Monday: Home Plus and Cafe Tolerance

He woke up at 6:15 or so. I told him Mama was in the bathroom and he went and lay down by the door until she came out. She took him back in and he fell back to sleep. He was woken again by coughing at 6:58. He came out and I said hi and he calmly laid down on the floor in the kitchen/hallway. He fell back to sleep there and slept until 8:46. Sat up for a few seconds, then went and laid down on the carpet in the parlor. I went in and said hi, but he didn’t want me to join him. So I left him to his alone time. After a few minutes he got up and started playing with the train, talking to himself. At 8:56 he came to the door for a moment. I asked if I should come in. He said “No” and went back in. Heard him then say “ooh ooh. What is it? I found something.” But when he came out to the living room he didn’t have anything.

He went and laid down on the playmat for awhile. Then climbed up and laid behind me on the couch. He was making funny faces and saying “Ooh, what’s that?” Think he was squinting up at the lights. I started to put on music, but he wanted jump rope songs, so we did that. He kept asking “What they skip rope about?” and I realized he didn’t really know what jump roping is. So we went to YouTube. First watched this music video: https://youtu.be/zoMYU_nOGNg

Then this cartoon song: https://youtu.be/tgUDYOlgx1M

He really liked that, so we watched more of the Treetop Family cartoons: https://youtu.be/yVyNSnWlc1s

We had Cheerios and strawberries for breakfast, and some of the juice left over from yesterday. He wanted a Flynn story, so we put that on, then I took a shower. When I came out I was watching when Bernie said the “clickety clackety racket” line. He is talking to the red crabs, who are making noise outside his grotto.

We then painted with watercolor paint for a long time, listening to an Amanda Palmer live concert while we did so. I let him wipe (instead of blot, like mama) and we did shapes and then we did dots with our fingers. August remembered his bracelet and wanted me to put it on him, saying it helped with the paint.

When done we went to wash his hands, and he went on the toilet. Afterwards, he was playing with the spray bottle and somehow tipped the stool. Think it was just scary. He let me hold him a couple minutes, but then he wanted down and went in the parlor and closed the door. Told me he wanted alone time.

He came out and then typed and then composed some music on his iPad. We then made a salmon sandwich and he ate most of that. I asked if he wanted to go anywhere today. He thought about it for a minute and said “Uijeongbu”. He found the square sticker thing he had put on the wall yesterday, and now ‘hid’ it behind the blinds on the window, and ‘found’ it by pushing the blind against the window so it showed up.

Went on toilet again. Reciting a lot of Puffin Rock: “Are You worried about Mossy?” He then spent some time singing from the songbook, then we moved to the paper when he asked me to draw specific notes. Specifically he was looking at the notes with a curved line between them. In fact, he told me to draw two quarter notes, then added the line himself. So taught him the concept of ‘slurring’ and he liked that. He also mentioned time signatures, so we were writing those down and discussing them. Although he wanted time signatures like 88/7.

It was now past 1, so too late for Uijeongbu. We talked a bout going to Home Plus and looking for a jump rope. He said “What happens if you buy a rope jump? That’s silly.” Went to get our tooth brushes and came back to find he had drawn on the table – and was rather proud of it. As we started to brush he said “You smell like fish now.” Earlier, he had been asking why mama doesn’t like him smelling like fish. Started brushing, but he decided he was hungry and went and looked in the fridge, telling me he had something to give me. He spotted the green olives. I gave him one and he ate it. He said he liked it, but didn’t want any more; he wanted pancake instead. There were a few pieces of a pancake, so we heated those up and he ate them.

Finally headed to Home Plus after 2. As we entered he was pretending he was looking for something. When asked what, he said “Beetle”. We looked for a jump rope, but no luck. As we went through the toy area he was crawling. He asked himself “Why you pretending to be a polar bear about?” We found an electric keyboard and he had fun playing that for 10 or 15 minutes. When he was done, we went and looked at the animals: the rabbits were May, the hedgehog was Spikey, then we actually saw a beetle. But spent most of his time watching the turtles. Two big ones and three smaller ones: “Mama and dada turtles. And those are baby turtles. That ones almost a grown up.” I listed the animals we had looked at and asked which he would like to have if he had a pet. He thought about it. And thought about it. “Mmm…mmm…mmm.” Finally he came up with…“Spider”. A couple hours later Carly asked him and he came up with the same answer. We sat on the floor there for several minutes, then I got him to head downstairs to food.

Got peanut butter and kimbap for lunch tomorrow. Then he got a couple samples. He asked for water and I realized I’d forgotten it. I told him we had to pay and then there was a water machine right on the other side in the changing room. He didn’t say anything, but filed his objection by lying down on the floor and not moving. I hauled him to the checkout, and he stood a ways away until I was done. He was happy again once we got to the water. Drank it out of a paper cup, saying “Mmm. Mmm. Yum. Yum.”

We had talked about going to Cafe Tolerance and he liked the idea. I wasn’t 100% positive he knew where that was, but I didn’t have to worry. As we got outside Home Plus, he asked “What you spill a little grape juice about?” The last time we were at Cafe Tolerance was in late September. He spilled some juice and was upset I couldn’t put it back in the container. We have not discussed it since, but he remembered it.

As we walked across the park he coughed a bit, then had a bit of a scratch voice. He liked it, and said “That’s a growly voice. What that a growly voice about?” He then talked in a really high voice and called it a “Yawny voice.”

At Cafe Tolerance he got another grape juice. We sat looking outside, each with our iPad, but soon he had gained control of mine to draw with the Apple Pencil. At one point we switched back, and then back again. But mainly I used my phone to read and work on blog stuff while he was on my iPad.

He needed to be changed, and it was time to get home to mama. But he was in no hurry to leave. Got him to the entrance and put his shoes on. I asked if he wanted to be changed here, or wait until home. He said “Here…I’ll pretend it is home.” But then I realized that bathroom, which Carly had once changed him in, was the women’s, and that the men’s was outside. We went and checked it out, but he changed his mind and wanted to wait for home. We did, however, get to stick our heads through the other door and watch some kids practicing basketball. He was intrigued by that.

We walked home, stopping along the way to look at some Christmas lights at a church. In the lobby and elevator we started sticking our tongues out at Mirror August and Dada. Sticking his tongue out is a rather new thing, surprisingly. Not something he wanted to do before.

At home Carly changed him and they nursed. They then sent some videos and took selfies on her computer. He wanted to type on her computer, but wanted it in the other room: “I want a document in the parlor. I want a document in the PLAYROOM!” He was back out soon for the bathroom. He wanted play dough and we did some of that. He used a Duplo to make squares (although ours don’t work as well, as the play dough gets stuck) and we made a burrito. We pretended to eat it, and he asked “What if you eat playdough for real?” I pretended to throw up on him a
nd he laughed.

Needed to take his shirt off for the bath and realized that was something he could probably do. So I taught him that. He then immediately asked “Now how you put it back on?” He took a long bath. I started it, but he soon requested mama and we switched. Out of the bath, he came to me and pleadingly said “I want Pages. I want some strawberries.” He then played with the new Artie app and Easy Music on my iPad for awhile and ate some banana after he was done with the strawberries. I had thought he had eaten earlier, but he kept eating so I asked Carly and he had refused nutty noodles earlier. So we got him some and he ate those.

He then wanted iBooks and sang from the songbook. We moved to the bed and he did some more singing, quite loudly. We read the Chicka Chicka ABC book a couple times, and he found it quite funny, but then wanted the monkey book. We started reading that, but he wanted to nurse at the same time. That lasted halfway through the book, then he was just wanting to nurse. I left and he was asleep at 8:40.