Author: Ryan/Dada

Carly had 8th grade graduation, so we met up with her before that and had dinner, then played until she was done and walked home with her. That made for a long day. And what a day…a bit rough in the morning, but by the end of the day he was copying a picture for the first time, had done a lot of climbing in the playgrounds, and was giving me a ton of high fives.

He was up at 7:01. A little sad, but a quick recovery and went straight to watching Korean videos. We then read the Korean Hangeul book, and were able to translate almost all the words in it. We had Cheerios for breakfast, then he was rubbing his eyes on the couch. I asked if he was sleepy and he said “sleepy”. He cuddled with me for a bit, then got off the couch, went and got Peter Rabbit, and came back to the couch and cuddled with him. A bit after that, he wanted the spray bottle and the morning got a little difficult after that. Started out fine. He was first remembering when Carly took away the spray bottle because he sprayed the book sign: “Where’d the spray bottle go? Mama took it for the 책 sign. Sad about the 책 sign being wet.” Then he got fanciful: “Mama…took it to the giraffes for eating…eat the squirt bottle.” He found the spray bottle and was playing with it okay. We had discussed where he could spray before he started. Then he got a bit cheeky, as he sprayed on the fruits and veggies container and said “Here?”, then answered himself “That’s fine.” I asked if I had said that was okay and he said “Think so!” But then he tried spraying books again and he was a bit frustrated by that.

Then he saw me with my phone and instantly got upset and wanted it. When I wouldn’t give it to him he screamed, then when I reached down for him he bit my hand. I eventually took him to the ‘screaming room’, which he wasn’t happy about, and wanted to leave. Eventually he calmed down a little and I brought him back out on the couch and sat him on my lap, then suddenly he was calm and quiet.

Finally got going after that, and left for Dream Forest at 10. He was very mellow on the busride there and had continued to rub his eyes through the morning. As we walked by the visitor center at the park I pointed in the windows and said I saw mirror August. He replied with “I see mirror dada.” As we passed the first water play area he said “Dada was sad right here. Go in the deeper one.” – referring to when it didn’t turn on and I didn’t understand why and I wanted it deeper. We went to GS25 and got kimbap, and he spotted the fruit cup things. We got grapefruit and pineapple, and he was excited for both. I was looking around a bit more and he said “Ready to pay.” We went out and sat at one of the tables and ate there. He didn’t like the grapefruit but ate the pineapple, and used the little fork thing to get a few pieces, and he offered some to Smokey. Getting his own pineapple and dripping reminded him of the drippy oatmeal he had with mama awhile back. There were some moms and kids at the table next to us, and we saw a pink water bottle: “Sad about the purple one. “ “Where?” “That she had at the spiderweb playground.” Remembering a few weeks back when he wanted the purple water bottle that a girl had at the new playground.

We had about 20 minutes until the water turned on (I thought), so we went to the playground. He played in the bushes area a bit, then wanted to walk on the wire containers full of rocks that make a wall around it. As he walked along he started saying “All the way to this stream, boop.” on each square. At noon we went up and…no water. I looked on the sign by the floor fountain. There hadn’t been a sign with times on it last time we were here, but it had turned on at noon on a Monday. Now, there WAS a sign, and it said…Saturday and Sunday only. Very weird, as it wasn’t the case last year, and there was a water shortage last year… Anyway, we went back to the first water play area (where the party was on Sunda) and it too was off. That HAD had a sign too, and didn’t list dates, just times. Now that sign has been replaced too, with one saying just Saturday and Sunday.

We’d been out in the heat for a couple of hours by the time I got him ready for his nap and he fell asleep, and I thought about cutting our day short and going home after his nap. I changed him, then he randomly said, full sentence,  “Babies pee in the water in the wading pool.” I asked “Does Zinnie?” And he instantly replied “Yeah”. This is odd as he always has had a diaper on. Don’t know where this came from.

He fell asleep and had a short nap, 12:52 to 1:34. But when he woke up he then cuddled on me until 1:48. He wanted to play in the book area. We looked at books a bit, then he did art on the iPad, first just sitting on the floor. Then he traced letters and changed fonts.

We went out and went to the art show at the Dream Gallery. He was open to it, but not terribly excited, although he ended up liking a few pieces. After we had seen it all I asked what was his favorite, and he said the “Ssssshhh” one of a person making the shushing sign. He said it reminded him of the espanol book, and I figured out it was the Curious George book where he goes to the library.

We left, and made our way through the north route to APIS. We looked at one park but there was no water. At the second park we came across (벌말어린이공원) he played with a low faucet, and spent much of his time pouring water on his own sandals. We then kept going, passing a third park that was pretty boring, and hiked over the hill through a fourth park (비석골근린공원) to meet Carly at the Tospia sandwich shop for an early dinner at 4. August really liked walking through the trees: He was saying “Sky…trees” as we went from clearing to trees and back, and “watch out for the trees.” We came across a cat house that someone had set up, and he liked the stones we came across that are part of the old cemetary. He wanted more walking through trees when we got out.  We stood waiting for Carly for a couple minutes, and he said “Waiting here.” He startled her pretty well when she showed up and he saw her first.

We ordered sandwiches with Carly, walked around a little, then went to the park across from APIS (안골어린이공원) and ate them. August was sad when he dropped a piece of ham. Actually, he was fine with that, but then had the idea of eating it, and was sad when Carly wouldn’t let him. But when a piece of ice fell later when he was eating our ice he was fine, saying “That’s fine. That’s okay.”

Carly went back to school for the 8th grade graduation, and August and I decided to head up to 초안어린이공원, a park a bit farther north. Before we left though a couple of guys gave August a little fruit thing they had gotten off a tree. August was carrying it as we walked up a street, but he dropped it. He told me, but by the time we turned back the one car that came out of a parking lot had driven over it. He handled it well, and actually found it funny even though he’d been making plans to eat it.

Before getting to the park, we finally got into the Buddhist temple along the way. It has two historical markers in it, but the gates are never opened. We read and took photos of those (he wanted me to read one in Chinese), then went to the park. There, he was first attracted to the water, but then went to the big rope play strcutre thing (which he called the “B one” for some reason). He did some climbing on it, and stood on it, shaking it. It was like the spider web at the new playground, only much, much bigger. He saw big kids up high, above my head, and wanted to go up there. I did help him climb up about to my head level, but that was it. Actually, I was just spotting him, as he was doing a pretty good job climbing.

From there we headed yet further north, to a park on Google Maps located back behind an apartment complex. Thought it might be mislabeled, but we did find a very cool playgrou
nd near what Google calls 원계근린공원. The play structure was awesome – it is a huge elephant. August climbed on a little curving red ladder once, then just looked around. We startled two cats that were hanging out in the structure, and watched them for a couple minutes before deciding we should head back. Changed him, then we went back to APIS and met Carly across the street again. Before we left that last park, he had said “I don’t want to be sad.” and we were doing pretend sad, surprised, etc.

His favorite sentence recently, but especially today, is: “what does dada say?” He says it anytime I say something he doesn’t fully understand, or if I just haven’t said anything in awhile.

Also, as we were walking, he was asking “10 plus 10 equals…” and I would answer 20, then he would say “20 plus 20 equals…” and I would say 40. We got up to 160 that way. As we walked home with Carly he was doing something similar, then applied it to words, saying “Mama plus mama equals mama mama” and then I’m pretty sure he doubled that…or at least said a whole lot of ‘mama’s after it.

At home, he wanted to watch the video of Vivian dancing, and then he danced with her. That was pretty amazing. We were then writing words from the pigeon book on paper, and suddenly he started copying the pigeon, like he saw Carly doing the other day. He drew a circle and put a dot in it for the eye, then drew two rectangles underneath – the neck and the white band on the neck. That was very cool to see. We then got out his sticker book things, and he really got into the matching part of it, which had been to complicated for him before. Every time he would figure out where a sticker went he would give me a bunch of high fives. Finally, he took the “Book from Meg” to bed and went to sleep at 9:30.

New words/phrases: no thank you (when eating dinner, I think it was, Carly had asked him something and he just out and said this)

 He grew again:

Cuddling with Peter Rabbit: 

Lunch: 

Playground: 

Flying: 

After his nap: 

His favorite piece: 

Tree playground park: 

With mama and after. Sad about the ham: 

Fruit: 

Fascinated by men playing go on our walk home: 

Home: 

Pigeon:

Seoul Grand Zoo

Our last trip to the big zoo before heading to the States! We made the most of it, and he just kept wanting more and more animals.

He started waking up at 5. He was talking a lot about mama – pretty sure he was dreaming about getting home and looking for mama, or something along those lines. He nursed and dozed until getting up at 5:40. After she left, he cuddled with Peter Rabbit and me and we read Humpty Dumpty several times. He was then watching one of the 5-TOUCH videos, and when there was a song about frogs he wanted his froggy towel and wore it a bit. He saw my phone and wanted to watch videos on it, so I let him watch our videos on YouTube. He requested “answer me questions, picnic table, eating kimbap”, referring to the spot by the little pond where we have eaten several times and I’ve quizzed him on spelling words. Before we left, he wanted the spray bottle, and I let him have it as I changed him and got him in the backpack. He was happily spraying everything he could from both spots. He tried for a second to convince me to take it with us, but I explained it was mama’s and it had to stay here and he was fine with it.

We left right at 8 – seemed early, but the earlier the better. On the Subway he did art on the iPad most of the way down. For much of the time he was using the paint roller tool and layering colors over colors. It made me think of Tristan Tzara and the Dadaists. But then he switched tools and drew something in red and as he did so said “Whale in there…draw seaweed.” I helped him switch to green, then he drew squiggly lines as seaweed. His first intentionally representative piece of art.

From that he moved to the cursive app, and we got into switching fonts. He really liked different fonts, and learned the word, and after watching me do it a couple times figured out how to change it himself.

We made the long walk up to the zoo, stopping first at C U for kimbap, a fried egg sandwich, and 3 mango soymilks – one for today and two for him to have on the plane. We also slowed on the walk up to look at a bunch of photos they had up of scenes around Seoul Grand Park. August wanted to eat right away, which made sense as a.) he was up early and b.) except for a couple bites of quesadilla that Carly had left for him, neither of us had had breakfast.

We got to the zoo, and first he wanted to look at the paintings of animals near the entrance. He picked out the Asian black bear and declared he wanted to see that today. We went back and got a map, and he wanted it. I folded it so he could see most of the zoo and handed it to him in the backpack. He saw the flamingos and giraffes and wanted to see them. So we walked to the flamingos and watched them for several minutes. Or, more correctly, watched the zookeepers spraying with a hose and preparing food. After 10 minutes or so he wanted to eat, so we went to a blue-covered picinic table from which we could see both the flamingos and giraffes and ate there.  He liked the sandwich (sans the lettuce, which I took out) and it was the first non-PB sandwich he has really eaten and held on his own. Odd milestone, I know, but stuck out to me.

He had pooped, so we went to change him in the changing room. Despite talking about the sit up/lie down ‘game’ and pointing out how nice the changing tables were, he didn’t want to lie down, then I realized that poop was squeezing out of his shorts. So we did it standing up, and got through it. We left, and got him in the backpack, and he was ready for a nap: “Nap time”. We walked a bit and he fell asleep, and slept in the cafeteria area near the dolphin show from 11:28 to 12:45. When he woke up he said “Would you like to get out sir?” and answered his own question, “Yes!” We looked at the map again, and he decided he wanted to go to the South American pavilion. So we headed there, but first he saw the dolphin fountain and we watched that for a couple minutes. We also saw the pictures of different whales and learned ‘dolphin’ and ‘whale’ in Korean (고래 and 도고래 ) and Spanish. On our way up the hill, we were then distracted by the predator birds, and saw the hawks and eagles and condors. We were up by an Andean condor when he heard loud birds. It was the sea eagles and we went back down to see them making noise.

We got to the South American pavilion and saw a bunch of new animals for August: llamas, maras, tapirs, capybaras, crocodile, caiman, anteaters, armadillos, raccoons. We also saw coatis, which he said were hiding, and later talked about how they were climbing in the trees, and all sorts of turtles, which he called in Korean, and anacondas. We left out the back and started to walk up and around to see the bison, then head to the water. He was talking about playing in the water: “Want to play in the water like a snakes doing…and a turtle.” By the bison we found a couple of cats on the path, then stopped on a platform and had a snack. We then kept walking, and saw tahrs, which were new to both of us.

We walked through the little wildlife conservation education building, and then outside that he saw a big map of the park. He looked at it, and got hooked on the botanical garden (which we call the conservatory). He kept choosing that, and look at other animals, over going and playing in the stream. Took a long time to get out of the zoo, as we were literally at the far end of the zoo, and August had chosen the longest path. Along the way we saw the Asian black bears, got down to see the otters and get Smokey out, played ‘Smokey sees…’ and finally made it to the botanical gardens. We went in for a few minutes, then continued on our way out, seeing the lesser pandas and zebras, then walking to the pond area for a second to put his hat back on, which he had taken off. He wanted to get down and get rocks and was sad when I said no. I then pointed out the koi, which got his attention, and he remembered the time by the National Museum when he saw the older boys throwing food to the koi and August thought it was really messy:  “Remember the messy…the koi one…want to find three messy things, dropping food to the koi fish.”

As we left the zoo he kept saying “More…more animals.” The trip home was unevenful, and we got home at 5:26. Thought we had gotten home before Carly, so he was ready to drop off our stuff then go out to the elevators to meet her, but she had gotten home early and August was very surprised by that.

Straightforward evening. He ate nutty noodles and Carly gave him a bath. He was asleep at 7:40.

New words/phrases: font, 고래 도고래, conservatory, 텃밭 (vegetable garden), bañera (bath)

Cuddling and reading: 

His picture on the way down: 

A new song: 

Map: 

Maras: 

Sandwich fun: 

More maps: 

Resting with Smokey: 

Headed home: 

Transferring to the bus: 

Today we went to brunch with Megan in the morning, went to a little giveaway event, and then in the afternoon returned to the park we recently found with a fountain.

He got up at 6:20 and was nursing and sleeping on the reading area until 7:20. Carly was finally able to get up, but then he woke up for good a couple minutes later. They then had a long Skype call with Cherie. One of Carly’s animal paintings, originally from his mobile, fell down and Carly got tape to put it back up. August wanted to act like the animals, remembering the Elmo Loves Animals app. He acted like a fish and eagle, then wanted to do the octopus. One of the paintings looks like seaweed, so that’s what I called it, and August wanted to be seaweed. This was his favorite, and I would pick him up and he’d put his arms up in the air and we’d float back and forth. He then developed a little skit where he’d get down, then pretend to bite me, I’d say “Don’t eat me! I thought you didn’t like seaweed.” and he’d say something about seaweed in the kimbap.

Later in the morning, I went to change him before we left, and he only wanted to read the Korean poster by his changing pad. After changing him, he had the spray bottle, and he’s starting to get a bit wild with it, thinking he can spray everything, since he can now aim and fire with ease. I tried to give him his vitamins, but he sprayed them and they turned soggy. Finally, we got him in the backpack, ready to go, and I brushed his hair. He’s asking ‘What kind of…’ questions, and asked “What kind of brush?” Carly said “Oma brush”, since she gave it to us. From there August went to the Ladybug song (which Cherie taught him): “Ladybug…flew away…sad bout that.”

We walked down to this brunch place called 502 Seconds a couple blocks south of us that we’d never been to. We were meeting Meg there, but didn’t know if it would be open due to Memorial Day. Happily, a woman came and opened the doors at 10. We waited outside, and August played on the piano on the porch to the left of the restaurant. Brunch was good, and August had fun, first looking at all the cushions (they had a deer on them), then trying out all the different chairs, then eating, then just kind of roaming around and performing. At one point he was hiding behind his shirt. Meg gave me a piece of art by a student who graduated a couple years ago. She had remembered I had really liked it, and it was framed. It was a thank you for letting her borrow my camera to do the AP Studio Art portfolios. And she gave August a picture book about Leo Tolstoy called The Three Questions. We all hung out outside for awhile before we left, and August took a bunch of photos, primarily of the piano. I then took his photo with Meg and the book, and she took a family photo of us. Also, she got some wonderful shots of August when he was looking out the door at her. She left and we stayed a few minutes longer as he played around. He saw an ant carrying a piece of food and said “Thank you ant he said” (the ant was thanking someone).

We stopped at a playground in that apartment complex for a few minutes, and all went on the swings, then Carly took him over to see the recycling truck that he could hear. We went home and he took a short nap, from about 12:25 to 1. After his nap, he noticed we hard hung the piece of art on the wall and he liked it. He pointed at the open mouth on it and said “Circle…mouth is a circle.” Then traced his own mouth with his finger. He requested the seaweed thing: “Want to be like seaweed with dada.” Then did painting, mixing colors, and I skyped with parents. He wasn’t much into Skyping today, instead wanting to wash his hands a couple times, then playing in the sink with the water, and then the spray bottle.

At 2 we went to 3 other apartments here in Brownstone, where people who are leaving APIS were giving stuff away. We came away with some lightbulbs and some food items. August wasn’t into it at first, but got better by the end.

We came home for awhile, then decided to go outside in the afternoon. Carly needed some help getting going, so I told August, who was hyper, to blow some energy on mama, and he had fun doing that. He wanted in the stroller, and when Carly opened the tray for him he said “Thank you”. I washed his hand or something, and he asked “What is the messy?”, a question he asks all the time now. He is most confused when there isn’t something visibly messy. So I was explaining germs and he was really trying to understand, but looked skeptical.

We walked up to the Love Children’s Park that August and I had found the other day. We were a little early for the 5 o’clock fountain time, so we walked around the block first, up some streets we’ve never been on. At the park, he first played in the sand. Carly was filling the bucket with water from the faucet, and he was using the cup to pour it in the sand. Carly warned him the faucet might spray him, and he would retreat a long way away. When the fountain turned on, we went over there. Carly mainly played with him and I watched. She was filling the bucket for him from the big jets and he would dump it out.

We headed home after it was off. At home he wanted to nurse, but Carly was trying to wait until he was ready to sleep. We shared some nutty noodles, then Carly gave him his bath. We watched some Korean videos, then he dumped out the crayons and otok some convincing to get him to pick them back up. He was then going wild with the spray bottle again, spraying our word signs and everything else, so we had to take that away. He and Carly had read the Tolstoy book a couple times today, and he requested it once with me as well: “Read the book from Meg”. He fell asleep about 7:20.

New words/phrases:  what kind of…

 

Back asleep on and off the reading area:

Brunch:

With Meg and the new book: 

One of August’s photos: 

Photos that Meg took: 

With mama before we left: 

Our new art: 

Out on our walk: 

Sarang (Love) Children’s Park:

Carly filling the bucket: 

Mama and August Berry: 

He was up at 7:20. In the morning we made a card for Chloe using the cake thing from his 5-Touch class and putting stickers on it. Inside, he wrote his name and ‘gargatuan’, and traced ‘Happy Birthday Chloe’. He also put a lot of stickers on the floor. We left and headed to the bus stop, wanting me to run along the way. On the bus a man fanned August with a paper fan and August kept asking for ‘more’ and was also signing it.

We got to the park about 9:45. We found Jill and Logan, and he started by wading with Carly in the play area. He then got on top of the fountain part and was putting his foot in the water as it came up, and his hand in the waterfall part on the edge. I then got him the bucket and he played with that, and when Chloe arrived she borrowed a cup and the shovel. Later, August wanted to use the shovel, and he went over to ask for it, but she had her back to him and he couldn’t figure out how to ask for it. A boy came by and sprayed him a few times with a little squirt gun and August liked it and asked for more: “on the pigeon…more squirting.” Played a bit more, then we headed over to the picnic tables and ate. He rejected the first Korean raspberry, but after that ate them. He ate the ‘Logan snacks’ and a few other things, then found it fun to dip the Logan snacks or freeze-dried strawberries in the ranch dip and give them to me to eat…which was interesting. We stayed there  for quite awhile, then went back up to the water for a minute, then they were going to do cake. Went back for that, and August loved the cake, starting with the white chocolate on top, then eating the “white stuff” (frosting) “yellow” (the cake) and the “red” (filling). He fell off the bench, but handled it pretty well, despite getting a little scrape on his forehead. It was time for a nap, so we changed him, and went for a walk. Took a little while to get him down, what with all the excitement in the park (wading pools on, etc.) so I kept walking while Carly went on up to the coffee shop. Walked the paths in the north corner of the park until he fell asleep. Went back to the coffee shop and he slept from 1:08 to 2:04.

Headed home, stopping at the info center for water. Had to stand up on the crowded bus, but we made it. Home, they nursed, and then were reading Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. One page says “We could count the stars.” so August asked where the stars were. So they came out and Carly drew the same picture, but included the stars above. August then did some painting, and I turned on some music. He started dancing to a Cloud Cult song. He was being pretty funny, and put his head right up against the fan to feel the wind, then was holding the red paint tube in his mouth. After that he found the snot sucker and was trying to put it in his nose and use it. We watched some Korean songs and looked up words, then he was cuddling with Carly on the couch.

I was getting a headache, so laid down for awhile, and Carly took him out in the stroller. I got up after awhile and went out to find them, but Carly wasn’t answering the phone (it was in the stroller and she didn’t hear it), so I hung out in our park, where a Korean concert was happeneing. Eventually, Carly called back and said they were at the new playground in the apartments up by Madeul. I walked up there and found them playing in the sand. August was filling his sandal with sand and joking about putting it on. He had apparently started something, as another girl was putting sand in her shoe, and Carly said another kid had been doing it earlier. Earlier, Carly had been able to spin August on the spinny thing in the play area.

On the way home, I was hiding behind the trees and jumping out, which he liked until he wanted me to stop: “No hiding by the trees.” He then wanted Carly to run while pushing the stroller: “Want to run with mama.”

At home, Carly was eating something and August wanted some: “What is it the food that mama ate?…What is it mama got?” I gave him a bath (he wanted his hair washed), and August spotted a mosquito looking thing on the side of the table that we could barely see. He said “What is the green one?” Not sure exactly, but we called it a mosquito. I caught it in a container, then August went out with me to release it out the window at the end of the hall. He and Carly went to sleep about 9:30 again.

New words/phrases: reading 꽃 (flower) on a sign

 

He figured out how to save his monsters in Sago mini Monsters as pictures. Here is one of many: 

The party: 

Watching Logan: 

Watching Chloe: 

After his nap: 

Home. The stars:

Painting: 

Cuddling: 

Playground: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

Carly remembers him laughing in his sleep sometime last night. He slept all the way until 8:23. I had my book group meeting to discuss *Breakfast at Tiffany’s* starting at 7:30, and was done a little after 9. Carly was going to do the recycling, but August didn’t want to let her go: “Dada do recycling. Mama Zinnie have fun.” After I got back, he was playing the piano and singing, sort of doing ascending scales. Then he did it a few times, only not pushing the keys as he went, but just singing notes. Suddenly, he decided he wanted to go outside, a little before 10: “Want mama to come.” At some point he was reciting lines from the shapes book, which they had read several times during the morning. As we left, he accidentally elbowed Carly in the face, then kissed her and did a nose rub to make it better.

We first went down to the ATM, where he was not happy having to wait for Carly again. We then went to Home Plus. Carly went ahead to do shopping, while I kept him occupied. He walked through the first basement, touching all the clothes as he went, then looked at aquariums. We went down the walkway, and he looked at food a bit, we found mama,  and he grabbed the Yachae crackers – they hadn’t had them in a box in some time, but he found them. He then happily carried his discovery as we left the store.

Carly headed home to start making nutty noodles, and we stayed in the park. He first played on the bench in front of the art museum. A woman came up and was talking to him and wanted to shake his hand – he put his arm out and shook hers. We then we went into the play area in the art museum. He played in there for several minutes, but mainly stayed on the steps/cushions, mainly listening to and entertaining the adults. He was done there and wanted to go look at art. As we walked down the stairs to the basement level he slipped and somehow fell sideways on the stairs. Didn’t really hurt him, but he decided he wanted to head home.

Of course, plans changed when we got to the faucets. Played there, then went over to the playground. There, he stood on one side of the elliptical with both feet while I held his hands and we figured out how to make him go in circles. We went back to the water, and finally I coaxed him home at 12:20 as I was wanting lunch.

At home Carly finished making the nutty noodles. While we waited, August and I shared some salmon and crackers. And he played more “Do you write on this?” He then got quite upset that he couldn’t go in the kitchen, but eventually she was done and he enoyed some nutty noodles. He pooped, and was jumping with poop in his diaper and found that funny. There was something on the floor, and he said “That’s not a chair for Zinnie to sit on.”

He fell asleep and had a long nap, sleeping until 2:58. Carly had left about 2:30 to go to graduation. He was sad to find her gone: “want mama. Want to read.” He wanted to work on the “Cada Semilla“ song, so we watched the video several times and had the words up on the phone while we did. Then watched some Korean songs, and he requested milk in is green cup. He also requested some frozen mango, but then only played with it.

Around 3:30 we headed out, headed for Madeul Stadium or points farther north. We went to a park we had missed in our wanderings up there before, called 사랑어린이공원 (Love Children’s Park). We walked around and saw it had a fountain area that would turn on at 5. So we wandered around a bit more, but he wasn’t quick to get out of the backpack. We ended up looking at the map, and it became a lesson in maps, in that he would point to one of the numbers on the map, then I would turn around and show him what it was on the ground. He seemed to really get it, and kept pointing to objects and numbers over and over. Probably spent 10 or 15 minutes there.

Then got him out and he did a little climbing on the play structure, then we waited for the fountain to turn on. It did, and we found that only two of the jets worked fully. This was actually really nice, as there were two that barely sprayed at all, and one that was about a foot and a half high. He could play with those. He was hesitant at first, but got more bold. I got the bucket, and he spent much of the time filling it from the taller one and dumping water down the drain: goes down the drain”. For the last few minutes some bigger kids came and were spraying the water around, but August seemed to like watching them. He wasn’t happy when it turned off, and we did a little more map fun. While at the map, he saw two girls standing on the ends of a teeter totter. He wanted him and dada to do that. Then, a boy was crying (it was the boy whose mother, earlier, had had him pee into a random bottle, then she set it on the curb around the park – August hadn’t seen that, but later he saw the bottle and wanted to hold it, and I had to tell him no). August wanted to see, so we walked by, then back again the other way. August wanted to stop and watch, but I wouldn’t do that, and he wasn’t happy with me.

But we made it out of there, then walked a bit more north to remind ourselves what the park north of that was like – we had been there sometime last spring and had played in a faucet. We saw one of those little book exchange booths and August picked out a Korean book about a rabbit who receives a letter, so we took it with us.

Got home about 6:30, a little after Carly. Ate nutty noodles for dinner, then he had a lot of fun watching videos of himself. He decided he wanted to “Type to gramma”, so we did that. He saw the Frida book, and said “That’s mama’s book, Frida.” Since August had liked the map today, Carly drew him a map of the apartment, with things labeled on it like “The table August sits on“. He enjoyed reading it and writing on it. He played in the sink, and at some point I had given him a bath. I changed him, and he said “What is it the messy on the butt? Just poop.” He and Carly went to sleep about 9:30.

New words/phrases: surprised, forget, mango chiquita,

Piano:

To Home Plus: 

Crackers: 

Waving bye bye to mama (long after she was gone): 

Hanging out with the adults: 

Water: 

Love Children’s Park: 

Home: 

Awake 7:33. Opened the door and walked out holding the fruits and veggies book and Little Miss Muffett. We read the fruit book, then the Curious George library book, then on to A de Activista and then The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog. One of his favorite lines in there is a “a taste sensation”, so we ended up defining ‘sensation’ and writing it on paper several times. We watched Korean videos and did some translating. As we packed up, I attached the bucket to the backpack. He was talking about taking the bucket to mama, as he has played with it with her. He then, of course, did the fooling me thing when changing his diaper before we left around 10.

On the way to the subway he was saying “Double S” and “Double G (ㄲ)” a lot, and then talking about when I had said no more “Double G” on the bus down to the MMCA.

We walked up to the stream, and played in the sandy/gravelly spot we played last time, although no climbing up the rocks this time. Instead, we got out the bucket and shovel and cups and played with that. There was some white stuff in the gravel in one spot that kind of looked like some food someone had dumped. I told August not to step in it, so then of course he was really interested in it. We filled a bucket with sand, and I asked where we should dump it. He thought about it and said “On the white.” We poured several buckets on it, then he said “On the black”, pointing to some leaves and sticks that were sitting in a still spot in the stream. So seeral more buckets on those. Finally, we poured buckets of gravel on three big rocks. I wanted to take a water and shade break, but he resisted that. But then when I asked if he was ready to nap, he said he was, and wanted to get in the backpack. So we made our way up to the backpack and changed him, but got distracted for several minutes when he wanted to take photos, including of the broken sheet of safety glass next to us.

We got ready to go, and as I got ready to go, I asked where we should go. He said “Walk to the hats.”, referring to all the hat shops we passed on our walk in from the subway. Instead, I walked a bit down the stream and he fell right asleep. I walked up to L’Arbre Gallery Book Cafe, a place we have walked by many, many times but never gone in. I got a drink and sat down. The woman working there was very helpful/concerned, first helping get him off my back, then worrying that the air conditioner was too cold or blowing on him (it wasn’t). He slept from 1:11 to 2:09. I kept getting distracted by the music playing, which was mainly 60s to 80s American folk/pop: Tennessee Waltz, ” Evergreen” by Susan Jacks, a version of “You are My Sunshine”, Anne Murray’s “You Needed Me”, The Carpenters’ “Yesterday Once More“, Olivia Newton-John’s “Let Me Be There”, etc. When he woke up he really liked the cushions on the bench and seats:  “Sit on the red thing…one for dada…You sit on the yellow one…cushion for mama.”

From there I mentioned the Iris Garden, and August got excited about that. We walked to the Iris Garden and played by a stream area. A guy who is an English teacher came up and was talking to me about August. He then took our photo using my phone. August was open to heading home to mama after that. At some point I asked about changing his diaper, or if there was poop, and he said “I guess so…” Then, as I went to check, “There’s no poop in there!”

He is really into the subway stops between Dobongsan and Hagye, starting to memorize them. At Suraksan he watched the people getting off and said “People go in Suraksan.” As we walked home from the subway, he was pointing and saying “That’s not mama, that’s people.” On the side of the bridge he surprised me by reading ‘Nowon’ in Korean on the side of the bridge, as it is very script-like there. In the park he looked down a grate and said “Grate…all black.” We spotted the 15 bus across the street but Carly didn’t get off, so we thought she had already gotten off a previous bus, so August was saying “Mama already get off.”

We were meeting Carly at the bank, so we walked into the pink building, past Burger Ton, where we had eaten with Meg and Torrey, etc. August pointed to where we sat outside and said “Remember this…wanted chips.” Carly showed up a bit after us – she had actually been on the next bus. She got a number at the bank and I took August down to the movie theater to change him, as he had leaked. I changed him, with him standing on the toilet lid. The sensor did its job and flushed the toilet, startling him. It did this a couple more times. It startled August but he also found it exciting. He was holding on to me, and would pull his legs up off the lid. I “Silly toilet, it thinks you are peeing.“ and he found that hilarious. After that, I just had to say “Silly toilet“ and he would start laughing. I had asked August what he wanted to do once we got home, and he said “Nurse and READ!” As we left the theater, he saw the book area and said “Go with me, play in book area.” but we needed to get back to the bank.

We went back up and waited for Carly. She had shown up right after 3:30. Simply transferring her U.S. dollars to our U.S. bank (and converting some to her Korean account) took forever. Each time we do it it is like the person has never done an overseas remittance before – and we are already set up in the system for it to happen. Strange. August laid on the seats and watched his Korean videos, but eventually grew tired of waiting. So I took him and we headed home, and Carly got home a bit later. We were doing some finger painting and mixing colors when she got home.

At home, we ate some dinner, and a bit later he stepped on the paper with paint and slipped and fell a bit. Got him cleaned up, and a bit later we all went out to enjoy the evening. We stopped at that new coffee shop and got drinks, and the banana-shaped banana bread for August. Sat by the playground and finished that. August, talking about his bread, said “Like Cookie Monster”, referring to the iPad cookie letters app. He also remembered the chocolate and the ice cream he shared with Carly on her fake birthday, and said “Chocolate!” when he took a bite. He poked Carly for some reason, and said “Poking the omma” (meaning ‘mama’ in Korean). He was interested in the slide that is made of two bars – one you sit on, and one you hold. He tried climbing it a bit, then we helped him go down several times. Then walked around the park, and we ran into Preacher. I talked to him for awhile – learned a bit about his kids, and that he is concerned about North Korean spies kidnapping people, telling me to keep an eye on August. When I caught up to Carly and August they were playing in the faucets. A little boy watched August dumping out water for awhile, and August pointed to one of the faucets and said “that one is my favorite”

Back home, we gave him a bath and then did our usual reading, and they went to sleep a little after 10.

New words/phrases: cushion, I guess so, all black

Bringing books out in the morning: 

Lunch: 

Stream: 

An August photo: 

After his nap: 

Iris Garden: 

Headed home: 

Bank: 

Home: 

Park: 

He was up at 7:23. We read Biscuit’s Picnic a couple times and then the email from Carly. At some point he said “Want to whee. By the water. Like the art does it.” He was referring to a photo we saw at the art museum that showed a child being held by the hands and swung over the edge of some water. I went to change him and he said “Poop in there…yeah, yeah” But when I took his diaper off he smiled and said “No poop!” Totally into trying to “Fool dada” every time I change him. We watched Korean videos together and translated several words. As I got him ready to go in the backpack, I got distracted and only put one shoe on. He started waving his foot without a shoe on it and said “Left shoe!”

We headed to Children’s Grand Park. There, he wanted to look at the big map. He decided he wanted to go see the zebras and kangaroos. So we headed that way, but there were a lot of big kids playing in the new playground, and August decided he wanted to eat there. He was pointing at the platforms and said he wanted to eat “On the ‘bye fuzzy’ one” – referring to losing the bit of fuzz between the cracks of the wooden platform by the youth center by the stream. So we sat there and ate. We had stopped and gotten kimbap and I set down the black bag with it inside: “What you have in there?” We ate (including the mango jello thing a guy had given us before we got on the subway), and also drank the black bean soy milk, which he had wanted to get. We used the straw from his water bottle. I put the straw back in his water bottle, but he could see the soy milk get in the water. So I told him he could dump out the water and we would refill it. So he did, then went over and started scooping sand with it as well.

He helped throw away our garbage, then we walked to the other side of the playground, to the faucets. As we did, he pointed to a bench and said “Sad right here…B A L L O O N…green one.” remembering the green dinosaur balloon that had made him sad. He played with the water bottle in the faucets. He was also clapping, and a woman clapped with him. August said

“Woman doing jak jak jak” (clap clap clap). A little girl came up and looked at him. August said hi and she didn’t say anything. He then said “She’s quiet” Another girl came a bit later and handed August a green thing to play with, and she used a bucket in the other faucet. August watched her a bit, then she left and was playing in the sand.

He’s been much more open to taking naps and not fighting them. Today, he needed to be changed, so I simply asked if we should go change him, not yet mentioning a nap, since it was only about 11:30. He said “Yeah. Then go to sleep.” or something very close to that. So we got our stuff together, as well as the toys the little girl had left by the faucet. August then carried the bucket over to the little girl, and stood there until she took it from him. He then said “Bye” and waved.

By the time we returned the toys and packed up and walked up to change him (standing up on the platform near the bathrooms; he remembered being sad there that one time, when I had to set him down:“Screaming…stand up Dr. Seuss diaper.”) some time had passed, so then I asked a few times “Are you sleepy? Do you want to take a nap?” And he said “Yeah” to each question. And then he wanted to get Smokey as a pillow before I had put him in the backpack.

We started walking, and he was talking about going to the coffee shop. I told him he had to nap first. He then said “Go to sleep first”, then put his head down and promptly fell asleep. He slept from 12:18 to 1:34. He woke up and immediately said “More cookies! More cookies with Cookie Monster and Elmo!” We stayed there a bit, he did some art on the iPad, then we headed to the faucets by the foot path. As we left he said  “Ants like to play with…the shapes…in the photo. In the grass…art museum.” And I figured out he was talking about the ants we saw eating a bit of food in the grass behind the art museum yesterday – he had taken a photo of them.

Played there for a good while, with the usual splashing. He also ate my ice, and drank “yummy cold wawa” from my cup with the straw. And he played in the sand for a few minutes near another girl. Saw her climb the little climbing wall, so he did it as well, with my help, but then stood up at the top and bumped his head. So we sat and played on a bench and read a little. He was hitting a tree and called it a “maple…with green” as it wasn’t entirely red. He took some photos, of the path, some garbage on it, a stick he set on the garbage and bench, and then some bird poop on the maple tree. He was taking more photos by himself, holding the camera. We listened to and sand the Basho song “Cada Semilla” (Every Seed) several times. Getting ready to go, we walked over and recycled the cup. While he was wandering around there was a big group of girls that wanted their photo taken with him. Finally, as we packed up and left, he was dripping water out of his water bottle on my arm and back.

As we passed the big fountain, he described its sounds as  “makes Sh and J”. He then wanted to see the pond: “The frozen one” – although it has been a few months. We walked across it, and saw 3 turtles this time.

We walked around the other side towards the subway. As soon as we were in the shade he took off his hat. I said “Hey!” and before I could say anything else he said “We’re in the shade!” We came out at the area with all the boards painted by kids: “want to see art…ooh! Photo of it!” “Right here, right here. The woman’s sad.” “Which one do you like? Get closer.” That was all with him in the backpack. He then wanted down, and wanted to take photos. So we did that for a few minutes. Really needed to get going though, so eventually had to drag him away, and he wasn’t happy with stopping.

On the train he’s been listening to what the announcer says. He said “what she say?” and I said “Please watch your step…something.” He finished with the part I hadn’t remembered: “As you leave the train!”

At some point he also said “they’re all gone!” and turned his head up and opened his mouth and gave a big grin – although now I don’t remember if he was referring to something he wasting, or people leaving the train.

As we walked out of the station, he was making up double letters that don’t exist in Korean: “Dada work on the double I. The quiet I.”

We saw Meg, and Torrey and a couple other people from APIS before we entered the building, then we were home for a little bit, then we went over to Cellan above the art museum for the APIS dinner. I stayed down with him in the play area for a few minutes while Carly got us seats. We then went up. He got sad twice: the first time was when Bruce finished his little speech and everyone clapped – August was shocked by that and Carly took him out. She then had to take him out while I was talking to Jeff. Neither time he asked to nurse. We sat with the couple that just had a baby, and who are moving to Morocco in the fall. August did fine eating, and at one point I took him outside for awhile. We walked down the stairs. At one point he slipped off a step and landed on his bottom. He got up and kept walking, saying “Just the hand.” and rubbing it a bit. He kept walking, all the way to the street across from Home Plus. I told him we had to get mama. We went back up, and he lasted a little longer, then insisted he wanted to go to Home Plus.

So we all went. Carly went down and did the shopping (diapers, etc.) and we explored the first basement. He was happy: “Walk backwards…Where’s the orange ones? (looking for orange clothes)…Hats!…Shoes! Where’s the blue ones?…Where’s the animals go?” Then, randomly at some point “Vivian calls mama (Ata). That’s what she says.”

We finished up and all came home. Carly gave him a sponge bath. She had the fan set up for bedroom
, and he went up to it and started making noise into it — not something we’ve done with him this summer – could he remember that from last summer?

Carly had him in and nursing to go to sleep, when he popped up because he had seen the dreamcatcher my dad had made blowing in the wind from the fan. He stood on the bed, watching it and moving both his arms around. After a minute he was able to lay back down and we turned off the light and he went to sleep about 9:30.

Morning:

Train: 

Children’s Grand Park. New playground: 

Coffee shop: 

Faucets area: 

One of his photos: 

The art board things. First he wanted to take photos from the backpack (me holding the camera).  He liked the one with balloons:

Then he got down and held the camera himself: 

Sitting on the floor of the subway on the way home: 

Art museum play area: 

Getting messy at dinner: 

Playing outside: 

He was up at 7:42. Sat for a short bit, but up pretty quickly. We read The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog a few times. When Carly’s email came back, saying good morning, August read it all himself. We just ate an apple for breakfast. We skyped with my parents, and when talking about what we were going to do today, he said “Take 100 to art museum.” He was close: we ended up taking the 172, but the 100 would have been close. Also, he was showing my parents a couple stickers he had previously put on the back of the computer. They asked what one was, and he said “Tiger holding a sandcastle.” It was actually hiding behind tall grass, but it kind of did look like a sandcastle.

We were out a little after 10. We took the bus down to the big Buddhist temple downtown, Jogyesa. On the bus we wrote in his Hangeul workbook, and he managed to get marker on his face. There are little ponds with fountains in them as you enter, and August really liked them. He saw coins in them, so I got out several 100 won coins and let him throw them in. From there, we walked to the other side of the temple and sat on the edge where we had at with Chuck and Cherie. This time it was covered with white lanterns, so we were sort of in a tunnel of lanterns. We ate lunch. August got peanut butter on his face to add to the marker. We then went back to the fountains and threw in the rest of the 100 won coins I had.

We then went to the little park behind the temple. August walked around in the bushes a little, and I changed him. He spotted water faucets down on the lower level of the park, but that was where the smoking area was, and there were tons of people standing around smoking. I explained that, and he said “Where? Want to see it.” I pointed out the guys smoking, then he said “Want to do it…want to smoke.” This is after wanting a tattoo yesterday.

We got in the backpack and started walking. He fell asleep as we passed the MMCA, and I went to the Junsin Book Cafe that had been closed on a Monday. He slept from 12:57 to 2:13. He woke up and had energy, so we got up and left. We walked to the MMCA and went behind it to the grass area and sat in the shade and had a snack. He then got into taking photos, wanting to hold it on his own. He was starting to figure out how to hold it without having his fingers all over the screen, and would point it at something and say “Ooh!” and try to take a photo. Unfortunately, shifting his finger to the button would cause him to lower the phone, cutting off his subject most of the time. He did have a few good shots for things he was looking down on, like the grass or my shirt or hand. He liked taking photos of my shirt, saying “Ooh! S” and “Ooh! Texture!”

He was then ready to go in and see some art. We had discussed it, and he wanted to be in the backpack for seeing art. Unfortunately, after we paid a guy came over and suggested we use a stroller. It was a typical Korean request, phrased as a “You should…” I asked why, and he said something about installations. Anyway, didn’t push it. August and I worked it out that I would carry him – he wasn’t getting in a stroller. So we checked the backpack and went in. He wasn’t into the first couple of galleries much – they were mainly photography, and a lot of black and white. At one point a woman who worked there asked if we wanted a stroller, then suggested we go to Gallery 6, and that August would like it. She was right, although it was a brave suggestion, as they were dark installations with odd noises – could have just as easily scared him.

We walked around the first one, with August holding up his arm to see the changing colors of the lights on it, and imitating the “Bong” sound that we heard. We went down stairs and through the darkest, with ribbons hanging from the ceiling, making paths you walked through. Here he kept saying “Go outside” but managed fine. We got through that and got to the huge rotating bird covered in glass, with videos and light being reflected off of it. Impressive. We made our way out, and I realized there was one more piece past the bird that we had missed. I read the description, which mentioned water, and August wanted to go find it. So we went back through all that, enjoying it again, and finding the last room, which had cushions on the floor and a video of clouds and music. No water, as the description mentioned, but still impressive. He looked around for a couple minutes, then was ready to go.

From there we walked to the Gilles Barbier exhibit, where he had gotten upset last time because he couldn’t touch the art. We saw more of it this time, but he got sad by the picnic mat on the floor with all the food on it.

We headed out and sat on a bench and drew in his notebook. He chose “Green for ilban sulagi” – referring, I think, to the fact that the signs for the garbage in the train stations have a light green background. He talked about the picnic mat: “Sad about the food on the picnic mat. Want to sit on it.”

Past time to leave, so we made our way out. Before we left, I said “Let’s go in the gift shop. Maybe we’ll find something…” And he said “For mama!” And in the second room he spotted a yellow book called Smile that had smiley faces on the cover and he wanted that for mama: “Give it to Mama!” So we bought that and headed out. Took the subway, then bus, home, getting here about 6.

He hadn’t eaten a ton during the day, but also didn’t eat much dinner. He’s been very focused on decorating the cookies with Elmo on the letter/words app, and he and Carly did this together for awhile. Carly gave him a bath. He was trying to bang the door, which Carly said made her nervous. He then liked saying “Making mama nervous!” And while I was in there he said “Make mama sad…pretend sad.”

Carly took a shower. He and I read on the bed. We read Suddenly! The first time I’ve read it with him since he can read much of it. Then playing with Bluie and Green Monster. He was kissing them and taking them to Carly to kiss once she was out of the shower. I noticed a sticker on my watch and asked who did it. He blamed it on “Gramma” before saying “Zinnie!” We then came out to the couch and did some coloring and writing of ABCs on the paper, and ate some sagwa. He dumped the markers and wanted to clean up, but then decided he didn’t like the high pitched sound of the dryer (we almost never use the drying mode). Once he got used to that he was singing the clean up song and one of the Lulu songs from class by himself, then let me help clean up the markers. He and Carly went in to nurse and read about 8:30 and he was asleep around 9.

New words/phrases:  pretend sad, smoke

 

“Pigeon”: 

Temple: 

The park behind the temple: 

Behind the art museum: 

One of his photos: 

Art museum: 

The gift for mama: 

Making mama nervous: 

He was up at 7:52. Sat with me a minute, but then leaked. I went to change him, and he said “Poop and pee in there.” He was joking thought, as it was just pee. We watched a Korean video, and were looking up a lot of words from it. We then read Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late several times, with him reading more of it. We played hide and seek and did some flipping. I had asked early if he wanted to go to Children’s Grand Park or Uijeongbu – our polluted days choices – and a couple times later he mentioned going to Uijeongbu. He was also excited about riding the little train up there.

So, after brushing his teeth we headed on up right about 10. That’s when I found that Camel was missing. Camel had fallen down as we hurried from McDonald’s to APIS yesterday, and I had tucked it into the strap of the backpack. It was still there after stopping at Morning Glory, so likely fell out when I sat down and hurried to put together Carly’s present. So I told August he would have to use his hat or just the backpack as his pillow.

We took the U-Line over to city hall, then walked south, to enter the park from the south end this time. Along the way, he spotted two of those dancing balloon people things. He said their sound was “W W W W”. We crossed the street and he watched them and also hid from them. We could see a children’s park about a block away, so we went and checked that out. He was initially excited by the sand area, but then remembered the big park (he also kept saying “Read Everyone Poops” and I was telling him that would be later in the day) and didn’t want to get out of the backpack. We grabbed a Korean children’s book about two mice out of the library box thing (to return to one of the other boxes they have around) and headed on our way.

In the park we headed to the sculpture and pond area, which we haven’t been to in our last few visits. We actually walked up the hill, looking for faucets, and found them at the foot walking path area. Across the path from us was a climbing wall: “Bumpy wall. Want to climb it.” We started by getting out the picnic mat at his request and eating lunch. He then played with the faucets for quite some time. We then sat and did some reading: the Curious George bilingual book, and a little Korean. While playing in the water, there was a pigeon hanging out close to us, and August noticed it a couple times, and its absence once. When it got close to nap time, he mentioned wanting Camel, but I reminded him Camel was missing. He asked for Smokey instead, and ended up using Smokey as a pillow. But first, we played some ‘Dada Sees’. I said rocks or path, and he pointed at one spot, then pointed to another spot and said “also right here”.

It took a while to get him to sleep, as he kept singing, but not too long. He had a nice nap from 1:41 to 3:02 in the book cafe. When he woke up it was sudden, saying “Want to play on iPad!” But then when he was out he wanted to read Everyone Poops. We did that once, then he wanted to find other books, and sit on the steps by the books, and explore, and eat…his afternoon was kind of like this, wanting to do some of everything. We looked at books a bit more, then headed outside.

We walked past the platform (“Want to see the faucet” he says of the big J-shaped pipe out of the top), and over to the playground area. He spotted a bench and we sat there and did a little Hangeul workbook, then he was exploring. He started watering plants with his water bottle: “Ooh, refreshing.” He then came to a little ditch, and he had the idea of stepping down into it and going up the very steep hill on the other side: “Zinnie can do it…Can you do this?” (seemed to be talking to himself there). He kept talking about this, and I got about 30 seconds of video, where he outlined his plan to step in the leaves, then go up the other side and asking me to hold his hand. We tried that a little, then I got him to explore elsewhere. He was smelling the yellow flowers and going “Ooh!” He saw bees, and when one flew off he said “Back to the bees nest.” He was also talking about missing the buzzing of a bee (sad about it), although it wasn’t clear if he liked the buzzing or didn’t. He decided he wanted to take photos, so he took a bunch, mainly of little rocks or plant things that he set on the little wooden barrier fence next to the path. When he was deciding where to place a rock to take its photo, he kept saying “Where it should be”. He had talked about playing in the faucets, but we never made it there. We threw our cup away, and he took a photo of the garbage can, then we changed him on a bench. He saw the bathroom we’ve used in the past and said “Dada go pee in there.”

We headed home, and got home about 5:25, before Carly. We went back out to the elevators to wait, but then decided to head downstairs. As the doors opened on the first floor, Carly was standing there. We went back up, and I started to put together nachos for dinner. August slipped up and grabbed a chip and was excited about eating it. He didn’t actually eat much dinner though. He and Carly had been doing their usual nursing and reading, and sometime after dinner he and I were playing with the Loopimal app. He was really in to how the animals were dancing to the music, finding them funny. He was then trying to dance like them, and spin. He wanted to do a flip in the air like one of them, so we went to the reading area and I was giving him forward rolls. He then said he wanted TWO forward rolls at once – I think he even said something about “sangsaengnim”, referring to how the teacher would sometimes do multiple forward rolls. Se we did two. Then he wanted 3 in a row, then 4…we got up to the 6 or 7 range before his shorts kept coming down and he’d want to stop. We calmed down a bit and read What I Need a couple times. He pretty much has that one down now.

I gave him a bath, and a miracle happened: on a non-hair washing day, he asked me to wash his hair. That is quite a change. I then hung up laundry, and August played with stuff from the toy box while I did so, then climbed into a laundry basket and sat there. He then went and read and nursed with  Carly in bed, and fell asleep about 9.

New words/phrases: also, bee nest, 가무기 (crow)

Awake:

Watching the balloon things: 

Park: 

Smokey as a pillow: 

Looking at the books: 

Back to the park: 

Flowers: 

My favorite photo that we took: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

Up at 7:49. Sat on the couch for a little bit, then went into the reading area, where he found the shapes stickers and started putting them on the reading area. He then watched Korean videos on the iPad for awhile, before we made a card for Carly’s fake birthday. He traced the message on the front, then I asked if he wanted to write his name. He said “Use ‘Althauser!’” He’s repeated his last names before, but this is the first he’s used them on his own. So he wrote all 4 names somewhere on the card, then we decorated it with stickers. He was coloring on it again with marker, but then kept wanting to draw on the couch. He got upset when I made him stop, then tried writing on the edge of the kitchen counter as well. Took awhile to get him calmed down and back to normal, as we had to go in the screaming room for awhile. Eventually, we were back and getting ready to leave. He wanted to look at photos on the refrigerator and wanted names of our photo with Peter, Paul, and Spenser. Went through them a few time, then he pointed to Peter’s arm and said “What is it?” He was referring to Peter’s tattoos. I explained, then asked if he wanted a tattoo. He thought a second and said “Peter Rabbit!” So, his first tattoo request.

We headed out, but after a block I realized I’d forgotten our hats. Went back for those. We did some running down the street since we were quite late and August liked it. We caught the 111 bus to Dream Forest. There, about 11:40, we checked out the two water areas. The one in the middle of the park, with kind of a stream area, said it would be on at 12, and had a little water running in it. The wading pool had no sign for hours. So we went back to the first and started playing in the little trickle. It ever turned on. We had fun for 20 minutes or so, but the trickle turned off, and there wasn’t much to do.

We went back to our backpack in the shade and ate lunch. I had said I “didn’t understand” why it wasn’t turning on, and August started using practicing negative constructions: “Don’t understand what they singing in Hangeul.” (referring to some moms that were singing with their kids) “Dada don’t like water faucets.” (not sure why he said this) “Dada say no drip on food.” (He was having a lot of fun dripping his water bottle on him and me and everything else).

At 1 we went up to change him, only to find that the wading pool was on. A good surprise. So changed him, then we went and played in the wading pool. He was cautious at first, concerned about all the “messy” kids, but he got in. He started jumping, as the other kids were. First he held my finger, then was holding on to my shorts. Eventually, he was doing it on his own. He also did some splashing, and splashed a couple other kids a little. I also got out the shovel and he played with that.

Close to 2, I asked if he was getting tired and ready for a nap. I said something about wanting camel and getting in the backpack, so we headed back, changed him into a fresh diaper and dry clothes, and put him in the backpack. He put his head down on camel and fell right asleep. Went up to the Cafe Dream and he slept from  1:56 to 3:29. Heard another, mostly piano version of “Country Roads”. At 3:29, I actually got in the backpack and he woke up as I got going. He saw where we were and actually wanted to go back in the book area, but I told him we had things we needed to do.

We walked to McDonald’s but were actually a little early, so I said we would go check out a park I had seen on the map, then come back and get a treat for mama. We walked to the park, took a look, then he said “Treat for mama.” We walked back and got her a chocolate sundae and an iced latte. I put them in our cooler thing we use for our lunch, and he wanted to take a look at them. Then we left, right at 4:10, walking and running. We got to Morning Glory, and bought a Larva-branded bubble gun thing. We then went up to the park across from APIS and waited for Carly to come out. We had her gift on the bench. When August saw her coming, he ran towards her, turned around and came back and got the card and took it to her, then came back a couple times to give her the rest of the gift.

They shared the ice cream. All was well until August wanted to both shake and try her coffee. He’s never really had problems with us having our drinks in the past, but this time he didn’t like it. So we headed home. We walked home without a problem, although he remembered her drink a couple times.

At home they nursed, then we had burritos for dinner, which he actually ate this time. We watched a Korean video together, then I asked him to show mama how he could jump, so he was jumping around the house. This morning, when he was upset about the markers and we were in the screaming room, I had started a “Do you draw on the ceiling? Noooo.” game listing funny places you don’t draw. We started this again, and August was making up his own: Running and pointing at Carly’s feet he said “Do you draw on the feet? No…”

Carly was cleaning the counter, and he heard the spray bottle and wanted it. Couldn’t use that one, so I got him her water spray bottle, which he loves. He was drinking from it, and spraying things like the door and window and me an also chanting while doing so for quite awhile. They nursed and did some reading, then I gave him a bath. Washed his hair and he didn’t complain at all. Put on his TMNT pajamas set. He saw the pants, with the turtle heads on them, and said “Look like Krung in the snow,” referring to Pororo and the green dinosaur character. We played Elmo’s Animals on the iPad for awhile – he had a lot of fun acting like animals, waddling like a penguin and swimming like a fish, etc. We went to read in the reading area, and he got the little fruit and veggies book that came with his plastic food. We were looking through them, and came to ‘Mango’. He got sad because he wanted to hold a real mango. So we went and got the plastic fruit and got them out on the couch. He was cutting them – the first time we’ve done that in months – then wanted some frozen mango to eat. He ate some, while holding the plastic mango and putting it up to the mango in the book. Very satisfying for him. He wanted thawed mango, so ate a piece of that, then he wanted strawberries. I thawed them a bit, and gave them to him. He tried one. Gave a disgusted look. “Dada eat it.” “What’s wrong?” “It’s cold!” Warmed it up and he ate it.

We then read Big Little, with him now reading much of it and sounding out words, and he again got sad when he wanted a whistle. He wanted to go to mama, and she suggested it was time to go read on the bed. He took books in and lined them up. I was still in the parlor when he ran in and said “Night night, dada!” I gave him a kiss and said “I love you!” He ran out, back down the hall to the bedroom, saying “Dada loves you a ton of Qs.”

They were reading Suddenly! again and something else, then he was asleep about 9:45.

New words/phrases: Althauser, Niman, don’t understand, Krung,

JJJ and EEE (water sound and kid sound): 

Splashing and chanting: 

Jumping while holding my hand: 

Stomping in the water: https://youtu.be/rdXQSRkI4VA

Jumping on his own: 

Giving mama her fake birthday presents: https://youtu.be/ue3y-qV2Kqc

Jumping in the house: https://youtu.be/7PHr5xQwnRY

Do you write on the…?: https://youtu.be/_Fb4WJx8gYs

Waking up:

Sad when I told him he had to wait until lunch to eat the fruit cup thing: 

Re-washing the sponges: 

Dream Forest: 

Trying to splash the boy: 

Jumping: 

Dry clothes: 

Last nap with Camel: 

Waiting to give mama her gift: 

Mango, mango, and mango, with his hair parted down the middle. Carly doesn’t exactly approve of the hair: