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Sometime during the night August woke up and was coughing and threw up a little in Carly’s hand. At first he said “wipe it up”, like he always does. Carly pointed out that it was just in her and and she would wash her hand. He then started saying “wash mama’s hand.” Luckily, he went right back to sleep after that, and slept until about 6:40.

In the morning we tried out his new pastels that we bought yesterday. He wanted to listen to Teuni Teuni, and when I started it, he requested the song “Bravo”, which is track 5. Tried out a different kind of vitamin this morning, the gummy kind, to mix results. He ate about half, but spit the rest out. And, out of nowhere, I think after he had been coloring, he said “I love Mama.”

We did our weekly vacuuming. He kept coloring and didn’t help much at first, but when I went to the other end of the house he followed, I think so he could hear the vacuum. He was listening and writing letters with his finger. When I was done vacuuming, he went and turned the vacuum back on just so he could hear it. I was then wiping the play area tiles, and he was saying “dirty” and “more wiping”. Then he wanted to do some wiping himself, so he started drawing on the floor so he could immediately wipe it up.

Finally, in the morning we spent some time playing with the tennis ball, bouncing it down the hall. And he was drawing on the whiteboard, then wanted to go to paper, I reminded him we had different markers. He said “switch!” which is what I’ve said when I’ve given him the same color marker in the other set in the past.

We went outside a few minutes past ten. It had been snowing lightly all morning, and we’d been watching it from the window (August had Qed the snowflakes when we first saw it). So we walked along the street and crossed at the crosswalk, avoiding the bridge. First went to the art museum play area for a few minutes. Then he was done with that. In the lobby, I asked if he wanted to look at some pretty art. He said “See pretty bunny”, then pointed towards the main gallery. I’d forgotten that their was a piece (a big pile of cardboard) with a big stuffed bunny head on top. He had remembered. So we went and saw that for a couple minutes, then headed outside.

Outside, I showed him how to make snowballs, and made a miniature snowman, reminding him of Kipper’s Snowy Day. He then stomped on it, so I made more snowballs and let him stomp on each. He of course wasn’t wearing a hat, or gloves, so we didn’t play long and headed to Home Plus. There, we bought some yellow bins to hold his art supplies, then went up to class.

Class went well, although it was off to a rough start, as he and Jungbin bumped heads before class, and August wanted to go home. Jungbin gave him a snack thing and he eventually calmed down. He impressed everyone when, during role call, he raised his hand and said “new” (yes) really loudly. I also had to explain (through the one mom who speaks English) why we chose the name August, which was kind of funny. Class was about random items and sorting them. He was really into the opening songs, and bubbles went well (he caught a bubble on his finger and took it to a mom for her to pop, as she had done the same to him earlier), but took some urging to get into the main activity of picking up items and taking them to the person (pictures on the wall) that they belong to. He did a little of that, but it dragged on, and he kept asking for stickers. Luckily, the sticker activity was next. Finally, she got out the parachute and he had fun with that – he ran under it a couple times. I don’t think he has fully done that before. They then made a tunnel of it. He went through once on his own, then took me through twice.

After class, we walked home past the library. He kept wanting to touch the snow on flat surfaces, then would shake his hand when it stuck to his finger. We stopped in the park in the tree area by the bus stop, where he had written on the ground last time it was snowing when we were with Carly. There was enough snow that when we wrote with a stick the dirt would show through underneath. We played for about 10 minutes, then headed home.

At home I made mandu for lunch, and he did a better job of eating it this time. He was choosing to drink his medicines in mango juice today, so he had some of that as well. Before going to sleep he wanted to read Kipper, and chose Kipper’s Snowy Day. As I read it, and they were making snowballs, August was pretending to make snowballs on the bed. Very cool. He chose to fall asleep in the stroller today, although he’d been requesting the backpack earlier. That went smoothly, and he fell asleep from 1:31 to 2:36. But he woke up after 30 minutes and I quickly put on my shoes and pushed him back out into the hallway, where he fell back to sleep.

He woke up okay, but was then cranky. Suspicions he actually could have used a longer nap. Finally, when I asked what was wrong, he kept talking about missing mama. She was on Skype, so we called her, and talked to her at work for a couple minutes. He really liked that, and I think it helped a little, although he immediately wanted to call her again.

We got stuff ready for Costco and headed out. His mood improved as soon as we got outside. Walking to the subway, carrying him, I tried to sing him the Wheels on the Bus and There’s a Hole at the Bottom of the Sea. But he rejects most non-ABC and numbers songs nowadays, saying “Nope. No. Nope.” So then I had a brilliant idea and changed “There’s a Hole at the Bottom of the Sea” into a numbers song, teaching him to count backwards: It starts at zero and keeps going – we went to 14 once, as he loves 14, so it goes “There’s a 14 on the 13 on the 12 on the 11…on the 0 at the bottom of the sea” at the end.

We got to Costco and shopping went fine. Looked a little upstairs, then August wanted “downstairs” as he knew that was where the food was. Got a few samples, and August helped get things out of the refrigerated/freezer sections, as he liked the cold. Although he got upset when we were done with one. We got blocks of cheese, feta, naan, and raviolis. When we got to checkout, lines were longer than usual. I then put him in the carrier, facing me, just for checkout. He did not like this and got more and more upset. As it was getting close to our turn, he started coughing and sounded like he was going to throw up on me, right down my shirt. Luckily he didn’t, but I took him out at that point. But then, when I had to bag our stuff I had to set him down. This really upset him. I looked down near the end, and he was looking up at me, desperately doing the ‘help’ sign (clasped hands, waving them up and down). Very sad. I picked him up, and he agreed to go get food. But then I had to stop to take off the carrier and put on coats. I got down with him on the floor, but he was again pretty unconsolable. He calmed down once I was able to pick him up again, and we got our food, including a green mystery smoothie.

The smoothie was green apple. Not my favorite, but he liked it. We sipped a bit and then headed out. We took it to the subway station, where we sat in our usual snack spot and drank a little more. He was pretty funny, repeatedly calling it “cold” and fascinated that there were two straws, red and green”. Mainly he liked the cold, and only took tiny sips. Combined we only drank about a fifth of it before we threw it away and headed to the train.

We were home about 5. Had time to put food away, then Carly said she was almost home. So we went and surprised her at the elevators. Carly noticed the Pororo hand stamp that his teacher had given them at the end of class. August was fascinated by it again and said “Sangsaengnim do that.” He then got out one of his own rubber stamps and a blue stamp pad, and we redid the stamp on his right hand, whi
ch had rubbed off. He then did some more stamping of his arm and wanted to stamp everything in the house. I let him stamp my hand, and he said “Blue on you.”

Carly had lain down to rest. When she’s resting, I try to only let August disturb her if he really wants to nurse. I say “Are you sure?” Today, he started to go in and I said “August.” He responded with “Nursing. Sure.” before I could say anything else.

He was in with her for a minute, then we were back out. I let him use the iPad so he wouldn’t bother Carly and he was watching ABC songs. He is really starting to sing along to a lot of them, and is getting the “L M N O P” passage in the fast versions of the song. He’s also doing pretty well with our 1 to 30 song, having done 1 to 24 by himself a few times now.

He didn’t eat much when Carly tried to share her food with him, but later, as she was taking a shower, he ate 14 (catorce, as we were counting in Spanish) beans from my soup. His most impressive dinner for some time. He decided he wanted to climb on the back of the couch, which we said no to, so then he joked “Dada go up there” and “Mama go up there.” He then remembered our vacuuming earlier, and wanted me to move the couch and vacuum behind it again, saying “Move. Vacuum back there”. I then had to stop him from getting the vacuum from the closet.

Carly’s parents sent a cool selection of books in Spanish, including Curious George and several others. Carly read some to him until he started to try to eat the books. He then pretended to eat all sorts of things around the room: “Yummy pillow”, “Yummy door”, shelves, blanket, mama, etc. I then had to change him, and as I did so he pretended to eat the Pororo stamp on his had, saying “Eat Pororo. Yummy Pororo.”

Initially tried getting him to sleep around 8, but that didn’t work. So he stayed up with for 40 minutes or so. Then Carly had, or almost had, him to sleep about 9, but may have woken him with a cough. He was wanting to leave the room. I went in and said I’d lay on the bed with him. That worked, and I laid next to them until he fell asleep.

New words/phrases: art museum play area, dirty, switch, Tiger falling, mama come out

Museum. Pointing out the ‘q’:

The bunny: 

Outside. Watching a snow blower:

Class: 

Getting his stamp: 

Writing outside in the snow: 

Home: 

Costco trip:

Home: 

I was up at 6 when Carly left to go to the hospital to see a doctor because she wasn’t feeling well. August slept until 7:30. He woke up and started coughing a lot, his sinuses clearing, and he threw up a little. After that, he ate three crackers and watched some ABC songs. Then we started drawing on the paper. I slipped him much of his morning medicines in his Cheerios and milk. 

Carly was home a little after 10. I then took August down to see his doctor a little before 11. We had a long wait. We drew a little on the iPhone, but mainly he just had Endless Academy open – he wasn’t playing, but wanted the background music on. If I tried to turn it off he wanted it back on.

The doctor visit went well. Cold progressing normally. He got upset as we went into the room, but grabbed the stuffed animal monster she had on the corner of the desk and held and looked at it during the exam. A nurse handed him a candy during the exam, and he said a couple things during it. When it was over, he immediately asked me to open the candy. And when he was down on the floor he actually said hi to the doctor. He was then calm and let me talk to her. When we were leaving, he actually said “bye” and “thank you” at my urging. I was really talking up how the doctor helps us feel better before, so I think it worked a bit.

It took awhile in the waiting room though and he was getting frustrated. So I took him back home first, then came back down to the pharmacy and filled his prescriptions. When I got back up, he was asleep. He and Carly took a nap together from just before noon until just after 1.

He woke up slowly, and was just sitting in bed for awhile. I went in and laid down with him, and we ended up doing a little wrestling. I rolled over to him, and he used his head to push me back, then his hands.

Carly had to go back to the hospital for a pointless follow up. August and I started by playing with the Duplo animals. Light through the window was making a rectangle on the ground, and August called it a one and touched it: “touch one.”

We then did some drawing, then I gave August his cough medicine. Again, I’d been talking about how it helps with his cough, and he is starting to figure that out. He took it straight from the dropper and drank the whole dose. In return I let him watch ABC songs on the iPad. At one point he started wildly drawing ‘zeds’ on the screen with his fingers. He ate close to 4 strawberries while on the iPad, which wasn’t bad, given his small appetite. Also, when he was watching a song about shapes, he got excited by the rectangle because it looked like a Hangeul M (ㅁ). Carly got  home at 2:15.

I wanted to get out of the house and give Carly some resting time, so around 3, August and I headed out. He made a desperate plea for the backpack, pulling all the coats off of it and trying to climb in, but eventually I let him walk to the street, then got him in the stroller. He fought it until I offered him a cracker, then it was no problem. I’d planned to go to Toys R Us and play in Hageulbi Park for a little while. But he was coughing a little on the walk and didn’t want to possibly make it worse by spending any more time outdoors. So we went to Toys R Us. Took him out of the stroller once inside, and he started stomping around, saying “walk, walk, walk”, happy to be out of the stroller.

He immediately remembered there was a play area here. I didn’t want to go today (had just done back-to-back play areas) so told him no. He then said “Play area closed” and I went along with that. It is confusing, because the art museum and children’s museum are closed on Monday. Anyway, we went into Toys R Us. He looked at and touched (“touch!”) some big stuffed bears they had in a cardboard display while I looked at books they had out on display. It was like the first time we bought a bunch of books at TrU. I got the Moo and Dog books by the same guy that did the Cat book August has liked so much. And I got a little Eric Carle book called something like How Things Grow. We then went and looked at art supplies. Was happy to find that Crayola sells oil pastels in a cardboard box – exactly what I wanted, as not a ton of plastic waste like the Korean crayons. Also got more washable markers. Wanted slim markers as well, but the only ones I saw at first were the 50 packs. And August kept trying to pull open the 50 packs and pull out a marker. He got really frustrated that I wouldn’t let him and I picked him up. He did some of his light hitting, but he knows he’s not to hit, so then he started pinching my face a bit. He had started that once a couple months ago, but that was it with me, although Carly said he did it once to her too. Anyway, we talked about not hurting dada, etc. and eventually I found a 20 pack, which was perfect.

My new plan was to get a smoothie at Smoothie King in the food court and sit and read the new books and draw. August initially liked the idea, wanting to use his new art supplies right away. Unfortunately, I hadn’t brought a notebook with us. So we went upstairs to Lotte Mart, where I knew they had a good selection of cheap notebooks. I wanted a little notebook for the backpack, but August wanted a “Big” notebook, which he said in a low voice, as opposed to a “little” one (high voice). It was a good opportunity to use the word “both” again, as we got both. We found a little black one with monsters on the cover, and a big one with a pigeon on the front. We’ll use that one for our next big notebook.

We got those, but when we got down to the food court he changed his mind, wanting to go home. So we went and got our coats on. I was talking to him about the idea of a coffee shop, which he approved of, but then we got back around to just getting a smoothie and drawing here. This time he liked the plan. But then as we tried to choose a smoothie and wait in line he got impatient and started to miss Mama again. So we headed out, with him saying “color at home.”

I let Carly know we were coming home, then as we got near See and Me had the idea of going to the library. August approved, and we headed down that way, only to find it is also closed on Mondays. So we headed on home.

At home, he ate a ravioli and a half for dinner. Carly gave him a quick bath. He tried out the new markers, and was working, with Carly’s help, on holding two markers at once, like he has us do. He also had the markers scattered on the floor and was making numbers out of them, first 11. It is funny though, as the markers can be several feet apart and he will call them 11, pointing from one to the other. I then had him do a hundred and eleven, and then 1111. He was doing the latter, but when he said it it came out “a thousand eleven.” He also was writing a pretty good 1 2 3 4 over and over. The 4 is pretty abstract though.

Finally, he drank another dose of medicine from the bottle. This time, he was even holding it himself part of the time and working on tilting his head back so he could get some.

As Carly took him in to go to sleep a little after 7, he requested a diaper change even though he had just put a diaper on after his bath. When we said no, he didn’t need one, he pointed to the bed and said “change diaper here.” We change his diaper most nights after he has fallen asleep and right before we go to bed to make sure it lasts to morning. It seems like he has an awareness that we change his diaper in bed, as we never do it any other time.

New words/phrases: yeah for Qs (I said yeah for crackers), I love coloring, medicine in the goo-uh-goos, pastels, it’s number one (etc. from YouTube number video), (I) like letter X, wear our coats

Carly was up at 4 or before with a fever that spiked to 39. I heard her on Skype – she had been talking to her dad. At 4:30 she woke me up, wanting to go to the hospital. I talke
d her out of going that moment, as it was 3 degrees, I didn’t know if there were taxis, and I didn’t want her out alone in the middle of the night. I told her to wait for light, but at 6 she came in and said she wanted to go. I had not been able to sleep in between and had been doing a lot of coughing. Made for a long day.

Waiting at the doctor: 

After his nap: 

Touching the sun one: 

Toys R Us walk: 

Back home: 

August was up at 6. He had a restless night, and by extension so did Carly. The temperature outside was -2, with a windchill of -15 or so, so needless to say we weren’t going anyplace soon. In the morning he did some more singing to ABC songs, we had Oatmeal for breakfast (I did a decent job slipping his medicine into the oatmeal and his juice), we did a lot of drawing, and we used the bricks to make towers and knock them down. He thinks the brick pattern on them looks like a puzzle, and really likes putting two next to each other and calling them eleven (or once). He picked two up and said “Hold it once.”

 

He took an early nap, from about 9:45 to 10:40 with Carly. For his midday medicine, I had him drip strawberries in it, which worked pretty well, then put the rest in more juice. He ate some of our leftover eggs and mushrooms from yesterday, and then a little pizza for lunch.

 

While drawing after lunch, and listening to ABC songs, I believe, he danced what looked like a little jog, and was then stomping. Sadly, not on video. One of the songs he likes goes “Hello A and Hello Z…”, so he got into waving to letters and numbers and saying “Hi”, particularly “Hi Q” and “Hi Zed” (since he also likes calling ‘Z’ ‘Zed’ now, thanks to the videos.

 

We decorated the frame of the iPad case with number stickers, then played with his shape blocks and the little parachute he got from class a few months back. Did some more drawing on the iPad with the stylus, then switched to paper when he found my pen and got really excited. We also tried out the oil pastels that Meg let us borrow. Carly still isn’t feeling well, but managed to make some yummy bean soup, so I had that for a late lunch. August and Carly then read together in bed, then August and I used the wooden alphabet blocks to stack towers (he was helping) and we counted our progress in Spanish.

 

Sometime after 3 August and I got bundled up and headed out. It was up over 10 by now, so that was something. We only went over to the pink building, where we first went to the book store to look at art supplies. August spotted the stickers and, in particular, alphabet stickers, and wanted a set. They had a few options, but he settled on one. Without thinking, I said, “But you could get both of them,” forgetting it is nice that he only ever wants one thing right now. At first he said “No” and just wanted the one. Good, I thought. But then I set him down so I could look at the crayons/pastels. He was looking up at the stickers and changed his mind: “Both, both.” So we got both. He did a good job handing them to the cashier, but immediately started shrieking. But progress, as in the past he has gotten upset when I have to take them out of his hands. He carried them as we went in to the grocery store and did some shopping: the citron tea that Preacher recommended, milk, etc. I set August down because he wanted to help (“helping”) and he chose the kind of milk we got. He then saw all the bottles of beverages, and was calling them “tea”. He particularly liked the blue drinks, calling them “blue juice”, he then walked down the row, identifying “mango juice.”

 

We took the groceries back home to Carly, then turned around and went back to the pink building and up to the Namu play area. Went in right at 3:45 and it was packed. A little overwhelming for him. Did some ball area and walking around to other things. Tried to play in the food area, but was frustrated when a boy tried to keep him from playing at the table, and then doubly frustrated when he wanted to play with the plastic fish that same boy had and I wouldn’t let him. He walked out of the room and did his arm shaking and a shriek. Also, when the train ran at 4 it was way too busy for him to try, which was upsetting, as he has been wanting to try it. Soon after that he tried to head for the door and say “All done play area. Home.” I picked him up and we went back to our spot where we wrote letters on the ground. Did that and sang some ABC/number songs for awhile, and he was back to playing. Around 4:30 it started to thin out and things went better. We spent quite a bit of time, while waiting for it to thin out, walking around and finding balls that had escaped the ball pit. August would pick them up, then I would either pick him up and hold him up so he could throw it over the glass wall into the ball area, or he would run to the entrance and throw it in. At 5, we were in line for the train, but when we started to get on the train August changed his mind, so we didn’t ride it. A little after 5 it really thinned out, and was quite lovely after that. We played in the block area, building towers, and in the ball area for awhile. I was swinging him around, doing “wheee” and bouncing him off of the soft things and a couch, and we lounged on a couch and sang ABC songs.

 

I was then pushing him around in the police car, and noticed a mom pushing around her little daughter (12 months or so) in the car with the cell phone. The cell phone wasn’t in it when we got there (I looked, of course), but low and behold, the girl was holding it to her ear, and continued to do so for the next several minutes (that’s a learned behavior, if I’ve ever seen one). As soon as they got out, August and I pounced, and switched cars. We spent our last 25 minutes or so pushing him around in that car. He was steering and pushing numbers on the cell phone (a distracted driver, but technically I was driving, so it was more like he was in a self-driving car) and talking/singing to himself. He was getting pretty tired by this point, so was pretty mellow.

 

About 5:40, just before our 2 hour mark, he decided he was ready to go home. He said “Namu play area fun”, and did good goodbyes to two of the workers, actually saying “annyang” once. We stopped for bread on the way home, and were home a little before 6.

 

We spent some time playing with his new letter stickers. He of course wanted to use the Qs first. He wasn’t interested in food, and I got a bath ready, but then he fell asleep nursing about 7.

 

He woke up coughing an hour later and wouldn’t go back to sleep. He and Carly came out, then she went back to bed. We did some reading and drawing, then he had fun hitting things with the markers to make noise. I got tape out to fix a rip in his notebook, and he grabbed it and wanted a piece. I gave him some, and he went straight down the hall to the poster by the mirror – the one he had been ripping way back in September or something and we had fixed repeatedly with tape – and put the tape on it. He came back and excitedly asked for “more yellow tape” (it looks yellow on the roll) and he did it again with a second piece. Right after that he wanted to go in to Carly and he fell back asleep about 9:50.

 

 

New words/phrases: want some of that, dada write ABCD on the paper, blue on the red (drawing on the iPad), set it on the table (pizza when he was done with it and I asked what to do with it), number stickers on the case, watercolor, mama’s phone boring, hit the freezer, hit with both

 

Not going outside anytime soon: 

Dipping strawberries in medicine: 

Realizing he could watch letters upside down: 

Using my pen: 

At the grocery store. Looking at the juices: 

Namu play area. Looking through lockers and finding out shoes: 

Stirring my (empty) coffee: 

Driving the boat: 

Got the numbers back: 

Back home. Using his new letter stickers: 

We’re still in low energy mode around here. We all slept in until a little after 7. August was doing the ABC puzzle with Carly in the morning. It is proving difficult to get medicine in August; he wouldn’t drink juice at all to begin with, and only drank a little through the day. Carly mixed some medicine with ice cream again and he barely touched that as well.

 

Anyway, Carly skyped with her mom, then we had a good Skype call with Vivi and family and were able to wish Jeff a happy birthday. We just jung out at home until he fell asleep a little after noon. He took a nice, long nap – a little over two hours.

 

Soon after he got up, as he was still waking up, I was talking about going to a play area. He popped up and said “Numbers missing. Numbers missing, play area.” Carly figured out he was talking about the phone missing from the car at the Namu play area.

 

Before we left, he took the eye piece of the elephant out from the play mat and excitedly called it an ‘urt’. We haven’t used that term in quite awhile.

 

I brushed his teeth and we got him ready, and we headed out a bit after 3. He still refused to wear a hat, but Carly made sure he was well-bundled: two pairs of socks, three pairs of pants, a sweatshirt, and two coats. And I did force him to have his hood up when it got windy.

 

We walked across to the See and Me building, just north of Home Plus, to check out the play area there. We have never been. As we walked by the north end of the art museum, August wanted his coat pulled down over his hands for the first time – something I keep encouraging him to do since he refuses mittens, but he hasn’t done yet. August had said he wanted to go to the Namu play area, and was upset when he realized we were going in the wrong building. But he changed his mind when he saw the play area through the windows. It is pretty big, and a couple dollars more. The play area you can climb in is huge compared to the others we have been to. It hadn’t looked to bad from the outside, but once inside it was quite busy and loud. To be expected when it is 16 degrees out.

 

August first played with a cool slide that has water and colors inside it. A slight problem, as he just wanted to touch the slide and look at it and pretend to taste the water, but that meant he kept getting in the way of all the kids trying to come down the slide. That didn’t bother him, but me moving him out of the way did. He did climb up it once, but then another kid came up and touched him and he didn’t like that, so I helped August go down the slide.

 

From there we went to the big bouncy area. It was brave of August to get in it with all the bigger kids bouncy around, and he lasted a few minutes. Unfortunately, it ended badly as when August was trying to go out, a bigger kid came through the entrance and literally shoved August out of the way. This was followed a few minutes later with August trying to walk into another room, but an even bigger kid, upset about something and looking for his mother, yelling “Omma” (mommy) right in August’s face. He may have made contact, too.

 

We soldiered on. August and I wandered through the big climbing area and into the ball pit for a minute. That went well. So did the digging area, which was actually filled with little rounded wooden cubes. He filled up a bucket a couple times. We met a guy who spoke English, who really liked August’s sweatshirt, the one from my parents, that says “My Dad is My Hero”. There was then a little show thing, involving people dressed up as the KoKoMung characters (it is based on a TV show, like the Tayo bus cafe was). August didn’t know what to make of that, but it at least reduced the crowds a bit.

 

August needed a break, so we had a snack. He watched a couple bigger boys play with a toy car, then wandered around a bit. August’s next big disappointment was when he saw two workers using a hand vacuum to clean up a mess. August got excited and started saying “Zinnie do that! Zinnie do that!” He was crushed when I said he couldn’t, and they left with the vacuum.

 

He lasted a few more minutes after that; it was actually starting to clear out and calm down, but he was getting ready to leave. We played in the room with the pin board thing for a few minutes. We were the only people in there at first, which was nice, as earlier there had been about 10 kids in there.

 

He lasted a little over an hour before being done and wanting “More outside.” Getting all of our clothes and shoes on and checking out was quite a chore, and he was pretty upset by the end, but as soon as we got outside he calmed down and started singing. We went to Home Plus, where he got excited about seeing the animals. The lizard was using the turtle as a head rest today. From there we did some ABCs on the floor, then he wanted to go “downstairs”. We went down and did our grocery shopping. A woman gave August a sample of chocolate Chex, so that got him through most of it. It was very, very busy. Made it through though and headed out.

 

Walking home (getting close to 6), it was dark and windy. 10 degrees, with a wind chill of -8 or so. That’s fahrenheit. Definitely August’s, and probably my, coldest weather experience. Coming back across the park, I asked August if he wanted to go to the art museum or home to mama. I was startled when he said “art museum”, so I asked again, and he confirmed it. So we went in and he decided to go to the play area. Played there about 15 minutes. He kept saying “hi” to me from the play area. He also pointed out the ‘q’ in the fire extinguisher instructions (“squeeze”) – Carly had mentioned the ‘q’ but I hadn’t seen it yet.

 

Headed home from there, forcing him to wear his hood over the bridge where it was the windiest. He was getting flustered from the wind and cold as we neared home, so I started joking about him being a “cap’n” again. That got us home.

 

At home he ate some ravioli for dinner, and watched more ABC songs; he’s learning from them, as when we were then drawing on the paper, he started calling the letters “the alphabet”, something he definitely picked up from the videos. Later, when he was watching them again, he was singing along to the letters on a couple of songs, then surprised us when he sang along to the line “26 letters from A to Z” in one of the songs. Carly also did a lot of drawing with him. Not a lot of reading today, somehow, but I did read pigeon books with him at some point, and Carly may have read books with him when they were in bed.

 

I gave him a bath after Carly got it ready. I let him play for a long time before trying to wash him. Still didn’t sit down, and still didn’t appreciate the washing when it came, but maybe it will help him get back to liking baths if we give him more play time first. He played with Sophie, having her sit down on the edge of the tub, and also played with the little cups.

 

He didn’t last long after that, and went to sleep about 8:10.

 

New words/phrases: 25 open (as we were getting ready to leave the play area, he was looking at the lockers and saying which numbers were open or closed), reading ‘5000’ (on a banner as we entered Home Plus – think we may have discussed it before), downstairs, Where’s the elephant? Right there (as we were working on the puzzle), alphabet

Getting into the Loopimal music app: 

Play area. Touching the blue:

Coughing in the ball area: 

The show: 

Trying to make sense of it: 

Kicking his foot while he watches some kids: 

Lizard and turtle at Home Plus: 

In his ABCD spot: 

Art museum play area: 

Cap’n on the way home: 

The weather when we walked home: 

Drawing with mama: 

At home. Mama, alphabet, and 2s: 

August was up sometime after 6. In the morning he requested Timmy Time, but just watched a few minutes before switching to drawing on the iPad. He ate a small breakfast, then after one vitamin he started coughing and had a big throw up. Switched to drawing on paper after that. We had planned on going to Children’s Grand Park today, but since he was feeling sick I cancelled that, instead taking him down to the doctor about 9:30. When getting him dressed he flat out refused his new yellow pants. He wore the new shirt though, with pine/fir trees on it.

Before heading to the doctor, I told him that was what we would be doing. So he started to say “Going to doctor soon.” He then started doing about screaming, saying “No screaming in doctor soon.” Of course, when we got down there and he realized what we were actually doing, he got upset. He wasn’t happy with the exam, but calmed down after, and stood in the room while I talked to the doctor. The nurse giving him a candy helped as well.

After coming home he wanted to go outside. He really wanted the backpack, but we weren’t going far, but he was fine with walking. We walked across to the art museum first. As we passed the ice rink, he pointed and said “Zinnie do that.” I told him he had to wait until we were both over our coughs. In the art museum we went to the play area first. He climbed up in it, and spent a few minutes trying to go through the shaky tube thing. I think he is hesitant because it goes downhill first. He drank some water, then wanted to walk around. He had spotted a group of big kids across the museum and waved and said “Hi, big kids.” Interesting because he otherwise continues to refuse to say ‘Hi’ to people.

So we got our shoes and backpack and went and looked at some art. He liked two pieces in the lower photo room: a blue sculpture and a big painting with a lot of people and things on it. From there we went into the main gallery. All of these shows just opened so were new to us. There was one piece on the ceiling that involved lights that he called “pretty”, and as he walked around upstairs he would see pieces with people in them and say “More people.” We also followed a few groups of “big kids” around, and when he saw them leaving he waved and said “Bye, big kids.”

Back on the first floor, he watched the ruby slippers video a bit more, then we headed downstairs to the never-ending Wonderland exhibit (supposed to end mid-December – the next show must have fallen through or something). As we went down he said “Look at the numbers, letters.” We did that, and he also spent some time feeling the fake grass, saying “pattern” and “texture” and “grain”. There was a silver information sign, which he called “pretty”, then was calling “silver”.

He was hungry and wanted a snack, so we went up to the second floor cafe. He ate and I got a tea latte and we sat and drew in the notebook. At least until he started dropping the crayons to see them roll on the floor. After that we switched to the iPad and drew on that. There is a video installation on the second floor, so every few minutes we got to hear Radiohead’s “Idioteque” in the background. He was getting tired – it was now 11:30 – but he denied it even as he lay his head on the table from time to time. Before we left we went into the art museum library as I realized they have several art books for children in English. Unfortunately, they were closing for lunch at noon. So we headed out and went home.

We ate some lunch (the left over rice and chicken soup). Despite his earlier tiredness, he wasn’t in a hurry for a nap. He first wanted to read Kipper, so we did that. He really got into knocking on the door at the right moment, and does a good job of rapping his knuckles on the door now. He tickled my feet, and when I didn’t immediately respond he said “‘Hee hee’ Dada say that.” as that is what I have done in the past when he tickles my feet.

He refused the stroller and carrier. Think he misses the backpack. So I put him in the backpack and walked around the 8th floor for 10 minutes and he fell asleep. Unfortunately, he only slept from 1:04 to 1:39 and woke up from a little coughing, wanting to nurse. I took him out of the backpack, which was a mistake, as he wanted back in. Put him back in and we went out for another 10 minute walk. He was resting the whole time, but didn’t fall back to sleep. Perhaps he would have, had I not taken him out.

We were drawing on paper again when he bumped his back on the brown chair. When he got upset he said “Phone. Magie. Magie for Mama” wanting to call Carly (‘Magie’ being the name that Carly gave to my phone because it is a ‘magic phone’.) He watched a little more Timmy Time, now figuring out how to skip through and episode and actually choosing a new episode to start watching. He was really into saying “Hoot, hoot, hoot” as one of the teachers on a show is an owl and that is all he says.

In the afternoon we headed out to the library and Home Plus. At the library we grabbed the Robot book and a couple of ABC and number books then went upstairs and read them for awhile. That went fine, but then he wanted a snack. So we headed out, eating on our way to Home Plus. There, we did some grocery shopping and picked up a pizza. A lot of free samples in the afternoon, so August was happy with that. As we walked home August was able to read ‘Pizza’. Of course, it was on the pizza box, so there was a big contextual clue.

He wanted to stop in the park and play, so we set everything down and found a stick. He drew for awhile, then started talking about ‘Pee’. At first I thought he was just joking about peeing in the grate, but then he started to get upset. I carried him home (I hadn’t really thought through the carrying the pizza home thing; with no carrier I had him in one arm and the pizza in the other), and he was upset the whole way, but fine when we got home, and nothing seemed wrong. Carly things he might just be getting more aware of when he needs to go to the bathroom.

Carly left school a little early, and stopped at the doctor on the second floor on her way home, getting pretty much the same treatment and prescriptions that I did. When she got home she and August lounged in bed together.

Carly and I had pizza for dinner. I made broccoli for August, and he ate some mushrooms and broccoli for dinner, dipped in teriyaki sauce. Didn’t eat a whole lot. Gave him a bath, which went okay. After his bath he took Sophie with him to play with. Wasn’t being overly successful with giving August his medicines. I got mango juice today, and he slowly drank his midday dose over the course of several hours. For his evening dose I just did a half dose of the medicines and mixed them in ice cream. I had gotten blueberry ice cream for August, but Carly had an urge for mint chocolate chip ice cream, so I went down to Baskin Robbins and got her some. August has always liked ice cream, but  then he only ate a little of it. He seemed more excited just by the fact that it was cold. He would barely touch his tongue to the spoon, then excitedly say “Cold, cold, cold!” and flap his arms.

Carly headed to bed, and I stayed up with August, who was avoiding sleep again. We did his ABC puzzle several times. I help a lot, but he’s slowly figuring it out, and does pretty well when there are just a few pieces left. When the puzzle was done he said “Hold it ABCDs…Hold it uppercase.” After the puzzle we did a lot of reading: Little Kipper, Pigeon books, then Dr. Seuss’s One Fish, Two Fish on the iPad. When he got frustrated that I wouldn’t let him do anything besides read stories on the iPad, he went to get more paper books, but bumped his head in the process. He really tried to not let it bother him, but after several seconds he couldn’t keep it in and I took him
in to Carly. To went to sleep after that, around 9:30.

New words/phrases: going to doctor soon, no screaming in the doctor soon, look at the numbers (and) letters (wanting to go to the art exhibit downstairs where we have looked at them before), silver (the silver sign at the museum), push hard (using the crayons that aren’t very dark), reach (we were reaching under the couch for a marker), books with 5 (numbers on the ends of books at the library), climb in middle O (as he climbed into the round table at the library), bump the head (to Carly after bumping his head in the kitchen), dip it in dongstsu sauce (actually teriyaki sauce during dinner), gramma gave (?) milkshake, mama gave (?) that

Juice and medicine: 

Art museum:

One of the pieces he liked: 

“Pretty”: 

Watching the big kids downstairs: 

In the cafe: 

Not tired: 

Drawing: 

Backpack in the hall: 

After reading his Moby Dick book and liking the word ‘cap’n’: 

Headed to Home Plus. With Camel:

Sitting on my lap and reading in the library: 

Stopping in the park: 

Helping put stain remover on his new shirt after I didn’t take it off him for dinner: 

Some more coloring to finish the day: 

Carly stayed home from school today to recover, and August was clearly feeling sick this morning so I didn’t take him to his class. So we all skipped our classes today. Luckily, everyone got a good night’s sleep. August was restless, but slept until past 7. Carly and August spent a lot of time in the morning relaxing in bed, watching videos. August was watching a lot of ABC songs, and found new ones I’d never heard before. At some point we decided it was break time from the iPad. August started saying “Miss iPad”, but then turned it into a running joke, saying “Miss Kipper… Miss Qs… Miss Ñs.”

He was drawing with me for awhile, mainly Qs, before wanting to go back in and nurse. He fell asleep about 10:40, and they slept for about an hour.

He wanted a “sandoo” for lunch, so I made him a peanut butter sandwich, but he didn’t eat much during the day. He requested Timmy Time, so we watched the beginning of that again before coloring while Carly took a shower. We brushed his teeth, then I had my pen out to make notes on the class schedule for next session. He wanted to draw with it, and ended up taking a lot of time drawing on the extra pages of the flyer. Eventually, he was starting to want to draw on other things, like the couch, or the door and I kept stopping him. He knew I didn’t want him to, but he kept having the urge. So finally he handed me the pen and said “all done”. We switched over to the iPad, using the stylus to write on it for the first time in awhile.

August and I skyped with my parents sometime after 3. They are getting more and more snow, while we stay dry here.

He was looking like he might take a second nap, and kept requesting to nurse, but mainly he was just being very clingy with Carly. Finally we decided I should take him to a play area so she could rest. He warmed to this plan and did a good job getting ready to go. Rejected the stroller though, so I just carried him across to Home Plus where we went to the play area. Carly took him there when I was sick, but I hadn’t yet been. It sounded similar to the one at Toys R Us, but is actually nicer, although it costs a bit more too. But you also get 3 hours, as opposed to 2.

As we were about to cross the street to Home Plus, August said “B O O K book.” Came out of nowhere. I asked him where he saw book, and he pointed up at the building and said “Book there.” There was no ‘book’ on the building, so I said “Nooo.” He then turned it into a joke, pointing at random things and saying “Book there”: the street, the little food vendor, etc.

At the play area he initially wanted to go to the sand. But he got upset when he had to wear boots, so he wanted “something else” and never wanted to go back to the sand area. Funny, because when Carly took him he didn’t have a problem wearing the sand boots. So he played a lot in the baby play area (small ball pit and soft things to walk and climb on) and on the foot piano. We played on the big teddy bear for a couple minutes, then with the pin board thing and with a grocery cart. A woman who works there had tried to get him to play with it while he was pushing the the pin board thing (I don’t know why, because he was perfectly content at the moment). He kind of ignored her, but too a plastic chicken from her. So it was funny to see him holding this plastic chicken while he did the board thing and wandered around a bit.

Played in the big ball pit a couple times, interesting in that he refused to go in there with Carly, and with the wind ‘fountain’ thing that blows balls through a tube. We also played in the block area. Dumped a bunch of blocks out on the floor. Spent some time making letters, then I was making stacks for him to knock over. Working on the patience thing, and spanish numbers, as I was trying to get him to wait until I had stacked diez (10) blocks before he knocked them down. Pretty successful, with him only knocking them down early once out of the 6 or 7 we did.

After about an hour he started to want to go home. So we took a break, first for a snack, then we got the notebook out and sat and colored and did stickers. After that, he lasted for another hour. Our longest activity occurred when I convinced him to crawl up into the climbing area with me. There were these sort of pod areas you could climb into and look out over the ball area. He wouldn’t go in them, but they were plastic and hitting the rim of them sounded like the plastic drum at the Adventureland Playground at Children’s Grand Park. I have him sit on the drum and we hit it and sing songs. So that’s what we did. We sat there, drumming, singing English and Spanish ABC songs and, mainly, the Big Numbers Song that he likes.

Eventually though he was done with that. On our way down he wanted to go down the rolly slide. Carly had told me it was uncomfortable, but I’d figured I’d give it one try. With him on my lap, we went down. Not horrible, but not comfortable either, mainly on my feet as they hit the metal rollers.

He wandered around for a few more minutes, played in the baby area, then decided it was time to leave. It was a little longer than 2 hours, so around 5:45 when we left. As we left Home Plus, we ran into Preacher, who apparently doesn’t wear his signature camo outfit during the winter. He turned around and walked with us, warning us about the upcoming cold spell (highs of 16 on Saturday and Sunday, with lows down to -1) and telling us about a citron tea we should be drinking to keep warm. When I told him that Carly was sick, he got concerned, and really wanted to make sure I knew what the tea was. So he walked us into the art museum so he could borrow a pen and write it down. I’d figured out how to spell it on my phone by then, and that he was talking about citron tea, which comes in a jar as a sort of syrup that you spoon into hot water. I have a quince tea that is similar. Anyway, it was still very nice of him. He walked us to the intersection before saying goodbye and heading back the other way. Preacher seemed to be doing pretty well: health seemed pretty good and he didn’t ask for money, nor complain about his health. He did say his home gets quite cold, so he hangs out in the art museum for warmth sometime. We will have to try to keep a look out for him. Carly ran into him with August once, but I hadn’t seen him in a couple months.

August was NOT very social today. Whenever someone tried to talk to him at the play area, he just kept saying “No”. The same with Preacher. As we walked with Preacher, August just kept repeating “No, no, no, no…” He was, however, very polite when saying goodbye, and even gave preacher a little wave. And he said goodbye to the people at the play area, but refused to say “Thank you, play area” or “Bye bye, play area” as he used to do. He would, however, say “Play area fun.”

After leaving Preacher, August put his chin down on my shoulder and rested there as we walked home. He perked up as we crossed the street though as he saw letters on the street. He then saw the moon, and remembered we were stopping at GS25. We went to GS25 to get some things for Carly, then headed home.

August wanted to fall asleep right away, but Carly had his bath ready so she gave him a quick bath. That perked him up for awhile, and we were able to eat a little dinner. She had cooked mushrooms for him earlier in the day; despite eating tons of them in the stir fry and chicken soup, he now was chewing them and spitting them out. However, he eventually ate several when I let him dip them in teriyaki sauce.

He ended up falling asleep about a quarter after 7. Woke up coughing once a bit later, then was Carly was down the hall he actually got up and opened the door. That was close to 8. She went in to put him to sleep and go to bed herself. I’ll be going to sleep her now too in case he w
akes up early.

Oh, near the end of our time at the play area, I commented on how he had had more energy later in the day and that he seemed better. He said “(something) feel better”. May have been “Zinnie feels better” at first, but when I asked if he said “I feel better” that is what he started repeating. So might be the start of the using the pronoun “I”.

Also, earlier in the day I had called him ‘Zinnius’. I’d used it before when calling him ‘Augustus Zinnius’, but never on its own. He picked up on it, and said “Becoming Zinnius.” I used it a few more times and he was amused by it. We will see if it sticks around.

New words/phrases: this is for paper; this is for whiteboard, scribble all the words, sea horses, hopscotch, dada loves you a ton of Qs, I feel better

He noticed the shape in the iPad case looked like a Hangeul D (ㄷ) :

Home Plus play area: 

Holding a chicken: 

Water from the ceiling. They got the bear out of the way quickly: 

Offering me a bite: 

Coloring with two crayons: 

Our singing spot: 

Awake a quarter to 1. Stood up and then wanted his diaper changed. Carly took his temperature, which seems a degree or two high. She went back to bed and k stayed up with him. Played and drew on the iPad. Then spent most of our time with markers and stickers on the paper. Back to the iPad for Endless Spanish, then close to 2:30 he wanted books. He grabbed the Palabras book and he sat on my lap and we analyzed the book, multiple times, looking for Qs (2 of them) and Ñs (7, I think). He was starting to occasionally rub his eyes and say “Miss Mama”, but if I asked if he was ready to nurse and go to sleep, he would say “No” and go back to playing. Snacked on crackers and strawberries I cut up. Finally, I read Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. After that, he was sitting on the floor rubbing his eyes and yawning, but still saying “No” to going in to Carly. I opened the door and carried him in at 3:08. When he saw mama he said “Nurse”. I left, hearing him say “Miss Dada” a couple times as I closed the door.

 

Despite the wakeup in the middle of the night, he didn’t sleep in, and was awake at 6:30. I took a shower, then Carly let me go back to sleep until she was leaving for school, a bit later than usual. Once she was gone, I got out the big box of Crayola crayons we bought yesterday. He was excited by them, but initially frustrated, as they aren’t as bright as the markers or Korean crayons. But he used them more and more throughout the day. When we brushed his teeth, he then did a lot of brushing on his own, moving the toothbrush back and forth.

 

We watched Timmy Time, or at least parts of it, a few times through the day. Always the same story, the one about the puzzle. We made a smoothie, then spent a lot of time making art on the iPad and listening to Teuni Teuni. Tried to Skype with my parents, but they weren’t online yet. But August wanted to send a message to Carly. So we sent her some messages. He typed “Hi” twice, once backwards and then once “in order”.

 

At one point, he thought I had my cough drops in my pocket, but didn’t I told him they were in the bedroom. He responded with “Get it. Get cough drops.” We did, and he had a lot of fun just playing with the package, and kept saying “Yummy cough drops”. He’s never tasted them, but he has smelled them, and he’s seen me eat them a lot, so that is a logical conclusion.

 

We read some books and he had me read Humpty Dumpty about a dozen times. He started saying “Que Paso?” (What happened?) and I would reply “Se cayo” (He fell). Also, he said that the boy in Skip to My Lou with his arms out looks like a T.

 

We ate an early lunch of stir fry, and I was about to put him in the stroller close to 12 even though he was still saying he wasn’t ready for a nap when Carly came home a little before noon. He laid down with her from about noon to 12:45. Nursed a lot, but didn’t really fall asleep. At 1 I got up and stayed with him while Carly rested. We did some coloring on both the paper and iPad, watched Timmy Time, and then ABC songs, which we haven’t done in a long time. A bit after 2 she got up, and then nursed him again. He rested for awhile, but again no nap. It is like he doesn’t need sleep when he is sick.

 

We Skyped with my parents for about half an hour. August likes to say “No” to skyping now, but then e was all smiles and laughs. He did some art for them and played Endless Numbers and Cursive on the iPad for them.

 

My one excursion from the house was to go down and get some supplies (milk, juice, and cough drops) from GS25 and pick up our latest iHerb order from the guardhouse. I took the opportunity to do a quick walk around the building. Yep, still cold.

 

August finally did fall asleep from about 5 to 6: just under an hour. When he got up he wanted to draw on the iPad, and suddenly he was drawing capital Bs. Slowly but surely he’s getting the alphabet down.

 

The evening was full of a lot of ABC songs on the iPad. He hadn’t watched them in a long time, and when I suggested them to him he knew just where to find YouTube Kids on the iPad. Also a good amount of drawing and nursing and some eating of dinner.

 

At 9:20 he was still up and he was joking about stepping on Carly’s computer, and that turned into a running joke: “Step on the popcorn”, “step on the table”, “step on the home” (just on the wood floor), “step on the pattern” (the carpet). He and Carly were then playing a game in which she would tell him what to touch and he would repeat it and go touch the object or, “touch dada.”

 

Finally, after 10, still acting like he wasn’t ready for sleep, Carly made him stay on the bed and he fell asleep by 10:15.

 

New words/phrases: no stepping in the markers/crayons/iPad, climb up there, Smokey up there, ABC songs with Mama, run to mama, yellow chameleon, corner, bebe (baby), cochecito (stroller)

Up at 1am:

Rest of the day. His new owl pajamas:

Trying out the new crayons: 

Dumping them out: 

Brushing his teeth: 

Playing with Marshy: 

Dada’s cough drops: 

Acting sleepy, but denying it: 

Playing with the lamp: 

Singing along with ABC songs: 

The day started kind of rough. He, and thus Carly, was up at 3 something. They were skyping with Vivian when I got up at 4:30 and Carly went back to bed. But in that time August had suddenly started drawing big Ds. He also stacked all the pieces of the puzzle on the puzzle board and said “I did it.” With me we put numbers stickers on paper. I wasn’t up for long, as he went in to nurse just before 5. But he was awake again with Carly about 5:40.

 

In the morning, we were listening (not watching) Teuni Teuni a lot. When the song about helping your mother/father came on he said “help your mama.” He’s been really good about cords lately. Not an issue at all. But this morning he took the computer cord and put it in his mouth. I of course stopped him, then a bit later he said he said “Yummy” I said, “What’s yummy?” He replied “Cord.”

 

He quickly built on his drawing of Ds by also drawing As and Ps, and little ‘b’s.

 

It was cold, cold, cold today. It said 6 degrees when Carly left, but a bit later my phone said it was 3, while weather.com said it was 10 but ‘feels like’ -2. So we weren’t going to spend any extra time outside. We left the house about 10. He of course has reverted to not wearing his hat or hood, and refused both all day today. Luckily, we didn’t have any long walks. We walked across the park with the intent of going to the art museum play area for a little while, but he didn’t want to go, instead wanting to go straight to Home Plus (“Home Plus fun”).

 

So we went to Home Plus. Got a big box of Crayola crayons. He gave up the basket, which he had been carrying, and carried them around the store for several minutes. We then went downstairs and got a few groceries, then headed up to his class. We were early and we had bought some dried persimmons which he was excited about, so we tried those. He liked them, but he didn’t like the skin and kept picking that out of his mouth. So I don’t know if he’ll keep eating them.

 

As we went up to class, he was excited about class once, saying “Yes” multiple times when I asked if he wanted to go to class and see his teacher. Class was a little tough though, as he was getting tired. He’d already been awake 5 and a half hours by the time class started. Class was all about shapes today, and by the end of class he was starting to learn the Korean words for square and triangle, in particular. He even asked what square was in Spanish (I told him we’d have to look it up or ask mama later). Twice in class I had to pick him up and hold him for awhile as he was getting tired. But he kept rebounding, and about halfway through class he started talking about the stickers he knew were coming at the end. At one point we were stacking shapes on larger shapes (categorizing what was in our bag) and he sort of did one. He then walked to the door. I went over and then he pushed me back, saying “Dada do circle.” I took him back and I did it, but then he really got into it, and sorted all sorts of shapes. Then, when we were done with that activity he was really into sorting the shapes back into sets in the different bags. The next activity, shape drums, was less to his liking, I think because of the noise. He didn’t want to drum at all. He loved the stickers though, and the final song. At the end of class he said “Class fun!” He’s also doing really well about saying “thank you” to the teacher and bowing, both at the beginning and end of class. He still hasn’t caught on to saying “chu-soy-oh” (please give me) when she hands things out though.

 

Back from class, he surprised me by saying “Timmy Time. Makes a puzzle.” requesting the cartoon we watched yesterday. I had tried showing it to him again this morning and he just said “No.” He only lasted a couple minutes though before saying “No” and turning it off though. We ate stir fry and strawberries for lunch though and watched the rest of it while we ate.

 

He was really into saying “Patience grass-“ and waiting for me to say “-hopper” Carly started it this morning as she was saying it to him.

 

Finally, after eating lunch and lasting a bit longer while coloring, he was happy to get in the stroller and fell asleep in about 7 minutes of walking the halls. He slept from 12:59 to 1:36, then woke up. I picked him up and he fell back to sleep on my shoulder. I had been laying down for a few minutes to rest when he woke up, so I sat/laid back down in the reading area and slowly shifted to the ground in all the pillows. He slept on my chest from 1:39 to 1:53. Not long, but it was nice. And when he woke up I pretended to still be asleep. He got up and looked at books, then played with Duplos, then found the iPad and started drawing on it. I lay there for about 10 minutes before he left the room and I had to follow. And then he continued to draw, on paper this time, by himself for several minutes.

 

I gave him the choice between staying home and going to the Namu play area and he chose the play area. But first, we needed to get some cleaning done. He helped vacuum a little, and drew and played Endless Spanish while I picked up and hung laundry. We left about 3:45 and got to the play area at 3:50. He did all the usual things, but he is getting a bit more independent in his playing. At one point I was sitting up in the play structure, and he climbed down into the ball area, then out of it, then was playing around the play area for several minutes by himself. I had a good vantage point from which to watch him. At one point we were by the big octopus and I was holding him up so he could touch it. He then rested his head on my should and said “more sleep”. He rebounded a bit, then around 5 was starting to miss mama. We then sat down on the ground near the octopus for several minutes and were ‘drawing’ numbers on the floor and resting. He perked up again and made it to our end time at 5:50 without getting tired or mentioning mama again. He turned our new line “Dada loves you a ton” into “Dada loves you a Q”, which makes sense in his world, since Qs are the coolest thing ever. The air hockey table has the word ‘speed’ on it about 30 times, so I taught him the word, then he would walk by, pointing to them, saying “speed, speed, speed…” Finally, an interesting moment was when he was putting his arms back and doing his flying. He said “becoming eagle” and “flying”, then said “eagle” a couple more times. It is the first time he’s pretended to be a specific animal.

 

We left right at 5:50. He did a good job of saying “bye bye” to the man working there (although he isn’t saying “hi” or waving to anyone to greet them nowadays). When we got there we had put our shoes in locker 14, which is one of his favorite numbers. And I told him to remember it. Sure enough, as we walked to the lockers I asked “What number did we put our shoes in?” and he said “14”. We got home just after 6 and he was happy to see mama. She fed him and gave him his bath while I did the dishes. He surprised us a couple times in the evening: he called his water “agua” for the first time. And then, when drawing on the paper, he was suddenly drawing and saying “oval”, a shape I taught him, but weeks ago (and it wasn’t part of his class today).

 

Pretty much all of his playing this evening involved drawing on the paper or putting on number stickers, either by himself or with me or Carly.

 

Carly took him in to go to sleep about 7:45 and he fell asleep quickly. He’s been doing well today, only coughing a little, and most of that when we were out in the cold, dry air, or when we just got back inside from it. In fact, we were going to go to Costco this afternoon, but because the cold air was so rough on both of us this morning I thought better of it. He has never liked cold, windy air – it has always woken him up if he is sleeping in the carrier, and when he gets wind in his face,
even much warmer, he kind of does a panting thing like it is uncomfortable to breathe. Supposed to be really cold the rest of the week, so will be staying inside as much as possible for the next couple of days. At Children’s Grand Park tomorrow we’ll stick to the children’s museum, coffee shop, and maybe the tropical building. No playground for us.

 

 

New words/phrases: 5 in the D, how bout (number sticker), push 1 first floor, home. More go home and see mama (after I was pointing out Home Plus through the window of the play area), coches here, agua, oval

 

3am: 

Zinnie’s tea: 

Carrying his new crayons: 

Playing in his letters area: 

Class. A little tired as he watches sangsaengnim introduce shapes:

Kids gathered around: 

Asleep: 

Drawing with two markers. Right handed: 

Doing his part: 

Namu play area: 

As we were playing in the ball area, this classic and racist (as you count down the Indians, it is about them dying…) song came on. Carly and I had just been talking about this song the other day, as the tune is based on “Michael Finnigan”, like the One-yuh song Carly and August made up. Anyway, of course because it has numbers in it August picks up on it and instantly starts singing it: 

Hanging out on the floor: 

Qs: 

Numbers: 

Climbing up: 

Pondering: 

Knocking down my tower: 

“Speed”: 

Happy: 

Now Carly and August both seem to be suffering from at least minor colds. August was up just before 6:20, after sleeping fitfully. My ribs were still bothering me today, so we had a lazy morning. Carly said it was time to break the rules and try some video out on August. So we started with the first episode of Timmy Time and watched just the first story, involving Timmy trying to put together a puzzle, but missing a piece. It was cool, because I’d tried to watch it with August many months ago, but of course back then he didn’t follow it at all. But now, he understands puzzles, and teachers, and toy boats. He found it very funny, but in the last minute started to cry – kind of his overwhelmed cry that he used to get back in late summer if we watched a Sesame Street video. But then he started to say “Miss Mama.” So I don’t know exactly what caused it. What I do know is that he didn’t want to watch any more video after that. Later, I tried showing him Puffin Rock on Netflix and he said “No” and kept pausing it after 2 seconds. In the evening, Carly tried to show him Daniel Tiger, and I tried Puffin Rock again, but they were both no-goes.

Anyway, we had banana bread and strawberries for breakfast. Then I gave him his vitamins in the shape of a square. He took one away and called it a “Hangeul N”, then took another away and called it a “Hangeul E”. We then did some puzzles on the Very Hungry Caterpillar app. He is getting them down, and has done all of the puzzles on ‘easy’ (only 6 pieces) himself. We’ve worked through several together on ‘Medium’, and one on ‘Hard’.

We then read some Kipper and made a smoothie. It was now past 9 and I had opened the blinds. He had looked out the windows a few times, but right at 10 decided he wanted to go outside. And he was in a hurry. He started talking about changing his diaper to get ready. So we went outside. There was a dusting of snow on the ground and it was cold – low 20s all day. I set him down by the floor fountain and he slipped after about 5 seconds when he stepped on the stone part. It wasn’t a bad slip, but after that he didn’t want to walk or be set down. I set him down by the buttons, but he wanted right back up. It was the first time I’ve heard him say “Upping”, although he has used it with Carly a few times. He directed me across the bridge, but then couldn’t decide what he wanted to do. Well, he wanted to go to the play area, but the museum is closed on Mondays. Everything else elicited a “No”: shovel, library, ramps, etc. Eventually though, we were close to the crosswalk to Home Plus. When I turned back towards the park, he got upset and pointed across the street, saying “that way.” So we crossed and went to Home Plus.

We spent a lot of time roaming around the first floor. He spotted numbers on price and aisle signs, we looked at the animals (particularly the “funny iguana lizard” that he Qed), we wrote ABCs on the ground, and he requested I get a basket, which he then played with a bit.

We went downstairs and got a few groceries since we were there. He wanted to get kimbap and a sandwich for lunch. Got the kimbap, but decided to get some frozen mandu and make that.

On the walk home, I used Carly’s line “I love you soooo much”, to which August said “No.” I don’t think he wanted me stealing Mama’s line. So I tried out different lines, and landed on “Dada loves you a ton”, which he thought was a hilarious.

Back home we ate lunch. He liked dipping the mandu in teriyaki sauce, then requested dongatsu sauce. The only problem was he was mainly just licking off the sauce. I got him to start eating the mandu, but he would mainly eat the dough. If he got a good bite of the filling, which actually had veggies, he would spit them out. So much for the mandu idea.

He requested the stroller again for his nap. I didn’t know if he would then insist on going outside, so I bundled us up. But I just pushed him around the 8th floor, and just under 10 minutes later he was asleep. Slept 12:15 to 1:27 in the stroller in the living room. A good nap, but when he woke up it was a sad wakeup. No clear reason at first, but as it continued, it turned into “Miss Mama.”

Eventually he calmed down and ate some more strawberry and was drawing in the notebooks. I asked if he wanted to go to a play area or stay home, and he chose a play area. So we got in the backpack and headed to the bus stop and up to Nowon. We went to the play area in the Lotte Department Store. I knew it was small, but it was really small. Not too impressive, but it was cheap – I just needed to buy a coffee drink. So it was more like a very kid-friendly coffee shop.

Started out okay, but after a couple minutes a much bigger kid ran right into August and knocked him down. No parent in sight, of course. August wasn’t happy about that, so we went out into the seating area. Got him drawing in the notebook, then we took it into the play area and were drawing and doing stickers. He started to play a bit more, but when he was playing with a coffee pot, a little boy came over and grabbed it from him. August wasn’t in a great mood, and that made it worse. We went back out again. At one point, he started walking back to towards, I thought, the play area, but then he kept walking out the exit. I was just a few feet behind him, but one of the workers was closer. I told her it was okay (in Korean) but the still tried to stop him and pick him up from behind. He wasn’t fond of that either.

So we took another break, this time playing on the iPad – caterpillar and then art, I think – and eating our snacks. Finally, he was done with that and cheered up and ended up playing in the play area again, with the kitchen stuff (some cooking “sizzle” and then with numbers on the microwave) and with the letter magnets. He’d played with the letter magnets earlier, but in the meantime one of the kids (the one who took the coffee pot) had made a mess of the letters and his mother hadn’t cleaned up after him at all and we couldn’t find the ‘Q’. There was a red ‘Q’, but August wanted the blue one he had earlier.

So that was the end of things. August wanted to go home, so said something about changing his diaper first. We went and did that, then looked to see if the rooftop area was open, but it is closed through February.

We left. As we walked through the perfume area, he spotted the ‘Q’ in ‘Clinique’. We went to Daiso, where we bought pads of paper, and a couple small cups for him to practice drinking from. He also spotted a little puzzle with the alphabet on it (another ‘Q’ spotting) so we got that.

We walked to the bus and took that home. We were getting home around 4:45, so before Carly, so I was telling this to him several times and that we’d have to wait for Carly. As we walked to our door, he then said “Wait for Mama.” When we went inside, he was hopeful she was around, saying “Mama here” as he saw the blankets in the reading area, for example, but he didn’t get at all upset when she wasn’t.

We called her a few minutes later to tell her something, and August of course said “Hi” and was waving to the phone. After saying goodbye, he reached out and pushed the red button to hang up. He knew she was close, so wanted to go wait for her at the elevators. I convinced him to try the new puzzle once, then we went out. He wanted me to hold him the whole time again. Took about 5 minutes before she got there and we surprised her.

Really fun game in the evening when he was having me write letters. I would only write a few of them, then he would grab the marker and dribble them out, I would protest and try to keep him from getting the marker. He thought it was hilarious. Later, it turned into “circle letters” instead of scribbling over them.

Ca
rly fed him and got his bath ready, then I gave him a bath. He was really stalling before his bath: drinking water forever, then saying “more pictures” (on the fridge) when I tried to take him in, then standing on the toilet not peeing, but wanting to keep trying (“try again”). He is a sneaky one already.

He had done quite well all day, high energy, and just a small cough a couple times, but in the evening after he first nursed when Carly got home he threw up. He was also looking pretty tired early on, but lasted until about 7:30 before falling asleep. We will see how he sleeps and feels tomorrow.

New words/phrases: dog bears have robot (referring to the print on the wall in the changing room that we’ve been looking at again recently), favorite word (referring to ‘Todas’ in Endless Spanish), soy (Spanish), no pausing, fresh clean diaper, take a wawa (we were packing the backpack to go outside, and I said we should take the shovel and stick, then he said “Take a wawa”), scream outside, scribbling, circle letters, pee on the toilet, try again, mama holding

Not too happy outside: 

Wandering around Home Plus. Animals:

Numbers: 

Shoe  

Lunch. Eating mandu: 

Nap time: 

Ppi Ppi House play area. Hitting things with a doll house lamp. The blur of a kid in the background is the boy who knocks him over a minute later:

Taking a break to color in the notebook: 

Sticker stuck to his finger: 

Q and U: 

Numbers on the microwave: 

Walking home from the bus. Saw this and said it looked like a ‘C’: 

Back home: 

Sleeping: 

Carly was up first, then August around 6:40. I started to get up just a little before 7, but stayed in bed reading while Carly skyped with Cherie. I haven’t been coughing much, but a couple ribs/muscles got more sore over the night. Very annoying.

Carly went to Home Plus and I stayed home with August. August wasn’t too happy with her leaving, and after he calmed down I got an orange to eat. August wouldn’t let me eat it though, saying “no” and taking it out of my hand and putting it on the counter. I managed to eat it a few minutes later and he ate a little. We did a lot of drawing, then shared a couple pieces of pizza and watched Teuni Teuni and brushed his teeth. Started his new container of toothpaste only to realize it is a different flavor. He wasn’t happy about the change, but seemed to get used to it after tasting it later in the day.

When he was holding two markers he saw a ‘V’ and then ’11’. He did it again later, saying “Hold it 11.”

When Carly was back, he was drinking water from his dinosaur cup. He still isn’t entirely used to it, as water comes out faster than his other cups. He coughed, and threw up some water, then told Carly “Wipe it up.”

He and Carly did a lot of drawing together then. Carly was teaching him to draw ‘D’ and ‘B’.

He then fell asleep for a nap from 12:30 to about 1:40. Carly was skyping with Glecy when he woke up, so they got to Skype for awhile.

I was slow to get moving due to the sore rib muscles. Also, Carly was making chicken soup, so we waited until she was done with that and he could eat some. But eventually I took August out so Carly could do some work. We left at 3:15. I intended to take a little walk (he was in the backpack) then go to a play area. But it was 41 – cloudy, but 41 – and it felt good to be out. Temperatures are supposed to drop this week, so plenty of time for play areas later. Instead, we walked up along the stream to Madeul to play outside.

As we crossed the stream, August pointed out “duckies”, then I pointed out fish. Everything was funny today, so he said “funny duckies” and “funny fishies”. He also did his fish noises a couple of times. As we walked into the park we saw a magpie fly away and he said “funny magpie”. Passing the apartment complex that is under construction, he saw a forklift and said “funny cars”. Or maybe it was “funny coches”. We saw a sculpture and he said it looked like an “upside down U.” As we walked through the park, we saw a sign, part of their outdoor science exhibits, that had a big ‘Q’ on it. He liked that.

As part of his random singing/chanting as we walked, he suddenly spelled “C A T cat” and “B O O K book”. He saw puppies walking along the stream (he also called them “funny puppies”). I counted them in Korean “Hana, dul puppies.” He then said “Hana, sul, set, net.” That shocked me – I’ve said the Korean numbers to him, but since there are two sets of numbers, I’ve never worked too hard to teach them to him – I’ve never had him repeat the numbers back to me. By the time we were done in the park, he had added 5 and 6 (dasot, yosot) and was saying 7 and 8 (ilgop, yodel).

In the park, we first played all over the piano sculpture. We got out our stick and plastic shovel, and he was hitting the metal and other surfaces to make noise. We eventually went down to the playground and played in the sand, mainly letters. The last week+, thanks to Carly, he has really been into us holding two markers at once and writing ‘ABCs’. Today he wanted me to hold the shovel and stick at the same time and write them. We also climbed up on the play structure and went back and forth on the shaky bridge.

Eventually he tired of the playground. Wandered around a bit. Going by the soccer field, he was pointing out the numbers on their jerseys. We changed him in the heated bathroom, then headed towards the main street around 5:45. On the way, he started pointing and saying “Fun, fun”. Sure enough, there was a beer/cafe that had ‘fun, fun, fun’ on their awning. He then said “That say N U F fun.”

We went to Coffeenie, the new coffee shop in the building with Pizza School, but up on the second floor. I got a black tea latte and we shared a bagel and cream cheese. He played Endless Alphabet on the iPad, then for the second half of our time he sat on my lap and we drew together. Actually, he did most of the drawing, only having me write some letters near the end. When drinking water, he liked going over to the display case and looking at the “yummy stuff”. The last time, he was spinning in circles and getting dizzy. Finally, he said “Miss mama” and was done with the coffee shop – I’d asked him previously, but he chose to stay at the coffee shop and draw.

We headed home. Back at our building he was pointing out the 7-11 and wanted to see GS 25. So we walked around the building a bit before going in. As we did so, we spotted the moon up above through the haze. First he called it “banana moon” but then “D moon”. Then he said “Funny D moon” – I assume because it was fuzzy. Got back right at 6:15.

At home, he wrote a pretty decent ‘A B C D’ on paper. I was giving him strawberries, and he joked that they were sausage pieces from our kimbap, so he kept calling them “sausage” when I would hand him a piece. He heard a notification from my phone and said “dada’s email.”

I went to get his bath ready and he said “Dada take a bath.” Carly gave him his bath, which went pretty well. He came back out and typed on the computer with me a bit, then nursed. I was singing our pronoun song to him and he kept requesting more, then was looking pretty tired, so Carly took him in to bed and he fell asleep around 8:30.

New words/phrases: mama take it (telling her to take something away that he was done with),yummy in my tummy, listening Teuni Teuni, sticker on the paper, mama go finish up the food (she had been drawing with us but explained she needed to go finish the soup. He processed it, said this, but still got a little upset), doesn’t turn (kind of a running joke about all the round outside exhibits at Madeul park – he wants to turn things, but nothing turns, so now he just points at an exhibit and said this), dada pick up (wanting me to pick him up), 1 to 6 in Korean (counting numbers), That say N U F fun, dada take a bath (when I went to prepare HIS bath)

Frozen smoothie Popsicle: 

Madeul park: 

Flying across the shaky bridge: 

Where he read ‘fun’: 

Coffee shop: 

Playing with Marshy: