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A very smooth trip to Children’s Grand Park. They always are, but today was especially so. No problems with the subways, no one saying he was cold, and he barely got frustrated with anything the whole day.

 

He was up at 7:12. Upset for a minute but then straight to ABCDs using pastels. Then reading Kiss Good Night a couple times. The beginning and end of the book each show the neighborhood of the story at the beginning and end of the story, respectively. I pointed out to him that at the beginning the light is on in the upstairs, but at the end the light is out and the downstairs is lit up because Sam’s mom took the lamp down with her. So now he likes to flip back and forth and spot the differences, pointing “Sam’s mom…Sam asleep.” Then to typing on the computer. He now knows ‘dollar sign’ and ‘ampersand’ as he said them himself upon first typing them. Carly emailed us back in the morning saying “Good morning, Pumpkin Berry!” I told August the message and he said “Good morning, Pumpkin. Thank you Mama for blue!” – referring to the blue play dough that I just bought him. While on the changing pad getting ready to go, he started to get a bit random, which was a hint of what was to come for the day. He was making references to the “A is for Apple song”, and was then using numbers. He was saying things like “111 suns. 114 Qs”. He then continued with some more free association: “No 14 on the clock. Up to 12. No Hanguel Q. Becoming ‘No Hanguel Q’. Becoming blue.” He also requested translations for a lot of words into Spanish: pink, Cheerios, spoon, yellow, and letters.

 

We headed out about 9:50. On the subway, he continued to have fun with the first software bug he’s found: in the new Dr. Seuss ABC and Green Eggs and Ham apps, there are these little mini game things. Some present you with 4 letters, and you drag one of them to the correct spot. If you answer the question, then drag 2 of the remaining letters at the same time (using different fingers) to the answer spot, one will get stuck. And instead of bouncing back to its original location, it will stay where it is, and that will be its new ‘home’. I should probably get that on video so it makes sense… Anyway, he’s done it a few times now, and finds it funny when he gets it to happen.

 

Went straight to the children’s museum at the other end. The woman at the entrance knows us well, as after she stamped his hand she immediately grabbed the black light so he could see it. He first went downstairs, but just for a few minutes. Then up to the first floor for about 10 more, but it was really busy, and at 11:10 he declared it was lunch time (“More eat,” I think). So we went and ate. During lunch he was very particular about me cleaning up the crumbs he dropped – if he spit something out, he would back away from the table so I could pick it up. He would then point out little crumbs I forgot. He was also very neat today at home, closing doors, taking a container of lotion back into the bathroom, and closing play dough containers and putting them back in their basket. During lunch, he put the lid back on the strawberries when he moved on to something else, and in the play areas he returned a stuffed apple he found in the wrong area, and a static cling magnet before moving on to something else I was trying to show him.

 

Anyway, during lunch I tried singing non-ABC/numbers songs to him, and got the expected “No!” reaction and request for ABC songs. Finally, I got to him by singing “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. He still said no, but I said it used to be his favorite song so I wouldn’t give up. So I changed the lyrics to appeal more to (almost) 23 moth-old August: “Baa baa black Q, have you any Qs?” etc. That worked. He wanted to dump out the nutty noodles so they would be easier to grab. I poured some out on the lid. He then joked about pouring noodles into the strawberries, then the strawberries on the sandoo. He did set one strawberry on his sandwich for awhile. He also got the stick out of the backpack and was putting it on his head and writing ABCs. Finally, he was requesting a bunch of words in Spanish, including: dizzy (he had been spinning), noodles, sandoo, strawberries, mushroom, yummy, upside down, stick, cracker, and see. There were many words, both then and later, that he would request, but I wasn’t actually sure what he was saying in English. Oh, and he started say “What’s _____ Español?”

 

From there we walked the back walkway, thinking he would want to stop on the half floor or second floor, but he wanted to go all the way down to the first floor. Still busy, but he found things to do: play with the apples, turn the growing flower thing, spend a good chunk of time on the chalkboard (but not as much as Wednesday), and play with the floor magnets. He then wanted to play with the window magnets, and this is the only point where he started to get frustrated. It started out fine, but then he wanted one of the Os or the C shapes. He was about to get a C shape but another boy ran in front of him and got it. He then wanted one of the O shapes, but I wouldn’t let him have it as it was part of a picture a girls was making on the window. So he started to get frustrated. It was past time for a nap anyway, so we went up and got ready.

 

Outside, before getting in the backpack, he was stepping on my shadow. He then suddenly stopped and said “More sleep.” Despite being really tired, he took a bit longer than usual to put to sleep, probably because he decided he needed a snack. So he was eating for several minutes. He didn’t want to go on our usual route (probably because he was still eating), but once I was on it, if I tried to go off it (because he was taking longer to fall asleep) he would complain. Eventually he fell asleep and slept from 1 to 1:55.

 

He woke up and immediately started to say “ABCD” but changed his mind and said “More outside.” I asked if he wanted to be in our out of the backpack and he said “Stay in backpack.” So I quickly packed up and we took off. He rejected the idea of the playground, so we headed to the zoo. As we walked, he spoke his thought process out loud: “No giraffes. No kitty cats; kitty cats inside. Elephants.” As it turned out, the elephants were inside as well.

 

He was in the backpack this whole time as we first checked to make sure the cats were still inside, went and saw the seals, saw the herbivores (primarily the zebras), walked past the outside birds, then went into the tropical building (but just the first floor). The entire time he was basically a running monologue of free association and puns. Some of it included:

– “14 inside, 15 inside…100 inside” (talking about animals being inside, but then switching to numbers)

– “Grant’s Z 3…Grant’s Hangeul no sound” (I had been teaching him ‘Grant’s Zebra’, which he got, but then started riffing on it)

– “Z I N N I E spells 3, Z I N N I E spells zero, Z I N N I E spells Q, Z I N N I E spells numbers” (I was spelling ‘zebra’ for him and pointing out that ‘zebra’ and ‘zinnie’ both start with ‘Z’)

– “No 14. Up to 12, up to 11, up to O, up to Z” (randomly talking about clocks as we walked past the elephants and I was trying to ask him where he wanted to go next)

– “funny zookeeper” “becoming zookeeper, becoming fish” (we were in the tropical building, by his favorite zookeeper door)

– “up to 100, up to monkeys, up to Hangeul E, up to one, up to elephants” (again talking about counting up to a number again, but then switching to non-numbers)

 

Anyway, the highlight of our actual animal viewing was getting to see the naked mole rats actually eating, and not just sleeping in a pile, as they had just been fed.

 

From there he initially agreed to go to the playground. But when we got to the playground he said “No playground.” He did, however, want to
write ABCs on the low brick wall along the main path. So we played next to, but not actually in, the playground for the next 20+ minutes. He had the stick, and was suddenly whispering to himself for a couple minutes as he wrote on the wall. We were then away from the wall, and he gave me the stick and pointed up in the air towards the tree saying “ABC up there.” I started writing ABC in the air and singing the song, but he said “No! Quiet ABCD.” So then I had to whisper the song. He then wanted me to do it on the bush. At one point he also held up the stick so he could see it with his shadow, and was also stepping on my shadow some more. We found a little washer which he then traded for the stick. He spent several minutes dropping it on the ground to see it bounce and roll. He also placed it on several of the pictures, and on the ‘no sounds’ on a Hangeul sign.

 

We went back to the children’s museum for awhile. Downstairs again. We played with the household item magnets, now actually using them as magnets and getting artistic with them, and also making a ‘Q’ of them. He is also getting much better at stomping on the pressure pads that light up. Back up to the first floor, where he got to play with his window ‘O’, then back to the light area where we looked at our colorful shadows, used the shadow puppet blocks (mainly he liked the sheep) and he pretended to brush his teeth at the light table.

 

We played until 4:10 then got ready to head home. He chanted/sang animal sounds on the way to the subway. We got home a bit late, about 5:15. Carly wasn’t home, but August didn’t say a peep when I told him as such – he just headed for his markers. But she got home a minute later.

 

Nutty noodles for dinner and playing with play dough. He is starting to use the iPad as a pity reward – or trying to. That is, when I accidentally bumped him in the head, he immediately started saying “Dada get iPad.” Then, when he kind of tripped or bumped himself at the corner of the table he immediately requested it. I did give in and let him watch a few songs before his bath. But when his bath was ready and I mentioned ABCs with the squirt cars he immediately paused it. He made a show of complaining about going to his bath, but he went and opened the door to the bathroom himself. He went back to get Mama, but Carly then just walked him to the door and I went in with him, and he didn’t say anything about it. Bath went well, then I got him dressed. He was excited as he could wear his owls again (last night he could have, but actually chose to wear his Santa Claus pajamas instead). As I was getting him dressed, he said “Mama is doing dishes.” A good guess, as she had just finished them.

 

He pretty much went straight in to nurse with her. It was 7:30 or so. He took a long time to actually fall asleep – about 8:20 – but wasn’t fighting it.

 

New words/phrases: other side, sea lion, English pheasant, what’s ___ Espanol?, Mama is doing dishes

Children’s museum: 

Adding the finishing touches to our masterpiece: 

Laughing: 

Animals. A zebra got close to us and laid down: 

“English pheasant”: 

Playing next to the playground: 

Putting the washer on the “no sound”: 

Back to the children’s museum: 

Hanging up the ‘O’: 

Shadows: 

Pretending to brush his teeth: 

Chanting on the way home: 

Carly said he was dreaming and talking in his sleep a lot last night. The most memorable had him talking about play dough a lot, and rolling up on a pillow and off of the bed.

 

He woke up at 7:21. Not happy to begin with, but calmed down and wanted to color. So we did a lot of that. When I changed him the first time I changed his pants. He once again refused the yellow pants, but was fine with grey. We made a smoothie and he was standing on his stool helping. As I was doing something I heard him say “M I L K” and looked down to see him pointing at the milk carton. He then said “Milk”. It was the first of 3 words he would read on his own today. He was also very interested in the word ‘fresh’, which came right before ‘milk’. He also saw a kitchen drawer as Hangeul ㅁ, knows “tongs”, and saw the tongs as an X. He saw Google News on my computer. The top story was about Obama going to a mosque. He kept pointing to the photo and saying “What this?” Then, he saw the ‘q’ in ‘mosque’, so was saying “Q for mosque”.

 

He asked for the iPad so I let him on for awhile. He was watching ABC songs (of course). He started watching them upside down, something he does from time to time, but this time he just kept doing it – for 2o minutes or so. He particularly liked the Dutch alphabet song upside down. At some point we were by the coffee table and he suddenly looked at his thumb and pointer finger and said “11”. Yesterday, he did this looking down at his feet in the bathtub.

 

We ate eggs and toast for second breakfast, then started getting ready to head outside. When it came to changing his shirt, he again refused a few shirts before insisting on an “animal” shirt. So I think I’m on to something here. He then saw me reaching for more pants (second layer) and he got upset, saying more about “animals”. I think he thought I was going for another shirt. He then started talking about “dirty clothes” – I think referring to the fact that the animal shirt he wore yesterday was dirty.

 

We finally got out of the house around 10:15. We walked to Home Plus and did our shopping. He was fine with getting play dough, but didn’t want to go down stairs to groceries. He did fine though until I set the full basket down by the frozen food and picked him up and went to find sponges, our last item. He got upset that I was leaving the basket behind, what with the yummy string cheese and strawberries in it. He was pretty loud by the time I found the sponges. Then, he didn’t want me to set him down again during checkout.

 

We finished there and headed up to his class early. Every mention of class in the morning had elicited a strong “No”, so I had stopped mentioning it. He got upset as soon as I headed up to the second floor. A long story short, he was very upset up through the beginning of class, past when the teacher picks up each kid, and past the forward rolls portion. Then, he calmed down, and did great the rest of class. Carly had thought it may be because the teacher is very hands on, and I think she was right. In particular it was the opening part – August was fine when the teacher came around with later activities and touched him. So maybe he had a bad dream about the forward rolls or something. He hasn’t been wanting to do them at home recently, although later in the day he would remember them.

 

Anyway, not really a theme today. First activity involved saving cham-say (sparrows) from eagles, walking across a walkway, and putting them in their nests. He did a bit of that. Second activity involved using magnet sticks to lay on the floor and reach under a cardboard box as if they were reaching under a couch and retrieving things like cell phones and TV remotes. The kids loved this, and August was no exception. Next, we pulled them around on these little carts that looked like recycling trucks. The teacher put August on his truck and pulled him. After that, August didn’t have much interest in it. Finally, they got long tongs like the workers use to pick up garbage in the parks. Of course, these had magnets. They then picked things (like dead fish) up off the ground and put them in their recycling trucks. 

 

When class was over he was very nice to the teacher (and did his bowing – I also asked him to bow to Jihong’s mom as we were all saying goodbye and happy new year, etc.). As we were leaving he said “Class over. Teuni Teuni all done. Teuni Teuni fun.”

 

We went home where we ate nutty noodles, ravioli, and strawberries for lunch. He figured out how to hold shirt to type ‘?’. He also now officially knows ‘semicolon’, ‘slash’, and ‘bracket’. As I changed him, he put his feet up in the air and used his feet to make ‘11’, ‘T’, and ‘V’. He joked “Yummy apple Q. Icky poop Q.” As we left the changing room he had to close the door, saying “Close the door this way.” We did a lot of reading. As we were reading Kipper, he suddenly pointed and read ‘the’. Then he pointed lower on the page and said “read ‘at’”.  Falling asleep in bed wasn’t working despite him saying “Go to sleep on the bed.” So into the stroller. Took about 15 minutes.

 

He slept from 1:49 to 2:42. Not a happy wake up. At some point, as we were playing on the couch, he saw the cracks in the arm and saw a ‘Y’. Eventually he decided he wanted to go out and do the “ice thing” – the rink in the park where you pull kids around on boards. He wanted to go in the backpack though. So we headed out. Got out there at 3:20 and spent 40 minutes on the ice until it closed. He loved it. Not the boards, as he could care less about those (I pulled him a foot before he decided that wasn’t what he was there for). No, he was fascinated by the ice. Mainly finding little chunks of it everywhere and stepping on them to break them. I showed him how there was little bubbles in it, and he kept picking pieces up and saying “Bubbles!” We also looked at the sun reflecting off the ice, explored the different textures of the ice, and looked at bubbles and all the shapes under the ice. At 4, when it closes, a man started hosing down the ice. August didn’t like him doing that, and he was sad when I made us leave a minute later. Luckily, they have extended the opening of the rink until the 14th (it was supposed to close Saturday), so hopefully we’ll be able to go a few times.

 

Got back in the backpack from there and wandered around the park. As I put him in the backpack he asked “Sun espanol?” and “Ice espanol?” So I taught him those. He also said “Ice fun.” August didn’t have a specific destination, so I just wandered across the park. As we crossed the bridge he asked “Class espanol?” The one thing August didn’t want to do was go inside. We walked up on top of the art museum and he thought I was going in. We walked down the other side and then wandered back to Brownstone. We were wandering around here, and he was asking for more words in Spanish (like ‘eat’ and ‘yummy’). He also started chanting the English alphabet, going “Big A, little a, Big B, little b, etc.” My phone suddenly died and wouldn’t turn back on, even when charging. Had meant to stay out a little longer (it was about 4:30), but went home. Got my phone working by heating the battery with a hair dryer (thank you, internet).

 

Carly came home at 5. A pretty usual evening. They did a lot of reading together. We also got out the green and blue play dough we had bought earlier in the day. He really avoided a bath, delaying me by wanting to read more and more books. He has such a cute whine when he doesn’t want to go, as if it is the worst thing in the world. Anyway, once we were in the bathroom he wanted to get in the bath and  he happily played with the squirt cars. Barely any complaining as I washed him – the face still elicits shrieks. Carly had done dishes while I did the bath. She then headed to bed. He sta
yed out with me for awhile, but then headed in to nurse just past 8 and was asleep around 8:15.

 

New words/phrases: apostrophe, semicolon, butter, toast, bread, shift, bracket, slash, clase (Spanish for ‘class’), azul, verde

Smoothie making. He saw a 9: 

Reading milk: 

Watching upside down: 

Markers on his cabesa: 

Teuni Teuni class. Cham-say (sparrows):

One on his head: 

Dead fish on his head: 

Dead fish: 

V: 

Typing ‘?’: 

Nap: 

Ice rink: 

New play dough: 

A happy wake up at 7:11, although he kept the door cracked for a few minutes before coming out. Went straight to play dough letters, and a constant stream of talking: “Dada did that”, “mess”, “blue marker”, “blue letters”, “B on fingers” etc. He was playing with the magnets on the door, and made ’14’. He then turned them upside down (and eventually switched their places) and said “Upside down 14”. We made eggs and he was trying to eat all the cheese, but started spitting the pieces out, but then got upset when I took the cheese away. When I turned off the burner he kept pointing and saying “Quiet”.

 

At some point I let him listen to ABC songs. He also started watching Timmy Time, but only the intro song. My least favorite line of the theme song is “Trying to be cool. He’s number 1” (Really? He’s a sheep in preschool.) Anyway, August started walking around chanting “Number one!” because, of course, it is a number.

 

He ate breakfast a bit later, and dipped his eggs in ketchup. I also let him try thousand island. He was impressed by it because it was cold (but then again, so was the ketchup), but preferred the ketchup.

 

Changing him to leave, he requested his owl shirt. I let him choose a different shirt. Took a couple out, and he rejected them, then said “animal shirt”. I don’t know if he was specifically asking for the shirt I then took out, or if he was saying he wanted (like the owl shirt) a shirt with animals on it. We will see how this progresses.

 

We left about 9:45 and got to the children’s museum by 10:30. Went downstairs and literally were the only people down there the entire time (maybe 20 minutes). He did the usual (shower magnets singing ABCs, Tesla coils, skin microscope (although he was upset that it was broken), and we made a tunnel out of the blue blocks, which he promptly pushed over. The one ‘new’ thing was saying that the orange bags look like our bag “for class” (we keep our books for the 5-Touch class in it), then putting a round blue block in it and figuring out how to dump it out.

 

He then headed upstairs. The first floor was chaotic, as the school groups are back (they haven’t been there the last few weeks – extended break?). August went for the window and floor magnets. There was an announcement and the big kids started to leave, which I thought was a good thing and told him, but he got upset because they were leaving. Another group came though, which I guess was good, but then he kept getting crowded, bumped into, etc. and would screech each time. This time he took two of the floor magnets (actual magnets) and experimented with where they would stick (answer: no where). Then spent much of his time in the back part, with the light activities (shapes on a light board, etc.) About 11:20 I convinced him we should go up for lunch. As we walked up the ramp, he could see back into the first floor area. He pointed and said “Busy!” We went up and ate. During lunch he was saying his 70 numbers. He now says 78 the most, for some reason, and was joking “78. Oma say that.” When he knows it was 76 and 79 she was saying (because that was when me and Carly were born).

 

We then wandered down from the 3rd floor on the back walkway and played in the career/household/food area for the first time. He did some hammering, went to the vet area (where a bigger kid kept bothering him, so August left), looked at the food (curry, specifically), and quickly played with the vacuum cleaner (but it didn’t make noise, so…). Then down to the construction site, where he crawled through an unfinished wall, then watched the big kids operate the big crane for a few minutes, on his hands and knees.

 

At that point he was ready to leave, and after changing him we got out of there about 12:20. He was saying he wanted to go home, and after putting him in the backpack he said he wanted to head to the subway. He even tried to protest a bit when he saw me start up our usual sleeping path. But he was soon asleep at 12:39. Went to the lower coffee shop, but he woke up at 1:15. Short, but it saved us from the paint fumes. They were outside the back entrance, and I had noticed just a whiff of them after we had sat down. But then several people went in and out to the bathrooms and it got pretty strong. Him waking up forced my hand, as he wanted to stay in the backpack and walk (I took him out, and he wanted back in). I started to go to our usual spot, thinking he might fall back to sleep, but he again protested. So I turned, and headed across the pond area, and to the south path.

 

He was quiet for 10 minutes, and thought he might drifting off, when suddenly I heard “Seals this way.” So we went and saw the seals. I thought he wanted out, but he got upset when I started to do that. He wanted to stay in the backpack. We watched the sea lion, then the fur seals for several minutes, then the spotted seals for several minutes. Eventually I asked if he wanted to get going and he said “Get going.” He would then say that as we continued around the zoo and he wanted me to move on. From there we went to the deer, then the other herbivores (trying to teach him that word and what it means). He was most interested in the zebras. Then went and saw the outside birds. The golden pheasant was walking figure 8s around two posts, which was interesting, but also alarming – it reminded me of the jaguar in the old Woodland Park enclosure that would endlessly walk the same path in its small cage over and over (I think they’ve improved it since then, but not entirely sure). From there he wanted to see the cats. Alas, all the cats, including the lions and tigers and leopards, are now back inside someplace. He wasn’t happy with that, and kept requesting “More kitty cats.”

 

We were able to see an elephant – they had the doors open, but chains across the entrance so it couldn’t really come out. From there we went to the water birds, then to the meerkats (at least ‘cat’ is in the name) and finally to the horses. I took a break here (he was in the backpack the whole time), and he decided he wanted to go home to mama. I suggested multiple things, and he decided the book room at the children’s museum and drawing in our notebook would be good. So we went back to the children’s museum. On the way, we finally saw cats: three of the feral cats outside Peace Coffee. We got close to them and he Qed them a lot, then we continued to the museum.

 

At the museum he got to see his hand stamp, then we went in. We never made it to the book room, as he played on the first floor the entire time. After his slow wakeup, he turned into a very happy August. He looked at the rocks (selenite, etc.) then did the fruits/veggies seasons puzzle thing. Only got frustrated once, when he was trying to put a stuffed apple (he had been dropping it and rolling it along the floor) away and there was a kid in his way. He put it away because he had seen the chalkboard and wanted to write on it. We ended up spending the rest of our play time there – 20 to 30 minutes – writing ABCs in every possible pattern and tracing and erasing them. I was getting hungry, and finally convinced him we should go up for a snack. Went up and he ate a lot: strawberry, a bit of my bar, and our sweet potato and pumpkin snacks. This time, getting into the 70 numbers, he said “‘Dada’s 76.’ Mama says that.” Snacking took a long time, and we finally finished up, changed him, and headed out a little after 4. In the subway station he took note of the UNICEF sign/map. He pointed out the “rainbow” on it, and really liked the word ‘play’ on it. Back in Hagye Station, as I put him in the backpack, he started mentioning “spotted seals”, then also said “fur seals”. First time he’s said those.

 

On the walk home, he was singing the usual ABC song by himself. I noticed that he had the rhythm down, including the LMNOP part, all
the pauses (like between P and Q), and last two lines, down almost perfectly. I think he rushed one pause. I then sang the A is for Apple song. When I sing it, I pause after ‘for’ each time and what for him to fill in the item. In the past, this has always thrown off the rhythm, as I have to wait through a pause until he supplies it. But now he has it down to where he was (most of the time) getting the timing down, which is really impressive as the timing changes for three syllable items. That is, one and two syllable items (like ball and igloo) come in on the downbeat, but the three syllable items (like gorilla and kangaroo) come in a half beat earlier to get in that extra syllable. And once we were home I heard him trying to sing the “Duh duh duh…” part that comes between each ‘verse’ of four letters – I’ve never heard him singing it before, as he has only paid attention to actual words.

 

Got home at 4:50 or so. Told August as we went up that we would have to wait for mama for a few minutes. He handled it just fine. Said “Miss mama” once, then “Wait for mama.” He was using markers when she got home a couple minutes after 5. He was drawing with Carly and can now write good Fs and Gs. I found out, yesterday I think, as we walked across the park that if I spelled out several words he could tell me what they were. Carly was trying this with him, then writing them out. He knows zoo, dog, cat, mama, book, and home almost instantaneously and can also get coffee and cafe.

 

I had told him we were done with videos for the day, but then he was typing on my computer and somehow managed to get to the desktop. He then put the cursor on the Teuni Teuni video, and hit spacebar to open it and have it start playing. He was very, very proud of himself, so I let him watch some. He wanted to read Moo, and then Cat several times, so he would pause it for those.

 

After Carly took her shower she got his bath ready. When he heard it was ready he went into major stall mode, twice saying “Sit with dada” and getting up and leaning against me. Eventually I got the big orange ball and tried to lure him in. He was interested in it, but I still had to force him in. But once in, we started using the squirt car to write ABC on the shower door. He had it at one point and accidentally squirted me. I joked ”Who did that?” and he replied “Dada do that…people do that…Q do that.” Eventually, got most of the washing down without a hassle, although he still complained about his face. Then, he didn’t want to leave his bath, wanting to just do ABCs. Eventually I had to convince him to get out.

 

During his snack at the children’s museum, he had asked me what ‘sweet potato’ is in Spanish by saying “Go-guh-ma Español.” (It is ‘batata’.) As we were leaving the children’s museum, and I was about to put his shoes on, he kept saying something, until I realized it was in Spanish: “calcetines” (socks). And in the bath, he asked me “Bubbles español?” (burbujas) But as I got him out and started drying him, I said “Saca, saca, saca” like Carly always does. He said “No! English.” More of the code switching/things that belong to Mama thing. With Carly in on the bed, he asked “Nursing español?”

 

Looked like he was going to sleep with her shortly before 8, but it turns out he was having trouble getting to sleep. Carly got up for a minute, and he was not happy to see me. I tried to get close to him, but he pushed me all the way down the hallway, afraid I was taking her place. He was finally asleep, I think, about 8:45.

 

New words/phrases: busy, space ship, seals this way, get going, children’s museum that way, calcetines (socks in Spanish), rainbow

 

Waking up: 

Playing in the morning: 

Children’s museum: 

Singing at lunch: 

Qing the cats: 

UNICEF sign. ‘Play’ and rainbow: 

Tempted by the ball: 

Carly said he got up a little after 5. He apparently asked for me as soon as he woke up and she was tempted to bring him to me.I heard them Skyping with, I think, Vivi and Cherie before I got up at 6. He found an ABC song on YouTube that is some foreign language (Dutch or something). It sort of sounded like the Spanish alphabet, especially at the beginning, and he kept playing it and singing along, trying to make it work. I gave him his vitamins, the gummy kind he now refuses to eat, and he said “Set it on the table” and transferred all 4 pieces from the the table to the counter.

Many, many ‘sightings during the day’: two soap boxes next to each other were and ’11’, as were two diapers. Our square light fixture, the frame to the dog bears print in the changing room, and his rectangular marker container were the Hangeul ㅁ.

A parenting mistake: I was letting him drink water out of his little blue cup. He was trying to walk around with it and set it on the counter, both of which resulted in some spillage, which he didn’t like. So I was showing him how to keep it level, and if it wasn’t level it would spill. This made August think it was fun to spill the water, and he went around to places he wanted me to pour water and pointed “Here” – he even pointed up to the ceiling.

He started doing “Step color” on the squares on his play area. Stepping on blue and saying “Step blue”, etc. He crawled under the table and wanted to plug in the Christmas lights. He pretended to plug them into his high chair, then I let him ‘help’ plug them in for real. We then vacuumed and cleaned. He took much more interest this week, helping a little, but also following along and singing the ABC song really loudly along with the vacuum cleaner. When I turned it off he twice said “Quiet. Q for quiet.” Later, he would point out when other things were quiet: an empty restaurant when we walked by, and the Teuni Teuni video playing at Home Plus that didn’t have the sound on.

He helped make oatmeal, but was getting frustrated when I wouldn’t let him eat it raw. He started saying “Pinch dada”, but not actually doing so (thankfully). He did this once or twice more. I think it was progress – he was telling me he was frustrated, without actually trying to pinch.

We were on the couch and 3 of the animals fell off the back of it. After trying to teach him that ‘both’ only applied to 2, and with 3 he would use ‘all’ (not sure he quite understood that yet, but a start), he set each of them on the ground in a row, and called it “111”.

We did a lot of play dough letters today. He started by saying “Make E out of play dough.” He then likes to turn the E sideways and call it an M. Later, he would string together perhaps his longest sentence yet: “Make upside down G out of orange.” There were a couple of words today that he said very intentionally, with good enunciation, and was then smiling when I understood him. One was ‘hat’ when he put the letter shapes on his head. First saying they were on his “cabesa”, then calling them a hat. He also called one of the pieces to Carly’s tree painting a ’Nanana moon”. And when I was changing him he looked up at the dog bear picture we often talk about and started himself, saying “Dog bears have a robot” and “Dog bears have a train.” Finally, before we were ready to leave, he saw the plastic bag with a water bottle that Carly had left in the hallway. He pointed and said “Who did this?” He did it once earlier in the day with something as well. Before today, he had only used it for crayon/marker on the floor. Also, he has switched from “Who did that?” to “Who did this?”

We took off early for his class. He was saying “No” to class again, so I figured we could take it easy in Home Plus and let him adjust to the class area. I also needed to register for the next class session. Didn’t really work how I expected. It just gave him more time to want to go home before class started. When he saw the teacher and other parents he started saying “No, no, no.” The teacher brought him a little juice though, which he like. And I was able to coax him into class a few minutes before it started. Once there, he did pretty well. He didn’t try to leave once, and in fact closed the door when class started because he knows the door gets closed. He was really into bubbles and the opening songs. Class was about different animals. He got really excited by the demonstration portion, as she had a colorful red box and big cards with question marks on them. He saw them and kept pointing and saying “Question mark!” She then put a card in the box and it came out the bottom showing the other side, with an animal on it. When she put it in, she turned it upside down, so he said “Upside down question mark!” Unfortunately, he was so excited he kept wanting to go up and touch the box and get in the way. He got upset and started screeching when I wouldn’t let him, and got more upset when I took him out of the room. Fortunately, he really wanted to go “back in”, and he calmed down enough to return. He really liked playing with the question cards we got to use. After that, they each got two pom pom things to shake. He really liked these, dropping them and saying “Red, blue!” and then shaking them a lot. He has refused to do ‘Man-say!’ (arms up) since the summer, but he did it today with the pom poms. The next activity involved getting two sticks and drumming. He did a better job during this intro. She asked a few of the kids up close to sit down, and he sat down next to her. He liked the two sticks, and at one pointed handed them to me to “Do ABCD.” He also used them to make ’11’, ‘I’, and ’T’. When it came time to get the stickers from her, he ran up to her and said “chu-say-oh” (please give me) several times. This was the first time he did that. When it came time for the stickers, he only did a few, and saved the rest for home (actually handing them to me and saying “for home”. Finally, he did the last song on his own, and continues to get more of the movements down. For the first spinning, he said “bin-gul, bin-gul, bin-gul” (spinning) and for the second it was “turn, turn turn”. He was of course excited to get hand stamps at the end of class.

We came home and ate some lunch, then went straight to trying to get to sleep. He wanted to try at home again: “Fall asleep in home.” But once again it didn’t work and we ended up in the stroller, asleep at 1:20. At 1:47 he sort of woke up, and I had to rush and push him out in the hall for a minute, then he fell back to sleep until 2:45. A sad wakeup. Tried pushing him more; didn’t want that. Made him get out of the stroller, and he just sat in the hall, back against the wall, until 3:05, when he requested a “sandoo”. He was scratching a lot at his ankles, so I took one pair of pants and his socks off. He got upset at the mention of lotion. We did play dough letters, then when I went to change him, I took of his pants to find big red patches, particularly on his left legs. I put some lotion on the red spots on the other leg – he wasn’t happy with that. I took his shirt off to see there was any more (there weren’t), but then he wanted his owls. I wasn’t going to put dirty clothes on a child developing a rash, and he lost it for a good 10 minutes. He wouldn’t calm down in that room, so I took him against his will into the parlor and locked the door. It took a few more minutes, with me sitting and calming suggesting things we could do and asking what I could do to help, before he calmed down and wanted to do ABCDs.

He was fine after that. Carly got home and we did more play dough letters. He started saying “favorite number” ( I don’t know where it came from), but saying letters, like “favorite number Q”. He was also saying “Favorite letter”.

Quick ba
th as he was getting tired. Wanted his owl pajamas, but they were in the wash. He didn’t complain too much. A bit later he was sitting on the end of the bed, processing that to himself: “No owls. Owls dirty. Owls wet.”

Carly went to bed about 7 and he was out with me for awhile. But around 7:40 he made a dash to the door and went in with her. She said it took awhile for him to fall asleep, but it went smoothly.

New words/phrases: plug in, flashing (Christmas lights), Make E out of play dough, get it out, “dog bears have a robot”, Monday, make upside down G out of orange, chu-say-oh, dump markers

Plugging in the lights: 

“111”: 

Letters on his head/cabesa: 

Class: 

Man-say!: 

Sitting: 

Stamps: 

Walking home. He saw a ‘J’, ‘l’, and an ‘i’  needing dotting:

Traditional Korean games again. Stepping on them like he just did the pom poms in class: 

Now the light was an ‘!’: 

Sucking his ‘thumbs’ to the Kipper story “Arnold”: 

Asleep on the blanket: 

Afternoon indoors. “Hold it” letter: 

Making a ‘T’: 

August started waking up around 5:15. Carly came and got me up at 5:50. He started with art and play dough letters in the morning and we were still doing that well after Carly left for work. Eventually he wanted the iPad and was watching ABC songs. He ate a bunch of strawberries for breakfast, then wanted cereal. He then just wanted milk, and then wanted some of it poured into the bowl. I poured just a little in, and he enjoyed dipping his fingers in and getting the milk.

 

We played with the cardboard bricks. He chose to stack them 14 high before knocking them down: “Wait for 14.” We made a walking path out of them, and he pointed out it looked like a ‘J’. We did some reading, mainly of books we haven’t read for awhile: the Korean counting book, Teacher Says, Under the Sea with Me, and of course some Kipper. While we were on the bed he pointed out that my legs looked like ’11’.

 

We then revived the closet game, where I carry him and run to the closet and put his head in my clothes. He enjoyed that a few times. Luckily, there had been just a little milk in the bowl, because when he went back out to the coffee table he accidentally knocked it off, and milk splattered a good six feet, somehow missing all the stuffed animals and books in the vicinity, which was nice.

 

He found one of his plastic knifes and we cut some fruit and veggies, with him noting the halves of the chili pepper looked like an ’11’.

 

He started getting sleepy around 10, and finally started to admit it awhile later. He really wanted to fall asleep on the bed, refusing the stroller and backpack. We read some Kipper, then he would lie on his back for a long time and I would sing number songs. By ‘on his back’, I mean he was more like wedging himself in the pillows at the edge of the bed, by the chair, but looking very comfortable. But it just wasn’t working, and eventually I changed his diaper again and put him in the stroller (again, he fought it until I offered him a cracker). He fell asleep less than 10 minutes later at 11:54 and slept until 12:56.

 

When he woke up he wanted out of the stroller, and wanted me to take him in on the bed. He then didn’t want me around, getting upset if I was close. He lay on the pillows again, generally quietly, until about 1:20. At that point he started getting more upset (he missed Mama, and clearly still needed more sleep, as he had only slept 8 hours last night), and eventually he let me read Kipper. After that, he was ready for lunch. He ate a lot of quesadilla and rice and beans and cheese, and some orange, and was in a good mood.

 

But something cause that to change, and he was already getting upset when I tried to take him in to change him and get him ready to go outside. He kicked and screamed and tried to pinch all the way down the hall, then fought the diaper change and insisted on taking off his socks. But the worst screams came when I took his owl shirt off to try to put a shirt on for the day. I couldn’t get a shirt on him. I went back out to the living room and he was shrieking. He went back into the changing room and came back out carrying his owl pants. I had changed him out of his owl pants earlier in the morning, but left on the shirt. So I thought he had meant to get the shirt. I gave in, realizing he wasn’t ready to go outside anyway. I went and got his owl shirt and brought it back out. But he kept saying “No, nope” and screaming and pointing roughly down at the pants, which he had thrown on the floor. So I took off the blue pants and put his owl pants back on, then the shirt. Then he calmed down and we were able to talk about it, and he made it clear he wanted to stay inside until Mama came home. So it became a pajama day.

 

We read more books we hadn’t read in awhile, like Plant a Tree for Me, From Head to Toes, and Hop on Pop. There was hammering noises coming from outside or a neighbor and each time he heard it he would get back up on the couch next to me. We then spent a lot of time sending messages to Carly. He now knows at least 5 punctuation marks (periods, commas, apostrophes, question marks, and explanation points) and heard me saying ‘comma’ and ‘period’ as I was using Siri to compose my messages to Carly. So he was saying “comma” in his messages to her (Siri comically translates his messages like “I love Mama. Bye” to ‘Abdominal my.” His enunciation is getting a lot better, but not computer-can-understand-him clear). Carly didn’t know about apostrophe in particular, so I had August record a couple videos of him listing punctuation marks for her. He also typed her some messages focused on punctuation. I finally got smart and had him typing messages to her on the iPad while I used the iPhone, as he would get upset when I needed the phone to myself for a minute.

 

One thing he was doing today, and I’m not sure if it was a joke, or just really abstract visualizing, was seeing the Hangeul ㅁ character everywhere today, and not just in things that were rectangular – some were rhombus like, at least, but others were things like pointing to the side of a stuffed animal and saying it, and I didn’t see anything resembling a rectangle.

 

Anyway, after that, I let us veg on ABC and other videos for awhile. Trying to get him back to the other apps and away from YouTube. He has learned a lot from them, but the balance is off. Funny that he totally forgot about YouTube for weeks until I reminded him at one point, and now he is forgetting everything else. He did do a lot of singing along to ABC songs though. He saw one of the cardboard bricks on the ground, the one with the Puma on it and said “Puma is sad.” At least, that is what I thought at the time. An hour later I realized he may have said “Puma inside”, referring to the fact that the Puma is not out in its enclosure at the zoo. I got him away from YouTube and he played with the Intro to Letters app, recording himself saying the letter sounds and playing them back.

 

Finally, at about 5 he got upset that Carly wasn’t home. I told him we could put his socks and shoes on and go meet her at the elevator. But just as we were all ready to go, she came through the door.

 

A bit later I went out to do some shopping at Home Plus. While I was gone, he was standing on a stack of books in front of the window, which made Carly a bit nervous. She told him he could stand on one book, to which he then responded “One book. No two. No fourteen.” She gave him a quick bath as he was getting very tired.

 

He fell asleep a few minutes short of 7, just before I got home.

 

 

New words/phrases: white shows up, mama goes to work, more peanut butter on the knife, say-mo is triangle. Three sides, One book. No two. No fourteen

Lounging in the morning: 

Dipping his fingers in milk: 

J path: 

3 stickers on his hand: 

Sleepy before his nap: 

After his nap. This is where he stayed for over 20 minutes: 

Skyping with mama:  

Intro to letters: 

Shampoo and wash for boys. There was no girl equivalent: 

Carly was up first, then August just after 7. When he woke up he was saying “uh-oh” because his hand was in his sleeve. I was up at 7:20.

 

He listened to ABCs songs and Carly made French toast for breakfast. We then moved to play dough letters, pressing our letter shapes into the play dough. Made about a dozen of them. Carly Skyped with Cherie. She had a baby and Ava with her, and August really liked seeing them. After that he got GG the giraffe down and was playing with her, having her drink from the water bottle and taste things, like the table and door. He read Spanish books with Carly while I took a shower. When I came out, they were reading the Frida book. He had also ripped a goat out of the Moo book, which I then fixed with tape. August wanted a piece and immediately took it down the hall to the poster. We did more play dough letters and then, while Carly was making nutty noodles, he wanted to make soup. So we got our a pot and ladle for him and he did that for awhile.

 

He napped from around noon to two. Another long one, and another slow wakeup after. He ate nutty noodles for lunch, then was down on the floor with his art. He found a cow sticker from yesterday and put it on the back of his hand like a handstand. He found the K letter shape, turned it sideways, and saying ‘juh’, which is the Korean character ㅈ. We were then typing  Hangeul on the computer. I had the keyboard viewer open and was showing him how the keys light up when pushed them. He got excited about this and said “4s show up” when pushing 4.

 

He did more reading with Carly, particularly Frida, and they were speaking a lot of Spanish together.

 

I decided to take August for a walk in the backpack up to Madeul. Before we left, he did a really nice goodbye to Carly, going in to get a kiss and waving to her. On our walk, we walked along a concrete wall that has vertical lines every few feet. I suddenly realized he was chanting “1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1…” Also, as we got into the Madeul park/stadium area, I took a slightly different path past the tennis courts. We came out on our usual path, and he started saying “Q, Q, Q.” I realized our shortcut had taken us past the science sign that includes the big Q. So we had to backtrack and see the Q sign, then go back farther to see the ‘answer’ sign, which has a big A.

 

From there, we continued our usual walk around the stadium, looking at the science exhibits. He knows them by know, and which ones open (the model of the earth, one with a door) and where the ones with numbers are (particularly the big clock history of the world one). Then past the north end of the stadium, past the dog park, and down to our usual exercise equipment/playground area. It was mid-30s, but felt colder. He completely refused hats and gloves though. We looked a bit at the map, and we used the shovel and stick to hit the metal around the piano sculpture and sang ABC. But he was getting cold, and eventually it was too much. He suddenly wanted to go home. It had only been 10 minutes or so. We packed up and headed out, me holding him this time to keep him warmer and try to hold his hands.

 

We had planned to go to a coffee shop, but he said no to that and just wanted to go home. So I walked back down the stream. As we passed Cafe Tolerance I mentioned it being a coffee shop, but closed. Suddenly he changed his mind and wanted to go to a coffee shop. We checked, and it was closed, so we walked back to our building. We went to Cafe Mug near GS 25. We spent a good hour plus in there. We drew on the iPad, drew in the notebook, spelled words in Alpha Writer on the iPad, played Nighty Night Circus for a couple minutes for the first time in months, and did Very Hungry Caterpillar puzzles. He is getting better at them. For the harder level puzzles I still help a lot, putting the first few pieces in place, then coaching him through much of the rest (he can get the last 4 or so pieces no problem), but his attention span is better (he doesn’t flick to another puzzles after just 2 pieces as much) and he needs less help. He’s also started to figure out that you get different colored stars after finishing the puzzles, and likes the yellow ones, which are the ‘hard’ level.

 

Anyway, eventually we called it good and headed home. From Cafe Mug he wanted to walk to the left, back to the side door, and past the new coffee shop they are making (where the nail place used to be). We’ve walked by a lot, and August now says “coffee shop” every time we pass it. We got home at 5:30. Jill had brought over dinner for us as she heard we are all sick, so we ate her yummy pasta and alfredo and broccoli for dinner, then August and I did more play dough letters while Carly took a shower. She headed to bed about 8 and he stayed out with me. Before saying “good night” to her, he grabbed the Duplo kangaroo to bring out with him. He brought it out to the living room and had it “hop” on all the books we had on the coffee table. We read a few books, then colored on paper, and a little after 8:30 he popped up and went in to Carly. I thought he was asleep about 8:45, but he kept waking back up. I went in around 9:30 to give Carly a break. I sang number songs to him and he was laying on his back with his feet in the air. He looked at his legs and said “11”, then grabbed his feet and said “both”. He eventually kept trying to stand up, so I forced him to stay down, resulting in a good cry. Carly nursed him after that and he fell asleep a little after 9:45.

 

At some point during the day I was facing him and had his hands in mine. He looked at my arms and said “V”. Another new thing was using the non-writing end of the markers to write ABCs, kind of like what we do with the stick or shovel on sidewalks, etc.

 

New words/phrases: has plurals down (ones, threes), 4s show up, comma (identified it when I was typing), picture come off that, turn the paharos (birds in Spanish), back with mama

Skyping with Vivi: 

GG: 

Oma: 

Teuni Teuni microphone, now with batteries: 

Napping: 

Eating a mushroom: 

Madeul. Looking a bit cold:

Cafe Mug: 

Playing in the bath. He actually went into his bath willingly today, taking the squirt cars to play with:

His year two so far:

We were all up a little after 7 after a good night’s sleep. Carly skyped with Vivi and Glecy in the morning, and August and I skyped with Carly in the other room. Carly made him an egg for breakfast, then he had a bunch of banana in Cheerios with me. We were then in on the bed, and he was playing with Carly’s phone. He put it on the computer, so I taught him ‘under’ the computer, and then ‘behind’. He particularly liked ‘under’, and was lifting the computer up to put the phone under it. He would do it again later in the evening. He was then tasting/eating everything again. My possibly incomplete list: Duplo ‘I’ piece (just a big green rectangle), wall, door, window, books, pillow, blanket, dada, giraffe, freezer handle, stroller hook, ironing board, poster

 

After I changed him, I told Carly about how he was pretending to write cursive at the children’s museum on Wednesday. I asked him what he had been writing (his original response at the time was “Cursive S”), but now he said “Zinnie”. He then went out and started writing ‘Zinnie’ on the paper. Usually he was leaving the second ‘i’ out (saying it but not writing it), and his ’n’ sometimes looked like an ‘m’. And his ‘e’ looks like a ‘c’. And they aren’t in a straight line. But he did a pretty good ‘Zinn’ once, and then he did a ‘Zinnie’, including the second ‘i’.

 

He was then watching ABC songs and learned “good night” from one of them and was going around saying good night to things: iPad, wawa, mama. We got out the pastels, and those would be his primary medium for the day. Initially when I mentioned skyping again he ran away, but when I skyped with my parents he was happy to join in. At one point he got Carly’s sweatshirt and was playing peekaboo with it, then wearing it like a cape.

 

Carly had finished her fried rice from yesterday, but left the shrimp. August tried it, called it “yummy”, and ate the rest.

 

He then took a long nap, like over two and a half hours long long. He woke up groggy and cuddly with Carly, and wasn’t really getting out of bed until 4 or so. When I tried to go in he would say ‘no’ and start to get upset; he’s started to learn the routine from previous weekends and days Carly is sick: after he wakes up from a nap I take him out somewhere and Carly doesn’t go. He really wanted to stay with Carly. Earlier, before his nap, when I’d asked if he’d wanted to go outside, he said “Stay at the home.” Now, he said “Mama Zinnie stay home, dada go have fun outside.” and gave me a push. So I went to do the grocery shopping. Of course, when he saw me heading towards the door he wanted to go as well, and was saying “Have fun outside. Mama Dada go outside.” Eventually I headed out alone. Did the grocery shopping and came home.

 

He had some quesadilla for dinner, then shared some kimbap with me. He watched some more ABC songs, then I put the iPad to sleep for the evening and we played with the balls for a couple minutes. He likes the balls, and gets excited when I get them out, but loses interest fast. Or he just wanted to go see Mama. We went into the parlor where she was. The Christmas lights were on, and August lay on the blanket and looked up at the lights “on the fish,” (meaning they ran across Cherie’s fish picture) and was kind of hypnotized.

 

A couple times today he picked up the photo from his great-gramdpa Dahl’s 97th birthday (he had pulled it off the wall) and pointed to the painting of flowers in the background and repeatedly said “This.”

 

We went back out to the living room and played with stickers. I put one on the back of his hand and he liked that, calling it a “hand stamp”. Back into the bed, where we read more books (Curious George’s ABC, which I realized I have pretty much memorized, Moo, Dog, The Going to Bed Book). Art and stickers again, and watching the Feist “1234” Sesame Street video because he wanted the song and I couldn’t remember the words.

 

He then went in with Carly a little after 8 and nursed, but didn’t fall asleep. Both came out about 8:40. Carly drew with him, then went back to bed. He and I did some coloring, then mainly played with play dough. I made a U which he was then trying to make stick to the couch. The U pulled apart, but then he realized he had ’11’. We then made a C, I, and Y (because those were the shapes he pulled out) which he then carried to different places and arranged: the couch, table, and brown chair. He had gotten his old art box out, and it had the finger crayons in it. So we spun those on the floor for the first time in a long time. He was trying to step on them to make them stop. He then wanted me to try spinning other things like the markers and crayons.

 

He suddenly went to the door and opened it and went in with Carly at about 9:30. Took some time to fall asleep, but was asleep before 10.

 

 

New words/phrases: eat this window, under, behind, dirty laundry, good night, in here now (inhehnow), on the foot (photo stuck to his foot), stay at the home, mama Zinnie stay home, dada go have fun outside. Saymo (triangle) is right there, set it on he floor, put it under the blanket

Tasting the Duplo ‘I’: 

Writing his name: 

All 6 letters: 

Coloring the bats: 

Hugging the iPad: 

Back to art: 

Trying to make the ’11’ stick to the couch: 

His play dough letters: 

Drum: 

Looking out the window. Still on tippy toes, but much taller than when he first started to do this: 

7:35. Very sad wakeup. I picked him up and held him on my shoulder. Lots of coughing and I thought he would throw up on me. But no throw up. When he calmed down a little bit but was still crying, I asked “What can dada do to help? He sobbed “ABCD”. Calmed right down. So we started with art. He was drawing circles. That is, calling them “circle” as opposed to Os or Qs. That is new. He did a lot of coughing in the morning, and twice said “Zinnie is coughing.” When I first changed him I changed his pants, then tried to change his shirt. He got upset as he didn’t want his owl shirt off. I would leave it on until we were ready to leave, and he still got upset then. While watching ABC songs, he reminded himself “No ABC songs on subway” (because there is no internet) and he was singing along a lot. We ate oatmeal for breakfast. I haven’t been pushing the medicine, but he remembered it himself and wanted it in the oatmeal. So I made him a separate bowl and we put in the medicine. Of course, he only ate a couple bites after that. After awhile he was “all done iPad” and wanted to read books. We read a lot: Kipper, Dog, and, one of the used books we bought last time at Salvation Army, I Spy at the Zoo. He liked it and we read it a couple times. He’s getting into the ‘I spy…’ sort of stuff.

 

We headed out a little after 10. As we walked through the park, he spotted new Vs: upside down ones in the posts holding up the trunks of trees. Of course, he also pointed out his usual assortment of O and V and I shapes along the way.

 

An uneventful ride down, except that the only people to tell me he was cold all day were two women on the train platform. While he was all bundled up, except he wasn’t wearing gloves.

 

We went first to the children’s museum. First went to the nature area. He had me ‘read’ the big version of The Giving Tree they had there a couple times. It is in Korean, so I have to make up the story the best I remember it. While I was sitting on the low chair, he said “Hug Dada” and hugged my legs. He’s not much into hugging, so that was kind of cool. He then went up into the tree house and spent time examining the gear/clothes of a…forester or botanist or whatever. There were two walkie talkies, and he was bending them together to make an ‘X’.  Next, he wanted to go down to the basement. He led the way, walking down the entire ramp. He did his usuals: grabbing the shower head magnets and singing Spanish ABCs, Tesla coilsWe then went up to the spaceship area. Rather busy, and when August was playing with the control panels he got shoved by a bigger boy a couple times. August’s response is to screech at other kids when they do that, which frankly this boy deserved since he was twice August’s size and his supervisor didn’t do much about it.

 

August was a bit frustrated and it was 11:45 so I suggested lunch, which he agreed to. We went up and ate. After that, he stared out the window for awhile, then wanted to leave instead of doing more playing. He wouldn’t be ready for a nap for at least another 30 minutes, and probably longer, so I asked what he wanted to do and he said “See animals.” So we went to the zoo and ended up first at the outside birds. He got to see one of the white peacocks with its tail feathers up. We did the whole stretch of birds, then went around to the herbivores. He was really into learning their names (moutlons, guanacos, etc.) We got to see the kangaroos hop a bit. I wasn’t actually sure if he saw them hop or not, but later he told Carly “Kangaroos hop.” We then went across to the seals. The lower level was closed, but we could go up top and watch them from above water. I stood him on the ledge, with me behind him. He pressed his forehead against the glass and watched them. And watched them. For several minutes. He was also liking the feel of the glass with his hands, saying “Cold!” Those were the fur seals, then we went to the other end and watched the spotted seals. Again for several minutes. That was kind of cool because they were actually refilling the tank, so we got to see the big jets of water, and watch the water slowly get up to the seals lying on the bottom of the pool. From there we went across to the deer. Just watched them for a couple minutes, but August continued his cuddly day by pressing his forehead against mine, then his nose, and giving kisses – which he hasn’t done in months.

 

We walked back past the herbivores, then into the big cats, as he requested the jaguars. As we got to the elephants he kept saying “Elephants inside!” over and over, then, as we walked towards the primates, “Primates inside! Monkeys inside!”

 

We had spent quite awhile in the zoo, so it was a little long to his nap. Changed him and did our walk. He slept from 1:31 to 2:27. When he woke up in the coffee shop it was sudden, and he instantly said “Playground. Go outside.” He got agitated as I put everything away and got ready to leave. Unusual, as he has always enjoyed playing in the coffee shops.

 

We went to the new playground. He wanted to go on the big merry go round, so when it was empty he walked on it and I pushed him for awhile. Then we spent most of our time playing on the hopscotch area. Tracing and saying the numbers – much of it in Korean (in particular he pointed out 4, which is ‘sa’). Then we wrote in the sand, where he drew a Hangeul ‘O’ (ㅗ). He wandered around the sidewalk area, still drawing with the stick, where he was doing question marks and joked about peeing into a grate again.

 

We had been outside for about an hour and were getting cold so I wanted us to go inside. August wasn’t coughing though, and coughed very little throughout the day after his initial coughing in the morning. A lot less coughing than me. Anyway, we went back to the children’s museum. Back to the nature area where he did the animal noises thing and looked at the rocks (selenite, amethyst, quartz, etc.) Then across to the rest of the first floor (chalk, etc.) We played with the strips of magnets on the floor that we use to make letters and shapes. He invented a new term. He already has the ‘Q part’, which is the little line you add to an O to make it a Q. This time, he had a ‘V’ and he called the line you use to turn a ‘V’ into an ‘A’ the ‘A part’.

 

But by far the biggest toy of the day were the static cling magnet shapes. First, he was carrying around a purple ‘C’ shape. Then, he found two ‘O’ shapes. First, he realized they were on the other side of the window, so he had to walk to the other side to get them. Then he took one back to the original side so that one was on each side. He started walking around the first floor, experimenting with what surfaces they would stick too and which they wouldn’t. They stuck to another window, computer screens, glass, etc. and hung on the pegs for the fish thing. He also put them on his head and on his fingers. When they fell, or he dropped/threw them, he would say ‘Boop!’. That probably lasted 15 minutes.

 

It was now about 4:15 and we headed out. He had been really excited about getting a hand stamped when we got there. Even though they are mostly invisible, he kept pointing to it and saying “This!” or “Hand stamp!” When we came back to the museum, he got really excited when the woman at the entrance shined the blacklight on it and he could see it. So before we left I walked back over to her and had her shine the light on it once again.

 

We headed home and walked up to Carly as she was about to board the elevator up to the apartment. Back home, he had left over vitamins from the morning, since he isn’t eating the gummy kind we have as he doesn’t like how they stick to his teeth. He pretended to feed one to Pooh. He was then reading with Carly, including the Moby Dick book (which he primarily likes because of the Qs in ‘Queequeg’ and because of the gulls page and the sound
s they make) and the I Spy at the Zoo book. I went out and picked up some groceries and vietnamese food for Carly. August ate some of her fried rice – particularly the mushrooms – then some of the bread and soup I had.

 

We then let him watch some more ABC songs and he really started dancing and singing to these ones that have an electronic beat to them. I tried to take him in for a bath, but he had  meltdown as I tried to take off his clothes. Carly came in and he calmed down. She gave him his bath, although it still had to be a quick one.

 

He brightened back up after that and was pretending to eat more things: “Yummy pillow. Yummy palabras. Eating this C, eating this dada.” Carly went to sleep and he did art with me. He was wanting me to write numbers at one point, but he was sitting on the paper. This became a joke as he kept trying to sit on the paper. He still likes to use two colors at once, both for himself and to watch us. He gets excited about choosing two colors to use for “both”. He was getting tired, but trying to avoid it. He wanted to “Sit with Dada” on the couch, but then he would want to type on the computer. We did sit together for awhile though. I suggested I lie down next to him while he nursed to sleep and he popped right up and said “Dada go in.” While nursing, he got up once and patted me a few times. He was asleep right about 9.

 

New words/phrases: square and triangle and circle in Korean, 4 (sa), Hangeul O, stamp for children’s museum, hand stamp, A part, other side, go on the subway, yummy crust, regular sees backwards seas, stand on the O, step on the O pattern, Zinnie dada do have fun

Children’s museum. Making an X:

Spaceship: 

Looking out the window: 

Zoo. Watching the seals: 

Tiger: 

Asleep: 

Playground: 

“Step 7”: 

Making 11: 

Children’s museum, part 2: 

Holding the C: 

Os:

Blue one on his fingers: 

Home: 

Dipping bread in the soup: 

Hasn’t played with this in months. Interesting to see how much easier it is for him. He doesn’t have to lay it flat to push them in, and he can rotate them back and forth to get them to fit, including the heart:

Eating the computer again: 

Sitting with dada: 

August was up at 6:45, a little before Carly left. He wanted to read, and had me come into the other room with him and closed the door. We read his new books again and the ABC books. While reading the Dog book, he pointed to the dog in the tub and said “Doggie in the bath.” While reading the Curious George ABC book, he pretended to eat something on the C page. I asked if he was eating the ‘crab’, and he replied with “Yummy C.” He then ate several other letters as we went through.

 

I let him on the iPad after that. He was watching YouTube videos, and is fixated on a ball pit video right now. Luckily, it teachers colors, and as he was watching it he was focusing on how to spell the colors, naming out the letters. We then played with play dough, mainly making letters. He made a ‘J’ by himself. Then to his paper art, managing to dump out a couple of containers. Then, for fun, he stuffed a few under the couch before I stopped him.

 

He watched Teuni Teuni, and I trimmed his hair a bit after we brushed his teeth. I used the spray bottle, and he called it “Mama’s spray bottle.” Unfortunately, he wouldn’t let me finish the right side, but I got it a bit better when he took his nap.

 

Back to reading books: Wanted to read Frida, but it is just in Spanish. Then Palabras. I asked him what the papa was holding, and he replied “Papa holding pillow.” It was actually the baby. He also pretended to eat the gull and the ice cream and a letter T in that book, and earlier and eaten my computer. I was wanting to get going, and he wanted one more book, saying “last one”. We got ready to go, but I wasn’t quite quick enough for him, so he said “Let’s go.”

 

We went over to the art museum and to the play area. He didn’t really play in it, but first wanted water. Then he was hungry. So we sat in the changing/nursing room and I gave him some rice crackers. Apparently this is a no-no, as a cleaning woman saw us. I tried to have August saying hi, but he sad “Nope. No ‘Hi’” A minute later a security guard came in and told us we couldn’t eat there. I gave August one more cracker after that though and then he was done, so we just stayed there. During the short time he was in the play area, he stated the brown part of the slide, which he things look like a mushroom (bus-ut), the netting, and a purple pole. He wanted to leave a little later anyway, but first wanted to go in and see the bunny again.

 

From there we went across to class. He had not been keen on class, the few times I had mentioned it, and when we got there, he said “No” and wanted to leave (“Go home”). He walked all the way back to the top of the moving walkway. I convinced him to stay there by saying we could sit at a table and color in his notebook. We did that for several minutes, then I convinced him we could color in his notebook in class. He agreed to that. Still wasn’t happy in class at first. Finally warmed up a bit when they were crawling through some boxes and one of those round tunnel tubes. Didn’t participate himself, but walked around and watched. He actually wanted to climb on top of the tunnel things. Back to the notebook for a bit, coloring the covers. Then they did these cheese puzzle things (basically a hexagon of cheese wedges). He liked that. Then, for the next activity they got little push carts. We put the wheels on, then they pushed them around, then they picked up these white ovals, and took them over to a mat that had caves and spiders on it. The carts had lobsters on the side of them. I was a little confused about the theme of class today – the first activity had involved some sort of bug, perhaps lightning bugs, and had an outfit to match – but it didn’t matter, as August had fun with the cart, and putting the ovals away at the end. They were then all given these microphone toys to take home. August was walking around the room, shaking his, when a boy came up and took it from him. August was in shock. It took a few seconds for the mother to realize what had happen, but it all worked out. We got it back to August before he got too upset.

 

At the end of class, I told him to go bow to the teacher. He was on the other side of class, and August walked across to him. He didn’t see August, and kind of walked the other direction. August followed, and tried to bow, but he didn’t see it. I told August to try again. This time, the teacher saw him and got down on a knee. August walked right up to him, and bowed right in front of him.

 

We headed home. As we got in the house, he was upset Carly wasn’t home. But then he said “Mama working. Dada and Zinnie have fun.” This is basically the story I tell him again and again when he misses mama, saying I miss her to, but she leaves for work, we have fun together, and then she comes back.

 

We ate lunch (ravioli and dongatsu with sauce) and then he typed on the computer. He knows which one is his “document”. We then read some books. He chose the stroller for sleeping, and fell asleep quickly. He only slept from 1:39 to 2:21 though, and was pretty sad after his wakeup. When I asked what I could do to help, he said “ABCD”. So we did a lot of art after that: play dough, markers, and crayons. Another round of reading before he was ready to go outside again. I went to change him, and when I put him on the changing table he said “Mama says ‘No screaming in the screaming room.’” She had accidentally said it, or something that implied it, once and now he remembers.

 

We left, him in the backpack, right at 4. We walked to the playground that looks like a tree. He spent 20 minutes or so playing in the sand with the stick, shovel, and then the broom. A group of teenagers walked by and said hi to him. This time, he actually smiled and waved back. From there, we went up on the structure. He was practicing a lot of stairs, going up and down, back and forth. He wanted to go down the big slides, but I told them they were too big. So then, as we walked around, he kept pointing to them and saying “too big”. He wasn’t interested in the little slides.

 

Back on the ground, he headed for the sidewalk, then down it. He saw the railing that he once said looks like Ms, and he did it again. The railings were yellow and green, so he was saying “yellow M, yellow M”. Then he was basically running down the sidewalk, actually saying “running” as he went.

 

After a couple minutes we headed back to the park. His final activity was walking on top of the border to the playground – basically a series of small posts that undulate in height from ground level to about a foot off the ground. I held his hands, and he walked back and for a few times. From there, I convinced him it was time to head home. He let me hold his hands for the first few minutes,then just the right hand for awhile after that. After that he refused, and had pretty cold hands by the time we got home about 5:30. At least it had been warmer today, to the high 30s.

 

Ate a little of Carly’s toast and egg, then shared some banana with me. We read a bunch more books to him and did some art. I gave him a bath, which went quickly, as he wasn’t happy Carly had left the room. When putting on pajamas, I initially tried to put on his Christmas pajamas and he didn’t like that. I asked him what he wanted, and he said “Owls”. So I put those on, and as I did, I said “Hoot”. He replied with “Hoot in Timmy Time”, remembering the teacher in the show that is an owl and only says “Hoot”.

 

Carly went in to bed about a quarter to 8 and he was going to stay out with me. But after just a few minutes he said “Nurse. Go to sleep. Go to sleep.” and went in to Carly. I went in too and we hung out for awhile, then he fell asleep around 8.

 

 

New words/phrases: doggie in the bath, mama’s spray bottle, last one, papa holding pillow, let’s go, dada and Zinnie have fun, document, medicine, vita
min, back and forth, in here now, wagging, fluffy

 

With his notebook in class:  

Paricipating:

He looks so serious, it turned out, because he recognized the song that was playing: 

On the way home, stopping to play by the ice rink: 

Home. They look like the Hangeul characters ㅁ and ㄷ:

Getting sleepy: 

Asleep: 

More play dough letters: 

Walking to the park. He saw this and said “Dot the ‘i’ !”:

Making up a song: 

The playground:  

Waving:

Stairs: 

Posts: 

Fence Ms: 

Back home. He was looking at his Spanish cards and started putting them on his cabesa. Should have done a video instead of a photo as he kept moving and light was low:

Picking apart the play dough: 

When he writes things big he has a low voice that he uses: 

August was awake at 7:25. I met him at the door and said “Good morning” The first thing he said to me was “Nope” and pushed the door mostly shut. A little later he opened the door and said “Dada do ABCD on the paper.” He knows we’ve been putting medicine in his juice, etc., so he’s gotten the idea of pouring one thing into another. In the morning, he wanted to “Poor mango juice in the wawa.” At lunch, he would want to add water to his sandwich (I said no to that one). He then said what sounded like “Marshy help” and then “Marshy do that”. Marshy was, indeed sitting on the couch behind him at the time.

When drawing with the markers, he referred to the one he had as “this old”, meaning it wasn’t one of our new markers. He then watched ABC songs for awhile, before going back to art. He managed to dump out both the long crayons and the pastels at once, after which he referred to it as a “mess”. He then was counting some of the crayons on the four, counting four apart from the others. We then played with the stamp pad, before he wanted to move to the other room, telling me “Dada go in there” Once in the parlor, he was looking up at Cherie’s fish picture. I told him that Oma made it, and he said “Oma did that.” He then noticed the border made a rectangle, and called it a “Hangeul M”.

We then read some books, including our new Moo and Dog books, then moving to our ABC books. We were reading the Curious George ABC book, and he pretended to eat the radishes on the R page, around the rabbit, saying “Eating radishes.” The first of many, many things in the day he would pretend to eat. He knows almost all of the Eric Carle ABC book, only needing help with Xolo and Yak, I believe. We finished with Palabras, where he was again was searching for Qs. I tried to point out the ‘ñ’s, but he made it clear that this time we were just “Looking for Qs.”

We got ready to go and left right at 10. He was missing mama before we left, but then followed me into the bedroom and saw Peter’s photo of me and Carly. He looked up, waved, and said “Hi Mama!” We then went and got in the backpack. As I got in, he was touching my head, and I was making the shocked ‘bzzzt’ noise. As we walked out, he saw Carly’s photo on the fridge, and wanted to touch her photo, saying he was “ZZZing Mama” or “Zing Mama”.

Unusually, he got impatient and upset on the way down, just a stop short. We made it, but he wasn’t happy that last length of track. He wanted back in the backpack when we were off the train, so I put him in and we walked to the children’s museum. We went in, and he was very happy to get a hand stamp today – in the past he has always gotten upset when they tried to give him one. He first wanted to go downstairs, where he mainly played with the little Tesla coils, then the magnet area, where they have random objects attached to magnets. He found a shower head, which he first thought looked like a brush, so he was using it on his hair. I then taught him that it was a shower, and he still held it over his head (wish we could do that in real life – but maybe we should try again). He also played with this microscope that kind of looks like a snake. The idea is that you can press it against your skin and see your skin magnified on the screen above.

He then wanted to go upstairs, where he wanted to play on the first floor. Played with the usual: static shape magnets that stick to the class, chalk and eraser. But he also drew on a long slip of paper for the zoetropes. He kept repeating a squiggly shape and putting two dots over it. I asked him what he was drawing, and he said “Drawing cursive. Cursive S.”

He then wandered over to the nature area, where he remembered “quartz”, and I think I’ve now taught him “selenite”, since that is is favorite one. We became butterflies standing in front of a screen, then climbed up into the tree house and back down. It was now 11:30 and I started asking him about lunch. This is where he started pretending to eat everything, pretending to eat a big wooden worm, then the wooden post. We went up and ate lunch, where he proceeded to taste the table and the chair, and would have tasted the floor if I hadn’t stopped him. Carly joked he is regressing to a baby stage, putting everything in his mouth. We then wandered down the back ramp and to the construction area. They have a bunch of real tools on display and he got excited about playing with them, but they are safely behind plastic. But we climbed up into the house, then back down.

Then back up to the air and ball area. He’s always been a bit scared of putting his hand in the air of the Bernoulli’s Principle thing, or putting the balls in the pneumatic tubes. Not today, where he did both with no worries.

It was then time for a nap, so we changed him and got going. I invented a new song today, about counting by twos, so I sang that to him as he fell asleep. Responded a bit harshly to a woman who, just as he fell asleep, felt she needed to tell me his hands were cold, then reach out and GRAB his hand in the five seconds they were walking the other way. Who grabs a sleeping baby, especially in passing?

He slept from 1 to 1:50. When I got my latte, I got a bag of the pumpkin and a bag of the sweet potato snacks he likes. He brought them up a few times last week, and I felt bad because I had told him we would buy more when we went back to Children’s Grand Park, but we never did last week. He woke up, and ate some of the new snacks. He asked for water, and I handed him his “wawa’. He immediately said “Mama says aqua.” This was interesting, because once we were back home, he was drawing 4s with Carly on the paper. When he wants to draw 4s, she or I draw the ‘L’ part, then he draws a straight line through it to make the open 4. With me, he calls the ‘L’ part “Hangeul N”, but with her she was calling them “L”s. Already code shifting between parents.

Anyway, I asked where he wanted to go next. He initially said children’s museum, but when I asked what he wanted to do, he said “mul area”. I reminded him he would have to wear the apron (which he did not like last time). He changed his mind and decided on the zoo instead. He initially chose to go see the dingo, etc. but they were all indoors. The jaguars, oddly, were not. He then wanted to go over to the outdoor birds. He liked the vulture, then was very interested in knowing what each kind of bird was, repeating it after I said it: “English pheasant”, “golden pheasant”, etc. We met a couple who really liked him and talked a few minutes. They were over the top with the “His eyes are so beautiful” thing, but they were nice, and, unusually as of late, August did just fine with them.

We then went to the water birds, where the naming thing continued. He would point and say “This…” and expect me to tell him what it was. After he knew it, he would then point and say “This duck” or “This pelican”. There was a grey heron sitting on a round bird bath thing close to us, and he said “Heron on the O.” The penguins weren’t out (they never are), but the water in their cage had the jets on high, but the top was mostly frozen over. The ice made really cool shapes at the edge where it met the roiling water. I took a photo, and as I did August pointed to the shape of the open water and pointed out that it looked like a ‘C’. Finally, as we were watching the birds, he noticed the audio loop they have in there. It starts with the sounds of insects, like cicadas. He started imitating the sound, making a ‘ssss’ sound.

From there we went to the tropical building, where we looked at the snakes and lizards the most. He was, as usual, really interested in the zookeeper doors and wanted to go through them. After watching the coatis, a quick walk through the rest and out the top afte
r getting down to look at the butterflies and beetles. We went and saw the goats and horses, then headed back to the children’s museum.

He wanted to go back downstairs, where he spent most of his time playing with the shower head magnets. There were two of them, and he’d hold them both over his head. First, he was saying they were “for mama”. Then he started singing the ABC song (in both English and Spanish) and walking around the room, waving them around. He was pretty funny.

They had bags, like cloth shopping bags, for some reason, and he got one and initially said “bag for home”. When I said we couldn’t take it home, he then started talking about shopping, saying “Get markers.” From there we went up and changed him to get ready to go home. On the changing pad he was first tracing numbers on the wall. He then held up the end of the belt thing and called it a ‘plug’, then touched it to the wall where he had been drawing numbers, saying “plug numbers.”

We stopped in the book room since we had a little more time. He noted it was “quiet” as we went in, but then he saw a book on the floor and stepped on it. When I told him not to, he decided he wanted to step on everything, including toy pieces. He also did some screeching, so we were out of there pretty quickly.

We headed outside, and as we did so he said “No screaming here” in the lobby after other kids screamed and he joined in, then I explained he shouldn’t do it just because others did. As we walked out, he pretended to taste the yellow tiles, then the rubber floor mat outside the entrance.

We hung out there for a few minutes, eating a little more of the hobak (pumpkin) snacks. I had them to him one, two, or three at a time, saying ‘1’, ’11’, or ’111’, which he really likes.

As we stood there, he noticed my shadow for the first time. And within 5 seconds of doing so, he was stepping on it: “Step on dada’s shadow” immediately became a game.

We headed home. When we got on the first train, he was upset about something, because he started screeching, and then hitting and pinching me. At the next stop people got off and we got seats, but he screamed really loudly when I sat him down. So I picked him up and we got off the train, and waited for the next train. He calmed down and was fine from there. As we got close to home, he was playing on the iPad. He apparently knows the routine, because as we got close to home, I said “Guess what?” and he replied “Next stop.” I always say “Next stop” and he turns off the iPad and is ready to go, but I hadn’t said the “Guess what?” before.

On our way home, we stopped to get groceries at the pink building. I initially didn’t think it would work, as he said “No, no, no” to going into the building, and started to get upset as we did. However, he wanted to touch things, so as long as I sort of leaned over so he could touch an item from the backpack occasionally he was happy. Also, he was excited when I said we were getting thing for mama, and presents for mama. We got our fruit and eggs and a couple other things, then headed home. Carly had worked a half day, and got in a few hours of sleep before we were home.

For dinner, he ate a good chunk (for his recent appetite) of a burrito I made for myself, then a little soup. He had his water and juice next to each other, and there was a little in each, so he wanted to mix them again. We hand’t brushed his teeth in the morning, so did that now, watching Teuni Teuni. He first picked up on one of the girls wearing a green shirt, then he was pointing out the colors that everyone was wearing: “She wear green,” “guys wear blue, yellow.”

He did a good job of coloring by himself for a long time, then we gave him a bath. When I first said I was going to give him a bath, he totally rejected me, saying “Mama” and pushing me away and saying “No.” So Carly took him in, but then he wanted me in as well. Carly was able to slip out and he was fine with me giving him the bath. He played for awhile, and was happy pouring water on Sophie to give her a bath. A little after 8 we took him in to sleep. I read the Moo and Dog book to him, then he went to sleep. Unfortunately, he woke up a short time later, coughing. It was a lot of coughing, and he had a big throw up. Carly took him out to clean him up, while I fixed the bed. He was now awake and insisted he wanted to do ABCDs, but he was clearly still really tired, and went right back to sleep a little before 9.

New words/phrases: Pour mango juice in the wawa, leaking, this old, mess, looking for Qs, bunny on the turtle, Quartz, primates inside, macaques inside, no screaming here, garbage can, need the glove (taking Carly her mitten)

Children’s museum: 

Shower head magnet: 

Skin microscope: 

Writing cursive: 

He said the guy looked “sad”: 

Tasting the post:

Tasting the chair: 

Cheese bits as ‘111’: 

Eating a potato: 

Bernoulli’s principal:  

Looking out the window: 

Zoo. Ice in the penguin cage. The water looks like a C:

The heron on an O: 

Singing on our walk back to the museum: 

Children’s museum: 

Back home: 

Scratching himself with the cup: