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He came out at 7:43. Once again quiet and laying on the floor. He then wanted to read a Pooh story – the one with “Numbers”. I.e. buttons on suits. Read the word ‘sometimes’ and that reminded him of “and sometimes Y”. Which reminded him of YouTube videos. So watched some letter songs, then did some Korean, and ended up watching Spanish songs. I opened a MaraNatha peanut butter. August pointed in it and said “Zookeeer in there.” That was a joke of his from back in the spring. I laughed and said something about being surprised that he remembered that. He then said “Dropping water bottle on your foot…remember that…when you were a little baby.” Not sure what event he is talking about, but sounded plausible.

He also said “I’m in charge. K says that.” Not sure where that was coming from, but later at the park he was saying it and singing EIEIO and other lines. I think it is from a letters video he must have watched when I was showering or getting snacks together. He also asked me “Dada do oops words on French.”

We sang some Ants Go Marching…and would do that a lot on our walking. I have here that he said “How bout we just go home.” That’s something he says when he is ready for a nap when we are out. Can’t recall why he said it while we were still home…probably a joke. Anyway, he then caught a glimpse of my phone screen and was pretending to read it: “zookeeper…just boring stuff.” Finally, he was tapping his peanut butter spoon on the counter and started talking about “If I hold it loose…if I hold it tight…tap tap tap…” That was the lesson I gave him on drum/xylophone stick holding I gave him a week or two ago.

Got headed out 10:30ish. Mentioned going to the doctor, but it sunk in when I got out at the second floor. He started to whine, but I asked if he wanted to watch me get my flu shot first. He settled down, saying “Dada. Not Zinnie.” We went into my clinic and I held him the entire time. He was fascinated when the woman washed my arm, gave me the shot, and then a bandaid. He leaned over and watched from a few inches away. The doctor gave him two little Tootsie Roll pops, and the nursed put a bandaid on the back of his right hand.

Then to his doctor. It went amazingly well. I talked about how it was like the Daniel Tiger book as he went through the exam. He tensed up for the few seconds while we pulled down his shirt and held him for the shot, but otherwise just found it all a little ticklish. When we were done, he said bye bye to the doctor, then bye bye in both languages to the nurses and waved to them.

In the hallway I gave him a Tootsie Pop. His first lollipop. I handed it to him and he asked “What can you do?” Went across to the park and he had more of it, then we got in the backpack. He handed me the stick when he was finished.

We walked towards a couple schools by APIS. Walked the back route by the university to see the big construction site. Got to 신창어린이공원 and sat and ate lunch. He was then singing that EIEIO song, and then “The A says ah ah ah…” song. Spent a long time just eating and playing by the bench. Then had to change him. Went over to the play structure and he played on the end of the slide, holding himself up by the hands and lifting his feet off the ground. Leaned forward and fell on his face, but he recovered from that. He looked at a stone wall and said “want to do that game…all the way to this beetle…stream.” I let him walk along it, holding his hand. Then to the play structure. Did the xylophone sort of thing, then he watched the big kids on the swings, and examined his bandaid. Did the shaky bridge/stairs, which he insisted on doing himself. Did well, but got stuck on the last step, which was a wider gap. There was some Korean graffiti in there, and he got excited by it: “Can we do that? Want to write that painting in the sand.” Went down the slide, and we got our stick and spent the rest of the time writing in the sand. We were writing ‘월계 (Wolgye)’ but he wanted me to spell the Korean part ‘gay’ instead. He spent a few minutes writing the two versions over and over. He pooped again, so had to change him once more before leaving.

Got walking, across the stream and to a coffee place I wanted to check out. Then to a park we hadn’t been to in quite awhile. Before he fell asleep, he really started talking about…something “Kiss the J” sounded like part of it. He fell asleep from 2:14 to at 3:32 at BMT Coffee. I woke him up at the end.

Didn’t have time for the park I intended, so we walked to the park across from APIS where we would meet Carly at 4:30. Along the way we sang Ants go Marching, and I would stop at “ants go marching…” and he would fill in the rest. He did random numbers, and then ones like “70-window, 70-bench…”

At the park we read some Peppa Pig. A little girl walked by and knew Peggy Pig. Then What Would You Feed the Monkey? August wanted some Larabar, and joked about what was in it: “What’s in ther? There’s crab, eggs, soda…” Carly showed up, and he wanted to play with her. Climbed up the rope thing, and from there discussed flu shots with Carly, looking for her injection site: “It’s around there somewhere…up here or down there…mama feels better now.”

Played around and down the slide a couple times. And some loud singing. He was walking around and said “That was a 7” He had done that earlier too. He fell down, and needed some nursing. Then we left.

Walked home, talking a closer look at the construction site. He wanted to go into a bakery and was upset when we didn’t. Cheered him up with more Ants Go Marching. We stopped at the pink building for some fruit, then home.

I had been developing a sore throat, so I went and rested for awhile. They nursed and read Pooh. He came in and sort of patted me and laid his head on me when Carly told him I was sick. He kept quoting the Pooh story through the evening: “Pathetic, that’s what it is…around the mulberry bush.”

A highlight of the day definitely came after Carly asked me about a little jam jar. August started telling a long story about how it had been in the fridge, in the vegetable drawer, and how it had fallen out of the fridge and made a mess and then we cleaned it all up. Complete with lots of visuals. And all fiction. It was a pretty complete story, with a beginning, middle and end. Building on the Biscuit steps on a… stories we’ve been telling.

After that he started to do some dancing like Vivian. He and Carly must have watched that recently. I did show him a little ballet a few days ago, and he’s been reading that Peppa book a lot, so that could have reminded him as well.

We read the swimming book, then Carly took over reading Peppa, as my throat couldn’t handle it. She took him in for his bath, and he wanted to smell spices, so she took some in so he could smell them. I had some instrumental music playing when he came out, and he did some dancing to that. We did math on paper while Carly showered. He then did more dancing, and wanted me to join him: “Zinnie dada do TVXQ together.” I showed him a little of that Wolf and Beauty video, so he knows that TVXQ also dance. He had to go pee, then he said “What Tia Cassie say?” Confused me, but this is apparently a thing between him and Carly.

They went to sleep, or at least seemed to. They came back out and Carly read him the What Would You Feed a Monkey? book. After that he was ready to go try again and was asleep around 9:30.

 

Photos: 

Reading What Would You Feed a Monkey?: 

6:52. Like yesterday no fuss. Laid down on the rug for a couple minutes, then said “Where paper go?” We did some drawing/writing, then got up and made oatmeal for breakfast. He wanted to watch something on my iPad. I started by showing him a few minutes of The Smurfs. He was intrigued, but wanted the letter videos. So we started with the Silent E video and watched several. He liked one with the vowels hiding, and was learning about ‘sometimes Y’. He started making up shape names, one was “wytrionicle”, and drew them on the paper. Did some of the new Korean apps, then made funny sentences. He was looking through the lists of words, and asked me “What quantities mean?” He had read ‘quantities’ on his own. Finally, he played some Endless Reader for the first time in months. Which was cool, because he was clearly reading a lot more of the words now and sounding them out. As we got ready to go, we were discussing/singing the Silent E video. He doesn’t quite get the process, but likes the song, and ends up coming up with lines like “I can change basket to bird.”

We left by 10:45. In the station he started chanting ‘SN’ (we pronounce it ‘snuh’ – it is the name of a store (which has been closed since we’ve been back)). We got down to the platform and he asked what the tempo was. I had gotten an app so we can tap out tempos, so we did that while waiting for the train. On the train down he did the Cookie Monster app. He called one of the colors ‘periwinkle’ (correctly).

At Children’s Grand Park there was some event going on for blind people, including a concert in the theater. So got to hear parts of that. We got some kimbap on the way, and sat by the rectangle pond. We had fun confusing his food (calling the tuna ‘salmon’, etc.). He was sitting on the table and looked over at a sign we’ve never read and read out 피크닉정원 = pee-kuh-neek-jung-won. The picnic part was understandable enough, but we needed to look up jungwon- garden. I had also bought a honey lemon cookie, and he spotted it across the table – “What is that? What in there?” Big smile. He then crawled around our food to check it out. I remembered the books from last time, and went and got those. We then spent quite awhile reading The Ants Go Marching and the colors book.

It was now 12:30, but he started talking about going to the children’s museum. Too close to nap time for that. But he liked the idea of the piano. We walked up and played the piano for awhile. He played and sang a little Are You Sleeping, then talked about a baby crying. We then changed him and got walking. About 15 minutes or so and he fell asleep, from 1:09 to 2:41. Woke up in the coffee shop spelling Korean syllables/words: “Hangeul ㄷ Hangeul ㅣ…subak…” He was still in the backpack for a few minutes, and facing one of the transparent purple chairs. Looking through it he said “I see pink and blue and maroonish and orange and brown and…”

He got out and walked around a little, then wanted to go to the children’s museum. He dutifully carried the card to the counter, got our ticket, and carried them to the entry. We went in and he chose the Idea Transformer area. There, we spent quite a bit of time playing with the recycling conveyor belt thing: first correctly sorting them, then ‘oops’ sorting them, and saving them before they got to the end. He did the black magnet shapes a bit, and I showed him the hologram robot thing that teaches you to bow. He liked that, and bowed to it a few times. But then there was a machine where you vote for your favorite inventor. It was broken, and August got sad about that, and started talking about going home.

I walked us out and pointed out the chalk board, which we haven’t done recently. He liked that. The girl before had left a self portrait and her name written on it. So first he wanted to copy her name. Then, he started making up names for her, silly and not: “Here name is 나3…her name is 나누…” (The latter is ‘sister’, reversed. He’s learned that word in the newest app, but may have been a coincidence.) When he was done with the chalk, he made sure we fully erased it. Then went in and played with the cotton ball things, putting them in the window. Then took him back to the light stuff. We did some building, but he had started to talk about going home again. Then, he sat on the ground. Another kid bolted away from the blocks table, didn’t look where he was going, and ran right into August, falling on him and kneeing him in the face. Worst part was that when the dad got his son up, he didn’t have him apologize to August or me. August was definitely ready to head home.

He had calmed down and stopped talking about heading home by the time we got to the station. He’d been talking about the ‘Wolf and Beauty’ song that he knows in Korean through the day, and as we walked by the stained glass window he pointed and said  “there is beauty”. He then wanted me to do “Oops beauty”. So I pointed at the ugly ceiling and said it. He thought that was funny. A new game. On the way home, he started talking about ink: “Dada’s out of ink…buy buy…here is some ink for dada…for pencil…you can write with it.” I’m not sure where that came from…Pooh? Maybe Darong (the dog) spills ink in one of his Korean apps?

In the elevator, he mentioned the doctor on the second floor. I said we should get our flu shots. He interjected “But not now” I agreed, saying it would be busy now. He then said “maybe we get our flu shots when it’s not busy.” Got home around 4:30 and Carly was homes few minutes later – early, as they had been sent home as the internet wasn’t working. They nursed and read Pooh, and counted buttons on suits. He came out and played with his Hangeul magnets, focusing on the sounds the consonants make in the bottom (coda) position. He made a syllable and said  “That is the flower’s name outside.” We played Figure together, then read Peppa Pig books. A little more Korean app, then eating enchilada and mushrooms for dinner. He took a couple bites of mushroom using a spoon on his own. So it definitely seems to be a drip thing – he doesn’t want to control anything that might drip. At some point he wanted to nurse, and insisted “mama agrees.” They nursed, then were talking about pockets. Carly was asking how many pockets each person has. He said Kayla has 200.

I picked up August, and we were dancing to a My Autumn Empire song. He randomly said “Octopus doesn’t live on land.” He was then humming to the song. Then talked about “And sometimes Y.” He wanted to watch letters songs, so I let him do that while I got his bath ready. Carly gave him a bath, and he came back out wanting to watch more letter songs. We were watching a “A is for…” song, and they would list several words. He would then ask what each thing was – even the ones he really knows. When ‘horse’ came up, I said “Don’t ask about horse.” He thought that was hilarious and made jokes based on that, and of course was later asking “What horse is?” He also randomly said “Don’t answer that.” Which as far as I can figure he’s probably heard me say a couple times to Carly when I say something like “Do I ever forget anything? Don’t answer that.”

I said it was almost 9 and we’d have to put the iPad away. He turned it right off. But he picked up his ipad, went in the parlor, and closed the door. Came out a few seconds later to pee. On the toilet, he said “Pee out there”, whispering and pointing. I asked where, and he said “Carpet”. He had leaked a drop before coming out to the toilet. Very cute how he handled it and told me. I told him it was just fine and thanks for telling me. We went back in and I said he could do one word on the Korean app. He agreed to that. We then went in to bed. I told him to choose a book while I went to the bathroom. I came back to him being very silly with Carly. No book though. He chose Kipper’s Birthday and we read that. He wanted me to do oops words, so I did things like calling Kipper ‘Bisc
uit’ or Tiger ‘Tigger’. He had fun catching those. Left them a little after 9.

He came in to the parlor around 9:40. He sat with me and we read a couple Peppa Pig books, then took him back in at 10:05 (he read the clock) and he was soon asleep.

Photos: 

Lunch: 

Evening: 

August walked out at 6:35. Walked into the parlor, saw that mama was gone, and laid down on the reading area for a couple minutes. Silent. Then went to the front door, opened it, and looked down the hall for a minute. Silent. Then back to the rug in the parlor, laying down. Then out to the wood floor, curled up. Finally, at 6:48 he made his first noise, looking up at the magnets on the door: “dada do oops word with Korean.” We played with the magnets, then put the keys in the piano and he played and sang. We went in and used the paper and blocks to count buttons on suits, then he wanted his iPad, and did the Korean apps. Later, we were taking care of imaginary beetles and superworms. We had cereal for breakfast, then he ate peanut butter from a spoon when I made a sandwich for lunch. He spent time tracing and writing in his Korean workbooks, then he wanted to “Confuse Olly”, that is, the Octopus that acts on stage in the A Ah Apples song. Back to Korean apps for awhile.

We got ready to go and I put pants and a long shirt on him. No complaints. In the backpack, I put socks, and then his new shoes on him. No complaints. That was nice. We headed out, and took the #9 bus to Kwangwoon, then line 1 downtown. Got off at Jonggak and walked north. Stopped at the temple to look at the dragons and flowers they have in the entryway, and at a GS25 to get some kimbap and mango jelly juice. August got quiet while we were walking, then was shaking his head around, being silly.

We stopped at our spot behind the MMCA and ate lunch. I told August that we heard a chicken last time we were here, and he wanted to hear it again. He was taking bites of kimbap and took a bite that apparently was too spicy for him. He played his confusing game at one point, saying  “You can do the stage in the morning…you’re trying to confuse dada.”

It was getting close to nap time, but he was excited about going to the Folk Museum, and I knew he wasn’t going to want to take a nap first. So we headed to the Folk Museum. Of the two play areas, only the one about trees is open – the other one, about tigers, etc. has closed and is being replaced. It will be open later in the month. Anyway, we went up and got him out of the backpack. But he was starting to get tired. Before we went in to start playing he said “want to go home.“ But got him in and he wanted to play with the blocks. But first he said “What are they sad about…the monsters.” He had spotted the video with the said monsters from across the room. He had been intrigued by that back in the spring. Took off his shoes, and he wanted his socks off. He was fine putting them back on when we were done though. Played with blocks, then into the house to play with the food and dishes. Then with the typing thing. He told his own  ‘Biscuit steps on a super worm’ story, and randomly asked what a ‘dodecahedron’. We’ve talked a lot about shapes, but I don’t really know where he got this. And in trying to explain, without any visuals, he then said “never mind”. He did the sawing and planing of a board, and some hammering. We were then ready to go. But he spotted the art stuff. He drew on a bird shape, and wrote ‘Hi bi’ on his own. Then finished by doing the rubbing thing and writing/coloring on that.

Headed out, changed him, then got walking. Walked north of the art museum and he fell asleep. Found a new coffee shop, Cafe No. 37 (possibly named after the one in Stratford? It was the only similarly-named coffee shop that showed up on Google Maps before I added this one.) and he slept and slept and slept… 1:37 to 3:39.

I woke him up, and then we went back to the Folk Museum to play in the dragon playground for a few minutes. On the way, we stopped to look at some art at Barajas, and to check the dates on the Anish Kapoor exhibit (until the 30th – we’ll be back for that with Carly). We played at the play structure (it actually has a wooden dragon head with steam coming out of the mouth). He climbed on the climbing walls, then we sat and ate the rest of our lunch.

We got headed out, stopping outside the MMCA to look at the outside piece (a overturned piece of an old ship, with trees growing in it). On the walk to the subway we bought 붕어빵 (the fish-shaped bread with beans in them) and shared those. Got a seat on the subway and headed home. Off at Kwangyoon, and the bus home. August was incredibly calm and happy all day. The only time he started to get upset was a couple minutes before getting home when he wanted to stick his hand out the window and open the window more and I wouldn’t let him.

At home I tried to start the presidential debate on YouTube, but August saw it and wanted to watch ABC music videos. So we watched that for awhile, then he nursed and I was able to start the insane debate. Carly and I did a lot of cringing. We ate enchilada and played on the iPad. Carly offered him some spinach and he said “No. But thanks for asking.” He wrote in his Korean workbooks, then we read part of Walking the Bridge of My Nose. I tried to read The Giving Tree but he said no, it was sad.

He did a lot of math with Carly, getting into big multiplication problems. He wrote one with a Y and told her “Y stands for 12, mama.” They did a lot of singing of their song “I like to make mistakes because we get to learn.” He was getting climby, trying to climb on the drawer thing once, then standing on the books (and asking me to fix the wall), then climbing up on the desk.

Back out in the living room he played with magnets, making fake Korean words. We said it was time for his bath and he said “I just want to play till we go to bed.” Carly gave him a bath. At some point he said “easy peasy”. After his bath he saw my phone and wanted to talk to Siri. I said it was about 9, so we could just do it for a minute, then would get books. He agreed to that. We talked to Siri for 2 or 3 minutes, then he went and grabbed 4 or 5 books and carried them to the bedroom. We read What I Need and made a good tune to the song in back, then read Night Becomes Day. Then read Peppa books. At one point he climbed down and off the bed and, I thought, went to find Carly. But then I heard the front door open. He tried going out in the hall, naked, but we wouldn’t let him. Pretty straightforward bedtime after that, and he was asleep by 10.

Photos: 

He was up just before 7. Nursed and read Pooh with Carly – the Piglet and Kanga story. He and I put in the piano keys and played the piano a little, then he wanted on the iPad and did the Hangeul apps. He watched some of the Formula 1 racing with me, and was intrigued by all the numbers on the screen. Carly made oatmeal for him for breakfast. He was then acting like a puppy dog. Then he was doing math using the blocks with Carly and the Pooh pillow. August was counting pockets. He counted my pockets, then said I had a crazy amount of pockets, so I had to go grab a couple of coats and shirts and hung them from my head, then pretended to be a monster. I slimed him, but he said “Just dirt…not slime.” Which is his response any time you say he has slime on him. He and I then read the 123 Peas book, then they skyped with Chuck and Cherie. He did some art with Carly, using the new paints and then adding stickers. He likes to give us silly names, and was saying “Mama’s name is to-gee (Korean for rabbit)…mama’s name is hedge (which was on one of the stickers).”

He and I played with the animal magnets in the changing room, then he made a little nest/cave in the corner of the room, like the fox. I helped use the drawers from his clothes to make it. He then curled up, then said “You wake up and you’re a beautiful butterfly.” He then had a lot of fun talking to Siri. At one point he kept asking her “What does that mean? What does that mean, Siri?” Referring to the nonsense words he had been saying before that.

Carly started our Sunday cleaning, and we joined in. August really got into putting stuff away (“Sorting” he called it), then vacuuming. He then took a nap, sleeping from 1:05 to 2:30. After waking up he read some Pooh with Carly. It was the part about planning to kidnap Roo, and August got sad, but wouldn’t explain why.

After awhile, he and I got out on a walk. Carly had gone to the store, then came back and started making enchiladas and did some work. We walked east to check on the science center that is being built. Didn’t think it was done yet, but wanted to check the progress. The building and landscaping look done, and the big fences are down. But it doesn’t open until April. Then walked just south to the park. Walked to the playground, but spent the first 10 minutes or so looking at the stone sign, tracing the Hangeul. Then found some beads and walked along the edge of the stone wall, holding my hand. Then we went over to the playground. He climbed up, then went down the fast slide once. He had me do a lot of fixing of the playground. A few older kids showed up and talked to him. He wasn’t too bothered by them, although one boy kept getting in his face, and his mom told him to back off. We were looking at a Pokémon sign someone had drawn in the sand. August sang a bit of our ‘Lulu chingu dae…’ song. Basically, it is a song from one of his Korean classes, but we change ‘Lulu’ to different syllables he makes out of Hangeul…Nunu, Say-say, etc. He brought that up. It was starting to get chilly and dark (he was in long sleeves, and had complained a bit when I made him put on his sweatshirt) and I convinced him we should head home. He was looking at the park sign and counted “6 syllables”.

Paused in the park to watch a little singing and the big mask festival puppet things. We saw these with Chuck and Cherie last year. The concert in the evening was when August was dancing. It was 5:30 now, but the big concert didn’t start until 6. We didn’t go back out for it.

At home he wanted to do Korean on the iPad. He walked into the kitchen and Carly didn’t see him and bumped him into the counter. Sad boy after that. We read Biscuit Wins a Prize. He said ‘simple’ for something, and I was wondering how he knew the word. He told me: ‘“Simple’ is in Peppa’s Windy Fall Day.” I changed him and he wanted to stay naked after that. We ate Carly’s enchiladas for dinner. August was asking what cooked beans was all about, so Carly was teaching him about the dry beans and the different kinds. He was really liking that.

They were counting pockets again, and August turned it into a multiplication thing. August said “7 pockets in one suit” and we wondered how he knew ‘suit’ – but he knew his source: Rabbit says it in the Pooh story. He was excited when we understood what he was talking about. At one point he said “Multiplication!” He was writing multiplication problems on the paper, when suddenly he wrote 사이 (‘Psy’). He’s definitely learning from that Hangeul app. Just not important stuff…

He cuddled on the reading area and was pretending to sleep. He said “You wake up and you’re a beautiful butterfly.” again. He wanted to type, so I let him type to multiple people on Skype – sent a ton to Carly. I gave him a bath. Carly had been cutting up grapefruit and he wanted one piece as he went in. Then he decided he wanted more. Ended up eating a lot. At one point Carly asked “More grapefruit?” He said no and then “Thank you for asking though.” He wanted me to play the confusing game, and specifically wanted me to confuse each piece of grapefruit: “Dada confuse that grapefruit.” And at one point he randomly said “Ask your mother about that.” I know I’ve said that in the past, but don’t know why he pulled that out now.

Pretty straightforward bedtime after that, and he was asleep about 9:30.

 

Photos: 

His cave: 

Park: 

Beans: 

Math lesson: 

Nest: 

He was up at 7:22. I had my book group meeting via Skype starting at 7:30. While I had my meeting, Carly and August skyped with Vivian and Cassie, and played iPad and read Winnie the Pooh – and probably a lot more. At one point, August opened the door to check in on my meeting. He said “What the meeting about?” I had said that August was into Winnie the Pooh, so Peter B. was reciting the lyrics to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “House at Pooh Corner”. There was a lot of laughter, and August asked “What they joking about?”

August was typing on Carly’s computer, and wrote ‘Baby bhygtfreq’ He then said “Maybe that’s a doctors office….baby’s go there…when they’re sick…baby’s can go there…when they’re 77 hundred years old…maybe!”

Carly took down recycling and brought back deliveries. August was then popping bubble wrap all on his own. He was then walking on it, pretending it was water.

We all went outside to the park. Derek was already there with his two kids. August was surprised to see them and didn’t want to interact at first. He and Carly went on the teeter totter, then had to go off to nurse for awhile. Came back and went to the climbing wall, then climbed up the metal ladder thing and walked back and forth on the shaky bridge. He really wanted to dry the slide, but I hadn’t brought a towel.  He and Carly then ended up over in the dinosaur footprints, and he waded into the puddles in them. Logan saw that and got involved. He slipped a couple times, but August managed to not get totally soaked.

They headed off to get lunch and we headed to Home Plus. Carly went ahead as August was being slow walking. In fact, he kept wanting to crawl on the floor in Home Plus. Think he was being a kitty or dog. Downstairs, he and I went to the diapers section. He now wears size 5, but wanted the size 4. Not sure if he wanted Mickey and Minnie mouse instead of Pooh, or just liked the number 4 better. Anyway, he got upset and didn’t recover. We paid, and Carly carried him the entire way home. He didn’t really calm down until we were in our hallway. He fell right to sleep and napped from 12:20 to 1:40.

We finally figured out a plan for a walk and headed out in the late afternoon. We got coffees and a strawberry juice for August at King Kong Juice then walked up to Nowon. We went to the big Lotte and Carly went down to see if they had butter, as our two stores have been out of anything vaguely American for the last couple weeks. She found one possibly acceptable spread. We then walked east. That entire main street was closed off for the Nowon Mask Festival. We watched some drumming and singing (the singing seemed to be to a skit/performance showing planting and harvesting). Then continued on and got Subway sandwiches again. August said “I want tuna again.” As we left I saw the seafood one and suggested we get that next time and he liked that idea.

We went to Eumji Childrens Park. Sat on the bench with us and ate some turkey sandwich. It was getting chilly, but for awhile he resisted a sweatshirt (Carly had convinced him to put on his cloud long sleeved shirt at some point by saying he was Pooh pretending to be a cloud): “I’ll stay cold.” Made him wear it though. Eventually got up and went over to the grass area he had ‘weeded’ before. Did some stomping on the stump and then throwing out of dry leaves of grass. Over on the play structure he climbed up the little climbing wall, then went down the slide once. He was having a blast, but eventually we convinced him to head out.

Got home. He ate some of my sandwich. I had installed a couple of Korean apps on the iPads that Carly had gotten as recommendations from Korean parents/teachers. August and I tried those out. Better, but I’m still not very impressed. Carly got his bath ready and came in and said he should take his bath while it was still warm. He didn’t want to take a bath at first, but then wanted to go in and check. He went in and touched the water and said “It’s still warm.” Carly gave him his bath. He randomly started reciting The Giving Tree: “Shook with joy…come boy…come swing on my branches and eat spray bottles”  (that’s a joke of his at the end – it actually says apples). So Carly read him the story while he was in the bath.

After his bath, he and I ended up in the bed. We read the Peppa Pig books, then read 1 2 3 Peas, which we had first discovered at the children’s library last winter/spring and I just found on the iBook store for cheap. We had fun with that, and counted the 100 peas at the end. When they were ready to go to bed they kicked me out (literally: August said “Kick out dada” and started pushing me). I made a joke about playing with Duplos by myself. That was a mistake. They nursed for awhile (about 9:30) but then August came out and tried to start playing with the Duplos. I wouldn’t let him though. He sat with me for awhile and we read a Peppa Pig book and the What Would You Feed a Monkey? book a couple times. He then said “Want to fall fast asleep” (referencing the line in the Bedtime for Peppa Pig book when she falls asleep) and went in to Carly and was asleep at 10.

At some point in the day Carly made up a song for him that goes “I like to make mistakes because I like to learn”

 

Our park: 

Park: 

New paint: 

Bubble wrap: 

Climbing wall: 

Home Plus: 

Park: 

Reading in the bath: 

He was up at 7:22. Pretty calm, and he laid on the floor for a minute. Then started talking about spiders that fell from webs and needed to be taken care of. We spent a long time writing Hangeul and Korean words on paper. A bit later he found his Korean class videos on the iPad and was watching them for the first time in a long time, then a Kipper story. Banana bread for breakfast. Before we left we read Frog on a Log, then headed out to the subway at 9:15.

On the subway we read three new Peppa Pig books…Bedtime, Swimming, and Ballet Lesson. We also read a book called What Would You Feed a Monkey? He then did the Hangeul app and magnet board thing, and had an audience of a couple of people.

We got off the subway and bought some kimbap and another sandwich (same kind as yesterday). We walked over and sat at a picnic table by the playground and ate our lunch. The wind picked up and we finished up and headed in. August was running in the wind, and stopped to smell (and pick) some flowers. We got a ticket and I handed it to him. He ran into the museum and handed over the ticket and we went on in. Busy, full of school kids. We ended up in the children’s area, and then in the room with foam building blocks. Played there for awhile: I was making cylinder towers and he was knocking them down, and we worked on a couple of random towers together. He also just had fun climbing over the terrain of loose pieces.

From there, we wandered around the rest of the children’s area. He really wanted to go in the big climbing part, but it said for ages 7 and up, and was packed with kids. Got him in a little ball area for a little while, then he turned a crank handle, and eventually we were able to climb up through the structure after a school group left. That got us upstairs, where there were optical illusion things. He looked through tube things, and saw the ‘hole’ in my hand during one optical illusion. We also felt the coils that have the illusion of being different temperatures. We heard a loud mystery noise that we tried to track down – got us close to the water area, but then it didn’t happen again. He really liked the noise though, and noticed when we heard a similar noise later in the day. After the crank thing, he wanted me to carry him much of the time. We went through the tilted room a few times, and when he didn’t want back down at all we headed outside.

We went to the insect building, which we had been talking about since before we got there. As we went to the building he talked about taking care of the beetles. And, indeed, when we started looking at beetles we played that game. Had fun looking at beetles, and then he was quite excited to touch the super worms. We went and saw the bee hive, then waited to touch the big black beetles and the larva. A woman that worked there helped him touch the beetle, and she was trying to let him hold it, but he found it tickly. We looked at the spiders for a bit, and decided to save the butterflies for next time. The building was quite busy with screaming middle school students (I had to tell a couple to stop screaming, or stepping on my foot).

We went out near the pond area and had a second lunch. He was joking about feeding a monkey. As we finished, I walked a few feet to the garbage can. I heard the water bottle fall and looked up to see August had fallen off the bench and was sort of wedged between the two benches. Comforted him, got our stuff together, changed him, and got walking at 1:40. He was talking about me not remembering a tune to a song he made up (happened a couple days ago), then was singing a song with the line “that can not float”. Now sure what ‘that’ was. He fell asleep and slept from 1:56 to 3:15. We went into the coffee place and sat there. The place was starting to clear out before his nap, and by the end the museum was pretty empty – all the school groups having left to go back to school.

Put the backpack back on and we went out to the space building. Went down into it and walked around. Some potential, but pretty underwhelming, and August didn’t want to get out of the backpack. We went back outside and walked around the building – the space building is built as a octodecagon (18 sides), which we thought was pretty cool. He saw a big map and we spent time looking at that. He pointed to the Delta rocket and asked how many sides it had. We walked around it, counting the engines, and realized it was a nonagon (9 sides). He was ready to leave, so we left out the side entrance and walked around to the front, stopping (him still in the backpack) to do the water pumps.

As I stepped up to the train station there are two very short steps. I missed one of them and tripped on it. Took a couple steps and thought I caught myself, but then felt the weight of him still going forward. Took another couple steps and went down on my left knee. He sort of fell to the left. Scared both of us. Got him out of the backpack and we sat and held him for awhile. He was holding his right hand funny. Stopped crying after a couple minutes though, so I didn’t think it was too hurt. He wouldn’t talk about it though, just saying “No” to any of my questions. I held him and stood on the subway. He had his arms around my neck but was still holding the right hand as a fist. But eventually I felt him opening and closing it. We got a seat and got out the iPad. For a few minutes he only played left handed, but then started grabbing my finger with his right hand when he wanted me to do something. Then he was using both. Only once he felt better would he talk about it. In fact, he then said “Want to play that game” (meaning me falling down).

After awhile we were playing with the Hangeul magnet app and he was spelling words on his own. A Korean woman asked how old he was and then said that August was better with Korean than her 5 year old.

Got off at Changdong. Drizzling. 14 minutes until the next 1144. So we walked up and caught the Nowon 15. Construction and traffic though meant we took about 10 minutes just to go a block. Would have been faster to take the 1144 (which takes a different route). Oh well. Raining a bit more as we walked across the park, but made it okay.

Home at 5:30. Nursing and Winnie the Pooh. Carly was surprised to find him talking about Eeyore, Kanga, etc. He was then climbing on back of couch. Wanted me to play the oops game, then when I said I was out of ideas he reached to my head and said “I put ideas in there.” Always cute when he does that. Playing the iPad later it froze. He didn’t much like that and got upset. Spent sometime with Carly, then he and I played with Loopimal and he did some good dancing. We went to the parlor and were making shapes out of the crayons and picking out triangles and quadrilaterals and trapezoids in them, like in the geometry app. We were then writing words on the paper. He was spelling ‘cat’ and ‘stop’ on his own.

He had some soup with Carly and joked “No superworms in there…there was in the banana bread.” Don’t know if I’ve mentioned how he doesn’t like to use utensils. Carly was trying to get him to use the spoon, and it seems like he doesn’t want to do it because he doesn’t want to drip (indeed, when we do spill something he wants it back in the bottle, etc.) Carly said it is okay to drip, then he wanted her to drip. Said “Fine. Mama will drip.”

He saw my Korean textbook and wanted to write in it and I got his workbooks out (which we haven’t used since we’ve been back) instead. He was excited about that, and did a lot of tracing of words in those.

It was bath time, so I did the Sophie voice and she said she was getting in the water. He didn’t want Sophie to get in the bath, saying “No! No!” And getting upset when we suggested she was about to jump in. Eventually though he changed his mind, and went running in so he could help put her in. I gave him his bath. Letters on the door, as usual, but then he was putting them all on the door, and he looked at the shape and called it a volcano.

Got out, then ended up going
in and making a nest. Pretty easy after that, and he was asleep about 9:30.

Videos:

Photos: 

Wind: 

Inside: 

Beetles and worms: 

Eating. He’s laying across the spot he would later fall into:

18 sides: 

9 sides: 

Home: 

Volcano: 

Tons of word-related activities today and music. And realized that he is suddenly writing the letters of words in pretty straight lines, drawing all his letters lower case, and writing Korean words pretty easily.

He was up at 5:55 to nurse. Fell back to sleep a little, but was back up at 6:20. Fine with Carly leaving today. He was looking at the pronunciation guide on the Hangeul app, and really getting into the complex vowels like ㅞ. He said “Want to write that crazy Hangeul.” So we went and got the paper and crayons and started writing all the complex vowels. Then writing other things. He invented “ㄷ turns to ㅁ turns to popsicle” by drawing a stick on it. We wrote other Korean words, then he was getting hungry. We decided to make French toast again. At first he was frustrated it wasn’t already done, but then he went and got his stool and helped make it. Ate that, then we read the Daniel Tiger doctor book and retold Biscuit Steps on a Mooka Mookasa. He played Metamorphabet as I showered, then we did more Hangeul pronunciation together.

He decided he wanted to go outside, so we started to head that direction: put a diaper on him and his new dinosaur hoodie shirt. But then he started playing Endless Wordplay for the first time in months. They are in lowercase – I think that is where the lowercase writing later came from. Also, the robot in the game sneezes, and he really liked that. He also wanted me to explain the line “I must be allergic to something.” He would repeat that throughout the day.

He had some maximum silly time, confusing Sophie and talking about letters on the door. He then wanted to play Figure. We did that, and he had another long silly session where he was talking about the names of the sounds and making up new ones. He was then getting into the temp setting and counting beats when I showed him how to do that. And he was reading and spelling the words in the app: shuffle, tempo, and sound names. Without me asking, he said “Your chin is feeling better…your chin is feeling good.” Finally, he spent a few minutes typing nonsense stuff into the Wikipedia search bar, finding it funny to get the ‘No articles available’ message each time.

Headed out about 10:50. Went to Home Plus to get some lunch. Again, planned to eat in the park. He spent some time writing Hangeul with his finger on his favorite spot on the floor, then looked at the little plant jars and touched them gently. Went to kimbap and sandwiches and told him we could get two total. He kept trying to convince me to get some combination of 3 as he couldn’t make up his mind. Ended up with our usual kimbap pack and a ham and potato sandwich which was surprisingly good. He decided it would be fun to hang on the side of the stroller and have me push him. Did that through much of the store.

Went out and sat on the side of the building again and ate. At the end made jokes about being allergic to the benches, post, etc. Went back in at 11:50 and got up to class as they were doing the forward rolls. He said “skip it” to the forward rolls, but walked the path once, which is progress. Class was about spiders. He put on the “spider backamapack”, as he called it, and kept it on until the big walking path at the end. He asked me “what’s in there?”, and then he said things like “Larabar, water bottle, iPad…” Spider-related activities, so we learned the words for ‘spider’ and ‘fly’. The teacher was playing with the fly, making an “Aaaaa!” sound for the buzzing. August was confused at first and had to ask me what the teacher was doing – we make a “buzzzz” sound in English. But then he understood, and one time when the teacher stopped, August said “Aaaaa!” at the same pitch. The teacher thought that was pretty funny. They crawled around like spiders, then there were two activities picking up flies and putting them on webs with velcro. Then we put the flies in silk, also with velcro. The final activity was a walking path. The teacher lay under the rope net bridge like a spider. August walked over it 4 times – 3 with the teacher under. The first time, when he tried tickling August’s feet, August got smart and balance barred it along the frame. The second time he walked right over the teacher, then he balance barred it again. August got his treat, did a good bow, and got a handstamp at the end of class.

We took the stroller so we could head right out for nap time, since he had woken early. But he was amped up after class. He requested the A Ah Apples song, and we spent 13 minutes explaining all the lines to the song. I tried to move on to a different song at some point, but he wanted to go all the way to Z. We walked south, past the hospital. By the park we spotted a little caterpillar crawling on the ground. Watched that for a couple minutes. Said bye to it after I assured August it would find its way to the plants. Walked to the trail entrance to the university across from Comma Cafe, up to campus, and wandered about. August would put his head down for a minute, then sit up and start singing. I talked to him a couple times about taking a nap, and he would put his head back down. But when I did that in the university he said “No”. That was actually a good sign, and soon after that he nodded off as we wandered some streets SE of Comma Cafe and the park. Took 57 minutes and 2.15 miles. Hadn’t paid attention to my coffee choices, but now realized that the first three were too full or had multiple steps up to them. Luckily, a lot of choices, and found Cafe Geuneul.

He slept 1:25 to 2:35ish. He woke up once in there and just stared at the white brick wall for a minute then went back to sleep. A slow wake up at the end, then we headed out. Went to 국화어린이공원, which I today decided we would henceforth call ‘the writing park’, since this is where the letter writing and C to O to Q really started, and today we wrote letters and words for over an hour.

Met a guy who was picking up his kids from the kindergarten across the street. Talked to him for a minute. His wife is a nurse at the hospital. August and I started drawing letters, and I wrote his name in Korean: 아그스트. So August would step on in and say “Step 아그스트!” We took a break to eat the rest of our lunch. He was doing counting math on his fingers (and mine). Then he was down on the ground and talking about making a beetle’s nest. A little frustration there, as he wanted me to help, but it wasn’t clear what he wanted to be ‘real’ and what was ‘pretend’. Back to the sand, he wanted me to write ‘ Uidong’ in Korean, so did that. He was making little noises and said “my sound is a beetle noise.” (I guess after the teacher did the fly noise earlier.) He was again big on me making ‘Oops!’ things, so I wrote ‘namu’, Korean for ‘tree’ in combinations mixing up the Korean characters and English letters. He thought that was funny. I asked if he wanted to know how to spell 우유 (milk), and he just went and did it on his first try. I realized that he is spelling Korean words on his own with little problem as it is so phonetic. With him writing, he then wanted to spell ‘Zinnie’ and ‘quest’ I helped him sound out the letters, and he wrote them – lower case and in straight lines. Starting with the ‘e’s he began giving the letters eyes. Not sure where that came from – possibly the YouTube videos.

More with me writing, but him helping sound out and figure out letters and then tracing, we wrote (all at his request) ‘question’ and ‘photography’ and ‘slide’ and ‘paper’. But then came ‘pine needle’. Lots of laughing until we got to the ‘d’. We’d had a lot of fun making mistakes, but then he got his ‘d’ and ‘b’ mixed up. I tried to show him the difference, but he drew a ‘b’ again, and when I told him to try again he suddenly got sad. I picked him up and held him. He just cuddled on my shoulder, and wouldn’t talk. So I started singing the A Makes Ah song and making mistakes, and getting stuck on letter sounds and he started laughing. When I got stuck he would have to ta
p me to get me to go on to the next letter.

Went over to the center of the park to change him, and he spotted the other side of the park, which is just a round sand area with an almost flat (horizontally, that is), circular climbing wall area around it. Rather odd. August was excited by it, and went and walked on it, but then rather confused when he couldn’t really climb on it since he could just…stand on it. He sat down, and I sat next to him, and he finally talked about why he was sad, first saying he was sad about “b and g” then changing to “b and d”. He started picking up pine needles and was putting them down the cracks between the boards. He wanted to keep cleaning up the park instead of heading home. Then he said “want to write pine cone…there’s no b in pine cone”, which was pretty clever.

We walked home, getting home a bit past 5. Carly got home a couple minutes later. August had just gotten the iPad out and was starting to play. He said “mama found you” and was then torn between going to nurse or iPad. Started to go to Carly, then turned back to the iPad and said “Want to do this.” Eventually nursed, then ate pasta for dinner. He told Carly why he had been sad. They nursed and read Winnie the Pooh. He requested banana bread, so I started to make it. He of course wanted it ready right away, but then decided to help with it, and that worked pretty well. I had New Order playing, and he was dancing to it – it reminds him of Figure. He was impatient for the bread to cook, but was appeased a bit by licking the spatula. But after that kept saying “the banana bread’s done”, especially if he heard the rice cooker beep.

He was nursing and said “Raspberry banana bread tart… that would be yummy.” Carly gave him a bath, and he confused her by saying “Maybe I’m allergic to…” until I explained the reference to her. He played iPad for awhile and had some banana bread when it was done. Carly asked him to say good night, and he said “Night night iPad. Have a good sleep.” And he turned it off. He then ran around a bit, tagging both of us, and said “Mama, Zinnie, and dada…all together.” The last bit coming as he lay his head down on the couch.

He went in with me to make a nest at 8:35. Got out my iPad to read books, but he wanted to read Dada’s books. He was interested in a table of contents, and learned the word ‘Contents’. He then wanted to confuse both Sophie and me. We read the Peppa Pig fall day book, then he cuddled in his nest, and we did a lot of taking care of animals. He went to sleep about 9:30

 

Home Plus: 

Teuni Teuni: 

Playground: 

Home: 

Photos: 

Home Plus: 

Teuni Teuni. Spider backamapack: 

Park: 

Writing ‘Zinnie’: 

Home: 

Hood: 

He was up at 5:55. He was on the iPad when Carly left, doing Sago Mini Monsters, when Carly left and was fine with that. But at 7:20 it sunk in that mama had left and he got upset. He kept trying to go out in the hall, and was upset with me when I wouldn’t let him go out. Eventually, he started pulling my backpack off the stroller so he could get in that. When I agreed to go for a walk he calmed down. We grabbed a couple things and headed out, and took a walk along the stream. After a few minutes he started the “Ingredients…oops!” game, where I list ingredients in the Larabars or banana bread and include things like beetle spit, say “Oops!” and he laughs. We paused to watch an egret in the stream, then came home – a 20 to 30 minute walk.

He played on the iPad while I showered, and was lying on the floor when I came out. A couple times through the morning he asked “Where mama go?…Can you find her?” but didn’t get upset again. We tried to skype with my mom to see how my dad was doing, but she wasn’t online. August left a video message instead, then left messages for oma and mama.

August wanted to read Winnie the Pooh, and we were reading the first story, about the bees, when we realized that August was wearing his bee pajamas. Then, I noticed that he was wearing a Winnie the Pooh diaper. Next, he got up and was playing with the balloon from the park, the blue balloon, when we got to the part about Christopher Robin giving Pooh a blue balloon.

Cherie then called us back and we talked to her for a few minutes. We stopped so we could get ready to go, and Cherie sent one of the video emojis. August loved that, and was thrilled when he figured out how to send them back. Kept him busy sending her emoji after emoji (and then Carly), while I got ready. I don’t think she realized what she would unleash. A bit later, my mom was online, and we skyped with her and Paul. Dad is doing okay; sleeping a lot.

Back to Winnie the Pooh, I sung a few lines from the song. He wanted to know more about it, so I looked up Winnie the Pooh episodes on YouTube. We watched the song, and parts of a couple episodes. There is a Winnie the Pooh special about letters and numbers, and we watched a portion where Christopher Robin teachers Pooh about rhyming words. August was interested in that. We watched one full short video, and as it was about to end, August said “Want another one”. That was interesting, as there was no obvious clue that the video was ending – rather, he could tell that the plot was ending. I also noticed this when we were making up Kipper stories. When I get to the end of the story, whether it be because the plot is resolved, or clues in the tone of my voice, August would often then say “The end.” Interesting understanding of storytelling and/or plot.

Eventually we headed out, sometime after 11. We were taking the 1137 bus up a couple stops north of Nowon (he chose bus over subway). He started to fall asleep on the bus, but managed to keep him awake. He perked up as we looked at some music-related murals as we went under the roadway to get to the west side. Spotted one nice coffee shop for later reference, then walked over to 용화어린이공원. Didn’t expect much, just a spot for lunch, but it turned out to be a nice spot and a well-equipped playground. I had just brought sandwich, banana, string cheese, etc. today and we ate on some covered benches. He rebounded and had us joking about throwing up on beetle and grasshopper nests. I have no idea where he gets his sense of humor. He kept asking if he could climb the brick wall around the park. Answer: No. Got him over to the play structure, where he went back and forth over the short rope bridge a few times. He wanted to go on the long one, but I eventually talked him out of that. Went down a slide together, and he climbed up a climbing wall with a slight slope to it. About 6 feet tall. He was saying “I can do it” to himself, then switched to “I can’t do it.” but kept climbing. Near the top, he started singing “…with your hands in your pockets, and your pockets in your pants…” and when he got to the top he stood up and finished “all the little fishies do the hootchie cootchie dance.” Finally, he wanted me to make mistakes with words, and his favorite was when I ‘accidentally’ called him Colin, Thatcher, or Vivian.

He’s been doing more whispering, and as we walked to put him to sleep he was incorporating it into his singing. Then, I told him it was time to sleep and I was singing to him, but he would randomly whisper “seven”. He fell asleep and we went to another coffee shop we found called Cafe Teapot. He slept from 12:46 to 2:02. He popped awake, sort of, and immediately said “dada do oops word in Korean.” But then he sort of stared out the door and stretched. Staring at the door, he started saying things like “if you walk through there and it is closed, a grasshopper will bite you…”

He wanted to go outside, so I got on the backpack and we got going. Checked out another park (온곡어린이공원), but pretty dull and he wanted to skip it. Got to the big neighborhood park (온수그린공원) I’ve been to once (I remember reading Crow Planet while sitting there) and we walked around. Found a big library building at the end of the park. Went in and found the children’s library area. Walked around, and he liked looking around for a few minutes (numbers on shelves, letters on the walls, pictures, etc.) I found the English section and it was pretty impressive, but August wanted to leave. Tried to convince him otherwise, but he wouldn’t listen to it.

Went back to the entrance and sat down on a bench so I could have a break and get some food. He got out. A grandmother brought a little boy over and they gave August a couple of rice cake things. He ate those, then some of our other food. We took some selfies, and he was asking about the buttons, particularly ‘slo-mo’. So I showed him what it does by taking video of him dancing. He liked that. He then was making up Biscuit books he wanted to ‘read’: Biscuit Steps on a Mooka Mook, Biscuit Spills the Juice, Biscuit Spills the Crackers, Biscuit Steps on a Mooka Mooksa (it’s a sequel to the first one).

We headed out, cutting through Nowon proper this time. He was singing songs, and after each wanted to know how long it was: “how many seconds that is?…the mooka mook song.” That was a result of Skyping: at the end of the call with Cherie and then with my mom he noticed the timer and wanted to know more about how they told you how long the call was. He was also singing his usual ABC songs, which he now ends with a different “won’t you sing with…” One today was “next time won’t you sing with blood?”

We stoped at 엄지어린이공원 and he wanted to play. But first he just got out and lay on hits stomach on the bench for awhile. The bench was around a square grass area and tree stump. We discussed the difference between the words ‘stomp’ and ‘stump’ and he stomped on the stump. He then wanted to weed, mainly picking out dry pieces of grass. Another boy had collected acorns, and August looked at one for a minute, then gave it back. We learned that acorn is ‘도토리’. We got a lot of other kids talking to us in the short time we were there: a couple of girls as he climbed the climbing wall, then an older boy, in some English, up on the structure.

We left at 4:30 and walked the rest of the way home. He was singing songs in his languages, and at the end would end with a word and say “…that means ‘the end’…that means ‘start’.” He was also making up new words and odd definitions: “’doadoado’…that’s a boring name for chalk…that’s another name for kitty.”

Got home and he played on the iPad for a few minutes. But then he noticed that Carly wasn’t home yet (she had stopped to do fingerprinting on the way home) and went and opened the door and stood looking out for a couple minutes until she showed up. A bit later he pulled up the calculator app on the iPad and was playing
with that. He was trying to do multiplication and called me over to explain multiplication. He had a bit to eat, and a bit later said “Your tummy feels better.” Didn’t know it hurt, so asked if he had just felt hungry, or if it hurt. He said “hurt”. Wasn’t entirely sure if he was just pretending or serious, so asked, and he said “real.”

I gave him a bath, which went well. Back out, he went straight for the table and wanted the iPad. When I said it was asleep he got upset. Clearly a tired boy. Carly took him and he wanted to go into the bedroom. He was asleep about 8:40.

Morning:

Park 1: 

Nap: 

Park 2: 

Park 3: 

Photos. Morning walk: 

Typing and emojis: 

Watching Winnie the Pooh: 

Laughing at lunch: 

Rope bridge: 

Nap: 

Park 2: 

Park 3: 

Stomping on the stump: 

Waiting for mama: 

8:52. He was a little sad, but let me pick him up. He was wet, so took of his diaper, but the bed was dry. He played with th fan, reading the levels in Korean, and said the fan made a “W noise”. He hasn’t described sounds as letters much recently, but does it from time to time. Then smiled and asked for the iPad and said he wanted to do the puzzles. Played the Hangeul app and then some Todo Math. Ate cereal, banana, and crab for breakfast. Some milk dripped down on his bandage and I took it off. He didn’t like that and said he wanted a new one on. I said to wait until we were done eating. When we were, I wiped off his chin. He was scared of that, but then said  “What it not hurt about?”

We played Art Maker together, and he was doing the Oscar the Grouch one and painting in mayonnaise and putting worms on it: “The worm is eating the mayonnaise.” He was then climbing on the back of the couch while I did it. We did a little writing of letters on the paper, then he wanted to read Froggy’s Day with Dad so we did that. We read much of one of his  Hangeul posters, then was back to the Hangeul app together. We guessed what one of them said, and he said “Maybe! We’ll find out.” Back down on the paper he was using a broken crayon and asked what color it was. I said I didn’t know, and he started saying ‘Got me, brown tree’ jokes: “Got me eeyore…got me moray eel.”  “Got me, …” had been a running series of jokes yesterday (purple slug, brown potato, etc,) Also, a random sentence he said, then ran around, but I didn’t understand: “That makes me slippery fast.”

We headed out and down to Children’s Grand Park. We got kimbap and little eggs. Lot of little changes at the park: figures by the entryway, food trucks by the big fountain, the I SEOUL U letters gone, paintings on the ground…think they had a big festival for the weekend or something. We ate lunch by the pond. I responded to an email from Paul saying that my dad’s surgery had gone well, and then August wanted to type to Paul. I had already hit ‘send’ on my email though, and August was upset that he couldn’t type on my message. He typed a little on a separate email to Paul, but it wasn’t the same, and he kept deleting what he typed. We did send a video message to my dad though. I was feeding him kimbap, which he was eating all of, if I took off the seaweed, and he accidentally chomped down on my thumb, hard. Luckily, he got it sort of sideways and the nail protected me. Hurt, but no breaking of skin. I yelped pretty well though. Randomly, he asked “what does vegemil C have?” This was a joke from a few days back: The soy milk we buy comes in two varieties, A and B, so he started asking about different letters, like Vegemil W. We then come up with weird combinations (like beetle-flavored soy milk).

Finally, he wanted to “Take care of the D with the blood on it.” We ended up doing this a lot today, and each letter got hurt because “It was not going down the purple slide…it got got hurt on the red steps.” With the colors of the slide and steps changing each time, or course.

We went to do sidewalk chalk, and had a lot of fun with that for 20 or 30 minutes. A couple other people joined us. One girl started writing in Korean, and August wanted to copy it. They left a minute later, and I realized that the girl had actually been copying what we had already written: Kwangwoon University (in Korean), which August had asked me to write. After that, August saw people playing in the sand and wanted to play there. He was disappointed to hear that we didn’t have all our sand toys with us. He saw an older girl making shapes with a jello cup thing, and kept saying “Can we make that shape?” Suddenly, he looked incredibly tired and sad.

We packed up and changed him and headed out. I hadn’t planned on a nap – in fact, hadn’t brought my iPad. But just when I was sure he was asleep, and he had had his head down for quite awhile, he popped up and said “No sleep today.”

Not sure if that was because he wasn’t actually sleepy enough, or because me talking about him not taking a nap today got him thinking about it. Because he was Tired (capital T) for the rest of the day.

He was then singing the ABC song, and talking about the letters: “A B C D…there’s no blood on the G’s face…there’s blood on the E’s cheek.”

We went to the children’s museum. We first went to the new area that has replaced the ball area. It is called ‘Idea Transformer’. August knows what ‘ideas’ are, but was confused by the name, and kept asking what it meant. Tried several explanations, but he didn’t seem totally satisfied. There, he played with a lie detector thing (rather pointless), a tools/building area that was pretty cool, and then was fascinated by a display on symbols/signs. He then played with the shape magnets you could use to make your own signs.

He was then done with that, and headed off. He wanted to go up to the space area. Looked around there for a bit, but mainly he wanted to go in the play structure, which he isn’t big enough for. He didn’t get upset, but got sad, and tired. I picked him up and he cuddled. We watched some kids in the spaceship area for awhile while I held him, but he didn’t want to play there. I finally suggested the building area, and he wanted to go there. There, he ended up playing with the floor tiles for a long time. And rubbing his eyes. He was counting them, and laying them all out, then really got into putting them away before we left. Before that, he had climbed into the box for a minute.

I picked him up, and we headed upstairs. He jumped on the ball pad thing a bit, but then wanted to continue on. We went to the reading area, but he remembered the bead game, and sadly kept asking for that, but they don’t have it anymore. I suggested the little kids area next door, and said he could make tea in the kitchen area. That brightened him up, and we went in there, and he went straight up to the kitchen area. We found cups and a teapot, and he was initially frustrated because he wanted to put the teapot on the stove, but couldn’t get to it. It opened up though, and we were able to play with the tea. He put pots on the stove to cook, then was putting corn, steak, and other food in the oven to cook. He totally remembered about ovens being hot (from this summer, since we don’t have one). Then suddenly, he curled up on the floor. Then got up and curled up on the little couch. Then crawled in a corner and curled up. We headed out, but first he went down the slide twice, and curled up under the slide. He was really trying hard to play.

Took awhile to get down the stairs, as he was analyzing the different levels of handrailings and calling them ‘medium’ or ‘high’. On the subway he made up the shape “Quadrilatadecagon”. And on the walk he was singing a lot and having me name the language he was singing in. He was also using his hands, like he was reading the words out of a book.

We were home a bit before Carly. I heated soup, and we were doing the ‘oops’ game, listing ingredients in the soup and including things like ‘rocks’ and ‘beetles’ etc. as accidents. Carly got home and he went and greeted her, then told me “Mama is here!” Later, I swear he was looking at the Cat book and reading ‘photography’ on his own, repeating it several times, but when we asked him to read it, he was unsure about it and back to sounding it out. He and Carly read a book, and he called the end the “endymcnickerton”. He did some more reading with her, and she gave him a bath. He then fell asleep while nursing, and naked, on the reading area at 7:20. We took him in on the bed and put clothes on him. He got up once to nurse an hour later or so, but otherwise was fast asleep after managing to stay up for a long time.

On the couch

Chin and knee and mosquito bites

Counting the ants

Trying out the new Idea Transformer area

Figuring out signs

Floor tiles

Drinking tea

Second spot to curl up

Curling up
yet again

Sidewalk chalk:  

Children’s museum: 

Home: 

Photos: 

Children’s Grand Park:  

Ants Go Marching: 

Children’s museum: 

Sleepy boy: 

He was up at 7:05. Lots of nursing and reading with Carly, then they skyped with Cherie, who is now in Mexico. Out with me, we read Biscuit and Biscuit Goes Camping. He and Carly did Art Maker and did a lot of laughing covering the pictures and each other with tricycle slime and paw print slime. He had me make up more nonsense Biscuit books, then colored with Carly, before doing more Art Maker with me.

We got out for a walk in the sun – a very different day from yesterday. Out in the hall, he read ‘소화기’ (fire extinguisher) on his own. Walked up the stream and went to 가재울근린공원. Carly went on the swings, and August and I got out the towel and started drying off the slides. August really got into this, and we did a very thorough job of drying the two slides next to each other. August also remembered the ghost who plays with us at playgrounds. He was just about to finally go down the slide, and had just told Carly to go on the one next to him, when he backed up and fell off the step. He fell and hit his chin on the step. Got a cut on his chin. Carly nursed him and we put a bandaid on it. He fell asleep nursing, but woke back up when we put him in the stroller. A bit later he talked about the ghost having blood on his cheek as well.

Got home and made a salmon sandwich and Carly’s bisque for lunch, and August and I shared that. He ate a lot today. He was then really sounding out syllables in the Hangeul magnets. He slept from 1:30 to 2:33, nursed, then fell back to sleep on the reading area until 3:27. He was high energy and really into reading when he woke up. He was doing the Hangeul app and really pronouncing words and excitedly talking about them. We then were writing English words on the paper, and he continued to excitedly sound things out and talk about them. I was trying to take him outside, but we ended up with him sitting/climbing on the rocking chair, more talking, and pretending to take care of animals. Eventually, we took one of the Duplo zookeepers with us, and he carried it as we took the stroller to the park. Oh, and we washed August’s chin and put a new bandaid on it. He held my thumb with one hand, while I held his other hand down. But he did pretty well in letting Carly clean it.

We went to 중평어린이공원, the small, and usually busy, park by the pink building. The last time here was when he bumped his head a couple times on the rocky toys sometime in the spring. The rocky toys were replaced with new ones that have more of a gliding motion to them. August got up on them a couple times, but not much. We then sat and had a snack (Larabar, crackers, cranberries) and read some books: A Pet for Pete and Biscuit Plays Ball. We also found some beads, and an older girl gave him a gummy bear. I sat on one of the rocky things and he came and climbed up on me. He said they were too high. We were talking like that for a few minutes when Carly showed up. They spent several minutes looking for more beads, as there were lots around.

We mentioned going for a walk and getting coffee for mama. August lit up, and said “What they have for Zinnie to drink?” Said we’d have to see. We walked southeast, past the hospital, and found yet another new place called Cafe Mare. August and Carly read the English printed on the wall why we waited. August was happy getting a poppyseed bread thing instead of a drink. We then walked east, down the street that August and I had come the other way on in the dark on Saturday. Showed Carly the Comma Cafe, etc. We went to 국화어린이공원 for a few minutes. This was the park where we first did letter drawing in the sand, and did C turns to O turns to Q. I had told August this as we walked by on Saturday. He remembered, as before we got him out of the stroller he said “want step P, step W…want to play that game.” Then, once we were in the sand I drew one letter and he stepped on it, then he drew in the sand “C turns to O turns to Q.” The mosquitos were coming out, and the bug spray I had put on didn’t seem to be helping much. Carly started the mosquito dance, brushing them away, and August really liked that.

We walked home. Outside the building we separated and they went on up and I went to Lucky Mart and got some groceries. When I got home they had been reading Winnie the Pooh. He ate a good amount of soup for dinner. He and I read Daniel Visits the Doctor and the Peppa Pig book. He looked through our list of books in iBooks, and surprised me by reading a lot of the titles, including ones we haven’t read for a long time, or haven’t read at all, like Whisper and Biscuit’s Snowy Day. Got the bath ready for him, but before going in he read the entire Hangeul puzzle next to the door.

During his bath he almost totally sat down – like 95% there. Played with the letters, and we put them on the side of the tub this time, encouraging him to sit. Putting them away for the night, he said “K said he’s going to watch a video of race cars going by.” A reference to me watching the Formula 1 race in the morning. He did some reading with Carly and they were talking about 17 something (reading for 17 seconds or 17 lines or something). When they finished he claimed they had done 18 and said “18 is just fine.” And gave a big thumbs up. While she showered he did more practice Hangeul pronunciation in the app.

I took him in to bed with a bunch of books. We read Kipper’s Birthday. He was looking tired, and I asked if he was, and he was saying “a smidgen” and “a smudgen” (got those from Carly). He got hyper, as usual, and we played a slime game, pretending slime was coming from different places (which started because he was making up names for different kinds of slime and asking where they were). Slime was coming out of the books and dripping on the ceiling to get on us. He calmed down and seemed worn out and tired when I left them at 9:50, but at 10:20 he was out, requesting a tissue. He silently played with blocks for awhile, stacking a wall of them, then we went back in at 10:40. We stood in the dark, looking at the clock for a few minutes. I was holding him and his forehead was against mine and I was holding his head with my hand. Very calm for a few minutes, then he said it was time for bed. I left him with Carly and thought he was asleep. Nope. He was back out 20 minutes later. I read some Pooh and he played with blocks. He was acting tired, lying on the floor, etc. Tried to get him to cuddle with me on the reading area while I sang but he got upset. Carly came and we took him back in bed. She refused to nurse for awhile and he got upset and cried. That finally did the trick, and he was asleep at 11:45.

Earlier, walking home, I had been carrying him and we talked about Carly going to work tomorrow, and we talked about the fun we would have at Children’s Grand Park. He was really excited by sidewalk chalk, etc. and gave me high fives. Carly speculated he couldn’t get to sleep because he was stressed about her going back to work – the last time he was up late like this was at the end of Chuseok break. Hard to tell for sure though, as his chin could have still been bothering him a bit (he was also pulling at his lip a lot and being messy when he ate, suggesting his teeth/jaw felt a bit funny), and he napped for about two hours.

Morning: 

Along the stream: 

Park: 

Home; 

After his nap: 

More talking: 

Park. New rocky toys: 

Looking for beads: 

Park #3:  

Home: 

95% sitting: 

Thumbs up: 

Bed: 

Back up and stacking blocks: