Author: Ryan/Dada

7:07. He laid down on the reading area and I thought he might go back to sleep as he had his eyes open. Spent a few minutes on the floor stretching and rubbing his eyes.  First thing he wanted to do was paint, so we did that. Then read the Little Kipper Collection. We ate Special Flakes for breakfast, then he did a second painting. We watched some Puffin Rock, then I slipped off and took a shower. He sent a lot of time sending Skype messages, then did some yellow art on the paper. I spent some time organizing books and pulling books we don’t read much anymore. He got interested, and wanted to do the Cheerios book, so we got out some Cheerios for that. We then ate Cheerios for a second breakfast. He was still hungry after that, so we ate some sweet chili meatballs. They were a little spicy, but he liked that. We listened to Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, and he asked what it was. I made a ‘libros espanol’ sign for a basket of books. He wanted to write on it, and was sad when I wouldn’t let him. He didn’t get upset, really, but just kind of crawled around the apartment and laid down everywhere. He did some more painting, then we read the Korean Elephant on a Line book, translating much of it. Before we left, he started a new game, on the posters and paper, of reading Korean words backwards.

We went to his Teuni Teuni class and had a good class. It was all about golf: rolling balls into holes, hitting them with clubs, walking along green paths, etc. August had fun with it, but seemed confused as to why he should use a stick to hit the ball, when he could just use his hands to put the balls in the cups, etc. And his favorite activity was actually scooting around on his socks, which we had taken off, and pretending to slip and fall. I’m not sure where he came up with that one.

After class he got his treat and handstamps, then we went downstairs and got kimbap and a sandwich. We then walked towards Eunhang Junction, and stopped at the park past Toys R Us. Ate our lunch there and played around the bench a bit. August spilled a bit of soy milk, and had fun kicking dirt over it to clean it up. He’d initially wanted me to use a spray bottle to clean it up, but I had suggested that instead. As we walked, he recited lines from But Not the Hippopotamus, changing the end to “Yes the armadillo.”

We kept walking east. We came upon a clothing store named Zinnia. We read it, and August was excited when he realized what it was. He kept walking, but August wouldn’t fall asleep. I found a road up the hill, and we kept walking up it, steeper and steeper. It crossed the Seoul Trail, and ended at a Buddhist Temple called Hakdoam. He heard the drumming and chanting, and kept saying he liked that noise. We walked up behind the temple, and saw the little buddhist figures, which he noticed, and the big etching in the rock. Looked at the other buildings up there, then headed back down. As we left, he said “It’s a Buddhist temple.”

On the road, he wanted to get out of the backpack. He whined a bit when I said no, then said “Fine. I’ll just sleep.” He then put his head down and pretended to sleep for a bit. Popped up and sang a bit, then actually did fall asleep. He slept from 2:55 to 4 at a place called Petit Gateau. I was going to wake him up at 4, but he woke up on his own as I started to get up.

We walked to 새싹어린이공원, a park we hadn’t been to before. It turns out it is the biggest playground we’ve found. It was also after school was out, so it was incredibly busy. We got out of the backpack and had a little snack. A bunch of older kids crowded around him for a minute. We hung out for a couple minutes, then he was ready to head home. We walked a bit north, and caught the 1140 home.

On the way home, he asked “What’s persimmon in Korean?”

We got home a bit after Carly. They nursed and read Pooh, then he wanted the iPad. He watched Puffin Rock, then some Peppa Pig. He and Carly did art together, and worked on his 14 costume. He was asking about what costumes other people were going to wear, and said he wanted Uncle Paul to be 14 as well.

I made banana bread, and let August lick the spatula. He then wanted to help. I hadn’t asked him to help with the banana bread because he had been having fun doing art with Carly. He got really sad about that. Carly then gave him a bath. He tried to avoid getting in again, curling up outside the bath. She then got him in and he was fine, but then snuck out when she got up to get her computer for Skype. He then didn’t want to get back in, and got upset. They did a quick bath, then nursed in the bedroom and read Mr. Gumpy.

Carly then took a shower, and he played Duplos with me. We then read and translated more of the elephant book. He was hungry and ate the rest of the apple, then nursed with Carly. He randomly said “Into the water they fell” When I asked what that was from, he said Mr. Gumpy.” They read some Pooh, then he and I made a hexagon out of Duplos.

Banana bread was ready, and he was excited about that. We ate some banana bread, and he danced to the Bach we were listening to. Carly and I started to dance as well, and he said “Stop, stop, stop.” We were talking about Puffin Rock, and I couldn’t remember the foxes name, and he did, Flynn.

We went in to bed, and read Picasso’s Trousers and Biscuit’s Picnic. In reading Biscuit’s Picnic, we realized it had only 1 silent E word in it: cake. Carly came in, and he didn’t want to put on his pajamas. But we suggested he work on putting on his own pajamas, and he really liked that idea. So Carly helped him, and he did what he could, giggling as he did it. He was asleep just before 10.

Class:

Photos: 

Class: 

Soy milk. Down his shirt: 

And on the ground: 

Zinnia store: 

 Busy playground: 

Costume: 

7:32. Quiet and sleepy for a few minutes. Then wanted to type, but first we read But Not the Hippopotamus and Barnyard Dance. Then to typing. We ate oatmeal and banana for breakfast. I got up saying it needed a little honey for flavor. He ran out saying “It’s mild! It’s mild!” I wanted to take a shower, and said he could watch Puffin Rock.  But he insisted I watch with him. So did that for a few minutes before slipping off to take a shower while he was drawing on the paper, writing 잎 and 입. Back to Puffin Rock after my shower, he was really excited when one of the characters said “okie dokie” (which he says is “okie fokie”) and the narrator said “oopsie daisy”. And of Silky, the seal, he said “I like that name!” He sat up on the chair, and talked about puffins, and said “The Puffin has an idea.” – a reference to the narrator saying that Oona always has ideas.

He did a lot of typing, and we told Smurf stories: one about the smurfs running out of red crayons, another about Gargomel pretending to be a seal, etc. At some point he climbed on my back to have a piggy back ride like Baba does in Puffin Rock. He requested the Jolly Song song videos on YouTube, then got to watch too much YouTube as I spent a lot of time on the phone with T-Mobile solving our summer bill. But at least that is over.

He wanted to do more painting, so we did that. He had learned the word ‘calligraphy’ yesterday, and asked me to do some calligraphy now. I trimmed my nails, and offered to do his. He said “No. that hurts. I’ll just file them.” So we filed his nails, and he tried it himself. He ran it on his palms and I asked if he liked it. He said “Yeah! It’s weird.”

We got going and walked up a couple blocks and took the 1139 bus to Danggogye. While we waited he read the King Kong restaurant sign on the bus stop. Got off at the last stop, and walked up to a new park to us, called 갈월어린이공원. It was also a new park in general, as it looked brand new. Just a standard children’s park, except it a.) had a built-in trampoline, and b.) had an approved sidewalk chalk area. Didn’t do sidewalk chalk today, but did the former.

We sat and ate, and he wanted to confuse some of his bites. We spotted a cat on a roof – can’t remember if me or him spotted the first one. But later he spotted another one. I looked and didn’t see it. Do you still see it?” “No. it is behind the tree. I can’t see it.” Turned out it was a dog. August was excited to see it up closer.

After eating, we wrote Hangeul, then went on the trampoline. He did some on his own, and we also jumped together. He would jump awhile, then say he was dizzy. We took a break from it and did some writing with the stick. He kept climbing over my legs, and cuddling in my lap, saying “between” and acting like Oona, the Puffin. I asked if he wanted to go on the trampoline again: “No,  I’m too wimpy for that.” We walked to the other end of the park, and he spent a lot of time reading out the Hangeul on a big banner. He said “Want to write all of it.” Luckily, he only had me write a bit of it. He kept reading the banner, played with the sand table, and was singing. He got the attention of a woman for awhile.

Eventually, it was time for a nap. Past 1:30. We went walking around the foothills and checked out one other park. He wasn’t falling asleep. Took 40 minutes. He fell asleep at 2:27 and slept to 3:24 in 17 Street Coffee – a place Carly and I had been to before.

He woke up and wanted get walking. We walked through the big park (수락산당고개공원), but he didn’t want to stop. We found a tiny little park (진달래공원), which was worth it because there was cool tile work on two big fish shapes. Kept going, admiring all the different brick patterns on buildings as we took back streets through an area we’ve never been before.

We got to one last park (무궁화어린이공원). The name means Hibiscus Children’s Park, and August liked learning ‘hibiscus’ and we looked up photos of it. He got out and we had a snack. He then climbed on the yellow climbing wall, and spent the next 15 or 20 minutes just playing on it. He was joking around, saying “Beats me purple urple…purple lurkin…” He didn’t want to go down the slide, but told me to: “Dada go down the bumpy one. I don’t like the bumpy one. I’m just climbing by myself. Bye.” He kept singing the ABC song, so I kept saying ‘potato’ in it: “Next time won’t you potato with potato.” He thought that was funny and said “Dada has a glitch.”

Now past 4:30, we got going. He noticed a strong smell. We talked about it, and recognized it, and he said he liked it. Finally hit me that it was the smell of coffee roasting. We got to Sanggye Station and caught the 1140 bus home. The 1139 was coming sooner, but doesn’t go as close to home. August really wanted the 1139, but let me wait, and was interested in the decision making process: “This one is slower.”

We were late getting home, and Carly was already there. They nursed, then painted together. Carly and I were talking about her music project. She said ‘power in society’ To which he said “No. Don’t say that.” His version of the sentence she should say instead was “The music thing goes on an adventure.” They nursed, he typed on Skype, ate mandu and curry rice with me, then watched an episode of Puffin Rock with me. He was climbing on me and couch being a puffin, then pretending to swing like a Puffin. We then read Five Minutes of Peace. We took one of his socks off and threw it at Carly, then he had fun throwing it at us. He forgot to take the other sock off though.

He saw his art from earlier and said “I see a very nice painting.” They painted, then nursed. One of said ‘remember’, and August didn’t want us saying that as well. He kept saying “Don’t say ‘remember’” He’s also gotten into using ‘No’ regularly; not just when answering questions, but in telling us what he doesn’t want us to do.

Took him in to give him his bath. He was playing around, not wanting to get in the water. He curled up on the floor between my legs and the bath and pretended to sleep. I said something, and he said “Just be quiet dada. Don’t be loud.” We were playing in the bath, and he was holding onto my arms and the side of the bath and jumping up and down. Suddenly, he decided to sit down. Took a couple of minutes before he was comfortable doing so and not holding onto me and/or the side of the tub, but it happened. He was excited about it and proud of himself. I played with him a few more minutes, then Carly and I traded so I could go look at something she was writing.

After his bath, August and I read Snoozers. We then went in on the bed and he was ready for sleep pretty quickly. He went to sleep just after 9.

 

Photos. Waking up: 

Art: 

Playground: 

Walking: 

Playground 2: 

Home: 

Bath: 

7:22. He walked in on the reading area and whispered “Watch Puffin Rock.” First we read Five Minutes’ Peace and All in One Piece. Then watched Puffin Rock. Episode 10. A couple times he called it a “funny one”. Special Flakes for breakfast. We did a lot of writing. We were watching a sight words video, and I was writing them all on the paper. He was then writing them as well: have, play, you, the, etc. I took a shower and came out to find him sending Carly messages on Skype. We then worked together to type ‘ghost’ a bunch of times. I wiped his nose and said he needed to learn to blow his nose. He replied “I’m not very good at blowing the nose.” We did a lot of typing, and he found the ‘undo’ button on the iOS keyboard, so learned what means and does.

He requested the “A to Z” and “two letter” (digraph) Jolly Songs videos, so watched those several times. When I said one more time, he watched the song once more then turned it off. He got down and wanted take out the piano keys: “Want to make a mess of the white and black things.” He was reluctant to put them back in, but worked with Green Monster to do so. We were then writing words again, and he was confusing me with something. I think it may have had to do with the aquarium, so he started talking about the aquarium map: “Ocean Kingdom” and square  and blue something – and he remembered the broken stamp.

I was getting us ready, and put the blue Adidas sweatshirt on him. He was not happy about it “I’ll choose. Different one.” But then he wouldn’t choose a different one. I tried putting him in the backpack a couple times, but he wouldn’t let me. We ended up sitting on the couch, him leaning against me, for awhile, and I think he started to fall asleep. But suddenly he startled back awake. He was then joking about falling asleep, wanting me to pretend to wake him up (a reversal of the usual pretending-to-sleep roles): “Dada wake you up.” For awhile he was opposed to Children’s Grand Park, instead saying I should just pick a different stop to go to: “Dada pick a stop.” Finally, he wanted to figure out what the door says when we lock it. Think I figured it out. It is basically ‘It is done.’ Then he suddenly wanted to leave. It was about 12.

We headed down to the park, bought kimbap and little eggs, and went up to the cafeteria. He ate, told me he was full, and that he wanted to play. It was about 1, so I gave him a short time to play. We went to the play side of the third floor, and he chose the water area. He acted like he hadn’t played there before – it has been many months – as he kept asking what he could do. I put the apron on, and he was fine with that – helped, I think, because it was yellow and yellow is a favorite-ish color right now. It was fun to see him in it though and playing with the balls and spray things. We worked together on a couple of the pumps, but mainly he played at the little kids part. When he was done he came and said “I’m ready to go.” Then, as I changed him he said “You had fun.” We left, and as I put him in the backpack outside I said “Ready for a good nap?” And he said “Yeah!”

Took about 15 minutes to put him to sleep, and he slept from 1:57 to 3:24, in the coffee shop. We had about an hour when we left. I suggested animals, since we haven’t really seen them since we’ve been back. He was fine with that. As we walked up to the primates, I said “Look, maroon baboons!” (As one of our variations on Carly’s ‘beats me, brown tree’ saying is ‘maroon baboon’. To which August flatly replied “It’s brown”. I tried again. Same response.

It was perfect weather for the animals, as they were all active. Watched the baboons, then headed in and saw the elephants, then around back to the hyenas. I pointed out that they live in Africa, so after that he was asking, for each animal, “Where does it live?” He was quickly reading ‘Africa’ on the maps, and sounding out other words (in English). He was looking at the shapes on the maps, and said of Africa “The shape is a blob.” We watched the foxes, lynx, and servals. I saw a guy trying to startle one of the animals, so told August he shouldn’t do that, and to be nice to the animals instead. I suggested that dancing for them would be nicer. August started a little dance in the backpack, so then we were dancing for each of the animals before saying goodbye. Looking at the shape of the Asian bear habitat, he said “It looks like a dinosaur horse.”

He said he wanted to see the donkey (he is into donkeys now thanks to Eeyore, and one of the short songs in the Jolly Songs digraph video). We walked over there. They were in the back, but came running up to us. August said hi to them, and danced some more.

We then went and sat on the bench and had the apple cookie that’s been in the backpack from last week. We then spent a long time with the seals. He was naming them all and saying hi, and also naming things like the water and pine needles floating in it. From there, back over to the deer. He had been out of the backpack since the snack. He wanted up for a second, and as I picked him up he said  “I love you. A ton of Qs.” Watched people feed the deer, and he got into reading all the signs about not feeding them, etc. He did a lot of sounding out, and we translated a bunch of words. He was also interested in the deer poop: “What the different shapes about?” “What they poop on the ground about?” “What they don’t use toilets about?”

He was ready to go. As we were walking out of the park, he asked “What is leaf in Korean?” Had to look it up. I’d had forgotten about “Don’t put the 잎 in your 입!” And made him laugh by saying it. They have put in some toys by the old animal riding area, and we noticed a couple of the robot sculptures are there now. We checked out the new gift shop (used to be a photo place) and the robots (to make sure the rest are all still there) on our way out.

On the subway, he asked for the iPad: “Pretty please!” I asked “Where’d you learn that?” He immediately replied “From mama!” We played with the visual calculator app on the way home. On the walk home he was singing the ants go marching. We paused to see the work on the burger place. He said “they got the tile done … The couch done.”

At home he nursed. Carly said ‘yuck’ about something, to which August said “Don’t say yuck. Say stoon-dee.” He wanted to paint with Carly. He looked at his last painting and said “There’s a lovely picture right there.” They painted, then I painted with him. Carly got a bath ready for him. I tried to give him a bath, but he didn’t want to go in. He tried escaping to the bed, and changing room. Got him cornered by the bath. Took a few minutes, but finally coaxed him in without tears. We played with the watering can, pouring out big splashes. Then he was done, although not washed yet. But when I let him squirt out the soap his attitude changed on that as well.

We read Elmo ABC, Moo Baa La La La, and LMNO Peas. He then did more painting with Carly, and they worked on making Halloween stuff. Earlier, she had started to make his costume, which involved taping paper to his clothes. He was intrigued by that, and let her do it. Now, she was working on his basket. He was acting really tired and wanted to nurse, but it was only 8:20, so I was skeptical. Took him in on the bed and they nursed a bit, then he bounced up for a story. I read Kiss Goodnight, Kipper, and Kipper’s Toybox, then he was ready for sleep and asleep about 9.

Oh, and earlier in the day, before we left, he had been asking what an ‘expert’ is. Not sure where he learned that, but it was clear. So I explained that, but tried to keep it positive (can always become more expert, etc.) He said “Zinnie an expert at coloring”. And I think he said it about something like ‘hangeul’ or ‘sounding out’. Something along those lines.

 

He woke up at 4:30 and wanted to nurse in the parlor. Carly went out with him and he was up until some time after 5:30. He mostly watched Puffin Rock and also sat there staring off into space.

He fell back to sleep on the reading area and was back up at 7:30. A rough one. Kept repeating “I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go…” and “I’ll nurse, I’ll nurse, nurse…” He wanted to go outside. First time we walked around the park. But he got upset when I put on his sweatshirt. Went home and he wanted back in the stroller. More successful this time and we walked along the stream and saw some ducks. By the time we got back he was making jokes about Hangeul and asking me for the tempo of something he started chanting.

He then typed messages to mama. He wanted to type the ghost emoji but said “you’re not good at typing.” Kind of like the Darong game yesterday. So we worked on the typing together. We then sat together and watched Puffin Rock for awhile. At some point he then turned to me and said “Dada needs some tea.” I asked if he needed anything and he said “I just need some milk.” He spent some time being a hedgehog under the chair. We were then writing on the paper and he asked “What’s teeter totter in Korean?” He wanted to do art: “lots of work”. He then watched Puffin Rock while I showered. We did some play dough, printing letters.

We then skyped with my parents to say happy birthday to my mom. He was quite into skype today. He was typing to them, and created a pattern, where he was typing a closed parentheses, two periods, a letter, two more periods, and another letter or number. Kept doing that over and over.

I gave him some options for lunch and he said “I prefer Mandu.” He was really into the Silent E song, so we watched it and a couple others while we ate.

Then it was off for a nap. Supposedly. We walked for 33 minutes. At the beginning he made up a new alphabet song, where he worked through the alphabet, singing A is for (nonsense word), then reviewing the last few letters and then doing the next one. He was silent, with his head down much of the time. At 33 minutes he was singing again though. Stopped for a minute, then kept walking for another 6. No change, so we stopped at the playground by the youth center and sat and had a snack. He also walked around a little, and did some writing in the air. We then walked for another 22 minutes, during which he kept singing, before we returned home.

We got inside, and were sitting inside the door, talking about something. I typed something on my phone, and he said “Poop on dada.” I looked down and yes, yes there was poop on my arm. He had reached down his diaper. We changed him and got washed up. We then went back to the paper and I was writing more English and Korean words for him to copy.

He was acting tired though, and I didn’t feel there was any way he would make it to 7. So we headed back out in the backpack. He was singing his new ABC song much of the way there, but quieted down and fell asleep at 3:50, right before we got to Toys R Us. I did a quick look in Lotte Mart for butter, and in Toys R Us for Halloween costumes – no luck on either. I went to the infant room and rested for about 15 minutes, then we headed home. I was going to wake him up when we got home, but the sound of the door keys at 4:22 did that for me.

He wasn’t ready to wake up, so it was a tough one. More “I’ll nurse, I’ll nurse, I’ll nurse…” and he crawled to the door. Calmed down after awhile though and played until Carly got home.

Carly got home and they nursed. He wanted to paint, and said that dark blue was his favorite color. Carly asked “When is green going to be your favorite color?” His reply: “For Halloween.” He shared soup with me again, and we went and read LMNO Peas and 123 Peas. We watched the Silent E song and typed up the words so we could sing it later. We wrote words, and he was singing the “If you’re looking for an vowel” and  “a e I o u and sometimes Y”. We were writing full lines from the Silent E song.

Carly gave him a bath and this went smoothly from there. He was asleep about 9:00. 

Cold: 

Upset: 

Hedgehog: 

Too close: 

Done:

Writing in the air:

Toys R Us: 

The night’s painting: 

He was up a bit after 7. Did a lot of skyping with Vivian and Oma and Opa. While skyping with Vivian, he insisted that Jeff’s favorite color is brown and that his name starts with a G. At some point, he said “play group” to Carly, and she asked how he knew what a play group was and he said “Peppa”.

I made pancakes for breakfast, and shared with him. As he ate the last piece of it, he asked “What the sauce on there?” I said it was syrup and he started to protest, but it was too late. I’d forgotten he supposedly doesn’t like syrup – he’s always rejected it. Now that he’s had some we’ll see how he responds to the option next time.

He was typing on my iPad, and we did Smurf stories, then he wanted me in the parlor. There, he pretended to be a puffin. We read part of Cat on the Mat is Flat (one of the books Carly got from the woman at school), then read 123 Peas, the Peppa ballet book, and LMNO Peas. He was doing okay, but was starting to have a bit of a rough morning. He tried to write in one of my notebooks and I tried to give him his instead. Then, Carly was hanging back up one of the pictures that had been taped on the wall in the living room. She was trying to figure out where to hang it, and he wanted it down close to the ground and was upset when she didn’t hang it there. Led to some nursing and mama time. Then we were writing words and coloring a mosaic on the paper. I took a shower, and when I came out they were playing with playdough and Carly was spelling ‘cuidado’ with it before August then deleted it.

A little later he was trying to move books of the couch and dropped one on his foot. He nursed, and then talked about feeling sick. This was when we realized we’d be staying in most of the day. He typed on Carly’s computer, and was saying “T is alone”. I think he had made the font really big and there was only one letter at a time. On my iPad we ended up searching Google Images for something, and he was searching for individual letters and numbers, which works well. He was also searching for ‘baby’ over and over, which worked fine until he typed ‘babe’ instead. Back to typing on the computer, he was changing the font colors and said “White and orange is real favorite colors.” He and I played with playdough. I was making marbles for him, and he was flattening. Randomly, he asked “What ‘obvious’ means?” I asked where that came from, and he said “from ‘isn’t it obvious’ from ‘would you feed monkey that?’” Been a good week since we’ve read that book, at least. But that phrase has been bumping around in his head.

Finally, he took a nap from 2:20 to 4:05. It was drizzling in the afternoon, but we wanted to get out a bit. And we figured he could use some Mama Juice. Went down and got him an orange and pineapple, and I got a lemon tea. We made August wear a sweatshirt. I’d let him choose one inside and he chose the green/grey/white striped one, but he still didn’t want to put it on. He did get used to it, but as we walked around the park, then headed to the stream, he was still cold. Not enough layers. So at Baskin Robbins we decided to just head home.

When we got inside, he was talking about it being ‘autumn’ now. He’s been using that word a lot. I tried to get him to do the underwater puzzle with me, but he told me to do it alone. So I mostly did. He climbed up into the rocking chair and was acting like a puffin. Came over to me and read LMNO Peas and Elmo’s Potty. I shared dinner with him – Carly’s curry and green soup. I showed him how to dip bread in the soup and eat it, but then that was all he wanted. Got him to agree to one bite from the spoon, one from the bread. We played some Siri, then he did some Hangeul app. We were on the couch, and he pulled up the Korean app with Darong (the name of a dog). He wanted me to do it, saying “I’m not good at it.” Not sure where that wording came from. We did it together, but he kept climbing up on the couch above my head.

Carly gave him some persimmon and he liked it and ate a bunch. She then gave him a bath. He started describing some creature, and she kept asking him questions about it. It was really cool. Part of what I caught: “Monkey that is a shower…shower made out of fire…it stands in the ocean…” When he was done with his bath, he came out doing some dancing to the Avett Brothers. Went straight to the paper and we did some writing. We found interesting ways to write ‘Mama Juice’ wrong. He was saying the line “voters, vets, and volunteers.” It is from the LMNO Peas book. Also, he started talking about “Dr. Kim” – Carly’s boss – and found our reaction funny, so he kept saying it.

I forgot the name for where puffins live, and I asked August and he said “burrow”. Carly was impressed by that one. He was also singing much of the Lulu song from class. Finally, about 9 he decided he wanted to paint with mama. They did that, and then he went to bed, falling asleep some time after 9:30.: 

 

The way he holds his hand sometimes: 

Carly had a half day of parent conferences today, so it was me and August in the morning. He acted like a lot of different animals today: from a frog in the morning, to beetle and ladybug on our walk, to a puffin in the evening.

He got up right at 7:00. He spent several minutes on reading area. I chased him off by trying to use a tissue on his nose. He hid under the kitchen table and sat there a couple minutes. We finished off the banana bread for breakfast. We played music on the piano, then he took the keys out and wanted Green Monster to help put them back – we haven’t had GM help in quite awhile. Did that, then he said “Want to go in the parlor.” Went in and used the crayons. He said that today “My favorite is salmon.” He started typing Hangeul, and I took a shower. He was then being a froggy and hopping around, and hid in the corner. We did some of the Asia puzzle, then he was back to doing some more writing, then being a froggy again. He climbed on top of the Bob Books and puzzles and wasn’t happy when I took him down.

We did recycling, and went to take it downstairs. He found the front door unlocked, and asked “what’s it unlocked about?” I explained that Carly didn’t lock it in the morning so the door noise didn’t wake him up. He then wanted to understand ‘door noise’ and talked a lot about that. I asked if he wanted to play outside when we took down recycling, but he said “No. Its much too late for that. How bout we take the garbage?” It was only 9am.

We took down recycling and came back up. He wanted to write ‘jellyfish stew’ (I had made that up as a joke once a few days ago) and ‘neighbor’. He wrote 진 (Zinn) and 친구 (friend) on his own.

Eventually he wanted to go back outside. In the stroller. We walked around the little So So Festival (it lived up to its name). We got the fish-shaped bread and sat and watched a brass band play for a bit. Then went over to the playground. He focused on the pipe slide thing, going down a few times. I still helped him down, but he could sit on it on his own. Just needs to work on the sliding part. Also played on exercise equipment. Did some dancing to the drum group we could hear. And he saw a ‘blob’ shape on the ground again and was laughing about that. He then sung ‘The ants go marching blob by blob’ and thought it was hilarious when I had the little one say “blob, blob, blob”. We ended by going on the teeter totter. A girl got on the other end, and I helped them go up and down. As we left, he read 마미쿡 on a booth sign (Mommy Cook).

At home we went to books and read Little Kipper Collection and Little Big. We ate the rest of the Mandy for lunch. I had music playing and he was asking about the names of songs. He asked “What ‘baseball coming up’ about?” Siri had said it earlier when we were asking her random things. We then read Snappy Little Monsters, Moby Dick, and Puff the Magic Dragon.

Carly came home about 12:30 and he fell asleep from 12:45 to 1:42. He and I finished the puzzle, and they did more nursing. He was typing more Hangeul, and Carly was noticing that he was doing full syllables. I’d noticed this a couple days ago. He’s picked up the structure of Korean from the Hangeul app. Anyway, he was typing random things and saying things like “we go there last time” and talking about the smurfs.

We went for a walk at 3:30. August did a lot of walking at first, which made for slow going. He was acting like a froggy, then a beetle, hopping and crawling on the sidewalk: “you goed backwards”. Then a ladybug, helping push the stroller. He said “I want to ribbit.” I read an email to him from grampa. August had sent him a message earlier, saying he wanted to see how grampa was doing. August then said “you typed a message to grampa; he wrote back.” He then picked up leaves and put them on Carly, saying they were medicine. Asked how he was doing, and he said “I feel much better.” As we walked along the stream, he stopped and looked back and said “H is coming. H! Where are you?” He also stopped to put little rocks in his shoes. We tried to get him in the stroller, but he scooted on his bottom instead and said “oh my goodness.”

We got up to 햇살머금은채, a coffee shop we hadn’t been to. Got coffees and headed back along the stream. August was a little hurt, it turned out, that we hadn’t gotten a drink for him. We got to Pizza School and ordered a couple pizzas. He sat in the red chairs with Carly to wait, then stole her chair when she got up. We had told him we would stop at Mama Juice to get him something, but as we left the woman gave him an orange juice pouch, so that was his drink.

Got home and ate some pizza, and he did some writing. Carly went to the store. He wanted to watch Peppa Pig, but I introduced him to Puffin Rock instead. He really liked it, I liked how we learned about animals as well. Carly came home and started making food. August spent a long time pretending to be a puffin. He made a puffin burrow on the reading area, and had me get all the soft things I could find for his burrow. He also pretended that Mossy the shrew was in the burrow eating too many blueberries and getting sick. We read some Pooh, and he played with the Hangeul magnet app.

Got him to head to a bath. He washed his hands first, and said “I washed the germs off…I just washed my hands and the germs are gone.” As we got close to getting in he called out to Carly “Is it a hair washing day?” But then he was avoiding a bath, going out to Carly and asking “Does mama need some tea?” Finally got him in the bath and he was fine. Did some words, but then tried to escape. When I got him back in he was sad. Carly took him, and tried to get him to sleep around 9. He had other ideas and came back out. He and I read LMNO Peas, 123 Peas, The Earth Book, and Curious George Goes to the Zoo. He crawled out of the parlor to Carly when he was ready, and went to sleep about 10.

 

Playground: 

Our walk: 

Photos. Waking up: 

Under the table: 

Jumping on the “quadrant”: 

Our walk: 

Waiting for pizza: 

Stealing her seat: 

Puffin burrow: 

8:25 sad face when he saw me in the reading area, but then laid down and was quiet for a few minutes. Did a little coloring, and we got banana bread. I asked him how he was feeling, and he replied “I feel si uh ck.” Talking about where we should go today, he mentioned Uidong and Uijeongbu. We were lazy in the morning and watched a couple new Peppa Pig episodes. Had a lot of fun with that. We also spent a lot of time writing on the paper. He would want words that started a certain way and I would write a few down and he would copy them: t words, r words, ex words, etc. He was acting like a fox, and went under the rocking chair as if it was his cave. He was getting a bit whiny, and decided he didn’t want to go outside.

He was then typing Hangeul, and would occasionally ask what it was. So we were making up Smurf stories, such as:

– the smurfs go camping and are attacked by a crab

– the smurfs get a swimming pool

– the smurfs go to the Australian Pavilion

– the smurfs eat a big lunch and take a nap (that was the whole story)

– the smurfs learn to sail

I was coughing, and so August started telling one:“Azrael says watch out smurfs!…there’s a crab.”  He then said “What’s going to happen?” That’s something I say a lot when we are reading or watching something.

We skyped with my parents. My did is doing better. He was mainly typing emojis to them, but then August sang a ‘Lulu’ song for them. They also asked him something and he replied with “can’t tell you. It’s a secret.” Skyped for 30 minutes or so, then he decided he wanted to talk to Siri, which wouldn’t work so well. He got upset and was acting really tired, so we said goodbye.

I held him for a few minutes, then we sat on the bed, with him on my chest for a couple more. But then he got up and was playing around. He was turning his head back and forth, saying “I can’t see the time…there’s the time.” He got up and was whispering everything, like reading off the numbers on the growth charts. He closed me in the parlor, and I laid down on the reading area, hoping to draw him over to rest. He opened the door and came in, but went to the paper and started coloring. I dozed off for awhile, but popped up when I heard him climbing on the chair and the desk. He found Carly’s Z painting up there. Got him back down and spun him in the chair. He declared “My favorite color is violet now.”

At some point he declared “Dada go in the parlor…because you’re alive.” No idea. He also told me “Dada write an oops word. And I’ll be right back.” He closed the door, and came back in a minute. He also decided it was back to being the parlor: “It’s the parlor now.”

We made mandu for lunch and dipped it in sauces. I got him dressed to get going, and he didn’t like the green shirt:  “it’s too greeeeen.” He started talking about everyone’s favorite letter and guessed “Maybe mama’s favorite letter is W. Maybe Logans favorite letter is B. Maybe Siri’s favorite letter is E.”

We got going, close to 2. We had settled on Uidong and Solbat Park. On the bus, he watched a girl behind us popping bubbles with her gum and really liked that. The seat covers were yellow, and he now declared “my favorite color is yellow.”

We played I Spy and a little iPad on the way over. Got off, and in the park he sang “I can go anywhere.” That’s from Reading Rainbow, but I swear he hasn’t heard that in a few weeks. He spent much of the time playing with his favorite water faucets, washing everything off. Ate banana bread for a snack, standing on a little fence thing. And we played the banana bread ingredients game. Right at 4 he decided he was tired, and wanted to nurse. We packed up and got walking.

Walked around the park and behind it, to check on the Embroidery Museum. It was open. I said we could come back, but August wanted to go in. Which was good, as it was the last day of a show. He kind of changed his mind once we were inside, as he wanted to go back outside, but there was a woman who spoke English and she gave us a tour. August really liked when she let him touch the colorful felt shapes sculpture. We lasted 20+ minutes before we headed out.

He was ready to go to the bus, but then started singing as we walked. So I walked back streets, headed north. Area we haven’t really been in. Had fun winding through the streets, and found a couple of interesting brick patterns. While taking a photo of one, a car honked a bit to tell us he was going by, but then really honked a half second later, startling me. Then, when we came out on the main street – which is all congested due to subway construction – there were a bunch of cars honking at each other. I said something like “What’s with all the honking?” He really liked that, and kept repeating it.

We caught the bus home. He leaned against me, looking out the window for much of the trip, then spent the last few minutes sending himself messages on Skype.

Got home at 6:00. We ate dinner and watched the Silent E and other videos by that company – we had been trying to sing them on our walk and realized we needed to study the words. He knocked the iPad over on its back, which was hilarious and he said “Gramma and grampa look up at the ceiling!” When we were skyping, he had wanted to type in Hangeul, but doing so would mean taking off the physical keyboard and using the software keyboard. As such, the camera would have been pointing to the ceiling. Like it was now. Anyway, at 6:30 August whispered that he wanted to look out in the hall and went and opened the door and looked out for a couple minutes.

He came back in, and she got home a couple minutes later. She was late because she had had parent conferences today. They nursed. I asked him about his favorite color, and it was back to being violet. He was mama’s boy now, and told me “Want dada to sleep in the playroom.” Talking about his water bottles, he said “I prefer blue wawa.” I believe I’ve heard him say ‘prefer’ before, but it was very clear how he used it this time. Carly gave him a bath. Went very well, considering how tired he was and that she washed his hair. He went to bed pretty quickly after that, falling asleep at 7:20.

To Uidong: 

Park. Birds:

Favorite faucets: 

Ingredients game: 

Embroidery museum: 

Looking for mama: 

He walked out at 6:56. A slight change in his morning routine as he came straight to me and had me pick him up. Held him a little, then we both laid down on the reading area for a few minutes. After 5 minutes he said “One zero zero zero zero zero one”. He rolled over and got up and looked out the window for a minute, then came back to reading area and whispered “talk to Siri.” But then he laid back down on the reading area and didn’t get up until 7:14 to go and play with the smurfs. We then had some banana bread.

I watched the debate this morning, and he watched Pooh much of the time. We were writing on the paper at some point, and I started writing ‘banana’ in English. On his own, he then spelled it in Korean: 바나나 Finally, we spent a good amount of time sorting the magnets on the door. That started because we couldn’t find the Hangeul ㄱ magnet for a word.

Eventually, we headed out and went to his Teuni Teuni class. Got there as they were doing the path and forward rolls. August was excited to go in. Walked the path once and calmly told the teacher “No forward roll.” Class was about ropes today. We first got a rope with handles on each end to play with – working on winding and swinging motions, pulling, etc. We then set them on the floor and the kids were jumping over them. August liked this (and reminded me how he couldn’t jump at all that long ago).

Next was a walking path made of elastic bands just a few inches above the ground. They would stretch to the ground, so it made a sort of tricky walking path as you tried to not trip on them. August wanted to do it on his own, without me holding on, which caused a bit of a traffic jam of kids behind him. I notice that regularly, and with all the activities he was into today, where he/we tend to take our times on things, while other people are rushing by.

Anyway, he did the path a second time, all on his own, while everyone else moved on to these boards with big jellyfish on them. The tentacles were actually ropes that went through a hole and hung down both sides of the board. There were stoppers on the end, so you couldn’t pull them out. Half the kids went on one side, and the other kids went on the other side. You would pull the ropes, only to have them get pulled back the other way. August loved that. The teacher then set up the next course, and August was the last one left pulling on the ropes.

The next thing involved lowering a then pulling (another motion) a rope to catch a candy with a magnet. They then crawled through the stretchy net things, now placed vertically. All was going well until August dropped his candy as he crawled through the first net. He was reaching for it when another mom – maybe not realizing where it came from – grabbed it and put it in the box at the end. August didn’t know what had happened, and he wanted that one. Held him for a minute then he was ready to go again.

Finally, there was an obstacle course where they went over the walking path again, climbed up aboard at an angle and jumped off.

At the end of class we got these vacuum cleaner sort of toys where you catch balls in it. August then got his two treats and handstamps on both hands. He got the treats then went back and held his hand out until the teacher got the idea and got out the stamp.

We went home for lunch. Asked what he wanted and he said salmon sandwich. That was convenient as it was what I had in mind. I made that and he played with magnets. He said “Zinnie likes P because it is for pink. Zinnie likes pink. Your favorite is pink.” He was then hiding a magnet, then going in the other room while I looked: “Ill stay in there until you find it.”

We ate then headed out with the stroller for a nap. He was asleep in 5 minutes. Went to the women’s center coffee shop and he slept from 1:42 to 2:59.

We walked from there east and behind Toys R Us to a park we’d never been to. A cool structure, shaped like a spaceship. Never played on it though. He sat in the stroller and had a snack, and when he got out he found a stick and wanted to write. We spent most of our time writing Korean in the sand around the badminton courts. He corrected me once, when I accidentally wrote 의 instead of 와 (for ‘and’). We worked on some verbs and simple sentences in Korean. At one point he was running around and declared “I’m having fun.” For the last 15 minutes or so he wanted to actually type Korean, so we sat on a bench and he typed on the iPad while I asked Carly what she wanted from the store. We got a reply from her and got ready to go. August at first didn’t like the idea of going to the store, but I said we could get something for the sick boy. He liked that, and a minute later put together the sentence “We can find a slurpy thing for the sick little boy.”

We walked to the pink building and did our shopping. He got out of the stroller and got his pineapple jello thing, then helped push the stroller and put things on the conveyor belt. As we left he was helping push but tripped on the wheel and fell. Not crying, but wanted to be picked up. He was a bit sad as we walked out and I talked about all the stuff we had done today. I mentioned I had gotten a lot of good work done at the coffee shop while he slept. He said “Zinnie do lot of good work at home. Art is my work.”

We were home a little after Carly. He ate the slurpy thing, and then declared that “Indigo is my favorite.” So no longer pink. He sang some lines from the Silent E song, then wanted to watch Pooh. He kept saying the Tigger line “not enough pictures/colors” and wanted to know what it meant.

I gave him a bath. He was trying to spell words and there was a word that needed two ‘d’s in the middle (well, like that). Oh, it was puddle. Anyway, I told him he could pretend with just the one. He kept saying/asking if he could do it with just one letter. Something about that exchange made him sad, and he wanted to go nurse. But we hadn’t started washing him yet. Made it through that with only a light washing of the hair and took him in to Carly. He wouldn’t tell me why he was sad, and he never told Carly about it either.

They nursed, then he was typing on her computer. He said “You have lots of important work to do.” He would type a bunch and point at it and say “What is that!?”

Carly saw the Teuni Teuni toy, which we hadn’t used yet, so she opened it and put it together and they played with it a bit. I then took him in to bed and he and I read books. We bought LMNO Peas and read that, then some Pete the Cat. He then saw me rearrange a couple books in iBooks and he wanted to do that. He put all the Biscuit books together, etc. and then messed them all up. Carly came in and he was ready for sleep. He was asleep about 9:30.

Typing LMNOP: 

Jumping over the rope:

– 

– https://youtu.be/7CCSmUaDDv4

The tricky path on his own: 

The jellyfish rope thing: 

Air drying his hands: 

Made up silent e – dak to dake: 

I have a lot of important work to do: 

New Teuni toy: 

Sorting books on the iPad: 

Tricky path

Stamp pad fun

Writing Hangeul

Helping push

His bruise as he watches Pooh

Photos. Fox in the cave: 

Stamp pad: 

Snack: 

Tracing “is nursing”: 

Hangeul in the park: 

Home Plus: 

Bruise: 

7:27. Walked out and sat on the Smurf thing. His first words were “Where’s Jokey Smurf?” A bit wheezy like yesterday. I laid back on the reading area, and he came up and laid down next to me for a few minutes. A woman at APIS had given Carly a bag of books, and August and I read Five Minutes Peace and All in One Piece by Jill Murphy and a little Amelia Bedelia and the Cat. While talking about “raining cats and dogs” he came up with “cats and anise” and “cats and stories”

Out to his iPad to type in search in iBooks. At one point he ran in the kitchen and said “Why you in the kitchen?” I asked and he said “16 g?????” I asked him to repeat the mystery word. At one point he said something like “I don’t know the word.” And I got out of him that he thought it started with ‘g’. Eventually he went back to the typing.

He switched to Hangeul, and we tapped out the tempo of the characters. He wanted to do art, and said “Want to do lots of work.” He was doing art while I showered, then got out the glass markers and colored with those. From there it was “Want to type on Skype.” He sent a lot of messages. He recited the line “Look what I can do.” from the Controlling R song, although he still likes to joke that it is a ‘controlling K’. More Hangeul, and occasionally wiping his runny nose. At some point we read the Alphabet book. At the end, he wanted me to draw a zorilla. I drew one on the paper, and he said something like “Oops” or “Good job trying” and I was like “Hey. That is a pretty good zorilla.”

We were getting ready to go, and he randomly said “Want a rice burger.” We haven’t had one in quite awhile. Finally, before we left he made a “mosaic” of all the door magnets.

We left, stopping to get one rice burger, then took the subway up to Suraksan. Headed to a couple parks to the northeast, stopping at the second. Ate on a covered platform. He wanted ‘sh’ words and listed shoe, shock, and shaving on his own. We were then singing Ants Go Marching.

A very relaxing park, and I laid down for awhile, and he laid down with his head on my stomach for a minute. He was then sitting up, but still cuddling with me while eating an apple. Suddenly, a woman came along and started talking to us. I made it abundantly clear that she wasn’t welcome to interrupt us, but she kept talking and touching August and I think even our food (like she was going to feed him). I packed up our food and backpack. Finally, she moved off, motioning that I could lay back down.

August and I went up and played on the structure. He went back and forth on the shaky bridge thing a couple times. I went down the slides, but he didn’t. He saw a shape in the rubbery surface and called it a circle. I said it was more of a blob. He thought that was a funny word and wanted me to explain it. I used the example of squirting out mayonnaise. He thought this was even funnier, asking “what you squirt the mayonnaise about?” and laughing harder.

Earlier, on the platform, he had been doing some yoga, and from there I ended up saying “breath out, breath in.” Now, walking around the playground, he started repeating it and breathing in and out. Did it off and on for a few minutes.

We got ready to go and changed him. Just as we were about to go – and he was ready for a nap – a group of slightly older kids came to play. “Want to play with them.” He’s showing more awareness of who speaks Korean, as he next said something like “What they speak Korean about? What they not speak English about?” I told him we could stay and play, but he was tired, and just watched them from the platform for a few minutes, mainly on his hands and knees or lying down. We got walking at 1:20.

Walked up to the trailhead for Suraksan Mountain. Took a bridge across the stream to head back and we saw a cat. He said “it’s alone…what there no friends about?” Reading into the kids thing and that I’m thinking he could use some friends.

Actually took some time for him to fall asleep. We checked out a couple other parks in the process, and he finally fell asleep from 2:00 to 3:02. We went to a coffee shop we found called Once that had awesome metal tables. After we woke up, we walked south and east to two maps marked on the map. Along the way, we spotted several coffee shops and restaurants I marked for future reference. Later, back home, when Carly asked him what we did today, the first thing he said was “Found lots of coffee shop.” It was a nice area, and as we got to the end of the road I realized that Derek and I had walked through on our very first Seoul Trail walk.

The two park areas were small things – no playgrounds here. We stopped to get out a Larabar, but otherwise kept walking and headed home. As we walked, we played the fake Larabars ingredients game. August came up with a pretty good list: “computers…woman…music groups…tomatoes…”

We were home at 4:30 and August wanted to get straight to art: “Look at all those mosaic… want to do lots of work…I’m an expert at it (orange?)…I’m showing dada how to do art…”

Carly was home a bit after 5. He mentioned anise again and then wanted to smell spices. The two of them were skyping messages back and forth, like he and I had done yesterday. And he actually called her – his first skype call on his own. They nursed and read Pooh. I made banana bread, and he came over and said “Where’s the stool.” Then went on his own to the bathroom and brought it back. He helped pour a few things in and stir. He licked the spatula. When done he said “good night spatula sweet dreams.”

Back to skype. He wanted to ghost emoji, but it doesn’t show up on his iPad keyboard. So Carly taught him how to type it out. He wanted Hangeul on the keyboard, and Carly didn’t know how to do it, so he taught her. Perhaps the first reversal there.

I gave him a bath. After his bath, he decided to start calling the parlor the ‘play room’. Carly objected, but he said “no. I think it is the play room.” No idea where the ‘play room’ idea came from.

He was talking a lot, telling stories and about words: “you make it up…then a smurf came by and the smurf said play with the piano and the other smurf said no!” “Pufferfish is a tricky word.”

A bit later he said “your tummy feels sick.” The first time he’s said that. But when the banana bread was done he said “You did a good job waiting!” And then ate a couple slices.

Had a lot of fun with Siri, then was singing Ants Go Marching. Went in to nurse at 9:20. He mentioned again about his tummy not feeling well. He was playing around on the bed and we told him it was time for sleep. He said “The game’s all over. It’s closed for business.” They nursed for awhile, but it wasn’t working. They got up and read some Pooh and went back for try 2, which worked, at 10. 

Waking up: 

Tired before we even left: 

Park. Relaxing on me: 

Home. His skyping pose:

He slept nice and late. He came out at 8:44 and lay on the floor. He was wheezing and sounded stuffy. After awhile I got out the Smurf box thing that I had bought at Toys R Us last time and put in the closet. He liked the figures, and put them in the water, then out of it. He ended up really liking Jokey Smurf, and kept having him hurt the other Smurfs. Eventually we had to put Jokey in a timeout. He was then typing on Skype, sending messages to a bunch of people, then me. I was in one room and he was in the other and we were sending emojis and words back and forth. At some point we also played with Siri, and he ended up singing to Siri. I said we were going to Children’s Grand Park, but he initially did not want to go. He said “it’s too crowded.” He had us crunching fake lollipops at one point, and wanted me to sing the We Like to Make Mistakes song. Finally, we tried the new Sesame Street crackers that arrived the other day.

We got going. At the other station we were looking at the subway map, and he pointed out 오이도. He wanted to know why it said ‘cucumber’, as the first two syllables spell cucumber in Korean. Then, at GS25 August was reading out the Korean on the sandwich wrappers. The guy working there heard him and was impressed.

We went up to our rectangle pond for lunch. After we ate we spent time reading the Ants Go Marching book. He called one of the pages ‘periwinkle’. He was then singing Ants go Marching and walking around. He would choose random numbers, then fill in the “Little one stops to say…” part. He also acted out playing hide and seek and trying to find George.

From there we headed over to the playground. The goal was sidewalk chalk, but he saw the sand and wanted to play in that. I found a stick, and we ended up writing words. For some reason, he wanted ‘tion’ words, and we wrote words like ‘question’ and ‘action’. I asked him something, and he started acting like Siri: “Hmm. Good question. Let me think, Ryan…I’m Siri, I’m Siri, I’m Siri…”

He got was acting somewhat tired, so we changed him and got ready to go. I didn’t really expect a nap, but hadn’t mentioned the idea as I didn’t want him to actually attempt to avoid a nap. As we were getting ready to go he remembered sidewalk chalk and was sad. We walked for 30 minutes. He was silent and resting for much of it, but that was all he needed.

We went to the coffee shop about 2:30. I asked “Do you want a strawberry smoothie?”  He replied with another Siri line: “Hmm. Interesting question, Ryan.” We sat and shared the smoothie. He played with Hangeul on his iPad: “This is my favorite song…this was your old favorite…this is a new song I like.” Then in the magnets app he was filling the screen with letters: “what are you spelling? That’s super crazy!” “Look at that you typed! It’s crazy!” “You’re doing lots of work.”

We were there for a good hour. He then had the choice between sidewalk chalk and the children’s museum. He chose the sidewalk chalk. We got there and used the broom to sweep off some sand. He immediately started talking about ‘blending’ – he remembered from the girl who had made a rainbow last time. He started doing the chalk and talking to himself: “I’ll blend it.” “You’re making it nice and pretty.” He had been focusing on the name of the playground earlier:꿈틀꿈틀놀이타. He had said it maybe meant ‘catepillar playground’. Eventually I realized why he said that – in one of his videos from class there are caterpillars and they are crawling. 꿈틀 means crawling or wriggling or something of the sort. So I think it is in the song and he made the connection. Anyway, he wanted to write that in sidewalk chalk. He was mixing colors, and said “maroonish mixed with periwinkle” A bunch of other kids joined in and it was quite a party. Unlike that one time, when no one asked or said thank you for the chalk, this time a mom, after they had been using the chalk for a long time, suddenly asked if it was ours and was then very apologetic. Overly so. She and the other moms kept letting their kids use the chalk, but every time they changed colors, they would have their kids come and hand the piece of chalk back to August. August was rather confused why the other kids and the moms kept shoving new pieces of chalk in his hands. Anyway, near the end he was making a bunch of deliberate lines and said “I’m writing Japanese…” Then he made an ‘e’ on top of a Hangeul ‘ㅜ’ He said “that’s an ‘e’ sitting on a ‘ㅜ’…” He then decided the ㅜ was an iron: “that’s an iron…burned the e…the mama was ironing…”

It was past 4:30 and time to go. Other kids had all come and gone with the chalk, but August was still going. It was hard to get him away. Eventually I convinced him to head home to her. As we left the park, there was a man playing guitar and singing. August wondered why he was by himself: “What he alone about?” August was then clapping along to the music, and really liked clapping at the end of songs. We listened to two. The second included some yodeling. Probably August’s first yodeling experience.

As we headed out, August was saying “dinosaur” repeatedly in his George voice. Then, he was speaking ‘smurf’: “then smurf up to the smurf”. I used the phrase ‘that doesn’t ring a bell’ on the subway, and he thought that was funny and wanted to know what it meant. I used names to explain ‘rings a bell’ and ‘doesn’t ring a bell’. He caught on, and started naming people, and making up names…he came up with Opa, uncle paul, and Megan.

As we crossed the road by the pink building, I suddenly heard him say “oops oops oops…” He had pulled out the stick and dropped it. We retrieved it and as we kept walking I said “Good use of ‘oops’.” He said something about making a mistake and “you did a bunch of oops.”

We were late getting home. He nursed, then wandered into the parlor and was playing with the Smurfs by himself, talking to himself as he did so. Really clear imaginative play going on. Later, he talked like Siri again, saying “It seems that I cut you off. Please repeat.” He did a lot of singing of Ants Go Marching, did more of his George voice, and did a lot of drawing on his own. I gave him a bath. After that, it was a pretty straightforward bedtime, with him going to sleep at 8:05. Pretty good for a no-nap day.

 

Photos: 

Counting to ten: 

Shaking his head: 

The last two chalkers: