stuck.” I’d forgotten he had pooped at the grocery store. I decided to just carry him until we got to Derek’s house and change him there, so I put the groceries in the backpack. We hopped the bus, got of at Wolgye Station, and went to their house.

Dropped off the groceries and changed August. We washed our hands in the sink. August wanted to fill it with bubbles. I made the mistake of giving him a choice between bubbles or going to visit mama. He chose bubbles. Thought it would be the other. Got him out of the bathroom though, but then he wanted to play with the other toys. When we first went in, August asked why it was so quiet in there – he’s never been there without Logan and Rosie there. Derek held him upside down for a bit, then we headed out. Derek also gave him a pack of gummi bears. I’d let August get a apple juice at the store, so he drank that on the way to the bus; saved the gummi bears for some other time.

Took the bus back to APIS and went to Carly’s room. He was just starting to fall asleep as we got up to it. August sat in the back pack for a few minutes, looking around the room. Carly helped him read “The power” and “in defiance of” in the Howard Zinn quote she has on her windows. He got out, and they spent some time writing and drawing together. He made a shape, and Carly turned it into a duck. He was impressed with this, and kept asking “What you draw a duck about?” A bit later, he surprised us by suddenly drawing figure 8s – something I haven’t seen him practice and I haven’t really shown him. A student, Louisa, came in and he said “I like that student.” He then asked what her name starts with: “What that start with?” He saw two more students and said hi to them. He was typing on her computer, and excited that it showed up on the big screen. He did his game of typing a word and then having you come and read it. He directed Carly to stand on one of the mats, then ordered her to stay there when she sort of stepped off. Finally, he was asking why her computer and a different key on the keyboard, and I said there were Apple computers and Windows computers, and this was a Windows computer. He said “Apple computer. Like mama and dada.” “And Derek! Derek!” He had wanted to type on Derek’s computer when we were there, and must have realized it looked like our computers. Oh, and Carly sighed and then called herself a professional sigher. He said “You cannot sigh…I’m a professional sigher too.”

We left
a little after 5. Took the bus home – a bit of a struggle, as he kept wanting to stand on the seat. We made it to Brownstone about 5:45, and stopped at the guard station to get our iHerb order box. This was August’s most difficult 3 minutes of the day. The security guard opened the door and bonked August in the head. August didn’t get upset right away, but was kind of rubbing his head and dazed as we walked to the elevators. At Mama Juice he stopped and started pointing in and saying “I’m gonna do this.” But when I said we weren’t getting Mama Juice today, he wanted me to pick him up, which I couldn’t, because of the box. So he was sort of hugging my legs as I scooted to the elevators. Got in the elevator room, and in the process of pushing the elevator buttons, he then hit his head on the back of the backpack. Upset, he ran around my right side, and right into the corner of the box I was carrying. Three bumps to the head in as many minutes.

When we got to the apartment he remembered that mama wasn’t home, and wanted to sit in the hall. He was doing that for a couple minutes with the door propped open. He then came in. He looked out the window and asked what season it is. The answer nowadays is “late autumn”. He then made up his first little poem:

“I was sitting on my bottom

I went to autumn”

Very Winnie the Pooh like. He was looking tired, so when he asked for Puffin Rock we went and cuddled together and watched for awhile. Then got his bath ready and gave him a short bath. We were listening to Hozier for the first time in quite awhile. After getting out of the bath he spent a long time playing with bubbles in the sink again. He was complaining about his lower back hurting/itching in the bath and it was quite dry, so I suggested lotion. We got the lotion, and he put some on himself, but mainly on my arms. I got it on his dry area, but he said it made it itch. After that, he wanted a nest in the reading area, and we put his pajamas on. We then went in to the bed and read Mr. Gumpy. He pooped, again, for the fourth time today. Back to the reading area, and we read the Nursery Rhymes book. He ran out of the room, saying he was getting another book. It was Biscuit Wins a Prize, and he took it in to the bed.

So we read that in bed, but then he said he was hungry. We had already finished the Tospia sandwiches that Carly had got soon after we got home. Now, he ate some of the crackers (we had to try the new ones from the iHerb order) and finished off the kimbap from lunch. He was obviously tired now, and ready for sleep.. Back to bed, he was chanting rhythms/notes and singing, but then got down and was lining up the books on the ground. Then was hungry again, and ate almost an entire banana.

In the reading area, he got out Opuestos. We read it once in there, then took it in on the bed and read it there. Through this time there would be stretches where we’d be quiet and try to get him to sleep. A couple times he talked about falling asleep on the carpet, and would lie on the carpet, generally on his stomach while I sang to him or was just silent. On the bed he was lying on his back and whisper sang the “Mama loves you so much” song. One more time out to the reading area to try to fall asleep. He made me sit on the reading area, while he lay on the floor for several minutes. Rolling around at first, then on his stomach, kicking the floor with his foot.

It was now around 9:30 and I knew Carly was on her way home. Back in to the bed. He lay on his stomach, facing my wall, and I sang the Big Numbers song. After a couple minutes he told me to stop singing and was quiet for a couple minutes. Then closed his eyes.

And then Carly got home at 9:42. He sat up. They nursed and he fell right to sleep. A few times I’d told him that mama would be home after he closed his eyes and fell asleep. So that pretty much worked. Also, the fact that he didn’t get upset through any of it was pretty impressive.