Author: Ryan/Dada

Carly had the rest of her parent conferences today, so was at work until noon. He was awake 7:49. I barely heard him, then he silently walked out of the room, down the hall, and to the couch, where he found the iPad and started playing Endless Alphabet. We ate oatmeal for breakfast, and watched part of the new Teuni Teuni DVD we got at class yesterday. He wanted to make the fort in the parlor, so we id that, and he played with the letters, spelling words and having them fall down the front of the fort. We played with Bluie and Green Monster in on the bed, then were back out, writing on the paper. He then got the Korean cards out in the parlor, and was focusing on the numbers, particularly the big ones, although I was also getting him to count the smaller ones. He took the rest of the stickers that he had started putting on my computer last night and placed them on the couch cushion, then we put them all on the Teuni ball. He was eating strawberry pieces, and dumped them on the table and kept counting them over and over. He got back on the iPad and was watching ABC songs. We then skyped with my parents, and were doing that when Carly got home. He was spelling Q words, and could spell ‘queen’. He also spelled ‘happy’ earlier, and has been spelling ‘bat’ for a couple days.

He took a nice long nap, from 1:40 to 3:20. He had been in his pajamas all morning, and when I had asked he had wanted to stay inside: “Stay home…no adventure.” He didn’t really want to go outside now either, but the weather was really nice so we got him out. We walked up to Nowon and the stationary store so Carly could buy some cards. On the way, Carly stopped at Starbucks and used a gift card to get a mocha. A bit of a mistake, as August saw the whipped cream and wanted some. When he couldn’t have any he was upset all the way to Daiso, then to the stationary store. I finally got him to calm down enough to go in the stationary store, and we looked at the stuffed animals, then found the stamps and stamp pads. He picked out a tricolor blue, yellow, and red stamp pad for us to buy and take home.

We then walked the back way home, stopping at 엄지어린이공원 (the park we went to with Chuck, and where last time we were here he made a sculpture and played with ice around the drinking fountain). He wanted to get down and play. He got down in the sand area and was looking for rocks, saying “Remember this”. He got a big rock and was playing with that, lifting it up and down, then comparing it to a little rock (“big rock, little rock”). He wanted me to do the ‘Cap’n’ voice, saying “Matey, Cap’n!” We got out the tennis ball and played with that, and he ate almost all the snacks we had brought. He found a purple balloon someone had left and played with that, and was singing vowel sounds to some teenage boys that stood near. The sun was going down and we finally headed home.

We walked by the new Juicy place that just opened in the building, then went and looked at the new burger place in the pink building. Then went to Tous les Jours and got bread and a couple vegetable croquettes; he had some difficulty waiting until home to eat the croquette.

At home we had dinner, then August was playing more Endless Alphabet. When I changed him we had a conversation about tomorrow; he was able to tell me he didn’t want to go to Home Plus with Carly, instead wanted to stay home with me. Carly gave him a bath, after which he was talking about being “Sad about the D on the door” – he had also taken in a couple of the sponges from Glecy, but they wouldn’t stick to the door, which was a disappointment. Around 8:30 or so it looked like he might fall asleep, so Carly took him in. But awhile later he came back out with me. There was some reading, playing of fort, and playing with Bluie. Finally, he was with Carly in the walk-in closet and really wanted to nurse. In there. When she wouldn’t do that he had a good meltdown, repeating “Nurse in the closet. Mama in the closet!” She got him in to bed and he fell asleep soon after that, around 9:20.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘bat’ and ‘happy’ and ‘queen’, black in Korean, there’s mama, there’s dada’s iPad

Big rock: 

Bouncing on mama’s lap: http://youtu.be/e8EYkXvp6D0

Vowel sounds to teenage boys: 

No mas monos saltando en la cama: 

Spelling: 

In the fort: 

Hugging the number: 

Stickers on the couch: 

Park: 

Tasting the ball: 

Carly knocking it out of his hands: 

Balloon: 

Statue on the way home: 

Playing with Green Monster: 

Awake at 7:22. He closed the door and said “No, no, no” when he saw me. I thought it would be a tough wake up, but a minute later he walked out and requested the iPad. Played Endless Alphabet for awhile, then had his vitamins, which he climbed up on the table to eat. We made a smoothie, and when I brought him his in his cup he said “Thanks”, then “patience grasshopper” (as if saying he had been patient), then “Mama says that. Mama says 78.” He watched some ABC songs (finding a Russian one now, which kind of puzzled him), then we read Sam and Mac. He got up and wanted to play with the sponges from Glecy. They weren’t on the floor from last night, so he was walking around asking “Where sponges?” We read more Bob books, then before we left for class he really got into reading the Frida book, but wanted me to read it in English, so was getting a bit impatient with my slow translating.

I tried to not put him in his coat, which almost worked, but then he decided he wasn’t leaving without the coat. So that held us up and he was still a little sniffly when we got to class. He was clingy at the beginning of class, and wouldn’t let me set him down for several minutes. She still did a lot of talking/demonstrating today, but it didn’t seem too bad, as she had Z’s attention the entire time. We did stickers, played with apple slices on plates representing family members, and then got a bag of toys that we practiced sharing with a friend in class (and saying ‘please’, ‘thank you’, etc.) He didn’t want a handstamp at the end of class – something Carly predicted would happen, since he is so conscious of his hands being “messy” nowadays.

From class we walked to the subway. Unremarkable, except a woman started talking to us. Also not remarkable, except off the subway she kept talking to us, and tried helping putting August in the backpack. She then walked with us up and through the turnstiles, and all the way out of the station. August was getting very frustrated with her, and when we went through the turnstiles he did his best to get her to leave by waving frantically and loudly saying “Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye!” She knew I was a teacher, and she wanted to know about the school, etc. She knew some English, but all I could get from her was that she had a 38-year old niece. I think she was looking for an English teacher or school for her niece or niece’s child. Anyway, August and I then want back to the store in the subway station and bought kimbap and little eggs for lunch. We walked up to the amphitheater and ate lunch there. August has his proper appetite back and ate a a good lunch. He wanted to throw away our garbage, and remembered the way to the closest garbage cans when I didn’t. He then wanted to go back and look into the different bins, so we did that before heading out.

He wanted to go to the new playground and play with the numbers. We went there, and he found a rock on the hopscotch area. Traced numbers with it, then played around, dropping it and saying “Que paso? Se cayo!” (What happened? It fell.) We went under the play structure, where he found a second rock and a stick and he threw them around and through the ladders. He held all three, saying “Three!” Suddenly, he crawled into my lap and cuddled there for at least 10 minutes. He also found a few pieces of little garbage and we put them in my pocket to throw away later. When we left, he left the rocks behind, saying “Bye” to them. He found another rock on the hopscotch area (probably because kids actually use them for playing hopscotch). He picked it up and put it away with the other rocks under the play structure. We went and threw our new garbage away and looked in those bins, then changed him, and made a little attempt to do our walk and put him to sleep. He first wanted to see the robots, so we went and saw them, then walked about 10 minutes at 1:30, but he wasn’t acting like a nap was happening, saying “No nap” and pointing down paths and saying “See animals” and “Old playground”.

So we gave up and walked down towards the old playground. He spotted the walking path and faucet area we first played in last May 28th (using a plastic lid he found). He wanted to play in the water, so we did that, and I got the shovel out so he could play with that. A guy came along and ‘talked’ to me a bit by writing messages on the stone bench with his paper, then on paper when I got out a pen…He just asked how old August was, then told us to have a good day. After the water, which lasted quite awhile, August tried out the different parts of the walking path, falling over pretty dramatically at one point, and wanting to know what each part was made of (tile, big stones, metal circles, etc.) He then sat down next to a bush and looked like he was hiding. I asked what he was hiding from, and he said “Sad musica” and something else. He then walked down a little hill to one of the playgrounds. Used the stick to write letters, then was climbing up on the play structure a bit. Up there, there were two posts with a cross piece that looked like a huge H. He was brave getting down from the play structure and fell once, as it was a long drop, but he was okay. Back on the sand, he complained that there was something in his shoe. I was asking him which shoe to get him to work on ‘right’ and ‘left’. He did indeed have one of his shape stickers in one shoe, then a few minutes later there was sand in the other. We ended up sitting on the play structure and he first wanted to take of his shoes, then socks. Played in the sand in his bare feet, mainly kind of walking around slowly, feeling it, and reaching down and putting sand between his toes. As we were walking to leave, I asked how the sand felt. He looked up, smiled, and said “Cold!” He sat on my lap and we spent some time washing his hands and feet in the faucets. Then packed up and went to the third floor Dream Cafe. Got a strawberry juice for him and coffee for me. He read Dr. Seuss, then played Dr. Seuss and Endless Alphabet. While reading Dr. Seuss there was a line about dreaming, and I asked “Did you have a dream?” He immediately said “Dream bout zookeepers.” But he didn’t want to go to the zoo today. We were there from 3:20 to a sometime after 4. Changed him over by the amphitheater, then we headed out. He was singing and requesting songs right up until we entered the subway station.

I get down to the platform a minute later, take off the backpack, and find him asleep. I took him out and tried to rouse him. No luck. He slept on me the entire subway ride home. Woke a little and protested a bit as I put him back in the backpack, then fell back to sleep and slept at home. He was asleep from 4:59 to 5:59. Woke up and wanted to go outside. Not happy when I took him out and changed him, and insisted on his coat back on (he had worn it all day, even when it was 67). Put him back in the backpack and went out for a little wandering. Asked him where to go, and he started using directions, saying “Go left”. Went to the park and asked what he wanted to do, and “Walk in a circle” won out. So we circled the park once, then met up with Carly as she walked home.

At home he had dinner and Carly gave him a bath. Still looked tired, so thought he might go to bed early, or at a normal time. Nope. He read Bob Books with Carly, then we played with Bluie and Green Monster, which turned into a “Missed me, missed me, now you got to kiss me” thing. August would shove Bluie in the crack between the beds and want Bluie to chant that. He also took to hiding from Carly by hiding behind me. Carly took a shower and we played with the bath letters, writing words, then watched the owl video that Cherie had posted for him (he would say “Hi big owl, hi little owl”). He watched it a good 15 times. He read the Little Houses book with Carly, and really likes that book. Carly tried to put him to sleep, but it wasn’t happening. He came back out with me and we read Dr. Seuss on the iPad and did some art, the
n he put stickers on the back of the computer. Finally took him back in to bed and he fell asleep around 10:30.

New words/phrases: sponges,  bare foot, miss me, galletas, grab Bluie, sweatshirt, little house book, Are you in the stroller? No

Hiding from mama: 

Reading Little Houses: 

Vitamins on the table: 

Class: 

Children’s Grand Park. Throwing away garbage: 

Playground: 

“Three”: 

Water, foot path, and playground: 

Hiding: 

“Big H”: 

Barefoot: 

Coffee shop: 

Asleep: 

Home: 

A lot of talking in his sleep last night. This morning, calling out “nursing…nursing please” over and over before he actually got up. I couldn’t tell if he was actually asleep or awake for several minutes. In the morning he played Endless Alphabet, wanting me to translate everything to Spanish (machine, contagious, bellow…) When he was done with that he went and got the A de Activista book and we read that a few times, him asking “Where is Y?” or whatever letter is next, and finding it on the page.

 

Headed to Teuni Teuni class and got there a few minutes early. Class went well. August let the teacher pick him up, and later did a forward roll. After that he came and wanted to be held for a minute, but much better than wanting to leave. And for the most part he participated in all the activities (except wearing the outfit, of course). He took a minute out to go look at mirror August and press their foreheads together. And he avoided the ramp area, which was full of kids, when he was planting the flowers, preferring to simply walk around a couple times. At the end of class we got our Teuni Teuni DVD, then I realized the water bottle we had brought in was gone. Someone had walked off with our water bottle. Not a big deal, but quite annoying, as August realized what had happened and was getting upset “More blue wawa…” and we had planned to head straight to Dream Forest, not go home. We went down to Home Plus, but their water bottles were too expensive, so we headed home. Out in the park August first played on one of the bike ramps for a minute, then on the wooden benches outside the museum and walking up and down the stone paths. We then went home and took the opportunity to put the hydration system back in the backpack.

 

We walked the 2 miles to Dream Forest. He was really into “This is?” today, pointing to everything from ‘service station’ to ‘car lift’ and ‘gas pump’ to ‘cloud’ and ‘motion detector’ ‘air freshener’ and ‘speaker’. He also wanted to look into the garbage cans to see what was in them – something he has started doing the last couple of days (started at Uijeongbu). They have flowers out in front of the visitor center now, and he really liked those. Then said “Go see deer” and “More into Dream Forest.” So we went up to the deer. He didn’t want to get out at first, but changed his mind. Ended up eating some strawberries, and requesting the “Bye fuzzy” thing (several times through the day). He went and fed the deer by putting dead grass through the fence, and got to pet one of the deer. He was really into Spanish as well, figuring things out like ‘sad deer’ and ‘messy deer’.

 

Had expected him to fall asleep on the walk to Dream Forest. That didn’t happen. Now we tried again, walking through Dream Forest. Still no. So we stopped on the big steps near a sculpture and had some more food. He ate well today, just not much at once, spreading it across 5 or 6 snacks. While sitting there, two little dogs came over and August was trying to pet them; finally succeeded. He was in full talking mode, singing the A is for Ah song a lot. It was cloudy, and he looked up and saw the sun and said “D moon” and “This is?” He then joked “Where the selenite? Selenite up there!” He looked over at the performance arts building and said “Go in art museum. Get apple juice.” This was the first time he impressed me with his memory today, as we only got him a juice once, about a month and a half ago. And it was an orange juice, but we were deciding between orange and apple since they were out of strawberry.

 

Anyway, we went walking again. He was talking about waking up in a coffee shop, and seemed to be tired. But then as we were walking he wanted to touch the berries on trees and just kept singing and asking about more things. When I wouldn’t let him touch the berries, he started to get upset and screaming. He kept saying something like “More screaming big fall asleep.” We stopped again at a bench near an apartment complex. He ate some crackers, then we had banana chips. He started feeding me some, saying “For dada.”

 

At this point we gave up on the nap. I told August we wouldn’t be going to a coffee shop and playing on the iPad if he didn’t take nap, and he seemed to understand and be fine with that. Tried to go to the art gallery in the performance arts building, but they don’t reopen until April 5th. A bit later we walked to the children’s art museum and they don’t have a show until April 9th. Both were closed when we were here at the beginning of February, so they must be on some extended winter hiatus. Changed him in the building, then we sat on a bench and had some more food. He counted the round and square chairs, showing he could count up to 5 on his own. He got out the broom from the backpack and swept the benches, then was dropping it through the cracks.

 

We walked down to check on that second art museum, then up past the playground. Walking down he had preemptively said “No playground”, but now he saw that round turning thing and changed his mind. We got down, played on that, had another snack, then he played around a bit more. Next to the playground, that is, not actually in it. He wanted to throw garbage away, so I found some things in my pockets, then we spent several minutes looking into the different recycling and garbage bags.

 

We were about to walk to APIS and meet up with Carly to walk home, but I had to change him again. We went back in to the building to do that, which took awhile, then had to hurry to APIS to meet Carly at the park at 4:30. As we were walking along the river, he said “See deer” and pointed in front of us, a good 50 yards before we could actually see the deer mosaic. More good memory, as the only time we have looked at the deer mosaic was that last time (early February) that we walked by. We stopped to say hi (he touched it, and said it was cold, and pointed out the antlers), then walked on to the park across from APIS, getting there a minute before Carly. When she got there he wanted to nurse, so we went to the top of the hill and sat on a bench. Then we all walked home. We were singing “A makes Ah” over and over, and each time he would sign ‘again’. As we crossed the street by the pink building, suddenly he pointed  at the landscaping and loudly said “Caiman!” (alligator). He thought the big rock looked like an alligator.

 

At home, he did some reading with Carly and ate quesadilla for dinner. He did some typing on the computer. Then, while eating, he bit his tongue and was very sad.  He was playing with Puff and Angeles, and remembered having Angeles feel the textures on the play area squares – something I don’t think we’ve done since December. So we did that for awhile, then Carly gave him a bath. No washing his hair tonight, but he was talking about it a lot, so Carly was teaching him to say “You make me saw when you wash my hair” while getting him dressed. We played some fort time on the bed, hiding from each other, then he want to sleep about 8.

 

August told Carly about the water bottle incident, saying “sad bout blue wawa. Blue wawa at class. Somebody took wawa.” When I went to bed later, August was talking in his sleep, saying “More typing please.” Carly says he does a lot of letter writing in the air when he is asleep.

 

 

New words/phrases: trunks, berries, take Smokey to the zoo – see the zookeepers, no throwing on the ground, N O no, where’s the iPad?, cuenta conmigo (count with me – from a Spanish song on YouTube)

 

Class: 

In the park: 

Putting the hydration system in the backpack. He couldn’t remember how to make it work at first, until I said “Just like nursing”. We now refer to it as ‘agua nursing’: 

Deer: 

On the stairs: 

Broom: 

Playground: 

Walking to APIS. The deer: 

His alligator (caiman): 

Home: 

An interesting sick day for August. He was awake at 7:12. Woke up okay, but wanted to nurse. Finally got him to laugh and that got him ready to leave the room. He wanted to go watch ABC songs. I asked if he wanted me to carry him and he said “Zinnie walk” and slid off the bed and walked out to the living room. Tried his temperature 3 times; only got it to 37.3, but may have been a bit higher.

We ate oatmeal for breakfast. While making it, we sang the ladybug song, but he wanted to add ’14’ to it everywhere, so we sang “landed on my 14…” and “Oh lady bug 14, lady bug 14, won’t you be my friend 14 14…” He requested the “Bye fuzzy” line he found so funny yesterday, and we ended up changing the “Warm kitty” song to “Warm fuzzy”. He was impatient to go outside, so I decided we’d go to Children’s Grand Park as planned. He requested more Smokey talking about zookeepers to entertain him on the changing pad; he would ask for this several times during the day, including at the zoo, making me think he should actually take Smokey to the zoo next time to see the zookeepers.

So we left nice and early, at 9:20. Read Dr. Seuss the entire way down. As we got him in the backpack at the other end, he spotted ‘q’ in a sign that said ‘equipment’. He started riffing on his “Q for…” joke and said “Q for parentheses…7 turn to Z…1…78…exclamation point…”

We got to the children’s museum right at 10, only to find it closed this week. This happened last year, so I’d been expecting it. But I didn’t see any signs about it last week and there was no text message to members. So rather annoying, especially when you’re standing there with a toddler saying “Go in, go in, go in please…” Went to the Arisu water museum instead. Played with the pumps, where I got another “Zinnie do it” as he was trying to figure out the stair step one that required turning a handle in a circle. We then played with the water wheels – it is a good lesson in cause and effect, and he’s starting to demonstrate understanding that blocking one channel will affect another channel.

I needed to change him and he was done with the water, so we walked to the bathroom by the new playground, as that is where he wanted to go next. But in that bathroom the door wouldn’t open to the changing room. Luckily, it was the 16th, meaning they had just opened all the bathrooms closed for the winter. We walked to the top of the hill, behind the amphitheater, and changed him there. He changed his mind, wanting to go to the old playground, so we walked down the other side. He decided not to play once we got there, but we sat on a pagoda and ate a little snack. I say little because all he ate was a couple pieces of bar, and refused anything else. I was able to lie back on the pagoda in the sun for a few minutes, which was pretty nice. He changed his mind back to the new playground, saying “Other playground…with letters on ground.” So we walked back over the hill and went to the playground. Mainly played on the hopscotch grid, tracing the letters and counting them (“Up to 8!”), and looking at the ‘6’ upside down to make it go up to 9. Got him to go up on the play structure for a minute and onto the shaky net floor, which he had liked once, but he said “No fun shaky floor. Get off.”

He then wanted to see animals, so we walked around the zoo, seeing the hyenas, lynx (which was actually awake and taking a bath, but still perched way up on top), and servals (“Hold it!” he said again), then across to the owls. He then wanted to go check on the penguins (still not out, but you can see one pair on their nest through a camera), then upstairs at the water birds. He showed a little interest in eating, and wanted to go back to our usual spot in the square, but when we got down there he didn’t want out of the backpack and wanted to keep going. A brief walk through the children’s zoo (the fennec foxes are out), then we went up and changed him again and walked to put him to sleep. He fell asleep and we went to the first floor cafe. A lot of other sleeping children in there. Busiest I’ve seen it on a non-holiday. Sadly, he only slept 24 minutes, from 12:31 to 12:55. We went out walking, and walked for 35 minutes, wandering north and south in the park. He didn’t fall asleep though, and didn’t want to do anything except walk, so eventually I headed to the subway. We were on one of the decorated trains for the fourth time, and he saw the word ‘Wedding’ on the floor, so was naming out the letters and learning the word.

We went to Costco and got 5 sets of the Bob Books, a block of cheese, and a chicken bake. August did really well, especially considering how sleepy he was and our failure at free samples: he didn’t want the tuna on bread, and when I hated him a bit of churro, he immediately gave it back and wanted to wash his hands. We were standing in line and I wiped his hand, then he twice wanted me to “wash the finger”, holding out a single finger for me that still had sugar on it.

We headed home, and I expected him to take a second nap once we got there, but when we approached home a little after 3 he got upset; he just wanted to do more walking. I went inside to put the books and stuff down, then we went out to the park and did laps for 25 minutes. Still no sleep. I was getting tired, so went back in and changed him. He just wanted to go back outside and walk. I tried to get him in the stroller instead, but he wouldn’t get in, just wanting the “Backpack. Please.” I sat with him on the floor and he calmed down. He could tell me he wanted the backpack, didn’t want to go to the stream, wanted to go to the park and walk around like we had just been doing, and didn’t want to go to the other side of the park. A full conversation. So we headed back out in the backpack. Another 15 or 20 minutes and still no sleep, so we started talking. Asked if he wanted to go over the bridge and he said yes. We went over there, then I mentioned the art museum and he got excited.

We went into the art museum (about 4:15) and he wanted to go to the play area. He was now well awake and feeling good. We were there for 20 minutes or so. He was pointing behind the woman sitting in front of the fire extinguisher to see the Q. He was then pointing out the colors and squares (nay-mos) everywhere and singing ABC songs – and we also sang the colors song. And he was Qing the blocks of color on the wall. I mentioned art and he wanted to go see art. Pretty excited, really. We went downstairs and he got the stickers and put them on the wall, then was peeling off stickers and moving them around. Played with the light switches for a few minutes.

Outside I put him in the backpack. There was a pigeon getting close to him. He kept calling it quiet and said “Paloma (Spanish for pigeon) quiet birdy” and Qed it. Finally headed home and got there a little after Carly. He hadn’t eaten much during the day since the oatmeal, and he didn’t eat a ton of dinner: a little mushroom and some toast.

Carly gave him a bath; he was traumatized by washing his hair, as usual. Later, well after the bath, he said “No wash your hair. Sad about the hair.” He read a bit of the Bob Books with Carly. While Carly took a shower we played on the bed, using the blanket for a fort. We were hiding under it when Carly came out, so that lasted a few minutes. She would say things like “Are you under the bed?” and he would say “Nooo.” He wanted to play with the bath letters in the parlor, so he went into the bathroom and said “Take off the present” (from the wall where it was stuck using suction cups). A bit later he went into the bedroom and hid under the blanket all by himself. We were in there for awhile, then he wanted us to all go back out to the living room and said “Mama and dada walk.” He drew shapes with Carly; she would draw and he would scribble over it and say “Bye octagon!” He called the yellow marker “Messy yellow” because the case
has marks from other markers on it.

He went asleep close to 9. Impressive after the short nap and being sick. He was obviously feeling much better by the evening, although Carly thought he still felt a little warm. I changed him a couple hours later as he slept. In his sleep he said “Dada do ABCD.” Ten minutes later he loudly proclaimed “Fuzzy bye-bye”. A bit after that it was “Espanol”, then “owls please…owls please…owls please” and finally “Screaming…screaming…more screaming.”

New words/phrases: camo, this is a…, avocado, rhombus, oval

Waking up: 

Water museum: 

Playground. Not wanting out at first:

Looking at robots: 

Learning ‘wedding’: 

Home, briefly: 

Art museum: 

Heading out: 

Home: 

August was awake a little before 6 with a fever. Carly gave him the iPad to watch ABC songs while she got ready, and he was totally singing along to all the songs. At least the temperature wasn’t affecting his energy level in the morning. After she left, we kept watching ABC songs, then made a smoothie together. Sometime after that he suddenly got quieter, and we were lying around on the floor of the parlor and in the fort. We were singing the “A makes Ah” song, and he started signing and saying “Again” each time we finished. We also played with a balloon. He was getting really tired, and I changed him and got him in the backpack. He was fighting sleep though, saying he wanted to go on an “adventure”, not fall asleep. When I asked where to, he said “park”, and when I gave him options on what he wanted in the park he said trees and birds. Despite his denials, he fell asleep within one lap of our park.He slept from 10:57 to 11:56.

He had sounded really stuffy at the beginning of his nap, but got better. He awoke with a little cry, then wanted to go straight outside. So I grabbed some snacks, threw them in the backpack, and we were off. We walked for a long time. First southeast, to find the art store Meg mentioned, then to the tomb area/park further to the southeast (where I walked with my dad). August just wanted to keep walking. So we headed north past the getting-closer-but-behind-schedule science museum and visited a little historical site with a stone stele that we hadn’t visited before. We then walked into Hangeulbi Park and I set him down to rest, despite his requests that we keep walking. He initially refused anything to eat, but finally ate a little bar, and drank a little water.

A few calories and some water seemed to perk him up. He didn’t get out at the park, but started talking more; to this point he had been in “No” mode, with no singing or talking. From the park we walked out the northwest corner and went to Toys R Us. We went and looked at books there, then went to the pet store. He wanted to “See more pets” as we walked by, which surprised me because I usually just call them animals, not pets. We walked around the pet store until he said “All done here.” I changed him and we headed north, towards the stream, as he liked the idea of the stream. As we walked he still didn’t want to sing, so I was asking what he wanted, and at one point I hopped. He laughed, and was saying “More dada hopping.”

We got to the stream and saw smoke. On the other side there was a fire in the grass. A lot of smoke, but the wind was taking it away from us. There were a few workers standing on the path near it, and at first I thought it was intentional, as they do burn the grass along the streams. But it didn’t seem right, and sure enough, a minute later we heard the sirens. So we stood there and got to watch the firefighters put out the fire.

We then walked down the stream, making our walk into a sort of circle around Junggye-dong. We stopped at Cafe Tolerance and got a strawberry smoothie and sat looking out over the stream. He remembered what ‘smoothie’ and ‘funny’ are in Spanish before I did (‘zalamero’ and ‘gracioso’). He played on the iPad, we worked on his reading in the Bob books, and we read some Dr. Seuss. When I was reading The Things You Can Think he said he was “thinking bout zookeepers.” He got up and was doing some singing and wandering around the coffee shop, then was ready to head out. We went outside to put him in the backpack, but he decided he wanted to play at the playground. We played for maybe close to a half hour. At first, he was saying there was “Something in shoe” and had me take off his right shoe three times. There was a string thing that I pulled out, which did the trick. He put it down the crack in the boards on the pagoda, and was initially upset that it was lost, but then I said “Bye bye fuzzy” and he thought that was really funny. I got the shovel out, and he played with it, dropping it through the backpack and dropping and throwing it off the pagoda for me to get. Near the end he actually got down and walked around the playground, insisting the dolphin on the ground was a cat and standing on it, and calling the tail a “nanana moon”. There was a mom and a boy who was kind of following him around. He sang some ABC for the mom, and pointed to the boy’s lollipop and said “This is?”

About 4 he decided he was ready to head home. We walked home. At first he was disappointed Carly wasn’t home. But we started playing with a balloon, then with the blanket on the couch and making a fort. He was sitting next to me on the couch and got quiet. We were both listening to the Radiolab podcast that was playing (there was some yelling and clapping that got his attention). After a couple minutes I looked down to find he was falling asleep. He fell asleep sitting up next to me right at 5. I got up laid him over on the blanket. He slept there until Carly got home and woke him a bit at 5:45 to nurse him. He fell back to sleep and she put him in on the bed. Thinking he might wake up in the middle of the night, I went to bed early, and was falling asleep when he woke up at 8. Carly stayed up with him, and he went back to sleep at 10:15.

New words/phrases: adventure, pets

Listening to number songs as he rests on the couch:

Resting: 

Fire: 

Tolerance Cafe: 

Playground: 

The, uhh, kitty cat: 

Coveting the lollipop: 

Asleep on the couch: 

He was talking a lot in his sleep during the night, although I couldn’t remember what any of it was. But I ended up putting his cat shirt on him for the day, and Carly tells me he said “Kitty cat shirt please” when he woke up to nurse around 5. Anyway, he woke up at 7:35. I had heard some movement noises before that, and when he came out at 7:35 he was entirely happy and awake, making me think he was actually awake for a few minutes playing on the bed. Said “Do ABCD” as he came out, then sat on the couch spelling ‘quack’ and ‘quiet’ and then talking about “Mama do amethyst.” Then he was standing and spinning, singing ABC songs.

 

He watched ABC songs on the iPad then we drew on the paper, and I wrote the sentence “We got to the park to have fun”. He could read all the words except ‘park’ and ‘have’. We went and read Frog on a Log? in the fort, then he came back out and played Endless Alphabet, which he hasn’t done it quite awhile, on the iPad.

 

I looked up ‘beginner books’ on Amazon and found the Bob books (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439845009/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0439845009&linkCode=as2&tag=rcnimannet-20&linkId=GQQFV3U2PFTIEXLL). Bought the first set on the iPad, and this is where August officially started reading. He immediately started laughing at the books, and we read through the first two books together. Along the way he was able to read two full sentences on his own.

 

We headed to Uijeongbu a little after 10, reading a little more of the Bob books along the way. First went to the toy store and he played with their open toys for a few minutes, but then wanted to move on. Took him up to the roof, but he didn’t want to play there; he wanted a play area instead. So we went back down and paid to go in the play area for an hour. I made a mistake in not eating first, as he immediately said “eating” as soon as we walked in. So he snacked a little while we were in there. Also, while we had gone in at 11:20, less than 4 hours after he had woken up, he soon started looking tired. He eventually lasted about 50 minutes. Mainly played with their magnets, which were missing a ‘Q’, so he made one out of the ‘O’ and a little broken one, and one of those wooden baby cubes. We also went in the ball pit for a couple minutes, wee he realized the balls had numbers on them, and I got him to go upstairs, where he then walked around and had fun sliding down the cushy round stairs.

 

We left, getting my ‘free’ latte on the way, and went to the roof and sat and ate lunch. Then changed him, and started walked west towards the Uijengbu city hall area and the parks behind it. He fell asleep almost right away – like 5 minutes – and I found a nice empty coffee shop called J-won Latte where I had a lemon black tea in a real cup. He slept from 1:00 to 1:54, then wanted to get walking when he woke up. We walked over to the parks. The last (and only) time we were here was on June 1st, when he played in a water fountain and then put rocks and dirt in his hat and through a grate. He didn’t want to play at the playground this time, and instead directed me to keep walking around. We walked up to the sculpture garden/pond area and got down to have a snack.

 

This is where we spent most of our time and he had a lot of fun. As we were eating I listed a bunch of names (August, Augustine, Z, Zinn, Zinnie, Zinnio) and asked which he wanted people to call him. He chose Augustine, although waffled a couple minutes later to Zinnie (“Call you Zinnie”), before going back to Augustine. There was a rope along the path and he played with that (“play with the rope”). He spent a ton of time playing with the pine needles, noting that the groups of 3 liked like Ws or Ms, then taking them apart (“came apart…uh-oh”), and dropping them in the grate. He was concerned about getting some in his mouth, saying “Get some in your mouth” and pointing to his mouth. He then stood on the bench and I would hand him clumps of pine needles to drop. While standing on the bench he pointed to a tree and said “This is a pine tree”. A guy came and hovered over him for a few minutes, which was a little odd, then another guy came and sat on our bench, next to our backpack – also odd as there were other open benches. But August liked his shoes, as they had a Z, no N on them that he kept pointing out. We needed to head home a little early as we needed to go to Home Plus, but August just kept playing.

 

There was a low set of posts lining a walkway among the sculptures, and he wanted to walk back and forth on that a few times. He really liked the horse sculpture, where it looks like 3 metal horses go through a wall. He then was walking up and down a steep hill and ended up by a large group of women and sang ABC to them. When they then started talking to him and tried to get him to do something, he loudly said “No” and turned and walked away. They all laughed. We were looking at the sculptures and trying to figure out what they looked like, so I explained ‘abstract art’ (explaining that it is “tricky”, which he understands, having called Jeff’s book, where the animals are constructed of letters and punctuation, “tricky”). Which led to him asking for ‘abstract art’ in Spanish, and as we finally left to head to the subway, he was saying “abstract art…arte abstracto.” In the evening I told Meg about this and she said my homework was to teach him ‘juxtaposition’ tomorrow.

 

We headed home, catching the little monorail. Transferred to the 1 then the 7. He didn’t request iPad until the very end. Also, on the way up he had wanted me to stand on the 1 and we just looked out the window. At Hagye he only wanted to go home until I mentioned the lizard at Home Plus, at which point he changed his mind. We went there, only to find there is no more lizard. He kept saying “Now what?” They do, however, have a bunny. We went down and got a few groceries. He requested crackers, so we got those. Got home about 5:20, after Carly.

 

At home he ate dinner, then Carly gave him a bath, which involved a lot of laughing. But before he got in Carly had thrown all the letters in the water. This was unacceptable, and I had to take them all out before he would get in. He and Carly then made a ‘fort’ on the bed, hiding under the blanket, and we had a lot of fun with first me coming to find him, then Bluie, Green Monster, and Marshy, after August requested them.

 

Back out on the couch we did a little reading on the iPad, then he played Endless Alphabet. He got to ‘Journey’ and he said “Go in a journey”. He hadn’t done it yet, just heard the word. Not sure if he had played through it this morning (I don’t think so) or whether he had remembered it from weeks ago, or what. He went to sleep about 8:40, but woke up twice in the next half hour for more nursing. He was fine after that.

 

 

New words/phrases: pine needles, agua de pino, drop, get some in your mouth, this is a pine tree, Zinnie have pine needles (as he was holding some),

Toy store: 

Play area: 

Pine needles in Spanish: 

Saying no: 

Abstract art. He said this was a goose or duck: 

Waiting for the train:

Using a fork:

Fort fun: 

He was up about 8. Carly was skyping with her mom, and August said “Oh, hippopotamus”, which he hasn’t used much recently. A bit later she was blowing up balloons for him and he said “Went out of hands” when he had been holding it and she let go and it flew away. I then did more balloons with him, and we were typing words together on my computer. He read duck, sheep, cow, book, and yellow with no prompting, was able to sound out ‘bed’ on his own and read it, and sounded out ‘food’. Carly then started a whole poking thing when she poked me. August then requested more poking between her and me. He got into the game, leading Carly to remind him to do “gentle poking”, so he started saying “more gentle” when he wanted more poking. Carly read Jeff’s book with August. He really laughed at the word ‘bottomless’, wanted there to be a zookeeper in it, and, because the pictures are made of letters and punctuation, agreed it was a “tricky book”.

 

Carly went to the pink building to do grocery shopping. While I was changing August he started talking about ’biotite’ – one of the minerals at the children’s museum. He then, out of nowhere, said “Make a fort at home…make a fort in the parlor.” So we did, draping a blanket between the rocking chair and the end table and covering the reading area. First he was just into knocking it down, but eventually he got in it with me and was pointing out the “ickys”. We were in there when we heard Carly come in the door, so we hid in it and August thought that was pretty great. He eventually pulled it down, and was sitting in the remains of the fort with the blanket around him. He was lounging against the pillows and pulling the blanket up around him, and hiding behind it. We asked if he was cozy and he said “cozy cozy”.

 

He had a great mystery word today, that sounded like “Fred”. It at least clearly started with an ‘F’ as he was really emphasizing that. When we would ask him to point, he would usually point to the floor and say “Fred here”, which makes me think that it is something he wanted us to do or put there.

 

He went to sleep for about an hour starting around 1:40. Nursing, then more balloons after that. Carly took him in to change him to go outside and they played with the animal magnet set (which we had taken on the plane last summer, but haven’t used since), practicing a lot of Spanish. August had the snake and was going “slither, slither, slither”.

 

He and I left for a walk a little before 4. Went over to the stream, where he spotted a group of boys coming across the bridge with their RC cars – I think the same boys we saw in the park. We watched them for a minute, then I let August choose which path to choose along the stream. He chose the right side. We walked up it, August immediately looking for duckies, and then up to the Madeul Stadium area. Looked at the science exhibits (he helped pull open the big earth’s core exhibit a few times, and we ‘heard’ letters coming out of it). Then let him choose our path around the stadium. Got to the dog park, and he wanted to go right, which takes us out of the park and then he pointed to the river. So we went down along the river, and immediately saw a group of kids on unicycles on the track there. We watched them, then sat down to watch some more and have a snack. When two of the girls on unicycles came close and noticed him, he started singing the ABC song for them; he also later sang it to a woman who was talking to him (and trying to get him to hug her, which he refused). When someone fell of a unicycle he would say “uh-oh” and “Se cayo!” At one point, he told me to take “photo unicycles”. I then taught him to push the gray button to take a photo, and let him do it. This became the start of a long photography session/lesson. I held the phone all the time, but he would say what he wanted to take a photo of, and then I would ask him what angle he would want to take the photo from (giving him some options) and whether he wanted it in portrait or landscape. And, like with his foot, have him move it closer or farther from the camera. He was really into taking photos of the stripes of track and concrete, his shoes, the bolts on the bench, his water bottle (which he placed on the ground, then under the bench, then, when it fell over, he wanted to take a photo of the “uh-oh”), and the backpack (particularly our hedgehog pin). He said “Photo hiding” so I took a photo of him with his hands over his face. He later said “Photo Zinnie”, so I had him take his first selfie.

 

He was then having fun stepping off the big curb and saying made-up words as he did it. One woman tried to tell him he shouldn’t be crawling on the ground (or maybe warning him to stay off the walking path) but didn’t press the issue when I didn’t intervene. He also played with the yellow ball, which I had gotten out of the backpack, throwing it up and saying “Where’d it go?”

 

He was having a blast doing all of this, but I was getting cold (around 43 and cloudy) and my hands were freezing. Eventually I convinced him to head home. He didn’t seem bothered by the cold though, and wouldn’t hold onto my hands. On our walking to and from, we had been working on counting backwards, which he did from 10 (always adding a “14!” after getting to zero). He then requested letters backwards, so we started figuring out the alphabet backwards. He was also really practicing ‘LMNOP’, trying to say it fast, then was asking me for LMNOP in Spanish, so we were working on saying LMNÑOP fast.

 

At home, Carly had done some grading and had made beans for burritos. August wouldn’t eat the beans though, so basically ate quesadilla for dinner. Didn’t eat a lot today, it seemed. I gave him a bath, which went as usual, playing with the letters and Sophie. We then played with the Fisher Price animal dominoes we just opened this weekend. He got the general idea of making the trains and matching the animals, but really liked getting it wrong as I would make an “Errr” sound he liked. When he was done he said “wreck dominoes” and destroyed the train. He went in the fort with Carly and read, then he and I used a balloon as a percussion instrument and sang several songs. He then got silly, calling a balloon first a “heating system”, then “amethyst”, which surprised Carly as she didn’t know he knew amethyst. He requested that she draw an amethyst, so they went out to the paper and did some drawing. He went to sleep soon after that, around 9.

 

New words/phrases: ostrich, photography, heating system (under the sink), counting backwards from 10, estellas (pointing out the stars on a balloon),

He hid from both of us behind the chair. Confused us pretty good:

Fort: 

Our walk:

Some of his first photos: 

I took this one, of course, but he requested a “photo of hiding”: 

His first selfie: 

Photo of the “uh-oh”: 

Other fun along the river: 

Bird up there: 

Headed home: 

Reading his book: 

Super Q: 

Reading with mama in the fort: 

His birthday party day started with some major skyping in the morning: First with Cherie and Chuck, then with Vivian mixed in, then with just Vivian, then with Cherie back in. While skyping with Vivian August went and got the bath letters and played with those. The empty bag was sitting on the floor and he said “Something in there…was something in there” His first use of the past tense. He and Vivian were also singing the ABC song together. Really looking forward to the summer and seeing if they sing more songs together.

 

The rest of the morning and early afternoon were dedicated to getting ready for the party. Carly did the cake and frosting. I turned the laundry room into another play room. Carly went down and got cash for the pizza. And I went out and got a haircut and went to Home Plus for paper plates, beverages, etc.

 

Megan was the first here, right at 3. We had been talking to August about people coming over. He said “No, no, no” at first, but was then fine after that. Megan was next, then Jill and Logan, and then Nathalie and Chloe. I was abandoned by the three husbands, who all had other things going on. Logan brought August a present, an etch-a-sketch knockoff that August loves, and Chloe brought a 3-D puzzle of the leaning tower of Pisa, which will be fun to make. With each present, we were telling him this was his last present, as now every time he hears mention of ‘present’ he wants to open more of them.

 

Mostly the kids played on their own, only interacting when they wanted something another had. But August and Logan were playing with the big exercise ball together, rolling it back and forth for awhile. And when we were all eating cake, August pointed at Logan and said “Logan messy”, and then pointed at his own face, showing where Logan had frosting on his own. August was also really interested in what Chloe was doing when she was playing with Baby Q, and he and Logan were also looking out the windows at cars and busses a few times together.

 

At one point, when we were all in the parlor, August started hugging Carly from behind as she sat on the floor. He was then saying “More hug mama.” A little after eating cake, everyone else was in the living room and I went into the parlor to find August lying on his back on the reading area. I laid down next to him for a couple minutes. A very nice moment. He was then looking up at the light and said “big globo” and got the idea to play with the balloons, which we haven’t done in a long time (even though he sees them every time he opens the drawer to get the flashlight). That led to a long session of me blowing up the balloons and letting them fly around the room, something the other two kids really got into as well.

 

They sang happy birthday to August in all 3 languages, and about 6:30 the other two kids started to hit there limits, and by 6:45 they left. We did some clean up in the evening, although there wasn’t much to do, as everyone cleaned up as they left, and Carly gave him a bath. There was some more blowing up of balloons, reflecting on the party he said “Fun at the felix cumpleaños”, and we read some Dr. Seuss and played Loopimals on the iPad before he headed off to bed, falling asleep a little after 9 (in the morning, August would claim it was 9:14).

 

 

New words/phrases: using ‘was’, fun at the feliz cumpleaños

Morning:

His party: 

He was awake at 8:05. In the morning we Skyped with Chuck and Cherie and then, a bit later, with my parents. August was not happy about skyping to start with, and we had to call Cherie back once I had him in the parlor playing with the letter sponges. We also played with Marshy, Bluie, and Green Monster a good amount as he was requesting “more happy birthday”.

 

We got all packed up to go out for the day, and as I was running around to get a last few things done he said “Dada hurry up.” We made it to Home Plus a few minutes before his class. As expected, he pointed out the “Upside down V” once we got up to the culture center area. Things went much smoother today. Still rather shy with the new teacher at first, but made it through the class without having to take  break. She still did a lot of talking, and took a long time to explain everything that was in our package of supplies (books, CD, etc.), so I wasn’t too happy with how much time we actually spent playing, but am hoping that will improve next week. Oh, and we have to bring the books each week instead of leaving them with her. Which means I have to carry them to Children’s Grand Park. The activities today were about paper: crumpling and ripping sheets of paper and throwing them in the air, and getting a big sheet of tissue paper to play with. And, of course, since we now had the books, stickers at the end of class. He was in a quick sticker mood today, finding it funny to put all the stickers on one page and on top of each other. He was good about bowing to the teacher and getting a handstamp before we left.

 

We headed to the subway and got on one of the specially decorated trains again (third time). The car we were in today was night scenes of Macao. We stopped to get kimbap and little eggs for lunch (we had run out of bread, so no sandwich today). A joke he started yesterday was now calling CU “QU”. I corrected him at first, but he clearly said “No, QU” and laughed. He kept saying “eat outside”. It was cold, not yet 40, but it was at least sunny. So we sat on the edge of the pagoda between the children’s museum and the swamp area. Some pigeons came along and he waved and said “Hi” to them a few times. Ate a small lunch, then he was clearly getting cold and said “Too cold” so we packed up and went inside.

 

In the children’s museum he played on the first floor a bit. Doing the sorting of fruits/veggies by season thing he called it a puzzle, then recalled the Timmy Time episode, which we haven’t watched in many weeks, saying “Sad about puzzle…Timmy makes a puzzle.”  Every time we eat something slightly sticky he now starts talking about washing his hands. Writing on the chalkboard was the same. We’ve done it many times, but this time he wanted me to wipe off his hands every couple minutes. He seemed done with the first floor after that, and I picked him up to talk to him. He suddenly said “See rabbit over the selenite.” I looked across the room and, sure enough, there was a rabbit painted on the wall above where the selenite and other minerals are that we had never noticed before. He wanted to go upstairs, so I set him down to get the backpack. He said “Eraser. All done chalkboard.” and erased the chalkboard before we left.

 

We went up to the second floor and to the book room. Grabbed a bunch of books and read them up in the loft. Mainly Uh-Oh and the Opposites book, then he wanted to go find Numbers and we read that once. Went to change him before nap time, and he started to talk about “Clase sad.” Basically, from what I could gather, he was either sad that the teacher plays a different song at the end of class, or one of the songs she played was sad. But it was definitely about the music. Then, we were outside having a snack before his nap, and he said “Sad bout the music at city hall. Play one song.” And held up one finger. Now, he has continued to mention the music thing regularly, but I don’t remember saying ‘City Hall’ for a couple days.

 

We got to walking and it took awhile but he fell asleep from 1:46 to 2:37. He wanted to leave the coffee shop right away, and we went to the zoo. Walked around the fierce animals, then he wanted to see the birds. Thought he meant the pheasants, etc. but then he clarified he wanted to see a white goose. So we went to the water birds. He then wanted to go upstairs and see the big hatching eggs and turn the penguin exhibit things. From there we walked past the tropical building, but it was closed for some reason, then went in the children’s zoo. The fennec foxes weren’t out, but he wanted to hold one. As we got down by the goats and horses, a whole group of zookeepers were walking down the path. It was his lucky day. The zookeepers were getting into the horse enclosure to care for the horses (hooves, etc.) so we got to watch. August was excited that they were going in the enclosure. We watched them, and August got down and threw bits of straw in to the goats. He was leaking, so I had to go change him. Did that, and when we came back a zookeeper stopped us from going in the ‘exit’ and told us to go around – they were dealing with the most skittish horse, I think, and had closed the path while they did it. As we walked the other way, August said “Zookeeper says go this way.” We went around and played with the goats for several more minutes before heading home.

 

On the way home he said “Read Oh No! on the iPad.” Wishful thinking, but that’s the book he really likes at the children’s museum. Stopped and got bread on the way home and a vegetable croquette to share and got home a few minutes before Carly, who had stopped at the grocery store for a few things.

 

In the evening he was playing with the orange ball and joking that it was the Teuni ball. Carly fed him and he did a lot of nursing. We started his bath and he was said, saying his lyrical “No, no, no, no, no.” I gave him a bath, and when I started washing his hair he started talking about closing his eyes, which Carly has him do. It was funny to see him practice closing his eyes, as it was a full facial movement.

 

We opened the rest of his presents. From my parents a letter water writing book (to match the number one last night), a dinosaur shirt, a Little Houses counting book, two I Spy books, and some shoe lights.  From Megan a Hawaiian coloring book. From Glecy a Seattle counting book and finger paints. He immediately wanted to use the finger paints and was sad that he couldn’t use them right away.

 

Before bed he had a little crazy time and we had two games that set him to laughing: me freezing, then him poking me and me saying “Hey!” He was asleep a little before 9:30.

 

New words/phrases: mayonesa, croquette, all downloaded

 

An advertisement for my famous oatmeal: 

Class: 

New books: 

CGP: 

Children’s museum: 

Zookeepers, horses, and goats: 

Singing together on the way home: 

Taking a bath: 

Fun time in the evening: 

Presents: 

Bath letters: 

Frida: 

How ’bout: