Category: Uncategorized

We went south of the river today to the Seoul Arts Center to attend the Antoni Gaudi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaudí) exhibit at the Seoul Arts Center. He was the guy who designed the Sagrada Familia church and Park Guall that Carly and I visited in Barcelona.

 

In the morning we read some books, and it was the first time we used Hippos Go Beserk as an actual counting book. We were then watching and listening to the videos and songs that go along with his baby class, as we hadn’t really done that yet. When the song came on that they dance to now, August started sidestepping like they do in class. Finally, we played with the play dough. But we turned it into a letters game as well, as I rolled the play dough into a snake and then we would form letters and numbers.

 

Then we headed to the art center. A long trip, but it went pretty smoothly. When we went over the river, August really looked “out the window”, and pointed to the boats below.

 

On the walk to the art center, we met a nice white cat. August was in the backpack though, so we didn’t visit for long. We got to the art center and got a ticket, then walked around and found a place inside to sit and have lunch.

 

Then, the exhibit. Frankly, it was kind of a bust. Gaudi is best known for his very colorful and extravagant work – the park is famous for its colorfully-tiled lizards, columns, and benches, for example. And they used two very colorful images on all of the materials for the show. But then you enter through black curtains into a very dark room. This did not suit August, and he immediately wanted to leave. The entire thing was dimly lit. Then, almost everything in the show was black or white, or just white, or, in the case of furniture, brown. And the show was also very quiet. If I said something to August I had the feeling everyone in the room heard it. Very, very different from the Mariscal or Tim Burton shows, which is what I expected it to be like.

 

Anyway, we managed for maybe 30 or 40 minutes. He enjoyed a few pieces (mainly the models for apartment buildings or the church) and did some yoga on the floor. He also had found a rubber band on the floor wand was playing with that, but lost it. I then gave him a piece of red yarn, and that entertained him (cat-like) for a little while, but wore off. There was at least a little sticker activity at the end that he really liked.

 

Then we exited the exhibit and he really liked the tiled lizard they had outside. But then I realized you weren’t supposed to touch it (I don’t even think it was a real Gaudi – which is funny, because the real Gaudi lizards are in a park for children). He totally didn’t understand that, so that was the end of our Gaudi experience.

 

We went out and sat on the little stage for a few minutes, then went inside and changed him and got ready for his nap. Putting him to sleep didn’t take long – a short walk up the stairs and towards the calligraphy museum and back. Took a couple minutes longer than needed as a small truck honked at us and woke him back up. It is a huge pedestrian square, mind you, and we were walking down the edge. The construction truck just didn’t want to drive on the rough stones, or apparently wait for us to pass; we had to get out of the way.

 

He slept 1:47 to 2:24 in Cafe Matisse. When he woke up he saw the iPad out and so we played Endless Reader with him at first sitting on my lap. Did that for awhile, then headed out.

 

There was a children’s park just a couple blocks to the north, so we headed there. There were a lot of leaves at the park, so that was the focus of his playing. Although, since he is obsessed with letters, it turned into writing letters in the leaves. Near the end, a couple of elementary age boys showed up, and were sword fighting with sticks. This was the best thing August has ever seen, so that entertained him the last several minutes.

 

From there we headed home. Train went smoothly. Carly had beaten us home. After dinner, I gave him a bath. In the bath he said “Wawa makes it feel better” “Opa”. This is a reference to when we were up at the stream with Chuck and August’s foot was itchy, so Chuck taught him to put water on it. I have mentioned it a few times, when August says something is itchy, but today August really started saying it on is own. At one point during the evening he turned to me and Carly, with a serious look, and strung it together even more completely, something like “If itchy…wawa on it…make it feel better…Opa.”

 

The other thing he started doing today was requesting our custom “Wheels on the Bus” verses by saying in the person AND what they do on the bus. The first was “Grampa…trees” (Grampa says “Trees trees trees”), followed by “Grampa…hamster car”. In the bath he added “Opa…golf”. Then he showed he could actually sing several of them, including “Opa on the bus says ‘I’ll teach you to golf’”.

 

After his bath, he got to Skype with Cassie and Vivi and Colin. And at one point he went down in the bedroom. I saw him down by the foot of the bed, saying “mama’s wawa” and picking something up. I thought it was her water bottle, but then he turned around and started walking down the hall towards me and I saw it was a glass full of water. He got much of the way, but before I could get to him he sort of stumbled and splashed water on himself. He then exclaimed “Oh my gosh!”

 

After that eventful day he fell asleep about 9:30.

 

New words/phrases: trough (with his Duplos), icky nose, washing machine, butter, itchy ankle, elbow, hand, penis, sandoo crumbs, another (ahnuhnuh) hoo ha, flagS, gu-uh-gooS, hear announcements (muh-mouse-ments – pointing up at the speaker when there was an announcement)

E-noooor-mo slide: 

: 

Across the river: 

Seoul Arts Center: 

Park: 

Bath time:

Skyping with Cassie and Vivi: 

Sweeping himself: 

August woke up at 5:40, which didn’t bode well for staying awake until class. He made it, although he was a little loopy and fragile in class, and stayed up long past that.

 

In the morning, we played some Endless Numbers (up to 12), made a mango smoothing, played Duplos (August was pushing around a car and making car noises for the first time, and driving the car on me. I was also putting the Duplo girl down the slide and catching her at the bottom. August thought this was funny, and was saying “dada caught her”), did some coloring, made letters and shapes out of play dough, and did some August-led yoga (with August having fun tunneling under my legs).

 

August was getting sleepy as early as 10, and said as much. He kept lying down on the rug or on the bed. When I gave him the option of class or home, however, he said “Class. Jungbean. Seongsangnem.” We left about 10:40 and made a quick grocery trip first for rice and a couple things.

 

Shopping went fine. We were quick, got a sagwa free sample, and paid with August out of the carrier the entire time. August started to show his toddler-ness though as I bagged groceries. He wanted a grape. I told him I’d get him some when we got up to his class. He saw me put the grapes in a bag and pick it up. Frustrated, he held his hands out and gave one loud yell.

 

Class was about colors, using different colored peas in pea pods. It was only August and Jungbean for the first two songs and start of bubbles before two other kids showed up. August had fun, but was most happy playing with the mat. But he did like throwing the peas around, and was really intrigued when the teacher gave us tongs to use to pick up the peas and put them in a tray. He was really working to get the pinching motion down. Example of an activity that just could have been longer, as he was just starting to grasp it (literally) as it ended.

 

After class he was sleepy, and I thought I’d be able to get him to sleep back at home – sitting up like last week, if need be. It was not to be. More toddler-ness: when I tried to make him lie down or keep him from standing up, he would do more yelling than crying. Eventually, I gave in and we went out in the wind in the carrier. The wind bothered him, making it harder to get him to sleep, but it didn’t take too long. He finally fell asleep at 1:50, basically 8 hours.

 

He had a nice long nap until 3:27. As slow as some of out movements had been earlier in the day (getting out of the house had been slow, since he was acting tired), what came next was one of our smoothest, fastest trips ever. Despite him very much missing mama when he woke up, he calmed down and we left the house about 3:45. We took the subway, walked to Costco, and explored the toys on the first floor, all with him in my arms or walking.

 

We then headed downstairs where we got our feta and cheddar cheeses, and free samples of kiwi, colby cheese, and a whole miniature chocolate bread thing (that August loved). We paid, then went and got food at the food court to take home. August saw the people in front of us get a smoothie (pineapple), so we got one as well.

 

At this point I finally put him in the carrier for the ride home. We headed back, drinking our smoothie, which he loved. On the platform, August was fascinated by a van somewhere overhead that was rattling. He kept looking up and pointing at it, saying “rattly fan”. On the train, August whined at first about standing (but barely), prompting another woman to jump up. I politely declined, then was shocked when she literally grabbed my arm (the one holding on to a handle) and started dragging me to the seat. I loudly said no in English and Korean to her and pulled away. She went back and laughed it off with another woman.

 

Anyway, we also stopped at Tous les Jours for bread on the way back and still made it back to the house right at 5:30: a full Costco trip in just over an hour and a half, with a toddler who wasn’t in a carrier for most of the time.

 

August had refused his sweatshirt on the way down (temperature was on the edge – about 60, but sunny and he was in long sleeves, pants, socks – so I didn’t push it), but on the way back we stopped by the family sculpture outside Costco (this is where I put him in the carrier). Noticeably cooler now, and August accepted the sweatshirt without a whimper.

 

Carly had worked a little later due to a meeting. When I didn’t let August play with the bread, he remembered she wasn’t home. So I said we could go play by the elevators until she got home. We went down (with his blue broom, of course) and played for 15 minutes until she got home just before 6.

 

She gave him a bath (more poop fun, as he pooped while she had him peeing at the toilet, and she didn’t realize it at first) and we did a lot of Duplo playing and the other usual evening stuff. First attempt to put him to sleep after 8:30 didn’t work. He bounced up for awhile, but was asleep a little after 9.

 

New words/phrases: frozen mango, help again, xylophone, shapes, squares (pointing to squares on drawer handles), come on Zinnie Dada class, sleepy time, night night area, I got my librarian, fan up there, “for the mama” (from Baa Baa Black Sheep)

Sleepy: 

Class: 

Costco trip:

Waiting for mama by the elevators: 

Evening:

August woke up about 8:15, missing mama. He stood at the front door for several minutes, hand on the handle, trying to go out to find her. Eventually, he calmed down and cuddled next to me on the little step, hugging Marshy.

 

He then saw the iPad before I had changed him, and he wanted to play Endless Reader. So he played that while I changed him – on his stomach, as that is how he had to be to play it.

 

We’ve been listening to Bob Dylan for the last couple days, and August notices the harmonica when he starts playing. Today, he was also pointing and saying “Bob Dylan”.

 

And I weighed him this morning. 24.9 pounds. Didn’t check his height.

 

We left about 10. Subway rides were a bit rough today, as August now wants to always sit down to look out the window. In fact, he says “Oma out the window” now, remembering when he sat next to Oma on the subway and looked out the window. And if he doesn’t get to sit, he gets upset. Today he got upset as we got to Yongmasan. So we got off and waited for the next train to Gunja. The transfer went better, and he got to sit for the train out to Olympic Park. Oh, and a little girl (at her mom’s behest) gave August a box of Pepero sticks on the first train.

 

At Olympic Park, we entered through the south entrance. Took our time walking (August was down) up the main walk, sweeping leaves as we went. Then walked over to the rose garden and admired that (and swept and threw rocks into the bushes), then found a spot nearby where we ate lunch, then played around, sweeping and writing letters, and did some yoga on a picnic platform. He was getting forceful with his directions to me to sweep, grabbing me by the finger and pulling me around near the exercise equipment to sweep: “dada sweep over here.”

 

We walked north, past the other flower garden, finding some sculptures we had missed on previous visits. Changed his diaper, then walked around until he fell asleep.

 

It was a short nap, 1:44 to 2:20. The coffee place I’d planned on going to didn’t work as the free tables were right by the door and had a speaker right overhead. So I went to the place on top of the Baekje Museum. Ended up sitting in a swanky (for us) Italian place where I paid $6.50 for a small cappuccino. Oddly, the side salad, which was pretty impressive, was only $5. August’s nap was short, and when he woke up he had fun eating the tomato from my salad, using my fork for much of it.

 

From there we went to the west playground and played there the rest of our time. It had the least shaky shaky bridge ever, but it was a nice wooden structure. August did several circles on top of it while I stood in one place. We went down one slide together, but his favorite thing was the steep stairs – he figured out how to slide down them on his bottom. He also rode on a big Jeep shaky toy with another girl.

 

I changed him at the park information center, then we headed home. The trip home started out a little rough. We entered the last car of the train and there weren’t any seats available. August instantly threw a fit, and ended up lying on the floor and pointing at the seats. I quickly picked him up, but both a woman and man jumped up. The woman instantly started telling me to sit down and wasn’t happy when I refused (giving a screaming toddler exactly what he wants the second he throws a fit doesn’t seem like a good idea). The man whipped out hard candy and started shoving it in August’s face. I refused that, then the man went around to my other side and was then touching August on the shoulder and head. Mind you, this all happened in less than a minute.

 

I got off at the next stop and we waited for the next train. August calmed down, but was hyper on the platform, rolling and crawling around on the floor. We got back on the next train and things went much smoother; he got a seat for that train (one more stop) and the next (3 stops), then did okay in the backpack for the longer ride up line 7 to home.

 

In the evening we did some good block playing – Carly made a really big tower and August knocked it down – he ate dinner of funny green soup, took a bath, and fell asleep about 8:30.

 

One thing I noticed today is that August is starting to lose his baby words: he has started to say horse, rabbit, flower, and garbage can instead of his baby words (neigh, sniffing noise, another sniffing noise, and hak-umm can).

 

New words/phrases: oatmeal, Bob Dylan, bus, flower, horse, persimmon, bicycle, tower, rabbit

Olympic Park, pre-nap. Rose garden: 

Lunch time: 

Sculpture: 

Just a really cool sculpture: 

After his nap: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

In the morning, Carly made hash browns for breakfast. August played with the blocks a lot, knocking them all down, and then walking from block to block.

In the late morning we all walked to Toys R Us. The idea was to check out shoe sizes and then look at Lotte Mart, as Carly had received a gift certificate. August was sad that the pet store was closed again (need to remember not to come on Sunday) and it turned out Lotte Mart was as well (because it closes two Sundays a month). But we accomplished looking at shoes, and we went to Toys R Us and bought some new play dough. August also had quite a bit of fun pushing a little chair around. Carly looked at Halloween costume stuff, but everything was a cape or hat – things August would not tolerate.

From there, we walked to Hageulbi Park and played there. He pretty much ignored the play structure this time. Instead, he wrote letters in the the dirt with me, and played on the steps with Carly.

We came home and he took his nap. In the late afternoon/evening, I took August out in the stroller for a walk along the stream. We went to Madeul Stadium and played in the playground there. Again, mainly in the sand and dirt, but he also wanted to climb up on the structure. First time on top, and there was the perfect shaky bridge for him (shaky bridges being the latest thing we are looking for in a playground). We went down the bumpy slide together once, and he seemed to like it, but he didn’t ask to go down again.

While we were gone, Carly had been making Oma’s yummy green soup. So we ate dinner. August loved it, and he saw me dipping bread in my soup, so he wanted to as well. He really liked that as well.

I gave him a bath. He just wanted to keep playing and playing. Eventually, he got out. Carly had made a big tower of all the cardboard blocks. Earlier, he had been knocking down towers she was making (and making a destructive ‘ahh!’ sound as he did so), but he was impatient and wouldn’t wait for her to rebuild a tower fully. So while we were in the bath, she had built the big tower. He knocked the big one down, making an impressive crash.

After that, there was some playing on the iPad (we were playing the Daniel Tiger Day and Night app for the first time, and Carly managed to brush his teeth), play dough, and coloring. He went to sleep around 10.

 

New words/phrases: helicopter, dada slide down, run by, gibbous, harmonica, letters

Toys R Us and park: 

Home: 

Madeul Stadium: 

Bath time: 

Before bed: 

Carly had parent conferences until noon. August woke up, groggy but happy, a little after 8. We played Endless Reader, Alphabet, and Wordplay on the iPad and ate banana bread for breakfast and took down recycling.

Around 11 we headed over to Home Plus. Looked at animals, then went down to do grocery shopping. Did most of it with August down, walking, but put him up in the carrier for the last couple of items, then back down once we’d paid.

We stopped in the park on the way back, first playing in the dirt by the fountain, then on our usual hill by the dinosaurs and playground. I had dressed him in grey pants and a grey long sleeve shirt, which is a little big, and his brown sandals. I decided he looked like buddhist August in that outfit. At 12:30 we headed home and met Carly.

August fell asleep about 1:20 and slept a little past 2:30. In the afternoon, we realized the cardboard bricks that we ordered had arrived, so Carly went down and picked them up. We spent the next hour or so putting together the bricks, while August played around us.

Carly was going to Home Plus, so we all went. In the park, I gave August the option of playground or Home Plus, and he chose Home Plus, pointing excitedly in the direction of it. Again at the other side of the park he had the choice between art museum and Home Plus. This time he chose art museum. He initially said bye bye to Carly, but as he saw her walking away across the street he changed his mind and started saying “Home Plus, Home Plus” and pointing. So we went to Home Plus. We helped a little with the shopping, but mainly looked at pets and got samples (pineapple, mandarin, and a little sausage – earlier he had apple).

We came home and there was a lot more playing – art, books (Kipper stories, Snoozers mainly), sweeping, rolling on the bed. He was also into looking out the window a lot (“people down there”, “hear tweet tweet”) and ‘helping’ sweep up the little cardboard waste pieces – whereby ‘helping’ meant sweeping them out of the pile I was trying to make.

In the evening, I read him the Leo Lionni book, Let’s Play. I paused before turning the page, and he said “pick flowers”, which was the thing the mice do on the next page. I was surprised, because we hadn’t read the book in quite awhile, and I’d never had him say any of the words in it. So I tested him, and found he could say many of the phrases in the book, like ‘read book’, ‘go swimming’, ‘play ball’, and ‘climb a tree’.

He took a nice long bath. He is totally comfortable sitting on the bottom now. In fact, today he was rolling onto his stomach and lying on the bottom. holding his head up by holding onto the side of the tub. 

In hindsight, he probably didn’t have enough outside time today, as he was rather hyper inside. Ultimately stayed up until 10, or a little past, which is a long time after waking up at 2:30. Carly had gone to sleep, at least for a few minutes, and August was playing with the new cardboard bricks, naming off the animals on them, and looking out the window. He turned to me and said ‘ko-gee-lee’, and got a big grin on his face because he knew he said it correctly. That’s Korean for elephant. He also started making the elephant sound/trunk motion today. Funny how he has sort of ignored elephants all this time. The change seems to have started with the Korean book we got last week (we were reading that more today as well), and really changed yesterday when he saw the elephants at the zoo.

We were happily playing there when suddenly August had the great poop emergency of 2015. Less said about it the better, but I woke Carly up as I took August to the changing room and she helped clean up the floor while I dealt with August.

He continues to work on plurals, and has also really been emphasizing the possessive ’s’ noise. He decided the little cardboard scrap pieces belonged to me or Carly. He would pick one up and say “mama’s” or “dada’s”. 

After changing him the last time, he was saying a bunch of things that I couldn’t figure out. This happens pretty regularly now, but this was 5 or 6 things in a row. 

Go outside, all the letters, help with pen, shoe came off, zip dada’s zipper, feel water, have ideaS, home plus, hot sausage, ko-gee-lee

Going out: 

Home: 

Home Plus: 

Evening: 

Due to parent conferences, Carly wasn’t going to be home until 6:30. So August and I had a nice long day at Children’s Grand Park – a nice way to end summer, as this might be the last full shorts and sandals day we have this year.

We were in no hurry to leave, so we took our time in the morning. He woke up at 8:13, happy but groggy. He came out to the kitchen and stood on his stool at the counter for a few minutes, stretching and waking up. We did our usual playing, and read that new Korean elephant book, where he started saying “kung” (Korean for ‘crash’) and “kitty cats hug”, pointing out a picture of two cats hugging.

At one point August was playing on the bed, and I asked if he wanted to go to the zoo. He immediately stopped what he was doing, slid off the bed, and started saying goodbye to all of the animals on the bed. We made it out of the house right at 10.

At the park we headed for the zoo. When asked what he wanted to see, he first said “lion” (a new word for him), then “serval”. But we got distracted by the playground, so we first played there. This was also the first week that the park and zoo were overrun with middle/high school students on field trips. Nice because they are exciting for August (and drew his attention to the playground) but they also tend to take over everything. Today, we were asked multiple times by groups to pose with them for a photo for some scavenger hunt. Not sure how getting your photo taken with a stranger was educational. We agreed twice, but then started saying no, as August was getting upset by all the attention.

We saw the elephants (first time he has really been excited by them) then escaped teenager attention by going to the upper floor of the water birds exhibit. Then back to see the lions, servals, etc., before returning to the children’s zoo to see the horses and goats, and then walking through the tropical building, and returning to the water birds on the first floor. He was very patient, trying to see a penguin through the doors in the back of their exhibit as they weren’t out. We saw one (and he said ‘penguin’ for the first time). 

Did our usual nap routine and he fell asleep quickly – barely over a quarter of a mile and less than 8 minutes. And he had a long nap, outside at Peace Cafe: 1:35 to 3:00.

He woke up and we hung out there for a little while. He looked at the counting book. Then back to animals: he wanted to see the seals, then we went to the deer. Where the old animal ride area used to be (thankfully they don’t do animal rides any more) they are building something new and taking the rust off of a covered area. August was fascinated by the sound of grinders (“saws”) on the roof, and the backhoes at work on the site. We got to see one backhoe move a tree, and another dig dirt. We watched for a few minutes, then he wanted to draw letters in their dirt.

Pushing our way into a construction site didn’t sound like a good idea, so we went to the Adventureland Playground and played there. Mostly letters and numbers in the sand, although a little play structure. He wanted to go on the rope bridge (“more shaky!”), but it was a narrow, much more advanced bridge, and wouldn’t easily take both of us. So we wandered around the rest of the playground, played with the instruments for a few minutes, and ended up by the train area. He liked the numbers (he can identify all the digits regularly, although he often calls ‘6’ a ‘9’). We played there for about 30 minutes, and before we left he helped fill a small plastic bag with garbage.

We went to the amusement park and to Popeye’s to get a chicken sandwich and cheese sticks. Ate them on the steps looking out at the rides. I called one crazy, so when watching it, August would say “more crazy!” He looked up close at some random display the had, and when we left it he said “Bye bye deer. Bye bye swans. Bye bye sagwas.” We watched the roller coaster up close, and I taught him to wave at the people when they came close.

Finally, I changed him. On the pad he was talking, and said “More Oma’s yummy green soup” out of no where. On our way out, he saw the “banana moon”, but it is a half moon now, so we decided to call it the “D moon”. He said it a few times, and later, when I asked him to tell Carly what kind of moon we saw he sad “D moon”.

Didn’t eat a lot today, although he ate little bits throughout the day (a few eggs in the morning, a little of my cheese stick and chicken from my sandwich, some Larabar, etc.)

We all played Duplos together at home, then Carly went to draw him a bath. He was reading Kipper stories with me, then got tired. Thought he would go to sleep at this point, but he was reluctant to go to sleep, although he was never in a shape for a bath. Carly said he kept trying to crawl backwards off the bed, saying “more dada”. But he was asleep by 8:45.

Emailed my mom to wish her a happy birthday, and Carly and I watched episode 3 of Modern Family.

New words/phrases: red, kuung (Korean for crash), kitty cats hug (pointing to picture of cats hugging), penguin, puma right there, waterfall on, bye bye camel and blue broom (first use of ‘and’, unless I imagined him saying it), left shoe, broom off, crazy, na-beeS (lot of focus on using plurals today), yellow flowers, pink flowers

Zoo: 

After his nap. I pulled out the chair and set down the book. He sat down and started looking at the book on his own while I threw away my garbage and put away the book I was reading: 

Playground: 

Headed home: 

 

He had a very happy wake up at 8:07 and we played on the bed for awhile. Later in the morning we ended up playing back on the bed and I taught him about rolling on the bed for the first time. He does it a little himself, but mainly thinks it is hilarious for me to roll on the bed. But as usual, the first thing he wanted to do was play with Duplos. After that we ate breakfast: he ate some banana bread, two whole eggs with pepper, some mango, and a couple pieces of broccoli. I had him wear his Lake Chelan animals shirt today (each shirt he has is now getting a name – he calls this one the ‘animals shirt’). We spent quite awhile learning the animals on it. He now knows raccoon, wolf, beaver, and puma (which we’ve been working on at the zoo). And as I was changing him before we left, he got interested in my t-shirt – the ‘I power KEXP’ shirt that uses a blocky font.

Anyway, we left a little before 11. Pollution levels were really high, but luckily for us tapering off after being high overnight. So didn’t affect our outing. We stood on the ride to Dream Forest, then walked to see the deer – which he requested, but then didn’t want to stay at. So we headed on to the playground, where we played for the next 90 minutes. Lot of up and down the stairs, playing with rocks and sticks, and also walking on the “shaky” rope  bridge. And he went down the slide a few times. When a childcare group would come through he would get surrounded by big kids for a few minutes, which both amused and startled him. He really liked staring at the group of teenagers (“big kids”) when they came by. At one point, he sort of played a chase game around a toy structure with a girl who was 3 or 4 – although I’m not sure she knew they were playing. He then hid between my legs, and kept saying “bye bye girl” and waving to her.

He found a stick and wanted to write letters, so for 20 minutes we went over to the small play area and wrote in the sand (and he stepped on them, of course). He also found someone’s abandoned rock collection, so we played and wrote with those.

A little past 1 I took him in to change him and start the nap process. Walked along some trails we had never been on. He’d slept 12 hours, so it took longer to get him to sleep – about 25 minutes and a mile. Went back to Dream Cafe and he only slept 30 minutes. Not surprising, given the long night.

We spent the rest of our time in the book cafe. He pulled down some chapter books, and then found a book about insects with nice watercolor paintings. And then we started playing Endless Reader on the iPad. Like Endless Alphabet, but the words are in lower case, and once you finish a word, you put words into sentences. He caught on pretty quickly: the lower case letters didn’t throw him. Putting the words into sentences was more difficult, but he got the general idea. His favorite words was ‘funny’ (not a surprise) in the sentence for ‘dog’. A couple times, he picked up my empty coffee cup with a straw and offered water to the dog on the iPad.

I changed him once more before we left a little before 4. He played with my hat on the changing pad – putting it on his head, then playing peek-a-boo. We left, and walked the main street-ish back way to APIS, getting there right at 4:30. Carly nursed him, then we walked home.

We stopped at the pink building for some groceries (including spaghetti sauce that wasn’t spicy), and August ate a whole bowl of non-spicy spaghetti for dinner. We did more rolling and playing on the bed and playing with Duplos. Carly created a structure with pretty much every animal and Duplo piece. I then got video of August pointing to all of the animals and naming them. We also played more on the bed, and added to our rolling, with him pushing or pulling me to get me rolling. And we had some good coloring and letter writing time after Carly gave him a bath and before she tried to get him to sleep around 9.

With him only taking a 30 minute nap and waking at 2:20, you would think he’d go to sleep a bit earlier. Not to be. He stretched it until almost 10:20. Very hyper boy. Kept wanting more water, and playing with the light switch in the bedroom, and wanting to come out and see me (although he would act like he was afraid of me, standing in the doorway, saying ‘Dada out there’, but not coming down the hallway). Anyway, eventually I went in too and sang to him and Carly got him to sleep.

New words/phrases: enormous C (normo C), mango off my face (as I was wipin his face), puma, raccoon, wolf (oof), beaver, beaver at the zoo (pointing out towards books), bye bye wawa. Set counter. (Then runs out of room to set bottle on the counter), help dada’s shirt, funny, bye bye book cafe, food, lunch, boy/girl, lion

Dream Forest playgrounds: 

Inside and Dream Cafe: 

Offering the doggy water: 

As Max again. Notice he now has to crouch to put his head through: 

APIS and walking home: 

Home: 

In his sleep Carly found him near the end of the bed once, and one time crawling towards bottom of bed. Later, I heard him say ‘tippy toes’ in his sleep.

He woke up just after 7:30. Wasn’t happy to see me; he wouldn’t let me touch him and kept saying “all done dada”, meaning he was either all done with me, or still sleepy, as ‘all done’ is what he says when he is sleepy. Anyway, he finally made his way off the bed and walked into the room with the Duplos. At this point he grabbed my finger and led me to the Duplos, pulling me down to sit. He then pushed my arms towards the Duplos and leaned on my shoulder as I started playing with them. 

He drank some milk and we ate oatmeal with blackberries for breakfast. We then skyped with my parents. Dee and Grant are visiting them for two days, so we were able to Skype with Dee as well. August spent a lot of the time sitting at the table, coloring or having me write letters. At the end, he said “bye bye Dee”.

We then started getting ready to go. Pollution levels have been highish. Planning on being outside Thursday and Friday, so figured we’d try to avoid the worst of it. We headed to Dobongsan, where levels were below 100, with the intention of going to the Iris Garden, then maybe a couple different children’s parks and/or the stream.

On the train north we sat, and August immediately wanted to get out his broom and start sweeping, which drew a laugh from other people on the train. We got there and started playing in the Iris Garden. August found some discarded stems (there were a lot of people working in the park) that we used to write letters in the sand. At some point he got hungry, so we walked along the boardwalk area along the stream and to the bench area. The swinging bench, where he had napped before, was broken, but there were plenty of other benches. Along the way a woman told me August was cold. It was sunny and close to 70, and getting warmer and we were both wearing t-shirts and shorts.

We ate lunch. Today when I divided the sandwich I made them very equal. August’s response was to grab both pieces, take a bite out of one of them, then hand me that piece. That piece he then called Dada’s sandoo, calling his own piece ‘Auggie’s sandoo’ for a change.

We then walked around the garden, August saying ‘Dobongsan’ a lot, and settled at a bench/pathway near the north end where we got out the shovel and other toys and played with them, particularly the ball and boat. More letter writing and silliness ensued. Pollution levels were still rising, and now higher than Nowon. So I decided to head a few stops father north, to Uijeongbu, where we could nap inside then play out on the roof of the department store.

I changed him at the park around 12:30 and put him in the backpack. He was looking tired right away. He managed to stay awake on the platform, even saying “ah-ha, I see it” when he saw a train going the other direction. But he fell asleep on the train at 1:13.

Got to the department store and went way up to the top floor to the movie theater. Found what I thought was a decent place to sit in the lobby, but turned out to be louder than I expected, as there were these loud announcements for peoples’ popcorn orders or something. He only slept to 1:47, although he woke up okay.

We went down and played on the roof, mainly walking around on the rubbery hills and with the ropes on the bridge. Then went down to the 8th floor to change him. We then played at the toy table at the toy store, but August kept wanting the toys the girl next to us had. The second time this happened he really started crying. He was looking really tired, and I thought he might fall back to sleep. I took him for a walk away from the store and he calmed down. Then he started saying “fun” and pointing. I let him lead, and he led us back to the table. We played around the store for another half hour or so, and he did much better this time. 

Getting close to 4, so we went back up to the roof to play for awhile longer. We were throwing and rolling the ball around. August started to get upset when one little boy tried to play with it. This was the second smaller boy that was fascinated with August, and kept trying to touch him. August was generally polite, but kept walking away from them. Another boy, bigger than him this time, gave him a cheese stick, which August liked.

Finally, we headed home. Waited about 15 minutes in a train, as we chose the empty one starting at Uijeongbu as opposed to the one from father north that was full. We were able to sit and play on the iPad. For the train from Dobongsan home we were able to sit again, this time entertaining himself by looking out the window and telling the other people about his brooms, including “yellow broom (at) home”.

We got home a little after Carly. Carly prepared veggies for spaghetti sauce, but we then realized that the sauce we had was spicy. August wasn’t eating much else, so when I was eating the spaghetti, I let him try a noodle. He reacted rather surprised, and said “spicy hoo-ha (noodle)”, but then wanted more. We put him in his seat and gave him a bunch and he devoured them, sometimes acting like his mouth was hot, but still eating more.

I gave him a bath tonight and he played for a long time. Carly then put him to sleep a little before 8.

I watched the first two episodes of the new Walking Dead season. A great start, and they’ve gone (apparently) very off-script from the graphic novels. Carly and I also watched the first two episodes of the Modern Family season. So kind of a catch up on TV night.

New words/phrases: color blue (pointing to ink on his hand), stamp pad, dada missed it, Dobongsan, itchy right here, have idea, fun, fire extinguisher (fire ex-ting-sher), yellow broom home

Zinnie’s screwdriver and my pen: 

Iris Garden: 

Department store: 

Pointing up to a van vent: 

Patting and waving to the turtle on our way out: 

In the subway station: 

Spicy spaghetti:

August had started waking up around 4am, getting Carly up for good at 4:45. I don’t know how she managed that. She got him back to sleep a little before 7, and he slept until 8:30. When he woke up, he opened the door, bumping his forehead slightly, as he was rubbing it as he walked down the hall, and went straight for the Duplos.

We made banana bread and he played some iPad and ate breakfast (milk, Cheerios, and then banana bread) before getting ready to head to his class.

His class today was about the grocery store and categorizing foods. She had four tables: one for toys, one for fruits, one for veggies, and one for meat. August really liked going to each table and playing with the objects. 

While at home, he had surprised me when, telling him we would go to class, he said ‘seongsaegnim’ – or some version of it that was at least recognizable. That is Korean for ‘my teacher’, and is how you address teachers. Of course, I’ve used it a lot – and he’s heard it used in class by the teacher and the other parents – but he hadn’t said it before. I then also found out he could say ‘Jungbean’, the name of the boy in class that he knows from other classes, and seemed to know who that was.

So, we had used these names during class, and at the end, I got him to say ‘bye bye seongsaegnim’ to his teacher. But he was really into saying ‘bye bye Jungbean’, and said it to him several times.

We went down and went grocery shopping, exploring the pet area first with August carrying around the basket.

We came home and ate raviolis for lunch, and at 1:30 I decided to try to put August to sleep without the carrier. Didn’t expect much, but figured I’d give it 10 minutes. Well, he looked on the verge of sleep, but he was just sitting on the bed, refusing to lie down or let me touch him. I kept singing, and his head would tilt back and he’d start to fall over – but he’d catch himself and jerk awake. Finally, I got smart and stacked pillows around him. He fell asleep like that at 1:50, mostly sitting up, without me touching him at all.

He slept for 47 minutes. I went in, and he clearly wanted to go back to sleep. Managed to sing him back to sleep once, but as he fell asleep he kind of rolled to his right and off the pillows. He tried laying there for a few seconds, but got back up. I rebuilt the pillows around him, but he was now too upset. So I picked him up and he fell asleep in my arms. I sat on the couch and he slept on me for 40 minutes (2:47 to 3:27) while I watched ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ (with headphones). So kind of the two extremes of napping.

 At 4 we headed out of the house, him in the backpack, and walked east to Cuckoo Bird Children’s Park (뻐꾸기어린이공원), southeast of Home Plus. We had played there just once before. He climbed the stairs to the play structure, walked across the slightly shaky bridge, and went down the slide. The slide was always with me, but he did the stairs and bridge on his own at times. We also just played up in the structure as there weren’t other kids. He surprised me by pointing to a sign in there and saying ‘Hangeul’, the Korean alphabet. And he had fun pushing me over, and then pulling me up by the shirt.

School was out and other kids showed up, so we made room for them and left. We went to the art museum and went through the downstairs art, looking at the Alice in Wonderland box and other art. When we exited that main room, August asked for “more crackers”, still remembering the visit several times ago when a woman gave us crackers. And when he saw the tree outside, he still said “waterfall”, even though I’m not entirely sure what he’s talking about (I think maybe the tree, which is a sculpture, has a water feature on it, and we saw it in the spring, but since then it has never been on). Finally, he remembered that there is a drinking fountain with little paper cups that we’ve drunk out of before and he wanted the “yummy cold wawa”.

August had been holding his blue broom when we left the house. He held it, transferring hands, the entire time we went to and played at the park, and then to and through the art museum. He only set it down when he then decided he was hungry and wanted banana bread. We ate that outside the museum, and when he was done he immediately wanted the broom back.

We walked and met Carly and Megan just south of Brownstone and headed home, stopping at Tous les Jours for bread. August was upset when Carly left to go in to get the bread, but we spied on her through the window and that made him happy.

Came home and had did the usual dinner/bath routine. Carly gave him his bath today. He is continuing to really enjoy bath time, and sit down now.

He went to sleep at 8:30, an early night as of late.

I finished season one of Fear the Walking Dead after he went to sleep. Thought the last episode moved quickly, but really liked it overall. During his nap I was working on translating the class schedule for winter session, as I need to figure out what classes to enroll him in.

New words/phrases: patience grasshopper, volcano, seongsaengnim (‘my teacher’ in korean), Elmo shirt, Jungbean (friend in class), panda, crow, bye bye Jungbean, doggie/kaa food, Hanguel, shaky, wawa on my(?) shirt (drinking out of little cup at museum), mama’s tea all gone

Class: 

Home Plus. Nice spelling: 

Napping sitting up: 

Children’s park: 

Smog sun: 

Where he claims the waterfall is at the art museum: 

He woke up at 8:10 and opened the door and came out, going pretty much directly for his two brooms. We made a smoothie for breakfast. We left the house a little before 11, taking a subway two stops south to Taerung, then a bus east to the area of the old Hwarangdae train station area. We then:

– Tried to walk into the Korea Military Academy to go to the Army Museum. The guard we talked to didn’t speak Korean, but we got that it is only open certain days.

– Found a wood carving workshop area at the old train station. We got to see a lot of carvings they had out (August liked the fish and turtle). They also have an indoor wooden playground, but it too was not open today.

– Walked into Seoul Women’s University. We sat next to a fountain and ate lunch (he again took Dada’s sandoo when we divided the sandwich), then played in the sand and dirt and rocks in two different spots. He is still into “Dada do C” and every other letter.

– Sat in Solbat Community Park while August took a 70+ minute nap from 1:42 to close to 3.

– Played in the nearby Chengsol Children’s Park. A lot more letter drawing, but we also climbed over the play structure and went down a slide together. He then went down a slide on his own. As we left, we found a nearby play structure in the apartment complex that was pretty cool, so we climbed on it for a few minutes and August picked out the animals on the side.

– Walked north to Songlim (Pine Tree?) Children’s Park and played with the biiig rocks, mainly stacking them on a bigger rock for a few minutes.

– Stopped at the SeoulTech Art Museum as we walked home. This is where we went with my parents to the Arttoys exhibit. We still have the program from that exhibit and he looks at it a lot (BB is his favorite figure in it). Anyway, we didn’t stay long (and it is small), but August’s favorite was a collection of objects that look like eggs.

– Walked home, arriving just after Carly.

I then went to my writing group meeting. When I got home a couple minutes after 8:30 I was surprised to find Carly putting August to sleep – his earliest evening in quite awhile. While I was gone they’d played Duplos and made a pretty impressive structure in the middle of the rug. When August is working on his Duplos like that he is very focused for a surprisingly long time, finds it funny when the fall over, saying things like “uh-oh, spaghetti-Os”.

New words/phrases: net, goose, house, want to go outside, soy milk, duyu (korean for soy milk), more eggS, dada find big rock

Seoul Women’s University: 

Pine cone: 

Bark: 

Children’s park after his nap: 

Second children’s park: 

Carly and August’s creation: