Today was Carly’s first day at the job fair. August and I headed up north to a big complex of parks, similar to Children’s Grand Park or Seoul Forest.
He woke up at 6:58. Very unfortunate, as that was less than 8 hours of sleep. He came into the bedroom and asked for mama. When I reminded him she had gone to the job fair he started saying “No” and closed the door on me. After a couple minutes he first opened the window thing, then opened the door and laid on his stomach on the floor.
From there he did some play dough, then wanted to draw the long notes. So we got out the ipad and songbook, found the song he likes (the tuppence song from Mary Poppins) and looked up the symbol I didn’t know at it is the arpeggio symbol. Drew that and other things in the notebook, then he was coloring the picture from the restaurant. He put some holes in the paper with the marker (we had started on the bed) and wanted to fix them with tape, but we don’t have tape.
We finished getting ready to go right at 9, but he wanted to read a Berenstain Bears story first. So we read Double Dare, then left. He wanted Flynne stories right away, so we told two of them. We transferred at Siam and kept going. Suddenly, he started spotting things from the window. Dragons, to be precise. Not sure where that idea came from. He kept spotting dragons, and we got to the last stop, which gave us access to the three big parks that are all together.
First, we stopped at a bakery place and got a purple carrot drink, a crab cake pizza, a sala (a new kind of fruit for us) jello, and a chocolate chip mamon bread for lunch. The BECU card did work there, so I had to pay cash. I needed to put cash on our subway cards, so stopped at the ATM. August got upset when I wouldn’t let him push buttons, so he simply lay on the floor, on his stomach, behind me. One guy came and asked if he was okay.
That done, we went down and across the street and right into Chatuchak Park. There are little rolling hills covered in grass and we chose one in the shade and ate lunch. He mainly ate the jello and the crab, and had the drink. We saved the bread for later. While there we got to watch a truck go by, spraying water on plants. Before we left, when I was standing, he came and hugged my leg.
Put him in the backpack and we got walking at 11:05. We walked out the west side of the park and to the children’s museum. Found out it is free, so we went in. Lots of really cool outdoor playing areas, including a water spray area. Don’t know what’s inside, as we didn’t get in any of the buildings. We got to the really big play structure, and August wanted to climb on it, even though it says 7 to 12 years. He got down and took his shoes off, and we started using it a bit. But we were told we needed his shoes on. August instantly got very sad and couldn’t be consoled, and wanted right back in the backpack for a nap, even insisting on the cover down. He gets a certain upset voice when he’s told he can’t do something, and he was saying “Im gonna go there…I’m gonna do it…I’m gonna try to be a big kid now.”
But I needed to use the restroom first, so we went and found one, and he got out to use it as well. He had seemed so ready for a nap, but when we got outside he spotted other play structures and wanted to play. He went over to a low set of rings (monkey rings?) and found he could hold on and swing on his own. This was very exciting for him. He had me play with him a couple times, but when I held on I was sitting on the ground. I would hold myself up a little, and he would push me. At some point he was jokingly disagreeing with me on something, and asked himself “Why you argumenting with dada?” Why, indeed.
He spotted another playground, more a traditional one, and he called it a seven year old playground: “No, I want to do seven years old things.” We went and played there for quite awhile. There were these platforms you could stand on and spin on (like we’ve done at the spiderweb playground, sort of) but they spun, screw-like, on their center post and could thus go up and down. Played with those quite a bit, spinning them and standing on them and stepping (with my help) from one to the other. He could actually step on both and sort of do the splits.
He had noticed that the infant room (0 to 2) had been closed, but was now open, and wanted to go in. He went and took his shoes on and tried to go in. I thought he’d get upset like before when I told him he couldn’t and we’d go take a nap. He started to, but then actually recovered, and pulled me by the finger, saying we’d go somewhere else. Used actual monkey bars for a bit, then went and used the bathroom and washed our hands and left at 12:47.
I walked south to some coffee shops I’d scouted out in advance on Foursquare. Walked through Chatuchak Weekend Market (the plant sellers were mainly still open though) and past a huge block-long construction project (housing?) that has long been abandoned – just a huge concrete hull. He fell asleep at 1:04. I found a place called Doi Tung Coffee, where he slept until 2:26 (and I had a macadamia nut latte). He woke up, looked around, and said “Hmm…hmm…this is…hmm.” then put his head back down and didn’t wake again until 2:54.
We got walking and headed back through the market, admiring the plants. August saw a fruit tree in particular that he liked. We walked north, past the children’s museum, but he was comfortable and didn’t want to go back. We walked north to Wachirabenchatat Park. There, we admired the green water (covered by some plant), found a bathroom and used it, he spotted small butterflies (I think – they moved too fast), saw different egrets, spotted a turtle, spotted yellow dragonflies (also fast), August spotted another really interesting fruit tree, then we got to a playground.
There, we went on the regular swings. At 4 we stopped and sat on a bench and ate the chocolate chip mamon cake. Back on the swings, he requested a lesson in pumping (I’d mentioned it before). He worked on that, then we went over to the tire swings for a bit. He kept saying he was still hungry, but wouldn’t eat the Larabar or dried kiwi. That led to this exchange: “I’m hungry” “I don’t think you’re all that hungry.” “I’m all hungry.”
He was really enjoying himself, but it was time to get going. But first we negotiated a few more minutes on the regular swings. I said 3, and he said 5. I tried to get him to compromise on 4, but he insisted on5 and said “What happen if it 5?” I had to acknowledge that we’d stay one more minute. He won that round of negotiating.
We left, and checked on the pool. It looks perfect for him, but we need health checks and photos. Carly is going to do the printing, and he and I will go to a clinic tomorrow to try to get the certificates.
It was a long walk out, made longer by all the interesting stuff we kept spotting:
– bird with orange around its eyes (August)
– white squirrel (August)
– brown and black squirrel (August)
– black and white pigeon-like birds (August)
– waterbugs (August)
– another fruit tree (me, I think)
– an area full of random curvy architecture (me)
– a couple statues (me)
– flowers (he said “those are pretty flowers”)
We had left the pool just after 4:30, and now left the parks at 5:15. Added money to the cards, and got on the train, getting a seat for the first one. Got the iPad out this time and did a few random apps. The second train was just crowded enough we didn’t get a seat. When offered one, August was too hyper and didn’t want one. That worked fine at first, but it kept filling up, and filling up. He was doing okay though, saying “You’re a red dog on a crowded train” at one point. Two stops before home it was totally packed, and just sat on the platform for about 5 minutes without moving. More people packed in. Then it paused on the tracks again before the next station. We told a couple more Puffin Rock stories on the way.
W
e got home just after 6, grabbed the other backpack, and headed to the store. He did fine, but kept wanting to squeeze things, as is his nature. Carly called and said she had just gotten of the train, and came and met us, which was good as it would have been a lot to carry. We got home a little before 7. We started cooking a stir fry, taking turns on the veggies. But then Carly realized I’d grabbed bamboo instead of noodles. So I went back to the store, also getting milk. I called, asking about something else, and it was August that heard the phone ringing, telling Carly “Hey, your phone is ringing.”
I got back and we finished dinner. I helped him take a shower and washed his hair. He did quite well again in the shower. He had watched more Puffin Rock while we cooked – the same Owl School episode over and over now. Need to get him on another one. They started nursing at 9:30 and he was asleep a little before 10.
Photos. Awake:
Dragon spotting:
Lunch:
Children’s museum. Rings:
Spinning:
Walking. Abandoned building:
Market:
Fruit tree he liked:
Walking towards the park:
Park. Green water:
More fruit:
Little butterflies:
Turtle:
Swings. Pumping:
The walk out:
Bird spotting:
Curvy stuff:
Almost back to the station:
