Category: Uncategorized

7:10. More “See Dada” as he looked out the crack. Came out and we sat on the floor by the door to the parlor, playing. We were counting his owls and he noted that “both” the wall and my pants are messy, but that his hands are “clean”. He suggested the stains on the wall are “tea”. He then spent several minutes sitting on my lap typing to Carly, before getting up and wanting the iPad. Changed him, then we played Classify It! together on the iPad. Later in the morning we Skyped with my parents. August was still playing Classify It! then switched to Paper where he showed off his K writing. He then started importing photos of himself and drawing on top of them. He was making scribbles and playing “What is it?” and answered one on his own, saying “Grandma.”

We went to class and he wanted me to hold him during the beginning songs, but when roll call came we were able to sit and he raised his hand. We did stickers, then the activity today was about flowers. They got a bag of fake flowers and a rectangular block of foam to press them into. August really liked this and liked arranging his flowers – saying something like “Zinnie’s” or “Zinnie do it!” when he was done. When it was time to put them away though he was happy to do it and took both the bag and the block up to the teacher. He then insisted on putting everything in her large bag, including the extra blocks she had sitting on the floor. He made it all fit, then on his way back to me did a sort of double fist thing, like “I did it!” which made Soh Na’s grandmother laugh. We then played a Red Light, Green Light sort of game. At the end of class, he was excited by getting a handstamp – especially so given our recent playing with the picnic mat. He wanted “the green one” but was happy when it turned out to be Pororo. I then reminded him to say thank you/kamsamnida and he said “Kamsamnida!” for the first time, nice and loud. She really liked that. He also did a really good job saying goodbye to Soh Na and her grandmother (they are also in the Thursday class, so we see them more than anyone else).

We headed to Children’s Grand Park, buying kimbap, little eggs, and soy milk at GS 25. Along the way, he started making up variations on ‘bingo’, spelling ‘ingo’, ‘singo’, ‘dingo’, etc. and declaring “Name!” if it wasn’t a word (so he now knows about dingos). He wanted to eat by the rectangular pond again, and today was very interested in the music playing on the loudspeakers. He’s never done that before. He started by hiding to “Bingo”, then started pointing out every song that was a “New song” he hadn’t heard before and asking me to “Look it up” using Shazam (he’s starting to think that everything can be looked up – later when we were trying to remember words that end in -ey he also said “Look it up!”). They do play an interesting mix, from Korean kids’ songs like “Pig Song” to Annette Funichello’s “The Monkey’s Uncle” and “Let’s Get Together” by Hayley Mills. A crow came close, cawing, and August watched it and asked “how bout aah aah aah?”

A Korean guy came and talked to us for a couple minutes. August was getting impatient to throw our garbage away, so when he left we did that. I then realized I’d let August throw away the lid to the soy milk, which we still needed. I said “Oops!” and August thought it was funny, asking for “More dada oopsing!” We got the lid, washed it, changed him, and went walking. He protested for a second but let me put the sun shade up before he fell asleep today. He spotted one set of faucets from quite a distance so we turned those on, when he was done he actually said “Sleep” and we got walking. Didn’t take to long and he slept from 1:11 to 2:26. He woke up and played some Elmo Loves ABCs and ate my ice. It was now around 3, so we got going as we needed to go to Costco. It was suddenly very grey and a bit windy. Threatening rain, but it never came. We noticed that the fountains by the robots were now on, so he watched those and threw some rocks in the pond. We walked to the other end, him on tippy toes, then watched the fountains in the folktale area. We then headed out, changed him, and made our way to Sangbong and Costco.

A pretty quick trip at Costco, and not many people. We basically got a bag full of different cheeses. We also got two chicken bakes, and August really wanted one. I put them in the bag and he was very concerned to make sure we still had them. We went out and sat by the statue and ate one of them. August kept eating and eating, so I actually had to start eating it to keep him from eating the whole thing. He ate everything in it, but if he specifically saw a piece of spinach he would take it out, call it “Yummy” but then give it to me, saying “Not eating spinach.” Hard to tell, but I think he ate at least half of it. We were calling it ‘turkey’ at first, and I remembered we had spelled another -ey word earlier in the day. I finally remembered it was ‘Mooney’ from Dr. Seuss, then August wanted liked saying “turkey and Mooney” and requested “Another -ey word”. I thought of ‘joey’, so taught him that, then back at Hagye Station he saw the Goo Goo store so I taught him ‘gooey’. He had spelled ‘picnic mat’ earlier in the day, but was then chanting picnic as “P I C K N I CK” as we walked.

As we left the station he saw some graffiti on a bus sign and said “Who did that?” So a lot of new words I was teaching him today: in addition to ‘joey’ and ‘graffiti’ I had been teaching him ‘uncouth’ when he was trying to stand on the chair and get on the table in the coffee shop, and he spotted a little stream joining the bigger stream by the robots so I was teaching him ‘tributary’.

We got home about 5:20, after Carly. He was attached to Carly again for the evening. After his bath he was playing around with me for a little while, but then said “No dadaing!” It started to fall asleep and Carly took him in about 8, but he popped back up again. At one point he was reading the ‘namu’ sign on the wall, then turned off the light saying “Bye namu!” He came out to the living room and was writing on the paper. He started drawing a little line over the top of his J – he’s always just done lowercase ‘j’ before – so he was proud of himself. He wrote J and K over and over for awhile then was reading with Carly. She had brought home “presents” for him from the APIS library yesterday and they read more today, including Marvin K. Mooney. August wanted to “nurse and read”, so I read Hop on Pop. He wanted to skip to the eating page, so I read really fast. He found this funny, so I read the entire book as fast as I could a couple times.

Carly took him in soon after that, but it took quite awhile for him to fall asleep, sometime around 10.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘picnic mat’, kamsamnida, sangsaengnim blows bubble (he said this several hours after class, randomly), spelling ‘more water’, reading ‘exit’, another GS25, pretty funny

 

Sitting on the floor:

Classify It!:

Class: 

Lunch spot: 

Aaa aaa aaa like the crow: 

Tippy toe: 

Watching the bigger fountain: 

Costco. Signing “more”: 

Pigeon: 

Headed home: 

Trying out the teething ring again: 

When he woke up at 5 or so to nurse Carly heard him say “More Hangeul. More nursing.” He woke up at 7:36. The door opened slightly, then closed. I went back to typing. It cracked open again, and I heard him say “See dada.” As I got up and headed down the hall he said “I see you.” So he was in a happy mood from the start. We played sleeping elephant and Eep and Eeb on the bed, then I got the Korean book and we read that, while he kept freezing me. Finally, a little after 8, he left the bedroom and went out to the paper, then the iPad. We had Cheerios and strawberries for breakfast. The iPad froze, so barely any iPad time this morning. Tried to Skype with my parents but they weren’t online. When I mentioned them, August walked into the parlor and said “Remember the presents.” He then played with balloons and we blew up and tied the last new balloon, the pink one.

We headed to class right at 10. Light drizzle, so stopped to put the cover up and put on my hat. He didn’t complain about the cover. In the park we saw Preacher, so just said hi to him since we were in a hurry. Class went very well. No knees to the head. And he participated from the beginning, going down the walkway, then letting the teacher do a forward roll. Then back for a second. The third time down he gave August two forward rolls, for a total of 4. August was ready to go back for number 5, but we moved on. The activities were perfect: the first was big foamy Tetris-shaped blocks. The intended purpose was stacking them and trying to fill them in (like Tetris), but August preferred to make a big long “arte abstracto” piece on the ground – and he kept pointing and asking “This is a?” then would add more pieces. After that, it was big foamy dice. Again, August focused on the numbers, but he also liked stacking them and knocking them over.

We then packed the dice, 4 at a time, into containers that look like everyone’s favorite non-straight Tetris pieces. They stood and climbed on them, then the teacher made two walking paths using them, and we walked around in circles on the two paths. Class ended with getting a treat from the penguin container, as usual. August was really good at going and sitting by the teacher during all the toy introductions.

The rain was still hanging around, longer than the forecast was suggesting earlier, so I decided to go to Home Plus and get some things and go home for lunch. I asked August what we needed as we headed down and he said “Pepper…hobak (pumpkin)” When we got down to the first basement, he wanted out to look at clothes. Well, to “Find names, numbers.” He started looking around and said “What you need?…socks.” He also said “Mama was here.” and at one specific spot was talking about either sitting on the floor with Carly, or being sad that she wouldn’t let him sit on the floor. He also sounded out and read ‘fresh’ on a shirt. I don’t know where he learned that one. We walked home, rain had stopped. He didn’t like me also holding the diapers and groceries while holding him, so set him down to walk. He didn’t want to get down, but then I pointed out the puddles, and he stomped in puddles along the way.

We ate our kimbap at home for lunch, then changed him and headed out. He said he wanted to “Sit on the names on the picnic mat.” when we got to the park. At Hagye Station there is a store called SN that he always notes. Today he saw it, then said “S N O T. Snot!” Took the subway up to Dobongsan and August recognized the park from the station window. We walked into the park, and August said “Where’s Hangeul?” He noticed that the huge letters to the left as you walk into the park were no longer there. It took me a few seconds to remember that and figure out what he was talking about. Put him in the backpack and started walking for a nap. Took less than 10 minutes. At one point he saw water and said “Throw rocks” but fell asleep a minute later. He slept from 1:32 to 2:26 up in the coffee shop. Still kind of cool, so we sat inside. He woke up and sat on my lap, and we played the very cool Classify It! app. It’s an app from the American Association for the Advancement of Science that is free. You classify animals in various ways (like choosing all the birds, or all the mammals, etc.). It starts easy enough that August could do it with help. We played that for quite awhile, getting up to level four. He learned the phrase “Think so”, as in deciding on whether an animal fit a category or not I would ask “Do you think so?” So he started saying “Think so” every time he, say, chose an animal that eats plants.

We then went out to the park. He wanted to go to a picnic table, but I walked us by a stream area and got him interested in that. Found some rocks he could climb on, then he wanted rocks to throw. I was finding rocks for him, and he made up a “Dada go find rocks” song. I think I fed him the first line, but he finished it. That went on for quite some time. August also spotted a bunch of pigeons that got close. We then went to a picnic table. A different one this time. We put out the picnic mat on the table and had a snack. He looked at that, and wrote the alphabet in the air over and over again, wanting me to say the letters as he wrote them. Sometimes he would be clear with writing them (I could tell the E and F and M, etc.) and other times he was just waving around wildly. He nearly fell of the bench a few times, but managed to keep his balance.

Before we left we went into the changing room, which was open today. You wouldn’t think a changing room would be too exciting, but he wanted to stay in there. He read ‘push’ on the garbage can, then wanted to play with the drawers and the water, and read the backwards letters he could see through the window. It is called the ‘Happy Mother’s Room’. Meant to take a photo, as it is ‘Happy Moder’s Room’ on the door. He also read ‘Coway’ off of the water dispenser, saying it had a “Funny Y”. We then sat in the chair in there together for a few minutes before putting on his shoes.

On the subway home he was counting the people across from us. There were 7. He was then counting them in all 3 languages. His shoe had come off getting him out of the backpack (we had run to make it on the train, so didn’t get him out on the platform), and sitting on the train he started ‘eating’ his sock. This reminds me that he often bites the handle on the backpack (in front of his mouth as he sits there). A couple days ago he gave it a big bite and said “Refreshing!” He’s really been chewing on things recently, like his fingers, or the counter yesterday. But has all his teeth. So don’t know what that’s about.

Pretty easy evening at home. He was stuck to mama. She did some reading with him and they had a nice bath – up until she washed his hair. I said hi as they came out of the bathroom and he said “No dada!” He fell asleep a little after 8.

New words/phrases: reading ‘made’ ‘parking’ ‘Korea’, steep, ‘reading push’, Dobongsan, think so

Class: 

Home Plus. He was fascinated by the spices, as they each have a big letter on them: 

Waking up:

Throwing rocks: 

Picnic table: 

Hungry: 

6:49. Closed door on me. When I got him out and changed him he wanted the Spider Man shirt off. Eventually chose the Chelan animal shirt. Lot of sitting in the floor in the changing room. We finally came out to the living room at 7:09 to write K. He led me by the hand to the parlor though and then went out to the paper in the living room, as if he was getting rid of me. Spent some time with the paper, then transitioned to the iPad. After some of that, he got up and went to the parlor. We got the painting sponges out and played with those on the reading area, stacking them and arranging the alphabet a few times. He then wanted to take photos and took several. We worked together to take photos of him holding out numbers with his fingers. We have a whole series from 1 to 5. We did a little Bob Book reading, then he played in the sink. Somewhere in there we had oatmeal and mango for breakfast.

We left the house a little after 10, headed north. 3 short train rides. Along the way I asked, as we were spelling words “Does Zinnie like big words?” To which he responded “Zinnie likes gargantuan.” When we got to the Uijeongbu elevated line, we traveled one stop east to Balgok and went to Balgok Neighborhood Park. No playground, but some nice tile walls, an open basketball court area, and plenty of garbage cans to look in. We played a little with some big pine cones, then sat on a bench and ate. We used the Pororo picnic mat, and he went crazy examining it: “Poby foot. No hands, just foot.” “Picnic mat in backpack.” “This is a robot dancing.” “Got a handstamp.” while pointing to Eddy and Krung, as he has gotten hand stamps of them at the end of his classes. “Eddy’s a fox.” We were also spelling words and singing, of course. While eating the egg we spelled ‘yolk’, and he asked “How bout ‘yolking’?” His first created -ing word of the day. We also spelled something with ‘e’ and he said “Write an ‘e’ in the air” and drew it.

There had been older kids playing on the basketball court area (watching them had been a source of amusement for him), but they left. We got out the tennis ball and played a few minutes. There was one point where he chased the ball rolling across the ground for several seconds. Sadly, I only got the last moment on video. We then changed him on a bench, he threw away our garbage, and we headed out.

Cross the river and walked up to a second park (Golden Children’s Park), which did have a playground. He fell asleep there, and we sat on a bench. A long nap, from 12:45 to 2:20. When he woke up he was very quiet and didn’t want to get out. He wanted me to walk. So we didn’t play in that park. We figured out how to get down on the stream path and walked upstream. We saw some duckies, which he liked, but besides telling me to “Walk” when I stood looking at them for too long, he was very quiet, up until about 3 when we got to our final park, Baekseokcheon Neighborhood Park.

This was the best of the 3. We gave it a tour, then he played with the water faucets for quite awhile, standing up on the ledge. A few of the faucets had hoses of varying length on them that he could play with. One came off a few times, getting his hand and arm wet, which he would then want immediately dried. He started saying “Enormous!” for wanting me to turn on the water full blast (he used to say “Big!”). We walked over to the playground and had a second lunch/snack. He then wanted to sing the tongue twister song over and over, so we did that and wrote the letters in the sand. We then drew shapes, with him observing “Oval has zero sides.” Another snack, and this time he started eating raisins. And a lot of them. When he was done, he started feeding them to me: “Get one for dada.” Next was the play structure, where he tried valiantly to climb the pole ladder thing. He wanted to do it himself but was getting frustrated. Finally, he let me help him up. He then sat on the top of it, then wanted to sit on the lower platforms, which didn’t work so well. While sitting on the top one we took a selfie and he saw the photo. He pointed to his own fingers in his mouth and said “Yummy!”, then joked “What you eating?” He stood up on the structure and talked and sang from there, but never went anywhere else.

We revisited our letters in the sand and said hi/bye to a couple of other kids before we left. He was reluctant to go, and was in full energy mode. As we left, he said “See diaper with poop” and we looked in the garbage can as we walked out. When I got him out of there he was constant chatter about the Hangeul and words he saw on buildings, pointing out any writing that looked “funny”. He had spotted ‘Lotte Super’ earlier and we had sounded it out. He was now reading it easily, and asked “How bout ‘suping’?” His second -ing word. At some point during the day he also wanted to turn “Mooka” (his made-up word) into ‘mooking’.

We passed a construction site and he said “Ooh. What is it? Workers.” We made our way home, missing connecting trains just barely each time, and were home 5:30ish. Dinner, nursing, etc. then Carly gave him a bath. I had been emptying out some old spices, etc. we didn’t want, and he came out and played in the sink and used the empty lids and containers to play with. Carly took a shower and I tried to get him to other things. Instead, he started chewing on the counter and just wanted the water back on. He kind of melted down, and when Carly came out she took him in and he went to sleep at 8, but as soon as she left the room he was calling for her. Happened again. The third time he got up and wanted water. Now he was really up. He came out and spotted the Korean language book I had gotten out and placed in the reading area. He sounded out/read the entire cover, in English (Korean Made Easy for Beginners) then wanted to “Read Hangeul”. Not the most amazing connection, but still a bit surprising as he hand’t actually seen any Hangeul on the book yet. We spent the next 40 minutes or so finding Korean words and learning them. At one point I tried to go hang up laundry, but he said “Dada do sit. One more time” So Carly went and did laundry instead. I was also teaching him some of the finer points about Korean vowels that he didn’t yet know (like the ‘A’ sounds and the ‘Y’ sounds – “Where the Y?” he would say – “There…the second dot” I would answer.) His favorite part was ‘leaf’ (eep) and ‘mouth’ (eeb). I said “Don’t put the eep in your eep.” and he loved the sentence, so he wanted me to repeat it over and over, and was saying it himself. I was then getting tired and pretending to sleep, so he brought back the sleeping elephant game and would pretend to put a leaf in my mouth (we’d been listing animals that ear leaves).

Carly took over and they nursed and read Moby Dick. We then played fort on the bed and Dada be Frozen. At 9:26 he declared he wanted “More pine cones”, remembering the pine cones we had briefly played with earlier. He nursed again, but started singing the ABC song loudly on his own. After a few more minutes I left the room and Carly wrangled him to sleep, although it took awhile, a bit after 10.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘not’ and ‘snot’, mirror, hear pedulgi, reading Lotte Super, reading ‘juice’

 

Taking the wrapper off the pastel: 

Sponges: 

Some Zinniegraphs: 

Sink: 

Subway: 

Park 1: 

Park 2: 

Park 3: 

Home:

He woke up at 7:18. First I heard was the door opening. Then he closed it. I went back to typing, then he opened it again  and I went down to him. I sat in the bed and eventually he closed the door yet again. We played with Green Monster for a minute, then out to the couch and pastels. He then turned to the iPad and mainly played Elmo ABCs – he is fixated on the letter ‘W’ in that game for some reason. We had Cheerios and strawberries for breakfast, then when we started getting ready to leave he requested oatmeal, so we had some of that as well.

We left the house before 9:30. On the subway down he did more Elmo ABC and then we drew shapes on Paper. He is getting better at the shape tool, making triangles, ovals, circles, and rectangles. And, once, a trapezoid. He still likes erasing all the time, so I showed him the ‘undo’ button, which he started to get ahold of.

At Children’s Grand Park, our first stop, after buying kimbap and an apple cookie, was a bench in front of the children’s museum, where we had a snack. It was a bit chilly, but sunny; he admitted he was cold, but wouldn’t wear his coat or sweatshirt – mainly sat close to me. We ate the apple cookie and kimbap, then played around (did some stepping on my shadow). He wanted to take a photo of the wrappers, so we did that. We took our garbage over to the cans, then we were back playing in the O-shaped bench. He wanted to sing Bingo, so we were doing that when another little boy came over and sort of danced around a little as well (but mainly stared at us).

Once again, no children’s museum for us. He wanted to go to the old playground. I carried him up the path, and thought he had pooped. I asked him a few times, and he said “No…No…No poop. No change diaper.” But when I set him down and checked, I found otherwise. I think this is his first really clear, not just joking, fib. That I’ve caught, anyway.

As we entered the playground I took a sadly symbolic photo: the last drum had broken off of the plastic drum kit. Someone had set it up like a garbage can by the entrance, and it was full and surrounded by garbage – more than a day’s worth. A good indicator of just how abandoned this playground is (all the musical instruments are coming apart) and of the poor availability of garbage/recycling. There is a set of them out on the main path, but nothing by the huge playground area.

At the playground he looked for garbage in order to cover it with sand. We did a little writing in the sand as well. He wandered around on the play structure, reading letters everywhere, and throwing off the shovel, while I stayed on the ground and hid behind the panels. He was having difficulty with his hat, taking it off quite a bit. I let him keep it off while we went over and played with the musical instruments. He tried them all out on his own, using our stick for the one that no longer has any of its own. He wanted to sit on the drum, but there was water on top. I brushed and dried it off, but he still didn’t trust it, so never got on it.

I tried to get his hat back on, but he got upset. We took a break and went and sat on our bench. He calmed down and sat on my lap for  few minutes, then lay face down and was looking around, playing “This is a?” I eventually started saying “Mookah Mookah (his new made up word)” for everything, which he found very funny. He wanted to climb on the rocks behind the bench, then found a drink container he wanted to throw away. He walked it around to the garbages by the path, and on the way back saw the water faucets. When he saw them he exclaimed “Remember!” and pointed. We played in them for a few minutes, with him splashing in the puddle.

I got him away before his shoes got soaked. Changed him and got him ready for a nap and did our walking. Took close to a half hour. We went to the upstairs cafe and he slept from 1:06 to 1:49. Woke up early, I think, because he had leaked. Left our stuff in the cafe and took him out and changed him (diaper #3). Went back and he sat on my lap, playing iPad, drinking water, and eating my ice. Eventually he got down and walked around, and sat on one of the low chairs. We were sitting there when he looked at the books and said “Want this one” and went and grabbed a book, which happened to be a Korean book about Picasso. Don’t think he could tell that though, although he was able to read ‘Picasso’ on the cover when we looked at it. Looked at that several minutes, then we were spelling words. I asked him if he could spell ‘shoe’, and it turned into a joke, with him saying things like “S H O 14!” He started singing ABC and getting rambunctious so time to head out, about 3.

He walked/ran, spelling ‘queen’ as he went, and led the way to the new playground. There we played in the sand (more garbage burying), then I helped him up on the hill. There, there were two girls that were really interested in him. He was counting them, and one went down the hill he said “Only one!” He really liked the pants of one of the girls, as they were covered with letters. I pointed out a boy carrying one of the dinosaur balloons they sell in the park and suddenly I realized August had his sad look. I picked him up and he cried on my shoulder for several minutes. When he calmed down I was asking him what made him sad. He wouldn’t tell me, but if I asked if it was the balloon he would say “No” – to everything else he just wasn’t responding. Eventually, as we sat on a bench, he was saying  “sad about this one (pointing to nothing at first, then a piece of cardboard or the arm of the bench)…sad about the bench.”

Finally made our way out of the park, changing him one more time (diaper #4) and headed home. It was a slow walk from the bathroom to the train platform though: August said “Dada be frozen” about 50 times. He walked the entire way, except for two stairways he decided he wanted to play and sit on and I had to pick him up and take him down. Later, he would tell Carly “Sad about the stairs.” One nosy woman on the subway home (she stood, bent over August, to see what he was doing on the iPad – I tolerated it all until she started stroking his cheek), but otherwise a day of pleasant interactions with people, including an old woman at the elevators who was pretty funny with August when we got home about 5:40 and Carly wasn’t there and simply turned around to go back down to find her. We started walking, looking for her.

After the morning hat difficulty August had been better with it. But as we walked into the building the first time it twice blew off his head and got tangled around his neck. When it happened the first time (August somehow managed to also get his arm stuck in it) I had offered to simply take his hat off, but he wanted it back on. It then happened again, right as we were entering the building proper. This time, as we walked back through this area, with no hat on, he said something like “No wear hat here” – a good idea as it is windy as you enter the building due to the hole through the building and, I think, drafts from the parking garage.

Anyway, we walked down by the pink building and saw Carly crossing the street with two co-workers. We had to wait about 10 seconds before they crossed to our side. I told August to call out “Mama!” and this time he did – in the past I would say that, but of course I’d be whispering it to him, so he would whisper to. This time he said it loudly and actually got her attention.

At home he requested mango, so ate some of that. He also had some soup. A bit later he requested oatmeal again, so Carly made him some, and put mango in it, which he found exciting. He took a long bath. Today they were writing the names of shapes on the door – afterwards he could spell ‘oval’ and ‘star’ when I asked him. They nursed and did a lot of reading. At one point they moved from the couch to the reading area. August likes to take the shortest route – i.e. over the arm – and I was in the way, so he said “Walk through da
da.” Carly took a shower and he and I looked at In the Garden and played with Green Monster and Marshy and Bluie  on the bed – he wanted them to do the Bluie dance and sing him happy birthday. We also started making up mooka mooka song. We were back out in the reading area when Carly finished getting ready for tomorrow and picked him up. He was ready for bed and fell asleep a little after 9.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘down’, photo of wrapper cookie, spelling yo-yo, find some garbage with the shovel, foil, something to recycle, bury it, just one (girl), both wearing hats, spelling ‘star’ and ‘oval’

Morning:

In front of the children’s museum. Trying to step on my shadow:

Photo of our wrappers: 

Drum cum garbage can: 

Playground: 

After his nap. Picasso book: 

Headed to the playground: 

Playground: 

The hill: 

Sad: 

His 3 favorite robots (although the dancing ones are a close second): 

On our way to the subway: 

Wearing the yellow pants for the first time: 

Up at 7:25. Soon out on the couch and drawing Ks, then working on our mosaic. We got out a new pad of paper and started a new mosaic and kept working on K: “Got the line down, sideways V, turns to K.” For breakfast he ate green pancakes, left over from yesterday. At first he wanted them cold, but then agreed to warm them. I made the mistake of asking if he wanted syrup, to which he replied “Honey!” So he ate them with honey. He then turned to the iPad for awhile, watching YouTube videos. I had mentioned getting the Elmo Loves ABC app, and after awhile he wanted that. It was being slow to download, however, so we put the iPad aside and got ready to go. While doing so, he found the elephant on a wire book in Korean, and we read that 3 times, with me reading the Korean. He looked up at the wall and saw the mandala and asked “This is a?” I told him, and then asked him if he knew who made it and he said “Oma”. We were then doing a little “Answer me questions of letters” game and I was asking him names and got to Glecy. When I helped him spell it, I said the ‘c’ makes an ‘s’ sound, and he said “Glecy…like juice!”

We left the house at 10. Walked down to the bus stop for the 172 again. He was spotting bus numbers and having fun climbing on the bench while we waited. On the ride down we started playing with the Elmo ABC app, then moved to the Elmo and Cookie Monster cookie/word app. In that app you make cookies with vowels or letters on them, then feed them to Cookie Monster or Elmo. When he was done feeding them to CM, he would excitedly say “All gone cookies! Bye cookies!” When doing the vowel option with Elmo I noticed that every time he was making 3 of the 5 cookies ‘i’. I pointed this out, and then he started saying “Like ‘I’s” every time he did it. Finally, we read all of Green Eggs and Ham.

We got off at Anguk and walked up behind the MMCA. We ate lunch behind the MMCA, although in a different spot, at the top of a little hill. We heard a rooster off in the distance, which he kept calling “Hard to see” (because we couldn’t). We also saw a magpie, butterflies, flies, ants, and a ladybug that landed on me. He was asking about the trees, which was easy to answer as they were Japanese maples. I got one leaf for him to look at, and he played with it for quite awhile. We then got out the tennis ball and played with that, mainly with him throwing it off the bench and me retrieving it. Next, he wanted to take photos. So we did that, taking a lot of photos of things on the ground and our shoes. He liked just sitting next to me on the ground, on the path or on the grass, and would get upset if I tried to get up. He saw 3 Chinese characters on the building behind the museum and thought the one on the right looked like a face.

Eventually it was time to take a nap. The museum was closed as it was Monday, so we walked across the street and into the Folk Museum to change him. Did that, then got walking north. He was half asleep when we got to a soldier who asked where we were going. I told her I was putting him to sleep and she didn’t understand, so I just said we were going to see the Blue House. That worked and we kept walking. I crossed the street a minute later and walked back to the book cafe I had planned to go to, only to find it was closed. It is right in the ‘Y’ of that main street and the fancy street we walked up with Chuck and Cherie. So prime real estate. Surprised they could afford to be closed a day each week. So I kept walking. A street with 20 coffee shops, but the first one I came to was small and loud, then I found one that looked promising, but a latte was close to 7 bucks. I walked a little further, then saw a church that had some picnic tables and benches next to some trees to the left of the entrance. They seemed to be open to anyone (there was a ‘No smoking’ sign, but that was it), so we sat on a bench and he slept there. He slept from 1:15 to 2:07.

After he woke up we walked back to the Folk Museum. We went into the lower play area (the one with the tiger story) and played there. There was a little girl (16 months or so), at first sitting by the fake stacking rocks, that was very interested in August. They interacted a lot. She is at the touching-everyone’s-face stage, so was touching August’s cheek and nose, which he found funny. She beeped my nose, and I told August to beep her nose, but he beeped his own instead. At one point she gave him a big hug, and touched her shirt. August was excited that she liked his shirt (the alphabet shirt from Myanmar) and said “My shirt!” They also played with the big leaf/stick wall puzzle together – she would hand me or August a piece and we would figure out where it went. We also played with the tangrams and ramps a bit, then he wrote on paper and took it under the black light. He also just climbed on the play area in the middle a bit, and we looked at the horoscope wheel. I had let him take his shoes off on the play area, and then let him keep them off while doing the black light thing. One worker, right as we were going back to the backpack and shoes to leave, was very concerned about this for reasons that will remain a mystery.

He was getting hungry, so we went outside to eat. This was his real lunch, as he had barely eaten anything earlier. We ate both eggs, string cheese, grapes, and some other stuff. It was getting windy out, but he was just in short sleeves. It was supposed to rain today, but kept getting pushed back, but clearly something was coming. We also sang the tongue twister song and he danced around a lot. He spotted a magpie and said “One magpie. Supposed to be two. Just one.” I have no idea why.

It was now close to 4 and we hadn’t been upstairs. I talked him into going back in and we went up there. Went straight to the big rubber stamp area and started doing that. A worker swept in and wanted to show him how to do it. Unfortunately, she was the controlling type. When our first stamp was blurry, she grabbed the stamp and did it for him. He then asked what it was, and I turned the stamp over and we looked at it. August reached out and barely touched it with a finger, at which point she reached out and grabbed his hand away. There was a little ink on his finger. I told her it was okay, but she reached into a pocket and pulled out a random tissue, grabbed his hand again and started rubbing off the ink, at no point asking either him or me if it was okay. He got upset, and I pushed her hand away. He started screaming and when she still stood there, still trying to engage with him and laughing, I shooed her away.

When he calmed down we went to the other end, where he wanted to get into the round block play area. In there we made letters and towers. There was one other boy, I believe Russian, a couple years older. August knocked over a block on his tower, but after that I kept him apart and he just watched the older boy and marveled at the tower, which August kept calling a “Mookah Mookah tower”. August also made eye contact with the boy’s mother, who waved. He was then having fun hiding from her behind the wall of the play area. Also from the block area, August spotted video playing with three monsters that were sad, then happy. August pointed them out and called them “sad monsters”. When I asked how he knew they were sad, he said “the face” and pointed to his own face.

We left, and so did the Russian family. We parted ways, as we went out the back, and they went the other direction. I then took August back to the changing room and changed him. Outside, August didn’t want to leave. He got down to look at the flowers, then did some running around. He wanted to take a photo of one of the monsters (the same ones from the videos) so we did that. He also talked about taking photos of the bus and of a “rectangle” (paving stone), but we didn’t do that. Finally, I picked him up and took him out to the street entrance, where we sat on a bench to put him in the backpack. We saw the Russian family again,
the boy playing on the bizarre sculpture thing of boys with their pants falling down sort of bending over doing leap frog, with the front boy’s head between the legs of a standing boy facing him…I should have just taken a photo of it. Anyway, we said bye to them again, then as I was putting August in the backpack a tour bus pulled up. I looked up from putting him in to see cameras pointed at us, a woman grabbing his hand, and a guy standing right up against the bench so I couldn’t get in the backpack. He gave me the thumbs up as I pushed my way in and we got out of there.

We crossed the street only to find ourselves walking with the Russian family. So one more goodbye as we walked across from Chicago. We took the subway home. Carly Skpyed, hoping we weren’t stuck in the rain. When we came out of the tunnel it was indeed raining. We took the train to Kwangwoon, where we only had about 10 feet from the station door to the bus stop. Bus came a few minutes later. Really raining by the time we got home, but just had to hurry from the curb into the building.

Don’t think he ate much for dinner due to the late lunch. Carly gave him a bath. Spent a long time playing with the letters. They then nursed and read books in the parlor. He was reading a lot, particularly the Y page of Kipper A to Z. It was mainly a Mom and August evening – Carly went to the bathroom once and August walked past me and said “No dada!” But later, when Carly went to take a shower, he had had enough mama time to let her go, saying “Bye, mama!” as we started to do some more mosaic and writing of K. At one point I was sitting by the desk and he was by the couch and he wanted water. There were two water bottles on the table and he wanted me to get him water. He was actually standing, so I made him do it. At first he wanted the one farthest from him, as it was closer to me. But eventually he did it. A bit later he ended up on the couch with both “Two wawas!” Soon after that Carly took him in and he was asleep about 9.

New words/phrases:  maple leaf, what do you see?, saw the bear inside with the animals, answer me questions of letters

 

Lunch behind the museum: 

Some of his photos: 

This is a HDR photo as the camera moved. Check out the people and building: 

Chinese. He thought the one on the right looked like a face: 

Walking out of the art museum… 

And flying to the folk museum: 

Folk museum: 

Play area 2. The monsters’ faces: 

On our way out: 

Home. Two wawas:

He slept all the way to 9:30. Made for a nice morning for us, but we were expecting/hoping he wouldn’t also want a nap. When he came out, he did the standing in the door and not coming out first thing with Carly – the first time that has happened; usually he just walks right out to her. After he was up a bit, they Skyped with Chuck and Cherie. He is getting more into Skype, and seemed to be following their conversation a lot. He then wanted the iPad, and was playing Todo Math on the couch. He was doing the months of the year puzzle, and I sat on the table and helped him. When I tried to get up, he said “dada sit” and pointed back to the table. After making green eggs for him yesterday, today Carly made green spinach pancakes. They turned out really well, and quite green.

Eventually, about 12:30 I was getting him ready to head outside. Carly was staying home to do some work and make hummus. He chose the tree playground and had a lot to say about it: “No wear hat in the sun. No hat on the hair. No raining today…Find garbage.” We headed out, and as we walked south of the main east-west street he saw the strip mall area ahead and started saying “See the S”. Well, he couldn’t see it yet, and it took a couple minutes for me to figure out what he was talking about, but he was referring to a big Hangeul S (ㅅ) that is on one of the businesses. It is kind of square and looks like a mountain, flat on top. We looked at that and a little of the other Hangeul, then kept walking. When he saw the playground he pointed and said “Raining here”, remembering the last time we were here when we had to take cover in the bench area.

Of course, the first thing he wanted to do was “Find some garbage.” But he wasn’t into throwing it away today. Instead, he would use his shove to bury it or, in the case of a can, just put a little sand on it. We then found some of those little plastic balls that are everywhere and we don’t know what they are from, and that became the next activity, finding more. Of course, I was the one that was good at spotting them, and he kept wanting more. After awhile we turned to writing shapes in the sand. He wanted me to draw up to a nonagon (9 sides – he learned it on YouTube). He then wanted food, and as we were sitting by the backpack he looked at the little sand area and asked “What shape is is?” then insisted it was a “Nonagon” (really a triangle). He also started repeating “Answer me questions”. I didn’t know what he was talking about. He could explain that it had something to do with the zoo, then the picnic table where we ate lunch and played, and that it had to do with letters. Later, when Carly was there, we figured out that he wanted me to ask him how to spell words. I don’t remember doing a ton of that on Friday, but we of course did a lot of word stuff. Anyway, asking “How about ‘nose” etc. seemed to make him happy.

I had tried to record him talking about the “Answer me questions” so maybe I could figure it out later, but he said “No photos” and turned off the video. But that got us into taking photos. He wanted to take photos of the screw in the bench, etc. then wanted to take a photo of his “messy hand”. He did that, after I taught him to hold out his messy hand and take the photo with the other, then wanted a photo of his “clean hands”. We then moved over to the the little grassy area, where he took photos of flowers and sticks and rocks and looked at ants. We ended up sitting there, and just sitting and singing “Bingo” for a long time. He didn’t like me taking the letters out and clapping – he just wanted to sing the whole name over and over again. I tried getting up a couple times, but he wanted me to keep sitting next to him. Eventually he got up too, and started running around the little grass area with the stick, writing ‘BINGO’ in the air and on the bushes and everything over and over. At least 10 minutes.

Carly showed up, and they sat in the grass area and nursed. He just kept wanting to do that, until I suggested he play with mama on the play structure and shaky bridge. He agreed to that, so we went up there. Carly and I had been talking about how high he could reliably count, and we had said 8 or so, but hadn’t tried him recently. As if he heard us, as he climbed up the stairs he easily counted all 13 stairs, even pausing for the landing in the middle. So, at least 13.

They climbed to the top of the tree, and he was fascinated by the kids going down the big slide. The sudden independence thing kicked in again, and he wanted to go down the slide. By himself. We talked him into one of the shorter ones, and I went to the bottom of the slide. Carly let him go, and it went just fine. It was actually a pretty slow slide, and he took awhile to get down. He then wanted to go up again. We were going to let him try the next bigger one, but he wanted to go to the tall one. Up there, he changed his mind though, which was good as it was faster and he’d probably fall off the end. He agreed to ride with Carly, and they went down the slightly smaller one.

He then spotted some Hangeul in the said that other people had written and spent several minutes trying to read it and trace it. He then found a little stick that looked like the Hangeul character ‘ㅏ’ (ah). We ended up back at the sand area where we had done shapes earlier and ate grapes, then sang a lot more of “Bingo”, both there and up in the grass area, and with him standing on the little posts in between, writing in the air. We changed him, did a little more writing in the sand, and then I was ready to head out at 4:15, as it was really windy. August set the stick across his legs and saw that it looked like an ‘H’.

We walked home and stopped at the pink building and did some grocery shopping. Finally noticed that the grocery store has changed from a Sing Sing Mart to Lucky Mart. Went home and heated naan for dinner. August still isn’t into hummus. I tried to share my sandwich, but he declared “No hummus” and just wanted naan. He ate a little soup instead. Carly drew his bath, and I started it with him while she made a cake to take to Megan. I was with him quite awhile, doing words on the door, then we switched nd Carly took over.

After his bath he started saying “Answer me questions” again so we did a bit of that. It was now past 7 and we thought he might be going to sleep. He read with Carly (Rub-a-Dub from set 2 of the Bob Books is now easy for him) and nursed and seemed to be falling asleep, but would pop back awake. Eventually he just got back up. He and I sat on the couch and table and worked on our mosaic, then he started working on ‘K’. At the playground he had been working on ‘K’ in the sand and seemed to be getting it (up until now his best Ks still looked mostly like Rs). He was getting it down, and was very proud of himself. He would do one and then look at me, smiling. After awhile he wanted to nurse again, and he fell asleep at 8:30.

New words/phrases:  help me find…, answer me questions

Green pancakes:

On our walk. “See ‘S'” (the one that kind of looks like an upside down V): 

Shapes: 

His photos: 

Bingo: 

With mama: 

Home: 

August was up at 7:15, before me. They skyped with Vivian and Colin. August was talking a lot, and in particular kept calling them “naked” as they weren’t wearing clothes. Later, he would see Chuck wearing a tank top and call him naked as well. They were then reading Kipper and other books when I got up. Carly took a shower and I went to the bathroom in the other bathroom. August came in and tried to reach in the toilet and I said pee was dirty, to which he asked “How pee dirty?” He had used ‘how’ a few days ago – the start of how/why questions. We then worked on our mosaic we had been coloring on the paper and wrote letters. He then did more reading and nursing with Carly. They were surprised when a bee was flying around the parlor. August was very excited by it though and wanted to touch it. I caught it in a tupperware container. August and I looked at it, but he kept wanting me to open it. Then, while they skyped with Chuck and Cherie, I did recycling and let the bee out by the bushes down below. August would later remember it and want to see it again.

We eventually headed out for a walk before the rains were supposed to come. We walked up the stream, getting coffee drinks for us and a cookie for August at the women’s business center. We walked a bit farther up the stream, stopping to see the fish jumping, until we got to Junghyeon Children’s Park – one we’ve never played at, but only walked through. August sat on the structure a little, then came and sat right next to me and played in the sand. He ate a little more of my ice, until an ant crawled in my cup. I got the shovel and he played with that, then went and played with the faucets with Carly, and then recycled our cups before we left. We walked back and smelled some flowers along the way. We got back just in time, as it started raining soon after.

August climbed on the table and knocked the long crayons from the shelf below. He got down and started picking them up. When he was all done, he dumped them out again. Repeat. He dumped them out a third time, but of course got distracted after that and I had to finish the clean up job. He fell asleep and napped from 1:10 to 2:08.

In the afternoon we went to Home Plus. Down at the clothes, August decided he wanted out of the backpack. He suddenly became Mr. Independent, as he wanted to walk everywhere and not hold our hands. Mainly he was focused on clothes and looking for names. He has been fascinated by all the brand and store names, and has started saying “Lots of names!” In the first couple minutes of looking at clothes he surprised us by reading “wild” on a shirt, then sat down with Carly and read the inside of the basket, then surprised us by reading “never” and “black” on another shirt. He also saw a sign and says “Says ‘Home Plus’.” We went downstairs to do grocery shopping. I managed to carry him much of the time, but only after he had walked across half the store but then realized mama wasn’t around. Carly shopped and August got a couple samples. We then paid (August reluctantly gave up the sponges he was carrying for a minute), and on the way out he rode the moving walkways by himself, me poised to grab him at the end, but he did a good job of stepping off. He almost fell backwards getting on the second one, but kept his balance.

He walked out of the store, but then I was trying to pick him up when we were on the sidewalk, when we ran into Jeff carrying Garvey. I got August up and we all walked across the park – they were headed to the dinosaurs. August impressed him by spelling ‘gargantuan’. It was raining, and when we got to the playground I put on our raincoats and hats. August complained a little about the coat, but not much. We walked around much of the north end of the park, August leading the way. He was talking about walking to the play area, but it was a couple minutes to 6 and probably closing. He picked up one piece of garbage to throw away, but lost interest in it before getting to the garbage can, so I had to do that as well.

We came home and dropped off the groceries and big backpack, then headed back out and to Burger Ton, the new place that opened in the pink building a few weeks back. We ate there, August eating some fries and most of the teriyaki mushrooms off my burger. We then came home. Carly drew a bath for August and I gave him his bath while Carly started making soup. A usual bath: a lot of letters on the door (‘saxophone’ was the big one – particularly since it also has ‘phone’ and ‘one’ in it), then he said “wash” when he was ready to be washed and finish. We then put all the bath letters away (he finished this job), except for 6 he set aside for further washing in the sink. He then stood on the stool and washed the six letters in the sink for a few minutes before declaring them done and putting them in the bag as well.

He then moved to the kitchen sink, bringing the stool out, and played in a pot with a measuring cup for quite awhile. Only one scoop ended up on the floor. He and Carly then were on the couch singing and spelling words. He was standing against the back of the couch in just a diaper and I sat on the table to get a photo. I didn’t, however, as he came and sat next to me on the table. Sat with me for a few minutes, then went back to Carly. He was still pretty high energy, but didn’t put up too much of a fight and fell asleep around 9:30.

 

New words/phrases: naked, spelling yummy cold wawa water, reading ‘world’ ‘room’, spelling ‘nose’

 

Park: 

Home. Cleaning up: 

Home Plus: 

Park: 

Burger Ton: 

Bath: 

He slept until 8:24. Sat on the couch, waking up for several minutes.  When he came out he pointed a bit away from him and said “Dada here.” When he got on the couch and I was following him he kind of put out his hand and said “Ahh” as if he was telling me he needed some alone time. Eventually I was able to sit down next to him and he turned and whispered “iPad” and grinned. We made oatmeal for breakfast, then were spelling words – he is into ‘enormous’ and was spelling ‘teeth’, which he recognized was like ‘teen’ and ‘three’ and ‘tree’: “Teen and three have two Es! Tree has two Es!” He got on the iPad and we wrote in Paper, playing “This is a?” At one point I took too long and he answered himself: “This is a…quacking bird.” We then were figuring out the smart draw tool in Paper, and he was working on drawing squares and circles.

When we went to get ready to go to class, I picked him up off the couch like yesterday. He complained, but instead of screaming and pinching like yesterday, he said “No grabbing!” Much nicer. We made it to class as it was starting. He avoided the songs at the beginning, but was sucked in by bubbles, then of course sticker time. He could tell when she said to put the books away, as he suddenly started sticking really fast to finish up all the stickers. The kids then all got dancing ribbons, which he was excited about at first, but then she played a song they were supposed to wave the ribbons to. He lost interest in the ribbons because the song had counting (in Korean) in it, and he was following along, putting fingers in the air. The main activity was about playgrounds today, and she demonstrated (in a rather long fashion) four toys: a balance beam, basketball hoop, soccer goal, and ball target. They then had ten minutes or so to play with them. He did the target thing a bit (although he wouldn’t throw the balls, just walk up and place them right on the numbers). But he spent most of the time with a soccer ball, throwing it over the net and occasionally setting it down and kicking it.

At the end of class he got an Eddy handstamp. Eddy is a fox character on Pororo. I mentioned there are foxes at the zoo, and that became the must-see animal of the day. From class we headed to the subway, then to the park. I suggested three places we could eat lunch, one being the picnic table we read at last time. I think that won out because I mentioned the rectangular pond, and he liked the shape. We went up there and ate lunch. There were a bunch of workers working all around the building doing various things. Several were working near us, then left. He then said “Where the workers?” He got on the table and wanted to stand – I took a photo of him standing on the table before making him sit after that. We walked to the garbage to throw away our garbage, but held onto the plastic straws to recycle later.

After lunch we changed his diaper and put him in the backpack. We went to see animals – since he had slept so long I didn’t have high hopes for a nap. We saw the primates, including the chimpanzees (finally out in their cage), then went in saw the prairie dogs, meerkats, otters, and fennec foxes. Later, as we were leaving the zoo, he would say “Bye meerkats!” And at the fennec foxes we were comparing his handstamp to the foxes, when two women with kids came up next to us and started pointing to the foxes and saying “Eddy!” We then went and walked around the elephants, etc. While watching the elephant it walked behind the wall and August said “Elephant hiding.” He was very excited when he could see it walk out the other side. We walked around, getting a good view of the lynx for once, and seeing the red foxes as well. We then stopped in the square and had a snack and played around a little. He inspected the recycling bags. We were sitting on a square curb around a tree and he started walking on it. When he came to me he said “Dada in way. Walking through dada.”

Put him in the backpack and started on a walk. He first insisted on going in the tropical building, so we did that. At the fish tank he looked at the sign identifying three kinds of fish and then wanted to find them in the tank. First time that has happened. We walked out, quickly saw the horses and goats, then I insisted on walking. He got frustrated when I walked by water faucets without stopping, but he quieted down quickly and went silent. After about 15 minutes he fell asleep. He slept 2:35 to 3:35. When he woke up, a woman called his name. It was the same woman we met last week, who lives in Sweden and has a son named Noam (after Noam Chomsky). So I got to tell her that August’s middle name is after an historian. We talked to them and he ate some ice, then we headed outside. Played in the water faucets for a bit, using my cup to pour on the ground. About 4 I tried to head out, but he saw the playground. We compromised and spent a few minutes reading the Hangeul on the playground that says “Chalk Doodle Area”.

Headed home and got to Brownstone a little after 5. August tried taking his hat off as we got to the elevators, but it fell backwards so the strap was around his neck. I set him down in the elevator lobby to get it off, and Carly caught up to us there. We went up and they nursed, then he wanted to play with balloons with me. He got out the new blue balloon and I blew it up. He said he wanted me to tie it, but I said we should let it fly around a few times first and let it go. He got sad and ran to Carly. I blew it up and tied it, then we were playing with it and it was popped – loud enough to make my ear ring and kind of startle August. He went and had Carly pick him up and he cuddled with her a little.

Carly made a smoothie with spinach. August was spelling a word (‘fork’, I think) with her and when she said ‘or’ he said “Like ‘orange’” – he’s been noting that for a couple days now whenever a word comes up with ‘or’ in it. He got Angeles down off the couch and took was using Angeles’s hand to feel the textures on the floor.

At 6:30 we headed down and met Megan and Torrey at Baskin Robbin’s to celebrate Megan’s birthday. We all got comes. I got the flavor with Pop Rocks in it, as that was one that August wanted. He shared my ice cream and Carly’s (she had something chocolate-y). We then went for a walk around the park and ran into Charlie from APIS. We were standing near the bridge talking and a dance class was going on by the stage area. August was watching them and started copying their arm movement. He also took our ice cream cone paper things over to the garbage. He was patient for a couple minutes but then wanted to go to the playground. So we all walked over there. August ended up on the teeter-totter with Carly and Megan. They were on for a long time, and August was thrilled. He was also looking up and reading ‘Brownstone’ on our building and spotting the “D moon”.

Megan and Torrey left, and we stayed a little longer. August pulled himself up onto the play structure for the first time – he was getting close a couple months ago. He walked back and forth on the shaky bridge with Carly and sat with her up on the platform. I did some hiding from him. He was content to just keep sitting with Mama, but they were kind of in the way, so eventually we headed home.

Carly gave him a bath and washed his hair. A lot more reading and nursing after that, and he fell asleep about 9:45.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘has’, ‘banana’, “look up what it means”, “something’s in the Picasso’s Trousers. It’s the balloons!”, spelling ‘uh-oh’, “sit with Angeles”

Waking up: 

In the middle of an ABC song: 

5-Touch class. Counting along to the song: 

Lunch: 

Holding himself up with his hands (his feet aren’t touching anything): 

Zoo. Seeing the elephant come back out from “hiding”: 

Inspecting recycling: 

Water: 

Hangeul: 

Home: 

Stickers and ice cream: 

In the park: 

Home: 

It was May 20th of last year: 

He was up at 7:07. Much like yesterday we ended up playing on the bed, but with the door open. We ended up learning to spell ‘monster’ with Green Monster – by the end of the day he could spell it pretty well. We did some reading, and he can pretty much read Teacher Says on his own. We also went out and read some Bob Books before he wanted to switch to the iPad and do Todo Math. Seemed like a pretty calm and happy morning, until I picked him up to go change him before leaving. He got upset and started pinching my face. Not sure what the problem was, and he wasn’t able to explain why he was upset. Once we finished getting ready and headed out though he was fine.

Got to Teuni Teuni class. Shy at first as usual, but not for long. But then on the walking path/forward roll thing August stepped back onto the ramp and a boy ran down the ramp and they bonked heads. August got the worst of it. No screaming, actually pretty quiet, but he huddled on my shoulder. My shirt was soaked from the slobber, snot, and tears. Then, when he got back into it, he was reaching down for a toy (a fan), when another kid walked by and kneed him in the head. August huddled on my lap for this one. Luckily, no more incidents after that one. Class was about wind, and they used hand fans to blow bubbles around, and make pieces of meat roll to lions. At the end of class we realized we’d left the water bottle at home. So we went downstairs and did a little shopping, also getting kimbap for lunch. We also got a new water bottle for him.

Went home and he wanted to eat at home. So we ate kimbap there, and tried the new crackers – black bean hardtack – that we had found. They are basically the same aster ‘Jesus crackers’ we get handed from time to time that he likes. Changed him, and got in the backpack. He started saying “T E D spells Ted” and it took me a minute to figure out he was looking at the cover of the Perro Grande…Perro Pequeno book, where the little dog is wearing a shirt that says ‘TED’. We walked a couple blocks to the bus stop. On the way, we sang the A is for Apple song. He inserted a lot of new words for their letters, including “Inchworm, jump, kite, rabbit, wonder, Zax”. We sat on the bench and he looked across the street and saw the hospital. He said “Mama here. Mama go to work. Mama go to work doctor…sad about the mama go to work here.” Remembering the times we’ve had to accompany Carly to doctor appointments and then wait for her. He also liked looking for the numbers on the busses: “See the numbers. This the 100 bus.”

It is about 15 minutes on the bus. Both ways he just sat next to me and looked out the windows. At the park, we got in the backpack and started walking. At first we stopped to turn on the faucets, then I figured out a U-shaped route around the park that avoided them. He had his water bottle at first and drank a lot of water (new water bottle!), then finally settled down. We were walking over 30 minutes when he fell asleep. We sat on a bench and he slept from 1:15 to 2:05.

When he woke up he was happy but just wanted to stay in the backpack for several minutes. Like 7 or 8. He did some funny stretches while in there, putting out both his left foot and hand. By the time I got him out he had started to leak. Changed him standing up on the bench. He sat on the bench for several minutes more and played with his water bottle. He kept pointing to the cap on the bottle today and saying “This is a?” So he made up a “This is a cap” song. He also touched his own nose and said “Nose. Beep.” I finally convinced him to go over to the playground. We looked at the recycling bins a few times, and he walked around the play structure. He saw his shadow with the hat and said “Zinnie’s a queen” a couple times. Oh, and of course when we headed over there he said “Look for garbage.” While looking at the bins, he got down “Supposed to be…” and would go down the line saying “Supposed to be general. Supposed to be plastic. Supposed to be metal. Supposed to be glass.” He saw a fly and figured out how to spell it himself. “How bout ‘fly’? Starts with F L Y.”

Finally, he sat on a kind of tall platform for several minutes. There was a slightly bigger boy there playing and he watched him, pretty fascinated by him. He stood on the platform and I stood next to him. That lasted a few minutes, then we had a little snack, recycled the last of our garbage, and went across to play with the water faucets. The last time we had been here was August 15th, and he played with the same faucets and little hose. He played with it for several minutes, then noticed his shoes and pants getting wet. Rolled up his pants and took off his shoes and socks. But then back at the hose he wanted me to hold him – he didn’t want his feet on the ground. Ended up standing on my shoes as he played with the hose for several minutes more.

We headed home a little after 4. At some point when he was in the backpack he was talking about his fingernail hurting. I offered to kiss it and he immediately stuck his finger out for me. He doesn’t usually do that. After we got of the bus and were getting him in the backpack, he said “Two big eyes looking at me.” He said it was from an ABC song, specifically  C. Wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but he was very clear on the phrase. Later, at home, we got out the iPad and opened YouTube. It was on the last video he was watching. A series of puzzle reveal videos where one piece of a picture is revealed at a time and you guess what it is. The narrator says it during ‘crab’.

We got home a little before 5 and were reading Picasso’s Trousers when Carly got home. She had stopped at the store. She made a spinach smoothie, as he’s been pretty anti-vegetable recently – we tried pizza bagels this week, but all he wants is the bread part; any sauce even and he rejects it.

On the iPad we found that video, and then he went to his favorite Timmy Time episode, and skipped to a part where they get messy. We played on the bed, and he went and got Peter Rabbit. Carly gave him a bath, and they had their usual fun spelling words like ‘home’ and ‘think’ and many others on the door. He also likes making up words like ‘homet’. He went to sleep about 8:45.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘yellow’,  handwritten, enormous, spelling ‘fly’, reading ‘pRking’, saw-sal (3 years old), spelling ‘eleven’, ‘tricky’

 Morning:

Teuni Teuni class: 

On the bus: 

After his nap: 

A few minutes later. Note the new water bottle and the change of pants: 

Playground and recycling: 

Water: 

On my shoes: 

Evening. Wanting the balloon when playing with the balloons in the cloth book: