Category: Uncategorized

We were all awake just before 6. August’s first words were “Go children’s museum.” I then heard him go into the bathroom with Carly and say  “Hi Sophie.”

 

We did a lot of ABC songs and then playing with both his Duplo blocks (making letters) and cardboard blocks (making letters he could stand on) before turning on Teuni Teuni and brushing his teeth. While watching the video, he got into turning the volume up and down or, rather, having me do it: “More quiet…more on, more noises, more sounds.”

 

As we were getting ready to go, he was in my bathroom and wanted to stand on the scale. He picked it up and took several steps back from the sink. He pointed to the sink and said “No bump your head.” Then, back in the living room, he wanted to close the door to the parlor. He got it mostly closed before telling himself “No pinch your fingers” and then saying “Dada do it.”

 

We headed out in the 18 degree weather at 9:40. We rode put to Nowon, then took the 4 down to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, only to find that literally the whole place closes on JUST the third Monday of each month. It was cold and windy, and it was the first time today he told me he was cold and let me hold his hands. I would then hold his hands on or next two walks as well. I consulted Google Maps and realized that the Folk Museum, where we had gone with Chuck and Cherie, was open on Mondays. About the only thing in this city that apparently is. Also, it is free. So we hopped back on the subway (but a different line) and took it two stops to Insadong. He fell asleep as we left the station, at 11:27. I quickly found a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Insadong and we hangout there. When he woke up at 12:22 he was wet. So we changed him in the less-than-perfect bathroom, then sat and played on the iPad (mainly Art Maker) for a half hour or so.

 

We then walked to the folk museum, holding his hands much of the way. At the folk museum we first found the lounge area and ate lunch. There were signs saying ‘No eating on museum grounds’ or something of the sort, but we got away with it (and really, where do they expect people to eat during the winter?). We then went into the children’s areas. There were two exhibits this time: the one on Korean folk tales that we went to with Chuck and Cherie, and one up a ramp on how trees are used: for building, food, paper, etc. We went to the tree one first, and it was really quite nice. August spent a good hour there, and I really had to push to get him to go to the other show. In the tree exhibit, he mainly:

– did the big stamp and then colored on the paper (this was by far the biggest thing, and the only thing he was doing at the end)

– did the hammering of the golf tees into foam, using small wooden hammers

– played with the wooden food/tea set in the hanbok house with an older girl who was really nice

– used the (real) saw to saw wood (the saw itself was under plexiglas, and you just moved the handle back and forth

– played with the little wood blocks

– wandered around and looked at all the things along the wall, particularly the ones with animals (and mainly the birds and squirrels)

 

We went downstairs, and at first he was, I think, scared of the entry room, which is rather dark. I basically dragged him (but I was carrying him anyway, but he was squirming to get away, so it felt like dragging) through it to the big room with the climbing area and everything else. He calmed down and went to the climbing area. Wouldn’t attempt the rope part, but did the rest. After that, there was:

– coloring with neon crayons, then taking the paper into the black light tunnel. This was big for him even before we realized there was the tunnel and the colors glowed, then it was huge and he took a crayon into the tunnel to color in there.

– ‘reading’ (it is in Korean) the book about frogs in the book tunnel. It was the same book he liked last time we were there, and we went through it 4 or 5 times.

– placing the plastic stars in the holes to be lit up

– looking through the cellophane plastic shape to see things in different colors

– weaving (or, rather, giving me the different colors and telling me to weave them in that order)

– looking at the things on the wall, mainly the big zodiac thing that had two turning disks and numbers up to 24 (He was year of the horse, I was year of the dragon).

– Walking through the hanging ropes. When he was doing this, he suddenly started talking about “Ducky songs.” I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, and he said it several times. Then he said “Sad…mama.” At that point I figured out he was talking about the “Five Little Ducks” song that makes him sad. I think he was processing it, as he was in a good mood. We will see if he can watch it now.

 

On our way out, we changed him, then did a quick walk through of the special exhibit on the Year of the Monkey. He mainly wanted to touch each of the stuffed monkeys that were on the wall/fence in the exhibit. He really wanted to touch the ones that were too tall for us.

 

We headed out about 4:15. Just stood on the crowded train from Anguk, as it was one stop. As we got him out of the backpack at the second platform, he drew a crowd. He was really into Spanish at the moment, talking about something (I wish I remember…I think it was probably the alphabet, and Hangeul as well, as he was talking about “No Hangeul Q…No Hangeul Z” around that time), and he started telling one of the women watching him all about it. Very funny.

 

Then, the train was packed when we got on, and we stood for 3 or 4 stops. Kept him content by feeding him crackers. There was another man, right next to us, talking to him. August offered the guy his half-eaten cracker a couple times.

 

We then transferred to the bus at Seokgye. He got upset when we got on though, I think because he wanted to sit near the front of the bus. But there were no double seats up there. Anyway, the bus driver, as they do, basically took off like a madman, so I really had to force him in the seat against his will. But once I sat down and got the iPad out he was fine.

 

We made it home about 5:30, so Carly had a little rest time before us. A pretty quick evening of dinner, a lot of drawing and Spanish, and reading some books (In the Garden, Monser Party!, Alphabet, Feely Bugs, and Perro Grande…Perro Pequeno (Carly read it this evening, but he actually asked me to read it this morning – the first time he’s allowed me to read a Spanish book – my Spanish must be getting better).

 

Carly gave him a bath, which went smoothly except he really doesn’t like getting his hair washed, and he went to bed quite peacefully, falling sleep about 8:15.

 

New words/phrases: flamingo, fresa (strawberry), plateado (silver), want some orange

 

Morning:

After his nap. Some art and people watching out the window: 

Folk museum. Lunch: 

Tree exhibit: 

Sawing: 

Folk tales exhibit: 

Weaving: 

Looking through the color: 

Drawing in blacklight: 

Frog book: 

Stars: 

Zodiac: 

Through the ropes: 

Home. Playing on the door: 

Making a video:  

He woke up at 7:10. I was just up and heard him say “Question mark…Teuni Teuni…no…mama” as he woke up. Nice Sunday morning indoors, as it was low 30s and rain/snow outside. I made eggs with cheese and mushrooms for breakfast.

 

Eventually we went with Carly across to the pink building to do some grocery shopping. He was pretty attached to Carly for much of the day. When we got down to the basement, he wanted to go play in the movie theater area, but given the choice to go there, or shop with Carly, he chose the latter. He had insisted on the backpack, but when we were in the grocery store he wanted to get down to look at the colorful “tea” (actually the juices). We finished shopping, then went into the book store to look at notebooks. He was okay at first, but got upset when I wouldn’t let him pull out markers/pens and then he got upset. The arrival of Carly didn’t really help. So we headed home. As we were walking towards the stairs, he calmed down and said “settled down”.

 

He was tired, as he fell asleep soon after getting home, at 12:08, on the reading area in the parlor. He slept to 12:59, woke up, then slept about another 20 minutes on Carly.

 

Carly nursed and then entertained him as I contacted Apple support about my dying iPhone battery. He was then typing on my computer and starting to figure out where the letters are on his own. He was typing the alphabet, or parts of it, over and over. He would ask for my help from time to time, but much less than a few days ago.

 

Finally, I took him out sometime after 3. I was going to take him for a walk, then go to the Namu play area next door. But he really wanted to go to a coffeeshop. So we walked over to the stream and stood on the bridge, then walked up the street and turned back east and went to Coffeenie, where I bought a new mug and we shared a strawberry smoothie. He did some art maker and Dr. Seuss (he pointed out the words ‘in’ and ‘and’), then sat on my lap and we did some more art. We were there for close to an hour, then left and headed to Namu, getting there a quarter to 5.

 

Name was busy, but tolerable. He started in the ball area, and spent some time in the cooking area. He kept going up and down the colorful round padded stairs, counting them by their colors in Spanish as he did so. I then noticed he was leaking, so I took him over to the changing area on the cafe side and changed him. There, he saw the baby seats with toys (mainly buttons in shapes and with numbers on them) around them and played with them for about 10 minutes. I had found an English book on ‘actions’, and he wanted to read that. So we sat in a chair and read that three times. I think he also liked the calm of the empty cafe. But at that point he was ready to go back in.

 

Most of the time he refused to go in one of the push cars because the phone with the numbers on it was missing again. Finally, he got into one of the other ones and I pushed him around for awhile. At one point he was exiting the ball area, and a larger kid literally tried shoving August out of the way. I stopped the kid as August was bent over the bar with a hand on the floor. I then may have been a little slow in telling August to stop screeching at the kid. I think I waited until screech number three before I said anything.

 

We also played on the trampoline a bit, or mainly the edge of it, with me throwing balls up there and him throwing them off and then sliding down the incline. He was starting to find it really funny to throw the balls at me.

 

At another point he really wanted to play air hockey, but other people were using it. He was getting frustrated, so I picked him up. He said “Down” and when I didn’t put him down he said “All done holding.”

 

That was about it. Around 6:15 he started wanting a cracker and seemed ready to head home. We put him in the backpack and headed home. While we were gone Carly had finished making the delicious curry rice dish and had some time to work. We ate dinner, then gave him a bath. When he was done with his bath, he said “Bye Sophie…funny Sophie… ‘want get in the water’” – the last being a quote of what Carly says when she plays the role of Sophie the giraffe. August still won’t let Sophie get in the bath. He was asking for a ton of Spanish today, particularly in the evening. He is working on saying “cuidador del zooilogico” (zookeeper). Before going to bed he was reading stories with me out in the living room. He then wanted a Spanish book, found the one he wanted, and left and found Carly in the other room.

 

I helped take him in to bed. When he was calm and on his way to sleep I slipped out. I think he fell asleep about 8:20.

 

New words/phrases: Morado (purple), settled down, champiñón (mushroom), all done holding, ___ in Espanol is?, black beans, caps lock, amamantar (nursing), nurse and read is?

 

Taking down the animals so we can vacuum: 

Carly took down her tree, so he is excited to have all of the door for his maintenance: 

Shopping trip. Here he is looking at the ‘tea’: 

Falling asleep on mama: 

Heping him type. Although he can find a lot of the letters on his own, especially in the middle of the alphabet:

Smoothie at Coffeenie: 

Namu: 

Enjoying his “hot” tea: 

Looking out: 

Back home, having fun: 

He slept until 8:30 – a long night of sleep. Skyped with Cherie in the morning. A little before 10 I remembered recycling, so quickly gathered that together and Carly took it down. August was not happy she left, and cried for a few minutes. He then stopped and went to the iPad. When she came back he barely paid her any attention. She apologized for leaving him and making him sad. Finally, he turned to her and gave her his upset/hurt look, then asked to nurse.

 

He was in the other room with Carly and songs were still playing. The 5 Little Ducks came on and he instantly got sad and wanted it off. I quickly turned it off. But he was with Carly at the time, so he isn’t just sad that the song reminds him of her, but because of the ducks leaving.

 

Before we left, Carly prepared some of the Naan from Costco. He entertained himself by pushing the package of frozen naan around on the floor while on his hands and knees.

 

He wanted to play in the sink, so I had him stand on his stool in the bathroom. He played for a few minutes and wrote the ABCs in the water a few times. When he was done he wanted to “Dry my hands” – but he didn’t want the towel in the bathroom; he wanted the “big towel” in the kitchen.

 

As we got ready to go I put a sweatshirt and light rain/wind coat on him. He wasn’t happy with this change and wanted his regular coat. I told him it was his rainy day coat. As we were leaving the building he saw outside and said “Raining outside.” He then put it together and said “Rainy coat! Rainy day coat!”

 

We headed to Hoegi but took line 7, so had to transfer in Sangbong. We just missed a train and had to wait about 20 minutes. He got really antsy and impatient about the wait, especially as the platform filled up around us. Carly did a good job of getting a seat in the crowded train for the two stop trip. When we got off, August wanted back on the subways – two short stints weren’t enough for him and his iPad art time.

 

We walked to the university and over to the natural history museum. We thought August might like it, but he didn’t want to go inside and didn’t really give it a chance. I had hoped we could find some selenite in the geology collection on the first floor, but alas they didn’t have any. So we went outside to a bench in the square outside and got him out and had a snack. He ate all the ravioli I brought. He then spotted a package of crackers in the backpack and darted his hand in to get them. So he had some of those as well. He walked and played around a bit with the stick, and did some funny numbers and dancing with Carly.

 

It then started raining, so we hurried over to the covered area and put him in the backpack and put up the cover. We headed to 8 Street coffee, stopping to take a photo with the Peter Pan and Tinkerbell graffiti art on a building. August had had a long night of sleep and wasn’t seeming tired on the walk, so we thought he might skip a nap. We got coffees and headed up to the second floor. August got to have some whip cream from Carly’s mocha. He mainly sat on Carly’s lap and played on the iPad, doing art and Dr. Seuss with her. We had the notebook and markers out for awhile as well. He started acting tired and wanted to nurse, so we moved up to a table on the third floor. He didn’t fall asleep though, and was soon back up. We had to change him around 3:30 and figured it was a good time to leave. Carly changed him, and he was upset when she went back into the bathroom without him. We left, and put him in the backpack outside on the benches.

 

We walked a couple blocks and it started rain. Stopped at a covered bench to put up the cover and it started raining harder. So put on the full yellow cover and my rain jacket. He then fell asleep on the way to the subway, despite our attempts to keep him awake. He slept from 3:52 to 4:19, when I tried to sit down on the bus home. He woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep; worse, he saw Carly, but couldn’t go to her. He was pretty frustrated by the time we got home.

 

At home in the evening he remembered that the B shape was still missing, so we moved the couch to find it. He helped by getting up on the couch and pulling down all the animals. He wouldn’t pull down Baby Q though and made me get Baby Q down. At some point later I was doing something and said “Oops”. He then said “Oops espanol?” According to Google, it is “Uy”, which August also really liked.

 

August was walking around looking for something, and he said to himself “What are you looking for? Looking for…” The first is a question we often ask him and this was the second time today I’d heard him saying it himself.

 

We read some books in the parlor, did some art, and Carly gave him a bath. While she did that I stuck down the rest of the book holders using sticky tack. So now he can’t take it apart. We also put his Teuni ball back together and did some stickers. He was sleepy around 8:30 and went to Carly in the parlor. He wanted to move to the bed, but in the process changed his mind. Carly’s side is still sore from the coughing, even though the coughing is gone. So wrestled him into bed and stayed with them, singing to him until he was close to sleep.

 

New words/phrases: naranja, raining outside, rainy day coat, ABC cancion, ribbit, buhos (owls), dos fresas (two strawberries), erasers, manos (hands)

Morning:

University: 

Reading with mama in her Nook: 

With Peter Pan (and the old man who is now the background on my phone): 

To answer Peter Pan’s question: 

8 Street. Whipped cream: 

Asleep: 

Home. Reading with Mama: 

Clearing the couch so we can find the B: 

Playing with the humidifier: 

He was up by 6:40 today – a rather short night of sleep. We had a usual morning, and were getting ready to leave a little before 10. When I said we were getting ready to leave, he grabbed his big pink water bottle and started running to the backpack, saying “Take wawa!” He remembered that the small blue one we had yesterday had leaked and barely had any water in it. I had said we would take a different bottle in the future.

 

Then, when I changed him he was upset he couldn’t put the owl shirt on. He had agreed to the Barcelona gecko shirt, but still wasn’t entirely happy with it. So he was still fussing about that and I went out to the living room and put the backpack on the coffee table. I turned around to find August walking to me carrying his cloud pants, saying “This, this.” I wasn’t going to make him wear two pairs of pants as it was warm today, but he insisted on wearing both. So we put those one and left soon thereafter.

 

It was drizzling on the way to the subway. August had the light cover up, but I didn’t use the full cover all day. My hair was a bit damp by the time we got there, but it wasn’t bad. We walked to the left, around the pond/swamp area to get to the children’s museum, and we had a good view of fog over the pond and park. August did his “Ooh” excited noise. We got to the museum a bit before 11. The entire park and children’s museum were dead. Mainly a few other foreign families walking around. The rain was enough to start the cancel-all-field-trips protocols.

 

At the museum, he wandered around the nature area and played with the static cling window magnets. He looked at the minerals, and when he pulled out the selenite he said “Selenite!” We settled on the chalkboard, as usual, but weren’t there for a long time. We then went back to the light stuff, and he played there for awhile – the shadow puppet things (he likes the sheep), the light tubes in the wall, and mainly making towers on one of the light tables and knocking them down. He is getting better at adding to my tower – a couple days ago he was adding the tenth-ish blocks to my alphabet block towers without knocking them over, and he was doing the same here.

 

We went up to lunch about 11:45 and were the only people in there for awhile. He mainly ate ravioli, but stole the last bite of my half of the peanut butter sandwich and was quite proud of himself. He pretended to bump his head on the table and on a chair, and drew more tildes on the yellow wall. And of course there was the usual ABC singing.

 

We got ready for a nap. He is trying to avoid them now, talking about going home instead, or saying he won’t nap, and when we get to our walking area he will protest at first. And whereas he used to willingly tell me what song he wanted me to sing as he went to sleep, now he just says “No singing.” Anyway, I was a little worried he wouldn’t fall asleep since he wasn’t acting tired, didn’t fall asleep on Wednesday, and it was drizzly. Luckily, there was no reason to worry, as he fell asleep as usual. Before he did, as we walked by the fountain he spotted a pigeon and said “Be-dulgi in fountain.”

 

He was asleep 12:44 to 1:40. Woke up kind of startled, so I thought he would want to get going right away. But instead he wanted to get out of the backpack. We ended up hanging out in the coffeeshop, drawing in Sesame Street Art Maker. That is his favorite app right now. In fact, he would say “No ABC songs on subway. Art Maker on subway.” I was asking where he wanted to sit, either in the low chairs by the window, or on the comfy chair. He chose comfy chair, then said “Dada’s lap”.

 

As we were getting ready to leave, he said “Ampersand!” as he had spotted one on the shelf. He has also been spotting tildes, in signs both at Home Plus and at the children’s museum.

 

We went to the zoo. August gave a nice cry of surprise when he saw the baboons out, as he had just been saying “Primates inside.” We saw them and the macaques, then the elephant. We walked around that area, and ended up seeing the jaguars, leopards, tiger, and lion. The tiger was talking, and walked towards us and lay on the wet concrete slab in the cage. And we got to see the lioness (don’t know where the male went – we haven’t seen him in a couple months) tentatively step on the ice of her little frozen pond and then walk around on it. Both very interesting to see, and both quite depressing.

 

From there we went and saw the water birds, which he requested, but then he changed his mind when we got in there. He wanted a snack, and some extensive negotiations ensued as to where said snack would be eaten. He wanted to sit in the middle of the damp square. That was out due to the benches being soaked. But he didn’t want to sit on the covered steps by the tropical building, or under the cover across the main path, or on a bench in the water birds area. I THINK what was going on was that the dark areas were darker than usual due to the overcast sky and fog, and there were a lot of weird noises due to the lack of people and the dripping water everywhere. That would explain why he changed his mind about seeing the water birds as soon as we went in there.

 

Anyway, we settled on the little covered area at the exit to the children’s zoo. We have hung out there many times and you have a view of the miniature horses. We sat there and ate my bar, some sandwich, and the rest of the ravioli, and the banana. At one point he realized he could “See primates!” out the exit.

 

From there he wanted to see “kitty cats” again. So we walked by the lion, etc. He wanted to see the owls, but changed his mind on the rest of the birds as he wanted to see the zebras. We went and saw the herbivores that were out, and he thought the sentence “Vemos cebras” (We see zebras) was really funny. We went and saw the seals. The downstairs part was open again, after being close for a month. Didn’t look in there long – again, rather dark and eerie – just a couple minutes at he fur seals. He wanted to go to the upstairs part and look from there. Should mention that most of the animals were difficult to see due to the glass being fogged up everywhere. But went up and managed to see the spotted seals and sea lion.

 

That took us to a little past 4, so we headed home, walking the south path we don’t often take back to the subway. Got two seats on the subway and made it home a couple minutes before Carly. Called her to tell her the iHerb package had arrived but I had forgotten to pick it up and she said she had just reached the building. So August and I went and met her at the elevator. He didn’t really greet her though, as he was complaining that we didn’t have the backpack. In fact, when we went back to the apartment he didn’t want to go back in. He wanted to go outside in the backpack. I think maybe he thought that when I said we could go meet Mama he thought we would walk down the street to where we meet her by the pink building sometimes.

 

He soon got over that though and spent a lot of time doing play dough (mainly destroying her snails), and of course nursing, with Carly. She gave him a bath and he totally resisted heading to bed, but he went to sleep pretty quickly, about a quarter after 8.

 

New words/phrases: selenite, middle, hola, eliphante, negro (black), water birds, morado (purple), paraguas (umbrellas)

Fog: 

“Selenite”: 

Showing me where to write: 

Looking at the baa baa: 

Knocking over more towers: 

Lunch fun: 

After his nap, working on our masterpiece. I wrote the alphabet probably 15 times, and he would trace over my letters: 

The masterpiece. Boo on Sesame Street on including both an ad and a border around their image exports: 

Zoo: 

Snack time. Nice light to work with. Wish I had my good camera with me and had wiped his face: 

Home. Destroying mama’s snail: 

He was awake 6:45. Gave him the iPad to distract him from Carly leaving and it worked pretty well. He was finding new, more advanced phonics songs this morning. Some how. We ate oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast. He has started rejecting the vitamins (Omega-3 things) we give him (right after I ordered six bottles), so I was able to slip him two in his oatmeal. He spit the third out and wouldn’t eat anymore. We ‘read’ the Korean elephant on a line book a few times, and then he was back to the iPad doing a lot of Sesame Street Art Maker (and calling it “Art Maker”).

 

He walked into my bathroom at one point, and wanted to stand on the scale. He pulled it out from under the sink, but still bumped his head on the sink. It wasn’t hard though, so when I suggested he move further back, he started joking about bumping his head. He even walked over to the shower door and said “Bump the shower.”

 

We left the house about 10:30. He didn’t want to go to class, but I noticed from the beginning he wasn’t as passionate about it. We spent our little extra time going down to the first basement to look at the animals, including the puppies. We then went to class; he protested, but I was able to walk into class without him crying. He then got a little upset when he heard the song turn on where they pick up each of the kids. We went out and got water. Then when they brought out the forward roll mat he went and hid by the door. But after that he was totally fine.

 

They did things based on traditional Korean games, namely Jegichagi (제기차기), which is similar to hacky sack but with colorful streamers (I think I posted photos of him standing on Jegi in the park), Neolttwigi (널뛰기), which is a seesaw sort of thing where one person stands on one end and another person stands on the other, and they launch each other into the air, and Tuho (투호), in which you throw arrows into a pot.

 

He really liked the balancing boards, and even allowed the teacher and Jihong’s mom to stand on it with him. The arrows for Tuho were little Nerf-like things with magnets in them. He wasn’t much into throwing them, but he really liked how they would stick together, and liked sticking them to the board that stood in for the pots.

 

After class we went and did some shopping on the first basement – mainly getting large plastic box covered in letters to act as a toy box. He didn’t want to shop and started doing some screeching, so we didn’t do any food shopping. On the way home, he asked for ‘outside’ in Spanish, but my hands were full with him and the box, so we stopped in the park. He spent a long time looking at the letters on the box.

 

Got him to walk part of the way home (to the bridge), but walking in front and asking him to ‘fly’ to the pagoda, then around it, and then to the bridge. As we got home, he said “Mama home soon.” He then asked for ‘soon’ and ‘work’ in Spanish.

 

We ate a teriyaki salmon sandwich for lunch, then it was time for a nap. We read some Kipper first, and he was pointing to words saying “What say that?” In particular, pointing to ‘ball’. He also surprised me by pointing directly to the words ‘old’ and ‘his’ and read them, or at least remember which words they were.

 

Eventually we got in the stroller and walked around the 8th floor. It was apparent after 8 minutes or so that he wasn’t falling asleep. Also, it was 54 out, so I realized it was silly to be walking around inside. So we went back in, and a bit later took off in the backpack. Before we did, we were looking at the little ‘book’ of words I’ve been making for him. We were doing ‘sh’, and he started joking “SH makes azul…SH makes coat.”

 

We started walking, going a back street at first, and he fell asleep pretty quickly. We walked over to Coffee R, which we’ve walked by a thousand times but never been in. He had a short nap, 2:10 to 2:48. I immediately took off after he woke up. He kind of dozed as we walked up to Daiso, but didn’t fully fall back to sleep.

 

At Daiso we got little wood pen holders to act as book holders by his reading area. We also saw cool monster erasers and bought them as a “present for mama.”

 

From there we walked to the park basically behind Daiso. He claimed he didn’t want to go to a playground, but wanted to go to a coffeeshop instead. Carly joked that he is already 3o. He reluctantly started to play at the park when I got the stick out and started doing ABC. He got really interested in a sculpture two girls were making out of sticks, rocks, ice, and leaves. I got him away from that area by playing with the ice built up around the water fountains. We broke pieces of that off, and he stomped at them and looked for air bubbles for quite awhile.

 

He then wandered over to the play structure, where he wanted me to help him up and down all of the ‘big kid’ ways of getting up – the net ladders, the climbing wall, the rope stairs, etc. We did them all (the rope stairs were a bit tough coming back down) except the actual ladder. He worked on that himself for awhile though.

 

We then went back to the sand area, where the girls had left. He found and old leaf and said “Ooh. Cool leaf. Texture!” I let him touch their sculpture, but not take it apart. He wanted to do his own sculpture. We sort of stacked some rocks in the sand but he kept knocking them down. Then he pointed to the platform in the sand area and said “Sculpture here.” I lined up a few rocks along the edge and he took it from there, making almost the entirety of the figure we ended up making, using rocks I gathered. And as soon as he was done with it (the last rock he was placing at a tangent and calling it a Q), he destroyed it by knocking all of the rocks and sticks off.

 

It was now past 4, but he wasn’t ready to go home to mama. We spent some more time doing ABC on the ice and in the water in the drain, then I was able to convince him it was time to leave. He initially dropped the little stick we had been using to write ABCs back in the sand area, but then he turned around and went back and got it and said “Little stick in backpack.” We wiped off our hands and headed home, walking through apartment complexes, parks, and the Bible University much of the way before ending up back on the main street.

 

We got home about 5:20, after Carly. In the evening we built his Teuni ball, after which he didn’t want to play with it, but just take it apart and build it again. I told him tomorrow. He had a really nice bath with Carly, then we gave her the erasers. Well, sort of. August decided he really likes them, so he didn’t actually hand them to her. But she opened them and he played with them, making 11s and 111s and lining them all up. We spent some time writing more of the words he is picking up in his little word book. Then, while drawing on the floor with Carly, he noticed the book stands set up. He said “No” and proceeded to take off all the books and take out the stands that hadn’t been stuck down yet. Sigh.

 

At some point he asked Carly for a word in Spanish. She said she didn’t know, and he immediately and forcefully said “Look it up!” Soon after that, he asked for something, and Carly didn’t understand and said “What are you asking for?” and he said “Asking for this.” and pointed.

 

He realized the B letter shape was missing, and kept looking for it – primarily under the couch cushions and couch. I used the flashlight on my phone to look under the couch and he called it “sunny”.

 

When Carly first tried to get him off to bed, he delayed, saying “Read books in the reading area.” The first attempt to put him to sleep failed, and he was back out with me around 9. We drew and read and typed for awhile, then he was obviously v
ery tired, so I steered him back in. Thought he would go to sleep pretty easily. I came out and read one Atlantic article about Kindergarten in Finland, then heard him starting to really climb. I quickly finished getting ready for bed, then went in. He was clearly exhausted, but couldn’t get to sleep. I sang to him and he nursed more, and finally we got him to sleep about 10:30. When I was singing, he kept insisting on “English” a few times, even though I was already singing in English. I think he may have meant “phonics”, which we only apply to English songs, as he said it when I sang the Big Numbers song, and then the regular ABC song. I switched back to the A makes Ahh song, which he class the “phonics song” and he was fine.

 

New words/phrases: eliphante, gato, shower, cerdo, scratchy, push uno; no push ocho, Where dada?, watch your head, uva (grape), parentheses, dada fix it

Headed to Home Plus. Noticed the square and called it a Hangeul ㅁ: 

Touching the letters on the sculpture:  

Class: 

Walking home. Checking out the toy box: 

Flying home: 

Eumji Children’s Park:  

All the big kid stuff: 

The shaky stairs. He is off finding the next thing to climb: 

Sculpture time. The inspiration:  

The sculpture: 

Back home: 

Lining up the erasers: 

We covered a lot of ground today. He was sleeping upside down for the later half of the night and slept in until 8:01. He stood right outside the bedroom doorway being upset for a minute tops, then said “ABCD on the paper” and was fine. We had Cheerios and strawberries for breakfast, then got ready to go and headed out by 9:30. We walked to Derek and Logan’s house by Wolgye Station, with the intention of going with them to Dream Forest. Derek had this one more day off (like most people in the city) unlike Carly and Jill. Anyway, when we got there they cancelled as Logan was not doing well.

 

August actually did better going to their place today than yesterday. He started to complain a little as we wen’t to the building, and was crying in their apartment, but I think he might have calmed down if we stayed. Anyway, so instead of carrying on without them, August and I hopped on the subway and did the two quick transfers to get us back on our normal line and headed to Children’s Grand Park.

 

The children’s museum was busy with families, as school was still out. August was excited by the hand stamp, but then a little annoyed by all the people. We wandered around the nature area for awhile, then ended up at the chalkboard, where we spent ten minutes or so. But then he wanted to go someplace else because there were “Too many people.” In fact, when he would hear an announcement on the intercom he was getting upset, saying “More big kids” – after our last experience with the announcements being for the rotation of the school groups he (logically) assumed that was what all the announcements were about.

 

We tried going downstairs, but it still looked busy to him. We headed upstairs, and he decided it was time to eat an early lunch (about 11:10). That was a good call though, as the lunch room was pretty empty. By noon it would have been a zoo.

 

We had stopped in the subway and bought some kimbap. So we ate that and a banana and some of our peanut butter sandoo for lunch. He was in a good mood, performing the ABC song for anyone that would listen. We were also reviewing the punctuation/symbols he knows, and at one point was going around drawing tildes on things with his finger: “Tilde on the wall…Tilde on the amarillo.” When I got out the banana he joked about putting it on the kimbap. He set the banana on it, and I joked that it was a sculpture. So then he was setting the banana on the kimbap and sandwich, saying “sculpture.”

 

From there we went down to the little kids area. Spent all our time there in the back half, going up to the little kitchen area once. Mainly played with the big cube toys, looking at the clocks on the side and playing with the sliding animals. He also played with the magnet thing and with a couple of the little puzzles. He did the butterfly puzzle three times and was figuring out the turning of the pieces. When we went upstairs to the kitchen area, we found these little wooden tea cups. He was drinking tea, saying “Mama’s tea hot.” Upstairs he found both a stuffed crayon and a wooden piece that he recognized belonged downstairs. So we went downstairs and put both away. At one point he was asking for a cracker, but I said we couldn’t eat in there, so he said “No eat in the little kids area.”

 

Eventually he wanted to “Find Qs.” I convinced him we wouldn’t find any in that area and we should go next door to the book area. So we went over there and looked at books for awhile, reading a few of their English Nuk Books – he really liked the Oh No! one. We found a total of 5 Qs or so – one from the book on shapes (square) and the rest in titles of some other foreign language books they had (perhaps vietnamese?).

 

It was past time for a nap, so we headed out for our usual walk. But first he wanted some crackers, then just kept singing. After 40 minutes I gave up and we went and played at the old playground (Adventureland). We mainly wrote in the sand. He was having me write his name (Zinnie) and he would trace it. He wanted me to write up in the grassier area, but I said that wouldn’t work. He kept asking, so I told him to try. He did, then said “Nope, doesn’t work.” He wandered up the stairs to the second playground and drew on the rubbery surface for awhile, then came back down to the sand area where he wandered over to the train area and played with the things in there. We also spent a little time at the musical instruments on the one remaining drum.

 

He was then done with the playground. We decided to go to a coffeeshop – I didn’t tell him I would try to get him to sleep along the way. It was now past 2, so last call for a nap. It didn’t work though, so after a few minutes I suggested we go see animals first. He agreed, so we did that. The zoo was really busy, but now the crowds didn’t bother him. Also, most of the animals were out, starting with the elephant. We then went to “See kitty cats”. Everything was out except for the lynx and servals. So he Qed the leopards, etc. Then we took a little break on a bench and ate the apple cookie I had gotten earlier. We then saw the primates, most of which were out (except for the chimpanzees and one of the macaques).

 

Done with the zoo, it was now approaching 3:30. We went to the downstairs Peace Coffee. As we were going, August explained why he was excited for a coffee shop: “smoothie dal-gee”. So we got a berry smoothie. No coffee for me, but that was okay because it was really good. Much busier than usual, so we sat at a little table at the big round area. Drank the smoothie and mainly did art on the iPad. He did some on the Paper app, but has gotten back into the Sesame Street Art Maker app. He also did some numbers apps, and was tracing the numbers in Intro to Numbers, saying “Work on 8.” He also said “opposite” when starting on the second side of the zero. Not sure where that came from.

 

We left about 4:15 and changed him. On the subway he was doing more Sesame Street art – he was really into the glue and glitter and rainbow bush in the Abby picture. We got home a little after 5, a few minutes after Carly.

 

I was meeting Derek at 7 to go down to Itaewon to help him review a couple of restaurants, so left by 6:45. Before I left, Carly gave him a bath and we did some art. He wasn’t much into eating. Don’t know if he ate any more after I left. Probably not, as he was nursing and probably on his way to sleep when I left.

 

We went to Little Baja, which had moved into a bigger place, and a new place called Gino’s New York Pizza. Both good; I had a root beer float at the pizza place. Got home just before 11.

 

New words/phrases: no eat in the little kids area, mama’s tea hot, nope doesn’t work, work on 8, opposite, glue, sequins

Children’s museum: 

He claimed it looked like an ampersand…: 

His first sculpture: 

Little kids area: 

Drinking Mama’s tea: 

Finding a 14: 

Book he liked: 

Playground after not taking a nap: 

He had just been saying “No, no, no” when he saw me heading to our usual nap path: 

Apple cookie: 

Sesame Street Art Maker: 

His new song involves adding ‘1’ into the ABC song a few times: 

August spent a lot of the night rolling over into me, and I remember him talking in his sleep at one point, although I can’t remember what he said. He woke up right at 7. When Carly changed him, she had to take off his owl pants as they were smelling like pee. She convinced him that cat pants were okay, so then he got excited that he was wearing cats and owls together (“Both!”). He was also really interested in his musical instruments in the morning. We played on the xylophone and with the triangle and little cymbal things. He turned the triangle into a Q using the striker, and of course he put the triangle on his head.

 

Derek had invited us over to their place to hang out in the morning. At 10:30 we headed over. August didn’t want to leave without Mama, and talked her in to leaving with us. After a couple blocks, she turned back. He was not happy about this, and took a few minutes to calm down as we kept walking. He never got entirely happy on the walk, and when we turned into the apartment complex where they live, he immediately started protesting “No, no, no!” It was shady and windy, but we stayed outside for about 15 minutes, trying to get happy in the playground. He was trying to negotiate on what to do “Go subway; play iPad.” “Go coffeeshop…get coffee.” He wanted to go up on the play structure, then I went through the big tube first. A couple guys came with a little girl, and came up by August to use the slide. One of the guys just stayed at the top of the slide, cornering August against the tube, and didn’t seem to have any awareness that he was scaring August. So that didn’t help. Made one attempt after that to head into the building, but August fell apart. So left, as I didn’t want to burden Derek with all the crying. I set August down and he actually took off back down the path. He calmed down as he went, and really calmed down when I picked him up and he knew we were leaving.

 

We walked back under the tracks and found Yoger Presso open, now close to 11:30. We went in and got a strawberry yogurt smoothie. It came with a big straw, so I got a smaller one for him, but he ended up liking using both together. He mostly drew on the iPad, and would draw for a minute, then start a new one. He played a little Wordplay, then Intro to Letters, where he was starting to say “____ starts with __” – like “Book starts with B.” He started Green Eggs and Ham, and started reciting it himself, saying “I am Sam” on the first page, then on the third starting with “That Sam I am”.

 

He did a little more art and I got the one sandwich they had for lunch, although August didn’t like the ham. He was getting tired as we left, although he wasn’t in a hurry to leave, even though it was now close to 1.

 

We got home and he was soon down for an 80 minute nap. He woke up and he and Carly had ravioli for a late lunch. We then all walked up to Daiso. As we walked, I offered him my finger to hold at one point, saying “Hold my finger?” He then said “Hold my hand.” August protested a bit going into the store – he wanted to keep walking. We primarily got new pads of paper for him. He also saw the pastels and wanted to “take it home” and carried the package around the store. We headed back, and at the art museum I took the bags to head home and Carly headed to Home Plus. August was not happy about this second betrayal and was upset the entire way home. So at home I set down the bags and stretched a bit, then put the backpack back on. We walked over to Home Plus, and surprised Carly just as she was finishing at the checkout.

 

A whole lot of art in the evening. Carly gave him a bath. They had a ton of fun playing with Sophie (as August wouldn’t let her in the water), but he still won’t sit down. After that, he did a great job of avoiding going to bed. He saw that I had hung up the Alphabet poster, and spent a long time looking at that (he also identified “stinkbug” and “quahog” and “mariposa” on it). And at one point he made a dash for the parlor, saying “Play in the reading area.” But he was asleep right around 9.

 

Continues to learn Spanish. Saying “otra vez” a lot, and figuring out how to say “anaranjado” (orange).

 

New words/phrases: otra vez (again), mama coming with, ____ starts with __, looking for something, hold my hand, anaranjado, get some more water, stink bug, quahog, mariposa, play in the reading area

 

Qing the triangle: 

Triangle on his head: 

Carly’s finished tree before she took it down: 

Trying to cheer up at the apartment complex: 

Yoger Presso. Two straws and eyes that had been crying:

Walk to Daiso: 

Evening: 

August and I ventured out on an adventure with Jill and Logan to a play area none of us had been to before.

 

August woke up at 6 and said “explanation point…question mark” before Carly nursed him back to sleep. We were both up when he then woke at 7:30. We heard one long, like 5+ second cry, and went in. The first thing he said was “Owls, owls”, then he talked more about owls as Carly took him in to the parlor.

 

He then skyped with with Vivi and got to see them having fun in a bath. He wanted to take a bath, saying “Zinnie take a bath.”

 

Sometime after that he was marching around the house singing ABC songs.

 

August and I headed out at 9:30. We took the bus over to Wolgye and met Jill and Logan on the northbound platform. August did not react well to seeing them, getting his very sad look and crying. A lot. Like when we tried to go see Jill and Rosie a few months ago. August has been fine with them the last few times we have seen them, but we have always been with Carly. Best theory right now is that he sees Logan with his mom and is sad that his own mama isn’t there.

 

We made got on the train and took the 3 stops north and found our way to Vic Market, where the play area is located. The entire way, if he wasn’t complaining or crying, August was saying “No, no, no.” He finally warmed up a bit when we went inside and he started reading signs and numbers.The market was open (it is like the Korean competitor to Costco), but we went upstairs only to find that the play area didn’t open until 12 today because of the holiday. It was 11:40.

 

Of course, both the kids saw the play area and wanted to go in. August no longer wanted to head home. We decided to stay and hang out in the food court area. The kids walked around, explore the ramp/stairs/bridge in the entrance to a closed Korean restaurant, then sat at a table and drew: Logan in August’s notebook and August on the iPad. We then watched some ABC songs and Timmy Time and all got a sweet potato pizza to share for lunch.

 

We finished up lunch right at 12 and went into the play area. We took our shoes off and put them in bin 5 or, as August said, “Cinco”. So then we were counting them in Spanish, in order. We got to 15 and I stopped. He then said 16 in Spanish, and continued on up through 25. I know that Carly has said the numbers up past 15 with him, but never had him do it himself. I’ve never tried going past 15. So quite a surprise.

 

It is like all the other play areas we have been to (although the Tayo and CoCoMung ones are a little different as they are tailored to their TV shows), with a bear to bounce on, a pin board thing, a ball area, a floor piano, etc., but it was in really nice shape, had a few extra things, and all of the sets of blocks, etc. were mostly complete and organized.

 

Logan rode the train by himself for the first time. August wanted to go in, but didn’t want to be put on the train (and they wouldn’t let parents ride). But I think the real reason was that he didn’t actually want to go on the train at all, but wanted to play in the track area, and was upset that I wouldn’t set him down to do so. Kind of like the ice rink where he didn’t care about the ride thing at all.

 

We did all the usual things, and spent most of our time playing with a set of small wooden letter and number blocks. He started with J and then found the letters in order to U (where he lost interest). For each, he would set the letter out in the room, but they were really spread out. Interesting. He then played with a hammering thing next to Logan, and we finished with a wall where you could write with crayon. He just colored, and of course we did ABCs.

 

As we left and walked with Jill and Logan to the subway, August was asking for a lot of Spanish words, particularly colors (he is now big into gold and silver). Jill’s Spanish is pretty good, so she helped. We said goodbye to them at the subway, as August was about ready to fall asleep, so I was just going to go to a coffeeshop. By now he was good friends with Jill and Logan and said a very nice goodbye and waved.

 

We walked for another 5 to 10 minutes and he fell asleep. We went in a nice coffeeshop that appeared to be called Coffee and Cookie. Although it turned out the only cookies they had were little prepackaged cookies. I got an iced blended coffee thing, and he slept from 2:12 to 3:08. When he woke up he didn’t want to get out of the backpack and just wanted to get going. So we headed home, taking the subway south one stop where we could transfer to a bus headed home. Unfortunately, the bus directly home wasn’t coming for 26 minutes (holiday schedule) so we went to take the 1161. But the one we waited for was headed the wrong direction (it is that weird turnaround area at Changdong). Third time a charm.

 

Although as we waited a woman told me he should be wearing a scarf. A scarf. Note: he was in the backpack, where his sweatshirt and coat bunch up around his neck so there is no place for a scarf. And it was 44 degrees – the warmest it has been in 3 months, and it was the first time anyone has told me he should be wearing a scarf. I didn’t even have my heavy coat zipped. The guy that was with her came over really close to August and was asking him “Aren’t you cold?” several times before he back away. I was telling Carly about this via Skype and she told me I should start laughing wildly when I get these things. So I tried laughing (but not wildly) when she then told me, right before we got on the bus, that his hands are cold.

 

Anyway, we made it home about 4:15. A lot of art and singing. Carly and I both cleaned our bathrooms, and he helped scrub the floors and the mirrors. He really liked all the colorful bottles (of course) and (of course) started saying things like “Yummy blue,” referring to the glass cleaner. I told him they were all yucky, so he turned to his new favorite colors, saying “Yummy gold, yummy silver.” Then “Use gold.” And finally, since we don’t have a gold bottle “Find gold.” So he was looking around for gold. Yes, he is looking for gold.

 

It was now around 5:30 and he requested ABC songs, so he watched some for awhile. He had some spaghetti for dinner #1. After dinner, Carly was reading the new Alphabet book with him and he got really excited about the poster in the back. It is in English, but he was pretending it was Spanish and looking for Spanish letters and words on it. But first he identified the ‘yak’ and the ‘jaguar’ on it. He was pointing at animals in the book and saying “What’s this?” (Similarly, when asking for translations to Spanish, he has switched from his usual “___ Espanol” to “What ____?” – sometimes adding “espanol” to the end, but pretty implied by now.)

 

He was then hanging out with me and saw me eating the leftover pizza from lunch and wanted some. This became dinner #2. He ate a good chunk of pizza, most of his leftover egg in the fridge, all but one of the strawberry pieces leftover from lunch, a chunk of my bar, and then 3 crackers.  Not bad. Especially as he needs some more calories to gain some weight.

 

I got an email from my parents saying they were heading to Everett for the next couple days, so we jumped on Skype about 7:30 and caught them before they went to bed and talked for about 20 minutes.

 

Carly went to bed about 8. He had been about to nurse with her, but then wanted water, but it was empty. So I had gone to the kitchen with him to fill it up. But then he opened the freezer and was tasting the cold freezer door and pretending to eat the naan through it. He then wanted up to look through the fridge, calling everything yummy and asking for translations of things like juice, milk, citron tea, smoothie, and jam. He then spotted two coins
on the table that he wanted to take in to Carly, so we did that.

 

Finally, we were back out, first doing more art (oh, and earlier he had been spelling/writing “O P A Opa”), where I was teaching him ‘periwinkle’ (one of the crayons were were using) and ‘perspective’ (as the H and I that I wrote looked like I and H as we were at 90 degree angles), then reading several books: Picasso’s Trousers (where he started saying “quotation marks!” and I could further teach ‘perspective’, what with the painting faces from the front and side at the same time thing), I Spy at the Zoo (wanting translations of leopard, elephant, and panda), Puff the Magic Dragon, Kiss Good Night, How Things Grow, and, finally, Alphabet. He said it was the “last one” but was then upset (tired) when I took him in to Carly close to 9:15. I think it took awhile to get him to sleep, but he was probably asleep around 9:30 or a little after.

 

New words/phrases: blueberry, juicy, naranja (Orange), auto bus, ramp, up to dose; no catorse, counting to 25 in Spanish, What’s this?, yak, money, 50, lamp, quotation marks

 

Waiting for the play area to open. Exploring the closed restaurant: 

 

Drawing while he waits: 

Play area. Egret:

Coloring on the wall: 

Fell asleep holding my finger: 

Heading home: 

Evening: 

Alphabet poster: 

Tasting the freezer: 

August was awake at 7. He walked out of the room wheel Carly was skying with Cassie and Vivi, so they got to see his wake up. A lot of drawing and play dough in the morning. At one point he was in on the reading area with Carly, playing with Under the Sea with Me. He was really interested in the speaker, and Carly was telling him you can’t push it, but to put it to his ear. So he kept holding it against his head, but on his forehead, not at his ears.

 

Marketing works: He really likes Maisy’s First Colors, and on the back of it are pictures of Maisy’s ABC and Maisy’s First Numbers. So he started requesting them, particularly the numbers, saying “This” and getting frustrated that he couldn’t read it right now. Unfortunately, despite Maisy books being sold everywhere, they aren’t available digitally yet (really, how hard can this part be? But so few children’s books are available).

 

Carly headed down to a coffee shop at 10 to do some work. We mainly did art and watched ABC songs. I also confirmed his weight measurement, confirming he hasn’t gained weight in the last couple months, but he has grown 3cm and is above average there. His head is also slightly on the big side (75 percentile). So he’s slightly tall and skinny with a big head.

 

We were also drawing on the iPad, and he figured out how to add a photo of him and Carly and draw on it.

 

She got home a little after 12. He fell asleep about 12:40 and woke up at 1:18, as I was getting ready to head out to see some our with our friend Meg. He went back to sleep and slept until 2. Carly made spaghetti sauce with broccoli blended in it, and after August woke up they walked across the park to the art museum. He wanted to be carried all the time, so she made a game of letting him get close, then scooting backwards so he had to go farther. He was frustrated at first, but it turned into a game. They walked through the art museum (I forgot to ask what they looked at) and then went to the coffee shop. He didn’t want to go to the play area. They read some books that Carly had brought along.

 

Meanwhile, Meg and I took the bus down to Insadong, then walked up to the gallery area. Unfortunately, the gallery she wanted to go to (Hyundai) was closed. So we walked up to the MMCA and had a pleasant surprise, as it was free for the holiday. And their current shows were really impressive.

 

We saw the Suh Se Ok exhibit (http://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/exhibitions/exhibitionsDetail.do?menuId=1010000000&exhId=201511110000357), which was there last time we went, but I didn’t really see it as August wasn’t a fan of the black and white stuff. It is all blank and white ink on mulberry pieces. Not my favorite stuff either, but I was able to appreciate it more with an art teacher there.

 

Then downstairs, first to the third installation to be in the Air Box space. It is by Julius Popp (http://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/exhibitions/exhibitionsDetail.do?menuId=1010000000&exhId=201511090000355). Hard to explain. Basically, it is 4 levels of water reservoirs. Water is released very precisely, and forms a word as it falls through the air and then lands in the reservoir below. So as you watch, 3 words cascade down in front of you every few seconds. And the language changes every minute or so. We saw English, Korean, and Russian.

 

Next to the huge William Kentridge show (http://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/exhibitions/exhibitionsDetail.do?menuId=1010000000&exhId=201503310000237). He is a South African artist, and it was amazing. Really large pieces, many in charcoal, that were used for these elaborate animations.

 

Then through the Ahn Kyuchul exhibit (http://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/exhibitions/exhibitionsDetail.do?menuId=1010000000&exhId=201508210000319), with its goldfish in circles and the 64 black rooms. But this time I also got to see the white sphere. You walk into it, and it is completely white. But it has an amazing echo. So any stomping, or whistling, or talking in it really echoes.

 

Finally, the Philippe Garrel, a French filmmaker, exhibit (http://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/exhibitions/exhibitionsDetail.do?menuId=1010000000&exhId=201511040000351) was interesting, but would take a lot of time to fully appreciate.

 

We looked in the gift shop for awhile then walked towards City Hall. She was taking the subway to have dinner with friends. I went to Kyobo books, where I found the Matthew Van Fleet Alphabet book (like our Cat, Moo, and Dog books). Oh, and Meg gave me a book for August. Her copy of The Boy Who Bit Picasso. She had had her mom send it over from the states. I got to read it on the subway home and it is very cool.

 

I took the subway home. As I was waiting to transfer to the bus, Carly and August called me on Skype. He seems so much older now, as he can say hi to me on Skype.

 

Got home and showed him the books. We read Alphabet once, then had spaghetti for dinner. He just kept eating more and more mushrooms. Carly gave him a bath that went very well. He saw the bubbles, so he and I did bubbles for awhile. Then, he reached down to put a marker away, only to stand up and bump his head on the counter. He went to nurse with Carly and eventually fell asleep sometime after 8:30.

 

New words/phrases: amarillo, rojo, rosa

Art. Julius Popp sculpture: 

William Kentridge:

Gift from Meg to August: 

Evening. Eating mushrooms (bus-ot):

August was up 7ish. Had a nice Skype call with Cherie, then Carly made eggs for breakfast. August and I made a zoo out of his Duplos – our best one yet – and August expanded his prepositions by saying something was “next to” something else. Then a nice sky call with Glecy. August was doing a ton of coloring today, but at one point in the morning was getting tired of using the paper, so Carly suggested an empty cereal box (I had just taken down recycling or we would have had lots of options). That worked, but that made him want cereal, so he ended up having some cereal as well.

 

Carly made hummus and August and I did more art and did some reading. We read the Going to Bed Book, and August read the words ‘is’ and ‘now’. We had naan and hummus for lunch, but August didn’t like the hummus. He just wanted to eat naan. Carly put peanut butter on it and he really liked that.

 

A bit after 12 it looked like he would take a nap, but that wasn’t the case. He came back out with me while Carly took one though.We did his leftover stickers from class on Tuesday. He said pointed to the gorilla sticker and said “gorilla”. He found a spot in the book where he had written with marker and said “Who did that?” He initially said “Dada” but then admitted it was Zinnie. We did a lot of play dough letters. I had started to put them in order yesterday, and he got into that, just sorting them and looking for the alphabet. We are missing L, R, S, T, and V, however, so when he would get to L I would have to tell him it was missing. So he started looking for it, walking around and looking, saying “Hmmm” repeatedly. He got down on the floor and looked under the couch, then was looking under the cushions. I wasn’t helping, since I’ve known they’ve been missing for months (probably in Chelan or Centralia, or on a plane somewhere), so he’d say “Dada look.”

 

Carly got up and forced him to take a nap at 2. He resisted, but when she started talking about skipping his nap, he finally fell asleep and slept until 2:50. He actually wanted to just nurse and fall back to sleep though, which we didn’t want, so I put ABC songs on the iPad and he watched from Carly’s lap for several minutes.

 

Once he woke up, we decided to head out for a walk while it was still light. He really wanted to go out. We put him in the backpack and headed to the stream. Along the way, we walked along the wall where he was saying “1, 1, 1, 1…” last week. This time, he expanded on it, saying “11, 11, 11, 11…” and “111, 111, 111…” He also did it across the bridge and then on a wall at the coffee shop that had a lot of vertical lines.

 

We went across the bridge and he saw the playground. He then said “Coffee shop closed.” That was pretty cool because he was referring to Cafe Tolerance, one we’ve been to only twice in the last year since it opened. When we were walking back from Madeul last weekend, I said something about it, and he picked up on it and wanted to go to a coffeeshop. We checked the door, but it was locked, so we went to Cafe Mug in our building. So it was only a minute long thing a week ago. But here we were, still a good distance from the coffee shop, couldn’t even see the building yet, and were walking to it from the south instead of the north, and he remembered that. He had made a couple other good associations earlier in the day. I forget the really good one, but things like me asking “What do you want for dinner?” and him answering “Yummy dal-gi (strawberries)”, which shows he clearly understands the question.

 

Anyway, luckily today was Saturday and it was open. So we went up. Of course, he also remembered that there is a ‘block’ (like Legos) play area there and he wanted to play in it. It is a.) for older kids and b.) was closed anyway, so he was upset about that. But he calmed down when I convinced him to draw in our notebook. We sat at a low table, drinking our cheap, but good, drinks, enjoying the lovely (it is all wood) coffeeshop and the view and had the place all to ourselves. And I did a lot of drawing with August.

 

But we couldn’t stay for too long if we wanted to make use of any of the remaining sun. We headed out, walking up the stream and past the apartment complex. We walked around Madeul, showing Carly all the science exhibits that August likes (the ones with Qs, the earth that opens, the door to go through, etc.). We got to the little area that has fossil imprints on the ground and August wanted to get out. He got his stick and we did ABCDs on the fossil area and in the dirt for awhile. We then continued walking and finished the loop of the science area before heading home.

 

August was getting cold, and was admitting his hands were cold, so I carried him in my arms and pulled the sleeves down over his hands. He was still uncomfortable, so we forced him to wear his gloves for awhile. He wasn’t happy about that, but it helped. He wanted to go home, but we suggested nursing at the art museum, so we went and did that. I took a few minutes to look at art, then came back and went into the play area with August while Carly went ahead to Home Plus to do shopping.

 

We followed a few minutes later when the museum was closing at 6. We found Carly, ordered pizza, then put August in the backpack only to find that one shoe was missing. No idea what happened. Anyway, I took the pizza and started retracing our steps and Carly took the shoe to ask around. She ran into a woman who was carrying the other one, so a happy reunion.

 

We came home and had pizza for dinner, with August eating all of our mushrooms and olives. A lot more coloring in the evening. I got his bath ready, then gave him a bath. He objected to going, until I suggested he go find mama to take him to his bath. That was all it took, then once he was in the bathroom he was impatient to get in the water and play with the squirt car. During the bath I suggested we count backwards. The first time I started doing it I got to 6 and he finished the rest “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, o.” I was shocked. I’ve sung that “Hole in the bottom of the sea” song that I made up a bunch, but he’s never sung along or anything. After that, he was doing as much as 8 on down.

 

After his bath Carly put him in his owl pajamas. It was now past 7:30 and Carly was getting tired. We were all in on the bed and he wasn’t ready for sleep, so I suggested we go out. He first said “Leave mama alone”, but then rethought that and argued she should come out too, saying “Mama dada Zinnie have fun.” We headed out, and he closed the door. We went out and did more drawing, and read a couple stories in the new reading area (we now have two, one in the original spot and one in the parlor – but we had transferred it to the parlor and had the brown chair next to the couch, but today moved the brown chair and made the ‘new’ reading area in the original location next to the magical shelves).

 

Carly got back up because she wasn’t falling asleep and drew with him for a little while. They then went in to sleep a little after 9.

 

Oh, and I weighed him this evening. He is up to 11.3 kg, which is just at, or shy of, 25 pounds. So basically what he was 3 months ago. Taller though. I will measure that later. 

 

He was also, of course, requesting translations for all sorts of words into Spanish today (including rabbit, giraffe, eagle, book, blueberries,  black, pink, and purple). If Carly didn’t know the word, he would say “Look it up!”

 

New words/phrases: next to, reading ‘is’ and ‘now’, queso, naan, look it up, gorilla, real (looking at this in the evening, I can’t remember how he used it – may be a typo…), maroon, melon (crayon color), amarillo (yellow), open them (container of crayons)

 

Lounging: 

Letters: 

Stickers. “Who do that?”: 

Looking for the ‘L’: 

Trying to keep him up after his nap: 

Walk to Madeul: 

Cafe Tolerance: 

He had seen a ‘3’ in the foam on Carly’s coffee and was now looking at mine: 

Science exhibits: 

Art museum play area: 

Counting down: