Category: Uncategorized

At 7:38 he walked out of the bedroom, holding Sophie. They nursed and read some Winnie the Pooh and probably others. Eventually out in the living room with me, and playing with the door magnets. He said “KB is a bank.” as he pointed to two magnets. Presumably he and Carly had talked about this.

With rain, and lots of it on the way, we headed outside at 8:40 to try to get some outside time before it hit. It had already started to drizzle. We went over to the playground, and August found a bead. Looked around for a couple minutes, but he decided it was too wet to play and wanted to go home. We talked him into walking to the center of the park, and he spotted the coffee machines. Carly got a tea, and they wanted it dispense that. Then spent quite awhile playing in the center of the park: pretended to play badminton, he did some dancing, pretended to feed us strange things and pretend animals then said things like “It tastes like pufferfish”, then had us spitting them out, and the spit moving, and also pretended there was slime on things. All was good until he started dancing and running and fell. Carly was carrying him home and I suggested we see the statue with the blue paint on it and that cheered him up a bit.

Went home and they nursed and read Bob Books. He typed on Carly’s computer, then looked at Google Maps on mine. He was pointing at different cities/countries and talking about transferring at one ‘stop’ and going to another ‘stop’. He really wants to go to Siberia, apparently. He stacked wooden blocks with Carly.

We all headed out again, going to Home Plus. He walked on the way over, not wanting to get in the stroller. At Home Plus we played the ‘wrong ingredients’ game (his invention), where I list the ingredients of the Larabar or banana bread and accidentally include wrong ingredients – like pufferfish. He was singing the ABC song and changing the end, one time saying “Next time won’t you sing with boring stuff.” And he spent some time smelling the candies. We paid and went up to the second floor so I could have them process the refund for the class that was cancelled. August was lying on the floor, and sat at a table with a couple other people. Carly got August in the stroller and headed home while I did that. Got the refund, and caught up with them as they entered Brownstone.

We were home about 1:30. He played a confusing game, which came up once before, called ‘Confusing Sophie’, in which we (he) say confusing things to confuse Sophie. But mainly it confuses me. I’m sure it came from something, but I don’t know what. He says things like “Dada and Zinnie go to the carpet when Sophie goes to work.” He got sleepy and slept from 2:20 to 3:50. I was in the parlor and didn’t hear him until 4:10, when he finished nursing. I colored and wrote ‘oops’ Ks (where we make mistakes) with him on the paper. He then wrote ‘kit’, starting to spell ‘kitten’ on his own. We started to play with play dough, then Carly and I switched. I did the dishes after Carly finished making tomato bisque and a pasta dish. They nursed and played around. Carly started to go “Ahh!” anytime August said the word ‘nurse’, and he found that funny.

We then went out for a short walk. Raining rather hard. Carly had put pants on August for the first time and they didn’t seem to bother him – earlier in the day he had opposed the long-sleeved shirt, but eventually gotten okay with it. But as we were leaving he kept grabbing at the back of his diaper and asking ‘what is it’. In the hallway, I checked, and there was one of his zoo magnets in his diaper. Not clear how it got there. When asked, he said he did it, but had seemed awfully surprised it was there. Anyway, got downstairs and put August in the stroller, pulling the cover on over him. That had worked for Carly coming home from Home Plus, and worked for awhile this time. We just about got to the bridge over the stream, and he decided he wanted out. Let him out on the bridge, and he played in puddles for a couple minutes, but quickly decide he wanted to go home. Got upset and wasn’t too happy with the ride home. Back in Brownstone we let him out, and he was happy again. Spent a few minutes tracing Hangeul and sounding it out on a sign.

At home, he wanted the iPad and played with the geometry app, then one of the shape apps. He ate vegetables that Carly put out, and just kept eating them. Ended up eating a ton of broccoli. He wanted to type, and we typed Korean words (mama, tree, etc.) together. A bit later he typed 나무 (tree) entirely on his own. We looked at Reading Rainbow, and watched part of a video on alligators. Oh, and he played some instruments on the newest music app. As Carly took him in to his bath, he took a pretend spider with him, saying “spider says we need to take off the clothes.” After his bath, he wanted to nurse on the bed, claiming he would fall asleep. He did not, and as he noted himself a bit later, looking at the clock, “It’s only 8:20.” He then played on the bed with me for quite awhile. We read Mr. Gumpy twice, read some Curious George, built a nest, played the sleeping elephant game, and he chanted “emergency equipment” as he marched around on the bed, and later chanted “equilateral triangle”. I left him and Carly about 9:15, and he was asleep about 9:30.

Morning:

Fixing the fence: 

Home: 

Pants: 

Walking in the rain: 

Home Plus: 

Taking a seat: 

Later walk: 

Home: 

He was up at 6:54 and very excited to see Carly when he found her. A bit later they skyped with Vivian, and skyped for an hour or so. Vivian was trying to ‘teach’ August his numbers. After that, they skyped with Chuck and Cherie. August was then on the iPad and working on subtraction in TodoMath. Carly mixed up spinach pancakes and started cooking them, then we switched and I finished the rest. August liked those for breakfast. I took a shower, then he was climbing on the couch around Carly this time. We were talking about me taking August out so Carly could do some work, but August got upset and clingy every time that was mentioned. They nursed and read Biscuit books, then spent a long time pretending to read the ‘beauty’ bag that our kimbap came in yesterday. At one point he joked “Mama is a giant pacific octopus…mama has a giant pacific octopus as a friend.” Another time they read some Winnie the Pooh. Made one attempt for a nap sometime before noon. Early, but he was wanting to nurse on the bed. That didn’t work, and he came out and was playing with the magnets. They had been talking about chicks for some reason, and he was saying “The chicks are spelling words…I’m helping the chicks spelling words.” Finally, he did go to sleep, and slept from roughly 12:20 to 2:20, but woke up once in there and nursed.

It was a hard wake up. Nursing on the couch he fell back to sleep and Carly had to wake him up. Used the iPad to wake him up. Later, he started playing with the balloons from yesterday, and we were throwing them around the parlor. I was trying to get him outside, but he wanted mama to go and was getting upset. Finally, we kind of just had to force it, and we left a little before 4. He calmed down for Mama Juice, though, and we got a blueberry one to share. The park was pretty packed, and we found a bench over near the bridge. He stayed in the backpack and drank the juice.

We walked to Golmaeul Neighborhood Park (골마을근린공원). This is a park to the southeast. I don’t think I’ve been there since my very first walk alone in Seoul, the first week we lived here. Along the way, he was singing and naming alphabets. Didn’t know if there was a playground, but there was. At the park he pretended to save a penguin that fell in the water and took care of it. He went on the slide and tried to claim “this is second”. He was then saying “twenty-fifth” etc. when it was only the third or fourth time. He was talking about letters: “F can swim. But G cannot swim.” And saving the ones that can’t swim and drying them off. We spent a lot of time writing Ks, and intentionally making mistakes, saying “Oops!” We played on the teeter totter a few times, and he stood on it. More slide and more writing, then we went up to a bench to have a snack.

We ate most of the food we had with us – pancake, crackers (putting mushrooms on them), Larabar, and apple – and he asked “What ‘mechanical arm’ start with?” I asked “Where did you learn mechanical arm??” And he said “Ocean!” Referring to the Oceans iPad app. He also wanted to spell ‘badger’, which I also think comes from an iPad app, but from quite awhile ago. Finally, we read the Biscuit books we brought, and then were making up nonsense Biscuit stories and telling them.

We left about 6:20 as it was getting dark. He was making up more languages, and using names from Figure in naming them, like “Wobblylead language”. We walked a little south, then along a road I like, past the park where we first traced letters in the sand (that had been our backup destination today). Found an Italian restaurant, and a coffee shop called Cafe Comma. We will be back. Also two new coffee shops on that street from when we were there last. I was dictating Skype messages to Carly, and August wanted to as well. He kept saying “What is it then?” to Carly, and Siri understood him most of the time. Confused why he was saying it though, so I asked him and he reminded me it was a line from the book Not a Box. He was singing, and being really loud by the hospital where it was quiet, so I was asking him to be quieter. A few minutes later, as we were along the busy street, he was then including some whispering in his songs. We stopped and picked up bread, and I let him pick something out, which he was very excited about.

We got home at 7, and he had a minute for craziness when he got out, running around the house and saying “Hang in museum, tummy, stroller, door, shoes, water…” and listing about ten other things. Played a little iPad, then typed on Carly’s computer and was changing fonts. He said “Zinnie’s favorite color is yellow.” On his iPad we read the patterns book and a new book called Blue in Skybrary (Reading Rainbow). Carly gave him a bath. On my iPad, he was looking at books in the iBooks store and said “maybe Zinnie can read it when he’s 77 billion years old.” He did some Korean in the Dabong app. At some point, he and Carly made a big game of smelling all the spices. He would carry each one over to me so I could smell. Eventually, we headed in on the bed. He said “Want to build you a nest…Want to take Sophie with us.” Apparently he had built a nest for Carly earlier. He was asleep a little before 10.

Climbing on the chair:

Mama Juice makes it better:

Park: 

Home: 

Spelling words with Carly: 

Back to being sad when he wakes up. 7:43. Wouldn’t let me hold him and just kept saying “No, dada.”. But when I stared reading Winnie the Pooh he came and sat next to me and put his head on my shoulder. He then laid on the floor and started singing the 1 2 3 song. Then on to Duplos.

Took care of a couple animals and I looked up images of whales as we were talking about fins. He then wanted to search for his funny words. I asked if he wanted to search for real animals and he replied. “No. funny words. Again.”

He spotted the magnetic letter set that we got from someone but had never used. Started making words, and I had to show him the silent ‘e’ rule (like in ‘can’ to ‘cane’). He liked that and said “More tricks.” I mentioned the YouTube video we’d seen before on this, and that led us to pulling up YouTube to find it. Found that, and ended up watching more spelling and grammar videos from the same channel, mostly. We also watched the “A makes ah” song, and when it got to U August interjected “U also makes U…” (as the video just says “U makes uh”).

I was getting ready to go and making our lunch. He wanted some peanut butter. Then back to more songs and words. He said “What letter ‘swim’ start with? ‘Swim’, ‘start’…same letter…’start’ begins with S.” Back on the magnet board he made up words: “That is a music group from sumanoo.” At some point he said the word “disgusting” and I was trying to remember where he learned that. Seems like we used it in the last couple days – perhaps in a book? Finally, before we left we read the Peppa Pig and Rain books on the iPad.

Left and went across to the fair going on in the park. There was a guy that makes ornaments out of geometric shapes. We looked at those, and he showed us how they can spin and make other shapes. He stayed in the backpack for the 3 stops north to Madeul. Lots of singing along the way. We bought two rolls of mystery kimbap in the subway. Unlike yesterday, he ate a lot today. Going through all the kimbap, much of the apple, etc. through the day. Walked past one park and ended up at 개나리어린이공원. Ate our lunch. He dropped some carrot and rice and at one point asked if he could pick it up. I said no, and he started to get sad. Turned out he wanted to clean up. I let him pick it all up so we could throw it away. Second roll of kimbap turned out to be slightly spicy. He wasn’t happy about that, but ate parts of it.

After eating, he climbed the wooden climbing thing onto the structure. Went down a slide a few times and sat at the top of the wall. He wanted to fix it, and I happened to have his fixing spoon. He sat there talking about the park he was making and naming it: “I built a climbing wall…I built a bench.” He walked cross the metal bridge. The first time he was telling himself “I’m safe, I’m safe”. A running joke today was telling me I stepped in slime/had it on my feet – that comes from silent E song, where it says “I can turn slim to slime”. And he was pretending to wash his feet and said: “I can’t wait to get the dirt off my feet.”

Also based on that song, he made up a game where we pretended to jump over letters. We then pretended to build a bench together. He was asking the name of the park and he decided to name it Slime Namu Park. The game of pretending to take care of hurt animals also continued apace today. Finally, he wanted to spell ‘exploding’ for some reason, and as we worked on it he said “it’s not just X by itself; its E X.”

Changed him and got walking for a nap. I know we have talked about points and lines in all of our shape stuff, but he surprised me when he started singing something like “One line makes a point, two points make a line…” He fell asleep and I found a place called Madeul Cafe. He slept from 1:52 to 3:05 and awoke with a squeal. His left arm had come out and fallen asleep.

We got walking, again passing through one park where he didn’t want to stop. Walked up some stairs to get to 종달새어린이공원 and found a pretty cool park. It had a big main structure, a little kids structure, and then a slide that went from an upper level, through the ground, and came out by the main structure. We had a bit of a snack, then he climbed up a rope ladder thing and went down slides a couple times. I went up and went down the long slide, then he wanted to go with me. Kind of fast, and we only did it once, but he was fine with it. We took a break for a snack. The park was now pretty full with loud older kids. One older boy was waving in August’s face and interrupting us as we tried to read Biscuit and I had to tell him to go away. August wasn’t amused by him at all, and ignored him like I’ve never seen him ignore someone – and August is pretty good at ignoring the ajummas when he wants to. We read two of the new Biscuit books, with August sounding out and identifying several words when I asked.

We were getting ready to go, when he decided to start playing on the small structure. He would go down the little slide, run around and do it again. He started counting them…“First, second, third…” He said all of them up to nine, then also knew tenth, eleventh… Helped him a bit after that, and we lost track in the mid-20s. He started going down the slide in different styles: One time he would curl up like he was in his nest and slide down sideways, another time he would put his hands up. That started after the second or third time he went down when he tripped and sort of went down the slide backwards but discovered he liked it. We had talked about why the slide was smaller than the others (for smaller kids) and a smaller girl walked close and he said “she’s not old enough to go on it.”

Eventually, a little after 4, we headed out. He was singing, and would finish a song and say “That is all my letters…What is that language called?” I would then make up a name of the language, which he would then change.

After the subway, we walked through the park again. There was loud music and dancing going on at the stage. Tried to stop, but he didn’t want to. Looked around a little at the booths, but he still wanted to leave. A person gave us a balloon on a stick, but he didn’t want it, so I held it. Then a clown mime started making a balloon thing for him. August wasn’t interested, but later liked the balloon grapes he made. As we walked out, yet another group of people tried to foist balloons on us. One handed August a flower made from balloons. Said thank you, then we got about a step and he dropped it saying “Want someone else to do it.” I picked it up, saying it was rude to reject a present.

We got home a couple minutes before Carly. He was just getting the iPad out when she came in. He totally ignored her for 3 or 4 minutes, even after she tried to say hi to him. Very odd. He did tracing – the 5 star thing – and eventually they did that together and nursed, then did Art Maker together. They would draw something, then he would fill it in with “slime” and laugh hysterically. I took over and did some art with him as well. At one point he randomly said “It’s quiet now, what do YOU say?”, from Boynton’s Moo Baa La La La. We hadn’t read that in a couple weeks, I think. So we read it a bit later.

He and I then read more Biscuit books and he made laps around me, climbing on the back of the couch, then off again, etc. He was looking at the pictures of the other Biscuit books and then making up names: “Biscuit goes to eat. Biscuit wants to try the teeter totter.” He wanted to type on my phone, and was doing that for awhile. He was doing fine, but when I talked about changing him he got sad and looked really tired. Carly agreed to nurse, and he said “no counting” – something he’s said a few times when he doesn’t want her to use the counting trick to limit the time he nurses. She gave him a bath, and he was still acting tired and wanted to nurse on bed. She tried to put him to sleep a little after 8, but it didn’t work.

Up, he played with
Duplos and the magnet letters/board on his own for quite awhile. I then got some books and he came into the bed with me. We read The Hungry Little Caterpillar for the first time in months, and ended up reading it 3 times. He then wanted a cocoon, so we made him a cocoon out of pillows and a blanket. We then took care of an injured slug and a worm. We read Hop on Pop once, then he was ready for sleep. He was asleep about 9:40.

Waking up:

Letter magnets: 

Park 1: 

Fixing the bench together: 

Some graffiti art: 

Walking: 

Park 2:  

Slide loop: 

Walking: 

Mime: 

Home: 

Pronouncing his word: 

Taking care of a worm: 

8:16. He came out and silently walked past me and to the Duplos. Stood there a couple minutes, then got the shark and wanted to take care of its dorsal fin. We took care of it and other animals. I asked about one “How’d it get hurt?” “It climbed up there and was sleeping (something) and fell.” “Up where?” “Up there. I point.” A bit later, he was saying the Korean name of that TVXQ group and throughout the day was saying congratulations and/or a couple of the other ones in Korean. We read the Peppa Pig book, which would happen several times today, then I took a shower. After that, we discovered ‘5 Star Mode’ in the tracing app – you trace a word 5 times, and it gets more difficult (by the end, you don’t see the outlines of the letters). He did 4 or 5 words that way (zookeeper, whale, rabbit, etc.). A couple times today he wanted to take care of me. The first time I had cut myself cooking (I think like the owl in the Animal Doctor app). At one point he went into the parlor and decided he’d move the rolling unit around. Finally, his big game of the morning involved pretending that I had spilled too many vitamins. It was a subtraction game, as I’d spill 19 and then tell him how many I had to pickup to get to 6. He was playing on the arm of the couch when this started, then eventually climbed on the back of it. At one point he curled up like an animal on the back of the couch.

We got going and got to class right at 11:50. The teacher learned and just gave August a high five at the beginning. Class was about bowling – learning to roll a ball underhand was the primary skill. August did well, but it was really loud in there, and August wanted me to pick him up a couple times. But he got into rolling the balls down the ramps, and then took a turn in the big bowling ball carts, with the teacher pushing him around. He got his treat and frog handstamp at the end, and bowed to the teacher.

We went straight to the bus and took the Nowon 15 north (which actually heads west) and in 40 minutes were in Uidong – the place August has been wanting to go. He first got excited about it because he realized the first sound (‘oo’ as in ‘moo’) of it is his favorite Hangeul character in the Hangeul app – as it makes a loud ‘oo’ sound he says sounds like a balloon. On the bus he was looking outside a lot, and he said of the people outside that they “get tired, go to a coffee shop and wake up.”

We got to Salbot Park a little before 1. We were last here August 26th of last year. So over a year.  That time, I was trying to teach him to say ‘pine needles’ and he was calling them ‘hoo-has’ – his word for noodles. Anyway, we ate lunch by the south playground, although he didn’t eat much. We then played on the play structure. He climbed up and went down the slides several times – mainly the tube one, but the spiral one once. Around 2 I simply mentioned taking a nap and he got cranky – clearly tired. Changed him, and he climbed on a little fence for a bit, then we got going for a walk.

He put his head down a couple times, but eventually started singing and never napped. He was also more interested in the address signs on buildings than napping. We walked southwest to 4.19 Park. It is a memorial park and cemetery commemorating the April Revolution of 1960 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Revolution). August stayed in the backpack the entire time, and did some singing and enjoyed some of the statues we looked at. We walked around there, then headed back to Salbot Park via the main streets this time, checking out some coffee shops and restaurants for later use.

On the way back he did a lot of singing and pretended to put insects on me. We got to Salbot and went to the north playground. He was also pretending to shake the trees to hard, like the Mummy Pig in the Peppa Pig book, and have leaves or needles fall on us. He continued to put things on me – mainly insects, but also a Hangeul M – and joked “There are chimpanzees in dada’s ear.” We played there and ate a little more – although he still wouldn’t eat the apple, sandwich, or quesadilla. He mainly played on a spider web sort of climbing thing, wanting to climb it like a girl that was there. He then played with the low faucets, like he did last time we were here: http://youtu.be/RF17QNhKUxc

A little after 4 we headed home. On the bus we were sounding out the signs in Korean, but intentionally getting them wrong so we could say “Oops!” That was his game, not mine. I asked “Are you hungry?” And he replied “No! I’m just tired.” After awhile he asked for his iPad. Said “Want to do the puzzles that dada doesn’t like. Music groups.”

We got home a few minutes before Carly, who had stopped at the store. When she got home we were all on the couch and he said “Mama’s home. Zinnie’s home. Dada’s home. Someone else is home.” Didn’t explain who the someone else was. Awhile nursing he was falling asleep, so I pretended to but insects on him, then got out the iPad to wake him up. Finally ate a good meal today as he had a good amount of stir fry. We read the Peppa Pig book a couple more times, Swirl by Swirl, and got a cheap Elmo book about going potty. It was funny though, as it doesn’t even use the words ‘pee’ or ‘poop’, nor does it show either of them. Very different from the books here in Korea. We played a bit more of the geometry app, and he learned what an isosceles triangle is. When I took him in to his bath, he started drawing them in the water. Played with the letters. At one point he started kneeling in the bath. But that hurt his knees (which he asked why about), so I suggested he sit. He almost did it a couple times. Seemed very close.

Carly took a shower, and we played on the bed. One of the things we had been doing on our walk to 4.19 Park was talking to the robot (in our heads…) August told it to go to sleep, and it “initiated sleep sequence” and made a shutting down noise. He would then repeatedly wake it up and put it back to sleep. He also needed to learn what ‘initiate’ and ‘sequence’ mean. Anyway, once in on the bed he started saying it, and would collapse on the bed and curl up as he made the noise. We read Peppa Pig again. Carly came in to put him to sleep, and I joked about stealing him from her. He then wanted me to steal him a couple times. He went straight to sleep about 8:10: 

Moving furniture: 

On the couch:

Teuni Teuni: 

Salbot Park – south: 

4.19 Park: 

Walking: 

Salbot Park – north: 

Home: 

He was up at 7:07. No crying at all. Silently walked to Duplos and stood by them, then lay his head on the rocking chair and simply said “Yellow” once. We then took care of the animals, and the E we had built from Duplos. It was hurt as well: “It was hiking and slipped and hurt its knee.” The hiking and slipping part he had taken from me telling him about breaking my arm. I had told Carly about the yellow comment in an email (it was the only word he had said for the first several minutes) and she had replied, commenting on it. I read the email to August and he said “Want to lie down.” He got out of the rocking chair, grabbed a yellow brick, and laid on the floor with the yellow brick.

A bit later, after banana bread and more playing, we skyped with my parents. They had had to have Celeste put to sleep after she was hit by a car a couple days ago. And it was my dad’s birthday. Not a very happy birthday. Talked to them for a half hour or so, then got ready to head to Children’s Grand Park. August was playing on the iPad and did the digital letter magnets app. He was thrilled when he discovered he could he could change the colors of the magnets by tapping them. He came to me asking why the Korean characters changed color. He was using the actual Korean names of a couple of the characters. Definitely at a tipping point where he’s about to start learning Korean that I don’t know.

Before we left, we spent some time playing xylophone together. I believe he had mentioned something about ‘tune’. Yesterday, he had made up a new tune while singing and I had commented on it. He had then wanted me to sing the tune, but was confused when I couldn’t remember it. He had brought back up the ‘tune’ incident again today. I was trying to explain that every song has a tune, and he wanted me to play the Are You Sleeping tune. I started playing, and then he played the “Brother John” notes. We played for awhile and he was trying to imitate me, getting the rhythm pretty good, if not the notes.

Got ready to go and was getting him in the backpack and told him I love him a ton of Qs. He said “Dada loves you a ton of Vs and Qs…and soy milk and Vegemil A and snakes.” Then “Why they put an A on that soymilk?…what is Vegemil C?” He then talked about how some soymilk was white and some brown and said the Vegemil was “kind of brown.”

Played Animal Doctor on the way down. More people watching him, but not as bad. We stopped and got kimbap and eggs. Grey and about 68. Could have eaten outside, but gave him a choice and he chose the children’s museum. We went up and ate in the family lounge. He was getting silly in there, pretending to have me eat things and throw up (earlier he’d done the same with the little birds as we crossed the pond area) and saying “Sorry”. I finally convinced him it was time to actually go play in the children’s museum. He looked across the (always) closed sky bridge thing and wanted to go to the construction site, so we walked around.

Got distracted by the third floor. Did some of the matching puzzle stuff in the cultural area, and sang a song on the fashion runway. Then did a lot of stomping and singing the ball thing activation pad. Got on the bike pedal one and really wanted to pedal, but he needs another inch or two on his legs. Then continued down the ramp to the construction area. No one else there, so after playing with some of the bricks (he was making a house for us), we got to play with the rolling cart and crane for the first time. Sent one basket of bricks up to the second floor, then went up and got them out. But most of the time was spent on the conveyor belt, putting bricks on it and sending them up to the second floor. Also did the magnetic tiles up there, and counted them in various ways (at his request).

Changed him and headed out, now a little after 1 and time for a nap. We played on the round bench for awhile, both walking around it. He did some crawling as well. He saw a baby and asked why it was crying and I said it was just making noise because it couldn’t talk yet. I had to explain that babies couldn’t talk, and he said “The babies don’t say I love you.”

We got walking, but it took him quite awhile to fall asleep. He fought it a bit: We now walking in a sort of circle start at the children’s museum and around the north side of the central path, then walk back and forth on the south side – our regular napping path this whole time. Anyway, I turned back part way and then walked a slightly different route back through the outdoor theater because there was a large group of school kids coming on the path. August picked up on the change of route and said something like “Done with that pattern” and tried to convince me to go to the coffee shop. I kept walking and he fell asleep about 5 minutes later.

He slept from 2:02 to 3:28. He woke up and wanted out. I asked if he wanted to do sidewalk chalk and he said yes. We headed over. Playground wasn’t as busy. We had a couple people join in, but just a little. He wanted me to write ‘Konkuk university’ in Korean. He was then pretending to write my name. He drew a sort of face, and also pizza, which he then drew a cranberry on. He had some energy and ran around in circles and was singing. He wanted me to spell ‘sand’ and we were sounding out the ‘a’. He sounded out the whole word on his own, and said “Ends in a D!” He was fully sounding out words on his own today, and Carly saw more of that at home. We were also counting syllables, and he would randomly ask how many syllables a word had. He was doing pretty well with counting 2 and 3 syllable words if I just pronounced them.

And at one point he asked me what color the chalk he was holding was: “What color that is?” I said “Pink”. He matter-of-factly replied “red”.

We left at 4. He was fine with going. We went to Costco, stopping to change him in the bathroom at Sangbong Station. He stayed in the backpack as we shopped. Found a little set of early reader Biscuit books and got those, then went downstairs for our cheese supplies. He got 3 samples: grapes, a smoked gouda cheese, and cheddar on toast. We paid, then got food for dinner in the restaurant part, and headed out. He was patient through the whole thing. We stopped by the statue for a snack. He tried to convince me to eat the calzone there, but settled for the last of the banana bread. He played around a bit, tracing and trying to pronounce the name of the statue in English and Korean.

We headed home, doing a lot of counting and singing numbers. He was having me sing our number song long past 30 – up to 120 at one point. His favorite sentence today was “What comes after that?”

Stood up on the subway, and when we left through the turnstiles he joked about “We sneak!” again. He had seen the little Larva cartoon again.

Got him at 6. He wanted to nurse and read with Carly and they opened the Biscuit books and read a little, but he didn’t nurse. He then did the Hangeul app for awhile, then he and I drew in Art Maker. He wanted to draw homes again, and I made a rectangle. He then divided it into quarters, and said “That a present. That’s not a home.”

He needed to be changed and when I tried to do so, he remembered he had yet to nurse. So Carly changed him, and he finally nursed at 7:15. A bit later Carly gave him a bath, and he was doing a lot of sounding out words. He came into the parlor and dropped his towel on the ground. He looked at the shape it made and said “What’s that shape? Maybe it’s a donkey.” He and I did some cleaning up of the Duplos and bricks, and made one tower that he knocked over.

He wanted pajamas on, then wanted to go in on the bed and make a nest, so we did that, and read Peppa Pig and the Fall Day again, and Harold and the Purple Crayon for the first time. He played in the nest, and Carly came in and he wanted to nurse. Looked really tired as I left at 9. But at 10 he suddenly came into the parlor, wanting a tissue. He sat with me for awhile. We typed out
some math problems (working on typing + and =), then read the Peppa Pig book again, and ended by reading Rain! He can read/recite most of the book now. Took him back in at a quarter past 10 and he was soon asleep.

Yellow boy and yellow brick:

Subway: 

Children’s museum: 

Almost: 

Building area: 

Outside and chalk: 

Chalk: 

Costco: 

He slept in until 8:32. Held him for a minute, then when he wanted down we took care of the animals. After awhile with that, I showed him a new iPad app – Animal Hospital, in which you get to take care of seven different animals. August’s range of knowledge was limited, so the animals we take care of either throw up or have a hurt leg. Playing this app for awhile helped increase that range. We ate banana bread for breakfast, then some special flakes later. We then skyped with my dad. My mom was out at dinner with some friends. We talked for about half an hour. August was playing Oceans on the ipad for awhile, but was then acting like an elephant, and then showed grampa how he takes care of the Duplo animals.

We got off Skype at 10, and turned on the debate just as the candidates came out. August was asking what they were doing. I watched the debate, and August played with the Hangeul and number magnets, and we made letters out of play dough. Thrice he picked up on things Clinton said: “what does business mean?” “What does ‘at the same time’ mean?” “facing…facing it. What way you going.” At some point he also said “business…closed for business…went to the aquarium and it was closed.” Not clear that that was entirely related to the debate. I’m not sure where he learned ‘closed for business’ though.

After the debate we got ready to head out only to realize it was raining. Using the umbrella and the sun cover we walked to Toys R Us. Looked around there. Got four boxes of chalk, and a Smurfs storybook/play mat thing that I’ll save for later. August looked at the animal figurines for awhile, and we helped straighten them out. He was hungry, so we went into the baby lounge and ate in there. Our game was counting syllables on his big long made up words. Changed him then back out in the main hall he climbed on the metal guide rail along the wall. We walked home. Still didn’t put on the full rain gear, but it was now raining harder, so got a bit more wet. August was acting a bit tired, and put down his head for awhile, but was then up and singing the rest of the way home.

At home he talked more about Uidong and said “transfer at Uidong. Maybe it’s the end of the line.” He went in the parlor and played by himself for a few minutes, then suddenly he came out and climbed up on the couch with me and cuddled a little. We ate some crackers, and were eating the crumbs. He was asking what kind each crumb was, and I said one was a cheese-it. He replied “Sorry dada, it was a wheat thin.” A bit later, out of nowhere, he got up, walked over and picked up the Q magnet on the other end of the couch and said “I love you Q.” And kissed it.

We headed out one more time to see if he might want a nap, but I didn’t really think so. Before we left I had to change him again. By the time we left it was getting pretty late for a nap, so I was kind of hoping no. I put the yellow cover on this time, and expected him to get upset, but he didn’t. Totally fine with it. We headed out, and decided to go to the library. At the library, we sat down on the benches in the hall to get him out and I said I needed to take off the cover first. He asked “How do we take off the cover?” We went in and started looking at the English books. He grabbed a Halloween book off the shelf and said “Zinnie’s read it on his own.” He then climbed up in a chair and started turning the pages. He was working on his whispering, and would say things loudly, then sometimes catch himself and whisper it. We got five or six books and headed upstairs and read four of them. We read Pooh and Eeyore, How to Massage Your Cat, and Quinn’s Q Book.

He wanted a snack, so we headed out, and sat next to the backpack and had some crackers. We then headed out. Given the choice of art museum play area or coffee shop, he chose the latter. We walked back through Brownstone and headed over across the stream and to Cafe Tolerance. Along the way he remembered taking care of animals yesterday and said “want to take care of the cybisters.” So we pretended to do that as we walked. August chose a grape juice pack and I got my macchiato. We sat in chairs looking out over the stream. He played on the iPad and I did some reading. He spilled just a little out of his juice pack and was sad when we couldn’t put it back in and sort of cuddled for a bit. Acting tired, but got over it. We spent the last few minutes there with him spinning in the chair and verbally doing the Cookie Monster Is it a word? game.

Left about 5:40, and he walked the entire way home. Just light rain. He stomped in the first puddle and said “Blasted puddle!” Then he started jumping in the puddles and saying “Ribbit!” He also stopped to watch the water going down a drain in the street. A very fun walk home, and took about 20 minutes.

We got home just after 6. They nursed. He then was playing on his own, drawing on the paper and talking to himself: “…go to work period.” (As if he was writing it) “Its NOT NOT NOT NOT a box. Now you’re wearing a box?” And for a couple minutes he just drew Ks. He went into the parlor and asked if we could read Not a Box and Swirl By Swirl. He read Not a Box with Carly, as she hadn’t yet read it. He was then typing things in the search field in iBooks, and seemed to be doing fine until it was bath time. He wasn’t happy about that at all, and it ended up being a quick bath. Did a little talking in bed, but not much. He said he wanted to nurse, but Carly didn’t know if he was ready. She nursed him though and he fell immediately to sleep, right at 8.

 

Toys R Us: 

Home: 

Library: 

Korean poop book: 

Q: 

To Cafe Tolerance: 

Cafe: 

Puddles: 

Home: 

7:13. Wanted to nurse, so a little sad, but not too bad. Sat in the parlor for a minute, then remembered the iPad and wanted to play. On the Hangeul app he was asking what the words like ‘onset’, ‘coda’, ‘vowels’, and ‘syllables’ meant. So I taught him what syllables were and he seemed to get it, and was thinking of words for us to count the syllables of: computer, spatula, Althauser, water bottle, clothes. We ate banana bread and the leftover eggs for breakfast, and tried to get going a little earlier as we had our long trip to the zoo. Brushed our teeth, and when we were done he said “I’ll put mine away. I’ll be back soon.” At one point he was playing with the door magnets and had one stuck to his face and didn’t realize it. We left a little after 9.

On the train down he was saying “Spiralshipper”. He made clear he was talking about the Not a Box book, so we got that out and read it. He was trying to say ‘pirate ship’. Got off at the park and began our walk. August started saying “Dada is cute. Dada is pretty. Dada is beautiful.” Based on the ‘You are pretty’ etc. sentences in the Hangeul app. We stopped and got a sandwich and a rice ball thing and his mango soy milk (he asked for it on the subway, I think), then walked into the zoo and ate in our usual blue-green light area by the giraffes. Ate a good lunch, then was playing around: “What is cockroaches in Espanol?” “Dada speak Korean.” He ran around the table and and was pretending to write things like “Dada is pretty” and saying “I wrote that for dada.”

We changed him in the changing rooms, and talked about how he had gotten upset the last time (or maybe time before) we had changed him there. He remembered the spot, and said something like “I’m okay now.”

We got walking, intending to go to the tropical birds (one place we haven’t gone) or to the water birds or the beast pavilion, as those were the two areas he talked about when we looked at the map on the subway. But he pointed over towards the Insectarium (he had also been pointing off in the direction of the Australian Pavilion – don’t know if he was simply remembering location, as we couldn’t really see it, or if he was spotting signs) and wanted to go there. We went in and he got out of the backpack and played with the button thing and we identified several insects. I realized that the video they have repeating on several screens through the insect house has a song called “Sex Bomb“ as the soundtrack. We got in to the room with the turtles and water bugs and spent a lot of time there: he played the pretending to take care of the animals game several times with the turtles and then the cybisters (the round water bugs), and really wanted to know the names of all the water bugs. We went upstairs and quickly went through the spider area. Oh, and he had really liked the ‘super worms’ downstairs and would mention them later. We went out back to the area with all the frogs and toads and whatnot and read some tank temperatures. He spotted a gnome statue in the pond with water coming out of its mouth and was wondering why it was doing that.

You come out on the side closest to the Australian Pavilion and he wanted to go see if it was open. It wasn’t. But we saw the cassowary and saw kangaroos sort of hopping. He also saw the signs that tell you not to feed the animals and talked about those a few times through the day. Went to the butterfly garden area and changed him, then got walking. He was singing, and sang the ABC song, ending with “…x, y, Zinnias…” Then said he was going to sing a song about beetle and zinnias. He did. He sang songs mentioning zinnias and cockroaches a lot after that.

He fell asleep and slept from 1:30 to 2:39. Went to the Cafe Tiamo near the entrance and ate in the food area there. Nicer seating than at the usual spot, and wasn’t busy. However, I was startled about 5 times as other families kept dropping metal bowls on the floor or having kids knock over chairs. Luckily, August slept through it.

Walked to the other end of the zoo and the South American Pavilion, which he had also mentioned a few times. He really liked the crocodiles, and wanted a snack. There was a good bench area by them, so we got down and watched the armadillos, then he ate a Larabar and almost all the banana bread we had. He ate a lot today. Then played at taking care of the crocodiles. Eventually got going, particularly after he was finding it tempting to pick at the flowers. Stopped at the coatis and took care of one of them, then headed out. He started to do a  lot of singing as we walked out of the building. He included ‘zinnias’ in a song a few times and asked “What was that song about?” I said “Sounds like it was about zinnias.” He said “Lots of Zinnias.” and laughed. Right outside he kept singing more songs, and was running around, literally running circles around me and singing songs about cockroaches and zinnias. He ended the ABC song with “next time won’t you cockroaches eating leaves.” Then had a series of them as we walked out of the zoo: “next time won’t you sing with…” elephants, cockroaches, ladybugs eating cockroaches, etc. He had me ask what the songs were about, and was adding things to his list of people going to work, saying things like “It’s about pampadoo, sopadoo, Gamle oct Havet, and Figure going to work. Lots of people going to work.” And laughing at his own joke again.

He had quite the audience of three older men watching him as he played iPad on the way home: Hangeul and Oceans, primarily. They were fine, although it was a little odd, although one time the guy who had gotten up from his seat to come and watched reached down and touched August’s hand as he was trying to play. I have him a ‘What the hell?’ look and said something like “Really?” One of the other guys told him not to touch August, although I didn’t understand the reason he said.

Anyway, we got home at 6. When August got in he immediately wanted to play iPad. A little addicted right now. But he wanted to play iPad instead of nursing, which has never happened, so there is that. He ate a good dinner, and a bit later Carly gave him a bath. He and I read Rain and Pete the Cat’s Old MacDonald. August read (or recited) much of the first several pages or Rain and did some singing of Old MacDonald. A little before 9 he wanted to play Figure, so we played that together for 15 minutes or so. We played with the animal magnets again, sorting them (or more like joking about putting the animals where they don’t belong). Went in on the bed for a little while, then he was ready to nurse. I left them a little before 10.

Morning:

Magnets: 

On his face: 

Walking: 

Zoo: 

 중현어린이공원

A pretty laid back Sunday. We went grocery shopping in the morning, and then all went for a walk to a playground in the late afternoon.

He was up at 7:40. Nursed, then was reading Winnie-the-Pooh with Carly. Nice that he is starting to get into that. He then came and played on the iPad with/next to me. He was playing the Hangeul app and wanted the ‘You’re the best’ sentence. Told him I didn’t remember what that one was, and he was able to tell me in Korean. Later, he told me I was wearing a box. That was a reference to the book Not a Box. He was singing songs and made ones up about sounds and fish: “all the sounds…parrot fish, yellow fish, butterfly fish…” Then making octopus jokes, and my favorite was when he said “Giant pacific octopus fish…that’s a silly joke.” I made scrambled eggs and broccoli for breakfast and we all ate together. While eating, a “gnat” was flying around and August told it to “Go away” He then joked about it going in my ear, which was a reference to when we were walking home from the playground yesterday and one actually tried to. He wanted to paint with Carly, so they did that while I took a shower.

We then got ready to head out and do our shopping. I asked August if he knew what grocery store we were going to, and he said “Lucky Mart”. It turned out that Carly had, in fact, told him. We did our grocery shopping, pretty uneventful except that I let him buy one of the pineapple jello things this time, and we came home.

He ate the pineapple thing, laughing much of the time just at the thought of it slurping, then I got out the paint brushes that he and I had bought up at Uijeongbu and we added to their painting. He got into the brush painting right away, and was painting Ks and triangles. He played the Korean app. Again. Then he was telling me “you’re the best, dada” and giving me a thumbs up, which is what the little monster in the picture for that one does in the app. After awhile I told him one more sentence, and when he was done with it he turned it off and put it away on the table without me saying anything. We went into the parlor and made a walking path for him out of blocks and the Teuni gym thing and the chairs. He was sort of swinging while sitting on the Teuni gym, then barely fell getting out of it. He did his “That’s a yes, yes” thing that he does when he’s hurt or something goes wrong. Think this was the first time I sort of got it on video. We were getting close to a nap, and when he suddenly wanted the ipad again we said no and he was a bit upset. But got him straightened out by suggesting we read Rain. We read that in bed, then talked about writing our own story. So that turned in to making a list of words in his language. He would type something, then tell me what it was in English and I would type that. We ended up with a long list. When he was ready for a nap he told me so, and I told him to call to mama, which he did: “Hey mama, I want to take a nap.” She came in and he napped from 1:50 to 3:15.

He had apparently woken up crying. I didn’t hear this because I was in the parlor and the door was closed because Carly had the air conditioner on. When he came in to me about 3:30 I asked him about his nap and if he had dreamed. He said yes, and when I asked him what he had dreamed about he said “About ‘No’”. I was surprised because he’s never acknowledged dreams before. But then Carly told me she had asked why he was crying and had asked if he had been dreaming about us saying “No” to something.

He and I spent a long time with one of the Duplo people as a vet, taking care of animals, then he typed more words on his list. He did the putting magnets in the xylophone game, and at one point said “I took them out. There’s no many left, okay?”

We headed out for a walk, August in the stroller. Got coffee and a pineapple juice for August at Mama Juice. We had seen people walking across the new rail-to-trail bridge across the river, so thought we would check it out. However, the park area on this end was still closed, so we couldn’t cross the river. We went to the children’s park near there instead. He and Carly immediately started finding the beads, and there were tons of them. So did quite a bit of that. He put them in Carly’s pocket, and a bunch more in the stroller. Then went and played on the play structure. Climbed up a couple of bar ladders and went down the slide, then I played the Jaws ‘duh-duh’ game again – like many months ago when Carly was last there – and he loved that. And after we changed him he went up the short actual climbing wall a couple times with our help. And he yelled into the bottom of the slide and said it was an echo on his own. After climbing he wandered off to the foot path, so we all tried that. We then saw five cats hanging out in the bench area, so watched them, then back to the walking path, then playing on the exercise equipment. August could do the spinning back and forth one by himself. We then went back to collecting beads for awhile. August found a piece of broken porcelain and was excited, saying “want to throw glass” and went and threw it in the bushes. We’ve done that a few times when we find glass and there are no garbage cans around.

It was 6 or so and we were hungry, so we headed home. We ate and he played some iPad. At one point he went to the refrigerator and saw the pear and prune juice and wanted to try that, and liked it. He was making octopus jokes, and said “giant pacific octoseven.” He played with the Hangeul magnets, making up things for us to pronounce. Carly gave him a bath, then switched and I played with him while he was in the bath. Got out and when he went out to the living room he immediately wanted the iPad and was upset. I reminded him that the plan was to do a puzzle or read books. They nursed and did some more reading. I made another loaf of banana bread. At some point, they got out some books to read, and one was the Junior Picture Dictionary, which we’ve had for a long time but haven’t much looked at. He was looking at the animals other things and saying “Let’s try (look for) this sometime”. Then, talking about us reading, he said “This is two people reading the book.” While Carly took a shower we ended up in the changing room playing with the animal magnet set. We took all the magnets off, and tried to put them in the logical spot on the zoo board. A good sorting activity. One of the magnets is a fox, and we put it in a cave. He then wanted to go in on the bed and we made a cave and he pretended to be a baby fox, sleeping. He wanted a photo of him going in the cave, but also wanted to take it. He did end up holding the phone and taking photos of the sheets and other things. Carly came in, and he was asleep by 10:10.

Tape measure: 

To the park: 

Park. Looking for beads:

Spiral: 

Home: 

He got up at 7:30, same time as me. Lot of nursing through the morning. Soon as he was done nursing he wanted the iPad and did the Hangeul app and then Oceans. We looked up photos on my iPad of the animals. Carly got him Cheerios for breakfast, and was trying to get him to use the spoon himself, but he didn’t want to do that. Then had some banana bread. He and Carly then skyped with Chuck and Cherie in Utah, after which he was cuddling with Carly on the reading area. Got him his vitamins and he remembered getting 7 yesterday, as I had dropped one and he found it later.

We headed to Dream Forest. On the bus, as we went under the underpass, he said “That was a kind of tunnel.” We walked up towards the playground and he wanted to get out of the backpack half way. He then sat down and played on the walkway, looking for bugs. He noticed people walking by: “two people went that way.” Busy at the playground. We sat in the shade and ate lunch. He sat in the corner between the post and the backpack, then in sort of a nest between Carly and me, before sitting in her lap. We did a little playing on the playground. Went up the stairs and tried to go on the shaky bridge, but it was busy and he never went. Back down I noted it had opened up and asked if he wanted to go back up: “Nah. It will be crowded.”

We went up and changed him, and they nursed up in the place with the metal chairs. We went for a walk on the trail along the hillside. He slept from 1:56 to 3:30 in Cafe Dream. He started to wake up a couple times but fell back to sleep. Changed him again, then we walked home around 4:20, leaving through the north entrance and walking over across the stream close to APIS and then home. I asked how he was doing, and he replied by joking that Smokey was mama. Had fun with that for awhile. Talking about Smokey reminded him of trees, and he was asking for the names of trees. He was also apologizing to pretend snails we were scaring, saying “sorry double huh snail.”

Along the way, we found a big playground in an apartment complex. We played there awhile, mainly with Carly going up on the structure with him and going down a slide a couple times. As he was climbing with her he said “thanks for talking to me…this is helpful.” He then climbed the big climbing wall a couple times with my help, and played at the top of it. Before going on the wall for the firs time he said “that makes Zinnie’s a little nervous, but not much.” Before we left he wanted to keep playing and I offered him one more climb and asked “is that a deal?” He replied “No. That’s not a deal.”

As we walked we saw a shirt: The Passion Ate Youth. Not sure if that was intentional or not. He was singing and added to his “…went to work and got some money and ate some food“ line by adding “and spilled some milk”.

At home he was singing, pretending to play the xylophone, saying the notes he was playing “1, 1, 3, 4…low, high, low, high, low, high…those are the notes.” We ate some dinner, then were playing on the iPad. He and I put a bunch of his made-up words in the tracing app for him to trace. He was playing with the new music app when Carly was taking a shower and it froze. He went and played with the magnets for awhile, but was then upset when it was still resetting. I had to keep him from going in the bathroom and he was still upset when she got out. He was also doing some more dancing to the Aphex Twins while he was playing the iPad. I gave him a bath. He was counting the digits in large numbers, and working on saying them (he has hundreds down, but has troubles with thousands), and counted to 30 on his own. Later, with Carly, he counted to 37. He also stuck letters to himself in the bath. Back in the parlor he wore his ducky towel on his back and curled up on the floor like a nautilus. He went to sleep about 9:30.

Morning: 

Dream Forest: 

Walking: 

Playground: 

Walking again: 

Home: 

Tracing his made up words: 

August’s choice today, and after listing several options for him, he chose Dobongsan. He was up nice and early, at 6:30. Nursed, and Carly tried to put him back to bed but then he was up. Played on the iPad and was fine saying goodbye to Carly when she left for work. We ate banana bread for breakfast and played with Duplos. Tried the new Discover Music app on my iPad, which is kind of an introduction classical music, and August liked that. He particularly liked the one that has 4 birds singing and introduces you to the 4 sections of a choir. When playing the piano, he joked about breaking it, but said that the guy in the app would be sad: “want to broke them…that guy will be sad.” When I changed him, he then just lay on the changing pad and was singing, then explaining the songs: “what that song about…go to work and get some money and have fun…” And got silly: “like the giving tree has apples…” “No no dada, it’s shambayapayo.” “How you doing quackamcnickerton?” He played with the magnets on the door and did more singing, then randomly said “arpeggiator”, which is a setting in Figure that we’ve never really figured out.

We headed out, and while walking he was doing nonsense math: “Double ㄱ plus double ㅁ equals…” And he was working on counting big numbers: “96, 97, 98, 99…200, 300…1500, 1600…” At the train he wanted to stay in the backpack. We saw a baby sitting down, and he kept asking it “How you doing baby?” He was also asking the train’s name in Korean, and pretending to save a baby penguin, a la Curious George.

We stopped and got a couple of rice burgers in the station, then went into the Iris Garden. We went to our usual log bench area, then had to go right to the changing room to change him. Back to the log bench and we ate lunch. When we were done, he started playing with the spoon from our rice burgers, pretending it was a tool. He was working on the bench and tree: “I’m building this park. This is a new bench.” “This park is new.” A smaller boy came over and totally watched him for awhile. A woman came by and for some reason wanted August to see a pigeon.  August turned to her and sort of pointed to her, saying “That’s not right, that’s not right…The woman said the wrong thing.” At least she couldn’t understand him.

He was getting tired, so we went and got water, then got in the backpack. Tried identifying some flowers we saw earlier, but the app still wasn’t working. Got walking and meandered around the little streets west of the main street, where all the little shops and restaurants are. Had planned to go to a coffee shop we hadn’t been in before, but when it took longer for him to fall asleep I headed to Cafe 553, right by the stream we play in. He slept from 12:49 to 2:29. A long nap.

He woke up and we walked around the stream area. He was chanting and pointing “70 zero right here, 70 zero right there…80 zero in the stream…” And he said “I’m a ladybug eating a beetle.” But he wasn’t ready to get out, and didn’t want to play in the stream. On his own he said “Next time we come back we can play in the stream. Maybe. That’s a deal like that.” I had mentioned we could go to a new park instead, and he liked that idea. When given a choice between walking along the stream or streets, he chose the latter. We made our way to the park, him singing much of the time. The park is 누원어린이공원, and is near where the Dobong stream meets the river at Suraksan.

The park had a really nice play structure. He started by climbing on the little fence around the sand area. Eventually we went to the slightly angled climbing wall. I went up first and he followed. He got stuck the first time, and I had to go help. Once he got to the top he was really excited, and kept talking about the yellow one where he got stuck. And then was pretending to eat bugs. At one point I asked what he was, and he said an elephant. That climbs. And eat bugs. He climbed up it twice after that. The second time he paused halfway and rested his chin on the yellow grip thing and pretended to eat bugs.

We went and played in the sand a bit. August used the rice burger spoon to pretend he was feeding me ice cream, and then we were dropping it everywhere – a repeat of that game at home. We also found a few beads. Back on the play structure, we went down the blue slides together a couple times. We ended by climbing over the play structure to the other end, where he was disappointed that I wouldn’t let him go on the shaky bridge. It was up high, 5+ feet, with big holes in it. Eventually he settled for climbing on the rope ladder part. He kept pointing from the rope ladder to the rope shaky bridge, and pointing out that one went horizontal and the other was vertical. He climbed up the ladder to where he could put his hands on the platform, but never tried to climb up on it.

Before we left we went and looked in at the library next door. Something to check out if we are in the area when it is cooler. We walked across the river to Suraksan Station and headed home.

Got here at 5:15. Carly home 10 minutes later. They nursed, then did Hangeul and some Dragonbox Numbers puzzles on the iPad. Ate stir fry for dinner and played in the living room. He wanted me to use the Cookie Monster voice for things, and played with the magnets. Carly went to take a shower. August asked me for a paper towel – a wet one – because he wanted to clean. Nothing in particular. He just went around rubbing things. Back on the iPad, he played Math Tree with Carly. Definitely getting the math now, and not just randomly choosing answers. He played some Figure, then back on the Hangeul app (which will disappear soon…) with Carly he told her “Good job trying mama; it actually goes there.” After she got one wrong.

Carly gave him a bath, then he did play dough letters with me. We switched, and he did play dough with Carly. She made a snake and had it dancing. I had put an Aphex Twins album on, and August liked that, asking what the sounds were (I think they reminded him of sounds in Figure). He started dancing around naked to the music, like the snake.

We did a little nest time before he went to sleep. They were both asleep about 10.

Don’t do a lot of ‘on this day’ things, but noted them today: Last year at this time we were at the palace with chuck and Cherie and August did yoga with her. And there was the great pineapple/bloody lip/tears/snot incident. Two years ago, we were at the other palaces with my parents. And 4 years ago my parents and brother were about to leave for Germany.

Morning:

Iris Garden: 

Park: 

Home: