Category: Uncategorized

Carly was up early – too early to mention. I was up about 6:40, and August was up just a minute after me. He had a nice long Skype call with Vivi in the morning. Then, looking through his notebooks, he was able to read ‘se cayo’. Carly Skyped with Cherie for a bit after that.

 

Around 11 we all went out and headed over to Home Plus. Carly did most of the shopping while I watched August. First, he just wanted to look at all the “yummy” fake food at the food court. Then he found a shape in tape on the floor that looked like the hopscotch area he was playing on yesterday (I have know idea why this design was on the floor in the middle of the supermarket) and wanted to write ABCs. So we did that for quite awhile. Then he wanted to carry the basket around. Yes, so Carly did most of the shopping.

 

We finished that then headed home, walking through the park. Snow had been falling when we left, but really started falling now. August wanted to stop in the park and draw in the dirt. Carly had a pen (pluma) that he used for drawing. It was very pretty and a good opportunity to stand in the park and watch the snow. When he wanted one of us to draw, it was mainly Carly, but he had me drawing at the end. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned our new game, where we switch back and forth between English and Spanish as we write the alphabet. I’ll be writing “A B C D…” in English, then he’ll call “Espanyol!” and I’ll say the next few letters in Spanish, etc. It is definitely helping both of us master the Spanish alphabet. Anyway, so we were doing that, then we decided to move along, as it was time for his nap. He wanted to walk by the signs first to push the buttons, so we did that. But then he went into stalling mode, wanting to go up on the bridge, or watch the people on the ice (the ice rink thing opened up yesterday), so I basically had to drag him inside.

 

Inside, he was really tired, but hadn’t eaten lunch yet. He was really confusing Carly as we got food ready for him, because he would go back and forth between wanting to eat and wanting to nurse. Eventually though he was in his seat and settled down enough to eat lunch first.

 

He fell asleep a bit past 12:30. I left a little before 1 to meet our friend Meg and we went down to the Seoul Art Center for a show Called Picasso to Francis Bacon. It was a pretty cool art history show, with works from about 15 modern painters, all from the Venezuelan Museum of Art. The lighting and signage were bad (Meg and I rarely like how the SAC presents their shows), but the art was really good and that made it worth it. Afterwards, we went across the street to Starbucks and got coffee (well, I got and Earl Grey latte and a scone) and sat and talked for about an hour. She accepted a teaching position in Moscow for next year, so that was a major point of discussion, as was the Patti Smith book I’m reading, as she’s read some of Smith’s other books.

 

While I was gone, August slept an hour and a half, the last 30 minutes on Carly. They then called me because August wanted to “call Dada” and then they went over to the art museum. August spent most of his time in the play area doing forward rolls and being social – only going in the play structure a little but and wanting “Mama fit.” He was going up to multiple bigger kids and saying “Hi, baby”, which people found amusing. And when another kid got upset August was again very sympathetic and patting the kid.

 

From there they went up to the cafe on the 2nd floor. Unfortunately, the woman had just shut down the cafe for the day, so Carly couldn’t get coffee, but they were able to sit up there and play on the iPad together.

 

Anyway, we headed back to Nowon on a very packed train. I got home a little before 6. Carly made stir fry for dinner. A lot of drawing with August, and playing the brand new Dr. Seuss A to Z book/app on the iPad (they had also played it at the cafe). At one point he spent a lot of time by himself flipping through the notebooks and writing ‘H i’ over and over, and then Qs and other things.

 

I gave him a bath, then Carly took him to bed. He was asleep around 8:30.

 

New words/phrases: pluma, upping (invented word for wanting help up on the bench)

Home Plus: 

Walking to the park: 

Park: 

Ice rink in operation: 

Art show I went to. It says ‘Picasso to Francis Bacon’: 

Evening: 

He stopped nursing this morning to say “lowercase”. Woke up at 6:45, right as Carly was about to head out the door. She stayed and hung out with him for 15 minutes though. He did really well when she left, saying “Mama work, Dada do ABCDs” and he didn’t cry. A bit later we were playing Endless Spanish and August said “favorite one” when he chose ‘todas’, in which he watches the cartoon at the end over and over.

 

For breakfast we had banana, strawberries, and banana bread. Everything was on the coffee table, and I got up for a second to do something at the table, I turned around to August right behind me, holding my lukewarm coffee mug by the handle, saying “Tea for dada.” He’s done pretty well carrying things to this point – no major spills except for Carly’s salad once over winter break; he grabbed it off the counter and dumped it on the floor. Actually, Carly’s salads have been funny – August has never liked lettuce in anything. But he always things Carly’s salads look yummy, and will repeatedly point and say “Yummy salad!” He will just never eat them.

 

While watching Teuni Teuni I brushed his teeth and also cut his hair. He kind of knew what I was doing, and would keep looking back and grinning at me. Otherwise, went pretty smoothly.

 

Before we were ready to leave I told August I needed to go finish the snacks. I said “Can I go finish the snacks?” August replied with “Zinnie do it (type on the computer, which we had been doing together). Dada snacks. Bye bye, dada.” Then he pushed me out of my seat.

 

He requested to listen to Teuni Teuni, so we were doing that. He said “Listening to Teuni Teuni.” As I was changing him, he had additional “Becoming…” jokes: “Becoming kitten,” Becoming funny funny.” After I changed him he needed a shirt for the day and I asked if he wanted to choose. He walked out of the room saying “Dada choose” and was happy with the shirt I brought him.

 

Finally, as he was drawing right before we left he was chanting “baby bunny funny” on his own, and “up down” as he drew.

 

On the walk to the subway he was spotting “coches” in the street and singing the Spanish alphabet. He’s really into Spanish now.

 

While we waited for the train, he wanted Camel off the backpack and played with him. As we walked into the park, August pointed at the empty flower beds and said “all gone.”

 

We first went to the children’s museum, where we first went up and changed him, then played for awhile on the second floor (in front of the screens with the numbers counting down and the spaceship) then went downstairs where we played with the big blue blocks and a few other things. His favorite thing was the little spot with a pencil and pieces of paper. You were supposed to write the gift you want and hang it on the wall, but of course he wanted ABCs. So I was writing ABCs and singing the song. We drew a bit of a crowd, and one boy started singing the ABC song as well, just not in toon or in rhythm to me – i.e. he was being a little annoying. So I switched to Spanish to throw everyone off. Think it worked. But after that I forced August to give up the pencil so other people could do it. He was very sad about that. There was a little screaming.

 

It was also past the 5 hour mark (about 12:50) so it was time to head towards a nap. We went upstairs and ate lunch. I filled August’s water bottle from the machine near our table, but he preferred drinking from the little paper cup I had. He totally knows the routine by now, and usually goes along with it, no problem. But today he was resisting the nap, saying “no fall asleep” as we left the museum. Outside, he wanted to keep going back in the children’s museum. But once I picked him up and put him in the backpack he gave in. Took less than 10 minutes of walking to put him to sleep. I asked what I should sing – before he was in the backpack he just kept saying “No”, but once in the backpack he requested our 1 to 30 song. At the end of each song he’d say “more” until the one time he didn’t and he was asleep.

 

He slept 12:33 to 1:22. Woke up and spent a few minutes in the coffeeshop (we were upstairs this time). He wanted to go back to the children’s museum, but agreed to first go to the new playground. We went and played there for maybe half an hour. He wanted to take a shovel with us today, and we got it out. He played with it alone in the sand for quite awhile – he hasn’t played with sand/shovel like that in some time. Then he was drawing on the ground. He wanted to play on the hopscotch area, but was upset I wouldn’t let him as people were actually playing hopscotch. On both of them. Full on hopscotch with a bean bag and everything. Can’t say I’ve seen that before. Anyway, we roamed around a bit, then I noticed one had opened up. So he played on that, then wanted me to write the alphabet over and over again on the hopscotch area with the shovel. Eventually, we made a game where I would trace a number, like “trace 7”. He would then look at me until I said “step 7”. Then he would step on the 7, saying “step 7” and we’d move on to a new number.

 

He roamed a bit more, then decided he was done with the playground. As we left, me carrying him, he said “playground fun.” I tried to get him to say “goodbye playground”, something he used to do a lot, but does much less now, and he just kept saying “No.” Finally, I asked if he could wave to the playground, and he did, back over my shoulder, as we walked away.

 

We stopped at the first floor Peace Coffee on our way. I got a couple bars of soap, and we picked out a new bag of snacks, sweet potato (gogumah) this time.

 

Back to the children’s museum. This time to the little kids area. First up to the kitchen area to make soup. Then back down to the main floor for a variety of things. He liked the clock (kept saying “No 14. Up to 12”), he liked the animal hand puppets (cow, lion) that were out and would pick them up and hug them and hold them. There was a girl a little bigger than him that was very upset, and I could tell he was interested/concerned. I asked if he wanted to go give her a pat to make her feel better, and he kept saying “No”, but in a shy way. I then asked if she was too big, and he said “too big, too big.” If she had been a little baby he would have been fine. We were playing with one of those baby cube things. It had a squeaking thing on the side, and he was saying “S Q for squeak.” It also had a spot next to it where something was obviously missing. He was saying “No squeaky. Broken.”

 

Near the end he headed back up stairs, telling me “Make soup.” When we got up there, another boy had the ladle. August first tried taking it out of his hand, which I wouldn’t let him do. He was a bit upset about that, then I found a good spoon for him to use instead. He was happy about that, but turned back to the kid and kind of reached for him again, but looked at me, as if seeing if he could get away with it. I said no, and he settled for the spoon.

 

We left at 3:30, a little early as we were going up to Pizza School to pick up pizza for dinner. Took the subway one stop further north than usual and walked to Pizza School. Waited for the pizza, then put August in the backpack and walked home.

 

As we were approaching home, about 4:45, August started saying “call mama.” When we got home we tried calling her. She didn’t answer a couple times, but then called back. That kept him happy until she got home. As did eating pizza. We got the kind with noodles on it, which August really likes, calling it ‘hoo-ha pizza’.

 

We all ate when Carly was home. Then August was down doing his art. He went to Carly, saying “Mama do vaca,” meaning he wanted her to draw another cow. Evening was pretty focused on doing his art and writing things for h
im. I gave him a bath around 7.

 

We were sitting by August and he was writing in his notebooks. Suddenly, he was singing the ABC song and drawing along with us, and he shocked us by drawing about half the letters – several letters we’ve never even see him draw before, like J and K and M and a little N. We were already figuring he could write about half the letters, now it is a little over half.

 

A few minutes later, I was asking if he wanted to read stories because we hadn’t read books yet. He said ABC books, so I was getting them together, but then as he came close to the reading area he hit his head on the counter. A kind of sad end of what had been such a happy evening for him. Carly comforted him and he nursed and went to sleep about 8:45.

 

New words/phrases: favorite one, pala (shovel in Spanish), No 14. Up to 12., s q for squeak, goguma (sweet potato), falling asleep, vaca (cow in espanol), Little Blue in the zoo, ewww, yuck

 

Hair cut: 

Camel in the train station: 

He said the bushes looked like an ‘O’. He then said the boards were ‘I’s: 

Children’s museum. Holding the membership card while in front of the screen: 

And still with it at the spaceship: 

Downstairs: 

Looking through our tunnel: 

Found the pencil: 

Playground: 

Hopscotch: 

Qing the cat: 

Little kids area. Making soup with the ladle:

Saying hi to the snail: 

Holding the cow: 

He spotted a number on this sign as we walked into our building: 

His evening’s work: 

I heard him laugh over the baby monitor about an hour before he woke up. When he woke up at 8:02, it was a very happy wakeup. He wanted me to leave him alone for a few minutes, but there was no crying. Then, he said “dada go in” and wanted me to go in the parlor. We ate banana bread, strawberries and leftover smoothie for breakfast. He must have been impressed by the banana bread, because he was saying “dada make that.”

Spent a lot of time writing on the whiteboard. I played music on the computer at one point, and he requested “Teuni Teuni music”. So we listened to that. It was on repeat, so every time it got to the last song he would say “Teuni Teuni all done.”

Around 10 we left the house and first headed to the sign area by the bridge. We pushed the button, he did some watering, climbed some steps, and then wanted to “call mama”, since that is where we did it yesterday at 5. After awhile we headed to the art museum play area. We only played in there a couple minutes, then he wanted to drink water, during which he started roaming the hall and going out in the lobby. He went in the gift shop and started pointing and saying “present for mama.” I was shocked, as I haven’t talked about getting her any presents for quite some time. We did get those presents for Logan, and stickers for Megan in the last couple of months, so maybe the concept of ‘present’ has stuck pretty well.

About 10:30 we headed out and first did some grocery shopping at Home Plus, then went up to his class at 11. Class today was all about shooting things. Yes, a bit odd. The first activity involved shooting crossbow at poop on a toilet target. I could not make this up. August was a bit miffed by all this (as was I). He mainly wanted to inspect the crossbow, and didn’t see the point of shooting things. When the teacher put on a big costume and the kids could shoot him, August was completely uninterested.

However, the next activity August loved. They were this plastic blow up cannons. You stuffed the barrels with plastic balls, then jumped (or dropped a kid) on the platform to make it fire. He caught on to this pretty quickly and had fun loading the cannons and then being jumped or dropped (none of the kids can jump well enough to do it themselves yet) by me or one of the teachers. At the end of class found out that Jungbin is going into kindergarten at the end of this session, so he won’t be in classes anymore. But Jihong will be, so we will coordinate to be in the same classes again.

We came home and ate kimbap and a sandwich and oranges for lunch. And we skyped with my parents right after they had returned from 3 days over in Everett. August was saying “no” to any idea of Skyping before we called, but then he was very happy to see gramma and grampa.

I changed him and said “let’s see.” He got excited and started saying “Let’s see. Mama says that.” He was saying it several times after that.

He rejected the carrier again, and any idea of a nap. He slept a long time, so I didn’t expect one. But he wanted to get in the stroller, so we got in that and went for a nice walk – about 45 minutes and close to two miles. As I put him in the stroller he said “Don’t fall asleep. Mama says that.” I was like, “No, no. You can fall asleep this time.” Up the stream then down it, then down the river, up at the bridge, and home via streets. He kept eating crackers and pumpkin snacks from yesterday. As we were coming back on the road, he screamed once. I didn’t say anything, but then I heard him saying “No screaming. Mama says that.” Very much into the “Mama says…” today.

As we got home and I got him out of the stroller he said “Dada feels better.” Once he was out, he laid down on the hardwood floor and said he was sleepy.

We did some more coloring, then he once again started talking/joking about “call mama.” Right before 3 we headed over to the pink building to the Namu Kid Cafe. We used our full 2 hours, leaving at 5:05. He spent a lot of time on the trampoline; I would roll balls up and he would go try to get them, then he would run back down and throw the balls off. If he grabbed two balls, or picked two up, he would say “both, both!” He also slid down the ramp a lot. I pushed him around in the car a lot – the same car, as it is the only one with a cell phone with numbers on it, so he didn’t want the other cars – and I pointed out the way he has never used where he could climb up to the play area behind the trampoline. Eventually he wanted to do that, so we went up there, and he played a lot up there with stuff he hasn’t played with before.

Several times he would be playing, then come over to me (I was up in the play structure, too) and say “hi” and sit next to me. If we slid down the ramp together I would lie back, and he would follow suit and lay next to me for awhile.

He totally has the pneumatic ball thing down. He knows how to turn it on and only use the small balls to put in it. Later, there was a slightly smaller kid standing next to it. August went over to him and said “turn it on” and showed him how to turn it on. He then pointed at where the balls go, and grabbed balls to show him how to do it. Afterward, I thanked him and told him he was being a teacher just like Mama.

Near the end, he went into the food area where a girl was with her grandparents. August had started out there again today, cooking food and making soup. They had the table covered in food, and August stood there and the grandfather gave him foods and was telling him the names in Korean. Very cool.

Oh, and when we were in the ball area I must have coughed, because suddenly he started imitating me, even holding his elbow up by his mouth and making coughing noises. Quite the joker.

Right about 5 August started wanting to go find mama. When we got there, we had put our numbers in locker 26. About 10 minutes later I had asked him where we put our shoes and he said “26!” But by the end he had forgotten. So it became a game of him guessing a number and we’d look in that locker to see if our shoes were there.

Eventually we found them and we headed home. Carly had beaten us by a few minutes as she had taken the bus. He ate spaghetti for dinner and Carly gave him a decent bath. A lot of writing on paper and the whiteboard in the evening. We watched Teuni Teuni and brushed his teeth. Carly tried to put him to sleep about 7:30 but he wasn’t ready. So she took a shower and we all sat on the bed and read stories together. Finally, he fell asleep a little after 8.

New words/phrases: dada go in, found the wawa, drink over here, call mama, talk with mama, August silly goose, hi sweetie

Art museum play area: 

Home Plus. August spotted the Q, and then two others, from across the store: 

Teuni Teuni: 

Shooting dada: 

Playing in the park on the way home: 

Sticking his hands out on our walk: 

After the walk, saying he is sleepy: 

Namu kid cafe. Cooking first: 

Looking down at the park: 

Ball area: 

Playing up top: 

In his favorite car:

Helping the boy: 

Back in the ball area: 

Food:

Home. Hugging a book while Carly reads: 

He was up at 6:51. Sad that mama wasn’t here, but stayed by the parlor door and didn’t go hang out by the front door. Cheered him up with the markers a few minutes later. Ate banana, Cheerios, and a smoothie for breakfast. At one point we were playing together on the iPad and he was holding Baby Q. Later, when he was playing by himself, he got down Eddy and was holding her in his lap. Headed out a little after 10, as he had one good coloring session in him before we left. When putting on his shirt this morning he had strong opinions about what shirt to wear. I actually had to take the first shirt of as he kept complaining. He rejected my second choice, then we were finally successful when I took him in and he helped choose.

 

For the first stop on the way down he say by himself, with me standing. He’s getting pretty good at this subway thing, especially considering this is our first subway ride in quite awhile. Exited the station and August got down and walked most of the way to the children’s museum. At the museum he had to be a bit patient, as we needed to renew our membership. After we got our new card I let August hold it. He wasn’t happy about giving it up to have it scanned, then carried it around for 5 or so minutes before I could get it back from him.

 

He walked up the ramp way to the second floor, then realized that wasn’t the water area. I carried him up to the third floor. We played at the water area for awhile, but he wasn’t happy about the wearing the apron and eventually he wanted it off. He wanted to go to the little kids area from there. In the little kids area he initially wanted the wooden clock, as it is apparently the only thing in the entire little kids area that has numbers on it. We checked. Eventually he was happy in the upstairs area cooking some soup. He walked up the stairs and then back down the stairs as if it was no big deal.  These were the stairs where he was first trying to climb stairs for me.

 

After awhile he was done there and was hungry. It was also getting close to 12. So we went upstairs where they only had the big eating area open. We found a table by a window. I sat, but he stood up and looked around the entire time we ate. Good amount of sandwich, some apple, and string cheese.

 

We changed him and and got ready for his nap. Got in the backpack and did our usual walk. Took less than 10 minutes, and he slept from 12:35 to 1:31, at the downstairs Peace Coffee. He woke up and carried Camel around the coffeeshop, looking at the letters and words. Identified ‘is’ in the collage of words. He wanted these pumpkin snacks (he calls them crackers) they had there, so we got a bag of those. We were sitting down eating those and playing on the iPad, and the woman brought over some very hot little pancake snack things for free. A nice treat.

 

After that, he wanted to see animals and go to the playground. We went out and saw that the fence was down around the new playground. But as we got close we saw they were literally doing the ribbon cutting ceremony. Speeches being given, etc. So we walked on and went in the tropical animal building. He looked at the lizards, turtles, and skinks, and wanted to see the naked mole rats so I held him up for that. He spent a good amount of time at the coatis and talked a lot about them (“coatis funny”, “uno dos coatis”). He spent a lot of time hanging out by the zookeeper door that so intrigues him. Eventually we went upstairs, where we got to see a zookeeper go in and feed the lemurs.

 

From there we exited the building and stopped by the goats and horses for a couple minutes (he also said they were “funny horses”). After that, we went to the new playground. It was full of kids. It is an inclusive playground, with all sorts of features for special needs kids. The coolest is a ground-level merry-go-round thing with a bench and a spot for a wheelchair. There were still people in suits and news crews, etc. wandering around.

 

This whole time it was snowing. Lightly at first, but good-sized flakes. The snow continued to slowly get heavier until we left about 3:45 and it was starting to actually look white in the air. The kids mainly disappeared after 20 minutes or so. At one point, it was just August and one other kid playing in the entire playground. A snowstorm and 31 degrees isn’t exactly the greatest time for a grand playground opening.

 

Anyway, August had spent most of our time there drawing in the sand and on the ground with a stick. Eventually, he was having me do it. I got him to walk up the ramp to the play structure once, then he went down the slide with me, but then he was back to letters. He also once wanted me to help him climb the netting on the small structure, then he walked down the steep stairs before going back to letters.

 

Then, suddenly, at 3:20 he put down the stick and started exploring. Walked around and under the play structure, and saw a net you could stand on and jump on. So I helped him on that and we played on it for awhile. Then, before we left he really got into touching the balloons they had hung up. One even popped when he touched it.

 

We took off about 3:45. Pretty simple trip home. I told him in advance we were beating mama home. He understood that, and was upset when I told him, as opposed to waiting until we were home and he saw she wasn’t there. But he got engaged in writing on the whiteboard and did fine until she got home. He loves the sentences “The cat meows”, I think because it is kind of hard and fun to say, and he had me write it ten times in a row.

 

When Carly got home I went straight down to the doctor. Got 3 days of refills for the cough and got my flu vaccine while I was there. Not again. Got my prescriptions filled and came home. Did our usual dinner stuff (Carly also made popcorn). After that, Carly and August were watching Viv and Colin videos. A lot of “Again” “this one” “like this” from August.

 

I made banana bread and they did a lot of writing. At one point, August went to the cupboard and got the wipes and cleaned some earlier marker action all on his own – he also tried to wipe up some smoothie he had dropped. Carly drew his bath, but I took him in today. I haven’t given him is bath since I was sick. It went well. A lot of laughing on his part, as he kept trying to water me with the watering can.

 

He and Carly had a really good session of drawing 3s before he went to bed. He was drawing them of different sizes (enormo, big, tiny) and of course dotting them. Carly would then wipe the whiteboard when it filled up. She was saying “wait for it” when she wiped. Then he started saying it himself. Very funny.

 

He wanted to nurse and fell asleep pretty quick, a little before 8:10.

 

He was doing a lot of “Zinnie…” sentence construction today, like “Zinnie walk” when I asked if he wanted to walk or be carried to the children’s museum. And “Zinnie cold” when I let him open the closet door.

 

New words/phrases: Zinnie sad, Zinnie walk, cooling down, go in, for zookeeper, zookeeper funny, fishes, coatis eating, wipe it off, Zinnie cold, wait for it

 

Morning: 

Subway: 

Walking to the Children’s museum: 

Children’s museum: 

After his nap: 

Step O: 

Zoo. By the zookeeper door and looking at the skink: 

New playground: 

Home: 

Cleaning: 

After his bath. He just had Sophie kiss Puff: 

August was awake at 6:30. He drew on the iPad with Carly until she left about 7. He wasn’t happy her leaving, but after he calmed down, he went straight to the markers. He wanted to color with the black one first and said “black first.” In the morning we did some cleaning and vacuuming and laundry, then since August was up early I wanted to do our shopping before his class, so we got ready and left about 10:30. At Home Plus we bought August his first pairs of scissors, then went down and got some kimbap and a sandwich for lunch and some other groceries.

 

In talking with August in the morning and telling him we would go to class and see his teacher, he kept saying “No”, as if he didn’t want to go. He said the same as we were on our way up. But when we got to class he did pretty well. There was some standing by the door and looking out the vents, but for the most part he participated in class and had fun. It was about spiders and elephants and counting. He really liked the little play spider he got to play with. She made a web out of tape on the floor for them to have the spiders crawl along, then we pulled the tape off the floor and it turned into a big spider web parachute game. He was sad to see the toy spider go. Then we each got a spider web on a felt board that we could attach elephants to and work on counting. The most exciting part, of course, was the stickers at the end. He went through the stickers quickly today and wanted more. At the end of class, he did a really big, deep bow to the teacher (with some urging from me, of course).

 

We came home and ate lunch and were doing something at the couch when I asked him if he wanted to get in the carrier to fall asleep. Instead, he surprised me by saying “want to sleep (at) home” and he got up and ran in and climbed on the bed. Well, we tried, but he wouldn’t go to sleep on the bed (kept missing mama, for one). Eventually he was relenting on the carrier, but once I had him in the carrier he was just squirming to get out. Instead, he chose the stroller for the first time. He calmed down, and was patient while I changed him and got us ready to go outside. Outside, he fell asleep right away. Drove him home and parked him in the living room, where he slept from 1:22 to 2:03.

 

He woke up and I took him out of the stroller, but he wanted back in. Perhaps he would have fallen back to sleep if we had started right away, but I needed to get coats on, etc. Still, he was mellow as we went for a walk along the stream and to see the progress on the new apartment complex. He had colored on his hands with markers before his nap, and he would stick his marker-covered right hand out between the zippers of the cover when he wanted another cracker.

 

A package of crackers later, we were back at home. I was pretty worn out, so this was the lazy part of the day. A lot of Endless Spanish and Very Hungry Caterpillar. Finally roused myself a bit and we did a lot of writing on the whiteboard. He is drawing decent 3s now. I was writing words, and we made up our first silly rhyme: baby bunny funny, funny baby bunny. He also was very amused by the sentence “The cat meows” and had me write it several times.

 

Sometime after 4 he looked out the window and decided he wanted to go outside. So we went out to the park. He first went to the playground, but we only played there for a couple minutes, then headed to the usual spot at this end of the bridge: pushed the button a few time, did a lot of watering of rocks and water and bushes and bricks with his water bottle, then kind of practiced going up and down the first couple of the steps of the bridge and people watched, saying “people coming” when he saw someone. Finally, he decided he to climb the stairs to the top of the stairs. This took us to about 5:15. At this point he started wanting to find mama. So we tried to call her, but she didn’t answer.

 

So then we started to walk back, figuring we’d meet her and Megan at our usual spot by the pink building. Along the way we ran into Cluadia and Michaelina and their father. August saw them, and knew it was interrupting finding mama, so he started saying “No, no no.” We talked for a few seconds, long enough for them to tell me that the baby (Rogan) had been born. August handled it.

 

Anyway, we walked to the benches along the pink building. Now 5:30. August wanted to “Call Mama” again, so we did so (I now let him tap her name to make the call). They were a few minutes away. Met them at the corner.

 

From there, we came home. Carly fed him dinner. I laid down for a few minutes. During that time Carly tried to talk to Glecy, but August was having none of that, breaking out in screeching and writing with marker on the curtain. Luckily, it turns out the marker wipes right off.

 

After some Endless Spanish and drawing on the iPad, Carly took him for his bath about 7:30. After that, he was doing a lot of marker drawing in his notebooks. He is drawing pretty good 3s today, and this evening decided he should ‘dot’ each 3, like an ‘i’ or a ‘j’. I think it comes from seeing the electronic keyboards, or all the letter options in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, that show accent marks over letters.

 

He has continued to spot letters and numbers out and about. Today he spotted an ‘H’ in the yellow bricks/tiles in the sidewalk by a crosswalk, and then as he walked up the wooden walkway from the playground to the center of the park he realized it forks and looks like a ‘Y’.

 

New words/phrases: black first, having fun, want to sleep (at) home, pause, people coming, dada’s cough drops

 

Right to it: 

Helping: 

Class: 

He was excited there were numbers on the elephants: 

Shaking them off: 

Letter and number spotting. Here is his ‘H’: 

And here is the once (11) he always points out: 

Marker-covered hand:

Out in the park: 

His ‘Y’: 

On the stairs: 

Home: 

Getting comfy while holding “dada’s cough drops”: 

Carly was back to work today. August decided that meant he wasn’t sleeping in anymore either. He was up at 6:55. Luckily, he handled the news that Carly was at work pretty well, considering. He “missed mama” through the day, but pretty much handled going back to the regular schedule really well. He woke up from a short nap, and that was probably the only time that he wasn’t fine with being back on the schedule – instead of falling back to sleep in my arms, he got upset that Carly wasn’t home.

Anyway, we made a nice bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Watched Teuni Teuni and brushed his teeth (he said “mama!” a couple times and pointed to the screen, presumably at the woman actor/dancer). He is really into the puzzles in the Hungry Caterpillar iPad app. He’s kind of starting to get them, but will still start a puzzle, have me help for 5 seconds, then start a new one, etc. When we were writing on paper he was focusing a lot on numbers today.

Just past 9:30 we headed out – first time using the backpack since the 31st and our trip to the party and back. We walked to Toys R Us and went to the play area on the same floor. Our start time was 10:11, and we used pretty much our whole two hours. He did some wandering around at first, but spent most of our time in the sand area, followed by playing with the giant needle wall thing, then the big teddy bear you can jump on, and finally the toy car area. In the sand area we first made soup and played with the animal figures, but there was a lit sand table, so we poured sand on it, and that’s where we spent the rest of our time in there, mainly writing letters in sand.

From first telling August we were going to a play area, he was talking about “No screaming in the play area.” I didn’t have to bring it up myself. Then, as we left the play area I said we were going to Toys R Us. He immediately started saying “No screaming in Toys R Us.”

At Toys R Us we bought washable Crayola markers for paper, as he likes to use the dry erase ones, but they are much more expensive. We looked at books and almost bought a Very Hungry Caterpillar ABC book. Luckily, August found one that was already opened and we realized it was the Eric Carle ABC book we already have – all that was different was that ‘crocodile’ was replaced with ‘caterpillar’ so they could do the rebranding. Lame. Saved us 6 bucks.

We changed him and ate part of our lunch, then headed home. He fell asleep about half way home (12:47). Got home and had him sitting on table in the backpack. Had enough time to take my drugs and get stuff out to work on, then he woke up at 1:16. Oh well.

Spent most of the afternoon using those new markers to color and write. A lot of tiny letters, and a lot of words, especially in cursive. He definitely recognizes ‘is’ and ‘it’ as sight words. There were a few other new ones he seemed to be getting down, too.

About 4:15 we went back outside. Went across to his usual sign (the one for the bridge) and was pushing that. He then got his water bottle out and was drinking, then was watering things. But he was watering things by rubbing the nozzle on them, which is gross, so I reminded him about shaking. So he spent a good 10 or 15 minutes shaking water out on everything, particularly the ground, pretending to write letters with it. Finally, at 4:44 he was done with that. He said “wait for mama.” We were standing by the bridge. He said that a couple times, then said “Mama up there”, pointing at the bridge. Tried to call but didn’t get her, but figured she might be walking. So we went over to the bus stop to wait. He didn’t like me trying to get him away from the bus stop at all (into the sunshine, or simply out of pedestrian traffic). He just wanted to stand and wait. But then Carly called as said she was actually walking.

So August and I walked home, stopping at GS25 to refill my juice and lozenge supply. We went home to drop them off, then were going to wait at the elevator for Carly, but I had to change him, and that’s when she got home.

August and I had started listening to the newest David Bowie album before we went outside. I had just turned it back on when we came back inside, then I saw that he had died.

We all hung out for awhile and Carly ate. Then I went and laid down for awhile. She gave him a bath, which went pretty well. I hung out with him while he did some Endless Spanish, then I convinced him to do some reading. Then he was back to the whiteboard for awhile before Carly nursed him and he fell asleep right about 8.

New words/phrases: pantalones, funny monkey, no screaming in Toys R Us. Sad that mama’s all gone, sad that mama’s gone, (what does the) peacock do?, wait for mama, estornuga (sneeze in Spanish – saying it after he sneezed), tickle Sophie

I’m feeling pretty good. Cough surprisingly strong still at times. Was definitely winded and tired after we got back from Toys R Us – still feeling it when he woke up. But hopefully a little better each day. Really wanted to finish my Bluebeard story today (today was the day we were supposed to submit to each other) and had just started working on it when he woke. So that was a little painful. But oh well. Before he fell asleep like that I didn’t think I was finishing it anyway.

First backpack trip of 2016: 

Play area: 

Back home: 

Turning pages: 

Back out in the park: 

Pointing to ‘the’ and ‘is’: 

Carly goes back to work tomorrow. Boo. Luckily, I am finally feeling like I am putting this flu (or whatever) behind me. Fever is a thing of the past. Now just some coughing and aches.

August screamed in his sleep last night. At first Carly thought he was having a bad dream, but then he did his quiet “ahhhh” scream like we (try) to have him practice, so it seemed like a dream about his screeching. When he woke up this morning, about 8, the first thing he said was “C A T cat.”

Two good Skype calls today, one with Cherie and one with Chuck. He played a lot of Endless Spanish this morning, and also Loopimals together. I tried to take him outside in the morning, but that didn’t work well; he was not happy about leaving the apartment without mama. So we went back in.

Carly tried to put him down for a nap, but he was having no nap today. So around 2 we tried to go outside again. Carly was going to go to the store, and us to the park, but he picked up on what was happening right away. So we followed her into the pink building. I then tried to divert him to the kids place at the theater, but when he noticed Carly wasn’t with us he said “No.” He then spent the next 15 minutes looking for her. He walked through the food court, getting distracted by the yummy-looking fake food. Then into the book store, where the books and the markers were “for home”. In between, he would keep saying “Find mama.” Then out of the stationary store and across into the grocery store. He chose the route the entire time, and finally he and Carly crossed within 3 feet of each other, and neither noticed. Only then did I intervene, steering him to follow Carly. A few seconds later he excited was calling “Mama!”

After buying the groceries, we went to the apartment to put them away, then right back outside with August. We got to the center of the park on our side and there was the church band singing songs. He was fascinated by that, and we watched them for the next 10 or 15 minutes or so until they were done. At that point, Carly left to go inside and start making spaghetti. August initially walked toward them (he actually wanted to get to those signs with buttons, which were behind the church group), but several of them started talking to us, and he wasn’t happy with our progress so he yelled. We walked away, and over to the petrified wood area by the dinosaurs, where we pushed buttons on a couple other signs. He then walked over to the playground and tried climbing on the play structure. Couldn’t quite figure it out, so I helped him up. We were on it for a couple minutes, then he decided he wanted to go home to see mama.

We went home. Carly made spaghetti. A lot of art. Carly was afraid he was going to fall asleep, so she took him back outside. I stayed in and finished the noodles, then went out. They were at the sign/buttons that had been behind the church group. Carly had gotten coffee from the machine so he had a cup to play with. When I was there he sort of played on the ramp a bit, and then sat on the ground after playing on a round cover thing. He then wanted to walk across the bridge – it took a lot of convincing to convince him that the play area was closed (it was now after 6), which he said was “sad”. He played on one of the bike ramps for a minute, then we headed home.

Back home, he requested cereal for dinner. The first time he’s really made a clear request like that. So we let him have cereal this once. He ate a lot, and kept requesting more – almost seemed like a stalling technique to avoid bath and bed, as he looked half-asleep. Carly gave him a quick bath, which actually went okay, then got him ready for bed. I read some Kipper and Kiss Good Night. As Carly got ready to put him to sleep, he did a funny roll off the bed, which led to him wanting to do forward rolls. We did a few, and after one last “forward roll to mama” it was lights out. A little protest, but he fell asleep pretty quickly, right about 8.

He has started to spot ’11’ in these dark tiles set against the light tiles in the hallway. What is most interesting is that he is seeing them as ‘once’ – that is, ’11’ in Spanish, and not using the English ‘eleven’ like he has in the past.

This afternoon, as Carly was changing him, he started writing the alphabet on her cheek. Amusing, although rather distracting.

New words/phrases: dada has germs, accent mark, cook the bussoet (mushrooms), finish (telling me to finish the alphabet)

After our failed trip outside, I asked if he wanted to go back out. He instantly said “no” and gave me this look: 

Back to playing a few seconds later: 

Distracted while looking for mama: 

Watching music: 

One more trip outside: 

Stories before bed: 

I had my book group meeting in the morning, at 8:30; it was nice to be able to still attend and do so comfortably from my own home. August had to suffer a few small absences from Carly today: in the morning she took down recycling, after my meeting, she went down to get a flu shot. There’s a good chance it is the flu I have, so it made sense for Carly to get the vaccine.

 

After lunch, I went down to the same clinic for my doctor visit. After a stop at the pharmacy, I was loaded up with Korean drugs for the next 4 days. I came home and took my lunch pack of drugs, which made me drowsy. August decided to take a nap around the same time. A surprise, since he slept 12 and a half hours last night.

 

He woke up around 3, and at 4 Carly took him outside for awhile. They played in the park. Carly accidentally taught August how to shake his water bottle to make water come out, so he was doing that in the park, and started watering things like a bush, which led to him saying “August watering bush.” They also ended up noticing spots of paint on the bridge, which led to him seeing paint and marks and stickers on the ramps and other places, with him saying “Someone painted that.”

 

They came home, and Carly did some work in the other room. I heated up nutty noodles for dinner, choosing plenty of mushrooms for August, since that is his current favorite part (he is ignoring zucchini, despite loving it last week).

 

In the evening, August and I were typing on the computer and he was having me type sentences. I started to type “August loves…” sentences. The first thing he said was “Mama”. Then, he thought about it, stared at me, and said “Dada”. I started a third sentence, and asked what else he loves. His response, “ABCDs.” I added a fourth sentence saying he loves coloring, and he was saying that himself a bit later.

 

Carly gave him a bath. We recorded the march to the bath. He complained, but didn’t fight it quite as strongly as normal.

 

They briefly skyped with Cassie and Colin in the evening. There was a call with Cherie sometime earlier.

 

Carly made popcorn, and she and August cuddled together on their rolled up bed-cum-reading area. Very cozy, except August kept trying to put his foot in it.

 

Once today, when Carly took him in to change him, he looked at the drying rack and pointed out it looks like an ‘A’. A lot of drawing and coloring, as usual today.

 

At 9:34 he wasn’t sleeping, and ran to the front door, talking about going outside. About 10 he and Carly were singing the One-yah song and he starting saying “79” Then he started saying “Oma says 79.” This is about when I started to drop off from the Korean drug cocktail and headed to bed.

 

New words/phrases: eating grass (looking at picture of goat), someone painted that, August watering bush

From outside with Carly. Watering things: 

On the ramps: 

Nice long Skype call with Vivi and Cherie in the morning while Carly making nutty noodles. August was doing a lot of art and holding it up for Vivi to see.

 

Carly went in to APIS about 10:30 to work with some NHD students. He was upset when she left, but then as soon as he started calming down he started dragging backpacks and goats down the hall, and talking about getting in the backpack. After August had calmed down but started missing Carly again, he stood up, pointing down the hall, saying “Patience, grasshopper” a couple times while crying. He mentioned going outside a couple more times – actually, he was mainly mentioning the children’s museum, and I realized this was the first week we hand’t been to Children’s Grand Park in a long time.

 

He had only slept 9 hours, so I figured a nap was in order. He was definitely choosing carrier over stroller for that purpose, but when we went to go walk the hallway first he wanted to walk. He insisted on putting on his shoes. I got socks, but it turned out he didn’t want socks. Shoes only. So we went out and he played around by the elevators for awhile – I think he had the idea of meeting Carly at the elevators. He was pointing at the 8 and saying “eighth floor”. Eventually, I got him in the carrier and we walked for about 15 minutes. He was quiet for much of it, but then he just started singing his own numbers.

 

So we went home and hung out in the parlor. He was looking at books by himself, then I was reading Picasso’s Trousers with him several times. We built letters with Duplos, and I had laid out an ‘A’ for him. But then he kept saying “Hold it A”. It took me awhile to realize he was telling me he wanted to be able to hold the A, like the ‘E’ I built the other day. So we fixed that.

 

Carly got home about 2. In the afternoon, she took him out and they did their usual: walk through the park, go to the play area, hang out at Starbucks, and then go to Home Plus. While at Starbucks, August surprised Carly by saying “No screaming in the coffee shop” – something she had not said at all. Also, when they left August took with him his Spongebob mug, calling it “Zinnie’s tea.” He played with it outside. He would set it down and play, then pick it up and pretend the tea was hot, etc.

 

They came home for awhile around 5 to have some food. Then close to 7 they headed off again, to deliver nutty noodles and a couple of things to Jill and Derek. August fell asleep just a couple minutes into the trip. He woke up as they were leaving the apartment to come home, but he fell back to sleep. Back home, Carly successfully transferred him to the bed.

 

Carly and August have a counting thing where they say yah after each number, such as “one-yah, two-yah, three-yah”, and even a song to the tune of Michael Finnigan that goes with it.

 

 

New words/phrases: no screaming in the coffee shop, hold it ‘A’, yummy yuck (referring to my food, which he couldn’t eat)

 

You can see te coat and backpack he pulled down the hall, now he is getting the other backpack: 

Drinking dada’s smoothie first: 

At the elevators: 

Looking at books by himself: 

Asleep from the stroller: 

August had another long night of sleep, after not napping again yesterday. Although he did wake up for a good half hour plus at 4am. But he went back to sleep without fully getting up – that is, he lay in bed, did a little talking, nursed, and asked for water, but never went out into the living room or played with toys.

When they woke up, they did writing in the air for quite awhile – alphabet, then Spanish, then words.

I’m feeling pretty good, but still with a fever and a cough, so Carly took August to his Teuni Teuni class. He actually was rather opposed to leaving the house, and then at the class he didn’t want to go in at first. He ended up slowly being drawn in, and enjoying parts of class.

They came home, and August kind of surprised us with a nap – a really long nap of about 2 hours. After that, there was a Skype call with Glecy. Then August stayed with me while Carly went down to a coffee shop on the second floor to do some work. She left a little before 3, and he was doing really well with it, coloring when she left. He said “miss mama” a couple times as he continued to color, but held it together just fine until he hit his head on the corner of the counter at 3:10. Then he was crying inconsolably about missing mama and wanting to nurse as he stood by the door. After about 7 minutes I got him calmed down by distracting him with books. In particular, he got into Plant a Tree with Me, which we spent 20 minutes reading and rereading.

We then played with his cards and he started reciting 11 to 15 in Spanish and read some other books, but then he wanted to go outside. So we got dressed for that and headed out. That led us over to the other side of the park, and that led to him wanting to go to the play area in the art museum. We went in to an entirely empty play area and had it to ourselves most of the time – at the end one mother and her son were there, but that was it. He was carrying and drinking his water at first, so I reminded him he couldn’t take it in and he spent a few minutes obediently standing by the entrance and drinking his water. Once he went in, he climbed right on up. He also climbed over and back over a couple times the rolly thing that Carly had to help him over last time. He kept wanting me to go farther in, which I wouldn’t do, telling me “Mama up there. Mama fit.”

It was getting close to 5 so I figured we should head home. He walked much of the way back, except for the bridge. We got sidetracked by the signs again, particularly the one at the sculpture, which he had me push 4 times. He also found a nice fist-sized rock and was playing with that. He would of kept playing with the signs, but I wanted to get home, so we got home about 5:10.

We beat Carly home, which he wasn’t happy about, but not by too long. In the evening, he started writing ‘Hi’ on his paper. Not perfect, of course, but he gets the general order.

I went to bed around 8:30, but could hear them out skyping with Viv and Cassie. Cassie moved a chair, and August thought it looked like an ‘h’. I liked Cassie’s response: “Wow. Your whole world is letters.”

New words/phrases: que pasa, screeching, go for it Zinnie (he had been writing letters or something on the paper, and I told him to ‘Go for it’ each time. He added the Zinnie, telling himself to go for it), 11 to 15 in Spanish (onze to quince), mama up there mama fit, writing ‘hi’, stay here

Class. Notice August in the background not getting dressed up: 

Hanging outwith me: 

Drinking water before the play area:

Got this rock: 

Evening: