Tuesday: Children’s Grand Park

He woke up at 6:40 as Carly was going out the door. She nursed him, then he ran out and lay down on the warm floor. I lay down next to him, and he played with “Baba’s shiny shell” and asked why it was broken. He got up and played some piano. He was playing and singing the first two lines of Yankee Doodle, has those down, and is working through the third line of the verses, but pretty much has that down as well. We ended up on the piano for quite awhile, and took out the metal sort again and played it with the xylophone stick. He also pretended to play on the now silent piano and sang most of our verses of Yankee Doodle.

Eventually we put it back together and washed our hands. Talked about Doug some reading again, but ended up doing math on the paper with blue berries and a headstand on the “Nearly Headless ghost.” When doing subtraction he was hiding the blueberries down his shirt. At first he said they might be ticklish, but decided they were just cold. The black marker was running out, so he said “Maybe we should just use crayons.” We did a bit more math then read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Goid, Very Bad Day. “Let’s go back to the hating…I don’t like other people kissing.” “I’m pretending…I think I’ll move to…”

He played some TodoMath. There was an update that had new activities about number lines and digit places. We worked on those, and then on a general counting/grouping one. He went through the highest level on that one, then declared: “I did the hardest one and it got easier!” He was also working on multiplication ones. He was getting down both the times 11 and times 1 time tables, and for other numbers he was asking me for the answers, but getting good practice writing the digits clearly so the app would recognize them.

He went to the piano and started to add in some bass notes with the left hand on his own to Yankee Doodle. Had some more Cheerios, exercised, then he wanted to sing all of Yankee Doodle. We did that, then I took a shower. He was playing TodoMath when I went in, Metamorphabet when I came out. We had fun vacuuming up the village in ‘V’, pretending they were talking. Ate some crackers and peanut butter, then he wanted to work on the chorus of Yankee Doodle on the piano, although we didn’t do much.

I laid his pajamas on the bed after changing him, and put the socks in so they looked like feet. He then had the idea of using the “friends” for hands, and we added Bluie as the head. Looked pretty cool.

Something got us started talking about the concept of ‘places’ (I think we were joking about the ‘move to Australia’ line from the Alexander book), and he wanted me to list more and more places. I listed ‘Sweden’ and he asked “Why Sweeten?” No, Sweden.” I said “Bangor” and he thought that was funny and needed help saying it: “ng…you haven’t heard that sound before.” I reminded him of ‘song’, ‘thing’. I mentioned ‘England’ and said that it was where we got married, and he asked “Why mama dada get married?”

We didn’t leave until just after noon, as he again kept coming up with things to do before we left. He really wanted an eye exam, so did that. His teeth needed more brushing, so he let me do that. He wanted to sing the “Dawn Chorus” song from Puffin rock, so we did that. He did a headstand, then claimed he was tired and crawled under the rocking chair for awhile. I finally dragged him out and got all his clothes on. He wanted to sing more Yankee Doodle: “Let’s sing the funny ones…of Yankee Doodle…I went nigh to one myself…that’s a funny one.” He basically has the first 7 or 8 verses of Yankee Doodle entirely memorized on his own and sings them by himself.

Nice sunny day today. A slight cold breeze, but not like the cold wind of yesterday. We drew more gawkers today, for some reason, including a guy that basically stared at him on the train and kept calling him a ‘doll’ long after we had acknowledged him and said thanks. A woman asked his age, and he and I ended up discussing the ‘why’ of the Korean versus American ages again. When it came around to saying he had been ‘zero’ in American age, he asked “There was no Zinnie?” and seemed to find it hard to believe that there was a time that Zinnie didn’t exist: “No baby?” He then was sounding out Korean signs on the train and asking me to translate them.

At Children’s Grand Park we got some kimbap and a sandwich. Would only eat the kimbap today. As we were walking to the stairs, he said “It’s uncomfortable.” I asked what, and he said “The penis.” So we stopped and got him out of the backpack. He then picked up the bag from GS25 and carried it up the stairs, and all the way out to where he played on the last remaining ice in front of the park. He also pretended to spray paint on everything (including another guy who stopped to watch) and was doing some mystery task that he never fully explained to me.

We went to the botanical garden for lunch again. We sat on the other end (actually the spot we once ate lunch at sometime last year). He was eating full bites of kimbap, including the seaweed today. I liked that development. The less I have to rip it apart the better. He wanted to take photos, so used his camera. Then he wanted to make blurry photos of him running again, like we did a few days back, so we did that. “I want dada to do the pattern.” He was referring to the 11 times table. At 10 he asked me to keep going, so I did them all the way to 20. I asked if he wanted to save the sandwich. Big discussion of ‘save’ followed and he wanted me to keep listing all the different things that can be saved. He signed ‘more’ when he asked for more, so of course I had to keep going.

We went out via the ramp, which was open today, and he skipped down it, saying “Wheee!” He had been acting tired on and off, so definitely needed to try a nap. Went to the bathroom, and he was about to use the little urinal when I mentioned that it was actually the first one he had been scared off. He then remembered he was still scared of it. Oops. We tried the normal toilet in that room, but he was hiding his face from the urinal and couldn’t go. We went out to a regular stall and wanted me to go in with him and close the door. Then he could go.

Played in the wheelchair area in the theater and sat together in the sun, then got walking at 2:26. Took awhile to get to sleep, but the first several minutes of him singing Yankee Doodle probably didn’t help. He was asleep 2:49 to 3:50 when I finally woke him up. I had started trying to wake him up at 3:35, but he just seemed so tired. Still didn’t want to open his eyes at 3:50, until I asked “Do you want me to give you an eye exam?” “Yes” and up popped his head. He sat on floor for a few minutes.

He agreed to going to the playground. After all this time I still don’t understand the busyness schedule, as it seems to have little correlation to the school schedule or holidays. Today the whole park was busy the whole time, mainly with groups of elementary school boys, not in school uniforms, but with what seemed to be teachers. But no actual school groups, and also lots of families and random teenagers. Anyway, the playground was packed. Prospects for a swing were nil, as there were lines. I suggested we walk over to the hill to what remained of the Adventureland Playground area.

He agreed so we walked up and over. Busier than usual, but one of the 4 swings opened up, and he was able to use it as long as he wanted. Did that for 15 or 20 minutes. Then I suggested we go over to the walking path as he hadn’t been on that in months. He was intrigued, and agreed. We went over and he had a lot of fun trying to balance on the big wooden bumps. He kept saying “ooftuh”, which is something he has started saying. Eventually I had to coax him away from that, as it was already past 5.

We walked by the area where they tore down the other play structures. Basically, the Adventureland area had 4 separate play areas. The
y tore down 3, and have started rebuilding the biggest one. But that hasn’t been touched since early or mid December. Two months. The two others that were torn down are simply empty. You can walk through them, but there is garbage on the ground from the demolition. So that is why the other playground is so busy. Crazy. These two playgrounds were in good shape. If they aren’t replacing them they could still be up, getting used.

Anyway, he played with chucks of bricks and rocks. Could tell he was really getting into that, so I told him we could come back here next time. He then found colorful plastic pieces from the destroyed toys, and started picking them up: “I want to take this home.” He ended up with nuts, bolts, plastic pieces, and a piece of wood. He’s already taken to finding beads and putting them in the little pockets of the backpack whenever he finds them (found 2 or 3 today). He carried his ‘treasures’ a bit, then agreed when I suggested he put them in the backpack. He was also sure that Carly would like them.

We stood most of the way on the train, which was fine. Told two Puffin Rock stories (the Flynn ones), finishing he second one after he got a seat. We were home just after 6. They nursed on the bed, then played there. He showed Carly his treasures. He then was counting, and skipping random numbers, which impressed Carly that he knew what he was doing. He said “Who needs 16?” It was the line from the Alexander book and August had been doing it all day, skipping different numbers as he counted. He then recited the 11 times tables all the way to 10 for her. Several times. Then went and played and sang the first verse of Yankee Doodle for her.

I got his dinner together, which was going fine, but then he bit his tongue, right at the end. Nursed, then did some TodoMath. He went to the number line activity and insisted on working through the highest levels. Carly got out the measuring cups so I could help him understand the fractions one.

Carly asked what to do with the pile of ‘treasures’ on the floor. I talked to him about throwing way the dirty pieces, and anything that he didn’t have an idea for. He asked ‘Why?’ several times, but seemed to agree, as he studied each piece, and ended up throwing all of them away on his own.

I gave him a bath, and we played the Cookie Monster game, with me giving him letters, and him choosing letters to put in the words. He was doing quite well with it. Washed his hair, as we are now on our Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday schedule. Much easier to remember than our previous every-third-day schedule.

After that Carly took a shower. At first he didn’t want her to go, but I convinced him to read a book. We read for over an hour. Almost every Frog and Toad story we have, several two or three times. A couple of Biscuit books on the iPad (Biscuit, then Biscuit’s Snowy Day a few times). The Pete the Cat Gets a Pet book (in paper). Then the Pete the Cat book on the iPad (where he is a knight) a couple times – first time we’ve read that.

Finally, he said he was ready for sleep and Carly took him in and he was asleep just after 9.