Category: Uncategorized

August slept a full 12 hours after not taking a nap yesterday. Skyped with Cassie and Vivi in the morning. August was very into Qing Vivi.

 

Found his toothbrush and toothpaste and wanted to watch the Teuni Teuni video. Pavlovian response as when I did start playing the video he reached out and grabbed his toothbrush and started brushing his teeth.

 

We all left at 11, headed to Eulji. It was a nice walk, the first time I’ve been out of the house for a few days. I stayed with August out in the waiting room while Carly had her appointment, but he was not happy about that. He’s barely spent a minute away from Carly in the last week, and started crying right away. When a nurse tried to get close, he screamed at her. I picked him up and walked the halls. Took about 15 minutes and he never did calm down. He managed one “patience grasshopper” to himself, but mainly he was crying and saying “Miss mama.” He was fine when Carly was free, and we walked home.

 

About 2 I went down to the clinic on the second floor. He listened to my case, but could only get a fever of about 99.2 off my forehead. He said there was some infection in my sinuses/throat, so they cleaned them (you hold a nozzle to each nostril for a minute) and told me to come back in three days. Well, that’s a start, I guess. He didn’t seem to worried about the fact I’d had a fever for a week.

 

Around 3:30 Carly took August back out. They walked around our side of the park. He is still obsessed with the signs that speak their content when you press the buttons (and pointing out the one that is “broken”), then he saw a hose that was being used to fill the ice skating area. It had a small leak in it, and he liked playing with that until the workers noticed it as well and made it so the leak went down a drain. He wasn’t too happy about that.

 

 

They then went to the play area. Carly climbed up into the play structure again, but this time was to help him over the rolly thing and down the slide. They then walked up and got pizza, and were going to go hang out at Starbucks, but he fell asleep. 5 is too late for a nap, so she quickly got him out of the stroller and walking around and woke him back up.

 

Carly gave him a bath, which went okay, except he kept screaming – either he realizes he gets away with it, or he’s doing it to try to get out of the bath earlier. After his bath he did a lot of art, and had me and Carly writing a lot of letters, then read a few books with Carly before he was suddenly ready for bed and fell asleep at 7:30.

 

New words/phrases: no screaming (wawa) play area, quiet ( with finger to lips to indicate the play area was empty), drawing better Hs

 

Qing Vivi via Skype: 

Waiting for an elevator: 

Typing with me: 

Studying his notebooks at the end of the day: 

August slept over 11 hours last night. There was lots of coloring in the morning, and some iPad, where he really likes the word ‘start’ in Endless Academy. He was also drawing Hs, at least in theory, doing a bunch of vertical lines and crossing them.

Carly took him to class. I was feeling better today, with fever about down to normal with Tylenol, but not allowed out of the house. There is one line you have to say in Korean in class, so we rehearsed that, and August picked it up as well: “August wasseoyo”, which means “August is here.” He had a pretty typical class: wasn’t too into it at first, but really got into the main activity, which involved fake snowballs. Then, when it came to the stickers, Carly helped him place one scarf sticker on a snow person, but then he totally did the colored buttons on his own. After that, he really took his time, like last week, trying to decide where to place stickers.

They came home and he wasn’t ready for a nap. So we skyped with my parents. He was drawing on the iPad for them. Tried again for a nap one more time at 3, but he wasn’t sleepy. So it was a no nap day. I had gone and lain down around noon, so it became the first day that August took less naps than me.

Carly took him out again about 4.  Pushy signs. He walked all the way to the museum, then played on the ramps. Patience grasshopper. Then played in play area. Consoled another crying baby. Started screeching while up in the play structure, so Carly had to climb partway up into it and pull him out by the feet.

They got pizza and came home. I helped him spell mama is nice as we for him in his chair to eat.

New words/phrases: August wasseoyo

He was playing with the tongs and saw an X: 

Ketchup: 

Incredible Hulk humidifier: 

August woke up and started spelling words like ”mama”. They had a big Skype call with Opa and Glecy and Vivi and Jeff and maybe other people, then skyped with Cherie a little after 10.

 

Today was the day we decided he felt 2. And, actually, I’ve been meaning to mention that his Korean age, as of January 1st, is 3. So we shouldn’t be surprised he’s at least acting like a two-year old. One example of this was coloring on the floor. When he does it, he has always answered the question ‘Where do you color?” with “On paper.” Well, today he started to answer ”on the floor.” Also, later in the day, he convinced me to give him back a crayon after he had colored on the floor. I looked at me, reached down, and drew a perfect Z, the sign of Zinnie, on the floor at his feet. They were put away after that.

 

In the morning Carly took him to Home Plus for some grocery shopping. They came home and August took a nap and Carly made chicken soup for me. I was feeling better, so no longer wanted to go to the doctor, but wanted to get an expectorant and a humidifier. So Carly went to a couple of the pharmacies on the 2nd floor and succeeded with the drug. That took two trips, and she left August behind. He did not handle these 5 to 10 minute absences too well. He’s very used to having mama around right now.

 

In the late afternoon, about 4, they went out again. They first went to Home Plus where they managed to buy an Incredible Hulk humidifier. They then went and played in the dirt in the park again, writing a lot of Spanish words this time. Again when it was too cold for Carly (but not August – he never seems to have a stopping point) they left, walking up to Starbucks and hanging out there again. Carly has a nice gift card from a student that she’s making use of. When they were leaving, August came up with his latest testing-the-limits game. He was wandering away, and Carly said “stay here.” He would then scoot away, seeing how far he could get before she said it again, then come back, repeat.

 

Back home around 6, he and I were singing A is for… song. His new line was ‘C is for caterpillar’, and new joke was saying several letters are for ice cream. He was playing on my laptop as we finished, and clicked on a little map icon and recognized what popped up as a map. He was then trying to touch the screen, which he then follows with a sad “no touchscreen”, and at ‘x’ he said ‘x is for touchscreen’.

 

After that he was testing the screaming limits, and Carly had to take him to the screaming room a couple times.

 

He came out and wanted to read Frog on a Log?, which is one of his favorite books now. But every time he grabs it, he sadly says “No Qs.” After that, we read Pigeon finds a Hotdog. But he joked about Pigeon finds a Q, so we read the whole story, substituting Q for ‘hotdog’ overtime.

 

Later, we were writing letters together, then he was working on his own, scribbling with the blue. Carly calls it his Jackson Pollock look, where he stands up, then reaches down to draw. He said “ABC. In Order here.” Carly answered “Mama or Dada?” Without missing a beat, he said “Mama. Dada sick.”

 

On there trip to Home Plus, Carly bought me a humidifier. They only had cartoon-themed ones, so instead of Disney, she went with the Incredible Hulk. It is pretty cool.

 

New words/phrases: leche, c for caterpillar

August was up around 8. I was up at 7:30 and feeling relatively well, but still with a fever around 100.

 

In the morning we were all hanging out in the ‘parlor’ and August was carrying around his ‘E’ I built for him for quite awhile. He started spelling ‘sad’ out of the blue, first spelling it ‘S A T’, but then got it correct.

 

They Skyped with Cherie, then Carly took August outside and went up to Starbucks, where they hung out for quite awhile, doing cursive and then drawing on the iPad.

 

They came back and fell asleep together for a nice nap. I read a little and laid down for a little while.

 

They were up about 2. August didn’t want to eat before his nap, so he had a late lunch. Carly made him eggs and zucchini and he used plenty of ketchup for dipping and playing purposes. I then gave him some mustard to try. His reaction was pretty excited and he wanted some more.

 

After he was down from his chair he was coloring while I washed his tray and he wrote on the floor. I said “August” and he responded with a tone perfect “Dada says ‘August'”.

 

In the late afternoon I was feeling pretty good and we all went outside to the park. August spent a lot of time in the trees at the south end of the park, using a mechanical pencil Carly had in her pocket to draw letters. He spotted a ‘Y’ in some tree roots and called it by the Spanish word for ‘Y’. Carly was getting cold, so we got him to move along, and we went over to the play area in the art museum. I watched him play for awhile, and he climbed up through the structure again. It was busy though, so when he wanted to come back down the pathway was full of other kids playing and he started to get a bit upset. That was sorted out, and I had the idea of going up and getting pizza at Celllan up on the 3rd floor. But once I left August wasn’t so happy, so they followed me on up. We ordered a couple pizzas and hung out on the roof, going up and down the stairs, until the pizza was ready. We then headed home.

 

Back home, he saw another Spanish ‘Y’ in a picture of a baby in a book with its arms in the air. He also started making author jokes, saying a book was by either “Mick Inkpen” or “Eric Carle” when he knew it wasn’t, and laughing. I’m pretty sure he was also mixing them up, like “Mick Carle.” He and Carly spent a lot of time reading in the reading area. He’s becoming more opinionated about books: Carly was choosing a book from the shelf and asking if he wanted to read it and he’d say “no.” Next book “no.” Went through about 12 books, then she told him to choose a book, so he climbed over her and chose a book himself.

 

I headed to bed about 8, although couldn’t get to sleep until much later, and Carly thought she had him asleep about 8:30, but then he pooped and of course woke up being changed. He was up until 10:30, but they were pretty much just hanging out in the parlor room on the bed in the dark.

 

New words/phrases: up to 12 no 14 (talking about a clock), screaming room, palomitas (usually as just mitas), ketchup, mustard, first floor, mama and dada pick it (up), pencil

I initially woke up at 7:30, feeling quite good. I heard Carly and August get up a little later. I had taken NyQuil at 4am though and kept falling back to sleep until sometime after 10. During that time, they Skyped with Cherie and Vivi and company.

 

Around 11 Carly took him out. He didn’t want the stroller or the carrier, instead wanting to “walk.” They went to the play area at the art museum. Played there quite awhile. Carly went into the play structure with him, but he wouldn’t go any farther than he has in the past.

 

Asleep 12:35

 

After he woke up and I got up, he spent a lot of time cooking pretend zucchini soup, much like he had at the play area yesterday.

 

He also joked about hitting the Windows with Duplos by hitting the blinds instead and saying “nooo.”

 

A little before 3 I was feeling good enough to try a little walk outside. We went across to the park and he sort of just watched other kids playing for awhile. It was 48 degrees but I was cold so I only lasted about 20 minutes.

 

Carly and August took the stroller and walked up to Chrysanthemum Park where he mainly played in the sand, and admired two Italian greyhounds that came by.

 

From there they walked back to the art museum and went to the play area again. This time, August climbed up through the structure and sat on the platform up top. He’s been wanting to do that for quite awhile.

 

They came home right at 6. Carly made him zucchini and egg for dinner. He spent about 15 minutes playing with his ketchup. He would draw a ‘2’, say “bye 2”, erase it, and draw another one. He ran out of egg to dip, so Carly suggested he use an orange slice. He gave her a huge doubtful look, but it worked. 

 

New words/phrases: navy blue, salad, touch it, raisin

August was awake at 7:20. I had chills by the time I went to bed last night and turned out I had a temperature of 102.7. Was up in the morning while August and Carly Skyped with Vivi, then I went to bed, basically from 9ish to 2:30.

 

Carly took him to the Home Plus play area a little after 10. Not many other people there. He spent pretty much the entirety of his play time in the sand; he would wander around and look at other stuff, but head back to the sand to play.

 

It was the synthetic sand that clumps together when you squeeze it. He spent a lot of time “making” stuff, and they pretended to make things like soup. He also just spent a lot of time filling and pouring.

 

 

Didn’t want to do the train or bubble things they had and would start screeching when they tried to get him to do it. After they tried to get him tho do the bubbles thing, Carly asked if e wanted sand or bubbles, and he said “sand.”

 

After they got home he took a nap, half in on the bed, then out in the reading area.

 

I got up at 2:30. He hadn’t eaten much through the day, but made up for it with a big lunch: she had to make him a second egg, and he dipped a lot of “zucchini soup” and olives in ketchup. And he had some orange.

 

Carly took him back out about 3:30. They went to Hangeulbi Park – the one over near Toys R Us. Spent most of their time by the Hangeul area, as he was loving the Hangeul sculpture. Also, there were three little white dogs that went by, and he got to pet/visit with two of them.

 

They came back and went to the pink building and did some grocery shopping. He decided to do some shrieking while there.

 

Back home, a lot of drawing and writing, particularly on the iPad.

 

Asleep at 8:45. Dreaming about iPad as he said it once and was waving his finger around.

 

New words/phrases: try again, teal, reading baby mama dada Zinnie, teriyaki sauce, it’s a whooping crane, Spanish: xilophono, grande, coche, becoming ‘now I know my’

Eating “nummy orange”: 

Who did that? Zinnie do that: 

Focused on little ‘i’s:

Probably a short entry, as I’m ready for bed. We got back from Natalie’s house for a early kid’s New Year’s Eve party a little after 8. Feeling pretty exhausted, so lay in on the bed with them while August fell asleep.

 

He was awake about 7:40. We did a lot of art, some reading, and watching of Teuni Teuni in the morning. He didn’t express much interest in food, but kept eating strawberries and then cheerios/milk in the morning as I fed them to him. Oh, and as his notebooks are filling up with drawing, I taught him the concept/word ‘tracing’ today, and he took to that, although he wanted me to do all the tracing throughout the day. And on the iPad I introduced him to the ‘fill command’ in the mew art program (Sketchbook) I downloaded. He liked that, but unfortunately difficult to access in all the menus.

 

We went to his Teuni Teuni class at 11. They had these round bouncy mats set up, and he was instantly into it like never before. He let the teacher put him through multiple forward roles, several times. Class was all about kimchi, so first they picked cabbage (‘caboo’ to him) and put it in a box. Then they poured salt (styrofoam things) on big cabbage pictures, then they used plastic hands to beat cabbage leaves – the leaves were attached to each end of one of those sticks (like a bracelet) that you hit in the middle and it rolls up. He was much more interested in this because it looked, to him, like a capital ‘I’, and he kept showing it to everyone around him, saying “I I I!” He was also Qing everyone and everything, starting with those round bouncy matts, but including other kids’ heads, etc.

 

We went down and did some shopping. He did fine with that, then we headed home.

 

He napped from 1 to 1:50. After that, he wanted to nurse, but there was the blanket I was using sitting on the couch. He pulled it off, saying “No. Nope.” Did this multiple times. When it was in the reading area, he did the same thing. I was asking him where it could go, and he pointed towards the door to the parlor and said “Over there.” I set it on top of his high chair, and he came and pulled it off again, saying the same thing. So I put it in on ‘Oma’s chair.’ After he was done nursing, I said I wanted the blanket, and asked if he could get it, telling him it was on Oma’s chair. He went and grabbed it and pulled it in to me.

 

We are still working on the coloring on the floor thing, and today I pointed at it and said “Who did that?” He kept using that sentence throughout the day. Luckily, no lying, and eventually he would say “Zinnie do that.” He was also excited by the concept of ‘question’ and I think he ‘got it’ when I pointed out that was a questions, and he excitedly said “Q for question!” He also was saying “Who did that?” it at the party, and on our way back when we were stopped at a crosswalk and he pointed to the crosswalk, saying “Who did that?” He then said “11”, because the stripes looked like an 11.

 

He was being a bit difficult by the time we left the house at 5. We think it has to do with the fact that we almost always go out somewhere in the afternoon, and today it was late. Once he was outside he was just fine, and he did very well at the party. Lots of singing of numbers on the way there and back. Left him in the backpack both directions, just 4 stops, and he played Endless Academy on the cell phone.

 

We were the first people at the party for about 45 minutes. So he got to explore and play a bit with Chloe, and have a pear and honey popsicle and drink our mango juice. More drawing, and a lot of food tasting, mainly liking the lentil chips from Costco and the mushrooms in the stew. They also had some small puzzles, which he was excited about, having learned ‘puzzles’ in the Very Hungry Caterpillar app the last couple of days. But there was so much excitement it was hard or him to focus on much.

 

Before we left, Nathalie found little transforming ‘Q’ thing and gave it to him.

 

Carly gave him a quick bath when we got home, as we had totally forgotten to change him before we left and he was leaking. He wasn’t happy about that, and he was asleep about a quarter to 9.

 

New words/phrases: tracing, fill, puzzles,who did that?

Class: 

New Year’s Eve party: 

Getting the transforming Q: 

August was awake at 7:40. He was sitting next to Carly on the couch a little later, and I came and sit next to him. He was patting our legs, and surprised us by saying “Dada is sitting by me.”

 

Carly had to leave to go to her annual dentist appointment. I was thinking of taking August along and going to the National Museum while she had her appointment, but I had a weird back pain last night and didn’t feel like going so far. Luckily, it went away quickly in the morning.

 

Anyway, August and I had out his leftover stickers from class on Tuesday and he was trying to figure out where to put one. This was when Carly left. 15 minutes later, we were still looking at the book, going through all the pages again and again, him saying “another page.” I was pointing out all the funny places he could put the sticker of a digging mole (like in the center of a snowman), so I was saying “That’s funny,” He picked up on that and kept pointing out things he thought were funny. This continued throughout the day, as he called the fork and knife on the floor of the cafe funny, and the wooden penguins funny.

 

We’ve been trying to get him to cut down on writing on the floor with the crayons, so when he does it, we make him stop and clean it up before he proceeds. Today, that happened and I had a wipe out but he didn’t want to do it, telling me “Dada wipe.”

 

We finally headed out of the house at 10:40, headed for CGP. We met Carly in the subway station, and bought a couple sandwiches for lunch. August had told me twice on the trip that he wanted to go to the children’s museum first, so that’s where we headed. As we headed in, he told Carly “Play area is fun.”

 

We went up and changed him and ate, then went to play. He wanted to go to the “big kids area”, so we started at the spaceship. Spent most of his time kind of dancing/counting numbers in front of the screens, playing with the Hangeul magnets, and air writing Spanish on the floor.

 

He wasn’t quite ready to go when we left, but it was getting close to 1. We put him in the backpack and did our usual walk, with Carly for the first time, and he fell asleep from 1:09 to 2:22. He woke up all excited, as he saw Carly right away and said “Nurse!” He then saw her iPad and said “Mama’s Nook book!” After he woke up he played in the cafe until about 3, pointing out letters and words on the ground for most of the time.

 

Carly headed home to get some work done. As August saw her walking away he did his best “Miss Mama” a few times while she could still hear. He didn’t really get upset though when she was gone. We went to check on the new playground, but it still wasn’t open. I gave him the choice between animals, the other playground, and the children’s museum. He chose “other playground.” So we walked to the Adventureland Playground. As we got close, I asked “Hmm, can you find the playground?” He surprised me by pointing and saying “Right there!” as opposed to his usual “I see it!” Or just pointing.

 

We played there until 4. Mostly writing in the sand, although we also went on the musical instruments for a good while. He sang ABCs while hitting the xylophone, but I didn’t get my phone out in time to record that. The drums are falling more apart, and all that is left is the big one. I had August sit on it though, and I could hit the side of it and still make a nice sound, vibrating him. He kept wanting me to sing the numbers song over and over as I drummed to it.

 

As we were writing, I wrote ‘Mama’ and he first said “M A M A pattern!” Awhile later he was asking me to draw patterns. Also, when I started doing a crosshatch pattern he identified it as “crosshatch.” We’ve also been working on punctuation.

 

At 4 we headed to the entrance. He wanted to walk though, and it was his longest walk yet. He made it all the way past the fountain, close to the bathrooms, but the walk ended when he fell and scraped his knees. About 400 meters by then, without wanting to be picked up. It took a long time though, about 20 minutes, as he was carrying a stick and stopping along the way to write on the ground, trees, vending machines, and everything else.

 

We stopped at the grocery store, him in the backpack, on the way home and got strawberries and crackers and a couple other things.

 

Came home and skyped with Glecy and shared dinner – more turkey, zucchini, rice, and cheese – with me. Then spent a long time in the evening coloring with Carly. He kept turning the pages so they would color on another page. The notebook is getting very full and colorful by now. In the new crayons gold was his favorite, and he’s already used that crayon, and almost one of the blues, up.

 

When Carly changed him before his bath he started another joke – saying “Happy birthday” to random people, including “Happy birthday, Auntie Q.”

 

She gave him a bath and they did more coloring, then it was time for bed. He said a lot of “Miss dada”s, but went to bed pretty quickly, around 8:40.

 

New words/phrases: Dada is sitting by me, another page, that’s funny, right there, crosshatch

 Children’s museum: 

Cafe: 

Playground. Trying to trace my letters: 

He found this bent stick and was turning it back and forth, as it looks like two Hangeul characters: ‘g’ and ‘n’ :

You get an idea of how much writing we did in the sand: 

Our long walk: 

“Upside down V”: 

Seeing the Hangeul N in the bricks: 

Home: 

He had been holding the water bottle just by his teeth. I caught it just as he dropped it: 

I think today was the first day of break that a.) Carly and I were up at the same time and b.) we were up before August. That was a little before 8, and August woke up 8:30ish.

 

Carly Skyped with her mom at one point, and when reading/singing Puff the Magic Dragon, August surprised my by knowing a full line – I think it was “Noble kings and princes…”

 

A little after 10, Chuck skyped from Derek and Andrea’s new house. We got to see them and take a tour. August saw one of their chairs and thought it looked like a Hangeul N (basically and L shape). And when I gave him a slice of orange, he thought it looked like a C, then turned it around, saying “backwards C, upside down C.” Had to cut the call a little short though, as we had to get ready and leave for his class. Turned out that August didn’t want to leave the house for once – in part because he still wanted to play with his comb, and because he wanted to nurse. He was pretty unhappy until I got him to calm down in the park singing the “A is for…” song.

 

But he definitely wasn’t into class to start with, spending a lot of time standing by the door. But he started to get drawn in, first when the teacher was acting like a bear hibernating (and then the kids got to do the same), but definitely so when she brought out the tunnels for them to crawl through. He liked those, and crawled through one once, but preferred to pull them apart, saying “together, apart.”

 

His favorite part definitely came though when she brought out a big stuffed bear with a blanket. He kept patting the bear and feeling its fur, and kind of hugging it. We warned him when it would be put away, and he said “bye, bye” but still got a little upset. But then the teacher was holding it and a couple of the kids came up to see it again. He went up and hugged it and said “bye, bye” again.

 

We came home and had some time before his nap as he woke up late. He wanted to play with the closet again, asking “Please” very nicely. I opened the door for him, then he wanted his socks off, so he could feel the cold metal strip with his feet. When I changed him once, he took a crayon with him and started drawing all over his hand and leg. I told him he should go show mama, but he didn’t do it right away. But a few minutes later he walked in to her in the other room and said “show mama.” We then made a smoothie, after which he fell asleep from about 1:50 to close to 3.

 

Carly and I started watching The Martian while he was asleep. After he woke up, we headed out for a walk. Carly had to stop at the hospital to rearrange an appointment, and while she did that August and I walked around a few back streets. He had said “iPad” when we first entered the hospital with Carly, because we had played iPad while waiting for her yesterday, but then we left. As soon as we were out the door he started saying “Miss Mama.” We walked around for 10 minutes or so, then headed inside to get warm before the walk back. Had some time, so we did play iPad. When Carly was done he wasn’t too worked up about missing her though, and in fact was saying “Miss mama” when she was right there.

 

We walked home. In the evening there was a lot of coloring and some iPad time. He played with the closet again, again asking to get his socks off. We hadn’t brushed his teeth in the morning so we watched some Teuni Teuni and did that. I made up a bowl of mashed potatoes and vegetables and one of rice, turkey, and vegetable soup, and August and I shared those for dinner.

 

He was being creative with his “Becoming…” joke this afternoon/evening, using “play in the sand,” “pig,” “Teuni Teuni,” and “color the paper crayon”

 

Carly gave him a bath that went pretty well, then she read Picasso’s Trousers, a book that Glecy got him, a couple times. He started really liking it a day or two ago, and finds it funny. She also tried translating it into Spanish for him, and reading The Going to Bed Book to him in Spanish. She also has a Spanish book called 100 Palabres (Words). Since the beginning he has expected it to have numbers in it, since he sees ‘100’ on the cover. Now it is a joke, where he still claims the name of the book is ‘Numbers’ if you ask him.

 

Some more coloring, then he wanted to play with the closet again, using his cutest “please” a couple times, but was sad when we wouldn’t let him. Carly took him in to bed and he was asleep about 8:50. Carly and I finished watching the Martian, which was great, except for the gratuitous 5 minutes at the end.

 

New words/phrases: get more, says Vivi, dada eat the bread, Zinnie eat it, mama ate it

 

Class: 

Home: 

On our walk: 

Home: 

He was awake around 8. In the morning, when writing sentences for him, I got him saying “Dada is the best,” then “Mama is the best.” Later, he wanted me to help him do a forward roll. Did a couple, then he just lay there looking up at the ceiling and the Christmas lights. He started saying “Hangeul D”, referring to the shape they made around the room.

Carly went to the clinic at the hospital to see about getting an appointment today for her stomach pains. August and I stayed at home and ate lunch. I made a turkey sandwich, and he had fun helping make it (putting pieces of cheese and turkey on the bread) and picking the cheese and potatoes off the plate to eat.

He went to the reading area and pulled out the Puff book to read. We read it while sitting with Puff.

We then skyped with my family at Dee and Grant’s for Christmas. Although as soon as he saw Skype, August started missing Carly and went and stood at the door, sad. After a few minutes, I went down to try and get him, and he said, real sad, “Miss mama.”

Carly came home right then, with him still at the door, having made an appointment for 4. Skyped for a few more minutes, but couldn’t really hear their end of the conversation anyway. August fell asleep right after we hung up, pretty much, a couple minutes before 1. He slept until about 2:20. Carly had made vegetable soup, and he ate some of that after he woke up.

About 3:30 we all left. Walked Carly to her appointment, then continued on to the park. He started saying “miss mama” right away, but played well at the park for awhile, writing letters at first, then getting up on the play structure. Carly called to update and August heard that, then he got upset that I wouldn’t let him go down the climbing wall. Also, I think his hands were getting cold. That was the end, and he was pretty upset by the time I got him back in the backpack and boots (he’t not a fan of the boots yet, and wouldn’t wear them in the park. Luckily, I had brought his shoes in case that happened).

We went back to the hospital and played on the iPad while waiting for Carly. When she was done we all walked home. He ate some of the rice and beans from my burritos (and probably something from Carly) and did a lot more coloring/writing throughout the day and into the evening. I gave him a bath around 7. In the bath, he started spelling ‘cat’ on his own. I then found out he could spell ‘dog’, ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ (although sometimes he just says M A or D A once), and ‘is’. We had never practiced is, but I use it in a lot of the sentences I write for him. Then, as I was getting him dressed he spelled ‘poop’ (but he usually only says one ‘o’).

While Carly was taking a shower we were doing more drawing, and I ate a Frango. August looked at me and did is ‘ahh’ thing, like the dentist asking you to open your mouth. I was busted. He knew I was eating something and went into the kitchen, saying “more”. I gave in and gave him most of a Frango as a treat. He tried for “More treat” when done, but was allayed when I told him mama was going to make popcorn.

He ate a ton of popcorn (plain) with Carly, and came up with the line “P is for popcorn.” That just shows that he really has the ‘P’ sound down, as he keeps coming up with these “P is for…” lines with words we’ve never spelled together: people, play area, and now popcorn.

He was doing some writing on the floor, so I told him we needed to put the crayons away. He got upset, and Carly took him. He was clearly tired, and fell asleep instantly – like the fastest ever, right at 9:00.

New words/phrases: back and forth, cardboard, August becoming a big kid, cleaning, clean on the floor, mama’s clothes

Can spell: cat, dog, Zinnie, mama, dada, is, poop (spelled pop)

On our walk: 

‘Cardboard’ he gets from the back cover of his drawing notebooks. No idea how he decided to incorporate it into a song: 

Similarly, Endless Reader has nothing to do with Korean: 

At the park: