Category: Uncategorized

August slept late, until 9:30. When he woke up, Carly opened the door, but he got down off the bed, walked out into the living room, and climbed up on the couch. Soon, he saw the iPad and said “want to play baa baa”. Let him play Endless Alphabet for a bit instead. I made French toast for breakfast. The rest of the morning involved a lot of sweeping (“dada sweep!” “mama sweep!” “sweep here!”), looking at wood grain (“more grain!”), and playing with the alphabet cards. He also spent some time poking an apple core with his plastic fork.

We then took him for a walk over to Hanguelbi Park, the park SE of Toys R Us with the playground set back in the middle of apartment buildings and a school. He did some climbing on the play structure and went down some slides. He then went down a big twisty slide with Carly a couple times.

We came home and he took a good nap, not waking up until close to 4. After his nap, we all went to Home Plus. He spent more time carrying around the basket and looking at the aquariums. We went downstairs and we did our grocery shopping. We waited with the baskets while Carly went to find something. He had fun looking at the groceries and stacking them. Got a bit upset though when we had to leave and then pay for the groceries, as he wanted to keep playing and touching everything. 

Carly came home and started working on the curry dish. August and I played in the corner of the park by Carly’s bus stop: picking up crab apples, carrying around big rocks, and sitting on the ‘3’ and eating snacks. 

We came home for awhile to change August, then went back out to the park in the dark around 6:30 to the playground. Ran into the sisters Claudia and Mikayla for a minute. Did some seesawing, sliding, and climbing on the structure. August had three falls: got knocked over by a girl by the slide, fell over the seesaw bar, and fell to his knees walking across the bridge at the end. Only the last hurt him, as he scraped his knees on the concrete. While out there he had figured out how to climb over the seesaw bar, worked on climbing up the bars to the structure (but still asked for help to get up), and worked hard climbing up the stairs to the bridge. 

Came home and ate dinner. Had a good bath. Went to sleep at 10 after reading Many Nations a few times. 

New words/phrases: all gone mama’s French toast, sweep here, want to play baa baa, more down slide, now what do?, now what to do?, flounder, dada whee (when he wants me to swing him by the arms when we walk), nurse (full word)

Hangeulbi Park: 

Home Plus: 

Our park: 

Second outing: 

Back home: 

Carly had a lot of grading work to get done today. I took August out twice, and we did a lot around the house.

In the morning, Carly skyped with her parents and took out recycling. August led me in some yoga. And we made homemade oatmeal, topping it with honey and canned blackberries. August also did a lot of coloring. He can now identify/say nine colors: black, brown, blue, green, peach, pink, orange, yellow, and purple. Still working on white and red.

I then took him over to the park, where we mainly played, for the first time, in the petrified wood display between the dinosaurs and the senior center. He spent most of the time sweeping off the rocks with his little blue broom and walking (usually with my help) around the rocks.

He took a long nap; close to two hours, I think. After that, the three of us played on the bed for a long time. He ended by playing with Carly’s Nook, somehow landing on ‘More D’ for wanting to look for letters on it. When he was finally done and we left the room, it was an epic session of ‘bye bye’, with him saying, multiple times: “bye bye mama’s book”, “bye bye pillow”, “bye bye Marshy”, “bye bye kitty cat”, “bye bye Pooh”, etc.

In the afternoon I took August for a walk and to another park. It is called Gukhwa Children’s Park, and it about a 25 minute walk to the southeast – past the hospital. Carly walked with us for a few minutes to get outside before returning to do more work.

Last time at the park (we’ve only been there once), August was all about sitting on the bottom of the slide (his thing at the time) and playing in the sand (for about the first time). Today, it was all about writing letters in the sand. He would say “Dada do C” or whatever letter he wanted me to write. We then had a game where he would walk on my letter and find it hilarious. I’d say “Don’t step on my letter!” He turned this into saying “Stepsie!” when he stepped on it: a combination of ‘whoopsie’, which he often says when he does something on purpose, and ‘step’.

We played there about 40 minutes, then went back up the street and ordered a couple pizzas at Pizza Myung, a little pizza place up the street. Then back to the park for 10 minutes while we waited. I tried him on the swings, but he would’t focus on holding on – he kept getting excited by the CU convenience store across the street, pointing and saying “C U!” because of the letters. So we went over to the castle/easy climbing wall area, and he had fun walking up and down the climbing wall (it isn’t exactly steep). Then put him in the backpack and picked up our pizza and headed home.

On the way, we saw the crescent moon. We have started calling these ‘banana moon’, because he would see them in books and he would call them ‘nanana’. I would tell him it was a moon, thus the phrase ‘banana moon’. But this was the first time we saw the real moon. After he saw it, when it went behind the buildings he would say “bye bye nanana moon.” At home, in front of Carly, I asked him, “What did we see in the sky?” “Banana moon”, was his answer. Very cool to realize he could understand that question.

There was one big mystery that we couldn’t figure out: as we were walking, he looked up, like towards the tops of the buildings or trees, and was saying something like ‘cut’. Neither Carly or I could figure it out. He gets a big grin when you do figure out what he is saying, and we didn’t get that.

We ate pizza for dinner. August is a fan, eating almost a whole piece. A lot of playing in the evening, with Duplos, his new glass markers (although we used them on paper), reading in the reading area, and in the bath. And a LOT of looking at the wood grain throughout the day. He slides across the floor, saying “grain, grain, grain” and pointing. He also did it on the headboards when we were playing on the bed. He also had some iPad time in the evening. A lot of jumping around between his usual programs. I also introduced the Montessorium Letters app to him. He doesn’t have the fine motor control yet to trace the letters himself, but he liked holding on to my finger as I did it, and he would make the letter sounds.

He was up until close to 10. Will probably have a good night’s sleep.

New words/phrases: garbage recycling, red, cooking, ravioli (rah-vole-ee), Pooh dada hug, button on mama’s shirt, Smokey (kee-kee), no flag (no flags on flag pole), dada do c, banana moon, sorry mama

Petrified wood: 

Back home: 

Children’s Park:  

August was up at 6:30. Original thought was to go to Dobongsan, but since it is cooler now I figured we’d go in the afternoon. We’ play at home in the morning and go to Home Plus, then take his nap before going.

So we did a lot in the morning. he was playing with an ‘art’ and setting it on Angeles’s head. We skyped with Gramma and Grampa, but that didn’t last too long due to connection issues. We read the Sandra Boynton Snoozers book, and he really got into the “Night Sounds” poem, learning all of the snoring noises. Played a little Night Night Circus on the iPad, then made a mango banana smoothie. 

At one point I had my back turned and he got down off his stool. I turned back around to find him rubbing his head. I asked him what happened. He looked at me, very serious and said “bumped head…counter.”

He really got into sweeping today and finding hairs to throw away, later getting both brooms out and insisting I sweep with the other. 

Around 10 we went out to go to Home Plus. First stopped in the park and played. He worked on climbing the play structure and went down the slide. He went over to the dinosaurs and said “biiiiig dinosaur”. He was also fascinated by a saw he kept hearing off in the distance.

At Home Plus we spent at least a half hour on the first basement floor. He had the basket and was walking around. Did really well, although obviously I had to keep an eye on him and keep him from touching a few things. Before we got there, he said “go to see lizard”. Spent most of the time looking at the animals and their supplies. In particular he liked the empty pre-furnished aquariums. I noticed this at the zoo too, where he also likes the empty cages, looking at the plants, pieces of wood, and concrete structures.

Finished our shopping there and went down to groceries. Put him in the carrier and finished shopping.

At home, he finished off his smoothie and wanted more. When I changed him he said on his own “bye bye Auggie poop.” Tried to get him to sleep without the carrier. No luck. Spent about 40 minutes on it. He would only lie down for a second and kept wanting to walk around. Finally gave up and put him in the carrier and went for a little walk and he fell asleep. Slept 1:35 to 3:25. Around 3 I went in to see if he would wake up. No luck. So I lay down next to him to rest. When he woke up, I think he thought I was Carly and was upset when she wasn’t around.

He ate some more, then we went out to the closest playground in the apartment complex on our walk to the bridge over the river. Played there about an hour, climbing up the stairs and going down the slide. Both he did with my help at first, but he went down the slide twice on his own without wanting to hold my finger.

There was a man with two kids there. Girl a little older than August, boy a couple years. We had the tennis ball out by then, and they played with him with the ball for about 10 minutes. A little much for August (particularly the boy) and eventually he said “all done. Broom. Broom. More sweep.” and went back to sweeping the playground until Carly and Megan showed up and we went home.

A standard evening. He and Carly did some good Duplo playing. I took over at some point and could tell what word Carly was using with him while playing: he kept saying “idea” and “now what?”

I gave him a bath. He was eager to get in the water as it was filling. Told him we had to take off his clothes and then pee in the toilet. He replied with “pee bathtub”.

He stayed up until about 9:30. He tries to stay up by requesting each of his stuff animals, and by popping up and saying “more dada” or “more wawa”. And saying “all done nurse.”

New words/phrases: dada get it (ball under table), bumped head counter, go to see lizard, idea, now what?, sweet, pee in bathtub, octopus, sail, kangaroo (langahop), all done nurse

 

Waking up: 

At the playground: 

Home Plus: 

Loving the empty aquariums: 

Smoothie: 

Playground: 

Home: 

Reading the new Korean counting book: 

We went to Children’s Grand Park, as usual. Headed out a bit later than usual, as we did two loads of laundry in the morning. On our way to the the subway, there was a fundraiser fair happening, and we bought 3 Korean picture books for 2000 won: a version of Alice in Wonderland, Heidi, and then a book about an elephant and other animals on a wire. The art in each of them is really cool.

On the way down we initially sat in an open bank of 3 seats. The train filled up, and I gave up my seat. August ended up sitting between two really nice women who played with him the entire way down.

At the park, there was a small festival setting up near the stage near the entrance. We were handed a free Pororo puzzle. As we entered the park, I asked August what animal he wanted to see. His first answer? Serval. He said it sticking his arm out in front of him, palm down and fingers spread. This became ‘the serval thing’ and I’d ask him to do it later and he would.

So we headed towards the serval. I set him down at the elephants. Looked at them, then the lions, tigers, etc. until we got around to the servals. He did, indeed like the servals. We finished up that stretch (coyotes, foxes, hyenas), then went to the water birds. We walked up to the second floor and sat down and watched the birds while we ate. 

I tried to divide the sandwich as evenly as possible, but he immediately grabbed the slightly larger piece and called it “dada’s sandoo”. And pointed to mine and called it “Zinnie’s sandoo”. He continued with those names again even as he ate “dada’s sandoo”. 

He sat on my lap, eating the sandoo and watching the birds. He was playing around as he finished eating. A couple came along with a 17 month boy. He had a big backhoe he could ride. They had tied a rope to it so they could pull it around. August really liked it, and they let him ride/play on it. He loved it, mainly the backhoe part (“More scoop”) and the buttons that made noise. When he had to give it back he got really sad. So we headed downstairs, where we looked at the birds a little more before heading over to see the lizards, etc.

I realized I can identify all 15 kinds of water birds they have in the building. Also, I think I know every mammal they have at the zoo. We then went to the lizards and turtles and I now have all of them down as well. That leaves the parrot-type birds and the birds they have in cages outside (pheasants, etc.).

Anyway, he was into that building as usual. Pointed to the parrot room and said “parakeet”. As it got to 1 it was time to get ready for his nap. We went out and he wanted to see the goats and horses first. At the goats he pointed to the one with horns and said “dada goat”, then to another adult and said “mama goat”, then to the babies and said “baby goat”. He did the same sort of thing with the horses, even though they are all about the same size. He wanted to sit on the steps, so we did that for a few minutes, then I took him up for our nap routine.

Changed him in the bathroom and did the usual walk to put him to sleep. 

Carly mentioned that when people ask her what August is like, her first word is ‘hilarious’. An example of his sense of humor happened after I changed him. He saw a fan up by the window in the wall. He then saw that it was plugged in to an outlet, about 7 feet off the ground. As I carried him out, he said “bye bye no no area”. He kept repeating that several times since I laughed.

He fell asleep from 1:28 to 2:13. We sat outside at the cafe and I read. When he woke up he looked at letters on the book I was reading, then we went down to the festival area. Walked around and watched people, including the two guys on stilts. A band was doing soundcheck, playing a cover of “Mmm Bop”. I am not making that up. 

August didn’t want to stay at the festival. I let him choose where we went. He directed me to the swampy areas, looking for gaeguli (frogs) and pointing out all the Haechi pictures on the ‘Don’t enter the water’ signs. He then wanted to go to the children’s museum.

So we went to the children’s museum. I think we’ve only been back once since the summer. We walked around the first first floor and ended up in the ball play area. Spent some time in the ‘under 4’ room, but ended up in the ‘5 and up’ room as it is more fun. The balls spilled on August twice, but he found it exciting. Eventually, he said he was hungry, so we went up to the third floor and finished off the sandwich in the small eating area.

I changed him before we left. There are animals on the wallpaper, and he was pointing them out. First he said “animal” and was pointing out the individual animals. Then he suddenly started working on his plural. He would say ‘animal ssss’. There was no snake on the wallpaper, so I knew he wasn’t doing his snake sound.

Before leaving the park, we stopped by the festival again. There was a K-pop dance group on stage. Rather odd, considering it was a children’s festival, especially when they were dancing to a mix that included the Sir Mix-a-Lot line “My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns, hun.”

We headed home. Had to stay in the backpack for the ride home. In the subway station he saw the maps and was calling each “Opa’s map” after the one day Chuck was looking at maps in the subway.

At home he immediately laid on the carpet and was pointing out letters on a book. We switched backpacks and went to the pink building for grocery shopping. Did that, then went into the bookstore there. Ended up buying a really cool Korean baby animals counting book and a set of nice English letter flashcards. 

Came home. Carly had just beaten us. She played with the flashcards with him. He had dinner and she gave him a bath. He still hasn’t sat down entirely in the bath. Today, after Carly was done washing him and he had let some of the water out, I asked him to sit down, and he did it. Progress.

Expected him to go to sleep earlier due to the short nap, but that didn’t happen. We all ended up playing on the bed for a long time, with the sheet and stuffed animals. Unfortunately, it ended when he stood up and took two sudden steps to the edge of the bed. There were blankets hanging off the edge and he thought they were solid. They were not. He fell and hit his chin on the bed frame, getting a little cut.

Carly calmed him down, and taught him that kisses make it better. He was sticking out his chin for us to kiss it, and he would say “feels better”. Finally, sometime after 9 he fell asleep.

Oh, and the Peace Cafe got a couple of new books in that I will read. I had thought there was just two books I was interested in left after I finished the one that I’m on. Now they have Still Life with Rice The Guernsey…

New words/phrases: sweatshirt, parakeet, dada sing baa baa, teeter totter (tee-tee-oh), go to see mama, heeby jeeby e f g, tongue, feet, feels better

Children’s museum: 

At home: 

Our first full day without Oma and Opa around. He handled it pretty well, but mentioned them pretty often, especially in the evening when he started walking around, trying to find them.

After he woke up after 8 we took the morning to finish cleaning and setting up the laundry/etc. room. August found the chunk of ginger that Megan had given Carly, and was walking around carrying it, saying “ginger”. He also found the paper for one of his Duplo sets in the drawer, and was pointing to the picture on the front, so I built the farm for him, and now he is calling it “farm”. He kept wanting to go outside, and we finally made it outside a little after 11.

We walked and took a bus up to Danggogae Station. This is the valley where Chuck and Cherie walked up to a temple. There is an extension of the Seoul Trail that I’ve been meaning to do, so August and I started it today. From the station we walked up to the stamp location for the Seoul Trail. I had taken August here before when I went back to get the stamp. There is a pagoda near it where we had sat and he had crawled around on the floor. We stopped here again and had lunch. I divided the sandwich, and August traded. As he ate the piece he now had, he continued to call it “dada’s sandoo”. I had checked in the backpack to make sure there was a pair of shoes. It turned out the pair that was in there was a pair of Vans that I tried the other day but couldn’t get on over his socks. Luckily, he wasn’t wearing socks and they fit. So after he ate he was walking around in those, playing with little rocks, and watching a little beetle on the ground.

Eventually we took off walking. Very nice area, and the trail climbs up over a tunnel on the Seoul ring road. August kept himself entertained with songs, either by himself or with me singing. He found it hilarious when I said “whoop-de-doo” in a little chant thing I know.

He fell asleep at 1:27. Suddenly, the trail became very devoid of sitting spots. Made it down to a road and walked back to the station. At 2 I was walking up to Danggogae Park (where the climbing wall is – Chuck and Cherie had been here) and he woke up. A short nap, but as you’ll see, he apparently didn’t need more.

Set him down and took him out of the backpack to realize one show – his left – was missing. So we walked back about a half mile looking for it. August seemed to enjoy the search. No luck finding the shoe. A good one to lose, as I had planned on donating them since they weren’t going to be of much use during the winter.

Back to the park. Sat on a bench near at the playground and ate some more. August was very focused on hearing today. He had pointed out crickets when we were hiking. In the park he started by saying “hear train” and pointing off through the trees in the direction of the tracks. He kept saying it, and started adding in the article, making it “hear a train”. Then he said “hear a car” and “hear a tweet tweet”. Later, someone up the hill started singing. He started by saying “singing” (a new word) and pointing. Then he surprised me further by saying “someone singing”.

While we were at the playground there was a girl, age 6 (Korean, so 4 or 5), named Haneul that played with him and talked to me using all of her English (and all of my Korean, for that matter). August was sweeping the slides and she was at the top when they first met, and August had a lot to say to her. She would repeat what he said. She was sliding down the slide, which was going fine, but at one point accidentally knocked him off the end. Not a hard fall, but he was shocked and sad. He was afraid of her for a couple minutes, but went back to waving and talking to her, and when she was leaving he said “bye bye Haneul” many, many times.

I changed him in preparation of leaving, then he started climbing on and walking/crawling across the benches. At one he stopped in the middle and did some bench yoga. I had packed up, ready to leave, only to find that he had pooped, so I need to change him again.

Finally headed home, getting back about 4:40. Had planned to quickly trade for the regular backpack and go to the store, but he immediately went and found his ‘whale shark’ (his Duplo whale and shark) and started playing with them. They were the first Duplos he had played with in the morning. He was very focused on getting both of them on the same square piece. So we spent 10+ minutes on that, then Carly got home. He would play with and say “whale shark” a couple times later in the evening.

Oh, and we started to work on reading today. Carly decided that ‘coffee’ would be a good sight word, since he can find it on signs. And I thought ‘art’ would be good too. So in the morning when he was coloring I made signs for each and hung them up in the appropriate location in the house. I swear a couple times when we were out he said “bye bye a-r-t”) but I am not positive, since he was also saying “bye bye train’ (and his ’train’ sounds a lot like just ’t’) in those talks.

Anyway, his first sight words might actually be ‘Cassie’ and ‘Welcome’. He found the photo collage of Cassie and Vivian and Jeff as I had set in on the floor when we were moving things around. He started by pointing down to a photo of Vivi and saying “ah-gee down there”. But then he started focusing on the letters. And I was teaching him that Tia’s name is Cassie. So he was pointing to the C and saying ‘Cassie’ first, then he started saying “W, welcome”. He did this later with Carly. Can’t really be considered a sight word until he does it someplace else, but we will see.

Despite the short nap, he decided he was going to stay up. Made it to 9 something. I was pretty drained by then. He was really fighting sleep. Mainly he didn’t even seem to be tired. But at one point he wanted to play Duplos and Carly took him away. He lost it, and wasn’t calming down in the bedroom, wailing “more baa baa”. So I took him his Duplo sheep. Helped a little, but not really. He came out once more, then I went back in with them. We sang to him some more, then I slipped out. Carly still had some work getting him to sleep after that.

New words/phrases: ginger, peach (color), white, farm, door, change a diaper, whale and shark, ah-gee down there (pointing on Vivi photo), osprey, train, gettin’ there, pretty, bug (little ants at park), hear a train (at park – pointing to train out of sight), hear a car, someone singing (minutes after just ‘singing’, dada get it (pointing to rock he couldn’t reach), rooster, reading area (eed area), grain (of the boards on the floor)

Morning: 

On our hike: 

At Danggogae Park: 

Home: 

We had to say goodbye to Cherie and Chuck, Oma and Opa, today. Which wasn’t easy, but went very well. It has been a really good 4 weeks, and we’ll see them soon on Skype. Also, August and I got started on rearranging the back bedrooms after he woke up from his nap, so that was fun.

He woke up just a little before 8. Just walked out again. Inquired about Oma and Opa, then went to the music area, wanting the fish song on his iPod and then playing with his xylophone. He scarfed down at least two eggs with Cherie, then helped her vacuum. He looked at his art books more with me, and spent some time sitting with Angeles in on our bed. And he sat with Opa again and read Feely Bugs.

We headed out a little early for his class. We played by the lizards for a few minutes and then headed to his class, meeting up with Chuck and Cherie, who had done a quick visit to Home Plus.

Class was about the three little pigs. August was on the active side today; really into the songs, bubbles (he has figured out how to catch the bubbles on one finger and pop them with another – did it several times) etc. but when she was telling the story, he did some walking around, then lay down on the mat next to Cherie and wanted to do yoga. But he really got into the main activity: building with cardboard bricks. Just totally into it. And when it was time to start cleaning up he got sad. I saw the look on his face and picked him up. Held him for a few seconds, then he recovered and said ‘help’ and wanted down so he could help clean them up.

We came home and Chuck and Cherie finished packing and ate lunch. August knew something was up (he understands suitcases, for one), and said goodbye to Oma and Opa a few dozen times through the day.

A little after one, I put August in the carrier and we walked them to the bus stop. August was actually falling asleep on the way there, but made it to the bus stop. We said goodbye and headed home. He fell asleep as we crossed the first intersection. Got home and managed to lay him on the bed.

After he woke up, we worked on moving the twin bed frame in to the other room (the room we set up as the nursery) next to the queen bed. They just barely fit. Amazing, really. We now have one sleeping room, a second room for laundry/ironing/baby changing/storage and then our two living rooms.

Moving the bed involved a lot of screws. I gave August the stubby screwdriver and I had the long one. He pretty much played with it the entire time I was working on the bed. He kept pointing at each and saying “Auggie’s screwdriver, Dada’s screwdriver”. A lot of our work involved getting the headboard on and off, so he was pointing at it and saying “headboard”. 

He got hungry before Carly got home, so he walked to the freezer and opened it and started requesting mango. Gave him to helpings of mango, then had him in his chair eating “Oma’s yummy stew” when Carly got home. We ate dinner, did some more cleaning and rearranging and playing, then I gave him a bath and Carly got him to bed a little after 9.

At some point in the evening he was playing by himself with the Duplos and was suddenly saying “uh-oh, Spaghetti-Os”. I believe Cherie, Chuck, and/or I was using that with him the other day.

His class today got very huggy. At one point his teacher wanted to hug him. August would have none of that. However, I asked him to nuzzle noses, and he did that to me and Oma and Opa. He then beeped our noses. I asked him to nuzzle his teacher’s nose, which he wouldn’t, but he beeped it. Then at the end of class one of the the other students hugged him. He tolerated it, but didn’t know what to do with it.

But in the afternoon evening suddenly he was into hugging. He was hugging his stuffed animals, then handing them to me or Carly and saying “hug”. He also started actually kissing Carly and me, something he’s never been into.

New words/phrases: wolf, headboard, screwdriver, uh-oh spaghettios

Class: 

Helping move the bed: 

   Q

He had a nice long laugh in his sleep sometime this morning. He woke up at 8:10 and had some Duple time before we left the house about 9:30. We took the bus and subway to City Hall, then walked down to Namdaemun, the old south gate to the city and National Treasure #1. August got down there and played around a little, then we went into Namdaemun Market so Chuck and Cherie could look for a couple things. August was still down and did pretty well. There are only so many toys you can look at but not really touch before it gets frustrating though.

When they were done, we walked south out of the market, then up to Namsan Park. We first stopped close inside the west entrance near a statue of a guy on a horse. We sat on benches and had a snack. This was the start of him eating a lot throughout the day.

We then started the trek up the hill to Namsan Tower. After taking a look at the building with the folk museum, we played in the rock area outside. August climbed across one of the big rocks, but then focused on throwing smaller rocks into the bushes. We continued on, stopping once again for more food next to some exercise equipment. Here, August played with Opa with the barbell (and really liked the letters spelling ‘barbell’). One unfortunate moment as August tried to walk around the barbell and walked right into the end of the bar, leaving a red bump next to his eye. He recovered really quickly, however.

We then made the big haul up the stairs. August fell asleep along the way at 1:47. We reached the top and Chuck and Cherie went and looked around while I sat with August on a bench. It was a short nap – he woke up at 2:23 – and he was in a daze for awhile. I changed him in the same spot I changed him a year ago when my parents were here, then we tried to play by the chain area where he played in the spring, but got upset when he couldn’t crawl past the chain. 

So we continued on. We walked east along the trail, and found a path down to the folk village/time capsule park. We got down to the time capsule, and this is where August really perked up. He had been on the quiet/introspective/moody side most of the day, but this changed when he got on top of the time capsule. The time capsule has messages from mayors around the world engraved on top. This was the best thing in the world to August. He kept pointing out letters and naming them, then scooting/crawling across the top, saying “more letters, more letters.” We did this for probably 20 minutes. I had to change him and we needed to get going home, so we ended it there. But August was ready to keep going.

Went down to a grassy area and changed him. While I was putting stuff away, Chuck and Cherie were trying to keep him from running over to a drainage ditch. August was kind of yelling, so you couldn’t tell if he was upset, but then he would suddenly break out laughing.

We walked out of the park, stopping to have August put his head through those cutout people things, then got on the subway. His energy continued here. Cherie had the fun of sitting next to him, while I stood in front. He kept looking “out the window” and ate a couple crackers and the rest of his sandwich (by now he had also eaten slices of apple, our supply of broccoli (which he also ate for breakfast), and a Larabar).

We transferred to the 1144 bus and Chandong. August and I sat in front of Chuck and Cherie. Along the way, I asked August what he wanted to do. He surprised me with “Art”. I said we could color when we got home. He then said “Want to SEE art.” Which was a total shock, as he constructed that sentence all on his own (although we’ve clearly been working on the ‘want to…’ structure).

We got home a few minutes after 5, and Carly had beaten us home. After eating dinner, August did some more yoga with Cherie, and we reconstructed the photo of Carly, Cherie, and August on the couch from when Cherie was here after he was born. He also looked at some of the art books with me. Primarily we looked at the ‘Arttoys’ program from the show we went to with my parents down at the college of arts and science. He’s liked that one in the past, but today he started to pick up on the names of the figures, saying “More BB” or “More MooL” or “Bambino”. I also had mentioned the colors of the MooL figures, and he started saying the names: “Grey MooL” and “Colorful Mool”.

Because of the short nap, he got to sleep earlier, a little after 8, after Carly gave him a bath.

New words/phrases: dada here mama at work, fall down, up here, more buckle shoe, too big rock, want to see art, sail, BB, colorful MooL, grey MooL, Bambino

 

Morning: 

Namdaemun: 

Namsan Park: 

Getting changed at Namsan Tower a year later: 

Time capsule: 

Headed home: 

A relatively lazy Sunday. Still getting used to this autumn weather. Before his nap, Carly, Chuck, and I got around to taking him down to the playground south of here where the play structure looks like a tree. He played in the sand, and sat on the rocky thing that looks like a butterfly. He couldn’t reach the sand from there, so he wanted me to scoop up sand, hand him the shovel, then let him pour it on my shoe. He also spent some time getting rocks out of the sand and throwing them in the bush, and using his broom to sweep Opa.

We walked a bit around the rest of the playground. He identified the turtles and chipmunks, and then went down the small slide a few times; we were working on having him do the loop of walking up the stairs, getting on the slide, and repeating.

We walked home, and after awhile he took a nap. After his nap, Chuck and Cherie took him out for a walk in the stroller. They went down to the stream and past that new mural of colorful circles. August started pointing out and naming the different colors in the mural.

Megan came over and made soup with Carly for the other couple at APIS that just had a baby. It is always a fun, hyper time when she is here. August sat in his high chair for a long time, and Oma spoke some spanish with him, which he thought was hilarious. After Megan left, August was pretty wired. Finally, Carly changed his diaper and he calmed down after that.

I went down to the GS25 (first time I’ve been in it since it opened) for sugar and got a couple of random beverages (including watermelon milk). When I came back, Chuck told me that August had been standing near him, when suddenly August slipped and fell down. Instead of being upset, August started laughing. Chuck found this very funny as well.

August spent a good half hour reading Feely Bugs with him and then playing with the cube thing with him. It was really cool to see. With the Feely Bugs book, August was most interested in the centipede-type bug, and was counting/naming off the colors of the feet. Very focused on small details. And with the cube, he has totally figured out the shapes and how to get them through the holes.

After that, Carly and I played Duplos with him for a quite awhile, and that was a lot of fun. He is very focused and intense, and wants to build them higher and higher; but he also laughs a lot and thinks it is hilarious when they fall over on him.

We were trying to get him to sleep and a decent time, but he wasn’t interested. So I ended up staying up with him while Carly went to bed a little after 9. I gave him his vitamins and brushed his teeth. We were working on “want to”, as he kept wanting to leave the room (I had the door locked). He started to say “want to see mama”. Finally, around 10 I was convinced he was ready to sleep, and I took him in to Carly.

New words/phrases: mama’s book (her Nook), yellow, give me dada (give me that dada), hard (difficult – when playing with Duplos), whale, brown, want to see mama

At the playground: 

At home: 

Sticker from Megan on his finger: 

Playing with Opa: 

Climbing/sliding on the couch: 

Want to see mama: 

After a rainy, indoor morning we made three outings, one before and two after his nap. The first was me and August going to the science center to look at bugs. The second was all together to walk east: we went over to where they are building the science center, past the cemetery area, through the park, and to the garden area. We then stopped at the playground in the park and played. After we came back and ate dinner, August and I went out to the ‘Sunset Concert’ that was over on the art museum side of the park.

In the morning, I had my book group meeting for two books: The Slap and Leonardo da Vinci and the Last Supper. August was asleep when I started my meeting, but awake when I was done. Carly was wearing her cat socks, which he really liked, and he kept saying “more kitty cat” so she would show him her socks. We were going to go for our walk earlier, but a thunderstorm came over and it was on the chilly side. So Carly went to Cafe Heim to get some work done, and I stayed with August. Chuck and Cherie went to Home Plus.

While everyone was gone, August and I listened to the newest Mark Lanegan album, fixed the korean words poster he’d ripped again with tape, and spent a lot of time out in the hallway between our apartment and the elevators using his broom and ‘shovel’ to sweep the floor.

We then got our shoes and sweatshirts on and went outside. We walked over to the science center and he spent a lot of time looking at the beetles, scorpion, stick bug, and praying mantis on the first floor. We went upstairs to see all the other animals, but the hall was devoid of aquariums. August seemed to know what we were doing, as he said ‘no animals’ and ‘animals all gone’ as I searched the floors trying to see if they’d been relocated. We went back to the first floor and did some more looking. As we left, he did his usual “bye bye scorpion”, “bye bye stick bug”, etc. But before we could leave he got really fixated on the toy dinosaur kits they have in a cabinet behind the main desk. I think he’ll be building those when he is older.

We went home and met back up with everyone else. He took his nap.

We then went on our walk east. A few rain showers, but nothing bad. We saw the set up for the concert on our way there. August really liked the big horse puppet, and kept saying “more neigh”. He would do that in the evening as well. 

The big surprise was when we walked past one of those electrical boxes with the rainbow picture on it. August got incredibly excited and started shouting out his colors – rather out of the blue, as he hasn’t called out colors when we are out and about before. He would say “bye bye colors” and then “bye bye blue”, etc. He definitely did green and orange as well. Not sure if there were other colors in there. He did it on the way back as well.

At the playground, he did a lot of sweeping with his little broom. When it started raining, he noted the drops on the slide and called them ‘bubbles’. He then liked to “sweep bubbles”.

We headed home and ate a dinner of homemade popcorn, salad, french fries, and leftover potatoes. That sounds a bit odd, but it was quite enjoyable.

August and I then went out to the concert. A guy with balloons was performing first. After that, it was older-style (i.e. not K-pop) Korean pop/adult contemporary/rock music. Fun, but not amazing. August did listen to it, and would occasionally clap when other people did, but he spent most of the time playing around the lizards. He would point out colors on the colorful lizard, walk back and forth on the paving stones (like he had done at the waterworks museum), and climb and walk on the benches. This part would scare me a bit, as he would take off running. I’d try to hold his hand, but was afraid I’d knock him off myself. I was able to get him to focus on sliding down the edge of the benches a lot of the time. He’d keep asking for “more wee”.

He also wanted to go in the art museum, saying ‘art’ several times, and at one point walking over to the doors and pushing on them. He didn’t understand why we couldn’t.

A little after 8 he decided to take off walking east. He wanted to go to Home Plus. So I carried him across the street. I asked him what he wanted to see, and he kept saying something that sort of sounded like ‘cup’ or ‘cap’ or ‘cake’. No idea. Anyway, when we got in, he first pointed to the pinwheels and called them by name. He then directed me towards the moving sidewalk going up. At the Dippin’ Dots he got really excited, pointing to the cups, and kept saying ‘cup’. Don’t know if that was what he had in mind, as he hasn’t pointed those out for several months.

Anyway, after that we went upstairs. The rooms where he has his classes are used for band rehearsals/music lessons in the evening. He got to see into his own classroom. It was dark and set up for a music lesson. He had a confused look on his face, like he was trying to figure things out and expected to see his teacher. The door opened on another room, and a guy was practicing on a drum kit. August watched that intently for a few minutes. He also walked around in the hallway, balancing (holding my hand) on the little rail bumper things that keep carts from hitting the wall.

At 8:30 we headed back. We stopped on the first floor so he could sit in the kid rides, then walked home, seeing the horse puppets and concert for one last minute.

His nap had been over two hours, so he was in no hurry to go to sleep. He had a lot of fun with Oma getting her to tickle Opa. Around 9:30 Carly went to sleep. I stayed up with him awhile longer, playing Duplos. Finally, he decided he wanted to go to mama. He whacked his forehead on the door when he tried to open it to go see her, so started crying. He fell asleep right after that.

New words/phrases: all done spinning, come on mama, green ball, throw dada (throw to dada), more dada’s teeth, lips, all gone more up (there were no more letters to push up the door), tongue, I got my goodness, bye bye colors…, more bubbles up there, pinwheel, more tickle, honk

 

Watching the rain: 

Sweeping the hallway: 

Science center: 

Random posters in the English Science EduCenter. Others include things like ‘Scientist doing research’, which is at least on-topic: 

Walk east: 

Sunset Concert: 

Watching the music: 

Trying to go into the art museum: 

In Home Plus: 

At home. Ticking Opa: 

When August woke up at 8:10 he didn’t make a noise. He opened the door and walked out. Didn’t really cry, but wondered where Mama and Opa were. He then saw my shirt (Strangers) and started naming of all the letters, correctly. He then did some yoga with Oma and was playing with Duplos for quite awhile until he started throwing them. We moved to trucks, then he helped me crack eggs for breakfast. He sat in his chair and ate breakfast while listening to the Andrea Bocelli album with “Funiculi, Funicula” on it; a couple times he would say ‘more’ when a song was over.

Chuck had left early in the morning to go to Incheon to watch a golf tournament. When August woke up I told him “Opa is at golf.” 45 or 60 minutes later, August walked down the hall and looked into their room and said “Opa golf.”

We left the house around 10:30 with the intention of going to a park over by the school until the carnival. But we heard a marching band over in the park and went to investigate. It was a Hanguel Parade, and the park was its staging area. We stayed there for over an hour, watching acts rehearse and start down the parade route. August wanted to go into the art museum, so we went in for awhile and showed Cherie the sharks, etc., and then a little later went down stairs to the children’s area.

Finally we walked over towards the school, stopping at the park by Wolgye Station. We’d only played there once before and it has sand. August played there for awhile. I had to change him at the beginning because he had leaked, and then again before we left. He really gnawed on a big carrot that Cherie had, but would spit out the pieces. At one point we were sitting on the bench, and he turned to me and said “nuzzle noses”, and so we nuzzled noses (that is from the Kiss Goodnight book we have).

Got to the school at about 1. Found Carly then went down to the carnival. She took August in to nurse, and I helped set up the booth she was to supervise. It was giant Jenga, made out of styrofoam, so it really didn’t work in the wind, so we cancelled it.

Went up and found Carly, Cherie, and August. Changed him again, then went down to the carnival. We ate on the bleacher steps, then walked around. He spent most of the time playing with the little and big rubber duckies in a kiddie pool area. A 6th grader, Sophia, played with him awhile (he had pinched her nose once when I first brought him to visit APIS sometime last year), and he also got to see Anna.

At 2:45 the middle school carnival was over, so we left. August was hyper and I didn’t think he was going to fall asleep before home. But as we went under Wolgye Station he crashed. So he napped at the same park we had played at earlier, for just under and hour, waking up at 4:07.

When he woke up I changed him again (#4). Carly and Cherie were going to leave school soon, so we arranged to meet at Jill and Derek’s, as Carly had to drop more stuff off. August and I got there first to find Jill and Logan playing in the playground by their building. We had Logan and August on the seesaws at the same time, then I had August on the slide. He kept going down it by himself. It was like he had forgotten how much he liked the slide.

Carly and Cherie showed up, and we all went up to the apartment. I got to hold Rosie, who, at 7 pounds something, is smaller than August ever was. 

We left and walked home. He performed a little more yoga for us, and sat on the couch with Oma and Opa and watched videos of the parade and of the trees they cut down. Carly gave him a bath and put him to sleep around the usual time.

New words/phrases: Opa golf, pinch, garbage truck, fire truck, armored truck, leaf, sweatshirt, jammies, dragonfly, watch, counter

 

Morning yoga: 

Parade: 

Pointing to his pineapple cookie a woman gave him: 

Park: 

Carnival: 

With Anna. She played peekaboo with him last year at the carnival, and did this year as well: 

Walking home and seeing a sign along the way: 

At the park. He knows the letters in ‘osprey’ really well by now: 

Playing with Logan: 

Home: 

A little more yoga: 

Watching parade and tree cutting videos with Oma and Opa: