Category: Uncategorized

Flight day!

It was our long, long Monday. Went amazingly well though, and despite waiting on one line or another for hours August did really well.

He was up at 6:00  and turned on the lights on me before going out to find Carly. I had been up pretty last night so I turned the lights off an went back to sleep for awhile. The day was kind of off to a rocky start as August was whiney throughout the morning. I suggested Carly take him outside, as I had a lot of computer stuff to do, as Carly had suggested I don’t take my computer with us, and I needed to load up the iPad for August. They went out to the park, and mainly played in the bushes by the playground.

They came back and he took a nap from 11:30 to 12:30 or so. We then were out the door right at 1 – me with August in the backpack and pulling one suitcase, and Carly with two backpacks and the other suitcase. At the bus stop he and I played with the handle on a suitcase. On the bus he really liked going through the long tunnels. He was getting a bit impatient as the trip wore on and started shouting “A” a few times, but otherwise was fine.

His least-favorite part of the whole day was when we first got into the huge terminal building and he was a bit put off so he wanted to go outside. And Carly went into the bathroom right away, compounding it. But when she came out she gout out the letter crackers and that pacified him. He wanted to “Go check-in”, and made it through that process with the help of the crackers. From there we went through security – the shortest line of the day and walked down to Starbucks to get much-needed coffees and sandwiches. Found our gate and sat down and ate lunch. August had gotten a mango juice at Starbucks and ate that and part of Carly’s sandwich. She then took him over to the play area and they played – apparently there was a girl who kept trying to hit him for no discernible reason. We then switched and I went over with him for a few minutes, where he was hyper and liked watching the hyper older kids, but mainly he wanted me to hold him up to the drinking fountains to see them and drink from him. Then he started to actually dribble water out of his mouth and go “Patooie”, so we cut it off there.

It was time to board, and there was a family in line with us and August asked each of them in turn “What is your name?” Must have been a great experience for him, getting people to answer back to him. Later, in Sea-Tac at baggage claim, the girl (7 or so) came up and said hi to August again. As we boarded (waiting in more lines to get on the plane) August remembered the videos that Carly had been showing him about flying – so that definitely worked.

The flight was long, but went pretty smoothly. One of the first activities was playing with the new sticker books. He is suddenly a perfectionist with matching up the stickers with the spots they go in, so kind of a slow process. He liked the engine noise as we taxied, and was fine for takeoff. Carly was singing “Puff the Magic Dragon” to him and he was interrupting to ask what each line meant, so we then had to explain it. He watched a little Pororo while wearing his headphones. He liked it, but didn’t last too long. But later, right before we landed, he requested Pororo again and watched, fascinated, with the headphones for 15 minutes or so. Anyway, after that he and Carly found some animal game on the seatback thing and played that.

We had a lot of turbulence for the first few hours, and as such dinner was slow. But he really liked trying all the foods that came. He did a little coloring, then did tracing and math, and then mainly art on the iPad. He was getting tired and had pooped, but because of the turbulence we weren’t supposed to get up. Finally, we talked to an attendant and she let us go back to the back bathroom and change him. Quite an experience changing him standing up on the counter in there and then walking him back to our seat in some of the worst turbulence of the trip. He fell asleep just before 10pm, and woke up just before 11am Seattle time – so 5 hours of sleep. Carly and I both slept a bit, but I was actually woken up twice by a crying baby – but not ours. There was another baby who cried a lot on the flight. The mom was nice though, and had noticed August’s Myanmar shirt. It turned out she was from Myanmar.

In the morning he didn’t eat much, but he stared at the brownie in its package and kind of just smiled at it when I picked it up. So he and I shared that. Then he did his Pororo watching (it was called 뽀롱뽀롱), and we landed right at noon. I had watched 10 Cloverfield Lane and most of In the Heart of the Sea on the flight. I had also listened to a lot of music when I was trying to sleep.

Customs took forever and just seemed to be one line after another.  Finally, finally we made it through and met up with Cherie. We are out to the car about 2. Then we got to the car and had a very pleasant surprise: August got in the carseat and was just fine with it. I sat next to him, and he did a lot of nonsense singing and kicking around of his legs as we drove. We stopped at the Tacoma Mall so I could get a new iPhone (a 6s Plus) and activate both of our phones. Took a bit longer than expected, as the guy at the Apple Store was convinced I couldn’t do what I wanted (get a T-Mobile phone on the iPhone Upgrade Program) but in the end it worked out. They mainly waited in the car but went in to use the bathroom. August doesn’t like being set down to stand on the floor in bathrooms, so he let Cherie hold him while Carly went. Back in the car I would ask why, and he would say “Cuz of the flushing.” We were back on the road at 3. About 30 minutes from Centralia he fell asleep, at 3:54, and I gave him Peter Rabbit as a pillow.

As we got to the house Chuck pulled up as well. So August was very groggy as he met Opa. But he woke up once we got in the house and we played with some of the toys that Cherie had gotten (the Magformers) and then was stomping and jumping around the house with Chuck. Later, August and Cherie were making making letters out of a ribbon, then he was standing and jumping on them. A lovely dinner, and August sat in the high chair and ate with us.

He and Carly went in and fell asleep for the first time at 7. She got back up after an hour or so, but he woke back up around 10:30 as I was about to go to bed. They were up for an hour, mainly downstairs, and he was very mellow, although he started to sing at some point. He wanted to go back to bed, and Carly stayed up for quite a bit longer.

New words/phrases: reading annang and kamsamneda in Korean

Morning: 

On our way. Waiting for the bus: 

On the bus: 

Airport. Cool wall: 

Flight: 

Art: 

Asleep: 

Headphones: 

Seattle! 

Car seat: 

Oma and Opa! 

Jumping on the ribbon with Oma: 

He was up at 7. He and I read some Bob Books with Marshy in the morning, then around noon I took him out for a short park outing. He wanted to take the stroller. We swung by where the fountain was on yesterday, but it wasn’t on yet, and August didn’t want to stop to play in the faucets. We kept walking, and headed down behind the hospital, to the park we’ve been to a few times, but not since at least winter. There was major construction going on on the side street along the hospital, and we got to sit and watch all sorts of vehicles tearing up and putting down asphalt. Only stayed a couple minutes though as dust was everywhere. Got to the park and played there awhile. There was a group of girls practicing a dance routine, and August liked watching them, and actually started Qing them – something he hasn’t done on his own recently. We played in the sand for awhile. It was gravely, but moist, so decent for sandcastles. We made a couple and August had funs smashing them – he said something about “like the girls…at the park” yesterday. Pretty sure he was referring to the kids playing in the sand with him and Carly. Time for a nap, and August knew it. He requested a coffeeshop, even pointing across the street to what looked like one. But I headed home instead.

Got home and he napped from 1 to 2. In the afternoon he was playing the piano and wanted to see the ’S’ sound in it. So I got out screwdrivers and we took the top off. He liked seeing the inside of it and seeing the hammers, but he was unconvinced by our quest for the ’S’ sound, since there wasn’t one clear thing making that extra rattling sound.

I went over to the pink building to buy workbooks and sticker books and a couple snacks for the flight, then met up with August and Carly at Baskin Robbins with Megan and Torrey. August wasn’t impressed with Carly’s ice cream, so when I got a macaron cookies n’ cream sandwich he ate most of mine instead. I had a little though. Back in the house, he and Carly made a nice fort  out of the bricks.

Then I took him out to the park. We first played at the playground, mainly on the elliptical machine. We then went over to the faucets and played in the water. There were bigger kids playing with water balloons, and one boy was convinced that August shouldn’t be playing in the area, but we were undeterred. So he had fun pouring water on the ground and watching the older kids. We went back in around 6.

During the day and while we were gone, Carly had been doing a ton of cleaning and packing, and we now looked very ready to go. I have written down that August said “That’s not ours.” and “Want to see more messy things.” I’m not sure what he was talking about, but the ‘messy’ sentence is one he uses all the time when we’re outside and he is looking for messy things.  And at some point Carly was cleaning the sink and August pointed and said “Mama playing in it.” And I caught him putting his finger in the butter and said “Hey” and then he said, to himself, “You being uncouth.”

In the evening he wanted to do ‘patooie’, spitting into Carly’s sink. So he stood on the stool at her sink and brushed his teeth. But when it came time to do ‘patooie’, he wanted to do it together with me. So we did it together several times, counting “1 2 3 patooie.” He then wanted “lots of patooies” so we would do several in a row. He read with Carly and went to sleep at 9:30.

New words/phrases: basil, that’s not ours

Reading with Marshy:

Home: 

Ice cream: 

Park: 

He was up really early with Carly at 5:50. When I came out a bit alter, he wanted to poke me. After Carly left, he was looking at his drawings on the paper and said a pretty complex sentence: “Kind of an ‘I’ that’s sideways right here.” He was watching a Korean video and started hiding. When I asked why he was hiding, he said “From the chalgyeyo part” when listening to one of the Lulu songs. He was acting tired, and we ended up laying on the bed in the dark together for a couple minutes. We were then listening to songs from class, deciding which we wanted to download for the States, then watched some videos, and then wrote words from the pigeon books on paper.  He was ready to go outside once he had poured a cup of water on the floor, then got upset when he saw my phone and wanted to watch videos. When I wouldn’t allow him, we ended up back on the bed lying down for a minute.

We got ready to go and headed out to the park across the street. He wanted to keep walking though, so we kept walking east. He was acting tired, so I asked if he wanted Smokey and the cover, and he said yes. I made my way towards a nearby park so I could sit down, but along the way we came across a little play area in an apartment complex. There was a snake made of concrete to climb on, a seesaw (“teeter totter seesaw”), and swings. August got really excited, so we played there. First he climbed on the snake/“worm”, and kind of crawled up it like a “gabohgi” (turtle) and “Like a snake.” We then got on the teeter totter, where he stood on it, then wanted to go higher “up to sky…like toh-gi (rabbit) in the book” Figured out he meant a rabbit on a swing in the Korean book about a badger – I hadn’t even noticed there was a rabbit in one of the pictures. He then played with the spray bottle, spraying the mosaic tiles on the snake.

Time for a nap. We had spotted a coffee shop called Caffe Nissi on the second floor of a building. Went there and he slept from 11:26 to 12:33. Nice place, but they switched from traditional Korean instrumental music to English music, probably for their one paying customer. Had to listen to Prince’s “Kiss”, a Spice Girls song, and “Physical”. When he woke up he said “Leaking!” So changed him in the bathroom. Then explored the coffee shop – a little aquarium with fish, a pink cushion he wanted to sit on, a little desk pond with green rocks, etc.

Headed home, but stopped at the museum side of the park and played in the faucets. A woman fell off her bike close to us, and he was very intererested. He saw another person coming along in a shirt like hers and pointed and said “another green one”. Then the fountain came on, so we went and played in that. He put his hands in it, then found a straw to stick in it. Another boy was playing with him, but started splashing and got August’s shirt quite wet. Took it off and he went back to playing for awhile.

We went home, and in the evening Carly took him out in the stroller. They went up to the new playground near Madeul Stadium, where they played on the spider web, he did the spinny thing, and they went on the seesaw. He kept talking about standing up, but it is one with seats instead of a flat surface. They then spent a lot of time in the sand. The sand was wet, so it stuck together, and they made sandcastles.  They then went to Starbucks to use soem of the gift card that Carly got at school. They got sandwiches and August did a good job of staying with her and sitting and eating.

In the evening he was really into “Donde esta?” using the First 100 words book. He played with Carly, then played for quite awhile with me. He started jumping on the bed, first with his hands on the bed while looking at the book and just jumping his feet off the bed, then jumping and landing on his butt.  He went to sleep around 8:30.

New words/phrases:  sip of tea, I’m thinking bout this

 

Photo of a workbook: 

Playground: 

Coffee shop: 

Park: 

At Starbucks: 

Home: 

Legs off the bed:

One last big adventure for the year: across the city and south of the river to a park that has a big wading pool.

He got an early jump on it: Up at 5:50. He got up and went out and found Carly in her bathroom and opened the door.  When she left to go to work he was at first very accepting of it; he said “Want to kiss mama.” and let her go. But she turned around and talked to me about something for a minute, and the opportunity was lost. He decided he wanted to stay with her, and wasn’t happy with her leaving. After she left I carried him into the reading area and he just kept saying “Want more”. Eventually he calmed down and cuddled in my lap.

We left by 9. As we left I asked if he wanted his hat and he said “Keeps the sun out of the eyes.” We heard a truck beeping as it backed up and he described it as “W W W W W”. As we left the building we walked by something making a fan noise, but we couldn’t actually see it (it was a parking garage vent or something).  He fixated on this for awhile: “Want to see the fan in there”. He also wanted to take some photos as we got to the other side of the park: the bushes, a banana peel on a bench, a post. Finally, we took the train down to Express Bus Terminal, then transferred and went another 8 stops or so National Assembly. One of those stations had walls in marble, or something that looks like marble, and I explained what it was, as he had asked “what is the messy” when looking at it. When I said “marble” he replied “Marble. Remember marble at the park…blue one…dropped.” We caught a glimpse of the big government building, but thought we were going to loop around and get a better look at it, but never did.

On the way down he invented a new word: ‘next stopping’, which is when you realize you get off at the next stop and start getting ready – similar to all of his other -ing words, such as ‘mosquitoing’.

We got to Yeoeuido Park (not the Hangang Park, which runs along the river, but a big park that runs perpendicular to that one, down to the river) and looked at the big map of it: August was looking at it and the numbers on it and decidng all the places he wanted to go. We went to the bathroom, then went to the little playground and ate our leftover kimbap and peaches in jello. He then played with the spray bottle, in particular spraying the cube things in the playground.

We then got walking north, towards the river, and he was doing some walking. Changed him, got him in the backpack, then went and saw the King Sejong statue and kept going. He fell asleep as we got to the Hangang Park. He slept from 11:27 to 12:34. Sat in a window seat from a coffee shop there with a wonderful view of the river and the very empty wading pool. Probably only on during the weekend, like the ones at Dream Forest. Not that there is a sign anywhere telling people that. The sign says it should turn on at 12 on weekdays, but it did not. In fact, there was a team pressure washing it.

Anyway, when he woke up we left the coffee shop and went down and changed him by the wading pool, then played with his water bottle in a faucet nearby, pouring water on the dirt and down a drain. The team had moved down to the lower portion of the wading pool, so we went to the upper part and stomped in the puddles. One of the guys tried to shoo us away, but we were far away and I ignored him. August didn’t last much longer anyway, since there  wasn’t much to do.

So we headed off, heading toward the playground. But then we found the fake stream, and it was on. We went under the overpass to have some shade and played in the stream for a few minutes. He was surrounded by a bunch of photography students, and paid attention to them a bit, but then I think they were a bit much, and he wanted to move up the stream. We got back in the backpack and kept walking. I think he was talking about eating again, and maybe about having more fruit, and we stopped a MiniStop. We went in, and he chose another cup of peaches in jello and I got a mango juice. We walked a bit farther to where there are trees with benches in the shape of Os around them. We sat down and ate our food. As we did so, a group of girls and their teacher were taking a group photo behind me, and they were saying “Hana, dul, set” and jumping. August liked this, and was saying “Hana, dul, set”. Then he was counting them. A guy came over and took over the photo taking job so the woman could get in the photo, and August stood right next to him and said “Set!” (three) when the guy said “Hana, dul”. Oh, and when they had been jumping and stopped, August was saying “More” and signing ‘again’. After they were done, they swarmed August (again). To August I said “Are they being funny?” and he said “Funny!” loudly. Which made them all laugh. So he repeated it a few times.

After they left, he was playing around and spinning, and said “Making an O…round the tree…make an O with a bingul.” We continued on to the playground, but it was disappointing and right out in the sun. So we headed back ot the stream. Along the way there was a little festival set up, that included statues of animals and grapes. August wanted to take photos of them, so I helped him, then we headed back to the water. 

We first got in the water near the beginning of the stream, but he didn’t want to keep his hat on. So we went back to the overpass and went in in the same spot. After a coupe minutes he started walking down teh stream, and was intererested in some older girls (college) using squirt guns. But then one was shooting him, at his feet. I thought he might like it, but I think it lasted too long, and he started walking off the other direction. Later he would say the squirting made him sad.

I caught up with him, and picked him up. Back by the stream, he saw some kids with toys and said “Want to go in there…in the water where the kids are.” They had a bucket with a spinning thing on top. August played with them for 15 or 20 minutes, and would have kept playing a lot longer. One girl had him pour water into her cup, and she poured water on his hand. When it was time to head home he kept trying to play, but then didn’t object when I took him away.

We headed to a different station, as I realized it would be easier. He was hyper in the backpack and started chanting “Energy! Energy!” and asked himself “Where all the energy come from?” On the train he drew in the workbook, mainly. Carly was going ot be late getting home, and we were runnign early, so at Seokgye Station we went and checked out a little park (Saetbyeol (샛별) park) we had visited long ago. Just looked around to see how it would appeal to him now, and we turned on the water faucets. He was joking about poop: “fooled you…poop in the water faucet…poop in this one.” He then wanted to take a photo of the faucet, so we did that.

We took the bus home. Setting him down on the seat so that I can then sit next to him has been upsetting recently, as he is afraid of falling off the seat. Well today the bus started moving before I could get the backpack off, so he was trying to climb back to me and get off the seat, and I was pushing him back on the seat

 

After Carly left: 

Photo on the way to the subway: 

Lunch spot: 

Empty: 

First attempt at the stream: 

Back to the stream: 

Our photo of the poop water fountain: 

One last trip to Children’s Grand Park before heading home for teh summer. Today was supposed to be a bit on the relaxing side after the last couple days, and a big trip tomorrow, but it didn’t really work out that way.

He was up at 6:56. Did some cuddling, then I asked him to wave for mama so I could take a photo. And he did. He totally understands the sending mama a photo every morning thing. We ate Cheerios for breakfast, and he wan’t to spell ’soy milk’ and we wrote it on paper. He then wanted the iPad: “iPad…want fonts”. He started looking at the colors of the crayons. One color is ‘melon’, and it led to some confusing remembering: “like mama and water…no straw…at the park.” I remember Carly saying he couldn’t drink something of hers because we didn’t have a straw, but don’t think it was anything melon-related. Anyway, we were in by the reading area, and started making shapes and letters out of the crayons. We started with Qs, and started small, but ended up making one with 20 sides, plus a lower case Q in the center. We also did S/s and R/r. Finally, he started ‘hiding’ crayons under the reading area cushion. I may have made a sound, but before I could object, he mimicked me, saying “Fine. Sigh. All right. Augustino!”

When we left the apartment complex I noticed he had covered his eyes and put his head down. At first I thought he was hiding from something, but then realized it was because of the sun. I asked if he wanted his hat, and he said yes. So we stopped and put it on. On the subway, there was an older woman sitting next to us that August played with and talked to most of the way down. We transferred at Gunja and got kimbap there, and went to Achasan to go in the back entrance to the park. But first we went to Daiso where we got a new spray bottle for August: we have declared the other one a bath-only toy, so then I had the idea of getting him one to use outside. We also got blank notebooks for coloring on the plane, and I loaded up on caribiners for by backpacks.

We walked into the park and ate lunch on an open platform near where we ate last time we came in the back entrance. We ate, then he decided it was time to fill up the water bottle. He took off to the faucets, which were a ways away. We filled it up and that kept him busy for the next 15 minutes or so. Despite encouraging him to spray everything else around us, me and our stuff were still pretty wet by the end. Changed him, walked a bit, and he slept from 12:28 to 1:34.

Didn’t hang around the coffee shop for long. We went to the new playground and played in the water. I filled the bucket for him a few times and he dumped it. Ended up by the sand, where he then started scooping sand in the bucket until it was full: “Putting sand in the bucket.” He had really engaged with the woman on the subway, but here women only got in his way: He was trying to get to the sand when two women stepped in front of him and started talking to him. He did his best to go around them. Later, a woman was watching him play and actually was touching her face. He tried to ignore her. She gave him an apricot or something of the sort, but he didn’t seem to interested.

We played until 3:10, then changed him, and figured we’d see a few animals before we left. I asked what animal he wanted to see, and he instantly said “Giraffes!” and grinned, as that was a joke – no giraffes here. He then said “Animal!” and repeated that several times, knowing that it was vague. We ended up starting with the primates where we saw some baby baboons and macaques, then went around the ferocious animals: lion, tigers, leopards, jaguars, etc. He was counting them, and at the tigers said “One awake, two sleeping.” He pointed out the ‘zookeeper doors’ a couple of times.

We then headed out, stopping at the first floor coffee shop to get a couple things. Took the subway up to Jughwa to visit Nathalie and Chloe and pick up some books and toys we were buying from them since they’re moving to China. In Jughwa August saw a TonyMoly shop and liked the sign: “TonyMoly…like Hangeul. Some Hangeul in there.” I think because the font made the ‘O’ look square and it looked like ㅁ.

We made it to their place just past 4:30. Visited until 5 or so. August was playing with random toys and putting them in the baby seat and kind of rocking them. He was really shy at first – just put his head down in the backpack and hid, but by the end he was performing and having a great time with them, including Nathalie’s mom, who leaves on Sunday (we met her at the birthday party last weekend). Heading home the backpack was full of stuff (they also gave me a box of big letter board things and some math manipulatives – oh, and a Wiggles baseball hat that August really liked).

August didn’t want to be set down on the way to the station, but I made him walk a bit. But once we got off at Hagye and made it through the turnstiles, he walked the entire rest of the way home, including, for the first time, twice holding my hand as we crossed the street. When we got in the apartment he wanted his shoes off – he is very big on taking his shoes off in the right place. I helped him with the first by stepping on the heel while he tried to get it off, but he got the second one all by himself, saying “almost, almost” as he did it.

We were home about 6, and I left about 7:50 to go meet Derek. In between we had dinner and gave him a bath, and Carly took a shower. I hung out with Derek over at 7-11 (which sounds weird, but is totally a thing here, as the convenience stores have tables and chairs outside) and Jeff, who moves to Iraq to teach, showed up a bit later. We had much to talk about between that and Derek’s new job.

While I was gone, August fell asleep at 8:30. He chose his own pajamas: a button up shirt and his blue cat pants. I noticed them as soon as I came in the room later.

New words/phrases: almost, that’s good

Morning:

New squirt bottle: 

After his nap: 

Playground: 

Hat from Nathalie: 

Sign in the park: 

Carly had 8th grade graduation, so we met up with her before that and had dinner, then played until she was done and walked home with her. That made for a long day. And what a day…a bit rough in the morning, but by the end of the day he was copying a picture for the first time, had done a lot of climbing in the playgrounds, and was giving me a ton of high fives.

He was up at 7:01. A little sad, but a quick recovery and went straight to watching Korean videos. We then read the Korean Hangeul book, and were able to translate almost all the words in it. We had Cheerios for breakfast, then he was rubbing his eyes on the couch. I asked if he was sleepy and he said “sleepy”. He cuddled with me for a bit, then got off the couch, went and got Peter Rabbit, and came back to the couch and cuddled with him. A bit after that, he wanted the spray bottle and the morning got a little difficult after that. Started out fine. He was first remembering when Carly took away the spray bottle because he sprayed the book sign: “Where’d the spray bottle go? Mama took it for the 책 sign. Sad about the 책 sign being wet.” Then he got fanciful: “Mama…took it to the giraffes for eating…eat the squirt bottle.” He found the spray bottle and was playing with it okay. We had discussed where he could spray before he started. Then he got a bit cheeky, as he sprayed on the fruits and veggies container and said “Here?”, then answered himself “That’s fine.” I asked if I had said that was okay and he said “Think so!” But then he tried spraying books again and he was a bit frustrated by that.

Then he saw me with my phone and instantly got upset and wanted it. When I wouldn’t give it to him he screamed, then when I reached down for him he bit my hand. I eventually took him to the ‘screaming room’, which he wasn’t happy about, and wanted to leave. Eventually he calmed down a little and I brought him back out on the couch and sat him on my lap, then suddenly he was calm and quiet.

Finally got going after that, and left for Dream Forest at 10. He was very mellow on the busride there and had continued to rub his eyes through the morning. As we walked by the visitor center at the park I pointed in the windows and said I saw mirror August. He replied with “I see mirror dada.” As we passed the first water play area he said “Dada was sad right here. Go in the deeper one.” – referring to when it didn’t turn on and I didn’t understand why and I wanted it deeper. We went to GS25 and got kimbap, and he spotted the fruit cup things. We got grapefruit and pineapple, and he was excited for both. I was looking around a bit more and he said “Ready to pay.” We went out and sat at one of the tables and ate there. He didn’t like the grapefruit but ate the pineapple, and used the little fork thing to get a few pieces, and he offered some to Smokey. Getting his own pineapple and dripping reminded him of the drippy oatmeal he had with mama awhile back. There were some moms and kids at the table next to us, and we saw a pink water bottle: “Sad about the purple one. “ “Where?” “That she had at the spiderweb playground.” Remembering a few weeks back when he wanted the purple water bottle that a girl had at the new playground.

We had about 20 minutes until the water turned on (I thought), so we went to the playground. He played in the bushes area a bit, then wanted to walk on the wire containers full of rocks that make a wall around it. As he walked along he started saying “All the way to this stream, boop.” on each square. At noon we went up and…no water. I looked on the sign by the floor fountain. There hadn’t been a sign with times on it last time we were here, but it had turned on at noon on a Monday. Now, there WAS a sign, and it said…Saturday and Sunday only. Very weird, as it wasn’t the case last year, and there was a water shortage last year… Anyway, we went back to the first water play area (where the party was on Sunda) and it too was off. That HAD had a sign too, and didn’t list dates, just times. Now that sign has been replaced too, with one saying just Saturday and Sunday.

We’d been out in the heat for a couple of hours by the time I got him ready for his nap and he fell asleep, and I thought about cutting our day short and going home after his nap. I changed him, then he randomly said, full sentence,  “Babies pee in the water in the wading pool.” I asked “Does Zinnie?” And he instantly replied “Yeah”. This is odd as he always has had a diaper on. Don’t know where this came from.

He fell asleep and had a short nap, 12:52 to 1:34. But when he woke up he then cuddled on me until 1:48. He wanted to play in the book area. We looked at books a bit, then he did art on the iPad, first just sitting on the floor. Then he traced letters and changed fonts.

We went out and went to the art show at the Dream Gallery. He was open to it, but not terribly excited, although he ended up liking a few pieces. After we had seen it all I asked what was his favorite, and he said the “Ssssshhh” one of a person making the shushing sign. He said it reminded him of the espanol book, and I figured out it was the Curious George book where he goes to the library.

We left, and made our way through the north route to APIS. We looked at one park but there was no water. At the second park we came across (벌말어린이공원) he played with a low faucet, and spent much of his time pouring water on his own sandals. We then kept going, passing a third park that was pretty boring, and hiked over the hill through a fourth park (비석골근린공원) to meet Carly at the Tospia sandwich shop for an early dinner at 4. August really liked walking through the trees: He was saying “Sky…trees” as we went from clearing to trees and back, and “watch out for the trees.” We came across a cat house that someone had set up, and he liked the stones we came across that are part of the old cemetary. He wanted more walking through trees when we got out.  We stood waiting for Carly for a couple minutes, and he said “Waiting here.” He startled her pretty well when she showed up and he saw her first.

We ordered sandwiches with Carly, walked around a little, then went to the park across from APIS (안골어린이공원) and ate them. August was sad when he dropped a piece of ham. Actually, he was fine with that, but then had the idea of eating it, and was sad when Carly wouldn’t let him. But when a piece of ice fell later when he was eating our ice he was fine, saying “That’s fine. That’s okay.”

Carly went back to school for the 8th grade graduation, and August and I decided to head up to 초안어린이공원, a park a bit farther north. Before we left though a couple of guys gave August a little fruit thing they had gotten off a tree. August was carrying it as we walked up a street, but he dropped it. He told me, but by the time we turned back the one car that came out of a parking lot had driven over it. He handled it well, and actually found it funny even though he’d been making plans to eat it.

Before getting to the park, we finally got into the Buddhist temple along the way. It has two historical markers in it, but the gates are never opened. We read and took photos of those (he wanted me to read one in Chinese), then went to the park. There, he was first attracted to the water, but then went to the big rope play strcutre thing (which he called the “B one” for some reason). He did some climbing on it, and stood on it, shaking it. It was like the spider web at the new playground, only much, much bigger. He saw big kids up high, above my head, and wanted to go up there. I did help him climb up about to my head level, but that was it. Actually, I was just spotting him, as he was doing a pretty good job climbing.

From there we headed yet further north, to a park on Google Maps located back behind an apartment complex. Thought it might be mislabeled, but we did find a very cool playgrou
nd near what Google calls 원계근린공원. The play structure was awesome – it is a huge elephant. August climbed on a little curving red ladder once, then just looked around. We startled two cats that were hanging out in the structure, and watched them for a couple minutes before deciding we should head back. Changed him, then we went back to APIS and met Carly across the street again. Before we left that last park, he had said “I don’t want to be sad.” and we were doing pretend sad, surprised, etc.

His favorite sentence recently, but especially today, is: “what does dada say?” He says it anytime I say something he doesn’t fully understand, or if I just haven’t said anything in awhile.

Also, as we were walking, he was asking “10 plus 10 equals…” and I would answer 20, then he would say “20 plus 20 equals…” and I would say 40. We got up to 160 that way. As we walked home with Carly he was doing something similar, then applied it to words, saying “Mama plus mama equals mama mama” and then I’m pretty sure he doubled that…or at least said a whole lot of ‘mama’s after it.

At home, he wanted to watch the video of Vivian dancing, and then he danced with her. That was pretty amazing. We were then writing words from the pigeon book on paper, and suddenly he started copying the pigeon, like he saw Carly doing the other day. He drew a circle and put a dot in it for the eye, then drew two rectangles underneath – the neck and the white band on the neck. That was very cool to see. We then got out his sticker book things, and he really got into the matching part of it, which had been to complicated for him before. Every time he would figure out where a sticker went he would give me a bunch of high fives. Finally, he took the “Book from Meg” to bed and went to sleep at 9:30.

New words/phrases: no thank you (when eating dinner, I think it was, Carly had asked him something and he just out and said this)

 He grew again:

Cuddling with Peter Rabbit: 

Lunch: 

Playground: 

Flying: 

After his nap: 

His favorite piece: 

Tree playground park: 

With mama and after. Sad about the ham: 

Fruit: 

Fascinated by men playing go on our walk home: 

Home: 

Pigeon:

Seoul Grand Zoo

Our last trip to the big zoo before heading to the States! We made the most of it, and he just kept wanting more and more animals.

He started waking up at 5. He was talking a lot about mama – pretty sure he was dreaming about getting home and looking for mama, or something along those lines. He nursed and dozed until getting up at 5:40. After she left, he cuddled with Peter Rabbit and me and we read Humpty Dumpty several times. He was then watching one of the 5-TOUCH videos, and when there was a song about frogs he wanted his froggy towel and wore it a bit. He saw my phone and wanted to watch videos on it, so I let him watch our videos on YouTube. He requested “answer me questions, picnic table, eating kimbap”, referring to the spot by the little pond where we have eaten several times and I’ve quizzed him on spelling words. Before we left, he wanted the spray bottle, and I let him have it as I changed him and got him in the backpack. He was happily spraying everything he could from both spots. He tried for a second to convince me to take it with us, but I explained it was mama’s and it had to stay here and he was fine with it.

We left right at 8 – seemed early, but the earlier the better. On the Subway he did art on the iPad most of the way down. For much of the time he was using the paint roller tool and layering colors over colors. It made me think of Tristan Tzara and the Dadaists. But then he switched tools and drew something in red and as he did so said “Whale in there…draw seaweed.” I helped him switch to green, then he drew squiggly lines as seaweed. His first intentionally representative piece of art.

From that he moved to the cursive app, and we got into switching fonts. He really liked different fonts, and learned the word, and after watching me do it a couple times figured out how to change it himself.

We made the long walk up to the zoo, stopping first at C U for kimbap, a fried egg sandwich, and 3 mango soymilks – one for today and two for him to have on the plane. We also slowed on the walk up to look at a bunch of photos they had up of scenes around Seoul Grand Park. August wanted to eat right away, which made sense as a.) he was up early and b.) except for a couple bites of quesadilla that Carly had left for him, neither of us had had breakfast.

We got to the zoo, and first he wanted to look at the paintings of animals near the entrance. He picked out the Asian black bear and declared he wanted to see that today. We went back and got a map, and he wanted it. I folded it so he could see most of the zoo and handed it to him in the backpack. He saw the flamingos and giraffes and wanted to see them. So we walked to the flamingos and watched them for several minutes. Or, more correctly, watched the zookeepers spraying with a hose and preparing food. After 10 minutes or so he wanted to eat, so we went to a blue-covered picinic table from which we could see both the flamingos and giraffes and ate there.  He liked the sandwich (sans the lettuce, which I took out) and it was the first non-PB sandwich he has really eaten and held on his own. Odd milestone, I know, but stuck out to me.

He had pooped, so we went to change him in the changing room. Despite talking about the sit up/lie down ‘game’ and pointing out how nice the changing tables were, he didn’t want to lie down, then I realized that poop was squeezing out of his shorts. So we did it standing up, and got through it. We left, and got him in the backpack, and he was ready for a nap: “Nap time”. We walked a bit and he fell asleep, and slept in the cafeteria area near the dolphin show from 11:28 to 12:45. When he woke up he said “Would you like to get out sir?” and answered his own question, “Yes!” We looked at the map again, and he decided he wanted to go to the South American pavilion. So we headed there, but first he saw the dolphin fountain and we watched that for a couple minutes. We also saw the pictures of different whales and learned ‘dolphin’ and ‘whale’ in Korean (고래 and 도고래 ) and Spanish. On our way up the hill, we were then distracted by the predator birds, and saw the hawks and eagles and condors. We were up by an Andean condor when he heard loud birds. It was the sea eagles and we went back down to see them making noise.

We got to the South American pavilion and saw a bunch of new animals for August: llamas, maras, tapirs, capybaras, crocodile, caiman, anteaters, armadillos, raccoons. We also saw coatis, which he said were hiding, and later talked about how they were climbing in the trees, and all sorts of turtles, which he called in Korean, and anacondas. We left out the back and started to walk up and around to see the bison, then head to the water. He was talking about playing in the water: “Want to play in the water like a snakes doing…and a turtle.” By the bison we found a couple of cats on the path, then stopped on a platform and had a snack. We then kept walking, and saw tahrs, which were new to both of us.

We walked through the little wildlife conservation education building, and then outside that he saw a big map of the park. He looked at it, and got hooked on the botanical garden (which we call the conservatory). He kept choosing that, and look at other animals, over going and playing in the stream. Took a long time to get out of the zoo, as we were literally at the far end of the zoo, and August had chosen the longest path. Along the way we saw the Asian black bears, got down to see the otters and get Smokey out, played ‘Smokey sees…’ and finally made it to the botanical gardens. We went in for a few minutes, then continued on our way out, seeing the lesser pandas and zebras, then walking to the pond area for a second to put his hat back on, which he had taken off. He wanted to get down and get rocks and was sad when I said no. I then pointed out the koi, which got his attention, and he remembered the time by the National Museum when he saw the older boys throwing food to the koi and August thought it was really messy:  “Remember the messy…the koi one…want to find three messy things, dropping food to the koi fish.”

As we left the zoo he kept saying “More…more animals.” The trip home was unevenful, and we got home at 5:26. Thought we had gotten home before Carly, so he was ready to drop off our stuff then go out to the elevators to meet her, but she had gotten home early and August was very surprised by that.

Straightforward evening. He ate nutty noodles and Carly gave him a bath. He was asleep at 7:40.

New words/phrases: font, 고래 도고래, conservatory, 텃밭 (vegetable garden), bañera (bath)

Cuddling and reading: 

His picture on the way down: 

A new song: 

Map: 

Maras: 

Sandwich fun: 

More maps: 

Resting with Smokey: 

Headed home: 

Transferring to the bus: 

Today we went to brunch with Megan in the morning, went to a little giveaway event, and then in the afternoon returned to the park we recently found with a fountain.

He got up at 6:20 and was nursing and sleeping on the reading area until 7:20. Carly was finally able to get up, but then he woke up for good a couple minutes later. They then had a long Skype call with Cherie. One of Carly’s animal paintings, originally from his mobile, fell down and Carly got tape to put it back up. August wanted to act like the animals, remembering the Elmo Loves Animals app. He acted like a fish and eagle, then wanted to do the octopus. One of the paintings looks like seaweed, so that’s what I called it, and August wanted to be seaweed. This was his favorite, and I would pick him up and he’d put his arms up in the air and we’d float back and forth. He then developed a little skit where he’d get down, then pretend to bite me, I’d say “Don’t eat me! I thought you didn’t like seaweed.” and he’d say something about seaweed in the kimbap.

Later in the morning, I went to change him before we left, and he only wanted to read the Korean poster by his changing pad. After changing him, he had the spray bottle, and he’s starting to get a bit wild with it, thinking he can spray everything, since he can now aim and fire with ease. I tried to give him his vitamins, but he sprayed them and they turned soggy. Finally, we got him in the backpack, ready to go, and I brushed his hair. He’s asking ‘What kind of…’ questions, and asked “What kind of brush?” Carly said “Oma brush”, since she gave it to us. From there August went to the Ladybug song (which Cherie taught him): “Ladybug…flew away…sad bout that.”

We walked down to this brunch place called 502 Seconds a couple blocks south of us that we’d never been to. We were meeting Meg there, but didn’t know if it would be open due to Memorial Day. Happily, a woman came and opened the doors at 10. We waited outside, and August played on the piano on the porch to the left of the restaurant. Brunch was good, and August had fun, first looking at all the cushions (they had a deer on them), then trying out all the different chairs, then eating, then just kind of roaming around and performing. At one point he was hiding behind his shirt. Meg gave me a piece of art by a student who graduated a couple years ago. She had remembered I had really liked it, and it was framed. It was a thank you for letting her borrow my camera to do the AP Studio Art portfolios. And she gave August a picture book about Leo Tolstoy called The Three Questions. We all hung out outside for awhile before we left, and August took a bunch of photos, primarily of the piano. I then took his photo with Meg and the book, and she took a family photo of us. Also, she got some wonderful shots of August when he was looking out the door at her. She left and we stayed a few minutes longer as he played around. He saw an ant carrying a piece of food and said “Thank you ant he said” (the ant was thanking someone).

We stopped at a playground in that apartment complex for a few minutes, and all went on the swings, then Carly took him over to see the recycling truck that he could hear. We went home and he took a short nap, from about 12:25 to 1. After his nap, he noticed we hard hung the piece of art on the wall and he liked it. He pointed at the open mouth on it and said “Circle…mouth is a circle.” Then traced his own mouth with his finger. He requested the seaweed thing: “Want to be like seaweed with dada.” Then did painting, mixing colors, and I skyped with parents. He wasn’t much into Skyping today, instead wanting to wash his hands a couple times, then playing in the sink with the water, and then the spray bottle.

At 2 we went to 3 other apartments here in Brownstone, where people who are leaving APIS were giving stuff away. We came away with some lightbulbs and some food items. August wasn’t into it at first, but got better by the end.

We came home for awhile, then decided to go outside in the afternoon. Carly needed some help getting going, so I told August, who was hyper, to blow some energy on mama, and he had fun doing that. He wanted in the stroller, and when Carly opened the tray for him he said “Thank you”. I washed his hand or something, and he asked “What is the messy?”, a question he asks all the time now. He is most confused when there isn’t something visibly messy. So I was explaining germs and he was really trying to understand, but looked skeptical.

We walked up to the Love Children’s Park that August and I had found the other day. We were a little early for the 5 o’clock fountain time, so we walked around the block first, up some streets we’ve never been on. At the park, he first played in the sand. Carly was filling the bucket with water from the faucet, and he was using the cup to pour it in the sand. Carly warned him the faucet might spray him, and he would retreat a long way away. When the fountain turned on, we went over there. Carly mainly played with him and I watched. She was filling the bucket for him from the big jets and he would dump it out.

We headed home after it was off. At home he wanted to nurse, but Carly was trying to wait until he was ready to sleep. We shared some nutty noodles, then Carly gave him his bath. We watched some Korean videos, then he dumped out the crayons and otok some convincing to get him to pick them back up. He was then going wild with the spray bottle again, spraying our word signs and everything else, so we had to take that away. He and Carly had read the Tolstoy book a couple times today, and he requested it once with me as well: “Read the book from Meg”. He fell asleep about 7:20.

New words/phrases:  what kind of…

 

Back asleep on and off the reading area:

Brunch:

With Meg and the new book: 

One of August’s photos: 

Photos that Meg took: 

With mama before we left: 

Our new art: 

Out on our walk: 

Sarang (Love) Children’s Park:

Carly filling the bucket: 

Mama and August Berry: 

He was up at 7:20. In the morning we made a card for Chloe using the cake thing from his 5-Touch class and putting stickers on it. Inside, he wrote his name and ‘gargatuan’, and traced ‘Happy Birthday Chloe’. He also put a lot of stickers on the floor. We left and headed to the bus stop, wanting me to run along the way. On the bus a man fanned August with a paper fan and August kept asking for ‘more’ and was also signing it.

We got to the park about 9:45. We found Jill and Logan, and he started by wading with Carly in the play area. He then got on top of the fountain part and was putting his foot in the water as it came up, and his hand in the waterfall part on the edge. I then got him the bucket and he played with that, and when Chloe arrived she borrowed a cup and the shovel. Later, August wanted to use the shovel, and he went over to ask for it, but she had her back to him and he couldn’t figure out how to ask for it. A boy came by and sprayed him a few times with a little squirt gun and August liked it and asked for more: “on the pigeon…more squirting.” Played a bit more, then we headed over to the picnic tables and ate. He rejected the first Korean raspberry, but after that ate them. He ate the ‘Logan snacks’ and a few other things, then found it fun to dip the Logan snacks or freeze-dried strawberries in the ranch dip and give them to me to eat…which was interesting. We stayed there  for quite awhile, then went back up to the water for a minute, then they were going to do cake. Went back for that, and August loved the cake, starting with the white chocolate on top, then eating the “white stuff” (frosting) “yellow” (the cake) and the “red” (filling). He fell off the bench, but handled it pretty well, despite getting a little scrape on his forehead. It was time for a nap, so we changed him, and went for a walk. Took a little while to get him down, what with all the excitement in the park (wading pools on, etc.) so I kept walking while Carly went on up to the coffee shop. Walked the paths in the north corner of the park until he fell asleep. Went back to the coffee shop and he slept from 1:08 to 2:04.

Headed home, stopping at the info center for water. Had to stand up on the crowded bus, but we made it. Home, they nursed, and then were reading Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. One page says “We could count the stars.” so August asked where the stars were. So they came out and Carly drew the same picture, but included the stars above. August then did some painting, and I turned on some music. He started dancing to a Cloud Cult song. He was being pretty funny, and put his head right up against the fan to feel the wind, then was holding the red paint tube in his mouth. After that he found the snot sucker and was trying to put it in his nose and use it. We watched some Korean songs and looked up words, then he was cuddling with Carly on the couch.

I was getting a headache, so laid down for awhile, and Carly took him out in the stroller. I got up after awhile and went out to find them, but Carly wasn’t answering the phone (it was in the stroller and she didn’t hear it), so I hung out in our park, where a Korean concert was happeneing. Eventually, Carly called back and said they were at the new playground in the apartments up by Madeul. I walked up there and found them playing in the sand. August was filling his sandal with sand and joking about putting it on. He had apparently started something, as another girl was putting sand in her shoe, and Carly said another kid had been doing it earlier. Earlier, Carly had been able to spin August on the spinny thing in the play area.

On the way home, I was hiding behind the trees and jumping out, which he liked until he wanted me to stop: “No hiding by the trees.” He then wanted Carly to run while pushing the stroller: “Want to run with mama.”

At home, Carly was eating something and August wanted some: “What is it the food that mama ate?…What is it mama got?” I gave him a bath (he wanted his hair washed), and August spotted a mosquito looking thing on the side of the table that we could barely see. He said “What is the green one?” Not sure exactly, but we called it a mosquito. I caught it in a container, then August went out with me to release it out the window at the end of the hall. He and Carly went to sleep about 9:30 again.

New words/phrases: reading 꽃 (flower) on a sign

 

He figured out how to save his monsters in Sago mini Monsters as pictures. Here is one of many: 

The party: 

Watching Logan: 

Watching Chloe: 

After his nap: 

Home. The stars:

Painting: 

Cuddling: 

Playground: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

Carly remembers him laughing in his sleep sometime last night. He slept all the way until 8:23. I had my book group meeting to discuss *Breakfast at Tiffany’s* starting at 7:30, and was done a little after 9. Carly was going to do the recycling, but August didn’t want to let her go: “Dada do recycling. Mama Zinnie have fun.” After I got back, he was playing the piano and singing, sort of doing ascending scales. Then he did it a few times, only not pushing the keys as he went, but just singing notes. Suddenly, he decided he wanted to go outside, a little before 10: “Want mama to come.” At some point he was reciting lines from the shapes book, which they had read several times during the morning. As we left, he accidentally elbowed Carly in the face, then kissed her and did a nose rub to make it better.

We first went down to the ATM, where he was not happy having to wait for Carly again. We then went to Home Plus. Carly went ahead to do shopping, while I kept him occupied. He walked through the first basement, touching all the clothes as he went, then looked at aquariums. We went down the walkway, and he looked at food a bit, we found mama,  and he grabbed the Yachae crackers – they hadn’t had them in a box in some time, but he found them. He then happily carried his discovery as we left the store.

Carly headed home to start making nutty noodles, and we stayed in the park. He first played on the bench in front of the art museum. A woman came up and was talking to him and wanted to shake his hand – he put his arm out and shook hers. We then we went into the play area in the art museum. He played in there for several minutes, but mainly stayed on the steps/cushions, mainly listening to and entertaining the adults. He was done there and wanted to go look at art. As we walked down the stairs to the basement level he slipped and somehow fell sideways on the stairs. Didn’t really hurt him, but he decided he wanted to head home.

Of course, plans changed when we got to the faucets. Played there, then went over to the playground. There, he stood on one side of the elliptical with both feet while I held his hands and we figured out how to make him go in circles. We went back to the water, and finally I coaxed him home at 12:20 as I was wanting lunch.

At home Carly finished making the nutty noodles. While we waited, August and I shared some salmon and crackers. And he played more “Do you write on this?” He then got quite upset that he couldn’t go in the kitchen, but eventually she was done and he enoyed some nutty noodles. He pooped, and was jumping with poop in his diaper and found that funny. There was something on the floor, and he said “That’s not a chair for Zinnie to sit on.”

He fell asleep and had a long nap, sleeping until 2:58. Carly had left about 2:30 to go to graduation. He was sad to find her gone: “want mama. Want to read.” He wanted to work on the “Cada Semilla“ song, so we watched the video several times and had the words up on the phone while we did. Then watched some Korean songs, and he requested milk in is green cup. He also requested some frozen mango, but then only played with it.

Around 3:30 we headed out, headed for Madeul Stadium or points farther north. We went to a park we had missed in our wanderings up there before, called 사랑어린이공원 (Love Children’s Park). We walked around and saw it had a fountain area that would turn on at 5. So we wandered around a bit more, but he wasn’t quick to get out of the backpack. We ended up looking at the map, and it became a lesson in maps, in that he would point to one of the numbers on the map, then I would turn around and show him what it was on the ground. He seemed to really get it, and kept pointing to objects and numbers over and over. Probably spent 10 or 15 minutes there.

Then got him out and he did a little climbing on the play structure, then we waited for the fountain to turn on. It did, and we found that only two of the jets worked fully. This was actually really nice, as there were two that barely sprayed at all, and one that was about a foot and a half high. He could play with those. He was hesitant at first, but got more bold. I got the bucket, and he spent much of the time filling it from the taller one and dumping water down the drain: goes down the drain”. For the last few minutes some bigger kids came and were spraying the water around, but August seemed to like watching them. He wasn’t happy when it turned off, and we did a little more map fun. While at the map, he saw two girls standing on the ends of a teeter totter. He wanted him and dada to do that. Then, a boy was crying (it was the boy whose mother, earlier, had had him pee into a random bottle, then she set it on the curb around the park – August hadn’t seen that, but later he saw the bottle and wanted to hold it, and I had to tell him no). August wanted to see, so we walked by, then back again the other way. August wanted to stop and watch, but I wouldn’t do that, and he wasn’t happy with me.

But we made it out of there, then walked a bit more north to remind ourselves what the park north of that was like – we had been there sometime last spring and had played in a faucet. We saw one of those little book exchange booths and August picked out a Korean book about a rabbit who receives a letter, so we took it with us.

Got home about 6:30, a little after Carly. Ate nutty noodles for dinner, then he had a lot of fun watching videos of himself. He decided he wanted to “Type to gramma”, so we did that. He saw the Frida book, and said “That’s mama’s book, Frida.” Since August had liked the map today, Carly drew him a map of the apartment, with things labeled on it like “The table August sits on“. He enjoyed reading it and writing on it. He played in the sink, and at some point I had given him a bath. I changed him, and he said “What is it the messy on the butt? Just poop.” He and Carly went to sleep about 9:30.

New words/phrases: surprised, forget, mango chiquita,

Piano:

To Home Plus: 

Crackers: 

Waving bye bye to mama (long after she was gone): 

Hanging out with the adults: 

Water: 

Love Children’s Park: 

Home: