Carly slept out in the parlor, thinking maybe not having her right there might mean he would nurse less during the night. And it worked, in a way. Sometime during the night he got up and left the bedroom. When Carly woke up in the morning she was surprised to find him sleeping next to her. So he had gone out, then just lay down next to her and fell asleep. They were up 6 or so. Out at 6:30. When I got up he was playing Tinybop Earth. There was a lot of nursing and bothering Carly about it as she tried to clean through the morning. I did laundry. When they nursed they read more of Little House. Carly tried him out in the Ergo on her back.
He watched the pipe organ video, then I found a sousaphone video for him and I went and took a shower. He switched to Mouk, and was scared by something that happened in it and paused it. They skyped with Cherie, then after that I turned Mouk on a bit more. He sort of watched me watch it and said “Dada watch it”. But then he was done. We did chords on the piano, then he went to the bathroom. As he sat on the toilet he said “How do you count by circles? In going to count by circles: Circle, oval, triangle, rectangle…”
Carly left to take down the broken fan and go get boxes at the post office. He was sad when she left. I held him and he kept pointing towards the backpack, wanting to get in. She came back and we got ready to go and left at 11:45. On the way we sang some of the Mother Goose songs we haven’t sung in awhile and Yankee Doodle. As we waited at Taerung for the next train he had some of the lentil snacks. He knows they’re too messy to eat on the train, so he saved the last one to take on the train and eat. I didn’t think he could wait that long, but he managed to do it. Carly says we should do the marshmallow test on him.
On the train he was asking about directions again, and about mixing them (southeast, northwest, etc.) I remembered there is a compass on my phone and got it out, and he spent much of the trip turning it around and figuring out directions. Then we had time to read Click Clack, Moo before we got to Itaewon. In Itaewon he counted stairs as we walked up: 36 on the first flight, then I took 36 on the escalator.
In Itaewon we went to Coreanos for lunch. Had never been, but I’d talked to the owner with Derek once. We got two burritos, and August and I shared a cranberry juice, which he liked. It was good, but not quite what we had hoped for – a bit spicy for Carly, and August didn’t eat much. August saw an employee walk by with a box and said “That’s a big box. Looks like it’s heavy.”
We got walking, him in the backpack. He asked how to spell ‘Paddington’, then requested “Song Baa Baa Black Sheep with 200 bags. Do it.” He then was singing his own funny versions of Baa Baa Black Sheep.
The weather was nice today (in fact, earlier, when we said we were going to Itaewon, he asked if it was going to be rainy), so we went to the playground (한남동어린이놀이터). This was the one we played at with Chuck and Cherie when they went to Itaewon with with us. He went on the swing a bit, then the baby swing for a minute, then to the play structure: “Is the slide bumpy? I don’t…after I climb up this you must go down it.” He climbed up the climbing wall, then back down. Then up on the rope bridge and walked across that. The big accomplishment was the ladder going up to the slide. The first couple times I spotted him and helped him figure out how to do the top, but then he was doing it on his own. He did several laps, sliding down and then going and attacking mama, or with me resting at the bottom so he could run into me. Then back to the swing a bit, and some good cuddling with mama in the sun.
A bit after 2 we walked to the clinic so Carly good get the results of her TB test. August and I looked for the kimchi article at first but couldn’t find it, so we looked at a different magazine and he was flipping through the pages. A woman came over and complimented him on his diction (said he spoke more like a girl for his age). He was being silly and would only make a funny noise now, but she had been brushing her teeth in the bathroom on Monday when Carly had taken him in to the bathroom and had heard him talking away. I eventually found the kimchi article up on the counter and we looked at that.
Carly took him into the bathroom again, and this time he wanted the toilet to flush with him on it. She actually had to lift him up to get it to flush, since it had a sensor, then set him back down.
We headed out the back, thinking to walk up to the Namsan Botanical Garden. Out back Carly and August went and admired the parking tower. We then got in the backpack and headed out. But a wrong turn led to extra walking, then I realized it would be more of a hill. So it was close to 3 when we headed back.
On the train he played iPad with Carly. She would type a question, and August would read it and answer. When I asked what words they used he said “f-o-o-d. Food.” August and I stopped to look at bushes with new little leaves on them by the pink building. Carly went to Lucky Mart to do some grocery shopping and we headed home when he was done with the bushes. He wanted to look at chords using the iPad. Carly got home, and when he was done with chords he wanted to nurse.
We ate dinner, then he wanted me to sing songs so we read the Mother Goose book. He then had some milk with Carly and they watched cow milking videos – about the machines this time.
Carly got his bath ready and I joked it was a hair washing day. August said “Dada made a mistake?” Carly said I was making a joke, and August said “Silly dada. You’re funny.” Carly had left it too hot, so she had to add cold water. August kept asking “Is it ready? Is it ready? Is it ready?”
After his bath he composed music using Notion, then listened and hummed along to his tunes. Carly wanted him to head to bed right after 7, but he talked about me getting 10 books. But he happily went to bed and fell right asleep.
Photos. Trying out the Ergo as a backpack:
Cranberry juice:
Playground:
Doctors office:
Subway station piano:
Little leaves:
