Category: Uncategorized

He was up at 7:53. Pretty much a repeat of yesterday, with him sitting in my lap when I told him that mama was at work. We went to the reading area and read some of the wordplay book and played with the sponge letters. I then changed him and we were spelling an ‘-ed’ word, so I taught him the word ‘suffix’ and that ‘ing’ and ‘ed’ are suffixes. He then did some tracing on the iPad and watched some songs, then we were back to the reading area and playing with the sponges, putting them on his feet. For breakfast we had Cheerios. The new strawberries were really good, and we ate a bunch of strawberries first before putting more in the cereal.

As I was getting ready, he was spinning and getting dizzy and saying “bing-ul, bing-ul, bing-ul”. I changed him, and as I started to take off his shirt he said “Bye owls” and then requested his “cosmonaut shirt” before I had even asked. Unfortunately it was dirty. We were singing “The Ants Go Marching…” and he was requesting 14, and said “Like the ‘that’s enough’ part”. Finally, before we took off he wanted the water on: “Turn on the faucet please”

Got to class right at 10:10. He ran in and was totally engaged the entire time. The only thing he didn’t do was give the teacher a high five. He did 7 forward rolls with him though. At one point early in the class the song “If You’re Happy and You Know It” was playing and he stood in front of the whole class and played peek-a-boo. Class involved all sorts of walking paths and things involving small objects. Later in the day I would asking him what his favorite part of class had been, and he said “walking”. He really liked putting the toiletries in a basket with the right shapes, then filling a container with little foam shapes. Finally, there was a big ball pit sort of thing that they all got in and the teachers were dumping foam pieces on the kids’ heads. The kids helped move the ball pit thing at the end, and the teacher was chanting “young-chai” (pull) and August really liked that and was repeating it. At the end of class everyone got a ‘monster ball’ and the teacher gave away a couple of ‘jungle gym’ sets. August got one, so we had to go home first.

So we went home first and August wanted to “Open!” So we played with the new toys for awhile, then made a salmon sandwich for lunch and ate that.

We then headed out. We walked up and took the bus – August had chosen taking the bus because he wanted to see bus numbers. We took the 1139 up to Danggogye. He stayed in the backpack both directions, and enjoyed looking out the windows. We walked to the park and first went to the playground, after he first talked about wanting to go on the climbing wall. We sat and climbed on the slide, then had a snack and spent a lot of time playing ‘Smokey sees’. The waterfall fountain came on at 1 and we went to see it and we threw in a few rocks. I changed him, then he was writing things in the air and joked that it was “just a finger”. We went to a little hill area and he was walking up and down it saying “up here, down here…up, down” Finally, he was noting a lot of sounds again today, and at one point we heard a wheelchair. A bit later it was moving again and he said “where the wheelchair moving?”

We walked around the park and he fell asleep from 1:51 to 1:53. I sat on a bench near the climbing wall. When he woke up we first walked over and looked at the garbage cans and watched the climbers, then went to the low climbing wall and he tried climbing for a few seconds, but then focused on wondering what each shape looked like. A photographer was photographing the climbers and took our photo a few times. When he was done with this, we walked over and looked at the drinking fountains and while we were there the photographer came over and talked to me – he wanted to send me the photos via KakaoTalk. While I talked to him, August started pouring his water on the ground. After the photographer left, we spent quite some time pouring water on the ground.

We then went back to a hill area and he was walking around calling himself “Zinn Zinn”, saying “Zinn Zinn stands on this one.” We also saw a lot of ants and flies and bees and other insects today. After that, we sat and had a snack. We had an egg – he peeled most of it. We were singing the ants song, and now he wanted 15 over and over. He also had a “Where’s the climbing wall?” joke, saying it over and over.

We headed home, taking the bus again. We were home a little after Carly. He covered his eyes when we came in, and Carly was able to sneak up and stand right in front of him and surprise him. That kind of started the crazy – he was then going crazy with the cube we had made from the jungle gym set. We did some cleaning up, then Megan came over at 6 – she and Carly were making spring rolls for the new parents at APIS. August was going wild again, so I got him to read the bus Bob Book for Megan, then he was on the iPad for awhile. Megan then used a big piece of paper and she and August decorated it as a card. He and Carly nursed and read The Red Car. I then gave him a bath. We played with the squirt cars, and he wanted me to keep spelling ‘Megan’ in the water. He invented the word ‘qup’ and I was asking him what a ‘qup’ was. He said squares and rectangles, but changed his mind. Back out, he was a bit crazy again, then we were hopping (me holding his arms) on the table and the couch, and I was holding him up in the air to touch the ceiling. Megan was washing the dishes, and he wanted to play in the sink. He did that when she was done. She then left.

While Carly took a shower, he ate a bunch more strawberry, then banana. He bit his tongue while eating the banana and wanted Carly. I held him for a couple minutes and we went to the reading area and were reading the Richard Scarry Things on Wheels book. We had been listening to Radiohead all evening, and at one point he made a “ha ha hoo hoo” imitating a sound in a remix of Radiohead’s “Bloom”.

Carly took him in and he was asleep 9:15ish.

New words/phrases: cosmonaut, suffix, faucets, flutes, cube

Awake:

Class: 

His new toy: 

Danggogye Park: 

Walking home from the bus stop. We were singing The Ants Go Marching when suddenly he started chanting ‘W’. This lasted for two blocks until we got home. I don’t know why: 

Home: 

Decorating with Megan: 

He was up bright and early at 6:20. Carly stayed a little later in the morning and played with him. He was asking her to pick up a couple door magnets that were on the floor (funny, because they were right in his reach). Carly picked one up and was hiding it in her hands and having him choose which hand. He really liked that game. When it was time for her to leave he initially didn’t like that idea. But then Carly said he gets to stay with the Captain and he said “Captain!” and came to me. After she left I asked what he wanted to do and he used ‘sir’ again, saying “Read Bob Books, sir.” We played with the letter sponges and bath letters, then skyped with my parents. When it was first ringing he was saying “Maybe outside”, since yesterday when they didn’t answer I said they were maybe outside. After we hung up he said “They’re inside”.  He did some letter tracing on the iPad, then we watched the 5-Touch video as he had been requesting it while we were skyping. He was singing along to parts of the caterpillar eating song, which we had just heard in class last week. We watched the new Teuni Teuni video while we brushed his teeth, then headed out at 9:30.

On the train he was doing letter tracing on the Montessorium app. The app has always had a little bit of a glitch where completing the last half inch of a letter usually requires a second attempt. Not big, but he was noticing it today, and letters that he could finish in one stroke were frustrating him. For each letter that didn’t work he would say “Don’t like the V” etc.

We transferred at Gangnam-gu Station and while we were waiting he read some Hangeul and then heard a buzzing electrical sound behind a door. He also read the Korean word for ‘garbage’ on a door in a sentence on a door.

At Seoul Forest he wanted to go feed the deer. In fact, as we came out of the station he saw a mural on the wall with a deer and said “Go feed the deer!” We walked that way, and he was in full look-at-the-garbages mode. He had noticed that the garbages had orange bags for the garbage and white bags for recycling. So he liked seeing that pattern. At one point, he saw a set off the path and we went to see those. I realized it was the rabbit area, with the rabbits a little farther away. I then asked if he wanted to see the rabbits. “No.” He then spotted some water faucets. “See wawa!” I signed, then he said “Fine!”

We went to the deer, and sat on a bench and ate some lunch. There was a school group walking by and a kid yelled something that sounded like ‘agua’. August liked that and was repeating “Ah GWA!” A dog barked and he said “Doggie says R R R.”

We decided to come back to the deer later, and go find rocks to throw in water now instead. So we walked over to the little stream area by the playground. We had loaded up a bag with rocks so we had a supply. He spent several minutes playing with the screw-like water pump thing, watching it drain and trying to figure out how to do it. I then got him over to the bridge, where he threw the rocks into the water. We then got ready for a nap and went walking. He slept from 12:38 to 1:35 on a bench in the shade.

We walked back over to the deer area. There was a worker using a weed eater and he said it sounded like “V!” and did some writing in the air while watching it. We feed the deer for close to a half hour. Took a while as a couple of school groups came and ‘stole’ our deer. He would throw the food in (preferring to get out the pieces of corn) for the deer and say nonsense words while doing so, like with the rocks and water. When the deer or pigeons would walk away he would say “Come back here!” When we were done, I told him to say “Bye”. He did that, then said “See you later deer.”

We walked back towards the floor fountain, which was to turn on at 3. He wanted to stop short of that, as he saw a bunch of school groups on picnic mats. We got down and he walked around and one kid gave him a star-shaped cracker thing. He found a water fountain and we played with that. The fountain turned on and we went over to it and watched. He was making up all sorts of Z-words, like ‘zonga’. We watched the fountains and got the picnic mat out and ate the rest of our sandwich and the orange, which he kept calling “juicy”. We went back over to the fountain, with shoes off. He was stomping in the little puddle around the fountain. Everything was fine until near the end when a boy came close to us and stepped on a nozzle and sprayed us a bit. August was not happy about that. The fountain turned off a minute later anyway at 3:30.

I changed him and we headed home. Easy trip home, mainly doing Art Maker. We also sang The Ants Go Marching. He was asking for new lines for 20, 30, and 40.

We got home at 5 and he had talked about meeting mama at the elevator. In fact, she had called as we were walking home, and we could have gone and met her before she went to the store, but August chose heading home. He really liked surprising her at the elevator. But at home he wanted to make a banana and mango smoothie, so we were drinking our smoothie when Carly got home. He hung out with Carly for awhile, then she was in the kitchen and he started spinning around and getting dizzy. He was then lying on the floor and I was sliding him back and forth. He was laughing like crazy. He got up and went towards the parlor and said “Dada come. Mama come too.” Carly gave him a bath. A bit later Carly went to take a shower and told August to stay with the Captain and that worked again. We did more Duplo letters with Peter Rabbit, then read the Kittens Bob Book. Carly came back out and we were on the reading area and he was stuffing sponge letters behind pillows and under things to hide them. He was off to sleep about 8:40.

New words/phrases: don’t like the…, too, that’s enough of rectangle crackers

Snacking by the deer: 

By the water: 

By the water: 

Watching the fountain: 

Feeding deer: 

Exploring by the kids and water: 

This is actually looking up. That is a hose he is holding: 

Floor fountain: 

Home: 

He was up at 6:40. He nursed for awhile, then happily went to the iPad and said “Bye!” to Carly. He was tracing letters and asking “What is a K made of?” (because when you trace it uses stars, etc. to make the letter). He also sang along to “Hasta Mañana” again. We did more hopping in my arms, doing it on the couch this time. We then made more Duplo letters and had Peter Rabbit sitting on them. Carly asked me a question via email and I needed to respond. August got upset that he couldn’t hold the phone. But he ended up cuddling in my arms for a few minutes.

I made eggs and crab and toast for breakfast. I haven’t felt like eggs recently, so we haven’t been eating them, so he was excited by them. After that, I asked “Want to do some art?” and he replied “Yeah! Do some arte abstracto letters.” He ended up drawing random letters together, like “V and a Q”. He then played in the sink, which went fine until I went to grab a diaper. I came back to find him dumping water on the floor. We cleaned it up, then he played a little more. When he wanted to dry his hands he was saying “Wash your handy hands”, which I assume he got from Carly.

We got ready and left. We first went to the doctor to get an immunization shot. He did pretty awesome at the doctor. Hid behind his hands from the time I said we were going until a minute into waiting. It was a different doctor – a guy who doesn’t speak English. Went fine though. When he started the exam August started crying but reached out and said “Hold this one” and picked up the stuffed toy on the desk. When the exam was over he said “All done this” and put it back. He cried for the shot, but didn’t fight either the exam or shot too much. When he got the treat he said “Yes!” He then said “Kamsamneda” and “bye bye” when I asked him to.

We then went to the subway and made our way to Children’s Grand Park. We got a couple rolls of kimbap from a different place. It was raining again – only hard enough to have the cover up on the way to the subway, but now pouring enough to require full rain gear. Put that on and we went to the children’s museum and up to the cafeteria for lunch. We ate, then went down to read books. Grabbed several of the Luk books and read those (Shapes, I Hear…, I See, Oh No!). Put full rain gear back on for his nap walk and walked our usual ridge, but finished the last few minutes walking around the usual building. He fell asleep and had a rather short nap from 12:46 to 1:34.

He woke up and read words on the floor (we were on the first floor) and really liked the blue light above one of the tables, standing and staring up at it, and looking at his arms. He walked up and down the one step by the counter and said nonsense words. He then got Smokey out and showed him around. We left, with him walking, and he kind of explored the Gammaru building before deciding he was ready to leave.

He wasn’t excited by the zoo or children’s museum, then I suggested the water museum and he wanted to go there. We went there and played with the little dams, then the pumps. I noticed that he’s getting better at them. He was definitely in “Zinnie do it.” mode. A machine turned on somewhere, and he liked the noise “V V V”. He was then hearing a ’Ts’ noise and kept doing it – I finally figured out he was hearing the kind of hissing noise of someone talking – it was coming out of cheap TV speakers that made it sound hissy. He climbed in this little sitting area/climbing area, but needed use my hand as a step to make it up to the next level.

He wanted a snack, so we went out to the pagoda in front of the children’s museum and ate. They were setting up for a concert at the stage, and he liked the mic test, saying what letter it sounded like when the technician was making noises in the mic. A band then started doing sound check and playing, and he particularly liked the drumming. We walked over and watched them for a few minutes, then headed home.

On the walk home from the subway we extended our version of “The ants go marching”. It has to now gone up to 14, with the little one saying “That’s enough!” He thinks the last line is really funny and had me singing it over and over. He then asked for 15… and 16. So now it goes on with the ant saying things like “You’re still going?” “This is driving me crazy” and “Why are you doing this?”

We were home a little after 5. We shared an orange and listened to his music from class. He then started getting a bit antsy that mama wasn’t home, asking “Where’s M A? Where’s M A?” He wasn’t upset, but wanted to go wait at the elevators for her. We walked out, and stood in the corner. A few minutes later she came out of an elevator and started to walk away. He called “Mama!” and startled her pretty good.

Back in the house he was nursing and I snapped for some reason. He wanted more, so I kept snapping, and then moving my head towards the snap. He thought this was hilarious and (thanks to Carly) started saying “Silly dada.” He played in the sink, then was doing art but drew on the floor again. But he did a good job of wiping it up when we gave him a wipe.  He shared my dinner with me – left over mandu and then the soup that Carly made.

He and Carly read the Bed Bugs Bob Book and then she gave him a bath. Lots of peeing, some in the toilet. I had gotten Sesame Street Art Maker working on the iPad (it hadn’t worked for a couple days) and he was very excited by this, so played that for awhile. He then did word tracing on it with Carly. He was choosing ‘lynx’ over and over, so Carly wanted a new word. He chose giraffe and said “Giraffe is a good word”.

He went to sleep about 8:40.

New words/phrases: just, Elevator “sitting on” a floor, kind of, diagonal lines

Morning: 

Children’s Museum: 

After his nap: 

Water museum: 

Pagod:

Home: 

It was a day full of describing sounds for him. Also, he saw a lot of animals (like a gorilla and brown bear) for the first time. And he had his first lollipop thanks to a woman on the bus and his ability to remember things.

He got up at 7:15. Came out looking for mama, and got upset when I told him mama was at work. He stood in the doorway to the parlor, and I sat on the floor. He came over to me and climbed into my lap and cuddled. First time he has ever done that. He covered his eyes like he was hiding for a couple minutes, then sat for a few more before popping up and requesting the iPad.

He played Hat Monkey for a few minutes, then started watching songs. He was singing along to Hasta Mañana by Basho and Friends. He also started describing sounds, his first of many today. He was hitting his leg on the couch and said “Hear D D D”. He was then describing a noise he heard in the music of Wheels on the Bus, although I don’t remember what letter he used.

We were headed to the big zoo, so were in a hurry to get out. Left the house just before 8:30. Straightforward trip and we got off the subway around 10. As we walked to the zoo he heard a noise off in the distance: “V V V V hear vvvvvvv” Then there were workers sweeping the walk. This he described as an “S” sound, but when we stopped to watch I think he was describing it as “C C C” or “Ch ch ch”. He saw a sandwich board and said “See ‘A’”, describing it from the side. He then kept asking “This is an?” and pointing. He was referring to the wing nuts holding it together and was very curious about them.

In the zoo we first walked up to the primates house – the first of many places we had never been to before. He saw his first gorilla, which was cool. Although it wasn’t doing much. August instead spotted the many caterpillars crawling on the glass. We would end up spotting caterpillars all over the park. We also saw chimps, then his first orangutans, although they were hard to see inside. By the way, the exhibits we saw today aren’t perfect, but they are so much better than the equivalents at Children’s Grand Park: the chimps and bears, for example, actually have water and vegetation. Also inside, we saw both De Brazza’s monkeys and grieve monkeys, which we’d never seen before and were both really cool.

While looking at the De Brazza’s monkeys, he heard a noise of machinery. He said “Hear ch, ch, ch.” We tracked it to a locked door and listened to it. He kept saying “Hear! Hear!” He then started playing with the lock and said that made a “D D D” noise.

From the primates he wanted to go to the stream and playground, but on the way there he spotted the Insectarium and wanted to go back there to find the “S S S S S S” sound. We first walked through the insects, but no S S S S S. The path to the amphibian/reptile area was open today, so we went and walked through there. August liked some of the frogs and turtles, but mainly liked the waterfalls and stream. We tracked down the noise in the nocturnal building: it was the noise of the fruit bats. We stood there for a few minutes listening and watching the bats with August copying their noise. We spent a few more minutes in the nocturnal building then walked towards the playground.

We passed one more set of faucets before getting there – we had already turned on several. I said something like “Alright” then August said “Fine…sigh” as if he was mocking me. We walked down into the playground and August said “This is open”, noting the part of the playground that had been closed off the last couple visits. We sat and ate a little lunch. He saw a big school group putting down picnic mats and wanted to see the picnic mat (he is interested every time he sees one now) and walked over with his sandwich and seemed to be be saying hi. We took off his shoes and played in the water for a few minutes. Then went up to play in the sand. He took the shovel and poured some out of sand area and said “This is…arte abstracto.” He wanted more rectangle crackers but had already eaten them all, so turned it into a joke. He settled for grapes and crab. He then went back to the sand and said “more make a castle like with mama”. By now we had had several people say hi to him, and he was doing a pretty good job of saying hi and waving back when I asked him.

Changed him and got ready for his nap and started walking up to the botanical garden area where we’d never been before. He fell asleep after that and I got a water and sat outside at the food court area near the wolves. He slept from 12:55 to 1:33. A short nap. He wanted out and we walked around a bit. We headed across and up the hill and saw the tigers. We then found the otters, where he got down to see them. He then said “Take smokey out to see the otters.” He then ate the rest of his sandwich “Dada’s. No, this is Zinnie’s.” He had his water bottle and started spilling it on the ground, so I took it away. He got down and I thought he was looking at a rock or an insect in the water and was getting really close. I took a photo, then he licked the water on the ground.

We were walking from there when we heard a loud bird down the hill. He got excited and said “Heard the Q!… Squawk, squawk.” He wanted to find the bird, but we couldn’t. We kept walking, and he started talking about going to the playground. But then he saw a peacock, and wanted to go in the fowl area. The fowl tent is huge and full of dozens and dozens of birds, walking around your feet. We both really liked it. He described the calls of the peacocks as “C C C….E E E Hear the E E E.”

From there we saw the bears, watching the Eurasian brown bears play in the water for a few minutes. He also saw his first bison, although didn’t seem to impressed, as he wanted to get back to the water.

We went to the playground again. This time, he squatted by the edge of the water and I found little rocks for him to throw in. He was doing that and making up nonsense words. We then changed him again and headed out. We paused to watch the rhinos, as they were up and rolling in the mud, then scraping their heads and backs on the brushes. He liked the messy rhinos. We then stopped at the giraffes for a minute, because we can’t visit without seeing the giraffes, then ended by stopping at the flamingos. As we left I suggested he say bye to the zoo, so he waved to the flamingoes and said “Bye bye.”

We stopped at a CU to get drinks and a bag of veggie trips for the ride home. As we walked along the platform, I heard him sayingg “It’s open, it’s closed…” over and over and realized he was referring to the fencing along the platform, and the gaps for the doors. He drank his mango soy milk while we waited for a train.

The entire way home he didn’t even ask for the iPad. We were singing songs, playing “I Spy”, eating the veggie chips (I was surprised when he really liked the onions, since they tasted quite strong), and looking out the window. It took a few stops before we could have a seat, and he was fine with that. He kind of touched one guy on the shoulder, then gave him a high five. As we were about to get to the river, he was standing on my lap and leaning on me to look out the window behind. He said “leaking”, and he did – all over himself and my shirt. Surprisingly the first time that has ever happened. There wasn’t much for it, and we just managed until we got to Changdong to transfer for the bus. At one point he was drinking from his water bottle and had a little conversation with himself: “Do you like wawa? Yes I do. ‘I do’…mama says that.”

At Changdong I changed him in the little park/stage area by the station. He was happily playing around and found a big rock that he was carrying around. As we left, he was walking, and I asked if he could leave the rock in the park. He said “Yes!” and went back and set it on the ground. He really wanted to walk, and did a good job of holding my hand. He wanted to read
a lot of Hangeul, so it took us some time to get to the bus stop. As he walked, he kind of stomped and high stepped as he walked. At the bus stop we had about 10 minutes to wait. There is one of those toy machines nearby, and he liked looking in that. In particular, he liked these little Hello Kitty toys in which the cat keeps nodding its head. I started doing it and he thought it was hilarious, then he was doing it.

On the bus ride home, a woman handed him a lollipop. He really knows what a lollipop is now from that Bob book, and he doesn’t forget things. So after he nursed, he wanted the lollipop. So he got to eat his first lollipop. He was very intent while he ate it, and crunched it up in bites, repeatedly calling it “crunchy”.  He had some dinner, then Carly gave him a bath and he watched Basho videos. He was then reading Berenstain Bears with Carly, and wanted Peter Rabbit to do the reading, so Carly was doing that. He fell asleep about 8:15. Carly had started by nursing him out here. As he was falling asleep she carried him into the bedroom. He covered his eyes and kept them covered until he was fast asleep.

New words/phrases: spelling penguin, same thing, cross (v – as in cross the stream)

 

Waking up: 

The ants go marching 4 by 4: 

Lunch and stream: 

After his nap: 

Licking the ground: 

Back to the stream: 

Headed out: 

Changdong: 

Home: 

Oh, and here’s a decent habitat for bears: 

Watching the hippos: 

One of his photos as we walked from the park: 

He woke up at 3am, apparently saying “Turn on light. Dada sleeping.” Carly got up with him for an hour before going back to sleep. He was then awake at 7 with a lot of energy. He nursed and read with Carly, then Carly went down to get a coffee, and then went back out to sit in the park and read while she drank it. While she was gone, he looked out the window and said “hear D D D” – I couldn’t quite tell what sound he was talking about. He also joked “Still raining”. He was drawing on Paper on the iPad and pulled up the photo of him playing in the sand yesterday. He started talking about the kids there: “Sad about the kids in the sand…too close.” We did a lot of captain voice, playing on the picnic mat, and Peter Rabbit this morning. We were then watching Timmy Time (trip to the beach episode – he really liked when they acted like crabs) and was hyper on the couch. A lot of nursing requests as well. We did hold-it Duplo letters with Peter Rabbit again, finishing the rest of the alphabet and starting over again, and doing some numbers. We watched Basho and Friends and ate banana. We watched the Hasta Mañana song to figure out who the names applied to – he was very happy to find out that “Luc is a frog.” He then played in the bathroom sink, then was hopping in my arms again. He lost his balance when he walked away once and bumped his head on the refrigerator, so wanted to nurse. Finally, before going out he put the fox button in his shorts pocket, and found that if he ran he could hear it rating.

We went out, just to the park across the street. No backpack for once. We went over to the fake stream area. Still not on, but we played with rocks. He then checked out where the puddle had been yesterday but it was gone. We walked over to the playground and got out the soccer ball for a second, but then he was off to the dinosaur foot prints. Most of them had puddles in them and he stepped in one. We took off his shoes, but then he just was dropping rocks in them. Lasted quite awhile, then we returned home where he slept from 12:30ish to a little before 2.

He woke up and was making Duplo letters with Carly. He was stuffy, so Carly got the snot sucker out and had a little success with that, although we both had to hold him. He decorated a card for Thatcher, and really got into using stickers: “That’s a good one.” “Where should I put it?”

I took him out in the backpack and Carly stayed home to do some work. We walked south, and ended up at 중현어린이공원, a small children’s park we’ve played at a few times before, but not for several months. There, a girl came over to him and August asked her “What is your name?” – totally on his own volition, and without me suggesting it. He tried to ask her a couple times. We took his shoes off and he first played in the sand, then went and walked on the walking path (where he asked her again), then back to the sand where we played with the shovel. There were several big ants nearby and he was trying to pick them up. Later, he would say he was sad because he couldn’t pick up the ants.

He showed a little interest in going up on the structure, but then changed his mind. We had just decided to head over to Hagye Children’s Park (which looks like a tree) a block away when I got a message from Derek saying he was in the area with his two kids. So we met him at Hagye Station and walked them to the park.

There, August and I followed Logan around on the play structure for a few minutes while Derek fed Rosie. The two boys then shared some snacks. August remembered playing in the park with Carly, and in our little clearing area wanted to first sing BINGO and then take a couple photos – he took photos of a bottle and then one of the mushrooms. August and I hung out with Rosie while Derek changed Logan, and we all went over to the sand for a bit. They then left, and August and I continued in the sand. He really liked a sand castle that another kid had built – it had a big moat and a tunnel. Luckily, that family left at that point, leaving August and a couple of other kids to play with it. August threw little rocks in the water, and used cups lying around to scoop up some of the water. That lasted 10 or 15 minutes until some bigger kids came and started playing there too. They started by drowning an ant – August wanted to see what they were doing but I told him they were being mean to the ant and we went away for a couple minutes. They were then all playing with the castle okay until the biggest kid decided to step on the bridge part. It then became a race to destroy it, and at that point we headed home.

We were home sometime after 6. He ate dinner, was really interested in the ‘sp’ sound, and read Bob books with Carly. They were doing art on the paper and August really got into covering a page in stickers – they were puffy stickers and he could easily take them off the sheet himself. He kept pulling off candy stickers and saying “Mama likes this.” But then he said he was leaking. In fact, his diaper seemed to barely hold anything in, as it soaked through the half of the pad of paper he was sitting on. I had to throw that part of the pad away but saved the side he had been stickering.

He was asleep by 9:30.

New words/phrases: vet, insectarium, now let’s sing faster

Outside. Showing Carly a rock: 

Site of yesterday’s puddle: 

Home. Decorating a card: 

Afternoon outing. First park: 

Hagye Children’s Park: 

Couple of his photos: 

Sand: 

He woke up at 7:04. Came out and said “Back to read” He chose A Wind Blew and Jane Eyre and read them with Carly. He also talked about the big bumblebee we had seen while waiting for Carly at the playground: “Sad about the bumblebee with mama…want to hold it.” I got ready for my book  club meeting and that started at 7:30. August kept coming in to the room and wanting to read or nurse in there, so eventually Carly just decided to take him outside. He let her put him in the ergo and they went out to the park. Outside, he walked across the shaky bridge by himself and stomped in a big puddle (he called it a “pond”) up on the stage. They came back when I was talking to Peter after the meeting. I told August it was just Peter, and that reminded him of Peter Rabbit who he went looking for.

After we were done talking, he asked me to “Do ABCD sir”. A bit later Carly was spelling 3 letter and other words and August was getting all of them, including “T O E” and  “H A N D”.

We then all went outside. We stopped on the second floor to see what the line was like at the doctor – August needs one of his vaccinations – but it was really crowded. August was a little concerned, but we assured him we were going outside. As we walked through the building he kept repeating “We’re going outside.” We walked up the stream, to the stretch with the displays for the lantern festival. We saw all the displays, then walked back to the little waterfall and stream. We ate the apple cookie that I had bought yesterday but we didn’t eat – he had spotted it in the morning and I told him we would save it for outside. He took off his shoes and walked in it a little, but wasn’t a big fan of the algae. We then threw some rocks in the water and floated leaves and flower petals down the stream. He went back and with Carly on the edge of the water. Carly had been watching ants carry off crumbs from the cookie, and we watched them climb up the wall behind us.

We headed home and he took a nap from 12:49 to 2:02. After his nap he was reading a book with Carly and read the word “bump” so he got up and bumped his head against the wall. August and I then made letters out of the Duplos and August wanted Peter Rabbit to sit on each of the letters. We stated at A and got through Q. Carly had been resting on the reading area and August got up on the chair and had fund throwing Peter Rabbit to/at Carly. He then said “Are you kidding me?” nice and clear. We didn’t know he knew that one. He claimed he learned it from me. Very funny.

We went for a for a second walk. Carly had his water, so I had fun keeping the water bottle from him, turning back and forth. I asked if he wanted to play his touching tree game and he said “Yeah!” and touched a few trees as we walked by – haven’t done that for months and months. As we got to the stream, he saw the fruit seller selling watermelons and excitedly pointed them out. Carly paused to look at the water from the bridge and August said “Mama likes the wawa.” We stopped at Cafe Tolerance and got drinks – we got a grape juice pack for him. August and I waited on the stairs, and Carly hid from him through the door, and he hid behind his hands.

August wanted to go to the new playground again, so we did that. We first sat on the benches and he drank his juice. He then played with Carly on the spiderweb and teeter totter, and spent the most time in the sand. We of course looked at the recycling on both the way in and out.

We headed home, and August wanted to get out of the backpack as we crossed the wooden bridge. He was then sad when we wouldn’t let him go down and play in the stream – he had seen kids doing it the other day and remembered. Carly was carrying him, and he recovered, but then as we got to the street he wanted to walk on the sidewalk by himself without holding hands, so he was sad about that.

We made it back though, and all headed to the pink building to do grocery shopping. We did that, then went up to Burger Ton for dinner. We sat outside with Megan and Torrey and a couple other people from work who were out there. August had a lot of fun with them, and got Smokey out and was playing with him. At one point I asked him what he loves and he pointed up to the signs on the building and said “Love Hangeul!”

Back at home he did some typing with Carly. He said his favorite letter is “Q” and that his favorite animal today was “dolphin”. I was then picking him up and flopping him down on the reading area. He wanted this over and over and over again. He and Carly did some sponge painting. He had been hyper before, but got very calm and focused as he put paint on the sponge. I then took him in to the bathroom and helped him wash out the sponges, and he was similarly focused doing that.

Carly gave him a bath, then they were reading more Bob books. He is working his way through collection 2. I read the I Spy letter book and we looked at the pictures on the wall next to the bed for several minutes, then Carly came in and he went to sleep about 9:10.

New words/phrases:  little prince, mermaid, are you kidding me?

 

Little stream:

Home: 

Second walk: 

Burger Ton: 

Home: 

Another rainy day. He was up at 6:30. Got on the iPad before Carly left. He found the Colors app, and I introduced him to color mixing (blue and yellow make green, etc.) and he liked that. We played with Peter Rabbit a lot, joking about him breaking the rule of stepping on the iPad. We used Garageband on the iPad to record our first song, the XYZ song. It was hard to get him to stay quiet long enough so I could record the piano track, but then he really liked singing along to it when I played it back, and then singing along with ourselves for a second vocal track. He got Smokey out of the backpack for a bit. Finally, we watched the video from class and brushed his teeth. At some point this morning he was listening to music and started “stepping to the music” in the living room.

We went to class, unsure if it was happening, since today had been declared a holiday just a week ago. There was class, and it went really well. August knows the songs really well now, and was into dancing around to the beginning songs. The biggest surprise was when she did the roll call thing and he actually let me stand him up, he took a couple steps forward, and let the teacher give him a hug. He liked the activity of pushing a caterpillar through holes in fruit (it was basically a Very Hungry Caterpillar thing), then crawling through tubes (which he has been hesitant to do before). At the end of class he got two Poby (a polar bear) stamps on his hands and said thank you (in Korean) and bowed when I asked him to. The teacher handed out free soy milk drinks – he drank one there and we saved the second for lunch.

We got in the backpack and headed to Children’s Grand Park. Hadn’t used the cover on the way to Home Plus, but put it up for the walk to the subway. Bought kimbap and eggs. Drizzling when we arrived about 11:30. Tried to go in the children’s museum, but August said “No!” as I walked in – he was getting tired and it was busy, so made sense. I suggested by the rectangle pond, where there is a covered picnic bench. When we got there he wanted me to keep walking – I think he was about ready to fall asleep. But I gave him the option of a table with chairs back under the cover of the building and he chose that one. We ate lunch, then got ready to go. While sitting at the table he started kicking it with his foot, making noise, and made up a little “Mooka Mooka” song. I changed him and took him to the picnic table to put him in the backpack. His shoes were wet from the ground, and as I put him in they made a squeaking sound. He asked what the noise was and he kept asking for more squeaking. He was looking at the wall and workers have patched the cracks in it. He saw the lines and asked “Who did that?” I told him it was the workers. He then thought all the lines looked like “Japanese.” – that has been his default now for letters/etc. that don’t look familiar. We walked around the cover of the building, much like Tuesday, until he fell asleep.

He fell asleep from 12:49 to 2:05. We were upstairs. When he woke up the first thing he said was “More shoes squeaking”. He did some drawing on Paper for iPad, then saw the bags of banana snacks. I said we could but them, and he pointed to the woman we know best, sitting behind the counter, and said “There she is.” We practiced saying “Please give me banana snacks” but he got shy. we walked over to the display case and he repeated me one word at a time: “바나나 스낵 추서요.”

He wanted to go see animals, so we headed out. Just barely drizzling. We got to the covered space by the primates and he was reading off all the labels on the garbage/recycling cans. It was raining harder, and he was the only person in the park in short sleeves and no hat. Eventually I put on his coat as he wanted to keep playing in the rain. He got very sad about this and was sad for a few minutes. “A long sad” I called it. Eventually he ate some banana and then was ready to get going towards home. But he spotted the conservatory and wanted to go in. We went in but he changed his mind about seeing the fish, but we did show Smokey the banana trees (we had talked about that before) and August wanted to see the mossy elephant sculpture. Back outside, we spent several minutes going back and forth between the little fountains by the entrance and the bigger fountains with the frogs. Eventually he wanted down and sort of stood close to the small fountains so he could throw little rocks in them. I let him do two, then said we should go to the stream by the robots to do more.

So we did that, but the stream wasn’t on. He did throw a couple rocks in the fountains at either end, then wanted to talk to his three favorite robots. We did that, then headed home. I had changed him after his nap, so didn’t do so now. As we left, we saw kids walk by blowing whistle things. He liked the sound, so we tracked down where they came from – you got them free by the entrance. There was still the children’s festival going on, although kind of a wet one. We got a butterfly whistle thing and some button pins – he particularly liked the one with a fox on it, and eventually put it in his coat pocket. You could get a free set of crayons if you first drew a picture, but when we went to that tent it was crowded, so August suggested we “draw at home”. We took one last look at some of the random/funny sculptures (August had liked the giraffes out of flowers, a robot-like dragonfly thing, and a few more) then headed home. This whole time we had been singing the Basho and Friends “Hasta Mañana” song over and over.

On the subway he played with the whistle/hand fan thing. It was shaped like a butterfly. One side was blue and the other pink. He started flipping it back and forth saying “blue fly, butterfly”.

Got home right at 5. Figured Carly wasn’t home yet, so on the first floor I gave him the options. He actually came up with the option of going up and then waiting at the elevators. So we did that. Two minutes and then Carly showed up. He nursed and they read (he is really into doing both at once – a bit later he would request “Nurse and type”), then we had pizza for dinner. I put on an album of clarinet and accordion klezmer music, as there was some music playing at the park that August liked that reminded me of it. August listened a bit, then excitedly said “Write numbers for the music!” He started writing on the paper, numbers at first, but then other things. He drew his first sun, making a circle and lines around it.

I gave him a bath, then he was back to Carly. They Skyped with Cherie. He and I read Frog on a Log while Carly and Cherie talked, then he went back and was having Oma make letters with her fingers. He was asleep about 9:20.

Oh, in the morning he had been doing art on the iPad and pulled up the photo of him by the art museum yesterday. He was asking where the ball was that he couldn’t play with, and I told him it was just off to the right. So he talked a couple times about taking photos of a “B A L L” today. Didn’t actually happen, but he remembered again in the evening. Also, this spelling things out thing is something he does from time to time.

New words/phrases: dada forgetting his phone, ask dada

 

Mixing colors: 

Class: 

Children’s Grand Park. Lunch: 

Looking at trees with Smokey after his nap: 

Sad about the coat: 

At the fountains: 

Home: 

Children’s Day – Home Plus and Madeul

He was up at 8:35. Nursed, did some drawing. I changed him and he played with the Pororo magnets in the changing room and found the Harry the Hummingbird magnet.  He asked what sound hummingbirds make, and I made a humming sound. He said “Hummingbirds make Vs…Ws…” I changed him, then we were back out with the piano. It was making a buzzing sound when you played it he said it sounded like a “Spider…snake” I shook the piano a little and it went away. “Where’d the double S go?” “Double S make this one: sss sss” He was then trying to shake the piano to make the sound come back. He then played with his etch-a-sketch and did some more art on paper. I then went and took a shower.

He was then looked at his door magnets. They are Pororo characters, so the hummingbird is also on some of the magnets, so he was finding them. He heard a loud car outside and said “Hear W W W W.” and said “Where it go?” after he couldn’t hear it anymore.

We all walked over to Home Plus a little after 10. The park was busy getting ready for the day’s Children’s Day celebration. August wanted to stop and pay on the benches (he remembered playing there with Carly before), so we did. There was another boy with a pink ball and August really wanted to play with it. We got out the tennis ball instead. Then, there was a girl blowing bubbles, and he got into those. She was very nice and let him try it a couple times. From there we went into the art museum. He and Carly went into the play area and he played there for awhile. I went and checked out one gallery, then went in. He was standing up by the trampoline, making up a numbers chant. Carly wanted to see the portrait gallery I had just looked at, so we went over there when he was done playing. He wanted to go downstairs instead. Tried going down without her, but he wanted to go back for mama. So we all went downstairs. They did the light switches together, then got stickers and put them on the wall. We were talking about going to Home Plus and he was excited to see the animals. He said “insects” and I said no, there weren’t insects at Home Plus. Not sure if that was what made him sad, but he suddenly got very sad, and they went and nursed for awhile. When he was better we looked at the paper mache animals in the community gallery, then headed to Home Plus. Walking through the park, he saw a lot of balloons today and wanted one himself. Never did get him one though.

At Home Plus he wanted to “look at shirts” and started by carrying the basket around. We looked at pillows and finally selected two for the new couch. He looked at the aquariums and seems to be understanding that you can take fish out of the tanks and home…I think we will be getting pet requests sooner than I would like. We headed downstairs – August shows Carly how he could walk off the end of the moving sidewalk by himself. He looked at the alphabet spices while Carly went and started grocery shopping. Eventually, we walked around a bit. We rain into Meg and her friend who is visiting. August happened to be wearing the shirt she got him in Myanmar. When we told him the shirt was from her, he was asking her what the letters are, as if she might know better than us. We then put him in the backpack, picked up the pizza, and grabbed diapers before heading out.

We went home and he slept from a little after 1 to around 2. In the afternoon we got ready and headed out for a walk. The two cafes we go to were closed. After the first one, he said “go to the one that’s open right here”. Alas, the second one (Cafe Tolerance) was also closed. So August and I stayed at the playground and started playing while Carly went and got coffee back at Brownstone. I had asked August if he wanted to go with her or stay and play and he agreed to this readily, saying “Bye bye” and waving to Carly. We played on the platform, then got Smokey out and played What do you see? When Carly came back we were sitting by the grate, dropping little sticks and rocks in the water below. When Carly got there he wanted the ice from her drink. She sat on the ground, and he tried to get her cup, which turned into a game. Finally, she finished, and he sat, eating her ice. A group of young teenagers came and were trying out there English with August. He said “Hi!” and waved a few times, then “Bye!” They were fine at first, but then kept hanging around, so we decided it was time to head out.

We walked up towards Madeul, but August wanted to go to the “new playground…spiderweb with mama.” So we walked over there and played there. He mainly played with her: on the spider web, in the tube, on the teeter totters, on the swings, and in the sand.  On the teeter totters he kept taking his hands off the handle and laughing. In the sand, Carly drew a big Q, but he didn’t like it for some reason: “No like mama’s Q.” We left, but had to stop to look at recycling because August asked really nicely – he had wanted to on the way in, but there were people in the way so I said we could on the way out. I almost took some English books out of recycling, but the set was too big. August got upset when we wouldn’t stop to turn on the water, but it was at a faucet that doesn’t work (we’ve tried every other time). He was still upset by the time we got home, and when Carly tried to continue on to the store he got really upset. So Carly came up to the apartment with us.

After I had some pizza I went to the store instead. When I came back August was hiding behind Carly on the couch – he does this all the time when Carly comes home, but I haven’t seen it myself much. From the couch he pointed to the Moo book and said “Funny M covered by baa baa”. I played with him on the couch, and we made a game out of counting his toes…incorrectly. So that he had a million toes, etc. He wanted the joke to keep going and going, asking “How many have this one?” I bought sesame crackers at the store and gave him a few. We called them ‘rectangle’ crackers, to differentiate from the square and circle crackers we’ve had in the past. He was still hungry so I offered him fruit, offering banana, orange, or grapes he was trying to still choose rectangle crackers, saying: “3 choices. Rectangle. That’s not a fruit!”

Carly gave him a bath. When he came out he saw me and said “Hi dada! How you doing?” A little later I asked if he wanted to read books in bed. He took several in on the bed and we read a little, then he nursed and fell right to sleep, about 8:30.

New words/phrases:  aquarium, I think this goes here, go to the one that’s open right here, okay let’s go,

Piano sound:

Park, art museum, and Home Plus: 

Playground 1 after his nap:

Playground 2: 

Home: 

Carly said he was going “ssssss” in his sleep last night. No rain today, but a lot of wind. He woke up at  6:56. Very happy again. Said ‘nurse’ a few times but no complaint when I said mama was at work. He then rolled around on the bed for a few minutes. When he popped up he headed straight to the kitchen, got his stool, and put it against the counter. He wanted to make a smoothie. We did that, then he was on the iPad. Didn’t last long, as then he wanted to color on paper. Did that, then back to the iPad for just a few minutes for Endless Reader. We did a few play dough letters, then he went down to the changing room and played with the magnets, focusing on the Pororo characters. He wanted to make music on a balloon, so did a little of that, then read At the Zoo. He then invented a brand new alphabet song going “It’s a B chk, chk…” as he walked back and forth on the couch. He wanted Korean words, so we looked at one of the little books, then watched the video from class and brushed his teeth. I changed him to get ready to go and he heard neighbors out in the hall. He speculated they were taking a bath: “Neighbors taking a bath.”

We left about 9:30. Uneventful trip to Olympic Park. It was really windy when we got to the park, and as we walked through the south entryway, he pointed to the trees and said “Making S. Sss sss sss.” He wanted to find a playground, which are at the north end of the park, so I started walked that way. He was wanting to look at every set of garbage cans (it was about 10 sets before his nap), then decided he wanted us to walk around to the right. So we wandered that way. He wanted to find a picnic bench and eat, so we found an odd-looking green building, which turned out to be a historical pit hut site. We sat on a bench outside and ate our sandoo in the wind. He got both Smokey and Camel out to play with them. He then started wandering down a path with Smokey, saying “Take photo…of trees.” I got the backpack and we headed out. Never did take a tree photo.

Got to the lake, where the skinny sculpture things in it were spinning nicely. He wanted to throw rocks in, so we went around to the right. Threw some rocks and pine cones in. He was mobbed by admiring teenage girls, and stomped around in a big puddle on the bricks. I “saved” a boy in a wheelchair when a big gust of wind came up and blew him across the bricks. I actually had to jump out of the way of him, then realized he wasn’t in control and went and grabbed him so he wouldn’t blow any further. August and I were heading back up the path, looking for more rocks, when his mom came up to us and gave us a pack of cookie things for helping her son.

Changed him outside by a set of restrooms (the only bad thing about Olympic Park is the almost complete lack of changing tables, at least in men’s rooms), then started walking. Walked north through the center of the park, on some paths we had never been on before. Wanted to walk the ridges, but tried to stay low to avoid the wind. He had some difficulty getting to sleep because of the wind, and I ended up walking around in circles in a little tree area near the Olympic Museum until he fell asleep, then went in the coffee place. He slept. And slept. I tried to wake him up twice after he was asleep 90 minutes but he fell back to sleep. Slept from 12:43 to 2:46. While he was sleeping, the wind was quite strong outside. At one point I went to the door, which kept blowing open, to have a look. There was a picnic mat on the ground. A minute later the wind picked up and it was blowing around in circles, and right into my hands. I folded it up and set it on the floor. When we left I took it, as I figured August would like the animals.

When we went out, August was fascinated by all the garbage on the ground. He picked up a bottle and wanted to recycle it. We took it to the bins and he read the signs. He was reading 일반쓰레기 (general waste) quite well all day, and was now figuring out  재활용품 (recyclables). From there we walked around the corner to the playground. He got out Smokey and had him looking at/talking about the trees. There was a yellow plastic climbing thing to the play structure, and he remembered it (actually from the playground by Logan’s house, which has an identical one). He initially wanted me to help him climb, but then I reminded him of using his hands and leaning forward. He climbed the top bit, then climbed down (needing my help at the end) and tried from the bottom. Made it a little ways, before his hand got dirty and he was done. He went down the slide once, then went over to a little rocking elephant toy and stood and climbed on that and shook it. Then took off, showing Smokey a couple pigeons, and walked around one of those “tricky” walking paths. We ended up on a bench, and stayed there for a long time. I got the food and we had a snack. There was work going on behind a wall and was identifying the sounds: “This is a saw…this is a hammer.” We ate a banana, and he was having Smokey look at the trees some more: “Smokey likes the trees.” Some boys were making some noise on the exercise equipment: “What’s going on?” He was trying to sing a song we haven’t really sung before and said “Remember the tune. How tune go?” A plane flew overhead and he called it a “jet”.

He was hungry, so we got out the egg. He peeled the whole thing by himself. Took a long time, but he got it done. He ate most of it, then was walking back and forth on the benches to and from me and the egg. He kept talking about the egg: “Walk to the egg…close to the egg…back to the egg.” He was getting pretty cavalier in his walking, despite stumbling a couple times. It was a pretty low bench though so I wasn’t too worried. Indeed, a minute later he missed his footing. He fell forward, then rolled off the side of the bench. He cried a little, but mainly in frustration. He cuddled with me for a few minutes. He was really quiet, so I pushed him back a bit to check on him and he started laughing. There was one bite of egg left, and he joked about who should eat it: “Zinnie do…Dada do…Zinnie do…” We cleaned up to leave, and he wanted to put the bag from the sandoo in his pocket – the first time he’s wanted to use a pocket (his pants generally haven’t had pockets – I thought he might be interested in the pockets in his winter coat, but he never was). In leaving, I asked if he wanted to walk or for me to carry him. He held up his fingers and said “Two choice!” Finally, there was a “funny crab” on the play structure which he called “Crab nake(d)”.

We went home a slightly different route as we got on a different line, at the north end of the park. On the second leg, an English-speaking white guy offered us a seat. As we sat there I told August he should thank  the guy for the seat. A stop before we got off, he was able to sit down again, next to us. So as we left I said “Thanks. Have a good one.” August then loudly said “Thank you!”

An active, active evening. He nursed with Carly once we got home, then wanted to nurse again. I was grabbing his leg and pulling him back to me so he couldn’t. He thought this was hilarious and kept wanting me to do it again and again. Eventually they did nurse, then wrote on the paper together. He surprised her by writing ‘write’ and ‘words’. He was copying words she had already written, but he wrote them nice and straight. Carly wrote a word and traced it, which he didn’t like, saying he was “sad about the ‘m’”. I then showed him our ‘new’ picnic mat and he spent several minutes looking at it. He spent a little time on the iPad, then moved to the sink. They read the 100 Palabres book. He got sad, something about the balloon again: “Sad about this one. Zinnie do it. Balloon in the book.” He played with his water pen books while Carly took a shower. I then changed him, and we played on the couch. He talked a lot about our routine for when I pick him up (“I saw I’ve got my dada. You say
I’ve got my Zinnie.”), his name preference (“Call me ZinnZinn”) and how we raise our call out his name when we want him to stop something, raising the pitch at the end of his name (“Dada all done ZinnZINN”).

He played in the sink, then Skyped with Oma from his own Skype account. He really liked Skyping on the iPad, and read her a lot of Bob books. While on the call we also started playing I Spy using the Wild About Books book. Finally, he went in with Carly and was asleep around 9:45.

New words/phrases: crumb, crust, spelling ‘fist’, our, tree stuff, reading 일반쓰레기, are you being uncouth?, reading 재활용품 (recyclables), jet

Waking up:

His new song: 

Following along: 

Olympic Park. Walking and seeing the garbage: 

Lunch in the wind with Smokey: 

Puddle: 

My reward: 

After his nap. Reading the garbage: 

Playground: 

Smokey looking at trees: 

Walking path: 

Peeling his egg: 

Hiding from the totems in front of the peace arch: 

Home. Writing ‘write’: 

New picnic mat: 

Writing letters for froggy:

A very rainy day.

Another happy wake up. 7:36. Opened the door and said “Yeah”. Then “Go find mama here” while pointing down the hall. He ran down the hall and I thought he was going to be upset. But instead he ran into the bedroom and said “Zinnie escape.” We went into the changing room and did one of the puzzles, played with the magnets, and then played with balloons. He remembered the balloons we hadn’t yet blown up, so I went and got them and blew up the green and pink. He wanted a yellow balloon, but we didn’t have one. He was on the iPad for a little while, but not long. He started coloring when I went to get breakfast but drew on the wall again, and also the ‘books’ sign. He helped wipe though. We had cheerios for breakfast, then he was typing on my computer. We played a little with is boots, then he found bubble wrap in the iHerb order box from yesterday. He remembered back to when he saw the woman with bubble wrap at Danggogye Park: “Sad about the bubble wrap outside. Say pleeease.” Remembering woman with bubble wrap at Danggogye.

Couple minutes later: “Hold the bubble wrap in the park. Take it with us.” So he put it in the backpack. He then said “Go outside.” and looked out the window: “Raining outside.”

We headed to Children’s Grand Park about 9:40. Raining hard, so I put on the rain gear down near where we do recycling. He was fine once we were up and moving, but not happy about putting it on. Headed down to the park. Not a lot of people out anywhere. Got food at GS25 then headed to the children’s museum.

At the museum we first walked up to the second floor and played in the space area. A lot of just wandering around and stepping on/pushing things. He spent the most time at the big video game thing where you stand on a tilting board reminiscent of a skate board. He stood on them a lot, and also counted down with the numbers on the screen. And he hung on the fence surrounding the area, looking out through the glass panels. We then went up to the family lounge to eat. A pretty straightforward lunch, then we went down to the book area. Grabbed the Oh No!, Opposites, Colors, Numbers, and Shapes books and took them up to the loft and read them. He took Smokey up to read with us. From there we walked to the little kids area. Not busy there. He mainly played with the puzzles and we went up to the kitchen area where he lounged in the little chair:“Want to cook. Want to make soup…have a seat.” He was even putting his feet on the little table and leaning back in the chair. Back down stairs he rode one of the ladybug scooters around – the first time he’s really done that.

He was getting sleepy, so I changed him and we got ready for a nap. It wasn’t raining hard out, but it was really windy. I made it all winter walking outside to put him to sleep at Children’s Grand Park, but today was a problem. I ended up walking in and around the covered areas at the Gammaru building (where the two coffee shops are) and that worked. He fell asleep after about 15 minutes. But as I ordered in Peace Coffee (first floor this time) the guy asked me a couple times if I wanted it iced. I then heard August say “iced” in his slurred voice. Then the woman lit up and started waving and saying “Good morning!” to him. I was like “No, no, no.” and quickly signed and took the vibrating thing. As I walked away, August started saying “Where’d it go? Where’d it go? Where’d it go?” Not sure what ‘it’ was. I went outside and walked around the little covered area for a minute and he fell back to sleep. Back in before my coffee was ready.

He was asleep 1:35 to 2:59. He woke up and played on the iPad a little. He’s had a runny nose the last couple of days, and as he was sitting there he said “Zinnie has crusty nose.”

We headed to the subway as I wanted to go shopping at Home Plus. On the subway he spelled ‘miss’ then said “Miss the one piece…Timmy Time…” He was also asking how to spell ‘hummingbird’ and working on that. We made it to Hagye and to Home Plus. A few drops and some wind, but didn’t put the cover up. In the first basement he wanted to get out of the backpack, but made it quickly through there and down to food. They have watermelon now and samples, so a few piece of that and a grape kept him happy. Paid and headed home. Raining a little more, but just had to make it home. As we came across our part of the park it suddenly started raining harder, so we hurried across to get home. Pretty wet by the time we got in, but it didn’t bother August.

At home he watched ABC songs until Carly got home, then drew with her. They were writing things like ‘here I am’ and ‘hummingbird’. He then started writing “Funny A. No line.” That is, the As he keeps spotting in logos that just look like upside down Vs. He drew again on the ‘Books’ sign so Carly took the markers away. He then wiped up the mess again. I changed him, then Carly gave him a bath. She had fun giving him a mohawk. He drew with me while she took a shower: he did dots for himself and wrote the alphabet and also more funny As. He wanted to get balloons and sing songs with them. When I asked which songs, he wanted Korean. So we sang one of the songs from class. He then went in to Carly in the parlor and they skyped with Cassie. He then typed on Carly’s computer – at one point he was typing the letters on the keyboard for the first time: ‘wertyuiopasdfg…’ He then climbed on the chair at the desk. I spun him around and he got dizzy. Lightly bumped his head on the arm and wanted to nurse. They did that, then read the lollypop Bob book. They then skyped with Cherie (who is now in Pennsylvania) and Vivi, and August was showing them one of his balloons. After that, August, for some reason, wanted presents: “Mama find presents.” Carly let him open the bag that had her shoes in it, and another bag that had the shirt that we had loaned to Derek for Rosie. August was happy with that, and wanted to put the shirt on. He was then climbing off the end of the couch into the basket with books – he wanted me to take all the books outs he could get in. I got the laundry basket instead. He was having fun getting pulled around in it, but then we were going fast, and it seems like he didn’t like the sound: “No S s s s s… no shshshshsh.” Holding on to my hands, he was then standing on it and sitting on it. When it came time to say goodbye on Skype, he very clearly said “Bye Oma. Bye Vivian.” He then got the stool so he could play with water in the sink. He went to sleep about 9:30.

New words/phrases:  spelling ‘hot’ ‘cold’ ‘love’, have a seat

Waking up:

Cleaning up: 

Rain gear: 

Children’s museum: 

New sign in the coffee shop. Think they need to work on the translation: 

In from the rain: 

Evening: 

Pink balloon: 

Showing it to Oma: