Category: Uncategorized

He was awake at 7:30. He went out and nursed and then was working on reading and writing with Carly, using the markers, and she was working on getting him to ask “please” when wanting a marker she had. He then came to me and we read Opuestos, using Bluie and Green Monster to act out the opposites, then used them for some hide and seek in the closet. He then found the little roller stamp (which he thinks looks like a question mark) in the closet and we played with that on the paper and kept putting it back together when it came apart. Carly then Skyped with Chuck and Cherie, and I made French toast for breakfast.

 

Next, he was was making words from the letter magnets, but laying them on the table. He spelled ‘hi’ and ‘go’ on his own, then I helped him with ‘pig’, ‘quack’, and ‘quacking’. He then had fun adding a ’t’ to the end of it to make the word ‘quackingt’, which is fun to say. He got the plastic letters out and spelled ‘me’ on his own, then Carly picked him up to go change him. As she took him away he said “Bye ‘me’” to his word.

 

He wanted the iPad so then watched ABC songs. Carly was making soy chicken, and eventually I decided it was time to take August outside. He was excited to take the soccer ball and stick out to the park, but as it turned out, we didn’t use either of them. Before we left though he saw all the plastic and magnet letters on the couch and said “put away” and so he put them away before we left.

 

In the park, he directed me to the other side, then wanted to go the art museum. We first went to the play area and played for a few minutes. He said “wawa in the play area”, but then I realized we hadn’t brought a water bottle. No problem, as they have a dispenser there and we drink from those little paper cups all the time. We went out and got some water. I was holding him with my right arm. I offered him the water and he said “Dada drink it” and shoved it towards me, spilling water on both of us. So he was wet for awhile. Didn’t drake him out though; the most he said was “wash your hands…wash your tummy.”

 

He played for another minute, then I took him downstairs to the children’s gallery. This show is all about color. He liked both of the interactive elements: he got a strip of stickers to place on four outlines on the wall, and the underneath part has a series of colored lightbulbs in black, blue, red, and green light and you can flip the four switches to turn them on and off. He spent a lot of time deciding where to place the stickers and walking around the gallery, then a couple minutes on the light switches until we needed to let someone else do it. Once again, they have the stair stepped part covered in objects that August wants to touch but we of course cannot. Didn’t bother him as much this time though.

 

We went outside and he wanted a snack. We sat on the benches and ate the rest of the rice cake things. Preacher then came along and sat next to me. I talked to him for a few minutes, and August wandered behind us, playing on the stone paths, walking back and forth and throwing a little rock around. He came over and sang ABC by Preacher, and was almost touching his grey coat as he traced the letters in the air.

 

We walked home, and ran into Carly as she came back from the pink building. August spotted her from across the street and squealed. We went home and he went down for a nap soon after, sleeping from around 1:30 to a little past 2:30. He spent a long time nursing with Carly in the parlor, then they were playing with the Spanish cards, mainly focusing on colors. Carly had found 6 of the cards with yellow on their backs and he was counting them. He really wanted there to be a seventh card though, so he would carefully count the 6, and then after a couple seconds say “7”. Did that several times.

 

We all went for a walk – down the stream, up the river, then past the north end of the soccer field, past the science exhibits, and down past the ones with Qs, then down the stream and back home. When we got to Madeul, I let August choose our direction a couple of times. He wanted to stop at the globe to open it (and he now wanted to help open it), then, at the ‘birth of the oceans’ exhibit he wanted to get out of the backpack so he could walk on the ocean part. We played there for several minutes. He saw Carly standing on the rocks around the water area, so he wanted to do it as well, and when Carly tried to help he said “Zinnie do it.” He eventually let her help though, especially on the harder ones. He made it on a bigger one and said “Climbed a big one…Zinnie on grande.” When we got to the Q signs he hid from the Qs and the As. He also likes to “hide from green” when we are waiting for the lights to change at intersections.

 

Also, along the walk he was singing the A is for Apple song when he suddenly said “Oh, new one! S is for snake”. Back in the building, he saw himself in the mirror in the elevator and said “Mirror Zinnie wear coat.” He also did that yesterday, except it was “rain coat” and he got a little upset because he doesn’t like wearing that coat. We were back about 5:40 and played with the zookeeper, mainly he was having her go in her building, and talking about her eating food. She was asking him to find her animals for the zoo, and he would intentionally get the wrong animal (Zebra when he couldn’t find the panda, pig instead of kangaroo, etc.)

 

I was going to go to an art show with Meg today, but she was bogged down in grading, so we postponed that and she came over for dinner instead. August was not happy when she came in the house; we probably didn’t do enough warning before she came. We all went in to the parlor though and he nursed a bit and was then fine, and started singing ABCs for her. We went downstairs for dinner to the Alley Pub place, which just opened up. He did a good job of eating a pickle, a couple of the chip things, the pizza and some of the quesadilla thing, and tried the teriyaki chicken, although that one was definitely too hot for him. He played on the iPad for part of the time. He continues to throw some bites on the floor when he rejects them, but otherwise did really well at dinner.

 

He and I read Little Kipper, then he read Spanish books with Carly. He went in on the bed with her and they read Happy Birthday. The confetti looked like chips to him (from the party on Friday), so then he kept saying he wanted chips. Fought sleep, and kept wanting to get up. Asleep around 9:15.

 

 

Meg over at 6. Not a good reaction. But then showing off. Downstairs to dinner.

 

Reading kipper while Carly showered, then Spanish books with Carly.

 

Reading Happy Birthday: confetti looked like chips, so now he wants chips

 

New words/phrases: capa (coat), globo (balloon), feliz conpleanos a ti

 

Art museum: 

Snack:  

Counting to 6 (err, 7): 

Making up Spanish names: 

On our walk: 

Figuring out some Hangeul: 

Hiding from Q:  

Dinner: 

August woke up about 7:30. Carly and he did some skyping with Cherie, then he was into color and wiping up the floor. We decided to walk up to the Tayo kid cafe, northeast of us. We walked along the stream. Hadn’t seen any ducks or egrets along the way, then we spotted some of each right as we were leaving the stream.

 

Got to the Tayo place right at 11 and left a little before 1. He started in the wooden bead digging area. I hung out with them for awhile, then went to do some reading. Carly stayed with him, and they went to the upstairs home area and did a lot of pretend washing of their hands and faces. He was then roaming around a lot and indecisive. I asked if he was hungry, and he sat on my lap and took a long time to eat some lunch. After that, they went and did a little coloring on the desks in the coloring area, then were back to the wood beads. He was lying on the bench on his stomach, reaching down to play with them. He was also trying to get them past me and throw them over the side.

 

We left, and it was starting to rain, so stopped to put the full rain gear on. He was clearly going to fall asleep, so we decided to head to a coffee shop. We went to a place called 커피공방고흐오솔길 just past Sanggye Station. I’d spotted it a couple years ago, but we had never been. Very nice little place, covered inside with art and notes. And each menu was hand written and illustrated. August slept 1:14 to 2:10. He woke up and played on the iPad. It was now pouring outside, so we were in no hurry to leave. The woman brought some steamed milk for August, and some free coffee for me and Carly. August ignored the milk at first, but really liked it when he tasted it.

 

We left close to 3, while it was still pouring. First tried to take a bus, but it was going to be 20 minutes. Went back and took the subway. At Hagye, Carly headed to Home Plus and August and I went home. He was not happy about this, crying and yelling the entire way to the apartment. Once here, he did not want to get out of the backpack, wanting to go back out to find mama instead. So I sat next to him on the ground and talked to him. Eventually he calmed down, and felt something with his right foot. It was Carly’s work shoes, in a bag. I got them out, and he was waving her shoes around as he was still in the backpack, sitting on the floor. Good time to teach him “pair”.

 

We then made no hold it letters, and he wanted to start listing letters. We usually do that with Q, but today he was into listing M words, then P words. I had to change him, and as I was finishing up I saw he was holding his hand up and looking at it weird. I asked if there was something on his hand. He gave me a serious look and said “Poop. Poop on hand.” So we went and changed him. Before Carly got home we were writing more Q words on the paper, and he asked “How ‘bout ‘quiz’?”

 

Carly got home. Soon thereafter, I noticed he was using ‘of’ quite well, as in ‘piece of banana’. And at one point he randomly pointed to his own eyes and said “two eyes, two eyes”.

 

He wanted the iPad, so we got that out. It ended up being a lesson in fractions by downloading Dr. Seuss books. He would download one in the Treasury app, and as it loaded it would show a circle and I’d say “one-fourth, two-fourths, etc.” and soon he was saying them himself. Carly made coleslaw, and I was feeding some to him and got him to say “Thank you mama for coleslaw.”  He was then reading the Marvin K. Mooney Dr. Seuss book with Carly and was reading and spelling ‘go’.

 

Carly gave him a bath, after which he made up a little ‘Oma’ song and was then singing the Plural ABCs song while walking around and writing in the air. He wanted the iPad again and we settled on playing Nighty Night Circus once. He started it a second time, but decided he was done. Carly was in the middle of marinating the chicken so he had to wait a couple minutes and that did not go well. But eventually I got him to read Opuestos for awhile. He was joking about having a tail (cola) and said “Dada have a tail…Green Monster have a tail.”

 

He was asleep at 8, but woke up a little at 8:45. We heard him say “Dada…more zoo”, then Carly got him back to sleep.

 

New words/phrases: cambiando (switch), one quarter, one half, three quarters

 

Popping the packing material:

Tayo: 

In the rain: 

Steamed milk at the coffee shop: 

Playing with the shoes: 

Two-quarters: 

Reading Dr. Seuss: 

He was awake at 6:55 so Carly nursed him and was a bit late getting out the door. After being quiet for awhile, he popped up saying “Line down, sideways V, turn to K.” More Hangeul vowels with Duplos as Carly left, then reading Opuestos and having Bluie and Green Monster do the rabbit time – this time also wanting Turkey (the elephant) to dance along with them. He then climbed on the couch and asked for the iPad and almost exclusively watched the individual letter songs he likes.

 

Morning was going smoothly and thought we had plenty of time, until we got to putting on his coats and brushing his hair. Went downhill from there, in part because I was trying to put two light coats on him instead of his usual winter coat, and he wasn’t happy about the change. So we went straight from that to his new 5-TOUCH class with a different teacher, getting there  a couple minutes late. I think he was a bit freaked out by the new teacher. Anyway, he made it through class, but not as smoothly as the Teuni Teuni class yesterday. She did a lot of talking/demonstrating, which isn’t his favorite part. There was only one toy activity, which he loved: a wooden cake with velcro on the pieces and top so you could take the pieces apart and put them together, and put candles and strawberries and other pieces on top. A couple times in the class, as she was demonstrating new songs, etc. I had to pick him up and we watched from the back. At one point he walked over to the door. I called him back, and he came back to me and kind of hugged me from behind and put his head on my shoulder. One interesting thing from class was that early on he kept saying “Hear verde”. I finally figured out that he was talking about the voice coming from the speaker. This teacher used a headset and her voice was going through the speaker system. Maybe a bit of synesthesia? Or maybe just being funny…

 

He was in pretty good shape by the end of class though. We grabbed our shoes and went out to put them on and get in the backpack. He took off with one of my shoes in the wrong direction (I wanted to go to the benches to the right). He headed to the coffeeshop and chose a chair he wanted us to use. While we were putting on our shoes, a woman came over who was the director of the cultural center and asked to get my contact info, as Atsuko is still on our account. So we went to her office and did that. Took surprisingly long to simply put my name and phone number in the system. August kept busy by using a pen to write on one of the flat paper cups. After that, Jihong and his mom were still there, so we talked for a few minutes.

 

We finally headed out and went straight to the subway and down to Children’s Grand Park. Bought kimbap and smokey eggs along the way. Went up to the outdoor concert hall and sat up near the top in the sun to eat our lunch. He spent almost all the time (20 minutes or so) walking back and forth on the bench as we ate. Ate all the eggs and a  lot of kimbap. He was talking a lot about zookeepers, and pointing in every direction saying “Zookeepers here”. He also played with his shadow a lot while standing on the bench. It was now 6 hours since he had woken up, and he said “More sleep time”. We went and changed him and took our walk. He slept from 1:16 to 2:05 in the upstairs cafe. Woke up and got out of the backpack, but didn’t want to hang out in the coffee shop. So we went and headed to the zoo, me holding him/him walking today. He did a lot of ‘hiding’ from the primates and elephants, then wanted some crackers.

 

From there we walked up around the ferocious animals complex. He was walking slowly, a couple feet in front of me, and a woman not looking where she was going totally walked straight into him and knocked him down. Luckily a quick recovery. All the animals were out, so we were able to see the Asian bears, the servals, the jackals, and the lynx. One of the servals was right on the other side of the glass and he said “Touch it…hold it.” We got to the zookeeper gate behind the elephants and he heard people (zookeepers) talking on the other side. This was very exciting. He said “Two zookeepers”, presumably because we could hear at least two talking. There was a hole in the gate and I let him look through to ‘spy’ on the zookeepers. After that, we kept talking about spying on more zookeepers. We went into the tropical building to see his favorite zookeeper door, and he spotted a new one he hadn’t seen before. No zookeepers though. Back outside we had to go look at the “zookeeper truck”.

 

He wanted more food. When I asked him what he wanted he said “Zookeeper food”. So we got down on the tiger bench and had a snack and he played for several minutes, lying across the bench, standing on it and singing songs, etc.

 

We had to get going as we had to go buy strawberries and go meet Carly at 4:30. We stopped by the entrance to change him and out on the elephant thing he took out the little stick he had played with on Wednesday and started throwing it around. He was doing some screaming in the bathroom, and I was encouraging him to use his words instead, and had suggested “Hurry up, dada” – one I might regret staying, as he started to say it as he walked around. And actually, he has been using his words. Both earlier and as I was changing him he would say “More screaming” or the like, to express that he was frustrated, but wouldn’t actually do the screaming.

 

Anyway, we got going and took the subway to Hagye. There was a little fruit/veggie stand by the bus stop and they had strawberries. Bought those then hopped on the bus to APIS. August covered his eyes as soon as we got to the field, hiding for real this time, and kept them covered the entire way to her room. When one person started talking to us a bit he did some screeching. In her room he immediately wanted to do some coloring with markers, so he did that. We left about 5. He covered his eyes for the entirety of the walk out. We headed to the part, and ran into some other people about halfway there. He hid from them, and was saying “No this” and pointing to them. It wasn’t looking good for the party itself. But when we got there he first wanted food, so he tolerated the party for that, then we got out his notebook and he drew for a couple minutes. He got comfortable and was walking all over the place. He was really entertained by the older girls. He took one break from the party to nurse, then came back and was hyper for the rest of the party. Ate a lot: walnut bread, some chocolate chip cookie, egg things, couple mandu, strawberry. Near the end Carly was holding him upside down. When we left he said “bye” and “adios” to people.

 

We walked home. Still 60 degrees and very nice despite now being dark. When we got back to the building and were in the elevator he did his “More screaming” thing as he was getting impatient. As we got out of the elevator and headed to the apartment, he said “Dada hurry up.” Skipped a bath tonight. He was still up for awhile and went to sleep a little before 9.

 

We also figured out our “Colors ABC song he’s been requesting”. It has the colors in English, Spanish, and Korean and roughly uses the tune to the ABC song. This was his idea; and if I tried to make up a different tune he would say “No”. Oh, and he started saying “T W O two” as we walked today.

 

New words/phrases: zookeepers food, feeding the elephants, dropped my stick, want to go to water museum, broken hand dryer, too hot hands dryer, hurry up dada Z, spelling two, easel

 

 

New 5-TOUCH class: https://youtu.be/jd-b6G1fpgU

 

Eating a banana: https://youtu.be/rroZ-bGCa5w

 

Zookeepers right there: https://youtu.be/PAT4iIqM90A

 

Playing with his shadow: https://youtu.be/qQRns9Bmi8Y

 

Playing on another bench: https://youtu.be/VMumj7v06II

 

Brasos, manos and throwing the sti
ck: https://youtu.be/mpT7B-jw6HY

 

Throwing the little stick around: https://youtu.be/aHWnkeM3TW0

 

Handstand shows up: https://youtu.be/YGVNAN10L-I

 

At the party:

– https://youtu.be/XHagpi4IwB8

– https://youtu.be/EeKGcEh1STE

– https://youtu.be/eR0y9ytTJhY

Not wanting to give up the owl shirt:

New 5-TOUCH class: 

Children’s Grand Park. Lunch: 

Servals: 

Playing on a bench: 

He looked up at the little picture and said “Zinnie and Mama”: 

Little stick: 

Hiding at APIS:

Party: 

Green chip: 

Asleep: 

He woke up at 7:02. Sadly, right after Carly had walked out the door (he probably heard the door). First stop, as usual, was doing ABCDs. He also wanted to work more on Q words. He then requested a banana, so we made smoothie. He went and got his stool from the bathroom so he could help. Carly got our morning email, saying he had woken up right after she left, so she skyped from work, and talked to him for a minute as he stood at the counter. He started to ask me to spell big words, like ‘parentheses’ and ‘octothorp’ – something he would do several times through the day (others were ‘a million and two’ and other big numbers). He was also pointing to different things, like parts of the blender, and saying “This?” and expecting me to have a name for it, and, as usual, then wanting translations into Spanish.

 

He found the iPad and watched ABC songs for awhile. Then we skyped with my parents. He was upset when he first saw them – I think because he thought it was Mama calling again – but he soon got over it. While skyping with them, he called the table a ‘mesa’, a word that neither Carly or I has explicitly taught him (it is on one of the flash cards though, and in the Palabras book). Before leaving for class, we read the Little Bear book again and had a lot of fun with Opuestos (Opposites).

 

He was not happy at all about taking off his owls shirt today. When he finally calmed down and we headed over to his class we were a few minutes late. There were only two other kids there when we went in, and two more arrived even later. Much less crowded and hectic than the last session when it was 15 or so. Probably because we moved both to an earlier time slot, and suddenly the numbers drop off because more of the kids are going to daycares instead. Anyway, it was very nice, and August was entirely comfortable through the class, and even let the teacher do a forward roll once. The activities were exactly the same as the first class last session (pushing foam pieces into the plastic pigs, knocking over the foam rectangles, and making walkways out of the rectangles, but he did a really good job differentiating for the older kids:

 

– he encouraged August to use a fist to hit the foam pieces, instead of just pushing them in with a finger

– he encouraged him to kick down the foam pieces, instead of just pushing them

– and he put bumps in one walkway for them to step on and over, and put blocks under the other so that it made a hill for them to walk up and down

 

So this class session is off to a success. We saw Jihong and his mom coming in for the next session as we left. Tomorrow we all get to meet their new 5-TOUCH teacher.

 

We headed straight from there to the subway, and rode up to Dobongsan. Been a few months since we’ve been there to. From the station (which is above ground), August was pointing out the windows at the park and saying “Go there.” He was ready for some warm park time. We walked the other direction though, up to the stream area. We walked around the stream area, looking at the ice still in the water. That didn’t deter August, as he still wanted me to let him down and into the water. Kept saying “Walk in the wawa…more wawa…etc.” We walked up to the park entrance and sat on the same bench as last time and ate lunch. He immediately started watching the magpies around, and joking that there were “Magpies on the kitty cats” (on his pants). We started with our sandwich and then I laid out the rest of the foods we had on the bench. He surprised me by quickly naming them all off in Spanish: queso de hebra, fresa, ova, and espaguetis (noodles). He walked off after a bit and I followed – he wanted to walk into the circular area covered with trees to look at the magpies on the ground. So we went in there for a little while, then headed back to our bench area and got sticks. He sand his plural letters song and then we wrote words in the dirt. Mainly Q words. He is definitely reading ‘queen’ and spelling ‘quack’. Still working on ‘quick’ and ‘quiet’, although I think he was also spelling ‘quiet’ regularly by the end of the day.

 

We went up and changed him in the bathroom with the broken door. As we left, I was pushing it closed and there was still a couple inch gap. This bothered him, and he said “Close it…little bit…pequeño.” Went to a bench and put him in the backpack. He was looking out past the fence at a more wooded place and said “go in here…go in trees.” So we set off hiking a bit, down by the stream, then across it and up the hill to the first temple. He fell asleep and I turned around and walked down to the coffee shop by our stream area. I’ve been wanting to go there since first starting our stream routine, but back then I just wanted to stay outside.

 

It is called Cafe 553 and really nice – unlike most coffee shops it had a lot of plants, and big windows that let in light. The music was an odd mix. At first it was the Kingston Trio version of “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”, which I liked. But then it switched to Kelly Clarkson’s “Because of You” (which played in another coffee shop just a couple days ago). Then other annoying modern pop before going back to Simon and Garfunkel’s “El Condor Pass”.

 

Anyway, he slept from 12:55 to 2. When he woke up, he wanted to get going. So we left and walked down the stream to the river, then across and over to the subway station and headed home to Hague. As we were walking from there he was singing his “1978” song, which is just that number repeated over and over. We were looking for a sushi place behind Home Plus that Carly had heard about. As we walked around, he asked me to spell random words “how bout…here, Home Plus, freeze, one, million?”

 

We walked over to the park to have a snack, sitting on the concrete benches with animal prints on them. He really liked sitting on the bird prints, saying they were owl prints. He was having fun standing on the bench and acting goofy. He grabbed to crackers and stood up, holding one in each hand “two crackers…one at a time”, and then doing some dancing around and wagging of his head. We then got sticks and he requested we write Spanish words in the dirt – the first time he’s requested Spanish words.

 

We next went to the art museum, he first enjoyed looking into the closed exhibit area when a workman opened the door to it. He was really intrigued and wanted to go in (despite it being a huge empty room – guess he’s always used to it being full of art). He settled for  going to the to the play area. Played in there for a few minutes, then he wanted to go see books, which I had mentioned as something to do in the museum. We didn’t make it to see the English art books, however, as up on the second floor he saw the coffee shop and he wanted to sit and play on the iPad. So I got an iced tea for me and an orange juice box for him. I showed him a new app called FreeSpeech and we spent the next half hour making crazy sentences, both grammatically correct and incorrect. A couple of my favorites:

 

– What will our messy baby think about?

– What does she think because ball cheese oil has about?

 

As he drank his orange juice, he practiced his “Ahhh, refreshing!” and once threw in a “Delicioso!” It was now getting close to 5 and I wanted to go back to the sushi place. We headed out, but he wanted to play on the benches out front for a few minutes doing “Wheee!” Then headed back to the sushi place and got an order of California rolls for Carly. August initially chose to wait inside, but was then making noise, so I decided we’d wait outside. This made him more upset, and he started grabbing the edge of the door as I tried taking him out. Got him outside, and one of the women brought him a little yogurt drink with a straw in it. It may have been that she was already about to give it to him and he saw it over my shoulder, and
the reason he got so upset was that I was taking him from it.

 

That made him happy, and a few minutes later she brought out the sushi. We started walking (him walking as well), but within a few seconds he wanted the sushi in the bag. I told him it had to wait until we got home, and he didn’t like that idea. He ran back to the sushi place and wanted to go back inside again. Full meltdown, including flopping on the ground and screaming and a lot of pointing back to the sushi place and saying “That way, etc.” ensued from this point, and lasted until we got to the light at Home Plus.

 

At home he shared the sushi with Carly. We then spent some time in on the reading area in the parlor with Carly, showing her the new Dr. Seuss app (we got the full collection) and the sentence building app. We read Opuestos again as Carly took a shower, then played with Duplos. He was practicing his Hangeul vowel construction. Seriously. At some point he actually said “Bed time” and walked into the bedroom. There, we read the Happy Birthday book. He is close to having the little Audition Day script in the back memorized (“Can you sing?” “Yes, I can.” “Can you dance?” “Yes, I can.” Can you cook?” (No, I can’t…but I can eat very well.” “Of course you can.” “Yum yum”). He was then ready to nurse and went to sleep about 8:45.

 

 

New words/phrases: canciones del ABCs, apps de dada (dada’s apps on the iPad), mesa (table), mochila (backpack)

Teuni Teuni: 

Dobongsan. The stream: 

Lunch:  

Back in Hagye: 

Art museum: 

One of the crazy sentences: 

Waiting at the sushi place and saying “Aaaah!”: 

Sushi with mama: 

He was awake at 7:25. I went in and he stood in the bedroom, said “No want, no want” and was then quiet for a couple minutes. He then walked out to the paper and said “ABCD…Hangeul ㄷ change to Hangeul ㅁ” as if he had just dreamed that one up (and maybe he had).

 

He found the iPad (I keep leaving it out on the table when I get up in the morning and forgetting to hide it behind the computer stand). When the sound wasn’t working on some apps he was saying “Too quiet”. He had accidentally turned on mute (which doesn’t affect YouTube, apparently, thus confusing us both). We were close to being ready to leave when I remembered we really needed to do laundry. So I also took of his owl shirt (his pants were already off) to wash them. He was having difficulty parting with them though. He considered it, when I explained they needed to be washed and I asked him to put the shirt in the washing machine. But he couldn’t do it. Instead, he went to the washing machine and pulled the pants out. I then walked back into the laundry room to find that he had hung both the shirt and pants on the drying rack as if they were already clean.

 

W made letters out of Duplos. I made a pyramid from Duplos and he said “Pyramid at play area”‘ remembering the pyramid I had made from the shape magnets at Banghok. As I then hung up laundry, I walked out to find him in the reading area holding both Bluie and Green Monster and having them dance and sing the ABC song. Before we left, he had a nice session of looking out the window.

 

So it was close to 11 before we finally left. Got down to the children’s museum and he directed me upstairs. At the second floor I asked for further direction and he pointed across to the stairs to the third floor and said “eat”. So we ate first, like last time. From there he led the way, going to the ‘culture play’ area he hasn’t really used before. There he found the puzzle matching things, matching objects to their cultures, then wandered down to the second floor. Had me carry him down the ramp, as he is still adjusting to the new shoes and keeps thinking “something in shoe”. There, I noticed that he was holding his pants up with one hand – despite not needing to. Probably a combination of being so used to the owl pants (which do), and being so used to wearing two pairs of pants, but I only had one pair on him today. Anyway, pretty funny. The best moment was as he walked by the astronaut again and held up fingers with one hand while holding up his pants with the other. Did a little hangeul magnet time, then went down to the ball area and played there for ten minutes or so, then on to the chalkboard, then back up to the book area, where we grabbed a few books and went up in the loft area to read them. Before we left, he wanted his water, and requested a silver one. When I told him we only had a blue water bottle, he said “Buy a silver wawa.” I told Carly the capitalism is strong with this one.

 

We did our pre-nap routine and went walking. He was asleep from 1:38 to 2:32 in the lower Peace Coffee. When he woke up he wanted out in the cafe. Played iPad a few minutes, but not much. He was reading letters and words off the floor, and near the front door the vinyl covering with words on it had a big rip on it. He found this very interesting, and kept saying “Floor coming apart”.

 

We then went outside and played in the pile of snow near the Tweety Bird statue, writing words – mainly Q ones, as he is working on quack, queen, quick, and quiet. He had a little stick, and when we were done there, he kind of wandered around the general vicinity, waving the little stick in the air as he looked at things and wrote letters and sang.

 

From there he didn’t want to go see animals, instead wanting to go back to the children’s museum. By this point we didn’t have much time left at all, and when we got close to it, he wanted to go to the water museum. So we went there and played with the water wheels and pumps. When we got to the pumps, he was trying to push and pull the handle and I tried to help. He pushed me away, saying “Zinnie do it” and, indeed, he was able to operate most of the handles using two hands. First time he’s done that.

 

On our way home we were going to stop to get fruit at the pink building. Carly left work early to go to the bank, and finished there as we got to the station. So she went instead. August and I surprised her as we walked up to her as she was checking out, much like we did that one time we found her in Home Plus.

 

At home, we played iwht Bluie and Green Monster, doing more of the rabbit dance. He took apart the “Rana” (frog) in his floor mats and put it back together several times. Carly gave him a bath. He wanted me to make up a colors song (we started to do this the other day). He invented a new word of sorts as he was looking out the windows in the parlor and lifting up the curtain. It was getting stuck on the chair at one end. I moved it a little, but it was still hitting the chair, which he called “More stucking”.

 

He did some more art with Carly (bubble letters, and what she calls ‘happy letter’ – letters with happy faces on them). Then read books with me. He then wanted the funny book. Carly didn’t know which one he meant, so he went out to the book stands, saying “Get the funny one…funny one right there”, referring to the little bear book. Finally, he was doing something with me when he saw Carly wiping the counter in the kitchens. He immediately wanted to do some wiping himself, so she gave him a floor wipe and they wiped the floor. After that, he went to bed pretty quickly, a little before 9.

Helping Carly wipe the floor

 

New words/phrases: too quiet, chips de platano, pyramid, buy a silver wawa, mud, tu sabes

 

Children’s museum: 

Holding his pants: 

Possibly the best moment of the day (although see the pigeons below – tough call). Walking by and seeing the astronaut holding up two fingers, doing a double take, putting up a finger himself, while holding his pants:

We wrote his name in Hangeul. Four syllables (Ah, gu, su, tu). He is touching the ‘tu’: 

Pigeon friends: 

After his nap. Broken floor:

Q words in the snow: 

Home. Making the bed: 

Audition Day: 

He woke up at 8:10. Walked out and looked around the house. I had a podcast playing, and he looked at me confused and said “Hear mama.” We did a lot of reading this morning. He wanted to read Can’t you sleep, Little Bear? Then Jack and Jill, Hop on Pop, and A de Activista. He then watched ABC songs and we made oatmeal for breakfast. We did more reading, including the Little Bear book and Jack and Jill, and also Old King Cole and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes in Spanish. He then requested the Blue dance, having Blue and Green Monster dance together, and August would call out what they were supposed to yell between lines.

 

We started to get ready to go. After changing him I put on his cat shirt, but he requested his “Ahoy, Matey” shirt by name and wanted to change. Did that, but then he changed his mind and wanted it off and the cat shirt back on. So that is where we ended up.

 

We did some drawing before leaving, and he started writing letters on his feet. They were pretty impressive by the time he was done. He chose to have his teeth brushed while he was in the backpack again.

 

On our way to the subway he was hiding from the ‘letters’ on the sidewalk and along it (the Vs and Ss in the benches, the I in yellow tiles, the Os that are manhole covers, etc.). On the subway we initially had a seat at the end of 3, next to two other kids. I set him down first, and was just about to sit down with him on his lap, when a woman came along and insisted on sitting on the bench as well, making it 4 to the 3 seats. So I sat on the floor next to him. He only stayed up on the seat for a couple minutes, as the boy and girl next to him were bothering him by poking at the iPad, and he wanted to sit on my lap. Which was quite nice again, as the train car was all decorated with pictures of flowers, so he had fun putting the “iPad on flowers” and wanting to “sit on grass”. He pointed to the seam of the doors and said there were zookeepers in there. Earlier, he had pointed in the peanut butter jar and said the same thing. We did Very Hungry Caterpillar puzzles, and he remembered the piece missing from the puzzle at the history museum on Saturday – saying something like “Piece missing children’s museum”.

 

At Ttukseom Resort we headed down the walkway into the design building (the spirally building, under which August once took a nap). He directed me as we explored the building a bit. He especially liked looking at the Hangeul displays, then directed us up to the library. There, he wanted out to read books. I set him down and he immediately said “Phone, phone, phone.” This was a reference and memory back to November 11th, the last time we had been here, when we saw the woman leave her phone behind and we tried to find her to give it back. A minute later he was pointing to the red cushion and saying “Phone here” – that was the spot the phone had been left (and where we returned it to when we couldn’t find her). We read a few books. They have a very small English section, but have the same Kipper book as us, Cheerio book, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. And two Boynton books we don’t have, and a couple Eric Carle books that we don’t. His favorite was the Learning Time with the Very Busy Spider book, and we read that three times.

 

We went down to the benches on the first floor and ate lunch. There, the guy who runs the coffee stand came over and talked to him. He really liked August’s eyes, and took a couple photos. August had fun talking to him (and singing ABCs). He showed us photos of his daughter, who is 2 (Korean, that is – younger than August, who is 3).

 

We went outside to try to find a bathroom to change him in. Couldn’t. But August wanted to play in the playground. So we did that for 10 or 15 minutes. Mainly poked at a pile of snow, where he claimed to see triangles (say-moes), perhaps in the foot prints that were on it. Went back to the bathrooms in the design building and changed him standing up (we carry pull-up diapers for these sorts of places). Then out walking along the river for a few minutes until he fell asleep. Went back to the top floor of the building and sat at a table in the corner. He slept from 2:11 to 3:12.

 

When he woke up he wanted out of the coffeeshop (we weren’t actually in a coffeeshop, but I can understand the confusion, since 99% of the time we are). So we started walking. He was in a ‘no’ mood, saying no to anything I asked, or if I started to sing, etc. We walked east, and he finally spoke up when we reached the flower garden, and the bath into the (slightly) wooded area. He saw the path, pointed, and said “Here”. The last time we had walked over here was with my parents. So we walked that way, to the east end of the park, then came back. We stopped in the barren flower garden and had a snack. Sat with my back to the wind, shielding him, as it was getting windier and windier. We did okay for the snack, and he walked around for a few minutes, but the walk back to the subway was very cold, as we were walking directly into the wind. I held his hands the whole time, but heard him doing his little gasping when the wind was heavy. He didn’t complain though.

 

We got off at Sangbong and walked to Costco. A straightforward trip – went straight downstairs, got a pack of feta cheese, and 4 blocks of cheddar, and headed out. Didn’t even find any samples for him. But all of this was a bit chaotic and slow as it was packed. August did really well though, even as we waited in line.

 

Paid, and headed out. On the way he made up the line “P is for parentheses.” Back home, we were playing with his shapes puzzle and kept holding a piece up and saying “What shape is (this)?” And he or I would answer in one language or another. Carly gave him a bath and everything was fine until he started to play with the hose to the handheld shower head. Carly told him he shouldn’t, so he picked up Sophie and started using her to touch it. Then, a few drops of cold water dripped out and on to his head. This was pretty devastating, as if he had been betrayed by the shower or Sophie. I changed him after the shower, and he was back to joking, this time about a “million fourteen poops”.

 

Carly took a shower and we read books. He was saying the color object combinations throughout My Very First Book of Colors, something he hasn’t really done before despite knowing the colors and the objects. Went to bed soon after, close to 9.

 

Also, he’s gotten pretty good with his finger numbers, up to 5. That is, he can hold up 2, 3, 4, or 5 fingers. For 2 he uses his thumb and pointer. Sometimes for 4 his thumb still sticks up, but other times he gets the thumb down. He does pretty well getting the thumb and little finger down for 3.

 

New words/phrases: abeja (bee), musica, plastic, glass, diamanté, cangreho (crab)

 

Morning:

On our way: 

Flower subway car: 

Designs building and library: 

Playground: 

Snack at the end of the walk after his nap: 

Home: 

Today we learned that:

 

A. They have little puppy lockers to put your little dog in while

you shop. Looks just like the ones you would put your coat in, with

a glass door, but also air holes. Video proof below.

 

B. August likes clam chowder. He ate the chunks of potato and clam. And he chose sweet potato pizza, and had no problems with the chunks of sweet potato, corn, or onion.

 

Carly doesn’t have students this week due to the GCP trips so left a bit later for work. August was awake about 7, before she left. He was watching ABC songs after she left, but was full of energy from the beginning; he was ‘hiding’ from busses, ducks, etc. in the songs, making up nonsensical “A is for Apple” lines like “F is for goo-uh-goos”, and running around the table so he could say “Upside down ‘26 letters from A to Z’”.

 

We left at 10. Took the bus to Sangbong then the subway one stop north. Need to remember to just take the (different) bus all the way up next time, as we had to wait a long time for a train. Korean students are still on break. It wasn’t too busy when we got there, but was pretty crazy by the time we left.

 

He ignored the train, bouncy/climbing area, big ball pit, house area, bouncy bear, and digging area. Instead, spent most of our time with:

– the magnetic shape magnets (when I started to put a few pentagons together he said “Teuni Ball!”)

– the little kids ball pit. He discovered that each ball had two numbers on it. He wanted to find 14, but they only went up to 12. But ‘1’ and ‘4’ were on the same ball, so it was pretty much 14. At one point, he wanted his water so we got the water bottle. When done, he said “Dada drink it” (which is often how we deal with food he doesn’t finish). I then pretended to drink it and say “Ahhh”, which got him laughing. So he would point to someplace else, often just a foot or two away (like he did with the ‘QUACK’ cards) and then say “Dada drink it here!”).

– The bristly blocks. Made some letters out of them and he stacked them a bit.

– Air hockey. He was starting to catch on to using the paddle and hitting the puck, but mainly used his hands. But his favorite was dropping it through the goal and taking it out of the slot down below.

– Walking and crawling across the floor keyboard. Also, he got a couple of little wooden beads that had come from the digging area and lay on the keyboard to play with them.

– At the end, we went into the building block area. Sadly, they got rid of the wonderful animal blocks area, and don’t appear to have the hammering stuff or little letter blocks we played with last time. And there is no coloring wall. Instead, they’ve put in a Legos/Duplo/other blocks area which is all the rage here in South Korea. Kind of a shame, as they didn’t open the area until 12, after we had been there more than an hour, and it makes it feel like school, as there are now sets of desks (with edges around them to keep pieces from falling). Luckily, they did have a nice wooden puzzle number set and we beat the crowd to the area. August played with the wooden numbers for probably 20 minutes, taking them out and lining them up, putting them back, etc. As he lined them up, he would very slowly sing our 1 to 30 (well, 20 in this case, as that is as high as they went) song.

 

He would have played with the numbers longer, but it was now 12:30 and he was getting tired. We still needed to eat lunch and get him ready for a nap. So we went out to the cafeteria area. He chose the sweet potato pizza, which is what we had last time, and I got a bowl of clam chowder. This is the place that is pretty much a duplicate of Costco. But there food area is definitely better. Last time, August wouldn’t eat the chunks of sweet potato or the onions. This time, he ate everything, and was asking what the corn was as he ate it.

 

Knew he was definitely ready to go when he wanted to go back downstairs to see if there were any puppies in the lockers (there had been one on our way up, but wasn’t now). Got him ready for his nap and headed out. Took a little walking, but he fell asleep. Found a little clothing/coffee shop down the block from the fake cookie place we went to last time. He slept from 1:38 to 2:49. Woke up and did some letter writing on the iPad, but didn’t want to stay long.

 

We stopped by the Vic Market again to change him, then headed out walking. Walked a block over to the river, then headed south. Saw a few ducks and egrets as we walked, but he was most interested in snow. Touched snow a little, but the best thing was breaking off the icicles from the back of the bike area covers. He could do this from the backup. Did that and kept walking. Walked to Nowon, crossed the river, then caught the bus (Z’s choice between more walking and catching the bus home).

 

Got off the bus, and August didn’t want to go to Home Plus. He also didn’t want to go home. He wanted to get down and play in the snow. Spent a good half hour in the park. Mainly, he went around with the stick and broke up chunks of snow. I showed him the snow on top of the bushes, and he liked making it fall through the branches. He also liked walking up close to the pigeons, and was counting them. Then, he went up the little hill and watched the big kids having a snowball fight and driving their remote controlled cars (the ones with the big wheels); “Car on the snow”. Two of them drove their cars up to August and were shaking the wheels back and forth. August first went up and touched one of them, then started dancing back and forth with the cars. Moment of the day right there. That went on for a good minute. It was almost 5, so I called Carly and she was almost home. At the same time August decided his hands were too cold and he wanted to go home. So we walked out of the park and met Carly and went up home.

 

After a bit at home I went to Home Plus on my own. I had to change his 5-TOUCH class back to the Friday class because Jihong’s mom had to change his class, and I picked up diapers as well. At home, I was surprised when August asked “‘Dada’s shoes’ espanol?” and before I could say anything answered his own question “Zapatos de papa.” Carly says she probably covered that construction with him, but not in the last few days. When asking about something else I had to look up he often jokes “Same” before I am done. But this time he changed, saying “Maybe same…maybe similar.” Finally, he started stepping on my shadow and joked “Why you stepping on me?” We also did hide and seek with Green Monster and friends on his request before going out and doing the rabbit/green monster dance. He had added in the “Hey!” part of the song, but now calls out what he wants them to shout each time, often letters “A…B…C…green agua!”

 

At 7:30 he wanted nurse. I asked if he was tired and he said “Go to sleep.” So Carly took him in. But he wasn’t ready yet. He came out with me while she took a shower. We read in the reading area. I put new books on the book stands and it worked, as we read at least two of of there: Can’t you sleep, Little Bear? and Hippos Go Beserk. He decided to shake water on the floor from his water bottles, so cut that off. He then wanted read Kipper’s A to Z on the bed, which we did. He sang the whole ABC song for Carly in plurals “As, Bs, Cs…” I head him do at least part of this once, but have no idea where he got the idea. Not from us. He even said the ‘Xs’ part correctly. Finally, after being back out in the living room, Carly suggested we go in to the bed. as he ran down the hall he said “Let’s go to bed.”

 

He continues to come up with more A is for… lines. Today it was  “T is for Teuni ball…X is for x-Ray”.

 

New words/phrases: pyramid, air hockey, beads, sopa (soup), clam chowder, crust
part, maybe same, maybe similar

Dog locker: 

Play area: 

Beads on the keyboard:  

A big lunch: 

Nap spot: 

Writing on the iPad: 

Walk home. I think you can figure this one out: 

In the park: 

August was up at 7ish. They skyped with Cassie and company. Colin now gets excited to see August. When I came out, August and Carly were making “No hold it letters” by laying Duplos in shapes. Chuck and Cherie then called on Skype. August was on the iPad at first, but switched to the paper and did a lot of letter writing for them.

 

Carly went to the pink building to do some grocery shopping. August and I stayed home, and mainly played with the musical instruments after he wanted to play with the cymbal things.

 

I then got a message from Derek, saying he needed chicken bouillon and a couple other things. So August and I did a rescue mission, taking our chicken bouillon, the rolls Carly had just bought, and Coke and onions we bought at the pink building. August and I stopped for a second at the park by Wolgye station to get the bag with rolls out – August has gotten upset the last 3 times we’ve tried to go to their house without Carly with us, so I planned on just meeting Derek outside to do a handoff – and Derek called, saying he also needed foil. So August and I walked down to the convenience store nearby and bought some as well. August wasn’t happy when he found us at the door to their apartment building, but he didn’t have a total meltdown. Derek came down and we did the handoff, and we took off.

 

It was now close to 12:30 and he was getting tired. He had already mentioned a coffee shop, so I asked him a couple times if he wanted to go home to mama and nap, or nap and go to a coffeeshop. He chose the coffee shop. And then he said “Wake up coffee shop”. So we walked the street behind their apartment complex, finding a bakery and coffee shop I didn’t know existed, then starting walking towards home as he dozed off. Went to the Yoger Presso, where he and I had shared a yogurt strawberry smoothie a few weeks back. He slept from 12:56 to 1:50. First thing he said as he woke up was “iPad please.”

 

The forecast earlier in the day had not mentioned snow. Now, a huge wind was blowing through, and looking at the forecast said snow at 5:15. Nope. It was here now, with the wind. Figured we would wait it out in the coffee shop for awhile. At first August didn’t want a smoothie, but then he spotted them on the wall himself and changed his mind. So we got a smoothie and sandwich, and spent another hour there. The wind died down, but it kept snowing and snowing, and the temperature dropped to 32. August enjoyed the smoothie; after taking a sip he would say “Dalgi (strawberry) in my mouth.” He started joking about zookeepers, saying they were in the smoothie and “Zookeeper in the coffee shop”. He did a lot of Art Maker and  Loopimal and took a break to sing songs, telling me to “Sing ‘A makes Ah’.” Finally, at 3 he decided it was time to go. Looking out the door he said “iPad away…walk backpack home.”

 

He didn’t like putting his extra sweatshirt on though and started getting loud. The woman at the table next to us decided to ‘help’ by helping shush him, which didn’t help at all, as he then screeched at her. We headed out, then saw the #9 bus as we got to the bus stop across the street. Got on and rode it across the bridge. August wanted to walk though, so we got out after it turned off the main street. We walked the last couple blocks in the snow. My hands were cold, but August wouldn’t hold my hands – he was having fun singing and enjoying the snow.

 

We got home and had about an hour to hang out before we turned around and left again with Carly. It was still snowing, although a little lighter, but not much. Missed the 1161, so took the 111, which meant we had a few more blocks to walk in the snow.

 

August wasn’t happy at first to be in their house and Carly took him back to nurse. They disappeared for awhile and then reappeared, looking for letters. Looking for letters was how Carly got him excited to leave the back room. They came out, and he had a blast the rest of the time. He needed one other break after an hour or so, and came out the second time ready for food. Carly and I read him some books, although he would get distracted by other toys so we were often reading to the other kids. At one point Carly was reading a book to Chloe, and August was on the porch playing with the magnets and Logan went in with him. Logan closed the door, so I watched the two of them playing together, both talking, through the glass. Very fun to see. Carly and I both had a turn holding Rosie as well. We ate a ton (there was stuffing, turkey wrapped in bacon, carrots, and ham) and August ate some ham and most of my rolls.

 

We had gotten there about 5:15. A little after 7 August decided he was getting ready to go home. At one pointe he went and grabbed Carly’s shoes and would say “Get going…backpack.” But then he saw the pie that Nathalie had brought and decided he wanted to stay for dessert. So we had pie and ice cream, and left around 7:45. He was tired, but no crying/meltdown like at the end of previous visits. In fact, as we left he was waving and saying “Adios!” We planned on taking the bus, but it was a nice evening, and likely the last walk in the snow for the winter. As we walked home he was singing A is for… and came up with “p is for pigeon…s is for snowman” I was really impressed with the snowman one, and he got a huge smile. He also saw Ts in the fence we were walking by. We talked about the party we had just been to and he said “Logan’s house is fun.”

 

At home he had a good hyper time before bed. We got books and read on the bed. He kept laughing and doing his head shaking back and forth thing. He coughed and was saying “Why are you coughing…Why are you laughing?” I would barely touch him and he would start laughing. Finally, he fell asleep right about 9. I changed him sometime later and he did some random talking in his sleep.

 

New words/phrases: zalamero, frio, open little stick (straw), type later (? When ready to go)

 

No hold it letters: 

Music time: 

Walkig to Derek’s:

Some interesting text in the Yoger Presso. How many errors do you count?:

Playing Loopimal: 

Out the coffee shop door: 

He skipped a couple, but he surprised me by counting by 10s: 

At dinner. August was playing with cars and didn’t seem like he was listening, but when Carly read a word with ‘q’ he had to turn around and find it:

Logan and August playing out on the porch: 

Walking home: 

Carly left for the NHD competition about 6:10, and August was awake at 6:50. First activity of the day was looking for the stuffed animals in the closet, then we made letters out of Duplos. We had toast and then cereal for breakfast. At some point he thought he had a hair in his mouth and said “Hair in my mouth…take it out.” Then opened his mouth so I could stick my finger in to try and get it. He requested the rabbit dance from Bluie, then wanted Green Monster to join in as well.

 

At 8:30 I got the Skype call for my book group meeting. August at first sat on the couch, covering his eyes to hide from Skype. He then got on the iPad a few minutes later when we started our meeting, but a bit later went into the bedroom, on the bed. I took the iPad in to him, and he spent much of the rest of the meeting on the bed, playing with the iPad, mainly math or ABC songs. Every few minutes I would hear “More Dada in here” and I would go in with him for a minute or two before rejoining my meeting. Eventually, he got hungry and I lured him back out to the living room to eat.

 

All of the skyping went until about 10:30. August and I then got ready and left the house right at 11. Pretty straightforward trip down. In the station he was talking and then said “A N D and”. In Gunja, where we transferred, we stopped and got kimbap. Once we got to Olympic Park, we entered on the south side. August pointed out some curving benches to sit on, so we had lunch there. He said “want some red kimbap”, referring to the packaging of the kimbap we bought a few days ago (this kimbap was wrapped all in silver). He ate a lot of kimbap, then ate all of the crab we had brought. He wanted the big pieces which, a few months ago, he would shove in his mouth and then spit out. So I was warning him to take small bites. He took this to the extreme and was nibbling it like a bunny.

 

He liked the green path, and after he threw away our garbage he took off walking down the path. After a few minutes I put him in the backpack for nap time. But at first he was just enjoying the walk, looking for ducks and egrets and everything else. And he started chanting “ma, may, me, mo” which is from one of the Spanish ABC songs he watches. We came across a series of 20 or 30 animal sculptures, and he had to see and touch each one (well, he wanted too – I didn’t try to say no).

 

Finally, after about 25 minutes, I came to the spot where, last spring, I forced him to wear his green hat. I pointed the spot out to him and told him the story. We then used the bathroom, and started walking again. I told him it was sleeping time now. Another 10 minutes and he was falling to sleep as we came across the point where, after getting used to the hat that time, he first started pointing at things (birds, as it were). This time, he pointed off at birds in the same direction and sleepily tried counting them.

 

He fell asleep, and I went to the cheap cafe I should have gone to last time (when I ended up at the expensive restaurant on top of the history museum). It was perfect as a nap spot (3 dollar latte and not busy), except I had to listen to that horrible “Semi-Charmed Life” song and a Bryan Adams song on their stereo system. Luckily, not too loud. He slept from 1:17 t0 2:15. He woke up, and wanted out. Sat at the table for while and played on the iPad, mainly writing letters, and listening to the Hanguel pronunciations of characters.

 

A little before 3 we headed out with him in the backpack. He made it clear he didn’t want to go to the playgrounds. We walked over to the art museum, but it was between shows. I walked around to the sculpture area behind the museum, and got him out for a snack. At first, he wasn’t in to the location and didn’t want to play, and said no when I got the stick and then the ball out. But pretty soon he was playing with them. There was a metal ’S’ (for SOMA, the Seoul Olympic Museum of Art) and he rolled the ball on it and shook it. He then was bouncing the ball around (“Bounce to art museum”), then rolling it and hitting it with the stick (“up to art museum…up to museum closed”). He started to get back around to the front of the museum, then sent me back for the backpack.

 

We ‘wrote’ letters on the flower bed covers for awhile, then I convinced him we should head over to the history museum. We walked past another coffee shop, which at first he thought was the museum, saying “Museum open!” On the other side, we came across a little drainage ditch, ground covered with pine needles, and some grates over parts of the drainage ditch. He played with the pine needles, dropping them in the drainage ditch and through the grates. We then walked down a big hill (him taking big steps, holding my hands, over the drainage ditch) to the first floor of the art museum, where he wanted to sit on a railing overlooking a porch, 4 or 5 feet down. Okay when I was holding him, but then he wanted to do it on his own.

 

He walked all the way up the big hill on his own, pausing to let me help him across the drainage ditch, then we went to the Baekje History Museum. Carly didn’t like it, but August did. There were puzzles, and a room with blinking squares on the floor where the goal was…to run from one square to the next. Was never clear to me. He also looked at some of the dioramas. We finished by doing another magnetic puzzle downstairs, similar to the ones at the National Museum.

 

We headed home, out the north end now, requiring an extra transfer. When we got on line 7, I set him down next to a mom holding her daughter. August immediately launched into the entire Spanish ABC song for them, then sang the English ABC song for them. Got home a little before 6.

 

At home, I was showing Carly some of the photos/videos. He grabbed the phone and wanted to look through them himself. He would try to show them to Carly, but only for a second/upside down/with his hand covering the screen. But he was really excited by looking at what we had done during the day and said “Remember that…fun.”

 

Carly gave him a bath, and we read books in bed and fell asleep a little after 8.

 

 

 

New words/phrases: grifo agua, water faucet, mas Cheerios por favor, floating dalghi, spelling ‘and’, y (and), rompecabeza (puzzle), wawa jug, canciones ABCs, quadrado (square), kite

Hiding from my Skype meeting: 

iPad on the bed for much of the meeting: 

Olympic Park. Lunch: 

Walking the green path: 

Touching the statues: 

After his nap: 

By the SOMA: 

Up the hill: 

Baekje museum: 

Puzzle: 

Diorama: 

More puzzle: 

Girl on the subway: 

Walking home: 

Evening: 

He woke up at 7:34. I heard the door open and went down the hall. First things he said were “Shoes…wait for mama…find mama.” We sat together on the step at the front door for a few minutes, then he went and found the flashlight and played with that for awhile. He found the iPad and watched videos for awhile. I made some toast and we shared that. Later we would make oatmeal, work on some Spanish together, and do some ABC writing in the notebook. I brushed his teeth after he was already in the backpack for the second day in a row. He likes it, perhaps for the novelty. He was actually letting me brush quite well (not biting down on the toothbrush, like usual, and with no video on, he could hear the toothbrush, so he said “Hear toothbrush!”

 

We left about 9:45. At the children’s museum he wanted to go straight up to the third floor for a snack. He knew things well enough that he could direct me up to the cafeteria. There, we pretty much had the place to ourself, as it was a bit before 11. Our ‘snack’ took about a half hour, and was more like ‘Lunch, Part 1’. While there he said “At the children’s museum” and “cafeteria”, as well as “chip de platano” (banana chip) and “queso de hebra” (string cheese). This snack consisted of sandwich, most of an egg, grapes, strawberry, string cheese, and quinoa.

 

He threw away the garbage, then led the way to the ‘air’ area, stomping on the pad that starts the blower and putting balls in the pneumatic tubes. He then walked down the ramp, a little bothered by either his pants and/or the new shoes as he went. At the bottom, he saw the ball area below and wanted to go there. So we went down there, but he just played there a couple minutes, and then wanted to go to the rest of the first floor, where he generally spends most of his time. We got a good turn on the chalkboard; he was sad when our ‘turn’ was up, but didn’t cry or scream. We played with the shapes on the floor, making shapes and an ampersand (totally his idea, by the way). Then ended up in the nature area, where he checked in on the minerals and ended up at the chalkboard for a second turn.

 

He was starting to get tired, but wanted to go upstairs, so we went up he wanted to go to the little kids area. In there he played with the puzzles and magnets, then started yawning and really rubbing his eyes. He was ready to leave there, but wanted to go next door to the book area and look for Qs. We grabbed our shoes and headed in there. As I set him down he said “Oh no!” and I asked what was wrong, before realizing he was referring to his favorite book there. He grabbed a few books and I found Oh no! We read for about 10 minutes, then went and changed him and headed out. As I was changing him he was saying “Hear something”, referring to noise I was making, or noise he was making with his hand (think he also said “Hear Zinnie”). Then we were quiet and he said “Hear something…hear children’s museum”, referring to the background noise of kids playing.

 

We went outside and ate a second stack (Lunch, part 2) outside. More sandwich, most of the quinoa, some banana chip, and some strawberry. Went walking. Took about 15 minutes and he fell asleep. A short nap, unfortunately, from 1:32 to 2:09. Woke up and wanted to go outside (we were upstairs), so just started walking. We wandered around the park for 20 or 30 minutes: paths on the south, then back to the north side that we don’t often go on. Walked through the playground and he was having none of that. Went to see animals. A few times through the morning, when asking what he wanted to see at the zoo today, he said “zookeepers”. We didn’t actually see any though. We walked around and saw the cats/canines, then were happy to see the primates were out. August had been pretty silent this whole time, still waking up. We were looking at the macaques, and I look back to see that he had his eyes covered and his head buried down in my hood. Wasn’t sure if he was tired, sad, or playing. Started asking him, then walked over to the baboons, where he finally laughed and revealed himself. Continued to ‘hide’ from the primates, then have a blast counting them, claiming there were 14 baboons (there were 11). A new thing is intentional skipping 13 in his counting.

 

Then walked up past the birds, looking at each. He was really into “swinhoe pheasant” and “fantail pigeon” today, and we got to see the white peacock with its feathers up. Then up and around to the herbivores. Looked at them for a few minutes, then he decided we should head home, which was perfect, as it was 3:20 and we needed to go to Home Plus on our way home. So we walked out, stopping at our new bathroom to change him, then playing in he bleacher area for a few minutes before leaving.

 

Had to actually sit on the floor for the subway ride back, which was actually pretty nice; he sat on my lap and we had plenty of elbow room with no one pressed against us. Went straight to Home Plus and did our shopping. He got all sorts of free samples: crab, mandu, sausage, apple. As we walked home, he started saying “Q U A C K, quack”. He sometimes wants to list Q words, and tries to spell them. Today, he was doing this as we walked to the herbivores, and was trying to spell ‘queen’ ‘Q A N’. I remember telling him how to spell ‘queen’, and saying we should write them out when we got home to help him learn to spell the Q words. I don’t remember spelling ‘quack’ but probably did.

 

Anyway, then as we passed Dunkin’ Donuts, he started saying “parentheses, parentheses”. I was looking at all the signs, but didn’t see any. He was pointing and it looked like he was pointing at an empty windows. Finally, he made it clear he was pointing at the two chairs sitting outside, facing the street. The legs of each bowed in, and the inside leg of each looked like half of a set of parentheses.

 

Got home a few minutes after 5, and just after Carly. He ate spaghetti from our bowls, then Carly got him his own alphabet spaghetti. He wanted the flashlight and it wasn’t in the drawer – he went and first looked under the table, where we found it last time it wasn’t in the drawer. He was playing with his magnets and dropped the Q, then said “Where’d you go Q?” On the couch he requested the rabbit dance from Bluie (the tune/dance that Bluie’s done since he was a couple months old).

 

As he was eating, he was hitting the table with his hands and it made a rattling noise. He kept saying “Something in there”, referring to the table. Carly showed him it was the spoon in her bowl by removing it and hitting the table. He then continued to claim it was something else, saying it was a “monster”. This led to some time spent looking for monsters again. Then he played with the English notecards. I spelled ‘quack’ with them. He would then point to another spot on the floor (sometimes just a few inches), saying “quack here” and he or I would then respell the word in the new location. I was saying “watch this” as I spelled new words, like ‘quickly’. He imitated this by pointing to the reading cushion and saying “Watch this” and using cards to make up words.

 

Carly gave him a bath. He was playing with Sophie and having her move around the rim of the tub. Carly asked “Where is she going?” and he replied “Home Plus”. “What’s she getting there?” “Hoo-ha” (noodles) and an “O”.

 

Before bed he helped make the bed again. He ran in to get the flashlight from the counter and stepped on the paper, which slipped, and he fell. A little traumatic, but didn’t hit hard. Came back and played for awhile, then Carly went and got books and they read. He then insisted on reading Happy Birthday, then fell asleep without any troubles at 8:10.

 

 

New words/phrases: At the children’s museum, cafeteria,
chip de platano, queso de hebra, macaques, swinhoe pheasant, how do you spell ____?, hiding from mama/primates, where’d the ‘a’ go?, watch this, favorite word, brasos manos, sombrero

 

Ready to go find mama:

My parents will remember the tiger on the ceiling of the exit from the subway to Children’s Grand Park. They have been installing escalators there for more than a year and a half, and just extended the deadline to April. That is, they haven’t been working on it, for some reason. The door to the construction site was open today, and this is what it looks like:

A study in string cheese: 

Getting tired: 

Zoo: 

Walking home: 

His parentheses: 

Working on ‘quack’ and ‘quacking’: