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Up at 7:40. Happiest wake up ever. Threw open the door, saw me, smiled and pointed and said “There’s dada!” He was then writing on the paper and wanted some mango. I was asking him how he wanted it, and he said “Want to eat it!” and turned that into a little chant.  I got up to get it, and ward him say “Aug-GUST” to himself. I turned around to find him scribbling all over the floor with a yellow glass crayon. He was rather proud of himself and was saying “Wipe! Fill in.” Uh-oh” “Who do that?” He wouldn’t agree to write on the paper, so I had to take away the crayons. He ate some cold mango, and wanted to hear “Spanish songs” so I put on Basho. We ate Cheerios for breakfast, then got ready to head out, earlier, for the long trek to the big zoo. He requested the “AWQ shirt”, which turned out to be the CWU shirt. As we got in the backpack he recalled the yellow crayon incident from the morning, entirely on his own:

“Sad about the yellow…dada picked it up….where do you color? On the paper. Mess here.”

On our walk to the subway he talked about what we were doing: “going to the big zoo.” “Giraffe…go to the bug.” The subway ride down went smoothly. As we made the long walk into the zoo, he hid behind his hands. When I asked what he was hiding from he joked “Hiding from the sss sss sss. Hiding from the th th. Hiding from the T H T H.” So yes, letter sounds/letters. Also, there are about a millions sets of garbage cans and faucets along the way. On the subway he had been tracing the word ‘bat’ so that was now what he wanted to see first. But we kept stopping. As we walked to the nocturnal animal building he pointed at another garbage can. Exasperated, I said that if we stopped at every one we would never see the bats. He responded with “See the bats. THEN see the garbage.”

I also pointed out some picnic tables that would be good for lunch. He then wants to eat right then, so we stopped, put the picnic mat on the table, and he sat on it and we had a little lunch. He spent a lot of the time nibbling the grains and seeds out of his bread. After that we finally made it to the nocturnal animals. I didn’t know how he would respond to the dark building, but he dis just fine with me holding him in my arms. We saw kinkajou, African porcupines, ural owl, civet, three-striped night monkey, bats, scops owl, slow loris, and a couple others. The kinkajou (because they were active) and porcupines (because they were huge) were our favorite.

From there we went in the Insectarium. That went fine for the most part, except when I wanted to rest my arms. He didn’t want to walk on his own, so I sat down and he wasn’t happy with that. He liked the stag beetles at the beginning, and the crickets made an impression on them as he would mention their noise later. They have an impressive collection of spiders, but we kind of hurried through that part as August was ready to go outside.

We walked up to the playground and went in the stream. Took his shoes off and sat on a rock. A leaf floated by, so I have it to him and he was dropping it in the water to go down a little waterfall area. I would then grab it and hand it back to him. That lasted a few minutes, but then he wanted his diaper changed: he had sat in a little puddle and his shorts were wet. We changed him, then he played in the sand. Kept seeing kids over on the climbing wall and wanted to do that. So we went over there. At first he just wanted me to help him climb. So I helped him up a few feet to where he could sit. He really likes the handholds on the walls and tries to figure out what they each look like. He wanted up in a different spot. This time, I was pointing out the other kids and telling him he needed to lean forward and use his hands, instead of just holding on to mine, which is what he always wants to do. It clicked this time. He said “lead forward” and did so, holding on to the wall. He didn’t really climb up, but he was on the wall by himself for a couple minutes, talking about the shapes of the handholds.

We walked about 15 minutes and he fell asleep. A couple minutes before drifting off we saw the water birds area, which we’ve never been to, and wanted to go in. He slept from 1:13 to 2:08 (in the cafeteria area by the Dolphins) and when he woke up his first words were “Go see water birds”. So I got in the backpack and we headed out. We had to walk through some of the outside birds to get there, and August wanted to see some of the condors and vultures on the way. As we approached he said “Hear the pelican”. We went in and saw the water birds. He liked that for a few minutes. Quite impressive compared to Children’s Grand Park.

Back outside, he wanted out of the backpack. So I got him out, but then he saw water faucets he wanted to see on and wanted right back up in my arms. Except for the playground he hadn’t done any walking on his own today and my arms were tired. So I was trying to get him to walk over there, but he wasn’t having it. He also didn’t want to get back in the backpack, so was quite upset by the time I got him back in. We got walking and calmed down, and we went and saw the elephants. We watched them for several minutes – also much nicer than Children’s Grand Park’s exhibit. Two of the elephants were linking trunks and playing. From there we saw the ostriches (we had seen emus on our way in earlier), hippos, and oryx, then walked over and saw the giraffes on the way out.

Outside the zoo we sat by the water faucets we played at last time and had a snack. He devoured the egg, but before he did he said “Don’t eat the egg! From E.” That’s a line from the E section of a YouTube ABC video he likes. We also ate an orange, then he used his water bottle to play in the faucets. Let him do that for several minutes, then coaxed him away and we headed home. First, we stopped to buy some orange juice to drink on the way.

On the subway we had to stand a few stops. He was being silly and pointing at people and saying things like “Mama, mama, mama, mama…That’s not mama, it’s a persons.” “That’s not an animal, it’s a stranger.” He played iPad for awhile, but then put it away. He was squirming around, and reached out and touched the woman next to us. I said “Nuh, uh, uh.” and he said “Not okay.” I’ve started teaching him what an acronym is, and he looked down at his shirt and asked “Stands for?” We sang the tongue twister song for the last few stops to Changdong, then took the 1144 bus home. He was simply going through the alphabet saying “A is for…, B is for…” A couple that I remember were “R is for rainbow…S is for snake…U is for under.”

At home he nursed, then we all ate spaghetti for dinner. He was coloring with me, but then reached out and drew on the cover of a book. Luckily, it wiped off, but that was the end of coloring for a time. Carly changed him, then gave him his bath. They then were writing words together. Carly was writing words (mainly from the Kipper ABC book) and he was able to read ‘elephant’, ‘picnic’, ‘happy’, ‘hill’, and ‘zebra’. She was drawing lines under the words, and he decided he didn’t like that: “Sad about the lines”. He was pretty upset by it, but because he was tired. He nursed and fell asleep at 7:40.

New words/phrases: porcupines, reading ‘snack’, fist

Awake:

A little too proud: 

On the subway: 

Fuzzy hair: 

Huge porcupine: 

Stream: 

Playground: 

Water birds: 

Looking at giraffes: 

Playing in the water: 

He was awake a little after 8. He nursed, then he and Carly were reading the word play poetry book. He was reading the cover and read “word play” and that reminded him of Endless Wordplay, which he hasn’t played for a long time, and he came out wanting to play it on the iPad. So he did that, and we listened to Basho and Friends. Carly made oatmeal and mango for breakfast. I was feeding him, and he was sitting on the table. But he wanted to stand up on it and dance to Basho. I wouldn’t let him stand on the table, so he was “sad about the standing on the floor”. He heard Carly making noise as she cleaned the bathroom, and I said it was a dragon. This turned into a dragon finding game, where he crept to bathroom and would spot mama and then laugh. We also got out Puff and used him. When Carly moved to the closet he heard her again, so now she was in another cave. One of the times he heard her he said “Hear dragon eating vitamins.”

A bunch (5 or 6) of his new puzzles were still a mess from yesterday, so he helped me put them together. We got to the elephant one and he was frustrated by the last piece. I was showing him to turn it by rotating his wrist, so then he was holding out his wrist and trying to copy me. Still couldn’t get it, so we moved on to the other puzzles and came back to it at the end and he got it. After that he played in the sink for awhile. We started getting ready to go outside, and he looked out the window and said “Look for the dragon outside.” Before we left, he was holding the ‘Q’ plastic toy we use with the play dough and he held it up and excitedly said “Q like a balloon!”, holding it by the Q part.

Carly was ready to go, but before we left I was holding August under his arms while he stood on the floor and he started bouncing, like in a bouncy chair, and singing and swaying back and forth. He kept asking for more of this, saying “More ABCDing!” Finally, I got him changed and we headed out.

We got coffees downstairs and a banana-shaped banana bread for August. August had said he wanted to play in water, so we headed up towards Madeul Stadium, headed for the faucets at the north end. On the walk he asked “How bout pleasing?” So I started to explain about dropping the ‘e’ and adding ‘-ing’. This would come up a couple more times, and we would later write it out on the paper with a couple words.

Up at Madeul, the little insect bouncy toys and the play area next to it were finally open. We played there. We ended up all sitting on the blue play floor while he first sat in my lap and ate my ice, then moved to Carly’s lap and ate hers. He got Smokey out and started playing “What do you see?” He took notice of ants several times. Another ‘drop the e’: asking for “moring”. He said we were “having a picnic on blue”

Eventually, he wanted to head down and play in the water. He did that, using our cups. He decided he didn’t want to wear his hat, so Carly put sunscreen on him, which he wasn’t happy about. “Play in the water some more.” He started pouring water on his feet and said it felt good. Eventually, it was time to head home for his nap. We first walked over to the dog area and he was really excited about seeing the dogs. A woman invited us in, so we went in, but then a little dog jumped up and licked him on the face and he got upset. Carly took him out and they nursed for a few minutes. He then went back to the dog area and just looked in. The woman brought a puppy over, so Carly picked up August and he sort of made peace.

We then walked down by the piano sculpture (he was excited to head down there) to change him and put him in the backpack. He spent a minute looking at the Hangeul sculptures first. We came home and he first ate some lunch of rice and zucchini, then fell asleep from roughly 2:20 to 3:20. After that he nursed and they read the Kipper books. They came out and he was doing art: “colored in” and was really into Bs. Carly made spaghetti, and I started to make more Spanish, Korean, and English signs to hang up around the house. August couldn’t handle that I wouldn’t let him write on my signs though as I made them, so there was a little more nursing and I stopped that short. We did more ABC on the paper, then he ate some cold mango.

A laundry basket was out, and I was pulling him around in it. He seemed to really like it, but then was “All done. No S S S. Sad about the S S S.” Seems he didn’t like the sound the basket makes. I cleaned the other bathroom, and he helped a bit, until he wanted to hold the window cleaner all alone and I wouldn’t let him. He ate spaghetti for dinner, then watched ABC songs on the iPad, before writing letters with me again. He got really into it, lying on the paper with his head just off it. I asked what he was drawing and he said “doing arte abstracto Qs.” Sadly, no photo of that as my phone decided to tell me it was out of space.

We read Puff the Magic Dragon together, and he actually started singing some of the words, and was trying to follow along with me with his finger in the book. I gave him a bath, then he nursed and read Frida with Carly. They headed off to sleep about 9:20.

New words/phrases:  colored in, recognize, spelling/writing ‘loves’, screen

 

Eating ice and playing: 

Water: 

Doggies: 

Home: 

A new sign: 

Bath: 

Before bed: 

He got up at 7. Woke up saying “Do letters”. He and Carly skyped with Cassie and Cherie, and I got up after that. He and Carly were looking at the Yoga book and having Peter Rabbit do yoga. Carly changed him, then he played with the animal magnets and he and I worked on the small puzzles in the changing room. Carly made him oatmeal, and we listened to Basho and Friends. He was standing on the couch and said “No, yes, undecided” as he looked at the table, floor and couch. Carly had said this yesterday as we discussed where he was allowed to stand. He and I got out his little bucket of play dough from Daiso and opened that. We used the little car shape in it to make cars, then used our letters to make letters out of play dough. I ate Cheerios for breakfast, and he had some as well. He then read and nursed with Carly, and came out and played in the sink. Morse nursing, then Carly had to leave a little before 11for her NHD meeting in Itaewon.

He watched some ABC songs as I got ready to go. One song has a pig using tools to make something as he sings and there is a cloud of dust. August thought this was funny and said “All the dust!”

We walked towards Dream Forest. I thought he would make it most of the way there, but as we walked under the tracks he hid behind his hands. On the other side he kept his eyes covered, put his head down, and fell asleep a few minutes later. So I turned off by Lotte Castle and went to Ediya Coffee, where he slept from 12:22 to 1:43. Carly was done with her meeting by then and heading home. So instead of continuing to Dream Forest, we walked back and went to 나팔꽃어린이공원 (Morning Glory Children’s Park). We’ve been here once before.

There was an older boy that was really interested in him and talking to us a bit. August wanted to play in the faucets, so we did that. He was getting his shoes wet so I took them off. A few minutes later a woman with a walker came up to us and kept telling me he should be wearing shoes. Sigh. From there we moved to the sand, where he did some digging and burying garbage and playing with a yellow ball that someone had left at the park. But he spent the most time sitting on/next to me and writing letters in the sand. Eventually, he wanted to “Go home, find Smokey.” I had mentioned that we had forgotten Smokey on our walk from home, and August wanted me to turn back for a second. I changed him, and he ate a bunch of strawberries before we got going.

Derek and messaged me, saying they were headed to Junggye Park, so we met him and Logan and Rosie at the bridge and walked with them. There was a little festival back at our park, so August and I grabbed some popcorn chicken, potatoes, and a mango juice and set up the picnic mat on top of a little hill by the playground. Logan really wanted a balloon, so they wandered around looking for the balloon man without luck until Derek needed to feed Rosie. Meanwhile, August and I enjoyed our food, and August did a little dance thing while eating chicken. As I packed up, he walked down the hill and there there was a girl that tried pulling his hair. I missed that, as he was down by Derek.

We all went up to the apartment (I’d warned Carly) so Derek could feed Rosie. August and Logan drew on the paper together, knocked down all the blocks and played in them, and played xylophone together. August was having a lot of fun having them over, and was crawling around like a baby. He also played around with Derek. Rosie had a nice throw up, so she got to borrow August’s old dinosaur shirt.

After they left, Carly gave August a bath, then he played in the sink for a long time. He and I played on the bed, reading Marvin K. Mooney and the Korean textbook, and with Bluie and GM (earlier he had thrown them down the side of the bed and figured out how to get down in the crack himself to get them – he did more of that and also put them in the crack between the beds). Back out on the paper, he wanted me to do dots and he wrote letters. He was giving them all little extra flourishing, and I started to call them ‘abstracto’ letters. He went through the alphabet a couple times, doing abstract letters. Then he wrote on the floor, but when I asked where he was supposed to draw he didn’t want to say “On paper”, he was trying to be funny and doing is “That’s not a K…” type of jokes. Finally, I said I needed to put the markers away and he immediately said “On paper”. He was then using two markers to write at once. A few weeks ago he was doing this, but really needed help to get the two markers in his hand correctly. Not a problem for him now.

I left at 8:30 to go hang out with Derek. August fell asleep not long after that, about 9.

New words/phrases:  hasta luego, spelling ‘ball’, ‘words’, sounding out ‘walking’

Derek and I went up to Nowon and to a makoli and korean pancake place he goes to a lot. Had a good time, talking about books, movies, crazy stuff at APIS, etc. We moved out to a table outside for the last half hour or so. I took off at 11:45 and he headed up to Metro.

I got an email from Paul telling me that our Grandma Niman had passed away today. Got it just as I met up with Derek, so didn’t get to tell Carly and August about it until later. Kind of weird to realize that all of our grandparents are now gone.

New play dough:

Hiding on our walk: 

Park: 

Walking home: 

Park: 

Home: 

Evening: 

Heard him talking at 7:02. He was sitting up and gave me a good grin. Just sat there for a couple minutes, then started spelling words. Then went out to the iPad and Writing Wizard. I had started to make a list of family names, so he was tracing things like ‘Tia Cassie’ and ‘Grampa’. He then remembered the new Korean video from class, so we watched that. We then switched to listening to the Korean music instead. He was dancing on the couch as I made oatmeal for breakfast. We also got out the Korean books to review the words and to see what class would be about this week. He wanted Spanish, so we switched to listening to Basho & Friends. We started playing “Donde esta bottes?” after the Bottes Perdido (lost boots) song. I actually got his (almost never used) snow boots out and we put them places and then searched for them. We then read books, and he wanted Frida. We read a few pages of that (he tolerated my Spanish) until we got to the page with a guitar on it. At that point he kept saying “Zinnie hold…Zinnie do it.” But he didn’t want to hold the book, and if I asked if he wanted a guitar he said “No”. Eventually we drifted from that, and he wanted to do Art Maker on the iPad. Did that for awhile, mainly shapes, then moved to the paper and wanted an actual pen. I let him draw with my pen, then he had the idea of erasing and he grabbed a nearby book and pretended to erase with it. It was the glass crayons (on paper) after that, and he kept saying “White doesn’t work” as he couldn’t see it on the paper.

Finally, we headed to Home Plus for his class. Class was kind of a bust, at least in terms of preparation. We were slowed a little as they were working on the moving walkway, so we had to take the elevator. Still, got up there right at 10:20, but heard them finishing up the opening songs. Got in to see her clock is set 4 minutes fast. So we missed most of the songs that we’ve been learning the words to the last couple days. Then, she went off-script for the main activity. Instead of being about camping (which we were ready for), it was a prince/princess dress-up thing and walking on a runway. August, of course, didn’t participate. We then did a little clapping/chant thing, and I had no idea what they were saying – so when it was our turn to add something I told them to pass. Finally, she got out the parachute and did parachute games. Unfortunately, she has them seen most of the time on top of the parachute, which August refuses to do. When she had them run under the parachute, August did that, but then we were bring down the parachute on their heads a lot so he was done after about 10 second. August was fine though, and in a good mood throughout – he just didn’t participate in much of class. He did, however, get two Pororo hand stanps at the end of class.

We headed to Children’s Grand Park. I realized there was  Dais and an Alpha near the back entrance, so we transferred at Gunja and got off at Achasan and did some shopping, as we were almost out of paper for coloring. August did fine with Dais, and picked out a little bucket with 7 colors of play dough in it. Got a bunch of pads of paper as well. He wasn’t fond about looking at Alpha though as he was hungry and getting tired. So we did that quick and headed into the park.

We found a new spot, east of the zoo, for lunch, sitting on a bench. That was a mistake, as later in lunch he saw people sitting on picnic mats and said “Zinnia do it.” He had fun though, watching some big boys play with frisbees for a few minutes. While eating his sandwich he was picking out the seeds and eating them and saying “seeds are yummy from a tree.” He then got out Smokey and wanted “more what do you see.” We played that, and he saw “bird poop right here.” on the ground. We walked over and played with the drinking fountains and refilled his water. Finally, I changed him and got him in the backpack and we got walking. Took 20 minutes or thereabouts and he fell asleep from 1:43 to 2:45. We’ve just been going to the upstairs one as the park is now always busy, so the first floor one is more likely to be busy as well.

After he woke up he played on the iPad for a few minutes and ate all the ice. He then wanted to take Smokey to the zoo. He (August) first wanted to see the lion, he then picked up some garbage to throw it away, and found a map of the zoo on the ground. He saw the seals and penguins on it, and wanted to see them. Penguins first. So we went and saw the penguins, then showed Smokey a crane, then headed outside where we set our stuff down and played with all the water faucets and with our tennis ball. He decided he wanted to go to the upstairs part of the bird building, so up we went. He played at the penguin display, dropping Smokey though the rotating signs, then wanted to go back and climb on the big egg sculpture/photo zone. Took his photo on the top of that. While he was sitting there, a boy’s balloon popped. August really liked that, although the boy didn’t. Another mom and boy then gave August some fry chip things and August did a good job of saying kamsamnida to them.

From there we headed home, changing him by the entrance, then sitting on the floor of the train much of the way. As we walked home he saw a ㅆ (double S) on the back of a bus and pointed it out, then exclaimed “That’s not mama; that’s a double S!” No idea. We were home at 5:10, after Carly.

We listened to a lot of Basho and Friends, had some rice, etc. for dinner, and I prepared his bath and Carly gave him his bath. He got into his Bingo spelling game again:  “oango, wango, zango, xango” Then wanted to play in the sink: “Dada Zinnie have fun in the sink.” After that we all went in to the bed and were reading. He read a bunch of Picasso’s Trousers. There is one long page that includes the word ‘beautiful’ and he only needed help with one word. He and Carly went to sleep around 8:30.

New words/phrases:  buenos noches, hasta manana, yo soy en Seoul, all sorts of new reading words including ‘beautiful’

Waking up:

Drawing letters: 

Using a book as an eraser: 

The one photo I took of class today. Pretty much sums it up: 

Lunch at the zoo: 

Trying to get him to sleep: 

The zoo. Showing Smokey a crane: 

Water: 

On the eggs: 

Home. Trying to blow up a balloon: 

Hiding under the gift from class as I blow up a balloon: 

Carly wasn’t sleeping well due to being stuffy and was out in the parlor part of the night. During the night, I heard August talking about foxes – at first I thought I heard him say Firefox, but I thinking he was saying “Fennec Fox”, which we see at the zoo. Then, when Carly wasn’t in the room, he woke up and was over by me saying “Get up” – he was trying to wake me up.

He woke up at 6:44, right after Carly left. I heard him say “Where’s dada?” I went in and he was upset that mama was gone. I lay down next to him. He started saying “Wait…wait…wait…” I asked what he wanted to wait, and he said “Wait…want mama to wait.” He calmed down a little but wasn’t quite ready. He said “Walk…dada out.” so I went out to the living room and he came out a couple minutes later. He wanted the iPad and the new tracing app. I added and recorded myself saying a variety of animals, and he traced those. He activated Siri, then we spent awhile asking Siri to show us photos of different animals. He then wanted “mooka mooks”, which Siri didn’t understand. I told him he had invented mooka mooks so he was the only one that knew what they looked like. We did letter stickers for a bit, then he noticed the reading area was gone, and asked for it. I told him he had to talk to mama, so he was saying “Talk to mama.”

We ate the last of the carrot pancakes for breakfast, then he played in the water, standing on the stool. We then Skyped with my parents before they left for Everett tomorrow. August was still playing in the sink at first, then stopped and was playing all over the place. He sang the ABC tongue twister song for them, and when we were talking about this later with Carly that is what he remembered. His shirt was a bit wet, so he wanted to change it. I took him in and gave him the drawer of short-sleeved shirts and told him to choose and he chose the Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles shirt.

After the Skype call, he wanted the new video from class. So we watched that and brushed his teeth. As we were getting ready I heard a sound from the and looked out: they were polishing the floors and had just started ours. So we skipped class. He’s been wanting to learn songs in Hangeul, so we watched more of the new video, following along with the words, and then the video from his first 5-Touch class. Been quite awhile since we’ve watched that, so he kept saying “Remember this one” when a new song started. I used Google Translate to capture the lyrics of some of the new songs, so we could practice them for class. Finally, the hallway was clear and we could head out. In asking him what he now wanted to do he said, totally unprompted: “Go in the forest…see trees, please.”

So we headed out. The closest forest-y place is the little corner between the stream and the power plant. But when we got to the stream August wanted to go down and walk along it. I tried to coax him over that way, but he wanted to go back to the stream. He also didn’t want to play in the playground. So stream it was. It was about 5 hours since he woke up, so I figured he was tired. But he didn’t fall asleep. We ended up walking 2 miles total, going about a mile up the stream. We saw all the float/sculpture things for the festival on the stream. He liked the Mt. Rushmore one, the one with people playing music, and the traditional Korean one that he thought looked like people “making sand castle”.

He fell asleep as we came back and got to Cafe Tolerance. He slept there from 12:38 to 1:55. He woke up and immediately said “Zinnie’s got eyes…got eyes right here. Zinnie’s got green. Turn the eyes. Turn the eyes here. See eyes.” He had leaked, so I took him downstairs and changed him on a bench outside the door. He looked at the diaper and said “See Huggies”, pointing to the word. On the way back up he was looking at all the signs and saw one with a balloon on it: “See the b a l l o o n on the sign,” spelling out ‘balloon’. Finally, as we walked back into the coffee shop he pointed at the coffee grinder full of beans and said “See beans.” We sat there, looking out at the stream, and played on the iPad and shared a strawberry smoothie. When we had the smoothie he said “Mama here,” making me think he was remembering when we came here with her. But then he was pointing into the smoothie and joking “Mama in here.” He spotted several egrets and a crane working their way down the stream. There was music playing, and the one song that caught his attention that he wanted me to look up was Lenka’s “The Show”. Finally, we were spelling words, and he wanted ‘teeth’. Then he said “What about teething?”, adding the -ing. I told him that was actually a word and he was excited: “Zinnie made up a word!”

Soon after we headed out. Didn’t make it any farther than the playground right there by the youth center. Spent the next hour and a half there. He was looking at the garbage can and saw the ㅆ: “see the double S!” The blue thing next to it “See that blue thing!” I had to change him again, then he was supposedly hungry. Instead, he simply held the egg and played around with it for 5 or 10 minutes. Didn’t actually eat anything. Got Smokey out and played “What do you see?” for a long, long time, just from the covered platform area, then standing on the ledge by the bushes. Finally, he went over to the play structure and dropped Smokey down the straight slide several times. He observed that Smokey made a “zigzag” as he went down. Smokey was taunting him through the cracks of the play structure, and August wanted him to do the Bluie dance and the “Missed me, missed me…” thing. Back down at different bushes doing more What do you see? and observed that the shape of the wall looked like a “Z…zigzag.” Finally, he wanted to read Bob books. So we took our stuff over to a picnic table and sat on the picnic mat on the ground and did some reading. We got swarmed by a group of curious kids for a few minutes. August wanted to sit on the low railing of the fence, but there was a drop behind it and he wasn’t happy when I wouldn’t let him.

We headed home a little before 5. Figured we had time to go to the book store in the pink building to look for Korean beginner books. He liked the idea until we were there and he realized we could just be going home to mama. So we left. Wondered if Carly was walking home, so we stood outside the building for a few seconds and indeed we saw her crossing the street. I had told her and Megan that the chicken man was parked up the street, so we went up there to get chickens, but it was a 10 minute wait. We headed home, then I went down a little later and got two of them for dinner. I shared my sandwich with him, then Carly prepared some rice, peanut sauce, and zucchini for him and he ate all of that. I gave him a bath (he played with the cups, mainly), he helped me make the bed, then he read several pages (10 or so) of Go, Dog, Go! He and Carly fell asleep about 8:30.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘saw’, 또라란스 (tolerance), 쓰레기, smokestack, reading Mainz Dom

 

 Awake:

Getting used to the new couch: 

Watching the Korean video: 

Followin along:

On our walk: 

Cafe Tolerance. Note his hands:

Bird spotting: 

Playground: 

Home: 

He was up at 7:19. Pretty much straight to Sesame Street art Maker and we spent a good half hour drawing shapes and words. He wanted me to draw a heptagon, then a nonagon. He then wanted ABC songs, and was drawing letters and numbers in the air. We ate oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast, AND he ate a good amount of carrot pancake. We made letters out of Duplos and then downloaded a new letter tracing app that he liked. It also lets you trace different shapes, so he called the crosshatching “tricky crosshatching”. It forces him to be more accurate than the other letter apps, so he had to pay attention to getting all the way to the next dot, so he was telling himself “down to the dot.”

As we were getting ready, he started talking about taking Smokey to the zoo (I haven’t mentioned that in a couple weeks), and wanted Smokey in the backpack. I explained we weren’t going to the zoo today, but he wanted Smokey in there anyway. On the subway, I told August Smokey had never been here before and should show him around. So August spent the whole trip showing Smokey things on the train, saying “What do you see?” He made sure to show him the handles several times.

As we got off the train and made our way to the park, he kept saying “Walk with Smokey this way.” We went to the east playground (the one we’ve always gone to) and he played on a low structure with some turning toys. He then wanted food, so we got out the picnic mat and food. He wanted the egg, but then spent several minutes walking around and playing with it. He then wanted Smokey out and again was showing him things. He then started saying things like “Have a hamburger.” and “Find a hamburger.” which I don’t really have an idea where they came from. We changed him, then walked over to the garbage cans to throw things away. On the way back he wanted to play on the whale play structure, which is the biggest one. He wanted to climb on everything, but it was too big. He made a good effort at a walking across a rope bridge and climbing up a a rope ladder. We ended up sitting underneath it on a little bench, where he confused me by saying “make a pocket right here” and pointing to the bench. I think he may have been wanting to write it, but he wasn’t clear about that.

Anyway, it was close to nap time, but he wanted to play in the sand first. So we went over there. That mainly turned into him covering his pants and shirt with sand for several minutes. Very amusing. We walked, to the east end of the park and back, to put him to sleep. He slept from 1:13 to 2:40. Went into the spirally building only to find that the coffee counter was replaced by a nice sitting area. Went up and sat on the 3rd floor for his nap, but no coffee for me. I woke him up at 2:40. When he was awake we looked a little at the animals, but could only see fish – couldn’t spot any crayfish, frogs, or beetles. Nor could we last time we were there. Pretty sure the cages are empty.

Took him to the second floor and changed him. Then went into the library. He chose a few books, including one on anatomy. For a picture with lungs I was explaining lungs and having him breathe in and out. I was also trying to feel his heart beat. He said “ribs” on his own – don’t know where he learned ‘ribs’. He was hungry, so we went outside and set up the picnic mat on the grass (I wouldn’t use it all the time, but he really likes it now) and we ate some more. We saw the playground to the west, so walked over there. He saw a bunch of pigeons and was ‘counting’ them as we walked by. He wanted to go see the garbage, but wanted me to carry him. I said if he wanted to go all the way over there he should do more walking. He complained a bit, but then acted like it was his idea, saying “Zinnie do the walking.” or something of the sort. At the playground he wanted to “Take smokey to the water.” So we went and saw the water fountains and turned them on. Garbage and faucets before actual playground.

When picking him up we’ve been saying “I got my Zinnie” and “I got my dada” again. But he often makes a joke of it, saying “I got my Zinnie” or “I got my mama” instead of “dada”. Anyway, as we walked back he was saying all three of them, and then saying “You say that.” He hasn’t really used ‘you’, so maybe the start of more pronouns. He wanted to “Take Smokey to the stairs” and went up on the play structure. He then dropped Smokey down the slide. This became a game, with August going down as well. They went down together a few times. Seemed like a big big kid moment, as it was no longer me or Carly taking him down the slides, but him taking something else down the slide – even if just a stuffed animal.

One time, as he was going back around to climb up to the slides, he came back a bit upset, saying “No popping.” I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, then he said “Finger popped”. I think he had jammed it grabbing the bar/railing.

Now past 4 and time to head home. Changed him outside one more time, then headed out. Realized we were missing our stick, so kept an eye open for it as we walked to the garbage cans by the first playground. Found it on the ground near where we first ate. So he carried the stick as we headed to the subway. He sang the ABC song and was writing in the air and on my head. On the platform he found a heavy screen on a window that made a good noise when he ran the stick over it.

On the subway he is very aware (or wants to be) of where we are on the line, always asking which stop we are at. Today he would claim a station was Hagye, but then I would tell him it wasn’t. Eventually he would say “This is not Hagye. Going to Hagye.” Carly was going to the store so I asked him what he needed. He said crackers, tomatoes, and peppers. Not sure what he wanted tomatoes or peppers for. At the station he said “See the garbage on the way out.” all on his own.I’m sure I’ve used the phrase ‘on the way out’ many times, but here was on his own.

Got home a little after Carly. I fed him some of my enchilada and then rice and zucchini and peanut sauce that Carly had prepared. He ate a lot. I started his bath, then we traded and Carly took over. He was doing a lot of writing on the paper, and that’s what we were doing while she took a shower. After that, however, he was attached to Carly and didn’t want me to take him away from her. They did a lot of reading, and for some reason he was sad about the balloons in Marvin K. Mooney. But then he wanted to keep looking at them, but then he wouldn’t let her open the book to it… He was very confusing this evening. After Carly took him out of the bath he wasn’t sure if he wanted “More dada” or “No dada”.

Anyway, eventually he and I did play on the bed a bit, and he was trying to shove the orange balloon in the crack next to the bed. He took a bunch of books in on the bed and lined them up near the foot of the bed. While we were playing, Carly had done some rearranging because we had gotten a new couch today. Carly had asked about our old couch, asking if we could simply get it patched, as the upholstery was cracking. We didn’t really want a new couch, because of August, but they gave us a new one. Anyway, we had August eat while sitting on the table because of it. We will see how that goes. So he and I came out of the bedroom to see that she had removed the reading area so that the new ottoman would fit next to the couch. August wasn’t too happy about this, as he couldn’t slide off the end of the couch onto the reading area. He was saying “Want the blue reading area…more fall, more fall, more fall.” He asked “Where is it?” and Carly said she put it in the closet. So when he wanted to nurse he said “On the reading area” and went in and was pointing at the closet.

He was still acting pretty hyper, but she took him in about 9:20 and it worked today. I think they were both asleep by 9:30.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘park’, 인반 (garbage), rib
s, Ryan, Carly, spelling ‘gone’

I finished the first season of The Returned today. Very much liking that. Haven’t done much of this personal stuff for several weeks. Will make an effort to do more.

Drawing letters in the air:

Subway: 

Playground: 

Egg: 

Showing me a little rock: 

Snack after his nap: 

After we found the stick. This is his serious sing ABC song face: 

New couch, so eating on the mesa: 

Warmest day of the year so far. Saw up to 84. 7:30. Stood in the doorway between the living room and parlor waking up today. A little sadder, but not bad. Cheered himself up after a few minutes and then went to drawing. After that, he sat on the table and wanted the letters from down below. We got those out and alphabetized them, then he wanted the play dough, so we made play dough letters. I had music on, and when he was done with the letters he said “Pause the song.” I did, and asked why, and he wanted to read. So we did a little reading, of Maisy’s First Numbers, then he was hungry. While I was getting the cereal and strawberries ready, he threw a couple books and I asked why he did that. He started asking himself “Why throw the books?” After breakfast he finally spotted the iPad, and watched a few songs before we got ready to go.

We left right about 10. Stopped at GS25 for kimbap and soy milk. He wanted some of the triangle kimbap so we got a couple of those as well. We sat by the rectangular pond again and ate there. He liked being able to see the workers fixing the building, and had me look up “new song” a couple times. He tried the radish in the kimbap again. Ate a little bite, then gave the rest to me. I suggested he might like it more if he he ate it with some of the tuna from the kimbap. He tried that, chewed it for quite awhile, then spit it out. At least he keeps trying. He also tried the seaweed that comes with the triangle kimbap and that we never use. He didn’t like it at all – I think it immediately stuck to the roof of his mouth. He started counting backwards from 10 over and over. While he was doing that he was sticking his finger in his water bottle to get it stuck – he does it for fun now and it doesn’t make him upset. Finally, he started to pour his water out and I said he couldn’t. He started to screech, but then turned to me and said “Why?”

I changed him and we put on sunscreen. He said no to this, but then say patiently as I did his arms and legs. We walked to the new playground, where we looked at the garbage, then found the one shady spot in the sand and played there. We took his sandals off. He was finding pieces of shell in the sand, and found a pretty big piece. He was burying it and said “That’s a silly thing to do.” We had the shovel and I started making a sand mountain. He had fun destroying it. He was talking more about finding ladybugs today, and wanted to write ‘ladybug’ in the sand. I think his interest in ladybugs partially comes from the Elmo Loves ABC app, which has a clip of the song “Ladybug Picnic” for L. Later, during his bath, I would look up the words and we would sing it a bunch. Finally, he was saying that the big piece of shell was “shell from an egg”. I was trying to explain that it wasn’t, but I’m not sure he believed me. He also found another one that was part of a spirally shell and he called it a “worm”, which it kind of looked like.

Getting him ready for his nap went smoothly, except for having to try 3 bathrooms to find an open handicapped stall with changing table. 15 minutes or so and he was asleep. Slept from 1:25 to 2:22. He woke up and said “play on iPad” so I took him out. He didn’t want me to set him down though and instead put his head on my shoulder and fell back to sleep. Walked around the cafe with him on my shoulder for 5 to 10 minutes until he woke up again. Think he still woke up grumpy, as he was sitting on my lap and playing Elmo Loves ABC and eating ice. We dropped one piece of ice on the floor and he was concerned. I said it was okay and reached for a new piece of ice and he screeched for a couple seconds. I picked him up and quickly took him outside. He didn’t really do anymore screaming, it was just talk time. He cuddled with me and yawned. We went back in the rest was fine. Noted a Muzak version of Billy Joel’s “For the Longest Time” playing – their music is really quiet so I never notice it, but that song I did. Finally, right before we left he was standing on the chair and trying to play with the straw. I asked if he was being uncouth again, so he started saying “Be uncouth!” Not exactly the reaction I wanted.

We had left because he was hungry. He wanted to go to the children’s museum and eat, so we did that. Nice because it was warM – now up to 84. Went up to the 3rd floor family room and had a snack. We needed to fill his water so went to do that. From there he saw the exhibits on the 3rd floor and wanted to play. Had to coax him back to the cafeteria to get our stuff. Spent a little time on the 3rd floor (the balls and air stuff), then we went down to the book room to read Oh No! We never actually got to that, as he wanted to go to the little kids area. We went there, and the first thing he wanted to do was “soup”. We went up there and played – had the place all to ourselves as it wasn’t busy today. He wanted his watering it was back downstairs he agreed to stay there and play (“Zinnie stay here”) and I went and got it. A bit later, he spilled some water and I went back down to get a paper towel. This time there was a mother up there with a 12 month old or so. August started walking to the stairs and she stopped him, which is kind of funny because he can totally go up and down those stairs on his own now. Anyway, we went to the room under that and played with the colored sorting objects. At one point a ball rolled across the room and he wanted me to get it. He was a little demand-y today, and said “Dada walk.” I reminded him to ask nicely and he said “Dada get it please.” in his sweet voice. An announcement came on the loudspeaker and he asked me to “Look it up.” Sadly, couldn’t do that one (actually, I’ve used the Google Translate voice translation to get bits of the announcements in our apartment before, but this was too muffled with background noise).

We went out and went to the puzzles. Place wasn’t busy at all, but all the pieces were mixed up and missing. August noticed a piece missing from the shapes puzzles and said “Dada find circle.” We never did find that one, but sorted out a lot of them. Before we left, we took some things that belonged back up in the kitchen area up there. Going down he counted stairs, as he usually does. But he got creative: “1, 2, 3, 100 million.”

We went to the reading room to put on our shoes, and someone had left out a book called “I taste…” We read that several times, then changed him and headed out. On the way to the subway, he was spelling ‘bingo’ but changing the spelling, mainly the first letter and vowel, and seeing what that made: “cingo, ango, mango” He figured out he had spelled ‘mango’ at one point.

Sat on the floor of the subway on our way home. When we got back to Brownstone he stopped me outside, wanting to read Hangeul on the building map. He has pointed it out before but we haven’t stopped. Took me a minute to figure out what he wanted. Turned out he thought the shape of the building itself was Hangeul, as the left part of the building looks like ‘ㅏ’. It was about 5:20 and I had been telling him mama probably wouldn’t be home, but when we got home he was really, really sad she wasn’t there. We’ve gotten in a habit of being pretty late returning in the afternoon, so he isn’t used to getting home first. I tried to take him out of the backpack and tell him we could walk back to the elevators, but he didn’t want to get out of the backpack. He wanted me to get back in and “dada walk”. But he was being demanding, so wasn’t going to give in to that. Took several minutes until he would let me take him out. He calmed down as we walked to the elevators. Carly called and was going to go to the grocery store, but decided she didn’t need to when she heard August still sad in the background. We went down and met her by the building entrance and he was much happier.

Carly gave him dinner and they were drawing on paper. Carly got his bath ready and August heard the water and said “More dad
a and Zinnie have fun in the wawa…get stool.” He wanted the kitchen sink. Instead, I changed him and then gave him his bath. Didn’t play much with the letters today, instead wanting the cups to play with. After his bath he started saying “Oh my goodness!” He likely got that from Carly, but I’m not sure why he started saying it. They nursed, then he was sitting with Carly and she was quiet and he said “More talking.” So Carly asked him what he had done today that was fun. He said “Fun drawing letters.” She asked which letter was fun and he replied “K!…Fun with K!”

So they started drawing again. He started to ask her  “Do you want to trade?” She started drawing dots as he drew letters and he would follow the dots, meaning that she could get him to write words and the alphabet in a pretty straight line. I took over while she took a shower. He then wanted to play in the sink, so I finally let him do that, but just standing on the stool. He did that for quite some time.

Carly took him in to try to sleep a little after 9, but he popped up all hyper. I suggested we let mama sleep and go read and he said “Mama slept sleep. Bye mama!” We did a little reading, but then he wanted iPad, then Duplos. When I said no to those he decided he wanted to sleep and nurse. He went back in about 9:30 and they fell asleep.

New words/phrases: reading ‘please’ and ‘puddles’,  spelling ‘mango’, oh my goodness, do you want to trade?

Getting to it:

Table and letters and play dough: 

Children’s Grand Park. His reaction to seaweed:

Playground: 

Children’s museum: 

At home. Playing in the sink: 

He came out at 7:47. Walked out to the living room and directed me to the parlor, then stood over by the couch, waking up. Did a lot of good stretching. Then wanted to be changed, and spent several more minutes lying on the changing pad and waking up. He wanted his shirt changed, and picked the CWU shirt (we call it the ‘puma shirt’) for the first time today. But no pants for now. He ate leftover carrot pancakes for breakfast. He was coming up with random words he wanted to spell, like ‘Hagye’ and ‘after’. He continues to turn things into verbs, asking “How bout altering?” Then declaring “Name!” when I say it isn’t a word. He was watching ABC songs, then wanted me to come watch with him, so said “More dadaing.” I called him or something else “wacky”, then he wanted to spell “wacky Zinnie”. We did the elephant puzzle, then got him ready to go. He objected to shorts at first, but once they were on he was fine. We sat at the table and watched the new video from his 5-Touch class (we’ve had it a few weeks, but this is our first time watching it) and brushed his teeth. He was so enthralled with the new video I let him watch 10 minutes or so, which gave me time to get the scissors and do a little trimming of his hair to get the hairs I missed last time. We left about 10:30. It was going to be warm, so we were both in shorts and sandals. He complained about the sandals too, but only until they were on, then he was fine. I used the same sandals as last summer/fall – they were full, but still fit.

We headed up to Dobongsan. I had initially planned and trying to do a little more of the section of the Fortress Trail that we couldn’t complete (going from the other direction). But then decided all the travel time wouldn’t be worth it. I had asked August what he wanted to do, and he actually said “New park.” So I settled on going to the stream at Dobongsan – not new, but we haven’t been there in months and months.

We got up there and to the stream. He talked about going in, but only ever touched it with his fingers. He climbed around on rocks – both more sure-footed and more confident of himself – which actually made me more nervous. It didn’t help that the water was a bit higher now. Just a couple inches, but more current as well – there was no playing on the hilly part where we played with Chuck. Eventually, we settled on him standing on one rock and me gathering rocks from up above and bringing them down to him. He threw and dropped them in the water. When close rocks became hard to come by, we both went up to the trail with a bag and collected rocks. We also saw a dragonfly that landed on one of the big rocks. We watched it for a couple minutes and could point out all the body parts. Sadly, while we were up gathering rocks, a man walked through and squished it. When we came back I saw it and brushed it into the water. August then proceeded to ask where the dragonfly was several times, and later said “Sad bout the dragonfly” – either because it was gone or because I wouldn’t let him actually touch it. Anyway, it was now noon and I needed to change him and have lunch. When I talked about eating he said “Go to Dobongsan” a couple times. I was confused, because we were already in Dobongsan, but then I deduced that he meant (I think) he wanted to go to our lunch spot that we’ve used the last 3 or 4 times we’ve been up that direction, slightly up into the park and in the trees. I gave him a cracker to hold him over until we got up there, so he made up another word: “crackering” is now the verb for eating a cracker. I was telling him he could make up words, so he started saying “Made up a word.”

We walked up there, got out the picnic mat and had lunch. There, he played with sticks, and I took him down to see the stream. He spotted a “flying” thing, then wanted to “look for butterflies…dragonflies…ladybugs” I told him the ladybugs might be hardest to find, and he said “Keep your eyes open.” I’ve said that to him in the past, but hadn’t said it today. As I put away the picnic mat he looked at it in the case and said “P cut off” where he could only see ‘-ororo’ sticking out.

We went and filled his water, then started a nap walk. But after a couple minutes he wanted his diaper changed. I figured he had peed, so we went back to the bathrooms and changed him. I then figured I should go as well, so did. As I was at the urinal, another man came into the bathroom, stood at the one right next to me (he didn’t need to), and started talking to August as he peed. That I could handle. But then, while peeing with one hand, he reached out and grabbed August’s hand with the other. That was too much and I told him as much and got out of there as quickly as possible (after washing my hands, which he probably didn’t do).

That was an ill omen, because the next 20 minutes or so involved a lot of annoying people. I noticed this last time I walked up the steep hill into the park – people coming the other way would see August and like dive across the trail/road to see him, and sometimes even get in my way. We made it off that main path and onto the Dulegil trail, and his eyes closed. Then a couple totally tried engaging with him/me and I said “shhhh”. I then heard “How bout ‘shhhh’” from August. He kept asking, and roused a bit and had his eyes open. A second group did the same thing. After we passed them, I muttered “Be quiet” to myself. August heard that too, and said “How bout ‘be quiet’”. We then passed some women sitting along the trail and they started talking and calling to him, and August loudly said “Be quiet!” Oops.

I kept walking on the trail, headed south, since it was taking a bit longer to put him to sleep. Only one more incident – I stopped to let a couple pass, and as they did the guy reached out and tried to grab his hand as he was almost asleep. But after that August fell asleep and I found a lone bench just off the trail to sit at. We had first started walking at 1:10 (before the bathroom incident). He slept from 1:52 to 2:43, then I thought he was awake, but he fell back to sleep. At 3 I got in the backpack and started walking and he woke up a couple minutes into walking. He was still very sleepy though, and didn’t talk for the next 20 minutes or so. We got to a viewpoint tower and climbed that. He started to perk up then. He pointed to the railing and said “See railing…sad about the railing.” Remembering the time last week that he wanted to climb on the railings but I wouldn’t let him. Back down, he started to talk about getting out of the backpack. I convinced him to wait until we got to a playground. As we were walking he started saying “This is? This one…” and pointing to the strap of the backpack. It was a little inchworm. I saved it and put it on a tree. We kept walking, and it was another 20 minutes or so until we reached a point where we could get off the trail.

Made it to a little children’s park about. Set out the picnic mat again and had another snack. He was content on the mat for quite awhile and I kept encouraging him to play. He even play hid on my lap. Eventually he got up, first wanting to find letters and shapes in the tiles and lines on the ground (up at Dobongsan he had pointed out an ‘M’ fence). He then played in the sand. First drawing letters, then he discovered pieces of styrofoam which he eventually started picking apart into little pieces. There was a little girl that stood at the railing to the sand area and just watched him. Eventually, he went over and showed her a piece of styrofoam. Then he started saying “How are you?” I’m not sure where he picked that up, but I may have taught it to him awhile back. It was time to get going, but he was fascinated by the styrofoam, saying “More styrofoam.”

Eventually we headed out. At the bus stop he saw a bit of paper attached to a sign with tape. It fluttered in the wind, and he said it looked like a “butterfly”. On the bus home we saw an
APIS bus and he was looking at names on buildings. He started saying “Name of a company”. He also randomly started saying “Cookie starts with C.” from Cookie Monster.

We got home at 6. He nursed, then ate strawberries with me while Carly read. She changed him, then they played “Donde esta”. He then started drawing, saying he was doing a “Mosaic” and then writing letters in Spanish, saying “Donde esta…” and saying the name of Spanish letters. He and I then read, looking at the I See 100 book and reading Rub-a-Dub. Carly got him some dinner, then got his bath ready and I gave him a bath. He peed 3 times – the first time I got him on the toilet, the last time was on the floor towel. We were in there a good half hour. We put the letters away (him drying a few on a towel) and I got him out of the bath, and he saw two little dots of dust floating in the water and really wanted me to get them out: “Get out the two dusts”. Finally he let me take out the plug so they’d drain out.

It was now 8:45. Carly took a shower and August read almost all of Maisy’s First Colors on his own, and much of Maisy’s First Numbers. We then read Picasso’s Trousers. After Carly was out we went into the bed and played fort and he wanted to make the bed, so we did that. He and Carly read some Go, Dog, Go then it was time for sleep. He was asleep by 9:40.

New words/phrases: reading ‘mart’ on poster, styrofoam, how are you?, cut off

Hard to wake up:

Stream time,  in the shirt from Paul:

Lunch: 

View on our walk: 

Playground. Making a V: 

And X: 

Being watched: 

Styrofoam: 

Headed home. He was very amused by this: 

Home: 

He walked out at 8:10 and surprised Carly in the kitchen with a loud “Mama!” She changed him and nursed, then I suggested he hang out with me: “No dada…no reading…do with mama.” So he did puzzles with her. Asking himself “Where do you think this goes?” Carly made carrot pancakes for breakfast. Took a moment to get used to them, but I really liked them with the cream cheese sauce – basically like carrot cake. August liked them too. He was then playing with me on the xylophone. He was making a lot of noise, and we played “The People on the Bus” – I made up lines for Jeff and Andrea. Also figuring out the tongue twister song. I started playing the Basho and Friends Spanish songs on Apple Music – August knows them from YouTube videos. For each song that came on he would want to know what it was called. He particularly liked hearing the ones he knew from YouTube and he sang along. He sat on my lap and brushed his teeth. We were at the computer, and he saw the little box under it that holds cords. It says “Je Veux Toujours Etre Avec Toi” on it, and he wanted to know the words. So he started learning French. He in particular got ‘Je’ saying “Je is I”. In the evening he would see it and repeat it. When I changed him before we left, I sang the “Sailor went to Sea” song. He really liked it this time (you say ‘see’ or ‘sea’ a lot, which sounds like the letter), and he would sing random letters instead of ‘C’ while I sang. He requested it a few times through the day.

Carly had made enchiladas for Nathalie and Rex, so we headed down a little after 11 to deliver it. As we walked from Junghwa Station, he requested “More done esta” – that’s his favorite game with Carly nowadays.

There, he got to meet the 8 day old baby – patting his hair and pointing out his eyes and nose, etc. He also got to look at a 26 Letters book that they had and drink some pumpkin juice. He and Chloe did some coloring – he was intrigued by her and her coloring books, and also the sound she made for a sheep when he was coloring a sheep. We left a little after 1 and headed home for his nap.

He slept from 2:10 to 3:05, but then fell back asleep awhile with Carly in the reading area. They read a Bob Book about lollipops and he thought it was really funny – particularly the line “Polly wants a lolly-pop!” – which he repeated over and over. He was then typing on Carly’s computer and typed Mama, Dada, and Zinnie. He then came out and we did some more puzzles.

A little before 6, I got him out for another walk so Carly could do some work. We walked up to Chrysanthemum Park. As we entered the park he said “No mama right here.” as if he didn’t remember being at this park with her. Although later, over by the sand and water fountain he would claim “Mama here!” – and he has played with her there, although it has been quite awhile. As I got him out of the backpack we were on a bench against a wall and window that was really dirty. He touched it and got some dirt on his hand, and he started talking about when he had gotten some grease on his finger while riding the bus a couple weeks ago: “Grease from bus…Hands ok…Grease from a window. Remember that.” We went and played with the water first (“This is a drain.”) then played in the sand: destroying hills of sand from other kids, looking for and burying garbage, etc. He felt something in his shoe, so came and sat on my lap on the edge and we took it off and he shook it out. But then he started reaching down from my lap to the sand below and playing in the sand with his shoe. Finally, I got his shoe cleaned and back on, and he went over to the play structure. This is the structure that is rather tall and difficult to access – no easy stairs here, just climbing walls and rope ladders. Of course, he wanted to go up, and wanted to go down the big slide with me. We couldn’t both get up though, so he had to settle for me helping him up the climbing walls and me placing him most of the way up the slide. We went back to the sand and played. It suddenly got chilly when the sun went down so I forced his sweatshirt on him. We then had a little snack to distract him from it. He got interested in the wooden toys you can sit on. He didn’t want to sit on them, but would keep pointing around saying “See a snail…see a worm.” and would go over and shake them. He played a little longer, nice and independently, then wanted me to lift him back up the climbing walls. We left around 7:15 as the street lights were coming on. There was a brick wall along the way with bumps on it. He had been counting the bumps on the way there. When there was a set of 4 bumps he counted “5” a couple times and I would say “Count them again.” On the way back, he was saying it to himself. We stopped outside 7-Eleven to read a sign in Korean. He particularly likes the double consonants now (ㅃㅉㄸㄲㅆ) as they are kind of rare, so was excited to spot aㅆ. I was carrying our stick, as we had almost forgotten it, and he asked for it and was poking the sign with it.

Back home, we had some dinner. Carly gave him a bath, then he came out and wanted to play in the sink. He was content standing on the stool for awhile, then wanted up on the counter. He played up there for quite awhile. At 9:10 or so I tried to wrap it up and wanted to go read books with him. He started to get upset though and seemed tired. So Carly took him in to bed. Alas, it didn’t work and he was back out at 9:50. He went in the bathroom with Carly and came out with the ducky from his bath, excitedly repeating “K with the ducky!” He set the ducky by the paper and got a crayon and started drawing Ks for the ducky. But he quickly switched to coloring in shapes, all on his own – I think watching Chloe and seeing the coloring books had really made ‘coloring in’ click for him. He was coloring in shapes on the paper, saying “Do mosaic…color the shape…see some white” all on his own. Sometime after 10:30 I suggested we go read in bed. He hopped up and said “Get some books”. He then took 3 or 4 books in to the bed, one at a time. We read the lollipop book and a little of the Korean textbook and another Korean book I had just gotten of the shelf earlier today. He and Carly fell asleep a little later, around 10:45.

Walking home:

– “count them again”

Playing in sink

In bed at 9:10. Back out at 9:50.

“K with the ducky.”

Doing mosaic

Reading on the bed

Asleep 10:45

New words/phrases: single G, double G, con (with), reading Pepsi, je, anneyo

 

Morning:

Meeting the baby: 

Home: 

Park: 

Him taking the selfie: 

The worm: 

Hangeul on the sign: 

Home. Playing in the sink: 

Mosaic and K with the ducky: 

He was up a bit after 8. Read and nursed, then they Skyped with Cassie, ate oatmeal and mango for breakfast, and played on the iPad. At one point he was drawing in the air and started joking “Line down, sideways V turns to Z…O…zero.” A bit later Carly skyped with her parents. We left the house a house just after 10:30. As we left, he was spelling ‘picnic mat’ again as I had mentioned going to a picnic.

We walked down to the bus stop and he sat next to and on (he was pretty squirmy) Carly while we waited, spotting bus numbers. We got two seats on the bus, but by the time we got to the park it was packed, and I had to force my way off – I believe I lost my hat at this point as it was attached to the back of the backpack.

In the park, August first spotted the flowers by the building and said  “Remember flowers.” (the ones in and by the broken flower pot). We had to look at the garbage cans, then walked up to where the party was. He was a little shy at first (I keep thinking we should get to these things early, so we don’t walk into a crowd of 10 people), but soon said “Have food” and was excited about that. But we put sunscreen on him, which he wasn’t happy about, and Carly took him off to nurse for awhile. When he came back he had some pasta and pesto, then spotted the lemon bars and kept repeating “This one, this one, this one…please” etc. So I shared one with him. He found it interesting and had some interesting looks and took several nibbles, but didn’t want more. He also liked the bubbles that people were blowing and the balloons that were around. Two of them popped, startling people, but I think he liked that more than anyone else.

When we started singing “Happy Birthday” to Cora, August suddenly jumped up and took off. Carly had to go and chase him down. I caught up and asked if he had escaped, and he liked that. He was saying “Zinnie escaped!” several times. Cupcake time, and he shared a blue one with Carly, then a purple one with me. He really wanted more, and when he was off playing with Carly a bit later he kept talking about the “yellow one”. At one point he was walking around and tripped but kept his footing and said “Stumbled!” He went with Carly to throw away some garbage and they played around a bit while I talked to Rob from APIS.

We left about 1. On our walk back to the park entrance August started saying “See 8 Os”. He was referring to the sign on the fence around the apartment complex across the street that is still under construction. It says “outdoors” and the two Os are an infinity sign. He really liked it when we were here with Carly several weeks ago. Anyway, he couldn’t see it yet, and I don’t think he saw it when we got off the bus, but he remembered it.

He was ready to fall asleep on the busses (took two on the way home, as the direct busses were a long wait). Mainly just stared off into space, but I also sang to him. He complained a little, but did a really good job of waiting until we got home. At home he napped from around 2:20 to 3:20.

After his nap, we opened the box of puzzles we got yesterday at Costco. They were pretty perfect: animals (which he loves), in Hangeul (so he can learn animals in Korean), and 5 to 7 pieces. We put 3 or 4 together, and he was very talkative: “Puzzles for you” “Where it go? Right here.” “Where do you think this goes?” Carly brought him some soup, and he wanted to spell “Oma’s lentil soup” I got him using the apostrophe to spell ‘Oma’s’.

We went on a walk about 5. We went to the women’s business center, but the coffee shop was closed. So I mentioned going across to Tolerance Cafe. August picked up on that and definitely wanted to go, and was pointing across the stream saying “This one open…think so.” As we walked up to the building, he pointed to the first floor restaurant and said “This is a shop. What is it?” We went up and ordered coffee drinks for me and Carly and a dalghi smoothie for him. Carly paid, and August pointed to the signature pad and was, I think, telling himself not to cry when he couldn’t use it, saying something like “No cry…writing.” I took him outside to wait, but then he wanted to go back up and we read words on the door while waiting.

We got our drinks and headed up to a park. I let him have a couple drinks while in the backpack, but then told him to wait until the park. He kept asking for more, and was very polite about it. It was tough for him to wait, but he made it to the park. We were going to go across the stream to Chrysanthemum Park, but he said no, wanting to go the other way to Madeul. So we ended up there and sat on the platform of the piano sculpture and drank our drinks. He climbed on Carly a bit, then wanted to walk back and forth on bench round bench like he did last time we were there with Carly (he remembered that, pointing to the bench and saying “Mama here”). He got Carly to walk him back and forth, and he was walking more without holding our hands. It was a little chilly, so we convinced him to wear his moose sweatshirt for the first time this spring. He wasn’t happy about it, but once it was on he started lifting up his sweatshirt and shirt and poking his tummy. Played a little more, then headed home.

At home Carly made peanut sauce. He ate a bunch of that with mushrooms. Then I gave him a bath around 8 and after that Carly made spring rolls. He’s not big on raw vegetables, but worked on that a little since he likes the peanut sauce. Carly took him in to bed after that, but be came back out at 9:05. He didn’t want to play with me though, and he dragged me by the thumb into the dark parlor. He then asked for his water, which I was holding, then ran off, back out to the couch, saying he “escaped”.

We also looked at the I See 100 book I got at the Rubens art show a couple weeks back. He really got into that, looking at the pieces of art to see what we could see. We spent a lot of time on the Brueghel “Numbering of Bethlehem” pieces. It is set in the winter, and their are people walking across the ice, which I explained, and sliding around on boards, like they do on the ice here in the park. He started to say that was “sad”, and the best explanation I could get out of him is that it was sad that the boats couldn’t go on the river.

Carly took him back in around 10 and they fell asleep a bit later.

 

Riding the bus with mama:

Party: 

Back home: 

Spelling on the door: 

Madeul: 

Spring rolls and peanut sauce: