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I was scheduled to hike more of the Seoul Trail today, but Derek rescheduled to Saturday. So we headed to Children’s Grand Park instead. August was up really early, at 5:45, so we went after his nap.

Up at 5:45, that meant he only slept a little over 7 and a half hours. They nursed for quite awhile, then he and I rebuilt the new zoo. They skyped with Cherie at one point. He and Carly also played with the play dough, making long snakes of marble play dough. Besides that there was a lot of nursing, some piano keys, and some iPad – Marco Polo Ocean in particular. Thought he would take an early nap, and it was a bit early, but not much. He went to sleep at 10:45 and only slept 40 minutes or maybe a bit longer, getting up at 11:25.

They nursed and we got ready to go. At one point he decided to roll up the rug and pull it off the pad in the parlor. Since we weren’t doing a nap at the park, I figured we could try going sans big backpack, so packed up the grey one. Carly got to experience the touchy people on the subway, as on the way down two people sitting next to them reached over and touched August on the face. The second one was a guy smelling of soju. He was aggressive, leaning right over so his head was just a couple inches from Carly’s. Carly and I both reached in and told him to back off and he did. That didn’t stop them from having fun, and August was talking about Carly teaching someone: “Mama is teaching Z O O.”

At Children’s Grand Park, the first bit of big news was that the escalator was open. Only took two years! August was excited when he saw that. As he walked into the zoo, he was talking about going 10 – a reference to the speed limit signs for bicyclists we saw at Ttukseom yesterday. He then walked up to one of the poles with a speaker at the top and held up his arm towards it – he was pretending to use a phone to identify the song using Shazam, which is what I do when he asks me what a song is there. And as we walked across to the children’s museum, he stopped to look at some berries and got a little poked. Carly was telling him the berries were poisonous, so he said “The poison is not pokey, but the branches are pokey.”

At the museum, I handed him the membership card and we got to see him walk up and grab the ticket, then run across the lobby to hand it to the ticket taker. Once inside, we played in the nature area for a bit, sorting the fruits and veggies by seasons – the most he’s played with that one. I then sat down and read and they kept playing, ending up at the light rods and blocks. He was helping another boy at the blocks at one point, handing him pieces. But later, at the rods, it seems the boy was being pushy. August got upset, and Carly wasn’t sure what had happened and thought he might have bumped his head. But when he calmed down he seemed to indicate it was the other boy.

The three of us ended up in the little design room. They were mainly playing together, so I did more reading. They made shapes with the floor magnets, spelling hi and making shapes. They did the cotton ball things together, and August played with the window magnets, finding matching halves and putting them together and singing to himself as he did so. He did that for quite awhile. Oh, and Carly did the weaving thing around the giant coffee mug, making her officially the first person to ever play with that one.

From there, we headed downstairs. He jumped a little, and played with the magnets, then headed in to the blue blocks. He and Carly made a couple of good towers/sculptures. Then he needed to be changed, so I took him up to the second floor and changed him. Carly sat and waited for us. When we were done, he wanted to play upstairs. I told him we needed to go get mama first. We went back down, and there is a spot from the ramp where we could see her. I had him yell across to her “Mama! Come play upstairs!”

Up on the second floor, we played in the space area. He first went to the running one, where you see how many steps you can make in five seconds of running. Not entire sure what that teaches you about space. Anyway, he understood the game, and did a dozen or so rounds on it, getting up to 22. From there, we went to the one where you jump and see how long you can stay in the air. We set a record by cheating – me holding him by the hands as he jumped. Actually kind of tricky, as you can’t make the jump too long. Carly had gone to the bathroom, and I turned around to look at another machine. Turned back around to find him gone. He had gone into the spaceship area on his own to play with the buttons. Carly came back and was standing near him as he played with the switches and buttons. He got upset again, and we didn’t see why. Another woman made the two boys controlling the seat give him a turn, but then he didn’t want to get on. Carly thought he was upset because he wanted to do that. My guess is that he was reaching over in their area for some of the switches and one of the boys pushed his hand away like last time we were in there.

From there I mentioned the food area, and he wanted to go up there. So up the ramp we went. He vacuumed, played with the food, and poured tea for him and Carly to drink. They also drove the car together for a few minutes. We were getting hungry, so convinced him we should head out for a snack. He wanted to eat a snack by the playground. Carly thought we should go ahead and get more food, as it was close to 5. So after showing Carly the cat place (we saw one cat in the bushes) and landscaping, we continued on towards the burger place, only to find it closed. We then walked across to the Korean/burger place by the seals. Carly got fried rice and we got a chicken burger and a shrimp burger. August mainly ate shrimp burger and the peas from the fried rice. I told him about how he stole a straw from there for the first time, about 2 years ago. He asked what he did with it, and I said he chewed on it. He thought that was funny, so we got a straw and he tried chewing on it for a few seconds.We then used it for our soy milk.

We ate outside, then needed to change him again. Took him in to the bathrooms there and changed him – again, on the same changing pad I first changed him at at Children’s Grand Park two years ago when we were there with my parents (this comes after we were at Starbucks on Saturday where I think I first changed him outside the house when my parents visited 2 years ago).

Anyway, we then went and saw the seals and sea lion, upstairs as the downstairs was closed. August liked counting the spotted seals, and then was asking what spotted seal and sea lion and fur seal were in Korean. He then spent a lot of time tracing the Hangeul on the wooden signs, and learned what ‘South Amerca’ was in Korean. He then needed to be changed again, so Carly did it. She noted that we spent about an hour just looking at seals and changing him.

When Carly went to carry him once in the children’s museum, he said “Mama’s wimpy” and kept joking about that every time she would carry him. It is what she says to explain when why she has to put him down after awhile.

We headed out, August doing a fair amount of walking today. Took the subway home, and they sat again. Didn’t take his iPad today, so he drew in Paper on her phone and they just played around. He was already looking pretty tired when Carly took him in to change him that last time. Got home and Carly got his bath ready and I gave him a bath. Letters and numbers as usual. After he got out they went in and he went to sleep pretty quickly, about 7:40.

Morning:

Subway: 

Children’s museum: 

Selfie on the train: 

He was up at 8:25. He walked into the parlor and said “Mama’s in here.” Startling her, as she didn’t know he was there. Saw her computer and said “Want a document.” Then “Good…the diaper’s good” when she felt it. But then as they nursed he leaked on reading area. Talked about it being ‘sticky’ and ‘moist’ when they went back. Spent some time stacking blocks, then doing Duplo Art in a box. He asked me what it was, and when I said I didn’t know, he did his ‘giving me ideas’ thing and stuck ideas in my head. I said it looked like a ‘Y’ and he liked that. They skyped with Vivian and Cassie, then he and I did the piano keys. He then made designs out of crayons, and was giving them long crazy names. Then he and Carly played with the farm sticker set for a long time. He was having the animals cuddle in the pond, and they had the farmers planting seeds. We skyped with my parents for a few minutes, after which he randomly said “Kitty cat, where do you color?” They nursed again and read Froggy’s Day with Dad, then he played around pretending to wake up, and was making up funny animal names, like “Allima-Ks” instead of ‘alligators’.

We headed out for Ttukseom Resort at 11, leaving Carly to work from home. When we got off the train, I asked him how he was doing, as he walked beside me. He said “Not good” and when I asked why he said “Just soosadoo good.” He first wanted to go to the J-Bug building, and once there he wanted to play in the elevator. So we went up and down a few times, him pushing all the buttons, and investigating what we found on each floor – fish, the library, etc. We then went out next to the western playground and sat and ate lunch. As we got close to the playground, he remembered pinching his finger there climbing on the play structure. That was a few months ago. Played on the play structure a bit, going down the covered slides a couple of times.

We then walked over to the east playgrounds, and spent the next hour playing in the sand. Made a mountain, and found some of the beads, which he played with, putting them in nests on the mountain: “I build a nest so bugs can go in there and sleep.” We also watched and ant nest, and used our stick to do some writing in the sand. There was a woman and her 2-year old son there. She said she has seen me at Children’s Grand Park. I asked her where all the beads come from, and she said they’re from little toy guns – like BB guns. So the mystery has moved to these guns, which we’ve never seen anyone playing with in all these years. Before they left, she gave August a gummy worm. So August got his first real candy. It was a lemon lime flavored one, and it is safe to say he liked it. Really intent while eating it, and also called it a squishy worm.

It was supposed to rain today, but the clouds were slow rolling in. Had been thinking that we’d go to a coffee shop when it hit, so had been holding off on it. Around 2 though they finally started to approach, and August was acting a little sleepy, despite the late sleep in. So we got walking, and as we left the park the first big cloud went in front of the sun. August liked watching that. We walked some new streets to the east of the station, finding a few coffee shops and restaurants I marked on the map for later. He had the hiccups, but was clearly tired. Every few minutes he was asking me, in a sort of slurred, sleepy voice, “What stop this is?” Finally, he fell asleep. Went to one of the coffee shops we had spotted as the wind picked up. Called ‘at 856 Coffee Roastery’ (yes, with the ‘at’ at the beginning). He slept from 2:40 to 3:47. The wind got quite strong, but no rain. But Carly said it poured up here. When he woke up, he sat and played his shape app a bit, then wanted to do art and use the geometry app on my iPad. He was making big polygons, and said “Hepta means seven. Deca means ten.” as he made a heptadecagon (17 sides).

About 4:30 we headed home. As we exited in Hagye we smelled the rain, and August said “It smells like French fries.” Got home and they nursed. Then nursed some more. Then some more. She wanted to get out of the house and go to the store. Finally she convinced him to go. They came back with sweet potatoes and more bread. We had sandwiches for dinner, then he did a bit more of the sorting game. We then built a new zoo while Carly took a shower. This time, we used the cardboard bricks for exterior walls, allowing us to make a larger zoo, and individual exhibits for animals. He was really getting into what food each animal eats, and asking what would happen if you put one animal in with another. I had New Order playing on the stereo, and he would occasionally dance a bit as he played in the zoo.

Carly was teaching him ‘why’ today. Until now he asks things like “What is the dark about?” But is now working on asking “Why is it dark?”

They first tried going to bed around 9, as they were both tired. He was about asleep, but then popped up and came out, asking for the pink water. We read Bob Books for awhile, then he wanted to play with Duplos. I told him the choices were either reading with me or nursing and going to sleep with mama. He chose the latter. Carly said something about not wanting to break dada’s rule, which he picked up on, asking “What is break the rule?” several times.

9:40 or a bit after he suddenly showed up again (I was trying to watch Inglorious Bastards with my headphones in) asking to have his diaper changed. I took him and changed his diaper, then we read some stories on the iPad. We read most of the Paddington picture book (still has more words in it than most books we read) before he headed back in about 10:15 and fell asleep.

Y:

Playground 1: 

Playground 2: 

Gummy worm: 

Feather: 

Coffee shop: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

He was up at 7:57, saying “Mama’s not going to work.” They nursed and read a few books from school, the dinosaur book, etc. A little bit later, I found a peanut butter stain on the play area and washed it. August said “Maybe it is Ligo…or Justin’s.” He’s already used the name of the other brand we used with me, but I asked what the name of the crunchy kind was and he said “MaraNatha”. He knows these from the times he’s eaten peanut butter with a spoon and he will ask what each kind tastes like, and want to mix them.

They did some more nursing and reading, then I went and played with him. We read part of a Bob Book, then he wanted me to read books in his funny language, so did that. We did the piano keys together, then he left and went in to find Carly. They pretended to talk on the phone. Back with me, we tried to skype with my parents but they weren’t online. We put stickers on the paper, emptying a couple of sheets. He made a big shape out of square stickers. Then he did a little drawing of shapes, and then some block art out of the blue counting blocks and some random blocks I found. Then he went into the changing room and put the floor tiles back together. He remembered the shapes app, so I got that. Started it up, and he reminded me to change it to Spanish. A little more nursing with Carly, then he was doing the Elmo alphabet app and a couple others.

We all went to the pink building. He helped me with the shopping, and wanted to get another slurpy thing. I think he got peach again. At the end, we were waiting near the front and he saw hair band things with colorful beads on them and was looking at those, and working out how to put them back on the hangers. Then he found the bracelets and was trying them on. He really liked those, and asked if we could get them, but when I said not today he put them back. Oh, and he talked to the bracelet. We stopped on the way home and Carly got a baguette at Mainz Dom. We tried that when we got home and had little sandwiches.

He took a nap from 12:45 to 2:09, and got up to nurse after 40 minutes. After he was up, we read Frog on a Log. Carly had made peanut sauce, and made her veggie rolls, making a small Zinnie roll. We ate those, and he ate most of his roll and dipped some carrot and cucumber worms in the peanut sauce. She also made sweet potato fries, and we dipped that in. We had got also got cranberries at the store, and I was saying it with a hard ‘cr’ at the beginning. He picked up on that, and was repeating it. We were going to go outside, but before we did, he wanted to do a robot clean up of the crayons on the floor. He was then talking about the ‘student’ game with Carly, where he helps with her seating charts, and talked about “P z o o is my student.”

We headed out, with the stroller, and got drinks at Mama Juice. We learned we could order his without sugar, so he had a banana one, and drank it all. We walked north, then got down along the stream and walked up almost to Sanggye. Saw a dead frog and a living moth like the one we saw crawling at the youth center along the way. And he remembered the broken tile piece, so we had to keep our eyes out for that and found it. We went up to walk along the street on the way back, and spotted a coffee shop across the street to check out. Went across, and August stopped on the bridge to see the duck. He sort of stood up on the edge, with Carly behind him, and was then making fun of her fear of him falling, saying  “Jump jump jump fall” and “pretend fall”.

We walked back parallel to the stream then turned off towards Toys R Us and went to Lily Children’s Park. Played on the play structure, climbing and going down slides. We sort of took turns with him and each did some reading. It started to rain, not too hard, and we sheltered under the play structure for a minute. We saw the exercise equipment seemingly moving on its own and he liked that. Carly said it was a ghost, so then we were shaking the sitting toys, four at once, and he said it was a ghost. He then wanted the ghost to practice the climbing wall with him, so we did that for several minutes. It was getting towards dinner time – just before 6 – so we headed home. On the way home he was talking to every car and tree and bush we saw. Carly helped out with the replying.

At home he wanted the shapes app, so he did that. We ate dinner, more of the rolls and peanut sauce. He ate quite a bit. He and I did some Duplo art. He pulled the green base to the middle of the carpet and we did it there. He wanted me to work with him. At first the colors were all random, but then he had the idea of sorting them by color, switching them so there was a section of blue, etc. We did that, and he said “Sorting is fun.” We then kept adding on to it.

Carly gave him a bath, and then while changing him he was singing Five Little Monkeys, but changed it to “Four little dragonflies jumping on the slide…” Carly finished making up the rest: “Four little dragonflies jumping on the slide, one fell off and broke her hide, mama called the doctor and the doctor replied, “No more dragonflies jumping on the slide.”

Back in the parlor, he sort of finished the Duplo art. He started talking about how there were pieces missing along the edge – “Supposed to be…” and counting them. He talked about this quite a bit, walking around the room and really getting into it. After that, he and Carly went in to bed. He was supposedly tired, but they were back out pretty soon. He did a little more playing, then went in and was asleep about 9:15. We played a little nest in the bed before he went to sleep. We were playing with GG. He didn’t want to share his nest though, and took her over to my side of the bed to sleep, and wanted me to go sleep there as well.

Morning: 

Store: 

On the walk. Pointing out the broken piece: 

Park: 

Home: 

He turned two and a half today! Sort of celebrated by letting him pick something out at the bakery when we stopped for bread. He chose mini cheese balls.

He woke up at 7:10. I was still in bed, and at first he was upset Carly wasn’t there. Told him she was out in the parlor though and he went and found her. The nursed, then when he came out to the living room we worked on piano keys. He saw the play dough marbles and got them and said “remember those from yesterday.” Skyped with Cassie and Vivian, then with Cherie. Carly and August did some coloring while skyping. Carly then got us all doing some cleaning, and August was really into picking up the Duplos and vacuuming. In fact, he went back to both several times on his own. He was having a tough morning – clearly hadn’t had enough sleep, and kept wanting to go in the bedroom with Carly to nurse. One time we went in and played in his nest with GG. He joked about feeding worms to GG, which she spit out, so I taught him to feed GG by lifting her up to the leaves on the tree that Carly made. He really liked that. They did some more reading of books she brought from school, then he suddenly fell asleep and slept for a long time – from 11:30 to 1:48.

They nursed on the reading area, then August was asking what letter words start with. Started out normal, but then he started making up ‘letters’ from his made up language. Carly would ask him “What does ‘dada’ start with?” and his answer would be ten seconds long. Very funny. He was then typing on her computer, and plugging in the charging cable.

We decided to hop the 1141 bus to Eunhang Junction and get food at Subway and walk to a playground. That plan went well until we found that Subway was now something new. A burger sort of place. So we walked through the main street there, finding everything except a Subway, and hopped another bus to Nowon. There, we went to Subway, where August was excited about getting a tuna sandwich with me and having cucumbers on it. Got sandwiches and walked down to 소망어린이공원 (Hope Children’s Park) and ate our sandwiches on a covered bench. August then wandered over to the play structure, and called Carly over to play with him after a minute. Climbed up and they went down two slides side-by-see together. August bounced on it and sort of fell off the end. Pretty impressive. Then, he went on the spirally slide. That turned out to be quite fast, and he turned sideways, then fell off the end of it. Slight scrape to his knee. He handled it really well, however, with a lot of his “That’s a yes, yes…that’s a yes, yes…” But didn’t have to nurse. Sadly, didn’t get either on video. They played a bit more on that structure, going down the slides together a bit more, then I pointed out the tube slide at the other play structure in the park. Went over there and played for 20 or 30 minutes. Went down that slide and climbed up the rounded climbing wall. Also played with the spray bottle and drank from it until he poured it out, then found a few beads before we left.

He was doing quite well after his nap, but had a bit of a meltdown when we wouldn’t let him hold the pack of gummi bears someone had left on the bench. He was upset in the backpack until we got to the cell phone store to finally switch Carly’s SIM card to the newer phone. She nursed him while I went in, only to find that this major store is closed on weekends. Although they were blasting music, the lights were on, the door was open, and there was a guy sitting in there. Very weird.

From there we went to Starbucks. August got a kiwi drink this time, and we both got drinks. We headed out again, walking through 엄지어린이공원, which we’ve been to several times. There, he and I climbed on the play structure a lot, and he went back and forth on the narrow bridge. We went up and down the shaky steps – something we did last spring, and it was much easier this time. Up on the structure he was talking about temperatures, prompted by the sound of an air conditioner we heard. “Maybe it is set to 70…” Then he was talking about more esoteric temperatures ”nine thousand four hundred three is a little cool.” He worked on a little climbing wall and talked to a girl about his age. He was up in a tube thing that was open on top, and I put my chin on it and said ‘Aaaah’. August found that both hilarious and disturbing, and actually told me “Stop”. We changed him, then walked home.

On the way home, I was singing a version of “Are you sleeping” and he started saying “it’s called…” He came up with ones like ‘You’re not sleeping’ and ‘Mama goes to work, Dada and Zinnie have fun’. So we made up new versions.

We were home around 7, and a bit later I gave him a bath. Played with the letters, and we made a game of having letters patooie out other letters when August stuck them in their mouths – e.g. Sticking the ‘Q’ in the hole of the ‘O’. And he made a long game of saying “Have good dreams…go to sleep.” to all the letters and numbers as he put them away. 

After his bath, we ended up in on the bed. We read some Kipper, then we got the iPad and tried a new Bob Books app that he really liked. Then a Shapes app from Highlight, that he figured out rather quickly. It is about sorting shapes, and he is into sorting now, so it was a good fit. I put the iPad away, and Carly was getting ready for bed. August wanted to play in his nest, then we had a pretty good pillow fight. If August was hit, he would pretend to cry, then cuddle next to Carly and pretend to nurse. Then he would get up and say “More pillows!” He started to screech, so that brought the pillow fight to an end and we calmed down. He was seemingly really tired, so I think I left them around 9:30 to sleep. He did go to sleep though, and 15 minutes later was calling for his water. I got it for him and told him he could come out with me if he wasn’t ready for sleep. He came out and agreed to read. We read more books on the iPad: Tiny Rabbit’s Big Wish, Elephants Swim, Swirl by Swirl, The Perfect Hug, Not a Box. Then he chose Frog and Toad are Friends. That was exciting, as it was a favorite as a kid, and we hadn’t read it yet. It also has less pictures and more words, so I didn’t know how he would do with it. But he did pretty well, and he kept wanting to read more of the stories. Think we read three of them. Eventually he chose to go back in to bed…around 10:20 or so. But a little later I heard him still up, and heard him say “Want dada to sleep with us.” So I finished getting ready and went in. I asked if he wanted me to sing and he said yes. Sang three or four songs, and he was finally, FINALLY asleep about 11.

He’s been working on verb tenses and time. Sort of starting to understand ‘tomorrow’ and ‘yesterday’, although ‘today’ still seems to mean ‘now’ to him. He made clear his use of past tense today, when Carly said something in the present tense, and he turned it into the past tense to show it was no longer true. Along with that, he’s been using the future tense.

 

Second park: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

7:33. A sad wake up today. Quite a change after asking about the pink wawa and barely mentioning Carly the last few days. Finally, I sat down by the stuffed animals, and that did the trick. August wanted to do the piano keys and for Green Monster to come. We did that, and August wanted to start playing Wheels on the Bus with only a couple keys in. Instead, we started doing Are You Sleeping? and he immediately started picking up the words to that. Later, he was asking about a word in a New Order song, and in the evening, we were listening to a Carrie Akre live album, and he was asking about words. Got his iPad out so I could shower, and after that he wanted to do funny sentences – he was referring to the Freespeech app and had it open. He asked about this yesterday, but I couldn’t figure out which app he was talking about – we haven’t used it in a few months. Anyway, had fun with that and he created a few crazy sentences. We then played with play dough, and he wanted to combine them, and we ended up making a small collection of marbles using various combinations. We put them in the little containers we used to use for banana bread and other snacks – they are too small for our snacks nowadays. August wanted to take them with us, so we talked about where we could and couldn’t take them out on our trip, then he put them in the backpack. He got the brick red pastel out, and was drawing on the paper. He said it was “a fire extinguisher”. Color must have reminded him. I took him in to change him, and he was pretending to draw letters in the air and on the floor. Then he actually drew two Ks on the floor. He didn’t want to clean them up, but then also refused to say “please” when asking/telling me to do it. He got upset, but we worked it out by doing it together using our robot cleaning.

So we got out a little after 10. There was a festival being set up in the park, and it turns out it is a children’s festival. There was a table with puzzles, etc. They were still setting up though, so we thought about coming back later. As we left the building, he smelled something and said “I smell a little gross.” As we walked through the park, he saw the family statue and called out hi to it – something he hasn’t done in a long time. We went and said hi, and he asked how they were doing. As we left, we heard music from across the street. August said “The baby was a little scary…little scared of the drumming.”

We made our way north, transferring at Dobongsan, then onto the U-Line and going one stop to Beomgol. Walked a block east to 호동어린이공원. We had heard a few drops of rain while waiting for the train, so at the park August thought we should sit on the covered platforms. There was a woman and a man on them, who talked to us a bit. We ate lunch, including some kimbap we had bought in Dobongsan Station. We talked about all the parks in Uijeongbu, and he said “There’s one bajillion parks…there’s two bajillion parks.” He was dancing/doing yoga on the platform and I asked “Are you doing yoga?” His reply “No. I’m not.”

We went and played on the playground. Down the slides several times, etc. He climbed on the little plastic climbing thing, but didn’t seem to like it much. He started pretending to take it out and build a good climbing wall, talking about the shape of the climbing handles and their colors. We finished up at that park and decided to head to another one. Along the way, we saw a car being cleaned, and then he started looking at all the cars along the way and deciding if they were clean or dirty: “This one’s not too bad…that one’s a little messy…that one looks pretty clean…that one came by was dirty…that one was clean. Lots of them are dirty.”

We got to the second park, 범골어린이공원, and that turned out to be the winner for the day. Bigger slides and a climbing wall. First went down the spiral tube slide, which he called the dark one. Did that several times, and wanted me to go down after him. He liked talking to me through it but not being able to see me. Sitting at the bottom, I knocked on the slide up around the curve and that started him. He climbed up over me to see what it was, then said “That scared me a little.” He then moved to the straight covered slide. At the bottom of that, he saw women on the picnic structure having a picnic. So he wanted to have a pretend picnic. We talked about all the foods in our picnic and pretended to eat them.

He then went to the rocking car things, which were by the women. That got him a lot of attention, and he’s getting pretty good at holding up three fingers when people ask how old he is. There was also a girl playing at the park that was talking to him a bit, and rocking him in the car things.

We then went over to the climbing wall, and he worked on that a lot. He was talking to the climbing wall, asking how it was doing. I had the wall say something about it being happy to have a kid climbing on it, and August said “Zinnie is a kid. Zinnie is a boy. Zinnie is a truck(?). Zinnie is a people. Dada is a people.” Then, he spotted a bead in the sand, and we started collecting them. Got up to 44 of them at the end. We counted them on the bricks.

Now past 1:30, more than six hours, and we got walking for his nap. But first saw a weird Pinnochio piece of furniture thing on the side of the street that we examined. We walked by two more playgrounds to check them out, but they weren’t too exciting. He fell asleep right about at the perfect spot, as we were nearing our usual book cafe. He slept from 2:07 to 3:20. He wanted to read Everyone Poops after he woke up, so we went and looked at the books and grabbed a total of 6, and sat on the steps and read them all. The others were Dear Zoo (nice, but why are all the animals male?), ME! ME! ABC, One Bear at Bedtime (which was really cool, and by Mick Inkpen), and two Donald Crews books: Ten Black Dots and Tomorrow’s Alphabet.

Got walking around 4. He was very interested in all the Uijeongbu stops and bus numbers. Went to Daiso, and was able to find watercolor paints and brushes. Still no chalk. He was really interested in the piggy banks, and did a good job of putting things back. As we walked, he was chanting math – he definitely has ‘zero’ down, chanting “zero plus 4 is 4, zero plus 3 is 3…” He was then making up crazy math problems involving billions and trillions, etc.

Headed home. A guy handed us a sample for a packet of nuts and berries. Ate that on the train. He had one cashew while on line 1. Took a few minutes to wait for the transfer, so about 10 minutes later he was doing okay and had more on the train. The cranberries were his favorites. Had a couple more cashews, and as we were pulling into Nowon, he started complaining, and did his almost throw up thing. Had me thinking he was having an allergic reaction, although he’s had cashews before. I had already planned in my mind riding to Hagye and taking him to the emergency room, but after he did the coughing thing he was completely fine – just a case of getting nut pieces stuck in his throat.

Festival was done for the day as we walked through at 5:30. Bought some kimbap and a sausage on a stick from a vendor, then headed home. Carly was in the shower. Distracted August by eating our food. The sausage was pretty spicy, and he reacted like he did in Chelan when he kept eating something spicy. He took 5 or 6 bites though. But for the last one, Carly was in the room, so he went to her to nurse.

After awhile we went outside, stopping to get a couple bop burgers and a large peach Mama Juice to share. Walked over to the park and sat on the fountain area, until the women came to start their dance aerobics class. We went over to the playground and he played there. The main thing was when he went to the little metal bars/steps and climbed them on his own. Then across the shaky bridge, then up the big step/ladder, and down the metal slide. All things he couldn’t/wouldn’t a couple weeks ago. Did that loop several times. Played on the exercise
equipment as well. Getting dark and mosquito-y, so we headed home. Carly was holding his hand as we walked and squeezed it a little. He said “That hurt me a little bit.”

At home, they nursed, then played and did some reading. He was then playing with Duplos on his own, making Duplo arte abstracto. I gave him a bath and we talked to the letters. They went in to sleep about 9, but at 9:25 he came out to me. A couple minutes on the Duplos, then I said we had to read. I suggested on the iPad. He liked that idea. We haven’t done that much, as having the iPad out usually leads to him wanting to do other things. But tonight he was very much into the books. Maybe a little overexcited about turning the pages, but not too bad. A nice development though, as I’ve purchased several children’s books. We read Swirl by Swirl (about swirls in nature), Fall Leaves (about the season), Carly Cat, Chu’s Day, and several pieces from Classic Nursery Rhymes. We were reading those when at 9:43 he said “I’m going to bed” and did so.

One sentence he said several times today to both me and Carly was “Thanks for talking to me.” At first I was confused where it came from, but then I realized I have a lot of the objects that he talks to say it: the climbing wall, the concrete benches after we left the coffee shop today, etc.

 

Waking up:

Marbles: 

Walking: 

Park 1: 

Walking: 

Playground 2: 

Book cafe: 

Walking to Daiso: 

Home: 

Duplo art: 

He came out at 7:23. For what I think is the third day in a row, he asked about his pink water: “Where’s your pink wawa? Where’s your blue wawa? Want to put the keys back in.” Did that, then he did some art on my iPad, and then made shapes using a geometry app on my iPad. Moved to his own iPad for a little while and did the Oceans app while I finished up some work, then we worked on Duplos, adding to the children’s museum (he wanted a microscope, we added an art area, and he put all the kids in it) before I took a shower and we then had some cereal. He destroyed the children’s museum, then we spent a long time making bigger and bigger regular polygons out of my vitamins. He wanted the “robot cleanup” of the letter magnets, so we did that – in the evening that is how we would clean up the blue counting cubes. I found our new letter stickers, which had been missing, so he did some of those, then we ended up writing big numbers on the paper again. He continued with the robot thing, wanting me to change him robot style, so we did that.

On the changing pad, we talked about Teuni Teuni class. Really trying to choose words to explain why he was sad when going in last week. Finished with “Sad about the froggie one.” Meaning the teacher, who goes by the name Gaeguli Sangsaengnym (Frog Teacher). But he said he wouldn’t be sad today.

We were taking a long time to get out of the house, and right before we were ready, I went and grabbed some coins from the box so he could ride after his class. I came back out to the living room, and a few seconds later there was a crash – he had tried to get the box full of coins and it had fallen on the ground. This really freaked him out. Took a few minutes to get him okay. Just saying “No, dada…no, no, no.” to all my questions, so couldn’t tell what to do to help him. Wouldn’t let me pick him up, and if I did he got upset. But if I put him down he got more upset, etc. Later, when we came home and saw the coins on the floor, August was remembering it, and said I did something funny when he was sad, saying I skipped. He really did not like when I stepped away from him while he was upset. I think may have taken a big step over the coins, or maybe done a quick about face when he started shrieking. Or maybe I just skip when I’m frustrated.

Anyway, we made it to class a few minutes late. Right after I told him we probably missed the picking him up part (“To the ceiling” he said) I was proven wrong, as class must have started late. August was slightly nervous today – wouldn’t high five the teacher at the beginning – but did just fine. He put up with a forward roll, and at the end of class gave him a reluctant high five. Class was about whales eating shrimp and either sneezing or pooping them out (there were activities for both…that isn’t a translation issue). Near the end, the teacher handed out the DVDs. August obediently sat down with him (he also ran right over when the teacher patted the ground next to him near the beginning for the story time section), but was expecting the treat they get at the end – he gave him a complete look of confusion when the teacher handed him the DVD instead. Eventually he took it, then returned and sat right in the middle of the floor waiting for him to come back with the container full of treats. Eventually that happened, and when I had August go back to say thank you, he got a second. Oh, and August actually chose to wear the shrimp hat – at least for a few seconds.

We went downstairs to Home Plus to look for sidewalk chalk. No luck. We spent some time looking at puzzles and other art supplies. Tempted by water colors, and they have puzzles that would be nice if they were less pieces – the Keith Haring puzzles was 1014 pieces. Given it had his favorite number in it (14), August wanted to get it, but I said no.

Went home, made a salmon sandwich for lunch and ate it, then went out for a walk in the stroller. Had been raining on our way home, but luckily had stopped. Ten minutes and he was asleep. Slept 2:15 to 3:25 at the women’s center (I should just start calling it Cafe Sarang Bbang, or Cafe Love Bread, but both look odd, although it sounds nice in Korean). Slow to wake up, so got walking. Went to the playground my the youth center. Sat for a few minutes and talked and sang, but he was still groggy. Then asked, very politely “Can we go home, dada?” So we headed home. But then I thought about going to the book/art store in the pink building. He was up to that. Couldn’t find chalk, so asked (which he later told Carly about). No luck. We looked around at other stuff and books and puzzles, then headed out.

Went to the playground and he wanted to play. Little climbing wall, where he got up a couple times, then mainly climbing on the metal bar steps, and playing on the shaky bridge. Went back and forth on the shaky bridge several times, and was talking about stepping on the screws being the tricky part. Then wanted me up, and had a lot of fun with both of us pretending to get our feet stuck. Almost headed home right before 5, but then he wanted to show me the tricky part one more time. Went back, but wanted me to get my foot stuck instead. Told Carly we were there, so she came and met us. I was swinging him around in circles when she showed up.

At home, he was acting a bit toddler-ish despite the nap. Got upset when Carly wouldn’t let him open the microwave. But seemed fine after awhile. We got paint and sponges out and kept counting the prints he made on the paper. Carly took a shower, and he requested shapes with the vitamins again. Did that, then got him to switch to the blue counting blocks. He did art with those, and kept saying “I’m building something. Don’t crush it.“ Asked a couple times for me to comment on what it was he was making, but seemed more okay with it just being an abstract shape…arte abstracto, as we say.

He read The Giving Tree with Carly. He likes the book. At the end they were talking to Shel’s photo on the back (he had been asking what everything said, including Shel’s name). August was then getting imaginary things and feeding them to Shel, who either liked them or spit them out. At one point August said “Shel…where you supposed to patooie?” – referring to not being able to spit on the floor, but in the sink or toilet instead. August was making up words and said “A stoysteda has wings and arms and cam fly.”

We went back to the blue blocks, and ended up doing basic math with them. I was explaining subtraction, and initially said “If I eat one of them…” But then August was threatening to actually put one in his mouth, so I changed it to “If I lose one down my shirt…” Which he thought was hilarious. So he ended up doing it several times: “If I have three and lose three down my shirt, I have (looks at hand)…zero!”

I gave him a bath. Lot of playing with the letters. Then he wanted to go in his nest. The topic of August’s made up language from yesterday…stasidoo or something like that…came up, and August said he remembered that. I started speaking in stasidoo and August found that funny. They were both asleep a little after 9.

 

Making a children’s museum. Kids playing with blocks:  

Teuni Teuni: 

Singing about Figure, the music app. He says ‘Unptdictalead’ at the beginning, then ‘Gamle oct Havet’: 

Playground: 

You can see the insect bite on his leg: 

Home: 

Nest: 

After leaving the house somewhat early the last couple of days, we were more relaxed today. Still, we had a full day up around Dobongsan. He also got into sorting and playing hide and seek today.

He was up at 7:59. He came running out and called “Where’s the pink wawa?” He then went straight to stickers his stickers and was stacking the puffy ones. I introduced him to Tayasui Sketches on my iPad, with the Apple Pencil, and he made art for quite awhile. Some cool looking stuff. I took a shower, and then we played with Duplos, making a new zoo, then destroying that. A big activity today was sorting the vocabulary cards. It started with the Korean cards, which are designed to be sorted, as they are different colors with different borders, based on time, numbers, etc. After sorting those, we moved on to the Spanish cards, and made our own categories: food, body parts, numbers, other things, and animals. He really got into that and we sorted the whole deck. Then more work on the new zoo. At some point I asked “Do you want to go outside soon?” He replied “No. I’m doing a couple more things.” He then wanted the zookeeper and tiger to work together to do part of the Peter Rabbit puzzle. Finally, and I don’t know how this started, we began playing hide and seek. At first he just wanted to run after me as usual, but then I told him about standing in place and counting to 5 before moving. And he did it. A few times. We had fun with that, then eventually made our way out around 11.

Outside, we found that the the park was full of a rummage sale. We looked around. A few booths had toys and English books, but neither of us found anything we wanted to get. We were saying “Nothing too exciting” as we left. On the way up he was talking about subway stops (and going north versus south, as we were headed north today). He mentioned Ttukseom, then talked about how it has a wading pool, but it was closed.

He first wanted to go to the Iris Garden. On the way up we had decided our ‘quests’ for the day were to find an interesting plant and to find a playground. The plant one was easily done as the park is very green and full of flowers right now. We went to our normal spot for lunch, the long log benches. I sat straddling the log, and August did it to. Only his toes touched the ground, but still. Such a big kid. He also remembered Carly being on the log. After eating, we went for a walk around the park, him in the backpack. We went through an archway covered in morning glories. So that was his new flower of the day. The fountain turned on, so we watched that. We saw fish, and they were gathering, as if they wanted food. August said we could pretend, and suggested the fish were pretending too: “fish have imagination…we give them food.” We walked a bit more around the park.

August started suggesting that we head home – I think that happens when he is getting bored and/or a bit tired. But not necessarily ready for a nap, as he didn’t take a nap again today. We stopped in the building to play with the faucets, both inside and out, then headed out, walking to see if he might sleep, and to find a park. First walked through the little park area connected to the station. He liked the sculpture of upside down metal cones, calling them ice cream cones. The waterfall fountain wasn’t on, but he wanted to get down at the exercise equipment. Did that for 10 minutes or so. Then kept walking.

Made our way to 서원어린이공원, a children’s park we’ve played at once before, maybe twice. He was calm along the way, but no sleep. At the park he got down to play. There was a rope climbing thing in the shape of an upside down cone. It also turned. He spent a lot of time on this, climbing up to the third rung of four. He tried the spinning part a few times, but was unsure of it – mainly he wanted me to hold it still. We also played on the play structure: down the slides a few times (he was first hesitant about them, as they were in the sun and he was afraid they were too hot), a couple times together, and he also tried the vertical climbing wall, hanging on it a bit. We ate some more food, then he started spraying with the spray bottle, making art on the ground. That lasted quite awhile, and we also did letters and words.

From there we walked up the stream to where we play. He had been talking about going home again, but when he saw it he wanted to play. Got in the water no problem. Forgot the bucket, so we just had the scoop, and used it to bury the green ball and other things. Had fun trying to bury the ball as it floated. We waded down the stream to see the waterfall part. Got to a set of the stone steps and he remembered throwing things off of them (he was remembering the set father up stream, but impressive, as we haven’t done that since early spring). He wanted to climb down the rocky part, but I wasn’t feeling that. Went back the other way for a few minutes, then he was ready to go home. Went up to the backpack, had a snack, and did some more spray art on the ground.

Headed home, getting here at 4:30. We made our drink mix and he ate some more peanut butter. And he decided to take all the magnets off the door. Did almost all of that himself, then needed me to pick him up to get the ones at the top of the door. I started laundry, but he kept turning off the washing machine. He got upset when I blocked him from doing that. His only obvious tired moment of the day. Thought we might not be able to go to the grocery store, but he calmed down and was okay.

Got in the stroller and went to the pink building and got a few things. He remembered the jello stuff that ‘slurps’, so I let him get one. He chose peach. We got home at 5:20. Carly was running late. August had just turned on the AC when she got home. They nursed and had some food for dinner, then August was making big numbers on the door and having her name them. We did more piano keys, then he took a bath with Carly. We switched so I could wash his hair, but he got really sad about washing it, so he got a reprieve until tomorrow. We then did puzzles. He did the ABC puzzle entirely on his own. We then did a couple of the animal puzzles, and turned them over to put together the big picture using the back of them. A lot of pieces had fallen out, so we had to put the puzzles all back together. He went to the Duplos and said “Make children museum bigger” He was really excited about this for a minute, but when I started working on it he was off to the wooden tools. Went in soon after that, and was asleep about 9 of a little after.

Oh, and at the playground I had read August an email that Carly had sent him. He was then pretending to write on the ground things like “Mama I love you so much.” And when we walked in the house and she wasn’t there he didn’t believe me at first and loudly called “Mama!” Then quietly he added “Where you supposed to color?”

iPad art:

Iris Garden: 

Screaming: 

Playground: 

Spray art: 

Stream: 

His initials: 

Home: 

He was up right at 8. Came out and said “Hey dada. Where’s the pink wawa? Where’s the blue wawa? Want to put the keys back in.” Workers were supposedly coming around 9 to take another look at the hot water heater, so we hurried to get out of the house. August had some time to make big numbers out of the magnets (using all that we have, which gets up to the sextillions) and we put the keys in the piano. Had some cereal (I had just poured Cheerios, but he wanted some of the other kind in as well, as Carly had introduced him to cereal mixing) and brushed our teeth and left at 9:10, before anyone showed up.

As usual, a lot of signing and talking on the way to the subway. He started talking about 17 people: “I see the color of the 17 people…Blue, pink…And the shirt is purple.” In the station, there are these mosaics in the wall and glass circles that he now likes to pause and touch. He talks all about the textures and patterns in the glass circles and which ones are our favorites.

We were at the park a little before 10, so headed to the new playground to do sidewalk chalk. As we passed the Tayo busses, I expected him to say something about them. Instead, I noticed he was covering his eyes, hiding – something he hasn’t done recently. But when I asked him about it, he appeared shy/secretive. He would just say “No” to every question. This sort of turns into a game, where I try to finally get him to say “Yes” to something. Are you sad? No. Are you happy? No. Are you blue? No. Are you Zinnie? No. Are you a puppy dog? Etc.

Didn’t have a broom with us, so had to use my foot to sweep off the designated sidewalk chalk area. Spent a long time on that, with him drawing things and asking me what they were. If I said I was out of ideas, he would pretend to grab some and put them in my head. His favorite was the alien he drew that then didn’t understand humor, and exploded when August kept laughing. He found that hysterical, and it came up several times during the day.

He asked about lunch, and after a few more minutes, we went up by the rectangle pond and ate. We talked about quests again, and he said his quest was to play the piano today. He’s less interested in garbage cans nowadays, and today, when I asked if he wanted to throw our garbage in the garbage can he said “Dada can do it.” We went up and played with the piano for several minutes.

Then, we were heading to the children’s museum. He instantly wanted me to pick him up. At the mention of him walking, he got upset. Took awhile to get him calmed down enough to get down the stairs (I wasn’t going to carry him down while he was still upset), and we stopped by the fountain to get a tissue. He had calmed down and was quiet. I talked about how he’s been wanting me to carry him a lot recently, and that he’s walked long distances before. He was quiet, then suddenly climbed off the bench and started walking. I said “Thanks, Zinnie”. He said “No.” He then walked all the way to the children’s museum, walked right up to the counter and was handed his baby ticket on his own, took the membership card from me, and walked over to the entrance and handed them to the woman there and got his hand stamp. While he has handled those before, he’s almost always been in my arms for all of those. He then did all the walking in the children’s museum except for about 10 seconds when he basically jumped out of the car toy and into my arms when I mentioned going to the book room.

Anyway, once inside, he referred to the signs, and wanted to go up to space play. He walked up there, and looked around a bit, but it was overrun by school groups. He mentioned the food and hours area being up the ramp. He wanted to vacuum (although never got around to that), so we went up there. Stopped at the construction area, and played with the bricks just a bit. Then up to the food. He played with the food, getting us food, heating it up, then we sat at a table and pretended to eat it. We then went and played in the veterinarian area for the first time. We took care of a dog, who had an ear infection, and a pig with a broken leg. He seemed genuinely concerned when I had the pig make little noises when he touched the leg. He said something about the pig being a queen (I thought) after we were done with it and he was trying to find a spot for it. School kids had descended on this area, so he wanted to move on. Climbed into the car next to someone else that was ‘driving’. Sat there a couple minutes until I suggested the book room and he jumped into my arms.

Sadly, the bead toys (he had mentioned them a couple times) were now gone. But in there place were a set of kind of Tetris shaped puzzle pieces: you create shapes on a grid, then try to use the other pieces to fill the remaining space. Three dimensional thinking and all that, as you need to rotate the pieces. In fact, there were a couple of other puzzles like this: we also played with the wooden cactus-y thing, where you try to build it and keep it balanced so it doesn’t fall over. Then there was a set of simple blocks, about 12 of them, but each was a different color. There were then pictures that you tried to build.

We then went and read some books up in the loft area. He chose Opposites, I Touch…, Numbers, I taste…, and Shapes. All Luk books. The Taste one was probably his favorite. Although we read a couple of them twice.

Then back down for the last puzzle: a set of plastic squares. They are clear, with colored shapes on them. You then try to build pictures with them, but you have to rotate and stack them (and choose the right pieces) to make the pictures. Like the first set, they start with easy ones and get harder. Kind of like stacking tangram puzzles.

Waking up at 8 this morning, didn’t really expect a nap, but he was getting hungry again, and maybe a bit tired. We went outside and had some crackers and Larabar as we went for a walk. We came across the old playground, only to find that they are tearing it down. Rather sad, as we had used it so much in the past. Hadn’t gotten around to it much so far this year, but would have now that the weather is cooler. This is where we really started writing in the sand, and where he sat on the drum while I played it. He specifically pointed out the blue thing – the drum – lying there on the ground as we watched. Got walking again, and stopped to get water and refill his water bottle. “Frere Jacques” was playing on the speakers and he asked what it was called. I told him, and he joked “It’s called “You’re drinking water”.” Had one or two others. As we walked, he started pointing and saying “How you doing bushes? How you doing trees? How you doing womans?” Probably had about 10 of them. Eventually calmed down and we walked our usual path a couple times, but then he wasn’t going to sleep. So we discussed some options, and he wanted more sidewalk chalk.

I wanted to take a closer look at the destroyed playground, so we first went down there. The structure by the walking path is spared, at least for now, which is nice. We sat and ate a second lunch, then went and did some climbing on the structure. He went up the angled wall a couple times, and used my hand to help him step up on the little vertical wall. He hung on the wall for a few seconds on his own before getting down. He then walked around on the walking path, and balanced on a couple of the round wooden ones a bit.

Then went and did sidewalk chalk by the faucets. I thought that was a good idea, because then we could wash it off. Did a little sidewalk chalk, then tried to pour water on it. Apparently, this doesn’t work. Just made it easier to see. I would have left after a couple minutes, but pouring water out of the spray bottle became a huge game for him. Also, he wanted to wash all the sidewalk chalk. So I was scraping it with a stick, and he was pouring water on it over and over. For a good 20 minutes, and probably closer to 30. He was soaked by the end. We had gotten the chalk off, but the ground now looked funny because the
parts we had scrubbed were now cleaner than everything else.

Headed home. He hadn’t used the iPad at all yet today, but on the way home he asked about GarageBand. I had brought his headphones, and he enjoyed wearing them on the subway as he played GarageBand. We got home at 5:30. Made a smoothie, and he took his in and laid on his stomach on the carpet and drink it. Carly was home at 6. They nursed and read a couple more books she had brought home: The Giving Tree and part of a Curious George book. He then played with stickers, and the door magnets, making Carly read the numbers this time. And of course we did more piano keys. And actually played some Wheels on the Bus.

When we had come up the elevator, a guy had gotten off at the second floor. August told me the doctor was on the second floor. I was surprised, as he hasn’t been there since, I think, March. Carly told me she’s probably mentioned it though. Also in the evening, I brought up the hiding thing, and he said “Remember that”. I asked what he was hiding from, and he said “Tayo busses…they were open.”

Carly gave him a bath, then he went in on the bed with me and read one of the new books – the one about the boy in the forest imagining an animal parade (from 1944). Carly came in and he was asleep about 8:30. Did remarkably well for not having a nap – didn’t seem like he hadn’t taken one. Perhaps transitioning away from naps…

Offering mama a piano key: 

Big numbers: 

Headed to Children’s Grand Park: 

Chalk: 

Lunch: 

On his long walk: 

Food: 

Puzzle: 

Reading area: 

Another puzzle: 

Destroyed playground with drum: 

Walking path: 

Sidewalk chalk and water: 

Spray bottle: 

Headphones on the subway: 

I was in the bathroom when he got up at 7:47. He didn’t make a sound, just walked around the house until he found me, then wanted to go plug the cords into my computer. Did that for a bit, then wanted to play on his iPad, then with the blocks. He made a “funny F” out of Duplos and I said the extra bit looked like a hand. He then had the F waving out the window to Bluie, who was apparently going to Safeway. He then said that Bluie got hit by a black car. Bluie was okay though, escaped for a scraped knee, which August kissed. We did some drawing on paper, and he drew a K with a hat on. He then wanted me to write a lot of numbers, like 300,002 and 300,006. He then wanted letters in them, like 300,00Z. We managed to get out of the house by 9:30 to head to the big zoo, on our quest to find a new animal.

Train went smoothly, building things in apps on the way down. Stopped at CU on our walk in and got veggie chips, kimbap, a mango soy milk, and a little sandwich for lunch. We saw the flamingos and giraffes, then sat under the blue covered area and ate lunch. He was done eating before me, and wanted to get started on the quest. I told him I wanted to eat a banana first. When I tried to get him to take a bite, he said “Nope. That is not part of the quest…want new animal.” But before we got to animals, he got sidetracked by a couple of Angry Birds rides. I told him we wouldn’t put money in them, and he was fine with that, but played in them for 10 minutes anyway.

We had looked at the map, and he decided that the ‘Australian Pavilion’ would be our first stop. We’d never been to that building before, though we’d seen the emus. Well, the building is closed, which bugged him – he kept talking about going in it anyway, and when we went to the nocturnal pavilion later, as we approached he said maybe there was a sign that said ‘Do not enter’, referring to the sign in front of the Australian Pavilion. Anyway, we did see the emus, wallaroos, and kangaroos, and our first official new animal for us was the Australian cassowary.

We then went next door to the Insectarium. There, our new animal was the bichir, and he spent a lot of time looking at the ornamental spiders. He really wanted to see the centipedes, but we couldn’t see any in their cages. He asked “where’d the cementapedes go?” I really liked hearing him say “Australian Pavilion” as well. His favorite part though was the building out back, with the fake streams, etc. and all the toads and salamanders and turtles. Mainly he liked that each cage had a temperature setting on it, and we could read them. Also kind of cool to see how they were kept at different temperatures.

He’d been having me carry him a lot, which made me think he was a bit tired, but it was still rather early. But the moment I asked if he was tired, he wanted to go home. And when I said we couldn’t do that right now, he had a meltdown. He calmed down though, and I got him changed and in the backpack. As we got going, he said “No go home” as if he had changed his mind and was making sure we weren’t headed home. He fell asleep in about 10 minutes, at 1:21, but kind of woke back up a bit both when I bought the cheap latte outside, and when I set him down inside the cafeteria building. But he put his head back down and went back to sleep.

He woke up at 2:37. Wanted to get going, and we went outside, but then I asked if he wanted to look at the map and he said yes. So we sat on a platform and I gave him a bunch of options. His final decision was “Nocturnal pavilion THEN playground”. He stuck with that plan, even as we went by the playground first. But first actually we walked through part of the bird area that we hadn’t seen before. Peacocks and chickens, and a display on nests. We also walked by the tropical birds building, which we haven’t been to. But nocturnal animals it was. We went in, and saw the kinkajous, slow loris, bats, owls, and porcupines. He was asking a lot of them “How you doing?” As we left later, he was asking “How you doing flamingoes…How you doing Seoul Grand Zoo?…How you doing Seoul Grand Park?” And I would have them talk to him. Oh, and back at home he had wanted to call the giraffes, wanting to know their phone number. So that conversation continued with them when we saw them at the zoo.

From there we walked back to the playground. He had seen the one random concrete slide along the way, and wanted to go down it. Looks steep, but turns out it barely slides – he had to scoot his way down. Then went to the playground, where he mainly played on the two climbing walls. He sat on the first one, and identified the animals on the handholds, and counted the colors of them. Then went to the second wall, where he looked at the shapes again, and decided which ones I liked. I had told Carly we would probably be late, and we were. Headed out around 3:45, changed him, and was leaving the park just after 4. By the time we walked to the station, etc. we weren’t home until just before 6.

As we transferred to the bus at Changdong (we took line 4 home), he was asking for the name. I told him, and he said “Where you (I) were born.” He meant ‘Cheongdam’. When he asks what is at Cheongdam on the map, I always include that. Had to change him, but told him we could go straight to the bus if he liked, as I was afraid we’d miss a bus if we stopped. But I told him if we did that we’d have to change his diaper first thing when we got home. It worked: we did just catch a bus, and when we got home he took Carly right into the changing room to change his diaper. While we were sitting on the bus he was pretending he was driving it.

They nursed, then read books that she had brought home from the school library: Planting a Rainbow, Night Becomes Day, Manama Iguana, Goodnight Gorilla. He then had her write numbers on the paper, like earlier: 300014, etc. They then spent quite awhile counting crayons. He would put more crayons in a line, then she would count them. He would count along, and clap when she finished. He then played by himself for quite awhile, with the iPad, and with the floor puzzles. Carly gave him a bath, then he played Duplos with me while she took a shower. We were working on the zoo after he made an ‘E’. At 9 I told him it was time to read stories and go to bed. We read Kipper’s Birthday and The I Love You Book. For the latter, he actually only wanted to read the sad baby page and talk about why the baby was sad. Carly was ready for bed just before 9:40. August at first wanted to give me just a pretend forehead kiss, but then gave me a really good forehead kiss, and an actual kiss. Oh, and he was doing the “I love you a ton of Ts, Zs, Xs…” things as well. He had a lot of good non-letter ones as well. And earlier, after he had gotten upset and was in the backpack, he also gave me a really long forehead kiss before we got walking. They fell asleep in short order, about a quarter to 10.

Plugging in the cords:

Seoul Grand Zoo: 

Spider: 

Home: 

He was up at 6, then back to sleep on the reading area. He managed to roll off the reading area and keep sleeping for a few minutes. He was up just after 7:30. After nursing, he helped Carly make her seating charts on her computer. We then worked on a new building for the zoo, and then I cut his hair while he played on the iPad. He did a really good job with it. A bit later he said “It’s shorter…yesterday it was not shorter.” Then more iPad, playing Figure and Metamorphabet. Did some Duplos with Carly, adding onto the building, then she went downstairs to do some work in a coffee shop. She was down there for awhile and we were playing, but planning on heading to Home Plus. She had to come home because the Internet wasn’t working for her down there. I tried to hurry to get August ready to go, but he got really upset just putting on a diaper. Carly came home, and I was able to get him out the door a few minutes later, but only after finishing some of the piano keys.

With Carly working from home, we now headed to a park first. We went up to Crysanthemum Children’s Park, getting there about 11:30. We first went to the other end of the park, where we had seen chestnuts last year. He played with the chestnuts, dropping pieces in the grate and throwing them in the bushes. We were watching an ant carry something, but then he stepped on it. I told him that made me sad. We did some more playing there, then headed over to the playground part of the park.

There, he didn’t have much interest in climbing. Instead, he wanted to draw homes. But first he paused, saying it was too sunny. We found a spot in the shade (there were boys playing in the little structure, anyway) and drew homes. He drew a line and called it a snake, then made a game of stepping on it. But then it would cry and he would reach down and put it together again, and put a bandaid on it, and it could move again. Very interesting. We saw a boy pour water in the enclosure, and then leave, so it was now free for us to play with. August climbed on the little climbing wall going in quite a bit, but never actually went in. I got his water bottle, and he had fun leaning over the side of it and patooieing down the side. We also poured my water bottle in it a few times and refilled it from the drinking fountain. I got the Larabar and we ate that. He pointed at a chunk of walnut in it and said “What is walnut for?” Before I could answer, he answered himself: “you know. For eating. Tu sabes.” There was a family at the park with a girl about his age and they came and said hi. Neither of the kids would talk much. But when we left a few minutes later I suggested waving bye, and August happily did that and called out ‘bye bye’. Before we left, he wanted to look at the rules signs. We did that for a couple minutes, and he surprised me by reading ‘놀이터’ (playground) on it.

We then went to Home Plus. Busy, but he did a really good job with the shopping. I asked him if one container of broccoli looked good. He rejected it, then said the next one was fine. He said “This looks healthier.” And I was looking at my shopping list on my phone and he pointed and said “This says ‘nectarines’.” It did. On the walk home, he started saying “how you doing door?” And to railings, floor, building, etc.

We were home just after 2. He fell asleep pretty quickly, and slept from 2:20 to 3:15, After nursing, he and I were writing words and numbers on the paper. He was using one of the old crayons in a plastic case and it (peach) broke. He threw it away. Carly was cleaning up, and about to throw the package of pickles that came with the pizza away. Instead she offered them to August, and he ate the hole package (6 slices). He wanted to build towers, so we took the wooden blocks into the parlor, where it was warmer. Built towers for awhile, then he wanted patterns from the cardboard bricks. We did well with that, then he needed to be changed.

In the later afternoon, we went out for a walk. Almost didn’t, as both August and Carly were waffling on whether they wanted to go. We had decided not to because August didn’t want to, then suddenly he wanted Carly to get up, saying “Go to park, mama”. Carly felt like she had a sliver, and August got really concerned for her, saying something like “It’s okay, mama. It’s okay?” over and over.

We walked over to Hangeulbi Park. There, he went nonstop for the next hour. He climbed the little curved wall, then walked over to the little slide. He was hesitant to go on it, but I said he used to go down it when he was little. That seemed to change his mind, and he went down all on his own. He then made several loops of going up the wall and down the slide. Then went up further, taking turns with Carly and me to go down the three bigger slides. We were surprised when he went down the curving slide like it was no big deal – he’d never gone down on his own before. Carly went on the swings. August was looking out at her through a clear part, and yelled “where you supposed to go, mama?” At one point he pretended to get a sliver. He climbed on the round platforms, and made a game of talking to each of the colors: “how you doing grey?”

Before we left he jumped on the teeter totter for his one extra thing, then I found some beads and gave them to him in the stroller as we left. On the way home Carly was sharing apple with him. When we were close to home, he bit his tongue or cheek. Not happy about that, and kept saying “No”.

By the time we were home he was doing okay though, and able to eat dinner. He wanted the rice and broccoli dish Carly had made today. He played on the iPad, making the boat in the Oceans app, then music on Figure. He asked Carly “How’s your sliver doing?” I gave him a bath, and he thought letters on the door looked like a birthday cake. He then said the letters were singing a song, but it wasn’t “Happy Birthday”. He then spent several minutes singing the song. After his bath, we made the bed with Carly. He did a little more singing, and they tried to go to sleep at 9. 9:25 or so though I hear him calling out, asking me for water. I go in and get his water. He then comes out with me. We played with blocks a little, and sort of read one Bob Book. He went back in and was asleep around 9:45.

Asleep on the reading area:

Sleeping animals: 

Chrysanthemum Park: 

Eating pickles: 

Hangeulbi Park: