Author: Ryan/Dada

He was awake at 7:09, saying “More nursing”. Unfortunately, it was a tough start to a birthday, as it took close to ten minutes of him saying “No, no, no” before we went out to the living room. Then, I said I’d make French toast, which he was happy about, but that meant waiting, which he wasn’t. To add salt to the wound, he had a runny nose, and was getting upset when I wiped it, which led to more crying and running nose…

 

But eventually we had French toast and then went into the parlor to play so he was happy. Played with the wood puzzle – he doesn’t really need help with that one now. He was playing with his Duplo animals and zookeeper (the tiger was chasing her), and the alligator fell off the end table and he said “Be careful alligator!” I had had Bluie, Green Monster, and Marshy say happy birthday to him, and some time later he remembered this and said “More Green Monster, Marshy, and Bluie. Happy Birthday again.” So, they said happy birthday again and were doing more of the rabbit dance.

 

I had gotten snacks ready last night and before he got up this morning, so we had less to do and could get out the door faster. We left about 9:15, taking the subway to Nowon and then line 4 down to the DDP. He was excited to go to the i-Play play area, and we walked in about 10:10 – only to find out they don’t open until 10:30. Another rough one, which we solved by finding a bench and breaking out the bar for snack and reading a little Dr. Seuss (managed to read a few pages of the birthday book before he changed his mind). At 10:30 we went back to the play area.

 

The last time we were here was December 2nd. We had fun and were there for close to 2 hours. A couple minutes after we got there he started to amaze me with his memory: he said something like “animals over there” and pointed over to the area where the animal sounds thing is (where he found the sheep noise really sad a year ago). He walked across the room and into it, and got as far as the cow. He played it once and decided that was enough. He said “No vaca… vaca sad.” He kept bringing this up all day, and when he would hear one of the other kids play it, he would say something similar. He did, however, like the household items, particularly the sound of the coffee going into the coffee cup, which he found hilarious.

 

The other feat of memory came when he found the round texture pads out near the entry area. He said “put away” and proceeded to pick up two of them and walk them up into the play structure, where we had not yet been today, and put them where they belonged. He made a few more trips and put them all away, lining them up in a row on a step.

 

Besides that, he played

– in the kitchen area, where he did a little cooking and pretended to wash his face

– in the tool area. He really wanted to use the screwdrivers and backhoe, but they were all broken. He did however, seem to remember the wooden crane and shapes, as he first put the shapes in their trailer, then said “Crane, crane” as if he knew there was a crane that went with them.

– with the ball drop thing, where you drop balls in two holes and they roll down through plastic tubing

– and with the animal magnets.

 

As I said, we definitely had fun, but it will probably be our last visit to this particular play area. The construction toys were all broken and unusable, many of the animal magnets (each animal was in two pieces, so you could put them together) were missing, there were no rubber band things to use on the rubber band wall, and the girl who worked there (there was only one) sat at the front on her phone the entire time. The only other people there was a group of 5 English-speaking moms and their babies. They had coffee and snacks, and the girl let their cups and wrappers sit there, so that when August and I wanted to eat there was almost no clear table area for us. And when we did eat, she walked by and told us no outside food is allowed. But they don’t even serve real food, just drip coffee and some packaged cookies and juices.

 

Anyway, we managed half a lunch before being told we couldn’t eat, so we went back and played some more, then left. We went into the baby changing area in the DDP and ate the second half of our lunch. He cracked the egg, and as soon as he did he said “Sad bout the music” – a great memory association because we were peeling an egg when the music ended down at City Hall on Tuesday. He would continue to bring up being sad about the music (or music) throughout the day. Think I need to get him to more concerts.

 

I changed him, then went walking outside to put him to sleep. A slow process again, so after 15 or 20 minutes of walking outside, and with the wind picking up, we went into the very quiet and very boring spiral pathway and he fell right to sleep.

 

Went back next to the i-Play play area to the little sweet potato bakery/candy store/coffee shop. They were out of caramel (but, you’re a candy store…), but the vanilla latte was really good. He slept from 1:10 to 2:08. He woke up, and I got him out. The man there had given us a little packet of pancake things while he slept, and August now ate his. He kept calling it a C or an O as we pulled pieces out of it, and touching it and saying “yummy play dough”.

 

Then went out and down the hall to Aiege and ordered a strawberry yogurt smoothie. While waiting, we took our shoes off and played in the little book area. He played with the triangles sitting on the desks again, and a few other things. We had some sips from our smoothie, then went up to the top floor and the big room that used to have all the interesting chairs. Now it is just big and empty. Drank more of our smoothie. Suddenly he started talking to me, saying “Upside down V at the coffee shop…after class…dalghi smoothie.” Took me a minute to piece it together, and I had to confirm that he was talking about his classes, so I asked if he meant Teuni Teuni class, and he said “other class”. I figured it out: “Upside down V at the coffee shop” refers to the coffee shop on the second floor of Home Plus, across from the classrooms, where he took my shoe last week. The sign has an A in ‘CAFFE’ that doesn’t really look like an A, instead looking like an upside down V, and he often comments on it. So I think he was telling me he wants to get a smoothie after class tomorrow, as a bit earlier I had talked about what we were doing on Friday and mentioned class.

 

Anyway, we also got out his ball and stick and played with those, and did our little birthday photo shoot. He also had fun crawling a few times so I could get a photo of him crawling for Carly. We finished the smoothie and he threw it away, then we went over to the Design Experience Zone. We were last here on November 13th, the day that Carly had a field trip here. We went and built a fort, although he lost interest in it after 10 minutes or so. Wandered over to the furniture area, which looked really cool at first. Took our shoes off, as one sign indicated, to play on all the creative furniture, but then realized that only two pieces out of the dozen or more there were touchable. So turned into more frustration as I told August he couldn’t climb on the other furniture. Pretty par for the course here, where often exhibits for children are frustratingly un-interactive.

 

We put our shoes back on and wandered through the museum, and went to the mirror/light room. This was probably the highlight of the day. When he first walked in and started looking, he said “Go in there…go in the mirror” and stared up at the ceiling. As we were sitting in it, I said “Say hi to mirror August” and he waved and said “Happy birthday, mirror August.” So cool. He then got fascinated by the lights, and looking at himself change colors in the mirrors, saying “Blue Zinnie…yellow Zinnie…pink Zinnie…
” and occasionally throwing in a ‘happy birthday’. When it was time to go, I suggested he say goodbye, and he said “Bye mirror Zinnie…happy birthday.”

 

On our way out, we stopped at the 7-11 in the station and got honey butter potato sticks as his birthday chips that he’s been requesting. Ate those on the way home, and got home a few minutes after Carly a little after 5. Ate, then we opened some presents. A shirt from my brother, a water writing counting book from my parents, bath letters/numbers and Daniel Tiger book from Vivian and family, and letter painting sponges and coloring/activity books from Glecy is what we opened today…. The rest for tomorrow.

 

Carly gave him a bath and he got to play with the bath letters/numbers and loved them. They were making words on the door, then he just started putting random letters together and having her pronounce the result.

 

He was off to sleep at 7:43, but woke up about 8, saying ‘uh-oh’, as if he realized he was wide awake. He ended up being awake another couple hours. He read some books with Carly, particularly the Frida book, where ne observed the “monstro hiding curtain”. We went in on the bed to read books, and for some reason he asked Carly to spell ‘ankle’, which led to a long, long session of him saying “How bout…” and saying a word, and mainly Carly spelling the words. This went on for close to a half hour and dozens of words.

 

Carly eventually needed to take a bath. He and I read Kipper’s A to Z, then Carly fed him a bit more dinner. Apropos to nothing, he said “Yummy juice at party” – which I think was talking about the party on Friday, where he saw juice, but I don’t think he had any. We asked what else he remembered from the party, and he said “peanut butter”, referring to the pretzel peanut butter bites.

 

Finally, Carly took him off to bed again and he was asleep about 10.

 

 

New words/phrases: here is GS25, area de jugo, monkey’s legs (really working on plural pronunciation), al reves (upside down), ankle, spelling, spelling ‘book’ 

Birthday French toast: 

Looking out the window with the zookeeper: 

Two!: 

I-Play: 

Big room: 

Design Experience Zone: 

Furniture: 

Mirror room: 

Resting before we leave: 

Birthday chips: 

He was up right at 7:40. After changing him we were out on the couch and he asked for Marshy ABC songs. So I had Marshy singing ABC songs, and in particular the “A is for…” song and we ended up using the other stuffed animals (D is for Dragon, for Puff, for example). We then did the alphabet puzzle a couple times, and did some Spanish typing. Toast and then oatmeal for breakfast, then a lot of getting ready to go. Left about 9:40, did Art Maker on the subway.

 

Arrived at the children’s museum to find it basically empty. Straight to the chalkboard, then making a “huge Z” out of the floor magnets, then back playing with the light stuff. Then found an ‘O’ and was playing with that everywhere. He found the zoetrope and was spinning the O in that. A couple times he said “Bye O” as he spun it away. Then through the nature area. At the minerals, I asked him to find the Quartz. He did. Then the Selenite. Then the amethyst, biotite, etc. He got all 5. I expected him to look at them and/or just know their locations, but the way he did it was by looking at the words: He knows that ‘quartz’ is the one with the Q (kind of tricky, as it is actually Rosequartz, so he has to find it in the middle of the word), Amethyst starts with ‘A’, Biotite with ‘B’ (for black). So he would find that one letter and know that was it. Now 11:20 or so and he said he was hungry, so we went up to the third floor. But first he wanted to play with the stomping thing, the air/ball things, and the cultural puzzles. Then to the cafeteria, which we pretty much had to ourselves. We sang our English/Spanish/Korean Colors song (hereby called the ESK Colors song) and he surprised me by knowing several of the Korean colors on his own: yellow, blue, and green in particular. We are also starting to get grey, black, and silver down. Did some more cultural puzzles, then walked down to the home area and did some vacuuming and looking at the food: “Want this”, pointing at food, then, seeing sushi: “Sushi for mama”. From there to the book area where we read Oh No! and looked at a couple books in the loft, then got out the iPad and read some Dr. Seuss.

 

Changed him and we went outside and had a snack on the benches before going off for a nap. He was talking about zookeepers, saying he wanted to “Open zookeeper door”. Earlier, after lunch, when we were walking by the bathrooms, he said “Hear zookeepers!” Then was holding my finger and wouldn’t let me go down the hall to the bathrooms. And then he said “Spying on zookeepers.”

 

We went for our walk. And kept walking. Took well over a mile and over 30 minutes before he fell asleep. Put his head back a few times, but then it would come up again. I was singing number songs, and when I first thought he was asleep I then heard a slurry “Want ABC songs”. A few minutes later it was a slurred “Sing A is for Apple”. Finally asleep, and we went to the upstairs coffee shop, where he slept 1:37 to 2:33. I went upstairs because they have more food, and the idea was to have  a muffin and smoothie when he woke up, kind of like at 18 months. But when he woke up the first things he said were “See zookeepers…Hear zookeepers!” and he wanted to go outside.

 

So we went to the zoo. Of course, when I asked what he wanted to see, he said “Zookeepers”. We walked around and saw the jackals and servals, etc., then he really wanted to see the vulture, so we did that, then the rest of the pheasants. Then to the water birds, and on to the tropical building to look for zookeepers. We saw one come out of a zookeeper door, and a second trying to feed a dead mouse to a snake. The snake wasn’t interested. He also touched his favorite zookeeper door. So, pretty successful zookeeper spying, although we didn’t hear or see anything though the gates.

 

We then went out to the big square in the zoo and had some crackers, then played there for the next 30 or 40 minutes. Workers were ripping down the little souvenir shop, so that was some entertainment. He got a little rock and was throwing it around, and throwing it on my shadow. I then got the yellow ball out of the backpack, and we were playing with that. He would occasionally not know where it went and say “Where’d it go? I see it.” He was up on the benches, throwing or rolling it off, then I would throw it back to him. At one point I was throwing it up in the air and catching it, so then he was walking around, throwing it up the air, and saying “throw…catch.”

 

We headed home, playing more Art Maker. We got home a few minutes after Carly. At home, he started writing in his notebook, writing 1 to 12, drawing and saying “triangle”, and writing both ‘two’ and ‘to’ – he had initially learned the latter, but I hadn’t seen him write it since learning the number. After awhile, I went to the pink building to do some grocery shopping and pick up wrapping paper and some more little notebooks for word notebooks. While I was gone, he ate a bunch of asparagus and some broccoli. I came home, and at one point, as Carly was getting his bath ready, he wanted the iPad and was getting upset when I wouldn’t let him get it out of the backpack. I started doing the pirate thing to distract him, and he was laughing for the next several minutes. Carly gave him a bath, and he was having fun. Requested the Robot ABC song, which is interesting since he hasn’t watched it in a couple weeks. After the bath he nursed and they had some nice calm time. For the rest of the evening he would hold onto the front of his shirt, kind of like when he is holding up his pants.

 

While Carly was taking a shower, I asked what Zinnie loved. In order, he said: “zookeepers, play areas, pillows, wawa, Teuni Ball, ball, Mama.” Also, out of nowhere he said “Do yoga”, so we went in the parlor and did a little yoga.

 

We were then in the parlor and he wanted to make a tower, then a path with the bricks. He saw the puma and asked what it was in Spanish. As I went to look it up, he made a guess “Puma…Apum” which was amazing because he was adopting the ‘Tuna…atun” structure he had learned yesterday. But no, it is ‘puma’ in both. He was requesting the EKS Colors song, and was saying “Korean”, which we hand’t heard him say before, although he understood it. We spent a lot of time playing with one of his little shape stickers that was on the floor. He would shove it under the reading area cushion and say “Where’d it go?” Then we would lift it up to find it. Finally, we were reading the Little Kipper book, and he pointed and said “More this”, referring to the house that Kipper makes for Arnold out of a cardboard box. I told him he’d have to talk to Mama for that, and she said she’d make him one this summer. Unfortunately, he wanted it now, going out and pointing to the scissors: “More scissors…more box.” Carly took him in and he fell asleep soon after that, around 8:30.

 

New words/phrases: atun (tuna), nolansak (yellow), noksak (green), palgansak (blue), Korean

 

Children’s museum: 

Playing outside at the zoo: 

Home: 

Much more to come (including Wednesday – I didn’t forget about Wednesday), but here is the second-a-day video of his second year: 

He got up to nurse a little after 6 and Carly thought he was waking up. He fell back to sleep though, and slept until 8:13. About 12 hours. But rough waking up, until I got him doing “Cabeza, hombros, brasos, manos” on the changing pad. He then continued to sing it as we were out in the parlor. We did more, much more, of the hearing letters game and that continued throughout the day. We then worked on the alphabet puzzle, which he is slowly getting better at, and ate some breakfast. As I prepared food for lunch, he wanted peanut butter on a spoon. A fork, actually, so I got him his Spongebob fork. He grabbed the peanut butter jar and pointed into it, going “A a a a…” as more of the hearing letters thing. We skyped with my parents for awhile, then continued to get ready to go. He was requesting his minions shirt long before we got to the room to change him, but he then changed his mind. He had requests for a “blue shirt”, then a “silver shirt”, but couldn’t agree to any. Eventually ended up with his long-sleeved car shirt and he didn’t complain once it was on. Finally, we did some Spanish typing before we left.

 

We had to wait awhile for the #9 bus, so were walking around looking at things, particularly things that were spinning (a fan in a heating unit, things outside the cell phone store). Took the bus to Kwangwoon University Station, then the subway downtown. The subway was full, and August was still in the backpack, so I set him down and he was fine for several stops, eating a snack. But then he got antsy, and wanted me to pick up the backpack. By Dongmyo, 6 stops short, he really wanted off. Planned on getting off and catching the next train, but he wanted to leave the station. Looked at the map and realized we could go see Dongmyo Shrine, which we’ve never done, then walk along the main stream downtown. So that’s what we did. He wanted backpack time, as he didn’t want to get out at the shrine, and then was excited about walking along the water, and started talking about seeing duckies.

 

It took awhile, and there was a slight wind blowing in our faces much of the time. A couple times, as it was cold and I was getting hungry, I asked if he wanted to go up the stairs to find someplace inside, or continue along the stream, and he chose the stream. We did see some ducks, a lot of big fish, and lots of pigeons. We admired the artwork along the way, and he pointed one out, that involved big squares in different colors. I took a couple photos of it and the part he liked (he was pointing out a reddish-pink square) and said something like “You know, you can tell me if there are things you want me to take a picture of.” He understood that, as a few minutes later he started pointing and saying “Take photo this”. His list included the ground, a light fixture, a stone panel under a bridge, and, at the end, the waterfall at the beginning of the stream. Once we got inside he would tell me to take a photo of the pig sculpture and, later when we were in the art gallery, several of the things in there.

 

Anyway, 2.5 miles later we were to City Hall and went down to the big Citizens Hall area, which has galleries, history exhibits, a sitting area, coffee shops, etc. We found a place to eat lunch, and there was something going on on stage. A couple guys were introduced and they started singing a pop/rap song. August was initially captivated by the lights above the stage that changed color: “Blue! Verde! Yellow! Amarillo!…” He was captivated during the whole song. When the song was over, it was done. August wasn’t happy about this, and initially yelled “No!” a couple times, then got incredibly sad and put his head down on my leg for a few minutes. Even as his mood recovered, he started talking about it, saying things like “More one song…only one song…more two songs…one song more please” When I asked him how many songs they should have played, he said “Fourteen songs”. We were there for 20 minutes or so, eating, and he continued on like this. At one point, he started dancing to some of the background music, and as I took a video he stopped, then walked up to a woman that was sitting there and sang the ABC song to her.

 

He was back to being in a grand mood, but it was time to try a nap. I took him in to the nice changing room. As I changed him, he made up a “Favorite number is yema (yolk)” song, then had fun counting the rabbits on the wall behind the couch.

 

We walked through the sound gallery, which has an exhibit of Claude Monet paintings that have been brought to life, to have things moving in them. This genre of art is pretty big in Korea and we have seen similar pieces many times. These were probably some of the better ones. Anyway, he initially commented on the colors, then the music that was playing: “Colors!….Sad.” At the other end, there was a big picture of Monet. August called him a zookeeper, then wanted a “photo of zookeeper”. As we were leaving he said “Bye Monet!”

 

We walked around downtown to put him to sleep. As you might expect, this took awhile, as there was so much to see and hear. So twenty-some minutes later he fell asleep and we went up to the coffeeshop at the top of the library building. Not as nice as I remember, and they screwed up my order, bringing me chamomile tea. He slept from 2:25 to 3:22. When he woke up, he wanted to go outside. So we went out on the roof gardens for a minute, then down the stairs and outside, then into city hall. We went up to the 8th floor to the art gallery there, but the show opens tomorrow. So one floor farther up to where there are post-it notes you can write on and post on a whiteboard. August did this once before last spring. He wanted to get out of the backpack now, but when I took him out I found he had leaked (just changed him before the nap!?) Luckily, right next to a bathroom. Changed him, then did some writing on the post-its. He could just stretch and place the post-its on the bottom of the boards.

 

From there we went back down to the Citizens Hall. Sat on a bench and ate pretty much the rest of our food for a snack, then went into the show. Lots of interesting poster-sort of art, with interesting animals and creatures, so August liked it pretty well, except for not being able to touch. He directed me to take photos of several. We bought a couple postcard things before we left, and as we were leaving, a woman gave August a little hedgehog pin. We found a place to get our coats on and get ready to go, and settled for putting the pin on the orange strap on the backpack that I use for holding my coat.

 

We headed out. Two seats the entire way this time, and we did Sesame Street Art Maker the entire way to Kwangwoon. Caught the bus home from there. He had a seat, and I stood and kept him from hitting his head on the window when the crazy bus driver turned. We were home about 5:40, a few minutes before Carly, who had stopped to get rotisserie chicken from a truck. When she got here, August grabbed the “presents for mama” (the postcards) and took them to her.

 

In the evening, she fed him, and I ran down the the GS25 for milk. We used the iPad to read books in Reading Rainbow, and then some Dr. Seuss. For some reason we got on the pirate voice/cap’n/matey thing and August was laughing like crazy, and that continued as I took him in for a bath. There, he went on and on with random ABC songs and improvisations. I asked him what he wanted to do tomorrow, and he said “Chips for happy birthday” (a reference to the confetti in the Happy Birthday book which he in turn thought looked like the colorful chips at the party on Friday). Even after telling him his birthday wasn’t for two days, that is what he kept saying. So yes, he is somehow excited by this birthday thing. He has been saying “Turning two!” a lot as well.

 

Carly took him in to sleep, but he recovered and wasn’t ready yet. Came out to me on the couch, and we started singi
ng the “Mama loves August, Mama loves Zinn…” pronoun song. We expanded it, including “Green Monster loves August…” etc., then I was taking suggestions from August, and he added letters (“Z loves August…”) but was also requesting people (“Opa and Mama”). I took him back in on the bed and we kept at that for awhile. We turned the light off, and he was still trying to escape bedtime. He was trying to make it out the door and said “no bedtime…more happy birthday”). Carly grabbed him and he calmed down, and was asleep around 9:15.

 

 

New words/phrases: manteca de cacahuete, spelling ‘quiz’

 

Singing “Cabeza, hombros…”: 

Peanut butter: 

Walking along the stream: 

One of the things August requested I take a photo of: 

Watching the music: 

Not an exciting video, as he stopped naming off the colors of the lights, but you can get a sense of the music:

Sad. Note the sad lip:

Then all this happened: 

Another photo request from August: 

Counting bunnies: 

Sound Gallery. You can hear him say “Sad” near the end: 

Another requested photo, of the zookeeper. Err, Monet: 

Asleep with hands on the table: 

Post-it notes: 

Q spotting: 

Art gallery. He requested some of the photos: 

Back home. Singing in the bath. This is long, but he just kept going and going…: 

Birthday plans: 

He woke up at 7:50 to find mama gone. He was upset for a minute (“no,no…no want this”) but then walked out into the living room and said “See the octagon…hiding from octagon…want a red say-mo (triangle)” referring to his shape stickers and the ones he had stuck on the play mats. So we played with the shape stickers, then he spent several minutes playing with the “rana (front) puzzle” and made up a little rompecabeza (puzzle) song. We developed a new game, hearing letters around the house, after he was saying things like “Hear A”. We would roam around and ‘hear’ letters coming from the closet, chair, refrigerator, etc. He would also want to play this when we were at the park and then in the evening. More puzzles in the morning, as he got out the wooden car puzzle and then found the little alphabet puzzle we had bought at Daiso. In there we ate breakfast and I managed to get him out of the owls and into a button up short sleeve shirt without too much consternation. We also played with Smokey before we left, and he said “Bye” to some of the animals again. No mention of the iPad this morning.

 

We left for Seoul Forest around 10. Longer subway ride and a transfer, so a little after 11 by the time we got to the park. At the station he stood on the bench and played peekaboo with his coat. First went to the playground and sat on the edge and ate lunch. While doing that he watched these four older boys playing in the sand, one throwing sand on the others. August was pointing and saying “messy”, then “messy pantalones”. When he got down in the sand himself it didn’t last but a few seconds, as he wanted to wash his hands and shoes. He was flapping his hands saying “wash hands” and pointing to his shoe saying “uh-oh” and “wash shoe”. I got the ball out and we rolled it down the long ramp a few times, then he wandered over to the big wire man sculpture/climbing structure side of the park. He walked up the ramp to that and wanted to go in. I got in and climbed up to the knee. He watched, but then turned around and walked back down the ramp. We played along the big snake for awhile. He went to the bear sculpture and stood beside the ‘do not enter’ line around the bears and snapped it for awhile. As we were walking around the snake, it started raining for a couple minutes. He was startled when a drop of rain hit his head, but he liked it and kept saying “more rain”, even as it then ended.

 

He wandered away, over to the stream area (which is dry for the winter). We turned the pump things – one had some rain water in it, so it sort of worked – and he still remembered about washing his shoes. He wandered off down a bath, singing plural ABC songs, the rompecabeza song again, and then some made up Spanish song. We were all alone in the park until a group of teenage girls walked up behind us. I was walking a few feet behind August and when they went by him they startled him. He gave them a little warning yell, then a longer scream when they hung around.

 

He wanted to be picked up after that, but still gave directions. We walked past the sculptures, looking at some of them, and up to the building next to the park with some coffee shops in it. He wanted to go in the building, so we did that, but I wouldn’t go in a coffee shop yet. Now past 1, so we walked south a bit to the information center building and changed him. With him in the backpack, walked past the playground again, across the big pond (where he first ate apple with my parents) and around the big field before he fell asleep and we went to the Latte King shop in that building. He slept from 1:36 to 2:54.

 

When he woke up he wanted out. Sat in the coffee shop a bit, but no iPad. The women next to us had a puppy which he ‘hid’ from, then was singing ABC. He was pointing up at mugs on shelves and said “Q U A C K quack there” and wanting me to lift him up to see better. Couldn’t tell what he was talking about, then I saw it: a mug that said “f*ck summer drink hot coffee”. He had seen the ‘ck’ part. He wanted to look at the food, and then wanted to get kimbap and eggs at CU (we had seen one when going to change him). So we went and did so, and did the walk over to the deer. Along the way I saw a dove/pigeon siding on the grass near a bush. It was hard to see as it blended in and August said it was “hiding”. We got to the deer and sat across from them on a bench and ate the kimbap. It had seeds on it and he asked what they were (“This is?”. I said sesame seeds, and he said “Art Maker seeds”, remember that in the art app you can plant seeds on your painting.

 

We fed the deer. We had to walk back to the entrance to buy food. I left the backpack on the bench, only to remember most of the way there that the money was in the backpack. Went back and got some change. Back to the machine only to find it doesn’t take coins. Back to the backpack. Didn’t know if I had a 1000 won note. August now saying “Want deer food”. Luckily, I had one and only one, so we walked back a third time and got some deer food. He fed one or two pieces directly to them, but preferred to throw it through the fence and watch them eat it from the ground. He did some hiding from the deer, which startled one of the deer each time he did it, and really enjoyed feeding them, also finding it really funny. He threw one or two pieces at a time, so it took quite awhile.

 

He did a lot of walking on our way out of the park. We stopped and looked at the rabbits for a couple minutes. Back at the entrance I changed him again. He looked up and saw the picture again and said “Mama and Zinnie…change diaper.” But then said “Dada and Zinnie”. There was a triangular ‘warning’ symbol above it, warning of the fall hazard. He asked what it was (“What this?”) and I told him it meant that both the babies and the parents had to be careful so the baby didn’t fall. He responded with “Fall…Careful bebe!” Back outside I put him in the backpack. Earlier, there had been a group of adults standing in a circle and singing songs and playing games that involved clapping. We had watched for several minutes before starting the walk for his nap. Now he was sad they were gone, and said “More people singing!” and even put his head on my shoulder for awhile. We were running late, and didn’t leave the park until 4:56.

 

We were quite far away from home, so surprised when we saw an APIS but on the street. Crowded subways. When we got on the line 7, first spent a couple stops sitting on the backpack, with him on my lap, before a seat opened up. At Hagye we were walking out when suddenly he said “More lizard!” and directed me over to the big poster advertising the Buk art museum. It includes the lizard sculptures that used to be in front of the museum.

 

At home,  he was able to tell Carly that he “feed the deer” and that we saw a doggie in the coffee shop. He played with the Teuni ball (and liked when I had it on my head), and the toy box, saying “Something’s in the way” when he couldn’t put the lid on. Carly gave him a bath, then I made him laugh on the changing pad by putting Carly’s shoes on my hands and then having them walk along the door frame and on the floor. This continued out in the kitchen/living room, as he would keep saying “More walking shoes” – he particularly liked when they walked up Carly. Carly read some more books with him, then he was ready for bed and went to sleep about 8:15.

 

When we went in to bed, he woke to nurse for a few minutes. Thought he was fully asleep, but then he rolled back to her. But not to nurse: he cuddled up with her, something he doesn’t really do. A few minutes later he shifted some more and was sleeping with his butt in the air again.

 

A lot of “This is?” nowadays. He did it for the deer food, seeds, parts of the fence, posts along the side walk, big construction cranes
, etc.

 

 

New words/phrases: octagon, rompecabeza (puzzle), rana puzzle, hundred million, hill, comida, something’s in the way

 

Hexagon sticker: 

Looking out the window with Smokey: 

Peekaboo at the subway platform: 

Playground: 

Mug he thought said ‘quack’: 

The whale sculpture: 

Walking to feed the deer: 

He was awake at 7:30. He went out and nursed and then was working on reading and writing with Carly, using the markers, and she was working on getting him to ask “please” when wanting a marker she had. He then came to me and we read Opuestos, using Bluie and Green Monster to act out the opposites, then used them for some hide and seek in the closet. He then found the little roller stamp (which he thinks looks like a question mark) in the closet and we played with that on the paper and kept putting it back together when it came apart. Carly then Skyped with Chuck and Cherie, and I made French toast for breakfast.

 

Next, he was was making words from the letter magnets, but laying them on the table. He spelled ‘hi’ and ‘go’ on his own, then I helped him with ‘pig’, ‘quack’, and ‘quacking’. He then had fun adding a ’t’ to the end of it to make the word ‘quackingt’, which is fun to say. He got the plastic letters out and spelled ‘me’ on his own, then Carly picked him up to go change him. As she took him away he said “Bye ‘me’” to his word.

 

He wanted the iPad so then watched ABC songs. Carly was making soy chicken, and eventually I decided it was time to take August outside. He was excited to take the soccer ball and stick out to the park, but as it turned out, we didn’t use either of them. Before we left though he saw all the plastic and magnet letters on the couch and said “put away” and so he put them away before we left.

 

In the park, he directed me to the other side, then wanted to go the art museum. We first went to the play area and played for a few minutes. He said “wawa in the play area”, but then I realized we hadn’t brought a water bottle. No problem, as they have a dispenser there and we drink from those little paper cups all the time. We went out and got some water. I was holding him with my right arm. I offered him the water and he said “Dada drink it” and shoved it towards me, spilling water on both of us. So he was wet for awhile. Didn’t drake him out though; the most he said was “wash your hands…wash your tummy.”

 

He played for another minute, then I took him downstairs to the children’s gallery. This show is all about color. He liked both of the interactive elements: he got a strip of stickers to place on four outlines on the wall, and the underneath part has a series of colored lightbulbs in black, blue, red, and green light and you can flip the four switches to turn them on and off. He spent a lot of time deciding where to place the stickers and walking around the gallery, then a couple minutes on the light switches until we needed to let someone else do it. Once again, they have the stair stepped part covered in objects that August wants to touch but we of course cannot. Didn’t bother him as much this time though.

 

We went outside and he wanted a snack. We sat on the benches and ate the rest of the rice cake things. Preacher then came along and sat next to me. I talked to him for a few minutes, and August wandered behind us, playing on the stone paths, walking back and forth and throwing a little rock around. He came over and sang ABC by Preacher, and was almost touching his grey coat as he traced the letters in the air.

 

We walked home, and ran into Carly as she came back from the pink building. August spotted her from across the street and squealed. We went home and he went down for a nap soon after, sleeping from around 1:30 to a little past 2:30. He spent a long time nursing with Carly in the parlor, then they were playing with the Spanish cards, mainly focusing on colors. Carly had found 6 of the cards with yellow on their backs and he was counting them. He really wanted there to be a seventh card though, so he would carefully count the 6, and then after a couple seconds say “7”. Did that several times.

 

We all went for a walk – down the stream, up the river, then past the north end of the soccer field, past the science exhibits, and down past the ones with Qs, then down the stream and back home. When we got to Madeul, I let August choose our direction a couple of times. He wanted to stop at the globe to open it (and he now wanted to help open it), then, at the ‘birth of the oceans’ exhibit he wanted to get out of the backpack so he could walk on the ocean part. We played there for several minutes. He saw Carly standing on the rocks around the water area, so he wanted to do it as well, and when Carly tried to help he said “Zinnie do it.” He eventually let her help though, especially on the harder ones. He made it on a bigger one and said “Climbed a big one…Zinnie on grande.” When we got to the Q signs he hid from the Qs and the As. He also likes to “hide from green” when we are waiting for the lights to change at intersections.

 

Also, along the walk he was singing the A is for Apple song when he suddenly said “Oh, new one! S is for snake”. Back in the building, he saw himself in the mirror in the elevator and said “Mirror Zinnie wear coat.” He also did that yesterday, except it was “rain coat” and he got a little upset because he doesn’t like wearing that coat. We were back about 5:40 and played with the zookeeper, mainly he was having her go in her building, and talking about her eating food. She was asking him to find her animals for the zoo, and he would intentionally get the wrong animal (Zebra when he couldn’t find the panda, pig instead of kangaroo, etc.)

 

I was going to go to an art show with Meg today, but she was bogged down in grading, so we postponed that and she came over for dinner instead. August was not happy when she came in the house; we probably didn’t do enough warning before she came. We all went in to the parlor though and he nursed a bit and was then fine, and started singing ABCs for her. We went downstairs for dinner to the Alley Pub place, which just opened up. He did a good job of eating a pickle, a couple of the chip things, the pizza and some of the quesadilla thing, and tried the teriyaki chicken, although that one was definitely too hot for him. He played on the iPad for part of the time. He continues to throw some bites on the floor when he rejects them, but otherwise did really well at dinner.

 

He and I read Little Kipper, then he read Spanish books with Carly. He went in on the bed with her and they read Happy Birthday. The confetti looked like chips to him (from the party on Friday), so then he kept saying he wanted chips. Fought sleep, and kept wanting to get up. Asleep around 9:15.

 

 

Meg over at 6. Not a good reaction. But then showing off. Downstairs to dinner.

 

Reading kipper while Carly showered, then Spanish books with Carly.

 

Reading Happy Birthday: confetti looked like chips, so now he wants chips

 

New words/phrases: capa (coat), globo (balloon), feliz conpleanos a ti

 

Art museum: 

Snack:  

Counting to 6 (err, 7): 

Making up Spanish names: 

On our walk: 

Figuring out some Hangeul: 

Hiding from Q:  

Dinner: 

August woke up about 7:30. Carly and he did some skyping with Cherie, then he was into color and wiping up the floor. We decided to walk up to the Tayo kid cafe, northeast of us. We walked along the stream. Hadn’t seen any ducks or egrets along the way, then we spotted some of each right as we were leaving the stream.

 

Got to the Tayo place right at 11 and left a little before 1. He started in the wooden bead digging area. I hung out with them for awhile, then went to do some reading. Carly stayed with him, and they went to the upstairs home area and did a lot of pretend washing of their hands and faces. He was then roaming around a lot and indecisive. I asked if he was hungry, and he sat on my lap and took a long time to eat some lunch. After that, they went and did a little coloring on the desks in the coloring area, then were back to the wood beads. He was lying on the bench on his stomach, reaching down to play with them. He was also trying to get them past me and throw them over the side.

 

We left, and it was starting to rain, so stopped to put the full rain gear on. He was clearly going to fall asleep, so we decided to head to a coffee shop. We went to a place called 커피공방고흐오솔길 just past Sanggye Station. I’d spotted it a couple years ago, but we had never been. Very nice little place, covered inside with art and notes. And each menu was hand written and illustrated. August slept 1:14 to 2:10. He woke up and played on the iPad. It was now pouring outside, so we were in no hurry to leave. The woman brought some steamed milk for August, and some free coffee for me and Carly. August ignored the milk at first, but really liked it when he tasted it.

 

We left close to 3, while it was still pouring. First tried to take a bus, but it was going to be 20 minutes. Went back and took the subway. At Hagye, Carly headed to Home Plus and August and I went home. He was not happy about this, crying and yelling the entire way to the apartment. Once here, he did not want to get out of the backpack, wanting to go back out to find mama instead. So I sat next to him on the ground and talked to him. Eventually he calmed down, and felt something with his right foot. It was Carly’s work shoes, in a bag. I got them out, and he was waving her shoes around as he was still in the backpack, sitting on the floor. Good time to teach him “pair”.

 

We then made no hold it letters, and he wanted to start listing letters. We usually do that with Q, but today he was into listing M words, then P words. I had to change him, and as I was finishing up I saw he was holding his hand up and looking at it weird. I asked if there was something on his hand. He gave me a serious look and said “Poop. Poop on hand.” So we went and changed him. Before Carly got home we were writing more Q words on the paper, and he asked “How ‘bout ‘quiz’?”

 

Carly got home. Soon thereafter, I noticed he was using ‘of’ quite well, as in ‘piece of banana’. And at one point he randomly pointed to his own eyes and said “two eyes, two eyes”.

 

He wanted the iPad, so we got that out. It ended up being a lesson in fractions by downloading Dr. Seuss books. He would download one in the Treasury app, and as it loaded it would show a circle and I’d say “one-fourth, two-fourths, etc.” and soon he was saying them himself. Carly made coleslaw, and I was feeding some to him and got him to say “Thank you mama for coleslaw.”  He was then reading the Marvin K. Mooney Dr. Seuss book with Carly and was reading and spelling ‘go’.

 

Carly gave him a bath, after which he made up a little ‘Oma’ song and was then singing the Plural ABCs song while walking around and writing in the air. He wanted the iPad again and we settled on playing Nighty Night Circus once. He started it a second time, but decided he was done. Carly was in the middle of marinating the chicken so he had to wait a couple minutes and that did not go well. But eventually I got him to read Opuestos for awhile. He was joking about having a tail (cola) and said “Dada have a tail…Green Monster have a tail.”

 

He was asleep at 8, but woke up a little at 8:45. We heard him say “Dada…more zoo”, then Carly got him back to sleep.

 

New words/phrases: cambiando (switch), one quarter, one half, three quarters

 

Popping the packing material:

Tayo: 

In the rain: 

Steamed milk at the coffee shop: 

Playing with the shoes: 

Two-quarters: 

Reading Dr. Seuss: 

He was awake at 6:55 so Carly nursed him and was a bit late getting out the door. After being quiet for awhile, he popped up saying “Line down, sideways V, turn to K.” More Hangeul vowels with Duplos as Carly left, then reading Opuestos and having Bluie and Green Monster do the rabbit time – this time also wanting Turkey (the elephant) to dance along with them. He then climbed on the couch and asked for the iPad and almost exclusively watched the individual letter songs he likes.

 

Morning was going smoothly and thought we had plenty of time, until we got to putting on his coats and brushing his hair. Went downhill from there, in part because I was trying to put two light coats on him instead of his usual winter coat, and he wasn’t happy about the change. So we went straight from that to his new 5-TOUCH class with a different teacher, getting there  a couple minutes late. I think he was a bit freaked out by the new teacher. Anyway, he made it through class, but not as smoothly as the Teuni Teuni class yesterday. She did a lot of talking/demonstrating, which isn’t his favorite part. There was only one toy activity, which he loved: a wooden cake with velcro on the pieces and top so you could take the pieces apart and put them together, and put candles and strawberries and other pieces on top. A couple times in the class, as she was demonstrating new songs, etc. I had to pick him up and we watched from the back. At one point he walked over to the door. I called him back, and he came back to me and kind of hugged me from behind and put his head on my shoulder. One interesting thing from class was that early on he kept saying “Hear verde”. I finally figured out that he was talking about the voice coming from the speaker. This teacher used a headset and her voice was going through the speaker system. Maybe a bit of synesthesia? Or maybe just being funny…

 

He was in pretty good shape by the end of class though. We grabbed our shoes and went out to put them on and get in the backpack. He took off with one of my shoes in the wrong direction (I wanted to go to the benches to the right). He headed to the coffeeshop and chose a chair he wanted us to use. While we were putting on our shoes, a woman came over who was the director of the cultural center and asked to get my contact info, as Atsuko is still on our account. So we went to her office and did that. Took surprisingly long to simply put my name and phone number in the system. August kept busy by using a pen to write on one of the flat paper cups. After that, Jihong and his mom were still there, so we talked for a few minutes.

 

We finally headed out and went straight to the subway and down to Children’s Grand Park. Bought kimbap and smokey eggs along the way. Went up to the outdoor concert hall and sat up near the top in the sun to eat our lunch. He spent almost all the time (20 minutes or so) walking back and forth on the bench as we ate. Ate all the eggs and a  lot of kimbap. He was talking a lot about zookeepers, and pointing in every direction saying “Zookeepers here”. He also played with his shadow a lot while standing on the bench. It was now 6 hours since he had woken up, and he said “More sleep time”. We went and changed him and took our walk. He slept from 1:16 to 2:05 in the upstairs cafe. Woke up and got out of the backpack, but didn’t want to hang out in the coffee shop. So we went and headed to the zoo, me holding him/him walking today. He did a lot of ‘hiding’ from the primates and elephants, then wanted some crackers.

 

From there we walked up around the ferocious animals complex. He was walking slowly, a couple feet in front of me, and a woman not looking where she was going totally walked straight into him and knocked him down. Luckily a quick recovery. All the animals were out, so we were able to see the Asian bears, the servals, the jackals, and the lynx. One of the servals was right on the other side of the glass and he said “Touch it…hold it.” We got to the zookeeper gate behind the elephants and he heard people (zookeepers) talking on the other side. This was very exciting. He said “Two zookeepers”, presumably because we could hear at least two talking. There was a hole in the gate and I let him look through to ‘spy’ on the zookeepers. After that, we kept talking about spying on more zookeepers. We went into the tropical building to see his favorite zookeeper door, and he spotted a new one he hadn’t seen before. No zookeepers though. Back outside we had to go look at the “zookeeper truck”.

 

He wanted more food. When I asked him what he wanted he said “Zookeeper food”. So we got down on the tiger bench and had a snack and he played for several minutes, lying across the bench, standing on it and singing songs, etc.

 

We had to get going as we had to go buy strawberries and go meet Carly at 4:30. We stopped by the entrance to change him and out on the elephant thing he took out the little stick he had played with on Wednesday and started throwing it around. He was doing some screaming in the bathroom, and I was encouraging him to use his words instead, and had suggested “Hurry up, dada” – one I might regret staying, as he started to say it as he walked around. And actually, he has been using his words. Both earlier and as I was changing him he would say “More screaming” or the like, to express that he was frustrated, but wouldn’t actually do the screaming.

 

Anyway, we got going and took the subway to Hagye. There was a little fruit/veggie stand by the bus stop and they had strawberries. Bought those then hopped on the bus to APIS. August covered his eyes as soon as we got to the field, hiding for real this time, and kept them covered the entire way to her room. When one person started talking to us a bit he did some screeching. In her room he immediately wanted to do some coloring with markers, so he did that. We left about 5. He covered his eyes for the entirety of the walk out. We headed to the part, and ran into some other people about halfway there. He hid from them, and was saying “No this” and pointing to them. It wasn’t looking good for the party itself. But when we got there he first wanted food, so he tolerated the party for that, then we got out his notebook and he drew for a couple minutes. He got comfortable and was walking all over the place. He was really entertained by the older girls. He took one break from the party to nurse, then came back and was hyper for the rest of the party. Ate a lot: walnut bread, some chocolate chip cookie, egg things, couple mandu, strawberry. Near the end Carly was holding him upside down. When we left he said “bye” and “adios” to people.

 

We walked home. Still 60 degrees and very nice despite now being dark. When we got back to the building and were in the elevator he did his “More screaming” thing as he was getting impatient. As we got out of the elevator and headed to the apartment, he said “Dada hurry up.” Skipped a bath tonight. He was still up for awhile and went to sleep a little before 9.

 

We also figured out our “Colors ABC song he’s been requesting”. It has the colors in English, Spanish, and Korean and roughly uses the tune to the ABC song. This was his idea; and if I tried to make up a different tune he would say “No”. Oh, and he started saying “T W O two” as we walked today.

 

New words/phrases: zookeepers food, feeding the elephants, dropped my stick, want to go to water museum, broken hand dryer, too hot hands dryer, hurry up dada Z, spelling two, easel

 

 

New 5-TOUCH class: https://youtu.be/jd-b6G1fpgU

 

Eating a banana: https://youtu.be/rroZ-bGCa5w

 

Zookeepers right there: https://youtu.be/PAT4iIqM90A

 

Playing with his shadow: https://youtu.be/qQRns9Bmi8Y

 

Playing on another bench: https://youtu.be/VMumj7v06II

 

Brasos, manos and throwing the sti
ck: https://youtu.be/mpT7B-jw6HY

 

Throwing the little stick around: https://youtu.be/aHWnkeM3TW0

 

Handstand shows up: https://youtu.be/YGVNAN10L-I

 

At the party:

– https://youtu.be/XHagpi4IwB8

– https://youtu.be/EeKGcEh1STE

– https://youtu.be/eR0y9ytTJhY

Not wanting to give up the owl shirt:

New 5-TOUCH class: 

Children’s Grand Park. Lunch: 

Servals: 

Playing on a bench: 

He looked up at the little picture and said “Zinnie and Mama”: 

Little stick: 

Hiding at APIS:

Party: 

Green chip: 

Asleep: 

He woke up at 7:02. Sadly, right after Carly had walked out the door (he probably heard the door). First stop, as usual, was doing ABCDs. He also wanted to work more on Q words. He then requested a banana, so we made smoothie. He went and got his stool from the bathroom so he could help. Carly got our morning email, saying he had woken up right after she left, so she skyped from work, and talked to him for a minute as he stood at the counter. He started to ask me to spell big words, like ‘parentheses’ and ‘octothorp’ – something he would do several times through the day (others were ‘a million and two’ and other big numbers). He was also pointing to different things, like parts of the blender, and saying “This?” and expecting me to have a name for it, and, as usual, then wanting translations into Spanish.

 

He found the iPad and watched ABC songs for awhile. Then we skyped with my parents. He was upset when he first saw them – I think because he thought it was Mama calling again – but he soon got over it. While skyping with them, he called the table a ‘mesa’, a word that neither Carly or I has explicitly taught him (it is on one of the flash cards though, and in the Palabras book). Before leaving for class, we read the Little Bear book again and had a lot of fun with Opuestos (Opposites).

 

He was not happy at all about taking off his owls shirt today. When he finally calmed down and we headed over to his class we were a few minutes late. There were only two other kids there when we went in, and two more arrived even later. Much less crowded and hectic than the last session when it was 15 or so. Probably because we moved both to an earlier time slot, and suddenly the numbers drop off because more of the kids are going to daycares instead. Anyway, it was very nice, and August was entirely comfortable through the class, and even let the teacher do a forward roll once. The activities were exactly the same as the first class last session (pushing foam pieces into the plastic pigs, knocking over the foam rectangles, and making walkways out of the rectangles, but he did a really good job differentiating for the older kids:

 

– he encouraged August to use a fist to hit the foam pieces, instead of just pushing them in with a finger

– he encouraged him to kick down the foam pieces, instead of just pushing them

– and he put bumps in one walkway for them to step on and over, and put blocks under the other so that it made a hill for them to walk up and down

 

So this class session is off to a success. We saw Jihong and his mom coming in for the next session as we left. Tomorrow we all get to meet their new 5-TOUCH teacher.

 

We headed straight from there to the subway, and rode up to Dobongsan. Been a few months since we’ve been there to. From the station (which is above ground), August was pointing out the windows at the park and saying “Go there.” He was ready for some warm park time. We walked the other direction though, up to the stream area. We walked around the stream area, looking at the ice still in the water. That didn’t deter August, as he still wanted me to let him down and into the water. Kept saying “Walk in the wawa…more wawa…etc.” We walked up to the park entrance and sat on the same bench as last time and ate lunch. He immediately started watching the magpies around, and joking that there were “Magpies on the kitty cats” (on his pants). We started with our sandwich and then I laid out the rest of the foods we had on the bench. He surprised me by quickly naming them all off in Spanish: queso de hebra, fresa, ova, and espaguetis (noodles). He walked off after a bit and I followed – he wanted to walk into the circular area covered with trees to look at the magpies on the ground. So we went in there for a little while, then headed back to our bench area and got sticks. He sand his plural letters song and then we wrote words in the dirt. Mainly Q words. He is definitely reading ‘queen’ and spelling ‘quack’. Still working on ‘quick’ and ‘quiet’, although I think he was also spelling ‘quiet’ regularly by the end of the day.

 

We went up and changed him in the bathroom with the broken door. As we left, I was pushing it closed and there was still a couple inch gap. This bothered him, and he said “Close it…little bit…pequeño.” Went to a bench and put him in the backpack. He was looking out past the fence at a more wooded place and said “go in here…go in trees.” So we set off hiking a bit, down by the stream, then across it and up the hill to the first temple. He fell asleep and I turned around and walked down to the coffee shop by our stream area. I’ve been wanting to go there since first starting our stream routine, but back then I just wanted to stay outside.

 

It is called Cafe 553 and really nice – unlike most coffee shops it had a lot of plants, and big windows that let in light. The music was an odd mix. At first it was the Kingston Trio version of “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”, which I liked. But then it switched to Kelly Clarkson’s “Because of You” (which played in another coffee shop just a couple days ago). Then other annoying modern pop before going back to Simon and Garfunkel’s “El Condor Pass”.

 

Anyway, he slept from 12:55 to 2. When he woke up, he wanted to get going. So we left and walked down the stream to the river, then across and over to the subway station and headed home to Hague. As we were walking from there he was singing his “1978” song, which is just that number repeated over and over. We were looking for a sushi place behind Home Plus that Carly had heard about. As we walked around, he asked me to spell random words “how bout…here, Home Plus, freeze, one, million?”

 

We walked over to the park to have a snack, sitting on the concrete benches with animal prints on them. He really liked sitting on the bird prints, saying they were owl prints. He was having fun standing on the bench and acting goofy. He grabbed to crackers and stood up, holding one in each hand “two crackers…one at a time”, and then doing some dancing around and wagging of his head. We then got sticks and he requested we write Spanish words in the dirt – the first time he’s requested Spanish words.

 

We next went to the art museum, he first enjoyed looking into the closed exhibit area when a workman opened the door to it. He was really intrigued and wanted to go in (despite it being a huge empty room – guess he’s always used to it being full of art). He settled for  going to the to the play area. Played in there for a few minutes, then he wanted to go see books, which I had mentioned as something to do in the museum. We didn’t make it to see the English art books, however, as up on the second floor he saw the coffee shop and he wanted to sit and play on the iPad. So I got an iced tea for me and an orange juice box for him. I showed him a new app called FreeSpeech and we spent the next half hour making crazy sentences, both grammatically correct and incorrect. A couple of my favorites:

 

– What will our messy baby think about?

– What does she think because ball cheese oil has about?

 

As he drank his orange juice, he practiced his “Ahhh, refreshing!” and once threw in a “Delicioso!” It was now getting close to 5 and I wanted to go back to the sushi place. We headed out, but he wanted to play on the benches out front for a few minutes doing “Wheee!” Then headed back to the sushi place and got an order of California rolls for Carly. August initially chose to wait inside, but was then making noise, so I decided we’d wait outside. This made him more upset, and he started grabbing the edge of the door as I tried taking him out. Got him outside, and one of the women brought him a little yogurt drink with a straw in it. It may have been that she was already about to give it to him and he saw it over my shoulder, and
the reason he got so upset was that I was taking him from it.

 

That made him happy, and a few minutes later she brought out the sushi. We started walking (him walking as well), but within a few seconds he wanted the sushi in the bag. I told him it had to wait until we got home, and he didn’t like that idea. He ran back to the sushi place and wanted to go back inside again. Full meltdown, including flopping on the ground and screaming and a lot of pointing back to the sushi place and saying “That way, etc.” ensued from this point, and lasted until we got to the light at Home Plus.

 

At home he shared the sushi with Carly. We then spent some time in on the reading area in the parlor with Carly, showing her the new Dr. Seuss app (we got the full collection) and the sentence building app. We read Opuestos again as Carly took a shower, then played with Duplos. He was practicing his Hangeul vowel construction. Seriously. At some point he actually said “Bed time” and walked into the bedroom. There, we read the Happy Birthday book. He is close to having the little Audition Day script in the back memorized (“Can you sing?” “Yes, I can.” “Can you dance?” “Yes, I can.” Can you cook?” (No, I can’t…but I can eat very well.” “Of course you can.” “Yum yum”). He was then ready to nurse and went to sleep about 8:45.

 

 

New words/phrases: canciones del ABCs, apps de dada (dada’s apps on the iPad), mesa (table), mochila (backpack)

Teuni Teuni: 

Dobongsan. The stream: 

Lunch:  

Back in Hagye: 

Art museum: 

One of the crazy sentences: 

Waiting at the sushi place and saying “Aaaah!”: 

Sushi with mama: 

He was awake at 7:25. I went in and he stood in the bedroom, said “No want, no want” and was then quiet for a couple minutes. He then walked out to the paper and said “ABCD…Hangeul ㄷ change to Hangeul ㅁ” as if he had just dreamed that one up (and maybe he had).

 

He found the iPad (I keep leaving it out on the table when I get up in the morning and forgetting to hide it behind the computer stand). When the sound wasn’t working on some apps he was saying “Too quiet”. He had accidentally turned on mute (which doesn’t affect YouTube, apparently, thus confusing us both). We were close to being ready to leave when I remembered we really needed to do laundry. So I also took of his owl shirt (his pants were already off) to wash them. He was having difficulty parting with them though. He considered it, when I explained they needed to be washed and I asked him to put the shirt in the washing machine. But he couldn’t do it. Instead, he went to the washing machine and pulled the pants out. I then walked back into the laundry room to find that he had hung both the shirt and pants on the drying rack as if they were already clean.

 

W made letters out of Duplos. I made a pyramid from Duplos and he said “Pyramid at play area”‘ remembering the pyramid I had made from the shape magnets at Banghok. As I then hung up laundry, I walked out to find him in the reading area holding both Bluie and Green Monster and having them dance and sing the ABC song. Before we left, he had a nice session of looking out the window.

 

So it was close to 11 before we finally left. Got down to the children’s museum and he directed me upstairs. At the second floor I asked for further direction and he pointed across to the stairs to the third floor and said “eat”. So we ate first, like last time. From there he led the way, going to the ‘culture play’ area he hasn’t really used before. There he found the puzzle matching things, matching objects to their cultures, then wandered down to the second floor. Had me carry him down the ramp, as he is still adjusting to the new shoes and keeps thinking “something in shoe”. There, I noticed that he was holding his pants up with one hand – despite not needing to. Probably a combination of being so used to the owl pants (which do), and being so used to wearing two pairs of pants, but I only had one pair on him today. Anyway, pretty funny. The best moment was as he walked by the astronaut again and held up fingers with one hand while holding up his pants with the other. Did a little hangeul magnet time, then went down to the ball area and played there for ten minutes or so, then on to the chalkboard, then back up to the book area, where we grabbed a few books and went up in the loft area to read them. Before we left, he wanted his water, and requested a silver one. When I told him we only had a blue water bottle, he said “Buy a silver wawa.” I told Carly the capitalism is strong with this one.

 

We did our pre-nap routine and went walking. He was asleep from 1:38 to 2:32 in the lower Peace Coffee. When he woke up he wanted out in the cafe. Played iPad a few minutes, but not much. He was reading letters and words off the floor, and near the front door the vinyl covering with words on it had a big rip on it. He found this very interesting, and kept saying “Floor coming apart”.

 

We then went outside and played in the pile of snow near the Tweety Bird statue, writing words – mainly Q ones, as he is working on quack, queen, quick, and quiet. He had a little stick, and when we were done there, he kind of wandered around the general vicinity, waving the little stick in the air as he looked at things and wrote letters and sang.

 

From there he didn’t want to go see animals, instead wanting to go back to the children’s museum. By this point we didn’t have much time left at all, and when we got close to it, he wanted to go to the water museum. So we went there and played with the water wheels and pumps. When we got to the pumps, he was trying to push and pull the handle and I tried to help. He pushed me away, saying “Zinnie do it” and, indeed, he was able to operate most of the handles using two hands. First time he’s done that.

 

On our way home we were going to stop to get fruit at the pink building. Carly left work early to go to the bank, and finished there as we got to the station. So she went instead. August and I surprised her as we walked up to her as she was checking out, much like we did that one time we found her in Home Plus.

 

At home, we played iwht Bluie and Green Monster, doing more of the rabbit dance. He took apart the “Rana” (frog) in his floor mats and put it back together several times. Carly gave him a bath. He wanted me to make up a colors song (we started to do this the other day). He invented a new word of sorts as he was looking out the windows in the parlor and lifting up the curtain. It was getting stuck on the chair at one end. I moved it a little, but it was still hitting the chair, which he called “More stucking”.

 

He did some more art with Carly (bubble letters, and what she calls ‘happy letter’ – letters with happy faces on them). Then read books with me. He then wanted the funny book. Carly didn’t know which one he meant, so he went out to the book stands, saying “Get the funny one…funny one right there”, referring to the little bear book. Finally, he was doing something with me when he saw Carly wiping the counter in the kitchens. He immediately wanted to do some wiping himself, so she gave him a floor wipe and they wiped the floor. After that, he went to bed pretty quickly, a little before 9.

Helping Carly wipe the floor

 

New words/phrases: too quiet, chips de platano, pyramid, buy a silver wawa, mud, tu sabes

 

Children’s museum: 

Holding his pants: 

Possibly the best moment of the day (although see the pigeons below – tough call). Walking by and seeing the astronaut holding up two fingers, doing a double take, putting up a finger himself, while holding his pants:

We wrote his name in Hangeul. Four syllables (Ah, gu, su, tu). He is touching the ‘tu’: 

Pigeon friends: 

After his nap. Broken floor:

Q words in the snow: 

Home. Making the bed: 

Audition Day: