Monday: Aquarium and some good news

When he woke up at 8:23 he simply said “Mama” then lay down on the floor. He was clearly sad, but kind of a mature sad. Then he said “Want to go meet her.” He closed the bedroom door, then tried opening the front door and got more upset when I wouldn’t let him out. He lay on his bed and had some alone time before deciding I could join him. We had cereal and banana for breakfast. He requested the TV on, then he sang along to a man playing guitar and singing. Apparently there is some flooding going in the country. He played with the remote, and brought up a menu. He read ‘exit’, ‘delete’, and ‘add’ as if he always knew how to read them. He asked me what ‘edit’ said. I have no idea why he knows how to read ‘delete’ (probably from Skype? Or the such?).

When I got ready to take a shower, I put Puffin Rock on the TV for the first time. He loved that, and wanted to stand about 6 inches away. I pushed the couch a bit closer and got him to sit on on it. But when I came out of the shower he was standing close again.

As we left at 10:30, he asked “Why you on dada’s back?” I asked where else would be be, and he responded with “On dada’s cheek…tummy…neck…head…hair…shoulder…” Once we were out in the hall he said “Bye bye, monsters!” In the lobby, he looked out the front door and said “I don’t see the woman…there she is…sawadeekrap.”

At the station he took my hat off and tried it on. He saw a red tape across a railing and said “Why it say no about? Maybe it is getting weaker.”

On the train we read Frog and Toad, starting with the cookie story we hadn’t finished. He had requested it before we left, and remembered it very clearly.

At the mall we went and had to stand in line for several minutes to get our ticket (I had ordered online). He handled that well. We went in and he was super excited. There was a green, possibility carnivorous plant that he was really excited about and kept asking “What that is?” Unfortunately, aquariums are notoriously bad about only focusing on the animals. He also really liked the giant spider crabs. We then went back out to find a locker for the backpack. We had to go up one floor, where we finally (this place is huge) found out we could leave our bags with an attendant by the grocery store. We went back and continued on through the aquarium.

He said something about “really like jellyfish” even though we hadn’t seen any yet today. We saw the seahorses and the alligator pipefish, which looks like a blade of grass. Then the blind cave fish and some penguins, where we sat and ate a snack. He worked his way thought a pack of dried jackfruit and through most of a bag of mangosteen today. We continued on, seeing sea turtles, otters (the one mammal in the place), arapaima (the 2nd largest freshwater fish – we now know the two biggest, as they have pirarucu in Seoul), and arriving at the touching area. There, he got to touch a big sea star, shark eggs, a sea cucumber, and a crab. The attendant also pointed out in a tank the mom and dad shark of the eggs.

We did the stamp press thing on our map (sadly, we didn’t get a stamp book – it wasn’t the most clearly labeled of aquarium lobbies), then found the play archeologist and coloring area. There was a play area on the map, and August was excited by that, but it was closed. After some coloring, we went through the tunnel area. This is never his favorite area in Seoul, as he just wants to walk through. Same here. We then went into a jellyfish room, and he didn’t want to stay there either. I asked if it was too dark, and he said yes.

Finally, we were at the gentoo penguins. The most lively penguins we have seen, as they swam right up to us. On his own he read door signs that said ‘penguin’ and ‘staff only’.

We were in the aquarium for over 90 minutes, leaving after 1. We walked around, looking for a place to eat lunch, and settled on a place called Dressed. First though we got our backpack. When August had heard ‘supermarket’, he started a chant of the ‘super’ words he knows: “supermarket, super moon, super worm” ‘Super moon’ from Puffin Rock, ‘Super worm’ from the science center. For lunch we had cream of broccoli soup (which he only got interested in when I said it was similar to Oma’s Yummy Green Soup), salmon and egg bagel sandwich, and a peach and mango smoothie. August wanted to sit in my lap to color, and stayed there throughout lunch.

I had thought to go to Lumpini Park afterwards, but it was now close to 3, so too late. Decided instead to take the train back to our stop, then walk east to the park under the bridge and by the river. He wanted to eat mangosteen on the train but I wouldn’t let him. He kept asking why, and I said it was against the rules. He then pretended to eat. But I said that was okay as pretend eating was allowed. He said “I’m breaking the rules. I’m eating real.” As we went by Lumpini Park he was on his knees looking out the window. He pointed and said “That’s the park we’ve been to before.”

We headed east from the south side of the subway station. From there we had to walk around the park to the east end to enter, so saw a bit of the river. We went in and played a bit on the playground. Sadly, no swings. As August said “just normal stuff.” He needed to use the bathroom, so we walked to the other end of the park, and picked up a dry nice stray dog along the way. To try to pee on the toilet, August stood on my feet to be tall enough. Suddenly I felt something on the back of my leg. It was the dog. It followed us around back outside, as we looked at some big lettuces in planters and other plants. And all the way back to the playground, where we had to shoo it away a bit. August asked “Why the two dogs were barking at us?” He remembers the time two dogs barked at us when we were walking with Carly, and has talked about it a few times. When we see a new dog, he asked “Is that a nice doggy?”

He played on the playground a few minutes more. Up on the structure, he swung on a bar, his feet dangling a few feet off the ground. He went up and down a sort of climbing wall, and he wanted me to come up and go down the slide with him. We then headed home. Along the way, he found a little fruit on the ground. He ended up squishing it, and took the seed out of it and we ‘planted’ it in the mud so it could grow. We saw some teenagers practicing a dance routine under the roadway, and we walked by them. August watched them and tried dancing like them, even putting his arms up like them at one point.

We walked home on the north side now. He wanted more of the mangosteen and chanted “I want mango, I want mango, mango, mangosteen.” As we got close to the building, he asked “Q House, where are you?” When he saw the gate to enter, he said “That’s it! Q House!”

Home at 4:20. He asked why Carly was wearing nylons, and what they were. Carly said something about how grown ups wear them with a skirt. He said “I want to do it as a kid.” Yesterday he wanted to wear her underwear. We got ready to head out to a restaurant called The Clock Out for dinner. August said something but we didn’t understand what he said, and he explained “You were making a joke about the restaurant.”

He had been pretty mellow all day but hadn’t had a nap. This showed when we got to the restaurant and he wanted to be hyper in it. Actually, it started on the walk there, about half a block before the restaurant, when he wanted to jump, etc. Anyway, he didn’t want to read or do art or play on the iPad. And we were only trying to get take out anyway. Carly and I took turns with him outside, in the rain, and it continued to spiral. Eventually, while Carly waited for the food, I took him to a dry overhang while he worked on calming down. At first he kept telling me to go away, and didn’t want me to touch him, and he wanted to be out in the “wet”. Eventually he wanted me to pick him up and after a couple more minutes I figured we were okay to go back to
Carly. She was coming out of the restaurant as we got back.

So we walked home, Carly carrying him. I made a quick stop at the store to get milk and a couple things, then caught up with them at home. We ate dinner. Sadly, mine was quite disappointing. A small piece of bland salmon, and a bunch of lettuce. Worst meal in Thailand. But Carly’s pork burger and fries were good, with a black hamburger bun.

August and I were playing around and he said “I go walkies again.” when he walked away from me into another room – it is a line from Puffin Rock when Baba wanders off. He laughs at it. He danced like the people in the park again. He sang from the songbook, really making up new tunes now, and played with a couple of music apps on my iPad. I gave him a shower, and he used all the soaps on himself and on my legs. We read a few Frog and Toad stories.

Then, the remarkable happened: He tried to go to sleep without nursing. He was in bed, and Carly hadn’t laid down yet, so I did, and he was pretending to go to sleep. I asked if he wanted me to sing him a song so he could go to sleep without nursing, and he said yes. So I sang to him. Eventually, he said “Stop singing. I’ll sing you a song, dada.” And he sang be the ABC song so I could try to go to sleep. He did eventually get up and go get Carly, but he said he’d try it again tomorrow night. He was asleep just after 8:30.

After he was asleep, Carly got the email with the good news: She got the position in Israel. It was our top choice of all the schools at the fair or on Search Associates. We spent the next couple hours thinking about what all of that entailed.