Author: Ryan/Dada

He came out at 7:23. For what I think is the third day in a row, he asked about his pink water: “Where’s your pink wawa? Where’s your blue wawa? Want to put the keys back in.” Did that, then he did some art on my iPad, and then made shapes using a geometry app on my iPad. Moved to his own iPad for a little while and did the Oceans app while I finished up some work, then we worked on Duplos, adding to the children’s museum (he wanted a microscope, we added an art area, and he put all the kids in it) before I took a shower and we then had some cereal. He destroyed the children’s museum, then we spent a long time making bigger and bigger regular polygons out of my vitamins. He wanted the “robot cleanup” of the letter magnets, so we did that – in the evening that is how we would clean up the blue counting cubes. I found our new letter stickers, which had been missing, so he did some of those, then we ended up writing big numbers on the paper again. He continued with the robot thing, wanting me to change him robot style, so we did that.

On the changing pad, we talked about Teuni Teuni class. Really trying to choose words to explain why he was sad when going in last week. Finished with “Sad about the froggie one.” Meaning the teacher, who goes by the name Gaeguli Sangsaengnym (Frog Teacher). But he said he wouldn’t be sad today.

We were taking a long time to get out of the house, and right before we were ready, I went and grabbed some coins from the box so he could ride after his class. I came back out to the living room, and a few seconds later there was a crash – he had tried to get the box full of coins and it had fallen on the ground. This really freaked him out. Took a few minutes to get him okay. Just saying “No, dada…no, no, no.” to all my questions, so couldn’t tell what to do to help him. Wouldn’t let me pick him up, and if I did he got upset. But if I put him down he got more upset, etc. Later, when we came home and saw the coins on the floor, August was remembering it, and said I did something funny when he was sad, saying I skipped. He really did not like when I stepped away from him while he was upset. I think may have taken a big step over the coins, or maybe done a quick about face when he started shrieking. Or maybe I just skip when I’m frustrated.

Anyway, we made it to class a few minutes late. Right after I told him we probably missed the picking him up part (“To the ceiling” he said) I was proven wrong, as class must have started late. August was slightly nervous today – wouldn’t high five the teacher at the beginning – but did just fine. He put up with a forward roll, and at the end of class gave him a reluctant high five. Class was about whales eating shrimp and either sneezing or pooping them out (there were activities for both…that isn’t a translation issue). Near the end, the teacher handed out the DVDs. August obediently sat down with him (he also ran right over when the teacher patted the ground next to him near the beginning for the story time section), but was expecting the treat they get at the end – he gave him a complete look of confusion when the teacher handed him the DVD instead. Eventually he took it, then returned and sat right in the middle of the floor waiting for him to come back with the container full of treats. Eventually that happened, and when I had August go back to say thank you, he got a second. Oh, and August actually chose to wear the shrimp hat – at least for a few seconds.

We went downstairs to Home Plus to look for sidewalk chalk. No luck. We spent some time looking at puzzles and other art supplies. Tempted by water colors, and they have puzzles that would be nice if they were less pieces – the Keith Haring puzzles was 1014 pieces. Given it had his favorite number in it (14), August wanted to get it, but I said no.

Went home, made a salmon sandwich for lunch and ate it, then went out for a walk in the stroller. Had been raining on our way home, but luckily had stopped. Ten minutes and he was asleep. Slept 2:15 to 3:25 at the women’s center (I should just start calling it Cafe Sarang Bbang, or Cafe Love Bread, but both look odd, although it sounds nice in Korean). Slow to wake up, so got walking. Went to the playground my the youth center. Sat for a few minutes and talked and sang, but he was still groggy. Then asked, very politely “Can we go home, dada?” So we headed home. But then I thought about going to the book/art store in the pink building. He was up to that. Couldn’t find chalk, so asked (which he later told Carly about). No luck. We looked around at other stuff and books and puzzles, then headed out.

Went to the playground and he wanted to play. Little climbing wall, where he got up a couple times, then mainly climbing on the metal bar steps, and playing on the shaky bridge. Went back and forth on the shaky bridge several times, and was talking about stepping on the screws being the tricky part. Then wanted me up, and had a lot of fun with both of us pretending to get our feet stuck. Almost headed home right before 5, but then he wanted to show me the tricky part one more time. Went back, but wanted me to get my foot stuck instead. Told Carly we were there, so she came and met us. I was swinging him around in circles when she showed up.

At home, he was acting a bit toddler-ish despite the nap. Got upset when Carly wouldn’t let him open the microwave. But seemed fine after awhile. We got paint and sponges out and kept counting the prints he made on the paper. Carly took a shower, and he requested shapes with the vitamins again. Did that, then got him to switch to the blue counting blocks. He did art with those, and kept saying “I’m building something. Don’t crush it.“ Asked a couple times for me to comment on what it was he was making, but seemed more okay with it just being an abstract shape…arte abstracto, as we say.

He read The Giving Tree with Carly. He likes the book. At the end they were talking to Shel’s photo on the back (he had been asking what everything said, including Shel’s name). August was then getting imaginary things and feeding them to Shel, who either liked them or spit them out. At one point August said “Shel…where you supposed to patooie?” – referring to not being able to spit on the floor, but in the sink or toilet instead. August was making up words and said “A stoysteda has wings and arms and cam fly.”

We went back to the blue blocks, and ended up doing basic math with them. I was explaining subtraction, and initially said “If I eat one of them…” But then August was threatening to actually put one in his mouth, so I changed it to “If I lose one down my shirt…” Which he thought was hilarious. So he ended up doing it several times: “If I have three and lose three down my shirt, I have (looks at hand)…zero!”

I gave him a bath. Lot of playing with the letters. Then he wanted to go in his nest. The topic of August’s made up language from yesterday…stasidoo or something like that…came up, and August said he remembered that. I started speaking in stasidoo and August found that funny. They were both asleep a little after 9.

 

Making a children’s museum. Kids playing with blocks:  

Teuni Teuni: 

Singing about Figure, the music app. He says ‘Unptdictalead’ at the beginning, then ‘Gamle oct Havet’: 

Playground: 

You can see the insect bite on his leg: 

Home: 

Nest: 

After leaving the house somewhat early the last couple of days, we were more relaxed today. Still, we had a full day up around Dobongsan. He also got into sorting and playing hide and seek today.

He was up at 7:59. He came running out and called “Where’s the pink wawa?” He then went straight to stickers his stickers and was stacking the puffy ones. I introduced him to Tayasui Sketches on my iPad, with the Apple Pencil, and he made art for quite awhile. Some cool looking stuff. I took a shower, and then we played with Duplos, making a new zoo, then destroying that. A big activity today was sorting the vocabulary cards. It started with the Korean cards, which are designed to be sorted, as they are different colors with different borders, based on time, numbers, etc. After sorting those, we moved on to the Spanish cards, and made our own categories: food, body parts, numbers, other things, and animals. He really got into that and we sorted the whole deck. Then more work on the new zoo. At some point I asked “Do you want to go outside soon?” He replied “No. I’m doing a couple more things.” He then wanted the zookeeper and tiger to work together to do part of the Peter Rabbit puzzle. Finally, and I don’t know how this started, we began playing hide and seek. At first he just wanted to run after me as usual, but then I told him about standing in place and counting to 5 before moving. And he did it. A few times. We had fun with that, then eventually made our way out around 11.

Outside, we found that the the park was full of a rummage sale. We looked around. A few booths had toys and English books, but neither of us found anything we wanted to get. We were saying “Nothing too exciting” as we left. On the way up he was talking about subway stops (and going north versus south, as we were headed north today). He mentioned Ttukseom, then talked about how it has a wading pool, but it was closed.

He first wanted to go to the Iris Garden. On the way up we had decided our ‘quests’ for the day were to find an interesting plant and to find a playground. The plant one was easily done as the park is very green and full of flowers right now. We went to our normal spot for lunch, the long log benches. I sat straddling the log, and August did it to. Only his toes touched the ground, but still. Such a big kid. He also remembered Carly being on the log. After eating, we went for a walk around the park, him in the backpack. We went through an archway covered in morning glories. So that was his new flower of the day. The fountain turned on, so we watched that. We saw fish, and they were gathering, as if they wanted food. August said we could pretend, and suggested the fish were pretending too: “fish have imagination…we give them food.” We walked a bit more around the park.

August started suggesting that we head home – I think that happens when he is getting bored and/or a bit tired. But not necessarily ready for a nap, as he didn’t take a nap again today. We stopped in the building to play with the faucets, both inside and out, then headed out, walking to see if he might sleep, and to find a park. First walked through the little park area connected to the station. He liked the sculpture of upside down metal cones, calling them ice cream cones. The waterfall fountain wasn’t on, but he wanted to get down at the exercise equipment. Did that for 10 minutes or so. Then kept walking.

Made our way to 서원어린이공원, a children’s park we’ve played at once before, maybe twice. He was calm along the way, but no sleep. At the park he got down to play. There was a rope climbing thing in the shape of an upside down cone. It also turned. He spent a lot of time on this, climbing up to the third rung of four. He tried the spinning part a few times, but was unsure of it – mainly he wanted me to hold it still. We also played on the play structure: down the slides a few times (he was first hesitant about them, as they were in the sun and he was afraid they were too hot), a couple times together, and he also tried the vertical climbing wall, hanging on it a bit. We ate some more food, then he started spraying with the spray bottle, making art on the ground. That lasted quite awhile, and we also did letters and words.

From there we walked up the stream to where we play. He had been talking about going home again, but when he saw it he wanted to play. Got in the water no problem. Forgot the bucket, so we just had the scoop, and used it to bury the green ball and other things. Had fun trying to bury the ball as it floated. We waded down the stream to see the waterfall part. Got to a set of the stone steps and he remembered throwing things off of them (he was remembering the set father up stream, but impressive, as we haven’t done that since early spring). He wanted to climb down the rocky part, but I wasn’t feeling that. Went back the other way for a few minutes, then he was ready to go home. Went up to the backpack, had a snack, and did some more spray art on the ground.

Headed home, getting here at 4:30. We made our drink mix and he ate some more peanut butter. And he decided to take all the magnets off the door. Did almost all of that himself, then needed me to pick him up to get the ones at the top of the door. I started laundry, but he kept turning off the washing machine. He got upset when I blocked him from doing that. His only obvious tired moment of the day. Thought we might not be able to go to the grocery store, but he calmed down and was okay.

Got in the stroller and went to the pink building and got a few things. He remembered the jello stuff that ‘slurps’, so I let him get one. He chose peach. We got home at 5:20. Carly was running late. August had just turned on the AC when she got home. They nursed and had some food for dinner, then August was making big numbers on the door and having her name them. We did more piano keys, then he took a bath with Carly. We switched so I could wash his hair, but he got really sad about washing it, so he got a reprieve until tomorrow. We then did puzzles. He did the ABC puzzle entirely on his own. We then did a couple of the animal puzzles, and turned them over to put together the big picture using the back of them. A lot of pieces had fallen out, so we had to put the puzzles all back together. He went to the Duplos and said “Make children museum bigger” He was really excited about this for a minute, but when I started working on it he was off to the wooden tools. Went in soon after that, and was asleep about 9 of a little after.

Oh, and at the playground I had read August an email that Carly had sent him. He was then pretending to write on the ground things like “Mama I love you so much.” And when we walked in the house and she wasn’t there he didn’t believe me at first and loudly called “Mama!” Then quietly he added “Where you supposed to color?”

iPad art:

Iris Garden: 

Screaming: 

Playground: 

Spray art: 

Stream: 

His initials: 

Home: 

He was up right at 8. Came out and said “Hey dada. Where’s the pink wawa? Where’s the blue wawa? Want to put the keys back in.” Workers were supposedly coming around 9 to take another look at the hot water heater, so we hurried to get out of the house. August had some time to make big numbers out of the magnets (using all that we have, which gets up to the sextillions) and we put the keys in the piano. Had some cereal (I had just poured Cheerios, but he wanted some of the other kind in as well, as Carly had introduced him to cereal mixing) and brushed our teeth and left at 9:10, before anyone showed up.

As usual, a lot of signing and talking on the way to the subway. He started talking about 17 people: “I see the color of the 17 people…Blue, pink…And the shirt is purple.” In the station, there are these mosaics in the wall and glass circles that he now likes to pause and touch. He talks all about the textures and patterns in the glass circles and which ones are our favorites.

We were at the park a little before 10, so headed to the new playground to do sidewalk chalk. As we passed the Tayo busses, I expected him to say something about them. Instead, I noticed he was covering his eyes, hiding – something he hasn’t done recently. But when I asked him about it, he appeared shy/secretive. He would just say “No” to every question. This sort of turns into a game, where I try to finally get him to say “Yes” to something. Are you sad? No. Are you happy? No. Are you blue? No. Are you Zinnie? No. Are you a puppy dog? Etc.

Didn’t have a broom with us, so had to use my foot to sweep off the designated sidewalk chalk area. Spent a long time on that, with him drawing things and asking me what they were. If I said I was out of ideas, he would pretend to grab some and put them in my head. His favorite was the alien he drew that then didn’t understand humor, and exploded when August kept laughing. He found that hysterical, and it came up several times during the day.

He asked about lunch, and after a few more minutes, we went up by the rectangle pond and ate. We talked about quests again, and he said his quest was to play the piano today. He’s less interested in garbage cans nowadays, and today, when I asked if he wanted to throw our garbage in the garbage can he said “Dada can do it.” We went up and played with the piano for several minutes.

Then, we were heading to the children’s museum. He instantly wanted me to pick him up. At the mention of him walking, he got upset. Took awhile to get him calmed down enough to get down the stairs (I wasn’t going to carry him down while he was still upset), and we stopped by the fountain to get a tissue. He had calmed down and was quiet. I talked about how he’s been wanting me to carry him a lot recently, and that he’s walked long distances before. He was quiet, then suddenly climbed off the bench and started walking. I said “Thanks, Zinnie”. He said “No.” He then walked all the way to the children’s museum, walked right up to the counter and was handed his baby ticket on his own, took the membership card from me, and walked over to the entrance and handed them to the woman there and got his hand stamp. While he has handled those before, he’s almost always been in my arms for all of those. He then did all the walking in the children’s museum except for about 10 seconds when he basically jumped out of the car toy and into my arms when I mentioned going to the book room.

Anyway, once inside, he referred to the signs, and wanted to go up to space play. He walked up there, and looked around a bit, but it was overrun by school groups. He mentioned the food and hours area being up the ramp. He wanted to vacuum (although never got around to that), so we went up there. Stopped at the construction area, and played with the bricks just a bit. Then up to the food. He played with the food, getting us food, heating it up, then we sat at a table and pretended to eat it. We then went and played in the veterinarian area for the first time. We took care of a dog, who had an ear infection, and a pig with a broken leg. He seemed genuinely concerned when I had the pig make little noises when he touched the leg. He said something about the pig being a queen (I thought) after we were done with it and he was trying to find a spot for it. School kids had descended on this area, so he wanted to move on. Climbed into the car next to someone else that was ‘driving’. Sat there a couple minutes until I suggested the book room and he jumped into my arms.

Sadly, the bead toys (he had mentioned them a couple times) were now gone. But in there place were a set of kind of Tetris shaped puzzle pieces: you create shapes on a grid, then try to use the other pieces to fill the remaining space. Three dimensional thinking and all that, as you need to rotate the pieces. In fact, there were a couple of other puzzles like this: we also played with the wooden cactus-y thing, where you try to build it and keep it balanced so it doesn’t fall over. Then there was a set of simple blocks, about 12 of them, but each was a different color. There were then pictures that you tried to build.

We then went and read some books up in the loft area. He chose Opposites, I Touch…, Numbers, I taste…, and Shapes. All Luk books. The Taste one was probably his favorite. Although we read a couple of them twice.

Then back down for the last puzzle: a set of plastic squares. They are clear, with colored shapes on them. You then try to build pictures with them, but you have to rotate and stack them (and choose the right pieces) to make the pictures. Like the first set, they start with easy ones and get harder. Kind of like stacking tangram puzzles.

Waking up at 8 this morning, didn’t really expect a nap, but he was getting hungry again, and maybe a bit tired. We went outside and had some crackers and Larabar as we went for a walk. We came across the old playground, only to find that they are tearing it down. Rather sad, as we had used it so much in the past. Hadn’t gotten around to it much so far this year, but would have now that the weather is cooler. This is where we really started writing in the sand, and where he sat on the drum while I played it. He specifically pointed out the blue thing – the drum – lying there on the ground as we watched. Got walking again, and stopped to get water and refill his water bottle. “Frere Jacques” was playing on the speakers and he asked what it was called. I told him, and he joked “It’s called “You’re drinking water”.” Had one or two others. As we walked, he started pointing and saying “How you doing bushes? How you doing trees? How you doing womans?” Probably had about 10 of them. Eventually calmed down and we walked our usual path a couple times, but then he wasn’t going to sleep. So we discussed some options, and he wanted more sidewalk chalk.

I wanted to take a closer look at the destroyed playground, so we first went down there. The structure by the walking path is spared, at least for now, which is nice. We sat and ate a second lunch, then went and did some climbing on the structure. He went up the angled wall a couple times, and used my hand to help him step up on the little vertical wall. He hung on the wall for a few seconds on his own before getting down. He then walked around on the walking path, and balanced on a couple of the round wooden ones a bit.

Then went and did sidewalk chalk by the faucets. I thought that was a good idea, because then we could wash it off. Did a little sidewalk chalk, then tried to pour water on it. Apparently, this doesn’t work. Just made it easier to see. I would have left after a couple minutes, but pouring water out of the spray bottle became a huge game for him. Also, he wanted to wash all the sidewalk chalk. So I was scraping it with a stick, and he was pouring water on it over and over. For a good 20 minutes, and probably closer to 30. He was soaked by the end. We had gotten the chalk off, but the ground now looked funny because the
parts we had scrubbed were now cleaner than everything else.

Headed home. He hadn’t used the iPad at all yet today, but on the way home he asked about GarageBand. I had brought his headphones, and he enjoyed wearing them on the subway as he played GarageBand. We got home at 5:30. Made a smoothie, and he took his in and laid on his stomach on the carpet and drink it. Carly was home at 6. They nursed and read a couple more books she had brought home: The Giving Tree and part of a Curious George book. He then played with stickers, and the door magnets, making Carly read the numbers this time. And of course we did more piano keys. And actually played some Wheels on the Bus.

When we had come up the elevator, a guy had gotten off at the second floor. August told me the doctor was on the second floor. I was surprised, as he hasn’t been there since, I think, March. Carly told me she’s probably mentioned it though. Also in the evening, I brought up the hiding thing, and he said “Remember that”. I asked what he was hiding from, and he said “Tayo busses…they were open.”

Carly gave him a bath, then he went in on the bed with me and read one of the new books – the one about the boy in the forest imagining an animal parade (from 1944). Carly came in and he was asleep about 8:30. Did remarkably well for not having a nap – didn’t seem like he hadn’t taken one. Perhaps transitioning away from naps…

Offering mama a piano key: 

Big numbers: 

Headed to Children’s Grand Park: 

Chalk: 

Lunch: 

On his long walk: 

Food: 

Puzzle: 

Reading area: 

Another puzzle: 

Destroyed playground with drum: 

Walking path: 

Sidewalk chalk and water: 

Spray bottle: 

Headphones on the subway: 

I was in the bathroom when he got up at 7:47. He didn’t make a sound, just walked around the house until he found me, then wanted to go plug the cords into my computer. Did that for a bit, then wanted to play on his iPad, then with the blocks. He made a “funny F” out of Duplos and I said the extra bit looked like a hand. He then had the F waving out the window to Bluie, who was apparently going to Safeway. He then said that Bluie got hit by a black car. Bluie was okay though, escaped for a scraped knee, which August kissed. We did some drawing on paper, and he drew a K with a hat on. He then wanted me to write a lot of numbers, like 300,002 and 300,006. He then wanted letters in them, like 300,00Z. We managed to get out of the house by 9:30 to head to the big zoo, on our quest to find a new animal.

Train went smoothly, building things in apps on the way down. Stopped at CU on our walk in and got veggie chips, kimbap, a mango soy milk, and a little sandwich for lunch. We saw the flamingos and giraffes, then sat under the blue covered area and ate lunch. He was done eating before me, and wanted to get started on the quest. I told him I wanted to eat a banana first. When I tried to get him to take a bite, he said “Nope. That is not part of the quest…want new animal.” But before we got to animals, he got sidetracked by a couple of Angry Birds rides. I told him we wouldn’t put money in them, and he was fine with that, but played in them for 10 minutes anyway.

We had looked at the map, and he decided that the ‘Australian Pavilion’ would be our first stop. We’d never been to that building before, though we’d seen the emus. Well, the building is closed, which bugged him – he kept talking about going in it anyway, and when we went to the nocturnal pavilion later, as we approached he said maybe there was a sign that said ‘Do not enter’, referring to the sign in front of the Australian Pavilion. Anyway, we did see the emus, wallaroos, and kangaroos, and our first official new animal for us was the Australian cassowary.

We then went next door to the Insectarium. There, our new animal was the bichir, and he spent a lot of time looking at the ornamental spiders. He really wanted to see the centipedes, but we couldn’t see any in their cages. He asked “where’d the cementapedes go?” I really liked hearing him say “Australian Pavilion” as well. His favorite part though was the building out back, with the fake streams, etc. and all the toads and salamanders and turtles. Mainly he liked that each cage had a temperature setting on it, and we could read them. Also kind of cool to see how they were kept at different temperatures.

He’d been having me carry him a lot, which made me think he was a bit tired, but it was still rather early. But the moment I asked if he was tired, he wanted to go home. And when I said we couldn’t do that right now, he had a meltdown. He calmed down though, and I got him changed and in the backpack. As we got going, he said “No go home” as if he had changed his mind and was making sure we weren’t headed home. He fell asleep in about 10 minutes, at 1:21, but kind of woke back up a bit both when I bought the cheap latte outside, and when I set him down inside the cafeteria building. But he put his head back down and went back to sleep.

He woke up at 2:37. Wanted to get going, and we went outside, but then I asked if he wanted to look at the map and he said yes. So we sat on a platform and I gave him a bunch of options. His final decision was “Nocturnal pavilion THEN playground”. He stuck with that plan, even as we went by the playground first. But first actually we walked through part of the bird area that we hadn’t seen before. Peacocks and chickens, and a display on nests. We also walked by the tropical birds building, which we haven’t been to. But nocturnal animals it was. We went in, and saw the kinkajous, slow loris, bats, owls, and porcupines. He was asking a lot of them “How you doing?” As we left later, he was asking “How you doing flamingoes…How you doing Seoul Grand Zoo?…How you doing Seoul Grand Park?” And I would have them talk to him. Oh, and back at home he had wanted to call the giraffes, wanting to know their phone number. So that conversation continued with them when we saw them at the zoo.

From there we walked back to the playground. He had seen the one random concrete slide along the way, and wanted to go down it. Looks steep, but turns out it barely slides – he had to scoot his way down. Then went to the playground, where he mainly played on the two climbing walls. He sat on the first one, and identified the animals on the handholds, and counted the colors of them. Then went to the second wall, where he looked at the shapes again, and decided which ones I liked. I had told Carly we would probably be late, and we were. Headed out around 3:45, changed him, and was leaving the park just after 4. By the time we walked to the station, etc. we weren’t home until just before 6.

As we transferred to the bus at Changdong (we took line 4 home), he was asking for the name. I told him, and he said “Where you (I) were born.” He meant ‘Cheongdam’. When he asks what is at Cheongdam on the map, I always include that. Had to change him, but told him we could go straight to the bus if he liked, as I was afraid we’d miss a bus if we stopped. But I told him if we did that we’d have to change his diaper first thing when we got home. It worked: we did just catch a bus, and when we got home he took Carly right into the changing room to change his diaper. While we were sitting on the bus he was pretending he was driving it.

They nursed, then read books that she had brought home from the school library: Planting a Rainbow, Night Becomes Day, Manama Iguana, Goodnight Gorilla. He then had her write numbers on the paper, like earlier: 300014, etc. They then spent quite awhile counting crayons. He would put more crayons in a line, then she would count them. He would count along, and clap when she finished. He then played by himself for quite awhile, with the iPad, and with the floor puzzles. Carly gave him a bath, then he played Duplos with me while she took a shower. We were working on the zoo after he made an ‘E’. At 9 I told him it was time to read stories and go to bed. We read Kipper’s Birthday and The I Love You Book. For the latter, he actually only wanted to read the sad baby page and talk about why the baby was sad. Carly was ready for bed just before 9:40. August at first wanted to give me just a pretend forehead kiss, but then gave me a really good forehead kiss, and an actual kiss. Oh, and he was doing the “I love you a ton of Ts, Zs, Xs…” things as well. He had a lot of good non-letter ones as well. And earlier, after he had gotten upset and was in the backpack, he also gave me a really long forehead kiss before we got walking. They fell asleep in short order, about a quarter to 10.

Plugging in the cords:

Seoul Grand Zoo: 

Spider: 

Home: 

He was up at 6, then back to sleep on the reading area. He managed to roll off the reading area and keep sleeping for a few minutes. He was up just after 7:30. After nursing, he helped Carly make her seating charts on her computer. We then worked on a new building for the zoo, and then I cut his hair while he played on the iPad. He did a really good job with it. A bit later he said “It’s shorter…yesterday it was not shorter.” Then more iPad, playing Figure and Metamorphabet. Did some Duplos with Carly, adding onto the building, then she went downstairs to do some work in a coffee shop. She was down there for awhile and we were playing, but planning on heading to Home Plus. She had to come home because the Internet wasn’t working for her down there. I tried to hurry to get August ready to go, but he got really upset just putting on a diaper. Carly came home, and I was able to get him out the door a few minutes later, but only after finishing some of the piano keys.

With Carly working from home, we now headed to a park first. We went up to Crysanthemum Children’s Park, getting there about 11:30. We first went to the other end of the park, where we had seen chestnuts last year. He played with the chestnuts, dropping pieces in the grate and throwing them in the bushes. We were watching an ant carry something, but then he stepped on it. I told him that made me sad. We did some more playing there, then headed over to the playground part of the park.

There, he didn’t have much interest in climbing. Instead, he wanted to draw homes. But first he paused, saying it was too sunny. We found a spot in the shade (there were boys playing in the little structure, anyway) and drew homes. He drew a line and called it a snake, then made a game of stepping on it. But then it would cry and he would reach down and put it together again, and put a bandaid on it, and it could move again. Very interesting. We saw a boy pour water in the enclosure, and then leave, so it was now free for us to play with. August climbed on the little climbing wall going in quite a bit, but never actually went in. I got his water bottle, and he had fun leaning over the side of it and patooieing down the side. We also poured my water bottle in it a few times and refilled it from the drinking fountain. I got the Larabar and we ate that. He pointed at a chunk of walnut in it and said “What is walnut for?” Before I could answer, he answered himself: “you know. For eating. Tu sabes.” There was a family at the park with a girl about his age and they came and said hi. Neither of the kids would talk much. But when we left a few minutes later I suggested waving bye, and August happily did that and called out ‘bye bye’. Before we left, he wanted to look at the rules signs. We did that for a couple minutes, and he surprised me by reading ‘놀이터’ (playground) on it.

We then went to Home Plus. Busy, but he did a really good job with the shopping. I asked him if one container of broccoli looked good. He rejected it, then said the next one was fine. He said “This looks healthier.” And I was looking at my shopping list on my phone and he pointed and said “This says ‘nectarines’.” It did. On the walk home, he started saying “how you doing door?” And to railings, floor, building, etc.

We were home just after 2. He fell asleep pretty quickly, and slept from 2:20 to 3:15, After nursing, he and I were writing words and numbers on the paper. He was using one of the old crayons in a plastic case and it (peach) broke. He threw it away. Carly was cleaning up, and about to throw the package of pickles that came with the pizza away. Instead she offered them to August, and he ate the hole package (6 slices). He wanted to build towers, so we took the wooden blocks into the parlor, where it was warmer. Built towers for awhile, then he wanted patterns from the cardboard bricks. We did well with that, then he needed to be changed.

In the later afternoon, we went out for a walk. Almost didn’t, as both August and Carly were waffling on whether they wanted to go. We had decided not to because August didn’t want to, then suddenly he wanted Carly to get up, saying “Go to park, mama”. Carly felt like she had a sliver, and August got really concerned for her, saying something like “It’s okay, mama. It’s okay?” over and over.

We walked over to Hangeulbi Park. There, he went nonstop for the next hour. He climbed the little curved wall, then walked over to the little slide. He was hesitant to go on it, but I said he used to go down it when he was little. That seemed to change his mind, and he went down all on his own. He then made several loops of going up the wall and down the slide. Then went up further, taking turns with Carly and me to go down the three bigger slides. We were surprised when he went down the curving slide like it was no big deal – he’d never gone down on his own before. Carly went on the swings. August was looking out at her through a clear part, and yelled “where you supposed to go, mama?” At one point he pretended to get a sliver. He climbed on the round platforms, and made a game of talking to each of the colors: “how you doing grey?”

Before we left he jumped on the teeter totter for his one extra thing, then I found some beads and gave them to him in the stroller as we left. On the way home Carly was sharing apple with him. When we were close to home, he bit his tongue or cheek. Not happy about that, and kept saying “No”.

By the time we were home he was doing okay though, and able to eat dinner. He wanted the rice and broccoli dish Carly had made today. He played on the iPad, making the boat in the Oceans app, then music on Figure. He asked Carly “How’s your sliver doing?” I gave him a bath, and he thought letters on the door looked like a birthday cake. He then said the letters were singing a song, but it wasn’t “Happy Birthday”. He then spent several minutes singing the song. After his bath, we made the bed with Carly. He did a little more singing, and they tried to go to sleep at 9. 9:25 or so though I hear him calling out, asking me for water. I go in and get his water. He then comes out with me. We played with blocks a little, and sort of read one Bob Book. He went back in and was asleep around 9:45.

Asleep on the reading area:

Sleeping animals: 

Chrysanthemum Park: 

Eating pickles: 

Hangeulbi Park: 

He was up at 6:45. Nursed with Carly in the reading area for quite awhile, then he and I worked on the Duplo zoo. He and Carly then worked on making patterns out of the cardboard bricks – something he got from those plastic rods at the children’s museum. We ate bagel and cream cheese for breakfast. They skyped with Cassie and Vivian for a long time, and brought Cherie into the call. After that, he was taking apart small parts of the Peter Rabbit puzzle and putting it back together, practicing parts of it multiple times. They did some more nursing. I was looking at Google Maps, and he started looking, wanting to see parks and playgrounds. He was trying to tap on stuff, and at one point said “That’s boring stuff.” Carly made a mango banana three juice smoothie. He had more of it a little later, and asked “What is this called? I remember it, but I don’t remember it.” He then played with Figure on his iPad, dancing as he played with all three tracks. He said “Want 14 beats per measure.” Then played with GarageBand and Musyc. Carly had left to go to a coffee shop and work, and August was fine with that. I was going to take him for a walk to a park, but it took awhile to get him going. We had to finish the Peter Rabbit puzzle (he had left about 7 pieces undone) before we could go.

In the stroller we walked down past the tree playground and along the railroad tracks to a little children’s park we had never been to. All it had was a single basketball hoop though, so we walked up to the park by the hospital instead. He started talking about the teenagers we saw at the first park. “That was a baseball player by the boring one.” I don’t know where he got that from. And at first he called this one boring, but then I showed him the places to climb. But what really got his attention was the chestnuts. We started finding them on the ground. He threw some around, then we found ones that were still in their skins, and took them out. He kept trying to put the chestnuts back in their skins. He saw another dad and son on the exercise equipment, and wanted to play on that. We did that for a few minutes before we left a little after 1:30.

Walked home, and as we passed the pink building I saw a woman with a shirt that said ‘Play to enjoy tim’. Carly was still at the coffee shop, so it was just us for awhile. At home, August wanted cereal. I said that wasn’t healthy enough, as he just had bagel in the morning. He went to the juices and said “These are healthy.” I heated up lasagna, but he didn’t eat any of it. He remembered his letters sticker from yesterday, so we got those out of the backpack and he did some of those on paper. Did more work on the zoo (we’ve expanded the herbivore habitat, and made a cage for the polar bear), then he was trying to convince me to let him mix the juices (remembering how Carly had mixed them for the smoothie) when she got home.

He went to sleep for a nap pretty soon after that, and slept from about 2:20 to 3:30. After he woke up and nursed, he and Carly did a lot of coloring on the paper, looking at colors, drawing homes, etc. We wanted to go out for a walk, but it took awhile to get him to agree. Finally headed out around 5. Walked up to Pizza School and got two pizzas, then walked to the complex of parks north of Sarang Children’s Park. It is where we intended to head last weekend when it was raining.

Settled on a bench by the play area in 까치어린이공원 (Magpie Children’s Park) and ate pizza, then he got to playing: climbed on the big rope play structure a bit, then found a couple crab apples. Climbed up a rope ladder to a play structure and played up there with Carly. Threw the crab apples off, and I would hand them back. Went across the bridge thing, then down the slide with Carly. Then back to the big net thing, where he climbed on it a little, watched the big kids, and started singing. A couple of the big kids started singing as well. Not sure if they were singing nonsense words to, but pretty sure they recognized the tune, Wheels on the Bus. Climbed a bit higher on the structure, and sat there next to Carly for quite awhile. Got down, and wanted to draw in the sand with Carly. They drew our home, and things in it. He wanted her to draw and amp, then a guitar. He said her guitar looked like a balloon. He drew a lamp, and pretended to turn it on.

A couple minutes before 7 the park cleared out as it started to get dark. We hung around for awhile longer, but the mosquitos started to come out, so we headed out. Stopped at the bathrooms, and August and I looked in the library booth. He liked the series of books about famous people, finding ones (in Korean) on Gandhi, Nobel, the Curies, etc. We walked by the second play structure. August said “One more thing” and played on something for a minute, then took off running to a structure, saying “I’ll do TWO things.” But then Carly found a little sitting swing, so it became 3.

On the way home, he asked where his iPad was and I said at home. He said “Pretend” and I pretended to hand him an iPad. He then pretended to play on his music apps, and pretended to make a new profile in the TinyBop apps – that includes picking a silhouette that looks like you, a color, then typing in a name. At home, he did some iPad, then coloring with Carly. She spilled the crayons a bit, and he apologized to her “Sorry, mama” and helped her clean them up. He was saying sorry to her a lot today.

I gave him a bath – a lot of playing with the letters again – and then he watched a couple minutes of Yellow Submarine while I tried to cut his hair. Got the bangs done, but the hair falling on him was bugging him. I suggested we put a towel on him, and he liked that idea. But when I went to get a towel he tried to start playing with Duplos. Told him it was either video and haircut, or heading in to bed for reading and sleep. He chose the bed, so the rest of the haircut will wait. He and Carly were asleep around 9:20.

 

141 right there: 

Chestnuts: 

Climbing and singing:

– – Working on part of the puzzle

Chanting and pointing

Putting the chestnut back together

Climbing and singing

In the net with mama

On our walk: 

Magpie children’s park: 

Our home: 

“Two things”: 

Up at 7:13. Very calm again.  on floor, then played with the wooden shapes puzzle. After that, Duplos, making a ship shape that we said was carrying food for the zoo. He then wanted the zookeeper to help with puzzles, so she helped with the Peter Rabbit puzzle. We had cereal, and he watched one Kipper episode while I showered, then got out the Spanish cards and was looking at those when I got out. We then went and played in his nest. He got two coins from my pocket and was playing with them, hiding them in the blanket. We then started to get ready to go. He got the phone and wanted to call animals. He said “The spiders name is three hundred thousand two” meaning the phone number. I joked about calling a wrong number once, then he wanted to dial more wrong numbers. We skyped with my parents. While skyping, he talked about wanting to go to Kipper’s house, we played in the nest, and he wanted to color. He wanted to color on the floor with the pink crayon, and claimed that the blunt end wouldn’t write on the floor. He wanted me to do it, so I did, showing him that it actually did. He smiled, and loudly said “Hey dada. What do you color on?” Which is what we always say to him, then he says “On the paper!” Got me. It reminded me that yesterday, as I was trying to get him to take a nap and we were walking, he caught me crossing an intersection on red. It was up near Chysanthemum park, on the side street that runs along the stream. I crossed and he said “It’s red! It’s red!“ After we hung up, he wanted to work more on the mosaic, and I was coloring in a space. He’s started to do it as well (in the past he would just scribble). I did a space, and he looked and said “Hey dada. I see some white.” Did a little more iPad, then finally we were ready to head out the door. For some reason I mentioned a wizard, and he asked what a wizard was, and I answered by explaining magic, then picking up a ball and making it disappear. He said “More wizarding!” I hadn’t used it as a verb.

We headed out. There’s a food thing going on at the park, and a band playing. As we walked by I realized August was dancing in the backpack, moving his fists around. On the train he was asking about all the stops, and for one said on his own “There’s nothing too exciting at that stop.”

We transferred at Gunja and went to Achasan, and went to Daiso. Got a new lunch bag thing, as one of ours is wearing out, new straws for his bottles, and a set of letter stickers for him. Looked at puzzles, but they only had 150 piece puzzles. We had gotten one roll of kimbap in the subway, and we stopped by the old playground/foot path and ate lunch. He then played on the play structure, first climbing up the little climbing wall. He contemplated the skinny rope bridge, but decided against that. We went down the slide. I changed him, and he was tired. We got in the backpack, and he wanted to go to the children’s museum. I told him after his nap. He got really sad, and kept repeating “Today. Today, dada. Can we go today?” A good example of ‘today’ meaning ‘now’. Lasted about 10 minutes. I had to stop after a minute to get out a tissue for him. Then he fell asleep.

Slept from 1:36 to 2:54 in the upstairs coffee shop. When he woke up I told him we had to go straight to the children’s museum if he wanted to play there. We hurried over there. He first wanted to go up to the space play area – he looked at the signs on the wall and chose from those. We went up there for a few minutes. He did some hopping, and playing with buttons and switches in the spaceship, then he wanted to go down to the blue blocks. We went down there and played. There was a boy who spoke English with his mom. August seemed a little weirded out by them – I think he maybe thought they were talking to him. Other kids showed up, and started making a big fort using most of the pieces. August helped out, adding to their wall pretty well. At one point he was entranced by the music, looking up at it, and he also laid on the ground and watched the numbers change on the CD player. Oh, and in the space area we learned he is 100cm tall.

Right at 3:30 I told him we needed to leave, and he went without a fuss. I’d been explaining to him what we were doing. We walked to Children’s Grand Park station. He was once again optimistic that the escalators would be open. He spotted them first and was excited even though they weren’t: “Not open!” At Hagye we transferred to the Nowon 15 bus. Took about 10 minutes. We saw 3 1137 buses in the meantime. August had a seat both directions, while I sat next to him. He ate the Larabar, then we played I Spy. When we drove by Wolgye Stations, he said “You’ve been here…Don’t like it.” He was remembering that we always meet other people there. We went to Tospia and got sandwiches and coffee for Carly. Walked to APIS. He was nervous about going in, but I said he didn’t have to talk to anyone, and if anyone said hi I would just say hi and we’d keep going. He did well. Once we got up there, he went straight to her computer, wanting a document. I told her he had been a little nervous coming in. He said “BIG nervous”. We ate the sandwiches. He ate the pizza one and said “Its a little spicy. Not too spicy on your mouth.” He drew on a whiteboard, making squiggly lines, and when it was time to leave at 5:30, he said bye bye to Carly and waved. He didn’t mention nursing the entire time, and wasn’t upset when we left.

We got home, and put together 3 of his small puzzles, then played in the nest. He wanted to do emojis on the iPad, and wanted a piggy back ride while doing it. He let me carry him around the house a little too. At some point, he said “I’ll be back soon.” I got his bath ready, and he got in without a fuss. We had a lot of fun with the letters. Then, playing on the bed, he almost fell of. I told him to be careful. He then told me he had fallen off the bed yesterday. When I asked when, he said it was dark, and when I asked where mama was, he said sleeping. I then asked if it was pretend, and he said yes. But then seemed to claim it was real.

Carly got home, and they were nursing. She asked him if he’d taken a bath and he said yes, but then she hollered to me to verify. Then she asked him if he had played with the letters. He said yes, then hollered on his own to me “Did we play with the letters?” He got out the bucket of blue counting blocks and we all played with those. Carly had brought up a present from Tana. He opened it, and it is a stuffed bear with ‘August’ on it. His game with it became to wipe poop off its bottom, which started because he said there was some poop on its ruffle. Anyway, we all went into bed and played with the bear, and August and I did weird flops and lifts, as he made up funny names like “Want a moomoomaamakakakaah”. He struggled a little about going to sleep, but he was asleep a little before 10.

Waking up:

Playground: 

Sad Zinnie: 

Children’s museum: 

CD player: 

Subway. Making a bird out of shapes: 

APIS:

On the bus: 

Bath: 

Q parts! 

His first Teuni Teuni class today, and he climbed all over the big kids structure at the park. And a lot of playing in nests.

August gave me a good kick in the nose at some point during the nice, and rolled into the headboard in the process. He didn’t wake up though. He was up at 7:25. Walked down the hallway and quietly asked for me first. Only when I picked him up did he ask where mama was. He didn’t get upset at all, just put his head down on my shoulder a bit. First activity was doing all the piano keys, then took them out. As he took them out, I asked if he wanted to build a tower. His reply: “After you take those out. AFTER.” He used ‘after’ a couple other times during the day. Built towers for awhile, then we shared a bagel. Then read some Bob Books. Haven’t done that for awhile. I was doing most of the reading, but he did some. I took a shower, and he was identifying vegetables on the iPad, then we played with Marco Polo Oceans, mainly building the boat and sub over and over. Really into the building games. Then got out the wood puzzle with shapes and played with that, making pictures and shapes in it. He then did one of the small Daiso puzzles on his own. I gave some advice on where pieces went, but I never touched it. That was impressive, as those puzzles are actually kind of difficult to get the pieces together.

He wanted to play in the nest, so we went in the bedroom. As soon as he got in the nest, he started talking about the music box at the children’s museum that doesn’t work. He was then pretending to be sick, and I got a medicine dispenser to play with. Brushed our teeth in there as well. At one point I asked if he wanted to pee, and he replied “I just do not have pee, dada birdie.”

He was so into the nest that it took some work to get him out of the house by 11:30. His class was at 11:50. Had mentioned class several times and he hadn’t said anything. Once we got there though and went upstairs he knew exactly what was going on and didn’t go in. He kept saying something like “Dada go in. Zinnie stay out here.” He got a little upset when he saw the teacher and we backed out for a minute. When I took him back in he was mainly sad and pleading. Kept saying “No dada. No. No dada.” He didn’t do any of the intro stuff (no walking path or forward rolls), but when the toys came out he slowly, slowly got drawn in. First I sat down with him clinging to me, then got him standing, but he stood on my feet and tried to climb me. But then he finally accepted it – I think it was when he got to help with clean up on the first activity that he was hooked. Class was all about leaves and ginkgo trees, and there was one activity where they used nets to catch dragonflies. At the end he was good enough with the teacher to sit for his treat, and then bow and sort of say thank you and goodbye. Went out and he wanted to play on the little vehicles that you can sit in. He saw one of them moving, and suddenly he wanted one that moved as well – in the past the idea scared him. After some fighting with the coin machine (it only gave me 600 won for my first 1000 won note), I got the helicopter going for him. He liked that, and I told him we could do it again after class next week.

Went downstairs and did grocery shopping. Got a few things and discovered carrot apple juice for smoothie purposes. Went home and made a smoothie and salmon sandwich for lunch. We ate, then he wanted to try falling asleep in his nest. Didn’t want me in the room. Gave him a couple attempts and it didn’t work, so we went out in the stroller. Walked around for 20 or 25 minutes, and now after 2. He wasn’t falling asleep, and when I asked him about it, he wanted to go to a playground. Didn’t even mention a coffee shop. So we went to Wild Chrysanthemum Children’s Park. He got out of the stroller and immediately went to the climbing wall. This park has a big play structure, which he has wanted to go on before, but you have to be able to climb to get on it at all. He needed help with one step, then was up. I climbed up, and we made our way around the structure: rope floor thing, a shaky bridge (where August went first, telling me “It is not shaky. A little shaky.”), then climbing down to a platform, then getting used to the shaky platform (scared him at first, but by the end he was standing on it as we shook it), climbing back up the net part, then down a slide with me.

As we got up to the slide, he said “Dada. Thanks for helping me.” So sweet. We went over to get some water, and the wind blew the stroller away. He got worried about that, but it hit a little toy thing a few feet away and stopped. He then went over to the sand, and climbed into a little enclosure, using climbing walls. The tricky part was turning around to go down the other side. Inside, I got the shovel for him, and he started drawing lines in the sand. At one point he asked me “How you doing dada birdie?” He kept drawing, and started drawing homes, mainly “mama and Zinnie and dada’s home” but also for other people. He drew a lot on his own, but eventually wanted me to help. I got in several times. We would draw rooms, and say what they were, and what was in them. We had a music room, with piano, etc. and he requested an amp (from GarageBand). It had gotten sunny, and he was sweating pretty good. This kept going, and I was telling him I wanted to read my book in the shade. He would get me back in for a minute and said “Sigh Dada. Fine. I’ll do some.” Which is his way of mocking/copying me, telling me to sigh and say “Fine, I’ll do some.” But eventually I told him I was out of ideas and didn’t want to play in the sun; he could either play by himself and I would read in the shade, or we could both move and play in the sand in the shade. Reluctantly, he gave in and climbed out and moved to a shady spot in the sand.

I had thought about taking him to a coffee shop at 4, but he had just kept playing. We continued in our new spot until 4:30, and may have stayed later, but saw the stroller blow again. He ran and sat on it so it wouldn’t move again. When getting him to move, I had told him I was out of ideas. Now, getting ready to leave, he commented on my head being empty of ideas, and when I asked if he was out of ideas too he said yes. Before we left though he started talking about where I helped him and, after I put on the brake, he got out and played with the climbing wall (letter shapes and all) and sat on the worm again before we left at 4:40.

Carly was a little late getting home. August had started playing on his own when we got home, so I was able to do some clean up. They nursed, then we’re playing with Duplos. They broke at one point and he said “It’s not Zinnie’s fault.” I think they were building a house for the zookeeper at first, then it was a house for us. He looked at it and said “It’s a nice building.” He was opposed to taking a bath, but eventually he let me take him in, and we had fun with the letters. First, I was pretending to get upset when the letters wouldn’t stick to the door for me, but they would for him. So I had him ‘teach’ me how to get them wet first. He was making nonsense words on the door, and we started to act them out to show what they look like. After his bath he finally ate some dinner with Carly.

He wanted his nest, so we all went in the bedroom. As soon as he climbed in, he said “The music box in the children’s museum does not work.” Very interesting that he associates the music box with his nest. I asked if he wanted a blanket. He really looked like a big kid with his head on a pillow, and his hands resting on the blanket covering him. He asked Carly “how you doing mama bird?” Then we were finding worms. He found one: “That is a sweet one that has blackberry juice in it.” He got a little hyper doing jumps/falls onto the bed. After finding a few more worms (and slugs – he was pretending to eat slugs) he went to sleep pretty quickly around 7:40.

Morning: 

Teuni Teuni class: 

Heliopter:

Watching the mouse: 

Park: 

Home: 

 

Got up at 7:36. Pretty calm. But went to the front door and locked it, as Carly always leaves it unlocked when she leaves so he doesn’t hear it. From there, went in and wanted to do the Peter Rabbit puzzle. He started to destroy it once, we put it back together, and he kicked me out for the last piece. We made a Duplo wall for the zoo, ate banana bread, and I took a shower. Came out and he was playing Classify It! on the iPad. We sorted animals together for several minutes. Did piano keys, then he played with the Weather app on the iPad (not the forecasts one, but one that teaches him about weather) while we got ready. He peed on the toilet. I weighed us today, and him in the backpack weighs 51.3 pounds. The pack says the maximum load is 48 pounds, so we’re pushing it.

Left right at 10. Slight rain, so stopped in the park and put the cover up and put on my hat and made it to the subway. A lot of talking about the stops and transferring to line 2 going both directions. Made some robots in the Robot Factory app on the way down. Got to Samseong Station and made the long walk through the COEX Mall to the aquarium and bought a membership for 55000 won. Saves us money if we go 3 times this year. He was getting upset while waiting for the membership, and was a little slow getting into the aquarium. He liked the escalator at the beginning and kept wanting to go back out and find escalators. He started to get hooked at the funny aquariums. He laughed at the phone booth filled with fish, and really liked the refrigerator and the sink and pot on a stove with fish in them. Then, there is an aquarium where you can put your hand in and they nibble on the dead skin. He wouldn’t put his hand in, but liked me doing it. He spent some time playing with the stove – said there was tea in the tea pot – and ones with buttons. Oh, there is an aquarium in an old video game and he liked the buttons on that.

He really got hooked at the touching area. Touched the different kinds of shells with snails in them, then the sea stars and sea pineapples. There were a kind of sea worm that he was really interested in, but he wouldn’t put his arm deep enough to touch them. And of course later he kept asking what kind of worm they were, but I forgot the name. We washed our hands and he used the hand dryer a lot. Interesting because this was where he first used a hand dryer a long time ago. They are quiet ones and light up your hands red. After that, he became scared of them, because most are much louder. Anyway, after that he really liked the microscopes: you could watch baby jellyfish, and baby and adult artemia. Next thing to really catch his eye were the shrimp fish and garden eels. He and I were both getting hungry. We had entered around 11:30 and it was getting to be 1. Stopped a couple times so he could eat crackers. Felt like I was hurrying him through much of the rest. There was just more and more to see: fake waterfalls, beavers, a few other things caught his attention. For several he would say things like “How you doing beavers?” and I would answer as the animals. I mentioned getting to the seals, and he asked “can you hold them? Can you touch them?” He also liked the moving walkway that snakes through the big aquarium part.

Anyway, we finished up, went back in and got the big backpack (left it in a big locker – in the future might leave the backpack at home and rent a stroller). Tried for awhile to find a GS25 or something, as mall eating isn’t cheap. Eventually decided we had enough food with us. First tried to walk to a spot where there was a band playing (teenage band doing K-Popish stuff) but it was overwhelming for August. He wanted to go outside, so had to show him it was raining. So decided on the baby area. Then the task of finding the baby area. Knew the general vicinity but still hard to find. Kept trying to look at the big maps, but always a wait, and August wanted to touch them (they’re interactive). Finally made it, and we had a nice relaxing lunch. He was very interested in one other baby that was in there. After that family left, he heard something, and I said it was the woman that works there. He said “Want to ask her what she working on.” Then immediately got shy about it and didn’t want to go find her. When she came out though and sat at the computer he was still very interested in what she was doing.

Now around 2, and made a half-hearted attempt at a nap. But getting late for that, and it was way too crazy for him to fall asleep. Would have had to figure out how to find an empty floor upstairs around the conference rooms or something. He was also talking about heading home. First we went and made a pressed penny (well, piece of metal) at the machine we had seen in the aquarium gift shop. Fun for us, then a gift for one of Carly’s friends who collects them. Then as we were walking I saw a cell phone case store. Went in, and found a stick-on wallet for mine. Perfect. August had been carrying the coin thing and kind of rubbing it on my neck. As I was paying, August said he had dropped it. He wanted to get down and look. We didn’t find it, but he started looking at cases. I had noticed that several said ‘Ryan’ on them. Turns out there is a Kakao character named Ryan. August spent about 20 minutes looking at cases and reading the names. He walked by the stereo they had, and started dancing to the music too.

After that, I gave him the options of home, book store, or getting a new penny. He chose the latter. Started walking, but then realized I should look in the backpack. Sure enough, it had fallen down by where his feet go. Had him give me a high five for finding it. He then wanted to drop it, and spent a couple minutes walking around and dropping it on the floor.

Now past 3, we headed home. Easy enough. While getting in the backpack to transfer at Konkuk, he suddenly said “Dada high five“. I turned around to see that the woman sitting next to us was trying to give him a high five. He was being shy. So he high fived with my hand. He refused to talk to her, and turned away, and chanted “Konkuk University” as he knew where we were. The woman understood him and laughed. At Hagye it looked like it was raining really well, so we put on the full rain cover, which he wasn’t happy about. He quieted down as soon as we were outside – in part because he was falling asleep.

Got home at 4:20, and went straight to the piano keys. Carly was home at 5 and they nursed, then we ate dinner. He was falling asleep after that, but then they did counting with the Spanish cards again. She gave him a bath, and he was upset, so she had me come and be funny. I was holding my coffee mug, so had the cat on it meow from the doorway. We then we’re all in bed, and August had his first pillow fight, which he thought was hilarious. Loud screeching. Then, suddenly, he wanted me to make him a nest out of pillows. Did that, and added the blankets and sheet and he still wanted more. He said more pillows must be hiding. So he stole the two Carly was leaning against. Played in the nest for several minutes, wanting me to get him worms, then he would pretend to sleep. He went to sleep about 7:30, but a little before 8 he suddenly opened the door, and Carly had to go back in for a bit to get him back to sleep.

Morning:

Last piece. Telling me to go away: 

COEX Mall. Touching there dog sculpture: 

Aquarium: 

Beavers: 

Hand dryer: 

Cellphone case store: 

His nest: 

He was up at 6:57. I went in and he asked where mama was. I told him, and he loudly said “No!” and threw himself down on the bed. We lay there for a few minutes, then he took my glasses, put them on, and started playing with them: “Want you to poke you in the eye…Zinnie poke you in the eye.” He looked at me and said “You’re a stranger.” Remembering yesterday, he said “200 mango poop breads…we hand blueberry poop bread.” Then “We have banana bread? Can we go eat some?” He jumped on the bed and stood in the crack for a few minutes, wanting to play with the cords, before we actually went out and had banana bread. Had some of that, then he wanted some cereal. Got him a little bowl, then made a smoothie with spinach in it.

We worked on the Peter Rabbit puzzle, putting a good amount together. I took a shower, and when I came out, I heard him saying “Hello”. I looked out to find him sitting on the desk chair, pretending to talk on my old iPhone. Got down and we played with that for a few minutes – first calling Birdie, then a cicada, beetle, and ladybug. He would ask how they were doing, and they’d ask him questions.

We did the slurp game from yesterday with both some smoothie and his vitamins. He continues to be intrigued by my own omega-3 vitamins, and asking what they taste like, so I offered to cut one open so he could taste it, then not like it. But when I gave it to him, he bit right down, so fish oil squirted everywhere, getting on his face. Don’t think he liked it, but wasn’t disgusted either. But he was trying to wipe off his face. I went to get a paper towel, and he went and laid down on the carpet and started wiping his face on the carpet. I grabbed him right away, but apparently he got a little on it – later, Carly would happen to lay down in the exact spot and ask why it smelled like fish.

We used the vitamins to make octagons and nonagons and other shapes, then got ready to go. But of course then he wanted to play with blocks and make flat towers before we left, so we did that.  On the train, we tried out a few new apps: one called Simple Machines, one called ShapeKit (where we did most of the tutorial), then one called Plants. He also did Simple Machines on the way home, really liking the bicycle one, and we read a couple Dr. Seuss stories. The one he remembered later, when I asked, was the Plants app.

We got to the park, grabbed one roll of kimbap from the woman with the stand, then ate by the rectangle pond. He did some dancing as he sat on the table to the Korean version of Do-Ra-Mi. He was then sitting and curling in my lap and eating all of the pieces of kimbap – including all of the carrot and mushroom – as if they were worms. That was fun. And a few times he said “Thank you birdie dada!”

From there we looked at the books for a couple minutes (they were open), then headed upstairs to play on the stairs. He was being slow up the stairs though, and people passed us, and got to the piano before us. He was disappointed for a second when I said we’d have to way, but then he got excited “Play at Tayo bus!” So we went down there and played for a good 20+ minutes. He pretended to drive this time, particularly to Carly’s work. He did a wonderful job of getting out of the way when new kids came in. When they left that area, he would ask me if he could play there again. Turns out we can also go in the yellow bus without paying, so went in there and did the same, and played on the chairs and watched a little Tayo. When he started to get a little sucked in by the TV we left. Went up to the piano and played with it for another 15 minutes. Played a lot of Wheels on the Bus and pretended to put in keys. It was windy, so he was pretending the keys were blowing away, like the leaves, and run and get them.

Changed him, then walked for a nap. Took close to 20 minutes, but he fell asleep from 1:24 to 2:42. Woke up in the downstairs coffee shop. He played with his music apps, quietly, then the Plants app. About 3:30 I asked if he wanted to do anything else before we left. He said Children’s Museum. Couldn’t get him to sidewalk chalk. One of these days.

We went there, and spent our entire time in the light area, playing with the light cubes, the light rods, and the light shape. And a couple minutes with the colorful shadows and the shadow animals. But in particular he was into the rods, which are colored cylinders of plastic that you stick in a grid and they light up. He was playing on his own, first saying he made a zebra, then it got more complex so it was nonsense words. Two bigger girls came over and started turning them all orderly: one row of red, etc. He got into that and we helped, then he got into doing patterns. He would put colors in an order, and call it a pattern. Not really getting the need for repetition, but then I would repeat the series, kind of making it into a song, and it would become a pattern. He started dancing to them as I chanted: “red, blue, blue, red, yellow, blue green…” Played with those until 4:17. With the blocks he mainly made flat towers, and we got where we were taking turns putting pieces on. He would destroy one, then ask “Shall we make more towers?” The shapes were the last thing. I made a butterfly, then he gave the butterfly ice cream, then decided it wasn’t ice cream. I took a photo right as he declared it wasn’t, then later in the evening he saw the photo and said “It is not ice cream”. Finally, he was making elaborate layouts with the shapes, and said it was our home. I asked where we slept, and he initially pointed to three different areas for the three of us. I questioned that, and he changed it, putting him and Carly together, but I was still on my own.

Thought he would be difficult to get out of there, but when I asked him to say goodbye to the shapes at 4:34 he said goodbye and waved to them and we were off. Changed him at the bathroom. I then had to go to the bathroom, and he just stood at the door of the bathroom, out of sight, and yelled “Dada! How are you doing?” while I went. Outside, he wanted to do shoes  “on your own”. He was trying to stand and put them on, without me holding him, and with me just holding the tip of the shoe. He leaned on me a little, but it was fun to see him start to try to put his shoes on himself. Needed a little help getting his feet in, then he would do the straps. He got his spray bottle out, and was drinking from it, pretending it was different flavors, like pink gum: “I like the taste of it”

Headed home, standing for awhile, then got a seat. Walking home, we saw the fake waterfall on and watched it a bit. That is probably going to turn off soon. That and seeing the lotus flowers lose their petals have made me realize that we’re starting to have some of our ‘lasts’ in Korea: last lotus flowers, etc. He was singing to Wheels on the Bus, and started singing numbers to the tune. He got from 1 to 28. He then did some silly math, asking “C plus C equals…” He came up with the answer “C plus C is banana” as we walked by Mama Juice.

Had a few minutes at home before Carly got home. He first shouted his greeting to her, then turned to me and said “Mama’s computer’s here, dada.” A game of his to ask, usually 3 or 4 times a day, where mama’s computer went. I’ll say “She took it to work.”

They nursed, him calling her  “mama bird”. He discovered the lock on the door. Carly explained about it, and then he promptly locked it with us out of the room. Then unlocked it. So, we are past the stage of worrying about him locking the door unintentionally and not being able to unlock it. We ate dinner, then Carly changed him and let him be naked after that. A funny question as he came back into the parlor. He asked me “Can you do your penis on the GROUND, dada?” Basically a very funny way of asking if he could sit on the ground naked (substitute ‘I’ and ‘my’ for ‘you’ and ‘your’ and it makes more sense – still working on the pronouns).

Carly gave him a bath and they played to
gether a bit. He then came in with me while Carly went to shower. He wanted to do nest with me, and actually wanted to pretend nurse, then pretended to go to sleep, cuddled up next to me. When he couldn’t sleep, he played with Duplos for a bit, then wanted to type on my iPad. He did, then got to the emoji keyboard. That went on for awhile, then he found the flag emojis, and got super excited and hyper about them – they are basically a playground of colors and shapes and stars and moons and other things to identify. He started jumping and climbing on my back, pointing at the screen to talk about what was on them. He would get down, type several more, then climb back up again. This lasted quite awhile.

I took photos, and he saw the camera, and when he was done, finally, with the flags, he wanted to play with the timer on the camera, which he remembers from finding once, long ago. He did that for a few minutes, and we got one good selfie out of that. Carly then found the fish spot on the carpet, and they did some Duplos. He put one piece on, and called it a “point”, which comes from playing with the vitamins, etc. and doing shapes. He then puts a second one down and calls it a “line”. He also started to make a “Q tower” that didn’t look anything like a Q. Carly asked if he was ready to sleep, and he said “I’m done sleepy sleeps”. But a bit later he was trying to push random things on my iPad, and melting down a bit when I wouldn’t let him. Seemed on the verge of sleep. Went in to try to sleep about 9. Thought they were both asleep, but suddenly August opened the door to the parlor at 9:30, and asked “what are you watching dada?” We got out the cards, focusing on the Spanish ones. He mainly used them to practice counting. He could do up to 5 on his own. Skipped 6. With 7 and above he would become unsure of losing his place as he counted the objects, and want me to help him point. He pretty much had 7 down by the time he went back in at 10 and went to sleep.

My glasses:

Phone: 

Lunch: 

Driving the bus: 

Children’s museum: 

Our house. Where I sleep:

Emoji: