Category: Uncategorized

He woke up just before 7. We spent about an hour reading, starting with Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? He pointed to ‘see’ and said it, which led to me emphasizing other words and him pointing them out, mainly ‘me’ and some of the animals. Awhile later he saw the two xylophone sticks on the ground and exclaimed “11!” We ate breakfast and watched his video from class while brushing his teeth. We then did some coloring and he again helped wipe up the crayon that had gotten on the floor. We did quite a bit of music time today with the xylophone and shakers.

Then he started playing with the bricks on his own. He was carrying them to the center of the room, making a chair or tower, repeating “patience grasshopper” to himself as he worked. I saw him point out that the backhoe looked like a ‘C’, then he saw the pattern on the brick and said it looked like an ‘H’. Then he got me involved, telling me to “build something.” That something ended up being letters out of the bricks, starting with Q and D and moving on to a W and a couple of Hangeul characters.

Finally, we headed over to his class. Class went well. The biggest news was that there was a second teacher, also a man, in the class, and he speaks English. Class today was about dressing up as an Eskimo (August refused that part), building the entrance to an igloo, spearing fish, putting them on sticks, and cooking them on a barbecue grill. He really liked both the spearing the fish and the cooking part. Actually, his favorite thing was scraping the spear back and forth over the containers that held the ice blocks – it made a nice noise, I think.

After class we went downstairs and got a couple things at the grocery store, including more fruit chips and some kimbap and a ham and potato sandwich for lunch. We looked for washable dry erase markers in the art section. While I was looking for those, August was excited by all the crayons and markers. He had the basket and started filling it up. It became a competition between who could empty or fill the basket faster. Finally, I prevailed.

We went home and ate. He ate a ton for lunch – most of the sandwich and then most of the sausage and crab from my kimbap and several pieces of strawberry. At about 1 I took him out in the carrier to walk the hallway to get him to sleep. This didn’t work. He was sleepy, but just wasn’t falling asleep. After 40 minutes he started practicing his screeching so we went home.

Sometime before 3 we tried again. He wanted to go actually outside this time, so we got bundled up. But after about 10 minutes it was clear it wasn’t happening that way either. So we returned home. Finally, at 3:30 I decided we would just head to Toys R Us with him in the backpack and see what happened. He fell asleep at 3:50 after just a couple blocks. I walked to Toys R Us, bought dry erase markers, and came home. I then woke him up at 4:38 when we got home. I helped him wake up by playing the new DVD we got today from his Teuni Teuni class. It actually has kids dancing in it, and that got his attention.

About a quarter after 5, August wanted to go looking for mama at the elevators. We had just gotten there when Carly called, saying she was stopping at the store. So we went back in and got our coats, and went down to the first floor to meet her down there. August decided to take his Pooh pillow with him. We spent a few minutes walking around the first floor and outside before Carly found us.

While Carly cooked some zucchini and more noodles, I did some clean up and got out the whiteboard so August could use the new markers. I then went and laid down for a little while since I hadn’t really had a break all day. This evening, August was really rolling with the ‘Becoming…’ joke, including things like (fish sound), “knock at the door”, and “turn off the light.” Did a lot more drawing and writing on the whiteboard. He is starting to read ‘is’, so we are working on simple sentences – the first sentence he read was “Vivi is funny.” When I said that was a sentence, he said “period” since he knows those come at the end of sentences. Oh, and earlier we were working on drawing Zs and question marks. He calls question marks Qs, so I was teaching him their proper name today.

I did a little reading to him while Carly prepared his bath, then she gave him a bath and took him into go to sleep around 8:30. That didn’t work though, so he read with me while Carly took a shower. They then Skyped with Cassie for a little while and August was ready for bed around 9:40.

A few random things:

When August wants to dump the matching blocks out of the bag, or take apart the CAR puzzle he will wave them wildly over his head. Kind of works.

When he didn’t go to sleep for a nap, I was tired and laid down on the play mat. He proceeded to crawl back and forth over me to get magnets from the door and take them back to the magnetic board, which he had on the ground on the other side of me. Made several trips.

He continues working on “counting by twos”. Today he said “2 4 6 8 10” several times, but he hasn’t yet combined it with his “12 14 16 18.”

New words/phrases: Zinnie do question (drawing a question mark), no sound on bottom makes ng (remembering what I had taught him on Monday), find mama elevator, 2 4 6 8 10

11: 

Brick letters:

Class: 

Home Plus:

Home: 

Napping: 

Looking for mama: 

Evening: 

We went to APIS for the second day in a row. But first, he woke up really early, just after 5:40; that’s less than 8 hours of sleep. He did fine though until about 11 when he took a nap.

 

In the morning we did lots and lots of reading. Our first session included a lot of the pigeon books, and Where the Wild Things Are; later, we read the pigeon books (bus and hot dog) over and over. He is now requesting each of those by title. We also played with his Duplo zoo, the matching cards and tiles, and did art. He colored on the couch a bit, then got his eraser and tried to erase it with that. When that didn’t work, he grabbed a bottle of lotion and pretended to squirt that on. When that still didn’t work, he went and got the floor wipes from the cupboard, and wiped it up himself once I got a wipe out. This was great until he grabbed a crayon and started drawing on the door and floor so he had more to clean up.

 

We finally finished watching his new video from class for the first time. We had been watching it in 3 minute chunks for the last week every time we brushed his teeth. Today we watch the last few minutes after we finished brushing his teeth.

 

We had been ready to leave around 9, but he kept wanting to read and do other things. We finally left the house around 10. He was starting to act a bit tired at that point. Made it to the park just fine. We sat on our usual bench down on the platform and he ate part of the sandwich for lunch as he was going to fall asleep once I put him in the backpack.

 

He fell asleep pretty quickly, and we went to the lower Peace Coffee. He slept from 11:07 to 12:54, and the only reason he woke up then is because I started talking to him; I didn’t want him to take a 3 hour nap and be up to 11. He woke up really well, and had a ton of fun in the cafe. He got camel off the backpack and was carrying him all around, pointing out the letters on the floor and on the walls. After many minutes of this he went back to the backpack and pulled out one of his mittens. He immediately started calling it a lizard – a complete moment of creativity, as I don’t know of any other time he has seen a mitten called an animal. He would walk around the cafe and set the ‘lizard’ on a letter and say “Lizard on ‘I’!”

 

When I asked him the night before what he wanted to do at the park, he said “children’s museum”, and when I gave him the options today he stuck with that. Finally, I convinced him we should head out. We started to walk to the children’s museum. It was windy and his hair was getting in his eyes and bothering him. Might have to do some trimming.

 

At the children’s museum we had to wait in line as there was only one person working the desk (we always have to pick up a free ticket, since August is free). He kept telling himself “patience grasshopper.” We went in, and August made it clear he didn’t want to play on the first floor today, saying “upstairs”. Later, we were working on the floors, so he has a name for “first floor” in case he wants to request it (he can already request “little kids area” and “water area”).

 

We first went up to the Hangeul magnets area. Played with them, then in front of the video screen thing, then in the spaceship bridge – he loves all the switches and buttons and lights. Eventually, he made it known that he was hungry – I think he requested “sandoo.” We went up to the eating area and ate a fuller lunch.

 

From there he wanted the little kids area. We went down there and played the rest of our time there, until just past 4. He pretty much played with everything, but particularly the balls, dinosaurs, and clock puzzle: oddly, the clock puzzle, which has pieces with dots next to them that correspond to each number, had been glued together (maybe because they were a choking hazard) – but whoever had done the gluing hadn’t matched the pieces up to the numbers.

 

Anyway, the most notable moments were when a baby was crying, being put in his coat and carrier, and August went over and very gently patted his hood. Later, the woman that worked there got August interested in the big activity cube things they have (one side of one was a xylophone). He played with her for several minutes, and a couple times was pulling her hand to it to have her operate things on it.

 

At 4 he started requesting strawberries. So I went and changed him, then we went back to the eating area and snacked on strawberries.

 

We then left. We put on our jackets near the front doors, then we walked out, him on the ground. Before we went out the doors, August pulled up his own hood. He then spent several minutes just walking around the area in front of the children’s museum.

 

From there, we caught the subway to Hagye, then caught the bus to APIS. Went up to Carly’s room about 5:15. She had gone and gotten pressed sandwiches for dinner. Ate, then we headed up to the concert. Jazz band was playing in the dark gym when we walked in, and August was freaked out. I retreated with him out to the hallway, where he calmed down and was watching through the glass. But then he saw Carly and freaked out again, pleading “want to see mama.” We retreated down to the 4th floor. Carly checked on us and let us into her classroom, where August and I colored using the big 24 packs of crayons (we only have 12 at home), so he was excited to used colors like silver and gold and mustard and other shades/tints we don’t have. After all the middle school groups were done, about 6:45, Carly came down and we all headed home.

 

Made it home by 7:30. He nursed a lot, then I forced him to have the briefest of baths, since he hadn’t had one yesterday, then Carly put on his pajamas and had him to sleep before 8:30.

 

New words/phrases: wombat, pigeon finds a hotdog, drive the bus, duckling, quickly

 

Playing with the zoo: 

This demonstration (about global warming and energy use, I think) took our picture with them: 

Our lunch spot: 

Camel, waking up from his nap: 

In the cafe:

The lizard: 

Children’s museum: 

Heading outside: 

APIS. Getting into Carly’s art supplies: 

He had his usual class today, then we went to APIS in the evening for the Christmas dinner.

He woke up around 7:15. I think he had basically been waking up for quite some time, then just popped up and turned on the light.

In the morning he was playing on the iPad when I said I was going to do some vacuuming. He immediately got up and went and opened the closet by himself and pulled the vacuum cleaner out. He helped with the vacuuming. At one point he wanted to play with Siri on the iPad, which entails him telling me what he wants Siri to do an image search for. He was very serious about the whole thing, and when he wanted me to talk to Siri he would put his hand on my head and push my head down towards the iPad.

Then, before we left I was hanging up laundry. He knew we were getting ready to go to class, and went and was playing at the front door. I told him he had to wait a couple minutes, and went back to hanging up clothes. A minute later I saw him leave the front door and walk down the hall. A few seconds later, he came by, pulling the backpack to the front door.

Finally, I asked him “Ready to go?” and he responded with a nice long sentence, “Ready to go to class.”

We made a quick grocery run before heading up to his class. Class went well – he is no longer intimidated by all the new people. It was about the seasons today, and so they were playing with little pairs of sunglasses, mittens, scarves, and umbrellas. First he really liked the sunglasses and played with them for several minutes, then the umbrella.

After class we walked home and had lunch, then walked him around the 8th floor to fall asleep. Took a lot of walking – close to a mile – but when he did fall asleep, he slept from 1:17 to 2:53, and I woke him up at the end.

We got ready to go, in the backpack this time. First walked over towards the stream and bought more strawberries. Then walked down along the river. Mid 40s, but damp and windy, so I stopped at a bench to try to put his hood on. I also tried his mittens. He would agree to put the mittens on because his hands were cold, saying something like “hands cold” and holding up his hands so I could put them on, but then when I got them on he would sort of grin and say “Nope” and take them off. Did this 3 times, then he finally kept them on all the way to APIS, except he took one of them off about a minute before we got there and just held it in is hand.

We were early, so we first played at what is in the summer the water park. He didn’t find much to do there, so requested “other playground.” So we went to the other one and had more luck there. I helped him climb up, then back down the net ladder – he was getting the idea pretty well – then he had the rest of his sandoo and we played up on the play structure.

We went in to see Carly a little after 5, then headed down to the cafeteria for the Christmas dinner at 6. Dinner went well. We sat with Rob, Courtney, and Megan and Torrey. August was apprehensive at first, sticking to Carly. But he liked the singing, and when it turned to just speeches he was saying “more more” to request more music. He enjoyed all the food, and by the end was happily walking around on the floor.

We took the bus home. He was pretty hyper when we got home: he was saying “more floor” – I wasn’t sure what he meant, until he lay down on his back so I could slide him around on the floor by his legs, bumping him into reading area. Then he grabbed a pillow from the reading area and put it on the floor and was playing on that, which he has never done before. Then he wanted to do forward rolls. He was clearly tired at this point, and when he gently bumped his head on the wall trying to get another pillow, he suddenly was done and said “more nurse.” It was now close to 10 and he fell asleep about 10.

New words/phrases: different Dr. Seuss (wanting a different Dr. Seuss book), sideways, backwards, not shaky (referring to the bridges on the play structure), mama getting milk (Carly went into the GS25 when we got home and we were waiting for her)

Cursive: 

Vacuuming his Duplos: 

Using stain remover: 

5-TOUCH class: 

Sleeping: 

On our walk: 

Playground. The ladder he had just climbed up and down: 

Sandoo on the “not shaky” bridge: 

Dinner: 

Home: 

We made the long trek to the big zoo today. He woke up at 6:40, just before Carly was going to leave for work. Delayed her a bit, but he was nice and happy when she left. We had oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast, and then got ready to leave earlier than usual. We were ready about 8:30, but he was really into reading and kept wanting to read the Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus book, which he finds hilarious. So we kept reading, and ended up leaving right at 9.

Subway rides were pretty uneventful both ways. Headed down, we read books half the way, then traced letters on the iPad. Once off the subway we put him in the backpack and made the long walk to the children’s zoo. We would stay there for about an hour and a half – about 11:00 to 12:30 – and didn’t see a single other visitor until we were leaving and a group walked in the gate. He was looking tired early on, and was quiet the whole time, but had fun feeding the sheep, and then we got to go to the half of the children’s zoo that was closed last time. Had fun seeing all the marmosets and birds, and saw two animals for the first time: tamarins and mongoose. Also found that they had a very awful looking and very smelly dog area. Looked like a dog pound, not something for a zoo, particularly as all the dogs just bark at you. Yuck.

From the children’s zoo we walked across to the main zoo and walked for a few minutes until he fell asleep. The zoo was pretty much deserted. Didn’t see a single school group, although we saw a few groups going to the ‘Giraffe World’ play/learning center on our walk to the zoo – basically, I think all vaguely outdoor field trips are cancelled if there is the possibility of rain. Went to the food court area by the dolphin show and he slept there from 12:31 to 1:56.

When he woke up it was now raining pretty hard. So we got equipped in all our rain gear and went out to explore the zoo for an hour before the dolphin show at 3. Saw the ibex for the first time, then found the Asian Jungle building so we could get out of the rain. There, we saw all sorts of macaques, then a bunch of snakes. Still had some time before the dolphin show when we got back, so we sat at a covered picnic table and August finished off his leftover ravioli as a snack. He was still in the backpack, on the bench, as he didn’t want to get out.

At 3 we walked over to the dolphin show. Turned out we were the only ones there. Literally. Just the two of us in the audience. So we stood right up front, just a few feet from the guy running it and the seals. I held August. He was still a little weirded out by it, but didn’t cry. Will be interesting to take him back sometime in the spring and see how his reaction changes.

The show only lasts 10 minutes, then we went out and put him back in the backpack and headed out. On our way out, we went into the building where you can see the water buffalo, elephants, and rhinos in their very depressing cages. On our walk back he was really singing the alphabet in both English and Spanish. A few minutes before the end he started to say ‘cold’, I think because his hands were really cold. Got back to the subway, and got one seat to start with on the way back. Which was fine, as August lay sideways in my lap for several minutes, finishing his sandwich (we had lunched across from the sheep earlier). When a seat opened up, I sat him next to me. He spent much of the rest of the trip tracing letters – he is definitely making progress in trying to draw the letters. The last several stops, we read Dr. Seuss stories.

Got home just a couple minutes before 5:30. He ate more pasta for dinner, and did art and reading with Carly. More pigeon boo, in particular, with both me and her. When I said it was time for a bath, he took Smokey (he had also been playing on the couch, wanting to climb on the back) to the front door and was trying to open the front door, as if to escape. Carly got him in to the bath though, and he didn’t complain. Pretty quiet after that, and he fell asleep a little before 8:30…or so I thought. They were very quiet in there, but around 8:45 the door opened and August walked out. We cuddled together and read books while Carly took a shower. Read Where the Wild Things Are three times and several other books. He then got up and was playing with his magnets on the door for several minutes. Then, at 9:18, he suddenly was done and ready to go back to the bedroom. As he went in he said “night night” to me.

He was really into backwards/upside down letters today – there was a ‘6’ on the ground when we were waiting for a train, and he kept walking around it, saying ‘9’, then ‘6’. He then was looking at our drawing pages upside down at home and saying “backwards”, and doing the same with Where the Wild Things Are.

The most recent growing up sign is that August has stopped nursing in his sleep in the morning.

New words/phrases: dada’s email (he has used the phrase ‘mama’s email before’, but I don’t think I’ve made note of it. Today he managed to open my email on the iPad and recognized it as email, even though he had never seen it before), straight line down (tracing letters on iPad), camel as pillow, (talking about how he uses his ‘camel’ as a pillow when napping in the backpack), more Guinea pigs (spotting more of them), counting by twos (he was saying ’12, 14, 16, 18’ and saying ‘counting by two’ – got this from Endless Numbers), no sound ng (he was saying this to himself as we walked home – it refers to when we were at the subway station and I taught him that the ‘o’ in Korean makes the ‘ng’ sound when it is at the bottom – to this point he has just called it ‘no sound’), ibex (animal we saw at the zoo)

Children’s zoo: 

Rabbits: 

Big zoo: 

The white handed gibbons were interested in us

Our private show: 

Spanish on the way home: 

Looking at letters sideways, upside down, and backwards: 

Made the most of our park today. I took August out to the playground before his nap, then after his nap we all went out to the park and art museum.

 

 

After his nap we headed back to the park. We walked over to the other side of the bridge, August writing letters on the concrete with his broom, then August spent a long time playing on the two bicycle ramps. He was simply climbing on the lower one when he saw other kids sliding down the steeper one. He then started sliding down the lower one. He also liked jumping off of it (with me holding his hands), and sliding down the big ramp, with the help of me or Carly.

 

When he was done with that we wandered around for awhile, letting him lead the way. He ended up on the other side of the park, so we suggested we go in the art museum. We went in and saw some of the art. We went downstairs (last day of the Wonderland exhibit – he mainly got frustrated about not being able to climb up the fake grass hill) and saw the teenage photography contest show in the community gallery.

 

Carly then took him up to the nursing room and I went and saw the photography exhibit up on the second floor. I went down and found them, and Carly headed home. August and I went into the play area for awhile. Really busy – at least 8 other kids – but August just got to it. He crawled in to the structure once, and went in and out through the trampoline area several times. He wasn’t bothered playing with all those other kids around.

 

We then went outside and he just stood between the pagoda and benches, watching people – particularly a mom and girl jump roping together – in the park. He got hungry, so was eating his peanut butter sandwich while he watched.

 

He then got up on the bench and walked on that, then heard a baby crying. He walked across to the baby and was comforting him. From there, he walked right up to two bigger girls and their parents and said hi, or at least “big kids”.

 

We then went over and realized that the camel sculpture is gone. Sad. We then wrote words and letters in the dirt area over there that we’ve used a couple times before. That ended when he hear the church band start playing. He went and watched them. This was now near a major walkway, so he started to get some attention. A woman brought her son, Andrew, over to say hi. A guy from the church came over and gave us two bags of Jesus crackers. We were munching on those when two daughters (4th grade or so) of two APIS teachers came up to us to say hi. They were eating Dippin Dots, wearing makeup, and equipped with a credit card.

 

The band left, and we slowly made our way home. He kept stopping to watch things or if he heard something. On this side of the park he spent several minutes singing numbers and writing them on a pole and the ground. Before coming home we went and looked at the squid and eels and fish for the first time in quite awhile. Got home about 5.

 

Skyped with Glecy for awhile in the evening, and ate noodles and tofu and broccoli for dinner. He discovered the pigeon books yesterday (or was it Friday?) and finds them absolutely hilarious, so we read a couple of those. We also colored in his notebook – I was starting to make a little word notebook for him today, starting with digraphs. I was writing letters for him in the notebook when his bath was ready, but he was not happy about going to the bath. Carly took over and made it a quick bath, and he went to sleep pretty soon after that, around 7:15.

 

New words/phrases: manzana, Zinnie a giraffe, Zinnie is a door

Playground: 

Home: 

Back in the back: 

Art museum: 

Back in the park: 

Watching the band: 

August was up nice and early. He and Carly group skyped with Vivi and Chuck and Cherie, then at 8:30 I had my book group meeting via Skype, discussing Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. One of the few books we all really liked. That lasted until about 10:30, then I popped downstairs to get my hair cut. While I was gone, August had been helping Carly build towers out of the cardboard bricks, counting the bricks as he handed them to her. They also set them up as dominoes.

 

After his nap, we all went for a walk. He rode in the backpack. We walked up the stream, stopping at the women’s business center to get a coffee. Continued on to Madeul Park, saying hi to the horse statues and looking at some of the exhibits. Walked over to the exercise equipment and took him out there. Spent quite awhile climbing on the exercise equipment, then went over to the playground. Did some writing in the sand and dirt, and went up on the play structure and walked across the shaky bridge. Carly was on a swing, and August wanted on the other one. I was getting him to hold on while I pushed him for awhile. Before we left Carly went to the bathroom. While we waited for her, he climbed on the exercise equipment some more and just sat on top for several minutes, watching soccer.

 

We walked home along the other side of the stream, checking out progress on the apartment complex that is close to done. We all went to the pink building and ordered from the Vietnamese place. I headed home with August. One of the Spanish books she bought is called ‘100 Palabras’. Until now, August always points at it and says “numbers” because of the ‘100’ on the cover. But today when we got home, he saw it and started saying “palabras, words” on his own.

 

Carly did some shopping and picked up the food and brought it home and we all ate. She then headed over to Home Plus for more grocery shopping (and to get August’s present). After she got home, we gave him a bath and  I left about 8 to go meet up with Derek. I walked across the river to meet him, making the first real use of the wireless headphones I had backed on Kickstarter a couple years ago and just got a couple days ago. Very nice to not have cords.

 

We hopped the bus and took it most of the way to Hyehwa, getting off a few stops early to go to the bank. We then walked to Hyehwa, stopping to get chicken on a stick along the way. In Hyehwa we found the restaurant he wanted to review, but they were full. So we went instead to his favorite Korean barbecue place, where we ate way too much food. We stopped at the 1999 place for awhile, then I took off so as to make it home not too insanely late after midnight (and so I could take a bus home instead of having to take a taxi).

 

August had been heading to bed when I left, and fell asleep about 8:15. While I was gone, Carly made the very yummy peanut pasta recipe she got from Cherie.

 

New words/phrases: mama dada says that, marshy in the bed, dinosaur oh my goodness, jam, Yoshi, Tuttle, palabras

Playing with his horse (neigh neigh): 

Playground: 

Home: 

Another nice day. I keep thinking we’ve had the last 50+ degree day of the winter, then we have another one.

He woke up at 7:17. Upset at first, but I started reading Kipper and he got drawn in. Then wanted to play with chapstick, putting it on himself and me. From there we played with the kitty cat puppet – he really likes the bumpy soft texture of the back. We did some art, then played with the Duplo people on his car puzzle. Earlier, he had been asking for his eraser for the whiteboard. I had said I didn’t know where it was. Quite awhile after that he opened the art drawer and found it and exclaimed “Aha! I found it!” We then played some piano – he does a nice version of ABCs while pounding on the keys. I then brushed his teeth while he watched songs on YouTube and let him watch some more while I got our snacks ready. I looked over to find him kind of doing a pushup with his legs on the arm of the couch while watching it.

We have a new game the last couple of days called ‘Bzzt’. It is the sound of being shocked. He touches me and I make the shocked noise. He was really into it today, particularly as we were getting ready to leave. Then, when I had him in the backpack and were about to go, I realized I hadn’t put his shoes on yet. I said something like “Oh, I still need to put your shoes on” and he replied with a big “Oh my.”

We got to CGP and he wanted to go to the playground. So we went to the Adventureland playground and spent an hour or so playing in the sand, writing letters and words and twirly twirls. Near the end, he heard a big group of kids walking up the main path and he walked away to go see them. A second group came by and he just started up the road, following them. I told him we needed to get the backpack and he stopped. He found a long stick and played with that all by himself for several minutes, then wanted me to use it to draw letters in the grass over and over again.

I changed him and put him in the backpack. He was hungry so he had a snack. And kept eating. Finished one string cheese, all the strawberries, and most of the leftover quesadilla. Only took 7 minutes to put him to sleep.

He was asleep from 12:47 to 1:56. When he woke up and was walking around the cafe we met another woman and her 19 month old son. She has seen us there before and doesn’t know how I get any reading done while taking care of a baby.

From there we went to the zoo for a little while. Went to the horses and goats, where he petted the horses and then fed the goats some food that other kids had dropped. That went well until one of the goats bit his finger a bit – not enough to cause damage, but I think it startled him. From there we went and watched the baboons for several minutes. He then wanted in the backpack. We went and saw the deer before we left.

We went to the children’s museum for a little less than an hour. Stayed on the first floor. It was later in the day, so not nearly as crowded as when there are school groups there. He spent a lot of time at some new stuff he hadn’t played with before: a little tunnel with displays that light up, little drawer things that show you different rocks and minerals (he was saying ‘selenite’), etc. We also spent time making letters out of the magnetic strips. When I made ‘Q’ he said “Q, quack, quickly.” We spent a few minutes over in the ball area before changing him and leaving.

On our way home we stopped at the pink building and went to the stationary store, looking for notecards. Only found a tiny little set. Don’t know why there are so difficult to find here. August saw the display of stickers and I let him choose a set to get. He first saw a set with piggies, but then I saw a pack of sheep and alpaca stickers. He chose that one, handing the other to me and saying “hold this dada.”

Carly was a block away when we left the building, so we met her and walked home together. August spotted her across the street and a good distance away, repeating “see mama!” At home he ate a little pizza for dinner, but not much else; he had eaten a bunch during the day, finishing the last of the sandwich as we left the children’s museum. Oh, and on the subway there was a boy about his age sitting next to him. The boy hurt his hand somehow and was crying. August started comforting him, patting his leg and shoulder. As we got off, the boy gave August an orange. August ate all of it on our walk home.

He did quite a bit of reading with both Carly and me. He used his new stickers to decorate both my chair and his chair, then moved several to the table. A quick bath. He didn’t fight it, but he’s gone back to not sitting down in the bath, so he doesn’t do much playing at all. He kept trying to climb up on the back of the couch, so we were teaching him it was an area just for the stuffed animals. He got tired a little after 8 and went to bed pretty quickly. When Carly suggested it was time to turn off the light, he got up and did it himself. He fell asleep about 8:20.

New words/phrases: knock at the door, stickers in class, becoming a dinosaur, giraffe, mama says that, selenite, it’s working (shapes sticking), hold it dada (giving me stickers to hold), Santa Clause, Q is for question, stuffed animals, becoming (neighbor, cow)

Playground: 

Zoo: 

Children’s museum: 

Comforting the boy on the bus: 

Home: 

He woke up a little before 6, which made it a long stretch to his class today. In the morning, he knew Carly was going to make a quesadilla when they went into the kitchen, announcing “quesadilla!” Then, as he was standing on his stool, he was trying to get Carly to go get his water for him, which was over on the coffee table. Finally he gave in and got it himself.

 

When it came time for Carly to go to work, he said bye bye and actually started pushing her towards the door. After she was gone, we were reading Let’s Play and he was obsessing about the chicken. I asked him if he would like to have a chicken and he didn’t respond. I asked him what animal he would like to have, and he said “elephant.” In the evening he repeated this as we were reading the book again. But after a few seconds he changed his mind, saying “No, giraffe.”

 

When playing on the iPad today he really got into recording his voice saying letters and listening to his voice. We then skyped with my parents. But first, when he saw Skype it reminded him of Carly. We typed a message to her, but he was still missing mama when we talked to my parents. He finally got better as we were talking to them.

 

After that, we tried to go down for his immunizations today (flu shot and Hepatitis A). It was pretty busy though, and after close to a half hour of waiting we left, as we had to get to his class.

 

We went to class. At first, August wasn’t too excited, although he wasn’t afraid or upset this time. He was acting really tired. But once class started, he really got into it. There were the songs and bubbles at the beginning, then a bear activity using big paws to pick up fish, a whale activity, where they walked whales across a walkway to free them in the ocean, and then a penguin activity where they slid down a rolling slide. There was also a bear hat and a penguin hat and outfit along the way. He was actually wearing the hats, but said no to the penguin suit.

 

He wasn’t too into the fishing activity, but started to really get into the whales, and he loved the rolling slide. He went down 5 or 6 times. Waiting in line to go down was a little hard on him, but he started to get used to it.

 

After class we went downstairs to look for a couple things and get some sandwiches for lunch. We went home and ate lunch, then put him in the carrier and walked the 8th floor until he fell asleep at 1:03. After about 35 minutes he cried out and I went in. I put my hand on his back and he squirmed for awhile, but fell back to sleep. That has never happened before. At 2:21 he woke up, was actually sitting up and said a couple things. then laid down on his stomach and put his head on my leg. And fell asleep. That has definitely never happened before. I was phone-less, so had no other choice than to gather the blankets behind my, lie down and take a nap with August.

 

At 2:56 I woke him up. He howled for mama a bit, but calmed down. We then went back down to the doctor. He can scream really loud when they take his temperature, weigh him, and examine him and give him the shots. But a nice change: he now knows when the bad part is past, and calmed down once we were back in the waiting room. Before, Carly would have to take him and leave to calm him down while I waited to pay.

 

We came back up for a little while, then got in the backpack and went for a walk. Were thinking go going to the playground, but it was a dark, damp 50, and we didn’t have a lot of time. Instead, we walked across the river and met Carly and Megan and walked back with them.

 

We ordered pizza for dinner, and August had soup. He also had a cracker which he asked for, but mainly just carried around much of the evening. Didn’t finish it until close to 8:30. He was still carrying it when he took a bath, and he was not happy at all with being separated from it for the bath, so his bath was a quick one.

 

On the iPad, he is also doing the activity where you trace a letter, then toggle off the letter you were tracing over. He will do the tracing, then look to see how his version looks. He’s not very good yet, but if you printed them and put them on the wall, you would probably figure out it was the alphabet.

 

We also read Kipper, and August wanted to get cozy, so I made a little nest for him in the corner with the blanket. We played ‘badger hole’ with the blanket as well. Then we did a lot of blowing up of balloons and letting them go – he will hold the balloon for a couple seconds as it deflates before pushing it away.

 

He did some typing to Vivi with Carly, then headed to bed a little before 9.

 

Taught me two things today: that you can swipe anywhere on the iPad or iPhone screen to unlock it – all these years and I’ve been swiping where it says ‘Swipe to unlock’. And in the Papers app we use to draw, he figured out how to change the background color of our drawing.

 

Asleep 1:03, 2:21, 2:56

 

New words/phrases: quesadilla, Jihong, thank you sangsaengnim, elevator (clear pronunciation), big numbers song, rainy, becoming sandcastle (continuing his joke series)

 

Watching mama get ready to leave in the morning: 

Smoothie moustache:

Class: 

Home again: 

Holding his cracker: 

A very nice day (for December): sunny and hitting the low 50s. He woke up at 7:37. A few “miss mama”s, but then he saw his new books from class and wanted to look at those. He keeps wanting to do the stickers in the book, but I have to remind him that the teacher keeps the stickers and we do them in class.

Oatmeal for breakfast this morning. He demonstrated that he knew more of the Endless monsters’ names. He also played with his dump truck and backhoe. We used the dump truck to haul magnets, and then used it for Duplo animals. We then played Duplos for quite awhile before we left. We expanded the farm and rebuilt the zoo, with individual cages this time. Although August chose which animals went in which cage. I feel a little bad for the camel he put in with the tiger.

We left about 10:30. When we got to the CGP station he chose to go to the children’s museum, which meant I didn’t have to put him in the backpack, since the museum is right by the entrance. We went in there and played 45 to 60 minutes down on the first floor. Inundated with school groups, so he was surrounded by big kids, but it didn’t seem to phase him. He bounced around the floor a lot – there are a ton of things to do, and a constant stream of sensory input. He spent the most time (5 minutes, top) at a nature sounds corner, where you could push buttons to hear things like frogs, cicadas, and bees. He also found the puppet theater area at the end, but it was overrun by bigger kids. He seemed really interested in the puppets though, and I’m sure we’ll be back.

By this point it was about noon and I was wondering if he was hungry. But instead he wanted to go to the “little kids area.” We went and played there for about 20 minutes. His favorite thing was a new stuffed triangle and square. He would grab the triangle and do a little dance with it, waving it in front of him. He also liked putting them away and picking up the stuffed worms and putting them away back in their holes in the big apple.

It was approaching 12:30 and he was getting both hungry and tired. We put our shoes on and went up to the eating area. Ate lunch and then put him in the backpack. Took less than 10 minutes of walking to put him to sleep. Went to the first floor Peace Cafe for his nap, but he only slept 1:09 to 1:36. I held him and walked him around until 2. He was silent, lying on my shoulder, but wouldn’t fall asleep. Finally, he wanted up. He also then pooped. He’s still dealing with the stomach thing that is bothering him, so that may have been what woke him up.

We played in the cafe for a little while on the iPad and typed a message to Carly. Then we left and went to the zoo. Spent most of our time with the pumas and bears. He was getting more into talking about the animals, trying to say how many animals there were (“There’s one (monkey)”, for example), what they are doing (sleeping, eating – this led us to doing some basic math: “one jaguar lying down plus one jaguar walking equals two jaguars”), and if they were all there (at first we only saw two asian bears, when usually there are four. So he said “missing, missing”).

From there we looped past the jaguars, leopards, tigers, and lions and watched the primates a bit more. He thought he wanted to see the water birds, but changed his mind once we went inside. We then went in to see the lizards for a few minutes. Back outside we pondered what to do. One thing he didn’t want was the playground – I offered it to him about a dozen times during the day and he didn’t want to go. We sat on a bench by the primates for a break, and he decided he wanted in the backpack. From there I let him direct us. He pondered things, then decided on heading home.

So we headed home, getting here about a quarter to 5. Carly wasn’t going to be home until 5:30ish as she was helping a student with an application, so I prepped August a lot on the way home. At the subway I explained it to him and asked what he wanted to do until mama got home. He said “Duplos.” We reviewed at the elevators, but then it started to sink in that she wasn’t home. I think it all worked, however, as when we did get home there was some initial sadness, but no crying. He played with magnets and we did some coloring and stickers, then Carly got home.

We ate soup for dinner, then gave him a quick bath. There was some fun time where I was sliding him back and forth on his back on the floor between me and Carly. After his bath, about 7, he started to nurse and was asleep around 7:15.

His big accomplishment today was singing the entire ABC song, all 26 letters and pretty much to the rhythm/tune. He has really been working on the M-N-O-P-Q section the last few days.

New words/phrases: loading, Dapper Dan, Scampi, Rocky, in slipper, takes care of animals, gorilla fall out truck, GS25, sign, little kids area, sausage, another one, pine needle, there’s one (six), cougar, missing

Children’s museum: 

Eating a gummi bear: 

After his nap, Qing the O: 

Watching the pumas:

Climbing on the leopard photo zone: 

Headed home: 

Carly got this for helping a student: 

He woke up at 7:29 – way too early as that was less than 8 hours sleep. The big activity of the morning was vacuuming. He instantly wanted to vacuum on his own, and spent at least 5 minutes on his own vacuuming in the parlor. Then, when I was vacuuming, he was helping crawl under things, particularly the rocking chair, to guide my vacuuming. He would also squat or lie down next to it and just start doing his counting thing on the ground – and if I turned it off he would make me turn it back on.

I didn’t think he was going to make it to class at 11:10 and, indeed, at 10:30 when we started to get ready to go he started crying and when I asked him if he wanted to nap or go to class, he actually sad “nap” a couple of times. But after changing him and he had calmed down he changed his tune, excitedly mentioning “class” a couple times.

So we headed out with him facing me in the carrier. Figured if he fell asleep on the way we could just come back. But he made it. Class went amazingly well. He spent much of the beginning standing by the door, but no crying or needing to go out or be held. He really perked up when she brought out a stuffed bunny rabbit and started using it to tell a story. And when she brought out the textured squares…well, he was in heaven: “More textures!”

After class it took a surprisingly long walk to put him to sleep. He fell asleep at 12:35. He was silent for about 20 minutes. We walked over to the stream, then back and south to the pink building, then back towards the stream. Came home and got him in bed. New technique: keeping him in the carrier and lying down over him, then taking the carrier off. Here he is before I then slipped the carrier out from under him and took off his coat.

He was asleep 12:35 to 1:22, woke up and had some milk and fell back to sleep on me from 1:33 to 2:11, at which point I woke him up. I turned on the phonics song for him and he got really excited. I made a teriyaki salmon sandwich for lunch. He had salmon, his leftover french toast, cheese, tofu, and strawberry.

We got ready to head out and went to Home Plus. He was requesting the carrier over the stroller, so I put him in the carrier for the walk there, pushing the stroller. It reminded me that he is getting to big for facing out in the carrier – getting awkward. Once there, I put him in the stroller. We did our shopping and then headed to the art museum.

There, he played in the little play structure. It was nice as we were the only people there to begin with, although then it got crowded. He did more crawling through it than he as done in the past, going to the back, and climbing up to the second level in one part of it. He didn’t want to get too far away from me though: I said I wouldn’t fit in the entrance, then he started insisting “dada fit.” I slid partway in, then he would climb in and say “Dada fit, Zinnie fit.” We had to go move our stroller, and when we came back realized that one of the girls playing there had a very bad cough and was coughing everywhere. Didn’t have to decide whether to let August back in, as he suddenly realized we were in an art museum and wanted to see art. So we went through downstairs, counting the steps down on our way, but mainly he got the idea that he wanted to climb on the fake grass-covered part, which was off limits. He did have fun for a few minutes revisiting his favorite piece, and identifying the letters and numbers in the off-limit area.

We looked at a little of the other art, then he wanted to go outside. Spent several minutes just playing outside, walking along the yellow lines, then making a loose ditch cover rattle back and forth. He then walked alongside me all the way across the park to the library. Actually, first he wanted to go home, but after explaining a few times that mama was still at work, he started requesting “library.”

We went there and looked at the English books. He spent a few minutes with the robot book we saw last time that has pieces you can turn. We then went upstairs into the Korean children’s area and looked at a few books. About 5:30 we headed out. Carly met us by the pink building. She took August on up and I stopped to get bread.

He was pretty funny this evening. He continues his “Becoming a…” joke. His big one today was “Becoming ‘Q’!” We also got his new book and CDs and DVD from class today (he was very excited and went right up to the teacher today when he saw her get them out). So we watched part of the video. He seems to like it more than the one from the last class. He was also doing some “climbing yoga” on me while I sat on the couch. Green Monster had been lying down on the back of the couch, so for the past couple of days August would point to him and say “sleeping.” We were playing with him on the couch, and August threw him on the floor and said “Sleeping on the floor.”

Carly gave him a quick bath as he was getting tired. He went to sleep around 8:30 without a struggle.

New words/phrases: more textures, coats on (we both have coats on), Home Plus (pointing at sign on store), net, up there inside (where he wanted to go in the play structure), climb up, dada fit Zinnie fit, someone’s dada (‘someone’ is dada – in the play structure he had poked me through the netting and said “someone” – when I said it was me, he replied with this), i see ‘6’, sleeping on the floor

Class: 

Nap: 

Art museum: 

Across the park: 

Robot book at library: