Our weekly visit to Children’s Grand Park
8:26…Came out and looked around and whispered “Nursing…find mama.” When I told him she was at work he threw himself down on the carpet and needed some alone time (I asked and he said ‘yeah’). Told him I’d be out on the couch. He came out after a few minutes and he wanted iBooks. Opened that and he wanted the music book. We counted some rhythms and he made up some songs. Taught him whole and half rests and ties. And he was curious about chords. We then used YouTube to pull up videos of some of the songs: “I Love Trash”, the Flintstones theme song, something from Mary Poppins, and, briefly, a cringeworthy religious song.
He then said he needed to pee on the toilet: perhaps the first time he’s done so with his diaper still on.
We got banana bread for breakfast, and he wanted to see images of electric eels. So pulled those up on his iPad. Then watched Puffin Rock and I took a shower. Started getting ready to go and he had some peanut butter. We made towers with Duplos and knocked them down and pretended to be sad. A few times through the morning he did his Jaws music alligator attacks. He then pooped on the toilet. He has the whole sequence down – closing the toilet, flushing, then washing his hands. He started playing with the pieces of the train track. He came out and got me, as I was getting ready to go, and wanted me to see his shape. He said (quoting Puffin Rock, I think) of his own shape: “it’s wonderful…it’s brilliant.” Then “Hey dada. Crush it and I’ll be sad”
He then wanted to sit and have me tell Puffin Rock stories. I told 3:
– Oona and Momma Puffin catching fish. Oona struggles, then finally catches 3. On the way home, the great full knocks two out and seagulls get them. It knocks the third out, but Momma Puffin hits the great full before it can grab it. She grabs the fish and gives it to Oona. Hey fly home and Oona feeds it to Baba.
– Baba in the kelp forest gets squirted by an octopus. Turns his feathers black.
– baby seagull tried to fly. Fell on sand. Bernie found. Seals helped to attract the other seagulls.
He got ahold of my phone and added a bunch of punctuation to stuff I’d already written. Then pooped on the toilet again.
Then, we spent several minutes on the toy piano. I introduced the terms ‘scale’, ‘chord’, and ‘arpeggio’ to him and he was intrigued by all that. He made a short descending line that he repeated a few times.
Getting out the door was a bit of a struggle. So many clothes to get on. Two pairs of pants, but then he said they were too tight. Took the outer layer off and put different pants on instead. Tried his bigger shoes, which he was intrigued by, but then he wanted his green ones back on. And he starts to get warm so quickly once in the backpack that I have to rush out the door.
On the subway down I introduced him to the Notion music notation app which I had just bought. It allows you to write musical notation by playing on a piano keyboard. He was very intrigued by that. At Children’s Grand Park we grabbed some smoky eggs and a sandwich to go with what we already had for lunch, then walked to the cafeteria in the children’s museum and ate lunch. He kept quoting Mossy from Puffin Rock: “Oh no! Where’s my pile of berries?”
He had pooped, so I changed him. I mentioned that this would be a good place for him to start using the bathrooms, and he immediately wanted to go pee on the toilet. So we went and did that. He liked the little toilet, and liked flushing it. He was covering his eyes to the other toilets and urinals though, so after he went, I held him and we flushed one of every other kind of toilet/urinal in the bathroom to show him they weren’t that loud. He still covered his eyes on later trips in, but I don’t think he was as concerned.
He walked down the main ramp to the second floor and played in the space area: the running thing, the circles that light up, etc. He was intrigued by a thing where you dance along to a alien on a screen. He watched other kids doing it for a few minutes, then just watched it for a couple minutes on his own. Just barely started to copy the alien a bit himself when he decided he was done.
Went from there to the construction area where he operated the crane for a bit. Then there is an electric chalkboard thing that we’ve never played with. The color changes as you write, and then eventually it fades away. He colored on that for a few minutes. He played with the floor tiles for a second. Thought he would get really into that like he did last time he played with them, but he did not. He kept quoting another Mossy line: “Now you see me, now you don’t.”
He walked up the other ramp to the third floor and played in the water area. Played in the big kid area, with the little water gate things. Turned a crank several times that he wouldn’t have been able to do before.
Then said he needed to go to the bathroom. Peed and did the whole routine, we got out of the bathroom, and he said he wanted to do it again. So back in we went.
Then to the little kid area. Pretty much went straight upstairs. He wanted to put something in the oven but kids were in the way. So spent most of his time mixing teas and having us sip them. He came up with some interesting tea varieties: “This is Mongolia tea. It has sugar in it.” “Cocoa very hot tea…it has salt in it.” “And this tea is BOY tea.” On our way out he went down the slide. Then got distracted by the puzzle area. He knocked one puzzle down, but then didn’t want to help clean up. He told me to do it, as he was playing with a ball. Made him sit on my lap until I was done, and got him to help a little.
We were talking about what we were doing next. I was already assuming he wasn’t going to take a nap, and I had told him we could go to a coffee shop. Now he said “I want to go to the coffee shop…I don’t want to fall asleep.” I told him he didn’t have to and outlined what I had planned. He excited responded with “That’s a good idea!” Finally, he rolled a ball back and forth with a woman several times before we left. We did the toilet routine one more time, then played around with a water machine before heading out.
We walked to the coffee shop. I mentioned I was going to the downstairs one today. He wanted the upstairs one instead. I was carrying him in my arms and said we could go upstairs if he walked up the stairs. He said “No. Dada carry you.” So we went downstairs. We got a strawberry smoothie. He played more with the Notion music notation app and I did a little reading.
We headed out about 4. In the backpack. Walked out the back entrance and to Daiso. Carly wanted a new cutting board as ours is getting kind of gross. Found the cutting boards. August insisted on wood. He was starting to get warm in the backpack and wanted to get out to choose one for mama. He looked through them, and chose a bamboo one. He walked down all the stairs, we paid, and went into the subway station. Remarkably, the escalator in the entrance they were still building when we left in June is now open – finished in a matter of months, unlike the one at the other end of the park that took two years.
Crowded subways. He stood the one stop to Gunja, we transferred, and he stood a few stops more until a seat opened up. We snacked on crackers and only got the iPad out for the last few stops.
At Hagye I asked him how he’d been on the walk to Daiso, as we hadn’t put his second pair of pants back on. He told me he wanted a second pair on now. So we put those on and got him in the backpack. As we did that, the cleaning woman knocked over the cup holder by the bending machine. August exclaimed “Wow. That is pretty loud!”
We were home at 5:40. Surprised to find that we had beaten Carly. When she arrived a minute later she used the doorbell thing, which August found really exciting. First time we’d been on the answering end of that one. They nursed and he ate alphabet pasta and t
hen a couple bites of my soup.
He and I figured out a lot more of the Notion app, and he composed one called “Mama” that he then played for her. We did some play dough mixing. Carly gave him a bath. We read the monkey book. And before bed I made sure to brush his teeth. He’s been resisting it again, so didn’t do a good job this morning. He was asleep at 8:30. Carly had to go in once about an hour later as he woke up.
Subway map:
Dancing with the alien. Sort of: https://youtu.be/4_rLk_2exsc
Crane operator:
Spinning thing:
Turning thing: https://youtu.be/q_H8hBv8et4
Mixing teas:
The Mama song:
Painting
His brilliant shape
Hiding for no apparent reason
Flushing the little toilet
Hiding from the toilets
Cutting board for mama
Banana bread and electric eels:
His marvelous shape:
Hiding from something:
Composing:
On the toilet:
Water area:
Flushing the toilet:
Hiding from the urinal:
Climbing in the kitchen area:
Cutting board for mama:
