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He was awake at 6:52 and came out upset. I picked him up and held him in the parlor until 7 when he wanted down. Set him on the reading area and he lay there quietly for a bit, then said “I want to watch a video of a kid learning to count by…twenty-twos.”

But he played some piano instead, playing a Itsy Bitsy Spider and singing it. He wanted to play GarageBand, so I decided to give him the keyboard from Cherie and Chuck. First we read the birthday greeting from my parents on Skype.

We opened the keyboard and hooked it up to his iPad. He started playing and had to count all the keys. Cassie and Vivian and Colin called and said Happy Birthday. This interrupted August’s playing in GarageBand, so I called them back on my iPad so August could play for them. He was playing Ants Go Marching. I didn’t realize he had figured out the end of it (since it is different from Johnny Comes Marching).

After talking to them Carly called us and got to see him playing it. A couple students came in and wished him happy birthday.

At the end of that he said he was making up a song: I’m going to play my Vee-urr-naise song. He kept playing for awhile and was playing Yankee Doodle “I played Yankee Doodle on the bass guitar!” He was also being silly: “There’s an octopus playing the keyboard…Squirt!”

Had him go to the toilet, finally. He asked “What does a paramore sound like?” It was a new made up instument. We talked about going to the science center and he joked about eating super worms and grubs. And said “No onions!” – a line from the Starts with Octopus book.

We had cereal for breakfast, and I was trying to get in the shower. But he wanted math and said “I want to do that for a couple minutes.” So we did some math and then played on the keyboard. I took a shower and he kept playing keyboard. I got out of the shower, and he came and asked me through the door “Is this how you draw a crescent, Dada?” I said “Go give it a try.” He went back and a few seconds later I heard him exclaim “I drew a crescent!”

Back out, he wanted me to play a sad song on the electric keyboard. I played some chords and made up a little song that went something like

“The baby’s crying

I don’t know why

I gave him a bottle

But he continued to cry

I think he’s tired

But won’t go to sleep…”

I didn’t get any further because I looked over to see him starting to rub his eyes. I asked if it was making him sad and he burst out crying. I grabbed him and held him on my lap for a few minutes while he cried. I then lay back with him on my chest. I told him this was how I first held him when he was born. He liked that, and held my finger like I told him he had when he was born. He slid off of me, but then lay back down down with his head on my chest for a minute.

We got ready to go. I got some of the Cookie Monster letter cookies out and he insisted they were “Big bird cookies”. He asked me “What shape you are?” I said I was an octagon. He thought about it and said “I’m a…oval.” I then surprised him by having Green Monster, Bluie, Marshy, and Peter Rabbit hug him and say Happy Birthday. He thought that was funny.

Finally, as I was getting him in the backpack, Cherie and Chuck skyped. After opening the keyboard we had recorded a little video saying thank you and sent it to them. Cherie sang him happy birthday in Spanish, then we headed out at 9:50.

He was singing his Mani song as we walked to the train. I asked him what the song was called and that is what he called it: “Mani”

It has gotten easier and easier to travel long distances on the train with August. Just sat for awhile, had some snack, looked at the river as we crossed, and played some iPad. We got out the station and headed out. Bought a couple of drinks and two triangle kimbaps and a strawberry cookie. As we exited, I pointed to the spot where I tripped with him in the backpack and asked if he remembered what happened. He said: “fell…blood.”

For a minute I was afraid it was closed. There was no one around. I said it looked dead. August asked “Why dead…like the batteries?” Made sure it was open, then sat at a picnic table and ate lunch. He was talking about north and south and I explained we were ‘south of home’ He asked “What ‘of’ mean?” Randomly, he said “Jason Webley…I said Jason Webley.” He was looking over at the playground, and spotted the odd swing things that are on ends of a lever, so if you sit on one it pulls up the other one. I taught him the word ‘investigate’ and he said “I want to investigate why they go up and down.”

We went and played on those for a few minutes, then he played on a shaky platform. We then headed in. Bought a ticket, entered, and went to put our stuff in a locker. He saw a woman and said “I thought that was mama. It looks like mama.” I think he vaguely remembers meeting mama there. He actually walked over and took a closer look and came back saying something about “brown shoes”. He also was looking at the numbers on the lockers upside down.

The main wing to the left was closed for construction. We briefly looked through the famous scientists area, but then went to the wing on the right, the ‘Basic Science’ wing. Looked at the wave machine, then wandered around. Looked at a table of elements, a spring wave thing, then a place where you can record yourself talking and it sends it to a speaker across the room. We found a big mechanical clock with balls that roll on tracks and we watched that for a a few minutes. Every five minutes it drops a big ball and makes noise, and some little robot figures play musical instruments. We set a reminder to come back in 15 minutes to see it change at 1:00, then went and looked at all the electricity exhibits. Talked to him about electricity and circuits, etc. He also really liked a video of ships breaking through arctic ice. We went back at 1 to the clock, but he decided it was scary and wanted me to walk away from it. We kept getting farther and farther away. Later, he didn’t want to come anywhere close to it.

We wandered the rest of that hallway. He saw models of molecules and asked “Is that molecules?” He saw a video of blood and a diagram of veins and arteries. He asked “Is that the heart?” There was a display about how babies develop and he really liked that. And seemed appropriate considering it was his birthday. One of the pictures showed twins in a womb and he pointed at those. Somehow we ended up talking about how he was naked when he was born, no clothes. There was an area about vision, and a thing you look into and try to use your hands to bring two tools together. But it switches your vision, left to right eye and vice versa, making it incredibly hard. He liked that.

We went to the bathroom and stopped in the lobby to have his strawberry cookie for a snack. We heard a song playing. I started to say “That’s a song from f-“ And he interjected “5-touch class.”

We heard music coming from the lobby stage, and went and watched the dancing robot show. He had been afraid of it the one time we tried to watch it before, but now he loved it. He danced along, and finished his cookie. At the end he came to me and said “They’re funny cuz robots don’t dance.”

When that was over we went in the kids play area. He walked past the funhouse mirrors. He said “I thought that’s water but it’s still glass.” We went up through the big structure, and climbed through the rope path. At the end there was a guy stationed who told us adults aren’t allowed through. Don’t know why he wasn’t stationed at the beginning.

We spent time looking at the optical illusions (making it look like there was a hole in his hand, etc.). He liked say “Optical illusion”. He kept looking down at the robot things on the floor below and said “I think the robots need help.” We went down and played with the power generating things (turning cranks and riding a bik
e) and played with the robots and the water area and the floor piano. Finally, there is a floor with fish swimming on it, and when you get close they swim away. He spent a good amount of time trying to step on the fish.

We then went and saw the whole robot show again, with him doing a lot more dancing. After that he was talking a lot about musical instruments as we headed outside and walked to the Insectarium. We walked through there, and he touched the superworms. He really liked looking at the beehive and talking about that, then at the displays of how different insects go from eggs to full size. Finally, he touched a grub and we looked at the beetles. Before we left we went into the butterfly room. But when you go in there is a large fan that blows air to help keep the butterflies from escaping. He did not like the noise. Even though it turned off, he wanted to leave.

As we walked back, I blew on him like the fan, and he said I had “Salami” breath. We had water from the mater machine in the lobby, and August was saying “No, you’re silly.” from Also an Octopus. We went to the bathroom, got our stuff from the locker, and headed home. On the subway he ate the letter cookies: “I have M for mama…Z for zizzerbug…O for octopus and on and off.” Took line 4 to Changdong, and got the 1144 bus right away. Home at 5:25.

He showed Carly the keyboard and played a lot with her. He was using the smart strings and I showed him how he could start to play along with them, playing songs he already knows and making up melodies. He asked “What happens if you play the mandolin with a bow?” And said he was quoting Word Wagon when he chanted “Pickle juice, pickle pie” Carly and I did a lot of cleaning, preparing for the play date with Cora tomorrow. At some point we mentioned his birthday, and he had the idea of measuring him. He is now 94cm and 13.7kg (30.2 pounds).

Carly gave him a bath, and the birthday boy was asleep just before 8.

On our way: 

Photos. A big smile:

River: 

Lunch: 

Reading numbers upside down: 

Twins: 

Rope bridge: 

Dancing: 

Superworms: 

Beehive: 

Last time in the toddler area: 

Leaving: 

Falling asleep: 

Piano with mama: 

He was up at 7:16. A little upset at first. After I set him down he laid on the couch for a few minutes and I would give him a kiss and he would just grunt. Finally he got up and started singing Yankee Doodle. We read Also an Octopus, all the way though, then 1-2-3 Peas and Hap-pea All Year (the peas book about months). Had Cheerios and banana for breakfast, then he played a new piano version of Yankee Doodle, starting to add in a left hand line (just C, but changing up the rhythm a bit too) that is entirely his own doing.

On the toilet he talked about temperatures: “What happens if the weather is 3 million 8 hundred billion 20 thousand 5 hundred…?” “I’m outside and the temperature is six hundred and sixty six million!”

He played GarageBand, and I took a shower. He was playing GarageBand when I went in, but when I came out he had switched to TodoMath and was working on subtraction and addition equations. I helped him for awhile, then he said he was done with that…he wanted to do math on paper: “I’m going to do addition problems.” He wrote his first problem with a variable: “2 plus what equals 18?”

We played mandolin and he played two notes in a row a couple times. We talked about the word ‘bothered’ because I said the strap bothered his neck. As an example I said when I read too loud. He said “Tallulah’s Tutu” Hid behind the pillow while I looked to see what part he was talking about. He then said “Don’t read it…close it.” But it turns out it wasn’t my volume that he doesn’t like so much as he doesn’t like when characters get upset, which is what happens in Tallulah’s Tutu when she is upset she doesn’t get a tutu.

Anyway, we then read the Sense and Sensibility opposites book. He asked why the guy was sad in it and we were making guesses. I sad he maybe listened to sad music, so August wanted examples of sad music. Which led to the Dylan song “Rock me mama” which led to August asking about the line “like the wind and the rain” which led to me mentioning porches, which led to August asking what a porch was, which led to me mentioning the one in Chelan where the gnome is which led to August asking what the name of the gnome is. So he clearly remember the gnome but couldn’t remember the name he gave it. We couldn’t quite think of it. Later, on Skype, my dad would remember it is Oh-ee-oh.

We then skyped with my parents. We were in the parlor and I let him eat in there while we skyped, but then he decided to try wiping his face on the carpet. Took him to wash his hands, then he went back and was wiping his wet face on everything. He then was pretending to count peanut butter drips, and they got to hear him pronounce “thirty” with his new ‘th’ sound. He played the hard rock guitar sound on GarageBand and kept saying “Say it hurts grandmas eardrum.” When they asked what he wanted to learn to play he said “autoharp, bass guitar, electric keyboard” He also said something was spooky: “spooky…that’s from mama’s zoo”.

After we hung up it turned out he meant Peek-a-Zoo, one of the new iPad apps he was playing a bit earlier. It is sort of a match and find game, where you find the character that looks sad, the one that is happy, etc. He first looked at his iPad, but then said “Must be on dada’s iPad.” and found it. Not sure why he brought it up though, and there’s no mention of ‘spooky’ in the app.

Anyway, we got ready and headed to Teuni Teuni. On the way he said “I want six forward rolls. Or maybe 100.” He jumped right into class, and did six laps to do six forward rolls. He helped put it away, then ran to me. I was about to say that he did six of them, when he said “That was six!” Clearly he had counted them. Class was about scarecrows, and included a scarecrow outfit that August happily tried on. At first though it looked like the teacher was being a bird, so August held his hands out like the teacher was and said something about “I’m doing what sangsaengnim…” When the teacher had them sit down in a circle, August was repeatedly counting everyone in the circle, in both English and Korean. The teacher then counted the kids, “1 2 3 4”. August looked at him and said “No. 1 2 3 4 5” and included the teacher in his counting.

Class was about scarecrows and balancing (because you hold your arms out like the scarecrows). There was a scarecrow outfit that August loved wearing, with arms that attached to the back. They jumped around, and August looked at himself in the mirror. Also, during the class he realized he could turn around and see his back in the mirror and was doing that (remember the other day when he got sad that he couldn’t see his back). They also built little scarecrows and August liked that part.

After class we went down to the food court and August wanted the same bibimbap dish as last time. We got that and enjoyed it. There was a girl about his age a table over who was crying, and he wanted me to guess why she was sad, but didn’t seem to like my ideas: “Make another guess why she is sad…No, make another guess…” And he quoted from the Peek-a-Zoo app: “Can you dance the macaroni?…Hey, you’re wearing my sock!”

We headed out and walked across to the park. He was walking, and singing his new song, that he started a couple days ago. In the art museum we looked around the lobby (he likes the raised letters on the wall). Then he noticed the ‘Information’ sign on the front desk. We looked at that and read it in Korean, then he moved a couple feet to my right and looked at a sign sitting on the counter. It was sort of an L shaped (the bottom of the L being a base) sign with information on it. He pulled the edge. It turned out to be a heavy metal sign, and resting on towel. It slid right off and fell on the floor, making a huge noise in the lobby. And as it slipped out of his had it scraped his finger.

Took several minutes for him to calm down, and he wasn’t happy when I took him outside. He still wanted the play area. Eventually we went back in and went in the play area. He held his left hand gingerly for much of the time, but was okay. Played around in the balls and worked on throwing. At one point was talking and said “…and I realized I wanted to come.” When he was done with the balls he went and colored the two pictures they had available. The first was an Alice in Wonderland picture, and like the Wizard of Oz one last time he kept asking me to tell him about it.

It was now past 3 and his English class was at 4. The weather was nice, so we went for a random bike ride/walk around the blocks to the east of Home Plus. He sang the whole way. We got to class a bit early and sat at the tables for a couple minutes, went to the bathroom, and went to class. Class went well, and we got a bunch of our cheesy little English books and stuff. The teacher’s name is Jenny, which August seemed sure about, although I thought it may be Janie or something. One of the characters is ‘strong’, and August turned to me and said “Dada is strong.” That made my day.

Also, there is a character that is a fire engine. Through the first class and most of this class I thought the character’s name was Louie. Then there was another fire engine (I thought), called Roy. Several minutes later I realized they were one in the same. ‘Roy’ in Korean is basically ‘Loh-ee’ because there is no R in Korean, and no ‘oy’ diphthong (and thus it has to be two syllables – like ‘Ryan’ is 3 and ‘August’ is 4).

After class we went to meet Carly and called her from the corner, but she was already home. Went home and they nursed, then they did math before he played some piano in the parlor. I then did some math with him, then he took the keys out of the piano. He tried to get out of putting them back in, but we wouldn’t let him escape and he did it with me.

He got silly and was throwing the blueberries on me, then tried to do headstand while Carly was still in the chair. I was throwing pillows at him, and he said “Say you’re going to throw a
pillow very gently.”

I took him in for a bath. We watched the livestream of an Amanda Palmer concert again, and he wanted me to tell him more about Alice in Wonderland. He also said “I love dancing…goodnight toes” and when I asked him what that was from he said it was from a book. I figured out he meant Busy Toes. I’ve only read it with him once. Don’t know if Carly has read it with him more, or if he was looking at it on his own. I went and got it, and we read it. It ends with the ‘goodnight toes’ line, but while it has a dancer in it, it doesn’t say “I love dancing”. He repeated that line a couple times though, and so it sounded like something he was saying himself, or him imagining what the book said.

Anyway, the real story was when he said “I want more Numbers you don’t know”. We talked about variables and how they worked, then when he kept wanting more I told him about ‘infinity’. If you really want to stretch a very tired almost-three year old’s brain you get them thinking about infinity. He was definitely trying to get his brain around that one. Took a long video of that. Pretty straight to bed and sleep after that, asleep against at 7:50.

 

Teuni Teuni: 

Counting:

New song: 

Infinity: 

Photos. Looking at his back in the mirror:

Scarecrow: 

Another scarecrow: 

Lunch and the crying girl: 

Throwing: 

English class: 

Cuddling: 

Woke up upset at 6:47. Cried and sat down on the floor in the hall. He wanted mama. I picked him up and made him let me hold him for a few minutes. I set him on the reading area and he took off his socks and just sat there a few minutes more. We read Kiss Good Night and Wild About Books. He was hungry so we had some cereal and then he sent mama a video message on Skype. She called us. At the end of the Skype call he said “confused” then “about talking.”

We went to fix his humerus bone, and he was still acting odd after the Skype call. I asked if he was sad or tired and he said “Both”. Did some doctoring, then he wanted to play some Endless Numbers. From that he wanted to go to the bed to do math with the friends using the blueberries. He is now pronouncing ‘th’, as in ‘thirty’ and it doesn’t sound like an’f’. Although it sounds like he is trying really hard. He did subtraction by stuffing blueberries down his shirt and saying “I tooked away 6…that means minus.” I had Bluie and GM attempting to climb in his shirt with the blueberries and he found that funny.

He played hide and seek with them, then we went and ate grapes and a hobang as a snack and talked about our plans. He liked the idea of riding the bike all the way to mama’s work and wanted to go right away. He settled for math on the iPad, and then words, while I took a shower. Then he played a round of the Orchard game when I came out. We made a tofu teriyaki sandwich for an early lunch. He was wondering about bread (we had to get white bread this time because they were out of wheat) and wheat, so we watched a video about how flour is made.

We played mandolin a couple times through the morning, and he tried playing it like a cello. On the paper he went and wrote ‘x-ray’ on his own. He looked at Carly’s paintings of 14, Q, etc. We decided she should do 아 on the empty canvas as that is the start of his name in Korean. “Why Q? Cuz dada loves you a ton of Qs?”

He saw a raccoon in something and wanted to see a raccoon video again. Did that, and he pretended to be a raccoon climbing on the couch. He was playing an instrument that we made up the other day that is played by sticking your hand out. He calls it a bliblia. Wrote more x-ray and ‘flowers’ (with my help) on paper. He would write it once with my help, then copy it out on his own. He drew a big A with a smaller A inside it and said “The baby A is inside the mama A.”

Finally, he was playing piano, and was fine until he started hammering on it at the end of a song.I stopped him and he got upset. We were putting on coats at the time, so had to pause. Eventually he calmed down and we got going at 1.

Slightly warmer than yesterday, but still grey and breezy. Quite windy as we crossed the river. We walked down to the new path along the train tracks and crossed the bridge and walked to eMart. First went to the grocery store. Out of sour cream, sadly. We picked out a chicken cranberry sandwich, a couple jello and fruit things and an orange juice and iced coffee drink. He wanted to go outside. I questioned him on this a couple times on our way out and figured out that when I asked about inside he thought we had to go a long way and he wanted to eat right away. Convinced him we just had to go up one floor and he was excited about that and took off running. Pointed him in the right direction and we went up to the food court.

He also changed his mind about the play area (구름빵), initially saying he wanted to go back outside. But once we were done eating he wanted to go in. We had been here once before, when he was upset about the boots for the sand area before he changed his mind and decided he liked them.

A couple of changes I noticed:

When we went in he totally let a woman help him take off his coat and shoes while I paid. He wouldn’t have allowed this before. When we went to the sand area he ran and chose boots and said “These are pretty cool.” And when we went to leave the sand area a woman helped him take off his boots, brushed him off, and used the blower on him. He stood up, sat down, turned around at her request. All without me saying a thing.

Much of our time was spent at the red and yellow pushy thing. He wrote words quite a bit, mainly ‘Zinnie’, then ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ and 아그스트. He also did ‘gargantuan’. At one point a boy came over and they spent a few minutes pushing them back and forth.

He also jumped on the bear, played with a set of blocks a bit (counting them), did some crayon on the wall you can color on), and went down the rolly slide once. Then the sand area for much of the remaining time. We had a thing that you drop sand in the top of and two gears turn. We made a game of putting more and more sand in until they stopped turning. Our second pile went until we completely covered up both gears. It got to be a really big pile before that happened. August also made banana bread using a bowl and sand.

The other new thing for him was actually riding the hanging balls that go around like a merry-go-round. Did that three times.

He had gone to the bathroom, liking aiming at the fly in the urinal a bit before, so we headed out, getting to APIS just after 4:30. For much of our walking today August was humming or singing Itsy Bitsy Spider, often with his autoharp sound.

We met Carly in the entrance to APIS and went down to Melinda’s elementary music room. August was in heaven. Narayan, Melinda’s intern, was there and showed him some of the percussion instruments. August got to play the gong. Then Melinda came back and August looked around a bit more. He got up at the big piano and started playing. Soon, all the music teachers were applauding his playing. Melinda opened the piano, and August stood on the bench so he could look inside. Someone asked what instrument he wanted to learn, and his list today was: autoharp, electric guitar, pipe organ, violin (I think), and a few others. Oh, and Melinda showed him her singing bowl (like Cherie has) and August got to touch that.

From the piano we went next door to the orchestra room and he got to try out a small violin. He loved that. I helped him with it a bit, then Melinda came in and helped as well. Probably ten minutes or so of violin, then he and Carly played the wooden xylophone together, and had a nice song going. It was tough for him to leave – he really didn’t want to go. In particular he wanted to open the cello cases.

We headed out and walked home. When we came out on the other side of the line 1 tracks it was raining. August was also wearing his hat and gloves today – if the weather goes as forecast, perhaps today is the last day for both snow and hats and gloves. It was a nice little unexpected flurry.

We got home, had some dinner, and he watched the outdoor orchestra videos in the bath.

Carly asked him ‘Do you still speak stopadoo language?’ And he said “When the weather was warm.” Carly thought he said ‘river’ instead of ‘weather’, and August was happy when we figured out what he meant – like other things he has remembered with me recently, he remembers doing them back when it was warm. He was exhausted from the exciting day and went to sleep easily at 7:50.

Photos. Counting: 

Like a cello: 

On top: 

Upside down: 

Peddling: 

Two sides: 

Pulling it out of the mountain: 

APIS Music: 

Touching the bowl: 

Violin lesson: 

Walking in the snow: 

He was up nice and early at 5:40. When I was up a bit later he was working on counting by tens with Carly using the blueberry cubes. Carly left for work, and he worked on When Johnny Comes Marching on the piano. He had the last of the banana bread for breakfast, then played GarageBand. On Word Wagon he continued adding a definition after sounding out some of the words. Carly noticed this when he was doing it yesterday, and I’m not sure where it comes from. For example, he said “train…something can drive…” He played more piano and did more of When Johnny. Then played music on Figure.

We sang When Johnny and Yankee Doodle, looking at the lyrics to learn a little more of Yankee Doodle. Suddenly, he said “Wait! I have an idea! Let’s count by 70s!” We went in and actually ended up counting by twos using the blueberries. He is starting to be able to do it on his own. An announcement came on and he didn’t like it, so we went into the reading area and closed (and locked) the door. We made a nest and read The Hole in the King’s Socks three times. He was singing and making up random words for the jumping game song, then writing uppercase and lowercase letters on paper, then tried writing some cursive. He needed the Cursive app to show him, then he ended up playing in the app. I took a shower.

When I came out he was doing some math, and talked about doing math in his head, and joked about it: “In your brain? In your skull? In your humerus bone?…Say yes.” As we wrote on the paper, he broke apart one of the pencils which had been slightly broken, then needed me to tape it back together. We went back to the reading area and read Kiss Good Night three times. The first time, he said he was afraid of the “AGAIN!” part. I was talking to him about it, and figured out that he didn’t like when I said it too loud. Once that was out, he loved it, and actually made a game out of reading the book really quietly or loudly.

He then was singing something, and hit upon his “Shovel cave it out” song again. So we figured out how to play it on the piano.

A delivery guy came to the door to deliver a package from my parents for his birthday. A nice surprise, as they were afraid it was going to be late.

August wanted a snack, so we had crackers. He has started to pretend that the non-letter crackers have things on them. Started with letters, but progressed from there. Today it was “Is this a brain wheat thin? Is this a humerus wheat thin?”

Finally, he spotted one of his fish oil vitamins under the couch. He couldn’t reach it, so I got down and got it. I held it out to him and told him not to eat it. Big mistake. He took it and ate it. I asked if it was an old one, and he said “Yeah. It was squishy. It was an old one.”

We left at noon. He was singing “Shovel cave it out” as he walked. He started saying “Yo mas” and asking what it meant. Told him ‘I More’ but that didn’t make sense and that we’d have to ask Carly if she says something like that to him. Finally, he was working on finger math on his own on the train down, and doing problems like 10-2, 10-10, and 3+2.

At Children’s Grand Park we walked to the playground. I had told him what food we had (half a sandwich, strawberries, string cheese, rice curry) and he had said that was enough – no need to stop for kimbap, etc. Empty today. Not a holiday, but also chilly (36) and a bit windy. So he wanted to go on the swings. He went briefly on the round swing and the relaxing swing. Put his sunglasses on for that one. But spent most of his time on a regular swing. Then was walking around and playing around. Seemed tired, and at one point twice tried to lie down on the sand. But then didn’t like sand all over himself. He was then pretending to be a skunk/electric eel/octopus and spray/zap me.

He ate somewhere in there, then were ready to leave as it was chilly and past time for a nap. But he played on the hopscotch, went on the turning thing, climbed the hill, went back to hopscotch, etc. Eventually I picked him up and we headed out.

We went to the bathroom, got in the backpack, then started walking. A nap didn’t happen though. He was just too hyped up; his brain was too on. He was talking and singing constantly: “I can change O to P, I can change P to R…” Lots of stuff that I would have found really amusing if I wasn’t carrying him on my back for a half hour. And in the continuing construction drama of Children’s Grand Park, the new playground doesn’t look any different BUT there were a couple guys starting to work on something. Also, August and I had been predicting for a couple weeks that soon the new escalator from the station (the one that took nearly two years to install, and has been out of commission multiple times already) would break down, as it has been extra squeaky. And indeed today it was closed off and the panels were all open.

Anyway, after a half hour we headed home. Considered children’s museum, but August didn’t seem excited about it. And the weather was just too cold.

On the subway home I asked him about a music teacher again. He said “I want a cello teacher. Electric guitar is my second choice. And buzzerbass. And guitar. And autoharp. And upright bass. And last but not least….harpsichord.”

At home we read a new book on the iPad called Also an Octopus, which is a story about how stories are structured. We then played piano. He wanted to wear it, so I put it on him. He was then turning around and bumping it into the table. He had the good idea of taking it in to the parlor, but as he excitedly ran off I called after him to stop, so he didn’t hit it on the other table, chair, door, etc. He broke out crying, upset that I’d raised my voice. Took some consoling, then we went back to mandolin.

From there we went back to the couch and watched music videos of instruments he didn’t know. First, lute. Then ukulele. For that we watched the Amanda Palmer Tiny Desk concert: https://youtu.be/LRix5o2-fiU He liked that, although for much of it she didn’t play ukulele. We also watched some theremin, and then he ended up on the marble machine again and a video of covers of the marble machine song.

Around 5 we headed back outside, as we needed to get bread and we were going to the book store in the pink building to get more pads of paper. We stopped to leave the bike at the top of the stairs in the pink building, and as we walked away he said “I’m concerned.”

In the book store we found pads of paper. I also let him get a notebook with lines in it for writing, and another notebook that said ‘Funny Mathematics’ on it. It was really busy in there, and August said “Excuse me…I said excuse me a lot.” He also looked at pens that he thought looked like toothbrushes.

As we left, he ran ahead, kind of flapping his arms and singing “De de de” As he ran he looked to his right and saw a woman eating soup. Without slowing, he pointed and said “That looks spicy” and went back to singing “De de de”.

We went to Tous Les Jour. Right before we went in, Carly called, from home, asking where we were. She asked where we were, and August said “Home”. Which was sort of true, but not. Then he said something like “We are at the bread store and are going to buy bread.” We talked about not touching before we went in and it went well. He had trouble picking one treat, but decided on a honey bread thing. We were home at 5:45.

They nursed, then he ate dinner with chopsticks. Watched some tabla, then marble machine. He played GarageBand, then we shared the honey and cheese bread Carly gave him a bath and I did dishes. She was doing something as they went in, and he signed ‘more’, using his open left hand method. In the bath he was singing Itsy Bitsy and putting in random words. Straight to be after that, and asleep at 7:15.

Photos. Playing on the chair and looking at photos: 

Children’s Grand Park. Swing: 

Skunk: 

Home. Resting and reading books: 

Mandolin: 

Toes: 

Book store. Looking at pencils: 

7:35. A long, long sleep. And straight to a warm spot on the floor. A little piano, then some Word Wagon, then to the bathroom, then a lot of music: first GarageBand, then working on holding the mandolin and then piano. He played a slow version of Johnny Comes Marching. We played mandolin a couple times. He wanted to hold it standing up, so I shortened the strap. I got him banana bread, banana, and a couple yogurt pretzels for breakfast. We did some exercise together, then he wanted to do yoga, and wanted to do as many yoga positions as possible. At the end he was trying to twist around and see his back, and got a little sad that he couldn’t.

To the iPad, where he played Elmo Loves ABCs and Metamorphabet a bit, then he remembered instruments he didn’t know, and we watched videos of harpsichord and autoharp. When I went to take a shower he was watching a trombone video. He came into the bathroom at the end of my shower and asked “What’s a tuba sound like?” So then we watched tuba and sousaphone videos.

He saw me typing an email to Carly, and asked why I was using two hands. He then said “I want to type with two hands so it’s FAST!” So I showed him home row and all that, and he figured out making capital letters with shift. He said “I want to type Qs because Q is my favorite letter.” We had just talked about what to do for the day, and he wanted to type “We are going to a park.” Which he then did, with help, and added in punctuation park. He wanted to type ‘Sinnaedong Park’ and I started to tell him how to do that, but he insisted “I want to do it in Korean.” So I showed it to him on the map, and he typed it, then (because the full name is Sinnaedong Community Park), he typed ‘park’ and ‘community’ in English.

We spent a lot of time making instrument sounds and he sang Baa Baa black sheep in the different sounds. I mentioned singing Baa Baa to him and he said “When you were a little baby?” We sang both versions of the song. We were talking about learning music in Israel, and I asked him if he would like a music sangsaengnim in Israel. He said yes, and when I asked what his instrument choices were, he concluded “I want harpsichord first choice, guitar second choice.”

In playing his made up instruments they would get quite elaborate: “I have a thousand frets and a million strings.” It was a thousand keys when playing tuba. He asked for more instruments, and I remembered accordion. For that I pulled up a video of Jason Webley playing “Last Song” at the 11.11.11 concert that Carly and I went to. He loved that, and watched all of it. As he was playing accordion he said “I’m pushing a lot of buttons. I have a quadrillion buttons.”

Back on GarageBand he made a discovery: “Ooh! I didn’t know they had that one!” When he found instruments like flute and glockenspiel he could play.

We got headed to the park. Walked down to across from the hospital (I asked if he remembered what the building across the street was – he had once called it “mama’s work” because she had gone there a few times – this time he said “Is it the doctor’s office?”) and caught the 1221 bus. Got to the park and sat on an orange bench and ate lunch. I got him to eat the carrots by having them say “Don’t eat me!” and then the others said “He ate Bob!” He had fun giving them names after that. I got out my ‘real’ camera to take some official three-years-old photos, and we played around with that. He wanted to use it, and took some photos of me while I helped hold it.

We then went across to the playgrounds, where August was initially disappointed to find no swings (two playgrounds and no swings? Didn’t remember until much later that there is actually a third playground up the hill we could have checked). But then he found a big stick and was playing with that. He drew shapes in the sand, including one he said was a bear. There was a girl making sand mountains like he does, but she didn’t seem interested in August joining. August wanted to play right by her though, and make similar sand mountains. He kept wanting to crush hers though, and when she crushed it herself he joined in. He then wanted to pretend to crush strangers’ stuff, a game which I wouldn’t participate in. He then switched it, and pretended to be a stranger himself and told me not to erase what he was making.

We walked over to the weird stage area. Or whatever it is. He wanted a bunch of theories on what it is. He found a broken piece of the plastic floor stuff and played with that. He then stood in it and directed himself as he made music. He found found a maple seed, and I showed him how they fall. We found a bunch of tiny maple seeds, and he stood on some rocks and dropped them. I also held him up in the air so he could drop them.

From there we went to the slides. He wanted me to go down first, but then he went down the little wavy slide a bunch of times. The first time he needed help up the ladder, but he had it after that. His game was that we would hit the slide to make noise as the other person went down.

Then we drew geometrical shapes, and he learned to draw a pentagon and a kite. And he’s drawing really good hearts now. We started to go, and I had Smoky, who was in the backpack, say something. August wanted him to say something about fires, then August pretend to spray fire everywhere, like with a flamethrower. No idea. He said “I blew fire!”

We headed to the bathrooms, and he saw a sign with different stretches on it. He spent quite awhile trying to do the stretches. We went to the bathroom, then got going. We ate some of the pretzels. August said “I ate Bob…the pieces of Bob Are in my esophagus.” He invented an  instrument: “it is like a piano, but it has frets.”

We went up to a park I’d found on Naver Maps in the middle of an apartment complex. On the way, we found some bushes with little purple berries on them. He pretended to eat them and get sick as we walked. They had swings here. Getting windy and chilly, but he went on the swings for 15 minutes or so. Got his swing time in. We had talked about going to a coffee shop to get out of the cold, and there was one a couple blocks away that looked promising. He really wanted to go. Started to walk that way, but the wind was in our face, and for a second he said he wanted to head home. But then when he realized we weren’t going towards the coffee shop he wanted to turn around.

We turned around and made it to Coffee So. There, it was either a choice between a shake to share, or a small hot cocoa on the kids menu. August heard us talking about ‘cocoa’ and decided on that. He was tuned to the word ‘cocoa’, because he had just been talking about the name ‘coco’ (or ‘koko’ as was his preferred spelling), which is the name of the bird in Word Wagon, and I was explaining was different from ‘cocoa’. Anyway, we got that, and he loved the cocoa. He said it looked like coffee. He counted all of his sips, getting up around 30. He also pretended it was making him sick – like the berries. And he gave a lesson in how to drink cocoa. He did a little Word Wagon, and I read one page of my book before he wanted to head home. But I also spent some time using Shazam to identify songs playing. I liked “Down” Marian Hill and “Vals Bebel” A Mar.

We walked up and found a bus stop and headed home. On the walk from the hospital I hummed the Addams Family song, which he wanted to know the words of. Will have to look that up. He was spelling things with random letters as we walked through the park, and spelled ‘Mack’. I told him it was a name, and reminded him of Yertle the Turtle. Will have to read that.

Home a bit after 5:30. He told Carly about the cocoa right away, and said “I tried to get sick because I had extra drinks!”  He had the curry rice for dinner, and we got out the chopsticks for him. I helped him at first, but he got the hang of it, and was pretty soon eating with them.

He played more GarageBand, and showed Carly the instruments. Carly put on t
he Jason Webley video, and he watched a few minutes of that, but then he wanted it quiet so he could play GarageBand on his iPad again.

Carly gave him a bath and I did dishes. He was having fun in the bath, but I think when the washing started he was done. He was ready for bed, and was asleep at 7:30.

Photos. He wanted to use the changing pad for funsies: 

Mandolin: 

Yoga: 

Bus: 

Lunch. Eating Bob the carrot: 

Juice: 

Taking photos: 

Hearts: 

Coffee shop: 

He popped up at 6:50 and went to find Carly they had some good cuddling in the reading area. A lot of playing the Althauser game this morning and being pretend angry. He spent a lot of time just sitting on the toilet. “I’m scrunching my teeth…I still have teeth.” He played GarageBand and ate banana bread. Carly went in the other room to Skype with Glecy, but ended up getting work done when she didn’t respond.

August helped me make a loaf of banana bread to take over to the Meyers’ for lunch. I told him why we were making it and he said “I don’t like to share”. But we talked about it and when when he went in to tell Carly the ‘secret’ that we were going to have pizza, he said we were making banana bread to share “special”.

Then back to music, and he played a lot of GarageBand, Discovery Music, and piano. I took a shower, and when I came out they were skyping with everyone in Mexico. That lasted quite awhile. He saw Cassie and carried on: “That looks like mama…Is mama in there?…That looks the same because she has the same bones.” Vivian tried to tell him he is too old to nurse. He nursed anyway, and asked “Vivian is going to be angry?” I think they put a towel down for Vivian to eat on the floor while she still Skyped, and August wanted to do the same in the parlor. So Carly got a couple sheets and put them down. August piled all of the blankets on Carly, and wanted the baby blankets as well to add to the pile. Carly did some surgery on him as well. He also wanted all the blankets on him. He then said “I can’t move.” When Carly didn’t do anything, he said “That means help.”

We finished skyping, then got ready to head out. Slowly. August and I played more with the blankets. He was a chick and wanted a nest out of all the blankets and pillows, and I piled all the blankets on him again at one point. We left at 11:50 and walked down to catch the bus. Caught the 111. August was in the backpack, and there were open seats. In the past, if Carly sat down then he would want down with her. So I explained we weren’t going far, and asked if it was okay if mama sat down. He said it was.

As we got off the bus, his foot got caught in the little railing dividing the exit of the bus. That has never happened before. The 111 is a different type of bus than most, and this was a new one, so perhaps it was narrower, or the railing was a different design. Anyway, his shoe came off, and it hurt his foot. Grabbed his shoe, and we got him out of the backpack. Once he calmed down and we got the shoe back on though he was fine walking. Also helping was that I gave him one of the Kinder minis that a woman gave him on the bus.

We got to their apartment in Luceen right at 12:30. August seemed a little surprised that there were so few people there – he’s only been there in party situations. We all sat at the table and had pizza and apples for lunch. We were using a dull steak knife to cut his pizza, and August picked it up at one point. I then taught him how to use it, and had him sawing his pizza (me holding the pizza) pretty well. That was a pretty big moment for him, and he enjoyed telling Carly he was using a knife. We also discussed sharing a few times. He stated “I still don’t like sharing” even after we cut up the bread and were sharing it, and he listed all the things they were sharing with us (he listed five things: pizza, the house, toys…and he added two – probably apples and water). But later, either on the walk home, or at home, when Carly asked if he liked sharing, he decided “Yeah”. Oh, and he also kept counting all the people at the table (7 of us).

After eating, Amanda took the two boys, Quinn and Egan, by bike over to their friends’ (the Websters) house. August got a bit sad when they left. He talked a little to Dan, but then decided he was ready to go home. Amanda got back, and she and Carly took August in to play with Legos and toys. I think they were playing with something with dinosaur bones, as they were discussing bones. Somehow, ‘phalanx bones’ came up, and she called them ‘phalanges’. August insisted on ‘phalanx’ until she realized that both are correct (it appears she was using the plural, and he the singular). But cool to hear that he was so confident.

We left at 2:10. As we got to the elevator he said “I was sad the boys left.” Outside, he wanted to play on the playground. He noted there were no swings, but said “I still like it”. Climbed up a squarish climbing thing, then went down the spiral slide once. Got into one of those rocking chair things, and was asking about instruments he doesn’t know. I came up with auto harp and harpsichord. We will have to look up videos sometime. He kept saying “I want to learn…” and would name a song he wanted to play on the autoharp. I would then pretend to show him how to play it. As he tried to get out of the seat he said  “oofta”.

We walked home. He started singing a new tune and sang it for much of the way. We were home at 3:15. He went to the piano and we worked on last line of Ants Go Marching. “I want to play GarageBand on dada’s iPad because there are electric pianos and electric guitars.” He then played lots of GarageBand. Took a break from that to read Planting a Rainbow with Carly. They also looked at the Care for Our World app at some point. Also, he wanted to see a video of a fern growing, so they got his iPad. Not sure if that was because of Planting a Rainbow, or if they also read Spiral by Spiral on my iPad (he had been really interested in the fern page when we read it a day or two ago).

They did some big number math on paper, with Carly showing him how to line up numbers to do long addition. Carly gave him a bath and I did dishes. He was very ready for sleep, but trying to avoid bed; ironic, as Carly decided we should try letting him go to sleep earlier today. She took him in and he was asleep at 6:45. Before she left the room, he sat up a little and said something about “dada’s iPad” in his sleep. He did come out about 7:30 and Carly had to go nurse him again, but he slept soundly after that. Later, I heard him say something in his sleep, and say (actually pronounce) “sigh” – which is something I do sometimes.

 

Photos: 

All the blankets: 

Nest: 

Meyers’. Using a knife:

Playground. Talking about instruments:  

Pretending to sleep: 

Math: 

He woke up at 7 this morning, after going to bed late last night, and waking up a lot during the night. At one point he kicked me in the face, harder than he has ever done before. I know I made noise, but it apparently wasn’t enough the wake the two of them up. He ate banana bread for breakfast. He was nursing a lot, and wanted to keep nursing. So we tried giving him specific times he could nurse, which then had him running into the bedroom to try to read the time.

I took down recycling, then they Skyped briefly with Cherie. August played mandolin with Carly, then went and read an entire page of Kipper A to Z on his own. We were then working on writing  ‘gargantuan’ on the smartboard. He played piano a lot through the morning.

Carly took him outside for awhile. They rode the bike, went on the swings, commented on each other’s hats, and enjoyed the nice weather. They got back a little before 11.

He sang from the songbook, then we read the Winnie the Pooh story about hunting the woozle. He was really curious about what a woozle was, and I think a bit confused and disappointed when there were no woozle.

He was getting sleepy, and slept from 12:10 to 1:07. When he came out he was carrying Green Monster, and took him in to the reading area when he nursed. After they were done, he was using the smartboard, and I taught him about how it worked, and how you could turn it over and see white where you wrote on the front. Carly then came in and they were writing on paper.  She asked if he wanted to learn how to hold a pencil. He was all for that, and was soon figuring it out with her help. He was using his fingers to make a little mouth and voice from where the pencil is held (Carly started it): “Hello…do you like green?” And at some point he asked me to do the finger letters to go along with his letter math: e.g. He writes R+T=F and then we make the letters and symbols out of our fingers.

We got ready to go, and he heard something from the neighbors. He is always interested in the neighbors, and asked “We can’t see neighbors because our walls are in the way?”

We got outside and walking by 2:40. He was singing Ants Go Marching. Again and again. And coming up with random verses like “Marching 606 by 14 across”. He was on the bike most of our way up the stream, then got off when he wanted to walk with Carly, and then march on his own, to Johnny Comes Marching. We turned around and started walking back. We saw an egret on the stream and he was excited about that, and was then flapping his arms. We saw a couple little dogs, and he was a bit wary of them, after he got past them he said “Maybe gonna chomp…because not an alligator.”

We stopped at Chrysanthemum Park. Spent most of our time writing words in the sand. And I was writing some full sentences. He would then erase them. Then we moved to shapes. He sat on a wooden table and watched me do real shapes, then wanted me to make up a shape. He then took over, and was making shape after shape and naming it: a dada(something), a mama(something), a scobalch, etc. He went over to Carly (who was sitting and reading) and drew shapes in front of her. The first two he called a hippopotamus and a kangaroo, and then there was a bird. At the end he said “All done. After I do one more shape.”

When he was drawing, he copied what I would say before he then erased my art: “Look at my pretty art. Don’t step on it. Just look.” Also, at one point he looked up and thought that other people were by his bike. It was actually a different bike that looked similar to his. He said  “I don’t like leaving it…”

We walked home. Carly came upstairs to get her backpack and headed to the store. He was fine staying home with me. He played some loud piano, then seemed to be getting a little frustrated with something. We went in on the reading area and read Take Care of the Earth, which is a new book/app on the iPad. He cuddled up and pretended to be a bear cub. He then wanted to play Word Wagon. He was really sounding out words with the app.

I ran over to Home Plus to get a few things (Carly was making rice curry and needed the aluminum trays to bake it in).

I got back and they were getting in the bath. I put groceries away, and then traded with Carly so she could start baking the rice curry and I finished up the bath. We went out and he ate a good serving of rice curry. He spotted the bag of blueberry yoghurt pretzels that I had purchased and immediately read ‘blueberry’. He sounded out the other two words with a little help. Finished the rice curry and then had a pretzel.

He wanted to read Kipper A to Z so we went to the parlor. He had a rubber band, and I asked where it came from. He was able to act out me stretching my back on the rolled yoga mat to tell me he thought it was from that. That was some good communicating. Then, he saw his water bottle and talked about how he had left it there by the reading area when playing Word Wagon. He remembered he had spelled ‘water’ and that had made him thirsty so he got his water bottle.

Before reading Kipper, he went to the smart board and practiced holding a pencil and wrote all sorts of letters and numbers. In particular he wanted to write a closed 4, when he usually has it open at the top. So he got that down. We read Kipper A to Z and Spiral by Spiral. He talked about how he used to be afraid of the nautilus song because of the sneezing, but he likes it now. He was ready for sleep soon after that and was asleep at 9.

 

Photos: 

Pencil: 

On our walk: 

Walking the rocks: 

Pushing: 

Chrysanthemum Park: 

Erasing: 

Shapes: 

Silly face: 

He was up a little before 6:40. Nursed, then went on the toilet. They were talking about Carly going to work, and he asked “Is Friday a tall day?” referring to our Duplo game. He also asked her to play “the Althauser” game, where they debate his last name. Carly left, and he stayed on the toilet until 7:15. We continued the Althauser game: “Say ‘You left out dada’s part’…Say ‘You left out mama’s part.” He headed to the piano and started playing Yankee Doodle. “Look behind me. There’s bugs on me. There’s one in my mouth. I ated one hundred bugs.” He then went and pretended to play Yankee Doodle on the mandolin through the case.

He was hungry and joked “What happens if we eat the mandolin?” He was looking at his stickers, and wanted to look up one of them, so we found a video of the flying dragon lizard. We ate eggs and broccoli with toast for breakfast.

He wanted to do math in the parlor and took his toast in. “I’m going back in the parlor. I’m gonna be careful.” We did some multiplication on paper then he pretended to put water in my tea, then wanted to do math on the smart board thing. He sang a song to the tune of When Johnny Comes Marching Home: “We’re getting to negativeland again, hurrah, hurrah”.

We read Biscuit want to Play, Kipper A to Z and Kipper’s Toybox. We then cuddled on the reading area for several minutes. He wanted me to go get the soft blanket. We were then doing math with Duplos on the reading area. He wanted to do Endless Numbers, so he did that, then watched some Kipper while I showered. When I came out he told me he was going to do Kid Calculator, so he did some math problems on the calculator, then went and played piano. We did more mandolin, then he wanted to see a video of a sea star. We found a show called Blue World on YouTube and watched a segment on sea stars. It was really good, so we watched a second one on sponges.

We left at 11:55. As we walked to the station, I caught a whiff of something that reminded me of those smelly markers – the licorice one, I think. On the subway he was singing a random letters song, then reciting random really big numbers. He got quiet, and seemed a bit sleepy.

We headed to 봉황공원, a little park west of the station. He played on the swings, and noted that we were the only people there. Then a daycare group showed up for a little bit. He got off, and stood on the railing of the fence around the swings. We sat and ate, then did letter math with fingers and feet – walking out the numbers and symbols on the ground.

In the big play structure August found a red jump rope. We played with that a bit, and he was figuring out how to flip it back and forth over his head. We talked about visiting the U.S. this summer, and I said we’d first stay with Thatcher and family. He asked “What’s the dog’s name?” When I then said we would visit my parents and Paul, I started to include the cats’ names, but he chimed in with “Iris” before I could say that one. He then asked “Why they getting comfortable?” Referring to my mom saying that the cats were getting more comfortable.

He was back on the swings for awhile, then went and played in the play structure. He climbed up and down through it, counting the hexagonal platforms as he climbed on them. After awhile he wanted me to follow him. He was up close to 30 and up at the top when he heard something, and tried to quickly climb down and across one to get to the other slide. He slipped and fell down one, then slowly tumbled down a second one. He was okay. We talked about it, and continued playing. He wanted to know big numbers, like “quintillion” and was reciting random big numbers again. Back up to the top, where he at first wanted me to go down the slide first. But he was in the way, and I said “Why don’t you just go first.” So he did. It was a fast straight one, and he stuck the landing on his feet. Impressive, but then when I went down I realized it basically makes you run off the end.

There was a star shape on the ground, and he taught me how to trace that, then I got us going.

Took some time to find a bathroom – down and back up three different subway entrances only to find that all the bathrooms are on the paid side of the turnstiles (in other stations it is the opposite). But then we found a bathroom in the building with a Starbucks. We walked through Starbucks to find it, and August had the idea of getting a drink. At first he was upset when I said after his nap, but then he adopted that as his plan.

We got walking, and it seemed like he fell right asleep. But then he kept opening his eyes, even though he had his head leaning back. It was windy, and that seemed to bother him. Finally fell asleep, and he slept from 2:35 to 3:40 or so in a place called Cafe Dorothy. One of the few second story coffee shops we’ve been to.

Got him in the backpack and we headed to Costco. Along the way there is a new bread store so we got samples of a green tea bread. At Costco we went to get cheese, and he noticed that the Costco sliced cheese is in pink and blue packaging. He asked if they were for boys and girls. He had noticed the branding on bathrooms, and we’ve discussed it. Not very busy today, so got our cheese (a couple extras, as I want to make just one more trip before we leave in June) and grabbed a few samples: some blueberry bar, an onion chip, and a couple other things.

Paid, then went to get a slice of pizza for Carly and a chicken bake for us. Ordered, then went to the pickup window. August then read my mind. As I was waiting, I was thinking I’d say ‘takeout’ in Korean – ‘pojang’. But I had ‘pojak’ stuck in my head, for some reason. Swear I didn’t say it out loud, and I remembered and said ‘pojang’. But then August asked what I said, and I said ‘pojang’, and he said “You almost said pojak.” As we walked towards the exit, I asked how he knew, and he said “Pojak means ‘pick up’” I tried looking it up. I’m thinking maybe he learned it from his Teuni Teuni teacher (like when they were picking up the flies this week), or maybe he just made it up and got lucky.

We walked out of Costco at 4:30, but then spent ten to fifteen minutes by the family statue as he ate over half of the chicken bake. It was slightly windy, and he was concerned about things blowing away. We were joking about what was in the chicken bake. Earlier it was the sandwich we were joking about. One bite would be worms, the next mayonnaise, the next kimchi. Evertually I asked if he was full. He replied “No. I have to do one last bite…full now.”

Back in Sangbong station he tried to carry the bag, but it was too heavy (and the straps too long) for him. He walked down all the stairs on his own, and he found it funny when I intentionally messed up the “We like to make mistake” song.

On the train home he stood for a stop, then got a seat. He sat next to a guy who taught him how to do a fistbump, and pretended to be hurt and cry when August lightly kicked him. August did a good job saying goodbye to him as we left.

Singing Ants Go Walking on way home “202…307…502…” I told him I was getting tired of thinking of things for the ant to say, so he took over “I’m going to paint…I’m going up the stairs…I’m going in the trachea.”

He told Carly all about the donuts as soon as we got in the door. He got his nursing mittens on and said “Set for nursing!” On the toilet he was playing the Althauser game, so when he got his last name wrong I was turning the light off on him. He did Endless 123 on the iPad, then wanted to watch a video of a raccoon. So we watched raccoons on YouTube, with me trying to convince Carly that a raccoon would be a good pet. She wanted to see sloths, so we watched sloth videos. August was getting silly and climbing on the couch, and fell off the end once, but was okay.

He then helped me make banana bread. He licked the spatula at the end, then when we went in to read books he wanted to read “Monster Party…beca
use I licked.” Licking the spatula had reminded him of when the monsters get cupcakes all over their faces.

So we read Monster Party, then Carly gave him a bath. She then went to bed, but he wasn’t ready, so we went out to the reading area and talked about reading books, but ended up just talking instead, mainly about going to space which he wants to do.

He went in to bed at 9:50, but came back out just after 10, saying “I’m going to ask dada for a Puffin Rock story.” We didn’t do Puffin Rock, but ended up reading Kiss Goodnight, and the Boynton and Eric Carle ABC books. He then wrote timpani and tom tom on the smart board thing. And we discussed why tea is spelled tea and not T, and why Iguana is the same in different languages “Tell me the story again,” he would say.

He went back to bed at 10:25 and told himself “Now be nice to mama,” which is something I usually tell him. Took him quite awhile to fall asleep though, as Carly thinks it was around 11.

 

Photos: 

Park: 

Getting donuts: 

Silly time: 

Watching the orchestra: 

The new (and our last) session of classes started today at Home Plus. He has Teuni Teuni again at 12:40, and an English class, based on the cartoon Poli, at 4:00. In between, we went out for lunch.

First though, he woke up too early at 7:33. He wanted mama, although he did say anything. He went back to the bedroom, then when he walked out to the living room he didn’t want me to pick him up. He sat down and was sad on the floor for a couple minutes, then his first words were “Sleepy sleeps time”. He didn’t want to go back to bed or into the reading area though. We sat on the couch, and I opened the short Kipper episodes. We watched 4. The ones we had seen before. After each he kept saying “I like it”. But no badminton in them though.

He played piano and had both Cheerios and eggs for breakfast. Watched part of the tabla video from yesterday, then wanted orchestra stuff. Exercised, then he played Endless Numbers while I showered. When I got out of the shower, I heard him loudly saying big numbers, like 341,000. He was just thinking them up, and I found out he was inspired by finding a coin on the desk that had ‘100’ on it.

We did math on paper for awhile, then he let me trim his toenails with the clippers. He played some Simple Machines, then we Skyped with my parents. He was still playing Simple Machines when we called, so at first he wasn’t paying them much attention. But then my mom asked if he’d play the piano. He listed the 3 or 4 songs he was going to play for them and ran for the piano. And then he kept playing and playing. Had a couple good improvs in there as well. But was also being really loud. He played mandolin a bit, but went back to the piano. I went over to the parlor, but he pushed the piano into the parlor. Eventually though got him writing on the paper. He needing some reminding on how to write his name in Korean, but then kept doing it over and over. He also mentioned a ‘smarkamork’ again, and when we asked what that was he said “It’s a kind of beaver that  ate plants and carrots…”

We had some crackers for a snack, and he was remembering the Korean word he wrote that, when we looked it up, meant ‘knight’: “Gunpa…soldier…knight”

About 12:30 we headed to his Teuni Teuni class. A smaller class, at least at first, which was nice. It was all about the lifecycle of frogs today. August jumped right in doing the path and forward rolls, and helping carry. We then pulled the kids around on tadpole carts. First sitting, then I had August lay on his stomach. The next activity involved two shakers that sort of made frog noises, and a frog hat. He loved that, and they all hopped around on the big bouncy thing doing that. Next were a couple of walking paths that had them practicing jumping with two feet. He had a few good jumps, but mostly was still jumping one foot at a time. Finally, they had frog tools where they picked up flies and fed them to frogs.

After class we headed to the bop burger place here in Brownstone for lunch. August chose, and then ordered, a chicken mayo one. And she understood him. I got one as well. We then walked to the King Kong Juice and he got mango and I got grape. We went to the park, and sat by the playground and ate lunch. We were happy to find that my bop burger wasn’t spicy either, and he liked both. He sang a little yummy song (“We are very yummy, we all like the taste”) then transitioned to the the Jumping Game song. He also joked about the ‘big as a log of maple’ line in Yankee Doodle: “Big as a kid of maple…big as a brontosaurus of maple.”

After eating he went on the teeter totter for awhile. We then headed home but realized we had forgotten his bike outside the bop burger place. We went and retrieved that. At home he played piano, then mandolin. He was talking about bones a lot: “Do cats have bones?…donkeys? Lions?…Banana?…because they’re for eating? does water bottle have bones?…because it’s for drinking?” He wanted to look up the frilled lizard from the stickers he got at Daiso. Found that and then watched a video of a lizard eating worms. Finally, he watched the Pirates of the Caribbean flash mob video, then we headed to his English class.

His class had more of a school feel to it, at least at first, as we sat at little desks and she had a projector set up. I told him to go say hi to sangsaengnim, and at first he was saying something about “That’s not sangsaengnim” so I had to explain that this is another sangsaengnim. August hadn’t taken a nap, and he was seeming a little tired at first too. He did some waving and saying hi to people, but once class started he wasn’t too interested in sitting on my lap. He was really into playing the piano on the wall, then wanted to climb on the tables in the corner. I had mentioned that when he was littler and we had 5-Touch classes in this room he wanted to climb on them and I wouldn’t let him. He was then going under the tables and being Flynne, and growled at me once.

Class itself though was okay, and when they got to the active stuff August was really involved. At the beginning of class, she went around with a fake microphone and was asking them their names. August pronounced his name as Korean as possible, Ah-guh-suh-tuh.

In introducing the Poli characters there was a song, and August liked being a helicopter in particular, and tried to sing along to lines. After a few more minutes of card activities (when he was Flynne) she then taped white and blue rectangles on the ground. The kids were then holding hands and going in circles. August was fully involved now, and the rest of the class involved going in circles, and going back and forth from blue to white. At the end of class I gave the money to August to pay for the materials fee. He then played with the toy microphone that she used when asking their names. It makes your voice kind of echoey and he was singing into it.

We left class after 4:40, and rode his bike over to the corner of the pink building where we have met Carly walking home from work several times. Tried to call her, but she didn’t answer. We hung around for a couple minutes, then started walking home. August got off and walked, so it was a slow walk, and we looked at everything along the way. Carly called when we were close to the elevators. August got back on the bike and we went back and met her on the sidewalk. As we went up in the elevator, August pushed the ‘8’ button on and off, and the elevator stopped on 5 or something then went back down to the first floor. August thought this was hilarious and said “The machine is acting silly.”

They nursed when we got home, and Carly was asking him questions and asked “What’s your favorite thing to do?” He thought and responded “Umm…steal things!”

He ate an awesome dinner of cooked carrot coins and broccoli and then raw tofu.

He and Carly did math on paper, and he was writing his letter problems on paper, like T+V=R. Carly gave him a bath and washed his hair, and he went straight to bed and was asleep at 7:15.

Photos. Carrying: 

Our delicious lunch: 

Man-say! 

Frets: 

English class: 

Playing the wall: 

Growling at me as Flynne: 

The machine going crazy when it took us the wrong way: 

7:13. Too early. Held him for several minutes, then changed him into underwear. I suggested the kitchen might have a warm spot, as he was lying down in the changing room, so he went and tried it out but said “No, it’s still cold.” He got up on th couch and asked for his iPad. When I said “Let’s read a book first. How about Moo?” he burst out crying. A lot of holding and time before he was okay again. We eventually did read Moo, then he worked on “The cursive dada learned” for awhile (I had shown him yesterday which font was the cursive system I had learned in school). First I took a photo to send to Carly. When I asked him what he wanted to do for the photo today he decided to flap his hands like wings.

He had the last of the oatmeal for breakfast, then played piano, then played Metamorphabet. An announcement came on, and he hid from it behind his hands, then climbed in my lap and hid. He wanted “outside” but was okay after a couple minutes. Had some cereal and banana, then typed some Skype messages with Gramma. We went and made letters out of Duplos, then he watched those new outdoors orchestra videos while I took a shower. Afterwards, we did math with the Duplo pieces and made patterns. He wanted some surgery, and it was his brain this time.

Getting ready to go, I got him dressed and put his pajamas on the bed, with Green Monster as his head. He thought that was funny, then destroyed monster Zinnie. More piano playing and mandolin. When the mandolin is in the case and he plays it it sometimes buzzes. He thought it was “weird“ and started talking about how “the first time it buzzed, the second time it didn’t…” getting up to “sixth”. I asked him to brush his teeth, but he said “I want to play it more because I like it.”.

When he did brush his teeth he was going to spit it out, despite it being the strawberry kind, which he doesn’t have to spot. Going to the bathroom, he asked  “Mama has muscles? Mama has bones? Mama has kidneys? Mama has intestines? Mama has burns and arteries and blood? I want to feel the metatarsals…” Sang a bones song.

We headed out sometime after 11. In the elevator the doors opened on 2 and we almost stepped off. I said something about the people going down to the basement, but August didn’t hear exactly what I said. He said “I was confused. I thought dada said 2 was a basement.”

We took line 7 up to Dobongsan. He just sat next to me on the train. Very little iPad on the trains recently. To get to our next train at the transfer, he was very slow and wanted to walk down all the steps by himself. I heard the sound for an approaching train and ran us up the stairs…only to find I had gone one passage short and was on the wrong side. Missed that train, so we sat and ate some of our sandwich until the next train came.

In Uijeongbu we transferred to the U-Line. We discussed the words ‘I’ and ‘you’ and he asked about ‘tea/tee/T’. He stood and looked out the door window. We got off at our usual spot, and walked up and over the hill to the playground. I asked if he remembered playing on the concrete platform at the top of the hill and he asked “Was it warm?” (when we played there, that is.)

No swings at the playground, but he climbed up the rope thing a few times and went down the little slide. I tried to use reverse psychology to get him to go down the spiral slide, but it didn’t work until I went down it myself, and he wanted to go down with me. We did that a couple times, and played in the slide. He was hungry, so we sat and ate lunch, and he stole my half of the sandwich.

He needed to use the bathroom, so we slowly walked over to them, past the people playing basketball. He said he was breaking the rules by stepping on the “baseball field”. He found a rope fence and was playing with that, stepping on it and shaking it. A woman came along and played with it with him, stepping and pulling on the other end. He was talking about drums, and asked something about drums playing notes, and I told him about tablas, and he was intrigued.

We went to the bathroom, then walked up the hill by the soccer field. There was a Korean walking path up there, and we did a couple laps. He was getting better at standing and balancing on the rocks. He said his bottom was itchy, so we went back down to the bathroom and he went again. Fine after that.

We walked over the badminton courts, and I explained Badminton to him. It sounded familiar to him, and he said “Was it in a video? Biscuit. Oops, try again…Kipper.” Hmm…maybe one of the short Kipper videos we watched? But that was quite awhile ago.

We had a bit more lunch, and I pointed out that the library box was gone. He went to the spot where it used to be and pretended to look in it. He was trying to zip his coat up all the way, and I said I’d teach him the “secret” of zipping up his coat (holding the bottom). He was intrigued by that.

We got in the backpack and got walking. Up and around the soccer field, then back over the hill and past the station to the stream. He fell asleep, and I went to coffee shop I’d seen across the stream called Coffee Inside. He was asleep 2:44 to 3:45. I started waking him up at 3:35 but he was falling back asleep. I eventually set him on the floor, thinking he’d wake up, but he sank to his knees, then lay on the concrete floor and fell back to sleep. Picked him back up after a minute. He started to get upset, but warmed to the idea of waking up when I said I could get him juice.

He decided on blueberry banana, but then spotted a group of people sharing a big honey bread. A woman saw him, and gave him a big bite on a fork. I really didn’t need to get him juice at that point, I found, as he was very happy with the bread. I ended up drinking most of the juice.

We walked east to 의서어린이공완. Dead back streets, so I was letting August walk. He heard a motor bike go by on a different street and identified it as such by sound. But then he decided a car might come by and he wanted me to carry him.

At the park he went on the swings. Kind of quietly swinging, then he asked “What if there’s no roof?” He had been looking up at the apartment building across the street and pondering the roof. We were there maybe 10 minutes, but it was getting cloudy and windy, so we headed out. But first he walked up the hill thing. He remembered playing there, and asked “It was warm?” He found a bendy blue dot thing, and we put it in his pocket.

It started to rain just a tiny bit as we got to Daiso. Didn’t think much of it, until we were in Daiso. August had fun choosing stickers for him and Megan, and he played with the plastic pigs, first climbing up on a box to get them, then realizing he could move the box and reach them. We got went to get in line, and they were huge. Everyone was running in and buying umbrellas. Finally paid, walked out the door, and Carly called. She reminded me we needed batteries for the apartment door, so August and I went back in and got them. Luckily, the lines had abated.

We headed home (only two trains this time, as no U-Line) and were home a bit after 6. They nursed, then I offered him spaghetti for dinner. He has grown tired of it after 3 days, really wanting something else. Carly made carrot coins for him, and he ate a good amount of those.

He and I went and read Splat the Cat, A Violin for Eva, The Bear and the Piano, and Tallulah’s Tutu. A music theme going on there for the last three.

I took him in to his bath and we watched more of the Rhapsody Orchestra videos. Then we watched tabla and sitar videos:

Tabla lesson: https://youtu.be/KfCYNFgZnVk

Sitar: https://youtu.be/9xB_X9BOAOU

Zakir Hussein on tabla: https://youtu.be/O2K0ptoYpuc

He was really liking that last one, but getting tired. We got him to bed and asleep just before 10.

Photos. Flapping like a bird: 

Hiding from the announcement: 

Duplos: 

Monster Zinnie: 

Looking out on the U-Line: 

In the slide: 

Balance: 

Pretending to look in the missing library box:

Back asleep on the floor: 

Honey bread: 

Looking at the lights: 

Blue dot: 

Daiso pigs: 

Pattern: 

Being slow: