Friday: Zinnie turns 3, a new piano, and the Gwacheon National Science Museum

He was awake at 6:52 and came out upset. I picked him up and held him in the parlor until 7 when he wanted down. Set him on the reading area and he lay there quietly for a bit, then said “I want to watch a video of a kid learning to count by…twenty-twos.”

But he played some piano instead, playing a Itsy Bitsy Spider and singing it. He wanted to play GarageBand, so I decided to give him the keyboard from Cherie and Chuck. First we read the birthday greeting from my parents on Skype.

We opened the keyboard and hooked it up to his iPad. He started playing and had to count all the keys. Cassie and Vivian and Colin called and said Happy Birthday. This interrupted August’s playing in GarageBand, so I called them back on my iPad so August could play for them. He was playing Ants Go Marching. I didn’t realize he had figured out the end of it (since it is different from Johnny Comes Marching).

After talking to them Carly called us and got to see him playing it. A couple students came in and wished him happy birthday.

At the end of that he said he was making up a song: I’m going to play my Vee-urr-naise song. He kept playing for awhile and was playing Yankee Doodle “I played Yankee Doodle on the bass guitar!” He was also being silly: “There’s an octopus playing the keyboard…Squirt!”

Had him go to the toilet, finally. He asked “What does a paramore sound like?” It was a new made up instument. We talked about going to the science center and he joked about eating super worms and grubs. And said “No onions!” – a line from the Starts with Octopus book.

We had cereal for breakfast, and I was trying to get in the shower. But he wanted math and said “I want to do that for a couple minutes.” So we did some math and then played on the keyboard. I took a shower and he kept playing keyboard. I got out of the shower, and he came and asked me through the door “Is this how you draw a crescent, Dada?” I said “Go give it a try.” He went back and a few seconds later I heard him exclaim “I drew a crescent!”

Back out, he wanted me to play a sad song on the electric keyboard. I played some chords and made up a little song that went something like

“The baby’s crying

I don’t know why

I gave him a bottle

But he continued to cry

I think he’s tired

But won’t go to sleep…”

I didn’t get any further because I looked over to see him starting to rub his eyes. I asked if it was making him sad and he burst out crying. I grabbed him and held him on my lap for a few minutes while he cried. I then lay back with him on my chest. I told him this was how I first held him when he was born. He liked that, and held my finger like I told him he had when he was born. He slid off of me, but then lay back down down with his head on my chest for a minute.

We got ready to go. I got some of the Cookie Monster letter cookies out and he insisted they were “Big bird cookies”. He asked me “What shape you are?” I said I was an octagon. He thought about it and said “I’m a…oval.” I then surprised him by having Green Monster, Bluie, Marshy, and Peter Rabbit hug him and say Happy Birthday. He thought that was funny.

Finally, as I was getting him in the backpack, Cherie and Chuck skyped. After opening the keyboard we had recorded a little video saying thank you and sent it to them. Cherie sang him happy birthday in Spanish, then we headed out at 9:50.

He was singing his Mani song as we walked to the train. I asked him what the song was called and that is what he called it: “Mani”

It has gotten easier and easier to travel long distances on the train with August. Just sat for awhile, had some snack, looked at the river as we crossed, and played some iPad. We got out the station and headed out. Bought a couple of drinks and two triangle kimbaps and a strawberry cookie. As we exited, I pointed to the spot where I tripped with him in the backpack and asked if he remembered what happened. He said: “fell…blood.”

For a minute I was afraid it was closed. There was no one around. I said it looked dead. August asked “Why dead…like the batteries?” Made sure it was open, then sat at a picnic table and ate lunch. He was talking about north and south and I explained we were ‘south of home’ He asked “What ‘of’ mean?” Randomly, he said “Jason Webley…I said Jason Webley.” He was looking over at the playground, and spotted the odd swing things that are on ends of a lever, so if you sit on one it pulls up the other one. I taught him the word ‘investigate’ and he said “I want to investigate why they go up and down.”

We went and played on those for a few minutes, then he played on a shaky platform. We then headed in. Bought a ticket, entered, and went to put our stuff in a locker. He saw a woman and said “I thought that was mama. It looks like mama.” I think he vaguely remembers meeting mama there. He actually walked over and took a closer look and came back saying something about “brown shoes”. He also was looking at the numbers on the lockers upside down.

The main wing to the left was closed for construction. We briefly looked through the famous scientists area, but then went to the wing on the right, the ‘Basic Science’ wing. Looked at the wave machine, then wandered around. Looked at a table of elements, a spring wave thing, then a place where you can record yourself talking and it sends it to a speaker across the room. We found a big mechanical clock with balls that roll on tracks and we watched that for a a few minutes. Every five minutes it drops a big ball and makes noise, and some little robot figures play musical instruments. We set a reminder to come back in 15 minutes to see it change at 1:00, then went and looked at all the electricity exhibits. Talked to him about electricity and circuits, etc. He also really liked a video of ships breaking through arctic ice. We went back at 1 to the clock, but he decided it was scary and wanted me to walk away from it. We kept getting farther and farther away. Later, he didn’t want to come anywhere close to it.

We wandered the rest of that hallway. He saw models of molecules and asked “Is that molecules?” He saw a video of blood and a diagram of veins and arteries. He asked “Is that the heart?” There was a display about how babies develop and he really liked that. And seemed appropriate considering it was his birthday. One of the pictures showed twins in a womb and he pointed at those. Somehow we ended up talking about how he was naked when he was born, no clothes. There was an area about vision, and a thing you look into and try to use your hands to bring two tools together. But it switches your vision, left to right eye and vice versa, making it incredibly hard. He liked that.

We went to the bathroom and stopped in the lobby to have his strawberry cookie for a snack. We heard a song playing. I started to say “That’s a song from f-“ And he interjected “5-touch class.”

We heard music coming from the lobby stage, and went and watched the dancing robot show. He had been afraid of it the one time we tried to watch it before, but now he loved it. He danced along, and finished his cookie. At the end he came to me and said “They’re funny cuz robots don’t dance.”

When that was over we went in the kids play area. He walked past the funhouse mirrors. He said “I thought that’s water but it’s still glass.” We went up through the big structure, and climbed through the rope path. At the end there was a guy stationed who told us adults aren’t allowed through. Don’t know why he wasn’t stationed at the beginning.

We spent time looking at the optical illusions (making it look like there was a hole in his hand, etc.). He liked say “Optical illusion”. He kept looking down at the robot things on the floor below and said “I think the robots need help.” We went down and played with the power generating things (turning cranks and riding a bik
e) and played with the robots and the water area and the floor piano. Finally, there is a floor with fish swimming on it, and when you get close they swim away. He spent a good amount of time trying to step on the fish.

We then went and saw the whole robot show again, with him doing a lot more dancing. After that he was talking a lot about musical instruments as we headed outside and walked to the Insectarium. We walked through there, and he touched the superworms. He really liked looking at the beehive and talking about that, then at the displays of how different insects go from eggs to full size. Finally, he touched a grub and we looked at the beetles. Before we left we went into the butterfly room. But when you go in there is a large fan that blows air to help keep the butterflies from escaping. He did not like the noise. Even though it turned off, he wanted to leave.

As we walked back, I blew on him like the fan, and he said I had “Salami” breath. We had water from the mater machine in the lobby, and August was saying “No, you’re silly.” from Also an Octopus. We went to the bathroom, got our stuff from the locker, and headed home. On the subway he ate the letter cookies: “I have M for mama…Z for zizzerbug…O for octopus and on and off.” Took line 4 to Changdong, and got the 1144 bus right away. Home at 5:25.

He showed Carly the keyboard and played a lot with her. He was using the smart strings and I showed him how he could start to play along with them, playing songs he already knows and making up melodies. He asked “What happens if you play the mandolin with a bow?” And said he was quoting Word Wagon when he chanted “Pickle juice, pickle pie” Carly and I did a lot of cleaning, preparing for the play date with Cora tomorrow. At some point we mentioned his birthday, and he had the idea of measuring him. He is now 94cm and 13.7kg (30.2 pounds).

Carly gave him a bath, and the birthday boy was asleep just before 8.