Category: Uncategorized

August woke up at 4 something. Carly got up with him- I didn’t notice a thing. They skyped with Chuck and Cherie. August was typing messages to them. He now knows to hit ‘return’ to send his random letters. He also knows how to push the power button to put her computer to sleep. He did it twice while they were skyping.

 

He then fell back to sleep as I was getting up around 7. When he woke up an hour later we had a usual morning, then headed to Costco. When we got to the subway station at the other end, he was walking. He started counting the steps as he went up. After 7 his counting started to be slower than his steps, so I helped him count the rest. He would then start counting on each flight of stairs.

 

At one point he walked in front of a woman, and he heard me say ‘sorry’ to her. The rest of the time we walked through the station he kept kind of waving to people and saying “sorry”.

 

At Costco we first went to the toys. Carly and I wee looking at books when we realized he was looking at something and saying “for Zinnie”. And so it begins. We did get a box of hangeul cards to match our English and Spanish ones, then headed downstairs.

 

Downstairs was crowded. Maybe because it was Friday. Around the usual time that August and I go to Costco, but I’ve never seen it that busy. I was carrying August round, but he was getting frustrated and kept wanting down among the carts. But when I offered to put him in the carrier, he eagerly accepted, and was happy with that arrangement for the rest of our time there.

 

We did our shopping and got a few samples, of course. Carly paid, while August and I went and got food. We found a table and ate – August ate all the olives off my pizza.

 

On the way there, we were forcing August to wear his hood when we were outside. And he was not happy about it. But on the way home he tolerated it, wearing it to the subway station, and then from the subway to home. That is a happy development.

 

Also, as we left Costco he found a little paper cup. It became his favorite toy for awhile, until the subway, and was even singing a song about it as we walked to the subway.

 

It was fun to have him in the carrier again. Haven’t used it at all in a few weeks. He held my fingers, and I got him to flap his arms and make bird noises. And he did the ‘rocky, rocky, rocky, like a chimpanzee’ thing as we got close to home.

 

He took a long after noon nap (probably too long). After that, Carly was letting him type in Word. I showed him how to use the caps lock.

 

At 6, Megan and Torrey came over. We had planned to order pizza, but they surprised us with homemade chicken soup and chocolate pudding. Delicious chicken soup and chocolate pudding. They were here until 8:30. August loved it, especially when Megan let him eat big bites of her pudding.

 

August started looking and acting tired around 9:30 or 10. One sign is when he stops paying attention when I sing to him, instead continuing his own talking or singing. But he didn’t fall asleep until close to 11:30. We read a lot of Kipper. Finally, we turned off the lights and forced him on the bed. A lot of crying, but 5 minutes later was asleep.

 

He was also really into his alphabet books today. He got a Sandra Boynton book out, and noticed that it showed a book on the back with ‘A Z’ on the cover. I told him we actually had that book and we got it out. He had never shown much interest in that book before. I got the rest of the alphabet books out so he could find them more easily.

 

New words/phrases: mama back, nurse on train, next stop, for Zinnie, type a…, castle, sunflower

Costco: 

Home: 

With Megan and Torrey: 

I woke up with a headache and went back to bed. While I was asleep, Carly and August Skyped with her parents in Mexico. When I got up, we basically got ready and left, as Carly had an appointment to get her hair cut in Hongdae, about an hour across the city.

We made it there about 11:15. The subway ride went smoothly, with August playing iPad games with Carly much of the way.

While Carly got her hair cut, August and I say in the waiting area at first and had a snack. But he wanted to go outside after awhile, into the cold.

We walked up the street to the park. It was barely 30 degrees, but he was happily drawing letters in the sand. He was not happy though after 10 minutes when I made him out his hood on. Some very big tears rolling down his face. Carly found us by following the noise.

We then walked one stop up to the Sinchon area, to find a Little Prince kid cafe. We weren’t sure it would be there, as the last two we have looked for were closed. But the website still lists the locations, and lists cafes they have opened around the world in the last few months.

And indeed, to add to the mystery it was still listed on the building but wasn’t actually there.

August was having a difficult time by now, as he was tired, cold, and bothered by us bothering him about wearing his hat and gloves. We went into the Espresso Bean and Tea Leaf. Carly got him down for a nap and I ordered our drinks. He had a nice long nap (from around 12:45 to 2:20), and we had a nice long reading session.

When he woke up he was in a much better mood. He played in the cafe and I changed him in the bathroom.

We went to McDonald’s because it was convenient, being right between us and the subway stop, and we didn’t feel like wandering in the cold. Also, I had the grilled mushroom burger, which turned out to be really good. August liked the mushrooms, and he also likes the Korean pickles they gave us. He drew a line though at the radish.

We then headed home. At the subway station August really liked the statue of a bunny and art they had on the floor. He played around and on that (and looked at letters and numbers on signs) for ten minutes or so until Carly and I were getting cold and decided it was time to go. Took a slightly longer subway route, but it paid off: got three seats together, taking us to within two stops of home. The shorter route would have had us transferring in downtown, and seating would have been worse from the beginning.

At home he ate some food with Carly and I gave him a bath. Oh, and Carly found the blue broom – it had ended up under the couch. Also, he was playing the piano and xylophone and singing as he did so. He hasn’t paid them much attention lately, so that was fun to see. And when he was done with the xylophone he put all the sticks on it neatly. Not a long evening, as he fell asleep a little past 8:30.

I got one string of Christmas lights up, and Carly started listening to Christmas music. She also got some more work done on the free she is making for our door.

Asleep 12:45 to 1:53

New words/phrases: Ready teddy, building up there, Brownstone, give me mama

While Carly got her hair cut: 

Lunch: 

At the station: 

Waiting for the train: 

Home: 

We have officially moved our weekly Children’s Grand Park visits to Wednesdays: this week because tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and from next week as he will have class on Tuesday and Thursday.

 

He woke up at 9:03. Picked him up as he stood in the hall and the first thing he wanted was to go find stickers. So we did that. Oatmeal and strawberries again for breakfast and then our usual morning stuff and we left the house about 11.

 

Got to CGP a little b/f noon to basically find it deserted. The entire time we were there (until close to 5) we literally saw two other children with parents and one small school group of about 6 kids. Besides that there were a smattering of adults or college students wandering around, but that was it. And no construction work happening. Like the whole city called off field trips due to a little rain and cold.

 

We made the most of it. He was only interested in animals today. He first wanted to see the seals, so headed that direction. Saw the deer and zebras, then he changed his mind about the seals and didn’t want to go inside. He wanted the lizards instead.

 

So we went to the tropical building. Had the entire building to ourselves for 20 minutes. One man wandered through near the end, but that was it. We were able to set our stuff down and sit and watch the coatis and play in the sand. Would have stayed longer but his diaper was leaking.

 

Went to the closest bathroom and did another standing up change. He is getting the hang of them. Then went into the botanical gardens (this is where we saw the one group of students as they left the building) and went upstairs and sat in a corner and ate lunch.

 

From there he wanted more animals, specifically the elephants. This ended up being the coolest part. I held him up on the railing to watch the elephant for a good 10 minutes. Normally, with the crowds there is too much distraction/worry for him to focus like that. He watched the elephant and counted things in the exhibit – namely the drainage holes, I think.

 

We then went around the corner. To the hyenas. We were there even longer – 15 to 20 minutes. He spent much of the time standing on the little concrete ledge, propped up against my legs, his forehead pressed against the glass. More counting of things here, as there was with the servals before we left.

 

Eventually moved on, paying the servals a short visit. But I needed to change him and it was time for a nap. Walked up to our usual bathroom, happy to find that the room we use is heated. Changed him then went to the stone benches by the statue where I put him in the backpack.

 

There is a stone with an inscription in Hangeul. He stood there, pointing not out Hangeul characters, then started drawing on it using the drops of water on it. Again spent 15 minutes or so here. He didn’t want to stop, but I was getting cold and he needed to sleep. Put him in the backpack and he fell asleep quickly.

 

He slept 2:50 to 4:40. I left the cafe before he woke up, meaning he slept through the whole putting on the backpack process. He woke up as we approached the subway station. The first time he entirely missed the cafe.

 

He was groggy on the train. Could have had a seat of his own, but wanted on my lap. Got home around 5:20.

 

A pretty standard evening, but for two things: he was not happy about his bath, at all. And he stayed up until 11:30. He took a shorter nap and woke up earlier from it than yesterday, so thought he’d be asleep by 10:30. He had other ideas. He would be reading books or doing art with me (we don’t do iPad or any other playing this late), then act tired and say he was sleepy, but when he went in to bed with Carly he would change his mind.

 

At 11 I took him in while I brushed my teeth, then took him to bed. The last 25 to 20 minutes he flopped around the bed. Tried to leave once but I kept him on the bed. Finally, he laid down with Carly and fell asleep. Thinking I will start trying to wake him at 8:30 in the morning if he is still sleeping by then. And the same with afternoon naps if they extend to 90 minutes.

 

New words/phrases: hyena, feel (his socks), no touch poop, Hangeul drawing, flashlight

Zoo: 

being welcomed by the deer: 

Home: 

We went to class, taking the stroller this time as we had a long grocery list for afterwards. Class was about the tiger and the cat. He likes that page in the book, so kind of knew what it was all about already. He really danced around to the opening songs. When she offered him cat or tiger hat and paws, he chose the tiger, but wasn’t about to put them on. There was also a shaker activity, and he really got into playing with them and stacking them with the teacher. But at one point August decided the activity was over, saying “all done”. He started handing shakers to the teacher (which is what they do when we are done with an activity), but she just thought he was being really nice. When she got down the bin to actually put them away, he was right on top of cleaning them up, even trying to pull one from Jungbin’s hands when he wasn’t putting it in the bin.

At the end of class, I had August hand out sticker packets from the DDP to all the other students and his teacher. That went well. And at the beginning of the class the teacher noticed August’s hair was cut and was impressed I had done it.

We then went shopping. Got all sorts of stuff. August saw the digital temperature gauge in the lizard’s cage and called it a clock, then “Oma’s clock”, remembering the clock at home.

We came home and made a smoothie and had salmon and crackers for lunch. At one point August got out his Korean baby animals counting book and ‘read’ the first pages, something like “Mama cow. One baby cow. One.” After lunch, he started ‘counting’ the red spots on the soccer ball. He’s known his numbers, but this is the first clear evidence that he understands what numbers stand for.

At the 5 hour mark he wasn’t looking tired at all. Finally, around 3 (6 hours) he was looking tired. When giving him choices he was choosing the bed over the stroller, and then being held over the bed, but he wasn’t falling asleep. Finally, I put him in the carrier and went for a walk. After taking a photo of the ‘Mexican’ chicken at the chicken place across the street, he finally fell asleep at 3:40. Got him in bed, and he slept until 4:20. Would have been good enough, I think, to get us through dinner, but he wanted more sleep. After crying for a few minutes he fell back to sleep on me at 4:25. At 5:00 I started trying to wake him up by talking and jostling him, and playing YouTube videos. Nothing. Finally, at 5:13 Carly came home and forced him to wake up.

Carly skyped with Glecy before we left for dinner. While she did that, August and I wrote on the whiteboard. We made the shift from ‘big’ and ‘little’ letters to ‘uppercase’ and ‘lowercase’. He liked that, and just wanted me to write the alphabet over and over. He would declare a case (“lowercase”), and I would write it out, then he would erase it with the eraser.

We went to dinner. On the way out the door, August was excited that we were all wearing coats, repeating “Mama’s coat, Zinnie’s coat, Dada’s coat.”

August liked standing on a chair and watching everyone as they came in. When the service started, he liked the music, but for the talkier stuff I took him out to where Miles and Cora were playing. He did great at dinner and ate a ton, trying a lot. The chicken was too spicy for him, but he loved the noodles, pizza, Korean pancake, and fruit. And dessert. He also liked spotting Megan in the crowd. We sat with Karl, Melinda, and Don and had good talks with them. When Carly was eating dessert, I took August out, and he just wanted to go look at all the yummy foods and try more things. He ate a couple of seasoned fries while we walked around, and ended up trying all of my desserts.

As we left, I had him give another pack of stickers to Megan. They were Le Petite Prince stickers, which turned out to be one of their favorite books.

Back home, we were talking about the fun we had just had and listing the foods he had eaten. He piped in with “Pizza. Yummy pizza.”

He was in no hurry to sleep. Carly ended up going to bed, and he stayed up with me until about 11:20 before going in to bed. Luckily, no false alarms. Around 10:30 he was almost ready to try to go to sleep with Carly, starting to close the door and saying bye bye to me, but changed his mind, coming out of the door to close Carly in, saying “night night, Mama.” He didn’t go back to the bedroom until he went in and fell asleep.

He now knows 5 digraphs: ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘oo’, ‘er’, and ‘qu’. He’s identified at least the first 3 on signs as we are out and about. Have started showing him Korean words to work on syllables, starting with Jungbin (중빈) and sangsaengnim (my teacher – 산생님). Need to start hanging Korean words in the house as well.

Oh, and his awareness of outside sounds is continuing. Really noticing sounds coming from the hallway today. I taught him it was neighbors, so he was saying “hear neighbors”. Carly then taught him it was monsters, so he was saying “hear monster”.

One minor tragedy today: I think we lost blue broom on our return from Home Plus. Farewell, blue broom. You served us well.

Class: 

Back home: 

Asleep: 

Dinner: 

Today we went up to Sanggye to go back to the children’s library which was closed last Tuesday. Before that, we had to get his sleep straightened out for the day. He woke up at 5:30, less than 7 hours after going to sleep. Seemed pretty tired several times in the morning, but did fall asleep. We ate oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast and did a lot of writing on the whiteboard.

 

He finally got really tired a little after nine and just let me hold him as he fell asleep – first time that has happened in quite awhile. Managed to set him (he stirred and said a couple things, but went back to sleep) and he slept from 9:24 to 10:48. When he woke up he wasn’t ready to and kept saying “sleep” and “more sleep”. After holding him for 15 minutes or so he finally woke up.

 

He ate a big lunch of thawed mango, fresh strawberries, banana chips, and grilled cheese (his first grilled cheese, as far as I know). We were ready to leave, but he wanted to read Kipper, so we spent a long time reading the Kipper book. He requested two stories by name: “Kipper Birthday” and “Kipper’s Toybox.”

 

So we finally left around 12:30. Walked up the stream to Sanggye and the children’s library. Went in and looked around. He played around the sitting area in the infant’s reading room for awhile, then we went out into the lounge to play with stickers and color since he was a bit to wound up for reading. We then went out to the playground, playing a little with it, but mainly writing letters and words in the dirt. He was getting hungry, so we sat on the bench and had a snack: banana chips, string cheese, and some strawberries.

 

We then went back into the library and got some books. Read a dull Eric Carle book, The Bee and the Robber, the Mo Williems book The Pigeon Wants a Puppy, and a really nice illustrated version of Puff the Magic Dragon. August really liked the last one and had me read it three times.

 

From there we changed him and headed out. They didn’t have a changing table in the library bathrooms, so I changed him standing up, as we have pull-up diapers now. The first time doing so, and it felt like a very big kid thing to do. I said something to him, and he repeated “becoming big kid.” He liked that idea, and was repeating it in the evening as well. I didn’t expect him to take another nap, but suddenly he fell asleep at 4:10. Could have stopped at a coffeeshop, but wanted to get home and didn’t want to encourage a long nap. Walked to Daiso in Nowon and bought a case to hold the whiteboard markers and eraser. August woke up at 4:46 as I was in line to pay.

 

On our way back I gave August the option of taking the bus or walking home. He chose ‘bus’ several times. So we went and caught the bus and headed home, getting home a few minutes after Carly.

 

He played and nursed a lot with Carly. With me we played a little more Duplo guy driving the car and wrote on the whiteboard. Gave him some iPad time. He pretty much has Endless Alphabet completely figured out. All that is left for him is understanding the words themselves. And he now knows all the Korean consonants. Just need to work on the vowels and how they form syllables. That’s the trickiest part.

 

Didn’t know how the second nap would affect his sleeping, but he fell asleep a little before 9:30, so not too bad. Bath and everything went smoothly. Only difficulty was that he was addicted to Fox in Socks on the iPad before leaving to go to bed, so wasn’t happy with having to part ways with it.

 

 

New words/phrases: erase, erasing, my lid, Mick Inkpen, Kipper birthday, Kipper’s Toybox, hear music, someone else’s, home right there, cups, what that say?, alley cat, witch

Listening to me read in the morning: 

He’s really aware of the outside world now. Says “hear something” and looks outside all the time. Here he is trying to locate a saw noise: 

Asleep on my shoulder: 

First time in library:

Infant room: 

Stickers in the lobby: 

Outside: 

Feeding me: 

Puff the Magic Dragon: 

Home: 

Today we tried to go shopping at Home Plus, only to realize it was closed today, went shopping at the pink building instead, and in the evening went over to Jill and Derek’s for dinner.

 

He had a good night’s sleep, waking around 8:30. A lot of playing with the Duplos today and whiteboard. And he got to Skype with Oma and Opa. At the end, he was in the other room with me, and Carly just started saying something to them like, “Alright, I should probably go…” and August picked up on that and ran to the other room to say “bye bye” to them. And in the morning when I was playing with him on the bed and started thanking Carly for everything: “Thank you mama for books,” “Thank you mama for sheet,” “Thank you mama for blanket.” There were others. I made eggs, cheese, and broccoli for August and me for breakfast.

 

Late in the morning we walked over to Home Plus only to realize it was the fourth Sunday of the month. So we went to the pink building instead, stopping at the library on the way to take a look at the children’s area. We will definitely be headed back there this winter. Before leaving, I had given August the choice of the backpack, stroller, or being carried. He very clearly chose the backpack, but was regretting it a bit by the time we were done shopping. We stopped at Tous les Jours to get bread for dinner tonight, and he was not happy about Carly going in there.

 

We went home and he took a nice nap and woke up around 1:30. Carly had made rice and couscous and tofu and zucchini. He ate those for lunch, and also a lot of strawberry, as it was the first time we had seen strawberries in the store this fall.

 

We then played Duplos. He thought it was hilarious to touch the hat of the Duplo guy. We then pretend drew letters on the blanket, and again had a lot of laughs drawing made up things.

 

And as he was playing with magnets on the door he started thanking Carly for things again: “Thank you mama for numbers,” “Thank you mama for D,” “Thank you mama for Z.”

 

We left the house around 4 with August in the stroller. We walked over to Jill and Derek’s place. We stopped to but beverages, then were a few minutes early so we played in the playground in front of their building. Jill brought Logan down and we all played together in the playground. August spent much of his time climbing up this steep plastic rock stair area. He needed help at first, then did it several times on his own. He was interested in the tube slide and the tube you could walk/crawl through, but never made the plunge – he kept pointing at them and saying “ickys.” Finally, he and Logan went on the seesaw together.

 

We went inside around 5:40 as it was getting chilly. August was very different this time. He had a ton of fun interacting with Jill, Derek, and Logan. He especially liked the light up pinwheel Logan had, and the flashlight Jill played with with him. A couple times, Logan or Jill started singing a song – “ABCs” or “Baa Baa” – and August would join in or finish it.

 

They had made a delicious shepherd’s pie for dinner. We ate that and left a little before 7 when August started to show signs of being done. We walked home in the drizzle, as the rain had arrived a little early.

 

More playing with Duplos and the whiteboard in the evening, and some iPad time when Carly took a shower. She gave him a bath, and around 9 tried to get him to bed, but with no luck. He really fought sleep tonight. Thought he was going to sleep a little before 10, but popped back out and ended up reading with me until a little after 10:30 when he decided he wanted to go back to Carly and fall asleep.

 

Reading progress: he now recognizes ‘after’ and ‘dog’ when he sees them.

 

New words/phrases: Santa Claus, snowman, I see a…, lots of letters, sock fuzz, nariz, iron

 

Playing on the bed: 

Ou shopping:

Strawberries: 

Duplos: 

To Jill and Derek’s: 

He slept until about 7:30. That is 13 and a half hours. Some catching up on sleep. A good night of sleep for us all. We played around the house in the morning. A new game was ‘badger hole’, which started because there was a ‘hole’ made by the blanket on the bed. August called it a hole, then we decided it was a badger hole from the Kipper story. The badger would talk to August and try to take his shovel when he put it in the hole. He kept saying “more badger hole.”

We were all ready to leave the house a little before noon. Figured he would take a later nap. But instead, he decided he was tired, and fell asleep. Slept until 1:45. A long nap after a long night of sleep.

After he woke up we walked up to Nowon. We went to the department store to find the rooftop park Jill had told us about. It wasn’t too impressive in terms of toys, but it is a nice space. We spent a good half hour plus up there. August visited the horse statue, did a lot of writing on the ground, and then wanted to dance. We did the dance to his song from class several times, and I had him walk across the park to Carly to get her too. He also really liked the tiger statue and played with it for a few minutes. He and Carly practiced their Spanish using the tiger’s head. We were getting chilly, but he really didn’t want to leave. Kept saying “more dance!” and “more…” everything else he could think of. Back inside he played with the stuffed animals they have in a photo zone for several minutes, petting the bear and the deer.

We then headed out and went across the street to Daiso, where we bought a white board, markers, and an eraser. One more tool in our art/letters/number/words activities. We had a good walk home. He entertained himself and us quite well in both directions, singing or chanting, particularly numbers and letters, loudly. He does one version of the alphabet where it sounds like he is holding his breath and using the last of his air to bark it out. He was also holding a word for a really long time, seeing how long he could say it, but I can’t remember now what word it was.

We got home and opened the whiteboard and played with that quite a bit and had dinner. On the whiteboard, Carly wrote ‘cat’, and before she could ask what it spelled, he said “cat.” So he has ‘cat’ and ‘cafe’ (he’s identified it several times now, including on a sign at Daiso), and ‘coffee’ is pretty solid, although he gets it confused with ‘Cassie’. ‘book’ and ‘art’ and ‘dog’ seem to be coming along as well.

He also played a lot with the letters and numbers on the door. While Carly took a shower, we played with the iPad (we tried out a new math app that he really liked, but was too advanced for him so will be good in a few months, and read ‘One Fish, Two Fish…’ and did some Endless… and the alphabet apps), and I took the opportunity to cut his hair. It had started to look pretty wild. The cutting went well, but he wasn’t too happy about getting a bath afterward. Carly put him in the big boy Christmas pajamas, and between the haircut and the pajamas he looks like a different kid.

He shared a couple of tangerines with Carly and I used a couple more minutes of iPad to distract him and brush his teeth. Looking really, really tired when I changed him about 8:30. Some mama and Marshy time on the bed, but about 9 he was up and wanting me. I read Kipper to him for awhile on the bed, but he wasn’t going to sleep, so I took him out. We read books in the fort and looked at his alphabet cards. He wanted his plastic letters and play dough, but after just a minute he was up and wanting to go in to mama. He fell asleep about 9:45.

Oh, and Korean coat of the day: it said ‘To tiled of shed only’. No idea what it was trying to communicate.

New words/phrases: nope, aplauso, raindrops, I got my ABCs, more badger hole, English, espanol, fountain on, Daiso, persimmon

Eco Park: 

Wild hair:

The stream on the walk home: 

Home: 

Whiteboard: 

Post hair cut: 

August continued his weird sleeping by waking up at 4. He was up until a quarter past 6 with Carly (Skyping with Vivi during that time and typing/sending messages to each other), then woke up at 7:11. Not enough sleep. But, it meant that we could get out of the house by 8:20 to head way south to the science center to meet up with Carly’s field trip.

 

The trip went smoothly, reading some Dr. Seuss and doing words on the iPad on the way down. He was getting sleepy on the way down. After having him turn around to look out the window as we crossed the Han, he just cuddled with me for a few minutes. We got down and into the science center juts before Carly came in with her group. After they got started, Carly took him to the nursing room and he fell asleep. I carried him over to the coffee shop and read with him on my lap while Carly went back to work. He slept for a little less than an hour. He was lying on the floor with his head in my lap, and suddenly popped awake, saying “See…” something. He was either referring to one of Carly’s students, who was sitting next to us, or her drink, which was some sort of smoothie.

 

We spent the next couple hours in the main science center building. We went through the children’s area, partially with Carly. He liked watching the kids at the water table, saying “wet” when we got splashed. And he liked trying to lift the fulcrum things. And there were these robot-like things that could climb ropes that he identified as “robots.” His favorite spot, by far, was a big sculpture of a hand. Underneath it, ticker take-like, ran the words “Welcome to the ubiquitous world” in 4 languages. He walked on and looked at this for a long time. We ended up sitting on it, and I would identify the letters and Hangeul characters as they went past. He also liked the music area, where you could step on drum pads to start different rhythms, and press buttons that would make tones to vibrate sand.

 

We ate lunch up in the cafeteria then went back into the exhibits. During lunch, and then sometime after, he said “fun” several times. His next favorite thing was hearing the saw noises from a construction site behind a wall in one of the exhibits. We tried to watch the dancing robot performance, and he watched a couple minutes, even laughing at the robots a bit as they danced to “Let it Go.” But after that he’d had enough, so we left. From there, we went out to the insect building, saying goodbye to Carly and students as they left to go to the bus. He liked the insect building, but for some reason not the butterfly room. He liked looking down through the glass at water bugs and fish around the cockroaches, and pushing the button so the light would come on in the bee hive.

 

From there we walked around outside. He liked seeing the ducks and chickens in the Eco Park area, then did a little yoga on a bench by the dinosaurs. We went inside, changed him and got our stuff, then went out front to the playground. Ended up playing there longer than planned as he didn’t want to leave. In particular, he was watching a bunch of teenage boys play and found them pretty fascinating. He sat on the seesaw while watching, then I bounced him on the seesaw.

 

We headed home, taking a slightly different route. Went pretty smoothly. As we were waiting for a bus for the last leg, he was identifying numbers in the bus numbers. But he threw a bit of a fit as we sat on the bus, calming down as he started saying “Endless Reader!”

 

Didn’t last long at home, falling asleep right at 6.

 

New words/phrases: nurse with mama, and (ampersand), sweet potato, green bean, praying mantis, Zinnie dada flying

Sleeping on me: 

Awake: 

Science center: 

His favorite spot: 

Music area: 

Sitting on the sand table, clapping to the drums: 

Dancing robots: 

Insect house: 

He’s listening to the sound of cicadas from the speaker above us: 

Cockroaches: 

Chickens: 

By the dinosaurs: 

Trying out the key as we get our stuff: 

Playground: 

He woke up a little before 8. A pretty normal time, but he went to bed so late it wasn’t really a full sleep. We had Cheerios for breakfast. He was using my spoon pretty well, and gave himself at least one “I did it!” We skyped with my parents, then did laundry and got ready to go, leaving around 10.

At the park he wanted to see the animals. First, the horses. We spent quite awhile there, making it our lunch spot. Then one of the horses was over at the fence because people were feeding them. August and I spent several minutes hanging out with the horse. I was petting it, which August found exciting. Eventually, he would touch the horse’s snout, and draw a “little C” on it with his finger. Later, he was patting it and talking about the “pattern” (I think he meant ‘texture’). The Koreans, even the ones feeding them, were keeping their distance from the horses.

From there he wanted to see the goats, then wanted to go “inside.” So he led me up and into the tropical building. He pointed out the lemurs, sloths, and marmosets, then drew letters in the gravely dirt. We watched the birds for several minutes, then headed downstairs where we did our usual lizard/turtle/mole rat/coati watching.

From there he wanted to go see the birds, and wanted to go upstairs. So we did that, then he wanted to go to the playground. We walked up and over the hill to the Adventureland Playground. He seems to have been a little less independent in his playing recently, so when he took his shovel and started walking around the big sand area, drawing and singing by himself, it was kind of cool. That lasted maybe 10 minutes, then he wanted me to draw things for him.

He started getting sleepy just before the 5 hour mark, declaring “all done.” So we walked up to our usual bathroom and did the nap routine. Less than 10 minutes of walking and he was asleep.

Went to the cafe where I got the grain latte there for the first time. I like them, but it isn’t on the big menu here. I had spotted it on a small sign last week after ordering. August slept 38 minutes, 1:19 to 1:57. In that time I finished ‘My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me’ (the collection of modern fairy tales I’d been reading), and started ‘Still Life With Rice’, which my mom had bought while here in Korea. Interesting, but I might switch to the ‘Guernsey Literary and Potato…’ book next week.

Anyway, we sat for awhile in the comfy chairs and looked at a book, then headed out. He was a bit whiney and talking about home/mama/nursing, but when I gave him the choice of ‘serval’ or ‘home’ he clearly chose ‘serval’. We walked over to the big cats/dogs and first got down to look at the lynx. It is usually asleep up in the corner, but was at the glass today. August was happily looking at it for awhile, but then some other people came and started crowding around. He didn’t like that, and started to get upset. I picked him up and we kept heading for the serval. He saw the photo area statue of a leopard in a tree and a big kid standing up next to it. August got it into his head that he should be able climb on top of it, something the girl wasn’t even doing, and he was upset I wouldn’t let/help him. He gave a good frustrated yell, which I haven’t heard in a few weeks.

We briefly looked at the serval and a couple other things, then headed home a little before 3. That was the planned time, as we needed to go shopping at Home Plus.

Made it home, and August was not happy to find the apartment empty. He started making his nursing sound when he got in, and then started saying ‘mama?’ He calmed down once I got him in the stroller and we headed outside.

We went to Home Plus. He did quite well, in part because of all the samples: chicken nugget, sausage, crab, and several pieces of apple. Stopped and got mandarin oranges from a stand on our way home. Carly caught up to us just as we were entering the apartment – which was good because August was just starting to look in and make the nursing noise.

Got out the hangul magnets from the Pororo set, and August had fun with those. And a lot of laughing, practicing Spanish with Carly. Happy bath time with Carly, and then me, followed. And then he just exploded in a ball of hyper on the bed, starting when I tried to put the sheets on the bed. But he crashed pretty quickly when Carly started nursing him and he was asleep by 8:15.

New words/phrases: baby goat, marmoset, sloth, mole rats, head home, sooo much, Spanish: mehia, aqui, Korean: pemang (pepper), dangeun (carrot)

Zoo:

Writing in sand wherever he can find it, including the tropical building: 

Playground: 

The lynx: 

Ready to head home (he is looking at numbers on a sign): 

Home:

We had another interesting day, both in terms of August’s sleep and what we did. He woke up at 8:07. He walked out, and instead of getting upset when I told him mama was at work, he pointed to the table and said “more play doughs.” Seriously his favorite toy at the moment, and he’d later talk about wanting to do play dough a few times through the day.

 

Eggs and grapes for breakfast. He ate a lot, which was good, as he wouldn’t eat much during the day. The other big morning activity was when I got out the matching blocks and the cards that go with them. We used to play with the blocks, but hadn’t tried matching them. He caught on pretty fast and was working pretty intently to match them.

 

Left the house around 10. Took the stroller, as later in the day we would be meeting up with Carly and going to eMart to pick up the clean blanket, so we could put it under the stroller. Only drizzling at first. About halfway to Dream Forest we came across the Wolgye Library so decided to check that out. Turns out they have a whole ‘young readers room’, and a really good selection of English books. We were there close to an hour. Also found two interesting Korean books: a counting book about poop, and a color book that was  about snails eating different things and then their slime turning different colors – yes, just like class yesterday. So this is a ‘thing’ in Korea.

 

We checked out the rest of the building (oh, and August really liked the table full of little painted dolphins in the entryway) then continued on our way. It was starting to rain heavier now. I decided there was no point in going all the way to DF, so settled on a park by the stream we’ve been to a couple times. As we walked up the stream we were first thwarted by a path that ended in stairs. Retracing our steps, we passed covered benches by a playground in an apartment complex. Decided we could eat lunch there. But August had different ideas. There was a lot of trash around, and I think he was frightened both by a loud truck nearby, and by a cup left on a bench – he kept pointing to it and saying “someone’s”. He made it clear he wanted to go, pushing away the food and wanting back in the stroller. When I asked if we should keep walking, he said “more walking.”

 

Rain was miserable now, so I forced him to put his feet inside and zipped closed the cover. He accepted that quite well. So we walked another 10 minutes or so to the park I was aiming for. He still didn’t really eat, but he played in the rain. Wouldn’t put up his hood, so I stood over him with an umbrella. At first this bothered him to – he kept pushing my leg to make me go away – but he got used to it. He played by pushing the toys and moving the seesaw up and down (saying “up, down” as he did so) and just doing a lot of watching/looking around. He pooped so I changed him on the bench. He initially wanted to go back to playing, but just kind of stood around. It was about 12:40, and I don’t usually start any sort of nap procedures until the 5 hour mark, so I asked if he wanted to play iPad until then. He initially said yes, but then started crying. I asked if he was tired, and he made it clear he was, and back at the stroller he wanted in.

 

So we got walking, and he fell asleep on our way back to the library. I had initially planned to go to a coffeeshop, but when I found out the library building had a lounge I figured that would work. So I reclined the seat for him and he slept quite well, 1:06 to 2:22.

 

He woke up and we went to Jill and Derek’s house to pay Jill and Rosie a visit. That was the plan. August had different ideas. He had a meltdown like I’ve never seen. Crying and calling for “mama”. Best we can figure is that he’s always been there when Carly is there. He knew we were meeting up with Carly at some point, so I think he expected her to be there. Did get him calmed down and he played with magnet letters for about 5 minutes, but then he just turned to me, got his sad look, and started crying again. Tried to Skype with Carly to see if that would work, it did for a minute, but that was it.

 

So we left early. Back to the library, where we got a stack of Eric Carle books and a few others. Hung out there for another hour+ reading those, playing on the iPad, and doing stickers/drawing in the notebook. Carly met us there, and she read with him. Also, there was an art class going on in the room we had hung out in before. There were windows into it, and I had shown August that they were playing with clay, which was like play dough. A few times he stood at the glass door, watching, saying “more play doughs.” At one point a woman inside was playing with him, beeping his nose through the glass.

 

We walked to Home Plus where we got the blanket, ate at KFC, and bought two more pairs of pants for August. While there, I put my hat on August and he watched himself in the mirror. Very funny.

 

We walked home in the dark. August did quite well. We took turns entertaining him by running in front of the stroller.

 

Home close to 7. August did not want to go to bed anytime soon. Long story short, he didn’t fall asleep until 11:20. Crazy. He was very funny and amusing most of that time though. A lot of playing with play dough (he really liked Carly pretending it was snot), reading the Spanish books Carly had ordered and that arrived today, and, earlier on, playing on the bed. I read Kipper to him which has a line about Kipper turning in a circle. August whipped around and said “I turn.” Showing some cool understanding and sentence construction there. He did not, however, like his bath, which Carly made a short one.

 

New words/phrases: ‘m’ again (doing play dough), library, Sherbert (monster character), bing-gul, more coming (from) nose, fat S (a fat play dough ’S’), I turn

Library: 

Park: 

Nap time: 

Waking up: 

Library visit #2: 

eMart: 

Home: