Author: Ryan/Dada

He woke up at 8:10. Walked out and looked around the house. I had a podcast playing, and he looked at me confused and said “Hear mama.” We did a lot of reading this morning. He wanted to read Can’t you sleep, Little Bear? Then Jack and Jill, Hop on Pop, and A de Activista. He then watched ABC songs and we made oatmeal for breakfast. We did more reading, including the Little Bear book and Jack and Jill, and also Old King Cole and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes in Spanish. He then requested the Blue dance, having Blue and Green Monster dance together, and August would call out what they were supposed to yell between lines.

 

We started to get ready to go. After changing him I put on his cat shirt, but he requested his “Ahoy, Matey” shirt by name and wanted to change. Did that, but then he changed his mind and wanted it off and the cat shirt back on. So that is where we ended up.

 

We did some drawing before leaving, and he started writing letters on his feet. They were pretty impressive by the time he was done. He chose to have his teeth brushed while he was in the backpack again.

 

On our way to the subway he was hiding from the ‘letters’ on the sidewalk and along it (the Vs and Ss in the benches, the I in yellow tiles, the Os that are manhole covers, etc.). On the subway we initially had a seat at the end of 3, next to two other kids. I set him down first, and was just about to sit down with him on his lap, when a woman came along and insisted on sitting on the bench as well, making it 4 to the 3 seats. So I sat on the floor next to him. He only stayed up on the seat for a couple minutes, as the boy and girl next to him were bothering him by poking at the iPad, and he wanted to sit on my lap. Which was quite nice again, as the train car was all decorated with pictures of flowers, so he had fun putting the “iPad on flowers” and wanting to “sit on grass”. He pointed to the seam of the doors and said there were zookeepers in there. Earlier, he had pointed in the peanut butter jar and said the same thing. We did Very Hungry Caterpillar puzzles, and he remembered the piece missing from the puzzle at the history museum on Saturday – saying something like “Piece missing children’s museum”.

 

At Ttukseom Resort we headed down the walkway into the design building (the spirally building, under which August once took a nap). He directed me as we explored the building a bit. He especially liked looking at the Hangeul displays, then directed us up to the library. There, he wanted out to read books. I set him down and he immediately said “Phone, phone, phone.” This was a reference and memory back to November 11th, the last time we had been here, when we saw the woman leave her phone behind and we tried to find her to give it back. A minute later he was pointing to the red cushion and saying “Phone here” – that was the spot the phone had been left (and where we returned it to when we couldn’t find her). We read a few books. They have a very small English section, but have the same Kipper book as us, Cheerio book, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. And two Boynton books we don’t have, and a couple Eric Carle books that we don’t. His favorite was the Learning Time with the Very Busy Spider book, and we read that three times.

 

We went down to the benches on the first floor and ate lunch. There, the guy who runs the coffee stand came over and talked to him. He really liked August’s eyes, and took a couple photos. August had fun talking to him (and singing ABCs). He showed us photos of his daughter, who is 2 (Korean, that is – younger than August, who is 3).

 

We went outside to try to find a bathroom to change him in. Couldn’t. But August wanted to play in the playground. So we did that for 10 or 15 minutes. Mainly poked at a pile of snow, where he claimed to see triangles (say-moes), perhaps in the foot prints that were on it. Went back to the bathrooms in the design building and changed him standing up (we carry pull-up diapers for these sorts of places). Then out walking along the river for a few minutes until he fell asleep. Went back to the top floor of the building and sat at a table in the corner. He slept from 2:11 to 3:12.

 

When he woke up he wanted out of the coffeeshop (we weren’t actually in a coffeeshop, but I can understand the confusion, since 99% of the time we are). So we started walking. He was in a ‘no’ mood, saying no to anything I asked, or if I started to sing, etc. We walked east, and he finally spoke up when we reached the flower garden, and the bath into the (slightly) wooded area. He saw the path, pointed, and said “Here”. The last time we had walked over here was with my parents. So we walked that way, to the east end of the park, then came back. We stopped in the barren flower garden and had a snack. Sat with my back to the wind, shielding him, as it was getting windier and windier. We did okay for the snack, and he walked around for a few minutes, but the walk back to the subway was very cold, as we were walking directly into the wind. I held his hands the whole time, but heard him doing his little gasping when the wind was heavy. He didn’t complain though.

 

We got off at Sangbong and walked to Costco. A straightforward trip – went straight downstairs, got a pack of feta cheese, and 4 blocks of cheddar, and headed out. Didn’t even find any samples for him. But all of this was a bit chaotic and slow as it was packed. August did really well though, even as we waited in line.

 

Paid, and headed out. On the way he made up the line “P is for parentheses.” Back home, we were playing with his shapes puzzle and kept holding a piece up and saying “What shape is (this)?” And he or I would answer in one language or another. Carly gave him a bath and everything was fine until he started to play with the hose to the handheld shower head. Carly told him he shouldn’t, so he picked up Sophie and started using her to touch it. Then, a few drops of cold water dripped out and on to his head. This was pretty devastating, as if he had been betrayed by the shower or Sophie. I changed him after the shower, and he was back to joking, this time about a “million fourteen poops”.

 

Carly took a shower and we read books. He was saying the color object combinations throughout My Very First Book of Colors, something he hasn’t really done before despite knowing the colors and the objects. Went to bed soon after, close to 9.

 

Also, he’s gotten pretty good with his finger numbers, up to 5. That is, he can hold up 2, 3, 4, or 5 fingers. For 2 he uses his thumb and pointer. Sometimes for 4 his thumb still sticks up, but other times he gets the thumb down. He does pretty well getting the thumb and little finger down for 3.

 

New words/phrases: abeja (bee), musica, plastic, glass, diamanté, cangreho (crab)

 

Morning:

On our way: 

Flower subway car: 

Designs building and library: 

Playground: 

Snack at the end of the walk after his nap: 

Home: 

Today we learned that:

 

A. They have little puppy lockers to put your little dog in while

you shop. Looks just like the ones you would put your coat in, with

a glass door, but also air holes. Video proof below.

 

B. August likes clam chowder. He ate the chunks of potato and clam. And he chose sweet potato pizza, and had no problems with the chunks of sweet potato, corn, or onion.

 

Carly doesn’t have students this week due to the GCP trips so left a bit later for work. August was awake about 7, before she left. He was watching ABC songs after she left, but was full of energy from the beginning; he was ‘hiding’ from busses, ducks, etc. in the songs, making up nonsensical “A is for Apple” lines like “F is for goo-uh-goos”, and running around the table so he could say “Upside down ‘26 letters from A to Z’”.

 

We left at 10. Took the bus to Sangbong then the subway one stop north. Need to remember to just take the (different) bus all the way up next time, as we had to wait a long time for a train. Korean students are still on break. It wasn’t too busy when we got there, but was pretty crazy by the time we left.

 

He ignored the train, bouncy/climbing area, big ball pit, house area, bouncy bear, and digging area. Instead, spent most of our time with:

– the magnetic shape magnets (when I started to put a few pentagons together he said “Teuni Ball!”)

– the little kids ball pit. He discovered that each ball had two numbers on it. He wanted to find 14, but they only went up to 12. But ‘1’ and ‘4’ were on the same ball, so it was pretty much 14. At one point, he wanted his water so we got the water bottle. When done, he said “Dada drink it” (which is often how we deal with food he doesn’t finish). I then pretended to drink it and say “Ahhh”, which got him laughing. So he would point to someplace else, often just a foot or two away (like he did with the ‘QUACK’ cards) and then say “Dada drink it here!”).

– The bristly blocks. Made some letters out of them and he stacked them a bit.

– Air hockey. He was starting to catch on to using the paddle and hitting the puck, but mainly used his hands. But his favorite was dropping it through the goal and taking it out of the slot down below.

– Walking and crawling across the floor keyboard. Also, he got a couple of little wooden beads that had come from the digging area and lay on the keyboard to play with them.

– At the end, we went into the building block area. Sadly, they got rid of the wonderful animal blocks area, and don’t appear to have the hammering stuff or little letter blocks we played with last time. And there is no coloring wall. Instead, they’ve put in a Legos/Duplo/other blocks area which is all the rage here in South Korea. Kind of a shame, as they didn’t open the area until 12, after we had been there more than an hour, and it makes it feel like school, as there are now sets of desks (with edges around them to keep pieces from falling). Luckily, they did have a nice wooden puzzle number set and we beat the crowd to the area. August played with the wooden numbers for probably 20 minutes, taking them out and lining them up, putting them back, etc. As he lined them up, he would very slowly sing our 1 to 30 (well, 20 in this case, as that is as high as they went) song.

 

He would have played with the numbers longer, but it was now 12:30 and he was getting tired. We still needed to eat lunch and get him ready for a nap. So we went out to the cafeteria area. He chose the sweet potato pizza, which is what we had last time, and I got a bowl of clam chowder. This is the place that is pretty much a duplicate of Costco. But there food area is definitely better. Last time, August wouldn’t eat the chunks of sweet potato or the onions. This time, he ate everything, and was asking what the corn was as he ate it.

 

Knew he was definitely ready to go when he wanted to go back downstairs to see if there were any puppies in the lockers (there had been one on our way up, but wasn’t now). Got him ready for his nap and headed out. Took a little walking, but he fell asleep. Found a little clothing/coffee shop down the block from the fake cookie place we went to last time. He slept from 1:38 to 2:49. Woke up and did some letter writing on the iPad, but didn’t want to stay long.

 

We stopped by the Vic Market again to change him, then headed out walking. Walked a block over to the river, then headed south. Saw a few ducks and egrets as we walked, but he was most interested in snow. Touched snow a little, but the best thing was breaking off the icicles from the back of the bike area covers. He could do this from the backup. Did that and kept walking. Walked to Nowon, crossed the river, then caught the bus (Z’s choice between more walking and catching the bus home).

 

Got off the bus, and August didn’t want to go to Home Plus. He also didn’t want to go home. He wanted to get down and play in the snow. Spent a good half hour in the park. Mainly, he went around with the stick and broke up chunks of snow. I showed him the snow on top of the bushes, and he liked making it fall through the branches. He also liked walking up close to the pigeons, and was counting them. Then, he went up the little hill and watched the big kids having a snowball fight and driving their remote controlled cars (the ones with the big wheels); “Car on the snow”. Two of them drove their cars up to August and were shaking the wheels back and forth. August first went up and touched one of them, then started dancing back and forth with the cars. Moment of the day right there. That went on for a good minute. It was almost 5, so I called Carly and she was almost home. At the same time August decided his hands were too cold and he wanted to go home. So we walked out of the park and met Carly and went up home.

 

After a bit at home I went to Home Plus on my own. I had to change his 5-TOUCH class back to the Friday class because Jihong’s mom had to change his class, and I picked up diapers as well. At home, I was surprised when August asked “‘Dada’s shoes’ espanol?” and before I could say anything answered his own question “Zapatos de papa.” Carly says she probably covered that construction with him, but not in the last few days. When asking about something else I had to look up he often jokes “Same” before I am done. But this time he changed, saying “Maybe same…maybe similar.” Finally, he started stepping on my shadow and joked “Why you stepping on me?” We also did hide and seek with Green Monster and friends on his request before going out and doing the rabbit/green monster dance. He had added in the “Hey!” part of the song, but now calls out what he wants them to shout each time, often letters “A…B…C…green agua!”

 

At 7:30 he wanted nurse. I asked if he was tired and he said “Go to sleep.” So Carly took him in. But he wasn’t ready yet. He came out with me while she took a shower. We read in the reading area. I put new books on the book stands and it worked, as we read at least two of of there: Can’t you sleep, Little Bear? and Hippos Go Beserk. He decided to shake water on the floor from his water bottles, so cut that off. He then wanted read Kipper’s A to Z on the bed, which we did. He sang the whole ABC song for Carly in plurals “As, Bs, Cs…” I head him do at least part of this once, but have no idea where he got the idea. Not from us. He even said the ‘Xs’ part correctly. Finally, after being back out in the living room, Carly suggested we go in to the bed. as he ran down the hall he said “Let’s go to bed.”

 

He continues to come up with more A is for… lines. Today it was  “T is for Teuni ball…X is for x-Ray”.

 

New words/phrases: pyramid, air hockey, beads, sopa (soup), clam chowder, crust
part, maybe same, maybe similar

Dog locker: 

Play area: 

Beads on the keyboard:  

A big lunch: 

Nap spot: 

Writing on the iPad: 

Walk home. I think you can figure this one out: 

In the park: 

August was up at 7ish. They skyped with Cassie and company. Colin now gets excited to see August. When I came out, August and Carly were making “No hold it letters” by laying Duplos in shapes. Chuck and Cherie then called on Skype. August was on the iPad at first, but switched to the paper and did a lot of letter writing for them.

 

Carly went to the pink building to do some grocery shopping. August and I stayed home, and mainly played with the musical instruments after he wanted to play with the cymbal things.

 

I then got a message from Derek, saying he needed chicken bouillon and a couple other things. So August and I did a rescue mission, taking our chicken bouillon, the rolls Carly had just bought, and Coke and onions we bought at the pink building. August and I stopped for a second at the park by Wolgye station to get the bag with rolls out – August has gotten upset the last 3 times we’ve tried to go to their house without Carly with us, so I planned on just meeting Derek outside to do a handoff – and Derek called, saying he also needed foil. So August and I walked down to the convenience store nearby and bought some as well. August wasn’t happy when he found us at the door to their apartment building, but he didn’t have a total meltdown. Derek came down and we did the handoff, and we took off.

 

It was now close to 12:30 and he was getting tired. He had already mentioned a coffee shop, so I asked him a couple times if he wanted to go home to mama and nap, or nap and go to a coffeeshop. He chose the coffee shop. And then he said “Wake up coffee shop”. So we walked the street behind their apartment complex, finding a bakery and coffee shop I didn’t know existed, then starting walking towards home as he dozed off. Went to the Yoger Presso, where he and I had shared a yogurt strawberry smoothie a few weeks back. He slept from 12:56 to 1:50. First thing he said as he woke up was “iPad please.”

 

The forecast earlier in the day had not mentioned snow. Now, a huge wind was blowing through, and looking at the forecast said snow at 5:15. Nope. It was here now, with the wind. Figured we would wait it out in the coffee shop for awhile. At first August didn’t want a smoothie, but then he spotted them on the wall himself and changed his mind. So we got a smoothie and sandwich, and spent another hour there. The wind died down, but it kept snowing and snowing, and the temperature dropped to 32. August enjoyed the smoothie; after taking a sip he would say “Dalgi (strawberry) in my mouth.” He started joking about zookeepers, saying they were in the smoothie and “Zookeeper in the coffee shop”. He did a lot of Art Maker and  Loopimal and took a break to sing songs, telling me to “Sing ‘A makes Ah’.” Finally, at 3 he decided it was time to go. Looking out the door he said “iPad away…walk backpack home.”

 

He didn’t like putting his extra sweatshirt on though and started getting loud. The woman at the table next to us decided to ‘help’ by helping shush him, which didn’t help at all, as he then screeched at her. We headed out, then saw the #9 bus as we got to the bus stop across the street. Got on and rode it across the bridge. August wanted to walk though, so we got out after it turned off the main street. We walked the last couple blocks in the snow. My hands were cold, but August wouldn’t hold my hands – he was having fun singing and enjoying the snow.

 

We got home and had about an hour to hang out before we turned around and left again with Carly. It was still snowing, although a little lighter, but not much. Missed the 1161, so took the 111, which meant we had a few more blocks to walk in the snow.

 

August wasn’t happy at first to be in their house and Carly took him back to nurse. They disappeared for awhile and then reappeared, looking for letters. Looking for letters was how Carly got him excited to leave the back room. They came out, and he had a blast the rest of the time. He needed one other break after an hour or so, and came out the second time ready for food. Carly and I read him some books, although he would get distracted by other toys so we were often reading to the other kids. At one point Carly was reading a book to Chloe, and August was on the porch playing with the magnets and Logan went in with him. Logan closed the door, so I watched the two of them playing together, both talking, through the glass. Very fun to see. Carly and I both had a turn holding Rosie as well. We ate a ton (there was stuffing, turkey wrapped in bacon, carrots, and ham) and August ate some ham and most of my rolls.

 

We had gotten there about 5:15. A little after 7 August decided he was getting ready to go home. At one pointe he went and grabbed Carly’s shoes and would say “Get going…backpack.” But then he saw the pie that Nathalie had brought and decided he wanted to stay for dessert. So we had pie and ice cream, and left around 7:45. He was tired, but no crying/meltdown like at the end of previous visits. In fact, as we left he was waving and saying “Adios!” We planned on taking the bus, but it was a nice evening, and likely the last walk in the snow for the winter. As we walked home he was singing A is for… and came up with “p is for pigeon…s is for snowman” I was really impressed with the snowman one, and he got a huge smile. He also saw Ts in the fence we were walking by. We talked about the party we had just been to and he said “Logan’s house is fun.”

 

At home he had a good hyper time before bed. We got books and read on the bed. He kept laughing and doing his head shaking back and forth thing. He coughed and was saying “Why are you coughing…Why are you laughing?” I would barely touch him and he would start laughing. Finally, he fell asleep right about 9. I changed him sometime later and he did some random talking in his sleep.

 

New words/phrases: zalamero, frio, open little stick (straw), type later (? When ready to go)

 

No hold it letters: 

Music time: 

Walkig to Derek’s:

Some interesting text in the Yoger Presso. How many errors do you count?:

Playing Loopimal: 

Out the coffee shop door: 

He skipped a couple, but he surprised me by counting by 10s: 

At dinner. August was playing with cars and didn’t seem like he was listening, but when Carly read a word with ‘q’ he had to turn around and find it:

Logan and August playing out on the porch: 

Walking home: 

Carly left for the NHD competition about 6:10, and August was awake at 6:50. First activity of the day was looking for the stuffed animals in the closet, then we made letters out of Duplos. We had toast and then cereal for breakfast. At some point he thought he had a hair in his mouth and said “Hair in my mouth…take it out.” Then opened his mouth so I could stick my finger in to try and get it. He requested the rabbit dance from Bluie, then wanted Green Monster to join in as well.

 

At 8:30 I got the Skype call for my book group meeting. August at first sat on the couch, covering his eyes to hide from Skype. He then got on the iPad a few minutes later when we started our meeting, but a bit later went into the bedroom, on the bed. I took the iPad in to him, and he spent much of the rest of the meeting on the bed, playing with the iPad, mainly math or ABC songs. Every few minutes I would hear “More Dada in here” and I would go in with him for a minute or two before rejoining my meeting. Eventually, he got hungry and I lured him back out to the living room to eat.

 

All of the skyping went until about 10:30. August and I then got ready and left the house right at 11. Pretty straightforward trip down. In the station he was talking and then said “A N D and”. In Gunja, where we transferred, we stopped and got kimbap. Once we got to Olympic Park, we entered on the south side. August pointed out some curving benches to sit on, so we had lunch there. He said “want some red kimbap”, referring to the packaging of the kimbap we bought a few days ago (this kimbap was wrapped all in silver). He ate a lot of kimbap, then ate all of the crab we had brought. He wanted the big pieces which, a few months ago, he would shove in his mouth and then spit out. So I was warning him to take small bites. He took this to the extreme and was nibbling it like a bunny.

 

He liked the green path, and after he threw away our garbage he took off walking down the path. After a few minutes I put him in the backpack for nap time. But at first he was just enjoying the walk, looking for ducks and egrets and everything else. And he started chanting “ma, may, me, mo” which is from one of the Spanish ABC songs he watches. We came across a series of 20 or 30 animal sculptures, and he had to see and touch each one (well, he wanted too – I didn’t try to say no).

 

Finally, after about 25 minutes, I came to the spot where, last spring, I forced him to wear his green hat. I pointed the spot out to him and told him the story. We then used the bathroom, and started walking again. I told him it was sleeping time now. Another 10 minutes and he was falling to sleep as we came across the point where, after getting used to the hat that time, he first started pointing at things (birds, as it were). This time, he pointed off at birds in the same direction and sleepily tried counting them.

 

He fell asleep, and I went to the cheap cafe I should have gone to last time (when I ended up at the expensive restaurant on top of the history museum). It was perfect as a nap spot (3 dollar latte and not busy), except I had to listen to that horrible “Semi-Charmed Life” song and a Bryan Adams song on their stereo system. Luckily, not too loud. He slept from 1:17 t0 2:15. He woke up, and wanted out. Sat at the table for while and played on the iPad, mainly writing letters, and listening to the Hanguel pronunciations of characters.

 

A little before 3 we headed out with him in the backpack. He made it clear he didn’t want to go to the playgrounds. We walked over to the art museum, but it was between shows. I walked around to the sculpture area behind the museum, and got him out for a snack. At first, he wasn’t in to the location and didn’t want to play, and said no when I got the stick and then the ball out. But pretty soon he was playing with them. There was a metal ’S’ (for SOMA, the Seoul Olympic Museum of Art) and he rolled the ball on it and shook it. He then was bouncing the ball around (“Bounce to art museum”), then rolling it and hitting it with the stick (“up to art museum…up to museum closed”). He started to get back around to the front of the museum, then sent me back for the backpack.

 

We ‘wrote’ letters on the flower bed covers for awhile, then I convinced him we should head over to the history museum. We walked past another coffee shop, which at first he thought was the museum, saying “Museum open!” On the other side, we came across a little drainage ditch, ground covered with pine needles, and some grates over parts of the drainage ditch. He played with the pine needles, dropping them in the drainage ditch and through the grates. We then walked down a big hill (him taking big steps, holding my hands, over the drainage ditch) to the first floor of the art museum, where he wanted to sit on a railing overlooking a porch, 4 or 5 feet down. Okay when I was holding him, but then he wanted to do it on his own.

 

He walked all the way up the big hill on his own, pausing to let me help him across the drainage ditch, then we went to the Baekje History Museum. Carly didn’t like it, but August did. There were puzzles, and a room with blinking squares on the floor where the goal was…to run from one square to the next. Was never clear to me. He also looked at some of the dioramas. We finished by doing another magnetic puzzle downstairs, similar to the ones at the National Museum.

 

We headed home, out the north end now, requiring an extra transfer. When we got on line 7, I set him down next to a mom holding her daughter. August immediately launched into the entire Spanish ABC song for them, then sang the English ABC song for them. Got home a little before 6.

 

At home, I was showing Carly some of the photos/videos. He grabbed the phone and wanted to look through them himself. He would try to show them to Carly, but only for a second/upside down/with his hand covering the screen. But he was really excited by looking at what we had done during the day and said “Remember that…fun.”

 

Carly gave him a bath, and we read books in bed and fell asleep a little after 8.

 

 

 

New words/phrases: grifo agua, water faucet, mas Cheerios por favor, floating dalghi, spelling ‘and’, y (and), rompecabeza (puzzle), wawa jug, canciones ABCs, quadrado (square), kite

Hiding from my Skype meeting: 

iPad on the bed for much of the meeting: 

Olympic Park. Lunch: 

Walking the green path: 

Touching the statues: 

After his nap: 

By the SOMA: 

Up the hill: 

Baekje museum: 

Puzzle: 

Diorama: 

More puzzle: 

Girl on the subway: 

Walking home: 

Evening: 

He woke up at 7:34. I heard the door open and went down the hall. First things he said were “Shoes…wait for mama…find mama.” We sat together on the step at the front door for a few minutes, then he went and found the flashlight and played with that for awhile. He found the iPad and watched videos for awhile. I made some toast and we shared that. Later we would make oatmeal, work on some Spanish together, and do some ABC writing in the notebook. I brushed his teeth after he was already in the backpack for the second day in a row. He likes it, perhaps for the novelty. He was actually letting me brush quite well (not biting down on the toothbrush, like usual, and with no video on, he could hear the toothbrush, so he said “Hear toothbrush!”

 

We left about 9:45. At the children’s museum he wanted to go straight up to the third floor for a snack. He knew things well enough that he could direct me up to the cafeteria. There, we pretty much had the place to ourself, as it was a bit before 11. Our ‘snack’ took about a half hour, and was more like ‘Lunch, Part 1’. While there he said “At the children’s museum” and “cafeteria”, as well as “chip de platano” (banana chip) and “queso de hebra” (string cheese). This snack consisted of sandwich, most of an egg, grapes, strawberry, string cheese, and quinoa.

 

He threw away the garbage, then led the way to the ‘air’ area, stomping on the pad that starts the blower and putting balls in the pneumatic tubes. He then walked down the ramp, a little bothered by either his pants and/or the new shoes as he went. At the bottom, he saw the ball area below and wanted to go there. So we went down there, but he just played there a couple minutes, and then wanted to go to the rest of the first floor, where he generally spends most of his time. We got a good turn on the chalkboard; he was sad when our ‘turn’ was up, but didn’t cry or scream. We played with the shapes on the floor, making shapes and an ampersand (totally his idea, by the way). Then ended up in the nature area, where he checked in on the minerals and ended up at the chalkboard for a second turn.

 

He was starting to get tired, but wanted to go upstairs, so we went up he wanted to go to the little kids area. In there he played with the puzzles and magnets, then started yawning and really rubbing his eyes. He was ready to leave there, but wanted to go next door to the book area and look for Qs. We grabbed our shoes and headed in there. As I set him down he said “Oh no!” and I asked what was wrong, before realizing he was referring to his favorite book there. He grabbed a few books and I found Oh no! We read for about 10 minutes, then went and changed him and headed out. As I was changing him he was saying “Hear something”, referring to noise I was making, or noise he was making with his hand (think he also said “Hear Zinnie”). Then we were quiet and he said “Hear something…hear children’s museum”, referring to the background noise of kids playing.

 

We went outside and ate a second stack (Lunch, part 2) outside. More sandwich, most of the quinoa, some banana chip, and some strawberry. Went walking. Took about 15 minutes and he fell asleep. A short nap, unfortunately, from 1:32 to 2:09. Woke up and wanted to go outside (we were upstairs), so just started walking. We wandered around the park for 20 or 30 minutes: paths on the south, then back to the north side that we don’t often go on. Walked through the playground and he was having none of that. Went to see animals. A few times through the morning, when asking what he wanted to see at the zoo today, he said “zookeepers”. We didn’t actually see any though. We walked around and saw the cats/canines, then were happy to see the primates were out. August had been pretty silent this whole time, still waking up. We were looking at the macaques, and I look back to see that he had his eyes covered and his head buried down in my hood. Wasn’t sure if he was tired, sad, or playing. Started asking him, then walked over to the baboons, where he finally laughed and revealed himself. Continued to ‘hide’ from the primates, then have a blast counting them, claiming there were 14 baboons (there were 11). A new thing is intentional skipping 13 in his counting.

 

Then walked up past the birds, looking at each. He was really into “swinhoe pheasant” and “fantail pigeon” today, and we got to see the white peacock with its feathers up. Then up and around to the herbivores. Looked at them for a few minutes, then he decided we should head home, which was perfect, as it was 3:20 and we needed to go to Home Plus on our way home. So we walked out, stopping at our new bathroom to change him, then playing in he bleacher area for a few minutes before leaving.

 

Had to actually sit on the floor for the subway ride back, which was actually pretty nice; he sat on my lap and we had plenty of elbow room with no one pressed against us. Went straight to Home Plus and did our shopping. He got all sorts of free samples: crab, mandu, sausage, apple. As we walked home, he started saying “Q U A C K, quack”. He sometimes wants to list Q words, and tries to spell them. Today, he was doing this as we walked to the herbivores, and was trying to spell ‘queen’ ‘Q A N’. I remember telling him how to spell ‘queen’, and saying we should write them out when we got home to help him learn to spell the Q words. I don’t remember spelling ‘quack’ but probably did.

 

Anyway, then as we passed Dunkin’ Donuts, he started saying “parentheses, parentheses”. I was looking at all the signs, but didn’t see any. He was pointing and it looked like he was pointing at an empty windows. Finally, he made it clear he was pointing at the two chairs sitting outside, facing the street. The legs of each bowed in, and the inside leg of each looked like half of a set of parentheses.

 

Got home a few minutes after 5, and just after Carly. He ate spaghetti from our bowls, then Carly got him his own alphabet spaghetti. He wanted the flashlight and it wasn’t in the drawer – he went and first looked under the table, where we found it last time it wasn’t in the drawer. He was playing with his magnets and dropped the Q, then said “Where’d you go Q?” On the couch he requested the rabbit dance from Bluie (the tune/dance that Bluie’s done since he was a couple months old).

 

As he was eating, he was hitting the table with his hands and it made a rattling noise. He kept saying “Something in there”, referring to the table. Carly showed him it was the spoon in her bowl by removing it and hitting the table. He then continued to claim it was something else, saying it was a “monster”. This led to some time spent looking for monsters again. Then he played with the English notecards. I spelled ‘quack’ with them. He would then point to another spot on the floor (sometimes just a few inches), saying “quack here” and he or I would then respell the word in the new location. I was saying “watch this” as I spelled new words, like ‘quickly’. He imitated this by pointing to the reading cushion and saying “Watch this” and using cards to make up words.

 

Carly gave him a bath. He was playing with Sophie and having her move around the rim of the tub. Carly asked “Where is she going?” and he replied “Home Plus”. “What’s she getting there?” “Hoo-ha” (noodles) and an “O”.

 

Before bed he helped make the bed again. He ran in to get the flashlight from the counter and stepped on the paper, which slipped, and he fell. A little traumatic, but didn’t hit hard. Came back and played for awhile, then Carly went and got books and they read. He then insisted on reading Happy Birthday, then fell asleep without any troubles at 8:10.

 

 

New words/phrases: At the children’s museum, cafeteria,
chip de platano, queso de hebra, macaques, swinhoe pheasant, how do you spell ____?, hiding from mama/primates, where’d the ‘a’ go?, watch this, favorite word, brasos manos, sombrero

 

Ready to go find mama:

My parents will remember the tiger on the ceiling of the exit from the subway to Children’s Grand Park. They have been installing escalators there for more than a year and a half, and just extended the deadline to April. That is, they haven’t been working on it, for some reason. The door to the construction site was open today, and this is what it looks like:

A study in string cheese: 

Getting tired: 

Zoo: 

Walking home: 

His parentheses: 

Working on ‘quack’ and ‘quacking’: 

He was awake right at 6:00 again. Carly left the living room for something, then came back to find him writing the alphabet by himself on the paper – kind of shocked her. I came out, and told him I had to take a shower. He decided he wanted the iPad and was holding my fingers. We decided to go ahead and let him have the iPad, at which point he pushed my hand away and said “Dada do bathroom.”

 

So we watched a lot of ABC songs in the morning, switching between English and Spanish, and letters and numbers. At one point I thought he had switched to Endless Spanish, only to realize a few seconds later that he had stumbled on a VIDEO of someone demonstrating Endless Spanish. A lot of junk on YouTube.

 

We moved to Duplos, and he wanted to build a new zoo (his idea, not mine).He called the sheep “obeja”, and started to (mostly) say “cuidador del zoologico” (zookeeper). While getting ready to leave he wasn’t happy with any shirt choice, but we finally were on our way a little before 10. Not the smoothest trip down. We just missed a train at our transfer in Sangbong and had 18 minutes to wait. We went down to the Story Way convenience store and bought some hard boiled eggs and kimbap, then went back up on the platform to eat it on a bench. We had just started eating, when suddenly a guy was trying to give August a drink from his (the guy’s) water bottle. I was speechless, in any language and just shooed him away. Then, as we were sitting on the train, August on my lap, another man reached down and stroked a lock of August’s hair. What…the…

 

We got to the National Museum. August didn’t want to go inside yet, and wanted to stay outside and walk around, near the pond. He kind of directed me around, which was an interesting way to hear what he can say: “more farther, go right there, that way, aqui, walk this way…” We stopped at a bench and ate our lunch. He had fun kind of dancing around, looking at his shadow, and stepping on mine. It was now getting time for a nap (after 11:30), so we headed inside and changed him. Outside the changing room he was walking around and suddenly was crawling on the ground, saying “upside down lights”. The floors are so shiny you can really see the overhead lights reflecting in the floor. Then went walking out back behind the museum, mainly through the traditional herb garden, until he fell asleep. Went to the little coffee shop off the second floor of the museum and he slept from 12:34 to 1:48. He woke up a bit after about a half hour, but just looked around, looked at me for awhile, then put his head back down and went back to sleep.

 

When he woke up he was fine at first, but then clearly cranky. Tried to walk through museum a bit, but he didn’t want to go into any of the darker rooms. He just kept saying “no” to everything and to every question. So tried to go to the children’s history museum. Got him out of the backpack, coats off, etc. only to find they were ‘sold out’ (it is free) until 3, and it was only 2. But he was now ready for a children’s museum (he knows what that means) and wasn’t happy waiting in the lobby, where I was trying to get him to draw in the notebook or the iPad (no interest in the iPad at all). A woman from Australia (probably) asked if he was old enough for sweets, and I declined. After we left to go outside for awhile, I hoped we would run into her again when we went back so I could tell her ‘thanks for asking’, but I didn’t see her again.

 

Going outside was the answer. August recovered as we walked around the pond a little bit, then got out at a picnic table to eat a snack. This time, we ate our sandoo and some other stuff. He started drawing numbers and letters in the air, and was even scribbling them out. Then, as I carried him back into the museum, he continued to do it, even saying what color he was drawing in: “Numbers in silver.”

 

Went in to the children’s museum right at 3, and stayed to a little past 4. He played with the characters in the tracks and climbed on and off the little play structure for a few minutes, then turned towards artsier things: he really wanted draw on the electronic table things they had, but access was hard, and the one we did get to wasn’t working properly. But from there we wandered to the other end of the museum where we found big rubber stamps. We used our notebook and put them in there. From there we went back to where there were little pieces of paper and some pencils for drawing. We got out our own markers and used those and did ABCs for quite awhile. They also have these big oval-shaped magnetic puzzles. He did two: one with another kid, then one on our own. He really liked the puzzles and would have kept on with them, but I convinced him it was time to head home. Also, as we walked back and forth through the museum, there was a dress up area, where there was always someone wearing a crown. He would point and say “Q for queen” each time (I’m assuming he made the connection because of the “A is for Apple” song). Also, at one point we were wandering through the rest of it, and I was trying to get him interested in the turning things with the zodiac animals on them – the one thing he could really reach and play with when we were here a year or so ago. He tried to go to a door in the wall, but I said it was a zookeeper door. Then I realized he had his sad look. Not sure if it started before he went to the door, or because of it. Picked him up and we went to the drawing area and he was fine.

 

Anyway, changed him to get ready to go. In the changing room he was impressed that the water dispenser had a blue nozzle and a pink one, matching the two colors of water bottles that he has. We had a blue one with us, so we refilled it, and he called it “azul aqua.” We then headed home. Again, not so smooth. He was really getting into Loopimal, having 4 animals make music at once. But when we got to our transfer  at Sangbong we had to fight our way out of the train, only to realize we had lost one of his shoes. Don’t know if it came off in the pushing, or was already off. But when August realized I was looking for his shoe on the platform, he suddenly wanted it back on. At least I learned that he definitely knows his left from his right, as he said “More left shoe…put on left shoe.” Then, on the crowded subway home, no one offered a seat. So I held him on one arm, holding the iPhone for him in the other, for the 4 stops at Taerung, where three seats opened up, but were taken by other people before I could move to them. Finally, as I was showing my annoyance, a woman offered us a seat for the last two stops.

 

Made it home about 5:30. As we walked up to the building, he pointed to a grey box on the street and said “This.” I said “electrical box”, and he kept repeating that. He was then pointing to everything else as we entered the building and asking what it was. Carly made the alphabet pasta for him for dinner, which he loved. They are tiny little noodles. He also said (wrong sauce, but still impressively) “More teriyaki sauce with letters and numbers.” So he had fun with dinner, and was dancing to a Josh Ritter song. His big toy for the evening was the flashlight, saying “oooh” as he looked everywhere. Carly turned off all the lights and took him into the walk-in closet looking for monsters. I then had him looking for Green Monster on the couch, after which I was somehow the monster. He would do his ‘hiding’ by covering his eyes until I came into the room and got close, then he would squeal. We then went into the bedroom, where he used the flashlight to look under the blankets and pillows, all the while saying “oooh”.

 

I gave him a bath, which went well. Once out of the bath, Carly was going to put his diaper on, but he was running around drawing big numbers in the air. He bounced around for a few more minutes, then Carly asked if he wanted to nurse. Pretty much straight to bed and sleep after that,
right around 8. No time/too much energy for reading any books. Also interesting that he hasn’t been wanting any iPad in the evening, pretty much for the last week or so.

 

 

New words/phrases: obeja (sheep), ciudador del zooilogico, money, don’t scream (?), huevos, yema (yolk), signo de at (at sign), no want to change diaper), five fingers (randomly, as we sat eating a snack – turned into joking about 14 or 40 fingers), hola, adios, restaurant, electrical box, gas poop

At the museum: 

Lights on the floor (missed him crawling): 

After his nap: 

Children’s history museum: 

Leaving: 

Getting home: 

Home: 

Alphabet pasta: 

Lid on his head: 

Children’s Grand Park

 

He was asleep to 7:53 – almost 12 hours of sleep. More sad than upset for a minute, then up and ready for the day. The usual morning: Cheerios and strawberries for breakfast, writing with the markers, playing with his door magnets. When it came to brushing his teeth, I started doing it when he was watching ABC songs, instead of Teuni Teuni. He was excited by this and said “Brush your teeth (to) ABC songs!” Later, as we were getting ready to leave, he went into the kitchen and started looking through the door, talking to himself: “What you looking for?…flashlight…flashlight in there.” But it wasn’t. I looked with him for a bit, but he had to wait until the evening, when we found it under the table. Anyway, he was distracted away from that by the “1 potato…” song playing on the iPad.

 

Finally, before we left he started writing ‘5’ on the paper. He was saying and writing “Hangeul ㄴ”, then saying “turns to ‘5’” and drawing a backwards C. The first few times I then had to remind him to draw the top line, but after that he would then draw the top line. In the evening, when he was showing Carly, he started doing the ㄴ/backwards C part as a single line and didn’t have to say the instructions out loud to himself.

 

We left a little before 10. Had two seats heading down, which was nice. He was mainly doing Dr. Seuss and Art Maker on the subway today. The children’s museum was busy-ish. I have neither figured out the Korean school calendar, nor why the museum (or certain areas in it) is busy one day, but empty the next. August and I saw elementary students leaving schools yesterday, but today the museum was all families. Anyway, he started by wanting to go downstairs, but changed his ming after we were down there a few seconds – I think because it was busy. We went back up and into the nature and art areas. He played around for awhile, but was getting frustrated by not being able to use the chalkboard. Then, when we finally got a turn, a girl came and stood right by us after a minute, so I made him get up after a bit, and he wasn’t happy about that (nor was I, frankly, as her mom was standing right next to her – go do something else for awhile). He played with the light stuff – stacking blocks, etc. – for 10 minutes or so, then wanted to go eat. So we went up and had lunch. He was all about throwing things away at the end again.

 

From there we did the air/ball stuff on the third floor again, then I followed him down the ramp to the second floor. There are two plastic astronauts (a photo zone), and one is holding up a peace sign. August was walking by and did a double take, then held up his two fingers (he uses his pointer and thumb) and said “Two!” Played with the Hangeul magnets for a couple minutes, then wanted to go somewhere else. Said “No” to the little kids area, but walked him over that direction anyway, and he changed his mind. He spent much his time there focused on two things: First, the leaf-shaped cushions on the floor. They have 5 little harder bumps in them, which he noticed and found fascinating. So he would reach down and touch them, and step on the cushions, and walk from one to another. Second, the wooden puzzles and magnet thing (“metal…not metal”). On the way out, he played with the triceratops, shoving it off the railing, but that was about it for everything else.

 

From there we went right next door to the book area. We grabbed several books, and since we didn’t have our shoes on yet, and the little loft area was empty, we went up there and read/looked at them – mainly the Oh No! book again, which is where I think his interest in falling came from, since his favorite picture is the boy falling out of the tree.

 

We headed out and he started with a snack on our walk, then fell asleep. So took a little over 20 minutes. He slept from 1:42 to 2:37. I’ve noticed that sometimes when he sleeps in the backpack with his arms hanging over the side, that when he wakes up he shakes and rubs his hands like they are bothering him – I think the circulation is being cut off and they are falling asleep. The solution is to make sure his hands are up inside the cover area. Today he woke up and immediately said “Cold”. I had forgotten, and let his right hand come out and he was leaning his head on his right shoulder, which probably made it worse. His right hand was, indeed, cold, while his left was nice and warm.

 

Played on the iPad for a few minutes, but then wanted to go see animals. But he wanted in the backpack, which was good, because we did a lot of walking. He wanted to see the primates, but they were inside. We saw the cats, the hyenas, went upstairs at the water birds (where he saw the slightly bizarre statue of a giant egg hatching a bird. He wanted to touch the shell and then the big foot. Did that, then went back out, looked at the birds (he said “English Pheasant” again, although at the silver pheasant), then went on to the herbivores. Here the fun was in counting the animals. But he claimed there were 7 guanacos, and 14 zebras (there were 2). Walked back around the zoo, then stopped at the exit to the children’s zoo and had a snack. He ate the rest of his sandoo, singing and stomping around on the wooden floor as he did so. We stopped at the bathrooms at the base of the outdoor stage, which we’ve never used before, to change him, then headed home.

 

Carly had stopped at the post office, so we beat her home by a few minutes. August was writing with a marker when he heard the door. He shrieked, then scooted a few feet onto the reading area, literally threw the marker back towards the paper, and covered his eyes, and so was ‘hiding’ when Carly came in.

 

In the evening, he perfected his ‘5’, then focused on ’S’, saying “S is tricky”. I told him it was “C turn to S” or “C, backwards C” and at one point he suddenly got it and was drawing Ss. That just leaves ‘K’ for him to figure out, and ‘9’ in numbers.

 

Carly got the bath ready, and I gave him a bath. He let Sophie float again tonight. He was playing with the shower door, which is stuck open due to the bath, and started saying “No se peuda” (No it can’t), which I had to call Carly in to translate – she had been using it with him when he tried to close the door.

 

He didn’t last long after that, and went quietly to sleep a little after 8.

 

New words/phrases: metal, chips de platano, no se peuda (it cannot), tricky, crunchy, galletas, hard (talking about drawing letters)

Waking up:

Children’s museum: 

Cushions: 

Zoo: 

Snack before we leave: 

Evening. S down, one more letter to go (K):

Taking apart our Cs: 

Awake just before 6:40. Looked happy as he sat on the bed asking for mama, and high energy as soon as he came out to the living room a bit later, asking for the iPad. That high energy would continue all day – no quiet time like yesterday. He sat on the couch watching/listening to songs while I did the blog and sang along with him. Found some bath songs, but mainly focused on the letter songs, particularly the individual letter songs by ‘Have Fun Teaching’.

 

Later, after breakfast, we did some cleaning, and wiped the piano, xylophone, tables, and computer. He helped, starting with the floor, and was really into the xylophone and computer. A few times later he would want to do more wiping, but then insist that I do the wiping.

 

We skyped with my parents, discussing summer plans, and August spent much of the time showing them how he plays with the magnets on the door. He then did a lot of letter practice on the paper (later in the day he would start to get down ‘8’) and we made letters out of Duplos. We left for class about 10:40.

 

He was actually excited about class today, to the point that when I tried to go downstairs to do a little of our shopping, he got upset, so we just went up to class early. He had some time to draw in the notebook before class started. It was the last class of the session, and was about oranges. Before class started, one of the moms handed out little cake-like muffin things, which he ate all of. He did fine through class, but got a bit bored when she was talking about oranges, and he was really getting tired at the end of class. But he really liked the musical instruments we played with (each child got a set of a shaker, drum, and xylophone), but I think lost a little interest because he wanted to play ABC songs, but the other music was loud and the teacher kept trying to get him to play a specific instrument. He also really liked when she gave everyone two oranges. He helped me peel them and he ate all of one and part of another. She then gave everyone an orange chocolate and a blueberry chocolate. At the end of class she saw him finishing up the blueberry chocolate and gave him a second one. “More blueberry chocolate!” Thanks, teacher. He was a little upset that I told him we’d eat it later.

 

We had taken the riding backpack over, so I put him directly in and figured I’d walk until he went to sleep. At first he was talking about going home, so I think he was trying to stay awake. But I walked right by our building and he didn’t complain. I walked the street between us and the stream. Took awhile, but after 20 minutes of walking he was asleep.

 

He was asleep 12:34 to 1:54. After he woke up I changed him, and after that he went straight to writing letters and making new A is for… lines, including “M for math, n for no, o for open, p for pigeon(?), q for question……D for dada) and trying to write upside down question marks. I made the rest of the frozen mandu for lunch. Had been awhile since we’d had any. He just ate the outside of it before. But this time he ate the whole thing. “Zinnie taste mandu …rice in your mouth…take a bite” He has also been asking for a lot of Korean words and names in Spanish, so was asking what teriyaki sauce was in Spanish. I mentioned it was a Japanese word, so then he was asking what teriyaki sauce was in Japanese.

 

He then got into typing Spanish words on the computer, with me telling him which letter to type next and helping him find the letters on the keyboard. At one point he remembered the blueberry chocolate (that never would have happened before) and kept chanting it, so he got the second one. He wanted to read Maisy’s First Colors in Spanish, which it isn’t, but I did my best to translate as many words as possible. Finally, he was walking around the kitchen opening and closing things, saying “close this…open this.”

 

He was bouncing around a lot so figured it was best to get out. As we walked he did more letters “s for snake, p for penguin, y for yuck”. It was 40, but windy, and at the corner of the main street I thought about just going to Home Plus and skipping a park. August said no and wanted to keep walking through, so we continued on to the park. Good choice, as when we got there the wind had died and it was nice and sunny. He initially protested when he saw the tree playground park, but then saw a couple girls playing in the sand, in a corner of the park we don’t often play in, and wanted to play there. So we got out and each got out a stick and were writing ABCs and then doing shapes. His math app, Todo Math, includes rhombus and parallelogram in its tracing game, so I was including those. We wandered around a bit, and he walked on the posts for awhile, but mainly we drew in the sand. At some point it sounded like he asked for a picture, so I drew a sailboat on the ocean. He then wanted me to write ABCDs on it. As I did, it erased the sailboat, so I said “Bye, sailboat.” This became a thing, with him asking for another boat and more ABCDs over and over. Did maybe close to 10 boat pictures. Later, at home, he would ask for a “ship” (interesting he chose this, as I mainly said sailboat) and say the “bye” himself when I started to write letters on it.

 

Finally, right before we left he found a wrapper on the ground and wanted to throw it away. He saw there was something in (“under”) his shoe, so I carried him to the garbage so he could throw it away. Then went and put him in the backpack to head to Home Plus. Still supposedly 39, but freezing in the shade and wind. Think my hands were the coldest they have been all year. Held August’s hands for a few minutes, but then he was pointing and singing, and I got a phone call from Carly. He didn’t seem to mind the cold or the wind though.

 

We went shopping – Carly had gotten out early so was stopping at the pink building to do part of it – and at first August wasn’t excited, and he wasn’t happy that I wouldn’t let him out of the backpack to “help”. But after we left he said “Home Plus fun” – probably because he got a couple free samples.

 

Got home, and he was high energy and pretty random through the evening. At one point he disappeared down the hall into the bedroom. I went and asked what he was doing and he said “Looking for Kipper A to Z”. But before we could go find it, he found a chapstick. He hadn’t liked it before, but now he was fascinated by it. He put it on his lips and got a little on his chin and cheeks. He also smelled it. When he went back out, he got a loaf of bread out of the grocery bags and handed it to Carly, saying “Gift for mama.” He kind of bounced around, eating bites of his quinoa for dinner as he went. He wrote 8s, did a lot of art. When I said it was time for his bath he got up and ran down the hall. But past the bathroom and to the bedroom, where he got on the bed and said “bedtime” and asked for books. I gave him a bath, and Sophie got to go in the water, as August had her and accidentally dropped her in. But once she was in he liked how she floated, and I said “float, float, float”, which he thought was hilarious and wanted me to keep repeating. Both was fine until I said I was going to wash his face, at which point he got sad and put his head down on my arm for a minute. But it had to be done.

 

He also added “M for muddy puddles” (from a Peppa Pig video) and “I for insect” (from Kipper A to Z) to his list this evening.

 

He was asleep at 8:10, but then kind of woke up 3 times as we were going to bed. Carly had to work to get him to stay asleep. The last time he loudly said “Big 2” and was waving his finger in the air.

 

New words/phrases: living room, paseante(?) (stroller), cake, matshiseyoh (delicious), delicioso, Zinnie come, m for muddy puddles, I for insect, adios, hear something dripping (holding up foot in the bath)

The C song: 

Taking apart our crazy Q: 

Class: 

Putting stickers wherever chooses: 

Home: 

Park. Tracing shapes: 

Walking the posts: 

Writing on the sailboat: 

Evening. Chapstick:

Flashlight: 

His “Oooh” noise: 

A few out of the ordinary things today: I had to wake him up. Twice. He didn’t ask about the iPad at all in the morning, and just once in the evening. And he was very quiet/mellow through almost all of our outing today, only starting to sing/talk on our walk home with Carly.

 

He didn’t wake up until 8:40, at which point I turned on the light and started talking to him. Woke up just fine though. First toy of the day was the little flashlight, which he found in the kitchen drawer and we had to put new batteries in it. From there we were on to making letters out of Duplos, then ate leftover eggs and then Cheerios and strawberries for breakfast. There was doing ABCD on the paper, then playing in the sink, lining up the letter shapes (he doesn’t really request play dough letters nowadays) and looking for ‘missing’ ones, and playing with his door magnets and singing. He got out his old sticker books, and was interested in the dinosaur one. There is a sticker puzzle in the back, and we finished that. He was doing a good job at the beginning of matching the sticker to the proper spot, although near the end he was less concerned with that. Finally, we watched Teuni Teuni and brushed his teeth.

 

He was interested in so much stuff at home that we didn’t leave the apartment until noon. We headed to Dream Forest, as we haven’t been there in a few months. We did a little singing at the beginning, but then he was quiet, and didn’t want me to sing as well. When we got near the Wolgye library I asked if he wanted to go in, but he said no, and just wanted to keep walking. Which was good, because it was closed. He was quiet the whole 2.75 miles to and into the park, although once we got to the park he said “Here” a few times. But then once in the park there wasn’t anything he wanted to do. The children’s art museum was closed anyway, and when we got in the performance art building, the art gallery was closed. Too bad, as it looks like we might have just missed a kid-friendly show. Anyway, even when I went to take him out of the backpack, he just wanted to sit in the backpack for a couple minutes on the bench.

 

So we went back down a floor to the Dream Cafe. Convinced him to go there by mentioning the iPad. They were out of strawberries to make strawberry juice, so the only kid-friendly thing they had was bottle orange juice. We got one of those to share and hung out in the book cafe for about an hour. He did some Dr. Seuss, then mainly art. There was one bigger girl there, and she was doing the wooden tree thing on the wall. August went over and watched her, and he did the wooden flower path thing. The first time I’ve seen him able to really move the wooden pieces along the curved paths, either here or elsewhere. Back at the iPad, he was flipping among apps, and asked himself “What you looking for?” again. He settled on Endless Spanish (first word was, of course, ‘todas’ so he could watch Pinkerton eat the cookies). To spice it up, he turned the iPad upside down and was spelling and putting words in the sentences upside down. We also ate a first lunch there.

 

It was now past 2 – he was not wanting to leave, but finally got him out of there (he didn’t want to pose as Max on the way out). Took him up and changed him, and he did a lot of screeching/screaming. Finally he was acting tired, but in the unfortunate way. Got him in the backpack and started walking. Had intended to walk around and return to the same cafe, but didn’t see the point of staying at Dream Forest. Started walking towards APIS using the north route, as Carly said we could meet up and walk home together. He fell asleep pretty quickly, at 2:48. The first cafe I found only served tea, so I was walking back towards some chain coffee shops I had seen, but was by the tree playground that is identical to the one near us. It was a warm 40 degrees, and I didn’t want him to nap to long anyway. So, I decided to taketh nap in the park. I sat right next to him and held his hands and read my book. He slept well, as I had to wake him at 3:38. He woke up fine, but didn’t want to play in the park.

 

So we kept walking. He did spot some ducks in the stream, and liked the deer pictures on a wall, but otherwise was pretty quiet. Every few minutes I would ask to hold his hands, and after I grabbed one he would say “other one” to make sure I took both.

 

We got to the APIS area and went to the park/water park across the street. Again he didn’t want to go the playground (actually complaining when he saw it), and wanted to continue up the hill instead, where he was fine sitting down on a bench. I got him out of the backpack and set him on the bench. Still very quiet, so I asked him if he was sad or happy. He smiled and said “Happy!” Ate a second lunch, finishing of the quinoa and eating the banana and some strawberries. After we were done eating he wandered around the top of the hill a little, but didn’t really get into writing ABCDs. That worked out though, as it was now 4:30 and we walked over to the school.

 

Been a couple months since we had been there, and August wasn’t happy with seeing all the people. As we approached the field he saw the kids and said “No.” Inside the school, he instantly got his about-to-cry face, so hurried upstairs. He kept quiet though until we ran into Megan and I thought he might be okay seeing her. He wasn’t, so we continued on to Carly’s room. Then he was fine. Nursed and then he remembered all the art supplies in her room: he made soup using the paper plates, then was using markers to “Work on…” letters with Carly.

 

Walked home. He found his voice, and was singing exuberantly much of the way home. It was the August Zinn show again. Took him awhile to quiet down as we entered the building and there wasn’t all the background noise. By the time we got home, I had carried him 6.2 miles today. At home, he picked up the empty cereal box that he had knocked on the floor earlier and was waving it around saying “vacio” (empty). We then invented the sleeping elephant game, where I pretended to be a sleeping elephant and he poked me to wake me up. He would keep saying “More sleeping elephant.” Played on/by the couch, then in on the bed. Back out in the living room, he wanted me to lift him up to touch the lights, as Carly had plugged them in. He wanted something and Carly said “Talk to dada”. He then said “Talk to papa”, pronouncing ‘papa’ in his best Spanish.

 

He was doing art with Carly again (we got out a new notebook), and “Work(ing) on…” letters. He could now write 22 letters (all but K, R, S, and X, with i, j, and l in lower case), having recently gotten down E, F, and Y, and by the end of today was doing R (“P turn to R” as he makes the final line) and X pretty well.

 

He was then lining up the letter shapes in alphabetical order. He lined up all 21 letters we actually have – the only help I provided was moving the line down when he ran out of space on the table, and I gave hints for where some of the next letters were when he couldn’t find them in the basket.

 

Carly gave him a bath, which was fine but he was really screaming as she washed his hair. So then she was getting him to practice closing his eyes.

 

He wanted to help me with the bed again, so we entirely made my side of the bed so he could push down all the sheets and blankets. Finally, he found a wrapper of something that had fallen on the ground and enjoyed throwing it away. But as Carly lifted him up to the garbage can he saw a marker we had thrown away and had to save it.

 

He was the one that wanted to read and take books in to the bedroom. Carly grabbed some books and we went in. I read him Happy Birthday, then Where the Wild Things are twice. Carly then took over, reading Alphabet, and he went to sleep soon after that, around 9:15.

 

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New words/phrases: push 1 in the elevator, where (does) it go? (dinosaur stickers), louder, silent, artwork, broken, en orden, vacio (empty), thousand, million (asking what they were in Spanish), move it down (letters when he ran out of room), feet in the crack (as he helped make the bed and put his feet in the crack)

On our walk: 

Dream Cafe: 

An outside nap: 

Walking to APIS. Looking at the deer:

A snack: 

Carly’s classroom: 

Home. Both blue water bottles: 

Working on R: 

August was awake at 7:40 again. I was already awake next to him. He opened the door, but then stood there, not going out to find Carly. I got up and offered to go with him. Instead, he pushed my arm towards the door and said “Dada go find mama.” He wanted me to go bring her back to him.

 

Later, Carly was down the hall or in the bathroom or something. August and I had been reading, and he went to look for her. He went into the parlor and looked at the reading area, where she had been in the morning. He then starting looking under the pillows and blankets for her. Became a joke that he used a couple more times in the day.

 

Carly skyped with her parents. We are all getting into the talking-about-summer mode. August was really working on his animals in Spanish today, particularly as we were reading Barnyard Dance and working to learn the last few animals in there. Then, we were over by the Duplos and he requested the “Ladybug, Ladybug” and “Warm Kitty” songs – multiple times. Both songs that Cherie taught him, although that may be a coincidence. But really interesting since it has been a long time since he has requested anything but ABC and number songs.

 

He slept from 1 to 2:40ish. We had let him wear his owl pants all morning and for his nap. Now, he started playing with his Teuni ball, but was holding up his pants with one hand the whole time. So funny.

 

In the afternoon we walked up to Nowon. We took the backroads route once past the stream to show Carly, going past the two parks. It was pretty windy. August was doing a good job of holding my hands, but still getting cold, and started requesting a coffeeshop. We looked around Nowon a little, then headed back south along the main road. The Starbucks was packed, as was a second place we looked in. Finally settled on an Ediya Coffee. Got out coffee drinks and found a table. August had a little of the whipped cream on Carly’s, but was upset when it ran out. Then he requested ABC songs on the iPad. When I reminded him of no ABC songs in the coffeeshop, he got really sad, doing the lip thing and laying his head on Carly’s hand for a few minutes. No crying, just sad.

 

We were there for quite awhile. We each read a little and played with August. He did some Dr. Seuss, drew in the notebook, and did math and art on the iPad. Got out the food for him and he ate strawberries, raviolis, string cheese and some of the hobak/goguma snacks.

 

Left close to 6. Darker and chillier now. August didn’t want in the backpack, so I carried him. After a few blocks I wanted to set him down for a rest while we waited for a light. He wasn’t happy about that, and still not happy when Carly picked him up. He is used to me carrying him. Carried him the rest of the way home, holding his hands from time to time.

 

Got back a little after 6. He was all about the Spanish words today. Starting to realize that there are some words that are the same, or nearly so, in English and Spanish, and he will say “Same!” There are also some that are similar, and he was working on that concept as well.

 

He was reading Where the Wild Things Are with Carly and when seeing the picture of them hanging from the trees started saying “fall”. I think he did it with another book or picture they were looking at as well. Then, he and I did a bunch of reading as well, and the snakes and penguin on top of a wall in Wild About Books elicited the same concern. Interesting that he is now aware of fall potentials. He also read the word “quack” in Baby’s Busy World.

 

Carly gave him a bath, sort of. It was probably a bit too late, and he wasn’t happy about the idea. She made him suffer through a bit of a sponge bath, but that was all. I still heard a lot of screeching.

 

After that, he was out with me, reading books again i the reading area. Eventually, I changed him, and on the changing pad he was acting tired. I asked if he was ready to go into bed with mama. He replied with “Books in the bedtime…books in the bed…Happy Birthday!” The last referred to the Korean early English book that he likes and we read several times yesterday. So we went and found books and went in on the bed. Read that one a couple times, then Kipper A to Z. Finished with two Maisy books. His last idea of the day was to read Maisy’s First Numbers and Maisy’s First Colors at the same time (“Both!”). So we had one on top and one on the bottom. I would read the top page, then the bottom page, turn them both, etc. After that, he want to Carly and fell asleep at 9:20.

 

Before I fell asleep, I heard him say in his sleep “This”, then, sometime later, “Ooh!”

 

 

New words/phrases: dada can’t nursing, level 1, mas por favor, grande, pequeno (small), police car, nay-mo is Korean, oso (bear – asked me what bear was while reading Wild About Books. I went to look it up, but he provided the answer. We hadn’t discussed ‘bear’ in a long time)

Walk to Nowon: 

Bit of his sad look: 

Writing cursive: 

Back home. Playing in the sink: 

A minute before he called it a night. Reading both books at once: