Category: Uncategorized

Today we enjoyed the 77 degree weather and made the long trip to the Seoul Arts Center for the Shepard Fairey exhibit, and then walked over to a traditional instruments museum that Melinda had told us about at Cora’s party.

He was up before 6. A lot of rubbing his eyes this morning, including when they Skyped with Cherie and Chuck. We got to tell them about our house in Israel. After that, August and I read Where the Wild Things Are, A Pocket for Corduroy, and Five Minutes Peace. Carly got recycling ready, and we all took it down. Back up, Carly started vacuuming. August and I did the parlor until the vacuum cleaner shut off. He had been doing okay with the noise and actually vacuuming, but he was a bit sad/worried when he thought it was broken, and as we tried the other vacuum and tried. To get this one to work he was scared of the possible noise. I took a shower, and when I came out they were still nursing. We got ready to leave, and were talking about the art show. August was conflicted on it. He didn’t want to go, then wanted to go. He asked if it would be dark, and that seemed to be the major sticking point – he said he hadn’t liked the Egyptian show because it was dark. But he also remembered the carrot-shaped mummy. After that there was lots of talk of octaves and piccolo flutes and we got going.

Sat with Carly on the subway down and was using the Human. Body app today and obsessed with that. More of the sudden science kick.

Near the Seoul Arts Center we found a coffee shop and cafe called Little By Little. We got a ham and cheese panini (which was good, but on regular bread, like what is called a ‘toast’ sandwich here), bowl of broccoli cheese soup, and a yellow smoothie (mango, pineapple, and banana). We ate lunch, then headed to the Arts Center and up tot he museum where the Shepard Fairey exhibit was. August first liked all the little ‘Obey’ pictures that people had colored, and I showed him it didn’t look too dark inside. We went in, and he did quite well. At first he was running around, pointing to a bunch of them and repeating “I like that one.” He and Carly went back and forth through the exhibit for awhile, but he kept wanting to go back to the pink room, the first one, because pink was suddenly his favorite color. He also sat and watched the video there a couple times. Later, I picked him up and we walked through a bit more slowly and I pointed out some of the pieces and we discussed them. They headed out, and I spent a couple more minutes inside, then came out to see them watching the Simpsons episode with Fairey in it, where Bart is a graffiti artist. He thought it was really funny. I bought a small poster in the gift shop, and we left.

We walked up and across the Seoul Arts Center. August counted steps, and we saw the fountain turn on. Picked him up and we walked up and into the university next door and to the traditional instruments museum. Outside, he played some drums, then we went in (it is free) and looked around. Upstairs we found a couple zither-type instruments you could play and we sat and played those. Carly headed outside to enjoy the weather, and to get away from all the wood that she thought was making her allergic. August and I walked around the rest of the second floor and found some bells/chimes to play. Lots of other interesting instruments to look at (and showed him more record players – there had been one at the Fairey exhibit as well), then we headed out and found Carly.

He was rubbing his eyes and acting a little tired. Carly talkedto him, and he volunteered “I’m sad”. Not clear about what “I’m not sure.” Think it was a combination of wanting more instruments to play, not knowing where mama was for a minute, and apparently he thought we were going to an instrument store before we got there.

We got in the backpack and walked back to the station. He was falling asleep in the backpack as we got to the station. Went to the bathroom, then headed home. He played Human Body again on line 7. Walked home and he stayed awake. At one point I saw his mouth open and was afraid he was yawning,but he said “I was eating the wind.” We were home a 4:10.

He played Human Body and we talked about skin and temperatures. He and I then played the Larva memory game and the Monster Mix game. We adjusted our rules in Monster Mix so it worked better, but I lost badly. He finished 5 monsters and I only finished 2.

Before we had left, as I was getting him in the backpack, I was whistling a song, and August asked what it was and started humming it himself. I could only remember one word from it, ‘always’, but a quick search on iTunes didn’t find it. When we got home I searched some more. I was excited when I found it, as was August. It was Guided by Voices’s song “Sentimental Wars” (https://youtu.be/Wk08yneSSbI). We added it to his playlist and listened to it on repeat as we played our games.

Carly gave him a bath. I had some soup ready for him, but after his bath he was very sleepy and just wanted to nurse. He hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep last night, so we got him ready for bed and he was asleep just after 6.

Photos: 

Exhibit: 

Instrument museum: 

Home. Playing cards: 

He was up at 5:45. I got up a bit later and he and I read George Catches a Cold and Tiny Rabbit’s Big Wish. Carly headed to work and he played some Dragonbox Numbers. He saw me looking at an event invite on Facebook and it had an accordion on it. It was for a Kesselgarden concert (I used to work with the clarinet player), so I put on their music and we listened to some klezmer music  and discussed tempos. He then played Namoo and I made French toast with blackberries for breakfast. He asked how canned blackberries are made, so we watched a video about how tomatoes are canned, and then how maple syrup is made. The first maple syrup one was for a big company, but then we found one for a farm in Canada that featured two boys. August liked that one a lot more and watched it twice. He then played the TinyBop Plant and Earth apps (into the science stuff all the sudden) and he watched Beethoven’s Ninth while I showered.

He was asking for different tempos, then trying to sing songs to them. He found his brush/comb and remembered how he could make it into a V:  “I went back to the V game…its eating bugs…blah, blah, blah…because of the bugs.” He then stuck a xylophone stick through the brush and made a T. He listed a bunch of T words and said “Those are all my T words.”

I started laundry, then I made a salmon sandoo and we ate that. He was asking about adults being kids: “Gramma used to be a kid?” “All people used to be a kid?” We ate some grapes, then he helped hang laundry. He played some Busy Shapes, then we watched a video each on how mandolins and guitars are made.

We got going, and he didn’t want to go to the bathroom before we left. He started to protest as I pushed his pants down and lifted him on the toilet, but then he was peeing even as he protested. Luckily, all went well.

Not a big plan on where to go, so we headed south. They’re doing some construction work in the middle of the street between us and the park, and it was nice as it was basically a pedestrian street. We walked south, and walked along the railroad tracks. Went to the east end. You can go over the small bridge over a street, but still no farther. We went back to Hagye Children’s Park, the Tree Playground, and played there. Pretty much had the park to ourself at first. First went over to the bathroom, then he was looking up at the trees while kneeling on the bike. He went over on his own and wanted to pose as a rabbit.

From there we wandered over the play structure. He talked about going down a slide, but couldn’t decide on the best one. I suggested that if he wanted to go on a swing now was the time, as they might get busy later. So he went on a swing for a good amount of time. He played the rope of the swing as a sort of musical instrument.

We then went over by the bushes and I sat on a rock. He picked some leaves off the bushes and I read my book. He was climbing around on the rocks by and behind me. He then took his shoe off, and started filling it with sand. This became a game, and we filled it several times. I asked if I should go to the bike and get our bucket and shovel. He said yes. I warned him I would be out of sight for awhile, and he asked how many minutes. It was just a few seconds, and he was just fine. Came back and did more with his shoe, then we used the bucket to make an island in the sand, which he then smashed.

He sat next to me, and we talked about Israel and what would be exciting about it. I asked him what instrument he wanted, and he first said autoharp, but then it became clear he was talking about a harpsichord. We also had a good talk about how the leaves on all the trees around us work, applying what he sees on the Namoo app about carbon dioxide and oxygen and photosynthesis.

He ran across to the short climbing wall things and I started putting our stuff away. I looked up to find him up on top of it. But after that he couldn’t get up on his own – I think he was trying to climb it from the more difficult side.

Belatedly, I tried to put sunscreen on him, and I got one arm done. He then ran off and was wiping that one arm on a bench or something. He then kept running away from me to avoid me doing the second arm, basically until he tired out.

I had the idea of getting pizza and surprising Carly. Naver said there was a pizza place between us and home, and we left the park at 4:20. Couldn’t find that pizza place though, so we headed home, grabbed the iPad (he really, really wanted to play Namoo after our tree discussion), and headed up to Pizza School. As we left the building, he said “I want to go to Baskin Robbins instead.” Told him he needed to talk to mama about ice cream.

We ordered a noodle pizza and pepperoni pizza and he played Namoo while we waited. We headed home. He was making up words to song both directions. He was singing a cheery tune, then I heard him singing lines that included “was hit…50 times…there was blood…I was angry.”

We got home a minute before Carly. She grabbed the breast pump, then headed to the post office to send it to someone she had found that wants it. AUgust was fine with this, as we ate pizza. And more pizza. And more pizza. We dipped pizza in soup, ate some soup, shared a banana. I told Carly when she got back that soon we are going to have to get three pizzas when we order it.

Carly was back home at 5:25. He ate some pizza with her and nursed. He and I then put the keys back in the piano. I asked him to sing his song about hitting. He didn’t remember it, but sang “I was angry singing this song / because it goes on and on”

He was playing with the measuring tape, and calling the measuring tape the “number line”. He and Carly did art together. He wanted “A human bleeding.” They made a cool picture. Carly kept spacing out, and he would order her to “Draw”. She went to get his bath ready, and he requested the “Carrier”. He wanted the Ergo. So she put that one and he sat in it for a minute.

She gave him a bath, then he ended up having naked time in the parlor. He was excited about that, and spent a good amount of time just lying between us in the reading area.

They tried for sleep, but no luck. They played on the bed, and he named the bear from Carly’s childhood “Trumpet trumpety”. He came out and we read Daisy-head Mayzie. Then back to bed and he was asleep at 8:30.

The big news today is that we have a home in Israel. We have concerns about the place, but it also looks nice in a lot of ways.

The other big news was that around 11 I heard him awake and rubbing his eyes. That went on for a couple minutes, then he sat up and made some noise, and I think he said “Nurse”. I went to him and asked if his eyes were itching. I then laid him back down and put my hand on his chest. And he fell back asleep. The first time that has ever worked.

Photos. T: 

Organized keys: 

Park. Looking at the trees: 

Rabbit Zinnie: 

Throwing leaves: 

Biting his shoe: 

Pouring: 

Hanging: 

Waiting for pizza: 

Art with mama: 

Ergo: 

He got up at 7:00, after Carly had headed to work. He was a bit upset, but not too bad. He sat on the step for a few minutes, then we put on our shoes, but I realized we hadn’t taken off his diaper yet, so we changed him into underwear. He then wanted to measure his feet. They’re 15cm long. He asked “What happens if you’re 12 cm tall?” Still wanted out: “I want to go out in the hall.” So we went out and roamed the hallways, from 7:15 to 7:32. Looked at the mail boxes, and he led the way, humming as he wandered the building. At one point he rubbed his hand on the wall as he walked and said “I’m making a sine wave.”

Back in the house he played with all the xylophone stuff (magnets, etc.) We read “Spring” (Frog and Toad) and part of The Little Prince. He then said he wanted to play with the Namoo app: “Namoo? What? It’s about growing.” He wanted cereal for breakfast, but didn’t reply when I asked if he wanted his own bowl. When I brought just one to share he said “I want my own bowl.” After he ate he was looking out the window at cars: “I want that black car. That’s a good size for our car in Israel?…How about that car? It’s a little big.” We had been listening to music, and he liked songs by the Black Angels after the the Telemann classical album was over.

I took a shower and came out to find him hauling pillows to the bedroom: “I was taking away the pillows from the reading area. I mean the nursing spot.” We played on the bed and did cupcakes and cake with the friends .

Then he was really hungry. I offered him several options (French toast, hummus, soup, etc.) but he remembered crackers and cream cheese and crab. So we had that and he was getting pretty good st scooping cream cheese with a cracker and putting a piece of crab on it. He was making a lot of his yummy noises as he ate.

Did some art. He started drawing a picture: “I’m making a machine instrument. This is a machine that cuts those pieces in half.” By the time he finished it he had slightly changed his mind and said it was a machine that cuts pizzas. He then made a line of Duplos and other things through the middle of the parlor. He then remembered the playground and getting sprayed game on reading area. That was from back when we had the Teuni gym set thing and it was a “playground” that you had to be a certain age to use, or you got sprayed with a hose. We were also cuddling in the reading area, and talking about germs and how there are good and bad germs.

He said he was still hungry, then needed to use the bathroom. Then he talked about how “I want to do Dragonbox Numbers because I was talking about Dragonbox Numbers.” Let him do that a bit, then we skyped with my parents. He did a great job talking to them and engaging with them today. He was being a cat, and took the lid off his water bottle and was drinking from it like a cup. Did fine until he spilled a bunch on his shirt. He tried taking his shirt off but found that the shirts he had today were too small for his previous method. Will have to work on that. We also played some mandolin for them, me pressing frets and him doing the strumming. He had called Uncle Paul quiet at the beginning, because he didn’t hear Paul say hi when August had his fingers in his ears. After we hung up, he asked again “Uncle Paul is quiet?”

He brought up visiting gramma and grampa this summer, and said “I want to stay in Korea.” He then talked a bit more about moving and said “We’re not going to move right now?”  Definitely thinking about it all.

We headed to Teuni Teuni. Got there just as bubbles were finishing. August ran in to pop bubbles and I had to chase him to take off his shoes. Then proceeded to run and dance and everything as usual. He was tickling other kids today, at first, I think, when they were crowding him on the walking path, but then also as a game with the teacher.

Class was about routines. It started with them getting sleeping mats and pretending to sleep, then waking up and putting them away in a cabinet (little Korean culture lesson for him there). At first the teacher pretended to sleep, and all the kids went and woke him up. Really funny. Then they had vacuum cleaners that picked up pieces of dust using magnets. August really liked that. Next was sorting blocks from cars and putting them away. The teacher was driving a car piece on people, so August started doing it back to him. They then got fake books and were putting them away on shelves. There were also seats they could sit down on with their books.

After class we came to Mama Juice and he chose an orange and carrot juice and I got strawberry banana. We got two corndogs – one covered with potato chunks, and one covered in ramen. Enjoyed both of those, and we tried sauces on them this time, preferring the usual ketchup and also an onion sauce. Next time we’ll try one rolled in sugar.

We then went to the art museum play are, getting there at 2:50. He did a lot of jumping in. He saw me throwing balls off shapes on the wall, and he practiced that as well. He and another boy were throwing balls out of one of them, and August kept saying “I’m spending so much coins.” A reference to Big Numbers. He started to get crazy at the end, intentionally throwing balls down the steps and not stopping when I asked. After a couple more minutes we left.

He wanted to go see the art, which is new. Didn’t have much time, and he got crazy in the gallery once, but calmed down and was able to go back in. He liked a video of a sewing machine sewing bird pictures on hats and watched that a bit and we looked at the hats.

We then headed to the Poli class. Went well enough today. We made an owl out of paper. I brought the book from last time, which we hadn’t done the stickers in yet, and our notebook, so those helped. A good example of her lack of efficiency was passing out all of the pieces of the owl. One. At. A. Time. August liked the owl though, and did a good job dancing to the songs. For the videos he likes going up to the front of the room and watching them on the computer screen instead of the projector screen. He was also rubbing his eyes a lot throughout class. Tired.

Carly beat us home. They nursed, then we read The Little Red Hen twice. He suddenly is all interested in buying more books. He did the spraying game with Carly, then he built a small tower things out of Duplos on his own, then brought the pieces over to Carly and rebuilt it in her hands as she held it. He then filled his shirt with Duplos and dumped them on her. Not a new thing, but what was funny was how serious he was as he carefully filled up his shirt.

I brought him noodles and veggies for dinner and he ate them. He asked how you made noodles, and I gave him a joke answer. He asked “How do you ACTUALLY make noodles.”

Carly gave him a bath, and as we got him ready for bed she realized there was a series of red dots down each of his legs. I had seen the bottom ones and thought they were bruises. But they appear to be more of a pattern. They aren’t bumpy though, and he says they don’t itch. Our shared possibly-shared allergic reactions get more mysterious. He was asleep by 7:20.

Photos: 

Teuni Teuni: 

Lunch: 

Ball area: 

Art: 

English class. Making an owl: 

Driving: 

Building Duplos on mama: 

Spots on his legs: 

He was up right at 6. He and Carly read “Five minutes peace”, the first time Carly has read that book. He then played with Duplos on his own and was singing a lot and talking to himself. Earlier, Carly had called them Legos, and he said “Actually, they’re Duplos.” He made monster finger things and attacked Carly. We made a 2, then a 3 out of Duplos, then it turned into a fountain, then a home for a gorilla.

We had oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast, and there was a lot of watching Beethoven’s Ninth through the day. We also watched the ink video, and he played the Namoo app – he is primarily fascinated by the carbon dioxide going in the leaves, and the oxygen coming out. We read Berenstain Bears Go to School, DInosaurs Love Underpants, and looked at the song book and Musical Instruments book.

I tried to give him a dose of his allergy medicine, but he wasn’t as cooperative with me. He would only take a tiny sip and say he was done. Eventually got him to take a full dose, by first mixing it with some water drink, then the remains of that with just water.

Oh, and he did some more Dragonbox Big Numbers, paying (with the fake coins) for the disco dance at the end several times and sort of dancing and humming along.

We had fettuccini alfredo with veggies, and a chicken breast for lunch. As we ate the chicken he said “I want a video of this…the smoky chicken.” We left at 12:30. His eye wasn’t as bad as it had been at its worst yesterday, but was still quite puffy, and he was rubbing it more than I would like, so I was going to try to take him to the doctor. We had talked about it, but when we got to the second floor he really wasn’t happy. Very upset about the idea. I got him down the hall, to look in the office and he was generally calm, but it was now 12:37 and quite crowded – I was pretty sure we weren’t going to get in before their lunch break at 1.

So we headed out, and went for a walk, August humming along the entire way, up past Toys R Us and a park that we’ve missed in the past. We got to the park, 다람쥐어린이공원, and he first went on a teeter totter. Did that, then ran back and forth on the little mound surrounding the park and jumped off. Over to the play structure, where he found a pair of shoes lying on the ground that he tried to play with. He said he was being silly. Then he went up on the structure and went down the slide once, then just went up and down the stairs a lot.

Then he found the exercise bikes. He was excited that he could reach the pedals and turn them all on his own. Rode them for quite awhile. It was actually a video game sort of thing that you could race the other person on, but he was pedaling backwards as it was easier that way, so it wouldn’t work for him.

Next, over to the swings when one opened up. We had a good turn on them, and he switched from the shorter red swing to the higher green swing at one point. But then a bunch of other kids arrived and it was time to let someone else have a turn. I initially gave him one more set of pushes, but then he wanted more, so I asked how many pushes. He’s getting smart to this tactic and said 20. So I started pushing him, but when I got to about 10 he started saying “Stop pushing! Stop pushing!” So then I playfully grabbed him off the swing, but he wasn’t letting it go and got quite upset. He kept pointing towards the swings and saying “I want it!”

Eventually, he calmed down a bit and I sat down next to our backpack and got out the last of the letter cookies from Glecy and he ate those. He was hungry, so we continued on with crackers, pine nuts, and dried cherries. Spent a lot of time cuddling on my lap before getting up and going back on the bikes. He then played under the play structure and chased the blowing flower petals, putting some down a drain. Once more down the slide, and we left at 2:30.

Just to the south of park is a building we have walked by several times, but this time we spotted a coffee shop. Indego,  on the north side, not visible from the Main Street to the south. I just poked in the building to give it a look, but August wanted to go to the coffee shop. I thought about it a second and realized we hadn’t been to one recently, so we went on in. He got an apple juice, and my caramel macchiato came with a lot of whipped cream on top, which I shared with him. He played some Dragonbox Numbers, standing on the floor next to me with the iPad on a chair, while I read. He needed to use the bathroom so we went and found one. When we came back, one of the women brought August a pack of chocolate-covered Sesame seeds. When he finished them, another woman brought him a pack of potato crisps and American cheese. He switched to Big Numbers, and was chanting “How much gold? So many gold.” He only drank a bit of his apple juice, then wanted his water instead. He was then really interested in how much was left in each of the water bottles, so we were talking about it as fractions.

Eventually we started the walk home. At the elevators I remembered we needed to go to Tous Les Jour for bread. I had to tell him he could pick something out, as he was ready to go up the elevators. He chose a bun with custard in it. We paid and looked at the cakes. He kept asking “Mama would like that one?” He caught on that I was replying that she would like the ones with chocolate and as we left he was making up cakes and saying “Mama would like…? Because it has chocolate?” Some of his cakes were:

“One with Legoes you can eat and chocolate?”

“One with a monster that you can eat on it, and chocolate?”

“One with strawberries and yogurt and chocolate?”

We were home at 4:30. We were playing mandolin (August was working on pressing the forests with his foot) when Carly got home about 5. They nursed and had some dinner, then he nursed some more and Carly thought he was asleep about 6:30 and was going to take him to bed. But he got back up and instead wanted a pillow fight. I hit him with a pillow, then he hit back:  “oh yeah? Well kaboom.” He was then carrying pillows with his mouth, like he was a dog, and wanted me to pull on them: “I want to fight over it.” “I’m not sharing.”

I gave him a bath. We started watching Beethoven’s First until the internet started acting up. We played with a squirt car, then play fought over it. He played with the bag of letters, pushing it down in the water and then letting it drip.

After his bath we ate some hummus and crackers. He grabbed the old banana on the counter and said “I was playing a squeezing banana instrument.” He went to bed after that and was asleep by 8:10.

 

Photos. Morning Duplos: 

The eye today: 

Playground: 

Coffee shop: 

Home: 

He was up just before 6. When I got up he was doing math in Word and also played in PowerPoint. He was playing with the door thing Carly had made when she left. He was fine when she left, but a few seconds later decided he wasn’t. I tried to be sympathetic, but I was in no shape to want to wander the halls when he wanted to put his shoes on. So it took until 7:25 for him to completely calm down, and I got him cheered up by watching videos on how ink is made, then sausage and then smoked salmon. He played with the Namoo app a lot, and there was a lot of discussing photosynthesis, etc. I took a shower, and as I got out I heard him telling me something. I got out to find that he had gone to the bathroom – turned the light on and closed the door and everything.

We had hummus and crackers for a snack (cereal and strawberries earlier for breakfast), then played Dragonbox Numbers – and we did it, we finished the game. The end is cool, as they have a little disco dance and you can rewatch it. There is a disco ball, so he knows what a disco ball is now.

He then wanted to watch Beethoven’s Ninth, fourth movement. I watched a bit with him but then got up. He ordered “Dada, go” and hit the floor next to him. He wanted me to sit back down with him. He started asking “This is still Beethoven’s Ninth?” And I’d reply “Yes.” Repeat until it becomes a game.

He did some math problems on the door, then I finally got us out of the house as I knew we’d be getting hungry for lunch. We made it to Children’s Grand Park and got some kimbap, a juice, and an apple cookie in the station. We went up to the rectangle pond and ate lunch there a little after 1. When he was done eating he did some math with the bolts on the table, looking at groups of 4.

We got going, planning to go to the playground, but then remembered the piano. We went up to it a little before 1:40. Played on the piano for quite awhile. He’s playing around with chords (and had done some of that at home) and we played around with songs as well.

I had noticed at lunch that the skin around his right eye was looking red and swollen. He started to rub it more, and I was hoping that getting him on a swing would distract him from it a bit. SO we started walking that direction. But he kept wiping his eye with his grimy hands. When I stopped at the fountains by the middle playground to wash them and his face, his eye was really swollen. We turned around and headed for the subway. He was okay with this, although he said his eye wasn’t bothering him.

We were home at 3. He played with the Princess app (like the Superhero one) in which you make scenes, add stickers, and then move them around while you tell a story. Did three of those, although I think he one about letters falling. Mainly he was talking in a madeup language, but at one point he explained “That means it is learning an instrument. A violin.”

We ate some soup and crackers, then he played with the door magnets, making big numbers from them, and the stuffing things in the xylophone until it was overfull. He then surprised both of us by taking his shirt off: “I just took my shirt off. I’m half naked.”

I got his shirt back on and we headed back outside to get some Mama Juice. He got mango and I got blueberry. He hasn’t been drinking much of his juices lately, but he sucked down most of this one. We went and rode around the park. He kept asking “What Beethoven’s Ninth sounds like?” Then we would hum it together. He wanted to watch a go game, so we stopped and he did that. He then wandered over to the fence where there were four brooms of various length, and he played with them, starting with the longest, which he instantly called “extendo arms” and working his way to the shortest.

We got back on the bike and walked around the park a bit more, then tried to intercept Carly at the corner of the pink building. Turned out we had just missed her though, as she had left school five minutes early. We were home at 5:35, a few minutes after her. They nursed, then we started watching Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21. Carly got him to drink some allergy medicine. She was talking about it having a lot of sugar, and they were saying “How much sugar? So much sugar.” Very nice to have him willingly take medicine for once.

Carly gave him a bath. They finished watching the concerto, then started watching Beethoven’s Ninth – starting with the fourth movement before moving to the second.

He came out, and we read Tadd and Todd and most of Daisy-Head Mayzie, both by Dr. Seuss, and he was asleep 7:20ish.

 

Photos. Wrapping paper flute: 

Lunch by the rectangle pond. You can see his eye looking swollen: 

Using the railing: 

His eye on the subway: 

Asleep: 

Home: 

Loading the xylophone: 

All the stuff:

Park. Watching go: 

Extendo arm: 

Comparing their heights: 

I woke up not feeling well. My hands and feet were swollen, but not really itchy. And my throat was bothering me. I would rest through the morning though and feel good enough to go outside for awhile in the afternoon.

Carly woke him up at 6:35. He was asking how to spell ‘switch’ which led to discussing words and silent E words. He didn’t think ‘mope’ was a word, so I was acting like Eeyore as my voice fit, and August said “Oh, Dada.” Carly headed to work, and we watched some printing press videos that Cherie had sent us, then August switched to puzzles in the Eric Carle app and did those until 8:05. He was making progress on them, and actually discussing the borders a bit by the end. He ate the last piece of French toast, then we had Cheerios for breakfast. He played some Simple Machines until he needed to go to the bathroom. After that, he was the book factory video while I showered. He came and looked in, but closed the door. When I got out I heard him humming Pirates of the Caribbean and playing with Duplos. When I went out with him he said “I’m building a book factory.” I rested on the reading area and he kept building. Used most of the Duplos. He watched Pirates of the Caribbean and kept asking about the tempo. Then Prince of Egypt and a couple others, while continued to rest.

I then got up and made a salmon sandwich for lunch. We ate that and watched videos on making sausages, pianos, and toilets. He then played GarageBand, before playing with the My First Orchestra app and then an app that lets you play tabla that he hadn’t played before.

I tried on the yellow ‘Turn up the bass’ shirt I bought for him a long time ago. Still big, but he liked it and wanted to keep it on. He then started a game, filling his shirt with Duplos, then dumping them out. We joked he had a baby in there. He then wanted to fill my shirt (previously, we’d put the animals down my shirt and pretended they bit, pooped, tickled, etc.) Did that, then I was trying to get us to go, but he said “I want to do it one more time.”

I told him we needed to brush his teeth, but he objected, saying “That’s not one of things on my list…I was Toad.” From Frog and Toad, when Toad says he can’t chase after his list because that wasn’t on his list. I made him brush his teeth anyway. Finally, he was listening to songs on the iPad and asking about tempos. There were some Judas Priest songs that he liked.

We left at 2. As we left the building he said he wanted to go to Mama Juice and get tomato juice. I was surprised, but said we could go and try it. He said “No, I don’t really want juice. I was just making a joke. How many jokes there are?” As we walked he was saying made up words, then said “Those funny words rhyme with ‘be’. The word ‘be’…like ‘Be an astronaut.”

We got to the Four Swings Playground. He sat at the top of the slide for quite awhile and we talked about rhymes. I was talking liked Dr. Seuss, rhyming every line, and he liked that and a couple times told me to be Dr. Seuss again. A boy came and sat on the swings, and was coughing, and they appeared to be fake coughs. August started to fake cough, then went down the slide and went over to the boy and did more coughing. August then got on a swing and spent the rest of his time there. At one point he was looking at his shirt and said “This shirt fits.” He worked on his pumping, and would tell me not to push him. He compared his tempo to the other kids swinging, and said “I don’t look the same tempo than those kids.” We left at 2:50 and he ate some of the last Sesame Street letter cookies as we walked to the Bye Fuzzy playground. He sat on the bike as he finished those off.

Then he went and played on the play structure. First he was hitting the blue poles as instruments, and he kept asking what a seemingly little and useless piece of fencing was for. He went down the spiral slide several times and had me follow or go first a few

Times.

He was then jumping all around the ground on two feet, and talking about who else could jump on two feet…Vivian, Logan, etc.

Then he started jumping on one foot, which was very cool as he just thought of it on his own. And he looks so cute doing it, with arms and legs going every which direction. Then, two kids left their scooters near him and he tried them out, pushing himself several feet on both. At one point, for a second or two, he had both feet on it and he was coasting.

We headed home 4ish and when we got home we had some early dinner then he was using my phone to use the chord/scale/metronome app, then switched to the Sesame Street Play app. We played three games based on its suggestions. In the first, I would cover him up and tell him to be something, like the letter C or a dog, then when I pulled the blanket off he would be that thing. He then did it to me as well, having me mainly be a jellyfish – then I would sting him and catch him like a little fish. When he didn’t want me to catch him he would feed me a pillow instead.

After that game, we tried one where you blow a wad of paper on the ground. August tried really hard, but we just couldn’t get him to move the paper. So we moved on to another game.

This one was sock bocce, and we threw a pair of his underwear as a target, then threw balled up socks and tried to get them close. Did that for a few rounds, then the next game was similar, but with skeeball, using a belt and a couple cords to make circles to throw the socks into. He was really into this one, and really practicing when Carly got home a little after 5.  In fact, he did it for a few minutes more before deciding he wanted to nurse.

We did some cleaning and straightening before the shipping company representative showed up, then I lay down for a bit. Carly gave him a bath and they watched Beethoven’s Ninth. The guy came just as they had finished with the bath. We have him a tour of the stuff. August was wary of him, but did okay.

After he left, August was making a mountain of pillows and friends on the bed. He and Carly talked about moving and he said he was sad he is leaving Korea. I suggested he show Carly how he could jump on one foot and he did that. I asked “What gave you the idea to jump on one foot?” He replied “Vivian” we had a little pillow fight, then they tried for sleep.

No luck, and he ran out wanting to read. We shared some soup and crackers. I suggested paper books, but he wanted “Glass books”, which is something he just totally made up on his own to describe iPad books. We read Dinosaurs Love Underpants on the iPad, and the paper book of Jill Murphy Stories “Five Minutes of Peace” and “All in One Piece”. Carly made hummus. We looked at the Musical Instruments book, and read A Violin for Elva. August wanted to watch Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Beethoven’s Ninth, then went in to sleep at 8:20.

Photos. Book factory: 

Four swing playground: 

Bye Fuzzy playground: 

Home: 

Sesame Street games. Trying to blow paper: 

Pillow and friends mountain: 

Still awake: 

At one point he got kind of agitated in his sleep and said “Nope”. He was up a little after 6. A lot of nursing and being clingy, so I took a shower and Carly took him outside where he cheered up and they sat at the chairs and played pretend Go. They both won a few times. They came back, and August got to try honey milk and he liked that. I fixed the party toy thing and he was blowing that and we measured it with a tape measure that was out. He wanted to paint, so I got out the watercolors and he just painted by himself for a good amount of time, making shapes and mixing colors. He then wanted the keyboard hooked up to his iPad and played that, then went back and did more painting. He was particularly happy with mixing an orange brown color that he liked. For his second piece I asked what it was and he said “It’s a mouse singing”.

He spent some time looking at the pipes under the sink again, then he helped Carly paint Glecy’s card. He got carried away, and decided to put green paint on his leftover French toast (Carly had made him French toast) and said “I’m painting crazy food”. He painted an ‘R’, then a line from it and said “The R is carrying an L.” And I made some joke and he said “Oh, Dada.” Just as Carly has taught him.

Ate some noodles for lunch, then some banana bread. I was trying to take him out for awhile and finally lured him out with a peach slurpy thing. He often gets one when we shop at Lucky Mart, but then forgets about, so we have a supply of 4 or 5 of them. We left at 1:30 and made our way to the fake waterfall and short stream by Chrysanthemum and Park. He started by playing with some vines and roots sticking from the wall by it, calling it the “Stick game”. He spotted lanterns hanging up on the bridge and pointed and said “Blue and yellow make green.” We took off our shoes and he waded in and walked across the stream then back. And we watched stuff go under the bridge and into the big stream.

It got quite windy, and was blowing things upstream, so we discussed what upstream and downstream meant. Things were also blowing pretty well when he threw them. And of course we ate the peach slurpy thing. He was worried about glass on the ground, which was good as we found a few more pieces. He also spotted all the open shells still in the tree above us that all the seeds her was throwing in the stream came from Dan we discussed those. He also tried. Playing a poop game that I wasn’t finding so amusing, wanting me to step in fake poop: “Take off your shoe and step in the poop.” “Stack poop”.

Finally, he climbed up on the stair-stepped wall a few steps. That was fine, but then he was trying to touch the stack of glass I put up there last time. I wouldn’t let him do that, and he got a little upset and wanted to head home. I asked if I made him sad, and he said “No, Zinnie made Dada sad…Zinnie didn’t let Dada touch the glass.” So we compromised, and I got a piece of glass and we looked at it and discussed why it could cut you and how to hold it safely and I let him hold it a bit.

So this morning when I woke up I had a bit of a cough, but thought it would go away, as it had been doing. I had even told my mom that I was over being sick. But it didn’t go away, and by the time we left my throat was feeling worse. So I decided to stop at Juicy Juice. Called Carly, and she walked towards us and we met halfway and went and got juice and went home, about 4.

They nursed and did some art with markers. He played around with the markers after that, trying to hold them with his “Foot hands”, then making them and the blueberries into a big line. He needed to go to the toilet, and as soon as he got on said “I want to talk about tempos.”

I was feeling worse, so took a nap from 5 to 5:45. I was feeling better, so suggested we go outside for a little while. I hung laundry while Carly did some other stuff to get ready, but August didn’t want to go out and we gave up the idea. Turned out he was quite tired. Carly gave him a bath, and he was asleep by 7.

A couple hours later Carly headed to bed, and I was about to soon after, when I noticed my shoulders were itching. I took off my shirt to find my shoulders all read and covered with bumps, like an allergic reaction. Then my wrists and hands were getting puffy and red and itching. No idea where it came from, but it stopped at that. My elbow had been itchy since the stream, and I remember thinking that I must have been bit by something, so probably a reaction to that. I stayed up reading for awhile to make sure it wasn’t getting worse, then went to sleep.

Photos: 

Looking at his painting: 

Watching the bike guy and plugging his ears: 

Pointing at lanterns: 

Evening art with mama: 

He was up at 6:35. They had nursed a long time when I got up and he was lounging against her in the reading area. But then he wanted to keep nursing and got whiney when she got up. Carly set a timer though and that worked. In fact, he got involved in other things and forgot about the timer. He played a pillow as an instrument (“pillow instrument”) and Carly started to make a path for a ball on our front door.

I had my book group meeting to discuss The Year of Lear. He did a lot of banging on the door after I locked it (he was coming in before that). They did recycling at one point. My meeting was done at 9, and August wanted to go in on the bed and wrap himself in the blanket, then wanted a nest. Carly skyped with Chuck and Cherie. August and I played zoo, and took care of the animals, then he destroyed the zoo and we built a big ink factory a bit later. For a snack/early lunch he and I ate crackers with cream cheese and crab. Carly disappeared – she had gone in on the bed to rest, as she had a headache. Eventually August wanted to go find her, and they stayed together on the bid for awhile. He then came back out with me and she took a nap. We read Peppa’s Ballet Lesson, and played the Three Little Pigs app. Carly got up and went to do some grocery shopping, and we played with the Namoo app and did some other stuff around the house.

Carly came home and she wrapped the presents that August and I had purchased, and August helped paint a card for Cora. Carly got out his car vest, and he wore it for quite awhile. I was going to take August outside and Carly was going to do some cooking. She was getting ready in the kitchen, and August asked “You’re going to clean? You’re going to watch things?” (Which is what she does when she cooks or cleans.)

He had been playing with the leftover roll of wrapping paper, using it like a telescope and spinning around and asking “What direction this is?” I got him as far as out in the hall, and he was doing it, then ran it into the wall, hitting his eye. He then threw the paper on the ground. I laughed a bit, but it was admittedly a little funny. He needed to see mama, then I finally got him on the bike and we got to the Spiderweb Playground  at 2:00. He first went straight to the climbing part, then played with a toddler walker toy left out there. We went on a teeter totter for a bit. He had his hat on for awhile, but then took it off and said “It wears my hair out.” He spent several minutes climbing and hanging on another curving ladder thing, sharing it with another girl for a couple minutes.

We went on the swings, then he was ready to leave at 2:30 and we were home 2:45. He ate some of the fettuccini alfredo Carly had made and liked both the asparagus and mushrooms that were with it. He then wrote ‘Happy Birthday’ in Cora’s card.

We left the house at 3:30, walked down to take the 100 bus, and got to Dream Forest right at 4. Didn’t know where they were actually set up in this big, busy park, so we walked up to the middle, where most of our gatherings have been in the past. Didn’t see them, so sent a message to Sophie, then we walked over and got coffee drinks. Carly noticed that he wouldn’t hold her hand while walking if she said “Hold my hand like a big kid,” but WOULD do it if she said “Hold my hand like a baby.” While we waited, he held her hand and jumped over a gap area, then did a bridge over it with his hands and feet.

Got a response from Sophie and we found them at 4:25. As we walked he kept pointing at random people and saying “Is that Cora?” When we first got there, we met a girl about a year older than him named Yianna. When I introduced her to August, he said, nice and clear “Hi Yianna.” Seemed so old. We had him hand the presents to Cora. From there we moved over to the picnic mat, where he thought the rocks holding down the corners looked like poop. We had some chips with guacamole. He seemed to like it okay. Then they handed out goodie bags. He ate some gummi bears, and liked the party favor thing that you blow and it unrolls. At first he just wanted me to blow it, and he was looking at it. But eventually he got it down and could blow it, although he couldn’t quite make it make noise. He was blowing it at Cora when she opened the present with the markers. He was a little sad though when it got a hole and wouldn’t work anymore. We saved it to fix with tape at home.

We talked to Melinda a bit about his musical interests and progress. And they had bought sandwiches from Rye Post for dinner, so we ate those. Then it was time for singing and cupcakes. He loved the cupcakes. He had one with chocolate frosting, then shared a red velvet one with me after I ate a second sandwich (first was a bahn mi, second was bacon and avocado). Then he was doing cupcake maths with the remaining cupcakes, and snuck a lick from one. So I gave it to Carly.

Somehow, in talking with someone, swimming in the ocean came up, and August was asked if he wanted to swim in the ocean. He replied “No, there’s crabs and sharks.” We helped clean up a bit before leaving, and August found a cupcake left out that he licked, then took a couple bites of.

We left 6:20ish. He was making music as we walked and said “I was playing a chocolate cupcake, mama. I’m gonna play bubblegum ice cream.” Cupcakes on the brain, he said “We eated a lot of cupcakes? Zinnie eated cupcakes without doing permission? Without asking?”

We walked about halfway home, and caught the Nowon 9 the rest of the way, getting home at 7. Upset just a bit, then wanted my iPad and got upset when he couldn’t have it. He chose Carly to give him a bath. Carly was going to take him off to bed, but he said he was hungry, so I gave him some banana bread and we read Suddenly. He was asleep by 7:40.

Photos: 

Flower tower: 

Ink factory: 

Watching a crane: 

Toddler walker:  

Hanging upside down with the girl: 

Dream Forest. Jumping: 

Bridge: 

The party: 

He was up at 6:20. He nursed, then ran to me, saying he wanted to read. We read Hug Machine and “A List”, then he looked at the Persian Instruments book and started playing Artie’s World, so I exercised and started to get us ready to go. He played Big Numbers and I took a shower, then we did some TodoMath, he was a frog, and played his toothpaste tube as a flute. We sang some songs and left about 8:45. Three trains to get to Yangtze Citizen’s Forest. The last one is on a fancy new line, and we realized you can look out the front of the train – no driver – so that was pretty cool. Had packed a good amount of food for lunch and snacks, but wanted to get a little more, but suddenly there wasn’t a convenience store to be found. Ended up taking a basement passage to another building, then found a random convenience store in there and got some kimbap, a couple eggs, and a couple little banana custard cookie things.

We walked into the park and found the playground and sat under a shelter and ate lunch at 10:30. Went to play, but he said “I’m worried about the backamapack blowing away.” Started by playing with a spinning thing. I mentioned it was a different kind of spiral, and later he would ask what different kinds of spirals were and we’d look up the chart on Wikipedia. He went to the climbing wall and declared “This is a poop climbing wall. I’m climbing on poop.” Got up on the play structure and were playing around a bit. It was just us. A few older girls started to come towards the playground, then were called back by an adult. He started a game of guessing why they had left: “Do another guess.” One of his was “Maybe they didn’t want to go down the dark slide.” He had wanted to do the turning tube slide at first, but then saw that it got dark.

We were doing that sitting at the top of one of the slides. Eventually, he slid down, and we started to get going around 11:30. Carried him to the bathroom and he said “What does blue poop and yellow poop make? Green poop. I’m doing poop colors.” After the bathroom we found a bench. I set him on it, and he started rubbing his cheek on it, wondering why the bench was cold.

We got walking, but once we got out of the park, up and across the street, and into the wooded area with a big hill, he wasn’t excited by the idea of a hike and wanted to go home. We stopped for our first break from 12:00 to 12:10 and let him play some Dragonbox Numbers. But when we got walking he kept talking about nursing. Saying “Nursey, nursey”. I told him mama was at work all day anyway and he couldn’t nurse until she got home and he got upset and started to cry in the backpack. He was upset like that for a minute, but then calmed down, but didn’t talk to me for several more minutes. But he also didn’t mention nursing again a single time until he saw Carly at home.

He also got into the walking. I had reminded him that the fun part was finding things along the way. So when we took a second break from 12:35 to little after 1 he was thrilled to find an actual broom. He played with it the entire time we were there, poking me and other things with it, and pretended to hit the people (well out of reach) over on the trail, saying “I’m going to hit them.” And he kept comparing his height and my height to the broom. We also sang a bunch of songs from my phone – Basho and Friends Spanish songs, etc. Early on he hadn’t even been singing songs, and I think it is because he likes going fast when we walk – on the slow part he gets impatient, and would stop singing and would want me to entertain him.

Anyway, we got walking again, and he wanted a Zinnie Poops song, so we made that up. He was joking about wanting to poop on the ground, so it is about that. I knew he was liking the hiking when we came across a temple, which was up the hill above us. I mentioned I was going to keep going, but he said “I want to go up to the temple.” So we went up and looked around all over. I let him hit a big drum from the backpack. We had been there close to ten minutes, at 1:30, when he said “I want to get down and look around.” I let him out and he immediately went to look at all the candles that were around. He kept looking around, at the dragons, lanterns, etc. I pointed out the wind chimes but it wasn’t windy, but then it got windy for us. We went down the stairs to the lawn area and looked at the garden and little statues and kimchi pots, then headed over and used the bathroom and left at 1:55.

After that we focused on getting some distance done, and he was really into music, but specifically tempo. He would hum or sing a few seconds, then ask “What that tempo is?“ He joked more: “I want to poop on the ground.” Then we took one more break at 2:30 near the top of the last climb. He wanted to find a big stick. No luck with that, but there he saw covers over the bolts on a picnic bench and asked about them. He wanted to know what a bolt looks like, but a Google Image search of ‘bolt’ brings up a picture of the cartoon dog. So that led to a discussion of the two meanings of ‘bolt’ and why the dog would be named Bolt. We ate the rest of our lunch, took some photos of Smokey, and played a little more Dragonbox Big Numbers, then got walking again at 3:05.

We found the stamp box at 3:50, then were done with the path and found ourselves on a road headed down the hill. August walked quite a ways, holding my hand, but was then concerned about a truck that went by and wanted me to carry him. We spotted a couple men playing Go, and watched one of the claw recycling trucks for a bit.

Got to the train station about 4:10. In the station we found a bathroom, then he saw a shoe store and really liked a pair of light blue slippers with sparkles on them and tried them on. We caught the train one stop north to line 7 and transferred. Didn’t get a seat, so moved to the next car and found the bike/wheelchair spot empty. August held onto the bar and started to dance on it – don’t know if he got that from Vivian, the Tellulah books, or it is just a natural thing to do when you have a bar. He did that for several stops, then played iPad. One of the apps he played was the Montessorium Numbers app. In it, there is a sort game where you sort ten rods, from 1 to 10 in length. He hasn’t really gotten it before, but started figuring it out right away. Needed some encouragement to finish it when he was almost done, but then did it more confidently a second time. As we went over the river, he and a woman looked out at it together. Also, while he was playing he was actually singing (with words) our “Juice Store” song. We got to Hagye and left there at 5:15.

The official campaign signs are out for the presidential race – we first saw one coming down the hill, and now we saw them hanging them on the railing by the exit. He sang The Ants Go Marching and sang “Zero by zero…what, there’s no ants?” We were 5:30. I had asked him what he was going to tell mama about, and he hadn’t given me an answer. But the first thing he told her about was playing with the broom.

When he went to the bathroom earlier I had counted how many times I had had to ask him if he was done before he answered. In the evening I asked “How many times do I have to ask this time?” He said “Six”. So I asked six times and he answered me. He then asked “How many kinds of spirals there are?” so we went and looked them up on Wikipedia.

He ate dinner, then I let him play this Three Little Pigs app/book on my iPad. All three of us actually kind of watched it together. Along the way it asks you little questions, and we were surprised by the sort of questions he could answer, like which was a picture of something that was closest, farthest away, lightest, heaviest, etc. Although for hottest he chose the teapot over a fire, which makes sense given how much he has experienced both.

Carly gave him a bath, and they watched Beethoven’s Ninth. He was asking for tempos, so I was in there with them for quite awhile, helping with the tempos.

Before the first attempt at sleep, he and I read some Winnie the Pooh, then he wanted to try to sleep at 7:40, but was back out by 7:50. We read The Zax and part of Green Eggs and Ham, then he downloaded the rest of the Dr. Seuss books in the app, watching the progress “Pizza”s fill up. He remembered that from when we did that on his iPad a long time ago. They went back in at 8:25 but were out 10 minutes later. Carly took a shower. We read some of A Violin for Elva, and he wanted to watch Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, so we watched much of that. Attempt #3 lasted 9:10 out 9:15. Read a little of I Ran the Zoo, then back in and he was asleep by 9:40.

Photos: 

Cold bench: 

Smokey and August enjoying the view: 

Broom: 

Temple: 

Candles and statues: 

View:

Kimchi pots: 

Last stop: 

The stamp: 

End of the trail part: 

Trying on shoes: 

Dancing: 

Looking out at the Han together: 

He was awake at 6:10. Carly headed to work and he played some Dragonbox Numbers. He switched to the toy piano and played a little. He found something on the ground: “It was something icky on the ground…But I just throwed it away under the couch.” He wanted to switch to my iPad, but okay when I said no. I reheated some pancakes for breakfast, then we listened to his playlist of songs that he’s liked. He listened to the whole thing, and he was opening and closing the freezer door and said “I’m using it as an instrument.” Then he got two markers and was using them as drumsticks on the chair and table, and then got under the table and was using them in there. I asked if he wanted real ones: “I don’t want real drumsticks. I just want pretend drums.” He played his pancake, cut in quarters, as an instrument: “I have a pancake keyboard. It has four keys.”

We then had a good GarageBand session. Much less math today, and more music. We made banana bread, then he was playing with Duplos and humming “It’s O.K.” I tried taking a shower, but he kept wanting me to help with Duplos. We built an ink factory. I suggested that when he asked what it was, and he really liked the idea. I took my shower, but he was interrupting, and shouted “Come OUT!” But followed it with “I’m putting Duplos down my shirt. Watch me dada!” When I came out he was talking, mainly to himself: “You really like septillion…infinity?” “What’s a word you don’t know?” “What’s in your shirt? It’s a secret!” He said he was putting the Duplos down his shirt because they were afraid of the parlor, and that the monsters were eating them.

We then built a zoo out of Duplos – the first zoo in a long time. I had to hang laundry, and he wasn’t happy about me doing that, but when I suggested he help he did, taking things out and helping identify whose clothes they were so I could sort them on the rack.

The banana bread was ready, and he was smelling it while it cooled. He then started doing a quick smell, crouching down below the counter, then coming back up. He said “It’s my smelling exercise.” He then started licking it, so I cut it up and we started eating it. He said “Say you smell like banana bread breath…Haha, joke.”

We did more zoo work, then he stood in my open closet at one point and said “I’m a shirt.” We skyped with my parents. My mom asked how he was doing, and he said “Good…But I still put my finger in my nose.” He played piano for them, and used his toes. He then used his toes on the electric keyboard as well.

Before we left for class he was using a xylophone stick as a flute. He also said “You hiding from the ice cream.” “Yeah. That’s actually a cupcake.” But I’m not sure what that was about. When he went to the bathroom he doing a peculiar kind of math: “3 poops plus 2 poops equals 5 poops. I’m doing poop math…I was a dog doing poop math.”

We got to Teuni Teuni class just as the teacher had called August’s name. August saw the big picture of a birthday cake on the wall, and yelled cake. He then ran right past the teacher, who had his hand up for the usual high five, and went to the picture and pretended to eat it: “Cake!” “I ate all the cake!” As they did their walking path and forward rolls, August held up the line once as he was tracing and spelling ‘Happy Birthday’ on the sign. He kept going back to the cake throughout class and pretending to eat it, and also played it as an instrument. Class was obviously all about cakes, and involved a pretend birthday for the teacher at the end.

For the first cake activity they picked strawberries, then took them across the room to decorate a big cake. August did one, then ran back, saying “Whee! I’m picking strawberries!” After that one though he spent the rest of that activity just moving all of the strawberries the other kids brought over. They were putting a lot of them on the horizontal surface of the cake, and he thought they should all go on the vertical surfaces of it. They then put big candles in a cake, and put flames on the candles. He was very particular about getting the flame right in the middle of the top of the candle. They got birthday hats, but August just wore his a few seconds, then they had confetti cannon things, and August loved that. The teacher was pretty aggressive about shooting them at August’s face. In the video I got of it August was seeming to get upset about it, but then he kept going back to shoot the teacher after that, and when the teacher did it to August again August just laughed.

After class we took the bike over to Toys R Us. He admired all the lanterns lining the streets for Buddha’s Birthday, like he did last year. We went to the food court and chose a set lunch with dongatsu, udon, and a hot pot bibimbap dish and figured out how to order it with the machines. We both liked all of it, and somehow it is the first time we’ve had a rice hot pot dish, where the rice gets all crispy – reminds me of the Persian dishes I’ve had. Anyway, at the end August was feeding himself soup. Then he got up from his chair, walked around me to the other side, and picked up a napkin and wiped his face.

From there we went to Toys R Us. He played a bubble wand as a flute, then we went in and chose the letters and numbers play dough set that we have, a pack of markers, and a rubber chicken for the present for Cora’s party on Saturday. He kind of liked choosing presents, but was impatient to get to the Legos, being a bit demanding and using his “I’m going” line. We then sat and played with the Legos for a long time. We made another ink factory. For part of the time he curled in my lap and rested, and kept telling me to keep working on the ink factory. Ready for middle management, at least.

We then headed back and had a few minutes before his English class so he played on the yellow and green sculptures in the park.

We then went to class. Only him and one girl at 4. She gave us the books from last week, then started class. August was dancing to the songs and having fun. After about 15 minutes I thought it was slightly odd that we were reviewing last week’s lesson so much. Then suddenly other people started to come in. At this point, August, who had been calmly sitting in the middle of the room while she read through the story, got up and said “I’m done.” I had to take him out in the hall and he got upset, calmed down a little and we tried to go back in, but he got upset again, then back out in the hall and it took several minutes to get to a point where I could set him on the bike and I went in and got our stuff.

As we left I found on my phone a text message from 3:10 saying that class would start at 4:20 today. She didn’t tell us (me and the other mom) this at 4:00, but instead seemed to feel like she had to teach extra class. Very weird, but very Korean, where you don’t tell people things directly. But frustrating, as I would have gladly gone and gotten coffee. I mean, there was no way that either of us could have handled a full 60 minutes of the class anyway.

Anyway, we went down to the grocery store and he was fine there. While I picked out bananas he suddenly came back with an apple sample. It was on a toothpick and seemed like he had gotten it himself. I said he could get another one, and he went back and, I’m pretty sure, threw that toothpick away and got another one and poked another apple piece. I then expected him to walk with me, but when he was done with that apple he ran back and threw that toothpick away as well.

We got home just before Carly. They nursed, then he played Big Numbers. One of the skills in it is comparing two numbers: a shop gives you two rates for the same transaction, and you want to choose the one where you get more in return. He had needed help with this, but is now pretty able to figure out which number is bigger.

He ate a lot of dinner. He was then playing Carly’s leg like a flute and said “I played a leg flute.” He was then pretending t
o be a dog and pooping everywhere on the floor. I think that is pretty indicative of his view on dogs – he hasn’t been interested in touching dogs at all, and still comments about being afraid they’ll like his face. That traumatic event happened last May 1st.

Carly gave him a bath, then he looked at the Persian Instrument book and I cleaned and trimmed his nails. He totally let me do it without a fuss, in part because I let him watch the intro video a few times. We then looked at the songbook and watched the ABC-DEF-GHI video from Sesame Street as Carly hadn’t seen that. He was to bed at  7:50 and to sleep soon after.

 

Photos. Banana bread: 

Ink factory: 

Duplos in his shirt: 

Licking: 

Flute: 

Teuni Teuni. Decorating the cake: 

Hat: 

Lunch: 

Napkin: 

More flute: 

Legos: 

Sculptures: 

English class. Right before “I’m done”:

Home Plus. Getting an apple sample: