Category: Uncategorized

Last night he sat up at 11:50 for a minute but lay back down and went to sleep on his own. He got up at 7:30. I was up, and watched him walk out the door and silently down the hall. He then surprised Carly when she closed the refrigerator to find him standing there. The nursed, and when I came out to the living room a few minutes later he was putting objects on the table and counting them, doing +1 math. Got to 23 and said “That’s all”. Then they started subtracting things. Carly got him dressed, and he said he didn’t like the “Korean bumps” in his pants. That comes from last weekend when we were getting rid of clothes, and we mentioned that he never wore the looser pants we had been given, because he prefers the tighter Korean pants. So when we put two pairs of pants on him they sometimes bunch up in the legs until we straighten them out. Thus, the ‘Korean bumps’.

Back out in the living room, he typed messages to gramma. He asked what their names were, and he typed messages like ‘Hi Vicki’ and ‘Hi Randy’. I went to take a shower, and he continued to type messages and math problems to her. When I came out he was helping Carly prepare the recycling to go downstairs. She took that down, then they Skyped with Cherie, then Vivian and Cassie, then Cherie and Chuck. Carly went into the parlor when he was playing piano, and he followed her, dragging the piano in there. He then went and got the kalimba to play for them as well. He was doing a lot of math with them and watched Vivian dance.

I made the curry dip to take with us later. He and I spent a long time doing math on paper, and using the blue cubes. He asked about multiplication, so I was introducing that and he was starting to understand the grouping involved. After we were all done he wanted me to play music with him. He was working more on Yankee Doodle. He ate a bunch of the cucumber I had sliced, and one or two carrots. Carly then scrambled an egg for him with mushrooms. He then went around the house hugging things: tables, chairs, toys, etc. Finally, we brushed our teeth, got ready, and left just before noon. He decided he wanted to take a banana, and was hugging the banana as we left.

On the way to the bus he was singing and putting drum noises in his songs. He’s done a bass drum ‘boom’ before, but today added in his snare drum and triangle noises. He was getting warm sitting in the sun in the backpack on the bus, but we made it.

At the Meyers’ I explained to August that this was where the girls babysat him that one time, but that they now live in Israel and we’d see them in a few months. August was the only little kid there, so they had got some play dough and puzzles for him. We hung out for awhile, then I got roped into a game of Energy Empires (I placed second), which took a long time. Carly and August played with actual Legos, play dough, and he did a complete puzzle. He came over to our game and really liked the money. He took some of Dan’s money while he was gone, then joked about Dan going “ballistic”. Everyone, adults and kids alike, were impressed by him saying that, so he kept saying it. We also ate plenty of food, and he stole a cookie off of the plate of one of the other boys. He particularly liked the pretzels. He was getting hyper near the end, and wanted me to lift him up to touch the ceiling. We also did ‘tunktunktunk’ from Creepy Carrots and he said all the other people were creepy carrots.

We left close to 4. We ran into Jeff and his two kids outside the building. August and I told him we had seen him playing trumpet on YouTube (that first symphony we watched). August was intrigued by Cora for a few minutes, but then said he was tired and wanted to go home.

We walked home (him in the backpack). August sang Ants Go Marching…we got all the way up to the 30s in the verses.

We were home after 4:30. He put on his nursing mittens to nurse, then played piano with the mittens on. He got the Suddenly book and said mama didn’t like it, so he chased her with it, reading it to her. He is reading full pages. He played TodoMath, and impressed me with how he moved through the sorting activities. We did some Arabic, then he wanted to read No Girls Allowed, but changed his mind and went out to Carly. He took a long time in the bath with me. When I said it was time to wash he had his hands on the side of the tub and said “No!” and brought his head down and whacked it on the side of the tub. We got through the washing with him upset, then got him out and ready for bed. He was asleep at 7:50.

Photos: 

Hugging the banana: 

Game: 

Puzzle: 

Headed home. Our shadow: 

Nursing mittens: 

Crying at 7:35. Sat in on the bed together for five minutes. He calmed down and wanted to go on the toilet. He sat here for a long time, but wouldn’t talk about why he had been sad. As we put on his clothes, he had me pretend to be mama. Then he was anpuffin and checking the apartment for seagulls. He said he was hungry and I said there was some banana bread left since we didn’t eat it as a snack yesterday. He said “We did in the National History Museum”, remembering two days ago. He sat on the floor playing with a Duplo kid, telling it to turn around. He ate his banana bread and we took a selfie for our morning photo to Carly. He played piano – Are You Sleeping is pretty darn smooth now.

Taught me to write letters, and he wrote a cursive little k. He then said “Me start a word.” and drew letters, with a blank in them, like Cookie Monster. We did that for quite awhile, mixing it up and taking turns. He spoke like Cookie Monster: “Me never seen those ones.”

We read Skip to My Lou, Jack and Jill, and The Going to Bed Book. He was still hungry, so I made a mango banana vanilla smoothie. He said “I’m scared of the blender” and cement in the parlor and closed the door. He did some Chinese on his iPad. We drank our smoothie, then read books in the reading area: Suddenly and Fox in Sox. That reminded me of the Dr. Seuss books on the iPad that we haven’t read in a long time. We read Marvin K. Mooney, Oh Say Can You Say, and What Was I Afraid of? For the last he spent several pages clicking on the words one by one and repeating them.

I gave him the last of the smoothie and we did some math with the books on the table. We exercised and we worked on DragonBox Elements, making triangles. I had found a new cartoon that he might like called Mouk, about a couple of animals that travel around the world by bicycle. I put that on and we watched a bit together, then he watched it while I showered. I don’t think he made it more than 3 minutes in, as he kept going back to the beginning to watch it, kind of like he does with other videos.

We watched Marble Machine, then we skyped with my dad. My mom wasn’t there. August showed him the smart board Cookie Monster game, and also went and got the kalimba. We were getting hungry for lunch, but it took us awhile to get out of the house. He played some GarageBand, then talked about his esophagus and cochlea while sitting on the toilet.

We took the bike and headed over to Home Plus for lunch. August wanted the same udon soup again, so we got that, and also the mandu. We enjoyed that. When August was full he lay down on the floor for awhile while I kept eating. He then told me he was ready to go to the park. I told him I’d take a few more bites, then he started counting them. I told him five, then got to turn the tables on him when I actually took ten, getting extra bites. Also, he’s started picking up the phrase “Can handle”, as in he ‘can handle the hot soup’.

We rode down to 국화어린이공원, or what we call the Writing Playground because it is where we write in the sand. He instantly wanted to do the ‘step Q’ game, then I was writing words like mooka mook, periwinkle, and Israel. Went on the swings for awhile, then back to writing. He wanted me to tell him not to do everything. When he would step on words he would tell me “be mad”. Back on the swings, I ordered him to stop moving at the top of his swinging, etc. and he found that hilarious. I also did the alien noises from Sesame Street and he found that funny. He got off the swings and said “I have a few things (to do).” I gave him a kiss and he asked “You a kissing machine?” (Referring to the book Hug Machine).

We played on and around the play structure a lot. He went down the slide several times, and I lay at the bottom of it in the sun for awhile.

We then went to the other end of the park, which has the weird circular climbing wall that is more ramp than wall. He ‘climbed’ on it a bit then wanted a Puffin Rock story and I told the Bernadette story. He was then Baba. He then started the “What happen if you run?”, where I was supposed to say a consequence or something bad that would happen if he ran down the ramp, but of course he would then run down.

He heard one of those moving trucks with the lifts that take things up the side of apartment buildings and he didn’t like it. He said he was scared of it. He had me hold him for awhile and said he wanted to go home. I set him down, but he sort of covered his ears for awhile. He wanted to sing the If I Go song, so we did that and expanded it, then we pretended to have pudding. The lift went again and he said he could handle it this time. He then wanted me to talk about things he could and couldn’t handle: “ask me handle things.” He agreed he couldn’t handle losing the cracker on the bus the previous day.

Playing around the little structure in the middle, I made the ‘Tunktunktunk’ sound from Creepy Carrots. He really squealed about it and I asked “Is is scary?” He said yes, so I said I’d stop, but then he said “Scare me dada!”

We left at 4:10. A good two hours spent in the park. Could have stayed longer, but it was cooling off. He talked about his hands being cold and said “Remember how mama feels about cold hands.” He then surprised me by pedaling the bike faster and farther than he has before. Even down a couple of the back streets.

We were home at 4:40. We watched a little Mouk but didn’t make it much further. He wanted to take a photo with my camera, so I got out Carly’s old phone, which she had charged for him. He liked the idea of his own camera, and that it was easier to hold, and took several photos. Carly got home and they nursed and he was falling asleep. He was then writing on the paper and playing the Cookie Monster game all on his own.

I went over to the pink building to do some grocery shopping. I came home and Carly gave him a bath. He was asleep at 7:30.

 

Photos. To mama: 

Lunch: 

Park. Step Q: 

Down the slide: 

Climbing, of sorts: 

Afraid of the lift thing: 

Silly: 

Camera: 

He was up at 6:52 with a dry diaper. I was surprised, as he had said “Want to go to the toilet” sometime during the night, but had fallen back to sleep. Had some banana bread, then we read seven books together, some, like Suddenly, a few times. Had some more banana bread, then music time. Improvising on Are You Sleeping and remembered how to play the song in F sharp.

Read Doc McStuffins in the reading area, then walked around saying “I don’t see anything. No animals here.” as he looked around the room. Confusing, as I didn’t know where it came from.

I rested on the reading area, as I was developing a headache. He wrote on the etch-a-sketch sort of board, then did TodoMath. I got up and he copied skeleton words, such as humerus, on paper. Did some exercise, and he found the pieces of the stamp pad roller. We put it together, and did some stamp pad art. We had some Cheerios, then read more Suddenly and Peekaboo Sophie. Then practiced lowercase letters and Hangeul and figure 8s on that smart board thing.

He then wanted to write Chinese for real (not just make it up). So we searched through a few apps, and found a couple that show you how to write different characters. He was tracing Chinese while I took a shower. He was still hungry, so we made a couple scrambled eggs with mushrooms. Played some piano, and took turns conducting. He wanted to watch some orchestra, so did that. He let me brush his teeth – he pretended to be Oona, so it was her bill. He then ‘taught’ me how to write letters, then played piano and I brushed his hair.

He saw me start to measure things (Carly had found the dimensions of the largest boxes at the post office) to see if we could send them, and August immediately wanted to make sure the piano would fit. It will.

We left just after noon. Walked up a few blocks and caught the 1139 bus. As we went over the stream, August was looking out and said “Nice statue”, referring to the cone-ish shaped statue there. We watched the driver, and he went quiet. He even had his head resting back, and I think he was close to falling asleep. But then we got off the bus and he perked up a bit. I walked a couple blocks to the park, but when we got there at 12:45 he didn’t want to get out. He agreed to walking and falling asleep, so we went walking again. 13 minutes. But we sang all we know of Yankee Doodle, then he sang all twenty vereses of Ants Go Marching (he knows almost all the words himself). He even kept going past 20. Think we were up to 24, with me making up new lines for the ant, when we got back to the park. Clearly he wasn’t attempting to fall asleep.

But back at the park he still wanted to stay in the backpack and sleep. But then he said he needed to use the bathroom. We did that, then sat on a bench and ate lunch. Actually, first he did a long chomp attack on me. Then while eating there were these women at the next bench over really trying to get his attention. At one point he went over and gently did a chomp attack on one of them. He walked on the lines of bricks. Carly and I have had some odd interactions with the women who frequent this park (the woman who stared at her breastfeeding, the woman with the bubble wrap), and today was no exception. One of the women came over and was chasing him – he was running away and I had to shield him. She then wanted to give him a piggy back ride. As that was happening, I had our lunch and stuff spread out on a bench a couple feet from us. There were plenty of open benches. Two other women came over and insisted on taking our bench.

We escaped across the park to the playground. They swings were being used most of the time by older kids coming and going. August could have easily gotten a turn, but because he was tired he didn’t want to. And then he started to notice when the swings were being used and would hide from them by covering his eyes. We wrote with our stick in the sand instead, and he started drawing Qs with hats. Absolutely no idea where he got that. He hasn’t drawn a hat on any other letter, and he drew several Qs this way. We drew some Hebrew, then he started to say he wanted to go home. But he found some big pieces of styrofoam. Played with those, then he wanted to throw them away. We walked over to the bathrooms and did that.

He was then being Baba, learning to swim, and we wandered across the middle of the park to kind of the small circular hill area that is bisected by two paths that cut through the hill, meaning you can kind of hide around it easily. We played hide and seek for awhile, then he pretended to be Baba swimming again. At one point I found a pretty big shell discarded in the dirt, so that was his “Shiny shell”. A woman came up and gave him what I thought was a cookie. Rather, she insisted on giving me a whole big container of this cookie-looking things. She kept saying kabong (backpack), even though it wouldn’t have fit in the small backpack I was wearing and that she kept patting. Also, it turned out not to be cookies, but cookie sized and shaped hard candies, kind of like a candy cane. I let August lick on one for a couple minutes. His tongue and lips were nice and red. I gave him one more minute, and he was thrilled to sneak 10 or so extra seconds out of me by running away so I had to catch him.

We tried one more time for a nap, walking in the little streets again between the park and the bus stop. But he just kept insisting I sing, and not the sleepy songs. He would get upset if I didn’t sing. So we headed to the bus. We got seats on the bus, and he was eating crackers next to me. He was so tired that when he dropped one and it went in a crack below the seat in front of us he couldn’t handle not getting it back. He cried and wailed and kept asking me to find it because he wanted to eat it. He wouldn’t eat any of the other crackers we had. Luckily, just a few more minutes on the bus. After a couple, he said “I want to cuddle with dada” I held him and he put his head on my shoulder, but still kept sobbing until we got off the bus.

He calmed down, got in the backpack, and fell asleep after a few minutes. I got over to Cafe Sarang Bang, only to find that it is closed, it appears, until June. Luckily, it was a warm day. We sat out on the benches near there (humorously, the same benches where a woman once insisted it was too hot to have him sleeping outside when it was in the 80s and it was shady – i kept expecting someone to tell me it was too cold for him to sleep outside this time, but it was deserted now). He slept from 3:30 until I started to wake him up at 4:05.

We made it home at 4:20. I got him out and he just lay on his stomach on the floor. Wouldn’t respond to me, but I put the Pirates of the Caribbean orchestra piece on his iPad and he got up and watched.

He then wanted pictures of punctured eardrums. This is what it means when they say that parenting changes you; I would have never looked at such photos before, but here I was. He then did some letter tracing, and Carly was home at 5:30.

They nursed and read Doc McStuffins. August insisted on her saying ‘BFF’ as it said in the book, when she just wanted to say ‘best friend’. August mentioned pudding to her, and she asked how he knew about pudding. I finally remembered we had talked about it at the children’s museum when we saw someone else eating it. August still needs to try it (I also mentioned cinnamon rolls to him the other day, and had to show him photos – we will take care of introducing him to cinnamon rolls in Chelan this summer).

He was being loud, and said “Mama’s cochlea will hurt.” He and I read Kipper’s A to Z, then had rice and soup and banana for dinner. He watched Puffin Rock as Carly cut his hair. She gave him a popsicle, and he asked how long it would take to melt before he could eat it (they won’t come out of the containers at first) but asking “Will it take 15 Puffin Rock episodes?” Which I thought was a very creative and personally relevant measure of time for him.

I gave him a bath. He ate his popsicle in there,
then we invented a ‘If I Go’ song together, then he sang a good nonsense ABC song. Carly then took a shower, and August was asking about snare drums, so we watched snare drum videos. He went and got his drum and was beating it to wake me up, then was pretending to play timpani and other instruments.

We headed to the bed. He wanted a nest, and went out to the parlor and got the blanket there and dragged it in to me. He was being quite hyper. Finally, Carly nursed him a little before 9. However, he came out to me a little before 9:30. We ate a banana and sang the If I Go song. He then said it was sleepy time, and went back in to bed at 9:45. 

 

Photos. Stamp roller: 

Piano time: 

Danggogae Park. Q with a hat: 

Styrofoam: 

Candy: 

Hard to wake up: 

Haircut: 

Drum: 

When he woke up in the middle of the night, I heard him say “Is it a face washing day?” He got up again at 5:50. Carly nursed and he fell back to sleep until 7:24. He came out and saw my iPad and said “I want to do something.” First had him go to the bathroom and we got banana bread for breakfast. Ate that, then he played Artie’s World and I started getting ready to go. An earlier departure as we had more distance to cover. He announced he was going to work on Yankee Doodle and he went and played piano. We did that together.

He wanted more banana bread so we got another slice, with butter. He watched the marble video, then switched to Chinese children’s songs and was singing along. At one point he announced “I want to learn Korean.” I clarified he wanted Korean, not Chinese, but before we did anything he went back to the Chinese songs. But a couple minutes later he said “I want to learn some Korean.” We listened to some Korean while he played the shapes app, then did some exercise. He said “I want to learn how to draw a crescent.” So we went and did that on paper for a bit.

He was doing math when I went to take a shower. As I was finishing up, he came in asking “What this bone is?” He had opened the skeleton app. He walked back out and I called out to him ‘What letters does it say?’ He was then calling out letters. When I walked out, he had written ‘frontal bone’ on paper, quite nicely. He then copied down ‘humerus’ and ‘radius’ and ‘ulna’. Typed and wrote math problems and asked me to solve them. He’s starting to get some math rules down. He knows that a number minus itself is always zero. Today he was getting that a number minus a number one less is always one. And when doing a subtraction problem that leaves just the fingers on one hand up he knows the answer is 5 without counting them.

I saw that a fuller anatomy app was on sale, so got that. We then spent quite awhile with him on my lap, looking at things like blood vessels, intestines, stomach, appendix, etc. He then wanted to sing: “Pretend to be mama and sing Johnny Comes Marching Home. I don’t want the real words. I want Johnny to break the ear drum.” This started yesterday with Carly during his bath, as he wanted Johnny to break an ear drum (we’d been talking about ears and why he can’t actually touch the things in his ears).  “I want Johnny to break another new thing.”

“He’ll fall in the street and break his feet…fall of a cliff and break his humerus…get in a fix and break his appendix…and we’ll rush him to the hospital when Johnny comes marching home.”

Finally, we went to the piano for more Yankee Doodle playing.

We left at 10:35. He was doing art on Paper. Still in his single color phase. He painted one all black. He said “It looks like space…there people in there.” I asked “In space ships?” “Yeah,” he whispered.

He was singing Itsy Bitsy and pushing the loudness level. He adds drum sounds to some of his songs now, and was adding a loud “Boom!” at the end. He then started Yelling before getting off the train. He was then upset when I picked him up and he couldn’t step over the gap. We talked more about the yelling as we walked to the transfer.

As we we waited on the platform, two women came over and were bothering him while he was trying to eat some Larabar – first asking for some of his Larabar, then when he ignored one of the women, she went behind him and grabbed him from behind. He didn’t like that, and neither did I. The other woman told her friend to knock it off, and was saying something about father being right.

Next train was fine, and we went to CU and got one of the lunch tray things, a container of aloe and coconut fruit, an orange juice, and a hobang. It was the ‘vegetable’ hobang, but apparently that just meant the bread is green. We went and ate on a bench overlooking the lake by the National Museum.

As we were finishing, he found the little wooden chopsticks and wanted them. He then decided he wanted to carry them. As we walked, I asked if he wanted me to take them and he said “I’m carrying them all the way.” I let him walk up the stairs with him, but then had to take them away when he was running around with them, then wanted to walk on the ice with them. He was upset about that, so we headed inside. We stopped to read the sign for the children’s museum (in Korean).

We had about 40 minutes to play in the children’s museum for that session (12:40 to 1:20). First went to the bathroom, then we were grinding grain into flour using stones for a few minutes. He played with the blocks, then wandered around a bit. He walked into a space where they have big TV-sized touchscreens where you can color pictures. A girl was already using it, and he tried to touch the colors. They told him no, and he started to get upset. Held him for a couple minutes, then convinced him to climb on the little hills. Took his shoes and socks off and he did that. He figured out how to climb them on his own, and slide down. His first slide though he didn’t see the tunnel and fell a bit. Got to do just a minute of the drawing thing as we left when it was the end time for the session.

We were looking at another museum sign in the lobby, and Olivia and her mom saw us. They were going in the next session. August wanted his chopsticks again, and was carrying them around. We sat on a bench and ate the banana bread as a snack. We played the banana bread ingredients game at his request (where we list oops ingredients). I said something about Dada and Mama loving August, and Zinnie continued with a joke: “Zinnie loves Zinnie…that’s a Zinnie over there.” and pointed to an invisible person.

As we walked out he tried poking a bench cushion with the chopsticks. I wouldn’t allow that, so as we walked outside he tested everything out, saying “Can I poke this? Can I poke this?” Outside, I wanted to check out a space around the corner. He was going slow, still poking things on the ground, and I said I was going to walk ahead. He didn’t hear me, and asked “Whatcha talking about!?”

He said he was still hungry, so we sat on a big bench. He lay down on it and said “The bench smells good.” We ate the rest of our lunch, then he started pretending to be Baba and playing around. We left, walking east, and he continued to be Baba. This would last a long time. He played on some snow and ice by a planter, and held on the side of the planter and kicked his legs up. We continued on, with him doing a lot of running.

He would be a puffin for the next hour:

“The seagulls cut open their knees and have blood.” as he looked at drainage holes like the kind he tripped on.

“Baba found something.”

“Baba heading home.”

“Are there seagulls? Let me check.” as he pretended to use a telescope to look everywhere for seagulls.

“Baba’s painting.”

We got around to the other side of the lake and I pointed out a hillside that May and Oona would like to dig in. So he switched to Oona to dig puffin burrows. I asked if he wanted to go in the pagoda, and he asked if it was a puffin burrow. I said yes, so we went. There, we looked out at the fish, and he spent a lot of time lying on the floor. A girl gave him three Pringles, and he liked those.

We pretended to play music, and he gave me different instruments to play: “Now on guitar. That’s a guitar. It has a lot of strings.”

Finally, we headed home. Walked along the moving walkway holding the handle. He stopped being a puffin as he pretended to hold a sharp thing and run, then pretended be the police who would tell me to stop running with sharp things.

In the station, he was back to Oona again, and there were seagulls everywhere. He scared them off, saying “I have a loud drum, Seagull.” We were to the platform at 3:40.

All went smoothly from there and then the transfer to line 7 at Sangbong. The mistake was leaving him in the backpack. On the train we were si
nging Yankee Doodle, but then he stopped. I stopped a minute later. After that he said “More Yankee Doodle”. I started again, but then realized he was falling asleep. I tried to keep him awake, but it was a lost cause. He fell asleep, and slept from 4:30 to 4:58 when I woke him up at home. We watched the Pirates of the Caribbean orchestra piece a couple times, then the marble machine, then some Chinese songs. Carly was home at 5:15. She asked who he was today and he said “a cat”. And his name was “Monie”.

They nursed, and he ate soup with crackers and cheese and bread with me. He played piano for mama, then they painted. When he was done with that he arranged all the paint tubes in Xs. They nursed again, then he did some Hebrew with me, then was trying to make mama nervous in the chair. We read DocMcStuffins, then he pretended to have stinky breath and blow on us. Playing around with that, he knocked over the water left on the floor from painting. No casualties. I gave him a bath and washed his hair. He saying Ants go Marching and made up big ones:  “Billion by a billion…Wow! That’s a big number.” He pretended to play the double bassoon. He had squeaky feet after his bath, but no amount of oiling them fixed it, so I started to take the feet off and give him new ones. Alas, that didn’t work either, so I guess he is stuck with squeaky feet.

He wanted pictures of damaged eardrums, but we didn’t get to it this evening. He ran around with his water bottle in his mouth, knowing Carly had told him not to earlier. When Carly took it away he started crying. Time for bed. We got him dressed and he was asleep by 8:30.

 

Photos: 

Telescope: 

Pagoda: 

Cuddling and watching orchestra: 

Painting: 

Xs: 

He was up at 6:08. Spent time with Carly, then wanted a video of a rocket. We launched a couple, then Carly was ready to go. August wanted to go with her, so they nursed a couple more minutes and he was okay. He wanted to find out how the ear works, so we looked up videos and watched a couple of those. He was hungry so I got oatmeal for him. He ate that and we watched videos of the marble machine and how it was built. He then decided he wanted to do Hangeul on the iPad. Just a couple minutes of that and he said “Let’s write some syllables.” We went into the parlor and were looking for paper he could write on. I offered a page that was half full and he said “That’s a full one…Let’s go ahead and do the little one.”

He did some Cookie Monster, then tried Artie’s World. I remembered I’d found a Puffin Rock music app. Sadly, there isn’t much to it and we were done with it after about 5 minutes. We tried playing checkers, but also abandoned that after a couple minutes. We did some exercise, then I was about to put an end to iPad time, but he wanted to compose music in Notion, so I let him do that.

Went in to the bed to make the friends breakfast. But then he was jumping around and being too loud. I eventually left because he couldn’t stay quiet and he followed. A minute later he wanted to go back. When we got to the room he said “Don’t think I’m going to be quiet.” But then he was better when jumping on the bed.

I took a shower while he watched marble machine and symphony videos. He brushed his teeth, then did days of the week with Duplos. This time, he gave Carly a much nicer work schedule. We talked about giving Carly her chocolate this evening. He said “Why mama want some chocolate to eat? A smidgen of a smudgen of a smidgen.” A phrase he’s gotten from her. He went to the bathroom, and when done washed his hands and turned off the lights on his own. He came out saying: “Two things proud…Zinnie proud of himself.”

Had an apple slice, then we got going around noon. Put him in the backpack at the station and walked to the botanical garden building and ate lunch upstairs. As we started to eat, he pointed to the plants and said “I’m not going to grab those leaves..and I not going  to pull those.” Great, but later he realized he could stomp on a branch of ivy and so there was that. He started talking about nursing and he said “I like to nurse all the time.” When I suggested he start snuggling with mama sometimes instead of nursing, he said “I don’t want to do that.”

He said a few times that he wanted to go down to the fish and banana tree area, and he even walked down the stairs all on his own. But downstairs he said he was too tired for that and he wanted to get going. We walked by the playground, but the swings were inundated by a school group. Went up and went to the bathroom, then went and sat on the bleachers. At first though he reenacted where he tripped, and ran up and down the drainage line. He then asked “Is this a wheel chair seat?” because of the symbols on the ground. He then did his “What if you sit here…not move?” line of questioning, which he does several times a day. When I say ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I don’t want to find out’ he will often extend it himself to the police coming. Today he was also asking what would happen if we didn’t pay our heating bill, and suggested we hide in a tree if the police came.

Anyway, we sat in the sun and also counted the people in the stadium for awhile (it was 6 at first, but people came and went), then got going for a walk. He was fighting a nap though, even though he was up early and clearly tired. We walked awhile, but then he said he was hungry. When I said he had just eaten lunch he broke out crying. Stopped at a bench, and gave him crackers, but he was still sad and would just hold them. Had to get him out and hold him awhile. He calmed down and walked around eating crackers for awhile, then we tried again. Still took another 15+ minutes. Right before he dozed off he chuckled about something a couple times.

He was asleep 2:24 to 3:57 in the upstairs coffee shop. Tried waking him up around 3:40 but he was sound asleep. Woke him up at the end. He woke up and said he wanted to get food at the coffee shop. I told him not today. Between the children’s museum and the playground he chose the playground, so we headed that way. But as we walked into the playground he said he was too tired and just wanted to go home. At some point, can’t remember if it was now or earlier, he also had me pick him up and he covered his eyes and put his head on my chest. I asked if he was sad (I think he had mentioned mama before that) but he said “No. Just resting.”

But I took him all the way to the swings, and when he saw the empty swing he changed his mind. Went on for a few minutes. At one point I asked Did you say something? He said no, and bluntly “You were wrong.” Off there, he talked about going home, but it was a slow going home. He played around, stepping on the white bricks, then wanted a snack so we stopped at a bench. Ate more crackers, then he had fun stepping and jumping on the bricks, hitting a bush, and doing hopscotch. He was then teaching me different variations of hopscotch by the garbage cans, and had me do them wrong a few times: “Dada can’t do hopscotch…dada hasn’t practiced”

Stopped at the bathroom by the exit, then to the train. He was doing some interesting singing on the way in. On the train he did some art (he’s going through a single color canvas stage, where he just fills a canvas with green, then does a new canvas and fills it with pink, etc.) and Cookie Monster. All was smooth until I picked him up to get off and we had some difficulty with yelling.

We got home at 5:40. August got the chocolate and handed it to her and said “Happy Valentine’s Day”. They then shared some. We ate dinner, and he watched some orchestra (he’d been talking about watching orchestra since we headed home) and marble machine videos. I notice he is watching part of the videos, then repeating the beginning several times. I think he is learning the music.

He and I made banana bread. I had gotten all the ingredients out while they nursed, then asked him what he thought we were making. He looked over the ingredients and got really excited, but was hesitant to guess, but finally did with a lot of encouragement.

When it was in the cooker, he played piano. I taught him the last bass note change for his two handed version of Are You Sleeping. He got that down, and has the song pretty smooth. Very proud of himself. I asked what song next, and he wants Yankee Doodle. So we spent maybe 15 minutes starting to learn that. They nursed, then there was an announcement at 8. My job of covering up the speaker has worked; we still heard it, but the extreme volume and shrillness are gone. August still wasn’t too fond. He got up and wanted to go to the bedroom, saying it was sleepy time. Instead, they went and read Three Questions in the parlor. I got his bath ready. But they took a long time in the parlor and had to add some hot water back in.

They had a fun time in the bath. When he came out we had some banana bread. He made a really good yummy face, so I asked him to make his yummy face again for a photo and he did. He wanted to take photos, and I let him take one photo with my camera. He and Carly headed to bed at 9:30 or a little after and were soon asleep.

Photos. Hangeul syllables: 

Pregnant spot: 

Wheelchair seat: 

Squares: 

Snack spot: 

Train orchestra: 

Yummy face for banana bread: 

He slept until 7:29. He was quite awake after nearly 12 hours of sleep, doing a lot of talking right away, asking “Why you wake up?” And “What’s in your ear?” He found the lint roller in the changing room (can’t really call it that anymore) and I taught him how to use it. Randomly, he asked “Why Zinnie have blood in you?” He kept wanting to get lint off of one of Carly’s shirts: “I want more limps (lints).” We left, but he asked “What if we forgot some limps?” so we went back and did some more.

Back in the parlor where he talked about what “in order” meant as he then walked back and forth around the room with just a shirt on reciting numbers and then singing our numbers song (to ABC). He spotted the Eric Carle Animal Tales book and pushed the buttons. Then he decided he wanted ALL of the Bob Books boxes over on the other side of the reading area “Those were all the boxes I was carrying.” We read half of Animal Tales until he was hungry.

He got 4 little chunks of brown sugar. Then he played Are You Sleeping while I got the oatmeal ready. He played both of our verses of the song, and was figuring out the slight rhythm changes (each adds one note to the song, but in different places). We ate oatmeal. I plugged in the Christmas lights and he said “I want music”. I started iTunes and one of his playlists. He asked what the song was, and I said “The Satellites” (https://youtu.be/H22bwiMtyrs). He asked “What’s satellites?” I gave him an explanation and we kept eating.

He made the frog on floor frown and said “I want to see what mama says about it.” He took the photo and we sent it on Skype. He watched Meet the MathFacts videos while I showered. Watched some more math and symphony and science (ear, heart) videos with me. He spotted a saxophone in one of the orchestras and asked what it was, and what it sounded like. So we watched a video of just a saxophone.

He started walking around and making up a language, saying things like “uuumqua stands for two”. Did that for a few minutes, then wanted to do math on paper. So we went in and did that: “Another way to do this is count by tens.”

He did headstands in the chair, which is easy for him, so I suggested he could do it on the ground. Indeed he can, and kept doing them in the reading area against the wall. He took some photos and took a couple of me, but they were blurry, so he was working on holding the camera still to make it sharp and took a good photo of me on the reading area. He did more headstands, and wanted me to take photos of him. So I did that and got a good one, so we posted it to Instagram. He chose the filter. Then, when I typed the description I wrote two sentences. August wanted to add periods, turning both of my periods into ellipses. He must know I use a lot of ellipses…

Looking at Instagram, we saw a photo of Meg, now in Russia. I reminder him who she is, saying she gave him the book The Boy Who Bit Picasso. He got excited and said “I want to read that, The Boy Who Bit Picasso…was there blood?” I got the book, but then wanted to eat lunch first. As I was making a salmon sandoo, he was reading the title of the book on his own, then pretending to write it all out. We ate the salmon sandoo, then watched hula hoop and rocket videos – the hula hoop was because he had a big circle out of the octopus tubes and I said it looked like a hula hoop. He then said “I want to learn how to draw a heart all on my own.” We went and worked on that and he was getting better. He got his iPad and looked at the skeleton app. He said “Can I feel my hyoid bone?” We sort of tried feeling that, and he realized he had a thumb up. Put it down as I took a photo. He then wrote ‘mamá’ on paper. Worked on the little a and on the accent.

At one point he started to go to the rocking chair, but said “Wait, I don’t need that any more” then went to the reading area to do a head stand. Ate most of a banana, then had to go to the bathroom again. His toilet humor: “There’s poop on the door. It is sticky poop so dada has to wipe a lot. I pooped there this morning…I pooped a lot so you have to do a lot of wipes.” He talked about the moles on his legs.

Back in the parlor he said “Dada pretend to be mama…Say something…like ‘cute’” Funny because later in the day he did something and Carly called it ‘cute’. He had one of the orange octopus tubes and was twisting it into shapes “It’s abstract, but it looks like a foot.” Earlier, when we read The Boy Who Bit Picasso, he had liked the abstract sculpture of a mother and a child in a stroller. I had used similar phrasing about something.

We finally got entirely ready and left around 2. Didn’t find his blue hat at first, so I grabbed the Cookie Monster hat instead. He hasn’t worn it yet. He found the dark blue one by the door, but stayed with the CM hat. We went out and caught the 1144 bus right away. He sat in a seat and was really tired. Seemed like he was contemplating a nap. He was also very quiet when we got off and headed to the park.

There were two playgrounds at the park, but both small and neither had swings. He played around one for a bit and said he was still hungry. I gave him the letter cookies I found on iHerb. When he saw one he giggled and said “What this?” He then talked about the ones that we used to find in the store. Ate those, all except one. He then got on the teeter totter. He didn’t have his gloves on (it was pretty warm in the sun, and close to 40) and was talking about how he was holding on with his coat. He started to slip when he took one hand off but caught himself. I told him to be careful, but right away I think he tried to do it again. He fell off, and on his face. A lot of crying, and a little sand on his forehead where he it, and the slightest spot of blood on his lip. He never mentioned the blood though. The last letter cookie helped him recover.

And then the mystery: he found a jump rope in the corner of the playground. At first I thought it was missing a handle. But when he tried to pick it up we discovered the end was buried in the ground. The hard, hard ground. Tried to dig down, but it would take a real shovel. We ended up playing with the 4 feet of jump rope though, swinging it and jumping over it, etc.

Eventually, we got our stick and started writing in the sand. He needed the bathroom, so we went there, then came back and did more writing. It got cloudy and cooler, so sometime before 4 we headed home, walking with the backamapack. We stumbled upon another park that didn’t really show up on the map. It had a better play structure, but no mystery jump rope. We continued on, across the river and through Madeul. We were singing, but at some point he was tired. We made up another verse of Are You Sleeping: Are you sleeping, little Zinnie?… You know the rule…No falling asleep…

We had talked about getting chocolate for Carly and he liked the idea. We went to the pink building and got a simple bar of chocolate and a couple other things we needed. We saw Sarah and Jen in elevator at home and they complimented him on his Cookie Monster hat. As we left the elevator he was asking about their names.

When we got home he talked about how his hands were cold and his feet, having worn only one pair of socks, also were: “My feet are cold…Just a LITTLE cold…why my feet can’t nurse?”

He did Hangeul writing and I did some Hebrew. He took my pen and started writing ה on the paper. I suggested we turn music on, and started with a cello suite. He wanted something with drums. We went through an orchestra with piano, gamelan orchestras, and the Blue Man group. Not what he wanted. But then I found a video of a musical instrument that runs on 2000 marbles. He liked that and we were watching it when Carly came home.

They nursed and we ate dinner. When August ate, she told him some people eat dinner together around a table. He was curious about that, so we all sat at the table. He did the cookie app and Elmo
Loves ABCs. He made Cookie Monster sad in the game by not sharing. I act d sad and August tried to comfort me. I was holding my tea though and he bumped it with his head. Luckily, not very hot. Got some on his head and my shirt. Not nearly as traumatic as the Sprite incident at the burrito place with my parents when he was 5 months old.

He read with Carly: The Red Car Bob Book and Wild about Books. She gave him a bath. I heard him continuing with his toilet humor: “I have poop on my hand and rub it on there.” And he talked of another kid pooping in his underwear on his toilet.

After his bath we were sitting on the couch and doing some nonsense singing. It started because he asked me to sing the wrong notes. That turned into wrong words as well. I’d say a random word and he’d start laughing. He was trying to sing in Carly’s ear and be sneaky about getting close, which means he wasn’t sneaky at all, so she was run away. When he calmed down he went and wrote Korean syllables. He wrote more Hebrew in my practice notebook and said “That’s Hebrew and it’s abstract. Dada likes abstract Hebrew.”

He got tired and was ready for bed. He chose his regular pajamas tonight and was asleep a little before 8.

I forgot to mention yesterday the radio game on his bike. He’s been doing it for a week or two. There is a plastic thing that slides around on his handlebars. He will move it, and it is like changing the radio station. I’m supposed to sing a different song. He keeps doing it until it is a song he wants. He will then use the other hand to say he is turning it louder or softer.

 

Photos. “That’s a cool shape”: 

Math: 

Headstand on the reading area: 

His photo of me: 

Again: 

Thumbs up (before he put it down): 

Cookie Monster hat: 

Bus: 

Park. Letter cookies:

Q: 

Right before he fell off: 

Jump rope: 

Writing ‘mama’: 

Evening. Drawing abstract molecules in my notebook: 

August and Carly were up at 7. They skyped with Chuck and Cherie and I was up by 8. He did some Endless Spanish and was really getting into the words. Carly vacuumed and we cleaned out his coats and other clothes for the clothing drive at APIS. August happily tried on a couple spring coats and said they fit. He opened the Sesame Street Cookie app and at first only wanted to do vowels with Elmo. When it came time for the cookie feeding he called me over to do it and he went and watched from the doorway. He was afraid of Cookie Monster. After hat I switched to doing words, which requires Cookie Monster. August was interested, but kept running back to the doorway. After a few rounds though he was proudly doing it by himself. He was also doing a good job sounding out which vowels could go in the gaps, sounding out words he knew.

I made the steel cut oats for breakfast, and he got to taste brown sugar. We added that and cinnamon and blueberries and strawberries.

He started doing his swinging by his hands between the table and couch thing and then throwing up his hands. I asked Carly if she had shown him any gymnastics, and she said that he’d seen Vivian do it. That made sense. He looked at the Hangeul app a bit, then went back to writing the complex vowels on paper. I took a shower. He and Carly were doing Hebrew when I came out, then he was making things out of Duplos on his own.

He and I ate the last of the pizza for lunch. He was pretending to swim on the floor, and I thought he was an animal, but he said he was himself. We read Biscuit Goes Camping, with him surprising me with the words he knows. He did more of the cookie iPad app. Carly was trying to do it with him, but when she asked if she was bothering him he said yes.

Carly headed to a coffee shop to do some work and August and I were going to go out for a bike ride. I heard her talking to someone out in the hall, then the door bell rang. It was a security guard telling us (well, yelling at us) that the downstairs neighbors had complained about noise from August and couldn’t sleep. An odd complaint, as August hadn’t been too active in the morning. I tried to get the guy to give us some more information, like when, but he just kept yelling, and the most detail I got out of him was ‘morning’. He seemed just as upset that we hadn’t answered the intercom earlier when he called up (a call which had come while Carly and August was nursing, and, I think, after they had been doing Hangeul in the other room and my shower – so nothing to help identify what the unacceptable noise part was).

After he went away, August was a bit upset. I tried to explain what had happened, but that just led August to want to run around, and he talked about wanting to go to the seventh floor and run around. Just as I was thinking in my mind that the loudest thing we had done today was when Carly was slamming the freezer door to make the buzzing noise go away, August decided to make a game out of just that. That ended with us sitting together for a timeout on the couch. He continued to test how much noise I would let him get away with closing drawers, etc. At one point he started to close the door to the parlor. When I asked why, he said he was going to slam it. We had some crackers and cheese, then headed out at 2:05.

Carly had forgotten her headphones, so we found her on the second floor and August waited on the bike while I ran them in to her.

As we walked to Hagye Children’s Park (aka the tree playground), August said “I see notes on the ground.” It was the shadow of the metal railings along the edge, casting 4 lines along the ground, with circles for the ‘children’s zone’ signs. It did indeed look rather like a staff and notes. He was singing and counting them.

We walked down to the area that used to be train tracks but is now a park. We haven’t been there since it opened. He got off and explored an area with flower/garden plots. He liked them, but particularly liked walking on the dead plants and then wanted to see what happens if you bend the plant signs. We got back on the bike and walked the path along the tracks a bit, then went to the tree playground.

He went on the swings. When the swing next to him was empty he would say he wanted another kid to sit there. He did some standing, but otherwise had a relaxing time on the swings. Finally, a bit of a line formed, and I told him we were going to take a break. He didn’t like this, and I eventually had to pull him off. Seemed a bit tired, and indeed when we got home later he would try to fall asleep with Carly.

He recovered though and we walked up on the play structure. Up at the top he wanted to go down the slide. At first he wanted to go with me. I asked if he wanted to go by himself and he said yes, and down he went. I then had to go find him at the bottom. It was the biggest slide – the one Carly hasn’t gone down yet – and I hadn’t quite realized how big it was from the top. I found him walking around at the bottom, looking for me. He was perfectly happy though, and was excited he had done it. He would happily tell mama about it later.

He got in the turtle shell a bit, then went back on the swings. I had mentioned we had sung a song here last year, and he wanted to know what it was. I looked it up, then we sang Bingo. We eventually were ready to leave. He paused to pretend to eat the mushrooms statues first.

It was 37 and sunny today, so when we stopped by the ice rink we found it to be more of a slush rink. A few kids were in it, but it looked pretty sad, and is supposed to close. August liked looking at it, but didn’t want to go in. He did, however, want to ride his bike around. In particular he wanted to pedal on his own. We tried it in a couple places, and eventually he started to get it on his own on flat ground without needing a push first. Some improvement in pedaling technique, and also his legs getting stronger and longer. Don’t think he’ll every be really able to ride it around too well though. Hopefully he isn’t clamoring for a real bike before we leave Korea.

At one point he somehow managed to tip it over as he tried to get off. He was okay, but the beads he has gradually collected and put in the back spilled everywhere. We took a minute to pick them all back up.

We were home a little after 4. They nursed and read Go, Dog, Go! Learned about helicopters, roller coasters and scuba diving, as when they found them in the book they would look up photos and YouTube videos.

Played triangle and drums with me. He was the conductor at first. We worked on rhythm. Then he went to play Are You Sleeping on the piano by himself. He called the banana shaker a maraca and I asked how he knew that. He said it was from a book. First he said No Girls Allowed, but then remembered Drum Dream Girl.

We read the rest of Go, Dog, Go! He ate peanut fried rice for dinner and some mushrooms. He put the reusable farm animal stickers on his shirt then took them off. He wanted a milking the cow video, and I mentioned that goats also get nursed, so he wanted a video of that. He also started singing “There’s milking a cow in a hole at the bottom of the sea.”  We’d been singing that song outside.

At 6 he started asking if it was bedtime and said he was sleepy. Watched a video of a boy getting stung by a sea urchin. We read Doc McStuffins again (ugh) and 1-2-3 Peas. I went to start his bath, and told him to read 1-2-3 Peas by himself while I was gone, and he did. He called me back for help with a word on 8, but I watched him read much of it on his own. Before heading to his bath, he wanted to work on ‘photograph’ and do tongue twisters. I had him recite ours (Now streamlined to ‘The thick fish’s thin fin.’) and he surprised me by having memorized She Sells Sea Shells. He then did Peter Piper after me.

Carly gave him a bath. Earlier in the day we had gone through more of his clothes and coats to decide what we could donate. She found a pair of pajamas – one piece but without feet – and put them on him now. He liked
them and wore them to bed. He modeled them, and did a little more of his gymnastics in them.

Had him brush his teeth, which went fine except he didn’t want to stop. Was a bit sad and definitely ready for sleep. He said “Where are my socks?” as I took him in to bed, and he was asleep at 7:50.

Photos. His first photo of mama:

Shadow musical notes: 

Standing: 

Slide he went down: 

Circle: 

Pajamas: 

We were all up about 7:40. Skyped with Vivian and Colin. August and Vivian had fun playing the ‘don’t do it’ game with Carly. He did some Hangeul tracing a couple times through the morning. He has rediscovered that. I took down recycling, then shared some pizza with him. We read the Doc McStuffins coloring books. He had the octopus arm things made into circles – 3 small ones and one big oval shape. I started to make one of them into a crown for him, and August said the smaller two were feet and put them at the end of the big oval. My bigger circle then became the head. Of course, then he decided to step on it and “break the skull”.

We practiced drawing stars and he did his first one on his own. He’s expanded the ‘ballistic’ game from just eating in the parlor, to anything we tell him not to do, including cleaning things. Useful for now. I got him to clean up the markers, Duplos, Bob Books and other things today by telling him not to do it.

We then headed to the bedroom and had the friends eat oatmeal for breakfast, and August made a nest. He started talking about bones, and we looked at the skeleton app. He definitely read ‘vomer’ and mandible’. When he was tired of that he went out to Carly and they went and did Hangeul. Lots of Hangeul app and nursing today.

The Hangeul app time was working though as he started writing, rather easily, the complex vowels on paper and pronouncing them. He climbed on the rocking chair and said he was a spider. Was using it like a jungle gym, and was even more fun because he thought he was making mama nervous.

Carly and I were ready for a walk. I tried to convince him he wanted to go out by suggesting Mama Juice to him. That worked. To Carly he whispered “What kind should we get?”

Downstairs he chose blueberry and I got a macchiato. We headed over to the stream and walked north along it. He started to act tired on our walk, but there wasn’t a nap today. I gave him a wheelie, and he kept wanting them. Finally, he got off and did some walking through the tunnel. As usual he sang all the way through the tunnel. On the other side he was walking with Carly and she was singing her version of When Johnny Comes Marching, making up words. She was sort of marching him by the arms, which was fine but again he kept wanting more after both of our arms were sore.

We turned around and got him on the bike and he wanted to stop at Chrysanthemum Park. But when we got there he and I were singing Yankee Doodle (we learned the seventh verse) and he didn’t want to stop.

We walked over to the art museum. We thought about one of us staying with him at the play area while the other went to the post office to see what there hours are during the week (we’re working on planning our move now that summer and moving info are starting to take shape). But the play area was full. So we all went over to the post office only to find that it doesn’t have an hours sign on it (why does any business not have this basic feature?).

We went back to the park. August and I went and played on the melting ice rink, and Carly headed home to eat some lunch. August walked around on the ice and stepped in wet areas, and found spots where he could see the bottom poking through. I think the ice rink closes after this weekend, and I don’t think they’ll be extending the dates this year. He had no interest in going on a board, but had fun with the arrow throwing after we were off the ice.

We headed home after that (he didn’t want the playground, and I think his feet were a bit cold and damp) and were home at 2:45. Carly had eaten but not left for the store yet. He went to the bathroom, and came back to me excited about how he can reach the light switch and the soap. Carly mixed him up some rice and broccoli. While eating it he kept saying “I want more of my great rice.” He took the piano keys out and put them back in. Carly headed to the store. He was working on Hangeul. Outside, August had asked what playground was in Arabic and Hebrew, and I decided that should be one of the words we know in five languages. So I worked on that.

Carly came home and started cooking. August and I went in on the bed and had the friends make kimbap for lunch. Back out in the kitchen, August shared something with Carly, I think. Anyway, the idea of sharing and not sharing came up, and August, as he and I went in the parlor, said “I want to talk about sharing and not sharing.” We did some of that, but then really ended up playing with the Teuni Octopus. I set it up like the teacher had shown, kind of like hopscotch so August could jump from corner to corner. Did that, then we started to add in variations. Put in all the legs so there were 8 spaces. August said “I have another game…another game that sangsaengnim showed you.” We took the legs off and made a straight course, then he moved them around to make bigger and smaller shapes. I stepped out of the room for a second for tea or something and when I came back he had made them into a zigzag shape.

Somehow, it was decided it was a playground, then the playground was limited to certain ages. At first, if we touched it the people running the playground would tell us to leave. But August of course took it to “What if we not leave?” Then there was hose spraying involved. August really liked this, an turned into the person doing the spraying, and pretended there were kids in the playground that weren’t 7 and he would spray them.

We took a break to read Old King Cole, then he got the I Spy book and said “I want to learn how to remember things…in this book.” We went through that a couple times.

He ate the green soup and peanut fried rice that Carly had made for dinner. We saw the fire parade from our window one last time. I’ve thought we should go outside for it, but then I remember it is February and cold, and watching from the window is enough.

He then started pretending to be in Creepy Carrots, with me making the ‘tunktunktunk’ sound of the creepy carrots. He both liked the game, and got afraid of it. Carly gave him a bath, and I took down the compost. When I came back they were having fun playing with the soap. Before going to bed he wanted a nest to sleep in. He was happy with the little corner of pillows and stuffed animals. He was asleep around 7:40.

 

Star: 

Stepping on the skull: 

Spider on the chair: 

Licking Green Monster: 

Octopus: 

Fire: 

He woke up a little before 6 and started nursing. After awhile they came out and nursed more on the couch. August agreed to stop when we suggested watching the orchestra on his iPad. Did that for awhile, then watched math and science videos. He traced some Arabic, then wanted to add Spanish words to the tracing app. We got the book and added people words. He then wanted to write them on paper, so we went in and he practiced ‘el’ and ‘la’. Turned out he wasn’t sure about writing ‘a’ so he practiced that. Took photos on his own. Refused to take a photo of me. I suggested the stuffed animals and he likes that idea. “Come on!” So he took photos on the bed, and took one of me and Marshy. He made a nest on the bed, and said he was taking all the pillows:  “Well, some of them.” He had them make omelettes again for breakfast, then was doing sort of jump kicks off the headboard with his hands on the bed. He cuddled with me and hugged Marshy. After omelettes, he had them get 8 kinds of ice cream and then cookies.

After some jumping, we headed out to the kitchen where “I want real peanut butter on a spoon.” and ate a banana. We ate Cheerios for breakfast and he played some piano. He put together the octopus things as a hose and said there was water going through it. He took more photos, of the hose and some out the window.

He was reading lots of words today. While looking at the skeleton app I was pretty sure he read mandible and vomer, and then while using my phone as a camera he would say the names of buttons when he pushed them: camera, photo.

We watched an orchestra video and read the Doc book again. He pretended to be a “different kid” again today while on the toilet. This is something he started yesterday. Today he was being a different kid pooping in his underwear.

He watched a Venus fly trap video, then watched orchestra videos while I took a shower. After my shower we read and colored one of the Bob Book activities books. He then found the cardboard kaleidoscope cards while look in the draw and remembered that they were a present from gramma and grampa. We also discussed dolphins for some reason and he remembered not liking the dolphin show at the big zoo.

Finally, he got afraid of the announcements this morning. Because they happened five times. They’ve been happeneing every morning this week, but this was the first time there has been so many of them. He had me pick him up and was hiding his face on my chest like with the wind yesterday. He took a few more photos with my camera and then we got going, leaving at 11:40.

Got kimbap and a strawberry sandwich (yes, with strawberries and whipped cream – had to try it once) for lunch, then went to the children’s museum and ate. A smaller kid was screeching, so August took that as an invitation to screech at first. Then, he wanted to interact with other people, but was going up to them and yelling ‘boo’. We were working on that, and alternative things to say. He did kind of twist/shimmy like a woman who was doing that for some reason. That was funny.

He then wanted to go to the little kids area. A little time on the trampoline, then to the puzzles. One of the wooden puzzles was missing a piece and he wanted me to find it, but I couldn’t. He saw a worker put sausage back in the wrong place (too lazy to go upstairs, it seemed). He went and took it upstairs and put it away and came back. He found the lion (saja) hand puppet and really wanted to play with it. Took it upstairs, sat in a little chair, and hugged it. He wanted me to do the voice of it, and I chose a growly voice. August told me it was the wrong voice, so it switched to a higher pitch, and said it had had a frog in its throat. August thought that was a funny expression, so we ended up having the lion eat frogs and get them caught in its throat.

Before we left he put all the hand puppets away, the worms that go in the center apple, and a couple other things. Back upstairs, we found that missing piece from the puzzle at the beginning, so he went and put it away.

He played with one of the little push beetle things for a few seconds, then carefully maneuvered it back to its spot along the wall. Alas, then he hit a boy on the head for no apparent reason.

We headed out. Bathroom, etc. then as we got ready to go he sang a little song:

“I can’t go anywhere cuz

I’m tired and sleepy”

He spent several minutes walking around the lobby and pretending to draw hopscotch patterns, and made up a colors song as we walked out. He ate some Larabar, then we got to walking. Took rather awhile – 25 minutes. Possibly extended first by asking about why the zoo was closed, then having a bunch of questions about bird flu. He would keep asking about it. At one point he also said “I want mama to come here.” I said that If you go to sleep you’ll see her sooner. He gave perhaps his first real “Okaaaay”.

He fell asleep and we went to the downstairs cafe. He slept from 2:27 to 3:37. I tried waking him up after an hour, but he wouldn’t, so I let him keep sleeping. When I did wake him up he went back to sleep on me sitting in the chair until 3:57. It was nice to have him sleeping on me again.

He then wanted a drink. He was a little sad when I said he had already had juice (we brought orange juice) and a treat (the strawberry sandwich) with lunch.

We headed home, stopping at the bathroom in the subway station. He had some more difficulties in the train: he lightly hit one woman on the head before we got a seat, then was grabbing at a couple of coats, saying “grab, grab”.  Got him settled down and was fine the rest of the way.

At Hagye, as we got in the backpack, I asked what he wanted to do until mama got home. We first discussed writing Hangeul on the paper, then he said Hangeul on his iPad. I asked which one he preferred and he said “Let’s do some of each…what’s ‘each’?” Interesting that he used ‘some of each’ in the proper context, but didn’t quite know what it meant.

Carly was home close to 6, having stayed a little late. I filled out the class registration form for spring (doing Teuni Teuni one last time, and also trying out the English class, which meets later on Thursdays) then walked to Home Plus on my own. Ordered a pizza, then went and bought a couple groceries and registered for his classes.

At home we ate pizza. August was happy about that. He had mentioned doing patterns with Duplos, so we did that. He has the idea of patterns down pretty well now and was doing two and three color patterns. We read the Doc McStuffins coloring book and he wanted me to draw a dog, then a puffin (Oona) on paper. That made him want to watch Puffin Rock, so he did that while Carly took a shower. He then nursed and they played a bit. At one point she asked me the time and I told her. August said “It’s one past two”. So working on that structure as well.

I gave him his bath. It was a long one. The water was quite lukewarm by this point but he didn’t mind. Or rather a long sitting on the toilet. We used the P O and E letters to list words that started with each, then spelled ‘poem’. Basic to bed routine after that and he was asleep about 10.

Photos. Skeleton: 

His photo of me: 

Walking on the 3 shape: 

Strawberry sandwich: 

Little kids area: 

Hopping down the stairs: 

Sitting with the rainbow: 

A rest: 

Hugging and feeding the saja: 

Asleep on me: 

Patterns: 

Poem: 

He came out at 7:12, rubbing his eyes. Lay down on the couch beside me. Then sat on the floor, with his head on the couch before going fully on the floor and slowly rolling around on the warm floor for the next several minutes. Watched some math and cow milking videos, then age Cheerios for breakfast. He played some piano and xylophone and we played together. He took the keys out of the piano. To put them back he said “I want Bluie to help us. He’s a nice friend.” We put the keys back and I introduced him to practicing intervals on the xylophone. He’s also working on playing the full chromatic scale.

We went in on the bed. For breakfast I suggested the friends have omelettes. He didn’t know what they were, so we watched a short Jamie Oliver video. They had omelettes, then ice cream, of course. I had Bluie do the rabbit dance, and mentioned I’d invented that when he was a baby and that I think I had it on video. The video wouldn’t play, but we looked at some of his baby photos.

August started describing the languages and alphabets of all the animals, drawing with his finger on the bed. He then took Peter Rabbit and GM out to learn Arabic. We did lion (asad) and home (bayt) (I can’t type Arabic yet), writing them on paper, and he traced letters on the iPad. I got the video working, so we watched the rabbit dance, which was on April 13th, I think, when he was a month old. We did some exercise together, then I went to take a shower.

He was hungry so I got crackers and cheese for him. He was eating that and watching orchestra videos when I went for my shower, and was still there when I came out. He wanted Bluie to do the rabbit dance so we went and did that and recorded the reenactment, as he was pretending to be a baby. While playing on the bed he was talking about things in the ocean and I mentioned sea anemones, which despite our many visits to aquariums he has never seen. So we watched some videos, including one of an anemone that swims. Crazy.

August then pretended to poop on my pillow. He wanted me to be sad so he could comfort me and snuggle.

We skyped with my parents. Got to see the other cat, Cindy, and the crazy amount of snow outside. August was playing piano for them, then leaned on it and it fell over, kind of pinching his fingers against the wall. He recovered though.

After skyping we got ready to go, put the piano keys back in the piano one more time, and headed to Home Plus for class. Got there a few minutes early for once. As we rode up the walkway August pretended to hit every window, etc. with a hammer and break it, repeating “hammer break” over and over.

As I piled all our coats on the bike, August went into class. He apparently went up to the teacher and gave him a high five, but was also pretending to cut open his arm: “I cut the arm open for funsies.” During the annyang song he waved to everyone. Then, during the forward roll time he thought about it, then went and did one forward roll with the teacher. He was very excited and proud about that. Then, when the teacher and kids carried the inflatable walkway to put it away, August helped out for the first time, then came sprinting back to me. He was very proud about doing that as well. I hadn’t realized that he’d been scared about doing that – I just thought he never wanted to. But he kept talking about how he did a forward roll and helped carry it.

Class was all about being barbarians, starting with a barbarian outfit that August wanted to put on. Then they did activities involving spears and fire. He was totally into each activity today; there was no trying something once then deciding he was done. At the end of class they got these Teuni Octopus toys. The teacher did a demo, and pulled one of the octopus legs, making a loud noise in front of August. August was startled and asked “What you did?” Before we left I told August to go say goodbye and bow. August did so, exaggerating his bow as usual. It turned into putting his head on the floor, then doing his flip forward roll, where he stands on his head for a second before rolling over.

We went downstairs for lunch, and decided on the soup counter next to the pizza place in Home Plus. We ordered the udon soup (어묵우동). August played with the skinny chairs while we waited, then really enjoyed all the lunch, even eating a few bites of radish. By the time we left we had planned out our next few Thursday lunches there.

We did some grocery shopping, then headed home, getting there at 3. We colored and read the Doc coloring book, and put together the octopus toy. He ate some dried cherries and watched orchestra videos, then had to go to the bathroom. From the bathroom we heard a cat meowing, but then it stopped, much to his dismay. Back to the dried cherries, he started doing math problems on his own with them: “I’m doing math problems.”

I had explained that we were home early, but he was missing mama a bit more than usual today; he hadn’t nursed at all last night/this morning, so that probably added to it. At one point he asked why mama was late today, and at another point he said “I just want you to have nursing.”

At some point we decided to head back out on his bike. We went to Chrysanthemum Park. But it was rather windy and cloudy along the way. We considered going back at one point. We got to the park and he wanted to go on the swings. But as he got off the bike I said something about hoping that the wind didn’t pick up. He asked what that meant, and I explained. He then got upset and was afraid of the wind. He wanted to be picked up, and he covered his eyes and hid his face against my chest and wanted to go home. I talked to him a couple minutes, and reminded him of how good he had felt after he got over his forward roll/helping carry fears at Teuni Teuni. He then agreed to go on the swing. He closed his eyes for awhile, but then said he wasn’t afraid of the wind anymore. He was happy with himself, and I said something about being proud about himself. He then asked “What if you’re not proud?” We discussed ’embarrassed’ and ‘ashamed’ after that.

It was cold though, so we didn’t stay for a long time. we headed home and were home at 4:40 or so. He was talking about meeting mama today, so about 5:20 we headed out and got on his bike. As we left he said “My hands are not cold. I can nurse.” We rode around the hall a bit, then went downstairs and were riding around, doing wheelies, and met Carly by Pink Burger at 5:35.

They nursed, then he had dinner with me. We were running out of the sauce stuff that Carly had made, so I added some teriyaki sauce. I told August to let me know if it needed more, and the moment the first bite touched his tongue he declared “More teriyaki sauce.” We read part of  Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed, then he played with the Montessorium Numbers app. Carly gave him a bath and washed his hair. It went well, as he decided to like the drips on his face. When he was done he ran out and told me “I like the drips.” Also said he liked brushing his hair. Quite the growth mindset today. He spent some time looking at the skeleton app, then headed to bed and was asleep by 7:45.

Oh, and at some point earlier today I tried to put some music on the iPad (the new Flaming Lips). He asked if it was orchestra music. He let it play for a few songs before insisting we switch to orchestra music.

 

He was holding a pillow on his head and then started to sneeze. I took a photo just as his hands came down but before the pillow fell off:

Barbarian: 

Spear: 

Our lunch: 

Squinting at the wind: 

Because you can’t have enough swing photos: