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He woke up at 7:51. I went into the bedroom and he quieted down after a few seconds, then shut the door, with both of us inside. We got up on the bed in the dark and played under the blanket for awhile with the stuffed animals. Turned on the light when he started stalking about reading to Peter Rabbit. Eventually got up and continued on with our morning, having oatmeal for breakfast, watching songs on the iPad, etc. We left the house right at 10. August was excited about riding a bus downtown, so we walked to the stop for the 172. He kept talking about the 1144, his now favorite bus. We got a couple seats near the back and settled in for the long ride. Got the iPad out, but spent a lot of the ride looking out the window and playing I Spy. And a lot of asking “This is?” – referring both to the neighborhood/spot (he clearly understands that subway stops have different names, and seems to be applying that to bus stops as well) and specific objects he sees.

Got off at Anguk and walked up to the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Stopped a few times along the way because he wanted to read a banner about today’s election, and signs on the roadway (One Way, etc.) Got to the museum and he said “Food!” so we sat on a bench behind the museum and started to eat lunch. After a few minutes he said “Leaking!” and he was, so we went inside to the changing room and changed him and ate a little more. He was fascinated by the sink and water dispenser – we had to refill his water there. Before we left, a couple came in and were changing a baby, and August was very concerned (or hoping?) about the baby falling. We had to stay until they were mostly done before we could leave.

Before we had entered the museum I had asked him “Ready to see some art?” And he had replied with “See some shapes.” We then also talked about looking for colors, patterns, and textures. We didn’t actually end up doing much of that, but it was a cool conversation. Inside, most of the big shows were closed. He really liked the Art Box piece though, with the falling water spelling words. Watched that for several minutes, and saw Spanish and ‘Ñ’s and English. Left when it switched to German. The Ahn Kyuchul show was still up, and we went in the curtained rooms just a bit, then went back to the big echo chamber piece. August loved this, and started making noises, then sang ABC. A docent came in and told us we had to be quiet. I went out to talk to him about that and he pointed to the title of the piece ‘Silent Room’. That wasn’t an instruction, mind you, just the title of the piece. I wanted to explain to him that the title was supposed to be ironic, as it is only a silent room when no one is in it, and as soon as you are in it it stops being silent, as even the rustling of clothes echoes. And last time I was in it people were whistling, snapping, making noise, etc. Anyway, I think he just wanted us to be quiet when other people came through, but hard to expect a 25 month old to just quiet down when other people enter. Just another example of art museums not really welcoming children here (see: furniture show at Design Experience Zone, etc.)

Anyway, there was only one other show. We went in that, and started out well. But then there was a series of drawings with writing on them (“blah blah blah” and other things). August wanted down, but then wanted to touch (it was behind glass). I was holding him back, not letting him, when another docent came over. Not sure what her plan was, but it sent his frustration over the edge and there was a lot of screaming after that. Took him out and walked around until he calmed down, then we looked at the gift shops for a few minutes and left.

He was acting tired, but seemed early for a nap. Put him in the backpack and we headed north and up the winding street we walked with Chuck and Cherie. We stopped at one gallery along the way to look at some art. Past where I sat that time when he took a nap, then we saw on the neighborhood maps a park, Samcheong Park. We headed for that. On the way up we saw a train museum and a sign for an owl museum. Figured we would check them out on the way down.

We got up to the park and he was quiet. Could tell he was close to sleep as he didn’t say anything walking past the playground near the entrance. He did want me to turn on water at a drinking fountain. Kept walking, up into the park, first through a higher nature playground, then started walking up a path to a lookout point. This is when he fell asleep. A couple hundred steps later I found a rest area and bench and settled down. He slept from 1:19 to 2:14. Quiet location at first, but as time went on more and more people came by, including big groups of hikers and tourists. He woke up and wanted to sit on the bench. We were eating and he was asking for words to spell: miss, mister, cat purr, noise, after, seeds, crackers, etc. He was climbing on the back of the bench area, then on the railing itself. Saw a plastic bottle down below and wanted to go get it and was sad when I wouldn’t let him – later, when we were at the top, he would point to a similar railing and talk about being sad that I wouldn’t let him climb them.

He saw women climbing the stairs and said “Going upping!” There were people behind me and he started hiding from them; he was then singing for the crowd. Two people offered him candy, which I declined. One woman said “Ai-po!” (pretty) and he immediately said back “Ai-po. How bout ai-po?” Sadly, it is what people have said to him a million times, but I’ve never figured out how it is spelled. Changed him twice on the platform – once after he woke up because he was leaking, then he pooped.

I wanted to go to the top, and August was up for it. In fact, he wanted to walk up himself. He tackled the stairs himself, and only wanted my help when they got too steep (got that moment on video). In fact, he was quite daring, wanting to climb up the rocks and all. We got to the top and he got a rock that he held on to and wanted to drop in water. So we headed back down to find water. He wanted to walk at first, but I convinced him to go in the backpack. He heard someone say ‘kimchi’ when taking a photo (the equivalent of “Cheese!”), and said “Kinchi. Don’t fall.” All the way back down he kept asking “Where the wawa?”

We got back down to the upper playground and got down and played with some rocks and a big chunk of wood for a few minutes, and watched a bee buzz around. He picked up the chunk of wood and said “Parallelogram!” (it was actually something more like a trapezium, but close enough). He still wanted water, so we grabbed a second rock and headed down to a little stream area I had spotted but avoided on the way up.

It was pretty perfect. It was small, and there were several other people there, including a couple having a picnic. But the stream kind of went around the corner a few feet and we could go over there and actually step across the stream to where there were a ton of rocks. Threw rocks in, then got interested in flower petals and would drop those in the water (“More flower petals!”) There was a sign telling you you couldn’t go farther up the stream. It said ‘Stop’ so he kept reading that and turned it into a little song. He also wanted to look for frogs (none of those around). And we took off his shoes and socks so he could put his toes in the water. He was pretty daring walking/climbing on the side of the stream, and I told him that if he fell in he would have to wear his yellow pants (which he continues to refuse to wear).

Looking at the time, I knew we were going to run late, so let Carly know. Eventually, around 4:30 I think, he started talking about going home. We went back to the backpack and put on his shoes. He saw the sticky spot on his shoe and remembered that it was “from picnic” (Easter). A minute later, the woman having a picnic offered him cheese cubes – which he had first (and only) eaten at that picnic. He was so cute taking the three cheese c
ubes from her, then whispering “Thank you”. He ate the cheese cubes as I put him in the backpack, and he interacted with her and another woman across from us, reading off the letters on her shirt. He also waved and said “Bye!” to everyone as we left.

We walked down, stopping at the drinking fountain for a drink. Then we walked by the first playground again. This time, he wanted to play. At first he started to whine, but then I had him ask nicely. He said “For a few minutes…look for garbage.” I said “Oh my gosh”, which he then parroted back to me. I then said “You are funny” and he parroted that as well. Got him down and he started running around, playing. He was putting sand on everything: platforms, benches, toys, pieces of garbage and, as I took a video, on the back of a girl. She didn’t notice and soon stood up and it fell off.

We left and started the long walk back. Walking back was slow as the sidewalks were now crowded. We stopped to check out the train museum, and he pushed the buttons on the trains outside for awhile. We were singing the ABC tongue twister song, and he said “Zinnie do it.” He had the first 4 letters down, then needed help. He know a lot of it though. We took the street behind the MMCA and he was reading off signs. He said “C H I C A G O” and it was the sign for the pizza place we ate with Cherie and Chuck, so we stopped and I told him about that.

We finally got to Anguk Station and got on the subway. A boy dressed in hanbok sat next to us and August was fascinated by his clothes, to the point that he kept trying to touch him, both with his finger and his foot. We got to Seokgye Station, and August wanted to walk down the stairs. I was holding his hands and he started to take two steps at a time. I told him to do one step at a time, but he kept taking two and said “Uh-oh one at a time!” Sigh.

At Seokgye there’s a little park area, and he asked what a sculpture was. I said “Arte abstracto” and asked what he thought it was. He thought about it, and said “Nose. With snot.” We then got on a bus, and as we drove away he said “Bye snot! With nose!”

Got home about 6:40. A pretty long adventure. Carly made him a pizza bagel, which he ate a little of. We had snacked on pine nuts, crackers, and banana chips on the way home. He nursed a lot and they read books and Carly gave him a bath. I played with him on the bed with the animals and balloons, and he had a hilarious time playing with Marshy and making him dance and holding him upside down. August fell asleep about 9.

Shirts seen today:

– not tour guide

– not a human being what’s limitation?

New words/phrases: spelling ‘miss’, reading ‘kind’, reading ‘kids’

Waking up:

Art museum: 

Nap spot: 

Up to the top: 

View from the top: 

These were some of the stairs he climbed up: 

First play spot. “Parallelogram!”: 

Stream: 

Flower petal: 

Playground: 

Train museum: 

Walking: 

“Nose. With snot.”: 

Looking out the window of the bus: 

Waiting for Carly to pour milk in the smoothie: 

August was awake 6:45 and nursed. He then came out and got on the couch. The Dog book had been left there, so he gently pushed it over the end onto the reading area and said “Bye Dog.” Carly explained she had to go to work and he said “Bye Mama…Mama going to work.”

He was focused on shapes videos this morning. We ate Cheerios for breakfast. At one point, I suggested Timmy Time, and he wanted the “messy” one. He hasn’t watched Timmy Time since I first introduced it to him months ago. Anyway, we found that episode (Snapshot Timmy) and watched the whole story, twice. We hadn’t made it through the whole story (10 minutes) before.

August requested the pigeon shirt and we left by 9:30. We of course stopped for eggs and kimbap for lunch. We headed for the children’s museum, a little after 10, and stopped on the benches for what I thought was a snack. Turned into a full lunch, as we ate the apple cookie, most of the kimbap, an egg, and then another strawberry cookie that a teacher gave us. We went and threw away some of our garbage, then walked by the flowers. He pointed at them, saying “Mama here”, remembering when we were here with her. When we were back he wanted to throw away the kimbap wrapper. But we still had kimbap left so I wouldn’t let him. This led to some screaming, and once he calmed down he started pulling up his shirt and hiding. He then sat on my lap for several minutes and talked about falling asleep “Fall asleep, read Oh No”. But despite talking about going into the children’s museum, we never did, as he just kept playing outside. Finally, we went to the nearby bathrooms to change him. We had to wait though as a school group was using the bathrooms with changing tables for a bathroom break. He was’t happy about this, but we eventually got in and changed him. Back out, putting him in the backpack, he looked very tired and got his sad face. Later, after his nap in the coffee shop, he would talk about being sad and screaming because he wanted to go in the bathroom and get walking.

Despite looking really sad, took rather a distance to put him to sleep. But he fell asleep and we went to the first floor Peace Coffee and he slept from 12:09 to 1:14. When he woke up he did some iPad on my lap, but really got into the ice in my drink, playing in it and eating it. I felt like a bird, as I would crunch up the ice to give him little pieces. He was talking about ice and I asked if he remembered being on the ice. He did, saying “remember ABCD in the ice.” We ran out of ice, which I thought would be the end of it, but he said “Get more ice. Please ice. In the cup.” and pointed to the pitchers of water they have. So we had more ice. We were in the coffee shop until after 2. I had mentioned looking at the letters on the floor, so eventually he got up and said “Look at the letters for a minute.” We did that for awhile, then left. As we walked away from the building he said “Bye ice” – referring both to the actual ice, and also the word ‘ice’ (in ice cream) that he had been reading inside the door. As we walked away he turned around and looked up and pointed and read “Peace Coffee” on the sign.

We walked away, with him talking constantly. He was kind of leading the way, and he said “Find a bench” as he wanted a snack. It was busy, so we decided to walk up to the theater. He walked the whole way up the hill. We sat in the theater for over another hour, eating a second lunch and playing. We made a bit of a mess with the egg, and watched as ants carried away some small pieces. He also watched a little spider crawl across the bench. Eventually, we took some garbage up to throw away and recycle, him walking all the way up again. On the way down, he pointed to a tree and said “This is?” I said I didn’t know what kind of tree it was. He said “Maybe oak trees.” and kept walking.

It was getting close to 4 and we headed down the hill. He saw the bank of water faucets and wanted to play. We had finished up the ice in the theater and brought the cup down, so I would fill it with some water and he would pour it out. He would also stop and watch everyone who came back to wash their hands (or kid’s hands) or take a drink. That was going fine until he was trying to drink from the cup. He then spun the cup the wrong direction to spill it, and got it down his shirt. He wasn’t super wet, but wanted to change his shirt. So we went over to the playground and changed his shirt. The shirt I had in the backpack was a striped blue long sleeve shirt, and he really liked it for some reason. Later, while playing in the sand, he would say “Shirt fun.”

We took the lid and cardboard and a bottle he picked up by the faucets to recycle them, and August decided he was done with the cup that had gotten him wet as well and recycled that. We then went and he sat in the sand and played “This is a…” One of the things he started drawing was a tilde – later, on the etch-a-sketch, he would draw ‘Ñ’ over and over. He found a business card in the sand and went and threw that away. That turned into a game, finding garbage in the sand to throw away. He was doing a lot of talking:

“More play This is a…”

“More tracing. More this is a… More dada Zinnie sit.” (in the morning, when Carly was still there, I asked him what he wanted to do today and he said ‘tracing’ – tracing in the sand/dirt is what I think he meant)

“Something in the sand again.” (looking for more things to throw away)

“No rain today…sweatshirt.” (he started talking about rain and putting on a sweatshirt a couple times today. I have no idea why, as it wasn’t raining and I never mentioned wearing a sweatshirt)

“More look for garbage.”

“More ABC. Please Dada. Help Dada. Lowercase.” (this was what he said, all cute, when I first told him it was time to go)

“Hard to see W” (If he couldn’t see my letter well in the sand he would say this and then grab my hand and make me trace the letter)

The first couple times I tried to get him ready to leave he used the “Please Dada, Help Dada” lines. Then it became “(Screech) Please Dada.” Then it was “No. No. No.” as he ran from one piece of garbage to the next (there was a lot) in the sand area and covered it with sand and did his best to avoid me. Finally, I picked him up and he was a little sad, but not too much. On our walk out there were a bunch of new flower pots, snaking down the center of the walkway. August liked looking at them, but then wanted me to hold his hands while he stepped on the low flower pots to get to the taller ones. I wouldn’t let him do this, and he got sad, hugging me and pushing his head into my legs.

We went to the bathrooms by the front entrance to change him. He said “Mama here. Hiding” remembering when we hid from her when she came out of the bathroom. I asked him what he loves, and he said “Zinnie love A.  Zinnie loves B…” Got all the way up to H.

We got home at 5:35. He ate a little dinner. We played on the etch-a-sketch, where he wrote ‘zero’ and ‘going’ and did a lot of This is a…? Carly gave him a bath. She washed his hair, but he was mainly sad about the 8 falling behind the door. Carly made a salad and he inspected that (“Oooh”). Looking at his flashcards, he said “X-Ray has a hyphen”. They read some Bob books and Carly read him the Native American alphabet book. They then saved the 8 behind the door, which meant he had to agree to let the water out of the bath (which he doesn’t like).  I suggested he put his dirty socks, which were in the bathroom, in the basket. First, he just went and dropped them by the changing pad. But then I showed them where they went, and he kept putting his other dirty clothes in. When they were all gone, he said “More” and took clothes out of the basket a few times and put them back – saying “goes in there to” with each item. One sock though he was convinced was clean, so tried hanging it on the drying
rack, then putting it in the drawer. I suggested he could put some of the dirty clothes in the washing machine, which he did. He then helped me take the rest of the clean clothes of the rack and put them in the proper drawer. I would hand him a sock or shirt and tell him which drawer, then he would point to it and look at me to make sure he got the right drawer.

He then did some reading with Carly in on the bed. I was out in the living room, and a couple times he walked out – first to get his water bottle, then Peter Rabbit – then back down to the bedroom. Carly took a shower, and he started by reading with me. But then he wanted to open the third set of Bob Books. I said no, so he just kept pointing to the photo saying “this one, this one, this one…” It wasn’t necessarily funny to him, but he wasn’t showing any frustration, then suddenly he started a low screech and got up and tried to go in Carly’s bathroom as she showered. I wouldn’t let him, and the screaming got louder. Took him into the screaming room while she finished up and he screeched. I sat in front of the door. When Carly came out, she got him, and as she took him in to bed he was saying “No blocking…no sit on dada.” He was asleep at 9.

New words/phrases: get out-of-the-way, they are being funny, sunny out so put on a hat, spelling soy milk, spelling zero and ten, spelling gargantuan

 

 IPad watching:

Shirt as a hat: 

Lunch: 

Throwing away garbage: 

After his nap: 

Second lunch: 

Home. Putting dirty laundry in the basket: 

He was up bright and early at 5:40. I put together lunch and snacks while Carly was still here. The pollution was down and the weather was nice, so our first trip to the big zoo at Seoul Grand Park seemed in order. August was ready for that, and when asked what he wanted to see, the first thing he said was “giraffe”. So changing him and putting clothes on him went smoothly – he requested the tree shirt. We left the house at 8:30.

I was reminding him a lot that we would have a long subway ride, and it went pretty smoothly. Didn’t even get out the iPad much, as we sand the tongue twister song for quite awhile. Eventually, we got out the iPad but just used it to read Bob Books. Looked out the window across the river, then as we went through stations he would point out at each one and ask “This is?” and I’d tell him what station it was. We also sang our three languages song, focusing on ‘enormous’ – he remembered ‘enormous’ in Korean when I didn’t.

We made the long walk into the park and up to the children’s zoo. By the time we were actually in the zoo it was a little past 10, and August wanted to stay in the backpack and keep walking instead of getting out at the sheep. So we walked to the other side, watching the workers on the bridge cutting the stone for a minute. On that side we spent almost all our time in or outside the building with all the rabbits, mongoose, tamarins, marmosets, squirrels, birds, and turtles. We would go from inside to outside and back again, around in circles, looking at all the animals. There was also a zookeeper washing out some of the cages, which he liked.

We did that for quite awhile, then he decided he was hungry. We sat in a pagoda and ate and watched school groups come and get a little talk on the steps, then put on glove things and go and feed the rabbits. We goofed around a bit (he had spilled some soy milk, then joked about wanting more soy milk on everything else, and he sang an ABC sound song while making funny noises), then changed him and got in the backpack. Oh, and we threw our garbage away and turned on the water faucets, which was the first of many times of both looking in garbage cans and turning on faucets today. Not sure which he liked more: the animals, or those two activities.

We walked back and forth along the lake on some paths we had never been on in order to put him to sleep. We saw a coupe cranes and two different water birds we’d never seen before. One of them, which actually looked kind of penguin-like, dove and came back up with a big fish. He fell asleep and I found a picnic table and he slept from 11:56 to 12:39.

He woke up, and we walked over to the sheep. The machines with hay in them were empty (I don’t think they’d yet been filled today) so we were gathering some stray pieces to feed the sheep, when a couple of workers came along and started filling the machine. We waited until they were done and bought a bag. Then spent the next 20 or 30 minutes feeding the sheep. August was at first just trying to drop the pieces inside the fence. Which was kind of funny when his path was blocked by sheep trying to get it out of his hand and he was saying “uh-oh”. But he caught on and fed them a lot from his hand. I would also feed the sheep so August could pet them and write ‘ABC’ on them, and feel the horn of one of the rams.

Finally, it was time to move on, although we stopped near the entrance to first have a snack. We went out and across the street to the main zoo. Once in there, the first goal was giraffes, although on the way we saw the flamingos and stopped and looked at those for a couple minutes. We studied the big flamingo sign, then August wanted me to point out specific kinds of flamingos. Next were the giraffes. There was 3 of them, and we watched for a few minutes.

From there we started walking through the zoo. August was in explore mode, but there was so much to see he couldn’t decide which way to go. He led us up to where we saw the meerkats and fennec foxes, then he saw a statue of an elephant and wanted to find elephants. We saw hippos and water buffalo along the way. We found the elephants, but they were off in the distance. He wanted to get closer, but first we saw the playground and the stream.

We went down to the stream and he wanted his socks and shoes off. Took them off, then went and played on the rocks for 15 or 20 minutes, dipping his toes and fingers in the water, and generally having fun lightly holding my hand and walking from rock to rock. We went up to our backpack and ate a little snack, then he wanted his shoes on and went in the sand. He was talking a lot and seemed to entertain the two girls playing there. Someone before had dug a big hole, which August was standing at the edge of when it collapsed and he found himself sitting on the edge. Didn’t phase him though and he just sat and played there, writing shapes in the sand. First scribbles, playing the “This is a?” game, but then he was doing letters. He was having fun, but it was now past 3 and we needed to head home. Finally got him headed the correct direction. We saw the elephants again, which he wanted to “See elephants outside” (closer – we were already outside). Later he would say he was sad about not seeing them closer up. But we kept walking, and he wanted to turn on all the water faucets and look in the garbage cans. I skipped one set of faucets and he wasn’t too happy about that. But we did actually play at one set of them for a few minutes near the entrance.

We got to the subway and got a seat after one stop. We stayed on the 4 all the way up to Changdong (about an hour). More iPad this time. Off the train, August was talking about going home, but seemed to really understand the whole needing to first take a bus. He was interested in the bus numbers and looking for our bus (1144). We got home about 5:45.

He was pretty worn out after our long day and was looking to fall asleep nursing, but we managed to keep him up. He ate a little dinner, and did a lot of reading with Carly, then she gave him a bath and they did more reading. Earlier in the day he had been spelling ‘nine’ and ‘ten’ and working on ‘eight’. In the evening he also spelled ‘eight’, so he has all of the numbers 1 to 10. He and Carly were reading Wild About Books and he likes the big words from the insect critic, particularly ‘pretentious’.

He lasted until about 8, at which point Carly took him in to bed and he fell asleep a few minutes later.

New words/phrases:  spelling nine and ten, 거대한 (enormous), spelling your and going, reading ‘food square’, reading ‘pretentious’, spelling eight

More soy milk on the olives: 

Silly letter sounds: 

Feeding the sheep 1: 

ABC on the sheep and climbing the fence: 

Feeding the sheep 2: 

Feet in the water: 

Waving his arms and “walk there”: Playing in the sand: This is a …: 

Luch:

View from the nap spot: 

Feeding the sheep: 

Animals: 

Rocks and stream: 

Sitting on my lap: 

Sand: 

Water time: 

Reading time with Peter Rabbit: 

Pollution was high again today, so August ended up staying indoors all day. I had thought about taking him over to the art museum play area at one point, but he wasn’t excited by it, so we stayed home. August and I slept in until 8. After he woke up he did a lot of reading with Carly: Bob books, Wild About Books, and others. He then did art with me and Peter Rabbit (he liked Peter Rabbit to do all the erasing) while Carly made some food for one of the new moms at work.

Carly then went downstairs to a coffee shop to get some work done. We did more art and some reading, then played with balloons. We then did fort time on the couch. We were back in the parlor, and he was looking at the set of Bob Books and noticed the photos of the other sets on the back of the box. He really wanted collection 3. I went to the closet and got out collection 2 and we opened that, and were reading the first book, Rub-a-Dub-Dub.

Carly had gone to the store to get fruits and veggies, then came home around 1:30. I then headed out. The art show, Rubens and Other Masters, was from the collection of the Prince of Lichtenstein and at the special exhibit space at the National Museum. It was the last day of the show, which was a mistake, as it was busy. Stood in line for about a half hour only to go in and find that you had to take a number and it would be another hour. So I went into the regular history museum and went and saw their current special exhibit on preservation science, which was kind of interesting. I then walked over to the new Hangeul Museum, which we haven’t yet been to, and saw the main exhibit space there. I then returned to the Rubens exhibit and went in. Stayed for a little over an hour and a half. Very worth it for the Rubens, but the Brueghels were my favorite. We had seen Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s Triumph of Death at the Prado in Madrid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triumph_of_Death). Here, they had a copy made by his grandson, Jan Brueghel the Younger. It was 99% identical, but with changed colors and details, including more carrion birds and a few more Catherine wheels. Similarly, they had a copy of the Numbering of Bethlehem by his son, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, but I haven’t seen the original.

Before I left I got two copies of the Where’s Waldo?-type book based on the show called I See 100 – a copy for August and one for Meg, who had planned to go with me but needed to work on school stuff.

I got home just before 7, and just in time: August was ready to go to sleep. I was basically able to say hi, then he nursed and went to sleep a few minutes before 7. While I was gone they had done some painting, nursing, reading, cleaning, math, and listened to the new ABC tongue twister song on repeat. He is getting better at the sponge painting: he can now press down on the letters to make a letter on the page. When the letters were tipping over, Carly showed him how to use his palm to do it and he caught on quickly. He would then run into the other room to get more letters to paint with. They made a smoothie, and he was upset when Carly put fresh strawberries in the smoothie: he only wanted frozen. I think this happened once when I did the same thing. He spent a long time in the bathroom, spelling words. ‘Gargantuan’ has been the favorite of recent baths. We only have one of each letter, so Carly has to move the letters around, which he finds funny.

New words/phrases: spelling mommy, several others I keep forgetting to note.

 

Opening the second set of books: 

From my trip. The restoration science exhibit: 

Hangeul museum: 

Art show: 

He was up at 6:30. Carly Skyped with her mom in the morning. August was quite clingy with Carly this morning. Early, it seemed like it was because he thought she would try to leave for work. But it basically continued through the morning. At one point he told her he wanted to “cuddle”. We were thinking of heading to Dream Forest today, but the pollution was high and the weather just didn’t seem to be improving like it was supposed to. Also, he was looking tired early (he didn’t sleep for a long time last night). He fell asleep for a nap just before 11:30 and slept to 1:08.

After he woke up and nursed, he and I played with Peter Rabbit, with Peter hiding behind me. After awhile we decided to at least get outside for awhile, and did a stream walk. We went to the new playground in that apartment complex – after, of course, stopping to look at all the recycling. He spent most of the time sitting either on the rock or on the edge of the spider web with Carly. On the rock we were spelling ‘Zinn’ and he did it over and over: “Zinn Zinn Zinn”. While sitting on the spider web he was focused on the shapes, saying “Octagon has eight sides”. He also wanted me to sing the counting song (the Mother Goose Club “Count with Me”). When I got done with 5 he said “keep going 6 to 10”.

He wanted to nurse, so we walked up to the playground at Madeul. As I was carrying him he was looking at the bushes and suddenly started saying “Mama’s tea! Mama’s tea!” We walked back and he pointed to a Pepsi can in the bushes. Very funny. They nursed and then August spotted the little Sejong Park area with the statues of Hangeul characters. He and I walked over there for a few minutes. We went back to the playground and got the stick and started writing letters and numbers in the sand. We moved over to the dirt where we could better see the writing. We decided we should get going, so I told August we could write one more word. Of course, he chose the longest word he knows: gargantuan. I wrote it, then he traced it a couple of times and then walked around singing a “Gargantuan” song. We got him in the backpack and started to leave. As we walked past, he said “Bye gargantuan!”

On the way to Tolerance Cafe, he was saying letters and said “M O O S S”. I said it sort of spelled ‘moos’. He then repeated it with two Ss a few times and excitedly insisted “It’s a word!”

When we got into the cafe, he remembered being there before and immediately said “Get dalghi smoothie” We sat in three chairs looking out over the stream. Carly and I read and he was on the iPad, doing Dr. Seuss by himself for much of it. We were talking about our plans for afterwards, and Carly was planning on going to Home Plus. August was fine with letting her go and going home with me, saying “dada Zinnie fun”. Before we left, Carly changed him in the bathroom. The sign on the counter that said ‘order’ had an ‘E’ that was coming down, and as we left August said “Bye falling E!”

We stopped out on the platform to put him in the backpack. This was where the ‘fuzz’y incident happened, and he remembered it both directions on our walk.

We got home, and then I headed out to Home Plus, as I also needed to drop off my camera with Meg, as she needed to borrow it. Took quite awhile at the store as it was busy and there were things I couldn’t find. When I got back, they were finishing August’s bath. She was washing his hair – he wasn’t happy about it, but he has gotten better with it. While I was gone they had done a lot of reading, including the Dr. Seuss birthday book.

He nursed, then Carly took him in to bed. He got up though and they were reading. Carly was surprised he could read so much of the Picnic Bob book. After awhile they came out, and he wanted to find Bluie and Green Monster. We searched for them, and found them in a drawer in the parlor. We then took them and Peter Rabbit in on the bed and played under the blanket and hid from Carly. August wanted Green Monster and Bluie to sing “Happy Birthday” to him. We also read Picnic, and he read the full sentences “Sam, Tanner, and Dot cut up pizza and pie for the picnic.” And “What a yummy lunch!”

He then read with Carly again in the parlor. After awhile he came out to the living room, looking for a book. We didn’t understand what he was saying at first until he found the book and we realized he had been saying “Cheerios”. He read that with me, then wanted Cheerios to put in the book. I got those down, and he also ate a few. He then spotted the box and had an idea: “ABC here…ABC on the box.” He got an orange marker, and had me write the alphabet on the box a few times. We then read Dot, and then spent a lot of time on the Corduroy cover. He did a good job figuring out the “funny” letters, but was particularly fixated on the ‘F’ in ‘Freeman’ that looked more like a ’t’. He had also done a good job of figuring out the confusing Hangeul characters on the door to the cafe earlier.

He also wanted to sing the ABC tongue twister song, then remembered the biting my finger game. He’s done this a few times – I think it started the day after he actually bit my finger a week or so ago. In it, he pretends to bite my finger and I go “Oww!” and he laughs.

Carly skyped with Cassie, and August was excited to see Colin. He wanted Colin to be messy though, as he really likes a video of Colin being messy.

Carly tried to take him to bed after that, but he still wasn’t ready. Carly went to sleep, and he stayed out with me for awhile, reading books. I said ‘no’ to something and that was too much for him, so he went in with Carly and fell asleep, a little after 9:30.

New words/phrases: spelling short words form sounding them out: can, be; More really want to nurse in the fort.

 

On our walk: 

Q: 

Gargantuan: 

Home: 

6:48. I believe the first time this week he slept past Carly heading to work. He didn’t take it too badly though. After a minute he went and got his bag of bath letters. Then sat on the floor in the hallway as he didn’t want his diaper changed. Finally, I offered to do a pull-up diaper and he jumped up and said “Off!” and went into the changing room. We then went out to the parlor and the etch-a-sketch  and played “This is a?” for quite some time.

He started talking about going outside pretty early today, and was fine with trading his pajamas for his tree shirt. We got out a little early, and went to the art museum before his class. We walked through the Hyundai-sponsored  show of car art. August most liked a car on the second floor that had its engine exposed and the pistons were slowly moving with stuff on them. We then headed to his 5-Touch class. Shy at first, wanting me to hold him through the songs at the beginning. Although for roll call he threw his hand up in the air when she called his name. After the stickers time, the activity was great: she got out the parachute and spread it on the ground. We then all sat on it and she took a pretty big bin of macaroni noodles and spilled them out in the center. We then played with them using beach toys: animals we hid under the noodles, shovels, pails, dump trucks, etc. It was still very organized, in that she would introduce a toy, we’d play with it a few minutes, then that toy would go away and be replaced by something else, etc. And every child played alone. But still, pretty good. At the end of class August got a Krung (sp?) hand stamp. He pointed to it and said “Green one”. Interesting, as the stamp was purple but it was of a Pororo character who is a dinosaur or alligator thing and is green.

From class we headed to the subway. I had changed him before class, but when we got to the platform he had leaked. We would have had to go back out the turnstiles to go to a bathroom, so we did a pull-up diaper at one end of the platform. Caught the next train and continued on to Children’s Grand Park. I had boiled eggs the previous night, so no need to stop for those, but he wanted kimbap, so we did get a roll of that. He wanted to eat lunch in the theater today, so we walked there and ate lunch. He then wanted to read books on the iPad before going for a walk, so we went to the shaded picnic area in the building with the cafes and read Bob Books on the iPad. When he stopped doing that we changed him and got going on our nap walk. Took 15 minutes or so, but he fell asleep. We went upstairs, and he slept from 1:09 to 2:00. He woke up happy and smiling, then sat on my lap and we did art on the iPad for 30 minutes or so. His art style has changed a lot – whereas we used to fill up a page, he now loves erasing, so will draw one figure or word, then we erase it.

Close to 3 we headed out and went back to the theater. He wanted food, and we sat and he ended up basically eating a full second lunch. We also skyped with my parents – something we haven’t thought about doing outdoors because of the weather. August was in top form, all about words and constant spelling, and performing for the camera – when he wasn’t staring off at the trees swaying in the wind. After we hung up, he kept playing there on the benches. We found some chips of brick and dropped them in the drainage holes that still had water in them. It was breezy, and his hat blew off once. I’ve left it kind of loose, because I didn’t want it bothering his chin. But now he was concerned about it coming off, and wanted it tighter.

We played in the theater until about 4. We went across to the bathroom to change him and tighten his hat. On our way down from there he saw the water faucets. I stopped to refill his water, and he wanted to play in the water. We did that about 10 minutes. I would fill his bottle a little and he would dump it on the flower petals or dirt. He didn’t want to stop, but I got him away around 4:15 or so.

He had taken his hat off when we got to the subway station, but when I put it back on him when we got of the train, he was happy about it: “Wearing the hat!” He took it off when we got in the building, but then used it to hide behind when we got home to Carly. He nursed and read with Carly, then I went down to get the package that had come. It was the presents from my aunt and uncle. They were Peter Rabbit/Easter themed: a very soft stuffed Peter Rabbit, a Peter Rabbit puzzle, Max’s Easter Surprise book, and three chocolate marshmallow bunnies. He really liked the stuffed rabbit, and we ate one of the chocolate rabbits. Carly and I finished most of the puzzle before August took it apart. I put the other two chocolate rabbits away for later, and he came up to me saying  “Want the rest…Please…sad.”

Carly gave him a bath and we did some more reading (lots of Bob books). We played with Bluie and Green Monster on the bed (rabbit dance, hiding in the crack, etc.) then he took them out to the parlor and he was drawing pictures on the etch-a-sketch for Green Monster. Carly took him in to nurse a couple times and read, and he fell asleep close to 9.

New words/phrases: sunny, spelling ‘tree’, ‘messy’, cara (face), want the rest

 

Morning. Right back to it: 

His favorite piece of art: 

Class: 

Children’s Grand Park:

Asleep in his hat: 

Inspecting recycling: 

Water: 

Hiding from the fountain: 

Later: 

He was up at 6:20. He played on the iPad until I made breakfast, at which point he wanted to help make oatmeal. After that, we read some Bob books and then played with Duplos, starting to build another zoo. One of the Duplo people we have is a guy in safari gear. August asked what he was, and I asked August. He decided it was a second zookeeper, so now we have to zookeepers for the zoo. He was having them both ride in the “zookeeper truck” and when he had difficulty getting one of them to sit he would say “Dada fix it”. We were getting ready to go and I was cutting up crab and he wanted some. He said “Thank you mama for crab.” I told him I was the one that had gotten it out, then he started repeating “Zinnie got the crabs.” He was then standing on his stool and started to use a butter knife to play with the apple core. I got him his plastic fork and spoon to play with instead, and that turned into a game of dropping them on the ground: “Fork and spoon back please…uh-oh.”

We went to his Teuni Teuni class. August made me hold him until we were past the point at the beginning of class where the teacher picks each of the kids up. He then got down, but stood by the door until the teacher got the first toy out, at which point August was engaged. Class was about alligators. At the end of class they had little rolly scooters and he was sad to end that one. After class, we went down and bought a couple packages of balloons at Home Plus. We would blow one up a little on the subway up to the Iris Garden. We also ate our Jesus crackers, which a guy handed to us as we were about to enter the subway station, on the ride up.

At the Iris Garden we first went and looked at the new Seoul Trail information center – it was the room where August was watching them paint the ceiling last time. We then walked to the same bench area where we ate last time. August remembered every detail of what he did with Carly last time. He pointed at the bathroom where we waited for her: “Mama here.” As we walked by where we threw rocks in the water he said “123 with Mama.” And when he got to the Lincoln Log bench he pointed to the end where Carly was sitting and said “Mama here.” I then noticed he was leaking and we walked back to the changing room, only to find it locked. He then talked about Mama, turning on the water, and screaming when he couldn’t.

For lunch we had bought a chicken and mayo bop burger in the station. I’m pretty sure August asked his first ‘why’ question of his own, when he was holding the spoon that came with it and said “Why spoon for bop burger?” A woman gave us an orange while we ate lunch. As he finished up eating, he was walking around being silly and asking for a lot of words to be spelled. I heard frogs from down below (all the streams had water in them now) and we went down to look for the frogs. Didn’t find them, but ended up throwing rocks in the water for awhile.

He didn’t want to stop with the rocks, but it was really time for his nap. So eventually got him up and in the backpack. Walked around the park and he fell asleep. We went and found a picnic table in the shade, and it coincidentally happened to be the same one we sat at with Carly last time (it was the only empty table). He slept from 1:02 to 2:02. Woke up and first wanted down, but changed his mind in the process and wanted to sit with me. We sat and read Dr. Seuss, including a couple of stories we (and I, for that matter) had never read before. He was then playing Elmo Loves 123s while standing on the bench and we were spelling a lot of words together. I suddenly noticed one of his arms was getting pink, and needed to change him, so we left (leaving behind the annoying woman who had sat at our picnic table and started to have a loud phone conversation). The changing room was still locked, so we did a pull up diaper in the upstairs bathroom. Headed home and got home about 4.

He pleaded for the iPad a lot, but enough of that for the day. Instead, we played with the new balloons, blowing up and tying several, including several heart balloons that he likes, but which pop easily. We also wrote some words on the paper. Carly was home about 5. He didn’t eat much for dinner again today (but he ha eaten a ton of oatmeal and strawberries this morning and a decent lunch). They read some books and Carly gave him a bath. He wanted it quick: no playing with the letters today. For quite awhile we played a new game with the etch-a-sketch: he would scribble something and then ask “This is a?” and I would say something. He would then often say “Uh-oh (thing)” and erase it, and draw something else. This went on for quite awhile. He would also tell me what to tell him, like “Do a D” and then I would say it and he would draw a D. He went to sleep pretty soon after that, at 7:40.

Oh, and he has been asking me to spell a lot of words or sounds like ‘yeah’, and ‘uh-uh’, and ‘uh-oh’, etc. This evening he started spelling “uh-uh” himself, including the hyphen.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘uh-uh’ (including the hyphen),

 

Reading: 

Class: 

Iris Garden. Fun at lunch time: 

Throwing rocks: 

After his nap: 

Home. New balloons:

He woke up just after 6. He did a lot of math on the iPad and with the Cookie Monster word game – I had thought that the app wouldn’t last too long as it just did 3 letter words, but today Cookie Monster started serving up 4 letter words. He requested Cheerios for breakfast today, then was playing on the table and we were spelling a lot of words. We were working on ‘stick’ and other ‘st’ words. He also read the Sam and Mac Bob Books.

At 9:20 he suddenly headed towards the changing room, requesting his “letters” shirt and wanting his pajamas off. That never happens. The shirt he was referring to is the one from Meg that she brought from Myanmar. Changed him, then we were playing with balloons and he wanted me to tie more of them (“tie it”). He also kept asking for a yellow balloon. Like 10 times. But I think that was the one that popped awhile back.

Finally, before we left we brushed his teeth and worked on learning that ABC tongue twister song. We were out just before 10.

He was up for taking a bus this morning (and playing on the iPad) so we went and waited in front of the museum, looking at Hangeul on the museum sign and numbers on the bus route signs while we waited. A slow bus ride. We got to Hyehwa and walked to the park/square in front of the Arko. Ate lunch on a bench, which went fine until he first wanted to crumble the egg shell and make a mess of it (his idea was to do ABC with the shell) and then started shaking out soy milk. Had a meltdown when I wouldn’t let him do either, and it took a few minutes to get him calmed down so he would get in the backpack. We started walking, and was first interested in a sculpture, which we agreed was very “arte abstracto”. He was asking what it was, and I told him it could be whatever he thought it was. He said part of it was an egg, then took awhile before deciding the rest of it was a “beetle”. We started walking again and he was avoiding sleep by asking “This is a…?” over and over, pointing to every car and everything he saw, long past when I stopped answering. We walked up past the entrance to Naksan Park and into the mural village area. As we walked past the little water basin area we played in with Carly a year ago, he sleepily said “Turn on wawa” or something to that affect. He would actually remember this moment later and say something like “Sad about the turn on wawa…before fall asleep.”

He fell asleep, and I kept walking up to near the top of the hill, where we sat in a pagoda and he slept from 12:27 to 1:12. He woke up happy, and wanted to keep going up the hill “to the top”, when I suggested that. We took in the view, then he was up for finding a playground on the other side of the wall. We walked a couple blocks and found Naksan Children’s Park. We both liked the tile mosaic around the playground. As we were looking at it, we got pooped on by a magpie. We wiped it off, then he played on the playground for awhile. He liked the “tricky” stairs that looked like feet, and ran back and forth on the structure a few times, then we went back to the ground and looked around a bit, but then he was done. It wasn’t a very exciting playground.

He wanted to go back to the water area, so we walked back, heading down the big staircase this time and looking at some of the art and graffiti along the way. We played with the water, finding rocks and throwing them in and me reaching in to get them out. Pretty much like last time, but this time he can count, and kept wanting more rocks. I got 6 rocks, then he wanted “eight rocks”. All was going fine until a little fly started buzzing in his face. That bothered him, and he took a few steps away, only to be bothered by the same fly again. We played for a few more minutes, but he wanted me to hold him while he threw in the rocks. Then he was done and talking about going home.

So I thought we’d get home early. We got back to the park we started at, planning on making a trip into the art gallery before we left. He wanted a snack, so we got down on a bench. He remembered the screaming and egg shells from last time and talked about that. We had a snack, then two women with their grandkids came over to us. One was a girl about August’s age and the other was a boy around 14 months old. The boy came right up to me and wanted up in my lap. August saw this and wasn’t upset, but then he was down interacting with them and wanted to climb into my lap. He was also walking around and asking them “What you doing?” Eventually, I got out the tennis ball and we all played with that. He or the boy would bounce it and they would go off after it. At one point August seemed to be copying the clumsier boy and kind of started stomping and high stepping around. August was also singing ABC songs, and one of the women joined in. August was also really good about sharing. He handed the ball over to the boy or girl 6 or 7 times and never demanded it back. And at one point he was looking at the poster for the art show. He really liked it, because the letters were wavy and thus “tricky” and “funny”. One of the women was looking at it as well and he was pointing out letters. He also kept runny through my legs, calling it a “tunnel”.

That brought us to about 4 and I wanted to go see the art show and get heading home. So we got the ball back and headed inside. August needed some coaxing, but eventually agreed to go in. Nothing spectacular, mainly a lot of odd video installations, but we liked some big paintings that showed people “hiding”. One had a person curled up under a blanket on a couch, another had a person covering their face with one hand. There was also a room with three video screens showing a person randomly moving glasses of water, pulling a cloth across the table, etc. We watched for a couple minutes until August said “All done” and headed out.

The train was packed, and I held August in my arms the entire way to Changdong Station. He handled it just fine. We played I Spy a bit and he sang ABC songs and numbers songs to entertain people.

We got off at Changdong and bought a couple of those donut hole-looking things with the red beans inside and snacked on those while we waited for the 1144 bus which took us home to Brownstone. He really wanted to k ow the Korean name for them, repeatedly asking “This is?” and not happy with my answer of “Donut”. He was asking it so many times, and me answering with “Donut” that it became a game of him asking as quickly as possible.

On the busses today he was very aware of feeling like he was sliding off the seat, saying “Falling off”. So I had my arm around him all the time. And when doing the counting activity on Todo Math he would ask himself “How many strawberries?” As we drove up across from the building, August was looking out the window and suddenly pointed and said “Home!” We got home one elevator after Carly, who had stopped at the store.

At home Carly fed him and gave him a bath. I then gave him a haircut while he watched ABC songs. He then read two Bob books with us and then wanted to read The Picnic and nurse. It looked like he would go to sleep around 7:30 but it wasn’t so. He was back out again and we read Dr. Seuss on the iPad while Carly took a shower. We then read books with him and managed to get him to sleep about 9:40

Every time I changed him today he would say “No cream on the red” and “Mama do that” – both referring to her putting cream on him when she changes his diaper. He is suddenly very opposed to this.

New words/phrases:  spelling ‘at’, ‘big’, Five has an I, spelling ‘seven’, ‘funny’, old icky noodle, knot

 

Want 8 rocks: 

Playing with the kids:

– 

– https://youtu.be/a29zwU13sMg

– singing ABC: 

– https://youtu.be/–NV-6ELsTo

– stomping: 

– sharing the ball: 

Lunch: 

The beetle/egg sculpture:  

Nap spot: 

View from the top: 

Playground: 

Rocks and water: 

Recycling: 

Playing with the boy and girl: 

Haircut: 

Crossing his leg while reading: 

He got up with us at 6am. We had a pretty mellow morning, as both of us now have colds. He was pretty sniffly through the night, waking up a lot. He would have a runny nose throughout the day, but no coughing or fever. We had oatmeal for breakfast. I thought I’d put maple syrup in it this time, like Bert suggests in Plant a Tree for Me. August saw me pouring the syrup and pointed and said “This is?” I said “Syrup” and he got upset. He kept complaining and wouldn’t eat the oatmeal. Finally, he gave in after a few minutes and ate it.

On the way down to Children’s Grand Park we read Dr. Seuss – all of Oh, the Thinks You Can Think, Marvin K. Mooney, and most of Fox in Socks. When getting him in the backpack to walk into the park I discussed what we were doing and mentioned lunch. He said “Eat some egg and kimbap. Egg and kimbap at CU.” So we stopped and got each. He wanted to eat by the children’s museum again. As we walked across the boardwalk, we saw an egret and two cranes in the swamp area, where plants are starting to shoot up. He really wanted to see some duckies as well.

We ate lunch, starting with the kimbap. We peeled the egg and I said the yolk was inside. He said getting to the yolk was “tricky”. After he ate he was doing a lot of walking back and forth on the bench. He was banging our empty soy milk containers together like cymbals and singing and dropped one. He then looked down, threw the second one to join the first, and said “Uh-oh!” I had sat on the ground at one point, and he wanted me to sit there again, so he pointed and said “Dada down here.” While on the bench he also discovered the shadow of our backpack and found it funny to step on that, then my shadow, then the shadow of the container of strawberries I held in my hand. We also ate shadow strawberries.

Transition to nap time was pretty smooth, although he complained for a minute as we started walking, saying he wanted to go to the children’s museum instead or home. But he fell asleep after about 10 minutes and slept from 11:48 to 12:54 in the upstairs Peace Coffee. After waking up he sat on my lap and did math on the iPad. He took some convincing to get out of there a little after 1. He chose which way we went, and we ended up going down the stairs in the middle of the building, reading all the Hangeul signs as we went. Down on the first floor we analyzed one of the big Peace Coffee signs again.

We went to the new playground. He wanted to play in the sand, and after looking at the garbage bins (something he still does all the time), we got a plastic cup out of recycling, washed it out, and he played in the water with that for awhile. He also played on the numbers a bit, but the playground was crowded and he almost got knocked over once. I also think his energy was on the low side. So after about 20 minutes he decided he was done with the cup and took it back to recycling and then did some of his flying and flew to the backpack. We discussed all the options and he was clear that he wanted to head home. So we walked that way. On the way I asked if he wanted to walk through the robot area and he said yes and that he wanted to “See 3” (holding up his fingers), referring to the 3 at the end that he likes. We did that, then exited the park and stood in the entryway. He was fixated on the big I SEOUL U letters and studied them for a few minutes.

He seemed less sure about leaving now, and I ran over some options. I asked if he wanted to go read Oh No! at the Children’s Museum and he jumped at that one. So we went there, and straight up to the second floor reading room. He saw the texture squares, so we got those down and sorted those for a minute, then got Oh No! and read that. He then grabbed a book called Et Pourquoi Pas Toi? (And Why Not You?) from the shelf and we looked at that for several minutes. The pages are divided in half horizontally, and you can mix and match the pages to show people doing a whole variety of activities. He quite liked that. He helped clean up the room a bit (he saw a magnifying glass and wanted to put it away, and instructions for a game). He suggested going over to the toddler area at one point, but I was trying to avoid getting his germs on too many things, so I was fine when he changed his mind and wanted to head home. We changed him and walked to the subway station and got home around 4.

At home we started with reading. He surprised me by reading straight through Mac, the fourth Bob Book, with barely a stumble, then we read Dot and the Dog. We got down on the floor and did backwards alphabets for awhile, then got out the iPad and our styluses and did some art. He had gone back to math when Carly got home around 5:30.

He nursed and was almost falling asleep. We got him to wake up by asking him to read to Carly, so he read Mac. We played with balloons for awhile, then he was playing on his own with the magnets and floor tiles, then suddenly ran to the closet and was trying to get the vacuum out. Carly helped him get it out, and he wanted her to vacuum. He sat on the couch and watched her vacuum, and he wanted me to sit with him while he watched.

He wasn’t much into dinner, but ate a little with Carly. She gave him a bath, and he fell asleep about 7:20.

New words/phrases: reading ‘not’, ‘tag’, ‘rag’, ‘sat’, ‘hot’, ‘sit’, ‘hid’

A new song:

Children’s Grand Park: 

Playground. Reading the Hangeul:

Children’s museum. Learning French:

Oh No!: 

Home: 

Awake 6:15. Let him watch iPad while I lay on the couch. Then we sat on the couch together and blew up balloons and sat under the blanket, hiding from mama. More iPad. Toast and strawberries for breakfast. More balloons together. He went and grabbed a balloon when watching an ABC song with balloons in it, and held it over his head. He then wanted me to sit with him and the globo (balloon). Before we left the house he wanted to read Moby Dick. We finally left the house a little before 11.

At the subway station he was spinning while waiting for the train. We got down to the National Museum only to find it is closed on Mondays. I thought I had confirmed that it was open on Mondays. Also closed were the Hangeul Museum and the special exhibition hall. Luckily, I had also planned to spend time in the park there, Yongsan Park. By the time we were walking over there it was time for a nap and he fell asleep. Set him on a picnic table at the east edge of the park, by the walking path. He slept from 12:52 to 1:36. He woke up happy, and played with Camel for several minutes, having Camel eat the backpack and bench and sand and Hangeul writing that was around. He then walked up and down the walking path, liking each different surface, and calling the harder ones “tricky”. There was a little pond in the garden area and we heard frogs, so went and saw those. August wanted to throw rocks in though, so we didn’t stay. We went back and picked up our garbage and backpack and walked to the playground to throw away/recycle our garbage.

At the playground there were two other kids, both boys smaller than August. One tried to walk up to August, and August decided it wasn’t his scene and turned around and started walking away. I coaxed him back and got him to walk over to recycling, carrying our two soy milk containers. He kept wanting to throw rocks in water, so we walked around the stream/pond areas and came to the little stream, where he climbed out on the stones and sat and could touch the water. We (well, mainly me) found a bunch of little rocks that he was able to throw in there. After awhile he wanted to put his feet in, so we took off his shoes and socks. The sun was really coming out and I had my hat on, so I thought I’d try his. Surprisingly, he didn’t protest much, and wore the hat. It came off and on several times over the next hour or so, but he steadily got more comfortable with it.

He was a bit unsocial when a mom with her daughter, smaller than August, was hovering around us, then finally talked to us and he screamed. But later, there were two girls, maybe 6 and 3 who came up to us and talked a few times. He basically ignored them, while I did the talking, but he didn’t mind them.

With his hat on, he really liked playing with his shadow, and called himself a ‘queen’, because a queen is someone who wears a hat. He walked over to the big bridge across the big pond, and there were three big boys feeding the fish. August was intrigued by their messiness, and wanted to know what the fish were, so I was teaching him ‘koi’.

He was working on spelling numbers all day, and eventually got down all the numbers one to seven, although he calls seven “tricky” and usually spells it ‘siven’.

About 4 we were getting ready to leave and I asked him which direction he wanted to walk out. He looked around and remembered the playground, which he hadn’t wanted to play at all day. So we played there for about 15 minutes. This time, he saw kids digging in the sand and wanted to play with them. We got out his shovel and he played with that. It was quite the change – we saw one kid in shorts, and another little boy with bare legs. This is because most of the people there were American families from the base next door. So I had August’s pants rolled up from playing in the water and kept them that way.

We headed home, getting here about 5:30. We ate dinner and Carly gave him a bath. August was a little upset because he managed to drop letters behind the shower door, which is stuck open because of his bath, so you can’t get them out. Making it worse, the V that he dropped managed to stick to the other side of the door, so he could actually see it, but not get it.

In the evening he read a lot of books, mainly with Carly. He read the first Bob Book by himself a couple times. We were playing in the living room and he want to walk to the kitchen and whacked his head on the counter pretty good. He started to say “Nurse” before he even started crying. Carly took him and nursed him and he fell asleep, a little after 7:30.

New words/phrases:  got it, almost got it (he was using these phrases when walking on the walking path), no fall in the wawa, spelling ‘baby’ and ‘messy’, spelling numbers one to seven (although spelling ‘siven’ for seven)

Morning:

Park: 

Stream: 

Hat: