Category: Uncategorized

I didn’t go hiking again today, but we met up with Derek and Logan in the park on our way to do some shopping at Home Plus. We played around the playground for awhile – Carly went down the slide with August and got attacked by the bump in the slide – then went over to the museum side for a few minutes. They headed home for lunch and we went on to do our shopping.

At Home Plus I took August to the animals while Carly shopped. He got out of the stroller and started requesting the bap-kit when he was next to the dog food – this is where he’s had the basket before and put cans in it. Carly came over and he got to play with the basket for awhile. He also walked up and down the dog section pointing out all of the dogs.

At home, he surprised us by saying Sandra Boynton – his fourth author. He took a nice nap.

In the late-ish afternoon I took him out for a walk in the backpack. We walked up the river about a mile and a half to Nowon Bridge, crossed the bridge, walked down the other side of the river, and crossed back over at the bridge to Madeul Stadium, then back home. We had a lot of fun singing songs and pointing at things. He now knows ‘egret’, and surprised me when, crossing back over the bridge and seeing people below us, he said “people down there”. I didn’t believe my ears at first, but he kept saying it and pointing, and was very proud of himself when I got it.

On our way out, there was little water flowing down the stream, and where there are usually little waterfalls over a small drop, there was no water. He was pointing and saying ‘sad’. On our way back, there was more water and it was flowing like usual.

Everyone kind of did their own thing today. Chuck went on a nice walk up the stream and to temple. Cherie made stir fry for dinner. And Carly got some work done. And of course we all packed for the trip tomorrow.

Carly was teaching him ‘upsy daisy’, and when she finished his bath, he turned to it and waved and said “Bye bye, mul area.” And, as usual, he wanted to take his washcloth with him when he left the bathroom. We wring the water from it and he uses it to clean around the house.

Sandra Boynton, ketchup, basket (bap-kit), egret, street, people down there (!?)

 

I had initially planned to go hiking today, but that fell through. So the decision to head to Insadong took some time. But in the morning I was reading a Sophie book to him, and he recognized Kiwi the bird. Also, he has learned ‘upside down’, as Carly was holding him upside down yesterday.

Anyway, we headed to Insadong around 10. We got of the subway and first went to Tapgol Park. I let August get down and play while they looked around. He tripped as he started to walk to Cherie and scraped both knees. After washing them off, he was mainly interested in the pigeons, saying ‘hi dulgi’ and following them. He sort of scared off a couple, so I was holding his hand and we were carefully walking close to them when another kid came and scared them. Think it will be difficult to keep him from chasing the birds as he sees kids do it all the time here.

We walked up Insadong. Had August down at first but that was too hard, so put him in the backpack. Not everything was open, due to Chuesok, but Chuck and Cherie were successful. The saddest part, for me at least, was that all the art museums and galleries were closed. At the end of Insadong we walked around the corner and down to the temple. August fell asleep as I walked up to it.

We sat on some steps west of the temple while he slept and I read. I also walked around the temple and looked at more of the artwork while the others sat by him. We were given som sangpyeong and then bought more ourselves – fresher and better than the stuff from his class last Tuesday.

He woke up after 50 minutes a little after 12:30. We went to the little park west of the temple so he could nurse. While there, he got to see an orange cat hanging out there, and some nice people gave Chuck and Cherie some more food.

We then went in search of food. We went up to the burger place by the MMCA art museum, but it has turned into a furniture store. We walked by the museum and went behind it, walking up the narrow street, and found a Chicago Pizza and Pub on the second floor of a building. The food was good – we got sweet potato fries and a spinach and cheese pizza. August really liked the sweet potato fries.

From there we walked down the narrow street and took the subway from Anguk Station. In the evening he was playing with Cherie on her phone, and saw a photo of her doctor in the address book. He would click on the photo and wave and say “Hi, doctor.” Around 7 I felt like getting outside a bit, so I took August out. We spent a few minutes by the fish tanks at the restaurant because he kept saying “kid, kid, kid” and I figured out he meant ’squid’. And he really like looking at the eel, which is right at his level. From there we went into the park and walked around a bit, watched kids on the swings, used his shovel to put sand on bushes, threw away some garbage, and pushed buttons on the vending machines.

We went home and gave him a bath, and he was asleep around 8.

Upside down, Kiwi, find mama, Oma shop, Oma bathroom, Oma hiding, carry me, dada’s bathroom, hi doctor, Snoozers, squid (kid), eel

Morning:

Tapgol Park: 

Temple: 

Chicago Pizza and Pub: 

A little shoveling in the dark: 

This morning August managed to climb onto the brown chair for the first time, and made it look easy. 

We skyped with my parents, as they were about to leave for Everett for 9 days. We then Skyped with Peter, although August only put in a small appearance as he was being shy. 

We then headed to Hoegi. We walked the back road and the rest of them got sandwiches at Subway. I got a salmon bagel sandwich at Mono Cheese Cafe. We walked into Kyunghee University, and looked for a children’s park that shows up on Google Maps. Alas, it doesn’t seem to exist. So we ate lunch sitting on the grass to the left of the church on campus. But before we put August’s shoes on he stepped in some sort of poop, causing quite an incident.

That cleaned up and done with lunch, we walked in front of the church (August liked going up and down the stairs with Cherie, and she would say ‘uff-da’ with ), then across the pedestrian bridge and down the hill on the other side. There were big leaves on the hill and he liked stomping on them.

We stopped and changed him on the grass, then put him in the backpack and started walking. He fell asleep on the way up to the art building. We looked around up there at all the outdoor sculptures, then headed back down the hill and out of the university and went to 8 Street, the coffee place we really like. I tried the Saigon Cafe today (basically a fancy Vietnamese coffee – last time I think I had the Vienna drink) and we went and sat upstairs for the first time. When August woke up about 1:20 (50-some minutes), I took him around to see some of the art (the gallery downstairs was all photographs of animals) and to meet the big fluffy dog, which was sitting outside the front door at the time. He spent a few minutes with the dog, and petted it a little, but he really loved the small aquariums, particularly the water flowing in the top and the bubbles it would make on the surface of the water.

We were there quite awhile, then headed home. At home, he played throwing the ball off the couch, spent some time studying the insects on his pajamas, lay down on the floor a couple of times, and read the baby book – he surprised me by being able to identify several of the babies on the emotions page (happy baby, etc.)

He and I then went with Carly to the pink building to get pho for dinner and a couple of groceries. We came and ate dinner, and then at 6:30 Megan and Torrey came over and we all went down to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. August got to eat a lot of ice cream, mainly from Cherie and some from Megan. 

We came back home and played some more. At one point he was sitting on the edge of the table holding his water bottle. He went to slide off, but lost his balance while doing so. He kind of rolled to the floor, but got up, still holding his water bottle pinned to the side of his head, like it was a football and he was trying not to fumble.

I gave him a bath and then he went to bed a little before 8.

Home: ball off table, studying his pajamas, lying down on floor couple times, baby book

Twice today he went and lay on the  changing pad when we simply asked him to. Also, sometime before bed he requested the ABC song on the computer. So we pulled it up on YouTube. The video is hosted by Eep the Mouse, and he could identify Eep by name. And when playing with his spatula, blocks, and a frying pan he was saying ‘sizzle, sizzle, sizzle’.

New words/phrases: water, got the icky, water bottle, hi tweet, mama get it, sit on mama, grumpy baby, happy baby, sleeping baby, tired baby, more Google, soak-Joon (korean for sprout), Eep

 

Eating some of Mama’s sandoo: 

At 8 Street: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

Ice cream: 

Home. His new comb from Oma:

When he woke up he really wanted mama again, and ended up standing at the front door trying to get out. I sat down on the little step, and he calmed down a little and sat down next to me. I did “This little piggy” with his toes and he started laughing. He was then looking at our shoes, and could tell all of them apart (which belonged to Opa, etc.). For his own, he said “ZZ shoes, Auggie shoes, August shoes”. He then wandered into Chuck and Cherie’s bedroom, where he found a water bottle. Chuck said it was Oma’s, so August took it into the other room to her.

I made eggs for breakfast, but he ate some Cheerios, and then a lot of broccoli and cheese as I was making them, so he didn’t eat my eggs. When Cherie made eggs for herself later, however, he was happy to eat some.

He then played with Chuck on the bed, putting credit and other cards into a travel pouch, then went downstairs with me to do recycling. I let him put the milk cartons in the big bag one-by-one, and later wanted to take a carton out the front door.

Cherie was going to a yoga class with Atsuko and then she and Chuck were planning to go to Nowon. So August and I went to Children’s Grand Park by ourselves. At the zoo we first went to the conservatory, because when we were walking by it August pointed to it and seemed to say “go there” a couple times, then started making fish sounds. We went in and saw the fish and waterfall, then went to the outside area with the little streams and ponds. I let him out, and he liked looking at the fish. Then he managed to throw a little rock in the pond and got upset that there were no more to throw. We walked around a little more, but I then realized he was wet. So we walked up to our usual restroom and changed him.

Then back to the animals, stopping at the goats and rabbits as a zookeeper was feeding them. Then in to see the horses and meerkats, then to the tropical building where we spent most of our time, with the lizards and snakes and turtles, primarily.

He was getting tired but hadn’t yet eaten, so we went up to our picnic place. He was too tired though, so we got back in the backpack and he ate some sandwich in there as we walked and then he fell asleep, sleeping for 80 minutes and waking up at the cafe at 1:50.

From there we went to the Adventureland Playground and played there for the next hour and a half+. Mainly with sand, using his shovel and the ambulance and his little spoon and piece of a shuttlecock, but also going over to the musical instruments, hanging on a fence, and throwing things into the bushes. There was a school group from a Canadian international school at the park. We ran into them 3 times, the last at the playground. August would have liked hanging around them at the playground, but they were leaving as we got there.

We headed home, and stopped at the pink building for a couple groceries then headed home. He likes the little prints of paintings they have in the elevators, and I always tell him who the painter is. Leaving the elevator today, he said ‘bye bye Millet’. When we got home I took him out of the backpack and he laid on the floor. I laid down next to him and we lay their for a few minutes – at one point he said ‘more dada’.

We were home about 4:50. Chuck and Cherie were home a few minutes later. August was a little upset that Carly wasn’t with him. We started to get his shoes on to go look for her, but he calmed down and got distracted so we didn’t have to go.

He was making up a lot of songs today, including the Oma Opa song, the Uncle Dee Dee song, and No Wawa song, and the I Got My Dada song.

In the evening he was really into giving things to Cherie: First, he was giving her all the crayons. Later, he started handing her Duple animals one-by-one. She cooked some eggs, and he stole her fork and was doing a pretty good job of eating eggs with it. When he ate a piece of egg, she would say ‘Amazing!’ and he would laugh. He was then in on the bed with Chuck, dumping things out of a bag, and chuck would say ‘Yippee!’ August was laughing hysterically and almost rolling off the bed.

Carly gave him a bath and he went to bed around 8. Before going to bed he really got into putting his Duplos away.

New words/phrases: for Oma, I see a baa baa, hook, driver, Eric Carle, see a stork, go here (?), hear wawa (hears waterfall), baba light, chip (he’s used it for awhile – don’t know if I mentioned it), alligator (al-gay-ter), cook egg, my dinosaur (and other Duplo animals), washcloth, fall down, yippee (Chuck taught it to him)

On our way. He spots this sign in the subway stations and calls out “dada’s sandoo”: 

Zoo: 

Hanging on the railing as he watches the meerkats: 

Sleepy time: 

After his nap: 

At the playground: 

Headed home: 

Back home: 

He woke up at 4:20, and Carly got up with him. He was singing ‘ABCDEFG’ and as they left the room he said ‘Dada sleeping’. He went back to sleep a little after 6.

He woke up again at 7, asking for water but clearly wanted to nurse and go back to sleep. He kept pointing back into the room and saying ‘more’ but wouldn’t go in. I took him back in on the bed and sang to him and he calmed down and actually lay down for several minutes. We were in there for 20 minutes before he first started looking for Green Monster and then wanted to see Oma and Opa. By then he was very happy. He got his spatula and wanted a bowl, then went and played with his blocks with them. We spent time naming things on the blocks – now working on snail and violin as he knows most of the others. 

Oma shared eggs with him again, which he really liked. And he played with tape with me as I fixed his poster. He was then playing with Duplos with Chuck and putting them all away. Then came out and put things away in kitchen and living room. 

We read Curious George Goes to the Aquarium and he was flapping arms like a penguin when Curious George does it. Then, he surprised me by saying “Play soccer”. He then got a ball out and was saying “kick” a lot. Finally, he has been repeating words he hears in songs. Today he kept repeating “summer” and “April” in a Jason Webley song, “My Love Left Me in April”.

Cherie had gone to the store and then came home and was chopping vegetables for dinner. August got a lime from her, and was pretending it was an egg, trying to crack it everywhere. She decided to not come along, so the three of us left about 10:30. We went to Dobangson and first hiked up towards the peak, towards the temple I went to with Derek. Went about halfway, then went back down and continued the loop we’ve done several times, walking up into the first temple for the view. August fell asleep, and we walked back and sat by the stream area. He slept 51 minutes, from 12:37 to 1:28. Chuck came back from looking at the shops just as he woke up.

August was wet so I changed him, then he pooped, so I changed him again, then his nose was running, then a random woman tried to hug him/pick him up. We got through that, and he ended up playing with Opa and me in the stream for over an hour. He wanted to play on the downhill side from the concrete block bridge we walk across. It is sloped, so there are kind of waterfalls and little pools. The main thing was throwing his ball and rocks in the water and splashing us. He also really liked knocking down rock towers I tried to build. After a couple of those, he said “happy”. At one point, his foot was itching, and Chuck showed him how to splash water on his foot. August got really in to this, and a few times said “feels good”, which Chuck had said.

Anna, the student that likes to play with August, had to do homework, but Chuck wanted to walk home with Carly, so we went anyway. We walked down the stream and took line 1 at Dobong Station, then transferred to the 1161. We arrived a little early, so went to GS25 for a drink, then went and saw Carly at 4:25.

August really enjoyed pushing in the chairs on her desks, and he had a lot to do as Chuck and I helped rearranged the desks after her Culture Club.

We all walked home, then ate the delicious rice/lime/chicken dish that Cherie made. August took a bath and looked to be going to bed around 7, but finally came back out of the room, running to me, saying a mystery word: davo. We read some more, particularly the Head to Toe book. I accidentally skipped the seal page, and he noticed, clapping at the end of the book (that’s what the seal does). So we went back and he thought it was hilarious. He kept finding that page over and over. We also played with the cat hand puppet. He took it from me, put it on his hand and was saying ‘meow’. He was then rubbing it on his head and making a purring noise, which is what I do to him.

He wanted to go to bed around 8, but first had to come out and get his water. He then wanted the cat hand puppet, so I took that in to him.

Dada’s sandoo on subway poster

New words/phrases: dada sleeping, ABCDEFG, green monster (gree gonsta), blocks (bla), cook, rubber band (rub bee-uh), fork (thork), block, rooster (ooster), cock-a-doodle-doo (cock-a-doo), street cleaner (saw a truck out the window), swimsuit, crack (trying to crack a lime), house (hou-suh at first; in tree kangaroo book), wawa pipe, fishes (pointing to my shirt)

 

seeing a a street cleaner truck: 

Cracking a lime: 

At Dobongsan with Opa: 

Home: 

We headed downtown around 9:30 and got off at Gwanghwamun Station. We went to the palace and looked around a bit. August was most excited because the ground was entirely sand. So we sat and let him play in the sand a bit. We then went over by the south pond, and he was looking for frogs, watching fish, playing with the chain, and mainly stepping back and forth over some rocks in a semicircle around a tree. While there, a Chinese family with a 26 month old girl came over and she was playing around August. They interacted a little a couple times, but mainly they played in the same area. August was really interested when she walked along the rocks, and not just over them.

Chuck and Cherie went to the gift shop, but after a couple minutes August wanted to go find them. We ended up sitting outside the gift shop and had a snack. August ate a whole string cheese and a banana. I changed him, and he saw Cherie lying down on the deck, which he thought was funny. So he went over and started lying down as well.

We left the palace and walked around the east side of it and up to Samcheong-ro (a street). We walked along a couple blocks and August had fallen asleep. So I found a bench and sat there while Chuck and Cherie continued on and found an Indian place to eat lunch.

August woke up after 40 minutes. He was okay at first, but while eating pineapple he got a big chunk stuck between his front teeth. He then bit his lip and started crying. Pretty soon, there was drool, blood, snot, and tears all involved. This incident went on for quite awhile. Cherie helped try to get the pineapple out, but to no avail. As this was going on though, he would want to throw away garbage. So after I wiped him with a tissue or wet wipe (which he hates, so he would cry more) I would take him across to the garbage can and let him throw it away.

Finally, he calmed down and we headed towards the Blue House. We saw that, then entered the palace from the north end. He wanted to play in the sand again, and found a little piece of a badminton shuttlecock to play with, like a shovel. We went down next to the north pond this time and played there for awhile. We then walked out, along the east side, stopping at those bathrooms, where I had stayed with August in his carseat while Carly and Cherie had gone into the bathroom during our first visit with him. Anyway, August and I ate some of the leftover sangpyeong and then I changed him and we left.

We went to the square, and to the center strip this time. There was a food fair going on, and Chuck and I both got a potato/egg/cabbage thing called jee-jim. August really liked it, except for the cabbage, and he also got the seed/candy thing that Cherie got.

From there we walked to Junggok Station and headed home, transferring to the bus at Kwangwoon Station. August spent most of the trip singing to himself, or playing with Chuck using a handle in the subway. Chuck and Cherie went to Sing Sing Mart for bananas, and we went home. Carly had beaten us home by a few minutes.

She cooked zucchini and August ate a ton of that; not surprisingly, he didn’t eat any spaghetti a bit later. She gave him a bath, which went very smoothly, and he fell asleep a bit before 8.

 

New words/phrases: sugar, empty, coffee, too hot, camel zoo, Oma up, it (I see it), Carly, come on mama, bread

 

Morning. Rice milk (had gotten it free at Home Plus and he saw it in the  fridge):

Messy face: 

Palace: 

The incident: 

Feeling a bit better: 

Back at the palace: 

Food festival: 

Headed home: 

 

August was restless last night and has a stuffy nose. He was okay when he woke up, but after Carly left his nose was running, which he finds upsetting. He then was coughing on phlegm and had two small throw ups. After he calmed down, he had a nice time with Cherie skyping with Cassie and Vivi and then watching videos of songs on YouTube, particularly the ABC song and Baa Baa Black Sheep.

He has been learning more of the tunes to Itsy Bitsy, Baa Baa, and ABC and spent much of today singing nonsense words or portions of them. But he is also applying random words. For example, after someone said ‘okay’, he sang much of the ABC song using only the word ‘okay’ over and over.

He was doing really well watching videos but got overwhelmed. When he calmed down again, he and I did a lot of reading. He surprised me by saying the name of the author of the Hole in the King’s Sock – I say it every time I read the cover. The author’s name is Dot Meharry – he says it one word, ‘Dotharry’. He also started requesting the Under the Sea with Me book by saying “Under the sea me”.

Before we left for his class, he was lying on the rug, on his back, and Cherie lay down next to him and was singing to him.

Chuck and Cherie went with us to his class. It went really well. It was the Chuseok class, so they put on traditional clothes (well, strips of felt) and a hat (August did not wear his) and did some drumming, then did traditional games, with four stations. So, his first time throwing the arrows in a bucket. Except, the kids turned it into all picking up the arrows and putting them away in the bucket. But his favorite was throwing the bean bags into the board with holes in it. Oh, and the teacher gave them songpyeon – a rice cake dumpling with a filling. It was a big hit with all of the kids, who were all tasting it for the first time.

After class, Chuck went over to 2001 Outlet, and the rest of us went to Home Plus. Cherie did most of the shopping. I grabbed soy milk and ethernet cables and headed home. August fell asleep on the way home and I was able to lay him down. Just barely, as he did a lot of whimpering, but his eyes didn’t open.

He slept for 66 minutes. We ate and played and then the Beautiful Store showed up just before 3 to pick up the donations. After that, Chuck and I took August on a walk. We walked up to Nowon, through the streets around the station, and then back down, stopping at a park August and I found in May or so. We played there for about 45 minutes. August with his shovel, of course, for much of it. There was an older boy with a baseball bat and mitt that Chuck ended up playing catch with. August loved this, so we got his ball out and we played with it a lot.

We came home at 5:35. Carly wasn’t home, so August and I went back down. We found her a few minutes later as she walked up to the building.

Cherie had made spaghetti for dinner; August ate a ton, along with broccoli. Carly gave him a bath – he was not in a good mood about that. He went to sleep around 8 again.

New words/phrases: hot tea, Dot Meharry (Dotharry), crab, Under the Sea with Me (under the sea me), clock, big (fish noise), sand shoe (sand in his shoes), get dada (about to pour sand on my foot)

 

Morning:

Class: 

Eating songpyeon:

Shopping: 

On our walk with Chuck: 

Looking at fish: 

 

One of the things he said last night in his sleep, or as he slightly woke up to nurse, was ‘heeby jeeby’.

In the morning, he sang some songs with Cherie. “Row row row your boat” was his favorite, with the back and forth body movements. He also helped me make a smoothie and we read a lot of books before we left, particularly Mother Goose and Hop on Pop. He is working on the full Jim/him and ‘we see a bee’ lines.

We left a little before 10 to Itaewon. After our transfer, the train was pretty empty so we got 4 seats together. I took August out and he enjoyed sitting between me and Cherie. When we got to Itaewon we came out by the Hamilton Hotel. August was still out, but a bit upset at first because he wanted to just walk around. We headed up to the foreign food places where I was able to let him explore outside a little, then got him in the backpack and things went smoothly from there. 

From the foreign food marts we took a walk past the mosque then back down the hill. August fell asleep, so I went and got a coffee and read in Caffe Bene, while Chuck and Cherie went to a hummus place for lunch. August slept 45 minutes and woke up soon after they showed up at the coffee place. 

We went to a playground close to there, and August and I ate and we played on the playground. He really liked the play structure for the first time, and played on it first with Chuck, then with Cherie and me, throwing his shovel off the platform and into the rope webbing area.

We said bye/thank you playground as we left, and went to High Street Market. August was getting a little antsy after awhile, so we made a game of trying to find Oma and Opa, but I would point at cheese, or in a fridge and ask if they were there. He picked up on it and started pointing at random things and laughing. We then tried to head to the used book store. Unfortunately, it was closed. 

So we then walked west across Itaewon. We walked the street behind the Hamilton Hotel and then went to Whatthebook. We looked awhile there, and August enjoyed sitting on the stools, but nothing jumped out to us to buy. Before leaving, I had to change him again – the third time on the trip. The first two were at the playground. This was in the bathroom of the book store. While I set up, August kept himself busy in there by using a small broom to sweep the bathroom.                                     

I put August in the backpack and we walked back to the station and then headed home. As we got to Hagye we got a text from Carly asking if we could get a few things, so Chuck and Cherie headed to Home Plus. August and I stopped at the pink building to get frozen fruit, then went home. 

August really wanted the mango, so I was thawing some and he was eating it. He had been upset when we got home and Carly wasn’t there, then got a bit upset when Chuck and Cherie showed up and it wasn’t her, but he recovered quickly.

Carly did get home soon after that, as August and I were finishing up mixing the banana bread. Chuck went for a walk by himself along the stream/river. We ate dinner, but August wasn’t into eating dinner. He did eat some of Cherie’s sagwa (apple), some pineapple, and a good amount of avocado (first time he’s really liked that). And of course he ate two slices of banana bread when it was done. He also did a lot of drawing, and went to bed around 8.

New words: Dream, bubbe band, pig, ah-gee hoo-haa (baby noodle – for a small piece of string cheese):

Heading to Itaewon: 

Playground: 

Book store: 

Sweeping the bathroom: 

Headed home: 

Back home: 

Banana bread: 

I left about 8:30 to go meet Derek for our next stint on the Seoul Trail. We are to the south end of Seoul now. But there was time this morning to read The Hole in the King’s Sock a couple times with August. It has been one of his favorite books the last several days and we’ve read it a lot.

The hike went well. A much nicer part of the trail than the last day. We got back to Hagye a little before 2 and grabbed lunch at McDonald’s and ate it in the park.

I then hurried home and then caught up to everyone else playing at the playground at Madeul Stadium. While I was gone, Chuck and Cherie took August to Home Plus in the stroller and Cherie made soup. They used the stroller for taking him to Madeul, and he really likes the novelty of it. We played in the sand, and then on the exercise equipment before heading home. I pushed him on the way home. On the way, he was singing to himself chunks of ABC song, and later reciting the ”see bee, we see a bee” part of Hop on Pop.

In the late afternoon evening Carly taught him ‘heeby jeeby’, which he found hilarious. And he had me recite the Elmo and Abby lines from Plant a Tree for Me over and over again. We played Endless Alphabet, and he is now doing 8 letter words on his own with little problem. Showing a growing attention span, as much as anything else.

The funniest moment was when he climbed on the couch and sat down, said ‘nat nat’ (nurse nurse) to Carly, and forcefully pointed two or three times to the seat next to him, telling her to sit down.

Carly got him to sleep about 7:30. She puts him to sleep most days now by singing or humming the ABC song.

New words/phrases: clean, get mama shoe (as in trying to put sand on it), ha dumpty (humpty dumpty)

 

On my hike: 

Madeul playground: 

At home: 

When August woke up, he started practicing his words: ‘tummy’ and ‘come with me’. He then sat on the bed and chanted ‘fan’. 

We all left to go to the zoo a little after 8:30. We first wen to the conservatory and then saw the primates, then let August out of the backpack at the horses. Instead of walking around like usual, he sat on the steps for several minutes and ate Cheerios.  We went through the children’s zoo then went to the Burger N Shake place for lunch. Chuck and Cherie both had their first burgers in a long time, and August got to eat french fries with ketchup.

While we waited for the food, he twice tried to walk off back into the zoo. And as soon as we were done he was headed back to the zoo, but not until after sitting in the middle of the entrance for awhile.

From there we went to the tropical building, where Carly was really impressed with how much the sloth moved.

After that, we went up to the pathway I usually use for putting August to sleep and changed him, then went to the coffee shop. It was the first time August has been awake when going there, and he was really excited and wouldn’t nurse. So I walked him around for awhile then Carly took him outside and he finally took a nap, over an hour long.

Next, we went to the very busy deer area and then the zebras. August fell walking to the zebras as I tried to get him out of the way of a guy taking up the entire walkway with his stroller. He scraped one knee then, and then his other knee when he fell later going from one playground area to another while we were at the playground a few minutes later.

As he was playing in the sand area, he set down his shovel. Another boy took it and started playing with it. August got incredibly sad, and started crying quietly. I got out his other toys, and he played with them, but very quietly. But as we left that area we got the shovel back from the boy, and August was very happy again. 

We then went down and played with/around the musical instruments and then changed him and headed out. We walked down Subway so Carly could get a sandwich, then stopped at a tea place in the subway station where Chuck got a drink.

We came home and had leftovers for dinner. August and Carly did some good coloring, and I introduced him to the Sesame Street art app on the iPad. Carly gave him a bath, and he was asleep sometime after 8.

A new game today was holding the final ‘me’ of the ABC song for a long time. He would hold it for a long time, then I would copy him, then he would do it, I would do it short, etc.

New words/phrases: tummy, lemur, statue, cucumber, crying baby (‘cry baby’ – new construction; used to say ‘baby crying’), give me urt (his word for the small foam pieces in the playmat, which he likes me to squeeze with my fingers so they go flying), color paper, twirly (he and Carly were drawing them on paper), brown

At the zoo: 

Climbing on the fence like a big kid: 

Lunch: 

Chuck and Cherie eating burgers: 

At Peace Coffee: 

Watching the big kids play down below: 

Playground: 

Showing me a rock. Shovel thief in background: 

New game: 

Home: