Category: Uncategorized

Carly wasn’t feeling well, and as she is wont to do when not feeling well, she went and slept in a different room, this time out on the reading area mat. August got up three times during the night and went out to her to nurse. The last time was a little after 7, and he fell back to sleep pn the mat until close to 9. I woke up around 7:30, but just stayed in bed reading, etc. until they were both up. So start of a lazy Sunday.

 

He started his day by playing on a blanket piled on the floor and inventing a new chant: “mama dada zeta wawawa” Carly spent the morning resting, and August and I spent much of that time drawing.

 

I got a message from Derek saying that he was headed to the kids play area in the pink building, so I took August over there, from a little before 1 to 2. He enjoyed seeing Logan and Chloe there, but mainly played by himself. He wouldn’t let me put him on the octopus, but we made a game of hitting the arms of the octopus as they went around – and he thought they looked like Ss. He first went to the food, and also spent a lot of time in the ball area. Got him to climb up to the back of the trampoline area once, but he slid down before going in the upper place space, and he also climbed up the round stairs once, but slid right back down. But his favorite toy was one of the push cars. He sat in that and played with the attached cell phone and opening and closing the door. I then pushed him around a bunch. He kind of rode side saddle most of the time, with the door open and one or two feet out the door.

 

At 1:50 he was ready to go, but as he stood at the door to go I asked if he was sure and ran through the list of things that were there. One of the things was blocks, and he said “Blocks. More blocks.” So we spent another 10 minutes playing with the blocks, then he was ready to go.

 

We went home and he took his nap. I ran back to the pink building and went to the store to get pho and Sprite for Carly.

 

After he woke up, I took him out for a walk. It was 30 and getting dark and colder, so I didn’t think it would last long. Left about 4:30. We walked by the stream, to the women’s business center, then took a right and walked main streets to the art museum. As we walked he waffled between wanting to go to the play area in the art museum and wanting to go home to mama. He started sing the “A is for…” song and that cheered him up. He had a bunch of new lines, both serious and jokes: Q is for quiet, b is for wawa, d is for zoo, p is for play area etc.

 

At the art museum he spent probably 20 minutes in the play area. Really wanted to climb through more of it, and did just a little bit, crawling into the round tube in back. But he wanted me to go with him, which isn’t possible. He kept saying “More dada fit.” But I would just scoot partway into the opening.

 

He kept saying “miss mama” and decided to go. But he got distracted by the “There’s no place like home” video sculpture. He would watch it for several seconds, then look down at the art area below (the place where he wants to climb, but can’t) and listen to the audio (the speaker is in the back of the sculpture), then watch it for awhile, then look down, etc. Eventually he left it and was exploring the lobby, but stopped across the lobby and crouched on the ground and watched it for awhile longer.

 

Finally, about 6:20 we went outside. He liked feeling the edge of the revolving door, but that meant the door just kept turning, so I picked him up to get him away from there. We walked around the park a bit, then he started asking fore “More shop.” It took me awhile to realize that was what he was saying, as he has never requested shopping before. But then he started saying “crackers and markers” as that was what he wanted to shop for. But then he wanted to do ABCDs and I convinced him we already had markers at home, so then he wanted to go home. It was about 6:30 when we got home.

 

We came home and ate – first the last cracker we had, then I fixed up a bunch of the leftovers for him, and he had fun dipping them in dongatsu sauce – and did art. He politely requested the iPad, so we played on that, mainly drawing with the stylus. At 8:30 he didn’t complain when I said it was time to put away the iPad.

 

At one point he wanted to play with the closet – the one to the air conditioner unit, etc. We let him play with that for awhile, but it was letting cold air in, so we said that was enough for the night. He really wanted to play more, and was very, very politely asking “pleeeeaaasseeee” while doing the ‘please’ sign. Very, very hard to not give in.

 

There was a lot more art after that, and some hanging out with Carly, and helping me put the covers back on the reading area mattress.We did some more reading – he requested the Puff book twice, which we read with Puff sitting with us. He went in to Carly and fell asleep about 10:15.

 

Three notable language things today:

 

He can spell his name. ‘Zinnie’, that is. He was Qing me this morning, so I decided to get him back by Zing him instead. I drew a Z on his head and said “Z”, and then he said “I N N I E”. He did it a good 10 times in the day, but never for the camera.

 

And his favorite numbers in Spanish are “quatro, cinco, seis.” He says them a lot.

 

He is getting quite good at fake reading the Polar Bear, Polar Bear book. I may have mentioned that already, but today I heard him saying more of it – he knows a few of the rather complex sentences, like “I see a bald eagle soaring by me.”

 

New words/phrases: find it, dongstsu sauce (spotted it in fridge), Derek, ‘reading’ Panda Bear Panda Bear

Kid Cafe: 

Went straight for the food: 

Our walk: 

Art museum: 

Looking down: 

Watching from across the lobby: 

Home: 

Shaking things: 

He woke up at 5:50. I was still in bed and heard him say ‘Q’ as he was getting off the bed. He went out to Carly and fell back to sleep in the reading area, then woke up again around 8. They Skyped with Chuck and Cherie for a bit in the morning. He was really into Qs. I was reading with him in the reading area, and he wanted to “Look for Qs.” He was also requesting “another book.” We were reading Sir Cedric, the book that Carly’s grandmother gave us, and he liked that. He started making the ‘more’ sign after finishing it once. He rarely pulls out the sign language now.

 

We did a lot more coloring (we had the big set of crayons, and when we started using another one he would say “nice color”), then headed out, going to Hoegi to hang out at our favorite coffee shop, 8 Street. On the walk from the subway to the campus, he was singing the “A is for…” song to himself, but started to make up lines, such as “P is for people.” In the song, P is for pig, and while we’ve made up lines together, this was entirely of his own making. He also spotted Qs in a magnifying glass icon on the front of a store.

 

Took quite awhile for him to fall asleep, so we walked around the Kyunghee campus. He finally fell asleep and slept from 2:11 to 3:19. We got beverages and sat on the second floor of the coffee shop. When he woke up, we took turns with him, going downstairs to see the fish, art, and dog. He really wanted to touch things, and I was clear what he couldn’t (the tiny plants for sale) and could (the aquariums, pumice stones in a big plant pot) touch. He was then very careful with his touching as he felt the texture of the pumice, etc. He Qed the dog, but only after trying to get me to do it. When Carly took him down, they gave him jerky snacks to feed to the dog. Again, he tried to get Carly to do it, but did one piece himself.

 

He then sat on a chair and we drew together on the iPad for quite awhile. He started drawing Ws for the first time. Carly also had her iPad from work. August saw it and called it “Boring.” Carly was getting hungry, and when we asked if we should eat there or find food on the way back, August said “stay here” and was also saying “mama hungry.” So we got a strawberry smoothing and sandwich. Unfortunately, the sandwich had pesto on it, so Carly didn’t have any.

 

On our way out, August visited with the dog again. He found the dog’s ball in a corner and took it to the dog. Then, when we said goodbye, August picked up the ball and put it back in the other room where he found it.

 

On the walk back, August started singing “R is for Ryan” as well. Then, he pointed to another sign and said “Pattern Ws”, then “Pattern Vs.”

 

At home we went straight back to the drawing. There was a lot of that in the evening. Carly was feeling worse (stomach ache), so went to bed. August did a good job staying out with me, for the most part. He had me writing a lot. Tonight was the first night where he was really telling me to write words and phrases, and use a lot of cursive. He had me write ‘cold outside’ several times, as well as ‘patience, grasshopper.”

 

At one point, when Carly was awake, he was running up and down the hall, almost actually running, if not quite. Very much on his tip toes, at least.

 

More August humor: when in the reading area, he hit me on the side and immediately said “sorry.” He did that 4 times in a row. And while playing with Baby Q he would gently touch her eyes, then seriously say “Noooo” because you aren’t supposed to touch a real baby’s eyes. After his correct new lines of ‘A is for…’, he started to also do incorrect ones, like saying “A is for wawa, cold cold wawa” and finding them funny.

 

 

Anyway, he finally, finally fell asleep just after 11.

 

A couple of interesting misunderstandings today:

 

Before we left, I had a pair of August’s socks and hit him with one as I asked “are you ready to go to Hoegi?” He thought that was funny, and grabbed a sock and kind of put it on his nose, and hit himself and me with it, saying “Hoegi” each time. He repeated this at some point later in the day.

 

With Carly doing art, she was coloring in shapes, and said something like “Do you like it?” He took ‘like it’, it seems, to mean ‘coloring in shapes’. So anytime he or one of us would color something in he would say “like it.”

 

 

New words/phrases: look for Qs, another book, nice color, gold, silver, boring, pumice, mama hungry, stay here, mama needs her backpack (pulling her backpack down the hall when she was sleeping)

Walkjng in Hoegi. Do you see the Qs? 

Getting sleepy? 

8 Street: 

Pumice: 

“Pattern W…V”: 

Home: 

Using all the papers: 

August chose Christmas to sleep in a bit. So I had time in the morning to send some email and Facebook messages. He woke up at 7:50. Carly made Swedish pancakes for breakfast. There was some flour on the counter, and August stood on his stool and used a spoon and his finger to eat some of it, saying “Yummy flour.” He started a new thing this morning, which is saying “Hi” a lot, particularly to Carly. He did it throughout the day, including at the party.

 

Carly tried to Skype with her parents, but the connection wasn’t good, so we will try again tomorrow. A little before 10, we skyped with my parents. They and my my aunt and uncle had sent gifts, so we opened gifts over Skype. August’s haul included a wooden toolbox and tools, a wooden backhoe puzzle, a wooden train that spells his name, a Puff the Magic Dragon book and stuffed animal (the book he and I had read at the children’s library a few weeks ago), a book called Frogs Sit on Logs, and, from us, a baby doll which we have named ‘Baby Q’ (which is sort of what he was calling himself as a joke, and then babies that he sees). And of course some nice clothes, and Carly and I got sweets.

 

We skyped for an hour and a half. August took a nice nap and was up around 2. Carly had finished the enchiladas and we ate some for lunch. Derek was taking Rosie out for a walk our direction, so he came to our place, then we all walked back to his house around 3:30. There, we were inside for awhile, then Derek and Carly took Logan and August outside for awhile. I switched with Carly after awhile, just as Nathalie and her family showed up. August soon realized Carly wasn’t outside anymore, and wasn’t happy about that. So we all went inside.

 

With only the 3 families there for dinner, it was much less crowded than Thanksgiving. But it still felt very full and lively. August did wonderfully and was talking a ton, which everyone else hadn’t really heard before because he’s been more cautious before. There was ham and turkey and stuffing and enchiladas and green beans and plenty of other food. August, as usual, loved playing with all of Logan’s toys, and also liked visiting with the baby. I held her for a couple of long stints, and August would pull on my shirt when I was standing to get me to crouch or sit so he could see her. He would also see things that were similar or identical to things we have at home and say “for home.” At first I thought he meant he wanted to take it home, such as the doll which he was carrying after I came out of a room. He was carrying it by the head and kind of seriously said “Baby Q. For home.” But as he continued to do it with identical things (like the Where is Baby’s Belly Button? and Boynton ABC book) to what we have, I think it meant more like “like at home.”

 

August didn’t eat a ton of food, but he really liked the ham and mashed potatoes, and then shared my apple pie. The ice cream was his favorite part though, and he kept asking for more.

 

Derek took Rosie out for another walk as we left a little after 8 and walked over to Brownstone with us. At home, August and I played with Puff and Baby Q, then sat with them in the reading area and read his new books. He then spent a long, long time writing his 2s and Vs and other letters on the pads of paper. He had initially wanted to do stickers, so we went and got a bunch of those, but then he changed his mind.

 

Finally, around 9:30 he had to be coaxed/forced away from the paper and taken to bed, where he and Carly fell asleep.

 

At night, when he nurses, he has started to climb over Carly to do so.

 

He’s also been developing his sense of humor. In addition to the long-running “Becoming…” joke, today he was saying “O turns to Q turns to chicken!” And when I was reading or singing “Puff,” I paused because he knows the line “by the sea.” But instead of saying that he said “lived by the Q!” Finally, he knows a few author’s names, but the only ones we’ve been practicing lately are Mick Inkpen and Dr. Seuss. So we were reading the Boynton A to Z book, and I paused after saying “by…” He initially said “Inkpen.” I told him it was Sandra Boynton, and tried again, but he would only say “Inkpen” and laugh.

 

Also, it turns out that Derek knows the same numbers/letters songs as August because he using them with the classes he teaches. So August was singing the “Q is for question” line a lot. But because of the Carle book, he also really likes the word ‘quetzal’. So at the party he was singing “Q is for quetzal” a lot. And at home, before we left for the party, August was singing it and ran to the piano so he could play along while singing.

 

Eating flour:

Carly’s Christmas tree: 

Opening presents: 

Christmas party: 

Ham: 

Minions shirt: 

He saw a Hangeul ‘d’ and ‘m’ in these blocks: 

Full moon on the way home: 

Baby Q: 

Puff: 

He slept in just a bit today, almost to 7. A long night considering he went to sleep early last night. When he and Carly were drawing in the morning he started to say “crossing the T”, which he hasn’t done before. I think it was also sometime this morning that they were playing with Duplos and Carly made a new playground.

 

We left for his class a little before 11. This was the first time Carly got to see a Teuni Teuni class. August was a bit more hesitant early in class; he would participate, then want to leave, then participate, etc. To keep him from leaving when he was standing by the door, Carly had him looking at letters on all the shoes. It worked. They set up a cool walking course with different textures, which August liked. They also used little kickstands to introduce kicking. This was perfect for August, as we could see him picking it up during class.

 

After class we headed down to the grocery store to pick up some things for lunch and for enchiladas tomorrow. We headed home and August nursed and went to sleep before eating any lunch at about 12:40. Slept to 2.

 

In the afternoon we put him in the backpack and went for a walk. Up the stream, stopping at the Tolerance Cafe for the first time (on the second floor over by the youth center and power plant). Got our coffees and kept walking. Walked up to the park but turned around and came back the other side.

 

Walked over towards the library and August saw the playground by the dinosaurs and wanted to play. So we let him out and played there. Did the usual climbing and shaky bridge stuff and running around. Got the little ball out and threw/kicked it around a little. There was a smaller boy – just walking – there and he was crying at first. August went over close to him and started Qing him from a distance, saying “Q baby!” It was about 40 and shady and we were all getting cold (August occasionally considers his hat, but then takes it off), so we continued on to the library.

 

Carly took him upstairs while I grabbed some books from the English shelves. Upstairs, he liked grabbing all the Korean board books and we looked at a couple of the books I grabbed. He particularly liked the book about peeing (something like Time to Pee, by Mo Willems, the guy that writes the pigeon books). Lasted about a half hour then August decided it was time to go.

 

Carly went to the grocery store. I gave August the option of following her or going home and getting a snack and he chose going home. At home we ended up reading some of the new books I bought on the iPad, namely a Biscuit book and Chu’s Day, by Neil Gaiman. He thought that one was pretty funny.

 

Carly came home and made stir fry and we ate dinner. After dinner, August and I spent a lot of time doing art on the iPad. Our pieces are getting better and better. I was looking for a better Spanish app and downloaded a free one and he and Carly spent some time on that.

 

She gave him a bath and I did dishes. Carly took him in to get him to sleep a little before 9, but it didn’t work. He came back out, and ended up getting Angeles. He took Angeles into the other sitting room, where only the Christmas lights were on, and held Angeles up to see the lights. He then, all on his own, started having Angeles feel the patterns on the the playmat squares. This went on for several minutes. He even had Angeles feel the xylophone blocks and the couch and closet door. It was pretty amazing.

 

August didn’t want to go back in the bedroom. I was trying to lure him with Kipper stories, but he wasn’t biting until I said “Angeles wants to listen to Kipper.” He instantly grabbed Angeles and headed to the bed.

 

Carly and I read Kipper to him. He was totally focused on finding the Qs, and repeatedly counting them (“one, two…no Qs”). I had the book kind of setting on Angeles and August made me move it. He took a drink of water and then decided he needed to put it away out on the table. He walked down the hall and set it on the table and we heard him say “two wawas!” as there was already a bottle on the table. He then went and tried to find the floor wipes. We asked why, and he showed us there was some water spilled on the floor. Carly gave him a paper towel and he wiped it up. She then got him (against his will) back in bed and he was asleep by 9:50.

 

New words/phrases: mama has an idea, crossing the T, so many people, not for Zinnie, new page, lavender, tan

 

Class: 

At home. Writing 2s: 

Park: 

Library: 

Home: 

When he woke up at 6:30, once again, he and Carly spent a lot of time going through books just looking for Qs. We’ve gotten to the point where we know where the 1 or 2 Qs in a book are, but this was taking it to the next level. After I got up a while later, his big “Becoming…” joke was “Becoming Megan. Nope!” Carly left for APIS a little after 8:15 to work with an NHD group. August and I did quite a bit of reading, during which he started counting in Spanish for 1 to 10 (before she left Carly said he had been doing 1 to 8) and he randomly started spelling ‘poop’ and ‘book’, then watched the Teuni Teuni video and brushed his teeth. A little after 10 we left, headed for Children’s Grand Park.

 

Rain wasn’t in the forecast, but it was drippy to start with. We got down to CGP and August wanted to see animals. He first wanted the horses, and since  it was still icky we spent most of the time in the covered area nearby, looking at the signs and displays. He was really into turning the the squares that have a picture of an animal on them to find out what they eat on a picture underneath. We’ve looked at them several times, but this was the first that he was saying them on his own, such as “Bears eat (turn) fish” and “Sea lions eat (turn) squid.” He was doing that when a big group of teenage girls came by and were admiring him. He gave them a little attention, but eventually he got frustrated that they were keeping him from playing. Luckily, they moved on.

 

It was getting close to nap time and we hadn’t eaten, so we used the step in front of those animal food displays for eating a snack. He ate all the pickle and a bunch of zucchini (exclaiming “Thank you mama for zucchini!”), then noticed that the baboons were now “outside.” So he took off towards them and I followed with the backpack and zucchini. He looked at them and kept eating zucchini and walking/looking around. He started drawing a crowd of teenagers again, including the girls he had seen before. This time, he was more in an entertaining mood and lasted quite awhile. Eventually, he was done with zucchini and we moved along for nap time. In fact, I’d kind of been mentioning nap time to him. He then took about another minute walking around, then came walking over to me saying “nap time, nap time.”

 

Took him to the building with Peace Cafe. Looked at the books in the little outside library and set aside a few to take with us to the cafe to look at after his nap. Changed him, then went back to a covered table and chairs and had a bit more of a snack and put him in the backpack. As soon as we started walking he just lay his head back. Took a few minutes for him to fall asleep, but not long.

 

He slept 12:23 to 1:51. Carly showed up about 20 minutes before the end of his nap, and he was happy to see her when he woke up. Carly was finishing her coffee and they were looking at books for awhile. After that, we went to Han’s Deli for lunch. Carly and he shared the chicken cutlet. He liked both the corn and the cutlet, particularly with the sauce. He kept asking for more sauce (“yummy sauce). While eating, he had fun Qing the tray on the high chair (which he didn’t use, preferring to sit in a regular chair on his own), and he lost a shoe, saying “uh-oh!”

 

We then went to the children’s museum. First took him downstairs, as the ‘Visible/Invisible” exhibit is now open. Played down there for a good amount of time. First just roaming around to various things, but then spending most of our time in a block area that had these really big, really cool soft, blue building pieces. They were all sorts of shapes (rectangles, noodles, gears, arches) and you could build forts and all sorts of things. Were probably there about a half hour, until a little after 4, when he decided he was done and wanted to go upstairs.

 

From there we went up to the little kids area. Carly wanted to play with him, so I sat and read most of the time. They went down the slide together, and he actually went down once on his own. They spent a lot of time playing with a doll, and August picked up a stuffed pretend chocolate bar and said “chocolate.” We were both surprised he knew that one. He must have seen a chocolate bar at some point, but I can’t think of when that was.

 

Finally, he kind of just decided he was done in there as well, so we left. Got 3 seats together on the train and got off at Sangbong and walked to Costco. Got a couple things for us, an apple pie for Christmas dinner (they were out of pumpkin, or we would have gotten both), and then 3 chicken bakes for our dinner/lunch tomorrow. Got back on the train, but it was crowded now. After a stop I got next to a woman who has lived in LA for 33 years. She and her husband travel back and for every couple of months for business, I think (but I didn’t catch the full explanation).

 

Came home and ate dinner. I was trying to see what he remembered of the ‘animal eats’ display, but he pulled out a joke (two, actually) instead:

 

 

Me: What does a hedgehog eat?

 

Him: Dinner!

 

Me: What do they eat for dinner?

 

Zucchini!

 

He did remember that kangaroos eat leaves though.

 

some coloring and reading after that, then he went to sleep at 7:45. He was really acting and looking tired, first at Costco and then on the train, so we weren’t surprised it was an early evening.

 

 

New words/phrases: Mama’s at work, uno to diez, spelling poop and book, bear eats… (And other turning signs at the children’s zoo), worms, leaves, want some more, Qed the tray, more sauce, archway, fits, press hard

Zoo: 

Peace Coffee:

Children’s Museum: 

Home: 

He was up around 6:30 again, I believe. Skyped with Cherie in the morning. When I got up I made oatmeal and strawberries and we shared that for breakfast. I made a Q out of Duplo fence pieces for him at one point and he really liked that, and had to stand in it.

 

A little before 11 we headed to his class, with Carly. That is always a treat. It was pretty much the same Christmas class as last year – they put on antlers and red capes (well, August didn’t do the cape at all) and got to ride in ‘sleighs’ made out of plastic bins that we pulled around. Then they hung decorations on felt trees she had hung on the wall. She gave each student a pair of Pororo socks, and of course we did stickers at the end. At the beginning of class, with Carly there, Jihong’s mom was asking him where his mama was, knowing that he says “Mama home, no… mama work.” He landed on “Mama in closet” and kept saying that. Also, at one point when he was walking around he pointed to another kid who had zebras on his shirt and said “zebra!” And when he got the antlers we were surprised to hear him say “A for antlers”, as that isn’t a line in a song or anything.

 

After class we went down and shopped at Home Plus. He walked around much of the time, often carrying the basket. It was the first time Carly has really experienced that.

 

Went home, had lunch, he took a long nap, and Carly woke him up about 3. We went for a walk with him in the backpack in the afternoon, heading south to the park with the playground shaped like a tree. Did a lot of writing in the sand there – in fact, that was one of the first playgrounds where that was a really big thing. He also did a lot of climbing, with help, on the climbing hill thing. He liked sweeping of the caterpillar thing, then when he saw a girl sitting on it he wanted to sit on it too. Turned out he wanted to sit in the same spot. And he wasn’t too patient as we made him wait. This was the first time he’s really done that, wanting something another kid has. At one point he wanted to go up in the tree structure. He was disappointed to find the bridge didn’t shake, but the rope sides of it did and we pretended the bridge shook and he really liked that.

 

Played there for quite awhile until we started to get a bit chilly and it was starting to get dark. Walked home and had dinner – Carly made more zucchini and I made dongatsu (from the freezer) that August had and liked for the first time. Carly is finishing up her lovely Christmas tree on the closet door. Taking an idea from class, August started putting his magnets on the tree like Christmas ornaments.

 

He then started turning the light in the closet on and off. He’s done that before, but today he wanted the door open. He would turn on the light, flop down off the couch, look in the closet to see the light on, then climb back up and turn it off, flop down again, look in the closet, etc.

 

I gave him a bath and Carly nursed and then read to him a lot. We ended the evening all playing with the Duplos. Carly made a really tall tower with them, which he really liked. I brought Angeles in with us, and August was really into the pattern and texture of the Duplo mat and the rug, and wanted Angeles to experience it as well.

 

We got him to head to bed, and after a little hanging out there he headed to sleep around 9:30.

 

New words/phrases: backwards 2, mama’s running, mun (door in korean)

 

Standing in the Q: 

Class: 

Shopping: 

Tree playground: 

Qing his five Qs: 

Home: 

Mama’s tower: 

Showing Angeles the pattern: 

He was up about 6:30 today. In the morning it was sort of snowing, but not for long. Carly made him a big house for the animals, then I added a playground, complete with a shaky bridge. We then skyped with my parents, during which August had fun Qing grampa and gramma – he mentioned it several times throughout the day. Carly cleaned some of the windows, and August was really into helping with that. When she was done we got him the water squirt bottle so he could keep cleaning.

He took a solid nap in the middle of the day, then around 2 we left on the 2 mile walk to Luceen Apartments. Along the way he surprised us by saying “Pattern Ms.” I asked what he meant, and he pointed to the railing along the sidewalk that had wavy bars that could look like Ms. We got to Luceen Apatments right about 3, and went up to Mandy’s apartment. She and her 3 daughters had offered to watch August. So this was our first time dropping him off at someone else house. He was cautious at first, but soon got into identifying letters (mainly C) in all of the patterns on the pillows and blankets. He also saw a cross on their wall and called it a little T. About 3:30 we slipped away and walked a few blocks to a coffee shop called Cafe Another. We had good mochas and macchiatos and read for about an hour.

When we went back they met us exiting the elevator – he was crying. He had done really well for 20 to 30 minutes, then got a little wimpery every 3 minutes or so, then was upset the last 10 or so. He calmed down quickly, and we stayed visiting for a good 30 more minutes or so. He really liked playing with the girls, and they had a lot of toys he really liked, including a play kitchen mixer that turned (and sort of looked like a drill), a little oven where he “sizzled” a hot dog in a pan, and something he was using as a hammer.

We took the bus home and had went to the pink building. Carly went grocery shopping and August and I went into the book/stationary store. He chose puffy number stickers and we picked up 5 more big pads of paper. They were out of big boxes of crayons. We kept looking until Carly came over. He kept looking through a box with packs of different colored paper, going “hmm, hmm, hmm.”

Came home and had dinner. Carly made zucchini, which he continues to eat in bulk, and I made noodles that he shared with me. Used some of his new stickers and read “After the Storm” for the first time (or was that after his nap?). I gave him a bath a little after 7. He did pretty well, but didn’t appreciate it when I started washing his hair. He was playing with his comb/brush, which is a folding one that Cherie gave him. He bends it and moves it around, naming different letters he sees: “English V, Hangeul S, G, N, No Hangeul V.” Skyped with Cassie and Colin for a few minutes. A little more Duplos and writing letters on his new paper, then he insisted on some stories before bed. Read him a couple Kipper stories in bed before he decided to turn off the light and nurse, a little before 9.

Been listening to a lot of Christmas music. With our Apple Music subscription you can get all the music you want, so today we were listening to the Bruce Cockburn and Ottar Liebert Christmas albums for 1991. Those were big Christmas albums at the Music Store in Chelan when I worked there 1992-94. Also listened to Ella Fitzgerald’s 1960 Christmas album.

New words/phrases: Cevesa hobres…, M A M A mama, Q gramma, more nursey nursey mama please, dada frozen (when I paused in a song for him to fill in a line – he uses ‘frozen’ when playing with the iPad and it seems like an app has frozen), que paso, more mama do that

Walking: 

He saw Ms in this: 

Mandy’s house: 

Coffee shop: 

Shopping. “Hmm, hmm, hmm”: 

New stickers: 

Bath: 

We got August out of the house twice today. We swapped off so that we could each get some work down. In the morning (10 to noon), Carly took him to the kid play area next door in the pink building. Haven’t been back there since he turned 13 months old. In the afternoon, I took him up to the playground at Madeul Stadium.

 

Carly heard him say “espanol” in his sleep last night. He didn’t wake up until a little after 8 – well over 11 hours of sleep. Ate breakfast, brushed his teeth, and made letters out of Duplos, then Carly took him next door at 10. There, he spent a lot of his time pretending to cook. He wouldn’t go on the spinning octopus thing we used to put him on all the time. They played with the balls, but he seemed to think he was helping clean them up, saying “help mama.” He wasn’t interested in going on the trampoline part to begin with, but after another girl did he got interested. He would throw a ball off of it, then slide down the ramp part.

 

They came back a little after noon. We had an hour or so in there where we ate lunch, then played. He wanted to play iPad. I categorized his apps (Letters, Numbers, Videos, Books) to get him thinking about categories. He really got into Loopimals, an app that introducing looping and rhythm in music, and also playing the instruments in GarageBand.

 

He fell asleep between 1 and 1:30. Carly woke him up close to 3, as we didn’t want him sleeping too late. After he woke up, we all took off for a walk. Carly walked with us along the stream, then turned back to head home. August and I walked around the stadium, then to the exercise equipment. As we walked down the back side of the stadium, he said “cold” and held his left hand forward so I could hold it. Then, when I got him out of the backpack he climbed on the exercise equipment and sat next to me, cuddling and letting me hold his hands. He let me put his hat on and he wore it a few minutes, but after he was moving and warmed up he refused to wear his hat or mittens anymore. We played around the exercise equipment, then looked at the map, then went over to the little ’Sejong Park’ area that has little metal statues of Hangeul characters. He was naming all of them, and there is also (randomly) a triangle. He was first calling it a ‘Hangeul M’, but then I pointed out it only had 3 sides instead of 4 (Hangeul M is a square), so he started calling it ‘triangle M’.

 

From there we went back to the exercise equipment, then to the playground for a little while, where we drew letters in the sand and I jumped between a woman and August before she could mess with his hood, after he took his hat off and wouldn’t let me put it back on. His hood is pretty useless and falls off after 3 seconds, and he certainly wouldn’t have appreciated a stranger trying to put it on after I had just been annoying him with a hat.

 

We wrote a little Hangeul, then I said “Let’s head home to mama.” He took off down the path towards home, and I had to go catch him to go back and put him in the backpack.

 

We headed home, and bought strawberries from our now-usual spot, then stopped and got milk. Carly had ordered pizza and it came soon after we got home. August ate pizza, then Carly cooked zucchini and he ate a bunch of that and a little strawberry.

 

In the evening we all did plenty of drawing, some music with the drum, some Loopimals, and a whole lot of reading in the reading area and on the bed. Oh, and he was practicing counting by 2s, and now goes from 2 to 16. Carly gave him a bath around 8, then it looked like he might go to sleep. He didn’t, so he was up with me reading and doing the drumming while Carly took a shower and then laid down for a bit. He finally gave in and went to bed about a quarter after 9.

 

New words/phrases: yeti (in Loopimals), turn around, apps, I here (pointing on the map at the playground), someone else coming (after I answered the door for pizza but it was someone collecting donations – he was very intrigued, and didn’t seem scared, by people coming to the door), 2 to 16 (counting by 2s), manzana

Kid cafe: 

Madeul: 

Home: 

August was up at 6:30, soon after Carly had gotten up. They skyped with Vivi and Cherie and Chuck before I got up. August was very climby on Carly this morning, using her as a jungle gym. Carly made him eggs and toast for breakfast, and gave him ketchup, something I would never think to do. He loved dipping his toast and eggs, but mainly his toast, in the ketchup. He also came up to me at one point and randomly said “quack, quack”. I don’t know where that came from. We also spent a lot of time making letters out of Duplos, something that Carly started.

He took a nice long nap in the middle of the day, then around 2:30 Megan and Torrey came by to do some babysitting – the first non-grandparent that has watched him. Carly and I just went down to Cafe Holic on the second floor and had a mocha and blueberry latte and talked and read our books. While we were gone, he basically played on the iPad the entire time; they weren’t even sure if he realized we were gone. He wasn’t just on the iPad though: he went and looked out the window, and went to his magnets a few times. He would get up and find a letter on the door, then go back to the iPad where he had a typing document open and type it. He also used the Hangeul app with her, and was really into finding the ‘d’ sound – a character he had been excited to see in a Duplo piece earlier in the day. And in the Alpha Writer app, before we left, I saw him swipe through the list at the top to get to the double letter combinations and pull down ‘oo’ all on his own, something I had never seen him do.

After they left, Carly and I took him outside. I took him to the art museum and Carly went shopping at Home Plus. We first went downstairs, where the Wonderland exhibit is still open, even though it said it was closing on the 13th. He was still mainly frustrated about not being able to go in the fenced off area. So we went back upstairs, and he played in the play area, which was only slightly crowded. He went into the bouncy area a little, but mainly played out in front, saying the Spanish alphabet and rolling around. He also sat next to me, back against the padded wall, for a couple minutes, admiring a “pattern” he saw in one of the pairs of shoes sitting near him.

Carly came and saw us for a minute, then headed home to start making stir fry. August played for another minute, then was done. We went outside, and he spent about 15 minutes wandering around that part of the park, watching skateboarders and finding a long stick that he used to write the Spanish alphabet on the ground.

I got him home at 5:25, then turned around to head downstairs to meet Megan and Torrey and go with them to see the Star Wars film over at Home Plus. My dinner was a creamy garlic hot dog at the movie theater. The movie was quite good. No spoilers here. But worth it, and so much better than the prequels.

Came home and August was already in bed. He had fallen asleep out in the reading area about 7:40. Apparently he had missed me, saying “more dada” and “miss dada”. I’ve heard him say “miss mama” dozens of times, but the first he’s said it about me.

New words/phrases: ketchup, fresh and clean diaper, Teuni Teuni class, take it out (play dough letter), Megan did that

Enjoying our coffee: 

Art museum: 

Under the D moon: 

It was 18 degrees when I first looked at the temperature today. So we were in no hurry to leave the house in the morning. He woke up at 7:13. I rushed in there, but he was already opening the door. I picked him up and he pointed to the bed. It wasn’t until we were on the bed that I think he realized I wasn’t Carly. He wasn’t happy about that and sat on the floor at the foot of the bed. I started reading the Mother Goose book and that calmed him down.

We did a lot of reading again in the morning. He hasn’t requested iPad at home at all the last couple days. We made eggs and crab for breakfast. He ate a bunch of cheese and crab before I could get them cooked.

Later, I was changing him, and asked myself ‘What time is it?’ Before I could check my watch, he said “7:40” – that was the time it was when he was looking at my watch yesterday or the day before and I taught him what it said. He was an hour off though, as it was 8:40 today.

As I was making snacks for the day, he was playing in the cupboards and got out the container of rice. He started requesting the scissors, which he has never really done before. I gave him the tongs instead, and he played with them for a minute, then started requesting the scissors again; then I realized why: he was trying to open the rice container with the tongs. He has seen us open boxes with the scissors and wanted them to open the plastic box with rice in it.

We left a little after 10. He had been doing a lot of Qing in the house, and continued it on our walk, Qing birds and people and cars and anything else he saw.

We got down to CGP and he wanted to see animals, fish in particular. So we went to the tropical building. Spent close to an hour there. We saw a couple zookeepers go into a back room, and he fixated on that, wanting to go through those doors to see “more animals” and getting upset when he couldn’t. We also saw one of them go in the room behind the reptiles and amphibians. He liked seeing her pour water in the cages, but was again upset when I wouldn’t take him in the room itself. He also spent time playing in the dirt in the empty planters and with the rocks sitting in one of them.

Finally, he was getting tired and agreed to leave. So we got our coats on and headed to the bathroom to change him. On the way he first wanted to check in with the horses and goats, but just briefly (long enough to count them) as he didn’t want out of my arms. We went to the heated bathrooms, only to find they weren’t heated. Changed him in the nursing room, then he fell asleep pretty quickly on our walk. Went to the cafe and he slept an hour, from 12:58 to 1:58.

When he woke up he looked at the counting book for awhile. I started doing the numbers in all 3 languages. He started to pick up the Spanish because as we were walking to the children’s museum he said “quatro, cinco, seis.” He then sat on my lap and we started using Dragonbox Numbers, as he seems ready to start developing some number sense, and both the Montessorium app and the Endless Numbers app aren’t quite cutting it in that regard.

We then headed to the children’s museum. Today I gave him a choice of about 5 different places we could go. He chose the spaceship. Really crowded up there as there was a school group, but he kind of toughed it out. Didn’t have too for too long though as it was approaching 3, and they soon left. Played there, and with the Hangeul magnets, then he wanted to go downstairs to the first floor. His favorite activities there were once again making letters with the magnetic strips and drawing with the chalk and erasing on the chalk board.

He was getting hungry again (we had first eaten part of our lunch at the train station, on our usual bench), so we went to the third floor and ate some more, then changed him and headed out. He spent a few minutes walking around outside again, as a light snow began to fall.

Took the subway home, and put the cover up as we walked home, as it was still snowing. By the time we got home you could just tell that the group was turning white. Pretty much stopped at that.

A lot of writing letters and numbers on the whiteboard and paper by both me and Carly this evening. He did not want to take a bath at 8, so I made that very quick, as he was screaming very loudly. He calmed down quickly afterwards, very helpfully lying down on the changing pad for his diaper and then for his pajamas. He hung out with Carly on the bed for awhile, but wasn’t ready for sleep. He came out and we did a lot of reading in the reading area – mainly Brown Bear, Brown Bear and From Head to Toes. Sometime around 8:30 he wanted to go back in the bedroom with Carly, and he went to sleep pretty quickly.

New words/phrases: marmoset, python, one hundred (saw it on the longevity chart in the children’s zoo and said it, surprising me), ducklings, cuatro cinco seis, coat for dada coat for Zinnie, head to toes, red bird red bird what do you see

Qing pigeons on the way to the subway: 

Zoo: 

Asleep on camel: 

Children’s museum: 

Admiring the plants in the way out: 

Home: