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He was awake just after 7. I was awake by 8. As soon as he saw me he said “iPad”. We let him on the iPad, and he mainly watched shape videos and shared Cheerios and milk with me. He did some reading with Carly, mainly Kipper, but some other books and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus a couple times. He went searching for At the Zoo and found it and read it with me. Once again, when he got to ‘flamingo’ he said “Want some flamingo…yummy mango.” When Carly asked him how many strawberries he wanted (we still don’t have mango), he said “Million!”

We had planned on meeting up with Jill and Logan today, but she said they were going to a kid cafe as it was raining. I didn’t want to do that, so August and I just went for a walk in the drizzle. It was basically an August walk, as I let him decide where we were going, starting with when we got to the stream area. We walked along the stream, spotting an egret. We walked through a couple parks (at the traffic safety park, he wanted to look at the garbages and “See galleta”, as this is where we saw a cookie in the garbage once) but he didn’t want to stop, besides having me turn the water fountain on at Wild Chrysanthemum Park for a minute. From the second park he wanted to go along the road, and when we got to the main road he wanted to cross, then go straight. He passed up another park, but finally wanted to see another park close to Toys R Us (백합어린이공원). But once we were there, he only wanted to touch a sculpture from the backpack, and didn’t want to get out.

From there he wanted to see the animals at the “zoo” (pet store) by Toys R Us. We went there, and it was opened (it has usually been closed on Sundays), so we looked around. He was reading the “Cats only” sign for the cat area. We then moved on to Toys R Us, where they had a book display out front. We looked at a couple books, but he didn’t want to take any of them home. He was starting to act tired, so we headed home. We had left home at 10:40 and got back a few minutes after 12. He fell asleep pretty quickly, and slept from roughly 12:15 to 1:15.

He nursed, and was then typing with Carly on her computer. He got out his alphabet blocks, and played with those with me – we found the whole alphabet and then the numbers. At the end he started knocking them off the reading pad, saying “That’s a silly thing to do.”

I took him back out again so Carly could cook and work. He was fine with leaving, saying “Bye” to Carly. Very different from earlier in the day when he was upset to leave at first. I had asked what he wanted to do, and he said play in the sand. But he didn’t want to take the bucket, saying “Nooo”.

We decided to head to the tree playground (Hagye Children’s Park – 하계어린이공원). On the way down, he wanted me to read all the Hangeul signs, then tell him what they meant. If I didn’t know, he wanted me to look them up. So we ended up translating things like “realtor” and “domestic freshwater eel”. We played at the playground for about ten minutes. I was writing big Qs in the sand and he was tracing them. But then it started to rain, and then got heavier. We took cover for a few minutes, but then decided to head to a coffee shop. We went to Caffe D’Ate a block away. I tried to order strawberry lemonade, but for some reason she could not understand me (I order ‘strawberry’ stuff all the time, so don’t know what the issue was) and we ended up with just lemonade. August tried it, but didn’t want a second drink after that, although he did play with the ice. And he really liked the letters on the wall that spelled ‘Pick Up’. They were the glued-on kind and he could feel them, and the K was sliding down the wall, which he liked. We hung out for awhile, him on the iPad and me reading, then headed home.

Outside, he said “Zinnie walk” and proceeded to walk the entire way home – several blocks. I just picked him up for intersections. He was stopping to look at puddles and wet spots on the ground.

At home, he read with Carly, then had me blowing up balloons. He had me blow up to 5 at once and we were holding them at the same time then letting them go. I was teaching him the word ‘trinity’ when we had 3. Carly was going through his clothes and found his hat from last summer. She put it on her had, after he refused to try it on, and August called her a “queen”.  We did a lot more balloons and spelling after that. We were telling Carly about our walk and he told her about the rain “Messy rain on the hair.” Carly went down to get me pho, then we all ate dinner and I brushed his teeth.

Carly gave him a bath, which went pretty well considering it was hair washing day. She was trying to get him to tilt his head back while she rinsed his hair, so held the D up above his head so he would look. He didn’t like this, and afterwards was saying “No pick up the D”. After his bath they played with the Spanish cards, etch-a-sketch thing, and wooden shapes puzzle, then we did dinosaur stickers. I read Plant a Tree for Me and he knew all of the fruits and nuts, except for ‘walnut’. It also made him want some apple, so we went and got that. Out on the couch, he read Dot, the third Bob Book, all on his own. Will have to get that on video. We were then reading Jig and Mag when he decided it was time to nurse. He went to sleep a bit before 9.

New words/phrases: only, fifth, spelling ‘apple’, ‘four’, ‘five’, peach, cherries, almonds, avocado

 

During the Zinnie walk: 

Home: 

Tree playground trip: 

He has always called the benches Cs, but this time he also pointed out the D shape around the trees: 

He was up at 7:05. I developed a sore throat over night and kept sleeping. He and Carly skyped with both Cassie and Cherie, and I was up about 8:30. Carly did recycling while I hung out with August. We read Moby Dick and wrote words in our little notebooks. He started writing a lot of Qs like he used to do. We read Picasso’s Trousers, and with Carly he was successfully tracing a ‘K’ – the last letter he struggles with.

I changed him before we left for Costco, and he didn’t like me trying to put on the kitty cat shirt – he settled for Carly putting it on. He said “Sad about dada putting on the kitty cat shirt.” Perhaps his biggest sentence yet. Then, I was making ‘meow’ noises and he said “Sad about the meow, meow, meow, meow, meow.” We made a quick trip to Costco. He sat on Carly’s lap each way on the subway, and at Costco he and I stayed outside by the sculpture and ate some food while Carly went and bought cheese. We headed home, and he fell asleep from 1:05 to about 2:35. I fell asleep for a bit, and slept awhile after he woke up.

We then all went out for a walk. We stopped to get Juicy Juice. We asked what kind he wanted and he was very clear: “Mango…and fresa!” So he and I shared a mango and Carly got choco-banana. We walked put to Nowon Stationary, where we bought some cards and stickers. August got a set of Hangeul stickers. From there we walked to a playground southeast of there (신기루어린이겅원) and played. He played with his stickers for a couple minutes, then up on the play structure. I was hiding from him, and another little boy joined in. The boy had a bunch of sand toys, and let August play with them. Did that for awhile, then headed home.

Carly went to Home Plus, and August and I headed home, but he wanted to stop at the playground across the street. We played there for awhile, going over by the dinosaurs, and having a snack, but then he started to leaks we headed home. Carly came home, then August and I were sitting on the couch with the iPad. He was holding my hand against his head, which was nice, but then he put my thumb in his mouth. When I warned him not to bite, he did the opposite, biting quite hard. Carly took him in to the bedroom for a time out. Back out in the living room, he wanted cold enchilada for dinner, so he ate that. I gave him a bath, which was quite long as we were having fun playing. He was putting random letters and numbers up on the door and asking what it spelled and I would make nonsense noises. Eventually, he had every sponge up there.

After that, we played with the balloon and brushed his teeth. He read Snoozers with Carly, and was really into the word ‘snoozers’ as it “Has a Z.” And while reading At the Zoo (a book Carly wishes would disappear), he was asking “What animals do you see?” I took off at 8:30 to go hang out with Derek. Carly tried to put him to sleep at 9, but he kept popping up, and would spot a book on the bed and say “Read this!” He fell asleep at 10.

New words/phrases: frio leche soya, backamapack, Avent, spelling ‘balloon’: 

 

Costco: 

Home. Reading Monster Party and clapping: 

Playground: 

Our playground: 

Walking in the dinosaur footprints: 

Hiding from mama when she got home: 

He was up at 7:30. Carly was up early, and working on her paintings for him. When he was up he was playing with her Q, Z, K , and 14 paintings and being really funny about it. He was reading with her for awhile, then just sitting on his own on the reading area in the parlor for a few minutes. He and I then read Under the Sea with Me and Dot and Mit.

We went to his 5-Touch class at 10:20. It was the first time Carly got to see his new teacher. He spent much of the class sitting on Carly’s lap, much like yesterday. He did the stickers, then today’s class was about cars. He liked the steering wheel circle thing, but then didn’t want to be pulled around in the basket cars. In between, there was a song that they danced around to, and August didn’t like something about it, as he would later talk about being “Sad about song.”

From Home Plus we headed to the subway. Got to Children’s Grand Park and got some food at GS25. August wanted to eat lunch by the children’s museum, so we sat on one of the C-shaped benches and ate lunch. After that, he was walking around, holding Carly’s hand, looking at the flowers: “Daisy in espanol…dada look it up.” “Mama look at the flowers…holding mamas hand” Looked at the fountain that was on for the first time this year as well. We found a bench in a nice spot east of the children’s museum and he nursed and was falling asleep. Put him in the backpack, but then he didn’t sleep. Carly went on in to the cafe to start doing some work, and he and I kept walking. He was quiet, but at the 23 minute mark he started asking for fingers (“6 fingers…7 fingers…”) So we went in at about 30 minutes. I got a berry smoothie for the two of us. He played some iPad and nursed in the coffee shop.

I took him out to play – he cried for 4 minutes or so, wanting to go back to Carly. I set him down by the empty wading pools and he started to walk back to Carly, but he went up a little set of stairs and saw the playground and got distracted. I got out his water bottle and he played with that for several minutes, using it to dump water on the ground. A mom there let us borrow some of their sand toys and he used a watering can and shovel. He didn’t want to get messy though, and wouldn’t step in the sand himself (he pointed at the boy with his shoes off in the sand several times and said “Messy!”). When the watering can got sand on it we had to wash it off – same with the shovel. But then the wet shovel just had sand stick to it, so he stopped playing with that. He recycled a couple pieces of plastic that e found, then we played on the numbers for a few minutes, then he saw a girl making little sand castles. I tried to tell him we could make our own (I was ready to get a cup out of recycling and wash it out), but he would have none of that, saying “Want to hold it” then “Knock it down!” I picked him up and took him away and the meltdown started. He calmed down a bit and said he was “Sad about the knock it down”. He wanted to play on the numbers again, but another boy was playing hopscotch. August started getting upset again and I had to set him down. When he calmed down a little though he grabbed my hand and pressed it against his cheek and head. We stood there under a tree until showed up a couple minutes later.

She took him up to the outdoor theater and changed him and nursed. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to stop nursing. There was a lot more crying and screeching involved until we finally made our way to the subway. This is what a no-nap day is sometimes like. Luckily, he was fine once we were at the subway. He played on the iPad with Carly, doing art.

At home he ate a ton of cold (that’s how he wanted it) enchilada for dinner. We had a good bath, with a lot of nonsense singing and “That’s a silly thing to do.” He hung out with Carly after that and they were reading. She was trying to get him to make it to 7, but at 6:30 he really wanted to nurse and fell asleep.

With Carly’s paintings:

5-Touch class: 

Children’s Grand Park. By the children’s museum: 

Home: 

August was awake 7:10ish. He was counting with Carly and started being funny, saying “treinta-one, treinta-fourteen, treinta-A, etc.” There was a Skype call with Cherie for awhile, then he and I were doing puzzles on the iPad. And he did some reading with both of us in the morning.

Carly gets to go to his classes this week; today was Teuni Teuni. They got to play with a variety of balls today – it was refreshingly freeform and costume free. For the beginning stuff at class he was distracted by a long triangular tunnel thing that he wanted to go in. When playing with the balls, he liked to put them on his head. He also liked sitting on Carly’s lap and playing from there. At one point he was walking around, practicing the backwards ABC song. Near the end we all sat in a circle and batted around an enormous ball (we called it the ‘gargantuan ball’). One boy stood up and got knocked over. August was very aware that he was upset, although he was too shy to go over and comfort him. At the end August went to the teacher to get a treat, as usual, but then, as I was trying to get him to say ‘thank you’ or bow, he just stood there, staring at him, and milked him for two more treats.

He had been looking really tired during class – he often seems a bit tired/overwhelmed at the end of class, but this was more so. He nursed out in the seating area, and we almost just went home for his nap. August and I were going off on our own for awhile, giving Carly some time to do some grocery shopping and get some work done. We left, heading out the backdoor of Home Plus and walked up towards Toys R Us. He wasn’t falling asleep, so we did a quick visit to Toys R Us, looking at the pet store and then quickly at books. The puppies were all asleep when we went in, but as we were walking out he pointed and said “Awake!” so we went and watched the one that had woken up.

He was still seeming pretty wake, so I planned to stop for lunch at a park east of Toys R Us, then have him fall asleep after that. But as we got close to the park he got quiet, and when we got to the park I asked if he wanted food. He said “No…keep walking” and fell asleep a minute later. I hurried through the Eunhang Junction area to the neighborhood at the base of the hills, where I was planning to go. I found a place called Coffee Zip which was nearly empty. He slept from 11:53 to 12:39. He may have slept a bit longer, but suddenly the place was overrun by a large group of women. I went to give up our table of 4 and rotated him to a window seat for two, but then he woke up. We sat in the window there for awhile, him doing puzzles and playing with monsters on the iPad and me doing some reading.

I took him to the performing arts center to change him, but the bathroom was cramped. Went out to the little park area to change him there. Had to deal with the nice but persistent church people (5 visits) who were handing out tissues and food (and then apologizing when they realized the food was too spicy for August). Changed him, then he wanted to eat lunch there, so we did that. He was having me spell all sorts of words, and entire sentences. He is picking up that a lot of words end in ‘-ing’, saying “I N G in the end!” We also seemed to be spelling a ton of words with ‘oo’ in them today.

From there we headed to a children’s park a bit to the southwest that we’d never been to. It was secluded in the middle of an apartment complex. August got excited when he saw the playground. It had a big tall walkway that sort of made a semicircle and had slides down from it. After looking at a climbing net thing, it was the first place he went. Up on it, he spotted a little spider and was very interested. He spotted an ant a little later. While up there a woman with two dogs showed up and one was parking. August looked out at them through these colored circles and called it “ladrido per” (barking dog). After playing up there a few minutes, I needed to change him, so went down to do that. We then went to a little rounded area with a slight hill around it and played with pine needles. He wanted rocks, so I found one for him. It was dirty though, and first he wanted one hand cleaned, then the other. He said “This is a messy rock” and was eventually disgusted by the rock and dropped it and didn’t want rocks anymore. I used our stick to write letters in the sand and he traced them. They were sometimes hard to see, so he would say “Hard to see G.” We were singing the colors in three languages song, and he started wanting other words, like ‘big’ and ‘small’ in three languages. He climbed up on the structure again, and was dropping off the stick and I would hand it back to him. He then decided he wanted to go down the slides, saying “Dada do it, Zinnie do it.” So I went up and we went down a total of 5 times. We stopped to have a snack, and when one of the containers was empty he said “Vacio. Mama says that.” Oh, and he was using the word “upping” a lot today – at one point when he wanted me to pick him up he said “Upping, upping, upping, upping, upping…” as he held up his arms.

He wanted to go down the slide one more time before we left, so we did that. As we left he said he was sad about the puppies as they had left and he wanted to see more of them. We checked out another playground on our way home, but it was pretty minimal, and he just wanted to keep going. We sang number songs most of the way home. Almost back home, we ran into Patrick and his daughters – August was a bit distressed that we had just crossed the street to Brownstone and I ran back across the street and away from Mama. But he let me say bye, as they were leaving in a couple hours for their move to New York.

As we got home, August spelled ‘gargantuan’ by himself (we had been practicing it a lot today) and as we spotted Carly he called her “M A M A!” That is, he spelled it out instead of saying it.

At home he did some play dough and then painting with Carly. He then wanted me in the parlor, where we were hiding under the blanket and reading Plant a Tree with Me and Bob books. Carly gave him a bath. He spelled ‘hat’, ‘quack’, ‘quiet’, ‘zoo’, and ‘zoom’ on his own using the letters. The ‘E’ was missing, so after his bath he was talking about how he was sad about that, saying “No F turn to E” as Carly had tried to use the F instead and he didn’t like that (they had settled on using the ‘W’ sideways). He also saw the water leaving the bathtub and got sad about that, actually looking sad and later saying “Sad about the aqua.”

He read At the Zoo with me and ‘flamingo’ reminded him of mango again. We were out of mango, but he was happy with frozen strawberries. Basically, all day he was pretty nonstop asking for and spelling words. He fell asleep a little after 8:30.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘big’ and ‘bag’, vacio (empty)

 

Morning: 

Teuni Teuni class: 

Coffee shop: 

Lunch: 

Playground ( 광석어린이공원):

Down the ramp: 

Home: 

He was awake a little before 7. He was spelling numbers with Carly soon after: fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, etc. We all skyped with Derek for his birthday. At one point I was saying something and August grabbed my hand, saying “No dada talking. Zinnie Dada fort. Hide from bebe.” We took the blanket in on the couch and he had a lot of fun hiding from Kayla and everyone else. After the call he was reading books like Tickle and Kipper A to Z with Carly, and reading words like ‘tickle’ and ‘giraffe’. With me we were watching some Peg + Cat videos and other videos. For several days now he’s been having me do large numbers with my fingers, showing him 14 fingers, 19, fingers, 78 fingers…now he also requests a million fingers. We also played with a balloon.

We were slow getting ready to leave today and finally about ready to leave. But somehow the diaper we just put on him leaked and I had to change him again. He was not happy about this, and ended up nursing again. He was acting tired, and fell asleep a bit early for a nap, so no leaving the house yet. he slept about 50 minutes, waking up a little before 1. After more nursing, we left the house at 1:40. We had planned on going to Seoul Forest earlier, but with it being so late we changed plans and headed north to the Iris Garden. On the way up, he played the Elmo Look and Find app. He now knows words like ‘trombone’, ‘paddle ball’, ‘hula hoop’, ‘jack in the box’, and ‘pogo stick’ thanks to it.

We got to the Iris Garden and first went to the bench area he and I have been to a couple times. We sat on the big Lincoln log-looking bench and had a snack. He played on the bench, with Carly saying “What are you doing?” and him saying “Walking on a log.” August eventually decided it was time to get going, and headed down the ramp, saying “Bye!” We caught up to him and he led the way as we wandered around the park. He liked the different kinds of paths, particularly the round and rectangular stones. He wanted to find rocks, and we ended up at a bench in the southwest corner, where I handed him rocks and he dropped them off. We needed to change him, so went to the building and found they had just made a new mothers’ room. All went well until we were leaving and he wanted to play in the sink. He melted down a bit in the hallway “Sad about sink.” He calmed down, and as we walked out he saw workers painting the ceiling in another new part. He watched that for a minute, but then a couple of women came and tried to say hi to him. He started screaming. I picked him up and got him away, but he was quite upset. We walked up north of the building and found a picnic table surrounded by pine trees and took a nursing/reading Sherlock Holmes break.

When he was recovered he climbed on the table and I was handing him pine needles and pine cones and we were all playing with them. He mainly liked dropping the pine needles through the cracks and through the hole in the middle of the table. Carly was wearing a sweater, and he read the ‘Columbia’ tag on it. We had previously helped him read the Columbia tags on other pieces of clothing, but he sounded this one out on his own.

When done playing there, we put him in the backpack and went for a walk, out of the park and to the southeast, following the Seoul Trail across the river and then up the stream/park on the east side. We made a loop, crossing the stream and heading back on the other side. As we went, August got really into having me read the signs in Hangeul. So we made up a little “Looking for some Hangeul” song. Oh, and had been spelling words, like ‘M A M A’ and I would say the word – he started to change the letters, and it turned into a game of nonsense, and him laughing hysterically.

We got on the subway and headed home. At home we ate dinner, and he was starting to fall asleep at 6:30 when nursing. But there was to be quite a bit more to his evening. He is really into the At the Zoo book, and when reading that the word ‘flamingo’ reminded him of ‘mango’ so he wanted to eat some frozen mango. So we got that out for him and thawed it. We all did a lot more reading and word stuff after that – he was reading more of Kipper A to Z with Carly. 7:30 or 8 Carly took him in to go to sleep, but they just ended up reading a lot of books. They came back out and Carly painted while I read more At the Zoo and Alphabet book with him. He started rubbing his eyes a lot, but really fought sleep and going to bed, but was finally asleep about 9:40.

New words/phrases: Hula hoop, paddle ball, pogo stick, trombone, quake (the quaking dog at the Iris Garden)

Morning:

Iris Garden: 

Exploring: 

After the nursing break: 

Rocks: 

Walking: 

Home: 

Children’s Grand Park

He was awake at 8:05. I followed him as he walked around looking for Carly. She was in the bathroom, so I told him to go knock on the door, which he did. He and I looked at the APIS art book, then Carly skyped with her mom and she was spelling words for August. August and I tried out a Peg+Cat app – he really liked the cat, and I think the show is math-based, so he might really get into it. He also played with the Q that Carly is painting and the X painting sponge, placing them next to each other. We skyped with my parents, and spent some time reading Plant a Tree for Me before we headed out to Children’s Grand Park.

At the park we first went to the children’s museum. The school groups were suddenly back, so it was quite busy. We went up to the second floor (August directed us) and played in the new space area – mainly with the hopscotch area and hexagons again. As he was walking around after that he saw a few hexagons left out on the ground and he went and put them away. He talked about going upstairs, but when I mentioned lunch he decided he wanted to eat. So we went up to the cafeteria and took a long time eating lunch. Carly went to the bathroom, and while she was gone August said “Talk about the mama peeing at the home.”

We took August on a walk to get him to sleep. He yawned several times, and after some complaining, went quiet. But it was like he couldn’t turn off his brain. We walked a half hour and then went to the first floor coffee shop. Carly nursed him, but he still didn’t fall asleep. I read some Sherlock Holmes while they did that. He got up and was really into figuring out words on the floor. He found ‘how’ and then said “Find how in the funny one” and headed back to our table. I figured out he wanted to read the Dr. Seuss story Marvin K. Mooney, which includes the line “I don’t care how”. We were reading and Carly was reading. I asked if he had pooped and said “Somebody pooped.” He liked that sentence and was repeating it, and pointed at the baby sitting across from us. I took him upstairs and changed him. I washed my hands, and he wanted to use the hand dryer – he first used a hand dryer at the aquarium last year, but since then has been scared of them, but likes hearing them from a distance. But today he actually put his hand in it, three times. Our walk back to Carly was slow, as he was pointing at everything and saying “This is?” He was then fascinated by two signs for Peace Coffee with a lot of writing. We spent several minutes reading those, especially the messy handwriting-looking Hangeul on them.

From the cafe he chose to go to the new playground. Spent 20 or 30 minutes there playing primarily with the water faucets. Someone had left a plastic cup on the ground, and he used that to pour water on the ground and on the sand. He was having difficulty understanding to hold the cup upright to get water into it, which was pretty amusing. We went under the play structure a bit, where he read the word ‘zone’ by himself – he would later spot the word again on a sign at Brownstone. It was threatening rain and getting pretty windy, so we convinced him to head home.

At home, I got another message from Patrick inviting me to come over to get some more free stuff. I went over there – it was now raining a bit – and picked up a little more stuff. Nothing too exciting. We ate dinner, Carly gave him a bath, and read some books with him. He went to sleep right about 8. About an hour later he walked out and Carly took him back to bed. Interesting how he doesn’t cry out or yell when he wakes up at night. He simply walks out of the room.

New words/phrases: reading ‘zone’

 

With the Q and X: 

Children’s museum: 

Peace Coffee: 

Home: 

He was awake at 7:15. He woke up as Carly was Skyping with Cherie. A little later they skyped with Cassie and Vivi. I let him play in the sink for awhile while Skyping with Vivi. He spent a lot of time in the morning nursing. He was watching songs on Carly’s computer, mainly the Barefoot Books videos, then playing Elmo Loves 123 on the iPad with me. Carly went to Home Plus, and we read some books while she was gone. He made his way reading through about 6 pages of the Sam book. Carly came home and they looked at the animal pasta that she bought, calling it arte abstracto. August and I were then playing with Smokey on the couch and August thought it was hilarious to make Smokey flap his arms. We played a little more iPad together, then he was looking sleepy. He napped from about 1:35 to 2:40, but woke up in the middle and walked out and Carly had to nurse him a lot in there.

He read the Tickle book with Carly, and was really taken with a font that made a lower case ‘n’ look like an upside down ‘u’. They then read Plant a Tree with Me, and he spotted the 14 card that Carly had hung on the wall (the one I had bought at DDP) and wanted to hold it. He and I then played in the ‘fort’ a lot in the parlor, hiding from Carly and reading books. He didn’t want to stop playing in the fort, but we finally convinced him to go outside.

We walked down to the 100 bus. On the way I started singing the backwards ABC song, and he wanted to do it himself. I was surprised to find he could sing most of it backwards on his own already. At the bus stop Carly took off her coat. August didn’t like this, wanting her to put it back on, then telling her to zip it. We took the bus and then walked to the apartment complex and dropped off the food that Carly had made for a teacher who just had a baby. We then walked across the street to Dream Forest and went up to the deer park.

At the deer park he first wanted to play with the water fountains, so we did that. He then went over and pet the deer, and wrote letters with his finger on the side of one of them. He tried feeding them some grass, then wanted to give them a rock to eat. He was sad when Carly said they wouldn’t eat the rock. Later saying “Sad about the rock, deer” and “Mama says deer no eat the rock.” We sat on a grate across from the deer, and that made him remember pine needles. Later, after we had left, he would say “Sad about the pine needles” because we didn’t find pine needles for him to play with. Had a little snack there, then I was hiding from him and we were running around a bit. Ended up sitting on the bench, all three of us, and having another snack. He was asking for a lot of words in Spanish. He was happily eating pine nuts when he bit his tongue, hard enough that it bled. Carly nursed him, and he said “Sad about the tongue”.

We walked home, and along the way I get a text message from the father of the two girls August and I had met in the park a few times. He and I had never gotten around to hanging out, but he was telling me that they were moving to New York in a few days and we were welcome to come over and help ourselves to things they had left around the house. So after we got home I headed over there. Came back with a lot of food stuff (spices, canned stuff, tea) and a food processor. We ate dinner (thanks to Carly we now have risotto, nutty noodles, and enchiladas in the fridge) and Carly gave him a bath. It was hair washing day, but there wasn’t too much screaming. In the bath, they were spelling words with the bath sponges, and tried to spell ‘vroom’. But the R was missing. They used a ‘P’ but he wasn’t entirely happy with that, saying afterwards “Sad about the P turn to R.” We did fort again, reading much of a Bob counting book and more Plant a Tree. Then he was out on the couch with Carly reading Kipper A to Z. He first read ‘box’, then was figuring out several other words and almost whole sentences. Very cool. He was sleepy, and went to sleep a little after 9.

New words/phrases: harina de avena (oatmeal), reading ‘oak’, spelling ‘box’, another two, spelling you, reading ‘box’

Morning:

Dream Forest: 

Walking home: 

Home: 

Awake at 7:40. He ate oatmeal with Carly again, and this time reflected on yesterday’s frustration when making oatmeal “Sad bathroom, sad up…” He did some painting with Carly, and we played with stickers. We did a lot of spring cleaning in the morning: Carly vacuumed and started on some other things, and I tackled the papers and other things in the hallway closet. August had some good iPad time, and we also played with the plastic eggs from yesterday.

He napped from about 12:45 to 2:05 then spent a long time nursing with Carly. We went for a walk in the afternoon to Hangeulbi Park. We stopped at Juicy Juice and got a mango juice and a mixed berry juice and drank them on the way. August kept calling the mixed berry one “milky”, which it was.

At the park August first wanted to look in the garbage cans, then we played in the hangeul sculpture area. He was identifying the characters on the ground, and carly got out the soccer ball to play with. He played with that and went to put it in the Hangeul M character, only to find that someone else had placed several rocks there. So he was playing with the rocks as well, and putting them on the soccer ball and making them fall off.

He wanted to walk over to the playground area. He was looking at the L shaped benches and calling them letters or Hangeul characters, and there was a hedge bordering the paved area that curved in an interesting shape. August seemed to think it was supposed to look like something, but couldn’t decide what, so he said “arte abstracto!”

At the playground the first thing he wanted to do was go over and climb on the round platforms. That was where he spent much of his time. He climbed up and down all of them with our help, then just wanted to sit, mainly on the blue one, and look around. He talked about falling. We went over and he went on a swing with Carly for a little while. And we took a break and had a snack on the benches before going back to the platforms and sitting on them again. He got pretty good at climbing up and down on the lowest two or three platforms. He was spelling ‘up’ and ‘down’ as he got up and down on the platforms – he has ‘up’ memorized and was getting ‘down’ learned pretty well. We spent several minutes on the teeter totter – He could look across and see Carly on the swing as he went up and down on the teeter totter. There were little plastic beads from something on the ground, and he played with those, dropping them from where he sat on the platform and watching them bounce and roll away. Before we left, he wanted to take two plastic bottles to throw away. He had a cute moment of indecision as he could only carry the bottles or two of the little plastic beads and he didn’t know which he wanted to take. He ended up taking the bottles. We took those over and he found the plastic bin and tossed them in. He played a little more at the Hangeul sculpture. The rocks from before had disappeared, so we were looking for new rocks. I found one, then a chip off a brick. He held both and said “Have a rock, have a brick.” We then put him in the backpack and he spotted another plastic bottle, so he got to recycle that one too and dropped it from the backpack.

We walked home and did some shopping together in the pink building grocery store. At home, Carly made nutty noodles both for us and for a woman at work who just had a baby. I fed August, and we played with a balloon, singing the very repetitive balloon song many times. We played on the iPad together, then read the Sam book (he concentrated on reading it pretty well through the first six pages) and brushed his teeth. We read Feely Bugs and Happy Birthday, then he wanted to play in the sink again. Did that for awhile. He didn’t want to stop, but he was tired and it was time for bed. He fell asleep about 9:15.

I noted today that it wasn’t long ago that we were introducing prepositions to August. Now he pretty much has all the common ones down, both in understanding and in speaking: under, on, in, next to, above, etc. 

New words/phrases: Zinnie falled in the bathroom, what’s in the blue egg?, platform, sitting on the blue one, spelling up and down, teeter totter, spelling three, lobster, spelling box

Hangeulbi Park: 

Home: 

Up nice and early at 6:30. I had my book group meeting at 7:30, which lasted until 9. During my meeting, Carly made oatmeal and August got upset because it wasting too long (she was washing her hands, wouldn’t let him get up when she was cutting strawberries, etc.) Afterwards, he reflected on the whole thing, talking about how every step made him sad.

We got out of the house around 10, headed for the easter egg hunt gathering at Children’s Grand Park. August isn’t used to traveling the subways with Carly now, and wanted to nurse and was upset when he couldn’t. We got off at Sagajeong, then back on a train, and had to get off again at Yongmansan. After nursing on the platform for awhile we get back on our way. We stopped at GS25 to get kimbap and eggs and a sausage thing August has been eyeing.

We got to the picnic area (in the grass south of the new playground) as they were doing the easter egg hunt. We set up our picnic mat and started to eat, and August was given a few eggs with toys inside, and a hard boiled egg, which we peeled and ate. We added the fruit that Carly had brought and donuts she got at Dunkin’ Donuts to the potluck mat and August had fun trying out all the different foods (and eating a couple of the donut holes). We talked to Jill and Logan a bit, but then they had to leave as Logan was ready for a nap. We talked to one guy who we had briefly met on New Year’s Eve, but then August too was getting ready to go – he was grabbing the backpack and wanted to get in. So we packed up and headed out. We stopped at the drinking fountains and low faucets at the new playground as August wanted to play in them. Did that for several minutes, then went up to show Carly the “outdoor theater”. I changed him (he is very concerned about falling off the changing tables nowadays – he holds on very tightly, and talks about it a lot. But he generally gets through it, noting it is something that has to be done. I give him the option of standing on the floor and using a pull-up, but so far he still chooses the changing table) then we were back out in the theater, where August had fun hiding from me.

We got walking for his nap. He refused the cover again. And after 3 minutes of walking he was saying “All done fall asleep.” Kept walking, circling through the paths to the north, and he fell asleep after 15 minutes. Making falling asleep more difficult was that he had hiccups. We went to the upstairs cafe, which was surprising empty when we got there and we got our favorite table. It filled up as we sat there though and was quite busy by the time we left. He slept from 1:04 to 2:17 and after he woke up did some nursing, then we read some Dr. Seuss on the iPad.

We went to the zoo, which was now crazy crowded. He wanted to see monkeys, so we went around the backside of the primates area to the macaques that usually don’t get much attention. Still busy, but not too bad. August was really enjoying them and we watched for several minutes. It helped that other people were throwing food to the monkeys and that was entertaining. I think he is really going to get into animal documentaries in the future. He was asking to spell animal words, like ‘elephant’ and ‘monkey’ and ‘macaque’ and was happy to find out that ‘macaque’ has a ‘Q’ and we spotted it on the sign.

We then went over by the elephants and sat on the stump stools. He played on the stumps for several minutes, climbing on them as Carly held his hands and then ‘falling off’. At one point he decided there was something in his shoe, and he wanted to “find out” what it was. He sat on my lap and shook out his shoe for a long time. We headed home about 4, after stopping to change him again (Carly this time).

The trip home went smoothly. He painted with Carly and played on the iPad. He did art and music with me, playing on the piano and with a drumstick. At one point he decided he wanted to nurse, and sat on the couch repeating “Nurse, please” while Carly was in the bathroom cleaning it. For him that was waiting very patiently. We played with the balloon (glob0) and made up a globo/balloon song that he wanted to keep repeating. We all skyped with Cassie and Colin. We were playing with play dough at the time and August saw Colin eating Cheerios. So we made a bowl from play dough and he was pretending there were things in it (like cucumber, tomato, and bussot (mushroom). He wanted some apple, and as I carried him into the kitchen he made up a little “Get manzana” song complete with an arm motion.

We drew shapes using pastels, then he read Plant a Tree with Me with Carly, then was out with me reading Bob Books and Happy Birthday. He then went in with Carly and was asleep about 9.

New words/phrases: macaque, big word,

 

Morning:

Picnic: 

Drinking fountain: 

Zoo: 

On the stumps: 

Home: 

He was awake at 5:45. Soon after, Carly was spelling colors and he knew them all: pink, green, blue, red, purple. Carly headed to work. Yesterday he had happily said “Bye! Adios!” but today he was sadder to see her go. In the morning we played a lot with Angeles. We set up the fort and were playing with Angeles in it. We started a big “Thinking about…” game where we would choose a topic to think about and Angeles would talk about that topic. August chose topics like zookeepers, forts, and letters. We practiced the backwards ABCs, now doing it as the actual song, and we read Plant a Tree for Me a few times. When we got to the planting a tree page, he said “Grampa!” – we’ve talked about him planting trees in the past, and have talked about planting a tree this summer with grampa and gramma. As we were eating breakfast and getting ready to go he was saying “Piece dada, piece Zinnie…D for dada, Z for Zinnie.”

We rushed over to his 5-Touch class. Went pretty smoothly, although he was shy at first. It was a monkey and bear theme, with the monkey and bear getting in a fight and then making up. They acted that out through songs, holding little bear and monkey things, andy dividing up into bears and monkeys and acting it out as a class. August, of course, really liked the sticker portion as well. At the end of class, he saw the teacher put the hand stamp on a girl’s foot, so he wanted to do that and we took his sock off. He changed his mind though, and wanted it on his palm. He liked this, as he then made fists and said “Something in there!” As we walked out and passed the coffee shop, he pointed out photos of coffee and tea and said “Tea and coffee yummy.”

As we walked to the subway station, he was looking at the shapes in the concrete retaining wall. He pointed out Ws, Xs, say-mo (triangles), and, for the first time in the wild, trapezoids.

We stopped for an apple cookie, kimbap, and little eggs and then went up to the outdoor theater to eat lunch. I had intended the cookie thing as a treat for later, but made the mistake of carrying it in full view, so we ended up starting with that. When he was eating the mushrooms, he said “Thank you mama for bussot.” Where we were sitting, we had clear views of much of the park around us. He started remembering his meltdown last time and talking about it “Scream at robots…Up.  Sad about the change your diaper. Sad about Dr. Seuss diaper. Pick you up. Pick you up. Scream…” Very cool that he was doing all this reflecting on his own. After lunch we went up and changed him and walked for about 15 minutes. For the first time he really complained about the cover on the backpack and so I didn’t put it up, and he fell asleep without it. Slept from 12:54 to 1:58.

When he woke up he wanted to get walking, and go to the zoo. We saw the primates and lion, etc., then he wanted to go see the seals. We went upstairs at the seals first, then downstairs to see them underwater. After that, we were leaving the zoo and he saw the botanical gardens building and wanted to go in to “see elephant”. At the indoor fish pond he wanted down to have a snack on the bench, and I realized he was leaking. So we walked out (seeing the moss-covered elephant sculpture on the way) and changed him in our usual spot.

From there we went right across to the playground. While sitting on the bench eating our snack, a group of teenage girls came over next to us. August was showing them his handstamp on his palm and doing the closing his fists and saying “Something in there” thing. He called it “Funny!” Once we started playing, he had fun spotting foot prints in the sand, and was also finding pieces of garbage that we had to walk over to the garbage cans and throw away.

We played under the play structure for awhile. There was a slightly bigger boy playing with one of the toys under there, and August wanted to do it and was saying “Zinnie do it…Zinnie do it, please.” Back out, we spent about 20 minutes playing on the little hill. He stood on top and kept singing ABC songs over and over, and sang the numbers song while pumping his arms in the air.

We had a little more of a snack, then started to head out, but stopped at the drinking fountains and played in the water for a few minutes. On the subway, he played the Elmo Loves 123s app. He was focused on ‘6’ the entire time. One of the videos you can watch for 6 is one of the classic pinball videos. I remembered the song, but had totally forgotten about the pinball videos that went with it. Quite a flashback to childhood.

Got home a little after Carly. He ate dinner with me and we watched videos together. Carly gave him a bath – he is back to playing with the letters now and isn’t hating his baths (unless washing his hair is involved). After, he wanted to make the fort with me, and we played with Angeles and read Plant a Tree with Me. He could read the title on the cover. He was also hiding from Carly. He wanted to nurse with Carly in the fort, so we switched places, and he was off to bed about 8:15.

Earlier in the day, when I was putting him in the backpack, he was making it difficult for me to do the straps, or something along those lines. I asked “Are you being stubborn?” (something I’ve never asked him before – don’t think it is a word I’ve used) and he immediately replied with “Very stubborn”.

New words/phrases: burbujas (bubbles), tongue (of a shoe), container, foot print , no mas galletas

Fort time:

Class: 

Headed to CGP. Spotted trapezoids, Xs, and triangles:

And made out all the letters in the graffiti: 

Lunch: 

Zoo: 

Playground. Looking for foot prints: 

Under the play structure: 

Hill time: