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He was talking a lot in his sleep during the night, although I couldn’t remember what any of it was. But I ended up putting his cat shirt on him for the day, and Carly tells me he said “Kitty cat shirt please” when he woke up to nurse around 5. Anyway, he woke up at 7:35. I had heard some movement noises before that, and when he came out at 7:35 he was entirely happy and awake, making me think he was actually awake for a few minutes playing on the bed. Said “Do ABCD” as he came out, then sat on the couch spelling ‘quack’ and ‘quiet’ and then talking about “Mama do amethyst.” Then he was standing and spinning, singing ABC songs.

 

He watched ABC songs on the iPad then we drew on the paper, and I wrote the sentence “We got to the park to have fun”. He could read all the words except ‘park’ and ‘have’. We went and read Frog on a Log? in the fort, then he came back out and played Endless Alphabet, which he hasn’t done it quite awhile, on the iPad.

 

I looked up ‘beginner books’ on Amazon and found the Bob books (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439845009/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0439845009&linkCode=as2&tag=rcnimannet-20&linkId=GQQFV3U2PFTIEXLL). Bought the first set on the iPad, and this is where August officially started reading. He immediately started laughing at the books, and we read through the first two books together. Along the way he was able to read two full sentences on his own.

 

We headed to Uijeongbu a little after 10, reading a little more of the Bob books along the way. First went to the toy store and he played with their open toys for a few minutes, but then wanted to move on. Took him up to the roof, but he didn’t want to play there; he wanted a play area instead. So we went back down and paid to go in the play area for an hour. I made a mistake in not eating first, as he immediately said “eating” as soon as we walked in. So he snacked a little while we were in there. Also, while we had gone in at 11:20, less than 4 hours after he had woken up, he soon started looking tired. He eventually lasted about 50 minutes. Mainly played with their magnets, which were missing a ‘Q’, so he made one out of the ‘O’ and a little broken one, and one of those wooden baby cubes. We also went in the ball pit for a couple minutes, wee he realized the balls had numbers on them, and I got him to go upstairs, where he then walked around and had fun sliding down the cushy round stairs.

 

We left, getting my ‘free’ latte on the way, and went to the roof and sat and ate lunch. Then changed him, and started walked west towards the Uijengbu city hall area and the parks behind it. He fell asleep almost right away – like 5 minutes – and I found a nice empty coffee shop called J-won Latte where I had a lemon black tea in a real cup. He slept from 1:00 to 1:54, then wanted to get walking when he woke up. We walked over to the parks. The last (and only) time we were here was on June 1st, when he played in a water fountain and then put rocks and dirt in his hat and through a grate. He didn’t want to play at the playground this time, and instead directed me to keep walking around. We walked up to the sculpture garden/pond area and got down to have a snack.

 

This is where we spent most of our time and he had a lot of fun. As we were eating I listed a bunch of names (August, Augustine, Z, Zinn, Zinnie, Zinnio) and asked which he wanted people to call him. He chose Augustine, although waffled a couple minutes later to Zinnie (“Call you Zinnie”), before going back to Augustine. There was a rope along the path and he played with that (“play with the rope”). He spent a ton of time playing with the pine needles, noting that the groups of 3 liked like Ws or Ms, then taking them apart (“came apart…uh-oh”), and dropping them in the grate. He was concerned about getting some in his mouth, saying “Get some in your mouth” and pointing to his mouth. He then stood on the bench and I would hand him clumps of pine needles to drop. While standing on the bench he pointed to a tree and said “This is a pine tree”. A guy came and hovered over him for a few minutes, which was a little odd, then another guy came and sat on our bench, next to our backpack – also odd as there were other open benches. But August liked his shoes, as they had a Z, no N on them that he kept pointing out. We needed to head home a little early as we needed to go to Home Plus, but August just kept playing.

 

There was a low set of posts lining a walkway among the sculptures, and he wanted to walk back and forth on that a few times. He really liked the horse sculpture, where it looks like 3 metal horses go through a wall. He then was walking up and down a steep hill and ended up by a large group of women and sang ABC to them. When they then started talking to him and tried to get him to do something, he loudly said “No” and turned and walked away. They all laughed. We were looking at the sculptures and trying to figure out what they looked like, so I explained ‘abstract art’ (explaining that it is “tricky”, which he understands, having called Jeff’s book, where the animals are constructed of letters and punctuation, “tricky”). Which led to him asking for ‘abstract art’ in Spanish, and as we finally left to head to the subway, he was saying “abstract art…arte abstracto.” In the evening I told Meg about this and she said my homework was to teach him ‘juxtaposition’ tomorrow.

 

We headed home, catching the little monorail. Transferred to the 1 then the 7. He didn’t request iPad until the very end. Also, on the way up he had wanted me to stand on the 1 and we just looked out the window. At Hagye he only wanted to go home until I mentioned the lizard at Home Plus, at which point he changed his mind. We went there, only to find there is no more lizard. He kept saying “Now what?” They do, however, have a bunny. We went down and got a few groceries. He requested crackers, so we got those. Got home about 5:20, after Carly.

 

At home he ate dinner, then Carly gave him a bath, which involved a lot of laughing. But before he got in Carly had thrown all the letters in the water. This was unacceptable, and I had to take them all out before he would get in. He and Carly then made a ‘fort’ on the bed, hiding under the blanket, and we had a lot of fun with first me coming to find him, then Bluie, Green Monster, and Marshy, after August requested them.

 

Back out on the couch we did a little reading on the iPad, then he played Endless Alphabet. He got to ‘Journey’ and he said “Go in a journey”. He hadn’t done it yet, just heard the word. Not sure if he had played through it this morning (I don’t think so) or whether he had remembered it from weeks ago, or what. He went to sleep about 8:40, but woke up twice in the next half hour for more nursing. He was fine after that.

 

 

New words/phrases: pine needles, agua de pino, drop, get some in your mouth, this is a pine tree, Zinnie have pine needles (as he was holding some),

Toy store: 

Play area: 

Pine needles in Spanish: 

Saying no: 

Abstract art. He said this was a goose or duck: 

Waiting for the train:

Using a fork:

Fort fun: 

He was up about 8. Carly was skyping with her mom, and August said “Oh, hippopotamus”, which he hasn’t used much recently. A bit later she was blowing up balloons for him and he said “Went out of hands” when he had been holding it and she let go and it flew away. I then did more balloons with him, and we were typing words together on my computer. He read duck, sheep, cow, book, and yellow with no prompting, was able to sound out ‘bed’ on his own and read it, and sounded out ‘food’. Carly then started a whole poking thing when she poked me. August then requested more poking between her and me. He got into the game, leading Carly to remind him to do “gentle poking”, so he started saying “more gentle” when he wanted more poking. Carly read Jeff’s book with August. He really laughed at the word ‘bottomless’, wanted there to be a zookeeper in it, and, because the pictures are made of letters and punctuation, agreed it was a “tricky book”.

 

Carly went to the pink building to do grocery shopping. While I was changing August he started talking about ’biotite’ – one of the minerals at the children’s museum. He then, out of nowhere, said “Make a fort at home…make a fort in the parlor.” So we did, draping a blanket between the rocking chair and the end table and covering the reading area. First he was just into knocking it down, but eventually he got in it with me and was pointing out the “ickys”. We were in there when we heard Carly come in the door, so we hid in it and August thought that was pretty great. He eventually pulled it down, and was sitting in the remains of the fort with the blanket around him. He was lounging against the pillows and pulling the blanket up around him, and hiding behind it. We asked if he was cozy and he said “cozy cozy”.

 

He had a great mystery word today, that sounded like “Fred”. It at least clearly started with an ‘F’ as he was really emphasizing that. When we would ask him to point, he would usually point to the floor and say “Fred here”, which makes me think that it is something he wanted us to do or put there.

 

He went to sleep for about an hour starting around 1:40. Nursing, then more balloons after that. Carly took him in to change him to go outside and they played with the animal magnet set (which we had taken on the plane last summer, but haven’t used since), practicing a lot of Spanish. August had the snake and was going “slither, slither, slither”.

 

He and I left for a walk a little before 4. Went over to the stream, where he spotted a group of boys coming across the bridge with their RC cars – I think the same boys we saw in the park. We watched them for a minute, then I let August choose which path to choose along the stream. He chose the right side. We walked up it, August immediately looking for duckies, and then up to the Madeul Stadium area. Looked at the science exhibits (he helped pull open the big earth’s core exhibit a few times, and we ‘heard’ letters coming out of it). Then let him choose our path around the stadium. Got to the dog park, and he wanted to go right, which takes us out of the park and then he pointed to the river. So we went down along the river, and immediately saw a group of kids on unicycles on the track there. We watched them, then sat down to watch some more and have a snack. When two of the girls on unicycles came close and noticed him, he started singing the ABC song for them; he also later sang it to a woman who was talking to him (and trying to get him to hug her, which he refused). When someone fell of a unicycle he would say “uh-oh” and “Se cayo!” At one point, he told me to take “photo unicycles”. I then taught him to push the gray button to take a photo, and let him do it. This became the start of a long photography session/lesson. I held the phone all the time, but he would say what he wanted to take a photo of, and then I would ask him what angle he would want to take the photo from (giving him some options) and whether he wanted it in portrait or landscape. And, like with his foot, have him move it closer or farther from the camera. He was really into taking photos of the stripes of track and concrete, his shoes, the bolts on the bench, his water bottle (which he placed on the ground, then under the bench, then, when it fell over, he wanted to take a photo of the “uh-oh”), and the backpack (particularly our hedgehog pin). He said “Photo hiding” so I took a photo of him with his hands over his face. He later said “Photo Zinnie”, so I had him take his first selfie.

 

He was then having fun stepping off the big curb and saying made-up words as he did it. One woman tried to tell him he shouldn’t be crawling on the ground (or maybe warning him to stay off the walking path) but didn’t press the issue when I didn’t intervene. He also played with the yellow ball, which I had gotten out of the backpack, throwing it up and saying “Where’d it go?”

 

He was having a blast doing all of this, but I was getting cold (around 43 and cloudy) and my hands were freezing. Eventually I convinced him to head home. He didn’t seem bothered by the cold though, and wouldn’t hold onto my hands. On our walking to and from, we had been working on counting backwards, which he did from 10 (always adding a “14!” after getting to zero). He then requested letters backwards, so we started figuring out the alphabet backwards. He was also really practicing ‘LMNOP’, trying to say it fast, then was asking me for LMNOP in Spanish, so we were working on saying LMNÑOP fast.

 

At home, Carly had done some grading and had made beans for burritos. August wouldn’t eat the beans though, so basically ate quesadilla for dinner. Didn’t eat a lot today, it seemed. I gave him a bath, which went as usual, playing with the letters and Sophie. We then played with the Fisher Price animal dominoes we just opened this weekend. He got the general idea of making the trains and matching the animals, but really liked getting it wrong as I would make an “Errr” sound he liked. When he was done he said “wreck dominoes” and destroyed the train. He went in the fort with Carly and read, then he and I used a balloon as a percussion instrument and sang several songs. He then got silly, calling a balloon first a “heating system”, then “amethyst”, which surprised Carly as she didn’t know he knew amethyst. He requested that she draw an amethyst, so they went out to the paper and did some drawing. He went to sleep soon after that, around 9.

 

New words/phrases: ostrich, photography, heating system (under the sink), counting backwards from 10, estellas (pointing out the stars on a balloon),

He hid from both of us behind the chair. Confused us pretty good:

Fort: 

Our walk:

Some of his first photos: 

I took this one, of course, but he requested a “photo of hiding”: 

His first selfie: 

Photo of the “uh-oh”: 

Other fun along the river: 

Bird up there: 

Headed home: 

Reading his book: 

Super Q: 

Reading with mama in the fort: 

His birthday party day started with some major skyping in the morning: First with Cherie and Chuck, then with Vivian mixed in, then with just Vivian, then with Cherie back in. While skyping with Vivian August went and got the bath letters and played with those. The empty bag was sitting on the floor and he said “Something in there…was something in there” His first use of the past tense. He and Vivian were also singing the ABC song together. Really looking forward to the summer and seeing if they sing more songs together.

 

The rest of the morning and early afternoon were dedicated to getting ready for the party. Carly did the cake and frosting. I turned the laundry room into another play room. Carly went down and got cash for the pizza. And I went out and got a haircut and went to Home Plus for paper plates, beverages, etc.

 

Megan was the first here, right at 3. We had been talking to August about people coming over. He said “No, no, no” at first, but was then fine after that. Megan was next, then Jill and Logan, and then Nathalie and Chloe. I was abandoned by the three husbands, who all had other things going on. Logan brought August a present, an etch-a-sketch knockoff that August loves, and Chloe brought a 3-D puzzle of the leaning tower of Pisa, which will be fun to make. With each present, we were telling him this was his last present, as now every time he hears mention of ‘present’ he wants to open more of them.

 

Mostly the kids played on their own, only interacting when they wanted something another had. But August and Logan were playing with the big exercise ball together, rolling it back and forth for awhile. And when we were all eating cake, August pointed at Logan and said “Logan messy”, and then pointed at his own face, showing where Logan had frosting on his own. August was also really interested in what Chloe was doing when she was playing with Baby Q, and he and Logan were also looking out the windows at cars and busses a few times together.

 

At one point, when we were all in the parlor, August started hugging Carly from behind as she sat on the floor. He was then saying “More hug mama.” A little after eating cake, everyone else was in the living room and I went into the parlor to find August lying on his back on the reading area. I laid down next to him for a couple minutes. A very nice moment. He was then looking up at the light and said “big globo” and got the idea to play with the balloons, which we haven’t done in a long time (even though he sees them every time he opens the drawer to get the flashlight). That led to a long session of me blowing up the balloons and letting them fly around the room, something the other two kids really got into as well.

 

They sang happy birthday to August in all 3 languages, and about 6:30 the other two kids started to hit there limits, and by 6:45 they left. We did some clean up in the evening, although there wasn’t much to do, as everyone cleaned up as they left, and Carly gave him a bath. There was some more blowing up of balloons, reflecting on the party he said “Fun at the felix cumpleaños”, and we read some Dr. Seuss and played Loopimals on the iPad before he headed off to bed, falling asleep a little after 9 (in the morning, August would claim it was 9:14).

 

 

New words/phrases: using ‘was’, fun at the feliz cumpleaños

Morning:

His party: 

He was awake at 8:05. In the morning we Skyped with Chuck and Cherie and then, a bit later, with my parents. August was not happy about skyping to start with, and we had to call Cherie back once I had him in the parlor playing with the letter sponges. We also played with Marshy, Bluie, and Green Monster a good amount as he was requesting “more happy birthday”.

 

We got all packed up to go out for the day, and as I was running around to get a last few things done he said “Dada hurry up.” We made it to Home Plus a few minutes before his class. As expected, he pointed out the “Upside down V” once we got up to the culture center area. Things went much smoother today. Still rather shy with the new teacher at first, but made it through the class without having to take  break. She still did a lot of talking, and took a long time to explain everything that was in our package of supplies (books, CD, etc.), so I wasn’t too happy with how much time we actually spent playing, but am hoping that will improve next week. Oh, and we have to bring the books each week instead of leaving them with her. Which means I have to carry them to Children’s Grand Park. The activities today were about paper: crumpling and ripping sheets of paper and throwing them in the air, and getting a big sheet of tissue paper to play with. And, of course, since we now had the books, stickers at the end of class. He was in a quick sticker mood today, finding it funny to put all the stickers on one page and on top of each other. He was good about bowing to the teacher and getting a handstamp before we left.

 

We headed to the subway and got on one of the specially decorated trains again (third time). The car we were in today was night scenes of Macao. We stopped to get kimbap and little eggs for lunch (we had run out of bread, so no sandwich today). A joke he started yesterday was now calling CU “QU”. I corrected him at first, but he clearly said “No, QU” and laughed. He kept saying “eat outside”. It was cold, not yet 40, but it was at least sunny. So we sat on the edge of the pagoda between the children’s museum and the swamp area. Some pigeons came along and he waved and said “Hi” to them a few times. Ate a small lunch, then he was clearly getting cold and said “Too cold” so we packed up and went inside.

 

In the children’s museum he played on the first floor a bit. Doing the sorting of fruits/veggies by season thing he called it a puzzle, then recalled the Timmy Time episode, which we haven’t watched in many weeks, saying “Sad about puzzle…Timmy makes a puzzle.”  Every time we eat something slightly sticky he now starts talking about washing his hands. Writing on the chalkboard was the same. We’ve done it many times, but this time he wanted me to wipe off his hands every couple minutes. He seemed done with the first floor after that, and I picked him up to talk to him. He suddenly said “See rabbit over the selenite.” I looked across the room and, sure enough, there was a rabbit painted on the wall above where the selenite and other minerals are that we had never noticed before. He wanted to go upstairs, so I set him down to get the backpack. He said “Eraser. All done chalkboard.” and erased the chalkboard before we left.

 

We went up to the second floor and to the book room. Grabbed a bunch of books and read them up in the loft. Mainly Uh-Oh and the Opposites book, then he wanted to go find Numbers and we read that once. Went to change him before nap time, and he started to talk about “Clase sad.” Basically, from what I could gather, he was either sad that the teacher plays a different song at the end of class, or one of the songs she played was sad. But it was definitely about the music. Then, we were outside having a snack before his nap, and he said “Sad bout the music at city hall. Play one song.” And held up one finger. Now, he has continued to mention the music thing regularly, but I don’t remember saying ‘City Hall’ for a couple days.

 

We got to walking and it took awhile but he fell asleep from 1:46 to 2:37. He wanted to leave the coffee shop right away, and we went to the zoo. Walked around the fierce animals, then he wanted to see the birds. Thought he meant the pheasants, etc. but then he clarified he wanted to see a white goose. So we went to the water birds. He then wanted to go upstairs and see the big hatching eggs and turn the penguin exhibit things. From there we walked past the tropical building, but it was closed for some reason, then went in the children’s zoo. The fennec foxes weren’t out, but he wanted to hold one. As we got down by the goats and horses, a whole group of zookeepers were walking down the path. It was his lucky day. The zookeepers were getting into the horse enclosure to care for the horses (hooves, etc.) so we got to watch. August was excited that they were going in the enclosure. We watched them, and August got down and threw bits of straw in to the goats. He was leaking, so I had to go change him. Did that, and when we came back a zookeeper stopped us from going in the ‘exit’ and told us to go around – they were dealing with the most skittish horse, I think, and had closed the path while they did it. As we walked the other way, August said “Zookeeper says go this way.” We went around and played with the goats for several more minutes before heading home.

 

On the way home he said “Read Oh No! on the iPad.” Wishful thinking, but that’s the book he really likes at the children’s museum. Stopped and got bread on the way home and a vegetable croquette to share and got home a few minutes before Carly, who had stopped at the grocery store for a few things.

 

In the evening he was playing with the orange ball and joking that it was the Teuni ball. Carly fed him and he did a lot of nursing. We started his bath and he was said, saying his lyrical “No, no, no, no, no.” I gave him a bath, and when I started washing his hair he started talking about closing his eyes, which Carly has him do. It was funny to see him practice closing his eyes, as it was a full facial movement.

 

We opened the rest of his presents. From my parents a letter water writing book (to match the number one last night), a dinosaur shirt, a Little Houses counting book, two I Spy books, and some shoe lights.  From Megan a Hawaiian coloring book. From Glecy a Seattle counting book and finger paints. He immediately wanted to use the finger paints and was sad that he couldn’t use them right away.

 

Before bed he had a little crazy time and we had two games that set him to laughing: me freezing, then him poking me and me saying “Hey!” He was asleep a little before 9:30.

 

New words/phrases: mayonesa, croquette, all downloaded

 

An advertisement for my famous oatmeal: 

Class: 

New books: 

CGP: 

Children’s museum: 

Zookeepers, horses, and goats: 

Singing together on the way home: 

Taking a bath: 

Fun time in the evening: 

Presents: 

Bath letters: 

Frida: 

How ’bout: 

He was awake at 7:09, saying “More nursing”. Unfortunately, it was a tough start to a birthday, as it took close to ten minutes of him saying “No, no, no” before we went out to the living room. Then, I said I’d make French toast, which he was happy about, but that meant waiting, which he wasn’t. To add salt to the wound, he had a runny nose, and was getting upset when I wiped it, which led to more crying and running nose…

 

But eventually we had French toast and then went into the parlor to play so he was happy. Played with the wood puzzle – he doesn’t really need help with that one now. He was playing with his Duplo animals and zookeeper (the tiger was chasing her), and the alligator fell off the end table and he said “Be careful alligator!” I had had Bluie, Green Monster, and Marshy say happy birthday to him, and some time later he remembered this and said “More Green Monster, Marshy, and Bluie. Happy Birthday again.” So, they said happy birthday again and were doing more of the rabbit dance.

 

I had gotten snacks ready last night and before he got up this morning, so we had less to do and could get out the door faster. We left about 9:15, taking the subway to Nowon and then line 4 down to the DDP. He was excited to go to the i-Play play area, and we walked in about 10:10 – only to find out they don’t open until 10:30. Another rough one, which we solved by finding a bench and breaking out the bar for snack and reading a little Dr. Seuss (managed to read a few pages of the birthday book before he changed his mind). At 10:30 we went back to the play area.

 

The last time we were here was December 2nd. We had fun and were there for close to 2 hours. A couple minutes after we got there he started to amaze me with his memory: he said something like “animals over there” and pointed over to the area where the animal sounds thing is (where he found the sheep noise really sad a year ago). He walked across the room and into it, and got as far as the cow. He played it once and decided that was enough. He said “No vaca… vaca sad.” He kept bringing this up all day, and when he would hear one of the other kids play it, he would say something similar. He did, however, like the household items, particularly the sound of the coffee going into the coffee cup, which he found hilarious.

 

The other feat of memory came when he found the round texture pads out near the entry area. He said “put away” and proceeded to pick up two of them and walk them up into the play structure, where we had not yet been today, and put them where they belonged. He made a few more trips and put them all away, lining them up in a row on a step.

 

Besides that, he played

– in the kitchen area, where he did a little cooking and pretended to wash his face

– in the tool area. He really wanted to use the screwdrivers and backhoe, but they were all broken. He did however, seem to remember the wooden crane and shapes, as he first put the shapes in their trailer, then said “Crane, crane” as if he knew there was a crane that went with them.

– with the ball drop thing, where you drop balls in two holes and they roll down through plastic tubing

– and with the animal magnets.

 

As I said, we definitely had fun, but it will probably be our last visit to this particular play area. The construction toys were all broken and unusable, many of the animal magnets (each animal was in two pieces, so you could put them together) were missing, there were no rubber band things to use on the rubber band wall, and the girl who worked there (there was only one) sat at the front on her phone the entire time. The only other people there was a group of 5 English-speaking moms and their babies. They had coffee and snacks, and the girl let their cups and wrappers sit there, so that when August and I wanted to eat there was almost no clear table area for us. And when we did eat, she walked by and told us no outside food is allowed. But they don’t even serve real food, just drip coffee and some packaged cookies and juices.

 

Anyway, we managed half a lunch before being told we couldn’t eat, so we went back and played some more, then left. We went into the baby changing area in the DDP and ate the second half of our lunch. He cracked the egg, and as soon as he did he said “Sad bout the music” – a great memory association because we were peeling an egg when the music ended down at City Hall on Tuesday. He would continue to bring up being sad about the music (or music) throughout the day. Think I need to get him to more concerts.

 

I changed him, then went walking outside to put him to sleep. A slow process again, so after 15 or 20 minutes of walking outside, and with the wind picking up, we went into the very quiet and very boring spiral pathway and he fell right to sleep.

 

Went back next to the i-Play play area to the little sweet potato bakery/candy store/coffee shop. They were out of caramel (but, you’re a candy store…), but the vanilla latte was really good. He slept from 1:10 to 2:08. He woke up, and I got him out. The man there had given us a little packet of pancake things while he slept, and August now ate his. He kept calling it a C or an O as we pulled pieces out of it, and touching it and saying “yummy play dough”.

 

Then went out and down the hall to Aiege and ordered a strawberry yogurt smoothie. While waiting, we took our shoes off and played in the little book area. He played with the triangles sitting on the desks again, and a few other things. We had some sips from our smoothie, then went up to the top floor and the big room that used to have all the interesting chairs. Now it is just big and empty. Drank more of our smoothie. Suddenly he started talking to me, saying “Upside down V at the coffee shop…after class…dalghi smoothie.” Took me a minute to piece it together, and I had to confirm that he was talking about his classes, so I asked if he meant Teuni Teuni class, and he said “other class”. I figured it out: “Upside down V at the coffee shop” refers to the coffee shop on the second floor of Home Plus, across from the classrooms, where he took my shoe last week. The sign has an A in ‘CAFFE’ that doesn’t really look like an A, instead looking like an upside down V, and he often comments on it. So I think he was telling me he wants to get a smoothie after class tomorrow, as a bit earlier I had talked about what we were doing on Friday and mentioned class.

 

Anyway, we also got out his ball and stick and played with those, and did our little birthday photo shoot. He also had fun crawling a few times so I could get a photo of him crawling for Carly. We finished the smoothie and he threw it away, then we went over to the Design Experience Zone. We were last here on November 13th, the day that Carly had a field trip here. We went and built a fort, although he lost interest in it after 10 minutes or so. Wandered over to the furniture area, which looked really cool at first. Took our shoes off, as one sign indicated, to play on all the creative furniture, but then realized that only two pieces out of the dozen or more there were touchable. So turned into more frustration as I told August he couldn’t climb on the other furniture. Pretty par for the course here, where often exhibits for children are frustratingly un-interactive.

 

We put our shoes back on and wandered through the museum, and went to the mirror/light room. This was probably the highlight of the day. When he first walked in and started looking, he said “Go in there…go in the mirror” and stared up at the ceiling. As we were sitting in it, I said “Say hi to mirror August” and he waved and said “Happy birthday, mirror August.” So cool. He then got fascinated by the lights, and looking at himself change colors in the mirrors, saying “Blue Zinnie…yellow Zinnie…pink Zinnie…
” and occasionally throwing in a ‘happy birthday’. When it was time to go, I suggested he say goodbye, and he said “Bye mirror Zinnie…happy birthday.”

 

On our way out, we stopped at the 7-11 in the station and got honey butter potato sticks as his birthday chips that he’s been requesting. Ate those on the way home, and got home a few minutes after Carly a little after 5. Ate, then we opened some presents. A shirt from my brother, a water writing counting book from my parents, bath letters/numbers and Daniel Tiger book from Vivian and family, and letter painting sponges and coloring/activity books from Glecy is what we opened today…. The rest for tomorrow.

 

Carly gave him a bath and he got to play with the bath letters/numbers and loved them. They were making words on the door, then he just started putting random letters together and having her pronounce the result.

 

He was off to sleep at 7:43, but woke up about 8, saying ‘uh-oh’, as if he realized he was wide awake. He ended up being awake another couple hours. He read some books with Carly, particularly the Frida book, where ne observed the “monstro hiding curtain”. We went in on the bed to read books, and for some reason he asked Carly to spell ‘ankle’, which led to a long, long session of him saying “How bout…” and saying a word, and mainly Carly spelling the words. This went on for close to a half hour and dozens of words.

 

Carly eventually needed to take a bath. He and I read Kipper’s A to Z, then Carly fed him a bit more dinner. Apropos to nothing, he said “Yummy juice at party” – which I think was talking about the party on Friday, where he saw juice, but I don’t think he had any. We asked what else he remembered from the party, and he said “peanut butter”, referring to the pretzel peanut butter bites.

 

Finally, Carly took him off to bed again and he was asleep about 10.

 

 

New words/phrases: here is GS25, area de jugo, monkey’s legs (really working on plural pronunciation), al reves (upside down), ankle, spelling, spelling ‘book’ 

Birthday French toast: 

Looking out the window with the zookeeper: 

Two!: 

I-Play: 

Big room: 

Design Experience Zone: 

Furniture: 

Mirror room: 

Resting before we leave: 

Birthday chips: 

He was up right at 7:40. After changing him we were out on the couch and he asked for Marshy ABC songs. So I had Marshy singing ABC songs, and in particular the “A is for…” song and we ended up using the other stuffed animals (D is for Dragon, for Puff, for example). We then did the alphabet puzzle a couple times, and did some Spanish typing. Toast and then oatmeal for breakfast, then a lot of getting ready to go. Left about 9:40, did Art Maker on the subway.

 

Arrived at the children’s museum to find it basically empty. Straight to the chalkboard, then making a “huge Z” out of the floor magnets, then back playing with the light stuff. Then found an ‘O’ and was playing with that everywhere. He found the zoetrope and was spinning the O in that. A couple times he said “Bye O” as he spun it away. Then through the nature area. At the minerals, I asked him to find the Quartz. He did. Then the Selenite. Then the amethyst, biotite, etc. He got all 5. I expected him to look at them and/or just know their locations, but the way he did it was by looking at the words: He knows that ‘quartz’ is the one with the Q (kind of tricky, as it is actually Rosequartz, so he has to find it in the middle of the word), Amethyst starts with ‘A’, Biotite with ‘B’ (for black). So he would find that one letter and know that was it. Now 11:20 or so and he said he was hungry, so we went up to the third floor. But first he wanted to play with the stomping thing, the air/ball things, and the cultural puzzles. Then to the cafeteria, which we pretty much had to ourselves. We sang our English/Spanish/Korean Colors song (hereby called the ESK Colors song) and he surprised me by knowing several of the Korean colors on his own: yellow, blue, and green in particular. We are also starting to get grey, black, and silver down. Did some more cultural puzzles, then walked down to the home area and did some vacuuming and looking at the food: “Want this”, pointing at food, then, seeing sushi: “Sushi for mama”. From there to the book area where we read Oh No! and looked at a couple books in the loft, then got out the iPad and read some Dr. Seuss.

 

Changed him and we went outside and had a snack on the benches before going off for a nap. He was talking about zookeepers, saying he wanted to “Open zookeeper door”. Earlier, after lunch, when we were walking by the bathrooms, he said “Hear zookeepers!” Then was holding my finger and wouldn’t let me go down the hall to the bathrooms. And then he said “Spying on zookeepers.”

 

We went for our walk. And kept walking. Took well over a mile and over 30 minutes before he fell asleep. Put his head back a few times, but then it would come up again. I was singing number songs, and when I first thought he was asleep I then heard a slurry “Want ABC songs”. A few minutes later it was a slurred “Sing A is for Apple”. Finally asleep, and we went to the upstairs coffee shop, where he slept 1:37 to 2:33. I went upstairs because they have more food, and the idea was to have  a muffin and smoothie when he woke up, kind of like at 18 months. But when he woke up the first things he said were “See zookeepers…Hear zookeepers!” and he wanted to go outside.

 

So we went to the zoo. Of course, when I asked what he wanted to see, he said “Zookeepers”. We walked around and saw the jackals and servals, etc., then he really wanted to see the vulture, so we did that, then the rest of the pheasants. Then to the water birds, and on to the tropical building to look for zookeepers. We saw one come out of a zookeeper door, and a second trying to feed a dead mouse to a snake. The snake wasn’t interested. He also touched his favorite zookeeper door. So, pretty successful zookeeper spying, although we didn’t hear or see anything though the gates.

 

We then went out to the big square in the zoo and had some crackers, then played there for the next 30 or 40 minutes. Workers were ripping down the little souvenir shop, so that was some entertainment. He got a little rock and was throwing it around, and throwing it on my shadow. I then got the yellow ball out of the backpack, and we were playing with that. He would occasionally not know where it went and say “Where’d it go? I see it.” He was up on the benches, throwing or rolling it off, then I would throw it back to him. At one point I was throwing it up in the air and catching it, so then he was walking around, throwing it up the air, and saying “throw…catch.”

 

We headed home, playing more Art Maker. We got home a few minutes after Carly. At home, he started writing in his notebook, writing 1 to 12, drawing and saying “triangle”, and writing both ‘two’ and ‘to’ – he had initially learned the latter, but I hadn’t seen him write it since learning the number. After awhile, I went to the pink building to do some grocery shopping and pick up wrapping paper and some more little notebooks for word notebooks. While I was gone, he ate a bunch of asparagus and some broccoli. I came home, and at one point, as Carly was getting his bath ready, he wanted the iPad and was getting upset when I wouldn’t let him get it out of the backpack. I started doing the pirate thing to distract him, and he was laughing for the next several minutes. Carly gave him a bath, and he was having fun. Requested the Robot ABC song, which is interesting since he hasn’t watched it in a couple weeks. After the bath he nursed and they had some nice calm time. For the rest of the evening he would hold onto the front of his shirt, kind of like when he is holding up his pants.

 

While Carly was taking a shower, I asked what Zinnie loved. In order, he said: “zookeepers, play areas, pillows, wawa, Teuni Ball, ball, Mama.” Also, out of nowhere he said “Do yoga”, so we went in the parlor and did a little yoga.

 

We were then in the parlor and he wanted to make a tower, then a path with the bricks. He saw the puma and asked what it was in Spanish. As I went to look it up, he made a guess “Puma…Apum” which was amazing because he was adopting the ‘Tuna…atun” structure he had learned yesterday. But no, it is ‘puma’ in both. He was requesting the EKS Colors song, and was saying “Korean”, which we hand’t heard him say before, although he understood it. We spent a lot of time playing with one of his little shape stickers that was on the floor. He would shove it under the reading area cushion and say “Where’d it go?” Then we would lift it up to find it. Finally, we were reading the Little Kipper book, and he pointed and said “More this”, referring to the house that Kipper makes for Arnold out of a cardboard box. I told him he’d have to talk to Mama for that, and she said she’d make him one this summer. Unfortunately, he wanted it now, going out and pointing to the scissors: “More scissors…more box.” Carly took him in and he fell asleep soon after that, around 8:30.

 

New words/phrases: atun (tuna), nolansak (yellow), noksak (green), palgansak (blue), Korean

 

Children’s museum: 

Playing outside at the zoo: 

Home: 

Much more to come (including Wednesday – I didn’t forget about Wednesday), but here is the second-a-day video of his second year: 

He got up to nurse a little after 6 and Carly thought he was waking up. He fell back to sleep though, and slept until 8:13. About 12 hours. But rough waking up, until I got him doing “Cabeza, hombros, brasos, manos” on the changing pad. He then continued to sing it as we were out in the parlor. We did more, much more, of the hearing letters game and that continued throughout the day. We then worked on the alphabet puzzle, which he is slowly getting better at, and ate some breakfast. As I prepared food for lunch, he wanted peanut butter on a spoon. A fork, actually, so I got him his Spongebob fork. He grabbed the peanut butter jar and pointed into it, going “A a a a…” as more of the hearing letters thing. We skyped with my parents for awhile, then continued to get ready to go. He was requesting his minions shirt long before we got to the room to change him, but he then changed his mind. He had requests for a “blue shirt”, then a “silver shirt”, but couldn’t agree to any. Eventually ended up with his long-sleeved car shirt and he didn’t complain once it was on. Finally, we did some Spanish typing before we left.

 

We had to wait awhile for the #9 bus, so were walking around looking at things, particularly things that were spinning (a fan in a heating unit, things outside the cell phone store). Took the bus to Kwangwoon University Station, then the subway downtown. The subway was full, and August was still in the backpack, so I set him down and he was fine for several stops, eating a snack. But then he got antsy, and wanted me to pick up the backpack. By Dongmyo, 6 stops short, he really wanted off. Planned on getting off and catching the next train, but he wanted to leave the station. Looked at the map and realized we could go see Dongmyo Shrine, which we’ve never done, then walk along the main stream downtown. So that’s what we did. He wanted backpack time, as he didn’t want to get out at the shrine, and then was excited about walking along the water, and started talking about seeing duckies.

 

It took awhile, and there was a slight wind blowing in our faces much of the time. A couple times, as it was cold and I was getting hungry, I asked if he wanted to go up the stairs to find someplace inside, or continue along the stream, and he chose the stream. We did see some ducks, a lot of big fish, and lots of pigeons. We admired the artwork along the way, and he pointed one out, that involved big squares in different colors. I took a couple photos of it and the part he liked (he was pointing out a reddish-pink square) and said something like “You know, you can tell me if there are things you want me to take a picture of.” He understood that, as a few minutes later he started pointing and saying “Take photo this”. His list included the ground, a light fixture, a stone panel under a bridge, and, at the end, the waterfall at the beginning of the stream. Once we got inside he would tell me to take a photo of the pig sculpture and, later when we were in the art gallery, several of the things in there.

 

Anyway, 2.5 miles later we were to City Hall and went down to the big Citizens Hall area, which has galleries, history exhibits, a sitting area, coffee shops, etc. We found a place to eat lunch, and there was something going on on stage. A couple guys were introduced and they started singing a pop/rap song. August was initially captivated by the lights above the stage that changed color: “Blue! Verde! Yellow! Amarillo!…” He was captivated during the whole song. When the song was over, it was done. August wasn’t happy about this, and initially yelled “No!” a couple times, then got incredibly sad and put his head down on my leg for a few minutes. Even as his mood recovered, he started talking about it, saying things like “More one song…only one song…more two songs…one song more please” When I asked him how many songs they should have played, he said “Fourteen songs”. We were there for 20 minutes or so, eating, and he continued on like this. At one point, he started dancing to some of the background music, and as I took a video he stopped, then walked up to a woman that was sitting there and sang the ABC song to her.

 

He was back to being in a grand mood, but it was time to try a nap. I took him in to the nice changing room. As I changed him, he made up a “Favorite number is yema (yolk)” song, then had fun counting the rabbits on the wall behind the couch.

 

We walked through the sound gallery, which has an exhibit of Claude Monet paintings that have been brought to life, to have things moving in them. This genre of art is pretty big in Korea and we have seen similar pieces many times. These were probably some of the better ones. Anyway, he initially commented on the colors, then the music that was playing: “Colors!….Sad.” At the other end, there was a big picture of Monet. August called him a zookeeper, then wanted a “photo of zookeeper”. As we were leaving he said “Bye Monet!”

 

We walked around downtown to put him to sleep. As you might expect, this took awhile, as there was so much to see and hear. So twenty-some minutes later he fell asleep and we went up to the coffeeshop at the top of the library building. Not as nice as I remember, and they screwed up my order, bringing me chamomile tea. He slept from 2:25 to 3:22. When he woke up, he wanted to go outside. So we went out on the roof gardens for a minute, then down the stairs and outside, then into city hall. We went up to the 8th floor to the art gallery there, but the show opens tomorrow. So one floor farther up to where there are post-it notes you can write on and post on a whiteboard. August did this once before last spring. He wanted to get out of the backpack now, but when I took him out I found he had leaked (just changed him before the nap!?) Luckily, right next to a bathroom. Changed him, then did some writing on the post-its. He could just stretch and place the post-its on the bottom of the boards.

 

From there we went back down to the Citizens Hall. Sat on a bench and ate pretty much the rest of our food for a snack, then went into the show. Lots of interesting poster-sort of art, with interesting animals and creatures, so August liked it pretty well, except for not being able to touch. He directed me to take photos of several. We bought a couple postcard things before we left, and as we were leaving, a woman gave August a little hedgehog pin. We found a place to get our coats on and get ready to go, and settled for putting the pin on the orange strap on the backpack that I use for holding my coat.

 

We headed out. Two seats the entire way this time, and we did Sesame Street Art Maker the entire way to Kwangwoon. Caught the bus home from there. He had a seat, and I stood and kept him from hitting his head on the window when the crazy bus driver turned. We were home about 5:40, a few minutes before Carly, who had stopped to get rotisserie chicken from a truck. When she got here, August grabbed the “presents for mama” (the postcards) and took them to her.

 

In the evening, she fed him, and I ran down the the GS25 for milk. We used the iPad to read books in Reading Rainbow, and then some Dr. Seuss. For some reason we got on the pirate voice/cap’n/matey thing and August was laughing like crazy, and that continued as I took him in for a bath. There, he went on and on with random ABC songs and improvisations. I asked him what he wanted to do tomorrow, and he said “Chips for happy birthday” (a reference to the confetti in the Happy Birthday book which he in turn thought looked like the colorful chips at the party on Friday). Even after telling him his birthday wasn’t for two days, that is what he kept saying. So yes, he is somehow excited by this birthday thing. He has been saying “Turning two!” a lot as well.

 

Carly took him in to sleep, but he recovered and wasn’t ready yet. Came out to me on the couch, and we started singi
ng the “Mama loves August, Mama loves Zinn…” pronoun song. We expanded it, including “Green Monster loves August…” etc., then I was taking suggestions from August, and he added letters (“Z loves August…”) but was also requesting people (“Opa and Mama”). I took him back in on the bed and we kept at that for awhile. We turned the light off, and he was still trying to escape bedtime. He was trying to make it out the door and said “no bedtime…more happy birthday”). Carly grabbed him and he calmed down, and was asleep around 9:15.

 

 

New words/phrases: manteca de cacahuete, spelling ‘quiz’

 

Singing “Cabeza, hombros…”: 

Peanut butter: 

Walking along the stream: 

One of the things August requested I take a photo of: 

Watching the music: 

Not an exciting video, as he stopped naming off the colors of the lights, but you can get a sense of the music:

Sad. Note the sad lip:

Then all this happened: 

Another photo request from August: 

Counting bunnies: 

Sound Gallery. You can hear him say “Sad” near the end: 

Another requested photo, of the zookeeper. Err, Monet: 

Asleep with hands on the table: 

Post-it notes: 

Q spotting: 

Art gallery. He requested some of the photos: 

Back home. Singing in the bath. This is long, but he just kept going and going…: 

Birthday plans: 

He woke up at 7:50 to find mama gone. He was upset for a minute (“no,no…no want this”) but then walked out into the living room and said “See the octagon…hiding from octagon…want a red say-mo (triangle)” referring to his shape stickers and the ones he had stuck on the play mats. So we played with the shape stickers, then he spent several minutes playing with the “rana (front) puzzle” and made up a little rompecabeza (puzzle) song. We developed a new game, hearing letters around the house, after he was saying things like “Hear A”. We would roam around and ‘hear’ letters coming from the closet, chair, refrigerator, etc. He would also want to play this when we were at the park and then in the evening. More puzzles in the morning, as he got out the wooden car puzzle and then found the little alphabet puzzle we had bought at Daiso. In there we ate breakfast and I managed to get him out of the owls and into a button up short sleeve shirt without too much consternation. We also played with Smokey before we left, and he said “Bye” to some of the animals again. No mention of the iPad this morning.

 

We left for Seoul Forest around 10. Longer subway ride and a transfer, so a little after 11 by the time we got to the park. At the station he stood on the bench and played peekaboo with his coat. First went to the playground and sat on the edge and ate lunch. While doing that he watched these four older boys playing in the sand, one throwing sand on the others. August was pointing and saying “messy”, then “messy pantalones”. When he got down in the sand himself it didn’t last but a few seconds, as he wanted to wash his hands and shoes. He was flapping his hands saying “wash hands” and pointing to his shoe saying “uh-oh” and “wash shoe”. I got the ball out and we rolled it down the long ramp a few times, then he wandered over to the big wire man sculpture/climbing structure side of the park. He walked up the ramp to that and wanted to go in. I got in and climbed up to the knee. He watched, but then turned around and walked back down the ramp. We played along the big snake for awhile. He went to the bear sculpture and stood beside the ‘do not enter’ line around the bears and snapped it for awhile. As we were walking around the snake, it started raining for a couple minutes. He was startled when a drop of rain hit his head, but he liked it and kept saying “more rain”, even as it then ended.

 

He wandered away, over to the stream area (which is dry for the winter). We turned the pump things – one had some rain water in it, so it sort of worked – and he still remembered about washing his shoes. He wandered off down a bath, singing plural ABC songs, the rompecabeza song again, and then some made up Spanish song. We were all alone in the park until a group of teenage girls walked up behind us. I was walking a few feet behind August and when they went by him they startled him. He gave them a little warning yell, then a longer scream when they hung around.

 

He wanted to be picked up after that, but still gave directions. We walked past the sculptures, looking at some of them, and up to the building next to the park with some coffee shops in it. He wanted to go in the building, so we did that, but I wouldn’t go in a coffee shop yet. Now past 1, so we walked south a bit to the information center building and changed him. With him in the backpack, walked past the playground again, across the big pond (where he first ate apple with my parents) and around the big field before he fell asleep and we went to the Latte King shop in that building. He slept from 1:36 to 2:54.

 

When he woke up he wanted out. Sat in the coffee shop a bit, but no iPad. The women next to us had a puppy which he ‘hid’ from, then was singing ABC. He was pointing up at mugs on shelves and said “Q U A C K quack there” and wanting me to lift him up to see better. Couldn’t tell what he was talking about, then I saw it: a mug that said “f*ck summer drink hot coffee”. He had seen the ‘ck’ part. He wanted to look at the food, and then wanted to get kimbap and eggs at CU (we had seen one when going to change him). So we went and did so, and did the walk over to the deer. Along the way I saw a dove/pigeon siding on the grass near a bush. It was hard to see as it blended in and August said it was “hiding”. We got to the deer and sat across from them on a bench and ate the kimbap. It had seeds on it and he asked what they were (“This is?”. I said sesame seeds, and he said “Art Maker seeds”, remember that in the art app you can plant seeds on your painting.

 

We fed the deer. We had to walk back to the entrance to buy food. I left the backpack on the bench, only to remember most of the way there that the money was in the backpack. Went back and got some change. Back to the machine only to find it doesn’t take coins. Back to the backpack. Didn’t know if I had a 1000 won note. August now saying “Want deer food”. Luckily, I had one and only one, so we walked back a third time and got some deer food. He fed one or two pieces directly to them, but preferred to throw it through the fence and watch them eat it from the ground. He did some hiding from the deer, which startled one of the deer each time he did it, and really enjoyed feeding them, also finding it really funny. He threw one or two pieces at a time, so it took quite awhile.

 

He did a lot of walking on our way out of the park. We stopped and looked at the rabbits for a couple minutes. Back at the entrance I changed him again. He looked up and saw the picture again and said “Mama and Zinnie…change diaper.” But then said “Dada and Zinnie”. There was a triangular ‘warning’ symbol above it, warning of the fall hazard. He asked what it was (“What this?”) and I told him it meant that both the babies and the parents had to be careful so the baby didn’t fall. He responded with “Fall…Careful bebe!” Back outside I put him in the backpack. Earlier, there had been a group of adults standing in a circle and singing songs and playing games that involved clapping. We had watched for several minutes before starting the walk for his nap. Now he was sad they were gone, and said “More people singing!” and even put his head on my shoulder for awhile. We were running late, and didn’t leave the park until 4:56.

 

We were quite far away from home, so surprised when we saw an APIS but on the street. Crowded subways. When we got on the line 7, first spent a couple stops sitting on the backpack, with him on my lap, before a seat opened up. At Hagye we were walking out when suddenly he said “More lizard!” and directed me over to the big poster advertising the Buk art museum. It includes the lizard sculptures that used to be in front of the museum.

 

At home,  he was able to tell Carly that he “feed the deer” and that we saw a doggie in the coffee shop. He played with the Teuni ball (and liked when I had it on my head), and the toy box, saying “Something’s in the way” when he couldn’t put the lid on. Carly gave him a bath, then I made him laugh on the changing pad by putting Carly’s shoes on my hands and then having them walk along the door frame and on the floor. This continued out in the kitchen/living room, as he would keep saying “More walking shoes” – he particularly liked when they walked up Carly. Carly read some more books with him, then he was ready for bed and went to sleep about 8:15.

 

When we went in to bed, he woke to nurse for a few minutes. Thought he was fully asleep, but then he rolled back to her. But not to nurse: he cuddled up with her, something he doesn’t really do. A few minutes later he shifted some more and was sleeping with his butt in the air again.

 

A lot of “This is?” nowadays. He did it for the deer food, seeds, parts of the fence, posts along the side walk, big construction cranes
, etc.

 

 

New words/phrases: octagon, rompecabeza (puzzle), rana puzzle, hundred million, hill, comida, something’s in the way

 

Hexagon sticker: 

Looking out the window with Smokey: 

Peekaboo at the subway platform: 

Playground: 

Mug he thought said ‘quack’: 

The whale sculpture: 

Walking to feed the deer: