It was supposed to rain a lot today, so a good day for likely our last trip to the aquarium.
He woke up at 6:56 and walked out. Sad to find no mama, but he let me pick him up and I held him for a few minutes. He then ate the rest of the banana bread for breakfast and we read Kipper A to Z. He then looked at the Persian instruments book on my iPad. He was quite interested in the tar instrument today. That led to the instrument book and finding a video of a ophicleide. He then watched some symphony pieces: Indiana Jones and a Harry Potter one. Then a video on making ink, then we did art in Sketches.
We exercised and had some cereal, then he wanted a piece of toast, which I cut in eighths. He wanted to cook with the friends, so we got all the stuffed animals (the ones that aren’t packed for Israel, and there are still plenty) and took them in on the bed. It turned into a throwing up game, and then he was hiding them. He still refers to Green Monster as “Green Marshy”. He asked “What happens if it’s 99 in Chelan?” Didn’t actually cook/eat with the friends, which was the original plan, as he wanted to go watch Pirates of the Caribbean. Did that, then he was writing letters on paper while I showered.
We read Welcome to the Symphony, then I was brushing my teeth when he wanted something and I told him so. He smiled and said “You said ‘I’m brushing my beak?’”, making a joke. We played mandolin, then went and had lunch with the friends, this time doing the cooking and ice cream, as usual. He did more asking about temperatures and funny math, asking things like “what berries plus berries equal?”
We got headed to the aquarium around 11:30. To avoid the rain we took the long subway route, transferring at Konkuk, so we wouldn’t have a walk in the rain. Walked through the mall and got to our usual bench and ate lunch. He just sat in the backpack for a few minutes, arms tucked in, before I took him out, still resting. We ate, then when he was full he was impatient to get to the aquarium.
We spent a long time in the aquarium – more than two hours, counting the gift shop. And we didn’t stop to take a break like we usually do. From the beginning he went around pointing at fish and pretending to swim, saying “I’m that fish.” The fist spot we spent some time was the river area, where he likes the plants and snails. Also a good amount of time at the funny aquariums, and he had no problem letting the fish nibble on his fingers. A good amount of time in the touch area. At one point he made a stack of starfish, and when he was picking up the big shells he kept saying “Bernie should wear that one.” And at one point he said “I want to go to the place where it shows you the things on a scuba diver…and snorkeler.” He didn’t seem bothered by the darkness in the ocean square area with the moving walkway. Most of the time he sat or stood on the walkway and made a drum sound as we slowly moved through. Oh, and he liked seeing the guitarfish. We had gone into the aquarium at 1:30, and finished 3:15ish, then spent more than 10 in the gift shop. He played with the “baby” toys, then found rods that reminded him of flutes, so he kept pretending to play the flute.
Eventually I got him out of there, and we got our backpack and headed to the book store. ALong the way though we passed the big video screens they have and there was a 2 minute video of animated, made up musical instruments. He stood transfixed for that. We waited several minutes for it to come on again, but it didn’t. There were a couple of other interesting videos though, of people doing art. Then we went to. the book store and down to the toys and he played with those little block things that they have, making towers. We needed to get going: “I want to do three more abstracto. I want to do three more shapes.” I got two coat straps I wanted for our grey backpack. I initially gave him a choice of. Orange or blue and he chose blue, but then he saw pink and really wanted it, so I gave in on that.
We headed out and stopped at the bathroom. I’ve been really, really patient and accommodating with people touching him and giving him candy, etc. the last few months. But as we were washing our hands, a guy had to push past me a bit (I had the backpack on) to get out of the toilet area – meaning he hadn’t washed his hands. So as we walked out of the bathroom, I commented to August about how that guy hadn’t washed his hands, then the guy literally reached down to touch August’s face. I blocked him and snapped at him, and pointed back at the bathroom and told him to wash his hands. Sadly, I didn’t use Korean, as I actually know ‘washing’ and ‘hands’. Also, it is a reminder I keep meaning to learn the imperative.
We got in the backpack and headed home, getting home at 5:30. As we were walking, August was humming Pirates of the Caribbean, which he knows pretty well by now. At home, they nursed, then we were trying to get him to tell her about our day. I asked “Did we see a guitarfish?” He joked “No, just a sitar. I saw a sitarfish.” Carly was asking “Guess what?”, which is supposed to be followed by “I love you so much.” But instead he was saying things like “It’s a hair washing day?…Mama has to go to work?”
He had to go to the bathroom and took forever on the toilet. He’s now doing variable problems like “3 plus what equals 9?” And figuring out the answers as he writes in the air. Carly observed that if he does become a mathematician, he’ll have a breakthrough on the toilet. He also said “2 plus what equals infinity? You know. Infinity.” And was asking his favorite temperature questions: “What if it’s 1 septillion degrees? What if it’s 1 nonnillion degrees?” He also asked “Whys your skin stuck to the body?”, which is a new question.
They nursed and she. Gave him a bath. He wanted couscous, so I got that out and added it to his bowl, cold, and he ate a bunch more veggies and everything as I fed him. We took him to bed, and I was trying to talk about getting Dippin Dots ice cream with Carly sometime. We had almost done it at the aquarium, as he’s been wanting Dippin Dots for months, but I told him mama would be sad if we got ice cream without him. Anyway, whether he understood me spelling ‘ice cream’, or picked up on the context clues, he knew we were talking about ice cream. He was asleep by 7:30.
Photos:
Starfish stacking:
Flute:
Blocks:
Looking at the lights:
Toilet time:
