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He was up at 6. Had a little pillow fight with me after he nursed, then out in the living room he wanted to practice Spanish with Carly, so she had him finding and doing all sorts of things in Spanish. They then went in and wrote Spanish and did molecules on paper. I took over doing molecules and Carly got ready to go. Carly headed to work and we played piano. He wanted to learn how to play If I Go on his “skinny 12 fret, 11 string guitar”, so we started to figure it out on the piano. We then got out the mandolin and he had his first success pushing strings down to make notes.

He ate a lot of oatmeal, then we did some exercise and I went to take a shower. He was doing TodoMath patterns when I came back out. At the higher level of those it is counting patterns (by 2, by 3, etc.) and he was doing okay with those. More piano, then as I got lunch together he snacked on crab and peanut butter. He was playing on the chair, doing a headstand, and joking about making both mama and Vivian nervous. He asked “Is mama at the job fair?” I said she already got a job at the job fair in Thailand, but he said she had to go to another one.

He made an alarm noise and I asked if he ever heard our alarms in the morning. That led to us playing my current sound on the phone, and I let him choose a new one. As we scrolled through the sounds, one of them has ‘Caribbean’ in the name, and he asked “Is that Pirates of the Caribbean?”

He was pretending to be Oona while brushing teeth and playing xylophone, joking about how Oona was holding the xylophone stick in her wings. He ate some crackers, then was singing If I Go and making up some funny lines: “If I go to the Vivian, I’ll play with the bones…If I go to the esophagus, I will play until it gets dark in the esophagus…I’ll get stuck and need help.”

We left at 11:30. I tried to tickle his palms, and he said “Sorry, my hands are in my sweatshirt.”

We got to Children’s Grand Park and walked over to the new playground. Busy, as I think the schools are out today (tomorrow is a holiday). Nice and warm (50 and sunny) so we ate outside. He ate, then went and looked at the kid art and went and played on the hopscotch by the recycling. He walked a bit away, and was hiding behind his arm. I thought maybe he was hiding from the hopscotch, because two other boys came and were doing it, and August felt that he was forced out. He came over and hid is head on my lap for a few minutes, and said he wanted to go somewhere else. But when he was feeling a bit better we played in the sand, making sand mountains, which he then put sticks in the top of and crushed. At one point a little boy came over and they sort of did it together.

He seemed, or said he was, sleepy at one point. He went back to the artwork, and was pretending to erase it all and paint his own art over the top of it. We got ready to go, and August asked  “The food is in the backamapack?…Why Zinnie was just making sure?” August was very protective of the backpack today, asking a couple times if we had it. Unfortunately, I think we lost the broom a bit later after he played with it.

We went up to the bathroom and he wanted to go in one of the regular toilets, telling me “I want to stay away from the automatically one.”

On the seats in the theater, he lay down in the sun for awhile and I tried to convince him to fall asleep for a nap there. He saw a few kids playing down at the bottom, on the green part, and wanted to go down, and took off down the stairs. Went down and played there. He wanted to play with a toy. We didn’t have much, so he settled for the broom. There were a couple of American boys there, and they were play fighting/practicing their taekwondo and August was watching and said “I’m learning”. One of the boys started to throw ice or rocks or something, and the mom went and told him not to do it. August was wondering what he was throwing and what she said. In that curiosity I think the broom got set down and left.

We took off walking, and after 5 minutes I thought he was asleep as his head was back. Alas, not so easy. He suddenly said “I want more drums you don’t know.” Another time he started singing, and a third time he said he was hungry. 30 minutes of walking, but he was clearly very tired. He fell asleep and slept from 2:15 to 3:20, when I woke him up.

Held him for a few minutes, then he lay on the floor for a bit. We then went over to the old playground (still no work going on) and waited for a swing. Went on there for awhile, then got off to let another girl on. Went and sat on a bench and ate some banana.

Then, August walked off. I watched him go and figured out where he was headed: over to the walking path. Went over there and talked to him about walking off and getting lost. We then walked on the path. He was now getting up on the post ones on his own, and took a few steps. There were two elementary school girls there, and I helped one get her rolly shoe to work.

It was getting cooler, and was time to go. We talked about it, then a couple minutes later August did it again: he walked off in the direction of home. I caught up to him and he said “I just walked off! Zinnie didn’t tell Dada where you were going.” We talked some more, and about what it would feel like to be lost. He wanted to pretend to be lost, so I ran off down the path and hid behind a bush. He then was lost until he found me (easily) and agreed it felt a little scary.

The two girls caught up as he was combing the destroyed area, finding a bolt and looking at the old gobs of glue. They wanted to play with him, and I explained we were heading home. Their English was pretty good, and we did end up staying a bit. August found a big piece of wood, and she showed him how the rolly shoes work. They really wanted to set up a time to play with them, but I couldn’t promise anything (they said normally they have school until 5:15 on Tuesdays, so wanted a weekend – they were apparently coming back to play Pokémon Go sometime).

They then followed us as we walked the path out. August was generally amused by them, although it was a bit much for me.

I was carrying him around the fountain, and he had been looking at all of the hopscotch areas by the recycling bins. He spotted one and said “That hopscotch is messed up. There’s an 8 on there. That’s silly. How people do that?” All the others only have 7 squares.

We used the bathroom by the entrance then headed down. He was being slow going down stairs and stopping to look at things. At one point I called “Augustus!” And he asked “Why dada say ‘Augustus’ in a loud voice?” and thought it was funny. When he did want me to pick him up, he said “Pick me up. It’s a long way.” Something he was claiming every time he wanted to be carried today.

On the subway he liked the cane of the guy that sat next to him, and the guy let him touch it. He ate crackers, and we talked about what we needed to get at the store. I mentioned Drano, so we had an in-depth discussion regarding clogged sinks.

In the store he was joking about something and said “Those cost 99 bucks…those cost 99 hundred bucks. Lots of money.” He was a good sport in the store, even as looking for Drano and coffee took longer than I expected. He wanted down to look at the hair and bracelet things, so I let him do that for awhile. There were also shower scrubbing ball things that he really liked and wanted to get.

We were home just before 6. Spaghetti for dinner. Carly got him a spoon, and he was a bit melodramatic when it was wet:  “Why is it wet? I don’t like it wet. I like it dry.” While in the bathroom, he bonked his head on the sink when the stool slipped a bit. He ate a lot of broccoli, and read Frida with Carly. Then played Mandolin with me. He played Elmo ABC and did letter tracing. He was looking tired so I started his bath. He did two more letters on the tracing app when I said he could do one more, and then drank for 11 seconds of drink
ing when I said 10 seconds. He found those very funny, and felt like he got away with something. He also exclaimed “I love 11!”

In the bathroom, he was extra silly on the toilet: “I have a penis on my bottom and a vulva on my penis.” He was talking about there being another Zinnie: “I have another Zinnie.” That Zinnie was downstairs “Buying some chips and floor. Because my other one is broken.” He wanted to watch the Prince of Egypt orchestra piece so I went to get the iPad. Traded with Carly. They found an orchestra flash mob (in Hanoi!) that he absolutely loves: https://youtu.be/F1j2lK2H388 He came out from his math and watched more of it, dancing and drumming along. Watched two more videos by the same group, then he was doing lots of eye rubbing. Carly went and took a shower, and we played mandolin and piano – learning Johnny Comes Marching. It as an A flat note in it, and it became a game where I would make a noise if he hit A instead. And then I would cover it up so he couldn’t hit it. He figured it out, then wanted to intentionally play it wrong so the song sounded funny.

The went in to bed at 9:15. He was back out 9:40. We read Splat the Cat, Not a Box, Elmo’s ABC, Peppa’s Ballet Lesson, and the songbook. He went back to bed at 10:25.

Photos: 

Oona holding a xylophone stick with her wing: 

Hopscotch math: 

Resting in the sun:

Success: 

Cane: 

Bracelets: 

Slow walk home: 

Mandolin: 

7:56. He ran out and I held him for five or six minutes. He got down and was making shapes with his fingers. He wanted to start with letter tracing on his iPad. Lately, part of what he has been doing on it is replacing the default sounds for the letters with his own voice. So when you choose ‘A’, for example, it says “A, ahhh” in his voice. He was hungry, and asked for a couple of crackers first, so I let him have that, then we had cereal and bananas, then we worked on Itsy Bitsy Spider on the piano. And then he surprised me by now being able to stretch his fingers to play chords like C and G. We listened to A Hawk and a Hacksaw through the morning until he wanted to watch orchestra and wanted the kids. He watched several pieces from them, including Prince of Egypt, Let it Go, and part of Swan Lake.

We did some TodoMath together. Today we were making progress on starting from the lower number when adding. That is, when adding 7+2, instead of having to count “1, 2, 3, 4…” just starting with 7 and then saying “8, 9”. He seemed to have a decent grasp on this by the end of the day.

At some point he was asking about Carly, or simply what day it was. I said “it’s Monday. Mama had to go back to work.” He replied “I don’t like that. I can’t handle that… Now I can.” Ate more cereal and banana. He wanted some surgery, and I tried to say no; I was trying to take a shower. He immediately got upset and started crying. Held him and waited until he calmed down, then asked if we could talk about it. He said yes, and we made a deal where we’d do the surgery, but then I would go take a shower. So that worked. He did Simple Machines while I took a shower.

I was then getting our snacks and lunch together, and when I mentioned that I had bought the crab at the store the other day he asked “Lucky mart?” Which kind of surprised me as we rarely call it that, referring to it just as the pink building. When we brushed his teeth, I asked which flavor of toothpaste he wanted. He asked “Why not the orange and zucchini one?” Not sure if that was intentional or not. The flavor is orange and mango.

We did math with Duplos, and were working on counting by  3s and 5s. I was trying to get him to go, and he said “I want to do this for a couple minutes.” I sat down in the desk chair (he pointed out I was sitting in “Mama’s chair”) and he came and climbed on my lap for a few minutes. We finished getting ready to go. He wanted to do X in Metamorphabet so did that, and he snuck a few extra letters.

We left at 12:40. We stopped at 7-11 to get some stuff for lunch, since we never go there. Got a ham kimbap and a triangle tuna one. We hopped the 1144 bus right next to the building headed north. Took it up past Madeul and got off right after it crossed the river. We walked a couple blocks further, to the west, going under the line 1 subway tracks. Carly and I had been in this spot exactly once, when we then turned south again and walked by the dump area. Today, we continued west one more block to the north end of the big park area north of APIS. I had spotted some potential park sites on Google Maps. The first was just a little sitting and exercise area, but there was also a bus that had been converted into a library. Unfortunately, it was closed for the winter until March 1st, but August was intrigued by the idea, and went and investigated after we ate lunch. During lunch, he ‘stole’ my half of the sandwich, and said “I’m a stealing machine.” (A reference to ‘Hug Machine’). We added the library to Google Maps, and he walked up a path to a little marshy area, then did part of the walking around a little loop.

He said he was sleepy, but when I asked him about it he claimed he wasn’t, and said “I’m not ticklish and I’m not sleepy…I’m not broken…”

We could see a playground to the west, across an apartment complex parking lot. We walked over there. It wasn’t a park playground, but an apartment complex one, but we stopped to go on the swings. Did that for quite awhile, and he was being pretty imaginative: “squirrel police” “I’m playing a pretend skinny guitar.” He got down and was singing the If I Go song we made up, by himself. He remembered a lot of the lines, and made a few up. Back on the swings he was really getting the hang of pumping, leaning back and forward in addition to moving his legs. He got off, and was twisting the swing up and letting it go, but made it clear he doesn’t like being on it when it is twisted. When he wanted back on the swing, he said “Hey. I want to go on here. And no twisting cuz I don’t like twisting.”

When done there we went into the park area, which here is called 초안산세대공감공원. He found little seed pods from trees and we talked about how those work. There’s a little stream area, and we went up and used the bathroom. We then found some bushes with thorns, and he investigated those, then found another bush with kind of interesting seeds on it, so we talked about those.

Got him in the backpack, and started walking up to the environmental education center. But down a path to our left we spotted playgrounds and stuff, so went down to investigate. It was another park, a children’s park, on the edge of the large park area. He didn’t want to stop, but we checked it out and added it (and the other park) to Google Maps, then got walking to Cafe Tolerance.

Along the way he was singing his standard walking song – the nonsense word song that he’s been singing for a long, long time. Then he invented a new tune.

We got to Café Tolerance at 3:40. There were some kids bikes out front and he investigated. He wanted to know about the bike lock and how it works. I explained it needed a number to open it:

“What the right number?”

“Only the owner knows.”

“Why not Zinnie?”

He got podo and mango juices. He was a little perturbed they were out of pineapple juice boxes. He chose seats by the window again and we sat and played/worked. Near the end he needed to go to the bathroom. Did that, then he tried on the different pairs of flip flops. As we left, he spent a couple minutes singing the notes on the wall in the stairway.

We got home a bit before Carly. Sometime after she got home and they nursed, he was playing on the piano and playing a few notes (C to E chromatically, then back down) that sounded just like the organ in Phantom of the Opera. So I showed it to him on YouTube. He wasn’t too fond of that one, but ended up watching other orchestra pieces (mainly the kids again). When I was in the kitchen he came up and asked me why  “no more”. Took me awhile to figure out what he was talking about – he had read it off the back of my shirt. So I had to explain that to him (the front says ‘strangers’). Carly gave him a bath, and he was soon to bed after that, at 7:20.

 

Photos. On my shoulder: 

Riding the bus: 

Bus library: 

Swinging together: 

Seeds: 

Thorns: 

Singing: 

Bike lock: 

View:  

Slippers: 

Singing the wall notes: 

He was up at 7:22. Kind of a short night. They nursed, then read some Amelia Bedelia. They then skyped with Cherie and everyone in Mexico – Cassie and family are all there. August played piano for them, then Carly moved to the parlor to talk. When August noticed they had left, he started pushing the piano in there, then was following her around the apartment with the piano. Eventually, I got him on the iPad, and he wanted to play the Duck Duck Moose apps. He did Word Wagon, then I helped with division in one of the apps. We went and did math on paper and with blueberries, then was pretending to float in space like the people in Metamorphabet when he was doing head stands and I was holding his feet. Then he was a jellyfish.

More nursing, then Carly tried to read Creepy Carrots but he wouldn’t let her. They read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. He started by intentionally skipping words. They then read Creepy Carrots. We switched, and I read Frog and Toad’s “The Dream”. We discussed dreams and he said he has weird dreams but remembers “zero things.” Carly vacuumed, and August and I read the Splat the Cat snow book.

Carly turned off the vacuum, and August was asking her “Are you done mama? Are you done mama?” Not realizing she had headphones in. He went to the piano and was playing. I asked what his third song should be, and he said Itsy Bitsy Spider, so I started to teach him part of that. It will be his first song using a black key. He also played his little C major tune that he invented and has played many times.

We had thought about him skipping a nap today, but he was acting sleepy, and eventually Carly took him in to the bed. But he only slept from 12:40 to 1:07. He clearly didn’t think that was enough, as he kept wanting to nurse and was cranky. Carly was holding him, and I started joking about stealing him from her, and he eventually perked up. He and I shared a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and several strawberries for lunch.

He decided to move all the stuffed animals from the couch back into the reading area. He was taking exception to Carly moving them in the other direction. Moved a total of 14 things in, but when I asked him how many he counter up to 35. “I skipped 18 and 19. Who needs 18 and 19?”

He wanted heart surgery. So we did that, but he said his heart was still slow. So he gave himself a shot and said “I put some earwax in there and now it’s gonna be fast.”

I was getting ready to go and do some grocery shopping, and Carly was going to get him outside. It was in the mid-40s and sunny today. I was trying to help get him ready, but first they shared some crackers, then he really wanted to do math on paper, then words. He started telling a story of sleeping in the stroller and singing the Jumping Game song. Didn’t entirely make sense, but he told it in a very soft and serious tone, and seemed to be based on real memories to an extent.

I went to the pink building, then returned the groceries to home and went back out to try and find them. I called and texted, no answer. So I walked around the park a couple times, then headed to the stream. They had walked along the stream and I found them walking the street home. I was able to run up and surprise them. He didn’t want to stay out, but wanted to get home to do numbers. We were home about 3:40. He put his nursing mittens on but then we decided his hands were warm enough that he didn’t need them. It was so warm in the apartment that he took his shirt off as well.

They nursed and did more math. Carly started spaghetti. August and I did all sorts of exams and surgeries stomachs and hearts and veins and arteries were involved. I had gotten some Shaun the Sheep bandaids at the store but he wasnt too excited about them, saying he didn’t like bandaids.

I went to make coffee and August had me count some blueberries, then he went and was playing Yankee Doodle. We played mandolin, and he helped me take off one of the sets of strings so it will be easier for him to push them down to make notes. Carly was getting compost ready to take out, and August was inspecting it. He touched, or pretended to touch, it, and we had a good germs discussion. I said he could study germs when he grew up, which turned into a discussion of careers. He said he didn’t want to do that. When I asked what he did want to do, he settled on playing piano. He went and was playing the piano, and playing the C major and chromatic scales and singing along. As he got to the high notes he was squealing and explained “Because I was going to the high notes.”

We ate some spaghetti, then I took out the compost. They did some mandolin together. I came back and they nursed and did more math. He was then showing me his kicking and saying he could kick fast. He went to the bathroom, then told me he was sleepy. We went in on the reading area and read Paddington. Carly showered, and he played Metamorphabet. More fun with the vacuum one and vacuuming up the village.

He and I shared 3 bananas. Or, rather, 2 and a half. Played more piano, then the guitar on Metamorphabet. He took one more bite of banana, and said “I’ll have the rest after my bath.” Carly gave him a bath.

They had fun in there, then he said something about “I hope Manny is here.” Then said that was “Made up.” I thought maybe it was the same pretend person/something that he talked about yesterday. I suggested it was his first make believe friend, and that led to a discussion between all of us of what is real and what is pretend. I had mentioned Nearly Headless Nick (our ghost in the chair) and we discussed him.

He and I ended up on the reading area and read most of Cat Alley. Tried for bed at 8, but he was back out 20 minutes later. I heard them debating what his last name was, as he leaves out the ‘Althauser’, which I swear is none of my doing. He had some water, then found the part on the iHerb box where it says ‘Thank you’ in several languages. We talked about them, then he pretended to trace them. We then read Kipper’s Snowy Day and Kipper’s Toybox (twice).

They went back to bed at 9 and fell asleep by 9:15.

 

Photos. Reading with mama: 

Resting: 

Math: 

Mandolin: 

Carly was off to National History Day today, who we had an extra Dada and Zinnie day this week. He nursed around 5:40, then slept until 8:08. Held him in my arms for several minutes and we looked out the window, identifying cars and things. He then got down and was playing Yankee Doodle. He gave a couple of his bid grins when he finished playing. He picked up the xylophone and started to take it to the parlor, but then was shocked to see all the stuff he had moved missing. I had to show him where I put everything, and he decided to get the octopus out of the toy box. We put it down in the parlor and we decided each leg did something – zapped, sprayed water, etc. He jumped over the legs and counted.

On the reading he cuddled with Marshy and Peter Rabbit a bit and declared he liked earwax. He then went and got all the Duplo animals and brought them to the reading area and had the alligator chomp Peter Rabbit. For then chicken he said “Hen. I call that a hen. Kind of chicken.” He used one of the octopus arms as a crown and wore that a bit and we had a whole alien and robot thing going for awhile. He broke the alien by doing a headstand, but they had a machine that fixed broken things.

He turned the light to the closet on and asked about the machines in there. That led to a discussion of the air conditioning and heater. He said he was still cold and wanted a blanket. We investigated all the blankets in the house, then he played xylophone while I made oatmeal (the slow kind). He asked “Where’s mama?” And we had the following discussion:

“National History Day. Remember? She…”

“Without a blanket?”

“She has her coat…”

“Mama’s blanket is still here?”

“Yes”

“I want mama’s blanket.”

We read Biscuit’s Picnic, then made our oatmeal. He had five tiny chunks of brown sugar. Ate, then back to piano. We practiced together.

Back in the parlor he made a loop of the hoses and said there was water through there. He wanted to spell ‘hope’ on paper; so I wrote it once and he wrote it over and over. One time there was a yo-yo hanging from the ‘e’. He started talking about which words start which each letter. We also spelled nose and hose, and talked about the S making a z sound. And he has started worrying about putting the kids back on, as he doesn’t like it when the markers run out.

I had found out that a software company called Duck Duck Moose had been purchased by Khan Academy, and all their apps were now free. I had downloaded them, so we tried out some of the words and math apps. I also found the Orchard board game, which I had planned on buying this summer, was also now an app. So we played the Orchard game, then had some crackers. He played with the Duck Duck Moose apps while I took a shower, then we played Orchard together again.

When I said “Sorry” about something about the shapes in his tracing app, he asked “What’s that voice? You sound funny.” Later, out on our walk, he again told me I sounded funny, and I realized my throat was a little sore. Hopefully not the start of a cold.

We played some mandolin, then read a Biscuit book and the Pete the Cat knight book. We got out of the house at 1:30. We stopped at Tous les Jour and picked out a potato and ham (supposedly) sandwich, a vegetable (supposedly) croquette, and a chocolate donut for lunch. We walked south towards the railroad tracks. He pretended to eat a lot of candy and at one point said “The mouth peed on the ground”. At the park we found a table in the sun to eat at. He wasn’t too impressed with either the sandwich (there was no ham) or croquette (too beefy), but of course the chocolate donut was a hit.

We then walked along the tracks to the east, until the trail/park ended after a couple blocks. It will eventually continue further, but is under construction. We walked back. He got off the bike, and was running and hopping on the trail – particularly happy when he was on the wrong side. He was all about walking on his own and being safe crossing the street as we got back to Hagye Children’s Park (the tree playground), but once he saw where we were going he said no, not that one.

He played with a drain in the sidewalk for a bit, then took the shovel out of the bike and started walking with it. He made up a song repeating “The shovel cave it out”, then sat on a random spot of the sidewalk and kept singing it, and hitting the ground with the shovel. He swung it at a guy walking by, then was pretending to hit everyone he saw with it (across the street, etc.), saying “hit” and “smack”. When he wouldn’t stop that I took the shovel away for awhile. He wasn’t happy about that, but then we got to the smaller park, talked about it, and he got the shovel back and was just smacking inanimate things. At one point he asked “Why dada don’t like you going ‘smack’?”

We did some math in the sand, went and used the bathroom, did more smacking, went back to math (intentionally doing multiplication wrong at one point) and words, and played the “I want you to think of things that don’t taste good with banana bread.” We also went over and played on the walking path for quite awhile, him trying to balance on it. We found one of those library phone booth things, and he found a Korean book about birds that we took home. Oh, and we sat by the bike and played with the beads he has collected in the back and did some math with them.

Around 3:40 we headed north, cutting through the apartment complex. We came across a small apartment complex playground that had swings, and he wanted to get out and swing. Did that for awhile, then headed home and got home a bit after 4.

We played on the iPad and did some surgery and checkups until Carly got home. They nursed, then August and I shared a salmon sandwich for dinner, and he ate a bunch of broccoli and zucchini (cold, as is his preference) while we joked that it was Carly’s and that he couldn’t eat it. While eating the sandwich, he claimed that  “Manning doesn’t like the lettuce” and that Manning was “the character…in Drumstick.”

He was playing piano, and now singing and playing both the first two verses and choruses of Yankee Doodle. We played mandolin, and were working on holding the neck the right way so he could press down the strings, and playing with the pick.

Carly was going to Skype with Mandy, the woman we know who now lives in Israel. We weren’t sure when August would want to go to sleep, and the call got pushed back. I took August in for his bath, and we just stayed in there, watching a whole bunch of orchestra pieces on the iPad, while Carly skyped. August also let me clean under his fingernails (they were filthy – if you looked at them now you wouldn’t think they had just been cleaned, but they’re much better) and trim a couple. And he took a turn at cleaning under mine.

Carly came in at 9:30 or so when she was done, and we got him out of the bath and off to sleep around 10.

 

Photo for mama: 

Counting: 

Halo or crown: 

Listening to himself:  

Hope: 

Choosing a treat: 

Smack: 

Math: 

Step: 

Swing: 

Doctor: 

Strum: 

Nail cleaning: 

We had planned to go to Children’s Grand Park today, and that was still the plan for much of the morning. But then August got on a quite a roll playing at home, and we stayed here through lunch.

Nursed a couple times early this morning, then slept until 7:39 when he threw open the door and came running out. Lay on the couch, then saw the Kipper Collection book so we went in the reading area and read that. Read almost all of that, then August went and did a headstand on the chair: “There’s someone on the chair…Is it Santa Claus?” We finished the Kipper book, then he said he was hungry. I offered a couple things, and he said “No. I’m being picky…I want dada to give you something. There’s leftover something.” Thought he was referring to the pizza, but then he settled on oatmeal.

When Carly emailed him, he asked “Are You with Megan?”

I went in the kitchen and commented there was a warm spot. He came running and lay down on it. We shared the blueberry donut from yesterday, then made oatmeal. Plain, which he chose to add banana and honey to.

He did some Endless Numbers after he played something on the piano that reminded me of the Endless Alphabet song and I mentioned that. Later, we would learn part of the Endless Alphabet song on the piano.

Did some exercise, then did exams of his entire head and did heart surgery. He had an entire Duplo giraffe in his chest slowing down his heart. When examining his teeth we talked about what an actual dentist would do. On paper he wrote lower case letters, then upper and lowercase letter pairs. He then announced he was going to draw a sun, and did so. Interesting that that is a shape that all kids draw. For one he said “That looks more like a heart.” And he used the phrase “Let’s keep that in mind.” at one point.

He did a headstand on the ghost and I had it say “Hey, I’m scrunched.” He then recited the title “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day…That’s from Alexander.” Figured out he meant my use of the word ‘scrunched’.

He was writing Chinese characters when I went for my shower. In my shower though he opened the door and told me he was doing math now. But then an amazing thing happened: he closed the bathroom door behind him. That’s never happened.

Back out in the parlor, he was playing with the medical supplies on his own, taking the carpets, temperature, etc.: “I’m taking care of the carpet” “You’re going to explode, so let me give you…”

He did lots of TodoMath with my help as I got us ready to go. He’s really into the multiplication and the high level number line activities. He wanted to play with the Duplo animals – particularly the pig, so we found all of those. He walked around going “oooh” with the crayon as if it was a flashlight “there’s a cave…a dark spot…” He was then doing the same thing with the pig. He crawled under the chair once while doing it, then announced “I’m a badger.”

He called the gorilla a monkey, and I reminded him of the difference, and mentioned that Ruby had told us about chimps versus monkeys this summer, talking about Curious George. He requested the story about Ruby a couple more times.

He was playing with the Duplo alligator and started to have it chomp, but then told himself “It not really chomp because it not really an alligator. Don’t be scary.” He gave it a dental exam: “its teeth are broken.”

He showed off his newfound kicking ability, kicking the stuffed animals a couple times, then talked about “J O K” being the author “of a sentence”. In on the toilet he said “Let’s do the random game.” Talking about bones in his feet: “Can I see the metatarsals?”

At this point I thought we were going to head outside soon, but then he really kicked it into an intense mode. He went to the piano, and was working on scales and chords. He wants to play chords, but it is hard for his little hands to stretch his fingers far enough, so was practicing that. He said he was sleepy at one point, but kept working on chords. He then, out of nowhere, decided to take apart the playmat pieces and stack them. That involved moving all of the toys and instruments off, which he did by himself. He then decided to methodically move literally all of it in to the parlor so he could play with it in there.

At this point I suggested a change in plans and that we eat lunch here then go someplace closer. He agreed and when I asked where he said “Cheysanthemum Park. No, something different. Madeul.”

With everything now in the parlor he said “Now I can play with everything…I want to play with all these things…Let’s count all the stuff…There’s 41 things…”

He did a headstand on the chair and was in a crazy mood: “I’m blood stinky salami breath…no, something else…Let’s be crazy.” “I can’t go down cuz DADA’S IN THE WAY.” Back down, lying on the floor: “…on top of me of a flower…Someone. I said I was a flower.”

We ate lunch and played with GarageBand. Then back to the piano for Yankee Doodle singing and playing. I put his coat on. “Hey. Something’s wrong. There’s a bump in my coat and you didn’t zip it.” More piano. He was working on the chorus and changing the verses so fit the words in the other verses. He took all the black keys out.

We finally left a bit after 2. Walked up and around the stadium and got to the playground at 2:15. He did some writing in the sand and found a couple shells. Climbed up to the play structure and went down the wavy slide, after I tested it to assure him it wasn’t too bumpy (he doesn’t like bumpy slides, and I don’t blame him). On the swing for awhile, where he requested the random game again, but like earlier he started copying me, turning into a copycat.

He wanted to go up to the exercise equipment. We went up and he played on the piano sculpture, pretending to play Yankee Doodle. He seemed to have a memory of the cicadas there, as he said “Cricket, cicada…you used to see cicadas here?” Using the bone white elliptical machine with my help, he said “This is the bones of Nearly Headless Nick.” Then was identifying what bones some of the pieces were.

I pointed out the swinging machine where he knocked himself over a couple years ago. He pretended to be a baby and played with it. And almost knocked himself over once. But he also climbed on it and perched there. He then found an elliptical machine that was still too big, but that he could do entirely on his own.

I noticed that the long curved bench had had the broken pieces fixed. I pointed it out and mentioned how he used to walk on it, so he got up. He stopped where he could touch the moss on the tree and talked about remembering the moss. I also said this was where he started reciting the Korean numbers, so we practiced those, and he wanted to know big Korean numbers, like ‘billion’ and ‘trillion’ (we already know million).

I did the ‘duh-duh’ Jaws thing once, and he gave me the rules: “One – don’t chomp me. Two – don’t say duh duh. Three – don’t hide. Four – don’t do that.” I asked where that came from and he recited what Carly says before they nurse in the parlor: “One – no turning on the light. Two – no falling asleep.”

He then found some really gooey mud and had fun getting it on his shoes and rubbing it off on one of the exercise machines. I was getting chilly as the clouds had come in, so after a few minutes of that we headed out and left at 3:35.

On the walk home he was making “bzzz” noises and listing bones – it was an x-ray machine. When he named all the bones he could, he was asking me for the names of “things I can’t feel” (organs) and would then do those. We paused by the gas company building, and he got off to study the mat in front. It is like the one at the children’s museum: “Is that noodles?” We were home just before 4.

Played some piano, and shared some crackers. He played some Metamorphabet. For t
he ‘village’ he asked which one was my house, then pointed to another and said “That one is mine…we live close to each other.”

Carly was home at 5:30. He helped me put the iHerb order away. He played Yankee Doodle on xylophone and was silly in the chair. We did superbaby and rocky, rocky, rocky like a chimpanzee. He kept repeating “Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.”

Carly gave him a bath while I washed his gloves. He was playing with words: “Noke rhymes with poke. Joke rhymes with joke.” He sneezed and told himself gezunheit. Carly was laughing, and he asked “Why are you laughing? Because you’re silly?” He pretended to be a baby, then was writing things in the air “I wrote it too fast. Mama can’t read your words.” Fairly straight to bed after his bath, and asleep by 7:20.

Photos. The warm spot: 

Letter practice: 

Chord: 

All the things: 

Park. Running: 

Exercise: 

Pointing: 

Perching: 

Standing on it together: 

Elliptical: 

Reflection: 

Bench: 

Scraping off mud: 

August had a real big kid day. He was totally into everything at class: the teacher was his best friend, he did forward rolls with the teacher and on his own, helped carry the walkway, and received his first certificate for attending Teuni Teuni for a year. He said his first real Korean sentence as he ordered his own corn dog. He had his biggest fall from a swing yet and got up as if it was no big deal. And he had a great time having a baby sitter (except for the last five minutes).

He ran out at 7:22 and climbed on the couch and curled up there for a couple minutes. Then got down on the floor and looked at the book shelves and asked (of himself) “What you going to grab?” He looked at those books, then we spent a few minutes trying to find books to read. He was being picky. “What? That’s not an exciting book to do. Boring.” “Hmmm…I have a few choices.” “Come on! Come with me.” To the bedroom. There he grabbed several books. Back in the reading area we read Froggy’s Day with Dad. He wanted it a second time, but first wanted to get food.

He remembered seeing me put away crackers last night, so he talked me into eating one of those first. Then he ate Cheerios and banana and played some Yankee Doodle. He walked around hugging everything, then asked what would happen if you didn’t have a spine. He hen walked walking as if he didn’t have a spine.

Read Manana Iguana and Busy Toes, then got out the mandolin. Played around with that, and talked about how to play different notes and the idea hat we need to practice a few minutes each day to toughen up our fingers.

He wanted to make up words in Korean on paper, and wrote something that translated as ‘soldier’. He asked what that was, and I mentioned a knight, like we had looked up yesterday. He wanted a picture of a knight, so we looked that up, then he wanted me to draw one. Did that, and he wrote numbers, then wanted an eye exam.

He ate more cereal and banana, and some toast. I remembered we had some cream cheese and ate some of that on toast. Don’t think I mentioned that yesterday, I think it was, he had his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We have always done ‘and honey’, because when he was smaller he simply did not like the idea of jam. Wouldn’t taste it. So when I made him half a sandwich when he was hungry I thought to try it again. Now he likes jam.

Played “What a seven year old can’t do.” Then he wanted to write ‘Bernadette’. He got another quarter of toast, and brought it into the parlor where we were writing it. He said “Cream cheese doesn’t have crumbs, but bread does!” He added extra letters to ‘Bernadette’, then needed to use the bathroom. On he toilet he was making Creepy Carrot noises. We went into the bedroom to look for them, and he wanted to go in the fort. We did that, and cuddled up with Puff and pretended to sleep for a minute. But then he was a red crab making noise. He started making rhyming words and said “The red crab is rhyming words.” He went and got Green Monster from the reading area and played with him, then went into the parlor and played some violin. We were working on plucking versus strumming.

Did some exercise, then he was doing art on the iPad. He drew a “squeepanee” in Sketches, then was working on his texture art. Did that while I showered. Did shape art and was doing Arabic art when I came out.

We did doctor exams, and at one point he started throwing up letters all over the room. I vacuumed all the extra letters out of his stomach. We had a tofu teriyaki sandwich for first lunch, then played a game he invented a couple days ago: “I want to think of things that don’t taste good together.” We list things, like kimchi and pie.

He then worked on the Yankee Doodle chorus. He now has the first two lines of that down. HE wanted the mandolin book, and sang from that as I got him dressed to go. Had to use the bathroom before we left, and we were out just after 12:30, getting to class a couple minutes late.

At the elevator, as he was sitting on the bike and thinking about reaching the buttons, I think, he said: “Extendo arms…I learned that from mama..why she always want extends arms but she doesn’t have them.” Brilliant.

At class he ran in just as they were starting the walking path. He did two walks down the path on his own, bowing to the teacher the first time. Then the teacher did forward rolls, and August did two with the teacher. Then he did two forward rolls of his own on the ramp. He was itching to help carry the walkway when they were done. The first activity was pushing the foam things into the holes in the pigs. This was the first activity he ever did in Teuni Teuni as well. August loves it, and calmly shared a pig with a girl, pushing in the foam things the whole time, even as a throwing battle with the teacher erupted behind him. They then kick over blocks, and August was having fun kicking. Another walking path, and August mostly did that on his own. The teacher helped him on part of it, and me a little on the bouncy part. He took his biggest jump off of something on his own, I think, jumping off the end of a platform. At the end of class, being the last of the session, the teacher handed out participation certificates for kids that have been in Teuni Teuni for a full year. August got to stand on a platform and shake his hand. Then, for the group photo, which August has always hated, he ran over to sit down and do it. Took a few photos, then the teacher had them make heart shapes over their heads, and August did that.

After class, as we were the last in the hallway, the teacher brought us a couple of Dunkin Donuts donuts. Put those in the backpack, and then we headed to Mama Juice for our second lunch. We got two juices (kiwi and blueberry) and two corndogs. August wanted the black one (먹물 – which translates as ‘India ink’ according to Google, but which I think refers to ‘squid ink’, as they make the hot dog part look like a squid), and I got cheddar. August surprised me by ordering his own corn dog (on the way over August had been talking about how they are hot dogs, but “I call them corn dogs” – remembering how I told him that’s what they’re called in the U.S.). He said 먹물 주세요 (Please give me India ink), which I then asked him to repeat to the guy. When the guy didn’t quite understand him, August turned and pointed it out on the menu.

We sat and ate our lunch (all very good), then August had an idea: “Ooh. I have an idea. Let’s draw Hangeul, dada.” We went home and maybe did some of that, then we Skyped with my parents. He got to see both the cats today, and was very nice to them. We then played the Cookie Monster game sans iPad, and headed back outside for some playing at 3:50. Right before we left he was asking what would happen if a person didn’t have leg bones, or arm bones, etc. and had this deep thought: “What happen if I don’t have everything in my body?…There’s be no Zinnie?”

We walked past the pink building, him on the bike and singing, and through the park near there. He protested – apparently he didn’t want that park – which was fine as I was thinking of the apartment complex park with four swings. We got there, and he went on the swing. He had his biggest fall of the swing, as he was going back. But he kind of just bounced on the rubbery ground. I helped him get back up, and he wanted right back on. I asked what had happened, but he argued he did it “For funsies”. There was one other kid there, a slightly older girl. He was watching her, and eventually got off the swing to  go play on the play structure like she was. He said hi to her a couple times, but although she followed us around as we played, she never made a peep. He tried climbing up a green plastic thing, but his back foot slipped off the end of it. He fell and bumped his head on it. He tried really hard to not get upset, but after several seconds he burst out crying.

Calmed down though, and ended up going down slides a few times. As we I drove
him past the girl and he said goodbye (in Korean), but still not a peep.

We were home at 4:40. Did some medical exams: “My talking is wrong. I need a talking exam. Because my mouth is blurry.” I also mentioned Sesame Street for some reason, and he joked about that: “Where’s Stwesame Street. Is it around here?” And sesame sounds very funny when he says it.

Carly got home, he nursed, and we cleaned up and ordered a pizza before Megan came to babysit. We were going out (all the way to the second floor) to celebrate our eighth anniversary. August and I had discussed it earlier in the day (I had shown him the first photo of Carly and me together, a photo my dad took at my grandma’s house, and August asked “In Thailand?” because in his frame of reference it actually does kind of look like Thailand) and was fine with the idea.

She showed up, and brought him a little stuffed tiger hand warmer. We left a bit later, and he was playing piano with her. We went down to D-Pub, a coffee/beer/food place we hadn’t been to yet. Got a ham sandwich on a bagel, a beer to share, and lattes.

Back home, they had a lot of fun. When the pizza guy came, August gave him the money, then said kamsamnida when he got the change back. He ate a ton of food: lots of broccoli, zucchini, pack of pickles. Slice of pizza. Played hiding the veggies under the cheese. They also paid store, with her selling him veggies for other things. They sang and played Are You Sleeping, and she sent us a little video of him saying “Hi, friends!” We got home at 7, and heard him crying. Just a few minutes earlier he had started rubbing his eyes and kept saying “I’m rubbing my eyes” and got sad when he thought he’d have to go to sleep without us. Carly nursed him, and Megan hung out for awhile longer. She left, and August and I tried out the hand warmer.

He was still awake, so Carly started a bath. He talked about being sad “Because mama and dada were not here.” But we talked about how we came back, and he said he’d like Megan to come back again.

He left us with a random sentence: “I wish I had extendo speakers and announcements.” Carly washed him, then he was asleep a little after 8.

 

Photos. Some cereal for mama: 

Art: 

Class: 

Waiting for juice and a corn dog:  

Park. Right before he fell off the swing:

Watching the girl climb the ramp he fell off of:

With Megan as we left: 

The tiger from Megan: 

7:44. He came out and rolled around the floor for a few minutes and waved to Carly for a photo. We then read A Pet for Pete and Biscuit Meets the Class Pet. He was then hungry. We made eggs and mushrooms and broccoli. He played some Marco Polo Ocean on the iPad and a couple other things. We exercised and played piano, then he wanted more food. He hadn’t eaten a ton of the eggs, but wanted something else. He ended up eating a good amount of cereal and banana again. He wanted to hear about things that he couldn’t handle. I mentioned/asked about biting his tongue the previous night. He agreed. I then asked him for something else he couldn’t handle, and he remembered falling down on the path at Children’s Grand Park.

He wanted to do the medical stuff, so I did some surgery on him and some exams. He watched a little Mouk, but only a couple minutes, and talked about how he really liked it. He moved to Puffin Rock, but didn’t watch much of that either. To TodoMath, but that didn’t last long either. I was trying to get in the shower, but he kept wanting something. He decided he was ready to go outside, then said he wanted more cereal and bananas. Got him set up with some more, and finally took a shower.

We then did TodoMath together, and he ate MORE banana and cereal. He tripped at the end of the table and flopped on the floor. He looked up and said “I’m okay” and acted like nothing happened: “What?” “Flop.”

We spent more time teaching him the chorus of Yankee Doodle. Then made a game of waking up Flynne by using the xylophone stick inside the piano. It was snowing through the morning, but above freezing. So we ate our sandwich from GS25 that we didn’t eat yesterday for lunch. Nice big snowflakes outside. Then was turning to rain. More doctor visits, then some math on paper. I wrote out the numbers, and he was copying them down. He’s really into writing really large on the paper now. I then wrote out the names of the Puffin Rock characters and we talked about how they were spelled. We played the Cookie Monster game (without the iPad) and then, confusingly, both of us were Flynne.

We decided to actually head outside in the afternoon, despite the rain. Before we left, he had really gotten into the “What five years old can’t do?” game, where I make up something that a five-year old (he was pretending he was five) can’t do, then he does it…climb on the table, play the xylophone, etc. That continued on the bike with things like sing Yankee Doodle, sing Itsy Bitsy Spider. We headed over to the library. We found three Spot books and three Biscuit books we hadn’t read, and a book with children’s songs (called Yankee Doodle). We went upstairs and read them. Spot books first, then the Biscuit ones, then the songbook. He was struggling to keep his voice down, but doing okay. Read a few of the books multiple times, and he worked on the songbook by himself. He then found No, David! on the ground and wanted to read that. It was in Korean, but pretty easy, and we translated parts of it. Read it a couple times, but then August started to get restless. Rolling around on the floor, climbing on the table, wanting to play “Tell me to not do something” etc. But he didn’t want to leave and wanted to keep reading No, David! But would then get distracted after two pages. I think maybe he didn’t really want to go back outside in the wet and cold.

But eventually he relented and agreed to go to Cafe Tolerance (wasn’t interested in the art museum play area, which was probably packed anyway) and didn’t get too upset (although he SAID he couldn’t handle it). Put the books away and headed out. We started walking towards the stream, but there was a cold, wet wind in our face. I asked if he wanted to continue into it, or head home, and he agreed to face the wind.

We made it to Cafe Tolerance. He walked up the stairs and found a metal bar on the railing that was broken. Then had to test all of them. Took off our shoes, and after choosing his mango and pineapple juice boxes he ran off while I ordered. He came back telling me he knew where he wanted to sit and that there weren’t any people. He had chosen the short table. I managed to fit myself in there after my coffee was ready.

I did some work and he did TodoMath. He needed to go to the toilet, so we went and did that, and the woman working there gave him a couple pieces of candy which went in my pocket and he forgot about. She also asked his name when we got there, and remembered it at the end and said goodbye to him. Anyway, close to 5 I started suggesting he go home. But he climbed on my lap and was then drawing letters, then squiggly lines, then shapes with lines coming off of them on my iPad. He said “I made the tail of a smarkamork.”

We got home at 5:30. I had been talking to the principal who has a mandolin for sale, and Carly had brought it home. August spotted the case and was intrigued. Carly opened it, and he was hooked. They played with it for a minute, then he and I played with it for quite awhile. He totally forgot about nursing and dinner for a long time. I needed to go to the grocery store to get us things like fruit, and eventually he remembered nursing. But first they continued to play with the mandolin together. August kept saying “Mama doesn’t know what this part is…” Or “Mama doesn’t know how to…” and then he or I would demonstrate. I headed to the pink building.

Came home and had some dinner, and August was finishing up his. Carly gave him a bath, and then we played with the mandolin again for a few minutes before taking him to bed. He was asleep at 7:45.

 

Waving for mama: 

Waking up Flynne: 

Library: 

Cafe Tolerance: 

A tail: 

Mandolin: 

He woke up at 6:40 as Carly was going out the door. She nursed him, then he ran out and lay down on the warm floor. I lay down next to him, and he played with “Baba’s shiny shell” and asked why it was broken. He got up and played some piano. He was playing and singing the first two lines of Yankee Doodle, has those down, and is working through the third line of the verses, but pretty much has that down as well. We ended up on the piano for quite awhile, and took out the metal sort again and played it with the xylophone stick. He also pretended to play on the now silent piano and sang most of our verses of Yankee Doodle.

Eventually we put it back together and washed our hands. Talked about Doug some reading again, but ended up doing math on the paper with blue berries and a headstand on the “Nearly Headless ghost.” When doing subtraction he was hiding the blueberries down his shirt. At first he said they might be ticklish, but decided they were just cold. The black marker was running out, so he said “Maybe we should just use crayons.” We did a bit more math then read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Goid, Very Bad Day. “Let’s go back to the hating…I don’t like other people kissing.” “I’m pretending…I think I’ll move to…”

He played some TodoMath. There was an update that had new activities about number lines and digit places. We worked on those, and then on a general counting/grouping one. He went through the highest level on that one, then declared: “I did the hardest one and it got easier!” He was also working on multiplication ones. He was getting down both the times 11 and times 1 time tables, and for other numbers he was asking me for the answers, but getting good practice writing the digits clearly so the app would recognize them.

He went to the piano and started to add in some bass notes with the left hand on his own to Yankee Doodle. Had some more Cheerios, exercised, then he wanted to sing all of Yankee Doodle. We did that, then I took a shower. He was playing TodoMath when I went in, Metamorphabet when I came out. We had fun vacuuming up the village in ‘V’, pretending they were talking. Ate some crackers and peanut butter, then he wanted to work on the chorus of Yankee Doodle on the piano, although we didn’t do much.

I laid his pajamas on the bed after changing him, and put the socks in so they looked like feet. He then had the idea of using the “friends” for hands, and we added Bluie as the head. Looked pretty cool.

Something got us started talking about the concept of ‘places’ (I think we were joking about the ‘move to Australia’ line from the Alexander book), and he wanted me to list more and more places. I listed ‘Sweden’ and he asked “Why Sweeten?” No, Sweden.” I said “Bangor” and he thought that was funny and needed help saying it: “ng…you haven’t heard that sound before.” I reminded him of ‘song’, ‘thing’. I mentioned ‘England’ and said that it was where we got married, and he asked “Why mama dada get married?”

We didn’t leave until just after noon, as he again kept coming up with things to do before we left. He really wanted an eye exam, so did that. His teeth needed more brushing, so he let me do that. He wanted to sing the “Dawn Chorus” song from Puffin rock, so we did that. He did a headstand, then claimed he was tired and crawled under the rocking chair for awhile. I finally dragged him out and got all his clothes on. He wanted to sing more Yankee Doodle: “Let’s sing the funny ones…of Yankee Doodle…I went nigh to one myself…that’s a funny one.” He basically has the first 7 or 8 verses of Yankee Doodle entirely memorized on his own and sings them by himself.

Nice sunny day today. A slight cold breeze, but not like the cold wind of yesterday. We drew more gawkers today, for some reason, including a guy that basically stared at him on the train and kept calling him a ‘doll’ long after we had acknowledged him and said thanks. A woman asked his age, and he and I ended up discussing the ‘why’ of the Korean versus American ages again. When it came around to saying he had been ‘zero’ in American age, he asked “There was no Zinnie?” and seemed to find it hard to believe that there was a time that Zinnie didn’t exist: “No baby?” He then was sounding out Korean signs on the train and asking me to translate them.

At Children’s Grand Park we got some kimbap and a sandwich. Would only eat the kimbap today. As we were walking to the stairs, he said “It’s uncomfortable.” I asked what, and he said “The penis.” So we stopped and got him out of the backpack. He then picked up the bag from GS25 and carried it up the stairs, and all the way out to where he played on the last remaining ice in front of the park. He also pretended to spray paint on everything (including another guy who stopped to watch) and was doing some mystery task that he never fully explained to me.

We went to the botanical garden for lunch again. We sat on the other end (actually the spot we once ate lunch at sometime last year). He was eating full bites of kimbap, including the seaweed today. I liked that development. The less I have to rip it apart the better. He wanted to take photos, so used his camera. Then he wanted to make blurry photos of him running again, like we did a few days back, so we did that. “I want dada to do the pattern.” He was referring to the 11 times table. At 10 he asked me to keep going, so I did them all the way to 20. I asked if he wanted to save the sandwich. Big discussion of ‘save’ followed and he wanted me to keep listing all the different things that can be saved. He signed ‘more’ when he asked for more, so of course I had to keep going.

We went out via the ramp, which was open today, and he skipped down it, saying “Wheee!” He had been acting tired on and off, so definitely needed to try a nap. Went to the bathroom, and he was about to use the little urinal when I mentioned that it was actually the first one he had been scared off. He then remembered he was still scared of it. Oops. We tried the normal toilet in that room, but he was hiding his face from the urinal and couldn’t go. We went out to a regular stall and wanted me to go in with him and close the door. Then he could go.

Played in the wheelchair area in the theater and sat together in the sun, then got walking at 2:26. Took awhile to get to sleep, but the first several minutes of him singing Yankee Doodle probably didn’t help. He was asleep 2:49 to 3:50 when I finally woke him up. I had started trying to wake him up at 3:35, but he just seemed so tired. Still didn’t want to open his eyes at 3:50, until I asked “Do you want me to give you an eye exam?” “Yes” and up popped his head. He sat on floor for a few minutes.

He agreed to going to the playground. After all this time I still don’t understand the busyness schedule, as it seems to have little correlation to the school schedule or holidays. Today the whole park was busy the whole time, mainly with groups of elementary school boys, not in school uniforms, but with what seemed to be teachers. But no actual school groups, and also lots of families and random teenagers. Anyway, the playground was packed. Prospects for a swing were nil, as there were lines. I suggested we walk over to the hill to what remained of the Adventureland Playground area.

He agreed so we walked up and over. Busier than usual, but one of the 4 swings opened up, and he was able to use it as long as he wanted. Did that for 15 or 20 minutes. Then I suggested we go over to the walking path as he hadn’t been on that in months. He was intrigued, and agreed. We went over and he had a lot of fun trying to balance on the big wooden bumps. He kept saying “ooftuh”, which is something he has started saying. Eventually I had to coax him away from that, as it was already past 5.

We walked by the area where they tore down the other play structures. Basically, the Adventureland area had 4 separate play areas. The
y tore down 3, and have started rebuilding the biggest one. But that hasn’t been touched since early or mid December. Two months. The two others that were torn down are simply empty. You can walk through them, but there is garbage on the ground from the demolition. So that is why the other playground is so busy. Crazy. These two playgrounds were in good shape. If they aren’t replacing them they could still be up, getting used.

Anyway, he played with chucks of bricks and rocks. Could tell he was really getting into that, so I told him we could come back here next time. He then found colorful plastic pieces from the destroyed toys, and started picking them up: “I want to take this home.” He ended up with nuts, bolts, plastic pieces, and a piece of wood. He’s already taken to finding beads and putting them in the little pockets of the backpack whenever he finds them (found 2 or 3 today). He carried his ‘treasures’ a bit, then agreed when I suggested he put them in the backpack. He was also sure that Carly would like them.

We stood most of the way on the train, which was fine. Told two Puffin Rock stories (the Flynn ones), finishing he second one after he got a seat. We were home just after 6. They nursed on the bed, then played there. He showed Carly his treasures. He then was counting, and skipping random numbers, which impressed Carly that he knew what he was doing. He said “Who needs 16?” It was the line from the Alexander book and August had been doing it all day, skipping different numbers as he counted. He then recited the 11 times tables all the way to 10 for her. Several times. Then went and played and sang the first verse of Yankee Doodle for her.

I got his dinner together, which was going fine, but then he bit his tongue, right at the end. Nursed, then did some TodoMath. He went to the number line activity and insisted on working through the highest levels. Carly got out the measuring cups so I could help him understand the fractions one.

Carly asked what to do with the pile of ‘treasures’ on the floor. I talked to him about throwing way the dirty pieces, and anything that he didn’t have an idea for. He asked ‘Why?’ several times, but seemed to agree, as he studied each piece, and ended up throwing all of them away on his own.

I gave him a bath, and we played the Cookie Monster game, with me giving him letters, and him choosing letters to put in the words. He was doing quite well with it. Washed his hair, as we are now on our Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday schedule. Much easier to remember than our previous every-third-day schedule.

After that Carly took a shower. At first he didn’t want her to go, but I convinced him to read a book. We read for over an hour. Almost every Frog and Toad story we have, several two or three times. A couple of Biscuit books on the iPad (Biscuit, then Biscuit’s Snowy Day a few times). The Pete the Cat Gets a Pet book (in paper). Then the Pete the Cat book on the iPad (where he is a knight) a couple times – first time we’ve read that.

Finally, he said he was ready for sleep and Carly took him in and he was asleep just after 9.

Photos. Bluie Zinnie: 

Under the chair: 

Carrying the food: 

Lunch: 

Calm: 

After his nap: 

Swings: 

Balancing: 

Desolation where once there was playgrounds: 

He came out at 7:22. Let me pick him up and hold him for a couple minutes, then we went and took off his diaper and went and read a bunch of books. We read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Monster Party, How Things Grow, Biscuit Meets the Class Pet, and started Sir Cedric. Read the email from Carly where she told him not to sit on Nearly Headless Nick, so he had to sit and do a headstand on Nearly Headless Nick: “I’m being crazy on Nearly Headless Nick.” He worked on Yankee Doodle and said he’d work on the “Stuck a feather…” line after breakfast. We had cereal for breakfast: a small bowl with bananas for him, a large bowl with strawberries for me.

We then worked on Yankee Doodle together, exercised, and then did surgeries: removed a couple of things from his ears, then we both did heart surgery. He went and wrote some numbers on the smart board. He did some art while I showered, then some letter tracing. He was still hungry so had more banana in Cheerios. Played more Yankee Doodle and I talked about how the third line ‘walked’ up and down the keyboard. He said “Walking, like this.” and got up and walked across the floor.

I had bought a pair of underwear at Home Plus, but the security tag hadn’t been removed. So last night I used a screwdriver to break it apart. Inside was a little spring that I set on the table to show him. He found it and asked what it was. I told him it was a spring. He said “Not like the weather spring”. Ah, yes. ‘Spring’ has two meanings.

Thought we were pretty much ready to go, but AUgust had two activities to do before that. The first was eye doctor time. I checked his eyes, then drew an eye chart for him and gave him an eye test. I had to keep drawing smaller letters, but finally we got to the point where he had to start leaning forward on the reading area to read them. He then drew an eye chart for me and did a pretty good job, once he figured out how to hold it up so it faced me, of testing me.

Then he wanted to do math. We did some multiplication on paper, drawing out groups of dots to represent the equations. Then he wanted to to 7 x 11. I said that was too big, but would do a smaller problem. He got upset about this. When he calmed down he went back to the paper and wrote ‘7 x 12’. When I said no to that one though he luckily settled for something smaller.

We did one last problem then got going. Some singing on the way, but he was looking tired when we got to the station and on the train was looking sleepy. But then he said ”I want 7 times 11 on Paper.” When he was sad I had suggested we do it on the iPad on the train. He hadn’t said anything then, but obviously remembered. So we did that. Over the river he stood up to look out. I spotted a seagull flying, and he wanted to see it, but not sure he did. Ours was the next stop. I hadn’t given him enough warning that he needed to put the iPad away, apparently, as once we got to the station he really wanted to do some more. He had been playing Marco Polo Ocean and made the ship and submarine. We sat on a bench and he spent a minute making the octopus scene, then was perfectly happy to put it away and get going. He was also looking tired still. I put his hat on, and he pulled it down over his eyes. I said that would be good for a nap, and he pretended to sleep.

It was a windy walk to the mall. August was quiet yet again. H was planning on him not taking a nap, but he kept looking and acting tired, so was surprised when he actually didn’t. We stopped and got some kimbap and a cheese sandwich to go with our lunch. In the mall we sat on our now usual bench and ate lunch. He started with one half of the cheese sandwich. We switched at one point, and he said “This one’s great.” But then he found the one piece of tomato in the sandwich and ate it all at once. It was too much, and he spit it out.

We went to the aquarium and put the backpack in the locker then went to the bathroom. He heard a flush and said “That wasn’t so bad”. When it came time to wipe him, he made sure I used a dry wipe, saying “I like the dry wipe; I don’t like the wet wipe.”

We had a nice long (close to two hour) visit at the aquarium. He wanted to climb on the megalodon mouth statue thing, then when I asked if he could find the cowfish he looked at a couple of the round tanks and found it. A woman from Oklahoma started talking to me by the squirrels, and August was a bit rude and started saying “Go away”. He let the fish nibble his finger. He ran down the ramps in the Amazon area, although stopped to look at the pirarucu skeleton. He likes all the bones, and asked if it had hips. He fell flat on one of the ramps, but got up and was okay. Didn’t spend a lot of time at the touch area, but really liked the large clams, which I don’t think were there before. Holding the big spiral shells, he said “These shells are big so Bernie would like them.” Spent time with the electric and moray eels, and paused for a snack by the crustaceans again. I read the sign about crustaceans having joints and feet, so he had to go look. We also saw the manatee, etc. eating lettuce again. He didn’t seem scared of the dark moving walkway part through the big aquarium this time. Instead, he kneeled and lay down on it. He kind of sang and conducted to the music that was playing, then sang Itsy Bitsy.

At the gift shop he looked around a bit, then decided that the big seal stuffed animals looked sad. So he spent a couple minutes hugging them and rubbing his face and head on them. Very cute.

We went to the bathroom, then had a little snack there, then went back to our bench out in the mall and ate more of our lunch before heading home.

We were home at 4:40. We ate the last of the kimbap and Carly was home about 5:10. He immediately ran to her saying “My hands are not cold.” But then he was patient and let her get settled in before wanting to nurse. We were asking him questions about the day while he nursed and he would nod or shake his head. He played Metamorphabet and ate a little with Carly. She gave him a bath and he was incredibly silly. It started with thinking of rhyming words, but led to a lot of nonsense. They read Manana Iguana before he went to sleep a little after 7:30.

 

Photos. Book time: 

Pretending to sleep: 

Contemplating his sandwich: 

Aquarium. Using the hand dryer on his own:

Pirarucu skeleton: 

Moray eels: 

On the moving walkway: 

Hug: 

Kiss: 

He was up at 7:30. After nursing he had Suddenly, and can now read much of it on his own and was using it to scare Carly. Skyped with Cherie and Chuck. They told us about the storm they had had and August read them part of Suddenly and played piano and xylophone. He and I then had a good long music time. I introduced him to the G major scale and he got into comparing the piano and xylophone keyboards (the xylophone starts at G, the piano C). And we played Ants Go Marching together, with him on drum and me on piano. He wanted to watch the marble machine so we did that. He wanted a symphony, and a new one, so we watched Dvorak’s ninth.

He then wanted to play GarageBand. While he was doing that I went and took a shower. Carly started to vacuum, and he didn’t want to hear it, so he closed the door on her. Carly headed to the grocery store. He hid his feet under the rug and then said he was a worm and pretended to be a worm. He then wanted to rest on the reading area and joked “And nurse with dada.” We read Peekaboo Sophie two or three times, then Skyped with my parents. He was playing with the blocks, and making towers. When one fell my mom said “Timber!” which he thought was amusing. He then joked “Timber is a kind of mucus on a slug.” We were discussing his birthday, and I asked about our conversation last night. He said “I want a play date.” for his birthday. He then pretended to eat cake and other “sick things”. Carly then got home.

I made us a teriyaki tofu sandwich. He ate a few bites of tofu before it was cooked. He sang Yankee Doodle by himself and played with the words “a-rhymed with Cap and gooding.” They nursed and read Suddenly. He then got silly, and was walking around and looking places and saying “I can’t see a thing; everything is mistaritis.” He then made up other words. I gave him an eye exam, but nothing would work: “Everything is still blurry…I need to go to a different place that gives you an eye exam.” Did that three or four times.

Carly made the fettuccini alfredo, then we all got ready to head out for a walk with him on the bike. We headed up to Madeul. He saying Ants Go Marching. We walked up and around the stadium. He saw the planet-like balls in a little play area place and pointed and asked “Is there superglue on those balls?” He demonstrated for Carly how he can pedal on his own, then we stopped at the exercise equipment and played on the one that goes left and right. Continued on down to the playground. We joked that the swings were taken by invisible people: Carly sat on Santa Clause and August sat on Nearly Headless Nick (from Harry Potter) and thought that was really funny. We ended up chanting random words while he was on the swing, which was funny. He was quite good with it, coming up with words like ‘tree trunk’.

Did some trading on the swing and a little standing up, then headed home at 3:30. He hurried to get his mittens on so he could nurse. After that, he wanted to do everything: wanted me to fill his water, to share food with Carly, to read Berenstain Bears, and to write on the smartboard thing. He ended up at the piano and on his own started to combine Yankee Doodle and Are You Sleeping. He played Are You Sleeping and sang the words to Yankee Doodle to the tune. Very creative.

He was then on the couch with me and wanted to see pictures of cochleas and then damaged ear drums. Did that a bit, then Carly took over as I wasn’t a fan of that. They ended up watching videos of heart operations and who knows what else. He and I then played in the parlor, and used his doctor stuff to first inspect his damaged eardrums, then perform surgeries. I did a couple of ear surgeries on him, he did a lung surgery on me, and I removed a Duplo that had ended up in his lung.

We read a little Winnie the Pooh on the iPad, then he ate mushrooms and zucchini and nursed. He got the flashlight, which we had used in our surgeries, to shine in Carly’s eyes. He ate more noodles and Carly gave him a bath. He was asleep around 7:30.

Photos: 

Skyping and towers: 

Smile: 

Dental exam: 

Swings: 

Pointing at the ball in the tree: 

Prepped for lung surgery: 

Upside down: