He woke up at 5. The nursed and he watched Puffin Rock as Carly dozed. I got up at 6:40 and hadn’t realized he’d been awake for so long. After awhile he was getting hyper and bouncing off the walls and hitting the mirrors – something he knows he’s not supposed to do. So Carly gave him a timeout, sitting with him on the bed. They then nursed and she gave him a bath. We also played with the frog monster.
I had yogurt, and we discussed the chunks in the yogurt. He explained why he didn’t like them by either saying “I’m not fond of them” or “I’m not a fan of them.” Carly thought it was the first, and I thought the last. Then, he asked me to cut up the hard boiled egg. I asked when we had ever done that, and apparently Carly does. First he just said “Cut it, dada.” I asked him to be more polite. First he just said it in a nicer tone, then added please, then sung a “Cut it dada please” song.
Finally, before we left I was putting on sunscreen. He was watching and said “I have hair on my legs now. Can I have some of the hairs? What happens if I take a hair off?”
Yesterday, when he was not taking a nap at the zoo and got upset, he said he wanted to go to “Thailand home”. So that stuck and is how we are differentiating this place from our apartment in Seoul.
We left by 9:30, and were getting off the boat at Tha Chang at 10. We thought about going to the palace, but quickly scrapped that plan when we saw the line snaking down the block. We instead walked north, looking for some places mentioned in a walking tour in the guidebook, going past the amulet and coin sellers. But then I realized August didn’t have his glasses. It had been less than 5 minutes since he had, and we doubled back, but no luck. They are gone. August was amused by looking for them, but when it sunk in that he wasn’t getting them back he got upset. Said he wanted to get down and look for them. He asked about them a few times later as well.
We walked east, and went to Wat Mahathat Yuwarat Rang Sa Rit Racha, one of the ten royal temples. Used a restroom there, and looked around for a few minutes. We then walked east across Sanam Luang, the big oval field, then north and then east along a street that is described as the Champs de Elysee of Bangkok, with book sellers, etc. along it.
August fell asleep and had a long nap, from 11:47 to 1:38 – actually, he put his head back down and slept for another 8 minutes before waking up. He’d had his hands tucked in, and he pulled them out and started waving them. They were kind of asleep, although not uncomfortably so like when his arms sometimes fall asleep.
We had found a place called 3rd Cafe at 12:00. I got an iced lemon plum tea, and Carly got a Thai iced tea. Since his nap was so long we also got fries, and he had some when he woke up. Before we left, he sat on a little swing they had in the cafe, and sat on another chair, like it was no big thing (which brought back memories of when I first had him sit up on his own in a restaurant at Children’s Grand Park, propping him up next to me and making sure he couldn’t slide off the seat).
As we left at 2:11 I had put him in the backpack. Carly walked out before us. He called “No mama. Wait for me…where’s mama now?”
We walked east, then south, and saw the Giant Swing, which is worth reading about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Swing Along the way he wore his hat, since glasses aren’t an option. We then went to Suthattepwararam Temple วัดสุทัศนเทพวรารามราชวรมหาวิหาร and spent more time there. We really liked it, and all of the art inside and outside the buildings. August got down from the backpack and was playing by putting leaves down a hole. Carly was with him when he killed an ant. They actually saw other ants checking on that ant, so had a talk about death. He kept talking about “fixing the baby ant”.
From there we walked across the street to Rommaninat Park. We found a little playground, with swings, and played there. We briefly walked over and checked out the other playground, but returned to the first. I pushed him on the swings, and he asked tons of questions, mainly about why the paint was rubbing of the swings and why they were squeaky, and why you had to pay money to use the exercise equipment nearby. It was funny how much he was interested in the exercise equipment. A few times he said things like “I don’t want to pay” or “What happen if you not pay?” When he got off the swing he played for a bit in the sand, then went to Carly and said he wanted to make a stick sandcastle with her again. While doing that he spotted a squirrel (which was more Iike the squirrels we are used to than the one we spotted at the zoo).
We walked around the park, and I was impressed by a rain tree (Albizia saman – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albizia_saman), then we walked west along a canal, then south to a restaurant called Farm to Table, only to find it was closed for a week. We walked south through a flower and vegetable market and a few minutes west to a restaurant called Err, and had our first full Thai meal in a restaurant. August had a watermelon juice with a slice of watermelon, and we ate watermelons seeds with lime, satay gai, and moo hong (“braised southern style pork belly and ribs with pepper and toddy palm sugar” – it also clearly had anise in it.
August did quite well, helped by a big picture and pencils a waitress brought him. Before we headed out, Carly took him out in the street while I paid. As I waited, I spotted a random old movie (I think) poster on a wall that I swear I’ve seen before. Where, however, is a mystery, although it could have been at an exhibit at the Arko in Seoul about old movie posters, or one at the Frye in Seattle about cinema in Southeast Asia. I got outside to find them eating caramels that one of the waitresses had given them.
We walked to the closest pier. August ran around, taking big steps and saying “tuk, tuk, tuk” as we waited, then caught a boat home. We were home at 6:20. We rested for a bit. He went up to Carly and said “I want to…nurse.” putting a long pause before ‘nurse’. Carly started laundry and I got August ready to go to the pool. He tried on his hat to math the octopus shirt and admired himself in the mirror. He also hit the mirrors again at one point and had to sit with me.
We headed to the pool just after 7. Before we left he grabbed the float board thing and gave it to me and said “Hold this dada, but don’t lose it.”
Up at the pool we got in the shallow pool right away. Did the standing on the green board thing for a bit, then went over to the other shallow pool. Briefly in the deep pool, but I didn’t want the board to get away from us. I hadn’t put a swim diaper (or any diaper) on him, which was fine as he told me he needed to go to the bathroom. We went in the bathroom by the pool. Back out, he didn’t really want to get back in the water. He said “I want to build a building so it’s not windy.” I asked if he wanted his shirt back on and he said no, and added “I always say no to dada.” He asked “Why there no seagulls here.”
Instead of getting in the pool or going back up, he asked for a Flynne story. So we sat by the pool and I told the one where she threatens the other animals, but then they have to rescue her. After the story he was asking questions about why she was upset and I explained the fight (the other animals had woken her up). He made the connection to Berenstain Bears (Get in a Fight) on his own: “Like Berenstain Bears”.
After that we headed back up. He said mama might be sleeping. I said maybe resting, and he said “Mama may be resting so we’ll be careful and quiet.”
Back upstairs he watched Puffin Rock, mainly the owl lessons story, of course, and then sang from the songbook. We read part of Creepy Carrots, but then he wanted to sleep. But he had also been saying he was hungry, so I made him some toast. I wouldn’t l
et him climb up to the toaster (which was way up on a shelf now) and he said “I always say no to dada and dada always says no to Zinnie.” He was asleep at 9:45.
Photos. Frog monster:
Holding on:
First temple:
Asleep:
Coffee shop:
Hat:
Giant Swing:
Second temple:
A hug:
Playground:
Market:
Dinner:0
Movie poster:
Eating a caramel:
Sunset:
Checking his height in the subway:
Trying on his hat and shirt:
Pool. Being blurry:
Listening to a Flynn story with a spit bubble:
