Category: Uncategorized

He was awake at 6. So he started the day with some iPad – he is totally back into Endless Reader now, after ignoring it for several weeks. I think he is understanding a lot more of it now. We then played with play dough and then Smokey and Angeles on the couch, before moving into the parlor to play with Duplo animals. We were sitting by the Duplos on the floor when he realized the blanket was on the rocking chair, near his head. He pulled the blanket over his head and hid. When I asked what he was hiding from, he initially said “ABCD”, then “Mama”. He then wanted me in the fort, and we spent much of the rest of the morning under the blanket, playing with Angeles and the Duplo animals. Before we left, I changed him, and he asked what ‘butt’ was in Spanish. Before I could look it up, he said “Butt in espanol is butt-ay.” Finally, he was playing with the animal magnets and held up the zookeeper magnet and said “Al reves el niño” (upside down boy).

He kept wanting to go back and play with the Duplo animals and get in the “fort”, so we barely made it out of the house in time for class. Got there as it was starting. August was shy at first, but let the teacher do a forward roll. There were a lot of good activities today, from tunnels to crawl through (or simply play with, and hide behind, as August did), to turtle shells to put on his head and stand on, to objects to carry across a walking course and put in a box (although August found it simpler to simply avoid the crowds and obstacles and walk around the course).

From class we headed up to Danggogye, up to the northeast. Had thought about taking the bus or subway up, but August was yawning and had been awake 5 hours already. So we walked north to the stream, then headed up the stream. It was about 40 minutes before he fell asleep, just as I was walking past the coffeeshop that we had found the day it poured. I had a Yorkshire tea latte, and he slept from 11:45 to 12:30.

When he woke up we got walking again. We got to Danggogye Park around 1. We sat on a bench and ate lunch, watching people on the climbing wall. August really wanted to go on the climbing wall, saying “Do this, do this.” He looked around and was counting how many people were on each bench. A couple weeks ago he started to want to do the alphabet backwards (this was after we started counting backwards, and he started to say “Letters backwards!”), but we’d only really gotten through ZYXWVU. Today he kept wanting to do the whole alphabet over and over, and between each attempt he would sign ‘more’. He was doing pretty well, but found saying “NML” the most difficult part.

He decided he wanted to play iPad in the park, so he did some Endless Reader and I read some Sherlock Holmes. We then walked over to the playground, but he wanted to play with rocks, and there weren’t any around the playground. We found an oval shaped tree area that had a little hill and several rocks, so we stopped there. We played with rocks, then he noticed a woman sitting across from us, popping bubble wrap. She had a whole bag of it, and August really wanted bubble wrap. He was too shy to walk over to her with me though (or let me carry him). He then had a big rock and was joking around with it and put it on his head. I said it was a silly thing to do, and he liked that phrase and started repeating “silly thing to do!” and doing his head bob thing. Got him on video doing it once. He had something in his shoe, so he sat on my lap. He wanted to shake out his shoe himself, so was doing that over and over and watching the woman with the bubble wrap. We started talking about him being sad or happy (I think not having bubble wrap may have made him “sad”) and I said that him being happy makes me happy. He started singing a “Makes dada happy” song. He sat in my lap for quite awhile, then we played around bit more, writing words in the dirt and with the rocks, then decided to walk home.

He had a little freakout when, after changing him, he wanted to press buttons on a keypad by the bathroom door. When I walked away he struggled back and forth and whacked his head into mine – that startled him and he shrieked and lashed out and almost knocked off my glasses. Got him calmed down and we headed out. We walked home along the stream. On the way to the stream we stopped and looked at the boxes of chicks that a woman was selling. A few minutes later as we were walking he was suddenly upset and holding out his hand with snot on a finger. I wiped it off with a tissue, then he was saying “snot from the nose…snot on the finger…messy…sad”. As we got to the stream, he was singing the individual letter songs he likes to himself, whispering them: “a is a vowel, a letter in the alphabet, b is a consonant…b b b”.

He got a bit upset when we ran out of crackers, but we stopped at the safety park along the stream for a snack and he ate most of the rest of the food we had. His diaper leaked and we went up and changed him next to a sculpture. Carly called as we were finishing up and asked if we needed anything from the store. August heard us talking and said “Crackers!” Running out of crackers had made an impression, and he would also tell her about the snot on his finger later in the evening.

We walked home and got home a little before Carly. It was close to 5:30 by the time she got home. We ate dinner, Carly gave him a bath, and he was asleep and in bed a few minutes before 7.

New words/phrases: spelling feet and butt, tray for the hands, tray for the stroller, al reves, hombros sucio (messy shoulder), reading ‘tree’, bark, hasta luego

Class: 

Park: 

Walking home. Chicks: 

Snack: 

Wanting me to take the backpack off the H: 

H: 

8:45. Kind of a quiet wake up, as we just sat on the bed in the dark for a few minutes, then were doing numbers with our fingers. Then came out and and got on the iPad, had breakfast, and got ready to head to Children’s Grand Park.

Got there around 11. Almost empty again. More and more baffled by usage patterns, as we haven’t seen a single field trip group (outside some very small child care groups) to anywhere in the park since the beginning of the year. And yet, for months the children’s museum was packed with them, and last spring the entire park was full of school groups.

Anyway, we first went up to the second floor to see what had been changed. The tortoise and hare stuff was gone (which included the Hangeul magnets) and has been replaced with space-related stuff. Mostly interactive video game things, which are a little beyond August. He did like a planet hopscotch thing with hexagon pieces, and played with that for a few minutes, but then wanted to go down to the nature area. Went down and made letters on the floor, played with the static cling magnets (mainly focusing on the shapes), and went and looked at the minerals. Then he was ready for lunch. Went up to the cafeteria where there was just one other family eating lunch a few minutes before noon. We sat by the windows in back and one of the screens was down on the window. He was very intrigued by it, and so I showed him how it worked and we put it up and down several times. We peeled an egg, and he was really into spelling ‘egg’. He was peeling the egg and said “Messy with the shell…wash your hands.” He was singing a lot – we have been singing the Mother Goose Club “Count with me” song and he would sing lines of that.

From there we went down to the book room, primarily to read Oh No! There was also a little pop-up colors book that he really liked. We then played with the texture squares, matching them and counting them, and he played with a magnifying glass, carrying it around and looking at pieces from the various games.

He wanted to go back downstairs, so we did that. He wanted to “Make A out of floor magnets.” When we got down there he saw a girl and pointed at her, saying “Kitty cat on her shirt.” We played there for a little while, but didn’t last long; he decided he wanted to go up to the little kids area. There, he spent his whole time playing with the puzzles, and playing with the bumps on the cushions.

He was actually talking about falling asleep today, and even getting Camel out as a pillow (something he hasn’t done for a month or two), before we started our nap routine. So I thought it would happen today. Alas, when we were walking he kept wanting to do other things, and got upset when we walked by garbage cans without looking in them. So after 15 minutes or so I walked down to the zoo. Thought he might fall asleep as we walked around the zoo, but after awhile he wanted down for another snack, so we ate pine nuts and string cheese by the leopards. He heard noises from the little upstairs section by the cats, so we went up and spent ten minutes or so pushing the buttons on the half-working display on predators. The button for the monkey only worked sometimes, and I said “Come on monkey!” He liked that, and said “Come on mono!”

We talked about going to play at the playground, but on our way there he saw the conservatory and said “See pez (fish)!” and wanted to touch water. So we went in there, and mainly out to the potted plant exhibit. He watched the little streams and touched the water where he could, we then went back in and looked at the fish in the pond.

We went around the corner to change him, and this is where the no-nap day fell apart. He’s been a little afraid of the changing tables recently (he has taken the ‘beware of falling’ warnings to heart, and now says “No fall!” a lot on the changing tables), and started to get really upset as we finished up today. He then just clung to me when we were done, but I had a dirty diaper to dispose of, and had to put everything back in the backpack and put it on. He kept screaming, and even after I had the backpack on and was carrying him outside to go to the garbage can, he was screaming and started pinching my face. I had to set him down, screaming on the ground, so I could throw away the diaper and set up the backpack to put him in. Got him in, and he calmed down enough for us to head out, but then he wanted to go play at the playground with the numbers, and got upset when we walked the wrong way.

Luckily, he settled down enough to head home. He kept yawning, and I expected him to fall asleep at any moment, but didn’t. We were home about 4:30 and he was fine with waiting for mama. We sat on the couch, him on the iPad and me reading Sherlock Holmes, until Carly got home.

Evening went pretty smoothly, considering. Carly made herself a salad, which August found fascinating. He said “See the salad…very, very, nummy” He looked in and would name off everything in it: “lettuce, feta, cucumber, tomato…” The funniest part is that he won’t even taste salad himself.

He had one more meltdown with me. I had put the iPad behind me on the couch and he was trying to get it. He said “Dada in the way.” That part was funny. But then when we had the iPad open, he accidentally turned the page on my book. I told him to wait a second while I got the page back, then he could have it. He grabbed my arms and started pinching them and screaming. Carly took him into the bedroom for a bit of a timeout. While they were in there she was trying to get him to say sorry to me, but he insisted “No say sorry to dada.” But a few minutes after they came back out I was sitting with him and asked if he’d say sorry. He first said no, but then said “Sorry, dada.”

There was one of those blowup toy things from class that you use a straw to blow up. This one was a frog. He was trying to do it himself, so I was explaining how to blow into the frog. I told him he had to close his lips and blow, but then he would scrunch up his eyes, closing them at the same time – that’s what we’ve been working on in the bath. Very funny.

Carly gave him a short bath, and he was asleep in bed about 7. A little later he got up and walked out of the bedroom and Carly had to take him back to bed and he went back to sleep.

New words/phrases: egg shell, flamingo, feta, wrapper

 

Yoga: 

Children’s Museum: 

Book room: 

Little kids area: 

Conservatory: 

He slept all the way to 8:35. First thing I heard him saying was “Dada”. Went in and he said “iPad…watch ABC songs on the iPad…on the couch.” Changed him, after which he wanted his new pajamas off. But then he cheered up with ABC songs and while watching a colors song over and over was working on spelling colors (asking a lot of “How bout…?”). One of the songs had an alien spaceship. He asked what it was and I said “spaceship”. He said “ Spaceship at children’s museum” (the one you can push the buttons in) and I mentioned it might not be there any more since they were changing that floor. He then said “Sad about the spaceship at the children’s museum.”

Since he slept late, we didn’t have a lot of morning time to hang around. We left a little after 10 and made our way to the back entrance to Olympic Park. We were walking into the park when he decided he really wanted eggs. So we backtracked a bit and went to C U where he also wanted kimbap, then spotted a pack of mandarin oranges in what I thought was syrup. We got those and went out and sat on one of the same benches as last time and ate lunch. Turned out the oranges were actually in jello. He really liked that. It seemed like he ate a ton of food, then he wanted to throw away our garbage and look into the garbage cans, so we made to walks over to do that. He was playing around and stood on a little curb around a tree and wanted to know what it was. He was happy to learn the word “curb”. Then, a motorbike was coming down the walkway sort of towards him and I heard him say “uh-oh”. He didn’t panic though, and took a step to the side. The motorbike actually headed off towards the left, across the plaza, so it wasn’t all that close when it went by.

He wanted to do some walking, so we started walking into the park. But then he was suggesting we go home. I was reminding him of all the things in the park, and mentioned puzzles at the history museum. He started saying “Sad about one”. When I asked for clarification, he said “Sad about the one puzzle here” and pointed ahead of us. We were still on the other side of the park, but he was remembering that there was a piece missing from the puzzle we worked on at the museum last time.

We walked through the sculpture area and he saw some big rocks he wanted to play on. So I got him down. First he walked up and then down a set of gentle steps cut into the hill. He wanted me to carry him back to the backpack, and on the way he saw the big green sculpture of what looks like alien praying mantises and was intrigued by that. He then tried climbing on the rocks. He said he had something in his right shoe, so we sat on a rock and took it off. He wanted to keep walking, so he went back into the backpack. But just a little further up the path it turned into a sidewalk embedded with rocks and he wanted to get back down and see the rocks. He ended up looking at the rocks, picking up a leaf and carrying it around (he said it looked like a globo (balloon), getting out the shovel and playing with it, wading through the leaves to the Elephant Man sculpture and hitting it with the shovel, and admiring a couple other sculptures, one of which he could walk on and then touch the big circle in the center of.

We were getting close to nap time, so time to keep going. As we continued, he spotted a couple more sculptures he liked. One was a big bird head with pieces of tile on the side, so we were able to talk about mosaic and abstract art. We made it to the history museum and played with the puzzles for a few minutes. Didn’t last long though, as he was clearly tired. The nursing/changing room was occupied, and he seemed scared of the regular bathrooms, so we went back outside to change him. Ended up in a nearby bathroom with more lighting, but he still wasn’t happy about it, really clinging to me as I tried to set him down. Once that was over and he was in the backpack he fell asleep after just a few minutes of walking up along the fortress path. I went to the Eat coffee shop by the art museum and he slept from 2:11 to 3:04.

When he woke up he wanted to head straight outside. So we walked out, and I gave him some options for what we could do. I mentioned pine needles and “Pine needles!” won out. So we got down in the same spot we played with pine needles last time. He played with pine needles, but was more into finding rocks and counting them and deciding if the looked like a triangle or square. We got out the tennis ball and were rolling that down the hill, then he wanted to walk up the hill a bit. We went up there, and he felt something in his left shoe this time. We sat on the hill and he sat on my lap and we dealt with that, then just sat there for several minutes singing songs and playing with the stick from the backpack.

We went back down, and he decided he wanted more food. So he sat on my lap again and ate what felt like a second lunch. The grass we were sitting on was dry and sticking to our clothes and hands, which he found both “Messy” and amusing. While sitting there he got to watch helicopters and planes (U.S. military) fly overhead, we spotted a nest, and he watched a pressure washer. While eating crackers he called them pink. I pointed out they were more yellow and white and brown. He only budged a little, then calling them “Kind of pink”.

I convinced him to go to the art museum, which he was opposed to. It would have been okay, but there was a lot of object-sort of art, like a desk with items all over it. This made him want to touch things, and he couldn’t. Once we were back outside and he had calmed down he would say he was “Sad about the touching.”

We were ready to change him and head home, but I had forgotten about his new found love of playgrounds, and as we headed to the other subway station we passed a playground. I said we needed to get home to mama, to which he said “Play at the playground three minutes”, holding up three fingers. He’s never said anything like that before. So we played at the playground (more like 10 or 15 minutes). He walked up the steep stairs by himself, then went back and forth on the shaky bridge. He tried climbing the rope ladder thing, and the metal climbing part opposite that. I put him in the shaky jeep, but then the other boy in it started to shake it really hard and that freaked August out. I quickly grabbed him and it took him some time to calm down. We went and changed him, then headed home.

He had no problem staying in the backpack for the first two legs of our journey. On one stretch there were several teenage girls that he sang ABC to and they were interacting with him. For the long trip we got to sit down and play on the iPad.

Carly was home before us. In the evening he ate dinner and played with the magnet set with Carly )working on animal names in Spanish). I prepared and gave him his bath, which he was not happy about at all. It had gotten so easy with the bath letters and everything, but now he is afraid of the dripping. When he was feeling better and playing around he hid from Carly behind one of the Hangeul cards, but then walked into the doorframe. Carly took a shower and he cuddled next to me on the couch and was hiding from her. He then wanted to make a play dough banana and peel it, so we did that. About 9 Carly needed to head to bed to get some sleep. I was going to stay up with him, but he wanted to stay with her. So he and I read Bob books at the foot of the bed, and a few minutes later he wanted to nurse and go to sleep. They were both asleep by 9:30.

New words/phrases: nozzle, hose, history museum, nest, helicopter, kind of pink

 

Wanting the owls off: 

But now he’s happy: 

At lunch: 

Sculpture area

Sculpture he liked: 

History museum: 

Pine needles and rocks: 

Another sculpture he liked: 

Headed home:  

Carly and I both heard him call out “No dots!” at some point in the night. He woke up at 8:12 and came out and quietly sat next to me on the couch for several minutes. When he got going he wanted to play with play dough. He was pressing letters into the play dough and was holding the Q and said “I’m a Q!”

We headed out about 10. Down to Sangbong, then two stops east to Yangwon, getting there a bit before 11. We looked at the map and walked over to the playground. Running through options with him, he wanted to get out and read books. So we sat on a bench and read a few sentences from Dot and Mit. He then wanted to go in the play structure, so we did that. He said “Zinnie fit” as we went in, and really liked all the hexagons, circles, and triangles in the structure. He climbed up three levels, and was counting them. At the end he was saying “All done climb up to 3.” We went to the plate ship for a minute, then back to the bench to read some Dr. Seuss and eat lunch. A group of kids came along, a little older than him. Three of them sat on the benches, and August walked over and started singing “ABC” to them. August did some flying as an eagle and wanted me to fly as well, then was ‘freezing’ me. He saw the big kids on the swings and was suddenly interested. First the green one opened up, but then he wanted the red. Luckily, it did a minute later. He sat on my lap and we were swinging for a few minutes. After that, he started to get a bit grumpy. I was packing up our stuff to go change him when a couple of women came in the bench area. One of them tried to get really close to August, and only got closer when he started screaming, and only backed off when I told her to. We left and went to find the bathroom. We did, but no changing table. Went back out and found a shady place to change him standing up. No one around at that point, but as I again packed up another group of women came by. They set off the same reaction. I was telling him to just say “Bye bye” but lost my patience with a few of the women when they stuck their heads back around the corner and were giggling at him. I told them to just leave him alone and one said “Sorry” and they left.

We went up to another set of benches for a snack, starting with pine nuts. He ate a whole lot, including string cheese, strawberries, grapes, and crab, and it took quite awhile. A maintenance worker came by using a leaf blower and August loved that. He kept pointing and saying letters. I didn’t quite understand why. If the guy stopped for a minute August would say “More B!” He lay on top of the bench and was looking under it at his shoes and me and said “See caballos!” referring to the shed that he had first spotted from the playground that looks like horse stalls. Mind you, I have no idea how he knows what horse stalls look like (he has done this since the “neigh gates”).  He also saw a “group of kids” walk by. I had to change him again, so we went to a different set of bathrooms by the campground and found a changing table. Changed him, put him in the backpack, and started walking towards Costco.

He fell asleep after about 10 minutes. Slept from 1:59 to 3:12. I found a coffee shop called HiFish. Wen he woke up he wanted to get going. So we walked to Costco, looking briefly into a Daiso and a Beautiful Store. We went to Costco and did a quick trip, getting naan and feta. Got one sample for August this time, which he liked.

Headed home and got home a little before Carly. August really wanted the naan we had bought, so I started to cook one. He was not finding it easy to wait, then hit his head on the freezer door. Luckily, Carly got home soon after and he was able to nurse. After dinner, I went to Home Plus for diapers and also got August a new set of light owl pajamas. When I got home, they were finishing up a bath, and August was not happy. The faucet had dripped into the bathtub before he got in the bath, and they had waited for it to stop. Then, while he was in the bath, just a little drop had dripped out, and he didn’t like it at all.

After he got out of the bath, I said “Zinnie, I got you something!” He immediately said “Present! Present!”, grabbed the pack of pajamas out of my hand, and ran into the parlor. Kind of scary how well he understands ‘present’. We looked at the owls on his pajamas, although he was in no hurry to put them on. Carly took a shower, and we made Duplo letters, then hid (from Carly) under his baby blanket and read Plant a Tree with Me. He was counting the characters on each page, and had no trouble counting to 7. He was asleep a little after 9.

New words/phrases: group of kids, spelling ‘one’

 

Waking up: 

Park: 

Snack and leaf blower: 

Home: 

His reverse sentence construction: 

He was awake just after 8. We opened the new stamp pad and used it a bit. He was very aware of getting his fingers “messy” with the ink. Carly skyped with Cherie and Chuck, then made eggs and spinach and apple and peanut butter for breakfast. August made a game of opening and closing the door to the parlor and hiding; he has also figured out how to lock the door, so Carly double checked to make sure that the key to the door works. Carly went to Home Plus, and we played with the letters and he spelled ‘but’. We then got out play dough. Carly came home and they were in the parlor and August was hiding from me under his baby blanket (the one that used to be on the wall. He had spotted it on the shelf and I got it down and he was looking at all the colors, textures, and animals like we used to do). Finally, Carly got out the finger paints, sponges, and a paint brush and August got his first taste of painting. August enjoyed it, but he also enjoyed putting the paint tubes back in the container; he did it a few times.

He fell asleep and took a short nap from 1:40 to 2:19. When he woke up, he walked out and into the parlor and started playing. It is the first time he hasn’t wanted to nurse right after waking up. We did more spelling with letters, art on the iPad, and then play dough, then we all went out for a walk.

We stopped at that new Juicy place and got a strawberry juice and an orange juice. Nice and cheap and healthy. We will be going back. August certainly liked it. The juice is in those plastic cups with a thin plastic lid, and the lid was covered with juice. August said the juice was “hiding” in there. We walked along the stream, then went in the new apartment complex, which is now open. We looked around and found the playground. It was quite nice. August got very excited about it. Surprising, as he hasn’t really been into playgrounds lately. And he also wanted his coat off. He went on the swings with Carly, then we were at the spider web mesh thing. Carly was lifting him from one spot to another and he wanted to sit “Right here over garbage”. There were a bunch of girls around and they came and sat close to August. He sang to them and kept counting them. Carly got him to say hi a couple times: “Hi girls…hi over there (pointing).” He sat on the fake rock for much of this and I had been telling him that the pieces were made out of recycled plastic. He liked the texture, then was pointing from the rock to the slats on the bridge (made from the same material) and saying “same”. He then was pointing at me and Carly and saying “same”. Not sure if he was making some analogy about how we were made from the same materials or what, but it was pretty amusing. By the time we left he was crawling over and under the spider web on his own.

On our way out we stopped to recycle our juice cups. There is a lot of recycling there as everyone seems to be discarding stuff as they move in. So August wanted to look in all the recycling bins: “another one”.

We headed home and Carly needed to go shopping at the pink building for a few things. August chose to head home with me instead of us going with her. We played with Bluie, etc. and then he got on the iPad and watched ABC songs. Carly brought him some of the food she had made and then handed me the bowl so I could taste. August wanted another bite and she said I had stolen the food. So August started repeating “Dada stole the food.”

He played with play dough again. He has a funny sentence construction where he gets it backwards, saying “Yellow out of ball…play dough out of .” Carly made a banana you can actually peel out of play dough and he loved that. Carly gave him a bath and I did the dishes. After that, he walked into the kitchen saying “Milk…leche” but neither of us understood him at first, so he grabbed a glass off the counter to make his point. He was then opening the cabinet under the sink to “See the heating system.” He was getting tired and playing with the Duplos. Carly said he had his first stress out moment as he was trying to line them up and it wasn’t working and he put his head in his hands for a few seconds. Carly took him in to sleep about 8, but it wouldn’t stick so he came back out and was with me for awhile. He was kind of lounging and lying on the couch next to me, and he suddenly got excited because he managed to hold up two fingers without using his thumb. I then brushed his teeth, which went really well. He started to drink his water but said “Dada drink wawa” right before he did, so I stole it from him and he said “What you doing?” Finally we read Kipper A to Z, Little Houses, and Mac before he went to sleep a little after 9.

 

Stamp pad ink on his fingers: 

New playground: 

Home: 

Carly had the rest of her parent conferences today, so was at work until noon. He was awake 7:49. I barely heard him, then he silently walked out of the room, down the hall, and to the couch, where he found the iPad and started playing Endless Alphabet. We ate oatmeal for breakfast, and watched part of the new Teuni Teuni DVD we got at class yesterday. He wanted to make the fort in the parlor, so we id that, and he played with the letters, spelling words and having them fall down the front of the fort. We played with Bluie and Green Monster in on the bed, then were back out, writing on the paper. He then got the Korean cards out in the parlor, and was focusing on the numbers, particularly the big ones, although I was also getting him to count the smaller ones. He took the rest of the stickers that he had started putting on my computer last night and placed them on the couch cushion, then we put them all on the Teuni ball. He was eating strawberry pieces, and dumped them on the table and kept counting them over and over. He got back on the iPad and was watching ABC songs. We then skyped with my parents, and were doing that when Carly got home. He was spelling Q words, and could spell ‘queen’. He also spelled ‘happy’ earlier, and has been spelling ‘bat’ for a couple days.

He took a nice long nap, from 1:40 to 3:20. He had been in his pajamas all morning, and when I had asked he had wanted to stay inside: “Stay home…no adventure.” He didn’t really want to go outside now either, but the weather was really nice so we got him out. We walked up to Nowon and the stationary store so Carly could buy some cards. On the way, Carly stopped at Starbucks and used a gift card to get a mocha. A bit of a mistake, as August saw the whipped cream and wanted some. When he couldn’t have any he was upset all the way to Daiso, then to the stationary store. I finally got him to calm down enough to go in the stationary store, and we looked at the stuffed animals, then found the stamps and stamp pads. He picked out a tricolor blue, yellow, and red stamp pad for us to buy and take home.

We then walked the back way home, stopping at 엄지어린이공원 (the park we went to with Chuck, and where last time we were here he made a sculpture and played with ice around the drinking fountain). He wanted to get down and play. He got down in the sand area and was looking for rocks, saying “Remember this”. He got a big rock and was playing with that, lifting it up and down, then comparing it to a little rock (“big rock, little rock”). He wanted me to do the ‘Cap’n’ voice, saying “Matey, Cap’n!” We got out the tennis ball and played with that, and he ate almost all the snacks we had brought. He found a purple balloon someone had left and played with that, and was singing vowel sounds to some teenage boys that stood near. The sun was going down and we finally headed home.

We walked by the new Juicy place that just opened in the building, then went and looked at the new burger place in the pink building. Then went to Tous les Jours and got bread and a couple vegetable croquettes; he had some difficulty waiting until home to eat the croquette.

At home we had dinner, then August was playing more Endless Alphabet. When I changed him we had a conversation about tomorrow; he was able to tell me he didn’t want to go to Home Plus with Carly, instead wanted to stay home with me. Carly gave him a bath, after which he was talking about being “Sad about the D on the door” – he had also taken in a couple of the sponges from Glecy, but they wouldn’t stick to the door, which was a disappointment. Around 8:30 or so it looked like he might fall asleep, so Carly took him in. But awhile later he came back out with me. There was some reading, playing of fort, and playing with Bluie. Finally, he was with Carly in the walk-in closet and really wanted to nurse. In there. When she wouldn’t do that he had a good meltdown, repeating “Nurse in the closet. Mama in the closet!” She got him in to bed and he fell asleep soon after that, around 9:20.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘bat’ and ‘happy’ and ‘queen’, black in Korean, there’s mama, there’s dada’s iPad

Big rock: 

Bouncing on mama’s lap: http://youtu.be/e8EYkXvp6D0

Vowel sounds to teenage boys: 

No mas monos saltando en la cama: 

Spelling: 

In the fort: 

Hugging the number: 

Stickers on the couch: 

Park: 

Tasting the ball: 

Carly knocking it out of his hands: 

Balloon: 

Statue on the way home: 

Playing with Green Monster: 

Awake at 7:22. He closed the door and said “No, no, no” when he saw me. I thought it would be a tough wake up, but a minute later he walked out and requested the iPad. Played Endless Alphabet for awhile, then had his vitamins, which he climbed up on the table to eat. We made a smoothie, and when I brought him his in his cup he said “Thanks”, then “patience grasshopper” (as if saying he had been patient), then “Mama says that. Mama says 78.” He watched some ABC songs (finding a Russian one now, which kind of puzzled him), then we read Sam and Mac. He got up and wanted to play with the sponges from Glecy. They weren’t on the floor from last night, so he was walking around asking “Where sponges?” We read more Bob books, then before we left for class he really got into reading the Frida book, but wanted me to read it in English, so was getting a bit impatient with my slow translating.

I tried to not put him in his coat, which almost worked, but then he decided he wasn’t leaving without the coat. So that held us up and he was still a little sniffly when we got to class. He was clingy at the beginning of class, and wouldn’t let me set him down for several minutes. She still did a lot of talking/demonstrating today, but it didn’t seem too bad, as she had Z’s attention the entire time. We did stickers, played with apple slices on plates representing family members, and then got a bag of toys that we practiced sharing with a friend in class (and saying ‘please’, ‘thank you’, etc.) He didn’t want a handstamp at the end of class – something Carly predicted would happen, since he is so conscious of his hands being “messy” nowadays.

From class we walked to the subway. Unremarkable, except a woman started talking to us. Also not remarkable, except off the subway she kept talking to us, and tried helping putting August in the backpack. She then walked with us up and through the turnstiles, and all the way out of the station. August was getting very frustrated with her, and when we went through the turnstiles he did his best to get her to leave by waving frantically and loudly saying “Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye!” She knew I was a teacher, and she wanted to know about the school, etc. She knew some English, but all I could get from her was that she had a 38-year old niece. I think she was looking for an English teacher or school for her niece or niece’s child. Anyway, August and I then want back to the store in the subway station and bought kimbap and little eggs for lunch. We walked up to the amphitheater and ate lunch there. August has his proper appetite back and ate a a good lunch. He wanted to throw away our garbage, and remembered the way to the closest garbage cans when I didn’t. He then wanted to go back and look into the different bins, so we did that before heading out.

He wanted to go to the new playground and play with the numbers. We went there, and he found a rock on the hopscotch area. Traced numbers with it, then played around, dropping it and saying “Que paso? Se cayo!” (What happened? It fell.) We went under the play structure, where he found a second rock and a stick and he threw them around and through the ladders. He held all three, saying “Three!” Suddenly, he crawled into my lap and cuddled there for at least 10 minutes. He also found a few pieces of little garbage and we put them in my pocket to throw away later. When we left, he left the rocks behind, saying “Bye” to them. He found another rock on the hopscotch area (probably because kids actually use them for playing hopscotch). He picked it up and put it away with the other rocks under the play structure. We went and threw our new garbage away and looked in those bins, then changed him, and made a little attempt to do our walk and put him to sleep. He first wanted to see the robots, so we went and saw them, then walked about 10 minutes at 1:30, but he wasn’t acting like a nap was happening, saying “No nap” and pointing down paths and saying “See animals” and “Old playground”.

So we gave up and walked down towards the old playground. He spotted the walking path and faucet area we first played in last May 28th (using a plastic lid he found). He wanted to play in the water, so we did that, and I got the shovel out so he could play with that. A guy came along and ‘talked’ to me a bit by writing messages on the stone bench with his paper, then on paper when I got out a pen…He just asked how old August was, then told us to have a good day. After the water, which lasted quite awhile, August tried out the different parts of the walking path, falling over pretty dramatically at one point, and wanting to know what each part was made of (tile, big stones, metal circles, etc.) He then sat down next to a bush and looked like he was hiding. I asked what he was hiding from, and he said “Sad musica” and something else. He then walked down a little hill to one of the playgrounds. Used the stick to write letters, then was climbing up on the play structure a bit. Up there, there were two posts with a cross piece that looked like a huge H. He was brave getting down from the play structure and fell once, as it was a long drop, but he was okay. Back on the sand, he complained that there was something in his shoe. I was asking him which shoe to get him to work on ‘right’ and ‘left’. He did indeed have one of his shape stickers in one shoe, then a few minutes later there was sand in the other. We ended up sitting on the play structure and he first wanted to take of his shoes, then socks. Played in the sand in his bare feet, mainly kind of walking around slowly, feeling it, and reaching down and putting sand between his toes. As we were walking to leave, I asked how the sand felt. He looked up, smiled, and said “Cold!” He sat on my lap and we spent some time washing his hands and feet in the faucets. Then packed up and went to the third floor Dream Cafe. Got a strawberry juice for him and coffee for me. He read Dr. Seuss, then played Dr. Seuss and Endless Alphabet. While reading Dr. Seuss there was a line about dreaming, and I asked “Did you have a dream?” He immediately said “Dream bout zookeepers.” But he didn’t want to go to the zoo today. We were there from 3:20 to a sometime after 4. Changed him over by the amphitheater, then we headed out. He was singing and requesting songs right up until we entered the subway station.

I get down to the platform a minute later, take off the backpack, and find him asleep. I took him out and tried to rouse him. No luck. He slept on me the entire subway ride home. Woke a little and protested a bit as I put him back in the backpack, then fell back to sleep and slept at home. He was asleep from 4:59 to 5:59. Woke up and wanted to go outside. Not happy when I took him out and changed him, and insisted on his coat back on (he had worn it all day, even when it was 67). Put him back in the backpack and went out for a little wandering. Asked him where to go, and he started using directions, saying “Go left”. Went to the park and asked what he wanted to do, and “Walk in a circle” won out. So we circled the park once, then met up with Carly as she walked home.

At home he had dinner and Carly gave him a bath. Still looked tired, so thought he might go to bed early, or at a normal time. Nope. He read Bob Books with Carly, then we played with Bluie and Green Monster, which turned into a “Missed me, missed me, now you got to kiss me” thing. August would shove Bluie in the crack between the beds and want Bluie to chant that. He also took to hiding from Carly by hiding behind me. Carly took a shower and we played with the bath letters, writing words, then watched the owl video that Cherie had posted for him (he would say “Hi big owl, hi little owl”). He watched it a good 15 times. He read the Little Houses book with Carly, and really likes that book. Carly tried to put him to sleep, but it wasn’t happening. He came back out with me and we read Dr. Seuss on the iPad and did some art, the
n he put stickers on the back of the computer. Finally took him back in to bed and he fell asleep around 10:30.

New words/phrases: sponges,  bare foot, miss me, galletas, grab Bluie, sweatshirt, little house book, Are you in the stroller? No

Hiding from mama: 

Reading Little Houses: 

Vitamins on the table: 

Class: 

Children’s Grand Park. Throwing away garbage: 

Playground: 

“Three”: 

Water, foot path, and playground: 

Hiding: 

“Big H”: 

Barefoot: 

Coffee shop: 

Asleep: 

Home: 

A lot of talking in his sleep last night. This morning, calling out “nursing…nursing please” over and over before he actually got up. I couldn’t tell if he was actually asleep or awake for several minutes. In the morning he played Endless Alphabet, wanting me to translate everything to Spanish (machine, contagious, bellow…) When he was done with that he went and got the A de Activista book and we read that a few times, him asking “Where is Y?” or whatever letter is next, and finding it on the page.

 

Headed to Teuni Teuni class and got there a few minutes early. Class went well. August let the teacher pick him up, and later did a forward roll. After that he came and wanted to be held for a minute, but much better than wanting to leave. And for the most part he participated in all the activities (except wearing the outfit, of course). He took a minute out to go look at mirror August and press their foreheads together. And he avoided the ramp area, which was full of kids, when he was planting the flowers, preferring to simply walk around a couple times. At the end of class we got our Teuni Teuni DVD, then I realized the water bottle we had brought in was gone. Someone had walked off with our water bottle. Not a big deal, but quite annoying, as August realized what had happened and was getting upset “More blue wawa…” and we had planned to head straight to Dream Forest, not go home. We went down to Home Plus, but their water bottles were too expensive, so we headed home. Out in the park August first played on one of the bike ramps for a minute, then on the wooden benches outside the museum and walking up and down the stone paths. We then went home and took the opportunity to put the hydration system back in the backpack.

 

We walked the 2 miles to Dream Forest. He was really into “This is?” today, pointing to everything from ‘service station’ to ‘car lift’ and ‘gas pump’ to ‘cloud’ and ‘motion detector’ ‘air freshener’ and ‘speaker’. He also wanted to look into the garbage cans to see what was in them – something he has started doing the last couple of days (started at Uijeongbu). They have flowers out in front of the visitor center now, and he really liked those. Then said “Go see deer” and “More into Dream Forest.” So we went up to the deer. He didn’t want to get out at first, but changed his mind. Ended up eating some strawberries, and requesting the “Bye fuzzy” thing (several times through the day). He went and fed the deer by putting dead grass through the fence, and got to pet one of the deer. He was really into Spanish as well, figuring things out like ‘sad deer’ and ‘messy deer’.

 

Had expected him to fall asleep on the walk to Dream Forest. That didn’t happen. Now we tried again, walking through Dream Forest. Still no. So we stopped on the big steps near a sculpture and had some more food. He ate well today, just not much at once, spreading it across 5 or 6 snacks. While sitting there, two little dogs came over and August was trying to pet them; finally succeeded. He was in full talking mode, singing the A is for Ah song a lot. It was cloudy, and he looked up and saw the sun and said “D moon” and “This is?” He then joked “Where the selenite? Selenite up there!” He looked over at the performance arts building and said “Go in art museum. Get apple juice.” This was the first time he impressed me with his memory today, as we only got him a juice once, about a month and a half ago. And it was an orange juice, but we were deciding between orange and apple since they were out of strawberry.

 

Anyway, we went walking again. He was talking about waking up in a coffee shop, and seemed to be tired. But then as we were walking he wanted to touch the berries on trees and just kept singing and asking about more things. When I wouldn’t let him touch the berries, he started to get upset and screaming. He kept saying something like “More screaming big fall asleep.” We stopped again at a bench near an apartment complex. He ate some crackers, then we had banana chips. He started feeding me some, saying “For dada.”

 

At this point we gave up on the nap. I told August we wouldn’t be going to a coffee shop and playing on the iPad if he didn’t take nap, and he seemed to understand and be fine with that. Tried to go to the art gallery in the performance arts building, but they don’t reopen until April 5th. A bit later we walked to the children’s art museum and they don’t have a show until April 9th. Both were closed when we were here at the beginning of February, so they must be on some extended winter hiatus. Changed him in the building, then we sat on a bench and had some more food. He counted the round and square chairs, showing he could count up to 5 on his own. He got out the broom from the backpack and swept the benches, then was dropping it through the cracks.

 

We walked down to check on that second art museum, then up past the playground. Walking down he had preemptively said “No playground”, but now he saw that round turning thing and changed his mind. We got down, played on that, had another snack, then he played around a bit more. Next to the playground, that is, not actually in it. He wanted to throw garbage away, so I found some things in my pockets, then we spent several minutes looking into the different recycling and garbage bags.

 

We were about to walk to APIS and meet up with Carly to walk home, but I had to change him again. We went back in to the building to do that, which took awhile, then had to hurry to APIS to meet Carly at the park at 4:30. As we were walking along the river, he said “See deer” and pointed in front of us, a good 50 yards before we could actually see the deer mosaic. More good memory, as the only time we have looked at the deer mosaic was that last time (early February) that we walked by. We stopped to say hi (he touched it, and said it was cold, and pointed out the antlers), then walked on to the park across from APIS, getting there a minute before Carly. When she got there he wanted to nurse, so we went to the top of the hill and sat on a bench. Then we all walked home. We were singing “A makes Ah” over and over, and each time he would sign ‘again’. As we crossed the street by the pink building, suddenly he pointed  at the landscaping and loudly said “Caiman!” (alligator). He thought the big rock looked like an alligator.

 

At home, he did some reading with Carly and ate quesadilla for dinner. He did some typing on the computer. Then, while eating, he bit his tongue and was very sad.  He was playing with Puff and Angeles, and remembered having Angeles feel the textures on the play area squares – something I don’t think we’ve done since December. So we did that for awhile, then Carly gave him a bath. No washing his hair tonight, but he was talking about it a lot, so Carly was teaching him to say “You make me saw when you wash my hair” while getting him dressed. We played some fort time on the bed, hiding from each other, then he want to sleep about 8.

 

August told Carly about the water bottle incident, saying “sad bout blue wawa. Blue wawa at class. Somebody took wawa.” When I went to bed later, August was talking in his sleep, saying “More typing please.” Carly says he does a lot of letter writing in the air when he is asleep.

 

 

New words/phrases: trunks, berries, take Smokey to the zoo – see the zookeepers, no throwing on the ground, N O no, where’s the iPad?, cuenta conmigo (count with me – from a Spanish song on YouTube)

 

Class: 

In the park: 

Putting the hydration system in the backpack. He couldn’t remember how to make it work at first, until I said “Just like nursing”. We now refer to it as ‘agua nursing’: 

Deer: 

On the stairs: 

Broom: 

Playground: 

Walking to APIS. The deer: 

His alligator (caiman): 

Home: 

An interesting sick day for August. He was awake at 7:12. Woke up okay, but wanted to nurse. Finally got him to laugh and that got him ready to leave the room. He wanted to go watch ABC songs. I asked if he wanted me to carry him and he said “Zinnie walk” and slid off the bed and walked out to the living room. Tried his temperature 3 times; only got it to 37.3, but may have been a bit higher.

We ate oatmeal for breakfast. While making it, we sang the ladybug song, but he wanted to add ’14’ to it everywhere, so we sang “landed on my 14…” and “Oh lady bug 14, lady bug 14, won’t you be my friend 14 14…” He requested the “Bye fuzzy” line he found so funny yesterday, and we ended up changing the “Warm kitty” song to “Warm fuzzy”. He was impatient to go outside, so I decided we’d go to Children’s Grand Park as planned. He requested more Smokey talking about zookeepers to entertain him on the changing pad; he would ask for this several times during the day, including at the zoo, making me think he should actually take Smokey to the zoo next time to see the zookeepers.

So we left nice and early, at 9:20. Read Dr. Seuss the entire way down. As we got him in the backpack at the other end, he spotted ‘q’ in a sign that said ‘equipment’. He started riffing on his “Q for…” joke and said “Q for parentheses…7 turn to Z…1…78…exclamation point…”

We got to the children’s museum right at 10, only to find it closed this week. This happened last year, so I’d been expecting it. But I didn’t see any signs about it last week and there was no text message to members. So rather annoying, especially when you’re standing there with a toddler saying “Go in, go in, go in please…” Went to the Arisu water museum instead. Played with the pumps, where I got another “Zinnie do it” as he was trying to figure out the stair step one that required turning a handle in a circle. We then played with the water wheels – it is a good lesson in cause and effect, and he’s starting to demonstrate understanding that blocking one channel will affect another channel.

I needed to change him and he was done with the water, so we walked to the bathroom by the new playground, as that is where he wanted to go next. But in that bathroom the door wouldn’t open to the changing room. Luckily, it was the 16th, meaning they had just opened all the bathrooms closed for the winter. We walked to the top of the hill, behind the amphitheater, and changed him there. He changed his mind, wanting to go to the old playground, so we walked down the other side. He decided not to play once we got there, but we sat on a pagoda and ate a little snack. I say little because all he ate was a couple pieces of bar, and refused anything else. I was able to lie back on the pagoda in the sun for a few minutes, which was pretty nice. He changed his mind back to the new playground, saying “Other playground…with letters on ground.” So we walked back over the hill and went to the playground. Mainly played on the hopscotch grid, tracing the letters and counting them (“Up to 8!”), and looking at the ‘6’ upside down to make it go up to 9. Got him to go up on the play structure for a minute and onto the shaky net floor, which he had liked once, but he said “No fun shaky floor. Get off.”

He then wanted to see animals, so we walked around the zoo, seeing the hyenas, lynx (which was actually awake and taking a bath, but still perched way up on top), and servals (“Hold it!” he said again), then across to the owls. He then wanted to go check on the penguins (still not out, but you can see one pair on their nest through a camera), then upstairs at the water birds. He showed a little interest in eating, and wanted to go back to our usual spot in the square, but when we got down there he didn’t want out of the backpack and wanted to keep going. A brief walk through the children’s zoo (the fennec foxes are out), then we went up and changed him again and walked to put him to sleep. He fell asleep and we went to the first floor cafe. A lot of other sleeping children in there. Busiest I’ve seen it on a non-holiday. Sadly, he only slept 24 minutes, from 12:31 to 12:55. We went out walking, and walked for 35 minutes, wandering north and south in the park. He didn’t fall asleep though, and didn’t want to do anything except walk, so eventually I headed to the subway. We were on one of the decorated trains for the fourth time, and he saw the word ‘Wedding’ on the floor, so was naming out the letters and learning the word.

We went to Costco and got 5 sets of the Bob Books, a block of cheese, and a chicken bake. August did really well, especially considering how sleepy he was and our failure at free samples: he didn’t want the tuna on bread, and when I hated him a bit of churro, he immediately gave it back and wanted to wash his hands. We were standing in line and I wiped his hand, then he twice wanted me to “wash the finger”, holding out a single finger for me that still had sugar on it.

We headed home, and I expected him to take a second nap once we got there, but when we approached home a little after 3 he got upset; he just wanted to do more walking. I went inside to put the books and stuff down, then we went out to the park and did laps for 25 minutes. Still no sleep. I was getting tired, so went back in and changed him. He just wanted to go back outside and walk. I tried to get him in the stroller instead, but he wouldn’t get in, just wanting the “Backpack. Please.” I sat with him on the floor and he calmed down. He could tell me he wanted the backpack, didn’t want to go to the stream, wanted to go to the park and walk around like we had just been doing, and didn’t want to go to the other side of the park. A full conversation. So we headed back out in the backpack. Another 15 or 20 minutes and still no sleep, so we started talking. Asked if he wanted to go over the bridge and he said yes. We went over there, then I mentioned the art museum and he got excited.

We went into the art museum (about 4:15) and he wanted to go to the play area. He was now well awake and feeling good. We were there for 20 minutes or so. He was pointing behind the woman sitting in front of the fire extinguisher to see the Q. He was then pointing out the colors and squares (nay-mos) everywhere and singing ABC songs – and we also sang the colors song. And he was Qing the blocks of color on the wall. I mentioned art and he wanted to go see art. Pretty excited, really. We went downstairs and he got the stickers and put them on the wall, then was peeling off stickers and moving them around. Played with the light switches for a few minutes.

Outside I put him in the backpack. There was a pigeon getting close to him. He kept calling it quiet and said “Paloma (Spanish for pigeon) quiet birdy” and Qed it. Finally headed home and got there a little after Carly. He hadn’t eaten much during the day since the oatmeal, and he didn’t eat a ton of dinner: a little mushroom and some toast.

Carly gave him a bath; he was traumatized by washing his hair, as usual. Later, well after the bath, he said “No wash your hair. Sad about the hair.” He read a bit of the Bob Books with Carly. While Carly took a shower we played on the bed, using the blanket for a fort. We were hiding under it when Carly came out, so that lasted a few minutes. She would say things like “Are you under the bed?” and he would say “Nooo.” He wanted to play with the bath letters in the parlor, so he went into the bathroom and said “Take off the present” (from the wall where it was stuck using suction cups). A bit later he went into the bedroom and hid under the blanket all by himself. We were in there for awhile, then he wanted us to all go back out to the living room and said “Mama and dada walk.” He drew shapes with Carly; she would draw and he would scribble over it and say “Bye octagon!” He called the yellow marker “Messy yellow” because the case
has marks from other markers on it.

He went asleep close to 9. Impressive after the short nap and being sick. He was obviously feeling much better by the evening, although Carly thought he still felt a little warm. I changed him a couple hours later as he slept. In his sleep he said “Dada do ABCD.” Ten minutes later he loudly proclaimed “Fuzzy bye-bye”. A bit after that it was “Espanol”, then “owls please…owls please…owls please” and finally “Screaming…screaming…more screaming.”

New words/phrases: camo, this is a…, avocado, rhombus, oval

Waking up: 

Water museum: 

Playground. Not wanting out at first:

Looking at robots: 

Learning ‘wedding’: 

Home, briefly: 

Art museum: 

Heading out: 

Home: 

August was awake a little before 6 with a fever. Carly gave him the iPad to watch ABC songs while she got ready, and he was totally singing along to all the songs. At least the temperature wasn’t affecting his energy level in the morning. After she left, we kept watching ABC songs, then made a smoothie together. Sometime after that he suddenly got quieter, and we were lying around on the floor of the parlor and in the fort. We were singing the “A makes Ah” song, and he started signing and saying “Again” each time we finished. We also played with a balloon. He was getting really tired, and I changed him and got him in the backpack. He was fighting sleep though, saying he wanted to go on an “adventure”, not fall asleep. When I asked where to, he said “park”, and when I gave him options on what he wanted in the park he said trees and birds. Despite his denials, he fell asleep within one lap of our park.He slept from 10:57 to 11:56.

He had sounded really stuffy at the beginning of his nap, but got better. He awoke with a little cry, then wanted to go straight outside. So I grabbed some snacks, threw them in the backpack, and we were off. We walked for a long time. First southeast, to find the art store Meg mentioned, then to the tomb area/park further to the southeast (where I walked with my dad). August just wanted to keep walking. So we headed north past the getting-closer-but-behind-schedule science museum and visited a little historical site with a stone stele that we hadn’t visited before. We then walked into Hangeulbi Park and I set him down to rest, despite his requests that we keep walking. He initially refused anything to eat, but finally ate a little bar, and drank a little water.

A few calories and some water seemed to perk him up. He didn’t get out at the park, but started talking more; to this point he had been in “No” mode, with no singing or talking. From the park we walked out the northwest corner and went to Toys R Us. We went and looked at books there, then went to the pet store. He wanted to “See more pets” as we walked by, which surprised me because I usually just call them animals, not pets. We walked around the pet store until he said “All done here.” I changed him and we headed north, towards the stream, as he liked the idea of the stream. As we walked he still didn’t want to sing, so I was asking what he wanted, and at one point I hopped. He laughed, and was saying “More dada hopping.”

We got to the stream and saw smoke. On the other side there was a fire in the grass. A lot of smoke, but the wind was taking it away from us. There were a few workers standing on the path near it, and at first I thought it was intentional, as they do burn the grass along the streams. But it didn’t seem right, and sure enough, a minute later we heard the sirens. So we stood there and got to watch the firefighters put out the fire.

We then walked down the stream, making our walk into a sort of circle around Junggye-dong. We stopped at Cafe Tolerance and got a strawberry smoothie and sat looking out over the stream. He remembered what ‘smoothie’ and ‘funny’ are in Spanish before I did (‘zalamero’ and ‘gracioso’). He played on the iPad, we worked on his reading in the Bob books, and we read some Dr. Seuss. When I was reading The Things You Can Think he said he was “thinking bout zookeepers.” He got up and was doing some singing and wandering around the coffee shop, then was ready to head out. We went outside to put him in the backpack, but he decided he wanted to play at the playground. We played for maybe close to a half hour. At first, he was saying there was “Something in shoe” and had me take off his right shoe three times. There was a string thing that I pulled out, which did the trick. He put it down the crack in the boards on the pagoda, and was initially upset that it was lost, but then I said “Bye bye fuzzy” and he thought that was really funny. I got the shovel out, and he played with it, dropping it through the backpack and dropping and throwing it off the pagoda for me to get. Near the end he actually got down and walked around the playground, insisting the dolphin on the ground was a cat and standing on it, and calling the tail a “nanana moon”. There was a mom and a boy who was kind of following him around. He sang some ABC for the mom, and pointed to the boy’s lollipop and said “This is?”

About 4 he decided he was ready to head home. We walked home. At first he was disappointed Carly wasn’t home. But we started playing with a balloon, then with the blanket on the couch and making a fort. He was sitting next to me on the couch and got quiet. We were both listening to the Radiolab podcast that was playing (there was some yelling and clapping that got his attention). After a couple minutes I looked down to find he was falling asleep. He fell asleep sitting up next to me right at 5. I got up laid him over on the blanket. He slept there until Carly got home and woke him a bit at 5:45 to nurse him. He fell back to sleep and she put him in on the bed. Thinking he might wake up in the middle of the night, I went to bed early, and was falling asleep when he woke up at 8. Carly stayed up with him, and he went back to sleep at 10:15.

New words/phrases: adventure, pets

Listening to number songs as he rests on the couch:

Resting: 

Fire: 

Tolerance Cafe: 

Playground: 

The, uhh, kitty cat: 

Coveting the lollipop: 

Asleep on the couch: