Thursday: Teuni Teuni and Chrysanthemum Park

8:11. Closed the door and played with Suplos on his own for a minute then came out and walked to the bathroom. He had a dry diaper.

We then played on the bed with the “friends”, having them eat various things. We then watched Venus fly trap videos and an ASAPscience one on dehydration. We ate Cheerios for breakfast. We share a bowl now that he feeds himself. After that he played some piano, using two hands to play. Then back to the friends in on the bed. He was a bee buzzing around, but then cuddled with me. Got a hair in his mouth. Took him to spit in the sink, then he went and drank water: “Now I don’t feel the hair.” Ate some banana, then he wanted to add more words to the tracing app on the iPad. We did some exercise, then played piano and did some finger math. Ate some more cereal and strawberries, then he wanted to go play with “Green Marshy”, as he now calls Green Monster. August was a bit mean, emptying GM’s pool and breaking his humerus bone. Back out in the parlor, August wanted to take care of the giraffe, and did some foot surgery on it.

We headed to Teuni Teuni. At the start of the class, during the Anyang song (Hello), August was going around waving at everyone. He gave the teacher a high five. August was, I think, about ready to do a forward roll with him again, but he put the ramp away right before August got there. After the intro stuff was over, August asked “What’s next?” The activities were about shovels, and trying to balance as they moved things across the room in the shovels. All went well, except near the end August was rubbing his nose as he played and I realized he had a nosebleed. Just a little one, and it didn’t bother him. I explained it was probably because it was dry in winter. Later he was repeating that.

August mentioned being sleepy at one point, but agreed to go down to get groceries. We did that, and he mentioned being sleepy again. I asked if he’d rather eat at the food court, or at Mama Juice, and he agreed to Mama Juice. There, we got two ‘hotdogs’ (corndogs, we would call them). One regular one, and one mozzarella. They make them and fry them right there. August was watching her make them, and he wondered what a tray was full of. I thought it was salt, but she said it was sugar. Apparently, rolling your corndogs in sugar is a thing in Korea. We rolled the regular one. We also got a mango juice and a strawberry banana. We sat and ate our hotdogs and juices (August was quite impressed). Then we headed home.

At home he sort of tried to take a nap on the reading area. We lay down for a few minutes, but then he said it was too bright and wanted the bedroom. But first he got distracted by playing piano with two hands (he wanted me to learn), then we ate some pine nuts. In on the bed be was having too much fun playing and waking me up to try for a nap. Back in on the reading area once more, I was getting sleepy. In waking me up he hit me once. In talking about it later, as we went back to play, he said “and never hit again.”

He went to the bathroom again, then I convinced him to eat some soup by dipping bread in it. He made up a “I can go to the swimming pool” song and was imagining playing piano on freezer door. He then played on the actual piano. He had a little more soup, but then decided he was tired of it again: “Let’s have something better than soup.” And at one point he said he wanted yummy green soup instead.

We decided we wanted to go back outside, and when I asked where he wanted to go he thought and replied “Chrysanthemum Park!” I then asked “Do you want to ride to a park?” “Yeah!…I’m going to sing all the way.” Then, on the way he was driving back and forth and said “I’m making a wave.”

At the park he went on the swings, then climbed up the rope ladder to the play structure. We went around on the rope bridge and shaky bridge to the platform area. He was really interested in the plastic covers that go over the bolts that hold it together. He then went back over the shaky bridge and went down the slide near the swings for, I believe, the first time. He went and rode the little shaky animals and was sing (“I can go see..”), then went and played on the snow, looking for slippery patches. Over on the covered bench area, we found a bolt that was missing its cover. We joked around about it going “bzzzt”.

We headed home. On the elevator he reached up from his bike and touched a guy’s hand. Thought he was being nice, but as we got of the elevator he said “knuckle, knuckle.” Carly was home a bit before us (at 5:30) and August asked her “How was your work going?”

They nursed and we had dinner, then I gave him a bath. Actually, he washed himself, as I barely touched him. After rubbing soap all over the window, he started washing himself: “I’m washing my back…that’s the part that always tickles”. Then, to rinse off I convinced him to sit down. Eventually, he stretched his legs out. Happy with his own progress, he asked “What’s next in the bath?” I suggested lying back like Vivian does. He leaned back a little, but wasn’t ready to go all the way. We got out and put on his bathrobe and he went and told Carly what he did: “I sat down and washed myself…and started to lean back.” He was then walking around making his feet squeak on the floor, and he found out that only the wood floor squeaks.

He was ready for bed soon after that, and was asleep by 8:15.