Category: Uncategorized

He came out at 7:23. Stood near the entrance to the parlor. I asked if he wanted alone time, or to cuddle with me. He waved me into the parlor and we cuddled in the nest for several minutes with him in my right arm. Then we read the Mother Goose books. He liked the back of the book and asked what it was. I told him it was a list of the artists and which poem they illustrated. He picked up the book and said “I want to do the artists on paper.” What that meant was we went in and he copied words onto paper using a marker. He started with ‘Mix’. He had been intrigued that the ‘M’ was a lot bigger in the book. He then copied ‘feet’ and ‘I’m’. And wrote ‘book’ on his own. He kept writing ‘I’m’ so I said he could write his first sentence. I asked what he was, and he wrote ‘I’m sad’. A sad first sentence!” He then wrote ‘no’ a few times. Then he and I both wrote ‘owl’. He then drew a line connecting them. “You attached them…so they can hang on ropes together.”

While we were playing on the floor he suddenly got up and said “I’m going to do sugar in it…the tea!” He then actually walked over and wanted to carry the sugar over to me. “I’m going to do too much sugar in it. What happens if you do too much sugar in it?” It was actually my coffee he was referring to, but I said I could make tea and he could put the sugar in that. He was then watching as I heated the water and he asked, referring to the flame, “What happens if you touch the periwinkle?…you go to the hospital.”

We did banana bread and strawberries for breakfast, watched Puffin Rock, played Musyc, and I took a shower in there as well.

We got ready – a more streamlined process than yesterday, and he said he wanted to to go to Children’s Grand Park – but then I couldn’t find the cap for the brown marker. We ended up doing a lot of straightening and putting away, and cleaning under the couch. I got his flashlight out to look under it, and when he saw it he got a worried sort of look on his face. I think he considers it HIS flashlight and didn’t like seeing me use it. He said “Don’t use the flashlight. I’m gonna take it. I’m using it.” I made him ask politely before I actually gave it to him, and that was a bit of a struggle for him. So he helped look behind and under the couch: “I found two socks though…I found the puffy letter stickers we lost.”

We found it, then needed to change him. He was playing on the changing pad, using it as a gap: “I try to not step in the gap…I’m stuck in the gap…it wasn’t a big deal.” I then tied to put the green striped shirt on him, and he rejected that. So we went back in and I started to choose another shirt: “I want a soft one.” So I gave him some options, and he chose the same shirt we had started with, the green stripes, because he said it was soft.

And he’s still asking his ‘What happens if you break…’ questions. Today one was “What happens if you break your palm?” Yesterday was penis.

We headed to Children’s Grand Park at 10:30 or so. Got some kimbap, which was good. I’d brought plenty of food, I thought. But he kept eating and we were pretty out by the time we got home. He first wanted sidewalk chalk. So we wend and did that for awhile. His style was different today, as he spent the first few minutes writing one long line on the ground, which he hasn’t done before. After that he sort of just played around for awhile. Wanted to wash his hands, but the water is now off. And he made a couple jokes. He said “I want to eat dada.” Which I thought meant he wanted lunch, but then he pretended to bite my leg. And while looking at the hopscotch outline, he asked “What it not called walkscotch about?”

He then wanted to go up on the play structure, and wanted to go out on the rope floor area. We had done it once, then after that he was frightened of it. Haven’t really been by it in many months. We ended up taking the backpack up their to eat lunch. He climbed out on it, and was climbing on my legs. Randomly, he said “I want to sound like dada.” and repeated it a few times. He then was pretending to be a spider – and said he sounded like a spider. While being a spider he then oinked. I said he was a spider pig. He replied “A spider pig? I haven’t seen that.” Eventually we were done and wanted to head to the children’s museum. But by recycling we played on a hopscotch outline. He was telling me what number to jump on and I would jump on it. I did the same with him, but he often made up his own mind.

At the children’s museum he handed over the tickets and walked into the chaos of the first floor. He looked around a bit. I asked him where he wanted to go and he decided on book room. But on the way up he saw the signs for the space area and wanted to go there. We played there for 15 minutes or so. He mainly did the running game, where you see how fast you can run.

We then went to the book room. He got one of the bead puzzles and we took it up to the loft area to play. We played with it a bit, then realized it had a wrong piece in it. I went down and got another one and we straightened them out. Needed to change him, and getting towards nap time, so we did that. He was silly on the changing pad. He was asking what a sign said, but when I tried translating it for him his head was in the way and I told him. He responded by putting his cheek on the sign so I really couldn’t see it. Then, he took a sock of while I changed him and was playing with it – rubbing it across his eyes, etc. and hiding from me. When done, he crawled under the changing table and pretended to sleep.

We went back in the book room and read Oh No! a few times, then I Taste. He was playing around, so I went around and recovered all their English books from around the room. They’ve been in disarray since the summer.

We got going and walked for a half hour. He was quiet for a long time, but no nap. He said he was hungry, so I walked down by the rectangle pond. Ate the rest of our food. We ate a mandarin and he asked again what the white part was called. I told him ‘pith’ and he said I was pronouncing it wrong. “No. P H. P I P H.” Second time he’s argued a TH word is PH. Although I don’t remember what the first one was. It would be convenient for him, since ‘th’ is his most difficult sound.

He walked over and was looking in the now empty pond and started dancing to the music on the PA. He then stepped up on the edge of the pond and I told him that would make mama (and me) nervous. We played a few minutes more, then changed him in the bathroom. He didn’t want to go, but remembered the flushing in this bathroom was quiet. He still held his hands up in front of his eyes a bit, but was fine. There’s also classical music playing in this bathroom, and there was flute music we listened to. Back outside, I remembered the Ants Go Marching book. We found that, and read/sang it together. I also found The Hungry Little Catepillar in Korean and looked at that. Was surprised to find that it starts and ends with the sun talking, which the English version does not. Huh.

No nap, but we had filled our day and he was ready to head home. It was after 3:30. A little earlier than usual, but we needed to go register him for his new Teuni Teuni class. We headed out to head home. As I was carrying him, he almost knocked my glasses off. I said ‘careful’ or something like that. He said “Don’t say ‘careful’…say ‘okie dokie’.” I asserted that I had the parental right to tell him to be careful. He was doing a lot of the walking, so it was a slow trip to the subway as he kept stopping to look at signs and things on the ground.

A few times he had started to chew on his coat sleeve. Which I told him not to do, as I didn’t want holes in his brand new coat. On the train we got a seat and I got him out of the backpack and he chewed on the strap to the backpack instead. He said “It’s nectar…bee nectar.” He has been pretending to be a bee a lot (mainly to wake us
up when he has us pretend sleep). Not sure if that came from Puffin Rock, the bee video he’s watched with Vivian, Winn-the-Pooh, or me just talking about flowers. Or a combination.

Anyway, he did Sketchbook and Art Maker on the subway down and back up today.

We walked to Home Plus and I got two registration forms so he had one to write on. At first it worked to share a pen. I’d translate something, write the answer, then hand it back to him. But then he didn’t want to give up the pen. I went to get a second pen and came back to find that he scribbled on my form. He did really well though, considering he hadn’t had a nap. He scribbled in the class brochure, putting boxes around the classes. Went up to pay, it was right about 5, and I was holding him. He started to majorly yawn and rub his eyes. But when I was done he said he wanted to go to his class. I said class wasn’t until tomorrow, but he wanted to go look in his classroom. We went down and looked through the window and it was a ballet class for kids up to 5. We watched for a couple minutes. I asked a couple times if he wanted to go home to mama, but he wanted to keep watching. Eventually I made the decision to head home. I don’t know how much longer he would have watched. I told him we could watch videos of ballet at home, and he watched some with Carly later.

We were home before Carly. I started on cooking everything for burritos. She came home and they nursed. He had been playing Musyc and did more after they nursed. He excitedly got me from the kitchen to show me that he can now attach the objects to the walls. He has always had me do that in the tutorial, as it is slightly tricky, but he’s literally been practicing the maneuver with his fingers. He has it figured out, and he would attach one and get really excited, then do another.

I finished the burritos. He ate some of the seasoned tofu. He randomly said “Hey dada. Do a slant rhyme.” And a bit later said “I had a fun day.” Earlier he wasn’t answering my questions, as usual, about what we did today, or if he had fun. Carly gave him a bath. There was a lot of laughing again, and August was eager to get in at the beginning. He kept calling her ‘dada’, both before that and during the bath. He does that from time-to-time, but it was a lot today.

Carly took a shower and we were hiding August Jr.He grind his teeth a couple times, something he started, I think, just yesterday, and which I told him is very, very bad for his teeth. Mainly because I can’t stand the sound. I suddenly understand how people that don’t like chalkboard sounds (remember those?) feel like. That’s never bothered me, really, but this does.

He was being a bee to wake me up and then we played in the nest, hiding the zoo keeper. Before bed I got us a couple slices of banana bread and made it an extra special treat by putting honey on one slice. We all went down to bed, and he had a massive hyper 5 or so minutes in bed. But Carly got his pajamas on just fine and he went straight to sleep at 8:10.

 

Photos. Cuddling: 

I’m sad: 

Play structure: 

Children’s museum: 

Acting cold: 

Tasting the railing: 

Hiding from mama: 

8:57. Several minutes of alone time as he quietly lay and then sat on the floor. Then came to me and wanted a document on my iPad, but first told me to type funny words. I started by typing real words, then made up ‘blingomorph’. He then deleted my ‘ph’ and typed an ‘f’ instead and said “It ends with ‘f’.” I cut up strawberries and made cereal and strawberries for breakfast. He then wanted books, and we read Peppa Goes to the Pool and Would You Feed It to the Monkey? He wanted to play Musyc, so I said I would take a shower. But right before I turned on the shower he came in and cheerfully said “Hey dada! Come!…To do tutorial.” Couldn’t resist, so went and did that with him for a few minutes. He really likes getting the shapes “stuck” in small spaces, which means they vibrate quickly and make a lot of noise.

I finally got a shower, and after that, we watched some Puffin Rock, then hid the animals, then went back to Puffin Rock. I got all of our stuff ready to go to Children’s Grand Park, but then he didn’t want to leave. At first it was just that he had more and more things he wanted to do at home. First it was doing vet checkups of several of the animals, so we did that. Then he wanted a nest, and more hiding of August Jr and Turkey. We brushed our teeth, but he didn’t want to brush his, just suck. Eventually, he started brushing my teeth, and did a very careful job of it. But kept going and going and going. Spent several minutes on it. He spent some time loudly spelling random madeup words, and peed on the toilet a couple times.

But then he was fighting putting on clothes. He kept wanting to play duplos or hide the animals. We were getting frustrated with each other, so I said I was going to go read my book on the couch, and I was telling him he could play on his own until he was ready to go, but I wasn’t going to play anymore. He ended up coming out to the couch where I was, lying on it, and saying “I’ll just stay at home.” So I was talking about other things we could do, and I said Ppippi House, where the trains were. He said liked that idea, then asked “Is it far?” I explained and said we could walk or take a bus. “Let’s take a bus. How we do that?” A little later I said “Maybe we’ll do Children’s Grand Park tomorrow.” He said “When it’s WARM.” Sometime later, I asked if he was cold in Uijeongbu and he said he was. So it kind of sounded like that was why he didn’t want to go outside today. On the other hand, he was the one choosing to be outside in the colder cold on Sunday. But at any rate we put two pairs of pants on him today. And I kept reminding him of what we could do to keep him warm. Finally, he got his flashlight out, and as I changed him one last time, he was playing in the dark in the changing room. More of the possessive ‘my’ coming out, as he was saying “This is MY toy. This is MY flashlight.”

We walked over to the art museum and caught the Nowon 15 bus. I could have taken a more direct bus, but wanted to walk a couple blocks at the other end. We walked to the department store, and went up to the sixth floor. I tried going outside on the roof, but they just closed it for the winter. So I found a nice lounge area, but he didn’t want to get out. He said he wanted to eat outside. We were looking out the big windows overlooking the main intersection, and could look down and spot benches below. There were some in the sun right below us, so he agreed to that. Took the elevator down.

Ate lunch warm in the sun. At one point he rubbed his hands on the ground and I made him wipe his hands with a wipe before he could eat more. We went back up to the Ppippi House. They charged me 11000 won – for the play time and the drink. At the end I would question this, but she insisted that was right. Not how I read the sign (one hour free if you get a drink), or how I thought I was charged in the past. So won’t be quick to come back. Unfortunately, didn’t get a great video for Colin. A boy was hogging the trains the whole time. August tried to play with them twice: The first time, the boy had left. August played with a couple trains, but then the boy came back and grabbed one right out of August’s hand. I made him give it back to August, but August was put off by that, and just wanted to throw it up in the air. A half hour later, the boy left again, and August played with them, sort of, for a couple minutes. Then August was done, the boy came back, and that was it.

August was more into the magnet letters for one. When we came in, they were all on the floor. A tabla rasa. So he had fun putting them up. Came back to them a few times. We also played with a couple of wooden puzzles. The animal one didn’t make noise, but I supplied the sound effects, which he thought was funny. The other one had musical instruments and did work – when you put a piece in it played a little music. We then put a dinosaur floor puzzle together. He climbed on the turtle a bit, briefly played with the doll house a couple times (put the doll in to take a bath at one point, and then up to sleep, I think). And at the end he was pushing one of the baby walker things out onto the regular floor to “Get more dirt”. Sigh.

We changed him, then headed out. We first went down to the grocery store to look for good butter and sour cream. No for both. August got several fruit samples, so it was worth it. Back outside, we had some crackers and got in the backpack, then took a look at the small presidential protest (in fact, she had jus agreed to step down). I gave August the option of the back roads or the main street, and he chose the latter. As we stood at the intersection, Derek came up and stood beside us. He had been at Starbucks across the street and spotted us.

Derek walked with us all the way back to our place. August was singing the entire way – first ABC songs, then made up alphabets, then mostly-fake Korean (with some from signs). Derek came up for a few minutes, then had to take off. August found his new letter stickers (from Daiso yesterday) and he did some marker art and letter decorating, then a few minutes of Musyc. We talked about Logan’s birthday party this Saturday, and I asked what we should get him for his birthday, knowing the are about to move away. August said “Balloons…a bunch of balloons.”

Then we headed to Home Plus. Kept him in the stroller while grocery shopping. Facilitate by a lot of fruit samples: strawberries, kiwi, apples. A good day for fruit samples. He rejected mandarin samples today though. I think he’s already tired of them. Paid then let him out. We went up to the first basement floor and left the stroller at the entrance. Went in to look for Christmas light hooks. August, walking around, first found knifes (in a package) and was requesting I get them: “More knives please, dada.” We got hooks in one spot, but then I was looking at some other things. First he was looking at a vacuum cleaner, then in another spot he started grabbing random stuff for me: tire cleaner, more tire cleaner, another bottle of something from automotive, an air freshener, etc.

On the way out, at the top of the walkways, is a new little booth, with tons of humidifiers going. He played with those for a few minutes, putting his hand in front of them. Finally got him headed home and we got there at 5:45. He likes to call in on the door bell first before we actually open the door. They nursed, etc. He was saying “See. Works every time.” today – he says that Mossy says it on Puffin Rock. I got ingredients together and he helped make banana bread. He liked the spatula when we were finished, as usual. He helped the whole time, though he finds it difficult to not keep touching the dough. But he will pour everything in, and stir in between each ingredient.

Carly gave him a bath. A lot of laughing. He requested songs in Chinese, so she got her computer and they put on videos. Back out on the couch he watched some more, then did some Musyc. Took him in to bed and we had fun hiding Green Monster. He was
asleep about 8, but woke up a couple times before we went to bed, as he was rather stuffy this evening.

Photos: 

Flashlight: 

Lunch spot: 

Ppippi House. Magnets: 

President protest: 

“More knives please dada”: 

Humidifiers: 

I was getting ready to go and he requested peanut butter. He looked at the jar and calmly said, with a smile, his old joke: “The zookeeper’s in there.” He peed on the toilet multiple times this morning. He was then jumping over gaps and needing me to yank him out. Went to the nest and brushed his teeth, then he wanted to do a slo-mo video, and started doing his slo-mo dance. He then wanted some soy milk, and drank a lot. We were a long time in getting out the door. Randomly, in a singsong voice, he said “My favorite is white today…and punctuation is ummmm parenthesis.” Had to change him again, and he found a Hangeul sticker that he kept ‘hiding’ on our way.

Finally, made it out the door. Still thought there was a chance that we could make it to Uijeongbu, eat lunch, and get to the play area about 12:30 for an hour of play. But then at Dobongson it seemed like it took forever for the train to come. Made longer by a guy who kept talking to us. Nice enough, but just prolonged the wait. I had asked him not to touch August the first time he tried it. The second time he did respond. A few minutes later he tried a third time, touching August’s hand, then said (rather late) “No touching?” I said “I’d prefer not”. And then he asked why. So had to explain because of germs, etc. August did at one point reach out and touch the guy while playing though. Funniest moment was when August was down and playing around and turned back to ask to be picked up, but was asking the guy, and not me. He thought it was me.

Train came, and we made it to the department store at Uijeongbu. August was walking as we went up all the escalators. Testing the rules and asking a lot of why questions – tried kneeling, not stepping off, etc. Around 12:30 when we got up to the roof and started having lunch. Nice and sunny, so it was fine to sit outside and eat. We played on the rubbery hills and explored parts of the roof he hasn’t played on yet – going through the tunnel-ish thing and playing on hills in the back and stepping on my shadow. He was saying “Up you go, Baba!” from Puffin Rock. He also sat on the hills and said to me “This is my spot…you cannot climb here.” Later he said “This is all my space.” Trying out a sense of personal space/property. A result, I think, of both when I wouldn’t let him erase my typing and the blocks with Logan.

He talked about not taking a nap, but looked tired. And he would then talk about going home to nap instead: “Want to go home. And take a nap in the nest.” To change him you have to walk past the toy store, and he said he wanted to play there, but didn’t put up a defense when I said not now. Changed him, got him in the backpack, and he fell asleep on the walk west. He was sleep from 1:49 to 3:25 at the book cafe with all the English children’s books. On the second train earlier a woman had also reached out and touched August. Now, as he slept in the backpack, and my back turned to the rest of the cafe, I sensed one of the workers kneeling down and looking at August sleeping. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him reach up on a table and grab some napkins. I turned around to find him reaching to wipe August’s face. Not a word to me. I reached out and stopped his hand. That was a new one.

August was making funny noises when he woke up. Got him out, and held him for awhile, still making funny noises. I mentioned the Everyone Poops book, and he wanted to read it. We went over to the books. Ended up reading it four times, then a book about snails/spirals that was pretty cool, another Mr. Gumpy book (about his Motor Car), and George Shrinks a couple times.

He was ready to head home, but we were first stopping for more paint at Daiso. We walked out to the concrete benches to get in the backpack. August was looking at signs as I carried him, and asked what ‘city hall’ was. He was then singing, and using Korean words, like for city hall, in his song. When we stopped he was standing on the bench and pointing around, I think primarily at the words he was singing. Got a video of him singing, although he stopped most of his pointing then. Once in the backpack, we got walking, him doing a lot more singing.

At Daiso we quickly grabbed paint. He asked why we were getting paint, and I said that mama had said they were going through the new paint quickly and we should get more. He was trying to understand this, and kept asking “Why mama say get more paint about?” On the way home we just missed a train for line 1, then another train for line 7. So we had time to have a snack and eat our cheese peanuts from Home Plus. On one of the trains too a woman gave him a black bean soy drink we’ll use later. August spent his time both ways doing art on the iPad.

We were home at 5:30. They nursed and then painted, then we played around hiding August Jr. He played with Musyc, then tried out different art apps, then went back to nursing. He got his hands on the soap in the bathroom, and got a squirt, and made bubbles in the sink. He had fun with that. Carly took a shower, and we did more Musyc together. Carly gave him a bath, and then we briefly played with Duplos.

Carly had bought a Melogold at the store. Turns out it is a mix of grapefruit and pomelo. August even just liked the sound of it: “That sounds AMAZING” He kept saying. He had some and said “I like grapefruit now.” Also funny because he already likes grapefruit. We were discussing the flavor, and he said “It has spices…maybe it has anise.”

A running joke this evening was that he wouldn’t answer my question “Did we have fun today?” Did his trick of totally ignoring me. Funnier when he does it to strangers that try to talk to him. He was being a cat on the back of the couch and continuing to not answer it.

He got down and said “Hey dada! Come and play!” and led me into the parlor. He wanted animals to go to the vet and have exams. This lasted a long time, and turned into what I called veterinary theater, as the zookeeper examined each animal. We then read the monkey book, Peppa Pig, and 123 Peas. Carly took him in to try to sleep, but he came back out. We ate a banana together, and Carly went back to bed. After eating the banana he whispered “You’re Zinnie now.” Apparently he had been the monkey. He wanted to go back in with Carly, but she came out a few minutes later to get socks with him. But he was being hyper again, so stayed out with me: “I found a bead. I hid it FYI. What FYI mean?” We read Pooh – random story parts and most of the poems. He went back in about 10:30. Asleep probably around 10:45.

Photos: 

Reading George Shrinks: 

Sitting: 

Painting: 

Bubbles: 

We got up at the same time at 8:07. Right before that, he had really been laughing in his sleep. He and Carly nursed and then Skyped with Chuck and Cherie. August typed ‘bug’ and Carly asked why. He got serious, furrowed his brow, and said ‘Beat Bugs’. He then typed ‘j bug’ – the name of the building down at Ttukseom Resort.

He did some painting and ate cereal from both of us. Carly finished her costume for dress up day tomorrow. He was pretending to be stuck in gaps and I was yanking him out, then put him in the blankets. He then said he wanted to change his diaper. I took it off him, then just put the pajama pants back on. A few times over the next hour he said “The tag is bothering you”, but he wasn’t ready for us to cut it out.

August got out his flashlight and was shining it everywhere, saying he found something that mama lost and investigating the cupboards. And he shined the light on the little scraps of paper as I picked them up. He was asking constant questions as he did that and Carly made mango oatmeal: “What if mama not cook it? What there tea in there about?” What you following mama about? What happen if mama not clean up the floor? What it frozen about?”

He played on the couch as a monkey, swinging his feet off of it. He then started going over to the stroller, grabbing beads out of it, and putting them in the couch. This surprised me, because he can’t actually see into where the beads are on the stroller. Anyway, we have several beads ‘hiding’ in the couch now. He then wanted me to hold him upside down, so we did a lot of that before he moved to playing with Musyc. A bit later we Skyped with my parents. He showed them how he swings on the end of the couch as a monkey. Next was nursing with Carly and they read two Biscuit books. He and I then made a tower of cardboard blocks. He was balancing blocks pretty well now. I finally took a shower, and when I came out he was helping Carly finish her beard and tried it on.

He randomly said “There’s no crying in tennis ball.” At some point earlier he had said “You’re Zinnie now.” I asked who he had been, and he said “A monkey.” I hadn’t realized he’d been a monkey for the whole last hour.

We did the flying snake game after yanking him out of the gaps, then Carly heated up the leftover food from Thanksgiving. Carly had a little, but August and I ate most of it, as Carly was feeling queasy just remembering the experience. He wanted to make a nest, so we did that, and we read most of Biscuit Meets the Class Pet before he wanted more food. Carly gave him some, and he said “We’re talking with our mouths full.” Earlier, when I asked what we should do tomorrow, he said “We can talk with our mouths full.”

Carly tried to put him down for a nap, but he decided it was a no nap day. She took him to the store instead. They were back about 3:10. He had gotten a slurpy thing, but conveniently forgot about it back home. At home, he just wanted to hang out in the hallway and so I got ready while he did that and we headed back outside.

We didn’t take the stroller, and didn’t really have a plan. I followed him, and we headed out the west side of the building. He did some hopping over cracks, then we talked about our plan. Named several local parks and he settled on Madeul Stadium. We never made it that far. On the road to the stream he hopped in some puddles, saying “Ribbit!” We crossed the bridge, then north of the youth center he stopped and hung on the railing, looking down at the stream and people and ducks. Stayed there for several minutes, enjoying the sun. We continued on, and as we went by the new apartment complex he wanted to go to the spiderweb playground.

The playground was in the shade and breezy, so rather cold. But August found two of those push cars – the kind you actually sit in and can drive around – and he drove and and I pushed him around in those. He also climbed on the spider web and went across the bridge. He wanted to build sand castles, but we didn’t have tools with us, and it was too cold. He had me ‘drive’ him over where two older boys were sitting on a bench. He got out and watched them playing video games on their phones.

On the way back, he noticed that the electrical box that he always noticed was making noise, now isn’t – because it doesn’t need to cool down, I presume. He stopped at the same spot above the stream for several minutes. At the bye fuzzy playground we stopped and he had some banana chips. We then climbed up on the play structure and went down the twisty slide together four times. He kept calling it a fast one. He also stood at the top and watched the kids playing basketball.

Before we left, he walked the ledge, which starts low, but gets about 3 feet tall. He didn’t want me to help him, but I insisted on spotting him. Walking across the bridge, he said something in a high voice and said “That’s a chipmunk voice.” I’d made reference to the Chipmunks recently. We got across the bridge, but he turned and decided he wanted to go back to the playground. I said no to that, and reminded him that I’d mentioned trying cocoa when we were at home.

We got home about 4:50. He did painting with mama, then ate some strawberries before having rice casserole with me. He picked up a wipe, and was going around the house cleaning, saying “oh dear, I need to clean here.” He ate a banana and he wanted to read the monkey book while he did it, so we did that. I then made some cocoa and he loved the sips I gave him. Big smiles.

Carly gave him a bath, and when she washed him he made his random non-English frustrated noises. She commented that he has his own ‘frustrated’ language, and asked what it was. He told her, and the name was something complex – I think it had a comma and something else in it. It is true though – when he is frustrated but not fully upset, he says random noises that almost sound like words. 

After his bath, he asked Carly why you get wrinkly in the bath. She looked it up. Complex, but he accepted ‘your skin is filling up with water’. He did some writing on paper, then we went in the parlor while Carly took a shower. He typed on my phone, and told me “This is my work. You cannot delete it. If you try, I will tell you ‘No’.”

When she was out he went in the nest with Carly. Wanted the lotion. Carly was trying to put it on him and he said “anneyo”. But he put it on her legs and told her he was giving her a massage.

Sleep happened pretty easily after that, just after 8.

 

Cozy: 

Stacking: 

Trying on the beard, sort of: 

On our walk. Looking down: 

Playground: 

Again: 

Second playground. Watching the basketball players before we went down the slide again: 

Ledge: 

Cocoa: 

He was up at 7:20. Nice enough to turn the light on on me again. They had oatmeal for breakfast (August was asking all of his ‘what if’ questions, like “What happen if you not use the microwave?”) and did more painting. Carly Skyped with Cassie to discuss kindergarten questions. I distracted August for awhile – he was decorating his painting with stickers – but then needed to do recycling. While I was doing that, he took off his pants and went pee on his toilet. I took down recycling and when I came back Carly and Cassie were finishing up. Vivian had never watched Puffin Rock, so Carly put that on the iPad and she and August watched it together. Carly was messing with Vivian by putting her finger in front of the screen until she got a reaction.

At the end of the episode Carly turned it off. They said goodbye and hung up. August then played with Musyc, and wanted to work through the tutorial. We did that twice and then he just played. His musical art pieces are pretty elaborate now.

He helped me make chocolate chip banana bread, then later helped with the dishes, doing the rinsing after I washed. While doing both he kept saying “I like knives.” While rinsing (I didn’t let him rinse the knives) he added “cuz they’re very sharp.” We did a lot of hiding August Jr., and joking about August Jr. going to close to the cords. Twice during the morning August went and pooped on his toilet. He also used his flashlight to find a very old piece of popcorn under the counter.

It started snowing around noon, and was snowing pretty heavily by 1. He was ready for a nap and slept from 1:15 to 2:22. He got up and nursed and we got ready to go. We headed out about 3:30. Just a little snow/rain on our walk over. We stopped at the Tous les Jour and Mainz Dom to get rolls and a baguette on the way, walked through the secret path, and made it there a little after 4.

Our job at first was to help watch the kids while Jill and Derek finished cooking. We weren’t doing so well on this though as their kids kept wanting or needing their attention. After a few minutes though Logan wanted to build a tower with his big Leg–like blocks. Started off well, but then August wanted to put a block on his tower, and he took it off. August was devastated and just stood there, in my arms, wanting to put it on. I tried to build a separate tower for August, but he wasn’t interested. We figured it was a good experience for August though. But after a few minutes, Logan left and Jill took him outside. August got his revenge by putting the block on the tower like he wanted to. He still then went to Carly for consoling, but it obviously made him feel better – he would talk about it and laugh about putting the block on his tower later, before bed.

Other people started showing up, and one of the women brought some finger puppets. Carly and August played with those with her for a few minutes. Otherwise, August kind of floated around, playing with random things and grabbing the cheesy rice crackers we brought. We read one book. And Derek held August upside down at one point. Missed a video of that. August was laughing pretty hard.

All went well until the food was ready for the kids. Carly got a plate for August and they started eating. Carly was tasting everything, and she ate a bite of something that had cashews in it that another guest brought. It was enough. August didn’t want Carly to leave on her own – he wanted to go with – and she was afraid he’d get upset if she slipped out. So they headed home with the stroller. I waited a few more minutes until all the food was ready, ate, and made up a plate of food to take home for Carly for later. I called to see how she was doing, and she said August was helping encourage her to throw up. On the way home I stopped for bread and Pepsis for her.

Got home and they were both relaxing in the parlor, him watching Puffin Rock. So I read for awhile. I gave him a bath, but he was not interested. It was a very short bath, against his will. Carly tried to take him in to sleep – it was close to 9 – but he got back up. He and I read a bunch of books – the monkey book and all the Peppa Pig books, and maybe others – and I had to change him. Then in on the bed I talked to him about the party and the blocks and whatnot. That’s when he kept talking about putting the block on, and he was getting his big grins. Carly came in, and this time it worked. He was asleep about 10:20. 

Saying hi to a neighbor: 

Walking to dinner: 

Playing at Logan’s house: 

There was a short power outage last night before I went to bed. Happened just before 10. It was long enough for me to get up and look out the window for awhile and realize that it wasn’t just our building – everything was out. The power then came back down and I saw all the buildings light back up. Later, August sat up in bed. He was sitting against me, and after a minute I laid him back down and he slept against me for the next hour or so. He laughed at one point. He woke up around 6:20 and headed out to Carly. When I got up he requested Christmas music but he got upset when I wouldn’t let him type in the computer on the desk. He wanted to nurse. They had been doing a lot of nursing. They then did watercolor painting for a long time as we listened to Christmas music and he was quite happy with that.

As carly got ready to go, August and I were writing on paper. He wrote silent e words like ‘slope’ on his own. Then Vivian and Cassie called and they Skyped for a few minutes.

When she left August wanted to go to, but we convinced him it was okay. He said he wanted to play in the hall, but we only got as far as putting on his diaper. Instead, he ended up wanting the lotion. First he put it on his legs, then mine, then wanted to do my back. Did that for a few minutes. Then we were throwing soft things up in the air, before he said he wanted to make a secret nest. We got blankets and did that, and read After the Storm, two pigeon books, and part of One Fish Two Fish. He got distracted and excited by the rhymes, and was coming up with his own rhymes, and also asking why words didn’t rhyme: “Computer and book do not rhyme.” He then said “I have an idea, dada.” It was to get out the plastic fruits and veggies.

He then had the idea of going to the Namu play area. I changed him, and he talked about being a grown up, looking up at the ceiling and talking about how tall he is. We called gramma and grampa, who were with Paul over at Dee and Grants and talked for a few minutes. August was ready for the play area, but then we took awhile brushing our teeth (he helped brush mine) and after that he sat on the couch and started asking about what happens if you break things: “What happens if you break your nose…your chin…your tummy?” He then wanted to type on my phone. He did that for awhile, and it was now past 11:30. He was acting tired and so was I. So we went back in on the reading area and watched some Puffin Rock.

We got up after awhile and made a salmon sandwich and some rice casserole for lunch, then created art in Paper.

Carly got home after 1, and August went to sleep right away. It was a short nap, from 1:15 to 1:56, but he fell back to sleep with Carly on the reading area.  I was napping in the bed and kept napping for awhile. They were typing words on her computer, then did more watercolor painting. He was in prime question mode, asking Carly why she was doing everything “Why mama dry the black about? Why mama kiss the forehead about? What just a minute about?”

At 3:30 we decided to heard out. August didn’t want to get in the stroller, so carly put two pairs of pants on him and a sweatshirt under his coat. His coat, which he wore last year, has worked so far, but with the sweatshirt on underneath he looked like a marshmallow. And he wasn’t too happy with it. Definitely not going to last 3 more months. So we decided to head to Home Plus. August walked almost all the way there, until I picked him up to cross the parking lot on the other side of the park. In the park, he got down and crawled/slithered a bit, and said “You did something funny.”

At Home Plus we went and first tried two coats on him. This was against his will. But when I gave him a choice of the two, he chose the one with the bears on it. While Carly looked at something else, he and I wandered off. He wanted to look for something to buy. I followed him to the other end of the store, and he chose a red cell phone case. He tried to convince me to get it: “I want that case cuz I don’t like dada’s old one.” He was hungry, so we made our way back to the stroller and sat on the floor and had a Larabar. There was an awful fuzzy pink sweatshirt/dress that he said he wanted to wear at one point, and now he bit it, and said “It tastes very bad.” We then went downstairs and got some groceries.

Back outside, we gave him the option of either heading home, or getting in the stroller and getting Mama Juice. Mama Juice won, and he sat in the stroller without problem with the cover on, but open. Progress. He also adapted to his new coat pretty quickly. On the way over, he sang a “I want mama Juice” song. I told him he should sing it for the owner sometime. He had asked for Mama Juice on our way out, and specified that he wanted kiwi this time, and he stuck to that. So he got kiwi, and Carly and I both got coffee drinks. While waiting, he and I were looking at the signs, and I said we should try the pizza sometime. He said it cost 7000 won, and I said no, there is a sign right there that says 2000 won. He’s going to be quite the arguer, as he replied, dismissively, “No dada, that is the brand.” I don’t remember what that was from, but he was using something that I had said, where I was telling him the name on something was just the brand, not the actual product. Pretty sure I didn’t use the same attitude in my voice though.

Juice in hand, he got back in the stroller and we headed across the stream, and by the youth center playground. August wanted to get down and walk, but we asked him to stay in for a few minutes. But then he pooped, so we figured we should head back, and we let him out. He stood on the path and played around, counting his steps and pretending to shock Carly and me. Then he ‘shocked’ a stranger passing by. Pretty funny.

We got home and changed him, then he did painting with mama, then made a nest with me and we were hiding August Jr. Carly made him strawberry milk, then he requested Beat Bugs on my iPad, so we watched that. They nursed, and he randomly said “Want to make 28 costume now.” He ate more strawberries, then had rice casserole for dinner. They did more painting and Carly gave him a bath. He and I read the monkey book, two Peas books, and the three Peppa books before he was ready to go to go to sleep at 9:40. At the very end he was telling me to read, then turning to Carly and saying he was ready to nurse, then changing his mind and telling me to read, etc. Finally nursing won out. He fell asleep by 10.

Lotion: 

Reading the pigeon books: 

Comfy: 

Painting: 

How he felt about the new coat: 

Check out: 

Walking: 

He got up at 7. I went back to bed and kept sleeping. They did a lot of nursing, he did the tracing app on iPad, and they listened to French songs. When I got up, they had been painting and were cutting out leaves from their paintings and making a tree on the door to the parlor. Carly had explained to him that she got to go to his class today, as she didn’t have to work for Thanskgiving. He was confused by that, and kept asking why it was a holiday.

We headed out for his class. Cold today, so Carly put the cover on the stroller. August was not happy at all. We kept him in until Home Plus. He was pretty upset at the beginning of class. They nursed for a minute, then it took a couple minutes for him to warm to class. When the teacher first came around to him, he wouldn’t give a high five. The teacher kind of acted like a cat and made August laugh. Then I got august to sort of hop on the first walking path, and give him a high five once.

The first toy they did was the plastic pigs that you push the pieces through – actually the very first activity August did in his first Teuni Teuni class. Only this time he could totally push the pieces in on his own, and use his palm for pushing them in.

After that, it was all a variety of cool walking and climbing paths. So Carly didn’t get to see a themed class (no hats!), but it was a lot of fun. I helped him walk one path, but mainly Carly was with him or he was on his own. He also did a lot of acting like a frog – at one point he and the teacher were doing it together.

At the end of class, he did the group photo. August wasn’t excited by that, but he did it. Then, I got to hand out the candies from the penguin backpack to all the kids while the teacher went and got all the parents’ phone numbers.

We then went downstairs and did some shopping. Carly had the list – I had August. Maybe he was just hungry, or maybe he has suddenly realized that he can request new things. But he wanted everything he saw. Started with some 호빵 (buns with stuff in them). Got those, as he’s been curious about them. But then he wanted a Mickey Mouse plate, a bag of chips, etc. I got him a little individual spear of pineapple and I also said yes to a little pack of cheese flavored peanuts as they looked interesting.

We headed home. He was upset by the stroller again. But calmer. And when Carly headed to the pink building for one item and I headed home with him he was silent.

At home he ate his pineapple and a bunch of curry rice for lunch, then shared a red bean 호빵 with me. We watched some Puffin Rock, and at the end of the episode I turned it off. He was ready for a nap and slept from 1:50 to 2:54.

When he woke up they nursed and I went and napped some more. Carly took him and they got a mango banana juice and went over to the playground. I came down a few minutes later and found Carly on a swing, with August drinking juice by the teeter totter. We stayed for maybe another 10 minutes. He drank some juice, th then spent a few minutes looking at the Mama Juice label and arguing that it would sound different if part of it had a curved line. I sort of chased him around on the platform, then he was showing us that he can turn around to get down now. He was very excited about this and showed us several times. It is something I’ve encouraged going down climbing walls, etc. but it seems to have clicked with him.

We walked back into Brownstone. Carly was carrying him and he was singing. As we passes Pink Burger he sang a song (to the tune of ABC) that went “black burger, white burger…light green burger…purple burger.”

I went and got a raspberry juice and met them upstairs. August wanted to try mine, but I told him my straw had germs. I let him use his straw in mine. A few minutes later, as we were watching Beat Bugs, he started to say “I have germs! I have germs, dada…for funsies.”

They nursed, and when he came out to me he was carrying the three pigeon books. We haven’t read those since being back, but apparently the two of them read them yesterday. August and I read all three. Then he was lying on the floor and I started spinning him. When I stopped he would look at the ceiling and say “It’s spinning!” Did that a few times until we were both tired out. At one point he stood up and fell over.

He wanted to be changed, so did that and changed him into shorts sans diaper. Carly had made a new rice casserole and August and I ate that for dinner. We then played with Musyc on the iPad.

Carly started vacuuming and August wanted to do it, but didn’t want to wait a turn and got upset. They nursed and then he wrote on paper. I wrote ‘I can’, ‘hope’, and ‘cane’ on his own.

Carly went to take a shower. He wanted a nest and we went and got a pillow and the blanket. In the nest we read Hop in Pop. He was then hungry and requested banana bread. He ate two slices, then I asked if he wanted to share a banana. He said “other food” and went and opened the fridge and spotted the strawberries. He ate 6 strawberries before I cut him off. At one point he went and got his stool so he could wash off his strawberry. He was asking what would happen if I used to much water to wash them, and I said something silly. He missed it and asked what I had said. I said “Nevermind. Something silly.” He replied with “Oh dada.”

Carly gave him a bath. He isn’t enthused about them now, even though once he is in the water he sits down and everything. But he hates the washing. Today was no exception. As they left the bathroom, carly asked if he wanted to go to the parlor. He said “I call it the playroom now.” He hasn’t done that in weeks. He kept insisting on it while they nursed.

A bit later we headed to the bedroom. We played for awhile, and he climbed down and got the lotion from my side of the bed and rubbed some on his knees. He went to sleep pretty soon after that, around 8:40.

Photos. Painting with mama:  

Teuni Teuni class: 

Handstamps: 

Group photo: 

Mama Juice: 

Lotion: 

I had felt a cold coming on last night, with a slight sore throat. Not much worse this morning. I planned on Olympic Park, as it was cold today and I figured there were lots of indoor places to go. As it went, my cold actually got quite bad, and we only went into one of the buildings. A lot of time outside in the cold when developing a cold. It was a fun day though.

He came out at 7:27. Headed for the parlor and closed the door. Came out after 5 minutes and laid on the floor. He wanted Cheerios for breakfast, but I reminded him of the banana bread. We had some of that, and he wanted strawberries, so I salvaged some of the remaining strawberries for him. And I used the last of Carly’s batter to make a veggie chocolate pancake. He was eating, and realized the sketchbook was shaped like a ㅁ. He used the Teuni fencing thing to make a ㅡ and combined them for 므. He then used a little ball to make it into 모 and 무. He ate, and was balancing on the top of the piano (which was sitting on the floor, not the piano). He was then pretending to slip and fall all the way to the couch. He then wanted me to pretend to fall. He stood on it staring out the window while eating pancake, kind of chanting, then pretending to type and saying “send” like a Skype message.

Rhyming words. I said ‘better’ and he then said “wetter… temperature”. He was coming up with a lot of other rhyming words, both real and imagined.

In on the reading area he was jumping on it and saying funny words: “smurf bird…smurf bird…I’m doing funny words.” That went on for a long time. He also hid the stuffed animals under the blanket and had Duplos, etc. find them.

We watched some Puffin Rock, then I took a shower and we got ready to go. I tried to put a blue and brown shirt on him, but he said “Not that shirt. I don’t like that shirt!” Why? “It has brown and blue.” But you like brown and blue. “I like LIGHT GREEN now. Light green, Dada.” Then the next shirt I brought had green stripes, but he claimed they were dark green. Eventually, he went into the changing room and chose the trees shirt, and also chose his own socks.

We got going, him singing. Transferred at Gunja and went to Olympic Park. I had brought food, but the CU had indoor seating. So we bought some triangle kimbap and a sandwich and sat inside to eat. After lunch he needed to be changed, so we went to the bathrooms that were close. No changing tables, just a regular bathroom. Went in the separate handicap bathroom. He was afraid of the flushing. I told him there would be no flushing, but the toilet was making a loud running noise and he said “I don’t like that toilet now.”

My cold had just been a sore throat upon waking up, but it started to kick in now, with a headache and all. And August decided to get hyper and ask about 8000 questions. It was a pretty funny running monologue though:

“Here comes trouble…(I asked where he learned that)…from Puffin Rock…the seagull…when it eats Mossy’s big berry…why it eat the berry?”

“It’s sunny. I can’t believe it.”

“Why there no flushing outside? What is that? What the machine do? What if the machine not work? What are those long jumps about?”

At this point he had started hopping over the ‘gaps’. Or cracks between bricks, really, but he is fascinated by ‘gaps’ from the subway. Anyway, this went on for a long time as we walked into the park. He discovered he can jump a distance now – over two bricks, roughly. A few times he did his little arms together move and said “That was pretty fun.”

We got to the big olympic buildings, and he was feeling cold. So I put him in the backpack, and he wanted his gloves on. But then he took them off. I asked why, and he said “Because I thought it felt weird.” I put them back on, and I promised something to him. He said “I promise too. Just FYI.” Then he said “It’s still weird dada.” and took them off again. But when I asked Why did you take them off? He said “For funsies. I’ll try dada. I’m gonna try.” To keep them on, that is.

He kept them on, and sang and sang until we got to the Baekje Museum. When we got inside he  was whispering “this is a secret place we have not been here before. This is a secret bathroom…” I just washed my hands, and as we headed out he said “I was closing my eyes because of the toilets.”

We went downstairs to where the puzzles had been, but sadly they were gone. He stayed in the backpack but wanted to look around the museum. We spent quite some time looking at three dioramas (Neolithic, agricultural, and Bronze Age) and watching a short cartoon about Neolithic people. He watched it four or five times. Or eight. He kept wanting to go back. We walked through a special exhibit on Shandong area of China (the birthplace of Confucius). He picked up on the fact that the maps had two languages: “Why are there both Korean and Chinese?”

We went downstairs to the nice changing room and changed him. He spent a long time rolling around and lounging and playing on the changing table. We then got walking for a nap. He got quiet for a good amount of time, but no nap. We stopped by the (now empty) fountain near the museum and had a snack. As he ate his sandwich he wandered over to the fountain and kept asking “What you can’t go in about? But you can sit! Stop making that noise! I’m trying to sit!” It was never clear what noise he was talking about, or how it would keep him from sitting on the edge of the fountain. He was also balancing, walking along the curb. I told him he was like a gymnast, like Tia Cassie. He had stepped off at that point, then tried to step back on to keep doing it. He tripped and stumbled down. He got back up, but said “I not Tia Cassie. I not a gymnast.”

I had to change him yet again. Another 3 poop day. We went back in and quickly changed him in the same spot. I left him standing by the door of the bathroom while I went. He liked it because he could still see me. He said “I like standing out here, FYI dada.” He was back in full energy mode: “I found a garbage…What the toilets back there for? I not hear the flushing sounds, dada.” He was then crawling in the lobby, and got up and did some silly runny around, telling me “Run dada!” But a woman played with him instead. That was pretty cute. I followed him down a hallway, and he wanted to go in a seminar room that had people working on computers. He was a bit upset when I wouldn’t let him. Got him going back the other direction and he was walking on his knees chanting “goldenrod, goldenrod, goldenrod…” A woman walked by and he said “that’s a person…that’s a girl.”

Outside we had planned to go to the art museum, but he had been noticing the open drainage ditches they have here. There is one that is incorporated as a spiral into a sculpture area. He wanted to play there: “I working (on) stepping over things, dada…there’s a gap there, there’s a gap there.” He stepped back and forth over it, then stepped into it, then held himself up with his hands on either side and was “swinging like a monkey”. We walked along it together. When I suggested we go, he said “Okie dokie”. He’s been saying that a lot.

We were on our way out, but he saw the playground and wanted to play there. He climbed up a little stairway and went down a short “fast” slide a few times, and had me do some turns. He then started to say he was ready to go home, but he saw one of those rocking seat things: “I need to go home…wait a second…what’s that!? It’s a ducky!” He shook that, and we also went on the teeter totter briefly. Suddenly, he said “Hey dada. Turn around. I want to show you a secret” He led me to the other side of the playground and starts pointing. “The secret was POOP BREAD!” As I then carried him over he said “Poop bread is yummy!” We got two poop breads at the 똥빵 store and ate them on a bench. I then put him in the backpack, and as I did so told
him he had a lot of poop on his face from the bread. He thought that was really funny.

We walked out the north end of the park and took the two transfers route home. He was loudly singing Silent E song on and off on the way.

We got home just after 5. He got a little frustrated when I wouldn’t let him choose my kind of tea for me. We ended up on the reading area cuddling together a bit, then Carly got home.

She was nice enough to take over for the next couple hours while I went and slept. They painted and did a long bath. He told Carly his full name (all 4). I heard her trying to get him to say that ‘Althauser’ was his favorite part of his name, but he stuck with ‘Niman’. She brought him in as I was getting up to have some dinner. He fell asleep right away, at 7:15.

 

Photos: 

Lunch: 

Singing and gloves: 

History museum. Diorama: 

Video: 

Another diorama. With buttons: 

Changing table fun: 

The fountain: 

The gap: 

Playground: 

Poop bread: 

Poop on his face: 

Pretending to sleep (since I told him not to fall asleep): 

The latest update to the SquareSpace app for iOS broke things again. So until they fix that I won’t be able to post. At least not as easily…

He was up at 6. Or maybe 6:01. It was early. He was fine with Carly leaving again today. He initially wanted Puffin Rock, but chose Beat Bugs instead. A nice change. We haven’t watched any since watching that one episode when it came out. Randomly, at one point he said “Uncle Paul Nimand” And he read the word ‘Rain’ at the beginning of an episode. He did some typing into Google, then watched Puffin Rock while I showered. He didn’t have a diaper on, and accidentally peed on the floor. He looked at the shape of it, pointed, and said “That is countries.” I made a sandwich for lunch, and he wanted to know what the old kind of honey was. I didn’t remember, so he wanted me to look it up. So we pulled up the bottles on iHerb and he studied them. He found a coin on the floor, and it was a 500 this time. I mentioned that he would have fun doing math with coins when he was older, and he said he wanted to do that game now. So we got some coins and did some adding with them. But mainly he had fun hiding them under the carpet. His favorite was the little 10 won coin: “I get 10 today.” He read ‘osprey’ on the backpack and asked again what it meant. I’ve told him many times that we should look up photos of an osprey, so this time we finally did. He saw one of his drawing tablets and read ‘Sketchbook’ on it. He got back on hiding the door magnets in the xylophone, so we did that for awhile. He said “Period is my favorite punctuation.” Finally, we left at 11.

He did Art Maker on the subway. I asked if Abby was still his favorite, and he said “Yeah”.

We grabbed some kimbap, and headed to the children’s museum. He told me on the way that he wanted to play first. We went downstairs, where he first spent time practicing sliding paper into the machines that let you punch words in braille. It is kind of tricky to slide them in properly. He then wanted to blue blocks area. Went there and built some towers. Today was a long list of “What happen if…?” questions, such as “What happen if we don’t take our shoes off?” and “What happen if we not eat in cafeteria?”

He agreed it was time to get going and take a nap. I asked “how long is your nap going to be?” He replied“8:72 to 8:73”. He was claiming to be a grown up again: “I’m a grown up…I’m a kid now.” In the lobby we had fun with our shadows – he wanted me to try to step on his. We got our coats on and went outside to get in the backpack. He was saying he was a grown up again, but changed back when I put him in: “grown ups don’t go in backamapacks…you’re a kid.”

A usual walk, and he fell asleep. Went to the upstairs cafe and he slept from 1:31 to 3:05. I had taken his coat off again when he was taking a nap. He wanted out of the backpack, and went and looked in the display case. He wanted the black bean drink this time. We got that. He drank a good amount of it. I don’t understand the appeal. He wanted to go outside – without his coat. He was working to open the doors, but couldn’t do it on his own. Good job trying though. I was packing up our stuff and said we’d go out in a minute. I looked over and he was gone; a guy had come in through the doors and he had slipped out. He was very excited about his mistake. I went and got him, and he agreed to stand by the door until I came out. Outside, he had a glorious minute running around without a coat on. The cold then set in and he let me put on his coat. He said he wanted to see animals, so we headed that way.

Didn’t get that far though, as he saw the playground and wanted sidewalk chalk. The sun was gone and the wind had come up. It was cold. But we tried it anyway. For a few minutes he did sidewalk chalk happily. He kept writing a made up Korean word over and over and asking what it meant. I told him it didn’t mean anything, but he kept asking. Not sure where it came from – maybe he dreamt it. Eventually he made up other words. Then the wind really picked up and he was getting cold and came to me. The wind got so heavy that the box and some of the pieces of chalk started blowing away. He didn’t like that. I grabbed them, and we counted the colors as we put them all back. I tried putting his hat and gloves on. He refused the hat, but accepted the gloves. He was ready to head home now and no longer interested in seeing animals.

He did some good singing on the way back to the subway as we walked through the pond area. Lots of triplets in his rhythms. He was incorporating signs he saw all day into his singing (he had been singing about subway stops on the map after we got out of the subway on the way there), but at this point there were no signs, so mainly just random syllables. Started up with the words again when we got back to the station.

He pooped on the train, so I carried him home from Hagye Station. I changed him, and he said “Maybe it’s a leaf poop…you’ve been eating leaves.” I said ‘sorry’ about something, and he kept insisting “Dont say sorry, Dada.”

We spent a few minutes sending Skype messages – or at least typing them – then I suggested we go to the store and get some fruit. He jumped up and said “Yeah!” We went to the pink building. He wanted oranges, so we headed to them. It turned out he wanted one. Then I said we’d get mandarins. I held the bag, and he put two in. I said we could get like 10, but he insisted he only wanted 2. So I had to get the rest myself. We got persimmons for Carly, and he said 3 was the right number for those, so I went with that. Strawberries are getting cheaper – down to 7900 won, but there were also slightly old ones for 3000. So we went with one of those. Some looked edible, and the rest would be a smoothie in the morning. He also remembered letter crackers and wanted to look for them. They of course don’t have them, but I let him get some other cracker thing as a treat. He got mandarin slices and a piece of a yummy bun thing as free samples.

We got home a few minutes after 5:30. On the way over, and a little on the way back, I’d let him walk across the driveway and along the sidewalks. He did a really good job of looking around for cars, etc. Carly came home a few minutes later. He greeted her and said “I smell the nursing.” We were eating the strawberries at the time, so we all had some of those. They were quite good. Then they nursed and read some Pooh. We ate some dinner, then he really wanted to make the banana bread. So we did that. He helped a lot. All went smoothly except when I was trying to melt butter in the microwave. He kept wanting to change the power level, and tried swatting my hand away. He accidentally knocked Carly’s empty mug on the floor. Nothing broke or spilled, but it upset him, and he went and stood in the bathroom while Carly finished her shower. But when he came back out he helped me finish up, then helped wash all the dishes.

He then went in the parlor with Carly and closed the door. They nursed, and he played on the iPad. She made a deal with him to take a bath, but then he refused to leave the parlor. Finally, I asked if he needed some alone time, and he said yes. He agreed to a minute of alone time, then he would take a bath. It worked. He closed the door and we heard him talking to himself for awhile. When he came out, the banana bread beeped that it was done, and I said he could have some after his bath. I took him in and gave him a bath. He was sitting and playing again. A decent play time.

He was saying he was ready to nurse and sleep sometime after 8:30. They went in, but a little after 9 he came into the parlor saying he needed a tissue. He let me wipe his nose, then sat down and we read four book: Peppa at the Pool, Would You Feed It to the Monkey?, Rain, and Swirl by Swirl. We haven’t read those for some time. He laughed a lot at Rain – it is the reason he hops around as a frog all the time, after all. He went back in at 9:30 and fell asleep.

 

Hiding from Flynn the fox: 

Braille: 

Blue blocks: 

The sun: 

His shadow: 

Black bean juice: 

Trying the door: 

Mittens and a yawn: 

The wet-looking painting: 

First strawberry: