Author: Ryan/Dada

He was up around 6:00. When I got up and came out of the bathroom a couple minutes later, he excitedly said “Happy Birthday!” as he jumped up and down, half naked, as Carly was taking his diaper off. We walked Carly to the elevator a bit later, then took the next elevator down, sans bike or backpacks. Walked across to the park and patted the mama statue, then we spent some time throwing rocks off the wooden bridge, then he came down and got more and threw them around. He asked about animals eating rocks: “Ants eat rocks?…All animals doesn’t eat rocks?”

He then led a walk that led us across the street to the other side of the park, then through it, up to the crosswalk, then by Home Plus where we looked at all the pipes and at three bicycles locked to the fence out front. He kept trying to get on the last bike, and got upset when I wouldn’t let him. I took him across the street, back to the park, where it took him a few minutes to calm down. He kept trying to head back to Home Plus, and would do his skip/shuffle thing as he slowly went that way, then I would go get him before he could get to the parking lot.

He calmed down and found a round plastic thing that he was able to roll a bit. We were then turning on the water faucets and watching it go down the drains. We walked to our side, and he found a pink bottle on the bridge and wanted to fill it with water. As we walked to the faucets on our side, he sung “I don’t like those three people. I sucked them up with my bottle.” About people sitting on the covered benches. He filled the bottle with water and poured it out for awhile, then we headed home at 8:10.

He played with some of the random toys (plastic circle things, drumsticks, etc.) on the floor for some time, then we had oatmeal and blackberries for breakfast. He was hungry/liked it as he basically had two packs on his own. Watched Pink Panther, exercised, watched videos about oats, and I took a shower. Before I took my shower he had come in and grabbed one of his bath cups. I’d then made sure he was back on the iPad, playing something. But when I got out of the shower he came in, put the cup back in the container of toys, and said “I was playing with this cup. I was filling it with water.” He had been in Carly’s bathroom doing it.

He played with his extendo arm for awhile, then said “I want to throw this away…I’m done with it.” and we put it back in with the plastic recycling, where he had gotten it from two or three weeks ago. He then played with bottles in the sink, went to the bathroom, and I got snacks ready to go. We left around 10:15.

We walked east, winding our way through all the construction over past Home Plus. When we walked by the buddhist temple he saw the lanterns and said “I want more lanterns at gramma and grampa’s.” Walking by the construction site, we smelled a burning smell and he said “Well, I don’t like that smell.” And when he saw a lift truck he said he wanted it and “I want to lift the fake grass in Israel.”

We got to the science center about 10:50. Inside, we first admired the lockers set up like the periodic table of elements. The building itself is pretty impressive, although as a science center it was a little sterile and had some big gaps (nothing really about physics or astronomy, for example).

Before we got in to any of the exhibits we could tell that the place was still a work in progress: the escalator to the second floor was cool because you can see through the side to see how it works. However, they weren’t yet operating.

The first floor was called ‘Harmony’, and about the Han River environment. There was a binoculars thing where you pointed them at different parts of the Han River and videos played in them, some exhibits that weren’t working yet, and a promising sign: a place where you could build bridges with K’Nex and then test them to see how much weight they could hold. Well, sort of. There was a two or 3kg weight, but nothing beyond that. We played with those for a couple minutes, then he wanted to go to the next floor.

The second floor was called ‘Life’ We looked at the spectrograms (I think that’s what they’re called) of a few elements and liked the colors, and then at these kind of cool growth charts that show you how people age. He also used a microscope camera to look at his shirt and his hair and skin.

Before the next floor he found a Tayo water fountain and played with that for probably ten minutes. Third floor was ‘Network’ and had a whole section about units of measurement: length, mass, light, temperature, etc. He measured his height and arm span, then played with the weights and then the camera that shows you pixels. But by far the best part was the exhibit on brains. No real brains, but a display that charted the brain size and mass of animals, and you could guess which was which. He really liked the little tiny mouse brain.

Also on the third floor, although I think we found it on our way down, was a display on motors. You could make the jet engine go and the model of a plane would fly around a pretty cool display (there was also a train). August didn’t like the noise though, and in fact didn’t like a lot of noises in the science center, so had his fingers in his ears a lot of the time and kept saying “What you said?” when he then didn’t understand what I said.

On the fourth and final floor (‘Circulation’) there were exercise bikes that generated electricity (unfortunately, as was most everything here, only in adult sizes, so he couldn’t do it on his own). There was a moving sculpture (showing big data) that he liked. Then the best thing: a display about how they generate power from the gasses from a landfill (August and I have been to the parks on top of it). You turn a wheel and then these colorful lights go up and through the pipes. He wanted to see that over and over.

Finally on that floor was a place you could pump air into a chamber until it built up pressure, then push a button and it would release the air into tubes and force up a couple disks.

He needed to go to the bathroom, so we did that. He was amazed that everything in the bathroom (except the soap dispenser, oddly) had a sensor and he played with the faucet. We went back to the fourth floor and did the lights thing some more. Then went up to the roof, where we admired the view back towards our apartment and also looked at the flowers. The path on the roof goes in sort of a U shape, then down stairs on the other side to a different set of doors. Which was locked (they also hadn’t figure out how they were letting people in for free today: generally, to get into exhibits they have turnstile things that only open if you have a wristband. They didn’t give out wristbands, so some floors had the wheelchair doors open. Others had the turnstiles open. And at others the attendants seemed confused why they weren’t opening for you and then you had to ask them to pus their buttons. As we left, they had decided to give people wristbands, so we skipped going back in the first floor again because I didn’t want to get a wristband for two minutes). Anyway, we retraced our steps and went back in and I went and unlocked the other set of doors for the next person.

We looked each of the floors (except the first) on our way back down because he wanted to see them again. He liked the temperature sensor. On the first floor he played with the Larvae drinking fountain. I mentioned looking in the coffee shop and he said “I’m going to get coffee. Zinnie’s going to get coffee.” We looked and they had some sandwiches, but he really wanted Korean food for lunch. He played with the polished rocks in the gift shop then we got going.

Outside, there is a place where you can lift a bus by yourself using the magic of pulleys. I pulled it up as much as it will let you (the tires just barely start to get off the ground), then he was pulling on it. Oh, and he was wearing his sunglasses both going and coming back. He a
lso really liked the fountain by the entrance so we went and looked at the little stream.

On the walk home we were looking for a place to eat. I spotted a Chinese place and he changed his mind and wanted Chinese. We were the only people there, and ordered the beef fried rice (which came with a bean dark sauce thing that he really liked) and friend mandu (after they were out of two other kinds). It also came with the usual Korean sides (including kimchi that was pretty good) and a bowl of spicy soup. For less than 10 bucks. A ton of food. As we ate, the cook brought a bowl of egg drop soup out for August as the other was too spicy.

We then walked to 골마을근린공원. He got on one of the exercise machines where you swing your legs forward and back and could do it on his own (although it made me a bit nervous). Then down at the playground he went on a swing. There was dog poop under the other swing though, and he didn’t like the smell, and wanted to leave the playground after he spent a few minutes throwing rocks around.

We walked back through our park and across the rainbow bridge. At some point we saw a baby and I said something about being nice to it. He said “I don’t want to be nice at the baby. I want to be MEAN at the baby.” On our side he heard a dog barking and spotted a separate big dog. He sat on his bike backwards and watched them. He said of the big one “Stop licking. I don’t want it to lick me.” It wasn’t close to him. He then said “I want the barking one in Israel.”

We got home at 3:30. We had talked about where meat comes from at the restaurant. He decided he likes meat and now said “I’m going to buy a steak. I want to buy meat! I want to buy bubble gum ice cream!” There was a lot of talk about getting me a cake as he knew we were thinking of getting one later and couldn’t wait: “I want to buy you a cake. I want to buy a cake now because it’s dada’s birthday…” I took some time to rest, then we both worked up energy to go outside and left at 4:30.

We stopped at Juicy Juice. He got mango and I got mixed berry. We walked over to the Bye Fuzzy playground and finished our juice. He then watched some kids playing a card game, but then really wanted to join in, but we didn’t know how to play. He kept trying to grab the box and got upset when I took him away. He calmed down and ran over to the play structure. Up top he found two jump ropes tied to a post, seemingly abandoned. I was down below. A girl spotted him and she and another girl ran up to retrieve their jump ropes. August was NOT happy about this at all, and was strongly holding onto one when I got up there. I got him and took him down and talked to him. He had just calmed down enough and wanted to go back to play. He ran about 10 steps back towards the play structure and stumbled and fell on his knees, scraping his left one a bit.

When he calmed down a bit we headed home. He wanted to look at cakes at Baskin Robbins, so we did that. I realized I wasn’t too impressed by the flavors of ice cream in the cakes. We then walked down by the pink building, as it was just 5, and met Carly at the corner. Talking about cake, we walked by Mainz Dom and smelled what smelled like fresh brownies. Sadly, there was nothing so good inside. August and Carly liked the popsicles though, and I saw individual pieces of cake. So we got those in lieu of a cake. Sadly, the woman didn’t get my cake order correct and we didn’t realize until we got home and I didn’t really like one at all. The other was okay.

At home they nursed and he was falling asleep, but perked up at the mention of cake. Ate some dinner first, then had the cake and popsicle. After that he said “I want to nurse because nursing is a treat.”

Carly gave him a bath, and he was asleep a bit before 7:30. Carly had him say “Happy Birthday” one more time before going to sleep.

Morning walk: 

He came out at 7:05. Sat in the hall several minutes waking up and started to act kind of silly. Didn’t want underwear on. We went in on the reading area and read Loch Mess Monster. Carly Skyped with us for a few minutes. He got a hair in his mouth but we got it out. After we said bye we finished reading the book, then he wanted to play Mammals. Did that, then Human Body and found a Korean app that he watched/played with a bit. He wanted Cheerios and banana for breakfast. He got his headphones out of the bowl and wanted to listen to them. We were listening to Erasure (which he liked: “Add it to your playlist!”) and listened to some with his headphones. He told me to talk, and that he couldn’t hear me: “Dada say something…I can’t hear you! I’m plugging my ears!”

 

He played on the iPad and exercised, then took a shower. He had started to play Elmo’s Animals though and wanted my help, so came and waited somewhat impatiently for me. We played that for a few minutes. He acted out the animals, then there is a sort of memory game, where you match cards with animals on them. He liked that, but when we went up to the second level there is a timer. He did not liked the idea of a timer at all, so that was the end of that.

 

I made a peanut butter and honey sandwich and he ate a quarter, and had some peanut butter on his spoon. He got the red and white soccer ball and was throwing it around. I got him to kick it, and we were kicking it back and forth pretty well. He also said “I don’t like bouncy things because they roll away.”

 

He was sort of playing with his ‘skateboard’ and out of nowhere said “I don’t like Megan.” I was asking why, and he then said “I don’t love Megan.” So we discussed the difference between like and love, applying it to all sorts of things. At one point he asked “Dada LIKES this song? Dada doesn’t LOVE it?” “Why dada doesn’t love it?” And he went and did something to the garbage can and said “I’m playing in the garbage.” “Dada doesn’t like Zinnie cuz Zinnie was playing in the garbage?”

 

And he also, on his own, was saying “I’m not comfortable with Megan.”

“I don’t like Megan. I’m UNCOMFORTABLE with Megan.” “I’m uncomfortable with Uncle Paul.” And ended with “I’m uncomfortable with a lot of people.” I was then asking him who he was comfortable or uncomfortable with. His answers changed a bit through the day, but at first he said he was comfortable with sangsaengnim and Jenny, but uncomfortable with Cora. And he sometimes gave reasons. When I asked about Olivia, the girl from the playground, he said “I’m UNcomfortable with her. BECAUSE I wanted to play with the toys.” I asked who else he is comfortable with and he said “The trees…the trees are people.”

 

We spent some time rolling up the bandage. He’d then unroll it, but wanted it rolled back up, and without any bumps. Did it a few times, then brushed his teeth and we left at 10:50. We heard someone being loud in an apartment across the hall – singing or chanting or something – and August was interested in that. On the way through the park we forgot to pat the mama statue. When I mentioned it he wanted to go back and do it, so we did.

 

On the train up to Dobongsan he ate some banana bread, then sang “More is a number…counting more…more and more and more…” to the tune of “It’s O.K.” We went to get bop burgers at the station, only to find that the bop burger place has been replaced with a Korean snack food place. We got some kimbap instead and walked into the Iris Garden. As we walked through the sun he sang, to Ode to Joy:

 

It’s not shady

It’s not shady

It’s not shady

It’s not shady

 

(Repeat)

But it’s shady over there

It is shady over there…

 

We went up to the picnic tables in the trees and ate lunch. As we ate, he said “I want peanut butter. I want the song.” Meaning the “Peanut, peanut butter, and jelly” song I only knew one line of. We found the lyrics. When he was done with his juice he said “pretty much gone”.

 

At about noon we headed to recycling and stopped at the water faucets to play. He could press the faucets on his own. I put his hat on him and he wore it for a few minutes without complaint. He was done at 12:10 and we went to the bathroom.

 

We got walking up to the stream. Stopped at our hat stand (where I got my tan hat) and he liked a bright blue hat that he tried on with the help of the woman that worked there. Later, as we walked up, I mentioned his glasses and he asked where they were. I said “In my pocket.” He asked “It’s closed?” I assured him “Its closed.” Him: “So it won’t come out?”

 

At the stream we started playing. I was floating the boat down, but he was concerned that it would escape. We used a rock to block up the stream in the one place it could keep going. He threw rocks for awhile, then was unhappy when I put sunscreen on him. He wore his hat for a bit before taking it off. He was scooping water into the boat and into his shoes. I got him to put his hat back on by saying “Wear it for ten seconds.” He counted to ten , then said “That means you’re getting used to it?” and kept wearing it. He continued to playing on his own, filling his shoe “the fish spitted it out. The whale is spitting it out.”

 

Then a couple of kids showed up. August picked up all his toys and his shoes and watched them. They were wading in the water, and he started to wade like them. He eventually set his stuff down except for the blue cup. They boy and girl had a white cup, and August really wanted it. I think he was almost ready to trade at one point, but it didn’t happen. Eventually, he wanted to put all of his stuff in the backpack, so we did that.

 

The boy was throwing rocks, so I was getting rocks for August, and the grandmother gave him some too. The boy showed August a rock and he took it, then the boy gave him a second rock. I suggested August give him two rocks as well, and August did. August then slipped while throwing and got a bit wet, but recovered.

 

Played for a few minutes, then we got going in the backpack and headed up to Bukhansan National Park. We washed our hands, then sat on a bench over near our usual lunch spot. He called him his “bread snacks” as he had finished up the banana bread, the quarter of leftover french toast, and the peanut butter sandwich. Unfortunately, he didn’t really like the kimbap. When those were gone though he ate some apple. A little bug was bothering him, so we got going, first using the bathroom. Then he spotted a little trail down by the stream and we went and looked down there a bit.

 

On the way out of the park he spotted the fire danger scale and we spent several minutes discussing it. Difficult, as he’s quite unclear about fire in general. Very curious about it and the sign though. Then we got our last Seoul Trail stamp. We walked back down the hill. He didn’t want to stop at a coffee shop. As we went through the shops area he commented on all the shoes he liked. I wanted something to drink though so we stopped at what used to be the Mug and Spoon and is now a convenience store and I got a cold latte drink. August said he needed to go to the bathroom, so we got going quick. As I paid he looked at the guy and said “I like that guy.”

 

We got back to Iris Garden at 3:30 and went to the bathroom. He then played with the drinking fountains again, doing the footprint game. I asked him why he liked the guy “Not sure. I just liked the guy.” At 3:50 he wanted to go up to the coffee shop and have a look. I sang the “so much” song and he was changing to include other people, like me, grandparents, etc. like our “loves August, loves Zinn” song. At the coffee shop I was g
oing to let him have either apple juice or a San Pellegrino, but he pointed to just a bottle of water and said he just wanted water. So I just got out his water bottle and he was fine with that and we didn’t stay at the coffee shop. Out on the deck area he looked out at the Iris Garden for a few minutes and we left at 4.

 

He was still hungry when we got to Hagye Station so we sat on a bench on the platform and he ate the last of the pine nuts. He then asked about losing our Stickies – that is, our sticks that we keep in the backpack for writing in the sand, etc. We lost the first stick when he dropped it as we walked to Dongdaemun.

 

We were home at 4:35. We listened to his playlist, and he liked it – he said he really liked one of the Woody Guthrie songs. He was then shaking the Listerine from Carly’s bathroom, and I was out in the hall seeing if we could fix the foot platforms on his bike. Got them on, and he wanted to try it out, so we went over to the elevators, waited a minute, and surprised Carly when she came off.

 

Back in the apartment they nursed, then he played in sinks with bottles. Ate some food and had some orange juice. Then played Mammals. I complained that he just fed the bats over and over again and he said “I want Dada to do it. But it’s my favorite.” He then was on GarageBand when Carly wanted to take him in for a shower: “But I’m playing GarageBand!” Carly lured him to the bathroom with Sesame Street songs. He played for quite awhile in the bath, then we read Mulberry Street and half of The Butter Battle Book before he was clearly ready for sleep. He was asleep by 7:50. 

Photos: 

Stream:

Holding all the things: 

Hiding the cup in his shirt: 

Snack: 

Fire danger: 

Footprint game: 

Looking out at the Iris Garden: 

He was up a bit after 7. Carly took down the blanket to the fifth floor to put it in the washing machine, then made him scrambled eggs. They then added to their door ball path and Skyped with Cherie. When I got Cheerios August wanted his own bowl so I got him some. I went and moved the blanket to the dryer. I spent quite awhile trying to find the Allen wrench to take apart the rocking chair. And they did some art together, decorating their drawing with stickers. When I found the allen wrench August helped to start taking apart the rocking chair.

They went down and got the blanket and I took a shower. They then went outside and I finished our taxes and did dishes, etc. They went to the Spiderweb Playground where he rode around on an abandoned bike a bit then they got Bugles at the little store and went and ate them on a rock in the park. They then played at the Madeul playground before heading home. Along the way they found one of those carts with a broom in it and no one around so he played with the broom. There was some exercise equipment he had wanted to play on but they walked past it, but he remembered it at home.

They were home at 12:45. I was listening to a Yaz album and he wanted to add it to his playlist. They went in and nursed and he locked me out of the parlor. He wouldn’t tell me what they did so I had to get it out of Carly. I gave him a few lunch ideas but he didn’t like them. I asked “Are you being picky?” Shook his head, gave me a thumbs up, and said “Yes”. But I made a grilled cheese and broccoli sandwich and he ate it just fine.

He then spent a long time helping me take things apart and pack. First, we took apart the rest of the rocking chair. Carly made us a smoothie while we did that and he really liked it and told Carly a couple times. On the chair, he was getting better and better turning the wrench. We then took apart one of his sets of green shelves. He used the small screwdriver and got a couple screws, then helped get the rest out with his hands at the end. Carly was cooking and he walked up and said “I like the smell.” We then took down his growth charts (but first measured him – nearly 96cm) and rolled them up and put them in a small tube. We took down his Korean posters. Threw the one ripped one by the door away, but kept the others. He particularly talked about how he likes the one in the changing room: “I still like it though…I like the colors…I like the pictures.”

While we were doing all of this we were also ripping his Teuni Teuni CDs to iTunes and listening to them. He liked hearing the songs from class and added them to his playlist. We then took down the photos from the wall and the refrigerator. His job was to put them in the big envelope. At first he needed help opening the envelop to put in photos, but then he figured it out. He seemed amazed that I had a big envelope and kept talking about that. He was also asking about and identifying people in the photos. 

At some point he found his hat in my shorts pocket and took it out. He said “I don’t like the feeling of hats.” But he’d seen the “Let Zinn Zinn do it for now” video and had been saying he wanted to wear a hat again. So he tried on his old hat and said it felt better. So we’ll try that in the coming days and see how it works.

Out on the couch talking to Carly I mentioned we had three weeks before we leave. August said “No, 4 weeks.” So some moments of hesitation, but still doing quite well with all the talk of going to the United States and Israel.

We all headed out on a walk at 4:30. In the elevator he started to say “I don’t like that person” to the other people in the elevator. When we got off we talked to him about it. He said “I like mama and dada but I don’t like strangers.” Carly got him to say “I’m uncomfortable around strangers.” and he seemed to like that sentence.

We stopped at Mama Juice. He got banana and Carly and I got coffee drinks. I sang Lost My Helmet on our walk. August plugged his ears but kept demanding I sing it. He kept asking “What you said?” as I talked to Carly, even as he had his ears plugged.

We got to Chrysanthemum Park. He said “I don’t like to share.” as he went over to the play structure. Carly watched as he climbed the climbing wall then went around the structure. He even walked the board alongside the rope bridge all on his own. When he got around to the top of the shaky platform area I got up to help and Carly went and sat down. He stood on the shaky platform, shaking it around for a few minutes. He then climbed back up to the top on his own. Next thing I knew he ran off across the bridge and went down the slide and ran over to the water.

I saw a guy help him turn it on as I went down the slide to join him. But then August was doing it all on his own, standing on tip toes. Early in the week when we went I was holding him up so he could do it. He then ran over to the empty swing and climbed up and on it quickly. I said he did it “so fast”. So he then ran around the swing several times, jumping on. After a couple minutes he got off and ran over to the exercise equipment and was able to hang on and do the swinging one on his own. He’s definitely gotten taller… He wanted the back massage ones, so I held him up and rubbed him against those and he started laughing.

He then ran to Carly and it looked like we were going to go. but as we walked across the playground he spotted an orange bike and wanted to get on it. The grandmother next to it encouraged him, and I ended up pushing him around the playground several times. It was a bike with training wheels. This, at least, was just a little too big for him, as the pedals were a bit too far away for him to turn completely. There was a girl that got hurt and he was concerned about her. When she and her mom came out of the bathroom he wanted to ride over and take a closer look.

He got off the bike and ran over to the green catepillar thing. There were girls playing on it who had been up on the shaky platform earlier. He sat on the end while they made it shake. He then needed to use the bathroom and Carly took him and I sat down and did some reading.

I continued to read while they went and played in the sand. He was digging and throwing a little ball around with another girl, but he had a couple of the small yogurt drink containers that he was being very possessive about, holding on to them so no one else could use them. August went over and climbed into the hexagon area, then played there for a long time, filling the containers and pouring sand back and forth. Then he was pouring sand down his shirt.

We headed home and I went to Lucky Mart to get some groceries and they headed home. I bought frozen mandu and peanut sauce, and when I got home I made that for me and August to eat. But he only liked the outside of the mandu, so ate some of that. I then heated up some broccoli and and dipped that in teriyaki sauce for him and he ate a little of that as well.

Carly gave him a bath, then he brought the whale to me and wanted to take care of it. We removed the plastic from its stomach. I had to find the AAA batteries to get his flashlight to work. He then put a bandaid on the whale’s stomach. In bed we read Seuss’s Mulberry Street and he went to sleep about 8:15.

Photos:

Out with Carly:

Helping roll the growth charts: 

Turning the water on: 

Taking care of the whale: 

He was up at 7. He had Cheerios for breakfast then they nursed and then looked at his visual dictionary. Read Frida at some point. He wanted a ball so he could hold it under his arm like a girl in the book. He then saw a picture of math, and wanted to do math on paper, so they did that. They then skyped with Vivian and Colin. August saw one of them wearing boots and he wanted his snow boots and was upset to find that we had already given his snow boots away. I got recycling ready to take down, repairing our paper bag with tape when it was falling apart – it just needs to last three more weeks. August wanted to go down with me but wasn’t dressed. Carly got him ready and they took down the garbage and we came back up together.

He wanted to stay in the hall so we stayed and Carly went inside. We looked at a bike for several minutes. We then went in and all got ready to go to Hongik University as Carly was getting her hair cut at noon.

We left at 10:15. We took the bus to Kwangwoon University, then line 1. He sat on a pink seat the whole time and speculated about who he might have to give it up to. At some point he and I read a couple books on the iPad, including Peppa’s Ballet Class and Loch Mess Monster.

We walked to Hair and Joy. Just before we got there he saw an orange cone on the side of the street and wanted to play with it but was upset when we wouldn’t let him. It was about 11:50 and Carly went up to Hair and Joy. I stayed with August outside. He was frustrated I wouldn’t let him go back to where the cone was. Eventually I picked him up and carried him up to the park. Took awhile for August to calm down. When he did we had some of the leftover french toast and apple for a snack. It is kind of an odd park, as most of the people you see in it are walking through. One older woman was really bothering August and eventually the man that was with her was yelling from the other side of the park for her to get going. Then a younger hungover/drunk couple wandered through and were talking to him. They went and sat a little ways away.

August was singing on his own, then playing the vacuum game. The drunk/hungover woman tried talking to him from where she was and he was telling her to go away. August was distracted by a still construction crane across the street and played with his broom, pretending to sweep the crane. Carly said the hair place was running late, but luckily he was doing okay, and a slightly older boy came and got on the teeter totter. August wanted to get on the end and they went up and down for awhile. The boy left and we played with it a bit more, then he climbed on a couple of shape things that are in the sand. He took his shoe off and used it to scoop up sand.

August was starting to want to go find mama. We talked about how he could see her, but then we’d have to sit and wait. Eventually he seemed okay with that. And good timing. A guy came along and offered him an ice cream bar in a box. I gave it back and tried to explain we were about to go eat lunch. The guy wouldn’t desist, and took it out and opened the package and tried giving it to August. Eventually he relented, but the damage had been done: August knew I wasn’t letting him have ice cream.

Luckily, he didn’t get too upset, and just kept talking about it as we walked to Hair and Joy. The boy had had a gold balloon, and as we walked I figured out why: there were people handing out free ice creams and gold balloons.

We got there at 12:50 went up and saw Carly and then sat down. A worker instantly came over and set a bowl of candy right in front of August. Sigh. August had two chewy candies: a strawberry and peach. A bit later he found a white squishy one and we shared it because I was curious. Carly was done sometime after 1.

We headed to the west, making our way across the main street and up some back streets. August slowed us down, but we finally made it to Jil’hal Bros, a little Middle Eastern fast food place. We got a lamb over rice bowl and a combo bowl and headed to a nearby children’s park. Found a nice walking street, with grass and trees in the middle, along the way that we didn’t know about.

Got to 동교어린이공원 and sat down to eat. August ate a little but didn’t seem impressed and ran off to play on his own. He found a plastic cup and could turn on the water on his own and was happily filling the cups and pouring them on the sand. The food was okay, but drowning in a white sauce. But it was fun for us to be able to sit and eat while August played.

Eventually, Carly went and played with him and they went over to the play structure and then one of those exercise bikes/game things. He could sit on the bump in the middle and figured out how to pedal correctly and made some of the lights light up.

Back in the sand area over kids had shown up and were playing with the numerous plastic cups. This caused problems though, as August wanted to brush some sand off a platform that another boy had put up there, then he wanted the big full cup that another boy was playing with. Tried to distract him by having him pour water down a pipe thing, but two girls were packing it full of sand. We did it once, but then it was too full to put more water in and he got really upset. Took him over to our bench and we almost left as he just kept watching and being upset: “But there’s not even a kid…but, but, but…NOW GO…go back…”

But then the girls moved on and I thought it would be good to end on a happy note, so we went back and worked together to get as much sand out as we could, then went and got water and poured it in and eventually cleaned out the pipe. We did a few more cups, then I was tired of lifting him up each time so I just brought him cups of water. He said “thank you” to me a few times when I brought them. There was a smaller girl who got up and played in the mud we were making and would squeal with joy when more water came out of the pipe.

After a few minutes I negotiated how many more cups. He said 10. I countered with 5. He said 7. I said 6. He said 7. Tough negotiator. We did 7 more and then he was fine with leaving.

We got in the backpack after they went to the bathroom one more time and left at 3:20. We walked south towards Hapjeong Station to make the trip back easier. We considered getting coffee along the way, and August certainly wanted to go to a coffee shop, but decided we were full enough.

As we walked he wanted to stop to look at some octopuses in a tank. He said he wanted one in Israel. I said “You want a pet octopus in Israel?” He said “A soft one. Not one in the ocean.” I figured out he wanted a stuffed octopus: “Like Marshy?” I asked. That was it: “I want a stuffed octopus in Israel!” I then asked what he’d name his stuffed octopus and he said “88”. We joked about just calling it 8, or he suggested “eightypus” or “eightpus” at one point, but I think he settled on ‘88’.

We got home at 5:15. Carly went from the bus to the store for a few things. They nursed and I made him rice, broccoli, and cheese for dinner. He played Mammals and ate a good amount for dinner. We read part of Green Eggs and Ham and Carly took a shower. He watched some Pink Panther, then Carly gave him a bath. He filled the bath with toys and played with them. And played with them. And played with them. Standing up, of course. Eventually, about a half hour later, at 8, he started to put them all away. On his own.

We went in to the bedroom to read. He wanted to choose books in the parlor. I told him not too many, and he asked how many. I said three, and he came in with three books. We read one Bob Book, about tomcats, and we got him dressed and he was silly for a bit, then Carly got him to sleep at 8:30.

 

Another bike:

Sitting on the pink seat:

Sweeping the crane: 

Shoe off: 

Smelling candy: 

Watching the water go down: 

Mud tower: 

Getting to pour water: 

He, and by extension Carly, was up from 3 to 4:30. He then woke up at 7:20. Opened the door but then closed it when he heard me. Opened it again to whisper “Where’s mama?” and got upset when she wasn’t here. When he calmed down he wanted to go out in the hall. I offered him the black pair of sandals and he said  “No. The ones for when you’re in a stream or lake.” We put those on him, then I put his black shoe on my toes and he flatly told me “Well that doesn’t even fit.” We went and wandered the hallway. He sang a little song: “Which letter you push, which number you push, dada push a number…” We stopped at a set of bikes. He sat down and studied a bike lock. Then kept pushing the bike across the floor as he studied it. That lasted several minutes until I was tired pulling it back across the floor. On the way back he hid behind a bag hanging from someone’s door for milk deliveries.

Back inside, he wanted to go back outside, but after some banana bread he wanted to play Mammals, just as I had changed and was ready to leave. He played that, I exercised, and he wanted the other new app: Space. We played that, and he once again read ‘Jupiter’ on his own. Really don’t know how he learned to read that one (he did it once at the children’s museum as well). He played with the vacuum cleaner while I hung up laundry, then I took a shower.

After my shower we used a music app called Lily to make a sort of song, then listened to that for awhile and he played with the blueberries. For lunch we had a quesadilla and teriyaki chicken sandwich. I realized we’d be having Tospia sandwiches for dinner and that August wouldn’t really get veggies, but then I realized I could add broccoli to both the quesadilla and sandwich.

We talked about going outside a few times, but it didn’t happen until after noon. We were talking about what to do, and I said that if we went to Dream Forest the water might be on. He replied “I don’t want to do that. Water is wet.” Finally, we got going at close to 1. I had the backpack ready to go, but then he decided he wanted the bike instead. So I switched to that. It worked out, as it made our meandering trip to APIS a bit easier, as we could stop and take our time along the way more easily.

As we walked we sang random songs, and I sang our even numbers song. He wanted it to go to 100, so we extended it. Then I realized it could also be an odd numbers song and we went to 101. I like when I see him extending rules/testing hypotheses, and this time he asked “201 is an odd number? Because it ends with 1?”

We got to the first park before 1:30. We were to get sandwiches and meet Carly at 4:30, so we had about two and a half hours for playing and exploring. Unfortunately, August knew the plan but just wanted to jump to the meeting mama part. So he didn’t want to stop at 매봉어린이공원 until he saw the faucets. We played in the water and got the blue cup thing out of the bike and played with that, pouring water down the drain. When he was done with that he went to the play structure and climbed up the round steps once, then went down a slide. Spent a little time on a swing, then went and got on the bike. I had left the backpack on the seat, so he climbed on with it and had me push him around. He was kind of crouched down so his body made a Zish shape: “I’m Z!…I’m a P!…I’m an upside down V!” He was remembering the song from Poli class. We ended up over at the apartment playground just adjacent. Didn’t play there, but he found a feather that we guessed was from a pigeon. Played with that, then he opened a zipper on the backpack, put the feather in, and closed it on his own.

We then got going, and he was pulling the cover down far to give him some shade. We went through Wolgye Station, then were walking by the construction site. I was suggesting a coffee shop, but he kept rejecting them (we passed at least 4) as he wanted to get to mama. He hopped off by the showroom building, and played with the green netting that is used as a fence around it. He used his hands as monsters on it, and said they were eating plastic in the ocean, then wanted me to take care of them (remembering a few days ago when we took care of a Duplo whale that had eaten plastic). Played with the fence for ten minutes or so, then got going.

Our next stop was Sinchang Children’s Park (신창어린이공원). There, he was excited about going in the toddler swing. He wanted me to do it, but I told him I wouldn’t fit. He stood up in it and was swinging. We went and had some dried mango for a snack, and he was sitting on his bike and picked up a cone-shaped ice cream wrapper and played with it, putting it on the ends of the handle bars before calling it “Elmo’s vacuum cleaner” and then was breaking up sticks to put in it: “I sucked up the icky sticks.” There kept being an occasional sound from an apartment building – kind of sounded like a lift, but we couldn’t see it – that he didn’t like, and we left at 3:15.

As we were walking today I realized he was humming the Pink Panther song a lot, and also that “Sentimental Wars” song that he likes.

Finally, we got to our third park,  각심어린이공원, the sometimes-water park across from APIS. The water wasn’t on (didn’t really expect it). He went down and ran around it for a minute, but then needed a bathroom. We used the little bathrooms there, then walked across to the faucets to wash his hands. He was done with that playground, so I pushed him to the other end of the park and to playground #4 on the day. This one finally stuck, in that he played there for more than 10 minutes. But first, we took quite awhile eating banana bread. And he took my hat and put it on his head, first forwards, then backwards. But then he saw some girls go start climbing on the spiderweb thing and he went and climbed on it for several minutes with them. Then up on the play structure, where he played around and then tried out the periscope after another boy was using it.

I had to remind him of seeing mama to get him going. We walked up to Tospia, and ordered three sandwiches. August saw the smoothie drinks on the menu, so got a strawberry yogurt one. While we waited we watched a bit and Igot out the notebook and he was drawing spirals.

Got to Carly’s classroom at 4:30 and ate and they nursed and August started playing around. But he was happy to go see some music and art. First to the auditorium where we saw the orchestra play Ob-La-Di and then selections from Wicked. August clapped his hands after each piece. Then up to the gym, where he went right in to look at art. No hesitations about the gym this time. Carly went to the bathroom, so we were looking for pieces he wanted to show here when she got back. She came back and he showed her a couple, then kept looking and saying “I like that one, I like that one”. But his favorites seemed to be a black and white portrait where the face looked funny, and a big colorful one that kind of looks like an eye (but I think is a crystal) that he said was his favorite at the end. He started sneezing as I took a photo of him looking at it. It was also the one that he kept trying to tell Carly about when she was talking to War.

Then the most fun part: down in the art room were small musical performances and you could do art: there were some flute players, violins, etc. We started by drawing on the paper on the tables, then the three of us together colored a stained glass thing of the Mona Lisa. He really liked one of the pieces of music, so I went and asked Emmalee what it was, and it was Bach’s Hungarian Dance No. 5.

He was ready to go after that. We went to Carly’s room and he nursed. And wanted to just keep nursing, and fell asleep just after 6. I was tickling him a little to get him to laugh in his sleep, then Carly said he could get a cookie downstairs. And boom, he was up. He and I went and got two chocolate chip cookies on the third floor and then met Carly at the entran
ce. The cookies had nuts, so August kept asking “Mama likes chocolate nuts?” Which was funny because he knows she loves chocolate but doesn’t like nuts. Carly was talking to Kevin, and August was asking what the CLC room was, then saw students with instruments, so we went in and watched them rehearsing on flute and trumpet.

Headed home about 6:15. Had the bike so I couldn’t take the bus, but after he got upset when we didn’t stop at a playground he and Carly almost took a bus home. But he calmed down while we waited and wanted back on the bike so we kept walking. He got off the bike a couple times and was a slow walker, but we made it home about 7.

Given that he had fallen asleep at 6, he showed some impressive resiliency to sleep in the evening. On the toilet he said “I don’t want my sleepy. How many minutes you sleep? 30?”

I gave him a bath, which he was opposed to: naked, he stood between the couch and the coffee table and then pulled the table towards him, barricading himself in and even picking up the metal spatula that he’d been playing with earlier. But he then followed the iPad into the bathroom when I started playing the music from Frozen. In the bath he was figuring out how to fill up the squirt cars on his own. After he was out of the bath he got the bag of letters and was playing with it in the water as a vacuum:”I’m catching the water from going down the drain.”

We took him into bed, had some silly time, and he was asleep at 8:20.

Photos. For mama: 

Park 1:

Pulling down the cover for shade: 

Netting by construction site:  

Park 2: 

Park 3: 

Periscope: 

APIS Arts Night: 

“Mama likes chocolate nuts?” 

Walking home: 

Today was a day that made both August growing up and the fact that we are leaving Seoul for good feel very real.

He was up at 5:30. Before she left he was wearing her shoes. Accompanied her to the door, but then didn’t want to get dressed, and was upset when she left, calling out “Mama, mama!” as I held him. Luckily, he calmed down quickly. He played with the vacuum cleaner and said “We use it to pick up dirt? It’s kind of like a hand?” We read The King (a Bob Book) and Suddenly! He then wanted to play Animal Doctor, so did that. Played a little of Elmo’s Animals, acting like animals, but then the iPad froze.

He was hungry, so we made a smoothie, then made banana bread. He likes licking the cups after we use them to get the cinnamon, sugar, etc. and said “I like it not mixed up.” He then sat on the floor singing and playing with his brush and water bottle for several minutes. Went to the bathroom a couple times, and asked how bicycles are made. He’s also been talking about really long bicycles, so we found videos of the longest bicycles, then watched one about how they are made. That led to Mr. Roger’s and we watched construction paper, etc. I exercised, and he then found the meat grinding machine that he likes – I think the company is Silman – and watched a couple of their other videos: a nut/cheese grinder, a food processor, etc.

Banana bread was done so we had some of that. I was trying to go take a bath, so looking for a video to watch. Pulled up Netflix, which he hasn’t used in weeks and weeks. He didn’t want anything he’s watched before, but was interested in The Magic School Bus. So we watched one where they go to the beach and shrink to the size of phytoplankton, zooplankton, etc. and get eaten by a tuna. We skipped a few minutes to get to the bus part, but otherwise watched the whole thing. I had to explain as we went though, so couldn’t escape to take a shower. But then I remembered the new Mammals app, but Tinybop, which also makes the Human Body and Simple Machine apps, and left him with that.

We played with the Mammals app after I came out (you can see how a kangaroo joey nurses, how a bat echolocates). Then we skyped with my parents. He did fine with that, even though he wanted to get back to Mammals. He had some silly time with them, counting on his fingers, rolling around on the reading area, etc.

We then got ready and headed to his last Teuni Teuni class ever. Class went smoothly and was fun. It was the usual last day class: playing with the pig things, knocking the big squishy blocks over with their hands and feet, and making paths to walk on, and ending with a group photo. Took a lot of video, but missed the best moment, when August and the teacher both bowed to each other several times at the end. Don’t know if I ever got August bowing on video.

August was hungry, so we headed down to the food court at his request. But down stairs he wanted the soup place. We went and got the same thing we’ve gotten twice before, the udon with the omuk. Ate that, and unlike previous times August didn’t get full – he kept eating until it was all gone.

We then went up to the first floor because he wanted to play with the toys. But first he played with one of the little vending machines andthen with the bikes. He found a pink bike he really liked, and was looking at the parts. I lifted the back wheel up so he could turn the peddles. He did it for several minutes and would have kept going but I said my arms were getting tire. We went in to the toys and set up the train a bit but didn’t play for long. He saw a girl get a beach ball out of a container and he really wanted that one. He didn’t want any of the other dozens in there. She put it down after a few seconds, and he pointed out it didn’t have the netting bag on it like the others.

From there we walked up to Toys R Us and Lotte Mart. We were on a mission to find vacuum cleaner bags to take with us to Israel. We also had some Lotte Mart gift certificates to use up. First I had to convince him by Toys R Us and the music store, where he wanted to stop. Did that, and found the vacuum cleaners. Success. Got 30. August was playing with a display vacuum cleaner, or mainly the hose of it, which wasn’t connected. Played with that for several minutes, sucking things up and talking about the inside of the vacuum cleaner.

Then down to the first floor, where we got lettuce and coffee and a bag of dried mango. August had eaten all the banana bread we had brought and was still hungry. I mentioned we could share the dried mango with the other kids in Poli class and he said “I don’t like to share…Stop talking.”

We stopped to look at musical instruments for a few minutes and he tried out some of the ukuleles and guitars a bit. He wanted to stay, but we needed to hurry to get to the Poli class at 4. We did, and got there just a little late as they were starting. He did well for the last class. He stood on the table and danced to the shooby, shooby song, then really sang along to How’s the weather? He spent part of the class watching from under the table. At the end of the class I told her how he had named a hand puppet after her at the children’s museum.

Carly was running a little late, so we went home and she showed up a few minutes later. He played the Mammals app and showed Carly parts of it. Carly gave him a super short bath and forgot about washing his hair. They read two books: and Curious George Cleans Up. A little silly time on the bed and he was asleep by 7:20.

I was floored by the news of Chris Cornell’s death. I spent the evening listening to Temple of the Dog. This was definitely the most painful of the recent musician deaths. I wrote an email to Darrin, which I’ve been meaning to do for a couple months to tell him about August’s playlist, and how he’s liked music I got from Darrin.

Kicking: 

Class  

Lunch: 

The ball: 

Vacuum cleaner: 

Watching Jenny in Poli class: 

His haul from the class treasure hunt: 

He was up at 6:10. Doing math on the iPad when Carly left. We made oatmeal and apple for breakfast, then he had a good silly time, taking things around the apartment and tossing them where they didn’t belong. Mostly fine, but then he knocked over his milk and threw my shoes at me. He then had his shoes on his hands. He lay on the floor on his stomach and I mentioned how he used to do that in the winter. A bit later he wanted me to turn the floor heater on. He got Duplo animals and said “Let me put these in your shirt.” We took care of Duplo animals and boy and a flower that had been stepped on. We did blueberry math, then he was pretending to pee. “Let me pee in your mouth” When I wouldn’t let him he protested “No, but it’s a pretend game!” So instead he jumped on me and squished me. But then said “Now dada’s dead.” He used the blueberries as a sort of flute, which I only allowed for a few seconds because I was concerned he could choke on them.

He watched videos about how oats are made and I took a shower. He came in at the end and was talking about “My trick”. He had figured out how to flip over the blueberry container without them spilling out. He was pretty excited about this.

Sucked me up with the container into the vacuum bag – I sneezed. More dust. “Say ‘I need a mask.’” “The mask blowed away!” “I’m sucking up more dirt. You’re stuck in the vacuum cleaner. It sucked up Zinnie! It sucked up the blueberries! It sucked up that! We’re all in the vacuum cleaner.”

He wanted to go outside but wouldn’t put his shirt on. Made a nest and played the snakes game and ate yummy worms instead, then took care of more animals. He got his drum and at one point wouldn’t let me use it, saying “It’s my toy.” He then said “It’s the easiest way to poop.” as he sat on it. He was singing the Lost My Helmet song and said “I want a verse where it goes to the space toilet and it has a sensor, but there’s a button.” He played piano while I added to the song. He was very happy with the last verse. The song is now complete except for a couple lines that don’t rhyme as nicely as I would like.

We were getting ready to finally leave when I took out the bubble gun and realized the bubble mix had gotten into the batteries and caused them to leak. Pretty sure it is ruined now, but I cleaned it up first. August was a bit upset by all of it, but mainly he just wanted it cleaned up. He wasn’t too concerned that it wouldn’t work, and he said he didn’t want a new one if it didn’t.

We left at 9:50. He had talked about going to the Four Swings Playground, but when we got there he didn’t want to get off the bike and wanted to keep riding instead. So we went up and did a stream walk, walking past the main road and coming back down the other side. He spotted Chrysanthemum Park and wanted to go there, so we went and crossed at the next bridge and pushed the bike up the bike track on the stairs.

At Chrysanthemum we played with the faucet for quite awhile and he listened to it going through the drain. There was a guy there practicing parkour and we watched him making big jumps on and off a fence, rocks, and brick wall. August wanted to pee in the drain. We left at 11:40 when he got hungry.

We walked to the pink building and went to the food court where we got albop (a rice dish in a hot pot) with cheese. We watched the kitchens a bit, then he ate a lot, and really liked the miso soup. We went into the movie theater to use the bathroom when he needed to go.

At 12:40 we went into Lucky Mart. He was carrying his water bottle and had it hanging from his mouth while he danced to “what is love?” playing over the speakers. We got big frozen tortillas for Carly, but then I realized they had the unfrozen racist kind as well. I wasn’t going to get them (Carly wants the big ones), but August wanted them and I realized we could make quesadillas for him with them. He was very excited about the little tortillas and that they were for him.

As I was paying, the woman that we know the most there at the store gave August a lollipop. Could hardly say no to him two days in a row, especially when it was already in his hands, so he got the lollipop once we were back up the stairs and he was on the bike. He said “I know it’s a treat!” We walked over to the park and walked around a bit while he ate it, and sat by the playground.

We went home at 1:15 so he could use the bathroom. Back out in the living room he stepped on something and slipped. I asked if it hurt and he said “I not sure.” I asked “Want to come up with dada?” He flatly stated “I don’t want to do that.” He did a lot more standing on his “skateboard” and played a little piano, then watched some Pink Panther. He wanted apple so I cut one up but he’s back to not eating peel again.

We almost left at 2:50 but he saw the Wheels on the Bus book and we read it twice. He’s fascinated by one page where there is a little girl getting off the bus on her own. I said he’d eventually be able to go on a bus on his own. He was a bit upset by the idea and said “No, I don’t want to do that.” We finally left at 3:20.

He likes to drag his toes as he rides (his sandals are wearing out because of it) and he’s gotten pretty good at steering us so we are right on the edge and he can drag his right toe in the dirt/pine needles right off the edge. We went to the Four Swing Playground and sat and ate some letter cookies. He then went on the swings. There were two girls on the swings, and he noticed when one took her shoes off. He kicked his shoes off as well. Then the other girl put her friend’s shoes on her hands and was walking on all fours. August got off and put his hands in his shoes, and then was throwing his shoes around when she threw the shoes. She came over a bit, and I tried to have August say his name. He said “My name is I Shrankey.”

He went to the play structure, barefoot, and was excited to find that he could climb up the slides more easily this way. So he was climbing up and down and every which way. He went down the green thing and said “That’s a funny way to get down?”

There were two other, smaller (than the first two) girls on the play structure, playing with play dough. One of them spoke English. When they gave August some little pieces of play dough to play with he handed it back. He sang “How I wish I had something to do.” No idea where that came from, or why. We found out the girl who speaks English is named Olivia. She stepped on my feet, and August was happy to learn that new game. They climbed on the fence together, then were following each other around. August climbed on his bike at one point, and she went and got hers and we chased each other around the playground. They went down the slides together, and she brought over her My Little Pony collection and showed it all to August and they played a bit.

Carly showed up at 5:10, and we did some more chasing with Olivia. August had been having some difficulty with sharing: he loved looking at Olivia’s bike, but when she picked up his shovel he was upset about that (can’t totally blame him on that one, as the last time another kid played with it they broke it). Another kid had a pogo stick and August kept wanting to get on it. Wasn’t convinced when I told him it was for older kids. After Carly was there he played on another boy’s scooter, which was fine until they came over and needed to leave. He was really upset to see the scooter rolling away. Finally, Olivia had her cat and was brushing its hair, and August was getting upset. We left at that point, and he said goodbye to Olivia.

He was still frustrated though, and he clung to Carly the entire way home. At the building they went up the two steps and I took the bike up to the rampy area. August got upset when Carly wouldn’t let him touch a blob of something on the ground. I heard the shrieking across the courtyard. She took him up to the apartment and I we
nt and got her Pepsi and a coffee drink for me from GS25.

We had dinner, and August did a lot of watching Beethoven’s Ninth and the piano piece we’ve watched. His bottom was being itchy, so we got his bath ready. I gave him his bath while Carly did some cleaning. We watched Pink Panther in the bath. After his bath he helped pick up toys in the parlor. We did some playing on the bed and he was asleep at 7.

Photos. His truck: 

Being silly: 

Chrysanthemum Park water: 

Scooping down his lunch: 

Lollipop: 

Four swing playground. Spinning: 

First meeting Olivia: 

Watching Olivia on her bike: 

Wearing my hat: 

Seeing how her bike works: 

Carly arrives: 

He’s got his mama: 

Possibly my favorite Zinnie video so far…

Spent close to 5 hours in the children’s museum as he discovered hand puppets and spent a ton of time in the water area.

He was up at 6:20. They nursed and read books: Suddenly, Me and My Dad, the Elmo earth book. They took off his diaper and he ran around all silly so she couldn’t put on his underwear. I mentioned going to Children’s Grand Park today and he told Carly “I don’t want you to go to work.” “How many days of work left?” He put her shoes on his hands and said he was a robot. When she said she had to get going he handed her his shoes. We wouldn’t let him go out until he put pants on, and after Carly left he went and put shorts on, and even commented on mama still being in the hall, but then he didn’t actually go out.

Back in the living room, he added a Depeche Mode song to his playlist and I made Cheerios and bananas for breakfast. He wanted to watch how cereal is made, so we watched a video, then I switched to Mr. Rogers videos. I did some exercise, but when it came to taking a shower he kept not letting me go. I finally got that done. He came in and was playing with the sink. He was saying “It’s going to the waste treatment plant?” a lot this morning and throughout the day, anytime sinks or toilets were involved. He also used his stethoscope as a vacuum throughout the morning. And he was lying on the floor and playing with Carly’s spinner.

I got us ready to go, and he ate peanut butter on spoon – a lot of talk about zookeepers, and eating them as he ate the peanut butter. We played some piano and I was figuring out the Smurf theme song. August made up a new version of the Juicy Juice song that went: “I needed juice cuz my friend was thirsty…the shopkeeper…they actually had juice at the store.” And as we were leaving he looked at the artwork we have that says ‘hope’ and said “I erased the silent e…Stop hopping. I catched the picture and hung it up with tape so it can’t jump around.” We left at 9:50.

In the elevator he looked at the repeating images of us and said “infinity Zinnies, infinity dadas.” Outside, we watched a backhoe break up some pavement for a couple minutes. August put his fingers in his ears. On the train he needed to use the bathroom, so we stopped at Meokgol. While we were there we stopped at a GS25 and got some kimbap and a triangle one with salted fish roe.

August wanted to go straight to the children’s museum and start playing. I was hungry so we sat in front of the children’s museum on a bench and had some lunch first. Good call, as he was really into playing once we got in. While we were at the bench, a boy and girl came with some Pokémon toys and eggs and August was really interested.

We went in and he first played with the static cling pieces on the window. He then walked over by the blackboard, but got entangled in a big group of kids a bit older than him. They ended up lining up to take photos in the toy soldier photo op place, and August got in line with them. He was having a lot of fun. I got him to move to the end of the line, and we waited in line until they were done and I took his photo as a toy soldier. While he waited, he rubbed his back against the apple tree things, and wanted me to take a picture of his back so he could see the back of his shirt.

From there he went into the drumming room and drummed with a bunch of other kids, then hung the leaves/branches on the tree (went back to that a few more times) and played with the CDs on the fish shape, before getting attracted by the spinning zoetrope. He walked over to it and tried to grab it, and it pulled him around and he fell into it. A little hurt, but he had learned his lesson and went back and kept spinning it, and putting the discarded papers in it. He also wrote on some papers.

But the big activity was the hand puppets. First, he sat down on the seating area to watch some other kids. He then went back and got a puppet and started playing around with them. He got one for me and we played with them together, then he went back with the other kids and was hiding behind the curtain part and touching the other puppets with his and generally being silly. At one point he ran off and went over to the colorful shadows area with the puppet and was dancing around and making shadows with the puppet. He then wore the puppet as he made towers with the light blocks and had the puppet knock them down.

Then back to the puppet area, where he got the green kid puppet, which he called Augie. He played with that, then the dragon: “I’m a floppy baby…I’m a floppy dragon.” He switched to the scary dragon one and went back to the shadow area and started singing a “I am the beautiful one” song. I asked where that came from and he said he made it up. Back in the puppet area, he switched back to Augie, and gave me the man one, which I named Omar and had tell stories. August wanted a story about a dragon, so I told the story about a lonely dragon that finds an abandoned baby and ends up raising it. When August wanted a second story, it was about the dragon figuring out what diapers are and how to get them after the baby was pooping all over the dragon’s treasure. For a third story he requested a story about cows peeing on me. So I told a very short story about going to a farm with cows and they all peed on me so I left and never went back.

At some point suddenly all the school groups disappeared. Kind of strange, as there were still a couple upstairs later. But it was suddenly nice and quiet. We went to the zoetrope and I made an actual animation for him – C to O to Q and back. Then back to the puppets some more and more shadows. I took a photo of all the puppets we had played with, and he said he wanted to play with the dragon one last time. He then played with the light blocks, shadows, and shadow puppets, following a girl and her dad wherever they went. Then back to the puppets one more time, and to the puppet he used at the beginning. He said “Your name is Jenny.” And said that the puppet was a teacher. I had the puppet teach him about spiders, so we Googled photos and information about how many eyes spiders have.

He finally got hungry, so we went up to the bathroom, then went and had our second lunch. He kept saying he didn’t liked the smell of one family’s lunch and pointing. I didn’t like it either. Not sure what it was. We also walked by one of the changing rooms, and August ran in and joked that he wanted me to change him. So he got up on the changing table and I pretended to change him. Then to the water area, where he played and played. Mainly in our usual part, having the balls go up the lift thing. But this time August found that he could turn it on his own. A lot of work for him, but he kept doing it and doing it. There was also short stints over on the fishing part and putting balls into the jets that lift them up, but mainly it was the lift area.

He played with the scarves for a minute, then wanted the space area at 3:50. He did the running thing a few times, then roamed around, playing with the hopscotch shapes, another running video game thing, dancing with the alien a bit, and then wanting to go in the big climbing structure. This is the one that you’re supposed to be 5 to play in and he’s been upset about not going in before. No one was in it, so we went in, and he was done after a minute. But then he found the hanging thing, which sees how long you can hang in the air by your hands. I had to lift him up to the bars, but then he would hang. Did it several times, up to about 12 seconds.

We left the children’s museum at 4:15. We sat outside and ate a Larabar on a bench. It was kind of chilly so I put my shirt on and tried to put his coat on: “I want to be cold…Put it away.” He then was lifting my outer shirt to make me cold: “There’s cold air in there now?” He then wanted me to blow air at his face, and he’d say “There’s wind in your mouth!” He also analyzed the big sign advertising the water area, asking what the differen
t things on it were. It is kind of a bad sign, with all sorts of things that are meaningless or don’t correspond with what’s actually in the exhibit.

We stood on the way home, then Carly called as we were by the pink building. She was close too, and August wanted to meet her. We went and met her, then we went to Tous Les Jour to get bread and Carly went to get milk. The guy at the shop gave August a plastic car, then Carly showed up. August was upset that we only looked at cakes for a second.

At home they nursed and I got food. Referring to his food almost being done in the microwave, I said something like “It’s almost there.” He pointed at the broccoli I was cutting up and said “I wish that wasn’t there.”

They read Suddenly! Then I gave him a bath. We watched Pirates of the Caribbean, end of Beethoven’s Ninth, then some Pink Panther. After his bath, he said “I want one bubble gum ice cream. Two chocolate chip ice creams. And one strawberry ice cream.” And added “And one art that is beautiful.” Then said “That’s not a very good story.” Carly then got him to say “I’m hungry because I don’t want to go to bed.” While eating an apple Carly didn’t want him to stand on the board that is the top to his piano and which he calls his skateboard. So he ran over it and said “I passed over it.” They read My Dad and Me in bed.

Before trying to get him to sleep he said “I don’t like sleeping…Everone does sleeping?” Carly tried to get him to sleep but he wasn’t going for it. Carly went to take a shower and we got books and read Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight and the Time for Bath Poli books and did the stickers in it. And then we read Wheels on the Bus. He went and got more books but we didn’t end up reading them. He was asleep by 8:35.

I was able to finish reading Numero Zero by Umberto Eco while August was playing in the water. Then started Saramago’s Blindness.

Photos. Spinner:

Standing in line: 

Toy soldier: 

Hanging leaves: 

Puppets: 

Pretending to change him: 

Water area: 

Starting to fall: 

“Blow in my mouth”: 

He was awake at 5:30. Carly got him Cheerios for breakfast, and they cut up pieces of paper towel to discuss fractions. He wanted a vide about how cereal is made, but stopped watching it when Carly was leaving. We walked her to the elevator, but was then upset about going back in the apartment, and then his iPad froze as well. So he was grumpy for awhile, but he wanted to go to the big zoo, so I was getting ready. I made a peanut butter sandwich and he wanted peanut butter on a spoon. He still does the zookeepers in the peanut butter joke, and was really going on about it today: “I’m going to feel the zookeepers in this bite. I’m going to eat all the zookeepers. I feel it going down my throat and now it’s in my body! There’s zookeepers in this bite. There’s a zookeeer going down my throat!”

He watched some Pink Panther while I showered, and we were ready to go by 8:30. Took us a bit longer to get going though, as he really wanted to get on the bike. So we had to do some talking and thinking before he agreed to first go to the bathroom then get in the backpack. A smooth trip down. No iPad at all, and I told him two smurf stories: the picnic one, and a new one about Gargamel trying to catch them with holes dug all through forest. The Smurfs defeat his plan by rolling potatoes into all the holes, setting off all the bells back at Gargamel’s house at once.

At the station we went to the Storyway and got a ham sandwich, the 2+1 (buy two, get one free) fruit juices we like, and a STRAWBERRY cookie (the place we usually get such cookies only carries apple). On the way to the zoo first a man gave him a pumpkin (hobak) flavored candy. Kind of like a taffy. I tasted it and it was good. I warned August to take bites off it and not put all of it in his mouth at the same time. He really listened, as a few minutes later, when he was down to just a little bit, he asked if it was okay to put it in his mouth. There is all sorts of construction along the way, as they improve the walkways and put in more plants. So backhoes, etc. he wants in Israel. There are silver spheres on the top of the posts along the way, and he said there were letters on top of them. We took turns touching one, making our fingers look big.

At the zoo we saw the giraffes and ate our cookie at our usual tables by them in the green light. We then walked up and watched the rhinos. He thought it was funny to see their bottoms. We went to the insect house, but only the first floor (which is half closed). He spent a couple minutes watching the long-necked turtle as it stretched up its neck to breathe air. We did a quick walk by of the Australian Pavilion and watched the cassowaries and talked about flightless birds (he kept asking why they couldn’t fly, so some first talks about evolution).

He really wanted to go to the nocturnal building (that was our goal all along), but we found that we couldn’t. Because it no longer exists. They are building a new building (presumably a replacement, which is good, as it was a pretty awful building), but have just started. He was talking about heading home, saying “I like home.” a few times. We then found that half of the playground (and all access to the stream) is closed. They’ve built a small play structure where the sand area was, and were now using a crane to lift down pallets of paving stones. We watched that a bit, then continued on to a bathroom.

We then sat on a round bench at the upper part of the playground (where the dinosaurs are) and ate lunch. He was worried about the bag blowing away, and he set both a drink and his water bottle on it and said “Now it definitely, definitely won’t blow away?” I found my parents online and we skyped with them to say happy Mother’s Day. Paul answered and sounded like a chipmunk at first, which was funny. We showed them the crocs that he had chosen to wear today, and the black sandals, which I’d also packed. He put a sandal on his hand and played around. My dad asked “Why do you want to go to Gramma’s house?” He replied “Because they have bubble gum ice cream!” They had gone up to Winthrop today and had checked out the camping spots and the ice cream shop – my mom told August to tell Carly that they have bubble gum ice cream.

We then played on the dinosaur playground. He went down the slide twice. For some reason he was insisting I walk down the stairs a couple times instead of going down the slide myself. He then played around with his water bottle and one of the drink cups, and when he recycled our garbage he had fun hitting the metal garbage cans like drums.

We then walked up to the water birds aviary and it was open. We spent most of our time just near the entrance, watching the birds near the little fresh water pond. First it was a crane drinking, then we heard the storks making their noises. August said “Why’s the swan in there?” Indeed, a black swan had gotten in the pool. We watched cranes fly around in circles, and August was excited when a zookeeper walked by us and went into the exhibit. Before we left, I realized there were a bunch of stork nests, mainly on the other side of the aviary. We left after 12:30.

We walked up by the sea mammals and watched the harbor seals for a bit, then started our slow trip back towards the entrance. We watched a camel for several minutes as it peed and pooped, then headed to the playground. He started by going down the big slide – kind of like 4 regular slides put together. He then ran to the climbing wall and said “I want to smurf this climbing wall.” Before I knew it he was about half way up. He slipped a bit, then asked for help a couple of times, but mainly he wanted me to spot him and I didn’t really help. He made it to the top. He then went down the other big slide, then we watched the crocodile (the first big slide) ‘throw up’ the other kids as they came down. He went and sat on a horse statue, and I sat with him and did the Lone Ranger song and told him about grampa doing the horse thing on his knees way back when August was a baby. Finally, we went up the whole climbing wall again.

We went over to the elephants and sat and had a snack and drank another of the juices. We watched the elephant eat. We left at 2:05. As we walked he said “I want to buy two get one free again.” Meaning he wanted more juices. He also said “I want to sleep more. Go to a coffee shop and sleep.”

We looked at animals on the way, stopping at the hippos for a few minutes. One snorted and startled both of us. I recited some of the lines of Hippos Go Berserk and he then wanted me to recite the hippo book. He played with a faucet on the back of a stone dolphin, then we went to a bathroom at 2:20. We ended with the zebras.

Something that’s been invented the last couple of days, and that he wanted to do a lot today, was him or me having a glitch, then restarting like his iPad, even making an Apple over our heads like on the iPad screen.

We left the zoo and went over by the water faucets to refill his water and to get in the backpack. But this turned into a big activity, as he was turning the water on and off. Then, wearing his Crocs, he got his feet wet and ran and twirled about doing the footprint dance. Over and over again. We finally left at 2:55.

On the walk back out he was imagining letters and other things on the metal balls: “There’s hippos that make words. That hippo fell down.” We stop and watched the ski lift that takes people up to the zoo for a few minutes, then at the construction we watched workers cut a piece of concrete edging. He said “What’s your brain saying? What’s Zinnie’s brain saying? Saying ‘I don’t like that smell. Go away.” We then watched a backhoe scoop dirt “I want that backhoe in Israel. With that scoop.”

We headed to the station. I found a coin on the ground and let him hold it. As we got down to the platform he dropped it and I picked it up. I noticed he was getting quiet and I set down the backpack with him in it. He was awake but falling as
leep, and actually put his head down and tried to fall asleep right there. The train came and I got on and he continued to fall asleep in my arms. I would lightly tickle him and he’d laugh with his eyes closed. Finally got him woken up and he did Todo Math. Then he needed the bathroom. Luckily, the next stop was Isu. So we got out, went to the bathroom, and transferred back to line 7. Usually we simply stay on line 4 all the way to Changdong and take a bus, but this worked just fine too as we were able to get seats on line 7 as well. We read Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight and two Bob Books.

We got home at 4:45. He played with his extendo arm and Carly got home at 5:05. They nursed and he had to go to the bathroom. He joked “I’m peeing apple. Apples are coming out my penis…apple, apple, apple, blueberry, blueberry, blueberry, corn, corn, corn…” We had dinner, then he did some reading with Carly (Suddenly! and Bob Books, I think).

He went to sleep at 7. Before going to sleep he said “I don’t like it when mama goes to work.”

Photos. Big finger: 

Green: 

Going down the slide together: 

Harbor seal surfacing: 

High on the climbing wall: 

Watching the alligator throw up the kids: 

Horse: 

Elephant: 

Dolphin faucet: 

Playing in the faucet: 

Falling asleep:

Waking up: