Category: Uncategorized

He sat up and said “Dada” at 7:10 then fell back to sleep. Back up at 8. Carly asked if he wanted to lay on the floor, so he did. They nursed and then he did a little play dough. We then drew hearts and triangles on paper. Then Carly Skyped with Cherie. August needed to go to the toilet, so I took him. He pointed back saying “don’t talk” to them – kind of like yesterday with my parents. Later, August was reading sentences that Cherie typed to him. After that, Carly did recycling and ran to the store. August was typing on her computer, and pasted in a letter she had typed. He then spent a lot of time “fixing” her punctuation: “Something was wrong on mama’s typing.” He also figured out how to change the bullet style and color, and that typing a sad or happy smiley face turns it into an actual emoji-type of picture. He then lay on the couch and was singing random letters, then numbers. He wanted the songbook in iBooks, and was singing to it when Carly got home.

She finished the veggie pancakes and August ran and got his stool. He wasn’t upset even though she had basically done it all. I went and took a shower. We had planned to meet Derek and his kids at the eMart play area, but Rosie was sick so that all changed. Instead, we ended up meeting the babysitter and Logan at Namu Play Area, over in the pink building, while Derek stayed home with Rosie. August found his bracelet before we left and was wearing it, and wore it all the way until we got into the play area and started playing.

We got there at 10:30 or so. He wanted a drink, so we ordered kiwi, so they were out of that. He settled for pineapple. We went in and he first went to the ball area and trampoline. He seemed to remember the place pretty well, although we haven’t been here in 9 months or so. He tried throwing some balls at the back of some moms’ heads, but I stopped that one. He saw Logan roll down the trampoline and tried to do it himself. Didn’t quite get it straight, but still had fun.

At 11 the train went. He was intrigued by it but didn’t want to get on. Instead, he went to the car things and chose his favorite one with the cell phone. I pushed him around in that for awhile, but then he saw the train going and got out and was regretting his choice and sad, trying to climb over the fence to it. I held him for awhile, then we went in and played with Duplos, then cut the plastic fruit. Our pineapple juice came, and we went back out to the bench. He wanted Puffin Rock stories, so we sat there and drank our juice and coffee and I told the Baba learning to swim story twice and the Oona and Mama fishing story.

Yewon, the babysitter, said they were going to go eat. Derek was treating. We went in and ordered a sweet potato pizza. While waiting, Logan poured his own water and spilled some. Not too bad. But then he intentionally poured an entire cup of water on the table for the fun of it. August saw Logan drinking out of a cup, and so he did it himself, declaring “That’s another big kid to do.” Looking out the doors, back at the play area, August said “Wait a second. What’s that over there? What’s going on in there? I don’t know.” Finally, right before we left to go back in the play area he saw a wom and said “That’s a she. Zinnie is a she.”

We had missed the second running of the train at noon, so that will have to wait for another time. Back in, they mainly spent their time in the ball area and trampoline. August had been reluctant to jump on it with a lot of other kids at first, but got more comfortable with it. Logan came and tackled August a couple times and August was fine with that. He rolled around on the edge of the trampoline being silly.

At 12:30 Yewon and Logan had to get going. Logan didn’t want to go, and ran back in and hid up in the play structure. Yewon and I had to go up and get him out and then herd him to the exit. August decided he wanted to get going to, so we walked out with them, made sure they got a cab, and headed up to home.

Carly had gone to work to help some students with NHD projects. So he and I first did some drawing on paper, then he played with ShapeKit on the iPad. Took one of his last big creations, where he had duplicated a bunch of shapes, and animated it, then created a big interesting shape that looked birdlike. Watched some Puffin Rock, then we put the piano back together and played. Taught him about the chromatic scale. He then went to the bathroom, and wanted to play with bubbles in the sink. Did that, and took his shirt off as well. He did some more writing on paper (writing ‘sizle’ again). He wanted to go meet Carly at the elevators, but didn’t want to put on clothes. He ate the rest of the pancake that Carly had made him in the morning, then some strawberries. He was talking about wanting a salmon sandwich, but wasn’t interested in the other foods I had to offer.

Carly got home aroun 3:20. They nursedand read, then were just cuddling in the reading area. I brought him the pineapple juice and he drank some. They then did some painting. She was trying to get him to dab at the paint instead of wipe it – both for how it looked and because she doesn’t like the sound. He was also talking to himself, saying “What you doing? I’m painting with mama.” Before we left he requested the jump rope songs, so we listened to those a bit before we left.

We headed out to walk to Pizza School to get pizza. August wanted the backpack, but we were a little concerned he was going to fall asleep. He assured us he wouldn’t. We got up there, ordered pizza, walked around a bit, and brought it home. As we got close to home I told him “You made it!” Then as we walked into the apartment he shouted “We made it!” We all ate some pizza. Carly gave him a bath, during which he requested Spanish songs, so I turned on Basho and Friends. He was then typing in Pages, before singing from the songbook. He wanted to draw the bass clef, so we went to the paper and did that, and did other notes. Carly couldn’t find one of the loose boards that goes under the counter in the kitchen, so I said “August! Mama needs your help finding something!” He literally said ”Ooh!” and jumped up and went and got his flashlight and did indeed locate it under the washing machine, then reached in and pulled it out.  Getting those AAA batteries really paid off.

He was hungry before bed, and Carly made him one more pancake. He ate most of that, then went to sleep about 8:50.

 

Wearing his bracelet: 

Duplos: 

Pineapple juice and Puffin Rock stories break:  

Trampoline fun: 

Home. ‘Sizle’ again: 

Painting with mama: 

Finding the board: 

6:59. He walked out and stood at the end of the hall, all smiley. When I went over to him though he retreated down the hall for a few seconds and didn’t want me to follow. He came back out to the same spot, crouched for awhile, then lay on the floor with his hands tucked under him for a couple minutes. Then on to playdough. Then on to Puffin Rock and strawberries and Cheerios for breakfast. He heard ‘dragonfly’ on Puffin Rock and wanted to write it on Paper. The app, that is. We wrote some words and did some art.

He used the toilet, and wanted his shirt off. Afterwards, we put his new fox shirt and pants on. He wanted to watch a Flynn the fox episode on Puffin Rock, so I found one with Flynn in it. While he watched it I took a shower. During my shower, I heard a yell, so I turned off the shower and opened the door. He was still watching. I asked how he was doing and he said something like You’re watching a lot of Puffin Rock.” I think his yell was him squawking like a seagull.

He wanted to paint, and had the dry brush and was pretending to paint on my ‘los libros’ sign. I said that was okay, but reminded him that when he got paint he had to only paint on the paper. To which he replied “THIS is paper.” Touché.

We skyped with my parents. He was painting at the start. Did a lot of rolling around and sliding on the floor, which was a common occurrence today wherever we went.

At some point today he started saying “Absolutely” from Papa Puffin on Puffin Rock. He was playing Musyc and said “That is amazing.” Then “They’re all static. I like control.” He wanted carrots, but the round pieces were too big. So I cut them in quadrants and he had fun putting them back in circles. He then asked for Puffin Rock stories, so we sat in the reading area and I made up two: Flynn saving May and Oona when they are trapped in a cave, Baba learning to swim.

We got ready to go and left around 11. On the train, I sat in the middle seat. He was to my right, and a man was to my left. August sort of stood and looked over me and past the guy and was talking about the map. He then was trying to talk to the guy, and at one point I think touched him. He called to him, saying “Hey, grown up.” A bit later he did a gentle “Chomp” with his hand to the guy standing next to him on the other side.

We stopped and got a sandwich and pineapple. He wanted to go do sidewalk chalk, so we walked over there. He did sidewalk chalk, using the broom to blend it. It was a bit windy, so when he swept the chalk dust blew around. He liked that and called it ‘mist’. He was getting cold, so wanted his gloves on. Drew a little in his gloves, then took them off. He looked in one, and managed to get it back on his hand, but needed help with the fingers. We talked about going inside, but he didn’t want the children’s museum. He liked the idea of the conservatory though. We wandered through the playground in that direction, and he wanted to climb up the climbing wall with a rope on it. Did that without any help, then played around on the platform, singing and looking down on me.

From there we walked to the conservatory. He was doing much of the walking today. We went in and went upstairs. Looked around a bit, and sat on a ledge by one of the little gardens and ate our lunch. Looked around a bit more, at the fish and little fountain, and off the balcony over the banana trees, and wanted to go down to that area. He wanted to be changed first though, and we never made it back.

Went to our usual bathroom between there and the theater. Changed him, and then he actually wanted to try the ‘stand up’ toilet, the urinal. This is the primary one that he has been afraid of, and covers up his eyes for. So we did that, and headed outside.

Out in the theater he wandered around and stuffed leaves and needles down the holes for the drains. I’m not sure how he started it, but he was talking about being and adult. I said he didn’t need to hurry, and that it was fun to be a kid. He argued he was an adult already. I said “You want to be a kid.” Him: “No.” Me: “It’s fun to be a kid.” Him: “It’s not.” We would repeat this argument (and I’d get it on video) a few minutes later.

Eventually he agreed he wanted to go to the children’s museum, perhaps to read on the iPad. He got behind me and pushed me from behind across the theater. Going down the hill he walked to my side, holding on to the backpack like it was my hand. In front of the coffee shop there was some long grass. He pulled off a dead blade and played with it. We then stopped by a soft ground cover plant and he picked a bit of that. We spotted a couple cats as well. He really wanted to know what the plant was, so I took some photos and a video of him asking what it was. Played there a few more minutes, then headed on to the children’s museum.

At some point, I asked if he was tired, and he said something like “I’m not sleeping. I’m being adult.”

At the children’s museum we played on the first floor. Actually, he had talked about writing out one of the Korean songs we heard when we got there. As we walked in, two women decided to push their strollers out of the entrance doors, even though I was through the first set of doors and opening the second. As they literally shoved past me (or around, as I didn’t move) I muttered 나가는곳, which means ‘way out’, referring to the exit doors which were a few feet to their left.

Anyway, once we were in August headed straight back to the zoetrope, where there are long strips of paper. He remembered they were there, although I don’t think he’s written on paper there since he was first pretending to write cursive, and that was quite awhile ago. He started writing on the paper, and wrote 나가는곳, which I had no idea he knew how to spell. But we’ve seen it a lot on signs, and it shows just how phonetic Korean is (also, he wasn’t entirely sure about the last character, which makes sense since there are multiple options for the final sound there – he guessed right on the paper, but a few minutes later asked for clarification when he wrote it on the chalkboard).

He then headed to the room with the static shapes and cotton ball things, and played with both. He then walked around with the static shapes and tried sticking them on things. We looked in the big kaleidoscope and then went and drummed in the drumming room.

He wanted to be changed again, so we went up and changed him, then he went and used the toilet again. We then went to the little kids area. He went up and played in the kitchen area for a bit. At one point he said “I have an idea” and went and grabbed a plastic fruit and threw it at a girl. Again, class yesterday had consisted of throwing plastic things at other kids for several minutes. I asked him to say sorry. He resisted for awhile, and went and stood on the stairs, looking through the clear wall. Then he said “Sorry. Sorry.” We then headed downstairs to the puzzle area. But we got there to find that several kids had trashed that area, and we literally couldn’t find all the pieces to something to play with. So he kind of played around, climbing on the wall thing, playing with a ball, etc. and I started cleaning up. I noticed after a couple minutes at least one of the moms also cleaning stuff up. August was then playing with one of the worms from the central apple, and found he could crawl through some of the holes in the walls around the apple. He crawled back and forth between those. He then rode one of the little bee car things around for a couple minutes before we left.

Or were going to leave, but then he found a green plastic cup from the upstairs area sitting on the desk. He decided to put it on his foot. That took some rolling around on the floor to accomplish, then he walked around with it on his foot. He then put it on his hand for awhile. We took it up to the kitchen before leaving.

Out in the overpass area he lay down on the floor and stuck his legs up against the glass. Funny at first, but the
n he started kicking the glass. And he didn’t want to stop. Eventually forced him away from there, and he wandered around, testing the rules on what I would and would not let him kick. So kicking the changing table was okay, the other windows were a no, etc. I think I said something about heading home, and he sort of led me to the changing room and directed me in and said “Go in here and I’ll think about it.”

Before we left the children’s museum, I wanted to go figure out where the exhibit on children’s books was (a sign said the basement lobby). We went down and figured out where it was, and said we’d go look next time we were there. We played with the ’empathy’ heads, which rotate and show different emotions. The kid/adult debate came up again, and I said he needs to enjoy being a kid while he is one. And he replied with the very, very good question: “How come you can’t be a kid, an adult, back to a kid about?”

On our way up the ramp, we spotted two cats – I think a mom and a big kitten – in the center courtyard (which, by the way, I have never ever seen anyone in). We watched them, and one, the mom, went to the bathroom in the grass and buried it. There is a page in Everyone Poops about how some animals (cats and armadillos) clean up after themselves, but August had never seen it. So that was pretty exciting. Then, the smaller cat hunkered down and pounced at the bigger one – also something new. As we walked out, I talked about those pages from Everyone Poops and how some animals just poop anywhere – the mere mention of this sent August into hysterics. Doubly so when I then acted like a cow calmly saying “Oh look, there’s more poop I just left on the ground.”

We got outside. Sort of. He wanted to play in the doorway. Outside, he then fought me when I tried to carry him away and laid on the cold ground. Got him up and he just wandered around in front of the children’s museum for awhile, then was jumping around. He pulled up one pant leg, jumped around some more, and showed me what he had done. Finally, he was ready to head home.

We were running late, and got home at 5:30. As we walked through the park he was correctly singing/counting the rhythm of Are You Sleeping. But then he got slower and slower and trailed off, and was then falling asleep in the elevator. Got home and Carly kept him awake as he nursed, then he rebounded to watch Puffin Rock. Carly had stopped at the store, and got August batteries on my request – August had wanted to use his flashlight earlier but it was going dead. So he and I put the new batteries in. He thanked her by shining it in her eyes.

He had some soup for dinner. Carly got his bath ready and I took him in. He took a long, long bath, playing in the water after I washed him. He needed to get out at one point to sit on the toilet. While on it I had some music playing and he was sort of dancing on the toilet. He wanted to get the letters and numbers out, and I made him agree to help put them away when he was done. But then when he was ready to get out he didn’t want to help. I reminded him of his promise and he said “Okay” and got back in the bath and helped.

Naked, he played on the back of the couch a bit. Then I coaxed him into the bedroom by saying we could make a fox cave. Had fun with that, and hiding from mama. She started reading part of a book at one point, with him reading along from the ‘cave’. But he got hungry. Said “What’s a dinner food?” “I want a little bit of banana bread.” He had some strawberries to eat and went back to bed and was asleep by 8:20.

Word of the day was definitely ‘absolutely’, as he was saying it all day. He kept asking me what it meant, and I think he understood by the end of the day.

 

As we got home: 

Waking up: 

Fox shirt: 

Climbing: 

On the structure: 

Lunch. Bread stuck on his teeth: 

Pushing me: 

Children’s Museum. Writing 나가는곳: 

Shapes: 

Feet on the glass: 

Through the hole: 

Cup foot: 

Falling asleep: 

Bath. Making a sculpture: 

On the couch: 

8:15. He was laying on the floor of the parlor. When the announcement thing went off he sang along. After five minutes I went in and he held his hand in front of his face and said “No”. But then came out a minute later and asked for strawberries. We had strawberries and banana bread for breakfast (last of each), then he played with Musyc. Actually, first he got a bit upset when he saw my typing and wanted to change all the punctuation and I wouldn’t let him. After awhile he wanted to watch Puffin Rock. He did that and I took a shower. When I finished, I heard him singing to himself. I came out to find that he had found one of his small notebooks and was coloring in it. A bit later he wanted to go pee on the toilet. He also wanted his shirt off. When he was done, I realized he was just wearing one sock. We started looking for it, then suddenly he ran to the iPad saying “It’s under the iPad!” He had apparently put it there during my shower.

We tried a couple of new apps, including a new one called Sound Rebound that is similar to Musyc. He liked that one, and that the name rhymed, but it kept crashing, so he ended up back in Musyc for awhile, before doing some art in Paper. He used the toilet, but tripped coming out of the bathroom. He didn’t want my help getting up, instead telling me “Go somewhere else.” Still a bit upset from that, I think, he said “Want to meet mama home.” That is, he wanted to go to APIS and walk home with her again. Got really sad when I said next week. Went and opened the door, and when I came to him he pushed me all the way into the parlor. A little more of that, then wanted some alone time. But that just lasted a minute. We sat on the reading area and read Itsy Bitsy Spider, Opposites, then sang from the songbook.

He used the toilet again, then I was getting him dressed. He was immediately concerned about the size of the pants and whether they would be too tight: “I look at the size…I said it was a hundred. Too tight. Okay, I’ll try it…it’s uncomfortable…I need a bigger one…like the fox ones.” I had mentioned getting him the fox shirt/pants at Home Plus today. Finally, before we left he was getting a little wild in his playing, and play hitting a lot.

We headed to class, stopping at the ATM on the way. He did a good job of not pushing the buttons or getting upset while I used it. He was walking, and as I walked away from the ATM he said “I just have to do two things” or something to that effect, pushed a couple of buttons, then came along. Got to class right as it was starting. It was about basketball today. Lots of balls and hoops. After the usual beginning stuff, during which August walked around, counting on his fingers to the music, the teacher poured out a large bag of balls and their was a ball fight. August’s favorite target turned out to be the mom of the boy next to us. He would also throw another ball at her later. Funny, but she was sitting down, and most of his throws were straight towards her head. Then a lot of bouncing balls, and putting them through hoops. There was a big bouncing surface, and August spent a lot of time jumping off of it, onto the floor. Then actual trampolines, and August liked jumping on that with the other kids, but held my hand the whole time. When he got bored of whatever the current activity was, he would go over to the walking path from the start of class, which was on its side at the front of class, and try to climb it.

At the end of class, after he got his treat and handstamps, he didn’t want to say thank you or the like to the teacher, saying “I don’t want to say those words.” I pressed him a bit, and instead he ran across the room and loudly said “kamsamnida” to another random parent. While we were out in the hallway, getting ready to leave, another parent handed out those round almond roca ball things. So August got to eat that. Needless to say, he really liked it.

We headed downstairs. They display with the fox shirt (which we were calling the ‘Flynn shirt’ after the fox on Puffin Rock) wasn’t by the front door. So we went to the first basement to look for it. He marveled at the Christmas stuff again, wondering why it was there, then we found the little shop by the down walkway that had the clothes. August was happy to get the shirt, but in a hurry to get going as he was hungry. Paid, then went to the stroller. August wanted to push it onto the walkway on his own, and kept getting upset if I touched the stroller. He kept going to the front to adjust the direction, to the back to push, etc. All was going well until I let him actually push it onto the walkway. He was doing really well, but of course once it got on the walkway and before I could grab it, it slipped out of his hands and started rolling. Only rolled a couple feet before it hit the side. I jumped past him and grabbed it before it tipped over. August was a little traumatized by it, so I picked him up. He was also getting a bit tired, not to mention hungry, so a slightly difficult shopping trip. But we got kimbap, then he got several samples, mainly of the yogurt drinks. He was walking up to the women and waiting to see what they would give him. Then he would make him ‘mmm’ yummy noises as he drank it. We paid, using the self checkout. I was teaching him how to scan items, but then he saw the produce weighing machine, which he really, really wanted to play with. Understandable, as it has about 80 buttons on it, including both alphabets. Had to drag him away from that. As I put him in the stroller at the entrance to the store, I asked if he was sleepy. He said “A little sleepy. I suppose.”

We got home and ate our kimbap and leftover apple and orange from yesterday. We then played on the piano for awhile. He took the top off and the keys out, then wanted to a wipe to clean out the dust. Did that on his own, then went and threw the wipe away. I mentioned getting Mama Juice later, but he said “I don’t want Mama Juice. I’m too full.” Playing around, he recited the line from Puffin Rock “Sounds to me like you saw an octopus.” After awhile, his opinion on juice changed, as he said “I don’t want Mama Juice. I want Juicy Juice.” When I asked what kind he wanted, he again said we should go look at the menu.

We headed out in the stroller. In the store I held him up to see the menu. He spent a good minute studying the options, and decided on ‘Mixed Berry’ (in Korean). He looked at the coffee menu, and told me to get a latte (in Korean), but I went with a caramel latte over his objections.

August had mentioned a couple more times meeting Carly at work and walking home with her. I suggested as a compromise meeting her part way, and he agreed to that. So I messaged Carly to see if that would work, and it would. So we got walking, him going ‘Mmm’ as he drank his juice.

We got to 나팔꽃어린이공원, the park in the space between where the train tracks meet south of Wolgye Station. We’ve been there a couple times before, but he’s never played on the big play structure. Before he got out, he said “Hey dada…make the stroller go fast.” So we raced around a bit, then he wanted to play in the sand. He had the hiccups. That doesn’t happen much anymore. He used the big shovel we have to dig up sand and put it on the table, then had me build a sand castle of sorts with the shovel. He wanted to wash his hands, but was bothered that the water was off. We were on our way to the play structure when Carly showed up. August was of course excited by this, and kept wanting to know why she was there.

He asked why she was wearing gloves, then wanted his own gloves on. But then he took them off, saying they were loose. He chased her around, doing a chomp attack. He climbed up the rather steep curved climbing wall on his own, then Carly went up and they walked across the shaky bridge together, then came down the slide together. August then pushed her on the turning thing. I had to change him on the bench in the cold. Warned him the wipes were going to be cold, which h
e didn’t like the idea of. Then I realized we could just warm them with our hands for a few seconds and they were fine. Changed him and we walked home. On the way home he took his shoes off, and was also looking cold. Tried to convince him to put the cover down, but he said “I’m afraid of the cover.” He was also sleepy, so we gave in and let him be a bit cold.

Got home and Carly made nachos for dinner. He had taken all his clothes off and was on the toilet when Wendy showed up to borrow our vacuum cleaner. I held him, and he was initially excited about someone at the door, but then grew shy.

We realized we were low on milk, and I wanted more strawberries, so I headed to the store. When I came back, Carly was trying to get him in the bath, but he really didn’t want to go. SHe gave him a very quick bath, then headed to the bedroom. He just kept repeating “No. No. No mama.” as she put on his pajamas. He was asleep at 7:30.

Class: 

Park: 

Alone time. Hiding from me like I was a urinal: 

Class: 

In the basket: 

Jumping: 

Home. Cleaning the piano: 

Drinking from the bottle: 

Juicy Juice: 

Hiccups: 

Shovel: 

Shaky bridge with mama: 

Pushing mama on the circle: 

Right at 8. Let me hold him for a minute, then wanted down and wanted me to leave the parlor. After a minute he came out and cuddled next to me on the couch, then laid down. We then read the monkey book and August ate a banana. He then played Musyc, and then we got some banana bread for breakfast. He opened the songbook on the ipad, and found the ABC-DEF-GHI song from Sesame Street. He asked about it, so I found a video of it and we watched that.

He wanted rhyming words, and I came up with this little rhyme,

He was sick, my little boy Zinn

So I gave him some medicine

To his stomach it went in,

Then August got well again

We talked about our plans for the day, and he said he wanted to go to work. Told him I’d look into it. He was interested in playdough for a second, but then started singing to the songbook. He was curious about the ABC-DEF-GHI song, so I pulled up the video of it. It is from Sesame Street, and Big Bird thinks the alphabet is one big long word. I think I only tried to show August one episode of Sesame Street before, and this was it. Anyway, he then wanted to play the notes on the piano, so we went to the piano and I played the melody a bit. We ended up playing around on the piano, and he sang along with nonsense words as I played Are You Sleeping and Th Ants Go Marching. We the went to the paper, where he wanted to learn to draw a heart. “Hey dada, let’s practice a heart together.”

We did that, then headed out at 10:30 in backpack. Pushing the stroller. His one opportunity to ride in Logan and Rosie’s stroller, but he didn’t want to make things easy on me. Derek said that Logan had had a fever the previous night, so had stayed home but was doing fine. So we were going over to hang out for awhile in addition to returning their stroller. As we neared the bridge, August was singing the Big Numbers song, and sang the 70s all out of order. He then said to himself “you did it mixed up. What you do it mixed up about?”

We got to Logan’s at 11. Logan dumped out his big Lego blocks and we played with those. Derek got out the playdough and showed August how to use one of the Lego blocks to make squares. August liked this and made about 10, making a little path. He then used one block as sort of an ice cream cone and squished the squares all on top and was quite proud of himself: “squishing it up is very fun.”

Derek heated us up some pizza for lunch, and asked August what kind of pizza he wanted. He said “I want noodle pizza.” He got very excited about noodle pizza, which Derek of course didn’t have. But I told him we could maybe get some this weekend. He was happy with cheese pizza. Derek put on Beat Bugs, and Logan and August watched some of that. Derek gave August a pack of gummi worms, and August kept asking “What gummy worms is?” That is, what is in them. We ate a couple then, and saved the rest for later. At one point August laid down on the floor. I asked what he was doing and he said “I’m just lying down to make sure I’m full.” August and Logan played a little hide and seek behind the curtain, then Jill got home. It was time for Logan’s nap, so we headed out. I had changed August and he used the toilet there.

But we got outside and I went to put him in the backpack and he said “There’s poop”. So I changed him again right outside. We walked down to the main road. August singing. I asked if he wanted to go to a park a minute away, or a farther one. He chose farther. On our way we saw the library across the street and I asked if he wanted to go there, and he got excited about reading books. We went in, found an English book we never read, then found the Patricelli book Bye Bye Diapers in Korean. We read that, which he of course really liked, and translated a lot of words. August needed to use the bathroom but didn’t make it, so changed his diaper in their little kids bathroom, then he did sit on it and pee.

We got walking, and made it to the bridge over the stream by APIS when I realized he was definitely falling asleep. I turned around and walked back to the Nous Coffee place we had never been to. August actually took quite some time before his eyes closed, so walked around a couple of streets we hadn’t been on before. He fell asleep and slept from 2:17 to 3:42.

We walked towards APIS. August was saying “Mama’s hiding. We got to find her…” We had planned to show up at 4:25, but August didn’t want to stop at a park. Asked Carly, and she said 4:15 would be okay. I convinced him to stop at the park across the street by saying we could finish the gummi bears. He made silly faces as he finished them, then we walked to her classroom, about 4:20. We found Megan outside and she said hi. I asked him if he wanted to say hi back and he said “I’m too busy.”

In her classroom he did some typing, then played with a glue stick for the first time. I went down to the bathroom and he wanted to go as well. He went first – the third place outside the house that he peed today. I let him stand by the door to the bathroom while I went. The door was between us, so I couldn’t see him. I asked “You still there?” and he replied “I’m still here.”

We left about 5:20. We stopped by Derek and Jill’s to pick up the bike stroller thing we are buying from them. As we walked, August had first been staring up at the moon, then as it got even darker he was asking about the color of the sky. A dark periwinkle was what we came up with, but he said “What color is it? The sky. Let’s think about the colors on dada’s iPad.”

We were home at 6. He had been fine, but suddenly wanted out in the elevator, and got upset when I wouldn’t let him out until we were in the apartment. They nursed, and read Moo Baa La La La from the bag of books that Jill had also given us. Carly fed him some soup and letter pasta, but he got a hair in his mouth and really responded badly to that, throwing up. He was typing on Carly’s computer and I taught him about bulleted and numbered lists. They watched some Vivian and Colin videos, then he played with Musyc. He was making dozens of shapes and setting them all to ‘static’ so they weren’t moving. He was asking why he was doing it, and I said something about him liking to control them, and I also said it was a cool piece of art. He said “What you like having control about?” “What’s it a cool piece of art about?”

He ate a few bites of soup, then later some strawberries and grapes and watched more Puffin Rock. Sat on the toilet for a long time. I gave him a bath, and he played with soap on his hands for a long time, then was just sitting in the water and playing with it. Got through washing his hair without too much whining. Nursed, then draw on the paper. On the back is a big grid of squares. August started drawing in it, and said it was his “Chinese list”. Spent a long time just drawing zigzag and scribble lines in red. Now past 9:30 so we headed to bed. Read and sang the new Itsy Bitsy Spider book, then read Everyone Poops a few times. He really likes to pretend to read it really fast. He wanted to use the toilet, so Carly took him. He asked “Why this toilet cold but dada’s toilet warm about?” Pretty sure he’s just sat on mine that one time.

I left then 10:15 but be was out 10 or 15 minutes later. I let him ‘read’ from the song book. He saying Are You Sleeping Singing, singing all the actual words, and was also pretending to count it out, singing in random 1 2 3s. He rubbed his eyes and was yawning, so asked if he was ready for bed. He said “I want milk first then I will go.” Did that, then we went back in together at 10:50. He nursed, but was causing problems – pinching or grabbing or something. I agreed to tell him Puffin Rock stories. He lay on the floor and I hung over the side and whispered two stories to him. One was about Oona, Baba, May, and Mossy playing hide and seek. Oona found Mossy and Baba right away but couldn’t find May because she can hide so well. The second was a repeat of the fishing story from a cou
ple days ago. He then wanted to nurse again, but Carly needed to sleep. He agreed to try falling asleep on the carpet. So he and I went out to the parlor for another 15 minutes or so. I sang to him as we laid on the floor. He then went back to mama. He was poking and hitting her, wanting to nurse. I got him to apologize to her and she tried one more time. But a few minutes later he was kicking the wall, then swinging and kicking her. He said “You’re kicking mama.” I laid between them for a few minutes, then we went back in the parlor. He was rolling around kicking the ground and being wild, but calmly so. It was like he had too much energy. We never did play outside, so maybe he didn’t get enough exercise today.

He laid down by the door when I wouldn’t let him leave. He was clearly sad, and said “Sorry”. I said “For what?” And he said “I don’t know.” I told him one more Puffin Rock story, in which Silkie is upset when she can’t go to the center of the island and play with the other animals, but later she can swim to Bernadette’s island and save her. August then wanted the toilet, so went on mine. “I’ll do one more story…It’s about…Beat Bugs.” But then he started singing. After a couple minutes he suddenly took his pants off and said “I want to take my pants off. I want to be naked.” Finally, a bit after midnight he was looking exhausted. I went to get him a new diaper. He laid on the reading area and I put that and his pajamas back on. We had a little talk where I said if he went back in to Mama he had to be nice and silent, etc. He kept saying “Yeah” to each thing. We went in at 12:12 and by 12:15 he was asleep.

 

Logan’s house. Making squares: 

Squished together: 

Watching Beat Bugs: 

Making sure he is full: 

Library: 

After his nap. Cold in the backpack: 

Being silly while he eats gummi worms: 

Home. Making them static: 

Watching: 

Bath: 

Washing: 

Cute: 

Chinese list: 

Reading notes:

Hiding in the closet: 

Our weekly visit to Children’s Grand Park

8:26…Came out and looked around and whispered “Nursing…find mama.” When I told him she was at work he threw himself down on the carpet and needed some alone time (I asked and he said ‘yeah’). Told him I’d be out on the couch. He came out after a few minutes and he wanted iBooks. Opened that and he wanted the music book. We counted some rhythms and he made up some songs. Taught him whole and half rests and ties. And he was curious about chords. We then used YouTube to pull up videos of some of the songs: “I Love Trash”, the Flintstones theme song, something from Mary Poppins, and, briefly, a cringeworthy religious song.

He then said he needed to pee on the toilet: perhaps the first time he’s done so with his diaper still on.

We got banana bread for breakfast, and he wanted to see images of electric eels. So pulled those up on his iPad. Then watched Puffin Rock and I took a shower. Started getting ready to go and he had some peanut butter. We made towers with Duplos and knocked them down and pretended to be sad. A few times through the morning he did his Jaws music alligator attacks. He then pooped on the toilet. He has the whole sequence down – closing the toilet, flushing, then washing his hands. He started playing with the pieces of the train track. He came out and got me, as I was getting ready to go, and wanted me to see his shape. He said (quoting Puffin Rock, I think) of his own shape: “it’s wonderful…it’s brilliant.” Then “Hey dada. Crush it and I’ll be sad”

He then wanted to sit and have me tell Puffin Rock stories. I told 3:

– Oona and Momma Puffin catching fish. Oona struggles, then finally catches 3. On the way home, the great full knocks two out and seagulls get them. It knocks the third out, but Momma Puffin hits the great full before it can grab it. She grabs the fish and gives it to Oona. Hey fly home and Oona feeds it to Baba.

– Baba in the kelp forest gets squirted by an octopus. Turns his feathers black.

– baby seagull tried to fly. Fell on sand. Bernie found. Seals helped to attract the other seagulls.

He got ahold of my phone and added a bunch of punctuation to stuff I’d already written. Then pooped on the toilet again.

Then, we spent several minutes on the toy piano. I introduced the terms ‘scale’, ‘chord’, and ‘arpeggio’ to him and he was intrigued by all that. He made a short descending line that he repeated a few times.

Getting out the door was a bit of a struggle. So many clothes to get on. Two pairs of pants, but then he said they were too tight. Took the outer layer off and put different pants on instead. Tried his bigger shoes, which he was intrigued by, but then he wanted his green ones back on. And he starts to get warm so quickly once in the backpack that I have to rush out the door.

On the subway down I introduced him to the Notion music notation app which I had just bought. It allows you to write musical notation by playing on a piano keyboard. He was very intrigued by that. At Children’s Grand Park we grabbed some smoky eggs and a sandwich to go with what we already had for lunch, then walked to the cafeteria in the children’s museum and ate lunch. He kept quoting Mossy from Puffin Rock: “Oh no! Where’s my pile of berries?”

He had pooped, so I changed him. I mentioned that this would be a good place for him to start using the bathrooms, and he immediately wanted to go pee on the toilet. So we went and did that. He liked the little toilet, and liked flushing it. He was covering his eyes to the other toilets and urinals though, so after he went, I held him and we flushed one of every other kind of toilet/urinal in the bathroom to show him they weren’t that loud. He still covered his eyes on later trips in, but I don’t think he was as concerned.

He walked down the main ramp to the second floor and played in the space area: the running thing, the circles that light up, etc. He was intrigued by a thing where you dance along to a alien on a screen. He watched other kids doing it for a few minutes, then just watched it for a couple minutes on his own. Just barely started to copy the alien a bit himself when he decided he was done.

Went from there to the construction area where he operated the crane for a bit. Then there is an electric chalkboard thing that we’ve never played with. The color changes as you write, and then eventually it fades away. He colored on that for a few minutes. He played with the floor tiles for a second. Thought he would get really into that like he did last time he played with them, but he did not. He kept quoting another Mossy line: “Now you see me, now you don’t.”

He walked up the other ramp to the third floor and played in the water area. Played in the big kid area, with the little water gate things. Turned a crank several times that he wouldn’t have been able to do before.

Then said he needed to go to the bathroom. Peed and did the whole routine, we got out of the bathroom, and he said he wanted to do it again. So back in we went.

Then to the little kid area. Pretty much went straight upstairs. He wanted to put something in the oven but kids were in the way. So spent most of his time mixing teas and having us sip them. He came up with some interesting tea varieties: “This is Mongolia tea. It has sugar in it.” “Cocoa very hot tea…it has salt in it.” “And this tea is BOY tea.” On our way out he went down the slide. Then got distracted by the puzzle area. He knocked one puzzle down, but then didn’t want to help clean up. He told me to do it, as he was playing with a ball. Made him sit on my lap until I was done, and got him to help a little.

We were talking about what we were doing next. I was already assuming he wasn’t going to take a nap, and I had told him we could go to a coffee shop. Now he said “I want to go to the coffee shop…I don’t want to fall asleep.” I told him he didn’t have to and outlined what I had planned. He excited responded with “That’s a good idea!” Finally, he rolled a ball back and forth with a woman several times before we left. We did the toilet routine one more time, then played around with a water machine before heading out.

We walked to the coffee shop. I mentioned I was going to the downstairs one today. He wanted the upstairs one instead. I was carrying him in my arms and said we could go upstairs if he walked up the stairs. He said “No. Dada carry you.” So we went downstairs. We got a strawberry smoothie. He played more with the Notion music notation app and I did a little reading.

We headed out about 4. In the backpack. Walked out the back entrance and to Daiso. Carly wanted a new cutting board as ours is getting kind of gross. Found the cutting boards. August insisted on wood. He was starting to get warm in the backpack and wanted to get out to choose one for mama. He looked through them, and chose a bamboo one. He walked down all the stairs, we paid, and went into the subway station. Remarkably, the escalator in the entrance they were still building when we left in June is now open – finished in a matter of months, unlike the one at the other end of the park that took two years.

Crowded subways. He stood the one stop to Gunja, we transferred, and he stood a few stops more until a seat opened up. We snacked on crackers and only got the iPad out for the last few stops.

At Hagye I asked him how he’d been on the walk to Daiso, as we hadn’t put his second pair of pants back on. He told me he wanted a second pair on now. So we put those on and got him in the backpack. As we did that, the cleaning woman knocked over the cup holder by the bending machine. August exclaimed “Wow. That is pretty loud!”

We were home at 5:40. Surprised to find that we had beaten Carly. When she arrived a minute later she used the doorbell thing, which August found really exciting. First time we’d been on the answering end of that one. They nursed and he ate alphabet pasta and t
hen a couple bites of my soup.

He and I figured out a lot more of the Notion app, and he composed one called “Mama” that he then played for her. We did some play dough mixing. Carly gave him a bath. We read the monkey book. And before bed I made sure to brush his teeth. He’s been resisting it again, so didn’t do a good job this morning. He was asleep at 8:30. Carly had to go in once about an hour later as he woke up.

Subway map: 

Dancing with the alien. Sort of: https://youtu.be/4_rLk_2exsc

Crane operator: 

Spinning thing: 

Turning thing: https://youtu.be/q_H8hBv8et4

Mixing teas: 

The Mama song: 

Painting

His brilliant shape

Hiding for no apparent reason

Flushing the little toilet

Hiding from the toilets

Cutting board for mama

Banana bread and electric eels: 

His marvelous shape: 

Hiding from something: 

Composing: 

On the toilet: 

Water area: 

Flushing the toilet: 

Hiding from the urinal: 

Climbing in the kitchen area: 

Cutting board for mama: 

He walked out at 7:30. A few minutes earlier I had heard him making noises – like long moans. He whispered something about mama and I had to tell him she was at work. He went in and laid down on the reading area and didn’t want me to come in. I went back to the couch. He came out to me after 5 minutes. We watched Puffin Rock and had Cheerios for breakfast. Took off his pants, then he was being a froggy and spinning in circles on his hands and his knees: “You were going very fast.” I took a shower, then we made art in Paper and Art Maker.He pooped twice on big toilet. Then I put his diaper on as we got going and he pooped a third time. Changed him, and we headed out of the house a little after 10.

On the train down he didn’t request iPad or food at all. Just stood, leaning against my leg and watched and chatted for several stops, did some singing, watched the river, etc. He was drawing in the air with his finger and said “I drew a tremble clef.” He said his back itched at one point. He then got out Smokey, and played with Smokey the last few stops.

We stopped at the little store in Seoul Grand Park Station and got some lunch: kimbap and a strawberry yogurt. We walked out to find things looking very hazy. First, we smelled burning leaves, and he asked about that smell. Then, as we walked by the construction site, as they redo the long walkway to the park, he said he smelled the dirt. You could.

He had said he wanted to see the giraffes. I hadn’t thought about the fact that they might not be outside anymore. So we saw flamingoes and then ate in our usual spot, but no giraffes to see. It was theoretically 50 degrees, but felt cold, and he said he was cold, so we put his sweatshirt on under his coat. He played around on the bench a little, but not as much as on previous trips. He had chosen to get the zoo map in Japanese today, so we also looked at that.

When done, we walked to the changing room and changed him. Poop #4 of the day. He wanted to see animals, so took him to a platform to put him in the backpack. As I was doing that he said “I’m a little sleepy”. We walked and saw the Barbary sheep (바바리양) and ostriches, and then made our way up to the camels. We’ve never gotten great views of the camels, but now they were out on the grass, up close. We saw both one-hump and two-hump camels. Watched them for a few minutes. He heard a bird noise and wanted to go investigate. It took us down to the Stork Village area. It was a black-crowned crane. He got down and we had a Larabar. He played around a bit and looked at the ducks. Oh, and as we looked at the birds he had slipped a shoe off, so had to put that back on before he walked around.

He wanted to go to the big water bird exhibit. We walked around it to the entrance, but there was a rope and sign saying it was closed. I translated it and it said it was to prevent avian flu. He went under the rope and played between the rope and the actual entrance. He kept wanting me to come with him. I think he was quite frustrated that we couldn’t go in. When I said he’d played there enough he got upset and tried crawling on the ground. Picked him up, and walked to a bench. Got him in the backpack and consoled him by saying we could go check on the Australian Pavilion. We walked towards it, and he was starting to doze off. He was awake enough though that when we walked by the kangaroos and they were hopping around he said “What’s that?” I don’t think he’s seen a kangaroo hop. I’ve caught them hopping a couple times for very brief moments. Maybe because it was cooler, they were more active, and we watched them for a few minutes.

Started walking again, and saw that the actual Australian Pavilion building was open. However, he was really falling asleep now, so I figured we’d go after his nap. But then he fell asleep. And kept sleeping and sleeping. From 2:10 to about 4:05 after I picked up the backpack and started walking towards the exit. No time for more animals. We did stop to watch the flamingoes for a minute as he woke up. One was doing what we called ‘flamingo yoga’, stretching its leg back.

A long journey home. He ate some apple in the station, then did art much of the way home, but also played the Simple Machines app for awhile. We caught an 1144 bus right away in Changdong, and got home right after 6. It is a two hour trip home. Carly asked if he had fun today, and he said “No…little fun.”

They nursed and hung out together, then he and I read a few stories in The Cat on the Mat is Flat and Would You Feed It to the Monkey? We had read a bit of the former before, but he seemed to get it more this time and found the first couple stories really funny.

I then remembered that we had talked about making banana bread. He had requested it for breakfast and I told him we could make it this evening. Carly had been nice enough to stop at the store on her way home and get bananas, strawberries, and bread for us. He helped me through the entire process. I grated carrots to put in this one, and he started eating the shredded carrots, almost as fast as I could grate. He was amazed to find that he liked carrots. Kept making ‘Mmm’ noises and saying “You like carrots now.” At one point he even talked about “Yesterday you did not like carrots.”

He had his spatula at the end, then Carly gave him a bath. Back out, he wanted more carrot. Started with giving him small chunks, and he ate those. Then Carly cut carrot rounds and he was liked those too. We told him it was another sign that he was becoming a big kid: liking crunchy foods. He said it looked like money: “Money…I’m eating the money…It’s carrot coins…It’s a D moon.”

He had told Carly he wanted the ‘notebook’ earlier. Now he asked me. Took us a minute to figure out that he meant the songbook on the iPad with all the musical notes in it. He was very excited when I figure it out. We did a little counting/singing of real songs, but mainly he pretended. First hew as asking if I knew a song, and when I said no he would then show me how the song went. But then he started making up songs with actual words. I first realized what he was doing when he sang the line “What is the painting about?” a few times. I started recording as he then listed things, like “Dinosaur…” After that song he would then look around the room and think about what to sing about. See the videos below.

It was now close to 10. He wanted some more carrot, then the banana bread beeped and it was done. So we ate a slice of that. August pounced on the crumbs when I took the bread out, and liked eating those. It turned out really well. I declared us the best father-son rice cooker banana bread team in the world.

In bed, as Carly held him, he extended his arm out, reaching towards the kitchen, and joked “I can’t reach it. It’s too far…the banana bread.” I left them at 10:10. He was back out at 10:35. He lay on the carpet then wanted to read and I refused. He started to get really sad, but I told him I could tell him stories. He lay on the pillows on the reading area and I told him three Puffin Rock stories that I made up. After each he asked for another one:

– Oona and Baba having to spend the night in May’s cave to weather a storm. They pretended to be rabbits.

– Oona catching fish for her family for lunch. Attacked by seagulls, she flies into a cave that turns out to be a hedgehog burrow. The hedgehogs defend her by rolling into balls and blocking the cave.

– he wanted another story about storms. So there was a big storm that flooded the rabbit, hedgehog, and shrew burrows. They all gather at the top of the hill until Momma and Dadda Puffin rescue them, flying them back to the puffin burrows one by one.

He went back in at 10:50 and fell asleep.

 

Smokey on the train: 

Disobeying the sign: 

Asleep: 

Can you spot our Christmas lights? 

Toilet: 

Banana bread: 

He was up just before 8. They nursed, then he typed, then we watched Puffin Rock together. Carly made the pancakes for breakfast, and August ate a ton of them. They skyped with Vivian, and August and Vivian sent a little math back and forth, then with Cherie. Carly then hung up the second string of lights. I took a shower, and came out to find August getting upset that he couldn’t climb up on the chair like mama. A couple times during the morning, if he saw me typing on my iPad he would want to come over and type. Did that, then he played with the SoundPrism and Noise music apps. Carly got out the vacuum cleaner, and he spent a long time helping to vacuum.

He asked Carly about the season, and she said ‘late autumn’. He then asked “What if it is morning autumn?” Don’t think that one was an intentional joke, but very cute. He was playing with Smokey, and once again asked what the belt was for. He answered his own question: “His pants fall down like this.” and pulled down his own pants. He threw Smokey around, and at some point we read the Smokey Bear book. He then painted with Carly, and played a little Musyc before taking a nap.

He slept from 1:30 to 2:15ish. He came out and fell back asleep on Carly until about 3:30. He was hungry, and wanted alphabet pasta. He wanted to try it raw, and ate a little handful of it that way before the pasta was cooked. He and I wrote words and musical notes on paper. He was still hungry, so ate some apple. He really rejects the skin nowadays. He wanted melogold, so I peeled one, but then he changed his mind.

Carly was organizing in her closet, and he went in and helped. He kept moving clothes around and saying he was organizing or going to clean them: “I’m very helpful.” “You can have your pajamas in a second but I’m gonna wash it first.” He also kept saying he was going to find things that mama lost. He would look through his drawer of random things in the kitchen and take something to her.

We got ready to go outside and play. Derek was still sick, and they had asked if Jill could bring the two kids over and hang out with us. So we were going outside to play for awhile before they got here.

He peed on the big toilet in Carly’s bathroom. Yesterday he had gone on the one in my bathroom. And he has a new fake word: twuxchwenicalll. For this one he said it has 3 Ls. Finally, before we left I asked what he wanted to do. He said ‘Dragon Park’ and when I asked where it was, he once again said it was by mama’s work. In the spring we’ll have to double back to all the playgrounds by her work and see if one is the dragon playground.

At the park there was a food-related thing going on. Carly went to get a tea from the vending machine. August want around to the left and saw a mouse in the bush. Carly then saw it. He helped Carly get her tea. He then wanted the coins that came out as change: “I need the coins…I want a drink.” Carly said he could get a job and get his own coins, and he liked that idea: “I want to go to work…NOW! Fine.” Of course, this meant he also wanted to go play in Carly’s classroom now. This came up a couple times during the weekend, and I assured him we would go visit again soon.

There was a booth selling food: a rice thing, and a cabbage and meat thing. August wanted some, so we bought it, letting him pay. We went by the playground and ate it. He liked the rice, and said he liked the seaweed in it. He liked the sweet potato from the other dish, but got a couple of bites that were too spicy for him.

We played the nervous game, then he played on the play structure. He did the tube slide several times. He figured out how to get on it on his own, and was sliding himself down. A few times I let him do the last several feet all on his own. He was done with that and playing in the dinosaur footprints when Jill showed up. Logan brought a ball and was throwing it around, then when the swings opened up went on them. August wanted his gloves on, so we put them on, then he went on the swing by himself. Carly pushed him a little. He really hasn’t been interested in swings the last few months. He wanted to go up to the sky, he said, so he sat on Carly’s lap and they did more swinging.

We headed inside. Inside, everyone played in the parlor at first, with blocks and the train and Duplos. Then out to the living room for play dough. August used the play dough knife to cut up the yellow, and said he was making bones. Carly asked how he knew about bones, and I started listing all the ways bones have come up: skeletons at the zoo and aquarium, my arm, playing vet with the animals, all of his ‘What happens if you break…? questions, feeling his own bones, the anatomy app… I didn’t realize there were so many ways. Carly asked what kind of bones they were, and he said ‘jellyfish’. Which is funny, and wrong, but also made sense, since we have talked about jellyfish in regards to bones, only saying they DON’T have bones.

Finally, the last big activity was bubbles in the sink in the bathroom. Logan went in and the two of them played in the sink for 15 minutes or so, spraying bubbles, scooping them up, etc. Previously, August had been careful about not touching them. Logan, however, dives right in to things. August saw this and started dipping his hands and arms in. Of course, August doesn’t like to roll up his sleeves, so they were quickly soaked, and we took off his shirt.

They had eaten the last of the pancakes and strawberries and some other fruit as a snack. It was now time to go, and August wanted to walk out with them. So I carried him down to the elevators and we said goodbye as they got in.

Back in the apartment, he ate some letter pasta for dinner, and shared some soup with me while Carly took a shower. I gave him a bath, washing his hair. He wasn’t thrilled by it, so it was a short bath. We did some typing and then Musyc on my iPad. I had photographed Everyone Poops the last time we were in Uijeongbu, and today I had turned it into a pdf document (it isn’t available to buy digitally). We had read it sometime earlier, and now we read it again. And again. And again. And then he wanted to go on the big toilet again. And he pooped.

We then went into bed for the first time. He was looking tired. We read Goodnight Gorilla. Then he went back in and pooped on the toilet again. A few minutes later he was peeing on the toilet. He was very excited by this development, and his ability to climb up by himself, as Carly had put the stool there and he was now practicing. He kept talking about being a big kid: “What you big kid now about?” He sat on the toilet by himself about a dozen times. He had also requested footsie pajamas. He let Carly put them on all the way before he changed his mind and wanted them off. Out of no where he asked “What APIS stand for?…Where mama works.” He was seeming pretty hyper, but it was already 9:30, so Carly tried for sleep. Awhile later he was insisting on a banana, so Carly had me bring one in and eat it in there. She was keeping him in the room. I sang to him for a bit. She tried again, and I went and got ready for bed. It was 10:30. He was still upset and claiming he wasn’t sleepy. He got up and insisted “Want to fall asleep on the carpet…dada come.” I let him get out the door. As he got to the parlor he celebrated “I was sneaking! Ha ha ha!” After three big laughs – I hadn’t touched him or said anything – he instantly turned to sobbing and he headed back to bed. He climbed up with Carly to nurse and finally fell asleep a few minutes later at 10:45.

 

Photos. Painting: 

Park: 

Playing inside: 

At about 5:30 I awoke to a popping in my neck. And pain. A lot of pain. I’ve had back spasms before, but not one like this for a long time. I was up an hour before I got back to sleep. August was up at 8. I woke up a couple more times after getting back to sleep, but when I woke up close to 9 my neck was much better. Good news, as when it happened I didn’t know if I’d make it to the party. While I was still asleep, August had heard the refrigerator turn on and said to Carly “That’s the refrigerator noise.” And Carly gave him his vitamins. She gave him 6, but he miscounted them as 7 and claimed they were 7. I’m pretty sure he knew he was counting wrong, as that is what he does with me all the time. It started with him wanting me to make a mistake in my counting, so we could say ‘oops’. I asked him how many vitamins mama gave him, and he said 7, then counted to 7 on his fingers. I wasn’t surprised that he could count to 7, or that he used his fingers, but I can’t say I’ve actually seen him use two hands and hold up the fingers to get beyond 5. Huh.

We hurried, doing recycling and getting ready to go, and left a little before 10. We got to Tayo at 10:20 or so. Jill was there with her kids. August first played with the wooden beads. He tried throwing beads at two kids, and we had him say sorry. He asked what ‘sorry’ was in Korean, and Carly didn’t know. So he turned to me and said “hey dada. Teach mama.” It was funny though, because the last time he played with kids he didn’t know was on Thursday for his class, and half of class involved throwing styrofoam balls (snowballs) at each other. So it totally made sense that he would throw the light beads as well.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun the next two hours. Carly and I sort of took turns with him, got coffee drinks, and visited with the other parents (I mainly talked to Sophie, Cora’s mom). August loved all the fried foods: potato balls, wedge fries, and chicken nuggets, mainly. It was either while eating those, or the cupcake later, that he said “This is so yummy.” He also spent time climbing in the structure (once with Carly, once with me), bouncing on one of the trampolines (he and I both pretending to fall down and get hurt), playing with the keyboard baby toy, playing with the bus toys, and coloring on paper. And he was back to those beads multiple times. Oh, and we filled a basket of balls in the ball pit, but never took them up to the cannons.

When it came time for the singing and cupcakes, he was standing next to me. When Jill took out a lighter to light the candles though, he backed away and went and watched from the doorway. I think with all of his questioning about fire extinguishers and Smokey and types of fires that he is kind of nervous of fire now – kind of like the signs on the escalators and subway doors and notices about the gaps as you step off the subways.

He came back in the room when singing was over and the candles were out and there were cupcakes to eat. Not wanting to get messy, he set the cupcake on the table and bent down to bite it with his mouth. He really liked that cupcake (and ate half of mine), and when I asked later what his favorite part was he said “Eating the cupcake.”

As we were thinking about going, he said he was ready to leave, but then said “Im going to do something real quick.” We left just after 1, and thought he might fall asleep on the walk home. He was having too much fun though. Singing at first, but then as we walked along the stream he looked over at it and started doing his erasing motion. I asked what he was erasing and he said “Everything…what happens if you erase everything?” That was quite a philosophical question. After that, we were joking about just erasing the water and how the ducks would be taking a bath and floating in dirt. We stopped to watch ducks float and swim a couple times. He was starting to doze off, it seemed, a bit as we got close to home, but he made it.

He got Smokey out and played with him, joking that Smokey was playing in the cords. I reminded him of going to sleep the night before and he said “You said you wanted to sleep on the carpet.”

He fell asleep from 2:15 or so to 3:38. Walked out and saw me and said “No” and threw his arms out in front of Jim and crouched on the ground. Got back up and walked to Carly and whispered “Come”. Took her to the parlor and he closed the door.

Carly talked about making the pancakes again. He wanted to do it right now. He walked to the corner and said to her “You stay right there. I’m going to get the stool.” He and I ended up writing music notes on paper. He talked about wanting to go to Carly’s classroom again, and got upset when we said we couldn’t go today. He wanted to type on the big screen again. Carly made him alphabet pasta and broccoli and cheese. August said, excitedly, I should add, “Tastes like pufferfish!” He had some snot and said “Oh no. It’s slimy.” He then laid on the floor and Carly asked why. He said he was doing it to make him hungrier.

We all went to the pink building to do grocery shopping. He helped a bit, but was also in a mischievous mood. I wouldn’t let him get a slurpy thing, so he had fun instead by taking one and putting it in the wrong refrigerated box section. He did this twice and said “I messed up two things.” I snuck them back. He was looking at the meat, which is in plastic, but then talking about touching the fishy stuff, which isn’t. He made his way back over there a second time, and I was trying to make him just look. He twisted around and his coat slightly grazed the tail of an eel. I told him this and he took it as a victory: “I touched the fish. I smell like fish now.” He would keep talking about smelling like fish through the evening. I told him he had to be careful, as the puffins and seagulls would think he was a fish. I would then have them chomp on him.

Before heading to the pink building, he and I had been talking about peeing on the toilet, and I had mentioned that he could start trying it when we are out about places – a lot of places have little toilets for kids. He liked this idea, and we were going to try at the pink building. After we got back though, I mentioned we’d forgot to do it, and he got sad.

A little later we ate our fruit: we had gotten a little pineapple, and a thing of strawberries. I cut up the pineapple, and at one point he decided to pick up the fork and use it to feed both me and him pineapple.

Carly made the batter for the pancakes, and he helped. He then came over to me and took over typing on my iPad. We were typing words, and it reminded me that earlier he had said to Carly that “Sky is a ‘k’ word.” Meaning it had a k in it. Then while playing in Pages he figured out how to put charts in a document, and was excited about that.

Carly had cooked some pancakes, and he wanted some more. He asked what it sizzled in the pan, then wanted to write ‘sizzle’ on paper. But he insisted it only had one ‘z’: “You said just one Z. Dada did it wrong. You should try it again.” We moved from that to writing musical notes.

He then asked me to read Snoozers. I got it and sat on the couch to read. He stood a few feet away. But when I got close to the part where the elephant goes SNORE he backed away several more feet.

I got his bath ready, and he got in. “I smell like fish.” He sat down, and made waves to get my had wet. He then gently washed the back of my hand. He got the letters out, and we made sculptures of them. We were then talking about smells, and smells we like. He said he likes fish and seeds. I mentioned lavender and he said “I like snap flowers…and dandelions.” The ‘snap flowers’, I believe, go back to my dad showing him snapdragons in Wenatchee by the river. And he seemed to Remember shooting dandelions with the spray bottle at Children’s Grand Park last spring.

They went in to bed at 9:30. He came back out several minutes later. He said he wanted a banana, but went straight to playing and asked me
to join. So Carly took him back in. But he was out again a few minutes later. He ate a banana (all but a bite) and we read the monkey book and Peppa Swims. Back in again right after 10. After awhile though he had some crying time. I went in, and did some singing. But after a couple minutes he told me to stop and wanted to go out. It was now 10:30. We went out to the reading area and he lay on the floor for a few minutes, just making tired noises. He said he wanted to sleep on the carpet again. After awhile he got up and wanted me to read. I read Mother Goose, and he made some little towers out of Duplos. He then came and cuddle with me and we read much of a Pooh story. He was really rubbing his eyes now. He asked for soy milk and I said no and kept reading. A couple minutes later, at 11:20, he silently got up and walked to the bedroom and got up with Carly and went to sleep.

 

Morning: 

Tayo Cafe: 

Watching the candles from the doorway: 

Smokey: 

Helping make pancakes: 

Letter sculpture: 

Dream Forest, delivering groceries, visiting Carly, and putting him to (almost) sleep

Carly had the middle school lock-in until 9pm tonight, so she wasn’t going to be home until late.

August was up at 6:52. I heard him laughing a lot and maybe talking in his sleep before he came out. He looked around a bit but didn’t say anything. I asked if he wanted alone time and he said yes. But he stood in the hallway for a bit then came and sat on the floor by my feet by the couch. A little later he took over typing on my iPad. I typed some sentences to him and then he started changing font colors, spacing etc. He played at that for several minutes, humming to himself.

We then watched some Puffin Rock and had the last of the banana bread for breakfast. I then got the train set out from under the bed and we had fun putting it together and playing with the train for a bit. We then went in and were writing musical notes on paper. We listened to Basho and Friends through the morning. He was joking around, chomping things and me, then playing with the Duplo alligator. He wanted the zookeeper to take care of the alligator, and the zookeeper fixed a broken tooth and told the alligator it could only chomp on soft things. So August went around finding all the soft things that the alligator could chomp on. We then went back to paper and were writing ñ words and musical notes. He drew a bit on the floor, and said “look what I did.” “Was it an accident?” “No, it was on purpose.”

We were in the bathroom and he wanted to make bubbles in the sink. We did that for quite awhile and had a nice sink full of bubbles. He used the spray bottle on the bubbles and we found we could spray tunnels in the bubbles. We said the bubbles were coral and the tunnels had eels and fish in them. He found a hair in the bubbles and took it out and dropped it on the floor, saying “You go down there.”

He played more Musyc, and discovered on his own that you can attach shapes to other shapes. I took a shower, then we cuddled in the nest together and watched Puffin Rock. We then got ready to go, and he was saying “No one messes with my brother.” A line from Puffin Rock. He was also rocking on the board from the top of the piano. He calls it his skateboard. He used my toothbrush to carefully brush my teeth. Finally, he saw me taking my vitamins and wanted to make shapes from them: something we haven’t done in a long, long time. So I agreed and we spent a few minutes doing that, making a nonagon and others.

We got going around 11. He was singing as we walked south to catch the 100 or 111. He was using clicks of his tongue as notes sometimes. On the bus, as we went through the short tunnel he chanted “tunnel, tunnel…”

At Dream Forest we walked up to GS25 and got some triangle kimbap, a thing of peaches, and a blueberry yogurt. He wanted to sit at the tables outside, in the shade, so we did that and ate for a few minutes. But he was getting cold, so wanted to go inside. We went in and sat on a bench on the second floor and ate some more. He was joking around and started chomping me, but chomped through my jeans and got skin. It hurt and I had to push him away to stop him from doing more. He got sad at this, and sat on the ground and put his head against my leg. I explained what he did, and he said sorry. He rebounded, and got Smokey out of the backpack and was throwing him around. We went up and changed him, then on the way out I stopped in the bathroom to blow my nose. I heard him say “Dada’s snot is glorious.” So funny. I didn’t understand where that came from, then a bit later he said “Bernie’s shell is glorious.” That’s the hermit crab on Puffin Rock and it is a line from the show.

As we had been sitting inside eating lunch, I looked at my phone to find a message from Derek, saying he had food poisoning and was wondering if I could pick up some groceries for him. At the same time I saw an email from Carly saying we could come visit her before the lock-in from 3:30 to 4:30 now – we had planned on 4:30 or 5. So our plans dramatically changed. No nap at Cafe Dream, or going to the children’s art museum show. We headed out the north entrance of the park and walked to the stream. As we waited to cross at the light, two women were next to us. The older woman was blind, and fawned over August, touch his arm and pulling his coat over his hand. We crossed the stream and paused to look at the deer mosaic. As we got close to APIS, there are pictures of animals on the wall, and August was naming them off. A penguin was missing its back half, and August called it an ‘alien bird’. He saw a monkey one and said “maybe a wangsimni.”

We went to the grocery store across from GS25. I made him stay in while I got most of the groceries. He then wanted out to look at the meat. He was doing a good job of not touching it too much, but didn’t like my hovering. He grabbed my finger and moved me several feet away and said “I moved him away. You stay.” I was a little incredulous that he referred to me in the third person. Played there a bit more, then he got two samples of mandu. I mentioned paying for the groceries, and he asked what would happen if we didn’t pay. I mentioned the police coming, and he kept asking about that: “Why the police would come?” We paid and went across the street to the park. On the way over he saw phone booths and pointed at the buttons and said “I want to mess with those.” In the park he said “This is my playground.” I went to put him in the backpack and he said “My poop is stuck.” I’d forgotten he had pooped at the grocery store. I decided to just carry him until we got to Derek’s house and change him there, so I put the groceries in the backpack. We hopped the bus, got of at Wolgye Station, and went to their house.

Dropped off the groceries and changed August. We washed our hands in the sink. August wanted to fill it with bubbles. I made the mistake of giving him a choice between bubbles or going to visit mama. He chose bubbles. Thought it would be the other. Got him out of the bathroom though, but then he wanted to play with the other toys. When we first went in, August asked why it was so quiet in there – he’s never been there without Logan and Rosie there. Derek held him upside down for a bit, then we headed out. Derek also gave him a pack of gummi bears. I’d let August get a apple juice at the store, so he drank that on the way to the bus; saved the gummi bears for some other time.

Took the bus back to APIS and went to Carly’s room. He was just starting to fall asleep as we got up to it. August sat in the back pack for a few minutes, looking around the room. Carly helped him read “The power” and “in defiance of” in the Howard Zinn quote she has on her windows. He got out, and they spent some time writing and drawing together. He made a shape, and Carly turned it into a duck. He was impressed with this, and kept asking “What you draw a duck about?” A bit later, he surprised us by suddenly drawing figure 8s – something I haven’t seen him practice and I haven’t really shown him. A student, Louisa, came in and he said “I like that student.” He then asked what her name starts with: “What that start with?” He saw two more students and said hi to them. He was typing on her computer, and excited that it showed up on the big screen. He did his game of typing a word and then having you come and read it. He directed Carly to stand on one of the mats, then ordered her to stay there when she sort of stepped off. Finally, he was asking why her computer and a different key on the keyboard, and I said there were Apple computers and Windows computers, and this was a Windows computer. He said “Apple computer. Like mama and dada.” “And Derek! Derek!” He had wanted to type on Derek’s computer when we were there, and must have realized it looked like our computers. Oh, and Carly sighed and then called herself a professional sigher. He said “You cannot sigh…I’m a professional sigher too.”

We left
a little after 5. Took the bus home – a bit of a struggle, as he kept wanting to stand on the seat. We made it to Brownstone about 5:45, and stopped at the guard station to get our iHerb order box. This was August’s most difficult 3 minutes of the day. The security guard opened the door and bonked August in the head. August didn’t get upset right away, but was kind of rubbing his head and dazed as we walked to the elevators. At Mama Juice he stopped and started pointing in and saying “I’m gonna do this.” But when I said we weren’t getting Mama Juice today, he wanted me to pick him up, which I couldn’t, because of the box. So he was sort of hugging my legs as I scooted to the elevators. Got in the elevator room, and in the process of pushing the elevator buttons, he then hit his head on the back of the backpack. Upset, he ran around my right side, and right into the corner of the box I was carrying. Three bumps to the head in as many minutes.

When we got to the apartment he remembered that mama wasn’t home, and wanted to sit in the hall. He was doing that for a couple minutes with the door propped open. He then came in. He looked out the window and asked what season it is. The answer nowadays is “late autumn”. He then made up his first little poem:

“I was sitting on my bottom

I went to autumn”

Very Winnie the Pooh like. He was looking tired, so when he asked for Puffin Rock we went and cuddled together and watched for awhile. Then got his bath ready and gave him a short bath. We were listening to Hozier for the first time in quite awhile. After getting out of the bath he spent a long time playing with bubbles in the sink again. He was complaining about his lower back hurting/itching in the bath and it was quite dry, so I suggested lotion. We got the lotion, and he put some on himself, but mainly on my arms. I got it on his dry area, but he said it made it itch. After that, he wanted a nest in the reading area, and we put his pajamas on. We then went in to the bed and read Mr. Gumpy. He pooped, again, for the fourth time today. Back to the reading area, and we read the Nursery Rhymes book. He ran out of the room, saying he was getting another book. It was Biscuit Wins a Prize, and he took it in to the bed.

So we read that in bed, but then he said he was hungry. We had already finished the Tospia sandwiches that Carly had got soon after we got home. Now, he ate some of the crackers (we had to try the new ones from the iHerb order) and finished off the kimbap from lunch. He was obviously tired now, and ready for sleep.. Back to bed, he was chanting rhythms/notes and singing, but then got down and was lining up the books on the ground. Then was hungry again, and ate almost an entire banana.

In the reading area, he got out Opuestos. We read it once in there, then took it in on the bed and read it there. Through this time there would be stretches where we’d be quiet and try to get him to sleep. A couple times he talked about falling asleep on the carpet, and would lie on the carpet, generally on his stomach while I sang to him or was just silent. On the bed he was lying on his back and whisper sang the “Mama loves you so much” song. One more time out to the reading area to try to fall asleep. He made me sit on the reading area, while he lay on the floor for several minutes. Rolling around at first, then on his stomach, kicking the floor with his foot.

It was now around 9:30 and I knew Carly was on her way home. Back in to the bed. He lay on his stomach, facing my wall, and I sang the Big Numbers song. After a couple minutes he told me to stop singing and was quiet for a couple minutes. Then closed his eyes.

And then Carly got home at 9:42. He sat up. They nursed and he fell right to sleep. A few times I’d told him that mama would be home after he closed his eyes and fell asleep. So that pretty much worked. Also, the fact that he didn’t get upset through any of it was pretty impressive.

 

Children’s Grand Park: 

Walking: 

Grocery store: 

Carly’s classroom: 

Home: 

Photos: 

Vitamin shape: 

Sad after chomping me: 

The alien bird: 

Carly’s classroom. Hanging out in the backpack: 

Art: 

Typing: 

He commented on the moon, and I pointed out the planet. He had a lot of questions of why it was a planet: 

Home. Playing in the clean sheet: 

Watching Puffin Rock together: 

8:11. Laid on the floor for several minutes. Then I asked if he wanted banana bread. We went out to the kitchen, got banana bread, and ate it on the couch. I then asked if he wanted a banana. He did, and wanted to read the monkey book at the same time. We did that. He was then typing on a document when we got an email from Carly. She included a smiley face: :-). August then typed it on the keyboard. He was then typing rhythms out, and little words like ‘and’ and ‘is’. I then gave him ‘Zinn is’ and he wrote ‘cat’. I added the ‘a’ in. Then he wrote ‘Dada is a book’. Initially without the ‘a’ but he added himself, and a period. He then typed ‘Mama is a book’ on his own. We did some more typing and sentences, then he switched to the Smokey Bear story and we read most of that.

We then did some painting. He is really into wasting paint by mixing it straight into the water. Trying to let him do it for the experimenting. But then I was painting a tree and flowers, and he started to paint over it with brown, and didn’t stop when I asked him to. Lesson time. So I said I was sad and went to the reading area. He came in. At first he just wanted me to go back and paint, but then he was cuddling with me. A good discussion. At first when I was asking him to say sorry he would just say “I’ll just hide.” and hide his head or go behind a pillow. But then he was saying things like “I don’t understand.” and “What guilty mean?” I explained multiple ways, including talking about how he would feel if Logan or me knocked down a tower he had just built. Eventually he said “Sorry dada”.

He turned that into a game as we then made towers and knocked them down and acted it out. We then just made a big tower together before he wanted the zookeeper and girl to take care of animals. Did a few of those, then he said “I want jump rope song.” I put those on, and he jumped around to them. He then wanted his iPad to play Musyc – I think the rhythm reminded him of it.

Brushed his teeth, changed him, etc. Back on my iPad, we play with a music app called SoundPrism, then he found a story app called  Tap Story. We read the Ten Birds story and he surprised me with some of the words he could read. He then played around with that while I got ready to go.

Had intended to leave early enough to get lunch before his class as he is now in the later class, with older kids, and it starts at 12:40. However, we only made it out the door early enough to be a few minutes early to class. Walking over, he was singing ABC songs. He was really playing with the rhythms, and at one point singing “A and uh, B and uh, C and uh” in a triplets pattern like he’s learned as I’ve taught him musical notes. As we got to the other side of the park, he spotted a stroller with a cover on it and he said “They have a cover!” Then the wind really picked up and blew really hard for 20 seconds or so as we hurried to Home Plus.

As we got to class a few minutes early, I suggested he could go in and say a few things to the teacher: “Hi, teacher”, etc. August said  “I don’t want to say any of those words.” There was at least one kid there that we sort of know from his last class – the boy that often sat next to us and his mom. August was having fun from the start, popping bubbles and hopping around and spinning in circles on the floor. But when I asked about a forward roll, he said “I’m not gonna do a forward roll…I’m gonna skip it.” Class was about snow and ice. They had a big snowball fight to begin with styrofoam balls. August mainly liked rolling them on the ground, but the teacher came over and threw them at August a couple times and August liked that. He really liked the game where we used foam pick axes to get cubes of ice and put them in a 3 by 3 grid. After that, the teacher wore the polar bear hat and mittens and growled at August a couple times. August did a lot of squealing, said “No, no” and hid behind me. The polar bear paws had velcro on them and you could pick up fish, walk across a walkway, and put them in a bear’s mouth. August did this a bit, but didn’t liked the crowd at the bear’s mouth, so walked around to the back and pushed his through the other way. Creative thinking.

After class, we headed downstairs. August once again was pulling me away from the edge of the moving walkways. He knows all the rules, thanks to all the signs, and knows you’re not supposed to step on the part painted yellow. Mind you, I was still several inches away from the yellow, but too close for his taste, so he reaches over and pulls my pant leg at the knee to make me scoot to the middle. This is the second time at least that he’s done it.

Downstairs, I had thought to get kimbap, but wasn’t sure where we would eat. Had thought park, but was afraid it would be too windy. Problem solved when August wanted to go in the food court. We looked at the options for a couple minutes, but then he was certain he wanted the salad dongatsu. It is basically dongatsu, a cup of fruit salad, an omelette with rice, peas, and carrots and ham in it, and a few french fries. Oh, and the little salad with the sweet cream dressing. August liked it all – including the first 3 bites of salad he has ever eaten.

As we left and exited the front doors of Home Plus, he saw the weather stripping curling off the bottom of the moving doors and said, dramatically, “Oh dada. Look at those doors.”

As we got to our side of the park, we saw the police horses being taken out of a trailer. We watched as they saddled two large horses and two small horses. He wondered what they were doing and asked “What they working so much on the horses about?” I told him they need to make sure the saddles are on properly, etc. You don’t want someone falling off. Then I mentioned that Gramma had once fallen off a horse. He really picked up on that, and kept asking about it. I said we could Skype them tomorrow, and he wanted to right away. I realized they would still be up when we got home and told him we could Skype soon. As we followed the horses to the playground, he said “I want a video of it…gramma falling off a horse.”

There was one other girl there, and she got to ride one of the small horses. They said August could ride the other one, but August said no. We petted the horse though, and August had a lot of questions about its eyes and fur and head. They then walked the horses around the park, and August wanted to play the Nervous Game. We did that. I was positive they told the mom of the other girl that they were going to walk around and come back to the playground. I was hoping August could get another chance to get on the horse – it was only an offer the first seconds we got to the horses, and he wasn’t comfortable with them yet. But unfortunately they walked the horses around the park once and then straight to the trailers. By the time we got over there they were already taking saddles off.

So we headed home and skyped with my parents. August remembered why he wanted to talk to gramma and asked her to tell the falling off the horse story. So she did. While skyping, I mentioned going to Mama Juice when we left, and asked what kind he wanted today. He said “I don’t know. Let’s look at the menu outside.” When it came time to say goodbye, August sang them a song first.

Between hanging up and leaving, he randomly said both “What’s wrong with my finger?” and “Hey dada, do ballet.” We took a few minutes to hang up one string of Christmas lights. When he saw them on, he kept saying, dramatically, “Oh my goodness.” But then he struggled to understand WHY we put them up. He kept asking “Why the lights hanging up dada?” One time I explained (for funsies, I think I said) and asked if that made sense. He said “No. I want a better reason.”

We got going, and stopped at Mama Juice. He looked at the menu for a minute and decided on blueberry. I tried to sell him on blueberry and banana, but he insisted on just blueberry.

We wer
e heading up to the Nowon Health Center to meet Carly so she and I could get Typhoid shots. When explaining this to August, I told him he didn’t need one because he already had it. He was really trying to understand this too, so kept asking me why he already had it.

I wanted to take the bus home, so that meant no stroller. But that meant it was difficult to share the Mama Juice with him. So I carried him all the way to Sarang Children’s Park (the one with the fountain and where August first got fascinated by a map). As we walked, I would hold him in my right, and the juice in the left, but occasionally I would use my left arm to help hold him, which meant the juice was behind him. He would twist back and forth (not helping) saying “Where the blueberry go?”

At the park we stopped for a few minutes for a break and to finish off the juice. He said he was cold I told him we had more pants and a sweatshirt. He replied “Oh no. Thank you though.” He was then counting and stomping on the platform, and said he wanted to look for beads. Told him we didn’t have time for that, got him in the backpack, and headed out.

Got the the health center a few minutes before Carly. August had been asking a lot of ‘what if’ questions today (like “What happens if you fall off the horse?” And “What happens if we not meet mama?”). When I told him we had to wait a few minutes, he said “I don’t want to wait…What happen if we not wait?” The process was pretty quick. August watched us get our shots. We then headed across the street and caught the 15 bus home.

August hadn’t had a nap and had done marvelously all day. But this was the breaking point. He wanted to sit with Carly, but the bus started moving, and two people got up to get off at the next stop and stood between me holding August and the empty seat next to Carly. He couldn’t handle that. Got him to Carly and she had to coax him the rest of the way.

Made it though and he calmed down. Carly was running around getting some stuff ready before sitting down to nurse, and August joked “We lost my nursing; Where’d it go?” We ate burritos for dinner, then Carly gave him a bath and I did the dishes. His bath went well enough until the end when he was rather distressed. He then insisted on hiding his pajamas. We were then playing with Duplos. He was making towers and having me destroy them. He was acting out the being sad/ apologizing scenario from earlier in the day. But he was really being dramatic about it. After I broke a tower he would make a sad noise and say “I’ll just sleep…I’ll just build another tower on my own.” He was ready for sleep pretty soon after that and was asleep at 7:50.

 

On our way: 

Class: 

On the way to the health center:

Photos: 

Class: 

Sneaking around to the back: 

Lunch: 

Horses: 

Walking in the park: 

Mama Juice: 

Counting on the platform: 

Health center. Looking at boxes: 

Watching me get my shot: