Category: Uncategorized

In the morning he got to Skype with Oma. Then  he got the big pan out of the cupboard and wanted his spatula. I then put a couple of his blocks in it so he would have something to stir. He ended up filling it with blocks and stirring them. I was also teaching him the Sesame Street characters in the Plant a Tree for Me book. I didn’t know the name of one of them, so we found a page online with all their photos and names and he spent a lot of time pointing at the characters and I would say the names.

We headed down to Ttuksom a bit after 9, getting there around 10. We bought tickets and went in the water park, only to find that the infant pool is closed ‘for maintenance’. We went to the shallowest pool and hung out there. Carly got him one step in a couple times, but mostly we ate or walked around a bit. Then, I tried to take him in again. I carried him out farther in the pool, only to be informed by a lifeguard that we needed to be wearing swim caps – even to just wade, apparently. We left at this point, and I was able to get a refund for our tickets even though we’d been there an hour.

We went to the coffeeshop in the design plaza (spirally building) and got drinks. August sat on the interesting bench and liked the k-pop music. We then went upstairs for a little while to see the fish, etc., then headed home so he could take a nap.

He fell asleep on the subway, and stayed asleep for about 20 minutes at home – a 40 minute nap total. Carly went to the store and I hung out with August. In the late afternoon I took him for a walk and let Carly rest. We walked up the river and then into Madeul and stopped at the playground. He played in the sand and we found a little ambulance. He had fun throwing his shovel, ball, etc. into the bushes and saying ‘uh-oh’ and then he or I would get them.

Back home he made another pretend smoothie and ate a bunch of noodles and zucchini for dinner before falling asleep around 9.

Carly and I watched the last episode of season 4 of Game of Thrones. We will be moving on to season 5 very quickly. I don’t know how we’ll manage once we’re all caught up and we have to wait between episodes.

New words: elbow, Bert, Ernie, Elmo, Big Bird, Grover, bird

 

Cooking some letters: 

The pool: 

While getting coffee: 

Looking for fish: 

Back home: 

A new favorite saying: 

On our walk playing by Madeul: 

Back home. Making a smoothie: 

Eating with my fork: 

We had planned to go to Ttukseum for the water park today, but Derek was concerned about rain in the forecast. So we hung out around here instead.

August woke up at 6am again. When Carly left today he said goodbye to her a lot and then let her go without getting upset at all. He and I got a lot of cleaning done in the morning after eating slices of banana bread for breakfast. We were going to go out for a walk around 8:30, but I made the mistake of saying we’d go and get a smoothie. He heard the word ‘smoothie’ and immediately wanted us to make one here at home. He got so sad when I kept preparing us to go outside that I gave in and we made a smoothie here at home first. If he’d been angry, etc. I wouldn’t have given in, but with the sad face…

Anyway, when he was done with his smoothie we went out for a walk around the streets east of here. We ended up at the playground in the apartment complex just south of Home Plus. Played there a few minutes, mainly on the elliptical and watching a lift truck, then went to Home Plus and bought bread, then met Derek and Logan in the playground by the dinosaurs.

We played together for over an hour. August watched Logan on the slides and on the play structure. August was starting out his usual clingy, but after some sandwich and watching Logan he got bolder. Soon he was throwing away garbage and trying to climb on the play structure.

We wandered through the center of the park, then went over to the art museum to show Derek and Logan the play structure inside. Logan climbed through most of it. August didn’t really try to climb through, but he spent more time in the trampoline area than ever before, and kind of slid into a crawl area. He spent a lot of time watching Logan and was clearly inspired by him.

It was now about noon and August was clearly tired. We walked with them to McDonald’s, where Derek picked up lunch. They saw August and Logan and gave us free toys. We parted ways from there and I carried August home, hoping he would fall asleep. He was laying on my shoulder when we got home, but he brightened up and played for awhile. So after 15 minutes I put him in the carrier and we went walking around the building. He fell asleep pretty quickly and I was able to set him down for a 75 minute nap.

He played for an hour and a half. Some reading books, general playing with the pillows and couch, etc. Finally, he was ready to go outside, but this time I made the mistake of going into the bathroom. He followed me, and picked up the towel outside the shower. He started ‘cleaning’ everything: the floors, the walls, the doors, etc. So I went and did dishes. He then found the washcloth on the counter from one of his previous cleaning sessions and cleaned with that. Then he asked for the soap ‘soap, soap, soap, soap’ and I gave him a container of dish soap to play with (closed, of course). In all he spent about 20 minutes pretending to clean before he was ready to leave again. But he insisted on carrying the washcloth with him (which was fine – I told Carly I would have drawn the line at also taking the soap).

We went over to the park. This time by the pond area, full because of the recent rain. He spent several minutes just looking out through the railings at the dragonflies. Then we ate a Larabar and walked around a bit. We went to the dinosaurs and watched the fountains and a dance group practice and then headed to the other side. We went in the art museum and down to see the Alice in Wonderland box thing and some of the other art. We then went to Home Plus (again) to get diapers and a few other things. I didn’t have August in a carrier, so when I decided to get more than just diapers I needed to get a basket and put him in the carrier. He wanted to carry the basket around and put things into it. We could have done that for awhile, but he was getting in the way of other people (it was busy) so I put him in the carrier and we finished up.

Got home a little after Carly. She had picked up the big (green) new bathtub we had ordered. She and August tried it out for size (they fit).

We played with his letter magnets, and I determined he can recognize and pronounce at least 10 letters (p d f c u s r o h m) thanks to our Endless Alphabet time (which we generally do for 5 or 10 minutes each day, but not always).

He had spaghetti and raviolis for dinner, then they took a bath in the new bathtub. There was some good playtime on the bed, and he went to sleep around 8:30.

‘Only’ recorded 4 new words today, but also noticed him combining nouns and verbs in his verbal practice, saying ‘baby sit’, ‘gramma sit’, ‘tia sit’.

Carly and I watched a couple episodes of Game of Thrones. We now have one episode left in season 4.

New words: wrapper, Hagye, Abby, squirrel

 

Still crossing his fingers: 

Sandoo: 

Back outside. Carrying his washcloth: 

Watching dragonflies: 

Watching the fountain and playing with the broken trash bin: 

Wanting to do the shopping: 

Trying out the new bathtub: 

His first ten letters (later he would also confirm ‘t’): 

The song we’ve been working on: 

It was a Children’s Grand Park Thursday. He woke up early, right at 6. In the morning he said ‘bye bye’ to Carly a bunch of times before she left. We made a game of throwing the small wooden blocks into (or behind, really) the bucket with the balls in it, he carried around the dog and tractor, we made scrambled eggs together, after which August had fun crushing the egg shells in the sink, we started using the transportation sticker book, and we Skyped with Cherie, who showed August some of his favorite toys from Centralia, including the wooden spoons and forks.

About 9 we headed out. We first went to the zoo. We started at the children’s zoo, where he focused on the horses and goats today. Then through the tropical animals, where he got close to the gibbon (calling it a baboon) and watched a cockatoo taking a bath in the hose as a zookeeper washed the floor. From there we went quickly through the lizards, etc. and over to the water birds. 

In all three places, he had been fine walking around on his own until someone else came around, after which he wanted me to pick him up. Here he was up close with both a black and white swan, but when a man came through with a child, August was done and wanted to go.

So we went and saw the real baboons. We spotted the baby, and it was climbing up the fence, so August started saying ‘climb’. August was getting tired, and letting me know he was done. So we went and saw the big cats for just a couple minutes (they were all sleeping, so not really entertaining to August, but pretty amazing that a lion is sleeping two feet from you) and then found a bench and had a snack. I then put him in the backpack without fuss and started walking to Dream Cafe and he fell asleep.

At the cafe, I set up outside, since I’ve found the noise of the espresso machine wakes him up indoors. They don’t have the umbrellas over the outside tables (due to wind, I assume), so I put a chair under the big overhang. I was reading when it started to rain. And boy did it start to rain. Carly said her students thought it was the end of the world. It was a solid downpour for about 20 minutes. We were a few feet from the edge of the roof, but were still getting wet. I ended up having to drag the backpack about 3 feet over to the side of the building, and then stand between August and the rain in order to keep him from getting really wet. Still, he ended up pretty damp, but slept through it, for a nice 85 minute nap. Got some good reading done on The Sheltering Sky when I wasn’t enjoying the downpour.

When he woke up he needed to be changed (he had leaked). So we went and changed him, then found a garbage can so he could throw away the diaper. We found a covered picnic table and ate lunch, then went to the children’s museum.

We spent a good two and a half hours at the children’s museum. All of it playing, except for changing him at the end. Most in the infant room. He was really into carrying an object around the entire time he was there: first the blue fish, then a teddy bear, then this weird squishy stuffed…thing. He played with the wooden tree construction set (for lack of a better description) for a long time, rode (and I pushed him around on) the ladybug push car (while holding the squishy thing), and just sat in a couple of spots. And he did a lot of organizing, putting things away in the low-ceilinged room, primarily, but also the push car things. He also did better on the trampoline, although he didn’t stay on for a long time.

Around 3 he started to say he was hungry, but it took us a long time to leave. We left the infant area, but then he wanted to go in the book area. We played for quite awhile in there before changing him and leaving close to 4.

Outside, we stopped at a bench for a snack. He got up on it and was basically running from one end to the other. Acting a little fearless. He ate his snack, then we walked towards the exit via the swampy area. As we started to go through it, he started saying ‘gaegul, gaegul’ and pointing, looking for frogs again. I don’t actually think we’ve seen frogs in the wild, so very interesting that he so clearly understands what frog terrain looks like.

We made it to Hagye station, then walked to Home Plus, where we managed to buy string cheese, parmesan cheese, and (finally) teriyaki sauce (hidden in plain sight). August was happy because he got his ‘samples’: sausage and cantaloupe.

We came home a few minutes before Carly at 5, and by 7 he was asleep. In between he ate spaghetti for dinner and played a lot on the bed. He lounged against Carly’s pillow and proclaimed ‘comfy’. He also created a new game of dropping objects through the hole in his stool and saying ‘uh-oh’.

Something he’s been doing lately is saying the names of people he knows and giving them objects. He’s doing that more and more. Today it was things like ‘baby’s apple, gramma’s car, tia’s shoes’. But he also did a couple really silly ones, like ‘banana’s shoes’.

One other thing I noticed was his tone has changed when he’s calling for me or Carly. Before it was more of a ‘mama!’ when he didn’t know where she was, as if he was actually saying ‘I want mama!’ Today, when he was lounging on the pillow on the bed, he turned his head towards the door and said ‘mama?’, as if to say ‘I know you’re here, but where are you?’ He later had this same tone when calling to me.

New words: sticker, people, goat, goat poop, climbing (baby baboon), kids, ah-ge (baby), shinbal (shoes in korean), zoo, animals, zebra, comfy, Kindle. Also working on lemur, fox

 

Pointing at the horses: 

Pointing at the gibbon: 

With the swans: 

His nap: 

Tweety: 

Children’s museum: 

Putting things away: 

Squishy thing in hand while he rides around: 

Sitting:

Speeding on the bench: 

One way: 

Back the other: 

On the bed at home: 

In the morning we made a smoothie, Skyped with my parents, left video messages for Tia and Oma, and played with his Cheerio book (where you use actual Cheerios to complete the pictures). 

We then left for Sinnaedong Park, two stops south and east of us. We’ve been there a couple times before, most recently on May 20th (http://thisisourblog.net/thisisourblog/2015/5/20/wednesday-sinnae-park). 

We set up by the playgrounds but ended up ignoring them completely. We ended up playing with a set of drinking fountains for awhile, then went over by the floor fountain and snacked and played (he was really into climbing on the bench) and used the hose. 

We then walked up to where we had seen the tadpoles to look for frogs. No luck, but August was chanting ‘Gaegul, Gaegul’ and as we walked back along the stream he would point and say ‘gaegul’ or ‘lizard’. 

We went back to the fountain and watched them turn it on and work on cleaning it out. After ten minutes or so it was still spraying full strength and August was telling me he was tired and done so we left. 

I held him so he wouldn’t just fall asleep in the backpack. This worked. He actually say by himself a bit on the subway, and I kept him awake until we were right across the street from home and he fell asleep in my arms. Less than 5 minutes later I had him laying on the bed asleep. This is only the second time since we’ve been back that I’ve gotten him to take a nap in bed. 

He slept for nearly two hours. I had left the door open because I didn’t want him to be hot, so when he woke up he just climbed off the bed and came out to me. He almost immediately wanted to play by the sink. While there he made a pretend smoothie by filling empty milk cartons and pouring them in the blender, putting on the lid and making a ‘grrrrr’ noise. He also used the sponge to clean a bowl and the counter. 

We then went out to the park (after a quick walk through of the grocery store for teriyaki sauce). He was clingy for the first 25 minutes. Got down a little at the dinosaurs and near them, but wouldn’t walk anywhere. We went over by the fountain by the stage and played there for about an hour. Mainly with the tennis ball. Throwing it back and forth, him throwing it in the bushes so I have to get it (this has been a game for quite awhile), and throwing it under a banner, which he would then go under, retrieve the ball, come back, and repeat the process. 

While there, I met a woman, Eun He, who had a 5 year old and 23 month old. 

Carly found us there on her way home and we went home together. 

In the evening he ate a lot of spaghetti (and sauce and veggies from a spoon), I made a game of ‘throwing’ him around the bed while singing ‘baa baa’, we played on the piano (and I started to use his fingers a bit), we found out you can request Siri to play sounds, so we had fun with that, he took an awkward roll off the couch, I piled blocks on him while he lay on the floor, and he got to skype with Tia and Colin. All that and he fell asleep a little before 9. 

Park: 

Looking for frogs (gaeguli):

Watching the fountain: 

After his nap: 

In the park: 

Evening: 

August woke up right at 8, as I was about to put the banana bread dough into the rice cooker. So I got him up and we finished the banana bread. While it baked, he was playing with a set of tongs in the living room. Suddenly, he walked into the kitchen, opened the correct drawer, and put the tongs away. He also tried eating Cheerios with my spoon. He did pretty well, although a lot of milk ended up on the floor. 

A little before 10 we headed to the water park by the stadium. We found a shady spot by a fence and set up our backpack and Pororo mat. We went and walked around the pools a couple times, and I would wade in the shallow one while holding him, but he wasn’t interested in getting in himself. In fact, he was being pretty clingy for much of the day, not wanting to walk anywhere and wanting me to hold him instead. So mainly what we did was eat (sandwich, Larabar, some banana bread), play with the water fountains, watch people use the air compressors, and play around the backpack. At one point he was chanting “hey mamamama.”

We lasted a couple hours, then he said ‘bye bye’ ’sleepy’ ‘all done’ and started to wave. We packed up, but I took him back to the water one more time. This time, I was able to set him down on the edge and get him to wade up to his knees for a few seconds. And then he was done.

He fell asleep as soon as we started crossing the street. I found a nice shaded bench with a wonderful breeze outside the women’s business center. He napped and I read. Very nice, except for the ants crawling up my legs and the woman that came and told me it was too hot for my baby and insisted I take him inside. It was, by the way, only in the 80s. I did not take him inside.

He slept for more than 70 minutes – actually the longest nap he’s taken with me since we got back. We then went into the cafe and got a strawberry smoothie. We sat at a table and shared it. The women came and gave him some free shortbread cookies. I let him eat most of one.

We headed home, now past 2. On the way home I got him to walk half the long block from the stream to Brownstone. He did most of it by doing the tree touching game. So that was a cool first.

We hung out at home for awhile then went to Home Plus for a few things, including grapes. We stopped by the fountain on the far side of the park and he ate a bunch of grapes. We haven’t drawn a lot of attention since we came back, but suddenly there were all sorts of people trying to talk to and touch him.

We got home a little before Carly. When she got home, he had taken some of his pajamas and was using them to wipe the floor. 

Glecy called awhile later and they had a good Skype call. August was very excited, and bouncing all over. After the call he was very hyper on the bed.

In fact, he hit Carly in the face, thinking it was funny. He clearly had energy to burn and was trying out arm swinging motions, as he kept swinging his arms around in circles after that as he played on the bed. But I was also starting to see hints of angry hitting today: once when I closed a cabinet and he got upset, once when I put him in the backpack and he kind of did an angry clap of his hands, and then once at the water park when I put something away in the backpack and he hit the backpack as I closed it. Minor so far, but an interesting development.

New words: glasses, crane (at the construction site), mist, carrot, iPad, magie (iPhone), grater (‘I’ll kee kee’ for some reason), turtle, bump (bumps outside the elevators), stumble (after he actually stumbled and I said something. I knew he knew what it means, because he will pretend to stumble when he says it), Andi (Andrea’s photo),working on ‘home’ (says it really well, with a big ‘o’ sound, but not sure he understands what it means) and ‘circle’ and ‘Africa’ (with Glecy)

Water park: 

He was making a ‘ssssss’ noise while doing this, although I don’t know if he was during the video: 

Sandwich boy: 

Watching me use the air compressor from a safe distance: 

My favorite shirt of the day. It says ‘Where and directed by Woody Allen’: 

The water area: 

Close: 

In: 

Nap: 

Smoothie: 

Walking home. He is distracted by the cicadas getting loud at the end: 

After Home Plus:

Greeting Carly: 

Skyping with Glecy: 

This was one of those days that is supposed to be laid back but turns out otherwise. He woke up at 7:20 – less than 9 hours of sleep. He was still waking up on the couch when we skyped with my parents 7 minutes later, and still waking up 20 minutes later when we were done. We were happy to hear that they were still in the house, with power, and, for the time being, relatively safe. After we hung up, August just wanted to hang out on the bed for awhile.

After that, we made eggs for breakfast, and a delivery came from iHerb. A jar of peanut butter had broken, but everything else was okay. We then took out recycling, in two trips, since recycling was closed on Saturday. When he saw the recycling truck he immediately said ‘backhoe’.

About 9:45 we headed to the water park by Madeul – exactly a one mile walk. But it turns out it the water park is closed Mondays. So we walked to the playground and play for awhile. After a leisurely swing and him complaining about the sand in his toes, he found a pack of cigarettes he really wanted to throw away. So we packed up and walked to the stadium and threw it away, then went to the north end, near the water. We found a shady area right inside the fence and sat so he could have a snack and watch the soccer practice. He also played with the gate and figured out how to pull up the pole and move it.

On our walk home we went by the construction sight and watched a backhoe for a few minutes. We then tried to go to the women’s center cafe for a smoothie, but they don’t accept credit cards, and I didn’t have cash.

So onward to home. He fell asleep right as I got to the building. I set him on the coffee table and he slept just under 40 minutes. He woke up saying ‘all done’.

After his nap, we listened to “Elephant Elephant” http://youtu.be/o7vZqpsJQo0 on repeat. He would clap at the end of each time. We then watched the video a couple times.

We had the afternoon free, so we went to Costco (which had been planned for tomorrow) for our cheese run. In Costco he was really into the samples, and kept chanting ’sample’ as we walked around the store. He ate grapes, orange, sausage, smoothie, mango soy drink, string cheese, waffle, and cheesecake. He knows the word ‘sample’, but doesn’t fully grasp the concept, as he didn’t understand why he couldn’t keep getting more.

We bought lunch/dinner for Carly and me and headed out, then realized I had a text from Carly asking for raviolis. So we made a second loop through Costco.

We stopped in the subway station to eat my pizza and change him. Kind of like back in February (http://thisisourblog.net/2015/2/9/monday-class-and-costco) but no interruptions, and August could wave and smile at other people.

We came home and he wanted to color over everything. Carly was home from her first day of school a little before 5. He had a good evening, and made a game of running through our legs. While we were playing with the stuffed animals he was telling me where to have them ‘sit’, and he said Angeles’s name.

Despite the short night of sleep and short nap, he stayed up until close to 9:00. Carly took a shower and I started chopping and mixing ingredients for banana bread on the floor so he could help. He got enough cinnamon a few times to know it was hot and complain about it, but he kept trying it. 

New words: egg, backhoe, pee-ut, bu-boo (peanut butter), sample, pizza, fingers, beans (on his poster), bear (did I list this before?), Angeles

 

Waking up: 

At the scene of his previous face plant (bar behind him): 

Watching soccer practice: 

Saying ‘sample’ at Costco: 

Eating pizza in the subway station: 

Eating in the exact same spot just over six months ago: 

Home: 

Trying to wear mama’s shoes: 

New game: 

First, I’ve been meaning to mention that a few days ago I measured August’s height. Turns out he has grown 3 inches in the last 5 months. He’s now 2’ 8”. So, no longer on the short side of things. Haven’t been able to weigh him though.

No big adventures on this, Carly’s last day before the first day of school, but we got out of the house four times. Also, August is talking pretty constantly and often using what are clearly intended as words, but as his vocabulary grows it is becoming more difficult to identify what those new words are.

Anyway, one thing that happened in the morning was that August was playing with his bear, Marshy, out in the living room. When he was done, he walked into the bedroom, placed him on the bed, said ‘All done. Bye bye’ and waved to Marshy.

Our first trip was in the morning, before Carly left for work. He suddenly wanted to go outside, so the two of us went. There was a lot of trash left over from last night’s celebrations. August, of course, wanted to pick it up. But the trash bags themselves were overflowing, so I had to hold him above them so he could drop the garbage on top. This quickly lost its appeal to me. So I took him across to the other side of the park and we sat near the art museum and sang some songs. After 30 minutes or so we headed back in. We ran into Carly, headed for the bus, on the way in.

We were inside for awhile, then headed back out. We went to the museum, as the new children’s exhibit had opened a couple days previous and it was the last day of the show in the main gallery (with the big breathing creature things that August likes). We walked through that old exhibit, then down to the children’s exhibit. It was an Alice in Wonderland-themed show, but there was plenty of random stuff. August liked the broccoli forest paintings, but he loved the box that you stick your head in. Inside there are mirrors and projectors showing characters from Alice in Wonderland. He stared into it for several minutes and would occasionally say ‘more’. Before we left the museum he played for a couple minutes in the play area but wanted to leave when other kids showed up, and we took one more walk through the main gallery to see our favorite pieces again.

From there we walked back to our side of the park and threw rocks into the stream area (still off, but there is a little standing water left from rain) and picked up some more garbage.

On the way back inside we stopped to get the mail. I let August grab the one piece of mail, the gas bill. He immediately started saying something over and over. When we got in the apartment, he ran to his crayons and started coloring on the gas bill. What he was saying sounded similar to his ‘coloring’, but different at the end. Possibly ‘color it’. He was very proud of himself for this idea.

For lunch we made a salmon sandwich and had a Larabar. He was acting tired a couple times, but not close to sleeping. We watched the Days Go By video (has a dancer) on the iPad and then the danger from the Take Me to Church video dancing on the Ellen show. He liked that, but got upset at the end when Ellen interviewed him and he stopped dancing. So we watched the actual music video a couple times. August figured out the spacebar and can make the video start and stop, and was saying ‘stop’ and ‘go’. Carly came home 1ish and I thought he’d go to sleep then. But he just kept playing with her. And playing. And nursing. And playing.

Finally, about 3 we went for a walk. We were going to get coffee and walk somewhere, but he immediately started to fall asleep. So we looped back through the park and set him in the backpack, asleep, in the bedroom. He woke up after 30 minutes, but Carly nursed him and he slept another 40, until 4:45

We went out for one more walk. Rain was threatening, but only came at the end. We got a drink at Dunkin Donuts then walked up the stream a ways and back down. Then across to the park, where we looped around the other side (August touching the cool lampposts and hugging the camel) and we went to the art museum once more. Got to see the main gallery stuff a couple more times, and also showed Carly that box. It was even cooler having both of us there for August, because he could see our faces repeated in the mirrors over and over.

It was raining as we left, so we hurried home. There was lightning as well, but we got home before it got really loud. August ate a big spaghetti dinner. Then there was about 3 hours of August at full energy. He carried Carly’s shoes around at one point and put one on his head, we played some Endless Alphabet, he carried his stool around and sat on it in different places, he sat by the sink and cleaned, he nursed a lot. Finally, at 10:30, after Carly had been asleep for an hour, he called it a night.

New words: head, give me(?), salmon (see-bee), stop, go, spaghetti, poop (identifying it on poster), snack(?), tortilla

First trip out: 

Second trip: 

At home. Coloring on the gas bill: 

Finally asleep for a nap after 3: 

Final walk: 

Hugging the camel:

Taking mama in to see the sculpture box: 

In the evening: 

 

A very tiring day. We can hear celebrations going on for the holiday, it is the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender, but I’m too tired to be very curious. I’m not sure how Carly kept so much energy through the day. She was up with August for a couple hours at 3:30. She traded with me at 5:30. We looked at one of his posters for 10 seconds, he said ‘all done’ and went in to Carly and back to sleep. 

Carly left for work – today was new student orientation – about 8 and got back around 1:30. August got up just as she left. We played until close to 10: mainly sink time and making a smoothie. 

August wanted to go outside. We didn’t have a clear plan. August wanted the backpack, but he also wanted his shoes. So we went down with the backpack, but me holding him. On the first floor, he wanted to head north. So we walked to the playground by the youth center across the stream. There, he mainly picked up garbage (and threw it away) and we played chase on a picnic platform. 

From there he wanted to go up the hill, away from the stream. But he kept saying ‘wawa’. So I convinced him we had to go the other way. All this involved me carrying him, as he was rather clingy and fragile this morning. Also, he was making vacuum/car noises as we walked down the street. 

Anyway, we walked north along the stream, past the power plant, where there was some event happening for the holiday, to the big apartment complex construction site. We walked down the dead end street on the south side and sat on the curb and watched the elevators and cranes. We then made another stop to do the same as we heard back north towards Madeul Stadium. 

At the stadium we walked to the north end where the water and horse statues are. We played there and watched some soccer. 

Before heading back we walked across the street to the big water park to check the times and costs then walked home. 

We beat Carly home and started playing the Nighty Night app in the iPad. He was really into this time (you put animals to sleep by turning off the lights in their rooms). Carly came home and he took a nap. 

After he woke up, he helped Carly with the vacuuming. And Carly finished making spaghetti. Then we all went to busy, busy Home Plus to do some grocery shopping. He has been back into pointing out the bunny signs since we’ve been back. 

On our walk home August wanted to play in the park. So I stayed with him while Carly headed home. We went by the dinosaurs, and he stared at them and the puddles in their footprints for awhile. We then went home. 

He played by the sink and got to eat popcorn for the first time. He is now a big fan. He went to sleep a little after that, after 8. 

One thing I’ve noticed him doing is making a ‘beep beep’ sound after he hears a message on the computer or announcement over an intercom (they always end with a series of tones). He did it at Madeul Stadium, and then in the evening when hearing Skype messages. 

New words: playground, Claremay (which he has said before, but is now including when calling out the names of family members), git-moe (not sure what this means, but he says it a lot)

By the youth center:  

Throwing away trash: 

Playing on the platform: 

Watching construction elevators across the street: 

Madeul Stadium: 

Sitting on the water fountain: 

Walking home. He still sometimes wants to touch the trees and posts: 

Home: 

Nighty Night on the iPad:

Helping to vacuum: 

Evening: 

Popcorn: 

This morning he played in the sink a lot. He wanted to use the measuring spoons to scoop, so I sacrificed some rice and he had fun scooping that into the empty blender, a cup, and the sink. We made a smoothie for breakfast.

About 9:30 we left for Dream Forest. We walked to the bus stop and took the bus on the way there. At Dream Forest, we first stopped at the wading stream in the center of the park. It wasn’t fully on, but there was enough water for wading purposes; perfect for August. He mainly played around and on the big round flat rock that the water comes out of. He liked throwing his shovel in the stream and watching it fall over the edge of the rock. He was also really excited about standing on the rock – the first of multiple places he wanted to stand on today.

From there we moved on to the Dream Cafe we frequented so many times last year. We played there awhile, and I took his photo looking through the cutout of Max from Where the Wild Things Are. In spring it seemed like it would be a long time before that would happen.

He was getting tired, and still wet, so I changed him and put him in the backpack. To get him to sleep I walked up from the building, past the observatory, and found the trail that led over to the viewpoint I found with my parents last year. He fell asleep and I turned around, went back to the cafe, and read.

He woke up after 50 minutes and we went back into the kid area and ate and played. He was being very active and amusing. I divided the sandwich, but he ended up with part of my portion anyway, and was proudly carrying them in both hands for awhile. He realized he could stand and walk on his tippy toes, and he laid on his back on the floor for quite awhile. This was also another place where he wanted to climb and stand on the low bench and tables. 

We then went to the art gallery and saw the show there. Kind of cartoon art. August liked some of it, but we didn’t spend a lot of time. 

From there we went out to the floor fountain. We watched for awhile, then he actually got up to it on his own and was putting his foot over one of the nozzles. He decided he was all done, so we went to the wading pool, but he walked through it once and was done. 

So we started to walk back and stopped at the playground when he saw it. He had a snack and played with leaves and our Pororo mat. As usual, the playground itself wasn’t of much interest. Before we left, a woman came over and entertained him either a cold water bottle for a couple minutes. 

We continued on our way, making a brief stop at the wading stream again. Here, he listened to 3 girls play ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ on a piano for 5 to 10 minutes. His was both exciting for him and frustrating; he wanted them to play ‘Baa Baa’ and was saying it repeatedly, but they didn’t do it. 

We then stopped at the visitor center to change his clothes and diaper and refill his water bottle. While changing him, he looked up at me and said ‘sleepy’. He said it twice more as I changed him. He managed to stay awake on the way home though. 

He saw a set of backpacks, used, I believe, for weed killer or the like, through a door and thought they looked like vacuum cleaners. He stood in the doorway, pointing and making vacuum noises, but never once tried to get close to them. 

We walked home. 2.15 miles. Only, it turns out, a quarter of a mile longer than the walk to APIS. 

Carly was working a little late, so we stopped at one of the apartment complex parks for a snack. He also went on those spring seats and down the slide a couple times. I got a nice insect bite right on the scar tissue on my arm. Left quite a big bump. He cried a bit when I put him in the backpack to go home. A girl, perhaps 2nd or 3rd grade, who was there on her own, came up and gave me a lemon candy for him. Very nice. 

We got home a little before Carly. She was home by 5:30, and he fell asleep about 7. He was feeling a little warm as he went to bed, and doing some tossing and turning. Hopefully nothing major. 

 

Waving to mama right after he woke up: 

More feeding: 

Dream Forest: 

Cafe Dream: 

He was proud of himself for ending up with both parts of the sandwich: 

Floor time: 

Standing on things: 

With Haechi, the mascot of Seoul: 

Getting close to the fountain and feeling the water on his head: 

Before we left the park: 

Floor time at home: 

He woke up a little before Carly was to leave. She nursed him, but he wasn’t ready to let her go when she had to, so it was a tough goodbye. But as he was still crying, he looked around and saw his Korean sticker book and pointed to it. So we put stickers in it, and finished the book. I got out his other stickers (from the museum) and had him stick them on the back of his sketchbook. He is working on taking the stickers off by himself. He needs help with that, but he is pretty good at putting stickers on the paper. 

I then showed him how to really use the broom and dustpan, and he started trying to do that. We used his blocks for sweeping practice. 

From there we moved to the sink. He requested a smoothie, so we made one for breakfast. We got in a bit of a smoothie fight. He was sticking his finger in my smoothie and licking it, but then he snuck in his whole hand. I grabbed it and tried to lick the smoothie off his hand before he made a mess. As I did that he managed to put his hand on my face. There was a brief smoothie fight as I tried to get the smoothie off his hand and he tried to smear it on my face. 

We walked to APIS to meet Carly for lunch. He fell asleep along the way, so I stopped in the park across from school. He woke up after 35 minutes. We were going to have water and a snack, but as I got them out, he managed to fall of a bench, face first. He wasn’t too hurt – no bruises or blood – but the dirt proved difficult to remove. I got a message from Carly saying we could go up early, so we did, and we found her in Megan’s room. Megan thought he looked sad, so she gave him two stickers. 

We went to lunch at Cafe Tospia. When I came back with coffee, August started saying ‘Mama’s tea’ and ‘dada’s tea’, and really stressing the ’s’ sound. It rained hard while we ate, but then stopped. We headed back to Carly’s classroom for a couple minutes, then left.

August and I then went to the water park in the other park across from APIS. I first changed him and we played in the regular playground, then went to the water area at 1:20. The water shout off at 1:30, then we went up by our backpack and had some food and played up there. The last loaf of banana bread wasn’t very good, but I made a new loaf last night. He had been rejecting it, but started eating it again while it rained. We were standing under a cover, but he kept stepping out from underneath and got confused when his head would get wet. He was also really excited by some little birds that were close to us.  

At 2:00 the water came back on and we went down. He went in the water a little, but mainly watched the bucket pour water, or walked around saying ‘goona geeha’ and pointing at everything, or shook the bars of the fence.

After the water turned off at 2:30, we went back to APIS to sign some paperwork. When we left, I planned to put him in the backpack on the front porch. But there were buckets and a box of squirt guns. He started playing with them, and we didn’t leave until 3:30.

We walked home and he fell asleep again as we were approached the bridge. He yawned, and said ‘sleepy’, which surprised me. I wasn’t 100% sure that was what he had said, but he later confirmed it when I showed him a photo of him sleeping in the backpack and he said ‘sleepy’, and he used it before going to bed. I stopped and sat on a bench in the park closest to us, then continued to walk home. He woke up as we got back to the building, a 45 minute nap.

He was still a bit damp when I took him out of the backpack. He was saying ‘sweaty’ and wanting to take off his shorts. He started to figure our how to push off his shorts. I helped him with that, then he started on the diaper. So we are getting to that point.

I decided to try him in the shower. So I took him in the shower, holding him. Went really well, and by the end the water was hitting most of his body. 

We had a little time still before Carly got home after 5. We were looking at his bathrobe and he pointed to the kangaroo and said ‘hop’

Carly got home and he immediately rushed to her and said ‘hug’. 

He ate some rice and soup for dinner, but a lot ended up on the floor. He was getting sleepy around 8 but had trouble getting to sleep. He kept missing me, so I went in on the bed with them. Before he fell asleep he kept saying ‘grampa’s shirt’, as he was wearing one of the old sleep shirts. Also, I did ‘this little piggy’ with him for the first time, and he thought it was hilarious and kept asking for more. Both he and Carly fell asleep close to 9. 

New words: freezer, lid, word for blades of blenders, vitamin (bah-bee), sleepy, hug (to Carly when she got home), sweaty, grampa’s shirt

Walking: 

Water park: 

Feeling rain: 

Leaving APIS: 

Sleeping on the way home: 

In the evening: