He was awake at 7:40 Carly and I both remember him requesting a spanish word in his sleep, but we don’t remember what. I was making the trek to get my iPhone replaced as the battery is defective; I tried to get it done in the US, but they broke off the tabs on the battery when trying to do so. The solution was to give me a new phone for the price of a battery, but they didn’t have the international model in stock. Since it has gotten worse recently, today was the day to do it.

So after breakfast and doing recycling I headed to Suyu. It all worked out and went pretty smoothly, there was one point in all the translating that we were kind of stuck, but the woman waiting for her phone next to me could speak English and helped out. It also took a long time, I think in part because they were really trying to just replace the battery, and because I did the full update/restore there in the store to make sure everything was working right. So after leaving home around 9:30 I got home a little after 2.

While I was gone they had done a lot around the house: reading books, vacuuming, etc. He slept from 1 to 2 and had just woken up when I got home.

Had some lunch and then we all went out for a walk. We walked to the stream, where we saw the the Daeboreum festival (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daeboreum) underway. That is where the fields get burned, they have bon fires, and burn a talisman. We’ve seen the parade past our apartment in previous years. We walked up the stream, stopping at the cafe at the women’s business center to get drinks for our walk, then through the science exhibits, around the soccer field, and to the exercise equipment and playground. Warmer than the last time August and I were here and he got cold. The biggest thing this time was walking along the curved bench around the music sculpture, stepping over the holes from missing boards. He kept wanting to go back and forth, back and forth. We then went down to the playground and wrote in the sand, and Carly did some good swinging. I helped August climb up the rope incline once onto the play structure, but mostly we were down in the sand/dirt with the sticks. Was also writing bigger numbers, like 100 and 2000 and he was tracing those.

At one point he started to walk off, saying “coffee shop” – he’s noticed that the last three times (I think) that he and I have been to Madeul we’ve ended up going to a coffee shop afterwards (twice to Coffeenie, once to Cafe Mug), and the last time we came up with Carly we stopped at Cafe Tolerance and played on the way up. And as we walked back he saw Cafe Tolerance and wanted to go in. Luckily, he wasn’t too upset when we didn’t.

We stopped and watched the festival a bit – there was burning going on, people were playing traditional games, and they were setting up the talisman for later. We then headed to the pink building for grocery shopping. August wasn’t happy about this, but then he was stuck between wanting to go home and wanting to stay with Carly. He melted down a bit out in the food court area before he calmed down enough that we could go back in with Carly and finish the shopping.

For dinner he ate almost two whole (medium) bananas, several grapes (podo, we call them), and then some raviolis. The parade went by our window and he and Carly watched that together. When it was gone he wanted more and got his sad face. I said we could get in the backpack and go find it, but he wanted to stay at home.

I gave him a bath. He made his Spanish joke again, first asking what ‘splash’ is in Korean, then answering himself with “splash-ay” (that’s not it).

We all spent some time building Duplo letters. He would ask for ‘A’, we would build it, then he would remove every single piece from the board before we could start ‘B’.

He was staying up late and Carly was falling asleep, so he stayed out with me. We did some typing, figuring out what sort of weird characters we could type (he liked the upside down question mark and the Apple logo most of all), then read books – the Korean happy birthday book, Kipper A to Z and a couple more. We took them in to the bed next to Carly a couple times to read. As he was finally winding down and Carly was trying to get him to nurse, he suddenly started reciting lines from a YouTube video – the one I mentioned recently on Facebook to Cherie when we were discussing the weird and annoying play dough videos on YouTube. He hasn’t seen it in a couple weeks, but suddenly he was saying “It’s a play dough party” and “Baby Big Mouth”. He drifted off to sleep just after 10. 

New words/phrases: erasers, came apart, put it back under, champiñón, quinoa, go in the restaurant, uno mas (asking for another ravioli), step over mama, it’s a play dough party

Home. His beloved quinoa. Because Q:

Parade: 

His 4 tractor: 

Cleaning up after he wrote on the floor: 

Sometime during the night Carly heard him say “S A T, S A T, sat” in his sleep. We didn’t know he could spell ‘sat’.

 

He was up at 6. He read the word ‘and’ in something’ and was also spelling ‘sit’. Soon after Carly left, I tried restarting my phone, which was a mistake, so I had to do the hairdryer thing again to get it back on (going in tomorrow to try and get the phone replaced). August of course loved this, and helped me hold it over the phone. He then played with the hairdryer, first in the kitchen, then I plugged it in in the parlor, then in the living room. He had me writing ABCDs with it, and wanted “big” letters, but they weren’t big enough, so he wanted “bigger” – first time he’s used that.

 

After that, we made a good bowl of oatmeal and strawberries, and he wanted the iPad to play math apps. Since the math thing kicked in it has really cut down on his ABC songs.

 

We headed out a little after 9:30. He remembered “Hat Monkey on subway funny” and spent part of each trip there and back playing Hat Monkey and laughing at it.

 

We first headed to the children’s museum. Played on the first floor to begin with. Pretty empty. When he was back with the little compact discs, one of the staff played with him a bit. He liked that, as when he went back to the cotton balls you decorate the window with he went right up next to another staff member and played with him. August first requested that I make letters with the cotton balls, but then said “Make a plus!”

 

He wandered through the nature area, and went to the minerals. He would pull out one he couldn’t remember, point at it, look up at me, and say “This is…?” and wait for me to answer.

 

He was done on the first floor, and decided he wanted to go downstairs, but as I took him down the ramp he said “No, no this…eat.” So we went up to the cafeteria and ate our lunch. He got excited at the prospect of stealing my sandoo again as I took the food out. He was singing as usual, and near the end of our lunch he wandered over close to two women and was singing the Spanish ABC song. He sand that a couple times, then changed to English, but he got a bit shy  when they started singing along. At one point he decided to walk all the way out of the cafeteria and I had to catch him and remind him we needed to get the backpack. As we walked down the hall, a man walked near us and said hi to him. August did a good wave and said “Hi” back.

 

He looked around a little more, then it was time for a nap. Changed him and headed out. Took about 15 minutes for him to fall asleep on the walk. Slept from 11:49 to 1:02. Played more Todo Math in the coffee shop, then we headed to the zoo. He wanted to check on the elephants, kitty cats, and primates. His looking today mainly seemed to be about finding out which animals were in and which were out, as he didn’t want to spend any time at each animal. So it was a quick trip around the main area (no elephants, all the cats but servals and lynx, etc.) He paused enough at the leopards to Q them.

 

From there he wanted to go back to the children’s museum, but as we got close he changed his mind to the water museum. We went there. Pretty much a repeat of Wednesday, playing with the dams to make the water wheels turn, but I noticed he is much better at putting the dam pieces in the slots. He also played with the drinking fountains again, and one of the workers got him to walk over and look at the fish.

 

He wanted to go back to the children’s museum, so he got to see his handstamp lit up again. Started on the first floor – light stuff, nature area, etc. – but just for a little while. He stopped at the flower rubbing area. There was a piece of paper there when we walked up with some scribbles on it. I’m pretty sure he never wrote on, or if he did it was only a couple scribbles. But when he was ready to leave he gave it to me and said something like “take it.” I thought he wanted me to throw it away so I started to do that, but he stopped me and insisted on taking it “Home” and walked off with it. So I caught up to him and we put it in the backpack. Then he was hungry again.

 

We went up to the cafeteria again. This time he ate the rest of the rice and beans, string cheese, his sandoo, and anything else in sight. He was walking around, singing as usual, and watching other people. One of his favorite places. He finished up with a packet of crackers. He was getting them out himself, and when he got the last one out it fell on the floor. I left it there to see what he would do. When he was done with all but the last bite of cracker (which he gave to me), he saw the wrapper, picked it up and crumpled it in his hand, walked all the way across the cafeteria and out the door, and to the garbage can, where he waited until I caught up and picked him up so he could throw it away.

 

August led the way from there. Walked across to 3rd floor exhibits, put one ball on the air thing, then wandered down the ramps to the second floor, but didn’t want to stop there. Went to the little kids area, where we were able to take off his shoes – something he had requested two or three times earlier. Played there, mainly with the cube things.

 

Finished up there and headed home. Outside the children’s museum, we got ready to get in the backpack. I called it the back-uh-pack and he thought it was hilarious. He was then going on about the back-uh-pack and what is backpack in Spanish and then pointing up at the big signs and saying “This…”

 

He had 4 jokes/running jokes in the museum today:

 

1. I was pretty sure he had guessed at the Spanish translations of words before, taking the English word and making it sound Spanish. Today he definitely did it,  and as a joke, when he said “‘Up’ espanol?” and answered his own question with “Up-uh” and laughed.

 

2. He wanted to go to the book area at one point, but then he kept going. He was then pointing random places and saying “Book area here.”

 

3. Similarly, anything that looks like an employee door or storage is now “Zookeeper door”. The height of this was after I changed him and was putting on his shoes and he looked up at the ceiling and all the stuff up there and said “Zookeepers!” Then, as we walked out he was pointing up the stairs, saying “Zookeepers here!”

 

4. The last time we were at the chalkboard, he wanted to write Hangeul. But what he did was write English letters and call them “Hangeul Q” etc.

 

Soon after we left he said “Children’s museum fun…fun is diverteda.”

 

We headed home and got there a few minutes after Carly. Carly gave him a bath and did a lot of art and reading with him while I got my iPhone ready to be replaced tomorrow. I did do some magnets with him, helping him find them as he put most of the alphabet together in order on the door (I wasn’t helping with the ordering at all). And he entertained the both of us for quite awhile with his singing and talking in the parlor.

 

He fell asleep about 8:15.

 

New words/phrases: bigger, shiny, doggie goes right there, divertida (fun), pájaro (bird)

Playing with the hair dryer:

Children’s Museum: 

Playing with the staff member: 

Getting ready to steal my sandoo: 

Water museum: 

Second lunch: 

Home: 

Teuni Teuni class and Toys R Us and pet store

 

He woke up at 7:25. Sad for a minute, then ready to do ABCDs. When we were playing with his door magnets, I accidentally used the Hangeul ㅌ instead of an E and August knew the difference. I emailed Carly in the morning, and she replied and said to August “Sorry your owls got wet” since his pajamas had been wet. I read August the message and he gave me a serious look and said “Owls got wet. Q. No 14. Up to 12. Up to O. Up to Q. Up to Z.”

 

Usual morning after that. He wanted to get in the backpack, so at 10:30 we went for a little walk before his class. The weather was nice, so we walked down by the stream. Walked up to the first foot bridge and crossed over, then walked up the other side, crossed over again, and walked back down our side. We were looking for birds but hadn’t seen any, except the ducks painted on the drain cover, when August spotted two ducks right before we were done. So we watched them for a few minutes, and an egret flew by. Took a photo of August and he totally hammed it up for the camera. We were going to be late for class, but it was so nice and peaceful I wasn’t in a hurry.

 

We got to class about 12 minutes late. Hectic, as expected. Last class of the session. August didn’t really participate in any of the actual activities: the first was a black fabric tunnel, which he was intrigued by at first, but then didn’t like the crowd to go through it (and was hesitant to go under at all). So he wanted to walk on the wooden track/hill thing sitting to the side instead. Then they got out fireman coats and hats. I realized August was wet and went out to change him. Pretty sure it was just water that had spilled when we drank from a cup before class, but changed into his camo pants anyway. When we went back it, people tried to give him the hat and coat. He liked the hats because they were silver, but wanted to step on them instead of wear them. Didn’t want to wear the coat – one of the moms tried to get one on him succeeded for a second. Next activity was riding little firetruck carts down the ramp. Forced August to do it once, but that was enough for him. Think he said something like “No more that.” Finally, there was a class photo. August was fine until he told us to scrunch together. Then, we were surrounded and August didn’t like being so close to the mom/kid next to us. So he is crying in the photos. But at the end of class he was playing with the black tunnel and picking up the side. The teacher was giving away extra Teuni balls, and gave one to August. And as we left August was saying “Teuni Teuni fun.”

 

From class we went down and bought some diapers, then headed home. We stopped in the park and used the big stick to write ABCs in the little snow left in the shade and in the mud. After doing that for awhile, we ran into a mom and little boy who are in his Tuesday class. Didn’t really know their names, or that she spoke decent English. She said we could call her son ‘Q’, which would be easy for August. As we were getting ready to leave, he little boy tripped over the curb and landed in the mud. I felt good being the one stocked with the wipes and helped wipe him off. August did not like this. Tried to pull me away once, then stood a ways off and said “Dada over here.” First time he’s acted like that.

 

We stopped at GS25 to get two more eggs, as he was requesting them, and also got two triangle kimbaps (which we are calling say-mu kimbap). Went up and ate lunch. August ate both eggs, and almost the entire cheese and kimbap fried rice say-mu kimbap.

 

My parents were online, so we skyped with them for awhile until August bumped his head and got sad – didn’t really cry, but had the sad face. Thought it was time for a nap. Read some books, then put him in the stroller. He let me put him in, but then said “No this. No fall asleep.” as I pushed him out. And he didn’t, although he was definitely tired. We came back in to switch to the backpack and he heard the Amanda Palmer concert webcast from the computer. We watched some of that, which he liked, until there was a woman dancing and he pointed and said “Mama”. A few seconds later he got sad again. So we went out in the backpack. Walked around our side of the park and he fell asleep. Slept 2:08 to 3:15.

 

He woke up saying “Go…Dada…Go outside…” He was still in the backpack, so I quickly put on shoes and coat and we headed out. Walked to Toys R Us. He was requesting a coffeeshop, so planned to buy markers and go to a coffeeshop. But once there we spent a ton of time looking in the pet shop, then around Toys R Us. He didn’t want to go into Toys R Us at first, but once in didn’t want to leave. He mainly looked at the letter sets (looking for Z) and the realistic animal figurines (he now knows a hammerhead shark). As we were checking out he was singing ABC, but then kept saying “One”. At first I was trying to figure out what he was talking about, but then realized he was holding up one pointer figure and had figured out it was “one”. We then worked on holding up “two”, but he can’t yet separate his finger movements enough for that. On our way out we were back at the pet store. Watched a kitten playing around in its cage (chasing a fly), then August started pointing, saying “For home, for home.” His first pet request.

 

On the way home we got our most demonstrative “Oh no, your baby is cold”  talk in quite some time. A woman was coming the other way on the sidewalk and saw him singing and waving his hands around from 20 or so yards away and started coming at us. She rushed up and tried reaching up and grabbing his hands, which I avoided by blocking her with my hand and backing away in a circle.

 

As we got closer to home he started to sing the A is for Apple song, but then started making up new lines on his own. He came up with “E is for eagle…F is for frog…” before I helped at all. Then he was stuck on G, but eventually came up with “G is for goose.”

 

Carly was home a bit before us. In the evening he was doing some good dancing to the letter songs. Carly gave him a bath – he was actually excited to go to the bathroom when he decided it was time. I changed the sheet on the bed, and August wanted to help with that. Then he kept wanting to help. At one point he dragged me back into the bedroom and had me sit on the bed by the crack where he helps by pushing down the sheet. He kept saying “help” but then would push my hands away if I tried to touch the sheet. Eventually, I re-did the top sheets so he had more to help with. I tried lying down and acting asleep, but he would push my head up and said “Get up…no fall asleep.”

 

I asked if he remembered helping put the beds together, which reminded him of the screwdrivers. So we got those out, and he immediately started saying “Look for board.” We got the tool set from Gramma and Grampa out and played with that. And he played with stickers for quite awhile before going to bed. Carly picked out books to read in bed, but he was trying to get us to read anywhere else except bed. He didn’t avoid sleep for too long though, and wanted the lights out and to nurse. He was asleep about 9.

 

New words/phrases: calabaza, doesn’t push, batata, circle – line down (how to draw a 9)

 

Teuni Teuni tunnel:

– 

 

Writing in the snow

– 

 

Cafe Mug: http://youtu.be/n5Hb4WMQTC8

 

Caiman: 

 

Write an upper case C in the air: 

Walk along the stream: 

Class: 

Park: 

Holding his eggs: 

Home. Kimchi fried rice: 

Pet store: 

Toys R Us: 

On finger:  

Evening: 

He slept in today, but took a nap right on schedule. Slept in until 8:30. I heard him talking, but didn’t understand what it was about. I walked in the room to find him sitting in the middle of the bed and pointing over at the crack/wall and saying something. When I told him Mama was at work he was upset, and when he calmed down a bit the first thing he saw was “Go find mama.” We made oatmeal for breakfast. He was standing on his stool and I was still getting strawberries out and he wanted me to pour the oatmeal, so he grabbed the packet and said “Pour this in the bowl.” After that he wanted to do math on the table with the magnets and Duplos, and we did more tower building with the wooden blocks. He thought the round blocks looked like a handstamp, so then he was giving hand stamps to the letters on his toy box lid. He did a lot of typing on the computer, mainly punctuation and Hangeul.

 

He was having fun with all of that and in no hurry to go, so we didn’t leave until about 10:50. We stopped at the GS25 in the station and got kimbap, two hard-boiled eggs, and a strawberry cookie thing. When we got to the children’s museum and I was taking him out of the backpack (outside, as the weather was nice), he wanted to eat the food we just got. So we ate it all, except one of the eggs. He really liked the smoky egg. As we were eating it, a woman and her son came up to us and said hi. It was the woman and boy (Bin) who we had met a couple times last year, but hadn’t seen since. We talked for a few minutes, exchanged contact info this time, and then August and I went in (they had been leaving the children’s museum).

 

Inside, he played on the first floor. Went straight to the minerals. Got selenite again, and really seems to be trying to remember quartz, amethyst, and machite. Then did some chalkboard time, played with the Os on the windows (he made a game of them ‘accidentally’ falling on the floor and saying “uh-oh”), and the stuff in the light room. Then he wanted to go eat. So we went up to the lunch room. I did most of the eating. He had a few bites, but I don’t think he was very hungry due to the snack. When I divided the sandwich today, he declared which half was his and which was mine, as usual, then he immediately insisted on having my half. He was very proud of himself. He also joked about screaming: “screaming in the dalgi, screaming in the N.”

 

From lunch we walked across the third floor, him leading the whole way. He played with the balls that float on air for a few minutes, then headed down the ramp. Stopped at the housekeeping/food area. He found a wooden tea cup and wanted to “put (it) away”, by which he meant he recognized it from the little kids area, which was on an entirely different floor. I had to show him there were others here to get him to not try to return it. Not sure he was entirely convinced, as he kept saying “put away” several times while we were there.

 

Speaking of putting away, when he was playing with the window magnets he found a cotton ball that belonged on the other side of the room and had to return it. Later, in the zoo, he saw a wrapper on the ground and I set him down so he could pick it up and take it to the garbage can. And later at home he helped recycle the egg container.

 

He then wandered further down the ramp to the second floor. Played in the space ship area then with the Hangeul magnets and then went over to the big kids climbing structure. Once again upset he couldn’t go in. It was now 1:15 and he was starting to be really tired – early really, given how long he slept last night.

 

One thing I noticed as we did this wandering through the building, is that when he wanted to go somewhere else he would say “backpack” to me, because I set it down, and I’m always saying to him “Wait, I need to get the backpack first.” So now he’s telling me to get it.

 

We walked around the play structure, where he saw a door in back which he said looked like a “zookeeper” door. He went under the play structure and bumped his head where it gets low. That was the breaking point, and we were off to change him and to a nap. Did our usual walk and everything went smoothly. Fell asleep at 1:40. Walked into the coffee shop at 1:45 and headed for the snacks to get new bags of the go-guh-muh (sweet potato) and hobak (pumpkin) snacks. As I reached for them I heard, in a very slurred voice, “hobak and go-guh-muh”. Headed outside for a minute and walked around until he was back to sleep, then went back in.

 

He slept until 2:40. Did some iPad (Art Maker) and had some of our new snacks. Then headed to the zoo. We walked around the ferocious animals. The hyena, foxes, and puma were out on the backside. Still no servals, which he duly noted. All the big cats out on the front, but no elephants or primates.

 

He didn’t know where he wanted to go next, so we started to walk back to the Arisu water museum, behind the children’s museum. We hand’t been there since spring, and I told a 2nd grade teacher at APIS I’d check it out for a possible field trip. Along the way, he saw the outdoor area attached to the botanical gardens and wanted to go in. He changed his mind when he realized we had to go through the botanical gardens. He wasn’t happy when I went in (a lot of “No, no, no”) but we made it through. He didn’t want to stop for the fish. Looked around in the outside area, but didn’t want me to set him down. I think he is a little scared of it now, perhaps because it is a bit dark with weird noises. He did, however, liked the water in the plants in the entrance, so maybe that will get him back in.

 

Anyway, we went to the water museum and he loved it. There is a water table area, with little water wheels that turn if you direct the water through channels to them. Last we were here, he wasn’t big enough to play with them. We played there a good 20 minutes, probably longer, before I convinced him we should go around the rest of it and that we were already late for getting home. His other favorite parts were the drinking fountains, where we got a cup of cold water to drink, then he was able to stand and push the button to operate the drinking fountain (new for him, as they are always too high/too hard to push).

 

Finally left and made it home a little after 5:30. On the way home he was doing art, but decided at Sandbong that we were “Next stop” – not the case as there were 5 left. So I found Hat Monkey on the iPad. August went to the banana scene, where you give the monkey a banana, and he kept playing it over and over and found it hilarious every time the monkey slipped, got bonked on the head, or gave a thumbs up.

 

He ate a little with Carly, then later remembered the egg we had left over from lunch. He basically ate all of it. Carly gave him a bath, and we did a lot of coloring and math (Carly got to do math with him for the first time). The books we ordered from What the Book arrived: A for Activista, Maisy’s First Numbers, and Kipper’s A to Z. He was really excited by the appearance of the Maisy book he’s been requesting. And the Kipper book is really cool and we all like that. It will get read a lot.

 

A little protest about heading to bed, but went pretty quickly. Asleep about 8:45.

 

New words/phrases: alce (moose), como se dice ‘poop’ en espanol?, several more Spanish words – I’m losing track of what he has already said

Waking up: 

Writing the Spanish ABCs for her: 

Looking through the tinted windows: 

Dada’s sandoo: 

Bernoulli’s principle:  

“Dada do ABCD”: 

Headed home:

Home. New books: 

Trying to drink both waters at once: 

5-TOUCH class

 

He was up right at 6 again. A bit of a pattern. He was watching ABC songs on the iPad when Carly left and never had a clear “Miss mama” period. But after watching for awhile he did have a sad moment, but it wasn’t clear why – he wasn’t watching anything that he would consider ‘sad’. But he suddenly was done with the iPad and wanted to go on the subway.

 

So then we were playing with the cardboard bricks, making a tower. I saw the one that had a duck on it, and asked out loud, but more to myself “What is duck in espanol?” As I was taking out my phone, August said “Pato”. I had to ask Carly if she had taught it to him. Apparently they had covered it (I assume with the duck in the bathtub) but not for a couple days.

 

He was then playing with the magnets on the door, and picked up on the plus sign and the minus/equals pieces. He then got into numbers and math a lot for the rest of the day. We did some math problems on the table using the number magnets and symbols and Duplos, then he wanted the iPad. This time, he only did math stuff, namely Math Tree and then tracing numbers in Intro to Numbers. We then played with his wooden blocks (more towers) and made a smoothie.

 

We left about 10:30. As we put on our shoes, he pointed to the Korean poster and said “ah-chim,” which is ‘morning’. Then, as we walked through the park he noticed that the ice rink is now gone and said “Ice is closed.” I still feel bad for only taking him that one time. It had been snowing on and off all morning and was snowing as we walked to Home Plus. At the library he wanted to touch the snow on the big round posts, then he wanted me to do ABCs. I wrote on 3 of the posts, then we continued on. He gave the slightest opposition when he realized we were headed upstairs, pointing to go downstairs instead, but that was it. We were a little early, so we sat down and got his notebook out. But then I realized there were already people in the classroom, and asked if he wanted to go in, and he agreed, saying “Notebook in class.”

 

We went in and he was waving to people and said “Hi” to the teacher. Colored in the notebook for a few minutes before class started. Class, given it is the first after the new year, was about traditional games: so more of the jegi (hacky sacks) and more arrow throwing. But first was of course the outfits, little hanbok outfits. August considered it, as when she gave him a blue one, he kept saying “red one” (which was the color the girls had). So we went up and looked at the stack. There were also green and pink, but at this point he refused them all. He did try to put the headband on himself a couple times, but wouldn’t let me do it. As the rest of the kids were posed for photos together, he went off to his notebook in the back of the class. He was “all done class” at this point, but then luckily she brought out the toys. He did some throwing of the arrows and kicking at the hacky sacks, but he mainly wanted to play with the hacky sacks – looking at them as stepping on them. First he was playing with red and green ones (this is when he said “noksak” (green)), but then we got a silver and a gold one. When he had to put the jegi away I thought he might be upset. But instead he waved and said “bye” to them. At the end of class he went up to the teacher and said “handstamp”, as of course he remembered and wasn’t going to let her get away with out it. So he got his handstamps (although I think he only wanted one). He did more good bowing today, both at the beginning and end of class.

 

On the walk home we saw that our letters from earlier were almost covered by fresh snow. It was getting blizzard-like as we got home, and over the next couple hours the snow would stop, then there would be an intense flurry, etc. Had a teriyaki salmon sandwich for lunch, which he was excited about. Then tried to get him to sleep. He spent much longer laying on the bed than he had in the past. But still just wouldn’t fall asleep. So finally got him in the stroller and he fell right asleep. Slept from 1:44 to 3:01.

 

Still fascinated by ‘Q’. He says “Q for..” all the time. And it doesn’t have to be words that start with Q. If you say ‘square’ or ‘squeak’ he will say “Q for square” etc. It is also a joke, as he will say ‘Q for…’ and insert random things. Today he was walking around saying “Q for…square, outside, silver, Hangeul, Q, whiteboard, A, octothorp, at sign.” We also recorded a Skype message for Carly showing more of his punctuation knowledge, as he now knows parentheses, tilde, octothorp, at sign, caret, ampersand, and the math symbols. Think he still needs asterisk and percentage.

 

We had a nice music time today, playing on the xylophone and piano and tambourine and drum. He noticed that the tambourine is “heart” shaped. We also played a lot with his cards in the afternoon and doing ABC with them and on random surfaces, and of course the paper. But he was also requesting that I write “math” on the paper. So I would write math problems, then he would want me to trace them.

 

Around 5:20 he wanted to go “wait for mama”. So we started to go, but then he insisted on the backpack. So I quickly threw on our coats and we headed out. It was kind of nice, as he hadn’t wanted to go outside in the afternoon. This way we were able to get out in the still-falling snow for a few minutes. We met Carly on our side of the park. He got more snow in his mouth and said “yummy snow”, as he had earlier. He wanted to get out and touch snow some more, but he wasn’t dressed for it, and Carly didn’t want to stay out, so we headed in.

 

At one point in the evening he walked into my bathroom saying “Green, green, green” and then “Blue, blue” and pointed at the toilet and the mirrors. I realized he was talking about the cleaners we had used last weekend to clean the bathroom and he wanted to clean the bathroom again.

 

Since August didn’t want to go outside in the afternoon, we hadn’t gone to the grocery store. So after Carly got home and I had a bite to eat, I went over to Home Plus to do some shopping.

 

I gave him a bath today and he had a ton of fun. He was talking and singing like crazy, some of which I got on video. I said he must be having more fun in the bathtub than any other kid who refuses to sit down.

 

As we were trying to get him ready for bedtime, he wanted to read stories with both of us, and wanted us both in the reading area in the parlor. We went in, and one of us turned on the light. He then made a “nee nee” noise, as our light button beeps when you turn it on. We’ve never done that, so his invention. I had thought he had done something similar when we heard a siren or something a couple days ago.

 

Eventually Carly went to bed and he stayed up with me a bit longer, reading In the Garden and Alphabet. We got him to sleep right about 9:45.

 

In terms of reading, he is now picking out and spelling small words like in, on, is, an, and the. He started picking these up on his own, as we have focused on the more interesting words, but now we are helping him pick them out as well.

 

Something I haven’t been able to get on video is the “be-uh, be-uh, be-uh” noise he makes when he is upset and complaining, but not fully crying yet. It also reminds me of his “Aaah!” noise he would make at the end of a series of sneezes that I don’t know if I ever got on video. He kind of did it once on Sunday, I think, after coughing/sneezing.

 

He now knows ‘star’, ‘fish’, and ‘frog’ in three languages. Was really pulling out the animals in Spanish today.

 

New words/phrases: pato (duck), pez (fish), put it back, piece of purple (play dough), estrellas (stars), buel (star in Korean), math, something under (as he was writing on the paper and there were markers un
der it), open it, rana (frog), pájaro (bird), caballo, caimán (alligator), mariquita (butterfly)

 

Math: 

Finding the Q: 

Writing in the snow on the way to class: 

Class. August with his notebook, while the other kids pose for photos:

Jegi:  

Home: 

We were all awake just before 6. August’s first words were “Go children’s museum.” I then heard him go into the bathroom with Carly and say  “Hi Sophie.”

 

We did a lot of ABC songs and then playing with both his Duplo blocks (making letters) and cardboard blocks (making letters he could stand on) before turning on Teuni Teuni and brushing his teeth. While watching the video, he got into turning the volume up and down or, rather, having me do it: “More quiet…more on, more noises, more sounds.”

 

As we were getting ready to go, he was in my bathroom and wanted to stand on the scale. He picked it up and took several steps back from the sink. He pointed to the sink and said “No bump your head.” Then, back in the living room, he wanted to close the door to the parlor. He got it mostly closed before telling himself “No pinch your fingers” and then saying “Dada do it.”

 

We headed out in the 18 degree weather at 9:40. We rode put to Nowon, then took the 4 down to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, only to find that literally the whole place closes on JUST the third Monday of each month. It was cold and windy, and it was the first time today he told me he was cold and let me hold his hands. I would then hold his hands on or next two walks as well. I consulted Google Maps and realized that the Folk Museum, where we had gone with Chuck and Cherie, was open on Mondays. About the only thing in this city that apparently is. Also, it is free. So we hopped back on the subway (but a different line) and took it two stops to Insadong. He fell asleep as we left the station, at 11:27. I quickly found a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Insadong and we hangout there. When he woke up at 12:22 he was wet. So we changed him in the less-than-perfect bathroom, then sat and played on the iPad (mainly Art Maker) for a half hour or so.

 

We then walked to the folk museum, holding his hands much of the way. At the folk museum we first found the lounge area and ate lunch. There were signs saying ‘No eating on museum grounds’ or something of the sort, but we got away with it (and really, where do they expect people to eat during the winter?). We then went into the children’s areas. There were two exhibits this time: the one on Korean folk tales that we went to with Chuck and Cherie, and one up a ramp on how trees are used: for building, food, paper, etc. We went to the tree one first, and it was really quite nice. August spent a good hour there, and I really had to push to get him to go to the other show. In the tree exhibit, he mainly:

– did the big stamp and then colored on the paper (this was by far the biggest thing, and the only thing he was doing at the end)

– did the hammering of the golf tees into foam, using small wooden hammers

– played with the wooden food/tea set in the hanbok house with an older girl who was really nice

– used the (real) saw to saw wood (the saw itself was under plexiglas, and you just moved the handle back and forth

– played with the little wood blocks

– wandered around and looked at all the things along the wall, particularly the ones with animals (and mainly the birds and squirrels)

 

We went downstairs, and at first he was, I think, scared of the entry room, which is rather dark. I basically dragged him (but I was carrying him anyway, but he was squirming to get away, so it felt like dragging) through it to the big room with the climbing area and everything else. He calmed down and went to the climbing area. Wouldn’t attempt the rope part, but did the rest. After that, there was:

– coloring with neon crayons, then taking the paper into the black light tunnel. This was big for him even before we realized there was the tunnel and the colors glowed, then it was huge and he took a crayon into the tunnel to color in there.

– ‘reading’ (it is in Korean) the book about frogs in the book tunnel. It was the same book he liked last time we were there, and we went through it 4 or 5 times.

– placing the plastic stars in the holes to be lit up

– looking through the cellophane plastic shape to see things in different colors

– weaving (or, rather, giving me the different colors and telling me to weave them in that order)

– looking at the things on the wall, mainly the big zodiac thing that had two turning disks and numbers up to 24 (He was year of the horse, I was year of the dragon).

– Walking through the hanging ropes. When he was doing this, he suddenly started talking about “Ducky songs.” I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, and he said it several times. Then he said “Sad…mama.” At that point I figured out he was talking about the “Five Little Ducks” song that makes him sad. I think he was processing it, as he was in a good mood. We will see if he can watch it now.

 

On our way out, we changed him, then did a quick walk through of the special exhibit on the Year of the Monkey. He mainly wanted to touch each of the stuffed monkeys that were on the wall/fence in the exhibit. He really wanted to touch the ones that were too tall for us.

 

We headed out about 4:15. Just stood on the crowded train from Anguk, as it was one stop. As we got him out of the backpack at the second platform, he drew a crowd. He was really into Spanish at the moment, talking about something (I wish I remember…I think it was probably the alphabet, and Hangeul as well, as he was talking about “No Hangeul Q…No Hangeul Z” around that time), and he started telling one of the women watching him all about it. Very funny.

 

Then, the train was packed when we got on, and we stood for 3 or 4 stops. Kept him content by feeding him crackers. There was another man, right next to us, talking to him. August offered the guy his half-eaten cracker a couple times.

 

We then transferred to the bus at Seokgye. He got upset when we got on though, I think because he wanted to sit near the front of the bus. But there were no double seats up there. Anyway, the bus driver, as they do, basically took off like a madman, so I really had to force him in the seat against his will. But once I sat down and got the iPad out he was fine.

 

We made it home about 5:30, so Carly had a little rest time before us. A pretty quick evening of dinner, a lot of drawing and Spanish, and reading some books (In the Garden, Monser Party!, Alphabet, Feely Bugs, and Perro Grande…Perro Pequeno (Carly read it this evening, but he actually asked me to read it this morning – the first time he’s allowed me to read a Spanish book – my Spanish must be getting better).

 

Carly gave him a bath, which went smoothly except he really doesn’t like getting his hair washed, and he went to bed quite peacefully, falling sleep about 8:15.

 

New words/phrases: flamingo, fresa (strawberry), plateado (silver), want some orange

 

Morning:

After his nap. Some art and people watching out the window: 

Folk museum. Lunch: 

Tree exhibit: 

Sawing: 

Folk tales exhibit: 

Weaving: 

Looking through the color: 

Drawing in blacklight: 

Frog book: 

Stars: 

Zodiac: 

Through the ropes: 

Home. Playing on the door: 

Making a video:  

He woke up at 7:10. I was just up and heard him say “Question mark…Teuni Teuni…no…mama” as he woke up. Nice Sunday morning indoors, as it was low 30s and rain/snow outside. I made eggs with cheese and mushrooms for breakfast.

 

Eventually we went with Carly across to the pink building to do some grocery shopping. He was pretty attached to Carly for much of the day. When we got down to the basement, he wanted to go play in the movie theater area, but given the choice to go there, or shop with Carly, he chose the latter. He had insisted on the backpack, but when we were in the grocery store he wanted to get down to look at the colorful “tea” (actually the juices). We finished shopping, then went into the book store to look at notebooks. He was okay at first, but got upset when I wouldn’t let him pull out markers/pens and then he got upset. The arrival of Carly didn’t really help. So we headed home. As we were walking towards the stairs, he calmed down and said “settled down”.

 

He was tired, as he fell asleep soon after getting home, at 12:08, on the reading area in the parlor. He slept to 12:59, woke up, then slept about another 20 minutes on Carly.

 

Carly nursed and then entertained him as I contacted Apple support about my dying iPhone battery. He was then typing on my computer and starting to figure out where the letters are on his own. He was typing the alphabet, or parts of it, over and over. He would ask for my help from time to time, but much less than a few days ago.

 

Finally, I took him out sometime after 3. I was going to take him for a walk, then go to the Namu play area next door. But he really wanted to go to a coffeeshop. So we walked over to the stream and stood on the bridge, then walked up the street and turned back east and went to Coffeenie, where I bought a new mug and we shared a strawberry smoothie. He did some art maker and Dr. Seuss (he pointed out the words ‘in’ and ‘and’), then sat on my lap and we did some more art. We were there for close to an hour, then left and headed to Namu, getting there a quarter to 5.

 

Name was busy, but tolerable. He started in the ball area, and spent some time in the cooking area. He kept going up and down the colorful round padded stairs, counting them by their colors in Spanish as he did so. I then noticed he was leaking, so I took him over to the changing area on the cafe side and changed him. There, he saw the baby seats with toys (mainly buttons in shapes and with numbers on them) around them and played with them for about 10 minutes. I had found an English book on ‘actions’, and he wanted to read that. So we sat in a chair and read that three times. I think he also liked the calm of the empty cafe. But at that point he was ready to go back in.

 

Most of the time he refused to go in one of the push cars because the phone with the numbers on it was missing again. Finally, he got into one of the other ones and I pushed him around for awhile. At one point he was exiting the ball area, and a larger kid literally tried shoving August out of the way. I stopped the kid as August was bent over the bar with a hand on the floor. I then may have been a little slow in telling August to stop screeching at the kid. I think I waited until screech number three before I said anything.

 

We also played on the trampoline a bit, or mainly the edge of it, with me throwing balls up there and him throwing them off and then sliding down the incline. He was starting to find it really funny to throw the balls at me.

 

At another point he really wanted to play air hockey, but other people were using it. He was getting frustrated, so I picked him up. He said “Down” and when I didn’t put him down he said “All done holding.”

 

That was about it. Around 6:15 he started wanting a cracker and seemed ready to head home. We put him in the backpack and headed home. While we were gone Carly had finished making the delicious curry rice dish and had some time to work. We ate dinner, then gave him a bath. When he was done with his bath, he said “Bye Sophie…funny Sophie… ‘want get in the water’” – the last being a quote of what Carly says when she plays the role of Sophie the giraffe. August still won’t let Sophie get in the bath. He was asking for a ton of Spanish today, particularly in the evening. He is working on saying “cuidador del zooilogico” (zookeeper). Before going to bed he was reading stories with me out in the living room. He then wanted a Spanish book, found the one he wanted, and left and found Carly in the other room.

 

I helped take him in to bed. When he was calm and on his way to sleep I slipped out. I think he fell asleep about 8:20.

 

New words/phrases: Morado (purple), settled down, champiñón (mushroom), all done holding, ___ in Espanol is?, black beans, caps lock, amamantar (nursing), nurse and read is?

 

Taking down the animals so we can vacuum: 

Carly took down her tree, so he is excited to have all of the door for his maintenance: 

Shopping trip. Here he is looking at the ‘tea’: 

Falling asleep on mama: 

Heping him type. Although he can find a lot of the letters on his own, especially in the middle of the alphabet:

Smoothie at Coffeenie: 

Namu: 

Enjoying his “hot” tea: 

Looking out: 

Back home, having fun: 

He slept until 8:30 – a long night of sleep. Skyped with Cherie in the morning. A little before 10 I remembered recycling, so quickly gathered that together and Carly took it down. August was not happy she left, and cried for a few minutes. He then stopped and went to the iPad. When she came back he barely paid her any attention. She apologized for leaving him and making him sad. Finally, he turned to her and gave her his upset/hurt look, then asked to nurse.

 

He was in the other room with Carly and songs were still playing. The 5 Little Ducks came on and he instantly got sad and wanted it off. I quickly turned it off. But he was with Carly at the time, so he isn’t just sad that the song reminds him of her, but because of the ducks leaving.

 

Before we left, Carly prepared some of the Naan from Costco. He entertained himself by pushing the package of frozen naan around on the floor while on his hands and knees.

 

He wanted to play in the sink, so I had him stand on his stool in the bathroom. He played for a few minutes and wrote the ABCs in the water a few times. When he was done he wanted to “Dry my hands” – but he didn’t want the towel in the bathroom; he wanted the “big towel” in the kitchen.

 

As we got ready to go I put a sweatshirt and light rain/wind coat on him. He wasn’t happy with this change and wanted his regular coat. I told him it was his rainy day coat. As we were leaving the building he saw outside and said “Raining outside.” He then put it together and said “Rainy coat! Rainy day coat!”

 

We headed to Hoegi but took line 7, so had to transfer in Sangbong. We just missed a train and had to wait about 20 minutes. He got really antsy and impatient about the wait, especially as the platform filled up around us. Carly did a good job of getting a seat in the crowded train for the two stop trip. When we got off, August wanted back on the subways – two short stints weren’t enough for him and his iPad art time.

 

We walked to the university and over to the natural history museum. We thought August might like it, but he didn’t want to go inside and didn’t really give it a chance. I had hoped we could find some selenite in the geology collection on the first floor, but alas they didn’t have any. So we went outside to a bench in the square outside and got him out and had a snack. He ate all the ravioli I brought. He then spotted a package of crackers in the backpack and darted his hand in to get them. So he had some of those as well. He walked and played around a bit with the stick, and did some funny numbers and dancing with Carly.

 

It then started raining, so we hurried over to the covered area and put him in the backpack and put up the cover. We headed to 8 Street coffee, stopping to take a photo with the Peter Pan and Tinkerbell graffiti art on a building. August had had a long night of sleep and wasn’t seeming tired on the walk, so we thought he might skip a nap. We got coffees and headed up to the second floor. August got to have some whip cream from Carly’s mocha. He mainly sat on Carly’s lap and played on the iPad, doing art and Dr. Seuss with her. We had the notebook and markers out for awhile as well. He started acting tired and wanted to nurse, so we moved up to a table on the third floor. He didn’t fall asleep though, and was soon back up. We had to change him around 3:30 and figured it was a good time to leave. Carly changed him, and he was upset when she went back into the bathroom without him. We left, and put him in the backpack outside on the benches.

 

We walked a couple blocks and it started rain. Stopped at a covered bench to put up the cover and it started raining harder. So put on the full yellow cover and my rain jacket. He then fell asleep on the way to the subway, despite our attempts to keep him awake. He slept from 3:52 to 4:19, when I tried to sit down on the bus home. He woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep; worse, he saw Carly, but couldn’t go to her. He was pretty frustrated by the time we got home.

 

At home in the evening he remembered that the B shape was still missing, so we moved the couch to find it. He helped by getting up on the couch and pulling down all the animals. He wouldn’t pull down Baby Q though and made me get Baby Q down. At some point later I was doing something and said “Oops”. He then said “Oops espanol?” According to Google, it is “Uy”, which August also really liked.

 

August was walking around looking for something, and he said to himself “What are you looking for? Looking for…” The first is a question we often ask him and this was the second time today I’d heard him saying it himself.

 

We read some books in the parlor, did some art, and Carly gave him a bath. While she did that I stuck down the rest of the book holders using sticky tack. So now he can’t take it apart. We also put his Teuni ball back together and did some stickers. He was sleepy around 8:30 and went to Carly in the parlor. He wanted to move to the bed, but in the process changed his mind. Carly’s side is still sore from the coughing, even though the coughing is gone. So wrestled him into bed and stayed with them, singing to him until he was close to sleep.

 

New words/phrases: naranja, raining outside, rainy day coat, ABC cancion, ribbit, buhos (owls), dos fresas (two strawberries), erasers, manos (hands)

Morning:

University: 

Reading with mama in her Nook: 

With Peter Pan (and the old man who is now the background on my phone): 

To answer Peter Pan’s question: 

8 Street. Whipped cream: 

Asleep: 

Home. Reading with Mama: 

Clearing the couch so we can find the B: 

Playing with the humidifier: 

He was up by 6:40 today – a rather short night of sleep. We had a usual morning, and were getting ready to leave a little before 10. When I said we were getting ready to leave, he grabbed his big pink water bottle and started running to the backpack, saying “Take wawa!” He remembered that the small blue one we had yesterday had leaked and barely had any water in it. I had said we would take a different bottle in the future.

 

Then, when I changed him he was upset he couldn’t put the owl shirt on. He had agreed to the Barcelona gecko shirt, but still wasn’t entirely happy with it. So he was still fussing about that and I went out to the living room and put the backpack on the coffee table. I turned around to find August walking to me carrying his cloud pants, saying “This, this.” I wasn’t going to make him wear two pairs of pants as it was warm today, but he insisted on wearing both. So we put those one and left soon thereafter.

 

It was drizzling on the way to the subway. August had the light cover up, but I didn’t use the full cover all day. My hair was a bit damp by the time we got there, but it wasn’t bad. We walked to the left, around the pond/swamp area to get to the children’s museum, and we had a good view of fog over the pond and park. August did his “Ooh” excited noise. We got to the museum a bit before 11. The entire park and children’s museum were dead. Mainly a few other foreign families walking around. The rain was enough to start the cancel-all-field-trips protocols.

 

At the museum, he wandered around the nature area and played with the static cling window magnets. He looked at the minerals, and when he pulled out the selenite he said “Selenite!” We settled on the chalkboard, as usual, but weren’t there for a long time. We then went back to the light stuff, and he played there for awhile – the shadow puppet things (he likes the sheep), the light tubes in the wall, and mainly making towers on one of the light tables and knocking them down. He is getting better at adding to my tower – a couple days ago he was adding the tenth-ish blocks to my alphabet block towers without knocking them over, and he was doing the same here.

 

We went up to lunch about 11:45 and were the only people in there for awhile. He mainly ate ravioli, but stole the last bite of my half of the peanut butter sandwich and was quite proud of himself. He pretended to bump his head on the table and on a chair, and drew more tildes on the yellow wall. And of course there was the usual ABC singing.

 

We got ready for a nap. He is trying to avoid them now, talking about going home instead, or saying he won’t nap, and when we get to our walking area he will protest at first. And whereas he used to willingly tell me what song he wanted me to sing as he went to sleep, now he just says “No singing.” Anyway, I was a little worried he wouldn’t fall asleep since he wasn’t acting tired, didn’t fall asleep on Wednesday, and it was drizzly. Luckily, there was no reason to worry, as he fell asleep as usual. Before he did, as we walked by the fountain he spotted a pigeon and said “Be-dulgi in fountain.”

 

He was asleep 12:44 to 1:40. Woke up kind of startled, so I thought he would want to get going right away. But instead he wanted to get out of the backpack. We ended up hanging out in the coffeeshop, drawing in Sesame Street Art Maker. That is his favorite app right now. In fact, he would say “No ABC songs on subway. Art Maker on subway.” I was asking where he wanted to sit, either in the low chairs by the window, or on the comfy chair. He chose comfy chair, then said “Dada’s lap”.

 

As we were getting ready to leave, he said “Ampersand!” as he had spotted one on the shelf. He has also been spotting tildes, in signs both at Home Plus and at the children’s museum.

 

We went to the zoo. August gave a nice cry of surprise when he saw the baboons out, as he had just been saying “Primates inside.” We saw them and the macaques, then the elephant. We walked around that area, and ended up seeing the jaguars, leopards, tiger, and lion. The tiger was talking, and walked towards us and lay on the wet concrete slab in the cage. And we got to see the lioness (don’t know where the male went – we haven’t seen him in a couple months) tentatively step on the ice of her little frozen pond and then walk around on it. Both very interesting to see, and both quite depressing.

 

From there we went and saw the water birds, which he requested, but then he changed his mind when we got in there. He wanted a snack, and some extensive negotiations ensued as to where said snack would be eaten. He wanted to sit in the middle of the damp square. That was out due to the benches being soaked. But he didn’t want to sit on the covered steps by the tropical building, or under the cover across the main path, or on a bench in the water birds area. I THINK what was going on was that the dark areas were darker than usual due to the overcast sky and fog, and there were a lot of weird noises due to the lack of people and the dripping water everywhere. That would explain why he changed his mind about seeing the water birds as soon as we went in there.

 

Anyway, we settled on the little covered area at the exit to the children’s zoo. We have hung out there many times and you have a view of the miniature horses. We sat there and ate my bar, some sandwich, and the rest of the ravioli, and the banana. At one point he realized he could “See primates!” out the exit.

 

From there he wanted to see “kitty cats” again. So we walked by the lion, etc. He wanted to see the owls, but changed his mind on the rest of the birds as he wanted to see the zebras. We went and saw the herbivores that were out, and he thought the sentence “Vemos cebras” (We see zebras) was really funny. We went and saw the seals. The downstairs part was open again, after being close for a month. Didn’t look in there long – again, rather dark and eerie – just a couple minutes at he fur seals. He wanted to go to the upstairs part and look from there. Should mention that most of the animals were difficult to see due to the glass being fogged up everywhere. But went up and managed to see the spotted seals and sea lion.

 

That took us to a little past 4, so we headed home, walking the south path we don’t often take back to the subway. Got two seats on the subway and made it home a couple minutes before Carly. Called her to tell her the iHerb package had arrived but I had forgotten to pick it up and she said she had just reached the building. So August and I went and met her at the elevator. He didn’t really greet her though, as he was complaining that we didn’t have the backpack. In fact, when we went back to the apartment he didn’t want to go back in. He wanted to go outside in the backpack. I think maybe he thought that when I said we could go meet Mama he thought we would walk down the street to where we meet her by the pink building sometimes.

 

He soon got over that though and spent a lot of time doing play dough (mainly destroying her snails), and of course nursing, with Carly. She gave him a bath and he totally resisted heading to bed, but he went to sleep pretty quickly, about a quarter after 8.

 

New words/phrases: selenite, middle, hola, eliphante, negro (black), water birds, morado (purple), paraguas (umbrellas)

Fog: 

“Selenite”: 

Showing me where to write: 

Looking at the baa baa: 

Knocking over more towers: 

Lunch fun: 

After his nap, working on our masterpiece. I wrote the alphabet probably 15 times, and he would trace over my letters: 

The masterpiece. Boo on Sesame Street on including both an ad and a border around their image exports: 

Zoo: 

Snack time. Nice light to work with. Wish I had my good camera with me and had wiped his face: 

Home. Destroying mama’s snail: 

He was awake 6:45. Gave him the iPad to distract him from Carly leaving and it worked pretty well. He was finding new, more advanced phonics songs this morning. Some how. We ate oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast. He has started rejecting the vitamins (Omega-3 things) we give him (right after I ordered six bottles), so I was able to slip him two in his oatmeal. He spit the third out and wouldn’t eat anymore. We ‘read’ the Korean elephant on a line book a few times, and then he was back to the iPad doing a lot of Sesame Street Art Maker (and calling it “Art Maker”).

 

He walked into my bathroom at one point, and wanted to stand on the scale. He pulled it out from under the sink, but still bumped his head on the sink. It wasn’t hard though, so when I suggested he move further back, he started joking about bumping his head. He even walked over to the shower door and said “Bump the shower.”

 

We left the house about 10:30. He didn’t want to go to class, but I noticed from the beginning he wasn’t as passionate about it. We spent our little extra time going down to the first basement to look at the animals, including the puppies. We then went to class; he protested, but I was able to walk into class without him crying. He then got a little upset when he heard the song turn on where they pick up each of the kids. We went out and got water. Then when they brought out the forward roll mat he went and hid by the door. But after that he was totally fine.

 

They did things based on traditional Korean games, namely Jegichagi (제기차기), which is similar to hacky sack but with colorful streamers (I think I posted photos of him standing on Jegi in the park), Neolttwigi (널뛰기), which is a seesaw sort of thing where one person stands on one end and another person stands on the other, and they launch each other into the air, and Tuho (투호), in which you throw arrows into a pot.

 

He really liked the balancing boards, and even allowed the teacher and Jihong’s mom to stand on it with him. The arrows for Tuho were little Nerf-like things with magnets in them. He wasn’t much into throwing them, but he really liked how they would stick together, and liked sticking them to the board that stood in for the pots.

 

After class we went and did some shopping on the first basement – mainly getting large plastic box covered in letters to act as a toy box. He didn’t want to shop and started doing some screeching, so we didn’t do any food shopping. On the way home, he asked for ‘outside’ in Spanish, but my hands were full with him and the box, so we stopped in the park. He spent a long time looking at the letters on the box.

 

Got him to walk part of the way home (to the bridge), but walking in front and asking him to ‘fly’ to the pagoda, then around it, and then to the bridge. As we got home, he said “Mama home soon.” He then asked for ‘soon’ and ‘work’ in Spanish.

 

We ate a teriyaki salmon sandwich for lunch, then it was time for a nap. We read some Kipper first, and he was pointing to words saying “What say that?” In particular, pointing to ‘ball’. He also surprised me by pointing directly to the words ‘old’ and ‘his’ and read them, or at least remember which words they were.

 

Eventually we got in the stroller and walked around the 8th floor. It was apparent after 8 minutes or so that he wasn’t falling asleep. Also, it was 54 out, so I realized it was silly to be walking around inside. So we went back in, and a bit later took off in the backpack. Before we did, we were looking at the little ‘book’ of words I’ve been making for him. We were doing ‘sh’, and he started joking “SH makes azul…SH makes coat.”

 

We started walking, going a back street at first, and he fell asleep pretty quickly. We walked over to Coffee R, which we’ve walked by a thousand times but never been in. He had a short nap, 2:10 to 2:48. I immediately took off after he woke up. He kind of dozed as we walked up to Daiso, but didn’t fully fall back to sleep.

 

At Daiso we got little wood pen holders to act as book holders by his reading area. We also saw cool monster erasers and bought them as a “present for mama.”

 

From there we walked to the park basically behind Daiso. He claimed he didn’t want to go to a playground, but wanted to go to a coffeeshop instead. Carly joked that he is already 3o. He reluctantly started to play at the park when I got the stick out and started doing ABC. He got really interested in a sculpture two girls were making out of sticks, rocks, ice, and leaves. I got him away from that area by playing with the ice built up around the water fountains. We broke pieces of that off, and he stomped at them and looked for air bubbles for quite awhile.

 

He then wandered over to the play structure, where he wanted me to help him up and down all of the ‘big kid’ ways of getting up – the net ladders, the climbing wall, the rope stairs, etc. We did them all (the rope stairs were a bit tough coming back down) except the actual ladder. He worked on that himself for awhile though.

 

We then went back to the sand area, where the girls had left. He found and old leaf and said “Ooh. Cool leaf. Texture!” I let him touch their sculpture, but not take it apart. He wanted to do his own sculpture. We sort of stacked some rocks in the sand but he kept knocking them down. Then he pointed to the platform in the sand area and said “Sculpture here.” I lined up a few rocks along the edge and he took it from there, making almost the entirety of the figure we ended up making, using rocks I gathered. And as soon as he was done with it (the last rock he was placing at a tangent and calling it a Q), he destroyed it by knocking all of the rocks and sticks off.

 

It was now past 4, but he wasn’t ready to go home to mama. We spent some more time doing ABC on the ice and in the water in the drain, then I was able to convince him it was time to leave. He initially dropped the little stick we had been using to write ABCs back in the sand area, but then he turned around and went back and got it and said “Little stick in backpack.” We wiped off our hands and headed home, walking through apartment complexes, parks, and the Bible University much of the way before ending up back on the main street.

 

We got home about 5:20, after Carly. In the evening we built his Teuni ball, after which he didn’t want to play with it, but just take it apart and build it again. I told him tomorrow. He had a really nice bath with Carly, then we gave her the erasers. Well, sort of. August decided he really likes them, so he didn’t actually hand them to her. But she opened them and he played with them, making 11s and 111s and lining them all up. We spent some time writing more of the words he is picking up in his little word book. Then, while drawing on the floor with Carly, he noticed the book stands set up. He said “No” and proceeded to take off all the books and take out the stands that hadn’t been stuck down yet. Sigh.

 

At some point he asked Carly for a word in Spanish. She said she didn’t know, and he immediately and forcefully said “Look it up!” Soon after that, he asked for something, and Carly didn’t understand and said “What are you asking for?” and he said “Asking for this.” and pointed.

 

He realized the B letter shape was missing, and kept looking for it – primarily under the couch cushions and couch. I used the flashlight on my phone to look under the couch and he called it “sunny”.

 

When Carly first tried to get him off to bed, he delayed, saying “Read books in the reading area.” The first attempt to put him to sleep failed, and he was back out with me around 9. We drew and read and typed for awhile, then he was obviously v
ery tired, so I steered him back in. Thought he would go to sleep pretty easily. I came out and read one Atlantic article about Kindergarten in Finland, then heard him starting to really climb. I quickly finished getting ready for bed, then went in. He was clearly exhausted, but couldn’t get to sleep. I sang to him and he nursed more, and finally we got him to sleep about 10:30. When I was singing, he kept insisting on “English” a few times, even though I was already singing in English. I think he may have meant “phonics”, which we only apply to English songs, as he said it when I sang the Big Numbers song, and then the regular ABC song. I switched back to the A makes Ahh song, which he class the “phonics song” and he was fine.

 

New words/phrases: eliphante, gato, shower, cerdo, scratchy, push uno; no push ocho, Where dada?, watch your head, uva (grape), parentheses, dada fix it

Headed to Home Plus. Noticed the square and called it a Hangeul ㅁ: 

Touching the letters on the sculpture:  

Class: 

Walking home. Checking out the toy box: 

Flying home: 

Eumji Children’s Park:  

All the big kid stuff: 

The shaky stairs. He is off finding the next thing to climb: 

Sculpture time. The inspiration:  

The sculpture: 

Back home: 

Lining up the erasers: