Friday: Children’s Grand Park

6:59. He walked out and stood at the end of the hall, all smiley. When I went over to him though he retreated down the hall for a few seconds and didn’t want me to follow. He came back out to the same spot, crouched for awhile, then lay on the floor with his hands tucked under him for a couple minutes. Then on to playdough. Then on to Puffin Rock and strawberries and Cheerios for breakfast. He heard ‘dragonfly’ on Puffin Rock and wanted to write it on Paper. The app, that is. We wrote some words and did some art.

He used the toilet, and wanted his shirt off. Afterwards, we put his new fox shirt and pants on. He wanted to watch a Flynn the fox episode on Puffin Rock, so I found one with Flynn in it. While he watched it I took a shower. During my shower, I heard a yell, so I turned off the shower and opened the door. He was still watching. I asked how he was doing and he said something like You’re watching a lot of Puffin Rock.” I think his yell was him squawking like a seagull.

He wanted to paint, and had the dry brush and was pretending to paint on my ‘los libros’ sign. I said that was okay, but reminded him that when he got paint he had to only paint on the paper. To which he replied “THIS is paper.” Touché.

We skyped with my parents. He was painting at the start. Did a lot of rolling around and sliding on the floor, which was a common occurrence today wherever we went.

At some point today he started saying “Absolutely” from Papa Puffin on Puffin Rock. He was playing Musyc and said “That is amazing.” Then “They’re all static. I like control.” He wanted carrots, but the round pieces were too big. So I cut them in quadrants and he had fun putting them back in circles. He then asked for Puffin Rock stories, so we sat in the reading area and I made up two: Flynn saving May and Oona when they are trapped in a cave, Baba learning to swim.

We got ready to go and left around 11. On the train, I sat in the middle seat. He was to my right, and a man was to my left. August sort of stood and looked over me and past the guy and was talking about the map. He then was trying to talk to the guy, and at one point I think touched him. He called to him, saying “Hey, grown up.” A bit later he did a gentle “Chomp” with his hand to the guy standing next to him on the other side.

We stopped and got a sandwich and pineapple. He wanted to go do sidewalk chalk, so we walked over there. He did sidewalk chalk, using the broom to blend it. It was a bit windy, so when he swept the chalk dust blew around. He liked that and called it ‘mist’. He was getting cold, so wanted his gloves on. Drew a little in his gloves, then took them off. He looked in one, and managed to get it back on his hand, but needed help with the fingers. We talked about going inside, but he didn’t want the children’s museum. He liked the idea of the conservatory though. We wandered through the playground in that direction, and he wanted to climb up the climbing wall with a rope on it. Did that without any help, then played around on the platform, singing and looking down on me.

From there we walked to the conservatory. He was doing much of the walking today. We went in and went upstairs. Looked around a bit, and sat on a ledge by one of the little gardens and ate our lunch. Looked around a bit more, at the fish and little fountain, and off the balcony over the banana trees, and wanted to go down to that area. He wanted to be changed first though, and we never made it back.

Went to our usual bathroom between there and the theater. Changed him, and then he actually wanted to try the ‘stand up’ toilet, the urinal. This is the primary one that he has been afraid of, and covers up his eyes for. So we did that, and headed outside.

Out in the theater he wandered around and stuffed leaves and needles down the holes for the drains. I’m not sure how he started it, but he was talking about being and adult. I said he didn’t need to hurry, and that it was fun to be a kid. He argued he was an adult already. I said “You want to be a kid.” Him: “No.” Me: “It’s fun to be a kid.” Him: “It’s not.” We would repeat this argument (and I’d get it on video) a few minutes later.

Eventually he agreed he wanted to go to the children’s museum, perhaps to read on the iPad. He got behind me and pushed me from behind across the theater. Going down the hill he walked to my side, holding on to the backpack like it was my hand. In front of the coffee shop there was some long grass. He pulled off a dead blade and played with it. We then stopped by a soft ground cover plant and he picked a bit of that. We spotted a couple cats as well. He really wanted to know what the plant was, so I took some photos and a video of him asking what it was. Played there a few more minutes, then headed on to the children’s museum.

At some point, I asked if he was tired, and he said something like “I’m not sleeping. I’m being adult.”

At the children’s museum we played on the first floor. Actually, he had talked about writing out one of the Korean songs we heard when we got there. As we walked in, two women decided to push their strollers out of the entrance doors, even though I was through the first set of doors and opening the second. As they literally shoved past me (or around, as I didn’t move) I muttered 나가는곳, which means ‘way out’, referring to the exit doors which were a few feet to their left.

Anyway, once we were in August headed straight back to the zoetrope, where there are long strips of paper. He remembered they were there, although I don’t think he’s written on paper there since he was first pretending to write cursive, and that was quite awhile ago. He started writing on the paper, and wrote 나가는곳, which I had no idea he knew how to spell. But we’ve seen it a lot on signs, and it shows just how phonetic Korean is (also, he wasn’t entirely sure about the last character, which makes sense since there are multiple options for the final sound there – he guessed right on the paper, but a few minutes later asked for clarification when he wrote it on the chalkboard).

He then headed to the room with the static shapes and cotton ball things, and played with both. He then walked around with the static shapes and tried sticking them on things. We looked in the big kaleidoscope and then went and drummed in the drumming room.

He wanted to be changed again, so we went up and changed him, then he went and used the toilet again. We then went to the little kids area. He went up and played in the kitchen area for a bit. At one point he said “I have an idea” and went and grabbed a plastic fruit and threw it at a girl. Again, class yesterday had consisted of throwing plastic things at other kids for several minutes. I asked him to say sorry. He resisted for awhile, and went and stood on the stairs, looking through the clear wall. Then he said “Sorry. Sorry.” We then headed downstairs to the puzzle area. But we got there to find that several kids had trashed that area, and we literally couldn’t find all the pieces to something to play with. So he kind of played around, climbing on the wall thing, playing with a ball, etc. and I started cleaning up. I noticed after a couple minutes at least one of the moms also cleaning stuff up. August was then playing with one of the worms from the central apple, and found he could crawl through some of the holes in the walls around the apple. He crawled back and forth between those. He then rode one of the little bee car things around for a couple minutes before we left.

Or were going to leave, but then he found a green plastic cup from the upstairs area sitting on the desk. He decided to put it on his foot. That took some rolling around on the floor to accomplish, then he walked around with it on his foot. He then put it on his hand for awhile. We took it up to the kitchen before leaving.

Out in the overpass area he lay down on the floor and stuck his legs up against the glass. Funny at first, but the
n he started kicking the glass. And he didn’t want to stop. Eventually forced him away from there, and he wandered around, testing the rules on what I would and would not let him kick. So kicking the changing table was okay, the other windows were a no, etc. I think I said something about heading home, and he sort of led me to the changing room and directed me in and said “Go in here and I’ll think about it.”

Before we left the children’s museum, I wanted to go figure out where the exhibit on children’s books was (a sign said the basement lobby). We went down and figured out where it was, and said we’d go look next time we were there. We played with the ’empathy’ heads, which rotate and show different emotions. The kid/adult debate came up again, and I said he needs to enjoy being a kid while he is one. And he replied with the very, very good question: “How come you can’t be a kid, an adult, back to a kid about?”

On our way up the ramp, we spotted two cats – I think a mom and a big kitten – in the center courtyard (which, by the way, I have never ever seen anyone in). We watched them, and one, the mom, went to the bathroom in the grass and buried it. There is a page in Everyone Poops about how some animals (cats and armadillos) clean up after themselves, but August had never seen it. So that was pretty exciting. Then, the smaller cat hunkered down and pounced at the bigger one – also something new. As we walked out, I talked about those pages from Everyone Poops and how some animals just poop anywhere – the mere mention of this sent August into hysterics. Doubly so when I then acted like a cow calmly saying “Oh look, there’s more poop I just left on the ground.”

We got outside. Sort of. He wanted to play in the doorway. Outside, he then fought me when I tried to carry him away and laid on the cold ground. Got him up and he just wandered around in front of the children’s museum for awhile, then was jumping around. He pulled up one pant leg, jumped around some more, and showed me what he had done. Finally, he was ready to head home.

We were running late, and got home at 5:30. As we walked through the park he was correctly singing/counting the rhythm of Are You Sleeping. But then he got slower and slower and trailed off, and was then falling asleep in the elevator. Got home and Carly kept him awake as he nursed, then he rebounded to watch Puffin Rock. Carly had stopped at the store, and got August batteries on my request – August had wanted to use his flashlight earlier but it was going dead. So he and I put the new batteries in. He thanked her by shining it in her eyes.

He had some soup for dinner. Carly got his bath ready and I took him in. He took a long, long bath, playing in the water after I washed him. He needed to get out at one point to sit on the toilet. While on it I had some music playing and he was sort of dancing on the toilet. He wanted to get the letters and numbers out, and I made him agree to help put them away when he was done. But then when he was ready to get out he didn’t want to help. I reminded him of his promise and he said “Okay” and got back in the bath and helped.

Naked, he played on the back of the couch a bit. Then I coaxed him into the bedroom by saying we could make a fox cave. Had fun with that, and hiding from mama. She started reading part of a book at one point, with him reading along from the ‘cave’. But he got hungry. Said “What’s a dinner food?” “I want a little bit of banana bread.” He had some strawberries to eat and went back to bed and was asleep by 8:20.

Word of the day was definitely ‘absolutely’, as he was saying it all day. He kept asking me what it meant, and I think he understood by the end of the day.