He came out at 6:41 today. Again just a couple minutes after Carly left. But today there was no crying. Not even a peep. He lay down on the floor and slid around, finding a warm spot. He spotted a chocolate chip, sat up, and whispered “Can I eat it?” I gave him permission this one time to eat floor food. He rolled around a bit and got up, changed his mind and went back in front of the washing machine and lay down again.
Once he was up we looked at some Hebrew, started laundry, read Berenstain Bears Go to School, typed Hebrew and Arabic on the iPad, and ate Cheerios for breakfast. We played The Ants Go Marching on piano and xylophone. When I went to get the laundry out, he climbed in the basket and said “There’s no space!” We played the privacy game, then he wanted some frozen mango. Later we had some strawberries.
While I was hanging up laundry, August went to the bathroom. Suddenly I heard the toilet paper, and went in to find he had unrolled most of the roll. I picked it up, and started re-rolling it. He didn’t like that and kept trying to grab it. I was walking around, holding the toilet paper above my head. I decided I couldn’t roll it up with him upset, so I put it up in my closet. He sat on the floor, and I went back to hanging up laundry. Then I noticed it was quiet. I walked back in to the parlor to see him climbing the shelves, grabbing at the toilet paper. Took a photo, took him down, and closed the door. When he calmed down, he wanted to make a Duplo tower, and we made quite a nice one. After that, he watched Puffin Rock and I finished the laundry and took a shower.
Afterwards, he was looking out the window. “Dada, come.” It was snowing. Quite heavily. We watched that, then went and did more Hebrew on the app. He was then playing xylophone. The stick broke again. We played together, and as we played he said “We’re making it hard for mama to teach the students!”
Looking out the window, he sang a “There’s snowy weather in snow” song. And observed “I don’t see some bugs. Why I don’t see bugs out? Why they don’t like the snow?”
He wanted to go outside, but didn’t want to go on the toilet first. I said we’d go once he went to the bathroom. He played around for a few minutes, then announced he was ready to use the toilet. We then headed outside.
The plan had been Children’s Grand Park today, but once we got outside and started playing in the snow, we decided to just stay here. There was a decent layer on the ground, and it was still falling. He just walked around in it for a bit, then we got out the broom and he was sweeping snow. Then making letters. Eventually we started making snowballs. The snow really stuck to his gloves though (he was wearing both his gloves and hat without complaint), so I would make a snowball and hand it to him. He threw them at me and at posts. When they fell on the ground he would stomp on them. At one point a guy came up and was demanding attention from August. August, excitedly playing with snowballs, wasn’t interested. Eventually he moved on.
August wanted to taste the snow, and I explained that you only eat the clean snow from up high, and just a little. He responded: “No. I like the snow on the ground. I’m eating a ton of snow.” He also said “I love snowballs.” We ran into Preacher, who, right after talking about the awful South Korean president, told me that Trump was a “Good man”. Sigh. When we had started it was still snowing nicely, but it stopped and got sunny. Which was nice for the warmth, and also the snow warmed up and was easier to make into snowballs. By the end he was having some success making snowballs on his own.
August wanted to go over to the playground. He walked up and over the wooden path, running his hand along the rail to push off the snow. As he was going down the other side he slipped and fell on his bottom. Didn’t bother him much. He wanted to go on the swings, so I brushed him off, and he did that for awhile.
After awhile he liked the idea of going over to the art museum to see the new play area. We went over and found that the play area was closed from 12 to 2. It was about 12:40. So we went up to the coffee shop and got a tropical juice pack and a cream cheese pretzel. At some point I realized August didn’t know what a pretzel was, and had mentioned I’d get one for him at some point. We ate/drank those and more of our lunch, then got going for a walk at 1:25. He was sleep 1:41 and I went to Cafe 감나무 아래, across from Sushi Jun. One of the last close coffee shops I need to check out. I let him sleep to 3:07 and woke him up.
We went back to the art museum and the play area. The old play area is entirely gone, which is kind of sad. It is much larger, but doesn’t have a trampoline or as much climbing space. It is just a slide, ball area, and three tubes to crawl through. There is also a small table with some sheets to color. We played there with the balls and ball pits, then went and did a little coloring. The coloring sheets were from their Wonderland at SeMA show, that had the video of Dorothy and the ruby slippers saying “There’s no place like home”. He was coloring the shoe on the sheet, and I said that line, and I think it rang a bell for him. He kept asking me to explain it, and I was telling more and more of the Wizard of Oz each time.
Outside the museum, August was standing on one foot and looking at his long shadow. He was excited about being able to stand on one foot. Another man came along and asked where we were from, then asked if we had any American money, and he had a collection of money from different countries. Had to disappoint him. As we walked to Home Plus, August ran to a rhythm, and we decided if it was sixteenth notes, etc. He saw dirty melting snow and asked “Why it very yucky?”
At Home Plus, August was talking about about the little moth he had scared in Thailand. It came up a few times during the day: “Zinnie can scare moths in Thailand.” We went down to the first basement and looked at underwear. He picked out a pack with seven pairs, with origami animals on them. He was very excited. As we walked through the store, he asked “Why you have to watch out for big lizards?” Another Thailand memory.
We went downstairs and got a few groceries. I let August get the pink milk this time. He always wants it, but it is the nonfat and we usually get another kind. We also got some pineapple and coconut fruit cup things to try. And a yogurt sample he really liked.
As we walked home, I overheard a girl, maybe 6th grade, talking to her 1st grade or so brother in fluent English. She was having problems with him though so I didn’t stop to ask if they lived around here.
At home he put on a pair of underwear, the elephant. When Carly got home at 5:30 he ran to her and said “I’m wearing underwear!” They nursed, and we ate spaghetti for dinner. We played hide and seek and the privacy game. We were writing with the markers when he accidentally peed. He realized what he was doing. Got him to the toilet and was telling him it was okay, not a big deal, etc. He said “No. it’s not okay.” and shook his head. got him in the crane (he claims it is a seagull) pair and headed back out. First, he was dancing to the Korean poster (it has notes on it). Back out in the living room, he wanted, Chinese letters, not Korean. He did a cool little dance, waving his arms as he sang “Chinese letters”. Tried to get him to repeat it, but he would just sing the song.
We talked about how he is currently acting out things he wants to do but knows he shouldn’t. Like taking markers without asking, for example. He would give Carly the marker, then take it from her.
They nursed, then had more dinner. We read some Berenstain Bears, then he sang from the songbook for quiet awhile. We then went in on the bed with me and played in the nest. He said there was an alligator outside the nest/burrow that bit a duck, so the duck came in with us. He was talking about being sleepy, and cu
rled up with me for awhile. Eventually he wanted to get ready for bed and get mama. He was asleep at 9:30.
Sweeping:
Writing:
Photos. Warm spot:
Still fits:
Climbing:
He said the pieces looked like eighth notes:
Snow:
Play area:
One foot:
Pink milk:
Underwear:
