At some point during the night he peed in his diaper. Didn’t leak, but he woke up enough to insist that Carly change it. He was then up at 6 with the two of us. Ate banana bread for breakfast and played with the Human Body app. A lot of putting the skeleton together. Took a break, sometime after Carly had left, to go to the clean dishes and take down the steamer and play with it. He wanted to know what his upper arm bone was called, and I couldn’t remember ‘humerus’ for some reason (you’d think I’d remember that one), so I downloaded a Skeleton app and we looked at technical names of bones. Then went into the parlor where he took care of the stuffed whale and me. He told me there was earwax in my mouth, and poop in my ears.
He wanted to sing When Johnny Comes Marching Home and Ants Go Marching a lot this morning. We sang them over and over, particularly in the bathroom. I soaked the diaper garbage can (something we no longer need) with bleach and was trying to keep him out of the bathroom. He stepped just inside, then said “I smell like bleach now. I smell like chemicals!” Played a little piano before we left at 10:30.
He calmly sat next to me and sang much of the way down. We made the walk from Cheongdam to the mall. August started singing Down by the Station over and over on his own. Except instead of ‘pufferbillies’ he says ‘Puffin billies’. At the mall he wanted to go straight to the aquarium, but I convinced him to sit down and eat the peanut butter sandwich first. While there, some students solicited donations for a trip to the Philippines where they were installing solar-powered lights. He tried to kick one of them, and a guy sitting nearby. When other people came over and tried to touch him he said “I don’t like to be touched.” But he did a good job giving them high fives. Although then he was calling it ‘hitting’, and I was having to explain that some hitting is okay. Finally, on our way to the aquarium he sang a “Underwater aquarium” song.
We started at the aquarium about noon. But first we put the backpack in a locker. As I was shifting things around he asked “Why you being slow?” The initial set of tanks were back open, after being closed the last couple visits. Our first new fish was the cowfish, which he watched closely. He then said “I need to pee.” We came back, and he chanted:
“I got my dada
I got my clownfish
I got my cowfish
I got my pufferfish.”
Spent some good time in the pond ecosystem. We talked about the breaking down of the pieces of wood, and the snails that were on it. Saw that the Conan O’Brien video had been replaced with a robot display. But turns out that Conan (he adopted an octopus from Korea on his show) had moved to a bigger screen near the end. August was brave enough to put his hand in with the nibbling fish, and did so for quite awhile. He ran through the Amazon area going “Wheee”.
Saw the Piraeucu and Gourami, then spent a lot of time at the touching area. More than every before. Got his sleeve soaked despite pulling it up. Generally gentle, but he was trying to throw clams at the end. He commented later “Why you were starting to get rough?” Took off his shirt and just put on his sweatshirt. Would later put on the dry shirt from the backpack. We saw zookeepers (as we call them) changing the water in the jellyfish tanks, then saw the hermit crab and red crabs (from Puffin Rock). Saw part of the shark feeding, but he said “I’m getting sleepy.” Still lasted quite awhile though. There was lettuce in the manatee tank, and he was intrigued by that and we watched the fish eating it. Oh, and we learned that the weird plant we like in the reef area is called a ‘Leafy seafan’.
We left at 2. A long trip to the aquarium, fueled by him constantly saying “I want to see more animals.” We had a snack by the backpack. For some reason he wouldn’t eat the mangosteen today – our last snack from Thailand. He claimed he didn’t Iike it, but loved it there. We went back out, past the ‘O’ shaped logo of the aquarium that intrigued him multiple times today, and ate the rest of our lunch on the same bench as earlier. He brought up not liking tomatoes. I asked why and he said “I just don’t like the texture.”
It was late, but he was clearly tired. Got walking, and went upstairs to the ground floor, which is a quiet convention center. He was out like a light at 2:32. Went to Coffee@Works in the building next door, and tried to wake him up at 3:15. He wasn’t waking up, so I let him sleep to 3:32. Hard for him to wake up. Stayed in the backpack a couple minutes, then had me take him out and hold him on my shoulder for several more. I set him down and he then just sat on the couch for a few more. When we left I decided we’d take the alternate route back: line 9 to line 7. More stops, but no long outside walk in the cold. But he wanted me to carry him the whole way, and it is a long walk through the mall to get to the other station, then a long walk at the transfer.
I set him down briefly at one point and he demanded to be picked back up. I told him the demanding thing didn’t work with me, and asked what does. He said “Be weird”. A funny answer, and probably true. I laughed, then he said in his sweetest voice, “Pick me up please.” He was then practicing tones, as he (quietly) said something in a screechy tone and called it a “Screaming tone.” All went smoothly today, but as we got off the first train I stood up first, thinking ‘Glad we’re getting off as the guy who just sat down next to me is sick’. Said guy then reached across trying to touch August with the hand he just coughed with. Luckily, August slipped off the seat and next to me. Said guy then took out some medicine and took it, and went back to coughing.
On the last train, August found an Arabic app on my phone we hadn’t tried yet, and we spent the trip up tracing Arabic letters. That was fun.
Got home a little after 5. We got a big static shock as I went to take him out. Had noticed today that he finds static shocks funny now – originally he had been scared by them (as evidenced by not wanting to go back on the Ttukseom playground). Similarly, he noted today in the bathroom at the aquarium that he doesn’t liked the hand dryer noise. He just covers up his ears. And it used to scare him. Think he is also over flushing noises for the most part.
Ate rice curry for dinner, then played Human Body. He had to go to the bathroom, and had left the iPad playing the human heart. He was trying to hear it from the bathroom. Back out, he was looking at an intestine, and asked “Is that a double bassoon?” An interesting comparison, as the part did bend around sort of like a bassoon.
He went and nursed and they read the Little Kipper Collection. Carly took a shower, but gave him a popsicle first. I told him the Bernadette story where she is blown to sea, at his request. He sang from the songbook. When Carly was done he ran in and said “I interrupt your privacy.” I then suggested he sing “Down By the Station” for Carly, which he did. Then some more Arabic tracing, on his iPad now, and played with the new instruments in GarageBand.
Carly gave him a bath and they read A Wind Blew. He ate last of the banana bread. Made a big game over pretending to go in the parlor with the banana bread, and laughing over the word ‘ballistic’. Very hyper. For quite awhile. Calmed down a bit and examined Carly now, finding earwax in her mouth and slime in her ear. He was hyper in on bed, but then calmed down and said he wanted to go to sleep. Tried about 9:20. But he came out just after 9:30, telling me “I’m not sleepy at all.” We read Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed”. He went back in at 9:56 and fell asleep.
Subway:
Hat:
Aquarium. Cowfish:
Photo spot:
Touch lab:
Wet shirt:
Zookeeper:
Ready for a nap:
Waking up:
Confusing sign of the day:
Subway seat:
