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7:18. He walked out and laid down on the reading area. First thing he wanted was iPad, but we read the What Are Clouds Made Of? book and had fun with that. He wanted Korean apps, and made words on the magnet board. He was then writing on the etch-a-sketch thing. We were writing Korean words, and I got out the little booklet things from his classes. One of them looks like a phone, and he started calling the animals on the cards. I had one of them ask what he was doing today, and he said “Going to Children’s Grand Park …children’s museum.” He remembered from our discussion the previous evening. We watched some Puffin Rock and had Cheerios for breakfast. I had gotten out a quilt and it was folded and sitting on the couch. He asked what it was, and when I said ‘quilt’ he got on it and started quacking, and said “Quacking on a quilt.” – the line from the “A Ah Apples…” song. He then made a nest out of it and the pillows in the corner of the couch. First he said it was a duck nest, then a dung beetle nest (from Puffin Rock). He was then feeding Baby Q (which he jokingly called Baby T) dung. He then decided he was feeding Baby Q ice, and so we discussed ‘brain freeze’, which he found funny, and which he seemed to understand (probably from eating frozen mango).

We headed down. On the subway he did some art on the iPad, and a woman was impressed as he was writing words in Korean on the iPad. We got off, and I set August and the backpack on a bench. Someone then bumped into me from behind, and didn’t move away quickly. My first thought was to check my pockets. But it was a student from Sejong University (she had a jacket), and she slumped down on the bench next to August and started calling someone on her cellphone. My first thought was that she was drunk, but then I realized she might be really sick and trying to make it to her classes. So I got August out of there. He had leaked though, so we stopped in the infant room in the station and changed him. As we left, he was singing songs, and he would finish one and say that song was “for the pelicans…for the slime.”

We went up to the park and to the new Yes and Yes convenience store to get lunch. But they didn’t have kimbap or sandwiches. Instead of going back down into the subway station, we went across the street to the one at Sejong University. Good choice, as they have a good selection. Went to the children’s museum and ate in the cafeteria.

He saw the little kids area from the cafeteria and wanted to play there. So we went in. He did some climbing in the center area, then we went up to the kitchen area. He did some tea, traded an apple for something else with a “baby”, and climbed around on the little chairs, tipping them over and making a sort of fort out of them. He went down the slide on his own, then played with some of the puzzles. There is a new wooden puzzle that does shapes, and he really liked that one. Then he asked where the “light blocks” were. He was referring to the blocks in the light area downstairs. It was getting on to nap time now, and I said we would change him first. He didn’t want that, but we got him changed. He was clearly tired, so we headed out for a nap.

But like yesterday he was quiet and let me sing for 15 minutes or so. But then he wanted apple. We stopped on a bench and ate, then started walking again. He said he didn’t want to nap though, and did his letter yelling thing again. Didn’t want to deal with a lot of walking in the 40 degree weather again, so we headed home. On the way two separate maintenance trucks that zoom around the walkways in the park came uncomfortably close to us. I’ve never liked how they speed along the paths as if they were roadways, and not walking paths, and don’t bother to signal.

We made it in one piece though. On the subway, we ate some of his Halloween pretzels (bat and pumpkin shapes), then he was really into art on the iPad. A guy wanted to take August’s photo. I have no problem with him just snapping a shot, but I knew he wanted August to look up, and I didn’t want to interrupt August’s art, so told him no.

On the walk from the station, he was saying long lines of nonsense, then saying he was playing a joke on a Smurf: “You were making a joke on Handy Smurf.” We stopped to look in at Pink Burger, and the guy who owns Mama Juice started talking to us. He said it should be open this weekend. August wanted to read the Hangeul on the Mama Juice sign, and the guy was impressed, and helped August with the translations he didn’t know – like tangerine and persimmon. August needed no help with pronunciation though, as he is now about as fluent as I am – he easily read ‘Americano’ and ‘caramel macchiato’ off the menu in Korean. August was also going through all of the flavors and declaring which ones he has tried and which he hasn’t: “You have not tried that one before.” I told him we could get some juice when we went back out for a walk, and he chose persimmon.

As we walked up, he randomly said “Fishy McFisherton”. I asked where he got that, and he said “From Mama”. We were at home for awhile, changed him (he had leaked a little, again – no idea why. Almost no leaking since we’ve been back in Korea, then twice today), then headed out in the stroller for Home Plus. We stopped and got his juice and a coffee for me. The guy let August put the straw in, and some splashed on me. No big deal.

At Home Plus August got out of the stroller when I looked at diapers. He started acting like a puppy dog, barking and pretending to lick me. When I left that aisle, he was behind me. I took too long to get moving, and, as he was on his hands and knees acting like a dog, he started pushing the back of my legs and saying “you can do it Dada.” He kept doing this, and scooting along the ground, for quite some time. When not pushing my legs and telling me I could do it, he would bark along beside me. I had to pick him up a couple times when he was in the way/drawing too much attention.

Finished our shopping and headed home. He sang my numbers version of the “Bottom of the sea” song much of the way. Despite liking the song, he had been having some trouble picture it (it goes “there’s a 4 on a 3 on a 2 on a 1 in a zero at the bottom of the sea…”) and kept asking “What’s that mean?” So when we got home I drew a picture for him on the etch-a-sketch thing. We also ended up singing the “Five Little Ducks” song – a song which he generally likes now, but still calls sad. I made a version where at the end the mama duck goes swimming and finds her missing ducklings, and he really liked that because he liked the happy ending. (I don’t think I mentioned that he found one awful version of the song on YouTube where the mama duck lost all the ducklings, but then the dada duck called them and they all came back. Yuck.)

Carly came home as he was at the counter with me, helping to make banana bread. We included some persimmon this time. August didn’t ask to nurse right away, but then did, then came back and helped me finish up. At some point he said “You like helping dada.” I gave him the spatula at the end and he sat on the floor and intently licked it for a few minutes. Carly got him in to the bath. He went in just fine, and was having fun. But when she started washing him a switch flipped and he was exhausted and wanted out. It was a pretty straightforward trip to bed and fight to put his pajamas on, and he was asleep about 7:30.

 

Photos: 

Banana bread: 

He was up at 6:25 and sad when Carly left. Wanted to get in stroller and go outside. But he didn’t want his coat. “I’ll just stay cold…just socks.” Of the coat he said “Put it in th stroller.” But he let me put his coat on once we got downstairs. First thing he asked was “What is it dark about?” Of course, it was also drizzling. We walked south around the pink building, then over to the park. We went up on the wooden pathway area, and he wanted to get out. I let him out, and he walked around for a couple minutes, doing some quiet singing, then he was ready to head home. As we got home, I said “Being outside makes you happy, doesn’t it?” He said “Yeah!” As we got out of the stroller, I felt his cold hands and told him he could wear gloves, and he said “Next time!”

We then checked the messages from Glecy and Gramma on his iPad, and he sent messages. We got ready to go, which took longer than expected, because as usual August kept finding distractions. I suggested we take the Korean elephant book for the long subway ride and he agreed, then when I suggested we get an English book he grabbed Horton Hatches the Egg, a big book. I wouldn’t let him take it, and he was a bit sad about that. I was sitting on the couch, and he took my spot: “That is my spot. You can’t sit there…that’s your spot.” We left at 9:40. I mentioned his gloves as we walked down the hall, and he actually wanted them on right away. So we walked back to the apartment and put them on. Took us awhile to figure out the fingers, but we got better through the day. He was happy with them.

On the train down he saw tildes on the subway map (listing starting and end points of each line) and so we practiced what tildes mean. He then was pretending to type, and wanted to understand commas. So I was explaining and giving examples, and he was repeating them, like “However comma we decided to go somewhere else.” He wanted more “tricks”. We read the elephant book once, with him doing all the reading, and me providing the English version. He played with the calculator app. Looking at the map, he said “오이도…you like that name.” He also wanted to list ‘ng’ words. And he mentioned various sounds on the subway: “m sound…u sound…cricket sound (a loud screeching noise)”

We walked up to CU, but they only had a couple rolls of spicy kimbap. We walked to the other CU, but there wasn’t anything there either. So back to the first one where we got two sandwiches, a bean bread thing, and an apple juice. Walked up to the zoo and ate by the giraffes. August didn’t wear his gloves on the way, and I got my first disapproving comments about his hands being cold as we walked by a couple of women close to the entrance.

After eating, we went and changed him. We talked about how we had changed him on different changing pads in the past (there is a whole row of them), and he spent a few minutes crawling back and forth on them, trying to choose one: “this one or this one…” He also randomly did a “grunt, snort” from Peppa Pig, and didn’t want to put his pants back on, saying “want to see animals in just a diaper”. After some more crawling around, he notes the pink posters, then we found pink things. He said “pink is my favorite color…we are finding pink things…”

We got walking. He was calm at first, and when I asked after a few minutes if he wanted me to start singing he said yes. But after about 20 minutes he said he was hungry. We sat down on the steps by the elephants and he sat next to me and we ate some apple and watched the elephant. While we were there a woman was taking a photo of her daughter and asked for August to be in the picture. I initially said no, but then I asked August and he wanted to do it, so he got up and stood next to her.

We got walking again, went and saw the lions, then tried for a nap again. But after awhile he started singing, then shouting letters in my ears. He wouldn’t stop, so I took the backpack off for a minute. He was now saying he wasn’t going to nap. It was too cold to mess around in the park just wandering around, so we started to head home. But then I decided we might not be back for a few months, and I wanted to see the tropical bird building, which we hadn’t yet been to. So we walked up there, and ended up spending a lot of time there. We spotted birds of different colors, he got down and read bird names in Korean, and we spent a lot of time looking at the egg exhibit.

You leave the building from the top, and there is a walkway to the ground. From there, we heard some of the water birds across the way, and August wanted to go see them. But first he spent a few minutes playing with the door heading out, which slides closed on its own. He’d need my help to get it going, then would push it open further, and let it shut.

Between the tropical birds and the water birds there is a random platform you can climb up. He wanted to do that, and he wanted to do the walking, although I think I ended up carrying him the last flight. Stayed up there a few minutes, then went into the water birds. We were just watching the birds for a few minutes, and he asked what all the water was for. I had just said something about there being fish in the water, since most of the birds eat fish, when a zookeeper came along pushing a cart, and dumped a big container of fish into the small pool near us. We spent the next 20+ minutes just watching the birds feed: how the pelicans catch fish and let the water run out of their mouths (and fish escape), the fighting between the storks (and the sounds they make) and how the loud red cranes ate first, and quickly, and then after they and the storks left, the kingfishers and swans started to feed. A literal pecking order. August was enthralled by all of this. I wasn’t having to convince him to stay.

Eventually he was ready to go. On our walk out, we walked by the nocturnal house, and I asked if he wanted to see the kinkajous, so we went in there for a few minutes and saw them (he spotted them first, when I couldn’t) and a few of the other animals. As we walked out of the park he was singing. He was using ‘mama jut’ in his song. ‘Mama jut’ is a mispronounciation of ‘Mama Juice’ and what would happen if you wrote ‘juice’ in Korean as a single syllable – as the ‘s’ sound in Korean at the end of a word has to make a ‘t’ sound. Anyway, August really liked that lesson when I gave it, and it stuck.

We changed him again (a bit more crawling around) and sat and ate some apples before taking off.

And as we were in about the exact same spot that a woman commented about his hands being cold on the way in, he spotted ‘apple’ (in Korean) on a banner across the street. We stopped to translate the whole thing, when suddenly I felt a tugging behind me/to the left. I literally thought I was going to fall over at first. A woman had decided that August was showing some ankle skin and took the initiative to pull down his pant leg while we were both looking the other way. I shooed her away and told her it was rude not to ask. I’m pretty sure she got the message.

At the station we had a few minutes, and he was still hungry. So we ate the red bean bun thing we had bought with lunch. It had a custard center, and August went straight for it. He decided he likes custard. On the train home he ate the last of the apple. He did some typing on the iPad, and we told Smurf stories: getting fish for the sea festival, their first cold day of the fall, etc. He was typing in the ‘search’ bar and it wouldn’t let him type anymore. So I deleted it. Big mistake. He didn’t get upset, but got whiny/sad and kept saying “I’ll just do the same one.”

We got off at Changdong and caught a 1144 bus pretty quickly. All was going well, and he had been high energy. But suddenly that changed and his head was down and eyes were closing. He fell asleep at 5:25 and was asleep when I went in the apartment and Carly saw him. I took him out of the backpack and he just slumped on the couch. I laid down and cuddl
ed next to him for a few minutes, since I never get to do that. Then, with some light tickling (very cute to hear him laughing in his sleep) and mentions of nursing, we woke him up at 5:40.

They nursed, then he typed on Carly’s computer. He was then pretending to type in the air (a new thing he’s been doing, then he’ll say who he was typing to) and said “I was sending Uncle Paul messages on Skype.” So we set up August’s email account on his iPad and he can now send emails to people now as well – useful for those people who don’t have/check Skype. He sent a few emails. Changed his diaper a bit later, and on the changing pad he said “Oh. My. Good. Ness.” Which reminded me that on the subway he had randomly said “dis-gus-tu-sing”. I don’t know where he gets that voice.

I changed the sheets, and he ‘helped’ and we read Mr. Gumpy. Played a bit on the bed, then on the couch. He was climbing all over me and the couch. He started saying crazy math problems using ‘361’ and a funny voice. Playing in the reading area, we did some Duplos and he told me to sleep. He was drawing on the magnetic smart board thing, and kept saying “I’m making a picture. Now don’t erase it. Or I can be sad. I’m gonna erase it myself.” Which I’m pretty sure was payback for deleting his typing earlier. Carly had given him his bath, and he did his usual complaining as we put his pajamas and diaper on – he would prefer to just nurse naked. It took awhile for him to get to sleep, and he somehow managed to take until close to 9.

 

Morning walk. Using the blanket: 

Photo with a random girl: 

Eggs: 

Asleep for a very short nap: 

On the couch: 

Up little past 6. Skype with Vivian. Came in to ask me what August was saying “cookie jar song”. He did a happy dance when I figured it out. Oatmeal and mango for breakfast. He wanted to see a video of bees making honey, so Carly pulled one up the iPad, and Vivian watched it through Skype. Cherie called at some point, and they skyped with her as well. When he wanted to nurse, he made a joke of not saying please after “want to nurse”, saying it then telling himself to say please.

We went out to go to the store and to the park. August decided he wanted to go straight to the park, so Carly went to the pink building and did the shopping, while he and I went to the playground. On the way to the elevator he was crawling and said he was a ghost. I asked why he was a crawling ghost and he said “because it is fun.”

At the playground we saw the swing swinging on its own and talked to the ghost. He climbed up on the shaky bridge and talked about the pattern of colors on them, then we played the foot stuck game. While pretending to get his foot stuck, his other foot slipped through as well. He was left dangling, holding on to the two railings. I had to go help him, but he didn’t get upset. He kept talking about it, saying “you were swinging…you were swinging like a monkey.” He did the tube slide thing with my help, then played with the swing. He said something that reminded me of the Beatles song “Ob-La-Di” and he liked it, and he said “you can dance to it later.” He played on the teeter totter, and another girl got on the other end and they played together. He wanted to go, but as we started to walk out, he said “You’re going to find your froggy nest.” He went up into the bushes, and played in those for a few minutes. On the way back, he held my hand crossing the street, then walked across the driveway on his own, like he wanted to do last night. Carly caught up to us as we looked into the progress on Pink Burger, the new burger place that was being built.

At home we spent the some time reading a Korean poster, then we went and read the Mother Goose book. On the Elsie Marley one he said it was Tia Cassie, then “Oops, Mama.” On the iPad, he was sending emojis to my mom, and recorded a video and sent it without us knowing. In on the paper, he was writing ‘LMNOP’, then ‘bit’ and ‘bite’. He explained the silent E the way I do it for him: “the E comes along and says hey. You need to say I…”

Derek was bringing Rosie over to the park, so I took August back down to the playground while Carly made spaghetti sauce. I played with August a bit, and got the stick out of the backpack when he wanted to write in the dirt, but mainly I talked to Derek, and August played well on his own – he acted silly and walked shapes on the ground, and walked backwards. He went over and hung on the climbing wall on his own. He then went over to the dinosaur foot prints and wanted to play in them. Rosie came over and played there a bit, then Derek left with her. August laughed at Derek and gave him a high five before he left. August kept playing in the footprints, and counted leaves and rocks as he dropped them in. He had wanted to splash in puddles again, but there was barely any water in them. I talked about going home and eating some spaghetti. August said “it’s going to be messy…you doesn’t like that…the messy.”

He ate some spaghetti and then went to sleep, from 12:50 to 2:05. They nursed for a long time, then he was typing. I was impressed that he’s figured out the shift key and can do that all on his own. He said “You have the parentheses down.” Carly and I wanted to go for a walk, and I asked August if he wanted the backpack or stroller. He said “I agree to stroller.” Before we left, he was pretending to sit by the “iggly wiggly” worms before we left. “I’m just sitting by the iggly wiggly worm.” I asked “Is that from Puffin Rock?” He replied “No. it’s not.” Which is a joke, because it is.

We headed out for a walk at 3. We walked up the stream and went to the park where he had split his chin open. Carly went on the swings, and August got on the rocking toys for awhile. They then went and dug a hole in the sand and made mountains that August kept smashing. I took over for awhile. Before we left, he spent a few minutes being a kitty cat in the bushes and hiding. We walked home, and as we got close to home he was spitting water on the ground from the stroller. He did it a couple times in the building and I told him to stop. He said “I spit water out of my trunk…I’m done spitting water.”

At home we read the Korean poster, then Snoozers, then part of New Kid on the Block. We ended up singing “If you’re happy and you know it” and he wanted more and more verses. One we did was ‘scrunch your neck’ and he really liked that. I changed him, and he was pretending to be an elephant. He was then writing and doing art on the smart board thing while we listened to  Amanda Palmer’s ‘Piano is Evil’. Next, we read the Korean elephant book, and August did much of the reading. Carly remembered the slime, and I got it out and they played with that for a long time. Carly gave him a bath, and there was lots of laughing. He came out, and actually wanted to get back in. Going to bed was pretty straightforward, and he was asleep by 8:30.

Photos. Skyping with Vivian: 

With Rosie: 

Park: 

He was up with Carly at 6:30. They looked out in the hallway, Skyped with Oma and Opa, and Carly showed August a video of snow. After I was up, August wanted to go back out in the hall: “I want to go in the hallway…I suppose I can.” He sat on the cold floor, naked, and noticed there weren’t many people outside. Back inside, Carly offered him cheese: “I’m good for now. I can have more later.” He wanted back outside. We went for awhile: he did ribbit, we checked the mail, and he sat in a baby seat mysteriously by the bicycles. Back inside, Carly commented on how he knows his directions – when she had said ‘north’, he had said ‘south’. That comes from all of our talk about the subway lines and riding the busses. Anyway, back inside, we wrote words on paper, figuring out which words ending in ‘s’ end in a ‘s’ sound or ‘z’ sound. We read the elephant book, mostly translated now, then he decided he wanted to go back in the hall. We were done with that for awhile, so carly distracted him with teaching him about timers and stopwatches on her computer.

I took a shower and they got ready and went outside. I caught up and found them in the petrified rock garden. He was acting like a frog on ththe rocks, and getting berries. Played there a few more minutes. On the way back he wanted to go in the science center, but there is a sign saying it is closed through the end of the year.

At home he wanted to play in the hall, but settled for lunch. Kimbap and apple. He did the map puzzle with Carly, then he and I read Biscuit Goes Camping and Old King Cole.

He was then ready for a nap, and slept from 12:00 to 1:40. They did a lot of nursing after that, then he had rice curry for lunch. He and I then wrote on the paper. He wrote “Mama”, then called “Hey mama! Can we nurse?” Carly told him he’s a big kid and didn’t need to nurse. “No, no. I do a baby.” He was then pretending to be a baby, and did a baby cry, etc. Carly was teasing him, telling him that if he was a baby he couldn’t walk, talk, etc. They then played with Smurfs, and then he typed in search on my iPad. We then read Elmo ABC. He got a hair in his mouth and said “it was slurpy.”

We got ready to go to the Halloween gathering, and Megan came over at 4:45 to go with us. We walked down and caught the 111 over to Luceen. We were a bit early, so had time to put our costumes on: Carly was 17, I was 11, and August was 14. August found it odd to walk in his costume, but seemed amused by it. We met up with everyone else, and August got to take a swing at a piñata. Then took a group photo, and headed up for some trick or treating. At the first place August got a cookie. We then went to the Meyers’ place and he and Cora and Megan had fun playing with the oobleck slime. By the end they were mixing it up, making a big ball of slime. He was playing next to Cora, who was wearing a Peppa Pig costume, and I asked if he wanted to say hi to her. He turned and said “Hi, Cora.” I then asked him if he wanted to say he liked her costume, and he turned and did that.

We left and went outside. August was playing with Megan’s wand, which lit up. Cora was going home, so I had him say goodbye and compliment her on her costume again. We got August in the backpack, and the group walked over to Lotte. August was singing along the way, and casting spells on me to turn me into a tree and other animals. At Jodi’s he got candy and a plastic spider, then at Melinda’s was the first time he actually got to say “Trick or treat”.

The final destination was Caroline’s house. I took him out of the backpack and he immediately started acting like a kitty cat. Took him down the hall to get his treats, and he was really excited by the bags of pretzels. His favorite food of the evening though was the cornbread. He drank some mango juice, then sat on the floor and ate some pizza with me. He was lying down and scooting around the floor a lot. After awhile he calmly said “let’s go home”. But we stayed another 15 minutes or so. He got to choose a piece of a cupcake, and he chose the red one. Then watched a couple minutes of Charlie Brown before we left. As we left, I picked him up and told him to say goodbye to everyone, nice and loud. He said “Bye, everyone” and waved.

Megan left with us, and we all took the bus home. As we got out of the bus, his coat was bothering him, and I took him out of the backpack. He walked some, then had me pick him up as we crossed the street. We had a little conversation about being safe across the street, and that one day he’d be able to cross it himself, etc. and as we walked into the building he wanted back down, to walk across the driveway part on his own. He kept wanting to go back, saying “I’ll just cross it.” Back home, he went to sleep pretty easily, just before 9.

Hallway:

Photos. Dancing: 

Park with mama. Froggy getting worms: 

Trick or Treating: 

Slime: 

Wand: 

He was fascinated with the masks, and had just been touching this one. Missed that, but thought it was still a good photo: 

Floor: 

Charlie Brown: 

6:56. Took a look in the parlor, then went and opened the door and looked out for a minute. Then went and sat in front of the paints and wanted to paint. Took a couple minutes of stretching and rubbing his eyes before he was ready to paint. Did some painting, then we ate banana bread and he typed in search. Then played on the piano, singing Ants Go Marching. He wanted to go look out in the hall, so went and looked out. A neighbor walked by, and August said ‘hi’ after he had passed. He heard a car honk, and said “I like cars…that honk a little.” He then went out into the hall and hopped around as a froggy for awhile. I didn’t want him making too much noise, so we want back in after a minute.

We played with Duplos, and made shapes: “that’s a filled up square…you put lots of colors in it.” We sat in the reading area and read Mother Goose. For the one about Elsie Marley, which he used to say looked like mama, he said  “That’s Jeff…Tia Cassie. Fine.” But then for the Cat and the Fiddle one he looked at the dish and spoon and said “Those are mamas.” We wrote on the paper, and he wanted to copy the ‘libros espanol’ sign. He was working on his ‘b’ and ‘d’, saying “you’re not good at it.” But then we worked on them for awhile, practicing both.

We then watched some Puffin Rock, and I took a shower. He was watching word songs after that, and singing along to much of them. He was also singing along to much of the Puffin Rock theme song. He often watches the song a few times, practicing it. Finally, we searched for ‘alien’ for some reason on YouTube, and an episode of Timmy Time came up about aliens. We watched that, and left at 10:20.

As we walked out the building, he was pretending to see seagulls (from Puffin Rock) and combined that with the silent E song: “No seagulls here. Wait, the seagulls are changing grac to grace.”

On our way downtown, he talked about wanting a slurpy thing. We walked into GS25 in Insadong and he pointed straight for the water jelly drinks. I think he remembered from the last time we went to the folk museum, as he immediately asked for the mango one and talked about liking it the best. As we went to cross the street, Atsuko came up to us. We talked for a minute, then the light changed and we headed on our way.

We walked up to the Folk Museum. Along the way, they were filming a TV show or something in the narrow street from Insadong to the art museum. August wanted to stop in our usual spot behind the art museum for lunch, but I convinced him to go over to the folk museum. We checked the wait times for the play areas, then sat outside and ate lunch. Then headed in at noon. Of course, he decided to be Oona on the way in, which involved crawling and pretending to sleep on the ground outside in front of a big group of older kids.

We could go to the tree area first. Up there, he typed, climbed in the window of the hanok house, did more of the typing, played with the hammering thing, then did some art, drawing what he said was a bird.

We then went downstairs to the new exhibit, on animals in Korean mythology. He climbed on the climbing area, wrote little notes and sent them up a pneumatic tube, then spent most of his time playing in the ball pit in the ‘Underwater palace’ area.

We headed out, changing him in the infant room. As usual, he played in the crib for a few minutes, curling up and pretending to sleep. We got walking, and he had some crackers to start. Then singing, then wanting more food. We walked along a new road, up by the hanok village, then stopped to get out some apple. Ate for a few minutes, then kept walking, through the village and back towards the art museum. Finally, he fell asleep, and slept from 2:12 to 3:17 in Latteya Coffee.

After he woke up, we went to the Kukje Gallery and saw the Anish Kapoor and Wook-kyung Choi exhibits, which close on Sunday. I’d wanted to see the Kapoor, and Meg and sent me an article about the Choi. The first Kapoor pieces we saw, were the big black circles using Vantablack, the darkest pigment yet created: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/anish-kapoor-seoul-kukje-gallery-615575

August preferred the big mirror pieces in Kapoor, and in the Choi we talked about what we saw in the pieces. I mentioned that one looked like Korea, and so then in another I asked what he saw, and he said Myanmar. Then said the red part was India, and black was Mongolia. He wasn’t a huge fan of the art, but made it through.

We talked about going and playing outside at the folk museum, but I decided it was too late. We walked to the station, and stopped to get a snack. They were the round bread things. I ordered six, but August kept saying “No. Seven.” So the guy gave us a free one. He slathered them in sauce and the onion flake stuff, which August seemed a bit disturbed about.

We headed the rest of the way home. At Kwangwoon we transferred to the bus. As we went over the river, I asked if he saw any birds. He pointed far off, and said “Maybe that’s a bird off in the distance.” I asked where he had learned ‘off in the distance. He said “Kwangwoon University”. I asked what had been off in the distance, and he said “a chicken.” I remembered now, although he had the location wrong (I think). He was referring to previous times we had eaten behind the art museum (ironically, the spot we walked past today). We had once heard a chicken ‘off in the distance’. That was last year. A few weeks ago, I had told him about that as we were eating lunch there. So it has come up. I also think that maybe it had, in fact, been discussed as we walked through Kwangwoon University a week or so ago. Anyway, interesting to see how he remembers and connects things.

Also, he was talking about a ‘snack’ and explaining how to pronounce ‘snack’ in Korean – that is, as two syllables. This is a new game, where he takes English words and sort of turns them into Konglish.

Carly was staying a bit late to get work done. August was frustrated by this news on the bus, but handled it fine when we got home. We ate the bread ball things, which turned out to have octopus in them. However, August thought I was playing the ‘Oops ingredients’ game when I told him, and wouldn’t believe me. I’d say “Octopus”, and he’d say “Oops! No octopus!” So we settled on ‘sausage’. He liked those (luckily, not spicy). We then heard the noise of a drill from another apartment. He was pretty fascinated by it: “I like that noise…maybe it was a zzz noise…want to go check.” He then did a painting, and when done set it up on the counter to dry and to show Carly.

She got home, and they nursed. Her and I were trying to talk about work stuff, and August kept interjecting, trying to change numbers, or saying the opposite of whatever word she used. He’s definitely getting opposites. We typed on Skype, and I helped him type all of ‘octopus’. He wanted an octopus emoji, so we found that. Carly had put pants back on him without a diaper, and he remembered this time and went pee on the toilet. Later, he would start to have an accident, and felt a little bad about it. There was more watching and signing of the Puffin Rock song, and he did some drawing with the glass crayons. He was upset when Carly wouldn’t let him use them on the costumes.

Carly got his bath ready, and I gave him a bath. He did not want to get in though, and kept trying to avoid it. Eventually I had to be firm about it, and he melted down. A quick wash, but at the end of it he just kept calling for mama, and wouldn’t get out of the water. He kept insisting that mama wash him, although we were already done. Eventually, she got him out of the bath, and in on the bed. He then couldn’t handle her putting on the diaper or pajamas. Definitely his biggest meltdown/fit in recent memory. Luckily, still really cute. He fell asleep about 8:30, but twice woke up and walked out and Carly put him back to bed.

 

Photos. Slurpy drink:

Tree exhibit: 

Animal exhibit: 

Crib: 

Anish Kapoor sculpture: 

Money for musician: 

Floor of the subway: 

Bus: 

Octopus balls: 

Hiding as George: 

7:07. He laid down on the reading area and I thought he might go back to sleep as he had his eyes open. Spent a few minutes on the floor stretching and rubbing his eyes.  First thing he wanted to do was paint, so we did that. Then read the Little Kipper Collection. We ate Special Flakes for breakfast, then he did a second painting. We watched some Puffin Rock, then I slipped off and took a shower. He sent a lot of time sending Skype messages, then did some yellow art on the paper. I spent some time organizing books and pulling books we don’t read much anymore. He got interested, and wanted to do the Cheerios book, so we got out some Cheerios for that. We then ate Cheerios for a second breakfast. He was still hungry after that, so we ate some sweet chili meatballs. They were a little spicy, but he liked that. We listened to Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, and he asked what it was. I made a ‘libros espanol’ sign for a basket of books. He wanted to write on it, and was sad when I wouldn’t let him. He didn’t get upset, really, but just kind of crawled around the apartment and laid down everywhere. He did some more painting, then we read the Korean Elephant on a Line book, translating much of it. Before we left, he started a new game, on the posters and paper, of reading Korean words backwards.

We went to his Teuni Teuni class and had a good class. It was all about golf: rolling balls into holes, hitting them with clubs, walking along green paths, etc. August had fun with it, but seemed confused as to why he should use a stick to hit the ball, when he could just use his hands to put the balls in the cups, etc. And his favorite activity was actually scooting around on his socks, which we had taken off, and pretending to slip and fall. I’m not sure where he came up with that one.

After class he got his treat and handstamps, then we went downstairs and got kimbap and a sandwich. We then walked towards Eunhang Junction, and stopped at the park past Toys R Us. Ate our lunch there and played around the bench a bit. August spilled a bit of soy milk, and had fun kicking dirt over it to clean it up. He’d initially wanted me to use a spray bottle to clean it up, but I had suggested that instead. As we walked, he recited lines from But Not the Hippopotamus, changing the end to “Yes the armadillo.”

We kept walking east. We came upon a clothing store named Zinnia. We read it, and August was excited when he realized what it was. He kept walking, but August wouldn’t fall asleep. I found a road up the hill, and we kept walking up it, steeper and steeper. It crossed the Seoul Trail, and ended at a Buddhist Temple called Hakdoam. He heard the drumming and chanting, and kept saying he liked that noise. We walked up behind the temple, and saw the little buddhist figures, which he noticed, and the big etching in the rock. Looked at the other buildings up there, then headed back down. As we left, he said “It’s a Buddhist temple.”

On the road, he wanted to get out of the backpack. He whined a bit when I said no, then said “Fine. I’ll just sleep.” He then put his head down and pretended to sleep for a bit. Popped up and sang a bit, then actually did fall asleep. He slept from 2:55 to 4 at a place called Petit Gateau. I was going to wake him up at 4, but he woke up on his own as I started to get up.

We walked to 새싹어린이공원, a park we hadn’t been to before. It turns out it is the biggest playground we’ve found. It was also after school was out, so it was incredibly busy. We got out of the backpack and had a little snack. A bunch of older kids crowded around him for a minute. We hung out for a couple minutes, then he was ready to head home. We walked a bit north, and caught the 1140 home.

On the way home, he asked “What’s persimmon in Korean?”

We got home a bit after Carly. They nursed and read Pooh, then he wanted the iPad. He watched Puffin Rock, then some Peppa Pig. He and Carly did art together, and worked on his 14 costume. He was asking about what costumes other people were going to wear, and said he wanted Uncle Paul to be 14 as well.

I made banana bread, and let August lick the spatula. He then wanted to help. I hadn’t asked him to help with the banana bread because he had been having fun doing art with Carly. He got really sad about that. Carly then gave him a bath. He tried to avoid getting in again, curling up outside the bath. She then got him in and he was fine, but then snuck out when she got up to get her computer for Skype. He then didn’t want to get back in, and got upset. They did a quick bath, then nursed in the bedroom and read Mr. Gumpy.

Carly then took a shower, and he played Duplos with me. We then read and translated more of the elephant book. He was hungry and ate the rest of the apple, then nursed with Carly. He randomly said “Into the water they fell” When I asked what that was from, he said Mr. Gumpy.” They read some Pooh, then he and I made a hexagon out of Duplos.

Banana bread was ready, and he was excited about that. We ate some banana bread, and he danced to the Bach we were listening to. Carly and I started to dance as well, and he said “Stop, stop, stop.” We were talking about Puffin Rock, and I couldn’t remember the foxes name, and he did, Flynn.

We went in to bed, and read Picasso’s Trousers and Biscuit’s Picnic. In reading Biscuit’s Picnic, we realized it had only 1 silent E word in it: cake. Carly came in, and he didn’t want to put on his pajamas. But we suggested he work on putting on his own pajamas, and he really liked that idea. So Carly helped him, and he did what he could, giggling as he did it. He was asleep just before 10.

Class:

Photos: 

Class: 

Soy milk. Down his shirt: 

And on the ground: 

Zinnia store: 

 Busy playground: 

Costume: 

7:32. Quiet and sleepy for a few minutes. Then wanted to type, but first we read But Not the Hippopotamus and Barnyard Dance. Then to typing. We ate oatmeal and banana for breakfast. I got up saying it needed a little honey for flavor. He ran out saying “It’s mild! It’s mild!” I wanted to take a shower, and said he could watch Puffin Rock.  But he insisted I watch with him. So did that for a few minutes before slipping off to take a shower while he was drawing on the paper, writing 잎 and 입. Back to Puffin Rock after my shower, he was really excited when one of the characters said “okie dokie” (which he says is “okie fokie”) and the narrator said “oopsie daisy”. And of Silky, the seal, he said “I like that name!” He sat up on the chair, and talked about puffins, and said “The Puffin has an idea.” – a reference to the narrator saying that Oona always has ideas.

He did a lot of typing, and we told Smurf stories: one about the smurfs running out of red crayons, another about Gargomel pretending to be a seal, etc. At some point he climbed on my back to have a piggy back ride like Baba does in Puffin Rock. He requested the Jolly Song song videos on YouTube, then got to watch too much YouTube as I spent a lot of time on the phone with T-Mobile solving our summer bill. But at least that is over.

He wanted to do more painting, so we did that. He had learned the word ‘calligraphy’ yesterday, and asked me to do some calligraphy now. I trimmed my nails, and offered to do his. He said “No. that hurts. I’ll just file them.” So we filed his nails, and he tried it himself. He ran it on his palms and I asked if he liked it. He said “Yeah! It’s weird.”

We got going and walked up a couple blocks and took the 1139 bus to Danggogye. While we waited he read the King Kong restaurant sign on the bus stop. Got off at the last stop, and walked up to a new park to us, called 갈월어린이공원. It was also a new park in general, as it looked brand new. Just a standard children’s park, except it a.) had a built-in trampoline, and b.) had an approved sidewalk chalk area. Didn’t do sidewalk chalk today, but did the former.

We sat and ate, and he wanted to confuse some of his bites. We spotted a cat on a roof – can’t remember if me or him spotted the first one. But later he spotted another one. I looked and didn’t see it. Do you still see it?” “No. it is behind the tree. I can’t see it.” Turned out it was a dog. August was excited to see it up closer.

After eating, we wrote Hangeul, then went on the trampoline. He did some on his own, and we also jumped together. He would jump awhile, then say he was dizzy. We took a break from it and did some writing with the stick. He kept climbing over my legs, and cuddling in my lap, saying “between” and acting like Oona, the Puffin. I asked if he wanted to go on the trampoline again: “No,  I’m too wimpy for that.” We walked to the other end of the park, and he spent a lot of time reading out the Hangeul on a big banner. He said “Want to write all of it.” Luckily, he only had me write a bit of it. He kept reading the banner, played with the sand table, and was singing. He got the attention of a woman for awhile.

Eventually, it was time for a nap. Past 1:30. We went walking around the foothills and checked out one other park. He wasn’t falling asleep. Took 40 minutes. He fell asleep at 2:27 and slept to 3:24 in 17 Street Coffee – a place Carly and I had been to before.

He woke up and wanted get walking. We walked through the big park (수락산당고개공원), but he didn’t want to stop. We found a tiny little park (진달래공원), which was worth it because there was cool tile work on two big fish shapes. Kept going, admiring all the different brick patterns on buildings as we took back streets through an area we’ve never been before.

We got to one last park (무궁화어린이공원). The name means Hibiscus Children’s Park, and August liked learning ‘hibiscus’ and we looked up photos of it. He got out and we had a snack. He then climbed on the yellow climbing wall, and spent the next 15 or 20 minutes just playing on it. He was joking around, saying “Beats me purple urple…purple lurkin…” He didn’t want to go down the slide, but told me to: “Dada go down the bumpy one. I don’t like the bumpy one. I’m just climbing by myself. Bye.” He kept singing the ABC song, so I kept saying ‘potato’ in it: “Next time won’t you potato with potato.” He thought that was funny and said “Dada has a glitch.”

Now past 4:30, we got going. He noticed a strong smell. We talked about it, and recognized it, and he said he liked it. Finally hit me that it was the smell of coffee roasting. We got to Sanggye Station and caught the 1140 bus home. The 1139 was coming sooner, but doesn’t go as close to home. August really wanted the 1139, but let me wait, and was interested in the decision making process: “This one is slower.”

We were late getting home, and Carly was already there. They nursed, then painted together. Carly and I were talking about her music project. She said ‘power in society’ To which he said “No. Don’t say that.” His version of the sentence she should say instead was “The music thing goes on an adventure.” They nursed, he typed on Skype, ate mandu and curry rice with me, then watched an episode of Puffin Rock with me. He was climbing on me and couch being a puffin, then pretending to swing like a Puffin. We then read Five Minutes of Peace. We took one of his socks off and threw it at Carly, then he had fun throwing it at us. He forgot to take the other sock off though.

He saw his art from earlier and said “I see a very nice painting.” They painted, then nursed. One of said ‘remember’, and August didn’t want us saying that as well. He kept saying “Don’t say ‘remember’” He’s also gotten into using ‘No’ regularly; not just when answering questions, but in telling us what he doesn’t want us to do.

Took him in to give him his bath. He was playing around, not wanting to get in the water. He curled up on the floor between my legs and the bath and pretended to sleep. I said something, and he said “Just be quiet dada. Don’t be loud.” We were playing in the bath, and he was holding onto my arms and the side of the bath and jumping up and down. Suddenly, he decided to sit down. Took a couple of minutes before he was comfortable doing so and not holding onto me and/or the side of the tub, but it happened. He was excited about it and proud of himself. I played with him a few more minutes, then Carly and I traded so I could go look at something she was writing.

After his bath, August and I read Snoozers. We then went in on the bed and he was ready for sleep pretty quickly. He went to sleep just after 9.

 

Photos. Waking up: 

Art: 

Playground: 

Walking: 

Playground 2: 

Home: 

Bath: 

7:22. He walked in on the reading area and whispered “Watch Puffin Rock.” First we read Five Minutes’ Peace and All in One Piece. Then watched Puffin Rock. Episode 10. A couple times he called it a “funny one”. Special Flakes for breakfast. We did a lot of writing. We were watching a sight words video, and I was writing them all on the paper. He was then writing them as well: have, play, you, the, etc. I took a shower and came out to find him sending Carly messages on Skype. We then worked together to type ‘ghost’ a bunch of times. I wiped his nose and said he needed to learn to blow his nose. He replied “I’m not very good at blowing the nose.” We did a lot of typing, and he found the ‘undo’ button on the iOS keyboard, so learned what means and does.

He requested the “A to Z” and “two letter” (digraph) Jolly Songs videos, so watched those several times. When I said one more time, he watched the song once more then turned it off. He got down and wanted take out the piano keys: “Want to make a mess of the white and black things.” He was reluctant to put them back in, but worked with Green Monster to do so. We were then writing words again, and he was confusing me with something. I think it may have had to do with the aquarium, so he started talking about the aquarium map: “Ocean Kingdom” and square  and blue something – and he remembered the broken stamp.

I was getting us ready, and put the blue Adidas sweatshirt on him. He was not happy about it “I’ll choose. Different one.” But then he wouldn’t choose a different one. I tried putting him in the backpack a couple times, but he wouldn’t let me. We ended up sitting on the couch, him leaning against me, for awhile, and I think he started to fall asleep. But suddenly he startled back awake. He was then joking about falling asleep, wanting me to pretend to wake him up (a reversal of the usual pretending-to-sleep roles): “Dada wake you up.” For awhile he was opposed to Children’s Grand Park, instead saying I should just pick a different stop to go to: “Dada pick a stop.” Finally, he wanted to figure out what the door says when we lock it. Think I figured it out. It is basically ‘It is done.’ Then he suddenly wanted to leave. It was about 12.

We headed down to the park, bought kimbap and little eggs, and went up to the cafeteria. He ate, told me he was full, and that he wanted to play. It was about 1, so I gave him a short time to play. We went to the play side of the third floor, and he chose the water area. He acted like he hadn’t played there before – it has been many months – as he kept asking what he could do. I put the apron on, and he was fine with that – helped, I think, because it was yellow and yellow is a favorite-ish color right now. It was fun to see him in it though and playing with the balls and spray things. We worked together on a couple of the pumps, but mainly he played at the little kids part. When he was done he came and said “I’m ready to go.” Then, as I changed him he said “You had fun.” We left, and as I put him in the backpack outside I said “Ready for a good nap?” And he said “Yeah!”

Took about 15 minutes to put him to sleep, and he slept from 1:57 to 3:24, in the coffee shop. We had about an hour when we left. I suggested animals, since we haven’t really seen them since we’ve been back. He was fine with that. As we walked up to the primates, I said “Look, maroon baboons!” (As one of our variations on Carly’s ‘beats me, brown tree’ saying is ‘maroon baboon’. To which August flatly replied “It’s brown”. I tried again. Same response.

It was perfect weather for the animals, as they were all active. Watched the baboons, then headed in and saw the elephants, then around back to the hyenas. I pointed out that they live in Africa, so after that he was asking, for each animal, “Where does it live?” He was quickly reading ‘Africa’ on the maps, and sounding out other words (in English). He was looking at the shapes on the maps, and said of Africa “The shape is a blob.” We watched the foxes, lynx, and servals. I saw a guy trying to startle one of the animals, so told August he shouldn’t do that, and to be nice to the animals instead. I suggested that dancing for them would be nicer. August started a little dance in the backpack, so then we were dancing for each of the animals before saying goodbye. Looking at the shape of the Asian bear habitat, he said “It looks like a dinosaur horse.”

He said he wanted to see the donkey (he is into donkeys now thanks to Eeyore, and one of the short songs in the Jolly Songs digraph video). We walked over there. They were in the back, but came running up to us. August said hi to them, and danced some more.

We then went and sat on the bench and had the apple cookie that’s been in the backpack from last week. We then spent a long time with the seals. He was naming them all and saying hi, and also naming things like the water and pine needles floating in it. From there, back over to the deer. He had been out of the backpack since the snack. He wanted up for a second, and as I picked him up he said  “I love you. A ton of Qs.” Watched people feed the deer, and he got into reading all the signs about not feeding them, etc. He did a lot of sounding out, and we translated a bunch of words. He was also interested in the deer poop: “What the different shapes about?” “What they poop on the ground about?” “What they don’t use toilets about?”

He was ready to go. As we were walking out of the park, he asked “What is leaf in Korean?” Had to look it up. I’d had forgotten about “Don’t put the 잎 in your 입!” And made him laugh by saying it. They have put in some toys by the old animal riding area, and we noticed a couple of the robot sculptures are there now. We checked out the new gift shop (used to be a photo place) and the robots (to make sure the rest are all still there) on our way out.

On the subway, he asked for the iPad: “Pretty please!” I asked “Where’d you learn that?” He immediately replied “From mama!” We played with the visual calculator app on the way home. On the walk home he was singing the ants go marching. We paused to see the work on the burger place. He said “they got the tile done … The couch done.”

At home he nursed. Carly said ‘yuck’ about something, to which August said “Don’t say yuck. Say stoon-dee.” He wanted to paint with Carly. He looked at his last painting and said “There’s a lovely picture right there.” They painted, then I painted with him. Carly got a bath ready for him. I tried to give him a bath, but he didn’t want to go in. He tried escaping to the bed, and changing room. Got him cornered by the bath. Took a few minutes, but finally coaxed him in without tears. We played with the watering can, pouring out big splashes. Then he was done, although not washed yet. But when I let him squirt out the soap his attitude changed on that as well.

We read Elmo ABC, Moo Baa La La La, and LMNO Peas. He then did more painting with Carly, and they worked on making Halloween stuff. Earlier, she had started to make his costume, which involved taping paper to his clothes. He was intrigued by that, and let her do it. Now, she was working on his basket. He was acting really tired and wanted to nurse, but it was only 8:20, so I was skeptical. Took him in on the bed and they nursed a bit, then he bounced up for a story. I read Kiss Goodnight, Kipper, and Kipper’s Toybox, then he was ready for sleep and asleep about 9.

Oh, and earlier in the day, before we left, he had been asking what an ‘expert’ is. Not sure where he learned that, but it was clear. So I explained that, but tried to keep it positive (can always become more expert, etc.) He said “Zinnie an expert at coloring”. And I think he said it about something like ‘hangeul’ or ‘sounding out’. Something along those lines.

 

He woke up at 4:30 and wanted to nurse in the parlor. Carly went out with him and he was up until some time after 5:30. He mostly watched Puffin Rock and also sat there staring off into space.

He fell back to sleep on the reading area and was back up at 7:30. A rough one. Kept repeating “I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go…” and “I’ll nurse, I’ll nurse, nurse…” He wanted to go outside. First time we walked around the park. But he got upset when I put on his sweatshirt. Went home and he wanted back in the stroller. More successful this time and we walked along the stream and saw some ducks. By the time we got back he was making jokes about Hangeul and asking me for the tempo of something he started chanting.

He then typed messages to mama. He wanted to type the ghost emoji but said “you’re not good at typing.” Kind of like the Darong game yesterday. So we worked on the typing together. We then sat together and watched Puffin Rock for awhile. At some point he then turned to me and said “Dada needs some tea.” I asked if he needed anything and he said “I just need some milk.” He spent some time being a hedgehog under the chair. We were then writing on the paper and he asked “What’s teeter totter in Korean?” He wanted to do art: “lots of work”. He then watched Puffin Rock while I showered. We did some play dough, printing letters.

We then skyped with my parents to say happy birthday to my mom. He was quite into skype today. He was typing to them, and created a pattern, where he was typing a closed parentheses, two periods, a letter, two more periods, and another letter or number. Kept doing that over and over.

I gave him some options for lunch and he said “I prefer Mandu.” He was really into the Silent E song, so we watched it and a couple others while we ate.

Then it was off for a nap. Supposedly. We walked for 33 minutes. At the beginning he made up a new alphabet song, where he worked through the alphabet, singing A is for (nonsense word), then reviewing the last few letters and then doing the next one. He was silent, with his head down much of the time. At 33 minutes he was singing again though. Stopped for a minute, then kept walking for another 6. No change, so we stopped at the playground by the youth center and sat and had a snack. He also walked around a little, and did some writing in the air. We then walked for another 22 minutes, during which he kept singing, before we returned home.

We got inside, and were sitting inside the door, talking about something. I typed something on my phone, and he said “Poop on dada.” I looked down and yes, yes there was poop on my arm. He had reached down his diaper. We changed him and got washed up. We then went back to the paper and I was writing more English and Korean words for him to copy.

He was acting tired though, and I didn’t feel there was any way he would make it to 7. So we headed back out in the backpack. He was singing his new ABC song much of the way there, but quieted down and fell asleep at 3:50, right before we got to Toys R Us. I did a quick look in Lotte Mart for butter, and in Toys R Us for Halloween costumes – no luck on either. I went to the infant room and rested for about 15 minutes, then we headed home. I was going to wake him up when we got home, but the sound of the door keys at 4:22 did that for me.

He wasn’t ready to wake up, so it was a tough one. More “I’ll nurse, I’ll nurse, I’ll nurse…” and he crawled to the door. Calmed down after awhile though and played until Carly got home.

Carly got home and they nursed. He wanted to paint, and said that dark blue was his favorite color. Carly asked “When is green going to be your favorite color?” His reply: “For Halloween.” He shared soup with me again, and we went and read LMNO Peas and 123 Peas. We watched the Silent E song and typed up the words so we could sing it later. We wrote words, and he was singing the “If you’re looking for an vowel” and  “a e I o u and sometimes Y”. We were writing full lines from the Silent E song.

Carly gave him a bath and this went smoothly from there. He was asleep about 9:00. 

Cold: 

Upset: 

Hedgehog: 

Too close: 

Done:

Writing in the air:

Toys R Us: 

The night’s painting: 

He was up a bit after 7. Did a lot of skyping with Vivian and Oma and Opa. While skyping with Vivian, he insisted that Jeff’s favorite color is brown and that his name starts with a G. At some point, he said “play group” to Carly, and she asked how he knew what a play group was and he said “Peppa”.

I made pancakes for breakfast, and shared with him. As he ate the last piece of it, he asked “What the sauce on there?” I said it was syrup and he started to protest, but it was too late. I’d forgotten he supposedly doesn’t like syrup – he’s always rejected it. Now that he’s had some we’ll see how he responds to the option next time.

He was typing on my iPad, and we did Smurf stories, then he wanted me in the parlor. There, he pretended to be a puffin. We read part of Cat on the Mat is Flat (one of the books Carly got from the woman at school), then read 123 Peas, the Peppa ballet book, and LMNO Peas. He was doing okay, but was starting to have a bit of a rough morning. He tried to write in one of my notebooks and I tried to give him his instead. Then, Carly was hanging back up one of the pictures that had been taped on the wall in the living room. She was trying to figure out where to hang it, and he wanted it down close to the ground and was upset when she didn’t hang it there. Led to some nursing and mama time. Then we were writing words and coloring a mosaic on the paper. I took a shower, and when I came out they were playing with playdough and Carly was spelling ‘cuidado’ with it before August then deleted it.

A little later he was trying to move books of the couch and dropped one on his foot. He nursed, and then talked about feeling sick. This was when we realized we’d be staying in most of the day. He typed on Carly’s computer, and was saying “T is alone”. I think he had made the font really big and there was only one letter at a time. On my iPad we ended up searching Google Images for something, and he was searching for individual letters and numbers, which works well. He was also searching for ‘baby’ over and over, which worked fine until he typed ‘babe’ instead. Back to typing on the computer, he was changing the font colors and said “White and orange is real favorite colors.” He and I played with playdough. I was making marbles for him, and he was flattening. Randomly, he asked “What ‘obvious’ means?” I asked where that came from, and he said “from ‘isn’t it obvious’ from ‘would you feed monkey that?’” Been a good week since we’ve read that book, at least. But that phrase has been bumping around in his head.

Finally, he took a nap from 2:20 to 4:05. It was drizzling in the afternoon, but we wanted to get out a bit. And we figured he could use some Mama Juice. Went down and got him an orange and pineapple, and I got a lemon tea. We made August wear a sweatshirt. I’d let him choose one inside and he chose the green/grey/white striped one, but he still didn’t want to put it on. He did get used to it, but as we walked around the park, then headed to the stream, he was still cold. Not enough layers. So at Baskin Robbins we decided to just head home.

When we got inside, he was talking about it being ‘autumn’ now. He’s been using that word a lot. I tried to get him to do the underwater puzzle with me, but he told me to do it alone. So I mostly did. He climbed up into the rocking chair and was acting like a puffin. Came over to me and read LMNO Peas and Elmo’s Potty. I shared dinner with him – Carly’s curry and green soup. I showed him how to dip bread in the soup and eat it, but then that was all he wanted. Got him to agree to one bite from the spoon, one from the bread. We played some Siri, then he did some Hangeul app. We were on the couch, and he pulled up the Korean app with Darong (the name of a dog). He wanted me to do it, saying “I’m not good at it.” Not sure where that wording came from. We did it together, but he kept climbing up on the couch above my head.

Carly gave him some persimmon and he liked it and ate a bunch. She then gave him a bath. He started describing some creature, and she kept asking him questions about it. It was really cool. Part of what I caught: “Monkey that is a shower…shower made out of fire…it stands in the ocean…” When he was done with his bath, he came out doing some dancing to the Avett Brothers. Went straight to the paper and we did some writing. We found interesting ways to write ‘Mama Juice’ wrong. He was saying the line “voters, vets, and volunteers.” It is from the LMNO Peas book. Also, he started talking about “Dr. Kim” – Carly’s boss – and found our reaction funny, so he kept saying it.

I forgot the name for where puffins live, and I asked August and he said “burrow”. Carly was impressed by that one. He was also singing much of the Lulu song from class. Finally, about 9 he decided he wanted to paint with mama. They did that, and then he went to bed, falling asleep some time after 9:30.: 

 

The way he holds his hand sometimes: