They were eating oatmeal when I got up. Carly was bagging up the clothes to donate, and he saw his old shoes, and he wore the green shoes around the house for the rest of the morning. He was asking about moving to Israel, and asked which direction was “Israelbound”. He was then singing silly lyrics to Mary Had a Little Lamb: “Why does Itsy like the numbers, like the numbers…in case there are some doubts.” We cleaned out the drawer of flash cards, etc. and he played with the counting cards. He remembered the English alphabet/word cards and found the Q: “Q is my favorite and Z is my favorite and O is another favorite and U is another favorite and I is another favorite and I really like V…” While wearing his green shoes, he asked me to take pictures of him. Twice. He was then playing on the big timeline on his own, and doing negative subtraction problems on his own.
Then, when climbing up on the couch, he somehow fell backwards and had a big fall of the couch, hitting his head. They nursed, and after he was feeling better I took off sometime after 10 to go finish the Fortress Trail. August and I had done about 80 percent of it. I had to turn back on a steep section on the NW portion, after which we had resumed at a later date in the NE, so it basically left the northern part to be done.
The hiking went smoothly, although it rained much of the way, which meant there wasn’t much in the way of views, either. And this after I had picked Friday because it was supposed to be in the low 60s. Anyway, I started after taking a train to Hyewha, then a bus up to 와룡공원. This is where August and I had started our last hike, headed east. We hade stopped for a snack or lunch in this park, and he had played with a big dustpan. So I saw that spot, and what was likely the same dustpan. I then headed out, west this time. I soon came across 삼청공원, where he and I also touched on the Seoul Trail, sometime back in the early fall, I think. I continued west, getting my ID card (the north section goes behind the Blue House, so you have to show ID, and can’t take photos through much of it) and then up and over the first peak. Not hard, as it is a nice trail the whole way, but so many stairs, especially going down the west side. Then it was back up and over the second peak. Here it was more difficult, and the worst portion was right where I had stopped with August.
I continued down, then once done with the trail section, veered off and through the Healing Park (where August and I had stopped to eat on our way back down) towards Sajik Park (사직공원), where August and I had played at the playground and taken shelter in a tube thing when it started to rain. My knees were aching from all the going down stairs, so I decided to stop at a coffee shop and sit for awhile before having to stand on the subway home. I thought about going to Pot de Miel, where I went when August took a nap on our previous visit, but instead for a place called Hanokpresso (한옥프레소). I had a grain latte, read a few pages, then headed to the subway.
After I left, and they were nursing, he said he wanted to start from the beginning of Little House in the Big Woods. They had made it more than halfway through. It shows that he’s interested and trying to follow along, as I’ve noticed him do the same with other stories. While I was gone, Carly did a lot of sorting and cleaning out and found it rather amazing to do that while August was around. In fact, he really enjoyed helping sort through the medicine cabinet (which he’s always been fascinated by) and throwing away and recycling things. They had nachos, and he really liked the sour cream (the real stuff, from Costco). They played a ‘sink or float?’ game and he loved that. At one point Carly was going to put in a tortilla chip, but he got the look on his face like when he wants Carly’s swing at the playground. He wanted to eat the chip instead.
After 2 they went to the Art Museum play area. He did a lot of jumping in the heart-shaped ball pits, and they played in the tubey area, rolling balls back and forth, trying to get them to each others’ side. When the announcement came on at 3:50 saying they had 10 minutes, he wanted to leave right away, as if he was afraid they would get locked inside. They then went up to Pizza School, using the stroller, as it was raining, and got a noodle and a pepperoni pizza. They then skyped with me as I was waiting to board line 1 on my way home.
I got home about 5:30. I ate some pizza, then August and I did math with blueberries and towers with blocks. He tried to run off before picking up all the blocks, but I called him back for robot cleanup. I only held him like a robot for the blueberry blocks, then we were robots as we pushed the cardboard blocks to the corner and stacked them.
They then painted a (redacted), and Carly gave him his bath. He was asleep before 7:30. Carly slept in the parlor, and it worked. He sat up at 10:25 for several minutes, seemed to stretch out towards me, then fell back to sleep. If Carly was there he likely would have nursed. He was then laughing in his sleep and talking. I think maybe abut things floating or numbers. I think he said “float” or “fifteen”.
Photos. Old shoes:
Vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines:
My hike. At the top of the second peak:
From almost to the second peak, looking back at the first:
And from the second peak looking at where I was going. This was the piece I had done with August, and we had stopped just below where I was:
While I was gone. Sink or float:
Home. Counting by threes:
