Category: Uncategorized

He slept until 7:55 – a long sleep. He nursed at 5, but that was a long time before nursing. He was cuddling on his knees on my chest on the couch, but wanted the iPad when he heard me reach for the phone. Wanted “A ah apple” song, but I pulled up the wrong song and he said “That’s not A Ah Apple!” Got the correct song (the tongue twister one) and watched a few more, then we made oatmeal and ate that. He gave me the last bite, which he often does. He then watched the video from class, and at 9 we went down to meet Atsuko and get the tart she made me for my birthday. I told him we were going down to meet Atsuko and he said “Atsuko is…? Atsuko is a…?” We ate some of the tart (he really liked it) and then brushed his teeth and finished getting ready to go and left at 9:45.

He got impatient on the train – was fine until two stops were left, then wanted the iPad, but was frustrated I wouldn’t get it out, so did a little screaming. The rain was still holding on, despite forecasts saying it should be ending. We looked at some boards with art on them near the entrance to the park, then walked to the children’s museum.

It was the first time in a couple months that he has played on the first floor or in the basement. He kept saying “Remember this!” Started with the chalk, then went and made letters and shapes on the floor out of the magnet strips (“Make an A…Zinn Zinn do it.”), and wandered around to the major things around there: cotton balls in the glass, the minerals, the insect sounds. He was wandering on his own, but would occasionally want to make sure I was coming along:  “Want dada to come.” We went downstairs and had it to ourselves. He stomped on the circles that light up, then wandered around, with him directing me as I carried him: “Go past here.” We played with the blue blocks, starting to make a tunnel, but then using them to make numbers on the ground. He was trying to complete the 4, but got frustrated when he couldn’t push a block. We payed around there, then went up to the cafeteria and ate lunch. From there, we went down to the book room. He chose the Oh No! and I see… books and we took ours up to reading loft. He wanted to read with the dinosaurs. Did that for awhile. He heard a baby crying and said “Hear the sad baby.” He went down and found a big book about insects and got excited: “Read this! Read this!” He was starting to get energetic though, and started waling around, repeating a Korean phrase from the video, and crawling along the floor saying “ganchum” (crawling or inching, sort of). He was trying to look at a little window which was a little over his head, saying “Hard to get up here” and repeating “rectangle” (the shape of the window). I changed him, and he wanted to see the faucet. It is one with a sensor that doesn’t work very well, and he said “More buggy faucet” and “Look at all the bubbles.”

We went outside and he played on a grate and dropped down rocks. Then he wanted up and cuddled with me, covering his eyes. Clearly tired. I tried putting him in the backpack, but he said “More cuddling”. That happened twice, then I said “How about Camel as a pillow?” He thought about that, then pointed and said “More camel” and I was able to put him in. He immediately covered his eyes with Camel and put down his head. Seemed like he was asleep after just a minute, but I walked over to check on the wading pool (no change). I went to the first floor coffee shop, and he popped up his head when I ordered. Seemed like he would just fall to sleep easily, but he kept putting his head down for a few minutes, then lifting it up. Walked around outside for a total of 40 minutes, to 2, at which point I was going to give up, and he started talking anyway. Went back to the coffee shop and hung out there, since I had already bought my maple latte. He traced words and letters, and I did some reading. He tried using one of our recent Korean app purchases, one part of which doesn’t work. He declared “It’s a buggy app.” After a half hour or so he got up and started playing around, going on tippy toes and running around, and then stomping. He wanted some water, and enjoyed drinking the cold water from a cup. He started spinning and reciting a line from a song (“bingul, bingul, bingul, jak, jak, jak” spin, spin, spin, clap, clap, clap), and wanted to hop. We did that a little – he wanted to hop on specific words on the floor, like ‘ice cream’ and ‘delicious’. His lack of a nap showed though when he started to get loud. He had wanted up and then started shouting “A!” I just shushed him and he screamed and started pinching me and bit my hand. Very brief – like 10 seconds – then I was able to quiet him down, get our stuff, and leave. He was fine after that, and said “Sorry Dada for screaming and biting” once we were on the train.

At home, we read with Peter Rabbit. He went through another new Bob Book, word for word, only stumbling on ‘soft’. He was hungry, so we had a Larabar. He bit his tongue or lip and was balled up on my chest when Carly and Megan got home just after 5:30. He popped up and had fun with Megan for a few minutes. After she left he nursed, and kept wanting to fall asleep. We kept him awake, and started his bath. Carly gave him his bath, then I left for the store. I got groceries, then went to the little book store and bought a couple of Hangeul/Korean workbooks for August. I came home and he was still awake – curled up on Carly, hiding behind Where the Wild Things Are, which they had been reading. Carly took him in to bed a little before 8. He lined up books again, they read a little, and he was asleep at 8.

New words/phrases: buggy, all the, reading ‘delicious’ ‘ice cream’

Watching:

Trying some tart: 

What an escalator looks like when it is delivered: 

Children’s Museum: 

Superman: 

Reading with the dinosaur: 

Playing on the grate: 

Cuddling: 

After his nap: 

Home: 

Seoul Grand Zoo

He woke up at 7:07 and came out and we cuddled on the couch for 7 minutes before he got up and sat on the couch chanting A A A A A A A A A. We ate Cheerios for breakfast and he spent some time tracing Hangeul on the iPad. We left the house at 8:20 and made the long trek to Seoul Grand Park. On the long walk into the park we watched a huge group of people doing calisthenics – had never done that before. We did our usual turning on of faucets on the walk in, and stopped to trace the Chinese written on the bridge with our fingers. The new glass bridge panels have drawings by kids on them, and he wanted to see the “Funny M” – I think it was something we saw last time looking at the drawings, but the drawings have changed since them.

We had stopped at the CU and bought some kimbap, eggs, veggie chips, and a mango soy milk. Once in the zoo we walked to the giraffes and sat at a picnic table, under blue-green glass, where we could watch the giraffes. We ate an early lunch, and played under the blue-green glass for awhile, then went and looked at the giraffes, then he got interested in the springboks to the left and we looked at them. I then changed him in the changing room for the first time, since we were close to the entrance – usually we are farther in the park. He is not at all fond of changing tables nowadays, worried about falling, although he never has. In fact, Carly says he woke up at 4 or so saying “falling, falling” to nurse (breaking his 3 night streak). But he doesn’t mind sitting on the changing table. Kind of changed that around as I started a “sit…lie down” game, making him do one, then the other. He thought this was pretty funny, and requested the game again as I packed up.

We were talking about what to do next – as usual, there is so much to do that our plans change from minute to minute. We were talking about going to the stream, but I told him we had to first walk to the playground, as we couldn’t go down to the stream where we were. He thought about this and said “Go up to the playground, THEN go to the stream.” Of course, on our way things caught our attention. He had mentioned going to see bats, so we did that along the way. We say the bats, kinkajous, and porcupines, and spotted the civet before we headed on. He had been carrying a gingko leaf since we left the changing room that he wanted to drop in the water, so when we got to the pedestrian bridge by the playground he dropped it in. We were able to see it on the other side of the bridge and watched it go downstream. He spent a few minutes looking at things from the bridge, then we headed down to the playground (turning on faucets on the way).

In the playground he played by himself with the shovel in the sand for several minutes and I read. He then wanted to go down to the water. We went down and climbed around on the rocks and scooped water, then stood/sat on the edge and dropped rocks in the stream. Trice he used “pretty please” on his own – which I assume he learned from Carly, as I don’t think I use it. Once when wanting help to step from one rock to another, and once when asking me to go find more rocks. We did that for quite awhile, then went up to change him again and get ready for a nap. Up there, there was a school group eating lunch. August wanted to go up to them and sing ABC. He wasn’t clear on who he wanted to sing ABC. I think he wanted to do it, but then when he walked up to them, I heard him saying a few things, but was too shy to sing.

We got walking, and first ate a Larabar, then he fell asleep quite quickly. I bought a cheap latte from a little stand and went into the cafeteria by the dolphin show and sat down. He slept from 12:57 to 2:18. He woke up and when I asked if he had had a good nap, he said “Yeah!” He really liked the flies on the window, and a kind of scary yellow and black insect that kind of looked like a mantis, and I saw grab a little fly and eat it. He wanted to read, so we went right outside on the other side of the glass and read Double Dare and Curious George. He drank water from my ice and remembered Double Dare, reciting “‘Onesie twosie’ he said in a mocking tone.” We looked more at the yellow insect before we left.

We made our way out of the park, stoping to see the elands, sable antelopes, lions for the first time, oryx, ostriches, and hippos. We went through the little animal sculpture area and played Smokey Sees. He had been saying things like “See the D” for dolphin, and at one point he said “See a K…This is funny.” As we walked, we heard a weed eater, and August was making the humming noise. And he imitated the squawking noise of the water birds. Before we left the park, we stopped and watched the flamingos. He made their noise as well, and watched them intently. He was then trying to count them. When we went to leave he said on his own “Bye flamingos!” As we walked out, a girl about his age ran around by my feet and he looked at her and said “She’s looking for food.” That’s what he says for all the animals he sees now too.

We made our way home. A guy on the subway was very impressed with August reading a Bob Book and talked to August quite a bit. We transferred to the 1144 bus – August wanted to see the Hello Kitty things in the vending machines, but they weren’t in there anymore. We got home about 5:30. Spent much of the evening with mama, and Carly gave him a bath. He read the Mat Hid Bob Book with me, but wanted to play hide-and-seek too: “Want to help in the book like Sam. Want a real one…helping Dot. Sad bout it.”

He lined up books to read in bed, and when he was ready to turn out the lights came out and said “Happy Birthday, Dada.” He was asleep about 8:20.

New words/phrases: plugged (referring to the faucets), more use of ‘then’, pretty please, 기린(giraffe), hay (pointing to what the giraffes were eating – not sure where he learned that)

 

Chanting “A A A…” 

Lunch by the giraffes: 

Looking at the giraffes: 

Standing on the bridge on tippy toes:

Reading after lunch: 

Walking through the zoo: 

Flamingos: 

Headed home: 

Oh and we saw this on our way into the park: 

Home. Hiding behind Mat Hid: 

He was up at 7:10. He didn’t nurse during the night, making it three nights in a row. He nursed and read Walking the Bridge of Your Nose with Carly. A bit later he and I were doing stickers, finishing up the stickers from his class that just ended, and putting shapes stickers on the drawer unit: “Mama is sitting by the stars.” (He had put the sticker of the mother on the camping trip up by the sky.) “Square is like a cube.” For the shape stickers he was at first stacking them on the side of the drawer unit, then making lines of them. He also tried climbing on top of it, but couldn’t really get started on that. He also thought it was funny putting one on my forehead: “Put it on dada’s cheek!”

Carly made French Toast for breakfast, and I got ready to leave. Meg is moving to Moscow, so is only in Seoul for 3 more weeks, and we were going to the Heyri Art Village northwest of Seoul, near the DMZ and the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

While I was gone they went to the store (we actually walked out at the same time). They bought some watermelon and he ended up eating a lot of it. He took a two and a half hour nap, waking up in the middle from a bad dream and saying “Want to hold it.” After the nap, Carly bribed him into the stroller with the letter crackers, telling him they were stroller crackers. But once in it he loved the stroller. They went up to Madeul and he played in the water with a cup and pail and shovel. They played by the piano sculpture for a few minutes, then went to the ‘new’ playground in the apartment complex, played on the spider web, then played in the sand with his toys. There was a girl there about his age, and Carly asked him to share the cup, and he handed it to her. Later, the girl’s mom left for a few minutes and came back with some juices and gave August one. He said “Thank you!” without being prompted.

Meg and I had a good outing. We first had lunch, having a caprese sandwich and macchiato at a place called Farmer’s Table, supposedly slightly famous because some K-Drama was filmed there. We then went to the modern history museum, which is a building full of stuff from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Just packed with stuff, and comically undersized mannequins. Really cool though. Meg had borrowed my camera for AP Art portfolios and returned it, so I had fun shooting in the museum – mannequins are amazingly easier to shoot than a two-year-old. We then stopped at the ice cream bus and had ice cream, then walked around a bit more. We found a couple galleries and a handmade toys shop – interesting stuff, but not overwhelming. Before we left we walked around a last couple of buildings and found an African goods shop. I bought a kalimba and little wooden giraffe for August.

When I came home, August said “Happy birthday dada!” Carly had made a berry thing in the rice cooker and they had made a card together. Very nice of them, and a good surprise. He wanted me to say letters, and I started hiding and then popping out and saying them, and he was laughing hysterically. He had been hyper since they got back from their walk. We shared our dinner (spaghetti), then I was holding him while he did ‘Rocky like a chimpanzee’. We did more stickers from class, then I pulled him around in the laundry basket (now he wanted to hear the “ssss” sound). He wanted me to keep taking him to touch the Teuni ball, mama, etc. I hung up laundry, and he went reading with Carly, but then showed up to me with a Korean book to read. We sat in the changing room and read it a couple times. We had blown up a butterfly thing from his class, and he got the idea to trace it. We did that on paper, then he and I were drawing shapes. August said something to Carly and she said “uhh” in response. August started laughing, and wanted her to say it again. To him it sounded like the ㅡ character in Hangeul, so he started drawing it on the paper. Our phones kept getting notifications in Kakao for a conversation that was happening, and August kept copying the notification sound.

Finally, about 9 he went on his own and lined up books to read at the end of the bed, then he went and found a shirt that he wanted to wear for pajamas. He was ready for bed. He was asleep about 9:20. Sometime after 11 he sat up and said a few words. I saw Carly get up and lay him back down, and he fell back asleep without nursing.

In the morning they had been drawing on the paper and he was drawing shapes. Carly had drawn a line that he didn’t like, and he was explaining he was sad “because” of what she had done. Wasn’t all grammatically correct, but he was using ‘because’ in a nice complex sentence.

New words/phrases: because

Morning:

Wih mama:

Evening: 

Books and shirt, ready for bed: 

He didn’t nurse again during the night. But it was kind of short, as he was up at 5:50. I had woken up sneezing at 4, and didn’t sleep well after that, but got up a little after 7. He played the Daniel Tiger game for the first time a little this morning, liking the flushing toilet. At one point, Carly saw August about to close the window and said “Don’t do it. Don’t do it.” and sighed. August closed the window and copied what she had said,  including the sigh. Also, for some reason I taught August to say “Meat is murder” and he enjoyed saying that. Oh, and he had a great, and long, conversation in gibberish with Marshy, with Carly voicing.

We went outside, just to the park across the street, around 9:30. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast sandwiches. I waited for those, as it was slow, and they went on to the park. I caught up to them, and they were listening to a microphone test for a stage that was being set up for some festival thing that was happening today. We sat and ate our sandwiches, and August saw an ant he said was looking for food. He liked it when they were soundchecking a piano, but then walked the other way towards the playground when we got up. He did the shaky bridge, Carly following him, and was repeating “Look at this” as he went outside. We played around a bit more, then he was hungry and it was time to go in and change him anyway. He wanted apple, but it was inside, which made him sad, because he “want to eat sagwa outside.”

We came in and skyped with my parents, then he took his nap. He slept from 11:20 to 12:10, came out, then fell back asleep in the reading area and slept until 1:50. We watched the video from class and brushed his teeth, then I took him outside for awhile. I had offered him some choice on where to go. One was the playground by the youth center, and we don’t really have a name for it, so I described it as where we play ‘Smokey sees’ and where we lost the fuzzy. He seemed to get that, and chose that one. So we walked over, touching the “Gingko tree…eunhang namu” as we walked down the sidewalk. At the park we played with Smokey and dropped little rocks down through the grates. We got out our books and did some reading of Bob Books and Marvin K. Mooney. He heard all the noise coming from the pool downstairs, and kept asking what the whistle sound was. I explained it was someone blowing a whistle and what it could mean, and he seemed to get it – before we left he was hearing it and said  “Says time to get out of the pool.” a few times.

We went home. While we were gone, Carly had gone to the grocery store and made spaghetti. We had spaghetti for dinner, then all went out for a walk, north to Starbucks. Along the way we were touching more gingko trees, but couldn’t reach all of them, so he was saying “Too far away.” I told him to touch Carly, which he loved to do, so she was saying “I’m not a tree” and he kept repeating that. Over the stream, we saw a broom floating in it. I pointed it out, but he said “someone lost a broom” – the ‘lost’ part was, I think, his touch. He had wanted to stop at the parks we saw along the way, but I said we were walking up to Starbucks, then coming back. To which he responded “Mama get her tea.” And as we walked in he once again said “Starbuck in a book” (referring to Moby Dick).

We got drinks and walked back to the 어린이교통공원 – Poli Park. We sort of played there for a couple minutes once, maybe more than a year ago. Otherwise, we’ve walked through a dozen times as it is access to the stream, but that is it. But it is where we once saw a cookie in a garbage can, back near the beginning of his garbage can obsession, and he remembered that when we went to throw our cups away, asking “Where’s the cookie?”

He climbed on the poles, wanting to do the high ones first. I pointed out the low ones and that he should practice on those first, so he started down on those, and was saying “Look at this…Practicing.”

We headed home as it got dark. On the walk home I was singing songs and he was singing along with “A A A A A A A” even when he knew the words. And along the stream he spent a good time quacking and squawking. We thought we’d go to that festival thing in the park but it was entirely gone. Not a sign of it remained. Kind of crazy – it wasn’t even up and running at 10, and by 6 or 7 it had vanished. We went home and he and I read Triceratops for Lunch, which has words like ‘herbivores’ in it that he kept wanting to see in the text. He then wanted the spray bottle and was playing with that, and managed to spray me in the face as he crawled over me on the couch. He was counting drinks he was taking from it, then jumped to “a bajillion drinks”. Carly was vacuuming, and he started humming along to it, matching the tone. I asked “Does that sound have a color?” and he immediately responded “Red!” I gave him a bath, then we were doing art, mainly drawing letters. He was drawing tildas and double Hangeul characters like ㅆ. He got books and we read them in bed. We read Max’s Easter Surprise 3 times and The Hole in the King’s Sock. He then read Hop with Carly, and they went to sleep at 9:50.

New words/phrases: ginkgo tree, Eunhang namu, squirt, bajillion,

Reading with Marshy:

Park in the morning: 

Back asleep: 

Dada and Zinnie outing:

Starbucks and Poli Park: 

Smog moon: 

Writing: 

Final 5-Touch class and Children’s Grand Park

A big day for a couple of reasons: for the first time ever, he didn’t nurse during night. And, after 5 sessions, today was his final 5-Touch class.

He woke up at 7:51. Again. He was very quiet and we cuddled on the couch, then he kind of got off me, but lay back down with his head on my leg. A bit later he wanted to put on his shoes and go wait for mama at the elevator. He made this request a couple times through the morning, but didn’t get upset when I reminded him it was only morning. He ended up doing art on the iPad, mainly in Art Maker. We then watched one of the older videos from class and brushed his teeth, and then sent some video Skype messages. He also worked more on his hopping. He wanted to leave early, and we were out the door by 9:15.

On our way out, he heard a noise that he described as V and W. It was workers trimming the hedges around the building. We watched them for a minute, then went across to the park. He found a few pieces of garbage, which we threw away, then he climbed up on the rocks and explored the bushes. He said “See bushes. What he’s doing.” and hit the bushes with his hands, referring to what the man with the hedge trimmers had been doing.

Changed him at the art museum before class. He got extra anxious about falling and pretty upset. Not sure why. He definitely prefers standing up nowadays. Got to class and he had a great last class. He was singing to much of the opening songs – both actual words, and “A A A A B B A…” which he likes to do quite a bit now, both with songs he knows and doesn’t. I took two videos of his last bubbles time, but missed the moment when he leaned against the wall, looked up, and said “Bubbles are fun.” Class was all about frogs today. He let me put the frog hat on him a few times, but would take it right off. There was a hopping on lily pads activity, then a swatting flies with a flyswatter and feeding them to frogs activity, then she got out frog-shaped percussion instruments. August loved these, and stood right in front of her, kind of hopping, for her demonstration. We played with those, sang the closing song, then got his frog hand stamps before we said goodbye.

I had told him last week that we could eat in one of the food courts, where they have the “yummy” plastic food, sometime this week. So we went down to the second basement and looked at the selections. We chose the Japanese curry and dongatsu. We had a to wait a few minutes, and he sat at the table and said “Zinnie is waiting.” Got the food and he liked everything, except the salad, which he refused to try. He ate a lot.

From there we headed to the subway, got to Children’s Grand Park, changed him, then walked to fall asleep. The park was busy, particularly with art students, so it took awhile – he kept wanting to look at the paintings, and he wanted to kick trees from the backpack. He fell asleep and slept from  1:17 to 2:35 in the upstairs cafe. We did Art Maker for awhile, and talked about our options. I mentioned the children’s museum and he remembered it being closed on Tuesday morning: “Children’s museum open. No be open at 9.” In art maker, he was doing the Abby Cadabby picture and said “Zinnie like those.” while referring to one of the objects. He liked Abby’s like “I feel totally magical.” and wanted me to say it over and over. Before we left, we found a collection of National Geographic magazines on the bottom shelf, and looked at a few, looking for animal articles. We saw bears, elephants, and his favorite was an article about hummingbirds.

From there we decided to go to the faucets by the walking path. Walked over there and played from 3:20 to 4 or so. A lot of the same splashing as last time – he liked me splashing water into the corner and he would say some nonsense each time. But then he was also using the plastic cup to pour water into his water bottle and onto the seats for quite awhile (and I was able to read).

Before we left he wanted to sit and read. I initially chose a different bench from Tuesday, but then he saw that bench and got excited, so we changed benches. We read some Bob Books, and he remembered The Jet and talked about it (even though we didn’t have it with us): “Sad about th jet cuz Zinnie want to do it.” He was then looking for insects after he saw a green bug (his words) go in the bushes somewhere. He got up and said “Zinnie take a look.” He didn’t find that one, but he found a bug we couldn’t identify on the ground, then a little beetle, then a big fly walking across the bench. And ants, of course. He kept talking about them looking for food and he tried to give the fly something to eat: “Now it’s on the book. Looking for food…maybe this.”

He was having a hard time leaving – he didn’t want to leave the insects, then he wanted to play in the sand. As we walked out he wanted to read all the Hangeul, turn on water, etc. I had forgotten there was the Agricultural Expo going on as well. We had seen it a bit on the way in, but it meant there were all sorts of things to try to look at on the way out. On the subway home he started singing “ABC…” and the woman next to us joined in. She confused August when she switched a couple of the letters around, then was singing “Twinkle twinkle little star” instead of “Now I know…” In the stations he spotted the “Dwaje masayo” (do not run) and was repeating that pretty well by the time we left Hagye.

We got home awhile after Carly. He didn’t really eat much dinner, but I wasn’t surprised as he had eaten a huge lunch. And when we had gotten to Children’s Grand Park he insisted on eating since we always do, and he had eaten most of a LaraBar. Also, having not nursed since the previous evening, he nursed a lot. He and Carly did a lot of reading (they’ve also been reading the Curious George Spanish books) and I gave him a bath: “Want the squirty car please.”

Sometime after that, I was reading Bob Books with him and he was being funny: “Dot say BAZABAZABAZABAZAPENQUIN…Mat say Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q .” We read a book about Dot running up a hill and falling, and August was sad both because he wanted to run up a hill and because hewanted to fall like Dot: “Zinnie want to fall like Dot in the book. Sad bout that.” And he remembered being sad when the fly disappeared at the park: “Sad bout the fly.” Finally, we read Where the Wild Things Are three times. It was about 9, and I suggested he take books in to read on the bed with mama. He took 4 books (one at a time) in to the bedroom and lined them up neatly at the end of the bed. They read Frida together and played a bit with Baby Q (August remembered that  girl at class today also had a Baby Q doll). We read the Jane Eyre book a couple times. Carly had a fan on, and it started to make a bit of a rattling noise. At first August seemed concerned by it, so I tried to make it stop. I couldn’t, but when I went back to him he had decided he liked the noise. He and Carly were both asleep 9:20ish.

New words/phrases: hedge trimmers, curry, pointing this way, kind of, 빵 (bread), “This one, no this one…”

Yawn: 

Exploring the bushes: 

Last 5-Touch class:  

Lunch. Waiting:

Asleep: 

Coffee shop: 

Water: 

Reading and insects: 

Trying to feed the ant: 

Headed home: 

Home. Books ready for bed: 

Fan and Baby Q: 

He was up at 7:51. Pretty much a repeat of yesterday, with us sitting on the couch together. After he was up, we made a smoothie and then oatmeal for breakfast. At one point he was trying to hop more on his own – he’s starting to be interested in jumping. We listened to Basho for awhile, then read Donde Esta Spot and Max’s Easter Surprise. We skyped with my dad for a few minutes (my mom was gone). When August saw him, August said “Say ‘Dear oh dear.’” After that we got ready to go to class. I made a peanut butter sandwich and talking up a storm: “Oh my gosh” “What you doing with the peanut butter.” “Oh my gosh is crazy.” I got the Osprey drinking thing out for the backpack. August saw it and said: “This is the nursing one…Don’t like the raining part…like the nursing one better.” By “raining part” he was referring to the spray bottle that was nearby, which he also tries to drink out of from time to time.

We headed to class. In the elevator he saw some Hangeul that looked like handwriting and said “This is a tricky Hanfeul to read.” Class was great. It was all about jumping, and thus frogs, rabbits, and kangaroo. There was a walking path with numbers on it and it squeaked – August just kept going around and around on it, ignoring other activities – although he did allow me to put the kangaroo thing on him for a little while. Near the end of class, the walking path was made even longer, with a drop at the end that they could jump/slide off from.

After class we were walking to the subway and saw Jihong and his mom rushing the other direction as they were late for class. We took the train north to Dobongsan. As we left the train he repeated the phrase “terminates here” when he heard it on the intercom.

We walked up to the stream and got out the picnic mat and sat on the side of the path and ate some lunch. Across from us a guy in full biking clothes, smoking, drinking makoli, listening to music from the radio on his bike, and eating fried chicken from a bag. About as Korean as you can get. He offered August a sausage, and we ate that. He offered me some makoli, but it didn’t seem like a great time to start drinking at noon.

When we were done eating, we climbed down to the stream. This was a bit downstream from where we used to play, as there is a sandy, flat area. He spent some time scooping sand/gravel, then wanted to walk across and then up the stream. We worked our way up, and stepped from rock to rock, going under the bridge, until we got to the top of the first waterfall-esque area. He was pretty cavalier going up, stepping from rock to rock, and talking constantly about which rock he wanted to go to next: “Go to the rock with wawa on it” “This one is covered by wawa” When he wanted some water, he said “Dada go get it to me.” It was only when we were at the top and he was walking across the stream that he had a bit of a slip – just enough to put him on guard a bit, but he recovered on his own. We went across the stream, then back down on the rocks on the side. We went up to our picnic mat and got ready to go. He was looking through the trees and said “Hard to see the sky.” As we went to go change him on the grass, we watched a school group of teenagers playing in the pool area we had just left: “Want to see them having fun.” “Hear them being messy.” We discussed what to do after his nap, and he was most excited about “Go in the Iris Garden.”

So we walked down to the Iris Garden and took a few more minutes for him to fall asleep. A nice long nap on the deck of the cafe upstairs, from 1:44 ro 3:19. Didn’t notice the music playing until “Eternal Flame”, a song I haven’t heard in forever, came on.

After he was awake we decided to find a picnic table and read. The usual tables were full, but we found a nice one in the corner. We read a few books, saw some ants and pigeons, then he said “Hear the backhoe” from the noise across the street. We were getting ready to leave, but he remembered throwing rocks in the stream, so we went and did that for a little while.

We headed home and got home a little after Carly. It was kind of a tough evening, as he wanted his mama, and didn’t want to let her get up to get food or do anything else. We talked about what we had done today, but everything he remembered made him “Sad about…” it because he wanted to do it now. He cheered up for awhile, and he and I happily did some flopping and hopping on the reading area and were working on “Happy about…” But then he was back to mama. She gave him a bath. After that, he seemed back to normal, and let her go take a shower.

We did some art: “Dada’s coloring it in pink” “Dada use this to make nonagon.” I had to go hang laundry, and he did more reading with Carly. They went in to put him to sleep about 8:20. Carly said it took quite awhile for him to fall asleep, but doesn’t know how long, as she fell asleep as well.

New words/phrases: Iris Garden

Cuddling:

Class: 

On our way to the stream. He keeps asking what these are. Ideas? 

The guy that gave us sausage: 

Eating it: 

Stream: 

At the bottom, saying he wants to go up the waterfally area: 

Pointing out his next rock: 

At the top. We started in the sandy place to the right of his head:

A little slip:

Some random talking: 

Iris Garden: 

Walking to recycling:

Throwing rocks: 

On the train: 

Home: 

At 5:30 he woke up just enough to say “Nurse and read” a few times. They nursed and nodded off until we all got up at 6. Once he woke up he was full of energy and ready to go; while Carly was still here he pointed up at the Ergo and said “Get in this”. And right after she left, he wanted to get in the backpack at 7. He got his Double Dare book and put it in the backpack on his own for us to take. I was able to postpone leaving until 8, as we needed to get ready. We sang “Warm Kitty” and he changed ‘kitty’ to ‘kitties’, ‘fur’ to ‘furry’, and ‘purr’ to ‘purring’. He ate some grapes as I cut them for a snack, and he would point to the top of the grape and say “Dada eat this part.”

So we left at 8. Trains were packed, so we waited for a second train and made it on, getting a seat after two stops. Got to the park about 8:45 after stopping for kimbap, eggs, and a mango yogurt drink to try. Checked the hours on the children’s museum but it opened at 10. So I took us to the old playground, but he decided he wanted to new one. So we walked over the hill, which took us by the outdoor theater. He pointed across the theater to where we ate on Friday and said “Ate squash salad over here.” As we got down to the playground he spotted the drinking fountains and said “Want to turn on the water, sir.”

We ate an early lunch of the kimbap and some egg. He was ready to do everything at the park. First he was talking about what to do in the playground: “Do play on the sand. Do play on the funny shapes. Do play on the swings. Do play on the slide.” There was a loud bird above us, and he was pointing up at the trees, trying to see it. He changed his mind about the playground, as first he wanted to see the frog fountains. We walked over and saw those, then he wanted to go in the conservatory and see the fish. We startled a cat inside, which we watched for a minute before it disappeared in the plants. Kind of a cool place to live as a cat. We saw the fish and the water outside. We heard a loud bird – the donkey sounding one – and I said it might be the storks or pelicans, and he wanted to go see those. We went in and first watched the penguins for several minutes, with him standing on the railing. He apparently saw a zookeeper open the door in the exhibit and set down a penguin, as he suddenly started talking about it, and the penguins had moved over towards that door. I was looking at him though and missed it. We then went over to the rest of the birds, first looking at the black swan which was right by the glass and looking at us. We went upstairs, and figured out that the storks make a sort of clicking sound, but the donkey sound wasn’t repeated while we were there. I said we should ask Oma, so we recorded a little video message to her where he asked “What sound do pelicans make?”

Now we went to the playground. He let me put on the “sun cream” and then he found bottle and played in the sand and watched some teenagers on the swings. We walked across to the faucets and dumped water on plants and found a little car in the drinking fountain. He wanted to throw rocks in water, so we walked to the fountains by the robots and threw little rocks in those, then walked up to the rectangle pond and had a snack. He wanted me to ID more songs using Shazam, and still wanted me to eat the stem end of the grapes: “Dada get the stem out.” He was listening to the music and sort of dancing, and said he was writing names as he drew in the air.

Changed him, walked, and he went quickly to sleep. He slept from 11:55 to 12:53. He woke up, I got him out, and he said a couple things, but then he put his head on my arm and fell back to sleep to 1:43. He woke up a bit, but his feet up on the table, then dozed off for another 3 or 4 minutes before waking up for good.

From there we went to the faucets by the foot paths. We played there for over an hour – we were in the shade by the time we left, but were in the sun to begin with. Thought his cheeks were turning red and put sun screen on – he did a good job of letting me. We used both the coffee cup and his water bottle, mainly splashing water on the ground and pouring it down the wall.

I remembered the books we had brought and asked if he wanted to read. We found a bench and read Double Dare. I then said it was about time to go. He said “Read Bob Books for a minute.” I started to respond, saying “You are just-” and he said “Thinking. Thinking about Bob books.” So we read another new Bob Book, changed him on the bench, then he played with the bushes for a few minutes while I got ready to go. We headed home little before 4.

Went to the grocery store next door and got some shopping done. His find was some coconut peanuts, so we got those . He also remembered the letter crackers he found with Carly, but I said we still had some at home. We played at home for a little while after he ate 3 pieces of crab and some coconut peanuts. At 5:30 we went down to the elevators and surprised Carly pretty well when she got off 5 minutes later.

They nursed and read Frog on a Log. Carly fed him, and I gave him a bath. Later we read The Jet (not getting sad this time, but playing with the plane) and As Big As with me. He sat up against the pillows, then bonked his head backwards, thinking it was pillow, but hit his head instead. He managed to say “Sad about this” before he started to cry. Carly consoled him, and a bit later took him in to bed and he fell asleep right away, about 8:50.

New words/phrases: stem, sesame seeds 

 

Pointing at the bird: 

Penguins: 

Looking at himself on the phone: 

Playground: 

Rocks: 

Bench: 

Asleep on me: 

Slightly awake: 

Feet on the table: 

Water: 

Reading: 

Studying the bushes: 

Home. In the cube: 

Reading with mama: 

7:22. His sweetest wakeup yet. Opened the door, looked at me, and said “Mama” in his cutest voice. When I said she was at work he stretched and yawned and I picked him up and we cuddled on the couch. Then he just laid on the couch for a bit. We then listened to Basho and he started to wake up. He saw a crumb on the table and said “Mesa has a crumb.” We did some ‘hopping’ on the table and couch, then he laid over the end of the couch and read the book signs (in the different languages). He then calmed down again and sat on the couch, quietly listening to the music, then got up and wrote Ks on the paper before switching to the umbrella and spray bottle. We ate the “twirly twirl” pastry and a smoothie, then he wanted to “Watch video from class. From yesterday.” and was singing along to a surprising amount of it. He climbed in the cube and wanted to sing our shapes song, then we ate some Cheerios and got ready to go.

We left around 9:30 and got to Ttukseom Resort a little after 10. Checked out the garbages and waters on our way to the little nature area to the west. There, we saw polliwogs and fish, and he threw little rocks in the water. And we saw two big spiderwebs on the bridge. We walked around on the little hills, then sat and had a snack. While eating the sandoo, we saw a homeless man picking up garbage from around the water area. I told August what he was doing, and we said thank you (in Korean) and August said it a few times and I gave him a few won.

We headed back towards the playground, but didn’t actually play there. He used his water bottle to pour water around the drinking fountains, and he was chanting a lot and singing, particularly the Onesy Twosey chant. And we sent a Skype video to Carly. He started standing on the bench and saying “annanghasaeyo” and bowing – to no one in particular. He saw a bunch of pigeons and said “See lots of pedulgi…Where is food for the pedulgi?” I asked “What do you think they eat?” and he replied “Little pieces of food like sagwa.” I changed him outside, and he pointed and said “Clouds up there.” There was a big puddle of water on the grass and he went stomping in it, first in his shoes, then without. He found a feather, looked at it a little, then threw it in the water. Finally, we sat and ate an egg. Out of seemingly nowhere he said “Joooo means? In video from class. Hana, dul, sat joooo” (it is the sound of someone going down a slide). Then he pointed, got excited, and said “놀이터 right there!” (playground)

We went for a walk and he fell asleep after pulling in his arms and putting down his head. He slept from 1:30 to 2:53, up on the top floor, and slept through the sirens of the civil defense drill and the noise of two jets screaming overhead. After he woke up, we looked around at the animals, then he wanted to go to the library. We read a book of Peter Rabbit songs, then Moo, Baa, La La La, then The Christmas Story, and finally spent most of our time with Tell Time with the Very Busy Spider. The spider builds a web, so I was able to remind him of the webs we saw a bit earlier.

From there we went to the eastern playground and played in the sand, then on the little climbing wall and play structure, then back, walking on the bench around the play structure. Had a snack of crackers and a “juicy” orange, of which he ate half. Spotted a little green bug walking on the bench and watched it intently. I found a broken marble, which he liked but then wanted to throw away. But on the walk over to the garbage cans he dropped it three times (I was carrying him). The first two times we found it, but the third it just vanished. I got to teach him “Oh, well.” We were about ready to leave, but he pointed farther east and said “See the vest(?) I thought he might mean ‘rest’ but that didn’t seem to be it. We walked that way, but we didn’t figure out what he meant – he said  “Word you’re talking bout has an F” (I was asking if he could spell it) but that didn’t help. Looked a bit more at water fountains, then he found a plastic spoon to throw away. That took us past the spot of the marble, so we looked some more. Found a button instead, which he declared was also glass, so we threw that away instead.

As we walked out of the park, we spotted two cats. August declared “Cats find the marble.”

We got home a little after Carly. He nursed then played with the spray bottle and ate some dinner. He started saying “‘What is the matter?’ said Jim.” and we tracked it to the Kittens Bob Book. He was trying to tell me something and I wasn’t getting it and he would say “No. Say again.” and then say it again until I got it. He did this with Carly a day or two ago.

Carly gave him a bath, then we were reading a new book on the iPad about the painter Mary Cassell. There was a picture of hot air balloons and he wanted to hold them, and got sad when he couldn’t, and went to Carly. They nursed and then read Picasso’s Trousers. Back to me, we read a new Bob Book called The Jet. In it, a character is playing with a toy plane. Again, August wanted to hold it. Luckily, we could go and get the plane that Vivian sent him. But at the end of the book the character can actually fly on a plane. He wanted to do it too. I told him he would in a month, but he wanted to do it now. He got super sad and said “Zinnie do it…sad about the flying.” and went to Carly again. She basically took him right in to bed and he was asleep just before 9.

New words/phrases: yesterday, 자동차 (car), cube, feather, 놀이터 (playground), reading ‘neigh’ and ‘oink’

Morning:

Trukseom: 

By the water faucets: 

Asleep: 

Library: 

Playground: 

Chinese: 

He was awake just after 8. He nursed and then they played with the hair dryer and did some reading. They made a smoothie and he was speaking some good nonsense. They had been reading the Berenstain Bears Double Dare book, which he really likes, and she had left it sitting open. He was looking at it and pointed out where it said “he followed” to Carly. He is fascinated by the jump rope in it, so yesterday there were some kids at the park with a jump rope and August really wanted to hold it. Today he talked about being sad that he couldn’t hold it. Carly made eggs for him for breakfast.

It was scheduled to rain a lot starting in the early afternoon, so we left in the morning for a walk. We walked up the stream to the Sanggye Station area, and went to the park kind of across the street from the Tayo kid cafe. On the way up he was initially frustrated when we didn’t stop at a couple of other places to play, but when we got to the art along the stream he really liked looking at it, and said “Remember this” a couple times, and “See the broken one”, remembering the one with broken tiles before we got to it.

At the park he went on the seesaw with Carly, then they got out the notebook and markers and were drawing on the bench. He spotted one of those bugs we keep seeing, so we have started to call them ‘xugglybugs’, after Kipper’s A to Z. A bunch of kids came and kind of just sat and looked at August. A bit odd, but one bright spot: August asked “What is your name?” and he got a response from one of the girls. We went back on the play structure and he went down the slide with me. He was then hiding from Carly who had gone away for a minute. He wanted Smokey and was slid him down the slide, and was then playing with him down on the ground. Set him aside when we started writing words with the stick and then August would trace them. He read ‘smokey’ when I wrote it, and we were working on words like ‘found’ and ‘sound’. He found a big stick and was writing letters with that, then Carly spotted a ladybug. August said “Ladybug from I. Looking for food. Where’s food?” Then watched it for a couple minutes. Not sure what he meant by the ‘I’ part, although he might be referring to an alphabet book or video that has a ladybug for ‘Insect’.

We walked around a bit, then he wanted to go in the library. August and I had been in once before. We chose some books from the English section and sat in the little reading room. At first he was fixated on the floor mats, which had letters and pictures on them, but he really liked the LMNO Peas alphabet book which Carly read to him a couple times. He was also picking up the book, waving it over his head, then setting it down. A few times i na row he actually turned in a circle as he did this.

We wanted to get home for his nap (and before the rain) so we took off. We stopped at the Julietta coffee place we’ve been wanting to go to, as it was actually open this time. August and I shared a strawberry smoothie on the way home. We walked home, and he fell asleep from 1:40 to 2:35, then spent a long time nursing and napping some more on Carly. 

Carly wanted to go to the store, and August liked the idea of going in the Ergo, so the two of them went. He wanted down as soon as they got there, but he did a good job of walking with her in the store and they were able to get their shopping done. He was fascinated by boiled peanuts or something like that, probably because of the texture of the packaging. He also spotted letter crackers, so she bought those and he was happily eating those when he got home. They came home and Carly started to do some cooking, making more fried rice. I took August down to the little store and bakery to get milk and bread. At the Tous les Jours he wanted to try new things: we got a danish sort of thing because it looked like a “twirly twirl”, and a sesame bun thing. Came back up and we all shared the sesame thing, then ate dinner.

I gave him a bath. At the end, he wanted to see the frog at the corner of his towel, and started saying “Ribbit A, ribbit B, ribbit C…” Carly put her umbrella up to dry it, and he was playing with it, lifting it over his head. Carly got the spray bottle to do rain, and he was playing with that as well – it takes two hands, but he can now spray it, although is still working on direction. Carly took a shower and he played more with the hair dryer, then played Todo Math on the iPad. Back to the spray bottle: he was spraying it and counting “14 times, 15 times…” He and Carly were sitting on the reading area, reading Wild About Books, and I was in the rocking chair. He told me to get down on the floor with him, then climbed in the chair himself – he stole it from me. Carly said something about “kicking Dada out of the chair” and he took it literally, scooting forward so he could kick me with his foot.

We made the bed – Carly wanted to sleep out on the reading area to hear the rain at night.  We then played in a ‘fort’ on the regular bed before Carly took him off to sleep about 9:15.

New words/phrases:  reading ‘Smokey’, spelling ‘penguin’, loopty loops,

Looking at art:

Playground: 

Asking ‘What is your name?”: 

Spying mama: 

Library: 

Home: 

On the chair: 

And in the ‘fort’: 

He got up with me at 7:00. They Skyped with Cassie. Then I had to deal with a phone/computer issue to recover some videos, so Carly took August out to the park while I did that. They played in the dinosaur footprints and had a snack there, then climbed on the rocks at the petrified forest area. When I came out they were sitting on the walking path, looking down through the grate. August said he saw sand, and was grabbing Carly’s head and pulling it down to look as well. He was doing that for quite awhile.

We all walked over to the museum. He went to the play area for a minute with Carly and I started looking at the new exhibit. He then said he wanted to go look at art, so they came in. There was a big stair step piece on the main floor that you could climb on, so they climbed up that. We all looked around the first floor a bit more, then August and I walked up to the second floor. There was a piece that had reflective silver on the floor, and it reflected rainbow from the lights above. August loved that, and we talked about “blue and yellow make…” There were a lot of videos, and there was one with 7 people wearing mascot heads, dancing to “So Happy Together”. We watched that one for a few minutes. He heard a ripping sort of noise coming from a video and he wanted to find it. It was from downstairs so we made our way down and found it – it involved people ripping fabric.

We all went to Home Plus, Carly getting ingredients for salsa. We got a couple fruit samples and caught up with her, then came home. August had seen the potato chips, so he got some sour cream and onion chips. At home we opened a new set of Bob Books – Sight Words, read the first book, and were singing The Ants Go Marching. And Carly made delicious salsa. He fell asleep a little after 12 and slept until 2:06. A nice, long nap. We did a lot of flopping and hopping before we left for a walk to Nowon.

We walked to Nowon, August singing nonsense songs on the way. We stopped at Starbucks on the way (Carly has a new gift card to use thanks to Teacher’s Day on Friday). As we walked in, August said “Starbuck’s in a book” – referring to his picture book version of Moby Dick. August had wanted out of the backpack so we got out in Starbucks. He then wanted to walk outside but didn’t want to hold our hands, but I got him going by holding both his hands and doing “Wheeee!” We would end up doing a lot of that the rest of the trip. From there we first went to the grocery store in Lotte, getting cilantro, thanks to intel from Torrey. We then went to Nowon Stationary and August and I waited outside, him climbing and standing on the little ledge outside the window. He stood there and ate crackers and strawberries. Carly came out and August had a little scary moment where he lost his balance and started to tip forward, but Carly caught him.

We headed to the playground, going to 신기루어린이겅원, the first of three adjacent parks that run east/west south of there. They climbed on the play structure and August wanted Smokey and was throwing him down the slide and I was tossing him back up. August was saying “Super whee!” I went to check out the rest of the parks, and they played a little more, then got out the markers and notebooks and were drawing letters when I came back. He also ate some of the raviolis we had brought along. A group of girls came up and were talking to us. Thanks to some Google Translate, I figured out that one of the girls was in the group that had talked to us at the playground by the youth center back on Children’s Day (May 5th).

We left there, and didn’t feel like changing him, so I just carried him the entire way home. As we walked downtime main road a fire truck went by and August started saying “W W W W W W W”, imitating the noise. I also realized this was where he started saying “W W W W” the other day and did so all the way home. So maybe he had heard a siren that day as well, and I didn’t make the connection.

At home Carly made fried rice using a recipe from Cassie. We watched the video from class and brushed his teeth. He then took a long bath, and we did a lot of “Eeny meeny” with his toes. We ate dinner, then read the Korean Elephant on a Wire book, translating a lot more of it. He nursed and read, then Carly took a shower. He played in the sink and dumped one cup of water on the floor. We got a towel and he reluctantly helped clean it up. He went to bed about 9:30.

New words/phrases: yesterday, reading ‘pizza’

Grate in the park:

Art museum: 

Home: 

Nowon: 

At the stationary store: 

Playground: